Green Bay News

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Winter could have at least one more blast for much of the U.S. after the late-season snow stops falling: Record low temperatures are in the forecast for dozens of cities.

By midday Thursday, a strong cold front moving across the eastern U.S. had dumped more than 20 inches of snow into parts of Kentucky, and conditions worsened in the Northeast as snow was starting to pile up, reaching nearly 6 inches and counting in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia, by early afternoon.

The massive snow in Kentucky left hundreds of drivers stranded on two major highways.

A man walks past a row of snowed-in cars in Lexington, Ky., Thursday, March 5, 2015. Kentucky has been walloped by a winter storm that has dumped nearly two feet of snow in parts of the Bluegrass state. Gov. Steve Beshear has declared an emergency authorizing the National Guard to help with relief efforts. (AP Photo/Lexington Herald-Leader, Charles Bertram)

In New York, a flight from Atlanta carrying 125 people skidded off the runway at LaGuardia Airport while landing and crashed through a fence. Passengers carrying bags and bundled in heavy coats and scarves slid down an inflated chute to safety on the snowy pavement. Any injuries appear to be minor.

Schools, government offices and legislatures in the South and Northeast were shut down for what could be one of the last snow days at the end of a winter that’s been brutal for much of the country.

The National Weather Service had winter storm warnings in effect from Texas to Nantucket, and the forecast called for record cold temperatures in the same area on Friday.

Here’s a look at what’s happening:

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STUCK ON THE ROAD

Authorities say that hundreds of drivers were stuck on two major highways in Kentucky, where snow totals reached nearly 2 feet. Many had to spend the night in their vehicles.

The National Guard was helping get people out.

Officials said more than 400 vehicles were stuck along I-24 between the western Kentucky towns of Cadiz and Eddyville. Gov. Steve Beshear said that 200 were still stuck by midday Thursday.

There was an even larger pileup involving some 200 tractor-trailers on I-65 near Elizabethtown in central Kentucky.

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SLIPPERY RUNWAY

A plane from Atlanta skidded off a runway at New York’s LaGuardia Airport while landing Thursday, crashing through a chain-link fence and coming to rest with its nose perilously close to the edge of an icy bay.

A Delta plane rests on a berm near the water at LaGuardia Airport in New York, Thursday, March 5, 2015. Delta Flight 1086, carrying 125 passengers and five crew members, veered off the runway at around 11:10 a.m., authorities said. Six people suffered non-life-threatening injuries, said Joe Pentangelo, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

The Delta flight veered off the runway at around 11:10 a.m., authorities said. Emergency responders were still assessing people, but any injuries appeared to be minor, the Fire Department of New York said.

The plane came to rest in several inches of snow.

Passengers trudged through the snow in an orderly line after climbing off the plane. Both the airport’s runways are closed until further notice, which is standard procedure after such incidents.

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines said the passengers were bused to a terminal. It said the airline will work with authorities to figure out what caused the crash.

The weather also meant cancelations of more than 4,000 flights to, from, or within the U.S. on Thursday, according to FlightAware.

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COLD HANGING AROUND?

Ryan Maue, a meteorologist at Weather Bell Analytics, said cities including Waco, Texas; Chicago, Memphis and Cleveland should expect record cold Friday morning.

In some cases, the old records could be obliterated.

In Memphis, for example, the coldest temperature on record for March 6 is 20 degrees. The forecast is calling for a low of 11. And at northern Virginia’s Dulles Airport, a forecast low of 7 would shatter the record of 15.

“This is amazing for early March,” he said of the Thursday-Friday, one-two punch of snow and cold.

For those awaiting spring, there’s a hint of good news: Unlike the persistent deep-freeze experienced by much of the country in February, this one shouldn’t hang around as long.

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IS HIGHER FARE FAIR?

With the nation’s capital under a snow emergency, cab rides are more expensive.

The D.C. Taxicab Commission said snow emergency are in effect from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday. That means cabs can add a $15 surcharge to the metered fare. It’s meant to entice drivers to keep working.

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POWER KNOCKED OUT

The storm knocked out power to 82,000 homes and businesses in West Virginia on Thursday. The northern and western parts of the state were hardest hit.

