Green Bay News

OSHKOSH – Sturgeon spearing season is one week away.

So how are ice conditions on Lake Winnebago?

Last weekend FOX 11 interviewed two ice fishermen who found a crack in the ice about two miles out from Calumetville.

“[I] drove across this crack and the whole thing lifted up. Thank God I made it across,” said Rick Malnick.

With sturgeon spearing season on its way, the Otter Street Fishing Club has already put out ice bridges on Lake Winnebago.

“When we put our roads and our bridges out, that means that we consider it pretty safe,” said Don Herman, a member of the Otter Street Fishing Club.

After spending time on the lake, Herman says there’s about 18 inches of ice.

“We had some issues with some cracks but those are pretty good now,” Herman said.

The Department of Natural Resources is predicting a quick sturgeon spearing season.

“If water clarity conditions prevail, what we’re seeing now, I think it’ll be a relatively short season. How long? It’s tough to predict. But we did raise the harvest caps by six percent for adult females,” Ryan Koenigs, Winnebago systems sturgeon biologist for the DNR.

FOX 11’s Gabrielle Mays will have the full story tonight on FOX 11 News at Nine.

Congratulations to the individuals and teams of educators selected as Teachers of Distinction in the first round of the Golden Apple Awards selection process! These educators were selected from a pool of highly talented applicants for their commitment to all students, active involvement of students in relevant learning opportunities, and creation of learning environments that stimulate student interest in learning as described in their applications. Teachers of Distinction will move to the next level of the selection process and be guests of the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce at the Golden Apple Awards on Wednesday, April 22, 2015. The 2015 Golden Apple Award recipients will be announced in early March.

INDIVIDUALS

Joan Biese, Rock Ledge Primary Center
Cora Boucher, Glenbrook Elementary School
Andrea Brehm, Hemlock Creek Elementary School
Casandra Cobb, Seymour Community High School
Brenda Conradt, Pioneer Elementary School
Autumn DeCleene, St. Bernard Catholic School
Larry DeCleene, Doty Elementary School
Karissa Fendt, Kennedy Elementary School
Bree Francour, Luxemburg-Casco Intermediate School
Sharon Gast, Resurrection Catholic School
Ashley Gonwa, Valley View Elementary School
Jeffrey Gosse, Pulaski High School
Kari Groeneveld, Glenbrook Elementary School
Ashley Hendricks, Glenbrook Elementary School
Lindsey Hilgemann, Ashwaubenon High School
Eleanor Hinz-Radue, Green Bay West High School
William Hinz, Green Bay West High School
Sara Hoffmann, Pulaski Community Middle School
Kerry Janquart, Ashwaubenon High School
Meegan Kaster, Valley View Elementary School
Angela Kelly, West De Pere Middle School
Kayla Koch, Pulaski High School
Kris Neuens, Hemlock Creek Elementary School
Brenda Ourada, Valley View Elementary School
Emily Pansier, Beaumont Elementary School
Wayne Pierre, Glenbrook Elementary School
Sarah Polkowski, Luxemburg-Casco Middle School
Dennis Rohr, Seymour Community High School
Zach Roush, Luxemburg-Casco Primary School
Elizabeth Ruh, Forest Glen Elementary School
Rachelle Schuster, Bay Port High School
Christen Steele, Valley View Elementary School
Jan Sutton, Edison Middle School
Chris Wendorf, Sunnyside Elementary School
Rose Wenzel, Assumption BVM
Sarah Worcester, Tank Elementary School
Brittany Zellmer, Westwood Elementary School

TEAMS

CESA 7 Alternative High School – Nancy Collins, Amy Daul, Kim Hoffmann, Jennifer Parins, Jessica Sherman
Valley View Elementary Grade 4 – Andrea Ciha, Kirsten Marto, Barry Severson, Kristin Turnbull, Elizabeth Wich, Michelle Yurek
West Academy - Doug Stangel, Anne Stangel

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Greater Green Bay Chamber

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) – Detectives say they found provocatively posed dolls and displays of children’s underwear while searching a Green Bay home for child pornography.

Investigators seized computer hard drives during the Monday search that contained about 7,000 images of child porn, including some of victims who appeared to be as young as 3 months old, authorities said.

The man “obviously has some kind of psychosis,” Brown County Sheriff John Gossage told Press-Gazette Media.

District Attorney David Lasee said he’ll file charges Wednesday detailing the “bizarre environment” investigators found. The prosecutor said he expects to charge the suspect – who was jailed with bond set at $50,000 – with multiple counts related to child pornography that can carry 40-year prison sentences.

