Green Bay News

WASHINGTON (AP) – China-based hackers are suspected once again of breaking into U.S. government computer networks, and the entire federal workforce could be at risk this time.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that data from the Office of Personnel Management – the human resources department for the federal government – and the Interior Department had been compromised.

“The FBI is conducting an investigation to identify how and why this occurred,” the statement Thursday said.

The hackers were believed to be based in China, said Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican.

Collins, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the breach was “yet another indication of a foreign power probing successfully and focusing on what appears to be data that would identify people with security clearances.”

A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington called such accusations “not responsible and counterproductive.”

“Cyberattacks conducted across countries are hard to track and therefore the source of attacks is difficult to identify,” spokesman Zhu Haiquan said Thursday night. He added that hacking can “only be addressed by international cooperation based on mutual trust and mutual respect.”

A U.S. official, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the data breach, said it could potentially affect every federal agency. One key question is whether intelligence agency employee information was stolen. Former government employees are affected as well.

The Office of Personnel Management conducts more than 90 percent of federal background investigations, according to its website.

The agency said it is offering credit monitoring and identity theft insurance for 18 months to individuals potentially affected. The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents workers in 31 federal agencies, said it is encouraging members to sign up for the monitoring as soon as possible.

In November, a former DHS contractor disclosed another cyberbreach that compromised the private files of more than 25,000 DHS workers and thousands of other federal employees.

Cybersecurity experts also noted that the OPM was targeted a year ago in a cyberattack that was suspected of originating in China. In that case, authorities reported no personal information was stolen.

Chinese groups have persistently attacked U.S. agencies and companies, including insurers and health-care providers, said Adam Meyers, vice president for intelligence at Irvine, California-based CrowdStrike, which has studied Chinese hacking groups extensively.

The Chinese groups may be looking for information that can be used to approach or compromise people who could provide useful intelligence, Meyers said. “If they know someone has a large financial debt, or a relative with a health condition, or any other avenues that make them susceptible to monetary targeting or coercion, that information would be useful.”

One expert said hackers could use information from government personnel files for financial gain. In a recent case disclosed by the IRS, hackers appear to have obtained tax return information by posing as taxpayers, using personal information gleaned from previous commercial breaches, said Rick Holland, an information security analyst at Forrester Research.

“Given what OPM does around security clearances, and the level of detail they acquire when doing these investigations, both on the subjects of the investigations and their contacts and references, it would be a vast amount of information,” Holland added.

DHS said its intrusion detection system, known as EINSTEIN, which screens federal Internet traffic to identify potential cyberthreats, identified the hack of OPM’s systems and the Interior Department’s data center, which is shared by other federal agencies.

It was unclear why the EINSTEIN system didn’t detect the breach until after so many records had been copied and removed.

“DHS is continuing to monitor federal networks for any suspicious activity and is working aggressively with the affected agencies to conduct investigative analysis to assess the extent of this alleged intrusion,” the statement said.

Cybersecurity expert Morgan Wright of the Center for Digital Government, an advisory institute, said EINSTEIN “certainly appears to be a failure at this point. The government would be better off outsourcing their security to the private sector where’s there at least some accountability.”

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., said the government must overhaul its cybersecurity defenses. “Our response to these attacks can no longer simply be notifying people after their personal information has been stolen,” he said. “We must start to prevent these breaches in the first place.”

La Crosse (WI)- The University of Wisconsin – La Crosse will once again serve as host to the WIAA as the state track and field championships take place on Friday and Saturday.

Many athletes from Northeast Wisconsin will travel to La Crosse to try to bring home state titles.

Click on the video to see a preview of track and field competition by Dylan Scott, who will be covering the events in La Crosse.

Green Bay – Local softball teams are headed to state, some for the very first time in program history. Click on the video for highlights from Thursday, including soccer and baseball regionals.

Bay Port beat Ashwaubenon 1-0 to make it to Madison, the first time a Pirate team has ever gotten this far.

Kimberly got a grand slam in the sixth from Abby Menting to sent them over Kaukauna 11-7 and get to state.

New London is also headed back, beating Luxemburg-Casco 6-2.

Find all the WIAA brackets for softball here.

FOND DU LAC COUNTY – Dozens of people are in need of new mailboxes after a rash of vandalism in Fond du Lac County. The Sheriff’s Department has taken reports of mailboxes smashed in east of the city.

On Wednesday morning, John Klawitter noticed something wrong with his mailbox.

