Green Bay News

GREEN BAY — According to multiple reports, the Green Bay Packers matched the Oakland Raiders one-year, $2.55 million offer sheet before Monday’s deadline.

Richardson is in his fourth year with the Packers and has appeared mostly on special teams during his time in Green Bay. In 2012 he sustained a neck injury as a rookie that required fusion surgery and was limited to just 11 games in his first two years.

Richardson provides depth at safety behind Morgan Burnett and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix.

CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner wants the state’s medical marijuana program to be thoroughly reviewed before a decision is made on whether to extend it beyond 2017, according to a spokeswoman.

“The governor believes there is a lot of time left to evaluate a pilot program, and we should not extend the program until it has been fully evaluated,” Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said in a statement.

The Republican governor’s position on extending the program was first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Rauner was reacting to a bill backed by Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat who sponsored the original medical marijuana legislation. Lang’s bill would extend the program four years from when the first dispensary begins officially operating.

The pilot program is scheduled for automatic repeal on Jan. 1, 2018. Because of unexpected delays, businesses aren’t yet selling the drug and aren’t expected to begin sales until later this year.

Lang said sticking with the original end date for the program would drive up costs for patients and create unnecessary hardship for businesses. “It’s important that we put a little more time on the clock,” he said.

Meanwhile, 2,000 approved medical cannabis patients have paid to register for the program. Lang’s bill would allow those patients to use their registry cards for a year after the first dispensary starts operating without paying a $100 renewal fee.

That part of the bill may not be necessary. Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said the department intends to issue the cards once dispensaries are open and patients won’t have to renew their registration until 12 months from the date the registry card is issued.

Officials in Rauner’s administration asked Lang to hold off on filing his bill, but Lang said he pushed ahead. He added that the governor “should do his job and I’ll do mine.”

 

WAUPACA COUNTY – A Marinette man was charged Monday after authorities say he tried to break in the Bree’s Inn in New London.

35-year-old Kyle Conlon faces five charges, including robbery with use of force, theft of moveable property, disorderly conduct and battery.

Officers say they responded to a call at Bree’s Inn around noon Sunday for a report of an armed robbery.

Police arrived on scene to find several patrons holding Conlon down.

Conlon was arrested and no weapon was involved in the robbery.

FOND DU LAC – No nearby buildings were damaged when firefighters put out a fire on a boat.

Fond du Lac Fire/Rescue says it was called to the 200 block of Morris Ct. just before 10 a.m. Monday. When crews arrived, they found heavy smoke and flames coming from the boat, which was on a trailer.

Firefighters say a car parked in front of a nearby fire hydrant made it more difficult to get water to fight the fire. The car was ticketed, and firefighters say they hope it serves as a reminder to not park in front of fire hydrants.

Investigators from the police are fire departments are looking into the fire on the boat.

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GOLDSBORO, N.C. (AP) – School officials and authorities say a 20-year-old former community college student killed a campus print shop director that he used to work under.

Wayne County Sheriff Larry Pierce said Monday that authorities are pursuing the suspect, Kenneth Morgan Stancil III, on an open count of murder.

Authorities and officials say Stancil walked into a Wayne Community College building with a rifle Monday morning and killed Ron Lane. Stancil had worked for Lane in the print shop in a work-study program at the college.

Stancil was a third-year student at the college but it wasn’t immediately clear when he last attended. He wasn’t currently a student.

Authorities do not believe he is still on campus. They say the scope of their manhunt is currently inside the state of North Carolina.

JEMISON, Ala. (AP) – A man who was fighting with his wife followed her to a nearby doctor’s office, fatally shot her in front of several employees, then returned home, where he eventually surrendered after a standoff with police, officials said Monday.

The couple lived near the doctor’s office, and the woman apparently fled their from their home in small-town Jemison because it was the closest place to go, police chief Shane Fulmer said. He did not release the couple’s names.

“The first thing she said when she came in was, ‘Call the police,'” Fulmer said. He said six to seven people – all employees, including the doctor – were in the office at the time.

