In movies, the full moon has the power to transform humans into frothing, howling werewolves. But while the likes of Lon Chaney Jr., ?Teen Wolf? and ?Twilight?s? Team Jacob might own the night onscreen, here in Madison every full moon belongs to a hoard of bicyclists.
Since September 2007, the Madison FBC ?Full moon Bike Club? being the more family-friendly of the acronym?s dual meanings has taken to the streets for a late-night ride on the evening of each full moon.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) ? A University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student was seriously burned in an attack in Puerto Rico that killed five family members. Police in Florida, Puerto Rico say 24-year-old Patricia Sanchez Vazquez suffered burns New Year?s Day. Authorities say the student?s uncle set fire to a room with a blowtorch during a family gathering.
MADISON (WKOW) — The Badgers RB John Clay has decided to turn pro, according a JSOnline.com report. JSOnline.com says, according to a source, the fourth-year junior has decided to skip his final season of eligibility and enter the 2011 National Football League draft.
….”What happens to folks who have worked 25 or 30 years, dedicated their life to the Department of Commerce?” said Marty Beil, executive director of AFSCME. “What do you say to them? Adios, thanks for the job? No.” Unions that represent workers in the Commerce Department said they may challenge the move. Both AFSCME and AFT-Wisconsin have members who work in Commerce.
“I think we?ve got both contractual and some legal standing in this issue, and we may very well fight this legally,” said Beil. “We?re going to do what has to happen to protect our workers.” Beil cited the University of Wisconsin Hospital and the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority as places the unions worked with government to create public-private partnerships where employees are still with the state.
Patrick Johnson and Craig Smith could be the poster boys for a mature, responsible, important development within the University of Wisconsin men?s hockey team. The 13th-ranked Badgers are breaking important new ground when it comes to taking penalties this season and Johnson, the senior left winger, and Smith, the sophomore center and assistant captain, stand out in that regard.
Dear Editor: I believe, since the wages paid to the employees of the State of Wisconsin Employees Pension Plan are funded by the taxpayer, anyone who is employed in Wisconsin and has money being placed into a pension fund, or if a person desires to self-fund an account, should be allowed to invest in the state pension plan. It would be safer from mismanagement, business failure, embezzlement, etc.
Even though it?s just past New Year?s Day, readers at UW-Madison are already thinking about books for the next academic year. UW-Madison?s common book program, Go Big Read, is accepting nominations for next year?s selection. Make suggestions quickly, though – the deadline is midnight on Thursday, Jan. 6. Nominations can be made at www.gobigread.wisc.edu/nominate.html.
Taylor Wurtz has put the rest of the Big Ten Conference on notice ? she?s not just a one-dimensional player anymore.Two games into the conference season the University of Wisconsin sophomore guard has quickly undermined the notion that she?s just a rebounder.
Dear Editor: On behalf of the city of Fort Worth and the TCU Horned Frog fans, I want to congratulate the Wisconsin Badgers on a good, hard-fought game on the Rose Bowl turf. I also want to thank Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, the city of Madison and the Badger fans for their graciousness. We express our deepest thanks to the Rose Bowl officials who made this an exciting and memorable occasion. It was a day like no other, and something my wife Rosie and I will never forget.
But aside from the game, I learned a lot about the people of Madison.
With all the talk about slashing government spending, you?d think the Department of Corrections would be part of the conversation. But Gov. Scott Walker has had little to say about the department, which at $2.5 billion was the third largest expenditure in the 2009-11 budget.
Quoted: Walter Dickey, UW-Madison law professor and former secretary of the Department of Corrections
The University of Wisconsin System?s Board of Regents and the Office of State Employment Relations filed a motion in Dane County Circuit Court last month asking that the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission be ordered to stop moving forward with plans to hold unit clarification hearings for academic staff working on six UW System campuses.
….”The vast majority of academic staff at UW-Madison support and are pleased to see this court filing by UW System and OSER,” says Heather Daniels, a program specialist in UW-Madison’s Graduate School who is chair of the Academic Staff Executive Committee.
Indeed, virtually all academic staff on the UW-Madison campus have long been against being absorbed into unions without getting a vote on the matter.
