Green Bay News

Fans fill the Kohl Center in Madison to sendoff the Badgers men’s basketball team to Indianapolis for the Final Four game against the Kentucky Wildcats.

SHEBOYGAN – A former Sheboygan alderman charged with repeated sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy in February is now facing new charges.

33-year-old Kevin Matichek faces five counts of possession of child pornography and one count of bribery by a public official, in addition to his repeated sexual assault of a child charges from February 2015.

The criminal complaint states since Matichek was charged, other males came forward with similar allegations saying they had sexual contact with him when they 18-years-old or younger.

The criminal complaint says one of the males, who is now 19-years-old, said when he was 18, he applied for and received a bartender’s license from the city of Sheboygan. About two months later, the victim said he received a phone call from Matichek, with whom he previously had a sexual relationship with.

The victim told investigators during the phone call, Matichek said he would have to appear before the Licensing Committee in order to keep his bartending license. Matichek allegedly told the victim if he would agree to go on a “date” with him, they could “fix” this. The victim told officials he understood a date would include sex.

Between late Aug. and mid-Sept. 2013, the victim went on a date with Matichek at a Taco Bell restaurant and the victim said the two later had sex. The victim told officials he really wanted to be a bartender and knew Matichek was bribing him.

The criminal complaint states the victim went before the Licensing Committee after the “date” on Sept. 10, 2013, and his bartending license was approved.

The child pornography charges filed against Matichek in a separate case came after a search warrant was done at this home he shares with his mother.

The criminal complaint states a number of electronic devices were seized, including a cell phone. The cell phone was examined and Matichek had several images of an apparent teenage boy. Some photos showed Matichek and the teen together, some were pornographic in nature.

Investigators say the boy seen in the photo is now 21-years-old, but was under 18 when the photos were taken.

In the case charging Matichek with the repeated sexual assault of a child, Matichek is set to appear in court on April 6th.

In the new cases filed against him, Matichek will be in court on April 15th.

Matichek resigned as a Sheboygan alderman in February.

 

 

 

 

GREEN BAY – From fishing to swimming, many people love getting out and enjoying area lakes and rivers.

So how do you keep the waterways healthy for future generations?

It was the focus of the “Save the Bay Summit,” in Green Bay Wednesday morning.

Dozens of people crowded into The Neville Public Museum to talk about pollution.

Farmers, scientists and business leaders, say phosphorus is a top concern in the Green Bay watershed.

“Nutrient loading and especially the phosphorus comes through in great part, we talked about 80 percent potentially in some estimates and studies from non-point, from agricultural sources,” said Cathy Stepp, D.N.R. Secretary.

Scientists say phosphorus comes from farm run-off, and even yard waste. It can trigger algae blooms in the bay, choking fish of oxygen.

At 5,000 cows, Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy is the biggest farm in Kewaunee County.

John Pagel says a methane digester converts manure into enough energy to power 1,600 homes in the area.
He says it has also cut his manure spreading by 15 percent.

“There’s new technology that we’ll take advantage of. Try to utilize within our system back on the dairy. But there’s field practices that we’ll be able to utilize also,” said John Pagel, Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy.

Pagel, who was at the summit, says planting cover crops helps too.

Summit stake holders say phosphorus is a good fertilizer, but it also needs to be contained in the soil.

“As we do that, create greater run-off barriers, protection barriers from fields to areas that can run-off. That’s going to be key in this solution,” said Dean Hoegger, Clean Water Action Council of Northeast Wisconsin.

Farm consultant Don Schmidt says any solution has to be user-friendly.

“You can spend all the time you want, you can have the best plans laid out, but if they look at it and say this is too complicated, it just goes by the wayside, and nothing gets accomplished,” said Don Schmidt, AgVentures, Agronomist.

“It’s everybody’s problem, and everybody contributes in one way or another. So let’s work as a team. Let’s fix the problem, and create a solution,” said Pagel.

Republican U.S. Congressman Reid Ribble organized the event.

He says legislation may be an option, but a solution to the long-term problem is still years away.

