Boell was not in Germany to fight or carry a weapon, he was a Monuments Man. The little-known U.S. Army group called the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section, or MFAA, is now getting the Hollywood treatment in a film starring George Clooney and Matt Damon. "The Monuments Men" opens Friday.

Originally a group of 30 men who were drafted from the ranks of art historians, librarians, archivists and museum directors, the Monuments Men grew to more than 300 men and women who were sent to Europe to search for, restore and repatriate art looted by the Nazis, as well as preserve documents, art and architectural treasures.

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"We're so used to thinking about people serving in combat but we sort of forget war has other components, that there were all sorts of things going on in addition to combat," said David Null, director of UW-Madison's Archives. "There's been a lot of interest about repatriation of art stolen from Jewish families. So it's interesting to acknowledge that (the Monuments Men) had an important role."

Before World War II, Boell, a Nebraska native, had been state director of the national historical records survey, a WPA project in Wisconsin. He spent much of the war at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., as the assistant director of the War Records Office, handling the preservation of highly classified State Department records. In 1945 he became a Monuments Man, serving as an archives officer in Germany and participating in the Nuremberg Trials.

When asked about his stance on gay marriage:

"We take an oath to uphold the constitution and as long as that's part of our constitution, we're obligated to uphold it," Walker said. "If that were to change, certainly we'd look at it differently.

Earlier in the day in the courtrooms of Madison:

Dane County Judge John Markson has dismissed 29 tickets issued to participants in the Solidarity Sing Along, ruling the state's permitting requirements for Capitol gatherings unconstitutional.

In one of two written rulings issued Wednesday (available here and here), Markson said he agreed with defendant Michael W. Crute, who argued that the state's permit requirement "violates the First Amendment because it applies, on its face, to very small groups."

So now is a good time to remind ourselves of just how much water is used by thermal power plants, which boil water to create steam. The Union of Concerned Scientists released a report on this a few years ago, and what it says is striking.

Thermal power plants in the U.S. used as much water as farms did in 2005, and more than four times as much as all U.S. residents. Every single day in 2008, these power plants withdrew 60 to 170 billion gallons of freshwater from rivers, lakes, streams and aquifers, and consumed 2.8 to 5.9 billion gallons of that water. This is particularly bad in the southwest because a lot of the water used by power plants came from underground aquifers that don't always replenish quickly.

Withdrawal is the total amount of water a power plant takes in from a source such as a river, lake, or aquifer, some of which is returned. Consumption is the amount lost to evaporation during the cooling process. Withdrawal is important for several reasons. Water intake systems can trap fish and other aquatic wildlife. Water withdrawn for cooling but not consumed returns to the environment at a higher temperature, potentially harming fish and other wildlife. And when power plants tap groundwater for cooling, they can deplete aquifers critical for meeting many different needs. Consumption is important because it too reduces the amount of water available for other uses, including sustaining ecosystems. (source)

But solar? It doesn't stress our water resources and exacerbate droughts. In fact, it produces more power during very hot and sunny periods. SolarCity estimates that through the California Solar Initiative, SolarCity and other companies have deployed enough solar to conserve 684 million gallons a year for the state. Not bad!

Dane County Judge John Markson dismissed charges against political dissidents arrested during Scott Walker’s failed crackdown on unauthorized singing in the Wisconsin State Capitol.

Defendants Michael Crute and John Bell, among others, had challenged the constitutionality of the emergency rules, arguing their First Amendment rights under the WI and US Constitutions were violated. Markson agreed in a written decision issued today. Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Rebecca Weise had argued the cases should proceed.

Markson’s ruling could set precedent that would lead to the dismissal of ~300 charges issued under Administrative Code 2.14(2)(vm)(5) for “unlawful assembly” last summer.

Michael Crute and his attorney Jeff Scott Olson issued a press release. “This is Scott Walker’s ‘Bridge-Gate’,” said Michael Crute.

Now House Republicans charge that the endowment supports programming primarily attended by the rich, causing “a wealth transfer from poorer to wealthier citizens.”

A new study to be released on Wednesday challenges that assertion, however, and concludes that federally supported arts programs attract people across the income spectrum; the wealthy, yes, but also many below the poverty line.

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Last year the House Budget Committee, led by Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, issued a proposed budget for the 2014 fiscal year, which eliminated all funding for the arts endowment as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It stated that these agencies’ activities were “generally enjoyed by people of higher-income levels, making them a wealth transfer from poorer to wealthier citizens.”

To assess that statement, university researchers first looked at income differences in places that receive arts grants and those that don’t. They discovered that the bigger and more economically diverse the community, the more likely it was to receive a grant. These areas have a greater proportion of both poor and rich households, researchers said. In addition, they found that arts grants led poorer people to attend an event just as much as those in higher tax brackets.

If Gov. Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republicans are paying someone to do their background checks, they should demand a refund.

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Alexander Combs, a former counselor at a Mukwonago co-ed camp, was hired by the state party to work in its Madison headquarters as a part-time fundraiser in March 2011, just one year after his felony conviction. He has been paid a little more than $41,000 by the party since landing the job, say campaign records.

Combs, 27, pleaded guilty in 2010 to downloading sexually explicit images of girls as young as 9 years old and engaging in online conversations with people who identified themselves as minor females. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and three years' probation. He is a registered sex offender until 2028.

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Last month, Walker unwittingly offered a shout-out in his "state of the state" address to Christopher Barber, a registered sex offender who works as a welder at Ariens Co. in Brillion. A picture of the first-term Republican governor applauding Barber ran in newspapers around the state. In addition, Walker fired Taylor Palmisano, his campaign's deputy finance director, after No Quarter turned up tweets she had posted two years earlier that were demeaning to Hispanics. In May 2013, Nicole Tieman resigned without explanation as Walker's campaign spokeswoman. No Quarter later reported that she was serving a 20-day sentence in jail after her second drunken-driving conviction.

The 300-year-old Stradivarius violin that was taken in an armed robbery last month was found overnight on Milwaukee's east side and is said to be in good condition, WTMJ-TV reports, citing multiple unnamed sources.

The Milwaukee Police Department and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra had not confirmed as of 6 a.m. Thursday that the violin was recovered.

During a Wednesday news conference, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said there was a "good chance" the violin was still in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee police have arrested three suspects in connection with the theft and have referred the case to the Milwaukee County district attorney's office. Charges could be issued on Thursday.