“News – September 25, 2009”

Man Killed in Rollover Accident

 

9/25/09 – Yesterday’s foggy weather is thought to have been a contributing factor in a one-vehicle rollover that killed a man near Fort Atkinson.  The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department says at 6:41 a.m. they received a call from a citizen reporting an accident on North Shore Road, four-tenths (.4) of a mile west of Burnham Road in the town of Sumner.  Med Flight was called in but was unable to land because of the poor weather conditions.  The initial investigation shows the man was driving his SUV east on North Shore Road when he lost control of the vehicle going around a curve.  The vehicle flipped crushing a parked vehicle before coming to rest on the passenger side.  The driver sustained a number of injures but authorities have not released any details.  The name of driver is not being released pending notification of family members.

 

Arrests Made At Pharmacy Crime Scene

 

9/25/09 – Horicon Police arrested two men who broke into a pharmacy early yesterday morning.  According to Lt. Adrian Bump, officers responded to an interior motion alarm at the Marshland Pharmacy 620 Washington just after 3am. Upon arrival, the responding officer saw a male subject armed with a hammer run from the store. After a brief foot chase, Nathan G. Davis was taken into custody.  Bump says the officer returned to the store and found a second person attempting to leave with a large duffel bag filled with stolen prescription narcotics. Andrew W. Stockwell was trying to crawl out through the broken out glass doors at the front of the store; he was taken into custody without incident. Both subjects are currently being held in the Dodge County Jail on burglary charges.

 

Burglary at Persha Equipment

 

9/25/09 – The Dodge County Sheriff’s Department is investigating an equipment theft from a Mayville-area business.  Authorities say two lawn tractors and two trailers were stolen from Persha Equipment on Highway 33 late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.  No arrests have been made but authorities are investigating.  Anyone with information is asked to contact the Dodge County Sheriffs Department or the anonymous We-Tip hotline at 800-78-CRIME.

 

Man Arrested for Using Stolen Check

 

9/25/09 – A 20-year-old man was taken into custody early this morning after he allegedly used a stolen check to buy items at a town of Beaver Dam business.  Beaver Dam authorities say they took a report of a stolen check book.  A check from that account was then allegedly used by 20-year-old Adam Krisher to purchase items from the Kwik Trip at 1200 Madison Street.  Krisher was taken into custody for Felony Forgery, Bailjumping, and was cited for theft.  He’s currently being held in the Dodge County Jail.

 

High Risk Traffic Stop Results in Arrest

 

9/25/09 – Authorities made a high risk traffic stop in Randolph Wednesday night that led to the arrest of a 49-year-old Beaver Dam man.  Randolph police say they responded to a report of a man who was threatening people with a gun.  They say the man was upset after his wife came home intoxicated and with minor cuts to her face.  He allegedly called the man who gave here a ride home and threatened to kill him before calling the bar and threatening a bartender.  As authorities were taking the complaint the man showed up in a vehicle.  Because of the gun threats police initiated a traffic stop with guns drawn.  Officials checked the vehicle but didn’t find any weapons.  While being put through a field sobriety test the man became combative and started fighting with officers, who then used a Taser gun to get him under control.  The man was taken to jail and faces a number of charges.

 

Kind Won’t Run for Governor

 

9/25/09 – Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett’s advisors say he’ll decide by early October whether he’ll run for governor next year.  That’s after Congressman Ron Kind of La Crosse said yesterday he would not seek the Democratic bid to replace outgoing Governor Jim Doyle. Instead, he’ll run for his eighth term in the House, amid reports he was pressured to do so by national Democrats who feared losing the House seat to Republicans. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said an internal poll showed that relatively few Wisconsinites know Kind.  State Senate Republican Dan Kapanke of La Crosse is running for Kind’s House seat, and he said yesterday he’ll stay in the race.  He said he expected to run against Kind all along.

