Morning State News Briefs: Walker a potential witness in another possible trial

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MILWAUKEE - Governor Scott Walker has been named as a potential witness in a second possible trial against his former aides when he was the Milwaukee County Executive.

Prosecutors included Walker on a list of 42 possible witnesses in Tim Russell’s trial. Russell is accused of embezzling just over 21-thousand dollars from an annual event put on by Milwaukee County that salutes Wisconsin’s veterans. He’s also accused of taking money from two county supervisor campaigns he helped manage. Republican campaign consultant Mark Block is also on the potential witness list for Russell’s trial. Records showed that Russell went to Atlanta in late 2010 for a meeting on Republican Herman Cain’s former White House candidacy. Block headed Cain’s campaign at the time. Russell’s trial is scheduled to begin December third. Prosecutors have also listed the governor as a possible witness in the trial of ex-Walker aide Kelly Rindfleisch. She’s accused of doing campaign work for Republicans during her work hours as Walker’s deputy chief-of-staff. Rindfleisch is scheduled to go on trial October 15th on four felony counts of misconduct in public office. Both cases stemmed from a two-year John Doe investigation of Walker’s former Milwaukee County aides. Walker has long denied any wrongdoing on his own part.

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The latest Wisconsin troops heading to Afghanistan will learn how to prevent being killed by the people they try to help. Sixteen members of a newly-formed National Guard Advise-and-Assist team had a send-off ceremony in Madison yesterday before they embarked on a year-long mission. They’ll spend nine months as mentors to the Afghan Border Police, helping local officers take over their country’s security before the U.S. pulls out of Afghanistan in 2014. But before they get there, the Wisconsin officers will get three months of training on avoiding “insider attacks” – being shot by the officers they’re training. The commander of the new Guard team, Lieutenant Colonel David Larson, said it’s a big concern – and his troops have talked a lot about it. Afghan soldiers and police units have shot 50 foreign troops to death this year, about half being Americans. Some top military leaders went to Afghanistan this summer to express their concerns, after 10 U.S. soldiers were killed by Afghan troops in a span of two weeks. Now, armed troops from the U-S coalition provide security to their fellow soldiers at all times – and NATO officers must keep loaded magazines in their weapons, even when they’re on their home bases. The adjutant general of the Wisconsin guard, Donald Dunbar, said the troops need to strike a balance between being vigilant while engaging with the Afghan officers.

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Both state-and-federal officials say they’re confident that they can resolve their differences over the way Wisconsin spends federal block grant funds. Laura Feldman of the U.S. Department of Housing-and-Urban Development said yesterday that the state had nine violations of spending rules for HUD development grants. That’s up from the normal 1-to-2 violations per year. State Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch said it’s conducting more oversight to make sure the public-private Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation follows the HUD spending policies. But Huebsch rejected the idea of hiring a full-time administrator to run the block grant program, in which the Badger State doles out around 23-and-a-half million dollars in grants per year. Huebsch said the Administration Department has a lot of experience in handling complicated regulations and large contracts. HUD recently told the state to improve the way it handles federal grants. Among other things, officials said Wisconsin loaned out more than the maximum in job-creation funds to a Polk County firm – failed to check the ability of two companies to pay HUD loans – and irregularities in allocating almost nine-million block grant dollars at the end of last year. Some problems dated back to Jim Doyle’s time as governor – and others were blamed on the transition in which the state’s Commerce Department became partially private, and became the Economic Development Corporation.

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Authorities are investigating the death of an employee at a paper distribution plant in Pewaukee. It happened yesterday at the Xpedx plant. Officials said a five-foot stack of paper fell on the victim. That was after a shelving unit filled with pallets of paper gave way and fell down. Waukesha County sheriff’s officials said company employees helped deputies and rescue personnel move the paper and free the victim. No one else was hurt.

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An Oshkosh woman has been ordered to stand trial for allegedly killing a pedestrian while drunk, and then leaving the scene. 45-year-old Tina Trepanier had a preliminary hearing today in Winnebago County Circuit Court. She’s charged with negligent-and-drunken homicide, and hit-and-run while causing the death of 53-year-old Gina Micheln on September seventh. Trepanier is scheduled to enter pleas on October 22nd. Authorities said she hit Micheln with her vehicle, and dragged her for a block before a second vehicle struck her. Officials said the pedestrian was killed by the impact of Trepanier’s vehicle. At last word, Oshkosh Police were still looking for the second driver.