Officials warned that restoring power could be difficult because of road closures from high water in many spots.

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FALLING SHORT OF THE RECORD?

Bostonians might not get the snow they need to break a record.

This winter, the city has received 105.5 inches of snow — more than 8 1/2 feet, the National Weather Service said. The record is 107.6 inches recorded during the 1995-96 season. Records date to 1872.

But, the current storm might not drop enough snow to reach the record, as little more than a dusting was expected in Boston.

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Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, New Jersey. Jeff Amy in Jackson, Mississippi; Jessica Gresko in Arlington, Virginia; and Laurie Kellman in Washington contributed to this report.

 

 

MADISON (AP) – Leaders at Wisconsin’s elections board say plans to make changes after a critical state audit could be hampered by cuts in Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports the Government Accountability Board is among several agencies that would see many of its behind-the-scenes functions consolidated under a pilot program. The state Department of Administration would operate the program, which would affect functions including budgeting, financing, and information technology.

Kevin Kennedy, director and general counsel of the elections board, said their specialized IT needs wouldn’t fit well into the program. The agency maintains a Wisconsin voter registration database, and it tracks lobbyists and campaign funding.

The six nonpartisan judges who make up the board said Wednesday they would send a letter to the state legislature’s Joint Finance Committee to ask for two years to complete IT projects.

Jonathan Becker, administrator of the board’s ethics and accountability division, said the Department of Administration was supposed to make the board’s lobbyist database and website a few years ago. It was incomplete after two years, and the board hired a contractor to finish it, Becker said.

Department of Administration spokesman Cullen Werwie declined to comment on the lobbyist website project. But he said the new pilot program would “make government more efficient, effective and provide a better value service for taxpayers.”

Issues found in the audit of the elections board included its failure to do reviews to identify felons who may have voted unlawfully, and that it doesn’t have a written policy on handling complaints. The agency says it has worked to better communicate with the Department of Corrections to make sure felons don’t vote illegally, among other steps to make fixes.

Wisconsin Republicans want change at the elections board in light of the audit. They’ve also been critical of the board after it approved an investigation into whether Walker’s 2012 campaign coordinated illegally with conservative groups.

Board officials have said the agency has struggled with limited resources and a workload including several recall elections, implementation of photo voter identification and a statewide Supreme Court election recount.

A look at the events surrounding the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Take a look back at he Selma to Montgomery march 50 years ago.

DOVER, Del. (AP) – NASCAR driver Kurt Busch will not face criminal charges over claims by his ex-girlfriend that he smashed her head into a bedroom wall and choked her, Delaware prosecutors said Thursday.

The decision by the state attorney general’s office ends the criminal investigation of Busch, known in NASCAR circles as “The Outlaw,” over allegations by Patricia Driscoll, whom Busch’s attorneys portrayed as a scorned woman who tried to destroy Busch’s career after he ended their relationship.

State prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to bring criminal charges.

“After a thorough consideration of all of the available information about the case, it is determined that the admissible evidence and available witnesses would likely be insufficient to meet the burden of establishing beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Busch committed a crime during the September 26th incident,” the attorney general’s office said in a prepared statement.

A spokesman for the Dover Police Department, which investigated the incident and turned over its findings to the attorney general’s office, said the department respects the decision and would have no further comment.

NASCAR officials indefinitely suspended Busch last month after a Delaware Family Court commissioner granted Driscoll a “protection from abuse”, or no-contact, order, saying the former champion more than likely choked and beat her inside his motorhome at Dover International Speedway last fall.

Busch lost two rounds of appeals for reinstatement before the season-opening Daytona 500 and has missed the first two races of the season, but NASCAR officials said Monday that he has agreed to follow their recommended guidelines to be eligible for eventual reinstatement.

Jim Liguori, a local attorney for Busch, said the driver is thankful that he won’t face criminal charges.

“All along, he knew he was going to be exonerated,” Liguori said. “The Department of Justice really did the right thing after considered review.”

“She absolutely tried to destroy him in the press …,” Liguori added, referring to Driscoll. “But the truth wins out, and the truth is its own defense.”

Driscoll did not immediately respond to email and telephone messages seeking comment.

