Green Bay News

GREEN BAY – A woman who allegedly slashed tires on multiple vehicles now faces eight misdmeanor charges.

Amber Adlebush was charged with seven counts of criminal damage to property and one count of disorderly conduct. She made an initial appearance Monday and is scheduled to stand trial April 29, according to online court records.

According to the criminal complaint:

On Wednesday morning, a woman at XS bar called police because a woman drove up to her, said “You’re drunk,” slashed a tire on her car and drove off.

Police across the city responded to multiple incidents of tires being slashed. Adlebush was pulled over by police – and the descriptions of the vehicle and suspect matched her. A knife was found in her possession. She denied slashing the tires, however.

The disorderly conduct count is unrelated to the tire slashings; it stems from an incident at a Howard home two days later.

MADISON (AP) – A Wisconsin appeals court says a former Milwaukee correctional officer was properly convicted of sexual assault even though he claimed one of his jurors dozed off during his trial.

Prosecutors accused Christopher Jackson in 2009 of sexually assaulting an inmate at the Milwaukee Women’s Correctional Center. A jury convicted him in 2010.

Jackson argued on appeal that a juror fell asleep during his testimony, violating his due process rights. The 1st District Court of Appeals rejected that contention on Tuesday, noting a detective in the courtroom believed the juror was fighting to stay awake and wasn’t actually unconscious.

Jackson’s lawyer, Hans Koesser, declined to comment.

DUBLIN (AP) — Landmark buildings across Ireland and the world have been floodlit green for St. Patrick’s Day as global celebrations of the Emerald Isle’s patron saint are culminating in parades and celebrations in Dublin, New York and scores of other cities Tuesday.

Here are St. Patrick’s Day events happening worldwide:

___

IRELAND

President Michael Higgins attended Mass at St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral in Dublin, where Catholic Archbishop Diarmuid Martin blessed sprigs of shamrock in the traditional start to Ireland’s national holiday.

Hundreds of thousands of Dubliners and tourists lined the nearby route of the Dublin parade, the culmination of a four-day festival featuring music and dance performances, pub crawls, cultural tours and street arcades. Face-painted dancers, eccentrically themed floats and U.S. marching bands snaked their way down O’Connell Street across the River Liffey to St. Patrick’s Cathedral a mile (2 kilometers) away.

A man dressed as St. Patrick — but donning sunglasses and dispensing smart-aleck comments to the crowd, along with playful thumps from his club-like crozier — led the way.

Later Tuesday, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny is guest of honor at the White House following weekend visits to Georgia and Texas. Almost his entire Cabinet has spent the past week traveling worldwide promoting Ireland’s tourism, culture and strong rebound from a crippling 2008 banking crisis.

___

BRITAIN

At a barracks in Aldershot, England, Prince William and his pregnant wife, Kate, presented shamrocks to soldiers from the Irish Guards, one of the two Irish-recruited regiments in the British Army.

Kate, 33, handed out baskets of shamrocks and pinned a sprig on the collar of the regiment’s mascot, an Irish wolfhound called Domhnall. The 3-year-old dog was treated to a sip of Guinness at the ceremony’s end.

___

UNITED STATES

Home to more than 40 million citizens with Irish blood, St. Patrick’s Day is arguably a bigger event in some American cities than even in Ireland. But because this year’s holiday falls on a Tuesday, most U.S. towns and cities held their festivities early on the weekend.

Members of the Secret Service patrol the top of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, March 17, 2015; meanwhile, a fountain has been dyed green for St. Patrick’s Day. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Not so for the flagship parade down Fifth Avenue in New York, nor diplomatic events in Washington, where President Barack Obama and the Republican-led Congress take turns toasting their Irish guests at separate events.

Troublesome politics overshadow both events. In New York, a long-running argument over whether gay groups can openly parade means that for the second year in a row, Mayor Bill de Blasio won’t march. This year’s grand marshal is Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dalton, who supports the inclusion of one group representing gay employees of the broadcaster NBC, a major parade sponsor.

