Green Bay News

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama kicked off the annual White House Easter egg roll Monday and used the occasion to tout the fifth anniversary of first lady Michelle Obama’s campaign to get kids to eat healthy and exercise.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama wave with the Easter Bunny as they greet guests participating in the White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of White House in Washington, Monday, April 6, 2015. Thousands of children gathered at the White House for the annual Easter Egg Roll. This year’s event features live music, cooking stations, storytelling, and of course, some Easter egg roll. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The theme of this year’s egg roll is #GimmeFive. Event participants are encouraged to identify five ways they plan to be more active and live healthier lives.

The Easter egg roll draws tens of thousands of people to the White House South Lawn each year. Standing alongside the Easter bunny on a sunny spring day in Washington, Obama said the egg roll was “one of our favorite events.”

Monday’s festivities included sports and fitness zones, cooking demonstrations, and of course, the traditional egg roll. Obama also did his annual reading of the book “Where The Wild Things Are.”

The egg roll is one of the longest-standing White House traditions. In 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes opened the White House grounds to local children for egg rolling.

 

BOSTON (AP) — Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev targeted men, women and children at the marathon because he wanted to terrorize the United States on a day when the eyes of the world would be on Boston, a federal prosecutor told jurors Monday in closing arguments.

“He chose a day when there would be civilians on the sidewalks. He and his brother targeted those civilians, men, woman and children, because he wanted to make a point. He wanted to terrorize this country. He wanted to punish America for what it was doing to his people,” Assistant U.S. Attonrey Aloke Chakravarty said. “So that’s what he did.”

Tsarnaev is charged with conspiring with his older brother, Tamerlan, to bomb the marathon in April 2013. Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured when two pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the finish line. Dzhokhar could face the death penalty if convicted; Tamerlan was killed in a gunbattle with police days after the bombing.

Chakravarty showed the jury a photo of Tsarnaev standing just feet behind 8-year-old victim Martin Richard, his family, and other children who were standing on a metal barricade to watch the runners cross the finish line. He said Tsarnaev placed his bomb right there, the second bomb that would explode that day.

“These children weren’t innocent to him. They were American. …Of all the places that he could have placed the bomb, he placed it right here.”

Chakravarty also played a gruesome video of the aftermath of the first bombing, which showed gravely injured people scattered on the sidewalk and huge pools of blood. As first responders and volunteers try to help the injured, screams and moans punctuate the video, along with shouts of “Help!”

Tsarnaev’s lawyer admitted he participated in the bombings during her opening statement to the jury. “It was him,” said attorney Judy Clarke, a renowned death penalty lawyer.

But Clarke told the jury that it was Tamerlan Tsarnaev who was the mastermind of the attack. Clarke said the 26-year-old had become increasingly radicalized and enlisted Dzhokhar, then 19, to help him in an attack meant to retaliate against the U.S. for its actions in Muslim countries.

 

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Protesters are calling for the United Nations to investigate a Wisconsin police shooting because they feel the United States government can’t be trusted.

Members of Young, Gifted and Black and members of 19-year-old Tony Robinson’s family held a news conference at Madison’s courthouse on Monday to say they don’t believe the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s probe into Robinson’s death is fair since the agency is staffed by former police officers. They say they don’t have faith in any U.S. government agency to look into the matter because it’s all part of one system.

They called for the United Nations Human Rights Council to step in.

Madison Officer Matt Kenny, who is white, killed the Robinson last month. Police said Robinson, who is biracial, attacked him in an apartment house.

DALLAS (AP) – One of the country’s largest retailers has decided to pull Blue Bell Ice Cream from its shelves as a precautionary measure after Blue Bell announced it was temporarily closing an Oklahoma production plant.

Blue Bell spokesman Gene Grabowski confirmed Sam’s Club has joined H-E-B in halting sales. The dairy company based in Brenham, Texas, last month issued a recall after ice cream contaminated with listeriosis was linked to three deaths at a Kansas hospital.

The foodborne illness was tracked to a production line in Brenham and later to a second line in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Blue Bell announced Friday it had stopped all production at the Broken Arrow plant.

Kroger spokeswoman Kristal Howard says the grocer has pulled items produced at the Oklahoma plant but continues to sell other products.

The governors of Wisconsin and North Carolina have something riding on Monday night’s national championship basketball game.

In anticipation of a Wisconsin Badgers win, Gov. Scott Walker has put up an assortment of Wisconsin cheese, sausage and root beer.

