Top Stories September 6th

Labor Day Storms Bring Hail


9/6/10 - Good sized hail accompanied the heavy downpour we got in the six o’clock hour this morning. The Dodge County Sheriff’s Department is reporting there was hail between the size of a quarter and half-dollar falling near in the intersection of County Highways A and B northeast of Beaver Dam. At our studios on Stoddart Street in Beaver Dam we experienced pea sized hail for a short period of time as well. The storm prompted two separate severe thunderstorm warnings, one for southwestern Dodge and northern Jefferson County and another that stretched from central Dodge County into Washington County. Both warnings expired around 7:15 a-m. No immediate damage was reported.

Regionalization Plans Come Into Focus

9/6/10 - Initial plans to begin regionalization construction of the Fall River to Columbus wastewater main are likely to be approved at the September 16th Board meeting. MSA project Engineer Gill Hantzsch this said the first stage of the $7 million dollar construction project would be building a pump station at the edge of the Village park. The Board approved the contract with MSA and will be meeting later this month to solidify details on pump station design and the force main’s route into Columbus.

UW-Madison: “Little to Celebrate” on Labor Day

9/6/10 - Analysts at U-W Madison say working Wisconsinites have “little to celebrate” on this Labor Day. The U-W Center on Wisconsin Strategy has just issued a report saying that one-of-every-four manufacturing jobs in the state was lost in the last decade. And 155-thousand-200 total jobs have been lost in the Badger State since the recession began in December of 2007. While unemployment stands at seven-point-eight-percent, the U-W report said 15-percent of Wisconsin’s labor force remains under-employed. That includes those who’ve given up looking for jobs, and others forced to work part-time instead of full-time. The state’s median hourly wage last year was 15-dollars-and-87-cents-an-hour – less than a dollar higher than in 1979 when adjusted for inflation. The report said women made 19-percent less than men – blacks made 20-percent less than whites – and Hispanics made 25-percent less. And one of every five workers had poverty-level jobs. Laura Dresser of the U-W strategy center says it’s too easy to look away from the problem – and things won’t get better until the national economy starts creating jobs. Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker says the report echoes what he hears on the campaign trail. His primary opponent, Mark Neumann, says it shows that the state’s policies don’t work. The only major Democrat in the governor’s race, Tom Barrett, says the report has no surprises – and it shows the urgency of a job-creation agenda in Madison.

Obama in Wisconsin to Talk Jobs and Economy

9/6/10 - President Obama will talk about jobs and the economy when he visits Milwaukee today. He’ll speak to union members, their families, and others at the city’s Labor-fest. The White House says the president will talk about several items – including incentives to get small businesses to hire more people. Obama’s labor secretary, Hilda Solis, will join him at the Milwaukee event along with national leaders of the A-F-L C-I-O. Solis says the administration has gotten the message from Americans who say the pace of job growth is not fast enough. This is Obama’s fifth trip to Wisconsin during his 19-and-a-half months as president – and it’s the third time this summer he has visited southeast Wisconsin. Republicans are not impressed – and state G-O-P director Mark Jefferson says those living on smaller paychecks and unemployment benefits are not impressed, either. Wisconsin’s jobless rate is below the national average – but Jefferson says that’s normally the case, and the rate is far too high. He also says the Republicans in Congress should not be blamed for slowing any of Obama’s economic initiatives, when the president’s fellow Democrats control both the House and Senate.

Mercer Exhaust Appeals

9/6/10 - A former Fond du Lac city official will soon go to jail, after he exhausted his appeals on a child pornography conviction. Circuit Judge Dale English has ordered Ben Mercer to report to jail within 30 days. He'll spend a year behind bars with work release privileges and eight years of probation. That's after he was convicted on 14 charges of possessing child pornography, and viewing it from his work computer when he was Fond du Lac's human resources director. In his appeals, Mercer claimed that no pornographic images made it onto his hard drive -- and therefore, he couldn't legally possess them. But an appeals court ruled in March that viewing child porn on-line is equal to possessing it. The State Supreme Court refused last month to review the case, therefore upholding Mercer's conviction.

MEC a “Distinguished Performer”

9/6/10 - Mayville Engineering Company is one of five private firms that will be honored as a “Distinguished Performer” at a breakfast later this month in Milwaukee. Those five come from a list of the top 75 privately held firms in Wisconsin as compiled by Deloitte Touche. Other local companies include Quad-Graphics of Sussex and Trek Bicycle of Waterloo. The rankings are based on annual sales. And the reporting is voluntary, which means that not all private firms are included. The listed companies will be recognized at a breakfast September 28th in Milwaukee. In addition to MEC the four other firms deemed "Distinguished Performers" – include Miron Construction of Neenah, Serigraph of West Bend, Hunzinger Construction of Brookfield and Rockline Industries of Sheboygan.

First Days of School Go Well in Waupun

9/6/10 - New Waupun Superintendent Don Childs says the first few days of school went relatively smooth last week. The district implemented new start times after the school board decided to go to a single loop busing system. Childs says the only concerns he’s heard relate to the high school kids getting out at the same time as the younger kids. He says some parents were concerned about the driving habits of the high school kids, which Childs says were a little less then thoughtful. He says they’ve asked the school liaison officer to work with the city police to crack down on anyone driving recklessly. The district expected to save around $40,000 by going to the single loop busing schedule.

“Operation Deer Watch” Continues

9/6/10 - The state D-N-R continues to ask people to report the deer they see. Over two-thousand people have given their observations since "Operation Deer Watch" began on August first. The reporting continues through the end of September. Wildlife experts will use the observations to help estimate the statewide ratio of fawns to does. It's an important factor in determining Wisconsin's overall deer population. So far, people have reported 12-hundred-26 does without fawns -- 493 does with one fawn -- 456 does with two fawns -- 40 does with three fawns -- and 415 fawns without does. Also, 564 bucks have been observed. You can get more information on "Operation Deer Watch" at the D-N-R's Web site, accessible at Wisconsin-Dot-Gov.