Green Bay News

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nine months after police in riot gear dispelled racially charged protests, President Barack Obama is prohibiting the federal government from providing some military-style equipment to local departments and putting stricter controls on other weapons and gear distributed to law enforcement.

The surprise announcement comes after the White House suggested last year that Obama would maintain programs that provide the type of military-style equipment used to respond to demonstrators last summer in Ferguson, Missouri, because of their broader contribution to public safety. But an interagency group found “substantial risk of misusing or overusing” items like tracked armored vehicles, high-powered firearms and camouflage could undermine trust in police.

With scrutiny on police only increasing in the ensuing months after a series of highly publicized deaths of black suspects nationwide, Obama also is unveiling the final report of a task force he created to help build confidence between police and minority communities in particular. The announcements come as Obama is visiting Camden, New Jersey, one of the country’s most violent and poorest cities.

Obama plans to visit Camden police headquarters before heading to a community center to meet with youth and law enforcement and give a speech. “I’ll highlight steps all cities can take to maintain trust between the brave law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line, and the communities they’re sworn to serve and protect,” Obama said in his weekly address out Saturday.

In previewing the president’s trip, the White House said that effective immediately, the federal government will no longer fund or provide armored vehicles that run on a tracked system instead of wheels, weaponized aircraft or vehicles, firearms or ammunition of .50-caliber or higher, grenade launchers, bayonets or camouflage uniforms. The federal government also is exploring ways to recall prohibited equipment already distributed.

In addition, a longer list of equipment the federal government provides will come under tighter control, including wheeled armored vehicles like Humvees, manned aircraft, drones, specialized firearms, explosives, battering rams and riot batons, helmets and shields. Starting in October, police will have to get approval from their city council, mayor or some other local governing body to obtain it, provide a persuasive explanation of why it is needed and have more training and data collection on the use of the equipment.

The issue of police militarization rose to prominence last year after a white police officer in Ferguson fatally shot unarmed black 18-year-old Michael Brown, sparking protests. Critics questioned why police in full body armor with armored trucks responded to dispel demonstrators, and Obama seemed to sympathize when ordering a review of the programs that provide the equipment. “There is a big difference between our military and our local law enforcement and we don’t want those lines blurred,” Obama last in August.

But he did not announce a ban in December with the publication of the review, which showed five federal agencies spent $18 billion on programs that provided equipment including 92,442 small arms, 44,275 night-vision devices, 5,235 Humvees, 617 mine-resistant vehicles and 616 aircraft. At the time, the White House defended the programs as proving to be useful in many cases, such as the response to the Boston Marathon bombing. Instead of repealing the programs, Obama issued an executive order that required federal agencies that run the programs to consult with law enforcement and civil rights and civil liberties organizations to recommend changes that make sure they are accountable and transparent.

That working group said in a report out Monday that it developed the list of newly banned equipment because “the substantial risk of misusing or overusing these items, which are seen as militaristic in nature, could significantly undermine community trust and may encourage tactics and behaviors that are inconsistent with the premise of civilian law enforcement.” The Justice Department did not respond to an inquiry about how many pieces of equipment that are now banned had been previously distributed through federal programs.

The separate report from the 21st Century Policing task force has a long list of recommendations to improve trust in police, including encouraging more transparency about interactions with the public. The White House said 21 police agencies nationwide, including Camden and nearby Philadelphia, have agreed to start putting out never-before released data on citizen interactions like use of force, stops, citations and officer-involved shootings. The administration also is launching an online toolkit to encourage the use of body cameras to record police interactions. And the Justice Department is giving $163 million in grants to incentivize police departments to adopt the report’s recommendations.

Ron Davis, director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services at the Justice Department, told reporters he hoped the report could be a “key transformational document” in rebuilding trust that has been destroyed in recent years between police and minority communities.

“We are without a doubt sitting at a defining moment for American policing,” said Davis, a 30-year police veteran and former chief of the East Palo Alto (California) Police Department. “We have a unique opportunity to redefine policing in our democracy, to ensure that public safety becomes more than the absence of crime, that it must also include the presence of justice.”

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Craig Counsell played 15 years in the majors, scouted and has worked with minor league players and coaches. But he never coached or managed in the minors or majors before taking over as Milwaukee’s manager for Brewers general manager Doug Melvin.

Counsell is the latest addition to a recent crop of big league skippers who are showing that prior managerial experience isn’t necessarily required.

“I’ve always said baseball, we as an industry, we don’t do a great job of necessarily grooming guys,” Melvin said. “It doesn’t happen like it should sometimes.”

