Morning State News Briefs: Two teens killed near Antigo in auto accident

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ANTIGO - Two teens were killed, and five others were injured, when a car slammed into a van near Antigo.

It happened around seven last night on Highway 64 in the town of Polar. A 17-year-old boy and an 18-year-old man were killed. Both were in the car, and three others in that vehicle were taken to hospitals in Antigo and Wausau – along with two people in the van. Injury extents and condition reports were not immediately released – and neither were the names of the two teenagers killed. The State Patrol said the car was going north on a town road when it failed to stop for a stop sign, and it slammed a van going east on Highway 64. The crash remains under investigation.

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After a light Memorial Day schedule, the candidates in the governor’s recall election are going full tilt again with just one week to go until Election Day. Incumbent Scott Walker made a campaign visit this morning to Husco International in Waukesha. And then he headed to an official governor’s visit in Whitehall in the afternoon – where he was planning to attend a ground-breaking and announce new jobs for Ashley Furniture. Meanwhile, Walker’s Democratic opponent Tom Barrett had campaign stops planned with former U.S. Senator Russ Feingold in Baraboo, Wisconsin Rapids, Marshfield, and Green Bay. Also today, the Walker and Barrett campaigns must file their latest finance reports showing how much they raised and spent from April 21st through last Monday.

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Last night’s thunderstorms in southern Wisconsin are being blamed for a fire that heavily damaged a senior citizen apartment complex in Rock County. Authorities said lighting struck the Edgewood Glen Apartments in Edgerton around 6:30 p.m. The two-story apartment complex lost most of its roof. No one was hurt. But about 30 residents were displaced, and many were picked up by friends-or-relatives. About a dozen fire departments responded. Officials said all but two of the 21 apartments were occupied, and all of the 23 residents who were home at the time were evacuated. The Janesville Gazette said a nearby pharmacy opened, so residents could get their prescriptions filled. Meanwhile, a lighting strike is also blamed for a house fire that damaged a home in southern Dane County. It happened around seven last night in the town of Albion. No one was home at the time, and no injuries were reported.

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A clerk at a convenience store was found dead overnight in Waukesha, and police are treating the case as a homicide. Authorities said a customer entered a Petro Mart around 4:20 this morning, and the clerk was found on the floor with apparent gunshot wounds. Officers remained on the scene at mid-morning, as their investigation continued.

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Three people were injured when their SUV slammed into a house in Mequon. Police said the crash left a big hole in the front of the structure – and two people inside were obviously shaken, but not hurt. One of the victims in the SUV was taken to a hospital. The crash happened around 11 last night, when the vehicle lost control and hit the house. An investigation continues.

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A man who drowned in Lake Winnebago last Friday has been identified as 56-year-old Anthony Albanese of the Milwaukee suburb of Franklin. An autopsy confirmed that he drowned. Calumet County authorities said a fisherman found Albanese and called the Fond du Lac County rescue team, which pulled the body from the lake.

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A Milwaukee teenager faces drug-dealing charges, after he was caught with 19 bags of marijuana during a recent meeting with his parole officer. Police in suburban Glendale said the 19-year-old went to the state Corrections' Department late last week as scheduled -- and during a routine search, officers found over 28 grams of pot. Media reports said he admitted planning to sell the drug in Milwaukee for up to five-dollars a bag, just as he had done previously.

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Folks in northeast Wisconsin can give their views on the criminal justice system tonight. Wisconsin's new Criminal Justice Coordinating Council will hold a listening session in Green Bay. The group is hearing ideas from law enforcement, criminal justice experts, and the general public on improving the overall justice system -- and improve coordination among its various sectors. The 18-member panel was created in April. It's chaired by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and state Corrections' Secretary Gary Hamblin.

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A new highway bridge in Peshtigo is named in honor of a local soldier killed in Afghanistan. Local residents petitioned their legislators to have the new Highway 41 bridge named for Army Private Steven Drees. It was dedicated over the Memorial Day Weekend, and Drees’ parents were on hand. Drees was 19 when he died in June of 2009, four days after he was injured in an attack in Afghanistan. He had only been in the country for a few weeks. Drees’ parents have started a foundation in their son’s name – and it has delivered over seven-thousand care packages to soldiers overseas.

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A 69-year-old man faces his fourth drunk driving charge, after police caught him weaving on a lawn tractor in Jackson in southeast Wisconsin. The incident happened on Sunday night. Jackson Police Chief Jed Dolnick said one of his officers spotted the lawn tractor going on a sidewalk and then a street, before turning into a drug store parking lot. At one point, a squad car’s video showed the man motioning for the officer to drive around him. A preliminary breath test recorded his blood alcohol level at point-21, over two-and-a-half times the legal limit of point-zero-eight. The man was in the Washington County Jail at last word on a $1,200 dollar bond.

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A new study shows that Wisconsin has the nation’s eighth-highest rate of wrongful criminal convictions – but a UW expert says it doesn’t tell the whole story. The Center for Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University counted 21 Wisconsinites who were exonerated since 1989, when DNA tests started being widely used. The report said Wisconsin’s wrongful convictions were 30-percent higher than the national average. But Keith Findley of the Wisconsin Innocence Project says one reason for the state’s high rate is that his group actually looks for wrongful convictions and tries to correct them. And he says when you don’t look, you don’t find them. Findley heads a group of UW-Madison students who seek out DNA evidence to try-and-free those who were wrongly sent to prison. He said people should not conclude that Wisconsin’s justice system is much worse than other states. In fact, he says defendants are better off in some respects. For one thing, Findley says convicts can ask for DNA tests after their convictions, even if prosecutors oppose it. And he says it could be one more factor behind the state’s high number of exonerations. The new study counted two-thousand exonerations throughout the country in the last 23 years. Illinois had the most, with 101. New York, home of the National Innocence Project, was second with 84 exonerations.

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A Wisconsin Rapids man has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for stealing over 78-thousand-dollars in merchandise from four Walmart stores in central Wisconsin. 42-year-old Robert Moran was convicted in February of taking the items from stores in Wisconsin Rapids, Plover, Wausau, and Marshfield in 2009-and-2010. Authorities said he tried to sell the merchandise on his sister's E-Bay account. Federal Judge William Conley of Madison rejected Moran's request for a short prison sentence. Conley called Moran a "life-long thief," noting that he had six previous convictions for burglary-and-theft.

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Today is the first day that Wisconsin's latest million-dollar lottery winner can cash in. A Mega Millions' ticket sold in Wausau on Friday night matched five regular numbers with the Megaplier to win a million-dollars. The ticket-holder has six months to claim the prize at the Wisconsin Lottery office in Madison -- and today's the first day the office will be open since Friday's drawing. The winning ticket was sold at the Fast Break Mobil station in Wausau. It's Wisconsin's third million-dollar lottery winner this month. A Chilton woman won a million-dollars and Milwaukee man won two-million, both in the May 16th Powerball game. The next Mega Millions' drawing is tonight, and the jackpot is $32-million. The next Powerball drawing is tomorrow night, with a jackpot of $146-million with a cash option of around $95-million.

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