Green Bay News

GREEN BAY – Nancy got a Monday Morning Makeover from Salon Aura in Green Bay.

Check out the video above to see how Jim Gignac and his team did.

OSHKOSH – Police are looking for a man suspected of cashing fraudulent checks.

Ben R. Bosworth, 27, is described as 5-foot-10 and 200 pounds, with blue eyes and blond hair.

Anyone with information is asked to call Det. Brett Robertston at (920) 236-5723. Anonymous tips can be left with Crime Stoppers at (920) 231-8477, by sending a text message with the keyword IGOTYA to 274637 or online.

TOWN OF MARION- One person is dead after a crash in the Town of Marion Sunday night.

The crash happened around 8:30 p.m. Sunday on State Highway 21 and County Road Z in Waushara County.

Officials say the crash involved a van and a car.

One person was thrown from the van and died.

The victim’s name hasn’t been released.

ONALASKA, Wis. (AP) – Guests at a hotel in Onalaska were evacuated when a fire broke out in a laundry room.

Authorities say an employee at Baymont Inn & Suites tried to put out the fire with an extinguisher, fainted and was treated at an area hospital for smoke inhalation Sunday.

WXOW-TV says the hotel will remain closed for a couple of days.

GREEN BAY – As a cost-conscious consumer you wouldn’t pay $3 a gallon for gas, if across town you could buy it for $2.50. But whether you realize it or not that’s what you’re doing with health care.

FOX11 Investigates found hospitalization cost figures, provided by Green Bay’s four hospitals, show a wide range of cost for the same procedures. In some cases hospitalization costs were doubled.

Several patients who contacted FOX11 Investigates about the high cost of health care admitted with health insurance, co-pays, and deductibles, the costs were rarely clear ahead of going into the hospital for a procedure.

Take for example the hospitalization cost for a routine knee replacement. Out of the four Green Bay hospitals, the lowest  cost last year was $27,513. While across town the same knee replacement hospitalization cost was $39,687. A difference of more than $12,000.  These are median cost figures provided by the hospitals to the Wisconsin Hospital Association.

Hospital officials point to a number of reasons why costs may vary from hospital to hospital, including contracts with insurers, the types of patients treated, and salaries and operational expenses.

How about the hospitalization cost for angioplasty with a heart attack, another common hospitalization in Wisconsin. The high cost in Green Bay was $57,357 at one hospital, while the cost at another Green Bay hospital was less than half that at $27,190.

Check out hospitalization costs at any hospital in the state here.

“I’m sure the public is scratching their head and says why am I paying three times as much at this hospital versus the other hospital,” said Dr. Dave Krueger, executive director of Bellin-ThedaCare Partners.

You may be wondering, does the cost even matter if we’re all covered by medical insurance? The answer–yes, according to Dr. John Toussaint, chief executive officer with ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value.

“In many cases now we all have health savings accounts and other things so in the end you may be paying a significant portion of the cost of this care,” said Toussaint.

Toussaint heads up the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value in Appleton. It’s an independent organization that works with healthcare groups around the world to deliver healthcare more effectively and efficiently, to benefit the provider and the patient.

“Our existing payment mechanisms are fundamentally flawed as you’re pointing out in this piece,” said Toussaint.

Coming up tonight on FOX11 News at Five and Nine our FOX 11 Investigates report will show you just how much each hospital is charging for various hospitalizations. And we’ll question those in charge at the four hospitals in Green Bay about what they are charging you.

PORTAGE COUNTY- State health officials have been monitoring two possible cases of measles in Portage County.

Two patients have been isolated since last week.

Test results are expected back Monday.

Health officials haven’t revealed the ages or genders of the patients.

So far this year, at least 121 cases of the measles have been confirmed in 17 states.

The disease can cause a fever, runny nose, cough and body rash.

CORBIN, Ky. (AP) – Friends and relatives of a 16-year-old boy killed in a weekend shootout with police in Maryland are struggling to understand how the faithful churchgoer and high school ROTC student ended up as the suspect in the slaying of his parents and younger sister in Kentucky.

