Wednesday State News Briefs: Racine businessman rescues Christmas for family

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RACINE - A Racine businessman has rescued Christmas for a local family.

Police say a thief got into Caylie Cunningham’s home through an unlocked door while she was away and took all the presents under her tree. Included were Christmas gifts for her seven year old daughter and two year old son. Businessman Scott Petersen says he read the story about the crime in the Racine Journal-Times newspaper. Petersen says he has kids of his own and couldn’t stop thinking about Cunningham and her children, so he sent both of the children a gift-wrapped present and gave their mother Walmart gift cards worth $500.

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Congressman Ron Kind says a report from Citizen Action of Wisconsin shows why he feels the Affordable Care Act is so important. The report found health care costs vary widely in different parts of the state, with some residents paying as much as 18 hundred dollars a year more than people living in other areas of Wisconsin. Kind is a Democrat from La Crosse. He says the U.S. needs to change the way it pays for health care, with the focus placed on the value and quality of care, rather than the volume of services offered. Kind says he hopes to work with federal officials to design an exchange for Wisconsin after Governor Walker decided the state wouldn’t form its own exchange.

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Designation of a new Wisconsin Rustic Road in Sauk County brings the total miles in the state’s system to 640. Governor Scott Walker added Bundy Hollow Road in the Town of LaValle as State Rustic Road number 112. Wisconsin’s Rustic Road system was created in 1973 to preserve scenic, lightly-traveled country roads for use by bikers, hikers and motorists. Rustic Roads have a speed limit of 45 miles per hour. Bundy Hollow Road is slightly less than three miles long.

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Wauwatosa Police said today they’re quote, “working with a person-of-interest” in the Christmas Eve slaying of ‘Tosa police officer Jennifer Sebena. A joint statement from the local police and the state Justice Department did not indicate whether the person is a suspect in the shooting death of the 30-year-old Sebena. The state is heading up the investigation, and both agencies said they quote, “continue to pursue multiple investigative leads.” They also repeated that there’s no reason to believe there’s an imminent threat to the general public. Sebena was shot to death early Monday morning near the downtown Wauwatosa fire station. She failed to respond to a radio call, and it took officers two hours to find her body. Funeral services are tentatively set for Saturday.

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A horse therapy group from southern Wisconsin will march in President Obama’s inaugural parade on January 21st. A non-profit group from Deerfield called “At Ease” will supply three horses and three riders in the procession which kicks off Obama’s second term. “At Ease” is a horse therapy group for military members, veterans, and their families. The group started about three years ago. By the way, the inaugural parade is being held on Monday, January 21st because the constitutionally-required swearing-in date of January 20th falls on a Sunday. But if past tradition is followed, Obama will take his oath privately on the 20th – and will then hold a public inaugural swearing-in speech, address, and parade on the following Monday.

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A long-time Madison sports broadcaster and restaurant owner died today. A relative said 74-year-old Marshall Shapiro died at a hospice center in Madison. Shapiro was a life-long Madison resident. He owned the Nitty Gritty restaurant-and-bar from 1968-through-2009. He starred in a children’s TV show called “Marshall the Marshal” in the mid-to-late-1960’s. Shapiro later became a sports reporter-and-anchor for WKOW-TV and WISM Radio – and he was a radio broadcaster for Wisconsin Badger sports, including hosting the coaches' show for former UW head coach Dave McClain. Shapiro also served on the city’s Alcohol License Review committee. And at his bar he helped a half-million people celebrate their birthdays. His daughter Ragen said Shapiro was treated two years ago for a brain cancer – and he was so proud of Madison that he gave to the community in so many ways. Mayor Paul Soglin wrote on Facebook that Shapiro was quote, “a wonderful father, husband, friend, citizen, sports fan, and human being.” Funeral services are set for Friday morning.

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Wisconsin will finish 2012 with its highest number of whooping cough cases in years. State health officials said there were almost 57-hundred confirmed and probable instances of whooping cough as of December 14th. That’s almost five times as many cases as the previous year, when 1,200 were reported. Back in 2004, the Badger State had 5,600 pertussis cases – and none of the following years were even close until this year. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control said 93 of every 100-thousand Wisconsinites had whooping cough this year through November 23rd. That’s the highest rate in the nation – and it’s more than eight times the national average. Pertussis, the medical name for whooping cough, is a highly contagious respiratory condition. It can appear as a bad cold in adults – but it can be a deadly disease for young children.

