Green Bay News

MARINETTE – A Wausaukee woman charged with child neglect for discouraging medical treatment of her son will stand trial.

Katrina Blasing waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday, according to online court records. Arraignment is scheduled for March 5.

Blasing’s four-month-old son suffered extensive injuries while in the care of Ryan Lenz. He faces a March 10 preliminary hearing, also on a child neglect charge.

Neither Basing nor Lenz – or any one else – is charged with actually causing the abuse, however.

According to the criminal complaint, the baby’s mother, Katrina Blasing, left the child with a friend in the town of Stephenson. Blasing went to Milwaukee with the friend and the friend’s grandmother. Lenz was at the house and was watching the baby. The complaint says e noticed the baby was injured and called Blasing, who told him to wait until she returned. Prosecutors say Lenz cared for the baby and called Blasing several times to ask if the baby should be taken to the hospital. Each time, Blasing said to wait until she returned.

Finally, several hours after Lenz first noticed the injuries, Blasing called 911 for medical help. It is unclear who actually abused the baby.

According to a criminal complaint, doctors found that the child had severe injuries including fractures to his skull and other parts of his body, brain injuries and bite marks. Doctors said some of the injuries were fresh, but some were old. Doctors went on to say the injuries were unlikely to be caused by normal household accidents; they more likely resulted from the baby being slammed, shaken or thrown.

Good Day Wisconsin gave away a $10,000 shopping spree Feb. 25, 2015, at Wenz Home Furniture in Green Bay.

Edvest and the Green Bay Packers are teaming up to give away prizes, including a college savings account and a trip to announce a Packers selection in the NFL Draft.

The Packers and Edvest say the grand prize in the Big Apple Giveaway will be a $10,000 college savings account and a trip to Chicago to announce the Packers’ fourth-round choice at the NFL Draft. Edvest also plans to give away a $100 gift card to the Packers Pro Shop each week for four weeks.

The sweepstakes is open to parents, grandparents or legal guardians of children ages 7-15. Both the entrant and the child must live in Wisconsin. Entries are open from Feb. 25 to April 5.

• Click here to enter and find more details

Edvest is a savings plan administered by the state of Wisconsin.

MADISON (AP) – Minority Democrats in the state Assembly say Republican Gov. Scott Walker is using right-to-work legislation to distract from his budget proposal.

In a press conference Wednesday Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca and Assistant Democratic Leader Katrina Shankland said Walker is using the right-to-work bill to divert attention from unpopular points in his budget.

Walker has said he would not take up right-to-work because it would be a distraction from other issues. But Barca said Walker has pushed the issue back to the forefront to draw attention from the budget and to please conservative groups.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, a Juneau Republican, introduced the right-to-work bill, not Walker. A spokeswoman for the governor didn’t immediately return a message.

The Senate is scheduled to debate the bill Wednesday.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) – The Inglewood City Council unanimously approved a $2 billion stadium plan backed by St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke that clears a path for the NFL to return to the Los Angeles area for the first time in two decades.

But the approval that really matters – the NFL’s blessing for a team to move into the nation’s second-largest media market – is a major work in progress. And there’s still no certainty Kroenke will move the team from St. Louis, where city officials are working to come up with a suitable stadium deal.

Despite the remaining hurdles, Tuesday’s 5-0 council vote prompted Mayor James T. Butts to declare it’s “time to celebrate.” The hours of public comments that preceded the vote, and the cheers that followed it, showed similar enthusiasm.

“I’m not going to sleep, I’ll probably stay up all night just thinking about it,” said Henry Yet, 54, of Brea, a member of the Southern California Rams boosters and one of many in attendance wearing the team’s blue-and-yellow jerseys. “This is a monumental step.”

Only a small handful of dissenters spoke.

Kroenke is part of the Hollywood Park Land Co. development group that is promoting the project just south of Los Angeles. The vote takes an existing redevelopment plan for the site of the former Hollywood Park horse track and adds the 80,000-seat, 60-acre stadium.

It also allowed the city to avoid a more time-consuming approach involving a voter initiative and environmental reviews of issues such as noise, traffic and air pollution.

Yet said he believed Kroenke and the team that left LA two decades ago eventually will return.

“He knows he’s going to be in litigation, but he has the money and the firepower to do it, and the city says yes,” Yet said.

