Top Stories March 9th

Drunk Driving Homicide Suspect In Court

3/9/12 - A Dodge County judge found probable cause Thursday for a Beaver Dam man to proceed to trial on charges that he killed his girlfriend in a drunken driving rollover accident. 21-year-old Guadalupe Rodriguez Jr. is charged with two counts of Homicide By Intoxicated Use of a Vehicle. The accident occurred in the early morning hours of November 29, 2010, right in front of the Beaver Dam Middle School. Witnesses say Rodriguez was driving 90 miles-an-hour as he headed southbound on North Spring Street, which has a posted speed limit of 25mph. He reportedly went through the Mackie Street stop light, lost control around the curve and struck some small trees before rolling over; his Honda Civic came to rest on its roof. Neither occupant was wearing a seatbelt. When first responders found his passenger, 22-year-old Diamond Avalos, she was already dead. Rodriguez was ejected and flighted to UW Hospital in Madison. He is now a quadriplegic. Authorities say his blood alcohol level – six hours after the accident – was point-zero-six (.06) and there was allegedly marijuana in his system. If convicted, the charges carry a maximum penalty of 50 years in prison. An arraignment hearing is on the calendar next month.

Jobs Report Has Good and Bad

3/9/12 - There was good and bad news in Wisconsin’s latest jobs report. Preliminary figures released yesterday show the state gained 15-thousand-700 private sector jobs in January – the most since Governor Scott Walker took office 14 months ago. And the unemployment rate of six-point-nine percent is the lowest since the end of 2008. But revised data showed that Wisconsin lost thousands more jobs last year than previously thought – a total of 97-hundred. That means the state only gained six-thousand private sector jobs during Walker’s tenure. And when public jobs are added in, the state had a net loss of 81-hundred. In his weekly radio address, Walker said previous job losses under Jim Doyle have leveled off, and the state’s moving in the right direction. But even with the big January job gains, state Democratic Party director Mike Tate said the totals are still quote, “in the hole” under Walker.

Searchable Database for Recall Signers

3/9/12 - Thousands of people have been jamming a searchable data-base to see who signed recall petitions. Two Tea Party groups put the data-base on-line late Wednesday afternoon. Larry Gamble of the Wisconsin Grand-Sons of Liberty said it had 50-thousand hits in the first 20 minutes, and traffic hasn’t let up. With up to 10-thousand searches per minute, it can take hours to search the Web site for even one name. And organizers say they are raising funds to create more server space to shorten the search times. Gamble calls the database an “overwhelming success,” and people just need to be patient with it. The state Government Accountability Board put an estimated one-point-nine million recall signatures on its Web site – but it does not let you search for a particular name. The Tea Party groups said 14-thousand volunteers help create the searchable database. You can find it at I Verify the Recall-Dot-Com.

Suspected Mayville Stalker, Burglar Bound Over

3/9/12 - A Mayville man who was allegedly found inside the home of his ex-girlfriend was in court for a preliminary hearing Thursday. A judge found probable cause and 27-year-old Sean Neitzel was bound over for trial on charges of felony Burglary and misdemeanor Disorderly Conduct. A motion by the defense to dismiss the charges was denied and Mayville Police Chief Chris MacNeill and the victim both testified at yesterday’s hearing. According to the criminal complaint, authorities stepped up patrols in the area after the woman filed a report saying she started noticing footprints to and from her house in early December. On January 27, an officer patrolling the woman’s neighborhood found a vehicle parked on a back street with footprints leading to the residence. As the officer was speaking with the upstairs tenants he heard footsteps in the woman's home. He called for backup and authorities eventually took Neitzel into custody without incident. Neitzel is free on a $5000 signature bond. An arraignment hearing will be held next week.

Copper Wire Theft Suspect Appears

3/9/12 - A Neosho-area man made his Initial Appearance Thursday in Dodge County court on charges that he broke into the We Energies substation in the Town of Rubicon and attempted to steal copper. Christopher Wolf’s arrest on Monday came after two nights of surveillance by the Dodge County Sheriff’s Department. There had been five break-ins in two weeks time where copper wire was taken. Employees first reported seeing two men on surveillance cameras walking on the Station Road property around 8:45pm Sunday. Deputies tracked footprints with a K-9 unit but were unsuccessful. Just after midnight on Monday, an alarm was tripped, a surveillance camera was broken and two men could be seen on the property. Wolf was reportedly found hiding in a dumpster but the second suspect was never found. The 22-year-old is charged with felony Criminal Damage to property and misdemeanor Attempted Theft, which carry a combined maximum prison sentence of eight years, upon conviction. A signature bond was set at $2500 yesterday and Wolf will be back for a preliminary hearing next month.

