Green Bay News

MADISON (AP) – Xcel Energy has asked Wisconsin regulators for permission to raise electric and natural gas rates next year.

The utility filed an application Friday with the Public Service Commission seeking to raise electric rates by $27.4 million. According to the utility, that would translate to about $4.73 more per month for a typical residential customer.

The application also seeks to raise natural gas rates by $5.9 million, which would mean about $3.02 more per month for a typical residential natural gas rates.

The utility says it needs the money to construction additional wind generation, rebuild power lines and upgrade generation facilities.

The PSC is expected to hold hearings on the application this fall.

Xcel serves about 260,000 electric and natural gas customers in Wisconsin.

The City of Green Bay improperly revoked a permit for a gas-to-energy plant being built by Oneida Seven Generations Corp., the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Friday.

The Green Bay city council approved the project in 2011, but changed its mind in the fall of 2012 after public opposition to the project grew.

The Oneida Seven Generations Corp.  – which is a subsidiary of the tribe – sued. An appeals court ruled in the tribe’s favor, so the city appealed to the Supreme Court.

“Like the court of appeals we conclude that the City’s decision to rescind the conditional use permit was not based on substantial evidence,” the court wrote. “Considering the context, we determine that based on the evidence presented, the City could not reasonably conclude that the statements by Oneida Seven’s representative to the City government regarding the proposed facility’s emissions and hazardous materials, its stacks, and its technology were misrepresentations. Accordingly, we affirm the court of appeals.”

The tribe, which is pleased by the decision, is planning a news conference for this afternoon, said spokeswoman Bobbi Webster.

Andy Rosendahl, the chief of staff for Mayor Jim Schmitt, said the city is reviewing the decision and had no immediate comment.

The story will be updated as warranted today.

Photos of butterflies at the facility in Outagamie County, May 29, 2015.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin lawmakers are ready to vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to block the state Department of Natural Resources from purchasing any land through its stewardship program for at least the next 13 years.

Walker’s budget would place a moratorium on stewardship land acquisitions until the DNR’s debt service on purchases already made drops to $1 for every $8 spent since the program began in 1989. The program won’t reach that ration until 2028.

The program is set to expire in mid-2020. Even if legislators decide to renew it before then, land purchases would still be frozen.

The Legislature’s finance committee is expected to vote Friday on whether to keep the moratorium in the budget. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has said he thinks the prohibition goes too far.

It’s going to be a sweet weekend in Hortonville.

Chocolate Fest is Saturday, May 30.

There are many activities throughout the day including a bike ride, run/walk, bake off, music, fireworks and much more.

We were joined on the weather deck by Heather Veeser and Jenni Koenecke.

Click on the video to learn more.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup white chocolate
1 stick butter
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 3/4 cup flour
Pinch of salt
2 Tbsp dried lavender

Glaze:

2 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 tbsp zest
1 tbsp lavender

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Line and grease an 8×8 pan. Melt chocolate and butter till smooth. Let cool slightly then add eggs, sugar, juice and lavender. Add flour and salt. Bake 27-28 minutes.

For the glaze: Add lemon juice to powdered sugar till smooth. Stir in zest and lavender.

GOTHAM, Wis. (AP) – The body of a 5-year-old girl who fell into the Wisconsin River last month has been recovered.

Harry Christianson told WISC-TV that authorities found his granddaughter Angela Girton Thursday.

Richland County Chief Deputy Chad Kanable said the department received a 911 call at around 5:50 p.m. Thursday about a body in the Wisconsin River.

Kanable said deputies found a juvenile female near the Village of Port Andrew.

Richland County officials said that with a babysitter’s permission, the girl and three other children left a babysitter’s house April 6 and traveled to the Wisconsin River for a picnic.

At some point the girl fell in the water and her sibling and another child were unsuccessful when they linked arms and tried to reach her with a stick.

The Brown County District Attorney will announce Friday whether any charges will be filed in a deadly officer-involved shooting.

The shooting happened in February.

Police say two officers shot and killed 30-year-old Joseph Biegert at at apartment on Plymouth Lane.

