Top Stories, May 28th

Babysitter Bond Set At $80K

5/28/10 - The Hustisford babysitter charged with Reckless Homicide was in Dodge County court Thursday for an initial appearance. The District Attorney asked to set cash bon at $250,000 for Renee S. Kuehl while a public defender asked that it be set at $5000. Judge Andrew Bissonnette ordered the 47-year-old held on an $80,000 cash bond. Kuehl is accused of inflicting fatal trauma on a 22-month-old boy she was babysitting in November of 2007. She says the boy fell down a flight of stairs after she accidentally left a basement door open. The Medical Examiner ruled the death accidental, but the case was revisited after authorities began an investigation into child abuse allegations from this past November. In the most recent case, Kuehl says she was outside babysitting a 2-year-old girl who was twirling like a ballerina and fell on concrete. She sustained two skull fractures, one on the top of her head and the other on the back of her head, along with a golf ball sized impact wound on her forehead and bruising under her right eye. A doctor from Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee said that the contusions came from “multiple different angles” and it didn’t make sense how one fall could cause all of the injuries, unless the girl had fallen down the stairs. Kuehl was also babysitting a 5-year-old child who told authorities that he thought the girl fell in the basement and saw Kuehl carry her into the living room to lay down. She faces up to 70 years in prison, if convicted. Kuehl requested a preliminary hearing, which is scheduled for next Thursday.

Dassey Retrial Request Filed

5/28/10 - Lawyers for Steven Avery’s nephew have explained again why he deserves a new murder trial. A 44-page request was filed this week in Manitowoc County Circuit Court, telling why Brendan Dassey should get a second trial in Teresa Halbach’s death. Prosecutors are expected to reply within the next month. Judge Jerome Fox held a week-long hearing on the request in January, and he has until July 26th to either order a new trial or send the request on to the state’s Court of Appeals. Milwaukee attorney Robert Dvorak and the Northwestern University Center for Wrongful Convictions say Dassey’s lawyers were ineffective in his original trial. And they said police used coercive techniques on Dassey, who was 16 and taking special education classes when he was arrested. Dassey confessed to police that he and Avery raped, shot, and burned Halbach at their family’s auto salvage yard near Mishicot in 2005. That was two-and-a-half years after Avery was freed from prison after serving time for a rape he did not commit. Avery is also seeking a new trial, and his case is now before the Second District Appellate Court.

BDPD Investigates $75K Theft At Apache

5/28/10 - The Beaver Dam Police Department is investigating the theft of over $17,000 in hardware from Apache Stainless. Officials with the company located at 200 Industrial Drive reported the theft to police on Wednesday but say the items were stolen over the past three to five weeks. Anyone with information should contact the Beaver Dam Police Department or the anonymous We-Tip hotline at 800-78-CRIME.

DNR Investigates Hustisford Fish Kill

5/28/10 - The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is investigating a substantial fish kill on the Rock River below the Hustisford Dam. The DNR’s Jim Congdon says fishery and water resource staff responded to citizen complaints earlier this week and discovered hundreds of small buffalo, carp and channel catfish along with about 100, seven to 15 inch walleye floating dead in the river below the dam. There were also some yellow perch, black crappie, white sucker and green sunfish. Congdon says when a substantial fish kill occurs, they mobilize staff to collect water samples and examine fish for any signs that contaminants may be involved. The DNR is monitoring the river’s dissolved oxygen levels, which in extreme heat – like the 90 degree weather we saw this week -- can become too low for fish to live, especially when water temperatures are high and water flow is low. Congdon says that it appears conditions have improved since the discovery earlier this week and healthy carp, buffalo, topminnows and bullhead were observed swimming in the impacted stretch of river.

