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Author: jplucas

Watchdog: Primates tortured in UW labs

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Wisconsin Radio Network

Stop Animal Exploitation Now believes primates at UW-Madison are being tortured unnecessarily. Michael Budkie, Executive Director of SAEN, says that includes water deprivation for as much as 16 hours a day, 5 days a week.

“Various devices including restraining bars and recording cylinders are literally bolted to their skulls.”

Budkie claims from 2002-06, both UW-Madison and a private lab experimented on nearly 24,000 primates. The USDA claims not one of these tens of thousands of primates experienced any pain or distress, according to Budkie.

ET life argument gaining ground (Port Elizabeth, South Africa Herald)

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The reasons not to believe in extra-terrestrial life are steadily dwindling.

That is the view of US astronomer Professor Eric Wilcots, who is one of the speakers at SciFest Africa 2008, the annual event which began in Grahamstown on Wednesday last week.

Wilcots chairs the astronomy department at the University of Wisconsin, a key member of the international team behind the Southern African Large Telescope (Salt) in Sutherland, in the Northern Cape Karoo.

Panelist says stem cell debate not black and white

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Wausau Daily Herald

The argument over embryonic stem cell research has produced some strange bedfellows, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of law and bioethics said Tuesday at a panel discussion in Wausau.

Some within the feminist movement have made common cause with the pro-life movement, said R. Alta Charo, who previously served as a member of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission during the Clinton administration. This is because some types of embryonic stem cell research could involve taking eggs directly from women’s bodies, Charo said, an invasive process that they believe would exploit women.

UW-Whitewater Campus Getting Heat, Hot Water Restored

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WISC-TV 3

WHITEWATER, Wis. — College students in Whitewater who went without heat and hot water in their dorms for about six days are getting the service back.

And they’re using the experience in a fundraiser to provide safe drinking water to those who need it in India.

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater said temporary repairs to the steam system allowed hot water to be restored in some residence halls by 4 p.m. Tuesday, and others are getting it restored Tuesday night. Hot water and steam are expected to be restored to all campus buildings by noon Wednesday.

Wisconsin Conservationist’s Papers Provide Data For Climate Change Theories

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WISC-TV 3

MADISON, Wis. — On Earth Day, an important Wisconsin conservationist being remembered for a legacy that reminds us of the challenges to come.

The historic work of Aldo Leopold, and those who’ve followed him, is now telling people more about the world we live in today and showing us how climate change might be happening in our own backyard.

Leopold spent a great deal of time at a farm in Sauk County. Readers of his book, “A Sand County Almanac,” might know the place that he wrote from as “the Shack.” But beyond his essays, Leopold kept meticulous notes on the dates and times of when he observed things happening in nature, like the blooming of wildflowers and the return of birds. That work was continued by his daughter after his death in 1948. She kept records from 1975 to 2004, WISC-TV reported.

Now, Stanley Temple, a University of Wisconsin professor emeritus and senior fellow at the Aldo Leopold Foundation, is looking at the numbers, and he said that they give a greater glimpse at climate change.

Police dogs fine tune their noses at Kohl Center

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WKOW-TV 27

Moseley sat down with a quiet confidence after finding the 100 pounds of explosives stuffed in the back of a car parked outside the Kohl Center’s loading dock. He didn’t bark, and didn’t seem to care much about what he found. Instead, he looked toward his owner and handler, UW Police Sgt. Jason Whitney, who threw the 8-year-old German Shepherd a tennis ball.

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Still: Food versus fuel and other biofuel fallacies

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Wisconsin Technology Network

Stevens Point, Wis. – The official bogeyman of Earth Week 2008 is biofuels. A top United Nations official has called use of food crops to produce ethanol â??a crime against humanity,â? environmentalists are blaming ethanol production for destruction of rain forests, and food riots from Haiti to Egypt are being cited as examples of what happens to prices when land is used to grow fuel instead of food.

UW men’s tennis: Van Emburgh’s vision pays off for team, family

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Wisconsin State Journal

You remember squinting at the modest press release, your eyes growing wide as you scanned the basic details of one man’s journey into our midst three years ago.

When you were finished, hundreds of questions popped into your head, starting with this one:

How in the world did Greg Van Emburgh come to be the men’s tennis coach at the University of Wisconsin?