Police were called to the apartment for a welfare check.

The officers shot and killed Biegert during a fight, when police say Biegert stabbed one officer in the arm with a knife.

FOX 11 will have a crew at the news conference. We’ll have updates on fox11online.com and on FOX 11 News at 5 and 9.

TOWN OF CENTER – Wisconsin’s largest butterfly house and maze is open for the season.

Visitors will once again be able to enjoy weaving their way through the butterfly-shaped maze and getting up close to various native butterfly species, among other things. The gardens added new improvements this year including a bigger gift shop and a new educational video room with a free-standing patio.

The gardens will be open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

FOX 11’s Pauleen Le spent the morning exploring the Butterfly Gardens of Wisconsin.

For more information on the Butterfly Gardens of Wisconsin, click here.

GREEN BAY – It will be a ‘blooming’ good time at the Green Bay Botanical Garden!

The 2015 Garden Fair is another great Fox Fun in the Cities event and it kicks-off Friday in Green Bay!

FOX 11’s Emily Deem spent the morning at the garden to see what the event is all about!

This is a time for people to shop from more than 100 vendors of plants, garden art and other garden supplies!

People will also be able to enjoy live music, food, learn tips and tricks from gardening experts!

Click here for the full list of events and ticket prices.

Expect scattered showers and thunderstorms Friday with a high near 80.

Periods of rain and thunderstorms are expected Friday night into Saturday morning.

Rain may be heavy at times and rainfall totals for most will be between a half inch to 2 inches.

With the expected rain and many rivers in the area between bank full and flood stage, there is a possibility that a few rivers may reach or exceed flood stage.

There is a Flood Warning for the Menominee River near McAllister with minor flooding possible.

For Director of Meteorology Pete Petoniak’s full forecast, click here.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – A strong earthquake has struck in a remote region off the coast of Alaska and officials say there is no tsunami threat or immediate report of damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the magnitude-6.7 quake was centered in the ocean about 35 miles beneath the seabed and some 400 miles southwest of Anchorage – a remote and lightly populated Aleutian Island region.

Officials say the temblor was felt on the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island, more than 100 miles away, but there are no immediate reports of damage.

The National Tsunami Warning Center says there is no tsunami danger.

MINERAL POINT, Wis. (AP) – A Wisconsin cheesemaker is debuting a 20-year-old cheddar this week that’s short in supply and big on price.

The cheddar from Hook’s Cheese Co. of Mineral Point goes on sale Friday for $209 a pound. The Wisconsin State Journal reports most of the 450-pound supply is already spoken for, with orders coming in after the planned sale went public earlier this year.

Cheesemaker Tony Hook says there’s about of 20 pounds of the cheddar that’s unaccounted for. The company will sell it starting Friday at its store and Saturday at a farmers market in Madison.

Tony and Julie Hook are giving $40,000 from the cheese sale to the Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

CHICAGO (AP) – A newly unveiled indictment against former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert accuses the Illinois Republican of agreeing to pay $3.5 million in hush money to keep a person from the town where he was a longtime high school teacher silent about “prior misconduct.” But it offers few hints about a central question: What was the alleged wrongdoing?

The concise federal grand jury indictment handed down Thursday accuses Hastert, who once was second in line to the U.S. presidency, of agreeing to pay the money to a person identified in the document only as “Individual A,” to “compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct against” that person.

It notes that Hastert, 73, was a high school teacher and coach from 1965 to 1981 in suburban Yorkville, about 50 miles west of Chicago. It goes on to say Individual A has been a resident of Yorkville, and has known Hastert most of Individual A’s life, but doesn’t describe their relationship.

Legal experts say the fact that federal prosecutors noted Hastert’s tenure in Yorkville in the indictment’s first few sentences strongly suggests some connection between the allegations and that time and place.

“Notice the teacher and coach language,” said Jeff Cramer, a former federal prosecutor and head of the Chicago office of the investigation firm Kroll. “Feds don’t put in language like that unless it’s relevant.”

