Green Bay News

NEW YORK (AP) – A pay bump for workers at some McDonald’s restaurants isn’t likely to ease the pressures the chain is facing over labor issues.

McDonald’s said Wednesday it would raise wages for workers at its company-owned U.S. restaurants, which represent only about 10 percent of more than 14,300 locations. It also said it would offer paid time off for some workers.

The move marks the first time McDonald’s has set a national policy on wages, according to the company, and comes after it has been a primary target for ongoing demonstrations for pay of $15 and a union. Other companies, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., have also announced pay hikes in an improving economy and at a time when worker issues are getting widespread attention.

Immediately after the announcement by McDonald’s, however, labor organizers denounced it as a publicity strategy that did little to improve the situations of workers.

“Raising wages only a little for only a small fraction isn’t change. It’s a PR stunt,” said Kwanza Brooks, a McDonald’s worker in North Carolina, on a conference call set up by organizers.

Protests were planned for McDonald’s stores in about 24 cities across the country Thursday, although turnout for the events have varied in the past. In New York City, a crowd of about 30 people gathered outside a McDonald’s across the street from the Empire State Building before marching several blocks to another McDonald’s. Demonstrators filed into the location while chanting and waving signs with phrases like, “McDonald’s: Where’s My Raise?” before they were quickly ushered out by police.

A customer who was inside the store buying lunch, Rich Roman, said he didn’t support the push and that he disliked unions.

“They make everything escalate in price,” he said.

In addition to the push to raise public awareness, the Fight for $15 campaign, which is being spearheaded by the Service Employees International Union, has been pressuring McDonald’s on multiple legal fronts. This week, the National Labor Relations Board began a hearing on complaints that named McDonald’s as a joint employer over alleged violations at franchised restaurants.

The case is expected to be a lengthy battle and is a reflection of a primary goal of organizers: to hold McDonald’s Corp. accountable for labor practices at its franchised locations. McDonald’s emphasized its position that it doesn’t have control over employment decisions at those restaurants Wednesday when it said franchisees “make their own decisions on pay and benefits.”

In a phone interview, McDonald’s USA President Mike Andres said few McDonald’s workers have participated in the demonstrations and that the actions haven’t hurt the company.

“They’re not taking a toll,” he said.

Instead, he said the decision to hike pay and provide paid-time off at company-owned restaurants was driven by the marketplace.

“It’s a very competitive environment and a significant rationale for this plan is that we want to be the most competitive and attractive employer,” he said.

Beginning on July 1, McDonald’s says starting wages will be a dollar more than the local minimum wage where company-owned restaurants are located. By the end of 2016, it said the average hourly wage for McDonald’s workers at those stores will be more than $10 an hour, up from $9 an hour.

The increase comes after more than a dozen states and multiple cities raised their minimum wages last year, according to the National Employment Law Project.

At company-owned stores, McDonald’s says employees who have worked for at least a year and average of 20 hours a week will be eligible to accrue about 20 hours of paid time off a year.

McDonald’s Chief Administrative Officer Pete Bensen had said at the time that a big part of the effort to turnaround the company’s struggling U.S. business would be what the company is doing “around the employment image and our employee-employer relationship.”

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Associated Press Writer Josh Boak contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.

DETROIT (AP) – A mother charged in the slayings of two of her children whose bodies were found in the deep freezer at their Detroit home will undergo psychiatric exams, a judge said at a probably cause hearing Thursday.

Mitchelle Blair, 35, was also arraigned on two counts each of felony murder, premeditated murder and torture.

Court officers conducting a March 24 eviction at Blair’s eastside apartment discovered the frozen corpses of 13-year-old Stoni Ann Blair and 9-year-old Stephen Gage Berry beneath plastic in the freezer.

State officials will conduct forensic tests to establish whether Blair is competent to stand trial. Her attorney also requested an independent psychiatric evaluation to discover if she is competent to stand and if she was competent to waive her Miranda rights before confessing to investigators.

Judge Kenneth King granted the independent evaluation – which Wayne County would fund – but complained that it seemed “wasteful” because “there is a good chance a forensic examination may find her incompetent.”

