News -September 16, 2016

Fox Lake Business Expansions To Create New Jobs

 

9/16/16 – A pair of businesses are expanding as part of Fox Lake’s Tax Incremental Finance District, or TIF, 2 project, which is located in the city’s industrial park.  City Administrator Gary Rogers says Karvan Trailers is expanding its facilities this fall to add another shift.  The business is working with Fox Lake’s Development Authority to acquire an additional four acres of land.  Rogers says Knott Autoflex will build an addition on land it already owns in 2017.  He expects the two expansions could add a total of 35-40 full-time jobs.  To accommodate for increased truck traffic, Rogers says the city plans to reconstruct a half-mile stretch of Mill Road.  Rogers says there is no word on the revenue total the TIF could bring Fox Lake.  He notes the city is not in talks with any other businesses about joining the TIF 2 project.  Meanwhile, Rogers says concept plans have been drawn for TIF 3 on the city’s north side.  While he would not confirm any businesses taking part in that TIF, Rogers expects construction to begin sometime in 2017.

 

Dodge County Extension Warns Of Manure Exposure

 

9/16/16 – Officials with the Dodge County UW Extension office are encouraging farmers to take every precaution possible when working with manure following two recent deaths in the state. A 16-year-old boy died Wednesday in Clark County while spreading manure after reportedly entering the tank to handle an apparent maintenance concern. He went unconscious while inside and later died at a hospital. In Portage County last month, a farmer died in a manure pit from accidental gas poisoning. 29-year-old Michael Biadasz of Amherst sustained acute exposure to hydrogen sulfide gas when he tried agitating a large outdoor pit and it opened a “crust layer” which released the gas. Amanda Young, the Dairy and Livestock agent with Doge County UW Extension, says the decomposition of manure generates methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide and ammonia gases that can produce an oxygen-deficient, toxic and/ or explosive atmosphere. Young says workers should presume that gases are present at hazardous concentrations in all manure pits. To reduce the danger, she says no one should ever enter a pit during or immediately after agitation. If it’s absolutely necessary to enter a pit she says it is important to provide maximum ventilation, test for toxic gases and wear self-contained breathing equipment with oxygen supply tanks and a safety line with at least two other people outside of the pit. If manure gas exposure occurs, Young says you should call 911 and stay away from the area. She also notes another danger is silo gas, or nitrogen dioxide, which forms a few hours after filling a silo. Young says you should stay out of a freshly-filled silo and the surrounding area for at least two weeks after filling and then run the blower for at least an hour to assure the gas has been removed.

 

Reeseville Man Pleads Not Guilty To Driving Under Influence

 

9/16/16 – Reeseville man will proceed to trial for allegedly driving under the influence of inhalants when he killed a pedestrian. Cody Buechel waived his right to a preliminary hearing yesterday on felony charges of Homicide by Negligent Use of a Vehicle. The 21-year-old was driving a pickup truck on Highway G in the town of Lowell last September when 17-year-old Lukas Jaeger was struck. Prosecutors say that Buechel inhaled the product Dust-Off minutes before driving. Buechel reportedly drove up on the front lawn of a corner residence before driving over the center line into the southbound lanes where the victim was struck. The vehicle then continued down Highway G later crashing into a culvert. In addition to the can of Dust-Off, investigators say marijuana paraphernalia was also inside the truck. The felony charge carries a maximum prison sentence of ten years, if convicted. Buechel will be arraigned October 5.

 

Neosho Man Heading To Trial On Theft Charge

 

9/16/16 – A judge found probable cause yesterday for a Neosho man accused of stealing money from his mother to proceed to trial.  Nicholas Goodman had a preliminary hearing on felony counts of Theft and Taking a Vehicle Without Consent.  The 30-year-old helped his mother load a skid steer onto a trailer in May.  Feeling he deserved money for his actions, Goodman demanded $500.  When she refused, he allegedly pushed her into a chair, took $300 from her pocket, and fled in her vehicle.  Goodman’s mother told authorities her son had stolen tens of thousands of dollars from family members over the years to support his heroin addiction.  If he is convicted, Goodman faces up to 21 years in prison.  He will be arraigned October 12.

