Green Bay News

OUTAGAMIE COUNTY – Boaters beware.

That’s the word from Outagamie County sheriff’s officials, who have issued a boating advisory in the wake of recent rain. Boaters on the Fox River are asked to be careful to prevent injuries that could result from fast-moving water near dams and spillways. They should also watch out for submerged debris moving in the current and submerged obstructions, both of which could damage their boats.

The sheriff’s department considers the advisory temporary.

MADISON (AP) – The state Department of Justice quietly fired the Madison crime lab manager last summer for what agency officials called an unsatisfactory performance, citing instances of failing to address staff performance issues, misstating policies and struggling to come up with a plan to process DNA samples taken at arrest.

Discipline letters that The Associated Press obtained through an open records request show then-Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen’s administration terminated lab manager Amy Lautenbach on July 1. Kevin St. John, Van Hollen’s deputy attorney general, called Lautenbach’s performance “unacceptable” in a letter. The agency didn’t publicly announce the firing.

Lautenbach told the AP in a telephone interview Thursday that she was targeted after complaining about her supervisor mocking “Coexist” bumper stickers.

“I’m very proud of the work I did for the state of Wisconsin,” she said. “The politicians do the politicking. They don’t care about the lab or doing the job.”

Van Hollen, a Republican, did not run for re-election this past November. Former Waukesha County District Attorney Brad Schimel, also a Republican, ultimately won and took over as attorney general in January. DOJ spokeswoman Anne Schwartz could not immediately address detailed questions about Lautenbach’s firing, including whether her performance affected any criminal cases. Schwartz said she would work to release Lautenbach’s personnel file.

“It is irresponsible to run this story without having viewed the personnel file, which would provide a more complete and balanced picture,” Schwartz said.

Lautenbach provided AP with a copy of her performance evaluation from May 2014, which said she had failed to address an employee’s “significant performance and quality issues that had the potential to adversely affect the integrity of the lab,” creating a tense work environment. The evaluation also noted she misstated policy to her subordinates and spoke negatively about Van Hollen’s administration.

Lautenbach also failed to explain a new DNA policy to her subordinates and never showed that she ensured it was implemented, forcing her supervisors to do it themselves, the evaluation said.

Asked for a plan on how to best use 18 new analysts to deal with an anticipated influx of tens of thousands of samples as a result of Wisconsin’s new law requiring DNA submission at arrest, she turned over a chart. Her supervisors said they didn’t consider that a plan.

She had about two weeks to submit another plan, but waited until the Friday before it was due to ask her staff to put one together. The staffers had to work through the weekend to have it ready by the Monday deadline, according to the evaluation.

“Your inability to perform as the Laboratory Manager places the integrity and reputation of the DOJ at risk,” St. John wrote in the termination letter. “Your inadequate performance and misconduct leaves the department no reasonable options short of terminating your employment.”

It’s unclear whether Lautenbach’s alleged mismanagement resulted in delays in testing evidence; neither the termination letter nor the evaluation makes any mention of her performance affecting any specific criminal cases. The evaluation stated, however, that she needed to continue to monitor cases in which evidence had been waiting for DNA tests for more than 60 days.

In a written response to the evaluation, Lautenbach said its contents were a surprise and accused the administration of moving the lab away from objective science.

Lautenbach told the AP her problems began when she complained to a supervisor about a comment Brian O’Keefe, administrator of the DOJ’s Law Enforcement Services Bureau, which oversees DOJ’s crime labs, made during an April 2014 meeting.

Lautenbach claimed O’Keefe said that DOJ should issue bumper stickers saying they shoot people who coexist, a play on a bumper sticker that says the world’s religions should coexist. She mentioned the remark briefly in her response to her evaluation.

After she complained, she said her supervisors stopped communicating with her, making it impossible to relay information to her staff. She also said her superiors were upset with her because she had to leave work at 6 p.m. to pick up her son every day and ridiculed her suggestion to include a room for nursing mothers as part of the lab’s $5 million renovation.

St. John didn’t return a voicemail message. DOJ’s Schwartz didn’t respond to a request to speak with O’Keefe. The administrator did not immediately respond to a direct email seeking comment.

