Category: UW-Madison Related

While signs on the UW-Madison campus encourage energy conservation, the university’s Charter Street Power Plant is belching more pollution than ever.

MADISON, Wis. MADISON, Ind. — More than two dozen towns and 19 counties (plus a parish in Louisiana) share the last name of the fourth president of the United States. But with the possible exception of that county with bridges out in Iowa, none of James Madison’s namesakes is as popular with visitors as these two.

One is a town preserved in amber in Indiana. The other is the jump-around capital of Wisconsin.

Walking into the Isthmus office Friday morning I stumbled on a story: Two picketers stationed in front of the neighboring Block 89 office project.

Question: What’s up, guys?

Answer: Union painters and drywallers are on strike as of the midnight expiration of their old three-year contract.

In a subsequent phone call to John Jorgensen, the business manager for District Council 7 of the Painters & Allied Trades, I learned that construction sites affected by the strike include the Epic Systems campus in Verona, the St. Mary’s Hospital’s expansion on the south side and various UW-Madison campus projects.

A pizza deliveryman is attacked and robbed while making a delivery Saturday morning in Madison.

Police say the 20-year-old from Oregon was making a delivery to 424 West Dayton Street at around 12:30 Saturday morning when he was approached by a man.

They say he punched the deliveryman in the head, knocking him to the ground.

Suppose we told you the Wisconsin Badgers football team would finish in eighth place in the Big Ten next season. Same for the men’s basketball team. Suppose we told you they’d continue to finish that way until changes were made.

Unless you’re an Illinois or Iowa fan, you’d demand the changes be made, wouldn’t you? Who wants to be in eighth place?

Lewis Wolff is 69, made his money as the founder of a company that is involved in the development, acquisition and management of commercial office, parking and hotel properties and has known a certain influential baseball man since they were practically kids.

Wolff, Selig and Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl were fraternity brothers at the University of Wisconsin.

After a May 16 meeting that ran well into the night, the Alcohol License Review Committee will meet again tonight to discuss an “unprecedented” number of establishments singled out for individual review.

According to Ald. Mike Verveer, a voting member of the committee, the ALRC approved the “overwhelming majority” of liquor licenses for Madison bars, restaurants and grocery stores in a single motion at last week’s meeting, but many more establishments than usual were singled out for separated license renewals.

The killing of a man on State Street Tuesday night was shocking to people hanging out in the area today, but many said it did not indicate a larger problem with violence on the popular pedestrian mall.

In fact, there seems to be a strong police presence on State Street, especially at night, some said.

A $300,000 contribution to the Urban League of Greater Madison to help build a new headquarters and “center of economic development” in south Madison leads a list of 120 grants totaling about $2 million announced today by The Evjue Foundation, the charitable arm of The Capital Times.

The grants, which are made possible by the will of the late William T. Evjue, the founder and longtime editor and publisher of The Capital Times, include $708,805 to the University of Wisconsin for 32 special projects during the coming year and $1,222,500 to 88 civic, cultural and nonprofit organizations, mostly in Madison and Dane County.

MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison officials said that they’re taking the unusual step of seeking a restraining order to keep an alumnus off campus because of safety concerns.

University officials said that Albert Wellstein, 51, represents a danger to students and employees. They said in a court filing that Wellstein’s recent actions show that he is “genuinely dangerous and capable of violence.”

The alleged actions include sending a threatening poem to a female acquaintance and making a death threat to a campus police detective.

A Minnesota man was shot and killed after a fight on State St. in Madison, police said Wednesday.

Austin David Bodahl, 23, of Waconia, Minn., was shot in the 600 block of State St. about 11:54 p.m. Tuesday, according to a Madison Police Department news release and the Dane County coroners office.

MADISON, Wis. — Madison police Wednesday said that the suspect accused in a fatal overnight shooting in downtown has been tentatively charged in the case.

Police identified the suspect as Daniel A. Kelly, 31, of Madison. He was booked and tentatively charged with second-degree intentional homicide, WISC-TV reported.

The violence on State Street is certainly the talk of the city’s most famous street. Business owners and customers say they are concerned about the early morning shooting, but they don’t think it will have much of an impact.

