Madison dropped 36 places on this year’s top 100 list compiled by Money Magazine.
Madison again has made Money Magazine’s top 100 places to live, and for the second straight time, you won’t find it in the top 10 or even top 50.
A state appeals court dealt a setback to animal rights activists’ plans to build a museum protesting animal research in a warehouse that separates two University of Wisconsin primate labs. The court ruled business owner Roger Charly could back out of a $675,000 deal with activists from the Primate Freedom Project and instead sell the property to the university for $1 million.
A few years ago, Lynette Jandl found that racism had gotten into her, and it was Richard Davis who helped get it out.
Jandl attended Davis’ Institutes for the Healing of Racism Inc., which the renowned Madison bass player runs out of his West Shore Drive home.
“Everyone who goes feels profoundly changed,” Jandl told a crowd of about 100 at the Diversity Picnic held by the Madison Department of Civil Rights Thursday at the Warner Park Shelter on Northport Drive.
Davis won the 13th annual Rev. James C. Wright Human Rights Award, presented by Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz.
….Davis, a professor of European classical and jazz bass, jazz history and combo improvisation at UW-Madison, came to the UW in 1977 after spending 23 years in New York City establishing himself as one of the world’s premier bass players.
The nonprofit Illinois corporation that was paid the bulk of a $694,000 federal grant now being investigated at the University of Louisville was dissolved a year before the U of L deal was struck, the Illinois secretary of state’s office verified yesterday.
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Also yesterday, U of L provided documents showing that the man listed as director of the Illinois center — Thomas D. Schroeder — was on the university’s payroll from Jan. 1, 2005, until this past April.
Schroeder was paid $2,400 a month as a research assistant to Robert Felner, former dean of U of L’s College of Education and Human Development, who managed the grant, according to the documents.
MADISON, Wis. — The Madison Department of Civil Rights celebrated Richard Davis at its annual picnic on Thursday.
Davis was awarded the James C. Wright Human Rights Award. Write is a professor at the University of Wisconsin.
He’s also a bass player, and has recorded with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand and Miles Davis, WISC-TV reported.
The Dane County Board could consider an ordinance requiring companies doing business with the county to offer domestic partner benefits to their employees.
Under the proposal, businesses that have contracts with Dane County would have to make the same benefits that are offered for spouses of employees available to domestic partners. County Executive Kathleen Falk says it’s an issue of fairness for all workers. She says the proposal is just another basic requirement companies will need to meet, if they want to work for the County.
Companies that want to do business with Dane County would have to offer benefits to their employees ‘ domestic partners under a proposal being introduced Thursday.
The proposal also would create a countywide domestic-partner registry through the County Clerk ‘s office, similar to what Madison has offered since 1990. Dane would be the first county in the state to create a registry and the first municipality to tie its contracts to domestic-partner benefits.
MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin officials are asking the city council to approve a plan that would put 63 new bus shelters around the campus.
The idea behind the new shelters is to tie together the outdoor areas of the university with the UW brand, WISC-TV reported.
“They don’t lend any sort of sense of campus to our university,” said UW transportation planner Rob Kennedy. “What we’re trying to do is take all of our furniture such as our benches and make sure it says Univ. of Wis. to people when they come onto the campus and we’re going to do that with our shelters now.”
People who take the bus to and from UW-Madison may soon have a more stylish wait.
UW-Madison wants to build 63 new bus shelters on campus at a cost of about $10,000 a piece by 2012 in order to lend a “campus-like character” to the bus stops.
Anyone under the age of 21 looking to buy alcohol in downtown Madison could soon find it a little tougher to pass off a fake ID.
To combat underage drinking, the University of Wisconsin-Madison used donated funds to buy hand-held scanners â?? at $1,000 each â?? and give them at no cost to seven liquor stores and one grocery store. The businesses, in turn, agreed to use the gadgets to swipe customersâ?? IDs to instantly determine whether they are of age or using a fake.
