Green Bay News

WASHINGTON (AP) – Feeling soggy? Federal officials calculate that last month was the wettest on record for the contiguous United States.

On average 4.36 inches of rain and snow fell over the Lower 48 in May, sloshing past October 2009, which had been the previous record-holder with 4.29 inches. Records go back to 1895.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration climate scientist Jake Crouch calculated that comes to more than 200 trillion gallons of water in May.

Crouch said the record was triggered by a stalled pattern of storms that dumped massive amounts of rain in the central U.S., especially in Texas and Oklahoma, which had their rainiest months. Still, parts of the Northeast were unusually dry.

Last month was 1.45 inches wetter than 20th-century average for May.

DANNEMORA, N.Y. (AP) — Investigators are looking into whether civilian employees or private contractors helped two murderers obtain the power tools they used to break out of a maximum-security prison near the Canadian border, New York’s governor said Monday.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a round of appearances on television morning news shows that he would be shocked if a prison guard was involved in the escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora.

Officials said David Sweat, 34, and Richard Matt, 48, cut through steel walls at the back of their adjacent cells and sliced through steel pipes while making their “Shawshank Redemption”-style breakout, which guards discovered early Saturday. Sweat and Matt were still on the loose Monday.

Investigators are interviewing hundreds of civilian employees and the contractors who have been doing extensive renovations at the 170-year-old prison, Cuomo said.

“We’re going through the civilian employees and private contractors first,” he said on NBC’s “Today” show. “I’d be shocked if a correction guard was involved in this, but they definitely had help. Otherwise, they couldn’t have done this on their own.”

A $100,000 reward was posted over the weekend for information leading to men’s capture.

Sweat was serving a sentence of life without parole for the 2002 killing of a sheriff’s deputy. Matt had been sentenced to 25 years to life for kidnapping, killing and dismembering his former boss in 1997.

“These are killers. They are murderers,” the governor said. “They are now on the loose, and our first order of business is apprehending them.”

Officials gave no details on how the men managed to avoid detection while cutting their way out. “They had to be heard,” Cuomo told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Sunday.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers fanned out around the prison, following up on dozens of tips. Authorities set up roadblocks and brought in bloodhounds and helicopters.

Dubbed “Little Siberia” by locals, the prison houses nearly 3,000 inmates, guarded by about 1,400 officers. Surrounded by farmland and forests, the prison is about a 45-minute drive by car to Montreal.

Cuomo said the inmates may have crossed into Canada, about 20 miles away, or headed to another state or Mexico, where Matt served time for killing a man in 1998.

Prison officials found the inmates’ beds stuffed with clothes on Saturday morning in an apparent attempt to fool guards making their rounds. On a cut steam pipe, the prisoners left a taunting note containing a crude caricature of an Asian face and the words “Have a nice day.”

Officials said the inmates cut through a steel wall, crawled down a catwalk, broke through a brick wall, cut their way into and out of a steam pipe, and then sliced through the chain and lock on a manhole cover outside the prison. The breakout through the steam pipe reminded many of the 1994 movie “The Shawshank Redemption.”

It was the first escape from the maximum-security portion of the prison, which opened in 1845.

Martin Horn, a former New York City correction commissioner and a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the said the two inmates had to “obtain some fairly sophisticated tools,” either from the prison, which he said maintains an inventory of its tools — “every pair of scissors, every wrench, every power tool” — or from an outside contractor.

He said many questions remain.

“How long did it take to prepare for the escape? This was not a one-night job,” Horn said. “And it raises another question: Why did nobody hear it? Officers should have been aware of it if they had done proper cell searches. How did they hide the hole? They didn’t make that hole last night, because there would have been too much noise. And it generates dust and dirt.”

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Associated Press writer Verena Dobnik in New York City contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Drought has killed about 12 million trees in California’s national forests. In the Rocky Mountain region, an epidemic of pine beetles has damaged trees over a stretch of 32 million acres. Altogether, up to 40 percent of the entire national forest system is in need of treatment to reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire and disease.

As the national forests suffer from drought, density and infestation, House Republicans are resurrecting efforts to thin more quickly millions of acres and take down dead trees.

It’s not a new battle by any means, but this time some of their proposals are winning positive feedback from the Obama administration, even as some environmental groups and House Democrats express concerns.

