Top Stories October 4th

Dodge County Business Break-ins


10/4/10 - Dodge County authorities are investigating a pair of break-ins at local businesses. The first was reported last Friday when employees with Bonlender Trucking in the town of Beaver Dam called police and said that a door had been kicked in earlier in the day. It’s unclear if anything was taken. The second break-in was reported this morning at a town of Burnett business. According to department records, they received a call around 5:30 a-m from Northeast Asphalt on Prospect Road. The caller reported that windows at the business had been smashed, a door was open, and tool boxes were also open. It was not immediately known what, if anything was taken. Anyone with information about either break-in is asked to contact the Sheriff’s Department or the anonymous We-Tip Hotline at 1-800-78-CRIME.

Watertown Men Injured in Motorcycle Accident

10/4/10 - A pair of Watertown men were injured in a two-motorcycle accident Saturday afternoon near Oshkosh. Authorities say it happened on Highway 41 northbound near Highway 26. One of the men was taken by Flight for Life to the hospital while the other was treated for non-life threatening injuries. Weather and road conditions are thought to have been a factor in the accident. Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department is still investigating the crash.

Mercer Begins Jail Term

10/4/10 - A former Fond du Lac official has started a one-year jail sentence for looking at child pornography from his City Hall computer. Former human resources director Ben Mercer was sentenced almost three years ago. But the jail term was put on hold while the 60-year-old Mercer had appealed his convictions on 14 charges of possessing child porn. He was also given eight years of probation. Mercer is not currently employed – but he’ll get work release privileges if he gets a job or an interview.

WI Supreme Court to Make Decision about On-line Court Records

10/4/10 - The Wisconsin Supreme Court will decide today whether to let judges erase on-line court records for criminal defendants whose charges are dismissed. The justices will consider a rule change sought by the State Bar association. It claims that Wisconsin’s popular on-line court records are routinely misused by employers, landlords, and license providers to discriminate against people who seek jobs and apartments. But the state’s Freedom of Information Council says the fears of misuse are exaggerated. The site notes when an individual is found not guilty or has charges dropped, and it’s illegal for employers to discriminate against those people. But critics say such discrimination is almost impossible to prove. Earlier this year, the state Legislature failed to pass a bill that would have limited people’s access to the on-line court records. It would have let the general public see only the records of those found guilty – and the other documents would have been limited to attorneys, court personnel, law enforcement, and the news media.

Minority Enrollment at UW-Madison Described as “Flat”

10/4/10 - Minority enrollment at U-W Madison is up by almost five-percent over the last decade. But a top official calls the gains “flat” and says there needs to be a larger effort to help more students-of-color graduate. About four-thousand of the 29-thousand under-grads at the Madison campus are minorities. And the number of low-income students getting federal Pell Grants is up about five-and-a-half percent. Damon Williams, the U-W’s vice provost for diversity, says the gains have been steady but small. And he’s concerned that not enough minorities are graduating. Only 58-percent of African-and-Native American students graduate in six years. And 72-percent of Hispanics graduate in that same time-frame. The overall graduate rate at Madison is 82-percent.

Number of Abortions Rises in Wisconsin

10/4/10 - For the first time in six years, the number of abortions has gone up in Wisconsin. State health services officials said there were almost 85-hundred-50 abortions last year. That’s almost four-percent more than the previous year, but it’s still way down from 2003 when just over 10-thousand-550 abortions were reported. That number had gone down steadily each year until 2009. Wisconsin had about seven abortions for every one-thousand females age 15-to-44. That’s way down from the national rate of 16-per-thousand in 2006, the last year such data was available.