Thursday State News Briefs: Milwaukee's northern suburbs state's healthiest

Talk about it

People in Milwaukee’s far northern suburbs are the healthiest in Wisconsin.

Ozaukee County is No. 1 in the annual county health rankings released by the UW-Madison Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Ozaukee moved into the top spot after being second a year ago among Wisconsin’s 72 counties. Ozaukee was judged as having the state’s best clinical care facilities. It also ranked the highest in social-and-economic factors like education, low poverty, and a lack of violent crime. Kewaunee County was ranked second-best. Saint Croix, which was No.1 a year ago, dropped to third. Pierce, Door, Taylor, Iowa, Portage, Vernon, and Washington counties round out the Top-10. The least healthiest county was Menominee, home of the Menominee Indian reservation. Milwaukee County, with some of the nation’s highest poverty, was second-to-last in the state’s health rankings.

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A state Assembly Democrat urged lawmakers today to give back more of the hundreds-of-millions of dollars they cut from public and tech schools and the UW in 2011. Rep. Cory Mason of Racine gave his plea to the Joint Finance Committee, as it started considering the educational funding changes in the proposed state budget for the next two years. Republican Assembly Finance chair John Nygren of Marinette said funding decisions from the past should not be rehashed – and lawmakers should instead focus on how to move education forward. GOP Governor Scott Walker proposed an extra 180-million-dollars for the UW System. But Mason highlighted what the governor doesn’t do for public schools – like give them added funding. He also said the new budget puts too much of an emphasis on private schools, which would get more tax-funded vouchers to educate kids in lower-performing public districts.

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The State Building Commission is expected to approve a new capital budget today for new-and-improved state government facilities over the next two years. It’s separate from the overall state budget – but it includes borrowing that GOP lawmakers could cut later on. Governor Scott Walker, who chairs the commission, has proposed a $329-million dollar package. About 60-percent of the amount would go to a new headquarters facility for the state Transportation Department in Madison. The new structure would replace the 56-year-old Hill Farms office building on the city’s west side. Walker is proposing one-point-four billion dollars in borrowing in both the general state budget and the capital budget. Assembly Republican Dean Kaufert of Neenah says his leadership wants to cut about $300-million from that total. He says some capital projects will end up being scrapped – most likely private facilities proposed with state bonding. About $30-million of items are in that category – including a new convention center in Green Bay and facility expansions for the Medical College of Wisconsin.

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A Republican state lawmaker wants school district employees to be fined $200 if they don’t report incidents of bullying. Representative Garey Bies (R-Sister Bay) says he’s heard from parents who complained to teachers about their kids being bullied and quote, “nothing was ever done.” Bies is asking his colleagues to co-sign a bill to change that. A state law from 2010 requires schools to report bullying incidents to the state Department of Public Instruction, but there are no penalties for not reporting. Bies, a former sheriff, said quote, “We need to put more incentive into somebody following through.” But Dan Rossmiller of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards says it might create a whole new set of problems. He said teachers could over-blow bullying incidents to cover themselves so they don’t get fined. And Rossmiller said schools might end up narrowing their definitions of bullying, so they don’t get tied up with never-ending investigations. State law requires public schools to have specific policies to deal with bullying. The DPI and the state’s largest teachers’ union have not commented on the proposed penalties.

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The Legislature’s finance committee will keep reviewing the proposed state budget today – and the governor’s education measures will be on the hot seat. Republican Scott Walker wants to expand private school vouchers in up to nine additional school districts. His goal is to give parents is underperforming school districts a chance to improve their kids’ education by offering tax-funded vouchers to attend private schools. But Majority Republican senators say the plan’s too broad, and they’re hoping to scale it back. The finance panel will also discuss Walker’s refusal to increase the state’s revenue limits for public schools, thus freezing their state aid. The budget does include a one-percent increase in school aid – but Walker wants to give that money to taxpayers, who can then decide in referendums whether to give the schools the extra funding. Two GOP Senate leaders took issue, and crafted their own plan for a direct school aid increase, to be funded by a slight jump in local property taxes.

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Governor Scott Walker does not believe he’s leaving money on the table, by rejecting millions of extra federal dollars to expand Medicaid as part of the Obama health law. Senate Republican Luther Olsen of Ripon questioned Walker’s decision yesterday, when the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee reviewed the governor’s Medicaid reform plan. After speaking to Wisconsin Realtors, the Republican Walker told reporters that the federal government does not have money to pay for Medicaid today – so it stands to reason that it won’t have the money to keep its funding promises in the future. The governor also believed his Medicaid package had strong support among lawmakers – and that Olsen would vote in favor of it as part of the final budget. Instead of taking the federal money and expanding health programs for the poor, the Republican Walker wants to stop giving Badger-Care to childless adults above the poverty level. Panel co-chairman John Nygren (R-Marinette) said it would allow all adults under the poverty line to be covered for the first time in state history. But Olsen joined Democrats as saying he couldn’t understand why Wisconsin would say no to more money from Washington.

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The board that runs Wisconsin elections agreed yesterday to clarify the way nursing home residents receive and cast absentee ballots. The Government Accountability Board was told in December that many local clerks do not follow or understand the rules – and it makes nursing home residents susceptible to voter fraud. Board elections’ specialist David Buerger said the new rules clear up existing policies without changing them. The board re-affirmed that designated poll workers must deliver absentee ballots to nursing homes in secured containers – and the workers must ask the home residents whether they intend to vote. Family members can watch a resident vote – but they cannot give assistance unless the voter agrees to it. Poll workers are often designated by political parties. Carol Boettcher of Cedarburg says they’ve been accused of quote, “harvesting” votes in the past by the way they assist nursing home residents. Boettcher says the poll workers need to carefully explain the voting process to family members, to prevent voter fraud from taking place later.

