Green Bay News

MITCHELL, Wis. (AP) – Authorities are investigating after a military plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Mitchell International Airport due to mechanical issues.

An official with the Wisconsin Air National Guard 128th Air Refueling Wing says a KC-135 Stratotanker returned to the airport Tuesday night in the midst of a training mission after crew members noticed smoke and fumes in the cockpit. Master Sgt. Tom Sobczyk says no injuries were reported and the aircraft landed safely at the airport just before 9 p.m.

Officials say the smoke and fumes were caused by a battery charger that failed. An investigation into the incident will attempt to determine why the battery failed.

BERLIN – The debate over the mascot for the Berlin School District could end this week. The school board is scheduled for a possible vote Wednesday on the Indians mascot.

We’ve been following it from the beginning, and have the Straight Story.

Berlin has been known as the “Indians” for nearly 80 years. In 2011 alumnus Tom Sobieski filed a complaint against the logo. The Department of Public instruction ordered the district to change the mascot.

But a little more than a year ago, Governor Scott Walker signed a new law that blocked those orders. Instead, he made it so 10% of people in the school district would need to petition to change the name. That would be about 160 signatures in Berlin.

Tom Sobieski told FOX 11 it took several years to realize he wants to see the Berlin Indians mascot changed. He told us he did a lot of research.

“It shows the harmful effects of Native American mascots, not only on Native American children, but on our own children, the kids that are graduating from Berlin High School,” Sobieski explained, saying those harmful effects can include poorer performance and decreased empathy.

Sobieksi helped organize a Berlin community forum called “Political Correctness: Has it Gone too Far?”

Speaker Mark Denning is a Menominee-Oneida Indian. He led a discussion about how Native Americans can see use of mascots like the Berlin Indian as exploitation of the culture held sacred.

Denning told FOX 11 just about every other racial or ethnic group has gone through similar experiences in America.

“It took generations to change that. American Indians are no different. This is a longer conversation and this is just the beginning,” he explained.

Denning said change is hard. He told us he can see where the other side is coming from.

“People are gonna push back because that’s their childhood memory. That’s a place that they cherish. It’s a place that they share with their friends,” said Denning.

We reached out to the Save the Berlin Indian Committee, a group devoted to keeping the mascot as is.

The committee president refused to comment on any specifics, but said in this statement: “The Save the Berlin Indian Committee anticipates {the school board} will follow the wishes of the Berlin district taxpayers and students.”

The Berlin School Board is scheduled to discuss and possibly vote on the future of the Indian mascot during its meeting Wednesday evening, which starts at 7:00.

ASHLAND, Wis. (AP) – Authorities in northwestern Wisconsin say a car rear-ended a school bus loaded with 45 students, but the children and the bus driver were not hurt.

The Wisconsin State Patrol says the crash happened about six miles south of Ashland on State Highway 13 at 3:50 p.m. Tuesday after school let out.

Ashland County Sheriff Michael Brennan says the bus was stopped on the road to let a student off and had its red flashers operating when a car struck it from behind.

The Daily Press reports the driver of the car was trapped when his vehicle slid under the bus. Emergency workers freed the man, and he was flown to a Duluth, Minnesota, hospital. His condition was not immediately known.

The State Patrol and the sheriff’s office are investigating.

SUAMICO – The Brown County Sheriff’s Office is asking the public for help in identifying a suspect in a theft incident that happened at the Shopko location in Suamico on Jan. 22.

Officials say the man in the pictures was dropped off at Shopko in a silver car at 6:38 p.m. and began filling a shopping cart with DVD’s and a blue tooth speaker. He then exited the rear of the store setting off the door alarm and left in the same silver car.

Deputies believe the same man may have committed similar thefts at three other Shopko stores in Green Bay and Seymour.

If anyone has any information, please call the Brown County Sheriff’s Office at (920) 448-4230. Callers can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward by calling Crime Stoppers at (920) 432-7867 or text GBTIP and your tip to 274637 (crimes).

UPDATE: The power has been restored.

_____________

BLACK CREEK – About 1,000 residents in Black Creek are without power after a vehicle struck a utility pole Tuesday night.

It happened just north of Black Creek at Highway 47 and Brusewitz Road.

No one was injured.

