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Author: jnweaver

Operation Haiti: Madison doctor is teaching Haitian nurse skills to take back home

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Capital Times

In Haiti, after the quake, Rigan Louis was the stoic young nurse who could get the Léogâne field hospitalâ??s balky generator going again, who could find a visiting surgeon a saw and rasp in the rubble, and who had the courage and skill to amputate a little girlâ??s infected hand. But on one recent morning, Louis sits in blue scrubs in the doctorâ??s lounge at Meriter Hospital, fumbling with a milk carton. He canâ??t figure out how to open it. Milk comes in cans in Haiti. When you can get it.

His friend, Dr. Craig Dopf, the genial UW Health orthopedic surgeon hosting and training him, is gulping down chicken soup and briefing Louis on their next patient.

(Dopf is also an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery in the School of Medicine and Public Health)

Update: UW-La Crosse student released, no charges filed in Mifflin sex assault, reports say

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Capital Times

A 20-year-old UW-La Crosse student arrested on Saturday on tentative charges that he sexually assaulted a 19-year-old UW-Madison female student has been released from jail with no charges being filed against him, according to published reports.

The La Crosse Tribune reported that Bebeto Yepmo Yewah was released from the Dane County Jail on Tuesday, after District Attorney Brian Blanchard declined to prosecute the case.

“The office lacks sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime was committed,” Blanchard said in an e-mail to WKOW-TV, the newspaper article said.

Yewah is a national champion wrestler at 133 pounds for the UW-La Crosse wrestling team. He is a sophomore from Lansing, Mich.

Cover Story: Spring Gallery Night (77 Square)

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Donâ??t let the title mislead: Gallery Night isnâ??t just for galleries.

Instead, the twice-annual event, coming up Friday, May 7, encompasses a variety of venues as well as artistic media. With 65 locations and many more artists, this will be the largest Gallery Night yet.

A sculptor, Crystal Chesnik, is installing her work in the Red Gym on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

UW to do full-scale emergency notification test (Capital Times)

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If you use UW-Madison text messaging, e-mail and the campus phone system, and all three display warnings at the same time, donâ??t panic.

A full-scale test of WiscAlerts, the campus emergency notification system, is coming on Thursday, sometime between noon and 2 p.m., the first time the university is testing all three systems simultaneously. The test will include all 20,000 subscribers to WiscAlerts-Text, 78,000 campus e-mail users and 21,000 Centrex phone users on campus.

Biz Beat: On rust belt Midwest, Longworth tells it like it is

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Capital Times

If youâ??ve got a chance this afternoon, head to the Pyle Centerâ??s Alumni Lounge at 702 Langdon St. at 4 p.m to hear Richard Longworth.

A veteran Chicago writer and teacher, Longworth has made a splash in economic development circles with his book “Caught in the Middle: Americaâ??s Heartland in the Age of Globalism.” The Iowa native and Norrthwestern grad Longworth knows his stuff. He notes the Midwest was once a center of innovation and industry for the 20th century. Think cars and rubber; agriculture and chemicals.

Campus Connection: UW faculty OK restructuring research enterprise

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Capital Times

Itâ??s hard to believe but another academic year is winding to a close.

Following are a few notes, quotes and observations from Monday eveningâ??s UW-Madison Faculty Senate meeting at Bascom Hall — the final such assembly of 2009-10.

** It took a little longer — OK, a lot longer — than some had anticipated, but the faculty senate finally gave the green light for the UW-Madison administration to move forward with plans to restructure the universityâ??s research enterprise.
The University Committee, the executive committee of the faculty senate, put forth a motion Monday to restructure. It featured four recommendations.

Crime and Courts: UW-Platteville unveils crime scene house

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Capital Times

UW-Platteville today is unveiling a new tool to teach prospective crime fighters: a house dedicated to forensic investigations.

The house was specially built by university building and construction management students to stage gruesome crimes, which can be studied, solved – the erased. The walls are coated with special epoxy paint so blood spatters can be analyzed, then easily wiped off, according to the Platteville student newspaper, The Exponent. Other walls are specially made for ballistics training. Cameras and two-way mirrors will allow professors to observe students at work as they collect evidence and take photographs.

State’s biotech industry growth kept pace with U.S.

