Green Bay News

BOSTON (AP) – Giddy fans of the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots chanted “Brady! Brady!” and clambered atop massive snowbanks for better views as players danced and waved their way through Boston in a Wednesday parade celebrating their fourth NFL title.

Well-wishers blew kisses, pumped their fists and screamed themselves hoarse as the team rolled through downtown aboard the World War II-style amphibious “duck boat” vehicles that have become a staple of the city’s championship parades.

Some fans defied police warnings and climbed on giant piles of snow left from last week’s blizzard to get a glimpse of quarterback Tom Brady, coach Bill Belichick and other players as trucks blew plumes of confetti into the air.

The crowd roared as a smiling Belichick and his players snapped selfies and took turns waving the Lombardi trophy earned in a hard fought 28-24 victory over the defending champion Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.

A beaming Brady held his young son, Benjamin, who grinned and waved to the crowd.

New England Patriots fans cheer as the team passes by in a procession of duck boats during a parade in Boston Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015, to honor the Patriots’ victory over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX Sunday in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

The convoy carrying players, their wives and girlfriends, the team mascot, cheerleaders and more rolled down Boylston Street on route to City Hall, crossing the finish line of the Boston Marathon, where two bombs killed three people and wounded more than 260 others in 2013.

Fans sported No. 12 Brady jerseys, shouted the MVP’s name and held “We are the CHAMPIONS” placards. One had a sign that read: “Belichick for President.”

“I’m freezing, but it’s been great. It’s exciting,” said Annie Cushing, a Quincy resident who had been standing in front of City Hall for hours before the parade started, wearing a No. 87 Rob Gronkowski jersey and a homemade Lombardi trophy hat made of tin foil and tape.

The real Gronk drew laughs with his hip-hop dance moves. At one point, he chugged a can of beer tossed up by a fan while wearing a goofy winter hat of a one-eyed “Minion” character.

Not to be outdone, wide receiver Julian Edelman stood tall on the roof of a duck boat in sunglasses and a white T-shirt, at times a waving Patriots flag and holding up signs from fans, including one taunting the Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman.

By the city’s colonial burial ground, where signers of the Declaration of Independence and other famous Bostonians were once laid to rest, a boy held high a sign on a wooden picket saying: “13 years old, nine championships,” a nod to the city’s other successful sports franchises.

Elsewhere, signs proclaimed “They hate us cause they ain’t us,” referencing a James Franco line in the movie “The Interview.”

Carl Estrella of Cambridge wore a T-shirt saying “Deflate This,” a reference to allegations that the Patriots cheated with underinflated footballs in their AFC championship win against the Indianapolis Colts.

“After all that went on with the deflated balls, we are owed an apology,” said Michelle Cote Moran, a Lowell resident watching the parade with her brother. “We’re not going to get it, but it’s all good. We did it again. We won.”

Police didn’t have an estimate for how many people turned out for the nearly two-mile long rolling rally. They reported at least one arrest for public drinking.

Near the city’s snow-blanketed Common, a chant of “Boston Strong” went up around noontime as fans jostled for viewing space along the street barricades.

Others, like Chris Cunningham of South Kingstown, Rhode Island, found a better perch in the warmth of a nearby Dunkin Donuts.

“It’s been a while since they won. We’ve come close. The last two were killer,” Cunningham said, referring to the Patriots recent Super Bowl losses to the New York Giants.  “But this one was great. It made up for all of them.”

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Associated Press writer William J. Kole in Boston contributed to this report.

SINJAR, Iraq (AP) – As Kurdish fighters gathered around a fire in this damp, frigid mountain town in northwestern Iraq, exhausted from battling the Islamic State group, a surprising recruit wearing a tactical vest with the words “Christ is Lord” scribbled on it joined them.

The fighter, with a sniper rifle slung over his shoulder and a Rambo-styled bandanna around his head, is 28-year-old Jordan Matson from Sturtevant, Wisconsin, a former U.S. Army soldier who joined the Kurds to fight the extremist group now holding a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria.

“I’m not going back until the fight is finished and ISIS is crippled,” Matson told The Associated Press, using an alternate acronym for the militant group. “I decided that if my government wasn’t going to do anything to help this country, especially Kurdish people who stood by us for 10 years and helped us out while we were in this country, then I was going to do something.”

