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Author: jnweaver

Pumpkin event makes a splash

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Capital Times

About 20 people got more excitement than they bargained for during the first Giant Pumpkin Regatta when the pier on which they were standing collapsed.
No one was hurt, and the incident didn’t stop the “pumpkin pilots” from steering their oversized gourds around Lake Mendota.

“No one wanted to go to the hospital or anything,” Memorial Union spokesman Marc Kennedy said. “Mostly they were just startled.”

The event was sponsored by the Union’s Hoofer Sailing Club and organized by horticulture professors Jim Nienhuis and Irwin Goldman. Participants, outfitted with pumpkin helmets, steered a course in hollowed out, 3-foot-wide Atlantic Giant pumpkins, affixed to tractor tires to give them stability.

Dave Zweifel: It shouldn’t cost bars to be good guys

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Capital Times

It’s one of those lawsuits that produces guffaws from those who read or hear about it, but it is anything but funny to the people who must bear its brunt.

….It’s the suit that claims the bars near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus conspired to fix drink prices, thereby overcharging money-strapped college kids who wanted to relax with a few drinks now and then.

….The pity is that all the owners did was try to cooperate with the UW and Chancellor John Wiley’s campaign against binge drinking.

Madison rated No. 6 in U.S. for entrepreneurship

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Capital Times

Entrepreneur magazine has rated Madison the sixth-best mid-sized city in the country for entrepreneurs.

“Wisconsin’s capital is the paradigm for the idea that quality of life attracts entrepreneurs,” the magazine wrote. “Numerous studies have ranked Madison tops for schools, politeness, friendliness to people from kids to retirees, internet usage, and now, capacity to foster and grow business startups.”

State’s disaster preparedness called inadequate

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Capital Times

Wisconsin’s disaster planning doesn’t cover moving people, sheltering them or saving their pets in a catastrophe, according to a report by the state’s homeland security adviser.

Adj. Gen. Albert Wilkening, who heads the Wisconsin National Guard, called on Wisconsin Emergency Management to help county officials revise their emergency plans by Sept. 30, 2006.

UW-Madison med school tabbed as public health site

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Capital Times

Despite impassioned pleas from Milwaukee officials, the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents approved changing the name of its Madison-based medical school to also reflect its status as the state’s public health school.

Mayor Tom Barrett visited the regents on Thursday, imploring them to hold off on the name change. Milwaukee, with its rampant health problems, needs a public health school, he said, and the Madison designation would effectively kill any prospects of that happening.

….The name change, from the UW Medical School to the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, will take effect Nov. 11.

Deal doesn’t stink to UW, Shorewood Hills

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Capital Times

It’s not exactly an olive branch, but a new branch of the village of Shorewood Hills sanitary sewer system may be a peace symbol in often-rancorous relations between the village and the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

“The village of Shorewood Hills and the University of Wisconsin have had historically a prickly relationship,” said Al Fish, university facilities planning director.

He and Village Administrator Karl Frantz saw a way to smooth that relationship when Frantz approached Fish with a proposal by which the UW could provide a low-cost solution to an otherwise very costly problem for the village.

Gym dandy: UW study shows kids get more from life sports

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Capital Times

Remember middle school gym class?

If you were a little overweight, not very coordinated and perhaps shy, it was a pretty miserable experience. But a study by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers at River Bluff Middle School in Stoughton could change all that.

….”Even a small change in the amount of physical activity showed beneficial effects on body composition, fitness and insulin levels in children,” the authors wrote in a study that was published this week in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Doyle wants to exempt UW researchers’ spinoffs from conflict law

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Duluth News

Thomas Sutula wants to discover drugs that would treat epilepsy and a host of other brain diseases, except the University of Wisconsin-Madison neurologist says an arcane state law has stood in his way.

Sutula, chairman of UW’s neurology department, is a founder of NeuroGenomeX, which hopes to develop research pioneered at UW. But a state law barring public employees who start private companies from signing contracts worth more than $15,000 with the university has slowed the company’s development, he said.

Gov. Jim Doyle and several state lawmakers want to change that by exempting UW System researchers from that law, which is designed to discourage state workers from privately benefiting at taxpayers’ expense.

Loftus is new WisconsinEye interim president

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

There’s a new management team at WisconsinEye, which has struggled for years to sign on as Wisconsin’s C-SPAN network and cover Capitol hearings, legislative sessions and Supreme Court arguments.

Out as president of the proposed cable channel is former Capitol radio reporter Jeff Roberts, who will continue with the organization as chief operating officer; in as acting president is board member Tom Loftus, the former state Assembly speaker. Loftus has quite a resume, having been the American ambassor to Norway, and then a World Health Organization official, since losing as the Democratic nominee for governor in 1990. Loftus took a big step in becoming a political power in Wisconsin again when Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle named him to the Board of Regents.