And in Washington, for the first time, the leaders of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government aren’t coming. Obama encouraged them to stay in Belfast, where rival British Protestant and Irish Catholic leaders are negotiating to keep their 8-year-old coalition from unraveling over a bitter budget dispute.

___

FRANCE

In Paris, the iconic Sacre Coeur basilica atop Montmartre is being lit up green for the occasion. Irish pubs will be full across the city, from the Green Goose near Place de la Nation to Carr’s by the Louvre.

On the Champs Elysees, the Publicis Drugstore is hosting an Irish meal and whisky tasting. In the Latin Quarter, the 18th-century College des Irlandais is hosting a concert by traditional Irish band Kila.

___

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

In Abu Dhabi, the Etihad Towers and luxury Burj Al Arab hotel — famous for its sail-like shape pointing into the Persian Gulf — have both turned green for the holiday. The Irish ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Patrick Hennessy, was on hand as the floodlights beamed on to the towers.

As was the case in more than 160 locations globally, the green lighting was organized by the Irish government-funded Tourism Ireland agency.

___

Associated Press writers Sylvia Hui in London, Greg Keller in Paris, and Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

BRILLION – The state Legislature’s budget committee will hold the first of four public hearings on the state budget Wednesday in Brillion.

The meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Endries Performing Arts Center at Brillion High School.

The hearing will focus on the state’s 2015-17 budget which begins in July. Gov. Walker laid out his version of a roughly $70 billion spending plan in February. Now the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee is considering changes.

The meeting is one of four planned for citizens across the state to give their input on the budget. Democrats who make up a minority of the Joint Finance Committee also plan to organize their own listening sessions.

• Click on the links to the left for the schedules

FOX 11’s Andrew LaCombe is talking to people today who plan to speak at the hearing. We’ll have multiple views tonight on FOX 11 News at Five.

EDGAR (AP) – The threat of a lawsuit didn’t stop the Edgar Future Farmers of America club from holding a donkey ball game at the local high school.

The Global Conservation Group collected thousands of petition signatures online to stop Monday night’s fundraising event. The group threatened legal action if the Edgar School District didn’t cancel the game. Opponents were concerned the games could physically harm the donkeys because players ride atop the animals while trying to play basketball.

High school principal Jordan Sinz says administrators checked out the vendor and were convinced the donkeys would be handled properly. Daily Herald Media says Dairyland Donkey Ball of Chippewa Falls provided the donkeys for the fundraiser and holds similar events in the region.

EAU CLAIRE (AP) – Western Wisconsin has seen a dramatic increase in methamphetamine use.

The Star Tribune reports the number of meth cases seen by the state’s crime lab tripled from 2008 to 2014. The lab processed 920 meth cases in 2014, with most of them concentrated in the western part of the state.

Officials aren’t sure what’s behind the big jump in meth use. But they say the drugs come from Mexico and are picked up in the Twin Cities before heading to western Wisconsin. The drug scene in eastern Wisconsin is dominated by heroin from Chicago.

Governments have clamped down on meth in the past decade, passing laws to hinder homegrown production from pseudoephedrine. But more and purer meth has since come from Mexican cartels.

Eau Claire County has formed a committee to study meth use.

FOX 11 Director of Meteorology Pete Petoniak gets questions about why he doesn’t wear green on St. Patrick’s Day.

Today on Good Day Wisconsin he and co-host Rachel Manek showed why by getting in front of the chroma key, also known as the green screen.

GREEN BAY – Fresh off their appearance in the Green Bay St. Patrick Day Parade on Saturday, the Heritage Irish Dance Academy is getting ready for another big day of performing!  They started their day out with us in the Good Day Wisconsin studio.  Tonight they’ll be dancing at The Woods Golf Club in Green Bay at 6pm and then they’ll head to Van Abel‘s of Hollandtown at 8pm.

BROWN COUNTY – Too much green beer can lead to some red and blue lights in your rearview mirror.

The Brown County OWI Task Force has announced that it will be out on patrol the night of St. Patrick’s Day. Over the past four years, officials say the task force has arrested a total of 30 people for drunken driving on St. Patrick’s Day. The average of 7.5 arrests is more than the average of 5.08 arrests during all OWI Task Force deployments.

