Green Bay News

Watch live streaming video of a news conference with President Barack Obama and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Three organic food companies that use spinach in their food have recalled hundreds of thousands of items over listeria concerns.

Organic food company Amy’s Kitchen has voluntarily recalled about 74,000 cases of frozen and prepackaged products containing spinach.

It comes after one of Amy’s suppliers issued a recall notice saying the Petaluma-based company may have received organic spinach possibly tainted with the bacteria that causes listeria.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials are aware of the recall.

The disease can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.

Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women

The company reports it has not had any complaints of illnesses from the products being recalled in the United States and Canada.

The recalled items include vegetable lasagna, tofu vegetable lasagna, garden vegetable lasagna, tofu scramble, enchilada verde meal, spinach pizza, brown rice and vegetables owl, stuffed pasta shells bowl, gluten-free tofu scramble and the breakfast wrap.

Rochester-based Wegmans Food Markets is recalling roughly 12,540 packages of Wegmans organic spinach due to possible contamination with listeria. The 12-ounce product was sold in the frozen food department of the company’s 85 stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, and Massachusetts between Jan. 27, and March 21. This product is supplied to Wegmans by Twin City Foods in Stanwood, Wash. A representative from that company was not immediately available for comment.

On Monday, Carmel Food Group today issued a voluntary recall of certain Rising Moon Organics frozen ravioli items over the same concern.

The Hayward, Calif.-based company did not say how many packages or cases of the ravioli were produced with the ingredient in question or how widespread their recall is.

Also Tuesday, federal authorities said Blue Bell is expanding the recall of some ice cream products to include 3-ounce cups of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice cream that have tab lids because of possible exposure to the listeria bacteria.

The Blue Bell creamery in Brenham, Texas, earlier this month recalled several other products made on the same production line after listeria was detected. Five people developed listeriosis in Kansas after eating Blue Bell products and the FDA says three of them died.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The No. 2 official at the Homeland Security Department improperly intervened on behalf of foreign investors in three cases involving the U.S. government soliciting investments in exchange for American visas, the agency’s inspector general said Tuesday.

Investigators said he helped secure the visas, and created the appearance of favoritism and special access. The investigation could not suggest a motive for the official’s involvement.

The Obama administration was expected to express its continued support for the official, Alejandro Mayorkas, who at the time was head of the department’s Citizenship and Immigration Services agency. Mayorkas told investigators that his unusual involvement was intended to improve the government’s process or prevent mistakes.

The inspector general, John Roth, said Mayorkas involved himself in the three cases outside the normal process and in ways that benefited the foreign investors, but could not say why. Roth said that in each case, the government would have rejected the investors’ proposals except for Mayorkas’ involvement. He said Mayorkas caused resentment among agency career employees, managers and lawyers.

“We were unable to determine Mr. Mayorkas’ motives for his actions,” Roth said.

Roth praised as “courageous” the agency employees who confidentially had complained about Mayorkas’ actions and promised they would be protected as whistleblowers.

Roth said Mayorkas generally recognized the risks if it appeared that the government was violating its own rules in awarding visas improperly to foreigners, and Mayorkas sometimes declined to become involved because he said he did not think it would be appropriate as agency director.

GREEN BAY – Due to the inclement weather expected Tuesday night, the southbound Velp Avenue exit on US 41 will close Wednesday night instead.

The exit will be closed from 10:00 p.m. Wednesday to 5:00 a.m. Thursday.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation says traffic will be detoured off at Velp Avenue, continue across Velp Avenue and re-enter southbound US 41 using the entrance ramp from Velp Avenue.

The exit will be closed for a storm sewer pipe crossing.

For more information on US 41 projects, click here.

 

GREEN BAY – The Green Bay Police Department released some new information Tuesday afternoon after an officer and a Green Bay resident were injured in a crash Monday night on the city’s west side.

The crash between the squad car and another vehicle happened around 7 p.m. Monday near the corner of Military Ave. and Bond St. Green Bay Police say the officer was on his way to a medical call.

