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Middleton High School and the Alzheimer’s Association are teaming up next month.

A Blondes vs. Brunettes flag football game will be held on Sunday, May 5 at noon at  Breitenbach Stadium.  Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the stadium the day of the game. MHS DECA is helping promote the event and student volunteers will work the game along with members of the school’s Key Club.

The two teams are divided based on the age-old rivalry between blondes and brunettes, while increasing awareness of Alzheimer’s disease among a new generation. If you’re wondering, redheads are free agents and will be permitted to play for the team of their choice. Funds raised will benefit the care, support, advocacy and research efforts of the Alzheimer’s Association. 

Falconer David Zilker, accompanied by a female red-tailed hawk named “Miss Genoa,” gave an educational presentation to the Friends of Pheasant Branch on Thursday, March 21.

Middletonians packed into Clark Street Community School, where Zilker spoke about the ancient art of hunting with birds of prey, as well as explaining the important environmental role these stunning predators play. Zilker is director of the Wisconsin Falconers Association-Southwest Region.

Citizens can join the Friends of Pheasant Branch Conservancy for free Conservancy Day programs on the third Thursday of every month. RSVPs are appreciated by organizers, and should be sent to Colleen at 608-767-2394 or education@pheasantbranch.org.

All programs are family friendly, unless otherwise noted below:

One day, as Robert Love watched the opening sequence in a hit video game for which he’s written the script, he realized his aesthetic sensibilities would have prompted him to choreograph some of the action differently.

An enthusiastic adherent to the “learn by doing” philosophy, Love, a writer and voiceover director at Raven Software in Middleton, figured he’s try getting behind a camera, and he started making short films.

Fast-forward to March 24 of this year, when Love’s debut feature film, “Dead of the Night,” premiered before a sold out crowd at Sundance Cinemas in Madison.

“This was a three-year project. It’s probably good I didn’t know from the start how much work it would be, or I might not have done it,” he says, pausing to correct himself with a grin. “I definitely still would have done it.”

Current Mayor Kurt Sonnentag was joined by former mayors Doug Zwank, Judy Karofsky, and Dan Ramsey at Tuesday evening's kickoff of the City of Middleton's 50th Birthday. Special events surrounding Middleton's 50 years of city status (it was a village until 1963) will take place throughout the remainder of 2013.

Tuesday's kickoff at Fire Station No. 1 on University Avenue included free cake and live music provided by the Madison Brass Band. At the same time, 
a collection of local history, brought together by the Middleton Area Historical Society, was unveiled at the Museum at the Depot on Parmenter Street.

A violent road rage incident interrupted Tuesday morning’s local commute, causing a lengthy delay for many drivers.

According to Capt. Noel Kakuske, of the Middleton Police Department, rush hour traffic into Middleton and Madison was affected when Theodore Malchert, age 41 of Poynette, became enraged and assaulted another motorist with his vehicle and his fists, then used a windshield wiper to shatter another motorist’s window.

The incident occurred on the eastbound Beltline Highway, between Parmenter Street and Airport Road.

Reports claim Malchert followed the other driver, cut in front of him, and deliberately struck the front quarter panel of the vehicle. The collision caused the other driver to lose control and spin out on the highway, coming to rest facing the opposite direction of eastbound traffic.

Editor's note: The following is one of four essays, all of which are featured in this week's print edition of the Times-Tribune, celebrating Middleton's 50 years as a city.

Middleton has been named one of Money magazine’s “Best Places to Live.”  You’ll get no argument from those of us lucky enough to grow up here in the 1950s and ‘60s.  The setting for many of our idyllic memories is a place called “the creek.”  (Today it is known as the Pheasant Branch Conservancy.  Back then, it was simply “the creek.”) 

To an outsider, it was a mundane patch of woods.  To us, it was as exotic as the Amazon, teeming with raccoons, snakes, lizards, turtles, and, in the summer of 1969, an alligator.

Local Author Katherine Perreth Pens Book About The Many Highs And Lows That Followed Her Son Ben's Brain Hemorrhage

Middleton Times-Tribune: First things first - How did you come up with the book’s title?        

Katherine Perreth: Some folks misread the title, and thus believe the book to be about hope. For me, Making Lemonade With Ben: The Audacity To Cope is about what happens after hope has evaporated, poof! What do you do then? But MLWB is much more than chapter and verse on what happened to my firstborn, Ben, after I found him in a coma. It’s what happened to the entire family.

MTT: That’s a lot of ground to cover. Where does the narrative take you?

While many Middletonians suspected the city's newest resident had moved here for the great beer produced at Capital Brewery, there might be another reason for all the great grey owl sightings on Terrace Avenue.

This year’s long winter is having an impact on owls in Wisconsin, including three species of rare owls that have come down from the boreal forest north of the U.S. border.

According to a statement issued by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, every few years small rodent populations crash. The decline forces owls to move south in search of food. 

That's exactly what happened this year and because of it, Wisconsin is becoming a temporary home to three species not normally seen here: the northern hawk owl, the great grey owl and the boreal owl.

James  Helmuth, the 10-year-old boy who inspired local first responders to create a charity softball game, lost his battle with cancer on Saturday, surrounded by his family, Lisa, Jeff and Jack.

Helmuth was honored during the 1st annual "Battle of the Badges" charity softball game in the summer of 2012. A statement posted on the MIPD website said Middleton Police, Fire & EMS Departments will continue to hold the charity softball games each summer to benefit local charities, such as the Badger Childhood Cancer Network.

Helmuth loved to watch and play basketball and football and loved karate and swimming. He had many friends, including a special place in his heart for Bella, Buddy, and Sparkle - the family dog and two cats. 

Services will take place Saturday, April 6 at 11 a.m. at St. Luke's Church, 7337 Hubbard Avenue in Middleton.

A man called “Slim” ran a small but lucrative prostitution ring out of a Middleton apartment in late 2011 and early 2012, using heroin addiction, frequent beatings and a handgun named “Lucille” to control those around him, according to court documents.

Criminal complaints filed in Dane County Circuit Court late last month allege Alvin “Slim” Siller oversaw one prostitute’s every move, only allowing her to eat once per day, usually off of the dollar menu at McDonald’s. He stands accused of beating the woman so severely on one occasion that he broke her dentures.

Siller faces an array of charges, including Human Tracking, Pandering/Pimping, Battery, Strangulation, Negligent Handling of a Weapon, Possession of a Firearm by a Felon, and Child Enticement. He faces multiple counts of several offenses.