As is the case with many great adventures, Matt Schwalbach?s nearly didn?t get off the ground. Fifteen minutes before the door was to close on the last flight from Minneapolis to Los Angeles that would make it possible to reach the Rose Bowl before kickoff, the University of Wisconsin graduate?s wife, Megan, checked her computer to gauge Matt?s likelihood of making it onto the plane.
Plans to build a six-story building with residential units, retail space and an outdoor eating area on University Avenue will move forward after the City Council unanimously approved the project Tuesday night. The Mullins Group proposed the project on the triangular site between University Avenue and Campus Drive west of Highland Avenue.
You?ve seen the ?For Sale? sign lingering in front of a neighborhood house longer than those signs once did. But did you notice the darkened house where no one seems ever to be around? Or the duplex down the street that?s not kept up the way it used to be?
What?s the story on these properties? If you?re like a lot of your Dane County neighbors, you?re not sure. But if the properties were foreclosed on, they could be costing you.
Former Sen. Russ Feingold will join the Marquette University Law School faculty as visiting professor of law beginning the spring semester 2011, according to a Marquette press release sent out Wednesday. According to the release, Feingold will teach an elective course, Current Legal Issues: The U.S. Senate.
Two days into the regime change that has ushered in the most right-wing state government of our lifetimes, a question begs to be answered: How should minority Democrats try to mitigate the potential damage to ideals that progressives and moderates hold dear?
….(Senator Fred) Risser says many constituents who work for the state or the University of Wisconsin-Madison are deeply discouraged.
?There is a lot of apprehension and a reduction in morale,? he says. ?State employees have been made a whipping boy by the incoming governor. They are not to blame for this recession.?
Quoted: UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden
For big-time college sports, late December is more than the season of holiday basketball tournaments and myriad football bowl games. It?s also the time for making tax-deductible gifts to the booster club of your favorite college team.
These gifts don?t get mentioned much when we hear talk of the excess costs of college sports, but they play a surprisingly large role in the college athletics business, and at considerable cost to the taxpayer.
(Charles Clotfelter, a professor of public policy at Duke University, is the author of the forthcoming book ?Big-Time Sports in American Universities.? This column first appeared in the Washington Post.)
Legendary sports columnist Leonard Shapiro is going to be teaching a journalism course at UW-Madison. Shapiro is retiring from the Washington Post after 41 years of covering pro football and golf, and writing a popular TV/media sports column. The 1968 UW-Madison graduate made note of his upcoming teaching gig in a farewell column on Dec. 30.
UW-Madison was rated the ninth-best value among public universities in annual rankings produced by Kiplinger?s Personal Finance. That?s a jump of five spots from a year ago. No other Big Ten Conference institution cracked the top 20. The University of Michigan was UW-Madison?s closest rival, at No. 22.
Seventeen chief executive officers of Fortune 500 companies hold degrees from University of Wisconsin-Madison, making the Badgers one of the largest producers of today?s corporate leaders, according to U.S. News & World Report. Only three schools awarded more degrees to Fortune 500 CEOs than UW-Madison: Harvard University (58), Columbia University (21) and University of Pennsylvania (20).
Elisabeth (Ann) Lambert Farrell died unexpectedly on Dec. 24, 2010. Ann was an active volunteer with Madison Museum of Contemporary Art’s Art League, the UW-Arboretum’s Development Council and finally the Madison Symphony Orchestra League.
Mary Lou Vernon passed away peacefully at home on Tuesday Dec. 28, 2010, surrounded by her family. She worked as a speech pathologist in the Morton Grove School District, as a clinical instructor for the Communicative Disorders Department at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and in several capacities for the Madison Public School District.
UW-Madison is closing out 2010 with a big victory. Wisconsin?s flagship institution jumped the likes of Harvard and Big Ten Conference rival Michigan to take over the top spot in the annual TrendTopper MediaBuzz Internet analysis of top universities released by the Global Language Monitor. These TrendTopper MediaBuzz rankings are designed to measure the “brand equity” of U.S. institutions in terms of their impact on the Internet.
Aggressive. Powerful. Goal-oriented. Cut from Tommy Thompson?s mold. That?s how people are describing the governing style of Republican Scott Walker, who hasn?t exactly sat around waiting to be sworn in as the state?s 45th governor.