Sheriff’s Capt. David Konrath said the suspect lives with his wife, but that she isn’t considered a suspect herself and may not have known about the materials in the home’s basement. It did not appear that the suspect had been sharing child pornography with others, Konrath added.

Detectives don’t know if the children in the photos have any connections to the Green Bay area.

“These kids are so young that it may be impossible to identify them,” Lt. Jim Valley of the sheriff’s department said.

Authorities are reviewing the images to try to identify the victims and to determine where the photos were taken.

“Someone like this is victimizing each child every time any person looks at the image,” Valley said.

Valley said authorities were notified after someone at Microsoft Corp. noticed something suspicious. The company notified the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which channeled the information to the Wisconsin Department of Justice and local investigators.

Gossage said the arrest should serve as a warning to families.

“Whatever fetishes he has, it brings to light the fact that there are people out there on the Internet, accessing sites, exchanging information,” the sheriff said. “It goes to Internet precautions. We try to impress that on the kids: You don’t know who you’re talking to.”

Sheboygan Police have arrested a city alderman for sexual assault of a child.

Authorities arrested 33-year-old Kevin Matichek of Sheboygan on Friday.

The case is ongoing and has been refered to the Sheboygan County District Attorney’s office for review.

The Sheboygan Police Department has scheduled a news conference for Monday morning.

SUPERIOR, Wis. (AP) – Authorities are investigating the cause of a large fire at the city landfill in Superior.

It took fire crews about eight hours to extinguish the blaze. WDIO-TV reports they finally left the scene just before 5:30 a.m. Saturday.

Battalion Chief Scott Gordon says they were able to stop the fire’s spread before it could reach the nearby woods.

The fire was eventually extinguished by putting 10,000 gallons of water and about 100 loads of sand on the affected area of the landfill.

The Superior Fire Department sent three engine companies – its entire on-duty force – to the scene Friday night and called in three off-duty crews to cover the rest of the city.

NEW YORK (AP) – The skyscrapers of Manhattan look almost close enough to touch from parts of the waterfront of Brooklyn’s industrial Red Hook neighborhood.

But a distance of mere miles can take an hour or more in travel time for residents in the remote area, who have limited access to bus routes and no subway stations in the immediate vicinity. A plan from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio would give them, and New Yorkers in some other waterfront neighborhoods, another option – ferry service.

De Blasio hopes ferries will open up some of those far-flung locales and make them more attractive as a place to live, easing a housing crunch in a city expected to reach a population of 9 million by 2040.

“For years, the conventional wisdom has been that certain neighborhoods are doomed to isolation because of their geography,” de Blasio said in his recent State of the City address. “With ferry service, “We are going to change that.”

Under the mayor’s plan, the city would spend an initial $55 million for a ferry system that would start with three routes in 2017 and add two more in 2018. Getting from a ferry dock in Lower Manhattan to up-and-coming Red Hook across New York Harbor, for example, would take just 20 minutes.

Ferry service can’t come fast enough for Tony Kokale, who bought Mark’s Pizza five years ago and has been keeping his hopes up that the bright redevelopment future of Red Hook he’s been hearing about is getting closer.

“For the community, I believe it’s going to be excellent,” he said. “It would bring more people to Red Hook and might make it a little bit different.”

Some transit advocates aren’t quite so convinced. Ferry service in the New York region “has been tried many, many times with some success but more failures,” said Jeffrey Zupan, senior fellow for transportation at the Regional Plan Association.

Cost is an issue, he said. While all public transportation gets some kind of government subsidy, different modes require different amounts, and ferries will not have anywhere near the kind of ridership numbers the city’s subway system does. “How high will the subsidy have to be for each rider that you’re carrying?” he asked.

Zupan said the city should proceed cautiously, testing the routes to see which ones have the best chances to succeed.

The city has said it would set aside $10 million to $20 million for subsidies to keep a ferry ride fare at the same price as a subway ride, $2.50, and has estimated more than 4 million people a year would take advantage. More rides than that are taken on the subway every single weekday.

The plan is for the first three routes to originate from the Astoria, Rockaways and South Brooklyn sections of the city in 2017. The next year, additional routes would start for Soundview in the Bronx, and the Lower East Side. The five new routes would join the ferry routes already in existence, the Staten Island Ferry route and the East River Ferry route. The city also is looking ahead to a potential Coney Island/Staten Island route.

Mitchell Moss, director of the Rudin Center for Transportation at New York University, thinks it’s smart for the city to be looking at ferry service.

“The city is growing, much of the growth is occurring in areas that are not accessible to mass transit, and ferries offer flexible transportation,” he said.

