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GARISSA, Kenya (AP) – The Islamic extremists who slaughtered 148 people at a college in northeast Kenya as they shouted “God is great” appeared to have planned extensively, even targeting a site where Christians had gone to pray, survivors said Friday.

In the capital of Nairobi, relatives of the victims went to a morgue where some bodies had been airlifted from the campus of Garissa University College in eastern Kenya. Screaming and crying family members were assisted by Red Cross staffers, who tried to console them.

The attack was the worst in Kenya since the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy by al-Qaida that killed more than 200 people.

Thursday’s assault in Garissa was carried out by militants of the Somalia-based extremist group al-Shabab. The organization has struck the country several times in recent years, but this attack was the deadliest.

Some Kenyans were angry that the government didn’t take sufficient security precautions. The attack came six days after Britain advised “against all but essential travel” to parts of Kenya, including Garissa.

A day before the attack, President Uhuru Kenyatta dismissed that warning as well as an Australian one pertaining to Nairobi and Mombasa, saying: “Kenya is safe as any country in the world. The travel advisories being issued by our friends are not genuine.”

Kenyatta would have been mindful that previous travel warnings have hurt the country’s tourism industry.

One man posted a photo on Twitter showing about 100 bodies lying face-down on a blood-smeared courtyard with the comment: “Our inaction is betrayal to these Garissa victims”

Babu Owino, the chairman of the Students Organization for Nairobi University, said the government’s behavior shows it is not serious in fighting extremist attacks.

John Njue, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Nairobi, who celebrated Good Friday services, cited the “murdered” students and said, “This is a tremendous challenge in our country.”

Pope Francis on Friday condemned the attack as an act of “senseless brutality” and called for those responsible to change their violent ways. In a telegram of condolence, Francis also urged Kenyan authorities to work to bring an end to such attacks and “hasten the dawn of a new era of brotherhood, justice and peace.”

Police on Friday were at the Garissa campus, taking fingerprints from the bodies of the four assailants and of the students and security officials who died, for identification purposes. The town lacks the facilities to store all the bodies.

Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery updated the number of people killed by the gunmen to 148. He said 142 of the dead were students, three were policemen and three were soldiers.

Nkaissery added that 104 people were wounded.

Survivor Helen Titus said one of the first things that the al-Shabab gunmen did when they entered the campus early Thursday was to head for a lecture hall where Christians were in prayer. Al-Shabab is a Somalia-based Islamic extremist group with ties to al-Qaida.

“They investigated our area. They knew everything,” Titus told The Associated Press outside a hospital in Garissa where she was being treated for a bullet wound to the wrist.

Titus, a 21-year-old English literature student, said she smeared blood from classmates on her face and hair and lay still at one point  in hopes the gunmen would think she was dead.

The gunmen also told students hiding in dormitories to come out, assuring them that they would not be killed, said Titus, who wore a patient’s gown as she sat on a bench in the hospital yard.

“We just wondered whether to come out or not,” she said. Many students did, whereupon the gunmen started shooting men, saying they would not kill “ladies,” Titus said. But they also shot women and targeted Christians, said Titus, who is a Christian.

Esther Wanjiru said she was awake at the time of the attack. Asked if she lost anyone, she said: “My best friend.”

Another survivor, Nina Kozel, said she was awakened by screaming and that many students escaped by sprinting to the fences and jumping over them. Some suffered bruises, she said. Many men were unable to escape, and hid in vain under beds and in closets in their rooms, according to Kozel.

“They were shot there and then,” she said.

Those who surrendered were either selected for killing, or freed in some cases, apparently because they were Muslim, she said.

The killers shouted “God is great” in Arabic, she said.

Security forces stood guard Friday at the gate of the school. School slogans on the wall outside said “Oasis of Innovation” and “A World Class University of Technological Processes and Development.”

Elsewhere in Garissa, soldiers blocked a group of women that approached a military-controlled site where students were awaiting evacuation, prompting several women to collapse, shrieking, in the dust for several minutes. A bystander said the son of one of the women had died in the attack.

A small group of male demonstrators walked down a main road in Garissa with signs that read “We are against the killing of innocent Kenyans!!!! We are tired!!” and “Enough is enough. No more killing!! We are with you, our fellow Kenyans.”

“We feel very sorry for them and we condemn the attack,” demonstrator Abdullahi Muktar said of the victims.