Outagamie County Sheriff’s Department says We Energies has been notified, and is working to restore power to the area.

You can see current We Energies outages here: http://www.we-energies.com/outagemapext/

U.S. stocks slumped Tuesday after some of the market’s largest companies reported disappointing earnings, taking investors on a turbulent ride that deepened the losses for the year.

The companies that rattled the market included Microsoft, Caterpillar and Procter & Gamble. Some also forecast weaker results in months ahead.

An unexpected drop in U.S. orders of long-lasting goods also weighed on investors, briefly dragging the Dow Jones industrial average down 390 points early in the day before it pared back some of the losses. It was the biggest one-day decline for the blue-chip index since Jan. 5.

The downbeat company report cards raise concerns about corporate America’s ability to grow profits at a time when many investors are expecting the resurgent U.S. economy to drive earnings should economic growth weaken overseas.

“That theme, ‘Boy, this is the year earnings are going to come back,’ suffered a little bit of a setback,” said Sean Lynch, co-head of global equity strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “Investors are starting to worry that the stronger dollar and some the impacts of energy aren’t always positive.”

The Dow dropped 291.49 points, or 1.7 percent, to close at 17,387.21. It is now 3.7 percent below its record high of 18,053.71 on Dec. 26.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 27.53 points, or 1.3 percent, to 2,029.56. It’s down 2.9 percent from its high of 2,090.57 on Dec. 29.

The Nasdaq composite dropped 90.27 points, or 1.9 percent, to 4,681.50.

The major stock indexes got off to a rough start early on, each opening sharply lower as investors digested the company earnings news.

A report showing that sales of new U.S. homes accelerated 11.6 percent last month failed to veer the market from its slide.

By midmorning, the Dow had flirted with a drop of nearly 400 points. The market began to pare its losses around midday.

Nine of the 10 sectors in the S&P 500 fell, with technology stocks dropping the most. Microsoft, which reported quarterly results late Monday, led the decline among stocks in the S&P, sliding $4.35, or 9.3 percent, to $42.66. Caterpillar wasn’t far behind, shedding $6.18, or 7.2 percent, to $79.85.

Utility stocks, where investors go when they’re looking for safety, were the only industry group to rise.

Stocks have wavered since the start of the year on signs that growth outside of the U.S. is slowing.

December’s 3.4 percent drop in durable goods orders came about as demand for commercial aircraft declined. It suggests that U.S. companies may be growing wary of economic weakness in Europe and Asia, as well as the strengthening dollar, which can hurt American exports.

Traders remain focused on corporate earnings, which are a key driver of stocks. But there were few bright spots among several of the companies delivering their latest financial results Tuesday.

Caterpillar, Packaging Corp. of America, J&J Snack Foods and mining company Freeport-McMoRan each reported earnings that fell short of Wall Street forecasts.

Even companies that boasted strong quarterly results, such as American Airlines Group, which recorded record quarterly profit, also delivered cautionary notes. The airline said a key revenue figure would decline in the next quarter.

Weakening currencies versus the dollar was a recurrent theme, with Procter & Gamble and Microsoft each citing the stronger dollar as reason for weaker results in months ahead. Caterpillar, Packaging Corp. and Pfizer also issued weak earnings or revenue outlooks.

A stronger dollar can hurt companies that do a large share of their business overseas because sales in other countries translate back into fewer dollars.

“If you look at multi-nationals, they are encountering these problems, but on the whole, I think earnings season will be OK, nothing exceptional or earth-shattering, but they will prove to be satisfactory,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital.

Tuesday’s big price swoon may have been exaggerated by lower trading volumes than normal.

While the New York Stock Exchange opened at its regular time, many workers in the financial industry probably struggled to get to their offices because the city’s transport links had been shut down in anticipation of a harsh winter storm.

“Volume is not all that heavy,” Cardillo said. “These gyrations might be somewhat extended. The low volume is exaggerating these declines.”

U.S. government bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.82 percent from 1.83 late Monday.

In metals trading, gold rose $12.30 an ounce to 1,291.70. Silver rose 10 cents an ounce to $18.08. Copper fell 8 cents to $2.46 a pound.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose $1.08 to close at $46.23 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, rose $1.44 to close at $49.60 in London. Oil has been mostly falling since June, when it traded above $100, on high supplies and weak growth in demand.

