Green Bay News

Photos from the May 13, 2015, installation of a barn quilt at the Charm Dairy.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office is investigating the death of a 7-week-old baby.

Authorities say the newborn was apparently sleeping with her mother and two siblings at a Milwaukee residence. The infant was pronounced dead about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.

An autopsy is expected to be done Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the derailment of Amtrak Train 188 “is a tragedy that touches us all.”

In a written statement, Obama offered prayers to the families who lost loved ones and the passengers beginning to recover. He said he and the first lady were “shocked and deeply saddened” to hear of the derailment.

The Northeast Regional carrying 238 passengers and five crew members derailed in Philadelphia shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday. The accident has closed the nation’s busiest rail corridor between Washington and New York as investigators try to determine what happened.

“Along the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak is a way of life for many,” Obama said. “From Washington, DC and Philadelphia to New York City and Boston, this is a tragedy that touches us all.

He commended first responders and said the effort to help passengers reaffirmed Philadelphia’s spirit of brotherly love.

Vice President Joe Biden said in a statement that he has spent decades in Washington commuting via Amtrak to and from his home in Wilmington, Delaware. “Amtrak is like a second family to me, as it is for so many other passengers,” Biden said.

“I’ve come to know the conductors, engineers, and other regulars – men and women riding home to kiss their kids goodnight – as we passed the flickering lights of each neighborhood along the way. Our thoughts are with every person who is grieving right now from this terrible tragedy,” Biden said.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition killed a senior Islamic State commander and others near the extremist-held city of Mosul. While the coalition said it conducted an airstrike there in the last 24 hours, American officials could not be immediately reached about the statement from Iraq, which has made incorrect claims before.

A ministry statement said the strike killed Abu Alaa al-Afari and others who were in a meeting inside a mosque in the city of Tal Afar. It described al-Afari as senior deputy to the Islamic State group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. It did not offer a time for the strike, nor any specific casualty figures. It did offer a black-and-white video clip of an airstrike hitting a building.

A Defense Ministry official later told The Associated Press that the airstrike happened late Tuesday. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to journalists.

American officials could not be immediately reached regarding the strike. The U.S.-led coalition said Wednesday it carried out a strike in the past day near Tal Afar, destroying “an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL heavy machine gun,” using a different acronym for the group.

The U.S. State Department’s Rewards for Justice program lists Abu Alaa as one of the aliases for a wanted Islamic State group senior leader named Abd Al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli. It says al-Qaduli joined al-Qaida in Iraq in 2004 under the command of its slain leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and served as his deputy and the group’s “emir,” or senior leader in northern city of Mosul.

The U.S. Treasury Department adds that in 2006, al-Qaduli traveled to Pakistan on behalf al-Zarqawi to conduct an interview, which was then to be provided to al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan. The Treasury Department added al-Qaduli to the list of specially designated global terrorists in 2014 “for acting for or on behalf of … the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,” a former name for the Islamic State group.

The State Department, which offers up to $7 million for al-Qaduli, says he was born in 1957 or 1959 in Mosul.

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Associated Press writer Vivian Salama contributed to this report.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican officially recognized the state of Palestine in a new treaty finalized Wednesday, immediately sparking Israeli ire and accusations that the move hurt peace prospects.

The treaty, which concerns the activities of the Catholic Church in Palestinian territory, makes clear that the Holy See has switched its diplomatic recognition from the Palestine Liberation Organization to the state of Palestine.

The Vatican had welcomed the decision by the U.N. General Assembly in 2012 to recognize a Palestinian state. But the treaty is the first legal document negotiated between the Holy See and the Palestinian state and constitutes official diplomatic recognition.

“Yes, it’s a recognition that the state exists,” said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi.

The Israeli foreign ministry said it was “disappointed” by the development.

“This move does not promote the peace process and distances the Palestinian leadership from returning to direct and bilateral negotiations,” the ministry said in a text message. “Israel will study the agreement and will consider its steps accordingly.”

The treaty was finalized days before Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visits Pope Francis at the Vatican. Abbas is heading to Rome to attend Francis’ canonization Sunday of two new saints from the Holy Land.

The Vatican has been referring unofficially to the state of Palestine for at least a year.

During Pope Francis’ 2014 visit to the Holy Land, the Vatican’s official program referred to Abbas as the president of the “state of Palestine.” In the Vatican’s latest yearbook, the Palestinian ambassador to the Holy See is listed as representing “Palestine (state of).”

The Vatican’s foreign minister, Monsignor Antoine Camilleri, acknowledged the change in status, given that the treaty was initially inked with the PLO and is now being finalized with the “state of Palestine.” But he said the shift was simply in line with the Holy See’s position.

This isn’t the first time that the Vatican under Francis has taken diplomatic moves knowing that it would ruffle feathers: Just last month, Francis referred to the slaughter of Armenians by Turkish Ottomans a century ago as a “genocide,” prompting Turkey to recall its ambassador.

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AP writer Ian Deitch contributed from Jerusalem.

GREEN BAY – A New London man has been sentenced to federal prison for producing child pornography.

Prosecutors say Shane M. Sells, 38, engaged in sexually explicit activities with children and recorded them on video. He also had hundreds of thousands of DVDs of child porn he had downloaded from the Internet, prosecutors say.

Sells argued he could not control his addiction to child pornography.

He was sentenced to 15 years in prison and will spend the rest of his life on supervision.

SLINGER (AP) – A Minnesota home care company plans to hire hundreds of employees who will lose their jobs when a Wisconsin long-term care nonprofit ceases operations this month at 11 locations.

Aderonke and Michael Mordi, president and vice president International Quality Homecare Corp., have announced they will hire at least 500 GeminiCares workers. The couple also said their company will expand into Wisconsin to maintain home care and other services with the GeminiCares workers’ clients, the La Crosse Tribune reported.

“We’ve always wanted to go into those areas,” Aderonke Mordi said Tuesday. “We already had an office in Trempealeau, and we’ve wanted to go to Eau Claire.”

More than 700 employees will be out of work when GeminiCares closes sites in Slinger, Adams, Hayward, Eau Claire, La Crosse, Marinette, Neillsville, Reedsburg, Stevens Point, Whitehall and West Bend on May 31. More than 100 workers in the La Crosse area and 85 in Whitehall will be affected.

About 200 GeminiCares employees already had applied for a job at the Mordis’ company as of Tuesday.

The Mordis, both of whom are pastors, immigrated from Nigeria more than 20 years ago. Their faith motivated them to launch a business to provide staff to nursing homes in 1998 and start International Quality Homecare Corp. in 2000, they said.

“That’s who we are,” Aderonke Mordi said. Her husband added, “We are both ministers of the gospel, and we have a passion for people.”

Their firm will offer health and other benefits to workers that GeminiCares did not, Aderonke Mordi said.

International Quality Homecare Corp. currently employs about 500 people and operates seven branches in Minnesota. The company is based in Rochester, Minnesota, and provides services to the elderly, people with disabilities and others with chronic health conditions.

OSHKOSH – Police are looking for three people suspected of damaging the door of a store.

The incident happened March 31 at Hobbytown USA, 807 Oregon St., Oshkosh police say. Investigators say a person wearing a gray sweatshirt and baseball cap kicked the door as he left, damaging the glass. He and two other people left in a white sedan on W. 9th Avenue.

Police say their investigation leads them to believe the three are from Sheboygan. Surveillance images of the suspects are available above.

Anyone with information is asked to call Det. Brett Robertson at (920) 236-5723. Anonymous tips can be left with Crime Stoppers by phone at (920) 231-8477, by text message with the keyword IGOTYA to 274637 or online.

MADISON – The Republican-controlled state Assembly will vote again on a bill Wednesday that would allow Wisconsin transportation officials to raise the speed limit to 70 mph on some roads.

The Republican-authored bill would permit the Department of Transportation to raise the limit to 70 mph on roads where they decide the limit would be safe. The measure would prohibit DOT from going to 70 mph on four-lane roads with at-grade access, however.

At-grade access means roads directly cross traffic on the highway, as opposed to using overpasses, underpasses and ramps.

The Assembly passed the measure overwhelmingly in March, but Senate Republicans were wary of the bill. Sen. Jerry Petrowski, R-Marathon, and Sen. Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, quelled concerns by drafting the at-grade prohibition as an amendment.

• Click here to read 2015 Assembly Bill 27 and its amendment

The Senate approved the amendment and the bill on voice votes last Wednesday with no debate. Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay, made the only comment about the bill on the Senate floor, saying it shows both parties can work together.

The measure was sent back to the Assembly because both houses must pass the same bill before it can go to Gov. Scott Walker for his signature. The proposal’s Assembly author, Rep. Paul Tittl, R-Manitowoc, helped craft the at-grade amendment, so passage in that chamber appears all but certain.

According to a fiscal estimate attached to the bill, DOT officials plan to raise the limit to 70 mph on freeway portions of the interstate system as well as portions of U.S. Highway 51, U.S. Highway 53 and U.S. Highway 141. The agency estimates it would spend about $238,000 to create and install 815 signs reflecting the change.

DOT also estimates it will spend another $126,000 to investigate raising the limit on other freeway and expressway segments.

The last three seasons the Neenah boys basketball program enjoyed great success, including a runner-up finish in the Division 1 state tournament in 2014 to Germantown and a big reason was the leadership of coach Scott Bork.

Bork compiled a 64-12 record in this period, but he won’t return for a fourth season after announcing he has resigned his position due to health concerns.

“I had some health concerns this year, second game this season against Appleton West, related to stress,” Bork said. “By stepping down it takes an awful lot of stress off my plate.

“I think some people manage stress better or delegate better. I continued to take more on. Some of it’s my fault.”

Being a varsity basketball coach is much different now than it was 10 or 15 years ago. Bork talked about not only the stress of the regular season, but having to plan open gyms and getting teams prepared for summer leagues. It’s an ongoing competition to keep up with what other schools in the state are doing.

There are way more things required,” he said. “It’s a year-round job.”

Bork remembers the third game of last season against Kimberly. He had received medical attention and was able to coach. Still, he was leery.

“Before the game I talked to (assistant coach) Chas (Pronschinske),” Bork remembers. “Was it the game that caused this?”

Bork was fine and finished out the season, which ended in a sectional semifinal loss to eventual state champ Stevens Point. He never expected to have to step down so soon from his position.

“I intended to coach until I retired from coaching, maybe longer after that,” he said.

As Bork steps away it’s obvious what he remembers the most about his 13 years in the Neenah program.

“The kids, the relationships I have with the kids,” he said. “Getting to the state tournament, state championship game, the Stevens Point games you won’t forget.”

Follow Doug Ritchay on Twitter @dougritchay

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Drug tests for some Wisconsin residents seeking unemployment or food stamp benefits would be required under a pair of bills poised for votes in the state Assembly.

The Republican-sponsored proposals are up for a vote Wednesday.

The bills would require applicants for state job training programs such as Wisconsin Works and certain applicants for unemployment benefits to answer questionnaires screening for drug abuse. Based on the answers, applicants could be forced to undergo tests and enter state-sponsored treatment to retain their eligibility.

• Click here to read 2015 Assembly Bill 191
• Click here to read 2015 Assembly Bill 192

Gov. Scott Walker has proposed similar testing requirements in his state budget.

The bills would also have to pass the Senate before going to Walker for his consideration.

MADISON (AP) – Some of the Madison Police Department’s toughest critics peacefully protested in the hours after a prosecutor said he wouldn’t charge an officer who killed an unarmed man. But the city faced another test Wednesday as activists called for a widespread walkout.

After recent riots in cities where white officers have killed black men – including Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore – Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne’s announcement Tuesday raised concerns that things could turn violent in Wisconsin’s capital city.

The Young, Gifted and Black Coalition, which called on black people and students to walk out of work and school on Wednesday morning, has staged multiple non-violent protests since Tony Robinson’s death on March 6. The group had demanded that Madison Officer Matt Kenny be fired and charged with homicide.

On Wednesday morning, protesters began gathering outside of the apartment house where the shooting happened. They had wagons of coffee and water bottles, and they planned to march into downtown Madison to conduct a street trial of the city’s police force.

Ozanne, who is biracial but identifies himself as black, is Wisconsin’s first minority district attorney. He pointed out his racial heritage as he made the announcement, noting his black mother participated in the Freedom Summer, a black voter registration drive in Mississippi in 1964. He said he views Robinson’s death through that lens, but made his decision based on the facts.

“I am concerned that recent violence around our nation is giving some in our community a justification for fear, hatred and violence,” Ozanne said as he wrapped up his announcement. “I am reminded that true and lasting change does not come from violence but from exercising our voices and our votes.”

Madison Police Chief Mike Koval said at a news conference Tuesday evening he was “hoping for a different sort of outcome in our community in the days to come” than the unrest experienced elsewhere.

“I’m confident those outcomes can be more constructive,” he said.

On Tuesday, about 275 supporters joined Robinson’s family in a march to the Capitol after the announcement, but they dispersed peacefully long before sunset.

Young, Gifted and Black wasn’t part of that rally.

“YGB did not anticipate justice would be served by the same system that killed Robinson and continues to violently target Black and Brown people,” the group said in a statement reacting to Ozanne’s announcement. “NO WORK. NO BUSINESS. NO SCHOOL. NO JUSTICE? NO PEACE,” the group said on its Facebook page.

Koval clashed with the group for months before Robinson’s death, calling members’ demands for authorities to release 350 black inmates and leave black neighborhoods untenable. In his blog Tuesday, the chief offered a rundown of city ordinances governing demonstrations as well as what actions can lead to arrests. He did not mention Young, Gifted and Black by name.

“I have no doubt that some individuals will make a principled decision to get arrested in order to make a definitive statement,” Koval wrote. “That is, in fact, a hallmark of civil disobedience and that decision is highly personal and should not be coaxed from others as the consequences will only affect the violator.”

The state Justice Department investigated Robinson’s death. According to witness accounts the agency compiled and released in reports after Ozanne announced his decision, Robinson was high on mushrooms the evening of March 6. He tried to grab a friend’s crotch in one of the bedroom’s apartments and took a swing at another friend in the living room. He also punched a man on the sidewalk outside the building, strangled another man at a gas station across the street, ran in and out of traffic and took a swing at a couple as they walked by, before going back inside.

Kenny responded to 911 calls and found the apartment house door open. He heard what he believed to be a disturbance in the upstairs apartment and assumed the suspect involved in the street assaults was inside the unit and attacking someone else, according to the DOJ.

He drew his firearm and began to climb the stairs, he told a DOJ agent. He was near the top when he announced himself as a police officer. Robinson appeared and punched him in the head, knocking him into the wall, he said.

Kenny said he was worried Robinson would knock him down the stairs, take his gun, shoot him and then kill whoever was in the apartment. He fired seven rounds. Somehow both men ended up at the bottom of the stairs.

Another officer arrived and checked the apartment only to find it empty. Kenny rendered aid to Robinson.

“Stay with me. Stay with me,” Kenny said he told him before paramedics took over. A responding firefighter told investigators it was clear Robinson was dead at the scene. As other officers led Kenny away, she heard him swearing to himself over and over.

Kenny told the DOJ agent he couldn’t use nonlethal force because of “space and time considerations.”

Ozanne said toxicology reports confirmed Robinson had taken mushrooms, smoked marijuana and taken Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug.

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Associated Press writers Scott Bauer and Dana Ferguson contributed to this report.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Food stamp recipients in Wisconsin would be limited in the types of food they buy, including how much of their allotment can be spent on junk food, under a bill up for a vote in the state Assembly.

The Assembly plans to vote on the Republican-sponsored measure Wednesday.

The bill requires food stamp recipients to use at least two-thirds of their monthly benefits to purchase nutritional foods such as beef, chicken and produce.

• Click here to read 2015 Assembly Bill 177

Supporters say they want to prevent public benefits being used on junk food.

Users would also be barred from buying crab, lobster, shrimp and other shellfish.

The change requires a federal waiver, which no state has ever received.

The Assembly passed a similar bill last session but it never got a vote in the Senate.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The Wisconsin state Assembly plans to vote on passing a bill to ensure that scores on the statewide Badger Exam given to public school children this spring aren’t used against teachers or put on report cards measuring school performance.

The bill up for a vote on Wednesday already passed the Senate. If passed by the Assembly, it will then go to Gov. Scott Walker.

• Click here to read 2015 Assembly Bill 78

The Badger Exam was beset with a variety of problems that led to widespread criticism from parents, school districts, state policymakers and Walker.

Because the test is tied to the more rigorous Common Core academic standards, scores were expected to be lower than they had been in previous years. That, along with implementation problems, also raised concerns about how the results would be viewed and used.

SUAMICO- The NEW Zoo is showing off a couple new additions.

NEW Zoo Director Neil Anderson joined Good Day Wisconsin and shared some fun facts about them.

Take a look.

BARABOO, Wis. (AP) – Court documents in Sauk County say a mother facing charges of concealing the death of her newborn told police the baby drowned during a home water birth.

A criminal complaint charging Brenda Bomstein says she told investigators she learned about water births while watching cable TV. The 33-year-old Lake Delton woman says she gave birth in a bathtub at her parents’ home in Baraboo in October 2010.

Prosecutors say Bomstein left the newborn in the tub while she went to look for a turkey baster to clear the infant’s airway. And, when she returned to the bathroom, the infant appeared to have died.

The complaint says Bomstein told investigators she panicked and did not call for help. Police say an anonymous caller recently tipped them about the infant death.

The Baraboo News Republic (http://bit.ly/1PGkN2z ) says Bomstein is jailed on $10,000 bond.

CHAUTARA, Nepal (AP) – Officials with bullhorns walked through the quake-damaged streets of this small Nepal town Wednesday, calling for people to leave buildings in danger of falling after a second major earthquake in less than three weeks.

The evacuation orders came a day after Nepal, just beginning to rebuild after the devastating April 25 temblor, was hit by a magnitude-7.3 quake. Tuesday’s earthquake killed at least 76 people, injured another 2,700 and caused landslides that blocked roads and slowed the delivery of relief supplies.

“There is danger!” the officials called out over the bullhorns. “Leave the buildings!”

Most people, though, had fled into the open the day before, and had spent the night in tents or under plastic tarps.

Tuesday’s quake battered Chautara, a foothills town that became a hub for rescuers and humanitarian aid after the first earthquake. Officials there said at least three people had died Tuesday and more than 60 were injured.

Jamie McGoldrick, a U.N. official in Nepal, said the earthquake had aggravated problems in the areas hit by the earlier temblor.

“Damaged houses were further damaged or destroyed. Houses and schools building spared before were affected yesterday, roads were damaged,” he said Wednesday.

Among 14 quake-hit districts, some are very inaccessible. A large part of population could not be reached easily as roads have been damaged by the earthquake.

“Some are even difficult to reach by helicopter. We are facing monumental challenge here to support the government in these districts to have credible response,” he said.

Meanwhile, a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter carrying six Marines and two Nepalese soldiers was reported missing while delivering disaster aid Tuesday in the country’s northeast, U.S. officials said, although there have been no indications the aircraft crashed.

Home ministry official Laxmi Dhakal said Wednesday that army helicopters were scouring the Sunkhani area, nearly 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Kathmandu, for the missing helicopter.

The quake struck hardest in the foothills of the Himalayas. Most of the 65 people confirmed dead by Wednesday afternoon were in Dolakha district, northeast of Kathmandu, said the district’s chief administrator, Prem Lal Lamichane.

“People are terrorized. Everyone is scared here. They spent the night out in the open,” Lamichane said, adding the administration was running out of relief material.

He asked the government to send more helicopters and supplies, and said there were many injured people stranded in villages.

Tuesday’s quake also left nearly 2,000 injured, according to the Home Ministry’s latest count. But that toll was expected to rise as reports trickled in from isolated Himalayan towns and villages. Tuesday’s quake also killed 16 in northern India, and one person in Tibet.

The magnitude-7.8 earthquake that hit April 25 killed more than 8,150 people and flattened entire villages, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless in the country’s worst-recorded quake since 1934. The U.S. Geological Survey said Tuesday’s earthquake was the largest aftershock of that quake.

But while the recent quake was terrifying and deadly, it was significantly less powerful than April’s and occurred deeper in the Earth. Working from U.S. Geological Survey data, calculations done by University of Michigan earthquake geophysicist Eric Hetland indicated that about 65,000 people were exposed to “violent” shaking Tuesday – compared to 1.5 million on April 25.

While the first quake exposed just under 8,000 square kilometers (3,100 square miles) to severe shaking, Tuesday’s exposed only about 660 square kilometers (255 square miles) to the same intensity, he said. And that, he added, came in a region with lower population density and no urbanized areas.

“That’s really the key difference, in terms of how the earthquake affects people,” Hetland said.

The first quake also drove many people to leave damaged homes, which were empty when Tuesday quake caused more damage and collapses.

Impoverished Nepal appealed for billions of dollars in foreign aid after the first quake, as well as medical experts to treat the wounded and helicopters to ferry food and temporary shelters to hundreds of thousands left homeless amid unseasonal rains.

On Wednesday, McGoldrick said the U.N. has revised its appeal to international donors to provide $423 million as against $415 million sought earlier for relief work to last three months given the magnitude of the task.

He also said the response to the U.N. appeal has been poor and so far received only about 15 percent.

In Washington, Navy Capt. Chris Sims said the missing Huey helicopter was conducting disaster relief operations near the Nepal town of Charikot.

A nearby Indian helicopter heard radio chatter about a possible fuel problem, said U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren. The Huey, carrying tarps and rice, had dropped off supplies and was headed to a second site when contact was lost, he said, adding that there has been no smoke or other signs of a crash.

Due to the rugged terrain, the helicopter could have landed in an area where the crew was unable to get a beacon or radio signal out, Warren said.

TOKYO (AP) – Toyota Motor Corp. is expanding its recalls over problem air bags made by Japanese supplier Takata Corp.

Toyota said Wednesday it was recalling nearly 5 million more vehicles globally for the air bag inflator problem. Some 637,000 of them in the United States. In Japan, it is recalling nearly 1.4 million vehicles.

The recall affects 35 models globally, including the Corolla subcompact, RAV4 sport utility vehicle and Tundra pickup, produced from March 2003 through November 2007. Front passenger and front driver-side air bag inflators can deploy abnormally.

When combined with earlier recalls, Toyota’s Takata-related recalls balloon to 8.1 million vehicles.

SHAWANO – We are exploring Shawano this morning!

FOX 11’s Emily Deem made her way to the Shawano area to explore what is new and what people can explore this summer!

The Shawano Country Barn Quilt Project will celebrate the completion of the 300th Barn Quilt installation.  People are able to come out at watch the event.  The barn quilt installation begins at 9:00 a.m.

Location: Chuck and Mary Lou Kugel farm, W5924 Porter Rd., Shawano, WI 54166

Emily also made stops at Mountain Bay Outfitters and Glas, the Green Coffee House in Shawano.

GREEN BAY- Frost has formed in some locations.

But things are warming up, it will be sunny with a high around 60.

A storm system moves in from the west Thursday and will bring increasing clouds during the day with high temperatures reaching 62 and southeast winds picking up in the afternoon.

Rain will develop probably after 6 p.m. Thursday in Green Bay and the Fox Cities, and continue into early Friday morning.

Thunderstorms are not anticipated. Rain totals will likely be between a quarter inch and a half inch in most areas.