Green Bay News

MADISON (AP) – Gov. Scott Walker has met with business executives in northern Spain as his weeklong European trade mission is nearing an end.

Walker’s office said Thursday that the Republican addressed the business leaders already planning to expand into the United States at a round table discussion in the Basque Country. Walker has also spent time in Germany and France as part of this trip.

Walker also met with top executives at the global headquarters of Ingeteam, a manufacturer of industrial equipment for the energy, marine and rail markets. The company’s North American operation is based in Milwaukee.

Walker is leaving the trade mission early so he can attend a political event this weekend in New Hampshire with other potential Republican presidential candidates.

MADISON (AP) – A new poll shows strong opposition to key provisions of Gov. Scott Walker’s budget to cut funding for K-12 public schools and the University of Wisconsin.

The Marquette University Law School poll released Thursday found 70 percent oppose Walker’s proposal to cut UW funding by $300 million, while 26 percent support it. The poll also found 78 percent oppose Walker’s plan cutting funding for K-12 schools by $127 million, while 18 supported it.

The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

It also shows 51 percent support borrowing $1.3 billion to pay for roads, while 44 percent oppose it.

The poll of 803 registered voters was done between April 7 and April 10.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s approval rating is at 41 percent, the lowest ever in the three-year history of the Marquette University Law School poll.

The poll released Thursday shows 41 percent job approval for Walker, while 56 disapprove. In October, just before Walker’s re-election victory, his approval rating was at 49 percent.

The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

The poll also shows that 52 percent support Democrat Hillary Clinton over 40 percent for Walker should they face each other in a race for president. Clinton has announced her candidacy while Walker has not.

The poll of 803 registered voters was done between April 7 and April 10.

The poll also found Democrat Russ Feingold ahead of Republican Sen. Ron Johnson 54 percent to 38 percent.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Milwaukee’s police chief says a man suspected of fatally shooting two people at the scene of a traffic accident that killed a toddler has killed himself in the Chicago area.

Chief Edward Flynn said Thursday that Ricky Chiles fatally shot himself as police closed in on him at a hotel.

Flynn didn’t say when Chiles died.

Flynn said police suspected Chiles of killing 40-year-old Archie Brown Jr., who had struck and killed Chiles’ nephew, 2-year-old Damani Terry on Sunday. Authorities say the toddler walked into the street in front of Brown’s van.

Terry’s brother, 15-year-old Rasheed Chiles, was also struck by gunfire at the scene of the accident and died at a hospital.

Witnesses say the brothers had been attending a birthday party when the accident and shootings took place.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Marion “Suge” Knight will stand trial on murder and attempted-murder charges after the former rap music mogul struck two men with his pickup truck in January, killing one and seriously injuring the other.

Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen made the ruling Thursday after concluding a hearing that focused heavily on testimony from Cle “Bone” Sloan, who was hit outside a Compton burger stand.

Sloan told detectives that he attacked Knight but testified Monday that he didn’t remember the fight and did not want to be a “snitch.” Prosecutors played Sloan’s statement to police, which offered a lucid, detailed account of the events Jan. 29 that led up to the deadly encounter.

Authorities contend Knight intentionally hit the men, killing Terry Carter, 55. Knight’s attorney, Matt Fletcher, says his client was ambushed and was trying to escape Sloan’s attack when he ran over the men.

Sloan’s testimony demonstrated the difficulty in prosecuting Knight, who has gang ties and a reputation for intimidating witnesses.

“I will not be used to send Suge Knight to prison,” Sloan testified, adding that he was only on the stand because he was subpoenaed.

Prosecutors granted Sloan, a former gang member who’s known Knight for decades, limited immunity after he said he intended to invoke his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.

Knight, 49, was a key player in the gangster rap scene that flourished in the 1990s, and his label once listed Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg among its artists. Knight lost control of the company after it was forced into bankruptcy.

Sloan, an adviser on the upcoming film “Straight Outta Compton,” said he was trying to forget details of the crash, in which he suffered two fractured ankles, a serious cut to his head, two torn knee ligaments and a shoulder injury.

