Green Bay News

Watch live streaming video as President Obama discusses the unrest in Baltimore.

Trace the recent history of gay marriage in the states.

MADISON (AP) – Republicans have introduced three bills that would require food stamp users to buy healthy food and applicants for state job training programs and unemployment benefits in certain fields to undergo drug screening.

Rep. Robert Brooks’ bill would require food stamp users to use at least two-thirds of their monthly allotment to purchase nutritional foods. They would be banned from purchasing crab, lobster or shrimp.

Rep. Mike Rohrkaste, meanwhile, has introduced a bill that would require applicants for a number of job training programs to submit to drug screening. He’s got another bill that would require unemployment benefit applicants to submit to drug screens if they want work in occupations that require drug tests.

The Assembly’s Public Benefits Reform Committee has scheduled a hearing Thursday on all three bills.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy joined conservative colleagues in asking skeptical questions Tuesday as the high court heard historic arguments over the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry.

Kennedy, whose vote is seen as pivotal, said marriage has been understood as one man and one woman for “millennia-plus time.” He said same-sex marriage has been debated in earnest for only about 10 years, and he wondered aloud whether scholars and the public need more time.

“It’s very difficult for the court to say ‘We know better,'” Kennedy told Mary Bonauto, a lawyer representing same-sex couples.

Chief Justice John Roberts said gay couples seeking to marry are not seeking to join the institution of marriage.

“You’re seeking to change what the institution is,” Roberts said.

The arguments offered the first public indication of where the justices stand in the dispute over whether states can continue defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, or whether the Constitution gives gay and lesbian couples the right to marry.

The session was interrupted after about 30 minutes by a protester yelling loudly. He was removed by security.

Justice Antonin Scalia said the issue is not whether there should be same-sex marriage “but who should decide the point.” He expressed concern about the court imposing a requirement on the states that “is unpalatable to many for religious reasons.”

Justice Stephen Breyer asked if the nation needs more time to “wait and see” whether gay marriage is harmful to society. Bonauto responded that wait-and-see has never been considered a justification for discrimination under the Constitution.

The court was hearing extended arguments, scheduled to last 2½ hours, which also are exploring whether states that do not permit same-sex marriage must nonetheless recognize such unions from elsewhere. Same-sex couples now can marry in 36 states and the District of Columbia.

People on both sides of the issue gathered outside the marble courthouse early Tuesday. Some waved gay rights banners, while others carried placards proclaiming marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

“Homo sex is a sin,” read one sign. A man shouted into a microphone that gays violate the laws of God. A group of same-sex advocates tried to drown him out by singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Cheers went up in the crowd when the court’s doors opened, allowing a lucky few who lined up days ago to get inside.

The cases before the court come from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, four of the 14 remaining states that allow only heterosexual marriage. Those four states had marriage bans upheld by the federal appeals court in Cincinnati in November. That is the only federal appeals court that has ruled in favor of the states since the Supreme Court in 2013 struck down part of the federal anti-gay marriage law.

Kennedy has written the court’s three prior gay rights decisions, including the case from two years ago. All eyes are on him for any signals of his intention this time.

It was barely a decade ago that the first state allowed gay and lesbian couples to marry. That was Massachusetts, in 2004. As recently as last October, barely a third of the states permitted it. Now, same-sex couples can marry in 36 states and Washington, D.C., a sign of the dramatic change in public opinion.

At the Supreme Court, the opposing states hoped to reframe the debate.

“This case is not about the best marriage definition. It is about the fundamental question regarding how our democracy resolves such debates about social policy: Who decides, the people of each state or the federal judiciary?” John Bursch, representing Michigan, wrote in his main brief to the court.

Other arguments by the states and more than five-dozen briefs by their defenders warn the justices of harm that could result “if you remove the man-woman definition and replace it with the genderless any-two-persons definition,” said Gene Schaerr, a Washington lawyer.

The push for same-sex marriage comes down to fairness, said Bonauto, who argued on behalf of the plaintiffs. The people who have brought their cases to the Supreme Court are “real people who are deeply committed to each other. Yet they are foreclosed from making that commitment simply because of who they are,” she told reporters last week.