State Street was business as usual on Wednesday just hours after a man was killed on the 600 block. A violent act that patrons and business owners alike are hoping is an isolated incident.

Madison police have a 31-year-old man in custody for the shooting death of another man late Tuesday night on the 600 block of State Street near the City Bar.

The victim, a 23-year-old man, was pronounced dead early this morning at UW Hospital. Police are not releasing his name until family members are contacted.

It is the second homicide this year in the city of Madison.

The Big Ten/ACC Challenge has not exactly been a competitive success, not from the Big Ten’s viewpoint. Since 1999, when the format was developed to create fan-friendly television matchups by highlighting men’s basketball teams from the respective conferences, the ACC has posted a 48-27 record, including an 8-3 mark last season.

Nonetheless, the partnership of these two high-profile leagues has been a financial success, while annually delivering a quality opponent on the schedule. Could this concept now expand to Big Ten football?

Possibly, according to University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez. Last week, the Big Ten’s football coaches and ADs got together in Chicago and discussed a variety of hot-button topics, not the least of which was potentially expanding the conference schedule from eight games to nine.

The Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch program is yet another example of the Wisconsin Idea at its finest: the research and educational power of the University extending into the community in ways that benefit the lives of Wisconsin residents. But this particular partnership between the U-W Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, and the Madison non-profit organization REAP, is especially significant for two reasons. First, it is a model of a sustainable, clean and fair food system. And second, it is an effective response to the pervasive poverty in many of our public schools.

MADISON, Wis. — Madison police are investigating after a 23-year-old man was shot and killed downtown overnight.

The incident happened just before midnight on Tuesday in the 600 block of State Street, near to Library Mall, WISC-TV reported.Authorities said that after a struggle, the victim was shot and was later pronounced dead at University of Wisconsin Hospital.

A 23-year-old man is dead Wednesday morning after a shooting on a busy section of State Street.

It happened just before midnight on the 600 block near State Street Brats and The City Bar.

Police say the victim was shot during a fight – and later died at U-W Hospital.

They took a 31-year-old man into custody in connection with the shooting.

Itâ??s been 37 years since four anti-war radicals in Madison blew up a University of Wisconsin campus building, killing a physics researcher and injuring three other people.

Now the university has put up a memorial plaque to Robert Fassnacht, the then-33-year-old graduate student and father of three who was killed.

Fassnachtâ??s family was initially opposed to a memorial. But UW Chancellor John Wiley, who knew Fassnacht as a graduate student, asked the Physics Department to reconsider a memorial, and the family agreed.

Should impeachment be back on the table? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may have taken it off the table months ago, but speakers at UW-Madison’s Memorial Union Monday urged Congress impeach President Bush and Vice-President Cheney.

A legendary figure in higher education. A lightning rod for criticism. A prolific fundraiser. A former engineering professor whose patents have generated millions.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley’s career at the university has spanned four decades, from a graduate student in the 1960s to an engineering professor in the 1970s and ’80s and an administrator since then.

Ask any college student to define a mutual fund or a money market account, and odds are they won’t be able to.

But Christine Muggee, a UW-Madison sophomore majoring in business, will proudly tell you she put hours of research into picking out the best of these two investments for herself.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison last week narrowed its search for a new chief information officer and vice provost for information technology to three finalists.

Margaret Mead once said, â??Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.â?

Especially if that small group includes LaMarr Billups. The go-to guy in so many causes and so many civic issues in Madison, Billups has left town for Washington, D.C., to be a change agent in one of the most troubled cities in the country.

While the UW Madison is already recognized around the world as a leader in stem cell research it is continuing to take steps to enhance that position and we think that’s smart.

This week, the UW announced the establishment of the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center, a virtual center that will support communication among the estimated 50 UW faculty working in some form on stem cell research and regenerative medicine. The results are expected to include more effective sharing of resources, training and research, as well as a coordinated focus on fund-raising, advocacy and research.

With all of the smart people over at UW-Madison, they ought to be able to throw a tarp over a pile of coal to protect our lakes.

But they didn’t — even after they were warned by the state Department of Natural Resources.

There is little overt physical evidence now that UW-Madison’s Sterling Hall was the site of a horrific act of domestic terrorism.