The Dalai Lama, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for advocating nonviolence, has often found time to speak at UW-Madison, which gave him an honorary degree in 1998. He has taken an interest in some of its programs, including research into the effects of meditation on health.
Joe Elder, a UW-Madison professor who is an expert on Asia, said Sopa’s hiring made the university a pioneer in the field of Buddhist studies and facilitated its unique relationship with the Dalai Lama.
A $694,000 project grant managed by former University of Louisville education dean Robert Felner is part of a criminal investigation into whether federal funds were mishandled.
Documents obtained from U of L in an open-records request show that the grant’s purpose was to create a center that would be a “unique collaborative effort” with the Kentucky Education Department and Jefferson County Public Schools, among others, and would help schools meet testing goals of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Dear Editor:
There’s a madness in Madison.
At one time, in-state students attending the state universities paid only one third of the cost. Now they’re charged for more than half of the instructional budget. (The governor and Legislature recently decided that veterans were to get free tuition. However, since this was an underfunded mandate, the Board of Regents had to come up with the money by raising tuition for all the other students!)
The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Employment Relations rescinded University of Wisconsin faculty raises while approving substantial increases for professional state employees.
(Gruberg is a professor emeritus of political science at UW-Oshkosh)
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Provost and Vice Chancellor Lane Earns will likely be UW-Parksideâ??s interim chancellor while the school conducts a second search for a leader.
UW System President Kevin Reilly says Earns will start leading the school in Kenosha in late August if approved by the Board of Regents.
MADISON (WKOW) — Like other inmates in the Dane County jail on suicide watch, Joel Marino’s alleged killer, Adam Peterson, spends 23 hours a day alone in a cell.
Peterson’s attorney is concerned about the former UW-Madison student’s jail situation.
In addition to the isolation, Peterson’s attorney, assistant state public defender Dennis Burke says Peterson is denied almost all visitors.
MADISON, Wis. — Seven downtown liquor stores and one grocery store are working with the University of Wisconsin in a pilot project to fight underage drinking.
Electronic identification scanners have been donated by the UW to help clerks check to make sure customers are of legal age to buy alcohol or tobacco, WISC-TV reported.
By swiping a driver’s license or state ID, the clerk can get immediate feedback on whether it’s authentic.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly announced Wednesday that he will recommend Lane Earns as the interim chancellor for UW-Parkside. Earns has spent 21 years at UW-Oshkosh in a range of leadership positions.
University of Louisville Dean Robert Felner was hired in June to be UW-Parkside’s next chancellor, but then resigned the appointment after his lawyer disclosed he is at the center of an investigation into whether $500,000 in federal grant money was mishandled.
What are we to make of the recent recruiting problems in southeastern Wisconsin? The obvious lesson is that people werenâ??t doing what they ought. Fortunately there are easy solutions.
Until the U.S. attorney in Kentucky a couple of weeks ago announced a criminal probe, no one would have found a solid problem with Robert Felner, former chancellor-apparent for the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Yet there were apparently clues to disenchantment with him which the local search committee knew of but didnâ??t think enough of to pass on to people at the UW System in Madison, clues which a system spokesman said would have been useful at least for further investigation.
A citizen’s tip played a crucial role in leading investigators to Adam Peterson, the man charged in the murder of Madison’s Joel Marino.
Right after Marino’s January stabbing, police officials distributed a photo of a white, UW stocking cap allegedly worn by a “person of interest,” and said the person of interest may be in his twenties.
Madison, Wis. – GWC Technologies, a manufacturer of scientific instruments for researchers, has signed an agreement with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation for an exclusive license to a new technology for protein analysis – which some believe to be the next field of endeavor for biotechnology.
Since 1939, sailing enthusiasts have tooled around Madison lakes with the Hoofers sailing club. In that time, the club has grown to be the second-largest inland sailing club in the country.