GREEN BAY – More than 15,000 people will be taking part in this weekend’s Bellin Run. Come Monday, many of them might be looking for a way to stretch out those sore muscles.  Whether you are one of them, or are just looking to find a great workout that stretches and strengthens your body, you might want to try yoga.  Personal Trainer Brittany Bord joined us in the studio to talk about the yoga classes available at the Green Bay Y.  Bord showed us a few of the positions and stretches you would learn at a Y yoga class. Bord says yoga provides a lot of benefits including increased energy levels, lower blood pressure, improved memory, better balance and sense of calm.

GREEN BAY – Blogger dads Dan Zehr and Scott Brotherton-Zehr came up with a “grate” game plan for Father’s Day.  They suggest you fire up the grill and make one of their blog’s most popular recipes.  The Platter Talk guys Scott showed us how to make their version of Jerk Beef.  They also came up with a dessert recipe for the grill and showed us how to prepare their Grilled Peach Crisps.

Scott and Dan are two dads who blog about the food they make for their friends and family, including their 6 sons.

GRILLED PEACH CRISPS

Ingredients

2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
4 peaches, halved and pitted
vanilla ice cream
granola of your choice

Instructions

Heat grill to medium setting
In a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon, stir well.
Sprinkle mixture over cut side of peaches and let sit for five minutes.
Grill, covered, over medium heat for 8-10 minutes or until peaches are tender and begin to caramelize.
Place peaches in dessert bowls. Serve with ice cream and granola.

Notes
Oil grates of grill to help prevent them from sticking to grates.

JERKED BEEF

Ingredients

beef
salt
pepper
brown sugar

Instructions

Prepare beef by slicing into ½ to ¾ inch pieces parallel to muscle fibers. In a glass or ceramic container, spread a heavy coat of brown sugar, salt, and pepper. Place slices of beef, in a single layer, atop of this base of brown sugar, salt, and pepper. Repeat the process, placing dry ingredients on each subsequent layer of beef. When all t he beef is layered and coated, seal container with place wrap so that it is air-tight and refrigerate and allow to marinate for a minimum of 24 hours. Preheat grill to medium high heat and using tongs, place beef on grill and allow to cook on each side for 7 to 10 minutes.

Notes
Use a non-reactive, non-absorbent container to marinate beef.

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) – The Pontiac Silverdome is up for sale again, this time with an asking price of about $30 million.

The former home of the Detroit Lions was sold for $583,000 six years ago. Real estate broker Robert Mihelich says the stadium and its property went back on the market in recent weeks and has already gotten offers.

Michelich tells The Oakland Press and Detroit Free Press that the Silverdome would likely be razed for redevelopment. The stadium has fallen into disrepair, with its roof damaged in a 2013 winter storm. Many items from the stadium were auctioned off last year.

Katherine Holmes, a spokeswoman for the current owner, says they’re looking for sale, lease or partnership development opportunities.

The Lions played their last game at the Silverdome in 2002 before moving to Ford Field in Detroit.

FRANKFORT, Mich. (AP) – Michigan state archaeologists say a shipwreck found in Lake Michigan isn’t the Griffin, the earliest known wreck in the Great Lakes.

The Muskegon Chronicle (http://bit.ly/1QQIVju ) reports two men came forward late last year with photos of the shipwreck found off of Frankfort, which is about 40 miles west of Traverse City. The men thought it might be the Griffin, which has been missing since 1679.

Two archaeologists looked at the wreck Tuesday in a dive along with Michigan State Police officers. State Historic Preservation Office spokeswoman Laura Ashlee says divers found an 80-foot wooden hull, which she says is too long to have been the Griffin.

Ashlee said one archaeologist thought the shipwreck was a tug boat and saw some steam machinery on it.

BARABOO, Wis. (AP) – Sauk County sheriff’s officials say a 2-year-old boy found in a hole at a construction site in Baraboo wandered away from his nearby home during the night.

Construction workers arriving for the day found the crying child about 6:30 a.m. Thursday. It’s not known how long he was in the 4-foot-deep concrete hole where he was found.

The child’s mother told investigators she put her son to bed Wednesday night and didn’t know he was missing.

Deputy Chief Jeff Spencer tells WKOW-TV the construction company nearly canceled work Thursday because of approaching rain. Spencer says there’s no telling how long the child would have been out in the rain had that happened.