To date, there has been nothing to mark the fact that a young post-doctoral student in physics, Robert Fassnacht, lost his life there.

Dear Editor: It seems pathetic that it will take a lawsuit from the Sierra Club for the University of Wisconsin to take action on an ancient power plant that has been polluting our city for years.

The Sierra Club’s filing suit comes after the community has spoken out about our desire for change for years. After nonresponsiveness, I am glad to see someone is taking action to protect our environment and community, and keep the good name of our university.

A construction worker died today from injuries he sustained in an accident Wednesday at a University of Wisconsin building, according to UW police.

Officers responded Wednesday around 1:35 p.m. to Hiram Smith Hall, 1555 Observatory Drive, where an employee of Robinson Brothers Environmental Inc. had fallen from a 10-foot ladder while working on asbestos removal in the building.

MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s chancellor said that he’s irritated that a university-operated power plant has been allowing coal runoff to pollute one of the city’s lakes.

However, John Wiley rejects calls from the Sierra Club and other environmentalists to close the 50-year-old plant and said that the university instead is exploring ways to make the coal burn cleaner.

Wiley said that he has ordered officials in charge of the Charter Street plant to better contain a coal pile that is releasing dust into the neighborhood. When it rains or snows the coal runoff enters storm sewers that drain into Monona Bay, a popular fishing and recreation spot.

A coal-fired power plant operated by UW-Madison has allowed pollution to run into storm sewers that drain into one of the city’s prized lakes, state regulators say.

The Department of Natural Resources warned in a May 8 letter that the plant is violating the Clean Water Act by allowing coal dust into storm sewers that discharge in Monona Bay, a popular fishing and recreation spot.

MADISON, Wis. — In the first of a two-part series, WISC-TV examined the rewards reaped by those who join a community garden effort and the push to go organic.

There are 17 community gardens in the Madison area, which together yield more than a quarter million pounds of fresh produce each year. Across the United States and Canada, there is an estimated 18,000 community gardens, WISC-TV reported.

“For some it’s an ethical, environmental decision. For others it’s just common sense. Some even see local food as a food security issue,” said Larry Johnson, executive director of the Dane County farmer’s market.

The largest of Madison’s community gardens rises above Lake Mendota near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

Eagle Heights is believed to be the oldest and largest community garden in the U.S. Gardeners there come from some 50 countries, and all are part of what in a sense is a retro movement, WISC-TV reported.

If you were a news junkie in Chicago the past several decades, you knew the name Les Brownlee. He was, after all, the first black person to break into the otherwise all-white Chicago newspaper market and then became the city’s first African-American television reporter on WLS-TV.

He was a tough journalist, exposing drug dealers in poor parts of town and ferreting out crooked cops in the Chicago precincts.

….Interestingly, his journalism career really started at the University of Wisconsin, right here in Madison.

THE ANSWER to the question of what becomes a legend most depends on the legend.

In the case of the late UW history professor Harvey Goldberg — whose passionate lectures formed the basis of his legend — there could be nothing better than hearing him in the classroom.

The charismatic Goldberg died 20 years ago, but on Friday, “Harvey Goldberg: The Bootleg Lectures, Madison, Wis., 1974-76,” a remastered CD compilation of more than 20 Goldberg lectures, will be released and launched with an event at the Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative from 7-9 p.m.

Dear Editor: On April 3 Dr. Amna Buttar, associate professor at the UW School of Medicine, was physically and sexually assaulted in Pakistan by the elite police of Gen. Pervez Musharraf. She was participating in a peaceful demonstration protesting the suspension and house arrest of Pakistan Chief Justice Chaudhry Iftikhar.

….We cannot sit by and let such a despicable action go unchallenged.

….there is one legal reform that people on all sides of the gun debate should be able to agree upon.

In the aftermath of the horrific shooting spree at Virginia Tech University, which left 32 innocent victims and a deeply troubled gun owner dead, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine is considering implementation of an executive order that would provide gun sellers with more information about the mental health of gun buyers. And, significantly, the Democratic governor is getting encouragement from legislators who champion the right to bear arms.

