Green Bay News

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Park Police have cited the operator of a small drone outside the White House with violating a federal law that prohibits flying unmanned aerial vehicles over Washington.

The police identified the man as 39-year-old Ryan MacDonald of Vacaville, California.

Ryan was detained Thursday afternoon by U.S. Secret Service officers for flying the drone over Lafayette Park, which is just north of the White House. The Secret Service turned him over to Park Police, who cited him and issued him a court date.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the airspace over Washington and nearby communities has been severely restricted. The Federal Aviation Administration had just on Wednesday launched a campaign to remind the public about its “No Drone Zone.” Violators can face federal civil and criminal penalties.

DE PERE —This season hasn’t gone as planned for the West De Pere softball team as injuries have slowed down what the Phantoms hoped would be a run to a Bay Conference title.

However, with less than two weeks left in the regular season, the Phantoms might be on pace to do more than win a conference title.

Thursday, Jennifer Timm had two hits, including a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning, and pitcher Amber Van Duyse recorded 17 of 21 outs via strikeout as West De Pere recorded a statement win with a 3-2 victory over Marinette, which entered the game one game out of first place in the Bay.

“This one is big,” West De Pere coach Carrie Jones said. “We work on getting better every day. A game like this will give us confidence going into the next game and into the end of the season and the postseason. It’s good to win a close game and come back from behind.

“It’s one of the biggest wins of the season. I think this definitely helps us mesh a little bit.”

West De Pere (11-8, 10-4), which had a seven-game losing streak this season, trailed 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth when Timm stepped into the batter’s box. The Niagara (N.Y.) signee fell behind 0-2 and then drilled a pitch over the centerfield fence for her seventh home run of the season.

Jenn is just a solid, consistent hitter all the time,” Jones said. “I think her batting average is .639. In that situation, I was confident she would come up big. She’s just a real good player.”

“I got up there and we call it, ‘Power Hour,’ and let’s get a run, score a couple runs and it just happened,” Timm said. “My thought was, ‘OK, a runner on two, a base hit gets her in. She pitched me one of my home run pitches and I just took it.”

Timm’s power was enough for Van Duyse, who missed two weeks this season with a left-ankle injury. The Murray State signee was dominant, holding the Marines (17-3, 11-3) to four hits.

“She pitched well,” Jones said. “She’s coming off an injury. A lot of times you’re wondering how she’s feeling, how she’s going to do. She never shows if she’s hurt or not. She came out strong and finished strong.”

West De Pere beat Marinette earlier this season, 18-12, but that was without Van Duyse. With the ace back in the circle and the team healthy the Phantoms hope to build on what was one of their biggest wins of the season.

“It’s up there because it was a hard-fought game; 2-1 in the sixth,” Timm said. “Probably one of the hardest games all season.”

Follow Doug Ritchay on Twitter @dougritchay

GREELEY, CO (KCNC-TV) – Five years ago, a teenager in Colorado lost his father.

Tanner Brownlee’s father was a sheriff’s deputy killed in the line of duty.

Tanner wanted to have one more memory of his dad, his patrol car.

The problem was, the bids at the auction became too high and Tanner couldn’t afford it.

A good Samaritan in the back of the room had a plan of his own.

Once Steve Wells placed the winning bid, the handed the keys over to Tanner.

“This is just so huge. I mean, me and my dad built a fence and stuff, but having something I can use and drive around that he drove around, it just means a lot,” said Tanner.

That auction raised more than $70,000 for a charity that helps families of fallen police officers.

That’s the same charity that helped Tanner’s family after his father’s death.

BOSTON (AP) – The jury deliberating the fate of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev announced Friday that it has reached a decision on whether he should be sentenced to life in prison without parole or to death.

The decision in the penalty phase of Tsarnaev’s trial came after just over 14 hours of deliberations.

Tsarnaev was convicted last month of all 30 federal charges against him, 17 of which carried the possibility of the death penalty.

Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured when two pressure-cooker bombs packed with shrapnel exploded near the marathon finish line April 15, 2013.

Tsarnaev’s lawyer, renowned death penalty specialist Judy Clarke, admitted from the beginning that he participated in the bombings, bluntly telling jurors in her opening statement: “It was him.”

But the defense sought to show that most of the blame for the attack fell on his radicalized older brother, Tamerlan, who wanted to punish the U.S. for its actions in Muslim countries. They said Dzhokhar was an impressionable 19-year-old who fell under the influence of a brother he admired.

Prosecutors portrayed Tsarnaev as an equal partner in the attack, saying he was so heartless he put a bomb behind a group of children, killing an 8-year-old boy.

