Stories 1 to 8 of 8
9/2/2010 Lake Hallie Burglaries Police in Lake Hallie report three burglaries at Zacho Sports Center within two weeks. Police Chief Cal Smokowicz says burglars gained entry three times, each time by cutting fences around a secured area of the lot. Two ATV's were stolen on August 16th, and two more on August 26th. After the second burglary, the store moved all of their products inside storage buildings, but someone cut a fence again on Monday, August 30th, then forced entry into one of the buildings and stole a Yamaha racing-style motorcycle. There were no surveillance cameras and there are no suspects in the cases. Chief Smokowicz also says someone tried to steal a pickup truck and asphalt melter from another Lake Hallie Business on Tuesday. Employees at Bit Tech, 2513 County Highway Double "O" noticed a pickup truck was missing from where it had been parked inside a fenced-in area. The employees learned that someone had entered the fenced area and tried to unhook the asphalt melter from the truck but failed. They then smashed the truck into the security fence, but then abandoned the truck after it got hung up on the fence. Both the truck and the melter suffered some damage. There ... Read More
9/2/2010 Record Wisconsin Fall Primary Expected Almost three-of-every-10 Wisconsin voters are expected to cast ballots in the fall primaries in 12 days – and that would be a record turnout for September. The Government Accountability Board said today that 28-percent of eligible voters are likely to cast ballots on September 14th. Board director Kevin Kennedy credits the highly-contested statewide races for governor and U-S Senate, along with more localized congressional and state legislative primaries. The highest recorded September turnout in the last 50 years happened in 1964, when 27-point-nine percent of Wisconsin voters showed up at the polls. This year, there are six primaries for statewide offices, and primaries in seven of the eight U-S House districts. There’s no incumbent running for governor for the first time since 1986, after Jim Doyle decided to call it quits. And the voters will decide whether Republicans Scott Walker or Mark Neumann will face Democrat Tom Barrett in November. Read More
9/2/2010 Statewide Foreclosures Up The number of new foreclosure cases in Wisconsin rose in August for the first time in three months. Foreclosure-Alarm-Dot-Com of Madison said there were just over 25-hundred new court cases last month that accused homeowners of getting too far behind on their mortgages. That’s up by almost 14-percent from July. And there were 27 more filings than in August of last year. In southeast Wisconsin, seven counties had over a-thousand new foreclosure cases for the first time since April. Milwaukee County had 514 new cases, after both June and July were below the 500 mark. Read More
9/2/2010 Big Falls Closed To Wading From News Release: The Eau Claire Parks & Forest Department announces that due to high levels of bacteria FALLS PARK WADING AREA IS CLOSED EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY. County Health Department policy is to close all areas whenever water samples indicate high levels of bacteria above safe standards. The Health Department will retest the area today and the Parks & Forest Department will inform the public when bacteria levels are within acceptable health standards. Read More
9/2/2010 11% Of State Residents Living In Poverty Before Recession Over 11-percent of Wisconsinites lived in poverty in 2008, just as the recession began to hit. That’s according to a new study at U-W Madison which, for the first time, takes the cost of living in the Badger State into account. The study set the Wisconsin poverty line at just under 25-thousand-dollars a year for a family-of-four. That’s three-thousand-dollars more than the federal government’s official numbers. Using the Wisconsin data, the poverty rate for children rose from the federal number of 13-point-three percent to 13-point-six. Poverty rates for the elderly had a large jump from about seven-percent to 10-point-four. The U-W’s Timothy Smeeding said the new figures consider the government aid received by Wisconsin residents, in addition to their expenses. As a result, it offers a more complete picture of how anti-poverty programs affect those who are supposed to benefit from them. Milwaukee County had Wisconsin’s highest poverty rate at just under 19-percent. Ozaukee and Washington counties in the Milwaukee suburbs had the lowest rates at four-point-six. Read More
9/2/2010 State GOP Retracts Criticism Of Barrett Fundraiser The state Republican Party retracted its criticism of a fund-raiser for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett, after learning it didn’t happen. The G-O-P issued a statement yesterday which said Barrett hosted a “super secret” fund-raiser on Tuesday night with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But the statement was retracted a short time later, after spokesmen for both Pelosi and Barrett denied such an event happened. Party spokesman Andrew Welhouse said he first heard about the fund-raiser on a Milwaukee radio talk show, and then from several other sources. Barrett spokesman Phil Walzak said it was sad that Republicans had resorted to quote, “clear lies.” Read More
9/2/2010 Man Charged With Parents' Murder Wants Charges Dismissed A La Crosse area man who’s accused of killing his parents is trying to have his charges dropped. Eric Koula’s attorney said there were no witnesses, and there’s no evidence his client acted suspiciously around the time of the slayings. A judge will rule on the dismissal request later. The 40-year-old Koula stood mute yesterday while the judge entered innocent pleas to two counts of first-degree intentional homicide and forgery. Prosecutors said Koula shot his 68-year-old father Dennis and his 65-year-old mother Merna in late May in order to get their money. Authorities said the defendant struggled as a day-trader in the stock market. An expert from the State Crime Lab said a 50-thousand-dollar check to Eric Koula from his father’s investment account was forged. But Koby said they could not determine who wrote the check. And a state agent recently testified that Eric lost a million dollars of his parents’ money in trading stocks on-line. But Koby said his client still never showed that he was desperate enough to kill his parents. Read More
9/1/2010 Wisconsin Soldier Killed In Afghanistan A Wisconsin soldier was among 5 soldiers killed in Afghanistan on Monday. The Department of Defense says 36-year-old Staff Sgt. Matthew West of Conover in Vilas County was assigned to the 71st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group. West and the 4 other soldiers were killed when insurgents attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device in the Arghandab River Valley in Afghanistan. All of the soldiers were based at Fort Carson, Colorado. Read More