Green Bay News

OCONTO FALLS – A Denmark man is charged after police in Oconto Falls say he was trying to meet underage girls for sex.

Police say 45-year-old Scott Arveson was arrested on Feb. 15 after he went to Oconto Falls to meet a 15-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl.

Arveson contacted the girls through an ad on Craigslist.

Arveson is charged with use of a computer to facilitate a child sex crime, child enticement and causing a child 12-18 to view sexual activity. He is held in the Oconto County Jail on a $50,000 cash bond.

MILWAUKEE — It took a little while for Brewers pitcher Kyle Lohse to get over the sting of the 2014 season.

A 9-22 record to wrap up the year dropped Milwaukee out of first place and right out of playoff contention.

The wait is over. It’s time to look forward again for the Brewers with pitchers and catchers scheduled to report to spring training on Friday.

“Obviously, we were all pretty disappointed with how it ended there, but there comes a time when you just have to turn the page,” Lohse said. “That’s going to be the main thing here, is we can’t change what happened last year.

“We just have to let it go and not let it affect anything moving forward, just like one game to another,” he said last month at a Brewers’ fan event in Milwaukee.

The full squad must report to the team’s training complex in Phoenix by Wednesday.

There is no getting around it: Airing out any issues lingering from the end of last season will be important for a team didn’t make major changes in the offseason.

“I’ll say something about it but it’s in the past,” manager Ron Roenicke said. “We need to learn from it but we need to move on.”

But not without an unexpected obstacle after Jonathan Lucroy was diagnosed last week with a strained right hamstring that will keep the All-Star catcher out of spring games for four to six weeks.

Lucroy started 136 games behind the plate last season, when he hit .301 with 13 homers, 69 RBIs and a franchise-record 53 doubles. Lucroy won’t run in the spring, though he hopes to do almost everything else on the practice fields.

On the mound, Milwaukee will start spring training without its incumbent closer with Francisco Rodriguez still a free agent. The All-Star reliever went 44 of 49 in save opportunities last season.

Without Rodriguez, Jonathan Broxton would be the favorite to close. The right-hander previously closed games with the Dodgers and Royals.

The Brewers are also hoping that young right-hander Jimmy Nelson can assume the spot in the pitching rotation left open following the trade of veteran Yovani Gallardo to the Texas Rangers.

Pitcher Marco Estrada is also gone after being dealt to Toronto for first baseman Adam Lind, further sapping the Brewers’ starting pitching depth.

So young starters will have the opportunities to make an impression in trying to make the team in long relief. Last month, general manager Doug Melvin said that he saw touted prospect Taylor Jungmann, who is slated to start the season at Triple-A, as the sixth starter.

Besides Lohse and Nelson, the Brewers’ rotation includes Wily Peralta, Matt Garza and Mike Fiers.

“We feel comfortable one through five,” Melvin said. “We still have to determine who would step in and be a starter if someone went down with an injury. We don’t have that answer right now.”

INDIANAPOLIS — Every running back at the NFL Scouting Combine knows about it. Most are asked about it by media members. The fact isn’t promising for backs hoping to be first-day selections in the NFL Draft: no running back has been picked in the first round of the Draft since Cleveland tabbed Trent Richardson in 2012. Being picked later doesn’t hold many careers back — just ask Eddie Lacy — but one of Bucky’s best and brightest hoping to buck the current cold spell.

“There’s a lot of running backs out here including myself trying to break that trend,” said former Badgers running back Melvin Gordon.

Gordon is pegged by many as the top running back available in the Draft and a possible first round pick. Gordon left school after his redshirt sophomore year, but could’ve gone pro a season ago, deciding to return to Madison instead of heading for the NFL.

“It’s a decision I’m proud of,” said Gordon. “I came back because I wanted to be more of a complete running back, a better football player. I think I achieved that. I showed people I don’t need James or Montee to pass protect. I wasn’t perfect, no one is, you make mistakes but they can count on me.”

