Wisconsin Right to Life wants to make it clear: Follow its directives or there will be consequences.
On Thursday the powerful anti-abortion lobby sent out a sharply worded news release taking aim at three “pro-life” state senators who supported an exemption to therapeutic cloning in the human cloning ban that passed the Republican-controlled Senate earlier this week.
A future generation of Waukesha County residents will be recruited as part of the largest study ever undertaken to monitor and assess environmental effects on children. The National Children’s Study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency, announced Thursday that Waukesha County would become one of six pilot study centers awarded with the responsibility to kick off the study.
The principal investigators of the Waukesha site are from the Medical College of Wisconsin and the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
As we slip into deep sleep, higher regions of our brains take a vacation from each other, disconnecting so much that consciousness is snuffed out and a once highly integrated organ becomes separated, according to a groundbreaking experiment by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.
Wisconsin leaders moved quickly to condemn the state Senate’s passage of a ban on reproductive and therapeutic cloning.
“The failure of the Wisconsin State Senate to amend Assembly Bill 499, which effectively criminalizes a promising area of biomedical research, sends a frightening message to Wisconsin’s research community,” University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said in a prepared statement Wednesday.
“Scientists in many fields view this with alarm,” Wiley added. “It is a message that special interests can close off legitimate avenues of scientific discovery.”
Gov. Jim Doyle also criticized the Senate’s action.
Top University of Wisconsin-Madison administrators will undergo mandatory sexual harassment training to improve the campus climate toward women, Chancellor John Wiley said Wednesday.
Wiley, under fire for missteps in handling sexual harassment allegations against a former top aide, also said the school would re-examine policies on sexual harassment and consensual relationships.
His announcement came less than one week after a report by UW-Madison law professor and former judge Susan Steingass showed that many women on campus were afraid to report allegations of sexual harassment against an administrator for fear of retaliation.
Top University of Wisconsin-Madison administrators will undergo mandatory sexual harassment training to improve the campus climate toward women, Chancellor John Wiley said Wednesday.
The chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee urged Waukesha County leaders Wednesday to join in creating a regional research university that he said will stimulate the economy.
The Legislature on Wednesday sent Gov. Jim Doyle a bill that would make Wisconsin the eighth state to ban human cloning, but the governor insisted that the real target is stem cell research and promised to veto the measure.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley announced Wednesday a review of the university’s policies on sexual harassment and consensual relationships, and ordered top administrators to undergo sexual harassment training.
The fall term is in full swing now at the UW and at campuses across the country. Students are settling in to the rituals of academia; classes and labs, homework and exams, counterbalanced (or in some cases outweighed) by ball games and the high-tech social life of a new-millennium collegian.
….before I start to sound like a hypocrite, let me make it clear that I believe with all of my being that education is a foremost key to success. It just isn’t the only one.
That said, at what point does education hinder rather than enhance our ability to function in the work world?
(Sarah Botham is the owner of Botham, ink. and a senior lecturer in the UW Department of Life Sciences Communication.)
The Wisconsin Senate moved one step closer to banning cloning for reproductive and research purposes.
Senators on Tuesday night killed by one vote an amendment that would have exempted therapeutic cloning from the bill – amounting, in effect, to the body’s tentative approval of the cloning ban.
But Democrats objected to a final vote on the controversial measure, authored by Sen. Joe Leibham, R-Sheboygan, and Rep. Steve Kestell, R-Elkhart Lake, pushing the bill onto today’s Senate agenda.
The State Senate was poised today to pass a bill banning human cloning – with no exception for research to fight crippling diseases – after an initial vote Tuesday showed the ban had enough votes to pass.
09/29/05
The Paul Barrows case is a terribly complicated and unfortunate personnel matter. And it may not be over. Barrows has every right in the world to explore all his legal options and he’s doing just that. But we nevertheless find some measure of satisfaction in the report issue by Attorney Susan Steingass and in the responses to that report by UW System President Kevin Reilly, UW Madison Chancellor John Wiley and Provost Peter Spear.