In other futures trading on the NYMEX:

— Wholesale gasoline rose 3 cents to close at $1.35 a gallon.

— Heating oil rose 2 cents to close at $1.66 a gallon.

— Natural gas rose 10 cents to close at $2.98 per 1,000 cubic feet.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says the wayward quadcopter that crashed on the White House grounds — flown by an off-duty intelligence employee — shows that the U.S. must take steps to ensure commercial and consumer drones are used safely.

It’s his own administration that has lagged on the matter. Both Congress and the drone industry have pressed for rules and clarification as the technology of civilian drone use grows apace and the small unmanned craft become ever cheaper.

Obama, in a CNN interview from India, likened the 2-foot-long quadcopter that crashed on the White House lawn to one that could be bought at Radio Shack, which lists them from $50 to $700.

“We don’t yet have the legal structures and the architecture both globally and within individual countries to manage them the way that we need to,” Obama said Tuesday. Part of his job in his final two years in office “is seeing if we can start providing some sort of framework that ensures that we get the good and minimize the bad.”

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency said Tuesday the man, still unidentified, is one of its employees. His work has nothing to do with drones, the agency said in a statement, adding, “Even though the employee was using a personal item while off duty, the agency takes the incident very seriously and remains committed to promoting public trust and transparency.”

The agency supplies map-based and related intelligence to the Pentagon and other national security operations.

The crash set off a White House lockdown. The man stepped forward hours later and appeared to convince investigators that he meant no harm with the extraordinary breach of presidential security — and of existing rules for drone flights — and that he did not mean the drone to go where it did. His employer said the Secret Service investigation continues.

The errant flight pointed to vulnerabilities in defending against small, low-flying threats as well as the risks, already becoming common, of hobbyist drones going astray in populated places or near airports.

The Federal Aviation Administration, pressed by Congress, had wanted to release proposed rules for small drones by the end of 2014. To the dismay of the drone industry, that process is now dragging into 2015. Even after rules are proposed, it is likely to be two or three years before regulations become final.

As it now stands, hobbyists can fly drones if they keep them under 400 feet in altitude, 5 miles from an airport, always within sight and not within a highly populated area. Commercial use is largely banned, with only a small number of companies permitted to use them for inspections and aerial photography.

Lethal drones have become an important part of the U.S. arsenal, used to attack enemy positions. Their civilian cousins can be used for inspecting crops and weather conditions, conducting surveillance in other many forms and even delivering packages. “Incredibly useful functions,” Obama said.

Congress wanted rules for small drones in place last year and a larger framework by this September. The FAA has been waiting for the White House to approve a proposal for rules that would clear the way for small, commercial drones flights. Regulations for larger drones aren’t expected anytime soon.

Separately, the White House has been working on an executive order to address privacy issues raised by drones and had expected to release that order six months ago. But that has not happened.

Obama told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria he’s “assigned some of the relevant agencies to start talking to stakeholders and figure out how we’re going to put an architecture in place that makes sure that these things aren’t dangerous and that they’re not violating people’s privacy.”

___

Associated Press writers Joan Lowy and Alicia A. Caldwell contributed to this report.

 

DE PERE – With just three months away from the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra’s final performance, the Youth Symphony now has a new place to call home. At St. Norbert College.

The Youth Symphony of St. Norbert College will officially start operating on the private school campus on June 1.

The GBSO announced last year that this season will be its last, citing decreased revenue, donations, attendees and rising concert costs. But that decision had put the Youth Symphony’s future in limbo.

The parent symphony has operated the youth orchestra program since 1967.

FOX 11’s Bill Miston is working on this story and will have more on FOX 11 News at Nine.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – A Milwaukee man was charged Tuesday with fatally stabbing his infant daughter and another man after flying into a rage when his ex-girlfriend refused to take him back, prosecutors say.

Ruben Garcia, 20, was charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the deaths of his daughter, 5-month-old Kairii Dailey, and 39-year-old Paul Kucharczyk.

Garcia also faces two counts of attempted homicide in the stabbings of 19-year-old Alexia Dailey – the baby’s mother and Garcia’s ex-girlfriend – and Dailey’s current boyfriend, 22-year-old Christopher Hamilton.

