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News 04.27.17

27 April 2017 News


New for the spring turkey season, hunters now have the option of donating their harvested turkey to needy families through a new Turkey Donation Program.  Three pilot counties, Dodge, Fond du Lac and Jefferson are participating.  Donated turkeys will be processed free of charge and meat will be provided to local food pantries.  Participating locations are Pernat-Haase Meats in Juneau, Loehr’s Meat Service in Campbellsport and Pernat’s Premium Meats in Johnson Creek.  This program will be expanded for the fall turkey hunt later this year.

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The Waupun School superintendent says additional students face punishment in connection with a snap chat threatening violence at the Waupun Junior-Senior High School.  A 15 year old student faces expulsion for making the threat and Gubin says the investigation is continuing.  Responding to concerns that the student who made the threat had been bullied, Gubin says they don’t want any students to have to deal with bullying and want to get to the bottom of the situation, but the investigations take time.  Gubin says regardless of the circumstances, lashing out by making threats is not the answer either.

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Gov. Scott Walker says he spoke with President Donald Trump about the nearly 40 Wisconsin dairy farmers desperately seeking help after being dropped by their milk buyer following a Canadian policy change. Walker told Trump on Twitter Tuesday that it was “great” to speak to him that morning and thanked him for supporting Wisconsin dairy farmers. Trump referenced the crisis a few hours earlier on Twitter, saying Canada has made business for dairy farmers in Wisconsin “and other border states” difficult. Trump, when visiting Wisconsin last week, vowed to help the farms dropped by Grassland Dairy. Dan Smith, a state agriculture administrator, says 39 of 58 farms still need buyers but about half of those have leads.

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A former police officer accused of leaving two bodies stuffed in suitcases on the side of a rural Wisconsin road in 2014 is set for a trial in August. Steven Zelich faces two counts of hiding a corpse in Walworth County. They are the only remaining charges against Zelich that have not been resolved. Zelich was sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing 37-year-old Laura Simonson in Minnesota. He was sentenced last year to 35 years in prison for the death of Jenny Gamez in Wisconsin. A jury trial is set for Aug. 14.

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The invasive emerald ash borer is killing thousands of trees in Door County, one of Wisconsin’s top tourism destinations. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources officials say the highly destructive beetles have killed tens of millions of trees across the country since first being spotted in North America in 2002. The beetle was discovered in Door County in 2014. According to the U.S. Forest Service, the Door County peninsula has 12 million ash trees, which is roughly 13 percent of the county’s tree inventory. Natural resources department forester Bill Ruff says individual state and county parks in Door County have their own plans to deal with the pest and that the department doesn’t plan to treat ash trees on its land. He says the borer has no natural predator and that the situation is “bleak.”

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