Date: 9/25/2008 5:10 PM
By RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press Writer
MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ The wife and daughter of a man who committed suicide can inherit his estate even if they assisted him in the act, a state appeals court ruled Thursday.
State law prohibits anyone who “intentionally kills” another from inheriting from the person, but Wisconsin’s District 4 Court of Appeals said that provision does not apply to those who assist in suicide.
“Providing (the man) with a loaded shotgun did not deprive him of his life: he deprived himself of life by shooting himself with the shotgun,” Judge Margaret Vergeront wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel.
Wisconsin Right to Life, which opposes assisted suicide, said the ruling gives people a financial incentive to help relatives die prematurely.
“It’s a horrendous decision,” said Barbara Lyons, the group’s executive director.
“I think the implications are enormous,” she said.
Boston College law professor Ray Madoff, an expert on inheritance law, said she has never heard of a similar ruling in the nation.
“This is something that people have been curious about where the law would draw the line, and it’s interesting to actually have a case addressing it,” she said.
Edward Schunk, 63, shot himself in 2006 in a cabin on his property while he was terminally ill with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer. He left an estate valued at nearly $500,000.
The court ruled in favor of his wife, Linda, and youngest child, Megan Schunk, now 20, who were granted most of the estate under Schunk’s will.
Schunk’s six older children received little or nothing, according to court records. Five of them challenged the will, arguing that Linda and Megan Schunk took Schunk to the cabin, gave him a loaded shotgun and left even though they knew he was suicidal.
The two acknowledged they took him home from the hospital on a one-day pass but denied assisting his death. They said he had told them he wanted to go turkey hunting.
For the purposes of deciding the dispute, the court assumed the other children’s allegations were true but still ruled in favor of the wife and younger daughter.
Under Wisconsin law, assisting in a suicide is punishable by up to six years in prison. Thursday’s ruling did not address that law, and no one has been charged in Schunk’s death.
Terry Moore, lawyer for Megan Schunk, called the case a “one-in-a-million situation” and said he doubted it would have broad impact. Lawyers for Schunk’s other children did not immediately return phone messages. They could ask the Wisconsin Supreme Court to review the case.
Boston College’s Madoff said courts often struggle with whether someone who kills another should be allowed to inherit their money, she said. It’s an easier question when dealing with murder but more difficult in instances such as drunken driving, self-defense against spousal abuse or assisted suicide, she said.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Wis. court: Cops illegally taped nursing home sex
Date: 9/11/2008 3:12 PM
By RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press Writer
MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ Police who videotaped a man having sex with his comatose wife in her nursing home room violated his constitutional rights, an appeals court ruled Thursday.
David W. Johnson, 59, had an expectation to privacy when he visited his wife, a stroke victim, at Divine Savior Nursing Home in Portage, the District 4 Court of Appeals ruled. Therefore, police violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches when they installed a hidden video camera in the room, the court said.
“We are satisfied that Johnson’s expectation of privacy while visiting his wife in her nursing home room is one that society would recognize as reasonable,” the unanimous three-judge panel wrote.
The ruling means prosecutors cannot introduce the videotapes as evidence in their case against Johnson, who is charged with felony sexual assault for having intercourse with his wife without her consent at least three times in 2005.
Johnson’s attorney, Christopher Kelly, said his client would visit his now 54-year-old wife every day, reading her the Bible and moving her arms and legs so her muscles wouldn’t atrophy.
The woman’s sister is upset that prosecutors brought charges against him, Kelly said. “She believes her sister’s husband was merely expressing his love for his wife and was trying everything he could to bring her back to consciousness,” Kelly said.
The couple married in 1988 and had no children, Kelly said.
Kelly said he believed prosecutors would be forced to drop the charges without the evidence on the tapes and thought the appeals court made “a pretty obvious call.”
Johnson’s wife was admitted to the nursing home after suffering a stroke. Court records say she was unable to speak or sit up, and nursing home staff members fed, cleaned and turned her. Prosecutors say she was comatose.
Johnson visited her frequently and sometimes would close the door to her room so they could have privacy as allowed by the nursing home. But staff members tipped off police, fearing she was in danger because, they suspected, he was having sex with her.
Police obtained a search warrant to videotape the room and installed the camera, which ran for three weeks. Johnson, who is free on bail, was charged based on that evidence.
Sauk County Circuit Judge Patrick Taggart, who heard the Columbia County case as a substitute judge, tossed out the evidence last year, ruling it stemmed from an illegal search. Prosecutors appealed, arguing Johnson had a right to privacy when he visited his wife to care for her but not when he used the room for what they contend was illegal intercourse.
The appeals court affirmed Taggart’s ruling.
Department of Justice spokesman Bill Cosh said prosecutors are evaluating whether to ask the state Supreme Court to review the case.
Johnson’s wife remains in a coma at the nursing home.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press Writer
MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ Police who videotaped a man having sex with his comatose wife in her nursing home room violated his constitutional rights, an appeals court ruled Thursday.
David W. Johnson, 59, had an expectation to privacy when he visited his wife, a stroke victim, at Divine Savior Nursing Home in Portage, the District 4 Court of Appeals ruled. Therefore, police violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches when they installed a hidden video camera in the room, the court said.
“We are satisfied that Johnson’s expectation of privacy while visiting his wife in her nursing home room is one that society would recognize as reasonable,” the unanimous three-judge panel wrote.
The ruling means prosecutors cannot introduce the videotapes as evidence in their case against Johnson, who is charged with felony sexual assault for having intercourse with his wife without her consent at least three times in 2005.
Johnson’s attorney, Christopher Kelly, said his client would visit his now 54-year-old wife every day, reading her the Bible and moving her arms and legs so her muscles wouldn’t atrophy.
The woman’s sister is upset that prosecutors brought charges against him, Kelly said. “She believes her sister’s husband was merely expressing his love for his wife and was trying everything he could to bring her back to consciousness,” Kelly said.
The couple married in 1988 and had no children, Kelly said.