New urgency for Inglewood materialized last week with the announcement that the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers are proposing a shared stadium in nearby Carson if they don’t get their current hometowns to cough up enough money to replace their aging arenas. Another stadium plan is alive for downtown Los Angeles, but it has no team attached.

Stadium proponents in Inglewood said it is important to approve the concept as soon as possible to avoid delays in the redevelopment that already is underway. They would like construction to start by year’s end to have a venue ready for the 2018 football season.

Christopher Meany, executive vice president of the Hollywood Park Land Co., said the plan is important for the community and said at the meeting Tuesday that the project is “really going to be the new heart of Inglewood,” which once was home to the Los Angeles Lakers and LA Kings.

Meany has emphasized that the plan does not include any taxpayer dollars to build the stadium, though developers could recoup tens of millions of dollars in costs ranging from installing streetlights and fire hydrants to running shuttle buses and providing officers as security on game days.

Butts, the mayor, said the project was “the best financial arrangement in the history of stadium deals in this country.” Supporters also said the stadium would bring the city more than 10,000 jobs and tens of millions of dollars a year in new tax revenue.

MADISON (AP) – A state appeals court says a hearing examiner properly ordered a debt settlement company to give up $4.2 million in fees and pay nearly $2 million in forfeitures because it was operating without a license.

Morgan Drexen, Inc., has provided debt settlement services in the state since 2007, collecting $4.2 million in fees from debtors.

State regulators in 2011 alleged the company was operating as an unlicensed adjustment service company. A hearing examiner ordered the company to disgorge itself of its fees and pay $1.9 million in forfeitures.

Morgan Drexen argued the examiner misinterpreted the definition of an adjustment service company. The 2nd District Court of Appeals rejected those arguments Wednesday, saying the company failed to show the examiner’s interpretation was unreasonable.

The company’s attorney didn’t immediately return a message.

LA CROSSE (AP) – La Crosse police arrested a Shopko pharmacy technician who’s accused of stealing about 2,000 pills.

A police report says the 23-year-old technician told investigators she had been stealing pain and anxiety medication and other drugs since she began working at the pharmacy two years ago.

WKBT-TV says the woman has been released from jail on a signature bond. She’s due in court March 4.

MADISON (AP) – University of Wisconsin Colleges officials are pressing an Iowa developer to guarantee a student apartment complex at the Fond du Lac campus will be ready for the fall semester and be free of problems that have plagued its similar projects at the Marshfield and Baraboo schools.

Bluffstone, of Bettendorf, Iowa, has asked for a delay of at least one semester at the Fond du Lac campus. Fond du Lac County’s land lease agreement for the complex requires the apartments to be ready by fall.

The Journal Sentinel reports neither the Baraboo nor Marshfield buildings have occupancy permits from a building inspector, even though students are living in them. Aside from occupancy delays, subcontractors have complained about the lack of payment involving the Baraboo and Marshfield projects. Bluffstone partner Tim Baldwin says the Kentucky company that contracted the subs did not pay them.

GREEN BAY – It was hailed as a promise to guarantee 8th graders a spot in college and money to help pay for it. But less than a decade after the state made that promise, it is ending.

The program is called the Wisconsin Covenant.

Carlos Zuniga and Melissa Alvarez are seniors at Green Bay East High School. Both are heading to college next year. And both are among the final students to be part of the Wisconsin Covenant.

When asked when she thought about being part of the last Wisconsin Covenant class, Alvarez replied, “It’s kind of sad. I have a sister and I wish she would get the opportunity to sign this pledge.”

The Wisconsin Covenant was created eight years ago, when then-Governor Jim Doyle proposed a new program to help more kids get into college and to help those kids pay for it.

“College is within your grasp. Just reach for it,” Doyle said in 2007.

The promise was simple: 8th graders signed a pledge promising to keep a “B” average through high school, do 30 hours of community service and stay out of trouble. In return, the state would guarantee those kids a spot in a Wisconsin college and some level of financial aid.

But when a new governor from a new party came into office in 2011, the state began phasing out the program.

“It is sunset but the program continues to supply the benefits that were offered to its participants,” said John Reinemann from the Wisconsin Higher Educational Aids Board. “It will continue until everyone who was promised benefits has received them.”

