Tuesday State News Briefs: State budget surplus forecasted at $342 million

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MADISON - Governor Scott Walker’s administration says the current two-year state budget is expected to end with a $342-million surplus next June 30th. But for the next budget, state agencies have asked for $171-million dollars more than the funding that’s expected to be available.

The figures were included in a legally-required memo to the Republican governor and lawmakers in both houses. The Administration Department says the projected surplus in the current budget does not include 125-million dollars which is in the state’s rainy day fund. And Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch said there’s no need to pass an emergency package of spending cuts in the first part of next year. Officials said state revenues are projected to increase by three-point-eight percent in the first year of the next budget, which ends in June of 2014 – and revenues are expected to jump another three-and-a-half percent in the budget’s second year. The Republican Walker will submit his budget to lawmakers in February. They’ll have more than four months to pass it. Walker has talked about the possibility of an income tax cut, tying state school aid to student performance, and ending the state’s same-day voter registration system. Democrats have suggested more funding to schools instead of a tax cut.

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The head of Milwaukee’s Election Commission says he’s got proof that college students and renters would be hurt the most if the state gets rid of same-day voter registration. Governor Scott Walker told a California audience last Friday night that he prefers trashing Wisconsin’s 36-year-old policy of letting voters register at the polls. Neil Albrecht of Milwaukee’s election agency said it would hurt those who move most often – namely college youngsters, renters, and the poor. The Journal Sentinel asked Albrecht to prove his claim, by finding out where the most Election Day registrations were for Walker’s recall election on June fifth. The paper said there were just over 43,000 same-day registrants – and most of the sign-ups were in the wards at-or-near UW-Milwaukee, Marquette University, and the Milwaukee School of Engineering. And Albrecht said those schools were not in session that day. He predicts a much higher level of activity from the campus areas when he reviews the same-day registrations from the November sixth presidential contest – which was carried by Democrat Barack Obama in Milwaukee and the state as a whole.

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A suburban Milwaukee man is free on bond, after he was charged with posing as a newspaper photo-journalist who claimed to profile female high school athletes. 68-year-old Gary Medrow posted 500-dollars after appearing in Ozaukee County Circuit Court yesterday on four misdemeanor charges – two counts of phone harassment and two counts of disorderly conduct. He’s due back in court December fifth for a plea hearing. Medrow was arrested last week, after police said he posed as a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel photographer and asked girls from Verona to the Milwaukee suburbs to meet him for news stories. The newspaper said it notified school athletic directors as soon as it caught wind of the matter. The Journal-Sentinel and other media outlets said it’s their practice to notify coaches before seeking interviews and photo-shoots with prep athletes – except immediately following sporting events that the reporters cover.

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A $100,000 cash bond has been set for a Milwaukee man accused of stabbing his mother’s boyfriend 13 times, and hitting him with a hammer. 24-year-old Olajuawon Bell is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the death of John Evans at her mother’s apartment last Thursday. Prosecutors said Evans jarred Bell’s mother awake by screaming at her son to quote, “stop.” She noticed her son carrying a hammer and Evans’ body lying in front of her TV – and she quoted Bell as saying, “John tried to kill me.” Authorities said Bell then told his mother to go back to bed – but when he went to the bathroom, she snuck out and called 911. Police said Bell fled the house before officers could arrive, but he was found a short time later at a nearby gas station. He’s due back in court a week from tomorrow, when a judge will decide if there’s enough evidence to order a trial. Court records showed that Bell was convicted of battery in Dane County in 2010.

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An elderly deer hunter is okay, after he got stranded on an island in the Horicon Marsh. Dodge County authorities said 75-year-old Donald Schlegel of Horicon was hunting alone on marsh property in the town of Burnett, when he lost track of his boat. Officials said he had no way of calling for help – and except for a small flashlight, he was not carrying any survival equipment. His family was looking for him last evening when they found his truck at a boat landing, and they called for help. Deputies managed to see Schlegel’s dim flashlight during a steady rain – and they finally found him safe, just as the temperatures were about to fall.

