News 02.10.17
10 February 2017 News
A Ripon man involved in a standoff with police makes his initial court appearance. 46-year-old Shawn Oakes appeared in Fond du Lac County Circuit Court Thursday morning on charges of Failing to Comply with an Officer and Disorderly Conduct by use of a dangerous weapon. Bond was set at $500 cash. According to a criminal complaint, police responded to a home in the 600 Block of Abbey Court last Saturday following a 911 call. Oakes was seen walking through the home with a firearm while police negotiated with him. A woman who was in the home with Oakes was able to leave the house and told police Oakes was intoxicated and making suicidal threats. Oakes eventually surrendered. A preliminary hearing is set for February 24th.
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Northeast Wisconsin is ready for the ritual that is Sturgeon Spearing season. The 2017 season starts Saturday on Lake Winnebago and the upriver lakes. Wisconsin Department of Transportation Sturgeon Biologist Ryan Koenigs issued a water clarity update Thursday. He says their crew was out checking water clarity on Lake Winnebago Wednesday and, as anticipated, clarity has changed since their last readings on January 30. The average readings have dropped about a foot over the last week and a half, but there appears to be more consistency within the readings. Koenigs says for the most part better clarity is present along the east and north shores of Lake Winnebago, while poorer clarity is present off Oshkosh and to the south. It’s likely that the runoff coming into the lake at the mouth of the Fox River is clouding the water off Oshkosh, where runoff is having less impact to the east and further north. Clarity on the upriver lakes hasn’t changed much over the last week and a half, remaining at 4-5′ of visibility on average. On Lake Winnebago, the harvest cap is 344 for juvenile females; 855 for adult females; and 976 for males. On the upriver lakes, the harvest cap is 86 for juvenile females; 95 for adult females; and 244 for males.
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The Fond du Lac County District Attorney says he supports efforts to strengthen Wisconsin’s drunken driving laws. Proposed bills would create a five-year minimum prison sentence for homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle; and raise the minimum incarceration for fifth and sixth offenses from six months to 18. Fond du Lac County DA Eric Toney says a third bill that would prohibit all offenders from driving any vehicle without an ignition interlock is a step in the right direction. Representative Jim Ott and Sen. Alberta Darling introduced the minimum sentence bills last session but they got no traction. Ott introduced the interlock prohibition in 2013. It passed the Assembly but died in the Senate.
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Gov. Scott Walker is following through with his promise not to raise gas taxes or vehicle registration fees to pay for roads, while abandoning Milwaukee’s Interstate 94 east-west expansion project. But he’s keeping other ongoing highway projects on track that were scheduled by the Department of Transportation to be delayed. Those are expanding and reconstructing the Highway 151/Verona Road interchange in southwest Madison and reconstructing 11 miles of Highway 15 near New London in Outagamie County. All other projects could face delays. Walker’s roads budget would rely on borrowing half a billion dollars. Assembly Republicans have said they don’t want to borrow that much and instead want Walker to consider raising transportation-related revenue while cutting unspecified other taxes by an equal amount.
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Department of Natural Resources officials say it’s too early to say whether they’ll increase state park fees under Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal. Walker unveiled an executive budget Wednesday that grants the DNR permission to raise admission and camping fees according to demand. The budget doesn’t mandate increases or lay out what those increases should be, but the agency in December released a potential plan to raise admission fees by as much as $10 and camping fees as much as $5 per night. DNR spokesman Jim Dick says it’s too early in the budget process to say what the agency might do with the fees. The Legislature’s finance committee will spend the spring months revising the spending plan before forwarding it to the Assembly and Senate for final votes.
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Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald says he wants to consider eliminating a utility tax that Wisconsin residents pay on electric bills. Fitzgerald says he thinks that could be a more effective tax cut that a $200 million cut to the state income tax that Gov. Scott Walker is proposing. Fitzgerald says the Legislature doesn’t want to do something “meager” that wouldn’t have much “bang for the buck.” He says eliminating the utility tax would be something that people recognize and help the middle class. Walker proposed the income tax cut as part of nearly $600 million in tax and fee cuts in his two-year budget.
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