Weekend, November 5-8, 2015 - The Daily Cardinal

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University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Weekend, November 5-8, 2015

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mishandles homelessness issue ‘The Soglin Rocky Horror Picture +OPINION, page Show’ 5

+ARTS, page 3

e h t r o f d a Go M Hatters Oscar Mayer slices seven plants, cuts 1,200 jobs By Negassi Tesfamichael THE DAILY CARDINAL

JANE THOMPSON/CARDINAL FILE PHOTO

Race organizers expect about 2,000 runners at the Madison Marathon this weekend.

Students prepare for Madison Marathon By Katie Scheidt THE DAILY CARDINAL

Students across the UW-Madison campus have juggled many different responsibilities in preparing for the Madison Marathon that will take place this Sunday. The race, which is a Boston Marathon qualifier, starts and ends at the Capitol Square and takes runners into downtown Madison, through the campus and around Lake Wingra. The race organizers expect

approximately 2,000 runners for the full marathon, with many of the runners being students at UW-Madison. Many of the student marathon runners are also members of the Wisconsin Track Club, a competitive running club with runners ranging in skill from beginner to all-state athletes. Matthew Hupy and Michael Eppink, both students at UW-Madison and members of the Wisconsin Track Club, have been preparing for the marathon since

this past spring. While both are experienced runners, Sunday will be their first time running a marathon. Eppink, a sophomore studying physics and philosophy, said balancing schoolwork and training has been difficult, noting nights in which he “would be in the middle of doing homework and would have to stop to go run.” Hupy, a pre-med senior studying nutritional sciences, acknowl-

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Madison’s famed Oscar Mayer plant will close within the next one to two years, leading to the loss of nearly 1,200 jobs in Madison and the surrounding area. The Kraft Heinz Company, which owns the Oscar Mayer processed meat brand, announced the decision Wednesday, which includes the closure of plants in six other cities nationwide. Overall, North American factory employees will decrease by 2,600. Additionally, Oscar Mayer’s corporate headquarters will move from Madison to Chicago. “Our decision to consolidate manufacturing across the Kraft Heinz North American network is a critical step in our plan to eliminate excess capacity,” Kraft Heinz spokesperson Michael Mullen said in a statement. “This will make Kraft Heinz more globally competitive and accelerate the company’s future growth.” In March, Kraft Foods and Heinz formed a $46 billion merger of the two companies to create Kraft Heinz. “Kraft Heinz fully appreciates and regrets the impact our decision will have on employees, their families and the communities in which these facilities are located,” Mullen added.

City and county officials reacted swiftly to the decision and emphasized the need to help workers retain employment once the plant shuts down. “Our main focus right now is the workers, their employees and related businesses that are dependent on the vitality of this operation,” said Madison Mayor Paul Soglin. “The impact on Madison and the metro area has got to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.” Pat Schramm, the executive director of the Workforce Development Board of South Central Wisconsin, said the state’s healthy economy should help workers. “There’s never been a better time for this to happen, because all the relationships are in place to make the transition as quickly as possible,” she said. Soglin said federal funds will be available to create a rapid response team to assess the workers’ skills and prepare them for job fairs. A plant in Davenport, Iowa, will relocate to another area of the city, though Soglin said he is not aware of any relation of those plans to the closing of the Madison plant. The Madison plant opened in 1919, and currently sits on the city’s east side near the Dane County Regional Airport.

Lawmakers approve state transportation borrowing limit By Andrew Bahl THE DAILY CARDINAL

The Joint Finance Committee approved Wednesday $350 million in state borrowing over the next two years in an effort to combat delays on road construction throughout the state. The committee’s four Democrats joined Assembly Republicans in voting for the bonding limit, arguing that the tough decision is necessary to improve transportation infrastructure. “We’ve made some very difficult

decisions, things that I think have put us in the right spot,” said committee co-chair state Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette. “We admit this is one that we still have to tackle. We have to come up with a solution here.” Democrats initially said Gov. Scott Walker should instead raise the state’s gas tax to pay for the construction, but eventually supported the measure. “The man has to lead. He can’t just borrow and then leave town,”

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Campus finds sexual assault in native populations disproportionately high By Madeline Heim THE DAILY CARDINAL

THE TERRACE

Heat waves rollin’ in

The first week in November saw a surprising shift in the weather, as temperatures reached the 70s. Many UW-Madison students flocked to outdoor spaces, such as the Memorial Union Terrace, to appreciate the warmth while it lasts. + Photo by Kaitlyn Veto

Students are looking for solutions to the disproportionate rate at which American Indian students are experiencing sexual assault at UW-Madison, following the university’s Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct. The survey, conducted this year as the university’s first cam-

pus-specific resource for statistics, revealed that 46.2 percent of American Indian students reported experiencing sexual assault, according to Joshua Johnson, assistant dean of students and director of the Multicultural Student Center, who spoke at the Amer­i­can Indian Stu­dent & Cul­ tural Cen­ter Wednesday.

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“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”


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