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The NAACP says Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission should be changed into an independent, citizen-led review board with subpoena powers. The civil rights group says it shouldn’t be a rubber stamp for police, but a body which takes its responsibilities seriously in recruiting, hiring, monitoring, disciplining, addressing citizen complaints and holding wrongdoers accountable. The written statement released today was brought on by the death of 22-year old Derek Williams while he was in police custody. Video of his death was reviewed and it was determined the officers had done nothing wrong. The investigation was reopened when the Milwaukee County medical examiner’s office changed its ruling from natural death to homicide. The NAACP says it would also like to see a cabinet-level Office of Human Rights at the state level.

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The Dane County Sheriff’s Office reports it is checking into a series of daytime burglaries at residents in the western part of the county. Between last Tuesday and Friday five burglaries were reported in the Town of Middleton and three more in the Town of Montrose. Thieves entered homes through unlocked doors in some cases. They reportedly took items like cash, jewelry, electronics and guns. The sheriff’s department is asking for the public’s help and is reminding residents to lock their homes and garages and secure all valuables inside their homes.

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Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen says the state Supreme Court does recognize the importance of this state’s voter ID law in question. He says that’s why he believes the court might be asked to reconsider the issue after a briefing deadline this month. The court rejected a request to stay injunctions which stop the photo ID requirement from being enforced last week. Those injunctions were issued in two separate lawsuits after the law was found to be unconstitutional. The requirement for voters to show a government-issued photo ID before casting a ballot has been on hold for almost a year.

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A judge in Sheboygan will be asked today to let two 13-year-old boys be tried as juveniles for what a prosecutor called one of the most callous crimes he’s ever dealt with. Antonio Barbeau and Nathan Paape are both charged as adults with first-degree intentional homicide. And if they’re not sent to juvenile court, they’ll have preliminary hearings this afternoon to determine if there’s enough evidence to put them on trial. Both are charged in the bludgeoning of 78-year-old Barbara Olson at her home in Sheboygan Falls last month. Olson was Barbeau’s great-grandmother. Sheboygan County District Attorney Joe DeCecco said the boys admitted going to Olson’s house with the intent to rob-and-kill her – but he did not say why. Police said the boys attacked Olson with a hatchet and a hammer after they ransacked her house, and she came home and caught them. DeCecco said the boys then put some of her jewelry and other items in her vehicle – and they drove it to a Sheboygan bowling center, where they left the keys inside in the hopes that somebody would steal it and become implicated in the murder. The DA said the boys then went to eat pizza, and later bought cleaning supplies to wipe their fingerprints off Olson’s car.

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A federal judge in Madison has thrown out a civil rights lawsuit against Ralph Armstrong, who was exonerated 28 years after he was convicted of killing of a UW student. Federal Judge Barbara Crabb said Armstrong did not say which government agencies or individuals violated his rights. He only accused the State of Wisconsin of violating his civil rights – but Crabb said the state itself cannot be sued. Armstrong was convicted in the 1980 rape and strangulation death of Madison student Charise Kamps. He was released from a state prison in 2009, after a judge said prosecutors violated a court order on testing some of the evidence. But Armstrong is not free. He’s in a prison in New Mexico, where he violated a parole from a crime earlier in his life.

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A man was shot-to-death overnight at a Papa John’s pizza restaurant in Milwaukee – and a suspect is in custody. Police did not say if the victim worked at the restaurant, located in a strip mall on Milwaukee’s south side. The shooting was reported just after one this morning. WTMJ-TV said police interviewed people nearby who were shopping at the adjacent Game Stop store for a just-released video game. There was no word on a possible motive for the shooting.

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Milwaukee Police are investigating a murder on the city’s north side. Police were called around six last evening, and officers found the body of a 35-year-old man with gunshot wounds. The victim’s name and other details were not immediately released.

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Milwaukee Police were looking for suspects at last word in the shooting death of a 22-year-old man who was playing basketball on Saturday night. Media reports said Alexander Cross was playing with friends at Atkinson Park when he was killed. Several others were wounded by the gunfire.