Matson and dozens of other Westerners now fight with the Kurds, spurred on by Kurdish social media campaigners and a sense of duty rooted in the 2003-2011 U.S.-led military intervention in Iraq. And while the U.S. and its coalition allies bomb the extremists from the air, Kurds say they hope more Westerners will join them on the ground to fight.

Foreigners joining other people’s wars is nothing new, from the French Foreign Legion to the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War. The Kurds, however, have turned to the Internet to find warriors, creating a Facebook page called “The Lions of Rojava” with the stated aim being to send “terrorists to hell and save humanity.” The page also frequently features portraits of smiling, beautiful and heavily armed Kurdish female commanders and fighters.

Matson, three other Americans and an Australian national who spoke to the AP all said they arranged to join Kurdish forces through the Facebook page, run by the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, the main Syrian Kurdish militia fighting in northern Syria and Iraq.

They crossed from Turkey into Syria, now in its fourth year of civil war, before later joining a Kurdish offensive sweeping into Iraq last month. They now are based in Sinjar, where stone homes painted green, pink and yellow have been damaged in fighting and are surrounded by sandbags and piles of rubble. Thousands of Yazidi residents fled into the surrounding mountains last year during the Islamic State offensive.

Foreigners like Matson say they are drawn to helping Kurds, Yazidis and other minority ethnic groups caught up in the battle, facing possible destruction at the hand of extremists.

“How many people were sold into slavery or killed just for being part of a different ethnic group or religion?” Matson said. “That’s something I am willing to die to defend.”

The other Westerners who talked to the AP spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing the reaction of their families, who didn’t know where they were, or possible legal troubles if they make it back home.

So far, the U.S. hasn’t banned Americans from fighting with militias against the Islamic State group, though it considers the Turkey-based Kurdish Workers’ Party, commonly known as the PKK, a terrorist organization. The PKK has been fighting alongside the YPG in Sinjar and in the Syrian town of Kobani.

Australians are forbidden by law from fighting with any force outside of the Australian national army. Australia was also one of the first countries to criminalize travel to Syria’s al-Raqqa province, where the Islamic State group has established the de facto capital of its self-styled caliphate.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad had no immediate response to an AP query about Americans fighting with the Kurds.

It’s unclear how many foreigners total are fighting with the YPG and other Kurdish forces, though both foreigners and Kurds say there are “dozens.”

There’s a clear camaraderie among the foreign fighters in Sinjar, who mostly travel in pairs.

A number of YPG fighters, many of them as young as 17, joke and tease their new foreign friends, speaking to them in the local Kurdish dialect.

One fighter, 21-year-old Khalil Oysal from Syria, spends much of his time with the foreigners since he can speak English.

“We learn from them and they learn from us,” said Oysal, who American and Australian fighters have nicknamed Bucky. “They speak with us and they like to joke. They share with us many things.”

Western fighters in Sinjar say there is a major drive to recruit as many foreigners as possible, especially those with military training, as many of young Kurdish fighters have little or no experience. The young fighters often pick up weapons and ammunition from dead Islamic State militants. They also have no body armor.

Two of the foreign fighters said they had just returned from visiting an American fighter badly wounded in battle. They said another foreign fighter, a Dutch national, was severely wounded in battle in Syria last week.

“You need to know what you’re getting into,” Matson said. “A lot of times you’re going out, you’re in a mud hut. … You have bullets and a blanket, and sometimes you just have bread, but you need to hold the line.”

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Associated Press writers Rod McGuirk in Sydney and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

(CNN) – Lt. Muath Al-Kaseasbeh was just 27 years old.

In the video above, he’s shown in his uniform, clean-shaven, a serious face shown to the camera. He was a lieutenant and pilot in the Royal Jordanian Air Force.

When he was captured, his father told the Jordan Times newspaper his son was “a very modest and religious person.”

He came from Karak Governorate in Jordan, just southwest of Amman, part of a high-ranking tribe considered especially loyal to Jordan’s monarchy. One of eight children, he graduated from King Hussein Air College.

The family’s nightmare began when Al-Kaseasbeh was captured by ISIS in late December after his F-16 crashed in northern Syria.

It came down near Raqqah, the de facto capital of the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate.