Dailey called police about 8:30 a.m. Friday during the attack, police said. When officers arrived, they found the baby dead in her crib and three other stabbing victims, the Journal Sentinel (http://bit.ly/1yLIH89 ) reported.

Prosecutors said Garcia kissed his baby daughter, apologized to her and then slit her throat.

Online court records do not list a defense attorney. Garcia remained in jail Tuesday, according to online records.

According to the criminal complaint, Dailey told police she and Garcia broke up earlier this month because he was physically abusive, but Garcia was allowed to see their daughter, who was born in August.

Garcia called and texted Dailey several times Thursday night and into Friday morning, upset over an online video of the woman’s new boyfriend, Hamilton, playing with Kairii. He asked to see his daughter and came to the house Friday morning and asked Dailey to take him back.

Dailey refused and asked him to leave. Instead, Garcia lunged at her with a knife and stabbed her multiple times, the complaint said.

Hamilton heard the commotion coming from the kitchen and tried to stop Garcia, who then began stabbing him, according to the complaint. Hamilton told police he heard Garcia say, “You ruined my life.”

The two struggled and Hamilton grabbed a knife to defend himself, but the complaint says Garcia stabbed him several more times, so he pretended to be dead to stop the attack.

Kucharczyk, a family friend, also came to help and tried to stop Garcia, but was fatally stabbed in the neck.

Dailey was able to lock herself in a bathroom and call police.

PHOENIX (AP) – Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch knew he had to talk. It didn’t mean he had to say anything.

So, in essence, he didn’t. And now, onto our regularly scheduled Super Bowl Media Day, where the players and coaches are window dressing, and it’s really more about who’s asking the questions.

There was Barrel Boy. A pair of buck-toothed sock puppets. A guy sporting a purple shirt, a bicycle helmet and seven Go Pro cameras, “so I can catch all the angles, precisely.”

These characters are the sort that have helped turn an event that began as a convenient place to fill up the notebook in advance of the NFL title game into the full-fledged theatre of the absurd it has become.

On Tuesday, about 2,000 reporters – make that people with credentials – filed into the U.S. Airways Center, worked their way down the stairs past a marching band playing a version of Blondie’s 1980 hit, “Call Me,” and got down to business.

The New England Patriots filed in and the clock started ticking down from “60:00.”

As the reporters, cameramen and Nickelodeon superhero Pick Boy elbowed for position, the questions began.

As expected, New England coach Bill Belichick wasn’t forthcoming about much. But now, thanks to a question asked by a kid, we know his favorite stuffed animals are those cute little monkeys you put your fingers in to make them talk.

Those wishing to someday see Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s etchings were in luck. Sort of. A sketch artist got a credential and spent the morning penning out pictures of the Man himself: Life imitating art imitating Leroy Neiman.

Looking for a Joe Namath-like guarantee at Media Day? “The game will be on Sunday,” promised Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski.

Oh, there were moments of actual reporting going on – some even done by people other than ESPN’s Chris Berman, NFL Network’s Deion Sanders and the rest of the reporter-celebrity crowd that fields as many questions as they ask.

Patriots owner Bob Kraft, who had his last say on the deflated-footballs matter during a surprise showing at the New England news conference Monday, came out Tuesday and stood in a corner – not to talk about Deflategate, but, among other things, to talk about why he talked about Deflategate.

“The reason I did what I did yesterday was so that all of our fans and (me) and my family can enjoy this game,” he said.

Belichick stood by his guns. He wasn’t going to mention it anymore: “We’re just focused on Seattle this week,” he said.

Speaking of Seattle, about a half-hour before the Seahawks took to the floor at the jammed, claustrophobic arena that the NBA’s Phoenix Suns call home, a crowd started gathering around Podium No. 6. Lynch’s name was up there. Quite a surprise, considering he spent last year’s Media Day in a corner, surrounded by teammates who wouldn’t let any reporters near him.

An hour with “The Beast?” Seemed promising.

Then, he climbed the stairs, set his timer, said he was doing this so he wouldn’t get fined and pronounced he would answer every question the same way until his time was up. That ended with about 57:30 remaining on the countdown clock, and it’s not a sure thing he was right about the fine thing. The Pro Football Writers Association is talking to the league about what happened and Lynch has been told there’s a potential he could, indeed, have to pay up for leaving early.

