News 03.14.17
14 March 2017 News
A new shop will be opening in the newly renovated location where Suds on the Square use to be in Downtown Ripon. Brinkley’s Boutique originally opened a shop six months ago in Oshkosh. Owner Barb Nelson says business grew quickly and she decided to open a second location at 123 Watson Street in Ripon. Nelson believes the store will be a nice fit with the small retail section in downtown Ripon. Brinkley’s Boutique is set to open in mid-April.
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The new year is off to a safe start on Fond du lac County roads in terms of traffic fatalities. Fond du lac County Sheriff’s captain Ryan Waldschmidt told the Traffic Safety Commission last week that through the first couple of months of 2017 there have been zero traffic fatalities in Fond du lac County. Waldschmidt credits traffic enforcement grants that allow for stepped up patrol, saying they have eight agencies participating increased effort to enforce traffic laws. There were ten traffic fatalities on Fond du Lac County roads last year.
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A Republican state lawmaker from Markesan says a so-called Right to Try law grants families facing the hardest time of their lives the ability to fight. Representative Joan Ballweg voted in favor of the bill that permits people with terminal illness the ability to access experimental drugs more quickly. Ballweg says too many patients can’t get into clinical trials and it takes the FDA too long to approve experimental drugs that could help. The Wisconsin Medical Society opposes the measure saying it sidesteps a scientifically valid process and could give people false hope.
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Research commissioned by state officials shows tourism has a $19 billion impact on Wisconsin’s economy. Gov. Scott Walker told tourism industry representatives gathered in Milwaukee Monday that the economic impact measured in 2015 has increased 30 percent from five years earlier. Walker says tourism accounts for 190,000 jobs in Wisconsin. Innkeepers, restaurant owners, state and local tourism officials and others in the hospitality industry are attending the Governor’s Conference on Tourism. The Department of Tourism is launching new summer and fall ad campaigns. Tourism Secretary Stephanie Klett told attendees the summer commercials focus on a real family that has vacationed in the state for decades. The fall ad will have new drone video of the seasonal colors.
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A new state report says scores of 17-year-olds voted illegally in nearly 30 Wisconsin counties during last spring’s presidential primary. The Wisconsin Elections Commission report examined referrals municipal clerks made to prosecutors following the 2016 spring primary and general elections. The referrals included at least 60 cases of 17-year-olds voting in the April primary in 29 counties. The report doesn’t track whether charges were filed. The report notes messages were spreading on social media during the primary season that 17-year-olds were eligible to vote if they turned 18 by the November election. That’s not the case in Wisconsin, but commission spokesman Reid Magney says a number of students looking to vote in an intense presidential primary here apparently believed it was legal.
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A new report says Wisconsin led the country last year in drunken drivers blocked from starting vehicles by an ignition interlock. Mothers Against Drunk Driving released a report Tuesday that found interlock devices stopped 37,299 people from starting their vehicles from December 2015 to December 2016. California was second with 35,756 stops. The report is based on data MADD gathered from 11 interlock companies. Wisconsin law requires first-time drunken drivers with blood alcohol contents of at least 0.15 percent as well as all repeat offenders to use interlocks. Drivers breathe into the devices, which can detect whether they’re above the 0.08 blood alcohol content percentage limit for driving. If a driver is over the device prevents the vehicle from starting.
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