The boy was taken to the hospital in Baraboo, but officials say he didn’t have any visible injuries.

OSHKOSH – Wisconsin’s largest outdoor sport show kicks off Friday.

Vendors and exhibitors have set up shop at the Sunnyview Expo Complex Center for the Greater Wisconsin Outdoor & Sportsman Festival.

The event will be packed with the latest and greatest in outdoor sports and equipment.

The event is open on Friday from 2 – 8 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Admission prices are as followed:

Adult Daily – $15

Kids (5-12) Daily – $4

Adult Weekend – $22

Kids (5-12) Weekend – $6

KIDS UNDER 5 – FREE

FOX 11’s Pauleen Le spent the morning checking out the event.

For more information on the Greater Wisconsin Outdoor & Sportsman Festival, click here.

Rain showers will continue Friday morning, then skies clear. The high will be about 68 degrees.

The Bellin Run is Saturday in the Green Bay area.

The temps at race time (8 a.m.) will be about 60 degrees under partly sunny skies. Saturday’s high will be near 72.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected Sunday with a high near 75.

Click here for Director of Meteorology Pete Petoniak’s full forecast.

Most areas received between a half inch and 2 inches of rain from the storm system that pushed through the state.

The largest totals were to the south.

Here are the rainfall totals as of 3 a.m. Friday:

Green Bay: .57″

Manitowoc: .05″

Sheboygan: 1.52″

Fond du Lac: 2.14″

Oshkosh: 1.75″

Wautoma: 1.12″

Appleton: .67″

Waupaca: .32″

Shawano: .50″

Oconto: .45″

DANNEMORA, N.Y. (AP) – The law will come down hard on any prison system employee who crosses the line, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said as suspicions swirled around a female prison employee believed to have had a role in the escape last weekend of two killers from a maximum-security facility.

“If you do it, you will be convicted, and then you’ll be on the other side of the prison that you’ve been policing, and that is not a pleasant place to be,” Cuomo said. He also said investigators are “talking to several people who may have facilitated the escape.”

Investigators believe the woman had agreed to be the getaway driver but never showed up, a person close to the case told The Associated Press on Thursday.

David Sweat, 34, and Richard Matt, 48, used power tools to cut through steel and bricks and crawled through an underground steam pipe. They emerged from a manhole outside the 40-foot walls of the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, about 20 miles south of the Canadian border, and were discovered missing early Saturday, authorities said.

The person close to the investigation said authorities believe Joyce Mitchell – an instructor at the prison tailor shop, where the two convicts worked – had befriended the men and was supposed to pick them up Saturday morning, but didn’t.

The person said that was one reason the manhunt was focused so close to the prison. The person was not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Mitchell has not been charged. Her son Tobey Mitchell told NBC on Wednesday that she checked herself into a hospital with chest pains Saturday. He said she would not have helped the inmates escape.

A longtime neighbor also was stunned by the suspicions swirling around Mitchell.

“I just can’t believe she’d do something so stupid,” neighbor Sharon Currier said. She said Mitchell is always happy to help people, but she’s “not somebody who’s off the wall.”

She said Mitchell is a former town tax collector in Dickinson, a community near Dannemora. Quick with a laugh and skilled at sewing, she has worked for five or more years at the prison, where her husband also works, Currier said.

Hundreds of police using dogs and helicopters blocked off a main road Thursday and concentrated their search on a swampy area just a couple of miles from the prison. Schools were closed, and residents received automated calls warning them to lock their doors, close their windows and leave outside lights on.

The governor said that investigators had received tips that the convicts were in the area, and tracking dogs had picked up the scent Thursday morning.

But he added: “Look, they could either be four miles from the prison or they could be in Mexico. Right? So you just don’t know.”

State Police said they bolstered the force looking for the fugitives to 500 officers from 450 a day earlier.

Law enforcement officers walking an arm’s length apart were conducting a grid search through a cordoned-off area consisting of mud, woods, thick underbrush and several houses, Sheriff David Favro said. He said there had been no reports of stolen or abandoned vehicles, break-ins or abductions.

Jennifer Hilchey-Reyell, who lives on the edge of the search area, heard low-flying helicopters all night and watched state police SUVs race by all day. She said she now carries a .22-caliber gun and relies also on her pit bull, Layla.