Arguments made by Bonauto, other lawyers for same-sex couples and more than six-dozen supporting briefs have strong echoes of the 1967 Loving v. Virginia case, in which the Supreme Court struck down state bans on interracial marriage. In that case, the justices were unanimous that those bans violated the constitutional rights of interracial couples.

No one expects unanimity this time. The justices have allowed orders in favor of same-sex couples to take effect even as the issue has made its way through the federal court system, but that was action through inaction.

Only 11 states have granted marriage rights to same-sex couples through the ballot or the legislature. Court rulings are responsible for all the others.

A decision is expected in late June.

___

Associated Press writer Anne Flaherty contributed to this report

OSHKOSH – A man was arrested on suspicion of having a prohibited amount of alcohol in his blood following a three-vehicle crash Monday evening.

Police say the crash happened at the intersection of W. 20th and W. South Park avenues around 6:30 p.m. A 54-year-old man was headed east on W. 20th Avenue when he ran a red light, police say, crashing into two other vehicles.

The man was taken to Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah, but police expected him to survive. A dog that was inside his vehicle died.

One of the other drivers was slightly injured, but refused medical attention. The third driver was not injured.

The 54-year-old man was not allowed to have a blood alcohol content of more than 0.02 because of seven prior convictions of operating while intoxicated or driving with a prohibited alcohol content. Police say they arrested him because they believed he had been drinking before the crash. However, they won’t know for sure until blood test results come back, which is expected to take 6-8 weeks.

GREEN BAY – The Green Bay Packers and their food and beverage service provider plan to announce details about the new restaurant in the Lambeau Field Atrium Tuesday morning.

The team says the announcement will include the new restaurant’s name, logo, drawings of the space and information about the concept and inspiration.

The new restaurant will replace Curly’s Pub, which closed in January while renovations at the atrium progressed.

The team says the new restaurant will open at the end of July. It will be located on the first floor of the atrium.

FOX 11’s Andrew LaCombe will have a complete story later today on fox11online.com and tonight on FOX 11 News at Five.

LITTLE CHUTE – A woman was airlifted to the hospital after a crash Monday night.

Fox Valley Metro police say the crash happened around 10 p.m. in the 400 block of E. Elm Dr. Police say the crash involved the family vehicle and happened in a driveway.

The victim suffered what police called “traumatic lower body injuries.”

Police are still investigating.

DE PERE – A suspect in a March 6 heroin overdose death has been arrested and is expected to appear in court today.

The 20-year-old De Pere man is in the Brown County Jail for allegedly supplying the heroin which killed Keith French of Allouez, according to Det. Sgt. Tom Schrank, of the De Pere police department.

French died at a home in the 1100 block of Grant St., police say.

Formal charges have not been filed. Jail records indicate possible charges of first-degree reckless homicide, failure to aid, and obstruction.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – A Milwaukee teenager faces charges on accusations he shot a 53-year-old woman in the face during a carjacking last week.

The 17-year-old is charged with several crimes, including armed robbery.

Officers responded to a report of a stolen vehicle when they say they heard several gunshots nearby. They found a woman bleeding from her face, and she was taken to a hospital for treatment of her injuries.

Court records say the 17-year-old was seen driving off in the woman’s vehicle. Officers later found the vehicle and saw the teenager get inside.

Authorities attempted to pull over the vehicle but the teenager fled, leading police on a pursuit. Police say the teenager lost control of the vehicle and that he eventually was arrested.

Photos of an April 28, 2015 fire at Sand and Sun apartment complex in Green Bay.

KAUKAUNA – A fire in a field was quickly put out Monday afternoon.

Kaukauna firefighters say they were called to 1201 Green Bay Rd. around 2:45 p.m. An area of natural growth was on fire. After putting it out, crews determined a person using a lawn mower had backed into the field to empty the collection bags. With the lawn mower still running, he noticed fire underneath it and called 911.

The dry condition of the long grass combined with heat from the mower’s exhaust started the fire, officials say.

SHAWANO – A push by some trucking companies and drivers to keep their trucks on the road longer than allowed is making the roadways a danger.

Thousands of accidents and hundreds of deaths each year blamed on fatigued commercial truck drivers according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s agency which monitors motor carrier safety.

“This is nothing to be playing around with. We’re endangering the lives of other people out there,” said longtime truck driver Gary Bakley of Shawano.

