At Tuesday night's Madison City Council meeting, the mayor proposed an ordinance to establish a local minimum wage of $7.75. The current federal minimum wage is $5.15. Workers who receive tips would get $3.88, while the current federal minimum wage for workers receiving tips is $2.13.
According to The Capital Times, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said his ordinance would essentially be the same as the charter ordinance being proposed by the Madison Fair Wage Campaign and organized by Ald. Austin King, District 8.
The difference between the two ordinances is that the mayor's proposal would only need an 11-vote majority of the City Council, while the charter ordinance would need a 14-vote majority.
The Student Services Finance Committee gave Collegians For A Constructive Tomorrow and Safe Arrival For Everyone, which includes SAFEride, SAFEwalk and SAFEbus, almost all the funding they requested for this academic year.
After a lengthy debate concerning whether SAFEwalk deserves minimal or no funding because it serves relatively few people compared to SAFEride, the SSFC decided to cut only $3,449 from SAFE's proposed budget of $299,051. The money they cut would have funded raises for SAFE employees.
CFACT, which is an environmental student organization aimed at presenting alternative views to those of Wisconsin Public Interest Group, received $78,141 of their proposed $82,066.
NASA tested a laser instrument on the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite last night at 8:45 p.m., using accurately calibrated instruments developed by the UW Lidar group. The instruments are located at the Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences Building on the south side of campus. The test produced a pulsing, ghostly green light, which was visible in the sky.
The laser measures the heights of clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere and calculates the ICLE satellite's orbit and instrument orientation. The UW instrument operates at the same wavelength as NASA's instrument, so NASA can use it to calibrate their laser. NASA hopes to use the laser to study how the polar ice sheets are changing.
Atlantic Monthly will add its two cents to the college-ranking fray with its first annual \College Admissions Survey"" when the November 2003 issue hits newsstands Oct. 14.
Purporting to add ""some much needed perspective"" to the college application process, Atlantic editors released their own list of the top 50 selective universities nationwide using a model based on admission rate, SAT scores and class rank of admitted freshmen to prevent artificial inflation of college rankings.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology took the top ranking in the debut list. Princeton University, California Institute of Technology, Yale University and Harvard University rounded out the top five.
