Green Bay News

GREEN BAY – You’ve likely heard his last name before and now, you’ll be able to see his face near the KI Convention Center in Green Bay.

A sculpture honoring CEO of KI, Dick Resch, was unveiled Thursday outside the company’s manufacturing plant, as part of Resch’s 50th anniversary with the company.

It was created by local artists and is meant to represent Resch’s passion for cycling, health and wellness.

There was one catch – the statue was a surprise to Resch.

“Success is never easy. It takes a lot of hard work. but more importantly it takes colleagues who support you, colleagues that I can learn from. And people at the company that support the mission,” Resch said.

KI makes and designs office furniture for businesses, schools and other professional settings.

OSHKOSH – An area teen was recognized with a citizen award Thursday for her efforts to keep police dogs safe.

Kate Cichon, a senior at Appleton East High School, has donated enough to vest all three of the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department’s K-9 officers.

The vests are bullet and stab proof and cost around $1,000 each.

To raise the money, she organized a charitable dance, sold candy bars and created a GoFundMe page.

It’s something Cichon says she is happy to do, “Getting recognized isn’t a big deal for me because I just love doing it. I love giving back to the community. I don’t feel like I need to be recognized but it’s wonderful that the officers can see all my hard work.”

We first caught up with Cichon in February when she donated her second vest, and was hoping to raise the money for the third vest. She achieved that goal.

WASHINGTON (AP) – A Florida man who flew a gyrocopter through some of America’s most restricted airspace before landing at the U.S. Capitol pleaded not guilty on Thursday to the six charges he faces.

Douglas Hughes, who took off from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was arrested April 15 after he landed on the Capitol’s West Lawn in his bare-bones aircraft. Hughes has said he wanted to call attention to the influence of big money in politics.

Hughes appeared in federal court in Washington. A grand jury had indicted him on charges that carry up to 9½ years in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said.

“We are looking at a case where there was no injury and no property damage, and the requirements as far as what the prosecution is asking for include years of jail time. The penalties that they are demanding are not consistent with the damage,” Hughes said Wednesday in a phone interview after the grand jury indictment became public.

The charges Hughes now faces include two felonies: operating as an airman without an airman’s certificate and violating aircraft registration requirements. Those charges carry a maximum of three years in prison. He also faces three misdemeanor offences of violating national defense airspace, each carrying a maximum of one year in prison.

Hughes, 61, who had been employed as a postal carrier and lives in Ruskin, Florida, also faces a misdemeanor charge of operating a vehicle falsely labeled as postal carrier. The tail section of Hughes’ gyrocopter carried a Postal Service logo. That charge carries a statutory maximum of six months in prison.

The charges Hughes faces also carry potential fines. The indictment says that if he is convicted of one or both of the felonies, prosecutors will ask that a judge order him to forfeit the gyrocopter.

His next court appearance is scheduled for May 27.

WASHINGTON (AP) — American and Cuban officials were trying Thursday to complete talks to re-establish embassies in each other’s capitals after a half-century interruption. Many differences appeared close to being resolved.

The top U.S. diplomat for Latin America, Roberta Jacobson, was meeting with her Cuban counterpart, Josefina Vidal, at the State Department, though officials suggested a breakthrough was unlikely.

The talks come as two of the biggest obstacles to the restoration of U.S.-Cuban diplomatic relations are being removed.

Cuba will come off the U.S. state sponsor of terrorism list on May 29. Also, the U.S. says Cuba’s Interests Section in Washington has established a relationship with a U.S.-based bank, meaning it won’t have to operate on cash anymore.>

Other issues remain. The U.S. is still seeking to ensure its diplomats can travel throughout Cuba and meet with dissidents without restrictions.

In a symbolic show of closer U.S.-Cuban ties, 10 Cuban journalists attended Thursday’s White House briefing and press secretary Josh Earnest offered the final question to one of the reporters. A woman who identified her news organization as Cuban National Television took up the opportunity.

