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News 01.31.18

31 January 2018 News


The retrial for an over the road trucker charged in the 1990 murder of a Sturdevant teenager in Fond du Lac County is scheduled to start in a couple of weeks. At a hearing Monday afternoon Fond du Lac judge Robert Wirtz agreed to allow testimony from Dennis Brantner’s ex girlfriend. Brantner was charged in the murder of Berit Beck after the state crime lab matched his fingerprints to prints found in Beck’s van. A mistrial was declared in June of 2016 after the jury told the judge it was deadlocked. The four week trial is scheduled to begin February 12.

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A Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s captain says there was a concerning trend among the 11 traffic fatalities in the county last year. Sheriff’s captain Ryan Waldschmidt says more elderly drivers were killed in several of the crashes. Waldschmidt says in seven of the crashes the average age of the driver was 78. Waldschmidt says the crashes raise the question about if some of the elderly drivers should have been behind the wheel? He says many time he sees families saying they should have done something, knowing it wasn’t safe for mom or dad to drive.

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The man accused of breaking into a southern Wisconsin gun shop and stealing a cache of weapons which led to a widespread manhunt has been found guilty of state charges. A jury in Rock County on Tuesday convicted 33-year-old Joseph Jakubowski of burglary while arming himself, theft and possession of burglary tools. Jakubowski has already been convicted in federal court on similar charges. He was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison in December. Jakubowski said he took 18 firearms from Armageddon Supplies in Janesville last April. He mailed a rambling anti-government manifesto to the White House and went on the run. He was captured 10 days later 130 miles away in western Wisconsin where he told the landowner he just wanted to live “off the grid.” A sentencing hearing is scheduled Feb. 28.

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Foxconn Technology Group is seeking an air emissions permit and the right to tap 7 million gallons of water a day from Lake Michigan, an early glimpse at the regulatory requirements the company faces in Wisconsin. The city of Racine asked the state Department of Natural Resources for permission Monday to divert water from the lake primarily to serve the planned display panel factory and campus. Under the compact, all water shipped out must be returned to Lake Michigan minus what’s lost to evaporation or what’s incorporated into Foxconn’s manufacturing process. The Department of Natural Resources created a website with information on environmental reviews the Taiwan-based company will face for its industrial campus in Mount Pleasant. The filing includes details of the types of pollutants that will be produced and how the company plans to control emissions. The DNR is taking public comments on the first air permit and hopes to complete work on the permit in April, said Jim Dick, a department spokesman. Foxconn must acquire permits for air, wastewater and storm water. State legislation that gave Foxconn $3 billion in incentives also exempted the company from other environmental requirements, such as disturbing wetlands and building in stream beds.

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