A report released Tuesday revealed the nine summer recall elections were not only unprecedented in Wisconsin history, but also shattered campaign finance records with spending totals reaching $43.9 million.
I wish somebody could tell me it isn?t true, but I?d swear that this current crop of Republicans who control the Legislature would return us all to the failed law enforcement policies of 50 years ago.
….During the 1960s and into the early 1970s, urban law enforcement leaders throughout the country eventually discovered that it was much wiser to let people in large crowds have their say as the First Amendment allows them to do, keep the crowds within controlled areas as best as possible, and go after only those who get out of control.
Another year. Another enrollment increase at the University of Wisconsin Colleges.
All the campuses in the University of Wisconsin System will be banning concealed weapons. ?It?s long been effectively state law, that people were not allowed to carry any kind of weapon, a firearm or anything else, on any part of the university?s property,? said UW System spokesman Dave Giroux.
After nearly five years of lawsuits, UW-Madison will pay approximately $500,000 in taxpayers? money to Badger Catholic, after denying the group funding for religious practices including prayer and worship practices in 2007.
Quoted: UW-Madison political science assistant professor Ryan Owens, who studies judicial behavior.
The Wisconsin Innocence Project at the UW-Madison Law School has won more than $1 million in two grants. The project is a legal clinic that investigates and advocates on behalf of wrongfully convicted clients. The new funding will allow the program to continue and expand its work in cases where new DNA evidence and other evidence supports the individual?s claim of innocence.
A University of Wisconsin faculty organization voiced opposition Friday against state legislation that would make use of and experimentation on fetal body parts illegal.
Every so often, a group calls out the University of Wisconsin-Madison for having an admissions policy that takes into account factors other than academics ? such as race.
When Gov. Scott Walker earlier this year proposed splitting the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the rest of the UW System, we opposed the measure for two reasons.
Respect for human dignity is essential in the authorization and conduct of scientific research, a point underscored by numerous and horrific past failures to establish or follow such protocols.
This spring Gov. Scott Walker and former UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin proposed splitting UW-Madison off from the UW System. The plan was controversial, but it also was lost in the other contentious measures pushed through state government.The governor is currently assembling a task force to examine the structure of the UW System into the future. In all likelihood, the suggestion that UW-Madison and the UW System would be better off separate will resurface.
(Pleger is campus executive officer, dean and associate professor of anthropology and archaeology at UW-Baraboo/Sauk County.)
The UW-Madison Employee Assistance Office is offering three, free sessions entitled, “Financial Strategies When Your Income Drops.” Presented by Deb Neubauer, of the UW-Extension Financial Education Center, she will offer strategies on goal-setting, new spending plans, and re-evaluating your financial situation.
The Center for Equal Opportunity, which accuses UW-Madison of “severe undergraduate admissions discrimination,” is a right-wing think tank that opposes bilingual education as well as affirmative action and takes a hard line on immigration policies.
A state legislator is calling for a review of the University of Wisconsin?s admission practices after an organization released a study that labels higher admission rates among black and Latino students at UW as discriminatory.
The end of summer sends Wisconsin?s university, college and technical college students back to fall classes. So, it?s a timely question: How many of those institutions of higher learning does Wisconsin have? The answer: 62.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a pollster and political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Timothy Smeeding, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Institute for Research on Poverty.
Dear Editor: The citizens of this state who applauded the increase in health insurance and retirement payments for state employees can now consider this fact: Wisconsin businesses are losing over $155 million a year in income.
….Despite perceptions of a bloated public sector, Wisconsin has actually had fewer government workers per capita than the national average since at least 1993, according to an analysis of the figures from the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families.
The interim chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has sent a letter to Wisconsin lawmakers urging them to oppose a bill that would ban the use of fetal tissue in research. Chancellor David Ward says in the letter sent to lawmakers Tuesday that the ban would affect both fetal tissue and cells derived from detail tissue, which would hamper research at the university.
The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board unanimously approved a policy Monday permitting state universities and colleges to issue stickers for student identification cards that would validate them for identification at the polls.
The controversial law that requires voters to provide photo identification at the polls will now allow school-issued IDs as proper identification, provided they meet the required specifications.
