Top Stories September 11th

8th Anniversary of 9/11

9/11/09 - Today is the eighth anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker will lead a ceremony of remembrance at the city’s War Memorial Center. Similar observances are planned throughout Wisconsin and the nation to remember the three-thousand Americans killed in the airplane attacks at New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon – and the crash in Pennsylvania of a plane reportedly bound for the U-S Capitol. Many veterans say they’ll always remember the attacks as if they happened yesterday. Pete Wallace of Fox Lake, who lost his son Andrew to a roadside bomb in Iraq, said he’ll always favor fighting terrorism. And there are still those who want to harm America. In Appleton, Jonna Rae Brinkman has a studio with abstract paintings of the emotions she felt on September 11th of 2001 – when she saw the second plane hit the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center. Brinkman, a Milwaukee native, was a graduate art student in New York at the time. And she had numerous flashbacks from her experience, which lessened while getting treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

“American Hero Musical Festival”

9/11/09 - A music festival to celebrate our men and women of the Armed Forces will be held tomorrow in Beaver Dam. The “American Hero’s Music Festival” is billed as a celebration of our troops, emergency responders and Gold Star families, who have lost loved ones in the service. Family members of a fallen Marine from Beaver Dam will be among those performing. The rock band Alexis is headed by Sandy Hautamaki, the mother of Lance Corporal Ryan Cantafio, who was killed in the Al Anbar province of Iraq on Thanksgiving Day in 2004. Also performing tomorrow: Ryan’s cousin, Joe Cantafio and the 101st Rock Division Band, a group that performed for troops all over the world including Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. Cantafio says the support from this community inspired his family to organize the festival. We’ll get all the details from him, and members of the Exchange Club, which is sponsoring the event, on WBEV’s Community Comment beginning at 12:35pm today. You can listen to his song Brave Warrior and learn more about the event here.

Tomato Fungus Found In Dodge County

9/11/09 - The disease that caused the 19th century potato famine in Ireland has been found in Dodge County. That’s according to UW Extension Crops and Soils Agent Matt Hanson who says tests he submitted to their pathology lab in Madison came back positive for the presence of “late blight. The fungus-like plant disease has a quick onset and covers the plant leaves with a blackish, brownish oily appearance on the top and a cottony mildew on the bottom. The stalks may also become shrunken and brown while the fruit develops dark legions. The disease had already been confirmed in several other counties, including Columbia and Jefferson. While, tomatoes aren’t a major commercial crop in Wisconsin, local organic farms and home gardens have been hit hard. The disease can also impact other vegetables within the tomato’s family including potatoes, eggplants, nightshade and peppers. Hanson says if you’re not sure what you’ve got, you can contact the extension office http://www.uwex.edu/ces/cty/dodge/.

Murder-Suicide Confirmed In Horicon

9/11/09 - Authorities have confirmed that the two people found dead at a home in Horicon this week were the home owners, Dale and Joyce Breitkreutz. Horicon Police Lieutenant Adrian Bump says officers responded to the Maple Street address after receiving a 9-1-1 call reporting that a person had been shot. Medical Examiner P.J. Schoebel says Joyce Breitkreutz had been shot twice; once in the abdomen and once in head. Her death has been classified as a homicide. Her husband Dale Breitkreutz had a single gun shot wound to the head; his death has been deemed a suicide. Bump says there is nothing that would lead investigators to believe that anyone else was involved in or present during the incident. He says based on their findings the community is not in any foreseeable danger related to the case. Funeral services for the couple will be held on Monday.

Columbus Dam Survey Criticized

9/11/09 - The UW River Fall’s Survey of a random sample of Columbus residents is receiving citizen criticism even before the final draft is completed and distributed. Administrator Boyd Kraemer and the Council spent time during this week’s Committee of the Whole responding to residents’ comments on the Survey Research Center’s (SRC) public survey that is a required part of the City’s Comprehensive five year plan. Kraemer and the Council defended the City’s commissioning of the 25-Question Survey. The Administrator and Council said citizens who claimed the survey dealt “ONLY with the Udey Dam” and the survey was “an inside job” sent to a Council-selected group were misinformed. Mayor Bob Link joined Kraemer in assuring the public that the survey was going out to a random sample of City residents. The survey document is scheduled to be approved and distributed to about 1,000 Columbus residents next Tuesday.

