Wisconsin News and Sports
Nothing from the Green Bay Packers yet, but former Packers tight end Mark Chmura, appearing on Steve the Homer True’s radio show on ESPN 540 in Milwaukee, said he will be inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame next summer.
Chmura didn’t say who else would make up the 2010 Packers Hall of Fame class.
Chmura played his entire NFL career in Green Bay (1993-1999) and was voted to three Pro Bowl teams. [Read more...]
John Scocos, secretary of the state Department of Veterans Affairs, has been fired by the state Board of Veterans Affairs. In a contentious session with the board, Scocos defended his record as head of the state’s veterans’ agency. “I’m responsible for everything that happens in this departent, if that’s what you want to hear,” Scocos told board members. “I believe that ultimatley whether I was here or not, I’m the secretary of this department. I take responsibility for what happens in this department.”
But members of seven member board voiced concerns over operations of the Veterans Home at King, which was the subject of an investigation by the state Department of Justice. “I guess my biggest problem with the DOJ report overall, has nothing to do with criminality, because there isn’t any. There’s no illegality at all in the report,” said board member David Boetcher of Waunakee. “But illegality doesn’t mean that things are being run properly. It doesn’t mean that things are being run well.” [Read more...]
Prosecutors have charged a 30 year-old Columbus woman who allegedly tied up her 5-year-old daughter and locked her in a closet. Heidi Duesing-Christensen faces felony counts of child enticement, physical abuse of a child, child neglect, second-degree reckless endangerment and one count of bail jumping.
Investigators allege Duesing-Christensen also struck the girl, and locked her in a bedroom all day without food or use of a bathroom. She’s also accused of giving the girl an overdose of cold and allergy medicine to try to get her to sleep. Duesing-Christensen was in court Monday and was released on $2,000 bail. She could serve up to 29 years in prison if convicted. Most of the abuse was noted when Duesing-Christensen sent her 5-year-old to live with her estranged husband in Arizona.
First, he criticized the Obama White House over reporting errors in the economic stimulus package. Now, Congressman Dave Obey has new warnings, on funding additional troops in Afghanistan.
“If the war is important enough to fight, then we ought to impose a war surtax on people who can afford it,” said the Wausau Democrat. “Because if we don’t, that $900 billion cost is going to eat into everything that we want to do to rebuild the economy here at home.” To pay for more troops in Afghanistan, Obey wants a graduated surtax on income. Tax increases would range from one percent for the lowest wage earners, to five percent for the most wealthy.
Obey, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, also doesn’t think additional troops in Afghanistan will solve the problems there. “It’s not that I think the policy is flawed, the policy may be perfectly appropriate,” Obey said. “The problem is, do you have the tools on the ground in the region to actually make any policy work? And I doubt very much that the government of Afghanistan is a tool that we can use at all, and I certainly think that the government of Pakistan has been less than useful.” President Obama is expected to announce a decision on Afghanistan next week.
Mike Warren reports (:60)AUDIO: Mike Warren reports (:60 MP3)
WDLB’s Mike Warren submitted this report
It could be a white Thanksgiving for some Wisconsinites. Meteorologist Chris McGinness of Milwaukee’s WJDT says rain will turn to snow, from north-to-south across the state, late Wednesday into Thanksgiving. McGinness says the further north you are the more likely there will be accumulation of snow, southern parts will be “slushy.”
AUDIO: Chris McGinness (MP3 :60)
The CBS 58 Morning News meteorologist says the warm temperatures this month means the white stuff will help melt the snow on the roads and allow for salt trucks to be dispatched on time. Nevertheless, he cautions drivers to prepare for affected visibility on the busy travel day.
Meanwhile the DOT reports most lanes should be open this holiday period as most road projects have been completed. The biggest inconvenience for drivers could be on I-94 from Kenosha to the Illinois line, where a major re-construction project is taking place
The weather will clear just in time for shoppers to clear their wallets on Friday. McGinness predicts the weather to be quiet this weekend as well.
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