MANITOWOC – The man arrested for not cooperating with police during Trooper Trevor Casper’s burial refused to appear in court for the second day in a row.

Police say the 56-year-old Kiel man became disruptive when officers tried to speak with him during Casper’s private burial ceremony Monday morning. The man was walking near the cemetery’s border with an object sticking out of a bag.

Arrested on several misdemeanors, he was set to appear before a Manitowoc County court commissioner Tuesday, but refused, as well as Wednesday.

He is now expected to appear before a judge Thursday.

GREEN BAY – One man is in custody in connection with a shooting incident that hit two homes in a Green Bay west side neighborhood Monday night.

Green Bay Police were investigating what appeared to be a drive-by shooting after several shots were reported fired in the 300 block of 12th Avenue at 7:15 p.m.

Investigators say the shooting was an attempted robbery during a drug transaction.

Police say two men arranged to meet a third man in the 300 block of 12th Avenue to buy drugs with a plan to rip the man off.

The two men got into the third man’s car and after a short time the two men ran off with the drugs. The third man fired shots at the two men as they ran away.

No one was injured in the shooting, but the bullets did hit two homes nearby.

Investigators say they identified the shooter as a 21-year-old man from Menominee Michigan. Investigators worked with police in Menominee to locate and arrest the man.

The man is being held in Michigan on other charges and the Brown County District Attorney’s office will be seeking extradition.

Police say the neighborhood the shooting occurred in had no direct connection to the men involved, it was just chosen as a place to meet.

Another linebacker will not return to the Green Bay Packers as Wednesday the New York Jets announced they have signed Jamari Lattimore.

Last season Lattimore posted career highs with five starts and 39 total tackles. One of those starts came against the Jets last season, when he recorded eight tackles. He started the next four games at and came up with his first career interception against Minnesota.

Lattimore played in 49 games as a Packer (nine starts, all the past two seasons) plus four more postseason games. He has two sacks, an interception and 66 tackles on defense.

Lattimore is the latest linebacker to leave the Packers as A.J. Hawk was waived and signed with Cincinnati and Brad Jones was waived and signed with Philadelphia.

MADISON — Traevon Jackson sat on the scorer’s table in his practice jersey, watching Wisconsin teammates run up and down the floor.

Ideally, the point guard didn’t want to spend one of his final practices at home as a spectator. This is coach Bo Ryan’s senior leader, after all, someone so trusted by teammates that he took the last shot in last season’s one-point loss in the Final Four to Kentucky.

But after missing more than two months with a broken right foot, the senior is simply grateful to get one more chance to return to the NCAA Tournament’s brightest stage. The Badgers play the Wildcats in a rematch in the national semifinals on Saturday night.

All this stuff that happened, to be able to go to back-to-back Final Fours – I prayed for this consistently over and over again,” Jackson said in a phone interview. The team said Jackson sat out practice Tuesday just for precautionary rest.

Faith, Jackson said, is his foundation. It is what helped him persevere through the pain and rehab process.

A history of coming through in the clutch is what drew the respect of teammates. The privilege of taking shots in tight games must be earned in practice.

“You find out through those situations at least who the players are trusting to be in that position,” Ryan said. “Then you strongly encourage (and think) ‘OK, this is what happened eight times, three times this happened,’ and you play percentages. That’s what I do.”

Wisconsin’s Traevon Jackson shoots against Northern Kentucky during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Friday, Nov. 14, 2014, in Madison, Wis. Wisconsin won 62-31. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)

Jackson has hit four game-tying or winning jumpers in his career. At last year’s Final Four, Jackson hit two foul shots with 16 seconds left to give Wisconsin a 73-71 lead before Aaron Harrison hit a the game-winning 3 with 6 seconds left. Jackson missed that last shot at the buzzer.

This season, the Badgers were cruising at 15-1 when Jackson got hurt. Already without star center Frank Kaminsky because of a concussion, Wisconsin lost at Rutgers 67-62 that day after Jackson departed following 26 minutes with the foot injury. He was playing well at the time, averaging 9.4 points.

The Badgers lost depth when sophomore Bronson Koenig moved into the starting lineup. But the team adjusted and kept rolling.

