Quoted: The greater number of GOP candidates, from local legislative races to higher-profile statewide contests, reflects an energized conservative electorate, said Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor.
Quoted: ?Immigration is down the list in terms of voter priorities here,? says UW Madison professor Barry Burden. ?At the top of the list are more immediate bread and butter kinds of issues. Jobs is number one. I think taxes, education, infrastructure, the budget deficit and other priorities are going to come first.”
Would you prefer to live in a tent while retaining your job and savings, or in a temporary housing structure with nothing? Luckily, that?s a question most of us don?t have to answer.
A small, nearly-invisible Oshkosh company is poised to make huge leaps in energy storage capacity thanks to the small, nearly invisible particles it creates. Oshkosh Nanotechnology LLC plans to use ceramic nanomaterials it makes in labs at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh to help expand energy storage capacities in high-tech batteries called supercapacitors. Dr. Charles Gibson, a chemistry professor at UWO since 1992, hopes to spin the company off from the university soon to spur business development and high-tech job creation in Northeast Wisconsin.
The state’s pre-eminent female athlete reminisces about her victory over all the boys in her fifth-grade class, which sparked her interest on running, and is christened a Hall of Famer at a ceremony Saturday in San Diego. Favor Hamilton went on to win nine NCAA individual titles at the University of Wisconsin and was a three-time Olympian, barely missing out on a fourth berth in 2004.
A nonpartisan board comprised of retired judges would be given the power to approve how Wisconsin?s congressional and legislative district boundaries are redrawn under a reform plan announced Monday by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett. The idea was also praised by David Canon, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor who studies redistricting.The plan would make Wisconsin look more like states such as California, Arizona and Iowa that rely on independent commissions or groups to handle redistricting, Canon said.
Franco Cerrina, a former professor of electrical and computer engineering at UW-Madison, was found dead Monday at a Boston University lab. The cause of death for Cerrina, 62, isn?t yet known, but police have ruled out homicide. Cerrina, a native of Italy, had been chairman of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at BU since 2008 after spending 24 years at UW-Madison. He held 16 patents and was described as a leading scholar in optics, lithography and nanotechnology.
There is, however, a silver lining: Tackling global warming is also a public health opportunity, said Jonathan Patz, director of global environmental health at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who also participated in the UCS briefing.
Noted: The idea was also praised by Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a government watchdog group, as well as David Canon, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor who studies redistricting.
Investigators do not suspect foul play in the death of a Boston University engineering professor whose body was found in a school lab. A BU spokesman says 62-year-old Franco Cerrina was found dead at about 9:30 a.m. on Monday in the fifth-floor lab at the Photonics Center.
Former longtime University of Wisconsin Board of Regents member Bert Grover blasted the recent selection of a key gubernatorial aide to a top university system position without the consideration of any other applicants, and suggested current board members attempt to rescind the appointment.
A federal judge sentenced a former UW Hospital pharmacists to one year probation and a $4,000 fine for obtaining controlled substances by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception and subterfuge.
Islands frontman Nick Thorburn probably gets a lot of questions about when his old band, The Unicorns, is getting back together. But the crowd assembled at the Memorial Union Terrace on Saturday night seemed more interested in when his current band was going to stop playing songs off last year?s Vapours and start playing some off 2006?s Return To The Sea.
A generation ago, college orientation was a perfunctory affair, lasting little more than a day. The focus was on registering for classes and buying textbooks. If parents were needed at all, it was primarily for their wallets.
Noted: Dr. Robert Sapolsky of Stanford University and Dr. Robert Davidson of The University of Wisconsin-Madison are some of the neuroscientists researching stress management, and they contend that people can retrain their brains to combat stress.
Quoted: “It?s kind of like finding high cholesterol” but not having drugs that can lower it, said Dr. Mark Sager, director of the Wisconsin Alzheimer?s Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was involved in a study of a different Alzheimer?s-linked gene that will be reported this week.
The UW-Madison dance department?s fourth annual Summer Dance Institute is truly an international affair, with instructors and choreographers from the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Germany and Australia, and dance students from Australia, Taiwan and the U.S. This three-week institute culminated Friday night in a free performance at Lathrop Hall?s cool and comfortable Margaret H?Doubler performance space. For the most part, this cultural cross-pollination yielded great results.
The dairy science department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has lost a giant. Professor Emeritus Dr. David Dickson died on Friday after a long battle with cancer at the age of 71. Although he had been retired as an instructor for a number of years, he remained active as one of the school?s dairy judging team coaches.
