Two UW-Madison graduates are among four New York Times journalists missing in Libya. Reporter Anthony Shadid, photo-journalist Lynsey Addario, and the two others have not been heard from since Tuesday morning.
Executive editor Bill Keller says the Times has asked the Libyan government to help find the journalists. And he says he?s been assured that if they?re captured, they would be released unharmed.
Meg Hamel is director of the Wisconsin Film Festival, which runs in Madison March 30 through April 3. She began her involvement as a volunteer with the first year of the festival 13 years ago.
Nellie Rose McCannon, age 93, of Wheaton, Ill., passed away on Friday, March 11, 2011, at Wyndemere Retirement Center where she moved to in 1997 after a long time residence in Madison. She was on the UW-Madison faculty for 37 years, 10 years of that at the Milwaukee County Extension Office. She joined the Agricultural Journalism Department to head its home economics journalism major. She handled the home economics news service and taught news writing and feature writing classes. She initiated a yearly workshop for women editors and reporters in the state and she was president of the Madison chapter of Women in Communications.
Lin Zastrow, notorious homebody, isn?t ready to leave her home away from home just yet. Zastrow made sure she?ll get to hang around the Kohl Center for at least a few more days as she led the University of Wisconsin women?s basketball team to a 68-48 home victory over Butler in the first round of the WNIT on Wednesday night.
The crowds push in against each other, jammed shoulder to shoulder. The excitement and the emotion build, as the local favorites are cheered and the opposition jeered. Now is the time to pull together, to stand strong and be counted.
Another big Saturday on the Capitol Square, with many thousands of protesters gathering, you presume? Not so, friends. This is NCAA Tournament time, and this is a different kind of emotion and excitement.
With students on spring break this week, UW-Madison employees will take a one-day break on Friday, the third scheduled campuswide furlough day of the academic year. But even with the campus closing on Friday, the Memorial Union will be open, so basketball fans can catch the action in the NCAA men?s basketball tournament on TVs in Der Rathskeller.
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and UW-Madison graduate Anthony Shadid is among four New York Times journalists missing in Libya, the Times is reporting. The Times reported on its website that it was in contact with the journalists on Tuesday.
After not initially recommending it for approval, Gov. Scott Walker today announced that he wants to allow UW-Madison to build a new $53 million School of Nursing Building. Under his proposal, UW-Madison would get $17 million in state-supported borrowing, rather than the $34.8 million the university requested from the state.
Author David Maraniss is fascinated by connections. Maraniss?s critically acclaimed history, ?They Marched Into Sunlight,? juxtaposes the stories of soldiers marching into an ambush in Vietnam with anti-war protests at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, all taking place over two days in October 1967.
It is these connections between people, places and time that provide the basis for two new dance works, together called ?March Into Sunlight,? premiering Saturday, March 26, at 8 p.m. in the Wisconsin Union Theater. The program is part of the Sunlight Project and Symposium, a three-day event focusing on war, peace and protest.
MADISON, Wis. — Acclaimed stem cell researcher and University of Wisconsin professor Dr. James Thompson is back in the national spotlight.Thompson was awarded the Albany Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research. The $500,000 prize is the nation?s largest award in science and medicine, according to a press release from the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison?s School of Veterinary Medicine and School of Education each earned Top 10 recognition in U.S. News and World Report?s annual rankings of the “Best Graduate Schools.”
Officially, the WNIT will be the final part of the 2010-11 season for the University of Wisconsin women?s basketball team. But in many ways the postseason, which begins with Wednesday night?s game against Butler at the Kohl Center, represents a head start on the 2011-12 season.
It is a season that promises many transitions as the Badgers adjust to life without their senior class, which has been the heart of the program for three years. And no one figures to play a bigger role going forward than 6-foot sophomore guard Taylor Wurtz.
Jake Gardiner played two distinct roles for the University of Wisconsin men?s hockey team, which helps explain why the junior defenseman made the move he did Monday. Gardiner signed a three-year entry level contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, forgoing his final season of college eligibility even though he said it may be a year or two before he reaches the NHL.
