Green Bay News

GREEN BAY — The Green Bay Packers organization defended its sponsorship deal with the Wisconsin National Guard following recent criticism of such deals from a U.S. senator who singled out the New York Jets.

Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona criticized the Jets for accepting money from the New Jersey National Guard for military appreciation events and failing to disclose that they were sponsored. He also criticized the Department of Defense for using taxpayer money to enter into marketing agreements with any entity, Press-Gazette Media (http://gbpg.net/1zXBcOC ) reported.

The Packers received more than $833,000 from the National Guard over a five-year period from 2009 to 2014, according to federal reports.

The Wisconsin National Guard has a longstanding relationship with the Packers and entered into a marketing campaign with the team to aid in recruitment, retention and awareness of Guard activities, said Maj. Paul Rickert, director of public affairs for the Wisconsin National Guard.

“As part of the program … some was recruiting with appearances by military members,” he said. “To say the bulk of that cost was to have members appear would not be accurate.”

Sponsors’ names and logos may be included on programs, signs, handouts, video boards and announcements, said Packers spokesman Aaron Popkey.

“That’s the whole nature of having a partnership,” Popkey said. “It’s clear these elements have a sponsor when they do have a sponsor.”

The team’s deals with the Wisconsin National Guard included advertising on the stadium’s video board, signs and website, according to the Packers. The Guard has sponsored programs such as high school coach of the week, a job fair for veterans and an ongoing medical education program.

“The Packers’ partnership with the Wisconsin National Guard is similar to our other partnerships in that it includes traditional marketing aspects designed to address its objectives …,” Popkey said. “We think we are pretty good at working with groups to design programs that meet their objectives.”

But not all activities involving military organizations are sponsored, he said, adding the some unsponsored events are private.

APPLETON – Downtown Appleton Incorporated announced some big events for this summer’s upcoming season.

The announcement included a new year-round indoor farm market, as well as lunchtime concerts with various food vendors.

You can check out the full event calendar here.

Live performances and bands were on hand Tuesday as the lineup was announced.

Organizers say this is a push to get more families to come to Appleton and enjoy what the community has to offer.

“We lay out this incredible line up of events and people come together and it’s really about placemaking. It’s about making this a place where people want to be. They want together and converse and bring their family downtown, and experience something exciting and fun,” said Jennifer Stephany, Appleton Downtown, Inc.

Aside from the lunchtime live concerts, a summer concert series will also run from June until August.

Photos from Andy Land’s excursion to Mt. Everest, which was interrupted by an earthquake on April 25, 2015.

NEW YORK (AP) – The lawyer who investigated the New England Patriots says that he had found direct, not just circumstantial, evidence to show quarterback Tom Brady knew about employees deflating footballs.

Ted Wells said on a conference call Tuesday that his findings would have been enough to convince a jury in a civil trial under the “preponderance of evidence” standard.

Wells released his report last Wednesday, asserting it was “more probable than not” that Brady “was at least generally aware” of plans by two team employees to prepare the balls to his liking, below the league-mandated minimum of 12.5 pounds per square inch.

On Monday, Brady was suspended for the season’s first four games. A day later, Wells angrily refuted criticism from Brady’s agent.

(CNN) – Picture this, your face on the cover of your favorite Lay’s potato chip bag.

It can happen with the company’s “Lay’s Summer Days” promotion.

Frito-Lay is offering customers the chance to upload a favorite summer photo to its interactive tool called the Lay’s Summer Bag Creator.

The first 10,000 customers will get a bag of chips emblazoned with their own custom photo and caption.

Everyone else will get a digital version of their personalized bag of chips to share online.

The promotion runs through July 4.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – A 94-year-old man will be one of the oldest graduates in the West Virginia University history when he receives his diploma Sunday.

The school says in a press release that Anthony Brutto, who studied on and off for 75 years, will be awarded his Regents Bachelor of Arts degree during commencement.

Brutto first entered the university in 1939 when tuition was $50. He was drafted in 1942, serving in the Army Air Corps until the end of World War II.

Brutto re-enrolled at the school in 1946, but could not finish because he had to care for his sick wife.