Her husband followed her in and shot her, then returned home, Fulmer said. There, police talked to him over the phone and a loudspeaker. Police didn’t shoot any bullets but fired tear gas into the home, Fulmer said. After that, the man came outside. He had a gunshot wound to the head, and Fulmer said it was self-inflicted but that police didn’t know exactly when it happened.

The man was taken to a hospital and will be charged, police said.

After the shooting and during the standoff, roads and businesses were closed. At least 10 police cars were on the scene. Ambulances blocked the highway in front of the building, with rescue personnel going in and out. Local schools went on lockdown.

At the standoff scene, there was a series of loud pops near the house. Within moments an ambulance pulled up, and emergency workers could be seen loading a person into the back of the ambulance. The ambulance then left with its siren on.

After the ordeal, the house was surrounded in yellow police tape.

James Russell Curl, who manages a McDonald’s restaurant about 200 yards from the doctor’s office, said he had heard a gunshot and police began arriving within moments.

“It’s a little scary,” Curl said.

NEW YORK (AP) — Nestle says it’s cutting some of the sugar from its Nesquik chocolate and strawberry powders and is taking artificial coloring out of the strawberry powder.

Nestle says strawberry Nesquik powder will get its pink coloring from beet juice powder instead of artificial colors. And Nestle says it’s reducing added sugar in its original chocolate powder by 15 percent and cutting added sugar in strawberry powder by 27 percent. Some of the added sugar will be replaced with coca and natural flavors. The moves don’t affect the company’s chocolate and strawberry syrups.

Nestle says Nesquik chocolate powder already is without artificial colors. Nestle says it spent 18 months reformulating the products.

The new versions of the powders will go on sale this month.

 

PHOENIX (AP) — A judge sentenced convicted murderer Jodi Arias to life in prison without the possibility of release on Monday, ending a nearly seven-year-old case that attracted worldwide attention with its salacious details.

The decision by Judge Sherry Stephens was largely a formality after a jury deadlocked last month on whether to give Arias the death penalty or life in prison. The mistrial removed the death penalty as an option.

The only decision left was whether the judge would allow Arias, 34, to be eligible for release after 25 years. She declined to do that, meaning Arias will spend the rest of her life in prison.

Arias killed her on-again-off-again boyfriend Travis Alexander in 2008 in what prosecutors said was retaliation for his desire to break off the relationship. Arias shot Alexander and stabbed him nearly 30 times in his suburban Phoenix home before fleeing and driving to Utah to meet up with another romantic interest. She was arrested weeks later and initially denied any involvement.

International attention soon followed after she gave two television interviews in which she told a bizarre story of masked intruders breaking into the home and killing Alexander while she cowered in fear. She subsequently changed her story and said it was self-defense after Alexander attacked her on the day he died.

Her 2013 trial became a media sensation as details of their tawdry relationship and the violent crime scene emerged while the courtroom saga was broadcast live. Spectators traveled to Phoenix and lined up in the middle of the night to get a seat in the courtroom to catch a glimpse of what had become to many a real-life soap opera.

Interest in the case intensified after Arias did a jailhouse interview minutes after she was convicted of murder, telling a local TV reporter that she preferred the death penalty over life in prison.

“I would much rather die sooner than later. Longevity runs in my family, and I don’t want to spend the rest of my natural life in one place,” she said.

The original jury deadlocked on whether to sentence her to death, setting up another penalty phase trial that began last year. After months of testimony and efforts by Arias’ lawyers to portray Alexander as a sexual deviant who physically and emotionally abused her, the second jury also failed to reach a unanimous decision — this time 11-1 in favor of death. The 11 jurors who wanted the death penalty said the holdout juror had an agenda and was sympathetic to Arias.

Arias will begin serving her sentence in a 12-by-7-foot cell in a maximum-security unit at the Perryville prison for women, located 30 miles west of downtown Phoenix. If prison officials deem her behavior good over time, she could be moved to lower-security units.

Arias grew up in California, dropped out of high school and bounced around to various waitress jobs while pursuing a career in photography before meeting Alexander at a conference in Las Vegas. Soon after, they began a long-distance relationship, and she moved to Mesa to be closer to him, even joining the Mormon church because Alexander followed the faith.

He later complained to friends that Arias was stalking him, including once climbing through the doggie door of his house, as he courted other women — something prosecutors say eventually led to her killing him in a jealous rage.