Virginia Mae Wolters died peacefully in her sleep on Saturday, March 12, 2011, surrounded by her family and close friends. She was 91 years old. She taught English and German at Middleton High school and later had a career as librarian at the University of Wisconsin Social Sciences Department.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Molly Jahn was named to the newly created Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change. This group announced Friday features 13 international experts on agriculture, climate, food, economics and natural resources. Members plan to examine threats to food security due to climate change and increasing populations.
UW-Madison stem cell research pioneer James Thomson is one of three winners of this year?s Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, which some call ?America?s Nobel.?
Thomson was the first to isolate and grow human embryonic stem cells in the lab, in 1998. He helped discover a new way of creating stem cells in 2007 by reprogramming skin cells back to their embryonic state.
Dear Editor: For many of us the last month has been a surreal roller coaster ride. We?ve seen the highs of being part of historic protests surrounded by so many of Wisconsin?s hard-working citizens, followed by the lows of watching the governor and his followers strip the rights of those same citizens. We are so proud of the public employees of the state of Wisconsin. Many of them have had a significant portion of their income and dignity stripped from them in the past week and yet they responded by turning out in record numbers for a peaceful protest this weekend. We were proud to join them.
WASHINGTON ? Two months ago, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker invited businesses in Illinois to ?escape to Wisconsin? as a result of the recently enacted tax increases in Illinois. Admittedly, I don?t know whether Walker?s offer has been effective. My own experience, though, as a business executive and as a governor, tells me that businesses are interested in a lot more than a low tax rate when they decide where to locate.
Senior forward Jon Leuer and junior guard Jordan Taylor from the University of Wisconsin men?s basketball team are among the finalists for the John R. Wooden Award, it was announced Monday. Leuer and Taylor are among 20 players on the final ballots for the award given to college basketball?s best player who also maintains at least a 2.0 grade point average and is making progress toward graduation.
Amid the rubble of a ruined season there are encouraging signs of life where the University of Wisconsin men?s hockey team is concerned. Two prominent underclassmen ? sophomore defenseman Justin Schultz and sophomore center and assistant captain Craig Smith ? have indicated they plan to return for 2011-12 instead of turning pro.
Jake Gardiner has signed an entry-level contract with the NHL?s Toronto Maple Leafs and will forego his senior season at the University of Wisconsin, according to a report on the Minneapolis Star-Tribune?s website. Michael Russo, who covers the Minnesota Wild and the NHL, broke the news and later tweeted that he had validated the report “100 percent.”
There was no party this year for the University of Wisconsin women?s basketball team as it awaited its postseason destination. In contrast to a year ago when the Badgers celebrated their return to the NCAA tournament after a seven-year absence, they had to wait deep into the night Monday to learn they will be hosting Butler at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Kohl Center in the first round of the WNIT.
Catching up on a couple higher education-related items …
** How far would the University of Wisconsin-Madison men?s basketball team advance in the NCAA Tournament if winning was based on outcomes in the classroom? The Badgers would falter in the first round according to results of Inside Higher Education?s annual Academic Performance Tournament.
** A photo of UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin anchors the front page of this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education. The article is headlined: “Flagships Just Want to Be Alone.” The deck headline explains: “Hard times strain relations between big public research universities and their states.”
Senate Majority Scott Fitzgerald has told Senate Republicans that any votes taken by Senate Democrats in standing committee public hearings and executive sessions will not be counted or recorded.
“Please note that all 14 Democrat senators are still in contempt of the Senate,” Fitzgerald wrote in an email Monday afternoon that was posted on wispolitics.com. “Therefore, when taking roll call votes on amendments and bills during executive sessions, Senate Democrats? votes will not be reflected in the Records of Committee Proceedings or the Senate Journal.”
New owners have surfaced for the long-dormant boutique hotel project across from Camp Randall Stadium. Red Hospitality LLC of Houston, Texas announced Monday that it would complete work on the 48-room “HotelRED” at the corner of Monroe and Regent streets. The goal is to open by this summer.
