Western Wisconsin News Briefs: Eau Claire pair face attempted homicide charges after weekend bar fight

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EAU CLAIRE - A shooting last weekend outside an Eau Claire tavern has two people – a man and a woman – facing attempted homicide charges.

Eau Claire police were called to the Idlewood bar at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday on a report of shots fired. Witnesses told officers two people in the bar got into a fight and it spilled outside. One of the two fighters fired six shots, with five hitting the side of the building. Nobody was hit and no injuries were reported. The sixth shot entered the living room of an apartment above the bar. Police have arrested 36 year old Rodney Craig and 32 year old Shirley Heath of Eau Claire. Investigators say a handgun and other physical evidence linking them to the crime has been recovered.

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A Madison area man was sentenced today to three years in prison, after he was caught driving with 11-thousand-dollars of heroin on a freeway near La Crosse. 32-year-old Equon Hopkins of Fitchburg must also spend seven years under extended supervision when he gets out. And he must get mental health treatment for what La Crosse County Circuit Judge Elliott Levine called “intensive” issues. A sheriff’s deputy stopped Hopkins’ car in July of 2011 for a faulty tail-light and a damaged license plate – and the officer found heroin and marijuana in the vehicle. A passenger told the deputy that Hopkins wanted her to hide the evidence in her body before he stopped the car. Hopkins pleaded guilty to possessing heroin with the intent to deliver. A second drug charge was dropped in a plea deal.

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One of the country’s largest plants to convert wastewater into electricity is expected to open this summer in northwest Wisconsin. Green-Whey Energy says it has secured financing to build a $28.5 million dollar anaerobic digester in Turtle Lake. It plans to use a half-million gallons of wastewater from area food plants to produce methane gas – and the gas will provide power to generators that will make three-point-two megawatts of electricity. That’s enough to provide power to over three-thousand homes. The facility will also produce heat and fertilizer. The food plant wastewater is currently being spread over rural land. Project officials say it will help food processors reduce their costs of getting rid of wastewater – eliminate odors caused by spreading – and prevent phosphorus from going into lakes and streams. Laurie Tarman, head of the Turtle Lake Village Board, says it will allow more food production without taxing the wastewater facilities. The new digester is expected to create 50-to-70 construction jobs, and 13 permanent operating jobs once it opens.

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