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University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Monday, March 10, 2008
Finance reform bill likely stalled until next session By Charles Brace THE DAILY CARDINAL
CHRISTOPHER GUESS/CARDINAL FILE PHOTO
The number of UW-Madison students taken to detox has increased enough over the past four years that UW Police Chief Susan Riseling asked other Big Ten universities to begin compiling the same data to compare.
UW asks Big Ten schools to track detox transports By Amanda Hoffstrom THE DAILY CARDINAL
The number of student detoxification visits spiked this year, causing some university officials to wonder whether severe winter weather led to stir-crazy students, or if it is yet another sign of risky drinking behavior on campus. Whatever the reason for the increase, UW-Madison will have a better sense of the intensity of its drinking culture beginning in January 2009. For the first time, all Big Ten police departments are keeping track of the number of student detox transports, at the request of University of Wisconsin Police Chief Susan Riseling. “We’ve been tracking this stuff for years and one of the things that we found is that we seem to be getting an increase,” Riseling said. The number of detox transports has more than doubled since UWPD
began keeping record four years ago. “Our numbers have gone up every year since 2004—they’re alarming,” UW-Madison Assistant Dean of Students Ervin Cox said. “The numbers are up and we’re very concerned about it.” UWPD Officer Shane Driscoll said police involvement has not been the catalyst.
“We have not stepped up enforcements,” Driscoll said. “We’re not looking to take kids to detox. We’re not looking to write underage drinking tickets. “It seems to me that the behaviors related to over-consumption of alcohol are on the rise—that there are more detox page 3
UW-Madison detox visits on the rise First 10 days of fall semester (Aug. 31-Sept. 10) -2007 — 8 students transported to a detoxification facility -2006 — 11 students -2005 — 3 students First month of fall semester (Aug. 31-Oct. 2) -2007 — 41 students transported to a detoxification facility -2006 — 28 students -2005 — 26 students
A state Assembly lawmaker voted against a campaign finance reform bill she had earlier cosponsored Thursday, indicating the unlikeliness of a resolution on the issue this session. State Rep. Sheryl Albers, RReedsburg, chair of the Assembly Committee on Elections and Constitutional Law, voted against Assembly Bill 61, which would ban fundraising during the budget process. Albers said it was defeated because lawmakers on the committee thought there were still many unresolved questions about the bill. She said there is insufficient evidence that the bill would fix the alleged problems of fundraising during the budget process, but added the issue deserves future scrutiny. She said there was also a lack of support for several amendments to the bill that might have allowed it to pass. The bill’s author, State Rep. Mark Gottlieb, R-Port Washington, said he was not told by committee members they wanted to amend the bill. Gottlieb, who is also speaker pro tempore in the Republicancontrolled Assembly, said the bill was needed to change the perception that lobbyists influence lawmakers when elected officials fundraise during the budget process. Supporters of the bill had earlier tried to use a procedural motion to pull the bill from the
committee and send it directly to a vote in the full Assembly, but the motion failed largely along party lines. According to state Rep. Louis Molepske, D-Stevens Point, who voted in favor of AB 61 Thursday in the committee, polls show over 80 percent of the Wisconsin public support this type of bill. Molepske said 28 other states have restrictions of fundraising during the budget process. Mike McCabe, director of the watchdog group Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said the lawmakers’ reasons for voting against AB 61 were “rationalizations” and “nonsense.” He said the real reason the bill failed was because Assembly leadership told Albers to stop the bill. He said leaders did this because the current system favors the powerful Republican donors Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and Wisconsin Right to Life. McCabe said the public perception that lobbyists have a lot of influence on lawmakers is true. “Politicians can make all the lame excuses they want and express irritation about what they think is just a perception, but it is a very bitter reality to your average citizen,” McCabe said. The regular session of the state Assembly ends March 13, but a special session on campaign finance reform, called by Gov. Jim Doyle, is still technically in session for the rest of the year.
Calling all models
Spring semester (As of Feb. 5) -2008 — 10 students transported to a detoxification facility
‘Daily Show’ vet gives career, relationship advice By Christian Von Preysing-Barry THE DAILY CARDINAL
UW-Madison alumnus and 10time Emmy Award winner Ben Karlin headlined a group of authors promoting their new book, “Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me,” Sunday at Memorial Union Theater. Karlin, a former executive pro-
ducer of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report,” was joined by his four co-authors, including UW-Madison dropout and current head writer for The Onion Todd Hansen. The five men related how their personal relationship experiences helped fuel the book. “That intense desire you felt
to be free of your long-term high school girl friend can turn ... into an unbearable eight-month fit of jealously, rage, sobbing and self pity—just by finding out that she has been sleeping with a pot dealer from her dorm,” Hansen said. Karlin and his long-time friends karlin page 3
Freakfest’s pricetag significantly lower second time around After reducing arrests, attendees and the physical space of Halloween on State Street with its “Freakfest” adaptation, the City of Madison can now boast another reduction related to the event—its cost. As city officials raised ticket prices to $7 and introduced corporate sponsorship, they managed
to cut the net cost of the event by about 40 percent from 2006 to 2007. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, the net cost dropped from $363,000 to $220,000. The city only recently made the numbers official. Freakfest’s expenses fell more than $100,000 in 2007, while rev-
enue increased more than $70,000, the WSJ reported. One of Freakfest’s major costs—policing—will not be made official until every outside agency reports its costs. In 2006 the city decided to fence off and ticket the event after increasingly violent riots in previous years, and arrests have since dropped.
GABRIEL SEHR/THE DAILY CARDINAL
UW-Madison students and community members flocked to University Book Store Saturday to audition for “America’s Next Top Model.”
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”