Beneath a mile of ice in Antarctica, technologies from Massachusetts companies are helping physicists detect ghostly particles smaller than atoms that shower down on Earth from faraway galaxies, carrying clues about the makeup of the universe.
Have you ever seen a flash of lightning and not heard the thunder? If so, you have seen heat lightning, say Steven Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
At the second-annual Madison Mini-Marathon on Aug. 21, runners who pay an extra $25 will get access to special restrooms and a private gear check area. The VIP section will be on the second floor of Memorial Union on the UW-Madison campus, where the race starts and ends.
This is “family fun?” Let?s find better ways to spend tax dollars and celebrate patriotism besides destroying a wetland, terrorizing wildlife and perpetuating the disease of militarism. The city should not renew its contract with Rhythm & Booms, writes Trish O?Kane, graduate student, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, UW-Madison.
It can be, says Katherine McMahon, a professor of civil engineering and bacteriology at UW-Madison. Some of the floating, single-cell organisms commonly called blue-green algae do produce toxins, she says.
Four Madison area public gardening ventures, including the Eagle Heights Community Garden, are competing for a free orchard from the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation and Edy?s fruit bars. In the national contest ? in which supporters vote online for their favorite public garden project ? five winners will receive fruit and nut trees and equipment. UW-Madison?s Eagle Heights Community Gardens, which is in the Lakeshore Nature Preserve, plans to extend a fruit tree management program that started in 2007 with 36 dwarf fruit trees, including heritage apple varieties. Organizers there hope to press their first cider this fall.
On the surface it looks bad. OK, maybe it even smells bad.But upon further review, University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly?s appointment of Michael Morgan to a top-level job might pass the stink test.
Bicycle thefts in Madison have dropped 30 percent in recent years, and police say one reason might be a new program designed to help track down thieves. Police say about 500 bike thefts were reported citywide in 2007. That number fell to about 425 the next year and 350 last year. The decrease coincides with a “bait bike” program launched by the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s police department. The program involves an unspecified number of bikes fitted with GPS tracking devices and left at various spots around campus.
Until the UW School of Medicine and Public Health stopped using live pigs in its first-year physiology class last year, it was one of the last medical schools in the country still using live animals as a teaching tool. There are only seven U.S. medical schools known to still use live animals for some lessons instead of computer or other simulations, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an animal rights group.
Until there are better treatments, there will be little demand for tests that show you have or are destined to get Alzheimer’s disease, several experts said. “It?s kind of like finding high cholesterol” but not having drugs that can lower it, said Dr. Mark Sager, director of the Wisconsin Alzheimer?s Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was involved in a study of a different Alzheimer?s-linked gene that will be reported this week.
Most state governments depend on federal stimulus money to keep public colleges and universities afloat, a new report says. But these funds may be drying up as the new fiscal year begins. Thirty-nine states used stimulus money to support higher education in the past year, compared to only 14 states the year before, according to the report by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Wisconsin?s next governor will have to continue keeping state government afloat ? with a lot less money. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau reports state government will be $2.5 billion dollars short of what it needs to meet current spending commitments in the next state budget, which begins next July. A year ago, the next deficit was projected to be around $2 billions, meaning it has grown by $462 million.
For the sailing club at the University of Wisconsin, what to do with used sails is in the bag. Tom Barry, Head of Instruction for the Hoofer Sailing Club, says with 100 boats and 1200 members, they go through a lot of sails each year.
Some floated here on boats. Others flew. Still others arrived on the sole of a dirty boot. Many were invited, but some arrived unannounced. At this point, however, no one really cares how so-called alien species like the ash borer and the zebra mussel got here. Scientists are more focused on how to get rid of these pests.
The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay has seen growth in student population and graduation numbers, a trend leaders hope to continue even as budgets tighten.
Chris Funk, a co-founder of HEADRUSH, the Madison-based brain tumor research and awareness organization, died July 2 at the age of 36. Funk and his wife, Brandi, raised more than $750,000 for the UW Carbone Cancer Center since they founded the nonprofit organization in 2004. Funk was diagnosed with a brain tumor in December 2001.
Jackie Friesen was named a full-time member of the University of Wisconsin women?s hockey staff Thursday. The former Badgers forward and assistant captain will serve as an assistant coach under Mark Johnson.