Some surviving students awaited evacuation to Nairobi by plane from a nearby airstrip.

The masked attackers – strapped with explosives and armed with AK-47s – took dozens of hostages in a dormitory as they battled troops and police before the violence ended after about 13 hours, witnesses said.

Al-Shabab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage said the group was responsible for the attack. Al-Shabab has carried out numerous attacks in Kenya, including the siege at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in 2013 that killed 67 people, to retaliate against Kenya for sending troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight the militants and stabilize the government in Mogadishu.

Somali President Said Hassan Sheikh Mohamud called for stronger collaboration between Somalia and Kenya to defeat al-Shabab.

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Odula reported from Nairobi, Kenya. Abdi Guled in Mogadishu, Somalia contributed to this report.

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) — A man reported missing at sea two months ago was rescued on the overturned hull of his sailboat off the North Carolina coast, and he walked away from a hospital hours later in good condition, with no obvious sunburn, dehydration or other signs of distress.

Louis Jordan, 37, said he got by by rationing his water and energy and praying for help.

“Every day I was like, ‘Please God, send me some rain, send me some water,'” Louis Jordan, 37, told WAVY-TV (http://bit.ly/1FpmfUd).

The crew of a German-flagged container ship found Jordan on his single-masted 35-foot boat on Thursday afternoon.

Neither he nor the Coast Guard said exactly when Jordan’s vessel capsized. Jordan managed to catch and eat fish during his ordeal, according to the Coast Guard, and despite reports of a shoulder injury and dehydration, he arrived at a hospital in good condition and refused treatment, a facility spokesman said.

A four-man Coast Guard helicopter crew hoisted Jordan off the German vessel. In interviews Friday at Coast Guard headquarters in Portsmouth, they said they did not see Jordan’s boat and did not know any details about his time at sea. By the time they picked him up — about 5 p.m. Thursday — Jordan had been on the German vessel for a few hours and had been able to take a shower and speak to his family, the guardsmen said.

“He walked over to me as soon as I landed on deck and had a small smile on his face,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Kyle McCollum, who had the first contact with Jordan. “My initial impression of him was he was in pretty good health. … We were expecting worse with blisters and severe sunburn and dehydration.”

“He was in a fairly good condition for a guy that you would normally expect to see after 60-plus days offshore,” added Lt. Jack Shadwick, the helicopter’s co-pilot

Jordan said he initially did not believe the container ship was real when he saw it. He said the ship’s crew did not see him until he began waving his arms.

“I waved my hands real slowly, and that’s the signal ‘I’m in distress. Help me,'” he told WAVY. “I blew my whistles. I had three whistles. They never heard them. I turned my American flag upside down and put that up. That says, ‘Rescue me.'”

Jordan had been living on his 1950s-era boat at a marina in Conway, South Carolina, near Myrtle Beach, until January, when he told his family he was going into open water to sail and fish, said his mother, Norma Davis. He set out Jan. 23, Coast Guard officials said, and hadn’t been heard from since.

Jordan told WAVY that he was traveling north when his boat hit bad weather. He said he saw a wave crash into his window, and the boat eventually filled with water.

He said he rationed his water to about a pint a day, but “for such a long a time I was so thirsty.”

Jordan said that at one point he was flying through the air, and he thinks he broke his shoulder.

McCollum, of Coast Guard helicopter crew, said Jordan had slight bruising on his right clavicle when he was found, but it did not appear serious: “He was moving that arm so fluidly, without any skip and there wasn’t any sign of pain in his face as he was moving.”

On Jan. 29, the Coast Guard in Miami was notified by his father, Frank Jordan, that he hadn’t seen or heard from his son in a week, agency spokeswoman Marilyn Fajardo said.

Alerts were issued from New Jersey to Miami, according to the Coast Guard. Officials searched financial data to determine whether Jordan had come ashore without being noticed, but they found no such indication, Fajardo said.

A search began Feb. 8, but Fajardo said the Coast Guard abandoned it after 10 days. Some sailors reporting seeing Jordan’s boat, but no sightings were confirmed.

The Coast Guard said Jordan didn’t file a “float plan,” the nautical equivalent of a flight plan, with his route or destination.

Jeff Weeks manages the Bucksport Plantation Marina, where Jordan docked his boat.

