Thursday, Aug. 14
Tonette Walker posts a video on Facebook of her and her husband, Gov. Scott Walker, getting doused by ice water to raise awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Or maybe the governor is trying to atone for turning down all that federal money to expand Medicaid and provide thousands with health care.
Friday, Aug. 15
City staff report that they have been unable to reach favorable terms with a developer over the Judge Doyle Square project, leaving it in limbo.
In a column in the Wall Street Journal, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Janesville) announces that he will no longer use the terms "takers and makers" when describing those who live off government subsidies and those who pay for them.
Saturday, Aug. 16
Amanda Hall, a 24-year-old California woman, makes national news for climbing over an enclosure at the Vilas Zoo to get close to Wally, a 2-year-old, 12-foot-tall giraffe. Wally licks her face but abruptly kicks her in the head. Hall, who was not seriously injured, is issued a $686 fine. She tells police she "loves giraffes," but clearly, Wally was just not feeling it.
Monday, Aug. 18
The UW-Madison announces that a two-year study by university researchers found that newer football helmets are no better at preventing concussions in high school players than older ones, and that players who suffered a sports-related concussion in the previous year are twice as likely to suffer another one, compared to adolescents who haven't. This is your favorite sport, America.
Tuesday, Aug. 19
The Wisconsin State Journal reports that Madison is considering scrapping a law, passed in 2012, aimed at discouraging large nuisance parties because it is rarely used. UW-Madison students must have earned that eighth-best party school ranking some other way.
Paul Ryan publishes A Way Forward: Renewing the American Idea, criticizing the Republican establishment for not doing a better job of selling its ideas. Ryan writes: "Frankly, we've become lazy and complacent."
The expected release of documents sealed in the now-closed John Doe investigation doesn't happen, after the conservative Wisconsin Club for Growth and two unnamed parties file motions to keep them sealed, arguing they could damage the reputation of people involved in the probe.
Wednesday, Aug. 20
The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a Syrian and Iraqi extremist group, posts a video showing the beheading of James Foley, a Marquette graduate and journalist who has been missing for almost two years.