“We are very disappointed that AG’s office chose to not prosecute but this only makes the order for PFA that much more important,” Driscoll’s attorney, Carolyn McNeice, said in an email.

Driscoll said Busch assaulted her in September after she drove from her Maryland home to Dover to check on Busch after receiving a series of disturbing texts. Driscoll said she and Busch argued in the bedroom of the motorhome before he grabbed her by the face and neck and slammed her head against a wall three times.

But Driscoll did not file charges until early November. She testified that she feared the incident might affect an ongoing child custody battle with her ex-husband in Maryland.

Driscoll filed for a no-contact order in November, which was the subject of four days of hearings in December and January. During the Family Court hearing, Busch and others testified that Driscoll made far-fetched claims of being a covert operative for the federal government and a trained assassin.

Despite granting the no-contact order, a Family Court commissioner said Driscoll had presented false testimony that conflicted with that of a chaplain who saw her immediately after the alleged assault and said he saw no marks or bruises on her. The judge nevertheless said he didn’t believe Driscoll’s false testimony amounted to perjury or intentional falsehood.

The judge also concluded that Busch did not appear to be a prototypical batterer who uses violence to subjugate or control, but that the incident instead was most likely a “situational” event in which Busch was unable to cope and to control his tendency to act out violently in response to stress and frustration, causing him to “snap.”

Busch’s attorneys have asked the Family Court commissioner to re-open the hearing so that they can present testimony from three acquaintances of Driscoll who they say were previously reluctant to get involved but have now come forward to contradict statements Driscoll has made about her relationship with Busch.

How much do you know about sugar and new World Health Organization guidelines for daily intake.

PHOENIX (AP) – Convicted murderer Jodi Arias was spared the death penalty Thursday after jurors deadlocked on whether she should be executed or sent to prison for life for killing her lover in 2008.

It marked the second time a jury was unable to reach a decision on her punishment – a disappointment for prosecutors who argued for the death penalty during the nearly seven-year legal battle. It means the judge will sentence Arias on April 13 to either life in prison or a life term with the possibility of release after 25 years.

Family members of victim Travis Alexander wept when the judge announced that jurors couldn’t reach a decision after deliberating for about 26 hours over five days. The family sobbed as they left the courtroom, with one covering her eyes as she walked out. Arias’ mother, Sandra, received a hug from a friend moments after the verdict was read.

Attorney Jay Beckstead issued a statement from Alexander’s brothers and sisters that they “are saddened by the jury’s inability to reach a decision on the death penalty, however, we understand the difficulty of the decision, and have nothing but respect for the jury’s time.”

The siblings said they appreciated the outpouring of support from the public but requested privacy.

Arias’ 2013 trial became a sensation with its tawdry revelations about her relationship with Alexander and that she shot him in the head and slit his throat so deeply that he was nearly decapitated.

It was broadcast live and TV audiences heard how Arias had stabbed and slashed Alexander nearly 30 times then left his body in his shower at his suburban Phoenix home, where friends found him about five days later.

The jury convicted her of first-degree murder but deadlocked on punishment, prompting the sentencing retrial that began in October.

Prosecutors say Arias killed Alexander as revenge because he wanted to date other women and was planning a trip to Mexico with his latest love interest.

During closing arguments in the penalty retrial, prosecutor Juan Martinez repeatedly showed jurors gruesome crime scene photos of the victim’s slit throat.

The images were a counterpoint to the happy photos of Arias that her attorney displayed in arguing there was more to her life than her actions in the 2008 killing.

Martinez called Arias dishonest, questioned her claim that she’s remorseful for having killed her boyfriend, and tried to minimize the role her psychological problems played in the case.

“It doesn’t provide an excuse,” he told the jury of four men and eight women.

Defense attorney Kirk Nurmi told jurors that Arias deserves a second chance because she was the victim of verbal and physical abuse throughout her life. He also showed them pictures of Arias from happy moments in her life, such as an image of her resting her chin on Alexander’s shoulder.

Nurmi said Arias’ problems stem from a personality disorder in which she tries to mold herself to the wishes of the men she dates.

Nurmi portrayed Alexander as a man divided between his Mormon faith and sexual desires that led him to have relationships with several women. Alexander used Arias to quench his sexual urges, called her demeaning names and told her she was soulless, the lawyer said.

