Green Bay News

MILWAUKEE (AP) – With a month until spring training, the Brewers are minus a workhorse starting pitcher and their All-Star closer.

Milwaukee seems committed to staying in-house and turning to young right-hander Jimmy Nelson to fill the spot in rotation that opened following the trade of Yovani Gallardo to the Texas Rangers.

The bullpen, though, could still be a work in progress.

Francisco Rodriguez, who had 44 saves in 49 opportunities in 2014 remains a free agent. For now, Jonathan Broxton would be the favorite to close if the Brewers don’t make another move.

“We have an opportunity to” add a reliever, general manager Doug Melvin said this week. “We’re having some conversations with a few people. There’s a chance of possibly adding a reliever.”

Maybe even Rodriguez.

The right-hander known as “K-Rod” has spent all or parts of the last four seasons in Milwaukee. Last year, Rodriguez signed a one-year, $3.25 million deal with the Brewers about 10 days before spring training began.

Rodriguez didn’t take over the closer role last year until the season opener. He got the job at the last minute when presumed stopper Jim Henderson struggled out of spring training.

Rodriguez ended up having his best year out of the bullpen since saving 47 games in 2006.

“You think at the end of the year somebody would jump on him but he’s still out there,” manager Ron Roenicke said at the Brewers On Deck fan event. “I know he’s had some conversations, like he does with everybody.”

The Brewers had also spoken to the Phillies about potentially trading for closer Jonathan Papelbon, who signed a four-year, $50 million contract with Philadelphia before the 2012 season. The contract also includes an option for 2016.

The team is keeping tabs on Papelbon, Rodriguez and other potential relief options, though no moves were imminent.

On the current roster, Broxton has the most closing experience. He had seven saves last year with Cincinnati before going 0 for 2 in save opportunities following a trade in August to Milwaukee.

Broxton has 118 career saves in a career spanning 10 seasons. Left-hander Will Smith and right-hander Jeremy Jeffress are hard throwers who could also be in line for saves.

“I think if we need them to close some games, they can. We’ve got some arms good enough that, I think, we’re OK late in the game,” Roenicke said.

They appear comfortable, at least, with the rotation, even with the trade of Gallardo. The durable veteran who owns the Brewers’ franchise record of 1,226 strikeouts was dealt to Texas for right-hander Corey Knebel, infielder Luis Sardinas and a minor leaguer.

Kyle Lohse, Matt Garza, Wily Peralta and Mike Fiers take up Milwaukee’s first four rotation spots. Nelson, a right-hander who went 2-9 in 2014 and struggled down the stretch during his most extensive season in the big leagues, will be counted on take a jump as a consistent fifth starter.

“He struggled with command last year. His stuff is awesome. He has great stuff; a power slider, a sinking fastball and now all he needs to do is be able to locate the strike zone,” catcher Jonathan Lucroy said. “If he can execute and locate for strikes, he’s going to be just fine. That’s all we need from him right now.”

Gallardo was eligible to become a free agent after the 2015 season, though Melvin has said there was a need to also give Nelson a bigger role than just as a long man out of the bullpen or spot starter.

When asked about a reliable third pitch, Nelson pointed to a changeup to go with his fastball and slider.

“The problem was I got away from my game plan when I got to the big leagues. … I got away from the things I was doing in Triple-A to be successful,” Nelson said. “I have to get back to that and stick with what is working.”

Brewers pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to spring training in Arizona on Feb. 20.

Two weeks removed from one of the more crushing defeats in his professional career, Packers coach Mike McCarthy was ready to talk about the positives of the 2014-15 season

“Our football IQ was the highest it’s been since I’ve been here,” McCarthy said. “Our guys did a great job preparing and obviously how they played. I’ve very proud of what we accomplished this year.”

But there was no denying the disappointment. The 28-22 overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks in an NFC Championship they dominated, is still tough swallow.

“A Very disappointing loss,” McCarthy said. “It’s definitely a game we had our opportunities to win and we let it get away.”

