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News 8.4.17

4 August 2017 News


The Experimental Aircraft Association says 590,000 people attended this year’s Airventure fly-in in Oshkosh. The EAA says some special attractions this year and good weather for most of the seven days of the convention boosted attendance 5 percent over last year. The Navy’s Blue Angels and Apollo astronauts reunion were a couple of the features at this year’s event. The association says more than 10,000 aircraft arrived at Wittman Regional Airport and other airports in east-central Wisconsin. A record number of international visitors attended this year. About 2,500 people came from 80 different nations.

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The Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office is continuing its investigation into a fatal traffic crash over the weekend. A 73 year old Waupun woman was killed in the crash when the car she was a passenger in was broadsided by a vehicle at the intersection of Kinker and Van Dyne Roads Saturday evening. Sheriff’s sergeant Ryan Waldchmidt says it appears the setting sun was a factor. Waldschmidt also says the driver had been drinking, but its still unclear whether alcohol was a factor. The victim, 73 year old Darlene Drews, was a retired teacher.

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Gov. Scott Walker signs a bill establishing limits on deer baiting and feeding bans in counties affected by chronic wasting disease. Right now the Department of Natural Resources indefinitely bans baiting and feeding in counties where CWD has been confirmed as well as any other county within a 10-mile radius of the infected county. The ban is designed to slow the disease’s spread by preventing deer from congregating over feed and bait piles. The Republican bill limits the ban in infected counties to 36 months and in neighboring counties to 24 months. Whitetails of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association both registered in support of the bill. The Sierra Club’s Wisconsin chapter, the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters and the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation all opposed the bill.

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Two Iowa teenagers have filed federal lawsuits alleging they were placed in solitary confinement for months at Wisconsin’s troubled youth prison even after they both tried to kill themselves. One of the girls alleges a guard helped her hurt herself after she became suicidal in solitary by walking on top of her cot after she placed her head beneath it. The lawsuits are the fourth and fifth lawsuits filed in federal court this year alleging staff at the prison in Irma have been placing inmates in solitary too often and using excessive pepper spray. A judge earlier this year ordered prison staff to dramatically reduce the use of solitary confinement. Department of Corrections spokesman Tristan Cook says the agency is reviewing the new lawsuits. On Wednesday, Gov. Scott Walker signed a bipartisan bill that requires guards at Wisconsin’s troubled youth prison to report child abuse. The bill makes guards at the prison in Irma mandatory child abuse reporters. That will protect them from retaliation for reporting incidents.

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