Bakley revealed to FOX 11 Investigates that for years he was told by various employers to break the rules and keep driving.

“They’ll push you to get that load there because they’re making money. As long as the trucks are loaded they’re making money. They don’t care how they get the load there, they want it there and if you don’t you get threatened,” said Bakley.

Bakley says if he didn’t alter his driver log books, he would get fired.

He told FOX 11 Investigates his employer would instruct him to alter his handwritten driver log book or he would lose his job.

Those logs are required by the Department of Transportation to verify the number of hours a driver works.  Federal law limits commercial driving shifts to 14 hours. Only 11 of those hours can be behind the wheel. And the driver must then follow that time with 10 consecutive hours off-duty.

“And I’m thinking I’m going to wind up killing someone, you know, out there. And it’s sickening because I go through this with a lot of companies and it’s about time someone steps up for us truck drivers and puts and end to this,” said Bakley.

It’s Wisconsin State Patrol Sergeant Dan Dietrich’s job to randomly check drivers and trucks for violations. The state patrol has only 100 employees statewide inspecting the thousands of trucks on the road everyday. But it isn’t hard to find truckers working too many hours.

Does that happen often?

“I would say as a daily event, yes. Not with all companies but obviously as with any industry or employer you’ve got good employees, got employees who are deficient,” said Dietrich.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has been pushing to require electronic logging devices since 2011, but as of today there is no rule in place.

“It certainly is a public safety issue,” said Rep. Reid Ribble, R-8th District.

Ribble supports the mandatory use of electronic logging devices.

Tonight on Fox 11 News at Five and Nine, watch the full FOX 11 Investigates story that also explores Bakley’s whistle blower complaint against his employer, and efforts by FMCSA to enact a rule requiring electronic logging devices.

GORKHA, Nepal (AP) – Helicopters crisscrossed the mountains above a remote district Tuesday near the epicenter of the weekend earthquake in Nepal that killed more than 4,400 people, ferrying the injured to clinics and taking emergency supplies back to villages cut off by landslides.

Around noon, two helicopters brought in eight women from Ranachour village, two of them clutching babies to their breast, and a third heavily pregnant.

“There are many more injured people in my village,” said Sangita Shrestha, who was pregnant and visibly downcast as she got off the helicopter. She was quickly surrounded by Nepalese soldiers and policemen and ushered into a waiting van to be taken to a hospital.

The little town of Gorkha, the district’s administrative and trading center, is being used as a staging post to get rescuers and supplies to those remote communities after Saturday’s magnitude-7.8 quake.

Some women who came off the helicopters were grimacing and crying in pain and unable to walk or speak, in agony three days after being injured in the quake.

Sita Karki winced when soldiers lifted her. Her broken and swollen legs had been tied together with crude wisps of hay twisted into a makeshift splint.

“When the earthquake hit, a wall fell on me and knocked me down,” she said. “My legs are broken.”

After an hour of dark clouds gathering, the wind kicked up in Gorkha and sheets of rain began to pour down.

Geoff Pinnock of the U.N.’s World Food Program was leading a convoy of trucks north toward the worst-affected areas when the rain began to pound, leaving them stuck.

“This rain has caused a landslide that has blocked my trucks. I can maybe get one truck through and take a risk driving on the dirt, but I think we’ll have to hold the materials back to try to get them out tomorrow by helicopter,” he said.

Aid workers who had reached the edges of the epicenter described entire villages reduced to rubble.

“In some villages, about 90 percent of the houses have collapsed. They’re just flattened,” said Rebecca McAteer, an American physician who rushed to the quake zone from the distant Nepal hospital where she works.

And yet, the timing of the earthquake – near midday, when most rural people are working in the fields – meant most villagers were spared injuries when buildings collapsed, she said. So far, police say they have 373 confirmed deaths in Gorkha district.

Most those injured, she added, were young people and the elderly, since most young men long ago left their villages in search of better-paying work.

“The immediate need is getting support to where it’s needed, but there will be a lot of work rebuilding,” said McAteer, who was heading back soon to the center of the quake zone.

Thomas Meier, an engineer with the International Nepal Fellowship who accompanied McAteer to the devastated villages, said the disaster’s aftermath would stretch long into the future.

“This is a long-term emergency,” he said. “This will need major attention for the next five years. People have nothing left.”