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wisconsinâ??s biotech industry held its own during the first year of the recession, a new report shows. The stateâ??s bioscience sector grew at about the same pace as that of the rest of the country, according to the Battelle/BIO State Bioscience Initiatives 2010 report, which was released Monday by the consulting firm Battelle and the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Fabu: April was month for poetry

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Capital Times

….I experienced so many unique poetry opportunities in April, National Poetry Month. I wrote a tribute poem to the UW Systemâ??s outstanding women of color. The best part was reading about the accomplishments of women who were African-American, Asian-American, American Indian, Spanish-speaking and biracial and then meeting them face to face. I appreciated that I was in a room full of women warriors, all ages, all races, and all bound by their determination to succeed despite hostile environments on Wisconsin campuses.

Off the Wall: ‘Winterlace’ and ‘Spill’ by Helen Klebesadel

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Wisconsin State Journal

When Donna Silver took a new job as secretary of the academic staff at UW-Madison, the first thing she did was transform it.

“This office was a very dreary, dark, not-welcoming place,” Silver said.

With the help of Helen Klebesadel, director of the UW System Womenâ??s Studies Consortium and a local watercolor painter, Silver installed track lighting, hooks and nine of Klebesadelâ??s richly textured paintings.

In depressed economy, unpaid college internships are on the rise

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Capital Times

Would you accept a job offer if you knew you werenâ??t going to get paid?

For a good number of college students hoping to get their foot in the door, the answer is â??absolutely.â?

â??For me, itâ??s better to have an unpaid internship than no internship at all,â? says Max Appelbaum, a UW-Madison junior who will be spending a second straight summer in New York working as an unpaid public relations intern.

UW wins appeal on behalf of Brust

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wisconsin has won its appeal to the Big Ten Conference, opening the door for Mundelein (Ill.) High School senior guard Ben Brust to sign with the Badgers for their 2010 menâ??s basketball freshman class. The Big Tenâ??s 11-member committee of faculty representatives voted Friday in favor of UW and Brust to waive a league rule that prohibits athletes from transferring from one Big Ten school to another and remaining on scholarship.

Memo to partiers: The couch is not an ashtray, fire department says

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Capital Times

When partying on Mifflin Street on Saturday, donâ??t use a front porch sofa as an ashtray. It could kill you.

Thatâ??s the message from the Madison Fire Department, after several recent couch-on-porch fires damaged buildings and even caused the death of a student in Michigan. Officers briefed neighborhood residents this week to remind them of the dangers of smoking on couches and to take special precautions to guard against any fire danger.

Simon & Garfunkel now at Coliseum; tickets must be changed

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Madison.com

Troubled waters arenâ??t being bridged for local Simon & Garfunkel fans.

After announcing Thursday that a May 9 concert by the duo had to be postponed to July 14 due to a vocal strain by Art Garfunkel, the venue is now switching from the Kohl Center to the Coliseum. The topper? The tickets for the Kohl Center canâ??t be used at the Coliseum, and ticket holders must get refunds from the Kohl Center and then purchase tickets at the Coliseum.

Neighborhood cleanup planned as block party alternative

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Capital Times

Downtown residents who would rather clean than party are invited to East Mifflin Street on Saturday afternoon, to pick up trash in the James Madison Park neighborhood.

Second District Alder Bridget Maniaci is hosting the cleanup as a “positive community alternative” to the annual Mifflin Street block party, which takes place on Saturday on West Mifflin Street from Broom Street to west of Bedford Street.

UW-Madison Hires Cornell Expert as New Dairy Policy Director

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Wisconsin Ag Connection

A dairy market expert with Cornell University in New York is moving back to the Dairy State to become the new director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and UW-Extension. Mark Stephenson will play a major leadership role in dairy communication and education for the school and Extension programs.

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Cullen Receives 2010 Pound Extension Award

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Wisconsin Ag Connection

A University of Wisconsin-Madison associate professor and Extension specialist has been awarded the 2010 Pound Award for her work at the schoolâ??s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Eileen Cullen was recognized for her work with integrated pest management implementation.

Eaves faces major challenge in rebuilding his staff

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Madison.com

Mike Eaves has had his share of staffing challenges since he became coach of the University of Wisconsin menâ??s hockey team in 2002, but nothing quite like this.

Less than three weeks removed from guiding the Badgers to the NCAA championship game, Eaves is in the market for two full-time assistant coaches.

