Three days after a 27 News exclusive report, Wisconsin Management Company agreed to release Brittany Zimmermann’s fiance from his lease of the apartment where he found her body two weeks ago. Jordan Gonnering, a UW student, shared the West Doty Street apartment with Zimmermann.
Nearly two weeks since UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann was murdered in her off-campus apartment, authorities said they want more information from people who were approached by panhandlers around the time of the killing.
Zimmermann’s body was found around 1 p.m. April 2, and authorities said someone forced their way into her West Doty Street building. A source told 27 News the student was stabbed.
Madison police are looking for anyone who might have been approached by persons soliciting for money, or who gave money to strangers, on the day of or the day before Brittany Zimmermann was murdered in her West Doty Street apartment April 2.
“This would include citizens who were approached on the street or in their homes by one or more individuals,” said Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain today.
Investigators are focusing their efforts on solicitations made on West Washington Avenue, West Main Street, West Wilson Street, South Bedford Street, South Bassett Street or West Doty Street.
UW-Madison student Jordan Gonnering will be let out of the lease he held on the apartment where he found his fiancee murdered earlier this month, Wisconsin Management Company announced this morning.
University of Wisconsin SAFEwalk employees said Friday they are concerned the program is understaffed and cannot properly provide for the safety needs of the campus following the homicide of a UW student.
Madison has made its mark again â?? this time through the popular game show â??Jeopardy!â?
‘”Jeopardy!” is a polished, crafted piece of Americana, from the men and women’s powdered faces to the set’s elaborate plaster trappings of academia to the crowd’s exuberant applause.
And this year’s filming of the “Jeopardy! College Championship” was no different. Over 120 “Jeopardy!” crew and tons of equipment traveled to Madison for two days of filming five shows that would decide the winner of intellectual bragging rights and a $100,000 prize.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s own Suchita Shah and Danielle Zsenak of Marquette University were competing Friday and today among a group of 15 peers. Media were asked not to divulge who did and did not advance in the five segments.
The news that Adam Nickel died after completing the Little Rock Marathon because of the confluence of an extremely rare and difficult-to-detect medical condition and very unlucky timing gave race director Bill Torrey closure, but no comfort.
Nickel, 27, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, finished 18 th in the March 2 race after completing the 26. 2 miles in 3 hours, 2 minutes, 26 seconds, which is considered an elite time. He had a heart attack at the finish line and died moments later.
So you want tickets to tonight’s Reel Big Fish concert in Ames?
Too bad. The only people who are going to be rocking out tonight in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union are people who volunteered at least 10 hours of their time to a central Iowa community service agency.
The concert, hosted by students at Drake University and Iowa State University, is one of three 10,000 Hours Shows scheduled across the Midwest this month. The 10,000 Hours Show concept, which gives people free concert tickets for doing community service, started at the University of Iowa in 2003 and has spread to Wisconsin, Arizona and Texas.
“It’s been really exciting, watching the whole thing grow,” said Tanya Bruskewitz, a senior at the University of Wisconsin at Madison
SAUK CITY â?? Baraboo High School graduate and former North Freedom resident Carsen Nachreiner had a vision as a teenager of how to revitalize Sauk City’s downtown and riverfront.
Now, as a senior landscape architecture major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nachreiner has thrust himself into the revitalization efforts in Sauk City. Nachreiner is completing his senior capstone project with the village of Sauk City.
MADISON, Wis. — Filming of the College Championship for game show “Jeopardy” is continuing Saturday in Madison.
More than 120 crew members and equipment came to Madison for two days to film five shows. The winner gets $100,000.
There are two students from Wisconsin competing: University of Wisconsin-Madison student Suchita Shah and Marquette University’s Danielle Zsenak.
Filming began on Friday and will wrap up Saturday
President Harry S. Truman popularized the phrase, “If you can’t stand the heat, you better get out of the kitchen.”
Montello native Jeffrey Wright proved he can stand the heat by earning the prestigious Truman Scholarship for his dedication to public service.
Wright is one of 65 students in the nation to earn $30,000 for graduate study leading to a career in government or public service. Wright is particularly involved in human rights.