“He is somewhat of a person who stays to himself,” Weeks said. “I consider him a gentle giant with a good personality. But he likes to be self-sufficient. Here at the marina, he liked to catch most all of the food that he’d eat. He would eat a lot of rice and fish. And he would know what berries and what mushrooms to pick. He was really knowledgeable on some survival skills.”

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Associated Press writers Bruce Smith in Charleston, S.C.; Pam Ramsey in Charleston, W.Va.; and Tom Foreman Jr. and Emery P. Dalesio in Charlotte contributed to this report.

 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Simone Wester woke up Friday to the sight of boats carting away her neighbors as torrential rains swamped portions of Kentucky’s largest city, forcing emergency crews to navigate flooded neighborhoods and make more than 100 rescues.

“It looked like a hurricane struck, said Wester, whose apartment complex was surrounded by floodwaters, waist-deep in some places. “I didn’t know what to do.”

A tree lies on the roof of a house after a strong thunderstorm packing high winds passed through the area on Friday, April 3, 2015 in Wichita, Kan. Thousands of residents in south central Kansas were without power after winds that reached nearly 90 mph downed trees and damaged buildings overnight and early Friday. (AP Photo/The Wichita Eagle, Mike Hutmacher)

Wester, 20, and her 7-month-old son, Jeremiah, were rescued by a man who removed his socks and waded through the floodwaters toward her. The man, Kevin Mansfield, charted a navigable path and ushered her out of the flooding.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said more than 160 water rescues had been made.

As storms pushed through the South and Midwest, severe thunderstorms were blamed for the death of a woman who was camping with her family at Natural Bridge State Resort Park in eastern Kentucky.

Catherine Carlson, 45, was killed and her husband was injured when a large tree limb fell on their tent, said Powell County Coroner Hondo Hearne. Their three children didn’t appear to be injured, he said.

The campground where the family was staying was evacuated due to flash flooding, said Gil Lawson, a spokesman for the state Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet. The campground is near a stream, and about 15 campsites were occupied when the flood hit, he said.

Meanwhile thousands of people in south central Kansas lost power after winds that reached nearly 90 mph downed trees and damaged buildings overnight and early Friday.

No deaths were reported but six people were injured, emergency management officials said. Several buildings were damaged in Newton and the Jabara Airport in Wichita was closed Friday morning because of storm debris on the airfield.

In Oklahoma, the National Weather Service plans to send a survey team to Ottawa County to investigate reports of a tornado touchdown.

Kevin Mansfield, right, helps Simone Wester and her 7-month old son Jeremiah from her flooded apartment building at the Guardian Court Apartments in Louisville, Ky., Friday, April 3, 2015. Authorities made more than 100 water rescues early Friday as area storms flooded roads and prompted at least one evacuation. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

The possible tornado near Afton was part of a storm system that moved through northeastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas late Thursday and early Friday.

In Kentucky, Powell County received 4 inches of rain, and other eastern areas of the state had 3-4 inches, said National Weather Service meteorologist Tony Edwards.

A northern Kentucky school bus with 16 students aboard was stranded for about three hours by floodwaters that covered roads to schools. Numerous roads in northeastern Kentucky were under water.

The heavy rains in Kentucky started Thursday and continued Friday. Some areas received 1 to 2 inches per hour, said weather service meteorologist Brian Schoettmer. Some of the heaviest rains occurred along or just south of the Interstate 64 corridor, he said.

“We had several waves of rain that rode along the same path,” he said.

More than 6 inches of rain fell in Louisville, and Lexington had received more than 5 inches, he said.

Some cars were submerged by high water on roads next to the University of Louisville’s main campus, said school spokesman Mark Hebert. A few campus buildings had water in the basements, he said. Early classes were canceled Friday, but classes resumed by midmorning, he said.

Bill Mattingly, assistant chief of the Okolona Fire Protection District, said floodwaters started pouring into first-floor apartments overnight.

Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville canceled classes Friday.

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Associated Press writer Rebecca Yonker contributed to this report.

 

STURGEON BAY – The former director of the Door Co. Humane Society has been charged with stealing from the organization.

One count of theft in a business setting and 11 counts of identity theft were filed Thursday against Carrie Counihan. An initial appearance is scheduled for May 4.