The investigation and report were thorough. And the responses were genuine. Additionally the University is right to review its employment policies and how those policies are understood by lawmakers and citizens alike. But we have said from the beginning that this was a personnel matter first and foremost. It is not an indictment of the credibility or accountability of the entire system as some legislators have made it out to be. The UW is a critical player in this state’s present and future. We can continue to support its moving forward.
The call finally came at 3 a.m. on Saturday. On the other end of the line was Johnny White’s mother, Beverly, assuring the junior safety for the University of Wisconsin football team that she and Johnny Sr. had survived a grueling evacuation from their home near Houston, which was being threatened by Hurricane Rita.
For 20 long hours, White had been unable to speak to his parents, whose plans to come to Madison for the Michigan game were thrown for a loop when all of the Friday afternoon flights in the area were canceled.
Gov. Jim Doyle announced $2 million in new state funding for a Madison-based firm that applies stem cell research technology for drug development and screening.
Doyle said the state will provide a $1 million technology development grant and an additional $1 million in technology development loans to Cellular Dynamics International Inc., which was founded by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers James Thomson, Craig January and Timothy Kamp.
During an appearance at the firm’s headquarters Monday morning, Doyle vowed to veto a bill banning so-called human cloning, which is up for action in the state Senate today.
Pomegranates, the loneliest fruit in the produce section, could be a man’s best friend.
Revered in legend and ignored by most shoppers, the fruit inhibited the growth of prostate cancer cells in a laboratory dish and slowed the growth of human prostate cancer cells injected into mice, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison study published today
When it comes to growing Wisconsin’s economy, a lot of seeds have yet to be planted. One needs to look no further than Milwaukee’s central city, where unemployment for some is well into double digits, for evidence of that – a point certainly not lost on Gov. Jim Doyle.
Gov. Jim Doyle said Monday that he supports spending an additional $2 million on a southeastern Wisconsin research alliance that aims to fund collaborative projects among five area colleges and universities.
Doyle revealed his support of more state funding for the Biomedical Technology Alliance during appearances in three cities that were part of a tour he and Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton used to unveil a new economic development plan for the state.
Dear Editor: The smoking ban may be very useful in dealing with the downtown bar owners and the Tavern League. The city and the university spend an inordinate amount of time trying to find solutions to Halloween that will protect private property and public safety.
They may never have the right answers, but unless the tavern owners do then they had better assist the city and university.
Since the liquor sellers are really the only ones to profit from Halloween downtown, they need to bear the costs currently borne by property taxpayers as a whole.
Expansion plans for University Ridge Golf Course got the go-ahead (last week) when the State Building Commission approved spending $5 million for the project.
Plans include building a nine-hole academy course and short-game practice facility, expanding the existing driving range and adding a cross country course for the University of Wisconsin programs.
Funding is not provided by the state. Rather, it is apportioned from revenues at University Ridge as well as gifts. The project will not require the UW to take on any debt.
The Legislature and several local governments cannot join the fight against a lawsuit seeking taxpayer funded benefits for partners of gay public employees, a judge ruled on Friday.
Dane County Circuit Judge David Flanagan ruled that state law gives the Department of Justice the authority to defend the state’s interests, and the department is already doing so in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed by six lesbian state employees and the American Civil Liberties Union in April, claims the state’s refusal to provide health insurance to their partners violates the equal protection clause of the Wisconsin constitution. The lawsuit names several state agencies as defendants, but not the Legislature.
Now that school is back in session, Troy Maragos is finding some interesting ways to spend his time on the UW-Madison campus.
Take Sept. 3, for example. Just hours before the Wisconsin Badgers defeated Bowling Green for the grand reopening of Camp Randall Stadium, Maragos donned 35 pounds of cardinal and white – including a rock-hard plastic head as big as a boulder (and about as heavy) – and tooled around Madison’s Capitol Square in the Bucky Wagon, a circa-1940 fire truck, happily firing up the crowd of pregame revelers, some of whom playfully threw fresh apples and other produce from the local farmers’ market his way.
In the wake of Jamie Pollard’s departure from the University of Wisconsin, athletic director Barry Alvarez has temporarily realigned his staff.
