The family of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student who was killed in 2008 said they have a DNA match related to the homicide investigation. Kevin and Jean Zimmermann, parents of 21-year-old Brittany Zimmermann, said in a statement to News 3 Tuesday that while they have a DNA match in their daughter’s case, they will not release the name because authorities are not filing charges against him.
Noted: A University of Wisconsin-Madison research project looking at the habits and health of urban coyotes and foxes has emerged as something of an ambassador for the animals. “What we’re really trying to do with this project, in addition to understanding how these animals are using the urban landscape and understanding how health or not healthy these animals are, is trying to engage the public and educate the public and increase the public’s tolerance of these animals so we can increase a peaceful coexistence,” said David Drake, the lead researcher for the UW Urban Canid Project, which studies the urban habits of both coyotes and their cuter, less-threatening cousins, the foxes.
Note: Dane County and City of Madison election officials want to know exactly how much longer [it will take]. That’s why they are working with the UW Political Science Department to time out every part of the process Tuesday. That data will then be entered into a computer model.
Madison voters might notice that they’re being timed when they visit the polls on Tuesday. County Clerk Scott McDonell said in a Facebook post that voters shouldn’t be alarmed. He said the city is working with the University of Wisconsin political science department to collect data on the effect of the voter identification law on lines at the polls.
Noted: Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell and Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl are collaborating with the UW-Madison Political Science Department to time the vote at Tuesday’s nonpartisan primary so adjustments can be made prior to the April 5 presidential primary and spring election, the fall primary in August and the general election in November.
A few students at the University of Wisconsin at Madison have gathered this weekend to create bundles of warm clothing to be given out to homeless members of the community.
Oliver Lees, the president of the BundleUp project, said got the idea after getting stranded during a blizzard. Lees said he felt firsthand the affects of the harsh Wisconsin cold.
Noted: MM: How has the McPherson Eye Research Institute and its events enhanced the Madison community?
For those who have an interest in vision – in the broadest sense of the word – the McPherson ERI is a place where one can present or consider new ideas. The events that are presented range from cutting edge research to basic information about vision and eyes from the cellular to the cultural. By providing a greenhouse for research and ideas, the McPherson ERI helps to keep UW-Madison as a world leader in vision research. This, in turn, helps to foster growth and development in departments and labs throughout the UW, which brings in more resources that can benefit a number of other environments.
Members of a UW-Madison fraternity held what they hope becomes an annual event at the Edgewater Hotel Tuesday.
UW’s Sigma Pi chapter held its first annual Skate for a Cure.
The money raised will be donated to Never Quit, a pediatric cancer foundation started by Chicago Cubs pitcher Jon Lester.
English students at Southern Door High School are beginning to experience a Chinese literary classic in advance of this year’s Great World Texts In Wisconsin Conference. More than 1,200 students statewide including those at Southern Door High School have begun reading Journey to the West, Wu Cheng’en’s novel of sixteenth-century China.
(Video) Quoted: David Gamm, director of the McPherson Eye Research Institute and associate professor, ophthalmology and visual sciences.
Starting on Monday, Madison East High School will be the home of a new food pantry. The first of its kind in Madison. A group of volunteers came together and believed that a high school was the perfect place for a food pantry. The pantry will provide nutritional support to students and their families in need.
However, the volunteers needed help in keeping the food pantry stocked. This is where assistance from UW Hospital was critical. “The UW Hospital at the American Center,graciously offered to keep our pantry stocked through the end of the school year,” stated Joel Wish, one of the pantry’s volunteer coordinators.
Super Bowl 50 doesn’t kick off until Sunday night but people in Madison are getting a taste of Souper Bowl XX Saturday at West High School.
The fundraiser for the UW-Madison chapter of Habitat for Humanity of Dane County brings out tens of thousands of people every year. Donations, in exchange for soup, go towards a home for a family in need.
In 30 games this season the Badger women’s hockey team has only lost once. Nearly no one has been able to skate with the Badgers, except for the fans. Sunday at Vilas Park the Badgers held their annual open skate for the fans. Warmer temperatures made the ice more like slush, but the event still allowed fans to get pictures and autographs.
