Green Bay News

WEST BEND- More than 30 people are without a home after a fire in West Bend.

Officials say the fire broke out around 9 p.m. Tuesday.

No one was hurt.

The American Red Cross is helping the tenants.

Investigators are still trying to figure out what started the fire.

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) – Health officials are working with a Kenosha grocery store to find out how a salmonella outbreak started and sickened nearly two dozen people.

The Kenosha County Division of Health is investigating food purchased over the Mother’s Day weekend at Supermercado Los Corrales. The grocery store’s meat and food preparation area is closed.

The Kenosha News (http://bit.ly/1ef3ZUN ) says a 35-year-old Kenosha woman and her 8-year-old daughter were recently released from the hospital after they became ill. County health clinical services director Gwynn Perry-Brye says the flu-like symptoms can vary in severity. The illness usually lasts four to seven days.

Salmonella is usually transmitted to people by eating foods contaminated with the bacteria.

FOND DU LAC – It’s Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month!

Moraine Park Technical College in Fond du Lac is offering riding classes to help educate people when they’re out on the road.

FOX 11’s Emily Deem spent Wednesday morning in Fond du Lac to learn more.

Click here to learn more about Moraine Park Technical College.

GREEN BAY- Freeze warnings and frost advisories are in effect for most of our area until 8 a.m.

There will likely be widespread frost Wednesday morning away from the lakeshore and bayshore as lows drop to the upper 20s in northern counties and low to mid 30s for the rest of the inland areas.

Today’s high will reach 62.

Click here for Director of Meteorology Pete Petoniak’s full forecast.

GRAND CHUTE- A man is in custody after an incident that started at a Grand Chute Walmart and ended outside a Menards.

Officials say a man stole a B-B gun from Walmart around 8 p.m. Tuesday.

The man then took off and ended up in the nearby Menards parking lot.

Officers say they started talking to the man and he made statements asking officers to hurt him.

The suspect made it look like he had a weapon and wasn’t listening to officers.

Menards was then asked to lock down their store.

Soon after, the man got rid of a knife and left the vehicle. He was taken into custody.

The man is expected to face charges.

Menards was on lock down for about 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

1 package (8 ounces) softened cream cheese
1 container (7 ounces) marshmallow creme

Directions:

Use a mixer and beat together until smooth. Serve chilled with fresh fruit for dipping.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – In an early morning vote Wednesday, the Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget committee approved a wide-reaching education agenda that would increase funding for public schools, undo enrollment caps on the private school voucher program, create a special needs voucher and target certain low-performing schools for takeover.

The 12-4 vote on education issues in the two-year budget, with all Republicans in support and Democrats against, came at the end of five hours of debate that began around 8 p.m. Tuesday. Republicans broke with Gov. Scott Walker on several key issues, including by reversing a $127 million cut to public schools in the first year.

The Joint Finance Committee was expected to wrap up its votes on the entire budget next week, before sending the entire plan to the full Senate and Assembly for consideration. Walker, a likely presidential candidate, has said he won’t announce a White House bid until after he signs the budget likely in late June.

Democrats railed against the education plan, and prolonged the debate for hours by introducing a series of motions to alter the plan, all of which were rejected.

“It’s not going to be Armageddon for public schools tomorrow, but we’re on that road,” said Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, speaking against the plan.

At times the rhetoric was heated. Democrat Lena Taylor said the Republican-backed voucher school program has “raped” the students of Milwaukee Public Schools by taking millions of dollars away from the district.

The comparison drew a sharp rebuke from Rep. Dale Kooyenga, R-Brookfield.

“I just find that sick,” he said. “That’s actually sick.”

Under the proposal as adopted by the committee, a $127 million cut Walker proposed in public school funding next year would be undone. While Walker’s budget held aid for public schools flat over two years, the new plan would increase funding by $100 per student, or about $69 million, above current levels in the second year.

Walker had proposed eliminating the 1,000-student enrollment cap on the statewide private school voucher program, but proponents objected because the way he funded it would have lowered the amount of the payment to students.

The budget committee voted to eliminate the cap, and instead limit participation to no more than 1 percent of a district’s total enrollment. That would increase by 1 percentage point a year for a decade until there would be no cap.

If 1 percent of all roughly 794,000 public school students outside of Milwaukee took a voucher, about 8,000 students would be in the program. This year there were 1,000 students in the two-year-old statewide program and about 1,700 in Racine, where vouchers began in 2011.

The program, modeled after open enrollment for public schools, is estimated to cost public schools about $48 million over the next two years.

