News 9.12.17
12 September 2017 News
The Fond du Lac County executive says the state’s property tax freeze continues to make it difficult to balance the county budget without cutting staff or programs. Al Buechel says the budget needs to address an escalating social services caseload caused by the opioid epidemic. Buechel says if there wasn’t a property tax freeze he would support a staffed security checkpoint at the government center as proposed by a courthouse security committee. Buechel says the county will take advantage of what he describes as strategic staff changes wherever possible.
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Fox Valley Savings Bank says its name is being used as part of a “Caller ID Spoofing” fraud scheme. Recently, scammers display the Fox Valley Savings name with the phone number of 920-923-7764. The automated calls are posing as FVSBank, hoping you will pickup the call. These automated phone calls state they were made aware that you may be eligible for medical equipment and asking for your account or credit/debit information. Fox Valley says they are not making the calls and says to safeguard your information, hang up the phone. FVSBank is not associated with any medical alert or medical equipment company. Caller ID spoofing is when a caller deliberately falsifies the information transmitted to your caller ID display to disguise their identity.
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A Wisonsin jury this week will begin weighing whether a girl accused in the stabbing of a classmate to please the horror character Slender Man was mentally ill at the time. Prosecutors say Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser lured Payton Leutner into a Waukesha park and stabbed her 19 times in 2014. All three girls were 12 at the time. Weier pleaded guilty in August to attempted second-degree homicide but maintains she’s not responsible due to a mental disease or defect. Attorneys on both sides will begin selecting jurors on Monday to decide whether she was suffering from a mental defect. A plea agreement calls for Weier to spend at least three years in a mental hospital if she’s found to have been mentally ill and 10 years in prison if she’s not.
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A change to the Dairy Margin Protection Program means Wisconsin dairy farmers can choose to opt out of the federal program and turn to other risk management strategies. The U.S. Department of Agriculture no longer requires farmers to enroll in the safety net program. Farmers previously had to enroll for the duration of the Farm Bill, which is passed by Congress every four years and sets federal agriculture policy. The program pays farmers if price drops or other events impact income. But industry groups have been working to create alternatives to the program for the 2018 Farm Bill. The American Farm Bureau Federation has proposed a Dairy Revenue Protection plan that would be similar to crop insurance. The Livestock Gross Margin program is another federal safety net available to farmers.
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Wisconsin is among a handful of states that are covering student athlete concussions. The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association will have access to concussion insurance free of charge. The association has purchased its concussion insurance policy, called HeadStrong. The policy will cover kids in grades 6 through 12 participating in sports sanctioned by the association. It doesn’t include insurance for those playing club sports. The policy, offered by a national insurance company, costs the association $1.50 per child, but it’s free to all member schools. It’s intended to be a secondary insurance, so if a student or family already has insurance, that kicks in first. The policy will cover all associated medical costs, such as prescriptions and doctor’s visits.
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