Sunday State News Briefs: Majerus honored at funeral

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MILWAUKEE - The funeral for former Marquette University basketball coach Rick Majerus was held yesterday at the Church of the Gesu in the heart of the Marquette University campus in downtown Milwaukee.

Hundreds of friends and fans gathered on the campus to remember the passionate college coach who died of heart failure. Majerus was 64 years old. Majerus won 517 games as a basketball coach, producing 15 seasons of 20 wins and two of 30 wins. He led Utah to the NCAA title game in 1998. Majerus died of heart failure December 1st in Los Angeles. The Marquette Golden Eagles will honor Majerus by wearing a black and yellow ribbon with the initials “RM” on their uniforms for the rest of this season. Coach Buzz Williams honored Majerus at Saturday’s game against Wisconsin by wearing a trademark black turtleneck.

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Local officials say they hope the former site of the Chrysler engine plant in Kenosha can be used in some form of industrial development. Demolition at that location started last week when crews began tearing down some of the bigger buildings. That work is expected to continue for the next five or six months. Once the work is completed, the city will have the option of taking control of the property. If it takes that action, it would be responsible for cleanup and future development on the site. Kenosha has received about 16 million dollars in federal and state funding so far. Officials estimate cleanup and remediation will take about a year and a half.

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Janesville police say no one has been arrested, but they are considering the death of a woman found yesterday a homicide case. A man who was inside the home was taken to a hospital with unspecified medical issues. Janesville police were called to the address early Saturday to check on the report of a woman who was late getting home. Officers say they forced a door open and found her dead inside. Police say they’re not sure if the man with the medical condition played any role in the apparent homicide.

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Wisconsin-based Johnson Controls says it will close a Kentucky plant next year because it has excess capacity in one area of its business. Up to 400 workers could be put off the job. A mass layoff notice was filed with the Kentucky Office of Employment and Training last Friday. The plant in Louisville makes injection-molded interior components for vehicles. Some of the workers could be transferred to other plants Johnson Controls runs.

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The Department of Administration says it wants to spend almost a half-million dollars for kitchen renovations at the governor’s mansion. The request for the improvements to both the first-floor kitchen and the second-floor private quarters kitchenette originally came from First Lady Tonette Walker. The request was reportedly made to the State Building Commission because the first-floor kitchen hasn’t been updated for more than 26 years. That facility prepares food for more than 15,000 visitors each year. The Wisconsin Executive Residence Foundation is reportedly raising money for the project, but it isn’t known how much help that effort will be.

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An early morning fire at an Oshkosh duplex leaves one person and a dog dead. Fire officials haven’t determined the source yet – or, whether it was accidental. Police report they got a call about a fire in the upper portion of a duplex at about 4:20 a.m. yesterday. Both the person and the dog were dead when officers arrived. Crews were reportedly on the scene for about six hours. The identity of the dead person hasn’t been released. An autopsy is being conducted by the Winnebago County Coroner’s Office.

Tags: news, wisconsin, marquette