It is unclear whether the plane suffered a mechanical failure, but ISIS says its heat-seeking missiles were responsible and published images on social media to prove it.

His father, Safi Al-Kaseasbeh, pleaded with the Jordanian government to help free his son.

“I firmly ask whomever has sent Moaz to fight outside the borders of Jordan on a mission unrelated to us, to make strong efforts to bring back Moaz and liberate him starting with his majesty the king and going down to anyone or any official who has a role to play in this matter,” Safi Al-Kaseasbeh said through a translator.

In a statement emailed to CNN, Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Momani called Al-Kaseasbeh a model of heroism.

As Jordan mourns the loss of one of its heroes, the death of Al-Kaseasbeh is sure to resonate with Jordan’s King Abdullah – not just as a pillar of the fight against ISIS, but as a former air force pilot himself.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Gov. Scott Walker wants to cut 446 jobs, slash funding for public broadcasting and eliminate a college review board to help close the state’s $2 billion deficit.

In his budget address Tuesday the governor said he wants to eliminate 200 vacant positions along with hundreds more in the Department of Natural Resources, Department of Corrections and other agencies.

Walker said he also hopes to eliminate $2 million in funding for the Educational Communications Board. The board operates public broadcasting. Also set to be slashed is a board that oversees 244 for-profit institutions across the state.

The proposal sparked outrage Wednesday as departments grappled with how they would handle the proposed layoffs. David Dies, the head of the college review board, said cutting his agency would be detrimental to students.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Republicans and Democrats pressed senior Obama administration officials on Wednesday to move swiftly to provide aircraft parts, night-vision equipment and other weapons to Jordan following a video purporting to show Islamic State militants burning a captured Jordanian air force pilot to death.

All 26 members of the Senate Armed Services Committee wrote in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that Jordan’s situation and the unanimity of the coalition battling the extremists “demands that we move with speed to ensure they receive the military materiel they require.”

Jordan’s King Abdullah II met with the committee and other lawmakers as well as President Barack Obama on Tuesday.

In the current year, the United States is providing Jordan with $1 billion in economic and military assistance. The Defense Department is also giving an unspecified amount of help to Jordan to secure its border with Syria. Islamic militants have grabbed significant swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq.

The senators said Abdullah expressed his gratitude for the U.S. aid, but “we were concerned to hear from the king that Jordan is experiencing complications and delays in obtaining certain types of military equipment through our foreign military sales system.”

“Specifically, Jordan is seeking to obtain aircraft parts, additional night vision equipment and precision munitions that the king feels he needs to secure his border and robustly execute combat air missions into Syria,” the senators wrote.

The lawmakers also asked for a briefing for congressional staff no later than Feb. 13 for a status report on efforts to expedite aid.

At the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest said the administration would consider any aid package put forward by Congress, but that the White House would be looking for a specific request from Jordan’s government.

Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he expected his panel to swiftly approve legislation. He repeated his criticism that the Obama administration has “no strategy” for dealing with the Islamic State group. He said he hoped the video of the death of the Jordanian air force pilot, Lt. Muath Al-Kasaesbeh, will galvanize not only U.S. leadership but “the Arab world.”

At the confirmation hearing for Obama’s pick for Pentagon chief, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Abdullah had lamented how much time it was taking to get necessary military equipment to the Jordanians, who are willing to fight.

“I just couldn’t believe what I heard yesterday – all the red tape that they have to go through to get something on the front lines to help them defend themselves,” Manchin said. “I didn’t hear so much that they need our combat troops. They need our expertise, and our people in the right places to make sure we’re efficient. They just need the weapons to do the job.”

Manchin asked Ashton Carter, the nominee for defense secretary, his thoughts on breaking the gridlock.

Carter said he wasn’t privy to what the lawmakers heard from the king. But he added: “I can well believe what you heard because I have a long experience of frustration with getting equipment to … our war fighters, never mind partner war fighters, on time.”

He vowed that if confirmed, he would work to ensure swift delivery of equipment.

Al-Kaseasbeh, who fell into the hands of the militants in December when his Jordanian F-16 crashed in Syria, is the only pilot from the U.S.-led coalition to have been captured to date. His death sparked outrage in Jordan, where the country’s participation in the coalition against the Islamic State group has not been popular.

