Wednesday, 1.21
Madison's Alcohol Licensing Review Board recommends yanking the license of A Place for Friends, a north-side watering hole some see as a place for thugs.
Thursday, 1.22
Officials announce that Elton John and Billy Joel will perform a benefit concert at the Kohl Center on May 7. Tickets are $54, $99.50 and $179.50; proceeds will benefit Elton John and Billy Joel.
Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi dismisses a lawsuit challenging the state's law requiring a minimum markup in the price of gas. The law aims to keep big companies from using predatory low pricing to drive smaller competitors out of business.
Friday, 1.23
It's Pervs on Parade at the Dane County courthouse as sentences are handed down, in separate cases, to four men: Paul C. Schroeder, 73, four years for repeatedly molesting a young girl; Steven C. Wainwright, 62, four years for repeatedly molesting a young boy; Jeffrey A. Montour, 41, three years of revoked probation for whacking off in front of a high school student; and a 39-year-old Sun Prairie man (unnamed to protect his victims), 61 years for repeatedly raping his young daughters in the secret basement room he used to watch child porn.
A medical examiner, no surprise, concludes that jail officials in La Crosse did everything right when they ignored weeks of pleas to provide medical attention to inmate Robert Hawkins Jr. of Mount Horeb, until the day he died at age 25 from congestive heart failure. For Isthmus' 12/6/08 report, see here.
Saturday, 1.24
UW-Madison students fail to break the world record for largest snowball fight (3,700 in Michigan in 2006). The Bascom Hill event draws just 700, including one genius who used his lacrosse stick to "pick up chunks of snow like ice balls and launch them 50 or 75 yards." Who's for tougher admission standards - show of bloody faces?
Monster Truck Nationals promoter George Eisenhart Jr., 41, of Ohio is killed by a truck during a show at the Dane County Coliseum. Eisenhart recently made safety assurances after a 6-year-boy was killed from flying debris at a similar show in Washington state.
Monday, 1.26
The Wisconsin State Journal, for the second time in a week, lists Ellen Foley as its editor in an editorial page banner. Foley resigned last October and was replaced by Ellen Foley. Er, Ellen Foley. Er, John Smalley.
The aptly named James A. Hole, 35, is sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for murdering Cambridge real estate agent Ann Nelson, 71, last March.
Tuesday, 1.27
Anti-abortion activists including Dr. William Evans, a heart surgeon at Meriter, vow to fight a plan by local hospitals and doctors to open a second-trimester abortion clinic in Madison.
Dane County's Public Protection and Judiciary Committee, in reviewing the county's new ethics code, nixes language requiring ethics overseers to deliberate in private; it says the sessions should be open, except when state statutory exemptions apply.
