Friday State News Briefs: Hutchinson Tech. to cut jobs in Eau Claire

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EAU CLAIRE - A high-tech firm in Eau Claire is about to cut another 150 jobs. Hutchinson Technology confirmed yesterday that the layoffs would be complete by this fall.

The company designs and makes small components for computer disk-drives. It’s based in Hutchinson Minnesota, and it had up to 25-hundred employees at its Eau Claire location since it opened almost 18 years ago. The workforce will drop below 600 once the latest round of layoffs is complete. Hutchinson has been moving more of its assembly work to a plant it owns in Thailand.

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A Stevens Point software company filed an official challenge today to its rejection of a state contract to create a statewide database of Wisconsin public school students. Skyward of Stevens Point said it should have been awarded the contract for the $15-million system instead of the winning bidder, Infinite Campus of Blaine, Minn. Both companies already have student data software for schools in various regions of the state. But Skyward serves more Wisconsin schools – and the firm said it would have to leave the state if it didn’t get the statewide contract. Skyward filed its challenge with the Walker administration. It said Skyward’s bid was two-point-six million dollars less per year than what the Minnesota firm offered. And Skyward said the implementation costs identified by the state’s education agency were not reflected in the comparison of the two offers. The new computer system will let schools get information on any student in the state’s public and charter schools – everything from grades to health records. Last year, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation said it would give Skyward $12-million in state tax breaks if it won the contract. Once that news got out, the Walker administration threw out all the bids. And when they re-bid the project, they had former Doyle attorney Cari Anne Renlund oversee the process. She found no problems with the new process – and Walker’s administration said the Minnesota scored higher than Skyward in cost and several technical areas.

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The U.S. Census Bureau said today that the value of Wisconsin’s exports rose by four-point-four percent in 2012, compared to the previous year. According to the new report, just over $23-billion worth of products were exported from the state’s ports at Milwaukee, Green Bay, Superior, and the Mississippi River. And Wisconsin’s increase was a bit higher than the national increase of four-and-a-half percent. Observers say the figures are somewhat deceiving, because they only consider the amount of products exported from each state’s shipping facilities – and not the value of the items actually grown or produced in the individual states. But the Census Bureau’s criteria remains the same – and therefore, its data can equally be compared from year-to-year. Wisconsin officials keep tab on the exports of items actually produced in the Badger State.

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If you’re planning to fly to the Northeast today, you might want to wait if you can. A winter storm that’s moving into the region has canceled hundreds of flights – including 13 flights today in-and-out of Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport. All flights to New York, Newark, and Boston have been called off. Boston expects up to three-feet of snow, with New York to get a foot. According to the Web site Flight-Aware, most airlines in New York were planning to shut down this afternoon – and resume service sometime after noon tomorrow. Chicago’s O’Hare airport had almost 250 flights canceled this morning, plus another100 with delays. The Milwaukee airport’s Web site shows the Mitchell flights which are canceled or delayed. And it lists the airlines that have offered fee waivers for storm-related transfers. Mitchell says fliers who need help or waivers should contact their airlines directly.

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The Parole Board in Ohio was scheduled to decide today whether to spare the life of a death row inmate who committed a crime spree in Ohio, Wisconsin, and four other states. 48-year-old Frederick Treesh is asking for clemency, almost a month before he’s scheduled to be executed on March sixth. Treesh was condemned for shooting a 58-year-old security guard to death while robbing an adult bookstore at Eastlake in Northeast Ohio in August of 1994. It was the final crime in a series of bank-and-business robberies, sexual assaults, car-jackings, and another shooting death in Michigan. There was no immediate word on what the Wisconsin crimes were. The courts have no record of them, since Ohio was the only state where Treesh was prosecuted. Last month, his lawyers made their case for clemency. They told the Ohio parole board that Treesh was high on cocaine at the time of the bookstore killing, and he regrets what happened. But prosecutors said it’s clear that Treesh has still not taken responsibility for what he did. The board’s recommendation will go to Ohio Governor John Kasich, who makes the final decision.

