Green Bay News

MANISTIQUE, MICH. –  Springtime temperatures are certainly on the way, but there is still time to take in some winter scenery.

Michigan’s largest spring provides an attraction for visitors no matter what the season.

The crystal clear water flows year-round at the Kitch-iti-kipi Spring located at the Palms Book State Park, just northwest of Manistique in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The trip across the Big Spring begins with on a boat.

“You just disconnect it. Pull the lever back, and then just turn the wheel,” said Pat Nelson, Palms Book State Park Ranger.

Nelson has made the squeaky trip across the hundred-yard long pond hundreds of times.

“It’s all run by you,” he said.

But Nelson says the view 45-feet below the surface makes the effort all worthwhile.

“This is the most active part of the spring. For some reason, the fish really like to hang out on this side more than anywhere else,” said Nelson.

Dozens of trout patrol the underwater terrain, never straying too far from the plumes of sediment.

“10,000 gallons a minute comes up through the bottom of the spring,” said Nelson.

“You’ll see the sand churning around down here,” he said.

At a constant 45 degrees, water at the Kitch-iti-kipi Spring never freezes.

“Summertime, it is very cold. You’re not allowed to swim in the Big Spring, and I wouldn’t recommend it anyways,” said Nelson.

Nelson says 60,000 people visit the spring year, but March is a quiet time at the park.

Betty Linton and here daughter Chris Boyne visited the Big Spring Tuesday.

“This is the first time for me. I never expected to come here today, but my daughter surprised me, and said I was on a vacation,” said Betty Linton, Edmore, Michigan.

“This is a touch of heaven. This is a place of peace and serenity. Every time I get a chance to come here I will,” said Chris Boyne, Munising, Michigan.

“Everybody takes away something a little bit different from Big Spring when they come out here. It’s something that everybody can make it their own personal adventure,” said Nelson.

The Park became popular more than a century ago, when logging company owners would tour the spring by boat.

The Big Spring feeds Indian Lake and eventually empties into Lake Michigan, at Manistique.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – Kurt Busch was cleared Wednesday to get back in his race car and attempt to rebuild a career that was halted two days before the Daytona 500 when NASCAR suspended him for allegedly assaulting his ex-girlfriend.

Busch missed the season’s first three races during the suspension, the third of his career. In reinstating the 2004 champion, NASCAR ruled he will be eligible for the title-deciding Chase should he qualify.  He will return to competition this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway in the No. 41 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Still, he remains on indefinite probation.

“We have made it very clear to Kurt Busch our expectations for him moving forward, which includes participation in a treatment program and full compliance with all judicial requirements as a result of his off-track behavior,” NASCAR executive vice president Steve O’Donnell said.

Busch was suspended Feb. 20 when a Delaware judge ruled he likely assaulted ex-girlfriend Patricia Driscoll in his motorhome in September at Dover International Speedway. He lost two rounds of appeals on the eve of the season-opening Daytona 500.

Last week, the Delaware attorney general declined to charge Busch for the incident with Driscoll – a move O’Donnell said “removed a significant impediment” to Busch’s reinstatement. Busch has also complied with NASCAR’s reinstatement requirements, the terms of which have not been disclosed.

“He has fully complied with our reinstatement program during his suspension and the health care expert who conducted his evaluation recommended his immediate return,” O’Donnell said.

Driscoll questioned NASCAR’s decision to make Busch championship-eligible this season.

“I’m deeply concerned about the message NASCAR is sending by letting him compete for the championship after he was found by a judge to have committed an act of domestic violence,” Driscoll said in a statement. “But I am gratified, at least, that NASCAR’s decision comes with the mandatory condition that he follow through on the treatment he so clearly needs.”

SHR general manager Joe Custer credited Busch for working with NASCAR toward reinstatement.

“He has taken this path seriously, which allowed him to return to our race team,” Custer said. “With his reinstatement and the conclusion by the Delaware Attorney General to not file charges, our focus is on the future.”

Busch’s return was also cleared by Chevrolet, which had suspended its relationship with Busch. SHR is a Chevrolet team, and Jim Campbell, vice president of performance vehicles and motorsports, said the manufacturer “will continue to monitor the situation.”

Team co-owner Gene Haas had indicated on Sunday the team’s top concern was Busch’s championship eligibility.

