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Report details 20th Century history of KKK at UW-Madison

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UW-Madison is taking ownership of past campus groups with Ku Klux Klan affiliations. But the university has no plans to remove from campus buildings the names of student leaders who participated in the KKK in the early 20th Century.

A newly released report mentions two student members by name: Porter Butts and Fredric March. Both were members of a KKK group that emerged in 1919, during the rebirth of the KKK as an organization opposed to civil rights for African-Americans, and that also pushed an anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant agenda.

Chancellor Rebecca Blank tweeted about the report after its release on Thursday.

A second UW-Madison group was part of a national for-profit fraternal organization dubbed the “Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.” The report states it had some success among faculty and students between 1922 and 1926.

A summary of the report is available at news.wisc.edu.

Mendez enters not guilty plea in wife’s 1982 death

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Robin Mendez has entered a not guilty plea to felony charges of first-degree murder in the 1982 death of his wife Barbara. The plea was entered in a Rhinelander court room Thursday morning.

Police believe Mendez struck his wife with some kind of blunt-force object at the Park City Credit Union where she worked, then manipulated their daughters to providing an alibi for him.

Online court records indicate Mendez will continue to be held on a quarter-million dollars bond. A status update in the case is set for June 20th.

RELATED: Cold Case team helped Mendez investigation

Family members have long had their suspicions that Mendez was somehow behind the murder. His daughters reached out to investigators in Oneida County several years ago about bringing in cable television’s Cold Justice team to help build the case. Investigators began working in the area in January of this year to re-examine evidence, which led to Robin’s arrest in February.

WSAU

Johnson defends U.S. participation in Trans-Pacific Partnership

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U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (Photo: Andrew Beckett)

President Donald Trump is apparently changing his mind again, on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Trump tweeted this week that TPP has “too many contingencies and no way to get out if it doesn’t work.” Trump made U.S. exit from the trade pact one of the first items on his to-do list after taking office, but last week, lawmakers who attended a White House meeting on trade reported he was reconsidering.

Wisconsin U.S. Senator Ron Johnson is a supporter of TPP, and U.S. participation. “We don’t want to be on the outside looking in, as other countries engage in freer and fairer and more reciprocal trade,” the Republican said in an interview with WRDN.

The president tweeted that “bilateral deals are far more efficient, profitable and better for OUR workers.” Johnson thinks multilateral trade is better. “TPP represents about 13 and-a-half percent of the world’s economy without the U.S. With the U.S. it represents about 40 percent,” Johnson said. “It should be really ‘win-win,’ and that’s what trade does, if its done properly.

Johnson said Wisconsin manufacturing and agriculture would benefit from TPP, which Trump withdrew the U.S. from last year.

Avian experts ask for help to save migratory birds

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Wildlife experts are asking for your help in saving migratory birds that have been snowed out of their usual food sources.

Last weekend’s blizzard blanketed parts of Wisconsin with over two feet of snow, and that’s making it very hard for birds migrating back to the area. Raptor Education Group executive director Marge Gibson says her agency has been extremely busy this week. “I took over fifty phone calls, texts and Facebook messages. Most were about weak and dying warblers, robins and woodcocks.”

Gibson says this weather is especially hard on birds that usually rely on digging insects out of the ground for their food. “They are unable to find enough enough ground or find any ground to be able to dig or have access to insects, And not having any food, of course, they’re starving.” Gibson says that residents can help out by digging out section of lawn and grass that birds can access to dig up and eat hibernating bugs.

She also adds that generally keeping feeders stocked right now is a great help to feathered friends. “Keep your feeders full. A lot of the insectivores don’t eat seed so you’re going to have mealworms and dried fruit, cut up fruit, berries, those sorts of things that will help them get over this very difficult period.”

Gibson is asking cat owners to keep their pets indoors for a few days. “The birds are really fragile right now, many of them are weak and they’re on the ground and they’re really targets for a cat who’s outside even briefly, so be very aware of that.”

if you do find a bird on the ground and you’re able to walk over and pick it up, that bird is in distress and needs help. “Put it in a cardboard box, not a cage or a carrier. Put a towel in the bottom of the box and bring them into a warm area. Put a heating pad on low under part of the box. Cover the box to create an “incubator” of sorts.” Gibson says that you should make sure that the bird has food. Dried or live mealworms or waxworms are a good bet, and you can find those almost anywhere live fishing bait is sold.

Once that bird is safe and warming up, make sure you call a local avian rescue group. Most are very willing to come pick up your bird and take it to a more appropriate shelter.

Elections Commission approves security spending

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The Wisconsin Elections Commission on Wednesday unanimously approved spending on new elections security. The commission voted to proceed with hiring up to six new staffers, purchasing authentication software to improve security in the voter registration database, and contracting with IT specialists to address security needs. Commission spokesman Reid Magney

“We hope to have these things done in the next several months,” Commission spokesman Reid Magney said. “Hopefull before the August elections, and certainly before November.”