Support For Districts at WIAA Meeting In Watertown

9/11/09 - The head of the W-I-A-A says players would be safer under a plan to eliminate football conferences, in favor of geographical districts. Playoff teams would continue to have one game a week, instead of the current system in which three games are jammed into 10 days. Dave Anderson, the W-I-A-A’s new executive director, said the plan would reduce the risk of player concussions – which he called a hidden epidemic in high school football. Anderson made his comments in Watertown at the first of seven area meetings where the agency is getting input on the proposed football-only districts. Thirty-of-the-42 schools at the Watertown meeting favored the plan in a straw vote. All schools would open with a non-district game, followed by seven contests within their districts. In Week 9, schools would either play their opening post-season contest – and those which don’t qualify would still play against another opponent outside its district.

Home Sales Up Again

9/11/09 - Home sales have gone up for the third straight month in southeast Wisconsin. The Multiple Listing Service said over 19-hundred homes were sold in August in Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington, Racine, Kenosha, and Walworth counties. That’s a two-point-six percent increase from the same month a year ago. Mike Ruzicka of the Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors said a reduction in prices have made homes affordable for a lot more people. He also credits the eight-thousand-dollar tax break for first-time home buyers, and low interest rates – along with a robust supply of homes for sale.

Wisconsin Troops Half-Way Done

9/11/09 - The largest deployment of Wisconsin National Guard combat troops since World War Two has reached the halfway point. Lieutenant Colonel Tim Donovan said the worst is over in Iraq for the 32-hundred members of the Guard’s Red Arrow Brigade – because the days of 120-degree heat are almost finished. The troops are involved in dozens of missions throughout the country. They keep bases secure and they transport detainees – and they’re also re-furbishing a worn-down school, and transferring property back to Iraq’s government. Donovan says many soldiers use their computers to keep track of time, and the heat is a main concern. In one computer program, a tropical island represents the time troops have served in Iraq – and a desert sandstorm represents the time they have left.

Wisconsin Uninsured Down

9/11/09 - The U-S Census Bureau said eight-point-nine of Wisconsin residents were without health insurance in 2008. That’s down two-tenths of a point from the previous year. The bureau’s annual report on the subject was released yesterday. It said 489,000 Wisconsinites lacked coverage, based on a three-year average. The state’s percentage of uninsured was well below the national figure of 15-and-a-half percent. Wisconsin had the fourth-lowest total. Only Minnesota, Hawaii, and Massachusetts had smaller percentages of un-insured. Texas had the most, at just under 25-percent. In New Mexico, 23-percent of residents didn’t have health coverage last year. All told, the Census Bureau said 46 million Americans lacked insurance, up from 45-point-seven in 2007. The figures came out a day after President Obama called on Congress to pass a health reform plan soon. Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl said he was scheduled to meet later today with President Obama, along with a group of moderate Democrats who planned to give their views on what should be done.

9/9/9 at 9:09am = 9lbs, 9oz

9/11/09 - Most couples never forget the days their children were born. But Chuck and Polly Berendes of La Crosse will especially remember the birth of their third baby, Henry Michael. He arrived by Cesarean section at 9:09 yesterday morning at Franciscan Skemp Medical Center. It’s something the doctor and the couple laughed about when they arranged the date for the procedure. But it was still a stroke of luck that the child was born at exactly 9:09. And the couple really got a laugh when their new son was weighed. The scale was metric – but a nurse did the math, and everyone roared when she said Henry weighed nine pounds and nine ounces.

Gas Line Hit In Construction

9/11/09 - The afternoon commute in Beaver Dam was snarled Thursday after construction crews hit a gas line. Authorities say the incident was reported around 3:45pm on North Spring Street on the stretch of road in front of Rechek’s Food Pride. The three-way intersection of DeClark, Norris and North Spring is in the process of being reconfigured.