The Senate Judiciary Committee held a public hearing Wednesday and reviewed citizen testimonies seeking to change Wisconsin�s sexual assault laws by making alcohol an intoxicant in rape cases.
Modern-day astronomers have learned remarkable things about the heavens. But, then, they have the Hubble Space Telescope at their disposal.
Native Americans, on the other hand, had their eyesight and a rich history of astronomical observation passed on by ancestors. Yet those tools were enough to allow them to develop an impressive and practical understanding of the movements of constellations, stars and planets.
Dan Brunner would have understood if incoming University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema had been a no-show at the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association all-state banquet this past weekend inside the Lambeau Field atrium.
….Bielema, who officially will take over as the UW’s coach on Wednesday, was the guest speaker at the banquet, which included all-state honorees and their families, in addition to coaches from around the state.
“He’s got such enthusiasm and energy, it was almost like it didn’t matter what he was saying,” Brunner said. “I think it was just the energy that he was exhibiting that they picked up on. That’s the way you want your players to be – energetic and positive – and I think that’s just what he portrayed when he talked to the kids (Sunday).”
Some UW-Madison online courses funded through the Division of Continuing Studies may be eliminated next semester due to budget cuts, according to Howard Martin of DCS.
ââ?¬Å?The courses are offered through the schools and colleges, and the funding mechanism for providing the money to the schools and colleges has been reduced because of the budget cuts from the last couple years,ââ?¬Â Martin said.
A Milwaukee area attorney filed a complaint Friday charging Wisconsin 3rd Congressional District candidate Tom Nelson and former University of Wisconsin-River Falls student Joey White with campaign fraud.
Dear Editor: A recent article in The Capital Times (Jan. 16) highlights important links between Mexico and the dairy farmers of Wisconsin and other states. Your readers may like to know what their university is doing to maximize the benefits of these links….
Kenneth H. Shapiro
Associate dean and professor
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
UW-Madison
Wisconsin earned a gold star in the latest rankings from the Corporation for Enterprise Development, landing on its honor roll after being graded in 68 measures of economic vitality and quality of life.
Economist David J. Ward aid the investment measures should improve as networks of angel investors and venture capitalists expand. He also said the state is getting better in transferring ideas from the university laboratory to businesses, where the rankings placed the state 36th.
The gap between Wisconsin’s most successful and least successful high schools is growing, and economics and race are the factors that match up most closely with the gap, a new study concludes.
Gov. Jim Doyle canceled a controversial contract with Adelman Travel on Monday, overruling aides who had insisted that the contract did not need to be dumped after a state employee was indicted on allegations of steering business to the company.
In addition to canceling the deal, Doyle announced that Mark Bugher, a former secretary of the Department of Administration for former Republican Gov. Tommy G. Thompson and director of the UW Research Park, will review the agency’s bidding and contracting process to ensure that decisions about state work are “insulated” from political considerations.
Gov. Jim Doyle wants to promote embryonic stem-cell research in Wisconsin.
In his recent State of the State address, the governor pledged to spend $5 million taxpayer dollars to “find, fund, and recruit” stem-cell companies. He expects high gains for the state in money and prestige, especially at the University of Wisconsin, a major hub of embryonic cell research.
With corruption scandals tainting Wisconsin�s historically clean political reputation, academics and policy makers alike, including Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, addressed issues of campaign finance reform Saturday at the Fluno Center.
UW System plansââ?¬â?two years in the makingââ?¬â?to attract students from the lowest two economic qualities are coming to fruition, according to UW System Communications Director Doug Bradley.
Gov. Doyle�s Wisconsin Covenant, announced during the 2006 State of the State Address, represents a joint effort of the state and UW System to provide students from poorer economic backgrounds with college educations.
The state Senate and Assembly both approved a bill last Thursday that would increase the maximum grant amount awarded to needy University of Wisconsin System students.
Campaign finance experts from around the nation are meeting at UW- Madison this weekend to compare notes and share insights into whether public financing of elections at all levels can make government cleaner and more representative of average citizens.
MADISON, Wis. ââ?¬â? Federal charges against a purchasing official were not the first setback in a cost-saving plan pushed by Gov. Jim Doyle’s administration to cut the number of travel agencies used by state employees.
The state has already canceled one travel agency’s contract and the University of Wisconsin System, which accounts for the majority of the state’s travel, is not yet using the program.