MySpace, the popular social networking Web site, announced Thursday that it will be holding a series of town hall meetings with presidential candidates on college campuses across the country from September to December, right before the first 2008 primaries.

Each presidential candidate will hold an hourlong session, streamed live online, before 100 to 200 people, answering their questions as well as unfiltered questions sent online by MySpace users via instant messaging. The schedule and participating colleges have yet to be determined.

Dear Editor: Melissa Tedrowe’s letter regarding the work of Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka contains serious inaccuracies. It misrepresents not only a very important line of research intended to mitigate the effects of potential future flu pandemics, but also the processes and mechanisms in place to oversee work involving serious pathogens such as influenza.

The most serious inaccuracy is the assertion that Dr. Kawaoka’s group has been conducting work on campus with live 1918 or Spanish flu virus. Dr. Kawaoka’s group has indeed reconstituted the virus, but work with the live, infectious agent has not taken place on the Madison campus. That work was conducted in Canada, in high-level biosafety facilities that do not exist in Wisconsin.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison does offer a computer science program where students can learn those skills. Courses are offered on computer animation and game technologies. Associate professor Mike Gleicher teaches them and does research on things like motion capture, WISC-TV reported.

“I think if you wanted to look at what games (we) would be doing in five years you could look to the kind of things we’re doing here,” said Gleicher.

University of Wisconsin System officials said Thursday that they were crafting guidelines that would eliminate ties between financial aid offices and private lenders of student loans that pose conflicts of interest.

Harry Spiegelberg will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Wisconsin Alumni Association tonight.

Spiegelberg (whose name means â??looking-glass mountainâ? in German) earned his bachelorâ??s degree in chemical engineering from UW-Madison in 1959. He spent his entire career – mostly in R&D – with Kimberly-Clark. He retired in 1996 as vice president for technology transfer.

WisBusiness.com editor Brian Clark spoke with Spiegelberg recently about his work and his honor.

The City of Madison wants to head ’em up and move ’em…downtown.

The city’s working with the UW, Saint Mary’s Hospital and Meriter Hospital to try and entice employees to relocate.

They want to bring people back to some older neighborhoods near the isthmus that are emptying out.

Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz says neighborhoods like Vilas are changing. He says students are moving out and freeing up housing.

When he first lived in Madison three decades ago, fellow blacks were so rare that once while he was waiting at a stoplight at Gammon and Mineral Point roads with his first wife, a black man he didn’t know spied them, bent to take a look in the car and waved, LaMarr Billups recalled.

Should University of Wisconsin campuses be able to discipline students for offenses committed off-campus?

How about a progressive series of penalties? The first underage drinking citation would trigger a warning and possibly a requirement to attend a meeting. But on the third or fourth offense, the university could impose a serious penalty – maybe even suspension or expulsion.

University officials are asking state residents for their opinions about off-campus discipline. At present, university conduct code violations affect only on-campus behavior.

MADISON, Wis. — Radio frequency identification, or RFID, is a rapidly expanding technology that many people have probably never heard of, but experts say that the public should know about it because it has the potential to help — and perhaps invade — nearly every aspect of our lives.

RFID technology uses radio waves along with microchips and antennas called tags to give an object a unique number. It’s similar to the idea of a Social Security number for items. Receiving devices called readers then remotely track the object from a distance and download information about it, WISC-TV reported.

For industry, RFID is the barcode of the future, but also offers much more and the University of Wisconsin has a connection to this groundbreaking technology.

The final candidates for a high-ranking University of Wisconsin System position were announced Tuesday by UW System President Kevin Reilly.

MADISON, Wis. — An alcohol density resolution that was introduced last fall is now a proposed ordinance making its way through Madison committees with new amendments.

The ordinance would limit the number of liquor licenses in downtown Madison. The Madison Public Safety Board discussed the ordinance on Tuesday night.

The liquor license density ordinance is designed only for new establishments where alcohol would be the No. 1 product.

“What we’re looking at restricting here are stand-alone bars. So, places where the focus is on selling alcohol,” said Joel Plant, alcohol policy coordinator for the city of Madison.

