Green Bay News

Submitted April 15, 2015, with the caption:

“Grass/brush fire along the railroad, south of State Road 96 and and east of County Road M, south of the town of Medina. The wind is driving the flames to the west!”

• Click here to see more photos of the fire

MENOMINEE, MICH –  Two suspects in a home invasion – where a third suspect was shot and killed – waived preliminary hearings Wednesday.

Thomas Hartman and Matthew Franjose are charged with first-degree home invasion for the Nov. 10 incident at a town of Mellen home. Arraignment are scheduled for May 4, according to the Menominee County prosecutors office.

The homeowner, David Higbee, shot and killed Hayden Gagnon during the incident. Officials revealed last week Higbee would not be charged.

FOND DU LAC – A crash has blocked traffic on Interstate 41 at Hwy. OO in Fond du Lac County.

Photos submitted to FOX 11 through ReportIt indicate a rescue helicopter was called to the scene.

The Department of Transportation says drivers can exit onto Hwy. 26, go south to Hwy. 151, then take 151 northeast back to 41.

MADISON (AP) – The Legislature’s budget-writing committee has voted to remove $250,000 for a new study on the negative effects of wind power.

Gov. Scott Walker had called for spending the money on a study to look at the effects of noise and shadow flicker on people who live near wind turbines.

But the Joint Finance Committee on Wednesday voted to have the Public Service Commission review existing studies, rather than spend $150,000 to commission a new one.

Democratic Rep. Chris Taylor objected, because the PSC would be allowed to look at studies done by anyone, not just those that are peer reviewed. She says that opens the door to junk science being considered.

State studies done in 2010 and 2014 were inconclusive as to whether wind turbines caused adverse health effects.

A small single-passenger helicopter landing on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol stunned visitors Wednesday.

Capitol Police identified the aircraft, which landed about a half city block from the Capitol building, as a “gyro copter with a single occupant.” The landing prompted a temporary lockdown of the Capitol Visitor Center.

Capitol Police didn’t immediately identify the pilot or comment on his motive, but a Florida postal carrier named Doug Hughes took responsibility for the stunt on a website where he said he was delivering letters to all 535 members of Congress in order to draw attention to campaign finance corruption.

Click the play button above to watch video captured by a blogger.

Below is video captured by a witness (WARNING: video includes language some viewers may find objectionable).

ST. CROIX FALLS, Wis. (AP) – Authorities are searching for three men after an argument on opposite banks of the St. Croix River led to a fatal stabbing at Interstate Park in Wisconsin.

The Polk County sheriff’s office identifies the stabbing victim as 34-year-old Peter Kelly of St. Croix Falls. The St. Paul Pioneer Press  reports Kelly was a married father of five children.

The dispute began about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, when Kelly and another man who were fishing on the Minnesota side of the river began arguing with three men on the Wisconsin side. The sheriff’s office says the argument escalated until Kelly went to the Wisconsin side and was stabbed by one of the three men.

The three men fled. They are believed to be in their late teens or early 20s.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Authorities in Madison say they’re holding two men in connection with a state informant’s death earlier this month.

A canoeist discovered 23-year-old Jacob Payne’s body in Lake Mendota on Saturday. Investigators said Payne had been living out of his car, which he had been parking at an auto-repair shop in the town of Burke, and was working with the state Justice Department as a drug informant.

The Dane County Sheriff’s Department said Wednesday that Payne got into an altercation April 7 with a Waunakee man who rented the shop. That man and another man from Madison stabbed Payne and dumped his body in the lake.

A sheriff’s spokeswoman says Payne was trying to build a case against the Waunakee man but the man wasn’t aware of it.

GREEN BAY — With Matt Flynn still not signed, the Green Bay Packers signed former University of Wisconsin-Whitewater quarterback Matt Blanchard, according to multiple reports.

The three-year pro spent last season on the Carolina Panthers’ injured reserve list after sustaining a concussion in a preseason game. He spent most of his rookie season in 2012 on the Chicago Bears’ practice squad.

Blanchard won three Division III national championships while at UW-Whitewater.

HOUSTON (AP) — A Houston hospital says a woman has given birth to five girls in what it believes is the first set of all-female quintuplets born in the U.S.

The Woman’s Hospital of Texas says it took four minutes for mother Danielle Busby to deliver the babies by cesarean section April 8. Busby, her husband Adam and her eldest daughter, Blayke, welcomed Olivia Marie, Ava Lane, Hazel Grace, Parker Kate and Riley Paige.

Dr. Alexander Reiter delivered the babies — who were born premature at 28 weeks — with help from more than a dozen medical personnel.

The hospital says the babies are the first set of all-female quintuplets born in America.