Chuck Litweiler: Give voters a say on capital expenditures

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Capital Times

Dear Editor: Would that Madison voters were able to exercise as much direct democracy as UW-Madison students. Their student government has made it possible for students to vote in binding referendums on capital expenditures financed from segregated student fees. Knowing their votes would determine the outcome, 34 percent of eligible voters cast ballots on financing and expansion/renovation of Natatorium facilities.

Kindergartners try to stump professor, get taste of college

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Wisconsin State Journal

Professor Ken Mayer calls it the UW-Madison version of “Kids Say the Darndest Things.”

Every spring he invites Josh Reinekingâ??s kindergarten class into his 350-student lecture, Political Science 104: Introduction to American National Government, to the amusement of his students, the kindergartners and himself.

A day earlier Mayer goes to their classroom at Stephens Elementary School on the West Side and challenges them to come up with questions to stump him.

Cellular Dynamics raises another $40.6 million

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Wisconsin State Journal

Cellular Dynamics International has raised another $40.6 million in private equity financing, and Sam Zell, owner of the Chicago Tribune, is one of the investors.

Founded by UW-Madison stem cell pioneer James Thomson, CDI produces human heart cells from stem cell lines derived from skin or blood samples from adults. The heart cells are used by the pharmaceutical industry to test the effect of drug candidates on heart function.

Campus Connection: NIH reapproves stem cell lines owned by WiCell

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Capital Times

The National Institutes of Health on Tuesday reapproved a handful of popular embryonic stem cell lines owned by WiCell, a nonprofit research institute and private support organization of UW-Madison that advances stem cell science.

This means these lines can once again be used in studies backed with federal research dollars.

This is big news to stem cell researchers, who have been expressing frustration with President Barack Obamaâ??s new stem cell policy because it had been creating new barriers and jeopardizing years of experimentation.

UW-Madison stem cell lines re-approved for federally funded research

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Wisconsin State Journal

Four human embryonic stem cell lines that were first created in 1998 in the UW-Madison lab of James Thomson got re-approved for use in federally funded research Tuesday.

That includes one line, H9, that has been cited in hundreds of research studies and is integral to the research of scores of scientists.

Stop downtown, but develop whole town

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Capital Times

Madison is not merely a transportation hub.

It is a great American city, with a rich history, a bright future and a vibrant heart. That heart is downtown, on the isthmus that separates Lakes Monona and Mendota.

The point here is not to suggest that the cityâ??s neighborhoods to the north, east, west and south are not vital to its character and future. But cities need central reference points, and the isthmus is that for Madison. So the Madison City Council was right to signal that the coming high-speed rail line must have a downtown station.

Edward Reich: Support needed for fine arts in schools

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Wisconsin State Journal

I have long admired the fine work done by Madison Symphony Orchestraâ??s Tyrone and Janet Greive in this area for so many years. I thank them for their efforts.

As Greive noted in his Friday guest column, the ability level of college orchestras, including those at UW-Madison, has become very high. The directors are also wonderful â?? Iâ??ve been watching the exemplary work of orchestra director James Smith and choir professor Beverly Taylor with the university orchestras for years, and recommend that readers attend upcoming university opera and choir concerts.

Badgers’ appeal on behalf of recruit Brust to be heard this week

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Wisconsin menâ??s basketball staff could learn this week whether the Big Ten Conference will allow guard Ben Brust to accept a scholarship offer from UW and sign with the Badgers for their 2010 freshman class. Brust, a 6-foot-2 senior guard from Mundelein, Ill., originally signed a national letter of intent to play for Iowa but was released by the school after coach Todd Lickliter was fired.

Brothers Grimm exhibit coming to airport

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Capital Times

Once upon a time….

There were two brothers named Grimm who collected and published fairy and folk tales in Germany in the 1800s, including some of the most famous tales we know — “Cinderella,” Snow White” and other legends that propelled Walt Disneyâ??s animated films.

The Brothers Grimmâ??s work will be prominently displayed at the Dane County Regional Airport beginning on Wednesday, thanks to the sister county relationship Dane County has with the Grimmsâ?? adopted homeland of Kassel, Germany.

Campus Connection: Hiring stripper gives proverbial black eye to med students

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Capital Times

Not everyone in medical school is smart.

How else can one explain the fact that someone thought it would be a good idea to have a stripper show up at the “Black Bag Ball,” an event put on by the UWâ??s Medical Student Association and funded by the universityâ??s Medical Alumni Foundation?

