Month: March 2017

A Republican state lawmaker from Markesan says a so-called Right to Try law grants families facing the hardest time of their lives the ability to fight.   Representative Joan Ballweg voted in favor of the bill that permits people with terminal illness the ability to access experimental drugs more quickly.  Ballweg says too many patients can’t get into clinical trials and it takes the FDA too long to approve experimental drugs that […]

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — State superintendent candidate Lowell Holtz was chastised by his former school board for donating football field bleachers without notice to a nearby private school his children attended.  Personnel records obtained by The Associated Press show Holtz was also at odds with the Whitnall School District board over his communication about a district employee who used a computer to facilitate a sex crime.  Holtz retired as superintendent […]

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin has submitted his resignation days after Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered dozens of the country's federal prosecutors to resign.   Spokeswoman Myra Longfield confirmed U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil resigned Monday. While it is customary for new presidential administrations to clear out U.S. attorneys and replace them with their own nominees, Sessions' request Friday came earlier than some […]

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Research commissioned by state officials shows tourism has a $19 billion impact on Wisconsin's economy.  Gov. Scott Walker told tourism industry representatives gathered in Milwaukee Monday that the economic impact measured in 2015 has increased 30 percent from five years earlier. Walker says tourism accounts for 190,000 jobs in Wisconsin.  Innkeepers, restaurant owners, state and local tourism officials and others in the hospitality industry are attending the […]

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican Wisconsin lawmakers who for years have sought to ban the use of aborted fetal tissue in the state are now bickering among themselves over what to do.  Two GOP factions have formed in the Legislature on the issue.  One supports banning the use of aborted fetal tissue outright. That approach has the backing of anti-abortion groups.  The other wants a more limited effort that targets […]

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Up to 10 semis have slid off a major highway in Washington County as snow continues to pile up in eastern Wisconsin.  The State Patrol says eight to 10 semis were involved a pileup along northbound Interstate 41, just south of where the roadway splits with Highway 45.  Southbound lanes of Highway 41 at Highway 60 in Washington County were also closed Monday because of a multi-vehicle […]

No injuries were reported in a fire that destroyed a pickup truck at Holy Family Church in Fond du Lac.  Firefighters were called to the scene at 271 4th Street around 5am Monday.  The pickup was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived.

The director of Fond du Lac Festivals is defending a decision to hire a carnival ride operator from Michigan’s upper peninsula for Walleye Weekend even though at least one state official referred to the firm as being  “shady”.     Fond du lac Festivals wants to hire Spectrum Entertainment to run a Midway at Walleye Weekend this June.   The former assistant deputy secretary of the agency that oversees amusement rides said the […]

The new year is off to a safe start on Fond du lac County roads in terms of traffic fatalities.  Fond du lac County Sheriff’s captain Ryan Waldschmidt told the Traffic Safety Commission last week  that through the first couple of months of 2017 there have been zero traffic fatalities in Fond du lac County.  Waldschmidt credits traffic enforcement grants that allow for stepped up patrol.  "We've got eight agencies […]