On the contrary, he instructed the current Democratic administration to halt negotiations on state union contracts and traveled to Washington to tell the Obama administration he wasn?t interested in federal stimulus money for high-speed rail previously secured by Gov. Jim Doyle. While the move cost the state thousands of potential jobs, it was an early political win with his base.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, UW-Madison professor of political science
Two Minnesota Golden Gophers basketball fans were attacked and injured early Wednesday morning following the Wisconsin Badgers victory over the Gophers at the Kohl Center Tuesday night, Madison police reported. A Badger fan was arrested for allegedly attacking the Gopher fans, in a case of “friendly banter” between rival fans going awry.
Dear Editor: Gov.-elect Scott Walker?s proposal to change the way state agency rules are approved has an appealing ring, as expressed in a recent opinion piece by Journal Sentinel writer Patrick McIlheran.
In essence Walker is calling for a procedure that abandons the current ?passive approval? by the Legislature to the individual approval by the governor of each new or modified agency rule. Such a move would place enormous power in the hands of the governor while stifling the ability of agencies to develop processes by which they operate and ultimately serve the Wisconsin public.
State inspectors have approved UW Hospital?s plans to correct violations found in response to the reuse of a syringe in July.
The inspectors will return to the hospital over the next several months to make sure some steps are completed, such as installing fire wall dampers that could cost up to $1.5 million. Federal officials said the hospital will lose its Medicare contract next month if the issues aren?t fully resolved, but that rarely happens because most hospitals comply.
He has carted assistant coaches? artificial Christmas trees to Orlando, passed an entire weight room?s worth of equipment over a security fence, been flashed by an appreciative female fan, and regularly splurges for $425 fill-ups at the gas station.What a long, strange trip it?s been for Kenny Kangas.
There?s no debate that University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema had a brilliant season and his team?s Rose Bowl loss was a high-quality game played with few on-field mistakes. But I suspect others besides me came away baffled at Bielema?s clock management in both halves.
MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Madison marching band has been practicing for the Rose Bowl since early December, and the band held its final practice in Madison on Monday before heading out to California. The UW-Madison band will be performing in the annual Rose Bowl Parade, at the Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, Calif., and also at other venues during the week leading up to Saturday?s game.
“For bands, it may be one of the premier events in the world as far as bowl games are concerned,” said Mike Leckrone, director of the UW-Madison marching band.
An opportunity for the university to shine!
How can you not like playing in the Rose Bowl? It?s one of the most recognized college football bowl games of all time with a great tradition in a great location. Short of a national championship it?s about as good as it gets in college football.
But even if you don?t like the sport, there?s a lot to like about Wisconsin playing in Pasadena. The spotlight all week will be on the university and its fans as much as on the team, and it’s an opportunity for the UW to shine.
Economists and commodity specialists from UW-Madison and UW-River Falls will review the financial condition of the state?s farm sector at the fourth annual Agricultural Economic Outlook Forum on Jan. 19 at the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St.
Controversy, injuries and suspense have haunted (underdog) Big Ten teams lately. The most tumultuous postseason in Big Ten Conference football history is about to come to a merciful end. The question that begs: Is the worse still to come?
LOS ANGELES – A couple of times a semester, University of Wisconsin junior defensive end J.J. Watt returns to Pewaukee to visit the schools he used to attend. It?s not unusual for a college athlete to go back to his high school and visit his former coaches or speak to the athletes. But Watt goes beyond that.
Watt likes to visit former teachers and quietly slip into the back of classrooms, to see how long he goes unnoticed, although it?s not as easy lately with his rocketing fame.
Paul J. Kaesberg, age 87, died on Friday, Dec. 24, 2010, surrounded by his family at his home in Madison. In 1948, Paul received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He then joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, rising to become the W.W. Beeman Professor of Biochemistry. Paul was a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, and a past president of the American Society of Virology. He received international recognition for his pioneering research on small viruses. In 1991, Paul was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He was also honored by Professor Paul Ahlquist, who took the title Paul Kaesberg Professor of Biochemistry.
Mary Joan Gefke, age 81, of Oregon, passed away peacefully at her home on Thursday, Dec. 23, 2010, surrounded by her family.