The indictment charges Hastert with one count of evading bank regulations by withdrawing $952,000 in increments of less than $10,000 to skirt reporting requirements. He also is charged with one count of lying to the FBI about the reason for the unusual withdrawals.

Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Hastert did not return email and phone messages from The Associated Press seeking comment on the allegations. Hastert, who had worked as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., since shortly after he left Congress in 2007, resigned from Dickstein Shapiro LLC, a spokesman for the lobbying and law firm said Thursday.

A statement from the U.S. attorney’s office announcing the indictment said Hastert will be ordered to appear for arraignment. The date was not immediately set.

The indictment alleges Hastert withdrew a total of around $1.7 million in cash from various bank accounts from 2010 to 2014, then provided the money to Individual A.

The indictment says Hastert agreed to the payments after multiple meetings in 2010. It says that “during at least one of the meetings, Individual A and defendant discussed past misconduct by defendant against Individual A that had occurred years earlier” and Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million to keep it quiet. The indictment suggests he never paid the full amount.

The indictment says that between 2010 and 2012 Hastert made 15 cash withdrawals of $50,000 from bank accounts at Old Second Bank, People’s State Bank and Castle Bank and gave cash to Individual A around every six weeks.

Around April 2012, bank officials began questioning Hastert about the withdrawals, and starting in July of that year, Hastert reduced the amounts he withdrew at a time to less than $10,000 – apparently so they would not run afoul of a regulation designed to stop illicit activity such as money laundering, according to the indictment.

Among the focuses of the FBI investigation was whether Hastert, in the words of the indictment, was “the victim of a criminal extortion related to, among other matters, his prior positions in government.” The court document does not elaborate.

Legal experts said extortion cases can be tricky.

In mulling over whom to charge, prosecutors often must decide whether the person being extorted or the person doing the extorting is most victimized, said Chicago-based attorney and former federal prosecutor Phil Turner.

“In most instances you would view someone being extorted as the victim because they are being shaken down,” he said. “But prosecutors have enormous discretion and, in some instance, may see the person doing the extortion as a greater victim. Those are factors that can be weighed.”

Investigators questioned Hastert on Dec. 8, 2014, and he lied about why he had been withdrawing so much money at a time, saying he did it because he didn’t trust the banking system, the indictment alleges.

“Yeah, … I kept the cash. That’s what I am doing,” it quotes Hastert as saying.

Hastert, who also maintains a home in the Chicago suburb of Plano several miles northwest of Yorkville, was a little-known lawmaker from suburban Chicago when chosen to succeed conservative Newt Gingrich as speaker. Hastert was picked after favored Louisiana Rep. Bob Livingston resigned following his admission of several sexual affairs.

As speaker, Hastert pushed President George W. Bush’s legislative agenda, helping pass a massive tax cut and expanding Medicare prescription drug benefits.

He retired from Congress in 2007 after eight years as speaker, making him the longest-serving Republican House speaker. He was second in line to the presidency during those years after the vice president.

David Corwin of Yorkville said his son, Scott, wrestled for Hastert in high school, then later became a wrestling coach himself.

“You won’t get anyone to say anything bad about him out here,” said David Corwin. “Everybody loved him. The kids loved him and they still do.”

Illinois has a long history of politicians getting in legal trouble.

Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. served a year and a half for illegally spending $750,000 in campaign funds on furs, vacations and other luxury items. Two successive governors in the 2000s, Republican George Ryan and Democrat Rod Blagojevich, were convicted on corruption charges.

In the Hastert case, it’s not clear whether the money was paid in relation to his former position in government. Hastert started making the payments to the person in about 2010, according to the indictment.

It was an exciting Thursday night of high school girls soccer in Northeast Wisconsin.

In a matchup of two of the top teams in the Fox River Classic Conference, Pulaski scored two second half goals to top Green Bay Preble, 2-0.

The Eastern Valley Conference featured a back-and-forth classic as Xavier rallied to top Fox Valley Lutheran, 3-2 behind Izzy Ellis’ late tally.

Click on the video icon to watch highlights of both games.