Not everyone is so enthusiastic. Gerrett White moved to Red Hook six months ago from another part of Brooklyn because he was looking for something a little more removed.

“I moved to Red Hook specifically because it was out of the way,” the 36-year-old said.

He readily admitted that he would benefit from a transit mode that made crossing boroughs simpler.

“Actually getting into the city, it’s a pain in the butt from here,” the sales rep said. “Getting into Manhattan using the ferry would also be a nicer commute.”

But he’s worried that opening up Red Hook, which suffered extensive damage in Superstorm Sandy, would hasten the kind of gentrification that has been widespread in other parts of the borough.

“My only concern,” he said, “would be making this place more accessible in a negative way.”

MILWAUKEE (AP) – A former Milwaukee police officer who is appealing his firing after he shot and killed a man in a park last year will have a trial before the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners in March.

Christopher Manney was fired in October, months after he shot Dontre Hamilton.

Manney, who is white, said he acted in self-defense when he shot Hamilton 14 times in April. But police Chief Edward Flynn said Manney ignored department policy and treated Hamilton, who is black, like a criminal by frisking him. Hamilton’s family has said he suffered from schizophrenia.

The police commissioners’ board says it initially set a trial date for Feb. 27, but both sides requested an adjournment. So the trial will now be held in March. A final date hasn’t been set.

GREEN BAY – Authorities are asking people to avoid driving on University Avenue between Newtols Street and University Way until further notice.

WPS is working on two power poles after they were hit in two separate crashes early Saturday morning.

Green Bay police say the crashes were not related. The first accident happened just after 2:30 a.m. and the second happened at 3:20 a.m. No one was hurt.

Officials say there are barricades up, and travelers should find an alternative route or follow the detour signs. They don’t know how long WPS will be on the scene.

OSHKOSH – One of the area’s most colorful events of the season takes place Saturday morning.

More than 25 skiplanes are headed to Oshkosh’s Pioneer Airport for the annual EAA Skiplane Fly-in event.

The event will also include a complimentary chili and cake served beginning at 10:30 a.m., as well as a slideshow highlighting previous EAA skiplane fly-in activities.

The event takes place from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The fly-in is free and open to the public.

FOX 11’s Pauleen Le spent the morning checking out the fly-in.

For more information on the annual skiplane fly-in, click here.

NEENAH – Need a Valentine’s Day gift for your sweetheart?

Ashley De Goey with The Pastry Pixie joined FOX 11’s Emily Deem on Good Day Wisconsin to share some ideas.

Ashley created some chocolate covered strawberry roses and French meringue with a strawberry ganache filling.

Click here for more information about The Pastry Pixie.

ASHWAUBENON – Milder weather moves in today, then some light snow tomorrow.

Today will be mostly cloudy with a chance of flurries far north and a high of 31.

Patchy fog is possible tonight along with some snow flurries, the low will hit 22.

Sunday’s high will be near 25 with cloudy skies.  It will be windy with the chance for a few snow showers during the first half of the day.  Little or no snow accumulation is expected.

Monday will bring more sunshine and cooler temperatures with a high topping out near 20.

A storm system will move in Tuesday and drop an inch or two of snow across the area. Colder weather settles back for the rest of next week.

DE PERE — The race for the top spot in the Bay Conference boys basketball standings was a crowded one entering Friday’s big matchup between West De Pere and Shawano.

Both teams are chasing leader Seymour and know a loss could be fatal in their chase for the Thunder.

Shawano won the teams’ first meeting of the season, but Friday, behind a balanced effort, West De Pere evened the score with the Hawks and dealt them a big blow in the Bay race with a 68-57 win.

“Shawano’s a great team, they have all the pieces; they got senior leaders, they got shooters, they got the big guy inside,” West De Pere coach Andy Werner said. “We knew it was going to take an all-out effort from our guys to come away with a win tonight.”

“Every game is a championship game,” West De Pere senior Connor Konshak said. “We prepare every week like it’s the Bay Conference championship; always planning to be ready.”

West De Pere (14-5, 11-2), ranked No. 9 in the FOX 11 Top 11, usually follows the lead of San Jose State recruit Cody Schwartz, who entered the game leading the Bay with an averages of 21.2 points per game. However, Schwartz was saddled by foul trouble and was limited to 11 points against No. 8 Shawano (14-4, 9-4).

But the Phantoms are not a one-man team, or don’t have to be. Konshak, back recently from a thumb injury suffered during the football season, scored 12 points, including a key six-point run in the fourth quarter that gave the Phantoms a 53-44 lead.

