Winter sports, no more
The Wisconsin men’s hockey and basketball teams both saw their seasons end over spring break. SPORTS | 8
THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1969 Volume XLIV, Issue 98
Monday, April 1, 2013
www.badgerherald.com
Vending conflict nears compromise Parking spaces could be eliminated to create middle ground for restaurants, food cart owners Allie Johnson City Life Editor
Megan McCormick The Badger Herald
Students gather at Mifflin Street Block Party, known for celebrating drinking. UW was ranked the No. 5 top party school by Playboy Magazine, and a report says Wisconsin leads the nation in binge drinking.
Binge drinking in focus With alcohol consumption costing state billions, city and campus leaders propose measures Noah Goetzel State Politics Editor While Wisconsin’s economy, job growth efforts, education funding and issues with health care tend to take center stage in debates over the state’s key problems, one issue is costing the state both in health and expenses. Last year alone, the state paid 10 percent of the proposed two-year, $68 billion dollar budget, on excessive alcohol consumption costs. It remains the nation’s leader in binge drinking, according to a mid-March report from Health First Wisconsin. The report said binge drinkers in Wisconsin
average nine drinks per occasion. Additionally, America’s Health Rankings 2012 statistics said the state leads the U.S. with nearly a quarter of its adults drinking excessively in the past 30 days. Last August’s National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism report identified Wisconsin as one of 18 states where citizens drink at least 2.5 gallons of ethanol per capita. University Health Services Director Sarah Van Orman explained in an email to The Badger Herald that this list of statistics goes on and on. “On nearly every measure of problematic alcohol use, Wisconsin is the highest in the nation,”
she said. City attempts new measures However, city and state officials are proposing legislation that could have mixed results in alleviating this unhealthy and expensive problem. City of Madison Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said he introduced a bill to City Council March 19 intended to continue cracking down on alcohol sale to chronic drinkers for two more years. To save city costs, he noted the updated bill would remove members from a “habitually intoxicated persons” list after six months without an incident. List members are currently reviewed on a
three-month schedule. Troublemaking daytime street alcoholics with a history of substance abuse or mental illness are the target of the legislation, rather than University of Wisconsin students, according to Verveer. “The ordinance that we’re talking about never had anything to do with students in my mind,” he said. “Students aren’t causing problems or panhandling.” The bill will be considered at the April 17 Alcohol Review Licensing Committee meeting and will likely be approved at the April 30 City Council meeting, Verveer said.
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Bringing a compromise to an ongoing conflict between local restaurant owners and food cart vendors, a city committee last week unanimously approved a proposal to restrict parking spaces for late night street vendors on a downtown street. The Vending Oversight Committee voted Wednesday to eliminate several parking spaces in front of the restaurants Asian Kitchen and Pita Pit on the 400 block of Broom Street, according to Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4. Verveer, a member of oversight committee, proposed a plan that would allow both regular-standing businesses and food carts to benefit from the late night food crowd. “My proposal keeps it very simple,” Verveer said. “It simply designates the parking stalls that are allowed at any time for vending.” The approved proposal comes as the result of several meetings of the committee that addressed the local restaurant owners’ complaints that late night food carts parked on Broom Street were taking away business, Verveer said. The proposal was a compromise of all parties involved, he said. While the proposal would limit several parking spaces, Verveer explained the vendors will still be allowed to park on the east side of
the street, across from Asian Kitchen and Pita Pit, as well as in the loading zone of Riley’s Wines of the World. About 10 parking spaces will continue to be available on a first-come, first-serve basis, he said. “Overall, late-night vending will be able to continue without any difficulty in late night operation,” Verveer said. The proposed amendment received support from the owners of Asian Kitchen and Pita Pit, food cart vendors and city officials, Verveer said. The owners of three latenight food carts, In N Out Empanadas, JD’s and Fried and Fabulous, also testified in favor of the compromise at the meeting, Verveer said. Fried and Fabulous owner Steve Lawrence was initially concerned the previous proposals to restrict vending on the street would put him out of business. However, he said he feels the compromise will be beneficial to both the restaurants and food carts vendors. “I am very pleased with this balanced approach,” Lawrence said. “[The compromise] responds to concerns raised by the restaurants while allowing the food carts to stay in business.” Pita Pit owner Courtney Palm and her landlord also voiced their support for the proposal at the meeting. The only party not as supportive of the approved amendment was the owner of
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State reacts to marriage debate Dane County tends to favor same-sex nuptials, Walker says it is state level issue Polo Rocha Senior Legislative Editor In 2006, Wisconsin voters, who recently elected the first openly gay U.S. senator, passed a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman, an issue that has come into focus on the national level at the U.S. Supreme Court. At the time, all but one Wisconsin county voted in a referendum for that definition, which passed with 55.5 percent of the vote. The only county to vote against the amendment was Dane County, where two-thirds of voters opposed defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Last Tuesday, Dane County was also among the top 25 counties nationwide with the highest change in Facebook profile pictures, according to a Facebook data analysis. Various Facebook profile pictures blanketed the social networking site as a way for those who supported same-sex marriage legislation to congregate. The day before, the Human Rights Campaign pushed for Facebook members to change their profile pictures to the equal sign on a red background that
symbolized support for same-sex marriage. The picture and its many variations were likely behind the 2.7 million more, or 120 percent more, profile picture changes in the U.S. than usual, Facebook data scientist Eytan Bakshy said in the analysis. Bakshy said many counties in the top 25 had college towns, such as Madison and the University of Wisconsin campus. Openly gay Sen. Tammy Baldwin was the Madisonarea representative in the U.S. House of Representatives before her 2012 election to the Senate. Her successor, Rep. Mark Pocan, introduced his husband to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, during a swearingin ceremony earlier this year. But while Dane County likely still supports samesex marriage, questions remain regarding whether the rest of the state still opposes it. Gov. Scott Walker told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week samesex marriage decisions should be left up to states, noting Wisconsin already made that decision in 2006.
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Spring ready to set sail Claire Larkins The Badger Herald
Boats sitting by the still-frozen Lake Mendota point out toward the water they will soon sail as spring slowly makes its way to Madison.
Roggensack, Fallone ready for election Supreme Court candidates debate experience, impact of donations as race nears end Noah Goetzel State Politics Editor Just a day before the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, issues of each candidate’s experience, courtroom dysfunction and the impact of donations to judges by parties involved in court hearings continue to dominate the race.
Associate law professor at Marquette University Ed Fallone is challenging the incumbent State Supreme Court justice, Patience Roggensack. Roggensack won February’s primary by 34 points and had outspent her opponent by a three-to-one margin through early February. However, a recent poll suggests the
© 2013 BADGER HERALD
challenger may be the more qualified candidate, despite having no experience as a judge. Friday’s poll results from the Dane County Bar Association reveal Fallone holds a 3.09 to 2.48 advantage over Roggensack based on combined ratings on a 2-4 point scale for 10 criteria deemed important
characteristics for a good judge. “It just goes to show how affected Wisconsinites are by the dysfunction of the court and that’s exactly what Ed will change when he’s elected,” Fallone’s spokesperson Brad Wojciechowski said. Yet, the same poll
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