 

Legislator Arrested For OWI Again

 

9/25/09 – For the second time in less than one year, State Representative Jeff Wood of Bloomer has been arrested for driving while intoxicated.  A state trooper stopped the independent lawmaker’s vehicle Wednesday night on Interstate-39 just west of Wausau, after a report that he was driving erratically in Portage County.  Last December, Wood was arrested in Columbia County for his third O-W-I, and possession of marijuana after allegedly crashing into a highway sign near Portage. On Wednesday, a witness reportedly saw Wood’s vehicle hit a curb – and nearly strike another vehicle.  The report said Wood claimed he was trying to find a spot on a map at the time.  The arresting officer said the 40-year-old Wood appeared sleepy, but denied taking medication or alcohol.  A search turned up an anxiety medication called Lorazepam.  Officers later quoted him as saying he took six pills yesterday, double the prescribed dosage – and he took two doses of cough syrup in a three-hour period.

 

Heart of Beaver Dam Tour Saturday

 

9/25/09 – The Dodge County Historical Society is offering three narrated bus tours of Beaver Dam tomorrow.  The tour guide is long-time board-member Pat Lutz, who has conducted the tours on select occasions since Beaver Dam’s sesquicentennial in 1991. Lutz says the tour begins and ends at the Dodge County Historical Society, which is located at an intersection he refers to as the Times Square of Beaver Dam. He says at first he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to present a program that would offer anything new to life-long residents, but he says he quickly learned that even the most-knowledgeable native residents were able to take something away from the tour. The bus tours are scheduled for 9am, 11am and 2pm Saturday.  There will also be an open house at the Historical Society that afternoon to recognize Mary Beth Jacobsen, who recently retired from the museum after five years as curator, and Pat Lutz, a long-time board member who also recently retired and is moving to New York.

 

Mark of the Beast Challenge Considered

 

9/25/09 – A judge will wait to make a ruling on a challenge by Amish farmers to the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s Premise Registration law.  Clark County Circuit Court Judge Jon Counsell heard a full day of testimony Wednesday.  Under questioning by an attorney representing the farmers, Noah Schwartz, an Amish church bishop, said Premise ID could be a forerunner to the Mark of the Beast.  And, Schwartz said, the law represented a shift of people’s trust from God to government.  The law requires properties that have livestock be registered with the Department of Agriculture.  Judge Counsell did not issue a ruling.  He gave the farmers 30 days to submit a brief.  Clark County District Attorney Darwin Zwieg will then have 30 days to respond. The time limits will begin when the court reporter finishes the transcript, so it’s safe to assume a ruling could be months away.

 

Vehicle Registrations Up in August

 

9/25/09 – “Cash for Clunkers” resulted in a 39-percent boost in Wisconsin’s new vehicle registrations last month.  That’s according to the industry consulting firm of Cross-Sell.  It said over 23-thousand new cars and light trucks were registered last month, up from 17-thousand the previous August.  But August was not necessarily that big of a sales month, because there was a lag time between the day a person drove off with a new car – and the day it was registered with the government.  Meanwhile, J-D Power and Associates expects a big drop in new vehicle sales for September.  It predicts a 24-percent decline nationally.  J-D Power blames reduced buying incentives and low inventories by dealers.  Even with “Cash for Clunkers,” yesterday’s report said Wisconsin vehicles were still down 20-percent for the first eight months of the year.

 

Patients of Domino Transplant Doing Well

 

9/25/09 – Two patients at U-W Hospital in Madison are recovering, after they received Wisconsin’s first domino transplant.  In a 12-hour operation this week, Joe Stoikes of Madison received a matching liver from a deceased donor – and Stoikes’ liver was then given to Eino Ahlgren of Waukesha.  Both men are doing well.  Stoikes is expected to go home today, and Ahlgren could be released during the weekend.  The domino procedure has only been done about 100 times over the past 13 years.  Stoikes needed a new liver because he has a rare genetic condition called F-A-P.  Ahlgren’s liver was about to fail because of a long-time hepatitis infection.  Doctors say he’ll be okay with Stoikes’ liver, even with Stoikes’ genetic condition.  Without the new liver, Ahlgren might have lived for only another year or two.  The head of the U-W liver transplant program, Doctor Anthony D’Alessandro, said the 58-year-old Ahlgren could get symptoms of F-A-P, but not for  20-to-30 years.  And even then, it’s expected to be so mild that no treatment would be necessary.

