Green Bay News

ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) — Basil Robinson’s relatives have his military dog tags back after a family found them in a dumpster while searching for scrap metal.

The Roswell Daily Record reports Robinson moved in 2010 to be closer to the Veterans Affairs hospital in Albuquerque. The former hospital corpsman put most of his belongings, including the dog tags and several medals, into two storage lockers, which were broken into and cleared out.

Venus, James and Tina Wooddell posted a picture of the tags to Facebook on Saturday and returned them to Robinson’s father, Jim, a day later.

The family says Robinson died in 2014 because of heart complications related to his service in Operation Desert Storm.

MADISON (AP) – A public hearing has been set on a fast-tracked Republican proposal in the Wisconsin Legislature that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

The joint hearing announced Wednesday is scheduled for Tuesday before Assembly and Senate health committees.

The bill was introduced last week and its sponsors have said they want to pass it before debate on the state budget begins later in June. Gov. Scott Walker has said he will sign it into law.

Under the bill, doctors who perform an abortion after 20 weeks in non-emergency situations could be charged with a felony and subject to up to a $10,000 in fines or 3 ½ years in prison. The bill doesn’t provide an exception for pregnancies conceived from rape or incest.

NEW YORK (AP) – The leaders of soccer federations corrupted the sport for nearly a quarter century by taking $150 million in bribes and payoffs, U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday as they laid out a sweeping case involving over a dozen people and marquee events as the World Cup.

“They were expected to uphold the rules that keep soccer honest and to protect the integrity of the game,” U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in announcing indictments of nine current and former officials with global soccer governing body FIFA, four sports marketing executives and an accused intermediary. “Instead, they corrupted the business of worldwide soccer to serve their interests and to enrich themselves.”

“They did this over and over, year after year, tournament after tournament,” she said.

The racketeering case was among developments that rocked the soccer world Wednesday, when Swiss prosecutors opened criminal proceedings into FIFA’s awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and FIFA braced for a presidential election set for Friday.

With soccer officials gathered in Zurich for election, seven of the U.S. defendants were arrested there, including FIFA vice presidents Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands and Eugenio Figueredo of Uruguay. Six of those arrested were opposing extradition to the U.S., the Swiss justice ministry said, without naming them.

Seven others had yet to be arrested, including former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago. He said in a statement he is innocent.

“I have not even been questioned in this matter,” he said.

Prosecutors also revealed that four other people, including two of Warner’s sons and former FIFA official Charles Blazer, had pleaded guilty in the case.

Starting in 1991, the defendants and unnamed co-conspirators engaged in 12 different schemes, most involving marketing and media rights to various events, said Lynch and the acting U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, Kelly Currie.

TV and marketing rights are big business for FIFA, representing 70 percent of its $5.7 billion in 2011-2014 revenues. Sports marketing companies can make tens of millions of dollars in profits as middlemen between the soccer organization and the broadcasters and sponsors that want to buy the rights. Keen to keep that business, sports marketing executives agreed to shell out more than $150 million in payoffs and kickbacks, prosecutors said.

They said other schemes involved choosing the 2010 World Cup host country and the site for FIFA’s presidential election the next year. Ahead of the vote that awarded the 2010 tournament site to South Africa, Warner directed an unnamed co-conspirator to fly to Paris to “accept a briefcase containing bundles of U.S. currency in $10,000 stacks in a hotel room from a high-ranking South African bid committee official,” the indictment said.

The U.S. investigators didn’t allege that corruption tainted the outcomes of soccer matches.

Lynch said FIFA’s upcoming presidential election played no role in the timing of the arrests. Still, U.S. officials want “to send a message around the world that this behavior will not be tolerated,” Currie said.

Added Lynch: “I think FIFA has a lot of soul-searching to do.”

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Associated Press writer Tony Fraser in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, contributed to this report.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) – Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer says Adrian Peterson has two choices: He can either play for the Vikings or he cannot play at all.

The star running back has missed the first two days of optional team practices and is not expected to attend any of the optional workouts this summer. He has been upset with the team for a perceived lack of support while he faced a child abuse charge last season and his representatives have said he should play elsewhere next season.

Zimmer said Wednesday that Peterson “is not going to play for anybody else and that’s just the way it is.”

Peterson is not required to show up until a mandatory minicamp on June 16.

HYDERABAD, India (AP) — Soaring summer temperatures in India have left over 1,100 people dead over the past month, officials said Wednesday.

Most of the deaths have been reported in the southeastern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telengana.

