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
UW-Baraboo-Sauk County Dean Tom Pleger will push state officials to get a “green” dorm and conference hall included on Gov. Jim Doyle’s list of projects that could use federal funding.
In a letter to Sauk County and city of Baraboo officials, Pleger asked for support in lobbying for the $15.5 million project.
Robert Kraig, director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, has long been a fan of politics, as his poster and button collection in his Milwaukee office demonstrates.
His job description last fall included appearing at presidential campaign rallies in Wisconsin with a person dressed in a cow costume. The stunt was part of the “Got Health Care” campaign by Citizen Action of Wisconsin, a grass-roots group that largely focuses on health care reform, labor unions and other organizations.
That the program director for Citizen Action would be attending rallies dressed as a cow isn’t surprising. Less expected is that Kraig also is the author of a book selected by The Wall Street Journal last month as the best study on presidential rhetoric.
The book, “Woodrow Wilson and the Lost World of the Oratorical Statesman,” was ranked first in a weekly feature that asks an expert to list the five best books on a topic.
The book was an outgrowth of Kraig’s dissertation for a doctorate in rhetoric from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the product of 10 years of work – the last four spent in libraries from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. doing original research. Kraig shares credit for the book with Stephen Lucas, his adviser at UW.
Sandy Wilcox is doing his best to remain upbeat.
Yet the longtime president of the University of Wisconsin Foundation — a nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation that is the official fundraising arm for UW-Madison — realizes there is no good way to sugarcoat the current global financial and economic crisis and the impact it’s having on his organization.
A Dane County judge has ruled that recordings of the Brittany Zimmermann 911 call should not be released at this time because Madison police say keeping the audio secret could help them catch the University of Wisconsin-Madison student’s killer.
A judge refused Monday to order Dane County to release a 911 call made from a murdered college student’s cell phone around the time she was killed.
But the judge said the county must make public portions of a 911 call made by her fiancé when he discovered her body.
UW-Madison students graduating this month will take part in two commencement ceremonies Sunday at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. at the Kohl Center.
For eight years, a small Fitchburg 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.
A police captain testified Friday that releasing an edited tape of a 911 call from a murdered college student’s cellular phone wouldn’t hamper the investigation into the killing. But other officials said that making public even part of the tape could jeopardize their hunt for the killer.
In other tech milestones, Microsoft and Google opened Madison facilities, plans took shape for the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, the Wisconsin Angel Network garnered national attention, and a national stem cell bank was established here. The city hosted the World Stem Cell Summit, and University Research Park–already planning a second west-side park–announced a future downtown urban site.
A detective investigating the slaying of a University of Wisconsin-Madison student urged a judge Friday not to release audio of the 911 call she made before her death.
The recording of the call from Brittany Zimmermann is a crucial piece of evidence â?? a digital witness to the crime â?? and releasing it will “hinder our police department from apprehending the perpetrator,” detective John Summers said.
Tuition at the state’s flagship public university will continue to climb despite the flagging economy, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin said in an e-mail today to faculty, staff and students.
The UW-Madison has decided not to file as an intervenor in American Transmission Company’s request to build a 345-kilovolt power line across Dane County. Being an intervenor would allow the UW to be more involved with the Public Service Commission’s decision-making process. But the UW says its concerns are already being addressed.
“We feel like at this time, we’re having our issues heard,” says UW spokeswoman Dawn Crim. She notes that the PSC required ATC to evaluate burying the line underground, if the route chosen would go along the Beltline, past the UW Arboretum.
After years of growth and earlier predictions that higher-education fund raising would escape the brunt of the economic crash, the recession has started to affect colleges’ efforts in that area, according to results of a Chronicle of Higher Educationâ??Moody’s Investors Service survey. Predictions are that 2009 may be even tougher, with shrinking annual funds and even job cuts among fund raisers.
VistaGen Therapeutics, a biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation have signed a license for human embryonic stem cell patents for the development and commercialization of stem cell-based research tools.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A state law designed to shed light on millions of dollars in state government contracts is not working properly more than two years after it was passed.
The law requires all state contracts to be made public on the Internet, but many are missing from the Contract Sunshine Web site that went online in January.
A Madison city committee is quietly working on ways to end the violence in the streets around bars in the central city.
The Downtown Hospitality Council is a group of bar owners, business owners, and cops. It has been meeting for a few months.
The idea discussed by the group include expanding the police department’s safety classes of liquor license holders, creating an award program for establishments with clean security records, and establishing management practices prohibiting alcohol consumption by tavern staff members while they are on duty.
The unsolved murder of slain University of Wisconsin-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann will be featured by CNN’s Nancy Grace on the national news network at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Tuesday.
Some were fueled by alcohol, others by a yearning to deface police property. They range in severity from bank robberies to reckless driving. But what really sets these crimes of the past year or so apart is, well, a certain lack of planning on the part of the perpetrators â?? or for those cases not yet completed, alleged perpetrators.
To compile this lofty list, several Capital Times reporters sifted through a year’s worth of stories. The criteria are somewhat vague to make the top eight of 2008, but you know them when you read them.
1. Krispy Kreme caper (UW Police chase)
Just a few months ago, University of Wisconsin-Madison zoology Professor James Pawley was hoping to keep working for another couple of years, figuring he would stay on as a full-time faculty member until his wife, who is also a professor, retires in 2011.
But due to tanking stock markets and concerns about a prolonged recession and how his state retirement benefits are calculated, Pawley decided the time was right to step down and start collecting his monthly payouts from the Wisconsin Retirement System.
When David DeWitt gave the closing keynote address at last month’s annual Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference, it was the first time he addressed a large audience of database developers and administrators.
DeWitt spent the past 32 years lecturing in computer science classrooms.
President-elect Barack Obama said on Tuesday he values his choice for education secretary, Arne Duncan, for his dogged determination to use data to drive his decisions about how he sought to improve the Chicago Public Schools.
Arne Duncan, the Chicago schools superintendent known for taking tough steps to improve schools while maintaining respectful relations with teachers and their unions, is President-elect Barack Obamaâ??s choice as secretary of education, Democratic officials said Monday.
Quoted: Allan R. Odden, a professor of education at the University of Wisconsin, heads a project that is studying how school districts recruit, assign and train their principals and teachers. He said Chicago had made considerable progress under Mr. Duncan.
MADISON, Wis. — The parents of slain University of Wisconsin-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann are pleading with a judge not to release a recording of her 911 call that was apparently made prior to her death.
Brittany Zimmerman, a 21-year-old college student who wanted to be a doctor, called 911 as she was being attacked by a stranger, police say.
But the police did not come for 48 minutes. By that time, Zimmerman was dead. Her fiance found her body.
Although the dispatcher claimed later to have heard nothing, the 911 tape captured screams, gasps and what sounds like a struggle, according to the court documents.
