Green Bay News

COMPTON, Calif. (AP) – Former rap music mogul Suge Knight pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder and attempted murder charges before complaining of chest pain and being rushed to a hospital.

No further information about his condition was immediately available, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Officer John Gardner said.

Knight’s attorney David Kenner said he was on the way to the hospital to see his client but had no further details.

Knight wore orange jail attire at the morning court appearance where he entered not guilty pleas to four felonies, including hit-and-run charges, filed after the Death Row Records founder struck two men with his pickup truck last week.

The 49-year-old Knight could face life in prison if convicted.

Knight is accused of intentionally running down two men, including a friend, in Compton on Thursday. Knight’s attorneys have said he hit the men by accident as Knight fled a vicious attack.

Knight is charged with killing Terry Carter, 55, and attempting to kill Cle “Bone” Sloan, 51, in a burger stand parking lot after an argument occurred at a separate site where the movie “Straight Outta Compton” about the rise of the rap group N.W.A. was being filmed.

Kenner, said his client is remorseful about Carter’s death but that does not mean he’s guilty of the crimes.

“He feels bad that somebody that he knew is deceased,” Kenner said. “It’s not his fault.”

Michael R. Shapiro, an attorney who represents Sloan, said his client has a mangled left foot and some neurological issues and is recovering from his injuries under heavy security.

Knight was at the center of one of the most notorious rap conflicts of the 1990s, pitting Tupac Shakur against Biggie Smalls in an East Coast-West Coast rivalry.

Knight was sent to prison for nearly five years for badly beating a rival with Shakur at a Las Vegas hotel, just hours before Shakur was fatally shot while riding in Knight’s car in 1996.

In the current case, Knight struck two men with his pickup in a Compton parking lot. The collision killed his friend Carter, a founder and owner of Heavyweight Records who was viewed as a community father figure who tried to mentor young men, said Doug Young, a friend and hip-hop music promoter. Sloan is an actor and film consultant.

Authorities said Knight visited the set for “Straight Outta Compton” and argued with Sloan, who was working at the location. Sheriff’s deputies providing security asked Knight to leave.

A short time later, the argument resumed in a parking lot a few miles away where Knight and Sloan exchanged punches through a window of the pickup before the two men were run down, authorities said.

Knight’s former attorney James Blatt has said Knight was attacked by four people, including Sloan, as he pulled into the lot after Carter requested he show up for a meeting. Blatt said Knight hit the gas as he fled in fear.

Knight is due back in court on Feb. 9 when a judge will consider whether to set bail.

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AP writer Tami Abdollah in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) — The judge overseeing the murder trial of former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez removed a juror Tuesday, saying there was evidence she had spoken about the case in previous years and had an early interest in being seated on the panel.

Bristol County Superior Court Judge Susan Garsh dismissed the juror after questioning her individually and closing the courtroom to hear evidence on the matter.

After a closed-door hearing that lasted more than 90 minutes, Garsh said there was credible evidence the juror specifically discussed an opinion about the case, including that it would be hard to convict Hernandez without the murder weapon. She said the juror also discussed several items of evidence that the court has ruled are inadmissible in this case.

“Over the last few years, the juror has expressed an interest in serving on this particular jury,” Garsh said. “There is credible evidence that the juror has attended more Patriots games than were disclosed on the questionnaire.”

Hernandez listened as Garsh spoke and tapped his thigh with the palm of his hand.

“Discharge of the juror is indeed in the best interest of justice,” Garsh said.

It wasn’t immediately clear how the juror issue came to light or what the judge would do about the dismissed juror’s spot.

Previously, there were 18 jurors on the panel. Six of those will be randomly chosen as alternates immediately before deliberations begin.

The former Patriots standout is accused of the June 2013 killing of Odin Lloyd, a semipro football player who was dating his fiancée’s sister. Hernandez, 25, had a $40 million contract with the Patriots when he was arrested.

Proceedings began last week but were suspended Monday when a snowstorm hit. Tuesday was the first day back at the trial since the Patriots won the Super Bowl. The judge told jurors they were allowed to watch the game but had to leave the room or distance themselves if Hernandez’s name came up.

