News 07.21.17
21 July 2017 News
A Campbellsport woman is convicted of running an opioid ring, dealing pills and heroin from her purse at her kitchen table. Fifty seven year old, Lori Merget and seven others, including her son were charged back in April in Washington County with conspiracy to sell heroin. Merget pleaded guilty this week to one count of delivering prescription pills and possessing heroin with intent to delivery. A more serious heroin count and another heroin possession count were dismissed and read into the record. According to a criminal complaint Merget obtained hundreds of prescription oxycodone pills per month from two Milwaukee pain clinics and street dealers. Informants told detectives they had been buying drugs from Merget for as long as a decade. Merget is accused of using the profits to supply her 31 year old son with heroin. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for September 11th.
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An airplane is forced to make an emergency landing at the Fond du Lac County airport . Fond du Lac county sheriff’s captain Ryan Waldschmidt says at about 9:30pm Wednesday the dispatch center was notified of an airplane running low on fuel and attempting to land at the airport. Waldschmidt says the two men from Washington state said they encountered strong headwinds in Wisconsin forcing them to burn more fuel than anticipated. With less than five gallons left they landed in Fond du Lac. They said they had difficulty seeing the runway and controlling the aircraft in the wind and rain. They circled five times before being able to safely land the plane. They are in the area for the EAA, which starts next week.
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Congressional Republicans are moving forward with legislation to roll back the Endangered Species Act, amid complaints that the 44-year-old law hinders drilling, logging and other activities. House and Senate committees held simultaneous hearings Wednesday on bills to revise the law and limit lengthy and costly litigation associated with it. The bills come as a federal court lifted federal protections for gray wolves in Wyoming and the Trump administration is removing protections for grizzly bears in and near Yellowstone National Park. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop said the bills would curb excessive litigation and allow officials to focus on actual species conservation. Rep. Raul Grijalva, the panel’s senior Democrat, said the endangered species law “does not need congressional meddling to work better. What it needs is congressional support.”
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Wisconsin’s unemployment rate is unchanged for the month of June. The state Department of Workforce Development reported Thursday that unemployment in June was 3.1 percent. That is the same as it was in May, when it hit its lowest mark since 1999. The national unemployment rate for June was 4.4 percent. Wisconsin added 3,600 private-sector jobs between May and June.Department of Workforce Development Secretary Ray Allen says the numbers show that “Wisconsin is moving along a path of economic growth.”
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Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs officials say federal funding cuts will force them to scrap housing programs for homeless vets at the King and Union Grove veterans’ homes by the end of the year. WDVA Secretary Daniel Zimmerman sent a letter to veteran advocacy groups on July 14 saying federal funding for the Veteran Housing and Recovery Programs at King and Union Grove will end in September. The state will continue to fund the programs through December if needed but it’s not feasible to continue them beyond that. King and Union Grove will no longer accept new homeless vets into the programs and will start transitioning the 17 vets at King and 28 vets at Union Grove to new housing with help from advocacy groups.
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