Other players chipped in as Zack Sanders and Gehret Evans each added eight points, respectively.

Gehret Evans played a great game off the bench, Connor Konshak played a great game off the bench, Will Couture played a super game off the bench,” Werner said. “We got a lot of experience; we’re building depth. They belong there, they feel that way and I feel that way. It just made us stronger.”

Konshak, who was key in West De Pere’s state tournament run last season, said he didn’t take it upon himself to make key plays.

“Not necessarily,” he said. “We take all the open shots we get and hopefully they go in.”

Werner said Schwartz has no issue spreading the wealth.

“Cody’s not a kid, believe it or not, that doesn’t care if he scores,” Werner said. “He’d much rather have a win than have 30 points. He’ll tell you that every second of the day.

“We want to be known as a good team. We’re going to try to get Cody shots because he’s one of our best shooters, but other guys can put the ball in the hole, too.”

And Konshak said he’s getting better. Friday was his sixth game of the season.

“Every game’s getting better and better and I feel great,” Konshak said.

West De Pere is one game behind Seymour in the loss column and they play Feb. 17. The Phantoms know, though, nothing is certain in a tough conference.

“We can’t take any team lightly because if we lose the chance of winning the Bay Conference title goes down,” Konshak said. “Got to always be prepared.”

“We have a great conference,” Werner said. “I’d put our conference up against anybody. I think that’s a testament to the coaches in this league. We have a lot of shooters in this league, as good a shooting league as I’ve remembered. Every night’s a battle.”

Follow Doug Ritchay on Twitter @dougritchay

West De Pere’s Connor Konshak talks about Friday’s victory over Shawano on Friday in Bay Conference action.

Shawano visited West De Pere in a key Bay Conference basketball game on Friday.

West De Pere won, 68-57.

DE PERE — St. Norbert hockey saw their rare losing streak extended to 4 Friday night, falling to College of St. Scholastica 3-1. The Green Knights had not lost three straight games since February of 1997 according to a team spokesman.

SNC trailed 1-0 in the second period before Mason Baptista tied the game at 1. CSS scored the game’s final two goals on goalie Tony Kujava, the new starter replacing the injured David Jacobson, lost for the season to a fractured fibula.

The Green Knights face the Saints Saturday afternoon at 4pm in their final home regular season game as they try to defend their Division-III National Championship from a season ago.

HOUSTON (AP) – James Harden scored 33 and the Houston Rockets hit 15 3-pointers to beat the Milwaukee Bucks 117-111 on Friday night.

Trevor Ariza added 24 for the Rockets. Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with a career-high 27 points and 15 rebound.

The Rockets lead the league in 3-pointers made per game at 11.8. The 15 Friday were two shy of their season high and they improved to 30-7 when they make 10 or more.

Milwaukee trailed for much of the game, with a deficit reaching 18, but climbed within four with less than 40 seconds remaining in the fourth but the Rockets held on.

The Rockets drained 10 of their 3-pointers in the first half on just 17 attempts and Milwaukee’s defense had few answers.

Ariza led the shooting charge, hitting five of six 3-point attempts for 21 first-half points.

Harden scored 12 of his points from the free-throw line on 17 attempts. He leads the league in free throws made and attempted, and the Rockets improved to 26-2 when a player attempts eight or more.

John Henson, Brandon Knight, Khris Middleton, O.J. Mayo, Jorge Gutierrez and Jerryd Bayless all scored in double figures for Milwaukee.

Houston led 68-56 at the half, with Milwaukee’s second-quarter paint dominance helping them keep pace. With center Joey Dorsey filling in for Dwight Howard (knee), the Bucks used their superior length to outscore the Rockets 60-46 in the paint.

Houston forward Josh Smith matched a career-high with four 3-pointers on just five attempts, finishing with 14 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, narrowly missing out on his fourth career triple-double.

The Rockets won for the sixth time in their last seven and their fourth straight at home.

After committing just six turnovers in Wednesday night’s win over Chicago, their second lowest in a game all season, the Rockets played much sloppier on Friday night, turning the ball over 18 times.

Houston snapped Milwaukee’s three-game road winning streak, beating the Bucks for the 13th time in their last 15 trips to Houston.

TIP-INS

Bucks: F Ersan Ilyasova returned to action for the first time in nearly two weeks after suffering a right groin strain on Jan. 27 against Miami. Bucks coach Jason Kidd said before the game that he expected him to play, with his minutes limited to less than 30, and Ilyasova played just under 16 minutes, scoring six points.

