Top Stories August 28th

Woman Killed in Two-Vehicle Accident


8/28/10 - Authorities say 61-year-old Sheila Fuller of Horicon was killed yesterday morning in a two-vehicle accident on Highway 33. It happened just before 10 a-m near Grove Road the town of Oak Grove. The truck was stopped westbound on Highway 33 waiting to make a left turn when Fuller’s VW Bug struck it from behind. Fuller was extricated from the vehicle and taken to Beaver Dam Community Hospital where she was pronounced dead. The driver of the truck, 50-year-old Russell Keel, was uninjured. The investigation into the accident continues.

The Bridge is In

8/28/10 - The pedestrian bridge for the Tower Parking lot is now installed. Delayed by a couple days workers put the bridge in place yesterday morning. It will be another month before the bridge will be available for use as the city works on lot improvements, which will include redesigned parking spaces, a pedestrian path and landscaping. The bridge is part of the city’s phase two downtown revitalization plan that began last year with the removal of ten buildings from the floodway over the Beaver Dam River.

Waterloo Among Those Looking to become a stop for New Train

8/28/10 - Four Wisconsin cities, including Waterloo, say they’re interested in replacing Oconomowoc as a stop for the high-speed passenger train that’s planned from Milwaukee-to-Madison. The D-O-T’s Cari Anne Renlund says along with Waterloo three others, Sun Prairie, Hartland and Wauwatosa have all asked her agency about the possibility of hosting the rail station that was pulled from Oconomowoc last week. Renlund says her agency will listen – but it might be too late to make a change, since the D-O-T has a self-imposed deadline in September to get the stops all set. And because some of the daily runs would be non-stop, Renlund says the project does not need to add stations. The federal government has approved 810-million-dollars in stimulus money to build the train, which is scheduled to start operating in 2013. But both major Republican candidates for governor vow to scrap the project if they’re elected this fall. Scott Walker and Mark Neumann say the state can’t afford the cost of operating the train once it gets going, but Democrat Tom Barrett says it would be a boom to the state’s economy. D-O-T Secretary Frank Busalacchi said Oconomowoc lost its station because the city was no longer interested. But city officials said they were penalized for asking questions about local costs.

Roundup Nets 370 Illegal Aliens

8/28/10 - A roundup of criminal illegal aliens across the Midwest results in two dozen behind bars in Wisconsin. The state Department of Justice says 24 people were arrested in northeastern Wisconsin. Operation Cross Check Midwest was carried out by state law enforcement and federal immigration agents, with 370 people picked up. U.S. immigration officials say those targeted had been convicted of crimes ranging from theft to sexual assault and were from countries all around the world. Many could be deported, while some will face federal prosecution for illegally reentering the country.

WI Turned Down for Waiver on Voting law

8/28/10 - Wisconsin was turned down Friday in an effort to be exempt from a federal voting law. The law is designed to protect the voting rights of troops and other Americans overseas, by requiring states to send ballots to those people at least 45 days before an election. But that put Wisconsin in a pickle, because the deadline to send ballots for the November election is September 18th. And the state will not be finished certifying the results of the September 14th primaries by then. So Wisconsin joined nine other states and Washington D-C in getting waivers from the new federal law. Reid Magney of the state’s Government Accountability Board said its waiver request was rejected this morning by the U-S Defense Department.

BD to Partner with UW-Oshkosh

8/28/10 - The Beaver Dam School District is one of 20 districts in the state that will share $1.9 million to help teachers deepen their content knowledge in math and science, and strengthen their classroom instruction of those subjects. Beaver Dam will partner with the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in a mathematics partnership that Superintendent Steve Vessey says will allow them to provide staff development and also have the university show them through certain data points how they can improve. The grant is for nearly $272,000 over two years. Several other area schools, including Cambria-Friesland, Fall River, and Lomira are also part of partnerships with other universities as well.

Walker: “I misspoke”

8/28/10 - Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker has modified what he said about cutting back on Badger-Care-Plus if he’s elected. During a debate Wednesday night, Walker and his primary opponent Mark Neumann both said they would make reductions in the state’s health care program for the poor. Walker said he would put time limits on the program, and said Badger-Care was only meant to be a temporary step as people moved into permanent employment. But on Thursday, Walker said those comments referred only to the Badger-Care recipients in the state’s W-2 welfare-to-work program. Governor Jim Doyle increased the amount of time people can spend in that program, and Walker said he was concerned those people would also be on Badger-Care longer. He said he mis-spoke during the debate.

Funds to Help Reduce Effects of Future Flooding

8/28/10 - Wisconsin is getting a 15-million-dollar federal grant to help reduce the effects of future floods and other natural disasters. The Badger State is among 13 sharing a total of 312-million dollars from the Department of Housing-and-Urban Development for disaster mitigation programs. HUD’s Brian Sullivan says they include things ranging from home buy-outs and relocations, to retro-fitting homes so they’ll hold up better during severe weather. He said Wisconsin qualified for the new funding because of the way it spent over 100-million-dollars in HUD money in 2008 – when 30 Wisconsin counties became disaster areas due to heavy floods. The state spent part of that money on mitigation efforts – and Sullivan says the new funding will build on those efforts. The National Institute of Building Sciences says that for every dollar spent on disaster mitigation, four-dollars are saved in future disaster recovery costs.

State Warning Poultry Farmers

8/28/10 - Wisconsin poultry farmers are warned about the discovery of a virulent form of Newcastle disease on two islands of the Door County peninsula. The disease was discovered during routine testing of dead double-crested cormorants on Pilot and Spider islands. The virus only affects birds and is no threat to the human population. Wisconsin state veterinary officials say this form of Newcastle disease can be transmitted to domesticated poultry, though it has happened only once in the past. If it did occur, other nations could ban U.S. poultry and poultry products.