MADISON, Wis. (AP) Two eagle-eyed construction workers are being credited with helping police nab a man suspected of leaving a homemade bomb near the state Capitol.

The workers saw the man hang a backpack in a tree just across the street from the Capitol on Tuesday and spotted him near that spot again Wednesday riding his bike, Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said Wednesday.

The backpack left on Tuesday caught on fire and had to be destroyed by a bomb squad. Bomb experts believe the backpack contained a homemade explosive device, but more tests are needed to confirm that, DeSpain said.

The construction workers were waiting for police and sketch artists to arrive Wednesday when they spotted the man again and called police, DeSpain said.

David R. Floyd, 67, was arrested after a brief argument in front of the office building housing the Department of Justice. DeSpain said police will ask the district attorney to charge him with felony bomb scare and disorderly conduct while armed.

Floyd threatened the detective arresting him with an unidentified, sharp weapon that was not a knife, DeSpain said. He also had at least one "item of concern" on his bike and more in his possession, he said, declining to elaborate.

Police blocked off a block around the Capitol near where Floyd was taken into custody and were waiting for the Dane County Sheriff's bomb squad to examine the bike left on the sidewalk and the items.

"The bomb squad will render any objects he had on his person or his bicycle safe if need be," DeSpain said.

No one was evacuated from the Capitol or the buildings across the street.

DeSpain said even though Floyd was just a block away from where the backpack was discovered Tuesday, he didn't know what his intention was.

Magnum challenged U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, in 2004 and 2006, garnering 37 percent of the vote each time.

"While I am grateful for all the calls of encouragement, I won't be a candidate in '08," Magnum said in a statement. "Since the last campaign I've added more radio stations to my group and I need to concentrate on getting them up to speed." 

Magnum, however, did not rule out running again in the future.

"I appreciate the folks who believe I'd make a good public servant, and I do hope to prove them right one day," he said.

Magnum is owner of a Wisconsin radio and television group.

Beginning Nov. 1, Wiley will serve as the interim director of the Wisconsin Institutue for Discovery, the public half of UW's new, comprehensive research institution.

Wiley replaces Marsha Malick Seltzer, who is also director of UW's Waisman Center and coincidentally chaired UW's search and screen committee to find a replacement for Wiley.

"I am delighted that WID will be led by John Wiley. He is a perfect fit for the mission and science of the new institute," Seltzer said. "It has been an extraordinary experience for me to have served as interim director for the past two years and I have learned a great deal in the process. There is no one better able than John Wiley to build on the foundation we have established and to take WID into the future."

Cornell University provost Biddy Martin will replace Wiley as chancellor at the end of the summer.

The new storm activity hit as teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Small Business Administration began their visual checks of the storm damage since last weekend to determine whether it warranted a federal disaster declaration.

A tornado briefly touched down in Markesan in Green Lake County about 4:40 p.m. Thursday but no injuries were reported.

"It appears it was a weak tornado," said National Weather Service meteorologist Rusty Kapela. "It just touched down and took some trees down."

The Poynette area received about 2½ inches of rain within two hours and adjoining areas received one to two inches.

"By the time it's all over, people in the southern two-thirds of Wisconsin will have gotten three to four inches," Kapela said.

The forecast called for storms throughout the evening, and the weather service issued flash flood watches for the southern portion of the state with tornado watches in central and eastern areas.

Flash flooding in Grant County closed two highways and required rescues, authorities said.

Three homes were destroyed and others had major damage, according to Grant County Emergency Management, which said Potosi, Lancaster and Livingston took the brunt of the storm and had water several feet deep in many spots.

A funnel cloud was reported to have touched down in Grant County near an unincorporated area known as Union, authorities said.

A fire broke out that responders from nearby Lancaster couldn't reach because roads were washed out, Platteville City Manager Dave Berner said. The family living there was safe, he said.