Gov. Jim Doyle has appointed a lawyer in private practice to be the next district attorney in Ashland County. Doyle says Kelly McKnight, an associate at a law firm in Ashland, is an experienced and thoughtful attorney who will be an outstanding DA. McKnight will replace Sean Duffy, the Republican who resigned the position to focus on his congressional campaign. McKnight is a 2000 graduate of the University of Wisconsin law school.
Forget the 18-year-old crowd. College is now for 80-year-olds, too. UW-Madison has been inviting grandparents on campus for 10 years as part of its Grandparents University, a way for them to experience college life with their grandchildren, between the ages of 7 and 14. Now, the idea has been picked up at other colleges.
Noted: The UW-Madison has one of the nation?s best training programs in reproductive health care for medical residents, but our state is among the most restrictive when it comes to abortion services.
The University of Wisconsin school system has faced millions in budget cuts through the years, and students have paid the price through tuition hikes.
A University of Wisconsin System budget strategy that encourages conversations about vision and priorities before specific funding requests is a prudent approach in these tough economic times.
Reducing the emissions from burning fossil fuels would have health benefits besides stopping rising temperatures, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist. Jonathan Patz said he, like other scientists who participated in a Union of Concerned Scientists telephone press conference Thursday, believe global warming is happening.
Quoted: ?Thirty years ago, people just assumed that you wrote about women because they were discriminated against,? said Susan Stanford Friedman, an English professor at the University of Wisconsin Madison. ?Now, nothing is off the table.?
Wisconsin?s cranberry growers have made significant gains in the adoption of sustainable management practices over the past two decades, a new University of Wisconsin-Madison survey indicates.
President Barack Obama has not been as good to the UW-Madison as some had hoped. The university?s request for stimulus funding to dramatically increase the size of its primate research facilities has been denied.
One of Madison?s most popular summer music venues has been expanded. The Terrace at the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Memorial Union is bigger than ever.
Chris John Williams Funk earned the status of Trek legend at the early age of 36, not through his cycling feats, but his selfless soul. Over 8 1/2 years of treatments for brain cancer, he persistently turned his attention outward rather than inward, created a charity foundation and raised $750,000 to help others avoid his fate.
American colleges are spending a smaller share of their budgets on instruction, and more on recreational facilities for students and on administration, according to a new study of college costs.
Citing personal reasons, Brent Vigness declined the head coaching job for the University of Wisconsin softball team after accepting the job previously.Vigness has decided to remain the head coach of the Creighton University softball team, according to the UW press release.
Quoted: Dr. Noelle LoConte, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin Paul P. Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center in Madison, who uses e-mail in her practice, said she gets “surprisingly few” e-mails each day, only five or six.
Quoted: Wisconsin has 54 varieties of mosquitoes, but most can be classified in four subgroups, said Phillip Pellitteri, an entomologist at the University of Wisconsin.
The Huffington Post is venturing into the wonky but increasingly popular territory of opinion poll analysis, purchasing Pollster.com, a widely respected aggregator of poll data that has been a major draw for the Web site of The National Journal.
Noted: Dr. Robert Sapolsky of Stanford University and Dr. Richard Davidson of The University of Wisconsin-Madison are some of the neuroscientists researching stress management, and they contend that people can retrain their brains to combat stress.
The appointment of Gov. Jim Doyle?s top aide as a senior vice president in the University of Wisconsin System appears to have violated its hiring policy, the attorney general said Wednesday.
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said the University of Wisconsin System?s appointment of Gov. Jim Doyle?s top aide to a high-level job may have violated its policy.
The ongoing ecological restoration along the shoreline of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has reached a hillside near Eagle Heights that was once the summer home to hundreds of graduate students.
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen says the decision to offer a $245,000 a year senior vice president position to former DOA Secretary Michael Morgan appears to be in violation of UW hiring policies.
MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin Badgers could play a role in politics when voters head to the polls in November, according to a new study.
The ?winner effect? is boosted by the sight, smell and spatial arrangement of familiar territory, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found.
The state of Wisconsin is headed to the doctor?s office. The purpose: Gathering data to understand the factors contributing to health in the state.
The Survey of the Health of Wisconsin, a research project undertaken by the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s School of Medicine and Public Health, is sending researchers throughout the state – including Germantown – to learn about the health of Wisconsinites. Once on location, researchers will knock on doors in neighborhoods and solicit participation in the assessment.
UW-Madison bug expert Phil Pellitteri says he?s been fielding a number of calls from people who are upset about the slimy and spooky looking insects invading their home and yards.