Cuban President Raul Castro recently complained about U.S. programs for training Cuban journalists, calling them an “illegal” infringement on Cuba’s sovereignty. The State Department says it maintains such democracy programs in “restrictive environments” around the world.

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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Islamic State militants overran the famed archaeological site at Palmyra early on Thursday, just hours after seizing the central Syrian town, activists and officials said, raising concerns the extremists might destroy some of the priceless ruins as they have done in neighboring Iraq.

The Islamic State’s capture of the town of Palmyra late Wednesday was a stunning triumph for the militant group, only days after it captured the strategic city of Ramadi in Iraq’s largest Sunni province.

As IS took Palmyra, government forces collapsed in the face of the attacks and Syrian soldiers were seen fleeing the area, activists said. In Damascus, state TV acknowledged that pro-government forces had withdrawn from the town.

Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the extremists overrun the archaeological site, just to the southwest of the town itself, shortly after midnight Wednesday.

An activist in Homs who goes by the name of Bebars al-Talawy also confirmed that IS now controls the ruins at Palmyra. Both activists said the militants had not damaged the site so far.

A Facebook page close to IS published a statement Thursday, purportedly from the group, saying “the soldiers of the Islamic State” completed their control of Palmyra as well as the town’s airport and prison. The capture came after government forces collapsed, “leaving large numbers of dead whose bodies filled the streets,” it said.

The ruins at Palmyra are one of the world’s most renowned historic sites and there were fears the extremists would destroy them as they did major archaeological sites in Iraq. The UNESCO world heritage site is famous for its 2,000-year-old towering Roman-era colonnades and other ruins and priceless artifacts. Before the war, thousands of tourists a year visited the remote desert outpost, a cherished landmark referred to by Syrians as the “Bride of the Desert.”

In Damascus, Maamoun Abdulkarim, the head of the Antiquities and Museum Department, said Palmyra’s town museum had suffered “minor damages” during the IS onslaught.

“The city is now totally controlled by gunmen and its destiny is dark and dim,” warned Abdulkarim. “We are in a state of anticipation and fear” about what will happen to “the archaeological site and the remaining artifacts in the museum.”

Before the fall, hundreds of “the most precious and beautiful” pieces from Palmyra were taken to safe houses in Damascus, he added.

Also Thursday, many Palmyra residents were fleeing the town toward the city of Homs and the capital, Damascus, according to Talal Barazi, the governor of the central province of Homs, which includes Palmyra.

The Syrian army is now outside the town, from where it is targeting Islamic State reinforcements, he said.

“We have not received any news about (the archaeological site’s) destruction,” Barazi told The Associated Press. “We hope that there will be no massacres in the city or damage to the ruins.”

Palmyra has a population of some 65,000 people, according to Barazi. He added that 1,300 residents fled over the past days and more were trying to leave on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the head of the U.N.’s cultural agency called on Syria’s warring factions to immediately end hostilities within the archaeological site.

“I am deeply concerned by the situation at the site of Palmyra. The fighting is putting at risk one of the most significant sites in the Middle East and its civilian population,” UNESCO chief Irina Bokova said in a statement.

She urged all parties to respect international obligations to protect cultural heritage during conflict.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that following Palmyra’s fall, thousands are at risk of arbitrary violent actions and more destruction of cultural sites might be perpetrated.

“Daesh’s mass killings and deliberate destruction of archaeological and cultural heritage in Syria and Iraq amount to a war crime,” she said, using an Arabic acronym to refer to IS.

Mogherini added that the EU has taken all the appropriate steps to prevent the illegal traffic of cultural artefacts that directly contributes to the financing of IS.

In taking Palmyra, IS also overran the town’s notorious Tadmur prison, where thousands of Syrian dissidents have been imprisoned and tortured over the years.

An amateur video posted online showed IS fighters setting a giant poster of President Bashar Assad, allegedly inside the prison in Palmyra, cheering as flames rose around them against the night sky.

The video and its location could not be independently verified but appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting of the events.

Al-Talawy, the Homs activist, said the government had recently transferred thousands of detainees from the Palmyra prison to a jail near Damascus.

