POLAR BEARS FIGHTING TO SURVIVE But UW’s ‘Polar Bear’ has found a new home playing in Germany
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Uproar about vaccine side effects threaten our children’s well being
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Tuesday, April 28, 2009
University, state brace for swine flu threat By Megan Kozelek THE DAILY CARDINAL
The latest international health scare, the swine flu, has begun to spread through the United States,
Swine flu facts -40 cases in U.S., no deaths -26 cases in Mexico, seven deaths -symptoms similar to regular seasonal influenza -cannot be transmitted by eating pork products -before 2005, typically one human infection every one-to-two years Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
with the number of reported cases mounting, but it has yet to hit Wisconsin. According to Seth Boffeli, communications director for the state Department of Health Services, there have been no positive cases for the swine flu in Wisconsin so far. Ten Wisconsin residents have undergone tests for it, but the results were negative. “It's important to recognize that we don’t have an actual pandemic right now, we’re still in that preparation phase,” said Sarah Van Orman, director of University Health Services. According to Van Orman, UHS has an existing influenza plan for the campus. Each unit of the plan depends on what might happen during a pandemic. Most of Monday was spent in the communication and education phase.
Bofelli says that this is a mutated form of the swine flu, which normally only affects pigs. It has now spread to humans with some of the same genetic characteristics as the human flu. The disease originated in Mexico, a popular spring break destination. However, UW students who traveled there for spring break between March 14 and 21 would have experienced symptoms already if they contracted the flu, according to Boffeli. As of press time, there were a total of 40 cases reported in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention breakdown is seven cases in California, two cases in Kansas, 28 cases in New York City, one case in Ohio and two cases in Texas. swine flu page 3
KYLE BURSAW/THE DAILY CARDINAL
University Health Services, which has an existing muli-unit plan for flu outbreaks, is focused on informing UW students about the swine flu.
ASM suggests change at address By Rory Linnane THE DAILY CARDINAL
Associated Students of Madison members urged the newly elected Student Council to improve outreach and legislative affairs at the State of ASM address Monday. Brittany Wiegand, ASM chair, said this year’s Student Council had many leaders who pushed outreach efforts, and urged next year’s council to take those efforts further by informing students about ASM and
improving recruitment drives. “[Outreach] is just something we’d never considered before this year,” she said. “We’d never talk about ways that we outreach to our constituents when we’d make decisions.” Representatives also encouraged the next council to focus more on lobbying efforts at the Capitol to protect the university’s interests. “Our legislative affairs were a little lacking this year,” Sheka said. “That needs to improve through campus-
wide collaboration.” According to Wiegand, one reason ASM lobbying efforts were unsuccessful is because ASM lacked a legislative affairs committee chair for half the year. ASM members also reviewed the year’s successes. Wiegand said one major success was the constitution initiative, which drew in a 15 percent voter turnout but failed to pass. asm page 3
Compose yourself ISABEL ALVAREZ/THE DAILY CARDINAL
The LED lights will be replacing the lights along Wisconsin Highway 30 in November as part of the East Washington Reconstruction Act.
Madison plans to light streets with energy efficient LEDs By Lauren Piscione THE DAILY CARDINAL
In a pilot program to utilize energy-efficient technology, the city of Madison will be installing 20 LED lights along Wisconsin Highway 30. Dan Dettmann, Madison traffic operations engineer, said these lights are the last phase of the East Washington Avenue Reconstruction Plan. “The lights could save 40 percent in energy costs,” Dan Dettman told The Capital Times. “Today we use a lot of high pressure sodium vapor,” Dettman said. “LED is a little more energy efficient; however, it’s so new that there are certainly a lot of questions about
how well it’s going to perform and how long it’s going to last.” The idea is that the LED lights will be more efficient from an energy standpoint and longer lasting than traditional lighting. “Long lasting is a relative term,” Dettman said. “The LED lights are said to last up to 50,000 hours; however, when you integrate them into a fixture, a lot of other components have to go right over time for the lights to work correctly.” Among the concerns about the effectiveness of the LED lights are the costs. The upfront investment is tremendous, with one LED streetlighting page 3
ISABEL ALVAREZ/THE DAILY CARDINAL
James Carrano conducts during the Masters Singers Concert at Mills Concert Hall on Monday.
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”