Green Bay News

RACINE (AP) – An Appleton man has been arrested for his 12th drunken driving offense.

Racine County sheriff’s officials say the man’s vehicle was found in a ditch on Highway 11 in the Town of Yorkville early Wednesday.

Authorities say the 52-year-old driver admitted drinking alcohol. Deputies say he was driving while his license was revoked and had open alcohol in the vehicle.

MADISON (AP) – Advocates of open information are sounding the alarm over a provision in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal that could shield university research from view.

It’s the third attempt in recent years at blocking public access to research before publication. Previous efforts have failed at the Capitol.

Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, said Thursday that researchers can currently withhold information if there is a good reason to keep it out of the public eye. He said researchers would be more likely to break rules if they were allowed to operate in secret.

Representatives from the UW system and Walker’s spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis has made a confession of sorts, telling a 16-year-old girl that he doesn’t have a clue about how to work a computer.

The 78-year-old Francis made the confession Thursday during a Google Hangout with several disabled kids from around the world. Francis responded to them from a Vatican audience hall during a conference of his Scholas initiative, which seeks to bring young people together via sports, art and technology.

The children involved showed Francis how they make use of technology, including braille keypads, tablets and video cameras.

Alicia, from Spain, asked Francis if he liked taking photos with his computer.

Francis replied: “Do you want me to tell you the truth? I’m a disaster with machines. I don’t know how to work a computer. What a shame!”

GREENVILLE – Firefighters are battling a fire at a farm.

According to an update posted on the Grand Chute Fire Dept.’s Facebook page, firefighters from several area departments have been called to help the Greenville Fire Dept. It is a four-alarm fire.

The fire is on Spring Rd.

Above is video submitted to ReportIt.

FOX 11 has a crew on the way and will have more details as they become available.

GREEN BAY – Good Day Wisconsin’s getting crafty for Valentine’s Day with our Thrifty Crafter Kim Geiser.  Kim shared some fun ideas using her original designs available on her blog.  She posted the free digital downloads especially for Good Day Wisconsin viewers and then showed us how to turn them into cards. They would make great cards for your kids to share with their classmates.  They are made so you can include a treat, or pencil or ruler.

You can find more of Kim’s work in her Etsy shop.

FREDERIC, Wis. (AP) – An exchange student from Kazakhstan was killed and two of his hockey teammates were injured in a crash in western Wisconsin.

The teenagers from the Polk County community of Frederic were headed to Grantsburg Tuesday evening where they were to meet the bus and their teammates from the Triple-A Northern Wisconsin Blizzard.

Their vehicle crashed on Highway 48 when the driver lost control. Sixteen-year-old Tim Zhanibekovich was killed. Two teammates were hurt. Their conditions were not immediately available.

KARE-TV reports the team planned to retire Zhanibekovich’s jersey at their final regular season game Thursday night in Grantsburg.

OSHKOSH- We had a few laughs this morning, while watching a segment Jim Kolb, of House of Flowers did for Good Day Wisconsin.

Take a look, keep an eye on the doge.

GREEN BAY- It’s a busy time for the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary.

The sanctuary is hosting a fun family event, it’s Frosty Family Night Saturday, February 7.

Curator, Lori Bankson joined Good Day Wisconsin with a look at some song birds and a snowy owl.

JACKSON, Wis. (AP) – It might have been enough to cause the hearts of true cheeseheads to skip a beat.

The Wisconsin State Patrol says a semi loaded with 40,000 pounds of cheese overturned on southbound Highway 45 in Washington County near Jackson Wednesday night.

WITI-TV says the accident blocked traffic at the scene for a time. The patrol didn’t say if anyone was injured. It didn’t appear the cargo spilled.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A mother whose young daughter was struck and killed on a Madison street has pleaded guilty to child neglect.

Thirty-three-year-old Raya Hansen is to be sentenced Monday in Dane County Circuit Court. Prosecutors will recommend a prison sentence of two and a-half years.

