That's one magical whey spill

At least three things to start your week including a beer seizure, more on the Weston referendum and a woman convicted of armed burglary

Obviously for illustration purposes only. Of course it was whey by-product and not actual whey protein powder.

Sometimes I end up with a collection of stories that deserve a little more ink than a brief, but aren’t quite enough for a full post in and of themselves. When I have enough of them, they go into a Three Things post.

DNR spill reports aren’t usually terribly interesting. But this latest seemed to involve some magical whey, if the official report is to be believed.

According to the Department of Natural Resources report, a truck hauling whey — the byproduct of cheese production that, in some cases, gets turned into the kind of protein powder bodybuilders use — on May 29 spilled an unknown amount of whey onto Esker Road in the town of Reid.

The official report marks it as human error, despite the spillage being intermittent. The driver told a DNR warden, according to the report, that sloshing in the tank must have caused the intermittent spillage.

But the devil is in the details. According to the report, the drainage stopped right before the truck traveled past a DNR warden, before starting again. The drainage also stopped before it reached a person walking with a stroller and two dogs — again, before resuming the drainage.

The whole thing went on for between a quarter-mile and half a mile.

According to the report, the driver claimed he had accidentally forgotten to turn off the discharge valve, and that the intermittency of the spill was caused by sloshing in the tank.

At just the right times.

Wausau woman found guilty of armed burglary following trial

You don’t see too many armed burglary suspects that are women — and few burglary cases go to trial.

This case is interesting because it ticks both of those boxes.

A 12-person jury found Ashley Pinkert, 42 of Wausau, guilty of burglary, burglary armed with a dangerous weapon, theft and criminal trespassing charges, all felonies. She was found not guilty on only one count of criminal trespass to property.

Here’s what happened: