It's Wayne Mauser, Local News.
Good morning.
I'm Wayne Mauser for Civic Media News.
Police in Oshkosh arrested a 16-year-old student who brought a handgun in his backpack to Oshkosh North High School Wednesday morning.
Police Officer Kate Mann says around 9.20 a.m., staff members notified a school resource officer they had heard a student may have a gun at school.
The school resource officer found the student and arrested him within 20 minutes and a handgun was found in the backpack he was wearing.
Police also received information that a second student, a 17-year-old, may also have had a gun.
for the student and possible gun.
The building was evacuated.
Students were bused to West High School to be reunited with their families.
One person is injured after a motorcycle crash that closed part of Jackson Street in Oshkosh.
The Oshkosh Police Department said they're currently investigating a motorcycle crash near Jackson Street and Hobbs Avenue.
The driver of the motorcycle was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
No information on their condition has been released at this time.
Jackson Street from Murdoch Avenue to Stanley Avenue was closed as police investigate the crash.
Drivers are asked to avoid the area for the time being.
A recently fired powerlifting coach along with several supporters is criticizing the Yashkosh area school district after he was fired for a social media post
criticizing how the district handled a situation where his child was bullied.
The program was likely to fold as a result.
On September 10th, the coach, Alex DelVecchio, posted a criticism of the district saying he had, quote, profound disappointment, unquote, for another incident involving his son.
He later said his son no longer felt supported, quote, due to the lack of effective intervention, unquote.
Del Vecchio said he subsequently met with administration to address the issues.
On Tuesday morning, Del Vecchio said the district called to tell him that he had been fired for his post, which, quote, brought a negative light on the school district, and they no longer needed him as a coach in their district, unquote.
The program regularly has 20 to 30 athletes, according to Del Vecchio.
He restarted the program in 2023 after it was shut down for about 10 years.
A former Walpawn Correctional Institution nurse pled no contest this week to a misdemeanor charge of violating state and county institution laws in connection with the death of an inmate.
49-year-old Jessica Haasfeld of Oshkosh was fined $50.
She was one of several prison workers charged in connection with the death of 62-year-old
old Donald Meyer.
Meyer died in February of 2024 in the prison's restrictive housing unit.
According to a criminal complaint, prison guards shut off Meyer's water access.
The Dodge County Sheriff's Office says Meyer's death was ruled a homicide because of malnutrition and dehydration.
The criminal complaint says Haasfeldt knew Meyer had not been eating and was drinking toilet water.
She did not enter his cell to do a nursing assessment.
and wellness check.
Rippon Police Chief Bill Walner says, properly used, the flock license plate reader cameras were a useful tool for law enforcement.
Bob Nelson reports for Civic Media News.
Walner says they helped to spot vehicles being used by those committing fraud to find missing persons or stolen vehicles.
Ripping another law enforcement agencies in Fond du Lac and Winnebago counties discontinued use of the system on September 4th.
He says that was because other agencies in other states were sharing data from open cases
in Wisconsin.
We trained our officers on procedures, policies, proper use, so we had no concerns about our officers' use of it.
It was just the concerns that popped up from these other agencies that were releasing data in other states, quite frankly.
Chief Walner says there might be legislation coming at the state level that could remedy some of the problems and concerns.
He says for now, the flock of cameras in Ripon are covered and no data is being recorded.
I'm Bob Nelson for Civic Media
News.
Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, were both sentenced to life in prison for the 2005 murder of the freelance photographer.
Both recently filed for commutation of their sentences with Governor Tony Evers.
That process does not overturn convictions or grant new trials, but can result in prison sentences being shortened.
The commutation board is not required to address the petitions and currently does not have either case on an agenda.
Now retired Judge Patrick Willis presided over Avery's trial.
The case is now assigned to Oshara County Judge Guy Dutcher.
Avery, now 64, is serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole.
Dassie, now 36, can first ask for parole in 2048.
To date, all of their appeals have been denied, and Evers denied Dassie's request for a pardon in 2019.
Avery is currently at the Fox Lake Correctional Institution, while Dassie is currently at the Oshkosh Correctional Institution.
Hunters play an important role in the continued efforts for chronic wasting disease surveillance and management in Wisconsin.
DNR officials say one of the most effective tools for monitoring CWD is testing your harvested deer and testing is available statewide.
The DNR is especially interested in receiving more samples from areas near recent CWD detection locations.
Ways to have your harvested deer tested for CWD include self-service kiosks that are open 24-7.