A recent UW study finds that white nurses work harder to ease their patients? suffering when those patients are also white. The finding fits in with decades of research showing a pattern of black patients consistently receiving less treatment from doctors and nurses than white patients. But it may not take much to fix this racial bias.
The percent of state aid coming to UW-Madison has dropped over the years, but the university is still doing a little better than the average of its peers when it comes to the state dollars spent directly on students, according to data from the Chronicle of Higher Education.
WASHINGTON ? “We?re broke.” You can practically break a search engine if you start looking around the Internet for those words. They?re used repeatedly with reference to our local, state and federal governments, almost always to make a case for slashing programs ? and lately to go after public employee unions. The phrase is designed to create a sense of crisis that justifies rapid and radical actions before citizens have a chance to debate the consequences. Just one problem: We?re not broke.
The numbers have mattered. The tens. The hundreds. The thousands. The hundreds of thousands.
Wisconsinites from every background, every religion, every political persuasion and every job have filled the Capitol Square for the past month. Their message has been clear and unequivocal. They oppose Scott Walker?s assault on working families. They oppose the lawless actions of legislative leaders who are more determined to advance the governor?s political agenda than to respect their colleagues or to serve the interests of the whole state.
….it took about 40 years for Wisconsin college teachers to win the right to try collective bargaining, which they may well lose after two years. Meanwhile, I took my math talent and training to another state and to private industry, where in eight years I managed to more than triple my last, best college salary. What message is Gov. Walker sending to Wisconsin students who aspire to be teachers? Will a career as a perpetual political football appeal to them?
Dear Editor: The otherwise well-informed and thoughtful Ed Garvey was off his game in a recent column when he implied that fearless sifting and winnowing still guides the UW-Madison. I wish he was correct. (“Don?t put UW under rightwing thumb.”)
Ed must not know about the carefully cataloged collection of 628 videotapes comprising nearly two decades of its experiments on monkeys that the university destroyed a few years ago to prevent the public from seeing just one of them. He must not be aware that unlike Scott Walker?s much criticized weeks of delay in responding to public records requests, that the university routinely takes many months to respond when the records have anything to do with its animal experimentation ? and then routinely censors key data.
Gov. Scott Walker signed his controversial budget repair bill into law early Friday, bringing to an end the month-long battle over collective bargaining that captured the nation?s attention and brought state government to a grinding halt. Walker signed the bill privately at about 9:30 a.m. His office has announced a 3 p.m. ceremonial bill signing, which will be open to the news media.
Dear Editor: As a registered nurse working at UW Hospital and Clinics, I have a question for Gov. Scott Walker: Why are my job and union targeted in the budget repair bill since zero taxpayer dollars go toward my wages? As you were told in a letter from the CEO of UWHC, ?Eliminating collective bargaining for UWHCA has no fiscal effect to the state since we receive no General Purpose Revenue.?
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. ? Justin Schultz has had some distinctive moments on behalf of the University of Wisconsin men?s hockey team this season, a flair for the remarkable that was recognized in a big way Thursday. Schultz was named Defensive Player of the Year in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, becoming the first sophomore to win the postseason honor since it was introduced in 1992.
Tears flowed freely from the eyes of several protesters while others had a look of stony resolve when it became clear that the state Assembly had, as expected, voted Thursday to approve a bill that sharply curtails collective bargaining rights for most public employees.
….Katie Hoverson, a nurse from Evansville who works at UW Hospital, arrived in her scrubs Thursday afternoon just after the bill passed. She says she was “angry” but committed to staying engaged and fighting against similar attempts to strip working people of their rights.
Layoff notices to 1,500 state employees have been rescinded by Gov. Scott Walker because of the passage of his budget bill on Thursday. Walker also announced on Friday morning that he will sign the budget bill sometime on Friday, with the signing open to the media.