A unit that struggled all season. Special teams miscues played a big factor in the Packers loss. After the game a lot of that heat directed towards Coach Shawn Slocum. McCarthy was asked about a possible change at the position.

“We will look at everything,” McCarthy said. “Every job and every description, my job included and then we will make changes.”

On the field, free agency also a big off-season topic ,with prized pieces like receiver Randall Cobb, tackle Bryan Bulaga and cornerback Tramon Williams all needing to be resigned.

“We want all our guys back, that’s the mindset I take into every new season,” McCarthy said.

With a little tweaking and a healthy Aaron Rodgers, McCarthy thinks the Pack will be right back and better than ever.

“You have to learn from all your victories and your defeats,” McCarthy said. “That’s the sign of an Alpha and a champion. We’re going to get another opportunity to build the best football team we can in 2015 and we’re going to get after it.”

GRAND CHUTE – New details tonight about a boy’s fall into a restaurant’s grease pit.

Now state officials are looking into the incident.

A three year old Kimberly boy fell into the unsecured pit outside a Denny’s.

It happened last Friday in Grand Chute.

The Denny’s has three green manhole covers located in a landscape bed along the east side of the building.

Wyatt Scharenbroch’s family says he stepped on one of them. The cover wasn’t secured and the child fell into the vat.

FOX 11 has learned the state is sending an inspector to look at the grease pit to make sure it’s up to code.

Among other requirements, the manhole covers must have an approved locking device.

State officials say the pits are inspected when a new building is built or remodeled.

After that, only if there is a complaint or a report of an accident.

If the inspector finds the Denny’s grease pit isn’t up to code, the department will order a fix. Later, it will be inspected again.

FOX 11 reached out to Denny’s for comment on why the cover wasn’t secured, but did not receive a reply.

OUTAGAMIE COUNTY – For many areas, snowmobile trails are closed.

But there is one place you can go this weekend in Outagamie County to check out some high-speed racing action.

Members of The Outagamie Conservation Club don’t need snow, they made their own.

With just one pull of the rope, Mike Kohl took to the track at the Outagamie Conservation Club Wednesday morning.

Dozens of volunteers spent the last month building the one-third-mile oval of ice.

“It’s about 20 feet wide, and six to eight inches thick. We have a fire truck that we bought, that we sprinkle water round the track. We do that 90 times,” said Mike Kohl, Outagamie Conservation Club President.

Trails are closed in the area near Hortonville, but organizers hope to draw about fifteen hundred people to the 44th annual snowmobile races.

“It is a little bit of a pain, because you get a lot of snowmobile that ride the tracks to see the races to stop, but it’s nice for them. They’ll come out here and actually see snowmobiles, and ATVs. We got a motorcycle class that they race out here, about 12 guys,” said Kohl.

Kohl says the one-day event can generate about 10 percent of the not-for-profit club’s annual revenue. He says that money goes toward the club’s operations, and pays for programs like Department of Natural Resources hunter safety classes and more.

“Like women’s outdoor, that’s always a big thing. And we got take a kid fishing in June. That’s always big. That’s all free for the kids,” said John Wilharns, Outagamie Conservation Club Director.

With a final test lap in the books, Kohl says the track is ready to go.

“It’s a lot of group effort, and it’s fun. Everybody enjoys themselves the day of the races,” he said.

This is the 44th year for the races.

Club officials say in all of that time, they’ve only had to cancel the races once, because of the weather.

APPLETON – The online court records for murder suspect Kandi Siveny are being ‘sealed’ from the public in an effort to limit the information available to prospective jurors, her attorney says.

Siveny allegedly shot and killed Lara Plamann. Plamann was the partner of Siveny’s mother, Dianna Siveny. Kandi Siveny’s trial is scheduled for Feb. 16.

“You want an impartial jury,” Daniel Sanders, Siveny’s attorney, told FOX 11 Wednesday afternoon.