“My dog will slow them down, and that’s all I need,” she said.

Matt was serving 25 years to life for the 1997 kidnap, torture and hacksaw dismemberment of Matt’s 76-year-old former boss, whose body was found in pieces in a river.

Matt and an accomplice stuffed William Rickerson in a car trunk in his pajamas and drove around with him for 27 hours because he wouldn’t tell them the location of large sums of money he was believed to have.

According to testimony, Matt bent back the elderly man’s fingers until they broke and later snapped Rickerson’s neck with his bare hands.

After the killing, Matt fled to Mexico, where he killed a man outside a bar.

Sweat was doing life without parole for his part in the 2002 killing of sheriff’s Deputy Kevin Tarsia, who was shot 15 times and run over after discovering Sweat and two accomplices transferring stolen guns between vehicles.

A little rain couldn’t stop the Wisconsin girls soccer sectional semifinals from hitting the pitch Thursday night.

In a meeting of the top seeds in Division I, host De Pere used first half goals from Alek Kleis and McKenzie Wallace to overpower Kimberly, 3-1.

A bit of an upset in Division II, as third-seeded Notre Dame used an early goal from Paige Pierce and solid goaltending from Toni Champion to shutout No. 1 seed Oshkosh North, 3-0.

It was back to the basics in Division III. In another 1-3 matchup, Notre Dame cruised to a 5-0 win over Sheboygan Falls to advance to the sectional finals. Shannon Kaufmann, Monica Majeski and Anna Tristani all finding the back of the net for the Tritons.

Northeast Wisconsin will be well represented Saturday as several teams look to punch their tickets to the state tournament in Milwaukee.

Click on the video icon the watch highlights from all three games.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Scooter Gennett drove in the go-ahead run with a two-out single in the bottom of the eighth, capping the Milwaukee Brewers’ rally from a four-run deficit for a 6-5 win Thursday night over the Washington Nationals.

Gennett’s bouncer trickled just inside the third-base bag and into left to drive home Shane Peterson from third. A throwing error by second baseman Anthony Rendon that allowed Peterson to reach two batters earlier proved costly for reliever Aaron Barrett (3-2).

Gennett smiled when he reached first. It was his first game back in the majors since being sent down to Triple-A for 17 games to work on his swing.

Will Smith (2-0) pitched a scoreless top of the eighth – ending that inning by picking off Bryce Harper – for the win in his first appearance since returning from a six-game suspension for being caught with foreign substance on his arm.

(Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

FOX VALLEY – This rain we experienced Thursday might not seem like much, but considering what the forecast is for the coming week, there are a few things you should be keeping in mind.

Thursday showed it doesn’t take much, not more than a slow consistent rain, to get the Fox River moving.

“It was a foot and a half below the wooden dock, the platform that goes out to the bridge, it’s been going up all day,” said Robert Miller of Appleton.

Gates opened up river are contributing to the rising river here in Appleton’s Lutz Park.

“A couple canoe people that came by, kayakers, they pulled out because it was too strong for them to paddle against the current,” said Miller.

The rainy forecast was enough for Wisconsin Public Service to send out a notice about being near rivers and dams.

“We don’t think there is a real cause for concern in terms of flooding and activity by dams, but it’s a good opportunity for us to remind customers that rising water, heavy water, fast water or being around dams is a dangerous place,” said Kerry Spees with Wisconsin Public Service.

This weather is also enough to keep businesses like Sure-Dry Basement Systems busy.

“We’ll tend to get several hundred calls off a rainfall that goes for several days,” said Wayne Allen of Sure-Dry Basement Systems. “If we end up with three to six inches, it really gets chaotic.”

Allen has a few tips that could help you avoid being one of those calls.

“We can make sure that our gutters are clean, downspouts and gutters should be at least six to eight feet away from the house,” said Allen. “If you have window wells, they should be covered and if the grade next to the home is flat to negative towards the house, it’s going to be very important to raise that up.”

APPLETON – Outagamie County prosecutors say they’re handling the largest prostitution ring the office has seen. They believe it started with human trafficking.

One of the suspects was in court Thursday.

Wednesday, we told you about this investigation.