But he added that IS extremists freed some of those who were still inside by the time they captured the prison. He could not provide any definitive figures but there were believed to have been thousands prisoners still there.

The Observatory said that with the capture of Palmyra and surrounding areas in recent weeks, IS now controls half of Syria — and most of the country’s oil wells.

Palmyra’s fall came at a deadly toll.

The Observatory said Thursday that according to its estimates, 462 people have been killed since IS began its offensive on Palmyra and nearby areas on May 13. It said the dead included 241 troops and pro-government gunmen, as well as 150 IS fighters. The rest were civilians, presumably killed by IS or in the crossfire.

Despite Islamic State’s stunning victories in Palmyra and Iraq, the extremists suffered a setback in Syria’s northeastern province of Hassakeh, where they have come under attack by Kurdish fighters.

The Kurdish fighters captured much of the Abdul-Aziz Mountain near the village of Tel Tamr on Wednesday, according to the Observatory and the Kurdish forces known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG.

The Observatory said YPG fighters were backed by airstrikes of the U.S.-led coalition, which has been bombing IS positions in Syria since September.

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Mroue reported from Beirut.

MAYS LANDING, N.J. (AP) — A judge on Thursday dismissed domestic violence charges against Ray Rice, who was captured by a surveillance camera knocking his then-fiancee unconscious in a hotel elevator last year.

Judge Michael Donio signed the order after the Atlantic County prosecutor told him the former Baltimore Ravens running back had completed the terms of his pretrial intervention.

Under terms of the program, Rice paid $125 in fines and received anger management counseling.

Rice was charged with third-degree aggravated assault. His attorney described what happened in February 2014 at Atlantic City’s Revel Casino Hotel as “little more than a misunderstanding.”

However, Rice’s promising career with the NFL turned after TMZ released videos that showed him dragging his fiancee, Janay Palmer, out of the elevator after he struck her.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell initially suspended Rice for two games, then suspended him indefinitely after a second video revealed the knockout punch.

Rice appealed, and an arbitrator reinstated him. However, Rice has yet to sign with a team.

Rice’s admission into the state’s pretrial interview program drew criticism.

Only 70 of the more than 15,000 domestic violence assault cases adjudicated from 2010 to 2013 in New Jersey’s Superior Court were admitted into the pretrial intervention program, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

New Jersey guidelines advise that those who commit violent crimes should “generally be rejected” from the program, but Atlantic County Prosecutor Jim McClain, who handled the case, says he signed off on it after reviewing the circumstances and consulting with Palmer, who married Ray Rice after a grand jury indicted him.

The intervention program is seen as a key tool as the state tries to keep low-level suspects out of jail.

Defendants can have charges dismissed if they meet all the program’s conditions, which can include random urine testing, community service and restitution. PTI supervision averages from one to three years, according to the state.

Of the 15,029 people charged with assault in domestic violence cases from 2010 to 2013, 8,203 had their cases dismissed or downgraded to a lower court, according to the data provided by the state judiciary. Nearly 3,100 pleaded guilty, 13 were found guilty at trial and nine were found not guilty.

BOSTON (AP) — Ex-New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez is expected in a Boston courtroom to face a charge of trying to silence a witness in a double murder case against him by shooting the man in the face.

Prosecutors say Hernandez shot the witness in 2013 in Florida after the man made a remark about a 2012 double slaying. In that case, Hernandez is accused of killing two men over a spilled drink.

Prosecutors haven’t identified the man, but it’s clear from earlier court proceedings it’s his former friend, Alexander Bradley.

Hernandez was convicted last month in the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd, who was dating his fiancee’s sister.

Lloyd’s mother will go before a judge Thursday in New Bedford to ask for a preliminary injunction barring the sale of Hernandez’s Hummer.

Up to 105,000 gallons of oil leaked from a ruptured pipeline May 19, damaging 9 miles of the California coast.

NEW YORK (AP) — The national president of the Boy Scouts of America, Robert Gates, said Thursday that the organization’s longstanding ban on participation by openly gay adults is no longer sustainable, and called for change in order to avert potentially destructive legal battles.