Student identification cards will be allowed under a new law that requires Wisconsin residents to show photo IDs at the polls to vote, the Associated Press reports. Many were concerned that campuses across the UW System would spend a good deal of time and money issuing new photo ID cards to students because the new law requires the expiration date to be no later than two years after the card was issued. Typically, when students register at a UW System school they are issued IDs that are valid for four or five years.
The state board that oversees elections in Wisconsin clarified Monday what student identification cards would be accepted under a new law taking effect next year that requires residents to show photo IDs at the polls to vote. The Government Accountability Board agreed stickers could be used by colleges and universities to indicate when student IDs were issued and expire. The law requires the expiration date to be no later than two years after the card was issued. But many campuses, including those in the UW System, issue IDs when students enter school and they are valid for four or five years, board attorney Mike Haas said. One solution to that problem would be to allow for stickers that have a shorter expiration date but are good only for purposes of voting, he said. Using stickers would allow colleges and universities across the state to more cheaply and quickly make their IDs acceptable for voting. The schools are not required to make any changes, but if they don?t students won?t be able to use their school IDs to vote. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is currently studying how to change its cards so they can be used for voting and hopes to have a redesign ready later this fall, said Don Nelson, the school?s lobbyist.
The Legislature should reject this misguided approach. Banning the use of fetal tissue guarantees that researchers will take their work elsewhere and puts medical progress at risk.
The Government Accountability Board, which runs state elections, unanimously adopted a policy Monday that said schools could put stickers on existing IDs to include the information needed to make the IDs compliant with the voter ID law. That could save public and private schools money by not having to completely overhaul their IDs.
A scientific funding proposal written by Republican members of the state Legislature is receiving bipartisan support, but has some concerned it would exclude stem cell research.
A bill introduced in the Wisconsin Legislature would make it a crime for Wisconsin researchers to continue using those cells, even though they have done so legally, ethically and effectively for 50 years or more.
Lawmakers who believe they are merely standing firm against abortion should think twice about the far-reaching effects of this bill on medical research and the state?s innovation economy.
STEVENS POINT ? Autumn is at the doorstep again, and across much of the state, corn crops are bursting with promise, soybeans are yellowing out in their patient manner, alfalfa and pasture lands are lush and emerald green. Grain prices are high, boosting land values and yielding profits for farmers. In a difficult economy, agriculture seems to be thriving. That?s good news for this bedrock Wisconsin industry, at least for the short term. Not to look for clouds on a sunny day, but the words ?short-term? are important markers for some analysts.
The University of Wisconsin regents agreed Thursday to shift certain powers from the UW System to its 26 campuses, a move made necessary by budget cuts and staff layoffs.
University of Wisconsin regents have passed a pair of proposals designed to save money by shifting authority from the central UW System to its 26 campuses.
The head of the state Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee says officials at UW-Green Bay could be breaking the law. Representative Steve Nass has canceled an Assembly committee public hearing after hearing of a UW-Green Bay vice-chancellor receiving both a pension and a regular paycheck. ?I want to see how widespread the problem is, as far as people being hired back in the university system,? said Nass. ?The Department of Administration has also begun looking at the entire state, to see how many hires have been made.?
The University of Wisconsin regents agreed Thursday to shift certain powers from the UW System to its 26 campuses, a move made necessary by budget cuts and staff layoffs. The Board of Regents passed a pair of proposals by unanimous voice vote. The first allowed the campuses to take on some of the oversight authority currently provided by the UW System. The other offered a plan for staff downsizing in response to a $2.46 million budget cut for the UW System Administration.
The UW Board of Regents approved two proposals Thursday that will help University of Wisconsin System administration cut its budget by shifting power to individual campuses. Regent President Michael Spector called it “the most significant restructuring in the 40 years since the System itself was formed.”
State officials said they?ve launched an investigation into whether the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay properly re-hired a retired vice chancellor.
Federal budget cuts threaten to shunt the 10,000-member Wisconsin National Guard back into the minor role it played as a weekend warrior force with second-hand equipment before 9/11 thrust it into Iraq and Afghanistan battle zones, a top general said Wednesday.
Quoted: UW-Madison military historian John Hall
STEVENS POINT, Wis.– The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and community leaders plan to create a task force to deal with alcohol and drug abuse. A survey last spring found that nearly three quarters of UW-Stevens Point students reported drinking within the last month. Nearly half — 46 percent — reported binge drinking over the last month. Forty-four percent said they suffered memory loss.
