Wednesday, 12.23
A Madison police dog, Ivan, tracks down Fred W. Justice, 42, a suspected bank robber. Justice had earlier implied he had a weapon and demanded money from the Associated Bank at 117 King St., in Stoughton, and fled on foot. Ivan follows Justice's scent to a nearby apartment complex, where neighbors help identify the suspect.
A Ho-Chunk tribal member meets with city officials and neighbors to discuss a proposal to develop a Ho-Chunk museum, health-care center, housing and a gas station at the vacant Union Corners lot on East Washington Avenue. Though the tribe does not commit to any project, it says it has no plans for a casino.
Thursday, 12.24
Madison police arrest 19-year-old Alec Schlemmer after he was allegedly found half-naked and bloodied in a woman's apartment on North Lake Street. The woman told police she woke up to the sound of crashing in her apartment and found Schlemmer in her bathroom holding a knife, bleeding from his hands and arms. Officer Howard Payne says Schlemmer "made statements that he had messed up." You think?
Monday, 12.28
Sharon Lubinski, a former Dane County sheriff's deputy, is confirmed as a U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Minnesota. Lubinski is the nation's first openly gay marshal.
The National Endowment for the Humanities awards the Madison Children's Museum a $250,000 grant toward its $10 million capital campaign. The museum is closing its State Street site next week and will reopen in mid-August at 100 N. Hamilton St.
Jeffrey F. Smith, a former weatherman on WISC-TV 3, pleads guilty in Sauk County to charges of misdemeanor battery and disorderly conduct, avoiding a felony charge for sexually assaulting a 7-year-old girl. Smith maintains his innocence, but says he pleaded to the lesser charges to spare the girl from having to testify. What a guy!
Madison Ald. Michael Schumacher asks for reconsideration of the Common Council's vote on the Edgewater Hotel at its next meeting, on Jan. 5. The council on Dec. 15 fell two votes short of overturning a Landmarks Commission denial of the project, but three members (including Schumacher) were absent.
Compiled (in part) from local media