The new Chase for the Sprint Cup championship format introduced last season gives drivers an automatic berth into the 16-driver field with a victory during the regular season. But, a driver must be ranked inside the top 30 in points to use that automatic berth.

Busch currently has no points in the No. 41 Chevrolet, a car Haas pays for out of pocket specifically for Busch.

It was Haas who gave Busch the opportunity to resurrect his career as one of the most talented drivers in NASCAR. The 36-year-old has a history of blowups on and off the track that date back to his rookie season.  He was suspended in 2012 by NASCAR for threatening a reporter, and parked for the final two races of the 2005 season by Roush-Fenway Racing after he was pulled over by police in Arizona.

Haas, wanting a driver who could take his machine tool manufacturing company to victory lane, offered Busch a ride in a new fourth car at SHR when Busch found himself driving for low-budget teams. Busch was fired at the end of 2011 by Roger Penske for a series of on- and off-track incidents, and he spent two seasons driving for low-budget teams before Haas extended the olive branch.

Busch has 25 career wins, but only one since 2011. It came last year, his first season with SHR, and qualified him for the Chase. Driscoll alleged the assault occurred two days before the third Chase race, when Busch was in danger of being eliminated from the field.

He was indeed knocked out of the Chase that weekend.

Busch still must comply with guidelines set by Family Court Commissioner David Jones, who granted the no-contact order for Driscoll that led to his Feb. 20 suspension, two days before the season-opening race at Daytona. Jones wrote in his opinion that he believed there’s real possibility Busch will lash out again and has a propensity to lose control in response to disappointing or frustrating situations involving racing.

Jones ordered Busch to be evaluated to see if there is a “treatable mental health condition.” He also said Busch must follow any suggested treatment plans. Busch is appealing Jones’ ruling.

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) – The police chief in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson resigned Wednesday in the wake of a scathing Justice Department report prompted by the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer.

A city official with knowledge of the situation said Thomas Jackson submitted his resignation letter but the date it will be effective was still being worked out. The official was not authorized to speak about the matter and asked not to be identified.

Jackson had previously resisted calls by protesters and some of Missouri’s top elected leaders to step down over his handling of the August shooting of Michael Brown and the weeks of sometimes-violent protests that followed.

Several text and phone messages left with Mayor James Knowles III and Jackson were not returned. Jackson, 57, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he felt it was time for the city to move on.

“I believe this is the appropriate thing to do at this time,” Jackson said. “This city needs to move forward without any distractions.”

The U.S. Department of Justice last week issued a report that cleared Officer Darren Wilson of civil rights charges in the shooting but found a profit-driven court system and widespread racial bias in the city police department.

Since then, two police officers, a court clerk, the municipal judge and the city manager have been fired or resigned.

Two rallies gathered in Madison March 11, 2015 over the shooting of an unarmed biracial man by a white police officer.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Americans’ confidence in all three branches of government is at or near record lows, according to a major survey that has measured attitudes on the subject for 40 years.

The 2014 General Social Survey finds only 23 percent of Americans have a great deal of confidence in the Supreme Court, 11 percent in the executive branch and 5 percent in Congress. By contrast, half have a great deal of confidence in the military.

The survey is conducted by the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago. Because of its long-running and comprehensive set of questions about the public, it is a highly regarded source of data about social trends. Data from the 2014 survey was released last week, and an analysis of its findings on confidence in institutions was conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the General Social Survey.

Five things to know about Americans’ low confidence in the government and other institutions:

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DROP IN SUPPORT FOR PRESIDENCY DRIVEN BY REPUBLICANS

The 11 percent who say they’re confident in the presidency approaches a record low measured by the same survey in 1996, when just 10 percent said they had a great deal of confidence in the executive branch. The 44 percent who now say they have hardly any confidence at all is at a record high.

Historically, and not surprisingly, the survey has found that Democrats have more confidence in the executive branch when the sitting president is a Democrat, and Republicans have more confidence when the president is a Republican. In the 2014 survey, just 3 percent of Republicans say they have a lot of confidence in the presidency, down from a record high 45 percent who said so in 2002, when overall confidence in the presidency was also at the highest point the survey has measured, at 27 percent.  Then, President George W. Bush was still riding a crest of support in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

But confidence among Democrats has dropped some in recent years, too, from 25 percent in 2010 to 18 percent in 2014.

