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News 02.20.18

20 February 2018 News


Appleton International Airport says passengers on board a Delta SkyWest flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul safely got off the plane after a carry-on suitcase began smoking in the cabin. The Greenville Fire Department and the airport’s public safety staff responded to the SkyWest plane after it landed at the Appleton airport about 8:45 p.m. Sunday. The airport says the suitcase began smoking after the plane landed. All passengers left the plane using the stairs. SkyWest says the cause of the smoke has been attributed to a customer’s electronic device. There were no injuries.

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The Wisconsin Department of Justice says the last of five suspects has been arrested for a Lac du Flambeau homicide. The DOJ said Sunday evening the 19-year-old man was arrested in Oshkosh for the death of Wayne Valliere Jr. Investigators say the five drove the 25-year-old Lac du Flambeau man to a secluded spot in the Iron County community of Mercer, beat him and shot him eight times because they thought he was a police informant. Police previously arrested four others in the Dec. 22 homicide. All are facing charges of being a party to the crimes of first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse.

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A Wisconsin Republican lawmaker wants to arm teachers in private schools with firearms as a way to defend themselves and students. Rep. Jesse Kremer on Monday made the proposal, just five days after a school shooting at a high school in Florida left 17 dead. The bill has little chance of passage, however. The Assembly plans to wrap up its work for the year on Thursday, a day before Kremer’s deadline for co-sponsors. The bill would legalize weapons on the grounds of any private, religious or tribal school in the state that would be OK with it. Kremer says gun-free school zones “merely serve to concentrate populations of vulnerable targets on school grounds and surrounding areas.” Kremer says he hopes to create a pilot project at private schools and then expand to public schools.

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Records show that Wisconsin had its fewest bankruptcy filings in a decade last year. U.S. Bankruptcy Court figures show that filings decreased to 16,769 in 2017 from 16,835 in 2016. That continued a downward trend that started after the peak of almost 30,000 filings in 2010. Most of the bankruptcy petitions in Wisconsin were Chapter 7 filings, the type intended to give people a fresh start by wiping out debt such as overwhelming bills and credit card balances. Wisconsin’s estimated unemployment rate dipped to 3.0% in December, tying the lowest rate on record. A state Department of Workforce Development report shows that the number of individuals employed in Wisconsin’s private sector set a record in December, as did the size of the state’s labor force.

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