6-4-14 markesan fire

Two homes are total losses and one garage suffered significate damage following a fire in Markesan.  Markesan Police Chief Steven Braun says The Grand River Fire District responded to a house fire at 165 W. Manchester Street around 3:20 p.m. Saturday afternoon.  Due to high winds the fire transferred to a garage at 185 W. Manchester Street and to another home at 149 W. Manchester Street.  Braun says the department tried saving the homes but both are considered a total loss.  The garage sustained severe heat damage and broken windows.  Braun says the residents at 165 W. Manchester street were alerted by smoke detectors.  A family in the downstairs apartment consisting of a couple with two young children escaped without injury.  Braun says a 30-year-old woman living on the second floor escaped without injury, but a 28-year-old male was trapped and forced to jump out a window.  He sustained injuries to his right knee and ankle.  Braun says the residents of 149 W. Manchester Street were not home at the time of the fire.  Multiple area fire departments assisted at the scene with many firefighters treated for heat related ailments.  The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

6-4-14 serious injury accident

One person is seriously injured following a two-vehicle accident on Highway 44.  The accident happened Monday evening around 5:10 p.m. at Burr Oak Road near Oshkosh.  Investigation shows a Pontiac Bonneville driven by a 35-year-old Oshkosh man was eastbound on Highway 44 when it crossed the centerline and struck a westbound Ford Excursion driven by a 61-year-old Ripon man.  The Pontiac driver was transported to Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah with life threatening injuries.  The Excursion driver suffered non-life threatening injuries and was treated at Mercy Medical Center in Oshkosh.  The Wisconsin State Patrol is continuing to investigate the crash. 

6-4-14 fdl county sheriff's candidate bill ledger

A Fond du Lac police detective says he is running for sheriff, in part, to try to mend a rift he says exists between the Sheriff’s Office and police department.    Dectective Bill Ledger is challenging incumbent sheriff

Mick Fink in the August 12^th  primary election.  "I've personally had the opportunity to see the direct conflict between the two departments,"  Ledger said.   "For whatever reason when you get into the upper echelon there is this rift between the two departments."  At the same time Ledger acknowledges the police chief and sheriff, detective bureaus and patrol ranks work well together.  Ledger talked for the first time about posting disparaging comments on his Facebook page after Eric Toney defeated incumbent District Attorney Dan Kaminsky in a primary election two years ago.    On his Facebook page Ledger criticized Toney's lack of experience and also verbally attacked sheriff Fink for his endorsement of Toney during the campaign.   "Obviously when there's two sides, there's a heated debate going on.  There's going to be things that are said.  There is one thing that I do regret, that is respecting the process of the voters.  The voters spoke and they spoke clearly about who they wanted in that position."   Ledger says he has since made amends with Toney and today says he thinks Toney has done a good job.  "I've had the opportunity to sit down several times with Eric and discuss what was said and discuss where we went from there.  Eric and I have an outstanding work relationship at this point."   Ledger says another reason why he is running is because he doesn’t believe the sheriff’s office has been proactive when it comes to fighting crime.  "I think its static over there.  I'd like to see a sheriff's department that's more proactive."   Ledger says he wants to see the sheriff's office doing more criminal interdiction on the highways and a larger K-9 unit.  Ledger is running as a Republican and defended his signing of recall papers against Republican governor Scott Walker.  "I don't think I'm the only Republican that did that.  My family consists of two public employees,"  Ledger said.  His wife works in Corrections.  "That was a decision that came down to finances for us.  I never disputed the fact that I did support that."   Ledger has worked in the Fond du lac police department for 19 years.

6-4-14 clean wi-greenhouse emissions proposal

A spokesman for a Wisconsin environmental group is praising a federal government proposal to reduce greenhouse emissions.  Under the EPA proposal Wisconsin would cut its carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by one third by 2030.  Clean Wisconsin Senior Policy director, Keith Reopelle, says he disagrees with Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce that utility rates will skyrocket under the proposal.  

"My reaction is I think that statement is completely fabricated,"  Reopelle told AM 1170 WFDL's Between the Lines program.  "If its based on any analysis it didn't look at the rule."  Reopelle says he also disagrees with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce report that the move would cost more than 30,000 jobs in the midwest including Wisconsin.

6-4-14 waukesha county da goes "between the lines"

The Republican candidate for attorney general says a case involving two 12 year old girls accused of stabbing their best friend is unbelievable.  Brad Schimel is the Waukesha County Disrtrict attorney.  'I think that is the word that best describes it.  It is unbelievable,"  Schimel told AM 1170 WFDL's Between the Lines program.  "Its not uncommon that I come into work and something would have happened that I never could have predicted.  But in 24 years as a front line prosecutor I've never seen anything this shocking."

The girls are accused of planning the crime for months to please a mythological, fictional online creature.

According to a criminal complaint, the girls said they invited the girl to a sleepover Friday.  They planned to tape her mouth shut, stab her in the neck and run away to Slenderman's mansion.

Instead, they attacked the girl in Waukesha on Saturday, handing the knife back and forth between them before one girl held the victim down and the other stabbed her 19 times.   One girl told detectives she regretted it. The other said she was sorry.  The victim survived and is listed in stable condition.

6-4-14 attorney says girl charged in stabbing is mentally ill

MILWAUKEE (AP) — An attorney for a Wisconsin girl accused of plotting to kill a friend to curry favor with a fictional online character says he is concerned about her mental health.  He also says he will repeat his request for the court to move her from juvenile detention to a mental health facility.

Anthony Cotton represents one of two 12-year-old girls charged in a stabbing that nearly killed another child.  Cotton said Tuesday that he would meet with his client later in the day, but based on what he knows thus far, he believes she has serious mental health problems and should be in a hospital.  He says a judge rejected his request to move the girl Monday, but he will ask again when she returns to court next week.

6-4-14 stabbing-website

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — An administrator of a horror website says in an online posting that the stories published on the site are fiction and the site does not endorse the actions of two Wisconsin girls accused of trying to kill one of their classmates.  The site called Creepypasta Wiki contains stories posted by users, including one about Slenderman, a fictional character who stalks children.

According to a court documents, two 12-year-old Waukesha girls charged with stabbing and nearly killing a friend told police that they did it to curry favor with Slenderman.  A site administrator says in a Tuesday post that Creepypasta Wiki does not "does not endorse or advocate for the killing, worship, and otherwise replication of rituals of fictional works."