Top Stories, August 21st

Storms Knock Out Power, Down Trees

8/21/10 - Strong storms swept through several parts of Wisconsin last night. More than 20 thousand customers lost power for a time in southern and central Wisconsin, according to a spokesman for We Energies. Over two thousand Alliant Energy customers were without power in Dodge County as a result of last night’s storm. Spokesman Scott Reigstad says another 150 of their customers lost electricity in Columbia County. The bulk of the affected customers were in the Mayville area, but there were also outages reported in Beaver Dam, Horicon, Brownsville and Iron Ridge. Over a quarter of the homes had power restored within a few hours and most of the remaining customers were back online by midnight. Hail the size of golf balls was reported in Brown County. Mayor Gary Henke in New London declared a state of emergency and ordered people to stay off the flooded streets and sidewalks. Henke said downed power lines were creating life-threatening situations all over that town. In Outagamie County, flooding closed roads into the Village of Black Creek. The Washington County Sheriff's office said its radio transmissions were interrupted by the bad weather for about 90 minutes Friday afternoon. Wind gusts topping 70 miles per hour were reported in West Bend and New London.

Showers Fail To Dampen Fair Spirits

8/21/10 - And the band played on. Severe weather that swept through the area last night forced the cancellation of some activities at the Dodge County Fair, but “Tesla” took to the grandstand stage with only a 45 minute delay. The Fair Association’s Sharon Keil says the rock band wound up playing a full show to a large crowd in spite of the late start. Other events did not fair so well. The carnival midway never reopened after the pouring rains and high winds. Friday night’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Contest was also cancelled as was Saturday morning’s Horse Pull. Saturday afternoon’s Tractor Pull and Sunday’s Demolition Derby will take place as scheduled. Some souvenir vendors wound up closing shop early but most of the food and beer vendors stayed open. Part of the American Legion tent blew down but was back up a short time later. Power was knocked out briefly to the two big exhibitor tents but was restored within a few hours. There were no injuries on the fairgrounds. Keil says the weather “absolutely” put a dent in ticket sales last night, but the afternoon was packed and she says overall sales should be ok. It got pretty muddy out there and Keil says while the track got pretty beat-up the grounds shouldn’t be in too bad of shape for the weekend.

Saturday at the Fairgrounds

8/21/10 - There is a full schedule of activities today at the Dodge County Fair. Judging continues all day in the Youth Building and Farm Progress Arena. There is a small animal auction in the Farm Progress Arena from 4pm to 6pm. Three is free bingo in the Talent Tent all afternoon. There are pig races near the Youth Building at 2pm. The 4-H & FFA Dress an Animal Contest gets underway at 3pm in Radio Park. Geoff Landon is on the Radio Park stage at 5pm and 9:30pm. Eric Church is on the Grandstand Stage at 8pm.

Rollover Closes Northbound Lanes of 151

8/21/10 - The northbound lanes of Highway 151 through Beaver Dam were closed for over an hour Friday evening after a one-vehicle rollover accident. It happened on the Highway 33 overpass at 6:20pm. Traffic lanes were re-opened around 90 minutes later. The 39-year-old man Brodhead man driving the vehicle sustained minor injuries and was cited for drug possession.

Brummond Sentenced In Child Sexual Assault

8/21/10 - An elderly Mayville man will spend 12 years in prison for sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl. In June, Kenneth W. Brummond pleaded “no contest” to a felony count of First Degree Child Sexual Assault for the incident last August. He was sentenced Friday morning. According to the criminal complaint, the 82-year-old admitted the offense and told authorities he wasn’t sure why he did it. Brummond was also sentenced to four years of extended supervision, must complete sex offender treatment, sign-up for the sex offender registry, provide a DNA sample and pay for the victims counseling.

Thrill Ride Operators Accused of Late Night Repairs

8/21/10 - Police caught workers making middle-of-the-night repairs to a Wisconsin Dells thrill ride, just hours before a state inspection was to take place. It happened at Extreme World, where a 12-year-old girl was critically injured the week before on the Terminal Velocity ride that was being fixed. The Wisconsin State Journal uncovered the police report. And state Commerce spokesman Tony Hozeny said the repairs did not violate any state rules because the agency has still not allowed the ride to operate. Teagan Marti of Florida is expected to be partially paralyzed after she fell 100-feet to the ground from the Terminal Velocity free fall ride. That was on July 30th. On August fifth, a park employee told police the control arms which guided a net that was supposed to catch Teagan had not been replaced in eight years. And he said they were rusted “beyond the ability to turn them.” The employee also told police that a state inspector was coming the next morning, and they needed to replace the arms before the inspection. Hozeny said he could not confirm that state inspectors were at the park August sixth. Extreme World owner Bill Anderson did not comment on the repairs. A man who operated the ride during the accident, 33-year-old Charles Carnell of Lake Delton, is charged with felony reckless injury.

Federal Aid Targets Lay-Offs in School Districts

8/21/10 - Wisconsin school districts are being told how much they’ll receive from the new federal aid package that’s designed to prevent public employee layoffs. The bill included 179-million dollars to Wisconsin schools to prevent teacher layoffs. The state Department of Public Instruction says its allocations are based on the general school aid formula. Beaver Dam is getting nearly $740,000, Watertown is slated for about 895,000, and Waupun will get almost $440,000. The state Administration Department says the allocations won’t change, and schools can start spending the money now to cover salary-and-fringe benefit costs from August 10th on. But many schools are not making promises to return laid-off teachers just yet. And Beaver Dam Business Services Director Andrew Sarnow says he’s not sure what impact the money will have because its unclear whether it’s part of the general aid the state gives each year or something separate.

UW Regents Seek $83 Million To Boost Enrollment

8/21/10 - The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents has approved a plan that would increase the UW's budget by more than 83 million dollars - to grow enrollment and restore employee raises that were cancelled a couple years ago. The University System says the increase would help it add almost 6,000 new students as well as new teaching and research jobs. About 66 million of the money would come from state tax dollars. But at least one University leader is worried that what the UW is promising in terms of enrollment growth may not be possible for this amount of money. UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin says that's because the System's plan assumes it can educate each new student for three-quarters as much as it costs right now. Martin says that's not realistic. The U-W will also ask later this year for another budget increase of tens of millions of dollars to cover higher utility costs, fringe benefits and debt service. The proposals come as the state budget is already $2.5-billion dollars in the hole.

Feingold Pleased With Troop Drawdown

8/21/10 - U.S. Senator Russ Feingold says he’s pleased with the drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq. The Wisconsin Democrat voted against the invasion and called for a timetable for withdrawing those troops five years ago. Feingold says it was a mistake to be there in the first place and it’s a mistake to remain in Afghanistan. Feingold says the longest war in the nation’s history is costing us 100 billion dollars a year. He says the real threat remains terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda, which only has a modest presence in Afghanistan. He says countries such as Pakistan and Yemen are where we need to be focusing efforts.

Walker Admits Mistake With Video

8/21/10 - Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker says his campaign aides made a mistake when they forwarded a music video that some people find offensive to African-Americans. Henry Sanders, an African-American Democrat running for lieutenant governor, is the latest to criticize Walker's staff for re-tweeting the video of black people dancing to a song about trains. Sanders says it was at best, insensitive, to pass along a blogger's joke that the video was President Obama’s reply to Walker's criticism of high speed rail. Following a campaign stop in Brookfield, Walker was asked about the staffers' forwarding of the video. He contends the controversy won't hurt his standing among African-American voters. Sanders and some other Democrats have asked Walker to apologize for his aides’ usage of the Internet to share the music video. The Democrats say the buck should stop with the candidate, namely Scott Walker.