Wisconsin News and Sports
Barnes, Evers WRN image
The official inauguration ceremony for incoming Governor Tony Evers and Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes has been announced.
The inaugurations will start at 11:00 a.m. on Monday January 7th. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Milwaukee has been named the inauguration partner.
Spokespersons for Evers and Barnes say a celebratory gala will be held the evening of the 7th. More details will be released from the inaugural committee in the near future.
An injured Chippewa Falls girl has ended her hospital stay. Madalyn Zwiefelhofer, a ten-year-old who survived being struck by a truck earlier this month in Chippewa County, is home after recovering at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Rochester.
Three other girls and one of their parents were killed November 3rd when they were struck as their Girl Scout troop was picking up roadside trash. That driver, twenty-one year-old Colton Treu, faces multiple counts of homicide.
A Go Fund Me page has been established for Madalyn, and as of Monday it had collected more than $98,000.
This year’s gun deer season is the safest on record for Wisconsin. That’s despite three hunters getting shot. Jon King with the Department of Natural Resources said those three hunters were treated for non-fatal gunshots wounds, but there have been no fatalities.
King said six hunters were shot last year. None of them died. The last time a Wisconsin hunter died in the field was 2015. The DNR doesn’t have a final count of deer permits for this year, but as many as 570,000 hunters in the state could have taken to the field during the 2018 deer season.
Republicans members of the Wisconsin state Assembly are making an unusual push for Governor-elect Tony Evers to retain the state tourism secretary.
Ten GOP members of the Assembly tourism committee sent Evers a letter urging him to keep Stephanie Klett in charge of the Department of Tourism.
The letter says Klett helped grow tourism from a $14.8 billion industry in 2011 to more than $20.6 billion today. Committee chairman Travis Tranel has started an online petition asking for Klett to keep her job. Nearly 2,000 people had signed it as of last Wednesday.
Republican Governor Scott Walker, who lost his reelection bid to Evers, appointed Klett as tourism secretary at the start of his first term in 2011.
Madison’s Catholic bishop has died. The Diocese of Madison announced this weekend that Bishop Robert Morlino died Saturday night after suffering a “cardiac event” during a series of medical tests.
https://t.co/AV6z9sLWwe https://t.co/AV6z9sLWwe
— Diocese of Madison (@MadisonDiocese) November 26, 2018
The Diocese had called for prayers from the faithful over the weekend, hoping for a miracle and recovery. Morlino was 71.
A new report says Foxconn Technology Group is looking to cut back on costs and labor as profits fall for the tech giant. A report from Bloomberg says the company is planning to cut $2.9 billion in expenses and 10 percent of its non-technical workforce as international demand for the iPhone starts to slip.
Apple’s biggest assembler of iPhones, Foxconn, plans to slash $2.9 billion of costs due to a “difficult and competitive year,” an internal memo reveals https://t.co/kNO7hLfPhH pic.twitter.com/uBHrMcOEIB
— Bloomberg (@business) November 21, 2018
The company is the largest assembler of the smartphone, and it’s uncertain how this might affect plans to open a new manufacturing facility in Wisconsin.
A soft landing for the Attorney General. Outgoing Republican Governor Scott Walker is appointing outgoing Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel to a Waukesha County judgeship.
Schimel — who prior to being elected AG in 2014 had served as Waukesha County district attorney — will take the spot relinquished last week by Circuit Judge Patrick Haughney.
Walker’s office announced the appointment Monday and said the date Schimel will receive the appointment is still being determined. Regardless of when that is, he’ll have to win an election in April for a full six-year term as judge.
There may be a recount in Wisconsin’s election for attorney general. The final vote margin in the state attorney general’s election has Democrat Josh Kaul up 17,190 votes over Republican incumbent Brad Schimel. That’s a margin of .65 percent, and under state law Schimel’s campaign can now request a recount, because the margin is less than 1 percent.
However the campaign would have to pay for it, because the margin is more than .25 percent of total votes cast.
A Schimel campaign spokesman said Friday that staff will review the results over the weekend and release a statement Monday, on whether or not to seek a recount. They’ll have three business days to make that request.
The American Red Cross faces a “severe blood shortage” in the Badger-Hawkeye Region, Wisconsin and Iowa. Blood donors are needed urgently.
“The blood products are going out to hospital patients faster than they’re coming in the door,” Spokeswoman Laura McGuire McGuire said. “Obviously, we never want to be in a position to tell somebody we do not have blood. We strive to have a five-day blood supply on hand and I hate to say it, but right now, we are at a three-day supply.”
All blood types are needed, but a few types are in critically short supply. “What we’re really trying to put the message out there for is type O-negative and O-positive blood,” McGuire said.
“I would recommend going to RedCrossBlood.org and you’ll be able to find eligibility requirements,” McGuire said. You can also call 1-800-RED CROSS to find your nearest donation location.
Radio Iowa
Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald is asking hunters for help with the Jayme Closs disappearance. The nine-day gun deer hunt begins early Saturday and runs through November 25th.
Fitzgerald on Wednesday asked deer hunters to report anything suspicious, such as clothing or weapons that they may come across.
It’s been a month since 13-year-old Jayme Closs disappeared from her home near Barron. He parents were murdered and investigators believe Jayme was abducted. Fitzgerald says investigators have followed up on at least 2,300 tips in the case.
Also Wednesday, Fitzgerald said the FBI is examining additional surveillance video. It’s video from an expanded area around the Barron County home where Jayme’s parents James and Denise Closs were shot and killed.
Fitzgerald said that about 80 surveillance videos were initially collected, and that the FBI last week expanded the perimeter of surveillance video collection beyond Barron County.