Joel Marino, 31, was stabbed by an assailant at his home in the 700 block of West Shore Drive, near campus, on Jan. 28, at about 1 in the afternoon. He tried to make his way to St. Mary’s Hospital, but collapsed and later died from his injuries. A sketch of the man who is believed to have committed the crime was produced based on information from a witness who police spokesman Joel DeSpain said got â??a very good look.â?
Brittany Zimmermann, 21, was murdered in her apartment in the 500 block of West Doty Street on April 2, in the middle of the afternoon. Sources close to the investigation say she also was stabbed. Police confirm similarities between the two murders, which occurred about a mile from each other.
Lou Marino says he tried, first through police and then through his state senator, Mark Miller, to have an alert sent to UW-Madison students: â??I wanted to be sure UW students were safe and the community would be safe.â? He also wanted to enlist the â??40,000 sets of eyesâ? that might have seen something of value to the investigation.
MADISON, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin student who found his murdered fiancee may not be able to get out of his lease of the apartment flat.
Russ Endres, owner of Wisconsin Management Co., declined to say if Jordan Gonnering would be forced to fulfill the final 16 months of his lease. Gonnering found his 21-year-old fiancee, Brittany Zimmerman, murdered on April 2 and Madison police are still looking for her killer.
When the lights went up in the Kohl Center on Friday night for the taping of the 2008 “Jeopardy!” College Championship, they illuminated a made-for-TV version of Badger glory.
Shortly after UW student Brittany Zimmermann was murdered, school officials advised students to take extra precaution when walking home from class.
They listened and even more than a week later, students continue to be cautious.
The number of students using the SAFEwalk and SAFEride programs has more than tripled since the crime.
A Madison police official said the continuing investigation into the unsolved murders of UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann and medical equipment salesman Joel Marino are generating new tips, and revealed for the first time there was no forced entry into Marino’s Madison home before his murder.
Marino was killed January 28. Zimmerman was murdered April 2.
Wisconsin Management Company is refusing to allow Brittany Zimmerman’s fiance, Jordan Gonnering, to cancel his lease of the apartment where he found his fiance murdered last week. The couple rented an apartment together managed by Wisconsin Management Company, one of Madison’s largest property management firms.
The stage is set for one of televisions’ most popular game shows to begin filming in Madison.
Governor Jim Doyle on Thursday welcomed the cast and crew of ‘Jeopardy!’ to the UW-Madison campus. The show begins taping its college championship series at the Kohl Center on Friday.
UW System President Kevin Reilly said in a Board of Regents meeting Thursday a multi-million dollar fundraising campaign would soon begin for greater financial aid at state colleges.
The person who killed UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann last Wednesday used force to enter her apartment at 517 W. Doty St., the Madison Police Department said Thursday.
With the Board of Regents preparing to set their biennial budget in place, representatives of the University of Wisconsin System student population expressed their priorities regarding the budget to the Board of Regents Thursday.
Information released Thursday in the homicide investigation of University of Wisconsin junior Brittany Zimmermann indicates her killer or killers broke into her building.
The University of Wisconsin is gearing up for the taping of the â??Jeopardy! College Championship,â? a two-day event starting today that will highlight some of Americaâ??s brightest college students and put Wisconsin on the national stage.
A project to renovate Chadbourne and Barnard residence halls at University of Wisconsin was approved Thursday at the UW System Board of Regentsâ?? monthly meeting.
University of Wisconsin-Platteville students will pay an extra $100 starting next year for enhanced services.
The UW System Board of Regents approved the increase today during a meeting in Madison. It will be a $100 charge on top of any other tuition increases approved for the campus this summer.
Madison police detectives continue to pursue leads in two recent unsolved murder cases, police spokesman Joel DeSpain said today, but are still uncertain whether the cases are linked in any way.
“We have two investigations ongoing and a lot of resources devoted to each,” DeSpain said. While officers probing the murder of UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann are sharing information with those investigating the murder of Joel Marino, there is nothing to indicate their murders are connected.