Police said Tuesday afternoon that the officer is recovering from his non-life threatening injuries, which are described as pain and bruising.

The driver of the second vehicle, a 23-year-old Green Bay male, is still at a local hospital recovering. Police say it’s anticipated that he will be released Tuesday.

The front of the squad car and the side and back-end of the other car were damaged. The officer’s lights and sirens were on at the time of the crash, according to police.

The scene of a traffic accident on the corner of Bond and Military in Green Bay, March 23, 2015. (WLUK/Ben Krumholz)

Police say the officer was was driving on Military Ave. past Bond St. and had a red light. As the officer went through the intersection, a collision occurred with another vehicle that was traveling westbound on Bond St. This vehicle had a green light.

Police say the investigation continues, and no further information will be released at this time.

Wisconsin State Patrol was also on scene after the crash.

BLUE BELL, Pa. (AP) – A school bus has slammed through the front of a home in suburban Philadelphia, with the back end of the vehicle sticking out of the living room area.

Officials say nine students from St. Helena School were aboard when the bus crashed Tuesday morning in Blue Bell in Whitpain Township.

Township officials say the driver of the Wissahickon School District bus was taken to a hospital. A resident of the home wasn’t hurt.

Whitpain police are investigating the cause of the crash.

St. Helena School is a Catholic school in Blue Bell serving students from prekindergarten through eighth grades.

The school’s phones had a busy signal Tuesday morning. The principal didn’t immediately return an email message.

NEW YORK (AP) – Thirty years ago, insurance companies had the answer to the soaring cost of caring for the elderly. Plan ahead and buy a policy that will cover your expenses.

Now, there’s a new problem: Even insurers think it’s unaffordable.

Life insurance firms pitched long-term care policies as the prudent way for Americans to shoulder the cost of staying in nursing homes. But those same companies have found that long-term-care policies are squeezing their profits. Earnings for life insurers slid 11 percent in the most recent quarter, according to Moody’s Investors Service, and long-term care was the chief culprit.

“Insurers that sell these products lose money on them,” says Vincent Lui, a life-insurance analyst at Morningstar. “So they’re raising prices and also trying to get out of the business right and left.”

Four of the five largest providers – including Manulife and MetLife – have either scaled back their business or stopped selling new policies, according to Moody’s. The largest provider, Genworth Financial, continues to offer them, yet has struggled under the weight of rising costs.

The trends behind the industry’s troubles sound like good news outside the world of insurance. Older Americans are healthier and living longer. But that makes it difficult for the industry to turn a profit. Stays in nursing homes tend to last longer, so insurers have to pay out more in benefits than they had planned.

For older Americans and their families, however, there are few options besides private insurance. Medicare doesn’t cover nursing home stays except in certain circumstances. The Obama Administration had planned to make a long-term insurance program part of the Affordable Care Act but eventually abandoned it.

Sean Dargan, an analyst at Macquarie Group, an Australia-based investment bank, expects to see more people turning to Medicaid, the government’s health insurance for the poor, to cover the costs of care.

“It could really blow a hole through state budgets,” he says. “I think states and the federal government are going to need to think creatively to find a way out of this.”

For insurance companies, long-term care has proven to be a tough business.

Genworth, based in Richmond, Virginia, has turned in losses for two straight quarters. On March 2, the company reported that it discovered errors in its accounting for funds set aside to cover long-term care claims, knocking its stock down 5 percent in a single day. Analysts say problems with these policies explain why Genworth has lost more than half its market value over the past year, plunging from $17 to a recent $7.79.

“Their single biggest product is long-term care, and look at their share price,” Lui says. “It’s one trouble after another.”

In an interview with The Associated Press, Tom McInerney, Genworth’s CEO, says his company has been taking steps to make long-term care insurance a viable business, raising prices on older policies, introducing new products and throwing out their previous assumptions.

