Top Stories October 16th

‘Operation Safe Driver’ Campaign Begins Today

10/16/11 - The state workers who inspect large commercial trucks will beef up their enforcement starting on Sunday. The Badger State is joining others in a week-long campaign called “Operation Safe Driver.” The effort includes education as well as tighter law enforcement. The purpose is to make commercial truckers and others safer drivers. Officers will crack down on road violations like speeding, following too closely, improper lane changes, failing to obey traffic signs, and impaired driving. State Patrol Lieutenant Patti Hansen says trucking has become safer in Wisconsin over the last decade. The total annual deaths in large trucks dropped from 112 in 2000 to just 56 a year ago. All motorists can be targets of the crackdown, not just commercial drivers – but the commercial drivers will be checked to see if they meet proper licensing and work rules.

Tire Smashes Into Ken’s TV Showroom

10/16/11 - Ken’s TV and Appliance in Fox Lake has no plans to start selling tires anytime soon, but if you stopped by the store on Friday you might have been able to get a good deal on a set. It appears that a semi-tractor pulling a load of carrots to Beaver Dam lost two of its back tires just before the noon hour. One tire flew into the cornfield across the road from the store. The other tire crashed right into their showroom, damaging the wall of the showroom but fortunately not much else. Ken’s wife Sally was working at the business and had just gone to the couple’s residence next door when the accident occurred. No one was injured.

Miss Oshkosh Convicted of Shoplifting

10/16/11 - Miss Oshkosh has given up her crown, after being convicted of shoplifting. Veijzhan Knight paid a 295-dollar fine in August, after pleading no contest to the theft of 120-dollars in cosmetics and “Hello Kitty” merchandise. It was all taken from Walmart in Oshkosh on July eighth, when Knight was arrested. The chair of the Miss Oshkosh Scholarship Pageant, Gert Schultz, said Knight was asked to give up the crown because of her conviction. She said local merchants donate to the pageant – and the negativity involving Knight’s conviction would not have been good for the organization. Knight was crowned in March. The first runner-up that night, Kelsey McDaniels, will take over the title for the next four-and-a-half months. McDaniels will graduate from U-W Oshkosh in December. She says she looks forward to meeting people in her role as Miss Oshkosh – and she plans to promote her platform, which is awareness of Alzheimer’s disease.

Final Liberia Collection Date This Saturday

10/16/11 – This coming Saturday is the final chance to help out a local church that is collecting a variety of items to send overseas to an impoverished West African country. Liberia is an English-speaking nation that is in the process of recovering from a bloody civil war. Pastor Mark Molldrem of the First Lutheran Church of Beaver Dam says their relationship with Liberia began in 2006 when a parishioner was stationed there as part of a UN peacekeeping force during their first democratic elections. Molldrem says the civil war was devastating and they need a lot of help in rebuilding their country. The church is collecting school supplies, including reading books, encyclopedias, globes, computers in addition things like office and sports equipment even good condition twin beds and box springs. They are also looking for good-condition bicycles and tricycles. The items will be sent over in a cargo container later this year. They are being collected in the parking lot of the former Breuer Metal factory on North Spring Street in Beaver Dam this coming Saturday, October 22 from 10am until noon. This Saturday is the final collection day before the items are shipped out. Cash donations are also being accepted for shipping costs.

Kennedy To Hold Listening Session On Tuesday

10/16/11 - Beaver Dam Mayor Tom Kennedy has listening sessions scheduled for Tuesday. Kennedy says city residents are invited to meet with him, one-on-one, without appointment on the first and third Tuesday of every month. He says it is important that constituents have the opportunity to speak with him the day after each regular meeting of the common council. The meetings are held in Room 109 on the first floor of City Hall from 10am until noon and again from 5pm to 6pm. Kennedy also makes himself available for private meetings by appointment by contacting the mayor office.