UW-Madison Chancellor offers assistance, advice (Wisconsin Dells Events)

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University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley stopped at the Wintergreen Resort Tuesday to offer the UW’s help to the area and answer questions.

The UW still follows the Wisconsin Idea, Wiley said. The Wisconsin Idea was started by UW President Charles Van Hise in 1904 and the principle is that the boundaries and influence of the university should extend to the boundaries of the state and beyond. One way it does that is to provide help to groups, organizations and businesses around the state.

Theater review: Characters pop in solid ‘Streetcar’

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Wisconsin State Journal

“Stella! Stellllllla!”

It’s hard not to smile. Tennessee Williams’ iconic “A Streetcar Named Desire” no longer shocks as it once did, although the impact is still stronger on stage than in the censored 1951 film that made a star of Marlon Brando. University Theatre’s excellent new production revives the outrage.

Business Digest: Study says skilled workers to be needed

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Wisconsin State Journal

Wisconsin will face a shortage of skilled employees in critical fields even as the number of unemployed residents grows, a new report says. The study by UW-Madison’s Center on Wisconsin Strategy says aging adults will be retiring from their jobs and there won’t be enough skilled workers to succeed them.

The report says Wisconsin had an average of 144,000 unemployed residents in 2005 and only 3,300 of them were getting training through the Work Force Investment Act.

The COWS study recommends increasing access to education and training, especially for low-income adults, and adopting policies to index the minimum wage and to put job quality at the top of the agenda for the state.

Sex offender considered witness in UW-Madison student death

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Wisconsin State Journal

A convicted sex offender jailed on suspicion of violating his probation is considered a material witness in the death of 21-year-old UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann, court records show.

Documents seeking to revoke David Kahl’s probation quote him as telling police he entered a home near Zimmermann’s apartment on the day she was killed and knew two homeless men he identified as “Hank” and “Mitchell” who were running scams and breaking into houses, WKOW-TV reported.

Disapproval of Bush breaks record

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USA Today

QUoted: Bush’s rating has worsened amid “collapsing optimism about the economy,” says Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies presidential approval. Record gas prices and a wave of home foreclosures have fueled voter angst.

Turf wars rage over fake grass (Stateline.org)

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Quoted: Tuncer Edil, a civil engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a consultant for the company FieldTurf USA, said the concentration of volatile compounds released from crumb rubber is too low to be harmful when inhaled as dust from artificial turf-covered fields. And the bodyâ??s digestive system cannot extract any of the toxins if swallowed, Edil has written.

Children’s emotions topic of talk by brain investigator

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Appleton Post-Crescent

APPLETON â?? Societal pressure, marketers and the media make today’s parents of young children “very nervous people,” says brain researcher Seth David Pollak, who offers some reassuring words of advice.
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“Relax and be natural,” said Pollak, a professor of psychology, psychiatry and pediatrics, and director of the child emotion research lab at University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Waisman Center.

“It’s pretty hard to mess up. Trust your judgment and go with the flow.”

Universities’ Intellectual Property Stance Criticized

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Inside Higher Education

Getting medicines to people who need them in developing countries is a top goal of public health experts worldwide, many of whom note that people are dying all the time of diseases for which treatments exist. Universities, whose scientistsâ?? research is crucial to many of those drugs and which enjoy a share of royalties on some of those drugs, are finding themselves drawn into a debate that has as much to do with the economics of the pharmaceutical industry as anything that takes place in a laboratory.

The (Yes) Low Cost of Higher Ed

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New York Times

On Oct. 2, 2003, board members at the University of Virginia filed into the Upper East Oval Room of the Rotunda, the centerpiece of Thomas Jeffersonâ??s campus design, for one of their regular meetings. As usual, they were joined by the universityâ??s top administrators. Just before the meeting began, a member of U.Va.â??s public affairs staff walked over to John T. Casteen III, the university president, to hand him a clipping from that morningâ??s newspaper.

Material witness in Zimmermann murder investigation

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WKOW-TV 27

27 News has uncovered Madison police officials consider sex offender David Kahl a “material witness” in the death of UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann, and have asked Kahl to help them find two homeless men.

