Wisconsin's Sunshine Act might as well be a legislative call for spring to come early. Enacted in 2005 in the spirit of a more transparent government, the bill mandated that all state contracts greater than $10,000 be posted to a centralized website. Four years later, that admirable piece of legislation has turned out to be a toothless joke.
Plans for a new Central Library were altered last week when Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Fiore Companies called it quits over negotiations concerning construction of the new building downtown. But even the disappointed must be breathing a sigh of relief now that all the uncertainty surrounding the future of the Central Library is finally over. There is no more worrying to be done regarding the location or architecture of a building, the costs of a construction company or developer, or role of public works and the taxpayer's dollar. In fact, one could say that new life has been breathed into a project bogged down for two years with red tape and planning.
Being a proud Badger, I hate to admit any jealousy to other schools, but damn. Instead of Madison making revolutionary marks, other schools like Syracuse, Washington and California are creatively, and in the case of other Wisconsinites at Milwaukee, radically standing up to education policies and advocating SAFRA in an attention-grabbing way. Like my friend Danny pointed out, we have a reputation at Madison for being active and cutting-edge while representing the rest of our state. We have a responsibility not only to ourselves, but also to the rest of the state and nation to advocate necessary change.
The Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, the program raising tuition by $250 for in-state students and $750 for non-resident students, has the potential to decrease class sizes in bottle-neck courses and add much-needed faculty in high-demand areas. However the reality is that of the 114 proposals submitted to receive a portion of the MIU funding, only 31 were recommended to Chancellor Biddy Martin by the MIU Shared Governance Oversight Committee and the Student Oversight Committee.
The past few weeks, accusations of anti-Semitism have been lobbed back and forth across campus. Whether it is the Alpha Epsilon Pi scandal or the Bradley Smith Holocaust-denier ad, recent events have shown that the UW Jewish community is far from immune to the ugliness of discrimination and hatred, even in supposedly progressive Madison. In the wake of these controversies, it makes some past comments of District 5 county board candidate Michael Johnson even more disconcerting.
Last week, the state of Wisconsin was one of a kind, nationally recognized, the leader of the pack.
Editor's Note: The original story was posted Wednesday night, this version has since been changed.
Like Stephen Colbert's coverage of obscure stories, I enjoy bringing under-discussed issues to light. In that respect, as students we should be particularly intrigued by the potential addition of student loan amendments to the fast-tracked health care bill.
UW System employee salaries were released last week with few surprises and the same aggravating discrepancies. Ten system employees earned over $300,000. Chancellor Biddy Martin made more than UW System President Kevin Reilly by almost $23,000, and nobody outshone Athletic Director Barry Alvarez at half a million.
Was this the change we were hoping for? Backroom deals, Cornhusker kickbacks, bribes, rides in Air Force One, and a plethora of other questionable Washington procedures have left many Americans asking this question. A recent NBC News/Wall St. Journal poll put support for this health-care bill at just 36 percent. Yet Speaker Pelosi and President Obama continue to try to force this legislation on a populace that clearly does not want it to pass. What's more astounding is that not only is Washington trying to pass this health-care bill against the will of the people, but they are doing it in a manner which is unconstitutional at best and completely unethical at worst.
As we enter into warmer weather, melting snow and relentless rain, it is becoming clear that spring is on the way. With clear streets and temperatures above the freezing mark, it is just about time to bring out the bicycles again. In fact, many students are already enjoying the opportunity and pedaling their ways across campus; and as a fellow cyclist, I am eager to join just as soon as I can get my bike back to Madison.
Two weeks ago, the powerful hand of the law laid a smack down on one of the few remaining legal drugs being used throughout Wisconsin. Salvia divinorum, commonly confused with saliva, was effectively banned from being manufactured and distributed among the many citizens of Wisconsin.
The road ahead of you is aglow with thousands of tiny sparkling snowflakes, like diamonds in the distance. The air on your face is brisk and refreshing, but it harmonizes with the warm sun. There is bliss in these moments of winter, experienced in the solitude of a long run, where your only purpose is to continue to put one foot in front of the other.
The most recent chapter in the saga of radio royalties played out earlier his month when more than 400 broadcasters visited Washington D.C. and lobbied Capitol Hill in opposition to the Performance Rights Act. The PRA has passed both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees but has not yet been scheduled for a vote in either body.
Last week ASM's Academic Affairs Committee proposed the creation of a standing committee to address textbook issues as a more permanent way of addressing the financial burden of textbooks on campus. The proposed committee would be comprised of three students, three faculty members and three academic staff and, according to ASM Academic Affairs Chairman Jonah Zinn, would focus on ""things like electronic textbooks, open-source textbooks, getting departments to focus on certain textbooks, library reserve programs and the possibility of creating a textbook rental program.""
In a rare instance of the City of Madison and Dane County not seeing eye to eye, a lawsuit resulted over their disagreements on how to handle 911 calls.
Pasteurization is not just a nightmare for cheese gourmets. It is a nuisance for anyone who sees selling and consuming raw milk as their natural right.
As someone who spent his childhood never more than 20 minutes away from the City of Milwaukee, who has made the trip between Milwaukee and Madison hundreds of times in his life and who now holds residence in the city of Madison for the majority of the year, the idea of a possible high-speed rail line between the two cities initially caused stunned excitement.
BPA-free water bottles have popped up everywhere. They come in a rainbow of colors. You can acquire them basically everywhere, from the corner Walgreens to the merchandise stand at your favorite band's concert. They keep you hydrated. They last. They are good for the environment, and evidently, for you as well.
Eloquence in print isn't too hard. It's a medium that, through the magic and archaic technology of Gutenberg, allows me to spend hours debating between using ""brutish"" or ""bestial"" before anyone ever reads my words. After being quoted in our university's other newspaper, I was reminded that I'm not quite as eloquent live. I must admit I sounded like Sarah Palin.
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