TUE AM News: A pro football player and his wife find fulfillment in Wisconsin bookstore; Realta Fusion announces partnership with Japanese tech company

March 17, 2026

— For someone who savors plot twists, pro football player James Daniels couldn’t have predicted the big change that books would have in store for him.

But Daniels, a former star center for the Iowa Hawkeyes from 2015 to 2017, says he’s found fulfillment as co-owner of a bookstore with his wife, Erin. They opened Prairie Pages in downtown Sun Prairie in November.

Growing up in Ohio, James Daniels envisioned a promising future as an athlete. In college at the University of Iowa, he admits, he read only a handful of books, though he enjoyed Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five” and Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

Now the 6-foot-4 300-pound offensive lineman reads several books a month: mysteries, thrillers and science fiction.

“Books opened up a whole other world,” says Daniels, who played eight seasons for the Chicago Bears, Pittsburgh Steelers and the Miami Dolphins. He was recently released, so his status for next season is uncertain.

He often writes down plot twist predictions a few chapters in. He’s especially fond of stories that have made the jump from page to screen.

“If there’s a book-turned-movie or TV show, such as ‘Handmaid’s Tale,’ he’s probably already watched it and would be happy to discuss it,” says Erin, who grew up outside Des Moines in a family of bibliophiles.

She describes herself as a “mood reader who enjoys a bit of everything,” though she says her heart belongs to “romantasy, thrillers, and sappy romances.”

But she also mixes things up with a good gothic or horror novel, especially if it’s a little “eerie and atmospheric.”

She also allows that she gets emotionally attached to fictional characters and lives for a “well-written slow burn.”

James’ current Top Three picks are on the front counter, while Erin’s recommendations are scattered throughout the store. And they say they are both happy to talk about their favorite reads.

His choices are “Love, Mom” by Iliana Xander; the newest book in the “Dungeon Crawler Carl Series” by Matt Dinniman; and “Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism” by Kristen Ghodsee.

Erin’s picks are “None Left to Tell” by Noelle W. Ihli; “Nocticadia” by Keri Lake; and “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt.

The couple met as juniors at Iowa when a friend on the football team introduced them. It wasn’t long before they were sitting by each other in a health class.

The relationship almost withered, though, when she told him she planned to spend a semester in the Czech Republic. At the same time, he’d decided to forego his senior year to play in the NFL.

“But we ended up speaking almost every day that I was in Prague,” Erin says. “We always made time to talk about school, football practice or whatever was going on in our lives.”

But not books. That came later.

See the full story.

— The head of Realta Fusion says partnering with a Japanese tech business will provide access to “some of the best fusion engineering expertise” in the world.

The Madison-based company, which is working toward commercial fusion energy production, yesterday announced a strategic partnership with Kyoto Fusioneering. The two businesses will work together on fusion hardware development while also coordinating supply chain partnerships for various components and materials.

Kieran Furlong, CEO and co-founder of Realta Fusion, touted the depth of the Japanese supply chain in the announcement.

“We’re building a bridge between the fusion industrial ecosystems of two of the world’s largest economies to get each of us to commercial fusion faster than we ever could on our own,” he said in a statement.

As part of the partnership’s first phase, Realta Fusion says it bought high-powered microwaves called gyrotrons from Kyoto Fusioneering. These machines heat up contained plasma to be hotter than the surface of the sun, enabling conditions for fusion.

The gyrotrons from KF will be installed on Realta’s first commercial-grade fusion machine, which will be built at the company’s planned Realta Forge R&D facility. Furlong said last month the company was nearing a final decision in its site selection process for that project.

Yesterday’s announcement comes after the company recently landed $9.5 million in new financing, adding to the more than $45 million in venture capital investment it has raised in recent years.

See the release.

See more in a recent story on Realta Fusion.

— Attorney General Josh Kaul and a dozen other state AGs are suing OneMain Financial, accusing the company of allegedly misleading customers with hidden fees and other deceptive practices.

The state Department of Justice yesterday announced the lawsuit against the lending company, which is owned by OneMain Holdings, Inc., based in Indiana. The business has 27 branches operating in Wisconsin, according to the DOJ release.

The lawsuit alleges the company rushes customers through its loan closing process, during which employees control the screen displaying the loan documents so customers aren’t able to fully review them. These deals are often done using smartphones, making it even more difficult for customers to see what’s being agreed to.

Plus, the company also allegedly “buries the fine print” mentioning add-on products that aren’t advertised, and financially pressures its own employees to “pack” these add-ons into loan agreements, among other tactics.

The lawsuit seeks restitution for impacted customers in addition to other penalties for allegedly breaking state law, and a court order to keep the company from continuing these practices.

The AGs are also seeking to force the company to withdraw any “negative information” reported to credit agencies that could impact customers’ credit scores, and to abandon any legal proceedings against customers related to the add-on loan products mentioned in the allegations.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

See the release.

— Tourism Secretary Anne Sayers says the state is already seeing interest after recently launching Wisconsin’s new film office and tax credits to produce films in the state.

“By finally having a film office and the film tax credit, the announcement got a lot of attention,” Sayers told WISN’s “UpFront,” which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics. “We’re seeing a lot of interest, so stay tuned because I think we will be seeing more Wisconsin on our screen soon.”

The new provisions, part of the most recent state budget, create the Wisconsin film office and allocate $5 million a year in tax credits.

“Anytime we’re filming in Wisconsin, we are translating that into big bucks for Wisconsin,” Sayers said. “So anything we take on, whether it’s the ‘Top Chef’ that we saw in the past, huge income for Wisconsin. And it’s the kind of thing that leads to more income down the road because people are doing what’s called set-jetting. It’s two-thirds of global travelers who are actually deciding where to take vacations based on what they’re inspired by seeing on the screen.”

She said the new office and credits make Wisconsin competitive.

“It’s kind of amazing to think that just a couple of months ago, we were one of four states that didn’t have an office, one of 14 states that didn’t have any tax credits,” Sayers said. “Now, suddenly, we can be competitive when those productions are being made. We can keep our filmmakers in-state and attract out-of-state filmmakers in a way that we just didn’t have the ability to be competitive only a few months ago.”

See more from the show.

— The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association will start up a new cancer detection fund with a $2.5 million donation from Exact Sciences.

The Madison-based diagnostics firm yesterday announced the grant will establish the James Dahlberg Fund for Cancer Detection and Clinical Integration. It’s named after a professor emeritus of biomolecular chemistry whose research at UW-Madison helped pave the way for Exact Sciences’ Cologuard colorectal cancer test.

Kevin Conroy, chairman and CEO for Exact Sciences, says the donation supports scientists and clinicians “who will bring the next generation of cancer detection discoveries” to patients.

“Jim Dahlberg has always believed science should make a real difference for patients,” Conroy said in a statement. “His work helped build Wisconsin’s biotechnology industry and advanced the development of tests that allow doctors to detect cancer earlier.”

The company’s grant will support the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, the announcement notes, funding projects related to molecular diagnostics and population-based screening, among other areas of research.

The funding aims to help researchers bring new cancer detection strategies out of the lab and “into everyday care” more quickly, the company says.

In addition to initial discovery and translational research into cancer detection, the fund will also boost clinical trials at UW Health while supporting pilot screening efforts and care provider initiatives.

See the release.

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