Here are the stories:
Work resumes tomorrow on the bridge in Oshkosh where a construction worker died. Thirty-five year old Joseph Bidler of Green Bay was killed Thursday when a crane collapsed as it was lifting a 52-ton concrete girder. Health and safety inspectors have left the work site at the Lake Butte des Morts bridge. Crane operator Martin DeRidder of Plymouth was hospitalized with serious injuries. That accident has Black River Falls-based Lunda Construction being investigated due to two fatalities during its work on U.S. Highway 41 so far this year. Another Lunda employee was killed last April in Brown County.
-7/08-
A two year old boy found unconscious in a Vilas County swimming pool has reportedly died. Sheriff’s deputies responded to a 9-1-1 call Friday night at a home in Land O’ Lakes. Emergency responders pulled the boy out of the pool and started performing CPR. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Reports indicate several children had been playing at the swimming pool without supervision. One of the other children noticed the two year old was in trouble.
-7/08-
Testimony begins tomorrow in the federal trial for 50 year old Francis G. Grady. The Kaukauna man is accused of smashing a window at a Planned Parenthood clinic building and starting a small fire inside. Grady faces charges of arson and intentionally damaging a reproductive health facility. Federal prosecutors say they will introduce video evidence of Grady admitting he broke the clinic window, poured gasoline inside and lit it. Grady has entered a guilty plea to breaking the window, but not to the arson charge. His trial in Green Bay is expected to last two days.
-7/08-
The Walker administration is expected to released a report on deer management Tuesday at the Capitol. Texas-based researcher James Kroll was hired last October to review the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ approach to managing the state’s deer herd. When he was running for office the first time, Governor Scott Walker promised he would respond to hunters’ complaints that DNR herd control programs have damaged recent hunting seasons. A preliminary report released last March concluded the DNR estimates of the deer population are flawed and the agency lacks credibility with hunters.
-7/08-
Dodge County Sheriff’s deputies are spending time on extra patrols at Hustisford Cemetery. The search is on for the people who have taken some brass marker flags on the graves of veterans there. About 20 were taken last week. Sheriff Eric Krueger says the extra patrols will come at all times during the day. Krueger is a veteran who says it is an insult to know those markers were stolen from veterans’ graves. Like copper, the value of brass is rising on the open market and thieves steal the metal to sell it as scrap.
-7/08-
Federal Judge William Conley offers a harsh assessment of lawsuits filed last month against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. One was filed in Madison and it appears to be the work of a serial litigant who has filed thousands of specious lawsuits around the country. Conley says he thinks the suit is the work of Jonathan Lee Riches. Filing as Jonathan Bollinger, saying he is a cousin for former Badger quarterback Brooks Bollinger, the plaintiff claimed Sandusky molested him at Camp Randall Stadium during a football game. He asked for a restraining order to keep Sandusky away from him, even though Sandusky will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. Riches was released from a federal prison last April. He has until the end of this month to show Judge Conley why he should not be held in contempt of court. Riches tried to withdraw the suit earlier this week.
-7/08-
Temperatures over 90 and approaching 100 degrees have had a major impact on Wisconsin roads – especially in Chippewa County. Roads there have failed at a reported nine locations, including six of them on Highway 29. Chippewa County Highway Commissioner Bruce Stelzner says the problems on Highway 29 are surprising because the roadway is only about six or seven years old. Concrete pavement is especially vulnerable to blow-ups because it doesn’t expand with the heat like asphalt roads. Each patch job requires a staff of up to a dozen workers, spending at least two hours fixing the pavement.
-7/08-
Wisconsin’s Capitol City is planning to spend up to a million dollars to tear down several buildings and get rid of contamination in the 800 block of East Washington Avenue. The money would be spent to speed up redevelopment along that blighted stretch. Work is scheduled to start next month. A private developers plans to put a mixed-use project on a four and a half acre plot of land on the north side of the street. The city hopes clearing the land on the other side of the street will make it easier to sell that 1-point-9 acres to a potential developers. Automobile dealerships and repair shops used to line that street. As many as 16 underground fuel storage tanks have been leaking under the surface for years.