Defense attorney Wyatt Harris told reporters that Blair struggles to discuss the case with him.

“There are times when she can communicate in a very effective manner. Then, there are times when she can’t,” Harris said outside the courtroom.

Autopsies determined both of Blair’s dead children had been beaten. Investigators believe Stephen died in August 2012 and Stoni died the following May.

Blair’s surviving children, a 17-year-old girl and 8-year-old boy, have been placed in a relative’s care. The state Department of Human Services filed last week to end Blair’s parental rights.

In that court filing, the state said the 17-year-old told investigators she and her surviving brother were beaten with an extension cord and piece of wood, hit with a hot curling iron and burned with a clothing iron.

“Blair tortured Stephen for approximately two weeks prior to his death by tying a belt around his neck, throwing hot water on him while in the shower and putting a plastic bag over his head,” the state said, quoting the 17-year-old.

Stephen was “unresponsive” on Aug. 30, 2012, and Blair wrapped his body in bed linen and put him in the freezer, the state said.

Nine months later, Blair became “enraged” when Stoni said she didn’t like her surviving siblings and strangled the girl with a T-shirt and suffocated her with a plastic bag, the department said. Blair then made the teen “put Stoni in the deep freezer following her death,” the agency said.

Harris said Thursday that he’s sure Blair wants to see her surviving children and that “she loves her children very much.”

King entered a not guilty plea on Blair’s behalf and scheduled her preliminary examination for June 19. She was ordered to remain jailed.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) – Iran and six world powers have agreed on the outlines of an understanding to limit Iran’s nuclear programs, negotiators indicated Thursday, as both sides prepared for announcements.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted: “Found solutions. Ready to start drafting immediately.”

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini tweeted that she would meet the press with Zarif after a final meeting of the seven nations in the nuclear talks. She wrote: “Good news.”

The officials spoke following weeklong talks that have been twice extended past the March 31 deadline in an effort to formulate both a general statement of what has been accomplished and documents describing what needs to be done to meet a June 30 deadline for a final accord.

Mogherini and Zarif were to read out the same statement in English and Farsi. Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry were then expected to brief reporters separately.

The U.S. and five other countries hope to curb Iran’s nuclear technologies that could be used to make weapons. Tehran denies such ambitions but is negotiating because it wants a lifting of economic sanctions imposed over its nuclear program.

Pressured by congressional critics in the U.S. who threaten to impose new sanctions over what they say is a bad emerging deal, the Obama administration is demanding significant public disclosure of agreements and understandings reached at the current round. Iran wants a minimum made public at this point, describing previous two-stage deals as detrimental to their interests, officials say.

The Iranians want any results from talks in the Swiss city of Lausanne described less as a deal and more of an informal understanding.

The talks resumed Thursday after a flurry of overnight sessions between Kerry and Zarif, and other meetings involving the six powers.

Iran also wants to get rid of sanctions that have stifled its economy. The U.S. and its partners want detailed documents on the steps Iran must take by the end of June on its nuclear program.

One problem, said Zarif, has been differing voices among the other side at the table – the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – making it difficult for them “to reach a coordination.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who left Lausanne Tuesday, said the two sides were close, the Interfax news agency reported. There are “only a few steps left to take or, in some cases, even-half steps, and some things have already been agreed upon,” he said.

The talks – the latest in more than a decade of diplomatic efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear prowess – hit the weeklong mark on Thursday, shortly before the State Department announced they would go into double overtime from the March 31 deadline for a political framework.

As the sides bore down on efforts to get a deal, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier canceled a planned visit to Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was also back, less than a day after leaving the city.

By blowing through self-imposed deadlines, President Barack Obama risks further antagonizing lawmakers in both parties who are poised to take their own action to upend a deal if they determine the administration has been too conciliatory.

The initial response to the extensions from Republicans suggested they already reached that conclusion. “It is clear, the negotiations are not going well,” Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said in a statement. “At every step, the Iranians appear intent on retaining the capacity to achieve a nuclear weapon.”

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Indiana lawmakers announced proposed changes Thursday to the state’s new religious objections law aimed at quelling widespread criticism from businesses and other groups that have called the proposal anti-gay.