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Associated Press reporters Deb Riechmann and Josh Lederman contributed to this report.

DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. is moving several hundred U.S. hourly workers into a higher pay bracket after surpassing a cap on the number of lower-wage workers it can hire.

Ford said Wednesday that up to 500 workers will transition from an entry-level wage of $19.28 per hour to a top-tier wage of $28.50 per hour over the next two months. The first workers will get word this week. The majority of the workers affected are at plants in Chicago; Kansas City, Missouri; and Louisville, Kentucky.

Ford, General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group — now Fiat Chrysler Automobiles — established separate wages and benefits for new employees and veteran ones as part of their 2007 contracts with the United Auto Workers union. Initially, there were caps on the number of lower-wage workers at each of the companies, but the caps at GM and Chrysler were suspended in 2009 as part of those companies’ bankruptcy reorganizations.

Ford still has a cap of 20 percent, and it will surpass that this quarter with the hiring of 1,550 new workers to support pickup truck production in Kansas City and Michigan, according to Bill Dirksen, Ford’s vice president of labor affairs. Ford has a total of 50,000 hourly workers.

Ford’s total percentage of entry-level workers is actually closer to 28 percent because it got credits for in-sourcing work that used to be outsourced. At Fiat Chrysler, 42 percent of the 35,700 U.S. hourly workers are entry-level, giving it a big labor cost advantage over Ford. Less than 20 percent of GM’s 50,300 U.S. hourly workers are entry-level.

Two-tier wages, established when the Detroit automakers were losing money, have been a sore point for some in the UAW, especially now that the automakers are profitable again. UAW President Dennis Williams has vowed to try to bridge the gap between entry-level pay — which starts around $16 per hour — and top-tier pay during contract talks with the automakers later this year.

But Dirksen says the lower wages are making the companies more competitive and allowing them to invest in plants and products and hire even more workers. Ford has hired more than 15,000 workers since 2011, surpassing hiring goals it set with the union.

“The entry level agreement is working,” Dirksen told The Associated Press. “It’s working for the company, for being more competitive, and it’s working for employees and their own career progression.”

Dirksen said Ford will transition between 300 and 500 workers to the higher wage, depending on attrition rates at the plants, market demand for the new pickups and other factors. The workers are currently making around $40,100 annually at the top scale for entry-level workers; they will make around $59,280 at the new level.

Jimmy Settles, the UAW’s top Ford negotiator, called the transition to higher wages “a major milestone.” He also applauded Ford’s decision to hire more workers so it can speed up production of the new truck.

“These additional jobs will have an impact in communities all across our nation,” Settles said in a statement.

 

MADISON (AP) – Gov. Scott Walker is proposing eliminating the public service mission of the University of Wisconsin, known as the “Wisconsin Idea,” replacing it with the charge to meet the state’s workforce needs.

The wording change was included in Walker’s budget released Tuesday. He’s also calling for cutting $300 million from UW while also giving it more autonomy and freedom from state laws and oversight.

Walker proposes that the university’s mission be “to meet the state’s workforce needs.” He wants to remove language saying UW’s mission be to “extend knowledge and its application beyond the boundaries of its campus” and to “serve and stimulate society.”

The Wisconsin Idea has been a guiding principle of the university for more than a century, extending to teaching, research, outreach and public service.

CRANDON – A Forest County corrections officer made an initial court appearance Wednesday on charges she allegedly leaked the names of confidential informants.

Jeanie Pitts allegedly advised a former Forest County jail inmate who they needed to stay away from. She is charged with nine criminal counts, including five counts of misconduct in office.

A preliminary hearing was scheduled for March 25, according to online court records.

Her husband, Richard Pitts, face three counts, including receiving stolen property and misconduct in office. He has a motions hearing March 25.

Melvin Donek, also a correctional officer, faces four similar counts. A preliminary hearing is March 26.

As a result of the multiple search warrants executed Oct. 6, marijuana, marijuana plants, cocaine, computers, firearms, ammunition, thousands of dollars in U.S. currency and other items were seized by law enforcement.

DETROIT (AP) — If it weren’t for the recalls, 2014 would have been a stellar year for General Motors.