The mother had an intrauterine insemination for both her pregnancies.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday dismissed pressure from the U.S. Congress over a preliminary deal on the Islamic Republic’s contested nuclear program, saying that Tehran is dealing with world powers — not American lawmakers.

In a speech to tens of thousands of Iranians in the northern city of Rasht, Rouhani said his nation is pursuing a “dignified” agreement with the six-member group, which includes the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

Rouhani’s remarks were an apparent reaction to developments Tuesday in Washington, where President Barack Obama bowed to pressure from Republicans and Democrats and agreed to sign compromise legislation empowering Congress to reject a final nuclear deal with Iran. The legislation is now expected to sail through both houses of Congress but it is unclear how it will affect the ongoing nuclear talks with Iran.

Tehran and world powers reached a framework agreement on the deal earlier this month. The deal, which is to be finalized by June 30, is meant to curb Iran’s nuclear program in return for lifting of crippling economic sanctions imposed on Iran.

The disputes between the Obama administration and the Congress are an “internal issue,” Rouhani said.

“Our partner is not the U.S. Congress or the Senate, our partner is a group called ‘5+1,'” Rouhani said, referring to the six world powers — the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany.

“It has absolutely nothing to do with our government and nation what … U.S. representatives or hard-liners say. … We are looking for reciprocal … good will and respect,” he said.

Rouhani reiterated his stance expressed last week that Tehran will not sign on to any final deal unless all economic sanctions are completely lifted.

“If there is no end to sanctions, there will be no deal,” Rouhani said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran will hold the U.S. administration, not the U.S. Congress, responsible for implementing a future deal.

“As a point of principle, we hold the government of the United States responsible for implementing its international obligations,” Zarif said during an official visit to Lisbon, Portugal, on Wednesday. “We will hold the U.S. government, the U.S. president accountable.”

Also Wednesday, U.N. nuclear inspectors arrived in Iran to investigate suspicions that Tehran worked on nuclear weapons, a charge the Islamic Republic denies.

The official IRNA news agency quoted Iranian nuclear spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi as saying that inspectors from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency would discuss with Iranian officials “unresolved issues” surrounding a military site in Marivan, in western Iran.

A 2011 IAEA report indicated that large-scale high-explosive experiments were conducted in Marivan, near the Iraqi border.

Talks with the IAEA are parallel to Iran’s nuclear negotiations with world powers. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, such as power generation and cancer treatment.

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Associated Press writer Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Howling winds wreaked havoc across northern Utah on Tuesday, causing a deadly highway pileup, uprooting trees and briefly halting flights at Salt Lake City’s airport as blowing dust and debris clouded the skies.

One person died and 25 others were injured in the crash on Interstate 80 near the Nevada state line, said Sgt. Todd Royce of the Utah Highway Patrol.

The pileup happened after winds kicked up dirt and reduced visibility to almost nothing, causing at least three semitrailers to roll and other cars to crash into them.

The wreck shut down a nearly 100-mile stretch of the major east-west highway in both directions for a couple of hours.

Eastbound lanes were reopened at about 4:45 p.m., with the opposite lanes expected to be reopened later Tuesday night, said Utah Department of Transportation spokesman John Gleason. The closed area stretched from the Nevada border to about 20 miles west of Salt Lake City.

Meanwhile, all flights in and out of Salt Lake City International Airport were put on hold for about 30 minutes in the afternoon.

Airport spokeswoman Barbara Gann said 15 flights were diverted during that time and were later proceeding to Salt Lake City. Because of the interruption and ongoing wind, further delays were expected into the evening, she said.

The gusting winds also uprooted trees, and caused power outages and commuter train delays. The blowing dust and debris brought a fog to most of the Salt Lake City area.

Wind speeds were reported as high as 82 mph west of Salt Lake City and in the 60 to 70 mph range in the Salt Lake City area, said National Weather Service meteorologist Christine Kruse.

Rocky Mountain Power was dealing with several large outages across the region — including nearly 3,000 customers without electricity in the Salt Lake City suburb of South Jordan.

A strong wind burst ripped roofing off a clothing store in the northern Utah city of Bountiful, South Davis Metro Fire Agency chief Jeff Bassett said.

“Half of the roof peeled back, and it folded over on the other side of the roof,” Bassett said.

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Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

(CNN) Beech-Nut is recalling nearly a ton of baby food products that may contain small pieces of glass.

The USDA says the affected baby food is four-ounce glass jars of stage two classics sweet potato and chicken.

The jars were produced on Dec. 12, 2014.

The recall was issued after a consumer found a small piece of glass in a Beech-Nut jar.