Martinez said Arias and her lawyers had falsely attacked Alexander’s character to draw attention from her actions.

Arias initially courted the spotlight after her arrest, granting interviews to “48 Hours” and “Inside Edition.”

She testified for 18 days at her first trial, describing her abusive childhood, cheating boyfriends, relationship with Alexander and her contention that he was physically abusive.

She did more media interviews after the jury convicted her of murder.

Spectators lined up in the middle of the night to get a coveted seat in the courtroom for the first trial. However, attention was dampened during the penalty retrial after the judge ruled cameras could record the proceedings but nothing could be broadcast until after the verdict.

The proceedings revealed few new details about the crime and dragged on months longer than expected amid a series of expert witnesses and a surprising late October decision by Judge Sherry Stephens to remove reporters and spectators from the courtroom so Arias could testify in private. A higher court halted the testimony on its second day after complaints from news organizations.

At the end of the retrial, Arias passed up a chance to address the jury. She said she wanted to make such comments but refused to do so unless the courtroom was cleared. She cited potential personal safety threats in declining to speak in the open courtroom.

NEW YORK (AP) – A plane from Atlanta skidded off a runway at LaGuardia Airport while landing Thursday, crashing through a chain-link fence and apparently losing its right wing.

The Delta flight, carrying 125 passengers and five crew members, veered off the runaway at around 11:10 a.m., authorities said. Emergency responders are still assessing people, but any injuries appear to be minor, the Fire Department of New York said.

Images show the plane resting in the snow, and its right wing appears to have been sheared off. Video shows passengers trudging through the snow in an orderly line after climbing off the plane.

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines said the passengers are deplaning down inflated aircraft sides and are being bused to a terminal. It said the airline will work with authorities to figure out what caused the crash.

Joe Pentangelo, a spokesman with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said the plane is apparently leaking fuel.

Visit WisconsinEye to watch the state Assembly debate right-to-work legislation.

GREEN BAY –  Colon cancer is one of the most preventable and treatable types of cancer, but it is still the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. Gastroenterologist Dr. Peter Stanko of Prevea Health says 52 thousand people die from colon cancer each year.  He joined Pete Petoniak on Good Day Wisconsin to talk about the statistics and who should be getting a colonoscopy.

**Friday, March 6th is “Dress in Blue” day in honor of Colon Cancer Awareness Month

Stanko says colon cancer often begins as a non-cancerous growth or “polyp” that over time, can develop into cancer. These polyps typically don’t cause any symptoms but he says, unless you are getting routine colonoscopies, there is no way to know if you have them.  Stanko says sometimes, by the time you do start experiencing symptoms, the cancer is often advanced and harder to control. Who should get a colonoscopy? • Men and women, beginning at the age of 50. Then, they will need to continue to get colonoscopies every 10 years.  • If you are at a higher risk for colon cancer – where your parent, sibling or child has had colon cancer – you should get a colonoscopy at an earlier age, and have them more frequently.  What if someone is embarrassed to schedule a colonoscopy, or is afraid it will be too uncomfortable? • Prevea Digestive Health physicians perform colonoscopies at HSHS St. Vincent Hospital and HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital Medical Center in Green Bay. • The entire procedure is completely private, and the patient is mildly sedated and kept completely comfortable.  • Preparation is also minimal and includes only two small doses of laxative the night before and morning of procedure.  • Most insurance providers, including Medicare, cover colonoscopies. How long does it take to get results? • Same-day results

MILWAUKEE (AP) – A judge in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee bankruptcy has eliminated the largest number of sexual abuse claims to date in the 4-year-old case.

Federal bankruptcy Judge Susan Kelley has dismissed nine of 10 claims challenged by the archdiocese. In seven of the claims, Kelley ruled they failed to show evidence of fraud. In the two others that were tossed, Kelley said the cases had previously been dismissed by state courts.

As for the remaining case, the Journal Sentinel reports the judge ruled there’s evidence the archdiocese may have known as early as the 1950s that the Rev. Lawrence Murphy was molesting boys a St. John’s School for the Deaf in Milwaukee.