Authorities say Jason Hendrix was suspected of killing his family last Wednesday in Corbin, Kentucky, before leaving for the East Coast in his parent’s car. Authorities say Hendrix, who had four weapons and a backpack of ammunition, died Saturday at the scene of the shootout.

Corbin Police Chief David Campbell said police later searched the boy’s home in Kentucky and found the bodies of his parents and sister.

“Right now all the evidence points toward him as being the shooter,” Campbell said of Jason Hendrix.

MEXICO- Chefs in Guadalajara, Mexico say they put together the world’s longest line of continuous tacos.

The tacos were laid down end to end, measuring about two miles.

More than 130 people spent six hours building the taco line.

More then 2,600 pounds of pork and more than 2,400 pounds of tortillas were used.

The Guinness Book of World Records is working on verifying the taco line.

TOWN OF SPRING VALLEY, Wis. (AP) – Authorities say a 22-year-old Brodhead man is dead following a single-vehicle crash in the town of Spring Valley.

According to the Rock County Sheriff’s Office, deputies arrived at the scene Sunday morning to find a heavily damaged vehicle on a steep embankment. Officials say the driver, Cody L. Rader, was thrown from his vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene. He was the only person in the vehicle and reportedly wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.

Investigators say Rader was traveling north on Highway 11 when his vehicle went off the north side of the road, went up an elevated driveway and struck a tree. They say speed appears to be a contributing factor in the crash.

GREEN BAY – The men’s and women’s Green Bay Phoenix basketball teams are having another great year on the court.

The women’s team sealed its 20th win of the season on Saturday while the men are now tied for second place in the Horizon League standings.

Both teams have upcoming home games fans are invited to attend:

Wednesday, Feb. 18 – MBB against Detroit, 7 p.m.

Thursday, Feb. 19 – WBB against Valpariso, 7 p.m.

Friday, Feb. 20 – MBB against Cleveland State, 6 p.m. (Bud Light Night)

Saturday, Feb. 21 – WBB against UIC, 1 p.m.  – (PinkZone game for cancer awareness) – Players will be wearing special pink uniforms.

Saturday, Feb. 28, MBB against Oakland, 1 p.m. – Senior night/Keifer Sykes bobblehead giveaway.

FOX 11’s Pauleen Le spent time with both teams to find out what makes them successful.

For more information on games, tickets and the Green Bay Phoenix, click here.

GREEN BAY- Colder than normal weather continues this week.

We will see a bit of a warm up Monday with a high near 16 (yesterday’s high in Green Bay was 8 and the normal high is 28).

Skies will be cloudy and there is a chance for flurries this afternoon. Winds will be southwest at 5 to 10 mph.

A cold front pushes through Monday night and ushers in another shot of arctic air for the rest of next week.

GREEN BAY – A fire heavily damaged a west-side Green Bay duplex.

Fire crews were called to the house on the 1300 block of Mather Street at 9:08 p.m. Sunday. When firefighters arrived, they found flames coming from the center garages. Crews said they had the fire under control in 10 minutes.

The fire displaced six people. The fire department says two people were hurt. They were treated at the scene.

It’s not yet clear what sparked the fire.

The Red Cross is helping those who lived in the duplex.

MADISON (AP) – Jamie Baertsch worked as brewmaster at Wisconsin Dells Brewing Company, coming up with all the beer recipes, lugging around the malt, leaning over huge vats of wort and stirring, until the day before she gave birth to her son, Wyatt.

Four days after she and Wyatt came home from the hospital, she was back in the brewery.

Baertsch was the first female brewmaster in Wisconsin. In 2005, when she was named the boss at Wisconsin Dells Brewing Company, she only knew a couple other women in the industry.

“Going to meetings, it was always just the guys,” she told The Capital Times. “I guess I just figured that was how it was.”

“Some industries don’t have women,” she thought at the time.

But that’s changed.

Over the past few years, there’s been a slow-but-steady increase in the number of women working in craft brewing in Wisconsin. In 2012, Allyson Rolph was named the brewmaster at Thirsty Pagan Brewing in Superior. Last year, Ashley Kinart took the top job at Capital Brewery in Middleton.

