-- A state legislative committee will decide today whether to kill statewide standards for high-tech windmills that were set last year by the Public Service Commission.
A state legislative committee will decide today whether to kill statewide standards for high-tech windmills that were set last year by the Public Service Commission. The Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules can block the PSC’s rules, which were scheduled to take effect today. They required that wind turbines be located no closer than 18-hundred-feet from neighboring homes. And it set standards for things like noise, and the shadow-flickers the turbines create. A few weeks ago, Governor Scott Walker proposed more restrictive limits for locating wind turbines, at the request of the Wisconsin Realtors Association. But Keith Reopelle of the group Clean Wisconsin says that if the old rules are repealed today, Wisconsin will continue to rely on a patchwork of local regulations until the Legislature passes something new. He said that suspending the old rule would send a message to wind power developers that they’re not welcome in Wisconsin.
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A Green Bay man is on trial this week for allegedly killing another man as the result of a drug deal that went sour. 26-year-old Walter Rupar-the-Third is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, armed robbery by force, and false imprisonment. He’s accused of shooting-and-killing 23-year-old Eulices Camancho-Pineda at the victim’s Green Bay home in December of 2008. Two other people were charged in the case. Rupar’s step-sister, 24-year-old Adriana Rosas, is facing robbery charges – and she’s scheduled to testify for the prosecution. The third person, 27-year-old Jacino Fraier, is serving a 40-year prison term for his role.
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Attorneys will make their opening arguments today in the trial of James Arthur Ray. He’s the organizer of a sweat-lodge ceremony that killed a Milwaukee man and two others in 2009 near Sedona Arizona. Yesterday, Judge Warren Darrow agreed to let the jury hear from a prosecution expert who will explain why over 50 people felt they couldn’t leave the sweat-lodge when panic set in. The judge says Rick Ross can testify about a condition known as “large group awareness” – as long as prosecutors explain how it pertains to the case. Judge Darrow also ruled that defense lawyers can cross-examine Ross on his de-programming work on cult members – but his criminal history cannot be brought up. The sweat-lodge ceremony killed 40-year-old James Shore of Milwaukee, 49-year-old Liz Neuman of Prior Lake Minnesota, and 38-year-old Kirby Brown of Westtown, New York. The ceremony was held in a heated enclosure, and was part of a “Spiritual Warrior weekend” that Ray organized.
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A Washington County man has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge for providing the heroin that killed a West Bend woman. 25-year-old Michael Cacchione of Richfield was convicted yesterday of second-degree reckless homicide in a plea deal. He’ll be sentenced on June 13th. Authorities said 28-year-old Courtney Broeckel died last March at her home in West Bend from an overdose of heroin. Cacchione admitted providing the heroin. He was originally charged with first-degree reckless homicide.
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A judge in Milwaukee said no today to releasing a 64-year-old killer from the state’s mental health institute in Madison. Circuit Judge Jeffrey Conen said Michael Gregory has made progress in his treatment but quote, “We’re still not there.” Gregory was found innocent-by-insanity in the 1980 stabbing death of 10-year-old Stephan Sawicki outside a Milwaukee coffee shop. Gregory did not know the youngster, but he said voices told him to kill him. Gregory’s psychiatrist had recommended that he be conditionally released to a group home in West Allis. But the doctor changed his mind after he violated the center’s rules by taking a table knife to his room. Officials said Gregory also committed three other small infractions in the last year. Judge Conen said that if Gregory did not follow all the rules of his release, quote, “Things could spiral out of control.”
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Janesville Police said today that a husband-and-wife found dead in their home agreed to take their own lives together. The couple was in their mid-40’s. Deputy Chief Dan Davis told the Janesville Gazette they had financial-and-health problems, and a gun was found where their bodies had been. Police were called the couple’s house yesterday by relatives who asked officers to check on them. Davis said the deaths are still being investigated – and it’s not known yet if the case was a double suicide or a murder-suicide. Autopsies are pending.
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Authorities said today that a snowmobiler from Milton was hospitalized in critical condition, after he was thrown from his machine on Clear Lake in Rock County. Some initial media reports said 47-year-old John Schmidt of Milton had died – but later reports indicated he was alive. Officials said high school was thought to be a cause of the mishap. Authorities said Schmidt’s machine struck a mound of snow-and-ice and went airborne before sliding on the ice.