Kelly said he believed prosecutors would be forced to drop the charges without the evidence on the tapes and thought the appeals court made “a pretty obvious call.”
Johnson’s wife was admitted to the nursing home after suffering a stroke. Court records say she was unable to speak or sit up, and nursing home staff members fed, cleaned and turned her. Prosecutors say she was comatose.
Johnson visited her frequently and sometimes would close the door to her room so they could have privacy as allowed by the nursing home. But staff members tipped off police, fearing she was in danger because, they suspected, he was having sex with her.
Police obtained a search warrant to videotape the room and installed the camera, which ran for three weeks. Johnson, who is free on bail, was charged based on that evidence.
Sauk County Circuit Judge Patrick Taggart, who heard the Columbia County case as a substitute judge, tossed out the evidence last year, ruling it stemmed from an illegal search. Prosecutors appealed, arguing Johnson had a right to privacy when he visited his wife to care for her but not when he used the room for what they contend was illegal intercourse.
The appeals court affirmed Taggart’s ruling.
Department of Justice spokesman Bill Cosh said prosecutors are evaluating whether to ask the state Supreme Court to review the case.
Johnson’s wife remains in a coma at the nursing home.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
States ask MillerCoors to pull energy drink
Date: 9/17/2008 3:53 PM
By EMILY FREDRIX
AP Business Writer
MILWAUKEE (AP) _ Twenty-five states asked beverage maker MillerCoors LLC on Wednesday to abandon plans for a new caffeine-infused alcoholic energy drink.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement that the Sparks Red drink is a “recipe for disaster” because adding caffeine to alcoholic beverages reduces drinkers’ sense of intoxication.
Blumenthal, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the other attorneys general say young drinkers are especially vulnerable because of their limited judgment and risky behaviors in driving and other activities. They urged MillerCoors to abandon plans for the product and said they would consider other steps — hinting at a potential lawsuit — if necessary.
MillerCoors spokesman Julian Green said the company still plans to release the drink on Oct. 1. He said the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, or TTB, has approved all formulas and labeling for Sparks.
“We will continue to work with the TTB to insure that marketing, labeling and formulation continues to meet all guidelines,” he said.
The company said it was reviewing the letter and looked forward to talking with the attorneys general about it.
Attorneys general and advocacy groups have long been targeting MillerCoors, a joint venture between SABMiller’s U.S. unit and Molson Coors Brewing Co., and the nation’s largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., in connection with the making and marketing of such drinks. They say these drinks are targeting teenagers and young drinkers who are already drawn to highly caffeinated drinks like Red Bull.
Last week the Center for Science in the Public Interest said it sued MillerCoors to stop the brewer from selling Sparks, saying it’s going after teenagers with the drink.
On Wednesday, the latest group, which also includes California, Ohio, Illinois and Vermont, sent MillerCoors Chief Executive Leo Kiely a letter asking the brewer to stop its plans for Sparks Red.
“MillerCoors’ decision to introduce Sparks Red defies increasing undeniable evidence from medical and public health professionals about the dangers of mixing alcohol with stimulants found in energy drinks,” the letter said.
In announcing its lawsuit last week, the CSPI cited a 2007 study that found that drinkers of caffeinated alcoholic drinks are more likely to binge drink and ride with an intoxicated driver, among other dangers.
The 25 attorneys general said the new drink will contain as much as 8 percent alcohol by volume, and noted that was higher than other alcoholic energy drinks. According to MillerCoors’ Web site, current versions of Sparks have between 6 percent and 7 percent alcohol by volume. By comparison, MillerCoors’ beers Miller High Life and Coors contain just under 5 percent alcohol by volume, according to the site.
The CSPI’s lawsuit asks the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to stop MillerCoors from selling the drink. It said it is illegal to use caffeine, guarana, ginseng and taurine in alcoholic beverages. All of those ingredients are in Sparks, MillerCoors spokesman Pete Marino said, adding that he believed they were all in Sparks Red as well.
CSPI said the Food and Drug Administration has given “only very narrow approval” for caffeine and guarana — with no allowance for alcoholic drinks — and no approval for ginseng in any food or beverage. Taurine, which is often found in energy drinks, is a derivative of an amino acid.
St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch said in June it would reformulate its brands “Tilt” and “Bud Extra” to remove the stimulants they contain as part of a settlement with 11 attorneys general.
In February the attorneys general subpoenaed documents from Anheuser-Busch related to its marketing efforts for the alcoholic energy drinks. Anheuser-Busch also agreed to pay $200,000 to the states that investigated its practices.
Anheuser-Busch strongly disputed the allegation that its marketing for the caffeinated alcoholic drinks targets those under the legal drinking age.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By EMILY FREDRIX
AP Business Writer
MILWAUKEE (AP) _ Twenty-five states asked beverage maker MillerCoors LLC on Wednesday to abandon plans for a new caffeine-infused alcoholic energy drink.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement that the Sparks Red drink is a “recipe for disaster” because adding caffeine to alcoholic beverages reduces drinkers’ sense of intoxication.
Blumenthal, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the other attorneys general say young drinkers are especially vulnerable because of their limited judgment and risky behaviors in driving and other activities. They urged MillerCoors to abandon plans for the product and said they would consider other steps — hinting at a potential lawsuit — if necessary.
MillerCoors spokesman Julian Green said the company still plans to release the drink on Oct. 1. He said the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, or TTB, has approved all formulas and labeling for Sparks.
“We will continue to work with the TTB to insure that marketing, labeling and formulation continues to meet all guidelines,” he said.
The company said it was reviewing the letter and looked forward to talking with the attorneys general about it.
Attorneys general and advocacy groups have long been targeting MillerCoors, a joint venture between SABMiller’s U.S. unit and Molson Coors Brewing Co., and the nation’s largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., in connection with the making and marketing of such drinks. They say these drinks are targeting teenagers and young drinkers who are already drawn to highly caffeinated drinks like Red Bull.
Last week the Center for Science in the Public Interest said it sued MillerCoors to stop the brewer from selling Sparks, saying it’s going after teenagers with the drink.