Wisconsin is 20-1 since Jackson’s injury, with the only loss coming at Maryland. Koenig has turned into one of the team’s top outside shooting threats while growing more confident as a leader. Kaminsky and guard Josh Gasser can also handle the ball in close games.

Jackson had to focus on rehab. He made it a point to mentor Koenig, who teammates said already had the physical skills.

“Trae has been supportive throughout this whole process, getting hurt. He’s a great teammate and he’s always been there for Bronson and for us … being a coach on the sidelines,” forward Sam Dekker said Tuesday.

Jackson said he has watched Koenig become more assertive.

“He wants to do things, wants to be the guy,” Jackson said. “That’s big for being in a point guard situation.”

But it hasn’t necessarily been a smooth adjustment to come off the bench. He has been the starter since early in his sophomore year. He has overcome bouts of inconsistency in his career that had fans at times using social media to questioning his decision-making.

Jackson is focusing on the positives.

“It’s different. It’s a role that changed,” Jackson said about being a reserve. “That’s what has allowed me to really just focus and get into adverse situations and adapt. Adapt for anything and get ready for any situation.”

Jackson was understandably anxious to return. At one point in late February, Jackson thought he would be ready to return for Wisconsin’s final regular season home game on March 1 against Michigan State.

But he wasn’t medically cleared to return practice until the week leading up to the opening weekend of the NCAAs. Jackson finally played his first game in the 79-72 win over North Carolina last week in the Sweet 16.

He played nine minutes and finished with four points. But he’ll always remember his first shot, a 3 from the corner that gave Wisconsin a lift off the bench.

“I was like, ‘Thank you Lord!'” Jackson recounted. “What a way to come into this game like that.”

GREEN BAY – A fundraising campaign kicked off Wednesday during National Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention month.

Statistics from the Sexual Assault Center of Family Services in Green Bay

• 1 in 4 females and 1 in 6 males are impacted by sexual assault at one time in their life
• In 2014, there were more than 1,000 victims of sexual abuse served by the organization in Brown, Door, Oconto and Marinette counties.
• 46% of victims in 2014 were under the age of 18
• The center responded to 511 crisis calls in 2014.

It is the fourth annual Blue Kite Campaign to help raise awareness to child abuse prevention programs.

People can buy kite pin-ups all month long to help support the cause for $1.00. The goal is to raise $4,464.00, one for every reported case last year.

Brown County Sheriff, John Gossage says this is a problem that can’t be arrested away, “One is too many, I think what we need to do is really start energizing this campaign so we sell this, so we can get more education out to the people, more awareness.”

The kites will be sold at a number of area locations, including the Family and Childcare Resources of Northeast Wisconsin.

To see a calendar of events for Sexual Assault Awareness Month in Northeast Wisconsin, click here.

 

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A stray dog that was clubbed in the head and left for dead in a ditch about a month ago is recovering with the help of good Samaritans and veterinarians at Washington State University.

The 1-year-old bully breed mix was struck by a car about a month ago near the farm town of Moses Lake.

Sara Mellado learned of the ordeal through social media, took the dog home and named her Theia.

Mellado says she believes the person who clubbed Theia with a hammer and placed her in a box in a farm field did it as an act of mercy.

The dog is now receiving care at WSU’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Pullman.

The school says Theia is friendly despite a dislocated jaw, leg injuries and a caved-in sinus cavity.

She still needs a surgery, and Mellado has raised more than $10,000 for it through a crowdfunding website.

 

MADISON (AP) – An analysis of TV ad spending in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race finds incumbent Justice Ann Walsh Bradley has spent more than $510,000.

Bradley faces Rock County Circuit Judge James Daley in the election next Tuesday. The analysis Wednesday from two groups, Justice at Stake and the Brennan Center for Justice, found Daley had yet to book any TV time. But the groups say records indicate Daley has purchased radio ad buys totaling $108,000.

The groups also say an outside group has begun spending in the race. The liberal Greater Wisconsin Committee has spent $101,000 for a TV ad criticizing Daley for a sentence given to a convicted child abuser.