Bielema’s defense mechanism breaks down

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

After a gruesome afternoon like Saturday’s, when a Northwestern offense once again reminded a Wisconsin defense that purple is among a contusion’s dominant colors, you’ve got to be asking yourself:

Who is this Bret Bielema guy, and why has he already been entrusted with the future of the UW football program?

UW told to extend health school plans

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents approved a compromise Friday that could lead to the UW Medical School, the City of Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee collaborating on more public health projects.

The resolution directs the UW Medical School to work with the City of Milwaukee and the UW-Milwaukee to find ways to increase their collaboration. Those options are to include establishing a “branch campus” at UW-Milwaukee.

Death, dissent smolder in memories of 1967

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Thirty-eight years later, the memories are still vivid, still powerful, still raw in places.

Paul Soglin remembers marching on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison.

Clark Welch remembers marching into a Viet Cong ambush.

For much of last week, she, Welch, Soglin and more than a dozen others took part in a series of public forums and private gatherings in anticipation of the Oct. 17 broadcast of “Two Days in October,” a new PBS documentary.

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A plan for public participation in politics (WPR)

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Wisconsin Public Radio

A group of leading political scientists say Americans arenââ?¬â?¢t doing as much as they should when it comes to political and civic participation. University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Katherine Cramer-Walsh is one of 19 authors of a new book called ââ?¬Å?Democracy at Risk.ââ?¬Â It lays out a blueprint for getting people more involved in making public policy.

Posted in Uncategorized

Chazens collect with love

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Capital Times

Simona Chazen didn’t start at the top of the collecting world.

“Our first love was Cubist art,” she says of her and her husband, Jerome, whom she met at the UW-Madison where she was studying journalism, philosophy and art history before she became a practicing psychotherapist in clinical social work.

Now, they’re multi-millionaires who can collect just about anything they want. But it was different during their UW days.

“Back then we couldn’t afford real art,” she quickly adds.

‘Dual Vision’ is Chazen blockbuster

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Capital Times

“Dual Vision” — a new show of modern art, mostly American with some European, running through Dec. 31 — promises to be the blockbuster show of the year in Madison.

Perhaps being the Show of the Year is only fitting, since the 84 art works themselves come from the personal collection of some 500 works owned by Simona and Jerome Chazen, the same University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni whose donation last spring of $20 million toward a museum expansion caused UW officials to rebaptize the Elvehjem Museum of Art as the Chazen Museum of Art.

UW superconductivity lab to move to Florida

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Capital Times

UW-Madison is losing a top researcher and the prominent center he oversees to Florida State University.

The Applied Superconductivity Center, which has been at UW-Madison for more than 20 years, will move to Tallahassee early next year, taking with it some $2 million in research grants and as many as 30 staff and student researchers, including professor and center director David Larbalestier.

Paul Peercy, dean of the UW- Madison College of Engineering, said he tried to keep Larbalestier but couldn’t match the financial incentives or new opportunities offered by Florida State.

Regent panel backs stricter sick leave (AP)

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Capital Times

All 33,000 employees of the 26-campus University of Wisconsin System would have to get a doctor’s note for sick leaves longer than five days and the System would pump up the powers of its internal auditor under changes approved Thursday by a committee of the UW Board of Regents.

A final vote on both proposals, advanced by the Business and Finance Committee, will be today by the full board.

Plan for public health school here advances

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Capital Times

If Americans learned anything from Hurricane Katrina, it’s the importance of a public health network in impoverished urban areas, Milwaukee Mayor Tom
Barrett told the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents.

He implored the board to stop a fast-tracked, little-publicized plan to designate the UW-Madison Medical School as the state’s public health college. But the argument failed to win over the board’s Education Committee, which voted without dissent to recommend the designation to the full board, which planned to vote today.

Lester A. Pines: Barrows demoted based on unverified reports

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Capital Times

Paul W. Barrows has given 16 years of dedicated service to the University of Wisconsin. No one has ever suggested that he did anything other than superb work. Nor has anyone ever filed a complaint about him.

Yet, because of former Dean of Students Luoluo Hong and her campaign against him, Paul Barrows is no longer the vice chancellor for student affairs. That is a loss for the university and its students.

Brian Parks: Lipski sculpture unappreciated

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Capital Times

Dear Editor: I can’t help but read all the negative feedback on the Camp Randall sculpture without blankly smiling and shaking my head. Madison, the bastion of culture, the home of the open-minded and outwardly thinking. Please prove that these are more than just words and meaningless talk.