The revisions, which still require approval from the full Legislature and Republican Gov. Mike Pence, come as lawmakers in Arkansas scramble to revise that state’s own religious objections legislation amid cries that it could permit discrimination.

The Indiana amendment prohibits service providers from using the law as a legal defense for refusing to provide services, goods, facilities or accommodations. It also bars discrimination based on race, color, religion, ancestry, age, national origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or U.S. military service.

The measure exempts churches and affiliated schools, along with nonprofit religious organizations.

House Speaker Brian Bosma said the agreement sends a “very strong statement” that the state will not tolerate discrimination.

The law “cannot be used to discriminate against anyone,” he said.

Bosma and Senate President Pro Tem David Long said they have the votes needed to pass the amendment and send it to Pence. A spokeswoman for the governor said he would not comment until the revised bill arrives on his desk.

Business leaders, many of whom had opposed the law or pledged to cancel travel to the state because of it, called the amendment a good first step. Indiana still does not include the LGBT community as a protected class in its civil-rights law, but Bosma said lawmakers met with representatives of the gay community and said they believed the new language addressed many of their concerns.

Former Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, now a senior vice president at drugmaker Eli Lilly, praised the agreement but noted that work needs to be done to repair the damage done to the state’s image.

“The healing needs to begin right now,” he said.

Democratic leaders said the proposed amendment does not go far enough and repeated their calls to repeal the law.

“I want to hear somebody say we made a grave mistake, and we caused the state tremendous embarrassment that will take months, if not years, to repair,” House Minority Leader Scott Pelath said. “I want to hear one of the proponents ‘fess up, because the healing cannot begin until that happens. The solution is simple. Repeal this law.”

In Arkansas, Gov. Asa Hutchinson has called on the Legislature to change the measure he had once said he would sign into law. But the time to make revisions was short. The bill becomes law five days after the governor receives it unless he vetoes the proposal. And even if he does issue a veto, lawmakers can override it with a simple majority.

A House committee endorsed a bill aimed at addressing his concerns, setting up a final vote for Thursday afternoon.

The bill would prohibit state and local government from infringing upon someone’s religious beliefs without a compelling reason. Hutchinson asked lawmakers to recall the bill, amend it or pass a follow-up measure that would make the proposal more closely mirror a federal religious-freedom law.

The lawmaker behind the original proposal said he backed the changes.

“We’re going to allow a person to believe what they want to believe without the state coming in and burdening that unless they’ve got a good reason to do so,” Republican Rep. Bob Ballinger told the House Judiciary Committee.

Hutchinson was the second governor in as many days to give ground to opponents of the law. Since signing Indiana’s law last week, Pence and his fellow Republicans in the Legislature have been subjected to sharp criticism from around the country. It led Pence to seek changes to address concerns that the law would allow businesses to discriminate based on sexual orientation.

Hutchinson has faced pressure from the state’s largest employers, including retail giant Wal-Mart. Businesses called the bill discriminatory and said it would hurt Arkansas’ image. Hutchinson noted that his own son, Seth, had signed a petition urging him to veto the bill.

Conservative groups said they would still prefer that Hutchinson sign the original bill, but they grudgingly backed the compromise measure.

“The bill that’s on the governor’s desk is the Rolls Royce of religious freedom bills. It is a very good bill,” said Jerry Cox, head of the Arkansas Family Council. “The bill that just passed … is a Cadillac.”

The revised Arkansas measure only addresses actions by the government, not by businesses or individuals, and supporters said that would prevent businesses from using it to deny services to individuals. Opponents said they believed the measure still needs explicit anti-discrimination language similar to Indiana’s proposal.

The original bill “gave us a black eye. This bill ices it,” said Rita Sklar, president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas. “We still need some Tylenol.”

As originally passed, neither the Indiana nor Arkansas law specifically mentioned gays and lesbians. But opponents have voiced concern that the language contained in them could offer a legal defense to businesses and other institutions that refuse to serve gays, such as caterers, florists or photographers with religious objections to same-sex marriage.

Similar proposals have been introduced this year in more than a dozen states, patterned after the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, with some differences. Indiana and 19 other states have similar laws on the books.