“Every day, I try to forget it,” Sloan said. “I just know, I screwed up, and Terry’s dead.”

Sloan’s memory troubles prompted the judge to comment on his testimony: “I find that this witness is being deceptive.”

The judge also heard from the lead detective investigating the case and watched security camera footage of the crash. The camera caught a limited view of the parking lot but shows Knight struggling with Sloan through the window of his truck before putting the vehicle in reverse, striking Sloan, then hitting him again and running over Carter while fleeing the scene.

Fletcher, Knight’s attorney, pressed Sloan on his feelings toward Knight and whether he was “enraged” at him on the day of the crash. Sloan said he was mad but disputed that he told detectives he was enraged.

Fletcher also painted Sloan as the aggressor, saying Knight “hadn’t attacked you in any form, fashion or manner. You agree?”

“Yes,” Sloan said.

Knight faces up to life in prison if convicted in the case. He has prior felony convictions for armed robbery and assault with a gun. Knight pleaded no contest in 1995 and was sentenced to five years’ probation in an assault on two rap entertainers at a Hollywood recording studio in 1992.

The rap figure was sentenced to prison in February 1997 for violating terms of that probation by taking part in a fight at a Las Vegas hotel hours before Shakur was fatally wounded in a drive-by attack as he rode in Knight’s car near the Strip. Shakur’s slaying remains unsolved.

Prosecutors only had to present a fraction of their evidence against Knight during the preliminary hearing that began Monday.

MADISON (AP) – Forty-six of Wisconsin’s pension fund managers and those who work directly with the state’s investments will receive six-figure bonuses this year because of strong returns, data released Thursday by the State of Wisconsin Investment Board showed.

The board last week approved nearly $12 million in bonuses to 142 of its 150 employees. The bonuses are down 10.4 percent from the record-high amount awarded last year. It released the individual awards on Thursday at the request of The Associated Press.

Michael Williamson, the board’s executive director, received the highest bonus at just over $509,000. Chuck Carpenter, a managing director, was second highest at nearly $494,000. David Villa, chief investment officer, was third highest at just under $460,000.

Eighty-seven employees received bonuses of at least $25,000.

“SWIB operates in a highly competitive industry and seeks to hire and retain talented professionals, then compensates them based on their ability to meet aggressive targets and add value to the trust funds,” Williamson said in a statement.

The bonuses were based on investment performance above market returns over the past five years, the board said in announcing the pay-outs. Investments have grown $1.4 billion above-market returns the past five years, which benefits 590,000 participants in the Wisconsin Retirement System. Members of the retirement system are current and past public employees and their families.

The board manages more than $106 billion in assets. It met its one-year benchmark and beat its five and 10-year benchmarks for the Core Fund, which is the main source of public pensions. Returns in that fund last year were 5.7 percent, while the smaller and more volatile Variable Fund returned 7.3 percent.

MADISON (AP) – The chairman of the Senate Education Reform Committee agrees with his Republican colleague in the state Assembly that the Wisconsin Legislature may do nothing on school accountability this session.

Sen. Paul Farrow’s committee was scheduled to vote on a school accountability bill on Thursday. But Farrow says that vote is unlikely to happen now given a number of concerns senators plan to raise during the discussion.

Republicans who control both the Senate and Assembly have been unable to reach a deal on an accountability bill. They’ve been hung up on a number of issues, most prominently whether and how to sanction low-performing schools.

Farrow’s bill contains no sanctions, while the Assembly’s does.

Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt said Wednesday he does not think a deal can be reached this year.

MADISON (AP) – The Wisconsin Supreme Court has suspended the license of a Madison lawyer who provided Ecstasy and alcohol to a 22-year-old woman and sexually assaulted her.

The court said in a decision Thursday that it suspended Jon Evenson’s license for 30 months because he violated attorney conduct regulations and demonstrated an offensive personality.

