It's Wayne Mauser, local news.
Good morning.
I'm Wayne Mauser for Civic Media News.
Justin Hamilton pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Fond du Lac County Court to allegedly trying to kill his wife after finding out she was having an affair.
The 41-year-old Hamilton also waived a preliminary hearing on 16 counts, including two counts of attempted homicide for the October 7th incident.
Although a not guilty by reason of mental disease or defectly was not entered Wednesday, Defense Attorney Amanda Score asked for psychiatric evaluation to determine if there is support for such a plea.
Judge Anthony Nales ordered the evaluation.
The party's hoped to discuss the results at a January 4th status conference.
No trial date was set.
More than four decades after five-year-old Robert Bobby Joe Fritz disappeared from Campbell Sport, Fond du Lac County investigators say they're still actively searching for answers and are now digging at new sites in the county.
The Fond du Lac County Sheriff's Office said it remains committed to investigating unsolved crimes and cold cases, including the disappearance of Fritz on May 14th of 1983.
Earlier this year, detectives recovered items of interest and potential evidence during an excavation at the
where Fritz lived at the time he went missing.
The Sheriff's Office said those items were sent to a private laboratory for testing and that results are pending.
Detectives are now excavating at additional locations in southeast Fond du Lac County.
The Sheriff's Office said the sites were identified as areas of interest that may contain evidence related to Fritz's disappearance.
Investigators say they will continue to pursue every credible lead and follow-up new information received.
The Sheriff's Office said it
dedicated to uncovering the facts surrounding Chris's disappearance and bringing closure to his family.
Because the case remains an active and ongoing investigation, the agency said additional information will be released only when it will not compromise the integrity of the case.
Winnick County School Board Clerk Kerry Flag argues the petitions seeking to recall two board members are invalid because she says the recall committee's registration forms were incomplete and the signature gathering period never legally began.
Flag's attorney submitted a response with the Wisconsin Elections Commission on Tuesday after recall organizers filed a complaint about the rejection of their petitions last month.
Flag argues the complaint should be dismissed because organizers filed it
one day after the 10 day deadline.
She also said she fulfilled her duty by reviewing the petitions, finding them insufficient.
The state appeals court ruled Wednesday that the town of Fond du Lac is responsible for maintaining a quarter mile stretch of road, which used to be State Highway 175.
The case involved Van Dyne Road, which leads out of the city of Fond du Lac into the town.
In 1998, the town agreed to take over a management of a section of the road.
Once new, State Highway 175 was completed.
The transfer covers a quarter mile of Van Dyne Road and a small portion of a newly constructed road linking Lakeshore Drive to the new
State Highway 175.
The transfer agreement took effect November 15th of 2001.
However, when a culvert at Supley Creek needed to be replaced in September of 2022, the town wanted a ruling that the state was responsible for that section of road, claiming the transfer agreement didn't include the culvert.
A circuit court ruled in the state's favor, but the town appealed.
In a nine-page ruling issued yesterday, the court rejected the town's arguments.
The court also rejected the town's
view that the state didn't act in good faith.
The ruling could be appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Rippon residents will have an opportunity to comment on the city's proposed 2027 budget next week.
Bob Nelson reports for Civic Media News.
As it currently stands, the city is looking at a proposed property tax levy of $4.4 million and a tax rate of $6.14 per thousand dollars of value on a property.
The total tax rate that includes the city's portion, school district's portion, tech colleges and county, comes to an estimated $16.40.
City Administrator Adam Sontok says that overall rate is down from $24.58 last
last year and the city's tax rate is the lowest in decades.
And overall, we believe that outside of other like tax credits and lottery credits, the mill rate will be about $16.40.
That's an estimate.
Sontag says there are other ways to comment on the budget before next week's public hearing.
If the public has any comments related to the budget that they don't.
They want ahead of time brought forward.
They can reach out to their council member.
They can reach out to the city.
We have a forum online for budget comments.
As for the public hearing, it'll be at 7 p.m.
next Tuesday in the council chambers of Ripon City Hall.
I'm Pop Nelson for Civic Media News.
The Fond du Lac County Board will hold a rare Thursday night meeting tonight at 6 p.m.
in the legislative chambers of the City County Government Center in Fond du Lac.
During the meeting, supervisors
are expected to approve the county's five-year capital improvement plan and the 2027 county budget.
The mill rate for the $170 million budget will be $3.81 per thousand dollars of value on a property compared to $5.72 in 2022 and $4.08 last year.
The overall tax levy is $52.8 million, which is an increase of $414,000 from the past year.
