Green Bay News

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin grade school students will spend 60 percent less time taking a state-mandated test this spring.

The state Department of Public Instruction notified schools this week that the total time required to take the language-arts portion of the Badger Exam is being reduced from 4 hours to just 1½ hours.

Department spokesman John Johnson said Wednesday that DPI officials decided to drop a writing test portion of the exam after getting feedback that it was taking students a long time to complete it.

Johnson says even without that portion, the test will still meet federal requirements.

Students in grades 3 through 8 are taking the exam between March 30 and May 22.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Unemployment rates are up in every Wisconsin county and major city.

The state Department of Workforce Development reported the figures for January.

The show unemployment increases across the board for the month. The figures are preliminary and subject to significant revision month-to-month.

Racine had the highest unemployment rate for the month at 8.1 percent, up from 7.5 percent in December. Milwaukee was second highest at 7.4 percent.

Menominee County had the highest unemployment for any county at 11 percent.

The statewide unemployment rate for January was 5 percent, the lowest it’s been since August 2008. The national unemployment rate in December was 5.7 percent.

• Click here for the complete report

The spring is located at Palms Book State Park near Manistique in Upper Michigan.

UPPER MICHIGAN – Palms Book State Park near Manistique is home to one of Upper Michigan’s most unusual natural features.

Kitch-iti-kipi, the “Big Spring,” is 200 feet across and 40 feet deep. The state Department of Natural Resources says it is Michigan’s largest freshwater spring. More than 10,000 gallons a minute gush from fissures in the underlying limestone – at a constant 45-degree temperature.

Visitors can take a raft out to the middle of the spring. A hole in the bottom of the raft allows for viewing of fish – including several species of trout.

Watch the video above to see what the spring looks like through the bottom of the raft.

• Click here to see photos of Kitch-iti-kipi

GREENVILLE – The Fox Valley Humane Association is raising money for corrective surgery on a dog’s leg.

The humane association says the six-month-old dog named Beau has a deformity in one of its back legs. The growth of one of the bones is stunted and previous trauma is also suspected.

Shelter officials say the Fox Valley Animal Referral Center has offered to perform the surgery at the lowest possible cost – $2,500. A humane association veterinarian is taking care of the dog through its recovery to ensure it receives proper care.

Those interested in contributing money toward the surgery can do so online.

The winners of the Intel Science Talent Search have been announced. An Appleton North High School student was one of the finalists.

Intel and the Society for Science & the Public say three first-place winners received $150,000 awards, three second-place winners received $75,000 awards and three third-place winners received $35,000 awards.

The first-place winners were:

• Noah Golowich, 17, of Lexington, Massachusetts, won the First Place Medal of Distinction for Basic Research. He developed a proof in the area of Ramsey theory, a field of mathematics based on finding types of structure in large and complicated systems.
• Andrew Jin, 17, of San Jose, California, won the First Place Medal of Distinction for Global Good. He developed a machine learning algorithm to identify adaptive mutations across the human genome. By analyzing massive public genomic datasets, his system discovered more than 100 adaptive mutations related to immune response, metabolism, brain development and schizophrenia in real DNA sequences. Understanding the genetic causes of these diseases is an important first step toward developing gene therapies or vaccines.
• Michael Hofmann Winer, 18, of North Bethesda, Maryland, won the First Place Medal of Distinction for Innovation. He studied how fundamental quasi-particles of sound, called phonons, interact with electrons. His work could potentially be applied to more complex atomic structures such as superconductors.

Organizers say 1,844 high school seniors entered the competition. Forty finalists were invited to Washington, D.C., to compete for the top nine awards. One of those finalists was Dhaivat Pandya of Appleton North High School. His research focused on how to improve the Internet to give people faster connections.

Shareholders for The E.W. Scripps Company and Journal Communications approved proposed spinoffs and mergers of the companies.

Scripps and Journal will merge their broadcast operations, creating an expanded Scripps, while simultaneously spinning off and merging their newspaper operations to form a new publicly traded company called Journal Media Group.

The transactions are expected to close early in the second quarter of 2015.

The merged broadcast and digital media company will retain The E.W. Scripps Company name, and the Scripps family shareholders will continue to have voting control. The company will have approximately 4,000 employees across its television, radio and digital media operations.