Evenson pleaded guilty in 2013 to delivery of a controlled substance and two counts of sexual assault. Court documents say he picked up a woman on State Street in downtown Madison and took her back to his law office for Ecstasy, alcohol and sex. He was sentenced to three years on probation and nine months in jail.

Evenson’s lawyer, Matthew Moeser, said Evenson has accepted the suspension and taken responsibility for his actions.

MADISON (AP) – Best known nationally for his struggle with unions, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is staking out conservative ground in broader ways as he prepares for a likely run for the Republican presidential nomination.

These ways are stuffed into his recent budget proposal and some of them are going to be a tough sell even with fellow Republicans who control the Legislature.

In the proposal, he calls for eliminating oversight of for-profit colleges, letting private insurance companies into the state’s managed care system and cutting money for public schools that lose students to private voucher schools. This, on top of cutting taxes and the number of state workers as part of a scaling back of state government.

That’s classic Walker, said conservatives who have followed his more than two decades in public office, the last four-plus years as governor.

“Largely, it’s a victory for conservatives,” said Brett Healy, president of the conservative MacIver Institute for Public Policy.

While Walker made his mark by effectively ending collective bargaining for most public workers in 2011, then turning Wisconsin into a right-to-work state this year, he’s also checked off a battery of conservative priorities.

He’s already cut income and corporate taxes by nearly $2 billion, lowered property taxes, legalized the carrying of concealed weapons, made abortions more difficult to obtain, required photo identification when voting and expanded the state’s private school voucher school program.

And now this year, the first of his second term, he’s going even farther by proposing a $300 million, or 13 percent, cut in state money for the University of Wisconsin and freezing tuition there for two years while granting it more independence from state laws.

His budget would lower property taxes $5 on average each of the next two years for median-valued homes. However, that comes at the expense of public schools, which would face a $135-per student loss in state aid.

He wants to get government out of the business of regulating for-profit colleges, eliminating a board that oversees them. He’s also proposing to eliminate 66 science and education positions at the Department of Natural Resources, in the name of efficiency, but leading to charges that the move will increasingly politicize the agency.

His budget also would require people seeking public benefits to pass a drug test, which Walker says would help prepare them for the workforce.

Such moves will play well with conservatives nationally, said Brian Fraley, a longtime conservative activist in Wisconsin.

Fraley summed up the priorities conservatives see fulfilled in Walker’s budget: “Spend less. Trim the number of state employees. Tax less.”

But for all of that, he’s got a tough road ahead with Republican lawmakers, not to mention Democrats, before the Legislature passes a budget sometime in June.

For example, concerns are being raised about Walker’s call to replace the system that provides long-term and medical care for the elderly and disabled with one designed to keep them in their homes.

And his cost-saving move to have senior citizens in Wisconsin’s popular prescription drug program first enroll in Medicare Part D, where they would probably pay more for their medications, was declared dead on arrival by the Republican budget committee co-chair after a public outcry.

The Republican-controlled Legislature is also pushing back against Walker’s plans for the university and his plan to borrow $1.3 billion for roads and $220 million for a new Milwaukee Bucks stadium.

The Bucks idea even drew an objection from Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group founded by billionaires Charles and David Koch.

“There should be no state dollars going for something like that,” said David Fladeboe, the group’s state director.

Even so, Walker’s budget this year largely is a win for conservatives and a continuation of the progress he made during his first term, Fladeboe said.

“It’s a very good budget for a fiscal conservative,” Healy said. “We’ve come to expect that from Governor Walker.”

MADISON (AP) – Wisconsin has confirmed its second and third outbreaks of a form of bird flu that’s deadly to poultry.

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection says the affected operations are a farm with 126,000 turkeys in Barron County and a backyard flock of 40 birds of different kinds in Juneau County.

The farms will be quarantined and the remaining birds will be killed to prevent any spread.

Department spokesman Jim Dick says it’s an H5 virus, but they’re waiting for more tests on whether it’s the same H5N2 strain that’s cost Midwest and Ontario poultry producers around 2 million birds since early March. The H5N2 virus was confirmed Monday at a Wisconsin chicken farm.