L-R: Dianna Siveny, Kandi Siveny, Rosie Campbell [Outagamie Co. Sheriff’s Dept./Ramsey Co. (Minn.) Sheriff’s Office]Sanders is worried that once jury duty notices are sent out, people may try to look up the case in the state court’s online database. This motion, approved by Judge Nancy Krueger, is an attempt to limit the amount of information available, Sanders said.

On that website, the caption of the case has been changed to “State of Wisconsin vs. Party Sealed by Judge Krueger,” with Siveny’s name removed. A search of the CCAP website using Kandi Siveny’s name does not generate a link to the murder case.

Outagamie County District Attorney Carrie Schneider could not be reached for comment.

There are still other motions pending before the court in this case, including Sanders’ request that the testimony of Rosie Campbell be prohibited at Kandi Siveny’s trial.

Campbell was sentenced earlier this month to five and a half years in prison for her role in the 2007 murder. Campbell told police she was hired to kill Plamann, but then backed out.

Campbell was convicted of criminal damage to property and theft. Last year, Campbell took a plea deal in which a homicide charge was dropped in exchange for her testimony against two other defendants in the case, Dianna and Kandi Siveny.

Dianna Siveny is scheduled to stand trial June 8.

CANONSBURG, Pa. (AP) – A Pennsylvania candy maker is getting a big kick out of the New England Patriots’ scandal over some deflated footballs.

The (Washington) Observer-Reporter reports that Bill Sarris had his Canonsburg staff make a chocolate football with a big dent in the side. It’s not for sale, but he posted it on Facebook as a joke.

It’s named the Bradie ball. That’s B-R-A-D-I-E to avoid any legal issues.

The picture’s caption says, “Net weight 13 lbs … Oops! We meant 11.2 lbs.”

The Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady have been accused of using underinflated footballs in the AFC Championship game. They play Sunday in the Super Bowl.

Sarris won’t explain how the chocolate got its deflated appearance.

He says only, “You’ll have to ask the Patriots how they did it.”

MILLERSVILLE, Md. (AP) – Investigators say an electrical fire spread to a Christmas tree, prompting a massive blaze that reduced a riverfront mansion near Maryland’s capital to ruins and killed six people.

Anne Arundel County Fire Department Chief Allan Graves said Wednesday in a statement that the Jan. 19 blaze began when an electrical fire ignited combustible materials that spread to a 15-foot-tall Christmas tree that had been cut more than 60 days earlier.

The overnight fire killed an Annapolis couple and four of their young grandchildren, who were spending the night.

Investigators have recovered six bodies from the rubble. Authorities identified the dead Wednesday as tech executive Don Pyle; his wife, Sandra; and three granddaughters and a grandson.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Sixteen million children were on food stamps as of last year, the highest number since the nation’s economy tumbled in 2008.

Numbers released by the Census Bureau Wednesday as part of its annual look at children and families show that one in five children were on food stamp assistance in 2014. The survey was taken last spring.

The number of people receiving food stamps – now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP – spiked through the recession and has stayed at a higher level since. In the 2007 Census survey, 9 million children received SNAP assistance.

Participation and spending appear to be going down, though. The Congressional Budget Office said this week that the government spent $76 billion on SNAP last year, down 8 percent from the year before. That was the first time spending went down since the beginning of the recession.

Around 46.5 million people received food stamps last year, according to the Agriculture Department, which oversees the aid, up from around 26 million in 2007. Participation is expected to decrease over the next 10 years, though higher food costs could keep spending up.

Half of the children receiving food stamps in the Census survey – 8 million – were living only with their mothers. Around 5 million children receiving food stamps lived with married parents.

The spike in food stamp spending has caught the attention of Congress, and House Republicans tried to cut the program by around $4 billion a year in 2013. In an eventual compromise, Congress agreed to cuts of around $800 million a year, policy that was signed into law by President Barack Obama early last year as part of a larger farm bill. Since then, many states have found ways to get around the cuts.