“There’s clearly a very high need for these policies,” McInerney says. “Given high demand and the limited number of insurers offering it today, I think it can be a very good industry going forward.”

When they began selling policies widely in the 1980s, the industry made a slew of assumptions about how long people would live, health care costs, and interest rates. Nearly all of them turned out wrong, analysts say.

Take life spans. At nearly 79 years, overall life expectancy in the U.S. has never been higher, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s the biggest issue, analysts say, because it means more people who took out policies stick around to make claims, moving into nursing homes and asking insurance companies to help cover the steep bills.

The rate for staying at a nursing home has gone up an average of four percent every year for the last five years, according to Genworth’s annual survey. In 2014, the median bill for a shared room topped $6,000 a month.

“They were making their best estimates at the time. They just turned out to be wrong,” says Shachar Gonen, a Moody’s analyst who covers the industry. “If insurers knew full well what they were getting into, they probably would have priced their policies much higher. So who knows if the long-term insurance business would have ever started.”

The industry’s actuaries also made a bad call on the bond market, betting on much higher interest rates. That misstep proved critical because insurers buy bonds to cushion against future payouts, so years of historically low interest rates have thrown their accounts out of balance. It’s yet another reason why insurers keep putting more money aside to cover claims, resulting in big charges and lower profits.

All of these trends have forced companies like Genworth to spend much more than they had planned. Last year, insurers paid out a record $7.5 billion in claims on these policies, according to the American Association of Long-Term Care Insurance, which tracks insurance rates.

To cope with mounting costs and faulty assumptions, insurers have been cutting benefits and hiking their premiums year after year. Average premiums for new policies rose nearly 9 percent over the past year.

Prices range widely, depending on where you live, your age, level of benefits, and much else. In Tennessee, for instance, a 55-year old woman who is healthy enough to qualify for a policy can expect to pay $2,411 in the first year for $136,000 in benefits. That’s a brand-new policy, likely the lowest premium a person will pay. The expense climbs steadily as people age, and those holding policies typically don’t make a claim until they reach their 80s.

Insurers keep asking state regulators to let them raise prices on existing policies. In the last month, TIAA-CREF Life Insurance, MetLife and American General asked Connecticut’s insurance department for permission to raise rates as much as 22 percent over three years. The state rejected American General’s request and approved the other two.

McInerney, Genworth’s CEO, says that when regulators refuse to allow changes –  such as signing off on single-digit rate increases or allowing other tweaks to older policies  – the business becomes “‘impossible to run.”

If they’re not flexible enough to help make long-term care insurance viable for insurers, McInerney says he has told regulators that “Genworth isn’t going to stay.”

“Without it,” he adds, “a lot of these Baby Boomers are going to wind up on Medicaid.”

Analysts who follow the industry think that insurers have learned from their missteps and probably figured out the right price to charge for long-term care policies to turn a profit. The problem is, it might be too high for most people to pay.

“I’m of the opinion that it’s appropriately priced today,” says Macquarie Group’s Dargan. “But it’s also out of reach for most middle-income Americans. And that’s who needs it the most.”

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Shiite rebels fired bullets and tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters demanding they withdraw from a southwestern province, killing six demonstrators, wounding scores more and escalating tensions in a country on the verge of civil war.

The rebels, known as Houthis, seized the capital Sanaa in September and have been advancing south alongside forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. In recent days they have closed in on the southern port city of Aden, where the internationally recognized President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is now based.

Massive protests were held in the third largest city of Taiz — which the rebels largely seized over the weekend — and in Torba, some 60 miles (100 kilometers) away, where witnesses said the streets were filled with thick black smoke from burning tires and where protesters torched three armored vehicles.

“Torba turned into a ball of fire,” said Khaled al-Asswadi, a resident. He said the protesters prevented the Houthis from advancing into the city.

A medical official said six protesters were killed and dozens wounded in Torba. Local activists posted pictures on social media of what they said were dead protesters, their clothes drenched in blood.

