Bikes, cars to be rerouted for 9-hour closure   

A portion of State Street will be closed Saturday due to a construction project.

The city's Traffic Engineering Division announced Wednesday that a construction company will be assembling a crane on the 100 block of State Street, which will require traffic to be rerouted from that area from 6 a.m.-3 p.m.

In a news release, the streets division said the portion of State Street between W. Dayton Street and W. Mifflin Street will allow pedestrian traffic, but bike and vehicle access will not be permitted for the the 9-hour closure.

The city said motorists are encouraged to use different routes to avoid delay during the project and deferred to Madison Metro regarding bus route detours.

More than two dozen Madison-area restaurants will ask for a small donation as servers pour glasses of water this week, which one group said was just the beginning of a push to curb water waste.

�Restaurants like Graze in downtown Madison and Rex's Innkeeper in Waunakee will seek $1 from guests as part of World Water Week.

�The collections will benefit the Clean Lakes Alliance, which works to clean up Dane County's lakes, said James Tye, the group's vice president.

�"We're not telling people, 'Don't drink water,' we're just telling them to be aware that the water that's coming to your table is not free and any water being left on the table is just being tossed away," Tye said.

�Tye said he wasn't aware of any Madison restaurants that forced customers to ask for water before bringing it to the table, but said eateries in other cities are doing that.

A three-day operation targeting people who solicit children over the Internet for sexual exploitation resulted in 17 arrests, including six arrests in Madison, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

The Internet Crimes Against Children operation, called Operation Black Veil, ran Tuesday through Thursday and included investigators from the state Department of Justice, investigators from Brown and Door counties, Madison police, the Dane County Sheriff's office, the Outagamie County Sheriff?s Department and others.

Criminal complaints for four of the men arrested describe arrangements for sexual encounters the men allegedly made with officers posing as minors or custodians of minors on Craigslist.

Wisconsin Deputy Attorney General Kevin St. John said it was the largest coordinated effort targeting Internet crimes against children in the state's history.