Across central Nepal, including in Kathmandu, the capital, hundreds of thousands of people are still living in the open without clean water or sanitation. It rained heavily in the capital Tuesday, forcing people to find shelter wherever they could.

Jamie McGoldrick, the U.N. resident coordinator in Kathmandu, told reporters that 8 million people had been affected by the quake, and that 1.4 million needed food assistance.

The challenge is to reach them in rugged isolated villages.

After flying by helicopter over the Kathmandu Valley, he noted the erratic path of the quake’s power.

“Some areas on one ridge are completely untouched, on the other side it’s completely flattened,” he said.

At Kathmandu airport, flights arrived with emergency aid and helicopters brought in both foreign trekkers and local villagers from quake-struck areas. Helicopters chartered by trekking companies reached the Langtang area, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) north of Kathmandu, a popular area for trekking – a key contributor to the country’s economy.

Dave Gordon, from San Francisco, said he was in the area until Tuesday waiting for the rescue flight.

“Cliffs came down, four or five porters were deceased, buried in the rock fall,” he said of the quake. “Trails are completely destroyed. People are stuck. They can’t get out. It was very bad.”

The United Nations says it is releasing $15 million from its central emergency response fund for quake victims. The funds will allow international humanitarian groups to scale up operations and provide shelter, water, medical supplies and logistical services, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Trucks carrying food were on their way to affected districts outside the hard-hit and densely populated Kathmandu valley, and distribution of food was expected to start Tuesday.

Many of the ornate, historic buildings in Bhaktapur, a key tourist site just east of Kathmandu, were reduced to rubble. Residents began returning to collect whatever belongings they could.

The country’s confirmed death toll rose to 4,355, said Deputy Inspector General of Police Komal Singh Bam. Another 61 were killed in neighboring India, and China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported 25 dead in Tibet. At least 18 of the dead were killed at Mount Everest as the quake unleashed an avalanche that buried part of the base camp packed with foreign climbers preparing for summit attempts.

Some 8,063 people have been injured, Bam said. Tens of thousands are believed to be homeless.

Rescue workers and medical teams from at least a dozen countries were helping police and army troops in Kathmandu and surrounding areas, said Maj. Gen. Binod Basnyat, a Nepal army spokesman. Contributions came from large countries like India and China – but also from Nepal’s tiny Himalayan neighbor of Bhutan, which dispatched a medical team.

At the Kathmandu airport, foreign planes from India, the U.S., China, Malaysia, Pakistan, Israel that brought aid and rescue personnel lined up on the crowded tarmac.

Coming out of the airport with dry blood on his face and legs, Min Bahadur Raut said he got a ride on a helicopter from a neighbor who had chartered a flight for his mother. He was not able to move his left arm.

“We haven’t seen any government help or relief at our village” northeast of Kathmandu, he said. Roads have been closed by landslides. “I don’t know what is wrong with me. I have no money,” he said. “I have been in pain for days now.”

GREEN LAKE – A two-week jury trial next year has been scheduled for a Berlin man accused of killing his estranged wife and the man she was dating.

Nicholas Tuinstra’s trial will start Jan. 25, according to online court records. A scheduling conference was held Monday in Green Lake County circuit court.

He returns to court next June 22 for a status conference.

Tuinstra faces two counts of first-degree intentional homicide for the September shooting deaths of Melissa Tuinstra and Justin Daniels in Berlin.

BALTIMORE (AP) – National Guard troops fanned out through the city, shield-bearing police officers blocked the streets and firefighters doused still-simmering blazes early Tuesday as a growing area of Baltimore shuddered from riots following the funeral of a black man who died in police custody.

The violence that started in West Baltimore on Monday afternoon – within a mile of where Freddie Gray was arrested and placed into a police van earlier this month – had by midnight spread to East Baltimore and neighborhoods close to downtown and near the baseball stadium.

It was one of the most volatile outbreaks of violence prompted by a police-involved death since the days of protests that followed the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black man who was shot and killed during a confrontation with a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, last summer.

At least 15 officers were hurt, including six who remained hospitalized late Monday, police said. Two dozen people were arrested.

State and local authorities pledged to restore order and calm to Baltimore, but quickly found themselves responding to questions about whether their initial responses had been adequate.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was asked why she waited hours to ask the governor to declare a state of emergency, while the governor himself hinted she should have come to him earlier.