Officials say it’s not a risk to public health or the food supply.

NEENAH – Investigators have released the name of the man pulled from Little Lake Butte des Morts Wednesday.

The Winnebago Co. Sheriff’s Office says Robert Kinney, 54, of Menasha, remains in critical condition at Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah. He was pulled from the lake near High Street in Neenah just before 3 a.m.

Investigators say the incident appears to have been an accident, but they are still looking for witnesses. Anyone who saw or heard anything is asked to call Det. Michael Lichtensteiger at (920) 236-7375.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Thursday that a gyrocopter that landed on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol “apparently literally flew in under the radar.”

Johnson said it’s too soon to say whether Wednesday’s incident should prompt changes in security procedures. “I want to know all the facts before I reach an assessment of what can and should be done about gyrocopters in the future,” he said.

Johnson confirmed that the pilot, Florida postal worker Doug Hughes, was interviewed by the Secret Service almost two years ago. He said the Secret Service passed along the information from that interview to “all of the appropriate law enforcement agencies.”

Johnson said his first reaction on hearing of the incident was to ask, “What’s a gyrocopter?”

The tiny, open-air aircraft landed without injuries to anyone, but the incident raises questions about how someone could be allowed to fly all the way from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, right up to the Capitol. Hughes has said he was making the flight to publicize his concerns about the corrupting influence of money in politics, and deliver letters to all 535 members of Congress on the topic.

“We are a democracy. We don’t have fences around our airspace, so we’ve got to find the right balance between living in a free and open society and security and the protection of federal buildings,” Johnson told reporters on Capitol Hill. “And so we want to stay one step ahead of every incident like this, but then again, you don’t want to overreact, either.”

Johnson defended existing protocols for dealing with the restricted airspace over Washington, D.C., federal buildings and monuments.

“We’ve got a well-coordinated federal response to dealing with issues of those who penetrate the restricted airspace without permission,” he said.

MADISON (AP) – Scott Walker’s expected campaign for the White House got a boost Thursday as his former campaign managers formed a political group able to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money.

Two former campaign managers for the Republican governor of Wisconsin said Thursday they have formed a super PAC to support Walker. It’s called Unintimidated PAC, a reference to the book Walker wrote in 2013 called “Unintimidated: A Governor’s Story and a Nation’s Challenge.”

What is Unintimidated?

• This group formed in April is a super PAC (political action committee). While it can advocate specifically for Walker, it will operate independently and can’t coordinate strategy with Walker’s campaign organization if he officially enters the race. The group can raise unlimited amounts of money unlike a campaign, so it can play a large role in shaping how voters view a candidate.
• Click here for more details on PACs

What is Our American Revival?

• Walker formed this political group in January. Its money has to be spent on issues and can’t specifically advocate for Walker as a candidate for president. The group is a tax-exempt committee under section 527 of the tax code and can raise unlimited amounts of money.
• Click here for more details on 527 organizations

Walker, 47, delivered a well-received speech to a rally of Iowa conservatives in January, and has since made first trips to the early nominating states of New Hampshire and South Carolina, hired staff around the country and courted well-heeled donors.

But Walker, who just began his second term as governor, is sticking to his timeline and does not plan to announce a decision on whether to run for president until after he signs the state budget into law, likely in June.

Three other Republicans – U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz – have all officially announced their candidacies for president.

The super PAC will be headed by Keith Gilkes, a longtime Walker adviser who ran Walker’s 2010 campaign and previously served as his chief of staff. He was working for Walker when he successfully stripped the collective bargaining rights of public sector workers in Wisconsin, which generated massive protests and catapulted Walker onto the national stage.

That fight led Walker to face a 2012 recall election, which he won. Gilkes also ran that campaign.

Stephan Thompson, who ran Walker’s 2014 re-election campaign and was a former Wisconsin Republican Party executive director, will serve as Gilkes’ assistant at the super PAC. James McCray, a GOP fundraiser who previously worked John McCain’s presidential campaign, will be its national finance director.

