News 04.06.17
6 April 2017 News
Police in Oshkosh have located and ticketed the driver of a truck that damaged numerous headstones in Riverside Cemetery. Officer Joe Nichols says a tip led police to the 24-year-old Oshkosh man, who drove his truck off Algoma Boulevard and into the cemetery. Nichols says the truck uprooted and knocked off-kilter about a dozen old headstones. The man was cited for hit and run of property adjacent to a highway. Nichols says it’s the only citation that could be issued in this situation since the circumstances occurring at the time of the destruction is unknown.
-30-
Nearly 300 students at Laconia High School in Rosendale have signed a pledge to keep their eyes on the road and not on their phones. Laconia High School is teaming up with AT&T, AAA and the Wisconsin State Patrol as part of the It Can Wait® campaign to remind students that smartphone activity should wait until after driving. State AAA spokesman Nick Jarmuscz says students were able to experience the dangers of smartphone activities behind the wheel by using a distracted driving simulator. Teens also watched a powerful documentary produced by AT&T called “The Last Text” that shares real stories about lives altered or ended by someone’s decision to text and drive. Research shows 7 in 10 people engage in smartphone activities while driving. The assembly was part of a series of events that AT&T, AAA and the State Patrol are holding this year to drive home the dangers of distracted driving.
-30-
Drivers would no longer be forced to dig for loose change to park in downtown Appleton under a proposal going before the City Council. Instead of feeding the meter, the proposal would allow people to pay through their smartphone. Drivers would download an app called “Passport Parking Mobile Pay.” Users enter the location code and space number on the meter, and the expected duration of parking. There is a 15 cent fee to use the app. The City of Green Bay is currently using the app at its parking meters. The city says it’s helping decrease parking tickets without hurting revenue. Green Bay started using the passport last September. Since then, they’ve recording about 14,000 transactions through the app.
-30-
Months after Gov. Scott Walker called on the Legislature to take swift action to combat the state’s opioid epidemic, the state Assembly passes nine pieces of legislation. The Assembly on Tuesday passed all but two of 11 bills Republican Rep. John Nygren wrote based on recommendations from Walker’s opioid task force, which he co-chairs. The measures, many of which drew unanimous support, include $4.8 million to expand treatment programs, $50,000 to start a high school for students recovering from addiction, $126,000 to train more doctors in addiction, $420,000 annually for four new drug investigation agents and $200,000 to train school staff to screen students for addiction. The bills have to pass the Senate before they go to Walker to become law. The remaining two bills are still in committee.
-30-
A coalition of Wisconsin business leaders is pressuring the Legislature to ignore Gov. Scott Walker’s call to halt work on the Interstate 94 east-west project. The coalition includes MillerCoors, Palermo’s Pizza, the Forest County Potawatomi and Marquette University. The letter was delivered Tuesday in advance of a public hearing at State Fair Park on the state budget proposal that would halt work on the interstate project. The groups say in their letter to the co-chairs of the Legislature’s budget committee that the interstate section has nearly 200,000 jobs in the two miles around it. Walker’s budget would drop plans to work on the 3.5-mile portion of I-94 in Milwaukee between the Marquette and Zoo interchanges.
-30-
Gov. Scott Walker’s Medicaid director is defending the plan to drug test childless adults on Medicaid. Michael Heifitz told the Assembly’s federalism committee on Wednesday that the intent of the drug testing is not to kick people off the program, but instead connect them with treatment that will lead to them getting a job. Walker is preparing a waiver request to President Donald Trump’s administration to allow for the drug testing, even as critics have questioned whether that’s constitutional. Democratic state Rep. Jimmy Anderson, of Madison, asked Heifitz about the intent of the drug-testing proposal Wednesday. Heifitz says “the goal is not to catch someone doing drugs and throw them off the rolls.” Walker is to submit the waiver request to Trump’s administration later this month.
-30-
Share |