Marilyn Jensen, president of the Door County Humane Society Board of Directors, signed a statement posted on the organization’s website. In part it reads:

“Board members discovered the financial problems a few days after the executive director was asked to leave the organization… The organizational restructuring implemented 10 months ago now has the shelter in a much stronger position… Because of your support and generosity, the shelter is financially stable. Please know that enhanced financial controls are in place and your gifts to the Humane Society will be used for the care of animals, just as you expect,” it states.

You can read the full statement here.

According to the criminal complaint:

Counihan was allowed to make purchases under $1,000 without board approval for the shelter’s operational needs. After board members became suspicious of the finances, a review of expenses was done. The questionable expenses included clothing, food and hair appointments. During a five-year period, the questionable charges “is estimated to be in the tens of thousands of dollars,” the complaint states.

Counihan told investigators she used the shelter credit card ‘by mistake” at times, but claimed she would reimburse the shelter. When confronted with the fact that investigators didn’t find any deposits to the shelter from her personal account, Counihan said she would purchase items for the shelter using personal funds as a method of repayment.

Counihan admitted to using the shelter credit card on 86 transactions totaling $13,197.12. There may be another $9,605.90 in personal expenses she charged to the shelter, according to sheriff’s report attached to the complaint.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Frank Kaminsky, the 7-footer who anchored Wisconsin’s run to a second straight Final Four, is the runaway choice as The Associated Press’ player of the year.

AP PLAYER OF THE YEAR VOTING
//
By The Associated Press

• Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin: 58 votes
• Jahlil Okafor, Duke 5
• Willie Cauley-Stein, Kentucky 1
• Jerian Grant, Notre Dame 1

Kaminsky averaged 18.7 points and 8.0 rebounds while shooting 54.9 percent from the field and 41.5 percent from 3-point range as the Badgers ran up a 35-3 record and won the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles.

“Frank the Tank'” is the first Wisconsin player to win the award, which started in 1961. He is the third from the Big Ten in the last six seasons, joining Ohio State’s Evan Turner in 2010 and Michigan’s Trey Burke in 2013.

Kaminsky received 58 votes from the 65-member national media panel that selects the weekly Top 25. Duke freshman Jahlil Okafor received five votes and Kentucky’s Wille Caulaey-Stein and Notre Dame’s Jerian Grant had one each.

NEW YORK (AP) — Los Angeles Angels outfielder Josh Hamilton will not be disciplined by Major League Baseball for his latest problems involving alcohol and a drug of abuse.

MLB said Friday the decision was made by an arbitrator appointed under its joint drug program with the players’ association. MLB said in a statement it disagreed with the decision and “will seek to address deficiencies in the manner in which drugs of abuse are addressed under the program in the collective-bargaining process.”

Hamilton, a five-time All-Star and the 2010 AL MVP, is subject to the treatment program for prior violations involving drugs of abuse stretching back a decade.

He self-reported a new issue this year involving both a drug of abuse and alcohol, a person familiar with the case said. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because those details were not made public.

MLB said it took “the position that Hamilton violated his treatment program and is subject to discipline by the commissioner.”

Baseball defines drugs of abuse to include cocaine, LSD, opiates, Esctasy, as opposed to performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids, which are covered by different rules.

A four-person treatment board created by the joint drug program, which includes one lawyer and one medical representative each appointed by management and the players’ association, deadlocked 2-2 on whether Hamilton was subject to discipline. That caused the need for an arbitrator to break the tie.

A hearing was held before an arbitrator, and Hamilton was represented by lawyers Jay Reisinger and Tina Miller. The arbitrator said only that Hamilton was not subject to discipline and did not give reasons for the decision, the person familiar with the case said.

“The Angels have serious concerns about Josh’s conduct, health and behavior, and we are disappointed that he has broken an important commitment, which he made to himself, his family, his teammates and our fans,” the team said. “We are going to do everything possible to assure he receives proper help for himself and for the well-being of his family.”

Hamilton, who turns 34 in May, won the AL MVP award with Texas during a six-year stretch as one of baseball’s best all-around players for the Rangers and Cincinnati Reds. He has been a disappointment in his first two seasons since signing a $125 million, five-year deal with the Angels before the 2013 season.

Hamilton played in just 89 games because of injuries and struggled at the plate throughout last season, culminating in an 0-for-13 performance in the Angels’ three-game loss to Kansas City in the AL Division Series. After resting his ailing right shoulder throughout the offseason, he had surgery in February that will prevent him from playing until at least May.