On Wednesday, the latest group, which also includes California, Ohio, Illinois and Vermont, sent MillerCoors Chief Executive Leo Kiely a letter asking the brewer to stop its plans for Sparks Red.
“MillerCoors’ decision to introduce Sparks Red defies increasing undeniable evidence from medical and public health professionals about the dangers of mixing alcohol with stimulants found in energy drinks,” the letter said.
In announcing its lawsuit last week, the CSPI cited a 2007 study that found that drinkers of caffeinated alcoholic drinks are more likely to binge drink and ride with an intoxicated driver, among other dangers.
The 25 attorneys general said the new drink will contain as much as 8 percent alcohol by volume, and noted that was higher than other alcoholic energy drinks. According to MillerCoors’ Web site, current versions of Sparks have between 6 percent and 7 percent alcohol by volume. By comparison, MillerCoors’ beers Miller High Life and Coors contain just under 5 percent alcohol by volume, according to the site.
The CSPI’s lawsuit asks the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to stop MillerCoors from selling the drink. It said it is illegal to use caffeine, guarana, ginseng and taurine in alcoholic beverages. All of those ingredients are in Sparks, MillerCoors spokesman Pete Marino said, adding that he believed they were all in Sparks Red as well.
CSPI said the Food and Drug Administration has given “only very narrow approval” for caffeine and guarana — with no allowance for alcoholic drinks — and no approval for ginseng in any food or beverage. Taurine, which is often found in energy drinks, is a derivative of an amino acid.
St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch said in June it would reformulate its brands “Tilt” and “Bud Extra” to remove the stimulants they contain as part of a settlement with 11 attorneys general.
In February the attorneys general subpoenaed documents from Anheuser-Busch related to its marketing efforts for the alcoholic energy drinks. Anheuser-Busch also agreed to pay $200,000 to the states that investigated its practices.
Anheuser-Busch strongly disputed the allegation that its marketing for the caffeinated alcoholic drinks targets those under the legal drinking age.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Reduce partisan fight over judges, lawyers urge
Wisconsin got its name in the national news for our Supreme Court race this spring, as one where a good judge got beat by a little known county judge with right wing rhetoric, see the below story. For the local story of the defeat of Justice Louis Butler,Jr. by Michael Gableman click here.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://gordonjohnson.com
http://wis-injury.com
http://wis-law.com
©2008 Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
Date: 8/10/2008 12:17 PM
By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) _ The American Bar Association is calling on the next president and Senate to reduce partisan tensions in federal judicial nominations.
The incoming president of the lawyers’ group, H. Thomas Wells Jr. of Birmingham, Ala., said Sunday that he also is enlisting the help of retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to study threats to fair and impartial state courts.
At the federal level, the White House should create a commission of Democrats and Republicans to recommend nominees for federal appeals courts and the two senators from each state should establish similar panels to evaluate and recommend federal trial judges, the ABA says in a resolution inspired by Wells. The proposal is certain to be adopted at the group’s annual meeting in New York.
The bipartisan panels would help “avoid the times when there have been really rancorous debates in the confirmation process,” Wells said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Nominations from Florida and other states that now use such commissions, Wells said, “almost never have bitter confirmation fights.”
Wells said that by acting ahead of this year’s election, the ABA — often criticized by Republicans for tilting toward the Democrats — will avoid being seen as favoring one party. He said he plans to write to Democrat Barack Obama, Republican John McCain and members of the Senate to urge them to adopt the commission approach.
In recent years, individual senators in both parties have blocked judicial nominees from a vote by the full Senate. Democrats filibustered several of President Bush’s nominees when they controlled the Senate during his first term.
Bush also has failed to consult senators on some of his choices. In one instance, his nominee for an appeals court slot from Virginia was not among the recommendations of the state’s senators, Republican John Warner and Democrat Jim Webb.
The nomination has since been withdrawn and Bush has nominated two other Virginians to fill vacancies on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who were among those recommended by the senators. One, former state Supreme Court Justice G. Steven Agee, was unanimously confirmed. The nomination of U.S. District Court Judge Glen Conrad is pending.
At the state level, Wells said his concern was sparked by recent expensive, and in some cases ugly, campaigns and some state legislatures’ refusal to provide enough money for state courts.
O’Connor has spoken out frequently in defense of judicial independence and said judges who must run in partisan elections risk being compromised by the growing amount of campaign cash they must raise.
She will head up a May 2009 summit in Charlotte, N.C., that will explore these issues, Wells said.
In April, a little-known county judge narrowly defeated a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice with a law-and-order message and a barrage of third-party ads in a race that will go down as one of the state’s nastiest.
Liberal and conservative interest groups spent millions of dollars on negative attack ads that blanketed the state’s airwaves for weeks.
The ABA also is part of a push to get the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a case from West Virginia, in which a state high court justice refused to step aside from ruling on a $76.3 million dispute involving a key booster of his 2004 election campaign.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://gordonjohnson.com
http://wis-injury.com
http://wis-law.com
©2008 Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
Date: 8/10/2008 12:17 PM
By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) _ The American Bar Association is calling on the next president and Senate to reduce partisan tensions in federal judicial nominations.
The incoming president of the lawyers’ group, H. Thomas Wells Jr. of Birmingham, Ala., said Sunday that he also is enlisting the help of retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to study threats to fair and impartial state courts.
At the federal level, the White House should create a commission of Democrats and Republicans to recommend nominees for federal appeals courts and the two senators from each state should establish similar panels to evaluate and recommend federal trial judges, the ABA says in a resolution inspired by Wells. The proposal is certain to be adopted at the group’s annual meeting in New York.
The bipartisan panels would help “avoid the times when there have been really rancorous debates in the confirmation process,” Wells said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Nominations from Florida and other states that now use such commissions, Wells said, “almost never have bitter confirmation fights.”
Wells said that by acting ahead of this year’s election, the ABA — often criticized by Republicans for tilting toward the Democrats — will avoid being seen as favoring one party. He said he plans to write to Democrat Barack Obama, Republican John McCain and members of the Senate to urge them to adopt the commission approach.