“I came down for the paper and it was kind of hanging by one screw…it looked like it got hit with a baseball bat,” he told FOX 11.

Klawitter wasn’t alone.

Vandals struck all over Fond du Lac County between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

“This was definitely done on a larger scale than usual,” said Sheriff’s Detective Pete Vergos, who told us most of the mailboxes were smashed outside the Fond du Lac City limits.

About seven were reported in the city.

“They look like they went all over and just had a nice little joy ride and caused a lot of problems. They probably affected, total, I’m thinking, around 75 families that they affected in a bad way,” said Vergos.

According to the detective it will cost someone anywhere from 50 to 200 dollars for a new mailbox.

“Really puts a real cramp in a lot of people’s days,” Vergos added.

Klawitter said, luckily, this kind of thing is rare in his neighborhood.

“We’ve been living here since 1998 and this is our first mailbox,” he told us.

Vergos said it’s likely the culprits are teenagers, but they’re not ruling anything out.

“Given the nature of the incident it leads you to believe it would be something like that,” he explained.

Klawitter told us he hopes whoever the vandals are, they learn a lesson.

“Oh, I would say there’s gotta be other ways of having a good time than going around and damaging people’s property,” he said.

If you have any information you can call the sheriff department’s tip line at 906-4777.

GREEN BAY – The green and gold took on the boys in blue Thursday evening—and it was all for a good cause.

Trading the field for the court, former Packers faced off with those who are sworn to serve and protect.

“We have a lot of fun and the packers come out and they put on a really good show,” said Randy Winkler, a retired Green Bay Police Officer.

However, the Green Bay Police Department could have used a little more help defending the hoop.

It was the annual charity game to benefit the Green Bay Police Benevolent Association.

“We raise money to give to things like the Boys & Girls Club, Make-a-Wish, Green Bay Metros, which is like a Special Olympics,” said Winkler.

Packers alumni say it’s heart-warming to receive a big welcome from fans.

“One thing about the Green Bay community if you’re affiliated with the green bay packers, they always show you some type of love. It’s always been a great experience to come out here to the community and all the fans, they all know who you are,” said Tony Fisher, a former Packer.

Fans like Lavonne Albert and her family say they came out for the entertainment. But also, because they know their donations will make a difference.

“Whether it’s time or money I think it’s very important that we support this community that we all live in,” said Albert.

Proving that no matter the score, the real winners are those who will benefit from the hundreds of dollars donated Thursday night.

The former Packers also signed autographs for the several hundred fans in attendance.

Sharon Krapil found this turn-of-the-century-era electric streetcar on her property in June 2015.

WEYAUWEGA – Sharon Krapil of Weyuwega never had an opportunity to investigate what she had grown up hearing about.

“We had heard that it could have been a train car or a trolley car. Nobody really knew,” Krapil said.

That is until a construction crew began to peel away the sides of the old building, confirming her suspicions.

A trolley car, dating back to the early 1900’s, was revealed.

To know more about the history of the car, tune in tonight on FOX 11 News at Nine.

A century-old electric streetcar is seen on the Weyauwega property of Sharon Krapil, June 4, 2015, a few days after it was discovered in a building on the property. (WLUK/Bill Miston)

 

 

 

DALLAS (AP) – A massive slowdown on the Southwest Airlines website stretched through a second day on Thursday, leaving many customers unable to book flights during a big fare sale.

Southwest blamed the meltdown on heavy traffic from the sale. The carrier extended it by one day, to midnight on Friday night, to give frustrated customers more time to buy tickets.

On Thursday afternoon, some customers trying to book flights online got a message telling them that part of the website “is undergoing maintenance and is currently unavailable.” The message directed people to call Southwest’s toll-free number, but a reporter who did that got busy signals.

Southwest officials said the 800 number was working but call volume was high. At times, customers had trouble checking in for flights online, they said.

Executive Vice President Bob Jordan said the problems were limited to southwest.com and the company’s mobile app and did not affect other systems, such as reservations.

“We plan for these (sales) literally months in advance,” Jordan said in an interview. “In this case we just have an unexpected issue … the site has just been a little overwhelmed.”

Jordan said Thursday evening that technicians were making progress, but he declined to predict when the website might return to normal.

Airlines are highly dependent on technology systems for jobs ranging from selling tickets online to setting flight plans. Earlier this week, United Airlines suffered a short outage of its flight-dispatch system that led to the cancellation of 150 flights.

