(AP) — Two years ago, when twins Ruth and Amanda Leppard decided to live at home while attending the nearby University of Central Florida, the whole family got together to talk about what would — and wouldn’t — change from high school
(MADISON) Public vaccinations helped stem the spread of certain childhood diseases. Now, some health experts think it may be time for a similar concerted effort to help kids to trim down. Tuesday night (7/19), the University of Wisconsin Medical School is holding a free public seminar entitled ââ?¬Å?Confronting the Childhood Obesity Epidemic.ââ?¬Â
On the second floor of Yury Verlinsky’s Reproductive Genetics Institute, located in downtown Chicago across the street from a mattress store, there is a room full of metal kegs where thousands of embryos chill in liquid nitrogen.
Over the past three years, researchers working for Dr. Verlinsky say they have used up hundreds of those embryos to make more than 125 supplies of embryonic stem cells — nearly as many supplies as exist in the rest of the world. As a technician uses an insulated blue glove to scrape steaming frost off a long rack of test tubes, Dr. Verlinsky says proudly that inside, “It’s all stem cells. A lot of stem cells!”
Gov. Jim Doyle announced today he will use his veto pen to restore more than $11 million in student aids and more than $35 million in general state funding for the University of Wisconsin that had been cut by Republican lawmakers.
After two consecutive budgets without funding increases, schools in the University of Wisconsin System are not in the position to absorb a third budget hit in the future, the system president said Friday in River Falls.
UW System President Kevin Reilly added, however, that the University of Wisconsin-River Falls is in a position to flourish in the years ahead as it capitalizes on growth in the region.
Hector DeLuca takes pride in his vegetable garden.
“I had a great spinach crop,” he boasts, explaining with quiet pleasure how he mixed the dark green leaves with ricotta and spooned it into his handmade ravioli.
Madison is on the right track with its effort to ensure a safer and saner Halloween bash on State Street this fall. Officials should continue to focus on establishing standards of behavior, encouraging swift and absolute enforcement of those standards, and creating a well-lit, well-policed environment that discourages mayhem.
Quoted: UW-Madison journalism professor Michelle Nelson, an expert in consumer psychology.
Quoted: Phil Pellitteri, an extension entomologist at UW-Madison
Recently Wisconsin legislators passed a bill drafted by Rep. Daniel LeMahieu that prevents University of Wisconsin health centers from providing students with emergency contraception.
LeMahieu apparently wrote the bill after seeing an ad on a UW-Madison campus that advised students to wear sunscreen, limit alcohol intake and practice safe sex on spring break. That seems reasonable enough.
MADISON, Wis. — Police are looking for two men who attacked two women in the 100 block of East Gilman Street early Saturday.
The women, both UW studetns, were walking down the street around 3:30 a.m. when they saw two men walking parellel to them who disappeared for a while and then attacked them from behind.
Quoted: James Danky, a professor who teaches a journalism course on mass media and minorities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: UW-Madison business professor Barry Gerhart
Who’s up for some granola?
OK, not everybody. But even if you’re not a health nut, what would you think if it was shaped like a tart, filled with strawberry-flavored yogurt, then topped with strawberries and blueberries?
Food science students at UW-Madison are betting they can persuade a few important people this weekend, when they present that concoction at a prestigious industry competition in New Orleans.
David Mead says one of the challenges he faces at work is his tendency to bring his own biases into the decisions he has to make.
“It’s something I know I have to work on,” he said.
Mead, president of Lucigen Corp., a biotech company based in Middleton, is one of several Wisconsin executives who are learning business skills through a networking program called PeerSpectives.
Created by the Small Business Development Center at UW-Extension in 2004, PeerSpectives is a peer-to-peer education program that brings together executives from emerging small businesses to share their experiences and help each other with professional as well as personal challenges.
Public trust in our courts – which can lock people behind bars for the rest of their lives – is nothing to take lightly.
And in a few unusual cases, Wisconsin courts have made terrible mistakes, damaging the justice system’s reputation for fairness.
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich earmarked $10 million in state grants to facilities for stem cell research, which he said is an important step toward curing some diseases. President Bush has put restrictions on federal funding for the research.
Madison has had its turn. Now the suburbs of Dane County are being recognized as among the country’s best places to live.
Middleton came in seventh Monday on a list released by CNN and Money Magazine, which “spent months looking for Great American Towns – where you would want to raise your children and celebrate life’s milestones,” according to their Web site.
The state Supreme Court today ordered a new trial for Ralph Armstrong, convicted in the 1980 rape and murder of UW-Madison student Charise Kamps.
Armstrong, 52, who is serving a life sentence after his 1981 conviction, has sought a new trial for 12 years, claiming that new evidence in the case warrants it.
MADISON, Wis. — Chronic wasting disease has been in the U.S. deer herd for at least the past 30 years. Questions about why it got there and how it spreads have been around for just as long.
Experts on the disease gather in Madison this week to share their research on the disease found in the Wisconsin herd in February 2002, the first time it was discovered east of the Mississippi. The symposium of researchers, academics and wildlife officials will give them a chance to swap information and strategies on a disease that has spread beyond the Colorado areas where it was first discovered.
“In some respects, we know so much more than we did 10 years ago,” said Debbie McKenzie, a senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Science and a chair of a panel this week on the prions linked to CWD.
MADISON ââ?¬â? Three years after chronic wasting disease was first detected among the stateââ?¬â?¢s white-tailed deer herds, wildlife managers say Wisconsin is a national leader in CWD research and management.
That reputation has a chance to expand globally when the second annual International Chronic Wasting Disease Symposium convenes in Madison today through Thursday. More than 300 wildlife management specialists and researchers from 40 states and eight countries have pre-registered for the event.
MADISON ââ?¬â? Three years after chronic wasting disease was first detected among the stateââ?¬â?¢s white-tailed deer herds, wildlife managers say Wisconsin is a national leader in CWD research and management.
That reputation has a chance to expand globally when the second annual International Chronic Wasting Disease Symposium convenes in Madison today through Thursday. More than 300 wildlife management specialists and researchers from 40 states and eight countries have pre-registered for the event.
Madison: If you’re not sweatin’, you’re not working. That may be a fine mantra for wrestlers at the Wisconsin Team Camp, but athletic trainers are always on hand to make sure athletes don’t take it too far, especially when the heat index is high.
“We have health staff at all the camps and the counselors and the coaches have a close eye on the kids to make sure they’re able to participate and hydrated,” says UW Summer Camp Health Coordinator Andy Hrodey.
(MADISON) Enrollment keeps growing at the University of Wisconsin but in the past couple budgets, state support has fallen flat. One UW Regent thinks it may be time to consider some type of enrollment cap.
A state audit released last year found the number of full-time students at the University had grown by more than 10,000 in only six years. State aid to the University also grew over that time, but not as fast as enrollment. It�s left to students to pick up a bigger share of the cost of their education. (Third item.)
A controversial budget provision that would force non-union state employees to contribute to their retirement is being questioned by a top pension official.
In a letter to Assembly Speaker John Gard, Employee Trust Funds Secretary Eric Stanchfield noted that the Legislature’s Joint Survey Committee on Retirement Systems must review and approve any policy changes to the state retirement system.
The University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics ranked among the top 50 major U.S. teaching hospitals in a range of medical specialties for the 13th year in a row.
In 1960, she became a Research Assistant at the Institute of Governmental Affairs at the University of Wisconsin. Her main job was to prepare materials for and help supervise the Badger Girls State Program. She also edited publications for the department.
Faculty inventions generated $11.6 million in licensing fees and royalties for the region’s three research universities during fiscal 2004 and enabled the schools to launch 19 start-up companies.
The University of Wisconsin established its research office in 1937 and earned $37.5 million in 2003.
Quoted: Geoffrey Borman, an education professor and summer-learning-loss expert at the University of Wisconsin.
Concerns over poor morale and leadership at University Health Services that surfaced during a recent investigation of sexual harassment charges against a top clinic director have prompted UW-Madison officials to hire an outside consultant to begin a broader investigation next week.
UHS is the campus health clinic that serves UW-Madison students. It has four directors who report to UHS Executive Director Kathleen Poi, including clinical services director Dr. Scott Spear, who was investigated and cleared of charges that he harassed medical students who worked at the clinic as part of their training.
A Minneapolis biotech company plans to open shop in the Madison area, with a factory and headquarters that could employ more than 200 people in two years.
Excorp Medical – an ambitious 9-year old company that also is establishing a branch in China – has developed technology that uses pig liver cells to cleanse toxins from the blood of people whose livers are too diseased to function.
MADISON – A group of Republican lawmakers asked Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager on Friday to take over an investigation into the employment of a University of Wisconsin-Madison administrator who looked for another job while on paid sick leave.
MADISON, Wis. – Badger sous chefs A.J. Klein and Brian Rizzo earned a bronze medal at the Annual Wisconsin Restaurant Association Trade Show in Milwaukee earlier this year. The show caters to restaurant owners and chefs from the state and around the Midwest. (Athletic Communication.)