“We were all in the command center in the second floor of the State House in constant communication, and we were trying to get in touch with the mayor for quite some time,” Gov. Larry Hogan told a Monday evening news conference. “She finally made that call, and we immediately took action.”

Asked if the mayor should have called for help sooner, however, Hogan replied that he didn’t want to question what Baltimore officials were doing: “They’re all under tremendous stress. We’re all on one team.”

Rawlings-Blake said officials believed they had gotten the unrest that had erupted over the weekend under control “and I think it would have been inappropriate to bring in the National Guard when we had it under control.”

But later on, Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts made it clear events had become unmanageable. “They just outnumbered us and outflanked us,” Batts said. “We needed to have more resources out there.”

Batts said authorities had had a “very trying and disappointing day.”

Police certainly had their work cut out for them: The rioters set police cars and buildings on fire in several neighborhoods, looted a mall and liquor stores and threw rocks at police with riot gear who responded occasionally with pepper spray.

“I understand anger, but what we’re seeing isn’t anger,” Rawlings-Blake said. “It’s disruption of a community. The same community they say they care about, they’re destroying. You can’t have it both ways.”

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, in her first day on the job, said she would send Justice Department officials to the city in coming days. A weeklong, daily curfew was imposed beginning Tuesday from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., the mayor said, and Baltimore public schools announced they would be closed Tuesday.

Maj. Gen. Linda Singh, adjutant general of the Maryland National Guard, said up to 5,000 troops would be available for Baltimore’s streets.

“We are going to be out in massive force, and that just means basically that we are going to be patrolling the streets and out to ensure that we are protecting property,” Singh said at a news conference Monday night.

Singh said they will be acting at the direction of Baltimore police.

Col. William Pallozzi, the superintendent of the state police, said a request for up to 500 additional law enforcement personnel in Maryland had been sent. Pallozzi added that the state is putting out a request for up to 5,000 more law enforcement personnel from around the mid-Atlantic region.

Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings and about 200 others, including ministers, tried unsuccessfully to quell the violence at one point Monday night, marching arm-in-arm through a neighborhood littered with broken glass, flattened aluminum cans and other debris. As they got close to a line of police officers, the marchers went down on their knees. They then rose to their feet and walked until they were face-to-face with the police officers in a tight formation and wearing riot gear.

But the violence continued, with looters later setting a liquor store on fire and throwing cinder blocks at fire trucks as firefighters labored to put out the blazes.

Monday’s riot was the latest flare-up over the death of Gray and came amid a national debate over police use of force following the high-profile deaths of several black men in encounters with police – from the Brown death in Ferguson to the deaths of Eric Garner in New York and Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Gray was black. Police have declined to specify the races of the six officers involved in his arrest, all of whom have been suspended with pay while they are under investigation.

While they are angry about what happened to Gray, his family said riots are not the answer.

“I think the violence is wrong,” Gray’s twin sister, Fredericka Gray, said late Monday. “I don’t like it at all.”

The attorney for Gray’s family, Billy Murphy, said the family had hoped to organize a peace march later in the week.

Hours before the riots began Monday, mourners filled the 2,500-capacity New Shiloh Baptist church to attend Freddie Gray’s funeral.

Gray was arrested on April 12 after making eye contact with officers and then running away, police said. He was held down, handcuffed and loaded into a van without a seat belt. Leg cuffs were put on him when he became irate inside.

He asked for medical help several times even before being put in the van, but paramedics were not called until after a 30-minute ride. Police have acknowledged he should have received medical attention on the spot where he was arrested, but they have not said how he suffered a serious spine injury. He died April 19.

GREEN BAY – Firefighters are at the scene of an apartment fire in Green Bay.

It started after 12 a.m. Tuesday at 1011 N. Danz Avenue.

Our crew at the scene says fire crews have pulled out of the building and are taking a defensive strategy.

We will update this story as more information becomes available.

CHICAGO (AP) – Michael Carter-Williams had 22 points and eight assists, Khris Middleton scored 21 points, and the Milwaukee Bucks avoided elimination again with a 94-88 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Monday night in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series.

With a 3-2 lead, the Bulls will try to close it out again Thursday at Milwaukee. But the Bucks aren’t going quietly after dropping the first three games.