Super PACs are political committees that operate independently of the candidates and cannot coordinate strategy with the campaigns of those seeking office. But they often can play an outsized role in shaping how voters view the candidates, because they can buy so much more advertising than the campaigns can afford.

Walker in January formed a tax-exempt 527 committee called Our American Revival, which can also raise unlimited amounts. But unlike the new super PAC, the money can only be spent on issues, not specifically advocating for Walker as a candidate for president.

An annual rite of spring has arrived.

Sturgeon have begun spawning on the Wolf River, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says. According to senior fisheries biologist Ryan Koenigs, there were multiple spawning pods at the Sturgeon Trail in New London and at least one at Bamboo Bend in Shiocton as of Thursday morning. Koenigs also expects spawning activity below the Shawano Dam by the weekend.

Because water temperatures have warmed rapidly over the past few days and more warm weather is forecast, Koenigs expects a short, but intense spawning season.

• Click here for updates and a maps to spawning locations

GERMANTOWN (AP) – Many employees of a longtime family-owned business in southeastern Wisconsin say they’re astounded by the generosity of company leaders following a recent sale to a private equity firm.

Workers were given a $10,000 gift by the family owners of Gehl Foods in Germantown. The company was sold in recent weeks to Wind Point Partners, of Chicago. Full-time employees received $5,000 for their 401(k) plan and a $5,000 bonus. Part-time workers got $5,000 for their 401(k) and $2,500 extra. The total amount given to the company’s 370 employees surpassed $3 million.

Gehl purchasing manager Brenda Hanrahan tells the Journal Sentinel that it’s an incredible feeling to know the Gehl family valued its employees.

Gehl Foods makes non-refrigerated dairy products and was founded in 1896.

WAUKESHA (AP) – The attorney for a 12-year-old Wisconsin girl accused of stabbing a classmate to please the horror character Slender Man has asked that her bail be reduced and she be allowed to move to a residential treatment center.

Anthony Cotton wants his client Morgan Geyser’s $500,000 bail reduced to a signature bond. He also wants her to receive treatment for schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders at a Milwaukee facility.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports a judge is expected to consider the bail modification request next Friday.

Geyser and 13-year-old Anissa Weier are charged as adults with attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the stabbing of a 12-year-old classmate.

GREEN BAY – Jeff Zusy, owner of Ski’s Meat Market in Ashwaubenon,  shows us what he likes to throw on the grill.  Zusy shared tips on grilling the perfect ribeye steak.  Ski’s is a new store in the Green Bay area that specializes in high quality fresh cuts of meats.  They also carry chicken, seafood and more than 20 flavors of brats!   You can also pick up the sides and beer you might need to complete your next meal.

Ski’s Meat Market
2201 S Oneida Street
Green Bay, WI 54304

(920) 940-6020

MADISON (AP) – A forensic psychiatrist has testified that Lou Gehrig’s disease affected the brain of a former Dane County sheriff’s deputy who killed his wife and sister-in-law.

Andrew Steele has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease in the shooting deaths last August of his wife, 39-year-old Ashlee Steele, and her 38-year-old sister, Kacee Tollefsbol, of Lake Elmo, Minnesota.

Taking the stand for the defense Wednesday, Dr. Doug Tucker testified that a message Steele wrote about suicide and sexual relations with his wife and sister-in-law is delusional and shows Steele had brain damage. Tucker said that was the reason Steele killed the two and that he was “unable to conform his conduct to the law.”

Steele was diagnosed with ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease, last June, about two months before the killings.

APPLETON – The Fox Valley Group of the Sierra Club is honoring Earth Day with a hike along the Fox River.

Alan Lawrence joined Pete on the Weather Deck Thursday morning to talk about the April 18th event.

Click here for more information.

We’re in the middle of Tornado and Severe Weather Awareness Week and we’re participating in a statewide tornado drill.

The tornado watch drill is at 1 p.m. Thursday

The tornado warning drill is at 1:45 p.m. Thursday.

The tests last about a minute.

We have more on preparing for severe weather on fox11online.com.