The Tuesday morning session began with a lengthy private sidebar conversation among the judge, prosecutors and the defense. After about 20 minutes, the juror was called in.

In a separate murder case that has yet to go to trial, Hernandez was charged last year in Boston with killing two men in 2012 after someone spilled a drink on him at a nightclub. The judge has ruled that prosecutors in the Lloyd case cannot tell the jury about those slayings.

Hernandez faces life imprisonment if convicted of killing Lloyd.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials faced tough questioning Tuesday about why this year’s flu vaccine isn’t giving good protection against the winter menace.

This is a particularly bad flu season, and one reason is that the most common flu strain isn’t a good match to this year’s vaccine. Lawmakers on Tuesday asked why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn’t act months ago when concerns first arose to create a better-matched vaccine.

CDC immunization chief Dr. Anne Schuchat says it wasn’t possible to change course. While CDC first noticed a slight change in that strain last March, by the time the shift had become common in September, it was too late.

“We’re all frustrated,” said Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., who called the House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee hearing to examine ways to improve the flu vaccine production process.

This year’s flu vaccine is proving to be about 23 percent effective, far less than the usual 50 percent to 60 percent. With far more than usual hospitalizations among the elderly, it is a severe flu season. On average about 24,000 American die from flu each year.

At the same time, lawmakers reacted to headlines about the measles outbreak, which has sickened more than 100, by urging that kids be vaccinated against the highly contagious disease.

One by one, federal health officials expressed their strong support for the measles vaccine, calling it very effective and safe.

“Vaccines save lives and are the best way for parents to protect their children from vaccine-preventable diseases,” Schuchat said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health said the decision to vaccinate against measles “is really a slam-dunk.”

GREENFIELD – Firefighters in Greenfield went above their normal call of duty over the weekend.

Crews were called to a man’s home after he had a cardiac emergency while shoveling his driveway.

After rushing him to the hospital, the firefighters decided to go back to the man’s home and finish shoveling his driveway for him.

Fire Chief Jon Cohn said the selflessness of the firefighters stems from their motto of do the right thing, “Sometimes shoveling isn’t looked at as a physical activity but it really is. I think there truly is an opportunity for everyone to be a local hero and go out and give your neighbor a hand shoveling a driveway or fixing their mailbox.”

The chief hopes this idea of “Shoveling it Forward” catches on this winter and every winter to follow.

STURGEON BAY – The Sturgeon Bay Common Council is expected to vote on zoning for a controversial waterfront hotel proposal tonight.

The city’s plan commission voted 3 to 2 on January 21, recommending the council approve a zoning change for the 76-unit hotel plan.

People have packed previous city meetings when the proposed hotel has been discussed.

Tonight’s meeting starts at 6 pm and will be held at the Sturgeon Bay Fire Department’s garage located at 421 Michigan Street.

FOX 11’s Ben Krumholz will be at tonight’s meeting and will have balanced coverage on FOX 11 News at Nine.

BOSTON (AP) — Boston Mayor Martin Walsh says the victory parade for the New England Patriots can’t be pushed back again even though the city is still digging out from a snowstorm and the subway system is having weather-related service problems.

Walsh announced Monday night that the parade would be postponed until Wednesday morning while Boston recovered from its second major winter storm in a week.

He said Tuesday that many people have suggested postponing the parade again — this time until Saturday. He says the players will have scattered by then.

The Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks 28-24 in Sunday’s Super Bowl.

The mayor asked fans attending the parade not to perch on snowbanks because of the dangers involved and to dress appropriately for temperatures expected to be below freezing.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine is digging out, again.

Residents of the Pine Tree State are reaching for their shovels again a week after two storms dumped 3 feet of snow on some parts of the state. Monday’s snowstorm dumped more than 20 more inches of snow in parts of Maine by Tuesday morning. Ellsworth had the highest total in the state at 22 inches. Much of southern Maine got more than 10 inches.

