Green Bay News

MADISON (AP) – Minority Democrats on the Legislature’s energy committees are questioning why the panels’ chairmen are holding a hearing on new federal limits on carbon emissions

Sen. Chris Larson asked at the beginning of the hearing Monday’s hearing why lawmakers were even there, pointing out the limits are coming from President Barack Obama’s administration. Rep. Josh Zepnick echoed him, saying legislators should be talking to Congress.

Republicans countered by saying they’re gathering information on what Sen. Rick Gudex, a Fond du Lac Republican, called an unfunded mandate that will drive up electric bills.

The hearing comes as Republican Gov. Scott Walker is preparing to sue over the limits. He says the limits could send electric rates soaring and the Obama administration is ignoring Wisconsin utilities’ investment in clean energy.

RACINE (AP) – Gov. Scott Walker says he’s planning trips to the early primary states of South Carolina, Nevada and Florida.

Walker told reporters in Racine on Wednesday that he wants to see if his message is resonating with voters around the country before he decides on whether to run for president.

Walker on Tuesday took the first formal step in a presidential run by creating a tax-exempt group that can raise unlimited amounts of money to help boost his effort.

Walker spoke to conservatives in Iowa last weekend and he plans a trip to New Hampshire in March. Walker says trips to the other early primary states aren’t confirmed yet but are in the works.

PHOENIX (AP) — As Facebook’s latest step into sports, the social media giant is launching Trending Super Bowl — a real-time hub for content from Sunday’s game between the Patriots and Seahawks.

The hub will allow followers to see how the game is going on a scoreboard module, while also viewing Super Bowl-related posts, photos and video posted by professional media, celebrities and friends. The module will also include a running play-by-play from the game, and videos of some of the commercials from the broadcast.

Facebook is trying to improve the experience around big sporting events for users. During last year’s Super Bowl, more than 50 million Facebook users had more than 185 million interactions (posts, comments and likes) about the big game.

“We have been the second-screen, real-time audience,” says Dan Reed, head of global sports partnerships at Facebook. “This Trending Super Bowl is part of a broader effort to better surface the great conversations happening in real time around live sporting events.”

And not only during the game — Trending Super Bowl will be live beginning Saturday morning.

“We know the Super Bowl is an all-day extravaganza and this will certainly be available pregame and during the game and postgame and halftime, of course,” Reed adds. “We also recognize it is about the pageantry around the game and the halftime show and the TV commercials.”

Facebook wants the hub to be one-stop shopping for all sorts of content for the game. Facebook only will present material posted by official owners, such as what the NFL is posting on its Facebook page, or interesting and enlightening items posted on individual Facebook pages by anyone.

Facebook isn’t new to the biggest sports happenings. Last year, it saw 350 million people worldwide engaged in conversation around the World Cup.

Surveys have shown that two-thirds of TV viewers use social media during a broadcast. Of those people who are on social media while watching, 85 percent are using Facebook, the company says.

Also of benefit to Facebook, Reed says, are the quarterbacks in the game. Tom Brady has become the “most-liked” NFL player with more than 3 million, recently passing Troy Polamalu. Russell Wilson is a frequent user, including a locker room shot of him with the NFC championship trophy after Seattle’s overtime victory against Green Bay.

“Tom is a real model for how the paradigm is changing for how athletes can interact with the fans,” Reed says. “There’s always interest in seeing what Tom Brady posts after a game, they are so authentic and entertaining.

“Having both of those players active on Facebook is certainly great for us; they can’t post during the game, unfortunately,” Reed adds with a laugh.

So where can this lead?

“We really want to incorporate the amazing experience you get when you attend the game into the lean-back experience of watching at home,” Reed says. “We feel we are best positioned to do that; we represent the largest collection of sports fans anywhere on the planet.”

McRAE, Ga. (AP) — Elrey “Bud” Runion and his wife, June, took their charitable efforts all over the South: from storm-damaged Alabama towns and impoverished pockets of West Virginia to a donation center run from their backyard in suburban Atlanta.

“He said, ‘You can’t take money with you when you’re gone,” said the couple’s daughter, Brittany Patterson. “You might as well spend and enjoy it.”