Creating a special needs voucher program, funded similar to the regular program with money coming out of aid to public schools, drew opposition from a coalition of disabilities rights groups. They have long opposed the move, saying students won’t have the same rights in private schools they’re guaranteed in public schools.

Special needs vouchers “are not correlated with improved outcomes for students and every proposal introduced to date has lacked any meaningful accountability for either parents or taxpayers,” the coalition said.

But Republican supporters said it was all about giving parents choices about where to send their children.

“The sky is not falling,” said Rep. Mary Czaja, R-Irma. “The sun will come up tomorrow morning. This is just one more option for parents.”

Another part of the plan would give control of the worst-performing Milwaukee Public Schools to a commissioner appointed by the county executive who could then convert them into independent charter or private voucher schools. The plan would also apply to other districts with more than 15,000 students that meet certain criteria, including having the lowest rating on school report cards two years in a row.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Legislature’s budget-writing committee on Tuesday unveiled its long-anticipated funding plan related to education issues in the state for the next two years.

The entire state spending plan is expected to pass the Joint Finance Committee next week, and then head to the Senate and Assembly for votes.

The education proposals unveiled Tuesday would:

— Undo a $127 million cut in public school funding next year as proposed by Gov. Scott Walker, then add $100 per student in funding for the second year, an increase of about $69 million above current spending.

— Lift a 1,000-student enrollment cap in the private school voucher program and create a new funding mechanism that mirrors the public school open enrollment program that allows students to attend another nearby public school. The change is expected to cost public schools about $48 million over the next two years. No more than 1 percent of a district’s total number of students could enroll initially, but in 11 years there would be no limit.

— Create a special needs voucher program for students with disabilities. The move is opposed by a coalition of disability rights groups because private schools don’t have to provide the same services as required under federal law for special needs students in public school.

— Require high school students to pass a civics test before graduation.

— Allow home-schooled students and those attending private, virtual or charter schools to play sports and participate in extracurricular activities at their local public school.

— Require all schools to be rated in report cards on a five-star system, rather than letter grades as Walker proposed. There would be no sanctions for low-performing schools, and a federal waiver would be requested to allow for schools to choose from between three to five standardized tests to measure the performance of students.

— Create alternate paths for people to be licensed to teach, including those with experience in the fields of science, math and technology, even if they don’t have a bachelor’s degree.

— Convert the worst-performing Milwaukee Public Schools into independent charter or private voucher schools under control of a commissioner appointed by the county executive.

— Prohibit the state superintendent from forcing local school districts to adopt Common Core academic standards.

DETROIT — Ryan Braun, Adam Lind and Aramis Ramirez hit consecutive home runs in a six run-third inning, Jimmy Nelson pitched eight strong innings, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Detroit Tigers 8-1 on Tuesday night.

Braun drove in four runs and Carlos Gomez had three hits and two RBIs for Milwaukee, which has won the first two games of the three-game series.

Nelson (2-4) gave up a run and three hits, walked four and struck out five. He retired 11 straight batters from the fifth inning until there were two out in the eighth, when Miguel Cabrera grounded a single to right.

Tigers starter and loser Anibal Sanchez (3-5) gave up seven runs on seven hits in 3 2/3 innings.

Detroit manager Brad Ausmus was ejected from the game with two out in the bottom of the fifth by home plate umpire Tripp Gibson after Tigers second baseman Ian Kinsler had been called out on strikes.

Milwaukee took a 6-1 lead in the third.

After Gomez knocked in the inning’s first run with a two-out bunt single, Braun hit a three-run homer and Lind and Ramirez followed with solo shots. It was Braun’s ninth home run, Lind’s seventh and Ramirez’s fifth.

Gomez’s two-out, run-scoring double in the fourth made it 7-1 and sent Sanchez to the showers.

Braun also doubled in a run in the ninth.

Detroit took a 1-0 lead in the first on J.D. Martinez’s two-out RBI single. It scored Kinsler, who walked, stole second and continued to third on catcher Martin Maldonado’s throwing error.

TRAINER’S ROOM
Tigers: DH Victor Martinez was placed on the 15-day disabled list. He was struggling in his return from offseason knee surgery. “We had a plan back in April. It hasn’t worked out,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. “He had a cortisone shot last Thursday and we gave him three days off. He played yesterday. At this point we felt other steps were necessary. It wasn’t working . There’s a weakness created by the surgery. It’s created an issue in another part of the knee.” Martinez, 36, is hitting .216 with only one home run in 2015. The switch-hitter is 12 for 26 against left-handers and 12 for 85 against righties.