Joan’s time working on the UW campus during the Vietnam Era was one of the most exciting times of her life, and she would often regale anyone who would listen to her of the stories from this time of her life. In her capacity as a UW project specialist from 1962 until 1974, Joan worked closely on several important projects.
(This story appeared first in the Sunday edition of the Wisconsin State Journal.)
UW Foundation should pay back more than $20 million it kept from a public endowment at UW School of Medicine and Public Health, says a member of an oversight board.
The foundation should also stop charging five times as much to handle the money as the Medical College of Wisconsin does for a similar fund, said Joe Leean, a former state senator and former state health department secretary.
Sixty-eight trombones, 111 trumpets, 23 tubas, and three Bucky Badger costumes will hurtle across the skies today in a Boeing 747, bound for California.
The Badgers are already in Los Angeles for the Rose Bowl. But the crucial supporting players depart from Dane County Regional Airport Tuesday: the UW Marching Band, the spirit squad, and, of course, Bucky.
The sign on the classroom wall prohibits the use of handheld communication devices, yet on this December morning all 28 students in Lori Hunt?s algebra II class are texting on their cell phones. But these Middleton High School students are not a defiant bunch of teens.
With Hunt?s blessing, they?re using their cell phones to text answers to math problems. Every answer appears, anonymously, on a wall-mounted, interactive, electronic whiteboard all students can see.
MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Badgers fans aren?t the only ones excited about Wisconsin?s trip to the Rose Bowl, so are area businesses. Football fever is turning into cash at places like the University Book Store as fans scoop up virtually anything to commemorate Bucky?s trip to Pasadena.
OSHKOSH, Wis. — A University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh professor has helped revive a once-lost soundtrack to Dr. Seuss? only live-action film. Alan Lareau, German professor and literature scholar, is an expert on Frederick Hollander, who was the composer for “The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.”
One of the backstories to this University of Wisconsin football season is the dedication several players have shown toward causes that benefit sick children, and several have developed deep friendships with patients at UW Hospital and Clinics.
To that end, it?s fitting that the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Wisconsin is commemorating the Badgers? march to the Rose Bowl by offering a commemorative “Season to Remember” football, with proceeds helping support an agency that supports kids with life-threatening medical conditions.
It?s so important that the University of Wisconsin band be in Pasadena for nearly a week before the Rose Bowl that there will not be a band playing at the Kohl Center Tuesday night for the men?s basketball team?s Big Ten Conference opener against Minnesota.
It seems strange to me that the band couldn?t spare a dozen students to stay home and play for Tuesday night?s game and then fly to Pasadena.
Ron Linde, age 56, of Madison, died unexpectedly on Saturday, Dec. 18, 2010. He worked for the UW as a custodian for more than 30 years, primarily at the Waisman Center, and was known for his reliability and dependability.
UW-Madison will be closed on Thursday for the second of four mandated furlough days this school year, and all state offices will be closed on Friday for the New Year?s holiday since New Year?s Day is Saturday.
The UW-Madison news service said Dec. 30 was chosen for a furlough day to avoid interfering with any instruction and to minimize disruption for the university community.
Wisconsin Gov.-elect Scott Walker and the new Republican Legislature have declared war on working people. They want to abolish public employee unions and turn Wisconsin into a so-called right-to-work state, meaning no more union shops and no more dues from anyone who objects. This also means no more pressure from anywhere to keep wages at a livable level for anyone, union or not.
It?s all under the guise of cutting the state?s $3 billion budget deficit and creating 250,000 jobs.
At first glance, the following is surprising. Roman Catholic colleges are enrolling a higher percentage of Muslim students than the typical four-year institution, the Washington Post recently reported.
The newspaper uses figures from UCLA?s Higher Education Research Institute and notes some of these Catholic colleges have been “astonished and sometimes befuddled” by the spike in Muslim students in recent years.
A sitting president visits the UW-Madison campus for the first time in 60 years, Chancellor Biddy Martin proposes a new business model to help sustain Wisconsin?s flagship institution during a period of dwindling state support, and the football Badgers are heading to the Rose Bowl for the first time in more than a decade.Before ringing in the New Year, Campus Connection takes a look back at some 2010 highlights.
