Skip to main content

Category: State news

Campus Connection: Show Me ways to cut budget

Posted on
Capital Times

Could what?s taking place in Missouri be a sign of things to come in Wisconsin? The University of Missouri-Columbia, which is the flagship institution in the Show-Me State, plans to close five programs and reorganize 34 others, the Missourian reported. Public colleges across Missouri are making similar moves after Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon told the Department of Higher Education to conduct a statewide audit of academic programs at public schools.

Wis. Dems bank on strength getting voters to polls

Posted on
Madison.com

Democratic college students on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus say there will be a strong turnout for Russ Feingold, Tom Barrett and other Democrats. Student volunteers worked the phones on Wednesday inside a food court on campus to line up volunteers to campaign over the weekend. “It?s really up to us to prove there isn?t the enthusiasm gap,” said 21-year-old senior Paula Uniacke of Green Bay. Many students haven?t focused on the election until recently, said Evan Giesemann, the head of the College Democrats at UW-Madison. But President Barack Obama?s visit in late September that attracted 27,000 people, many of them students, was a turning point, Giesemann said.

Campus Connection: Jahn stepping down as head of CALS

Posted on
Capital Times

UW-Madison announced in a news release that Molly Jahn will step down as dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences on Jan. 1.In the release Chancellor Biddy Martin thanked Jahn — who has led the college since 2006 — for her work. But Martin stated that “now is the time for a change in leadership for the college.”

Voters deserve to know where Republican stands on stem cell research

Posted on
Capital Times

Did Evan Wynn, a state Assembly candidate running in the 43rd District, lie to the militant anti-abortion group Pro-Life Wisconsin or to the Wisconsin State Journal?

Wynn won the endorsement of Pro-Life Wisconsin, which asks its candidates to support a ban on embryonic stem cell research, which is vital to the University of Wisconsin?s pioneering and internationally respected stem cell research projects.

Factoring in the early vote

Posted on
Wisconsin Radio Network

Early voting may not be major factor in Wisconsin elections this year. ?In the presidential race just two years ago, early voting accounted for about one of every five votes cast in the state, and that was up a great deal from the previous presidential election,? said Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin. ?In the midterm election we expect early voting to be at a lower rate than that, but in close races it could obviously make the difference.?

Biz Beat: Wisconsin job losses continue

Posted on
Capital Times

There?s not much good news on the job front and a switch from Democrat to Republican won?t likely make much difference, a new report suggests. Wisconsin lost nearly 10,000 jobs from August to September, with manufacturing and construction sectors posting the biggest losses, according to the latest report from the Center on Wisconsin Strategy.

Chris Rickert: College degree important, unless you want to be governor

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

If Scott Walker is elected ? a near certainty if you believe the polls ? he would be the first Wisconsin governor in 64 years without a college degree. And nobody seems to care. College Republicans chairman, Stephen Duerst, says none of the group?s 60 or so members have voiced a problem with Walker?s drop-out status and whether it might, for example, make him less sympathetic to increasing funding for the University of Wisconsin System.

Quoted: UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin

Stem cell researchers defend their work

Posted on
Wisconsin Radio Network

Concerns raised in the race for governor about embryonic stem cell research are prompting members of the industry to speak up.  Republican candidate for governor Scott Walker says he wants the state to support adult stem cell research, instead of work using embryonic stem cells.

Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery prepares for Dec. 2 grand opening

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Six years after it was first proposed, a cutting-edge, $150 million building that could lead to important discoveries in human health is nearly complete on the UW-Madison campus. The Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery building is set for a Dec. 2 grand opening. A glimpse inside the building reveals an environment ready-made for science ? both in the state-of-the-art research labs and the architectural design, which features wide-open spaces and flexible rooms.

Don?t burn money at new plant

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

The Charter Street Heating Plant project is an exciting one. Instead of burning more than 100,000 tons each year of dirty coal ? which pollutes the air, contributes to climate change and sends money out of state ? the UW-Madison power plant is being converted to run on biomass including wood waste, corn stalks, switchgrass and other farm-grown fuels from Wisconsin. Yet the project?s huge price tag can?t be ignored or dismissed. It?s more than $250 million to provide enough power to heat and cool some 300 local buildings.

Wisconsin stem cell scientists jump into governor’s race politics

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Embryonic stem cell researchers stepped away from their microscopes Tuesday to dispute gubernatorial candidate Scott?s Walker?s statements about their work and oppose the Republican?s positions. Scientists at a news conference held in a lab at embryonic stem cell company Stemina never mentioned Walker?s name, but they said they wanted to set the record straight about the promise embryonic stem cells hold and what it would mean for Wisconsin to ban their work.

Breaking ground for UW biomass plant

Posted on
Wisconsin Radio Network

Work is underway on a biomass power plant at UW Madison. Governor Jim Doyle says the $251 million project to convert the Charter Street Plant on the UW Madison campus from burning coal to burning biomass can help lessen the state?s dependence on imported fuels.

University of Wisconsin breaks ground on $250M upgrade to heating plant

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Marking the beginning of the end for coal power on the UW-Madison campus, Gov. Jim Doyle and other leaders broke ground Monday on a $250 million upgrade to the Charter Street Heating plant. The mostly coal-powered plant, which provides heating and cooling for UW-Madison, will be converted to run on natural gas and farm-grown fuels, known as biomass. It?s the most expensive single project in UW-Madison history. Doyle said that when it is completed in 2013, it will be one of the country?s leading biomass power plants.