He was the first pick in the 1999 amateur draft out of Athens Drive High School in Raleigh, North Carolina, but his surge through the minors was sidetracked by substance abuse beginning in 2001. He did not play after July 2002 because of injuries and unspecified personal issue, and he was suspended for 30 days on Feb. 17, 2004. That March 19, the suspension was extended through the rest of the season, and when he failed to appear for a drug test that August the suspension was extended through the 2005 season.

He barely played baseball for four years, but found stability off the field with sobriety counseling, a wife and a family that now includes four children.

Hamilton resumed his career in the minor leagues in 2006. He ended up in 2007 with the Reds, and he received a long standing ovation when he made his major league debut. He had 19 homers and 47 RBIs as a rookie, and Cincinnati traded him to Texas in the offseason.

He was an immediate hit with the Rangers, leading the league with 130 RBIs and earning a starting spot in the All-Star game in 2008. He won the AL batting title in 2010, and he was selected the AL Championship Series MVP award while leading the Rangers to their first World Series appearance.

But even during his success, Hamilton had problems. He acknowledged a relapse in early 2009 after he was photographed getting drunk in a bar in Arizona, and he held a news conference in 2012 to apologize for another night of drinking.

The Rangers celebrated their playoff successes in 2010 and 2011 by drinking ginger ale instead of champagne in a nod to Hamilton’s sobriety. After playing in a second World Series in 2011, Hamilton had a career-best 43 homers and 128 RBIs in 2012 despite injury problems and a late-season slide that prompted some Rangers fans to boo him.

Hamilton has managed just 31 homers and 123 RBIs in two seasons with the Angels.

FOND DU LAC – The preliminary hearing for the man accused of killing Berit Beck has been rescheduled.

Dennis Brantner was expected to next appear in court June 5, but the preliminary hearing was rescheduled Friday to April 29, according to online court records.

No reason was stated for the change.

Brantner allegedly killed Beck in 1990. She disappeared on her way from her home near Racine to work in Appleton. Police say his fingerprints in her van tie him to the crime.

GREEN BAY – A woman charged in connection with murder of a Howard contractor was ordered Friday to stand trial.

Katie Heller waived her preliminary hearing. Arraignment on the five charges, including first-degree intentional homicide, is scheduled for April 21, according to online court records.

Heller and Matthew Moore allegedly killed Thomas Wick because they did not have the money they owned Wick for a home.

Moore’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

DE PERE – Two women have been charged in a prostitution bust.

De Pere police say they arrested Ying Gao Sexton, 44, and Shuxia Cheng, 42, at Oriential Spa, 353 Main Ave. Sexton has been charged with keeping a place of prostitution and Cheng has been charged with prostitution.

Police said their investigation earlier this year focused on the Oriental Spa and other similar businesses in the area.

FOX 11’s Laura Smith is working on this story and will have a full report tonight on FOX 11 News at Five.

Jail booking photos from April.

MADISON (AP) – Businesses across Wisconsin are preparing for a busy weekend with the University of Wisconsin once again in the men’s basketball Final Four.

Sports bars and grocery stores expect big business with the Wisconsin men’s basketball team facing Kentucky on Saturday night. There’s also Easter on Sunday and the Milwaukee Brewers’ opening day on Monday, as well as the possibility that the Badgers could make the championship Monday night.

Some businesses are offering specials on Badgers gear and game-time food and drink. Daily Tribune Media reports team apparel is flying off store shelves in central Wisconsin.

St. Norbert College sports economist Kevin Quinn tells The Journal Sentinel that the Badgers’ success can translate into sales for unrelated items. He says fans who feel good about their team are a little more likely to open up their wallets.

MADISON (AP) – Scott Walker has transformed Wisconsin politics, winning three elections in four years and signing laws that weaken unions, crippling a key ally of the Democratic Party.

But the likely Republican presidential contender has had less success changing Wisconsin’s economy and budget. The state lags in job growth and its budget faces a shortfall. It’s a record that complicates Walker’s path in early primary states as he sells himself as a reformer.

“Most of his activity was more politically focused than economically, job-creation focused,” said John Torinus, a Milwaukee businessman and venture capitalist who nevertheless praises some of Walker’s moves. “He was going to concentrate on job creation with a laser-like focus and he got distracted.”