A week ago, Gov. Jim Doyle left on what he hoped would be a trip that could only help his image in an election year, as he met with troops in Iraq and surveyed earthquake relief efforts in Pakistan.
But by Tuesday, the dream trip organized by the federal government had become a nightmare. Hours after news organizations got pictures of him dining with Wisconsin soldiers in Iraq, U.S. prosecutors indicted a member of his administration on charges of manipulating her scores in a bidding process so a state travel contract would go to Adelman Travel.
New findings on chronic wasting disease only add emphasis to points that the state Department of Natural Resources (and we) have made before: Don’t eat meat from an infected deer. All animals killed in an area where the disease has been found should be tested.
In November, researchers at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., and the University of Wisconsin-Madison said they had found that the disease could infect squirrel monkeys, a member of the same biological order as humans.
At last, a key missing piece of Milwaukee’s school voucher program – an evaluation – may fall into place. No, the circumstances are not ideal. The main drawback is lack of state sponsorship, due to Gov. Jim Doyle’s refusal to cooperate. But a research institute has stepped forward, offering to tap foundations to fund the study – the second-best way to go. The team also includes John Witte, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who conducted evaluations in the early years of the program, before its expansion into religious schools.
Gov. Jim Doyle left open the possibility Friday that he could return donations from two Adelman Travel executives who each gave the maximum $10,000 to his campaign.
Department of Administration Deputy Secretary Gina Frank-Reece released a statement describing an October, 2004 high level meeting as a broad discussion of the state’s travel needs that did not include discussion of Adelman Travel Systems.
One of the meeting’s participants, DOA contract procurement expert Georgia Thompson, faces two federal felony charges for allegedly manipulating a travel contract process so that Milwaukee-based Adelman Travel Systems could win.
Some state employees have told 27 News they resent that Milwaukee’s Adelman Travel Systems has used reservation agents in Tampa, Florida to book their state travel.
Sources in the travel industry have confirmed what state employees have grumbled about, and have told 27 News Adelman relies on what’s called “virutal” travel agents in Tampa. Virtual agents typically work out of their homes and save a travel firm overhead costs.
Public universities in the United States may be at a turning point, write Katharine C. Lyall and Kathleen R. Sell in The True Genius of America at Risk: Are We Losing Our Public Universities to De Facto Privatization? (Praeger). The new book comes at a time that many leading public universities are conducting billion-dollar fund raising campaigns while finding it difficult to match their states� ambitions with legislative appropriations.
Most people who participate in the Wisconsin state pension system probably do not know how their money is invested, and this lack of knowledge has devastating consequences, according to Amanda Leipold, a leader of the UW-Madison group Action in Sudan.
Wisconsin boasts the fourth most equal distribution of family income in the country, but it’s still seeing wider disparity between the rich and the poor – and the middle, according to research released Thursday.
The wealthiest fifth of Wisconsin families had a 48.2% income boost in the last two decades, compared with a 14.3% increase for the poorest fifth and a 23.4% raise for the middle, according to a report from the Wisconsin Council on Children & Families and the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Gabriela Cezar left a great job at Pfizer Inc. and took a pay cut to join the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“It’s not like I didn’t have the opportunity to go to the coasts,” said Cezar, a 33-year-old, Brazilian-born scientist who uses stem cells to test drugs and study diseases.
Cezar chose Madison because she sees so much potential for the biotech industry in Wisconsin.
Department of Administration Deputy Secretary Gina Frank-Reece released a statement describing an October, 2004 high level meeting as a broad discussion of the state’s travel needs that did not include discussion of Adelman Travel Systems.
Beneficiaries of deceased state workers in the Wisconsin Retirement System are not entitled to collect the increase in value on retirement accounts between the time of the death of the worker and application for a lump sum payment from the system, the state Supreme Court ruled today in a case involving a Madison widow.
….The case involved Mary Fazio, the widow of longtime University of Wisconsin Professor Anthony Fazio, who died on Jan. 2, 1999.
Wisconsin’s lieutenant governor is encouraging the public to demand a greater investment in higher education.
Barbara Lawton, a Democrat, is in Washington, D.C., today to give the keynote address to about 1,200 people at the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ annual meeting.
She plans to announce that Wisconsin will be a pilot project state for the Liberal Education and America’s Promise campaign. It is a drive for public awareness about the value of a higher education at a time when states are spending less on their colleges and universities.
Gov. Jim Doyle delivered a guest speech at the 85th Annual State Education Convention Jan. 20, outlining his Wisconsin Covenant program and garnering support from statewide school officials.