In recent years, individual senators in both parties have blocked judicial nominees from a vote by the full Senate. Democrats filibustered several of President Bush’s nominees when they controlled the Senate during his first term.
Bush also has failed to consult senators on some of his choices. In one instance, his nominee for an appeals court slot from Virginia was not among the recommendations of the state’s senators, Republican John Warner and Democrat Jim Webb.
The nomination has since been withdrawn and Bush has nominated two other Virginians to fill vacancies on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who were among those recommended by the senators. One, former state Supreme Court Justice G. Steven Agee, was unanimously confirmed. The nomination of U.S. District Court Judge Glen Conrad is pending.
At the state level, Wells said his concern was sparked by recent expensive, and in some cases ugly, campaigns and some state legislatures’ refusal to provide enough money for state courts.
O’Connor has spoken out frequently in defense of judicial independence and said judges who must run in partisan elections risk being compromised by the growing amount of campaign cash they must raise.
She will head up a May 2009 summit in Charlotte, N.C., that will explore these issues, Wells said.
In April, a little-known county judge narrowly defeated a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice with a law-and-order message and a barrage of third-party ads in a race that will go down as one of the state’s nastiest.
Liberal and conservative interest groups spent millions of dollars on negative attack ads that blanketed the state’s airwaves for weeks.
The ABA also is part of a push to get the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a case from West Virginia, in which a state high court justice refused to step aside from ruling on a $76.3 million dispute involving a key booster of his 2004 election campaign.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Plea deal reached in Wis. homicide-torture case
Date: 8/6/2008 10:17 PM
By SCOTT BAUER
Associated Press Writer
PORTAGE, Wis. (AP) _ A man charged with killing a woman and torturing her young son as he led a gang of violent identity thieves entered into a plea agreement Wednesday that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.
Michael Sisk, 26, faces up to 136 years and three months in prison, but will be sentenced to less than the maximum with extended supervision under a state sentencing provision. To a count of second-degree reckless homicide he entered an Alford plea, which means he did not admit guilt but said the prosecution has enough evidence to obtain a conviction. He pleaded guilty or no contest to nine other counts.
Sisk’s attorney, Ronald Benavides, said the plea deal arose after a Wednesday afternoon hearing on a series of motions filed in advance of Sisk’s trial, which was to have started Monday.
Prosecutors say Sisk killed Tammie Garlin, 36, who was found buried outside the house Sisk and others rented in Portage, a sleepy town of about 9,700 in south-central Wisconsin.
A message left after office hours with Columbia County District Attorney Jane Kohlwey was not immediately returned.
Investigators believe Sisk and his gang, including Garlin, crisscrossed the country with their young children, stealing people’s identities and running small-time scams.
Police looking for the 2-year-old daughter of gang member Candace Clarke, kidnapped from her Florida foster parents, tracked the gang to the rental house where Garlin’s body was found in a shallow backyard grave in June 2007.
They found the kidnapped girl, and found Garlin’s son — then 11 — in the closet streaked with blood.
According to a criminal complaint, the boy told detectives that everyone in the gang, including his sister and mother, burned him with hot water and whipped him with an extension cord as punishment. Sisk beat him with a board with a nail in it, he said.
The case spurred an outpouring of sympathy for the boy across the country and forced the Florida Department of Children and Families to reform its system and assign specific workers to track missing children.
Sisk, Clarke, 24, gang member Michaela Clerc, 22, and Garlin’s now-16-year-old daughter were charged with a host of counts, including being a party to child abuse and first-degree intentional homicide. Clarke and Clerc struck plea deals over the past year, and the teen’s case has been moved into juvenile court.
Patti Seger, executive director of the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence, called the case sad.
“You just don’t hear about this combination of folks all traveling together with kids where everybody is sort of participating in abusing each other,” Seger said. “Somebody killed that woman and somebody hurt that little boy.”
___
Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed to this story.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By SCOTT BAUER
Associated Press Writer
PORTAGE, Wis. (AP) _ A man charged with killing a woman and torturing her young son as he led a gang of violent identity thieves entered into a plea agreement Wednesday that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.
Michael Sisk, 26, faces up to 136 years and three months in prison, but will be sentenced to less than the maximum with extended supervision under a state sentencing provision. To a count of second-degree reckless homicide he entered an Alford plea, which means he did not admit guilt but said the prosecution has enough evidence to obtain a conviction. He pleaded guilty or no contest to nine other counts.
Sisk’s attorney, Ronald Benavides, said the plea deal arose after a Wednesday afternoon hearing on a series of motions filed in advance of Sisk’s trial, which was to have started Monday.
Prosecutors say Sisk killed Tammie Garlin, 36, who was found buried outside the house Sisk and others rented in Portage, a sleepy town of about 9,700 in south-central Wisconsin.
A message left after office hours with Columbia County District Attorney Jane Kohlwey was not immediately returned.
Investigators believe Sisk and his gang, including Garlin, crisscrossed the country with their young children, stealing people’s identities and running small-time scams.
Police looking for the 2-year-old daughter of gang member Candace Clarke, kidnapped from her Florida foster parents, tracked the gang to the rental house where Garlin’s body was found in a shallow backyard grave in June 2007.
They found the kidnapped girl, and found Garlin’s son — then 11 — in the closet streaked with blood.
According to a criminal complaint, the boy told detectives that everyone in the gang, including his sister and mother, burned him with hot water and whipped him with an extension cord as punishment. Sisk beat him with a board with a nail in it, he said.
The case spurred an outpouring of sympathy for the boy across the country and forced the Florida Department of Children and Families to reform its system and assign specific workers to track missing children.
Sisk, Clarke, 24, gang member Michaela Clerc, 22, and Garlin’s now-16-year-old daughter were charged with a host of counts, including being a party to child abuse and first-degree intentional homicide. Clarke and Clerc struck plea deals over the past year, and the teen’s case has been moved into juvenile court.
Patti Seger, executive director of the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence, called the case sad.