“Until we get some forensic evidence or find some suspect or suspects,” DeSpain said, such a link cannot be established.
“Certainly, there are similarities” between the two killings, he said.
It’s an answer-and-question game that sometimes seemingly takes a genius to win. But when it comes to explaining the success of “Jeopardy!”, well, that’s a no-brainer.
“It’s the simplicity of the format,” says Executive Producer Harry Friedman. “It’s a really solid quiz show that some days will challenge you because you are asked for information you don’t know, and then other days you will find information you do know and then can feel pretty good about yourself.”
For the next two days in Madison, it will be college students who might end up feeling pretty good about themselves. “The 2008 Jeopardy! College Championship” will be taped at the Kohl Center today and Saturday for shows that will begin to air on May 5. The University of Wisconsin will be represented by Suchita Shah, a senior majoring in neurobiology.
The choice of the UW wasn’t tough, Friedman said.
“It’s a great, classic campus, and we like everything about Wisconsin and what it represents,” he said.
Friedman knows this firsthand. His wife, Judy, is from Fond du Lac, and his father-in-law, Nate Manis, was on the UW Athletic Board from 1971 to 1975.
Dear Editor: I was quite shocked to read in our hometown newspaper regarding the recent murder of a University of Wisconsin student. She was from central Wisconsin like I am. What really concerned and disturbed me is when I read that the police are wondering about a homeless person being involved.
My son, who is a UW student, was carjacked almost a year ago. He was told to drive the carjacker to a less desirable part of Madison so that the man could go to a drug party. My son was watched by other people while the man attended the party. After three hours of this horrible ordeal, the criminal told my son to take him to an east side motel and forced him to pay for the room.
Brittany Zimmermann’s killer broke through a door to get into her apartment before taking her life, police confirmed Thursday.
“There was forced entry on a door to the building in which Zimmermann resided,” said Joel DeSpain, spokesman for Police Chief Noble Wray.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly says he plans to launch a statewide fundraising campaign to boost need-based financial aid.
Reilly says the goal is to double the privately-funded aid awarded to low-income system students from $6 million to $12 million per year.
He says the system will publicize the campaign on its Web site and sell donors on the benefits of supporting need-based grants for students.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The slaying of a college student in a downtown neighborhood frequented by beggars has forced this liberal city to ask a difficult question: Has Madison been too nice to the homeless?
A debate over the city’s friendly treatment of its transient population had been under way for months, but last week’s killing of University of Wisconsin student Brittany Zimmermann started something of a backlash against the homeless.
Police have arrested dozens of transients on unrelated charges as part of the investigation, but none are considered suspects in the death. The city also announced plans Wednesday to confront problems at a nearby park where the homeless congregate, although those efforts were in the works before the murder.
This week, the 2008 â??Jeopardy!â? College Championship will be recorded at the Kohl Center, making UW-Madison the ninth college campus to host the competition, and a Holmen High School graduate will be among the contestants.
The contest, April 11-12, will feature 15 student hopefuls from universities nationwide with their eyes on the $100,000 grand prize. Students hail from universities such as Harvard, Cal Tech and Georgetown.
MADISON, Wis. — Madison police said on Thursday that there were signs of forced entry in the building where University of Wisconsin student Brittany Zimmermann was found dead last week.
Authorities are continuing to investigate the 21-year-old’s killing and have questioned several people, but have named no suspect or suspects in the week-old case.
Police Chief Noble Wray released the details, which are some of the first bits of information about last week’s slaying that have been revealed by authorities.
MADISON, Wis. — Many renters in downtown Madison have already pushed security to the top of their “to do” list in the wake of a college student’s death in her apartment last week.
Chelsea McNerney, a University of Wisconsin-Madison student, can now count on using the backdoor to her downtown flat, the one closest to her parking lot.
She and her second-floor roommates didn’t have keys to both locks on the back door, like the downstairs renters did, so they often got locked out and had to go around to the front.
We are less than 24 hours away from the first Jeopardy! show right here in Madison. And who else would stop by the set other than the show’s very own host, Alex Trebek.
