A scandal at UW-Madison as a former athletic department worker is accused of grabbing the crotch of a student volunteer.
Victim in John Chadima scandal not filing criminal charges
WTMJ-TV, Milwaukee
Author: jplucas
Penn State scandal shaped Wisconsin’s response to Chadima
AP
The Penn State scandal certainly caught the attention of officials at Wisconsin, compelling them to review and reinforce protocols for reporting sexual assaults and think about how they might handle a scandal of their own.
Caution urged for mutant flu work
Nature
Why would scientists deliberately create a form of the H5N1 avian influenza virus that is probably highly transmissible in humans? In the growing debate about research that has done precisely that1, a key question is whether the public-health benefits of the work outweigh the risks of a potential pandemic if the virus escaped from the lab.
Barry Alvarez on Chadima: ‘He was a trusted and valued employee’
WTMJ-TV, Milwaukee
Director of Athletics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Barry Alvarez has released a statement on the resignation of John Chadima.
Has bird flu biology opened bioterror box?
USA Today
It was a public health nightmare: A deadly flu bug spread like wildfire around the world, killing tens of millions of people.
Wisconsin Scientist Says H5N1 Flu Strain He Created Is Less Dangerous
New York Times
A Wisconsin virology team that created a more contagious form of bird flu did not produce a highly lethal superflu, as a Dutch team famously and controversially did last year, according to the leader of the Wisconsin team.
Climate Change and Farming: How Not to Go Hungry in a Warmer World
Time
Quoted: “The window of opportunity to avert a humanitarian, environmental and climate crisis is rapidly closing, and we need better information and tools for managing the tradeoffs in how we grow our food and use our resources,” says Molly Jahn, dean of the University of Wisconsin?s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and another author of the Science article. If we hope to thrive in a warmer world ? one that?s coming ? we have no other choice.
Stem cell blindness treatment study reaction roundup
USA Today
Reported by The Lancet, the privately-funded study led by UCLA and Advanced Cell Technology researchers reported tentative signs of improved vision in two women suffering a progressive form of blindness.For perspective, we asked stem cell pioneer James Thomson of Cellular Dynamics International to comment.
Report: Wisconsin’s Former Associate AD Resigned Because He Allegedly Groped A Male Subordinate
Deadspin.com
John Chadima resigned as the associate athletic director at the University of Wisconsin just after returning from the Rose Bowl earlier this month. Turns out he is accused of groping a male subordinate while at a party on that trip, according to what a source told WKOW, a television station in Madison, Wis.:
Google boggling our brains? Study says humans use internet as their main ‘memory’
Daily Mail (UK)
The Internet is becoming our main source of memory instead of our own brains, a study has concluded. In the age of Google, our minds are adapting so that we are experts at knowing where to find information even though we don?t recall what it is.
Source: Former UW Athletic Administrator Touched Student Indecently
WISN-TV, Milwaukee
MADISON, Wis. — New information has surfaced in the investigation of former University of Wisconsin-Madison athletic administrator John Chadima, 46.
Report alleges UW athletic official grabbed crotch
AP
A University of Wisconsin student alleged that an athletic department official grabbed his crotch at an alcohol-fueled party during the football team?s trip to the Rose Bowl, according to an independent report released by the school on Tuesday night.
Wisconsin athletic official resigns over allegations of inappropriate conduct
CNN.com
A University of Wisconsin senior official resigned after making unwanted sexual advances to a male student employee of the school?s athletic department, according to a report released this week.
Badgers employee grabbed, threatened to fire subordinate at Rose Bowl party
WTMJ-TV, Milwaukee
The Rose Bowl incident report involving a former UW-Madison employee allegedly sexually assaulting a subordinate has been released.
Wisconsin Student Says Athletic Official Reached Into His Pants At Rose Bowl Party
National Public Radio
First came sexual-assault allegations against Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach at Penn State. Then, molestation accusations against Bernie Fine, an assistant basketball coach at Syracuse. And now, new details about what led John Chadima, an associate athletic director at Wisconsin, to resign earlier this month.
UW panel completes report on Chadima
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A four-person panel that was asked to look into allegations of misconduct by a former University of Wisconsin-Madison athletic department official has completed its report.
