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This is your WGBW Daily News Roundup for the talk of Green Bay, 97.9 FM and 50.90 AM.
For 97.9 WGBW News, I'm Lisa Hale.
42-year-old Gustavo Cantu was convicted yesterday of being party to felony murder armed robbery for the shooting death of Randall Denny in Green Bay in 2022.
The jury delivered the verdict on a charge that was reduced from first degree intentional homicide.
Cantu's brother Alejandro and a third suspect in the murder, Jacob Ventura, were tried separately.
Following an executive order by President Donald Trump last month, aimed at barring transgender female athletes from competing in women's or girls' sports,
the Wisconsin Inner Scholastic Athletic Association, or WIA, announced yesterday that only students assigned female at birth can compete in girls' sports.
The NCAA similarly updated its policies. Fox Crossing Republican Nate Gustafson, who introduced a bill last year that would have kept biological males from competing in girls' sports, applauded the WIA action.
Governor Tony Evers vetoed that bill last year.
State lawmakers planned to introduce legislation to fund the Wisconsin Office of School Safety permanently.
State Representative Todd Novak and State Senator Romaine Quinn began sharing the bill with colleagues last week, hoping to drum up more bipartisan support for the measure before officially introducing the bill later this month.
It would guarantee that the Office of School Safety receives the funding it needs to maintain its current full-time staffing levels, without needing to rely on federal grant funding with potentially uncertain future.
An Edison Middle School student in Green Bay made a social media post with what turned out to be a toy gun, but that post led to an investigation Wednesday by the Green Bay Police Department and school officials.
A letter sent to Edison families and staff said the Snapchat post was thoroughly investigated and authorities determined there was no real threat to safety.
Parents and guardians are asked to talk with their children about the seriousness of making threats.
The school district said students who make threats, even as a joke, are subject to serious consequences, including criminal charges.
We hear about the housing crisis in Wisconsin and the lack of housing in general.
Development is happening in the Greater Green Bay area to fill those needs.
Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich says one of the problems the city is faced deals with the way the population has grown.
One of the issues that we see not just in Green Bay, but everywhere is the reduction of household size, right?
So you need more units to actually house the same number of people.
Genrich made his comments on a recent episode of Lean Local with Jim Schmidt, airing Sundays at 1 on WGPW.
Protesters visited the Depeer offices of US Congressman Tony Weed yesterday to ask him and other Republicans to not cut the program providing health benefits to seniors,
persons living with disabilities and people with low incomes.
The $800 billion Medicaid program is mostly funded by federal taxpayers.
Republican lawmakers want to cut the program to stop fraud and careless spending and are floating an idea that would require time work to Medicaid.
Protesters argue the amount of Medicaid fraud taking place is very small.
For the February law of the month, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation is providing guidance on how to merge for drivers.
According to the DOT press release, drivers should remember to give themselves plenty of space to merge onto highways, especially when merging near a large truck, commercial vehicle or bus.
Drivers merging for lane closures should take turns with other drivers in a zipper fashion.
And you should yield in roundabouts as you look to enter and stay in the same lane until you're ready to signal the exit.
With the bitter cold we've been having and the snow comes a risk of fire.
Melissa K has details.
With the snow that fell over the weekend and the extreme cold now, the local fire department is reminding homeowners to make sure your vents are clear.
Your dryer vent, furnace exhaust, water heater exhaust and gas meter only to be cleared of snow to function properly.
A few minutes to check can keep your house warm, your appliance is working properly and prevent a call to emergency services.
A new report found Wisconsin students are still lagging behind pre-pandemic levels for math and reading scores.
According to the education recovery score card released by the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University,
Wisconsin students are months behind in math and half a grade behind in reading scores.
Despite the lower scores, the state still ranked 16th for math recovery and 30th for reading recovery.
The report also found that over 80% of students are in districts that have not recovered to 2019 achievement levels.
It's now been over two weeks since anyone has heard from 16-year-old Sophia Franklin of Beaver Dam,
or the adult man accused of getting her pregnant and abducting her.
Police believe 40-year-old Gary Day took her from her Beaver Dam home.
He's been on the run with her ever since and now the case may be handed over to the U.S. Marshals.
Beaver Dam police say they've been in contact with law enforcement from other cities, states and federal agencies,
but now the Marshals may take the lead as they hunt for the two of them.
A criminal complaint shows Day started talking with Franklin online last April,
and in December, a parole officer in Day's Native Arkansas found her at his home.
She's currently three to four months pregnant.
Amber Alerts have been activated in his Native Arkansas, Missouri, and here in Wisconsin.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say their new study found that soft shell helmet covers don't reduce concussions for high school football players.
