Couple donates burial space for 4th infant found in river; Crowd of 50,000 saw concert ahead of Packer season opener; more briefs

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For the fourth time in 12 years, a couple has donated burial space for a baby that was found dead in the Mississippi River.

Don and Jeanne Madtson donated space at their family’s cemetery plot in Red Wing, Minn., for the first three infants that were discovered in 1999, 2004 and 2007. The Madtsons told authorities they would do the same for a baby girl found floating in a plastic bag on the Minnesota side of the Mississippi River on Labor Day.

The couple said they lost their own daughter to a stillbirth over two decades ago and burying the unidentified children shows that somebody loves them.

Authorities in Winona, Minn., are still investigating the death of the latest infant victim, found by a family of boaters about 20 miles northwest of La Crosse. Investigators were also trying to determine if the deaths of all four infants are somehow related.

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Crowd of 50,000 saw concert ahead of Packer season opener

The NFL estimates that 50,000 people saw the rock and country concert that preceded last night’s Green Bay Packers’ regular season opener.

Green Bay’s Oneida Street was closed next to Lambeau Field, and a one-block stretch to the east was jammed with crowds watching Kid Rock, Lady Antebellum and Maroon 5 perform. Most of the audience didn’t have tickets to the game, which was obvious because the 72,000-seat stadium was almost full within an hour before kickoff when most of the concert was being performed.

But folks started arriving early Thursday morning to try to get a glimpse of Matt Lauer and Al Roker during NBC’s “Today” show. Others got TV time on the NFL Network as analysts talked about the Packers’ chances of winning a second straight Super Bowl.

Authorities reported an above average number of medical calls, but there were no major disturbances.

The NFL’s annual season “Kickoff” has been a major event for several years in cities where the defending Super Bowl champions host the league openers. But no such thing existed in 1997, the season after the Packers had won their previous Super Bowl title.

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Driver accused of hitting three bike cops

Milwaukee police have arrested a car driver suspected of hitting and injuring three officers on bicycles.

Police said a total of four officers were on a bike patrol when all but one of them were hit around 12:45 a.m. Friday on Milwaukee’s near west side. Officials said they’re still trying to determine whether alcohol was a factor in the crash.

WTMJ Radio also reported that the driver might be in the country illegally. The station said the three officers received medical treatment before being sent home to recover.

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Toddler dies in skid steer accident

Authorities in central Wisconsin are investigating the death of a 19-month-old child in a farm accident.

Clark County sheriff’s deputies said a relative was moving bales of hay with a skid-steer unit when the machine ran over the child.

Chief Deputy Jim Backus said the operator was not immediately aware that he ran over the youngster. The little boy was pronounced dead at the scene.

The incident happened late Thursday afternoon near Owen and Withee in the town of Hixon. The victim’s name was not immediately released.

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Study: Wisconsin gives little guidance on what to teach kids about Sept. 11

A new study shows that Wisconsin’s education agency gives very little guidance to teachers about what to tell their students about Sept. 11.

UW-Madison Professor Diana Hess and William and Mary College Professor Jeremy Stoddard say textbooks leave out much of the details and that leaves school instructors generally on their own.

Sunday is the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that killed over 3,000 people in New York, Washington and rural Pennsylvania.

Stoddard, who earned his PhD at UW-Madison, said Wisconsin’s education standards are broad and thematic. He said teachers get more control about their material they present. Stoddard said other states with specific standards provide what students need to know on tests, and it’s often hard for teachers to get through it.

Hess says textbooks published throughout the last decade lack of a lot of details. Some of the early books failed to mention the death toll or who was responsible, and some textbooks are cautious about mentioning controversies like the approval of the USA Patriot Act and the search for weapons of mass destruction.

Stoddard said it might be because of what larger states want or space constraints. He said there might be an assumption that kids already know about 9/11. But today’s high school freshmen were only 5- or 6-years-old when it happened.

Susan Hamblin of the Madison School District says it’s hard to keep printed textbooks current. Her district provides suggestions about online resources that can supplement what’s in the books.

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Some metro areas see spikes in new home building

The firm of MTD Marketing Services reports that building permits for one- and two-family homes jumped by 15% last month in Wisconsin’s most-populated regions.

Nearly 250 permits were issued in August in metro Milwaukee, the Racine-Kenosha region, Dane County in and around Madison, the Fox Valley and the Green Bay/ Door County area. That’s up from 216 building permits issued in those places in the same month a year ago.

For the first eight months of the year, total building permits are down 16% from the previous year in the five regions.

But new home construction is still up for the year in Dane County, and only 12 fewer building permits were issued in eight months in metro Milwaukee.

Jim Collar of MTD said most building activity is for custom homes, with almost no model homes or spec structures. He said homeowners are taking advantage of relatively low interest rates plus lower costs for land and construction.

Collar said the present activity is still only about 30% of what it was in the peak years of 2004 and 2005.

Tags: state news, wisconsin