Good art is often controversial. Otherwise it is generally stale, and just more decoration, like a flowerpot or a rug. I applaud the University of Wisconsin and Donald Lipski for exploring a vision and for trying to do something beyond the pedantic and boring.

Editorial: Facility belongs in Milwaukee

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and the city may have won a victory of sorts Thursday before the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents in the campaign to establish a school of public health where it most appropriately belongs – in Milwaukee. We certainly hope so.

Cuts hurt scrutiny of UW System

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Internal auditing of the University of Wisconsin System has been cut in recent years, a system review found, raising questions about its strength to sniff out waste and mismanagement on the state’s campuses. But a committee of the UW Board of Regents agreed Thursday that the cut was necessary.

The committee also voted on a recommendation that all university employees be required to provide a doctor’s note if they are out sick for more than five days, saying the Paul Barrows controversy at UW-Madison made the move necessary.

Barrett pleads to delay public health school

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett made an impassioned plea to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents for the state’s first school of public health to be placed in Milwaukee Thursday, but the effort clearly faces significant institutional and financial obstacles.

Doug Moe: Stadium ‘Phantom’ unmasked

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Capital Times

OF ALL the intriguing characters who have passed through Camp Randall Stadium over the years, on and off the field, perhaps no one is as mysterious as the “Phantom,” who according to legend saw every home Badger football game in the 1970s – without once buying a ticket.

For a time the Phantom existed only in whispered stories of disguises, derring-do and close encounters with uniformed ushers. But then, sometime in the mid-1970s, Fred Milverstedt wrote about the Phantom in his Capital Times sports column, and the Phantom was immortalized.

Bar owners here hit with second price fix suit (AP)

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Capital Times

Bar owners in Madison may want to throw back a few after hearing this news.

A Minneapolis law firm filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday accusing 25 bars near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus and their trade association of conspiring to inflate drink prices from 1990 until last year. The class action lawsuit seeks relief for revelers it claims were ripped off.

The lawsuit also names UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley and two city officials for pressuring bars to illegally raise their prices in an effort to cut down on alcohol-related problems involving students.

A home away from school

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Lynetta Coats loved being a college student in New Orleans.

Now she is back in Milwaukee – one of hundreds of displaced students attending a Wisconsin college while they wait for their schools to reopen. The University of Wisconsin System has waived their tuition this semester, and private colleges are trying to eliminate or limit the costs. All the institutions have worked hard to link students with housing and the classes they need.

Recognizing Wisconsin’s Stem Cell Leadership

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WISC-TV 3

While the Wisconsin legislature continues to bungle its way through narrow-minded and politically-motivated debates over stem cell research, it’s important to note the National Institute of Health’s establishment of the first and only National Stem Cell Bank here at Wisconsin’s WiCell Research Institute.

(WISC-TV Editorial)

Arts off the charts!

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Capital Times

It’s that time again.

“I can’t believe how much culture Madison has for a city its size,” a friend recently exclaimed with obvious pleasure and equally obvious frustration.

….This weekend is a fine example because it marks two main citywide arts events that take place: Friday night from 5 to 9 is Gallery Night, which happens twice a year and this time is the biggest yet, with 47 participants, according to the sponsor and organizer, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art; and Saturday from 2 p.m. to midnight is the annual Arts Night Out, sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison to highlight students and faculty in the performing arts and fine arts with many free events that range from belly dancing and break dancing to stand-up comedy and classical music.

Yu’s dancing takes you to sun, moon

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Capital Times

Jin-Wen Yu knows, like Bob Dylan, that there’s really no direction home. Life is rarely so simple or banal for such restlessly creative souls.

….Yu, possessed of startling physical grace and a vivid imagination, is steadily building a reputation as one of America’s most gifted and accomplished dancers. His company has performed throughout the United States, South America, Korea and Taiwan. Among his most recent honors include, in 2004, the Wisconsin Dance Council Award for Choreography/Performance and the Emily Mead Baldwin professorship in the creative arts at the UW-Madison. This year he performed at UNESCO in Paris for the celebration concert of 2005 international Dance Day.

Ryan Rathje: Vulgarity at UW games is disgusting and should be stopped

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Capital Times

I have heard of Wisconsin’s “party school” image and the reputation of Camp Randall being a difficult place to play. As my wife and I walked to the stadium, we saw the many tailgate parties of people having a good time. The closer we got to the stadium, the more the comments took on a nasty and personal tone.