Iraq War veteran Chase Boruch sentenced to life in prison
MERRILL — An Iraq War veteran who will spend the rest of his life in prison blamed his military experience and the country for ignoring the needs of returning war veterans for the death of his mother.
The A(H5N1) Conundrum
Chemical & Engineering News
Are there some experiments that should never be carried out? Is there some knowledge that is too dangerous for humans to possess? Can the dissemination of knowledge, once it has been discovered, be limited to only a few people? These are some of the questions being raised by two papers from two virology groups [one of them UW?MAdison’s Yoshihiro Kawaoka] that created an avian H5N1 influenza virus that is easily transmissible from mammal to mammal through the air.
Scientists Agree to Halt Work Temporarily on Dangerous H5N1 Bird Flu Strain
Time.com
Researchers working on the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus have voluntarily agreed to stop their studies for 60 days over concerns that their data could provide a bioterror threat.
When fear goes viral
Vancouver Sun
If you were paying attention to the flap over two recent flu experiments involving ferrets, you may have come away with the impression that scientists all but waved a red flag in front of terrorists and said, ?Here?s a perfect biological weapon ? help yourselves.?
Badgers react to Paterno’s death
WLUK-TV, Green Bay
MADISON – Former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno?s death is bringing reaction and reflection from across the world of college athletics, including from the University of Wisconsin. Wisconsin released statements Sunday afternoon, talking about the former Nittany Lions coach.
Bird flu research into more deadly H5N1 strain suspended
Daily Mail (UK)
A group of scientists have suspended their research about a more-deadly strain of the bird flu because of massive objections to the study itself.
Pause in bird flu research amid safety fears
Financial Times
The US funder of two projects that created a highly pathogenic flu virus mutation has welcomed a two-month moratorium on further research while defending the value and safety of the experiments.
Here’s How Google Search Is Destroying Our Memory
Business Insider
“We are becoming symbiotic with our computer tools, growing into interconnected systems that remember less by knowing information than by knowing where the information can be found. “This sentence comes from the findings of a new study conducted by psychology professors at Columbia University, the University Of Wisconsin-Madison, and Harvard University.
Meeting to address bird flu research impasse: WHO
CTV
A small — in relative terms — group of technical experts will be invited to Geneva in mid-February to begin the difficult task of trying to break an impasse arising from the proposed publication of controversial bird flu research, the World Health Organization revealed Saturday.
Children’s books increasingly emphasize visual art
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Quoted: “It feels like we have a lot of everything,” says Kathleen T. Horning, director of the Cooperative Children?s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She?s also the author of “From Cover to Cover,” a guide to evaluating children?s books.
Bird Flu Scientists Agree to Pause H5N1 Research
New York Times
The scientists who altered a deadly flu virus to make it more contagious have agreed to suspend their research for 60 days to give other international experts time to discuss the work and determine how it can proceed without putting the world at risk of a potentially catastrophic pandemic.
A Vietnam War Battle And Protest, Recreated In Dance
Here and Now
In his 2003 book, ?They Marched Into Sunlight,? author David Maraniss told the story of two events that happened on October 17, 1967? A battle in Vietnam and a protest against the war at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Campuses Ramp Up Student Voting Efforts
U.S. News and World Report
Noted: On Monday, the Madison Student Vote Coalition in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin-Madison will roll out a campuswide program to issue new student ID cards that they then can use to register to vote. These new cards would be especially beneficial to out-of-state students without passports and no other alternative and acceptable identification.
Are Controls on Bird Flu Research a Good Idea?
Scientific American
Two scientists who independently concocted potentially dangerous strains of bird flu viruses?and have had the bioweapons community in a tizzy for the past month with the pending publication of their work?today said that they would suspend their research for 60 days. The announcement is intended to be a kind of time out, a chance for everyone to catch up with the realization that influenza is no longer solely a matter of public health, but is now a potential bioweapon.
Bioterror fears halt research on mutant bird flu
BBC News Online
Scientists who created a potentially more deadly bird flu strain have temporarily stopped their research amid fears it could be used by terrorists.
