CARDINAL CRITICS DEBATE YEAR’S BEST Can’t wait until Sunday? The DC Academy announces its Oscar verdicts today. ARTS University of Wisconsin-Madison
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By Abby Sears THE DAILY CARDINAL
CHRISTOPHER GUESS THE DAILY CARDINAL
Flu season hits later than expected An influenza outbreak has sent several UW-Madison students to University Health Services and Meriter Hospital. UHS has administered more than 7,300 free flu shots to students this season, according to Mary Makarushka, communications manager of University Health Services.
Weekend, February 22-24, 2008
UW offers to fund downtown ID scanners
The University of WisconsinMadison Army ROTC Color Guard honors the victims of the Northern Illinois University shooting in front of the Edward Sewell Social Science building on the Madison campus at noon Thursday.
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Remembering NIU
By Diana Savage
UW-Madison escapes Recording Industry’s latest hitlist DAILYCARDINAL.COM/NEWS8
Hospitals have diagnosed three different strains of influenza this year. Unfortunately, the vaccine only protects against one of them, according to Sarah Van Orman, director of clinical services of UHS. “In the past week we saw 40 patients during the week, which is about 7 percent of our visits,” Orman said. The flu outbreak happened later
this year than in the past, Orman said. The outbreak would have typically occurred in early January. “That’s significant for students because we know that the flu spreads based on how close people are working together,” Orman said. Now, more students are back on campus in the midst of flu season. influenza page 2
Beginning in March, UWMadison will offer electronic ID scanners and free training to select downtown bars and liquor stores in an effort to crack down on underage drinking and the use of fake IDs. The PACE Project’s Partnership Council, a coalition of campus and city members aimed at curbing high-risk drinking among students, initiated the ID scanner program through the campus Alcohol Policy Group. “This is the university saying we are concerned about underage drinking,” said Dawn Crim, special assistant to Chancellor John Wiley. “The ID scanner is a tool to assist the bars in the density area with proper carding and proper responsible beverage service.” Crim said the university began thinking of ways to
improve identification checks at downtown establishments after the recent success of ID scanners at Memorial Union, the only licensed alcohol vendor on campus. The city does not mandate bars and liquor stores to use ID scanners, mainly because of cost issues, according to Katherine Plominski, Madison’s alcohol policy coordinator. The price of one scanner is roughly $700, which can be a pricey purchase for smaller establishments, she said. According to Crim, funding for the ID scanners will come from the budgets of various campus directors in the Alcohol Policy Group. She said each director has financial resources set aside for alcohol initiatives. The ID scanners will only be offered to establishments in the Alcohol License Density Plan scanners page 2
Public forum allows input on Charter Street Heating Plant
Doyle admits response to Feb. 6 snowstorm mediocre
By Christian Von Preysing-Barry
By Megan Orear
THE DAILY CARDINAL
THE DAILY CARDINAL
UW-Madison and the Wisconsin Department of Administration hosted a town hall meeting Thursday evening at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ office to address future upgrades to four of Madison’s power plants. “We are looking forward to making a significant investment, not only at Charter Street plant, but a thoughtful investment in our heating plant system for the university and for the state,” said Alan Fish, UWMadison’s associate vice chancellor for facility planning and management. In November, a federal judge ruled that the Charter Street power plant violated the Clean Air Act. The meeting was part of post-lawsuit negotiations between the state and the Sierra Club, who brought the suit. Form topics included changing fuel types for the plants, heat transportation methods and minimizing pollution in future upgrades. “The coal plants we have now are killing and maiming people every minute,” Rev. Dave Steffenson said at the meeting. “Legal is not synonymous with what is moral or wise or even prudent.” Former Dane County Executive Jonathan Barry advocated biomass facilities that would be powered in part by local grasses, turning them into cash crops. “We have an opportunity here to help create a market that will revive rural economies in Dane County,” he said. Jennifer Feyenherm from Madison’s Sierra Club said coal burning has contaminated Dane County’s water supplies with unhealthy amounts of mercury. “Dane County is in violation of national ambient air quality standards of fine particulate matter,” she said. A study due in July will determine the nature of renovation contracts to be issued in November. A similar public forum could be held as early as May to finalize the report’s decisions regarding the Charter Street plant and Madison’s three other power plants.
Gov. Jim Doyle apologized Thursday for the poor response to the traffic backup of Interstate 39/90 during the heavy snowfall on Feb. 6 and 7. Doyle, who didn’t learn of the situation until 7 p.m. and did not declare a State of Emergency until 9:15 p.m., apologized to drivers for the poor decisions made by government officials. “It’s very clear that this could have been handled much better and people’s lives could have been much less inconvenienced,” Doyle said. “Many people, through just some bad decisions, ended up out on that road who didn’t have to.” During the severe winter storm, 2,000 vehicles were stranded for more than 12 hours on Interstate 39/90, and traffic was backed up for more than 20 miles, according to a report from Donald Dunbar, National Guard adjutant general of Wisconsin. The National Guard was used during the backup because of the severity of the storm. Doyle said he was grateful for the efforts of state workers during the situation, but admitted the response was inadequate. “The report demonstrates very clearly that, despite all those
efforts that were being made out on the road by really hardworking people, that at the higher levels, some very significant mistakes were made,” Doyle said. Dunbar’s report placed much of the blame on the State Patrol, the agency in charge of traffic response, and claimed poor communication and a failure to recognize the incident as significant made the situation more severe.
“This delay of recognition caused the loss of precious hours that could have allowed alternative courses of action to be considered which might have mitigated the depth and breadth of this emergency,” Dunbar said. According to the report, other agencies such as the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and the state Emergency Operations Center share the blame for failing to respond
properly. The best course of action would have been to close the highway to prevent more vehicles from being stranded, the report said. The report recommends reviewing state EOC procedures, establishing new forms of communication to alert drivers of such situations and, more importantly, getting rid of the mindset that “Wisconsin does not close highways.”
AMANDA SALM/THE DAILY CARDINAL
Gov. Jim Doyle apologizes to motorists who were stuck on Interstate 39/90 during the severe winter snow storm on Feb. 6 and 7 as a result of poor government response.
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”