This week, the couple’s bodies were found, each shot in the head, in a small farming town in South Georgia. Bud Runion, 69, had driven nearly three hours from his Marietta home seeking to buy a piece of his youth, a replica of the 1966 Ford Mustang convertible he bought after returning from the Vietnam War decades ago.

These photos provided Monday, Jan. 26, 2015, by the Cobb County Police Department, shows from left to right, Elrey “Bud” Runion, of Marietta, Ga. Runion, 69 and his wife, June Runion, of Marietta, Ga. Runion, 66. The couple was reported missing after driving across the state to check out a classic car advertised on Craigslist, and police say the man who last had phone contact with them faces charges. Investigators have obtained warrants for 28-year-old Ronnie Adrian “Jay” Towns on charges of giving false statements and criminal attempt to commit theft by deception. Towns hasn’t been accused of harming the couple. (AP Photos/Courtesy of the Cobb County Police Department)

A potential seller responding to his Craigslist ad drew him to McRae on Thursday. On Monday, authorities found the couple’s SUV, with their bodies nearby.

Ronnie Adrian “Jay” Towns, 28, of McRae, was charged Tuesday with malice murder and armed robbery. A judge denied bond for Towns in his first, brief court appearance. Asked whether he understood what he had been charged with, Towns replied: “I understand.” His attorney, public defender Ashley McLaughlin, declined to comment afterward.

Telfair County Sheriff Chris Steverson said robbery appears to be the motive for the couple’s killings, but he would not say whether the Runions were carrying cash or disclose other details about the case. On Monday, he said investigators had found no evidence that Towns owned the sort of classic car Runion was seeking.

While the family was unsure Tuesday morning what transpired in McRae, Patterson had her own assumptions. Her father served in Army’s 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam, though he never talked to her about the experience in detail.

“He’s a survivor and fighter, and I know he wouldn’t have gone out without fighting and trying to protect my mother,” she said.

Years ago, driving through Marietta before Christmas Eve, Runion saw two young girls sorting through a Dumpster, his daughter said. He fixed up two bicycles belonging to his own girls and delivered them as gifts.

It was the beginning of “Bud’s Bicycles,” a charity run loosely out of Mount Paran Church of God in Marietta. Runion met his wife, a teacher, at the church in the 1970s.

Neighbors said the Runions built a shed in their backyard to house the bikes. Their donations eventually expanded to include food, household and school supplies, coats, blankets — even Thanksgiving turkeys.

“Basically, he had a food pantry in the basement of their house,” Patterson said.

Charity came in ways big and small. Patterson remembered as a child going to a doughnut shop with her father on Saturdays. They would often be joined by a man she did not know, and her father would pay the tab. Later in life she realized the man was homeless.

In front of the couple’s home Tuesday, someone tied flowers to a child’s bicycle and left it standing below a flag flying at half-staff.

“If someone lives their life like this and this happens, it really tests your faith,” said their neighbor, Tom Murphy.

In McRae, The Runions’ slaying shocked residents. In the tiny city about 80 miles southeast of Macon, a public mural in the downtown square proclaims it’s the “6th Safest City in Georgia.”

Ronnie Adrian “Jay” Towns enters Magistrate Judge Bryan Selph courtroom for his arraignment Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015 in McRae, Ga. Towns has been charged with murder and armed robbery in the deaths of Bud and June Runion, according to Telfair County Sheriff Chris Steverson. The bodies of 69-year-old Elrey “Bud” Runion and his 66-year-old wife, June Runion of Marietta, Georgia, were found Monday not far from where their SUV was discovered in a lake near McRae. (AP Photo/The Telegraph, Woody Marshall)

The suspect, Towns, grew up on a farm down a long dirt road where his father raised pine trees and grew soybeans, corn and peanuts. Now 28, he had a family of his own — a wife and a young daughter — in neighboring Wheeler County. Towns supported them by working construction jobs for a local homebuilder, said his uncle, Buddy Towns.

“He’s a good kid and very smart,” said the uncle, who sometimes hired his nephew to help install carpet and flooring customers had purchased from Buddy Towns’ business in McRae.