Wisconsin has added private-sector jobs at a lower rate than the national average since July 2011 – six months after Walker took office. Walker promised in the 2010 campaign that if elected his policies would create 250,000 private sector jobs. But only about 145,000 such jobs were created over his first four years.

Wisconsin ranked 40th in private sector job growth for the 12 months ending in September, said the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Walker has called hiring in his state the “gold standard” for measuring his performance.

Still, there are positive economic signs Walker relies on to defend his record. Wisconsin’s unemployment rate has dropped from 8.1 percent to 5 percent over his time in office. The state has seen a higher rate of new businesses starting than the rest of the country and income growth for Wisconsin residents has exceeded the national average.

Per capita income growth in Wisconsin exceeded per capita American income growth.

Walker “wasn’t afraid to set big, bold goals to get Wisconsin back on track,” said AshLee Strong, spokeswoman for Walker’s political group, Our American Revival. “The governor is now taking his reform ideas that led to this economic success in Wisconsin and sharing them nationally.”

Heavily reliant on manufacturing, Wisconsin has perennially lagged the nation in job creation and, under previous governors, often used fiscal tricks to paper over budget deficits. Walker vowed to change that when he ran in 2010. His most renowned move, just six weeks into his first term in 2011, was to curtail public unions’ collective bargaining power while also forcing them to pay more for pension and health care benefits.

Following weeks of protests, and the fleeing of Democratic state senators for three weeks to try to block a vote, Walker got his way. That drama, along with Walker’s 2012 recall victory and other laws he’s signed legalizing concealed weapons, requiring photo ID at the polls and last month’s right-to-work law, are central in his stump speech as he presents himself as a man of action with a record of conservative accomplishments.

M. Kevin McGee, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, said Wisconsin’s job performance kept pace with its Midwestern peers until Walker took office. Then it fell behind. His theory: Walker’s public sector union moves, and subsequent benefit cuts, shocked those workers into cutting consumer spending.

“What happened here changed the behavior of enough people in the state that it affected economic growth,” McGee said.

Other analysts question that, noting that Walker’s union changes did save taxpayers $3 billion in health and pension costs, translating into more money in people’s wallets. On the trail, Walker emphasizes those savings and about $2 billion in personal and corporate income tax cuts he also signed into law.

Still, the state isn’t on firm financial ground.

Last year, facing forecasts of a nearly $1 billion increase in tax revenue, Walker and Republicans who control the Legislature passed an $800 million tax-cut package. The state is on pace to collect only about half of the tax revenue previously projected, exacerbating the latest budget problem.

“We dug our own hole,” said former state Sen Mike Ellis, a Republican, adding that he still thinks the fiscal picture is better than when Walker took office.

Heading into this year the state faced an $800 million shortfall just to continue spending at the current level and $2.2 billion when state agency requests were taken into consideration. His plan calls for cutting education money and borrowing more than $1 billion to pay for roads. The proposal has run into widespread opposition, including from Republicans.

Todd Berry, president of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, said Walker’s initial budgets were responsible, but the more recent ones resemble those of his Democratic precedessor, Jim Doyle.

Berry said the state’s lackluster jobs record shows Walker overpromised in the campaign. Governors, he noted, rarely have a significant impact on job creation. “This slow rate of job growth is nothing new,” Berry said.

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Riccardi reported from Denver.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he and his Cabinet are united in “strongly opposing” an emerging framework agreement on curbing Iran’s nuclear program and demanded that any final deal contain Iranian recognition of Israel’s right to exist.

Iran and six world powers announced a series of understandings Thursday, with a final agreement to be reached by June 30. A final deal is meant to cut significantly into Iran’s bomb-capable technology while giving Tehran quick access to assets and markets blocked by international sanctions.

Netanyahu has harshly criticized the negotiations, demanding instead that the Iranian program be dismantled. He claims Iran cannot be trusted, and that leaving certain facilities intact would allow the Iranians to eventually build a bomb. Iran denies it has nuclear weapons ambitions and says its program is intended for peaceful purposes.

However, it appears unlikely Israel will be able to prevent the final deal amid broad international support for such an agreement.

On Friday, the eve of the Jewish Passover holiday, Netanyahu convened his Cabinet for a special session to discuss the emerging framework, reached after a week of grueling negotiations in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Netanyahu said after the session that “Israel will not accept an agreement which allows a country that vows to annihilate us to develop nuclear weapons, period.”