In a speech in Atlanta to the Scouts’ national annual meeting, Gates referred to recent moves by Scout councils in New York City and elsewhere to defy the ban.

“The status quo in our movement’s membership standards cannot be sustained,” he said.

Gates said no change in the policy would be made at the national meeting. But he raised the possibility of revising the policy at some point soon so that local Scout organizations could decide on their own whether to allow gays as leaders.

In 2013, after bitter internal debate, the BSA decided to allow openly gay youth as scouts, but not gay adults as leaders. The change took effect in January 2014.

Gates, who became the BSA’s president in May 2014, said at the time that he personally would have favored ending the ban on gay adults, but he opposed any further debate after the Scouts’ policymaking body upheld the ban.

On Thursday, however, he said recent events “have confronted us with urgent challenges I did not foresee and which we cannot ignore.”

He cited the recent defiant announcement by the BSA’s New York chapter in early April that it had hired the nation’s first openly gay Eagle Scout as a summer camp leader. He also cited broader developments related to gay rights.

“I remind you of the recent debates we have seen in places like Indiana and Arkansas over discrimination based on sexual orientation, not to mention the impending U.S. Supreme Court decision this summer on gay marriage,” he said. “We must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be.”

Gates said the BSA technically had the power to revoke the charters of councils that defied the current ban on gay adults, but he said this would be harmful to boys in those regions

He also noted that many states have passed laws prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, raising the possibility of extensive legal battles.

“Thus, between internal challenges and potential legal conflicts, the BSA finds itself in an unsustainable position, a position that makes us vulnerable to the possibility the courts simply will order us at some point to change our membership policy,” Gates said.

He expressed concern that an eventual court order might also strike down the BSA’s policy of banning atheists.

“Waiting for the courts is a gamble with huge stakes,” he said. “Alternatively, we can move at some future date — but sooner rather than later — to seize control of our own future, set our own course and change our policy in order to allow charter partners — unit sponsoring organizations — to determine the standards for their Scout leaders.”

Such an approach, he said, would allow churches, which sponsor about 70 percent of Scout units, to establish leadership standards consistent with their faith.

“I truly fear that any other alternative will be the end of us as a national movement,” he said.

Zach Wahls of Scouts for Equality, a group that has campaigned against the ban, welcomed Gates’ remarks.

“Dr. Gates has built his reputation on straight talk and tough decisions,” said Wahls. “It seems like the Boy Scouts will continue an internal dialogue about the subject and that a change within the next year or two is imminent.”

Until Thursday, there had been no indication how the BSA would respond to the New York Councils, which on April 2 announced the hiring of Pascal Tessier, an 18-year-old Eagle Scout. Tessier, currently finishing his freshman year of college, has been a vocal advocate of opening the 105-year-old organization to gay scouts and leaders.

Tessier had been getting legal advice from prominent lawyer David Boies, whose recent causes include arguing for recognition of same-sex marriage. Boies said it was possible that Tessier’s hiring could lead to litigation between the New York chapter and the BSA’s national headquarters, but he expressed hope this could be avoided.

Another of Tessier’s lawyers, Josh Schiller, expressed hope that the BSA’s ban would be lifted.

“People will join the Boy Scouts and look at them as an organization that has the principles of equality,” he said.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Police say a belligerent man dressed in scuba gear caused a stir at a northern Michigan fast food restaurant.

The Traverse City Record-Eagle and MLive.com report the man, who had been drinking, showed up Tuesday morning at a downtown McDonald’s. Workers called police, who found the 48-year-old man nearby. Police say they warned him that management didn’t want him at the restaurant.

Police didn’t know why the man was wearing scuba gear.

Regardless, Detective Sgt. James Bussell says that “as far as wearing scuba gear and having a couple of beers, that’s legal.”

GOLETA, Calif. (AP) — More than 7,700 gallons of oil has been raked, skimmed and vacuumed from a spill that stretched across 9 miles of California coast, just a fraction of the sticky, stinking goo that escaped from a broken pipeline, officials said.