WGBA-TV in Green Bay is currently owned by Journal Communications but will be a part of the new Scripps company.

Journal Media Group will combine Scripps’ daily newspapers, community publications and related digital products with Journal Communications’ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin community publications and affiliated digital products. The company, with approximately 3,600 employees, will operate in 14 markets and be headquartered in Milwaukee.

SHEBOYGAN – Police have released surveillance video of an armed robbery at a motel.

Officers say the robbery happened Sunday at Fountain Park Motel, 930 N. 8th St. The victim said two people walked in to the lobby and demanded money. One robber showed a handgun while the other robber took cash from a desk drawer. They then walked out of the motel.

The robber with the gun was described as a white male, about 5-foot-8 with an average build, wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and gray pants. He was wearing a dark bandana over his face; the bandana had white marks on it.

The other robber was described as a white male, about 6 feet tall, with an average build. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt under a short-sleeved shirt, athletic pants with stripes down the leg and dark athletic shoes with white soles. He was wearing a ski mask with holes for the eyes and mouth.

Anyone with information is asked to call Sheboygan police at (920) 459-3333.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the State Department to force the release of email correspondence and government documents from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.

The legal action comes after repeated requests filed under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act have gone unfulfilled. They include one request AP made five years ago and others pending since the summer of 2013.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, comes a day after Clinton broke her silence about her use of a private email account while secretary of state. The FOIA requests and lawsuit seek materials related to her public and private calendars, correspondence involving longtime aides likely to play key roles in her expected campaign for president, and Clinton-related emails about the Osama bin Laden raid and National Security Agency surveillance practices.

• Click here to read the lawsuit

“After careful deliberation and exhausting our other options, The Associated Press is taking the necessary legal steps to gain access to these important documents, which will shed light on actions by the State Department and former Secretary Clinton, a presumptive 2016 presidential candidate, during some of the most significant issues of our time,” said Karen Kaiser, AP’s general counsel.

“The press is a proxy for the people, and AP will continue its pursuit of vital information that’s in the public interest through this action and future open records requests,” she said.

State Department spokesman Alec Gerlach declined to comment. He had previously cited the department’s heavy annual load of FOIA requests — 19,000 last year — in saying that the department “does its best to meet its FOIA responsibilities.” He said the department takes requests “first in, first out,” but noted that timing depends on “the complexity of the request.”

Michael Oreskes, a senior managing editor at AP, said the news agency was planning to file additional requests under FOIA following the disclosure last week that Clinton used a private email account run on a server on her property outside New York while working at the State Department.

Clinton on Tuesday said she sent and received about 60,000 emails from her personal email address in her four years as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state. She said roughly half were work-related, which she turned over to the State Department, while deleting tens of thousands more that were personal in nature.

The department says it will take several months to review the material Clinton turned over last year. Once the review is complete, the department said, the emails will be posted online.

The AP had sought Clinton-related correspondence before her use of a personal email account was publicly known, although Wednesday’s court filing alleges that the State Department is responsible for including emails from that account in any public records request.

“State’s failure to ensure that Secretary Clinton’s governmental emails were retained and preserved by the agency, and its failure timely to seek out and search those emails in response to AP’s requests, indicate at the very least that State has not engaged in the diligent, good-faith search that FOIA requires,” says AP’s legal filing.

Specifically, AP is seeking copies of Clinton’s full schedules and calendars from her four years as secretary of state; documents related to her department’s decision to grant a special position to longtime aide Huma Abedin; related correspondence from longtime advisers Philippe Reines and Cheryl Mills, who, like Abedin, are likely to play central roles in a Clinton presidential campaign; documents related to Clinton’s and the agency’s roles in the Osama bin Laden raid and National Security Agency surveillance practices; and documents related to her role overseeing a major Defense Department contractor.

The AP made most of its requests in the summer of 2013, although one was filed in March 2010. AP is also seeking attorney’s fees related to the lawsuit.

Other organizations have also sued the State Department recently after lengthy delays responding to public record requests.

In December, the conservative political advocacy group Citizens United sued the State Department for failing to disclose flight records showing who accompanied Clinton on overseas trips. Last week, the National Security Archive, an organization that gathers declassified government records, filed a lawsuit after waiting more than seven years for the State Department to release of details of former secretary of state Henry Kissinger’s telephone conversations.

Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, predicted the State Department would speed up its review facing legal action, particularly given that Clinton has said that her email correspondence doesn’t include classified material.

“When the government is under a court deadline, or really wants to review, they can whip through thousands of pages in a matter of weeks, which they should do here,” Blanton said.

The State Department generally takes about 450 days to turn over records it considers to be part of complex requests under the Freedom of Information Act. That is seven times longer than the Justice Department and CIA, and 30 times longer than the Treasury Department.

An inspector general’s report in 2012 criticized the State Department’s practices as “inefficient and ineffective,” citing a heavy workload, small staff and interagency problems.

MADISON (AP) – One of the chief sponsors of a Republican bill is telling a Senate committee that would constrain so-called John Doe investigations that changes are needed because prosecutors are abusing the process.

John Does are similar to grand jury probes in which information is gathered in secret and information is tightly controlled. The bill would prohibit using the John Doe process to investigate potential political wrongdoing and allow witnesses

Republicans have grown increasingly frustrated with the process in recent years. Prosecutors in Milwaukee have used the process to investigate Gov. Scott Walker’s former aides and consider whether his gubernatorial recall campaign illegally coordinated with conservative groups.

Sen. Tom Tiffany told the Senate judiciary committee during a hearing Wednesday that Milwaukee prosecutors are obsessed with getting involved in the political process.

MADISON (AP) – The state Senate’s judiciary committee is set to take public comments on a Republican bill that would eliminate Wisconsin’s 48-hour waiting period before purchasing a handgun.

The bill would allow gun dealers to transfer weapons to buyers immediately after receiving notice from the state Department of Justice that the purchaser has cleared a background check. Gov. Scott Walker has told the National Rifle Association he supports the bill.

The Senate’s Judiciary and Public Safety Committee was expected to hold a public hearing on the measure Wednesday morning. A state Assembly committee held a public hearing on the proposal last month.

BLACK RIVER FALLS (AP) – A Baraboo man is facing a number of felony charges after a police officer was assaulted at a fast food restaurant in Black River Falls.

Fifty-three-year-old Jimmie Linville is accused of punching the officer in the face after he was asked to leave Hardees last week at closing time. Police say the officer used pepper spray on Linville who began throwing chairs. Authorities say one of the chairs struck the officer.

The Baraboo News Republic says Linville was arrested after additional officers arrived on the scene.

Linville is due in Jackson County Circuit Court Monday. Online court records do not list a defense attorney.

EAU CLAIRE (AP) – The prosecution and defense recommend three years behind bars for an Eau Claire man who killed his wife.

Fifty-eight-year-old Lois Biesterveld was shot in the back at close range last August at the couple’s Eau Claire home. Sixty-one-year-old Thomas Biesterveld has pleaded no contest to second-degree reckless homicide. Prosecutors say Biesterveld was involved in a physical confrontation with his wife and shot her after she threatened to leave.

A sentencing hearing was postponed this week and a status conference is set for April 10.

The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram says two siblings of the victim have asked the judge to send Biesterveld to prison for the rest of his life. The maximum sentence for the charge against Biesterveld is 15 years in prison.

Ingredients:
1 boneless corned beef brisket (3 to 4 pounds) with seasoning packet
4 ribs celery, cut into large chunks
2 medium onions, cut into quarters
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 bottle (12 ounces) beer

Directions:

Place celery and onions in the bottom of a slow cooker. Top with corned beef brisket. Sprinkle contents of seasoning packet over brisket. Add water, chicken stock, and beer. Cover and cook on low 8 to 10 hours, or until brisket is fork-tender. Serve with boiled or roasted potatoes, carrots and cabbage.

Notes:You can also add potatoes, cabbage and carrots to the slow cooker the last 2 hours of cooking.

WEST BEND — The West Bend Friends of Sculpture hopes you can provide some information that would lead to the return of a missing frog sculpture.

Officials say someone stole the guitar-playing frog statue from the downtown area sometime in the middle of January. The theft was reported to the West Bend Police Department in early March — after the businesses realized that the frog was missing.

“It’s a despicable act. It’s just mean! And it hurts everybody in the downtown area,” said Annette Techtman, a West Bend resident.

