Although I'm a bit late, I congratulate and thank Badger women's hockey fans for making the recent NCAA tournament in Duluth a good time.

As a Duluthian, I'm a Bulldogs fan and happy that UMD came away a winner. But I was struck by the good nature and sportsmanship of Badger fans who made the trip to Duluth, too. That made for a good tournament, especially after the Badgers beat Harvard and we all knew we had a repeat of last year's championship game to look forward to.

Badger fans are a testament to what college sports should be -- fun. You have a great hockey program under Mark Johnson, and your players and fans just make it better. Thanks!

-- Dan Hass, Duluth, Minn.

So now in Wisconsin, people caught driving drunk seven or more times face tougher penalties, according to a news report, and those with seven, eight and nine convictions can be sentenced up to five years in prison. Big deal. What is wrong with this picture?

How about losing driving privileges permanently after a second conviction? Then add five years of imprisonment on the third, with an additional five years tacked on for each subsequent conviction.

Portage Police Chief Kenneth Manthey correctly labels drunken drivers as "time bombs on wheels." How long will the Legislature dabble in half-measures?

-- Peter D. Fox, New Glarus

Crime victim's view of ankle bracelets

Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney, with his electronic monitoring program, is letting criminals off the hook and justifying it because it saves the county money. What about the victims of these criminals, like me?

An employee of mine embezzled $35,000 from our company and caused over $10,000 in damages trying to cover her tracks. She was convicted of two felonies in December and how much time did she get? Zero, nada, not one minute!

The employee stole to support a gambling habit. Will serving no time help deter future thefts or break the gambling habit? No. The gambling was done at a local tavern, but did Sheriff Mahoney act to eliminate the illegal slot machines? No. Have I been made whole? No. When I tried to contact the sheriff, his staff blew me off, just another crime victim.

Making the embezzler spend some time in jail would provide a dose of reality, even if it was only for seven days. But making her stay home is no big deal; she is probably already off the bracelet and gambling again.

Pretty soon there will be another victim. To the next victim: Be sure to thank Sheriff Dave!

-- Rod Heller, McFarland

Little people pay for big investors' errors

I'm trying to get this straight in my mind. Wall Street investment banks spend years putting strange deals on their books, deals which generate obscene income levels for the banks and cash bonuses and salaries to the bankers who dream them up.

Then it turns out the deals proved to be of marginal value to the marketplace, no one can understand them, today's market is unable to value them, they can't be "unwound" for various fuzzy reasons and the income generated is now being charged off the books.

Panic grips the bankers and regulators as the gravy train starts to derail. Taxpayer bailout appears to be the easy route if they are to be saved.

But if Bear Stearns was too big to fail, how does making JP Morgan bigger move us in the direction of a long-term solution? Since the income has turned out to be a fantasy, is there any consideration being given to pulling back the bonuses and salaries paid on the fiction?

Does anyone have the feeling that the thieves and the police continue to share the bedroom? Whatever happened to the quaint idea of free market discipline, that failure is a necessary part of its proper function?

The people involved appear to be either dishonest or incompetent. Is the whole affair a scam, or are these people just stupid? In any event, it's not the taxpayer who should be on the hook, but why do I get the feeling we are being reeled in?

-- Paul Lawinger, Mount Horeb

Protest Iraq war by withholding taxes

In a few days the deadline for paying one's federal taxes will arrive. I hope many Wisconsinites will join me in withholding a minimum of 40 percent of these taxes to protest the use of torture, rendition, preemptive war and the killing and maiming of non-combatants by an authoritarian regime in Washington.

Civil disobedience is a way to save one's conscience, change a few things in oneself and give hope to others. How much hope are we denying to millions in the Middle East? Keep some hope alive and protest.

-- Daniel J. (Jim) Guilfoil, Monona

Court bias causes outside interference

The root cause why money pours into the Supreme Court races is because the Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson Court -- and principally the chief justice -- are legislating. Special interests are, therefore, going to spend money to affect the outcome.

Rather than disenfranchising voters by having justices selected, limiting free speech by regulating ads one doesn't like or having taxpayers foot the bill for campaigns, the Abrahamson faction should either quit legislating or run for the Legislature.

And should the state bar's "integrity" committee resurface, the public should be warned that the bar, and this committee in particular, are anything but "independent."

-- Mark Schlei, Madison

Dredging best for Lake Mendota

In 40 years of living on Lake Mendota, on the edge of the Cherokee Marsh, and producing documentaries on environmental issues, I've yet to read a more inaccurate and one-sided article than "A touchy Lake Mendota issue" on March 30.

Are we to believe that Lake Mendota should be forced to return to its "rightful" and "benign" level of 1848, or, as is suggested, be destroyed by artificial manipulation of its levels as a holding pond?

Lake Mendota has not risen like a mythical monster, inundating islands and swallowing shoreline. The large piece of floating bog, for example, did not break off some 20 years ago in a flood, but rather in a gradual change of river channel due to sedimentation and exacerbated by the crossing of snowmobiles and ATVs. The Mendota we've enjoyed for a century is not the culprit, but the victim, suffering from run-off.

Too much water? Isn't it rather that the city, county and Department of Natural Resources have failed in their obligation to remove the sediments choking the Yahara flowage, especially downstream? How will lowering the water end this ongoing degradation?

Of the many schemes to solve the problems of the watershed, this one should enrage lake shore dwellers, fishermen, boaters and anyone who enjoys its live depths and purifying marshes.

Dredge out the years of run-off that clog the channels, bays and lagoons of Madison so the high water of Lake Monona, for example, can naturally recede from levels that threaten the city.

-- Phyllis Berg-Pigorsch, Madison