Top Stories January 14th

Group Says They Have Enough Signatures to Recall Fitzgerald

1/14/12 - The committee to recall Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald announced Friday it has the signatures to force an election. Lori Compas, the recall committee's chairwoman, said in a news conference the group had gathered more than the 16,742 signatures needed, but declined to say how many. She said volunteers would continue to gather signatures to recall the Juneau Republican through Saturday. That's to provide a cushion because Fitzgerald will be able to knock some signatures off the petitions if he can show they belong to people who don't live in the district or aren't eligible to vote. The petitions will be turned in Tuesday, along with those to recall Gov. Scott Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and three other Republican senators. Fitzgerald filed a complaint with election officials Thursday arguing the collection of signatures must end Friday, rather than Saturday, because recall organizers have just 60 days to gather signatures.
Election officials -- backed by the state Department of Justice -- believe signatures can be collected through Saturday because the 60-day clock did not start to tick until Nov. 16, a day after Compas registered her committee with the state and began collecting signatures. Recall officials said they were not worried about Fitzgerald's complaint. "That's a kid not winning Monopoly throwing the board up at the end of the game," said recall volunteer Sarah Hammer, a Fort Atkinson nurse.

Officials Hope to Have All Recalls on Same Day

1/14/12 - State officials say they’ll try to have all recall elections on the same date this summer. The Government Accountability Board plans to make that request when it asks a judge for more time to review petitions against the governor, lieutenant governor, and four G-O-P senators. State law gives the Board 31 days to decide whether there are enough valid signatures to hold recall elections. But because the massive volumes of the current petitions, the Board says it will take longer than 60 days to review up to one-and-a-half million signatures. A judge ordered the Accountability Board last week to find and delete signatures which are obviously false and duplicated. Yesterday, board officials said they would spend around 100-thousand dollars on computer software that will scan the signatures and put them into a database where they can be more easily evaluated. Because of that task, officials say it could be June or later before general recall elections could take place.

Language Set for Fall River School District Referendum

1/14/12 - Language for two referendum questions in the Fall River School District was finalized this week by the school board. One of the questions will ask for funds to replace the HVAC-system, overall maintenance, technology and land acquisition for a total of nearly $2.5-million. A second question asks for $1.4-million to build a multi-purpose athletic complex. The questions will appear on the ballot for the April 3rd general election. Two informational meetings on the referendum questions will take place prior to election day, with the first being on Wednesday January 25th in the school library at 7pm and then again on Thursday February 16th at 10am in the district board room.

Hazmat Team May Be Forced to Respond to Calls Outside of Dodge County

1/14/12 - The Dodge County Hazmat Team may start responding to chemical spills outside of the county. Dodge County Emergency Management Director Joe Meagher says the state is hoping to restructure Hazmat teams statewide and is offering the county an additional $5000 a year to expand their response area to within one area of the county line. Meagher says Wisconsin Emergency Management proposed the restructuring to the state without talking to any of the affected agencies. He says there are a lot of unknowns at this point, including exactly who would pay for out-of-county clean-up costs. Level A Hazmat teams in large city’s like Milwaukee and Madison typically respond to the largest spills while Level B teams like the one in Dodge County handle most everything else. The Level B Hazmat team contains a spill but does not perform the cleanup work; that is contracted out with a company like Veolia Environmental, at a cost of thousands of dollars. Meagher says local emergency management officials are hoping to get a seat on the state planning committee. He also plans on updating the Beaver Dam Police and Fire Commission of any development over the next few months as their 24-hour department stores Hazmat equipment and is the lead agency on the team.

Longtime Leader of Schneider National Trucking Passes Away

1/14/12 - Donald Schneider, who headed one of the nation’s best-known trucking companies for over a quarter century, died this morning in De Pere. The 76-year-old Schneider had Alzheimer’s disease for quite some time. He started as a mechanic’s assistant in the Schneider National trucking firm that his father Al founded. Fifteen years later, in 1976, Schneider became the president of the company – a post he held for over 25 years. He retired from his daily duties in 2002, but he remained the chairman emeritus of Schneider National. Bill Graves, C-E-O of the American Trucking Association, said the transportation and logistics industry lost one of its most passionate and influential voices. Graves called Schneider a “visionary” who set the standard for the modern-day development of the industry.

State Says Coding Error Allowed for Unemployment Overpayments

1/14/12 - The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development is blaming a computer coding error for overpayments to recipients of unemployment benefits. The claimants reportedly got an average of 280 dollars more than they were supposed to receive. The error was caught after about a week. Most of the people owing the state a refund will be given the option of returning the money in installments. All 626 should receive a notice in the mail soon.

Southridge Mall Will Allow Buses

1/14/12 - The corporate owner of Southridge Mall has done of reversal on plans to stop buses from dropping off and picking up passengers at mall entrances. A spokesman says no disruption of bus service at the mall is expected. That word comes just one day after Milwaukee County officials released a memo indicating the mall would require transit buses to operate off its property only starting next month. Seniors and people with disabilities were worried they would have to walk several blocks from bus stops, creating safety hazards. Though the spokesman denied the owner had threatened to ban buses, county officials confirmed that was exactly the company's stance. The buses reportedly made too much noise.

Slinger Teacher in Hot Water After Hitler Reference

1/14/12 - School officials in Slinger are considering punitive action against a veteran teacher who wrote an offensive e-mail to State Representative Don Pridemore. John Koszarek is a social studies teacher at Slinger High School who has taught in the district for 34 years. He sent an answer to Pridemore’s e-mailed newsletter about the effects of state legislation on area school districts. Pridemore said those districts had benefited from the budgetary tools passed last year by the Republican-controlled Legislature. Koszarek replied, saying, quoting here, “Of course you are in Washington County where Hitler would have defeated Reagan had he the ‘R’ in front of his name on the ballot.” The teacher says he never meant to say the people of Washington County are Nazis. He says he shouldn’t have used the Hitler reference, but he was right in saying local voters automatically cast their ballots for Republican candidates.

Packer Fans Warned of Highway 41 Construction

1/14/12 - Packer fans wanting to make sure they don’t missing the opening kickoff of this weekend’s NFC playoff game at Lambeau Field need to allow extra time. Road construction projects are still in place along the route. Drivers are being warned those worksites could cause delays. Two stretches of U.S. 41 are under construction. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Earlier this season, when security was ramped up, some fans complained when they were delayed so much they missing seeing the opening kickoff.