“It’s becoming more common to have females interested in brewing,” said Keith Lemcke, vice president of the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago. Siebel houses the World Brewing Academy, one of a few professional brewing schools in the United States. “Fifteen years ago, the only women you found in the courses were women sent by large breweries.”

Now, he says, the first professional-level brewing class at Siebel has about 20 percent female students.

And the number of women drinking beer has increased, too. According to the Brewers Association, a national trade group, data from 2014 showed that women consume about 30 percent of the craft beer on the market. In fact, according to the data, women aged 21-24 consume about 4 percent of total craft beer volume, which is 14 percent more than their percentage of the drinking age population. That makes them one of the strongest market demographics for the industry.

Why are more women moving into brewhouses and developing their porter and IPA palates? A whole host of reasons are thrown around, but two seem particularly popular with local brewers: Women’s discerning palates appreciate the strong flavors of craft beer and, compared to mainstream brewing behemoths, craft beer marketing doesn’t objectify them – at least, not as much.

Brewers and industry insiders agree: Women are more open to trying new, adventurous beers than men.

“Women’s palates are generally more sophisticated than men’s,” said Robyn Klinge, founder of Madison’s Females Enjoying Microbrews (FEM) tasting group. “Women tend to like more flavorful beverages.”

(While the science is debatable, some even claim that women may be better tasters than men: In the early ’90s, psychologist Linda Bartoshuck coined the term “supertaster,” a person with a heightened sense of taste, and found that women are more likely to be supertasters than men.)

And while light lagers dominate the brewing industry, craft beer packs a sensory punch. IPAs inundate the senses with heady citrus and tropical fruit aromas (smell is a big part of taste), Marzens and doppelbocks are toasty and nutty, porters and stouts bring in caramel and chocolate and espresso notes.

“I don’t blame women for not being brewers beforehand,” said Baertsch, brewmaster at Wisconsin Dells Brewing Company. “Because, guess what? Before craft beer really took off in the 1980s, beer was terrible. Why would anyone want to put in their time and go through all of this hard work to make yellow, fizzy, flavorless beer?”

Baertsch said she got into brewing by “accident.” She didn’t drink before she was 21 – “I was one of those kids that never got invited to a keg party,” she said – and, honestly, didn’t have a huge interest in beer.

She was studying biotechnology at Madison Area Technical College when, in a biology class that involved some beer brewing, she discovered a knack for working with yeast.

“I did this trick with my yeast, instead of making a nut brown ale at 5 percent (alcohol by volume), I got, like, 8 percent,” she said. “It turned into this robust porter. And I changed the recipe all around, and (my teachers) were like, ‘You should be a brewer.’ And was like, ‘That’s a job option?'”

Her final project in school involved using champagne yeast and enzymes and chopping DNA to create a hybrid yeast that could achieve 16 to 19 percent ABV (alcohol by volume).

That was in 2004, at which point she’d been working for about two years at the Wisconsin Dells Brewing Company. (Her first five months there were as an unpaid intern, scrubbing tanks and sweeping floors.)

A year later, after completing the Master Brewers Association of the Americas’ brewing and malting program, she was named brewmaster.

Since then, she’s shepherded the small craft brewery to higher production, a distribution deal and a new canning line. She’s also released two beers named after her two children: Betty’s Breakfast Stout and Wyatt’s Barleywine.

In addition to coming back to work four days after giving birth to Wyatt, she singlehandedly cleaned out a 1,000-pound mash tun, a piece of brewing equipment, the day Betty was born.

All in a brewmaster-mom’s day’s work.

Deb Carey, co-founder of New Glarus Brewing, agrees with Baertsch: Women are embracing craft beer because of the strong, unique flavors.

“What I’ve found is women are by far the more adventurous drinkers,” she said.

Carey was the first woman to found and operate a brewery in the United States. She launched New Glarus with her husband, Dan, in 1993. She said she always felt accepted in the male-dominated industry, even in the beginning – and especially by the craft brewers themselves.