SEC Approves Quad Merger

5/28/10 - The Securities and Exchange Commission has signed off on Quad-Graphics proposed acquisition of World Color Press of Montreal, Canada. World Press will hold will hold a special meeting for shareholders on June 25 to vote on the transaction. Quad – the nation’s largest privately-held commercial printer and one of Dodge County’s biggest employers – will go public once the deal is finalized. The combined operation will have 30-thousand employees. World Color C-E-O Mark Angelson said when the merger was first announced in January that there would not be layoffs in areas that do not overlap – unless they were planning to be made anyway. Angelson said the printing industry is consolidating, and the new deal is meant to combine and highlight the best of both firms. Quad C-E-O Joel Quadracci said at the time that he sees the printing industry as a key component of a much bigger world that also includes digital displays. He says marketers want to use every possible medium to reach their audience. The purchase price is said to be around one-point-three billion dollars. The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions and approval from the Quebec Superior Court, which will hold a hearing June 28. If all goes according to plan, the merger could become officials by early July.

Alvarez Named To Hall of Fame

5/28/10 - Former Wisconsin football coach Barry Alvarez was named today to the College Football Hall-of-Fame. Alvarez and Gene Stallings were picked among seven coaching candidates. Alvarez had to keep the news under his hat. In a televised announcement, he said he was told about the honor at this month’s Big Ten Conference meetings in Chicago. Alvarez is the winningest coach in Badger history, at 118-73-and-4 in 16 seasons. His teams also won three Rose Bowls. Alvarez is now Wisconsin’s athletic director. Twelve players were also named to the college hall, including receiver and kick-returner Desmond Howard of Michigan – who went on to win a Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers after the 1996 season, and is still the only player to win the game’s M-V-P award on special teams. All of the honorees will be formally inducted December seventh in New York.

Beaver Dam Detours Adding Up

5/28/10 - Portions of Madison Street in Beaver Dam will be closed beginning next Tuesday. Ptaschinski Construction is scheduled to start saw cutting existing pavement between Water Street and Mill Street to replace storm sewer piping. The project should take about one week. A daytime detour will take motorists to South Center Street, where they will encounter another detour. Crews are currently installing a new sanitary force main on South Center as part of the city’s treatment plant upgrade being done in conjunction with Kraft Foods. That detour takes drivers to First Street via West Mill and West South Street. The South Center Street project should be complete by the second week of June. North University Avenue will be open until the middle of next week, when a three-month reconstruction project will start.

Garbage Pick-Up Delayed Next Week

5/28/10 - Garbage pick-up will be delayed next week because of the Memorial Day weekend. Waste collections by Veolia Environmental in Beaver Dam and other communities will be delayed by one day all week. Monday’s route will be collected on Tuesday and Friday’s route will be collected on Saturday. In addition, Director of Facilities David Stoiser says the Beaver Dam Department of Public Works Garage will be closed on Memorial Day Monday.

MEC Named Top 100 Workplace


5/28/10 - Mayville Engineering Company has been named one of the Top 100 Workplaces in Southeastern Wisconsin according the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. MEC was entered into the Top Midsize Workplace category and rated 19 out 35. The rating comes after close to 33,000 employees were surveyed throughout the greater Milwaukee area. Workers were invited to nominate their employers and rank them in several areas including employee benefits, workplace strengths and relationships with managers. MEC Chairman, President and CEO Bob Kamphuis called the ranking a great honor. The company has operations in Mayville, Beaver Dam, Berlin and Neillsville.

Wall Withdraws from Senate Race

5/28/10 - There are just two G-O-P challengers to U-S Senator Russ Feingold left including a Watertown businessman. That’s after Terrence Wall made his departure from the U-S Senate race official yesterday. Only Ron Johnson of Oshkosh and Dave Westlake are still in the race. Wall, a Madison real estate developer, said he was reluctantly pulling out so Republicans can focus on beating the three-term incumbent Feingold in November. Reports say Johnson is ready to spend 10-million-dollars of his own money on the race. Westlake, a Watertown businessman who portrays himself as a common man, says he’ll stay in the race.

Flag Can Stay in the Window

5/28/10 - A landlord in Oshkosh has agreed to let a soldier and his wife keep hanging the American flag from a window of their apartment – even though it violates the company’s policy. Midwest Realty Management backed off after getting three-thousand e-mails in support of Charlie and Dawn Price. The landlord told the couple they’d be evicted tomorrow – during the Memorial Day Weekend – if they didn’t remove Old Glory from their dining room window.