Even with $2.8 billion in pretax costs to fix more than 30 million recalled vehicles and $400 million set aside for death and injury claims, GM still managed to turn a $2.8 billion profit. The company even raised its quarterly dividend.

That’s because otherwise, most of the stars lined up well for the Detroit automaker. Gas prices dropped more than a buck to $2.26 per gallon. The U.S. economy gained steam. Cheap credit was abundant.

Combined, they sent buyers to GM’s newly redesigned and lucrative pickup trucks and large SUVs in North America, the company’s most profitable market. At the same time, chief competitor Ford’s truck plants were down much of the year while it switched to a new pickup with a risky aluminum body. Sales in China grew faster than the market. Worldwide sales were up 2 percent to 9.9 million vehicles, a record.

Things were so good, GM decided to increase its dividend next quarter by 20 percent, to 36 cents, pending board approval.

Yes, there was trouble in Europe, Russia and South America, but by and large, GM had a good year.

Investors agreed. Its shares rose 4.7 percent in midday trading Wednesday.

Net income fell 26 percent from $3.8 billion in 2013, but GM’s full-year earnings amounted to $1.65 per share. Excluding one-time items, the company earned $3.05 per share, beating Wall Street’s expectation of $2.64, according to FactSet. Revenue rose slightly to $155.9 billion, beating the analysts’ prediction of $150.6 billion.

“We’re really going to carry the positive momentum into 2015,” Chief Financial Officer Chuck Stevens said. “We expect both aggregate earnings and profit margins to improve in all of our automotive regions.”

Stevens said earnings were strong when recall costs aren’t counted. The company earned $6.5 billion before interest and taxes last year, and that would have been more than $9 billion without the recalls, he said. Legal expenses rose by more than $300 million, and that’s expected to continue in 2015. Overall, the recalls cost GM $1.10 per share.

Still, once GM can figure out the cost of recall lawsuits and other expenses this year, it will consider raising the dividend again in the second half, Stevens said.

In North America, GM’s most profitable region, the company made $6.6 billion before taxes, 11 percent below 2013. That will bring record profit-sharing checks of about $9,000 for 48,400 eligible union factory workers later this month. To reward employees, GM backed out recall costs and measured the profit-sharing based on core earnings.

Stevens said the company is on its way to achieving a 10 percent North American profit margin next year. Last year the margin, which is the percentage of revenue a company gets to keep, was 6.5 percent. Without recalls, it was 8.9 percent.

The company’s pretax loss in Europe widened almost 60 percent for the year to $1.37 billion, mainly on currency problems in Russia. International operations profits, including Asia, fell 3 percent for the year to $1.2 billion. South America reported a full-year loss of $180 million, compared with a $327 million profit in 2013. Stevens said the company is still predicting a pretax profit in Europe in 2016.

In the fourth quarter, GM reported net profit of $1.1 billion, or 66 cents per share. That’s 21 percent better than a year ago. Excluding $300 million of negative one-time items, GM earned $1.19 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of 83 cents per share.

The same factors that helped GM overcome the year of the recall remain today, so the company needs to perform well, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote in a note to investors. “We may be looking at as close to an alignment of forces in GM’s favor as we’re going to see this decade,” he wrote.

Still, there are uncertainties. Recall costs could grow. Sales in Europe and Russia could falter. Cheap leases and financing for six years or longer have likely pulled sales from future months, Jonas wrote.

Even so, investors liked GM’s results. Shares rose $1.61, or 4.7 percent, to $35.59 in midday trading. The stock has traded from $28.82 to $38.15 in the past year.

GREEN BAY – Georgia-Pacific in Green Bay has announced it will be eliminating 89 positions in mid-April.

Georgia-Pacific Public Affairs manager Mike Kawleski said the company is transferring the shipping department at the Broadway mill to RGL Logistics in Green Bay.

Kawleski said the company currently has about 50 job openings at the Broadway mill that workers could apply for and there may be opportunities at RGL Logistics as well.

Severance packages will be available.

GREEN BAY – Gov. Scott Walker’s budget would cut 60 positions within the Wisconsin Department of Corrections in an effort to save about $6 million over two years.

Walker delivered his $68 billion budget Tuesday night during a joint meeting of the Legislature.

