Saturday State News Briefs: Gun-deer season underway this morning

Talk about it

Blaze orange will be the choice for the fashion-conscious in Wisconsin today. Deer hunters hit the fields with the start of the gun deer season.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is hoping to see a third straight year without a fatality. The season runs nine days. Nearly 25,000 people passed the education course and a hands-on field test before the season got its start.

Hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin deer hunters are taking part of the nine-day gun season. As of Wednesday, the DNR said license sales are no longer behind a year ago, with about a one-percent increase. An earlier analysis from UW-Madison showed that around 550,000 state residents would buy gun deer licenses – way down from the 644,000 licenses sold in 2000. Last year, the DNR said 620,000 gun deer permits were sold. And the agency has embarked on a series of steps to make hunting more exciting by boosting the herd – and to better promote Wisconsin’s deep hunting traditions. Governor Scott Walker led an effort to simplify things, by eliminating the contentious “Earn-a-Buck” program and dropping the October doe season. Also, the state provided large discounts to first-time hunters, and those who haven’t been out for at least 10 years. They’re paying just five-dollars for deer tags, well below the normal fee of $24. Over 15,000 of those special tags were sold as of yesterday. The DNR is also using social media to promote the hunt. And for the first time, a warden will tweet his observations during Opening Day.

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The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources closed the wolf hunt season in two zones when hunting and trapping hours end yesterday. Zone 2 is in the far northeastern part of the state and Zone 4 is just south of that. Hunters had nearly reached the quota in both of the zones. The four other zones remain open for hunting wolves. The initial hunt in Wisconsin started last and is schedule to run until 116 wolves are killed, or until the last day of February.

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A former aide to Governor Scott Walker is scheduled to be sentenced next Wednesday, but that could be postponed. Darlene J. Wink has pleaded guilty to two charges of working on a political campaign why she was supposed to be doing her county job. Walker was Milwaukee County executive at the time. The prosecutor in Wink’s case says she will ask for a postponement so Wink can testify in another case. She could take the stand against Tim Russell, who is accused of stealing more than 21 thousand dollars from a non-profit organization he was running. Russell’s court date is December 3rd.

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A mobile home fire in Plover leaves one person dead. A passer-by called the fire department yesterday morning a little after 7 a.m., saying he saw smoke as he was driving by the Birch Estates mobile home part. That person also knocked on doors to let neighbors know about the fire, but he could get into the home which was burning due to heat and smoke. Firefighters say the home was engulfed in flames when they arrived. The victim’s body was found at about 8:30 a.m.

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The former chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party will run for a second two-year term as Republican National Committee chairman. Reince Priebus is being given credit for dramatically improving the effectiveness of the RNC by Governor Scott Walker. He took a leading role in the Romney-Ryan campaign. Politico reports Priebus announced his candidacy for re-election in an e-mail which went out to RNC members. He said he would make an official announcement of his intentions the week after the Thanksgiving holiday.

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The lawsuit filed by Patty Mayer is the latest move in a long-running district with the Cedarburg School District. The fired former human resources coordinator contends the district breached a contract with her. She had been put on leave last May pending a disciplinary investigation. The school board had charged her with improperly securing a contract classifying Mayer as an administrator. Those charges were dismissed in June, but then eight more charges were brought against her in August. She was fired in September.

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A 51-year-old Milwaukee man who was murdered Thursday has been identified as John Evans. Police said he died of blunt force trauma after an incident on Capitol Drive, one of the city’s busier streets. Officials said a person-of-interest was being questioned in the case.

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Cedarburg Police say they have referred the case against 68-year old Gary Medrow to the Ozaukee County District Attorney’s office for possible charges. Police think Medrow is the man who was impersonating a reporter and contacting female high school athletes. Some members of the Verona High School golf team were contacted. Medrow reportedly told the athletes he worked for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. He could face misdemeanor charges for improper use of a telephone and disorderly conduct. He had scheduled a meeting with athletes at Cedarburg High School for last Monday, but with police standing by, he never showed up. Medrow was a patient at Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison at one time.

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An assistant medical examiner in Milwaukee has resigned, during a fallout over his ruling that man in police custody died from natural causes. A spokesman for County Executive Chris Abele said today that Christopher Poulus quit effective October 31st. Brendan Conway refused to speculate on whether the resignation was connected with the death of Derek Williams. The 22-year-old Williams was under arrest for a street robbery last year when two officers refused to answer his pleas for help. And he collapsed in a squad car eight minutes after he started gasping. Poulus changed his ruling to homicide, the day after the Journal Sentinel posted a police video on its Web site which showed what happened to Williams. Police and prosecutors then agreed to revisit the case. Their investigations are still going on. The paper said Poulus did not review the video or police reports – and he only accepted an investigator’s statement that Williams was arrested without incident. To avoid such things in the future, the Milwaukee County Board recently required the medical examiner to review all police documents and recordings before ruling on deaths in police custody. Medical Examiner Brian Peterson said the mandate might put the national accreditation of his office in jeopardy. But the accrediting group said it was not the case, and Executive Abele allowed the Board’s action to stand.