A machinist by trade, Brutto says graduating from college was always important to him. He jokingly says he’ll take a break before pursuing a master’s degree.

WASHINGTON (AP) – A U.S. military helicopter carrying six Marines and two Nepalese Army soldiers went missing during a mission in Nepal delivering aid to earthquake victims, U.S. defense officials said Tuesday, but so far there have been no indications that the aircraft crashed.

U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren said an Indian helicopter in the air nearby at the time heard radio chatter about a possible fuel problem. He said the Huey had dropped off supplies in one location and was en route to a second site when contact was lost. He said officials are hopeful that the aircraft is simply missing because there has been no smoke or other signs of a crash.

Navy Capt. Chris Sims says the Huey was conducting disaster relief operations near Charikot, Nepal, on Tuesday, around 9 a.m. EDT.

Warren said other U.S. aircraft had searched the area, but because it’s now dark members of the Nepalese military are conducting the search on foot. He said they are moving toward the second aid location to see if the helicopter landed near there.

The aircraft is part of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 469.

The incident is under investigation.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid says the National Football League is more concerned with air in footballs than the Washington Redskins’ “racist” name.

Reid spoke on the Senate floor a day after the NFL suspended New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for the first four games of the upcoming season for his role in a scheme to deflate footballs used in the AFC title game. The league also fined the Patriots $1 million and took away two draft picks.

The Nevada senator said he wished Commissioner Roger Goodell would act as swiftly to change a name that denigrates Native Americans as he did about “enough air in a football.”

Reid has previously criticized the team’s name and engaged in a war of words with the Washington club.

Read an analysis of the storm that caused $122 million in damage, mainly in Chilton and St. Nazianz.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Tom Brady and the New England Patriots are preparing for a fight.

The reigning Super Bowl MVP will appeal his four-game suspension, his agent said, and the team threw its “unconditional” support behind its quarterback after the NFL came down hard on its biggest star in the “Deflategate” scandal.

“Tom Brady has our unconditional support,” Patriots owner Bob Kraft said in a statement issued on Monday night. “Our belief in him has not wavered.”

Five days after an NFL investigator reported that it was “more probable than not” that the Patriots broke the rules, the league handed down its punishment: Brady was banished for four games, and the Patriots were penalized $1 million — matching the largest fine in league history — and docked two draft picks for using improperly inflated footballs in the AFC Championship game.

NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent also indefinitely suspended the two equipment staffers who carried out the plan, including the one who referred to himself in text messages obtained by the league as “The Deflator.”

In letters to the team and Brady, Vincent wrote that the league’s investigation found “substantial and credible evidence” that the quarterback knew the employees were deflating footballs. It also said he failed to cooperate with investigators.

The investigation by attorney Ted Wells found that Brady “was at least generally aware” of plans by two Patriots employees to prepare the balls to his liking, below the league-mandated minimum of 12.5 pounds per square inch.

“Each player, no matter how accomplished and otherwise respected, has an obligation to comply with the rules,” Vincent wrote, “and must be held accountable for his actions when those rules are violated and the public’s confidence in the game is called into question.”

Unless the suspension is overturned on appeal, Brady would miss the first four games of the season — including the league’s marquee Sept. 10 opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers at which the Super Bowl championship banner would be traditionally raised. He would also miss games against Buffalo in Week 2, a home game against Jacksonville and a game at Dallas.

Brady would return the week of a Patriots-Colts AFC championship rematch in Indianapolis. Backup Jimmy Garoppolo, a 2014 second-round selection from Eastern Illinois who won the Walter Payton award as the best player in the FCS, has thrown 27 NFL passes, including one touchdown.

Brady has three days to appeal the suspension to Commissioner Roger Goodell or his designee.

“The discipline is ridiculous and has no legitimate basis,” Brady’s agent, Don Yee, said in a statement that questioned the NFL’s integrity and opened the still-raw wound of the league’s botched investigation of the Ray Rice domestic abuse case.