The office is nonpartisan, but Bradley has portrayed Daley as aligned with the GOP. He’s characterized Bradley as a liberal activist.

(CNN) – Did you get pranked Wednesday? It was April Fools’ Day, after all.

But have you ever wondered why we play the pranks in the first place?

The origins of April Fools’ Day are unclear, but one theory ties the unofficial holiday to a shifting calendar. In ancient cultures, New Year’s Day was celebrated on April 1. But in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII moved the holiday to Jan. 1.

Not everybody got the message. Those that continued to celebrated on April 1 were called April Fools.

Funny, right?

Much of Britain didn’t adopt the new calendar until 1752. But they were celebrating April Fools’ Day long before that.

In Scotland, it’s a two-day affair. If you’ve ever had a “kick me” sign taped to your back, you might blame the Scots.

April Fools’ Day has also been linked to the vernal equinox and the start of spring. That’s when the ancient Romans had their hilarious festival of Hilaria. Hindus have Holi, and Purim is celebrated in Judaism.

Some of the biggest April Fools’ Day pranks are courtesy of corporations and the media. In 1940, a press release from the Franklin Institute, a science museum in Philadelphia, declared the world would end the following day. The institute was seeking publicity for a lecture series and a local radio station reported on it.

In 1957, the BBC falsely reported a bumper crop of spaghetti trees in Switzerland.

And in 1998, Burger King announced the left-handed Whopper, specifically designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans.

Interestingly, Orson Welles’ famous “War of the Worlds” broadcast – which induced panic in radio audiences, who thought Martians were really invading Earth – was on April Fools’ Day.

April fools! It was in October 1938.

MILWAUKEE – If you’re looking to buy Final Four tickets on Craigslist, the Better Business Bureau Serving Wisconsin says to be cautious.

The BBB Serving Wisconsin reported a North Carolina woman lost more than $1,400 when trying to purchase two NCAA tickets for the Duke versus Michigan game on Saturday in Indianapolis from a seller posing as a Wisconsin doctor.

The woman contacted the seller on Craigslist and was refereed to a website by the seller called “Purchase Tickets Safely,” which listed a supposed Milwaukee address, “W. St. Paul Ave.” She sent the seller $1,400 via wire transfer.

When the woman didn’t get her tickets, she emailed the seller only to be told he decided to increase the price by $500 and if she still wanted the tickets, she had to send more money.

The woman looked up the doctor’s phone number and called him directly, only to be told by an office receptionist that they had received dozens of calls this week of people saying they purchased tickets from the doctor and never received them.

The BBB Servicing Wisconsin found there is no such company as “Purchase Tickets Safely” nor is the address,”W. St. Paul Ave.” real.

The BBB Servicing Wisconsin suggests taking your time to investigate sellers before sending money.

WALKERTON, Ind. (AP) – An Indiana woman whose family owns a small-town pizzeria says the state’s new “religious freedom” law supports the restaurant’s right to deny service to any same-sex couples who might ask them to cater their wedding.

Crystal O’Connor of Memories Pizza says her family would serve a gay couple or a non-Christian couple at its restaurant in Walkerton, about 20 miles southwest of South Bend in northern Indiana.

But O’Connor tells WBND-TV that the restaurant would say no if a gay couple asked it to provide pizzas for their wedding.

O’Connor says the business reflects her family’s Christian beliefs. She says her family agrees with Indiana’s new law that prohibits any laws that “substantially burden” a person’s ability to follow his or her religious beliefs.

If you’re having trouble paying your utility bills, contact WHEAP.

NEW YORK (AP) – In its five short years of life, Pinterest has become ‘the’ place where brides-to-be create wish boards of wedding china photos and do-it-yourself home renovators bookmark shiny turquoise tiles for bathrooms. It’s where people share ideas and ingenuity and get creatively inspired. And it’s fueled a new way of searching for items that’s even stolen traffic from tech giant Google.

The San Francisco-based venture capital darling was recently valued at $11 billion. While its core audience has always been female, Pinterest says its popularity is growing faster than ever among men. It is winning in the all-important social-mobile space – the vast majority of “pinners” connect from mobile devices – and is enjoying a healthy expansion overseas.