However, he also acknowledged the possibility of a final agreement being reached, saying that such a deal must “include a clear and unambiguous Iranian recognition of Israel’s right to exist.”

Netanyahu said his Cabinet “is united strongly opposing the proposed deal,” which he said would threaten Israel’s survival.

“Such a deal does not block Iran’s path to the bomb,” he said. “Such a deal paves Iran’s path to the bomb. And it might very well spark a nuclear arms race throughout the Middle East and it would greatly increase the risks of terrible war.”

The commitments announced Thursday, if implemented, would substantially pare back some Iranian nuclear assets for a decade and restrict others for an additional five years. According to a U.S. document listing those commitments, Tehran is ready to reduce its number of centrifuges, the machines that can spin uranium gas to levels used in nuclear warheads.

Of the nearly 20,000 centrifuges Iran now has installed or running at its main enrichment site, the country would be allowed to operate just over 5,000. Much of its enriched stockpiles would be neutralized. A planned reactor would be reconstructed so it can’t produce weapons-grade plutonium. Monitoring and inspections by the U.N. nuclear agency would be enhanced.

However, Netanyahu argued that the emerging deal would leave much of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure intact.

“They would not shut down a single nuclear facility in Iran, would not destroy a single centrifuge in Iran and will not stop research and development on Iran’s advanced centrifuges,” he said. “On the contrary. The deal would legitimize Iran’s illegal nuclear program. It would leave Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure. A vast nuclear infrastructure remains in place.”

He called on the world powers to stand firm and increase pressure in Iran until what he termed a good deal is achieved.

MADISON (AP) – A Wisconsin lawmaker has introduced a bill that would ban felons from owning vicious dogs.

Rep. Andre Jacque, a De Pere Republican, says Green Bay police are seeing an increase in dog fighting cases and dogs attacking officers.

Jacque says the bill doesn’t target a certain breed of dog but instead calls for police to weigh the dog’s behavior and determine if it’s vicious. The bill says a dog that causes physical harm or leads an officer to believe it poses a significant threat could be considered vicious.

Felons found in possession of a vicious dog could face up to $10,000 in fines and six years in prison.

GREEN BAY- Chef Jeff Schermetzler from Titletown Brewing Company joined us in studio and shared some Badgers themed restaurants.

Chef Jeff make a Frank the Tank Burger and BBQ Bucky Pizza.

GREEN BAY- Are you looking for some new Badgers gear?

Alan Plamann and Tom Crisp from Scheels in Appleton joined Good Day Wisconsin with a look at Badgers gear.

Click on the video to watch the segment.

WAUPACA – The Waupaca County Sheriff’s Dept. is searching for a suspect after a high-speed chase and crash this morning.

The chase ended when the vehicle driven by Nickolas Poplawski crashed at 1:16 a.m. near Highway 22 and Radley Road, in the town of Dayton. He then fled the scene.

Poplawski, 23, is described as 6’3″, 198 pounds, brown hair, green eyes, and was last seen wearing a dark shirt or sweatshirt, and dark cutoff jeans. He is not believed to be armed.

Sheriff’s officials did not release details on how or why the chase started.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff’s Department at 715-258-4466.

REESEVILLE, Wis. (AP) – Police say a woman walking her Dachshund in Reeseville was seriously injured when she and her pet were attacked by a runaway dog.

The 53-year-old woman was taken by ambulance to Beaver Dam Community Hospital Thursday. Police say she received numerous puncture wounds, as did her Dachshund, who was taken to a veterinarian.

Authorities say the attacking pit bull apparently escaped from a fenced back yard. A passer-by came to the woman’s rescue and restrained the pit bull on the ground. Police say the pit bull died while it was being restrained.

GREEN BAY- We’ve been following the progress of a snowy owl who has been rehabbing at the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary.

The two-year-old owl arrived at the sanctuary in January. It was found in Door County with a broken wrist.

Curators at the sanctuary have been working with the owl in hopes of releasing it back into the wild.

The owl may be released next week.

We’ll continue to follow this story.

Click on the video to see Lori Bankson’s report.

We’ve had our share of breezy weather this week.

But, it’s nothing like the big winds that hit the Fox Valley on April 3, 1995.

Click on the video for our Flashback Friday report from Brian Knox.