Up to 105,000 gallons may have leaked from the ruptured pipeline Tuesday, and up to 21,000 gallons reached the sea just north of Santa Barbara, according to estimates. The environmental impact still is being assessed, but so far there is no evidence of widespread harm to birds and sea life.

The early toll on wildlife included two oil-covered pelicans, officials said. Biologists counted dead fish and crustaceans along sandy beaches and rocky shores.

The spill occurred along a long, rustic coast that forms the northern boundary of the Santa Barbara Channel, home to a rich array of sea life. Whales, dolphins, sea lions, seals, sea otters and birds such as pelicans live along the channel between the mainland and the Channel Islands, five of which are a national park surrounded by waters declared a national marine sanctuary.

Workers in protective suits have shoveled black sludge off beaches, and boats towed booms into place to corral two oil slicks. The cleanup effort continued through the night and additional crew members and boats came out early Thursday, U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Jonathan McCormick said.

They could get help from expected light winds and calm seas, said Dr. Sean Anderson, an environmental scientist at California State University, Channel Islands.

“When the water’s choppy, the response gets complicated. But since the water’s nice and flat, the oil sticks together and it’s easier to spot and easier to pick up,” he said.

Regulators and workers with Plains All American Pipeline LP, which runs the pipeline, aim to begin excavating the pipe Thursday to get their first look at the breach.

The company’s chief executive visited the spill site Wednesday and apologized.

“We deeply, deeply regret that this incident has occurred at all,” Chairman and CEO Greg L. Armstrong said at a news conference. “We apologize for the damage that it’s done to the wildlife and to the environment.”

Crude was flowing through the pipe at 54,600 gallons an hour during the leak, the company said. Company officials didn’t say how long it leaked before it was discovered and shut down or discuss how fast the oil escaped.

Federal regulators from the Department of Transportation, which oversees oil pipeline safety, investigated the leak’s cause, the pipe’s condition and the potential violations.

The 24-inch pipe built in 1991 had no previous problems and was thoroughly inspected in 2012, according to the company. The pipe underwent similar tests about two weeks ago, though the results had not been analyzed yet.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the company accumulated 175 safety and maintenance infractions since 2006, according to federal records. The infractions involved pump failure, equipment malfunction, pipeline corrosion and operator error. The newspaper said a Plains Pipeline spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment about its regulatory record.

There was no estimate on the cost of the cleanup or how long it might take.

A combination of soiled beaches and the pungent stench of petroleum led officials to close popular campgrounds Refugio State Beach and El Capitan State Beach over the Memorial Day weekend.

Still, tourists pulled off the Pacific Coast Highway to eye the disaster from overlooking bluffs.

“It smells like what they use to pave the roads,” said Fan Yang, of Indianapolis, who was hoping to find cleaner beaches in Santa Barbara, about 20 miles away. “I’m sad for the birds — if they lose their habitat.”

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife closed fishing and shellfish harvesting for a mile east and west of Refugio beach and deployed booms to protect the nesting and foraging habitat of the snowy plover and the least tern, both endangered shore birds.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday night declared a state of emergency, a move that frees up additional state funding to help with the cleanup.

The coastline was the scene of a much larger spill in 1969 — the largest in U.S. waters at the time — that is credited with giving rise to the American environmental movement.

Environmental groups used the spill as a new opportunity to take a shot at fossil fuels and remind people of the area’s notoriety with oil spills.

“Big Oil comes with big risks — from drilling to delivery,” said Bob Deans, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Santa Barbara learned that lesson over 40 years ago when offshore drilling led to disaster.”

Large offshore rigs still dot the horizon off the coast, pumping crude to shore and small amounts of tar from natural seepage regularly show up on beaches.

The Bay Port High School Concert Choir have been invited to perform on a famous stage in New York City next year.

The Distinguished Concerts International New York City (DCINY) announced the local choir will participate in the world premiere performance of Carol Barnett’s Mortals & Angels: A Bluegrass Te Deum at Carnegie Hall on Jan. 25, 2016.

