Check out the entire package on Madison life from 9 to 5 — that’s 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. — for a timeline, plus the full list of stories, photos and videos.
Nine to 5. The very numbers either spark feelings of dreary routine or a convenient predictability. At least they do when they don’t make you think of the Dolly Parton song.
(Includes 9 p.m. stop at the Kohl Center and 5 a.m. visit to the university’s Dairy Cattle Center.)
The retired University of Wisconsin-Madison computer science professor who runs Microsoft Corp.’s advanced computer lab in Madison says the recent layoffs announced by the software giant will not negatively impact the local facility.
Two University of Wisconsin graduates combined their expertise in economics and mathematics to create a website to help consumers find the best deals on groceries in Madison.
A fund at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health created from the for-profit conversion of Blue Cross and Blue Shield United of Wisconsin is reducing its grants by 15 percent to 20 percent because the value of its endowment has declined.
UW-Madison’s College of Engineering would like to find a sponsor or group of sponsors to endow its popular and successful automotive programs.
Three letters address the abortion clinic controversy.
The University of Wisconsin Foundation’s endowment fund increased 5.5% from 2007 to 2008, according to a new survey released Tuesday morning.
The survey was conducted by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and Commonfund Inc., a Connecticut nonprofit. The survey covered 435 schools and was the first real snapshot of the financial health of endowments in the midst of a recession.
Name a fire, any big Madison fire, and chances are Tom Colby was there to investigate it.
Colby, a Madison police detective who mostly focused on financial crimes, fire, arson and explosions, retired this month after 36 years on the job, almost 26 as a detective.
Plaques with team photos from her days as a coach hang on a wall in Dawn Crim’s office on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
But today her office is not nearly as plush as the modern digs she had at the state-of-the-art Kohl Center a decade ago when she was the top assistant under then-UW women’s basketball coach Jane Albright. Instead, she works out of the basement of aging Bascom Hall, with her office sitting directly below that of Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin.
Crim, a native of Philadelphia and former University of Virginia basketball standout, was named the new special assistant to the chancellor for community relations in December.
We appreciate the sense of urgency that everyone has over how Wisconsin will spend its share of the much-anticipated federal economic stimulus money.
But at the same time we think there needs to be some legislative oversight over who will head up the new state agency that will be in charge of spending all this money heading for Wisconsin.
Madison fire officials tell 27 News a couple hundred people were evacuated from UW’s Helen C. White Library after an overheated computer created a smoky smell.
The library is located at 600 N. Park St. in Madison.
The smell has been taken care of and everyone has been allowed back in the building.
Jim Meier, co-owner of Badger Bus, said Monday night he plans to use the new Union South as a bus pickup, replacing the current Madison Badger Bus Depot.
Palestinian journalist Amira Hanania was in Madison Monday night, fresh from spending four weeks reporting on the war in Gaza.
“I think I am the only Palestinian journalist who has ever been ice fishing,” she said to laughter after she was introduced to a crowd of about 500 for her Distinguished Lecture Series talk in the Wisconsin Union Theater.
Hanania, 27, was the lead journalist for the Ma’an News Agency, the only independent news network in the Palestinian territories.
According to a recent estimate, Wisconsin could receive $3.5 billion from the U.S. House of Representativesâ?? federal economic-stimulus proposal.
Gov. Jim Doyle signed an executive order Friday creating a new office to advise officials on how to spend the potentially billions in federal stimulus money the state is expected to receive from President Barack Obamaâ??s administration in the coming months.
Gov. Jim Doyle has created a new office to oversee the massive distribution of federal economic stimulus money that is expected to flow to the state.
The Office of Recovery and Reinvestment also will look for ways to send the funds quickly to schools, local governments, and companies by speeding the regulatory process while still keeping environmental and quality standards, Doyle said.
Faculty, students and members of the Madison community met Thursday for the fourth economic brainstorming forum led by UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin. The open assemblies provide a unique opportunity to discuss ideas held by those who are affected by the state budget deficit.
The strong smell of natural gas seeped into buildings on the west side of campus Thursday morning due to a major gas main bursting.
University of Wisconsin Chancellor Biddy Martin hosted the fourth public forum on the budget crisis at Grainger Hall Thursday night, fielding ideas from over 60 UW staff, students and local community members.
A natural gas leak was contained Thursday afternoon after a main was punctured during a routine excavation project east of the Bioengineering Building on the University of Wisconsin campus.
The city of Madison and University of Wisconsin-Madison officials have made little progress in fulfilling the goals of a plan a neighborhood group rolled out one year ago to cut down on alcohol-fueled crime and other disturbances Downtown.
Madison Fire officials say a construction site accident is to blame for the gas leak that evacuated several buildings on the UW Campus Thursday morning.
Construction crews were on the site of an addition to the Bio Chemical Building on Babcock Drive replacing a new sewer when the water line broke around 11:00 a.m.
Nearby roads and buildings have been reopened after significant gas and water main leaks on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus prompted authorities to evacuate people and shut down traffic on University Avenue, UW police said.
