UP: UW-Madison. The National Science Foundation reports that the university cracked the $1 billion mark for research funding in 2009. Science and engineering projects accounted for the bulk of the funding, at $952 million. Martin Cadwallader, the UW's vice chancellor for research, stresses that this funding boosts the local economy: "Each of these projects is like a small firm. People are hired. Equipment is purchased."
DOWN: Sexual assault victims. The Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault reports that 1,000 rape kits - samples that hospitals take in rape cases for evidence - have gone untested in southeastern Wisconsin since 2007. "[H]ow is that keeping victims of sexual assault safe?" the coalition's Jacqui Callari-Robinson asks The Badger Herald.
