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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.
The Office of Violence Prevention or OVP in Green Bay will close after operating for only two years.
A press release from the city said the reasoning is due to uncertain state and federal funding.
This announcement comes as violence in the city has declined. The city saw peak gun violence in 2021 with 82 reported shots fired incidents.
But by 2024, that number had dropped to 24, which is a 71% decrease. Homicides fell 67% between 2023 and 2024, and overdoses decreased by 63%.
OVP Violence Interruption Program will end this summer. But OVP Director Andrea Cresson will remain in her role through the end of the year to assess how those initiatives can be continued elsewhere in Green Bay.
A second person has been charged in connection to the death of two-year-old Leo Escalante in Green Bay on June 22.
48-year-old David Van Der Least made his initial appearance on counts of obstructing an officer and aiding a felon Thursday.
His son, 21-year-old James, was charged with first-degree reckless homicide Wednesday. David returns to court July 22.
One of the women who stabbed a friend nearly to death as children to please the fictional character Slenderman will be released.
Savannah Tomay Olsen has that story.
Anissa Wire and Morgan Geyser nearly killed their friend in 2014. All three of them were 12 years old.
The two responsible pleaded guilty and were found by the court to be not guilty due to mental disease or defect.
Anissa Wire, who did not stab the victim, was released from a mental hospital in 2021.
She lives with her father and wears a GPS monitor.
Now Morgan Geyser, the one who actually stabbed the victim, will be released as well.
She's been at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute for seven years now. She's now 22.
Experts said in sworn testimony she's made progress in her mental illness.
Yesterday in court, her release plan was approved by a judge, although the details were not shared publicly.
For civic media news, I'm Savannah Tomay Olsen.
This weekend, lowly Whitman Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin will become the busiest airport in the world.
So says EAA Communications Director Dick Napinski.
By Thursday and Friday, you'll notice that there are a lot of airplanes coming in.
And Saturday and Sunday, it's kind of the land rush at that point.
And they come in. And that's really when we become the world's busiest airport.
Busier than Hartzfield, busier than O'Hare, busier than anyplace else in the world.
Last year, EAA Air Venture drew a record number of over 686 attendees.
That's an incredibly large number when you think about it.
All the logistics that go into it, not only for the camping, but the retail, the traffic.
And of course, we've got the third dimension, people landing from the sky at the same time when we become the world's busiest airport.
So it is a phenomenon that is an amazing piece of choreography just to put together.
Not only on that airport, but throughout the community.
And the visitors came from almost 100 different countries.
And if you talk to any pilot, almost any pilot in the world and say the word Oshkosh,
they know exactly what you're talking about.
I mean, you cannot buy that kind of visibility.
It is something that we in the community and the Fox Valley can be very proud of.
EAA Air Venture officially gets underway Monday, July 21st.
But campers and planes have already started arriving and getting set up.
Wisconsin residents will begin seeing higher fees for vehicle title transfers and driver's license renewals this fall.
The additional fees were included in the new biennial state budget,
which Governor Tony Evers hopes will generate nearly $200 million in additional revenue for future transportation spending.
The vehicle title fee will increase from $157 to $207.
License renewal fees will increase from $24 to $32.50.
The fee changes will officially go into effect on October 1st.
There's a new project underway featuring stories told by families in Wisconsin.
The subject, how their lives could be impacted by cuts in the federal budget.
Terry Barr has more.
It's called Storybook on the Line and focuses on firsthand accounts from people across the state.
Many of whom are not politically motivated, who don't generally step forward to share their story publicly,
but feel that this bill will impact them in such a profound way.
That's Sandra Goldshine with the campaign for a family-friendly economy.
She asked residents of programs like Medicaid, Head Start, and SNAP are important in Wisconsin.
Goldshine shares what Julia banker from O'Clayer told her.
She shares that Medicaid saved her life.
She has been hospitalized in the past as she struggled with her own mental health.
And it was Medicaid that allowed her to afford the treatment to get her on a path where she has opened her own business.
You can now read all of the stories shared through this project.
We have an article with a link to the book on our network website, go to civicmedia.us.
The biggest water ski show in the state happens this weekend in Wisconsin Rapids.
Here's Melissa K. with more.
This July 17th through the 20th is the 59th annual state water ski show championships.
24 of Wisconsin's best show water ski teams are at Lake Quizicia and Wisconsin Rapids,
along with 75 individuals competing for a chance at the National Water Ski Show Championships.
Individual competitions are underway today.
The tournament starts on Friday and continues through Sunday.
You can also watch the live stream of the event at aquiscares.org.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers has proclaimed this week as rural road safety awareness week.
In an executive order signed Monday, Governor Evers announced post crash care, big league safety,
as the theme for this year's road safety week.