Authorities say two people were killed in traffic crashes last St. Patrick’s Day in Brown County.

GREEN BAY- We’re enjoying some Irish music this morning.

Duffey and Friends are performing Tuesday, March 17 at Kavarna.

Click on the video to listen to their performances on Good Day Wisconsin.

JUDA, Wis. (AP) – A pilot wasn’t seriously hurt when his small plane lost power and went down in southern Wisconsin.

Sheriff’s officials say the 33-year-old pilot from Fairmont, Minnesota was flying from the Chicago area to the Twin Cities when the plane lost power Monday evening near the Green County community of Juda.

Sheriff Mark Rohloff says the plane’s left wing caught power lines as it descended and became entangled. Several hundred Alliant Energy customers in the area temporarily lost power when the lines were ripped down.

The twin-engine Beechcraft was damaged, but authorities say the pilot, Alvin Thoreson, is OK.

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) – Several middle school basketball players have received recognition from the city of Kenosha for defending a cheerleader who has Down syndrome.

Three players walked off the court after hearing mean-spirited comments directed at cheerleader Desiree Andrews coming from the crowd during a game last season at Lincoln Middle School. During a timeout, Chase Vazquez, Scooter Terrien and Miles Rodriguez approached the opposing team’s fans to put an end to the bullying.

The boys were honored Monday night by Kenosha’s Common Council. WTMJ-TV reports the meeting also featured a special video message to Desiree and the team from the actress who plays a cheerleader with Down syndrome on the TV show “Glee.”

Desiree’s older sister, Haley, tells the station that she’s proud of the boys and thankful they’re there for Desiree when she’s not.

OSHKOSH – St. Patrick’s Day is the busiest time of year for Oshkosh’s Dublin Irish Pub.

Since it opened five years ago, the pub has opened extra early to serve up traditional Irish breakfast items on St. Patrick’s Day morning.

From 6 to 11 a.m. the pub will offer an Irishmen’s breakfast, an Irish omelet and corned beef hash. Corned beef and cabbage will be offered for lunch and dinner.

FOX 11’s Pauleen Le spent the morning checking it out.

For more information on Dublin’s Irish Pub, click here.

 

 

 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland has told ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” that he is retiring following his standout rookie season because of concerns about head trauma.

The 24-year-old Borland had a team-leading 108 tackles in his stellar rookie season, emerging as a punishing defender. He also had a sack and two interceptions.

He told “Outside the Lines” on Monday he wants to do “what’s best for my health.”

This is yet another blow to the team that lost coach Jim Harbaugh after the season, then watched Frank Gore, Mike Iupati, Chris Culliver and Perrish Cox depart in free agency this past week.

Borland’s big announcement comes less than a week after five-time All Pro linebacker Patrick Willis walked away from football.

___

AP NFL websites: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL

(Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

GREEN BAY – Green Bay’s city council will wait before making a decision on a proposed psychiatric hospital.

Aldermen listened to people both for and against the plan for more than two hours Monday night.

Strategic Behavioral Health wants to build a $10 million, 72-bed facility on the city’s far east side.

Under the proposal, the Tennessee based-company would buy a ten-acre property from the city and would also receive up to a million dollars in funding assistance.

Strategic Behavioral Health says its nationwide analysis found the Green Bay area has one of the greatest needs for its mental health and substance abuse services.

However, Bellin Health leaders have said there is not a need for another psychiatric facility. Bellin currently has the area’s only psychiatric hospital.

Bellin says the need is for more psychiatrists, which is a nation-wide issue.

“It’s a for profit organization,” said George Kerwin, president and CEO of Bellin Health. “It’s owned by very wealthy people and they don’t live here. They don’t care about our community.”

“I’m disheartened a little bit,” said Mike Garone, director of development for Strategic Behavioral Health. “I care about these people and I want to see them get well and I want to see them get care and I believe we can do that.”

Strategic Behavioral Health’s facility would be on Ontario Drive, in the I-43 Business Park. The company wants to start building in June and be open one year later.

The council is expected to revisit the issue April 8th.

