State Senate Republicans gave preliminary approval Friday of a budget-repair bill that eliminates most collective bargaining for public unions, but they were unable to send the bill to Gov. Scott Walker because of a weeklong boycott of the session by Democrats.
Massive demonstrations on the Capitol Square have forced the Madison Winter Festival to be moved to the UW-Madison Memorial Union?s terrace, with everything except two events canceled. The only two events that will be held are snow carving and the rail jam snowboard competition.
The future of a major UW-Madison science center — the Synchrotron Radiation Center — is in jeopardy after it was targeted to lose its annual federal funding under President Barack Obama?s proposed budget. The facility — a baseball diamond-sized electron accelerator in Stoughton — attracts researchers from all over the world and has contributed to the science of computer chips, Alzheimer?s disease and fuel sources, according to Synchrotron scientists.
The future of a major UW-Madison science center — the Synchrotron Radiation Center — is in jeopardy after it was targeted to lose its annual federal funding under President Barack Obama?s proposed budget.
For the past quarter century, no name — save that of his former boss, Ronald Reagan — has been more consistently associated with the word ?conservative? than that of David Keene. As chairman since 1984 of the American Conservative Union, he has counseled presidents, and challenged them; put issues on the agenda, shaped debates and organized the biggest annual gathering of the right.
….Keene?s taking over as president of the National Rifle Association — Charlton Heston?s old gig. Not bad for a kid from Fort Atkinson who entered the political fray as Madison?s noisiest conservative back in the 1960s.
No. 1 on our list: Madison, Wisc. Both a state capital and a college town (home to the University of Wisconsin), it is tops in volunteering (a full 40% of the adult population), No. 7 in the Bicycling magazine ranking and No. 6 in doctors per capita.
Somebody vandalized the replica of the Statue of Liberty that annually protrudes from the icy surface of Lake Mendota for the UW-Madison Hoofers Winter Carnival.
Oates met her husband, Raymond Smith, editor of the highly regarded literary journal The Ontario Review, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and married in 1961.
A controversial plan to privatize state-owned power plants, a plan that last caused a stir in 2005 before being vetoed by then-Gov. Jim Doyle, has been revived by Gov. Scott Walker in his budget bill. The provision would give the state Department of Administration the authority to sell the plants or contract for their operation. The proposal calls for net profits from the sale of the plants to be deposited in the budget stabilization fund. In 2005, a Republican-approved budget included a provision to sell all of the state?s 32 heating and cooling plants, including the Charter Street plant, which provides service to UW-Madison.
A University of Denver student who is the son of a prominent Wisconsin family has died from injuries he suffered in a skiing accident in January, authorities reported. The Summit County coroner?s office says 21-year-old Joe Lubar of Milwaukee died Friday at St. Anthony?s Central Hospital in Denver. Joe Lubar is the son of David and Madeleine Lubar and a grandson of Sheldon and Marianne Lubar, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. In 2006, Sheldon Lubar donated $10 million to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee?s School of Business Administration, which now bears his name, the paper said.
Gov. Scott Walker introduced a budget repair bill Friday morning that detailed sweeping changes to state employee contributions to pension and health insurance premiums, causing uproar in the public union leadership who took the bill as an attack on more than 50 years of organized labor progress.
A new bill designed to repair the current budget shortfall in Wisconsin proposes the elimination of most collective bargaining rights for state employees, but base wage negotiations would remain intact.
In some ways, Jeremi Suri, of Madison, Wis., knows Henry Kissinger as well as anyone on Earth. Dr. Suri teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on American history and American foreign relations, and his book “Henry Kissinger and the American Century” was published in 2007 by Harvard University Press.
With a successful revolution, Egyptians are feeling triumph all around the world, including some students at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The daughter of Czech immigrants, Martha Pavcek lived simply and apparently frugally. She taught in Milwaukee schools for many years and never married. You wouldn?t take her for a multimillionaire. Yet the University of Wisconsin Foundation has just announced that Martha left $2.7 million to the school in her estate.
To the Editor: Richard Powers ?What Is Artificial Intelligence?,? Op-Ed, Feb. 6 describes I.B.M.?s remarkable achievement in Watson, an artificial intelligence system that is challenging the best human ?Jeopardy!? champions. (Bill HibbardStoughton, Wis., Feb. 6, 2011The writer is emeritus senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.)
UW-Madison announced this week that it plans to hire Huron Consulting Group ? a firm under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for misrepresenting its finances ? to conduct a study on the efficiency of the university. Huron is also the lead contractor on an $81 million computer project for the UW System. Darrell Bazzell, UW-Madison?s vice chancellor for administration, said a committee recommended Huron after a traditional process to request proposals.
PwC staff auditor Steve Beguhn is back to checking debits and credits after American Idol judges cut his Hollywood dream short.
A 28-year-old Seattle man was arrested after he allegedly beat up a 31-year-old Madison man inside a campus area bar. William Eller was tentatively charged with substantial battery following his arrest after the incident Saturday night at Brothers, 704 University Ave., the Madison Police Department reported.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents is slated to review and vote on several UW facility projects during meetings today and Friday.
