Green Bay News

NEW YORK (AP) – From the top of One World Trade Center, the nation’s tallest building, it really does seem as if you can “see forever.”

Those two words are the motto of the center’s new observatory that opens May 29, offering spectacular, wraparound views stretching 50 miles past the Manhattan skyline and Statue of Liberty to the Atlantic Ocean.

But even when the 1,776-foot building disappears into the clouds, as it did on a recent day, there are still plenty of high-tech videos and multimedia displays that reflect the hope and optimism of a building and a city that rose from the ruins of the nation’s deadliest terror attack.

A view through the Sky Portal shows a live video view of the streets below from One World Observatory, Wednesday, May 20, 2015, in New York. Visitors can stand on a round video platform that shows an actual livestream of the view straight down. The observatory atop the 104-story One World Trade Center opens to the public on May 29. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

“This is a reminder of moving forward,” said David Checketts, the CEO of Legends, which operates the $86 million observatory atop the 104-story skyscraper. “The World Trade Center got knocked down, and we built it back up.”

Visitors who enter the One World Observatory – its official name – encounter a delicate balance of future and past, with only brief references to the twin towers that were slammed by terrorist-hijacked planes on Sept. 11, 2001, killing more than 2,700 people.

Just above the street-level entrance, faces of men and women who toiled to erect the mammoth, gleaming tower appear in a jagged tunnel that replicates the trade center’s bedrock, their recorded voices filled with both pain and pride.

And during the lightning-fast, 48-second elevator ride up to the 102nd floor, a three-dimensional, time-lapse panorama shows 515 years of history at the tip of Manhattan, with the twin towers appearing for less than four seconds before dissolving out of view.

Stepping from the elevator, visitors are greeted with display panels showing 3-D, bird’s eye scenes of the metropolis. The panels then lift to reveal New York City – right now.

This April 21, 2015, file photo, shows the top floors of New York’s One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. The observatory atop the 104-story skyscraper is scheduled to open to the public on May 29. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

There’s another display called “City Pulse,” a ring of high-definition video monitors marking popular city activities, neighborhoods and “hot spots.” A wave of the hand in the direction of any of these subjects opens the latest details on everything from sports and theater to the best pizza locations. For an additional $15, visitors may use iPads that scan the skyline, popping up imagery and information narrated by novelist Jay McInerney.

There’s no need to creep to the observatory’s edge for a dizzying view of the city about a quarter-mile below. Visitors can stand on a round video platform that shows an actual livestream of the view straight down.

And perhaps the most hair-raising moment of the whole visit is the elevator ride down. LED screens surrounding passengers simulate the flight of a bird or plane high above the site, dipping and soaring around the skyscrapers all the way back to the ground.

The observatory is open to adults for $32, and less for seniors and children – comparable to Empire State Building fees. Tickets may be purchased online, for a precise time to avoid overcrowding.

Checketts, who expects about 3 million to 4 million visitors a year, said the symbolic importance of the building makes a visit to the observatory a special experience.

“I was just looking out at the Statue of Liberty, and frankly, I got emotional about it,” he said of his first visit. “It’s this point in New York, in this city that we all love and it’s rebuilt. It’s back up.”

MADISON (AP) – Republican state lawmakers say they hope to pass a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks of gestation before the budget is debated in June.

Sen. Mary Lazich and Rep. Jesse Kremer told public affairs network WisconsinEye they introduced the measure Wednesday with more than 30 co-sponsors. The Republicans say they plan to hold a joint public hearing on the measure and pass it in both the Senate and Assembly before budget debate.

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.

Gov. Scott Walker has said he would sign it.

Click here to see if your vehicle is included in the Takata air bag recall.

GREEN BAY – The Brown Co. District Attorney David Lasee says he is now reviewing the report from the Department of Corrections on the officer involved shooting in Green Bay that happened earlier this year.

On Feb. 25, two Green Bay police officers responded to a call to a man’s apartment on Plymouth Lane for a welfare check. Police shot and killed 30-year-old Joseph Biegert after Biegert allegedly stabbed one of the officers.

Lasee says he hopes to finish the review soon and to make a decision on whether or not to file charges by next week.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – The three main credit reporting agencies in the U.S. have struck a multistate settlement agreement that requires them to move more quickly to fix disputed information on credit reports, wait longer before adding items and more carefully scrutinize certain data they’re furnished by collection agencies and others.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced the pact among Equifax, Experian, TransUnion and attorneys general in 31 states Wednesday. It requires the agencies to pay $6 million and change certain business practices over the next three years.