Once he left, his teammates fielded a number of questions about why Lynch doesn’t like to talk, and why fans (read: media) seem so obsessed with hearing him talk.

“The way the NFL sells everything all the time, fans want to, like, be inside our minds,” defensive lineman Michael Bennett said. “The fact they don’t get to do it all the time with Marshawn, it just makes them mad.”

OK, back to the important stuff:

The white, brimmed hat Bennett was wearing was made of horse tweed and cost $800, “for those of you who know about hats,” he said.

Those who know about figure skating would’ve liked what they saw.

Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir were there. One was decked out in black leather pants, black shoes with chunky heels, a bejeweled necklace and a Seinfeld-esque puffy shirt. Lipinski looked good, too.

They asked some questions. Answered more.

As Seattle’s 60 minutes were wrapping up, a group of practice squad players were showing off their best dance moves for the camera – Jimmy Staten did the “Sprinkler” – while being surrounded by scantily clad ladies in cheerleading gear.

A few steps away, a man wearing clown’s makeup and a rubber-ribbon wig was carrying a microphone and following a reporter with a low-cut neckline that highlighted her painted-on black-and-white dress.

In another corner, former Rams MVP quarterback Kurt Warner, now retired and with a TV gig, had a microphone in front of Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson.

“This is football players interviewing football players,” observed the legendary sports writer, Art Spander, now covering his 39th Super Bowl.

And reporters interviewing reporters.

No stone is left unturned at Media Day.

___

AP NFL website: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL

(Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

WASHINGTON D.C. – CEO’s with some of the nation’s largest restaurant chains say full-time jobs will continue to disappear in 2015.

They blame it on the Affordable Care Act’s new mandatory 30-hour work week provision.

Jamie Richardson, VP of Government Affairs White Castle/Member Job Creators Network says, “If we had a hot and tasty new sandwich but it wasn’t working for us in the restaurants we would make adjustments, that’s all we are asking Congress to do.”

What fast food chains like White Castle, Hardees and Carl’s Jr want is for Congress to roll back full-time work to 40 hours a week.

The employer shared provision in Obamacare started this year for businesses employing at least 100 hundred workers.

Under the law they must provide healthcare insurance for the majority of workers putting in at least 30 hours a week or pay fines of $2,000 per employee.

“It’s just there comes a point when things are so expensive that it becomes irrational,” said CEO of CKE Restaurant Holdings, Andrew Puzder. He says he does what many companies now do, hire part-timers.

CKE’s workforce number is 20,000 and most work less than 30 hours per week.

“They want more hours, they need more hours and we want to give them more hours but this 30-hour cutoff is something that means it’s economically inefficient to give them more hours,” Puzder said.

Healthcare advocates like Vincent DeMarco of Maryland Citizens’ Health Intiative, are disappointed to hear businesses are still looking for ways to get around the healthcare law.

“So the big businesses that provide healthcare for all their employees are in effect subsidizing businesses that don’t. So, it only makes sense all larger businesses provide healthcare and we call that fair share,” said DeMarco.

But for chains like White Castle there’s nothing fair about a law that forces it to spend as much as $100 million on healthcare over the next ten years. Which is why less than half of White Castle’s 10,000 employees work full time.

Data from the Bureau of Labor statics disputes there’s a shift toward more part-time jobs.

Congress passed a bill this month to protect the 40-hour work week.

The senate is soon expected to take up the measure.

 

OSHKOSH – The ice safety training of Oshkosh firefighters is taking on an increased sense of urgency.

It was just three days ago that a father and son went through the ice and died on Lake Winnebago.

The training was planned months ago, but firefighters say the weekend tragedy make this week’s exercise even more important to them.

With a burst of icy horsepower, crews from the Oshkosh Fire Department took to the frozen water of Lake Winnebago.

The boat used in the annual ice rescue training Tuesday morning is the same one put to the test just three days before.

Doro Family Halftime Fundraiser

• Jan. 27, 7:30 p.m.
• Oshkosh North High School
• During halftime, a bucket will be passed around to collect donations for the Doro Family.

“Everybody knows, when you do training, you think, we do this all the time. But it is very poignant after what happened this weekend,” said John Holland, Oshkosh Fire Department.