Just 1 in 10 independents expressed a lot of confidence in the presidency in 2014.

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SUPREME COURT CONFIDENCE FALLING ACROSS PARTY LINES

The 2014 survey finds that confidence in the Supreme Court has fallen among Democrats, Republicans and independents since 2012, driving confidence in the court to a 40-year low overall. The 26 percent of Democrats with a lot of confidence in the court is a record low in the history of the survey, while Republican confidence in the high court, at 22 percent, is also near an all-time low.

Independents are the least likely to have a great deal of confidence in the court, at 20 percent.

Overall, 2 in 10 say they have hardly any confidence in the court, a record high, while more than half have only some confidence.

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NOBODY LIKES CONGRESS

If there’s one issue than unites Americans, it’s that hardly anyone has much confidence in Congress, the survey shows. Over half of Americans express hardly any confidence at all, while only 7 percent of Democrats, 5 percent of independents and 3 percent of Republicans have a great deal of confidence in Congress.

Younger Americans – those under 35 – are a bit more likely than older ones to express confidence in Congress, but even among that group only 10 percent say they have a lot of confidence in the legislative branch.

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POOR MARKS FOR MEDIA, TOO

Confidence has decreased since the 1970s, when about a quarter of Americans expressed a great deal of confidence in the press.  Now, a record low of 7 percent have a lot of confidence, while 44 percent have hardly any confidence at all.

Republicans are the least likely to express a lot of confidence in the press, at only 3 percent, but Democrats aren’t far behind at 10 percent.

Only 1 in 10 has a lot of confidence in television, which is also near a record low.

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FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS REBOUND BUT STILL LOW

Americans’ confidence in banks and financial institutions reached an all-time low of 11 percent in 2010, but has rebounded slightly since then, with 15 percent now expressing a great deal of confidence. That’s still far from the survey’s all-time high of 42 percent in 1977.

Just 18 percent have a great deal of confidence in major companies, up a bit from 13 percent who said so in 2010 but down from 31 percent who said so in 1984.

Only 1 in 10 Americans has a lot of confidence in organized labor.

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The General Social Survey is administered by NORC at the University of Chicago, with financing from the National Science Foundation, primarily using in-person interviewing. The GSS started in 1972 and completed its 30th round in 2014.

The typical sample size was 1,500 prior to 1994, but increased to 2,700-3,000 until 2008, and decreased to 2,000 for the most recent surveys. Resulting margins of error are between plus or minus 3.1 percentage points for the smaller sample sizes and plus or minus 2.2 percentage points for the larger sample sizes at the 95 percent confidence level. The 2014 survey was conducted March 31-Oct. 11, 2014, among 2,538 American adults. The GSS 1972-2014 Cumulative File was used to produce the statistics presented.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi soldiers and allied Shiite militiamen swept into the Islamic State-held city of Tikrit on Wednesday, launching a two-front offensive to squeeze extremists out of Saddam Hussein’s hometown in a major test of the troops’ resolve.

Explosions and heavy gunfire echoed through Tikrit, a key way station for Iraqi forces trying to expel the militants who hold roughly a third of the country and neighboring Syria. The offensive also will serve as a major crucible for Iraqi forces, which collapsed under the extremists’ initial offensive last year and now face street-by-street fighting in one of the Islamic State group’s biggest strongholds.

Allied Iraqi forces first entered the city through its northern Qadisiyya neighborhood, according to video obtained by The Associated Press. Overhead, an attack helicopter fired missiles as soldiers and militiamen laid down heavy machine gunfire in the neighborhood’s dusty streets as downtown Tikrit loomed in the distance, black smoke rising overhead.

Officials quickly established a supply line through the neighborhood to reinforce troops, Salahuddin police Brig. Kheyon Rasheed told the state-run Iraqiyya television. Authorities offered no immediate casualty figures, though Iran’s state-run Press TV satellite channel reported that a mortar attack wounded one of its cameramen there.

A local official in Iraq’s Salahuddin province confirmed that Iraqi troops entered Qadisiyya and raised the Iraqi flag over Tikrit’s general hospital. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to brief journalists.