CHICAGO (AP) – In five seasons under Tom Thibodeau, the Chicago Bulls soared to heights they had not reached since Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen were collecting championships.

They never got to the top with him and now he is out.

The Bulls fired Thibodeau on Thursday, parting ways with the strong-willed coach who took the team to the playoffs in each of his five seasons only to have his success overshadowed by his strained relationship with the front office.

“It is our strong belief that there needs to be a culture of communication that builds a trust throughout this organization from the players to the coaches to the management and to the front office, a culture where everyone is pulling in the same direction,” general manager Gar Forman said. “When that culture is sacrificed, it becomes extremely difficult to evolve and to grow.”

Thibodeau went 255-139, a .647 winning percentage that ranks seventh in NBA history among coaches with at least 200 games. He led the Bulls to the top seed in the playoffs his first two seasons and was the NBA’s Coach of the Year in 2011, the same year Derrick Rose became the league’s youngest MVP.

Chicago advanced to the Eastern Conference finals that season, but it’s the only time the Bulls made it past the second round under Thibodeau, who had two years left on his contract. Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg, who has not returned to work full-time following open heart surgery in April, is widely viewed as a top candidate to replace him.

The move comes two weeks after the Bulls were eliminated by Cleveland with a listless effort in Game 6 of the East semifinals that came on the heels of an injury-filled 50-win season.

Forman said the Bulls spent the past week or so conducting exit interviews with players and organizational meetings. He insisted management was not holding out for compensation for Thibodeau and would have granted teams permission to talk to him had had they asked – but none did.

Either way, the gulf between the coach and his bosses was too large to bridge.

Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf made that clear in a long, scathing statement that said the organization has succeeded in part because of “a willingness to participate in a free flow of information” and that “internal discussions must not be considered an invasion of turf, and must remain private.”

“Teams that consistently perform at the highest levels are able to come together and be unified across the organization – staff, players, coaches, management and ownership,” Reinsdorf said. “When everyone is on the same page, trust develops and teams can grow and succeed together. Unfortunately, there has been a departure from this culture. To ensure that the Chicago Bulls can continue to grow and succeed, we have decided that a change in the head coaching position is required.”

Vice president of basketball operations John Paxson said: “You should be able to push the envelope in terms of anything in order to have some success. That’s what relationships should be about. Obviously, there was a breakdown.”

President Barack Obama, hosting a Twitter chat about the global climate, was asked about the Bulls on Thursday and the Chicago sports fan answered: “love thibs and think he did a great job. Sorry to see him go but expect he will be snatched up soon by another team.”

Thibodeau is not the first successful Bulls coach to lose in a clash with management. Phil Jackson lost to Jerry Krause after winning six championships in eight years, and the dynasty of the Jordan era was dismantled.

Under Thibodeau, the Bulls enjoyed their greatest success since the 1990s. But with Rose suffering season-ending injuries to each knee in recent years – he played in just 61 regular-season games since he tore the ACL in his left knee in the 2012 playoff opener – and LeBron James standing in the way, Chicago could not get to the top.

Along the way, Thibodeau chafed at minutes restrictions placed by the organization on Rose and Joakim Noah, who was coming off knee surgery, along with veteran Kirk Hinrich. Those restrictions were based on the medical staff’s recommendations.

The idea was that the Bulls would be in better shape for the playoffs and not run out of steam the way they seemed to the previous two years. But it also went against Thibodeau’s belief that good habits are developed through repetition.

“In our mind, it was absolutely the responsible thing to do,” Paxson said. “You take Derrick out of the equation, we’d gone through three years in a row where we weren’t healthy come playoff time.”

Paxson said Thibodeau was “absolutely” involved in the meetings with the medical team and “knew exactly what was going on.”

Adding to the tension, ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy accused the team of undermining its coach during a game at Dallas in January. To many, he seemed to be serving as a messenger for Thibodeau, his former assistant.

But there were signs of tension long before this season, whether it was Thibodeau taking months to sign a contract extension that the Bulls announced in October 2012 or Forman deciding not to renew lead assistant Ron Adams’ contract in the 2013 offseason.