“You just don’t hear about this combination of folks all traveling together with kids where everybody is sort of participating in abusing each other,” Seger said. “Somebody killed that woman and somebody hurt that little boy.”
___
Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed to this story.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
McCain opposes farm policies popular in Midwest
Date: 8/6/2008 3:06 AM
By MIKE GLOVER
Associated Press Writer
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) _ Republican presidential candidate John McCain opposes the $300 billion farm bill and subsidies for ethanol, positions that both supporters and opponents say might cost him votes he needs in the upper Midwest this November.
His Democratic rival, Barack Obama, is making a more traditional regional pitch: He favors the farm bill approved by Congress this year and subsidies for the Midwest-based ethanol industry. McCain instead has promised to open new markets abroad for farmers to export their commodities.
In his position papers, McCain opposes farm subsidies only for those with incomes of more than $250,000 and a net worth above $2 million. But he’s gone further on the stump.
“I don’t support agricultural subsidies no matter where they are,” McCain said at a recent appearance in Wisconsin. “The farm bill, $300 billion, is something America simply can’t afford.”
McCain later described the measure, which is very popular throughout the Midwest, as “a $300 billion, bloated, pork-barrel-laden bill” because of subsidies for industries like ethanol.
It’s not a stand that pleases Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa.
“I would not advise him to take that position,” Grassley said. “For sure, he can’t lose Missouri and that’s in the upper Midwest. Could he lose Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin and still be elected president? Yes, but I wouldn’t advise him to have that strategy.”
Grassley, a conservative Republican, and his Senate colleague from Iowa, liberal Democrat Tom Harkin, have achieved enduring success in this state largely by mastering the politics of farm issues. Harkin chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, which wrote the new farm legislation.
“I don’t see any scenario in which McCain can get to the White House without carrying some upper Midwestern states,” said Harkin, an Obama backer. “I’ve never really understood in all my years why Sen. McCain has gone out of his way to speak against and vote against policies that are important to the upper Midwest.”
There’s a history of close elections in the region. President Bush carried Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota in 2004, earning 35 electoral votes. But his Democratic opponent, John Kerry, prevailed in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois, giving him 41 electoral votes.
Veteran GOP strategist Gentry Collins said McCain can defend his record on farm issues, including opposing “corporate welfare” for big operations, but he said there’s more at work.
“The upper Midwest is crucial in this election, and Midwestern voters value authenticity. They value experience,” Collins said. “I don’t think agricultural issues are the only issues Midwestern voters care about. There are some bigger-picture issues, broader issues where he’s strong.”
But on another important issue to Midwesterners, McCain opposed a tax break for developing wind power. Obama supported the tax break.
“We’re employing close to 2,000 people right now in Iowa in the wind energy industry,” Harkin said.
McCain has been most outspoken on ethanol subsidies, and that has Republicans worried in Iowa, the nation’s biggest producer of the fuel. Other top ethanol producers include Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Missouri.
“It does challenge him in states like Iowa, the No. 1 ethanol state,” said Bill Northey, Iowa’s Republican agriculture secretary. “It does make it tougher to make the case.”
Drake University political science professor Dennis Goldford said McCain’s problem on farm issues reflects a deeper issue he faces as he’s courted conservative GOP activists, many of whom are deeply suspicious of him.
“He’s essentially reverting to standard Republican supply-side economics,” said Goldford. “That’s where he’s got a problem. He’s got to find his own voice and so far he hasn’t had a voice.”
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat who has campaigned for Obama, said he’s puzzled by McCain’s position. He points to other Republicans who have a different view.
“President Bush and I just had a good conversation about how critically important ethanol is, and how Iowa is positioned so well to lead the nation,” said Culver. “I have no idea why John McCain doesn’t support it. It hurts him in Indiana, and Missouri and Ohio, and it’s not the message right now that any of us want to hear.”
Obama has a modest lead in national polls, but electoral votes will decide the election. Obama is poised to do well on both coasts, while McCain is favored in the South and some parts of the West. That leaves the upper Midwest as a swing battleground.
“The Midwest is crucial in this campaign,” said Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat and an early backer of Obama. “Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and perhaps Indiana are very important states. McCain is behind, and he’s in danger of falling further behind.”
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By MIKE GLOVER
Associated Press Writer
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) _ Republican presidential candidate John McCain opposes the $300 billion farm bill and subsidies for ethanol, positions that both supporters and opponents say might cost him votes he needs in the upper Midwest this November.
His Democratic rival, Barack Obama, is making a more traditional regional pitch: He favors the farm bill approved by Congress this year and subsidies for the Midwest-based ethanol industry. McCain instead has promised to open new markets abroad for farmers to export their commodities.
In his position papers, McCain opposes farm subsidies only for those with incomes of more than $250,000 and a net worth above $2 million. But he’s gone further on the stump.
“I don’t support agricultural subsidies no matter where they are,” McCain said at a recent appearance in Wisconsin. “The farm bill, $300 billion, is something America simply can’t afford.”
McCain later described the measure, which is very popular throughout the Midwest, as “a $300 billion, bloated, pork-barrel-laden bill” because of subsidies for industries like ethanol.
It’s not a stand that pleases Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa.
“I would not advise him to take that position,” Grassley said. “For sure, he can’t lose Missouri and that’s in the upper Midwest. Could he lose Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin and still be elected president? Yes, but I wouldn’t advise him to have that strategy.”
Grassley, a conservative Republican, and his Senate colleague from Iowa, liberal Democrat Tom Harkin, have achieved enduring success in this state largely by mastering the politics of farm issues. Harkin chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, which wrote the new farm legislation.
“I don’t see any scenario in which McCain can get to the White House without carrying some upper Midwestern states,” said Harkin, an Obama backer. “I’ve never really understood in all my years why Sen. McCain has gone out of his way to speak against and vote against policies that are important to the upper Midwest.”
There’s a history of close elections in the region. President Bush carried Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota in 2004, earning 35 electoral votes. But his Democratic opponent, John Kerry, prevailed in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois, giving him 41 electoral votes.
