The U.S Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to Wisconsin?s Department of Administration requesting information on 15 power plants in the state, including eight from University of Wisconsin schools, to see if they are complying with federal air pollution laws.
Quoted: Carolyn Heinrich, professor and director at the UW-Madison LaFollette School of Public Affairs.
A female prosecutor who was once the victim of sexual assault was named Friday to replace a district attorney who resigned in disgrace after trying to strike up a relationship with a domestic violence victim. Gov. Jim Doyle said his appointment of Jerilyn Dietz as Calumet County district attorney will restore the community?s faith in the office and ensure crime victims have a strong advocate. In 1997, while an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dietz was sexually assaulted by a man who broke into her apartment and attacked her at knife point. Dietz said that experience changed her life and made her decide to become a prosecutor who would work with sensitive cases like rape, incest and sexual assault.
Chase Boruch left central Wisconsin for the war in Iraq as a devoted son who cared for his ailing mother.
Noted: In 1997, while an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dietz was sexually assaulted by a man who broke into her apartment and attacked her at knife point. Dietz said that experience changed her life and made her decide to become a prosecutor who would work with sensitive cases like rape, incest and sexual assault.
A naturalized U.S. citizen has been sentenced to two years in prison after defrauding a Madison firm and the government to get student loans. Ernest Kwasi Bankas, 56, originally from Ghana but living in Texas, was sentenced this week by U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb in federal court in Madison.
The Environmental Protection Agency is investigating 15 state-owned power plants, including several on University of Wisconsin System campuses, to determine if they are in violation of the federal Clean Air Act. The federal agency sent the state Department of Administration a letter Thursday requesting information about the plants. They include power plants on UW campuses at Eau Claire, La Crosse, Oshkosh, Platteville, River Falls, Stevens Point, Menonomie, Superior and Whitewater. The state?s power plants first came under scrutiny in 2007 when the Sierra Club sued the state for similar violations at the Charter Street Heating Plant on the UW-Madison campus. A finding in favor of the environmental organization resulted in the state signing a consent decree that saw the elimination of coal at Charter and at the Capitol Heating Plant in Downtown Madison.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notified the state of Wisconsin this week that it was starting an investigation into 15 publically owned power plants to determine if they were violating clean air laws. The EPA sent a letter to the state Department of Administration asking for information about the plants “to determine whether the emission sources at these facilities are complying with the Clean Air Act.” The EPA letter comes after Doyle?s administration acknowledged that as many as eight state-run plants have violated the Clean Air Act in recent years. The state is already spending more than $250 million to convert a coal-fired plant that powers the University of Wisconsin-Madison to run on natural gas and biomass after a federal judge agreed with the Sierra Club that it was violating the Clean Air Act.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly made a plea for more state funding and decreased state control to members of the Rotary Club of Madison Monday, and said continued support of the university system is of vital importance in moving Wisconsin?s economy into the 21st century.
Costs to local police and fire departments for President Barack Obama?s late September pre-election rally at UW-Madison were significantly higher than they were for his visit to a Madison elementary school in 2009.
Quoted: Dave Riley, professor of human development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A UW Madison student and Iraq war veteran has been charged with killing his mother in Lincoln County this summer, a crime which may have been motivated by a desire to collect a life insurance settlement. Prosecutors have charged Chase Boruch with first-degree intentional homicide in the June 6th death of his mother Sally Mae Pergolski.
The Wisconsin college student accused of faking the cause of his mother?s death is being held on $2 million bond.
MERRILL, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Madison student accused of faking the cause of his mother?s death is being held on $2 million bond. Chase Boruch, 24, made an appearance in Lincoln County Circuit Court today. He?s charged with killing his mother, Sally Pergolski, last June.
There have been a lot of ?no new taxes? bumper stickers on cars parked around Camp Randall on football Saturdays this year. Many of the high rollers who shell out the big bucks for Badger season tickets, seat license fees and good parking spots are apparently big supporters of Scott Walker and the Republican takeover of the Legislature. If there?s anything they?re hoping for, it?s to pay fewer taxes to the government.
That hang-onto-your-cash passion, however, probably won?t carry over to the big increases that the University of Wisconsin athletic department will be asking of its season ticket holders next year to watch Bret Bielema?s football team.
The UW-Madison junior told authorities his mother?s early June death in a Lincoln County lake was an accident. But then police found a will and life insurance policies with him as sole beneficiary, according to a criminal complaint. And they found maps of area lakes, with the deepest areas highlighted.
The discoveries led to a Nov. 29 Lincoln County search warrant, served Monday night by Madison police and state Department of Criminal Investigation officers at the Downtown apartment of 24-year-old Chase Boruch.
News that Wausau native Chase Boruch is accused of killing his mother shocked those who knew him as an active college student who excelled in school.
A former Wausau student leader and Iraq war veteran is accused of killing his 63-year-old mother and trying to make her death look like an accident so he could collect nearly $1 million in insurance money.