Later Wednesday, allied forces also swept into Tikrit from the south in a pincer movement to squeeze out militants, though some suggested many already fled in the face of the advance, codenamed “At your service, prophet of Allah.”

“The terrorists are seizing the cars of civilians trying to leave the city and they are trying to make a getaway,” Rasheed said.

Tikrit, the capital of Salahuddin province, sits on the Tigris River about 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad. Several of Saddam’s palaces remain there, as do remnants of his now-outlawed Baathist party. Many believe party members assisted the Islamic State group in its offensive last summer.

After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, insurgent Baathists in Tikrit launched attacks on American forces. The same could happen to incoming Iraqi forces, who already faced sniper fire and heavily mined roads.

Taking Tikrit would open a supply line for a future operation to besiege Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city that remains under Islamic State control. U.S. military officials have that said a mission to retake Mosul likely will begin in April or May and involve up to 25,000 Iraqi troops. But the Americans have cautioned the offensive could be delayed.

Iranian military advisers have been helping guide Iraqi forces in their advance on Tikrit. Speaking Wednesday on Capitol Hill, U.S. Gen. Martin Dempsey described the militias as “Iranian trained and somewhat Iranian equipped.”

Among those directing operations is Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force. Frontline images have emerged of the general in recent days, showing him smiling in plainclothes without a bulletproof vest.

The overt Iranian role and the prominence of Shiite militias in the campaign have raised fears of possible sectarian cleansing should Tikrit, an overwhelmingly Sunni city, fall to the government troops.

“Iranians will try to calm the fears of the Sunnis instead of persecuting them because the Iranian officials know that it is in their best interest to keep the Iraq united,” said Hadi Jalo, a Baghdad-based political analyst. “For the Iranians, it is easier to dominate one country instead of three separate states.”

The U.S. says its allied coalition carrying out airstrikes targeting the extremists has not been involved in the ongoing Tikrit offensive. Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has appealed for more aid for his country’s beleaguered ground forces, though the U.S. spent billions of dollars training and equipping Iraq’s army during its eight-year occupation.

A senior U.S. military official told the AP that as of June 2014, the Iraqi military stood at 125,000 men at best, down from 205,000 in January 2014. Iraqi officials now say that at least 30,000 men — including the military, militias, Sunni tribes and police — are fighting to capturing Tikrit. Dempsey said Wednesday that at least 20,000 militiamen are taking part.

Most battlefield successes in Iraq have been coordinated efforts, with Iraqi and Kurdish forces and Shiite militias fighting on the ground and the U.S.-led coalition providing air power.

The siege on the village of Amirli just north of Baghdad, when many feared the capital itself might fall, was broken last year with the help of U.S.-led airstrikes and a fighting force of mainly Shiite militias. Shiite militiamen backed by a coalition air campaign also retook the town of Jurf al-Sukhr, on Baghdad’s outskirts, in October.

The Islamic State group kept up its attacks elsewhere in Iraq. In Ramadi, the provincial capital of Iraq’s embattled Anbar province, at least 13 suicide car bombs exploded almost simultaneously, killing two soldiers and wounding eight, said Sabah Karhout, head of the Anbar provincial council. The Islamic State group said in an online statement that it used foreign fighters from Australia, Belgium, Syria and Uzbekistan fighters in the attack.

A car bomb also exploded in a Shiite neighborhood of northern Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding 18, authorities said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for that attack.

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Associated Press writers Vivian Salama in Baghdad and Deb Riechmann in Washington contributed to this report.

DETROIT (AP) — Toyota is recalling 112,500 cars and SUVs to fix problems with electric power steering controls and electric vehicle software.

The larger of two recalls announced Wednesday covers about 110,000 2015 Camry midsize sedans and Highlander SUVs, as well as 2014 and 2015 RAV4 SUVs.

Toyota says a circuit board in the electric power steering may have been damaged at the factory. Power-assisted steering could fail, increasing the effort needed to steer and raising the risk of a crash.

Dealers will inspect and replace power steering controls if needed.

The other recall covers 2,500 RAV4 electric vehicles from 2012 through 2014. Software in a motor assembly can make the vehicles shift into neutral on their own. Dealers will fix the motor assembly.

Toyota says it knows of no crashes or injuries in either case.

MADISON (AP) – Assembly Republicans are once again delaying action on a bill imposing sanctions on failing public schools in the hopes of reaching a compromise with the state Senate.