Bay Port’s choir will join other choristers as well as the Grammy nominated bluegrass ensemble Dailey & Vincent. Carol Barnett will serve as composer-in-residence.

The artistic director and principal conductor for DCINY, Dr. Jonathan Griffth says, “The Bay Port High School Concert Choir received this invitation because of the quality and high level of musicianship demonstrated by the singers. It is quite an honor just to be invited to perform in New York. These wonderful musicians not only represent a high quality of music and education, but they also become ambassadors for the entire community. This is an event of extreme pride for everybody and deserving of the community’s recognition and support.”

The students will spend 5 days and 4 nights in New York City in preparation for the concert. Singers will spend approximately 9-10 hours in rehearsals over the 5 day trip.

Members of the community are encouraged to give financial support in sending the choir to New York City by contacting Michael Pufall at (920) 662-7288.

MADISON (AP) – One of the leaders of the Legislature’s finance committee says his colleagues are pondering imposing a new tax on new bike sales.

Rep. John Nygren, a Marinette Republican, is co-chairman of the committee. He told reporters Thursday that Republicans on the panel are looking into inserting language in Gov. Scott Walker’s two-year budget plan that would create a tax on the sales of new bikes with wheels larger than 20 inches. The money would fund bike path construction. He said the tax could generate as much as $1.8 million in the budget’s first year and $3.8 million in the second.

Nygren says it’s just an idea right now and there’s a less than 50 percent chance it will actually happen.

WASHINGTON (AP) – A government investigation of Ohio-based Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams found inadequate testing and cleaning in its Columbus plant before listeria was discovered in some ice cream pints.

The company recalled all its products last month. There are no illnesses connected to the recall, and Jeni’s says it is making ice cream again and re-opening shops Friday after intensive cleaning.

That recall came as Texas-based Blue Bell Creameries also shut down and recalled all products after listeria in its products were linked to three deaths.

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday released the results of the investigation into Jeni’s plant after a Freedom of Information request from The Associated Press.

The report said Jeni’s managers did not have an adequate sampling and testing program and were not sufficiently sanitizing some surfaces, including the floors. The report said residue was found on some equipment.

Jeni’s regulatory manager and director of operations – the employees responsible for assuring compliance with government food safety guidelines – showed a “lack of competency” by failing to comply with some of those guidelines, according to the report.

Jeni’s did not have immediate comment on the report.

The company said this month that it had traced the source of the listeria to a pint-filling machine in the plant.

CEO John Lowe said Jeni’s never will be sure how the bacteria got into the machine, which filled a portion of the pints for retail sales, but will spend about $200,000 on changes to prevent a recurrence. The company said it would destroy 265 tons of ice cream worth more than $2.5 million.

Jeni’s has said its ice cream will start to return to store shelves this summer.

The FDA also released results of a 2008 inspection of Jeni’s Columbus plant, in response to the AP’s Freedom of Information request. That report showed evidence of the presence of rodents and insects and inadequate personal cleanliness of employees.

The 2015 investigation didn’t find any of those problems.

The FDA also released results of 2009 and 2012 inspections of Blue Bell’s plants in Texas and Oklahoma. Those inspections showed some early evidence of problems at those facilities, including condensation dripping into containers before they were filled with ice cream and residue on some food receptacles.

According to results released this month from an investigation, Blue Bell knew there was listeria in the Oklahoma plant as far back as two years ago. The FDA investigation conducted after Blue Bell was linked to the illnesses found 17 positive company tests for listeria on equipment and around the company’s Oklahoma plant from March 2013 through February 2015. The FDA said it had not been notified of the listeria findings.

The agency said it is not uncommon for companies not to report findings of listeria or other pathogens. Companies are only required to report to the FDA if they find a “reasonable probability” that a food could make people sick.

Blue Bell’s listeria samples were found on surfaces and not in the ice cream, and the company had not tested to see if the listeria strains found were among those that are the most dangerous.