UP NEXT
Brewers: RHP Kyle Lohse (3-4, 5.85) is 7-6 with a 5.66 ERA in 21 games (20 starts) against Detroit in his career. He hasn’t faced the Tigers since June 21, 2012, when he was with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Tigers: RHP Shane Greene (4-2, 4.21) will try to help Detroit avoid a sweep in the series finale.

HOWARD – Two local students’ experiments are bound for outer space.

Their out-of-this-world work was chosen in an international, NASA-sponsored contest.

“Space and science have always just mesmerized me. When you look up at the sky, there are planets, there are galaxies, and it’s kind of endless up there,” said Emerson Dycus, a seventh grade student.

And soon there will be three more things orbiting in space, from St. John the Baptist school right here in Howard.

“I am a big fan of like NASA and science and all that,” said Dycus. “And I went on NASA’s web site and saw on their student page that there was a contest that if you give an experiment to them they would fly it up into space if it was good enough.”

Dycus and her classmate Sarah McAllister started designing their three experiments in January.

“We are going to see if gravity will affect the way microbacteria will multiply,” McAllister said, explaining the first experiment, using a swab of bacteria from a human mouth in a petri dish.

“We hope the heat and the friction and all that good energy that is produced by the rocket will hopefully be absorbed by the copper and will light up the light bulb. And dark room paper changes color when the light hits it, so that’s how we’re going to know when it comes back to earth if the light bulb lit up in space,” said Dycus, describing the second experiment.

All deal with gravity, and how things change outside of Earth’s orbit.

“When it’s in space it’s suspended in the air by the magnet, so that the rocket launch and microgravity and all those factors, hopefully it will break the magnetism and the chain will drop and stick to the side of the cube,” said Dycus, demonstrating the third experiment with a magnet and chain.

All three experiments were chosen by NASA through the Cubes in Space program. The experiments fit into small, plastic cubes. Dycus and McAllister beat out thousands of students internationally for one of 80 spots.

“On June 25th, the rocket will fly,” said McAllister. “And then in late August, we’ll get the cubes back.”

The students say they hope their success in science will inspire others.

“Science is not just for guys,” said McAllister.

And their experiments have inspired them to reach for the stars in the future.

“I want to be an astrophysicist, because I really like space and science,” said Dycus.
The students say they plan on travelling to Virginia with their families to watch the NASA rocket launch next month.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Forget grades.

If Republicans on the Legislature’s budget-writing committee get their way, Wisconsin schools would be rated on a five-star system. Gov. Scott Walker had wanted to assign letter grades. Currently, schools are described as failing, meeting or exceeding expectations.

The Joint Finance Committee was scheduled to vote Tuesday on going to a star system for the report card.

The proposal would also call for the state to seek a waiver from the federal government to allow for schools to choose between three and five standardized tests to measure student performance.

Federal law currently requires schools to take the same test.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Home-schooled students and those attending private, virtual or charter schools would have to be allowed to play sports and participate in extracurricular activities at their local public school under a proposal backed by Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature.

The proposal was set to be added to the state budget by the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee on Tuesday.

A student attending a charter school or a private school could only participate in a sport not offered at their private or charter school.

The students could be charged to participate, and home schooled students who are determined to be academically ineligible could be barred by the public school board from playing sports.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Legislature’s budget committee wants to require Wisconsin high school students to pass the civics portion of the U.S. citizenship test to graduate despite misgivings from educators.

The Joint Finance Committee was to vote on making that a requirement on Tuesday. A separate bill had been introduced, but the committee is voting to make it part of the state budget.

The proposal would require students to correctly answer at least 60 of 100 questions on the civics section of the test taken by those seeking U.S. citizenship.

Students would be allowed to retake the test until they pass. The requirement would apply to students at public schools, charter schools and private voucher schools.

The state Department of Public Administration and opposes the requirement as being unnecessary.

WASHINGTON (AP) Vice President Joe Biden’s son, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, is undergoing treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

The vice president’s office is not providing any other information about why the 46-year-old has been hospitalized or other details.

Beau Biden suffered a mild stroke in 2010 and underwent surgery at a Texas cancer center in 2013 to remove what was described as a small lesion.

He announced last year that he would not seek a third term as attorney general and instead planned to run for governor in 2016. In January, he joined Wilmington law firm Grant & Eisenhofer, which announced three weeks ago that Biden would be expanding his work there on behalf of whistleblowers.

GREEN BAY – Green Bay’s city council is expected to decide tonight whether its members need a personal conduct policy.

