Sarah Butler

Milwaukee immigration activist Christine Neumann-Ortiz was arrested this morning with around 40 other activists at a pro-immigration demonstration outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Activists blocked traffic on Independence Avenue and were soon handcuffed and led away by U.S. Capitol police, according to the Associated Press. Neumann-Ortiz is the director of local immigrants’ and workers’ rights defense organization Voces de la Frontera. She and other D.C. protesters pushed for immigration overhaul as congress prepares to leave for a five-week summer “vacation” without House action on immigration reform. Voces de la Frontera recently led a crusade against Palermo’s Pizza worker…

Apparently, when Marquette students are away, the Festa Italiana Sicilian Band performers will come to play. For real. They’ll arrive Saturday. Every summer, some Marquette residence halls and apartment buildings turn into part-time hostels for traveling groups, wedding parties, conventions or anyone who really needs a bed. You can get a room for as low as $46 per night. We got our hands on the university’s list of summer reservations, and it’s pretty great. Here are some of our favorite guests: 350 members of the “School of Rock”  Students in Marquette professor Dr. William Cullinan’s brain dissection course 17 bikers…

As evidenced by Marquette professor Andrew Williams’ recent Tweet, some Marquette undergraduates are busy building a humanoid robot. You heard us right. So, with apprehensive curiosity (a natural result of watching 2001: A Space Odyssey), we asked Williams if we could stop by and meet it in person. Unlike us, Williams, who’s worked at Apple with Steve Jobs, is unfazed. In the future, he expects robots to be as common as the iPhone. “I envision having a robot in every home,” he says. “At least one.” And in Marquette’s Humanoid Engineering and Intelligent Robotics lab, Williams and his students are…

According to local pizza food truck, Street-Za, the company’s logo contains some secret messages and symbols. The company revealed this via Twitter today for the “FIRST TIME EVER. Here’s a breakdown of the secrets: 1. The eye of providence (or the pizza eye above the pizza) is often thought to represent god watching over humankind. Street-Za interprets this as god favoring the prosperity of its customers. How nice. 2. Five pieces of pepperoni grace the slice because the number five symbolized perfection for the Mayas. We’re wondering if their real pepperoni slices also have five pieces. 3. According to Street-Za,…

A doctoral student from North Carolina State University recently created some heat maps of English dialect patterns in the United States using data compiled by Cambridge University linguist and former UWM professor Bert Vaux. As the maps indicate, the best-defined dialect clusters are found in the northeastern U.S. But one exception is seen in northwest Wisconsin, an island of local customs that displays a dialect distinct from both Minnesota and other parts of Wisconsin. In some instances – including unique pronunciations of “poem” and “grocery” as well as atypical allegiances within the “hair tie vs. rubber band” and “soda vs. pop” debates – northwest Wisconsin is…

Marquette has the 9th best basketball fan base in the country, according to a new study from Emory Sports Marketing Analytics. In fancy terms, the study examines “Revenue Premium Based Brand Equity” and places Marquette’s fan base between Syracuse and Oklahoma State. Seems like some pretty good bragging rights are in store. But before Golden Eagle fans start crafting ecstatic Facebook statuses, let us decode that Emory lingo for you. The analysts aren’t ranking which university has the best body-painted, banana costume-wearing fans – they’re letting us know that Marquette fans will still spend money on their team during seasons…