Gordon achieved what he wanted as a player and on the stat sheets: his 4,915 career rushing yards were third most in Wisconsin history and he ended up just shy of Barry Sanders’ single-season rushing record. The next distance he has to travel — from now to Draft day — is a little nerve-wracking.

“You lay in bed at night, think about what this coach is going to say, what that coach is going to say,” said Gordon. “You get a little nervous. I’m really excited about this whole process.”

STOCKBRIDGE – The frigid temperatures created a very cold canvas for some “arctic art” in Calumet County.

Ice shoves have been piling up on the eastern shore of Lake Winnebago near Stockbridge.

“The blocks, some of them are a foot to two foot thick, the size of a car,” said Adam Backus, Calumet County Parks Director.

The shoves stretch about two miles in Calumet County Park.

Backus says the scenes can change with the weather, turning ice crystals into frozen feathers.

Park leaders say the blocks arrive every season, and vary from year to year. But this Winter, they say the ice came early.

“We typically do get ice shoves in December, by they typically don’t stay. So, it’s kind of a phenomenon that we had basically two big layers of ice shove for the Winter season,” said Backus.

Just down the shoreline, at the park’s boat launch, the big blocks had to go.

“They come in, blocked our path on the way out,” said Joe Schumacher, Brickyard Fishing Club.

Schumacher says his Brickyard Fishing Club maintains the ice on the part of Lake Winnebago near Stockbridge.

“Got that cleared out, and we could plow a road. Checked ice thickness many times, so it was safe to drive. Put trees out, and here we are today,” said Schumacher.

And as the sturgeon spearers share the frozen road, park leaders say they know another round of ice will soon shove ashore.

“Kind of an oddball event. They came here in December, and they haven’t gone away. They’ve been here ever since. We’ll probably get more of them in the Spring,” said Backus.

Park officials say they don’t expect the shoves to melt until the end of March.

Park officials say the shoves can be destructive.

The ice can cause damage to roadways, and small buildings that are close to the lake.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Spring training opens this weekend for the Milwaukee Brewers with the team looking to get over the sting of the 2014 season.

A 9-22 record to wrap up the year dropped Milwaukee from first place in the NL Central to out of the playoffs.

Starter Kyle Lohse said it was a disappointing ending. But the veteran is ready to move forward with pitchers and catchers scheduled to report to the team’s training complex in Phoenix on Friday.

The full squad must report by Wednesday. The team will likely air lingering issues left over from last season’s collapse when they meet.

Manager Ron Roenicke has said that he will say something about the disappointing ending, but that the Brewers ultimately need to learn from it and move on.

WASHINGTON (AP) – For roughly 500,000 Wal-Mart workers set to receive pay raises, something is better than nothing.

But it’s still not much. It still won’t be enough for many of them to afford housing and transportation and feed and raise children without government aid, according to economists and researchers.

The nation’s largest private employer – with 1.3 million jobs – unveiled a salary bump for many of its lowest-paid workers on Thursday, promising a 1.1 percent increase in the average full-time wage over the next year, to $13 an hour. Part-time workers would get a 5.2 percent raise, to an average $10 an hour, by February 2016.

Both figures still fall below the $15 an hour “living wage” that many union-backed Wal-Mart employees have been pushing for. Workers are also campaigning for steep wage hikes at other major non-unionized employers – including McDonalds and other fast food chains, driven by rising income inequality and a decades-long decline in middle-class jobs.

Despite the raise, incomes for many Wal-Mart workers would still hover near the poverty line.

Wal-Mart’s reputation has been pummeled by long-standing complaints that its workers can’t even afford cars to shorten their commutes. Many depend on families, friends, churches and Medicaid and other forms of government assistance, experiences that contradict the career possibilities being advertised by Wal-Mart.

“As important as a starting wage is, what’s even more important is opportunity, and we’ll continue to provide that ladder that any of you can climb,” Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon said Thursday in a note to employees.

But the announcement was clearly a recognition that workers in the retail economy are finding fewer ladder rungs to climb. In many cases, people are staying at entry-level jobs for their entire careers, stagnating their incomes and limiting their ability to spend at stores such as Wal-Mart.