"I think we dodged a bullet with the tornado" because it hit a rural area, Berner said. "I saw the twister on our western edge here, but it went by. You could see it in the sky. I happened to be at the museum when the sirens blew. I came out on a hill, and I could see it in the west. I was very concerned."

A National Weather Service spotter reported a 6-mile swath of damage to trees.

"We've had some reports of some rescues in Grant County, but it's sketchy at this point," said Wisconsin Emergency Management spokesman David Carlson.

In Iowa County, officials reported flooding with roads washed out in western portions of the county.

Iowa County Emergency Management Director Ken Palzkill said his county saw an "unprecedented" amount of rain Thursday afternoon. Cobb, a village of about 400 people in west-central Iowa County, got 3 inches of rain in an hour, Palzkill said.

Roads that have never flooded before were underwater, he said, and the agricultural damage is "unbelievable."

Avoca, a village of about 600 people on the Iowa County-Richland County line just south of the Wisconsin River, was bracing for severe flooding as the latest rain raises river levels, Palzkill said. About 75 percent of the village's basements already have water in them after last weekend's storms, he said.

"A lot of water is going to hit that village," he said. "There's going to be a lot more problems than there already is."

To the east, Dodge County Sheriff Todd Nehls said a funnel cloud was spotted there but did not touch down. High winds, torrential rain and nearly golf ball-sized hail pelted the area, he said.

Westbound lanes of Interstate 94 in Jefferson County, between Milwaukee and Madison, was closed about 3:15 p.m. after water rose to within inches of the bottom of a bridge spanning the Crawfish River, said Mike Goetzman, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.

"The water hasn't gotten to the bottom of the bridge yet, but at this point they're watching it very closely," he said. Eastbound lanes, on a bridge with a higher elevation, remained open.

Carlson, of Wisconsin Emergency Management, said authorities were advising people not to travel on I-39 near Portage because flood water was standing on the freeway, although it hadn't been closed as yet.

In the southeast, Dennis Shook of the state Department of Transportation said I-43 at state Highway 83 was closed after two trailer trucks rolled during the storms.

"We had the rollovers there, but what really made it worse was a lot of debris and a lot of water that hit there, so we're not quite sure why the trucks rolled over, if it was a product of the winds or a debris situation," Shook said. "One of our local guys on the scene said there was a ton of branches and just junk blown on the freeway."

We Energies, the utility covering southeastern Wisconsin, had 13,000 customers without power Thursday afternoon, spokesman Barry McNulty said.

Jerry Mountin, owner of Piggly Wiggly in Mayville, said lightning tore a hole in his roof and wiped out all the store's electrical systems. Employees saw sparks, but no one was injured.

"The assistant chief of fire department said it was a cold bolt of lightning," Mountin told WTMJ-TV. "I've never heard that term before."

The increases approved Thursday mean undergraduates will pay about $350 more at UW-Madison, $340 more at UW-Milwaukee and $265 more at 11 other four-year universities next year.

The plan approved by the Board of Regents freezes tuition at the system's 13 two-year colleges for the second straight year at about $4,270.

System officials say more than half of the increase will pay for an unfunded state mandate giving all veterans free tuition. The rest of the money will help pay for enrollment increases on some campuses and other expenses.

In dollar amounts, the increases are the second lowest in the past six years.

Martin will receive an annual salary of $437,000, which is $110,000 more than what current chancellor John Wiley earns.

In a statement, Board of Regents President Mark Bradley and UW System President Kevin Reilly said the change in salary is the result of extreme competition to keep faculty, academic staff and senior academic leaders from choosing more lucrative jobs in other institutions across the nation.

"We compete in a national and global market for top-shelf talent, and the best available data show that salaries in the UW System are generally not keeping pace with those offered by similar institutions elsewhere," Bradley said.

About $100,000 of Martin's pay will come from the John D. Wiley Chancellor's Chair Endowment, funded by both the UW Foundation and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

Martin is the second female to lead UW-Madison and the first openly gay chancellor of the state's flagship university.