“The NFL has a well-documented history of making poor disciplinary decisions that often are overturned when truly independent and neutral judges or arbitrators preside,” Yee said. “Sadly, today’s decision diminishes the NFL as it tells its fans, players and coaches that the games on the field don’t count as much as the games played on Park Avenue.”

The Patriots would lose next year’s first-round pick and a fourth-round choice in 2017. Kraft, who said after the Wells Report was released that he would abide by the league’s decision, reversed himself on Monday, saying in his statement that said the punishment “far exceeded any reasonable expectation.”

It’s the second time in eight years the Patriots have been punished for violating league rules. In 2007, the team was fined $500,000 and docked a first-round draft pick, and coach Bill Belichick was fined $250,000 for videotaping opposing coaches as a way to decipher their play signals.

In his 243-page report released by the league last week, Wells found that the team broke the rules again, this time by deflating the game footballs after they had been checked by officials.

Although the report did not conclusively link Brady to the illegal activity, text messages between the equipment staffers indicated that the quarterback “was at least generally aware” of it. Investigators said Brady’s explanation for the messages was implausible.

“It is unlikely that an equipment assistant and a locker room attendant would deflate game balls without Brady’s knowledge and approval,” the report said.

The NFL allows each team to provide the footballs used by its offense — a procedure Brady played a role in creating — but it requires them to be inflated in that range of 12.5-13.5 pounds per square inch. Footballs with less pressure can be easier to grip and catch, and Brady has expressed a preference for the lower end of the range.

The league owners will discuss the pregame handling of footballs next week at their meetings in San Francisco.

Vincent told the Patriots that it did not matter whether the flatter footballs affected the outcome of the 45-7 win over the Colts. He said it was likely that was not the first time the footballs had been improperly inflated, citing evidence referring to games before the start of the 2014 season.

“It is impossible to determine whether this activity had an effect on the outcome of games or what that effect was,” Vincent said.

The Patriots went on to beat the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl 28-24 — their fourth NFL title since the 2001 season. In his only public comments since the release of the Wells Report, Brady said that the scandal hasn’t taken away from the team’s accomplishments.

“Absolutely not,” he said at a previously planned appearance in Salem, Massachusetts, Thursday night. “We earned everything we got and achieved as a team, and I am proud of that and so are our fans.”

Fans chanted “Brady” and “MVP,” then gave him a standing ovation as he entered the arena in the town made famous by the colonial witch trials. Since the airing of the scandal in the hours after the Colts game, New England fans have been unwavering in their support for the team, blaming the investigation on grudges by opponents jealous of the team’s success.

But the odds for the Patriots winning another championship dropped from 7-1 to 10-1, according to the Glantz-Culver line.

WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. household debt levels were mostly unchanged in the first three months of this year, held back by tight mortgage credit standards and consumer reluctance to borrow heavily.

Total household debt ticked up 0.2 percent to $11.85 trillion in the first quarter, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Tuesday. That’s a nearly flat reading after two quarters of increases. Household debt, which includes mortgages, student and auto loans, and credit cards, is still 6.5 percent below its 2008 peak of $12.7 trillion.

The figures suggest that lenders’ high credit standards and reluctance among consumers to run up debt continue to weigh on the economy.

Americans spent cautiously in the first quarter, even as gas prices fell sharply and hiring picked up. Consumer spending rose at the slowest pace in a year. Total credit card debt fell $16 billion, or 2.3 percent, during that period.

Consumers are also cautious about borrowing against their homes. Home equity lines of credit, which ballooned during the housing boom as Americans used their housing wealth to fuel more spending, were also flat at $510 billion.

Banks are requiring larger down payments and in many cases higher credit scores for would-be home buyers, making it harder to obtain a mortgage, particularly for first-time buyers.

Mortgage debt, the largest component of household borrowing, was unchanged in the first quarter from the final three months of last year, at $8.17 trillion. Outstanding mortgage debt rose only $6 billion from a year earlier.

One reason mortgage debt has changed little is that a wave of refinancing in 2013 lowered the interest rate many Americans pay, economists at the New York Fed said. That has likely boosted the proportion of their monthly payments that goes toward paying down loans. The larger payments on principal have helped offset new mortgage debt taken out for home purchases, which are about 10 percent higher than a year ago.