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Associated Press writer Allen Reed in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed to this report.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says the danger of wildfires is extremely high in Bayfield and Douglas counties.

The DNR issued a red flag warning for the two counties Thursday. Permit burning isn’t allowed in barrels, debris piles and grass and wooded areas because of the conditions. Also campfires, fireworks and outdoor smoking aren’t recommended.

The agency says the danger of wildfires is high or very high in 62 of Wisconsin’s 70 other counties.

PARIS (AP) – French investigators have identified body parts from all 150 people aboard the Germanwings flight that crashed more than a week ago, a prosecutor said Thursday.

Investigators have found and studied 2,854 body parts, Marseille Prosecutor Brice Robin said.

But he said it will still take a long time for investigators to match the body parts with DNA samples from families of the victims.

Robin also gave details about the discovery of the second black box. He said it was found by a gendarme buried on the left side of a ravine “already explored several times.”

He described the flight data recorder as “completely blackened” as though it had been burned, but said it was “possibly usable.”

Robin said 40 cellphones had been found at that crash site in a “very, very damaged” condition, without referring to the reports by Paris Match and Bild that footage of the final moments of the crash had been recovered.

In Germany, prosecutors said the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 appears to have researched suicide methods and cockpit door security in the days before he crashed the plane into the French Alps, killing everyone aboard.

Search terms found on a tablet computer at co-pilot Andreas Lubitz’s apartment in Duesseldorf provided the first evidence that his actions may have been premeditated.

Based on information from the cockpit voice recorder, investigators believe Lubitz, 27, locked his captain out of the Airbus A320 cockpit on March 24 and deliberately slammed the plane into a French mountain.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A legislative committee is set to hold a public hearing on a bill that would impose regulations on Internet-based ride-hailing companies.

The bill would require companies such as Uber and Lyft to apply for state licenses, conduct criminal background checks on their drivers and insure their operations.

The traditional taxi industry, which sees online ride-hailing companies as competitors, fiercely opposes the bill, saying the regulations are too lax. They say ride-share businesses should be subject to same mandates as taxis, including driver permits, background checks by law enforcement and vehicle inspections.

The Assembly Committee on State Affairs and Government Operations was scheduled to hold the hearing Thursday afternoon in the state Capitol.

GREEN BAY – If you’re looking to make some extra cash during Packers season, PMI Entertainment will be holding a job fair for part-time and seasonal positions for game day operations.

The job fair will be on Saturday, April 11, 9:00 a.m. to noon, located at 855 Lombardi Avenue, in the former Packers Hall of Fame building behind the Brown County Arena.

Parking will be available in the Silver Lot behind Shopko Hall off of Lombardi Avenue.

Open game day positions include, ushers, parking attendants, text message staff, forklift driver and field cleaning supervisors.

Applicants must be 18 years or older.

Not-for-profit group fundraising opportunities are also available.

If you cannot attend the job fair, you can still apply and get more information at PMIEntertainmentGroup.com.

MADISON (AP) – Wisconsin Democrats say they’ve gathered 13,500 petition signatures from people who support maintaining the existing SeniorCare program.

Rep. Andy Jorgensen, a Milton Democrat, said the lawmakers planned to present boxes of petitions to Republican Senate and Assembly leaders Thursday.

Gov. Scott Walker proposed requiring seniors in the state to enroll in Medicare Part D before applying for the state’s low-cost prescription drug program in his budget. But Rep. John Nygren, the Republican co-chairman of the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, told the Associated Press last week that Walker’s proposal was effectively dead.

Nygren did say the program could face changes, however. SeniorCare members pay $30 a year, as well as copays of $5 for generic drugs and $15 for brand name drugs.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – The family of a Milwaukee man killed by a police officer is urging the CEO of Starbucks to continue the corporation’s efforts to spark discussions about racial inequality.

Dontre Hamilton’s family had a private meeting with Starbucks’ chief executive Howard Schultz Wednesday. Dontre Hamilton, who’s black, was fatally shot by Officer Christopher Manney, who’s white, outside a Starbucks in downtown Milwaukee last April. His death has sparked numerous demonstrations.

