Top Stories April 1st

BB Gun Shooting Under Investigation

4/1/12 - Authorities are investigating an incident in which several young children were shot with a BB gun. According to Dodge County Sheriff’s Department records, administrators at Beaver Dam’s Prairie View Elementary called them around 12:45 Friday afternoon. They said three students were shot with a BB-gun, and indicated that the person who shot them was the cousin of one of their step-dads. Detectives are now investigating the incident, and social services has also been contacted.

Columbus Adds Auxiliary Officers

4/1/12 - Columbus Police are adding extra personnel to their ranks for special events such as the 4th of July Festivities, and the Horse and Carriage/Civil War History Celebration. The volunteer “auxiliary” officers will be trained for duties such as crowd and traffic control. Chief Dan Meister told the city council that applicants for the auxiliary positions have already been interviewed. The council approved the plan for auxiliary officers last year and recruiting has resulted in the first group of candidates. The timing couldn’t be better. With several Civil War history events being added as part of the Horse and Carriage Festival on Father’s Day weekend, organizers say they could see thousands of additional visitors in the city.

Bio-Fuel Innovation at Moraine Park

4/1/12 - Some day in the near future, the same oil that’s used to cook up French fries at a Fond du Lac technical school will go into the fuel used to cut lawns at the school. Jim Daniels is an instructor with the school’s automotive program. He says they are beginning a bio-diesel fuel project hoping to develop a drop-in replacement for diesel-fueled engines. They would take the used cooking oil used by the schools food service and culinary arts program for the project. He says it will be a nice option for the school, but not enough to replace all of the diesel fuel that is used at Moraine Park Technical College.

Autism Cases on the Rise in the US

4/1/12 - The federal government says autism cases are on the rise, due mainly to better diagnosis and wider screenings. And Wisconsin’s rate is better than the overall average in a survey of 14 states by the U-S Centers for Disease Control. National data released today showed one of every 88 children has been identified as having an autistic disorder which limits their ability to interact and communicate. That’s 23-percent more common than in the last national report four years ago. But in 10 counties in southeast Wisconsin, 1 of every 128 kids was found to be autistic. That puts the Badger State in about the middle of the pack among the 14 states surveyed. The largest increases were among Hispanic and black youngsters. And cases are five times higher in boys than in girls. The new data was gathered in 2008. It focused on eight-year-olds, where age in which autism is said to peak. The C-D-C says the causes of autism remain unknown. Genetics are said to be one possible factor. Others believe that childhood vaccines can cause autism – although many studies have not confirmed that.

Future of Nuclear Power to be Discussed in Madison

4/1/12 - Nuclear experts, scientists and others will meet at the University of Wisconsin-Madison next month to talk about the future of nuclear power.  That’s an uncertain situation following the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant disaster last year.  The forum will start at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, 330 North Orchard Street, April 12 at 7 p.m. Panelists will include experts in Japanese culture and environmental history, corporate responsibility and the media.

Alleged “Spammer” Looking for Plea Deal

4/1/12 - A man from Russia who’s charged in Milwaukee with running a major worldwide computer spamming network wants to make a plea deal. His attorney said Oleg Nikolaenko still denies running the spam network – but he could not elaborate because of the plea negotiations which are taking place. Authorities said Nikolaenko’s network placed malicious codes on a half-million U-S computers, and then sent out billions of e-mails selling things like counterfeit Rolex watches and fake Viagra. On some days, officials said the network accounted for one-third of the world’s unwanted e-mails. Defense lawyer Arkady Bukh said the government wants to send Nikolaenko to prison for about 10 years, while the defense wants to limit the sentence to the year-and-a-half he’s been in jail. Bukh says the final agreement will probably be somewhere in between. A Milwaukee F-B-I agent cracked the case, after a Kansas City man complained of having to spend two-million dollars to advertise fake watches on the network. Nikolaenko was arrested in the fall of 2010 in Las Vegas, where he was attending a car show.

Factory Business Continues to Grow in WI

4/1/12 - Factory business kept growing this month in southeast Wisconsin, but at a slower pace than in February. The Center for Supply Chain Management at Marquette University said its manufacturing index for March was 51-point-seven-eight. That’s down seven-percent from February. But it was still a positive number, since anything above 50 indicates growth. The report also showed that new manufacturing orders dropped by an average of 16-percent in the Milwaukee area from February. But company executives who were surveyed remained positive – and some said they were running at their full capacity. The report was prepared for the Institute for Supply Management, a group of Milwaukee area purchasing directors.

Former Cain’s Aide Being Investigated

4/1/12 - The Wisconsinite who ran Herman Cain’s failed presidential campaign last year is now said to be under a federal investigation. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the F-B-I recently talked to donors and others connected with two groups run by Cain’s former manager Mark Block. The groups are the Wisconsin Prosperity Network and Prosperity U-S-A – both of which are apparently being probed for violating limits on campaign donations. Journal Sentinel columnist Dan Bice reported last year that Prosperity U-S-A helped get Cain’s Republican White House campaign off the ground with chartered flights and numerous equipment. And Cain’s people reportedly never paid a 40-thousand-dollar debt to the Prosperity group. Also, the Journal Sentinel says the group borrowed up to 150-thousand dollars from two people – and then gave most of the money to a conservative civil rights group, right before it brought in Cain to speak at Martin Luther King Day dinner last year. The paper said neither of Block’s groups obtained tax-exempt status, even though donors were told they could write off their gifts. Block has not commented on the apparent federal probe. Assistant U-S Attorney Richard Frohling would not acknowledge that the investigation exists.

Lottery Winners in Wisconsin

4/1/12 - There were three jackpot winners in Friday night’s history Mega Millions drawing but none came from Wisconsin. The tickets were apparently sold in Illinois, Maryland and Kansas. But several players in Wisconsin will take home some nice winnings. Tickets sold in Eau Claire, Richfield and Walworth won $250,000. There were 13 others in the state that won $10,000. The $640M prize was the largest in lottery history. Wisconsin sold $9.3-million worth of Mega Millions tickets for the drawing, including 6.2-million sold on Friday alone. Nationwide, players spent nearly $1.5-billion to hit the main jackpot.