Airports in Portland and Bangor say they hope to get back to normal schedules on Tuesday after numerous cancellations Monday. The National Weather Service says Tuesday will be cold, but snow and high wind are not in the forecast. More snow is expected Thursday night into Friday although meteorologists don’t yet know that storm’s severity.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans newly in charge of Congress challenged President Barack Obama at both ends of the Capitol on Tuesday, lining up in the House to repeal the health care program he signed into law and struggling in the Senate to roll back the immigration policies he issued on his own.

There was a third challenge as well, as Republican leaders announced the House would vote final approval next week on legislation clearing the way for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. That would trigger Obama’s threatened veto, the first in a new era of divided government.

The skirmishes all seemed likely to end in eventual defeat for Republicans, but served as a potent rejoinder of their power after Obama challenged them bluntly last month with his State of the Union address and a no-balance budget on Monday that called for higher taxes and new spending. The GOP won control of the Senate in last fall’s elections, and has its largest House majority in nearly 70 years.

In the Senate, Democrats had more than enough votes to block action on legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security and overturn presidential executive orders that have spared an estimated four million immigrants in the country illegally from the threat of deportation.

They said they were prepared to do so until Republicans relented, and agreed to produce a funding bill for the department, stripped of the immigration provisions.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky accused Obama of a “power grab” that exceeded his authority as president.

“So I’m calling on Democrats to vote with us now to fund the Department of Homeland Security. I’m calling on Democrats to join us and stand up for core democratic principles like the rule of law and separation of powers,” he said.

It was an offer they said in advance they would refuse.

The Democratic leader, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, accused Republicans of threatening a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which will lose some of its funding on Feb. 27 if Congress doesn’t replenish it.

“If Republicans don’t like something President Obama has done dealing with executive orders … bring it up on the Senate floor and let’s have a debate. Let’s not do what happened previously and shut down government,” he said, referring to a partial shutdown in 2013 that resulted from a dispute over funding for the health care law.

Rhetoric aside, the vote appeared to be part of a delicate dance in which the Senate GOP leadership, knowing it lacked the votes to prevail, wanted to demonstrate as much to anti-immigration lawmakers who helped pass the measure through the House last month. The provisions that drew objections from Democrats would roll back administration policies that shield millions of immigrants from the threat of deportation even if they are in the country illegally, and also give protection to younger immigrants brought to the country unlawfully by their parents.

Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said it was up to Republicans like Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Jeff Sessions of Alabama as well as Democrats to “stand with the American people and to block the president’s action.” The two Republicans were influential in the House’s decision to toughen the immigration provisions of the House bill, and officials said Boehner’s remark was a challenge to them to make sure the Senate follows suit.

The speaker did not say what the next step would be if, as expected, the bill was bottled up in the Senate. But Rep. John Carter, R-Texas., said the House may eventually have to pass a second bill that extends funding without immigration-related provisions attached. “Ultimately there may be a clean bill sent,” he said.

Across the Capitol, Republicans had more than enough votes in the House to repeal Obama’s health care law, but that bill, like the immigration measure, seemed headed for certain defeat in the Senate and faced a veto threat from Obama.

The House has voted more than 50 times in the past two years to repeal the health care law in whole or in part, but this time was different. The measure included instructions to key committees to begin work on a replacement that the party promised in the 2010 political campaign.

Officials described that as a measure of preparation in case the Supreme Court overturns a key portion of the existing program in a ruling expected this June.

Despite the dozens of previous attempts at repeal, the day gave newcomers to Congress their first opportunity to vote to uproot the health care law.

“Today, I am making good on my commitment to support a full repeal of Obamacare,” said Rep. Alex Mooney, a West Virginia Republican who took his seat in Congress last month.

The announcement that Congress would soon send Obama legislation to approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline meant the House would accept relatively minor changes that the Senate added when it passed the bill. Among them is a non-binding statement that climate change is not a hoax.

Democrats say they have enough votes to sustain a veto.

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AP Writers Erica Werner and Andy Taylor contributed to this story.

GREEN BAY – The Near Water Concert Series is gearing up for spring at the Meyer Theatre.

Two country/folk concerts are announced for the month of April: Shovels & Rope and Trampled By Turtles with special guest Web of Sunsets.