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Milwaukee Police are investigating a murder near a nightclub on the city’s northwest side. Police said the body of a 32-year-old man was found early yesterday behind a parked car outside Dee’s Elegance. Police said the man was shot-to-death – but officials did not say what prompted it. Also, there was no immediate word on suspects.

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An Adams man is due in court October 17th on charges that he killed a man in a drunken boating crash. 22-year-old Christopher Collins is charged in Juneau County with homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle, causing injury by drunken boating. Prosecutors said Collins was driving a boat with four passengers on a night in July when he struck a rock on Castle Rock Lake. The crash killed 23-year-old Michael Miklavicic of Friendship. Sheriff’s investigators quoted Collins as saying he heard somebody yell a warning, and he tried to steer around a bridge support but couldn’t. Officials said his blood alcohol content at the time was point-13, more than one-and-a-half times the minimum level for intoxication.

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Police in Manitowoc are trying to find a person who bound a cat with duct tape, and threw the animal into the Manitowoc River. A fisherman called police after he found the dead cat floating in the river on Sunday evening. Police said the pet was a larger, older, orange cat that just recently died. Manitowoc County Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $200 for information that leads to the arrest of the cat’s abuser.

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Wisconsin teenagers are more likely to be killed in traffic accidents than other teens around the country. That’s according to a study released today by Erie Insurance and the Institute for Highway Safety. The study looked at federal records showing that almost 18 of every 100,000 youths age 16-to-19 died in a traffic crashes when the driver was a teen. The national teen death rate was just over 16 – or one-point-six fewer than Wisconsin’s rate. The study found that Saturday had the most fatal crashes involving Wisconsin teens – and August was the deadliest month. Wisconsin was the 24th worst. Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, West Virginia, and Wyoming had the highest deaths in teen driving mishaps. The lowest were Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington D.C. Erie Insurance used the study to launch a new safety program for teen drivers and their schools.

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Five Republican state legislators were sued yesterday, after they refused to say whether they checked their personal e-mail accounts for records requested by two groups. Common Cause and the Center for Media-and-Democracy filed their lawsuit in Dane County. They said the lawmakers violated the state Open Records Law, by refusing to turn over e-mails in their personal accounts about the American Legislative Exchange Council. It’s a conservative group that works with businesses to draft model bills that can be introduced in state legislatures around the country. The Council has been criticized for supporting photo ID mandates for voting, and the so-called “stand your ground” gun rights laws. The lawsuit included a copy of an e-mail sent to the state account of Assembly Republican Jeremy Thiesfeldt of Fond du Lac. It instructed the Exchange Council to stop sending e-mails to Thiesfeldt’s state account, and send it to his personal account instead. But the plaintiffs say the Open Records Law does not allow officials to hide public records in their personal e-mail accounts. Thiesfeldt is one of the defendants in the suit, along with Assembly Republicans Dan Knodl of Germantown, Pat Strachota of West Bend, Tyler August of Lake Geneva, and Tom Larson of Colfax. Strachota calls the lawsuit a “political witch hunt.” She denied ever introducing bills drafted by the Exchange Council.

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Here are some poll numbers that a politician can only dream of. Three-of-every-five Wisconsin voters agree that a water link between the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan should be cut off, so the invasive Asian carp does not get into the Great Lakes. A coalition of environmental groups commissioned the survey, which was done by an Ohio firm. Four-of-every-five Wisconsin voters surveyed said they were familiar with the Asian carp – which grows immensely while gobbling up the food that native fish rely upon. Wisconsin and several other Midwest states have a lawsuit pending to try-and-get a permanent barrier established near Chicago to keep the carp out of Lake Michigan. The Army Corps of Engineers is studying the question, and it plans to make its recommendations next year. Also, the poll showed that 75-percent of Wisconsin voters support the long-range clean-up and restoration plan for the Great Lakes. A task force named by former President George W. Bush proposed a $20-billion package. But only a billion-dollars have been allocated for the work – all of it during President Obama’s term.