 

Northern Wisconsin Astronaut Heading to Space for 3rd Time

 

9/25/09 – An astronaut from northern Wisconsin will begin his third trip in space next Wednesday.  Jeffrey Williams of Winter will board a Soyuz rocket which will blast off from a desert base in Kazakhstan.  Two days later, they’ll get to the International Space Station, where Williams will spend his second six-month tour of duty.  He says the isolation of Earth’s orbit is made easier by contact with his family in Houston – and from reading Bible passages.  His favorite verse is from the book of Job, and it reads: “He hangs the Earth on nothing.”  Williams says it dispels old myths that the Earth was flat, suspended, or sitting on top of pillars.  After orbiting the Earth many times, Williams says he can truly attest that the Earth hangs on nothing.

 

Buy Local Buy Wisconsin Program Grants

 

9/25/09 – Wisconsin residents are getting more time to apply for state grants for projects that promote the state’s food products.  The agriculture department says the deadline is now October seventh at four p-m to apply for funding under the “Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin” program.  Ag secretary Rod Nilsestuen says the goal is to get more of Wisconsin’s food dollars spent on locally-made products.  Last year, 94 groups and individuals applied for a total of 225-thousand dollars in grants – and seven projects shared the money.  They included a regional nourishment program in northwest Wisconsin, produce auctions in central areas, and a restaurant promotion in Metro Milwaukee.

 

“Over the Limit, Under Arrest” Campaign Nets 1,200 Drunk Drivers

 

9/25/09 – Over 12-hundred people in Wisconsin were arrested for drunk driving in the state’s recent crackdown.  The “Over the Limit, Under Arrest” campaign lasted 17 days from late August through Labor Day.  The D-O-T said the effort resulted in almost 53-thousand traffic citations and warnings.  Over nine-thousand of those were for speeding, and over five-thousand citations were given to those not wearing their seat belts.  The campaign also netted some criminal arrests.  Four-hundred people were arrested on outstanding warrants.  Over 200 got picked up for drug offenses, and there were 65 felony arrests.  The D-O-T said 27-hundred officers from 320 agencies took part in the “Over the Limit, Under Arrest” campaign.  State Patrol Superintendent David Collins said the goal was to get people to drive more responsibly.

 

Van Hollen and Raemisch to Meet about Missing DNA Samples

 

9/25/09 – State Attorney General J-B Van Hollen and Corrections’ Secretary Rick Raemisch will meet this morning to talk about the 12-thousand D-N-A samples missing from a police data-bank.  Convicted felons have been required since 2000 to give authorities their D-N-A to help officers investigate crimes both old-and-new.  But it was learned last week that about 10-percent of felons never had their D-N-A put into a data-base that totals 128-thousand samples.  The problem was uncovered when police could not identify the D-N-A of a man suspected of killing nine women in Milwaukee since 1986.  A tip recently led officers to Walter Ellis, who has pleaded innocent to seven of the killings.  He reportedly left a D-N-A sample in 2001 while in prison for another offense – and it never got into the database.

 

Kelm Gives Verbal Commitment to UWM

 

9/25/09 – Randolph High School senior Kyle Kelm says he’ll play his college basketball at U-W Milwaukee.  The 6-9 forward gave a verbal commitment to the Panthers, after he made an official visit to the campus last week.  Randolph coach Bob Haffele said Milwaukee has a program that fits Kelm’s style – and it’s a good thing for him to stay closer to home.   Kelm averaged 17 points and six rebounds for Randolph last year.  But he broke his right foot while playing in A-A-U league in May.  He had surgery in August, and he’s expected to recover in time for the next season which begins in November.