DeWine says he initiated an investigation after a 2012 investigation by The (Columbus) Dispatch uncovered that consumers had been denied car loans, house loans and even jobs because of mistakes on their credit reports.

He called the reporting system fundamentally flawed.

ALLOUEZ – The Resch Family East River trail in Allouez was re-dedicated Wednesday.

In 2014 the village reconstructed most of the 2.7 mile trail. The old trail was removed, and a new asphalt surface was installed.

Runners, walkers, bikers, and other frequent the trail daily. Organizers say the trail is an important part of the village.

“I see families, I see people walking dogs, I see people bicycling, it’s amazing the traffic and it’s fun to hear the laughter. The East River Trail is truly one of the jewels and treasures of Allouez as is our park systems,” said Randy Gast, Allouez Village Board President.

The trial was first constructed back in 1990.

 

OSHKOSH – An effort to prevent bullying got some kids in the Oshkosh school district out of the classroom for the day.

Students from the district’s K-12 Adapted Phy-Ed programs were paired with a high school “buddy” from Oshkosh West and Oshkosh North High School who they got to hang out with for the day.

Wednesday’s C.A.R.E. Days (Celebrating Abilities, Rallying Everyone) festivities included a track meet and carnival, which had games like bean bag toss, pluck a duck and tic-tac-toe.

Organizer and physical education teacher, Gillian Pakula, says it is a great way to show off the abilities of all students, “The day is really a celebration of their abilities, and what everyone is able to do. We all have tasks and abilities and everybody has an entry point or a starting point and we are finding those in each other and celebrating those in one day.”

About 140 students in the Adapted Phy-Ed program took part in the event.

A local Door County piemaker will get a shot at super stardom.

Sara Zacek is one of the contestants in an all new MasterChef starting Wednesday night on FOX 11.

She took a shot at auditioning in Chicago to land a spot on the show.

The new season features 40 home cooks. They will present their signature dishes to Chef Ramsay and the other judges. For Zacek, that means one of her Door County cherry pies from the Harbor Pie Company of Sister Bay.

She says being on the show was an incredible experience and she says don’t let Gordon Ramsay’s gruff demeanor fool you, “I love Chef Ramsay. All of his criticisms, or whatever you want to call it, is from a place of love, like he very much cares about all of his contestants on all of his shows. And, that’s where all of his feedback comes from. He wants to push you to be the best chef you can be.”

So how does Zacek and her pie fare? Find out starting Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. on FOX 11.

Zacek also stopped by Living with Amy and baked a Cottage Pie.

 

 

 

GREEN BAY – We’re tipping our cap to the best of the class!

The best of 2015 from area high schools gathered in the Lambeau Field atrium to celebrate their accomplishments.

A record-breaking 342 students took part.

They represent more than 100 different high schools from all around Northeast Wisconsin.

A ceremony to celebrate their accomplishments included guest speaker Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila.

Students say it feels great to be honored for all of their hard work.

“It feels amazing because like sometimes the kids that get the 4.0s don’t get recognized, and it’s nice to have something to recognize us for working really hard and achieving our grades,” said Rachel Woulf, Green Bay East High School.

“It’s pretty incredible after all the years of high school, these last four years of late nights and studying and just cramming for tests and everything, to just finally be recognized I guess and at Lambeau Field, it’s amazing, where the Packers play, we’re here,” said Matthew Kuik, Waupun High School.

One of the highlights of the day is where students get to star in their own promo!

Videos were shot at Lambeau and will be shown on TV starting in June and running through August.

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian police arrested 10 youths at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport last weekend who are suspected of wanting to go to Iraq and Syria to join the Islamic State group, a government official said Tuesday.

The official confirmed the arrests late Tuesday, but did not have any other details. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the case.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police later issued a statement confirming that 10 young Montreal residents had been arrested at the airport.

The official said the youths were suspected of trying to join the Islamic State group, which holds wide swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria. The RCMP statement did not specifically mention IS, but said the 10 youths were “suspected of wanting to leave the country to join jihadist groups.”

The RCMP said no charges have been brought at this time, but said the investigation is ongoing. All 10 young persons had their passports confiscated.

The RCMP said it was unable to disclose the identity of the persons detained or any information about what led to their arrest because charges have not been brought.

“We can say, however, that the families and friends of the young persons have been met by investigators,” the RCMP statement said.

Police asked the media to respect the privacy of the family members.

“These are very difficult times for the relatives and loved ones of the persons arrested, as the decision to leave the country was not that of the family, but of a single family member. As a result, family members often find themselves at a complete loss and unable to understand the decision made by the youth,” police said.