As Pinterest celebrates its fifth birthday this week – hopefully with perfect bacon cupcakes topped with a single, artisanal beeswax candle – here are five things to know about the site and where it’s headed.

WHO USES PINTEREST?

Pinterest had 79.3 million unique visitors in February (the latest data available), up 47 percent from a year earlier, according to Internet research firm comScore. The vast majority were women, but male visitors grew at a much faster clip: 62 percent for men versus 42 percent for women.

Enid Hwang is the company’s community manager and the fourth employee ever hired at Pinterest. She wouldn’t disclose what percentage of users are male but says Pinterest’s male user base in the U.S. has doubled in the past year. She doesn’t think Pinterest is for women any more than it is for men.

“At its most fundamental, we believe that Pinterest is a tool for unlocking people’s creativity,” she says.

Pinterest often gets lumped in with popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but there are plenty of ways that it stands apart. Hwang sees it as more intimate and personal. While Facebook is about sharing what you did, read or saw recently with 400 of your closest “friends,” Pinterest users pin stuff for their own inspiration and benefit. While others can see it, she says Pinterest people are “saving stuff that means a lot to them personally.”

“MAN TRENDS”

Popular “man trends,” as Pinterest put it recently, range from do-it-yourself home projects such as making a wooden couch sleeve for your drinks, to different ways to tie knots, to the world’s best hiking trails. And then there’s the more unusual.

“Last year, we noticed a trend of survivalists using Pinterest,” Hwang says. These pinners found “creative ways of solving what they might do if there is a zombie apocalypse,” she adds, or a more mundane natural disaster. There are Pinterest boards of basement fallout shelters, disaster preparation and the contents of survival backpacks.

After Pinterest introduced “Place Pins” in late 2013, the vast trove of pinners’ travel-inspired boards became easier for people to find. Users pin photos, links and videos inspired by past trips or travel aspirations. Place Pins are designed to work sort of like an online travel magazine combined with an interactive map.

BY THE NUMBERS

– There are now more than 50 billion “pins” on Pinterest. One billion boards have been created.

– Headquartered in San Francisco, Pinterest has six international offices: in Britain, France, Germany, Japan and Brazil. More than 40 percent of Pinterest users are outside the U.S., up from 28 percent in 2013.

– About two-thirds of the content on its site was created by brands. “If we were in the magazine business, (that) would be 50 billion pages being ripped out and referenced,” says Joanne Bradford, head of partnerships at Pinterest.

– Earlier this year, Pinterest raised $367 million that valued the company at $11 billion. It says it may raise as much as $211 million more, and plans to use the more than half a billion dollars for international expansion and other corporate purposes.

A NEW WAY TO SEARCH AND SHOP

Pinterest’s penchant for exposing people to something new has turned its site into a learning and shopping hub that can be more useful than Google and other search engines for certain topics. Many people now go to Pinterest first when they are looking for ideas on planning a wedding, preparing an exotic dinner, planning a kids’ birthday party or finding the perfect pair of shoes for a new outfit.

Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp likens this phenomenon to “search without typing,” making it particularly well suited for smartphones.

DIVERSITY

The heat is on tech companies for lacking gender and racial diversity among their employee base, especially in the highest ranks. Pinterest is no exception. At the same time, the company seems to be doing better on this front than some of its Silicon Valley counterparts. According to statistics released last July, 40 percent of the company’s employees are women. This compares with 20 percent at Apple Inc. and 30 percent at Twitter Inc. and Google Inc. Among Pinterest executives though, it’s a different story. Nineteen percent are women, compared with 21 percent at Google.

“We’re not close to where we want to be, but we’re working on it,” wrote Tracy Chou, a software engineer and tech lead at Pinterest, in a blog post last July.

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Technology Writer Michael Liedtke contributed from San Francisco.

LONDON (AP) — A couple from northern England has defied the odds — again — by winning a million pounds ($1.5 million) in the lottery for a second time.

David and Kathleen Long won the money — and a car — in the EuroMillions Mega Friday Draw, having already scooped up 1 million pounds in 2013.

