ROCKWELL BREATHES LIFE INTO ‘CHOKE’ Movie adapted from ‘Fight Club’ author’s book struggles while indie actor shines ARTS
University of Wisconsin-Madison
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By Megan Orear THE DAILY CARDINAL
The U.S. House of Representatives rejected the federal government’s plan to bail out banks Monday, resulting in a massive drop in the stock market and concern over the future of the country’s economy. The Dow Jones stock market index dropped 778 points Monday, the worst point drop in U.S. history but not the biggest drop percentage wise, according to CNN.
The bailout bill would have allowed the federal government to use up to 700 billion taxpayer dollars to buy bad mortgages from failing financial institutions. Wisconsin members of the House were split over the bill, with U.S. Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D), Ron Kind (D), Gwen Moore (D), Dave Obey (D) and Paul Ryan (R) voting for it, and U.S. Reps. Steve Kagen (D), Tom Petri (R) and James Sensenbrenner (R) voting against it. Baldwin said in a statement the legislation brought before the House was not perfect but the defeat of the bailout bill “creates greater uncertainty in already troubled times.” market page 2
The three major stock markets plunged Monday after a $700 billion bailout plan failed to pass the U.S. House. The Dow Jones index fell 778 points—its worst one-day point loss ever.
MATT RILEY/THE DAILY CARDINAL
University’s rank drops in Trojan’s sexual health ranking of U.S. colleges By Emma Roller THE DAILY CARDINAL
UW-Madison is no longer one of the top 15 sexually healthy schools, according to a Trojan Sexual Health Report Card released Monday. The university dropped to 35th this year after placing 14th on 2007’s report card. The 2008 list ranked 139 U.S. colleges. Sperling’s BestPlaces, the independent research firm that conducted the survey on which the ranking is based, evaluated the availability of sexual health information, STD and
HIV testing services and the accessibility of condoms and contraception in determining the list. This year, students were also able to grade their schools in an electronic opinion poll to calculate a grade point average for each university. Trojan spokesperson Michael Bruno said this new method might have affected Wisconsin’s ranking. “By incorporating student responses directly, the rankings did get shaken up a bit,” Bruno said. sex health page 2
Today on the Web8 www.dailycardinal.com
Author kicks off 2008-’09 Distinguished Lecture Series Rebecca Walker, author of “Black, White and Jewish,” was the first guest in UW-Madison’s yearlong series of visiting speakers. New Facebook application uses social networking to encourage civic participation A new Facebook tool helps situdents register to vote and encourages participation in the upcoming election.
SPORTS
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Tuesday, September 30, 2008
IMAGE COURTESY UCRIME.COM
A sample image from UCrime.com shows the location of recent crimes around the UW-Madison campus. The website combines Google Maps and local police incident reports to create records of criminal activity.
New website uses maps to display downtown, campus-area crime By Rachel Racoosin THE DAILY CARDINAL
MONDAY’S MARKET WOES
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SAFETY & TECHNOLOGY
Bank bailout plan rejected in House of Reps. U.S. stock market experiences recordsetting point drop
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Bielema: no time to dwell on “very painful” Michigan loss with Ohio State looming
In an effort to improve safety and awareness among college students, an innovative new website called UCrime.com is combining Google Maps and police incident reports to help students track crime at UWMadison and other campuses across the country. UCrime.com began in early August as an offshoot of its sister website, Spotcrime.com. Spotcrime.com, which was started in January, maps city crime in the United States, Canada and recently expanded to several cities in England. UCrime.com CEO Colin Drane said Spotcrime. com’s popularity has expanded to include nearly 2 million events being mapped. The success of Spotcrime. com inspired an expansion to university campuses, according to Drane. UCrime.com partners with Google Map technology to generate interactive maps
that create visual aids for crime statistics. After selecting a university map, a side key allows the viewer to narrow the map to a variety of different crimes such as arson, assault, burglary, robbery, shooting, theft, vandalism and other arrests. Under the Clery Act, universities are required by federal law to provide crime reports to the entire campus community, which is how the website receives the bulk of its information. UCrime.com visitors also have the opportunity to interact by commenting on local crimes as well as providing tips and other information. Additionally, Drane said UCrime.com is set to “provide free, easy-to-read crime maps and automated alerts through e-mail, Google and even Facebook” to registered users on the site. The site became available to UW-Madison in the second phase of university map additions and currently maps the crime statistics
at over 200 universities. In Madison, UCrime.com is already tracking a number of different crimes. Madison Police Department public information officer Joel DeSpain said UCrime.com visitors might notice a standout offense when mapping downtown crime statistics on the site. “One troubling trend we have recently seen in the downtown area are robberies,” DeSpain said. At a news conference Thursday, MPD South District Captain Jim Wheeler said many of the recent violent robberies target UW-Madison students, faculty and staff. Drane hopes UCrime. com will aid in promoting safety on the UW-Madison campus by appealing to students through technology. “[The website] is another tool, another way to present information,” Drane said. “It is our objective to display crime data in a different format in order to increase awareness and promote safety.”
Crime Stoppers aim for text message tip line By Rebecca Holland THE DAILY CARDINAL
A possible Madison Area Crime Stoppers software upgrade could allow UW-Madison students and city residents to text message anonymous tips to help solve city crimes. TipSoft, the software Crime Stoppers hopes to begin using, would supplement the current phone and e-mail tip lines. “Nobody’s using their phone anymore—they’re text messaging with their thumbs,” said K. Scott Abrams, president of the board of Wisconsin State Crime Stoppers, Inc. “We see this as a good way
to get information to get the bad guys off the street by using modern technology and keeping people anonymous.” Paul Jacobsen, Madison Police officer and coordinator of Madison Area Crime Stoppers, said he thinks people would be more likely to use text messaging because it is a faster, more convenient and, in some cases, safer. “Say you were in a situation where you couldn’t call and talk out loud, but you could text message that tip in, and you could safely do that without anyone else knowing it,” Jacobsen said. With the new software, the
system would accept text messages from anyone, and once received, would send back a confirmation text and an ID number, Jacobsen said. The software protects privacy by never allowing the anonymous ID number and the original text to be traced back and forth. According to Jacobsen, the software is expected to cost between $5,000 and $7,000 per year. He said until a sponsor is found to cover the cost, the program has no estimated start date. Jacobsen said Crime Stoppers is still presenting the idea to diftexts page 2
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”