As the ripples from a federal grand jury indictment of a state official involved in awarding a controversial state travel contract ran through the Capitol on Wednesday, Republicans and a watchdog group questioned whether the investigation into Gov. Jim Doyle’s fundraising would move higher in the administration.
….Herbert Lewis, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, made the discovery and selected 65 chronicles that give a picture of Oneida Indian life from the 1880s through World War I and the Great Depression, to the beginning of World War II.
These histories are edited by Lewis in a new book, “Oneida Lives: Long-Lost Voices of the Wisconsin Oneidas” (University of Nebraska Press, 2005; paperback, $29.95).
The original study was conducted through the UW.
According to the federal grand jury indictment of Georgia Thompson, the state Department of Administration employee who has been charged with felony counts of misapplication of funds and fraud in connection with the awarding of a state travel contract, Thompson abused her position of public trust by allowing “political considerations” to influence her actions.
Thompson’s trial will, we hope, bring out the details of those “political considerations.”
…the governor should put himself in the forefront of those seeking a precise and thorough explanation of the “political considerations” that are mentioned in the indictment.
After a year of debate about merging University of Wisconsin campuses in Milwaukee and Waukesha, a task force is preparing to issue its first report analyzing the complex and sometimes emotional issue.
Gov. Jim Doyle distanced himself Wednesday from an indicted state administrator, saying he’d never met the woman federal prosecutors say manipulated a bid process to award a state travel contract to a firm whose executives contributed to the governor’s re-election campaign. Article also qutoes UW-Madison political scientist Katherine Cramer Walsh.
A federal grand jury indicted a Doyle administration employee Tuesday on two felony counts for her role in awarding a travel contract to a company whose executives donated $20,000 to the governor, saying she wanted to “cause political advantage for her supervisors.”
The indictment alleges Georgia Thompson, who was hired in the previous Republican administration and serves as chief of the Department of Administration’s procurement bureau, was also trying to help her own job security.
But the indictment does not mention anyone else, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office cautioned in a release that the indictment applies only to Thompson and does not allege wrongdoing by any others.
A federal grand jury indicted a member of Gov. Jim Doyle�s administration Tuesday on two felony charges that she allegedly fixed a state contract selection process.
A federal grand jury indicted a state employee Tuesday, charging her with manipulating the process of awarding a state travel contract to ensure it went to a company whose officials gave heavily to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle’s election campaign.
Growth in high-tech exports is happening faster in Wisconsin than in other Midwestern states, a report tracking the state’s economic progress says.
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Of Wisconsin’s $12.7 billion in total exports in 2004, about $2.6 billion, or nearly 21%, were high-tech products and services, according to the report “Business, Finance & Entrepreneurship in Wisconsin: Shaping the New Wisconsin Economy
The state Assembly on Tuesday approved a bill that would provide an income and franchise tax credit to businesses that pay tuition costs for their employees.
A state Department of Administration official was indicted Tuesday on felony fraud charges in connection with a state travel contract valued at $750,000.
Georgia Thompson, 55, a purchasing division supervisor with the state Department of Administration, has been charged with two federal felonies: causing misapplication of funds and participating in a scheme to defraud the State of Wisconsin of the right to honest services.
While it’s still more than four years away, Portage Junior High School eighth-graders Mackenzie Bornick and Melissa Koch say they are already thinking about where they’d like to go to college — and how they and their families will pay for it.
That’s why both girls say they would support Gov. Jim Doyle’s new education plan, dubbed the “Wisconsin Covenant,” which aims to alleviate the financial burden on families trying to send their children to college.
Wisconsin’s national rank for venture capital investment – a common yardstick for entrepreneurialism and economic innovation in a regional economy – dropped to 35th last year from 26th in 2004, according to a survey released Monday.
A team of nationally known education researchers has unveiled an ambitious plan to study the impact of the private school voucher program in Milwaukee.
The study would be conducted by the School Choice Demonstration Project at Georgetown University, with Patrick Wolf, a well-known researcher in education policy, as the lead figure. Jay Greene, a professor at the University of Arkansas who has written numerous research works favorable to voucher programs, would be a partner with Wolf, as would University of Wisconsin-Madison professor John Witte, who was the main researcher in the studies in the early 1990s and who is regarded as more neutral on the merits of voucher
The U.S. Attorney�s Office has officially begun an investigation into whether a state contract was unfairly awarded to a company whose top officials donated money to Gov. Jim Doyle�s campaign fund.
A federal grand jury in Milwaukee is reviewing the controversial decision to award a major state travel contract to one of Gov. Jim Doyle’s campaign donors, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
….According to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the grand jury has heard testimony from UW officials involved in the contract decision, some of whom have said they felt political pressure to award the contract to Adelman (Travel).
A federal grand jury is investigating the decision to award a state travel contract to a company whose officials contributed heavily to Gov. Jim Doyle’s campaign, according to a witness who testified before the panel and a source familiar with the investigation.
Doyle’s plan, dubbed the “Wisconsin Covenant,” would let eighth-graders whose families meet certain income requirements sign a pledge promising they will take college-prep courses, maintain a high grade-point average and be good citizens. Then, when those students are ready for college and all other aid is exhausted, the state will cover whatever tuition gap remains through grants, subsidized loans or work-study jobs at any University of Wisconsin System campus that accepts them.
The Emerald Isle certainly has lessons to teach Wisconsin about economic development and the key role education plays in a healthy economy, as Gov. Jim Doyle, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Tim Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, and other area leaders learned on a recent trip to Ireland.
Milwaukee businessman Michael Cudahy, who organized the trip, called it a “wakeup call.” University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Chancellor Carlos Santiago said he was astonished by some of the things he learned. All apparently came away with the idea that education is the single most important factor in transforming an economy. That’s an idea they need to spread.
The other day, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Chancellor Carlos Santiago repeated his pet theme: The campus must step up the amount of research it does, from $39 million annually now to $100 million in 10 years. This time, however, Santiago unveiled a strategy to help meet that goal.
Authorities have convened a federal grand jury to review whether campaign donations to Gov. Jim Doyle played a role in the state awarding a $750,000 contract to Adelman Travel.
As part of the same investigation, officials are looking into political contributions made around the time the state approved the sale of a nuclear power plant, a source familiar with the inquiries said Saturday.
Once a universally-divisive topic, public and political sentiment against stem-cell research may slowly be eroding, according to state politicians and recent local and national political developments.
Gov. Jim Doyle�s State of the State speech highlighted stem-cell research as a vital component of the university�s mission and a hot economic prospect for the state.
The University of Wisconsin Alumni Association wants to take an active stance in the state government by creating a petition against further state budget cuts.
Rachel Chizek, a 21-year-old biochemistry major at Lakeland College, wants to work with DNA when she graduates in 2007, but is worried she’ll have to leave Wisconsin to do that.
But according to Michael Morgan, Wisconsin secretary of revenue, the state aims to create new jobs in the biotechnological field so future graduates such as Chizek won’t have to leave the state to work in their field.
A Kerry-for-President sign improperly hung in the front window of a Madison condominium a few days before the 2004 election will probably change a state law.
Because of the sign, put up by University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Diana Hess, the state Senate on Thursday passed a bill (SB 350) telling condominium associations they cannot prohibit political signs.
The bill would allow condo by-laws to regulate the size and location of political signs, however.
Amid party friends and political foes, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle delivered his 2006 State of the State address at the State Capitol Tuesday, officially unveiling an ââ?¬Å?affordability agendaââ?¬Â intended to keep Wisconsin moving forward.
After an affirmative vote by the Wisconsin state Senate, the Assembly approved a resolution Tuesday honoring Barry Alvarez for his outstanding achievements as head football coach of the University of Wisconsin Badgers.
State lawmakers praised retiring UW-Madison football coach Barry Alvarez on Tuesday with resolutions honoring his 16-year tenure.
Gov. Jim Doyle’s State of the State speech Tuesday night was a grab bag of relatively benign yet popular proposals designed to help him win re-election this fall.
Doyle occasionally inspired, as with his forceful support of stem-cell research. He’s right that politics should not stand in the way of this blossoming technology that UW-Madison hatched and continues to hone.
Since late December, more than 500 UW-Madison alumni have signed a petition asking lawmakers to spare the university from further budget cuts, and organizers hope to add more signatures over the next several months leading up to a new two-year state budget.
It appears likely that the girls and boys state swimming meets will have a new home as early as this fall.
Last Friday the WIAA Board of Control approved a recommendation by the swimming and diving coaches advisory committee to examine a potential move of the State Championship meet to Waukesha South High School.
….The WIAA has held its boys state meet at the University of Wisconsin Natatorium since 1966 and the girls meet at the Nat since 1978.