 

GREEN BAY — The Green Bay Packers ensured that chants of “Kuhn” should again ring at Lambeau Field. The team is re-signing fullback John Kuhn to a one-year contract, according to Kuhn’s agent Kevin Gold.

Kuhn’s contract will be for the veteran’s minimum salary which is $870,000 according to his agent, but will include the possibility for a workout bonus and a Pro Bowl bonus. Kuhn made the Pro Bowl in 2011 and 2014.

Kuhn has spent 8 seasons with the Packers, becoming a fan favorite and a favorite of quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who often lauds Kuhn for his knowledge of the offense. Kuhn appeared in all 16 regular season games in 2014, carrying the ball 24 times (the most he’s had since 2011) for 85 yards and a touchdown. Kuhn has also been a key contributor for Green Bay’s special teams units.

The signing has not yet been announced by the Packers.

OSHKOSH – Police are looking for the person who robbed an Oshkosh convenience store at knifepoint.

This surveillance image released by the Oshkosh Police Dept. shows a male who robbed the Blue Moose convenience store, 1623 Bowen St., at knifepoint April 12, 2015.

Investigators say just before midnight Sunday, a male walked into the Blue Moose store, 1623 Bowen St. Wearing a face covering and showing a knife, he demanded money. He got some and left; police aren’t saying how much.

He was last seen headed north on Bowen St. toward E. Murdock Ave.

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

MADISON (AP) – Authorities are investigating after a dead man was discovered in a lake on the north side of Madison over the weekend.

The Dane County Sheriff’s Office says a canoeist found the body near Governor’s Island on Lake Mendota around 4 p.m. Saturday. Investigators have launched a homicide probe and have called a news conference for Monday afternoon.

A spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department declined to comment ahead of the news conference.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — For three decades, the stained and blurry photograph presented a great mystery to Civil War historians.

It was a picture taken of another photo, which appeared far older and was encased in a peeling, gilded frame. In the foreground of that photo stood a man, his back to the camera, wearing an overcoat and a hat and carrying a pole or fishing rod. In the center, visible amid the stains and apparent water damage, was a ship.

Did this picture show the only known photograph of the ironclad Confederate warship the CSS Georgia?

The 120-foot ship armored with strips of railroad iron never had a chance to earn much glory in the Civil War. Its engines proved too weak to propel its 1,200-ton frame against the Savannah River’s currents, so the Georgia remained anchored off Old Fort Jackson as a floating gun battery. Confederate sailors sunk their ship in December 1864 as Gen. William T. Sherman’s Union troops captured Savannah.

The CSS Georgia had never fired a shot in combat.

Several artists of the period published illustrations of the Georgia, but the details varied and no blueprints survived.

But there was that photo. It seemed to show a ship with the Georgia’s design: an armored casemate covering the entire deck, sides sloped at 45-degree angles.

Though it was never authenticated, the photo became an unofficial part of the ship’s history.

The Georgia Historical Society has records showing a John Potter donated the photo of the photo in March 1986. The documentation included the description: “Only known photograph of Civil War Ironclad C.S.S. Georgia mounted in plexiglass frame.”

As the Army Corps of Engineers embarked this year on a $14 million project to raise the Georgia’s wreckage from the river, archaeologists publicized the image online and in news stories — including an Associated Press story — hoping to track down the original photo.

“Wanted: A Photo Of This Confederate Battleship,” read the headline above the image on the Army Corps website.

“There are a lot of characteristics in the photograph that lead us to believe it is the CSS Georgia,” Julie Morgan, the Army Corps archaeologist in charge of raising the ironclad’s remains, said in a February interview. “On the other side, there are some skeptics who believe it’s a complete fake.”

Robert Holcombe, former curator of the National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, Georgia, told the AP in February that while the original photograph would be needed to confirm if the image was authentic, he believed it was real.

“Most people seem to think so,” he said. “Or else it’s an awfully good fake.”

Now, the man who took that photo of the photo all those years ago, says he wants to clear the record: It is a fake.