In court documents filed by a Wisconsin Department of Corrections probation agent, Zimmermann’s April 2 murder is cited in a request to revoke Kahl’s probation. “Mr. Kahl was a material witness in the death of a coed that was discovered on Doty St.,” wrote agent Allen Matheus.

ICE rolls out student visa mandates

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Wisconsin Radio Network

After 9-11, Congress required Immigration and Customs Enforcement to better track international students. So in 2003, ICE implemented a database for the students called the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS).

Laurie Cox, UW Madison’s International Student Services Director, says SEVIS allows universities can collect the information about students. Additionally, students can get a print out of their information to bring to their respective consulate for the student visa process. Fees are going up in October to pay for a more efficient, paperless SEVIS that even students can update with things like address changes. (Audio.)

Student-Visa Fees to Support Federal Surveillance Program Could Double

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Chronicle of Higher Education

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security plans to roughly double the fees, to as much as $200, that visiting international students must pay in order to upgrade a federal surveillance program that monitors those students’ activities.

The increased fees for international visitors applying for student, exchange-visitor, or similar nonimmigrant visas (in categories known as F, J, or M visas) were outlined in Monday’s Federal Register and are scheduled to take effect on October 1. The revenue will support a growing database on international visitors called the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or Sevis.

Armed with $10 vouchers, entrepreneurs swarm SWAP stockpile

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Wisconsin State Journal

What looked like a really bad garage sale had the minds of young entrepreneurs like Ace Kvit twirling.

Armed with $10 vouchers good for an assemblage of mostly well-used, forgotten and outdated items, Kvit, 19, a Russian native studying biochemistry, and other UW-Madison students scoured a meeting room Friday on the second floor of the Memorial Union for ideas and parts for the 100-hour Wiscontrepreneuer Challenge.

How bad is homeless problem?

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Wisconsin State Journal

Depending on whom you ask, Madison ‘s single, transient men — often mentally ill, addicted to drugs and alcohol, or both — are a problem this liberal city has long been reluctant to confront.

Or they ‘re a convenient scapegoat for a pair of unsolved killings and the targets of a general disdain for the poor.

It ‘s hard to know when police admit they have a less-than-ideal handle on their numbers or the problems they cause, although some officers say the problems they cause on State Street and elsewhere in the central city have gotten much worse.

Illinois earthquake felt in Madison

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Wisconsin State Journal

In Madison, in an empty office in Weeks Hall on the UW-Madison campus, the needle on the geology department ‘s seismometer started jerking wildly at 4:40 a.m. and didn ‘t stop bouncing around for more than a minute.

Obituary: Richard D. Schmale

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Madison.com

Richard D. “Dick” Schmale, age 74, passed away at home on Wednesday, April 16, 2008, after a long illness. He worked for 30 years at the UW-Madison Electric Shop retiring as an elevator electrician in 1991.

Obituary: Patricia Ann Moe

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Madison.com

Patricia Ann Moe, age 57, passed away on Friday, April 18, 2008. After high school she worked for Meriter Methodist Hospital, Jackson Clinic and most recently at the UW Hospital and Clinics.

On Kids’ TV, Get With the Program

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Washington Post

Quoted: Marie-Louise Mares, an assistant professor of communication at the University of Wisconsin. Mares is the co-author of a recent study, to be published in the journal Media Psychology, of kindergarteners who watched a 10-minute episode of “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” a popular PBS show, in which Clifford and his friends interact with a three-legged dog.

New Broncos coach stresses unity (Kalamazoo Gazette)

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KALAMAZOO — Within minutes of being introduced as Western Michigan University’s fifth women’s basketball coach, Tasha McDowell put her team to work.

However, it didn’t involve running or practicing jump shots. They merely walked up and stood around McDowell while she delivered her first comments in the University Arena press room Saturday afternoon. That point illustrated one of the rookie coach’s philosophies — unity.

Improving Black Graduation Rates Is Mainly a Matter of Will, Report Says

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Chronicle of Higher Education

Colleges already know how to close gaps in the graduation rates of black and white students, but too few have been willing to take the steps needed to do it, according to a report being released today by Education Sector, a Washington-based research group.

