Morning State News Briefs: Motorcyclist has been killed in Dodge County

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HORICON - A motorcyclist has been killed in eastern Wisconsin.

Dodge County authorities said a 30-year-old Horicon man was slowing down to avoid hitting a farm vehicle when his bike veered into the opposite lane and hit an oncoming semi-truck. It happened just before 8:10 last night on Highway 67 in the town of Hubbard. The Dodge County medical examiner pronounced the motorcyclist dead at the scene. Drivers of the other two vehicles were not hurt. The highway was closed for about three hours while authorities investigated. They did not issue any citations.

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State officials in Minnesota have approved the final leg of an electric transmission line to the Wisconsin border. The Public Utilities Commission in the Gopher State voted 4-0 yesterday to approve a 90-mile line from Hampton to La Crosse. They also approved a shorter, lower-voltage line from Pine Island to Rochester. Both are part of the Cap-X-2020 project, which would add 700 miles of new power lines and make the transmission system stronger. Some parts of the one-point-nine billion dollar plan are already complete, and the rest is expected to be finished by 2015. In Wisconsin, the Cap-X line would run from Holmen in La Crosse County northward to Alma. The Wisconsin Public Service Commission must still act on that project. And a recent study by the PSC questioned whether the La Crosse region would grow enough to justify the new line – which would connect to other proposed transmission facilities across west central Wisconsin.

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One of Wisconsin’s busiest highways will be expanded in the next decade. State transportation officials announced a timetable yesterday to add a third lane in each direction on Interstate 39-90 from Madison to the Illinois line. A new Highway 11 interchange in Janesville will be built next year, and the rest of the six-year project will start in 2015. Besides the two extra lanes, existing pavement will be replaced – and over 100 bridges will be replaced. The total cost is $715-million. The federal government will pick up 30-percent, and the state will pay the rest. The project had been stalled for years until the state Transportation Projects Commission finally endorsed it in 2010. The Assembly speaker at the time, Mike Sheridan of Janesville, said the expansion was badly needed to boost the state’s economy – and to relieve heavy traffic from Illinois, where the “I” has had six lanes for years.

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A New London man will spend the rest of his life in prison for stabbing an elderly man to death almost four-and-a-half years ago. A Waupaca County judge ordered a life prison term yesterday for 35-year-old Chad Magolski, with no chance for a supervised release. He was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide last month for the slaying of 77-year-old James Park in the victim’s apartment in New London in December of 2007. Magolski lived in the same building at the time, but in a different unit. Prosecutors said the murder was committed during a robbery, and Magolski might have used some of the stolen cash to pay overdue utility bills and rent.

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An autopsy did not identify a decomposed body found Wednesday by children playing along Lake Michigan in Kenosha. Police have been combing reports of missing persons – but as of late yesterday, they had no clue as to who the victim was. Investigators said the body appeared to be an adult male who could have been dead from 1-to-3 months. There’s no sign of foul play, but the medical examiner says more tests are being done to try-and-determine a cause of death. The children were playing on the rocks along Lake Michigan when they found the remains Wednesday afternoon near Kenosha’s Anderson Arts Center.

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Wisconsin’s largest outdoor farm show will be held in the Madison area in 2015. The board of Wisconsin Farm Technology Days has accepted a bid from Dane County to host the show three years from now. Dane County previously hosted it in 1970 and 1986. This year’s Farm Technology Days will be near New London in Outagamie County from July 17th-through-19th. Next year’s show will be held near Rice Lake in Barron County – and the 2014 show will be at Plover in Portage County.

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