Saturday State News Briefs: State Dem Party Chair says no regrets for recall

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APPLETON- The chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party says he won’t second-guess the decision to pursue this week’s recall elections.

Mike Tate told party members at the state convention Democrats will never avoid fighting for what is right. Tate and other party leaders thanked volunteers for their efforts and gave them permission to take a short break, reminding them at the same time that more elections are just around the corner. Party members heard from high-profile Democrats like U.S. Senate candidate and Wisconsin Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin and Congressman Ron Kind as their weekend meeting kicked off in Appleton.

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Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett promises a complete investigation will be conducted into how police treatment Darius Simmons’ mother. Bishop Tavis Grant says police questioned her for two hours and searched her home while her 13 year old son lay dead in the street. Grant is national field director for the Reverend Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Barrett is condemning the murder. The boy was shot after taking out the garbage a week ago Thursday. His neighbor, 75 year old John Spooner, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the killing. Community members met with the mayor yesterday.

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A 27 year old Milwaukee woman is given a five-year prison sentence for driving drunk in a crash that left one of her daughter’s dead and a second seriously injured. The accident happened the day after Christmas. Crash investigators say 27 year old Brandy Allen was drunk when she slammed her vehicle into a park semi. Allen entered a guilty plea to charges of homicide and injury while driving with a prohibited alcohol content last April. Her 10 year old daughter, Brianna Johnson, was riding in the front seat. She was killed and her five year old sister was seriously injured. A test found Allen had a blood alcohol content of .107, above the state’s legal limit of .08

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Racine County authorities are investigating an accident involving a train which left a pedestrian dead last night in Caledonia. The Hiawatha commuter train was headed to Chicago from Milwaukee when it struck the person a little after 6 p.m. Nobody on the train was injured, but their trip was delayed almost three hours. They finally were taken to their destinations on buses, as were passengers booked on two subsequent trains from Milwaukee.

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The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office says there isn’t enough evidence to bring charges against police detective Rodolfo Gomez Jr., a 10 year veteran of the department. He was arrested last Thursday and suspended from his duties. Detective Gomez has worked several high-profile cases recently, including a case where a woman has been accused of killing a pregnant woman in an effort to steal her unborn baby. Gomez had been arrested in connection with an incident while he was off-duty.

Tags: news, wisconsin, politics