Specific violent acts and threats directed at Wisconsin farmers and the UW-Madison research centers have ignited national concerns, prompting Washington to pass a bill to increase protection for scientists and farmers against animal activists.
Susan Borlaug is the first to admit that marching around with a placard and shouting slogans isn’t going to change the results of the recent statewide vote in favor of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and civil unions in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin may have voted ââ?¬Ë?yesââ?¬â?¢ on the amendment banning gay marriage, but many Madison residents refused to concede the fight against the ban as they gathered to protest Friday on Library Mall.
In the aftermath of the recent passage of the gay marriage and civil unions ban, the fight for gay rights continues as scores of amendment-dissenters gathered Friday in protest.
When gay and lesbian faculty and staff members at UW-Madison met with Chancellor John Wiley to discuss the state’s passage of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions, many of these talented educators and researchers said they were thinking of leaving Wisconsin.
That’s bad news for the university and for the state, and Gov. Jim Doyle and legislators should respond in a manner that respects the need to maintain the viability of the university system. The best move, in our view, would be for the governor to issue an executive order extending domestic partnership benefits to state employees, as did Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack several years ago.
A new program at the University of Wisconsin is aimed at alleviating a severe shortage of physicians in rural areas of the state.
The School of Medicine and Public Health is starting a four-year program that will parallel the school’s standard M.D. curriculum but that will also use a network of clinical partnerships across Wisconsin to immerse medical students in rural practice.
On the eve of Wisconsin�s official deer season for gun hunters, the Legislative Audit Bureau released a report citing an ineffective attempt to curb Chronic Wasting Disease in the state�s deer population.
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Chancellor Richard Wells sent out a second e-mail this month relating to harassment issues Tuesday laying out the anti-discrimination policies at the university.
The e-mail comes after both the recent passage of a constitutional amendment defining marriage and banning civil unions and two complaints to university police about harassment toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning members on campus.
The recently passed gay-marriage and civil unions ban continues to draw scrutiny on the University of Wisconsin campus, as students and staff gathered Wednesday to discuss the controversial resolution�s possible implications.
UW students, faculty and staff, as well as members of the Madison community, met in Memorial Union Wednesday evening to talk about the amendmentââ?¬â?¢s effect on the future of domestic partner benefits at UW. Dane County was the only county in the state to vote ââ?¬Å?Noââ?¬Â in last Tuesdayââ?¬â?¢s general election.
Wisconsin holds the honor as the first state to pass a law prohibiting discrimination in housing and employment based on sexual orientation.
Unfortunately, Wisconsin voters shamed this reputation. With the approval of the amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions, our state joined the ranks of other electorates with disturbingly similar propensities for constitutionalized discrimination.
Enter state Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, who plans to propose legislation that could partially nullify the amendment and bring Wisconsin back to its progressive roots.
Erpenbachââ?¬â?¢s amendment would essentially void the second half of the approved amendment, which reads, ââ?¬Å?A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state.ââ?¬Â
UW-Madison faculty members expressed anger and discussed plans to leave the university at a listening session on the recently approved gay marriage ban Wednesday.
The hearing was held to give campus community members an opportunity to voice feelings related to ban and discuss the implications for domestic partner benefits.
In attendance were Chancellor John Wiley, Provost Patrick Farrell and Interim Dean of Students Lori Berquam.
Critics of a coal-powered heating plant that serves the University of Wisconsin-Madison say the facility is too old, too polluting and too hazardous to health to merit renewal of its air pollution operating permit without significant changes.
Citizens and environmentalist groups testified before the DNR on Wednesday that the Charter Street Heating Plant, located just south of the UW-Madison campus at 117 N. Charter St., is pumping hazardous smoke into the atmosphere that is both harmful to area residents and contributing to global warming. The plant must be cleaner and more efficient, they said.
Gay and lesbian faculty and staff at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say they might quit their jobs because of the state’s passage of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions.
Dear Editor: As an election observer in the student ward, I sat in awe of non-stop lines of students exercising their right to vote. A huge turnout convinced me that students care about this state. It also convinced me that without same-day registration, we disenfranchise one of the most thoughtful, passionate and hopeful segments of society.