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When it comes to charging tolls on Wisconsin highways, there’s been a lot of talk but no action over the years. Now, the state Assembly’s new speaker – Republican Robin Vos – says something must be done to raise an estimated six-billion dollars in road funding for the next decade. He says lawmakers should look at the idea of charging tolls on highways that out-of-state tourists drive on the most. Vos represents the Burlington area in Racine County. He says many of his constituents have passes to drive the toll roads in neighboring Illinois. The federal government would have to approve the tolls, and Vos says the state should at least ask. And while that happens, Vos says he’d like to see more of Wisconsin’s general tax dollars go toward new-and-improved highways in next year’s state budget. Vos told a luncheon sponsored by WisPolitics.com that he’s against raising the gas tax, because it’s already high. He said indexing the gas tax to inflation is not likely to be revived. And he said the recently-discussed idea of charging motorists according to how many miles they drive is quote, “probably not ready for prime-time yet.”

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A 17-year-old Kenosha County boy has been put on two years’ probation, for trying to help a female friend take her own life, before attempting to take his own. Luke Adcock of Salem was originally charged with attempted homicide. But prosecutors accepted a plea deal that allowed Adcock to avoid prison. They called him a “typical teenager” with an otherwise clean record and near-perfect attendance in school. Circuit Judge Mary Wagner agreed, and she accepted Adcock’s guilty pleas to charges of attempting to assist suicide, and aggravated battery. Both teens are okay, after they agreed to a suicide pact almost a year ago.

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Funeral services were to begin late this morning for three children killed in a house fire in Racine a week ago. Nine-year-old Dayja Scott, her eight-year-old sister Dalija, and their seven-year-old brother Michael died in the blaze. Their five-year-old brother Luther remained hospitalized at last word. The fire was started by a candle in a bathroom, after the electricity was recently shut off at the Scott home. The New Golden Gate Funeral Home is picking up the cost of the funerals for the family – and the survivors have received lots of community support during the past week. The children’s uncle, William Scott, said the support is very much appreciated – and it’s helping the family through a very difficult time.

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Police guarded the neighborhood around an elementary school in Hartland this morning, after two youngsters said they saw a suspicious armed man yesterday afternoon. Police Chief Robert Rosch said a pair of seven-year-old boys saw a man in dark clothes holding what appeared to be a rifle. They said they heard a loud bang, and then ran back into the Hartland North Elementary School which they had just left. The building was locked down, and police armed with assault rifles searched three acres of woods around the school. Officers did not find anything suspicious, but the search will continue today. A nearby Catholic school did not lock itself down, but Hartland-Lakeside Superintendent Glenn Schilling said his district made the right call. He said it’s important to quote, “err on the side of caution.”

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Four Milwaukee police officers are scheduled to go on trial next April 29th for illegally strip-searching criminal suspects, and checking their cavities for illegal drugs. Officers Michael Vagnini, Jeffrey Dollhopf, Brian Kozolek, and Jacob Knight entered innocent pleas yesterday to a total of 33 charges. Vagnini is the main suspect. He’s charged with 25 counts of illegal strip searches, sexual assault, and misconduct in public office. The charges were filed last month, after a secret John Doe investigation. Prosecutors said that in one case, two officers held a suspect’s arms while another held a gun to the man’s head – and a fourth officer put on a choke-hold which searching the man’s buttocks for drug evidence. Another suspect claimed that he bled from his rectum for several days after police searched it. All four officers are due back in court December 17th, where pre-trial requests will be considered.

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With winter on the way, state officials are reminding folks to protect themselves from carbon monoxide poisoning. It’s the leading cause of accidental poisoning in the U.S., and almost half of all carbon monoxide deaths occur during the winter. CO is an odorless gas that’s emitted from older and unvented furnaces, and other gas-powered appliances. People have been known to die in their sleep from carbon monoxide poisoning. Two years ago, Wisconsin passed a law requiring every house to have carbon monoxide detectors – one on every floor, including the basement. Officials say people should test their CO detectors on a regular basis, change the batteries each year, and make sure all heating appliances have proper vents.

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Republicans continue to lick their wounds over Mitt Romney’s loss in the presidential election. GOP governors met in Las Vegas this week said Romney was not specific enough in describing his vision for the country – and he was too slow to respond to the barrage of criticisms from President Obama and other Democrats. The governors also talked about ways to reclaim the White House in 2016. Wisconsin’s Scott Walker says the Grand Old Party should find new ways to show how Republican policies benefit ordinary Americans. Walker said it’s not that the Republicans’ beliefs are wrong, but quote, “I don’t think we do an effective enough job of articulating those beliefs, and what it means in people’s lives.” Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said the GOP should reach out to middle class voters, stop labeling people as members of special interest groups, and shed the label of what he called “the party for big business and big banks.” Jindal said a lot should be done over the next few years. And while some governors like Virginia’s Bob McDonnell are viewing the 2016 landscape for a possible candidacy, Jindal said people thinking about the next presidential race quote, “need to have their head examined.”