Southwest’s troubles have lasted longer than most. Southwest could be particularly vulnerable this time because it sells a higher percentage of tickets on its own website instead of through online travel agencies. That approach has often been seen as a strength because it keeps distribution costs down.

Several other airlines said they matched Southwest prices on routes where they compete, so it is likely that some people who intended to book on Southwest this week wound up buying a ticket on another airline.

“This is a catastrophic technology failure when your primary sales channel is unavailable for more than a day,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel-industry analyst for Atmosphere Research Group. “There will be a lingering, negative effect in terms of (passengers’) willingness to consider flying on Southwest.”

Southwest has run many similar sales without the website suffering such a lengthy breakdown, he noted.

Ty McMahan, director of content at online-retail research firm StellaService, said a website crash lasting more than 24 hours was uncommon. Last year on Black Friday, the huge shopping day after Thanksgiving, Best Buy’s site went down – it blamed a surge of traffic from mobile devices – and Nike had trouble processing orders. Both recovered within hours.

Customers will give companies a break as long as they get their cheap deal, McMahan said. “What is at risk is that everyday customer who can easily turn to a competitor for the same product,” he said.

The Southwest sale featured prices as low as $49 one-way on some short trips and $149 each way on longer flights between Aug. 25 and Dec. 16. There were blackout dates on Fridays and Sundays and around Labor Day and Thanksgiving. Southwest didn’t say how many seats were available at the sale fares.

Jordan said sales volumes returned whenever technicians could improve the website’s performance. “What we see is our loyal customers really trying to get through.”

VIRGINIA, Minn. (AP) – A man accused of killing an 83-year-old Minnesota woman in 1987 when he was 16 years old told authorities he assaulted her after going into her apartment to steal alcohol, according to a criminal complaint.

A judge set bail at $1 million Thursday for 44-year-old Bruce Wayne Cameron, who was arraigned in St. Louis County District Court on a charge of intentional second-degree murder.

Cameron is accused of killing Leona Mary Maslowski, whose body was found in her apartment in the northern Minnesota town of Virginia on Oct. 5, 1987. An autopsy found Maslowski was stabbed, beaten and strangled.

Cameron told investigators he was at a party above Maslowski’s apartment when he went to steal alcohol, according to the complaint. He said he assaulted her after she confronted him, the complaint said. According to authorities, the suspect’s fingerprints and palm print were found on a door near Maslowski’s body.

Prosecutor Brian Simonson said in court it was a brutal, vicious attack committed against an elderly and vulnerable victim, WDIO-TV of Duluth reported.

Maslowski’s family got news of the arrest on Wednesday, son Jim Maslowski said.

“I think most of us, including myself, had come to the conclusion it wouldn’t be solved. So it was a surprise, and a relief. Now we are hopeful the criminal justice system will be fair and equitable,” he told WDIO.

The charge against Cameron resulted from a cold-case investigation conducted by the Virginia Police Department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Although Cameron was a juvenile when Maslowski was killed, he is charged as an adult. There is no statute of limitations for murder, and the juvenile court lost jurisdiction when he turned 21, County Attorney Mark S. Rubin said in a statement.

Cameron is due back in court June 17. Online court records don’t list a defense attorney who could comment on the allegations against him.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A federal judge has sentenced a northern Wisconsin woman to a year and a day in prison for filing a false tax return.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb sentenced 58-year-old Cornelia Mutter of St. Germain on Thursday. Mutter pleaded guilty in March to filing false information on a 2008 tax return.

Prosecutors say Mutter worked for T.A. Solberg Company, Inc., in Minocqua between 2004 and 2010. During that span she used company checks to cover personal credit card bills, medical expenses and groceries. According to the IRS, Mutter embezzled more than $500,000.

T.A. Solberg didn’t pursue charges, but prosecutors allege Mutter never declared the money as income on her tax returns, including the 2008 return.

Mutter’s attorney, Erika Bierma, didn’t immediately respond to email and voicemail messages.

DODGE COUNTY – They make a good team.

Sgt. Joe Nicholas from the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office and his K9 partner, Paige, made their first drug bust as partners last week.

On May 31, Sgt. Nicholas and Paige made a traffic stop in the Town of Lomira. That stop resulted in an arrest for possession of ecstasy, also referred to as molly, and marijuana. Also found hidden in the vehicle was more than $500 in drug money, a switchblade knife and other pieces of drug paraphernalia.

Sgt. Nicholas and Paige are part of the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office effort to reduce the transport of illegal drugs on the county’s roadways.

