MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Madison police say they have a plan in place to deal with downtown crowds reacting to the results of the NCAA championship game Monday night.
Thousands flooded the streets Saturday night celebrating the Wisconsin Badgers’ 71-64 Final Four win over the Kentucky Wildcats.
“Moments after a UW victory was assured, jubilant crowds flooded the State St area and were shoulder to shoulder from Lake St to Gilman,” according to a Madison police department news release.
There were no arrests, reports of property damage or significant incidents. There was only one report of an accidental minor injury.
Police did not have an estimate of crowd numbers Sunday morning.
In Lexington, Kentucky, police say 31 people were arrested near the University of Kentucky campus after the game. About 1,500 fans spilled into a State Street neighborhood adjacent to the university’s Lexington campus, according to police spokeswoman Sherelle Roberts.
Madison police officials say they are anticipating similar crowds in Madison after the Badgers play Duke in the NCAA championship game.
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MAXVILLE, Wis. (AP) - A man is dead after a tractor accident in western Wisconsin.
WEAU-TV reports (https://bit.ly/1MUvSkAhttps://bit.ly/1MUvSkA ) Thomas Weisenbeck was thrown from the tractor while moving tree limbs from a field in the town of Maxville in Buffalo County.
The sheriff’s department says it received a call about the accident at about 3:50 p.m. Saturday.
Weisenbeck died at the scene.
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Information from: WEAU-TV, https://www.weau.comhttps://www.weau.com
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MILWAUKEE (AP) - Green Bay Packers wide receiver Randall Cobb is trying to raise awareness of organ donation.
The 24-year-old is the public face of a 14-week effort by Froedtert Hospital and Gannett Wisconsin Media to help draw attention to the need for organ donors, according to Press-Gazette Media (https://gbpg.net/1IB5LIRhttps://gbpg.net/1IB5LIR ).
According to the Wisconsin Donor Network, more than 2,300 people are on waiting lists for an organ transplant in Wisconsin. There are more than 123,000, nationally.
Cobb, who has been a donor since the age of 16, met transplant patients last week during a tour of the hospital and the Medical College of Wisconsin. Meeting patients put his efforts in perspective, he said.
“It makes me realize how important this is at a higher level,” Cobb said. “I’ve always felt helping people is important, but when you see the impact you can have on somebody’s life, it makes it more obvious how important organ donations are.”
The push coincides with a nationwide effort in April intended to draw attention to the need for additional organ donors.
Four hospitals in the state perform organ transplants: Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center; Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin; Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin; and the University of Wisconsin Hospital transplant program in Madison.
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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Minnesota converted more wetlands into farmland than any other state when crop prices spiked between 2008 and 2012, according to a new study by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.
About 250,000 acres, or nearly 400 square miles, were converted to row crops, according to Minnesota Public Radio News reports (https://bit.ly/1NLoinvhttps://bit.ly/1NLoinv ). Most was grassland, but 25,000 acres were wetlands - more than any other state.
“In the Midwest we saw a lot of croplands expanding outside the traditional corn belt area, and Minnesota in particular was a key hot spot of land conversion,” said Tyler Lark, a university graduate student and the study’s lead author. “Much of the conversion came at the cost of natural ecosystems.”
Also, 13,000 acres of forests were converted - the second largest forest conversion in the country.
The study, which used satellite data from three different sources to analyze land conversion, was published Thursday in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
The study estimated that 7.3 million acres were converted nationwide. According to the study, the increased carbon emissions from the additional corn and soybean crops alone would be equal to a year’s emissions from 34 coal-fired power plants.
The high corn and soybean prices came after the federal Renewable Fuel Standard took effect. The standard calls for a certain amount of ethanol and other renewable fuels to be added to gasoline. Part of the policy’s goal was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but some environmental groups have argued the standard is coming up short in that regard because of the consequences of land conversion.
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