Thursday, 1.20
Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch cancels plans to install a $100 million biofuel boiler at the UW-Madison's Charter Street power plant. The state will instead convert the plant's boilers from coal to natural gas. Critics lament the decision as shortsighted. "While the biomass plant might have cost more upfront, it would have kept our money local, developed a new green energy infrastructure, created many more jobs and been a boon for our local economy," the Sierra Club's Jennifer Feyerherm tells the Wisconsin State Journal.
Friday, 1.21
The mercury drops to 11 below zero, but it's not low enough to make the record books. The day's record of 29 below was set more than 100 years ago.
Sunday, 1.23
A Dane County jury awards a former Madison couple, Charles and Karen Johnson, $1 million in a negligence suit against therapists who treated their daughter in the early '90s. The therapists were accused of helping their daughter create false memories of abuse. The daughter, Charlotte, came to believe that her father raped her at 3, her mother had tried to drown her, and the couple participated in infanticide. Their daughter opposed the suit and has not had contact with her parents since 1993.
The Green Bay Packers vanquish their oldest rival, the Chicago Bears, to earn a berth in the Super Bowl.
Monday, 1.24
Gov. Scott Walker signs into law a bill making contributions to health savings accounts tax deductible. Democratic Party chair Mike Tate accuses him of making "another tax giveaway to the very wealthy and elite people that's not going to improve the quality of health care in the state or create jobs."
Former Dane County sheriff deputy Thomas Baitinger, 48, is one of two police officers killed in the line of duty in St. Petersburg, Fla. Baitinger was purportedly shot as he came to the aid of other officers.
Tuesday, 1.25
Democrats accuse Gov. Scott Walker of making a power grab in pushing a bill to give him oversight of state agencies. Rep. Gary Hebl (D-Sun Prairie) complains to the State Journal, "It is almost like a dictatorship, where the governor has the final say." Perhaps we should call him Great Scott?
Ivan, a Madison Police Department dog, tracks 21-year-old Deon Howard to a basement on the city's south side. Howard allegedly ran a stop sign and led police on a high-speed chase before crashing his car in a snow bank and fleeing on foot.
Wednesday, 1.26
The state Department of Justice announces it has closed its seemingly endless conduct investigation into former Dane County Assistant District Attorney Mike Verveer, a longtime Madison alder. But there is no word on whether any charges will be filed. Verveer, who has been on unpaid leave since October 2008, tells the State Journal, "I don't know what this means." The investigation produced 1,100 pages of records and an additional 500 to 700 pages of emails.
Compiled (in part) from local media