 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) – The drug industry’s decade-spanning search for a female equivalent to Viagra took a major step forward Thursday, as government experts recommended approval for a pill to boost sexual desire in women.

The first-of-a-kind endorsement came with safety reservations, however, due to drug side effects including fatigue, low blood pressure and fainting.

The panel of Food and Drug Administration advisers voted 18-6 in favor of Sprout Pharmaceutical’s daily pill, flibanserin, on the condition that the company develops a plan to manage its risks.

The recommendation is a major victory for a drug sometimes hailed as “female Viagra,” but which has been plagued for years by concerns of lackluster effectiveness and safety issues. The FDA has rejected the drug twice since 2010. And a similar panel of FDA experts voted unanimously against the drug five years ago.

Thursday’s vote is non-binding but the FDA often follows the advice of its experts. An official decision is expected in August.

FDA’s experts acknowledged that flibanserin’s effect is not very strong, but said there is a need for FDA-approved drugs to address female sexual problems.

“These are very modest results,” said Dr. Julia Heiman of the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University. “But on the other hand, even modest results can make a lot of difference when you’re at a certain point in the clinical problem.”

In general, women taking flibanserin reported between 0.5 and 1 extra sexually satisfying event per month, compared with women taking placebo. They also scored higher on questionnaires measuring desire and scored lower on measures of stress.

Flibanserin, which acts on serotonin and other brain chemicals, was originally studied as an antidepressant, but then repurposed as a libido pill after women reported higher levels of sexual satisfaction.

The effort to trigger sexual interest through brain chemistry is the drug industry’s latest attempt to address women’s sexual problems.

Since the blockbuster launch of Pfizer’s Viagra in 1998, dozens of therapies have been studied for so-called female sexual dysfunction, an umbrella term for various problems with libido, arousal and orgasm. But problems with women’s sexual desire have proven resistant to drugs that act on blood flow, hormones and other simple biological functions.

Panelists raised concerns about several safety issues with flibanserin, especially low blood pressure and fainting. Those problems increased when patients combined the drug with alcohol and some commonly-used medications, including antifungal drugs. Sprout studied the drug’s alcohol interaction in a small study of 25 patients, most of whom were men.

“We really know almost nothing about the actual clinical effects of using this product together with alcohol,” said Dr. Tobias Gerhard of Rutgers University. “We have some indication that there is clearly a concern from very small studies.”

Several panelists said the drug’s use with alcohol and several other drugs should be contraindicated on the label. The company should also be required to educate prescribers about the risk and conduct follow-up studies, the experts said.

More than 30 public speakers urged the panel to back flibanserin, including several patients who received flibanserin during company studies.

“I want to want my husband, it is that simple,” said Amanda Parrish, a mother of four from Nashville Tenn. “For us, flibanserin is a relationship-saving and life-changing drug.”

Many others argued that the FDA has unfairly overlooked therapies for women while approving several erectile dysfunction drugs for men. Sprout Pharmaceuticals and other drugmakers have made that claim the center of an aggressive lobbying campaign called “Even the Score.”

Critics of Sprout were also on hand, criticizing that lobbying push and defending FDA’s previous rejections.

“To approve this drug would set the worst kind of precedent: that companies that spend enough money can force the FDA to approve useless and dangerous drugs,” said Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman of Georgetown University.

If approved, flibanserin would be labeled for premenopausal women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder, described as a lack of sexual appetite that causes emotional distress. Doctors must rule out a number of alternate causes before diagnosing the condition, including depression, relationship problems and mood disorders.

WASHINGTON (AP) – China-based hackers are suspected of breaking into the computer networks of the U.S. government personnel office and stealing identifying information of at least 4 million federal workers, American officials said Thursday.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that data from the Office of Personnel Management and the Interior Department had been compromised.

“The FBI is conducting an investigation to identify how and why this occurred,” the statement said.

The hackers were believed to be based in China, said Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican.

Collins, a member of the Senate intelligence committee, said the breach was “yet another indication of a foreign power probing successfully and focusing on what appears to be data that would identify people with security clearances.”

A U.S. official, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the data breach, said it could potentially affect every federal agency. One key question is whether intelligence agency employee information was stolen. Former government employees are affected as well.

“This is an attack against the nation,” said Ken Ammon, chief strategy officer of Xceedium, who said the attack fit the pattern of those carried out by nation states for the purpose of espionage. The information stolen could be used to impersonate or blackmail federal employees with access to sensitive information, he said.