LONDON (AP) – It’s a soldier’s life no more for Britain’s Prince Harry.

Royal officials said Tuesday that the 30-year old prince will leave the armed forces in June after 10 years of service that included two tours of duty in Afghanistan.

Harry’s final army duties will include a four-week assignment in April and May with the Australian Defence Force. The prince will spend time in Darwin, Perth and Sydney and attend centenary commemorations of the World War I Gallipoli campaign in Turkey.

Harry said that leaving the army had been “a really tough decision” but he was excited about the future.

In a statement, Harry said he felt “incredibly lucky” to have had the chance to serve in the armed forces.

“From learning the hard way to stay onside with my Color Sergeant at Sandhurst, to the incredible people I served with during two tours in Afghanistan – the experiences I have had over the last 10 years will stay with me for the rest of my life,” he said. “For that I will always be hugely grateful.”

Harry, who is fourth in line to the British throne, graduated from Sandhurst officers’ academy in 2006 and joined the Household Cavalry as an armored reconnaissance troop leader. He served in Afghanistan as a battlefield air controller for 10 weeks in 2007-2008 until a media leak cut his tour short.

Keen to return to the front lines despite fears he would be a top Taliban target, Harry retrained as a helicopter pilot and served in Afghanistan in 2012-2013 as an Apache co-pilot gunner.

Most recently he has served as a staff officer in the army’s London headquarters, playing a big role in bringing the Invictus Games – an international sports competition for wounded troops – to Britain.

Kensington Palace said that after leaving the army Harry will volunteer with the British military’s Recovery Capability Program, which helps wounded service members, “while actively considering other longer-term employment opportunities.”

Harry was the first British royal to see combat since his uncle, Prince Andrew, who flew Royal Navy helicopters during the 1982 Falklands War.

His older brother Prince William also attended Sandhurst before training as a Royal Navy search-and-rescue helicopter pilot. He has since left the navy to become an air-ambulance pilot.

Harry has often seemed more comfortable as a soldier than in his royal duties, although he has been visibly energized by his work with charities for wounded veterans.

“It’s very easy to forget about who I am when I am in the army. Everyone’s wearing the same uniform and doing the same kind of thing,” Harry said in an interview after returning from Afghanistan in 2013.

HOWARD – Monday brought with it a vote of approval for a grocery-department store in Howard.

The Michigan-based big box retailer Meijer would add anywhere from 150 to 200 local jobs.

The retailer wants to build just east of Highway 41 and south of Shawano Avenue, across from Mills Fleet Farm.

Representatives from Meijer pitched their plans for a new store to the Howard Plan Commission Monday.

“We’ve identified the greater Green Bay area as an area of interest for us,” said Meijer real estate manager Jim Ostrowski.

The seven-member commission approved the plans unanimously.

“Really a cornerstone project for that property. We’ve been trying to develop that property for a very long time,” said Burt McIntyre, Howard’s Village President.

Meijer is described as a “big box,” with a grocery store, pharmacy, and a garden center. The plans also call for a gas station and convenience store apart from the main building.

“The site is roughly split about 50-50 grocery, 50-50 merchandise,” explained site coordinator Paul Phillips.

Village leaders told FOX 11 they have few concerns.

They said roads will need to be built and expanded.

“One of the issues is accessibility to the property over by Shawano and that, the DOT’s gonna have a lot to do with that,” explained McIntyre.

The Meijer representatives also talked about what customers can expect.

“We try to get as much from local farms and stuff from the state of Wisconsin so they can keep it fresh daily,” said Phillips.

Two community members spoke at the meeting in favor of the idea.

“I’ve heard wonderful things and I’m quite excited. I want it to come to Howard,” said Pat Owens.

But what does this mean for other local businesses?

“If you have an area that’s depressed and people want to make their business better, they’re gonna go where the people are and the people are gonna be over by Meijer,” said McIntyre.

The plans are scheduled to go before the full village board next Monday.

If Meijer gets all the necessary approval, the plan would be to build the store through 2016 and open in 2017. Howard leaders say the store could expand the village tax base by $14 million.