Thanks to Meryn Stol, for pointing me to what could be a world changing enterprise for food sourcing. As reported in World Changing, The Food Map, a project from two graduate students from University of Wisconsin, Madison, aims to shed some light on the U.S. food network. Currently in a very raw form, Food Map is using the example of two brands of mac and cheese to demonstrate how it would work on a larger scale.
The Madison Fire Department responded to a call from the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery construction site on campus Wednesday morning after a truck containing waterproofing materials lit on fire and caused traffic problems on University Avenue.
The U.S. Department of Justice has given a $300,000 grant to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a project to help address the causes of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.
The grant was announced Thursday.
The UW-Madison project, “Community Problems, Community Solutions: Building Capacity to End Violence Against Women at UW-Madison,” is one of 21 projects receiving a grant from the Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women.
A portion of University Avenue was blocked near Camp Randall around the noon hour as firefighters battled a fire on a truck containing waterproof materials.
The Madison Fire Department said a box truck at a construction site at 333 N. Orchard St. and University Avenue ignited. Firefighters saw 10-foot flames when they arrived.
Madison police are looking for a man who was spotted “performing an act of sexual gratification” outside a UW-Madison sorority Tuesday afternoon.
With the demise of Union South, ends the official fun and games on the UW-Madison campus.
Goodbye to the eight-lane bowling alley, nine pool tables, table tennis, foosball, video arcade and more. The main games room on campus shut down with the 38-year old student union last month, doomed to meet the wrecking ball.
Jeffrey Skiles, the Oregon co-pilot and UW-Madison alumnus who helped safely land a jetliner on New York City’s Hudson River last week, reportedly will attend Tuesdya’s inauguration and an inaugural ball along with his wife, Barbara, after receiving a personal invitation from President-elect Barack Obama.
Noted: Mr. Skiles, who has worked for US Airways for 23 years, grew up in a family of aviators. Both his father, James, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and his mother, Deloris, a housewife, were trained pilots and owned a single-engine plane that they flew as far as Alaska.
The announcement of the stateâ??s budget deficit in late November prompted UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin to address the situation through a series of forums Dec. 12 to 16.
Several UW-Madison campus building construction projects are underway as the new year commences and will eventually provide numerous benefits for UW-Madison students and faculty.
Noted: Ms. Bartz was largely raised by her grandmother in Wisconsin after the death of her mother when she was 8. She paid her way through two years at a small college in Missouri serving food in the campus cafeteria and then transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to major in computer science. There she endured all that comes with a cocktail waitress job in which she had to wear a red miniskirt, fishnet stockings and a red feather in her hair, according to a profile of her in More magazine.
The parents and fiance of Brittany Zimmermann sued Dane County, County Executive Kathleen Falk and former 911 dispatcher Rita Gahagan on Tuesday, alleging that their negligence led to Zimmermann’s murder in her Downtown apartment last year.
Spouting quotes from Vince Lombardi and channeling the spirit of Mr. Rogers, neighbors Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Tuesday they’d work together to find savings to help solve massive budget deficits in both states.
Colleges and universities in Wisconsin, like their counterparts nationwide, are dealing with the effects of the economic downturn. All have had precipitous drops in their endowments since last summer, ranging from 18% at places such as Viterbo University to 35% at Beloit College.
Meanwhile, some have seen enrollments or annual fund raising decline. Others are bracing for potentially huge state budget cuts.
Chalk up another chief executive spot in a major corporation for graduates of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Yahoo! has confirmed a report in the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch that said the embattled online services company has replaced controversial CEO Jerry Yang with Carol Bartz, who recently has been serving as executive chair of Autodesk.
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will announce plans today to seek mutual savings to help solve each state’s massive budget shortfall.
“This has to do with finding efficiencies,” Doyle spokesman Lee Sensenbrenner said. “We’re all looking for good ways to save money.”
A new online tool that allows members of the public to monitor crime in their neighborhoods is now available for Madison, though the information has some limitations.
Darren Kittleson’s early career path seemed to be headed for the dairy industry. He grew up milking cows on a farm near Mount Horeb, studied agriculture at UW-Madison and served as state president of the Future Farmers of America.
Nelson said the city currently has issued erosion control permits for about 40 commercial construction sites across the city, including several on the UW-Madison campus. He said that while the state Department of Commerce is responsible for erosion control regulations on most of the campus, the city regulates campus building sites south of University Avenue and west of Park Street.
The worldwide economic crisis is creating unprecedented challenges for fund raisers, but the new philanthropic landscape could also yield unexpected opportunities for higher-education institutions, university leaders from around the world were told at a three-day meeting here last week. The Global Conference on Fundraising and Grantmaking for Universities, held at New York University’s George H. Heyman Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising, attracted top officials from universities in Asia, Canada, Europe, and South Africa.
Peterson’s suicide came as a bizarre surprise to Joel Marino’s parents.