Bill Simon, a former senior Wal-Mart executive, acknowledged as much to The Associated Press for a story published last year, when he said that many of the superstore retailer’s employees would be better off seeking higher-paying jobs elsewhere.

Still, the impact of the pay raise will depend on where Wal-Mart workers live.

In Fayetteville, Arkansas – where Wal-Mart is headquartered – a single parent of one child would need to earn $16.85 an hour, almost $4 an hour more than Wal-Mart’s pay raise for full-time workers, according to a living wage calculator created Amy Glasmeier, a professor of economic geography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The calculator examines the costs of food, housing, transportation and medical care around the country.

In pricier parts of the country, the living wage is far higher: In Philadelphia, it rises to $19.68 an hour. In San Leandro, California, one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s more affordable suburbs, a single parent’s living wage is $23.22.

“The real challenge for them is to step up and calculate market by market, what is a fair wage,” Glasmeier said.

But wages are only one factor for low-paid retail workers. At Wal-Mart and many other stores, many never get enough hours to earn a sufficient income.

“Are they able to get those hours so that they can earn a living wage, is the really big question,” said Heather Boushey, executive director and chief economist at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.

The answer? Doubtful.

Roughly half of all Wal-Mart employees work part-time. Wal-Mart announced Thursday that along with the raises, employees who want more hours would now be able to “view open shifts.” But the company did not commit to offering them more hours.

With the raise, an average full-time employee working 35 hours a week would make $23,660 a year. An average part-time employee working 30 hours a week would earn only $15,600, just below the federal poverty line for a two-person household.

Some economists say it’s unfair to expect Wal-Mart and other retailers to bear the burden of fixing poverty.

“It’s unrealistic and inappropriate to expect that corporations will achieve that goal for the rest of society,” said Michael Strain, deputy director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

Instead, the burden should be borne by society as a whole, through the government, Strain said. He notes that federal programs such as the Earned Income Tax Credit help those with low wages. Nearly 28 million households received the credit in 2013, getting an average payment of $2,407 after filing their taxes, according to the IRS.

“All of society should pitch in,” Strain said. “If you only do it through $15 an hour, then its only McDonalds and Wal-Mart contributing.”

GREEN BAY – The death of a child is devastating for parents. Working through the grief is different for everyone but an area family is making a difference as they work through theirs.

Images of love hang on the wall of Nikki Rogers’ home. These are some of the last pictures taken, before her oldest daughter died.

“Oh Skyler was fun. She loved to take selfies of herself, and doing makeup, and hang out with her little sister,” said Nikki Rogers, Green Bay.

14-year-old Skyler’s death by suicide was an unexpected heartbreak for the family. They say she was bullied. It happened not even four months ago.

“And I can tell you exactly where I was when I got the phone call, what street I was on, what time of day it was,” said Beth Vanden Bush, Skyler’s aunt.

Skyler’s aunt Beth remembers it like yesterday.

“I can’t honestly tell you how I got to the hospital. I know I made my way there eventually,” said Vanden Bush.

In pictures, Skyler was the typical 8th grade girl, going to Red Smith Elementary school, in Green Bay.

“I mean, when you’re 14-years-old, and you feel like you don’t have any other options. Imagine what was going through her mind,” said Vanden Bush.

After Skyler’s death, her family decided they wanted to do something.

“We don’t want her to be forgotten. We want this tragedy to have something good come out of it,” said Vanden Bush.

“We just felt that we needed to do something positive to keep Skyler’s memory going and help other children. Because sometimes kids feel they don’t have anybody to go to,” said Rogers.

The family started a group called “Skyler Rogers, Stay Strong Organization.”  They have a Facebook page, and wrist bands. The group is dedicated to bringing awareness to bullying and suicide.

“Bullying is a very big epidemic right now.  We want to be able to help parents and help kids and educate,” said Rogers.

But the family says, working on the project has helped them.

“It’s given us something to work at, instead of sitting around and grieving, and feeling sorry for ourselves. We’re able to help others.  We’re able to focus our energy and time on helping somebody else,” said Rogers.