The SNAP program will still be under scrutiny in the new Republican Congress. The new chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Texas Rep. Mike Conaway, and the new chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, are both expected to take a look at food stamp spending in the coming year.

Billy Shore, the founder and CEO of Share Our Strength, a national anti-hunger group, said childhood hunger doesn’t get enough attention. His group is pushing Congress to leave the food stamp program untouched and to find new ways to end childhood poverty.

“These kids are the most vulnerable and the least responsible for the situation in which they find themselves,” he said.

MADISON (AP) – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is headed to Oklahoma to speak at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in May.

The Oklahoma Republican Party announced Wednesday that Walker planned to attend to conference that runs May 21 to May 23. Other potential 2016 presidential candidates who are slated to appear include former Sen. Rick Santorum, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Ben Carson.

Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman Dave Weston calls Walker a “rising star in the Republican Party and has demonstrated more than most how to win against the toughest Democrat competition.”

Walker’s travel schedule is picking up as he looks seriously at a White House bid. He was in Iowa last week, he’s scheduled to give a speech in Washington, D.C., on Friday and he’s going to New Hampshire in March.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Federal Reserve reiterated Wednesday that it will be “patient” in raising interest rates from record lows even as the U.S. economy moves steadily closer to full health.

The Fed signaled in a statement after its latest policy meeting that no rate increase is imminent despite the economic gains. A key reason is that inflation remains well below the Fed’s target rate.

And it said the pressures holding down inflation – mainly plunging oil prices – have intensified. The Fed said it thinks inflation will decline further before eventually reaching the central bank’s 2 percent target rate.

Yet the Fed sketched a brightening picture of the economy – with a strengthening job market, lower unemployment, rising consumer spending and higher household purchasing power fueled by lower energy prices.

Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, said the statement suggests that the Fed “is still taking the view that the collapse in oil prices is a net positive for the economy.”

The Fed’s statement also made clear that policymakers still think the impact of low oil prices on inflation will be temporary, Ashworth said

The statement was approved on a 10-0 vote.

The Fed’s emphasis on low inflation could affect when it decides to raise its key short-term rate from near zero. Many economists have forecast a rate hike in June, but some have pushed back their predicted timetable.

The Fed’s statement did not explicitly mention the weakening global economy. But it did say the Fed planned to take “international developments” into account in determining when to start raising rates.

The Fed operates with two key mandates: Maximizing employment and keeping prices rising at a moderate pace of 2 percent.

The U.S. economy’s steady growth and a strengthening job market would normally argue for a move to begin raising rates to prevent high inflation. The Fed has kept its benchmark rate near zero since 2008 to encourage borrowing, spending and investment and support the recovery from the Great Recession. The Fed’s key rate affects rates on many consumer and business loans.

But the concerns about global economic weakness and low inflation have raised doubts about when the Fed’s first rate increase will occur. A growing number of economists say the date could slip to September or even later. Economists at Morgan Stanley this week pushed back their forecast for the first rake hike to March 2016 because of the factors holding inflation down.

Some economists said the Fed’s references to both stronger growth and lower inflation largely offset each other. That suggests that the Fed sees little pressure to raise rates soon.

“This is a wash, from a policy perspective,” said Michael Gregory, an economist at BMO Capital Markets.

At the same time, Gregory said the Fed’s mention of weakening economies overseas shows it is increasingly concerned about the strengthening U.S. dollar. A rising dollar makes imports less expensive and holds down U.S. inflation. For that reason, Gregory expects the Fed to put off a rate hike until September.

Chair Janet Yellen said last month that by using the word “patient,” the Fed intended to signal that there would be no rate increase for at least two meetings. That would mean that if officials want to signal that a rate hike is coming in June, they would need to alter the “patient” wording at their next meeting in mid-March.

A complicating factor is the European Central Bank’s new plan to flood its sputtering economy with more than 1 trillion euros. That money should keep the eurozone’s interest rates ultra-low and could lead some investors to buy higher-yielding U.S. Treasurys. That would further strengthen the dollar and could push U.S. inflation further below the Fed’s 2 percent target.