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Funeral services will be held tomorrow for a former state lawmaker from southwest Wisconsin. Richard Kreul of Fennimore has died at age 86. He served 12 years as a Republican in the state Senate, ending in 1991. He later served in the state’s former Department of Labor and Human Relations. Kreul was a farmer near Fennimore after he graduated from high school in 1941. He also owned an antique shop in that community.
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An investigation continues into a Friday night fire that destroyed a foundry in Manitowoc County. But officials say foul play is not suspected in the blaze that destroyed the Heritage Aluminum-and-Brass Foundry in Saint Nazianz (nay’-zee-ans). No one was in the building at the time. Fire Chief Fritz Koeppen said flames were coming out of three sides of the building and the top of the structure when fire-fighters arrived. He said investigators have an idea of what started the fire, but it’s still being looked into. Total damage was estimated at up to two-million dollars.
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Two men from Beloit were killed in a one-car crash east of that city yesterday. 20-year-old Christian Gonzalez-Reyes died about six hours after the crash at UW Hospital in Madison. 19-year-old Cesar Vazquez was pronounced dead at the scene. Autopsies were planned today for both victims. A third person, an 18-year-old from Beloit, was taken to UW Hospital, and a condition report was not disclosed. The crash happened on a road in the Rock County town of Bradford. According to authorities, Reyes had just passed another vehicle in the same direction when he lost control – and his vehicle went into a ditch before hitting a tree and a concrete drainage culvert. Investigators said high speed was a possible factor.
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The spearing season for sturgeon has ended on Lake Winnebago. For only the fourth time in recent years, spearers need all 16 days of the season to catch 1,426. Normally, the season ends early when one of the quotas is reached. The time period averages about 11 days. Twenty-five sturgeon were hauled in yesterday. Three of them weighed more than 100 pounds. Over 12,000 spearers had licenses this year – about a-thousand more than last season.
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Just a month after it filed for bankruptcy, the Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese has kicked off its annual Stewardship Appeal. Archbishop Jerome Listecki has encouraged Catholics to quote, “publicly demonstrate our belief in the church’s fundamental goodness and our confidence in her future.” The church filed for Chapter-11 bankruptcy in January. It says it doesn’t have the money to pay damages in a dozen pending lawsuits that accuse the church of hiding the activities of pedophile priests many years ago – thus allowing them to re-offend. The Archdiocese insists that its stewardship donations will go to church programs and cannot be used to pay for sex abuse claims. But the plaintiffs’ attorneys are expected to challenge that. And Marquette professor Ralph Anzivino says people might be reluctant to donate money for purposes they did not intend. But Milwaukee pastor Dave Cooper said he was surprised at the positive reaction he received, when he unveiled the stewardship campaign to his congregation yesterday. He said parishioners are not happy. But he was expected to be “told off” and he wasn’t. The Milwaukee Archdiocese serves 600,000 Catholics in 10 counties. Their stewardship goal is $7.7 million dollars, same as the previous three years. They exceeded the goal last year, but fell short in the recession-plagued 2009.
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Wisconsin’s new five-star rating system for child care centers is just getting started. The State Journal of Madison says only three-percent of the state’s 7,300 care providers have been rated in the new Young-Star program. And by the end of the year, all 4,800 centers will be rated which get state funding from the Wisconsin Shares program for the working poor. The ratings are voluntary for the other one-third of the state’s child care centers. And LaTonya Johnson, who heads a group of 485 providers in Milwaukee County, says everybody should have to be in it. Other critics say the ratings weigh too heavily on the quality of the educators at each center, and not the programs themselves. And some worry that parents will shy away from centers with two-to-four stars on the five-star system – something state officials hope won’t happen. A lot of money is riding on it. The best centers will get the most state aid, while the worst facilities could get nothing. Republicans fought off the program until last year, when Democrats approved it during the only two recent years they had complete control of state government.
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A man who recently won a new murder trial is free on bond, thanks to a Sauk County businessman. Curt Mueller, of Mueller Sports Medicine of Prairie du Sac, posted a $425,000 bond that a judge ordered last week for 49-year-old Terry Vollbrecht. Mueller did not say why he posted the bond, and Vollbrecht has not commented. He was convicted in 1989 of killing 18-year-old Angela Hackl, and hanging her body in a tree west of Sauk City. But the Wisconsin Innocence Project at UW-Madison said it found evidence that another man might have committed the murder. And Dodge County Circuit Judge Stephen Bauer ordered a new trial for Vollbrecht last month. The bond was set at a hearing last week, and the judge ordered the defendant placed in the custody of the Sauk County Sheriff’s Department.
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