Lottery operator Camelot said Wednesday the couple beat odds of 283-billion-to-1.

David Long says he played his usual numbers and watched in amazement as they came up. His wife, Kathleen, had to verify them. Since then, it’s all been a blur.

The retired truck driver says the win means he’ll probably take his wife on a cruise — as he’s run out of excuses not to go now. A party is also planned.

 

TOMAH – The embattled Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center is working to make changes to better care for the veterans it treats.

The change starts at the top with John Rohrer, who was with the VA in Madison, being appointed acting director. Rohrer replaced Mario DeSanctis, who was reassigned, earlier this month. The changes came as multiple investigations into whistleblower complaints are ongoing.

Rohrer spoke one-on-one with FOX 11’s Mark Leland Wednesday about the future of Tomah and what’s being done to address concerns of overprescribing narcotics and the fear of retaliation that keeps employees from speaking out on problems they witness.

Watch for Mark’s report tonight on FOX 11 News at Five and Nine.

TOKYO (AP) — The whiff of a Whopper made hundreds of customers hungry for a Burger King special Wednesday — “Flame Grilled” cologne.

Bottles of the fragrance were sold at the fast-food chain’s stores in Japan for 5,000 yen (about $40), including one Whopper burger.

At a downtown Tokyo outlet, 17-year-old student Yuki Ishibashi bought one out of curiosity. He learned late last month about the cologne and “I really wanted to try it,” Ishibashi said. He took a whiff of the spray and described the scent as “spicy.”

Nanako Katabami bought one as an unusual gift, and quoted her friend as saying it smelled like a Burger King store.

Burger King said the cologne sold out at about half of its 90 Japanese outlets by evening. The promotion, available only in Japan, was timed deliberately for April Fools’ Day.

The company said it hoped the scent would make customers identify Burger King with a grilled-beef burger smell.

 

ECHO LAKE, Calif. (AP) – California Gov. Jerry Brown ordered state officials Wednesday to impose mandatory water restrictions for the first time in history as the state grapples with a serious drought.

In an executive order, Brown ordered the state water board to implement measures in cities and towns that cut usage by 25 percent.

“We’re in a historic drought and that demands unprecedented action,” Brown said at a news conference in the Sierra Nevada, where dry, brown grass surrounded a site that normally would be snow-covered at this time of year.  “We have to pull together and save water in every way we can.”

The move will affect residents, businesses, farmers and other users.

Brown’s order also will require campuses, golf courses, cemeteries and other large landscapes to significantly cut water use; order local governments to replace 50 million square feet of lawns on throughout the state with drought-tolerant landscaping; and create a temporary rebate program for consumers who replace old water-sucking appliances with more efficient ones.

The snowpack has been in decline all year, with electronic measurements in March showing the statewide snow water equivalent at 19 percent of the historical average for that date.

There was no snow at the site of the Wednesday snow survey.

Snow supplies about a third of the state’s water, and a higher snowpack translates to more water in California reservoirs to meet demand in summer and fall.

Officials say the snowpack is already far below the historic lows of 1977 and 2014, when it was 25 percent of normal on April 1 – the time when the snowpack is generally at its peak.

Brown declared a drought emergency and stressed the need for sustained water conservation.

The Department of Water Resources will conduct its final manual snow survey at a spot near Echo Summit, about 90 miles east of Sacramento. Electronic measurements are taken in a number of other places.

If you’re behind on your utility bills, you only have two weeks left to make arrangements to pay up, or your service could be disconnected.

Wisconsin law prevents utilities from disconnecting service between Nov. 1 and April 15.

Green Bay-based Wisconsin Public Service says more than 28,000 customers were at least four months behind on payments as of the end of February. That’s about 2,000 more than in 2014, and the total amount owed was about five percent more than last year.

WPS has more than 445,000 electric and natural gas customers in Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.

Customers who are behind on their bills should contact their utility to make arrangements for payment. Some customers may also qualify for financial help through the Wisconsin Home Energy Assistance Program. To learn more, call 1-866-432-8947 or visit the WHEAP website.