“This is my first visit,” says Trebek. “I got in late last night and this morning walked through the rain.”
We got an exclusive interview with the host of the long-time running show, now in it’s 24th season, and Alex let us in on what life is like once the cameras go off.
A Madison police official confirmed Thursday someone forced their way into UW-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann’s West Doty Street apartment, before the 21 year old junior was murdered April 2.
In a e-mail, Madison Police spokesman Joel DeSpain divulged a key, new piece of information on the circumstances of this crime. “There was forced entry on a door to a building in which Zimmermann resided.”
DeSpain wrote it was a difficult decision for police chief Noble Wray to acknowledge how the apartment was entered. “He took time deliberating whether revealing this detail would outweigh investigators desire to withhold the information while they search for a killer.”
The stage is set for one of televisions’ most popular game shows to begin filming in Madison.
Governor Jim Doyle on Thursday welcomed the cast and crew of ‘Jeopardy!’ to the UW-Madison campus. The show begins taping its college championship series at the Kohl Center on Friday. The Governor says it’s great to have the production here. Doyle says he’s a big fan and proud to have two Wisconsin students taking part in the production. UW-Madison student Suchita Shah and Marquette University student Danielle Zsenak will be among the competitors.
Beginning this fall, freshmen student athletes at UW-Madison will be required to participate in the Life Skills Academy, a program that aims to help them adjust to college life as a Big Ten athlete.
A faculty-led athletics coalition asked several colleges and universities this week to investigate whether their athletes are clustered in easy majors and taking snap courses.
The University of Wisconsin said Wednesday it will begin a mandatory program this fall to acclimate freshman athletes to life in college and beyond.
Dane County released a transcript Wednesday of the 911 call Brittany Zimmermannâ??s boyfriend made upon finding the University of Wisconsin junior dead in her Doty Street home.
Brittany Zimmermann’s killer broke through a door to get into her apartment and kill her, police confirmed today.
“There was forced entry on a door to the building in which Zimmermann resided,” Police Chief Noble Wray said through a spokesman.
Last Friday was a special and memorable treat for this art critic.
The student art committee at the Memorial Union had asked me to be a juror, a judge, for the 80th Annual Student Art Show.
I agreed, and a week ago Monday I spent a couple hours with members of the committee and my fellow juror, UW art history professor Barbara Buenger, choosing the art for the show.
It was easier than we all had feared. Overall, the quality was terrific, so we did not have to compromise standards as we selected 42 works from the 147 that were submitted by students of all kinds, not just art students.
The Anderson home in Port Wing became a war room of sorts Wednesday afternoon as Jim and Julie Anderson fielded telephone calls and inquiries for daughter Jolene, who learned her professional basketball career will rise with the Sun.
The Connecticut Sun picked the University of Wisconsin’s all-time leading scorer in the second round of the 2008 WNBA Draft with the 23rd overall pick and Jolene Anderson basked in the satisfaction of her new position surrounded by a contingent of 20 family and friends
Homeless people “are our brothers, our sisters. They are members of our community,” says Linda Ketcham, executive director of Madison-area Urban Ministry.
She was preparing for a noontime press conference at Community Action Coalition of South Central Wisconsin called in response to what advocates perceive as a growing tendency to demonize the homeless in the wake of two recent deaths. “We’re concerned about the stereotyping, the profiling, the scapegoating that’s going on now,” Ketcham said.
“We have a shared responsibility as a community,” she said, “I think that’s what’s been forgotten here.”
MADISON, Wis. — In light of the recent violence in the campus and downtown areas, student safety has become a hot-button issue, and a new campus group said it has a solution: concealed carry.
The group is called Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. It’s a national organization with 25,000 members. The University of Wisconsin-Madison chapter formed in the last few weeks.
The group says putting guns in the hands of responsible, licensed citizens will make the UW-Madison campus, as a whole, a safer place.
The parents of Brittany Zimmermann conducted their first television interview Tuesday.
Her family is taking their tragedy and turning it into motivation to help others.
