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Category: UW-Madison Related

ATA to halt daily flights to Midway

Wisconsin State Journal

Five daily flights between Madison and Chicago’s Midway Airport will be suspended Jan. 4 by bankrupt ATA Airlines.

Dane County airport director Brad Livingston said 62,876 passengers flew on the 28-seat ATA Connection flights through the first 11 months of 2004, representing about 4 percent of the airport’s market share.

Google Is Adding Major Libraries to Its Database

New York Times

Google, the operator of the world’s most popular Internet search service, plans to announce an agreement today with some of the nation’s leading research libraries and Oxford University to begin converting their holdings into digital files that would be freely searchable over the Web.

Chancellor likely to leave Whitewater

Badger Herald

The University of Wisconsin System announced Tuesday Jack Miller, chancellor of UW- Whitewater, will likely leave to become the 12th president of the Central Connecticut State University. Miller has spent over 25 years in four state university systems nationwide.

MGE electric bills to rise 10 percent

Wisconsin State Journal

If you’re a Madison Gas and Electric Co. customer, you’ll soon pay more to run the dishwasher, keep your home cool in the summer and watch your big-screen television.

The rate boost also covers a chunk of costs related to construction of the West Campus Cogeneration power plant, scheduled to be completed by mid-2005, and transmission line improvements passed along from American Transmission Co.

Free the Academic Drug Tests

New York Times

Academic medical centers represent the top rung of medical research in this country and are widely thought to be impartial and independent. So it is disheartening to find them signing restrictive contracts with pharmaceutical companies that allow the companies to dictate what drug testing data can be openly discussed and published. The manufacturers of drugs and medical devices are already under increasing pressure to list all of their clinical trials and results in public databases. Now academic medical centers will need to clean up their own practices to help prevent suppression of information about the safety and efficacy of drugs.

Undermining the Pell Grants

New York Times

Daunted by soaring costs, as many as a quarter of low-income students with grades and test scores that make them prime college material no longer even apply to college. This is bad news at a time when skilled jobs are moving abroad and a college diploma has become the minimum price of admission to the new economy. The Bush administration, however, could actually make this problem worse by cutting the federal Pell grant program, which was developed to encourage poor and working-class students to pursue higher education.

A top cop’s many memories

Capital Times

As Madison Police captain Luis Yudice’s retirement nears, he looks back on his 30-year law enforcement career, including his leadership role in planning for and dealing with this year’s Halloween bash on State Street.

Anti-war protesters snarl traffic

Capital Times

A group of about 60 anti-war protesters created confusion Thursday when they held up rush hour traffic on University Avenue for over an hour. The group, protesting the escalation of fighting in Fallujah in Iraq, clogged the thoroughfare at about 4 p.m., after marching from Library Mall with a long, white, wordless banner.

California Dreamin�

Badger Herald

Almost five years to the day after University of Wisconsin biologist James Thompson reported the first-ever isolation and culturing of human embryonic stem cells, the state of California passed Proposition 71.

Rookie Evans is catching on quick (Rochester Democrat & Chronicle)

Chronicle of Higher Education

(November 11, 2004) ââ?¬â? ORCHARD PARK ââ?¬â? When Lee Evans walked into the locker room at the Buffalo Bills’ training facility Wednesday morning, he found a picture on his stool, one suitable for framing.

It captured the rookie wide receiver making his dazzling fingertip catch in the end zone Sunday against the Jets, the second touchdown reception of his burgeoning career.

Glossy Alumni Magazines Seek More Than Graduates

New York Times

Their readers may still value the “class notes” most (the Wellesley Magazine section fostered a kidney transplant between graduates), but alumni magazines these days are revamped, glossy and offering an impressive array of more worldly topics. (Login required.)

Aberle, UW ag and life sciences dean, will retire

Capital Times

Elton Aberle, dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will retire next September. Aberle made the announcement in a written statement on Monday. The college is home to 2,200 undergraduates and about 1,000 graduate students. It has an annual budget of more than $150 million.

UW exec on leave but will return

Paul Barrows, University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor for student affairs, is taking an unspecified period of paid leave from the university. Barrows is well known for his leadership of campus diversity efforts. (11/5/04 Capital Times print edition)

Regents likely to OK pay hike

Capital Times

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents was criticized Thursday for its plans to raise executive salary ranges. The regents’ Business and Finance Committee endorsed the raises; the full board was expected to approve the raises today.
The regents hedged on a plan released by the committee’s chairman earlier this week to seek a 5.5 percent tuition increase for each of the next two years to pay for an increase in faculty and staff salaries.