“I’m really sick about this. These frogs, these three frogs, are really icons of our community,” said Sue Millin, Executive Director for the Volunteer Center of Washington County.

These frogs, these three frogs, are really icons of our community.”The 50-pound frog in question is valued at more than $2,500.

“With the value of the frog, it’s a felony theft — if it were to be prosecuted that way,” said Lt. Michael Hartwell of the West Bend Police Department.

The frog is owned by West Bend Friends of Sculpture. Shawn Graff, who is the director of West Bend Friends of Sculpture, announced on Tuesday, March 10th the group is offering a $500 reward for the return of the frog.

“It’s one of those things where people would see the frogs, and they would stop their car, they’d get out, they’d sit next to the frog, they’d snap their picture with a frog. So again, these are fixtures of our local community. So, it’s a shame that one’s missing,” said Graff.

Shawn Graff can be reached at 262-707-5700 or the Police Department can be reached at 262-335-5000.

A Winnebago County man did not have the right to secretly videotape his encounter with a prostitute because he was trying to protect himself against possible allegations, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday.

Charles Adams was convicted in 2011 of capturing an image of nudity. He was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison, and placed on extended supervision for two years.

Adams appealed, arguing he had a legitimate reason to videotape the woman, to memorialize their illicit encounter in case she overdosed on drugs or later accused him of beating her up.  Adams argues that, as a matter of law, a prostitute does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy with regard to being videotaped in the nude during commercial sexual activity.

But the court ruled Adams cannot use his choice to surreptitiously videotape a nude person with whom he was engaging in criminal activity as a shield against further crimes.

“It is no defense to prosecution for a crime that the victim was also guilty of a crime. Recording someone nude in violation of § 942.09(2)(am)1. in order to protect against possible adverse scenarios is not a legitimate reason or defense.  Furthermore, there is no evidence that Adams made the recording for the purpose of self-protection,” the court wrote.

A state appeals court rejected an appeal by a former University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh baseball coach who has challenged the non-renewal of his contract.

Tom Lechnir has been fighting to regain his job. He contends the university improperly denied a renewal of his contract. The school has stood by its decision.

He filed a lawsuit in state court after going through the university’s appeals process, where he lost. After an appeal to the circuit court, a Winnebago County judge ruled UWO used proper procedures in the case. Lechnir then went to the state appeals court.

In its ruling Wednesday, the state appeals court said the school’s actions were appropriate:

“We are satisfied that Lechnir was properly shouldered with the burden of persuading the committee that his nonrenewal was based on an improper factor and that the committee’s decision was supported by substantial evidence on judicial review. We therefore decline Lechnir’s invitation to either modify the decision or remand it for further evaluation,” the court wrote.

Lechnir also filed suit in federal court. UWO denied the claims. No trial date has been set in that case, as the judge is currently reviewing motions.

KENOSHA (AP) – Several middle school basketball players in Kenosha have taken a stand against bullying in a unique way.

The student athletes stood up for one of the team’s cheerleaders when they heard some derogatory words directed toward her during a basketball game at Lincoln Middle School.

Chase Vazquez, Scooter Terrien and Miles Rodriguez walked off the court in the middle of the game to address the mean-spirited comments directed at cheerleader Desiree Andrews, who has Down syndrome.

Rodriguez says it made him mad to hear the comments. Terrien tells WTMJ-TV it’s not fair because we’re all created the same.

The team played their last game Tuesday night in the gym that they have renamed “D’s House.”

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Protesters in Madison are hoping to mount another major rally over the fatal shooting of an unarmed biracial man by a white police officer.

They’re asking high school students to again leave class to attend Wednesday afternoon’s rally. Students were a big part of a protest Monday at the Capitol that drew some 1,500 people.

Nineteen-year-old Tony Robinson died Friday night in a confrontation with a police officer who was answering a call about a man jumping in and out of traffic. Police say the officer forced his way into Robinson’s apartment upon hearing a disturbance and once inside was assaulted and injured by Robinson.

Agents for the state Department of Justice are investigating the shooting.

SUAMICO – The NEW Zoo in Suamico will be welcoming some new animals soon!

Can you guess what kind? We have a hint in the video!

Also this morning, we’re taking a look at some of the animals in the children’s area. The animals are ready for visitors!