Meanwhile, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory is betting North Carolina barbecue, coleslaw, hush puppies and Cheerwine – a cherry-flavored soda – on a Duke Blue Devils win.

Tip-off is set for 8:18 p.m. CDT in Indianapolis.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) – Rolling Stone magazine’s expose of what it called a culture of sex assaults at the University of Virginia was rife with bad journalistic practice, and “Jackie,” the student at the center of the story, is not to blame for the magazine’s failures, Columbia Journalism School Dean Steve Coll said Monday.

“We do disagree with any suggestion that this was Jackie’s fault,” Coll said at a news conference in New York.

Rolling Stone pledged to review its editorial practices but won’t fire anyone after the leading journalism school issued a blistering critique of how it reported and edited a discredited article about an alleged gang rape at the university.

Coll said the problem of sex assaults on campus is important to the public and that journalists should strive to hold institutions accountable. But Rolling Stone failed to apply basic standards such as attributing facts to their sources, and he hopes the entire saga will serve to train future journalists.

Phi Kappa Psi, the fraternity at the center of the article, said it plans “to pursue all available legal action against the magazine.”

“The report by Columbia University’s School of Journalism demonstrates the reckless nature in which Rolling Stone researched and failed to verify facts in its article that erroneously accused Phi Kappa Psi of crimes its members did not commit,” said Stephen Scipione, president of the school’s chapter of Phi Kappa Psi.

The journalism school’s analysis was accompanied by a statement from Rolling Stone Managing Editor Will Dana apologizing for the failures and retracting the November 2014 story. Some University of Virginia students said none of that will erase the article’s repercussions.

“I think the real casualty of the report is the University of Virginia’s trust in journalism,” said Abraham Axler of New York City, president of the university’s Student Council. “I don’t think any University of Virginia student going through this will ever read an article the same way.”

Maggie Rossberg, a second-year nursing student from Crozet, Virginia, said her chief concern is the effect the journalistic lapses will have on rape victims. “This is probably going to discourage other sexual assault survivors from coming forward,” Rossberg said.

The Columbia review was undertaken at Rolling Stone’s request. It presented a broad indictment of the magazine’s handling of a story that had horrified readers, unleashed protests at the university’s Charlottesville campus and sparked a national discussion about sexual assaults on college campuses.

It came two weeks after the Charlottesville police department said it had found no evidence to back the claims of the alleged victim, who said she was raped by seven men at a social function at the fraternity house two years earlier.

Rolling Stone had asked for the independent review after numerous news media outlets found flaws with the story. The article quoted Jackie as saying that the attack was orchestrated by a fraternity member who worked with her at the school’s aquatic center.

She also said she immediately told three friends about the attack, but she said they were generally unsupportive, and that at least two encouraged her to keep quiet to protect their social standing.

The article’s author, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, also apologized, saying she would not repeat the mistakes she made when writing the article, “A Rape on Campus.”

The magazine’s publisher, Jann S. Wenner, told The New York Times that Erdely would continue to write for the magazine and that neither her editor nor Dana would be fired.

The report found three major flaws in the magazine’s reporting methodology: that Erdely did not try to contact the three friends, instead taking Jackie’s word for it that one of them refused to talk; that she failed to give enough details of the alleged assault when she contacted the fraternity for comment, which made it difficult for the organization to investigate; and that Rolling Stone did not try hard enough to find the person Jackie accused of orchestrating the assault.

If the fraternity had had more information, it might have been able to explain earlier that it did not hold a social function the night of the attack and that none of its members worked at the aquatic center, the report noted.

Dana and Erdely said they had been too accommodating of requests from Jackie that limited their ability to report the story because she said she was a rape victim and asked them not to contact others to corroborate, the report said.

However, Columbia’s report said, Rolling Stone also failed to investigate reporting leads even when Jackie had not specifically asked them not to.

“The editors made judgments about attribution, fact-checking and verification that greatly increased their risks of error but had little or nothing to do with protecting Jackie’s position,” it said.

The report also said the article damaged the reputation of the Phi Kappa Psi chapter and depicted the university administration as neglectful.

In her statement, U.Va. President Teresa A. Sullivan said the article hurt efforts to fight sexual violence, tarred the school’s reputation, and falsely accused some students “of heinous, criminal acts and falsely depicted others as indifferent to the suffering of their classmate.”

Nonetheless, the article heightened scrutiny of campus sexual assaults amid a campaign by President Barack Obama. The University of Virginia had already been on the Department of Education’s list of 55 colleges under investigation for their handling of sex assault violations.

