News 06.09.17
9 June 2017 News
A trial date is set for an Oshkosh man accused of bilking Sadoff Iron & Metal out of more than $14 million. Sterling Kienbaum, owner of Oshkosh-based Fox Valley Iron Metal & Auto Salvage, recently pleaded not guilty to one count of racketeering and five counts of felony theft. A trial is scheduled to begin next January. Kienbaum, Daniel Christianson and Donald Krueger are accused of stealing $14 million from Sadoff Iron and Metal between 2009 and May of 2015. Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney says Kienbaum allegedly directed the operation where vehicles were packed with dirt and other debris to fraudulently increase the weight of what was being sold to Sadoff’s. Toney says according to the criminal complaint Kienbaum made cash payments to Christianson who pocketed some of the cash for himself and paid some to Krueger who worked at Sadoff. Christianson and Krueger are free on $10,000 signature bonds. Kienbaum earlier posted a million dollars cash bail.
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A Triple-A survey shows new teen drivers, ages 16 and 17, are three times as likely to be involved in a deadly crash. This alarming finding comes as the “100 Deadliest Days” begin, the summer months, when the average number of deadly teen driver crashes climb 15 percent compared to the rest of the year. State AAA spokesman Nick Jarmuscz says teen crashes spike during the summer because teens are out of school and on the road. Drivers ages 16-17 are 4.5 times as like as drivers age 30-59 to be involved in a crash.
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A lawyer is asking for a new trial for a Wisconsin man convicted in a case profiled in the “Making a Murderer” Netflix series. Attorney Kathleen Zellner filed a 1,272-page document Wednesday claiming Steven Avery’s conviction was based on planted evidence and false testimony. Zellner contends Avery deserves a new trial “in the interests of justice.” The Wisconsin Department of Justice has not commented Avery was sentenced to life in prison in the 2005 death of 25-year-old photographer Teresa Halbach in Manitowoc County. Avery’s nephew, Brendan Dassey, confessed to detectives he helped his uncle rape and kill Halbach in the Avery family’s salvage yard. A judge overturned Dassey’s conviction in August. State attorneys are appealing that decision.
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New figures show Wisconsin manufacturers lost nearly 3,800 jobs in 2016 and that the state continues to trail the national rate of overall job creation. Wisconsin’s manufacturing headcount dropped by nearly 1 percent from December 2015 to December 2016, according to the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wage Data. The decline was far steeper than the national average in the factory sector. Wisconsin gained more than 11,500 private-sector jobs in 2016, an increase of 0.5 percent. That ranks Wisconsin 33rd among the 50 states for that period. The figures show the United States created private-sector jobs at a rate of 1.3 percent in the latest 12-month period, more than double Wisconsin’s increase. Wisconsin was among 28 states losing manufacturing jobs in 2016.
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A Republican co-chair of the Legislature’s budget-writing committee says there is no consensus among GOP senators about whether to push for tolls on Wisconsin’s interstates. Sen. Alberta Darling said Thursday that senators talked about tolling during a closed-door meeting, but did not accept it as a strategy for solving Wisconsin’s budget. She says senators are working to roll back the personal property tax. Republicans in the Senate and Assembly are trying to agree on a spending plan that Gov. Scott Walker will sign. Darling also says it’s too early for the Senate to consider passing its own budget, an unprecedented move when the same party controls both houses of the Legislature. She says progress is being made and she’s optimistic Republicans will reach a deal close to the June 30 deadline.
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