….Once inside Camp Randall, clad in Michigan gear, we naturally attracted attention. As we sat, we talked with those who were seated around us. Those who sat in seats immediately to our left, right and behind were very nice to us throughout the game.

As the game went on we were disheartened by the profanity from the student section and by the vulgar cheers aimed at Michigan fans. The statements directed at us (even to my wife) were profane, offensive, disgusting and almost unbelievable.

From Madison to Kazakhstan: Dr. John Doyle honored

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Capital Times

ALMATY, Kazakhstan – More than a decade’s worth of work to improve public health by Madison doctors has earned heartfelt thanks half a world away. A banquet honoring Madison’s Dr. John Doyle and others was held Saturday at the Hotel Dostyk in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Doyle is a professor in the surgery department at the University of Wisconsin Medical School and chief of dentistry and medical director for dental services at University Hospital and Clinics. In the past 10 years he has traveled to Kazakhstan 25 times to supervise Prime Kare Kazakhstan, a humanitarian aid program. The central Asian country is located south of Siberia and is home to about 17 million people.

Editorial: Regents, Milwaukee’s the place

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents will be asked Thursday to rename the UW School of Medicine in Madison to the School of Medicine and Public Health. The regents, meeting in Madison, must say no or at the very least postpone a decision until they have explored the issue much more thoroughly.

Madison screening set

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Capital Times

“Two Days in October,” which kicks off this season’s “American Experience” series on PBS, will be screened in Madison before it is broadcast nationally at 8 p.m. Oct. 17.

People responsible for the production are in Madison this week to discuss the 90-minute film and the issues/history it depicts. (They include the producer, UW-Madison alumnus Mark Samels.)

Two days in October 1967

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Capital Times

Lives changed drastically and permanently during two days of October 1967. This month, with the documentary “Two Days in October,” the wounds are reopened for the nation to see, absorb and perhaps help heal.

“War doesn’t go away when the bullets stop,” observes Pulitzer Prize winner David Maraniss, a Madison native. “Vietnam still is as relevant today as it was then.”

PBS, through its “American Experience” series, is airing a documentary adaptation of the acclaimed 2003 Maraniss book, “They Marched Into Sunlight.” Madison has a prominent role in both the book and 90-minute film, which are about the war and anti-war protest.

Metro talker: Bill Gates coming to UW-Madison

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Capital Times

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates will speak to about 200 University of Wisconsin-Madison computer science students on Oct. 12, according to Liz Beyler of the University Communications Office. However, the university will not release any other information about this stop on Gates’ national college tour at this time.

Heavy kids saw big benefits in enhanced gym class

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Overweight kids who were put into a fitness-enhanced gym class lost more body fat, increased their cardiovascular health and improved their insulin levels, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison study that could serve as a model for America’s growing childhood obesity problem.

Stem cell lab praised

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The new National Stem Cell Bank is physically a no-frills outfit.

The distribution room is about the size of your average bedroom, equipped with a couple of hooded lab benches, freezers, computers and red swivel chairs.

Yet, despite its humble appearance, it’s the pride of Wisconsin researchers, government officials and university leaders.

Wiley: UW’s expertise led to pact

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The siting of the nation’s first stem cell bank at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is a direct result of the university’s unparalleled infrastructure supporting embryonic research, said Chancellor John Wiley.

“In reality, few institutions have the right pieces and could actually deliver,” Wiley said this morning at a news conference at the WiCell Research Institute at the University Research Park.

Among the important entities identified by Wiley were the Waisman Center, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, WiCell and the research park.

(From the 10/3/05 print edition of The Capital Times)

Public health school here questioned

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Milwaukee area legislators and the Milwaukee mayor are questioning a plan by UW-Madison for a University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health — saying that Milwaukee is the obvious location for a public health school.

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents is scheduled to vote on the proposal this week, but four legislators have asked for a delay.

UW-Madison Provost Peter Spear says the matter to be considered by the regents Thursday and Friday is simply a name change, reflecting programs that have already been established.

(From the 10/3/05 print edition of The Capital Times)

SkyCable TV pulls plug on area viewers

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Capital Times

SkyCable TV of Madison has ceased operations, leaving its local customers without service beyond local over-the-air channels.

SkyCable was a partner with America Online in the effort to install wireless Internet access in Madison; AOL pulled out of that venture in August. Barry Orton, a UW-Madison professor of telecommunications, said he didn’t believe the wireless situation was the reason for SkyCable going out of business.

“They were trying to do the niche between cable and (DISH and DirecTV), and the niche turned out to be too small,” Orton said.