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A federal judge has dropped a lawsuit filed by Madison’s Freedom from Religion Foundation against a measure in Pennsylvania which declared this year as the “Year of the Bible.” Judge Christopher Connor agreed with House Republicans that the lawsuit should be dropped due to legislative immunity. But Connor still scolded lawmakers, saying they used language that’s quote, “proselytizing and exclusionary.” The judge also said the Year-of-the-Bible designation was quote, “pandering to provide a re-election sound bite.” And he said Pennsylvania lawmakers could better use their resources for “meaningful legislative efforts” to benefit all people. Republican GOP leaders were happy with the decision – and a leader of the Freedom-from-Religion Foundation was glad the ruling noted injuries to non-Christian believers.

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Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan will return to his home state this weekend. The Janesville congressman is Mitt Romney’s running mate. His campaign says Ryan will host a fund-raiser in Milwaukee on Saturday night at the downtown Pfister Hotel. Donors who spend $100,000 will be recognized as “Founding Partners.” But those 35-and-under can get in for $250 – while the admission fee for others is a-thousand-dollars. Ryan has not planned any public events in Milwaukee on that day. On the Democratic side, President Obama has a speech planned at UW-Madison on Thursday, the day after Obama and Romney hold their first debate.

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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will campaign for U.S. Senate candidate Tommy Thompson later this month. Thompson’s GOP campaign said today that Christie will make an appearance with Thompson in the Badger State on October 17th. But officials did not immediately say where or when. In a statement, Thompson called Christie a “battle-tested reformer.” He said Christie has saved New Jersey taxpayers “billions by cutting government spending and ushering in teacher evaluations.” Thompson is running against U.S. House Democrat Tammy Baldwin of Madison in an election which takes place five weeks from tomorrow.

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President Obama’s campaign says he’ll use his Madison visit on Thursday afternoon to encourage his supporters to register-and-vote early. Obama plans to speak outside of Bascom Hall at the top of a large hillside plaza on the UW campus. The Democratic president was in Wisconsin nine days ago for a campaign rally in Milwaukee. His Madison appearance on Thursday comes a day after he and Republican Mitt Romney hold the first of three debates this month. Absentee ballots for the November sixth elections can be requested now, and they must be postmarked by Election Day. In-person absentee balloting a clerk’s offices begins October 22nd, and runs through November second – the Friday before the elections.

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Wisconsin’s Paul Ryan says there’s still time for the GOP to win the White House – even though the Associated Press says President Obama would win if the election were held today. Ryan is Mitt Romney’s vice-presidential running mate. The Janesville congressman said on Fox News Sunday that people focus more near the end of a campaign – and it’s starting to happen now with just over five weeks left. But Obama spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said quote, “We’d rather be us than them.” The AP no longer includes Wisconsin among the states up for grabs, despite millions-of-dollars being spent by both candidates in the Badger State. The latest independent polls have shown Obama pulling away in Wisconsin by at least eight points. The AP says its electoral vote numbers are only meant to be a snap-shot, and they’re not a predictor. A lot could still change – including a domestic or foreign incident, or a wide swing in public opinion after three presidential debates and one vice-presidential debate. The first Obama-Romney debate is scheduled for Wednesday night in Denver, and Obama plans a visit to the Badger State the next day. The AP analysis shows Obama winning at least 271 electoral votes – one more than he needs to win his second term. The AP says that for Romney to win, he’d need to be Florida, Colorado, Nevada, Virginia, New Hampshire, and North Carolina, all of which are up for grabs – and either Ohio or Iowa.

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The state’s election agency has set up a Web site to help Wisconsinites make their votes count on November sixth. It includes information on what districts you’re in, and where to vote – and you can get a look at sample ballots as well. For many, November will be the first time they’ll vote under the new congressional and legislative districts set up by Republicans last year. And if people need to register, the Web site has tools to get people started. Government Accountability Board director Kevin Kennedy says the new Web site will quote, “empower voters, reduce the workload on local election officials, and help ensure fair-and-transparent elections.” Here’s the address for the new Web site – MyVoteWI-Dot-Gov.

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The international dairy industry will be highlighted in Madison starting tomorrow. About 70,000 people from 90 countries are expected to attend the annual World Dairy Expo. About 2,500 show cows will be featured – and dairy organizations and producers will hold competitions and displays that focus on business and technology. With a $26-billion dollar dairy industry, general manager Mike Clarke says Wisconsin is the best place to hold World Dairy Expo. Madison is hosting it for the 47th straight year. It will run through Saturday.