More than 852 people have died from the stifling heat in Andhra Pradesh since May 13, a government statement said. In neighboring Telengana 266 have died from heat-related causes, Bhambal Ram Meena, a top official in the disaster management department, said.

Over the last two days temperatures in both states have reduced marginally but continue to hover near 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).

Public announcements have urged people to drink water and try and avoid going outdoors during the hottest hours of the day.

The Indian Express newspaper said the temperatures in the current heat wave were 5 to 6 degrees Celsius above normal, and forecasting service AccuWeather said it was the most intense heat wave in recent years.

Hot, dry winds have also swept across New Delhi and most parts of north and central India. In the cities, large crowds of office workers gather around stalls selling cold fruit drinks and iced water.

Weather officials say the sweltering temperatures are likely to continue for at least another week. Monsoon rains, expected to arrive in the southern state of Kerala in the first week of June, should bring some respite. The monsoon season runs through September as the rains gradually cover the entire country.

TOWN OF SENECA – Several signs have been stolen from a Rustic Road in Green Lake County.

Sheriff’s officials say the signs in the town of Seneca disappeared in late April or early May. The signs are described as:

• 3 Rustic Road logo signs
• 1 JCT
• 1 END
• 1 arrow symbol
• 1 Rustic Road with an arrow

Officials say the cost to replace the signs is more than $500.

Anyone with information is asked to call Green Lake County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-438-8436, send a text message with the keyword GETTHEM to 847411 or email [email protected].

BAGHDAD (AP) — Islamic State extremists unleashed a wave of suicide attacks targeting the Iraqi army in western Anbar province, killing at least 17 troops in a major blow to government efforts to dislodge the militants from the sprawling Sunni heartland, an Iraqi military spokesman said Wednesday.

The attacks came just hours after the Iraqi government on Tuesday announced the start of a wide-scale operation to recapture areas under the control of the IS group in Anbar.

Brig. Gen Saad Maan Ibrahim, the spokesman for the Joint Military Command, told The Associated Press the attacks took place outside the Islamic State-held city of Fallujah late Tuesday night.

The militants struck near a water control station and a lock system on a canal between Lake Tharthar and the Euphrates River where army forces have been deployed for the Anbar offensive, he said.

Ibrahim added that the Islamic State extremists used a sandstorm that engulfed most of Iraq on Tuesday night to launch the deadly wave of bombings. He said it was not clear how many suicide attackers were involved in the bombings but they hit the military from multiple directions.

Last month, the water station near Fallujah fell into the hands of Islamic State militants — following attacks that also included multiple suicide bombings and that killed a general commanding the 1st Division and a dozen other officers and soldiers, he said.

Iraqi government forces recaptured the station a few days later. Fallujah lies to the east of the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi, which was captured by the Islamic State militants nearly two weeks ago in what was a major, humiliating defeat for Iraqi troops at the hands of the extremists.

The Iraqi operation to retake Anbar, which is said to be backed by Shiite militias and Sunni pro-government fighters, is deemed critical in regaining momentum in the fight against the Islamic State.

The extremists captured Ramadi in Iraq and the Syrian ancient town of Palmyra earlier this month, showing that it is able to advance in both countries despite months of U.S.-led airstrikes. Capt. Andrew Caulk, a U.S. Air Force spokesman in Qatar, told the AP it will continue to provide air support “to government-controlled Iraqi forces” throughout the country, including near Ramadi, where it has been carrying out airstrikes for several months.

In Palmyra, Syrian activists said Islamic State militants shot dead a group of detainees in the Roman theater in the town’s ancient ruins after gathering people to watch. They said Islamic State gunmen killed at least 15 men after accusing them of having fought with President Bashar Assad’s troops.

The incident — the first since the group captured the historic town — was reported by activists belonging to a Palmyra-based media collective and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The theater is part of the 2,000-year-old Roman-era ruins in Palmyra.

Syria’s foreign minister also said Wednesday that his government is not pinning any hopes on the U.S.-led coalition striking at Islamic State group militants in his country.

At a news conference in Damascus, Walid al-Moallem said the coalition was active in preventing the Kurdish town of Kobani from falling to the extremists last year but that this support seems to have “evaporated” after that.

The United States did nothing to prevent the ancient town of Palmyra in Syria or the province of Anbar in Iraq from falling into their hands, he said.

“We’re not pinning any hopes on that alliance and anyone who does is living an illusion,” al-Moallem added.