These three suspects Charles Nash, Brandon Smith and Elizabeth Johnson, are facing charges.

Charles Nash made his initial court appearance in Outagamie County Thursday. Nash, Smith, Johnson and a third man are accused of creating a prostitution network. The third man has yet to be charged.

“What they were doing was, more or less, like a drug trafficking organization, except that the product was people,” explained Assistant District Attorney Andrew Maier who told FOX 11 about 10 women were victims of this prostitution ring.

He said the suspects coerced many into it by buying them things or giving them a place to stay.

“‘How are you gonna make that money back for me?’ and when the answer is, ‘I don’t know.’ The trafficker has an answer,” Maier explained.

Maier told us they would sell sex acts through online ads.

Authorities have said the crimes took place in several cities in the Fox Valley, in Green Bay and even out of state and several agencies have been involved in the investigation.

Maier said the suspects kept the women working for months, sometimes a few years.

“Threat of force, some of them use of force to keep the women doing what they were doing,” he told us.

In some cases, authorities said the suspects exploited the women’s addictions.

“Give them heroin for every sex act that they had done. Where they gave him money, that exceeded the value of the heroin,” Maier explained.

According to Maier, Elizabeth Johnson started as a victim, then became a trafficker.

Maier told FOX 11 many of the victims in this case were arrested at first for prostitution.

“The police will give her an opportunity to say, ‘I want out, I want out of this life,’ and, almost immediately, the gear shifts and they’re treated as a victim,” he explained.

According to Maier, some of the customers could face charges.

“Especially the repeat customers, because they were really contributing to the victimization,” he said.

Maier told us he hopes this story keeps others from becoming victims.

The current suspects are either being held on bond or for other criminal cases.

BEIRUT (AP) – The body of an American who died fighting with Kurdish forces against the Islamic State group in Syria was handed over on Thursday to his family at a Turkish border crossing, a Kurdish official said.

Hundreds of people turned up in the Kurdish town of Kobani to bid farewell to Keith Broomfield before his body was handed over to family at the Mursitpinar gate, said Idriss Naasan.

Broomfield, from Massachusetts, died on June 3 in battle in a Syrian village near Kobani, making him likely the first U.S. citizen to die fighting alongside Kurds against the Islamic State group.

He had joined the People’s Protection Units known as the YPG on Feb. 24 under the nom de guerre Gelhat Rumet. The YPG are the main Kurdish guerrilla battling the Islamic State group in Syria.

The U.S. Department of State confirmed Broomfield’s death Wednesday but declined to provide any details about the circumstances.

It was not immediately clear who from Broomfield’s family was there to receive his body on the Turkish side Thursday. Kurds in Turkey lined the road, waving flags and applauding as the convoy carrying the body drove by.

Family members spoke to the media on Thursday outside their manufacturing business in Bolton, 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Boston. They said they hope his body will be brought back to the U.S. on Saturday.

Broomfield’s older brother, Andy, said he was shocked when his brother first told him about his plans but eventually understood his decisions.

“He believed in opposing evil,” he said. “Somebody needs to stand up and oppose evil.”

His father, Tom Broomfield, said Keith Broomfield went to Syria with no contacts and knew it was “a crazy thing to do” but felt strongly that he needed to help in some way.

“He just felt he should be going,” Tom Broomfield said.

The fight against the Islamic State group has attracted dozens of Westerners, including Iraq war veterans who have made their way back to the Middle East to join Kurdish fighters, who have been most successful against the extremist group.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which keeps track of Syria’s war, said more than 400 foreign fighters have joined the YPG to fight the Islamic State group in recent months, including Europeans, Americans, Australian and thousands of Kurdish fighters from Turkey and Iran. It was not possible to independently confirm the figure.

Many are spurred on by Kurdish social media campaigners and a sense of duty rooted in the 2003 U.S.-led military invasion of Iraq, where Islamic State fighters recently have rolled back gains U.S. troops had made.

Previously, a British citizen, an Australian and a German woman were killed fighting with the Kurds.

The YPG on Thursday posted a video that showed Broomfield saying he was in Syria “to do what I can to help Kurdistan. With everything that’s been going on, it seems like the right thing to do.”

“I just want to help the cause anyway I can,” he said.

