Top Stories July 22nd

Fountain Prairie Man First Heat-Related Death

7/22/11 - The record-setting heat has claimed a life. A 65-year-old man from Fountain Prairie died Monday. Columbia County Medical Examiner Angela Hinze says the man, whose named was not released, had an underlying medical condition and was outdoors helping a family member with housework when the heat worsened his condition. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) says it was the first confirmed heat-related death in the state. Meanwhile, Madison police are investigating the death of a 36-year-old man on Wednesday to determine if it was related to the hot weather. The current heat wave in the Midwest and east coast has killed 22 people this week. Most of the excessive heat warnings and heat advisories have been cancelled across the state. Only Racine and Kenosha Counties have heat advisories issued until 7pm tonight.

State Aids Private Sector Jobs

7/22/11 - Governor Scott Walker credits his policies, more tourists, and an improved business climate for a big increase in jobs last month. The Republican governor said yesterday that almost 13-thousand private sector jobs were added in June – and the state’s total job increase of 95-hundred reflected half of the national total. Walker said it was driven by quote, “the rebirth of tourism.” Analysts note that tourist jobs are often temporary, with low pay and little-or-no fringe benefits. But the governor says tourism has become a year-round industry. Kurt Bauer, head of the Wisconsin Manufacturers-and-Commerce group, says business leaders both here and nationally like what’s happening in the state. A new tracking group, Badger-Stat-Dot-Org, says the state has a long way to go to return to its total employment before the recession. Wisconsin lost 171-thousand jobs in the Great Recession – and Feldman says about 50-thousand of those jobs have come back, including those announced yesterday.

Suspect Ambushed In Failed Burglary Charged

7/22/11 - A Lake Mills man, accused of trying to break into a pole shed only to be ambushed by the intended victims, has been formally charged. Joseph Bidlack could spend up to 24 years in prison if he’s convicted on felony charges of Burglary and Possession of Burglary Tools. According to the criminal complaint, the would-be victims renting the pole shed in the Town of Portland got word from a friend that Bidlack was planning on breaking into the shed and stealing vehicle parts. Three men were waiting inside the shed when the 36-year-old Bidlack allegedly cut the lock on the shed and entered. Bidlack sustained injuries in the ensuing melee and accuses his attackers of using a baseball bat. The victims deny using the bat and say they acted in self-defense. Bidlack had a cash bond set at $300 and is expected back in court for a preliminary hearing early next month.

BD Woman Jailed After Child Films Sex Act

7/22/11 - A Beaver Dam woman was sentenced to three months in jail Thursday for exposing a minor to sexual activity. A jury convicted Nicole A. Smith in May on the felony charge, along with misdemeanor bail jumping. A high school-age child used a cell phone to film the 36-year-old and another man engaging in sex on Thanksgiving Day. The cell phone was found at school and was taken as evidence. Smith told investigators the incident was a practical joke that got blown of out of proportion. As part of the conditions of bond in a separate case, Smith had been prohibited from having contact with the man who was with her in the video. The same man also allegedly visited her in jail on four separate occasions following a December OWI conviction. As a result, she had four felony bail jumping charges filed against her for allegedly violating that order. She has court activity on the calendar Friday related to the newest bail jumping charges.

Woman Accused of Trying to Stab Ex-Husband

7/22/11 - A 23-year-old Waupun woman is facing charges after allegedly threatening to stab her ex-husband with a knife. Kaycie Behnke made her initial appearance in Fond du Lac County this week on a charge of disorderly conduct/domestic abuse. According to prosecutors, Behnke and her ex-husband were trying to re-establish their relationship when she became enraged after he uttered a Spanish phrase, reminding her of his previous relationship with a Hispanic woman. It happened in the early morning hours of July 17th and she’s due back in court in September.