Buddy Towns said it had been six months or so since he needed his nephew’s help on a job, but he saw the younger Towns’ truck pass his storefront almost daily as he headed to work. He said his nephew remained close to his father, Ronnie Towns Sr., and they often went fishing and hunting together.

Towns’ family helped persuade him to turn himself in to authorities Monday. Buddy Towns said they were stunned that he would be charged in connection with the Runions’ disappearance.

“It just doesn’t make any sense why this would even go down,” Towns’ uncle said. “It’s hard for his parents. They’re not understanding.”

___

Henry reported from Marietta, Georgia.

MADISON (AP) – The state Supreme Court has decided a Wausau lawyer charged with multiple counts of misconduct can no longer practice law in Wisconsin.

The high court on Wednesday agreed with a referee’s recommendation to revoke Ryan Lister’s license. Lister faced 34 charges of misconduct including maintaining a sexual relationship with a client and misusing a client’s trust account.

In 2014 Robert Kinney, a referee in the case, recommended that the state revoke Lister’s license. Kinney said Lister has demonstrated that he is a dishonest manipulator of the weak.

Lister argued that a public reprimand would have been sufficient punishment since he didn’t commit any crimes.

Lister did not respond phone messages left at his office Wednesday.

MADISON (AP) – The state Natural Resources Board has approved a new study on frac sand mining in Wisconsin.

The DNR wants to update a 2012 report on sand mining with more current information after Midwest Environmental Advocates presented a petition to the agency’s board in October seeking an industry analysis.

The board gave the agency the go-ahead on a unanimous vote Wednesday.

The DNR plans to seek public input on what topics to address in the report in February and March. The process will include a public comment period and review of a draft report before the final document goes back to the board. The DNR doesn’t have a timeline for completion yet.

REEDSBURG (AP) – A Reedsburg man accused of faking a cancer diagnosis to collect disability benefits.

Thirty-year-old Brian Mentch is charged with felony theft by false representation. Prosecutors say he provided fake doctor’s notes and excuses to his employer, Seats Inc., in order to collect more than $2,600 in benefits.

WISC-TV says Mentch had been working for Seats for less than two months when he made the cancer claim. He wasn’t past his probationary period and wasn’t eligible for benefits. But, Seats made an exception for Mentch. He is scheduled for an initial appearance in Sauk County Circuit Court Wednesday afternoon.

Court records do not list a defense attorney.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging Republican Gov. Scott Walker to reconsider his decision to reject a Menominee Tribe casino in Kenosha.

Ten lawmakers, including Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, sent Walker the letter Wednesday.

Walker said Friday he was not going to approve the $800 million casino, citing concerns over potential losses to the state due to terms of a compact with the Forest County Potawatomi Tribe.

Walker had until Feb. 19 to make his decision.

The lawmakers say in their letter that Walker is ignoring terms of the state’s compact with the Menominee requiring the tribe to make up any Potawatomi losses.

The lawmakers say the potential benefit to the state in jobs and economic development offered by the Kenosha casino is too great to pass up.

• Click here to read the letter

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said Wednesday that he is seriously considering running for president because he sees gaps in the field of likely Republican candidates, and that he doesn’t have a problem with being branded as bland or uncharismatic.

Walker’s comments on WTMJ radio came after he delivered a well-received speech at a conservative summit in Iowa on Saturday, surprising many critics with an energetic address where he moved around the stage with his sleeves rolled up, talking about leading an American revival.

And on Tuesday, Walker announced the formation of Our American Revival, a tax-exempt group that can raise unlimited amounts of money to help boost a potential presidential run. Along with that, he released a campaign-style video and launched a website, Facebook page and Twitter feed.

During Wednesday’s radio interview, Walker compared concerns he has over the future of the country with worries he had about the state before he ran for governor in 2010. He said earlier this month that he was praying about whether to get into the presidential race, and he would have to feel called to run before he would do it.

Walker said when he assessed who was talking about stepping up to address the country’s problems, “I see a lot of good people out there, but I see gaps.”

Walker repeated his arguments, which he also made in Iowa and in other national speeches, that the next president should be someone from outside Washington with a proven track record. Walker also said he was fine with being viewed as lacking charisma.