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It used to be that voters got a break every once in a while from all the political campaign sniping. But the head of the Republican National Committee says those days are over. Kenosha native Reince Priebus tells conservative Madison radio host Vicki McKenna on WIBA that the GOP will have to campaign year-round if it wants to win elections. Priebus says Republicans have to attract more of what he calls “low-propensity voters” that include African-Americans and Hispanics. And he says quote, “It’s nothing that you can parachute in on three months before an election … It’s got to be all the time.” Priebus calls it the “new world of the Republican party … a coast-to-coast, granular, community-based campaign year-round including this year and next year.” The GOP’s immediate goals are to take control of the U.S. Senate in 2014, as well as maintaining its majority in state governors’ offices.

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A former Green Bay Packers’ cheerleader has found out that bullying is not what it used to be. Somebody put a photo of Kaitlyn Collins on a Facebook page for Chicago Bears’ fans. Its caption was quote, “Like if you agree the Packers have the worst cheerleaders in the NFL.” 18-thousand comments followed. Most supported Collins, but some were very critical – and one called her an “eyesore.” Collins told WLUK-TV in Green Bay she couldn’t believe some of the things that were said. She and her friends tried to get Facebook to remove the page, but they wouldn’t. So Collins put a video on You-Tube to highlight the offensive remarks, and call attention to cyber-bulling. And yesterday, the Facebook photo and remarks were deleted. And the Bears’ fan page – which is not produced by the team – issued an apology. In the meantime, the Packers issued a statement calling the commentary “extremely offensive.” It said the team expressed support for Collins and urged others to do the same. Collins is a former UW-Green Bay student who cheered at Lambeau in 2009. The team uses cheerleaders from the UW and nearby Saint Norbert College.

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New figures show that a growing number of students from low-income families are not able to finish their degree programs at Wisconsin’s public universities. The UW Board of Regents reviewed a report on the subject yesterday from university officials. It found that low-income students and those not eligible for federal Pell grants graduated in smaller rates since 1998. And the gap between those students and the more well-to-do grew by three-percent for whites, and four-percent for minorities. The UW has had hefty tuition increases in recent years, while federal Pell grants for low-income students have shrunk a couple times. Also, UW-Madison has the smallest need-based financial aid fund among all 12 schools in the Big Ten Conference. UW senior vice president Mark Nook told the Regents that the access gap is due mainly to larger tuition hikes from 2005-through-’07, and the Great Recession which hit afterward – while tuition was still going up five-and-a-half percent a year. Nook told the Regents quote, “We pretty much dared these students to finish” with the large tuition hikes. The access gap comes at a time when the UW is trying to increase its number of degree-holders in order to boost the state’s economy.

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Japan is buying more beef from the United States, and Wisconsin’s beef industry says it’s great news. Wisconsin Public Radio said Japan used to restrict American beef imports due to concerns about mad cow disease. But some of those restrictions were recently relaxed – and U.S. beef imports to Japan are expected to grow from about $850-million a year to around one-and-a-half billion. John Freitag, head of the Wisconsin Beef Council, says the new standards are good for the Badger State, because the industry is going through an especially hard time. The state has around 14,000 cattle farmers – and Freitag said some beef farmers have been thinking about shrinking their herds or getting out of the business due to high feed prices. He believes a stronger market in Japan will give Wisconsin farmers more of an incentive to keep producing.

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A Web site that helps Wisconsinites find jobs is being reworked, so it’s easier to post resumes. The state Workforce Development agency said the Job Center Web site attracted 6,500 more job listings than a year ago. But to apply for them, candidates had to key-in their resume information to a standard form. Now, they can post their resumes directly onto the Web site. Or they can write links to external Web pages where their resumes are located. Officials say the job site has other new improvements as well. People can search for job openings with keywords. They can create profiles that potential employers can find. And they can tie social media into their data. The site has been online since 2008, and officials say they’ve made a lot of improvements since then. Its address is JobCenterOfWisconsin.com