His proposal would eliminate about 400 positions across state government, including third-shift prison guards positioned in towers. Walker recommends using technology and ground patrols to keep the prisons secure overnight instead of tower guards.

AFSCME represents state corrections workers. Executive Director Marty Beil says the proposed cuts raise multiple concerns, including public safety.

The Department of Corrections has not yet commented on the governor’s plan.

The Republican-controlled Legislature will debate the budget over the next four months and likely vote on passing it sometime in June.

FOX 11’s Laura Smith is working on this story and will have a full report on FOX 11 News at Five.

MADISON (AP) – Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal is helping to unite Republicans and Democrats – in opposition to it.

As Walker touted his budget across the state on Wednesday, bipartisan resistance was growing to his plans to borrow $1.3 billion to pay for road construction and infrastructure projects, cut $300 million from the University of Wisconsin System, and pay for an expansion of the private school voucher program by taking money from public schools while holding their funding flat.

Walker’s budget also slightly reduces property taxes for the owner of a typical home by $10 over the next two years, requires drug testing for public benefit recipients, cuts 400 positions from across state government and borrows $220 million for a new Milwaukee Bucks stadium.

Walker is defending his plan as offering bold ideas to reshape government as he takes serious steps toward a likely presidential run – traveling across the country to court donors, meeting with conservatives and building his name recognition.

But back home in Wisconsin, unrest is growing among Republicans who control the Legislature about what Walker is asking them to pass in what will be his final budget before the 2016 campaign.

Republican lawmakers are particularly outspoken in their angst over increasing borrowing 30 percent to pay for roads, even though total bond issuance across state government would go down to its lowest level in a decade.

“The biggest heartburn I have in regards to the proposed budget is the amount of bonding,” said budget committee member Sen. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst. “I know there’s a number of my colleagues who are quite concerned about that.”

Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who joined Tiffany to discuss the budget Wednesday at a meeting of the Wisconsin Counties Association, said he wants the Legislature to consider raising vehicle registration fees based on miles driven in order to pay for roads.

Walker’s Department of Transportation had recommended $750 million in higher taxes and fees, including on gasoline and vehicle registrations, to pay for roads. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the statewide chamber of commerce and a strong supporter of Walker and Republicans, had supported a modest gas tax increase.

But Walker eschewed any tax or fee increases in favor of issuing more bonds.

His approach also drew criticism Wednesday from a coalition of more than 400 local governments, road builders and labor unions.

“Investing in an adequately funded, sustainable and equitable approach cannot be reached with the current budget proposal,” the Transportation Development Alliance said in a statement.

Republicans are also joining Democrats in questioning the $300 million cut to UW. Walker’s call to give the university more autonomy and freedom from state oversight, something university officials have lobbied for years to get, has been more well-received.

Vos said he was worried that the UW cut would make it more difficult for students to graduate in four years.

Walker’s budget also would hold funding for public schools flat, while removing a cap on enrollment in the private school voucher program. Money to pay for new voucher students would come out of the budget of public schools that are losing students, and be prorated statewide based on applications instead of a set amount as it is now.

Voucher proponents said they were worried the new funding mechanism would lower the amount of the subsidy. Democrats, and state Superintendent Tony Evers, objected both to the program growing and the money being taken from public schools.

And lawmakers from both parties said they were worried about not increasing money for public schools. Walker holds that spending flat in order to pay for a promised property tax cut that would amount to $10 over the next two years for the owner of a median-valued home.

VALHALLA, N.Y. (AP) — Officials at a suburban New York hospital that treated a dozen people injured in a commuter train crash say one remains in critical condition and one in serious condition.

Westchester Medical Center doctors said at a news conference Wednesday that patients arrived with burns, broken bones, smoke inhalation and other injuries.

The physicians said six patients are in fair or good condition. Four others have been released.

The hospital wouldn’t give the patients’ ages but said none are children.

 

APPLETON – A former VFW bar manager pleaded not guilty to stealing more than $30,000 from the post.

Kelly O’Connor is scheduled to stand trial April 21, according to online court records.

O’Connor allegedly stole money from the post’s gaming deposit box to fund her gambling habit.

CLINTONVILLE – Police are investigating an armed robbery at a convenience store.