BELOIT, Wis. (AP) – A Beloit man is charged with felony murder in the shooting death of a man last November.

And investigators say it’s likely the defendant, 19-year-old Mickale Hicks, did not act alone. The Beloit Daily News reports police say the investigation into the shooting death is ongoing.

Twenty-four-year-old Joe’l Paul Baldwin Davidson Royster was found with a single gunshot wound on the terrace of a residence in Beloit Nov. 23. He was taken to Beloit Memorial Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

Police say numerous gunshots were fired at the house where the victim was found.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Kentucky coach John Calipari and Spencer Haywood are among 11 new inductees going into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this year.

The rest of the class consists of former WNBA star Lisa Leslie, longtime referee Dick Bavetta, Celtics star Jo Jo White and Boston coach Tom Heinsohn, four-time NBA defensive player of the year Dikembe Mutombo, former coach George Raveling, ex-Kentucky and ABA star Louis Dampier, Australian player and coach Lindsay Gaze and John Isaacs, an ex-player who will be inducted posthumously.

Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan was a finalist but was not selected.

The induction ceremony is Sept. 10-12 in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Calipari led the Wildcats to a 38-0 record before Saturday’s season-ending loss to Wisconsin in the national semifinals.

Haywood’s court case opened the doors for underclassmen to enter the NBA draft.

The University of Wisconsin has one NCAA men’s basketball title to its credit. In 1941, the Badgers went 20-3 and beat Washington State in the championship game at Kansas City.

MILWAUKEE – It’s opening day of the 2015 baseball season!

The Milwaukee Brewers’ racing sausage mascots kicked things off – as they annually do – with a relay race through the city. They were getting fans pumped up for the Brewers’ game against the Colorado Rockies.

Click the play button above to watch extended video of the relay.

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Jeff Buczkiewicz stood before the chair Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when he was assassinated 150 years ago. He peered silently into the glass-enclosed case at the rocking chair, then snapped pictures for posterity.

“You just get drawn into these things,” said Buczkiewicz, 47, who came from suburban Chicago with his family to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. “It is a tragic part of our history and our country. I think it’s important to take it all in.”

Taking in objects from the final hours of two important American lives is a major draw to the museum. In addition to the worn, red chair Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot in Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., in 1865, the Henry Ford also owns the limousine President John F. Kennedy was riding in when he was fatally shot in Dallas nearly a century later. Museum officials say the chair and car are among the most visited artifacts in the museum, along with the bus Rosa Parks rode in when she refused to give up her seat to a white rider and helped spark the civil rights movement.

Next week, visitors will get an even closer look at the Lincoln chair: It will be removed from its enclosure and displayed in an open plaza area as part of the museum’s observance of the assassination’s sesquicentennial on April 15 — a day of free admission. Two days earlier, it will be onstage when renowned historian and Lincoln expert Doris Kearns Goodwin delivers a sold-out lecture at The Henry Ford.

Goodwin, author of “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” told The Associated Press that the chair will offer an extra “dimension” to her words and the experience of those in the room.

“There’s an intimacy to it that catapults you back in time,” she said. “And hopefully, along with that, you’re not just thinking of the death but the life that made it worthwhile.”

Lincoln’s chair has been part of the museum started by pioneering automaker Henry Ford — no relation to the theater-owning Ford family — since its founding 85 years ago. The government removed it from the theater and held it as evidence, and it ended up at the Smithsonian Institution. The wife of a theater co-owner petitioned to reclaim it, then sold it at auction to an agent working for Henry Ford.

Henry Ford also bought the Logan County Courthouse where Lincoln practiced law in Illinois in the 1840s and moved it to the outdoor area next to his museum known as Greenfield Village. For decades, the theater chair was housed in that courthouse.

Around 1980, the chair was placed inside the museum, where it’s now part of the “With Liberty and Justice for All” exhibit.

“Lincoln was one of Henry Ford’s heroes — when he decided he wanted to have this village, he wanted to collect Lincoln stuff as an educational tool,” said curator Donna Braden. “The courthouse is pretty much the first thing Henry Ford acquired related to Lincoln and the chair came soon after.”

Many visitors wonder whether dark spots on the back of the chair are Lincoln’s blood. Not so, say museum workers: The stains are oil from other people’s heads who sat in the chair before that fateful night when Lincoln was shot by a pro-Confederacy actor, John Wilkes Booth.

Steve Harris, a historic presenter at the museum, tells passers-by that Lincoln’s head would have been positioned much higher than the stain because he was 6 feet 4 inches tall (1.93 meters).