House Republicans have long sought more aggressive tree removal from national forest lands. Legislation in the last Congress would have required the government to increase significantly the amount of timber it offers for sale each year. The lawmakers say more aggressive timbering would make for a healthier forest and improve rural economies. But such mandates went nowhere in the Senate and prompted a veto threat from the White House.

This year, the Republican-led push is focused on slimming down and streamlining environmental reviews for projects and by making a lawsuit to stop a project potentially much more expensive to file.

The goal is to speed up timber harvests and the removal of underbrush the U.S. Forest Service deemed necessary. The House Natural Resources Committee is expected to vote on the bill on Wednesday.

When the U.S. Forest Service currently wants to undertake major work on a national forest, it talks with stakeholders such as the timber industry, local residents and environmental groups to develop a plan that addresses their concerns and uses the best science available. But, the process often takes too long and ends in a lawsuit, said a memorandum written by Republican staff for the House Natural Resources Committee.

“These policies may be making environmental law firms rich, but they are killing our national forest,” said Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees federal lands issues.

Democrats say they worry the legislation will reduce public participation and allow major projects to go forward without adequate review of the effect on the environment.

Under the proposed legislation, many projects fewer than 15,000 acres would be eligible for the streamlined review if the projects were designed to reduce hazardous fuel loads and disease, protect watersheds or improve critical habitat. That’s five times the current limit of 3,000 acres.

Also, groups suing the federal government over a thinning project would often have to buy an insurance bond in the event they lose so that the federal government could recoup the expense of defending itself in court.

Tom Tidwell, chief of the U.S. Forest Service, did not take a position on the legislation during a hearing last week, but said he was encouraged by some goals of the bill.

Robert Bonnie, an undersecretary who oversees the Forest Service, told The Associated Press that some of the GOP’s approaches are “interesting and we want to engage in the conversation.”

But both men emphasized that the biggest problems they face are budgetary. Fires are eating up so much of the agency’s budget that it has 39 percent fewer employees than it had nearly two decades ago.

“We’re taking people out of the field that put together the projects to reduce fire in the first place,” Bonnie said. “So even if you give the Forest Service a bunch of new tools and tool boxes, we don’t have enough people on the ground to reach the type of scale we need. So we have to fix the fire budget.”

Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., said that limiting environmental reviews can help in specific situations, “but this bill goes too far.”

Nearly three dozen environmental groups wrote McClintock and Tsongas to oppose the bill, including the Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society and Defenders of Wildlife. “Under the pretext of ‘forest health’ and ‘collaboration,’ the bill does the opposite by moving toward analysis-free, high-risk production-based logging on our national forests and reducing collaboration,” the groups wrote.

Kyle Tisdel, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center, said groups that end up suing the federal government to stop a project must take part in an extensive public participation process before they can go to court. He said the additional hurdle of requiring an insurance bond would have a substantial chilling effect on the public’s ability to engage the government and take their case to a final arbiter.

“These organizations operate on shoestring budgets for the most part,” Tisdel said.

The USDA’s Bonnie also expressed concern about requiring groups suing the department to acquire a surety bond.

“It’s important the public still have the ability to access the courts,” Bonnie said. “The best approach we have to reduce litigation is these collaborative efforts on the ground.”

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (AP) — Former first lady Barbara Bush celebrated her 90th birthday on Monday by spending time with her family and promoting literacy, a cause long dear to her.

Literacy foundations set up by Bush and by Dollar General have partnered with X Prize for a competition aimed at boosting adult literacy. The $7 million competition challenges people or teams to create a mobile app capable of giving the biggest boost to adult literacy skills within 12 months.

Bush said she hopes the competition will bring “a radical breakthrough” that will help an estimated 36 million U.S. adults who read at the third-grade level or lower.

“A parent’s literacy level is a significant predictor of their child’s future educational success, influencing generations to follow,” Bush said in a statement. She created the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy more than 25 years ago while first lady; the foundation has raised $42 million since it became a public charity in 2012.

The original X Prize was awarded 11 years ago for privately funded, suborbital flight. Since then, there have been other X Prize competitions aimed at spurring innovation.

For Bush’s birthday, family members including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former President George W. Bush and three other children were in Kennebunkport.