Hamilton’s brother, Nate Hamilton, said in a statement that they are grateful Schultz took time to come to Milwaukee to talk and express condolences. Hamilton says they talked about what efforts corporations can make toward fixing inequalities.

Starbucks recently launched an initiative called “Race Together” to generate discussions about diversity.

WASHINGTON (AP) – It never hurts presidential candidates to have senators owe them a favor or two. That’s why Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a potential GOP presidential contender, is offering to have lunch with a donor to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the party’s fundraising arm for Senate campaigns.

“One winner will travel to Wisconsin for a special lunch and conversation with me and an overnight stay in the Badger State,” Walker says in a fundraising email the NRSC is sending Thursday.

To be sure, Walker will have his own massive fundraising needs if he runs for president. But with nominating caucuses and primaries scheduled in many states next year, it’s handy to have local congressmen, senators, governors and others feeling a bit indebted.

“Our conservative reforms transformed Wisconsin’s economy, creating thousands of new jobs and empowering hardworking taxpayers,” Walker claims in the email. It asks for donations of $5 or more, and the NRSC says the winner will be chosen randomly.

Republican sources say the NRSC plans to have other presidential hopefuls raise money through the “grab a bite” campaign.

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Some Democratic senators already are sending back campaign donations from their New Jersey colleague Robert Menendez, who was indicted Wednesday on corruption charges. Will they also remove his image from their Senate and campaign sites?

A good test will be the official website of Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, who’s in line to become the next Democratic Senate leader. As of midday Thursday, an image on Schumer’s home page showed him smiling at a podium with a few senators standing behind him. Menendez is shown beaming over Schumer’s right shoulder. Less in-focus are Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and, blurrier still, Schumer’s fellow New York senator, Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand.

It might be fun to “watch this space” and see if Menendez is eventually cropped or airbrushed away, like an old Soviet official falling from favor in the Kremlin.

The Little Hope Dam in Waupaca County should and can be removed, a state administrative law judge has ruled.

Waupaca County wants to remove the Little Hope Dam on the Crystal River in Dayton, because of safety concerns. Several residents, however, objected to the plan.

Waupaca County officials estimated removal costs from $50-124,000. Replacing the dam could cost $400-425,000.

After a hearing was held last June, administrative law judge Jeffrey Boldt issued his decision, saying the environment will benefit from its removal:

“With regard to wildlife habitat and water quality, again there was uncontroverted expert testimony that the abandonment and removal of the Little Hope Dam would not have an adverse impact. Fauna that would likely utilize the riparian corridor resulting from drainage of the millpond could include mink, river otter, Blanding’s turtle, woodcock, great blue heron, and green heron, among other species.  Moreover, there was testimony that the Crystal River was running clear again, an indicator of actual improvement in the water quality since the partial removal of the dam,” Boldt wrote.

He acknowledged those opposed to decision but said the county met its legal burden:

“It’s not easy to lose the millpond, which has been such an important part of the lives of many area residents for decades. However, after numerous hours of testimony, the record in this hearing establishes that the County has met all legal requirements, including enhancing public safety and preserving public rights in navigable waters, and that the permit to abandon and remove the dam must be granted,” he wrote.

Boldt’s March 26 ruling also ordered the county to submit an updated dam removal plan to the state.

The ruling can be appealed.

ARTESIA, Calif. (AP) — The Rev. Robert H. Schuller, the Southern California televangelist and author who beamed his upbeat messages on faith and redemption to millions from his landmark Crystal Cathedral only to see his empire crumble in his waning years, has died. He was 88.

Schuller died early Thursday at a care facility in Artesia, daughter Carol Schuller Milner said. In 2013, he was diagnosed with a tumor in his esophagus that had spread to his lymph nodes and began treatment.

Once a charismatic and well-known presence on the televangelist circuit, Schuller faded from view in recent years after watching his church collapse amid a disastrous leadership transition and sharp declines in viewership and donations that ultimately forced the ministry to file for bankruptcy.