GREEN BAY — The Green Bay women’s basketball team will take on an undefeated opponent in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Phoenix learned Monday they were given a 9-seed in the Tournament and will play 8-seed Princeton in the opening round Saturday at 10am in College Park, Maryland.

Princeton is 30-0 on the season, ranked 13th in the country, but their lack of strong teams on their schedule led them to be an 8-seed. The winner between the Phoenix and Tigers will likely take on top seeded Maryland on their home floor. The Terrapins play 16-seed New Mexico State in the first round. The Round of 32 game would be Monday.

The Phoenix have made a postseason tournament for 18 straight seasons. Their last trip to the Big Dance came in 2013 when they lost in the first round at LSU.

MADISON – As Badger fans prep for the big game on Friday, Madison-area businesses are finding ways to satisfy the need of getting red and white merchandise.

See how two-area businesses are meeting the demand.

 

 

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Seventeen years after Oregon decided to become the first state to hold all elections with mail-in ballots, it took another pioneering step on Monday to broaden participation by automatically registering people to vote.

Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill that puts the burden of registration on the state instead of voters.

Under the legislation, every adult citizen in Oregon who has interacted with the Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division since 2013 but hasn’t registered to vote will receive a ballot in the mail at least 20 days before the next statewide election. The measure is expected to add about 300,000 new voters to the rolls.

“It just changes expectations for who’s responsible for making elections work,” said Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and director of the Elections Research Center. “In every other state it’s the responsibility for the voters to make sure it happens.”

Some other states have considered such legislation but none has gone as far as Oregon.

Minnesota nearly implemented automatic voter registration in 2009 before the plan was vetoed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who said “registering to vote should be a voluntary, intentional act.”

Similar concerns were raised by Oregon’s minority Republicans.

“Simply because it makes us unique or makes us first does not necessarily mean that it actually improves on what we’re doing,” said state Sen. Jackie Winters, a Republican from Salem.

Oregon Republicans also voiced worry about potential voter fraud, the cost of implementing the measure, and whether the DMV can ensure personal information remains secure.

Information the DMV has on file, such as age, residential information, signature and citizenship status, will be transferred to the secretary of state, who will then automatically update registration information.

When it came up for a vote in the state Senate last week, all Republicans and one Democrat voted against it. The Democrats hold a 18-12 advantage in the Senate so the bill easily passed.

State Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, a Portland Democrat who carried the bill in the Senate, said there were rumblings the measure was a “secret plot” to enroll more Democrats.  But she denied that was true.

Oregon already has one of the highest voter registration rates in the nation – 73 percent of Oregonians were registered to vote and 70 percent of them cast ballots during the 2014 general election.

Tony Green, spokesman for the secretary of state, said the legislation is expected to eventually capture all unregistered voters who are in the DMV database after taking actions such as obtaining or renewing a driver’s license.

Two years ago, when the measure was first proposed, Green said there were questions about whether the Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division records were confidential under federal law. The legislative counsel determined the secretary of state and the division could share information as long as it was for legitimate government purposes, he said.

People eligible to vote will get a postcard saying they’ve been registered and have three weeks to opt out. They’ll be automatically registered as unaffiliated but can select a political party from the postcard and return it to election officials through the mail.

Automatic registration is not uncommon in other countries. A 2009 report by the Brennan Center for Justice says nations where the government takes the lead in enrolling voters have much higher registration rates. Argentina has a 100 percent registration rate, while Sweden, Australia and Canada all have registration rates over 90 percent.

Myrna Perez, deputy director of the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program, said a state needs to already have reliable agency records of eligible Americans who have demonstrated citizenship in order to successfully follow in Oregon’s footsteps.

Oregon only grants driver’s licenses to people who can prove they’re in the U.S. legally by presenting passports, birth certificates or other documents.

David House, a spokesman for the Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division, has said the agency can separate citizens from noncitizens based on those documents.

Oregonians were the first to see all-mail elections, and the state has since been followed by Washington state and Colorado.

“Oregon is a true leader in accessibility to voting and I challenge every other state in this nation to examine their policies and find ways to ensure there are as few barriers as possible in the way of the citizen’s right to vote,” Brown said.