Milestone anniversaries seem to add to the impact of objects like the chair and limo. About 8,000 people visited the limo on Nov. 22, 2013, a free-admission day marking the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination, so the chair is likely to draw plenty of visitors on the Lincoln anniversary.

“It really is about the power of the artifact,” said Patricia Mooradian, president of The Henry Ford, as the entire history attraction is known. “It’s less about the artifact itself than the symbolic nature of the artifact that represents a great paradigm change in the history of our country.”

Buskiewicz has also visited Dealey Plaza in Dallas where Kennedy was assassinated. “You just have to try to take it in when you’re in those areas,” he said, but he wonders “why we gravitate” toward places and things associated with these types of events.

Goodwin, whose book helped inspire Steven Spielberg’s movie, “Lincoln,” says that standing before iconic yet everyday objects provides a deep experience that transcends the moment that made them famous.

“In some ways, it’s more familiar when it’s a chair, a bus or a limo,” she said. “There’s something about the tangibility of these things.”

CHICAGO (AP) – Major League Baseball’s average ticket price rose 3.3 percent this season to $28.94, the steepest increase in six years.

Team Marketing Report said in its annual survey Monday the average is up 4.4 percent since 2013 after remaining flat in 2012.

The Milwaukee Brewers’ average ticket costs $26.32, a 5.4 percent increase over 2014.

World Series champion Boston had the highest average at $52.34 after leaving prices the same. The New York Yankees also left their average unchanged at $51.55 after missing the playoffs for the second straight season.

The Chicago Cubs, who renovated Wrigley Field and their roster, raised their average for the first time since 2010, a 1.5 percent increase to $44.81. The Cubs are coming off a last-place finish and fifth straight losing season.

The Dodgers’ average rose 10.9 percent to $28.61 as Los Angeles hiked its opening-day payroll to a record $270 million, boosting the team’s two-year increase to 27.9 percent.

After reaching the playoffs for the first time since 1985, winning the AL pennant and coming within one win of a World Series title, the Kansas City Royals had the largest increase for the second straight year, a 20.3 percent rise to $29.76. Following consecutive winning seasons, the Royals have increased their average 50 percent.

World Series champion San Francisco increased its average 6.8 percent to $33.78.

• Click here to see the full report

The average NFL ticket price was $84.43 last season, according to the survey. The NBA average is $53.98 this season and the NHL average is $62.18.

TMR’s Fan Cost Index, which includes four average-price tickets, two small draft beers, four small soft drinks, four hot dogs, parking and two adult-size caps, rose 2.5 percent to $211.68. The Red Sox were the high team at $350.86 and Arizona the low at $126.89. Programs were removed from the formula this year, and last year’s fan index was retroactively adjusted.

The average premium ticket is $96.94. The Yankees have the highest average at $305.39 and San Diego the lowest at $41.18.

CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Cubs say they’ll add portable toilets at Wrigley Field after fans had long — and uncomfortable — waits to use toilets during the season opener.

That’s because of a massive renovation project that kept some of the bathrooms closed during Sunday’s game and problems that forced the temporary closure of more bathrooms.

The team apologized for the inconvenience. Fans took to social media to complain about missing chunks of the game waiting in long lines. Cubs spokesman Julian Green said in a statement after the game that the team “missed the mark.” He said the Cubs weren’t “prepared to handle guests during peak periods.”

The Cubs said before the game that the renovation project would delay the opening of some restrooms.

MADISON (AP) – Police have released footage of a white Madison officer who killed a biracial man preparing to shoot a different suspect in 2007.

Matt Kenny killed Tony Robinson on March 6 after responding to calls that Robinson had attacked two people and was running in traffic.

Kenny killed Ronald Brandon in 2007 after Brandon pointed a pellet gun at officers. Kenny was exonerated of any wrongdoing.

Police released footage of the incident from Kenny’s squad car camera on Monday but redacted the moment Kenny opened fire.

The film shows Brandon sitting on the front porch. Someone can be heard yelling at him to drop his gun.

Kenny then exits his squad with his assault rifle raised. Brandon appears to raise something black toward Kenny. Then the video goes dark.

MADISON (AP) – Wisconsin Badgers fans who remember the lean years are among those especially enjoying the team’s latest success.

No team has reached more NCAA Sweet 16 games than the Badgers’ current string of 17. Winning is expected.