“The time and details of the bill signing are still to be announced,” said Wisconsin State Journal reporter Mary Spicuzza, after talking with Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his Republican allies may have imagined that the insufficient debates, inappropriate votes, flagrant violations of open meeting laws, threats and general legislative lawlessness used to pass his plan to strip public workers and teachers of their collective bargaining rights would finally silence the opposition. But when the state Assembly finally voted Thursday to approve a version of Walker?s draconian proposal, following Wednesday night?s surprise state Senate vote, the people who have for four weeks campaigned to ?kill the bill? kept on coming — hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of Wisconsinites, rallying, marching, banging on the doors of the state Capitol in Madison and chanting: ?Let us in! Let us in!?
A 52-year-old man told Madison police he was attacked by four men while on a downtown street early Thursday morning, suffering a stab wound to the back. The victim was treated and released.
“He told an officer he was walking on North Lake Street when four men jumped him,” said Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain.
UW-Madison plans a normal class and work day today, despite tensions at the Capitol over a bill that strongly curtails collective bargaining rights for public workers.
One group on campus that would be affected by the measure — teaching assistants — has a membership meeting scheduled for tonight, but there?s no motion currently on the agenda to strike, said Kevin Gibbons, co-president of the T.A.A.
Faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Stout voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to form a union with collective bargaining rights through AFT-Wisconsin, a statewide labor federation affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers. Faculty voted 196-31 in favor of being represented, AFT-Wisconsin stated in a press release.
Wisconsin Senate Democrats who fled to Illinois three weeks ago are coming back.
Shortly after Senate Republicans? surprise vote Wednesday to eliminate most collective bargaining rights for most public employees, protesters started collecting signatures from citizens in preparation for filing an open meetings complaint. It is not yet clear where these complaints will be filed, but former Attorney General Pat Lautenschlager said they can be filed with either the Dane County District Attorney?s Office or the Attorney General?s Office.
Hundreds of people waiting to get inside the State Capitol Thursday morning were stymied as law enforcement officers gathered to assess how to handle the throng of protesters at the building.
Wisconsin State Journal reporter Mary Spicuzza was outside the King Street doors at the scheduled 8 a.m. opening time. “They were all chanting ?It?s 8 a.m., let us in,?” Spicuzza said.
The tea-party-enabled Wisconsin Legislature is working overtime to protect its governor. On the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that protests at military funerals are protected speech, two of the more benighted majority Republican state legislators offered their version of protected speech. They introduced a bill to prohibit telephone callers from lying about their identity as well as giving a false number, subject to a $10,000 fine. The Wisconsin legislators said that ?while the use of spoofing is said to have some legitimate uses, it could also be used to frighten, harass and potentially defraud.?
Recently I marched in Madison with tens of thousands of other people, shouting, ?This is what democracy looks like.? I was so proud to be a Wisconsinite and an American. A few days later, I went with a group to a small hearing room in the state Capitol, where I witnessed the trampling of democracy by three Republicans. They let us speak, but they didn?t listen; two weren?t even in the room most of the time. They took a vote, but they didn?t deliberate. And what they decided was to rob the voters of Milwaukee of their paid sick days victory.
State Rep. Mark Pocan, a Madison Democrat and the former co-chair of the legislative Joint Finance Committee, says he is starting to feel as if he lives in a ?third world junta.
State Sen. Bob Jauch, a senior Democrat, says that what he is witnessing feels like ?a coup.? And thousands of Wisconsinites have poured into the state Capitol in Madison, shouting: ?Shame! Shame! Shame!?
Wisconsin workers will be gathering in a dozen cities across the state on Thursday morning to protest Senate passage of a bill curtailing collective bargaining rights, organizers say. The rallies are being organized by the state AFL-CIO.
The biggest rally will be at 9 a.m. at the State Capitol, where thousands of protesters surged into the building Wednesday night when the Senate quickly passed the bill.
The legacy of the Wisconsin Covenant may be as much about helping students develop aspirations for college as it is about funding them. While it?s unfortunate Gov. Scott Walker intends to end state support for the program, after making good on aid to students already enrolled ? we think it has held a laudable ? if far from perfect, place in Wisconsin?s educational landscape.