A gala was planned for Monday evening under a tent at St. Ann’s Church, down the street from her summer home, with special guests Amy Grant, Reba McEntire and Michael W. Smith.

Bush told her granddaughter, NBC correspondent Jenna Bush Hager, in a segment on the “Today” show that she’s had a great life with former President George H.W. Bush. “I’ve been the luckiest woman in the world, truthfully. And I know it,” she said.

She also said she’s vowed to keep quiet during the 2016 presidential race; Jeb Bush will announce his run for the Republican nomination on Monday in Miami. But she couldn’t resist adding: “I think he’s brilliant.”

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The story has been corrected to fix the spelling of Kennebunkport in the dateline.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The family of an unarmed man who was fatally shot by a police officer in South Carolina says they are happy a grand jury has indicted the former officer on a murder charge.

A lawyer for the family of 50-year-old Walter Scott, who was black, says they plan to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of North Charleston. Attorney Chris Stewart’s announcement came moments after a prosecutor announced the indictment Monday.

Walter Scott’s brother Rodney Scott says the family is “very happy and pleased” with the indictment of former officer Michael Slager, who is white.

The shooting April 4 was captured on video by a bystander and showed Slager firing eight times as Scott ran away after a traffic stop.

The shooting rekindled an ongoing national debate about the treatment of black suspects at the hands of white officers.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. economy is churning out a lot of jobs these days but not a lot of financial security for many of the people who hold them.

Pay growth, though improving, remains tepid. Many workers have few opportunities to advance. Others have taken temporary, part-time or freelance jobs, with little chance of landing full-time permanent work with benefits.

As a result, many jobs don’t deliver as much economic punch as they used to. Part of the reason is that U.S. workers have grown less efficient in recent months. When they produce less per hour of work, their earnings power shrinks. So the economy doesn’t fully benefit from the fuel that healthy job growth normally provides.

The result is a disconnect between the high number of job gains and a nagging dissatisfaction among some, both job holders and job seekers.

Lena Allison lost her job as a private-school kindergarten teacher in layoffs in September. Allison, 54, of Los Angeles has since worked temp jobs and struggled to find permanent work. Online job listings, she says, have made it hard to get face-to-face interviews.

“More people may be working jobs, but they’re like these serial part-time jobs,” she said. “They’re not life-supporting jobs.”

Allison’s experiences, shared by millions of other workers, contrast with the economic momentum suggested by the May jobs report released Friday. The government added a solid 280,000 jobs. The unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 5.5 percent, but for a positive reason: More people decided to start seeking a job, and some didn’t find one.

Hiring surged in the health care, retail, construction and hospitality and leisure sectors. Many analysts and investment managers cheered as average hourly wages rose at an annual rate of 2.3 percent from 2.2 percent in April, slightly ahead of inflation.

“Not only are the labor markets stronger today than at any point in the past 20 years, but we are beginning to see the start of broad-based wage growth,” Rick Rieder, chief investment officer for fundamental fixed income at BlackRock, said in a client note.

That declaration is rooted in the economic data. But it would surprise many Americans.

Nearly half of Americans say they couldn’t afford an emergency expense of $400 without borrowing or selling something they own, according to a survey released by the Federal Reserve. A striking 60 percent of those surveyed said they expect to go without a pay raise over the next 12 months.

Ben McBratney, 25, accepted a job in tech support last month at a Chicago payments company – his third job since graduating from college with a computer science degree in 2012. He’s hopeful that this one will provide a chance for advancement.

“Each job has paid me a little less than the one before it, which is not the trajectory that I wanted,” McBratney said.

One reason the number of new jobs has stayed strong despite sluggish economic growth is that workers have grown less efficient. Lower productivity can force employers to hire more in the short run. But it also holds down pay. Higher productivity, by contrast, would enable employers to pay more without having to raise prices on their products.

But productivity – which measures output per hour worked – plunged by a 3.1 percent annual rate in the first three months of 2015 after a 2.3 percent drop in last year’s fourth quarter. It was the first time in more than eight years that productivity had fallen for two straight quarters. Productivity had expanded 2.1 percent annually, on average, since 2000.

Since the recession, companies have been slow to invest in machinery, computers and other equipment that would enable their workers to produce more.