Archdiocese spokesman Jerry Topczewski (top-CHES’-kee) says the ruling affirms their position “that the vast majority of abuse was not known to the archdiocese until years after it occurred.”

MILWAUKEE (AP) – A Milwaukee lawyer has been sentenced to house arrest for helping a client collect $325,000 in an arson fraud.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports 62-year-old Harvey Goldstein will spend six months of home confinement as part of a one-year probation sentence. He also must pay more than $44,000 in restitution.

Goldstein initially lied to investigators about his knowledge of the 2010 building arson. He later admitted he was part of his client’s plot to collect insurance proceeds after the blaze.

Mathew Lemberger was charged with arson, fraud and murder-for-hire in the fire that destroyed his truck parts business in Denmark, Wisconsin. He pleaded guilty in the arson of his business and his house in 2009 as part of another fraud scheme.

Lemberger was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

GARY, Ind. (AP) – Police say the remains of two babies have been found in small boxes above ceiling tiles in a northwestern Indiana funeral home.

Gary police and the Lake County coroner on Wednesday removed the bodies of a stillborn and a newborn from Smith, Bizzell and Warner Funeral Home. Investigators said the bodies appeared mummified or skeletonized. One had a tag indicating the baby was delivered March 3, 1996.

Lake County Coroner Merrilee Frey says the funeral home owners, Concord Family Services Inc., contacted her after finding the remains.

Concord vice president Sharon Vaughn says the home’s previous owners left the bodies. Concord bought the home in 2005.

Gary police Sgt. Thomas Decanter says a criminal investigation has been opened. Autopsies are scheduled Friday.

Gary is located 35 miles southeast of Chicago.

POLK CITY, Fla. (AP) – The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will phase out the show’s iconic elephants from its performances by 2018, telling The Associated Press exclusively that growing public concern about how the animals are treated led to the decision.

Executives from Feld Entertainment, Ringling’s parent company, said the decision to end the circus’s century-old tradition of showcasing elephants was difficult and debated at length. Elephants have often been featured on Ringling’s posters over the decades. The decision is being announced Thursday.

“There’s been somewhat of a mood shift among our consumers,” said Alana Feld, the company’s executive vice president. “A lot of people aren’t comfortable with us touring with our elephants.”

Feld owns 43 elephants, and 29 of the giant animals live at the company’s 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation in central Florida. Thirteen animals will continue to tour with the circus before retiring to the center by 2018. One elephant is on a breeding loan to the Fort Worth Zoo.

Another reason for the decision, company President Kenneth Feld said, was that certain cities and counties have passed “anti-circus” and “anti-elephant” ordinances. The company’s three shows visit 115 cities throughout the year, and Feld said it’s expensive to fight legislation in each jurisdiction. It’s also difficult to plan tours amid constantly changing regulations, he said.

“All of the resources used to fight these things can be put towards the elephants,” Feld said during an interview at the Center for Elephant Conservation. “We’re not reacting to our critics; we’re creating the greatest resource for the preservation of the Asian elephant.”

The circus will continue to use other animals – this year it added a Mongolian troupe of camel stunt riders to its Circus Xtreme show. It will likely showcase more motorsports, daredevils and feats of humans’ physical capabilities. Ringling’s popular Canada-based competitor, Cirque du Soleil, features human acts and doesn’t use wild animals.

“There are endless possibilities,” said Juliette Feld, another executive vice president of the company and a producer of Feld’s Marvel Universe Live, Disney on Ice and Monster Jam shows, among others.

Feld owns the largest herd of Asian elephants in North America. It costs about $65,000 yearly to care for each elephant, and Kenneth Feld said the company would have to build new structures to house the retiring elephants at the center, located in between Orlando and Tampa on a rural, ranchlike property.

Kenneth Feld said initially the center will be open only to researchers, scientists and others studying the Asian elephant.

Eventually, he “hopes it expands to something the public will be able to see.”

“I want everybody’s grandkids to be able to see Asian elephants,” he said.

The center’s youngest elephant is Mike, who will be 2 in August, and the oldest is Mysore, who is 69. One elephant, 6-year-old Barack, was conceived by artificial insemination. Since the center opened in 1995, 26 elephants have been born there.

