Beaver Dam Chamber Candidates Forum
8/8/14 – The Candidates for the Sixth Congressional District and Dodge County Sheriff debated the issues last night in Beaver Dam. The four Republican candidates seeking the seat being vacated by longtime U.S. Congressman Tom Petri discussed a variety of issues Thursday at the Chamber of Commerce Candidates Forum. The congressional hopefuls discussed Congressman Paul Ryan’s proposal of combining multiple welfare reforms.
Congressional Candidates
State Senator Glenn Grothman says Paul Ryan has a good start on the proposal but he believes there are too many different programs. Grothman says the program should be fine-tuned a little more. State Senator Joe Liebham says he thinks the congressman has some good ideas with the proposal. He says he likes the idea of sending the responsibility back to the states and encouraging out-of-the-box thinking as how they can help individuals with welfare. He says they are trapping fellow citizens to entitlements in this nation and he says they need to work to require work from benefits received. State Representative Duey Stroebel says the war on poverty has failed but he applauds Paul Ryan on what he has done. He believes it’s a study paper that they need to take a look at. Stroebel says there are innovative ideas and waste, fraud and abuse are all over that system, but he likes the ideas that private sectors are involved and block grants go to states, so it’s more of a state’s rights issue. Businessman Tom Denow says he agrees with Paul Ryan’s plan as well. He says they need to look at different systems and try to reduce the people on welfare. Denow says he’d like to look at educating some of these people within the technical college system and help them get off of welfare and help train them to get them jobs. The candidate who wins on Tuesday will face Democrat Mark Harris in November.
Dodge County Sheriff Candidates
In the exchange between incumbent Sheriff Patricia Ninmann and her challenger, Sergeant Dale Schmidt, the New World Records Management System came up frequently. The new hardware and software law enforcement package ties all police agencies in the county together but has been criticized for a troubled rollout. The candidates were asked if there currently is a public safety concern.
“No I don’t believe there is an officer safety or public safety issue going on,” Ninmann said, “Every day we work to make changes for New World. In fact, since the last debate we were able to get some things figured out. In dispatch their view has changed, it’s actually added a positive for them. It’s about working together, this system is very robust, it’s not one that just going to happen overnight.” Ninmann says it will take team work to get the system working as best as it can. Challenger Sergeant Dale Schmidt says everyday they are finding new issues with New World.
“Yes, we still do have a public safety issue and an officer safety issue with this program,” Ninmann said. “There are many flaws with this system and it is not anything with our employees. Our employees are working hard to try and get these fixed. There are simply flaws with the system that don’t work. For example Highway SC on the south end of our county simply will not validate in our system, which means we are not able to get emergency services to them as quickly as if it did validate.” Schmidt says for a long time they were not getting answers to fix the problems.
There is no Democrat on the ballot in November for sheriff so, barring a successful write-in campaign, the next sheriff will be decided next Tuesday. Over 200 people attended yesterday’s debate at the Beaver Dam Veterans Center.
Legislators Raise Record Cash
8/8/14 – Candidates for the Wisconsin Legislature and the parties’ campaign committees have raised record amounts of money for a normal election year. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign says that almost four-million dollars were raised during the first half of the year by Assembly and Senate candidates and the legislative party committees. Incumbents have brought in eight-dollars to every one raised by challengers. Republican hopefuls have brought in about a-third more than Democrats. The watchdog Democracy Campaign said the total revenues were the most for January through June of an election year — but they fell short of the six-point-eight million raised for nine Senate recall elections in 2011-and-’12.
Green Lake County Has New District Attorney
8/8/14 – Green Lake County’s new District Attorney is coming out of Fond du Lac County. Governor Scott Walker Thursday announced Andrew Christenson will serve as Green Lake County’s DA replacing outgoing DA Kyle Sargent. Christenson has worked for the Fond du Lac County District Attorney’s office as a prosecutor since 2008. The appointment earned the praise of Ripon Police Captain Bill Wallner, Oakfield Police Chief Renee Schuster and Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney.
Wisconsinites Logging Plenty of Miles
8/8/14 – If you think Wisconsinites don’t love their cars anymore, you might be wrong as new state figures show that driving’s on the upswing. The D-O-T estimates that motorists drove 59-and-a-half billion miles in the Badger State last year — about 400-million more miles than in 2012. Officials say our growing population is one reason — along with higher commercial traffic as the economy continues to rebound from the Great Recession. The travel estimates are based on statewide fuel consumption data, average vehicle gas mileage, and traffic counts. In Dodge County, there were 937- million miles of travel last year, an average of 2.5 million miles per day. In Columbia County, there were 985-million miles of travel last year and Jefferson County was right behind with 976- million miles of travel. Officials said the average Wisconsinite traveled around 10-thousand-350 miles in a motor vehicle last year. Lots of us were driving less during the recession. Advocacy groups said it was because younger Americans preferred alternatives to driving — like public transit and bike paths. Back then, the U-S Public Interest Research Group said Milwaukee area drivers had reduced their car usage by 20-percent from 2006-through-’11. Madison had an 18-percent traffic drop during that time.
Alliant Energy Reports Profit Decline
8/8/14 – Alliant Energy is reporting a five-percent drop in its net income for the second quarter of the year. The Madison-based utility says it made almost 62-million dollars from April through June, down from 65-million at the same time a year ago. Stockholder earnings dropped from 59-cents a share to 56, after outside analysts predicted earnings of 60-cents a share. Alliant partially blames a cooler summer than last, with a reduction in the use of air conditioners. Other factors involved credits for consumer bills, and higher costs at Alliant’s utility in Iowa. The company did say its industrial and commercial electric sales rose, due to an improved economy. Residential electric revenues went down.
Marquette County Endangered Teen Located
8/8/14 – A missing and endangered Marquette County man has been located. The Marquette County Sheriff’s Department issued an alert earlier this week about 18-year-old Damian Berg who had not been seen since last Thursday near Portage. He did not have shoes, a shirt or eyeglasses. Authorities reported yesterday that he was found safe.
Drunk Drivers, Drug Suspects Caught In Enforcement
8/8/14 – Fourteen drunk drivers and four drug suspects were among those caught in an aggressive law enforcement effort in Wisconsin. That’s what the D-O-T said Thursday about the national I-90-94 Challenge. Sixteen states boosted their patrols last weekend on the two Interstates, in the hopes of recording no traffic deaths on the coast-to-coast highways from Friday through Monday. One death was reported along the route. An S-U-V rolled over in Montana, killing one person and injuring nine. Authorities said most of those victims were not wearing seat belts. The Wisconsin State Patrol issued its preliminary figures yesterday. Over 16-hundred vehicles were stopped on I-90-and-94 during the four-day campaign from Kenosha to Hudson. Just under three-thousand people received written warnings and citations. There were 71 violations of seat-beat and child safety seat requirements.
Wisconsin Consumer Spending Sluggish
8/8/14 – If you’re like most Wisconsinites, you’re holding onto more of your money than other Americans. The U-S Commerce Department has released its first state-by-state breakdown of consumer spending. Wisconsin’s consumer spending rose by two-point-eight percent from 2011-to-2012. Nationally, consumers spent just over four-percent more. The biggest spending increase in the Badger State was for motor vehicles and their parts. That sector grew by six-point-three percent. Today’s report also shows that Wisconsin had smaller gains in personal income. The state had a three-point-nine percent jump in family incomes during 2012, down from the national average of four-point-two. Real personal income, which takes inflation into account, grew by an even slower pace.