___

Here was the story John Potter told 30 years ago:

The Savannah native was at a yard sale when he found the photograph in an antique frame. Inscribed on the back of the frame was “CSS Georgia.” He didn’t have the $175 the owner wanted, so he took a photo of it and mailed it to historical groups in Savannah.

Here is his new story, which he told exclusively to The Associated Press:

When he was a teenager in Savannah, Potter, his brother Jeffrey and a friend shot a short 8mm movie about the building — and destruction — of the CSS Georgia in a fictional battle with Union troops.

For the movie, they built an 18-foot long boat of plywood and Styrofoam, as well as a smaller 2-foot model. They based the design, in part, on his grandfather’s recollections of details passed down by word of mouth through generations of their family. Potter also used an illustration of the ironclad he found on a postcard.

At some point, Potter decided to test whether he had the skills to pursue his dream of becoming a Hollywood special effects artist.

Potter’s younger brother put on a coat and straw hat went out to a marsh with a cane fishing pole and Potter took a photo. He took another photo of the 2-foot model. He cut out the boat’s image, glued it onto the photo of his brother, then used dirt and Elmer’s glue to create the illusion of a photo faded by age and stained by water or chemicals.

He bought an old picture frame and beat it up even further. He put the photo in it. Then he drove 120 miles to a yard sale — or maybe it was a flea market — in Waycross, Georgia, put the picture down and took a Polaroid of it. He laughs now, when he remembers that it had seemed so important that he actually do this at a yard sale, so at least that part would be true. “Who knows what goes through the mind of a kid,” he said.

Potter sent out the photo to historical groups, setting off the sporadic, and fruitless, search for a CSS Georgia photo that he now says never existed.

___

The peeling gilt frame that once held the disputed photo, is now filled with a portrait of Potter’s deceased pug, Puggy Van Dug.

Potter, 50, lives alone, in a cluttered, one-story house off a secluded road of rundown and abandoned homes in Lenoir, a former furniture mecca in North Carolina. He never married, never had kids. When a reporter showed up at his door, he remarked it was first visitor he’d had in years.

He never became a successful special effects artist.

After high school, he moved to California and landed a job with a movie studio, but he returned to Savannah a year later to be with a girlfriend, he says. Potter opened an antiques store and began providing props for movies filming in the area. Later on, he set up his own special effects shop, and says he worked on a sequel to the movie “Swamp Thing” — which was filmed in Savannah — though his name doesn’t appear in the credits. A green piece of the movie’s monster costume is among memorabilia filling his home.

Potter eventually drifted between jobs, including a stint as a maintenance man for the Tybee Island Light Station and Museum. He lived in a trailer behind the lighthouse.

He spent many a night quenching his thirst for Pabst Blue Ribbon at Huc-a-Poos, where he left a lasting mark.

On one wall hangs Potter’s photo — a mock police mug shot — with the words: “Tybee Record — 77 PBRs in one night.” In another corner, Potter’s old laptop computer is nailed to the wall with a steel spike driven through its center. Written in marker is the message, “Rot in Hell, Devil Box.”

“Potter’s a crazy guy,” said Eric Thomas, owner of Huc-a-Poos. “He’s also a lovable guy. He’s out there, but he’s fun to be around.”

After their father died in 2011, Potter and his brother moved to the North Carolina mountains.

Then, last month, his brother Jeffrey, the only person who shared the secret of the photograph’s true history, killed himself at age 48. His death was confirmed by police records in Lenoir. Potter returned to Savannah with his brother’s ashes a week later, planning to scatter them off the beach of neighboring Tybee Island. A memorial and potluck with friends was arranged by Thomas, Huc-a-Poos’ owner.

Thomas said Potter told him he only had $40, so the bar owner reached out to Potter’s friends at the bar to raise enough money for his brother’s cremation.

Potter said he’d completely forgotten about the photo and had no idea the fuss it had caused until he saw it a few months ago on the Army Corps website.

Then he had a choice: play along, or come clean.

He decided to play along — for a few weeks. But after his brother’s death, he reconsidered, and reached out to AP to reveal the hoax, he said.

“I’m not in good health. I didn’t want to drop dead and carry that to my grave,” he told AP.

“Plus, I don’t care anymore. What are they gonna do, sue me? You want to take my termite house in North Carolina and my 14-year-old Buick? Come and get it.”

