Articles

Amy Timberlake comes home to promote new novel

Hometown girl Amy Richardson Timberlake has certainly made good. The award-winning author will return to her hometown of Hudson on March 23 to promote her third book, “One Came Home,” with a signing at Chapter 2 Books.

• ”One Came Home” is Amy Timberlake’s third book
• Amy Timberlake, author

Koski has fun at her ‘Day Away’

Stephanie Koski’s new job as the coordinator of the Day Away Program of the Aging and Disability Resource Center seems a perfect fit.

• From left, Stephanie Koski, Janis McGee, volunteer Carol McConaughy, Audrey Keither, Lucy Peterson and Joan Brown

School board candidates all say they will serve with integrity

All four candidates running for the two seats open on the Hudson Board of Education in the April 2 election pledged that they would serve with integrity and not act as a “rubber stamp” for the district’s administration.

• Hudson School Board candidates

Hudson school district selects new human resources head

Attorney Andrea Voelker of Hudson is school law specialist and will take over as the new HSD human resources director in July.

• Photo

HHS senior seeking OK to wear Marine uniform

HHS senior Mac Hamlin is seeking permission to wearhis Marine uniform to graduation in June. Initially he was told no but the district said they will consider the request if they receive it in writing.

• Mac Hamlin

HHS alumnus Long named state audiologist of the year

Dr. Stephanie Roberts Long was recently named Wisconsin Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Association’s 2013 Audiologist of the Year at a ceremony in Wisconsin Dells.

• Dr. Stephanie Long, center, with parents Kathy and Chuck Roberts

HHS grad Evenson named Somerset teacher of the year

Jenna Evenson, HHS Class of 2002, center, has been named Somerset High School Teacher of the Year for 2012-13 and has been nominated for the Kohl Teacher Fellowship.

• Jenna Evenson

Burglars hit Smokedale and Kingdom Buffet

Police are investigating weekend break-ins at two Hudson businesses.

Polk County man drives on frozen St. Croix to escape police

A chase through North Hudson and onto the frozen St. Croix ends in an arrest of a Polk county man Sunday morning.

Hudson High School choral director says music is chosen for quality

Andy Haase has been the director of Choral Activities at Hudson High School since 2001. He says that throughout his years teaching in Hudson he has had one guiding principle when it comes to the music he selects for performance: to expose his students to the highest level of musical literature, whether sacred or secular.

• Andy Haase, HHS choral director

Columns

Day By Day: Graduation - Things I’ve learned since high school and college

This time of year is a mixed bag. The downside is that it begins a season of working weekends with grass to cut, weeds to pull and guilt to endure if you don’t do either. On the upside, especially if you are a senior somewhere — high school or college not the AARP kind — is your future is about to start or at least move into a new phase.

Day By Day: For better or worse, weddings and marriage seems worth the effort

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when I agreed to be the “personal attendant” for my good friend and recent bride, Mary Claire. But I figured it was the best way to know everything without getting accused of being nosy, and, of course, offering all the moral support just such an emotional time calls for.

Day By Day: Let’s leave the driving to them

Ever since the subject of driver’s education came up at last week’s school board meeting, my own “learning to drive” experience has been on my mind. It isn’t a pretty thought.

Day By Day: Consider this - another year, a whole new decade

I don’t know if anyone else feels this way but when I think about a whole new year, I get kind of depressed. With the holidays over, it will be another six months before we get a paid day off.

Day By Day: Memory - the gift that keeps on giving

We were talking in the office this morning about Christmas buying and shopping at the “five and dime” when we were kids. It begged the question “Is there anything left you can buy for a nickel?”

Margaret and Meg: It’s time to set the record straight

Here’s the thing. The column that ran last week under my byline and photo wasn’t written by me but by Margaret Ontl, our ace photographer and another reporter here at the Star Observer.

• Margaret Ontl, left, and Meg Heaton

Day by Day: Some people just know how to vacation

It started out small and innocent enough. It just wasn’t in the cards for the Heatons to take much of a vacation this year, but I needed a break.

Day by Day: Cop school was rare look behind the badge

I’ve been covering the Hudson Police Department for 10 years now and I like to think I know a little about how they operate. But I learned just how much I didn’t know when I participated in the department’s first Citizen Police Academy.

Day By Day: Hit me - they’re 21

As the deadline for this column quickly approaches I am reminded of one of the few times in my life I did something ahead of a due date – the birth of our children 21 years ago May 5.

Day By Day: Just remember, art is life

Right when I think there just isn’t anything more to say … well, there is. I recently got back from a wonderful vacation in Naples, Fla., courtesy of my beloved sister Mary and brother-in-law Dave. Naples is a wonderful place with lots of regular people who just happen to live next door to millionaires.

• “Smoking Woman” by Fernando Botero