The bill that could lead to converting public schools into charter schools and firing teachers was scheduled for a committee vote Thursday with the full Assembly taking it up next week.

But Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke said Wednesday that the vote is being delayed in the hopes that a deal can be reached with the Senate, which has not endorsed sanctions. Gov. Scott Walker has also not supported sanctions.

Assembly Education Committee chairman Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt says Sen. Paul Farrow, who had been against sanctions, has told him he is open to the idea.

Farrow did not immediately return a message.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – The average bonus paid to securities industry employees in New York City grew 2 percent last year to nearly $173,000, New York’s state comptroller reported Wednesday.

That’s the largest average Wall Street bonus since the 2008 financial crisis, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said, according to his office’s analysis, though the industry was slightly less profitable last year while adding 2,300 jobs.

“One area that anecdotally we keep hearing is a growth sector is compliance,” DiNapoli said.

The securities industry has been profitable for six consecutive years and had 167,800 workers in New York City in 2014, the report said. That’s still 11 percent less than before the crisis.

Pretax profits last year for broker/dealer operations of some 200 New York Stock Exchange members – the traditional measure of profitability for the securities industry – totaled $16 billion last year, down $700 million from 2013.

According to the comptroller’s office, lower profits were a result of weakness in fixed income and commodities trading, higher capital reserve requirements and the continued cost of legal settlements stemming from the crisis. Authorities have blamed inflated mortgage-backed securities that plummeted along with the U.S. housing market.

Regulatory reforms since have included larger reserve requirements, new limits on proprietary trading and measures intended to reduce risk. Securities firms now pay a smaller share of bonuses in the current year with more deferred.

The average salary including bonuses on Wall Street was $355,500 in 2013, according to an October report from the comptroller’s office.

“The compensation is five times the average for private employment in the city,” DiNapoli said. “But it’s a challenging work environment, and in recent years because of the downsizing it’s been harder to get these positions.”

DiNapoli added that it’s important to be concerned about excessive risk-taking and possible regulatory rollbacks to be sure there isn’t another meltdown, noting the industry is key to the economic viability of the city and state. The goal should be a business model with sustainable profits, he said, not the short-term, high-risk, high-reward profits “that invariably results in the periodic downturn or crash as we had.”

SAN FRANCISCO – There are warning labels on ads for cigarettes and alcohol and soon there could be similar labels for soda.

Officials in San Francisco are considering a requirement for warning labels on ads for soda and other sugary drinks.

The labels would issue a warning that drinking soda with added sugar contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay. Officials also want to ban sugary drink ads on public property.

But not everyone thinks the labels will help improve people’s health.

Roger Salazar of the California Beverage Industry says, “Targeting one industry with a politically opportunistic legislation doesn’t do anything to help improve the health of San Franciscans.”

While San Fransisco Supervisor, Scott Wiener, disagrees, “The big picture here is that soda and other sugary drinks are fueling an explosion of diabetes.”

The goal is to help make people more aware of what sugary drinks could do to them.

 

 

 

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) – An apparent hoax summoned a strong police response Wednesday to the home of rapper Lil Wayne after an unknown caller reported a shooting.

The call came in at 12:40 p.m. on a nonemergency line, Miami Beach police spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez said. The caller claimed four people had been shot at the waterfront home on an  exclusive Miami Beach island.

The responding officers, including a heavily armed SWAT team, found no evidence of a shooting, no victims and no gunman. Rodriguez also said the owner of the home – Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter – was not there at the time.

“We can say for sure it was a hoax,” Rodriguez said. “It’s not a laughing matter.”

Police spoke with house staff members and went through the eight-bedroom, 10-bath home, Rodriguez added.

Property records show the home, featuring a rooftop pool and boat dock, was most recently assessed at $9.4 million.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell has released the initial plan for a new wildfire-fighting strategy to protect a wide swath of intermountain West sagebrush country that supports cattle ranching and is home to a struggling bird species.

The 27-page report released Tuesday calls for prioritizing and protecting areas most at risk by using veteran crews, rural fire departments and fire protection associations made up of ranchers who can respond quickly. The previous strategy didn’t call for specific efforts to protect the habitat.