Noted: Leilani Neumann?s attorney, Byron Lichstein, wrote that jurors were incorrectly told at her May 2009 trial that she had an absolute duty to provide conventional medical attention to her children and that her religious beliefs could not shield her from conviction, according to documents. Lichstein, the director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison law school?s Criminal Appeals Project, said her trial attorney, Gene Linehan, should have objected when the jury was told this.
To the Editor: You examine the declining participation of American high school students in science fairs. The primary reason for this decline is our increasingly sports-obsessed culture, not the curriculum. (Janet E. Mertz is a professor of oncology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.)
A 31-year-old Madison man was injured and two men were arrested early Wednesday morning in a bar fight on University Avenue, Madison police reported. The fight was reported at 12:15 a.m. at Vintage Bar, 529 University Ave., police said.
Several UW-Madison facilities projects are on the agenda for approval at the UW Board of Regents meeting on Thursday and Friday.
….UW Arboretum donation: Loyal and Bernice Durand, UW-Madison professors emeriti, want to donate six acres of undeveloped woodland in the town of Cross Plains to the UW Arboretum. The land is adjacent to a nature conservancy already owned by the university. The gift is valued at about $350,000.
After watching a slow moving car strike a parked car near Memorial Union on Monday night, a witness persuaded the driver ? who was later arrested for drunken driving ? to take the keys out of the ignition so no one else would be put in danger, Madison police reported.
The 1100 block of Spring Street ? between North Mills and North Charter streets ? on the near west side will be closed to through traffic through Feb. 18 so crews can work on underground utilities.
After months of negotiation among committee members, the University of Wisconsin Faculty Senate adopted an advisory committee?s principles and proposals for the New Badger Partnership and Chancellor Biddy Martin announced her intention to hire a consultant firm to review UW?s administrative structure.
The UW-Madison Faculty Senate adopted the principles of the New Badger Partnership and discussed various university committee proposals Monday.
Fundraising at the University of Wisconsin-Madison continued its decline in 2010, and the school?s ranking dropped to 12th among the nation?s top 20 colleges and universities, according to a report released last week.
UW-Madison may have routed Indiana University 83-20 during the football season, but IU outraised UW-Madison by over $30 million in private donations during 2010, according to the Voluntary Support of Education Survey.
While University of Wisconsin alumni and Badger enthusiasts in general are known for making generous donations to support their alma mater, the results of a recent survey suggest that tough economic times may have affected funds received in 2010.
Playing with a play gun inside a car caused a real commotion in the UW-Madison campus area Saturday night, with officers ordering the car?s occupants out of the car at gunpoint, Madison police reported. The gun turned out to be a BB pistol.
UW-Madison was among the national leaders in private funds raised during the 2010 fiscal year according to the annual Voluntary Support of Education Survey, which was released by the Council for Aid to Education on Wednesday.
The survey reports Wisconsin?s flagship institution brought in $311.8 million in gifts, ranking 12th nationally.
But that?s a decrease from a year ago, when UW-Madison raised $341.8 million and ranked 10th nationally in 2009. UW-Madison wasn’t alone in this regard.
Fundraising at the University of Wisconsin-Madison continued to decline in 2010, and the school?s ranking dropped to 12th among the nation?s top 20 colleges and universities, according to a report released Wednesday.
Although the governor signed four bills within his first month in office, political experts expect the State of the State address tonight to deal less with the governor?s successes and more with the economic challenges Wisconsin will be facing.
(This article first appeared in Sunday’s Wisconsin State Journal)
Andrew Leckel already was waking up with nightmares about his father?s second yearlong deployment in Iraq. One day he came home crying because his first-grade classmates had inadvertently fueled his fears by talking about soldiers being killed in the war. His mother, Heidi Leckel, says her son?s experiences underscore the need for parents, teachers, neighbors ? everyone ? to be more aware of how hard the long-running wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are hitting children of soldiers.
Mentioned: Laura Pettersen, a UW Extension employee who is project director for the state chapter of the Defense Department?s Operation Military Kids, which provided camps and support for 2,861 youth in 2010.
The UW Foundation grew by 13 percent between June of 2009 and June of 2010, after falling 23 percent the previous year according to a study done by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and the Commonfund Institution.
The University of Wisconsin has seen a drastic increase in the amount of private funds flowing into programs on campus though UW Foundation.
For a college, what?s the value of a tweet? Or a Facebook item and mention on a blog? In recent months, a handful of companies have introduced rankings that claim to calculate a college?s brand value or online influence by looking at the attention an institution receives online. One ranking found that the University of Wisconsin at Madison has the strongest brand equity among universities, based on its number of mentions across the Internet. Another named Stanford University the most influential college on Twitter.
Have the inevitable discussion about rising tuition with one of your well-informed peers, and chances are they?ll read you a veritable riot act of legislative abuses that the state?s flagship school did nothing to deserve: prison spending now totals roughly three-quarters of education funding, and state support of UW-Madison, currently hovering around 18 percent, is at an all-time low.