“The media is going to peg any prospective candidate with a tag,” said Walker, a 47-year old son of a preacher. “I’d rather have bland or uncharismatic than dumb or ignorant, or corrupt or any of the other things that they could label other would-be candidates out there, or old for that matter.”

Referring to the well-received Iowa speech, he added, “We may have pushed that narrative off to the side after Saturday.”

As he’s eyeing the presidential run, Walker has also made a flurry of huge announcements in Wisconsin in advance of releasing his two-year budget plan on Tuesday.

Last week he rejected a Menominee Tribe request to build a new $800 million casino near the Illinois border. A group of bipartisan lawmakers, including the Republican speaker of the Assembly, sent him a letter Wednesday urging Walker to reconsider.

On Monday, he said he planned to cut funding to the University of Wisconsin System by $300 million to help solve a projected $2 billion budget shortfall. And on Tuesday he backed a plan to float $200 million to help build a new basketball arena for the Milwaukee Bucks.

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Ford is recalling more than 221,000 cars and vans to fix problems with door latches and seat belts.

The biggest recall covers nearly 205,000 Ford Taurus, Lincoln MKS and Police Interceptor models in North America from the 2010 to 2013 model years. Ford says a door latch spring can become unseated, allowing the door to unlatch in a side-impact crash. The company says it knows of no injuries from the problem. Dealers will inspect the latches and replace door handles if needed.

The second recall covers just over 16,000 Transit Connect small vans in the U.S. from the 2014 model year. Seat belt fasteners can loosen, causing the belts to malfunction. Ford says the problem hasn’t caused any crashes or injuries.

Dealers will replace and tighten the seat belt fasteners.

GREEN BAY – Eat soup this week at a participating restaurant, and you’ll be helping out the New Community Shelter.  Director of Development, Kris Olson, says “Soup-er Bowl” is in it’s second year and raises funds for the shelter’s meal program.  The event runs now through February 1st.

Restaurants:

• Not By Bread Alone – 50% of all soup sales to the shelter
• Titletown Brewery – 75% of all soup sales to the shelter
• Rustique Pizzeria & Lounge – 75% of all soup sales to the shelter
• The Rite Place – 50% of all soup sales
• Gyro Kabobs  – 100% of all soup sales to the shelter
• Festival Foods – $1.00 donated for every pound of hot or cold soup sold
• Hagemeister Park – 75% of soup sales
• Kavarna Coffeehouse – 50% of soup sales
• Plae Bistro – 50 % of soup
• A’Bravo – $1 for each cup and bowl sold
• Mackinaw’s – 50% of soup sales
• Koko’s – 50% of soup sales
• Townline – 75% of soup sales

For more information check out the shelter’s facebook page.

 

 

Ingredients:

1-1/2 lbs ground chuck or ground round
2 cans French Onion Soup
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 egg, slightly beaten
salt/pepper to taste
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon. Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons flour

Directions:

In large bowl mix 1/3 cup of French Onion Soup, beef, bread crumbs, egg, and little salt and pepper. Shape mixture into 4 to 6 oval patties. Brown patties in large skillet.

In another bowl mix remaining soup, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and mustard. Pour soup mixture over browned patties and simmer for about 10 minutes. Turn patties once during simmering. Transfer patties to a plate and cover with foil to rest. In a measuring cup whisk flour and water, add to soup mixture in pan to thicken to gravy. Serve patties with gravy on top.

Take a look at the championship ring from each Super Bowl, plus a recap of the games.

WHITEWATER, Wis. (AP) – Change is coming for a small-school dynasty.

The search for a new football coach at Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater may not draw the kind of scrutiny that, say, Big Ten power Wisconsin received during its high-profile, rumor-filled pursuit for a new leader.

But the new coach at Whitewater will immediately inherit great expectations.

It’s not often that a job comes open at a school with the nation’s longest winning streak (32 games) and six national titles in the last eight seasons.

“We want to have the tradition that we have to keep going,” junior safety Bennett Young said.  “We want him to buy into what we’ve done because clearly it has been working the past decade.”

“However, we also want to bring in some new experience … add that on to what we already had here,” he added.

It sounds like a delicate balance for Lance Leipold’s replacement in the small southern Wisconsin town about 50 miles west of Milwaukee.