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Just over 12,000 people will start pushing spears into Lake Winnebago tomorrow, with the hopes of bagging huge sturgeon. The annual spearing season will run for 16 days, unless quotas are reached for the prehistoric fish. None of those quotas were reached a year ago, and that’s very unusual. But the water was not as clear as normal during last year’s mild winter – and Ryan Koenigs of the state DNR says the same thing is happening now. He said there’s 6-to-9-feet of visibility on the east side of Lake Winnebago from Stockbridge to Pipe. Koenigs said the water clarity was also worse on the upriver lakes – and it could add up to a long season. License sales were down by about four-and-a-half percent from last year – and it might be because of last year’s poor ice conditions. The mild weather resulted in only half as many shanties going up. This year, Scott Engel of the Otter Street Fishing Club in Oshkosh said the ice is thick enough for snowmobiles and ATV’s, but cars are at risk of falling through. But it’s not like there are not enough sturgeon in the water. The DNR says there are quite a few 200-pounders lurking – and the challenge is to find them. It was just two years ago when a record 212-pound sturgeon was taken.

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Wisconsin has a new state conservationist for the first time in 18 years. The USDA has named Jimmy Bramblett to the post. He’ll oversee the agency’s 55 offices throughout the Badger State, plus a budget that includes $50-million a year in federal conservation aid to Wisconsin farmers and producers. Bramblett has worked in numerous USDA conservation posts. He was most recently the national chief-of-staff to regional conservationists in Washington. Bramblett is Wisconsin’s ninth state conservation since the agency began in 1935. He replaces Pat Leavenworth, who retired last year after almost two decades serving the state.

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The Green Bay area has at least 10-percent more homeless people than a year ago. That’s according to a recent survey by the Brown County Homeless-and-Housing Coalition. It counted 481 people living in shelters or on the streets as of January 30th – and at least one coalition member thinks the figure might be low. Meika Burnikel said last week’s count took place while it was snowing – and some homeless people could have riding out the storm in 24-hour grocery stores and other places where they could have gone undetected. The survey found that all five of Green Bay’s emergency shelters were at their capacities, or close to it. They counted 470 people in the shelters, up from 425 during a milder winter a year ago. The city gave a citation to a homeless shelter in December for being over its capacity. The city and the Green Bay Catholic Diocese have been working to resolve the case.

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The snowstorm is gone – but strong winds caused drifting in much of eastern Wisconsin during the night. The Kenosha area received the most. Pleasant Prairie got eight inches yesterday and last night, while nearby Kenosha picked up seven-and-a-half. The Milwaukee and Madison picked up 4-to-6 inches, as did the Fox Valley and east central Wisconsin. Most other parts of Wisconsin got another inch-or-two. And freezing rain was a problem in much of the state. Clark County authorities reported numerous slide-offs on the Highway 29 expressway, and Kenosha County had around 30 traffic mishaps by mid-afternoon yesterday. The Milwaukee Art Museum closed early. Partly cloudy and dry conditions are expected throughout Wisconsin the next two days, with highs in the 20’s and 30’s. The next storm system is due in Sunday. Forecasters expect rain and freezing rain in the south, and snow in the north – but they say it’s too early to say which areas will get what.

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Wisconsinites are legendary coupon-clippers. And a new survey shows that Milwaukee is also among the national leaders in redeeming online and mobile phone discounts. Coupons.com says Milwaukee ranks 20th among U.S. metros in the amount of savings per resident for online coupons, and 21st in savings from their mobile phones. Also, the survey says the Midwest is the most frugal part of the country, with 11 cities in the Top-25 spots.

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An Oscar-nominated actor was one of the two people arrested for interrupting a meeting of the UW Board of Regents in Madison today. James Cromwell, who starred in “Babe” and “LA Confidential” was hauled out of the meeting after he screamed that UW researchers were being cruel to cats in their studies. The 73-year-old Cromwell told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that he was filming a TV series a few weeks ago when PETA – the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals – asked him to do the Madison protest. PETA spokesman Jeremy Beckham of Salt Lake City was the other protestor arrested – and he fell limp while he was taken out of the Regents’ meeting. He said both men have court dates set for next Thursday. PETA said about 30 cats a year are starved and decapitated at the UW, for brain research that has not met its goal of improving the hearing ability of humans. Eric Sandgren of the UW Animal Resources Center said PETA’s claims are false – and the USDA has done independent studies which also rejected the claims of the animal rights’ group.