“It was (workers) in the distribution tier and in the taverns that had a lot more comments about me being a woman,” she said. “It’s just the thing – it’s just a rough crowd. Sure, they pick on me, but they pick on the boys, too. I mean, come on, this is the beer industry. It’s not daycare.”

Carey says pushback they got early on their flagship beer, Spotted Cow, came mostly from men who visited the brewery, who were quick to push off tasting the brew onto wives and girlfriends, who Carey said were usually up for the challenge.

“When we (debuted) Spotted Cow, there weren’t other unfiltered beers out in the market. It used to happen routinely, when some man who looked like he just came off the football field would come into the brewery, and he’d be holding up the beer and saying, ‘You taste it,’ to his wife or girlfriend,” she said.

Carey is quick to dismiss the notion that light-colored beers, like Spotted Cow, are all that women are interested in.

Likewise, Ashley Kinart, the first female brewmaster at Capital Brewery, dispelled that idea almost immediately after taking the top job.

Kinart’s first brew as Capital’s brewmaster was a Schwarzbier, a German dark lager. Fishin’ in the Dark is considered an imperial Schwarzbier, because its alcohol content and flavors are slightly higher and more pronounced than traditional Schwarzbiers.

“I had a really open task to pretty much brew literally anything I chose,” said Kinart. “So I started by thinking about a style we haven’t done that I really like to drink. My two final choices were either a Schwarzbier or a Red IPA.”

She ruled out the Red IPA after she learned it was already on the brew schedule for Capital (the beer is set to be released in the next few months). So the Schwarbier it was. As the first female brewmaster for Capital, she didn’t think about whether it would be a ‘girl beer’ at all. She just wanted to make her debut a good one. And it was – Capital will re-release Fishin’ in the Dark this year.

Kinart got into brewing when she was working as a bartender at The Old Fashioned in Madison.

There, Kinart, who was a biology major at the UW-Madison, got interested in beer styles and the science of brewing. Encouraged by Jennifer DeBolt, owner of The Old Fashioned, she started homebrewing, toured breweries statewide and signed up for classes at the World Brewing Academy. She earned her degree there, after doing a stint at the Doemens Academy in Germany.

Like Baertsch, Kinart started doing free labor at the brewery. She worked there for two years before she was named brewmaster in October.

Kinart said she didn’t think Capital had any expectations for her to reach out or appeal to female consumers, but that may be happening anyway.

“I’ve had plenty of people tell me, ‘Oh, my wife or my neighbor or my sister, they never drink beer, but when your Fishin’ in the Dark came out, I made her try it – and at first she wouldn’t – and I told her that a girl did it, and then they tried it and they loved it,” Kinart said.

“That wasn’t something I saw happening – more women are going to drink beer because I made this,” she said. “But once it did start happening, it was like, ‘Yeah! That’s awesome!’ I guess it’s a sense of ‘Oh, women are in this, too. It’s not just a bunch of dudes running around.'”

A “bunch of dudes,” has been the target audience for most contemporary beer ads. But that hasn’t always been the case.

“One of the really interesting historical things that happened after Prohibition was the brewers trying to develop a strategy for marketing beer to ensure that Prohibition didn’t return, and one of the strategies was to begin to market beer to women,” said Jim Draeger, historian and author of “Bottoms Up: A Toast to Wisconsin’s Historic Bars & Breweries.”

“If you look at ads the brewers published after World War II, you’re going to see a lot of imagery involving women: women are serving beer to themselves and their husband,” Draeger said. “They wanted to empower women.”

Draeger said that lasted for a little while. And then: “There’s a machismo that becomes associated with beer in the ’60s and ’70s.”

That “machismo” helped create a social stereotype that beer drinking wasn’t “ladylike.”

“In the past, I think there has been a perception that beer was sort of a ‘manly’ drink,” said Anna Post, the great-great-granddaughter of renowned etiquette expert Emily Post, and spokeswoman for the Emily Post Institute, a nearly 100-year-old etiquette education center.