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A Marine recruiter from Green Bay is due back in court tomorrow, for allegedly using personal information from potential recruits to convince their female friends to give him intimate photos. 27-year-old Sergeant Andrew Curran is charged with two felony counts of misusing personal data, and five felony counts of possessing child pornography. He’s being held under a $100,000 cash bond. Prosecutors said Curran obtained e-mail and Facebook passwords from a potential recruit, saying he needed them for backgrounds. Instead, officials said Curran used the information to solicit nude photos from the man’s female friends. Investigators also said they found child porn when they searched Curran’s home computer.

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A 65-year-old woman killed in a two-vehicle crash in Hartford was identified today as Anna Kruppe of Lisbon. Police did not say which vehicle she was driving. One unit was going west on Highway 60 when it collided with another vehicle that just pulled onto the street from an industrial parking lot. The crash happened around 7:30 yesterday morning. Hartford Police said they were still investigating.

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A federal judge says a man exonerated in the 1980 killing of a UW-Madison student can proceed with a federal civil rights lawsuit. It’s the third such lawsuit Ralph Armstrong has filed, alleging civil rights violations in the way he was prosecuted. Armstrong was convicted in the sexual assault and strangulation of UW student Charise Kamps 33 years ago. In 2009, his criminal conviction was overturned. Federal Judge Barbara Crabb allowed Armstrong’s civil suit to proceed. In that suit, Armstrong said prosecutors lost evidence which would have helped him in his original trial. He also alleged that State Crime Lab workers and others destroyed evidence before he could be re-tried in his criminal case. Judge Crabb said a few of Armstrong’s claims could not be pursued in his civil rights case. They include alleged witness tampering, and the suppression of an apparent confession by a brother of Armstrong’s.

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Wisconsin is the nation’s largest producer of mink – and it’s getting even larger, as the demand grows for high-quality furs in China. The USDA says China’s fur processors have turned to foreign mink pelts, because China’s homegrown furs don’t have enough quality. That’s blamed on in-breeding, the high cost of feed, and poor nutrition. Sheboygan Falls fur rancher Bob Zimbal had 34,000 mink a decade ago. Now, he’s got 54,000 breeding females, over 25 miles of cages, and a feed plant on his site. Meanwhile, Zimbal has sent his pelt prices jump from $25 each around 15 years ago, to $94 today.

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A judge in Madison has ordered prosecutors to look for evidence of an affair between former state health secretary Dennis Smith and his department’s top lawyer. The attorney’s husband, 60-year-old Andrew Spear, is charged with trying to burn his wife Mary in a fire at his Madison wood shop last summer. Spear contends that his wife started the fire to prevent him from exposing the purported affair to Smith’s wife. Now, Circuit Judge William Hanrahan said the affair allegations could be quote, “arguably relevant” to Spear’s contention that the affair was about to be proven, and it influenced her actions in connection with the fire. The judge told prosecutors to subpoena various records to look for evidence of an affair – but if anything turns up, Hanrahan said it would not be made public. He said there’s no room in his court for quote, “salacious details.” Smith vehemently denied having an affair with Mary Spear, even when he left the state Health Services Department a few weeks ago to take a job with a Washington law firm. Mary Spear left the state agency last fall.

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The Merrill School Board has voted to re-instate a teacher who was fired earlier this year, for smoking marijuana sold to him in a school drug ring in Antigo. Middle school science teacher Jay Peterson filed a union grievance after he was terminated. The Merrill teachers’ union, the School Board, and Peterson issued a joint statement yesterday, saying they avoided a costly and uncertain arbitration process in the matter. The School Board accepted the deal on a 5-4 vote. Under the terms, Peterson will return this fall after what will be considered a one-year unpaid leave. He was given a deferred prosecution agreement, in which his criminal charge would be dropped if he stays clean. Peterson said he turned to marijuana after his home was destroyed in the Merrill tornado almost two years ago. He was one of about 15 people charged last year, as part of a marijuana sales ring headed by former Antigo football coach and elementary principal John Lund. Lund is scheduled to be sentenced on April fifth, on a felony conviction of manufacturing marijuana with the intent to sell it. Most of the Antigo and Merrill teachers who were arrested were caught using pot, and were given deferred prosecution agreements.

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Former Milwaukee County Walker aide Tim Russell will find out today how much he’ll have to pay back to a veterans’ program he embezzled from. Russell was sentenced to two years in prison, after he pleaded guilty to stealing thousands-of-dollars from a program he headed at the County Zoo that saluted Wisconsin veterans. Earlier, the defense proposed that the 49-year-old Russell pay $22,000 in restitution. But prosecutors rejected the proposal and demanded more. No one has said how much more. Russell was appointed to the veterans’ project by Scott Walker, when the governor was the Milwaukee County executive. Russell was also a former chief-of-staff under Walker.

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Investigators are still trying to determine what caused a fire that destroyed a downtown building in Antigo. Flames re-ignited yesterday in a building that housed Peep’s Pawn Shop and apartments with four residents. The fire started early Tuesday. Antigo Fire Chief Jon Petroskey said the second floor apartments were gutted, while the pawn shop on the first floor had heavy smoke-and-water damage. No one was hurt. Langlade County emergency management director Brad Henricks said it was one of the oldest structures in downtown Antigo. It housed the local Boys-and-Girls club just before the pawn shop moved there.

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Authorities in central Wisconsin have arrested a 42-year-old man for the killing of another man at a motel near Wautoma. Waushara County sheriff’s deputies said the arrest was made earlier this week in the death of 50-year-old Robert Kasun. Charges are pending. A preliminary autopsy showed that Kasun died from blunt-force injuries to his head and abdomen – and that another person caused the injuries.

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