MADISON, Wis. — Will Wisconsin?s public employees be retiring in droves in the new year? Numbers show more state workers than usual are considering it. In the past two weeks, hundreds of workers have been looking into retirement, and some said it?s because they feel they need to get out now.
I had the pleasure of attending my niece?s graduation from UW-Madison on Sunday. That?s a very special date for a young person. The sense of a major accomplishment and hope for the future are the hallmarks of this day.
Instead, she was subjected to a political speech in a forum that should not have any politics involved. Rather than hearing about optimism, dreams and hard work, she heard about dependency on oil, campaign finance reform and other agenda items.
A Jan. 8 memorial service is planned for Robert Kingdon, a UW-Madison history professor emeritus and noted historian of the Reformation, who died Dec. 3 in Madison.
Changes in strategy by the Madison Police Department on staffing the city?s annual Freakfest Halloween party on State Street has resulted in a dramatic drop in costs, according to figures released Tuesday.
Since the first year of Freakfest in 2006, city policing costs have dropped 58 percent, from $376,900 to $155,595 this year. These are just Madison Police Department costs; other law enforcement agencies working the State Street area for Freakfest also have their own costs.
When Mike Stassi, the longtime football coach at Monona Grove High School, decided to relocate the hot tub at his house one day last summer, he put in a call to Gabe Carimi, a former player of his who is now a standout left tackle at the University of Wisconsin. Carimi showed up with two of his fellow Badgers linemen, John Moffitt and Peter Konz, and the three proceeded to move the tub the same way they shove around their gridiron opponents. No sweat. They then wolfed down three extra-large pizzas in minutes.
?These guys are like a different breed of humans,? Stassi marvels. ?They?re just giant beings.?
So I?m behind the wheel of the Ford Fusion, testing out the new UW-Madison driving simulator. Really, I could do anything I want behind the wheel of this thing. I could text my son and get the latest on our fantasy football team. I could unwrap a burrito and wolf it down while trying to find my favorite Grateful Dead song on a CD. Heck, I could take a nap. But, though I?m tempted, I don?t do any of those things.
The Center on Wisconsin Strategy always offers a different spin on the numbers and its latest “Wisconsin Jobs Outlook” suggests just how bad the recession has been on Milwaukee.
Or more specifically, we’re talking about the Milwaukee Metropolitan Statistical Area or MSA, which includes Milwaukee, West Allis and Waukesha.
“Hi, I?m Kathy. I?m from UW-Madison. Do you mind if I join you?”
Those words, or some variation, provided an introduction at gas stations, coffee shops, cafes and churches across small-town Wisconsin.
While those of us ensconced in Madison scratch our heads about why so many in Wisconsin appear to dislike or distrust us, associate professor Katherine Cramer Walsh ventured out to hear it first-hand. So how did people respond?
….Thanks to local musician and performer Anthony Lamarr, the Badgers? run for the Rose Bowl has an unofficial anthem. “We?re Smelling Roses” debuted on YouTube earlier this month and has already scored more than 200,000 hits. J. Dante is on the track ? his rap is the best part, when the song really picks up ? and the video features cameos by members of the marching band, Chancellor Biddy Martin and Heisman Trophy winner and former Badger Ron Dayne.
Wilfred Joseph Pierick, age 92, passed away on Dec. 19, 2010. In 1964, Pierick moved to Madison as a 4-H youth development specialist with UW-Extension. In his position he was responsible for the production and distribution statewide for agricultural, home economics and other 4-H youth development literature. During this time he edited and authored numerous publications. In 1982, he retired as professor emeritus of UW-Madison Extension.
Thanks to a $10 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and matching funds from the state, UW-Madison hopes to enhance its commitment to the humanities. The grant is intended to support core areas of study, hire new faculty, and support postdoctoral and graduate students, the university announced in a press release Monday.
With a nod to business interests, the Madison Plan Commission has OK?d a $25 million, 130-unit apartment project for the 2500 block of University Avenue. The project from the Mullins Group would abut Campus Drive and Highland Avenue. It would require demolition of six existing buildings — although the iconic Lombardino?s restaurant on the corner will remain.