That certainly wasn’t always the case. In the years between Wisconsin’s only national championship before World War II ended and the first year under coach Bo Ryan in 2001, the likelihood of a NCAA tournament bid was absurd. The Badgers finished below .500 34 times.

In the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, Wisconsin placed eighth or lower in the Big Ten eight times over 10 seasons. The 1970s and 1980s weren’t a whole lot better. The Badgers finished better than sixth in the Big Ten just twice.

Ryan was asked recently if he ever envisioned the level of consistent success the Badgers have enjoyed during his tenure – one that has seen Wisconsin qualify for the NCAA Tournament in each of his 14 seasons.

“I just kept filing everything away, just kept learning,” Ryan said,

The Badgers advanced to the tournament just seven times in the 63 seasons before Ryan became coach, according to Post-Crescent Media.

“I watched other programs, studied other programs, saw players come and go,” he added. “And then when I finally got my opportunity, then you do your thing.”

It was certainly a different era when Wisconsin won its only national championship in 1941. The field included only eight teams and the highest score in any of the games was 64 points. The Badgers beat Dartmouth 51-50 in the East Regional semifinal in Madison that year.

TOMAHAWK (AP) – Two people are dead in a fiery car crash in Lincoln County.

Police say a 58-year-old man and 57-year-old woman were killed when their car left a street in Tomahawk early Sunday, hit a tree and caught fire.

WAOW-TV reports results from toxicology tests could take several weeks.

Submitted photos of a spring snowfall, April 6, 2015.

Photos submitted to ReportIt, April 5-11, 2015.

The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers released the tentative roster for the 2015 season, which includes 11 players from the Milwaukee Brewers’ 2014 draft, and Oshkosh native Josh Uhen.

Uhen, a pitcher, graduated from Oshkosh North High School before attending UW-Milwaukee. The Brewers selected him in the fifth round of the 2013 draft. He was 2-4 with the Helena Brewers of the Pioneer League in 2014.

Three of the top 50 players taken in the 2014 Major League Baseball Entry Draft will be Timber Rattlers in 2015.  Pitcher Kodi Medeiros (1st round, 12th overall pick), infielder Jake Gatewood (Competitive Balance Round A, 41st overall pick), and outfielder Monte Harrison (2nd round, 50th overall pick) were the first three picks of the Brewer last year.

In all, eleven players from Milwaukee’s 2014 draft class will join the Timber Rattlers in 2015.  The eight other 2014 Brewers’ draft picks to start the season in Wisconsin are: Pitcher Cy Sneed (3rd round), infielder Dustin DeMuth (5th round), pitcher David Burkhalter (6th round), catcher Greg McCall (9th round), pitcher Luke Curtis (18th round), pitcher Zach Hirsch (19th round), pitcher Brock Hudgens (31st round), and catcher Carlos Leal (34th round).

MLB Pipeline rates four of the players on Wisconsin’s roster as Top 30 prospects in Milwaukee’s system.  Harrison checks in at #3 and is followed by Gatewood (#5), Medeiros (#9), and first baseman David Denson (#21).

Manager Matt Erickson returns for his fifth season as the manager of the Timber Rattlers.  Erickson, who managed the team to the 2012 MWL Pennant, is 276-276 in his first four regular seasons with Wisconsin.  His 2015 staff includes new pitching coach Gary Lucas, new coach Liu Rodriguez, and new strength and conditioning coach Steve Timmers along returning staff members hitting coach Chuckie Caufield and athletic trainer Jeff Paxson.

There are 28 players on this roster.  There will need to be three moves before the season begins on the road at Burlington, Iowa on Thursday, April 9 at 6:30 p.m. to get to the league’s 25-player roster limit.

The home opener against the Peoria Chiefs is at 4 p.m. Sunday, April 12, at Fox Cities Stadium.

The team’s Fan Fest is noon-5 p.m. Tuesday at the stadium. There will be an on-field practice and a five inning scrimmage – weather permitting – along with tours and autograph opportunities during FanFest.

TOWN OF PEMBINE – Two people were hurt in a crash Sunday afternoon.

The Marinette Co. Sheriff’s Office says the crash happened just after 2:15 p.m. on Hwy. 141/8 just south of Barlow Lake Rd. Investigators say a northbound vehicle driven by a 16-year-old girl from Iron Mountain, Mich., crossed the center line and hit a southbound vehicle driven by a 56-year-old Green Bay woman. The girl had to be cut out of her vehicle and was airlifted to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. The woman was taken to the hospital by ambulance.

No further information on their conditions was available.