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A judge in Jefferson County has told prosecutors to investigate the drowning death of a foster child that happened almost a quarter-century ago. Eight-year-old Artis Echoles was said to have disappeared while swimming in the Bark River at a campground in 1988. The coroner at the time ruled the death as an accident. But Artis’ foster mother – Carmin White of Racine – she never believed the coroner’s ruling. White, who later had problems of her own that sent her to prison, said she never read a report on the boy’s death until last December. And when she read what witnesses had said, she wrote the Circuit Court to ask for an investigation. According to Judge Jennifer Weston, witnesses saw a man throw Artis into the river and hold his head under the water. Weston ordered the district attorney’s office last week to review the matter. White said she just wants to know what happened to the youngster.

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The Rock County Sheriff’s office thinks it is dealing with a possible murder-attempted suicide case. A woman found shot to death in a barn had apparently been killed by a neighbor. The shooting suspect was found injured with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside another building on the rural property. He was taken to UW Hospital in Madison and is reported to be in critical condition. Investigators say it’s not clear yet what motivated the shooting of 59-year old Christine Gestrich. An autopsy is being done on her body today.

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The Wauwatosa Police Department lost more than an officer when Jennifer Sebena was killed on Christmas Eve. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s community news Web site for Wauwatosa said the Police Department spent $53,000 in overtime in the eight days after the shooting – plus nine-thousand more in overtime costs since the start of the New Year. And that doesn’t include the unpaid time that the department’s salaried personnel spent on the case. Captain Jeff Sutter told the Community Now site that he worked 19-hour days for eight days in a row. He says people don’t realize all the leads that have to be followed in such a high-profile case. Sebena’s husband Ben was charged with the shooting death, and he has pleaded innocent with his next court hearing set for March first. He reportedly admitted being a jealous husband, but the motive for his wife’s death has not been disclosed. Police expect to be tracking down leads until the case is settled – and all the way through a trial if one is held. Sutter said the investigation is not even close to being finished – and any information about possible alibis or defense claims has to be run down, and checked out at every possible angle.

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An environmental group has brought back a TV ad it ran a year ago, calling on state lawmakers to kill a plan to relax regulations on new mines in Wisconsin. The League of Conservation Voters says the ad is running statewide. It says the bill would expose families to deadly chemicals. The ad is the same one that ran during last year’s debate on mining. Gogebic Taconite said at the time that it was nothing but fear-mongering. Lawmakers are trying to for a second time to get Gogebic to open a new iron ore mine in Ashland and Iron counties. Majority Republicans say it would create thousands of jobs at the mine site and elsewhere in Wisconsin. Democrats say it eases up on environmental protections. The Bad River Indian tribe said the some of the mine’s pollution would go downstream and hurt the tribe’s reservation near Ashland. Two legislative committees have endorsed the new package, which includes 11 new amendments aimed mainly at preserving environmental protections. Democrats say the changes don’t go far enough, and none of their members voted for the bill in their respective committees.

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A state appeals court said a waitress was not paid her minimum wage when she worked at a Racine County restaurant. And today, the court said Shawn Johnson of Waterford is entitled to more than the $10,000 she was originally awarded to pay her legal fees. Johnson sued the Roma Italian restaurant, saying she was underpaid in violation of both state-and-federal minimum wage laws. She asked for $112,000 for both unpaid wages and legal fees. And the Second District Appellate Court in Waukesha said it did not know why a circuit judge awarded so much less than what Johnson requested. The case was sent back to the Racine County Circuit Court for a new determination of damages.

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An Oshkosh man is due back in court Monday, after he was accused of causing a fatal traffic crash while he was driving with a suspended license while drunk. A $50,000 cash bond was ordered for 57-year-old William Doemel on six felony charges that include causing death-and-injury by OWI and driving with a suspended-or-revoked license. Winnebago County authorities said Doemel was driving an SUV which struck a van head-on in the town of Nekimi in December. 80-year-old Robert Zentner was killed, and his wife broke seven ribs, a knee, and a wrist. Doemel’s blood alcohol level was point -285 – or about three-and-a-half times the legal limit of .08. Officials said Doemel’s license had been suspended due to a previous drunk driving conviction from 2011. Besides his Monday appearance, Doemel is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing next Thursday, when a judge will decide if there’s enough evidence to order a trial.

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