Shovels & Rope will take the Meyer stage on Wednesday, April 8 at 7:00 p.m. Shovels & Rope combines two burgeoning solo artists into one dynamic duo. The Mississippi-born Cary Ann Hearst and Colorado-raised Michael Trent met in Charleston, South Carolina to team up to make music together.

Tickets go on sale for Shovels & Rope Feb. 6 at 11:00 a.m.at www.MeyerTheatre.org, Ticket Star box office in the Resch Center and by phone 800.895.0071. Tickets are all $25.

The five-man band, Trampled By Turtles, will peform new songs from their seventh album at the Meyer Theatre on Tuesday, April 28 at 7:30 p.m. Trampled By Turtles formed in 2003 in Duluth, Minnesota. The band started on the Midwestern festival circuit and have increased fame with each album.

Tickets for that concert go on sale Friday Feb. 6 at 11:00 a.m. You can buy tickets at www.MeyerTheatre.org, Ticket Star box office in the Resch Center and by phone 800.895.0071. Tickets are $25 in advance and $28 at the door.

BEAVER DAM, Wis. (AP) – A Beaver Dam police officer says he’s quite certain he’s never responded to a call like the one he handled recently at a McDonald’s restaurant.

Officer Rich Dahl responded to an anonymous complaint about a woman who brought a kangaroo into McDonald’s. Dahl said Tuesday the woman had the baby kangaroo wrapped in a blanket and tucked in an infant car seat.

Dahl says when he confronted the woman she explained the kangaroo was a service animal to help her cope with emotional distress and she produced a letter from a doctor.

The officer says the woman was upset at first, but then agreed to leave the restaurant. Dahl says he doesn’t know if a kangaroo would qualify as a service animal under the law, but he says he’s glad he didn’t have to find out.

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — In Tunis, Ghaith stands furtively on a street corner, his face masked by a hoodie, his tense eyes scanning the crowd for any hint of Islamic State militants.

He chain-smokes as he describes the indiscriminate killing, the abuse of female recruits, the discomfort of a life where meals were little more than bread and cheese or oil. He recounts the knife held to his throat by fellow fighters who demanded he recite a particular Quranic verse on Islamic warfare to prove himself.

“It was totally different from what they said jihad would be like,” said Ghaith, who asked to be identified by his first name only for fear of being killed. Ghaith eventually surrendered to Syrian soldiers.

While foreigners from across the world have joined the Islamic State militant group, some find day-to-day life in Iraq or Syria much more austere and violent than they had expected. These disillusioned new recruits also soon discover that it is a lot harder to leave than to join. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the Islamic State group has killed 120 of its own members in the past six months, most of them foreign fighters hoping to return home.

Even if they manage to get out, former fighters are considered terrorists and security risks in their own countries. Thousands are under surveillance or in jail in North Africa and Europe, where former militants massacred 17 people last month in terror attacks in Paris.

“Not everyone who returns is a budding criminal. Not everyone is going to kill — far from it,” said France’s top anti-terror judge, Marc Trevidic. “But it’s probable that there is a small fringe that is capable of just about anything.”

The number of French returnees has recently increased, their enthusiasm dented by the reality of militant life and by the allied bombing campaign, according to a top French security official who spoke anonymously because the issue is sensitive. Some foreign recruits have written home to say they are being held against their will, the official said.

The Associated Press talked to more than a dozen former fighters, their families and lawyers about life in and escape from Islamic State, many of whom spoke only on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

Youssef Akkari used to spend hours in his room in Tunisia listening to religious chants and reading, according to his brother, Mehdi Akkari. One day the family received a message that he was going to Syria. But he lost his glasses and couldn’t fight, his brother said, so he was put in charge of preaching jihad to new recruits instead.

After seven months he began to plot his escape, along with two brothers.

The brothers were discovered and killed. Youssef turned himself in to Kurdish fighters and made his way back to Tunisia, where he felt trapped between police harassment and his terror of the vengeful militants. He returned to Syria and died in an airstrike in October.

The Islamic State group works to prevent recruits from leaving from the time they join.