Al-Moallem also said Iraq and Syria were fighting the same battle but added that security coordination between their two armies “has not reached the desired levels.”

Also Wednesday, Syrian activists said the Islamic State group released two elderly Christian women who had been held along with dozens of others since February in northeastern Syria.

At the time, they kidnapped more than 220 Assyrian Christians after overrunning several farming communities on the southern bank of the Khabur River in Hassakeh province.

The two women, who are 70 and 75 years old, were released on Tuesday and have now reached the northwestern city of Hassakeh, said Osama Edwards, director of the Assyrian Network for Human Rights.

Another activist group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the two were likely released because of their poor health. Some of the captives had been released previously.

Edwards said the Islamic State group is still holding 210 Assyrian Christians and is demanding $100,000 for each hostage.

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Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue and Zeina Karam in Beirut and Adam Schreck in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

TOWN OF BROOKLYN – Sheriff’s officials arrested five people and gave out 43 tickets during a recent operation targeted at speeders and drug users.

The Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office says deputies and state troopers worked along highways 23, 49, J and A from 2-6 p.m. Friday. In all, they pulled over 51 vehicles.

Officers are recommending one felony and seven misdemeanor charges against people stopped in the detail, all for possession of marijuana or drug paraphernalia. One person was stopped for operating while intoxicated.

One person was given a ticket for speeding at 105 mph.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Hammered by cheaper oil, drilling firms have laid off workers and dragged job growth lower in states from Texas to North Dakota.

In Oklahoma, mining and logging jobs, which mostly include oil and gas drilling, fell for the fifth straight month in April. Texas lost 8,300 jobs in the sector, the most in six years, while Wyoming lost jobs in the industry for the fifth straight month.

The figures, from a Labor Department report on state unemployment rates released Wednesday, show how the slowdown in the nation’s energy sector is weighing on the economy. Oil prices plunged from about $110 a barrel last June to below $50 a barrel in January. They have since recovered a bit, to just below $58 Wednesday.

A report on economic growth in the first quarter to be issued Friday is widely expected to show that the economy actually shrank from January through March. Steep reductions in spending by drilling companies on the rigs, steel pipe and other equipment needed for new wells are a big reason for the slowdown.

Overall, Texas gained 1,200 jobs in April, a small expansion compared to its average monthly increase of 34,000 last year. The state also lost jobs in construction and manufacturing. In March, Texas shed a total of 25,200 jobs, the most in nearly six years.

Oklahoma added 4,200 jobs in April, after shedding 12,300 in March, also the most in six years.

North Dakota, which had benefited from an oil and gas drilling boom, has lost jobs in mining and logging for three straight months. Its unemployment rate, which had been the lowest nearly every month since the recession, rose to 3.1 percent, from 2.7 percent a year ago. Its rate is now the second-lowest, after Nebraska’s.

Large oil and gas drilling companies have announced thousands of job cuts this year. Halliburton has said it has laid off 9,000 workers, more than 10 percent of its workforce, in the six months ending in March. Schlumberger has announced 20,000 job cuts since the beginning of the year, and Baker Hughes has said it would eliminate 7,000 jobs, or about 11 percent of its work force.

On a brighter note, Wednesday’s report also showed that unemployment rates fell in 23 U.S. states in April as hiring rebounded nationwide.

The Labor Department said 11 states reported higher unemployment rates than in March, while 16 states saw no change. Forty states gained jobs, and 9 states posted job losses.

Nationwide, employers added a healthy 223,000 jobs in April, lowering the unemployment rate to a seven-year low of 5.4 percent. That represented a reassuring bounce back after the economy generated just 85,000 jobs in March.

Nevada had the highest unemployment rate last month at 7.1 percent, followed by West Virginia at 7 percent.

MENASHA – Faith Technologies has scheduled job fairs across the country – including one in the Fox Valley – in an effort to fill hundreds of positions.

The Menasha-based electrical, engineering and technology systems contractor says it is looking to fill 800 jobs by September. The company says growth in industrial, data center, home construction and health care markets is driving the hiring.

“Faith Technologies is experiencing strong growth and now has the opportunity to add more than 800 positions, more than a 40 percent increase to our team,” Mike Weller, chief operating officer, said in a news release. “The positions we are hiring for are long-term positions with the company, with many opportunities for career advancement. We are eager to bring new talent to our team across the country, and all are encouraged to apply.”

