Top Stories January 20th

Mayville Products Corp. Closing

1/20/12 - The Mayville Products Corporation in Dodge County will close by March 30th, leaving 130 people out of work. The firm announced the closing yesterday to state and local officials. Human resources administrator Lisa Zangl cited “business conditions” as the reason for the move – but she did not elaborate. Mayville Products is a designer and maker of cabinets, frames, mounting products, and racks under several brand names.

Below Zero Temps Precede More Snow

1/20/12 - It’s well below zero in most of Wisconsin this morning – but unlike yesterday, folks are not battling dangerous wind chills. It was 25-below in Tomahawk at 7am, but the air was calm there. As of 7am, it was -3 in Beaver Dam, while Watertown, Waupun and Cambria were all at 1-below. Mineral Point was the state’s warm spot at plus-three. Meanwhile, we are under a winter weather advisory beginning at 9am through 7pm tonight. We are expecting the snow to start falling later this morning with a total of between 3 and six inches by the time the storm moves out. The upper-30’s will return to southeast Wisconsin on Sunday – and there’s a chance for freezing rain in the south on Sunday and Monday.

Juneau Appoints New Utility Commissioners

1/20/12 - City officials in Juneau met in special session last night to approve appointments to the entire Utility Commission Board. Last week, the Common Council approved a restructuring of the Utility Commission meant to save money and increase efficiency. The change came after other elected and appointed city officials took a reduction in annual salary and per-meeting stipends; the commission that oversees the city-owned utility balked and the mayor refused to reappoint Commission President Dan Wegner. In the time that followed, the remaining four members of the commission resigned, three of them immediately after last weeks meeting, leaving Mayor Ron Bosak with an entirely new commission to appoint. The restructuring ordinance replaced two of the five commissioners with alderpersons. Bosak appointed Roxanne Buss and Mark Lentz to fill the council vacancies. One of the reasons opponents of the restructuring cited for keeping the status quo was the depth of knowledge that previous commissioners developed over years of service, many with a background in electricity. Bosak says that skill set, while appreciated, is not necessary. Just the same he says one of his appointments, Merlin Luedtke, worked 20 years as Electric Superintendent for the city of Juneau. The other two citizen representatives on the Utility Commission are Dave Muenchow and Jerry Stolzman. The Utility Commission has a meeting scheduled for this Monday at which time officers will be elected and committees will be formed.

Speeding Tickets Up, Accidents Down in Dodge County

1/20/12 - Dodge County Sheriff Todd Nehls says his department in recent years has dramatically increased the number of speeding citations it issues and he says that has had a positive impact on the number of traffic accidents in the county. According to the most recent data available, deputies in Dodge County issued over 5600 speeding tickets in 2010, an increase of 1200 from the previous year and 3500 more tickets than were issued in 2006. Nehls credits advances in technology which he says has allowed his deputies to focus on traffic safety and enforcement. He says everything a deputy used to have to do in an office five years ago can now be done in a squad car thanks to devices like mobile data computers. There were 834 accidents in 2010, down 20% from 2006. And traffic fatalities for the last two years have been at an all-time low. That gets deputies back on the road quicker leading to higher visibility and lower instances of speeding and crashes. The Sheriff says he has increased speeding citations without speed traps and encourages his deputies to issue warnings to first-time speeders, avoiding penalties wherever possible in promoting safe driving. He says there is a 4-to-1 radio of warnings to speeding tickets.

Bertram Waives Preliminary Hearing

1/20/12 - A Milwaukee man, accused of running from Watertown police at a high rate of speed, has waived his right to a preliminary hearing. Steven Bertram is charged with one felony count of Fleeing an Officer, which carries a maximum three-and-a-half year prison sentence, if he is convicted. According to the criminal complaint, police stopped the 22-year-old on the Highway 16 Bypass in October for speeding. When the officer informed Bertram that he had three warrants out for his arrest, Bertram allegedly stood silent for a moment, slowly put his hands on the ignition and “slammed his car into gear.” A one-mile chase followed that reportedly reached speeds of 85mph before the officer terminated the pursuit. A citation was sent to Bertram. A passenger in the vehicle later told police that Bertram said he didn’t know about the warrants and didn’t want to get arrested and lose his job. An arraignment hearing is on the calendar next month.