Brittany Merlot has details.
The report was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine and evaluated over 2600 Wisconsin football players.
Their data found 64 reported concussions during the 2023 season,
33 of which were sustained by players wearing the soft shell helmets and 31 by players not wearing the helmets.
Previous studies suggested the softer padding could reduce the impact to the head.
I'm Lisa Hale, 97.9 WGBW News.
For news anytime, log on to WGBW.FM.
The Bucks are back in action.
Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with Sports.
The Milwaukee Bucks are back from the All-Star Break tonight when they host the L.A. Clippers at Fiasur Form.
The honest synthetic group listed as questionable after missing the last six games with a calf muscle injury.
I'm OK. I'm 100% I don't know.
We'll see, but I was able to go through practice.
He felt good.
But we'll see. We'll see you tomorrow for 100%.
I'll know you.
Damien Lillard, also questionable.
Doc Rivers after yesterday's practice.
We went hard, but not that hard.
And so we'll see with him and Damien.
We don't know yet.
College football, Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickle,
receiving a one-year extension on his contract with the university.
Fickle's deal now runs through March of 2032.
He'll learn an extra $100,000,
bringing his total of $7.7 million this year.
The Badgers were five and seven last season
and missed playing in a bowl game for the first time in 22 years,
with Sports on Mike Clemens.
Find your entertainment beat. I'm Pete Schwabba.
If you're headed to the warm, cozy theaters this weekend,
here are some films you might enjoy.
Sometimes, even though a movie is reviewing well,
and probably pretty decent, it sounds ridiculous.
And that is the case for The Monkey,
which opens wide February 21st.
I'm paraphrasing, but the logline is,
twin brothers find a wind-up monkey
that causes a killing spree,
and then 25 years later,
it starts a new killing spree as they try to stop it.
A wind-up monkey, not even a real monkey.
The other film opening and wide release
is The Unbreakable Boy, a family film
about a child with autism and a bone disorder.
If you're not up for braving the cold
and feel like sitting home, check out Slide Lives,
a new documentary on Hulu about Sly and the Family Stone,
social media users, including myself,
are in a lather over it,
and it is pulling a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes.
It has a built-in, fantastic soundtrack,
and all the other fun stuff you'd expect
from a solid, rock-and-roll documentary.
Let's go to the movies.
Director Peter Bogdanovitch's final film
has been remastered and will be released digitally
by Lionsgate.
The film Squirrels to Nuts was originally released
under its first title,
She's Funny That Way in 2014.
The Claim Director passed away in 2022.
In reality, TV stars talking just to talk news,
Bethany Frankl weighed in on Ryan Reynolds
and Blake Lively, making light of their legal issues
with director Justin Belldoney,
who is also Lively's co-star in It Ends With Us.
Frankl, one of the real fake TV housewives of New York City,
said joking about the lawsuits
on Saturday Night Live's 50th anniversary
was nothing short of genius, calling it the zeitgeist,
a bullseye.
She added that the only way to weather a storm
is to go right through it,
while also acknowledging that the storm
might have actually been caused by Lively and Reynolds
in the first place,
admitting that no one knows what happened.
Let this be a lesson to you youngsters out there.
Always make social media posts
for season four you date dropped on max
and the HBO show has created some controversy
thanks to nitpicky social media followers,
always looking for something to overanalyze.
Every season has a new cast, location, and theme music.
Season two's theme music was so popular
it played in nightclubs across Europe.
Season three's theme music has not been well received.
Great thing to stress over in this day and age.
If you haven't seen White Lotus yet, give it a chance.
Saturday Night Live kicks off in new 50 years in March.
March hosts will include comedian Shane Gillis and Lady Gaga.
Neither are strangers to the SNL stage.
Gillis will host the show for the second time on March 1st.
The musical act will be Tate McCray.
Gaga will wear hosting and musical hats
as she covers both roles on March 8th.
Gaga has hosted the show before
and performed as the musical guest
four times previously.
Wonder if they'll be invited to the 100th.
For more showbiz fond tune into Nightlight with me,
Peachwaba, weeknights from 6 to 8 p.m. on the Civic Media,
radio network.
I'm meteorologist Brandon Bourbons.
Finally, crawling out of the deep freeze today,
partly sunny skies with highs in the mid-20s.
For tonight, mostly clear, it will be cold.
Just not as frigid as recent nights,
lows near zero.
And then on Friday, sunny skies to be expected with highs
in the lower 20s.
Right now, it's 12 degrees.
That's your WGBW Daily News Roundup
from Civic Media.
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