The first step is removing their passports and identity documents. Hamad Abdul-Rahman, an 18-year-old Saudi, said he was met at the Syrian border last summer by militants who escorted him to a training camp in Tabaqa, Syria.

“They took all my documents and asked me if I want to be a fighter or a suicide bomber,” Abdul-Rahman told AP from prison in Baghdad, where he was shackled, handcuffed and hooded.

He chose to fight.

In early September, he surrendered to Iraqi forces. An Iraqi defense ministry video shows Abdul-Rahman minutes after his arrest, identifying himself to soldiers.

Another Tunisian recruit, Ali, escaped after he was made a courier in the winter of 2013. He made four courier trips between Syria and Tunisia in three weeks, taking back news, money and propaganda videos. On the last trip to Tunisia, he simply stayed.

“I feel like I was a terrorist, I was shocked by what I did,” said Ali, dropping his voice low and moving when people approached. His advice for would-be jihadis: “Go have a drink. Don’t pray. It’s not Islam. Don’t give your life up for nothing.”

The predicament for governments is to figure out whether a recruit is returning home to escape from the Islamic State or to spread its violence.

France has detained more than 150 returnees — including eight on Tuesday — and says about 3,000 need surveillance. Britain has arrested 165 returnees, and Germany considers about 30 of its 180 returnees extremely dangerous. There is no way to prove their intentions.

“(For many in France), they need to be punished. That’s it,” said Justice Minister Christian Taubira. “These are the people who can bear witness, who can dissuade others.”

French lawyer Martin Pradel said his client is one of 10 men from Strasbourg who left for Syria last winter to take up arms on behalf of Syrian civilians. But they crossed into territory controlled by militants, who suspected they were spies or enemies. They were jailed for two weeks, then transferred and locked up for another three. Two of the French recruits died in an ambush.

The men decided to leave, one by one so as not to draw attention.

“They left at night, they ran across fields, they practically crept across the border,” Pradel said.

His client surrendered to Turkish authorities. Since he lacked ID, he got temporary transit papers from the French embassy. He is now in jail in France, where the government accuses the Strasbourg men of running a recruiting ring for extremists.

It was a similar escape for four Frenchmen from Toulouse, according to their lawyers.

Pierre Dunac, the lawyer for Imad Jjebali, said the men went to Syria in hopes of helping civilians, but ended up in Islamic State territory and were thrown in jail. One day, Dunac said, their jailer gave them their papers. He told them, “I’m going to pray,” and he left them alone right by the door.

“They understood that he was letting them leave,” Dunac said. “Why? It’s astonishing. … They themselves didn’t understand why.”

The men surrendered to Turkish soldiers and were deported to France. They are now in jail facing terrorism charges.

In Tunisia, where close surveillance of 400 returnees is far more common than arrests, Ghaith is now a free man by most measures. But he does not act like one. He neck still bears a scar where his fellow fighters held the knife.

“It’s not a revolution or jihad,” he said. “It’s a slaughter.”

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Hinnant reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Zeina Karam in Beirut; Jamey Keaten and Nicolas Vaux-Montagny in Paris; Vivian Salama in Baghdad; and Danica Kirka in London contributed.

CAIRO (AP) — A video released online Tuesday purportedly shows a Jordanian pilot captured by the Islamic State extremist group being burned to death.

The Associated Press was not immediately able to confirm the authenticity of the video, which was released on militant websites and bore the logo of the extremist group’s al-Furqan media service. The 20-minute-long video featured the slick production and graphics used in previous videos released by the group.

Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, 26, fell into the hands of the militants in December when his Jordanian F-16 crashed near Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of the group’s self-styled caliphate. He was the first pilot from the U.S.-led coalition to be captured.

Following militant demands, Jordan’s government had said it was willing to trade Sajida al-Rishawi, an al-Qaida prisoner, for the pilot, but that it wanted proof of life first.

Al-Rishawi faces death in Jordan for her role in a 2005 hotel attack that killed 60 people.

The latest video emerged three days after Japanese journalist Kenji Goto was purportedly beheaded by the militants. The fate of the two captives had been linked but a video of Goto’s purported slaying released Saturday made no mention of the pilot.