Quoted: “I think she has a chance, but it will be a tough, tough campaign,” said Kathy Cramer Walsh, UW-Madison political science professor. “Liberal, lesbian and an incumbent. That?s a lot to overcome.”
The University of Wisconsin System can help absorb millions of dollars in budget cuts by transferring some of its authority to its 26 campuses and chancellors, according to a recent report commissioned by the UW System president. The UW System must reduce its operating budget by $2.4 million per year and cut 51 full-time positions under Gov. Scott Walker?s two-year state budget. In response, UW System President Kevin Reilly asked a committee to advise him on how to deal with the cuts. The report?s authors responded by suggesting a fundamental shift _ distributing power from the UW System out to the campuses, according to a Wisconsin State Journal report.
Wisconsin has the dubious distinction of reducing state aid per student this school year the most of 24 states studied by an independent, Washington-based think tank, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Come November, Badger fans may tailgate while armed but will still be forbidden from bringing their guns inside stadiums, classrooms or any other buildings at the flagship UW-Madison campus and the University of Wisconsin System?s 26 campuses statewide, officials confirmed Thursday. “I would like that,” said UW-Madison sophomore Roxolana Sklepova of keeping buildings weapon-free. “You would hope people wouldn?t bring guns to those places anyway.” The shift ? currently guns are barred on system campuses ? comes to accommodate the state?s concealed carry law and will likely change the look of campuses, with large “Firearms Prohibited in Building” signs expected to adorn every entrance to every campus building in accordance with the new law.
The University of Wisconsin will allow concealed weapons outside, including tailgates, but not inside buildings at any of its campuses statewide, including Madison. The Wisconsin State Journal reported Friday that under the new state legalizing the carrying of concealed weapons, the university will forbid them inside stadiums, classrooms and other buildings.
UW System administration should relax its grip on the 26 University of Wisconsin campuses and give individual chancellors more authority, according to a new report. The recommendations are in large part motivated by necessity: UW System must reduce its operating budget by $2.4 million a year and eliminate 51 full-time positions under Gov. Scott Walker?s two-year state budget. The report is the result of a committee that UW System President Kevin Reilly convened to evaluate the role of UW System and advise him on how to make those cuts. The committee included campus representatives and members of the UW Board of Regents. The report?s authors describe the need for a fundamental shift from a centralized model to one that distributes more power to the campuses.
With buying from small, local, family-run farms becoming more popular, the results of a new study from Wisconsin could be surprising: It found that milk from big dairies is cleaner than that from small ones. Lead researcher Steve Ingham said he did the study because he wanted to see whether there was a link between milk quality and the size of a dairy farm. He said the results cast doubt on the perception that big dairies can?t matcher smaller ones in terms of quality. “Certainly, the small-is-better blanket statement doesn?t appear to be true,” said Ingham, who started the study when he was a food science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is now a food safety division administrator at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
UW-Madison wants to give away a 16-foot canoe to a nonprofit group. The catch is the recipient has to pick it up ? in New Orleans. The canoe is up for grabs because it?s outlived its usefulness in a UW-Madison wetland research program in the Big Easy. “We seem to get a lot of interesting scenarios like this one,” said Matthew Thies, of the university?s Surplus With a Purpose, the program that redistributes and sells surplus equipment.
Want a free canoe from the University of Wisconsin-Madison? It?s yours _ as long as you pick it up in New Orleans. UW-Madison geology professor Henry Wang has taught summer courses in New Orleans for four years. He says the 16-foot canoe was purchased for several hundred dollars and used to conduct wetland research, such as collecting water and sediment samples.
Classes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are going to be different this fall, courtesy of Gov. Scott Walker. Graduate teaching assistants and program assistants are also public employees, and they?re feeling the effects of legislation he championed that blunts the power of unions and imposes steep increases for health insurance coverage. Undergraduates will bear part of the burden.
Come November, Badger fans may tailgate while armed but will still be forbidden from bringing their guns inside stadiums, classrooms or any other buildings at the flagship UW-Madison campus and the University of Wisconsin System?s 26 campuses statewide, officials confirmed Thursday.
MADISON, Wis. — With the Badger football season opener just hours away, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is establishing its rules for the state?s new concealed carry law. For months now, the university?s legal team has reviewed the legislation regarding campus buildings and has recently come to a decision over how it will handle the law when it goes into effect in November. Signs alerting people that guns aren?t allowed inside will soon be posted outside academic buildings and residential halls, as well as athletic buildings like Camp Randall and the Kohl Center.