“The concern is that there is no way to produce this many jobs in a slow economy without simultaneously having poor productivity growth,” says Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an economist and president of the conservative American Action Forum. “Over the long term, the absence of productivity growth is bad for workers and firms alike.”

Many of the jobs added since the Great Recession ended in 2009 have been part time in low-paying industries. Those jobs deliver less economic fuel. Nearly 6.7 million part-timers would prefer full-time work – a figure that’s fallen in recent years but remains far above the pre-recession level of 4.6 million.

The number of self-employed has also jumped nearly 1.6 million in the past year to 16.2 million, nearly back to pre-recession levels.

The self-employed include independent construction contractors and high-priced consultants but also freelancers who struggle to get by. Growth in those areas suggests that more Americans are cobbling together livelihoods from piecemeal work.

MBO Partners, which provides business services to independent workers, calculates that the number of freelancers rose to 17.9 million last year from 15.9 million in 2011. CEO Gene Zaino says the desire of companies to limit costs is driving a shift toward contract and freelance work.

“Rather than hiring people, there’s a very strong inclination to get work done on a project basis,” he said. New online platforms that link freelancers with projects have facilitated the process.

Many freelancers value the flexibility. But such jobs provide few or no benefits and require independent workers to track and pay taxes on their own. A report by Congress’ Government Accountability Office found that independent workers endure greater job instability and lower incomes than full-time permanent workers.

SPARTA (AP) – Authorities say a Tomah teenager has drowned at a Fort McCoy park.

Fort officials say 16-year-old Andrew Plowmer was found unconscious in the water at Pine View Beach Saturday. The La Crosse Tribune says first responders attempted to resuscitate the boy, who was taken to a Sparta hospital where he was pronounced dead.

GREEN BAY – A new home for low-income and homeless veterans will be named after the same man Brown County is named for.

The complex will be known as Major General Jacob Brown Veterans Manor. Brown served in the War of 1812 and is credited with leading four of the United States’ nine victories in the conflict. He received the Congressional Gold Medal in honor of his service. Brown died in 1828 at age 52.

The complex includes 50 one-bedroom apartments where all utilities are included in the rent. Major General Jacob Brown Veterans Manor is handicap-accessible to satisfy the needs of all different veterans.

Construction recently wrapped up and a naming ceremony is scheduled for Friday at the complex.

TOWN OF CHASE – An Oneida man was killed and his wife sent to the hospital as a result of a crash Friday afternoon in Oconto County.

Sheriff’s officials say the crash happened around 3:45 p.m. at the intersection of highways 32 and S in the town of Chase. Investigators say the driver of a dump truck was headed east on S when he pulled out from the stop sign to cross 32, pulling out in front of a pickup truck. The driver of the pickup truck, a 62-year-old man from Oneida, was airlifted to the hospital, where he later died. His 53-year-old wife was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The dump truck driver, a 55-year-old Marinette man, was not hurt.

Officers do not think speed or alcohol played a role in the crash.

The victims’ names have not been released.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Dozens of people gathered on Milwaukee’s south side to remember a little boy who police say died of abuse.

Three-year-old Aiden Archer died last Wednesday at the hospital where he had been on life support since Monday when police were called to his home. About 100 people turned out for a vigil Sunday night. The gathering was organized by the group Guardians of Children, which hoped to raise child abuse awareness.

Prosecutors say the toddler’s mother, Megan Scott, failed to stop the abuse by her boyfriend, Maurice Snyder. A criminal complaint says the child had brain swelling, multiple bruises and bite marks on his body.

WISN-TV reports both Scott and Snyder are at the Milwaukee County detention center.

ELMAU, Germany (AP) – The United States does not yet have a “complete strategy” for training Iraqi forces to fight Islamic State militants, President Barack Obama said Monday amid signs of weakness in Iraq’s military.

Obama said the Pentagon was reviewing plans to ramp up training and assistance to the Iraqi forces, but he also said there must be full commitment by the Iraqis themselves.

“We want to get more Iraqi security forces trained, fresh, well-equipped, and focused,” Obama said in a news conference at the close of a two-day Group of Seven summit.