"I look forward to the opportunity to work with Wisconsin citizens and their representatives to ensure that their families benefit from the preparation and the innovation that UW-Madison provides for this changing world," Martin said in a statement. "Our work will not be easy, but I believe we will be equal to the task if we work together and focus on the things that matter."

In addition to Martin's approval, the regents also appointed Robert Felner as the UW-Parkside chancellor and Richard Telfer as the UW-Whitewater chancellor. Felner will earn an annual salary of $205,000 and Telfer will receive $199,500.

Reilly will also receive a salary adjustment due to the increase in competition for CEOs of large public universities across the nation. As of July 1, Reilly's salary will increase to $414, 593, which is $72,729 more than his current annual earnings.

A five-member committee chaired by Madison lawyer David Walsh is trying to reach a consensus on one of four finalists for the top job at the state's flagship university. Its members are deliberating in a private conference call.

System spokesman David Giroux says the committee and System President Kevin Reilly hope to offer the job to one of the candidates as early as today.

He says it will likely take a few days before a candidate accepts and an announcement can be made.

The finalists are UW Letters and Sciences Dean Gary Sandefur; Michigan economist Rebecca Blank; University of Minnesota vice president for research Timothy Mulcahy; and Cornell University Provost Biddy Martin.

Wray, in an interview with the Wisconsin State Journal, also said department officials had prior concerns about the Dane County 911 Center not dispatching officers when it should have, an issue raised during the death investigation of Brittany Zimmermann.

Wray has previously said that officers should have been dispatched after a call to 911 was made from the cell phone of Brittany Zimmermann, 21, who was killed in her apartment April 2. Police have not said how she was killed.

The other case is of Joel Marino, 31, who was stabbed in his home on Jan. 28.

Prior to Wray's comments Saturday, police officials had said only that they had yet to establish any links.

But Wray said in the interview Saturday that police cannot completely rule out a link because of similarities between the two cases. For instance, both victims were killed inside their homes during daylight hours, both homicides happened within a reasonably close geographic area, and there is nothing to suggest that either victim had enemies or was at risk due to lifestyle, Wray said.

Authorities have faced criticism after it was released that someone dialed 911 from Zimmermann's cell phone but a dispatcher lost contact with the caller, did not call back as required or send police to investigate. Wray has requested, and the 911 Center is conducting, an internal investigation of the incident.

But months before that, Wray said he had concerns about the 911 center.

Wray said his department has yet to receive data it requested from center officials after the issue of dropped calls -- when police should have been sent in response to a 911 call but were not dispatched -- arose during community meetings last fall. That's when residents voiced concerns about crime and other problems in their neighborhoods.

Rich McVicar, operations manager for the 911 Center, said Saturday he was not familiar with such a request from Wray, which would require listening to and reviewing every call.

But McVicar said -- that anecdotally and excluding calls to the police department's self-reporting system -- situations in which 911 Center employees failed to dispatch police when they should have are rare.

McVicar said he believes that most of the times when the 911 Center did not dispatch officers it was following police department policy.

Even before the community meetings, Wray said he was aware of concerns about the 911 Center dropping calls.

Capt. Carl Gloede, who represents Madison police on the 911 Center's advisory board, said dropped calls before the Zimmermann call were low-priority, such as reports of some type of nuisance.

A 2004 report that found several deficiencies in the staffing, procedures and oversight of the 911 center predicted the county faced potential liability resulting from a "catastrophic event" if it didn't address staffing problems, including the amount of overtime 911 center employees worked.

Khaleel, a Wisconsin superdelegate, posted the video late Tuesday night and by Wednesday morning it had already been viewed more than 2,900 times.

The graduating senior confirmed his support for Obama on Wednesday between final exams in economics and public policy. The video was the second he posted on YouTube along with Lauren Wolfe, president of the College Democrats of America and a would-be superdelegate from Michigan.