Movers and shakers with a stake in Wisconsin education met this week in Madison, ostensibly to begin creating a method to ensure state students are college- or career-ready when they graduate from high school. Given the facts that student needs are rising ? poverty rates across Wisconsin have been rapidly increasing, with about 40 percent of schoolchildren now eligible for free or reduced lunch ? while financial support for schools at both the state and federal level is falling, they have a tall order in front of them.
Among the 29 members of the School Accountability Design Team are Adam Gamoran, head of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the UW-Madison, and UW System President Kevin Reilly.
When students return Thursday for the first day of school across Wisconsin, many familiar faces will be gone, as teachers chose retirement over coming back in the wake of a new law that forces them to pay more for benefits while taking away most of their collective bargaining rights. Documents obtained by The Associated Press under the state?s open records law show that about twice as many public school teachers decided to hang it up in the first half of this year as in each of the past two full years, part of a mass exit of public employees. Teachers weren?t the only ones heading for the exits. State agency retirements were particularly dramatic, nearly tripling from 747 in all of 2010 to 1,966 through June. Retirements from the University of Wisconsin System more than doubled, up from 480 last year to 1,091 this year. All told, 9,933 public workers had retired by the end of June, a 93 percent increase from 5,133 in 2010. The year before, there were 4,876 retirements.
….We know of places like Coloma, Oxford, Hancock, Plainfield and Plover largely from the green road signs along this north-south route that is a year-round thoroughfare for vehicles, campers, boats and snowmobiles destined for somewhere Up North.
Endeavor is also on that list but is now known for what is no more. Over the last five years, this village of 453 people, about 10 miles north of Portage, has waged a successful battle against wood chewing termites.
…researchers from the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison teamed up with Alternative Pest Solutions in Madison and with the UW-Madison entomology department to create a two-fold attack.
Students from across the country began moving into University of Wisconsin-Madison dorms Saturday, and many said political protests this spring didn?t impact their decision to attend the university.
“The idea behind Sconnie Nation is simple. Anyone from Wisconsin, who attends school in Wisconsin, or just loves the dairy state in general can identify with Sconnie.
….It could be any Wisconsin river town. But for a brief while in the early 1900s, Alma became notorious as the centerpiece for the misguided and now-discredited campaign to better society through eugenics, or the improvement of the human race by encouraging so-called desirable genetic traits.
Research by a University of New Hampshire psychology professor has brought to light an odd and unsettling article in which a well-known scientist of the time labeled nearly a quarter of Alma?s residents “hereditary defectives.”
(The scientist, famed child psychologist Arnold Gesell, received a graduate degree from the University of Wisconsin, where he studied under Frederick Jackson Turner.)
Six months after some UW Health doctors wrote questionable sick notes for protesters rallying against Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to limit public sector collective bargaining, UW-Madison hasn?t finished disciplining the doctors.
As union members proclaim “solidarity,” the state?s new law prohibiting collective bargaining is hitting public employee pocketbooks this week. The state started making payroll deductions for pensions and health insurance for tens of thousands of employees Thursday, and some municipalities and school districts will do so for more employees on Friday. Most state employees, except State Patrol troopers and inspectors, began paying 5.8 percent of their earnings for their pensions. They?re also paying 12.6 percent of health care premiums. Sandy Rindy, a union member who has worked at UW-Madison for 30 years, most of it as a payroll and benefit specialist, said deductions will have a real impact, especially for those living paycheck to paycheck and single parents struggling with day care and health care costs.
Dear Editor: At one time having a state job was considered a good thing, but now the times have changed. We?ve gone four years without raise, our insurance premiums are being increased, and we have to pay 5 percent of our pay toward our retirement benefits. The state used furlough days as a way to save costs and we see where that landed us.
Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson isn?t a declared U.S. Senate candidate yet, but that hasn?t stopped Club for Growth, a national conservative group, from preparing a statewide TV ad attacking the Republican. In additions to charges about his support for health care reform, the commercial also alludes to tax increases under Thompson?s watch but it doesn?t elaborate. Club for Growth Action provided AP a list of spending hikes, including increases in cigarette taxes and tuition hikes at most University of Wisconsin campuses.