The idea of a personal conduct policy first came up at last week’s personnel committee.

Two items on that agenda triggered the idea. The first was Alderman Tim De Wane accusing Mayor Jim Schmitt of bullying committee members into a vote earlier this year. Schmitt has denied being a bully.

The other agenda item was Schmitt asked for a review of Alderman Guy Zima’s conduct. Schmitt says Zima swore at and flipped off a constituent just after the April 8th council meeting.

Zima has said his conduct does not deserve punishment, because anything he did happened after the meeting.

The personnel committee decided the full city council needed to be involved, with the personal conduct policy being a possible option for the council.
Schmitt has said he is in favor of the policy.

Zima has said he is against the idea, saying it would be impossible to enforce.

Stay here for updates on the council meeting. FOX 11’s Ben Krumholz will also have a full report on Good Day Wisconsin.

APPLETON – When baby Skylar asks about the day she was born, her parents will have a very interesting story to tell.

Early Monday morning, just a couple of hours after midnight, is where it all begins.

“We were trying to go to bed and I did lay down, I think I fell asleep a little bit, woke back up and she was still having contractions and so, we decided to call her parents,” said Greg Lohff, Skylar’s dad.

While Greg’s wife Holly waited for her parents to get to their house, her water broke.

“When they arrived, by that time, I was in crazy pain and I was screaming and stuff. My mom was like, ‘You know what, maybe I should come with you,”’ said Holly Lohff

With dad and grandma sitting in the front of the van and Holly in the back, they headed to the hospital in Oshkosh.

“I was driving pretty fast,” Greg Lohff said.

When Lt. Jeff Meyer saw the red van speeding, he knew something was wrong.

“It almost looked like it missed the turn to Highway 41 southbound and it was almost going to go up the off ramp the wrong way,” said Lt. Jeff Meyer with the Winnebago Co. Sheriff’s Office.

“I pulled over, and jumped out and told him my wife’s having a baby,” Greg Lohff said.

Meyer escorted the family to hospital.

Once they pulled up to the emergency room, they opened the back door of the van and baby Skylar was on her way. Fortunately, her grandma and the lieutenant were there to help.

“It was clear that the baby was crowing and she was going to deliver the baby in the car,” Meyer said.

“I stabilized the baby’s head.Then the rest of the baby came out and caught her but we had to do chest compressions and breathe for her because she wasn’t breathing,” said Wendy Werth, Skylar’s grandma.

Nurses rushed mom and baby inside.

The 8 pound 8 ounce bundle of joy had to be transferred to another hospital in Appleton. Now she’s breathing on her own.

As for what baby Skylar’s parents will say if she asks about the day she was born, “I’ll point to the part in the van and say, ‘See, you were born right there,”’ Holly Lohff said.

The Lohff family says baby Skylar is still recovering at the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Elizabeth hospital in Appleton.

WINCHESTER – The left lane of Highway 45 southbound remains closed after a crash occurred on Highway 45 near Lakeview road Tuesday afternoon.

The crash happened just after 5:00 p.m.

Theda Star was called to the scene.

Both northbound and southbound lanes were closed near Lakeview road for about two hours after the crash.

The Winnebago Co. Sheriff’s Office has not released any other details.

PORT WASHINGTON, Wis. (AP) – The actor who portrayed Screech on the 1990s TV show “Saved by the Bell” wants to use a concealed carry instructor as an expert at his trial next week.

Dustin Diamond is on trial for allegedly stabbing a man at a bar on Christmas. He was charged in January with one felony count of recklessly endangering safety and misdemeanor charges of carrying a concealed weapon and disorderly conduct.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the trial is scheduled for next week.

The 37-year-old Diamond has admitted he opened a small pocket knife after bar patrons struck his fiance. A judge wants to review expected testimony from the concealed carry instructor before allowing it at trial.

Diamond did not have a concealed carry permit.

Smoke could be seen miles away coming from a fire at Bay Auto Parts in Howard, May 19, 2014.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Legislature’s budget committee has approved spending an additional $5 million above previous estimates to pay for housing additional inmates in the state prison system.

The committee’s action Tuesday was needed because the prison population growth estimates in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget released in February are already outdated for both the state’s female and male prison populations.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau says the state will have to house about 150 more female prisoners and about 800 more male prisoners over the two-year budget than Walker forecast.

The committee approved plans that include opening a new wing at the women’s prison in Taycheedah, housing female inmates at a vacant girls juvenile prison, converting beds at the Sturtevant Transitional Facility for use by long-term male prisoners and contracting for additional beds elsewhere.