Potter said he never made any money off his hoax and never could have tried to sell the original photo he had made.

“If you ever opened it, you would see it was printed on paper that said Kodak,” he says.

And he’s a little taken aback that people took him so seriously.

“I didn’t intend to hurt or embarrass anybody, because I really love history,” he said. “But there’s still a lesson there: Do your dang homework. Don’t assume anything.”

Army Corps spokesman Billy Birdwell said the agency always steered clear from stating whether the image was real or fake — “We just flat didn’t know.”

Todd Groce, president of the Georgia Historical Society, said Potter’s photo will remain in the group’s archives along with updated information that it appears to be a hoax.

“It just shows you to question everything,” Groce said.

___

But is Potter now telling the truth?

As proof to back up his new story, Potter presented AP the 8 mm movie he and his brother had made. He showed old photos. One showed a young man he said was his brother, standing in a marsh wearing a coat and straw hat and carrying a cane fishing pole — much like the figure in the ironclad photograph. Another showed the same boy carefully holding, atop his fingertips, the small model of the ship, which looks identical to the ghostly image in the photograph. Another showed a pug lying next to a model of the ship. A fourth showed the long elusive photo in its frame on a quilt, next to a K-Mart bag, a bunch of Polaroids of the photo, the model of the ship and a Mad magazine from 1984.

Potter showed an ad he bought in his Jenkins High School yearbook to promote the 8 mm film. It shows the brothers dressed as Civil War soldiers, with a Confederate flag behind them, beneath the caption: “A New Film By John Potter: ‘The C.S.S. Georgia-Ironclad.'”

He also showed AP the picture frame, which he still has. As for the photo that was in the frame, Potter says because he used glue to “age” it, it was stuck to the frame. So it got shredded long ago when he removed it.

After his brother’s death, Potter told Thomas about the hoax. Yet the bar owner suspects the ironclad photo may be real and Potter has it.

“I said, ‘What are you going to do with it?’ And he said, ‘Do with what?'” Thomas recalled. “And I said, ‘The picture.’ And he said, ‘I’m going to sell it.'”

Thomas said Potter had been drinking and he didn’t push him.

And several times, Potter himself seemed to suggest to the AP that maybe he was pulling some sort of elaborate double hoax.

But he dismissed that theory as “too wacky” to imagine.

“I do not have the original. I did not have it restored and I did not make a copy to get people off my back, because that’s crazy talk. That’s crazy talk.”

___

Mitch Weiss reported from Lenoir, N.C. and Associated Press journalist Alex Sanz contributed to this report.

SHAWANO COUNTY – The driver of the car that killed three people last October in Belle Plaine is facing 11 criminal charges.

Some of 18-year-old Ryan Swadner’s charges include homicide by vehicle and use of a controlled substance and second degree reckless homicide. According to court documents, Swadner’s charged with possessing and using marijuana.

He’s expected to be in Shawano County Court at 1 p.m. today.

Cody Borsche, Paige Brunette and Tyler Welch (Photos courtesy Shawano, Bonduel schools)

Shawano County sheriff’s officials said Swadner lost control and crossed the center line of Hwy. 22, where the car hit an oncoming SUV.

Fifteen-year-old Paige Brunette, 17-year-old Cody Borsche and 18-year-old Tyler Welch died in the crash.

FOX 11’s Gabrielle Mays will have the full story tonight on FOX 11 News at Five.

PULASKI – Kari Groeneveld’s passion is absorbed by her third grade students at Pulaski’s Glenbrook Elementary School.

“I believe that I was put on this earth to teach,” said Groeneveld. “I believe I was put on this earth to work with children and change their lives through education and set them up to be successful people.”

Mrs. Groeneveld is in her fourth year of teaching and says her classroom is designed for a wide range of learning and behavior needs.

Her 18 students shared a range of compliments about their teacher.

“She makes every day of school the best, makes it that I want to be here more than at home,” said student Dalton Panske.

“She’s really nice. She never is angry or grumpy,” added student Brayden Boone.

Groeneveld works closely with a special education teacher and a sign language interpreter.