The job fairs are scheduled for:

• Neenah – June 16 and June 25 from 3-9 p.m.
• Atlanta – June 16 and June 25 from noon-6 p.m.
• Milwaukee – June 16 from 3-7 p.m.
• Madison – June 18 from 3-8 p.m.
• Tulsa, Okla. – June 23 from 4-7 p.m.
• Lenexa, Kan. – June 24 from 4-7 p.m.

For up-to-date job fair information, a full list of positions available or to apply online, visit Faith Technologies’ website. If you have specific questions, you may email [email protected].

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The state Department of Natural Resources’ board has prohibited hunters from killing antlerless deer in 13 counties this fall in an effort to regrow the herd in those areas.

The ban includes Douglas, Bayfield, Sawyer, Ashland, Iron, Vilas, Price, Oneida, Langlade, Forest, Florence and Racine counties as well as a portion of Jackson County.

The rest of Wisconsin will have a quota of 224,735 anterless deer. Bonus deer hunting permits, in addition to free farmland zone tags, will have 18,450 tags valid on public access lands and 125,375 valid on private lands.

DNR officials say the herd across most of the northern forest remains well below desired levels. Despite the mild winter the herd needs more time to regenerate.

The board approved the prohibition during a meeting Wednesday in Madison.

Bonus anterless tags will go on sale in August.

More miles will be added to the Devil’s River State Trail in Manitowoc County.

The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board approved the purchase of two land parcels, totaling 84 acres, from the Canadian National Railway Company Wednesday. The land will extend two of Wisconsin’s state trails, including the Devil’s River State Trail.

71 acres will be used to add 6.8 miles to the Devil’s River State Trail.

The Devil’s River State Trail offers walking, bicycling and snowmobiling opportunities for users.

The other 13 acres purchased will be used to extend the Wild Rivers State Trail in Barron County.

GREEN BAY – A man charged in connection with a heroin overdose death waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday.

Tucker Christensen will enter a plea July 17 to four counts, including first-degree reckless homicide, according to online court records.

Christensen allegedly provided the heroin which killed Keith French, who was found dead March 6 at a De Pere residence.

MADISON (AP) – Gov. Scott Walker says he will sign a prevailing wage repeal bill if it passes the Legislature.

Laurel Patrick in a statement Wednesday said Walker has discussed the repeal with lawmakers and has considered supporting it in the state budget. Walker has previously said prevailing wage wasn’t a priority.

The proposal would repeal a law that requires construction workers on certain government projects be paid wages equivalent to what they would earn working on other projects in the area.

Republican leaders in both the Senate and Assembly have said they don’t have the votes to repeal it, and they instead are working on making changes to the law.

The Assembly Labor Committee held a hearing Wednesday on a bill to repeal prevailing wage, drawing opposition from the construction industry.

MADISON (AP) – A fundraiser for a Republican co-chair of the Legislature’s budget-writing committee is being called into question since it falls the night before key votes are scheduled.

The cocktail reception for Sen. Alberta Darling, of River Hills, is Thursday night two blocks from the Capitol. Darling co-chairs the Joint Finance Committee, which was scheduled to meet Friday to complete its work on the budget.

The other co-chair, Rep. John Nygren, is also scheduled to attend the fundraiser.

Jay Heck, director of the government watchdog group Common Cause in Wisconsin, says Darling should cancel the fundraiser because it appears she’s seeking donations to influence decisions on what gets in the budget.

A message left with the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate, which organized the event, was not immediately returned.

SHAWANO – A fund has been set up for a worker killed on a Shawano County highway.

Investigators say Derek Stempa, 30, was working near the intersection of highways 47 and G in the town of Red Springs. He was directing traffic to one lane when a van headed south on Highway 47 hit him, officials say. The van was being driven by a 68-year-old man from Hurley.

Stempa was taken to the hospital, where he later died.

Stempa, of Shawano, left behind a wife and two young children, according to a post on the Shawano County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page.

A fund has been set up for Stempa’s family at Capital Credit Union. Money can be directed to the account for Heather Stempa, account number 7240843.

FOX 11’s Eric Peterson is following up on this story and will have the latest tonight on FOX 11 News at Five.

MADISON – When the Legislature’s budget committee meets Wednesday, lawmakers plan to reject a proposal in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget that would expand the state’s Family Care program and end the IRIS program.

The committee’s co-chairs, Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, and Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, announced earlier this month that they want a “better product” than what the governor’s budget lays out.

“We’re not going to move forward, but we’re always going to be looking for reforms with the stakeholders at the table,” Nygren told FOX 11 Tuesday. “We know the trend lines are heading in the wrong direction. We’ve got more and more people coming onto the programs and the costs are going up.”