Noted: As “Read Your Heart Out Day” added more schools, they began to add more community readers. “Pastors joined The 100 Black Men and we had community representation from sororities and fraternities and high school students and athletes,” Belnavis said. “We just grew and grew and embraced the UW sports – some of our UW basketball players and football players came to join in.”
Noted: UW Madison police spokesperson Marc Lovicott said the website’s values go against everything the department and campus stands for. He says the department was made aware of the possible meetings this week, and in response, officers were in communication with other departments around the state.
Lovicott said there is no indication a meeting like this will take place in Madison, but he said the idea of “pro rape” events is disappointing.
“The fact that there’s an organized group that promotes this, I think that’s really disappointing and really disturbing,” Lovicott said. “What we can do as a community, though, is stand up against it and make sure people realize that this type of behavior, this mentality, just won’t be tolerated here.”
Noted: Also on Lake Mendota this weekend, UW-Madison’s Hoofers student organization hosts its annual Winter Carnival at Memorial Union, featuring broomball and pond hockey tournaments, turkey bowling, snowshoeing and a lakefront social.
Noted: UW-Madison’s outdoors group Wisconsin Hoofers has snowshoe rentals available through its location at Memorial Union, including for students, Union members and guest users. For guests, prices range from $15 for one overnight of use to $30 for a full week.
A new partnership with UW-Madison promises to deliver Monona officials a wealth of information on how to improve the city’s transportation infrastructure, housing and amenities.
Rose lives in a four-by-seven-foot trailer she built herself with salvaged materials, and she parks wherever she can. It’s a small space to share with an enormous red bloodhound, but Rose wouldn’t have it any other way.
Noted: As a graduate of the UW Odyssey Project, I have been able to see up close and personal what a game changer education can be. One day, we are going to see the families of those Odyssey graduates changing the game in Madison, as they and their children go on to college. Odyssey exposes us to literature, art, history and philosophy, which is empowering. It might take time, but I believe that we are going to see some serious outcomes as a result of Odyssey and Odyssey Junior.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Varsity Band will perform at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22, at Iola-Scandinavia High School.
Some of Wisconsin’s brightest minds filled the UW Engineering Hall today. They were all there for the Wisconsin Regional Middle School Science Bowl.
Middle school students from across the state traveled to Madison for this. Organizers say the kids impress them every round.
A new effort to deal with urban coyotes is underway in Milwaukee County.
The county parks department is collaborating with University of Wisconsin-Madison wildlife ecologists to trap and tag coyotes beginning Monday. The coyote management project continues through the end of next month along Underwood Creek Parkway.
Noted: We will encourage our bedrock civic institutions; the UW, United Way, the Madison Community Foundation, Urban League of Greater Madison, Centro Hispano, 100state, Young, Gifted and Black, and more to collaborate and be held accountable for real, innovative, measurable problem solving.
Noted: A cardiologist from Oconomowoc and 50 undergraduate students from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Virginia affiliated with the Global Brigades program also accompanied the doctor.
Jonny Hunter: “To me, the most exciting thing in food is that plant breeders are starting to look at flavor instead of production agriculture. The work at Dawson Lab [Julie Dawson, assistant professor of horticulture] has the opportunity to transform how we use vegetables in our diet.”
What he’s doing: Head of the Underground Food Collective, Hunter is working with a University of Wisconsin–Madison horticulture program that teams up farmers, breeders, students and chefs to grow new and more flavorful vegetables.
Noted: After graduation from Washington High School, John Galanis earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison — money from his father helped him make ends meet — and he got his law degree from the University of Michigan.
Quoted: And, according to Andra Ghent, associate professor in the Department of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics at UW-Madison’s School of Business, baby boomers will be flooding the market in five to 10 years, creating even more demand.
Noted: Ervin is excited that all of the organization’s endeavors will soon be directed from an office in downtown Madison, under a new name: Blumont, Inc.