Breaking ground for UW biomass plant

Posted on
Wisconsin Radio Network

Work is underway on a biomass power plant at UW Madison. Governor Jim Doyle says the $251 million dollar project to convert the Charter Street Plant on the UW Madison campus from burning coal to burning biomass can help lesson the state?s dependence on imported fuels.

Younger Voters May Play Significant Role In November

Posted on
WISC-TV 3

MADISON, Wis. — With mid-term elections so close, experts are wondering if young people will have the same impact they did in 2008. Voter turnout for non-presidential elections are usually lowest among young people. But with a wide open governor?s race and a hotly-contested senate election, some feel that this year may be different.

John Korememos has been registering voters with the College Republicans and he thinks the student turnout may surprise people this year.

132 people arrested in Whitewater

Posted on
WKOW-TV 27

WHITEWATER, Wis. (WKOW) — Whitewater police arrested 132 people at a house party near University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. According to police, many of those arrested were students. Multiple residents face charges for allegedly providing alcohol to underage people, selling alcohol without a license and failing to prevent underage alcohol consumption.

Larson: Nation losing direction

Posted on

Tom Larson, a candidate for the state Assembly, says the University of Wisconsin system should make spending cuts like the rest of state government.?They are going to have to share the load with everyone else,? Larson said. Some of the costs now handled by the state will have to be shifted to students, Larson said, adding his own children worked their way through college. The state can probably make it easier for students to get loans so they can get the education they need, he says, and once they get that education, students should be assured they will be able to work.

Doug Moe: A Madison journalist’s effort to remember a former UW-Madison student and Nazi resister

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Joel Waldinger saw the photographs that changed his life in an exhibit on the grounds of what had once been headquarters for the Nazi Gestapo in Berlin. It was 2006, and Waldinger, a Madison television journalist, was finishing up a journalism fellowship in Germany. On his last day before returning to the United States, Waldinger visited the exhibit, where he saw a series of three photos of a woman identified as Mildred Fish Harnack. They were accompanied by a short blurb about her life. It said she had been beheaded in a Berlin prison in 1943 ? the only American woman executed by the Nazis. And it said she was from Wisconsin, and had studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Higher education largely unaddressed by candidates

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

The candidates for governor have been talking a lot about the economy and health care, but Shamane Mills reports they haven?t been saying much about higher education this year. She has our latest report on issues in this year?s governor?s race. (Audio.)

College admission counselors: Candidates should pledge to continue Wisconsin Covenant

Posted on
Capital Times

Dear Editor: Four years ago, students began signing a pledge to participate in the ?Wisconsin Covenant.? The agreement has enticed over 50,000 students to take college prep courses and maintain at least a B average. In return, the state of Wisconsin committed to reward these students with a place in the state university system and a financial aid package that would make college a realistic possibility.

Since the first group of future scholars has yet to graduate high school, this program has required very little funding. That will change, starting next year.Funding for the covenant is necessary for Wisconsin to uphold its end of this agreement.

John Nichols: In solidarity with labor?s David Newby

Posted on
Capital Times

David Newby, whose recent retirement as Wisconsin AFL-CIO president was recognized this weekend by hundreds of his friends and fans who attended events honoring him, was a throwback to the labor leaders of the early 20th century. He recognized that for working people to get a fair shake, they had to make the labor movement a genuine movement. To a greater extent than all but a handful of contemporary labor leaders, Newby put an emphasis — as a leader of the UW-Madison Teaching Assistants Association, the president of the old Madison Labor Council, and since 1994 the head of the state?s labor federation — not just on economic and political fights but on social and cultural initiatives.

Federal stimulus dollars jump-start stalled infrastructure projects

Posted on
Capital Times

…According to the state?s economic recovery website ? www.recovery.wisconsin.gov ? Dane County has been awarded more than $352 million in Recovery Act funding, a figure that includes aid for school districts and local units of government.

Of that, $62 million is going for transportation improvements such as the Badger Interchange. Other local transportation projects using stimulus funds include the extension of taxiway B at the Dane County Regional Airport $3.69 million and reconstruction of University Avenue $3.6 million.

The rest of the money is divided among the UW System and other government or nongovernmental agencies.

Tonette Walker: Walker supports adult stem cell research

Posted on
Capital Times

Dear Editor: Scott and I have known Tom Barrett a long time, which is why I?m even more disappointed that he continues to lie to you about my husband.

Tom Barrett is using the Jim Doyle playbook by exploiting the plight of those afflicted with diabetes and other diseases in TV ads, falsely telling you that Scott is ?against hope? and that he would ?ban stem cell research.?

On Campus: State wants to join stem cell legal battle

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

The state of Wisconsin wants to file a friend-of-the-court brief to uphold federal funding for stem cell researchers. Gov. Jim Doyle announced today that the state filed a motion to join an amicus brief in Sherley v. Sebelius, a case challenging the National Institutes of Health?s embryonic stem cell research guidelines. At a news conference last month, UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said as many as two dozen UW-Madison stem cell researchers face disruptions in their research.

Wis. governor candidate avoids stem cell questions

Posted on
Madison.com

The Republican candidate for Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker, refused to say Tuesday whether he favors a ban on embryonic stem cell research — even though he previously told an anti-abortion group he does. Embryonic stem cell research was pioneered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and millions of dollars is spent on it each year in the state. During a Tuesday campaign stop in Madison, Walker said he would direct state money to stem cell research that doesn?t use cells obtained from embryos.

Bedbugs on the rise in Wisconsin

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Bedbugs – two words that together prompt nightmares – are stalking more sleepers in hotels, apartments and homes in Wisconsin, reflecting a national uptick over the past year, according to local officials and exterminators.