Three powerful figures â?? all of them Democrats from the Madison area â?? could end up making the final decision on how up to hundreds of millions of dollars in federal stimulus money for Wisconsin is spent.
Under a budget bill fast-tracked to be passed by lawmakers as soon as Wednesday, Gov. Jim Doyle and the two co-chairmen of the Legislatureâ??s influential budget committee could decide how much of that money would be spent.
Academic research is a $1.1 billion enterprise in the state of Wisconsin, but the state and its businesses should be getting more bang for the buck from all that brain power.
Freshman applications are down at several University of Wisconsin campuses and a few private colleges in the state this year, reflecting a slowdown after years of growth and some impact of the struggling economy on students and parents.
UW-Madison’s freshman applications are down 5% from last year – the first time in five years that the university has seen a decrease, said Joanne Berg, registrar and vice provost for enrollment management.
College chiefs have to be careful to adopt the right tone when discussing the recession with trustees and professors. Carolyn A. (Biddy) Martin, new chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, describes how she navigated a series of public forums on the university’s financial situation. (Audio.)
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — An accounting professor fired for not showing up for a job at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire said Thursday his absence was the result of eye surgery and he planned to work there.
Philip Siegel said he gave up a job at Florida Atlantic University and moved near Eau Claire for the position last summer. He said he had a university office and computer, published papers under the school’s name and went to a national conference for accountants before his contract started in August.
An education professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison education believes that MMOs like World of Warcraft (WoW) can help to produce better real-world citizens.
Professor Constance Steinkuehler outlined her views at a recent campus event.
Noted: On Wednesday, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn joined a few dozen law enforcement officials at a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden in Washington to talk about the stimulus package.
“The ‘money quote’ (from Biden) was ‘the federal government has a role to play’ in local law enforcement, that ‘now we’re back in the game.’ That was music to our ears,” Flynn said after the meeting, referring to an estimated $4 billion in law enforcement grants for localities in the package.
Also present was Susan Riseling, police chief for the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an officer of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
Overall, reportable crime in the city of Madison last year went down slightly, but violent crime increased nearly 6 percent.
Madison police on Wednesday released the latest crime figures in a report called Uniform Crime Statistics.
The Uniform Crime Statistics for 2008 show there were 10,572 crimes in Madison last year, compared to 10,705 in 2007, a decrease of 1.3 percent.
A Wisconsin board has fired a professor from Florida who mysteriously failed to show up to teach at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire last fall.
The UW System Board of Regents voted during a closed meeting last week to fire Philip Siegel. Details of the decision were made public Tuesday.
After a search, UW-Eau Claire hired Siegel as an assistant professor to teach financial accounting courses last fall.
Gov. Jim Doyle said Friday he wants to install a new biomass boiler to replace coal burning at UW-Madison’s Charter Street heating plant.
The state agreed last year to reduce coal use at the plant under a settlement to stop a federal lawsuit over pollution at the facility.
The new UW-Madison south campus union will cost $7.1 million more than expected, bringing the total building cost up to $94.8 million.
The Board of Regents approved the request for extra money at its meeting last week. To fund the difference, the campus is providing money from parking fees, adding gift funds, and moving money from the Memorial Union Theater renovation project.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — There are many questions about what happens with the billions of dollars headed to Wisconsin under a federal stimulus plan in Congress. To help answer those questions, and smooth the process for distributing the money, Gov. Jim Doyle created a new state office.
The Office of Recovery and Reinvestment is headed by Gary Wolter, president and chief executive officer of Madison Gas and Electric Co. He is being assisted by Alan Fish, vice chancellor of facilities, planning and management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Both Wolter and Fish are working for free, assisted by about a dozen state employees who are being reassigned from other agencies.
An extra $7.1 million was approved Friday toward the construction of the new Union South, bringing the total cost of the project to $94.8 million.
Associate Director of Wisconsin Union Hank Walter said the Union Council, which oversees the project, was faced with the choice of scaling back the Union South project or increasing the budget with funding from other sources.
Phony Facebook pages are sweeping the stem cell world, report scientists and bioethicists, the latest victims of bogus pages on the popular social-networking site.
“There appears to be an imposter(s) creating fake Facebook web pages,” wrote university of Wisconsin bioethicist R. Alta Charo in an alert sent Thursday. “This is common, but I have learned that a slew of stem cell researchers at the (University of Wisconsin) have one, as do I, and now I learn the problem is shared with some folks in the national stem cell advocacy world.”
The University of Wisconsin System is moving ahead with a new computer program to manage its payroll and benefits for employees after already spending $26 million on a previous failed effort.
The university has budgeted $8 million just to plan for the massive and complicated conversion from a system that’s been in place since 1975. There are no estimates yet for how much the project will cost or how long it will take.
The University of Wisconsin System is suspending payments from 38 endowments whose values have plummeted because of the recession, its president said Friday.
The move will mean $700,000 less is available this year for scholarships, programs and other initiatives on campuses across the state, President Kevin Reilly told the Board of Regents.
Consider reasons for late-term abortion
I do not believe in abortion. But what happens if complications occur that will affect the mother’s health or cause her death if the fetus lives to full-term?
More than 2,000 University of Wisconsin System students received a total of $1.76 million in need-based financial aid during fall 2008, thanks to a generous scholarship donation.