Mayville Planning Veterans Memorial

7/22/11 - Plans are in the works to build a Veterans Memorial in Mayville. Organizer Maureen Schuelke says the memorial would be located in Fireman’s Park near the pavilion. The granite walls would have more than enough room to contain the names of Mayville’s veterans past, present and future. There would be no charge to get a Mayville veterans name on the wall. Money for the project would come from “pavers,” bricks that can be inscribed with names and sayings that will be laid in front of the walls to form a walkway. The Memorial is anticipated to cost $100,000 and organizers hope to have it in place by Veterans Day. Those interested in purchasing a “paver” are asked to get a hold of Maureen Schuelke at 405 Furnace Street, Mayville 53050.

13K Jobs Added In Badger State Last Month

7/22/11 - Wisconsin added almost 13-thousand private sector jobs in June – the most for any one-month period since September of 2003. Despite a drop in government jobs, Governor Scott Walker says the Badger State still had a net increase of 95-hundred jobs last month – accounting for more than half the new jobs created in the entire nation. And Walker says 39-thousand private sector jobs have been added since the start of the year – which puts him well on his way toward keeping his campaign promise to create a quarter-million private sector jobs by 2015. Wisconsin’s unemployment rate did rise two-tenths of a percent to seven-point-six. Walker’s labor chief, Scott Baumbach, said it was due to more job-seekers entering the workforce with optimism for finding something. Wisconsin’s jobless rate has stayed about one-and-a-half percent below the national rate of nine-percent-plus. Meanwhile, more storm clouds might be brewing on the national labor front. The Labor Department says that applications for jobless benefits rose last week – which was seen as evidence of a weak job market and more layoffs.

Senate Adjourns Without Acting On Jobless Benefits

Wisconsin senators have adjourned until next Tuesday, without acting on the bill to extend jobless benefits for up to 40-thousand residents. Republicans in the Senate and Assembly do not agree on whether to require a one-week waiting period when applying for unemployment checks. The waiting period was placed into the new state budget. Senators took it out on Tuesday, but Assembly Republicans put it back Wednesday. Now, the ball’s back in the Senate’s court. Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald of Horicon says the disagreement will be resolved, but maybe not until September. Senate leaders say they want a deal sooner than that. Democrats, meanwhile, accuse the G-O-P of “toying” with the long-term unemployed who’ve used up 73 weeks of jobless benefits – and would be eligible to get 13 more weeks once lawmakers pass the bill to allow it. The measure would free up 89-million-dollars in federal stimulus funds for jobless benefits. And these funds do not have to be paid back – unlike the one-point-four billion dollars the state borrowed from Washington to keep the benefits flowing during the recession. Senate Democratic Leader Mark Miller said the new benefits are being held up due to quote, “incredible incompetence” or “cold-hearted calculation.”

Job Cuts Announced At M & I

7/22/11 - About 475 jobs will be cut after the parent company of Harris Bank acquired Milwaukee’s M & I banking chain. Jim Kappel of B-M-O Harris said the layoffs would take place during the next four months throughout the company’s Midwest region. Thirteen branches will close – including one in Wisconsin that was planned by M & I before B-M-O Harris finalized its acquisition on July fifth. Some duplicative executive posts had been cut earlier, but the announcement represents the company’s first mass-scale job reductions. About 100 of the job cuts will be in Metro Milwaukee, and Kappel says half those people will be offered jobs at one of B-M-O’s vendors – mostly in human resources and security. Kappel notes that about 400 other positions in the newly-merged Harris chain are vacant – and the laid-off employees can apply for those. M & I, which has a branch in Beaver Dam, had about 43-hundred jobs throughout southeast Wisconsin when the B-M-O Harris acquisition was first announced last December.

Hying Sweating At Swearing-In

7/22/11 - Milwaukee’s new Catholic auxiliary bishop says God wants him to sweat from the very beginning. That was Donald Hying’s take on the massive heat wave, when he was sworn-in Wednesday as the Number-two official in Milwaukee’s 10-county archdiocese, which includes Dodge County. The ceremony took place in the air-conditioned Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist. Over 700 bishops, priests, and others attended the installation. The 47-year-old Hying had been a seminary rector in the the Milwaukee archdiocese since 2007. His predecessor, Richard Sklba, helped celebrate yesterday’s mass along with Archbishop Jerome Listecki and former Milwaukee Archbishop Tim Dolan. Sklba retired last year, and Pope Benedict named Hying to replace him.