Jurors heard emotional testimony from bombing survivors who described seeing their legs blown off or watching someone next to them die. Killed were Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old Boston University graduate student from China; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager from Medford; and 8-year-old Martin Richard, who had gone to watch the marathon with his family. Seventeen people lost legs in the bombings.

The brothers killed Massachusetts Institute of Technology police Officer Sean Collier days later. Tamerlan died in a shootout with police days after the bombing.

The S.S. Badger Carferry arrived in Manitowoc for the first time of the season on May 15, 2015.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — All poultry shows have been canceled at the Minnesota State Fair and county fairs across the state this year as authorities try to stop the spread of bird flu, the Minnesota Board of Animal Health announced Friday.

The board has also prohibited birds from being included in swap meets, exotic animal sales and petting zoos.

“We need to do everything possible to get rid of this virus and preventing the commingling of birds from different farms is one way to do that,” Dr. Beth Thompson, the board’s assistant director, said in a statement.

As of Thursday, 87 Minnesota turkey and chicken farms had been affected by confirmed or presumed outbreaks of the H5N2 avian influenza virus, which has cost the state’s producers around 5.8 million birds.

“This is a critical time for Minnesota’s poultry industry, and we’ll do whatever it takes to help. … We’ll use this as an opportunity to further educate people about the challenges of food production,” State Fair General Manager Jerry Hammer said in the statement.

Brad Rugg, who runs 4-H programs for University of Minnesota Extension, said young people will be disappointed that they won’t be able to show their poultry projects at fairs this summer, but that 4-H will explore alternate learning opportunities.

“Part of our job developing the next generation of agriculture leaders includes teaching youth best practices to ensure the health and safety of the animals they raise, and this is that learning being put into action in the real world,” Rugg said.

De Pere High School’s vocal music department came up with a creative idea for a fundraiser.

DE PERE – If you live in De Pere, you might have seen a decorated toilet in your neighbor’s front yard.

The toilets are a part of a fundraising event by De Pere High School’s vocal music department. Students decorated eight toilets and then the fun began.

“Each of the teams were able to choose the first location that they wanted to have the toilets located, so we did that, and then from there, the homeowners decided where they would like it to be relocated,” said Becky Bristol, a parent who came up with the idea.

If you see a toilet on your lawn, you’re asked to call a number and pay money to remove it.

Here’s the cost:

• $10 to have the toilet removed
• $15 to have the toilet relocated
• $20 for removal, relocation and insurance that the toilet won’t return

Throughout the fundraising event, a couple of people were unhappy to see a toilet on their lawn.

“We also have a provision that ‘potty poopers’ can have those toilets removed for free,” said Bristol said.

In six days, students reached their fundraising goal of $1,000 and the toilets have moved 130 times.

FOX 11’s Gabrielle Mays will have the full story on FOX 11 News at Nine.

NEW YORK (AP) — George Stephanopoulos apologized to viewers Friday for donating $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation and failing to disclose it earlier, as ABC News now finds its chief anchor in a credibility crisis on the eve of a presidential campaign.

Stephanopoulos said on “Good Morning America” that the donations, made in three increments to the foundation started by his one-time boss, former President Bill Clinton, were a mistake.

“I should have gone the extra mile to avoid even the appearance of a conflict,” the “GMA” and “This Week” host said. “I apologize to all of you for failing to do that.”

Stephanopoulos rose to the top ranks at ABC over 18 years and worked to establish himself as an independent journalist despite skepticism by some in politics because of his background as a top aide to Clinton’s 1992 campaign and later in the White House. The donations brought that issue back to the fore just as Hillary Rodham Clinton is launching her presidential campaign.

ABC News President James Goldston has not addressed whether Stephanopoulos will be disciplined. The network said in a statement Thursday that it stands behind Stephanopoulos and that the anchor made an honest mistake. ABC said Stephanopoulos voluntarily removed himself as a moderator for ABC’s planned coverage of a GOP presidential debate next February.

Network leaders must weigh how the issue will affect public perception of its top on-air political journalist, just as NBC News executives are wondering whether suspended anchor Brian Williams will be believable to viewers following revelations that he embellished details of stories he was involved in.

Peter Schweizer, author of “Clinton Cash,” a book that traces the public involvement of organizations that have donated to the Clinton Foundation, said Friday that Stephanopoulos’ donations “highlight precisely the lack of transparency and cronyism that I report on.” Stephanopoulos interviewed Schweizer recently on the Sunday public affairs program “This Week” without revealing the donations.