"Lauren and I are certainly different types of superdelegates. She and I are both college students. We are both part of the YouTube generation," Khaleel said. "We thought this would be a great way to communicate to people about who we are."

Their first video, posted on YouTube on April 28, asked college students to tell them via e-mail and through postings on the social networking site Facebook.com whether to support Obama or New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Khaleel is the only one of the two whose vote actually matters. Because Michigan held its primary outside the time frame set by party rules, Wolfe's superdelegate vote won't count.

The pair said they received more than 5,000 e-mails, 1,000 Facebook entries and hundreds of comments posted on YouTube.

"It was pretty overwhelming which candidate they wanted us to move toward," Khaleel said. "The only appropriate thing was for us to make an endorsement."

Obama has spoken about issues young people care about, including the war in Iraq, and has involved college students in his campaign, he said.

Khaleel became a superdelegate through his position as vice president of College Democrats of America. After finishing his exams this week, Khaleel said he hopes to get a job on the Obama campaign or with another organization working to elect Democrats.

He becomes the 10th superdelegate from Wisconsin to support Obama. Two are for Clinton and four remain undecided. They are U.S. Sens. Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, state Sen. Lena Taylor and Feingold staff member Paula Zellner.

Feingold has said he's "inclined" to support Obama and voted for him in Wisconsin's Feb. 19 primary in which the Illinois senator defeated Clinton 58 percent to 41 percent.

Superdelegates are elected officials and other prominent Democrats who can vote as they choose, without regard to primaries or caucuses. About 250 have not declared their support.

Obama still does not have the 2,026 delegates needed to clinch the nomination, but he has built a nearly insurmountable lead over Clinton.

Thomas allegedly shot a 19-year-old Madison man outside the Mental Health Center of Dane County around 6 p.m. on April 30.

At the time, Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said the act was not random and police knew who their suspect was.

Additional details will be released when the District Attorney's office formally files charges.

His company leased the helicopter to the University of Wisconsin Hospital for its Med Flight program that crashed Saturday night after dropping off a patient at a La Crosse hospital. There were no survivors in the crash that killed a surgeon, nurse and pilot.

An NTSB investigator was on the scene in western Wisconsin Monday to begin determining the cause of the crash. But officials have said the helicopter appeared to strike a hill or trees shortly after taking off from the La Crosse airport on a return flight to Madison.

The NTSB recommended night vision goggles and the computerized warning system in a 2006 report that suggested many fatal EMS flights could be prevented. The report came after the agency noted an increasing number of crashes involving medical helicopters and planes, about 55 over three years involving more than 50 deaths.

Federal regulators have not required the use of either technology but encouraged companies to voluntarily install them.

Allen said his company decided last year to do so and was in the process of retrofitting its 348 helicopters with both pieces of equipment by the end of 2011. About 40 percent of its craft already have night vision goggles, while 6 percent have the so-called Terrain Awareness and Warning Systems, he said.

The new American Eurocopter EC13 that crashed did not have either, Allen said. "It's possible" the equipment could have prevented the crash but too early to know, he said.

"We also don't know if there were other things going on within the aircraft," such as a mechanical malfunction, he said. "Those are the things the NTSB is going to have to assess before we know whether something like a warning system would have been useful."

NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said his agency will document the wreckage, look for anomalies in the craft, and review the maintenance records and pilot's history as part of its investigation.

He said it was too early to say whether safety technology could have prevented the crash, which killed surgeon Darren Bean, nurse Mark Coyne and pilot Steve Lipperer. It was the first crash since the university hospital system started operating the air flight program in 1985.

Studies have shown that flight into hills and other terrain is a common factor in helicopter EMS accidents, particularly during takeoff and landing. More accidents also happen at night and when patients are not on board, studies show.

The NTSB said the warning system would improve safety by warning pilots 25 seconds or more before potential impact with terrain. In 17 of 55 accidents analyzed, the system might have helped avoid the crash, the report said.