The State Journal reports a charge of second-degree reckless homicide was dismissed Wednesday as part of the plea agreement.

A criminal complaint says Hansen was high on drugs when she put her 1-year-old daughter in a wheelchair and headed to a drug store about 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 14, 2013.

The wheelchair rolled out into the street and was struck by a van.

SOUTHINGTON, Conn. (AP) – A mother and her companion have been arrested after Connecticut police say they left a 2-week-old infant alone in a cold car while they were in an adult novelty store in Southington.

Police say Lindsay M. Hoffman, the child’s mother, and Marquette Riggsbee entered the store Wednesday with the infant and were told by employees that children were not allowed in. They left and returned without the baby, who remained alone in the car for 20 minutes.

Employees checked on the infant and called police.

The 26-year-old Hoffman and Riggsbee, who is 54, were charged with risk of injury to a minor.

Each was held on a $25,000.00 bond. It was not known Thursday if they are represented by a lawyer.

The infant was evaluated at a hospital and state child welfare officials were notified.

APPLETON – A Little Chute man who allegedly drove to Sun Prairie, brought a 16-year-old girl back to his home, and then sexually assaulted her, pleaded not guilty Wednesday.

Brian Hansmann is scheduled to stand trial April 10 on ten counts, including seven felonies, according to online court records.

Fox Valley Metro Police say they found a missing 16-year-old Sun Prairie girl at Hansmann’s home in May of last year.

According to a criminal complaint, the girl told police she met Hansmann on meetme.com, telling him she was 19 years old. The girl said Hansmann picked her up in Sun Prairie, took her to his Little Chute home for the night, and had sex with her three times.

In the complaint, investigators also say they found nude pictures of a 17-year-old Ripon girl on Hansmann’s phone. She told police she met him online.

FLORENCE – A man who allegedly threatened tubers on the Pine River was convicted Wednesday but found not guilty due to mental disease.

Tubers were floating on the river in Commonwealth Township Aug. 9, when the Gary Bovee, 70, allegedly appeared from shore. He told them the river belonged to him and that he was “King of America.”

Sheriff’s officials says Bovee then pointed a shotgun at the group as they floated by. The suspect also confronted other groups of tubers.

Deputies took Bovee into custody along with a two guns and 280 rounds of ammunition.

One disorderly conduct count was dismissed, according to online court records.  Bovee pleaded no contest to 12 misdemeanor counts of intentionally pointing a firearm at someone – but then found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

Another hearing will be scheduled to address release conditions. Bovee was released on a signature bond, court records indicate. Release conditions include no alcohol possession or consumption, and he must take all medication as prescribed.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) – Massachusetts police are investigating the death of an 18-month old child who suffocated, apparently because of a home remedy for head lice involving mayonnaise and a plastic bag.

A Springfield police department spokesman says officers responded to a city home last Saturday for reports of a child not breathing.

Sgt. John Delaney says the little girl’s scalp was covered in mayonnaise and a plastic shopping bag was placed over her head, a common home remedy for head lice. The girl was left unattended and apparently fell asleep, allowing the bag to slip down over her face, suffocating her.

The matter remains under investigation and no charges have been filed.

The state Department of Children and Families is also investigating.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Health insurer Anthem said hackers infiltrated its computer network and gained access to a host of personal information for customers and employees, including CEO Joseph Swedish.

The nation’s second-largest health insurer said it was contacting customers affected by the “very sophisticated” cyberattack and was working to figure out how many people were affected.

The company said information the hackers gained access to included names, birthdates, email address, employment details, Social Security numbers, incomes and street addresses of people who are currently covered or have had coverage in the past.

The Indianapolis-based insurer said credit card information wasn’t compromised, and it has yet to find evidence that medical information such as insurance claims and test results was targeted or obtained.

Anthem Inc., which recently changed its name from WellPoint, runs Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in more than a dozen states, including California, New York and Ohio. It covers more than 37 million people.