Magney says none of the changes should have a noticeable impact on the voting experience at local polling places. “If we do everything right, voters won’t notice anything.”

There is additional money available from a $7 million federal grant. Magney says the commission will be asking for input from county clerks and the public, on how to spend the rest of it.

Bon-Ton stores to enter liquidation after bankruptcy sale

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Efforts to save the parent company of Boston Store and Younkers have run out.

The Bon-Ton company has announced that two liquidators were the winning bidders at a bankruptcy auction that was held Monday and Tuesday. Great American Group and Tiger Capital Group are buying the assets for $775 million. A previous bid from a number of mall owners was rejected by a bankruptcy judge for not being a fair or qualified offer.

In a letter to its employees, Bon-Ton officials say the liquidation would take anywhere from ten to twelve weeks. “Bon-Ton will move forward in a constructive manner to ensure an orderly wind-down of operations that minimizes the impact of this development on our associates, customers, vendors and the communities we serve.”

The liquidation would would affect all Younkers and Boston Store locations remaining in Wisconsin and also close down the Milwaukee headquarters of the company. Those closures will put over 2,200 people out of a job.

Walker signs child tax rebate

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Governor Scott Walker was in Ashwaubenon Tuesday, signing a bill that will present a tax rebate for families with school-aged children.

Governor Walker says the $100 per child will come just in time for back-to-school shopping and will be a relief during a stressful time of year for many. “With shoes and clothes and pants and shirts and back-to-school supplies, that’s often a difficult time for parents and grandparents across the state of Wisconsin.”

Those who criticize the new law say it not money well spent. “You couldn’t think of a lazier way to spend $130 million than this proposal,” said Assembly minority leader Gordon Hintz, who calls it an election year stunt.

“The reality is there wasn’t a lot of thought put into this. It was a governor who looked at the polling and decided he needed to come up with something that he could give people before the election,” Hintz said.

Walker addressed the issue on Tuesday and says he does not agree. “People who are critics about this really are upset because they want to spend that money on things in government. We want to allow you, the hard-working taxpayers, to spend it on your kids and grandkids.”

The sales tax holiday will be August 1st through 5th. Sales tax will not be charged for school supplies and clothing that costs $75 dollars or less along with computers under $750 dollars and computer supplies that are $250 dollars or less.

Online sign-ups for the child tax rebate will begin May 15th.

WTAQ

Heavy snows help end dry spell for parts of Wisconsin

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There’s an upside to all that snow parts of Wisconsin saw over the weekend: an end to dry conditions in the state.

National Weather Service meteorologist Tim Halbach says that the heavy wet snow that blanketed central and eastern Wisconsin is going to help quench the soil and put a cap on an abnormally dry winter. “I’m sure everyone who was out shoveling that snow this weekend knows that it was a very high liquid content type snow.”

Parts of the state we seeing abnormally dry conditions this winter, and Halbach says a late season snowfall is just what the state needed, even if it came exceptionally late. “Just having the precipitation this time of year is always a good thing. You want to get a little bit of moisture in the ground before the plants go in.”

Even better news for farmers and gardeners is that most of the moisture in that snow is going to stay put. Halbach says temperatures are expected to be mild over the next week or so. “So it’s a nice gradual melting of the snow that’s out there, rather than getting one big heavy rainfall and and then it’s all melting and heading into the rivers right away.”

Some more snow is expected to fall Wednesday across parts of Wisconsin, with milder spring temperatures expected for the next week after that.

Soglin says he’s ready to challenge Walker

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Paul Soglin

Madison Mayor Paul Soglin says he’s ready take on Governor Scott Walker. There are now more than a dozen Democrats in the primary race, and Soglin says his own polling shows him edging out state schools superintendent Tony Evers.

“Evers is at 25, I’m at 23, and frankly what the poll says is the more information people get about all of us, I continue to go up.”

In a WisPolitics interview in Madison Tuesday, Soglin addressed a number of issues including the Foxconn deal, which he wants to revisit if elected.

“It’s not as simple as downsizing the agreement. What it means is sitting down with Foxconn, sitting down with economists, and getting real about the size of the state’s investment.”

Soglin also said voters are not concerned about his age — he’ll be 73 on Saturday — his “tax and spend liberal” reputation, or meeting with Fidel Casto in 1975.

Bon-Ton liquidation likely after no qualified buyers place bids at auction

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It looks like efforts to save the parent company of Younkers and Boston Store are not going to work out.

An auction for the assets of the Bon-Ton company started late Monday night and Reuters is reporting that only liquidators have entered any bids for the company.

Executives for the embattled retailer have been seeking a purchaser for the company after they went into bankruptcy earlier this year, but so far no qualified purchasers have stepped up.

If no buyer is found, Bon-Ton has announced it would be closing most of its remaining stores in Wisconsin, and would be firing over 700 employees at their headquarters in Milwaukee and over 2,200 employees statewide.