Veteran GOP strategist Gentry Collins said McCain can defend his record on farm issues, including opposing “corporate welfare” for big operations, but he said there’s more at work.
“The upper Midwest is crucial in this election, and Midwestern voters value authenticity. They value experience,” Collins said. “I don’t think agricultural issues are the only issues Midwestern voters care about. There are some bigger-picture issues, broader issues where he’s strong.”
But on another important issue to Midwesterners, McCain opposed a tax break for developing wind power. Obama supported the tax break.
“We’re employing close to 2,000 people right now in Iowa in the wind energy industry,” Harkin said.
McCain has been most outspoken on ethanol subsidies, and that has Republicans worried in Iowa, the nation’s biggest producer of the fuel. Other top ethanol producers include Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Missouri.
“It does challenge him in states like Iowa, the No. 1 ethanol state,” said Bill Northey, Iowa’s Republican agriculture secretary. “It does make it tougher to make the case.”
Drake University political science professor Dennis Goldford said McCain’s problem on farm issues reflects a deeper issue he faces as he’s courted conservative GOP activists, many of whom are deeply suspicious of him.
“He’s essentially reverting to standard Republican supply-side economics,” said Goldford. “That’s where he’s got a problem. He’s got to find his own voice and so far he hasn’t had a voice.”
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat who has campaigned for Obama, said he’s puzzled by McCain’s position. He points to other Republicans who have a different view.
“President Bush and I just had a good conversation about how critically important ethanol is, and how Iowa is positioned so well to lead the nation,” said Culver. “I have no idea why John McCain doesn’t support it. It hurts him in Indiana, and Missouri and Ohio, and it’s not the message right now that any of us want to hear.”
Obama has a modest lead in national polls, but electoral votes will decide the election. Obama is poised to do well on both coasts, while McCain is favored in the South and some parts of the West. That leaves the upper Midwest as a swing battleground.
“The Midwest is crucial in this campaign,” said Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat and an early backer of Obama. “Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and perhaps Indiana are very important states. McCain is behind, and he’s in danger of falling further behind.”
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Drunk driver hurts 4 at Sheboygan Brat Fest
Date: 8/2/2008 5:51 PM
SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (AP) _ A drunken driver led deputies on a high-speed chase Saturday before barging through a parade route and injuring a total of four people, none seriously, authorities said.
The injured included two women and a 6-year-old boy. Parade bystanders were holding the 24-year-old driver on the ground when deputies arrived, said Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Capt. David Adams.
Deputies received a call Saturday morning reporting an erratic driver on Interstate 43, Adams said.
The man headed into Sheboygan, a city on Lake Michigan between Green Bay and Milwaukee, at speeds as high as 80 mph.
His car hit a police captain in the leg before jumping a curb and careering into the route of a parade that was part of an annual bratwurst celebration. The captain was treated and released.
The suspect has not been charged.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (AP) _ A drunken driver led deputies on a high-speed chase Saturday before barging through a parade route and injuring a total of four people, none seriously, authorities said.
The injured included two women and a 6-year-old boy. Parade bystanders were holding the 24-year-old driver on the ground when deputies arrived, said Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Capt. David Adams.
Deputies received a call Saturday morning reporting an erratic driver on Interstate 43, Adams said.
The man headed into Sheboygan, a city on Lake Michigan between Green Bay and Milwaukee, at speeds as high as 80 mph.
His car hit a police captain in the leg before jumping a curb and careering into the route of a parade that was part of an annual bratwurst celebration. The captain was treated and released.
The suspect has not been charged.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Study: To sleep better, perchance to live longer
The below story with respect to sleep and fatigue is an ongoing issue in our practice. Fatigue can be as significant of a contributor to motor vehicle wrecks as alcohol, with its symptoms being comparable and overlapping. See our treatment of fatigue and sleep at http://semi-accident.com/fatigue.html
In a case we settled in Milwaukee County for $2.9 million, the defendant driver had not only been working for 15 hours prior to the wreck, he was also someone who suffered from a sleep disorder. Clearly, even in situations where the Federal trucker regulations don’t apply, sleep can contribute to an accident and employers must monitor such hours of service of their employees carefully.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://wis-injury.com
http://semi-accident.com
http://wis-law.com
http://gordonjohnson.com
Date: 8/1/2008 5:50 PM
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Shakespeare once called sleep the “balm of hurt minds.” Bodies, too, apparently. People with the severe form of apnea, which interferes with sleep, are several times more likely to die from any cause than are folks without the disorder, researchers report in Friday’s edition of the journal Sleep.
The findings in the 18-year study confirm smaller studies that have indicated an increased risk of death for people with apnea, also known as sleep-disordered breathing.
“This is not a condition that kills you acutely. It is a condition that erodes your health over time,” Dr. Michael J. Twery, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, said in a telephone interview.
People with such disorders “have been sleep deprived for perhaps very long periods of time, they are struggling to sleep. If this is happening night after night, week after week, on top of all our other schedules, this is a dangerous recipe,” said Twery, whose center is part of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
The institute estimates that 12 million to 18 million people in the U.S. have moderate to severe apnea. The condition is not always detected because the sufferer is asleep when the problem occurs and it cannot be diagnosed during a routine office visit with a doctor. Researchers tested the patients for sleep-disordered breathing in the laboratory and then followed them over several years.
For people with apnea, their upper airway becomes narrowed or blocked periodically during sleep. That keeps air from reaching the lungs. In some cases, breathing stops for seconds to a minute or so; the pauses in breathing disrupt sleep and prevent adequate amounts of oxygen from entering the bloodstream.
“When you stop breathing in your sleep you don’t know it, it doesn’t typically wake you up,” Twery said. Instead, it can move a person from deep sleep to light sleep, when breathing resumes. But the overall sleep pattern is disturbed, and it can happen hundreds of times a night.
He said that a person typically will have four or five cycles per night of light sleep, deep sleep and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, when most dreams occur. More deep sleep comes early in the night with more REM sleep closer to waking up. This pattern helps control hormones, metabolism and levels of stress.
The institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, says apnea has been linked to a greater risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes and excessive daytime sleepiness.