“It is incomprehensible to me that after George Stephanopoulos went out of his way to state on-air that I wrote speeches for President George W. Bush, Stephanopoulos hid from viewers the fact that he is himself a major Clinton Foundation donor,” Schweizer said.

Stephanopoulos has pointed out that this donation, among dozens he has made to charitable organizations, were a matter of public record. He said they were made to support the foundation’s work on global AIDS prevention and deforestation.

The Clinton foundation is not obligated by law to publish the name of donors and the amounts of their gifts, but the charity has often provided annually-updated lists since 2008. Public announcements have not always accompanied the updates, and each update is cumulative and reported in wide monetary ranges, making it difficult to spot precise amounts of donations.

The story is a threat to Stephanopoulos’ ability to cover politics for ABC, said Mark Feldstein, a veteran broadcast journalist now a professor at the University of Maryland.

“He seemed mostly to have put to rest fears that he would be too partisan to be a serious television journalist and news anchorman, but he couldn’t have given the Republican Party a greater sword to decapitate him,” said Feldstein, who is writing a book on media scandals.

Aly Colon, a professor of journalism ethics at Washington & Lee University, said he believed it would be best if ABC removed Stephanopoulos from coverage of anything related to the Clintons.

“In today’s environment, many people are truly suspicious of how the news is covered, and this just feeds into that suspicion more,” Colon said.

____

Associated Press correspondent Stephen Braun in Washington contributed to this report.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry will say whether he is running for president at an announcement next month in Dallas.

The longest-serving governor in Texas history has spent months traveling in the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina as he gears up for a second White House bid.

Perry’s wife, Anita, tweeted the first word of Perry’s plan for an announcement and then emailed supporters about it.

“America is facing a time of testing, and it’s clear that we need principled leadership and an optimistic vision to see us through after eight years of the Obama Administration,” she wrote.

A spokesman said Friday Perry is not ready to declare his candidacy. “He’s announcing his intentions on June 4,” Perry spokesman Travis Considine said in Washington, where he was traveling with Perry. “He has not said what he’ll be announcing. You’ll have to stay tuned.”

Asked if he knew whether Perry had made up his mind, senior adviser Jeff Miller said, “I do know that,” but refused to give any details.

When Perry got into the 2012 presidential race, he announced his campaign in South Carolina. He entered as a potential front-runner but flamed out after a series of blunders, including an infamous “oops” moment when Perry couldn’t remember, during a GOP debate, the name of the third Cabinet agency he wanted to eliminate.

Perry left office in January and is facing a criminal abuse-of-power indictment in Austin for threatening in 2012 to veto state funding for public corruption prosecutors and then doing so.

Besides maintaining his travel schedule, Perry has been studying with policy experts in an effort to make a stronger impression than he did in his first presidential run.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – A commercial real estate company says the owners of the downtown Milwaukee post office building are selling it for $12.8 million.

The U.S. Postal Service leases the 1 million square-foot property. DTZ Barry says the Postal Service has been housed at the downtown building since 1970.

DTZ Barry spokesman Kurt Van Dyke says it’s a significant property in terms of future redevelopment potential. The building sits on 9 acres along the Menomonee River.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson says a 2016 rematch election with Democrat Russ Feingold will be close but he’s optimistic that Republican grassroots campaigning will help him to victory.

The Republican told reporters at a news conference in Milwaukee on Friday that he expected Feingold would run but didn’t think Feingold would announce his candidacy so soon. Feingold announced Thursday that he would challenge Johnson.

With 18 months until the election, Johnson says he plans to focus on his work in Washington and hopes the state Republican Party will help him campaign.

Johnson also says early opinion polls that show Feingold ahead are meaningless. He says it’s too early to forecast how people would vote.

Johnson beat Feingold by 5 points in 2010.

Find a place near you to drop off unused prescription drugs on May 16, 2015.

MADISON (AP) – The state Department of Natural Resources plans to ask the Natural Resources Board this month to prohibit hunters from killing antlerless deer in 13 counties in effort to regrow the herd.

The DNR’s plan calls for no antlerless quotas in Douglas, Bayfield, Sawyer, Ashland, Iron, Vilas, Price, Oneida, Langlade, Forest, Florence and Racine counties as well a portion of Jackson County.

DNR officials say the herd across most of the northern forests remains well below desired levels. They say this past winter was mild but the herd needs more time to regrow itself.

The NRB is expected to consider the plan at a May 27 meeting in Madison.