Tune in to FOX 11 News at Five and Nine for the full report.

MADISON – The Wisconsin Senate is set to dive into what could be a fierce debate on a Republican right-to-work bill after an evening of bitter protests over the legislation at the state Capitol.

The Senate plans to take up the bill Wednesday afternoon, and it looks like the session could be long and ugly. Democrats are seething after Republicans on the Senate labor committee cut short a public hearing on the bill Tuesday evening. Dozens of people who had waited all day to speak flew into a rage, hurling profanities at the three GOP lawmakers on the panel.

Right-to-work laws, in place in 24 states, prohibit private-sector companies from reaching labor agreements in which workers have to pay fees to the unions as a condition of employment.

Police escort Republican state senators out of Right-to-Work hearing Feb. 24, 2015. (WLUK/Andrew LaCombe)

The legislators quickly approved the bill on a 3-1 vote. Sen. Chris Larson, a Milwaukee Democrat, didn’t vote. When his name was called, he accused committee Chairman Stephen Nass, a Whitewater Republican, of wimping out and left the room under a police escort.

Throngs of union supporters then gathered outside the Senate chamber, chanting, “We’re still here” and “Whose house? Our house!” One protester held a sign that read, “We are not lab rats for Iowa, Scotty,” a reference to GOP Gov. Scott Walker’s presidential ambitions. Another protester wore a suit jacket over red long-johns and a Viking helmet with a sign taped to it that read, “Gore Scott Walker.”

All but one of the protesters cleared out after Capitol Police closed the building at 8 p.m. Officers led the remaining protester away in handcuffs after he refused to leave.

“This is just an example of them taking away workers’ voice,” said Bruce Colburn, vice president of Service Employees International Union. “What they did here was an act of political cowardice.”

Nass began the hearing at 10 a.m. and had planned to end it at 7 p.m. At 6:20 p.m. he announced he had to shut the hearing down due to a “credible threat” that Service Employees International Union was going to disrupt the vote. Colburn said union members had planned to protest the hard 7 p.m. stop but the effort would have been peaceful.

Nass issued a statement Tuesday evening saying he wasn’t going to let protesters wreck the hearing the way they did when Walker was pushing his signature bill stripping most public workers of their union rights through the Legislature in 2011.

The hearing meltdown capped a tense day at the Capitol that saw roughly 2,000 union supporters rally on the building’s steps and in the rotunda. The gathering was nowhere near as large as the protests four years ago. Those rallies went on for weeks and drew as many as 100,000 people.

Union members and supporters rally against right-to-work legislation Feb. 24, 2015, at the state Capitol in Madison. (WLUK/Andrew LaCombe)

Union leaders have organized another rally at noon Wednesday outside the Capitol. The event will include singing and speeches by labor leaders.

Despite all the shouting, it is almost inevitable that the bill will pass. Republicans have the votes they need in the Senate. Republicans control the state Assembly; that chamber is expected to vote on the bill next week. Walker, who is mulling a 2016 presidential run, has repeatedly called right-to-work a distraction but on Friday said he would sign the measure.

Indiana and Michigan were the two most recent states to pass a right-to-work law, in 2012, and such legislation was also being debated this year in the New Mexico Legislature.

“We need to make Wisconsin more competitive and this certainly does that,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, the bill’s sponsor, testified in front of the labor committee.

Opponents said the measure will lower worker pay and allow nonunion members to benefit from protections and benefits negotiated by the union. Unions have to represent both members and nonmembers in workplace grievances and in other situations.

The NFL Players Association issued a statement opposing the legislation, saying right-to-work would hurt union workers at Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers.

Two bus loads of Wisconsin State Troopers were dropped off Wednesday morning outside the Capitol. It appeared to be a similar amount of troopers that were in the area Tuesday.

SUAMICO – This week we got the low down on the emus at the NEW Zoo in Suamico.

Neil Anderson introduces us to the birds in the videos above.

Everyone is o-k after the plane the Badgers Men’s Basketball team was on made an emergency landing.

According to the team’s Twitter account, an engine malfunctioned, which forced the emergency landing in Pittsburgh.

The 5th ranked Badgers lost to 14th ranked Maryland Tuesday night, 58 to 53.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold is leaving his job as a special envoy to the Great Lakes Region of Africa without tipping his hand on his next potentially political move.