Tight credit and reluctance to build debt may slow consumer spending and the economy, but there is a bright side as well: they are also improving Americans’ finances.

Just 112,000 Americans received a foreclosure notice in the first quarter, the lowest since the New York Fed began tracking the data in 1999.

And just 255,000 Americans declared bankruptcy, 4.1 percent fewer than last year and the lowest figure since early 2006.

Slightly more people are keeping up with their student loan payments. Overall student debt has soared since the 2008-09 recession. Americans are carrying $1.19 trillion in student debt, up 7 percent from a year ago. About 11.1 percent of student loans are 90 days or more overdue. That’s down from 11.3 percent in the fourth quarter.

NEW YORK (AP) — Verizon is buying AOL for about $4.4 billion, advancing the telecom’s push in both mobile and advertising fields.

The acquisition gives Verizon an entry into increasingly competitive online and mobile video. The New York company is the country’s largest wireless carrier as well as an Internet and TV provider — and wireless video and targeted advertising is seen as the next battleground for customers.

The move comes as the media landscape is increasingly being disrupted on several fronts as more TV watchers stream shows online and through their smartphones and tablets. AOL offers an advertising sales and display network that made it an acquisition target.

“AOL’s focus on unifying the advertising experience across display, video, mobile and TV makes it an attractive asset because advertisers are looking for better ways to reach their audience across screens,” said Lauren Fisher, analyst at eMarketer. “Coupled with Verizon’s existing mobile (and streaming video) presence, the companies’ combined ad offerings mean massive cross-screen reach with much richer audience data.”

Increasingly, companies like Verizon and Google are looking to connect together the video and other content viewers want, the digital “pipes” that deliver the content and the advertising networks that support it.

Verizon said last month that it was preparing to launch a video service over the summer for mobile devices. It also recently began offering various levels of cable service rather than one big cable package, which has been the norm.

That has put Verizon at odds with major content companies like ESPN as it sees more customers cut the cord in favor of video that is streamed online.

Verizon will gain access to AOL’s advanced advertising technology, including its “One by AOL” integrated platform. AOL reported a 7 percent boost in revenue during its first quarter, mainly on strong global advertising sales.

It also gains control over significant AOL content, including cultural and political website The Huffington Post, and also TechCrunch. AOL is the nation’s fourth-largest online property with about 200 million monthly consumers of its premium brands, according to its website.

Verizon Communications Inc. will pay $50 in cash for each share of AOL Inc., also based in New York, a 15 percent premium to its closing price on Monday.

“Verizon’s vision is to provide customers with a premium digital experience based on a global multiscreen network platform,” said chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam in a printed statement.

The deal is expected to close this summer. Tim Armstrong, AOL chairman and CEO, will continue to lead that company.

Verizon has 108.6 million wireless customers, 5.7 million FiOS video subscribers and 6.7 million Internet subscribers. It operates in 150 countries.

During its most recent quarter, it saw wireless subscribers grow by 4.8 percent, while FiOS Internet customers grew 36 percent. FiOS cable customers grew 58 percent.

AOL has evolved since its early days as an Internet company with the familiar phrase “You’ve got mail.” It started out as Quantum Computer Services in 1985 and was renamed America Online in 1991. By 1996, it reached 5 million members.

As AOL grew larger, it began to make acquisitions. It purchased CompuServe and ICQ in 1998 and Moviefone and Netscape the next year. In 2000, it acquired MapQuest. A year after the MapQuest purchase, AOL merged with Time Warner to form AOL Time Warner. The deal with Time Warner would come to be considered one of the most disastrous business combinations in history after failing to gel.

The company changed its name from America Online to AOL during that time. In 2009 AOL was spun off from Time Warner, becoming an independent, publicly traded company.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Verizon Wireless will pay $90 million and Sprint $68 million to settle charges that the mobile giants allowed phony charges on their customers’ monthly bills so they could keep a cut of the profit, federal regulators announced Tuesday.