Baldwin Raises $1.5M For Senate Bid

10/16/11 - The only Democrat who hopes to replace U-S Senator Herb Kohl next year has over one-and-a-half million dollars in the bank so far. Tammy Baldwin’s campaign says that she raised 738-thousand-dollars from July through September for her Senate bid. The campaign filed its report Friday with the Federal Election Commission. La Crosse House Democrat Ron Kind and other possible Democratic candidates have stepped aside, apparently to give Baldwin a clear shot at running for Kohl’s seat in the general election just over a year from now. Meanwhile, up to five Republicans could compete in a September primary next year. Former Governor Tommy Thompson, state Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald of Horicon, former congressman Mark Neumann, and state Senator Frank Lasee are throwing their hats in the ring. Investor Eric Hovde has also considered a G-O-P bid. Senator Kohl plans to retire at the end of next year.

Public Meeting On Medicaid Cuts This Wednesday

10/16/11 - Cuts to Wisconsin Medicaid programs will be discussed at a public meeting in Madison next Wednesday.  Organizers say they hope participants in the program, their partners and medical providers will attend the session at the Goodman Community Center from 1-to-7 p.m.  The Department of Health Services is considering a series of cost-cutting moves to address the 554 million dollars needed to fund Wisconsin’s medical assistance programs, including BadgerCare Plus, SeniorCare and Family Care.  As many as 215 thousand children and adults could be switched to lower-cost state plans.

Walker To Address Heritage Foundation

10/16/11 - Governor Scott Walker will speak to a national conservative group later this month. The Republican governor will be the keynote speaker at a fund-raiser for the Heritage Foundation October 26th in Des Moines Iowa. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the event is co-chaired by three Iowa Republicans who tried but failed to convince New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to run for president next year. The Heritage Foundation gets its money from a number of conservative organizations, including Milwaukee’s Bradley Foundation. A Walker campaign spokeswoman says the governor is not being paid to speak at the fund-raiser.

Asian Carp Options To Be Outlined

10/16/11 - Two groups plan to spell out three options for closing the link between the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan, to keep the invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes. Officials of the Great Lakes Commission and the Saint Lawrence Cities’ Commission say they’ll announce their recommendations in January. They provided an update at a conference in Detroit on the environmental future of the Great Lakes. One of the options would put five barriers where various rivers empty into Lake Michigan. The other proposals would place either one or three barriers at locations farther away from the lake. The two groups will give their results to the U-S Army Corps of Engineers, which is doing a much longer-range study on the same topic. Many environmentalists say the Corps is dragging its feet on the subject – but the Corps denies that.

Lawmaker Seeks To Eliminate Blue Book

10/16/11 - A Wisconsin tradition for generations would go by the wayside if a freshman state lawmaker has his way. Assembly Republican Tyler August of Lake Geneva wants to eliminate future publications of the Wisconsin Blue Book. The latest version of the book came out this week. It’s the definitive reference guide to state government with directories of all state offices, a plethora of statistics, and a historical essay. August says the Blue Book’s information can be found online – and it would save taxpayers about 328-thousand dollars every two years in printing and mailing costs. Legislators give the books to constituents. Assembly Republican Pat Strachota of West Bend waged a losing battle last year, when she proposed that the news media no longer get free copies of the Blue Book – which is published every two years by the non-partisan Legislative Reference Bureau.

Farmers Handling Erosion Better

10/16/11 - A USDA report shows farmers are making significant cutbacks in the amount of soil and nutrients eroding from their fields into the Great Lakes.  The study credits no-till cultivation and other approaches for cutting by half the volume of sediments entering waterways in the region.  The Department of Agriculture reports phosphorus and nitrogen runoff are also down, by one-third.  A spokesman for the National Wildlife Federation says the report indicates progress, but he insists more has to be done to combat the problem of algae growth in regional lakes.

Flags Ordered At Half-Staff Today

10/16/11 - At the direction of Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, flags at Wisconsin National Guard armories, air bases and all Department of Defense facilities are flying at half-staff Sunday beginning at sunrise and ending at sunset, in honor of the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service. Other government agencies, businesses and private residences with flagpoles are also asked to recognize the memorial service by lowering their U.S. and Wisconsin state flags to half-staff.