Another witness, Mohammed Salem, said the Houthis and Saleh’s forces fired anti-aircraft guns to scare off the protesters, “but the number of protesters increased instead.” In a statement, Yemen’s Socialist Party warned that the Houthis’ invasion of the mostly Sunni south would set off a “sectarian war.”

Gov. Shawki Hayel of Taiz province meanwhile accused top security commanders of mutiny, saying a special forces commander ordered his men to disperse the protesters without consulting him, according to an official in Hayel’s office. Hayel threatened to resign in protest, said the official.

Yemen’s security forces, which have received U.S. aid and assistance in order to battle a powerful local al-Qaida affiliate, have splintered, with entire units rallying to Saleh and the rebels.

Amnesty International, citing medics, said that 119 people were wounded in the anti-Houthi demonstration and called for an inquiry into the crackdown.

“Human rights in Yemen are in free-fall as even peaceful protest becomes a life-threatening activity,” said Said Boumedouha, the deputy director of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program.

Taiz is Yemen’s third largest city and the birthplace of the 2011 Arab Spring-inspired uprising, which forced Saleh to hand over power to Hadi in a deal brokered by the U.N. and Gulf countries the following year.

But Saleh never fully retired, and has been widely accused of acting through his loyalists in the government and security forces to derail the country’s democratic transition. He is now allied with the rebels, and his loyalists helped the Houthis to take over the airport and other government buildings in Taiz.

In addition to dispersing the protesters, the Houthis also engaged in heavy fighting with militias loyal to Hadi in the city of al-Dhalea, where the two sides used artillery, anti-aircraft guns and machine guns, according to a Yemeni security official. The Houthis and troops loyal to Saleh have taken over the governor’s office there.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

The Houthis hail from the Shiite Zaydi community, which makes up around a third of Yemen’s population and is concentrated in the north. The Houthis’ opponents view them as a proxy of Shiite Iran, charges they deny.

Hadi fled house arrest in Sanaa last month and has set up a base in Aden, the capital of the once-independent south. On Monday he called on Gulf countries to intervene against the rebels and for the U.N. to set up a no-fly zone.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal meanwhile warned that “if the Houthi coup does not end peacefully, we will take the necessary measures for this crisis to protect the region.”

The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Bahrain — warned earlier this year that they would act to protect the Arabian Peninsula’s security and described the Houthi takeover as a “terrorist” act.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama welcomed Afghanistan’s new president to the Oval Office on Tuesday for their first White House meeting, as the U.S. military firmed up plans to slow its departure from the country.

How many troops the U.S. will leave behind — and for how long — was the focus of daylong White House meetings, the centerpiece of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s highly anticipated visit to the U.S. On the job only six months, Ghani is trying to make the case that he’s a reliable partner worthy of American support, despite his fractured government and a litany of problems still rampant in Afghanistan’s military — illiteracy, drug abuse and desertions, to name a few.

Ghani arrived at midmorning at the White House, where a U.S. military honor guard lined the driveway leading to the West Wing. Inside, he and Obama chatted casually and sat side by side as reporters were allowed briefly to observe the start of their meeting.

Obama was expected to address the troop decision during a joint news conference with Ghani later in the day.

For Obama, Ghani represents the last, best hope to make good on the president’s promise to end America’s longest war by the time he leaves office, keeping just a thousand or so troops at the embassy to coordinate security. Ghani predecessor Hamid Karzai’s relationship with the White House was increasingly dysfunctional, and if the dealings with Ghani don’t turn out better, Obama risks leaving Afghanistan still vulnerable to the kinds of violent extremist groups that operated with impunity until 14 years ago, when the U.S. attacked after 9/11.

Yet Ghani’s government has asked the president to keep more U.S. troops in his country for longer, as Afghan forces brace for a tough spring fighting season and contend with Islamic State fighters looking to recruit on their soil.

In the run-up to their meeting, the prospect of the U.S. slowing its exit has become almost a foregone conclusion, with officials predicting the U.S. will likely leave many of the 9,800 American troops there now long into next year. The original plan was to cut to 5,500 by the end of 2015.

