American Hero’s Music Festival Is Today
9/7/14 – Organizers with the Sixth Annual American Hero’s Music Festival are hoping the public lines the route for the parade that kicks off today’s event. The parade begins at 11am and will include military vehicles, marching bands and local veteran’s organizations. Those who watch the parade are asked to line up along Front Street, Park Avenue and South University Avenue. It will end at Swan Park, which is where an opening ceremony will be held beginning at 12:30pm, followed by a full day of food, refreshments and music on two stages. The music kicks off with Willie Nelson tribute band Willie’s Shadow at 1pm. At 2pm, Mighty Wheelhouse, featuring Beaver Dam-native Kenny Leiser performs its mix of Americana, bluegrass and country rock. Classic rockers The Characters are on stage at 4pm. Beaver Dam’s Most Wanted plays country, classics and soft rock hits at 6:30pm. The festival closes out with Alexis, featuring lead singer Sandy Hautamaki, the mother of fallen Beaver Dam-Marine Ryan Cantafio, and her three brothers.
Event Organizer Kay Appenfeldt says the event almost did not happen because a sponsor could not be found. Longtime organizer and performer, “Chicago” Joe Cantafio was unable to raise money for the bands this year through his traditional free-throw fundraiser for medical reasons. “Chicago” Joe is the cousin of Ryan Cantafio and even wrote a song, Brave Warrior, in honor of his cousin. Appenfeldt says another Joe stepped into help.
Meanwhile, the keynote address will be delivered at 6pm by Retired US Air Force Colonel Gene Kirschbaum. There will also be a variety of booths with representatives from Badger Honor Flight, A Case for Caring and Sharing, and the AT&T Pioneers. Kids will be able to see a squad car and fire truck, meet the county’s K-9 unit and run through an obstacle course or bounce in the bounce house.
The opening ceremonies will be broadcast on WXRO 95.3 beginning at 12:30pm. The American Hero’s Music Festival is free to the public.
Special Enrollment Announced For Obamacare
9/6/14 – Wisconsin adults who lost their Badger-Care this year will get another chance to sign up for Obama-care if they need to. The U-S Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced a special enrollment period. Adults over the poverty line who were dropped from Badger-Care Plus can sign up on the federal exchanges through November second. Earlier, officials said 38-thousand adults who were dropped from Badger-Care never signed up for Obama-care, as Governor Scott Walker had planned. State health officials said this week the number has dropped to around 26-thousand. U-S Senate Democrat Tammy Baldwin asked for the special enrollment. She’s been critical of how the Republican Walker has handled Obama-care. Among other things, she demanded that he find out what happened to those who didn’t use the federal system after losing state coverage. Walker said earlier this week that many found coverage through employers or somebody else — and without mentioning Baldwin by name, he said her stance was essentially a solution in search of a problem. Democrats have criticized Walker for not taking more federal money to expand Badger-Care. The governor fears the extra funding would dry up someday — and the state would be left holding an ultra-expensive bag.
Engineer Charged With Stealing Company Secrets
9/6/14 – An engineer from China who worked at G-E Health-care in Waukesha has been criminally charged in federal court with stealing the company’s trade secrets. Forty-one year old Jun Xie is suspected of stealing almost two-and-a-half million files of trade secrets and other confidential G-E information, and sending it to China. The company filed a civil suit in July, and Xie had just reached an agreement to settle the matter when the criminal charges came down this week. Those charges indicate that started downloading G-E materials after his wife moved back to China earlier this year — and he wanted the data to help him find a job in that country. Prosecutors said Xie was not authorized to use much of the information he allegedly stole. He reportedly told F-B-I agents he was joining a competitor to G-E in the production of M-R-I machines — but he only planning to use the data for himself. The civil matter appeared to be settled when Xie agreed to return whatever data he could to G-E and cooperate with the firm’s internal investigation. The case is the second one in the Milwaukee area in which sensitive data was stolen and apparently destined for China. Last year, a researcher at the Medical College of Wisconsin pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, after being cited for economic espionage.