They took Game 4 on a last-second layup by Jerryd Bayless and withstood several pushes by the Bulls in the fourth quarter of this one.

The Bucks regrouped after a nine-point lead dwindled to three, and they hung on again after a seven-point lead shrunk to four with just over a minute remaining.

Carter-Williams hit 10 of 15 shots while outplaying Derrick Rose. The Bucks’ guard rolled his right ankle early in the third but came back late in the quarter.

Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 11 points and reserve O.J. Mayo added 10 as the Bucks kept the Bulls off balance most of the game.

Pau Gasol had 25 points and 10 rebounds for Chicago but Rose and Jimmy Butler struggled.

Rose was 5 of 20 from the field and missed all seven 3-point attempts. He committed six of his team’s 13 turnovers. Butler scored 20 points but shot 5 of 21.

The Bucks were leading 86-77 when Rose hit two jumpers and Gasol buried one of his own to make it a three-point game with 4:45 left.

Carter-Williams answered by banking in a shot, and John Henson flew in for a putback dunk off a miss by Mayo to make it 90-83 with 3:15 left.

Gasol hit two free throws after getting knocked to the court with 1:04 left to pull Chicago within 92-88. But Antetokounmpo blocked a runner by Rose, and Middleton hit two free throws to make it a six-point game with 27.3 seconds left.

The Bucks led 52-49 at halftime, with Middleton scoring 15 points and Carter-Williams outplaying Rose with 14 points and six assists.

The Bulls missed their first eight shots and fell into an early 9-0 hole before going on a 21-4 run. Taj Gibson finished it with consecutive baskets inside, including a three-point play, to make it 21-13 with 1:42 remaining.

But Milwaukee ended the quarter on a 10-1 run, with Middleton hitting a 3 after a turnover by Rose and a layup after stripping Gasol to put the Bucks ahead 23-22.

TIP-INS

Bucks: Milwaukee had dropped five straight at Chicago, including the regular season.

Bulls: Chicago had won nine straight home games, including the regular season.

HE SAID IT

Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau when asked before the game if he had any comment on Cleveland ruling out the injured Kevin Love for the next series: “I don’t.”

OSHKOSH – The learning curve is still an issue at area roundabouts.

Oshkosh Police told FOX 11 they’re dealing with complaints from bicyclists and pedestrians they feel unsafe in the roundabouts. Officers told us cars aren’t slowing down and yielding like they should.

For bicyclists in Oshkosh, roundabouts can be a touchy subject.

“Where I would normally ride, cross on 9th Street here in Oshkosh, I will go down to 20th Street, which doesn’t have one, just to avoid the issue,” explained Mike Halron, President of the Oshkosh Cycling Club.

Cyclists told us they have a hard time in roundabouts, because they say speeding drivers ignore bicycles in a zone where the speed limit is 15 miles per hour.

“And I have no problem going that speed on a bicycle, so the argument that I’m going too slow doesn’t really hold up,” said Melissa Putzer another Oshkosh Cycling Club member.

Officer Joe Nichols told FOX 11 his department takes calls and social media messages each week from pedestrians and cyclists complaining about drivers in roundabouts.

“They have to yield. It’s the law that they yield to bicyclists and pedestrians,” said Nichols.

But often they don’t. As we watched, several pedestrians and cyclists waited at the crosswalks while cars drove right by.

“At this time we haven’t had a fatality, we’ve had very few injuries, in regards to the roundabouts, and we wanna keep it that way,” Nichols explained.

According Nichols officers are making a greater effort to patrol around the city’s 12 roundabouts.

“You might see an officer just sitting by and it’s not just for speeders, it’s for people that aren’t yielding to pedestrians or bicycles,” he said.

But drivers aren’t the only ones who need to follow the rules.

“Bicyclists whould be paying attention to all the rules of the road, just like a driver and use their hand signals so that people know where they’re going,” said Halron

Pedestrians need to take precautions too. First of all Nichols said you have to be in the crosswalk at a roundabout.

“Yes, they do have the right away, but to keep themselves safe, wait until the traffic stops and get across the street safely,” he explained.

Above all, Nichols says he believes the solution is simple common courtesy: that everyone watch out for others on the road.

