Afternoon State Sports Briefs: Damage reports come in from southern Wisconsin storms

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Damage reports continue to trickle in from severe thunderstorms overnight in far southern Wisconsin.

Authorities said trees-and-power lines were down throughout Darlington and Gratiot in Lafayette County – as well as in parts of Grant County in the far southwest. Weather officials now say the damage stretched eastward to Lake Geneva. But Beloit was still among the hardest hit. The city opened its Emergency Operation Center after about seven-thousand Beloit customers lost their electricity. Beth Jacobson of the city manager’s office said homes and vehicles were damaged by fallen debris – but there are no reports of injuries. As of early afternoon, Wisconsin Power-and-Light said 26-hundred electric customers in its far southern Wisconsin region were still without power. Numerous streets in Beloit were still closed at last word. The city said they would re-open after debris is removed, and power lines are fixed. Forecasters say more rain is in the forecast on-and-off through tomorrow in most of Wisconsin – and severe weather could return to the state during the day and evening tomorrow.

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The Government Accountability Board is predicting 20 percent of the state’s voting-age population will go to the polls for the August 4th primary. That would mean a little of 870,000 voters would cast ballots three weeks from today. There is a high-profile Republican primary involving four candidates. That’s why the state is predicting turnout very near the 21 percent who voted two decades ago. There are also primary elections in two of the eight congressional districts, five of 16 state Senate districts and 39 of 99 Wisconsin Assembly districts.

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The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District will have to work with municipalities and private property owners to come up with a million gallons of storage capacity for storm water. That green regulation is tied to a change mandated for a discharge permit. Rooftop plantings would be used, as well as other green infrastructure. Regulators say the change will mean more rain barrels and rain gardens at homes, porous parking lot pavement, plantings on flat rooftops and more wetlands and flood plains bought by the district – in order to reduce the number of sewage backups and overflows to waterways during heavy rain.

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An effort by Milwaukee Alderman Jim Bohl to break an impasse on selling water to the City of Waukesha has gone dry. The Milwaukee Common Council voted 13-1 against his compromise plan to negotiate a Lake Michigan water deal with the suburban community. Bohl says this could end the chances of reaching a deal which is favorable to Milwaukee. He says if Waukesha buys water from Oak Creek, it’s possible another long-term municipal customer might leave Milwaukee for Oak Creek. Bohl did not specify while community he was talking about.

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A Walworth County employee killed during a road maintenance project was identified today as 66-year-old Gerald Himebauch of Lyons. Sheriff’s officials said he was hit by a dump truck that was backing up yesterday, while a crew was doing chip-sealing on County Trunk “J” near East Troy. Authorities said both Himebauch and the truck driver were long-time employees of Walworth County’s public works department. Himebauch died at the scene. The State Patrol is helping investigate.

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A jury in Milwaukee was deliberating this afternoon on the question of whether a gun rights’ activist was hiding a weapon when she was confronted by police last fall. 43-year-old Krysta Sutterfield has been on trial the last two days on a charge of illegally carrying a concealed weapon last November. Milwaukee police officer Cassandra Benitez testified that she looked into Sutterfield’s car, while the defendant was sitting in a vehicle to use a coffee shop’s Wi-Fi to use the Internet. She saw a National Rifle Association hat, which made her believe a weapon was in the vehicle. Sutterfield claimed it was open at her side all along, and she was legally practicing her right to carry a gun openly. But Benitez contended that Sutterfield hid the weapon before pulling it out. In 2010, Sutterfield was arrested for openly carrying a gun to a church service in suburban Brookfield. She was never charged, and she later won a $7,500 settlement after she claimed she was falsely arrested.

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A southern Wisconsin man has been sentenced to 12 years in a federal prison for robbing two drug stores. 28-year-old Anthony Carriola of Lodi was also told to spend five years under supervision when he’s done with his prison term. Federal prosecutors said Carriola robbed the Eannelli Pharmacy in Prairie du Sac in January, and the Mount Vernon Pharmacy in Mount Vernon Indiana last December. In the Wisconsin hold-up, authorities said Carriola held a gun to the face of a pharmacist – and the druggist managed to grab the weapon as the two wrestled. He still got away with two bottles of morphine pills. Customers at a drive-through window saw what was going on – and police got enough tips to arrest Carriola a couple days later.

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