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Wisconsin is doing better than the nation as a whole in reducing its premature births. The March of Dimes said 10-point-four percent of all live births in Wisconsin last year came with less than a full 37-weeks of gestation. That’s down from by one-percentage point from 2006. But it’s still eight-tenths-of-a-percent higher than the goal set by the March of Dimes for reducing the state’s premature birth rate to below double-digits by 2020. All told, the group gave Wisconsin a grade of “B” for its efforts. That’s higher than the national grade of “C” given by the March of Dimes – even though pre-term births across the U.S. dropped for the fifth straight year. The group says thousands of more infants are getting a healthy start in life – and billions in health-and-social costs are being saved. But the March of Dimes says more can be done. It said the premature birth rate of uninsured women went up by more than a percentage point last year, to over 11-percent. The March of Dimes said state officials should expand insurance coverage for women of child-bearing age – and employers should create workplaces that quote, “support maternal and infant health.”

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Wisconsin is one of 37 states where unemployment went down last month – and the Badger State is among 23 where the jobless rate is below seven-percent. The U.S. Labor Department said Wisconsin had a six-point-nine-percent unemployment rate for October on a seasonally-adjusted basis. That’s four-tenths lower than it was in September – and Wisconsin had the nation’s third largest drop in its jobless rate, behind Alaska and the biggest decliner, South Carolina. But in Wisconsin’s case, the lower rate was not due to increased hiring. Labor officials said the Badger State lost a preliminary total of 7,500 jobs, including six-thousand in the private sector. Those figures normally get revised later, after officials have time to survey more employers. The state’s jobless rate is a full-point below the national figure of seven-point-nine percent. And the national rate is down a full one-percent from a year ago.

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Most of the 90 cubic yards of junk removed by a deep tunnel cleaning crew in Milwaukee was floatable, like plastic bottles, basketballs and other debris. The wastewater storage system was cleared of trash for the first time since the three segments of deep tunnels went into service in 1994. Among the items recovered – a bowling ball. Cleaning crews on three boats worked a week and a half to clear the plastic and other stuff out of the tunnel. The original 19-mile system of wastewater storage tunnels was inspected last February, but the cleaning effort was delayed until this month.

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Manitowoc Police say the body of a 24 year old local man was found in Lake Michigan near the city’s car ferry dock Sunday morning. An officer had spotted a strange-looking object floating in the harbor. As the fire department prepared to send a boat out, the Coast Guard arrived, went out to investigate and confirmed it was a dead body. Authorities say the body had been in the water for less than 36 hours, but it isn’t known how the person died. His name hasn’t been released and Manitowoc police say they are still trying to determine how the man ended up in the water.

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The FBI closely monitored the daughter of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin after her much-publicized defection to the U.S. in 1967. The Associated Press obtained newly-declassified documents about Lana Peters, who died a year ago on Thanksgiving at a nursing home in Richland Center. The documents showed that the FBI was getting details from informants about the arrival of Peters – and how it was affecting international relations at the time. She was known as Svetlana Alliluyeva when she arrived – and three years later, she married William Peters, an architectural apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright. The AP said the government’s files contained mainly memos and news articles from the late 1960’s. One memo from 1967 reportedly said Peters’ defection would have a quote, “profound effect” on anyone else who thought about a similar move from the former Soviet bloc. Peters had lived in several countries before settling in southwest Wisconsin at the urging of Wright’s widow.

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It’s been a rough year for the Stahl family of the Campbellsport area. First, high school soccer player Sabrina Stahl was one of three girls killed in an SUV crash in February. Now, authorities say Stahl’s brother – 17-year-old Nickolos – backed his vehicle through a garage door on Saturday night, killing his uncle Robert and injuring three others – including another uncle. Fond du Lac County sheriff’s deputies said 59-year-old Robert Stahl was part of a group that was talking in the garage about their deer hunting plans for the next day – and Nickolos Stahl was trying to leave the property when he accidentally backed his vehicle into the garage. His uncle Robert died at the scene. The other uncle, Richard Stahl, was treated at a Fond du Lac hospital and later released. Officials said all three injured people had non-life-threatening problems.

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Two people killed in a plane crash in southeast Wisconsin were identified today as 50-year-old Todd Parfitt of Antioch, Illinois and his 14-year-old daughter Nicole. Authorities said the single-engine plane was apparently trying to land at the Burlington Municipal Airport, when it went down in a cornfield. Both victims were thrown from the crash. The mishap occurred early yesterday afternoon. The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are investigating.

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