The two mobile providers had partnered with third-party vendors that sell premium text messaging services, such as daily horoscopes, trivia and sports scores. But consumers who hadn’t signed up for the services were being billed anyway, typically about $9.99 a month, according to the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission and several state attorneys general. Regulators said they launched an investigation after receiving numerous complaints that the carriers had refused to refund the charges.

Both companies said in statements emailed to reporters on Tuesday that they had stopped allowing premium text messaging before the government investigation began. Sprint spokesman Jeffrey Silva said the company had already returned “tens of millions of dollars” to its customers.

“This settlement gives our customers who believe they were wrongfully billed for (premium text messaging) services the ability to get a refund, and allows Sprint to continue to focus on enhancing the customer experience,” Silva wrote.

Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Debra Lewis said the settlement “reflects Verizon’s continued focus on putting customers first.” She added that the company had “rigorously protected” its customers from unauthorized charges.

“Verizon thoroughly vetted the companies that provided these services and terminated providers who did not comply with our industry-leading practices,” Lewis wrote.

According to the FCC, consumers who called the carriers to complain were denied a refund even though the carriers were unable to provide proof that the customer had authorized the charges. At the same time, Verizon kept at least 30 percent of each billing charge, while Sprint kept about 35 percent.

The FCC, FTC and other regulators cheered the move as a signal that the practice, known as “mobile cramming,” would no longer be tolerated. Last year, T-Mobile agreed to pay $90 million for cramming while AT&T Mobility agreed to a $105 million settlement.

The investigation drew in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as well as law enforcement in every state. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said he estimates that about 2 million New Yorkers will be eligible for refunds.

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said consumers still need to remain vigilant of scams.

“It’s becoming more and more common to use our phones and not our wallets when making purchases,” Frosh said. “As mobile payment systems become more prevalent, scammers will attempt to find ways to manipulate these applications.”

Most of the money paid by the providers under the settlement will be used to refund duped consumers. Verizon’s $90 million settlement stipulates that at least $70 million will go toward a “consumer redress program,” $16 million will go to states, and $4 million is for fines. Sprint’s $68 million settlement includes $50 million for a consumer program, $12 million for state governments and $6 million in fines.

Verizon Wireless said it had set up a website where consumers can get more information: http://www.cfpbsettlementverizon.com.

NEW YORK (AP) – Drivers who have seen a steady rise in the price of gasoline can relax: They will almost certainly be paying far less for gas this summer than they have in at least six years.

“It’s a cheap, cheap, cheap year,” says Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service.

The Energy Department said Tuesday that it expects the price of gasoline to average $2.55 between April and September, which would be the lowest since 2009. Over the course of the year, a typical U.S household could save $675 in gasoline prices compared to last year.

The coming summer of cheap gas was set up by a collapse in oil prices that began last June at $107 a barrel and ended in mid-March at $43. That took gasoline prices down to $2.03 a gallon, a level the nation hadn’t seen since it was deep in recession in March of 2009.

Since then the price of crude has risen nearly $20 a barrel to around $60, propelled by evidence in recent weeks that drillers in the U.S. and around the world have sharply cut back on new projects while demand for fuels has increased.

The rise in oil pushed gasoline prices higher, along with typical seasonal factors such as refinery maintenance and the switch from winter to summer gasoline to meet clean-air rules. The national average price of gasoline reached $2.66 per gallon, where it has held steady in recent days. The price is 99 cents cheaper than last year at this time, according to AAA, OPIS and Wright Express.

But many believe the surge in both oil and gasoline prices is near an end. Supplies of crude oil remain extremely high, and drillers who have been waiting on the sidelines for higher prices are ready to start producing more oil again.

“The rebound over the last few months could simply encourage US firms to restart production, while undermining any pick-up in demand,” wrote Julian Jessop, head of commodities research at Capital Economics in a recent report. “We think that prices are now more likely to fall than to rise over the remainder of the year.”

William Thomas, CEO of EOG Resources, one of the country’s biggest shale drillers, told investors in a recent call that he expects drilling activity to pick up if oil prices stabilize near $65 a barrel or more. Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm told investors last week that his company would start sending more rigs out to the field if oil gets near $70 a barrel.

