Top Stories November 19th

Authorities Looking for Prisoner

11/19/11 - The Dodge County Sheriff's Department is asking the public to be on the lookout for a prisoner that escaped from the Fox Lake Correctional Institution. 28-year-old Christopher Lacourciere was working on the prison farm east of Waupun and was last seen around 6:30pm. Lacourciere, who is currently serving a prison term for 3rd degree sexual assault, is described as being a white male, 6ft tall, 170lbs, brown eyes and brown hair. He's from the Cambridge area. Anyone with information on his whereabouts should contact the Sheriff's Department at (920) 386-3726

Highway 33 Accident Injure Six

11/19/11 - A pair of accidents on Highway 33 last night sent six people to the hospital. Sheriff Todd Nehls says the first accident happened near the intersection of North Grove Road. A van was eastbound on Highway 33 around 5:30pm when it came up took quickly on a farm tractor pulling a gravity box and was unable to stop in time. The van struck the back of the tractor, flipping the gravity box over, and sending corn everywhere. The two occupants of the van were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, and the driver of the tractor was not injured. The road was closed for several hours. Nehls says less than two hours later a second accident on Highway 33 occurred, this time about a mile outside of Fox Lake. An older man was pulling out of a business and failed to see an eastbound vehicle. That vehicle struck the side of his vehicle, sending both into the ditch. Nehls says the four people involved in that accident were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

Students Expelled at Dodgeland

11/19/11 - Seven students at the Dodgeland Middle/High School have been expelled since the beginning of this school year. The expulsions were the result of different incidents but all of them involved drugs. Through a request by the Juneau Police Department, the new K-9 units of the Dodge County Sheriff’s Department were brought in to search the school grounds, and Sheriff’s Patrol Captain Molly Soblewski says all seven expulsions were the direct result of that search. The Juneau Police Department says they are still investigating but all seven will be able to apply for reinstatement for the 2012-2013 school year.

Gun Deer Season Opens Today

11/19/11 - Rifles are cleaned and oiled, everyone is wearing blaze orange and Wisconsin’s woods are filled with deer hunters. The nine-day gun deer season kicked off at dawn today. Some experts say scaling back the unpopular earn-a-buck program has excitement at a higher level today. It will be totally gone next year. That program required hunters to kill a doe before he or she could go after a trophy buck. Hunters said the Department of Natural Resources was inflating its estimation of the state deer population and earn-a-buck forced them to bypass too many trophy bucks. Many said the billion dollar a year sport was in jeopardy. This year it doesn’t feel that way. More than 600 thousand licenses were sold to hunters for this season.

Godbolt II Pleads Not Guilty

11/19/11 - A Milwaukee man waived his right to a preliminary hearing this week to charges that he injured his girlfriend in a drunken driving accident. Tony Godbolt II then entered a “not guilty” plea. He spent the evening of April first at a friend’s 21st birthday party in Oshkosh but woke-up the following morning to news that his step-father had died. Godbolt, who was one month away from his own 21st birthday, rolled his vehicle four or five times on Highway 41 heading to Milwaukee. He was not injured but his girlfriend was ejected. Authorities say Godbolt’s blood alcohol level was over the legal limit for driving at point-zero-nine-five (.095). Witnesses on the road that morning say they were driving 70mph and Godbolt’s vehicle flew past them. Godbolt is charged with three felony counts of Injury By Intoxicated Use of a Vehicle and a misdemeanor count of Operating Without A Valid License. If he is convicted, the charges carry a combined maximum term of over 38 years in prison. Godbolt has court activity on the calendar again next month.

Recall Elections Will Be Costly

11/19/11 - There are so many recall petitions being passed and planned, state elections officials are saying they may need as much as 650 thousand dollars in additional funding. According to the Government Accountability Board, office space will have to be rented and an additional 50 temporary employees hired. Those workers would be needed to review petitions which could contain a million and a half signatures. The state board’s estimate doesn’t include the cost of local officials. This year, the recall elections for nine state senators cost taxpayers a total of two million dollars.

WI Congressional Delegation Could Play Role in Election Maps

11/19/11 - Members of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation are asking a federal court to let them intervene in a legal fight over election maps. That shows how important the boundaries are to all political figures. Republicans in the Legislature approved the newest set of maps for congressional and legislative districts, accounting for shifts in population since the last U.S. Census. A group of Democrats is arguing in federal court that the maps are unconstitutional. Last week, five Republican members of the congressional delegations filed the paperwork to intervene. Last Thursday, the three Democratic House members from the Badger State filed their own paperwork to intervene. Attacks center on the alleged moving of too many voters from one district to another.

Balloon Popper Pleads Guilty to Disorderly Conduct

11/19/11 - A state employee who popped a protestor’s balloon at the State Capitol and shoved her into a restroom door has pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. Officials said 56-year-old Ronald Blair was placed into a special program for first offenders. He was also reassigned to another state job outside the Capitol – but administration spokesman Tim Lundquist would not say what the job is, or how long he’s been in it. Prosecutors said Leslie Peterson was taking part in a daily sing-along by the Solidarity Singers when Blair used a knife to stab a balloon she was removing from a bag. She followed Blair, and officials said he shoved her into a restroom door and cut his hand during the incident. A criminal complaint said Blair, an assistant director of state facilities, was tired of retrieving balloons from the ceiling. Those balloons had become a symbol of the protests over the law that virtually ended collective bargaining by most public unions. Meanwhile, Peterson has also filed a civil suit against Blair, accusing her violating her constitutional rights. That’s still pending.

Manitowoc Company Adding Jobs

11/19/11 - The city of Manitowoc – where 350 workers are either on strike or layoffs at a crane factory – got much better news today from another of its employers. The Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry said it would add 43 jobs in a seven-and-a-half million dollar expansion project. Two production lines will be added – the first in the early part of next year, and the other in the latter part of the year. Governor Scott Walker said the firm would be eligible for up to 210-thousand-dollars in state tax credits. The Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry is located in the former Mirro Cookware factory in Manitowoc. The news comes after 200 union workers at Manitowoc Cranes walked off their jobs Monday afternoon – and as a result, the firm was laying off 156 employees in the boiler-makers’ union after today.

Family’s Not Happy with Sentence for Ray

11/19/11 - Victims’ families aren’t satisfied with the two-year sentence the Arizona court gave self-help author James Arthur Ray for his role in the deaths of three people. One of the three – James Shore – was from Milwaukee. The Judge rejected the defense suggestion that he serve probation. Arizona authorities immediately took Ray into custody and he will serve time in the state Department of Corrections. Ray was found guilty on three charges of negligent homicide earlier this year. The families said Ray should have received the maximum possible sentence of nine years in prison.

Gonzalez Gets 20 Years in Killing

11/19/11 - Gun rights advocate Jesus Gonzalez has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for killing one man and paralyzing another. The attorney for Gonzalez argued the defendant shot Danny Johns and Jered Corn in self defense in May 2010. Prosecutors had sought convictions for first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide. The jury went for the lesser charges of first-degree reckless homicide and first-degree reckless injury. Gonazlez will have to serve five years of extended supervision after he gets out of prison. He was sentenced yesterday in Milwaukee.