The Office of Personnel Management is the human resources department for the federal government, and it conducts background checks for security clearances. The OPM conducts more than 90 percent of federal background investigations, according to its website.

The agency said it is offering credit monitoring and identity theft insurance for 18 months to individuals potentially affected. The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents workers in 31 federal agencies, said it is encouraging members to sign up for the monitoring as soon as possible.

In November, a former DHS contractor disclosed another cyberbreach that compromised the private files of more than 25,000 DHS workers and thousands of other federal employees.

Cyber-security experts also noted that the OPM was targeted a year ago in a cyber-attack that was suspected of originating in China. In that case, authorities reported no personal information was stolen.

One expert said it’s possible that hackers could use information from government personnel files for financial gain. In a recent case disclosed by the IRS, hackers appear to have obtained tax return information by posing as taxpayers, using personal information gleaned from previous commercial breaches, said Rick Holland, an information security analyst at Forrester Research.

“Given what OPM does around security clearances, and the level of detail they acquire when doing these investigations, both on the subjects of the investigations and their contacts and references, it would be a vast amount of information,” Holland added.

DHS said its intrusion detection system, known as EINSTEIN, which screens federal Internet traffic to identify potential cyber threats, identified the hack of OPM’s systems and the Interior Department’s data center, which is shared by other federal agencies.

It was unclear why the EINSTEIN system didn’t detect the breach until after so many records had been copied and removed.

“DHS is continuing to monitor federal networks for any suspicious activity and is working aggressively with the affected agencies to conduct investigative analysis to assess the extent of this alleged intrusion,” the statement said.

Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, called the hack “shocking, because Americans may expect that federal computer networks are maintained with state of the art defenses.”

Ammon said federal agencies are rushing to install two-factor authentication with smart cards, a system designed to make it harder for intruders to access networks. But implementing that technology takes time.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., said the government must overhaul its cybersecurity defenses. “Our response to these attacks can no longer simply be notifying people after their personal information has been stolen,” he said. “We must start to prevent these breaches in the first place.”

___

Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, Alicia A. Caldwell and Kevin Freking in Washington and Brandon Bailey in San Francisco contributed to this report.

APPLETON – Members of law enforcement participated in torch runs in more than 45 communities across Wisconsin Thursday to help raise money for Special Olympics.

A group in the Fox Valley lit the way to Thursday night’s opening ceremony in Stevens Point for the Special Olympics Wisconsin Summer Games.

Fox Valley law enforcement Torch Run, June 4, 2015. (WLUK)

The daughter of the torch run’s late founder, Dale Brunner, was there.

Dale’s daughter, Kelly Swartz, said this is a great way for local law enforcement to show support, “It really is a great relationship between law enforcement officers and Special Olympic athletes. Its just a way to make the athletes feel special and they just have a very unique and special bond.”

Dale Brunner was a law enforcement officer and the first director of the Torch Run which began 29 years ago. He died last August.

GREEN BAY – The Greater Green Bay Chamber honored successful small businesses in the Green Bay area Thursday.

At the chamber’s 24th annual Awards Recognition luncheon, Mark Kaiser, CEO of Lindquist Machine, was recognized as Business Person of the Year, in part for his efforts to reverse the growing shortage of highly-trained manufacturing employees.

Other awards for start-up businesses, growth or community service went to O’Connor Connective, Great Lakes Calcium, the Brown County Oral Health Partnership, and Northern Electric.

FOX 11’s Tom Milbourn had the opportunity again this year to host and help present the awards.

Watch as Gov. Scott Walker announces plans for the state to put money toward a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks.

(SBG) – The FBI is operating a small air force within the borders of the U.S. which is catching many Americans by surprise.   The FBI has a fleet of nearly 120 Cessna planes loaded with high-tech cameras and infrared imaging mainly to track terrorists. The planes have also been used for drug activity and riots.

Herbert Tinsley a terrorism expert says now that the U.S. is no longer insulated by oceans, programs like this can be helpful to thwart disaster. “The flights that we’ve been seeing are an attempt essentially to give police agencies the opportunity to respond to these incidents in more sophisticated fashion.”

The U.S. government says there have been more flights from coast-to-coast including major cities from Washington DC and Baltimore to Seattle and southern California.

Senator James Lankford serves on the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. “This is all done under a court order. This is all done in a manner that has heavy oversight.”