Canada’s anti-terror unit within the RCMP, Quebec provincial police, and Montreal police took part in the operation.

Steven Blaney, Canada’s Public Safety Minister, declined to comment on operational matters in a statement, but commended police for their “continued vigilance in keeping our streets and communities safe from the ongoing global terror threat.”

The arrests come about a month after a similar case in Quebec in which a young man and woman were arrested in what the government called a “preventive measure.”

El Mahdi Jamali and Sabrine Djermane, both 18, later pleaded not guilty to four charges, including attempting to leave Canada to commit a terrorist act abroad. A bail hearing for the pair is scheduled for early June.

Also in April, a judge in Edmonton ordered a psychiatric exam for an Alberta teenager who was arrested in March on allegations he was planning to leave Canada to fight with Islamic State militants.

 

GREEN BAY (AP) – A new federal court ruling may force paper companies to be responsible for a larger share of the $1 billion Fox River cleanup effort.

The Green Bay Press Gazette reports that Friday’s ruling reapportions river cleanup responsibility based on estimates of the amount of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, released into the river by each of the potentially responsible paper companies. Up until now, the work was almost entirely funded by NCR and Appvion.

A judge ruled that NCR may be no more than 28 percent liable for the cleanup, at least for the section of the river between De Pere and Green Bay. This means the remaining work beyond NCR’s share will fall to Georgia-Pacific and Glatfelter.

In the 1950s and 1960s, NCR sold scrap to companies that used it to produce recycled paper. Production involving that paper was a major source of the PCBs in the river.

About 170 people have been jailed in a deadly shootout involving rival motorcycle gangs that unfolded at a Texas restaurant.

WACO, Texas (AP) — About 170 people have been jailed in a deadly shootout involving rival motorcycle gangs that unfolded last weekend at a Texas restaurant.

• Click here to see the mugshots

The suspects are charged with engaging in organized crime, and authorities say more arrests are likely. The confrontation in Waco killed nine people and wounded 18.

Each of the bikers is being held on $1 million bond. It’s unclear how long they will be in custody.

Police say the gathering of five biker groups was called to resolve a dispute over turf. Some of the bikers dispute that, saying the meeting was organized to discuss laws protecting motorcycle riders and other subjects.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader vowed Wednesday he will not allow international inspection of Iran’s military sites or access to Iranian scientists under any nuclear agreement with world powers.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told military commanders Wednesday that Iran will resist “coercion and excessive demands” from America and other world powers.

Negotiators from Iran and a six nation group — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — have launched a new round of talks in Vienna focused on reaching a final deal that curbs Iran’s nuclear program in return for lifting economic sanctions. The two sides reached a framework agreement in March and hope to strike a final deal by June 30.

A fact sheet on the framework accord issued by the U.S. State Department said Iran would be required to grant the U.N. nuclear agency access to any “suspicious sites.”

But Khamenei indicated that the Americans are increasing their demands that international inspection of Iran’s military sites and interviews with Iranian scientists be included in the final deal.

“The impudent and brazen enemy expects that we allow them talk to our scientists and researchers about a fundamental local achievement but no such permission will be allowed,” Khamenei told military commanders in Tehran Wednesday, in remarks broadcast on state TV. “No inspection of any military site or interview with nuclear scientists will be allowed.”

Khamenei said interviewing Iranian nuclear scientists would be an affront to Iran’s dignity.

“I will not allow foreigners to interview — which is tantamount to interrogation — the prominent beloved scientists and sons of this nation,” he said.

Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Khamenei, was quoted by Iranian media this week as accusing the Americans of changing their position and toughening their stance as the deadline approaches.

“They insist on crossing (our) red lines. This turns into an obstacle,” Velayati was quoted as saying.

 

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Nate Waits wakes up before 3 a.m. four days a week to get to his job at a Bentonville distribution center for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., where the former Marine is among more than 92,000 veterans the company has hired in the past two years.

As the two-year anniversary approaches of the Veterans Welcome Home Commitment program the company launched on Memorial Day 2013, the retail giant announced Wednesday that it is expanding its original plan to hire 100,000 veterans by 2018 to hire a total of 250,000 recently discharged veterans by 2020.

Chris Sultemeier, executive vice president for logistics at Wal-Mart, said the company has been pleased with the skills that the veterans bring to a range of positions including retail, distribution and management. He said about 8,000 of the original hires have already been promoted.

“Veterans work. They’re disciplined; they’re teamwork focused. They have a hard work ethic. They’re typically committed and loyal,” said Sultemeier, who is an Army veteran. “What we are looking for in an associate and what the military teaches them… It just matches.”