A YPG statement posted on the group’s website said he had a great desire to learn the Kurdish language and understand Kurdish ideology

Backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria have successfully pushed back Islamic State group militants from Kobani and scores of nearby villages. More recently, they have closed in on the Islamic State-held town of Tal Abyad, near the Turkish border. The town is the Islamic State group’s main access point to Turkey from Raqqa, the group’s de facto capital in Syria.

On Thursday, the Kurdish fighters continued advancing toward the northern Syrian town of Tal Abyad, capturing parts of the nearby town of Suluk, the Observatory and YPG said. The fighting in the area has sent thousands of people fleeing into neighboring Turkey in recent days.

___

Associated Press Writer Denise Lavoie in Boston contributed to this report.

The National Transportation Safety Board has released the preliminary report on a fatal plane crash that killed two men at Wittman Regional Airport last week.

You can read the full report here.

CEO of Sonex, Jeremy Monnett, 40, and assembly mechanic Mike Clark, 20, were the victims. The plane they were flying crashed at the east end of the runway on June 2.

NEW YORK (AP) – Russell Fredrick’s middle son was 12 when he wouldn’t quit playing around in class and ignoring his homework, so the barber did what he does best. He picked up his clippers and cut off his fade.

But it wasn’t just any cut. It was a complete shave intended as a form of discipline when other tactics like taking away gadgets failed to work.

“After I shaved him bald, I told him that if things continued I would get more creative with each cut,” said Fredrick, co-owner of A-1 Kutz in Snellville, Georgia. “But I never had to because he straightened up his act.”

Fredrick and his son – one of three – are success stories in a social media trend: parents taking electric razors to the heads of their misbehaving tweens and teens to create ugly cuts as a form of punishment, then publicly posting the handiwork on YouTube, Facebook and elsewhere.

After Fredrick put a photo on Instagram of his son’s shave late last year, parents began to approach him for embarrassing, old-man cuts dubbed Benjamin Button specials or the George Jefferson, named for their baldness up top and fringe left on the sides and around the base like the movie and TV characters they’re named for.

He’s done more than 20 since February, free of charge.

“Whenever people come in and ask for it we do it,” said the 35-year-old Russell. “You’ve got to reach these kids before law enforcement has to do the punishing.”

The spate of ugly-cut videos over the last six months or so has lit up debate over public shaming as discipline and fits into a broader trend of parents using social media video to humiliate their kids online, from yelling and screaming to smashing their computers or phones for infractions like bad grades or breaking curfew – to outright corporal punishment.

Clinical psychologist Claudia Shields of the Chicago School of Professional Psychiatry has helped parents find healthy ways of disciplining their children based on behavioral research. She’s far from convinced that public shaming works.

“The most effective ways of changing behavior, as surprising as it may seem, do not involve any form of punishment.  I prefer discipline based on positive reinforcement.  Many parents think that these are ‘weaker’ forms of punishment, but over and over, we find that this is more effective,” she said.

Much has been made over the recent death of a teenage girl who killed herself in Tacoma, Washington, and a video shared online that shows her father scolding her after her hair was cut short. Police said, however, that the girl’s death appears unrelated to the video and the father didn’t share it on social media himself.

In recent weeks, there’s been a curious, positive backlash to the bad hair videos, with far happier endings than the tears or downcast eyes of the young recipients. Some copycats have put up videos pretending they’re going to do the deed only to hug it out with their sons instead.

“There’s no way in the world I would ever embarrass my son like that,” said Wayman Gresham, a 45-year-old father of four in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

He created one of the parodies with his 12-year-old Isaiah and put it on Facebook on June 6. It’s been viewed there more than 21 million times and shared around the Internet.

“It doesn’t take all of that. Good parenting starts before he even gets to the point of being out of control,” Gresham implores in the video. “Good parenting is letting your child know that you loved him regardless of what they are and who they are and showing them the way by example.”

Gresham criticizes the profanity parents used in some of the ugly-cut videos. In a recent interview he added: “I’m not against discipline but I am against humiliating and just snatching the dignity away from a child. If you’re going to discipline your child I think it should be done out of the public eye.”

Fredrick, too, has his limits. He won’t bad-cut the hair of girls, for instance. And the youngest boy was 9. He doesn’t consider ugly cuts effective on kids younger than that.