At the same time, refiners are making strong profits because their cost to buy crude is low compared with the prices they are getting for fuels. In an effort to capture those profits, they have cranked up their refineries, which is boosting supplies of gasoline on the market.

“They are clearly motivated to run as high and hard as they can,” Kloza says of U.S. refiners.

Kloza says gas should be cheaper on Father’s Day than it was on Mother’s Day, and he thinks that the national average price will stay in a range of $2.45 to $2.60 a gallon throughout the summer. That’s about $1 to $1.10 cheaper per gallon than last year.

The one big exception is California, which is suffering the highest gasoline prices in the country by a large margin. California drivers are paying an average of $3.73, higher even than Hawaii and Alaska, which typically pay the nation’s highest average price. An explosion at an ExxonMobil refinery in southern California in February has reduced supplies throughout the state, and California has special gasoline requirements so it can’t easily replenish its stockpile with supplies from elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Southeast states such as Missouri, South Carolina and others that usually enjoy the lowest prices in the country could see average prices under $2.

Last week, AAA forecast that low gas prices and an improved job market will inspire more than 37 million Americans to travel for Memorial Day, the highest total in 10 years.

The biggest threat to low gasoline prices this summer and fall is, as always, a hurricane that forces the refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast to slow or shut production. Forecasters expect this hurricane season to be less active than usual, but one tropical storm has already formed nearly three weeks before the official start of the season. Gasoline prices remain vulnerable to hurricanes because of the huge concentration of refineries along the Gulf Coast.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. (AP) – Police in Massachusetts have some sage advice: Don’t go chasing after bears while drunk and armed with nothing more than a dull hatchet.

North Adams police said on their Facebook page that someone did just that on Monday.

“Chasing bears through the woods drunk with a dull hatchet is strongly not advised,” the department posted, noting that the man was taken into protective custody “due to his incapacitation from the consumption of alcoholic beverage.”

No name was released.

Police said anyone who sees a bear should leave it alone and call authorities.

“We certainly don’t need anyone going all Davy Crockett …” police wrote.

Bears are not unusual in the largely rural western part of the state.

A dispatcher said Tuesday said no one was available to handle media calls.

DETROIT (AP) – General Motors is recalling nearly 470,000 Chevrolet Malibu midsize cars to fix potentially weakened steel cables that link the front seat belts to the vehicles.

The company also is recalling about 53,000 Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize pickup trucks to fix seat frame hooks that weren’t installed properly during assembly.

The Malibu recall covers cars from the 2011 and 2012 model years mainly in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The cables can weaken and break as people move in the seats, causing the seat belts to fail.

GM says it knows of no crashes but one minor injury due to the problem. There have been 36 warranty claims.

Dealers will replace a mounting bracket and inspect the cable and replace it if needed.

The pickup recall covers 2015 models in the U.S. and Canada. Dealers will inspect seats for proper installation and make sure the seat frame hooks are properly attached to the body.

GM says it knows of no crashes or injuries because of the problem.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Prices for eggs and turkey meat are rising as an outbreak of bird flu in the Midwest claims an increasing number of chickens and turkeys. Market experts say grocery stores and wholesalers are trying to stock up on eggs, but there’s no need to worry about having enough turkeys for Thanksgiving.

The cost of a carton of large eggs in the Midwest has jumped nearly 17 percent to $1.39 a dozen from $1.19 since mid-April when the virus began appearing in Iowa’s chicken flocks and farmers culled their flocks to contain any spread.

A much bigger increase has emerged in the eggs used as ingredients in processed products like cake mix and mayonnaise, which account for the majority of what Iowa produces. Those eggs have jumped 63 percent to $1.03 a dozen from 63 cents in the last three weeks, said Rick Brown, senior vice president of Urner Barry, a commodity market analysis firm.

Turkey prices, which had been expected to fall this year, are up slightly as the bird flu claimed about 5.6 million turkeys nationwide so far. About 238 million turkeys were raised in the U.S. last year.