UW-Madison researchers will get $20 million over the next five years to be part of a national effort to determine how proteins work and what roles they play in health and disease.
The work could one day help scientists better understand and combat diseases, although the immediate task is to map the molecular structure of the proteins, said George Phillips, a biochemist at UW-Madison and one of three principal researchers.
I went to a pre-college camp this summer at UW-River Falls and learned a lot about preparing for college in the future. I want to thank the state politicians for budgeting money for pre-college camps for Wisconsin kids.
Quoted: Casey Schumann, one of the authors of the new report and a graduate student in the Population Health Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
While eating breakfast in a residence hall in London, UW- Madison senior Mike Lehrman didn’t think anything of an early morning fire alarm.
Then he arrived at his summer class at the London School of Economics to find some of his classmates were missing.
Madison travelers headed to international flights Thursday said they were sorry to hear about the London attacks but saw no reason to change their plans.
A 7-percent hike in tuition at University of Wisconsin System schools this fall should hardly be considered modest.
Yet it’s welcome relief compared to the double- digit increases of the past couple of years. And given that state leaders are skimping on state support for higher education, the 7- percent increase is about as low as could be expected.
It has been 15 months since Barry Alvarez assumed the dual role of University of Wisconsin athletic director and football coach, yet he still has a contract for only one of those jobs.
Alvarez ranked among the highest-paid coaches in NCAA Division I-A with a salary of $1.585 million in 2004-05.
UW-Madison professor Lewis Keith Cohen will enter a plea and face sentencing July 26 in Milwaukee on charges involving his alleged attempt to meet a 14-year-old boy for sex in Greendale, according to the current court docket.
Meanwhile, a formal university investigation of Cohen’s actions that was promised in March has yet to begin, university officials said Tuesday. Cohen, 60, a professor of comparative literature, remains on paid leave at UW-Madison, where he earns $72,856 a year.
MADISON, Wis. – The Assembly signed off Tuesday on changes the Senate made to the state budget to create a new tax credit for those who adopt, force some state employees to pay into retirement funds and cut an additional $1 million from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
She graduated with honors from Earlham College in 1998 and finished her graduate work in the Urban and Regional Planning Department at the University of Wisconsin this spring. In recognition of her contributions to the department, Jessica received the Outstanding Student of the Year award from the Urban Planning faculty.
As if some Wisconsin legislators haven’t embarrassed our state enough with support for recent proposals such as free lunches for lawmakers and kitty killing, they are at it again with legislation to allow health care workers to opt out of certain medical services and to ban prescriptions for the “morning-after pill” at University of Wisconsin System health clinics.
It might not be a Profile in Courage moment, but letââ?¬â?¢s give Rep. Gregg Underheim an ââ?¬Å?att-a-boyââ?¬Â for having the courage of his convictions.
During the debate in the state assembly on human cloning and stem cell research, Underheim departed from his Republican colleagues to oppose the legislation sponsored by Rep. Steve Kestell, R-Elk Lake. Kestell�s bill, which passed along party lines, would create the strictest ban on human cloning in the nation.
Gaylord A. Nelson, former Wisconsin governor and U.S. senator who founded Earth Day and launched a new wave of environmental activism, died Sunday at his home in Kensington, Md.
Quoted: Dennis Dresang, professor of political science and public affairs at the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Ten cows died from malnutrition this past winter at a special research farm run by UW-Madison located near New Glarus, Wis. A technician who was in charge of caring for the herd has resigned and a faculty member who oversaw the care of the cattle has been suspended from caring for animals.
Construction continues at a furious pace at Camp Randall Stadium as crews finish up projects and begin the cleanup phase in several areas. (Athletic Communications.)
Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, a University of Wisconsin-Madison economics professor.
Quoted: Helen Harrison, Ph.D., professor of horticulture at the University of Wisconsin.
Quoted: Sean B. Carroll, a leading molecular biologist and geneticist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Quoted: Robert Drechsel, professor of journalism and law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Julie H. Simpson, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin
Quoted: Michel Guillot, a demographer and sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: John Hendrickson, senior outreach specialist for the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems at the University of Wisconsin
Quoted: University of Wisconsin fisheries biologist Zeb Hogan.
Quoted: Timothy Kamp, associate professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison
Quoted: David Shaffer, assistant professor of learning science at UW- Madison
Quoted: Scott Adams, a University of Wisconsin economics professor
