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BARABOO (WKOW) – A Baraboo Walmart employee was able to tackle a deer that got into the store this week. A 27 News viewer recorded a video in the store when it happened Wednesday. The video shows an employee on top of the deer, to keep it from moving through the store. The witness said the deer got into the store somewhere in the back of the building. Managers at Walmart declined to comment on the incident. Video at source

An Obama-appointed federal judge is forcing Wisconsin taxpayers to provide costly sex reassignment surgery and hormonal procedures for low-income transgender residents who get free medical care from the government. In a recently issued ruling U.S. District Judge William M. Conley writes that Medicaid, the publicly funded insurance that covers 65.7 million poor people, cannot deny the medical treatment needs of those suffering from “gender dysphoria.” Officials estimate it will cost up to $1.2 million annually to provide transgender Medicaid recipients in the Badger State with treatments such as “gender confirmation” surgery, including elective mastectomies, hysterectomies, genital reconstruction and breast augmentation....

BARABOO — Residents in this small southern Wisconsin city have two choices when it comes to the brave new world of the Smart Grid: Go along with new “smart” meters for public utilities or get along without water, gas or electricity. Most residents don’t make a fuss and let the utilities install the new smart meters, which are supposed to provide utility customers and taxpayers with savings from real-time data usage and less manpower needed to read traditional analog meters. Some residents, however, including 81-year-old Audrey Parker, say the smart meters are an invasion of privacy, and they believe the...

MADISON – Audrey Parker says she has paid her water bill on time for the past 20 years, but that didn’t stop the city of Baraboo from shutting off the great-grandmother’s water supply Tuesday. The reason? The 81-year-old Parker says it’s because she wouldn’t let the city replace her analog water meter with a new ‘smart meter’ – a battle she’s fought with City Hall for more than a year now. “(Monday) I went to see the Mayor (Mike Palm). The cutoff day was this (Tuesday) morning and I thought the city might relent,” Parker told Wisconsin Reporter. “Yesterday they...

The Bombing of Sterling HallText and photos copyright © 2000 Leemark Communications The doors to the old part of Sterling Hall, as seen from Charter Street. Early on August 24th, 1970, a van loaded with six barrels of explosives blew up just outside the East Wing of Sterling Hall at the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison. The bombing was carried out by four men in protest of America's involvement in the Vietnam War. The bombing was directed against the Mathematics Research Center, a U.S.-Army-funded facility, which was located in the East Wing of Sterling Hall along with the...

Link post to posting in FR "chat" section, where additional posts should be directed: Geology Picture of the Week, January 18-24, 2004

I thought about making this a WhereIsIt? subject, but I decided to talk about it instead. I grew up in Wisconsin, and visited Devil's Lake a few times. It's a very unique place situated in the middle of Wisconsin, and the geology of the place is very interesting. So here's an aerial view, a "bluff-level" view, and a description of the geology. Brief Geologic History (Baraboo Syncline) "Glaciation: The Baraboo region is a boundary between the driftless area to the west and glacial deposits to the east. As the glaciers progressed westward, a terminal moraine dammed the existing Wisconsin River....