LA CROSSE (AP) – Several local groups have petitioned state utility regulators for a new hearing on the $580 million high-voltage transmission line across western Wisconsin in an effort to stop the project.

The Citizens Energy Task Force and Save Our Unique Lands petitioned the Public Service Commission on Wednesday for a rehearing on the panel’s decision last month to approve the line.

The proposed Badger-Coulee line is a joint venture between Minnesota-based Xcel Energy and Wisconsin-based American Transmission Company as part of the CapX2020 project running across both states. The companies say the project will improve system reliability, lower electricity rates and provide a pipeline for wind energy, the La Crosse Tribune reported.

The Citizens Energy Task Force and Save Our Unique Lands argue that the line isn’t needed, because data from the federal Energy Information Administration shows U.S. electricity sales fell significantly during the recession and haven’t risen since rebounding in 2010. Sales in Wisconsin were about 1.8 percent below those in 2005, they said.

“Savings potential from high capacity transmission lines generally declines as energy use drops,” the groups said in a press release. “There are indications that contrary to terms of PSC approval, the project could make energy cost more than if the line was not built. These costs would be felt in addition to the negative impacts on local economies where the line would be located.”

A group of 30 Dane County landowners filed a separate petition for a rehearing on Wednesday. The residents want the Public Service Commission to require the companies to bury a 4.6-mile segment of the line near Middleton because the towers’ route would come within 100 feet of three homes.

They also argue that commissioners failed to determine the project’s cost-benefit ratio for electric customers and could end up losing money.

The Public Service Commission has 30 days to consider both rehearing requests.

WAUSAU (AP) – A Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy is accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl he met at a neighborhood barbecue.

Thirty-four-year-old Zachary Dorr resigned his position Thursday when a judge set bond for him at $100,000 cash on three felony charges, including sexual assault of a child.

A criminal complaint says a co-worker saw Dorr kissing the girl and giving her beer at a wedding reception last weekend at a Wausau-area hotel. The complaint accuses Dorr of taking the girl to his home and assaulting her.

The complaint says the girl told investigators she met Dorr about a month ago at the neighborhood gathering and the two exchanged phone numbers. Court records do not list an attorney for Dorr.

TOWN OF BELOIT (AP) – Police in the Town of Beloit say they’ve arrested a man they believe killed a woman he met online.

Authorities say the body of 19-year-old Brandy Carroll, of Beloit, was found in the suspect’s garage last Saturday. Police say they got a call from someone out of state who had talked to the suspect and learned about an altercation at the Town of Beloit house. The reporting person was concerned that someone may have been injured.

When police went to the house they found the woman’s body. An autopsy the following day determined her death was the result of a homicide.

The Rock County Sheriff’s Department investigating the case at the request of town police.

NEENAH – Trestle Trail shooting survivor Erin Stoffel was able to attend the funerals of her husband and daughter, who were killed in the May 3 shooting in Menasha.

ThedaCare says Stoffel went to the funerals with the help of medical transport. Afterward, she returned to Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah to continue her recovery. She remains in good condition.

The funerals for Jon, 33, and Olivia Stoffel, 11, were held Thursday night at Calvary Bible Church in Neenah. The Stoffels have two other children, Ezra and Selah. They were with their family on the trail that night, but were uninjured.

A funeral for a third person killed in the shooting, 31-year-old Adam Bentdahl of Appleton, was held last weekend.

MANITOWOC – The S.S. Badger will be making its way across Lake Michigan for another sailing season starting Friday.

The coal-fired ferry travels between Manitowoc and Ludington, Mich. It carries people and cars across the lake.

Officials say Lake Michigan Carferry Service has made the necessary environmental improvements to stay in service.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says LMC has taken all the steps necessary to permanently stop the discharge of coal ash into Lake Michigan.

LMC’s elimination of coal ash discharge was the result of a Clean Water Act enforcement action taken by EPA in September 2013.

EPA’s inspector confirmed that the S.S. Badger’s mechanism to discharge coal ash has been removed and replaced with a system to retain coal ash. The new system will transport ash from the ship’s four boilers to four retention bins on the car deck.

EPA required LMC to eliminate the discharge of coal ash into Lake Michigan by the end of the 2014 sailing season.

EPA also required LMC to reduce its coal ash discharge in 2013 and 2014 and to pay a $25,000 civil penalty for a 2012 violation of the mercury water quality standard.

The S.S. Badger is the last coal-fired steamship operating on the Great Lakes.

FOX 11’s Laura Smith is working on this story and will have a full report tonight on FOX 11 News at 5.

Take a look at the life and career of the late blues legend B.B. King.