News 09.16.16
16 September 2016 News
As the Waupun School District moves forward on a $36 million building referendum, the 2016-17 budget includes a $550 million deficit. Superintendent Tanya Gubin says that deficit is actually a strategic move that will allow the district to hire additional staff. She says that $550,000 is actually the $550,000 in staffing they added this year. Gubin says the money will come out of the fund balance over the next three years. Gubin says changes to the district’s retirement system will also save the district a significant amount of money. She says they have about three years of legacy costs from the collective bargaining agreement that will be pretty much paid up in those three years. Gubin says the $9.5 million tax levy is down about a million dollars from last year due in large part to an increase in state aid of about $600,000.
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A Fond du Lac native who was seriously injured after a coworker attacked her at a military medical facility in Kansas continues to recover. Last week a co-worker poured gasoline on Katie Ann Blanchard and set her on fire, then tried to stab her with scissors. The attack happened last Wednesday at the Munson Army Health Center in Fort Leavenworth. Officials say Blanchard was the suspect’s supervisor at the medical facility. The Department of Justice says 54 year old Clifford Currie is charged with intent to commit murder. Blanchard is being treated for her injuries, which include third and fourth degree burns. A GoFundMe page was created for child care and other needs.
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Gov. Scott Walker’s administration plans to solve a shortfall in road funding by making cuts, delaying major projects and borrowing $500 million. The state Department of Transportation has developed a budget proposal that would cut $447.4 million from state highway programs but provide nearly $70 million more for maintenance and $65 million more for local governments. The budget also would authorize $500 million in new borrowing but result in significant delays for some major projects, including Milwaukee’s Zoo Interchange and reconstructing Interstate 94 south of Milwaukee. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau has estimated that just to pay for road projects already approved the state would need $939 million more. Walker has refused to raise taxes or fees to cover the shortfall.
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A federal judge rules Wisconsin must put the names of many same-sex parents on their children’s birth certificates. U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb granted judgment in favor of a Madison couple. Chelsea and Jessamy Torres filed the discrimination lawsuit last year because the state failed to put both their names on their baby’s birth certificate. The couple argued that the state’s practice of listing opposite-sex parents on birth certificates, but not same-sex parents, is discriminatory. Chelsea Torres gave birth to the couple’s son Asher in March 2015 after underdoing artificial insemination. Kyle Palazzolo, an attorney with Lamda Legal, which represented the couple, says many same-sex parents “can breathe a sigh of relief” because of the judge’s ruling.
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Attorneys for the man convicted of helping his uncle kill a woman in a case profiled in the popular Netflix series “Making a Murderer” are asking for his release while his appeal is pending. A 48-page motion filed in federal court argues that Brendan Dassey is not a flight risk and would not pose a danger to the public if he’s released. A federal magistrate judge ruled in August that investigators tricked Dassey, then 16, into confessing that he helped his uncle, Steven Avery, rape and kill photographer Teresa Halbach in 2005. The judge ordered that Dassey, now 26, be freed within 90 days unless prosecutors appealed or decided to retry him. Attorney General Brad Schimel has followed up with an appeal to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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