Fire Forces Evacuation of 35 Workers at Sheboygan County Kohler Foundry

0 comments

Posted on 29th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

, ,

Roughly 35 workers were evacuated from the Kohler Co. cast iron foundry Thursday afternoon after a fire broke out at the facility. http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/92466279.html

No one was hurt in the blaze, which was reported about 3:15 p.m. in the Herman Iron Foundry at 444 Highland Drive in the village of Kohler in Sheboygan County, according to authorities.

At one point flames from the fire, which was in the first floor and basement, could be seen from outside the building. Inside the foundry there was reportedly molten metal, flammable liquids and machinery. 

The fire started in a molding line at the foundry, according to Kohler Co. spokeswoman Kristine Christina. http://www.sheboyganpress.com/article/20100429/SHE0101/100429086/1062&located=rss

Officials had cut off electrical and gas to the foundry, but those were restored around 4:30 p.m.

Kohler Co. and Kohler Fire Department firefighters fought the blaze with assistance from the Sheboygan Falls Fire Department. The Kohler Police Department, Orange Cross Ambulance and Sheboygan Falls First Responders are also on scene.

It took them two hours to get the fire under control.

 According to a press release from Kohler police, the blaze didn’t appear to be suspicious.

 There were no estimates available yet for the amount of damage done to the foundry.

 Christina said in a statement that production in the parts of the plant unharmed by the blaze will continue as will rseume as scheduled.

Wisconsin Sheriff’s Deputy Dies In Crash With Pickup Truck

0 comments

Posted on 26th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

, ,

A northern Wisconsin sheriff’s deputy was killed Sunday when he crashed into a pickup truck that suddenly pulled out in front of him, according to the Green Bay Press-Gazette. http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20100426/GPG0101/100426002/1978

 The Vilas County deputy had the fatal accident when he was responding to a call on Wisconsin 47, not far from Woodruff.

 The pickup truck was parked on the road’s shoulder, and the driver suddenly pulled out in front of the deputy’s squad car. The officer struck the back of the pickup and was killed.

 The driver, 49, from Lac du Flambeau was charged with suspicion of operating while intoxicated.  

Doctor Cleared Of Responsibility In Lawyer’s Fatal Heart Attack

0 comments

Posted on 23rd April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

, , , ,

 A doctor Thursday was cleared of charges that he was responsible for the death of former Fox Point municipal judge William Padway, who was felled by a heart attack in 2006, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/91838834.html

 Dr. Marc Olsen came out the winner when a Milwaukee County rejected a lawsuit’s charge that he didn’t follow correct procedure when Padway came in for a check-up last fall. Three weeks later, Padway died of a heart attack at age 49 in his home on Thanksgiving.

 During the civil trial, the doctor testified that he attempted to get Padway to get additional tests during his visit to rule out heart disease, but that Padway wouldn’t submit to them. Olsen also claimed that he asked Padway to come back in two weeks for another check-up, and that he never did return.

 In its lawsuit Padway’s family was seeking $3 million for the loss of the attorney’s earnings and companionship.

 Olsen had put Padway, his patient starting in 2001, on special diet when he determined that the lawyer had risk factors for heart disease. In 2005 Padway went to a hospital emergency room with chest pains, but his diagnosis was bad reflex. Weeks later Olsen did more tests, and they also came back negative for heart disease.

 Then on Halloween in 2006, Padway came to Olsen’s office complaining of chest pains. The physician gave him a two-week supply of reflex medicine, and told him to come back, according to the Journal Sentinel.

Pope Sued In Wisconsin By Victim of Pedophile Priest

0 comments

Posted on 23rd April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

, , , , ,

 A man who says he was molested by a priest at a school for the deaf in suburban Milwaukee Thursday filed a federal suit against those he holds responsible: Pope Benedict XVI, the Holy See and several top Vatican officials. http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/pope-sued-in-milwaukee-clergy-sex-abuse-case/19450730

 The lawsuit only identifies the plaintiff as Illinois resident John Doe 16, who asserts that he was molested by the Rev. Lawrence Murphy at St. John’s School for the Deaf in St. Francis, outside Milwaukee. Father Murphy, who died in 1998, admitted to abusing 200 boys at the school from 1952 to 1974.

 The lawsuit charges that the Vatican, and the Pope himself, knew that Father Murphy was a pedophile but didn’t act to stop him or defrock him. The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages. 