In the new report, the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort followed 1,522 men and women, ages 30 to 60. The annual death rate was 2.85 per 1,000 people per year for people without sleep apnea.
People with mild and moderate apnea had death rates of 5.54 and 5.42 per 1,000, respectively, and people with severe apnea had a rate of 14.6, researchers said.
Cardiovascular mortality accounted for 26 percent of all deaths among people without apnea and 42 percent of the deaths among people with severe apnea, according to the researchers led by Terry Young of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
In the same issue of the journal Sleep, a separate study of 380 adults between 40 and 65 in Australia came to a similar conclusion. This study found that after 14 years, about 33 percent of participants with moderate to severe sleep apnea had died, compared with 6.5 percent of people with mild apnea and 7.7 percent of people without apnea.
“Our findings, along with those from the Wisconsin Cohort, remove any reasonable doubt that sleep apnea is a fatal disease,” said lead author Dr. Nathaniel Marshall of the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia.
Apnea often is treated with a device that delivers continuous positive airway pressure through a mask over the nose and/or mouth. The U.S. study found that patients using this device had reduced death rates.
There has been debate over whether to use airway pressure to treat patients who are not sleepy in the daytime, the report noted.
The U.S. researchers noted that while theirs was a large study, 95 percent of the participants were white and most had adequate income and access to health care.
“It is likely that our findings may underestimate the mortality risk of SDB in other ethnic groups or the lowest socio-economic strata where there is poor awareness and access to health care,” they said.
The U.S. research was supported by the National Institutes of Health. The Australian study was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.
___
On the Net:
Sleep: http://www.journalsleep.org
NIH: http://www.nih.gov
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
In a case we settled in Milwaukee County for $2.9 million, the defendant driver had not only been working for 15 hours prior to the wreck, he was also someone who suffered from a sleep disorder. Clearly, even in situations where the Federal trucker regulations don’t apply, sleep can contribute to an accident and employers must monitor such hours of service of their employees carefully.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://wis-injury.com
http://semi-accident.com
http://wis-law.com
http://gordonjohnson.com
Date: 8/1/2008 5:50 PM
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Shakespeare once called sleep the “balm of hurt minds.” Bodies, too, apparently. People with the severe form of apnea, which interferes with sleep, are several times more likely to die from any cause than are folks without the disorder, researchers report in Friday’s edition of the journal Sleep.
The findings in the 18-year study confirm smaller studies that have indicated an increased risk of death for people with apnea, also known as sleep-disordered breathing.
“This is not a condition that kills you acutely. It is a condition that erodes your health over time,” Dr. Michael J. Twery, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, said in a telephone interview.
People with such disorders “have been sleep deprived for perhaps very long periods of time, they are struggling to sleep. If this is happening night after night, week after week, on top of all our other schedules, this is a dangerous recipe,” said Twery, whose center is part of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
The institute estimates that 12 million to 18 million people in the U.S. have moderate to severe apnea. The condition is not always detected because the sufferer is asleep when the problem occurs and it cannot be diagnosed during a routine office visit with a doctor. Researchers tested the patients for sleep-disordered breathing in the laboratory and then followed them over several years.
For people with apnea, their upper airway becomes narrowed or blocked periodically during sleep. That keeps air from reaching the lungs. In some cases, breathing stops for seconds to a minute or so; the pauses in breathing disrupt sleep and prevent adequate amounts of oxygen from entering the bloodstream.
“When you stop breathing in your sleep you don’t know it, it doesn’t typically wake you up,” Twery said. Instead, it can move a person from deep sleep to light sleep, when breathing resumes. But the overall sleep pattern is disturbed, and it can happen hundreds of times a night.
He said that a person typically will have four or five cycles per night of light sleep, deep sleep and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, when most dreams occur. More deep sleep comes early in the night with more REM sleep closer to waking up. This pattern helps control hormones, metabolism and levels of stress.
The institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, says apnea has been linked to a greater risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes and excessive daytime sleepiness.
In the new report, the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort followed 1,522 men and women, ages 30 to 60. The annual death rate was 2.85 per 1,000 people per year for people without sleep apnea.
People with mild and moderate apnea had death rates of 5.54 and 5.42 per 1,000, respectively, and people with severe apnea had a rate of 14.6, researchers said.
Cardiovascular mortality accounted for 26 percent of all deaths among people without apnea and 42 percent of the deaths among people with severe apnea, according to the researchers led by Terry Young of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
In the same issue of the journal Sleep, a separate study of 380 adults between 40 and 65 in Australia came to a similar conclusion. This study found that after 14 years, about 33 percent of participants with moderate to severe sleep apnea had died, compared with 6.5 percent of people with mild apnea and 7.7 percent of people without apnea.
“Our findings, along with those from the Wisconsin Cohort, remove any reasonable doubt that sleep apnea is a fatal disease,” said lead author Dr. Nathaniel Marshall of the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia.
Apnea often is treated with a device that delivers continuous positive airway pressure through a mask over the nose and/or mouth. The U.S. study found that patients using this device had reduced death rates.
There has been debate over whether to use airway pressure to treat patients who are not sleepy in the daytime, the report noted.
The U.S. researchers noted that while theirs was a large study, 95 percent of the participants were white and most had adequate income and access to health care.
“It is likely that our findings may underestimate the mortality risk of SDB in other ethnic groups or the lowest socio-economic strata where there is poor awareness and access to health care,” they said.
The U.S. research was supported by the National Institutes of Health. The Australian study was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.
___
On the Net:
Sleep: http://www.journalsleep.org
NIH: http://www.nih.gov
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Gunman opens fire on swimmers in Wisconsin; 3 dead
Date: 8/1/2008 8:47 AM
NIAGARA, Wis. (AP) _ A man wearing camouflage clothing and carrying an assault rifle walked out of the woods and shot four young people who had gathered at a river to go swimming, killing three of them and wounding one.
More than 100 law enforcement officers from at least 10 agencies searched Friday for the gunman, a middle-age man who was last seen near the town of Niagara, across the state line from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Officers set up roadblocks and evacuated an unknown number of homes.