That?s the question Noel Radomski asks in a facebook comment. The UW education policy researcher may have terminated his mayoral campaign, but he still has a lot to say about UW:
Rice Lake native Steve Beguhn has appeared in several TV commercials promoting tonight?s “American Idol” episode featuring auditions in Milwaukee and also has his photo on the show?s official website. In college, he was a member of the acclaimed UW-Madison a cappella group the MadHatters.
Whether it?s the start of a recovery or the calm before the storm can?t be known yet. Whichever is the case, college and university business officers and investment managers will take it. The 2010 survey of endowments, released today by Commonfund and the National Association of College and University Business Officers, shows a solid rebound (to 11.9 percent, up from -18.7 percent in 2009) in the average return for the 850 institutions surveyed.
** President Barack Obama named UW-Madison professor Douglass Henderson one of 15 recipients of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.
** Rosa Clemente, a hip-hop activist and the 2008 Green Party vice-presidential candidate, is speaking on the UW-Madison campus Thursday night.
** Washington State University has lured a professor from UW-Madison out west to take an endowed chair in small grains economics funded by the Washington Grain Commission, according to Washington Ag Today. The report notes UW-Madison economist Randy Fortenbery will start his new post at Washington State in August.
It?s always nice to hear a voice from Madison ? an unelected voice, at that ? tell us what?s wrong with the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
A major donor to UConn?s athletic department, citing ?philosophical disagreements? with the university?s athletic director, is demanding that the program return $3-million in donations and has vowed to cease all future gifts to the Huskies, The Day reports.
In high school, he sang in the choir and played in the band and earned a B in advanced physics. At the University of Wisconsin, he got a bachelor?s degree in behavioral science ? good grounding for police work.
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin and a trumpet player in the university?s marching band, Baitinger, 48, started his career working at two Wisconsin municipalities before moving to the Dane County Sheriff?s Office in Madison, Wis., where he worked from 1988 to 1995.
Continuing a proud tradition of high marks on dubious university ranking lists, UW-Madison came in fourth on Klout?s list of the most influential colleges on Twitter, with a Klout Score of 64, just decimal points behind Harvard. As to what the hell a Klout Score even means, Klout has a fairly detailed explanation of how it measures tweets, retweets, follows, follow backs, true reach, and other social media nonsense that only seems relevant because UW is apparently awesome at it. Expect the hashtag #UWSocialMediaHouseParty to surface over the weekend as students celebrate the new title.
You probably haven?t been lying awake at night wondering what university has the most influence on Twitter.
A recurring issue is back up for discussion in the city of Madison. The Alcohol Licensing Committee is once again talking about the controversial density ordinance.
Madison?s Alcohol License Review Committee met Wednesday to consider whether to extend what?s been called a “new bar ban.”
A recurring issue is back up for discussion in the city of Madison. The Alcohol Licensing Committee is once again talking about the controversial density ordinance.
Dear Editor: It is amazing to me how some people who know nothing can spew rhetoric in total disregard of the facts. Regarding the issue before the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission of whether some people classified as academic staff are improperly classified to deny union membership, several letter writers have found against the unions just because they are anti-union. So too have Rep. Steve Nass, R-town of La Grange, and other legislators who have chosen to step in with legislation before the issue is adjudicated.
President Obama should get high marks from Wisconsinites for his decision to renominate former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler to serve as chief federal judge for the Western District of Wisconsin.
This is the third time that Obama has sent Butler?s name to the Senate, where Southern Republicans have used parliamentary maneuvers to block approval of a highly qualified African-American who would bring a wide range of legal and judicial experience, a demeanor that has been hailed by conservative and liberal jurists, and needed diversity to the bench.
….The veteran adjunct professor at Marquette University Law School and the current justice-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin Law School has skills so widely regarded that he has for many years been a faculty member of the National Judicial College, where he has provided education for judges from across the nation and around the world.
Stanford University?s Twitter feed is the most influential among college and university accounts on that microblogging service, according to a new ranking. UW-Madison ranks fourth.
The often maligned Madison Trust for Historic Preservation has hired a full-time executive director, and he?s on a mission to let the community know that historic preservation and development don?t have to be enemies.
….one of the trust?s most popular activities is the hosting of walking architectural tours downtown and on the isthmus during the summer. Tours include State Street, the Mansion Hill District, King Street, the University Heights Historic District, Bascom Hill, Backstage at the Orpheum and the East Isthmus Bicycle Tour.
Ellen F. Buck, age 91, longtime contributor to Madison social support networks, passed away Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011, at Fair View Nursing Home in Mauston after a brief illness. Ellen once taught at UW Extension.
A former UW-Madison student who jammed Madison police radios seven years ago was found guilty Wednesday night of possessing child pornography found on his home computer after police decrypted files they were unable to access for years.
Over the last two months, three American universities have been mopping up from data breaches, the largest–at Ohio State University–affecting 760,000 people. The University of Wisconsin-Madison?s security incident involved 60,000 people; and a St. Louis University breach affected staff employed by the university for five years or longer.