The typical paths to becoming a big league skipper used to wind through minor league outposts while climbing organizational ladders. Others might bide time as trusted coaches on major league staffs.

Counsell, a 44-year-old baseball lifer, earned the Brewers job with his penchant for preparation and organizational know-how.

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny and White Sox skipper Robin Ventura took similar paths back to the dugout. Both are in their fourth seasons.

“These were all players that commanded respect as teammates,” Melvin said this week. “I think when you ask around, most players will say they were great teammates.”

Walt Weiss, in his third year with Colorado, and Brad Ausmus, in his second season with Detroit, also got their jobs without having previously managed or coached in the majors or minors.

And the Miami Marlins turned to general manager Dan Jennings – who only briefly briefly coached high school in Mobile, Alabama, in the 1980s – to manage the club after firing Mike Redmond on Sunday, a person familiar with the situation said Monday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not yet been announced.

They’ve all been involved with baseball most of their lives, with varying degrees of experience in front offices.

Former players with managerial aspirations may not be eager to manage in the minors first or become a coach because they’ve made a lot of money as a player, Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski said.

“You have to be open-minded to evolving changes,” said Dombrowski, who hired Ausmus to replace Jim Leyland in 2014.

Ausmus was previously a special assistant for three seasons for the San Diego Padres. A 22-year veteran, Leyland had already managed 14 years with three different teams – mostly with the Pirates – by the time he had arrived in Detroit in 2006.

Counsell’s predecessor, Ron Roenicke, had several managerial and coaching stops on his resume. He spent 10 years as a coach for Mike Scioscia with the Los Angeles Angels before getting the Brewers job in 2011.

It’s the same year that Counsell ended his 15-year playing career, finishing up in Milwaukee.

Roenicke was fired on May 3 following the team’s 7-18 start. In came Counsell, a special assistant to Melvin since 2012.

His organizational knowledge could come in handy. The last-place Brewers could start turning over their veteran-laden roster if they can’t make a dramatic push to get back into the competitive NL Central race.

Melvin said Counsell’s recent playing experience helps him relate with today’s players. Counsell has played with seven players on the Brewers roster.

“I don’t know if it helps in managing the game,” Counsell said, “but it helps teaching players.”

The clean-shaven, youthful-looking Counsell looks fit in uniform, as if he could still handle a hard smash at short.

“It’s kind of hard to see him as a skipper because he still looks like he can play,” said 27-year-old left fielder Khris Davis, who is in his second full season in the majors. “Just a new breath of fresh air around here has been working.”

The Brewers are 6-7 under Counsell, developing a penchant for rallying in late innings.

“He brings an intellectual character profile to this position, too, which helps him interact with today’s players and activity away from the park,” Melvin said. “Players can relate to his stories because he’s played recently.”

The model of success for this group of managers is Matheny, whose teams are averaging nearly 92 wins a season since he took over the Cardinals in 2012. St. Louis hasn’t missed a beat since Tony La Russa left, advancing to the NLCS for three straight seasons.

Dombrowski typically preferred to hire a skipper with managerial experience, so hiring Ausmus was a bit of a shift. He said Matheny’s success wasn’t the whole reason he hired Ausmus, though it did catch his attention.

Like rookie players, younger managers may improve with experience.

“You have to be willing to take some of the growing pains with a young manager,” Dombrowski said. “There’s still going to be a learning curve.”

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AP Baseball Writer Noah Trister in Detroit and AP sports writer Steven Wine in Miami contributed to this report.

OSHKOSH – Police say they arrested a woman at a massage parlor on prostitution charges.

Working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Oshkosh police say they arrested the 50-year-old woman Friday at Four Seasons Massage, 1040 S. Koeller St. The undercover investigation was spurred by complaints, police said.

The suspect is a citizen of China. She was living in Oshkosh and was authorized to work in the U.S., according to police.

A Homeland Security agent interviewed her before she was jailed.

OSHKOSH – A person walking down an Oshkosh street Friday night had his phone stolen from him, police say.

The crime happened just after 10 p.m. on Wisconsin Street at Amherst Avenue. The victim told police the robber came up behind him and asked to use his cellphone. When the victim gave the robber the phone, the robber punched him and ran off. The robber got into a blue Chrysler minivan and left to the north on Jackson Street.

The victim described the robber as a black man in his early 20s, about 5-foot-8 with a slim build and short hair. He was wearing a dark t-shirt and blue jeans.

Anyone with information is asked to call Oshkosh police at (920) 236-5700. Anonymous tips may be left with Winnebago County Wide Crime Stoppers by calling (920) 231-8477, sending a text message with the keyword IGOTYA to 274637 or online.