“It is a great place to live, so employees will want to come here. We have access to the University (of Wisconsin) and all the research capabilities that are offered here, and a very dynamic and technology driven private sector,” said Ervin.
Ervin knows he has a good base of homegrown talent here, primarily due to the high number of UW students who join the Peace Corps.
Quoted: “It’s an important topic to show that we are not abiding, supporting or even sympathizing with ISIS or ISIL,” said Madinah Community Center member and University of Wisconsin Microbiology Professor Adel Talaat.
Nearly 400 people attended the panel, many of them non Muslims.
“This is actually a good thing.. when you see a lot of non Muslims coming here,” Talaat said.
(Video) Lily’s Luau is known for its tropical food, music and attire, but it’s all for a great cause. The event raising money for epilepsy research on the University of Wisconsin campus is this weekend. Quoted: Antoine Madar, research assistant in neuroscience; Mathew (Matt) Jones, associate professor of neuroscience.
The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, and an ethical and moral leader to many more, is scheduled to visit Madison on March 9 to participate in a panel discussion at Overture Center’s Capitol Theater. … The Capitol Theater event, titled “The World We Make,” will be a gathering of world leaders in science, health care and the media, according to sponsor the Center for Healthy Minds at UW-Madison.
In addition to musical performances, the 2016 Heritage Awards — honoring work in social justice — were presented. This years winners were the YWCA Every Town girls camp and the internationally celebrated musician Richard Davis.
The spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior was alive and well on the UW-Madison campus Friday night.
The King Coalition hosted its 29th annual free community dinner at the Gordon Dining Center on campus.
Quoted: “The reason we formed was we noticed there was an absence of input from Black professionals and we wanted to help groom, recruit and retain Black professionals in this community,” says Dawn B. Crim, [Madison Network of Black Professionals] president for the 2016-18 term and associate dean for external relations in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Crim says Madison can be a transient place. People come here for school, graduate and decide to stay and enter the workforce. But for some African Americans, they become the one Black professional there. “So we thought it made sense to try to build a network across the city so professionals feel supported and connected as well as informed on what’s happening in the community.”
Also: Madison Magnet has partnered with the University of Wisconsin–Madison to join its new graduate student resource fair.
Dick Lathrop, a UW-Madison expert on fresh water systems who served as one of the study’s principal investigators, comments.
Feature story on a exhibition at the Ruth Davis Design Gallery at the UW School of Human Ecology. Exhibitions titled “Marianne Fairbanks: Impractical Weaving Suggestions” and “Kevin Ponto: Protean Guise” are on display through Feb. 21.
A six-hour movie. An Ingmar Bergman retrospective. And an Italian film that UW-Cinematheque director Jim Healy calls “the king of the difficult films.” In other words, the spring 2016 UW-Cinematheque series is not for moviegoers who want to go back to see “Ride Along 2” a second time to catch all the plot points they didn’t understand the first time. The free on-campus film series shows independent, foreign and classic films that otherwise would not likely make it onto the big screen in Madison … The series kicks off at 7 p.m. Friday at 4070 Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave., with the Madison premiere of the documentary “Hitchcock/Truffaut.”
Every year, the University of Wisconsin’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences give out an award to those who have outstanding work in the agricultural industry.
Associate Dean of External Communications Heidi Zoerb says the awards have been given out for more than 100 years.
Noted: The conference and city will partner locally with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems; Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection; and Community GroundWorks bring broad farm to cafeteria and on-site garden experience, workshop and training expertise, and local perspective to the conference planning committee.
In the basement of the Villager Shopping Center on Madison’s south side, eight children are hard at work trying to pick up tiny candy insects and other familiar small sweets meant to mimic seeds. They are wielding popsicle sticks banded together like tweezers to simulate bird beaks.
Noted: Griffie graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in economics and spent three years training high school volunteers to do home repairs in Appalachia.
Schmidt, 40, elected in the spring of 2009 to represent the 11th District on the West Side, is a researcher with the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the Space Science Engineering Center at UW-Madison.