The plan heading into the 2015 wildfire season also calls for accelerating efforts to restore burned rangelands by developing a strategy for storing and distributing locally adapted seeds to try to keep invasive species such as cheatgrass from returning.

“Cheatgrass and other invasive species have contributed to making rangeland fire one of the greatest threats to the Great Basin — not only to sagebrush habitat, but to wildlife, ranching and other economic activities that depend on a healthy landscape,” Jewell said in a statement. “As we head into the 2015 fire season, the actions recommended in this report will help ensure that our preparedness, response and recovery strategies better align with the threats facing the West.”

The Boise-based National Interagency Fire Center, which assigns resources throughout the nation during wildfire season, is already adopting new strategies. One of them is a plan to preposition fire crews in the Great Basin ahead of fire season.

“That’s the key thing that we will be doing differently,” said Randy Eardley, a Fire Center spokesman. Previously, he said, fire crews only responded — sometimes from great distances — once wildfires had started and spread. “If we have more crews available in the area, then yes, it could be very effective,” he said.

The plan requires making a priority the protection of sage-steppe ecosystems where sage grouse live. Wildfire managers are still working out the specifics of how some aspects of the plan will be put in place, Eardley said.

In the last decade, rangeland fires have been especially destructive in the Great Basin region of Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Oregon and California. Jewell in October toured southern Idaho and saw firsthand the giant swaths scorched by wildfires. In January she issued an order seeking a “science-based” approach to find a way to stop wildfire and other threats while also protecting habitat for greater sage grouse.

The wide-ranging bird is under consideration for federal protections, and just the potential listing by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has already put on hold development of wind farms and oil and gas drilling plans in some areas. Experts say an endangered-species listing could damage Western states’ economies.

The football-sized bird once numbered in the millions, but current estimates put the population between 200,000 and 500,000.

The plan released Tuesday stems in part from a conference last fall in Boise that brought together scientists and land managers to find collaborative ways to protect Great Basin rangelands from the plague of increasingly intense wildfires.

John Freemuth, a Boise State University professor and public lands expert who took part in that conference, on Tuesday analyzed the resulting plan.

“This is a reordering because of the possible sage grouse listing,” he said. “Nobody wants a listing because so much key habitat burns that (a listing) just gets out of everyone’s control.”

Besides sage grouse habitat, the gigantic wildfires have destroyed rangeland that ranchers rely on to graze cattle.

“I appreciate the direction of Secretary Jewell’s management plan,” said Idaho Republican Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter in a statement on Tuesday. “In fact, many of the points echo the strategies that have been fundamental to my sage-grouse protection plan for some time now.”

Otter said he and other Western governors have been working for years battling cheatgrass “and other threats to important habitat in Idaho and throughout the region.”

The January order by Jewell created a Rangeland Fire Task Force assigned to come up with an initial plan by March. That report made public on Tuesday is called “The Initial Report: A Strategic Plan for Addressing Rangeland Fire Prevention, Management, and Restoration in 2015.”

The next step in the process is for the task force to recommend longer-term actions for rangeland fire management, prevention, suppression and restoration. That report, according to Jewell’s January order, is due by May 1. Full implementation is scheduled for 2016.

 

GREEN BAY – A local health system is issung bonds.

Green Bay-based Bellin Health says it is issuing $45 million in double tax-exempt bonds beginning March 18. Proceeds will be used to refinance debt previously issued in 2008, leaders say.

“As Green Bay’s only locally-owned hospital and health system, we understand the value of community involvement and support,” George Kerwin, Bellin Health president and CEO, said in a news release. “We are pleased to offer this investment opportunity to the public as we proactively manage our resources as good stewards within the community.”

The bonds are being underwritten by Piper Jaffray. Anyone interested can contact Don O’Leary of Piper Jaffray at 1-800-552-0614.

Bellin Health owns facilities including Bellin Hospital, Bellin Health Oconto Hospital, Bellin Psychiatric Center and several clinics. It has more than 3,500 employees.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Police say members of a Syracuse University fraternity had three pledges doing exercises indoors three times a day for weeks before one of the pledges nearly lost some of his fingers to frostbite after an outdoor hazing stunt.

The Post-Standard of Syracuse reports that police documents obtained through a Freedom on Information Law request reveal that members of Nu Alpha Phi punished the pledges for violating fraternity rules by making them do exercises in the frat house attic three times a day for 22 days.