Beech-Nut says at least one person suffered a mouth injury from the glass.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Federal Reserve says the U.S. economy was growing at a moderate pace from mid-February through the end of March although the harsh winter, the rising value of the dollar and a big plunge in oil prices were having adverse effects on some industries.

In its latest survey of business conditions around the country, the Fed says that eight of its 12 banking regions described the economy as growing at either a moderate or modest pace with two others – Atlanta and Kansas City – describing conditions as steady.

The report said that demand for manufactured goods was mixed with the strong dollar cutting into demand for exports.

The information included in the report will be used by Fed policymakers when they next meet on April 28-29.

NEW YORK (AP) – The Fight for $15 campaign that began with fast-food workers expanded in size and scope Wednesday to include a range of workers who say their meager pay is a form of economic injustice.

Organizers said demonstrations were planned for more than 230 U.S. cities and college campuses, as well as dozens of cities overseas.

In New York City, more than 100 chanting protesters holding signs with messages like “We See Greed” gathered outside a McDonald’s around noon, prompting the store to lock its doors to prevent the crowd from taking over the store.

Demonstrators laid on the sidewalk to stage a “die-in,” which became popular during the “Black Lives Matter” protests after recent police shootings of black men. Several wore hooded sweatshirts that said “I Can’t Breathe,” a nod to the recent death of a black man in New York City who was put in a police chokehold.

Timothy Roach, a 21-year-old Wendy’s worker from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who traveled to New York for the protests, said the police brutality black men face is linked to how they’re viewed by employers and the lack of economic opportunity they’re given. He said the protests were important to send a message to the people in charge at companies like McDonald’s.

“If they don’t see that it matters to us, then it won’t matter to them,” Roach said.

In Jackson, Mississippi, around 30 people demonstrated in a McDonald’s before being kicked out. Organizers said about half of them were McDonald’s workers, although a representative for McDonald’s Corp. said its local team found only one participant was a McDonald’s worker from the region. One of the demonstrators was arrested for trespassing.

Protesters also gathered outside McDonald’s restaurants in cities including Denver and Los Angeles, after demonstrations got off to an early start in Boston and Detroit on Tuesday. In Albany, New York, about 150 people marched and demonstrated outside a McDonald’s.

The Fight for $15 campaign is being spearheaded by the Service Employees International Union and began in late 2012. Since then, organizers have used the spotlight to rally workers in a variety of fields, with adjunct professors being the most recent to join in Wednesday.

Kendall Fells, organizing director for Fight for $15 and an SEIU employee, said McDonald’s remains a focus of the protests and that the company’s recently announced pay bump shows fast-food workers already have a de facto union.

“It shows the workers are winning,” he said.

McDonald’s earlier this month said it would raise its starting salary to $1 above the local minimum wage, and give workers the ability to accrue paid time off. It marked the first national pay policy by McDonald’s, and indicates the company wants to take control of its image as an employer more than two years after the protests began. But the move only applies to workers at company-owned stores, which account for about 10 percent of more than 14,300 locations.

That means McDonald’s is digging in its heels over a central issue for labor organizers: Whether it has the power to set wages at franchised restaurants.

McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s say they don’t control the employment decisions at franchised restaurants. The SEIU wants to change that and hold McDonald’s responsible for labor conditions at franchised restaurants in multiple ways, including lawsuits.

In a statement, McDonald’s said it respects the right to “peacefully protest” and that its restaurants will remain open Wednesday. In the past, it said only about 10 to 15 McDonald’s workers out of about 800,000 have participated.

In a recent column in The Chicago Tribune, McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook described the company’s pay hike and other perks as “an initial step,” and said he wants to transform McDonald’s into a “modern, progressive burger company.”

But that transformation will have to take place as labor organizers continue rallying public support for low-wage workers. Ahead of the protests this week, a study funded by the SEIU found working families rely on $153 billion in public assistance a year as a result of their low wages.

Last year, more than a dozen states and multiple cities raised their minimum wages, according to the National Employment Law Project. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has also been targeted with protests for higher wages and better treatment for workers, recently announced pay hikes as well.

Robert Reich, former Labor secretary and a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, said stagnating wages for lower-income workers are helping change negative attitudes about unions.

“People are beginning to wonder if they’d be better off with bargaining power,” Reich said.

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Associated Press Writer Jeff Amy contributed from Jackson, Mississippi.

Keith Kutska will get another chance to argue for a new trial in connection his conviction for the 1992 murder of Tom Monfils, a judge decided.

Kutska is one of six men who were convicted of killing Monfils at the then-James River paper mill. All but Mike Piaskowski, whose conviction was overturned by a federal judge, are serving life prison terms.

