The Badgers offered Sean Sevillano Jr., a three-star defensive lineman from Clearwater, Florida on Saturday. The 6-foot-2, 300-pound athlete is a junior at Clearwater Academy International and will be a member of the class of 2024 recruiting class wherever he ends up.
Sevillano Jr. has now received 27 Division 1 offers, while Ohio State and Notre Dame have established themselves as early favorites according to 247Sports. With Luke Fickell and the rest of the new staff at the helm in 2023, athletes like Sevillano Jr. could be realistic options for Wisconsin moving forward.
The upcoming campaign could put the Badgers on the map as a top program in the nation, elevating them from being one of the top programs in the Big Ten.
So far for the class of 2024, Wisconsin has gotten three commitments from three-star defensive athletes. To this point, linebackers Thomas Heiberger (Sioux Falls, SD) and Landon Gauthier (Green Bay, WI) as well as safety Kahmir Prescott (Philadelphia, PA) have picked Madison as their college destinations.
MADISON, Wis. – A controversial Wisconsin beagle-breeding farm said activists interfered with its business by threatening to publicly shame customers.
The backstory:
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Ridglan Farms breeds beagles for use in scientific experiments. In April, the breeder sued Dane4Dogs over a letter the activist group sent to the breeder’s customers. That letter “strongly encouraged” customers to stop doing business with Ridglan Farms or find their names on a published listed.
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What they’re saying:
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Both sides made oral arguments to a Dane County judge on Thursday, Oct. 9. Ridglan Farms called the letter extortion, while Dane4Dogs said it amounts to a boycott protected under the First Amendment.
“That clearly crosses the line from protected speech, from protected protest, activism, what have you, into wrongful tortious conduct,” said Attorney Eric McLeod, who represents Ridglan Farms.
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DIG DEEPER: Find more FOX6 Investigators coverage of Ridglan Farms
“If that’s extortion, if that’s unlawful, then every divestment campaign – every boycott – would suddenly be opening those activists up to potentially ruinous litigation,” said Attorney Steffen Seitz, representing Dane4Dogs.
What’s next:
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Dane County Judge Jacob Frost promised to issue a ruling soon to decide whether the case will proceed to trial. Meanwhile, a criminal investigation into alleged animal cruelty at Ridglan Farms remains ongoing.
The Source: FOX6 Investigators reviewed oral arguments in the case and referenced prior coverage.
The Appleton Public Library was named 2025 Library of the Year by the Wisconsin Library Association.
The award recognizes distinguished achievement in service for outstanding commitment to users, innovation and community impact.
Appleton spent nearly 17 years working to build a new public library. The effort culminated in February, when the city opened a newly renovated and expanded $40.4 million library at 200 N. Appleton St.
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During construction, the library operated from two temporary locations: the former Best Buy store at 2411 S. Kensington Drive and the former Habitat ReStore at 3000 E. College Ave.
“Few institutions could withstand what APL has endured,” Common Council President Katie Van Zeeland said. “Our staff adapted through not one but two full relocations during construction, and they never wavered.”
While operating at the temporary sites, library staff found ways to reach new audiences and build relationships by creating a welcoming environment and working with partner organizations to provide programming opportunities throughout the city.
Staff also launched new initiatives to connect people, including job support programs and the Appleton Poet Laureate Program.
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“This award honors both our staff, who have gone above and beyond to serve with creativity and care, and our community, whose trust and support make Appleton Public Library possible,” Library Director Colleen Rortvedt said.
The library will receive the 2025 Library of the Year award on Oct. 30 during the Awards & Honors Ceremony at the Wisconsin Library Association Annual Conference in Middleton.
Contact Duke Behnke at 920-993-7176 or dbehnke@gannett.com. Follow him on X at @DukeBehnke.
Laurel Burleson, a Dane County chef, thinks ugly apples make the best dishes.
One of her goals as a chef and restaurant owner is to save usable produce from the waste bin.
“I know how hard (Wisconsin farmers) work every day, making these products that are delicious and nutritious and for anything to get thrown away just because it’s not aesthetically perfect is just outrageous,” said Burleson, owner of Ugly Apple Cafe.
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The latest fruit monitoring report from the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows many parts of the state having great harvests, although northeastern Wisconsin orchards suffered from a cool spring. But most apple orchards are busy with the fall harvest. So what do you do with that abundance of apples?
Burleson shared some recipes and her philosophy on cooking with WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”
This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
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Rob Ferrett: What do you like to do with apples apart from just eating them?
Laurel Burleson: One that I really like to do is making apple marmalade. That is shredding apples and preserving them in sugar so that they keep their structure. It’s kind of the opposite of making applesauce.
But we also make a lot of apple sauce and apple butter. That’s a good way to use a lot of apples all at once.
RF: What goes into making apple butter?
LB: Very basically you make applesauce, so just cook down your apples and blend them up. Then you take that applesauce and cook it extremely slowly, either in a slow cooker or in the oven. Cook it down until it’s dark and rich and more closely resembling a peanut butter than applesauce.
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From there, you can put in whatever spices you want: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, bay leaf. You just have to be careful because whatever you start with in the big batch will get super concentrated and reduced in your end product.
RF: With applesauce or apple butter, do we have to be fussy about the type of apples? Or can we mix and match?
LB: I like to mix and match, especially because the apple season starts really early. Some years you can get the first season apples in July.
They don’t hold very long and they’re very juicy, so they break down really easily, but they are very tart. I like to get some of those early season apples and make them into applesauce and freeze them and then when I have other sweeter varieties later I mix them and then reduce that all down into butter.
RF: You shared a savory recipe with us for pork chops with apple bacon cabbage. Tell us a little bit about this recipe.
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LB: It’s really fun for the fall and even into the winter. You can kind of use any kind of variety of apple that’s a little bit tart and it’s OK if it breaks down and blends in because the cabbage is going to maintain its structure.
If the onions and apples melt away into a delicious sauce it’s just fine. But also, if you end up with some apple pieces, then it’s a nice little surprise like a little sweetness.
The Ugly Apple Cafe operates cafes inside the Dane County Courthouse and the City County Building in Madison and sells its products at the Monona Farmers Market.