Rindfleisch Waives Prelim

3/9/12 - A Columbus woman, who was an aide to Governor Scott Walker when he was the Milwaukee County Executive, conceded Thursday that there’s enough evidence to order a trial on four felony charges against her. Kelly Rindfleisch waived a preliminary hearing on four counts of misconduct in public office. She’s scheduled to be arraigned on March 20th. The 43-year-old Rindfleisch was Walker’s deputy chief-of-staff during the alleged misconduct. She was accused of using her county work hours to raise money for Republican Brett Davis’s unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor in 2010. Davis is now the state’s Medicaid director. Rindfleisch is one of four ex-Walker aides charged as the result of a John Doe investigation. That probe continues by the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office.

Anniversary Vigil Planned

3/9/12 - Wisconsin’s largest labor coalition is planning candle-light vigils in a dozen cities Friday night. The A-F-L C-I-O is marking the first anniversary of the state Legislature’s initial approval of the near-elimination of collective bargaining by most public unions. Vigils are planned in Madison, Milwaukee, Mequon, Racine, Janesville, La Crosse, River Falls, Eau Claire, Wausau, Wautoma, Appleton, and Oshkosh. Senate Republicans approved the bargaining limits the evening of March ninth, 2011 – while Democratic senators stayed away from the Capitol for three weeks in a failed effort to block the measure. The Republican-controlled Assembly approved the union bill the next day. And the anniversary of that will be marked on Saturday by a march in Madison and a State Capitol rally called “Reclaim Wisconsin.”

Wisconsin Unemployment Rate at 6.9%

3/9/12 - Wisconsin’s new unemployment rate is the lowest since the Great Recession started taking hold in December of 2008. Labor officials announced a preliminary rate Thursday of six-point-nine percent, down from seven-percent in December. And the number of private sector jobs had its biggest monthly increase in a year. Private employers created an estimated 15-thousand-700 new positions in January, according to preliminary surveys – the most in a year. But the figures also included revisions to monthly data from last year. And when all was said-and-done, the state created only six-thousand additional private-sector jobs since Governor Scott Walker took office in January of last year. Still, some Republicans touted the January increase. Senate Finance chair Alberta Darling used the occasion to take another dig at colleagues who voted down the mining bill on Tuesday – which caused Gogebic Taconite to scrap its proposed iron ore mine near Hurley. Darling called today’s job numbers “cold comfort” for people in northern and southeast Wisconsin. She said Democrats quote, “went out of their way to make it harder for people in those areas to find good-paying jobs in the months to come.”

Maysteel Union Planning Strike

3/9/12 - Union employees at Maysteel in Allenton are planning a strike this weekend. That’s after about 300 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers voted down the company’s third offer for a new contract. The union says it includes no pay raises – higher employee costs for health insurance – and reduced vacations and holiday time. Union leaders say the workers have made concessions while their bosses got bonuses and pay raises. The two previous offers had included pay cuts for the rank-and-file. Maysteel officials say they want to prevent a strike. But they’re ready to bring in replacements or move work to its other plants. Maysteel closed its plant in Columbus in 2009.

Romney Coming To The Badger State

3/9/12 - Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney will make a campaign top in Wisconsin later this month. The former Massachusetts governor will be at a fundraiser in Milwaukee March 31st. That’s just three days prior to Wisconsin’s April 3rd primary election. Romney is coming off a good performance on Super Tuesday, where he won the most delegates from seven states. One of his campaign managers say Romney’s lead is too large for his three rivals to overcome now.

BDACT Opening Night: Arsenic & Old Lace

3/9/12 - The Beaver Dam Area Community Theater will present the farcical, black comedy “Arsenic and Old Lace” hits the stage for the first of seven performances Friday night. The play is set in Brooklyn, New York and revolves around Mortimer Brewster (Chris Hughes) a drama critic who is dealing with a homicidal family while questioning his engagement to Elaine Harper (Amy Patterson). His two spinster aunts (played by Julie Muhle and Marie Vossekuil) have taken to poisoning lonely, older gentlemen with homemade elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine, and a pinch of cyanide. Mortimer’s malicious brother, Jonathan Brewster (John Hutchinson) received plastic surgery from his alcoholic partner-in-crime, Dr. Einstein (Jason Bennett) to conceal his identity but winds up looking like horror-film actor Boris Karloff. And then there’s the other brother, Teddy Brewster (Ron Wilkie) who believes he is Teddy Roosevelt, digging locks for the Panama Canal in the family’s cellar-turned-cemetery. “Arsenic and Old Lace” will be on the stage of the Beaver Dam Area Community Theater, 219 North Spring Street, on March 9, 10, 15, 16 and 17 at 7pm and March 11 and 18 at 2pm. Ticket prices are $14 and Visa and MasterCard are accepted at Rechek’s Food Pride 609 North Spring Street in Beaver Dam, (920) 887-7675. Tickets may also be available for purchase at the BDACT Box Office before the show; seating is limited. The Beaver Dam Area Community Theater can be found online at www.bdact.org.