Around 1:15 a.m. Wednesday, officers say they were called to Schroeder Shell, 325 S. Main St. They say the robber showed a handgun and demanded money from the clerk. Some cash was taken from the register; police aren’t saying how much. The robber then ran out the back door.

The robber was wearing a green hooded winter jacket, gloves and a camouflage face mask.

Police used a search dog to try to track the robber. They did find some evidence while searching the area. Officers are also planning to use security video to help in the investigation.

MADISON (AP) – The speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly says Gov. Scott Walker’s plan for a new Milwaukee Bucks arena has “zero chance” of passing in its current form.

Robin Vos said Wednesday that the Republican-controlled Assembly will only go along if the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County also help pay for the stadium.

Walker’s proposal is to have the state borrow $220 million in bonds to help pay for the stadium.

Republican Sen. Tom Tiffany, a member of the Legislature’s budget committee, says he wants to see the state commitment for the Bucks less than half that – closer to $100 million.

Vos says there’s a good chance the state will provide some money to help the Bucks build a new stadium.

Green Bay Packers defensive tackle Letroy Guion was arrested in Florida on a drug offense, according to the Bradford County sheriff’s department.

Online records say he was arrested Tuesday for marijuana possession and a weapons offense.

The team issued a short statement:

“We are aware of a serious matter involving Letroy Guion. We have not yet spoken to Letroy and we will have no further comment.”

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

CAIRO (AP) — A video showing Islamic State militants burning a captive Jordanian pilot to death brought an outpouring of grief and rage across the Middle East on Wednesday, its brutality horrifying a region long accustomed to violence.

Political and religious leaders offered angry denunciations and called for blood, while at least one wept on air while talking about the killing of 26-year-old Lt. Muath Al-Kaseasbeh, whose F-16 crashed in Syria in December during a U.S.-led coalition raid on the extremist group.

The head of Sunni Islam’s most respected seat of learning, Egypt’s Al-Azhar, said the militants deserve the Quranic punishment of death, crucifixion or the chopping off of their arms for being enemies of God and the Prophet Muhammad.

“Islam prohibits the taking of an innocent life,” Ahmed al-Tayeb, Al-Azhar’s grand sheik, said in a statement, adding that by burning the pilot to death, the militants violated Islam’s prohibition on the immolation or mutilation of bodies, even during wartime.

Capital punishment is used across much of the mostly Muslim Middle East for crimes like murder and drug smuggling. Death by hanging is the preferred method, but beheadings are routinely carried out in Saudi Arabia. In Iran and Pakistan, stoning to death as punishment for adultery exists in the penal code but is rarely used.

Burning to death as legal punishment, however, is unheard of in the contemporary Middle East, and a prominent Saudi cleric, Sheik Salman al-Oudah, wrote Wednesday that it is prohibited by Islam, citing what he said was a saying by the Prophet Muhammad that reserves for God alone the right to punish by fire in the after-life.

Safi al-Kaseasbeh, third left, father of slain Jordanian pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh prays during a mass funeral at the Kaseasbeh tribe’s gathering divan at their home village of Ai, near Karak, Jordan, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015. Outrage and condemnation poured across the Middle East on Wednesday as horrified people learned of the video purportedly showing the Islamic State group burn a Jordanian pilot to death. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Youssef al-Qaradawi, a prominent Qatar-based cleric who is respected by the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists, issued a five-page statement on Wednesday in which he listed a number of Quranic verses and sayings attributed to Prophet Muhammad telling Muslims to not mistreat prisoners of war.

“The laxity of the international community in dealing with a president who kills his people … is what created these extremist groups and provided them with a fertile environment,” he said, alluding to Syria’s President Bashar Assad.

Hussein Bin Mahmoud, an Islamic State-linked theologian, claimed on one of the group’s social media forums that two of the Prophet Muhammad’s revered successors ordered punishment by fire for Arab renegades in the seventh century. Al-Azhar says the claim is unsubstantiated.

Bin Mahmoud also cited a Quranic verse that requires Muslims to punish their enemies in kind. Since U.S.-led airstrikes “burn” Muslims, he argued, the IS group must burn those behind the raids.

But that’s a view that has only been embraced by a radical fringe, with mainstream Muslims united in condemnation. Iyad Madani, the leader of the 57-nation, Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation – the world’s largest bloc of Muslim countries – condemned the killing.

