Hometown Broadcasting News Thursday 8/13/20
13 August 2020 News
Competency Hearing For FDL Murder Suspect
A competency exam was ordered Wednesday in Fond du Lac County court for a 27-year-old Fond du Lac man suspected of intentionally hitting and killing a motorcyclist with his father’s pickup truck last month. Daniel Navarro is charged with first degree intentional homicide, use of a dangerous weapon and first degree recklessly endangering safety, use of a dangerous weapon both with hate crime enhancers. Fifty-five-year-old Phillip Thiessen of Fond du Lac died at the scene of the crash on Winnebago Drive. According to the criminal complaint Navarro felt he was a victim of racism and was targeted because he was Mexican. He told Sheriff’s investigators he believed he was intentionally poisoned by co-workers, a friend and a neighbor, and people were driving by his house revving engines and squealing tires to try and make him angry. He also blamed recent events and the racial climate in the country. Navarro said he picked hitting a motorcycle because he believed the person driving the motorcycle was white and in Wisconsin white people drive motorcycles and the Harley climate is made up of white racists. Thiessen was a former Marine, former Fairfax Virginia Police Officer and retired Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation Special Agent, and a frequent volunteer at a local food pantry. Navarro was in court to be arraigned when the competency exam was ordered.
Waupaca County Injury Accident
A man was injured Tuesday afternoon when the modified lawnmower he was riding on went off Progress Road in Waupaca County and crashed. Sheriff’s officials say the vehicle was heading east at a high rate of speed when it went into the north ditch and overturned several times. The rider was trapped, but a witness freed him. The accident was reported at 5 pm Tuesday.
COVID Concerns
Fond du Lac County Public Health Officer Kim Mueller Wednesday warned the county may have to return to Phase 1 of the Safe Restart Plan if the large social gatherings ignoring social distancing recommendations aren’t curbed. During a Facebook Live video Mueller and St. Agnes Hospital President Katherine Vergos spoke about the increase in cases which have gone from a positive rate of tests of 2 percent on June 22nd to nearly 10 percent on Monday. The County saw 105 new cases last week. Mueller says people testing positive recently have reported attending golf outings, weddings, and bridal showers. She says over 200 people attended one of the weddings.
Transloading Facilities
The Vice President of Economic Development for Envision Greater Fond du Lac says transloading facilities are one way for businesses to move their product that don’t have direct access to rail. Jim Cleveland says more and more the facilities are cropping up benefitting companies that need access to a rail distribution network, but aren’t actually located near rail. “That is a facility in which companies can bring their product via truck and trailer to a facility and then it is loaded up onto rail and moved to market from that point.” He says there is a facility in Oshkosh built along the Wisconsin Southern line and they are looking at options along the CN line and the Wisconsin Southern line from the Ripon market down to Waupun.
ADVOCAP Hygiene Drive
ADVOCAP’s Neenah office is conducting a hygiene products drive. Amanda Wiechman is an outreach specialist for the office that oversees home meal deliveries. She says they’ve seen a big increase in the number of senior citizens in need of meals since their 11 meal sites were closed down by the COVID-19 virus. “Actually in June we served over 12,000 meals for the month of June. We normally serve about 400 meals a day with weekend meals so then on Friday if they want they get Friday meal and then Saturday and Sunday’s meals.” She says many seniors are afraid to leave their homes or can’t find the items that they need at the grocery store. She says they include bags of hygiene products with the meals they deliver and can really use things like adult Depends, toilet paper, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, deodorant, mouth wash and other hygiene items with the exceptions of tooth paste, which they have plenty of. To have your donations picked up call 920-922-7214 or they can be dropped off at the ADVOCAP office in Neenah which is at 181 North Water Street, Suite 210 and just leave them out front.
Feyen Picks Up Award And Endorsement
State Senator Dan Feyen has picked up the endorsement of the Wisconsin Grocers Association in his bid for reelection to the 18th State Senate seat. The state lawmaker from Fond du Lac was also awarded the association’s “Friend of Grocers” award. Association President and CEO Brandon Scholz says, “Since being elected, Senator Feyen has quickly risen to the top as a strong leader and solid supporter of grocers and small businesses.” Feyen picked the award up twice before. He says in the past several months they have seen the importance of the food industry and how vital the industry and its employees are to the food chain and keeping state residents safe. He thanked them for the endorsement.
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