“I get a lot of collaboration, a lot of teamwork with this type of classroom,” she said.

On a Thursday afternoon last month, Groeneveld had her students moving around the classroom to learn everything from multiplication to vocabulary.

“They like to be interacting with each other,” she explained. “That’s one of those things that I’ve learned to build in even more this year, is that interaction with other students.”

Her students value interacting with their teacher, too.

“When we don’t know something, she helps us with strategies and makes everything easier,” said student Kalissa Kelsey.

Mrs. Groeneveld is teaching close to where she grew up. She graduated from Pulaski High School eight years ago.

“I loved the education that I got here, and I loved the community so much, that it was always a goal at some point in my educational career to come back here, to come back home,” she said.

She’ll be achieving another lifelong dream on April 22 when she’s recognized with other area Golden Apple winners.

“When I was little, probably about eight or nine, I would beg my mom to stay up to watch the Golden Apple Awards, because I wanted to be those teachers,” Groeneveld said. “It’s been a dream.”

MADISON (AP) – The first votes on the two-year state budget will come this week, but the most difficult decisions likely won’t be made until next month.

Lawmakers hope that new tax collection forecasts next month will be positive. If the forecasts are up, then more money can be spent to lessen the $300 million cut for the University of Wisconsin System and $127 million reduction in aid to public schools in the first year of the budget.

Republican legislative leaders have said their top priority is giving more money to public schools. But they’ve also pushed back against the size of the UW cut, changes to SeniorCare and other provisions in Walker’s budget.

The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee meets Wednesday to start taking votes. It’s controlled 10-4 by Republicans.

MADISON – A Democratic lawmaker introduced legislation Monday morning that would legalize marijuana in Wisconsin, but the bill will likely go up in smoke.

State Rep. Melissa Sargent, D-Madison, held a press conference at the Capitol along with the president of the Wisconsin Cannabis Project. They said the change would reduce crime associated with growing and selling cannabis and create jobs.

State Rep. Melissa Sargent, D-Madison.

Sargent introduced a similar bill last year, but it made no progress through the state Legislature.

• Click here to read the 2015 bill

The bill will likely stall again, as Republicans have stronger majorities this session in both houses of the Legislature. A spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says Vos doesn’t anticipate the bill getting to the Assembly floor.

“The marijuana legalization bill does not have significant legislative support,” said Kit Beyer in an email.

Gov. Scott Walker last spring signed into law a measure that permits the use of marijuana derivatives to treat certain medical disorders. His spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Sargent’s bill.

Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska have laws allowing recreational marijuana use. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a total of 23 states, the District of Columbia and Guam now allow for comprehensive public medical marijuana and cannabis programs.

• Click here to read more about other states’ marijuana laws

FOX 11’s Andrew LaCombe will have multiple views on the new legislation tonight on FOX 11 News at Five.

MADISON (AP) – Wisconsin has confirmed its first case of a dangerous bird flu strain that has struck several other Midwest states.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday that it has confirmed the highly pathogenic H5N2 strain in a commercial flock of 200,000 chickens in Jefferson County of southeastern Wisconsin.

The USDA says state officials have quarantined the premises and birds there will be killed to prevent the spread of the disease.

Turkey producers have lost over 1.2 million birds to the disease across the Midwest. This is the first time it has struck a commercial chicken farm in the region.

Authorities say the risk to the public health is now and there’s no danger to the food supply. No human cases of the virus have been found in the U.S.

CHICAGO (AP) – The nation’s first prep sports governing body to face a class-action concussions lawsuit has asked an Illinois judge to dismiss the suit, arguing that if it prevails, it could kill football programs statewide.

In its 16-page motion filed in Cook County Circuit Court, the Illinois High School Association, or IHSA, says it and its 800 member schools have been proactive about improving head-injury management for the 50,000 football players they oversee each year.

The motion calls the suit “a misguided effort that threatens high school football.”

The IHSA filing is the first comprehensive response to the lawsuit – filed in November and slightly amended in January – that seeks court supervision over how high schools manage head injuries. The IHSA filed the response late Friday and provided a copy to The Associated Press.

