With the return of weapons inspection reports and the threat of war with Iraq continuing, Maj. Gen. Al Wilkening announced the mobilization of four units of the Wisconsin Army National Guard on Monday, including close to 200 members of Madison's 147th Aviation Battalion.
Wilkening could not say where the unit would be stationed or when the unit would be leaving but he said they would be deployed outside the United States.
According to a report in The Capital Times, 1,450 members of the National Guard have been called up from Wisconsin since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Wilkening said he could not speculate on whether more Wisconsin units will be called.
Dane County Circuit Judge Daniel Moeser refused to disqualify Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann from prosecuting Sen. Chuck Chvala, D-Madison in the recent legislative corruption scandal.
Lawyers called on legal ethics expert Theodore Schneyer, a professor at the University of Arizona Law School, to testify in hopes of dismissing McCann from the case. The defense team claims that McCann still holds animosity towards the former state Senate majority leader for shooting down a proposal that would have given prosecutors four-year terms instead of two-year terms.
Chvala testified that he met with a very upset McCann in 2000 to talk about the proposal. The judge said the allegations made against McCann were not sufficient enough to dismiss him from the case.
A report published today by a UW-Madison professor of pathobiological sciences provides insight into how the flu and other viruses work and holds promise for the discovery of new methods to combat the virus.
\What's unique about this virus is that its genome is fragmented into eight RNA segments,"" according to Yoshihiro Kawaoka, the lead researcher. ""How those eight segments incorporate into a virus particle was not known.""
The group's research shows that each RNA segment makes a unique contribution to the congregation of the RNA to become a complete influenza genome.
""These eight different segments are critical for formation of virus particles,"" Kawaoka said.
The study was supported by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases through a Public Health Service Research grant; the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the Japan Science and Technology Corp.
A new residential and business phone service provider will soon try to muscle into the Madison telephone market already dominated by SBC Ameritech.
Sage Telecom will start providing service in the area Feb. 3. Currently the company serves more than 400,000 customers in seven states.
Sage Telecom President and CEO Dennis M. Houlihan said in a release that customers who want to switch their local service can do so ""without any changes to their telephone number or telephone lines.""
Consumers with questions about the new provider can call 1-888-972-7243 for more information.