Also at stake: the future of U.S. bases in Jalalabad and in Kandahar, where the Taliban had their capital until 2001. U.S. military leaders have seemed receptive to Ghani’s request that those bases stay open as long as possible.

Drawing a contrast with his predecessor, Ghani has taken pains on his U.S. visit to display gratitude for U.S. sacrifices in Afghanistan that the White House found lacking from Karzai. He began his trip by explicitly thanking the U.S. for its support. And on Tuesday morning, Ghani joined Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Vice President Joe Biden in laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.

“We do not now ask what the United States can do for us,” Ghani said, invoking John F. Kennedy as he opened his U.S. visit earlier in the week. “We want to say what Afghanistan will do for itself and for the world.”

Further underscoring the fragile security situation, gunmen killed at least 13 people overnight during a midnight assault on a highway near Taliban-held territory in eastern Afghanistan, although no group immediately claimed responsibility. And elsewhere in Afghanistan, a suspected U.S. drone strike near the border with Pakistan killed at least nine militants from a Pakistani terror group, intelligence officials in Pakistan said.

Ghani, who lived in the U.S. for more than a decade, has been a welcome change for the Obama administration. Frustration with his predecessor reached a boiling point when Karzai refused to sign the security agreements needed for the U.S. to leave troops in Afghanistan. Ghani signed them within days of taking office, and has sought to differentiate himself by showing appreciation for U.S. investment in his military — more than $60 billion so far.

After hotly contested election results, Ghani and chief rival Abdullah Abdullah agreed to share power, with Abdullah assuming the new role of chief executive. They made the trip to the U.S. together in a show of unity.

Yet political tensions have prevented the leaders from even putting together a full cabinet, half a year into their term.

Imbuing the visit with added anxiety is a new, home-grown affiliate of the Islamic State group, whose flagship branch in Iraq and Syria is another menace to Obama’s legacy on foreign policy. It’s not fully clear how strong or widespread the offshoot’s presence is in Afghanistan.

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Associated Press writers Robert Burns in Washington and Amir Shah in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

GREEN BAY – A Green Bay man faces federal prison time after pleading guilty to sexual exploitation of a child.

Federal prosecutors say Joseph J. Valdez, 29, used a smartphone to talk “hundreds” of underage girls to send him sexually explicit photos of themselves. Claiming to be a modeling agent, Valdez used text messages and the messaging app Kik to contact girls as young as 9, prosecutors say. After receiving the photos, he would often blackmail the victims into sending more graphic images by threatening to forward the images he already had to the girls’ parents, friends and school administrators. This caused several of the girls to threaten suicide, investigators say.

The girls came from across the United States, including some in Northeast Wisconsin.

The charge to which Valdez pleaded guilty carries a sentence of 15-30 years in prison and at least 5 years of supervised release. Valdez is scheduled to be sentenced on June 22. He is currently behind bars.

BROWN COUNTY – Parts of the Fox River Trail may close Wednesday.

The Brown Co. Park Dept. says tree trimming work is planned between Marine St. and Lazarre Ave., near St. Francis Park.

Temporary closures are possible, expecially when work is being done directly on the asphalt surface.

Adrian Peterson and the Minnesota Vikings have reached a standstill in their relationship.

Peterson’s agent, Ben Dogra, said in an interview on Tuesday that he believes a return to Minnesota this season is not in the “best interest” of the standout running back.

Peterson previously expressed uneasiness about continuing to play for the Vikings, but Dogra has advanced that stance to the point of wanting out. General manager Rick Spielman has told Dogra the team doesn’t plan to release Peterson, who turned 30 on Saturday.

The Vikings have leverage with Peterson’s contract, which covers the next three years with a $12.75 million salary for 2015. However, none of the remaining money on the deal is guaranteed.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Police surveillance video shown publicly for the first time Tuesday shows Secret Service agents in their government vehicle driving through the secured area and nudging a temporary barrier at low speed as it drove toward a checkpoint. The incident occurred as on-duty officers and agents investigated a suspicious item thrown near the White House on March 4.