Rockets: Houston improved to 5-1 since losing Howard to a knee injury. He is expected to miss four weeks after receiving a bone marrow aspirate injection on Wednesday. … The Rockets had a season-high 32 assists.

UP NEXT

Bucks: Home against Boston Celtics on Saturday.

Rockets: Host Portland Trailblazers on Sunday.

(Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

FOX VALLEY – Whether you like it in a pint glass, or out of a bottle, the cost of beer could possibly go up.

There’s a saying without barley there’d be no beer And apparently, there’s barely enough barley to go around.

To make beer, you traditionally need only a few simple ingredients: yeast, hops, water and grain, namely barley.

“Without barley there is no alcohol in your beer. So it’s essential,” explained Cullen Dunn, shop manager of the home brew supply store The Cellar in Fond du Lac.

“The biggest ingredient that we use in our beer. We use about 400-500 pounds for every batch that we do and we did over 400 batches last year,” explained Steve Lonsway, president of Stone Cellar Brewpub and Stone Arch Brew House.

But barley is at a premium right now, thanks to a shortage in the U.S.

Lonsway told us many brewers get their barley from Montana, Idaho and even Canada.

“The region was hit by some really bad weather during the harvest season, which really affected the crop,” he explained.

At the Stone Arch Brew House, they weren’t as affected, because they get barley from a local supplier.

“Briess Malt out of Chilton, Wisconsin, almost 100% and they get a lot of their malt from Wyoming. So we kind of dodged that bullet,’ said Lonsway.

But the barley they do have is lower quality than usual.

So that means a lot more work for the brewers and the quality control manager at Stone Arch.

“He’s able to manipulate our brewing process to make up for that so the consumer should not be able to notice a difference in our product,” Lonsway told FOX 11.

Lonsway told us some larger brewers may have to buy barley from Europe though, meaning costs of some beers could rise.

And what does this mean for home brewers?

At The Cellar Dunn told FOX 11 barley supply costs could rise.

“May make people turn toward different styles where they’re using less barley, more of some other stuff, just making lower alcohol content beers,” he explained.

Dunn told us he doubts it will stop the rapidly growing home brew craze.

“I can see it turning a few people off for a little bit, but we’re a resilient folk, us home brewers,” he said.

It could be months though before the full price effect of the barley shortage is felt.

GREEN BAY – The owner of Cyber Works in Green Bay says his company helps fix data breaches at two to three local businesses a month.

“The small businesses are more at risk because they’re an easier target,” said Jim Overly, owner of Cyber Works.

Yet, Overly says it’s extremely rare for a small company to be proactive in protecting its and your data.

“A lot of business owners or a lot of small companies say I don’t have anything anyone would want,” said Overly. “Well you might have thousands of customers. Those thousands of customers, that data, the user names, the addresses, that information can be stolen.”

Experts say in most of the high profile breaches, it typically has been the company’s fault. NWTC Instructor Scott Peterson says that is likely the case with Anthem’s breach.

“There really isn’t a whole lot the consumer could do other than the standard steps that people should be changing their password on a regular basis, make sure they use a different password for various websites they go to,” said Peterson.

Consumers are also reminded to think twice before giving out personal information, regularly monitor bank accounts, and have update antivirus software.

Even taking those steps, Peterson says consumers are still vulnerable, likely until businesses start taking data security more seriously.

“I think security is one of those areas that tends to get overlooked in a company because it doesn’t really provide a financial benefit other than when something happens,” said Peterson.

Protection does come at a price. Cyber Works says it depends on how much data you’re protecting, but setup costs a few hundred dollars. The monthly cost to maintain the security is typically less than a hundred dollars.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” said Overly.

WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis. (AP) – A 37-year-old Marshfield man is charged with 15 counts of theft after authorities say he took more than $46,000 from 15 Wood County residents in a Green Bay Packers ticket scam.

The Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune Media reports Patrick Blachut was charged Friday.

The criminal complaint says Blachut approached 15 people in September and offered to sell them Packers tickets. Several paid more than $6,000 each for what they thought would be season tickets.

The complaint says Blachut admitted to taking the money.

Online court records do not list an attorney for Blachut in this case. He was charged in October with a similar count in Eau Claire County. The office of his attorney in that case would not accept messages Friday night.

MADISON – Big money is up for grabs this weekend.

The Powerball jackpot has climbed to an estimated $380 million.

The pot has rolled over 19 straight times without a winner.

A ticket costs $2.00.

In order to win the grand prize, you need to correctly match all six numbers that are drawn. The odds to bring home the cash are roughly 1 in 175 million.