Nygren and Darling said they’d vote for a motion to direct the Department of Health Services to develop a new plan to restructure the state’s long-term care programs and prepare a request to the federal government for permission to implement it.

Democrats on the budget committee also say the governor’s changes should be rejected.

Family Care, a Medicaid program, provides managed long-term care for the elderly and disabled designed to keep them in their homes. About 41,000 people are enrolled in the program. IRIS, which stands for Include, Respect, I-Self-Direct, is a related long-term care program that provides self-directed assistance with bathing, dressing and other needs. About 11,000 people are enrolled in that program. Both programs are currently available in 57 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties and are scheduled to expand to an additional seven counties this calendar year.

The governor’s budget calls for seeking a federal waiver to allow the state Department of Health Services to expand Family Care services statewide by Jan. 1, 2017. The budget would cut $14 million from the program to reflect anticipated increases in county contributions. DHS also would be required to seek a federal waiver to repeal state statutes that lay out the parameters for managed care organizations that apply for permits to administer Family Care services. Statutes that require the state insurance commissioner to regulate the care organizations would disappear.

The budget also would eliminate IRIS but allow Family Care enrollees to self-direct services. DHS also would be required to seek a federal waiver seeking to repeal state statutes that lay out the parameters for managed care organizations that apply to for permits to administer Family Care services and require the state insurance commissioner to regulate the organizations.

DHS officials, who serve at the pleasure of the Walker administration, have said the changes would create a better-coordinated care net. Advocates for the disabled, however, have balked at the plan. They say the moves would allow larger for-profit organizations into the market, reducing options for enrollees, the loss of IRIS could be devastating for disabled people who rely on it for help preparing meals and cleaning their homes.

DETROIT (AP) — Under pressure from U.S. safety regulators, Ford is recalling nearly 423,000 cars and SUVs in North America because the power-assisted steering can fail while they’re being driven.

The recall covers certain Ford Flex and Taurus vehicles, as well as the Lincoln MKS and MKT from the 2011 through 2013 model years. Also covered are the Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ from 2011 through 2012 and some 2011 Mercury Milans.

Ford says an intermittent electrical connection can cause the power steering to stop. That sends the steering into manual mode, making the vehicles harder to control. The company says it knows of four crashes due to the problem but no injuries.

Dealers will either update power steering control software or replace the steering gear depending on the problem with individual vehicles. A new steering gear eliminates the electrical issue.

In October, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began investigating complaints of power-steering failures on three Ford Motor Co. midsize car models. The probe covered 938,000 Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ cars from the 2010 through 2012 model years, as well as the 2010 and 2011 Mercury Milan.

According to a class-action lawsuit filed in June about the matter, the problem could affect more Ford models, including the compact Focus.

NHTSA said at the time that it received 508 complaints alleging that the cars lost power-assisted steering, causing increased steering effort.

Ford said it was unsure if the agency would close its investigation because of the recall. A message was left Wednesday for a NHTSA spokeswoman.

The company also is recalling 19,500 2015 Mustangs with 2.3-Liter engines due to high underbody temperatures that could degrade the fuel tank and fuel vapor lines, increasing the risk of a fire. No fires have been reported. The heat also can damage the parking brake cable. Dealers will replace a heat shield and add insulation.

MADISON (AP) – A system that clears up surface-level algae by slurping it away and depositing it into a dumpster will make its debut this summer in Madison lakes.

Engineering students at Madison Area Technical College designed and developed the system to address algae blooms that have caused beach closures in recent years. The Wisconsin State Journal reports that the group of about 25 students were hired by the local nonprofit Clean Lakes Alliance and given a $5,000 budget.

The students plan to hold the algae-removal system’s trial run late next month at Warner Park Beach on Lake Mendota’s north shore.

If the method is successful, it will be expanded to other beaches in future years.

MADISON (AP) — The Legislature’s finance committee is set to consider Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to create a new office to ensure the government continues in the wake of a disaster.

Walker’s budget calls for creating the Office of Government Continuity within the Department of Administration. The office would be tasked with developing and updating a continuity plan for each state agency.

The two-year budget would set aside $676,500 to pay for five employees and supplies. Three positions, one within the Department of Health Services, one within the Department of Safety and Professional Standards and one within the state historical society would be eliminated to create three spots within the new office.

The committee is expected to take up the proposal Wednesday. The panel could adopt it, tweak it or reject it completely.