Margery Sinclair, an etiquette expert based in Milwaukee, agrees.

“Women are still held to a higher social standard,” she said. “Recently I heard a gentleman, aged in his mid-50s, in a nice bar/restaurant, gesture in the direction of a young woman who was drinking beer from a bottle say disparagingly, ‘Classy.'”

Post said there were never any “specific rules saying women shouldn’t drink beer,” but some social norms did exist – especially if, say, a woman wanted to crack open a can of beer in public.

Those social norms were tangled up with decades of beer advertisements that featured buxom blondes in dirndls and Bud Light Girls.

That’s one thing craft beer has mostly stayed away from.

“What I tend to notice about how craft brewers market their beverages is, generally speaking, that it’s a non-gender-specific beverage,” said Julia Herz, craft beer program director at the Brewers Association. “Generally, we’ve seen big brewers targeting men.”

“I think it’s stupid business for someone to do that, because you’re cutting off more than 50 percent of your audience,” said Dan Carey, co-founder and brewmaster at New Glarus Brewing.

And, aside from being bad business, it sends negative shockwaves through the industry that’s about, well, having a good time, he said.

“There are a lot of women who say they won’t drink beer, and I know that’s because of the image that beer connotes,” Dan Carey said. “Beer is a social, pleasurable thing. So why would you want to denigrate somebody or conjure negative images? I think that if you had a beer called, ‘Beefcake,’ that had, you know, a burly man in tight shorts (on the label), most men would say, ‘I’m not going to drink that.'”

The bottom line is, most craft breweries want as many consumers as they can get. They’re competing with the big guys, after all, and are only pulling in about 8 percent of all beer consumption in the United States, as of 2013.

“Beer itself shouldn’t be looked at as a gender-specific beverage,” said Herz. “You can have preconceived notions about beer because of the past, but the bottom line is that beer is king in the U.S., and with craft beer now it’s a flavorful revolution. And both women and men are into flavor.”

On a gray Wisconsin winter day, about 40 women are gathered in the Wisconsin Brewing Company brewery in Verona. Ashley Kinart and Jamie Baertsch are there, as are women who work at Wisconsin Brewing Company, Titletown Brewing Company and Pearl Street Brewery. There’s a female hops distributor, too, and a few female brewery and brewpub co-owners milling around.

The women have gathered for a meeting of Madison’s FEMs. That’s “Females Enjoying Microbrews,” a local, ladies-only tasting group.

Today, the members of FEM – a diverse group of women ranging in age from their early ’20s to post-retirement – are going to watch and learn as Ashley, Jamie and assistants shepherd a test batch of the Madison Craft Beer Week Common Thread brew through Wisconsin Brewing Company’s pilot brewing system.

The Common Thread is a collaboration beer made every year for the weeklong celebration of craft brewing in May. This year, it’s going to be developed and brewed entirely by women.

The women here to watch and learn have also attended FEMs tasting events at Madison bars.

A trio of women – Linda Fehd, Ros Zeltins and Sue Wilz – drive a couple of hours to get to the FEM events. They live in Rio, Portage and Pardeeville, respectively.

“We learn so much about the process – it just opens up a whole new world,” Fehd said.

“Our husbands would all like to be included. The presumption is that men already drink beer, like beer (so they don’t need events like these), but they don’t know anything about it,” Wilz said. “We tell them.”

The women watch as Ashley, Jamie and several other women check the wort, testing for starch conversion.

The brew is going to be a Belgian tripel, a strong, assertive beer.

“Tripels are just a fun, exciting beer to try,” said Rochelle Francois, an assistant brewer at Wisconsin Brewing Company who helped come up with the idea for the beer. “Also, coming up with this, with it being women brewers, I didn’t walk to do anything that was, shall I say, the stereotypical ‘girly.'”

“It’s something fun that’ll hopefully go to everyone’s palate,” she said.

So, when the ladies of FEM, other enthusiasts, professional brewers and homebrewers alike, tip back the suds at Craft Beer Week, it could be seen as a nod and welcome to the female brewers who have made, and continue to make, their mark in a male-dominated industry.