(Video) Eden Checkol gets a preview of the UW Wonders of Physics Show which is looking at the physics of superheroes this year.
Noted: Lukas, who was struggling to do his homework, said he has realized that many students could do better at school if they just finished their assignments. Now, he gets help twice a week staying on task and understanding his assignments better from his tutor, Andrew Meyerhofer, a UW-Madison student. Meyerhofer volunteered for the program after hearing about it from his fraternity, Alpha Sigma Phi.
How are those New Years’ resolutions coming? Looking for ways to keep going? Need some new ideas?
Yoga and resiliency classes highlight the community winter wellness programs UW Health at The American Center is offering, starting in late January. They are designed to help people live a healthier and balanced life.
The skating rink at the Edgewater Hotel in Madison kicked off its opening day today with help from the UW men’s hockey team.
Dane County Circuit Judge candidate Everett Mitchell has racked up more than 450 endorsements from government officials, attorneys, judges, law enforcement officials, pastors and community leaders in the two months since he announced his candidacy.
Wisconsin Companion Animal Resources, Education and Social Services, or WisCARES, is a partnership between UW-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine and School of Social Work. For about a year and a half, WisCARES has been operating a clinic that provides basic care to pets and social assistance to their owners.
A developer is proposing a roughly $10 million mixed-use project on Monroe Street near Camp Randall Stadium, continuing a trend of more density on one of the city’s trendy commercial thoroughfares.
University of Wisconsin veterinary staff have bid farewell to a young sandhill crane they saved from possible death.The crane, then a sick baby, was spotted in late July in Cherokee Marsh, a wetland in Dane County, Wis. The bird walked with difficulty, drawing the attention of an observer and a team from the Humane Society’s Four Lakes Wildlife Center.
A little more than sixteen years ago, the cover of Madison Magazine featured a group of Madison leaders including the mayor, fire chief, Dane County executive and district attorney, presidents of Madison Area Technical College and the University of Wisconsin System and others in positions of prominence. All were women. Every one. It was a vivid and powerful image of a historic, cultural change. Mentions Aaron Olver, Everett Mitchell.
Noted: The $5.25 million grant will span four years. The money will support research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison through the Wisconsin Center for Education Research and the Institute for Research on Poverty, officials said.
Noted: In the summer of 2015, MMSD and the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education, in a partnership known as Forward Madison (supported in part by a $1.2 million grant from CUNA Mutual Foundation), launched its TEEM Scholars program, in which eleven high school sophomores are preparing to enter UW–Madison and become teachers, with guaranteed employment at MMSD when they return. The program also provides mentoring support for every new teacher in the district plus leadership coaching for new principals. And with its planned Personalized Pathways program, intended to expose students to viable careers, coursework has been revamped.
Those profiled with UW ties include Aaron Olver, managing director of the University Research Park, and Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, director of community partnerships at UW Health.
Not believe in research funding! You might as well not believe in coconut shrimp! You might get your friends to watch their mailboxes for invitations to Lily’s Luau on Jan. 23 at Union South, but even if they did not see an invitation, what would that prove? We can’t send printed invites to everyone, but that is no sign that there is no luau and no groundswell of support for epilepsy research right here at UW-Madison. The most real things in the world are those that are explained on our website at http://lilysfund.org/luau.
Noted: UW limnology professor John Magnuson says Mendota could soon go the way of other large lakes in the region and occasionally miss winter freezes.
B-cycle stations around Madison will begin operating according to a winter scheduled on Monday. That means the majority of the city’s 39 bicycle sharing stations will be closed for the season.
Starting Monday, the following (university-area) stations will remain open: Lake St. and University Ave.; UW Union South; UW Natatorium.
All other B-cycle stations will be closed.
A group of University of Wisconsin-Madison students are taking on projects that represent, at least for now, long-range dreams for the city while also offering ideas worth discussing outside the classroom.
Noted: City and county governments, the nonprofit community, the public school system, the media, philanthropic entities, the University of Wisconsin, faith-based organizations, the private sector and the arts community have all demonstrated a deepened commitment to helping.