Around midnight on Feb. 28, the pledges were taken to a park where they did exercises in the snow without gloves while the temperature was around zero.

One of the pledges suffered frostbite to four fingers. His roommates reported the hazing.

The university has suspended the fraternity.

DALLAS (AP) — A protest is planned outside the Dallas home of a former University of Oklahoma aternity member who was shown in a video chanting a racial slur.

The president of a Dallas-area advocacy group, the Next Generation Action Network, says a peaceful protest is planned Wednesday evening outside the family home of Parker Rice.

The Rev. Dominique Alexander says protesters want to send the message “we’re not going to stand for that.”

Dallas police Maj. Jimmy Vaughan says police will monitor the protest and make sure traffic isn’t blocked. He says officers have been at the house but the family is apparently not home. Media have been parked outside the home in recent days.

Rice has released a statement calling the incident “a horrible mistake” and “a devastating lesson.”

 

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) – A burning tanker truck closed a stretch of Interstate 94 near the border between Detroit and the suburb of Dearborn.

The fire that sent flames and black smoke into the air and across the area appears to be under control Wednesday afternoon.

Dearborn police and fire officials report no serious injuries.

State police Lt. Michael Shaw says he believed the truck was hauling petroleum. The tanker burned with a car stopped sideways in front of it.

Michigan Department of Transportation spokeswoman Diane Cross says fuel spilled into the sewers, also creating fires.

Shaw says the first 911 calls came in about 11:15 a.m. Police were waiting for crews to extinguish the flames before investigating.

State transportation officials say the freeway could remain closed for hours.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Once so morbidly obese he could hardly walk, Dennis the dachshund is now a shadow of his former self.

Less than two years ago, Dennis weighed in at a whopping 56 pounds and could walk only a few feet without stopping, out of breath. That’s about four or five times the size of a normal miniature dachshund.

But then Brooke Burton of Columbus adopted him from his previous owner, who had fed him White Castle burgers and other human food.

On a steady diet of strictly dog food and exercise, 6-year-old Dennis slimmed down to a svelte 12 pounds. He now loves to chase squirrels and play fetch.

He had so much excess skin left over after the weight loss that he needed three surgeries to get rid of it.

BOSTON (AP) – The chief of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Police Department has testified that he told Officer Sean Collier to “be safe” about an hour before prosecutors say he was killed by the Boston Marathon bombers.

John DiFava testified Wednesday about his last words to Collier in the federal death penalty trial of bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. DiFava says he briefly spoke to Collier when he saw him in his cruiser the night he was killed.

Prosecutors say Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, shot Collier while trying to steal his gun during a getaway attempt hours after the FBI publicly released images of them as suspects in the bombings.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s lawyer told the jury that Tamerlan shot Collier.

More testimony on Collier’s death is expected Wednesday afternoon.

APPLETON (AP) – The U.S. Labor Department is seeking to recover back pay and damages for more than 100 employees in a lawsuit against four El Azteca restaurants in the Fox Valley.

Post-Crescent Media reports the lawsuit says kitchen workers and servers were not paid minimum wage or overtime by the restaurants. According to the lawsuit, some employees were making less than $1 an hour.

Restaurants named in the lawsuit include ones in Appleton, Neenah, Kimberly and De Pere. A Labor Department spokesman says back wages could amount to thousands of dollars.

Marco Montalvo, a restaurant owner named in the lawsuit, tells the newspaper that allegations in the lawsuit are false. He says he pays employees at least $7.25 an hour.

MADISON (AP) – Gov. Scott Walker is becoming more involved in the aftermath of a white police officer shooting to death an unarmed biracial man.

Boys and Girls Club of Dane County leader Michael Johnson says on Facebook that he met for breakfast with Walker at the governor’s mansion. Johnson says they talked for about 15 minutes and he received several “commitments” from Walker.

Johnson says he will give more details about what Walker said at an afternoon meeting at the Boys and Girls Club.

Johnson did not immediately return a message. Walker’s spokeswoman also did not immediately return a message.

The meeting comes as the investigation continues into the shooting Friday of 19-year-old Tony Robinson in a confrontation with a police officer who was answering a call about a man disrupting traffic.