The soaring, glass-paned Crystal Cathedral — the touchstone of Schuller’s storied ministry — was sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange in 2011, and Schuller lost a legal battle the following year to collect more than $5 million from his former ministry for claims of copyright infringement and breach of contract.

Schuller, who preached in a flowing purple robe and outsized aviator glasses, suffered a mild heart attack in 1997 but was quickly back on the pulpit, saying “the positive person” is not afraid of life’s surprises. In July 2013, he was hospitalized for days after a late-night fall at his home in Orange.

Schuller’s evangelical Protestant ministry, part of the Reformed Church in America, was a product of modern technology. He and his late wife, Arvella, an organist, started a ministry in 1955 with $500 when he began preaching from the roof of a concession stand at a drive-in movie theater southeast of Los Angeles.

The church’s motto — “Come as you are in the family car” — tapped into the burgeoning Southern California auto culture and the suburban boom of post-World War II America.

By 1961, the church had a brick-and-mortar home — a “walk-in/drive-in church” — and Schuller began broadcasting the “Hour of Power” in 1970.

In 1980, he built the towering glass-and-steel Crystal Cathedral to house his booming TV ministry, which was broadcast live each week from the cathedral’s airy and sunlit 2,800-seat sanctuary. At its peak, in the 1990s, the program had 20 million viewers in about 180 countries.

Schuller’s message — that “Possibility Thinking” and love of God overcome hardships — was a uniquely American blend of Bible and psychology. It was inspired by late author Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Schuller also wrote more than 30 books, including several best-sellers.

“He was a young guy like me, and he was going out there and trying new things,” said his grandson, Bobby Schuller, who pastors his own church that includes some of his grandfather’s former congregants. “He did so many amazing, innovative things.”

Unlike other televangelists, the senior Schuller’s message lacked fire-and-brimstone condemnations or conservative political baggage.

“The classical error of historical Christianity is that we have never started with the value of the person. Rather, we have started from the ‘unworthiness of the sinner,’ and that starting point has set the stage for the glorification of human shame in Christian theology,” he wrote in his book “Self-Esteem: The New Reformation.”

Schuller had admirers that ranged from fellow evangelist Billy Graham to Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. He also was among the first foreign religious figures invited to preach on Russian television.

Fundamentalists attacked him as a heretic and humanist for statements they believed denied the need for personal repentance of sin and for his tolerance of Jewish, Roman Catholic and other theologies.

His friendship with President Bill Clinton raised some eyebrows among the conservative Republicans of his Orange County congregation and prompted a deluge of irate letters and telephone calls.

In response, Schuller gave a sermon on tolerance.

“I do let people know how great their sins and miseries are,” he said in a 1992 radio interview. “I don’t do that by standing in a pulpit and telling them they’re sinners. …The way I do it is ask questions. Are you happy? Do you have problems, what are they? So then I come across as somebody who cares about them.”

Schuller sometimes cited the example of his daughter Carol, who lost part of her leg because of a motorcycle accident in 1978 but went on to become a champion skier.

“When tough times come, we need to take tough action, to hold on until the tide turns for the better, to tenaciously dig in and bloom where we are planted,” he wrote.

Tough times were in store for Schuller, too.

In 2006, Schuller’s only son, 51-year-old Robert A. Schuller, was installed as senior pastor, the start of a carefully choreographed leadership transition. Although a father-son succession is rare in the Reformed Church in America, the Schullers considered the church a “family business” and the move was sanctioned by the national church, officials said.

But the organization fell on difficult times after the younger Schuller’s installation, and he left amid a bitter family feud in fall 2008. His father had removed him from the “Hour of Power” broadcasts, and he quit as senior pastor a few weeks later.

Sheila Schuller Coleman, one of Schuller’s daughters, took over as the church’s top administrator, and a stable of preachers, including her and her father, handled preaching duties on the “Hour of Power.”

She, too, ultimately left, taking some congregants with her to start a new ministry.

The tumult in the pulpit worsened a pre-existing decline in viewership and donations, and in 2010, Crystal Cathedral ministries filed for bankruptcy, citing debt of more than $43 million.

Bankruptcy filings indicated the ministry was paying significant tax-exempt housing allowances to Schuller family members and insiders. The allowances were legal but raised concerns among vendors and other creditors who had gone unpaid for months.

