6-25-13 ag-bounty hunters

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen doesn't support a plan his fellow Republicans tacked onto the state budget that would allow bounty hunters to go after bail jumpers. He tells the AP he has been opposed to bail bondsmen for some time. He says no one has explained why the current court system needs to be changed.

6-25-13 kirngle controversy

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Three Republicans and three Democrats sent Gov. Scott Walker a letter today urging him not to veto a provision in the state budget naming the kringle as the official pastry. The kringle is a large, round, flat pastry with a hole in the middle made predominantly in Racine County. The governor hasn't said whether kringle will survive his vetoes.

6-24-13 kids count-wisconsin

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Children's lives are improving with the economy in Wisconsin, but many families remain worse off than before the Great Recession.  That's according to the latest Kids Count Data Book, an annual report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation that tracks children's welfare.  The report ranks Wisconsin 12th in the nation as a place to grow up.  It says New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts do the best when it comes to children's overall well-being. Nevada, Mississippi and New Mexico do the worst.  The spokesman for the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, Bob Jacobson, says Wisconsin has benefited from past investments in health care and education. That allowed the state to do well even though almost one in five Wisconsin children lives in poverty.

6-24-13 chicago man sentenced in fdl heroin case

A Chicago man convicted of dealing drugs in Fond du lac is going to prison.  Fond du Lac Judge Dale English has sentenced 26 year old Kevin McMullen to 10 years in prison followed by five years extended supervision.   McMullen was convicted of multiple charges including dealing heroin and methamphetamine, maintaining a drug trafficking place and carrying a concealed weapon.

6-24-13 severe weather

RIO, Wis. (AP) — The National Weather Service says a tornado touched down in southern Wisconsin over the weekend.  The agency says it the twister formed Saturday about 9 p.m. about three miles southwest of Rio in Columbia County. It caused minor tree damage that affected power lines, but no one was hurt.

Elsewhere, Crawford and Grant counties in the southwestern corner of Wisconsin have declared states of emergency because of water damage.  Crawford County had flooding and multiple mudslides that closed several roads and forced evacuation of a number of homes. In Grant County, roadways were flooded along with an unspecified number of homes.  Rescue crews saved all 54 canoeists who got stranded on the Wisconsin River in Grant County.  The weather service warns that additional storms Sunday could result in heavy rain and flash flooding.

6-24-13 church abuse-milwaukee archdiocese

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Archdiocese of Milwaukee plans to make dozens of priests' personnel files public in the next week, along with hundreds of pages of other documents related to clergy sex abuse.

Victims hope the records hold church leaders accountable for covering up priests' crimes and transferring them to new churches without warning parishioners.  Church leaders say it is important for the truth to come out, but most of the cases are well-known and involve priests who have been publicly identified for nearly a decade.  Forty-five-year-old Charles Linneman of Sugar Grove, Illinois says he was an altar boy when he met the priest who abused him in 1980. Linneman read the man's file several years ago when it became public during litigation in California. He says it helped him move on.

6-24-13 emergency plane landing in dodge county

Nobody was injured when a plane made an emergency landing in Dodge County Sunday afternoon.  At about 1:45 p.m., the Dodge County Sheriff’s Department took a report from the Dane County Sheriff’s Department that a plane had made an emergency landing in the Columbus area.  The plane landed in a field in the general area of Canary Road and County Highway G in the Town of Beaver Dam.  The aircraft, a Piper Archer, was occupied by 4 individuals.  The Dodge County Sheriff’s Department says preliminary information is that the aircraft had a problem with a fuel switch-over and the plane ran out of fuel, but details and the accuracy of that information have not been confirmed.  The FAA has been notified.