The victims had gathered near a railroad bridge on the Menominee River when the gunman came out of the woods and opened fire about 5:30 p.m. Thursday, according to Sheriff Jim Kanikula.
Two of the bodies had not been removed from the scene Friday because of a fear that the shooter was still in the area, the sheriff said.
The dead were identified as Tiffany Pohlson, 17; Anthony Spigarelli, 18; and Bryan Mort, 19. A fourth victim, 20-year-old Daniel Louis Gordon, was wounded.
Niagara is about 210 miles north of Milwaukee.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
3 workers killed in explosion at Wis. paper mill
Our prayers are with the families of those who died Tomahawk as detailed in the below AP story. It is always a tough time to raise these questions, but we are inevitably asked: who is responsible for such explosion and what compensation is available for the victims and their families.
As the explosion occurred at a workplace, it is typically thought that the only remedy available will be under Wisconsin Workers Compensation law. See http://wis-injury.com/workerscomp.html And while that may be the case, if the explosion was caused by the wrongdoing of someone other than the employer or a co-worker at the Packaging Corp. of America, then workers comp may not be the only remedy.
It is critical that a full investigation be done as to what caused the explosion, was it a faulty design or production of the tank that exploded, negligent maintenance by an outside firm of the tank.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://wis-injury.com
http://gordonjohnson.com
http://wis-law.com
http://youtube.com/profile?user=braininjuryattorney
1-800-992-9447
©2008 Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
Date: 7/29/2008 8:10 PM
By ROBERT IMRIE
Associated Press Writer
TOMAHAWK, Wis. (AP) _ A storage tank explosion at a northern Wisconsin paper mill Tuesday killed three workers and injured a fourth, the company that owns the mill said.
Packaging Corp. of America said in a news release that the three workers were fatally injured when a tank used to store recycled fiber exploded while they were performing maintenance on top of it.
The injured worker was standing on a platform at a lower level of the tank when it exploded, the company said. The worker’s condition was not immediately released.
The cause of the explosion was not known and is under investigation, the company said.
Company spokesman Ron Zimmerman said up to 10 people were working in the area when the explosion happened in what he described as “a storage tank for pulp.” No fire resulted from the explosion, he said.
Identities of the victims were not being released Tuesday night, Zimmerman said.
Capt. Mike Drury of the nearby Merrill Fire Department said his rescue crew was called to help free the employees about 1:40 p.m. but was called off before it arrived. Emergency workers on the scene used a crane to rescue them, he said.
“There was an explosion and a couple of employees were trapped for a short period of time,” Drury said.
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department did not immediately return a telephone message.
The main part of the mill remained in operation Tuesday afternoon. Workers walked out with somber faces.
One man was met by a woman in a car, and they embraced and hugged for nearly a minute. The man talked with her for several minutes and then went back into the administrative office, telling a reporter he couldn’t comment.
A worker leaving the plant said employees had been told not to discuss details of the explosion with reporters, referring questions to Zimmerman, who didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking further information.
Packaging Corp. of America, which makes containerboard and corrugated packaging products, operates four paper mills and 67 corrugated product plants in 26 states. According to the Lake Forest, Ill.-based company’s Web site, it employs 8,350 people nationwide and posted sales of $2.3 billion last year.
The Tomahawk mill has three semi-chemical corrugating machines and produces more than 572 million tons annually, the company said.
___
AP writer Carrie Antlfinger in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
As the explosion occurred at a workplace, it is typically thought that the only remedy available will be under Wisconsin Workers Compensation law. See http://wis-injury.com/workerscomp.html And while that may be the case, if the explosion was caused by the wrongdoing of someone other than the employer or a co-worker at the Packaging Corp. of America, then workers comp may not be the only remedy.
It is critical that a full investigation be done as to what caused the explosion, was it a faulty design or production of the tank that exploded, negligent maintenance by an outside firm of the tank.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://wis-injury.com
http://gordonjohnson.com
http://wis-law.com
http://youtube.com/profile?user=braininjuryattorney
1-800-992-9447
©2008 Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
Date: 7/29/2008 8:10 PM
By ROBERT IMRIE
Associated Press Writer
TOMAHAWK, Wis. (AP) _ A storage tank explosion at a northern Wisconsin paper mill Tuesday killed three workers and injured a fourth, the company that owns the mill said.
Packaging Corp. of America said in a news release that the three workers were fatally injured when a tank used to store recycled fiber exploded while they were performing maintenance on top of it.
The injured worker was standing on a platform at a lower level of the tank when it exploded, the company said. The worker’s condition was not immediately released.
The cause of the explosion was not known and is under investigation, the company said.
Company spokesman Ron Zimmerman said up to 10 people were working in the area when the explosion happened in what he described as “a storage tank for pulp.” No fire resulted from the explosion, he said.
Identities of the victims were not being released Tuesday night, Zimmerman said.
Capt. Mike Drury of the nearby Merrill Fire Department said his rescue crew was called to help free the employees about 1:40 p.m. but was called off before it arrived. Emergency workers on the scene used a crane to rescue them, he said.
“There was an explosion and a couple of employees were trapped for a short period of time,” Drury said.
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department did not immediately return a telephone message.
The main part of the mill remained in operation Tuesday afternoon. Workers walked out with somber faces.
One man was met by a woman in a car, and they embraced and hugged for nearly a minute. The man talked with her for several minutes and then went back into the administrative office, telling a reporter he couldn’t comment.
A worker leaving the plant said employees had been told not to discuss details of the explosion with reporters, referring questions to Zimmerman, who didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking further information.
Packaging Corp. of America, which makes containerboard and corrugated packaging products, operates four paper mills and 67 corrugated product plants in 26 states. According to the Lake Forest, Ill.-based company’s Web site, it employs 8,350 people nationwide and posted sales of $2.3 billion last year.
The Tomahawk mill has three semi-chemical corrugating machines and produces more than 572 million tons annually, the company said.
___
AP writer Carrie Antlfinger in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.