In 2012, Schuller and his wife quit the board of directors in a dispute over copyright infringement and breach of contract. That same year, they lost a legal bid to recover more than $5 million from their former ministry.

Schuller’s grandson, Bobby Schuller, took the remaining congregation and founded a new church. Bobby Schuller also took over the “Hour of Power,” broadcasting from a new location.

Robert Harold Schuller was born in Alton, Iowa, in 1926, and was ordained by the Reformed Church in America in 1950. He was pastor of Ivanhoe Reformed Church in Chicago from 1950 to 1955 before moving to California.

Besides his son, Schuller and his wife, Arvella, had four daughters, Sheila, Jeanne, Carol and Gretchen. Arvella Schuller died Feb. 11, 2014, after a brief illness.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Milwaukee police say a 1-year-old child is safe after a car thief stole a vehicle with the toddler still inside.

Authorities say a mother stopped at a business about 7:30 a.m. Thursday and left her child in the car with the vehicle running. Police say a female suspect arrived at the business in a stolen car, left that vehicle and drove off in the mother’s car. A witness followed the car and officers later found it abandoned with the child unharmed inside.

The toddler and mother have been reunited. The car thief is still at large.

RACINE (AP) – A Mount Pleasant woman is accused of beating and strangling another female at a birthday party.

A 24-year-old woman called police early Wednesday and said the defendant, for no apparent reason, attacked her at a friend’s birthday party in Mount Pleasant.

The victim says 27-year-old Ashley Gehrke punched her numerous times, threw her to the ground, strangled her, put her hands in her mouth and wouldn’t let her leave the residence. The victim eventually managed to leave and run to a neighbor’s home for help.

Police noted the woman had injuries to her head, neck and face. She was treated at a hospital and released. Gehrke was arrested at the party house. She has been charged with strangulation and suffocation, false imprisonment, substantial battery and disorderly conduct. Online court records don’t list a defense attorney.

KANKAKEE, Ill. (AP) – Law enforcement officers armed with rifles are searching neighborhoods near the eastern Illinois city of Kankakee as the manhunt for an escaped convict enters a second day.

TV news video shows heavily armed officers entering homes in the city’s southern suburbs.

But there is still no sign of Kamron T. Taylor. The 23-year-old fled from the Jerome Combs Detention Center before dawn Wednesday after beating a guard unconscious and using his uniform to fool other guards into letting him out. He then drove away in the guard’s SUV, which was later found abandoned.

The Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office released a still image taken from a surveillance camera showing Taylor wearing the guard’s jacket, emblazoned with an officer’s badge.

Taylor was awaiting sentencing for killing a man during a botched robbery.

EAU CLAIRE (AP) – The state Department of Justice is investigating why an Eau Claire Police officer shot and wounded a man during a confrontation.

Police Chief Gerald Staniszewski told the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram for Thursday’s editions that officers tried to serve a felony arrest warrant on the man Wednesday afternoon. Officers found his car in a parking lot and began a search. A confrontation with the man ensued and an officer shot him.

The newspaper reported the man was in surgery late Wednesday with undisclosed wounds. The man’s name was not released.

A police spokesman said scanner traffic and other reports suggested the man may have been involved in a domestic violence situation, was armed and was possibly suicidal.

STURGEON BAY – Attorneys for some concerned Door County citizens say a proposed hotel on Sturgeon Bay’s west side would be built on what was once a lake bed.

In a letter sent to city leaders Wednesday, Green Bay attorneys Frank Kowalkowski and James Kalny cited the Wisconsin Public Trust Doctrine, which requires state waterways to be maintained for public purpose. The letter includes maps and documents to explain the law and how the land was once part of Sturgeon Bay, the body of water.

• Click here to read the full letter

On Thursday, attorney Randy Nesbitt, who has worked with the city on the issue, said in a statement, “The issues raised in the April 2015 letter are not new issues. They were issues identified and dealt with by the City of Sturgeon Bay over the last 2 years.”

Developers want to build a four-story, 76-unit hotel near the Oregon St. Bridge. The city’s common council unanimously voted in February to rezone the property in question.