California to the Rescue

New York Times

When California voters enacted a lavishly financed stem cell program on Tuesday, they performed a valuable service that should help keep this nation in the forefront of one of the most promising areas of biomedical research.

Rob Zaleski: Rail still good idea, still stuck

Capital Times

Much as he tries to disguise it, Jonathan Barry is frustrated. And he suspects others are, too. It’s been eight years since the former Dane County executive co-chaired a county committee that evaluated the feasibility of a commuter rail system. And he not only concluded it was worth pursuing, but predicted in a 1997 interview with this reporter that we’d have a such a system up and running no later than 2003.

Wisconsin Students Share a Brew With the Boss at Kerry Rally (Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles Times

MADISON, Wis. � The residents of 508 W. Washington Ave. were already pretty psyched when they realized that a massive rally with Sen. John F. Kerry and Bruce Springsteen would take place on their street Thursday afternoon.

When the rock star’s trailer parked in front of their house, 21-year-old Danya Bader-Natal ââ?¬â? one of the seven University of Wisconsin seniors who live in the gray wooden house ââ?¬â? scrawled a message in green marker on a flattened box and hung it from their second-story balcony: “Bruce come up for a beer.” (Login required.)

British Theologian Speaks At UW

Every fundamentalist movement she has studied has been rooted in profound fear, convinced that modern secular society wants to wipe out religion, British theologian Karen Armstrong told an attentive crowd at the Memorial Union Theater Wednesday night.

Pedestrian, cyclist killed in east side crashes

Capital Times

A 21-year-old woman crossing the street and a 53-year-old bicyclist died within a half-hour of each other Tuesday night in east side traffic accidents. Both accidents happened as a light rain fell, possibly limiting visibility. (The woman was identified as UW-Madison senior Jai Plia Thao, an English and biology major.)

Madison Preparing for Kerry Rally

NBC-15

(MADISON)Ã?  Today it was Caroline Kennedy stumping for Senator John Kerry, and come Thursday expect two more big name acts. Both Bruce Springsteen and the Foo Fighters will accompany Kerry on stage near Capitol Square. Campaign organizers expect Thursday’s rally to draw as many as 60,000 people.

School of Education dean discusses No Child Left Behind

Daily Cardinal

The No Child Left Behind Act is intended to help K-12 schools meet educational standards and grow academically.

However, according to Charles Read, dean of the UW-Madison School of Education, who spoke to UW-Madison students and Madison-area residents Monday night, the act is not up to standards and has experienced growing pains.

FYI: Shouting down Michael Moore

Capital Times

FYI: We were at the recent Michael Moore speech at the Memorial Union Terrace. A group of what looked like college Republicans interrupted a lot of it by endless chanting inane slogans like “No Moore lies” and “Daddies love Bush.” Why didn’t the police stop them from disrupting a public event?

Editorial: A great new police chief

Capital Times

When the Audrey Seiler disappearance case became national news earlier this year, the rest of the country became aware of something a lot of Madisonians have known for years: Noble Wray has the experience, the intelligence and the demeanor to lead an urban police force even in the most difficult circumstances.

City gets its chief: It’s Wray

Capital Times

It’s now Madison Police Chief Noble Wray. There was a sense of jubilation and relief Thursday as the “acting” part of Noble Wray’s title was dropped and he became police chief….”My first week as acting chief was Audrey Seiler. My first week as chief will be Halloween,” Wray quipped.

Summon national will to end spending sprees

Wisconsin State Journal

Three recent news stories were linked by a thread that stands out as if spun from lightning. It’s about time we were shocked into action.

The most recent article, under the headline “Lack of financial savvy can be the road to misery,” the State Journal’s George Hesselberg detailed how a variety of factors, including rising tuition and a tough job market, make it more important for UW-Madison students to know how to manage their personal finances – and how, if managing their finances were a course, lots of students would flunk.

Lift federal cap on tech workers

Wisconsin State Journal

Federal immigration officials arbitrarily cut off the supply of much-needed foreign technology workers and students on day one of the annual visa-granting cycle this month, with troubling implications for American businesses and universities including UW-Madis

Editorial: Michael Moore’s patriotism

Capital Times

Filmmaker Michael Moore is a controversial figure. The left loves him for having the courage to shine the light of truth on the abuses of power and privilege that have defined the past 3 years of American history. For exactly the same reason, the right hates him.