Last fall, Kutska’s lawyers filed a 145-page motion, arguing Monfils wasn’t murdered but actually killed himself. Prosecutors disagree and maintain the six killed him. His body was found at the bottom of a pulp vat, with a rope & weight tied to him.

Retired Outagamie County Judge James Bayorgeon, who is still handling the case, has granted a hearing, said attorney John Bradley.

The hearing is scheduled to last three days, starting July 8.

Kutska’s previous appeals were denied.

Just last week, the state Parole Commission denied Kutska’s first parole request. It said he needed to spend more time in prison. Judge Bayorgeon wrote a letter to the parole board, recommending Kutska be released as soon as possible.

To date, parole requests have been denied for the other four: Dale Basten, Michael Hirn, Michael Johnson and Rey Moore. They remain incarcerated.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Police arrested a man who steered his tiny, one-person helicopter onto the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, surprising spring tourists and prompting a temporary lockdown of the Capitol Visitor Center.

Capitol Police didn’t immediately identify the pilot or comment on his motive, but a Florida postal carrier named Doug Hughes took responsibility for the stunt on a website where he said he was delivering letters to all 535 members of Congress in order to draw attention to campaign finance corruption.

“As I have informed the authorities, I have no violent inclinations or intent,” Hughes wrote on his website, thedemocracyclub.org. “An ultralight aircraft poses no major physical threat – it may present a political threat to graft. I hope so. There’s no need to worry – I’m just delivering the mail.”

Capitol Police identified the aircraft, which landed about a half city block from the Capitol building, as a “gyro copter with a single occupant.”

House Homeland Security panel Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said the pilot landed on his own, but that had he made it much closer to the Capitol authorities were prepared to shoot him down. “Had it gotten any closer to the speaker’s balcony they have long guns to take it down, but it didn’t. It landed right in front,” McCaul said.

Witnesses said the craft approached the Capitol from the west, flying low over the National Mall and the Capitol reflecting pool across the street from the building. It barely cleared a row of trees and a statue of Gen. Ulysses Grant.

John Jewell, 72, a tourist from Statesville, North Carolina, said the craft landed hard and bounced. An officer was already there with a gun drawn. “He didn’t get out until police officers told him to get out. He had his hands up'” and was quickly led away by the police, Jewell said. “They snatched him pretty fast.”

Elizabeth Bevins, a tourist from Atlanta, said she was standing across the street from the Capitol when the helicopter flew in around 20 or 30 feet high, and it “just sort of plopped down on the lawn.”

Downtown Washington is blanketed by restrictions on air traffic that generally prohibit aircraft from flying over the White House, the Capitol, the national Mall and key buildings without special permission.

The situation was under investigation and streets in the area were shut down. Emergency vehicles were dispatched to the area and a robot bomb detector was sent over to the craft.

Amid the commotion, the small craft presented a strange sight sitting on the green lawn of the Capitol, its rotors slowly spinning.

See the breakdown of voter turnout in Brown County communities.

MADISON (AP) – The Legislature’s budget committee has broken with Gov. Scott Walker and decided that a commission that investigates judges and court commissioners should remain independent.

The Joint Finance Committee on Wednesday unanimously rejected Walker’s proposal to move the Judicial Commission under control of the state Supreme Court.

Both Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and Justice Annette Ziegler, along with the executive director of the commission, had objected to the move. Neither the court nor the commission requested the change.

Walker had defended the move as helping to streamline operations.

MADISON (AP) – A 64-year-old council that makes recommendations about court practices and procedures in Wisconsin would be able to continue operating under a vote by the Legislature’s budget committee.

The Joint Finance Committee on Wednesday broke with Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to do away with the Judicial Council. The 21-member panel includes a member of the Supreme Court, judges and state lawmakers. It issues recommendations to the governor, Supreme Court and Legislature.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and council chairman Thomas Bertz had urged the Legislature to keep the council in place.

The Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee agreed on a bipartisan 15-1 vote not to eliminate it, but did change how it is funded. The Legislature must approve the decision.

FOND DU LAC – For the first time, the emerald ash borer has been documented within the city of Fond du Lac.

The destructive beetle was found just south of the city in December 2013, but officials say an infested ash tree was discovered on the city’s southwest side last week.

City leaders say they have been working for several years to remove ash trees in preparation for an infestation. Although the city would like to save some trees, officials say they don’t have the money to chemically treat all 5,000 on public land. They say they will work with citizens who want trees on nearby terraces or private property treated; it costs $120 to treat an average, 15-inch diameter tree every two to three years.

For now, the city is focusing on removing trees in the area where the infestation was found.

• To learn more, visit the city parks department’s website

The city plans to schedule a public information meeting in the coming weeks to discuss the issue.

The emerald ash borer has killed millions of ash trees since it was found near Detroit, Michigan in 2002.