Divers pulled 40-year-old Andrew Doro and his 8-year-old son Derek Doro out of the lake, after their Jeep Grand Cherokee broke through on Sunday.

“A call like that is devastating. Even though we didn’t know the people, most of us are fathers, and it’s devastating,” said Rory Moxon, Oshkosh Fire Department.

Firefighter-Paramedic Rory Moxon has seen dozens of people rescued from the ice in his 33-year career.

The drill required crews to pull a victim from the edge of the open water using ropes, sleds, and a rescue harness.

The Oshkosh Fire Department picked the spot where the Fox River flows into Lake Winnebago. They say ice conditions in that area, are far from safe.

“It is the most dangerous spot. It never freezes up. But unfortunately, we do have a lot of people that still like to hang around there,” said Holland.

And as the rescue boat shuttled crews back to the shoreline, firefighters inside reflect on their training, and the reality of the dangers they face both on and off the ice.

“Some calls you’ll have the rest of your life. I say be prepared. You’re going to have things that are going to be on your hard drive that you can’t hit delete. It will be there 30 years later. It’s just something you do. You do it, you come back. You talk about it. Some guys talk about it easier than others,” said Moxon.

The training continues until all 106 Oshkosh firefighters complete the drill.

Green Bay East visited Notre Dame on Monday in a boys basketball game. East won, 74-58.

WASHINGTON (AP) – A senior State Department official is confirming the death of one U.S. citizen in Tuesday’s attack on a Libyan hotel.

The official isn’t providing any further details.

Libyan officials said four foreigners and five guards were killed after gunmen stormed a hotel in Tripoli.

Former Packers general manager Ron Wolf will travel out to Phoenix Friday and find out Saturday, just a little while before the rest of the world, if he’ll be in this year’s Pro Football Hall of Fame class. Wolf, a finalist for the Hall for the first time, is excited and, perhaps, a bit nervous.

“[On Saturday] I’ll probably be very edgy and very jumpy and very grouchy,” said Wolf on the phone from his home in Florida. “It’s still a tremendous honor to be considered as just being a possibility.”

Wolf is among 18 finalists for the Hall and part of a new category of nominees called “Contributors,” recognizing people who are not players or coaches for their achievements. He, along with former Colts, Bills and Panthers GM Bill Polian, must still get 80% of votes Saturday in Phoenix. There is only one person in the Hall of Fame solely for his accomplishments as a general manager (Jim Finks with the Vikings, Bears and Saints) and several others who did other things in addition to being a GM (including Tex Schramm for his time with the Cowboys and Curly Lambeau with the Packers).

“To tell you the truth, I’ve never really thought about that,” said Wolf. “I feel this way: the people that are responsible for the success of the game, by in large, are in the Hall of Fame. There are some outstanding people in the talent area who are not. I think, with the addition of this category that they’ve added, contributor, I think those guys will be recognized a lot quicker than it would be otherwise.”

Wolf started his NFL career working for the Oakland Raiders in the 1960s. He got the Packers general manager job in 1991, spending 10 seasons as Green Bay’s GM, leading the team to a win in Super Bowl XXXI. He is remembered as an exceptional talent evaluator, most notably trading for then-Falcons quarterback Brett Favre.

“Here was a guy who was a third-string quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons and I traded a number one to Atlanta for a guy picked in the second round who couldn’t even get in the team picture with Atlanta his rookie year,” said Wolf. “I kind of went out on a limb there; he repaid me bushels-full. That cathedral that’s up there now, that’s Brett Favre Field.”

Wolf also says he is pleased to see Favre’s relationship with the Packers improving, and he plans on attending Favre’s Packers Hall of Famer induction this year.

“The thing I do not understand: he was traded,” said Wolf. “He didn’t quit the Packers, he was traded from the Packers. Vince Lombardi quit the Packers, Curly Lambeau quit the Packers, yet they’re idolized. Here’s a guy who was traded and he becomes vilified. Again, I wasn’t around for that so I don’t know all the ramifications. The fact is, when you think of Brett Favre, you think of him as a member of the Packers, you don’t think of him as a member of anywhere else.”

Wolf is also proud of the tree of executives he worked with that are now running their own teams around the NFL. Current general managers Ted Thompson in Green Bay, John Dorsey with the Chiefs, Reggie McKenzie in Oakland and Scot McLoughan with Washington all learned under Wolf.