Similarly, night vision goggles enhance pilots' ability to see and avoid obstructions such as wires, which are commonly hit, the NTSB said. In 13 of the 55 cases, goggles might have helped pilots take action to prevent accidents, the board said.

Goggles should be used only when pilots are flying visually and not using instruments, the NTSB said. Lipperer was flying visually, which Allen has described as a common practice.

The company had equipment on the helicopter to track it by satellite so workers could warn pilots heading into bad weather, Allen said. Weather was not a problem when Lipperer took off, he added.

The company received data showing the flight took off but did not receive an expected update three minutes later, Allen said.

"At that point we suspected there may be problems and began trying to contact the aircraft," he said.

The deal announced Monday also includes $69 million in cuts to state government -- more than three times less what Assembly Republicans wanted. The Legislature is to vote on it later this week.

The plan has no general sales or income tax increases, but some companies would pay more.

There are no assurances that the plan will be enough to avoid additional cuts or changes in the rest of the two-year budget which ends June 30, 2009.

"There are a lot of 'what ifs,'" said Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, at a news conference announcing the deal. "No question."

News of the agreement came the day before the state Department of Transportation was to let up to $260 million in bids for summer road projects. Doyle had warned that summer road work could be delayed or scaled back without a budget deal.

Those projects will now go ahead as scheduled, said Assembly Minority Leader Jim Kreuser, D-Kenosha.

Doyle planned to comment on the deal later Monday, but legislative leaders said there were parts of it he liked and others he objected to. Doyle has been vocal in his opposition to delaying the school aid payments, saying that only pushes the obligation off to the next budget.

The actual amount of money schools receive is not cut.

Doyle can change the plan with his line-item veto.

Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, said the deal protects roads funding and closes two "corporate loopholes" by raising $15 million from companies that have claimed rental and interest expenses to reduce their taxes.

The state also would take $50 million from the transportation fund to be replaced with borrowed money, $209 million from the refinancing of tobacco settlement bonds, and $97 from its reserves. That would leave just $25 million in reserves.

The plan also would add cell phones to the state's Do Not Call list, provide new child care subsidies and attempt to tighten restrictions to reduce invasive species.

The hospital tax never seemed to be seriously considered given opposition from Assembly Republicans. The state's largest business group, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, along with the hospital association, wanted the tax because it would have been covered by an increase in federal money.

Kreuser said not passing the tax was a missed opportunity, as was not including funding for a commuter rail line between Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee.

A bipartisan committee of lawmakers from both the Senate and Assembly was scheduled to meet Monday afternoon to approve the deal and send it to the Senate, which planned to pass it Tuesday. The Assembly was to take it up Wednesday.

Approval by the so-called conference committee would result in a bill that must be accepted or rejected without any changes.

The Senate and Assembly also were going to take up an unrelated bill enacting a multistate compact protecting Great Lakes water.

It took more than six weeks for lawmakers to agree on how to fix the budget shortfall. Last year, they passed the state budget three months late.

Action was needed because the state collected less taxes than expected in the weakening economy.

"None of us wanted to be here," Huebsch said.

The University of Wisconsin System released the names Wednesday of the four finalists to succeed John Wiley as chancellor of UW-Madison.

Among them is Gary Sandefur, the current UW dean of the College of Letters and Sciences.

The other three finalists include Biddy (Carolyn) Martin, provost of Cornell University; Timothy Mulcahy, vice president for research at the University of Minnesota; and Rebecca Blank, a former dean of the public policy school at the University of Michigan.

Candidate visits are scheduled for next week from 1:30-3 in the Main Lounge of Memorial Union. Sandefur is on Monday, Martin on Tuesday, Mulcahy on Wednesday and Blank on Thursday.

A Board of Regents committee led by chair David Walsh will interview all the candidates on Wednesday and will make a recommendation to the full board for their approval.

See Thursday's Badger Herald for more.