The reportâ??based heavily on the graduation-rate data that the Education Department collects from collegesâ??says that, nationally, the six-year graduation rate of black students at four-year colleges is about 20 percentage points lower than the graduation rate for white students. But the report identifies several institutions whose black students are at least as likely as their white peers to earn degrees in a timely manner and says that research on those colleges suggests that nothing is preventing other institutions from duplicating their success.

New Report Highlights Schools That Make Minority Student Success a Priority (Diverse Issues in Higher Education)

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The causes of poor college graduation rates among low-income, first-generation and minority students have pervaded the pages of academic publication for years, while the instances in which African-American students have outperformed their White counterparts in the same area have gone largely undocumented.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison boosted its Black student graduation rate by 20 percent from 2002 to 2006, but Whites still graduate at a higher rate than Blacks, leaving the school with a 22 percentage point gap.

â??The most startling observation about this reports is that these top-rate universities produce stagnate or declining minority graduation rates year-after-year, and they do nothing about it,â? Carey says.

According to a new report released by Education Sector, an independent education policy think tank, there are currently 62 colleges and universities where the six-year graduation rates for Black undergraduate students outpace that of their White peers.

Panelists debate role of violence in media (Springfield, Mo. News-Leader)

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The media should consider offering an alternative version of its news products that wouldn’t contain as much violence, a panelist suggested Thursday at Missouri State University’s Public Affairs Conference.

“There would be a good audience for a different kind of news broadcast. Not the biggest audience but a good audience,” said Joanne Cantor, director of the Center for Communication Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Green technology company wins Burrill business plan contest

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Wisconsin Technology Network

Madison, Wis. – The greening of business is considered one of the more sustainable trends in entrepreneurship, and new ventures don’t come any greener than Sky Vegetables.

The company, which plans to build and operate commercial greenhouses on the rooftops of supermarkets in the United States, took the top prize in the 2008 G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition.

The annual competition evaluates the business plans of students in the business school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Flood-plain findings frustrate residents

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Green Bay Press-Gazette

Quoted: While a complete bay analysis could be costly, requests for analysis for single lots wouldn’t be very costly â?? and, in some cases, could potentially be free, said Chin Wu, associate professor of coastal engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Many Wisconsin dairy farmers switch to grazing (AP)

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Quoted: Jennifer Taylor, who workers for the Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy Farmers and the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems through the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said she anticipated the trend would continue as farmers from the Baby Boomer generation retire and more younger people take over dairy operations.

We’re not finished yet

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Philadelphia Inquirer

Quoted: Biologist Sean B. Carroll of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, author of The Making of the Fittest (W.W. Norton & Co.) and other popular books on evolution, says evolutionary leftovers are born of a “use it or lose it” system.

For example, he says, we carry damaged versions of genes for dozens of smell receptors that give mice and other mammals far sharper noses. “Our repertoire of smell-receptor genes has gone to pot,” Carroll says.

Scientist offers ‘Stem Cells 101’ (Dubuque Telegraph-Herald)

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PLATTEVILLE, Wis. — Allison Ebert, an assistant scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Waisman Center’s stem- cell research program, thinks scientists might need to do a better job marketing themselves.

Ebert presented “Stem Cells 101,” a free public event Wednesday at the UW-Platteville’s Pioneer Student Center.

Colleges Create Facebook-Style Social Networks to Reach Alumni

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Chronicle of Higher Education

Trying to emulate the popularity of Web sites like Facebook and MySpace, hundreds of college alumni associations have begun to offer their own online social networks, seeking to stake a claim on the computer screens of current and former students, especially young alumni.

But many of the sites have struggled to attract alumni and to keep them interacting with the devotion they show to their online profiles on other networks. That makes the sites less useful to colleges, which want to foster closer ties with alumni and keep tabs on their whereabouts for fund raising and other purposes.

Music-Piracy Warnings May Be the Biggest Batch Yet

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Chronicle of Higher Education

The Recording Industry Association of America this month fired off 569 “pre-litigation settlement letters” to college students whom it suspected of pirating music. The letters appear to be the largest batch sent since the RIAA began an expanded campaign in February 2007.

Most previous waves of letters went to about 400 students each, according to press releases on the RIAA’s Web site. Students who receive such letters are identified after RIAA investigators download music available on the students’ computers, said Jonathan Lamy, and RIAA spokesman.

Whether merely making a song “available,” without proof that another party has illegally copied and downloaded it, constitutes copyright infringement has been questioned in several recent court decisions.

Police, Students Prepare For Mifflin Street Block Party

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WISC-TV 3

MADISON, Wis. — Plans are in the works for the annual Mifflin Street Block Party on May 3.

In light of recent crime in that neighborhood, some residents and police have been preparing for the event together, WISC-TV reported.

“I hope this year will be just as great,” said Mark Bednar, a Mifflin Street resident.

Bednar said that he’s looking forward to the annual party, but said he also has safety on his mind because of the recent crime.

“My roommate’s laptop and then a few houses down she had a purse taken, but it was a very wham-bam situation in which we were all just kind of blindsided by it,” he said.

Money Complications with UW Natatorium proposal

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WKOW-TV 27

UW-Madison officials are considering a big renovation of their campus swimming facility, the UW Natatorium. But it may come too late to head-off a fat bonus for the university’s swim team coach. It may also be a tough sell to students, despite the facility’s decay.

The facility was built in the sixties and proponents of a renovation say it needs many repairs and revisions, including the installation of a diving tower and a larger pool to meet competitive swim meet standards. Proponents say the proposed renovation would cost approximately $60 million. UW-Madison swim team coach Eric Hansen said team members currently practice at another campus facility because of the natatorium’s inadequacies.

City woman guilty in drunk-driving death

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Wisconsin State Journal

A Madison woman could face up to 25 years behind bars after she pleaded no contest Thursday to the hit-and-run drunken driving death of a pedestrian last summer on Madison’s North Side. Tammie Blizzard is a purchasing associate for UW-Madison’s Vehicle Services unit.

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Go See Do: Varsity Band and UW football

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Wisconsin State Journal

UW Varsity Band Concert

Mike Leckrone, the conductor for the University of Wisconsin Band, always has something up his sleeve to make the annual Varsity Band Concert a memorable experience. The 39th Annual Varsity Band Concert, featuring Mark Pender of Conan O ‘Brien’s Max Weinberg 7 and Nat McIntosh of the Dallas Brass, figures to be no different. The shows continue Friday and Saturday night at 7:30.

Kohl Center, 263-5645; $20; www.badgerband.com

Don’t put tech innovation at risk

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Wisconsin State Journal

When the U.S. Senate takes another try at reforming patent law, it should do a better job of assuring that changes won ‘t discourage American innovation.
At stake for Wisconsin is the growth of the Madison-area ‘s biotech industry and other inventive businesses that depend on patents to protect their right to profit from products they develop.

The Patent Reform Act of 2007 stalled in the Senate earlier this month. Passage by the end of this year, which had appeared a virtual certainty, is now in doubt.

UW football: Bielema hopes fans ‘spring’ into action

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Wisconsin State Journal

ESPN sent its GameDay crew to Florida last weekend to televise the Gators’ spring game, which drew a crowd of 61,000.

Alabama had 78,200 fans for its game last week, on the heels of a record crowd of 92,138 a year ago.

And at Nebraska, scalpers are doing brisk business, reportedly getting $95 for a $10 ticket for Saturday’s sold-out spring game, the debut of coach Bo Pelini.

Spring fever appears to be busting out all over college football, but not at the University of Wisconsin.

Return to the Terrace: You know spring is here when life returns to the jewel of the UW campus

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Wisconsin State Journal

In Madison we don’t look for the first robin of spring. We look for chairs on the Terrace.

The candy-colored sunburst furniture returned this week from winter hibernation. Saturday is the season’s first outdoor performance at the UW-Madison Memorial Union. The brat stand is being readied, and the Hoofers sailing club is preparing to put in the docks.

Moe: Underground figure remains relevant

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Wisconsin State Journal

I wanted to interview Ayers for one reason: My enduring interest in whatever became of Leo Burt, Madison’s most famous fugitive. Burt is more than that: He’s the great unfinished story of my half century in this city.

Ayers had been underground for 11 years; Burt has now been a fugitive for nearly 38 years, since he and three others (all eventually apprehended) set off a bomb targeted at the Army Math Research Center in Sterling Hall on the UW-Madison campus. The 1970 blast killed a young researcher, Robert Fassnacht, and caused millions of dollars of damage.