Top Stories, April 22nd

Horicon Man Apprehended In Squad Car Hit & Run

4/22/12 - A Horicon man is in custody in connection with a Hit & Run accident with a squad car that injured a Juneau police officer. It all started around 11pm Saturday night while Officer Brittany Borchardt was parked on the side of West Oak Street at South Fairfield Road. A 2000 Ford Explorer reportedly operated by 41-year-old Chad Buelter struck the rear of the squad car. Dodge County Sheriff Todd Nehls says the suspect stumbled out of his vehicle and quickly fled the scene. The departments K9 unit tracked the suspect’s scent until 3am Sunday morning when it was lost in a marshy area. Buelter was later taken into custody around 7am. Nehls says at that time, a preliminary breath test determined Buelter’s blood alcohol level to be point-zero-two (.02). Officer Borchardt sustained minor injuries. The three other occupants of the Explorer were not injured in the crash. One passenger was cited for Disorderly Conduct and Resisting Arrest. The accident is under investigation by the Dodge County Sheriffs Department Crash Investigation Team. Buelter could be charged as early as Monday with Hit and Run Causing Injury and Leaving The Scene of An Accident.

Fond du Lac Officer Focus of Documentary

4/22/12 - Fond du Lac Police Officer Ryan Williams and his K-9 partner Grendel will be among the heroic police officers focused on in a documentary that will in part be filmed in Fond du Lac. Bill Erfurth is a retired Miami-Dade Police Officer and producer of the documentary Heroes Behind the Badge. A film crew will be in Fond du Lac May 4th and 5th to film a segment about Williams, Grendel and Officer Craig Birkholz. Birkholz was shot and killed responding to a sexual assault complaint on March 20th of last year and Williams and Grendel critically wounded. Erfurth says Fond du Lac residents are invited to get in on the filming during a segment that will be filmed at the Police and Fire Memorial site in Hamilton Park. Williams will also be filmed at the Nation’s Capitol next month when he’s honored as one of the National Law Enforcement Memorial Officers of the Month. Half of the proceeds from the documentary will benefit the national memorial. Erfurth says they are still shopping the documentary around, but hope it will air on one of the cable networks in the fall. More information at: http://www.heroesbehindthebadge.com/

Van Hollen on Concealed Carry

4/22/12 - The state’s attorney general says he’s not sure if Wisconsin is any safer, now that 100-thousand people are allowed to carry concealed weapons. But J-B Van Hollen says there have been no problems since the concealed carry law took effect almost six months ago. And if it’s done anything to reduce crime, Van Hollen says it’s all the better. The A-G held a news conference in Madison, where the 100-thousandth state permit was being printed. He’s not sure who will receive it. Van Hollen has Permit Number-One. Wisconsin hit the 100-thousand mark faster than expected. The Justice Department expected around 125-thousand permits to be issued in the first year. Officials said the early rush of applications has slowed from thousands-a-day to hundreds-a-day. And there’s only been one heavily-publicized incident directly related to concealed carry. That was the Aldi’s shooting in Milwaukee in January, where a shopper with a concealed carry permit shot at two men who tried-but-failed to rob the place. The store had a sign prohibiting concealed weapons – but prosecutors decided not to charge the shooter.

Milwaukee Women Suing Over Tainted Tuna

4/22/12 - Two Milwaukee area women are suing a tuna-maker that was blamed for a national outbreak of salmonella. Attorney Ron Simon said he filed suit this week on behalf of 33-year-old Amber Azzolina of West Allis and 22-year-old Amy Karfonta of Muskego. Both are seeking unspecified damages after getting sick from eating a product used in making sushi and sashimi. The defendant is Moon Marine U-S-A. It has recalled 59-thousand pounds of a frozen raw yellow-fin tuna that’s linked to salmonella poisoning. About 120 people were sickened around the country, including 14 in southeast Wisconsin. Simon said his two clients got sick from food they ate at the same restaurant in Brookfield in February.

UW Ending Nursing Program

4/22/12 - Students will complete the course and no jobs will be lost, but the University of Wisconsin is going to end its nursing program at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse. The final class will graduate in May of next year. The program is being ended due to state budget cuts and the small class sizes. They say the class size of two dozen students at Gundersen is too small to justify the cost of faculty and equipment which is needed to train nurses. UW-Madison and Gundersen will have operated in partnership on the program for eight years when it ends. More than 150 nursing students will have graduated.

Work Zone Awareness Week

4/22/12 - Orange construction barrels are a common site these days. This coming week, April 23 through 27, is Work Zone Awareness Week here in Wisconsin. Captain David Pabst with WisDOT’s Bureau of Transportation Safety stresses the dangers of not paying attention when driving through work zones. Pabst says there were more than 1,700 work zone crashes in Wisconsin last year resulting in eight deaths and nearly 750 injuries. While construction workers are vulnerable to drivers’ actions, about three out of four people killed in work zones are motorists. For the safety of everyone, Pabst says traffic fines are doubled in work zones and are strictly enforced. Work zones often have narrowed lanes, lane changes, temporary pavements, reduced speeds and night work. Captain Pabst says drivers need to slow down, allow extra room and always stay focus on what’s ahead of them.

Interstate 94 Reconstruction Begins Monday

4/22/12 - Motorists are being warned to expect delays on Interstate 94 east of Hudson starting tomorrow (Monday). Two miles of I-94 in Roberts will be reconstructed, reducing traffic to a single lane in east direction while work is being done near Wisconsin Highway 65. The 25 million dollar project should be finished by November 2013. Work on Highway 65 north of the Interstate will result in road closures and major delays can be expected to during peak travel times. That project carries a seven million dollar price tag.

Delegation Leaving To India

4/22/12 - A 12-member delegation from Milwaukee leaves on a trade mission to India today (Sunday) to promote made-in-Wisconsin water technology. With a population topping a billion people, India is one of the fastest-growing markets for systems which clean and conserve water supplies. Nearly 130 million people in that country live without access to safe water. The delegation will start the eight day visit in New Delhi. Wisconsin companies are looking for customers for water supply improvement, rainwater capture and municipal waste treatment.

Dolan Named As Top 100 Most Influential People

4/22/12 - Cardinal Tim Dolan, a former Catholic Archbishop in Milwaukee, was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people. Dolan has headed the Archdiocese of New York for almost three years. And Time said Dolan has done what few other Catholic leaders have done in recent years – put his church back in the center of the national political conversation. Time was referring to Dolan’s battle with the Obama White House over health coverage for contraceptives. Dolan responded on his blog, quote, “The only influence I might have comes from faith, prayer, family, friends, and the ones I serve.” Dolan headed the ten-county Milwaukee Archdiocese, which includes Dodge County, from 2002-to-’09. He’ll return in nine days for a Mass-of-Thanksgiving, which recognizes his elevation to cardinal a few weeks ago.