News 06.07.17
7 June 2017 News
Six former and current Wisconsin Department of Corrections employees have been cited for taking too many walleye during a recent fishing excursion on Lake Erie. Deputy warden at the Green Bay Correctional Institution Steve Schueler, Columbia prison warden, Mike Dittman, Dodge Correctional Sergeant Paul Neevel, retired Burke Center warden Craig Arndt, retired Oshkosh Correctional deputy warden Robert Hable and retired Waupun prison warden Mike Thurmer were cited May 23rd in Ottawa County, Ohio for exceeding the walleye daily bag limit by multiple trips. A DNR official says, as an example, that means catching a bag limit during the morning and coming back later in the day or evening and catching more fish. In addition to fines and court costs, the penalty could include loss of fishing privileges in both Ohio and Wisconsin. The men were scheduled to make a court appearance in Ohio this week. In an unrelated case, last August, the Ohio DNR arrested 24 Wisconsin residents for poaching hundreds of Walleye from Lake Erie. They were ordered by pay more than $3200 in fines and court costs. In that case investigators found more than 500 pounds of walleye cut into chunks to disguise how many fish were kept.
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A Wisconsin company says a fourth worker has died after an explosion at its corn milling plant. Didion Milling released a statement saying 46-year-old Angel Reyes of Brandon died Tuesday at the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison. The company says Reyes was a pack operator at the plant and died from injuries he suffered in the explosion last week. The blast and fire destroyed the corn milling plant in Cambria, a community about 45 miles northeast of Madison. The bodies of three other workers were recovered from the rubble. Some employees have started returning to work at the mill complex. A neighboring ethanol plant was not damaged.
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The state Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit alleging a South Carolina company tricked Wisconsin residents into renting uninhabitable properties. According to the filing, Vision Property Management buys dilapidated residences across the country and has purchased nearly 200 Wisconsin properties. The company then induces people into leasing the properties with the chance of someday being able to purchase them. Tenants get three to four months to rehabilitate the property. If they can’t, VPM evicts them and repeats the cycle. The lawsuit alleges the rental agreements illegally shift the burden of making the properties habitable to the tenant. The lawsuit seeks a temporary injunction forcing the company to cease renting Wisconsin properties and refund tenants’ rent. Vision says it has “cooperated fully” in the Wisconsin DOJ’s inquiry and plans to “contest the case vigorously.”
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The Wisconsin Assembly is set to vote next week on a resolution demanding a convention of states to add a balanced budget requirement to the U.S. Constitution. Republicans who control the chamber have tentatively scheduled the vote for June 14. Also on the agenda are measures that would lay out the delegate selection process, allow delegates to remove colleagues who take action outside the convention’s scope and require delegates to follow convention rules established by the Assembly of State Legislatures. Wisconsin would become the 30th of 34 states needed to force a convention if the resolution passes both the Assembly and Senate. Critics fear calling a convention could lead to wild constitutional revisions.
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Gov. Scott Walker is sticking to his pledge to make a huge investment in schools and lower property taxes in the state budget despite fierce pushback from Assembly Republicans that threatens to delay the spending plan. The Assembly Republicans want to give schools about $90 million less than Walker has proposed and allow lower-spending districts to make that up with higher property taxes. Walker has pledged to keep property taxes lower over the next two years than they were in 2014. Senate Republicans are siding with Walker, creating an impasse as the July 1 budget deadline looms. Walker told reporters Tuesday in Lake Delton that his two budget priorities remain providing an “historic” investment in schools and lowering property taxes. He seemed unconcerned with the Republican rift, saying lawmakers still have several weeks to negotiate.
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