Listeria generally only affects the elderly, people with compromised immune systems, and pregnant women and their newborn infants. It can cause fever, muscle aches and gastrointestinal symptoms and can be fatal. It also can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, premature labor, and serious illness or death in newborn babies.

Honoring Northeast Wisconsin High School Graduates

New data shows Wisconsin added about half of the jobs Gov. Scott Walker promised to create during his first term.

When the governor was running for his first term, he promised to create 250,000 private-sector jobs in four years.

Quarterly numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from Jan. 2010 through Dec. 2014 show the state added 127,414 private-sector jobs.

The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development reported the federal numbers for 2014 Thursday. For the 12-month period ending in December, Wisconsin added 35,736 private-sector jobs, for a growth of 1.5 percent over that period.

Walker has said the BLS figures are the “gold standard” because they are based on a survey of nearly every employer, while the monthly unemployment statistics come from a survey of just 3.5 percent of employers.

Walker’s administration releases the state figures before the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts them out June 17. Only then can Wisconsin’s job growth be compared with other states.

In the last annual report, Wisconsin ranked 40th in private-sector job growth.

Other new data shows the state’s unemployment rate has dropped to the lowest it’s been in seven years.

Wisconsin’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April is 4.4 percent – two-tenths lower than March and a full percent below April’s national unemployment rate.

MADISON (AP) – Democrat Russ Feingold has suspended his political action committee Progressives United to avoid the appearance of a conflict with his run for the U.S. Senate.

The PAC’s attorney Mike Wittenwyler said Thursday that the PAC was officially suspended on Wednesday. Feingold announced last week that he was running for the Senate against Republican incumbent Ron Johnson.

The race would be a rematch of the 2010 election when Johnson defeated Feingold, an 18-year incumbent.

Wittenwyler says Feingold was not required under the law to suspend fundraising through the PAC, which is a separate entity from him as an individual.

Johnson campaign manager Betsy Ankney says the real question is whether Feingold will disavow money from super PACs spent to help his campaign.

DETROIT (AP) – Exploding air bags made by Takata Corp. are so dangerous that U.S. safety regulators want to manage a massive recall so cars can be fixed faster.

On Tuesday Takata doubled the size of its recall to 33.8 million air bags, making it the largest recall in U.S. history.

The air bags can inflate with too much force, sending metal shrapnel into drivers and passengers. So far the problem has caused six deaths worldwide.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the recall involving 11 manufacturers has created a patchwork of solutions that may not fix the problem fast enough.

The agency has started the legal process seeking to control production and delivery of replacement inflators. It would be the first time the agency has used the power.

MADISON (AP) – Wisconsin’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.4 percent in April, down from 4.6 percent in March.

The state Department of Workforce Development reported the latest figures Thursday. The department also reported that for the 12-month period ending in December, Wisconsin added 35,736 private-sector jobs, for a growth of 1.5 percent over that period.

• Click here for the full report

Walker’s administration releases the state figures before the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts them out June 17. Only then can Wisconsin’s job growth be compared with other states.

In the last annual report, Wisconsin ranked 40th in private-sector job growth.

Walker has said the BLS figures are the “gold standard” because they are based on a survey of nearly every employer, while the monthly unemployment statistics come from a survey of just 3.5 percent of employers.

WAUPACA – A Waupaca man who investigators say made as many as 600 heroin transactions last year faces criminal charges.

Investigators say Joshua D. Parker, 34, first appeared on their radar when they responded to a Waupaca hotel last June for a man who had overdosed on heroin. He had to be revived using an anti-overdose drug. Investigators say the Parker originally provided the heroin.

In September, undercover agents arranged to buy some heroin from Parker. He sold them 2.1 grams of the drug. The next month, they again arranged to buy one gram of heroin. Parker instead went to a local tavern, they said, and they went there and brought him in for questioning. In November, officers say they were searching a home when Parker showed up. He had illegally obtained prescription drugs with him.

Investigation showed that, between February and October of last year, Parker was making six to seven transactions a day and 70-80 a month.

Parker was charged last Wednesday and turned himself in a week later. He faces two felony and one misdemeanor count.