 There have been many lawsuits filed against Roman Catholic dioceses across the nation by those who allege that they were sexually assaulted by pedophile priests. But it’s unusual for the Pope himself to be named as a defendant, as in Thursday’s action.

 The Survivors Network For Those Abused By Priests told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that there two other cases pending against the Vatican that have been filed by men who say they were molested by priests. http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/91801904.html

 Appeals courts have allowed suits in Oregon and Kentucky to go forward, but the Vatican has requested that the U.S. Supreme Court rule on the Oregon case, according to the Journal Sentinel.

 The Vatican’s position is that the Pope is protected from litigation by sovereign immunity, but victims’ attorney maintain that the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act permits foreign countries and their representatives to be sued in some cases related to commercial or private activity.   

 The suit against the Pope is also unusual in that it wants the Vatican to be ordered to release secret files that have the names of pedophile priests.

 Father Murphy’s case made headlines when The New York Times broke a story that alleged that the Pope, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the Vatican, knew about the allegations against Murphy but stopped proceedings to have him defrocked.  

 The Times wrote Thursday that documents released with the suit in Milwaukee show that the Vatican was told earlier than previously thought about the allegations against Father Murphy. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/us/23priest.html?ref=us

 The Pope could have stopped John Doe 16 from being a victim, according to the suit.

 “Had plaintiff or his family known what the defendant Holy See knew – that Lawrence Murphy was a suspected child molester and a danger to children before plaintiff was first molested by Murphy, plaintiff would not have been sexually molested,” the suit says.

 And here’s a fine touch of irony: Father Murphy first approached the plaintiff about having sex while in a confessional booth.     

 

Wisconsin Lawmaker Wood Gets Censured, Not Expelled, For DUI Offenses

0 comments

Posted on 21st April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

, ,

 Wisconsin Rep. Jeff Wood, I-Chippewa Falls, didn’t get thrown out of office for having three drunken driving convictions, but his colleagues Tuesday decided to censure him. http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/91694409.html

 The state Assembly voted 73-24 to rebuke Wood, who just a day earlier pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 45 days in jail and more than $1,600 in fines for his third offense of drunken driving and possession of drug paraphernalia. His begins his incarceration next Monday, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

 A proposal to take Wood’s seat away from him, which was brought by Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, was tabled in a 49-48 vote.  

 In a particularly pithy quote to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Tuesday, Nass complained, “We are supposed to be lawmakers, not lawbreakers.”

 But other Wisconsin lawmakers argued that it was up to voters, not the state Legislature, to get Wood out of office by calling for a recall.

 Wood, 40, was convicted of drunken driving charges in both 1991 and 1992. He also has two cases of allegedly driving under the influence last fall pending in Marathon and Monroe counties.

 Wood, who has said he won’t run for reelection, told a judge Monday that he is in treatment for alcohol and drug abuse, and hasn’t used them for nine months and six months, respectively.

 As part of his newest sentence Wood’s driver’s license will be  suspended for 27 months.    

Wisconsin Lawmaker Convicted of Third Drunken Driving Charge

0 comments

Posted on 19th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

, , , , , , , , ,

Facing possible removal from office, Wisconsin State Sen. Jeff Wood was convicted of his third drunken-driving and possession of drug paraphernalia charges Monday. http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/91518534.html

 The legislator was immediately sentenced to 45 days in jail and fined $1,600, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

 On Tuesday the Wisconsin Assembly is set to try to drum Wood, an independent from Chippewa Falls, out of office because he has been arrested three times in the past year for driving under the influence. Republicans will seek a vote on his expulsion.

  Rep. Steve Nass, a Republican from Whitewater, last fall brought a resolution seeking to remove Wood from the Assembly, based on his legal problems.

 Wood, who already had drunken driving convictions in 1991 and 1992, will start serving the sentence for his latest conviction Monday. Although Wood will have work-release privileges, his driver’s license is being revoked for 27 months. He must also have an ignition interlock put in any car he drives for two year, according to the Journal Sentinel.

 Wood will also have to enroll in drug and alcohol treatment.

 The state senator currently has other charges pending against him, in Marathon and Monroe counties, of driving under the influence of prescription drugs.

 A two-thirds legislative vote is needed in order for Wood to be removed from office, the Journal Sentinel says. Democrats believe that Wood should be reprimanded or censured, not kicked out of his senator’s seat.  