“Being in a hurry isn’t worth killing somebody,” added Putzer.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, in a roundabout without bike lanes, cyclists can choose to use the crosswalk or join traffic. If a bike joins traffic, drivers should treat it as another car.

CINCINNATI — Jason Marquis ended Cincinnati’s long streak of clutch-hitting futility with a run-scoring single, and slumping Jay Bruce homered and drove in three runs on Monday night, leading the Cincinnati Reds to a 9-6 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Reds ended a three-game losing streak by beating the worst team in the majors, one that’s trying everything to get going. Manager Ron Roenicke left slumping Ryan Braun out of the lineup on Monday to change things up.

All it led to was another loss that dropped the Brewers to 4-16.

Marquis (2-1) had an RBI single during a four-run second inning that snapped the Reds’ 0-for-20 streak with runners in scoring position.

Last week member schools of the WIAA met in Stevens Point to discuss, vote, debate, etc. what is the best platform for high schools to compete in sports.

Is a multiplier, which would be applied to private schools, the answer?

Is a “success factor,” in which teams that experience a lot of success over a three-year plan be elevated up one division for at least one year, the answer.

Is the answer, there is no answer that can equally be applied to more than 500 high schools?

In order, no, no and no.

After two and half hours of discussion last week nothing changed. It’ll be status quo, where teams will be placed in a division based on enrollment only.

After further review, status quo is the way to go, for now. Sitting through the meeting and thinking about what each person said, there is no way there is answer that each school would be pleased with.

A private school multiplier? This was originally brought up by the Six Rivers Conference, because apparently every private school wins too much because it can “recruit” as these schools have no boundaries.

First, not every private school program wins every state title. Do these schools thrive in certain sports? Sure, they do. But doesn’t Germantown thrive in boys basketball?

Do these schools “recruit?” Maybe, but it what about open enrollment? I have had several conversations with coaches from public schools about how they lose students to other public schools.

It goes on everywhere.

The success factor, to me, was never smart. “Penalize” a program for winning a state title or two and then tell the incoming players who had no impact on the success, because they were too young to play, that they have to play up a division and make it harder for them to compete?

I know the angle is to make it as even a playing field as possible, but look at sports in general; there are always going to be premier programs/teams and bottom-feeders. The Patriots in the NFL, whatever team LeBron James is on in the NBA, Alabama in college football, Kentucky or Duke in college basketball.

It is impossible to find an answer to this “problem” that is perceived by some. Last week, the right thing happened — WIAA member schools couldn’t make a decision so no decision was made.

Looking back at last week…

• Goudreau silences Oshkosh North: Appleton East junior pitcher Nick Goudreau tossed a no-hitter against Fox Valley Association title-contender Oshkosh North in a 2-1 win. Most likely Kimberly, Oshkosh North and Appleton North figure to be the top contenders in the FVA but a pitcher like Goudreau, who can shut down teams, could play a role in which teams eventually wins the league.
• Bay Port softball/baseball ruling FRCC: So far Bay Port has been the king and queen of the Fox River Classic Conference in baseball and softball. Entering the week, both are 6-0 in the FRCC.
• Tritons soccer a factor again: OK, this isn’t news as Notre Dame always challenges for a spot at the state tournament, but what one reason the Tritons are dangerous this season is Trudy Quidzinski. The freshman has seven goals this season and watching her in person last week, she has a nose for the goal.

Looking ahead…

• Papermakers and Ghosts collide: Kimberly hosts Kaukauna on Friday in a softball doubleheader and this promises to be a good one with runs hard to come by. Reigning FVA player of the year, sophomore pitcher Haley Hestekin of Kaukauna, will compete against Kimberly pitcher and Oregon commit Megan Kleist. Hestekin, who already has committed to Wisconsin, beat the Papermakers twice during the 2014 regular season, but Kleist go the biggest win in a sectional final last season.
• Papermakers and Lightning match up: Kimberly and Appleton North face each other in the first of two important baseball games this season on Tuesday. These are two of four teams with 3-1 records in the FVA.
• Bay Port soccer to be tested: With one FRCC loss, the Pirates can’t afford too many more stumbles and this week the Pirates play FRCC contenders De Pere (Tuesday) and Notre Dame (Thursday). A statement can be made, one way or another.

 Follow Doug Ritchay on Twitter @dougritchay