But maybe it’s more of a “welcome back.” Women were the “brewmasters” in ancient Egypt and pastoral Europe, after all. And the ancient Sumerians had a goddess of beer, Ninkasi.

“It wasn’t really until the Renaissance that men took (the brewing industry) over,” said Robyn Klinge, creator of FEM. “So it’s, to me, it’s almost like we’re just reclaiming our place.”

NEW YORK (AP) – Russell Westbrook scored 41 points, one shy of the NBA All-Star Game record, and the Western Conference beat the East 163-158 on Sunday night.

The Oklahoma City speedster had a record 27 points by halftime and closed out the scoring with two free throws, falling one point shy of Wilt Chamberlain’s 42 points in the 1962 game. He was voted the game’s MVP.

The NBA’s return to New York showed off everything about the Big Apple, and Westbrook stole the show on one sports’ biggest stages.

By the time Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” played after the game, it was clear Westbrook was king of the hill among the NBA’s best.

James Harden added 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists for the West, which built a 20-point lead in the first half and then pulled away after it was tied at 148 with a little more than 4 minutes remaining.

LeBron James finished with 30 points but couldn’t lead the East to the victory in his favorite NBA arena.

Harden’s 3-pointer snapped the final tie with 4:02 to play and Chris Paul followed with consecutive baskets. Westbrook’s fifth 3-pointer put it away at 158-149 with 2:22 to go.

Atlanta’s Kyle Korver made seven 3-pointers and scored 21 points for the East, while Washington’s John Wall had 19.

Big brother Pau Gasol won the jump ball against Marc to begin the first All-Star game featuring two sibling starters, but for a while it looked as if that would be the East’s only win of the night.

The West shot out to a 20-point lead behind a record 27 first-half points from Westbrook, but the East chipped away and cut it to 83-82 before pop star Ariana Grande’s halftime performance.

It was 122-all after three and close throughout the fourth.

APPLETON – Swimmers in the Fox Valley are making waves, after they received a special lesson from an Olympic coach.

Todd Schmitz is a 2012 Olympic Swim Coach.

He is best known for being the long time coach of Olympic gold medalist Missy Franklin.

The Fox Cities YMCA Swim Team held a 90 minute freestyle clinic with Schmitz.

People also got a sneak peek of “Touch the Wall.” It’s a documentary on Schmitz and Franklin’s road to London Olympics in 2012.

Schmitz says events like this help spread the love of swimming.

“There is no other sport that you can literally do from the day you’re born till the day you die. And I think teaching those life lessons through swimming is one of the best parts of my job,” said olympic swim coach Todd Schmitz.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the YMCA of the Fox Cities.

APPLETON – Some area cyclists are making a difference, and they’re doing it, by putting the pedal to the metal!

People gathered at the Appleton YMCA for the 11th annual indoor cycling Ironride.

Cyclists could choose from one to six hours of cycling, to benefit the YMCA of the Fox Cities Annual Campaign.

Organizers say it is a hard workout, but one that is going back to a good cause.

“You do the workout that you want to do. You can adjust your bike accordingly, but yes we do coach a good long six hour ride,” said fitness instructor Janis Heifner.

Last year, the group raised more than $2 thousand.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) – Jeff Gordon will start from the pole in his final Daytona 500 of his career.

Gordon announced last month this will be his final full-time season, and he’s been adamant next Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500 will be the last of his career.

The four-time NASCAR champion is a three-time winner of “The Great American Race.”

Gordon and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson locked down the front row in Sunday’s qualifying session, which was done in knockout rounds for the first time in 57 years.

The qualifying was blasted by most of the drivers. Clint Bowyer called it a “cute show” after he wrecked in the first round. Reigning champion Kevin Harvick grumbled Daytona’s tradition had been ruined, while three-time champion Tony Stewart called it “a complete embarrassment for our series.”

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Frank Kaminsky started hot for Wisconsin, then Bronson Koenig and Nigel Hayes finished off Illinois.

Kaminsky had 23 points and 11 rebounds, and the fifth-ranked Badgers won 68-49 on Sunday to clinch the best start in school history.

Kaminsky hit eight of his first nine shots on his way to 17 first-half points, but was then held scoreless for more than 16 minutes. But Koenig and Hayes combined to score 23 points in the second half as Wisconsin (23-2, 11-1 Big Ten) put the game away.

“Our guys really don’t go out there and say, ‘OK, let’s make sure Frank gets his X number of points and then we’ll go get ours,'” coach Bo Ryan said. “We took what they gave us. That’s all we ever do.”

Koenig finished with 15 points, and Hayes added 14.

Illinois (17-9, 7-6) started the game hot, and four 3-pointers in just more than three minutes infuriated Ryan. Wisconsin responded by clamping down on defense.

The Illini then missed seven of their last eight shots in the half, and the Badgers sandwiched a 20-4 run around halftime. Illinois got no closer than nine points the rest of the way.

“It just goes to show you that we can beat you in a lot of different ways,” Kaminsky said.

Malcolm Hill scored 15 points and Rayvonte Rice added 10 to lead Illinois, which had won four straight.

The Illini had held all four opponents to under 60 points and 40 percent shooting. But of those teams, only Michigan State ranks in the top half of the Big Ten in scoring average.

Illinois coach John Groce said he was most disappointed that his team was outrebounded 32-25 and allowed Wisconsin to turn 15 offensive rebounds into 12 points.

“Now you’ve got to sit down and guard them again,” Croce said. “They’re already the No. 1 offensive efficiency team in the last 17 years of analytics, so it would be preferable to guard them one time, instead of multiple times in a trip down the floor.”

TIP-INS

Illinois: The last time the Illini defeated a top-five team on the road was March 5, 1989, when Nick Anderson’s 35-footer at the buzzer led Illinois past No. 3 Indiana 70-67. … Rice had averaged 21.5 points and nine rebounds in his games against Wisconsin last season.

Wisconsin: Josh Gasser will need at least one more game to become only the second player in school history with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 250 assists. He came into Sunday needing 10 points to accomplish the feat but was held to three points on 1-of-5 shooting. Michael Finley finished his Wisconsin career with 2,147 points, 648 rebounds and 371 assists.

RICE STILL FINDING STROKE

Rice was a bit better Sunday than he was Thursday against Michigan, his first action after missing nine games because of injury and suspension. Rice, who wore a wrap on his non-shooting hand, was 4 of 12 from the field, including 1 of 5 from the 3-point line. In Thursday’s win, he had four points on 2-of-7 shooting.

RYAN ON HALL HONOR

Ryan received a standing ovation before the game for being selected as a finalist for the Basketball Hall of Fame. Asked what the honor would mean, he said it would be a “thank you” to all those who he’s played for, coached and worked with, including administrators and faculty. Ryan said he’s received a number of well wishes from former players. “If that would put the smile on the face of the 12th man that I had at Brookhaven Junior High School, Sun Valley, Platteville, Milwaukee, Madison,” Ryan said before pausing, “I’d be pretty happy. I’d be real happy.”

UP NEXT

Illinois hosts Michigan State on Feb. 22.

Wisconsin visits Penn State on Wednesday.

SUAMICO – “This is the nerd center.”

Inside Bill Bongle’s small, pegboard walled basement workshop, is the center for all things drone.

Several flight-ready machines sit on his workbench, as are rotor blades and a soldering iron at the ready.

Bongle – who started down the drone hobby path years ago with radio controlled planes – says the unmanned aircraft systems are like new-age versions of the old-age erector sets.

“For me, the funnest part is building them,” he said.

“As time went on, the technology advanced to the point where the technology – these multi-rotors – they’re so incredibly stable,” Bongle said, waxing on about the capabilities of one of his several quad-copter drone platforms. “These typically fly at low altitudes, people race them.”

As founder of the local Green Bay Area Drone User Group, Bongle says there were some real concerns about the future of the hobby as the federal government began looking at possible ways to regulate its soaring growth and potential commercial applications.