Feingold didn’t talk about a possible rematch with Republican Sen. Ron Johnson during a speech Tuesday at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Feingold is wrapping up an 18-month diplomatic mission for the State Department next month.

The Journal Sentinel says the only hint Feingold gave about his future political ambitions came when he thanked his assistant, Mary Irvine, whom he described as his “once, current and I hope future chief of staff.”

Speaking about Africa, Feingold says progress has been made in the Great Lakes Region on neutralizing armed groups and increasing international and U.S. engagement.

GREEN BAY – It will be an exciting day for one lucky Good Day Wisconsin viewer.

We are giving away $10,000 worth of furniture!

It’s all for the Good Day Wisconsin Fabulous Furniture Giveaway from Wenz Home Furniture Store in Green Bay.

FOX 11’s Emily Deem spent Wednesday morning at Wenz to meet all of the 11 qualifiers.

The qualifiers are:

Jeff Brandes of Hilbert

Linda Pasterski of Shawano

Jim Draxler of Kiel

Becky Borkenhagen of Maribel

Carol Butrymowicz of Mountain

Carol Peterson of Marinette

Jason Jandrain of De Pere

Larry Eggert of Green Bay

Donna Masar of Green Bay

Lisa Shelton of Gillett

Julie Remme of Winneconne

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Authorities are searching for a man accused of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old Madison woman who granted his request for a hug.

According to the Madison Police Department, the victim was approached by the suspect early Sunday morning. An incident report states the man told the woman he was from France and asked her for a hug. The man allegedly grabbed the woman inappropriately after she agreed to a hug.

The suspect is described as a white or Hispanic man with short, dark hair. The victim said he was about 5-foot-7 and was wearing a black leather jacket and dark pants.

Ingredients:

1 box (16 ounces) spaghetti, cooked al dente
1/2 cup olive oil
3 to 5 cloves of fresh, chopped
1/2 to 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (optional)
1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for sprinkling on top

Directions:

Drain pasta in a colander, reserving 2 tablespoons of the pasta water. Do not rinse pasta with water. In a large sauté pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add the red pepper flakes and sauté for another few seconds. Add the reserved pasta water and spaghetti and cook for another 1 minute. Toss in parsley and Parmesan cheese. Serve hot with extra Parmesan cheese on top.

GREEN BAY- Another shot of cold air has overtaken the area and will stay with us the rest of the work week.

Wednesday’s high will be near 12 with northwest winds at 5 to 10 mph; skies will be partly sunny.

Thursday’s wake up temperatures will be -7 with wind chills near -20. Expect a high near 9 with a mix of sun and clouds.

TOWN OF LEROY – A 43-year-old Mukwonago man is recovering after he was shot in the face while hunting.

Dodge County officials say he and a 58-year-old man from Richfield were hunting pheasants on private land Tuesday afternoon when the incident happened.

Investigators say birdshot from the Richfield man’s shotgun hit the Mukwonago man, who was about 40 to 50 yards away, when he fired at a bird. Both men were wearing orange hats and vests.

Authorities say the Mukwonago man has non-life threatening injuries.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Days ahead of a looming partial agency shutdown, the pressure is on House Republicans after Senate GOP leaders agreed to Democratic demands and announced legislation to fund the Homeland Security Department without contentious immigration provisions opposed by Democrats and President Barack Obama.

Early reviews from House conservatives were negative ahead of a closed-door caucus meeting set for Wednesday morning, their first since returning from a weeklong congressional recess. Several insisted they could not accept the two-part strategy proposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: a vote on legislation to fund the Homeland Security Department, and a separate vote to overturn Obama’s recent executive actions sparing millions of immigrants in this country illegally from deportation.

The approach “is tantamount to surrender, and won’t meet with support in the people’s House,” said Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz. “I will fight against any funding bill that does not fully defund the president’s illegal actions.”

Yet with a partial shutdown set to trigger at midnight Friday without congressional action, options were few for Republicans who won full control of Congress in November’s midterm elections in part on promises to block Obama’s immigration policies.