See Amiri Baraka, “the Godfather of Spoken Word,” speak at the Wisconsin Union Theater (800 Langdon St.) at 7 p.m. on Monday, July 7. The free “lit-hop” lecture/performance kicks off the 3rd Annual Spoken Word & Hip-Hop Educator’s Institute, running on the UW-Madison campus until July 11.
Alumni of the University of Wisconsin-Madison are invited to two events during Farm Technology Days in Brown County. Former students and friends of the UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences are invited to the Wisconsin Agricultural and Life Sciences Alumni Association’s annual Picnic on July 16. That will be held between 3:30-7:30 p.m. at Wayside Dairy Farm near Greenleaf. The picnic costs $10 per person. No reservations are necessary.
Adam Peterson gave Madison police an incriminating statement when they contacted him at his mother’s Minnesota home June 26, causing them to arrest him in the slaying of Joel Marino.
A suspect in a high-profile stabbing death that frightened Madison residents was ordered jailed on a $1 million bail Tuesday.
Adam Peterson, a Minnesota native who attended UW-Madison briefly and who checked into a Madison hospital’s psychiatric ward for a week in March, appeared before court commissioner Todd Meurer wearing a suicide prevention smock.
A Stillwater Area High School graduate accused of murdering a Wisconsin man is being transported from Stillwater to Madison, Wis.
Adam Charles Peterson, 20, was released today from the Washington County Jail. He was arrested at his mother’s home in Grant last week and later charged in Dane County, Wis., with first-degree murder.
He is accused of stabbing Joel Marino to death on Jan. 28. Marino was found in an alley near his Madison home.
Peterson attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison last fall, but withdrew from the university in November. His father said he believes his son suffers from mental illness.
The father of the suspect in the Joel Marino murder says his son couldn’t be involved in two unsolved murders in Madison because he was out of town at the time, according to a story in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
A college dropout charged with killing a Madison man is being transported from Minnesota to Dane County.
About six weeks after Joel Marino was stabbed to death in his South Side leading to a weeklong stay in the psychiatric ward of a Madison hospital.
MADISON (WKOW) — For nearly five months, there has been a sense of unshakeable dread in the bayfront, southside Madison neighborhood of murder victim Joel Marino.
The father of Adam Peterson, who was charged in the killing of Joel Marino, said it’s unlikely his son was involved with Madison’s other unsolved slayings.
A Minnesota man charged in a fatal stabbing in Madison, Wis., could not have committed two other unsolved murders in that city, his father said.
Growing up, Adam Charles Peterson was introverted and shy often relying on his twin brother Eric to make friends and socialize when the pair attended Stillwater High, his father said.
Going off to college only seemed to compound Adam Peterson’s social awkwardness. Peterson, 20, once a good student, dropped out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the fall of 2007. Peterson’s parents feared he was depressed and desperately unhappy. The situation turned so dire that Peterson was hospitalized for a week after a psychotic outburst and then moved back home to his mother’ s house in Grant to attend “psychological and psychiatric counseling,” his father, Melvin Peterson, said.
A former University of Wisconsin-Madison student was charged Friday with first-degree intentional homicide in the Jan. 28 stabbing of Joel Marino, 31.
People on the chancellor search committee at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside knew the man they recommended as a finalist got a no-confidence vote at the college where he was dean, but they didnâ??t tell the Board of Regents or the UW System president about it â?? raising more tough questions about the university systemâ??s vetting process
In other recent polls, Obama led 50% to 37% in a June 8-10 survey by Wispolitics.com and the University of Wisconsin-Madison political science department; and he led 52% to 43% in a June 13-16 poll by Survey USA in the state.
KENOSHA, Wis. –The educator who resigned before becoming University of Wisconsin-Parkside chancellor because of a pending criminal investigation received a “no confidence” vote from University of Louisville faculty members at a meeting in 2006, a newspaper reports.