An audio message last week, also purportedly from the Islamic State group, only said the pilot would be killed if al-Rishawi was not released Thursday.

LONDON (AP) – British lawmakers in the House of Commons voted Tuesday to allow scientists to create babies from the DNA of three people – a move that could prevent some children from inheriting potentially fatal diseases from their mothers.

The vote in the House of Commons was 382-128 in favor. The bill must next be approved by the House of Lords before becoming law. If so, it would make Britain the first country in the world to allow embryos to be genetically modified.

The controversial techniques – which aim to prevent mothers from passing on inherited diseases – involve altering a human egg or embryo before transferring it into the mother. British law currently forbids any such modification and critics say approving the techniques could lead to the creation of “designer babies.”

Defects in the mitochondria can result in diseases including muscular dystrophy, heart, kidney and liver failure and severe muscle weakness.

The technology is completely different from that used to create genetically modified foods, where scientists typically select individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another.

In the House of Commons, health minister Jane Ellison kicked off the debate by urging support for the change.

“This is a bold step to take, but it is a considered and informed step,” she said, of the proposed technology to help women with mitochondrial diseases.

Critics, however, say the techniques cross a fundamental scientific boundary, since the changes made to the embryos will be passed on to future generations.

“(This is) about protecting children from the severe health risks of these unnecessary techniques and protecting everyone from the eugenic designer-baby future that will follow from this,” said David King, director of the secular watchdog group Human Genetics Alert.

The techniques would likely only be used in about a dozen British women every year who have faulty mitochondria, the energy-producing structures outside a cell’s nucleus. To fix that, scientists remove the nucleus DNA from the egg of a prospective mother and insert it into a donor egg from which the nucleus DNA has been removed. This can be done either before or after fertilization.

The resulting embryo would end up with the nucleus DNA from its parents but the mitochondrial DNA from the donor.  Scientists say the DNA from the donor egg amounts to less than 1 percent of the resulting embryo’s genes.

Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration held a meeting to discuss the techniques and scientists warned it could take decades to determine if they are safe. Experts say the techniques are likely being used elsewhere, such as in China and Japan, but are mostly unregulated.

Rachel Kean, whose aunt suffered from mitochondrial disease and had several miscarriages and stillbirths, said she hoped British politicians would approve the techniques. Kean, an activist for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, said her mother is also a carrier of mitochondrial disease and that she herself would like the option one day of having children who won’t be affected.

“Knowing that you could bring a child into this world for a short, painful life of suffering is not something I would want to do,” she said.

A spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said he was a “strong supporter” of the change. Cameron had a severely disabled son, Ivan, who died at age 6 in 2009, from a rare form of epilepsy.

Lisa Jardine, who chaired a review into the techniques conducted by Britain’s fertility regulator, said each case will be under close scrutiny and that doctors will track children born using this technique as well as their future offspring. She acknowledged there was still uncertainty about the safety of the novel techniques.

“Every medical procedure ultimately carries a small risk,” she said, pointing out that the first baby created using in-vitro fertilization would never have been born if scientists hadn’t risked experimenting with unproven methods.

Yet Kean said she understood the opposition to the new technology.

“It’s everybody’s prerogative to object, due to their own personal beliefs,” she said. “But to me the most ethical option is stopping these devastating diseases from causing suffering in the future.”

TOWN OF ONEIDA – Three people were hurt in a head-on crash.

Outagamie County sheriff’s officials say the crash happened just before 10 a.m. on Hwy. 55 at Fish Creek Rd. It’s unknown how serious the injuries were, but the Eagle III rescue helicopter was called in from Brown County.

Traffic is being re-routed around the area. It’s unknown how long the road will be closed.

SAN DIEGO (AP) – A San Diego man has been convicted of running a “revenge porn” website where people posted nude pictures of their ex-lovers, who then had to pay the man to take down the images.

Kevin Bollaert, 28, was found guilty Monday of 27 counts, including identity theft and extortion, and faces up to 20 years in prison. The San Diego County Superior Court jury was unable to reach verdicts on two charges of identity theft and conspiracy, and a judge declared a mistrial on the counts.