Columbus Celebrating Annual Fall Festival Early
9/7/14 – The City of Columbus has a special reason to celebrate their annual Fall Festival a little early this year. The festival is usually an October event. Columbus is celebrating being 175-years-old today (Sat). Events are being planned from 9am to 1pm at the corner of James and Dickason Streets in downtown Columbus. Friends of the Library will be celebrating with a book and bake sale. The Columbus Senior Center will have a bake sale and silent auction from 9am to 1pm. Columbus Fall Festival events also include an 11am “Pet Parade” near the library and live music by the Sharrow’s from 11:30 to 1pm. There’s also lunch at the Senior Center from 11am till 1pm.
Rock River E. Coli Warnings Lifted Following Pipe Fix
9/6/14 – The city of Horicon has been given the “all clear” from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources following public warnings issued after receiving reports of elevated bacterium levels in the Rock River. The contamination was detected from River Bend Park upstream to the Horicon Marsh. DNR Waste Water Engineer Dorris Thiele explains what they did to detect where the E.Coli was coming from.
140904 DNR Thiele 1 :26…system.”
Thiele says because of the leak, sewage was entering the river. She says after additional testing the E. Coli levels were not at a level of concern.
140904 DNR Thiele 2 :28…Horicon.”
Thiele says the city did permanently replace the piping system and it is now safe for the public to use the river.
Dodge County Clean Sweep Concludes Today
9/6/14 – The Dodge County Clean Sweep Program concludes this morning (Saturday) with a collection in the Beaver Dam area. Jeff Hoffman with sponsoring agency UW Extension says Dodge County residents are allowed to drop off various items at the Clean Sweep location.
120920 Hoffman 1 :25…light bulbs.”
Items that will not be accepted: explosives, human medical and biological wastes, radioactive materials, compressed gas cylinders, used motor oils, fertilizer, tires, asbestos and anti-freeze. Latex paint is also not accepted; as Hoffman explains there is a simple disposal method.
120920 Hoffman 2 :13…your garbage.”
Clean Sweep is being offered this morning at the County Highway Shop in Beaver Dam on County A from 8am until noon.
Proposed Iron Ore Company Reexamining Size of Mine
9/6/14 – Gogebic Taconite is looking at reducing the size of its proposed iron ore mine so it’s only built in Iron County — and not Ashland County, where there’s more government opposition to the project. Company spokesman Bob Seitz tells the Wisconsin State Journal that about a-third of a potential four-mile-long ore deposit might have to be left in the ground. He said the Iron County portion of the mine could still produce usable iron ore for decades — but it might be too expensive to do the same in Ashland County. That’s because the County Board requires the firm to pay the county’s costs of hiring scientists to get an unbiased view of the firm’s environmental studies before it applies for a state permit. Seitz says the ordinance has no limits on what the firm would have to pay — and he says it does not it viable to do mining there. County Administrator Jeff Beirl says it’s only fair to charge the mining firm for an objective view of its work. Beirl says a lot of northern Wisconsin counties are not “flush with money,” and the funding is necessary to perform the county’s due-diligence up front.
Judge: DNR Did Not Consider Groundwater Effects
9/6/14 – A state administrative law judge says the D-N-R did not consider all the effects on groundwater, in approving an application for a high-capacity well at a large dairy farm. Judge Jeffrey Boldt ruled this week that the D-N-R took what he called an “unreasonably limited view of its authority” in reviewing a well for the proposed Richfield Dairy in Adams County. He approved the owner’s request for a waste permit — and he said the D-N-R could approve a reduction of 28-percent in the amount of groundwater that could be pumped. The dairy’s owners wanted to drill two high-capacity wells pumping out over 130-million gallons of water a year. The dairy later reduced the volume to around 70-million gallons. The final ruling calls for a max of 52-and-a-half million gallons. The dairy’s opponents challenged the permit approval in 2011, saying the D-N-R never considered the effects of the wells on neighboring properties and surface waters. The dairy’s owner, Milk Source, said it was glad to have the ruling after three years of waiting. Environmentalists praised the ruling — but they cannot win similar cases in the future. That’s because the current budget prohibits neighbors from challenging well construction, if regulators decided not to consider environmental effects on other properties.