A survey by a higher education association released Friday pegged computer system and campus information technology funding as the No. 1 issue being faced by university information technology departments.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee administration pushed Monday for a policy that would allow all campuses in the UW System to punish students for off-campus misconduct, saying the “escalating negative behavior” of a small number of students had caused the university to become “greatly concerned about the health and safety of its student body and neighboring community.”

True compassion breeds confidence and harmony, the Dalai Lama told a sellout crowd of 12,000 at the Kohl Center.

At the hushed sports arena Friday afternoon, in a 90-minute talk punctuated with laughter, the exiled political and temporal leader of the Tibetan people invited his audience to cultivate true compassion and, by nurturing internal peace, sow the seeds of peace in the world.

The Nobel Laureate, who has made several trips to Madison and the University of Wisconsin because of their proximity to the Deer Park Buddhist Center in the town of Dunn with which he is closely tied, was graciously received by an audience who traveled from nearby dormitories and across the country to hear him.

Having compassion isn’t something you should do just for the benefit of others – it’s a vital part of your own physical and mental well-being, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, told a sold-out audience of 12,000 fans and followers Friday at the Kohl Center.

MADISON, Wis. – This college town will try new regulations to combat the growing national problem of textbook theft, hoping to deter and catch book thieves who sell them to bookstores to make quick cash.

The city council voted Tuesday to require people selling books to show identification and fill out a form listing each book’s title and author. Stores will keep the information and share it with police to help find thieves and recover stolen books.

It almost seemed like a dare last month when Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning said he had reached a settlement with the Omaha-based lender, the National Education Loan Network. At a time when New Yorkâ??s attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, had been filing subpoenas and dishing out charges against lenders and colleges right and left, the settlement â?? which the Nebraska official said resolved â??very minorâ? mistakes by Nelnet and â??closes the bookâ? on Nelnetâ??s potential legal problems â?? seemed to say: â??Back off, Mr. Cuomo, Iâ??ve got my local lender covered.â?

Thursday, however, Cuomo opened what he called a â??new frontâ? in his ever-expanding investigation into the student loan industry â?? and this time, Nelnet was a central target, as were dozens of college and university alumni associations with which the Nebraska lender has formed partnerships.

MADISON, Wis. — The Dalai Lama arrived in Madison on Wednesday with a message of peace, healing and love.

It’s the sixth trip to Madison for Tibet’s leader, who will spend three days in the Madison area.

The Dalai Lama is not his name, but rather a title. His real name is Tenzin Gyatso, and he is both the spiritual and political leader of Tibet.

MADISON, Wis. — West Side parents are gathering signatures on petitions requesting that the Madison School Board reconsider the name of the city’s new elementary school.

The board voted to name the school after Hmong leader Gen. Vang Pao.

Pao lead CIA-supported Hmong forces who fought beside U.S. troops in Vietnam. A few years ago, Hmong protested a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor’s book that claims Pao was involved in drug trafficking and war crimes.

Local residents will have their first chance to weigh in on commuter rail for Madison and Dane County Thursday when the Transport 2020 committee rolls out its visions for an improved regional transit system.

The two contending commuter rail routes will be on display during the public information meeting set to start at 5 p.m. at Monona Terrace, with one route stretching from Middleton to Sun Prairie and the other from Middleton to the Dane County Regional Airport.

If the Dalai Lama’s fans ever become less than Zen, police are ready.

Agents with the State Department will keep a “moving security bubble around” his Holiness Tenzin Gyatso at all times while he’s in Madison this week, said Kurt Rice, special agent with the Chicago field office of the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which provides protection in 13 Midwestern states.

Geshe Lhundub Sopa, the abbot at the Deer Park Buddhist Center outside Oregon, remembers when Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, first visited Madison in the late 1970s.

UW-Madison is on the short list for a major federal grant to study new strategies for generating biofuels.
The U.S. Department of Energy is expected to invest $125 million over five years at each of two or possibly three new bioenergy research centers, starting as early as this year.

The City Council passed an amendment Tuesday requiring all dealers of used textbooks in Madison to keep records of individuals who sell books to them.

The amendment, originally sponsored by former City Council President Austin King, District 8, was sponsored Tuesday by newly elected Ald. Eli Judge, District 8, and new City Council President Mike Verveer, District 4, among others.