University of Wisconsin students organized Tuesday night in the Humanities building to decide a theme and format for Fridayââ?¬â?¢s ââ?¬Å?Protest the Banââ?¬Â rally, a public display of opposition to the newly passed state marriage amendment.
According to four political experts who took part in a panel discussion at the University of Wisconsin Tuesday night, ethics reform may have a bright future in Wisconsin after last week�s election. Campaign-finance reform, on the other hand, may continue to be a work in progress.
Despite losses in the Nov. 7 election that lowered their margin of control in the Assembly, Republicans moved two of their past leaders into top spots Tuesday, electing Rep. Michael Huebsch as speaker and Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald as majority leader.
SKIP ZACH would have loved Friday. Nothing, except maybe signing with the Chicago Cubs, which Skip did in 1951 after playing for Edgewood High and UW, made the Avenue Bar proprietor prouder than seeing his restaurant hopping. If many of the faces were familiar, all the better.
Friday noon there were plenty of recognizable faces at the Avenue…at the big center table, the Friday lunch crowd included UW Chancellor John Wiley and his wife, Georgia;
ONE OF THE POINTS on which Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Green scored a direct hit in the recently completed campaign dealt with affordability in the University of Wisconsin system. Green was critical of whopping tuition increases in recent years.
Zachary L. Cooper, an educator and lecturer who worked tirelessly to impart the importance of education and a sense of worth to children, died on Nov. 1. He was 71.
“In his community he was somewhat of a hero,” said Joyce Boggess, executive director of the Early Childhood Learning Center, where Cooper served as president of the board of directors. “The kids all loved him here, and they will miss him terribly. They’ve already begun to write poems and letters to Dr. Cooper in his honor.”
Cooper was widely known as one of the state’s most prominent chroniclers of African-American history.
After clashing with a Republican-controlled Legislature for four years, University of Wisconsin System leaders seem downright giddy Friday with the prospect of working with a Democratic-led Senate and a friendlier Assembly.
Quoted: Charles O. Jones, a Brookings Institution fellow and retired University of Wisconsin-Madison professor.
When the Badger Poll asked state residents last spring whether they favored reinstating the death penalty, 56% said “yes.” When an advisory referendum posed the same question on Tuesday, 56% of state voters replied “yes.”
The Badger Poll went on to ask an important second question: Is the death penalty or life imprisonment with no possibility of parole a better punishment for murder? About 50% chose life imprisonment and 45% chose the death penalty.
Notably, the referendum did not ask that follow-up question.
The defeat of ballot initiatives to limit government spending in three states this week may have taken the wind out of the sails of national antitax efforts, but political observers agree that there could still be pockets of support across the country for more stringent budget caps, particularly if elected officials do not move to curb taxes and expenditures.
MADISON – Stung by a $26 million software failure, University of Wisconsin System regents moved Thursday for stronger oversight of information technology projects.
MADISON ââ?¬â? University of Wisconsin System regents moved on Thursday to award raises to three veteran chancellors as part of a strategy to stop the loss of top leaders and professors to other schools.
Doris Hanson, a former legislator who served in the Cabinets of four governors and was the only woman ever to head the state Department of Administration, died Wednesday. She was 81.
….Hanson also received recognition as an indefatigable advocate for women’s rights, serving as president of the WIS Club (Women’s Intercollegiate Sports), which fought for the rights of women athletes at UW-Madison.
Analysis of state elections results. Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political science professor at UW-Madison.
It sounded like a good idea at the time.
Get the proposed same-sex marriage constitutional amendment on the November ballot to drive up the Republican vote while driving Democrats out of office. The plan worked for President Bush two years ago, particularly in Ohio. So why wouldn’t it do the same in Wisconsin this year, the GOP brass reasoned.
Welcome to the real world.
Republicans lost at least 11 seats in the Legislature on Tuesday – a shift that gave Democrats control of the state Senate and left Assembly Republicans wondering how to lead with their smallest majority in seven years.
MILWAUKEE ââ?¬â? From health care to stem cell research, education funding to tax cuts, Gov. Jim Doyle should find more support for his policies in the statehouse as he embarks on his second term in office.
He will be buoyed by a shift in power in the Senate and an increase in Democrats in the Assembly, but that doesn’t guarantee success.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor John Coleman.
MADISON – Gay marriage was never legal in Wisconsin, but some gay rights advocates fear that the state’s new ban on it could jeopardize couples’ ability to share health and other benefits.