 

Walker Has No Opinion On John Doe Leak Investigation

 

9/16/16 – Governor Scott Walker says he has no opinion on whether the state should investigate leaks of secret John Doe testimony which had pay to play allegations against Republicans. Walker held four news conferences around the state Thursday to promote a new transportation budget. And he was quizzed about leaks published by The Guardian which said Walker and other G-O-P candidates received thousands of dollars from a conservative group for their recall elections, and approved actions that favored the group’s donors involved in old lead paint lawsuits and a proposed mine that was never built. Walker said he no longer solicits funds from the Wisconsin Club for Growth — and while he said it’s clear that someone illegally leaked John Doe testimony, the governor will leave it to investigators to sort out. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos wants a special prosecutor to look into the leaks — and today, Assembly Democrats plan a news conference to demand a criminal investigation of the pay to play allegations.

 

Grothman Committee Holds Hearings On Clinton Emails

 

9/16/16A local politician believes the FBI has not done enough to address a scandal involving a presidential candidate.  Congressman Glenn Grothman is on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which held two days of hearings this week on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email scandal.  The State Department lost countless federal records during Clinton’s four year stint as secretary due to what Grothman calls ‘inadequate record-keeping practices.’  The Glenbeulah Republican told us that could lead to hundreds of Freedom of Information Act requests going unfilled.  Earlier this month, FBI Director James Comey said he would not recommend criminal charges against the Democratic presidential nominee due to insufficient evidence that Clinton intentionally deleted the emails.  While it is supposed to be an impartial entity, Grothman says the FBI fails to live up to that label since most of the key people in the agency were appointed by Clinton’s fellow Democrat, President Barack Obama.  The Sixth Congressional District Representative believes an impartial council should have been appointed to investigate the matter, saying that is what would have been done under recent presidents.  This week’s hearings included testimony from a personal employee of the non-profit Clinton Foundation, which aims to help people worldwide deal with hardships.  Grothman says the lack of transparency in the emails gives the inference that people may have had to buy access to Clinton’s State Department by donating to the foundation.  Two other witnesses at the hearings invoked their Fifth Amendment right, and a former Clinton staffer who set up the private email server failed to appear despite a subpoena.

 

VA Watchdog Blames Lack ‘Security Control’ For Social Security Snafu

 

9/16/16 – The V-A’s internal watchdog blames a lack of “information security controls” for an email sent to a Madison area veteran which had the Social Security numbers of 638 Wisconsin veterans. W-I-S-C T-V says the Veterans Administration’s inspector general disagree with the agency’s contention that the release was a one-time case of human error. The inspector’s report says the V-A’s Information and Technology office had inadequate security filtering software when it sent unencrypted data to the state Veterans’ Affairs agency, where an employee sent the email with the Social Security numbers to the Madison veteran. U-S Senate Democrat Tammy Baldwin wrote the V-A Thursday, demanding immediate reforms to protect veterans’ personal information. But Senate Republican Ron Johnson says the agency has already made changes in that regard.

 

Operation Migration Alters Project

 

9/16/16 – For the first time in 15 years, baby whooping cranes will not follow ultralight planes from Wisconsin to Florida this fall in a larger migration project. Instead, nine baby cranes from a federal hatching site in Maryland will be paired with adult cranes from the White River Marsh State Wildlife Area in Green Lake County to make the trip. An effort to reintroduce the endangered cranes in the eastern U-S has cost 20-million dollars, with not a lot of new babies to show for it. Concerns were expressed that the birds were exposed to too much human contact on their journeys — and feathers were ruffled among advocates January when the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service said it would stop supporting ultralight aircraft. Operation Migration, which headed the effort, took issue at first — but it remains involved in the new effort, which seeks cooperation to safeguard whooping cranes and make them self-sustaining.