More Private Sector Jobs Lost in December

1/20/12 - Wisconsin lost more private sector jobs last month while the nation as a whole made gains. Preliminary federal figures released today show that Wisconsin lost 39-hundred private sector jobs in December while the nation added 212-thousand positions. Both numbers reflect seasonal factors, and they’re open to revisions when more complete surveys are finished. It was the sixth straight month that Wisconsin recorded job losses, after making gains in the first six months of last year. Final figures from November showed that Wisconsin lost 14-hundred fewer private sector jobs than originally reported – but the final loss was still about 10-thousand for the month. Most of the lost jobs in December were in the leisure-and-hospitality areas and other service industries. Wisconsin’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate dropped two-tenths of a point to seven-point-one percent. That’s the same drop as the national rate had in December. The U-S rate is now eight-and-a-half percent. Officials said Wisconsin’s decline was due to the fact that the total number of people working grew by 69-hundred from November to December – and by 21-thousand compared to a year ago.

Elections Agency Looking to Extend Time to Review Petitions

The state elections’ agency plans to go to court next week to ask for more time to review the estimated one-point-nine million recall signatures submitted against six officials. But director Kevin Kennedy is not ready to say how much extra time will be sought beyond the 31 days allowed by law. Kennedy answered questions about the process yesterday during a public interview at the Marquette Law School in Milwaukee. Right now, the petition signatures are being scanned into computers – and a database will be formed to make it easier to check for false-and-duplicate signatures. Kennedy said workers are testing the new software that checks the signatures – and the agency believes it will work. Government Accountability Board spokesman Reid Magney says the scanning of petitions for four state Senate recall elections should be completed today. But Magney said it would take longer to enter the signatures against Governor Scott Walker and Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch. Thousands more signatures were submitted than the numbers required to order recall elections. And Kennedy said it’s possible that the checking process will end once it’s obvious there are enough valid signatures to call each election. He says those kinds of decisions cannot be made until they’re into the process. As Kennedy put it, “This is a whole new ball game.”

Education Reform Bills to be Introduced to WI Legislature

Bills to reform Wisconsin’s public schools will be introduced this month in both houses of the Legislature. Governor Scott Walker outlined the measures yesterday at a convention of school board members and district officials in Milwaukee. The state would set up its own system to make schools accountable, replacing parts of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. There would also be a tougher licensing exam for teachers, new requirements for elementary instructors, and a system to evaluate teachers-and-principals. Each school would have its own screener to determine how much incoming kindergarteners have learned. And Walker said the state would pay for those positions. The proposals came from the governor’s Read-to-Lead task force and two other groups dealing with effective educators and school accountability. State Superintendent Tony Evers said he was never consulted on the fine points of the new bills, even though he served on two of the three task forces. But Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie says the Department of Public Instruction has been briefed on the measures – and Evers will be consulted. He said the heads of the Assembly and Senate education committees, Republicans Steve Kestell and Luther Olsen, would write the bills. Werwie says the total costs have yet to be determined. Mary Bell, head of the state’s largest teachers’ union, said her group was involved in one of the task forces but was never consulted on the bills. And she feared that the details would conflict with what Walker highlights in public, quote, “as with many things” during his time as governor.

Associated Bank Profits Up 600%

The largest bank that’s based in Wisconsin reports a 600-percent increase in its quarterly profits from a year ago. Associated Bank-Corp of Green Bay had a net income of just under 40-million-dollars from October-through-December. That’s up from six-point-six million in the same quarter of 2010. Earnings per share rose from four-cents to 23. Associated had a big drop in bad loans. Delinquent loans totaled 357-million-dollars in the last year. That’s the lowest in two years, and it was down 38-percent from the year before. The bank also reported a 79-percent decrease in the number of bad loans it wrote off. Associated also said it added a much smaller amount to its reserves for covering bad loans – just one-million dollars in the last quarter, down from 63-million in the final quarter of 2010. C-E-O Philip Flynn expects a three-percent growth in loans in each quarter of 2012. Associated became the largest Wisconsin home-based bank when M-and-I was sold to B-M-O of Canada.

Remington Staying in Madison-area

1/20/12 - The maker of Remington shavers says it will keep its headquarters in the Madison area and continue to manufacture Ray-o-Vac batteries in Portage. Spectrum Brands said for the first time publicly Thursday that it considered moving to Miramar Florida, where one of its home appliance subsidiaries is based. But in a statement, the company cited cost savings, space efficiencies, and a forgivable four-million-dollar state loan in deciding to stay in Wisconsin. Spectrum Brands plans to build a new headquarters facility in the Madison suburb of Middleton. It’s due to open in 2013, and the company says it will have room for up to 70 professional employees who now work in Florida. Had the headquarters been moved, C-E-O Dave Lumley said up to 300 jobs would have been transferred from Madison. Spectrum Brands has battery plants in Portage and Fennimore, and a center in De Forest to handle returns. Besides batteries and razors, Spectrum also makes Black-and-Decker appliances, pet supplies, and insect repellents. The firm says it has an economic impact of 100-million-dollars a year in Wisconsin.