Graphic shows three distinct flight paths over major U.S. cities conducted by the FBI

One Cessna was recently seen flying over Baltimore when the riots broke out after the Freddie Grey incident. After terrorist threats to attack the Mall of America in Minnesota, another Cessna was seen patrolling that area. All planes are unmarked, which concerns many privacy advocates.

“What the FBI is trying to do with these unmarked planes is the same thing police do with an unmarked vehicle,” says Senator Lankford. “What we have to do in law enforcement certainly means we shouldn’t have to advertise to criminals “hey I’m law enforcement, scatter before we get there.”

The 50-million dollar program also raises questions about whether these planes are gathering information and invading the privacy of innocent civilians.

This statement from the American Civil Liberties Union website:

“This is unacceptable — law enforcement must not purchase and deploy such powerful new technologies without the public’s knowledge and input.”

The FBI shot back with this statement sent to us:

“The FBI’s aviation program is not secret; the FBI’s aircraft are not used for bulk collection activities or mass surveillance.”

“We want our law enforcement to be able to use tools to keep us safe,” Lankford says.

These are among the latest tools to defend the homeland against jihad stateside.

The ACLU has filed several Freedom of Information Act requests for more information about how long it takes to discard information gathered on Americans not involved in the FBI investigation.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The New England Patriots got $675,000 from the Army National Guard for honoring American troops, including a “True Patriot” program during a halftime show at home games.

“Hardly a deprived franchise,” scoffed Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Thursday as he and two other lawmakers won Senate approval for a prohibition on lucrative Pentagon contracts with NFL teams for the various ceremonies honoring the military.

The Super Bowl champion Patriots weren’t the only NFL team to receive taxpayer dollars the past three years for color-guard performances, flag rollouts and other events recognizing members of the military. The Atlanta Falcons got $579,500; the Denver Broncos received $460,000.

In fact, the NFL received $7 million over three years from contracts with the Guard, according to McCain.

The senator said he was “shocked and disappointed to learn that several NFL teams weren’t sponsoring these activities out of the goodness of their own hearts but were doing so to make an extra buck.”

McCain, along with Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., argued wealthy teams shouldn’t be receiving taxpayer dollars when the military faces cuts in spending.

By voice vote, the Senate added the measure to a sweeping defense policy bill that the Senate expects to complete next week.

GREENVILLE, Ga. (AP) — Ghost hunters tell stories of gruesome crimes. Former guards remember an underground dungeon. A crowd is said to have gathered to witness the hanging of a prisoner. So is the lore of the old Meriwether County jail, a 119-year-old relic that is being renovated into a home and museum.

Mariea Gosdin, 59, says she was the sole bidder on the property when the Board of Commissioners listed it for sale in 2009. She paid $5,000 for it.

In this June 3, 2015, image taken from video, Mariea Gosdin, 59, the owner of the old Meriwether County jail in Greenville, Ga., is interviewed in Greenville. The 119-year-old relic of narrow, aged hallways and small, worn prison cells is being renovated into a home and museum. (AP Photo/Alex Sanz)

“They said it was going to cost more than that to tear it down. Even though I think some dark things happened here, I think it’s full of life,” Gosdin said. “That’s what I see for it in the future — a gathering place for family and friends.”

The jail, 60 miles southwest of Atlanta, fell into disrepair after it closed in the mid-1980s. The building is a network of narrow, aged hallways and small, worn prison cells. Its living quarters were home to the county sheriff and his family.

“I was just drawn to it. There is nothing fancy about it. It was built back in a time when people made do with what they had,” Gosdin said. “I want to make do with what I have. I don’t want it to be fancy. I want to keep it back in the era of when it was built.”

Gosdin, who plans to move into the living quarters this summer, said she spent $100,000 to renovate her new home. She plans to solicit the help of investors and historical preservation groups to renovate the jail — a second phase of the project she thinks will cost an additional $100,000 — before she opens it as a museum.

 

SEATTLE (AP) — A bear cub found badly burned last summer in the largest wildfire in Washington state history has endured a long recovery but is now back in the wild.

Rich Beausoleil with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife says officials released the 2½-year-old cub nicknamed Cinder on Wednesday morning in a central Washington forest. He says the bear was in good shape and “running like a champ” near Wenatchee.

Cinder was found under a horse trailer after the Carlton Complex fire, her paws so scorched that she was pulling herself along by her elbows.

Now healed after stints at a California wildlife center and the Idaho Black Bear Rehabilitation center near Boise, she weighs about 125 pounds.

Cinder was released with an orphaned cub she had bonded with during rehab.