Growth in China, the world’s second largest economy, is slowing, too.

By contrast, the U.S. economy added nearly 3 million jobs added last year, enough to cut the unemployment rate to 5.6 percent. That is just above the Fed’s goal of 5.2 percent to 5.5 percent unemployment.

Still, Yellen and other Fed officials have pointed to other factors – such as weak pay growth and a still-high number of part-time workers who can’t find full-time jobs – as evidence that more must be done to achieve a healthy job market.

U.S. prices rose just 1.2 percent in the 12 months that ended in November, according to the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation. When inflation is too low, consumer spending – and economic growth – can slow as people delay purchases on the assumption that the same or lower prices will be available later.

The biggest fear is deflation – a broad decline in prices and income that can further restrain spending and even tip an economy into recession.

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AP Economics Writer Christopher S. Rugaber contributed to this report.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources official says she hopes a new set of bald eagle license plates will take flight across the state.

Erin Crain, director for the department’s Natural Heritage Bureau, said Wednesday that the agency is accepting bald eagle photo submissions. A winning photo could be featured on the new endangered resources license plate, she said.

Crain said the bald eagle plates will replace currently available badger plates. She said the department will continue to offer wolf license plates along with the new bald eagle license plates. Crain said the bureau chooses animals from a list of endangered and rare species in Wisconsin. She said bald eagles are recovering from their endangered listing.

Those interested can visit the DNR Facebook page for additional contest details.

MADISON (AP) – Gov. Scott Walker is refusing to take a position on the federal renewable fuel standards law, saying that’s not an issue he has been actively engaged in.

Walker was asked Wednesday whether he had a position on the law that requires transportation fuel sold in the United States to contain a minimum amount of renewable fuel like ethanol. The issue is particularly big in Iowa, a big corn producing state.

Walker says since he has not officially declared as a candidate for president, he has not “gotten into that.”

Walker says should he run for president, “I probably would have to take a stand on it but I’m not right now.”

BOSTON (AP) – Boston bounced back quickly Wednesday from the Blizzard of 2015, with subways, buses and trains up and running again the morning after the storm buried a swath of New England in 2 to 3 feet of snow.

Many businesses reopened, as did Logan Airport, and homeowners, motorists and storekeepers dug out with grudging praise for the forecasters, who missed the mark in New York but got it right in New England.

Chris Laudani, a Boston bartender, became an instant symbol of the city’s resilience for shoveling snow off the yellow and blue Boston Marathon finish line on Boylston Street, where the 2013 terrorist bombing killed three people and wounded more than 260.

“For someone to brave the blizzard to clear our finish line for us is yet another statement as to what our event means not only to runners but also to Americans,” said Tom Grilk, executive director of the Boston Athletic Association, which oversees the marathon.

Meteorologists had warned that Boston would get more than 2 feet of snow by Tuesday night, and the National Weather Service said the city ended up with 24.4 inches, the sixth-highest total on record. Other areas received around 2 to 3 feet, pretty much as predicted.

“They actually got it right,” James Hansen said as he cleared a Boston sidewalk.

There was no gloating among the forecasters themselves, who just seemed relieved they were on the money.

Pointing up the guesswork factor, the weather team at Boston’s WHDH-TV tweeted a photo of the office “snow pool,” with pre-storm predictions ranging from 22 to 25.5 inches.

As the storm gathered earlier in the week, forecasters had warned that Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey could get 1 to 2 feet of snow. But in the end, they didn’t even see a foot.

With snow removal in Boston well underway, commuters high-stepped their way through a warren of snowy paths and towering snowbanks that gave the capital an almost alpine feel.

Still, bitter cold threatened to complicate efforts to clear clogged streets and restore power. Forecasters warned that it won’t get above freezing in Boston for a week, and several more inches of snow are expected Friday and again over the weekend.

Boston is accustomed to big snowstorms, and with ample warning that a blizzard was coming, officials mobilized thousands of snowplows and called up the National Guard.