The University of Wisconsin System, which has sought domestic partner benefits to help it recruit and retain employees, may have also been dealt a setback in its effort to secure them from lawmakers, Freker said.
MILWAUKEE -Ã? Gov. Jim Doyle held on to his traditional Democratic base in Tuesday’s election by appealing to women and the poor, while GOP challenger Mark Green drew strong support from religious voters and those who support the U.S. war in Iraq, according to an Associated Press exit poll.
….Jess Haines, 35, said he voted for Green because he blamed Doyle for tuition increases at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Doyle put the screws to UW. And seeing as how I’m an alumni, I had to vote against him,” he said.
Fresh from their successful fight to ban same-sex marriage in the state constitution, supporters are now ready to turn to what they see as the next biggest threat to the institution of marriage: Wisconsin’s no-fault divorce law.
“What was highlighted in this campaign is that marriage is indeed under attack and no-fault divorce is one of those attacks,” Julaine Appling, CEO of the Family Research Institute of Wisconsin and president of the “Vote Yes for Marriage” campaign, said Tuesday night.
….Many students said they were motivated to vote at least in part by the marriage amendment.
“I know a lot of people who are gay and it’s important that they have equal rights to the rest of us,” said Rachel Wroblewski, a sophomore at UW-Madison, who cast her ballot at the Union. Wroblewski, whose father has a rare form of leukemia, was also drawn to the polls because of controversy over stem cell research, which figured into the race for governor.
Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Wisconsin voters re-elected Gov. Jim Doyle to a second term Tuesday over Republican challenger Mark Green in one of the most negative and expensive gubernatorial campaigns in state history.
Quoted: John Coleman, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
MILWAUKEE – Though he opposed a constitutional ban on gay marriage and restoring the death penalty, two questions overwhelmingly approved by voters, Gov. Jim Doyle won re-election thanks to support from political independents.
Quoted: Dennis Dresang, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor.
By Robert Gutsche Jr., Special to the Washington Post
LA CROSSE – At night the Mississippi River here is black like pavement. Lights brighten the shoreline, where walkways end with a steep drop at the river’s edge. There is no railing. Even to a familiar eye, the river looks like an empty parking lot.
This is where eight young men have apparently drowned in the past nine years, just blocks from the busy downtown bar district where many victims had been reported seen last.
….Officials from the city and the three colleges and universities here – as well as a group of vocal college students – say the men became intoxicated and accidentally fell into the river. Yet as the number of fatalities grows, so does the idea that a serial killer could be loose.
Access to UW-Madison is the university’s top public- perception problem, Chancellor John Wiley told faculty members Monday.
“Our biggest public relations challenges are not faculty felonies, not (controversial Islam lecturer) Kevin Barrett, not whether or not the band is on probation,” Wiley said. “It’s ‘my kid didn’t get into Madison.’ “
MADISON, Wis. — Stem-cell politics have been front and center in the race for governor, especially in TV ads.
WISC-TV examined the Mark Green ad in which former Gov. Tommy Thompson stumps for the gubernatorial candidate.
The ad takes viewers back to Wisconsin in the Tommy Thompson era. The former longtime governor and Health and Human Services secretary comes out swinging for Green.
Lawmakers and UW-Madison scientists lectured Friday on the implications of the 1980 federal legislation that granted universities financial ownership of the patents and advancements made using federal funds.
The Wisconsin Hospital Association says state prosecutors will decrease the availability of health care statewide by charging a nurse with criminal conduct after a patient died due to a medication error.
….Hospital association spokeswoman Dana Richardson said that “it makes no sense to add to this tragedy by alleging that this mistake, as upsetting as it was, was more than a human error.” Further, she said, it will give people pause about entering health care fields at a time when many more workers are needed.
….”A number of schools of nursing have increased enrollment, so there is a sizable increase in graduates, and employing organizations have worked to make the work environment supportive,” said Marilyn Kaufmann, chair of the state Board of Nursing, which licenses and disciplines nurses and approves schools of nursing.
The state contains 33 nursing schools, involving five University of Wisconsin campuses, 16 technical colleges and numerous private colleges.
UW-Madison researchers have had a website that identifies statewide traffic safety issues in the works since 2005. Eventually, according to managers of the site, it will enable users to analyze the economic and social effects of these issues.
