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PAGE 8
Weekend, January 29-31, 2010
High-speed rail in Wis. is first step for Midwest By Cathy Martin The Daily Cardinal
ISABEL álvarez/the daily cardinal
ASM and WISPIRG declared Thursday a ‘Haiti Day of Action,’ and donation tables were set up all across campus, including at Memorial Union, to allow students to donate to the Haiti relief efforts.
‘Day of Action’ raises money for Haiti relief By Hannah McClung The Daily Cardinal
Volunteers from several UW-Madison organizations manned donation tables across campus Thursday to raise money for Haiti earthquake victims. The day was declared a “Haiti Day of Action” by the Associated Students of Madison and the Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group and consisted of donation tables at eight different locations throughout campus. Students who did not have donations to give but wanted to help out were given the opportunity to sign up for alternative ways to get involved with the relief effort. According to Ritika Batajoo, UW-Madison senior and WISPIRG intern, the morning went well at the Memorial Union location, with stu-
dent and community donations surpassing her expectations. “The event was a collective effort with a goal of getting as many donations as possible,” she said. According to Batajoo, throughout the day, more than 80 volunteers worked more than 120 cumulative hours. Batajoo said the event was not just about money but also geared toward ensuring that all students are informed about the situation in Haiti. “It is really important to help other people out there because whatever’s going on in Haiti could easily have been us,” she said. UW-Madison sophomore Natalie Timpone said she decided to volunteer because she wanted to help with the situation and thought she could do more with a group than as an individual. “It was really great when I heard
about the ASM and WISPIRG [event] because I thought that’s something that’s actually going to make a difference,” she said. According to Timpone, it is important to be able to “pool together” and donate to bigger organizations like Doctors Without Borders and the American Red Cross. Caitlin Bender, a UW-Madison senior, said she dropped change into the collection container at the Memorial Union location because she has family friends who are affected by the situation in Haiti. The Haiti Day of Action ended with the WSUM Student Radio Dance Party for Haiti Relief at the Majestic Theatre. All proceeds from the dance will be donated to the Doctors Without Borders Emergency Relief Fund.
Lawmakers and federal officials remain optimistic about Wisconsin’s recently announced $810 million federal grant Thursday. “Through high-speed rail, President Obama is making a major investment in the future of Wisconsin’s economy,” Gov. Jim Doyle said in a statement. The rail lines would connect Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison and Minneapolis/St. Paul using federal stimulus money. The train system should greatly benefit Wisconsin’s economy by creating engineering and construction jobs, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said on his blog. The mayor also said it will ultimately provide a more convenient option for personal travel while linking industries and institutions in Milwaukee and Madison more closely. “The tighter collaborations that will occur with this rail connection are going to result in new products, services and efficiencies
that we can’t even fully predict today,” Cieslewicz said. Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group Director Bruce Speight said he supports the investment because it will renovate 80 miles of existing track, allowing the construction to move more quickly. Although the MadisonMilwaukee line has a tentative completion date of 2013, the routes connecting Wisconsin to Chicago and the Twin Cities have no specific time frame. Richard Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, said although the Obama administration’s plans to connect four major cities in the Midwest are exciting, it is not enough. “We want to make sure that this is seen as just the first step and that we continue to get more aggressive about expanding high-speed rail throughout the Midwest,” rail page 3
State Senate passes three major bills but postpones MPS discussions By Justin Eells The Daily Cardinal
The Wisconsin state Senate passed three major bills Thursday, all largely supported by Democratic lawmakers. A bill that would change the eligibility criteria for representation by a public defender passed in the Senate on a 21-12 vote and awaits a final vote in the Assembly. According to state Sen. Spencer Coggs, D-Milwaukee, one of the senators who introduced the bill, it will both uphold the constitutional rights of defendants and save county governments over $7.6 million per year.
“This legislation is vital to the interests of defendants and the efficient, constitutional operation of our courts,” Coggs said in a release. The Wisconsin Mental Health and Substance Abuse Parity Act passed 19-13 in the Senate and would require health insurance plans to provide mental health and substance abuse coverage. Opponents argued the bill is too costly for employers and will raise health insurance premiums while supporters argued that it is long overdue and saves money. “It is well-established that failsenate page 3
PAVE speaker emphasizes severity of stalking By Melanie Teachout The Daily Cardinal
The student group Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment hosted an informational session about stalking Thursday as part of National Stalking Awareness Month. Rebecca Dreke, the senior program associate for the National Center for Victims of Crime, said students should take stalking seriously. “Stalking does take this backseat when we’re looking at dating violence or sexual violence,” she said. “People think it’s not that serious, that it’s just a joke, that if you ignore it, it will go away, or that it only happens to celebrities.” According to Dreke, stalking is an evasive crime because it uses legal actions to create fear in the victim.
Kari Mickelson, PAVE outreach coordinator, said stalking can be difficult to define. “Stalking is hard to deal with because the thing that defines stalking is whether or not the victim feels fear,” she said. “It’s usually behaviors that wouldn’t otherwise be criminal like sending an e-mail or calling them. Normally that would be fine, but when repeated over and over again, it becomes a crime.” According to Dreke, stalking criminalizes what is otherwise noncriminal behavior. “When they’re put together as a pattern of behavior directed at that person that causes that person to feel fear is when you have the crime of stalking,” she said. Dreke said stalking is more prevalent on college campuses than in the
general population. “A lot of campuses, even huge ones like this campus, are sort of closed environments,” she said. “You have routines; you’re going to school, you’re going to work, then you’re going out with your friends. A lot of times, there is only one degree of separation between you and everybody else on campus.” She added that stalking often occurs between two people who know each other. “A lot of people think it’s just the old stereotype: the stranger, the Peeping Tom or the person watching form afar, but that’s not the case,” Dreke said. “Only about 10 percent of the cases is it a stranger.” For more information about safety tips regarding stalking, visit www.ncvc.org.
ISABEL álvarez/the daily cardinal
Rebecca Dreke, from the National Center for Victims of Crime, explained how to spot stalking to a group of students Thursday.
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”