“Let’s face it: those guys are exceptional at what they do,” said Wolf. “It just so happened I had the good fortune of having them work with me. The fact that they’ve gone on and done great things doesn’t surprise me at all.”

Another branch of his football tree is also moving up through the NFL ranks: his son Eliot, recently promoted to director of player personnel for the Packers.

“No I didn’t encourage it, but [working in football] was something he liked,” said Wolf. “The thing I’m so proud of is he accomplished all this after I was out of the game. He did this all on his own. It’s a great credit to him, his perseverance and his diligence and his belief in himself that he’s made it as far as he has.”

So now Wolf has to wait to find out if his illustrious career will add another chapter in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He finds out Saturday night in Arizona, and while he may be on edge before he gets the news, just getting this far is quite a milestone.

“It’s a very exciting time for me, certainly to have an opportunity to be considered with all the people that have made this game the greatest game in the United States is mind-boggling as far as I’m concerned,” said Wolf.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Colorado’s unemployment rate fell by a third. Louisiana’s jumped nearly a quarter.

Across the country, changes in unemployment rates varied from state to state in 2014, but collectively the numbers pointed to a year of substantial improvement: Jobless rates fell in 46 states, and every one except Mississippi added jobs.

Even Louisiana’s gain masked some good news: The state added a healthy number of jobs –  just not enough to keep up with population growth.

The broad improvement shown in Tuesday’s report from the Labor Department reflected a pickup in hiring across the country. Employers nationwide added nearly 3 million jobs last year, the most since 1999. The gains were driven by solid economic growth in spring and summer. During 2014, the national unemployment rate sank to 5.6 percent from 6.7 percent.

In Colorado, which enjoyed the biggest proportional drop in unemployment, healthy hiring lowered its rate to 4 percent from 6.2 percent. Colorado’s employers added 62,300 jobs, boosting its payrolls 2.6 percent, the nation’s 10th best job gain.

The largest increase was in the low-paying sector of restaurant, hotels and entertainment firms, such as amusement parks, which added 15,300 jobs. In addition, the higher-paying industries of education and health care added 14,000 jobs, construction companies 10,000.

Other states with sizable drops in unemployment rates last year were: Idaho, whose rate fell to 3.7 percent from 5.6 percent; Ohio, where it fell to 4.8 percent from 7.1 percent; and Illinois, where it dropped to 6.2 percent from 8.9 percent.

Rates rose in only two states last year. The largest was in Louisiana, whose rate jumped to 6.7 percent from 5.4 percent. But that jump occurred because more people moved into the state and didn’t find work, not because companies weren’t hiring. Louisiana added 29,000 jobs, a 1.5 percent increase. But the number of unemployed people rose to 146,000 from 112,500.

The only other state to report a rising higher unemployment rate last year was North Dakota, but the increase was trifling. It moved up just 0.1 percentage point to 2.8 percent. North Dakota, which has benefited from an oil and gas drilling boom, still has the nation’s lowest rate.

Its energy boom contributed to a gain of 24,500 jobs last year, a 5.4 percent increase – the largest percentage increase in the nation. Yet North Dakota’s population also rose a bit, contributing to the tiny rise in its jobless rate.

Unemployment rates were unchanged in two states last year: Vermont and West Virginia.

In December, rates fell in 42 states, rose in four and were unchanged in four. Job gains remained healthy in states with large oil and gas industries, suggesting that plunging oil prices have yet to cause significant layoffs. Texas gained 45,700 jobs in December, the most in the nation.

Overall, 41 states gained jobs last month. Nine lost jobs.

DOVER, Del. (AP) – Police say a Delaware drug suspect went out on a limb to transport a stash of cocaine, but he was busted when officers discovered the drug hidden inside his prosthetic leg.

Dover Police say 39-year-old Marlow Holmes was arrested Monday afternoon during a traffic stop. They said police dogs alerted officers to the presence of narcotics inside the car Holmes had been riding in. During a search of the car officers said they discovered more than 28 grams of cocaine stuffed into the prosthetic leg that Holmes was wearing, and arrested him.

Police say Holmes faces charges of possession with intent to deliver cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was jailed, with bond set at $81,000.

Police say they kept the drugs as evidence but returned Holmes’ leg.