MADISON (AP) – Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Patience Roggensack presided as chief justice for the first time on Monday after being elected by her colleagues to replace longtime Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson.

With a cheerful, “Good morning,” Roggensack took the center seat behind a nameplate identifying her as “C.J. Roggensack.” She faced a full Supreme Court chamber for a ceremony to swear-in new Marquette University Law School graduates. Abrahamson was scheduled to administer the oath, but she and two other justices who have frequently been at odds with the conservative four-justice majority were not present.

Voters last month approved a constitutional amendment allowing the justices to choose who should serve as chief, and four conservative justices picked Roggensack to replace Abrahamson. They voted even though Abrahamson filed a federal lawsuit the day after the April 7 election arguing that she can’t be removed as chief justice until her term ends in 2019.

Abrahamson has argued that while her legal fight is ongoing, she remains chief justice. But a federal judge on Friday denied her attempt to block implementation of the amendment while she argues against her immediate removal. A trial is expected to be held later this summer.

Roggensack has moved forward as chief justice, including meeting with court staff and removing references to Abrahamson as holding the position from the court website and other documents. Monday’s swearing in ceremony was the first public event where Roggensack appeared as chief justice.

The four justices at Monday’s swearing-in ceremony all voted for Roggensack. Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, an ally of Abrahamson’s who is siding with her in the lawsuit, was absent. Justice Patrick Crooks, who is often a swing vote on the court, was also absent.

A spokesman for the court did not immediately return an email asking why the justices were absent.

Roggensack, in brief comments to the law school graduates and their families gathered for the ceremony, did not address the controversy over her replacing Abrahamson. The director of State Bar examiners and the dean of Marquette University Law School both referred to Roggensack as chief justice during the ceremony.

“This is a wonderful, happy occasion,” Roggensack said at the outset of the ceremony. “I’m very, very pleased to see each of you here today.”

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Marquette University has removed a mural of one of the FBI’s most wanted who was convicted of killing a state trooper.

The mural caught the attention of associate professor of political science John McAdams who criticized the Milwaukee university for putting up the mural that he says glorifies a “black militant cop killer.” Assata Shakur was convicted in the 1973 slaying of a New Jersey state trooper, escaped from prison and fled to Cuba. A quote on the mural from Shakur says “no one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them.”

The Journal Sentinel says McAdams used his blog to criticize the mural. It’s the same blog that resulted in his suspension from Marquette for criticizing a teaching assistant last year on how she handled a discussion of gay marriage in her class.

EAU CLAIRE (AP) – An Eau Claire couple is suing the Village of Boyd over injuries caused by a sinkhole on one of its streets.

Thomas and Dawn Stagliano are seeking unspecified damages in Chippewa County Circuit Court.

Their lawsuit says Thomas Stagliano stepped off a curb and into a sinkhole in Boyd after leaving the American Legion Post after dark in March 2012. He fell and injured his Achilles tendon, an injury he says continues to bother him. The couple says the village was negligent in not putting up a barricade around the hole.

The Chippewa Herald says the village earlier denied Thomas Stagliano’s claim.

Appleton – Rosemary is the latest person to get a Monday Morning Makeover.

The crew at Salon CTI in Appleton but some red into her look.

Click on the video above to see Rosemary’s transformation.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court won’t hear an appeal from a conservative group seeking to end an investigation into possible illegal coordination between Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s 2012 recall campaign and independent groups.

The justices on Monday let stand an appeals court ruling that said Wisconsin Club for Growth and its director, Eric O’Keefe, must resolve their claims in state courts.

No one has been charged as a result of the investigation which has sought documents and testimony about possible violation of state campaign finance laws.

The investigation is on hold while a separate legal challenge is pending before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

The club and O’Keefe argued that the investigation was a violation of their First Amendment rights and an attempt to criminalize political speech.

Ingredients:

One Aluminum Foil Baking Pan
3 to 4 bottles (12 ounces) beer
1 stick butter
2 medium yellow onions, sliced
1 pound bag or jar sauerkraut, drained
12 to 16 brats
12 to 16 brat buns or hard rolls
Ketchup and mustard

Direction:

Place the foil pan on the grill over indirect heat. Add beer, kraut, butter and onions. Cook until the onions start to get nice and soft. Grill the brats over low to medium direct heat and when they are done put them in the foil pan (Brat Tub) to keep warm. You can also place the foil pan in an oven heated to 250 degrees to keep brats warm or place brats and kraut mixture in a slow cooker on warm setting. Serve brats on buns with kraut, onions and ketchup and/or mustard on top.