Early on, Gov. Charlie Baker, who has been in office just three weeks, made a key decision, ordering a driving ban to give crews a chance to clear the mounting snow. Baker said he wrestled with that, but it “worked pretty much as we hoped.”

“We’ve come out of this in relatively good shape,” he said Wednesday before visiting the hard-hit South Shore area, where the storm punched a gaping hole in a seawall and caused flooding.

Baker also took a helicopter to Nantucket, where islanders accounted for about half the 7,200 people in Massachusetts still without electricity. Nantucket was lashed with winds gusting to 76 mph.

Around Massachusetts, Worcester got 33.5 inches – the highest amount recorded since 1905 – and Auburn and Lunenburg each reported 36 inches.

Parts of the New Hampshire coastline got 31 inches. Providence, Rhode Island, received around 19 inches. Thirty-one inches piled up in Sanford, Maine, and 33.5 inches in Thompson, Connecticut. Orient, on the eastern end of New York’s Long Island, got about 30 inches.

“Our snowblower broke down a couple of times because it couldn’t handle all the snow,” said Jodi McKim, struggling to free her car in Whitman, south of Boston.

A 53-year-old man collapsed and died in New Bedford, Massachusetts, while shoveling snow Tuesday night, officials said. Two other deaths, both on Long Island, were blamed on the storm.

In Providence, a man and his two small children were hospitalized with suspected carbon monoxide poisoning after drifting snow covered a boiler vent on their home.

In rural Maine, Leo Moody hoped to dig his ice-fishing shack out of the snow. With the blase tone of a genuine Downeaster, he brushed it all off as “just a snowstorm.”

“Back in the ’70s and ’80s, this was a typical winter,” Moody said. “Now you get a couple feet of snow and everybody freaks out.”

Scientists caution against linking any one weather event, like this blizzard, to man-made global warming without lengthy and intricate analysis.

But the waters off the Northeast were about 2 degrees warmer than normal, and last year the world regularly broke ocean temperature records, according to Jeff Masters at Weather Underground.

He and other experts say that as the world warms, it can expect stronger storms because warmer water supplies them with more energy and warmer air allows them to hold and dump more snow or rain.

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Associated Press writers Steve LeBlanc, Rodrique Ngowi, Mark Pratt and Philip Marcelo in Boston; Michelle R. Smith in Providence, Rhode Island; Seth Borenstein in Washington; Denise Lavoie in Whitman, Massachusetts; and Alanna Durkin in Augusta, Maine, contributed to this report.

GREEN BAY – Despite the efforts of a local group, Pope Francis will not be visiting Green Bay during his U.S. visit.

Additional details on Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families was announced Wednesday, and did not include a stop in Wisconsin.

Pope Francis is expected to visit the White House and stop in New York and speak at the United Nations before concluding his trip at the World Meeting of Families.

The “Pope to Green Bay” local initiative began in early 2014 to bring the pope to Titletown. An online petition received more than 4,000 signatures within nine months.

“I would like to thank all those involved with the ‘Pope to Green Bay’ initiative,” said Bishop David L. Ricken. “It was a great effort on the part of many. And while we will not see the Holy Father on this trip, with Our Lady of Good Help Shrine in Champion, it certainly does not eliminate the possibility of a visit to our area in the future.”

Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia in September will be the first time a pope has visited the United States in more than seven years.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – The Milwaukee Fire Department says a man has died in a garage fire.

The fire broke out about 7:45 a.m. Wednesday. Deputy Fire Chief Terry Lintonen says firefighters found the man dead.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports damage to the building and its contents is estimated at $14,000.

Milwaukee fire and police departments are investigating. An autopsy is scheduled Thursday.

MADISON (AP) – Gov. Scott Walker says he isn’t changing his mind about turning down federal money to expand Medicaid coverage under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law, even though Republican Gov. Mike Pence did just that.

Walker said Wednesday that he still believes his decision not to take the money, but instead limit income qualifications for Medicaid while expanding coverage to childless adults who were on a waiting list was the best approach.

