State News Roundup: Former Antigo principal's sentencing hearing delayed
Wisconsin News-- Former Antigo football coach and elementary principal John Lund is having his sentencing delayed for dealing drugs.
Former Antigo football coach and elementary principal John Lund is having his sentencing delayed for dealing drugs. The 48-year-old Lund was supposed to be sentenced March sixth. But at a court hearing yesterday, a prosecutor cited medical reasons for delaying the matter to April fifth. Lund struck a plea deal just before he was supposed to go on trial a month-and-a-half ago. He pleaded guilty to one count of manufacturing marijuana with the intent to sell it. Six other counts were dropped. The state recommends a six-month term in the county jail and three years of probation. A Langlade County judge will have the final say. Lund was accused of helping sell pot to teachers in Antigo and Merrill. He resigned after he was first charged over 13 months ago. Authorities said the school drug ring was part of a larger business between Wausau and Bass Lake which also sold cocaine, and about 15 people were charged. Most were teachers who got deferred prosecution agreements for using the drug. One defendant was given six months in jail. Four others had their cases pending at last word.
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Wisconsin’s older adults were hospitalized with the flu at a much higher rate than the nation as a whole this winter. State epidemiologist Tom Haupt said 210 of every 100-thousand adults 65-and-older landed in the hospital with the flu. That’s higher than the national rate of 154 seniors hospitalized per hundred-thousand. And in Milwaukee, the rate was even higher than Wisconsin’s, with a rate of 265 hospitalized. The U-S Centers for Disease Control said this winter’s flu shot did a bad job of protecting older people against a severe H-3-N-2 strain. But that still doesn’t explain why Wisconsinites fell ill at higher rates than their fellow Americans. Milwaukee disease control director Paul Biedrzycki (bid-zick’-ee) says a reduced access to medical care by seniors might be one reason – along with the underlying health conditions of minority residents who live in poverty. He says minorities have higher rates of chronic illnesses like diabetes – and they can reduce their immune systems’ ability to fight off the flu, even with vaccine. National health officials have yet to analyze reasons for the higher rates of elderly hospitalizations.
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A former Wausau area woman has been missing for five days in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, and her husband is under arrest for suspicion of homicide. 30-year-old Kira Steger Trevino of Saint Paul was reported missing last Friday after she failed to show up for her job as a clothing store manager at Bloomington’s Mall of America. Her car was found Saturday in a mall parking ramp which she does not normally use – and her purse and cell-phone were found in the vehicle. Saint Paul Police searched the couple’s home and found enough evidence to suggest that a crime was committed there. And that led to the arrest of 37-year-old Jeffrey Trevino. Police are not saying yet what the evidence is, since the case remains under investigation. Investigators also said a roommate of the Trevinos is cooperating with authorities. Kira Steger Trevino is a 2001 graduate of Schofield D-C Everest High School. Friends and relatives have started a Facebook page to gather information – and Saint Paul Police are asking the public for tips that would help nail down their case.
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Wisconsinites are either gambling less – or they’re having better luck. An Indian gaming analyst said the state’s 11 tribes collected about five-percent less in casino revenues in the four years ending in 2011. But the revenue losses began to tail off in the final year of the review. The state’s total decline was just nine-tenths of one-percent from the previous year – while nationally, Indian casinos took in three-percent more. Analyst Alan Meister says 21 of the 28 states that have Indian gaming increased their revenues in 2011 – and Wisconsin was not among them. However, total casino profits are still on the rise. The state’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau said the 2011 profits from Wisconsin gaming houses rose by 23-million dollars over a two-year period, to 567-million. The state’s been a winner as well, as its share of tribal profits jumped by two-and-a-half percent since the middle of 2010. Meister says the profits are due to cost-cutting by the casinos. Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s casino industry still has the prospect of expanding. The U-S Bureau of Indian Affairs continues to consider approving a pair of off-reservation casinos planned for Kenosha and Beloit. If Washington approves them, Governor Scott Walker would then have the final say. Walker has not said what he might do if the proposals get to his desk.
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A school bus passenger and a pick-up truck driver were hospitalized after their vehicles collided north of Tomahawk. The State Patrol said the 64-year-old truck driver was pulling out of a driveway onto a town road, when it collided with the approaching bus. It happened just after four yesterday afternoon. Various media reports said the truck driver was flown to a Marshfield hospital, and his condition was not known. Reports said there were 13-to-15 students on the school bus. One child mentioned a sore neck, so all the youngsters were checked over at a hospital for observation before being released to their parents – and one of those youngsters stayed at a Tomahawk hospital in fair condition. The mishap remains under investigation.
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