Ringling’s elephants have been at the center of lawsuits and ongoing complaints from animal rights activists.

In 2014, Feld Entertainment won $25.2 million in settlements from a number of animal-rights groups, including the Humane Society of the United States, ending a 14-year legal battle over unproven allegations that Ringling circus employees mistreated elephants.

The initial lawsuit was filed in 2000 by a former Ringling barn helper who was later found to have been paid at least $190,000 by the animal-rights groups that helped bring the lawsuit. The judge called him “essentially a paid plaintiff” who lacked credibility and standing to sue. The judge rejected the abuse claims following a 2009 trial.

Kenneth Feld testified during that trial about elephants’ importance to the show.

“The symbol of the ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ is the elephant, and that’s what we’ve been known for throughout the world for more than a hundred years.”

When asked by a lawyer whether the show would be the same without the elephants, Feld replied, “No, it wouldn’t.”

This week, Feld said, “Things have changed.”

“How does a business be successful? By adapting,” he said.

Feld noted that when his father bought the circus in 1967, there was still a human sideshow featuring acts such as the bearded lady and other human oddities. His father did away with that, he said.

“We’re always changing and we’re always learning,” he said.

In 2008, Feld acquired a variety of motor sports properties, including monster truck shows, motocross and the International Hot Rod Association, which promotes drag races and other events. In 2010, it created a theatrical motorcycle stunt show called Nuclear Cowboyz. Roughly 30 million people attend one of Feld’s 5,000 live entertainment shows every year.

LAS VEGAS- Three local air traffic controllers received a national safety honor in Las Vegas.

This after they helped save lives during an emergency landing.

A pilot was flying from Rochester, Minnesota to Menominee, Michigan in February of 2014, when the plane ran into trouble with icing.

Three men working in air traffic control at Austin Straubel International Airport in Ashwaubenon tried to guide the pilot to safety.

The plane made a rough landing in Oconto, but everyone on board survived.

Justin Krenke, Adam Helm and Mike Osterander were honored by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association during an awards ceremony in Las Vegas Wednesday night.

“Very grateful for receiving this award. None of us have planned or want to deal with emergency situations like that. I’m very thankful for the outcome of that emergency,” said Justin Krenke.

Nine awards were handed out, one for each air traffic control region.

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) – Liberia has released its last Ebola patient, a 58-year old English teacher.

Beatrice Yardolo was released Thursday from the Chinese-run Ebola treatment center in the Paynesville district of Monrovia, the capital. On her way home she told The Associated Press she was “one of the happiest persons on earth today.”

Yardolo said had been admitted on Feb. 18.

The head of the Incidence Management System, Tolbert Nyenswah, said there were no other confirmed cases of Ebola in the country. He said Wednesday that once the last patient is released, Liberia can then begin to count up to 42 days to be declared Ebola free in keeping with World Health Organization protocols and standards.

ASHWAUBENON – The Green Bay Film Festival is celebrating it’s 5th year!

The festival will be held Friday, March 6 – Sunday, March 8.  The event is at the Radisson Hotel & Conference Center in Ashwaubenon.

Cyndee Sweetland — Festival Director and Alex Zacarias — President – Film Green Bay — joined FOX 11’s Emily Deem on Good Day Wisconsin to talk about the films and what the festival has to offer.

Click here to see the full Green Bay Film Festival schedule.

SEYMOUR – The regular season is over and now the road to the state tournament is madison is on. The Seymour High School Boy’s Basketball Team hasn’t made it to Madison in the last three years, but the coach and players are hoping to change that this year. Currently ranked No.1 Seymour will take on No. 4 Green Bay Southwest on Friday night. The boy’s basketball team isn’t the only group finding success at Seymour. The school’s dance team qualified for the State tournament in January with its jazz routine, making it was only the second time in Seymour history the team made it to state. Members of the jazz band are also gearing up to compete at the local/regional Solo Ensemble Fest at Hortonville this weekend. FOX 11’s Pauleen Le spent the morning checking out the school’s success.

 

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – With Wisconsin positioned to become the third Midwestern state in as many years to enact a right-to-work law, the Assembly begins debate Thursday on a plan Republican Gov. Scott Walker has promised to quickly sign and Democrats lack the votes to stop.