The filing echoes IHSA Director Marty Hickman’s previous comments to reporters that court-imposed mandates could make football prohibitively expensive for poorer schools, especially Chicago’s public high schools, and lead to “haves and have nots” in the sport.

Plaintiff attorney Joseph Siprut has said improving safety should help football survive, not lead to its demise. He said football is already in jeopardy because parents fearful of concussions are refusing to let their kids play, potentially drying up the talent pool.

College and professional football have faced a barrage of class-action lawsuits in recent years. But the one that names the IHSA as defendant is the first-of-its-kind against a high school football governing body. Each of the 50 states has its own governing body.

The IHSA’s new filing says it can’t be compared to the cash-rich NCAA and NFL. The IHSA has $10 million in yearly revenue to pay for more than 40 sports and activities statewide, and court-imposed mandates could be financially crippling, it argues.

The lawsuit doesn’t seek monetary damages. In addition to court oversight, it seeks requirements that medical personnel be present at all games and practices, among other mandates. It also calls for the IHSA to pay for medical testing of former high school football players extending back to 2002.

The IHSA filing argues that designating a court-administered high school head-injury policy – rather than leaving it to the prep body, school boards and Illinois legislators – would be unwieldy.

“If a high school … fails to have a court-ordered medical professional at a football practice, how will such a violation of the Court’s injunction be remedied?” it asks. “Sanction the IHSA? The local school board? The principal? The athletic director? The coaches? All of the above?”

The lead plaintiff in the initial suit was Daniel Bukal, an ex-quarterback at Notre Dame College Prep in Niles. He was replaced in the amended suit by Alex Pierscionek, a former South Elgin High School lineman. Pierscionek alleges he still suffers memory loss from concussions he received playing at the suburban Chicago school from 2010 to 2014. The suit is filed as a class-action, but the court has not yet approved that status.

A status hearing in the case before Cook County Judge LeRoy Martin Jr. is set for April 23.

Get answers to your questions about the statewide tornado drill, set for April 16, 2015.

MIAMI (AP) — Sen. Marco Rubio on Monday took on Hillary Rodham Clinton in his first words as a presidential candidate, telling top donors he is running for the Republican nomination because the 2016 race for the White House should be about the future, not the past.

The first-term Republican from Florida, 43, also told his most generous backers that he feels “uniquely qualified” to pitch his Republican Party as one that will defend the American Dream.

Rubio spoke on a conference call with donors before a flashy political rally set for Monday night in Miami.

In previewing his campaign’s central message, Rubio said the dream is slipping from too many families’ grip, and young Americans face unequal opportunities to succeed. It was a message honed to pitch the GOP as a party that cares about all voters, not just those in upper tax brackets.

“I feel uniquely qualified to not just make that argument, but to outline the policies that we need to have in order to achieve it,” he said.

A young man in a hurry, Rubio will no doubt hear rivals tell voters he’s not ready for the White House. To counter that, Rubio has outlined specific policy proposals that boost him as a policy expert, both on foreign and domestic issues.

On Tuesday, on his first day as an official candidate, he is set to return to Washington to join a Senate hearing on a proposed deal with Iran on its nuclear ambitions.

Rubio’s presidential announcement comes a day after Clinton announced her bid for the Democratic nomination and as she is traveling to Iowa on her first trip as a candidate.

That’s likely to rob some attention from Rubio’s splash into the race. But Rubio saw an opportunity to cast the presidential contest as one between a fresh face representing a new generation of leadership and a long-familiar figure harking back to the 1990s — namely, Clinton.

“The Republican Party, for the first time in a long time, has a chance in this election to be the party of the future,” Rubio told his donors. “Just yesterday, we heard from a leader from yesterday who wants to take us back to yesterday, but I feel that this country has always been about tomorrow.”

Rubio faces steep challenges to winning the nomination, one of them from his mentor, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Rubio would become the third major GOP contender to declare himself a candidate, after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul, in a field that could grow to 20 or more candidates.

A first-generation immigrant whose parents fled Cuba, Rubio could make history as the nation’s first Hispanic president (as could Cruz). Rubio frames his pitch to voters as the embodiment of American opportunity, as the son of a maid and bartender who worked his way through law school and now sits in Congress.

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Elliott reported from Washington.