 

Wisconsin Federal Judge Nixes National Prayer Day As Unconstitutional

0 comments

Posted on 16th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

, , , , , ,

 A federal judge in Wisconsin Thursday ruled that the National Day of Prayer celebration violates the First Amendment. http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/91002169.html

U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb of the Western District of Wisconsin made her finding in response to an action brought by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is based in Madison.

That organization of atheists and agnostics had sued President Bush, and then the Obama administration, to bar those two Commander in Chiefs from making their annual proclamations inviting Americans to set aside a day for prayer or meditation.

In her ruling, Crabb found that the federal statute “ordering the president to make the annual proclamation serves no secular purpose, casts nonbelievers as outsiders and goes beyond the mere acknowledgment of religion to encouraging a practice best left to individual conscience,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote.

The judge stressed that her ruling was part of a effort to ensure religious freedom, not to criticize prayer.

“The same law that prohibits the government from declaring a National Day of Prayer also prohibits it from declaring a National Day of Blasphemy,” she said in the decision.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation lauded Crabb’s ruling, saying that the President shouldn’t be able to tell Americans to pray.

The U.S. Department of Justice said it was studying Crabb’s ruling to decide what to do next, and President Barack Obama would make his 2010 proclamation, on May 6, just as planned, according to the Journal Sentinel.

That’s because Crabb stayed enforcement of her ruling until all appeals are exhausted.

 

 

 

Wisconsin Senate Passes Bill Banning Texting While Driving

0 comments

Posted on 14th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

, ,

As expected, the Wisconsin State Senate Tuesday passed a bill that prohibits texting while driving. Gov. Jim Doyle is expected to sign the legislation. http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/90793699.html

 The Senate voted 30-3 in favor of the texting ban, which still faces a vote, a formality, in the state Assembly in the next few days, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

 The Senate was approving a bill passed by the Assembly in January, but the Senate changed the penalties mandated for violations of the ban. The Senate mandated fines of $20 to $400 for violations. The Assembly had set penalties of up to $400 for a first offense and from $200 to $800 for a second offense.

 Right now 19 states and Washington, D.C., bar motorists from texting while they are driving, according to the National Conference of State Legislators.

 Several studies cited by the Journal Sentinel found that the distraction of texting increases the risk of accidents.

 Wisconsin’s texting ban will take effect seven months after Gov. Doyle signs it.   

  

Wisconsin Set To Pass Driver Texting Ban, Impose Fines

0 comments

Posted on 13th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

, , ,

Wisconsin is expected to become the 22nd state to enact a ban on texting while driving, with a bill set to pass the state Legislature Tuesday. http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/90734229.html

The anti-texting bill, in two versions that have some variations, has already cleared the Wisconsin Senate and Assembly. The bill needs one more vote taken in the Senate before it goes to Gov. Jim Doyle, who has said he will sign the bill into law.

The bill levies a penalty of up to a $400 fine for a first offense of the texting ban, and up to $800 for a second offense. Emergency responders aren’t subject to the texting ban.

The ban, aimed at cutting  down on driver distractons, will go into effect seven months after Doyle signs it.

Under the bill drivers cannot send a text or e-mail on cellphones, iPhones or Blackberry devices. 

Brothers Take Dispute Over Green Bay Packers Tickets To Court

0 comments

Posted on 12th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

, , , ,

Blood may not be thicker than water, at least in the case of  two brothers have gone to court over their father’s prized Green Bay Packers tickets, according to the Green Bay Gazette. http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20100411/GPG0101/4110587/1978

 Peter Christman of Los Angeles alleges that his brother Michael kept all the proceeds after selling their late father Walter’s 13 mid-field tickets. The father, who died a year ago in April, had willed the tickets to Michael but said if the tickets were sold, the proceeds should be parceled out 55-45 between the brothers.

 Peter has filed suit against his brother Michael of Van Buren, Ark., claiming he only got a small fraction of the money from the ticket sales, which should have reaped him thousands.

 In his lawsuit filed in Brown County Court, Peter is seeking unspecified damages, legal fees and a judgment enforcing their father’s last wishes, according to the Green Bay Gazette.

 There is a pretrial conference for the lawsuit scheduled for Oct. 7, with the trial set for Oct. 11 and 12.    

« Older Entries