The 1960s produced pop art, a Packers dynasty and the UW-Madison’s most legendary football game at the Rose Bowl in 1963.
That era is evoked in a new sculpture by internationally acclaimed sculptor Donald Lipski. The 50-foot-tall sculpture is intended to be a centerpiece of the Camp Randall Stadium renovations. Installation will begin Oct. 18 and be completed in time for the University of Wisconsin’s homecoming game on Oct. 22.
Fifteen years ago, Barry Alvarez’s first adult portion of the Michigan Wolverines was served cold. Wisconsin lost by 38, Camp Randall had empty seats and a lone Michigan fan with a boom box made it worse by playing that harder-to-get-out-of-your-head-than-the-Macarena fight song that reverberated throughout the silent stadium with each score, which was often.
The Big Blue menace, then, has been as much a part of the Alvarez legacy as anything, including the three Rose Bowl championships.
Gov. Jim Doyle and lawmakers said a new report shows University of Wisconsin-Madison leaders made poor decisions about sick leave and taxpayer funds in connection with the Paul Barrows matter.
In an interview, Barrows said the report vindicates him for his long use of sick leave, but unnecessarily stirred up old, questionable allegations of sexual harassment.
Legislators and others said Friday that John Wiley’s attempts to keep secret allegations against a top administrator raised questions about the chancellor’s management of University of Wisconsin-Madison and the climate on campus.
To get a taste of how bad the relationship is between the Legislature and the University of Wisconsin System, listen to Dale Schultz, Jim Doyle and John Wiley:
“There is a lot of tension,” acknowledged Schultz (R-Richland Center), majority leader of the Senate.
“The relationship is very poor,” conceded Doyle, the state’s Democratic governor.
“I’ve been on the faculty for 30 years and in administration for 20 of those, and I don’t remember a time when it was worse than it is now,” said Wiley, chancellor of UW-Madison.
Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, a professor at the University of Wisconsin’s Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs.
For years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has had a little-known fund that provides students with fast, no-interest loans for emergencies, such as when someone needs to rush home because of a death in the family.
But last year, creative UW administrators came up with a new use for the Dean of Students Crisis Fund: pay for counseling and other services for a graduate student who seemed to be reeling from an affair with a top administrator.
Quoted: Monika Wingate, director of the A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Gov. Jim Doyle rolls out an economic plan, called Grow Wisconsin: The 2005 Agenda, in a three city swing beginning in Madison.
He’ll start in Madison at the new laboratory facilities for Cellular Dynamics International, a privately held biotechnology firm that has taken a lead in embryonic stem cell research. Doyle will announce a “significant new investment in the company,” according to an advance statement from the governor’s office. Cellular Dynamics was co-founded by James Thomson, an internationally recognized pioneer in stem cell research and a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
When it comes to public health problems in Wisconsin, Milwaukee is ground zero. It is the biggest city in the state with the largest and most diverse population, including a large number of poor bridled with serious health problems and, in the case of minorities, glaring disparities in health care.
These are reasons enough for Wisconsin to establish a school of public health in Milwaukee to address these problems firsthand while also training the army of public health workers who many experts believe will be needed more than ever in the future, if only as a means to control health care spending. The most logical place for such a school is at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
But it’s the University of Wisconsin-Madison, not UWM, that has taken steps to establish a school of public health integrated with its medical school, despite being located in a city touted often as affluent and among the healthiest in the country.
A new canine disease that closed Dairyland Greyhound Park in Kenosha for four weeks earlier this year will likely spread to domestic dogs and eventually infect wild canines such as coyotes and wolves, a top animal researcher predicted Friday.
The disease, a form of influenza, has killed dozens of dogs in six other states, but none died at Dairyland during an April and May outbreak that infected about 950 dogs, said Jenifer Barker, a veterinarian with the state Division of Gaming.
The School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has tracked the disease for more than a year.
Research spending – the catalyst for creating high-paying knowledge economy jobs – is rising in the state, but the University of Wisconsin continues to be the dominant research school, with 82 cents of every research dollar in the state spent on the Madison campus.
