3.19 Wednesday
Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain confirms that police are again responding to burglar alarms at city businesses. In 2006, the MPD decided to stop responding to the alarms, unless someone called to request help. Commercial burglaries in Madison rose 37% from 2006 to 2007; the city denies there's a correlation, saying burglary rates are up all over.
3.20 Thursday
James Hole, 34, of Illinois, is charged with first-degree murder and other crimes in the death of Ann Nelson, 71. Police say Nelson, a real estate agent, was showing a Cambridge home to Hole, when he beat her with a fire poker, choked her with her scarf, then set a fire to destroy the evidence. An autopsy found Nelson died of smoke inhalation.
Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard announces he won't file charges against a Madison police detective who stole heroin from the Police Department's property room in November. Blanchard says Jeffery Hughes, who suffered a traumatic brain injury when he crashed his car after taking the heroin, is too cognitively impaired to stand trial.
3.21 Friday
Joni Brink, 47, of Mazomanie, is sentenced to seven years in prison for stealing more than $220,000 from Elder Care of Wisconsin, where she worked.
3.24 Monday
Sen. Russ Feingold addresses an audience of more than 400 at the UW-Madison, saying Congress needs to do more to end the Iraq war.
Campaign finance reports filed with the state show that Supreme Court candidate Louis Butler has raised more money than his rival, Michael Gableman. Butler received about $470,000 in donations through March 17, compared to $278,000 for Gableman. But spending by both candidates is dwarfed by that of four independent groups, who have collectively bought $1.5 million in television ads in the race.
The Madison school board votes to name the new elementary school on the far west side after the late Paul J. Olson, a Madison teacher and principal. The board's original choice, Hmong Gen. Vang Pao, was withdrawn after Pao was indicted last summer for conspiring to overthrow the communist government of Laos.
The Willy Street Co-op's board of directors votes unanimously to end its lease at Metropolitan Place. The co-op had rented 8,750 square feet in the downtown development to build a second store, but says a construction delay caused by the developer's battle against foreclosure took too much of a financial toll.
3.25 Tuesday
Jean Hosking, 62, of Mount Horeb, is sentenced to nearly three years in prison for embezzling more than $500,000 from the State Bank of Cross Plains. Hosking must also repay the money.
Compiled from local media