BLACK RIVER FALLS (AP) – Authorities in Jackson County are investigating a suspicious death.

Sheriff’s officials say they received a 911 call about 11 a.m. Sunday about an unconscious person at a dog park in Black River Falls. When rescue workers arrived, they found the person was dead.

Sheriff Duane Waldera says the death is suspicious, but investigators believe it’s an isolated incident. WXOW-TV says an autopsy is expected to be done Monday in Madison.

MADISON (AP) – A zoo in Madison is welcoming twin polar bears as its newest residents.

The 2½-year-old bears named Sakari and Suka are living in the new $9.1 million Arctic Passage exhibit at the Henry Vilas Zoo. The Wisconsin State Journal reports the exhibit opens Saturday.

The polar bears are sharing the new 1.7-acre complex with two grizzly bears and three harbor seals. The species will live in separate yards.

Visitors can watch the polar bears swim in their 46,500-gallon pool through glass. The pool is more than five times larger than the zoo’s former exhibit for polar bears.

The zoo’s previous polar bear, Mishka, died in 2013 at the age of 30.

The Arctic Passage exhibit is the biggest project in the Madison zoo’s 104-year history.

TILDEN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) – The state has opened a new off-road vehicle route in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula that’s also for hiking, biking, snowmobiling and equestrian use.

The state Department of Natural Resources and the Iron Ore Heritage Recreation Authority are hosting a ribbon-cutting on Tuesday morning in Marquette County’s Tilden Township. The 19-mile-long trail connects the communities of Ishpeming, Clarksburg, Humboldt and Republic.

The DNR says the “Ishpeming to Republic ORV Route” is restricted to vehicles 65 inches in width or smaller.

The Iron Ore Heritage Trail and the DNR have worked together on the development of many miles of hiking and biking trails in Marquette County. The new route continues that collaboration, with the eventual goal of including Negaunee and Gwinn to the route.

NEENAH- Eco-friendly is becoming more and more of a designer trend.

Lanni Lantto is a local fashion (re)designer who’s focus is to reuse, reduce, redesign, rethink, reinvent, recycle.

Lantto takes pre-existing materials and upcycles them to create a new look that works for any occaision. Her looks have also turned heads on red carpet Hollywood events.

FOX 11’s Pauleen Le spent the morning checking out her (re)designer fashion

6:15 a.m.

Mary Schaheen of Philadelphia was among passengers waiting to board a train to New York City, and was confident in Amtrak’s ability to provide a safe ride.

Schaheen said she takes the train once a week or every other week, and on Monday was headed to the UBS Life Sciences conference and didn’t want to miss it.

“I’m confident Amtrak wouldn’t put us back on route unless they thought it was safe to put us back on route,” she said. “I’m sure they have all the resources to have worked through it in the days since this tragedy

“I, like a lot of other people, have to get to New York.”

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6:10 a.m.

Passenger trains are again rolling between Philadelphia and New York City.

Amtrak restored full service on its busy Northeast Corridor early Monday when a train headed south from New York City’s Penn Station and another headed north from Philadelphia.

Amtrak vowed to have safer trains and tracks while investigators work to determine the cause of Tuesday night’s derailment in Philadelphia that killed eight passengers and injured more than 200.

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5:55 a.m.

Amtrak has restored full service on its busy Northeast Corridor for the first time since last week’s derailment killed eight passengers and injured more than 200.

The first train to head south departed New York City’s Penn Station at about 5:30 a.m. Monday.

Another train that was due to leave Philadelphia at 5:53 a.m. is delayed.

Amtrak officials had said all trains rolling between Washington to Boston are in “complete compliance” with federal safety orders following the derailment.

NEENAH- A house in Neenah is a total loss after an early morning fire.

Officials say the fire broke out around 3:45 a.m. Monday on Jackson Street.

All four people living inside made it out safely.

However, a cat may not have made it out.

PRESQUE ISLE- A hiker in northern Wisconsin was found safe early Monday morning.

78-year-old Donald Gaines of Blue Mound, which is west of Madison was hiking and taking pictures with another person when they split up.

The two were in the Catherine Wolter Wildnerness Area in Presque Isle in Vilas County.

The two were supposed to meet up at the parking area, but Gaines never showed up Sunday and officials were called.

Gaines was found around 2 a.m. Monday in good condition.

GREEN BAY- It will be close to 70 Monday with partly sunny skies and wind gusts to 30 mph.

Colder air moves into the region Monday night.

Tuesday’s high will only be 53 (Normal is 67).

The rest of the week our weather will be influenced by a high pressure, fair weather system which means lots of sunshine and warming temperatures.