The House Oversight Committee showed the video from the Washington Metropolitan Police Department during a hearing on Capitol Hill. Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy was testifying for the third time about the incident, in which two senior agents are accused of drinking before driving into the White House complex and pushing the barrier with the SUV’s bumper.

Clancy has been criticized for the agency’s handling of the incident and has complained that he was not told about it for five days, which he called unacceptable. He said he only learned about the incident from discussions about an anonymous email that was circulating within the agency.

The email described the off-duty agents as “both extremely intoxicated” and confused about the investigation activity. It said uniformed Secret Service officers at the scene “were going to arrest both of them, but the UD (Uniform Division) watch commander said not to.”

The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general is investigating allegations against the agents.

Lawmakers asked to speak with the agents involved, as well as Secret Service supervisors who were on duty that night, during the hearing. The Secret Service declined to make them available and Clancy appeared alone.

In a written statement, Clancy said the case remains under investigation and any appropriate discipline will be imposed afterward.

Clancy also announced a new policy put in place after acknowledging that some video of the March 4 incident had been deleted. Clancy said the agency will start retaining routine surveillance video for seven days. Previously, surveillance recordings that weren’t being used as part of ongoing investigations were deleted after 72 hours.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah,, the oversight committee chairman, said it was “highly suspicious” the video was deleted.

Howard-Suamico eighth-graders Andrew Alsteen and Maggie Plouff discuss the FIRST LEGO League’s robotics program, which is comprised of structured student projects focusing on core values that nurture teamwork, time management and skills development.

Learn more about the event in Oshkosh.

SUPERIOR (AP) – Police negotiators in Superior were able to convince a domestic assault suspect to surrender following a 4-hour standoff.

Authorities said Tuesday a woman called 911 about 3 a.m. to report that she had been battered by her boyfriend and had escaped to a neighbor’s house. The woman also told police her boyfriend may have armed himself with a handgun.

SWAT team officers and crisis negotiators were sent to the home. Police say the man surrendered about 7 a.m. and was taken to the Douglas County Jail.

MADISON (AP) – Wisconsin lawmakers are hearing from experts as they look at rewriting state campaign finance laws in light of recent court rulings finding key parts unconstitutional.

A joint Assembly and Senate committee hearing Tuesday was focusing on what changes to make to the law covering how much money can be raised by those seeking and in office, how it’s disclosed and what limits can be placed on political speech.

The law, which was created in the post-Watergate era of the mid-1970s, has been at the heart of an investigation into whether conservative groups illegally coordinated with Gov. Scott Walker’s recall campaign in 2012.

Kevin Kennedy, the head of the Government Accountability Board which oversees election and campaign finance laws, says reworking the law is “long overdue.”

Leslie’s senior-year research project focuses on zebra fish and their genetic similarity to humans in their first stage of development. Leslie relates that cancer triggers in both species may have a correlation due to these similarities.

DETROIT (AP) – General Motors is recalling nearly 92,000 Chevrolet Malibu midsize sedans to fix a problem with the power sunroof controls.

The recall covers cars from the 2013 through 2015 model years. The automaker says the sunroofs can close inadvertently even if the roof-mounted switches are barely touched. The switches can be activated with less force than allowed under federal safety standards.

GM says it doesn’t know of any injuries caused by the problem, and it hasn’t received any customer complaints.

It’s the same problem that caused the recall of about 67,000 Cadillac ATS small sports sedans last month.

Dealers will recalibrate the sunroof to remove the one-touch open-and-close feature in certain switch positions, and will reprogram the control module.

Most of the recalled cars are in the U.S. and Canada.

The Raz-Kids K-5 interactive online reading program bolsters young students’ reading skills by providing leveled assessments for teachers. Children can practice reading anywhere when using the mobile app. Theo Van Rossum loves the program because it makes learning fun.