Indiana this week became the 28th state to expand Medicaid under Obama’s health care law, and the 10th state to do so with a Republican governor.

Health care advocates in Wisconsin have urged Walker to take the money, particularly in light of a projected $2 billion state budget shortfall.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – California health officials on Wednesday declared electronic cigarettes a health threat that should be strictly regulated like tobacco products, joining other states and health advocates across the U.S. in pushing back against the fast-growing device.

The California Department of Public Health report says e-cigarettes emit cancer-causing chemicals and get users hooked on nicotine, although there is still more research to be done on the immediate and long-term health effects.

New generations of young people will become nicotine addicts if the products remain largely unregulated, California Health Officer Ron Chapman said.

“Without action, it is likely that California’s more than two decades of progress to prevent and reduce traditional tobacco use will erode as e-cigarettes re-normalize smoking behavior,” the report says.

E-cigarettes heat liquid nicotine from cartridges into inhalable vapor without tar and other chemicals found in traditional cigarettes. E-cigarette makers say using their products, known as “vaping,” is far safer than tobacco.

“Despite the health officer’s false claims, there is ample evidence that vaping helps smokers quit and is far less hazardous than smoking,” Gregory Conley, president of the e-cigarette advocacy group American Vaping Association, said in an email. “Smokers deserve truthful and accurate information about the relative risks of different nicotine products, not hype and conjecture based on cherry-picked reports.”

The California report called for restrictions on the marketing and sale of e-cigarettes, protections against accidental ingestion of liquid nitrogen and an education campaign on the dangers of using e-cigarettes. California has already banned the sale of e-cigarettes to minors in 2010.

A state senator introduced legislation this week that would regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products and ban their use in public places such as hospitals, bars and schools. A similar bill was defeated last year over opposition from tobacco companies.

Other states, including Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas, already have issued advisories cautioning the use of e-cigarettes.

APPLETON – Get ready to read! The 2015 Fox Cities Reads kicked off Wednesday in Appleton.

This year it features the work of Christina Baker Kline and her book “Orphan Train.”

The fiction book is about a movement of European orphans coming to the United States in the mid 1800s, many of whom were placed in the Midwest, including Wisconsin.

Copies of the book are available at libraries in the Fox Cities.

Event organizers say this book has been popular with area book clubs.

Jeff Kuepper, Fox Cities Reads Committee, said, “It’s been very popular with book clubs in the Fox Valley and in Wisconsin and actually nationally but it’s some of that book club interest that made us consider the book here, it’s got really good circuit at the libraries and that was one of the motivations that we really wanted to get something we thought already had a strong interest and could have some common discussion.”

The author will be in the Fox Cities April 20 and 21.

TORRANCE, Calif. (AP) — Toyota is recalling 52,000 Avalon sedans because of a wiring problem that could cause a fire.

The recall affects Avalons from the 2011 and 2012 model years.

Toyota says cargo in the trunk could move the wires connected to the audio system subwoofer. If the wires contact the metal frame of the subwoofer, they could short circuit and cause the subwoofer to overheat. That increases the risk of a fire.

Toyota says no injuries or fires have been linked to the problem, but it has received two reports of overheating.

Toyota will notify owners, who can get their vehicles repaired for free at dealerships. Dealers will disconnect the subwoofer until a repair is available.

SAO PAULO (AP) – The worst drought to hit Brazil’s biggest city in decades may leave residents with water service only two days a week.

Sao Paulo water utility company Sabesp says a five days-off, two days-on system would be a last-ditch effort to prevent the collapse of the Cantareira water system.

The reservoir is the largest of six that provide water to some 6 million of the 20 million people living in the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo. The utility says Cantareira is now down to 5.1 percent of its capacity of 264 billion gallons (1 trillion liters).

Sabesp official Paulo Massato Yoshimoto said Wednesday that “rationing could happen if rainfall does not increase in the reservoir area soon.”