“Weâ??re really disappointed,” Patrick McBride, an associate dean of students with the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, said Monday.

Burning waste outside is a health and forest fire threat

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Capital Times

A common way for rural Wisconsin residents to get rid of trash and wood is to burn it, either in open burn piles or in barrels.

That practice is not good for health, the environment or our stateâ??s millions of acres of forests, so the UW-Extension is working with two state agencies to educate residents about the dangers of trash burning. The UW-Extension Solid and Hazardous Waste Education Center (SHWEC) has joined with the Department of Natural Resources and Department of Health Services to get the message out to reduce open burning in Wisconsin.

Campus Connection: Sheehan to speak tonight at Union

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Capital Times

An anti-war panel discussion featuring Cindy Sheehan and a group of national political activists will take place Monday night in the Memorial Union after all.The event will be held at 7 p.m. in the Old Madison room, said Marc Kennedy, the Wisconsin Union communications director.The location of the event had been up in the air after sponsorship withdrawals and concerns over security costs forced event organizers into scramble mode.

Time to get â??Lostâ??

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“Lost” writer and producer Adam Horowitz knows exactly what he wants to do after the long-running ABC show wraps up its last episode on May 23.

“After the last episode, I want to go to a bar and have all the â??Lostâ?? fans come up and be able to say â??Yep, thatâ??s what happened,â??” he said in a phone interview from Los Angeles. “Thereâ??s nothing to hold back. You just saw it!”

For the showâ??s entire six-year run, Horowitz and his writing and producing partner Edward Kitsis, both UW-Madison graduates, had to keep their lips zipped about all the secrets they knew about on the show.

Jacqueline Kelley: UW treatment of monkeys is cruel and unethical

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Capital Times

Dear Editor: Recently in the Cap Times, Amy M. Kerwin wrote that â??monkeys deserve more than living in a small cage their entire lives.â? I could not agree more, having visited the UW monkey colony several years ago and having come to the same conclusion.

The monkeys I saw seemed very sad, listless and probably crazy. These animals are normally social and active, yet at the UW thousands are kept isolated in small, plain cages for their entire lives as the subjects of research.

Don’t push Bamuthi: he’s already pushing himself (Wisconsin State Journal)

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Wisconsin State Journal

“Donâ??t push me,” cautions Marc Bamuthi Joseph. “I am an American on the edge … and Iâ??m trying.”

Joseph takes on murky questions of race, identity, history and art in “the break/s”, a 90-minute genre-busting show that played the Wisconsin Union Theater on Saturday night. The event capped two weeks of the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiativesâ?? Line Breaks Festival, which Joseph helped found three years ago.

Junior achievement (Wisconsin State Journal)

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Wisconsin State Journal

At this yearâ??s Wisconsin Film Festival, it wasnâ??t uncommon to hear the audience burst into applause before the opening credits had even rolled. It wasnâ??t in anticipation of the film, but in appreciation of the bubbly trailer preceding it. UW-Madison junior Brittany Radocha created the trailer, where geometric moths dance across a blue screen toward a lightbulb, and then form the Wisconsin Film Festival logo.

UW safety Chris Maragos signed by 49ers

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Once the National Football League draft hit the seventh and final round Saturday, Chris Maragos had one wish: Go undrafted and then sign a free-agent contract.

“Once I got past the sixth round, we were hoping to go to free agency, so we could pick (a team),” the former Wisconsin free safety said Saturday night, “and get in a good situation.”

Not long after the 255th player was selected to close the draft, Maragos received a phone call from San Francisco 49ers coach Mike Singletary and agreed to a free-agent deal.

Wisconsin’s O’Brien Schofield gets his chance with Arizona

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

As he sat alone in his hotel room in Mobile, Ala., in January, Oâ??Brien Schofield had no clue when he would be healthy enough to play football again or if any National Football League team would take a chance on him in the 2010 draft. Hours earlier, Wisconsinâ??s fifth-year senior defensive end had suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during practice for the Senior Bowl.

A future that appeared so bright, thanks to an outstanding final season at UW and an eye-opening performance at outside linebacker in the East-West Shrine Game, was suddenly dark and unpredictable. “I felt like my career was over,” Schofield said.Schofieldâ??s career began Saturday when he was selected by the Arizona Cardinals with the 32nd pick of the fourth round, No. 130 overall.