The insurer said all of its product lines were affected. It sells mainly private individual and group health insurance, plans on the health care overhaul’s public insurance exchanges and Medicare and Medicaid coverage. It also offers life insurance and dental and vision coverage.

Affected brands include Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Amerigroup.

Anthem said Wednesday evening that the FBI is investigating and the company has hired Internet security company Mandiant to improve its network defenses. The insurer will provide free credit monitoring and identity protection services.

The FBI urged Anthem customers contacted by the insurer to report suspected instances of identity theft.

In 2013, the insurer agreed to pay $1.7 million to resolve allegations it left the information of more than 612,000 members available online because of inadequate safeguards. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said that security weaknesses in an online application database left names, birthdates, addresses, telephone numbers, Social Security numbers, and health data accessible to unauthorized users.

The Health and Human Services Department said then that the insurer didn’t have adequate policies for authorizing access to the database, didn’t perform a needed technical evaluation after a software upgrade, and did not have technical safeguards to verify that the people or entities seeking access were authorized to view the information in the database.

GREEN BAY- Green Bay is really lacking in the snow department with just 3 inches on the ground.

Looking for 12″ or more snow, you need to go to the northwoods or to southern Wisconsin.

Click here for a detailed look.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – Moments before the TransAsia Airways propjet banked sharply and crashed into a river, one of its pilots said, “Mayday, mayday, engine flameout,” according to a Taiwanese aviation official.

“Engine flameout” refers to flames being extinguished in the combustion chamber of the engine, so that it shuts down and no longer drives the propeller. Causes could include a lack of fuel or being struck by volcanic ash, a bird or some other object. “Mayday” is an international distress call.

At least 32 people on board the ATR 72 were killed and 15 survivors were injured in the crash in Taiwan’s capital, the latest in a series of aircraft disasters befalling Asian airlines. Divers were searching in the river for the remaining 11 people on board, including the two pilots. The plane’s black boxes were found overnight.

Video images of Flight 235’s final moments in the air captured on car dashboard cameras appear to show the left engine’s propeller at standstill as the aircraft turned sharply, its wings going vertical and clipping a highway bridge before plunging into the Keelung River in Taipei minutes after take-off Wednesday.

An audio recording of the pilot’s communications with the control tower at takeoff and during the brief, minutes-long flight were widely broadcast. A Taiwan Civil Aeronautical Administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed the distress call and its wording Thursday, but did not say how it might relate to a cause for the crash.

Among the injured was Huang Jin-sun, a 72-year-old passenger who said he tried to help others struggling in the river outside the wreckage.

“I saw others are drowning,” he told the ETTV broadcaster from his bed at Tri Service General Hospital in Taipei. “If I did not move quick enough to help them, soon they would be dead.”

He suspected trouble with the flight from the start.

“I felt something was not right after the plane took off,” he said. “I said to the woman next to me to buckle seatbelts, hold on to the seat and cover our heads. I (had) just finished saying it and then plane went down.”

About 10 Taipei fire agency divers were looking for any more bodies that may be at the cold river bottom. A crane was used to bring the rear section of the plane to the shore Wednesday night. The fuselage of the turbo-propeller jet was largely dismantled by hydraulic rescue tools and now lay alongside recovered luggage.

At midday Thursday, about a dozen relatives of Taiwanese victims arrived at the riverbank in the capital to perform traditional mourning rituals. Accompanied by Buddhist monks ringing brass bells, they bowed toward the river and held aloft cloth inscriptions tied to pieces of bamboo meant to guide the spirits of the dead to rest.

Relatives of some of the 31 passengers from mainland China reached Taipei on a charter flight Thursday afternoon.

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou visited two Taipei hospitals Thursday to check on the recovery of people injured in the crash and stopped by a morgue to comfort relatives who were examining bodies of crash victims, his office said.