The Ozaukee County Board voted Wednesday to restore $8,427 to a program within UW Extension, an arm of the University of Wisconsin devoted to serving Wisconsin community members, including children and continuing adult learners.
The Board cut the amount from the program in August to protest UW-Madison�s hiring of Kevin Barrett, the lecturer who made news recently due to his controversial views that the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were an inside job orchestrated by the U.S. government.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=526619
When it comes to the University of Wisconsin System, Gov. Jim Doyle and U.S. Rep. Mark Green agree on one thing: They both want tuition to increase no more than 3% next year.
When it comes to the University of Wisconsin System, Gov. Jim Doyle and U.S. Rep. Mark Green agree on one thing: They both want tuition to increase no more than 3% next year.
But their positions on issues ranging from UW-Madison admissions to a proposed merger between UW-Milwaukee and UW-Waukesha show some substantial differences.
Ask the typical college student in Wisconsin who is running for governor, and you may get a blank stare. Ask about the marriage amendment, and the response is sure to be animated.
Police in La Crosse have asked the FBI to review a series of mysterious drownings dating back nearly a decade, FBI officials told The Associated Press Tuesday.
Eight college-aged men over the past nine years have been found dead in La Crosse area rivers after disappearing during a night of drinking….Fears of a serial killer prowling bars in La Crosse and around the Upper Midwest have persisted for years.
Third-party candidates often raise issues and offer perspectives not addressed by major- party candidates, said John Coleman, a professor of political science at UW-Madison.
This stem cell editorial is part of a series of editorials analyzing the gubernatorial candidates’ positions on specific issues. The Journal Sentinel will end the series with an editorial recommending one of the candidates.
Gov. Jim Doyle announced Monday he intends to prevent UW System tuition from increasing faster than the rate of inflation if he is re-elected governor Nov. 7, a goal many students may welcome, as UW System undergraduates� average debt rises every year.
MADISON ââ?¬â? Stem cell researchers in Wisconsin say their work would be allowed to proceed if U.S. Rep. Mark Green is elected governor but worry about restrictions that could give other states an advantage.
Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle’s campaign has pledged to keep Wisconsin the stem cell leader and claimed Green, a Green Bay Republican, would stop the promising research.
LA CROSSE (AP) – A final autopsy report confirmed that a University of Wisconsin-La Crosse basketball player found dead in the Mississippi River last month drowned.
The Medical Examiner’s Office said Monday that Lucas Homan, 21, died of cold water drowning with acute alcohol intoxication as a contributing factor. Homan had a blood-alcohol level of 0.32 percent, or four times the level considered legally drunk for driving….He was the eighth college-aged man to drown in La Crosse-area rivers since 1997.
“I think it’s safe to say that Doyle has a bit of a lead at the moment,” said pollster and UW-Madison political science professor Katherine Cramer Walsh.
Mentions that a poll released Monday by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center found 50 percent of registered voters said they favor a ban, while 46 percent oppose it. That’s well within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, indicating the election could be close.
Mentions that a Badger Poll conducted by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center in Madison showed the amendment passing, 50% to 44%, with 6% unsure or not answering. When only likely voters are considered, proponents topped opponents 52% to 45%. The poll of 508 residents was taken between Oct. 18 and Oct. 26 and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Mentions that, according to a Badger Poll released Tuesday, Kathleen Falk is leading J.B. Van Hollen 43% to 32% among Wisconsin residents surveyed, contradicting a poll of likely voters last week that showed Van Hollen in front.
Reports the gubernatorial race results of the Badger Poll, conducted by the University of Wisconsin Survey Center in Madison, showed Doyle leading Green 50% to 36%, though the gap was smaller (51% to 39%) – and the margin of error double (8 percentage points) – when just likely voters were considered.
Governor Doyle campaigned at the University of Wisconsin in Madison today with US Senator Russ Feingold.
Doyle criticized Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Green for voting in Congress to cut student aid programs, saying that has made college less affordable for middle class students.
Governor Jim Doyle and US Senator Russ Feingold promote financial aid efforts. During a stop at the UW Madison Monday morning, Governor Doyle attacked Republican opponent Mark Green’s votes to cut financial aid while serving in Congress.