The effort is just beginning. But one day, she hopes to speak to groups and share Skyler’s story.

“If I can help, if we can help just one kid, then we know that we’ve made a difference,” said Rogers.

And perhaps even help prevent another tragedy.

FOX 11 is dedicated to increasing public awareness of suicide. For more information, click here.

To submit a “Making a Difference” story idea, click here.

LAS VEGAS (AP) – A suspect was arrested Thursday in the killing of a Las Vegas mother of four who was gunned down a week ago in a road-rage shootout after giving her daughter a driving lesson, police said.

Police Capt. Chris Tomaino said the suspect was arrested around 2 p.m. at a home about a block from where Tammy Meyers, 44, lived.

Meyers’ husband showed up at the scene and attempted to cross the street in front of the house but he was held back by police. He then yelled, “There’s the animal, a block away.”

The suspect was being taken to police headquarters to be interviewed. It’s unclear if the man was believed to be the shooter.

Earlier, SWAT teams had surrounded the home and authorities tried to contact him using a bullhorn to get him to surrender.

Police have said Meyers was shot in the head in her driveway Thursday after confrontations that began when she was giving her teen daughter a driving lesson and the girl honked at a driver she felt was speeding.

Police say it was a two-way shootout after Meyers roused her son to grab his gun and go looking for the driver.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A bill that would make upskirting – the act of secretly taking a photo of someone’s genitals, buttocks or breasts – a stand-alone felony has reached a standstill in a state Senate committee.

Current state law doesn’t address upskirting. District attorneys, however typically prosecute upskirting as a misdemeanor invasion of privacy. The bill would make upskirting a felony punishable by up to 3 ½ years in prison.

Republican state Sen. Van Wanggaard, the leader of the Senate’s judiciary committee, says the bill has stalled. He says committee members are concerned making upskirting a felony is too harsh.

The bill’s author, Mequon Republican Rep. Jim Ott, says the punishment fits the crime. He says upskirting can leave victims traumatized.

The state Assembly approved the bill on a voice vote last month.

MILWAUKEE — A person familiar with the deal tells The Associated Press that the Bucks have traded guard Brandon Knight to Phoenix in a three-team deal that also sends Michael Carter-Williams from Philadelphia to Milwaukee.

The person spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been officially announced.

The Bucks also get guard Tyler Ennis and forward Miles Plumlee from Phoenix.

HARLAN, Ky. (AP) — The cold might not bother Disney’s Queen Elsa, but it’s wreaking enough havoc in Kentucky that a police department announced a joke warrant for the popular “Frozen” character’s arrest.

Police in the small, rural town of Harlan posted a Facebook message Wednesday about Elsa.

They wrote: “Suspect is a blonde female last seen wearing a long blue dress and is known to burst into song ‘Let it Go!’ As you can see by the weather she is very dangerous.”

Police soon posted another message, telling residents that all kidding aside, they should take the weather seriously and be careful.

A massive system dropped more than a foot of snow in parts of Kentucky. Bitterly cold temperatures moved in Wednesday night and were likely to stay for several days.

Nature’s winter creation is on full display at Calumet County Park in the town of Stockbridge.

GREEN BAY – The Art Garage in Green Bay is almost ready to unveil a community sculpture at the Austin Straubel International Airport as part of its “Creativity Soars” campaign.

More than 200 people of all ages contributed to the project by designing a plane that will be added to the sculpture. When done, the piece will literally go from the ceiling in the grand lobby, all the way down to the floor.

Organizers say this is a great way to highlight the community’s talent and help non-profit organizations.

The Chair of Art Meets Heart, Sandy Melroy, says, “We bring the community together we try to and are free at the door, we’re a non-profit organization. Everything from this event goes to support the Art Garage.”

The sculpture will be revealed at next Thursday’s gala, which begins at 7:00 p.m. at the airport.

You can order tickets by calling (920) 448-6800 or going online here.

CASTILE, N.Y. (AP) — The arctic conditions have turned a geyser at a state park in western New York into a five-story-tall “ice volcano.”

The geyser is in a pond near the Glen Iris Inn at Letchworth State Park, which straddles the Wyoming-Livingston county line 40 miles south of Rochester. Days of subzero temperatures have formed a solid cone of ice several feet thick with water still spouting out of the top.

Park officials tell local media that the formation dubbed an ice volcano is at least 50 feet high.

Winter is normally a quiet season for the park, known as the “Grand Canyon of the East” for its scenic gorges, but dozens of people are showing up daily to see the frozen wonder while it lasts.

See video of the ice volcano below:

The Community Blood Centers in Northeast Wisconsin has issued a critical appeal for blood donors with O-negative blood types.

O-negative is the universal blood type and only about 8 percent of the population has this type of blood.

The low blood supply is due to a combination of factors including winter weather, flu, and decreased donor turnout.

As of Thursday, the blood supply was down about 75 percent of its target.

The center is encouraging people to donate blood in the next five days.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A “superbug” outbreak suspected in the deaths of two patients at a Los Angeles hospital has raised questions about the adequacy of the procedures for disinfecting a medical instrument used on more than a half-million people in the U.S. every year.

At least seven people — two of whom died — have been infected by a potentially lethal, antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria after undergoing endoscopic procedures at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center between October and January, and more than 170 other patients may have been exposed as well, UCLA said.

UCLA said Wednesday that the infections may have been transmitted through at least two contaminated endoscopes that were used to diagnose and treat pancreatic and bile-duct problems.

An endoscope — or more specifically in this case, a duodenoscope — is a thin, flexible fiber-optic tube that is inserted down the throat to enable a doctor to examine an organ. The device typically has a light and a miniature camera.

“We notified all patients who had this type of procedure, and we were using seven different scopes. Only two of them were found to be infected. In an abundance of caution, we notified everybody,” UCLA spokeswoman Dale Tate said.

The two medical devices carried the bacteria even though they had been sterilized according to the manufacturer’s specifications, UCLA said.

“We removed the infected instruments, and we have heightened the sterilization process,” Tate said.

On Thursday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an advisory warning doctors that even when a manufacturer’s cleaning instructions are followed, infectious germs may linger in the devices. Their complex design and tiny parts make complete disinfection extremely difficult, the advisory said.

More than 500,000 patients undergo procedures using duodenoscopes in the U.S. every year, according to the FDA.

The germ is known as Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, and similar outbreaks have been reported around the nation. They are difficult to treat because some varieties are resistant to most known antibiotics.

By one estimate, CRE can contribute to death in up to half of seriously infected patients, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CRE can cause infections of the bladder or lungs. Symptoms can include coughing, fever and chills.

The bacteria may have been a “contributing factor” in the deaths of two UCLA patients, the university said in a statement. Those who may have been exposed are being sent free home-testing kits that the university will analyze.

National figures on the bacteria are not kept, but 47 states have seen cases, the CDC said.

One outbreak occurred in Illinois in 2013. Dozens of patients were exposed to CRE, with some cases apparently linked to a tainted endoscope used at a hospital.

A Seattle hospital, Virginia Mason Medical Center, reported in January that CRE linked to an endoscope sickened at least 35 patients, and 11 died, though it was unclear whether the infection played a role in those deaths.

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AP Medical Writer Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to this report.

INDIANAPOLIS — With two backup quarterbacks heading towards free agency, the Packers could look to part of the league’s new wave of signal callers to be their backup. Nevada product Cody Fajardo was incredibly productive through his four years as a starter, finishing his career as the school’s all-time completions leader — his numbers rivaling the guy he took over for, 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. He says he met informally with the Packers already in Indianapolis. He is projected as a low-round NFL Draft pick.

On being compared to Colin Kaepernick
You know if you look at our numbers side by side, they’re pretty accurate. Pretty close together. Usually you can’t bring up my name without bringing up Kaep or vice versa, especially because we were both 4-year starts, both have 9,000 [passing], 3,000 [rushing] yards. It’s been an honor just to be mentioned with him.

Staying in touch with Kaepernick
He’s a busy guy. I know I made his cut, he changes his number almost every month. He’s pretty busy. I have a good story: the day of the Super Bowl I texted him, just said, ‘hey, I’m wishing you luck out there.’ Within 5 minutes he texted me back. Kind of his biggest day, it felt good, I felt we had a real friendship, a real relationship.

Transitioning from college pistol offense to playing in the NFL
For me, it’s all about under center. Timing your drop with the route, your 5-steps, your 7-steps, at Nevada we went 3-step. A lot of the stuff I did transitions to the NFL, full-field progressions, protections. More getting comfortable being under center is what I’m focusing on.

The advantage spread/running quarterbacks give NFL teams
I think it’s just the versatility we have. You see in the NFL is transitioning more to the zone read: I’ve done it for 4 years. Kaep’s done a great job implementing it, teams look and say, ‘hey, we might be able to work with it.’ Any team that runs the zone read offense, I think I’d be a perfect fit. If I go to a more pro style offense, I’ll be prepared, too.

How often his college offense is brought up by coaches at the Combine
A lot, just because they watch tape and are like, ‘you’re never under center.’ For me personally, I’m just excited to get to the NFL and have an opportunity to play either under center or in the shotgun.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Almost two dozen liberal Democrats on Thursday asked House Speaker John Boehner to postpone Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of Congress next month.

“It appears that you are using a foreign leader as a political tool against the President,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Boehner.

Netanyahu’s speech is controversial because it comes as the Obama administration is negotiating with Iran over that country’s nuclear program — negotiations that Netanyahu says could put Israel at risk. The speech is also set just two weeks before Netanyahu faces voters at home for re-election.

Republicans are pushing tougher sanctions on Tehran. Boehner did not consult with the White House before inviting Netanyahu.

“This appears to be an attempt to promote new sanctions legislation against Iran that could undermine critical negotiations,” the Democrats wrote.

Generally speaking, the lawmakers who signed the letter are among the most left-leaning Democrats, representing 12 percent of their party’s House membership. It was written by Democratic Reps. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Steve Cohen of Tennessee and Maxine Waters of California and signed by 20 others.

“Support for the State of Israel in Congress has always been bipartisan, and it should remain so,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s government on Thursday pledged 970 million kroner ($130 million) to strengthen anti-terrorism measures, including by boosting foreign and domestic intelligence gathering.

The announcement follows weekend attacks against a free speech event and a synagogue left two people dead and five wounded in Copenhagen.

The government started drafting the plans last month after lawmakers demanded a review of anti-terror measures following the terror attacks by Islamic extremists in Paris.

Social Democratic Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt says the plan includes 415 million kroner ($56 million) to boost efforts to monitor Danes joining Islamic militant groups abroad and 200 million kroner to the domestic intelligence agency, and 150 million kroner ($20 million) to more IT and analysis capacity.

The government also wants more SWAT team members and bodyguards.

“Unfortunately I don’t think we ever get done (with fighting terror). The threat is changing all the time,” Thorning-Schmidt said. After the attacks in the United States in 2001, Denmark tightened its terror legislation in 2002 and 2006.

The center-right opposition is expected to back the plan.

A Danish filmmaker and a Jewish security guard were killed in the shootings. Five police officers were wounded. The 22-year-old gunman, Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, was killed by police in a shootout early Sunday.

Defense Minister Nicolai Wammen said Thursday that the M95 assault rifle that El-Hussein used in the first attack had been stolen in late 2013 from the home of a member of Denmark’s Home Guard, a volunteer unit.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the fight against violent extremism, President Barack Obama argues the U.S. has one thing going for it that Europe doesn’t: a long tradition of warmly embracing its immigrants, including Muslims.

With the Islamic State group spreading and terrorists gaining strength in the Mideast and Africa, Obama has sought to use this week’s White House summit on violent extremism to urge the world to broaden its response far beyond military interventions. U.S. airstrikes have managed to blunt some of the militants’ gains in Iraq and Syria, but they don’t address the extreme ideologies that underpin deadly groups such as IS, al-Shabab and Boko Haram.

During the summit’s closing session Thursday at the State Department, Obama urged delegates from 65 countries to “confront the warped ideology” espoused by terror groups, particularly efforts to use Islam to justify violence.

“These terrorists are desperate for legitimacy and all us have a responsibility to refute the notion that groups like ISIL somehow represent Islam, because that is a falsehood that embraces the terrorist narrative,” Obama said, using an acronym to refer to the Islamic State.

The president urged Arab nations in particular to take steps to quell sectarian violence and boost economic and educational opportunities that could provide young people in particular options beyond joining terror groups.

But even in the U.S., not all Muslim-Americans feel like full members of American society, and security experts warned against assuming that the U.S. is impervious to those who seek to recruit and radicalize.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the U.S. has largely been spared the terrorist assaults that have hit cities in Denmark, Belgium and France, growing out of radical interpretations of Islam. In the weeks since the Charlie Hebdo newspaper shootings in Paris, Obama and other U.S. figures have portrayed the U.S. as being at a lower risk. After all, America is known as the “Great Melting Pot,” where minorities of all stripes are made to feel at home.

“In the U.S., you can be 100 percent American and 100 percent anything else. In Europe, you have to reduce the percentage of anything else to be more European,” said Ahmed Younis, a prominent Muslim-American leader participating in the summit. “People burn and destroy what they perceive to not be their own. They do not burn and destroy what they perceive to own.”

Speaking Thursday morning, Secretary of State John Kerry told participants: “There’s been a silly debate in the media in the last days about what you have to do. You have to do everything. You have to take the people off the battlefield, who are there today.”

“But you’re kind of stupid if all you do is do that and you don’t prevent more people from going to the battlefield,” he said.

Ample evidence suggests that Muslims in America do feel more integrated into society than those living in Europe. Often marginalized and relegated to poorer neighborhoods in European cities, many Muslim immigrants to the U.S. have flourished as doctors and scientists and in other white-collar professions. Middle-class, predominantly Muslim or Arab-American enclaves have cropped up in places such as Dearborn, Michigan, and Minneapolis, allowing immigrants to carve out their own stories.

“That’s the story extremists and terrorists don’t want the world to know: Muslims succeeding and thriving in America,” Obama said during separate remarks at the summit Wednesday.

There’s also reason to believe that sense of successful assimilation has offered a degree of protection against the allure of extremism. In 2011, a Pew Research Center survey of American Muslims found that just 2 in 10 Muslims in the U.S. thought there was a great deal or a fair amount of support for extremism among Muslim Americans. Roughly 80 percent said suicide bombings and other violence against civilians was never justified to defend Islam from its enemies, compared to just 8 percent who said it was sometimes or often justified.

Europe, where many Muslims or their ancestors emigrated from former colonies, is host to a much larger Muslim population. There were about 1,350,000 self-identified Muslims in the U.S. in 2008, the last date for which Census data is available. France, by comparison, has an estimated 5 million Muslims — about 8 percent of the total population. In the U.K., 2011 census data counted about 2.7 million Muslims out of a population of 63.1 million.

But within America’s smaller Muslim population, not everyone feels they’ve been fully embraced by society.

Jamila Nasser, a high school junior, said she rarely sees good news about Muslims in the American media. She doesn’t expect a positive reception once she ventures outside of Dearborn, which has elected Arabs and Muslims to many local offices and has one of the largest concentrations of Muslims in North America.

“For being a Muslim American growing up in America, I really don’t feel a part of it,” she said.

As Islamic State militants have seized control of a major swath of Iraq and Syria, the global community has taken alarm at how alluring the group’s brutal ideology has proven for individuals outside the Middle East. U.S. officials have said roughly 20,000 volunteers from around the world have joined IS or other extremist groups fighting in Syria. Of those, about 150 are believed to be Americans, according to the National Counterterrorism Center.

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Associated Press writers Emily Swanson and Jesse Holland in Washington, Jeff Karoub in Detroit, Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Lori Hinnant in Paris and Greg Katz in London contributed to this report.