“This kind of air safety incident not only wrecks countless happy families but also affects trust in our tourism climate among tourists from outside Taiwan,” Ma’s office said in a statement on the visits, a reference to the 31 mainland Chinese passengers. “We must undergo this bitter experience and make all-out improvements.”

Police diver Cheng Ying-chih said search and rescue efforts were being hampered by “zero visibility” in the turbid river and cold water temperatures that were forcing divers to work on one-hour shifts. He said the front of the plane had broken into numerous pieces, making the job all the more difficult.

“We’re looking at a very tough search and rescue job,” Cheng told reporters gathered on the river bank.

The pilots’ actions in the flight’s final moments have led to speculation that they attempted to avoid high-rise buildings by following the line of the river and then banked sharply in an attempt to bring it down in the water rather than crash on land.

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je praised pilot Liao Chien-tsung as a hero for having avoided crashing them plane into buildings or major infrastructure.

“We really have to thank that pilot,” Ko said. “He really tried his hardest.”

Both the administration and Taipei-based TransAsia Airways declined to speculate on causes for the crash at about 10:55 a.m. Wednesday near the downtown airport.

The ATR 72-600 is the most modern version of the plane, and the pilot had 4,900 hours of flying experience, said Lin Chih-ming of the Civil Aeronautics Administration.

The plane has a generally good reputation for safety and reliability and is known among airlines for being cheap and efficient to use, said Greg Waldron, Asia managing editor at Flightglobal magazine in Singapore. About 1,200 of the planes are currently in use worldwide.

A team from ATR, a French-Italian company based in Toulouse, France, was being sent to Taiwan to help in the investigation.

The crashed aircraft, less than a year old, had once changed an engine, TransAsia Airways Vice President Wang Cheng-chung told a news conference Wednesday. He said the original one was returned to the manufacturer, Pratt & Whitney Canada, after a glitch was found.

“P&WC gave a complete, brand new engine to TransAsia … and installed it for us,” Wang said.

The engine was replaced in April before the aircraft went into use, an airline publicist said.

The accident is one of a string of aviation disasters to strike Asian carriers.

On Dec. 28, low-cost airline AirAsia lost its first plane in the Java Sea with 162 people on board. In July, another ATR 72 operated by TransAsia crashed in the outlying Taiwan-controlled islands of Penghu, killing 48 at the end of a typhoon.

Malaysia Airlines has lost two planes in tragic circumstances: One plane carrying 298 people was shot down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine in July, and four months earlier Flight 370 disappeared on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in one of aviation’s most confounding mysteries. No trace of the plane with 239 people aboard has been found.

Also among the survivors of Wednesday’s flight was a family of three, including a 2-year-old boy whose heart stopped beating after three minutes under water. He recovered after receiving CPR, his uncle Lin Ming-yi told reporters.

GREEN BAY – Do you need help getting organized in the new year?

FOX 11’s Emily Deem spent Thursday morning with professional organizer, Lisa Van Remortel.

Van Remortel shared some great ideas on how to organize your closet, bathroom and main command center of your home.

Click here to learn more about LeanKlean.

Lottery officials say no jackpot winner was selected in the latest $317 million Powerball drawing.

Sue Dooley is the senior drawing manager for the Multi-State Lottery Association, which oversees Powerball. She says there will be another drawing Saturday after no one matched Wednesday’s winning numbers.

Each drawing without a winner rolls the jackpot over and makes it more lucrative. The Powerball website shows the current estimated haul for the next drawing is $360 million.

Until Wednesday’s drawing, there had been something of a big-time prize drought, with nearly a year passing since a jackpot above $300 million.

Powerball is played in 43 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The odds of matching all six numbers in the game are 1 in about 175 million.

Coffee lovers may want to think about flying on Delta Airlines.

The airliner is making Starbucks available on its flights.

It started February first.

It’s offered internationally, in 64 countries and more than 300 destinations.

The Seattle based coffee is also offered on Horizon Air, Alaska Air and other foreign airlines.