Waits, 25, says he doesn’t mind the early mornings or the structured day. He manages about 45 employees at the distribution center who load and unload trailers.

If the company is successful, the 250,000 veterans would make up close to 20 percent of the retailer’s 1.3 million U.S. workers.

Sultemeier said there are high concentrations of veteran hires near large military bases like Fort Hood in Texas or Fort Bragg in North Carolina. But the company also has helped qualified veterans, who have been honorably discharged since Memorial Day 2013, find work in areas where there are often fewer job options.

In many parts of rural Arkansas, manufacturing and other once-common jobs have migrated to other parts of the country or the world, said Terre McLendon, the director of Community and Industry Studies at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Institute for Economic Advancement.

“The rural areas in Arkansas and probably a great deal of the U.S. have fewer opportunities today than has been the case in the past, and the kinds of opportunities are limited for them,” McLendon said, also noting that Arkansas-based Wal-Mart got its start by building stores in rural communities.

Bentonville, where Wal-Mart is based, has about 40,000 residents — not rural compared to many places in Arkansas. But it was a more affordable place for Waits and his wife to raise their two children. The Cincinnati, Ohio, native knew he planned to move to the area when he was discharged from the Marines after four years of active duty and two tours in Afghanistan.

Waits said he applied for positions at several companies, but in the end Wal-Mart’s veteran initiative swayed him.

“I wanted to work for a company that wanted me,” Waits said. “It wasn’t a thing where they said, we’re going to do this good deed. It was more that I had the skills they wanted, and they wanted me to earn the job. It was more than just publicity. It was genuine.”

 

GOLETA, Calif. (AP) — Oil floating off the California coast after a spill from a broken pipe now stretches about 9 miles.

U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jennifer Williams provided the updated figure during a news conference Wednesday.

She says vessels have deployed three sets of floating booms to try to keep the slicks from spreading, while other boats are skimming oil from the sea surface.

A Coast Guard captain and an Environmental Protection Agency official are the federal coordinators of the response to the spill about 20 miles west of Santa Barbara. That’s because it originated on land and then entered the ocean.

Williams says state and local officials are also part of the unified command.

The broken onshore pipeline spewed thousands of gallons of oil down a storm drain and into the Pacific Ocean for several hours Tuesday before it was shut off.

 

MADISON (AP) – Minority Democrats are demanding Republicans who run the Legislature’s criminal justice committees end a hearing looking into why Milwaukee Police video interrogations are inaccessible due to a major computer malfunction.

Recordings stored in the MediaSolv system became inaccessible in January. The department is working with a private vendor to recover the recordings.

Republicans who lead the Assembly and Senate criminal justice systems called a hearing on Wednesday to examine the situation. They invited Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barret, Police Chief Ed Flynn, Sheriff David Clarke and District Attorney John Chisholm to speak. Barrett, Clarke and Chisholm are Democrats.

None of them showed up.

Democrats on the committees ripped the Republicans, shouting over themselves to denounce the proceeding as a political hit on Milwaukee. They demanded the GOP adjourn the hearing.

Wisconsin’s first tornado of 2015 was confirmed in Shawano County after thunderstorms raced across the area Sunday, May 17.

MADISON (AP) – Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Patience Roggensack says “there’s no chaos” on the state’s highest court, and she has not spoken with former longtime Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson since she succeeded her.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Shirley Abrahamson

Roggensack told the WisconsinEye public affairs network in an interview Wednesday that talking with Abrahamson now would not be “fruitful,” and she understands that the transition is difficult.

Roggensack was elected chief justice by four conservative justices April 29, replacing Abrahamson, who had held the title for 19 years. Abrahamson has filed a federal lawsuit arguing she can’t be replaced until her term ends in four years.

Roggensack also says Abrahamson and Justices Patrick Crooks and Ann Walsh Bradley sent her emails saying they would not attend the swearing-in ceremony for Marquette University Law School graduates Monday.

MADISON (AP) – Gov. Scott Walker has signed a Republican-authored bill that would ensure scores on the statewide Badger Exam public school children are taking this spring aren’t used against teachers or put on report cards measuring school performance.

The Badger Exam was best with a host of problems that generated widespread criticism from parents, school districts, state policymakers and the governor. Since the test is tied to the more rigorous Common Core academic standards, scores were expected to be lower than they had been in the past. The test also has been beset with implementation problems.

The bill Walker signed Wednesday would result in there being no school report card in the fall, but the test results would still be reported to the state Department of Public Instruction.