Hometown Broadcasting News Thursday 7/15/21
15 July 2021 News
Storms Move Through The Area
Round after round of thunderstorms moved through the area yesterday afternoon and overnight dumping several inches of rain prompting Flash Flood Warnings and Flood Advisories. Strong winds also caused damage including power outages in Dodge, Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Winnebago and other counties. Alliant Energy this morning reported power had been restored for most customers. A Severe Thunderstorm Warning had been issued for Columbia, Dodge, Fond du Lac, Green Lake and Marquette County early last evening and a Tornado Watch was issued for a southern portion of the state that included Columbia County.
Drug Interdiction Effort Success
Fond du Lac County Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt says the county partnered with state agencies on June 22nd and 23rd to conduct one of the largest highway drug and criminal interdiction efforts ever initiated in Wisconsin. Among the agencies involved, working in coordination with the State Patrol and Wisconsin National Guard Counterdrug Program were; the Sheriff’s Office, police departments from Fond du Lac, Ripon, Waupun, Town of Ripon, Rosendale Police Department, and the Lake Winnebago Area MEG Unit. As a result there were 331 traffic stops, 157 citations, 239 warrants, 55 speeding citations, 19 operating after supervision/revocation citations, 7drug-related ordinance citations, and 1 warrant issued. There were 21 drug-related felony arrests and 23 misdemeanor arrests.
FDL Man Involved In High Speed Chase In Stolen Car In Sheboygan County
A Fond du Lac man is facing charges in Sheboygan County following a high speed chase in a stolen car on State Highway 23 early Wednesday morning. Spike strips were set up and they did deflate the front tires of the suspect’s vehicle, but he kept going until deputies performed a high-risk traffic stop. They learned the man didn’t have a license, was out on bail, and had marijuana in the car. He’s facing a number of charges including fleeing an officer, vehicle theft, bail jumping, and marijuana possession. The chase began about 3 am Wednesday morning.
Ten Digit Dialing Coming
Beginning October 24th all customers with the area codes 262,414, 608 and 920 will need to dial the area code and telephone number in order to connect their local and long-distance calls. This will apply to all calls that are currently dialed with seven digits. The change comes after the Federal Communications Commission adopted an order approving ‘988’ as the three-digit abbreviated dialing code to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline starting July 16th, 2022. To ensure ‘988’ calls reach the lifeline, providers in 36 states, including Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Michigan must transition to 10-digit dialing systems. Wisconsin customers with the area codes 543 and 715 already operate with a 10-digit dialing requirement, and nothing will change for those customers.
FDL County Board Meeting Cancelled
Next Tuesday’s Fond du Lac County Board meeting has been cancelled. County Clerk Lisa Freiberg says it’s been cancelled due to a lack of business that need’s the attention of country supervisors. The Board’s next regularly scheduled meeting is Tuesday, August 17th at 6 pm in the legislative chambers of the City-County Government Center in Fond du Lac. The Board can cancel a meeting if over half of its members sign a petition to do so.
Vaccine Effectiveness
The number of people being vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus is going down while the number of those infected with the Delta variant of the coronavirus is surging. Jeff Puhlmann-Becker of the Ripon Community COVID-19 Task Force says the vaccine has proven time and again that those who have been fully immunized stand a better chance of being less ill and surviving the virus if they contract the disease. “According to Anthony Fauci CDC numbers 99.5 percent of the people who died in the past three weeks had not been vaccinated.” He says the 99.5 percent who haven’t died because of COVID is proof of the efficacy of the vaccine. He stresses that is an incredible success rate.
Congressman Grothman Returns To Southern Border
Wisconsin Congressman Glenn Grothman is back in Texas for another visit to the U.S./Mexico Border. The federal lawmaker from Glenbeulah feels the number of illegal immigrants coming in over our southern borders should be a higher priority with the Biden Administration. “The issue at the border should be Number One. We have about 3,000 people a month crossing that border that we haven’t appropriately vetted so we are talking about the future of America here.” He says cartels use some of those illegal immigrants to get illegal drugs like fentanyl over the border and then there is the question about their vaccination status against COVID-19. He also feels that giving Vice President Kamala Harris the responsibility for taking care of the problem at the border was a mistake. He says rumors in Washington, D.C. are that the Biden Administration hasn’t been too pleased with what she’s done either.
Police Funding
State Representative Alex Dallman says a bill recently passed by the State Assembly would not cut revenue sharing funds to every municipality that cuts funding for police departments or goes to consolidating with another department. The state lawmaker from Green Lake says it would only effect departments with over 30 officers. He says smaller departments like the one in Green Lake cannot afford to cut officers and risk the community’s safety. “The bill actually focuses on large police forces and mainly our big cities that have seen an uptick in crime, a significant rise in crime. We want to make sure that our cities aren’t completely defunding their police forces and creating a worse environment in those cities.” He says on the other hand state legislators did pass a package of bills on police reform that was done in a bi-partisan fashion and the Governor signed into law.
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