The proclamation is meant to encourage residents to travel safely and to highlight the importance of having access to emergency response services in the event of a crash.
The executive order also noted that about 19,000 crashes occur on the state's nearly 10,000 miles of rural highways every year.
No one was hurt when a cow got loose Wednesday morning near the lacrosse interstate fair.
According to West Salem police, the cow was being kept at the fair.
It got loose, went through some yards, and was finally lassoed near a highway.
Police said it's likely the new environment of the fair caused the cow to run away.
When people tried to approach it, the cow charged at them, but eventually it was brought in without any other issues.
The cow was not hurt during its adventure, and it was returned to its farm after being captured.
I'm Lisa Hale, 97.9 WGBW News.
For news anytime, log on to WGBW.FM.
Brewer baseball tonight, high on my clements with sports.
The second half of the baseball season getting underway as the brewers open a three game series on the road against the Dodgers.
Quinn Priester from Milwaukee.
Against the Dodgers Tyler Glassnow.
At the start of the season, manager Pat Murphy was struggling to find starting pictures.
Now he's got Freddie Peralta, Brandon Woodruff, Jacob Mizorowski. Brewer's catcher Eric Haas.
I was joking with Murphy about that, you know, to where we were to start or where we were just looking for innings anywhere we could find them.
And we had a lot of young guys come up and throw some very meaningful and really good innings for us.
And getting these guys back, we kind of planned to be in the clubhouse in the first place.
Now they haven't broken stride, they've joined us, and they've done nothing but put up zeros for us.
They're a big factor with what we're winning.
NBA Damien Lillard.
A green to a three year contract to return to Portland in a deal worth $42 million.
He'll be joined by Drew Holiday with a box traded away two years ago to bring Lillard to Milwaukee.
With sports on Mike Clemens.
On your entertainment beat, I'm Pete Schwabba.
In 2009, Joaquin Phoenix acted really strange on an episode of the late show with David Letterman.
The Gladiator actor appeared on the same stage in the same theater on the late show with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday.
And discussed his Letterman appearance, saying he deeply regretted it.
During his previous late show appearance, Phoenix says he was parodying a character he was playing in a film that was about to be released at the time called I'm Still Here.
A mockumentary about Phoenix leaving acting to become a hip-hop artist.
Phoenix wore a dark suit and sunglasses and said little.
He told Colbert he was hoping Dave would lacerate him after informing the late show staff.
That was how he was going to appear for the interview.
In hindsight, it was a disaster.
Joaquin Phoenix called the interview and the entire experience a disaster and uncomfortable.
I remember that night and he's putting it mildly.
Did you know Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow were friends?
Me either.
Did you know they were no longer friends?
I didn't either.
Until now, thanks to People Magazine, which published an excerpt from Gwynny P's new memoir called Gwyneth the Biography.
I wonder if the actual book is as much of a snooze as that title.
Apparently, the breaking point in their friendship was when Madonna crashed the Oscar-winning actress's vacay unannounced with her children.
And at one point, started yelling at them.
Paltrow's husband, at the time, called play frontman Chris Martin, had had enough and so had Paltrow, who admitted she can ice people out and harbor revenge.
Adding that her and Madge's friendship had become toxic, possibly similar to the toxicity found in her crotch-based aroma products from her company Goop.
It's true.
Paltrow says the two became friends when they both realized they liked to sound British sometimes.
I might have made that part up, but it's true.
I know what you did last summer leads the way of new releases this coming weekend.
If you're in the mood for nostalgia, you can bring the kids who might enjoy an updated take on one of your favorite thrillers from the mid-90s.
The film will provide a nice bridge between Superman and the next big expected blockbuster release when Fantastic Four drops next week.
I know what you did last summer is pulling in not so terrible for a teen thriller movie 50-ish on Rotten Tomatoes.
There are already some good family films out there like How to Train Your Dragon and Lilo in Stitch.
And you might want to take a look as this week's new release on the family front is The Smurfs and only drawing 22% on Rotten Tomatoes.
A24's Eddington also hits theaters this weekend.
The film stars Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal as a sheriff and mayor who face off in a small town in New Mexico.
The film is nabbing a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes and might be worth a look based on cast alone.
Let's go to the movies.
For more showbiz fun, tune in to Nightlight with me, Peach Waba, weeknights from 6 to 8 p.m. on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm meteorologist Brandon Bourments. If you happen to have the day off, you'll pick to good one plenty of sunshine today nice and comfortable highs in the mid 70s.
For tonight's showers and thunderstorms possible later after midnight lows in the lower 60s scattered showers and storms on Saturday highs in the upper 70s.
Current temperature 61 degrees.
That's your WGBW Daily News Roundup from Civic Media.
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