Dear Editor: The Wisconsin budget repair bill (AB 11) gives the secretary of the Department of Administration sole power to sell the state-owned power plants for any price without hearings, bids or oversight. Moreover, the bill would preclude the Public Service Commission from overseeing and approving the services and prices of the new owners. Such a sale exposes each of the 37 University of Wisconsin campuses, prisons, and health service facilities to great risk.
If you have camping equipment, sleeping bags or other materials on the State Capitol grounds, remove it or the state will dispose of it. The latest update from the Department of Administration?s blog said camping gear has been collected and moved to the outside of the ground-level Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard entrance.
“Any camping materials not removed from this area by 6 p.m. Wednesday will be considered abandoned and will be hauled away and discarded,” the blog said.
Catching up on a couple higher education-related items …** Campus Connection needs to correct a mistake and set the record straight on a budget-related issue.
What a difference 100 years make. While 2011 finds Wisconsin government embroiled in what seems to be eternal chaos, with our governor pitting the rich against the poor, it also marks the 100th anniversary of what is still known as the most productive and progressive legislative session in the history of Wisconsin, if not the nation.
….Our state was seen as championing honest government while expanding democracy and promoting what became known as the ?Wisconsin Idea,? a partnership between our great university and the citizens of Wisconsin.
When going on spring break, don?t forget to pack condoms and sunscreen. UW-Madison students will take a break from studies March 14-18, so school officials have come up with a list of suggestions to make the break more enjoyable, safer and relaxing. Madison Area Technical College and Edgewood College also have spring break the same week.
Quoted: Dr. Sarah Van Orman, executive director of University Health Services
So much for the promise of the Wisconsin Covenant. When he introduced his vow to state eighth-graders it in 2006, Gov. Jim Doyle said, “As long as the student holds up his or her end of the bargain, every family that qualifies for financial aid will get a package that fully covers their tuition” in the University of Wisconsin System. But, with no actual cost to the state attached to it at the time, the Covenant looked like more of a bill of goods.
Dear Editor: As a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I would like to express my support for the New Badger Partnership, Chancellor Martin?s principles to provide the university with the means to navigate through difficult times. The New Badger Partnership aims to readdress the relationship between the state government and the university, freeing it to focus on its primary missions.
The rapidly-shifting estimate of tape residue removal costs and the “Wisconsin 14” were just too tempting for The Daily Show to resist. On Monday night, the show took on the controversy over tape goop left by protest signs at the state Capitol and went on to smoke out the 14 Democratic state senators who have “found safe harbor” in Illinois for weeks.
When it comes to improving public understanding of tax policy, nothing has been more troubling than the deeply flawed coverage of the Wisconsin state employees? fight over collective bargaining.
Once the darling of the Madison area high-tech scene, TomoTherapy has been sold to a Silicon Valley-based company in a deal both firms say will help them in the competitive medical devices space.
The new owner, subject to regulatory approval, is Accuray Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., which trades under the ARAY symbol. The firm has about 450 employees and sells the “CyberKnife system,” an image-guided radiosurgery system used for the treatment of solid tumors. TomoTherapy, a UW-Madison spin-off which has been struggling to turn a profit, has about 350 employees at its headquarters off Old Sauk Road.
Some faculty on campus are more willing than others to hitch UW-Madison?s future to a new public authority model spelled out for Wisconsin?s flagship institution in Gov. Scott Walker?s proposed 2011-13 biennial budget.
But after hearing from supporters, listening to concerns and fielding questions on this issue for more than an hour during Monday afternoon?s Faculty Senate meeting at Bascom Hall, UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin was generally upbeat with how the campus community is warming to a potential new relationship between the university and state.
A construction project on the UW-Madison campus will turn a block of North Lake Street into a one-way street for about two years. The Madison Traffic Engineering Division announced the southbound lane of North Lake Street between West Dayton and West Johnson streets is shut down as of Monday — for the Gordon Commons project.
