The university was talking about going coal-free, 10 years ago

UW-La Crosse just recently announced it would stop using coal as a source of heat in 2020. But there was a rally in 2009 which called for the campus to do just that. A song that declared ‘Coal Stinks’ was performed outside the college heating plant, and singers in the crowd included university chancellor Joe Gow and new La Crosse Mayor Matt Harter. Speakers not only criticized the use of coal, but also the environmental damage caused by companies mining for the fuel.

President Obama made his first nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor. At a Senate hearing, Republicans predicted that Sotomayor would have a liberal bias on the bench, with Senator Jeff Sessions suggesting that the nominee favored ‘judicial activism.’ Meanwhile, as Obama was celebrating his birthday that August, critics were demanding that he show proof that he was born in the United States.

More indoor football for the La Crosse Center? A club called the La Crosse Spartans was set to become the arena’s first football team in six years, to be coached by former Packers player Gilbert Brown.

A new Maid-Rite Diner was open in Onalaska that summer, along Highway 35. It served the traditional Maid-Rite loose-meat sandwich also sold at a diner on Caledonia Street in La Crosse, and offered a special of a “chili cheese-rite” sandwich for $2.99. Maid-Rite was open 10 years ago, 2009, yesterday in La Crosse.