Leipold left to take the same position at Buffalo after beating Mount Union in the NCAA Division III title game last month. He finished a remarkable eight-year run with a 109-6 record before making the rare leap from a small school to Bowl Subdivision program.

Leipold also achieved a milestone in October with his 100th win in just 106 games. No one in NCAA history has reached the 100-win plateau in such a short time.

“We have a 32-game winning streak that’s better now than all the divisions combined. That’s a lot of stress coming in right away with the thought of continuing it on,” athletic director Amy Edmonds said this week.

She considers that pressure a given. Any legitimate candidate would know about Whitewater’s success going into the application process.

“But I am looking for someone that’s resourceful, that knows how to line themselves up with successful coaches,” Edmonds said. Having the next hire have a plan in place about who he wants to hire as assistants will be important for a quick transition.

Fundraising and being visible in the community will also be important at a school that doesn’t award athletic scholarships. On the field, Whitewater ran for 218 yards per game last year, while the defense allowed 12.2 points per game.

Edmonds expects to pick someone who is flexible but might have a similar philosophy.

“Certainly you’ve got to grease the wheel, as you will, to make things better as you move along,” she said. “But certainly – what we’ve been doing has been pretty successful. The last thing I want is someone coming and changing everything the first week they’re here.”

The open forums on campus this past week for each of the five finalists might help Edmonds make her choice. Boosters, coaches, students and players like Young were all among the roughly 40 people who attended one of the forums on Monday.

Such forums for coaching searches aren’t uncommon at small institutions. But public searches can present a unique challenge for candidates at a time on the football calendar when coaches are busy recruiting.

On Monday, it was Dave Taynor’s turn to take questions at the forum. Dressed in a dark gray suit and a purple tie that matched Whitewater’s primary school color, Taynor opened with a 15-minute presentation that was part motivational talk and part sales pitch.

Taynor, currently the head coach at Division II Urbana, said he was calling recruits when he wasn’t in the middle of interviews this week at Whitewater. But he was perfectly comfortable in the open forum.

“You want to see how they’re able to handle tough questions that are on the spot, be able to deliver a message clearly and succinctly,” he said. “This is a very good thing to do.”

The open forums wrapped up on Tuesday. Edmonds said she could make a decision as soon as Friday.

We’re out at the NEW Zoo learning more about animals that hibernate!

You may think the black bears are just sleeping, but they’re doing so much more.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) – Civil aviation authorities in Malaysia will release a required report on the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 a day before the one-year anniversary, but it won’t have any conclusion on what happened because the search is ongoing.

The report to be released March 7 will focus on investigations into the search for the plane, which is believed to have crashed in the remote southern Indian Ocean, Deputy Transport Minister Aziz Kaprawi said Wednesday.

The one-year report is required by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The plane disappeared the morning of March 8 last year while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

The Australian coordinators of the search have said the current phase could take another year and there is still no guarantee of success. No debris has ever been found.

Some family members calling themselves Voice 370 appealed to Malaysian, Australian and Chinese authorities not to abandon the search anytime soon. The majority of the passengers were from China.

“We have stated it before and reiterate it again, that we are prepared for any eventuality, including the fact that our loved ones may never come back. However, almost all families are unanimous in our stand that we do not want to declare our loved ones dead, without a shred of evidence,” they said on Facebook.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Pabst Brewing Co. could return to the city of its 19th century birth.

Pabst shut down its brewery in Milwaukee nearly 20 years ago. But, now its current owner and CEO, Eugene Kashper, is looking for a location in Milwaukee to open a pilot brewery where new products could be made and sampled.

The Journal Sentinel says Kashper has scouted the former Pabst complex near downtown Milwaukee. It’s been renovated to include the Brew House Inn & Suites, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Public Health, apartments and other developments.

Pabst’s roots are in Milwaukee, but it’s currently based in Los Angeles, where its previous owners moved the company’s offices from suburban Chicago after buying Pabst in 2010.

Kashper and his partners bought Pabst in November.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A contract employee has been charged with stealing computers from the state.