They could allow the agency’s funding to expire, violating their leaders’ promises that there would be no more shutdowns on the GOP watch. They could try to pass a short-term extension of current funding levels, postponing the conflict to another day. Or they could go along with McConnell’s strategy of funding the agency fully while registering their disapproval of Obama’s immigration policies with a separate vote.

“I don’t know what’s not to like about this,” McConnell said. “This is an approach that respects both points of view and gives senators an opportunity to go on record on both, both funding the Department of Homeland Security and expressing their opposition to what the president did last November.”

For some Senate Republicans, eager to move beyond fighting over immigration while courting a shutdown of an agency whose mission includes battling terrorism, the choice was clear.

“I think Mitch’s bifurcated voting process is probably acceptable to the vast majority of us,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. “I just don’t know how we do it any other way.”

There was criticism from some Senate conservatives, notably Ted Cruz of Texas, a potential 2016 presidential candidate. But it was unclear how widespread the sentiment was.

For their part, after initial reluctance Senate Democrats looked ready to go along with the Senate GOP leader.

“The issue’s very simple: Fully fund the Department of Homeland Security,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

McConnell’s concession came as Senate Democrats repeatedly raised the issue of terrorism against the GOP, suggesting a partial shutdown would put the nation at risk at a dangerous time. Obama scheduled an immigration event in Miami on Wednesday, picking a presidential swing state to keep the pressure on the GOP.

Boehner faced pressures of his own, from conservatives in his caucus who will be incensed if he moves to follow McConnell’s lead and bow to Democratic demands. Boehner’s office issued a statement that neither accepted nor rejected the proposal McConnell outlined after weeks of gridlock.

“The speaker has been clear: The House has acted, and now Senate Democrats need to stop hiding. Will they continue to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security or not?” said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.

One House Republican allied with Boehner predicted McConnell’s plan might win approval. Noting that a federal judge in Texas has issued an order blocking implementation of Obama’s plan, Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma said the court had “effectively stopped the president’s executive action,” at least now. “So I don’t think we’d run the risk of shutting down Homeland Security,” he added.

The standoff dates to last fall, when Boehner told fellow Republicans they should allow the funding of Homeland Security without conditions until after the elections, when Republicans would have more leverage.

Republicans won control of the Senate, but they lack the 60 votes needed to overcome Democratic blocking actions. As a result, they have been unable to force a vote on House-passed DHS funding legislation that includes the repeal of the immigration policies Obama put into effect in 2012 and last fall.

The stand-alone immigration bill McConnell is now proposing, which is likely to face a test vote on Friday, focuses just on Obama’s most recent immigration directives, which extended work permits and deportation stays to some 4 million immigrants in the country illegally. It left untouched the 2012 policy, which granted protections immigrants brought illegally to the United States as kids, usually by their parents. Nonetheless the bill faces likely defeat by Senate Democrats and a certain veto by Obama.

DALLAS (AP) – Federal officials have agreed to let Southwest Airlines Co. keep flying planes that missed an inspection of a backup rudder system if the planes are checked in the next five days.

Southwest grounded 128 planes – about one-fifth of its fleet – on Tuesday after discovering the missed inspections.

Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King said the airline canceled about 80 flights Tuesday and expected to cancel up to 19 more on Wednesday while some inspections are done. She said the airline expected to finish “a good portion” of the inspections by Wednesday morning.

The missed inspections involved hydraulic systems used to control the rudder if the main system fails. King said that after discovering the lapse, Southwest immediately notified federal safety regulators, took the planes out of service and began checking them.

Late Tuesday night, the Federal Aviation Administration agreed to let the airline resume flying the planes while inspections are done, likely during overnight hours. FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford confirmed that the agency approved the plan after talking with Southwest and Boeing, the manufacturer of the planes.

The missed inspections were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Dallas-based Southwest is the nation’s fourth-biggest airline. It has 665 jets, all of which are some version of the Boeing 737. Tuesday’s groundings involved nearly one-third of its 737-700 models, which seat 137 or 143 passengers, depending on the layout.

Southwest was fined in 2009 for failing to inspect dozens of planes for cracks in the fuselage. Southwest agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle with the FAA, which had sought a $10.2 million penalty.

In 2011, the FAA ordered extensive inspections of some of Southwest’s older 737s after a 5-foot hole burst open in one plane in mid-flight, forcing an emergency landing at a military base in Arizona.