The president said that Iraqi troops who have been trained by the U.S. and are properly equipped are more likely to perform well, but that those who have not received good training often suffer from poor morale and other issues that affect them on the battlefield. U.S. officials cited a lack of American training as a driving factor last month when the Iraqi military suffered stunning defeats in Ramadi.

Obama spoke shortly after meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who was among the non-G-7 leaders invited to attend the summit in the Bavarian Alps. The president has been complimentary of Abadi, saying the prime minister recognizes the need to supplement U.S. security assistance with political changes that alleviate sectarian tensions in Iraq.

The president also weighed in for the first time on last week’s massive hack into the computerized personnel files of more than 4 million current and former U.S. government employees. He said that “very old systems” used by the U.S. government have contributed to leaving agencies vulnerable to possible cyberattacks.

“Both state and non-state actors are sending everything they’ve got at trying to breach these systems,” Obama said as he wrapped up two days of talks with world leaders in Germany.

The president did not comment on who was behind the attack, though U.S. officials have said it appears to have originated in China.

Security issues were at the forefront of Obama’s meetings with his G-7 counterparts. Leaders vowed to keep current sanctions against Russia in place until a peace agreement between Ukraine and pro-Moscow rebels is fully implemented. They also pledged to pile on additional sanctions if Russia escalates aggression.

Watch live streaming video of a news conference by President Obama in Schloss Emlau, Germany.

Photos submitted to ReportIt, June 7-13, 2015.

Submitted June 7, 2015, by Liz Borchers of Green Bay, who writes:

“I wasn’t quite sure what I saw but it was rotating quickly. There was very little wind but as the front got closer to my location it got very strong. Enough to rock my Ford Ranger side to side in the wind with gusts of wind.

Location: West Mason Street in Michaels parking lot”

JOHANNESBURG (AP) – South African prison officials have recommended that Oscar Pistorius be released from prison on Aug. 21 to go under house arrest.

Acting National Commissioner of Correctional Services Zach Modise says that a prison committee recommended Pistorius be released from the prison in Pretoria after serving one sixth of his five-year sentence, or 10 months, for shooting girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. A decision by the parole board is pending.

Aug. 21 is 10 months since Pistorius was sentenced by a judge after being convicted of culpable homicide for killing Steenkamp.

Modise said the committee made the recommendation on the basis of the double-amputee Olympic athlete’s good behavior in the jail in the South African capital, Pretoria.

Correctional Services spokesman Manelisi Wolela said the conditions of Pistorius’ house arrest won’t be made public.

JANESVILLE, Wis. (AP) – A woman has been arrested and accused of stabbing her boyfriend before a brief standoff with police in Janesville.

Authorities say the 31-year-old woman is being held in the Rock County Jail. The 31-year-old man was being treated at Mercy Hospital.

WKOW-TV (http://bit.ly/1KjFqSR ) reports police say the woman initially refused to come out of a house where the stabbing took place Sunday about 9:30 p.m. She later complied with officers’ orders. Investigators say the stabbing happened after the two were drinking and argued.

LITTLE CHUTE- An apartment fire broke out overnight in Little Chute.

Officials say the fire broke out at a complex on Holland Road shortly before 4 a.m. Monday.

Officials don’t believe anyone was injured.

We don’t know the extent of the damage.

GREEN BAY- A semi crash is causing problems on parts of I-43 in the Green Bay area.

Officials say a semi truck crashed around 5 a.m. Monday on I-43 near Military Avenue.

As of 5:30 a.m., the southbound lanes of I-43 near Atkinson Drive are closed.

The truck driver suffered minor injuries.

It’ll be a warm start to the work week with scattered showers and thunderstorms.

Monday’s high will be in the upper 70s with partly sunny skies and showers and thunderstorms developing this afternoon and into this evening.

Not all of us will get these storms but a few of the storms may become strong with small hail and gusty winds along with heavy rainfall.

The threat for storms diminishes after sunset and we’ll see partly cloudy conditions overnight with a low near 57.

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

GREEN BAY- Green Bay Police are investigating a death on the city’s east side.

Green Bay Police tell us it’s near the University of Green Bay.

We got a tip through report it that an on campus alert warned of a possible murder at Communiversity Park.

In the alert- it said the shooter hadn’t been found.

We will follow this story all morning long on Good Day Wisconsin.