“A farmer, flying as a hobbyist, was okay. But a farmer looking at his crops to make decisions about irrigation and such, that was illegal, stuff like that made no sense,” he said.

The Federal Aviation Administration released the long sought after proposed guidelines that commercial operators must follow to legally operate drones weighing less than 55 pounds.

Pilots – known as operators – must be at least 17-years-old, pass an FAA aeronautical knowledge test and a background check. The technology can be invaluable to farmers, telecommunication tower inspections and aerial photographers.

However restrictions would limit flights to be operated by line of sight, during daytime hours, and at least 5 miles away from an airport. Flight speeds couldn’t exceed 100 mph and altitude would be capped at 500 feet.

Flights over crowds would also be prohibited.

“We’re doing everything that we can to safely integrate these aircraft, while ensuring that America remains the leader in aviation safety and technology,” said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta in a phone call with reporters Sunday.

“As (the rules become) finalized, it is going to provide the most flexible regime for unmanned aircraft, 55 pounds or less, that exists anywhere in the world, so what we want to accommodate the sorts of things that folks are looking for, ultimately,” Huerta said. “But we need to do this in a staged way that ensures the highest level of safety, because that is what people expect of the airspace and the aviation system.”

The agency is also researching how smaller drones could safely fly beyond the operator’s line of sight.

The FAA is now asking for input on the guidelines and it could take years before the rules are approved and implemented. But Bongle is already calling the rules a step in the right direction, compared to previous concerns, like requiring commercial users like home realtors, telecommunications companies or photographers, to get a pilot’s license.

“Stuff like this is designed to fly below the tree line,” said Bongle, holding one of his smaller quad-copters, “So it would make no sense to have all these draconian regulations on something like this.”

Under the proposed rules, commercial operators of drones would be required to re-certify with the FAA every 2 years. However the rules would not apply to hobbyists.

Bongle says the rule proposals are clearing up a lot of concerns and are helping move the hobby in the right direction as well.

“It looks a lot more reasonable, than what was originally proposed.”

VINLAND – Spearers aren’t the only ones taking home a prize during this year’s sturgeon season.

Businesses near Lake Winnebago are raking in millions of dollars.

“Everybody ice fishes during sturgeon spearing season as well, so there’s fishing derbies going on at the lake at the same time people are spearing, so we open the bait shop at 5 a.m,” said Katie Samuelson, owner of Vinland Still and Grill.

Samuelson stays busy during sturgeon spearing season. She doesn’t just own a bait shop; she also runs a convenience store and a restaurant in Vinland, on the west side of Lake Winnebago.

“About 300 people came through our doors yesterday between the two businesses that we own,” Samuelson said.

Samuelson says spearers come from all over to stake a spot out on the lake. But once it’s time for sportsmen to leave the ice, many are looking for a good place to eat.

“We also take and serve chicken booyah. My dad makes it. The business is family owned and operated,” Samuelson said.

With the restaurant celebrating its 10th year and a registration station a few feet away, businesses is booming.

“People just come through and just come out to see the sturgeon as well,” Samuelson.

Like 10-year-old Charlie Mielke.

“I really like seeing the fish pass by. It looks really cool,” Charlie Mielke.

While more spearers brought their fish to weigh in, the owner of Payne’s Point says he enjoys the businesses.

“It’s very good. It always has been and it’s always a plus,” said Michael Comins, owner of Payne’s Point.

Comins has been serving up homemade food for more than two decades.

“When I bought the bar 24 years ago, I didn’t know what sturgeon spearing was. I found out the first month,” Comins said.

While some spearers enjoy a hot meal inside, others say they fill up on snacks while out on the lake.

“Chex Mix, breakfast things I put on a stove, peanuts, cookies,” said Scott Kaczmarek.

“Lots of snacks…chips, donuts, everything…the good healthy stuff,” said Emily Felbab.

Whether it’s snacks or an actual meal, the DNR says during an average 10-day sturgeon spearing season, businesses bring in more than $3.5 million.

Last year’s sturgeon spearing season only lasted a few days.

The business owners we talked to say this time around, they’re hoping for a longer season.