Following in the footsteps of Indiana and Michigan, the two most recent states to approve legislation making the paying of union dues voluntary, Wisconsin would become the 25th right-to-work state. The Assembly scheduled 24 hours of debate, planning to wrap up no later than 9 a.m. Friday, and Walker, a likely presidential candidate, expects to sign it Monday.

During the two weeks that the bill rocketed through the Legislature, both supporters and opponents turned to the experiences of Indiana and Michigan to get a sense of what may happen in Wisconsin.

Economists and others who study the issue say it’s too soon to draw conclusions from either state about what effect right-to-work is having. But that hasn’t stopped proponents from pointing to job growth in Indiana, and detractors highlighting union membership slides in Michigan, as possible outcomes headed Wisconsin’s way.

Under right-to-work, private-sector businesses cannot enter labor contracts that require workers to pay union dues. Supporters say that it’s about worker freedom and that right-to-work will make Wisconsin more attractive to businesses looking to move in or expand. But opponents say the goal is to destroy unions, which they argue will hurt the economy, lower wages and endanger workplace safety.

Michigan has seen declines in union membership since right-to-work took effect there, and that’s not even accounting for Detroit automakers with contracts due to expire in September.

Michigan had one of the sharpest year-to-year drops in union membership nationwide last year, declining from 16.3 percent in 2013 to 14.5 percent. The decrease came in the first full year under the state’s right-to-work law, after union membership dipped slightly in 2012 when the law was in effect for nine months.

Union officials say another driver for the drop is a law from that year that received less attention. It declared that 42,000 in-home health care workers were no longer eligible to be represented by a union because many were family members being reimbursed by Medicaid. Unions were unable to overturn the measure at the ballot box.

While union membership is down, Michigan economic development officials have been unable to provide any examples of businesses expanding or locating in the state because of the law. Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, though, has said some companies had refused to even consider Michigan before it became a right-to-work state.

Scott Manley, lobbyist for Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, makes similar arguments for Wisconsin, saying the state is being passed over by companies that won’t even consider it without right-to-work.

He points to Indiana as a success story.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation reports that since right-to-work took effect in 2012, companies behind 107 new projects or expansions cited right-to-work as a factor in their decision to locate or grow in the state. These projects account for about 10,370 projected new jobs and more than $3.4 billion in investment.

“We’d like to put Wisconsin in a position to compete with those kinds of projects that Indiana is getting right now,” Manley said during an Assembly hearing on the bill earlier this week. “Businesses view right-to-work states as having a more favorable business climate.”

In 2012, when the right-to-work law was signed, Indiana’s union membership was at its lowest point in 25 years with just 9.1 percent of all workers members of unions. Since then, union membership has actually gone up to 10.7 percent, a jump that some have said is not surprising given that the law was passed while the state was still recovering from the recession and since then economic development has increased.

Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University, said it’s too soon to link the increase to the right-to-work law or conclusively isolate its impact. Abdur Chowdhury, an economics professor at Marquette University, agreed it’s too soon to know what effect the laws have had in Michigan and Indiana.

He said it would be better to examine Oklahoma, which enacted its law in 2001, the third most-recent state to do so. Union membership there dropped from 8.6 percent the year the law went into effect to 6 percent last year. And most of the economic indicators show that Oklahoma is worse off than Wisconsin, Chowdhury said.

Chowdhury predicted that making Wisconsin a right-to-work state will result in a loss of $4.5 billion in income, along with reducing unions’ power. Union membership in Wisconsin has already been steadily declining, from 17.8 percent in 2000 to just 11.7 percent last year.

“There’s no economic reason to support a right-to-work law,” he said.

GREEN BAY- Temperatures Thursday morning will be below zero and with winds of 5 to 10 mph the wind chills will be between -15 and -25.

Afternoon temperatures will rise to near 14 (normal high is 34) with mostly sunny skies.

Expect another chilly morning Friday with temperatures dropping to near 1 and wind chills to -15.

After that our weather pattern will start to undergo a major shift and temperatures will be on the rise.

We warm up Friday with mostly cloudy skies and a high near 27.

Saturday’s high will be near 33.

Click here for Director of Meteorology Pete Petoniak’s full forecast.