Our native daughter is EPA star on aging issues

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Capital Times

The sports stars get a lot of press and attention — thatâ??s as it should be. Still, there are other kinds of stars out there who shine brightly in their own fields of endeavor. One wonderful example is Madisonâ??s own Kathy Sykes.

Sykes, who is a graduate of West High School and the University of Wisconsin, is the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencyâ??s Aging Initiative in Washington, D.C. She is described as a one-woman institution, the only full-time EPA employee working on the intersection of the environment and aging. As such, she has developed the framework for the National Agenda on the Environment and Aging. This is based on scientific collaboration and on input from public forums and the aging network.

Cross Country: Expo a must-see for cheese experts

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Capital Times

When people think of cheese, they think of Wisconsin: the dairy cows grazing on green grass next to a little red barn, a small family cheese factory where mom and dad turn out a few pounds of cheese a day, buying handmade cheese at a farmersâ?? market, a cheese maker cutting a wedge of cheese from a block of cheddar.

All true, but it doesnâ??t really portray Wisconsin or U.S. cheese making in 2010 as a walk through the Exhibition Hall at the Alliant Energy Center on Wednesday and Thursday of this week would quickly show.

Obama’s stem cell policy, expected to loosen restrictions, has had the opposite effect

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Capital Times

It would be hard to overstate the excitement scientists at UW-Madison and elsewhere felt when President Barack Obama signed an executive order lifting restrictions on taxpayer-funded research using human embryonic stem cells.

Among those in attendance at the White House on March 9, 2009 for the presidentâ??s announcement were Jamie Thomson, UW-Madisonâ??s world-renowned stem cell pioneer, and Clive Svendsen, then the co-director of UW-Madisonâ??s Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center.

….But a year later much of that excitement has been replaced by hand-wringing, with many scientists complaining that Obama’s new stem cell policy is creating new barriers and jeopardizing years of experimentation.

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On Campus: Campus Women’s Center loses funding, furniture

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Wisconsin State Journal

First, the UW-Madison Campus Womenâ??s Center was stripped of its funding. Now itâ??s going to be stripped of its furniture.

Because the center didnâ??t get funding from the General Student Services Fund this year – a fund paid for and administered by students – the group has to give back all the capital purchases it has made over the years, said Tina Trevino-Murphy, programming coordinator.

Madison man is accused of stalking UW-Madison cross-country runner

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Wisconsin State Journal

A Madison man was charged Wednesday with stalking for allegedly giving a runner from the UW-Madison womenâ??s cross country team unwanted gifts, following her and constructing a shrine to her outside the teamâ??s practice facility.

David Hose, 21, of Madison, is scheduled to appear in court Thursday. According to a criminal complaint, the 20-year-old woman told police that she didnâ??t know Hose before the incidents began in August.

The first incident, the complaint states, was outside a State Street bar, where the woman said a man later identified as Hose was acting so bizarrely that she took his picture to document who he was.

James Pawlak: Student voters set example of frugality

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Wisconsin State Journal

The UW-Madison students who rejected a $108 increase in their annual fees to fund an expansion of the Natatorium certainly showed a better understanding of todayâ??s economic conditions and burdens on students and their families than the empire-building and wasteful administrators within the entire UW System.

I hope the students at the other campuses follow their lead, and that the administrators and Board of Regents learn from their example.

â?? James Pawlak, West Allis

New EPA regional administrator has local roots

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that Susan Hedman would be the new regional administrator. The Midwest region includes Wisconsin. Hedman graduated from Ripon College in Ripon, and earned a masters degree from the La Follette Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1979. She is also a graduate of the UW-Madison law school and earned a Ph.D. at the schoolâ??s Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies in 1989.

Energy-savings efforts get a jolt

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The initiative is intended to implement a project of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, a think tank based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that is involved with efforts to provide green jobs that pay family-supporting wages.

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No news on Big Ten expansion

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Anyone anticipating a blockbuster announcement regarding the Big Ten Conferenceâ??s plans to expand the 11-team league had to be disappointed and perhaps a bit skeptical Wednesday. Big Ten Commissioner James E. Delany, attending the BCS meetings in Scottsdale, Ariz., provided few new details on potential expansion. “There are no announcements, notifications, or is there a change in the timeline,” Delany told reporters.