“In 2011, we saw an explosion in the number of college students seeking Sugar Daddies to help pay their college tuition”, says Brandon Wade, Founder & CEO of SeekingArrangement.com. “One in every two sugar babies who join our website today are college students, and college sugar babies now make up 40% of our sugar baby population, up from 33% in 2010.”

So which Universities do these college Sugar Babies come from?

SeekingArrangement.com today announces the Top 20 list of Universities with the largest number of Sugar Baby signups in 2011:

University Ranking -- # Signups

1. New York University (NYU) -- 185
2. University of Georgia -- 155
3. University of Phoenix -- 144
4. Tulane University -- 129
5. Temple University -- 113
6. Virginia Community College -- 108
7. University of Southern Florida -- 93
8. Arizona State University -- 85
9. Michigan State University -- 81
10. Ivy Tech Community College -- 78
11. Georgia State University -- 74
12. University of Wisconsin -- 73
13. Penn State University -- 72
14. University of Central Florida -- 67
15. Kent University -- 65
16. Maricopa Community College -- 63
17. Indiana University -- 62
18. University of California, Berkeley -- 61
19. The Art Institutes -- 60
20. Florida International University -- 59

College students who register for an account on SeekingArrangement.com with their dot-EDU email address automatically receive a free premium membership upgrade, and are certified as “College Sugar Babies”. Profiles that are certified as “College Sugar Babies” receive three times more inquiries from potential Sugar Daddies.

Almost 20,000 Wisconsinites are now listed on the state’s “Webdite of Shame,” the Internet page designed to embarrass scofflaws into paying their overdue taxes.

The site collected more than $17 million in back taxes last year, about 13 times more than its supporters were hoping to get.

The amount collected is still a drop in the bucket compared to the $759 million amount owed to the state government by those on the list.

The biggest delinquent is former NBA basketball star Latrell Sprewell. The Milwaukee-area native owes just over $3.5 million dollars in state taxes.

Two Madison brewpub businesses have stopped selling MillerCoors beers in support of other craft brewers who fear the effects of the beer distribution provisions in the state budget.

MillerCoors is a key supporter of the legislation, along with the Tavern League of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Grocers Association. 

Though brewpubs apparently won't be affected by the legislation, Great Dane Pub and Brewing Co. and Vintage Brewing Co. confirmed this week they had ended sales of MillerCoors brands such as Miller Genuine Draft, Miller Lite, Leinenkugel's, Blue Moon and Molson.

Eliot Butler, Great Dane president, said the Dane's four locations have dropped MillerCoors indefinitely "in solidarity with the (Wisconsin) Brewers Guild and with the craft brewers of Wisconsin."

Sales of MillerCoors were modest at Vintage's West Side brewpub, said Robyn Klinge, spokeswoman and brewer's assistant, but Vintage Spirits & Grill, a traditional bar/restaurant Downtown, sold 18 barrels of MillerCoors a week.

"We wanted to make a statement," she said. "If you hurt them, you hurt us, as far as we're concerned."

Two phrases that, strung together, are just plain ugly: "record high" and "gasoline prices."

Parts of Wisconsin are already there, and Milwaukee is within a few cents of its record average high set in 2008, according to AAA Wisconsin, the travel organization that tracks gasoline prices each day.

St. Croix County Circuit Judge Eric J. Lundell has filed a $1,432 claim against the city of Hudson for damage done to a family car when it hit a pothole in Coulee Road last January.

In the written claim filed with the city on Feb. 23, Lundell said his stepson was driving the 2004 Audi when it hit a “very deep” pothole in front of the Associated Bank building on the morning of Jan. 25.

Even though only one tire was damaged beyond repair by the pothole, all four of the car’s tires needed to be replaced so they would have the same rolling radius and circumference, the judge said.

The bill for the replacement tires came to $1,272, Lundell reported, and it cost another $159 to repair the car’s tie rod ends.

“We are not making any claim for loss of use or inconvenience,” Lundell wrote. “We simply want the city or its insurance carrier to pay us $1,432.68, the combined total for the two invoices.”

He said the potholes on Coulee Road appeared between Christmas and New Year’s Eve of 2010.

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***LESSON: I need to start filing claims for pothole damage to my vehicle.

It started last Wednesday afternoon with the apparent theft of a tip jar downtown at the Dish and the Spoon café. It ended a little later with the arrest of a 28-year-old Hudson man who was chased around ShopKo and finally nabbed as he tried to sprint for his freedom through the front-exit doors. The man told officers after his arrest that he was impressed that they could catch him.

The suspect faces charges in both Pierce and St. Croix counties, including shoplifting, attempted theft, resisting arrest and a probation violation.

Investor Peter McGeoch of Milwaukee had done quite well for himself. In 1878 he amassed $250,000 through speculation in spring wheat. Not content with this, late in 1882 he hatched a scheme to quadruple his fortune and make himself a millionaire. His plan? A monopoly on lard.

At the time, lard was a necessity of daily life in both commercial cooking and the home. There were relatively few producers and a predictable supply, tied to the seasonal fattening of pigs.

So McGeoch gradually bought up all the lard in the Midwest, present and future, through the Chicago Board of Trade. Holding current supplies off the market and controlling future options to buy more, he camped out and waited.

His plan worked well for awhile. Lard, which had started out at 6 cents per pound, rose to nearly 15 cents, and his million dollars appeared to be in sight.

But McGeoch held on too tightly for too long. The scarcity of lard led producers to dilute supplies with linseed oil and tallow. This drove prices down and introduced a new, cheaper product to customers.

McGeoch not only found his monopoly broken, but the market value of his future options fell far below what he had paid.

In June of 1883, observers reported that his various businesses owed between $1 million and $5 million to creditors, and that he himself was personally bankrupt.

McGeoch recovered and lived comfortably afterwards. But for decades, his famous "lard corner" served as a lesson to investors hoping to make a quick buck.

- Wisconsin Historical Society, www.wisconsinhistory.org

Due to federal regulatory hurdles, Wisconsin is declining a $23 million federal grant designed to expand broadband fiber to schools and libraries across the state.

"If DOA accepted the grant without meeting all of the precise federal regulatory requirements, Wisconsin taxpayers would be required to repay the $23 million back to the federal government," Mike Huebsch, Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Administration, wrote in a Feb. 11 letter to parties affiliated with the grant. "This is simply an unacceptable risk."

Greg Steffek was dressed as Santa Claus when a Milwaukee man allegedly walked into Steffek’s bar and handed over the counterfeit bill for a $5 shot. When Steffeck’s son checked the bill, he noticed the watermarks were missing.

The discovery led to “Santa Claus” grabbing the man and holding on until police arrested him along with two other people in a suspected getaway vehicle.