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Wisconsin continues its slow recovery from the Drought-of-2012. The U.S. Drought Monitor says almost 13-percent of the state’s land area is no longer in any stage of drought. That’s up from just nine-percent a week ago. But things are still incredibly dry in far southern and far western Wisconsin. Fifteen-percent of the state’s land area remains in a severe drought, with precipitation shortages of up to eight-inches for the year. Deer hunters will not have to worry too much about starting forest fires when their gun season begins tomorrow. The DNR says most of the state has a low fire danger. The only exceptions are in northwest Wisconsin – where the fire risk is moderate in Barron, Rusk, Sawyer, Price, and Taylor counties. Hunters were hoping for tracking snow, but that’s out of the picture. Clear to partly cloudy skies are in the forecast all weekend, and the next chance of rain is on Monday. Highs will be well above freezing each day in the 40’s-and-50’s, with lows in the 20’s-and-30’s.

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This year was the worst on record for the West Nile virus in Wisconsin. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control said yesterday that the Badger State had 54 human cases of the mosquito-borne virus during 2012. That’s more than the previous high of 48 human cases in 2002, when West Nile was first reported. The CDC reported four deaths in Wisconsin. And 14 Wisconsinites had West Nile without knowing it until they gave blood – and it turned up in tests at that point. As of late October, state officials said that 32 birds and one horse also died from the virus.

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One person was killed and another was sent to a hospital, after a one-vehicle crash Friday in Fond du Lac. It happened around three this morning. Police are investigating.

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State officials say they’re making progress in reducing a large backlog in claims for unemployment benefits. There’s been a big increase in claims that need to be reviewed by hand for various reasons. Three weeks ago, the Workforce Development agency had not reviewed 93-hundred requests for jobless benefits which dated back to July – and those applicants were waiting for months to get their checks. Since then, about 14-hundred of the requests were handled, with the help of 15 additional part-time workers. Spokesman John Dipko said 20 more part-timers will start next month – and they expect to make “significant progress” in reducing the backed-up caseload over the next 10 weeks. He said the July cases have been processed, and they’re now working on claims dating back to around August 20th. The backlog involves cases in which unemployment recipients were overpaid after they had under-reported their incomes – either by mistake or on purpose. Officials say those claims must be reviewed manually, and the most complicated ones can take hours to handle. In other cases, the agency has to make sure that people exhausted the state’s jobless benefits before getting federal extensions. Officials say the applicants will get all the benefits to which they’re entitled, but they’re not being paid until the processing is finished.

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A 16-year-old driver was cited for hit-and-run, after he allegedly struck a seven-year-old girl outside an elementary school near Wausau and kept going. It happened in the town of Rib Mountain about 3:45 Thursday afternoon. Marathon County sheriff’s lieutenant Randy Albert said a crossing guard was leading a group of children through an intersection when the car struck the young girl – and she knocked down several other children in the group. Albert said witnesses gave officers partial information about the vehicle’s license plate – and the driver was found a short time later at his home. He was not taken into custody, but he was cited for hit-and-run while causing injury. Albert said other charges could also be considered. The girl was not identified. She was taken to a Wausau hospital as a precaution – but school officials say she and the others who were knocked down would be fine.

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Wisconsin senators are the only ones to elect their respective parties’ leaders. But that doesn’t mean that the special interests are left out of the action. The state’s largest teachers’ union and the League of Conservation Voters both lobbied Senate Democrats to get them to elect Milwaukee’s Chris Larson as the new minority leader. And the senators did just that on Tuesday – but the vote was close, 8-7 over veteran Senator Jon Erpenbach of Middleton. Racine Democrat John Lehman confirms to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that the teachers and the conservationists both urged him to vote for Larson – who rose to the top of his party despite being in the Capitol for just two years. Larson was among the biggest critics of Governor Scott Walker. The vote was done by secret ballot, so we don’t know who voted for whom. But Erpenbach told the Journal-Sentinel that one of his colleagues betrayed him. He said quote, “I had eight votes when I walked in the door – Somebody was less than honest, and I know who it was.”

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A suburban Milwaukee gynecologist was sentenced to one year in jail and three years of probation today, for having inappropriate sexual contact with four women during their appointments. 48-year-old Evan Saunders of Whitefish Bay was convicted by a jury in September on eight total misdemeanor counts of fourth-degree sexual assault and disorderly conduct. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Ellen Brostrom said Saunders placed limits on Saunders’ work, told him to get assessment for substance abuse and sex offenses, and perform 200 hours of community service. Saunders must also pay restitution – and the amount will be determined at a court hearing on December 19th.

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A 78-year-old Milwaukee woman was found safe Thursday, after she was reported missing Wednesday afternoon. Authorities expressed a particular concern, because Elaine Roskos suffers from severe dementia – and she was not dressed for the colder weather. She was last seen at the Wisconsin Humane Society on Milwaukee’s west side. Police said she was found about 30 blocks to the east around 8:40 this morning. Authorities said she was cold, but otherwise okay. She was taken to a hospital to be checked out.

Tags: news, wisconsin