A vocal critic of the UW System will once again chair the Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee next year. Whitewater-area Republican Assemblyman Steve Nass has never been shy about attacking university administrators or professors in the press when he thinks they?ve wasted money or acted improperly.
A UW Madison student has been arrested on charges that he murdered his mother this past summer. Twenty-four year-old Chase Boruch was taken into custody Monday night at his Madison residence.
Police arrested a 24-year-old UW-Madison student who they say is accused for murdering his mother in Lincoln County. Chase M. Boruch is in the Lincoln County Jail.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison student has been arrested in connection with the death of his mother in Lincoln County in June.
State Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, will reassume his position as Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee chair in the next session and is ready to show the UW System some tough love.
With winter break quickly approaching, student government discussed its plan of attack to determine its stance on Chancellor Biddy Martin?s proposed Badger Partnership. Legislative Affairs Chair Sam Polstein said ASM will collaborate with Wisconsin Student Lobby, Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group, College Democrats and College Republicans in an effort to provide the university and state policy makers with a clear position on how students feel about the partnership. Polstein said the committee?s responsibility is to educate students on what the Badger Partnership actually is, and then to craft an opinion that coordinates their beliefs.
The new monthly report from the Center on Wisconsin Strategy shows little improvement on the jobs front. The state gained 5,400 private sector jobs and 2,300 government jobs from September to October 2010, according to figures compiled by the liberal UW-Madison think tank. But those 7,700 jobs weren?t enough to push the state unemployment rate down from 7.8 percent.
Gov.-elect Scott Walker said Tuesday his campaign manager, Keith Gilkes, will be his chief of staff when he takes office in January. Gilkes is from Prairie du Chien and graduated from UW-Madison.
A 24-year-old UW-Madison student has been arrested for allegedly murdering his mother, Madison police reported. Chase Boruch was taken into custody Monday night at his apartment in the 300 block of West Washington Avenue, after Lincoln County officers asked Madison Police to make the arrest.
Gov. Jim Doyle broke ground last week on the Wisconsin Energy Institute, which will help the University of Wisconsin-Madison develop new technologies to meet the need of creating renewable energy in the state.
Gov. Jim Doyle and other leaders broke ground on the Wisconsin Energy Institute last week, a building on the UW-Madison campus that will house research on renewable energy resources. The Wisconsin Energy Institute will be located at 1552 University Avenue, the site of the former University Health Services building. It is funded with $50 million from the state and $50 million from gifts and grants. In other building news, planning is moving forward on a new School of Music performance center for UW-Madison.
Gov. Jim Doyle broke ground Wednesday on the Wisconsin Energy Institute, a new center aiming to support collaboration between energy researchers at UW-Madison.
CUB is concerned that the electricity the Rothschild plant sells into the Midwest wholesale power market will be costly and saddle customers with higher costs.
That is an issue now before state regulators with the proposed Charter St. biomass project in Madison.Madison Gas & Electric Co. is forecasting it will need to run its natural gas-fired power plant in Madison more frequently, increasing costs by $3 million for utility customers.
CUB is seeking to have the University of Wisconsin-Madison or utility shareholders shoulder those higher costs instead of ratepayers.The Charter St. plant is being converted to burn natural gas and biomass at a cost of $250?million. The proposal is designed to settle air-pollution lawsuits filed by environmental groups that challenged the emissions from the Madison coal plant.
But Governor-elect Scott Walker recently announced his opposition to the proposal. He has requested that the Doyle administration halt work on the biomass portion of the Charter St. project.
Quoted: UW-Madison political scientist Ken Goldstein.
Well, the awful 2010 election is behind us. Given the results, I recall Gen. George Custer?s last words: “We?ve got ?em where we want ?em. We can shoot in any direction!” Put another way, the Republicans are in total control and they will not play beanbag. But we will hold them accountable for the people of Wisconsin.
….Take a look at the agenda that Walker and his think tank cohort — MacIver Institute, talk show host Charlie Sykes, Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, Bradley Foundation — are drawing up. They will try to rid us of the La Follette legacy — they want to abolish the Public Service Commission, kill public radio and TV, dump civil service, bust the public employee unions, and privatize the UW-Madison.
Welcome to ?Stem Cell Science for Republicans 101.? It?s nice to see so many fresh faces from the incoming class of Wisconsin GOP lawmakers here today. Thank you all for enrolling. We are certain you will learn a lot. We know that because, during your recent election campaigns, a lot of you seemed to have difficulty describing ? much less defending ? your position on human embryonic stem cell research, which is producing exciting results on the UW-Madison campus and increasingly in Wisconsin?s private sector.
Hopes that the state?s new Republican leadership and the University of Wisconsin System can forge a good working relationship took a potential hit on Tuesday.
UW System President Kevin Reilly and UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin are telling academic staff they are committed to opposing efforts by some unions to assign these workers to collective bargaining units without allowing them to vote on whether or not they want to be represented.
Rep. Steve Nass plans to introduce legislation in the coming year which would cap the amount tuition and most mandatory fees can be raised for those attending the state?s public colleges and universities.