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

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – As Amtrak trains begin rolling between New York and Philadelphia for the first time in almost a week following a deadly crash in Philadelphia, officials are vowing to have safer trains and tracks while investigators are trying to determine the cause of the derailment.

Amtrak officials said Sunday that trains along the busy Northeast Corridor from Washington to Boston would resume service Monday in “complete compliance” with federal safety orders following last week’s deadly derailment.

Company President Joseph Boardman said Amtrak staff and crew have been working around the clock to restore service following Tuesday night’s crash that killed eight people and injured more than 200 others.

At a service Sunday evening at the site to honor the crash victims, Boardman choked up as he called Tuesday “the worst day for me as a transportation professional.” He vowed that the wrecked train and its passengers “will never be forgotten.”

“We’ll open with service tomorrow morning, a safer service,” Boardman said Sunday. “We quickly made changes, and I’m grateful. I’m thankful.”

Amtrak planned to resume service along the corridor Monday with the 5:30 a.m. southbound train leaving New York City and the 5:53 a.m. northbound train leaving Philadelphia. All Acela Express, Northeast Regional and other services were to resume.

Federal regulators on Saturday ordered Amtrak to expand use of a speed-control system long in effect for southbound trains near the crash site to northbound trains in the same area.

Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Kevin Thompson said Sunday the automatic train control system is now fully operational on the northbound tracks. Trains going through that section of track will be governed by the system, which alerts engineers to slow down when their trains go too fast and automatically applies the brakes if the train continues to speed.

The agency also ordered Amtrak to examine all curves along the Northeast Corridor and determine if more can be done to improve safety, and to add more speed limit signs along the route.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told the 150 people present at Sunday’s service that Amtrak’s action on the ordered changes was one way to honor the eight passengers killed in the crash. Many were riding home to their families, he said.

“Their memories forever in our minds will fuel our work to make intercity passenger rail and our entire network in the United States stronger and safer,” he said.

Mayor Michael Nutter praised the work of first responders, hospital personnel and residents he called “citizen responders” who rushed toward the wreckage with bottled water and who opened their doors to shocked victims. He read the names of the deceased as a bell tolled and eight doves were released just after a choral group sang “Amazing Grace.”

Almost 20 people injured in the train crash remain in Philadelphia hospitals, five in critical condition. All are expected to survive.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board, meanwhile, have focused on the acceleration of the train as it approached the curve, finally reaching 106 mph as it entered the 50-mph stretch north of central Philadelphia, and only managing to slow down slightly before the crash.

“The only way that an operable train can accelerate would be if the engineer pushed the throttle forward. And … the event recorder does record throttle movement. We will be looking at that to see if that corresponds to the increase in the speed of the train,” board member Robert Sumwalt told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The Amtrak engineer, who was among those injured in the crash, has told authorities that he does not recall anything in the few minutes before it happened. Characterizing engineer Brandon Bostian as extremely safety conscious, a close friend said he believed reports of something striking the windshield were proof that the crash was “not his fault.”

“He’s the one you’d want to be your engineer. There’s none safer,” James Weir of Burlison, Tennessee, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview on Sunday.

Investigators also have been looking into reports that the windshield of the train may have been struck by some sort of object, but Sumwalt said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program Sunday that he wanted to “downplay” the idea that damage to the windshield might have come from someone firing a shot at the train.

“I’ve seen the fracture pattern; it looks like something about the size of a grapefruit, if you will, and it did not even penetrate the entire windshield,” Sumwalt said.

Officials said an assistant conductor on the derailed train said she heard the Amtrak engineer talking with a regional train engineer and both said their trains had been hit by objects. But Sumwalt said the regional train engineer recalls no such conversation, and investigators had listened to the dispatch tape and heard no communications from the Amtrak engineer to the dispatch center to say that something had struck the train.

“But, nevertheless, we do have this mark on the windshield of the Amtrak train, so we certainly want to trace that lead down,” he told CNN.

WACO, Texas (AP) – Authorities are on guard in Waco after a shootout among rival motorcycle gangs at a restaurant left nine bikers dead and raised the specter of further violence.

Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton says authorities increased security to quell other possible attempts at criminal activity following the melee Sunday at Twin Peaks restaurant that also left 18 bikers wounded.

The violence erupted as members of at least five rival gangs gathered for a meeting.

Police say a dispute broke out, escalated to include knives and firearms and eventually spilled into the restaurant parking lot.

Parts of downtown were on lockdown Sunday night, and officials could be seen stopping and questioning motorcycle riders.

McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara says the nine dead were members of the Bandidos or Cossacks gangs.