News 11.22.16
22 November 2016 News
A Fort Atkinson man is found guilty in a heroin overdose death of a Neenah resident. 47-year-old Donald S. Harden was also convicted of conspiracy to distribute heroin and possess with intent to distribute heroin following a jury trial in Green Bay. Evidence at trial revealed in 2014, Harden would purchase and sell Heroin in multiple areas throughout the Fox Valley to other distributors. On September 4th, Harden made a drug deal in Waupun, selling 11 grams of heroin to another dealer, who in turn sold it to the victim, 24-year-old Frederick J. Schnettler. Schnettler died from “acute heroin toxicity.” Days later, the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Investigators linked another overdose death to Harden’s heroin. Given this guilty verdict and his previous drug convictions, Harden faces a mandatory life prison sentence. He is set to be sentenced in February.
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The president of the Fond du Lac County Economic Development Corporation says Fond du Lac County should benefit from a collaborative effort to strengthen and diversify the regional economy. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation announced back in August it had received a three million dollar federal grant to support a new effort called Initiative 41. FCEDC president Steve Jenkins says the initiative is a continuation of efforts to diversify the economy along the I-41 corridor so that companies in the region are less susceptible to cuts in defense spending. Jenkins says projects that will be launched as part of the initiative include implementation of what’s called the “aerospace cluster’ strategy to invest in aviation companies that want to expand or relocate in the region. He says a comprehensive outreach/branding strategy would promote the assets of the I-41 corridor, and says a regional entrepreneurship development system would provide a one stop system of resources.
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A Beaver Dam man remains in serious condition following a car vs. semi accident in Dodge County. The crash happened last Thursday morning on County Highway S, near South Center Road, in the Town of Beaver Dam. The Dodge County Sheriff’s Department says a vehicle driven by 40 year old Jeffrey Hildebrand was traveling west on Highway S, when his vehicle drifted over the center line and struck the rear wheels of an eastbound flatbed trailer that was being pulled by a semi tractor. Hildebrand was flown from the scene by Flight for Life helicopter to UW Hospital in Madison with life-threatening injuries. The driver of the semi, 58 year old Daniel Krueger of rural Mayville, was uninjured. The accident remains under investigation.
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New tallies from the state Department of Natural Resources show hunters took about 7,500 fewer deer on opening day of Wisconsin’s nine-day gun deer season than they did last year. Preliminary figures show hunters killed 68,756 deer on Saturday. That’s down 7,467 deer from the 76,223 deer they killed on opening day last year. The harvest in northern Wisconsin, where the herd is recovering from harsh winters, was up from last year. Hunters in that region killed 12,330 deer on Saturday compared with 10,071 last year. About 17,000 fewer hunters had purchased gun licenses by opening day than by opening day last year. According to the agency’s count, 533,502 hunters had purchased licenses as of 4 p.m. Friday compared with 550,756 hunters by the same time last year.
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Gov. Scott Walker’s administration said Monday that Wisconsin faces a nearly $700 million budget shortfall by mid-2019, a problem that the Republican-controlled Legislature will have to tackle after it reconvenes next month. The estimate from the state Department of Administration is the first to take into account spending requests made by state agencies for the next two years. Writing the state budget will dominate the first six months of the next legislative session, with plugging a $1 billion state transportation shortfall at the forefront of problems Walker and GOP lawmakers must confront. The report required every two years typically shows a shortfall because state agency requests are often wish lists that aren’t fully met by the Legislature. Two years ago the same report showed a $2.2 billion gap.
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Officials from a La Crosse-based company say they’ve landed four U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs contracts worth up to $3 billion to provide medical disability examinations. Logistics Health Inc. will provide medical disability examinations to roughly 600,000 veterans and people leaving the armed forces in nearly 40 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. The company’s founder and chairman, Don Weber, says the contracts will result in nearly doubling the number of its employees to 2,500 within a year. Weber says the full-time jobs will consist of a variety of positions in the health care field, such as registered nurses, clinicians, data processors and IT workers.
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