Top Stories January 29th

Dodge County Gets Housing Grant


1/29/11 - Dodge County will be splitting $8.8 million dollars in grant money to help low income residents with their housing needs. That was the word from Governor Scott Walker this week when he announced the county would get $548,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds from the Wisconsin Department of Commerce. The funds are to be used to rehabilitate and expand the supply of safe and sanitary housing for low to moderate incoming households. The loans are available to homeowners, tenants looking to purchase a home and landlords renting to low to moderate income tenants. There are given out on a first come, first served basis and can be used to, among other things, replace windows and doors, replace or repair furnaces and upgrade plumbing or electrical systems. The loans are issued at 0% interest and must be paid back when the home is sold or the applicant no longer lives there.

Mendez Sentenced in Fraud Scheme

1/29/11 - A former tax preparer from Sun Prairie has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in a federal prison for her role in mortgage fraud scheme. 45-year-old Gail Mendez was among five people sentenced in the scam, which netted eight-million-dollars in false home loans in 2006-and-’07 under a program at Park Bank. Officials said the bank ended up losing almost a half-million dollars, and the I-R-S was shorted by 925-thousand dollars. Authorities said the five people took advantage of a program that allowed borrowers to apply for mortgages using Taxpayer Identification Numbers instead of Social Security numbers. It required two years of tax returns to prove the applicants’ incomes. Prosecutors said Mendez prepared fraudulent tax forms for the loans – and she tried to destroy the evidence once authorities discovered the scheme. Park Bank loan officer Amy Strait received three months in prison. Real estate agent Carlos Solis got a year-and-a-half. And Mendez’s son Marty and one of her employees, David Knickmeyer, were each sentenced to a year behind bars.

Moldy Potatoes Blamed for Death of 200 Steers

1/29/11 - Tainted potatoes are what killed 200 steers earlier this month on a farm near Stevens Point. The Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Lab at U-W Madison announced the cause today. Associate director Peter Vanderloo said the animals tested positive for a toxin found in moldy sweet potatoes. And the bad potatoes were apparently mixed with potato waste before being fed to the steers. The cows died January 14th at J-and-M Farms in the Portage County town of Stockton, east of Stevens Point. Early indications were that the animals died from a bovine virus or pneumonia. But Vanderloo said there was no evidence in that regard. He says it’s common to give animals food that cannot be eaten by humans – and there continues to be no risk to human health. Farm owner Jerry Krupka recently put the loss at 300-thousand dollars, and he said insurance would not cover it.

Crackdown on Pornography on Work Computers

1/29/11 - A state lawmaker says he wants to make it easier to punish school teachers and officials who look at pornography on their work computers. Assembly Education Committee chairman Steve Kestell says a patchwork of laws over the years creates incentives to hide that kind of information from future employers. Former Beaver Dam and Randolph Administrator Christopher Nelson is charged in Milwaukee with trying to arrange sex with a 15-year-old boy on-line, while serving as Superintendent of the New Holstein School District. It was then learned that Nelson resigned from the Madison School District in 2005, after he was caught looking at adult porn on his office computer. The state investigated, but found no reason to revoke Nelson’s teaching license. Meanwhile, the Madison School District has defended its handling of Nelson. He worked for three school districts after he left that city. And Madison’s human resources director, Bob Nadler, said he can’t remember any of those schools contacting him for a reference.

Frechette Back in Court

1/29/11 - A Beaver Dam woman, accused of stealing thousands of dollars from a former employer, has waived her right to a preliminary hearing. Mary A. Frechette is charged with felony Theft for allegedly stealing $4600 from a Beaver Dam Kwik Trip. According to the criminal complaint, the 44-year-old was falsifying cigarette refunds and pocketing the money. Management discovered the shortfall with inventory software and then reviewed video surveillance before connecting it to Frechette, who could spend up to three-and-a-half years in prison if convicted. She will be back in court February 16 for an arraignment hearing.

Kind Looks to Dispel Health Care Reform “Myths”

1/29/11 - U.S. Congressman Ron Kind says people need more reliable information about the health care reform law. The Wisconsin Democrat took that message to seniors in Eau Claire, yesterday. Kind began his listening session by stressing how the reforms are helping seniors, such as the $250 rebate on prescription drugs last year and the 50-percent discount of brand name drugs beginning this year. But much of the question and answer period was spent on what Kind calls health care reform myths pushed by insurance lobbyists. Kind told the crowd that there isn’t going to be someone in Washington going through each item saying quote this is ok and this isn’t ok. He went on to say he wants to give the power to the patients by giving them the best evidence in the delivery of health care based on what works.

Oh My Gosh Oshkosh

1/29/11 - The Oshkosh Corporation reports a big drop in its quarterly profits from a year ago – but only because it’s in a gap between contracts for its military vehicles. Oshkosh reported a net profit of 99-point-six million dollars from October through December, the first quarter of its fiscal year. That’s down from almost 170-million dollars in the same period a year ago. But when one-time items are left out, the quarterly profit was 1.22-per-share – 33-cents higher than what outside analysts expected. C-E-O Charles Szews said Oshkosh was recently in a transition between its production of high-volume military all-terrain vehicles, to a gradual production launch for the Army’s family of Medium Tactical Vehicles. And he said Oshkosh expects solid profits in every quarter of this fiscal year.

Cheeseman Layoffs Began Yesterday

1/29/11 - Layoffs began yesterday, as a well-known cheese store in Sun Prairie is about to close. The Wisconsin Cheeseman is shutting its doors after 65 years in business. About 100 employees will lose their jobs, and the store’s parent company says the layoffs will be completed by the end of March. Sun Prairie Mayor Joe Chase said the business employed up to 400 people as recently as a decade ago. Chase says he’s trying to find a new business for that location.

Walker Working to Salvage Bass Pro Shops Deveolpment

1/29/11 - Governor Scott Walker still believes that Bass Pro Shops would build a store on a wetland at Green Bay, if the Legislature hustles and approves a bill to allow it. The famous chain of hunting-and-fishing shops said it only learned this week that the proposed site was a three-acre wetland. Opposing Democrats wrote the company’s founder to make sure he was aware of that – and Bass Pro Shops said it would not build on wetlands. Still, lawmakers could vote as early as Wednesday on a bill to let developer John Bergstrom build on the site without having to get a required D-N-R permit. And if lawmakers act that quickly, the Republican Walker believes that Bass Pro Shops would reconsider. Environmentalists and Democrats said the developer, businessman and Green Bay Packers’ board member John Bergstrom, was getting special treatment. But Walker says there’s a reasonable plan to off-set the loss of the wetlands due to the new shopping development. The Packers announced their support for the project earlier this week.

Governor Seeking to Give Local Government More Flexibility

1/29/11 - Governor Scott Walker promises to give local governments more flexibility in cutting their budgets. The Republican Walker told 50 mayors and local leaders yesterday (Fr) that he wants to help them find new ways to keep the growing costs of their employees’ fringe benefits under control. He said it would not be unfair to ask public workers to pay more for their health insurance and pensions. Walker has supported the idea of making state employees pay a bigger share of those benefits, to help state government eliminate a three-billion-dollar deficit in its next budget. Unions currently negotiate health and pension benefits, but Walker has said he would consider removing them as allowable items for bargaining.