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New foreclosure cases in southeast Wisconsin are at their lowest in over five years. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel counted 719 new court filings in foreclosure cases last month in Milwaukee, Waukesha, Washington, Ozaukee, Racine, Kenosha, and Walworth counties. That’s down 17-percent from September of last year. And the total was the lowest since June of 2007, when 638 foreclosure cases were filed just as a housing slump was about to begin in advance of the Great Recession. Milwaukee and Washington counties had the biggest drops in new foreclosure cases. Milwaukee County had 383 new cases last month, down from 474 the previous September. For the year as a whole, foreclosure case filings are still up by almost four-and-a-half percent.

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A group that owns two Frank Lloyd Wright houses on a block in Milwaukee has bought a third house. There are a total of six houses on Milwaukee’s south side that were designed by the legendary Wright. And the group “Frank Lloyd Wright-Wisconsin” hopes to create an interpretive area for visitors. Four duplexes and two bungalows are part of the group. They were built in 1915-and-’16, and were prototypes for Wright’s standard home designs. The Wright group now owns all of the three American System-Built Homes that he crafted for the block. The third home will be rented out, while the group restores another duplex and raises money for the project.

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Don’t plan on taking a driver’s test next Monday. Wisconsin’s Division of Motor Vehicles says its customer service and phone centers will be closed on Columbus Day, so customer service employees can get training and technical updates. The DOT said it chose Columbus Day for the training because it’s a federal holiday, and fewer people tend to visit the state DMV facilities on a day like that. People can still use the department’s automated telephone system, and get information from the DMV’s Web site, accessible at Wisconsin.gov.

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State Supreme Court Justice David Prosser helped appoint a critic of the ethics case against him to the state’s Judicial Commission – even though the panel could still have a hand in that case. On a 4-3 vote last month, the Supreme Court named retired attorney Frank Daily to the commission, which oversees the state’s entire judicial system. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel said Daily wrote a letter-to-the-editor of that paper in May, calling the ethics charges against Prosser unfair. But Daily said he was speaking as a private citizen – and now that he’s on the Judicial Commission, he’ll toss aside his personal views and act fairly on the matter at hand. Daily, a Milwaukee attorney for 40 years, told the Journal Sentinel he was not named to quote, “carry out a political agenda.” The Judicial Commission filed ethics charges against Prosser in March, in connection with Prosser’s physical confrontation with fellow Justice Ann Walsh Bradley last year. But the case has been stalled, because four of the seven justices have said they would not vote on whether to punish Prosser if-and-when it gets to the Supreme Court for a final decision. The commission’s chief prosecutor contends that a panel of appeals’ judges can still decide the case against Prosser – but that proposal has gone nowhere, either. Prosser told the Journal Sentinel that he saw nothing wrong with helping appoint a Judicial Commission member while his ethics case is still pending. Prosser said he believes the case is coming to an end, because the majority of the justices say they won’t act on it. Those justices said they witnessed the incident, and therefore cannot be fair-and-impartial arbiters.

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Wisconsin’s largest power plant cost eight-percent more than expected – and utility regulators will decide this fall who will pay for that overrun. The state Public Service Commission will decide whether We Energies’ electric customers in eastern Wisconsin should pay for about $178-million in legal fees connected with the plant at Oak Creek. It’s a key issue in We Energies’ request to raise electric rates by five-percent next year, and three-point-six percent in 2014. The PSC will hold public hearings on that rate hike request today and tonight in the Milwaukee area. Consumer groups say stockholders should have to pay for things like lawsuits and a contractor dispute during the construction process. But the utility says the Oak Creek plant is a bargain for customers, even with the cost overruns. We Energies customers have had a series of rate hikes in recent years as the utility has completed a series of new-and-improved power plants designed to handle rising demand. But the Great Recession cut into that demand. And the Oak Creek plant has been down for much of the year due to plant repairs, and a drop in the price of natural gas which has made it cheaper to run other plants. The Oak Creek facility runs on coal. But CEO Gale Klappa said the Oak Creek facility played a key role this summer in keeping electricity moving, when the demand for air conditioning rose during the hot weather.

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