Todd Finkelmeyer: Calhoun a Heisman candidate? UW taking low-key approach

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Capital Times

A couple items to ponder while choking down a brat for breakfast during your pregame tailgate party:

** Should University of Wisconsin running back Brian Calhoun be considered a Heisman Trophy contender?

…unlike in 1999, when Ron Dayne set the NCAA career rushing record en route to winning college football’s most prestigious award, those within the UW athletic department don’t have anything special planned to ratchet up the Calhoun publicity machine.

UW, Waukesha County to be part of children’s health study

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Capital Times

WAUKESHA (AP) – Researchers will study Waukesha County children’s food, the air around them and even the dust in their homes as part of nationwide study of environmental influences on health.

The goal is to find ways to prevent and treat health problems such as autism, birth defects, diabetes and heart disease.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison was named Thursday as one of six centers that will help complete the first phase of the study, led by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Stem cell center

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Capital Times

ââ?¬Â¢ Announcement: University of Wisconsin-Madison will be the site for the nation’s first stem cell bank, which will house all stem cell lines available for federal funding.

ââ?¬Â¢ Goal: The bank’s goal is to reduce the costs researchers pay for the cells while monitoring their quality.

ââ?¬Â¢ Reaction: “Everybody has understood that banking is crucial to moving the field forward. This is a concrete step and we’re doing it first,” said UW-Madison bioethicist Alta Charo.

State gets U.S. stem cell bank

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Capital Times

Wisconsin will soon house the nation’s first stem cell bank.

WiCell Research Institute, a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, has been awarded a $16.1 million, four-year National Institutes of Health contract to establish a national stem call bank at its facilities, according to contracting officer Lynn Furtaw.

The center will acquire, store, characterize and distribute the human embryonic stem cell lines currently approved for federal funding.

Gov. Jim Doyle has scheduled a news conference on Monday to announce the Wisconsin siting of the stem cell bank.

Edwards here Oct. 26

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Capital Times

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – Former Sen. John Edwards will visit 10 universities including the University of Wisconsin-Madison in October in an effort to encourage young people to do more to eliminate poverty.
The speech here is scheduled for Oct. 26.

Scam artists targeting Latinos with Spanish-language advertisements

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In Wisconsin, the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection is also stepping up its efforts to reach out and assist Latino consumers in the state. The department has hired a University of Wisconsin-Madison bilingual student, Sol Carbonell, from Argentina. She’s received a fellowship to work with state and local Latino agencies on consumer outreach and to translate consumer brochures into Spanish.

Bridging the technology divide

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Later this month, the Wisconsin Biotechnology and Medical Devices Association will hold its annual conference near the middle of what has been the widest chasm in the state – the 72-mile stretch of highway between Madison and Milwaukee.

The association’s decision to locate its conference in Oconomowoc is a sign of the thaw that has begun in the icy relations between Wisconsin’s two biggest cities.

Wisconsin to house U.S. stem cell bank

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wisconsin is poised to be the nation’s first and only hub for federally approved human embryonic stem cell lines.

Gov. Jim Doyle is to officially announce on Monday that Wisconsin will become home to the National Institutes of Health’s National Stem Cell Bank.

Help from above: UW’s MedFlight marks its 20th anniversary

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Capital Times

What’s red and white and saves lives?

It’s not a bird, or a plane. Nor is it Superman flying in the sky. Actually, we’re talking about UW Hospital’s MedFlight program, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

“We’re very proud of the fact that we’ve had 20 years of safe operation,” says Mark Hanson, a registered nurse who specializes in critical care and directs the program.

MedFlight party is also fundraiser

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Capital Times

The 20th anniversary of UW Hospital’s MedFlight program will be celebrated from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Saturday at Morey Field in Middleton.

The event is a fundraiser for construction of the hospital’s new emergency department.

Tickets are $50 per person, or $500 for a table of 10.

Big Ten football notes: Not all at Iowa tickled pink about decor

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Capital Times

The interior decorating of the visiting locker room at Kinnick Stadium is intended to have a calming effect, but the pink walls, toilets, urinals, lockers and carpet are having the opposite effect on the University of Iowa campus.

An adjunct law professor gained attention last week after saying the pink locker room promotes sexism and homophobia.

And when Erin Buzuvis raised the issue last week on her Web site, she drew more than 280 replies. The postings ranged from defending her position to a few anonymous posters threatening her life.

UW study sheds light on brain during sleep

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Capital Times

Deep sleep literally disconnects the brain, or at least the higher regions of the brain from one another, so that consciousness fades, according to researchers who used new brain-imaging techniques to document the altered state of mind.

The findings, published today in the journal Science, offer some of the first direct clues about how the brain alters our state of consciousness during sleep and may also help in better understanding some brain disorders.