An independent investigation into Paul Barrows’ forced resignation as a vice chancellor of University of Wisconsin-Madison and his lengthy sick leave that followed has found fault with both Barrows and the university’s chancellor, but neither will face major disciplinary action.
Former Vice Chancellor Paul Barrows received a reprimand today in connection with a sex-and-sick-leave scandal that embroiled the university all summer long.
UW Chancellor John Wiley received a letter criticizing his application of leave policy from UW System President Kevin Reilly.
UW Provost Peter Spear issued the reprimand to Barrows and informed him he would remain in his demoted position, making $72,881, after a report from investigator Susan Steingass concluded he behaved inappropriately toward two women.
Sarah Whiteaker sees herself as someone who never wins anything.
So she filled out an application this summer on America Online to participate in a Web-based reality series without thinking much would come of it.
This fall, the 18-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison freshman is one of six students documenting their first semester at college for AOL’s new documentary series, Project Freshman.
Almost 70 percent of all divorce litigants in Dane County are self-represented. This is typical in family law courts across the country, says Marsha Mansfield, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
….To help remedy the situation, Mansfield started a law school project last year that’s designed to assist people who are seeking a divorce in Dane County and cannot afford an attorney.
It’s called the Family Law Assistance Project, and UW law students also provide free help to people with other issues related to family law, such as paternity, child support and custody litigation.
UW-Madison students under 21 who end up in a detox center or hospital for an alcohol or drug overdose won’t be able to keep their parents from knowing. University officials announced Wednesday a new policy for a variety of behavioral incidents that will result in parental notification.
….Madison’s approach to the challenge that Halloween has become remains a work in progress, despite the city’s press release describing the “final plans” for dealing with this year’s revelry. Reasonable observers might fear that city officials are setting themselves up for another Halloween that is more a trick than a treat.
Former University of Wisconsin basketball standout Mike Wilkinson has signed a contract to play with the Aris B.S.A. club in Thessaloniki, Greece. Aris plays in the top league in Greece and participates in Euroleague competition.
There is nothing confusing about the image in “Patriot Act,” a work of art that has the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay in an uproar. The face of President Bush is clear. So is the revolver being held to his head.
What has sparked fierce debate is what the image means and whether it belongs on a college campus.
Resistance to drugs commonly used to treat influenza has skyrocketed in the last 10 years, according to the most comprehensive study to date. The findings mean that it’ll be even harder to stop the spread of the flu, putting the elderly and those with chronic illnesses at greater risk for complications, including death, from the virus. And it highlights concerns about controlling a flu pandemic, were one to strike.
Researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene report that viral resistance to a class of drugs called adamantanes, which includes amantadine and rimantadine, increased from 0.4% in 1994 to 12.3% in 2004.
JAMES “MOOSE” Werner, colorful proprietor of the venerable Club Tavern in Middleton, phoned the other day with a complaint.
“You have besmirched a noble profession,” he said.
Werner was referring to the column last week on Madison money manager Shannon Werner and his new anti-ticket scalping Web site. In the column I had spoken of scalpers in less than glowing terms.
“It is simple supply and demand,” Moose said.
How badly do Badger fans want men’s basketball tickets?
Joe, a University of Wisconsin-Madison student who wished not to be identified by his last name, knows that many people would be willing to pay big money for those seats.
Joe put six UW-Madison men’s basketball season tickets on eBay on Sunday night, charging $1,400 per pair. The seats were located in section 117, with a low-level, unobstructed, diagonal view of the court….Face value for a pair of tickets in that section would be $288 for a pair.
Whether or not the mayor’s hope to have an early close to this Halloween celebration is a viable plan or a Quixotic quest remains to be seen.
At a press conference before the final meeting of the Halloween Planning Group, made up of city, community, business, university and student representatives, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said no bar owners have signed on to his plea to close their doors 90 minutes early.
Demoted University of Wisconsin-Madison administrator Paul Barrows has sued Chancellor John Wiley, claiming Wiley unfairly made him use his sick and vacation time and disciplined him without due process.