“If this is what parents want to do, I feel like you have to do whatever it takes to reach a kid,” he said. “If you take a phone away or video games away and that’s not reaching him, you have to do something. You can’t whoop them. If you whoop them you get in trouble with law enforcement, so you have to do something or let these kids run wild.”

Fredrick is quick to point out that he gives away nice cuts as well to reward kids for excellent grades and to honor their birthdays. And the mother of his first Benjamin Button, named for the reverse-aging Brad Pitt character in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” returned to let him know her son received an award at the end of school this year for best academic improvement.

“I try to talk to the kids a little first,” he said. “They’re usually pretty much embarrassed and feeling bad about what’s going on. Nobody’s come back a second time.”

Among thousands of comments on several of the videos are those questioning the motives of parents. Are they looking for viral attention for themselves? That’s hard to prove or disprove, but Gresham’s not the only parent to sound off online after viewing a particularly trash-talking, clipper-happy couple and their two shorn sons in a six-minute video.

Phillip Scott, an oil and gas industry worker in Houston, has nearly 400,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, The Advise Show TV. He recently flagged that version featuring the brothers who got the hair punishment, one for taking a knife to school and the other for fighting with girls, according to the video.

“This goes way back in African American communities,” Scott said in an interview. “I’m 35 and I remember it was happening then. My dad is 58 and he’d talk about it here and there, too.”

Scott has three daughters and a 10-year-old son. He’s never gone the hair route, but he doesn’t judge parents who use it on teen boys for serious infractions, as a last resort.

“A grown man I know said, ‘Hey, I’m glad my dad did that because I was really getting into trouble,'” Scott said. “Hair is a big thing, but it will grow back. Which way are we going to have it? Are we going to have the parents do the discipline or the police do the discipline? I prefer the parents.”

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Madison police say the discovery of a sophisticated methamphetamine lab is a rarity for the area.

Police said Thursday they found the lab last week in a neighborhood dense with homes. Authorities say it’s the largest meth lab found in Madison in more than a decade.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports experts say the lab is rare to see in Dane County, because meth is not commonly found in that area.

Authorities searched and dismantled the lab on Friday. Lt. Jason Freedman says the lab posed a serious safety risk.

Police arrested the man they believe ran the lab. He’s in custody on a probation hold and has not been formally charged.

Authorities learned about the lab after a neighbor told police about suspicious odors coming from the home.

RIB MOUNTAIN – The wolf population is on the rise in Wisconsin.

The Department of Natural Resources says it’s up 13 percent from a year ago.

The increase comes on the heels of the wolf being put back on the Federal Endangered Species list six months ago.

About 30 people crowded a Rib Mountain conference center waiting to hear how many wolves may be in Wisconsin’s woods.

“A population count of 746-771,” said David MacFarland, D.N.R. Large Carnivore Specialist.

MacFarland says the numbers come from an annual winter survey of six wolf zones across the state.

“That population is up from the count that we had last year, of 660-689. So this represents about a 13 percent increase in the minimum population count,” he said.

MacFarland says that could lead to even more wolves. The animal was put back on the Federal Endangered Species list last year, days after hunters and trappers surpassed the season’s quota.

“This year, barring any change in listing status, there wouldn’t be any ability to have a wolf hunting and trapping season,” said MacFarland.

And that leads to concerns about wolves, and deer, and other animals like livestock.

“Wolves aren’t dumb. They’re going to go where the food is, the food for wolves is whitetail deer. So as they run out of their resource, their food source is up north. They’re going to move further south, and that’s where we’re running into conflicts,” said Mike Brust, Wisconsin Bow Hunters Association.

“Certainly we don’t support the recreational trapping and hunting of wolves. We cannot find any science to support why that’s necessary, or needed,” said Melissa Smith, Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf.

The D.N.R. says each wolf can kill about 20 deer per year, but that’s still about 10 percent of what hunters take.

“Deer die from a variety of causes, including wolves, but again, wolves don’t seem to be a primary driver of the deer population,” said MacFarland.

MacFarland says while the wolves endangered status puts D.N.R.’s management on hold, the debate on the issue will continue.

The D.N.R. says it will continue to count and track the animals, and try to resolve conflicts wolves may cause with humans.