Agriculture and Climate Change, Revisited
New York Times
Quoted: In an interview, Molly Jahn, a plant breeder at the University of Wisconsin, said the research also needs to focus on ways to help the poorest people, who will not necessarily come out as winners if agricultural systems in developing countries become more sophisticated. Virtually everywhere it has happened, that transition has involved larger farms, more capital ? and fewer farmers.
San Francisco backup quarterback Scott Tolzien gets 49ers ready
Los Angeles Times
In the last two weeks, Scott Tolzien of the San Francisco 49ers has thrown for more than 10,000 yards. And he?s never taken a snap in an NFL game.
Looking back at Ernie Pook’s Comeek by Lynda Barry
Isthmus
Cartoonist Lynda Barry brought tremendous empathy and a finely tuned sense of interior life to Ernie Pook?s Comeek, the alternative comic that ran in 70 papers nationwide, including Isthmus.
From memoir of war and loss, ?Into Sunlight? seeks to heal
Washington Post
In the bright daylight of Oct. 17, 1967, a U.S. infantry battalion known as the Black Lions marched into an ambush in the Vietnamese jungle that left 61 of its members dead. Just 20 miles away, a young soldier named Scott Higgins, who?d arrived in country a few days before, was celebrating his 22nd birthday.
Pilot E-Textbook Program at Five Universities Focuses on Bulk Savings, not iBooks
New York Times
There is a revolution brewing in the way college students buy and read textbooks. And, perhaps surprisingly, it does not center entirely on Apple?s announcement on Thursday about new textbook technology on iBooks 2.
An unlikely root of China’s prized cure
China Daily
Quoted: “The economic boom in China and Asia has expanded demand and Wisconsin can meet this demand consistently, if the growers do it carefully,” says Paul Mitchell, associate professor at the department of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
More labs close to deadly bird flu mutations: researcher
Reuters
An international debate over whether to censor new research on bird flu may soon prove academic, as other laboratories close in on similar findings showing how one of the most deadly viruses could mutate to be transmitted from one person to another.
Universities test buying e-books in bulk
Associated Press
Big Ten campuses in Wisconsin and Minnesota, along with four other major universities, will experiment with buying electronic textbooks in bulk
Insomnia Can Be Dangerous, But There’s Rest for the Weary
WebMD.com
Noted: Although there?s no standard definition for insomnia, suggested criteria include taking more than 30 minutes to fall asleep, waking up too early, or sleeping less than 6.5 hours a night, write Morin and co-author Ruth Benca, MD, PhD, a sleep disorders doctor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. If you meet any of those criteria and feel like you can?t focus during the day because you?re so tired, you might have insomnia, they say. But if you feel fine after sleeping less than 6.5 hours at night, you might just be a short sleeper.
UW’s Chadima Apologizes For Actions In Statement
WISN-TV, Milwaukee
Former University of Wisconsin Athletic Department official John Chadima released a statement on Thursday apologizing and accepting responsibility for his actions.
Video: Wisconsin fans have a new rap, and it?s actually pretty good
Yahoo! Sports
You know it?s the offseason when the rap videos start to surface, and we here at the Doc usually like to point out the ridiculous ones.
Worry over flu virus experiments was unwarranted
Los Angeles Times
If you were paying attention to the flap over two recent flu experiments involving ferrets, you may have come away with the impression that scientists all but waved a red flag in front of terrorists and said, “Here?s a perfect biological weapon ? help yourselves.”
New UW offensive coordinator ready to help shape up arms
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Story focuses on the plans of Wisconsin football’s new offensive coordinator Matt Canada and his plans for the Badgers. Canada arrives in Madison from Northern Illinois.
UW-Madison to participate in national eText pilot
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Five classes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this semester will drop printed textbooks in favor of digital editions that can be read on computers or smart phones, and that allow students and professors to engage in “social annotation” of the texts.
In bid to unseat Wisconsin governor, wither the challengers?
Reuters
Quoted: “He was in a bunker mentality very quickly in February of his first term and maybe having survived that may make a more resilient politician now,” said Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin.