The Kenosha News said in a story on its Web page Thursday that it obtained minutes of that meeting through a Freedom of Information request, and they show some faculty members spoke out with criticism of Robert Felner’s performance as dean of the College of Education and Human Development at Louisville.
MADISON (WKOW) — Madison Police tell 27 News an arrest has been made in the Joel Marino murder case.
27 News has learned the suspect was arrested in Grant, Minnesota.
In a news release Madison police say, “Through extensive police work and information from the community Madison Police Detectives learned that our person of interest may have information pertaining to the January 28, 2008 homicide.
While one lone airport traffic controller waved Oconomowoc native Maj. Jodi Maroney into Dane County Regional Airport Wednesday, the 30 friends and family may have stood out more as they fluttered their American flags in anticipation. Maroney flew in from Edwards Air Force Base in California, and is stopping over in Madison before making her squadron’s final flight Thursday.
MADISON, Wis. — A University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate returned to town on Wednesday, this time at the controls of the largest and most powerful helicopter the U.S. military operates — the CH-35 Super Stallion.
Madison should ensure safety, maintain a sense of fun, encourage business growth and seriously consider commuter rail as part of its new Downtown plan.
The city is holding public meetings this week on the future of Downtown. Anyone who lives, works or visits the central city is encouraged to participate.
The city ‘s last Downtown plan is almost two decades old. Since then, the area bound by Park, Regent, Proudfit and Blair streets has seen significant change, some of it guided by a “Downtown 2000 ” plan, adopted in 1989.
The state Capitol and UW-Madison continue to anchor and enrich the city ‘s center. But the private sector has made huge investments in Downtown ‘s future.
The man who was set to take the helm at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside resigned from the position Tuesday in the midst of a federal criminal probe involving the use of funds at his college, UW officials announced.
Robert Felner, who has served as dean of the University of Louisville’s College of Education and Human Development since 2003, was supposed to start his new job as chancellor at UW-Parkside July 1. But he called UW System officials Sunday to tell them of the federal investigation.
The U.S. attorney’s office in western Kentucky said Monday that it was conducting a joint criminal investigation with the University of Louisville and federal law enforcement agencies. The U.S. attorney’s office did not name Felner. But his attorney, Scott C. Cox, told the Louisville Courier-Journal that Felner is at the center of the investigation sparked by university officials’ allegation that roughly $500,000 in federal grant money was mishandled
Facing new revelations that he is at the center of a criminal investigation, Robert Felner, the recently appointed chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Parkside, withdrew from his new job today.
MADISON â?? A University of Louisville dean hired to lead UW-Parkside resigned his appointment Tuesday amid a federal criminal investigation in Kentucky.
Robert Felner, dean of the Louisville College of Education and Human Development, was to start July 1 as Parksideâ??s chancellor.
But Felner alerted UW System President Kevin Reilly on Sunday that his college was facing a criminal investigation and offered to resign, said spokesman David Giroux.
A federal criminal investigation is under way at the school where newly appointed University of Wisconsin-Parkside Chancellor Robert Felner is dean â?? and UW officials are trying to figure out what the news means for the schoolâ??s future.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) A University of Louisville dean picked to lead the University of Wisconsin-Parkside has alerted UW System officials that his college is under federal criminal investigation, a spokesman said Monday.
Louisville College of Education and Human Development Dean Robert Felner was approved by the Board of Regents earlier this month as the next UW-Parkside chancellor. He is to start July 1, replacing retiring Chancellor Jack Keating.
The University of Louisville’s education department is the target of a federal investigation that was announced Friday, according the department’s outgoing dean.
Robert Felner, dean of U of L’s College of Education and Human Development, called University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly on Sunday to alert him to the investigation, Wisconsin officials said. Felner is the new chancellor at UW-Parkside.
The family of a slain college student wants to intervene in a lawsuit by media groups seeking a copy of a 911 tape made from the woman’s cell phone call at the time she was killed.
