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Category: UW-Madison Related

Magazine focuses on Madison’s gay, lesbian community

Wisconsin State Journal

More than 20 years ago, a combination of people (UW-Madison students) and an idea (a satirical newspaper) came together in Madison to create the hugely successful national publication, The Onion. In 2007, another convergence of people and ideas in Madison created Our Lives, a new bi-monthly magazine for Madison’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) population.

Gow details modified plan

La Crosse Tribune

Chancellor Joe Gow unveiled more details of the modified version of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosseâ??s Growth and Access Agenda to the campus community Thursday.

The new Growth, Quality and Access plan seeks to grow total enrollment by at least 500 additional students in the next three to five years, hire at least 75 more faculty and 20 more staff members in the next five years and provide increased financial aid for students from low- and middle-income families.

Freakfest Tab Expected Over $700,000

WKOW-TV 27

Madison Police Chief Noble Wray predicted the costs of policing this past weekend’s Freakfest State Street event would be on a par with last year police costs: $763,000.

Wray said Freakfest police costs have been increasing every year until now. “We did not add police staff to the event in a significant way.”

Putting the fun in Halloween

Capital Times

The Halloween weekend has for many years thrown a scare into Madison. It is not that this city is frightened by the prospect of a big party. Quite the opposite. The problem was that the fun nature of the festivities on State Street was warped by a handful of rowdies who did not know how to have a good time.

UW gets $85 million for School of Business

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The University of Wisconsin-Madisons School of Business has received an $85 million gift from a group of 13 alumni – the biggest single gift in UW-Madisons history – to add faculty, boost the schools reputation and improve teaching and research, but not to change its name anytime soon.

UW Homecoming Includes Two Fighter Pilots

WKOW-TV 27

Forget a car, the bus or the train. A few of the alumni in town for homecoming, flew into Madison Friday, on fighter jets. When the signup sheet came around to be part of a flyover preceding Saturday’s game at Camp Randall, Marine Major Smith said he jumped on the chance.

Smith landed at Wisconsin Aviation facility around noon from a Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He flew in an FA 18 hornet fighter jet, which he’s flown for about eight years.

UW earns â??B+â?? for green practices

Daily Cardinal

UW-Madison ranks among the top-10 public and private universities for maintaining green practices, earning a â??B+â? grade from the Sustainable Endowments Instituteâ??s 2008 College Sustainability Report Card, released Wednesday.

UW alumni give $569K for ’07-08 scholarships

Capital Times

Students at UW-Madison received nearly $569,000 in scholarships this year courtesy of local chapters and affiliates of the Wisconsin Alumni Association.

For the 2007-08 academic year, 352 students from 77 cities in Wisconsin and 25 other states received WAA scholarships, ranging from $200 to $8,000 for a school year.

Don’t freak out

Wisconsin State Journal

Bring on the zany costumes and good natured fun.
Just don ‘t freak out with violence or damage to property at this year ‘s Freakfest on State Street.

U students haunt Madison (Minnesota Daily)

In a longstanding tradition of debauchery, drunks, scanty costumes and excrement, the University of Wisconsin and the city of Madison, Wis., brace themselves for yet another Halloween on State Street. Just as moths to the flame are University underclassmen flocking to Madison to experience firsthand the heralded night of escape. This year, however, might bring obstacles to those underage drinkers looking for a riot or the perpetual nip-slip.

Fluno: Gameday behavior sours UW image

Badger Herald

As a proud alumnus of the University of Wisconsin, I bleed cardinal and white. I love our university and have worked tirelessly to make it even better, both financially and through my time and talent.

As much as I love this place, on football Saturdays, in and outside of Camp Randall Stadium, there is a part of life here that needs to change.

Budget provides funds for UW union, new housing projects

Badger Herald

With the Wisconsin state budget passing last night in both the House and the Assembly, renovations of both Memorial Union and Union South were approved, as well as a major University of Wisconsin Housing project. However, a planned addition of two residence halls in the Lakeshore area was nixed in the Assembly.

Wisconsin has a budget

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Legislature passed a long-overdue budget late Tuesday, even as lawmakers discovered new provisions – including one allowing grocery stores to serve customers free samples of hard liquor.

The little-noticed tidbit in the budget would allow grocers and liquor stores to serve up to 1 1/2 ounces of whiskey, gin and other liquors to customers each visit. The budget, 115 days overdue, was the second-latest spending plan the Legislature ever adopted.