The price of fresh boneless and skinless tom breast meat primarily used for deli meat has risen 10 percent since mid-April to $3.37 a pound, a USDA report said Friday. Frozen hens in the 8- to 16-pound range, those often used for home roasting, were up about 3 percent to $1.06 a pound.

Egg supplies are falling short of demand, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has indicated, and Brown said egg buyers such as grocery stores and wholesalers are trying to stock up for fear that another large farm with millions of chickens will be stricken — causing prices to spike higher.

“We’re starting to see a little bit of that demand increase, and the sellers are reluctant to give clients too much more than they normally have because they know what’s going on and they don’t want to be caught short either,” he said.

The number of Iowa chickens lost exceeds 26 million, the vast majority of which lay eggs for food use. That’s about 41 percent of the leading egg state’s layers and about 8 percent of the nation’s laying hens. That many chickens would lay more than 500 million table eggs a month. For comparison, Iowa chickens laid 1.4 billion table eggs in March, before the disease struck. U.S. egg production for March stood at 7.42 billion table eggs.

Some companies are beginning to notice the impact of fewer eggs. Cereal maker Post Holdings Inc., which bought egg products supplier Michael Foods last year, said in its May 7 quarterly earnings report that about 14 percent of its egg supply has been affected by the bird flu outbreak. Post estimated the impact at about $20 million through the end of September.

Michael Foods primarily supplies extended shelf-life liquid and precooked egg products and eggs used in food ingredients.

The poultry industry can replenish the supply of chickens more quickly than beef or pork industries can rebound, but it still takes time to rebuild a flock.

“They’re going to have to phase in replacing those flocks so they can get them get back into a laying schedule that results in a more even flow of eggs, and that’s going to take six to nine months,” said Tom Elam, an agricultural economist and poultry industry consultant.

It takes about four months for a hatched chick to be old enough to begin laying eggs, and it will typically be productive for about two years, Elam said. Many of the hens dying from the disease are younger and no pullets had been planned to replace them yet, Elam said. More than 350,000 pullets have been lost to bird flu — a very small portion of the 50 million egg-type chicks hatched in March, but it compounds the replenishment problem.

While new bird flu outbreaks are occurring in the turkey market — Minnesota, the nation’s leading turkey producer, has 4 million confirmed dead birds so far — Elam said cold storage stocks and the number of hens still on farms suggest turkeys will be available for Thanksgiving.

“Anybody who wants a Thanksgiving turkey is going to be able to get one,” he said. “They may have to pay a little more for it but we’re not going to have national stock-outs for Thanksgiving turkeys, yet.”

GREEN BAY (AP) – The Green Bay Packers organization says it hasn’t tried to conceal National Guard or other sponsorships for military events at Lambeau Field.

The announcement follows a recent criticism of the New York Jets by a U.S. senator. Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona claims the Jets accepted money from the New Jersey National Guard for military appreciation events and didn’t disclose that they were sponsored.

Press-Gazette Media reports Flake also criticized the Department of Defense for using taxpayer money to enter into marketing agreements with any entity.

The Wisconsin National Guard said it has a longstanding relationship with the Packers and entered into a marketing campaign with the team to aid in recruitment, retention and awareness of Guard activities.

Federal reports show the Packers received more than $833,000 from the National Guard over a five-year period.

Artifacts of Little Chute’s Dutch heritage are on display at the Little Chute Windmill and at St. John Nepomucene Catholic Church.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Police say they have recovered a handgun from George Zimmerman and took two guns from a man accused of shooting at Zimmerman.

Lake Mary Police Officer Bianca Gillett said Tuesday that detectives are still investigating and no charges have been filed against Zimmerman or Matthew Apperson.

Zimmerman and Apperson were involved in a road-rage episode in September last year, but no charges were filed in that case.

Two guns were taken from Apperson’s car, including a revolver that had a spent shell casing. Police say they will also execute a search warrant on Zimmerman’s pickup truck.

Both men had the guns legally.

Police say the shooting occurred Monday afternoon on a busy road. Zimmerman suffered minor injuries.

Zimmerman is the former neighborhood watch volunteer who was acquitted in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin.