News Net Stealing an 83-year-old woman’s brand-new iPad is really a dick move

Since sifting through dull newspapers, hyperbolic blogs, and overflowing RSS feeds for meaningful news can be an arduous process, News Net catches and compiles both the amusing and the significant reports that were overlooked over the workweek. Here are some things to think about as the weekend begins.

• Evidently Madison is in the midst of a full-blown Apple-centric crime wave targeting customers leaving the local Apple Store. Over the last few weeks, customers with fresh purchases of iPads and MacBooks have been the regular target of thieves as they head to their cars outside the West Towne Mall. An 83-year-old woman even lost her shiny, new iPad to a wrestling match with a thief. While Madison’s Apple-loving community surely has empathy to spare for those now separated from their Cupertino-designed wonder machines, the Android users among us will probably just bitterly mutter that the victims should have been more like this guy.

• Students can quit their bitching about the cost of tuition at UW-Madison since, in the grand scheme of things, being a Badger is a pretty good deal, at least according to the Princeton Review. It rated the university No. 5 on its top 10 list of the best values available among public universities in the country. Of course, that doesn’t mean UW is cheap—it just means that students have plenty of opportunities available to them relative to the cost of being a student here. For example, Wisconsin taps are only a dollar at the Vintage on Monday nights. Mom and dad, you can’t beat that price!

• Speaking of tasty craft beer, Peter Gentry hopes to offer some to Madison by this summer at One Barrel Brewing Company. The Isthmus reports that Gentry will be moving his home brewing operation into a space on Willy Street that will serve as “a neighborhood conversation space, like a coffee shop, only with beer instead of coffee.” We’re hoping for film arguments over coffee stouts, but that remains to be seen. For now, Gentry has some killer ale recipes that will inhabit a rotation of up to 10 beers on tap, which should make for a nice, new spot to have summertime discussions over which Kathleen to vote for.

• Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of Gov. Walker’s proposal to strip public employees of their collective bargaining rights. To mark the event, pro-union groups have a commemorative protest event for everyone, including people against the mining bill, people who hate the Governor’s Mansion, and people who’d just as soon skip romantic Valentine’s Day dinners to opt for nonviolent political action. Sadly, “Silly Signs: A Retrospective” is missing from the calendar, but looking back on a few of them on Buzzfeed might still inspire another year of slogans inspired by Reddit, Star Wars, and Doctor Who.