It was believed to be the first conviction of a revenge porn website operator, although two months ago a Los Angeles man who posted a topless photo of his ex-girlfriend on Facebook was sentenced to a year in jail for violating California’s new revenge porn law. That law was enacted in October 2013, after the incidents for which Bollaert was charged.

The term “revenge porn” is used because most of the explicit images have been posted online by former lovers in attempts to shame their former partners after a breakup.

Between Dec. 2, 2012, and Sept. 17, 2013, Bollaert allowed people to anonymously post more than 10,000 images, mainly of women, on his now-defunct ugotposted.com website without the knowledge of those in the pictures, prosecutors said. The victims’ names, cities where they lived and other information such as links to their Facebook profiles also were posted.

Bollaert also ran another now-defunct website, changemyreputation.com, where victims could go and be charged up to $350 to have the images removed.

Prosecutors said he earned tens of thousands of dollars from the scheme.

More than two dozen people were named as victims in the criminal complaint. Some testified at trial that they suffered humiliation and fear when their private photos were posted, and prosecutor Tawnya Austin told jurors that they also were harassed by people who tried to contact them through Facebook or by email.

One woman testified that it ruined her reputation and her relationship with her family.

At trial, prosecutors argued that Bollaert knew the images on his website were private and posted without consent of the victims, describing the business as essentially a blackmail scheme.

Bollaert’s lawyer, Emily Rose-Weber, said her client may have conducted an immoral business that took advantage of “human weakness,” but he didn’t break the law by allowing others to post the explicit photos.

“It’s gross, it’s offensive, but it’s not illegal,” she said.

DE PERE – Get ready to rock out to “What I Like About You” this Memorial Day weekend.

The Romantics, authors of the classic 1980s hit, are set to headline Celebrate De Pere on May 23. They’re part of the entertainment just announced for the 25th annual festival.

The next night, fireworks are scheduled to introduce the night’s headliner, Lonestar. The country group is best known for its 1999 hit “Amazed.”

On Memorial Day, the De Pere Kiwanis Memorial Day Parade will end at Voyageur Park leading up to the Memorial Day Veterans’ Salute. Right after that is a performance by Lee Greenwood, who is best knwon for his song, “God Bless the USA.”

Other entertainment during the weekend includes the Redneck Regatta, Car Show, carnival rides, Children’s Area and Fishing Tournament and music from local artists.

Advance tickets – $5 for a single-day pass – go on sale April 1 at select Community First Credit Union locations, select Festival Foods locations and Pack and Ship in De Pere. Prices at the gate will be $5 before 7 p.m. and $10 after 7 p.m. Veterans and current military members get in free with proof of service.

• Click here for more information

PORTAGE (AP) – A Wisconsin Dells man is accused of trying to drown a woman in a bathtub. Police say it wasn’t until one of the woman’s children intervened that she was able to get away.

Twenty-seven-year-old Justin Wagner is charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide and other counts in Columbia County. A criminal complaint says the woman told investigators she argued with Wagner after they had been drinking at bars in Lake Delton last weekend.

The Baraboo News Republic reports the two returned to a Wisconsin Dells residence where Wagner held the woman’s face, nose and mouth under the bathtub faucet. Authorities say the woman was able to get away when one of her children walked into the bathroom.

Wagner is being held on $10,000 cash bond. Court records do not list an attorney.

APPLETON – The Salvation Army – Fox Cities met its $1.2 million Christmas campaign goal.

Leaders credit area business and community group match days with raising $559,251 toward the goal. The largest match day was on Dec. 6, when Thrivent Financial offered to match up to $100,000 in donations. Community members gave $123,139 to red kettles, bringing the one-day total to $223,139. There were eight other match days during the bell-ringing season.

Money collected during the campaign goes toward year-round social service programs such as the food pantry and daily lunch service.

In December, the Salvation Army helped around 8,000 people with Christmas assistance. The group distributed more than 24,000 toys, 6,685 books and puzzles and 4,300 coats, along with hats, scarves and mittens. The public also sponsored 477 households – 2,179 individuals – through the Adopt-A-Family program.