Prosecutors say 27-year-old Shawn Lewis of Madison was working to repair computers when he took as many as 17 laptops from the Department of Workforce Development between April and September. Investigators say Lewis sold some computers at pawn shops and others on Craigslist. Police say Lewis traded one for heroin.

The State Journal says Lewis is charged with felony theft and seven misdemeanor counts. Court records do not list a defense attorney.

GREEN BAY – The Green Bay Gamblers are gearing up for a big game this weekend.

The Gamblers will host the Chicago Steel on Saturday, January 31 at The Resch Center.

Every fan is asked to bring a new teddy bear to the game for their annual Teddy Bear Toss presented by Community First Credit Union.

When the Gamblers score their first goal, everyone tosses their bear on the ice.

Organizers with the Gamblers say the donated bears will be picked up and given to pediatric patients at Aurora BayCare Medical Center and clinics as well as other community organizations.

FOX 11’s Emily Deem spent Wednesday morning on the ice with the head coach and some of the players.

Click here to get tickets for this weekend’s Teddy Bear Toss game.

NEW YORK (AP) – They appeared to be scenes from a frozen apocalypse.

Streets across the nation’s largest city were empty, the only movement the changing traffic lights signaling to cars that weren’t there. The subway system was shuttered, the city’s pulse rendered still. Hardy souls who braved the snow were threatened with fines or arrest.

And it could be the new normal.

Though the snowstorm largely missed New York City, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio staunchly defended their unprecedented, stringent restrictions, both saying they believed in landing on the side of caution and suggesting they would take such measures again.

“Would you rather be ahead of the action or behind? Would you rather be prepared or unprepared? Would you rather be safe or unsafe?” de Blasio asked Tuesday at City Hall. “To me it was a no-brainer: we had to take precautions to keep people safe.”

Before the heavy snows even reached New York, officials closed schools, shut down bridges and tunnels, canceled commuter rail service and, for the first time ever in a snowstorm, closed the city’s sprawling subway system at 11 p.m. Monday. A travel ban was put in place and drivers caught out on the roads were subject to arrest.

Similar restrictions, previously unheard of, were put in place for a pair of hurricanes within the last five years.

But the meteorologists whose forecasts informed the region’s actions this week were wrong. The storm, while powerful on Long Island and in New England, ended up leaving far less than a foot of snow in New York City. And the decision to lock down the city – particularly the decision to close the subways – drew significant criticism from some business owners and transit advocacy groups.

For both men, mistakes made during previous storms guided their decisions.

New York City was caught unprepared for a blizzard that arrived in December 2010 when then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg was out of town before the storm struck. It resulted in miles of unplowed roads, stranded ambulances and angry residents stuck in their homes for days.

After that debacle, Bloomberg ritualized a show of over-preparedness for future storms. A series of press conferences – held before, during, and after storms – were conducted in which the mayor, flanked by his commissioners, attempted to exude confidence by delivering an avalanche of statistics to display the city’s readiness for the approaching snowstorm or hurricane. De Blasio has done the same, particularly after his administration stumbled on plowing for one storm early last year.

Cuomo acknowledged that his decision to act aggressively stems from the historic storm that blanketed Buffalo with seven feet of snow late last year.

“We make big decisions based on these weather forecasts,” the governor said. “We decided not to close the roads in Buffalo … and we had people stranded on the roads for 12, 15, 20 hours. You can have a significant loss of life in these situations.”

There were no reported fatalities in New York City. The city did, however, lose about $200 million in economic activity due to the snow storm and decision to shut down the transit system, but it wasn’t a crippling loss, according to a preliminary estimate from Moody’s Analytics.

But while de Blasio and Cuomo defended their actions, their united front showed a few cracks. They never appeared at a joint press conference, which created the somewhat absurd sight Monday of the two men, who were just five miles apart, delivering similar information in separate press conferences within an hour of each other.

And on Tuesday, de Blasio revealed that his administration only received word that the subways – which are under the state’s control – were being shut down mere minutes before Cuomo made the public announcement. He declined to second-guess the decision but made clear he wanted its repercussions studied.

“It was a very big move and certainly something we would have liked to have had more dialogue on,” de Blasio told reporters. “I think that’s a big decision, an unprecedented decision, that absolutely should be evaluated after the fact.”