The parents of University of Wisconsin-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann, 21, said their requests for the tape and other records have also been denied. The parents, Kevin and Jean Zimmermann of Marshfield, told Dane County Circuit Court in a filing earlier this month they wanted to intervene in the media groupsâ?? case because they want the tape to pursue their claim for damages against Dane County.
Third headline: Maybe new UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin will do a good job, but the profile printed in the Wisconsin State Journal last Sunday gives me pause.
….Although Green Bay has been his home for more than three decades, the Kenosha native already has some strong connections to Madison.
Nerad earned two advanced degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, including a master’s in social work. His wife, Jean, a public health nurse specializing in lead poisoning issues with children, also earned a degree from UW-Madison, as did their son Ben, 23, who works as a legislative aide in Madison.
Applications for this year’s incoming class at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater were up 10% from last year to 6,700. The university will have a fall freshman class of at least 2,100, its largest since 1985. Whitewater got a boost from its athletic programs, including a national football championship, officials said. Other schools in the system also saw growth this year, with UW-La Crosse’s applications up 10% and UW-Madison up 2% to a record 25,123 applications.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Applications for this year’s incoming class at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater were up 10 percent from last year, outpacing much of the UW system, which saw slight growth.
The school got 6,700 applications this year and will have a freshman class of 2,100 or more in the fall. That’ll make it the largest class since 1985 – a year when many of their incoming freshmen weren’t even born. Nationally, the 2008 class of high school seniors is the largest ever, so there are more students applying.
Admissions officials said Whitewater was seeing a boost from its athletic programs, including a national championship in football. Admissions director Steve McKellips also said the university is attracting students in popular programs like accounting and business and through more personal recruiting efforts.
Now that we’re in the thick of the volatile weather season, it isn’t always easy to know when and where it’s raining. That’s not the case anymore at the Memorial Union Terrace, which now has a Webcam running so people can check conditions.
The Webcam is at www.union.wisc.edu/webcam. It offers a clear view of the Terrace and weather conditions. Also, if equipment can be seen being set up, it will confirm that the evening music will be outside on the Terrace stage rather than moved inside to der Rathskeller in case of inclement weather.
Dane County health officials closed all local beaches after an overflow in the sewer system sent untreated wastewater spilling into two Madison lakes.
As critical as leadership is, it can be overrated.
The Board of Regents for the University of Wisconsin System fell into that trap last week by giving hefty raises to some top officials. Most noticeably, the board gave system president Kevin Reilly a 21 percent boost to more than $400,000.
To his credit, Reilly plans to pass much of that fatter check on to his scholarship fund. Which makes us wonder why the board was so determined to vote it through in the first place.
Was it simply a symbolic move to lighten the ego bruise that Reilly must have suffered when new UW-Madison head Carolyn â??Biddyâ? Martin became the first chancellor to out-earn the leader of the system? Or is this a genuine strategy the regents have adopted to better compete for top talent?
Donâ??t answer that. Neither answer could justify such a big salary hike for a top dog.
Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain 50 percent to 37 percent among 506 likely voters, according to a poll conducted Sunday to Tuesday by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s political science department and Wispolitics.com, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported.
In Wisconsin, Obama leads John McCain by 13 points in a University of Wisconsin / WisPolitics.com poll. Strictly speaking, this is the debut edition of this poll, and so we have no trendlines against which to compare. But the poll is conducted by Charles Franklin of pollster.com and his colleague Ken Goldstein, and so should be pretty solid.
Two political scientists with top-notch reputations — Charles Franklin of Pollster.com and Political Arithmetik fame, and Ken Goldstein, director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project — have teamed together to conduct a series of polls for the Wispolitics.com empire, and their first effort has a surprising result: Barack Obama is up by double digits in the state.
University of Miami President Donna E. Shalala has been selected to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian award.
A White House statement announcing the honor called Shalala one of the nation’s “most distinguished educators and public officials.”