PARK FALLS (AP) – About 20 people were checked or treated for carbon monoxide poisoning after a leak occurred at a movie theater in Price County

Park Falls Police Chief Scott Straetz says his department got a call shortly before 10 p.m. Monday because a woman was having a seizure at the Park Theatre. He says when officers arrived another woman fainted, which led them to believe there was a carbon monoxide leak.

Straetz says the fire department later confirmed the leak with their testing equipment. He says some people were transported by ambulance to the hospital and others drove themselves. WAOW-TV reports none of the cases was life-threatening.

Experts will check the furnace and hot water heater Tuesday, both of which were disabled following the incident.

NEW YORK (AP) – “To Kill a Mockingbird” will not be Harper Lee’s only published book after all.

Publisher Harper announced Tuesday that “Go Set a Watchman,” a novel the Pulitzer Prize-winning author completed in the 1950s and put aside, will be released July 14. Rediscovered last fall, “Go Set a Watchman” is essentially a sequel to “To Kill a Mockingbird,” although it was finished earlier. The 304-page book will be Lee’s second, and the first new work in more than 50 years.

The publisher plans a first printing of 2 million copies.

“In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called ‘Go Set a Watchman,'” the 88-year-old Lee said in a statement issued by Harper. “It features the character known as Scout as an adult woman, and I thought it a pretty decent effort. My editor, who was taken by the flashbacks to Scout’s childhood, persuaded me to write a novel (what became ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’) from the point of view of the young Scout.

“I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told. I hadn’t realized it (the original book) had survived, so was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it. After much thought and hesitation, I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication. I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years.”

Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal was negotiated between Carter and the head of Harper’s parent company, Michael Morrison of HarperCollins Publishers. “Watchman” will be published in the United Kingdom by William Heinemann, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

According to publisher Harper, Carter came upon the manuscript at a “secure location where it had been affixed to an original typescript of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.'” The new book is set in Lee’s famed Maycomb, Alabama, during the mid-1950s, 20 years after “To Kill a Mockingbird” and roughly contemporaneous with the time that Lee was writing the story. The civil rights movement was taking hold by the time she was working on “Watchman.” The Supreme Court had ruled unanimously in 1953 that segregated schools were unconstitutional, and the arrest of Rosa Parks in 1955 led to the yearlong Montgomery bus boycott.

“Scout (Jean Louise Finch) has returned to Maycomb from New York to visit her father, Atticus,” the publisher’s announcement reads. “She is forced to grapple with issues both personal and political as she tries to understand her father’s attitude toward society, and her own feelings about the place where she was born and spent her childhood.”

Lee herself is a Monroeville, Alabama native who lived in New York in the 1950s. She now lives in her hometown. According to the publisher, the book will be released as she first wrote it, with no revisions.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” is among the most beloved novels in history, with worldwide sales topping 40 million copies. It was released on July 11, 1960, won the Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into a 1962 movie of the same name, starring Gregory Peck in an Oscar-winning performance as the courageous attorney Atticus Finch. Although occasionally banned over the years because of its language and racial themes, the novel has become a standard for reading clubs and middle schools and high schools. The absence of a second book from Lee only seemed to enhance the appeal of “Mockingbird.”

Lee’s publisher said the author is unlikely to do any publicity for the book. She has rarely spoken to the media since the 1960s, when she told one reporter that she wanted to “to leave some record of small-town, middle-class Southern life.” Until now, “To Kill a Mockingbird” had been the sole fulfillment of that goal.

“This is a remarkable literary event,” Harper publisher Jonathan Burnham said in a statement. “The existence of ‘Go Set a Watchman’ was unknown until recently, and its discovery is an extraordinary gift to the many readers and fans of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ Reading in many ways like a sequel to Harper Lee’s classic novel, it is a compelling and ultimately moving narrative about a father and a daughter’s relationship, and the life of a small Alabama town living through the racial tensions of the 1950s.”

The new book also will be available in an electronic edition. Lee has openly started her preference for paper, but surprised fans last year by agreeing to allow “Mockingbird” to be released as an e-book.