Also during the meeting, Curt Berner of the Samuels Group will give a presentation
on the building and operational cost of the potential jail.
Voter turnout for Tuesday's election was at 55% or more of registered voters in most area counties.
In Winnebago County, 72,984 ballots were cast.
Fond du Lac County had a 74% voter turnout with 44,301 casting votes.
In Washera County, 11,207 voters participated or about 59% of registered voters.
With 8,414 exercising their right to vote, Green Lake County's turnout rate was just over 55%.
In Dodge County, 37,207 voters cast their ballots in the general election.
I'm Wayne Mauser for Civic Media
News.
Nearly 2.7 million votes have been tallied in Wisconsin's governor's race, but official statewide results are still weeks away.
Local election officials are reviewing their counts through a process called the Canvas.
And the numbers can change during that review.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission's chair must certify the results by December 1st.
The agency will publish statewide results after certification.
David Crowley is on track for Wisconsin's widest governor's race victory since Tommy Thompson's last win in 1998.
With 99% of precincts reporting, the Democrat leads Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany by 8.2 percentage points.
That would top Jim Doyle's 7.4 point win in 2006.
The results are still unofficial.
Wins in Racine and Kenosha counties helped Crowley expand the Democrats' reach in Wisconsin's race for governor.
both counties backed him.
Police are investigating a possible explosive device found at the Stevens Point Post Office.
Officers responded around 10 a.m.
Tuesday and evacuated the facility.
Authorities called in the Marathon County bomb squad after officers could not determine whether the device was an explosive.
Police secured the device inside the building and Main Street was closed during the investigation.
Two fraternity members will not face charges after a hazing investigation at UW-Madison.
Madison Police arrested the pair on September 23 after officers discovered 30 partially clothed men in the basement of the Alpha Epsilon Pi House.
People were covered in food, condiments, and other liquids.
Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozane says his agency declined to press charges against the two suspects since there wasn't enough evidence.
The men, both 20,
were president and vice president of the fraternity.
Wisconsin voters approved more than 1.3 billion for schools Tuesday, but rejected more than four out of every 10 referendum questions.
Voters passed 45 of the 79 proposals on ballots statewide.
That brings the year's total to more than 1.8 billion
to more than $1.86 billion in approved funding.
The full-year approval rate was 59 percent, the lowest for a midterm or presidential election year since 2010.
As temperatures start to drop, state officials say heating scams are on the rise.
People are reporting urgent calls and official-looking emails demanding payment right away or the heat will be shut off.
That threat is a scam.
Under Wisconsin's Winter Moratorium, utility companies cannot legally shut off your heat for unpaid bills between November and mid-April.
The State Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection urges people to hang up on high-pressure calls that impersonate utilities.
They say scammers can be convincing with made-up work orders, fake billing statements, even truck numbers.
They're ready to dispatch right away unless payment is made.
If you get one of these calls or emails, ignore it.
If you have any questions, just call your utility company.
Consumer advocates say if you're behind on your bill, call the power company directly to work out a payment plan or call 211 for help with assistance programs.
And that's your state news update.
I'm Connie Feldman for Civic Media News.
Close, but no cigar.
Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with Sports NBA.
The Milwaukee Bucks battled back, but came up short to the Celtics losing in Boston 109 to 102.
Bucks head coach Taylor Jenkins after the loss.
We cannot overlook the fact that we were down 22 to the Celtics and came back and took the lead.
I'm way more focused on that.
We put ourselves in a position to win the game, the resilience, the fight that our guys had in the second half, the defensive intensity, the ball movement.
Obviously we started making some shots, but just the energy, the life was there.
Our guys responded at halftime.
The Bucks host the
tomorrow night, NFL after suffering at Torn ACL and meniscus tear nearly 11 months ago.
The Packers, Micah Parsons was back at practice for the first time.
I asked how's the knee doing?
Right now my knee feels great.
It feels really great.
Like before I feel like a hitch.
I feel like I'm not getting my power.
But now I'm stronger.
The things that we do to warm up how we acted.
I've been feeling great ever since then.
As the Packers, Micah Parsons not expected to play for another two and a half weeks with sports on Mike Clemens.
It is going to be cloudy with scattered showers today high in the low 50s this afternoon.
Tonight clouds will gradually decrease.
It's going to get cold with lows dropping into the low 30s.
Tomorrow partly cloudy and cooler with highs in the mid to upper 40s.
I'm meteorologist Sean Cable.
Local interviews, podcasts and more are always fresh and always on file at thebug.fm.