Expert: Unions Influential Despite Collective Bargaining Changes
WUWM
Quoted: Still, UW-Madison Political Science Professor Barry Burden expects labor to play a big role if there is a recall race. Burden says unions are already weighing in on the potential Democratic candidate.
Algonquin late bloomer now a Rhodes scholar
Chicago Daily Herald
When English major Alexis Brown realized there was no place where she could submit her undergraduate essays for publication, she decided there was only one solution ? create one from scratch.
Your Money Resolutions 2012 – Four Ways For Retirees To Create Income
CNBC.com
Quoted: That said, reverse mortgages are not for everyone, says J. Michael Collins, faculty director for the Center for Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Rare infection turns deadly for local teen
Baraboo News Republic
University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine Dr. Greg DeMuri said necrotizing fasciitis is a rare, but serious bacterial infection. He said adults can get it, but it is most prevalent in children.
Amelia Rivera, Mentally Disabled Girl, Denied Kidney Transplant at Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania
ABCNEWS.com
But R. Alta Charo, a professor of medical ethics at University of Wisconsin, said CHOP?s statement suggested their decision was not based solely on Mia?s disability but “in compliance with with current norms.”
Universities look to get discounts on e-textbooks for students
Inside Higher Education
In a session at the 2011 Educause conference in October, Bradley Wheeler, the chief information officer at Indiana University, issued a challenge to his colleagues. Unless universities assert their power as customers, the vendors that sell them products and services will continue squeezing those institutions for cash while dictating the terms under which they go digital.
5 Colleges to Test Bulk-Purchasing of e-Textbooks
Chronicle of Higher Education
An effort by college leaders to shake up the textbook industry got a boost this week, as five universities announced plans to try bulk purchasing of e-textbooks. The news comes just one day before an Apple news conference that is expected to feature that companys entrance into the e-textbook space, and it highlights steps that colleges themselves are taking to rein in textbook prices rather than wait for the market to reshape itself.
Rick Bogle: Where’s oversight on UW teaching barn?
Wisconsin State Journal
The photograph on the front page of Friday?s paper was apparently intended to justify UW-Madison?s announcement that it intends to spend $3 million to remodel its Dairy Cattle Center.
Extended Interview: Keith Findley (CBC Fifth Estate)
CBC News
Until recently, Keith Findley served as the president of the Innocence Network, an affiliation of 64 innocence projects in North America, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. He is the co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project. In this extended conversation, Gillian Findlay learns about his first case defending a client charged with SBS, what he has learned about the science, and his perspective on the issue globally.
Azzanni hired to fill receivers opening at UW
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Bret Bielema?s first coaching hire since Wisconsin?s loss to Oregon in the Rose Bowl appears capable of helping the UW program in multiple areas.
Zach Azzanni, named wide receivers coach Monday, comes to UW with a reputation as a dogged recruiter, coordinated a pro-style offense last season at Western Kentucky, has produced several talented wide receivers at multiple schools and is familiar with the offense run by Urban Meyer, who is preparing for his first season as Ohio State?s head coach.
Benefits of H5N1 research do not outweigh the risks
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Should we purposefully engineer avian flu strains to become highly transmissible in humans? In our view, no. We believe the benefits of this work do not outweigh the risks. (A column by Thomas V. Inglesby, the chief executive officer and director of the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC in Baltimore and Anita Cicero, chief operating officer and deputy directo and D.A. Henderson, a distinguished scholar.)
Research on deadly virus may need more safeguards
Research on the H5N1 virus is critical to public health. But it must be done safely – and it must be done within an internationally monitored system that has clear rules for how the results of the research can be distributed. The experiments in Madison and Rotterdam offer an opportunity to put such a regime in place.
UW offers proposals to keep WIAA state basketball tournaments in Madison
Green Bay Press-Gazette
The University of Wisconsin would like to keep the WIAA state basketball tournaments in Madison ? and on its campus ? after this year, but it is unlikely the options the school has offered the WIAA will suffice.
Waste Whey? Some Say No Way. (WBUR & NPR)
Quoted: “The modern era started in the 1960?s,” says John Lucey, director of the Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin, when food scientists figured how to capture the best stuff from the whey.