“[It’s] hard to process a lot of this type of thing all at once, but as far as I’m concerned, he got just what he deserved,” said Lou Marino. “It never brings my son back, never will. We miss him.”
For months, Lou Marino said he’d been trying to get justice for his son by preparing arguments for Peterson’s February 26th sentencing. He says he wanted to make sure a judge did not grant Peterson early parole.
With almost certain state funding cuts coming down the pike, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin recently took the unusual step of holding campus forums to give faculty, students and staff a chance to float ideas on how best to absorb revenue reductions.
Perhaps even more unusual, people showed up — approximately 400 in all attended three mid-December forums, despite blistering cold and snow that, on one occasion, threatened to close down the university.
MADISON, Wis. AP — A judge ordered a more than 12-year prison sentence for a former University of Wisconsin student who went on to run a courier business bringing Canadian marijuana to Madison.
Thirty-three-year-old Reed Rogala from South Orange, New Jersey, was sentenced Tuesday in a case closely tied to the disappearance of a Fitchburg man four years ago.
MADISON, Wis. — The union that represents a former Dane County 911 dispatcher accused of mishandling an emergency call from a slain University of Wisconsin-Madison student shortly before she was killed will appeal her three-day suspension.
AFSCME Local 40 representative Larry Rodenstein told WISC-TV’s Linda Eggert that he just filed a grievance to the discipline, which was handed out Dec. 18 — about eight months after county officials said Rita Gahagan mishandled the April 2 call that came from Brittany Zimmermann’s cell phone. The call disconnected after one minute.
At the end point of a 10-year plan the University of Wisconsin System drafted to increase diversity at its 26 public colleges and universities, minority enrollment has crept upward.
But the numbers suggest the system remains far from equitable.
More than $1.5 million was raised in 2008 for need-based scholarships to the University of Wisconsin and Madison Area Technical College as part of a fundraising drive by the UW Credit Union.
When the legislature starts its new session, state Senator Pat Kreitlow (D-Chippewa Falls) says it’s obvious what priority number one will be: fixing the state’s $5.4 billion budget hole.
However, Kreitlow doesn’t think the deficit is really as big as has been advertised. He says the high number is essentially the result of a “Christmas wish list” from agencies throughout the state, which will drop as things are cut from the budget. Kreitlow also expects the deficit to drop the end of January, after the state gets its new revenue forecasts, trimmed down agency budgets and possible help from the Federal Government.
For eight years, a small Fitchburg, Wis., company has been working to create inexpensive portable sensors that detect deadly gases, pesticide exposure, even rotting fish and meat.
The challenge now is to perfect a product that companies and consumers want to buy.
The idea for the sensors grew out of a breakthrough made by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers in 2001. Working with tiny nanoparticles, UW-Madison scientist Nicholas Abbott and others created a sensor that has an ultra-thin layer of gold film coated with receptors that make it turn lighter or darker when it comes in contact with a targeted substance.
The Governor says lawmakers need to get the state budget out of the way as quickly as possible.
Wisconsin faces a $5.4 billion budget deficit for the next biennium, and Governor Jim Doyle says it only hurts the state if lawmakers take too long to address the issue. He says there’s no way to avoid a terrible budget, and it’s not going to get easier if they just sit aroun
MADISON (WKOW) — from Madison PD: Madison police are investigating a home invasion and armed robbery just one block away from the Brittany Zimmermann murder scene.
For people whose New Year’s resolutions include going back to college, the two-year University of Wisconsin-Washington County has a contest that might make it easier, particularly in difficult economic times.
The school’s “Extreme Educational Makeover” contest will provide one winner with a free semester of classes, including tuition, fees and money for books – about a $2,600 value.
The Dane County 911 center communicator who mishandled a call from the cell phone of UW-Madison student and homicide victim Brittany Zimmermann will be suspended from her current county job in another department for three days without pay, officials said Friday.
Ninety students from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater will be able to study abroad over the next two years because of a $100,000 grant from the Institute for Study Abroad Foundation.
MADISON — For the first time in a generation Democrats control the Legislature and the governor’s office, but their ability to set the state’s agenda will be hamstrung by the overwhelming $5.4 billion budget shortfall.
“I think it’s going to be really ugly,” said Mordecai Lee, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a former Democratic state lawmaker.
The Legislature begins its 2009 session on Jan. 5.
The 911 dispatcher who handled an April 2 call from the cell phone of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student who was slain will serve a three-day unpaid suspension because of the incident, officials said Friday.
MADISON, Wis. — A 911 dispatcher accused of mishandling a 911 call apparently made by a slain University of Wisconsin-Madison student sometime before she was killed will be suspended without pay for three days in connection with the incident.
Dear Editor: In tough economic times, it would seem fair for University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema to do what Ted Williams, the Boston Red Sox slugger, once did after having a bad season. He asked that his salary be reduced for the next year.
It would say a lot for accountability at the UW and elsewhere.
John Murphy
Madison