Leaders of the new Republican majorityin the Wisconsin Legislature are quietly twisting arms to try to get their members to focus solely on measures to create jobs and boost the economy when they assume power in two months.
State and university workers will soon begin making small contributions to their pensions to make up for money Wisconsin?s retirement fund lost when the market collapsed two years ago.
Hopes that the state?s new Republican leadership and the University of Wisconsin System can forge a good working relationship took a potential hit on Tuesday.
Steve Nass, who has developed a famous reputation as the UW System?s biggest critic, will reclaim his position as chairman of the Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee for the upcoming legislative session. Speaker-elect Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon) announced the 26 committee chairs for the 2011-12 session on Tuesday.
Wisconsin has long been touted as ?a leader? in education. The latest statistics show we are the top ranked state in the nation when it comes to high school graduation rates. We graduate 89 percent of our students.
Ken Goldstein, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, conducted the poll on behalf of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.
Republicans and independent observers derided the latest estimate of the state?s budget problem released by outgoing Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle?s administration Friday as “fairly meaningless” and an understatement of what lies ahead.
A narrow majority of Wisconsin residents oppose a planned high-speed train route, but hardly anyone on either side of the issue thinks it should be the state?s top priority, a new poll says.
The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute survey also found only slightly less opposition to electronically collected tolls on interstate highways.
And residents said transportation spending should be the No. 1 target for elected officials seeking to cut the state budget.Ken Goldstein, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, conducted the telephone poll of 615 adult state residents Monday through Wednesday for the Hartland-based conservative think tank. Results have a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
To say Wisconsin has gone from blue to red may be an understatement. It?s more like a crimson tide has swept over the Legislature, bringing a flood of conservatives to the state Capitol.
….Judging by most Republicans? endorsements and tea party ties, conservative bills will find a receptive audience among members of the new majority.
For example, when the next session starts, 34 Republican Assembly members (and Rep. Bob Ziegelbauer, an independent from Manitowoc) will have been endorsed by Pro-Life Wisconsin, a group that opposes abortion even in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at risk. The group, which also opposes embryonic stem cell research and any artificial birth control, also endorsed Gov.-elect Scott Walker ? who will be Wisconsin?s first governor endorsed by the group ? as well as Lt. Gov.-elect Rebecca Kleefisch, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, and eight members of the Senate.
Quoted: UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin.
Skaters and swimmers at the University of Wisconsin will be getting a new state-of-the-art facility next to the Kohl Center in Madison that will give them a centralized location for all their events. The State Building Commission approved the project at its meeting on Wednesday.
The Wisconsin State Building Commission gave final approval to a new UW-Madison hockey and swimming facility Wednesday.
Fresh off his victory over Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, governor-elect Scott Walker met with the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents in Madison on Nov. 4. During the meeting, Walker was able to speak with education leaders from around the state and discuss how they can work together to balance the state budget and graduate more students from UW schools.
Dear Editor: ….The request to stop the biomass boiler installation is shortsighted and will hurt the state in the long run. Even if the governor believes, despite all scientific evidence to the contrary, that global warming doesn?t exist, there are still important reasons for continuing this project. The ability to supply our own fuel (biomass) rather than sending taxpayer money out of state to purchase natural gas should be the type of policy that we all support.
As a chemical engineering researcher in the field of biomass, I know that Wisconsin and especially the university are world leaders in biomass utilization.
For the first time in memory, state and UW employees in the Wisconsin Retirement System will have to pay into their accounts. Small contributions were deemed necessary by the Department of Employee Trust Funds Board to maintain solid funding of the WRS, which suffered large investment losses during the 2008 stock market downturn.
“The contribution rates were raised effective for 2011 and will be reviewed again prior to the 2012 calendar year,” says Matt Stohr, ETF spokesman.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, UW-Madison political science professor.
University of Wisconsin campuses are preparing to transition into tighter spending as the Governor-elect works with his transition team to draft Wisconsin?s new budget. During his campaign Walker promised not to raise Wisconsin?s taxes, desipite a $2.7 billion budget deficit beginning in 2011. The University of Wisconsin system accounts
Go ahead and send a text message while driving. Heck, feel free to drink alcohol too.It?s allowed – nay, encouraged – as long as you?re at UW-Madison?s new driving simulation laboratory. Located in the Mechanical Engineering Building, the simulator allows researchers to study such risky behaviors with no risk of an accident.
Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, a UW-Madison economics professor.
According to a national addiction study, Wisconsin still ranks high for binge drinking. And treatment options don?t meet the need.
If Gov.-elect Scott Walker wants to radically redraw plans to convert a Madison power plant, the contractor behind the project would sure like to know what the changes entail.
MILWAUKEE — The Medical College of Wisconsin has received a $1 million grant to train physicians in geriatric care.The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation awarded the grant, one of 10 awarded to medical schools nationwide.
Governor-elect Scott Walker pressured Gov. Jim Doyle to halt or alter his decision-making on projects including health care, state employee labor contracts and the Charter Street Power Plant.