Barrows, who had been vice chancellor for student affairs, also sued the former dean of students, Luoluo Hong, claiming she interfered with his employment by providing “unverified,” false information that he sexually harassed a woman.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in Dane County Circuit Court, also notes that Barrows turned down a $150,000-a-year job at Hunter College in April on a promise that Wiley would have him back as a special assistant.
Wisconsin officials are close to finalizing UW’s 2006 football schedule with a 12th game but have asked Virginia Tech officials to push back the Badgers’ scheduled games with the Hokies in 2008 and ’09.
Gov. Jim Doyle demanded Tuesday that oil companies refund Wisconsin drivers $88 million, saying the firms gouged consumers after Hurricane Katrina.
Doyle cited a recent study by University of Wisconsin-Madison economist Don Nichols that concluded the recent gas spike was not caused primarily by the hurricane because prices at the pump have risen much faster than the price of crude oil.
Embattled University of Wisconsin-Madison administrator Paul Barrows filed a civil lawsuit Tuesday against the university’s chancellor, John Wiley, and former dean of students Luoluo Hong.
Iowa State’s courtship of Jamie Pollard was a whirlwind affair that lasted about one week before he accepted the school’s offer to become its athletic director.
Pollard, the deputy athletic director at Wisconsin, was one of three candidates who interviewed for the Iowa State job last weekend in Chicago. He was offered the job and accepted it Sunday.
That’s when Wisconsin athletic director and football coach Barry Alvarez found out he was losing his top aide and administrator of the day-to-day operations of the 23-sport, $72 million department.
Total U.S. spending on medical research has doubled in the past decade to nearly $95 billion a year, though whether the money is being well spent needs much better scrutiny, a study has found.
Quoted: Ann Althouse, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin.
The venerable Pres House, which has served students on the UW-Madison campus for nearly 75 years, wants to build a new six-story housing facility. The Madison Plan Commission approved a rezoning for the project Monday night but asked that developers rework a complicated plan for complying with the city’s affordable housing law.
The 75,000-square-foot building would provide 44 housing units with 153 bedrooms and 233 total beds. Plans also call for renovation of the existing 15,000-square-foot chapel and offices.
Pres House representative Charles Oewel of CFC Corp. in Belvedere, Calif., said the final look of the project arose out of discussions with UW officials regarding redevelopment of the entire Murray Street block. He said the project was scaled down from eight stories to six stories to accommodate the UW’s wishes.
Washington Monthly magazine has ranked the University of Wisconsin-Madison best in the country for research and 12th overall nationwide. The magazine computed its research score by looking at each university’s research spending as well as the number of doctorates awarded in the sciences and engineering.
Other factors in the overall score were “social mobility” (commitment to admitting and graduating lower-income students) and “community service” (measured by numbers of students in ROTC, the Peace Corps and use of work-study grants for community service projects).
See www.washingtonmonthly.com for the full report.
LA CROSSE (AP) – An ordinance prohibiting bartenders here from drinking on the job went into effect over the weekend to help change a binge-drinking culture that police say has led to several drowning deaths.
The ordinance allows bartenders to drink on a break, but their blood-alcohol level cannot exceed 0.08 percent, the legal limit for driving under the influence of alcohol. The fine for bartenders and tavern owners for breaking the rule is $75.
The city has moved to clamp down on excessive drinking after University of Wisconsin-La Crosse student Jared Dion drowned in the Mississippi River in 2004. He was the seventh college student to drown in La Crosse area rivers since 1997. Police have said the drownings were alcohol-related.
Gov. Jim Doyle touted on Monday a new system of purchasing goods and services that he said will save the state of Wisconsin as much as $200 million over the next four years.
The savings will result from bidding contracts as an entire state, instead of by having individual agencies buy their own goods and services. Other improvements, according to Doyle, are consolidating human resources and procurement staffing levels in the Department of Administration, improving facility management and strengthening the state’s information technology infrastructure.
Jamie Pollard’s decision to step down as the University of Wisconsin’s deputy director of athletics and take over Iowa State’s athletic department is a significant personnel loss for UW, which has relied heavily on Pollard’s expertise for the last several years.