It “utterly disregards the rights of prisoners Islam has decreed, as well as the human moral standards for war and treatment of prisoners,” a statement from Madani said. It is sad to see “the depth of malaise” in parts of the Middle East, along with the “intellectual decay, the political fragmentation and the abuse of Islam, the great religion of mercy.”

U.S.-allied Gulf Arab nations issued similar condemnations.

The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, condemned the killing and reaffirmed his nation’s commitment to fighting terrorism and extremism. “This heinous and obscene act represents a brutal escalation by the terrorist group, whose evil objectives have become apparent,” he said.

The UAE is one of the most visible Arab members in the U.S.-led coalition battling the Islamic State group, which also includes Jordan. Bahrain, a Gulf state that is home to the U.S. 5th Fleet, denounced the killing as “despicable,” and Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, blasted the killing as “criminal” and “vicious.”

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the “criminal act.” The tiny but very rich Gulf nation hosts the regional command center coordinating coalition airstrikes.

Jordanian Air Force fighter jets fly during the funeral of slain Jordanian pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, at his home village of Ai, near Karak, Jordan, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015. Outrage and condemnation poured across the Middle East on Wednesday as horrified people learned of the video purportedly showing the Islamic State group burn a Jordanian pilot to death. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

In predominantly Muslim Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the killing an act of “savagery.”

“There is no such thing in our religion … and they have nothing to do with Islam,” he said.

Iran, which has aided both Iraq and Syria against the IS group, said the killing of the pilot was an “inhuman” act that violated the codes of Islam, according to a statement by Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham.

Religious and political leaders across the Muslim world have condemned past atrocities committed by the Islamic State group, including the beheading of foreign journalists and aid workers, and the mass killing of captured Iraqi and Syrian soldiers.

But the killing of al-Kaseasbeh, who had been the subject of intense negotiations over a possible swap with an al-Qaida prisoner on death row in Jordan, seems to have hit much closer to home. The prisoner, an Iraqi woman convicted of involvement in a triple hotel bombing in Amman in 2005, was executed along with another al-Qaida prisoner at dawn on Wednesday.

The pan-Arab al-Hayat newspaper led its coverage of the pilot’s killing with a one-word front-page banner: “Barbarity.”

“How many … are there, whose names we are ignorant of, slaughtered by the Islamic State and their brothers?” asked an article in the left-leaning Lebanese daily Assafir. “How many Syrian al-Kaseasbehs have fallen in the past four years … without news headlines on the television channels?”

Jordanian politician Mohammed al-Rousan wept on television as he described watching al-Kaseasbeh’s death, saying even people attuned to violence could not bear to see a man burned alive.

But in an instant his grief turned to rage.

“Let’s use the same methods as them!” he shouted during the interview with Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen TV. “Let’s kill their children! Let’s kill their women!”

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Associated Press writers Adam Schreck in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Diaa Hadid in Beirut, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Suzan Frazer in Ankara contributed to this report.

MADISON (AP) – Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says he worries that Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed $300 million cut to the University of Wisconsin System would make it harder for students to graduate in four years.

Walker’s proposed cut, which amounts to 13 percent of state funding for UW, is one of the most controversial pieces of the budget he delivered Tuesday night.

Vos highlighted his concerns over the UW cut during a panel discussion Wednesday at a meeting of the Wisconsin Counties Association.

Republicans and Democrats, along with university leaders, have questioned the size of the cut which Walker proposed to help balance a budget shortfall.

Walker is also proposing giving UW more autonomy and freedom from state laws to help deal with the cut and manage its own budget.

MADISON (AP) – Opposition is growing to Gov. Scott Walker’s call to borrow $1.3 billion to pay for roads rather than increasing the gas tax or raising vehicle registration fees.

Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Wednesday that new revenues have to be found to pay for roads, and he was open to raising vehicle registration fees based on miles people drive.

Republican Sen. Tom Tiffany, a member of the Legislature’s budget committee, says Walker’s funding plan for transportation gives him the “biggest heartburn” of anything in the budget.

Vos and Tiffany both commented at a Wisconsin Counties Association meeting.

A coalition of groups representing road builders, local governments and labor unions issued a statement Wednesday opposing Walker’s plan, saying it was not sustainable.