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Candidates for the spring non-partisan elections have one more week to submit their nomination papers. There are two statewide contests this spring, for State Supreme Court Justice and for state public school Superintendent. Candidates for both those posts must submit at least two-thousand valid nominating signatures to the state elections’ agency by the end of the business day next Wednesday. Those running for thousands of local government and school board offices have the same deadline for submitting their nominating signatures to their local clerks. In most cases, offices with three-or-more candidates will have primary elections on February 19th, and the two top vote-getters will advance to the general election on April second. For the Supreme Court, lemon law attorney Vince Megna and Marquette law professor Ed Fallone have announced that they’ll run against Justice Pat Roggensack, who’s up for another 10-year term. State Assembly Republican Don Pridemore of Hartford has announced a bid against School Superintendent Tony Evers, who’s seeking his second four-year term.

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A long-time park official in Milwaukee is a finalist for the new parks director in Dallas Texas. Sue Black is competing for the job with an assistant parks-and-recreation director in Dallas. The Dallas Morning News says a new director will be hired early next year. Black was fired in August after 10 years as the Milwaukee County parks director. She did not go quietly, saying she was never given a reason for her dismissal. County Executive Chris Abele said he gave her a reason – but it was never disclosed.

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The Wisconsin Potato-and-Vegetable Growers Association has ended its contract with Suzy Favor Hamilton. In the weekly newsletter “Tater Talk,” group officials said they spoke with the three-time Olympian – and she again confirmed her work as a high-priced call girl for a Las Vegas escort service over the last year. In a series of Tweets last week, the 44-year-old Favor Hamilton said her long-time depression made her do it. The Antigo-based potato association hired Favor Hamilton to be its spokesperson back in 2011. Among other things, she had several interviews in “The Badger Common Tater” magazine, and she represented the group at the Antigo Tater Trot races the past two years. Favor Hamilton, who now lives in Madison, agreed to the contract revocation. And the potato growers’ said they wished her well in quote, “finding stability in her future.” Favor Hamilton said she knew things like this would happen. Disney has cut ties with her, as did the Rock-and-Roll Marathon running series.

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Two men are still facing charges, after three men were accused of selling the illegal foreign drug khat in the Green Bay area. 30-year-old Abdignani Raage of Green Bay was recently put on two years’ probation for possessing a controlled substance, and possessing a non-narcotic with the intent to deliver. 37-year-old Abdimajid Said of Minneapolis is scheduled to have a two-day trial starting January 16th in Brown County. 31-year-old Hussein Salad of Howard is due back in court January 28th for a pre-trial hearing. Police said all three defendants are believed to be immigrants from Somalia. Khat is illegal there – but authorities say it’s still very popular in that country. It’s been illegal in the U.S. for almost 20 years – and federal officials say the high is similar to that of meth-amphetamines or cocaine. Authorities said they intercepted two boxes of khat about 14 months ago, sent from the Netherlands to a location in Green Bay. Police said they arrested the three men when they picked up the package. It’s the first khat-related case in the Green Bay area – but as the region’s Somali population grows, the drug is expected to become more common.

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A Christmas Day storm in Oklahoma was blamed for the traffic death of an elderly Milwaukee woman. The State Highway Patrol said a pickup truck slid into the opposite lanes of Interstate-44, and struck a car head-on. A passenger in that car, 76-year-old Grace Hanson of Milwaukee, was killed. It happened in Cotton County Oklahoma near the border with Texas.

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It’s been 15 years since Wisconsin legally recognized that the public has a right to know where convicted sex offenders are living. And a process that was once marked by tense public meetings has evolved into a much calmer process in which the public can use the Internet to keep closer tabs on sex offenders in their neighborhoods. And officials say there’s been a grudging acceptance by people to the idea that sex offenders have a right to live someplace after they’ve done their prison time. When the notification law was first passed, residents who were about to become neighbors with sex offenders got into shouting matches with officials at meetings about the offenders’ placements. But now, Appleton Police Sergeant Polly Olson tells the Appleton Post-Crescent newspaper that very few people attend such meetings – those attending have gotten a lot quieter – and the meetings are not even held in many cases. Schools and neighborhoods get more targeted notifications nowadays, while residents use several state Web sites to stay informed. Also, Olson says law enforcement has adopted more effective strategies to keep an eye on sex offenders – and prevent them from offending again.

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Public employees who retire would have to wait longer to return to their old jobs, under a proposal from a state lawmaker. State Senator Rob Cowles (R-Green Bay) wants to reduce the practice of “double dipping” – in which retirees return to their jobs later, and then draw both a pension and a paycheck. Right now, employees must be retired for at least 30 days before they can come back. Cowles wants to extend the waiting period to between 90-and-120 days. Officials say retirees often come back because it takes longer than expected to hire their replacements. Cowles says his measure would give agencies more incentives to step up their hiring processes, and bring in replacements quicker. A state audit recently showed that 2,800 state-and-local public workers retired, came back, and then got pensions-and-paychecks at the same time. Cowles also says the state needs to have clear policies in place for investigating cases in which employees retired with a promise to be rehired later. Those arrangements are illegal. But media reports said a former UW-Green Bay official was able to prearrange a return, after retiring in 2011 in protest of Governor Scott Walker’s actions to public workers.