Wineke: Taxing smokers to pay for budget is unfair policy

Wisconsin State Journal

After all this time, it looks as if the Legislature will vote on a budget today that Gov. Doyle will sign.
That ‘s such a relief we might be forgiven if we were to ignore the pesky little fact that the budget rests on a bed of funds that are extorted from one segment of the state ‘s residents and stolen from another.

Budget full of surprises

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Property taxes would rise $80 – or by 2.9% – on the typical home in December under the state budget lawmakers are expected to adopt today, documents released Monday show. Here is a summary of budget provisions, prepared by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

Editorial: Finally, a budget deal

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

If budgets are roadmaps that lay out a course for a state’s future, then the compromise spending plan reached late Friday by Gov. Jim Doyle and legislative leaders takes Wisconsin mostly in the right direction

From standoff to a deal

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The week that resolved the three-month budget impasse started with a Monday showdown that taught Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle he couldn’t club Assembly Republicans into a deal; moved to rallies at which public workers denounced those same Republicans; and ended with handshakes Friday.

Faith in Social Security inherited

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

This week, when a retired schoolteacher from New Jersey became the first baby boomer to apply online for early retirement benefits from Social Security, it was the stuff of national news.

After all, nearly 80 million Americans were born from 1946 to 1964, and they are expected to flood the Social Security system in the coming decades.

Among those who took notice of this week’s milestone was a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor named John Witte.

Bill would divvy up state budget

Badger Herald

In the midst of the continuing budget chaos, a new bill to divide the state budget and pass each aspect separately through bipartisan committees is being drafted by Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills.

Budget brings out protesters

Badger Herald

Capitol Square was flooded Wednesday afternoon with the loud protests of angry public workers, sympathetic honking car horns and music from a taxpayers group, which looped between politiciansâ?? calls for decreased spending and U2â??s â??Beautiful Day.â?

CIO Leadership Series: UW-Madison’s Ron Kraemer tackles growing student-faculty tech demands

Wisconsin Technology Network

Madison, Wis. – Business school students routinely learn the basic tenets of supply and demand, but these days the campus CIO had better be well versed in it, too.

Nobody knows that better than Ron Kraemer, chief information officer and vice provost for information technology for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The expectations (and appetite) of students and to a lesser degree faculty for advanced technology create the consumer demand, and Kraemer realizes he had better be a steady supplier.

CIO Leadership Series: UW-Madison’s Ron Kraemer tackles growing student-faculty tech demands

Madison, Wis. – Business school students routinely learn the basic tenets of supply and demand, but these days the campus CIO had better be well versed in it, too.

Nobody knows that better than Ron Kraemer, chief information officer and vice provost for information technology for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The expectations (and appetite) of students and to a lesser degree faculty for advanced technology create the consumer demand, and Kraemer realizes he had better be a steady supplier.

Events honor violent â??67 campus riots

Daily Cardinal

The Havens Center is commemorating the 40th anniversary of â??Dow Dayâ? in Madison with three days of lectures and a forum. The series entitled â??The Day that Changed Madison: The â??Dow Riotâ?? forty years on,â? began Tuesday night with a lecture by Paul Buhle, a lecturer at Brown University, focusing on Madisonâ??s history of liberal activism, how it was reinvigorated in the 1960s, and its continuing effects on the university.

Illegal music use is costly for UW

Wisconsin State Journal

In the last few years, UW-Madison has spent more than $300,000 to prevent and resolve allegations of illegal downloading and sharing of music by users of the university ‘s computer network, the UW ‘s Division of Information Technology (DoIT) estimates.

Control scary Freakfest costs

Wisconsin State Journal

Safety must be the top priority as Madison prepares for its annual Halloween party on State Street later this month.

But Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Police Chief Noble Wray also need to get a handle on escalating costs.

Unsolved murders in Madison unusual

Capital Times

Kevin Hughes is haunted by the unsolved homicide cases he has worked on during his 24 years as a detective with the Dane County Sheriff’s Office.

Hughes, who has investigated nearly 20 homicides, guesses that roughly six remain to some degree unsolved.

UW, Doyle hit for e-mail invite to students

Capital Times

UW-Madison College Republicans and a GOP state lawmaker are criticizing e-mails that were sent by UW officials to low-income students still awaiting financial aid grants, asking whether they wished to appear at a press conference with Gov. Jim Doyle today urging legislators to complete the state budget.

The 33 students contacted are among 420 at UW-Madison and 5,544 in the University of Wisconsin System who will not know whether they receive their Wisconsin Higher Education Grants until the budget is concluded.

Budget Problems Could Mean Fewer Freshmen

Wisconsin State Journal

If state funding support for UW-Madison remains uncertain or declines, one of the possible ramifications could be reducing the size of the incoming freshman class for fall 2008, UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said.