“We probably wouldn’t be sitting here if we won a championship,” Paxson said. “That’s just the truth. But we haven’t done that. And we go back to this year, when we had a real missed opportunity. We love our guys, we’re around them a lot, too. We value who they are as people, what they bring to the table, so it goes back to that communication and trust that you need in an organization and your ability to trust each other and grow. And that’s what we’ll be looking for.”

NOTE: The Bulls also let assistant coach Andy Greer go.

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

KIMBERLY – “The Cedars” at Kimberly – reflecting Kimberly’s original name — is an estimated $130-million project.

The 98-acre site will include housing, businesses and green space.

The mill was shut down in 2008.

The site is currently owned by a Canadian company called AIM Development.

As workers continue to demolish buildings on the former NewPage site, locals continue to feel nostalgic.

“It’s hard, I think, to see the mill go, because it provided a living for my father, my brother-in-law, my husband’s whole family,” said Ellen Hammen of Little Chute.

But Thursday was all about looking to the future in Kimberly.

“You can’t drive down the road lookin in the rearview mirror and not crash. So we’re trying to look out the windshield and see bigger and brighter things,” explained Chuck Kuen, Kimberly’s village president.

The village and developers held an open house for the public to see the latest plans for the site and what kind of progress they can expect.

Right now the development is in the very early stages.

“Set grades and put in sewers and stormwater and all those not very exciting, but necessary things,” explained Randy Stadtmueller of developer Stadtmueller & Associates.

The developer told FOX 11 buildings could start to go up this fall. Those would include residential structures like townhouses.

For the most part the public is excited about the development, particularly the plans for public green space and river access.

“The river is a gorgeous thing. It is where the future of this community needs to be,” said Hammen.

But it’s going to take some time.

“There are almost a hundred acres here to work with. So we’re anticipating almost 10 years to complete the project,” explained Stadtmueller.

Village leaders told us it’s important people understand the timeline for the project.

“We have a one time shot at this and we are gonna do it right. We’re gonna listen to what you have to say, incorporate those into the development and make it something we can all be proud of,” Kuen explained.

The developers say they hope to give boat tours of The Cedars this summer, to give people an upclose look at the property.

Some more rain is causing some problems in Marinette County.

River Street, which is also Highway 141 is flooded for a couple blocks from Clark Street to School Street.

Marinette County dispatchers say the flooding started around 6:00 p.m.

They say the water was not draining properly, and they aren’t sure how long it will be until the road can be reopened.

To see more photos, click here.

ASHWAUBENON – As PMI Entertainment President Ken Wachter shows community leaders around the Brown County arena, he says he’s aware of the aging building’s limitations.

“It’s certainly a workable building. We use it a lot. People don’t complain to us about it when they come to events, but the amenities aren’t what you’d like. The concession stands aren’t what you’d want them to be. The locker rooms aren’t what you’d want them to be,” said Wachter.

The Greater Green Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau says many events don’t choose the arena because they need a wide open exposition space.

“Too many times we have talked to people who choose other places because they have the right facility,” said Brad Toll with the Greater Green Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Toll says that means lost revenue for area businesses.

“Each one of those could bring hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars into the economy,” said Toll.

“Our dream would be to have a replacement for Brown County Arena and Shopko Hall that would be 100 thousand square feet of expo space,” said Wachter.

Wachter says he envisions many types of events at a possible expo center.

“And what we mean by that is that we would have flat show space with retractable seating, where we could do seated events but you could also pull all of the seats out and have 100 thousand feet for the boat show,” said Wachter.

Other projects in the area, like the Resch Center and the KI Convention Center, have been funded through the Brown County room tax. Funding for a possible new project in the arena and Shopko Hall space has yet to be determined.

“We’re maxed out pretty much with room tax. So you know we’d have to look at some other way of doing it,” said Toll.

Wachter says there are no solid plans yet for what will become of the arena, and it could take several years before these walls see any wrecking balls.

PMI says the Brown County Arena hosts about 85 events a year.