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A woman died in a one-car crash in Milwaukee on Christmas Night. The county medical examiner’s office confirms the death – but most details of the mishap were not immediately available. Reports said the woman was a passenger in a vehicle – and the driver was taken to a hospital.

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An Army colonel from Janesville is about to be promoted to brigadier general. President Obama has nominated 46-year-old Andrew Poppas for the promotion. The U.S. Senate must confirm the ranking – but that’s normally a formality. Poppas has spent the last seven months as the deputy operations commander for the Army’s 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. It’s a post that’s normally reserved for a brigadier general. Poppas most recently served abroad in Afghanistan for a one-year tour which ended in May of 2011. He’s scheduled to return to Afghanistan in February. Poppas graduated from Janesville Craig High School in 1984.

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In Neenah, kids will eventually play in a spot where police officers once practiced their shooting skills. The city recently voted to spend $75,000 to remove contaminated soil on 12 acres where Neenah Police had a shooting range for about 50 years. Once the land is cleaned up, it will be given to the town of Clayton, which will turn it into a public park. That’s not expected to happen for a while. Neenah officials have until May of 2014 to remove lead contaminants from the police bullets. Police lieutenant Jeff Malcore said it’s a small price to pay, considering all the years that his department was able to use the site for free. The land was recently owned by the late John and Inez Noffke. Their estate donated the site to the Town of Clayton.

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Brown County prosecutors said a sheriff’s deputy did nothing wrong when he chased down a stolen car at 90-miles-an-hour, and struck another vehicle in which a woman was critically injured. District Attorney David Lasee said deputy Rueben Meisner did not commit recklessness or criminal negligence in the July seventh incident on the Highway 41 expressway near Green Bay. Authorities said the stolen car got into a hit-and-run crash in Oconto County – and officers had chased the vehicle south into Brown County before Meisner’s squad car swerved to avoid spike-sticks that another deputy laid on the road to try and stop the offending driver. The squad car slammed into a vehicle driven by 27-year-old Michelle Lecker of Milwaukee. Her fiancé had minor injuries. Meisner, who’s 54, returned to duty after being injured. Reports said Lecker went through several months of rehab and treatments – and she has filed papers indicating that she may seek her medical payments in a civil lawsuit.

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Diabetics are caught in the middle, as regional Medicare contractors are split on whether to cover a treatment that could give kidney transplants to more patients. Wisconsin does not cover the treatments. But one of the state’s largest health insurers, WPS of Madison, is directly involved in the issue. 51-year-old Susan McInerney of Michigan has been on dialysis for six years – and she could not get a kidney transplant because her anti-body levels are too high. For almost a year, McInerney was given a treatment to reduce those anti-bodies, thus making her a better candidate for a transplant. Medicare covered her treatments until last summer, when Michigan changed Medicare contractors. The new one, WPS, said the treatments were experimental and should not be covered by Medicare. McInerney told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that it cut off her “saving grace.” The treatments involve higher doses of intravenous immuno-globulin. Some doctors have questioned their effectiveness, and several transplant centers have stopped providing them. But doctors in Michigan and Indiana who were giving the treatments have asked WPS to reconsider, and cover them. Tim Taber of Indiana University says it saves lives. WPS says it cannot comment due to the challenge.

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Authorities in Racine County are trying to determine what caused a house fire that killed a person. Fire-fighters were called to a one-story structure in Mount Pleasant just after 12:20 on Christmas morning. When they arrived, there were flames and heavy smoke pouring from the house. It took fire-fighters about 15 minutes to find the victim, who was pronounced dead at the scene. South Shore battalion chief Steve Salvo said it was not immediately certain whether the victim occupied the house – or had permission to be there. He said neighbors had indicated that the most recent occupants had moved to Texas, even though there was still some furniture inside. The victim was badly burned, and the person’s name was not immediately released. Salvo said the blaze did not appear to have been caused by a candle or careless smoking – and there appeared to be some type of extenuating circumstances.

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Sheriff’s officials know that it’s never easy for kids to visit their parents who are behind bars – especially at Christmas-time. So in Madison, all children who visit the Dane County Jail have been getting a stuffed animal and a new book as part of a program called “Books and Bears.” Sergeant Michael Connors says jail visits are especially scary for some youngsters. He says the books and stuffed animals make it more comfortable for the children – it gives them a positive encounter with officers – and it brightens the holidays for the families, at a difficult time for them. Community donations provide the funding.

Tags: news, wisconsin