“We’ll have to make the decision soon on whether to slow down admissions,” Wiley said in a recent address to the faculty senate. “That is always an unpopular decision.”

Justice on tap

Badger Herald

The City Councilâ??s recent passage of the Alcohol Density Plan â?? which prohibits the issuance of new liquor licenses in the downtown area â?? was not the first time this decade that city officials attempted to regulate students into a state of sobriety, as proceedings at the Wisconsin Supreme Court last week reminded us.

Hundreds of geeks to gather in Madison for convention (AP)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — More than 600 self-described geeks are expected in Madison this weekend for a two-day convention that includes role playing, video games, and lots of science fiction.

Others might call it Revenge of the Geeks. The organizers call it Geek.kon, with .kon standing for convention. Like any conference, it’s a place for people with common interests to gather.

“Your average American citizen does not know what a LAN party is, nor Warhammer, nor LARP, nor cosplay,” organizer and panelist Jackie Lee said.

The convention at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is sponsored by Geek.kon, a registered student organization made up mostly of members of the university’s sci-fi and anime clubs, and the university’s East Asian studies department.

Freakfest tickets going on sale

Wisconsin State Journal

Tickets go on sale today for Freakfest, Madison’s Halloween party on State Street.

New this year for the party, to be held Oct. 27, a Saturday, will be a third stage and corporate sponsors.

Officials, however, hope to again see the kind of reduction in the drunken mayhem and violence that made last year’s event noteworthy in comparison to previous years.

Editorial: Give State Budget Deadline Some Teeth!

WISC-TV 3

The Wisconsin State Legislature has become dysfunctional, ineffectual, and counter-productive. It is an embarrassment and it is harming the state’s reputation and image. And the few good public servants in its ranks can do nothing. It is time for fundamental change.

The most important change will only come with reform of the redistricting process and the way campaigns are financed. Currently, government is pretty much run by rabidly partisan legislative staff members whose jobs are basically to cater to special interest money and keep it flowing. There is no longer even a façade of caring for the interests of the citizens of this state or responsible public policy. Cash and reelection are all that matter.

No State Budget Doesn’t Stop Wisconsin (AP)

MADISON, Wis. | While its neighbors avoided government shutdowns by passing state budgets in the nick of time, Wisconsin has quietly operated 13 weeks without a new spending plan and is the only state left without a budget.

There is no hammer of a government shutdown in Wisconsin as lawmakers bicker over raising the cigarette tax and imposing new taxes on big oil companies and hospitals. And there’s no limit to how long lawmakers can be in session. Current taxing and spending levels continue even when there is no budget in place by the July 1 start of the fiscal year.

Lawyer: Wis. bars that banned drink specials broke the law (AP)

MADISON, Wis. â?? Drinkers in this college town were wrongly cut off from two-for-one beer deals and cheap shots of liquor by bar owners who fixed their prices, a lawyer told the state Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Lawyer Kay Hunt asked the justices to reinstate a lawsuit claiming a 2002 agreement by bars to ban drink specials on weekend nights was an illegal price-fixing conspiracy. Her Minneapolis law firm represents drinkers who claim they were overcharged as a result of the ban.

City Looks To Repeat Success With Freakfest 2007

WISC-TV 3

MADISON, Wis. — Although ghouls and monsters and other unruly creatures of the night packed Freakfest on State Street last year, Madison’s annual Halloween celebration went off without the riots and police confrontations that marred the party in past years.

Officials said that success was due in large part to the city’s increased involvement in the 2006 event. For the first time, revealers were required to purchase tickets for admission onto State Street during the party, and authorities erected fences and set designated entry and exit points to help control the flow of the large crowds.

Budget Stalemate Continues Into 93rd Day

WISC-TV 3

Closed-door meetings continued for the second week at the Capitol, but as they do, some are talking about measures that might have brought compromise long ago.

The governor’s office said Monday that it has lawyers looking into emergency actions the governor could take to break the stalemate.

UW president is right about educationâ??s economic impact

La Crosse Tribune

University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly has been going around the state urging people to contact their legislators.

The message is a sound one: Higher education needs more state support, and it needs an end to budget cuts that are tougher than other agencies have had to bear. It needs these things because higher education can help the economy.

Lawmakers, finish the job

Wisconsin State Journal

Now they’re costing us real money.

That’s why property taxpayers throughout Wisconsin should be hopping mad at the state Legislature for blowing another deadline for the state budget.

Lawmakers deserve credit for finally making some progress this week on a budget compromise. But they didn’t get far enough.