“She so wanted to finish out in Madison. We thought if we can raise enough money we can help other kids who want a great education at the UW-Madison, fulfill their dreams as our daughter was doing” said Jean Zimmermann, her mother.
They’re forming a scholarship in Brittany’s name – a fitting tribute to a young woman who loved to learn.
The family of Brittany Zimmermann established a scholarship fund Tuesday in honor of the slain UW-Madison student.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents will convene in Madison Thursday and Friday for their third regular meeting of 2008, tackling a smattering of financial issues.
After record-setting snowfall this winter, the University of Wisconsin faces concerns regarding toxic pollutants coming from a melting pile of plowed snow in a marsh near the UW Hospital.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz assured optimism for the future of safety in Madison and addressed the cityâ??s commitment to more efficient energy in his annual State of the City speech Tuesday.
Ald. Eli Judge, District 8, a junior at the University of Wisconsin, smiled with pride Tuesday as the Madison City Council unanimously passed an ordinance aimed at furthering tenant rights.
The UW-Madison Athletic Department will launch a mandatory Life Skills Academy this fall to help freshman student athletes adjust to college life, particularly the challenges of academics, budgeting, alcohol and sex.
“The goal is to help them transition from high school to college,” said Kelli Richards, coordinator of the program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The first year is pretty much the hardest year in college. We are trying to provide information then that can help them succeed in all four years.”
The academy is part of the NCAA Foundation-Division I-A Athletic Directors Association CHAMPS Life Skills Program, which stands for Challenging Athletes’ Minds for Personal Success. The school has had a CHAMPS program for all athletes for almost 10 years, and that will continue, but the new program will focus on first-year students.
The Madison City Council unanimously passed an ordinance Tuesday night requiring landlords to provide or make available upon request photographic evidence of damage charged against a tenant’s security deposit.
A number of people spoke in favor of the ordinance, including Nancy Jensen, executive director of the Apartment Association of South Central Wisconsin, which represents close to 1,000 apartment owners and property managers.
Jensen said it wasn’t a heated issue among association members. The bulk of the industry is already taking photos as a best practice, and it is not exclusive to student housing, she said.
The death of a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin student last Wednesday was the third killing in the Madison area in less than nine months and calls attention to the unsolved homicide of UW-Whitewater student Kelly Nolan.
Brittany Zimmerman, of Marshfield, Wis., was found dead in her Doty Street home at 1 p.m. last Wednesday. No suspects have been named and the cause of death, as with Nolan’s, has not been disclosed.
Brittany Zimmermann’s family is establishing a scholarship fund in her name to remember the University of Wisconsin-Madison student who was killed April 2 in her apartment.
“In the days since Brittany’s tragic death, we have searched our hearts for answers that we may never receive. We are grieving her death and we are grieving the future events that we will never celebrate with Brittany. One event we will never celebrate with Brittany is her graduation from UW-Madison next fall,” Zimmermann’s family said in a press release submitted by her aunt, Kim Heeg, about the Dollars for Brittany Scholarship Fund Drive.
MANITOWOC â?? DNA, macromolecules, “speed” chemistry, and presidential race stump speech performances highlight today’s “Campus Preview Day” at the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc.
“For those 18-year-olds who want their baccalaureate degree from, say, UW-Madison, the best way is through UW-Manitowoc,” Chancellor David Wilson said Tuesday on a visit to the campus on Viebahn Street. “And your sheepskin at your graduation ceremony will say, ‘The University of Wisconsin- Madison.'”
MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison has unveiled a new student ticket policy for football games.
Section P, which was typically reserved for upperclassmen, has now been put in the lottery for all student tickets. The ticket lottery is held in July.
MADISON, Wis. — Wednesday marks one week since Brittany Zimmermann’s fiancée found her slain in their West Doty Street apartment near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
The downtown Madison neighborhood is still on edge, and Madison investigators said they have no new details in the case to release.
Despite the increased police presence in the area, many living downtown said they are still scared.
“With all the students and people around, you just always felt safe. And now it’s just a whole other story and you have to be cautious,” said Amanda Seeberger, who lives in the neighborhood.