If the University of Wisconsin does not intend to use the body parts of aborted babies for research they must say so, thus clearing the air in that regard. It recently came to light that our prestigious university is making plans to work with Madison Surgery Center to perform abortions on babies at 13-22 weeks gestation.
Dear Editor:
Madison takes pride in being tolerant and accepting, a city that embraces diversity and encourages its citizens to be open-minded and respectful of others and their belief. Are we all those things? I think not!
The Growth Agenda for Wisconsin will take precedence at the UW System Board of Regentsâ?? meeting this week as members discuss the documentâ??s proposed â??action steps.â?
When University of Wisconsin senior Aimee Reynoso found a girl unconscious in the bathroom of the downtown bar where she works, she panicked, not fully prepared to handle the situation.
To address Madison’s ongoing problem with chronic street alcoholics, a new list could soon be making its way to liquor stores across the city that would prevent those on it from buying alcohol.
While city staffers and members of the Alcohol License Review Committee (ALRC) still are working out the details, finding one’s way onto the “alcohol ban list,” as it is currently referred to, would be no easy task. In order to be placed on the list, an individual must be deemed a “habitual drunkard,” a term currently found in an old state statute, but not defined anywhere. Once the term is defined, the list can be created.
Privacy experts are reminding people who use online social networking sites like Facebook to be careful not to fall victim to identity thieves.
An area woman recently found out that it doesn’t take much to create a fake profile page on a site like Facebook.
Gabriela Cezar, an acclaimed stem cell researcher, created a Facebook account about a year ago to network.
Chancellor Biddy Martin returned Sunday from a four-day trip to the east coast where she addressed University of Wisconsin happenings and goals for supporters of the university.
Dane County, the Cities of Madison and Middleton, and the Village of Shorewood Hills made an agreement Friday to move forward with the reconstruction of University Avenue.
In an effort to improve everything from agricultural research to library storage, the University of Wisconsin is requesting authority from the state to use $450 million on various campus construction projects.
Maybe happy cows really do come from California – because right now they aren’t particularly pleased to be in the UW-Madison Dairy Cattle Center, said Ric Grummer, dairy science department chairman.
That is why the university is requesting about $3 million from the state to upgrade its cattle stalls, silos and locker rooms and make second-floor classrooms handicapped-accessible.
Professor Diane Reddy has replaced the traditional lecture format with an online version of Psych 101. Students learn at their own pace but also have to obtain mastery, demonstrated by passing a quiz on each unit, before they can move on to the next.
Along the way, students get help from teaching assistants who monitor their online activity, identifying weak spots and providing advice – even if the students don’t seek it.
Initial evidence says it works: In a study of 5,000 students over two years, U-Pace students performed 12% better on the same cumulative test than students who took traditional Psych 101 with the same textbook and course content, even though U-Pace students had lower average grades than those in the conventional course.
The governor’s plans for oversight of federal stimulus funds are drawing some criticism. Governor Jim Doyle last week named Madison Gas and Electric Chairman, President and CEO Gary Wolter and UW Madison Associate Vice Chancellor Al Fish to head Wisconsin’s new Office of Recovery and Reinvestment.
Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk said Friday that an agreement has been reached between municipalities to move forward with the slated reconstruction of University Avenue, with engineering work for the project to begin this year.
Dane County, the cities of Madison and Middleton and the village of Shorewood Hills have agreed on the project.
Falk said $350,000 is included in the 2009 county budget for the project.
The state’s budget shortfall over the next two years has grown by $346 million, to $5.75 billion, said a report released Thursday.
That report from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau came out a day after Gov. Jim Doyle – without specifics – warned in his “state of the state” speech that the deficit would rise.
“The numbers today should demonstrate we don’t know where we’re headed as a country,” Doyle said at a stop in DeForest. “One of the things I have to keep very much in mind is that these are the numbers we have today and we have to be very concerned about what the numbers are, what this looks like three months from now and six months from now.”
Walking down State Street has its many perks: a beautiful view of the Capitol, truly diverse restaurants and some chic boutiques. But, itâ??s not often one can walk a block without hearing from a panhandler.
By SCOTT BAUER
Associated Press Writer
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s budget problem got worse Thursday.
The shortfall for the current fiscal year has increased by more than 70 percent from $346 million to $593 million, the Legislative Fiscal Office reported Thursday.
Lawmakers must come up with a way to plug that gap between now and June 30.
Over the next two years they face a shortfall that now is $5.7 billion and could grow larger still.
MADISON, Wis. — The state’s budget deficit is now projected to be larger than the $5.4 billion reported by the state departments of administration and revenue last November, according to state officials.
According to a report released on Thursday by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, tax collections are projected to be $342 Million less than the DOA report issued on Nov. 20. This puts the state’s projected deficit at more than $5.7 billion.
To hold the line on ticket costs in the draft of next year’s budget, the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department plans to reduce expenses. That action isn’t uncommon today, with economic hardships rolling into just about every industry.
UW’s athletics budget for the 2009-10 school year will be down from the nearly $90 million set forth for this year, said John Jentz, associate athletic director for finance, at an Athletic Board committee meeting last Tuesday. The extent of that reduction hasn’t been finalized.
But concerns have been raised about whether UW has presented an accurate revenue forecast, especially with ticket prices holding steady — not to mention a downturn in fortunes for football and, so far, men’s basketball.
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.