FOX 11’s Andrew LaCombe is at a news conference and will have a complete story tonight on FOX 11 News at Five.

BERLIN (AP) — The co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 appears to have researched suicide methods and cockpit door security in the days before he flew the plane into the French Alps, killing 150 people, German prosecutors said Thursday.

Duesseldorf prosecutors said investigators found a tablet computer at co-pilot Andreas Lubitz’s apartment in Duesseldorf and were able to reconstruct his computer searches from March 16 to March 23.

Based on information from the cockpit voice recorder, Investigators believe the 27-year-old Lubitz locked his captain out of the A320’s cockpit on March 24 and deliberately crashed the plane, killing everyone on board.

Prosecutors’ spokesman Ralf Herrenbrueck said in a statement that Lubitz’s search terms included medical treatment and suicide methods. On at least one day, the co-pilot looked at search terms involving cockpit doors and their security methods.

“(He) concerned himself on one hand with medical treatment methods, on the other hand with types and ways of going about a suicide,” Herrenbrueck said. “In addition, on at least one day (Lubitz) concerned himself with search terms about cockpit doors and their security precautions.”

German prosecutors said personal correspondence and search terms on the tablet, whose browser memory had not been erased, “support the conclusion that the machine was used by the co-pilot in the relevant period.

French prosecutors, meanwhile, said the second black box from the Germanwings jet crash had been found — the data recorder that contains readings for nearly every instrument on the plane.

Investigators were also examining cellphones found in the debris of the jet crash for clues about what happened. A French reporter who says he saw such cellphone video described the excruciating sound of “screaming and screaming” as the plane flew full-speed into a mountain.

No video or audio from the cellphones of the 150 people aboard the plane who were killed in the March 24 crash has been released publicly. On Thursday, Lt. Col. Jean-Marc Menichini told The AP that search teams have found cellphones, but they haven’t been thoroughly examined yet. He would not elaborate.

Questions persist about journalist Frederic Helbert’s reports in the French magazine Paris-Match and in the German tabloid Bild this week about the video that he says he saw. Helbert vigorously defended his reports in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press.

Special mountain troops continued searching the area Thursday for personal belongings and the second black box flight recorder.

Helbert said he viewed the video thanks to an intermediary close to the investigation, but does not have a copy himself. The publications chose not to release the video, he said, “because it had no value regarding the investigation but it could have been something terrible for families.”

The video was shot from the back of the plane, he said, so “You cannot see their faces, but you can hear them screaming and screaming.”

“No one is moving or getting up,” he told the AP in Paris. “What was awful, what is imprinted in my memory, is the sound.”

“People understand something terrible is going to happen,” he said.

Germanwings, meanwhile, said Thursday was unaware that Lubitz had suffered from depression during his pilot training. German airline Lufthansa confirmed Tuesday that it knew six years ago that Lubitz had suffered from an episode of “severe depression” before he finished his flight training.

“We didn’t know this,” said Vanessa Torres, a spokeswoman for Lufthansa subsidiary Germanwings, which hired Lubitz in September 2013.

She couldn’t explain why Germanwings wasn’t aware of the depression when its parent company Lufthansa was.

Germany also announced the creation of an expert task force to examine what went wrong in the Germanwings crash and consider whether changes are needed to cockpit doors or pilot procedures for passing medicals. It will also discuss the question of recognizing psychological problems.

Any conclusions will be shared with international air safety organizations.

France’s air accident investigation agency has already said it will examine cockpit entry and psychological screening procedures.

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Frank Jordans in Berlin and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

INDIANAPOLIS — Brevin Pritzl competed in the American Family Insurance 3-point Championship on Wednesday and the De Pere senior placed second, falling to future Big Ten opponent Ryan Cline.

Pritzl, who will attend Wisconsin, scored 19 points in the final, but Cline, a Purdue recruit, tallied 22 points to win the contest. Ironically, Cline, from Caramel, Ind., was competing in his home gym and had the crowd behind him.

The 3-point contest, along with the slam dunk contest and the girls 3-point contest will air Sunday at 2:30 p.m. on CBS.