They have supplies for hunters to drop off a deer head with five inches of neck attached meat processed.
and other businesses can collect the deer head for sampling or removing the lymph nodes at the time of drop-off.
Hunters can pick up a kit from a kiosk ahead of time, extract the lymph nodes using the provided instructions, and return the lymph nodes to the DNR or a kiosk for testing.
Hunters can also make an appointment with local DNR staff.
CWD results will typically be available within two weeks.
More information is available at the DNR's website.
I'm Wayne Mauser for Civic Media News.
For Civic Media News, I'm Connie Feldman.
Do you consider yourself an informed voter?
While many of us do, there will be three constitutional amendments for Wisconsin voters to consider on the November 3rd ballots.
That's the most of any election since 1995, and voters often complain the wording in ballot referendum questions can be confusing.
Voting advocates are urging Wisconsin voters to do their homework before they go to the polls, as the amendment process is difficult to reverse.
Once a constitutional amendment is approved by voters, it takes effect immediately.
The first question is about limiting the governor's partial veto.
It would stop the governor from using a partial veto to create or increase taxes or fees.
This got on the ballot primarily because of Governor Evers' 400-year veto, a way to bypass the Republican-controlled legislature to secure long-term funding for public schools.
Conservatives argued it would lead to property tax hikes.
The Supreme Court upheld Evers' veto.
If passed, the amendment would apply to all future governors, regardless of party.
Question 2 would ban state and local governments from ordering churches and other places of worship to close during a state of emergency.
That happened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The last amendment question would ban affirmative action.
It's asking whether voters want to permanently block diversity, equity, and inclusion policies across public institutions in Wisconsin.
Bear Boo Police have a suspect in custody for an armed robbery that happened on Tuesday.
Police say the suspect went into a business, approached the counter, and displayed a knife, demanding money from the owner.
The suspect got away with some cash and fled the scene on a bike.
Police found the suspect and took him into custody.
Four Wisconsin quick trip locations are having professional pest control treatments after bed bugs were discovered in their restrooms.
According to a company representative, all four stores are in Wausau,
Quick-Trip officials say a visiting guest brought the pests into the stores and emphasized the incident is isolated to the restroom areas.
They say there's no health or food safety risk associated with the issue.
As thousands flock to Lambeau Field today for the Packers' home opener tonight, team officials are warning fans to beware of fake jerseys and counterfeit merchandise.
The team says scammers often target fans through online sales and unauthorized sellers.
The products are often of lower quality and don't meet NFL licensing standards.
The pack takes on the Atlanta Falcons tonight.
Kickoff is at $7.15.
If you can't make it to Lambeau, you can watch tonight's Packers game on Prime Video.
If you're not interested in watching the falcons at Lambeau, you may want to check out the journey the falcons born at Wisconsin power plants have taken so far this year.
Researchers say the birds have already traveled thousands of miles since leaving their nests last June, giving researchers an unprecedented look at where the endangered birds go after they take flight.
The groundbreaking data comes from tiny location transmitters placed on the falcons when they were chicks.
The technology is providing a first-of-its-kind, detailed look at the move
of young peregrines, falcons are commonly thought to stay close to areas such as the Bay of Green Bay.
But researchers say these birds traveled as far north as Ontario, Canada, and flew south well past Chicago.
Wildlife experts say the peregrine falcon program at Wisconsin Power Companies is keeping our state's falcons from extinction.
And that's your state news update.
I'm Connie Feldman for Civic Media News.
The Packers scramble for th Mike Clemens with sports when the Packers take on field for their players with injuries.
Another t right tackle Zach Bocco for the season.
What's out who's going to play where
like putting a puzzle to situation.
We got to do t can to go out there and play you got to work around
it.
The Badgers at Penn
Brewers wrapping up their regular season at home this weekend.
Their first playoff game is going to be next week Saturday, October 3rd in Milwaukee.
The crew with a 4 to 1 win over the Phillies last night.
Logan Henderson, five complete innings.
Looks like he's going to be the number two behind Jacob Mizorowski.
He's been fantastic force unsung hero for sure.
Like Miz getting all the attention.
This kid has, you know, matched him in a lot of ways.
That's Brewers manager Pat Murphy with Sports on Mike
Clemens.
Partly cloudy today with a high in the mid to upper sixties this afternoon.
Clouds will gradually increase later today into this evening tonight.
Mostly cloudy.
We're going to drop to the low to mid fifties tomorrow.
Partly cloudy with a high in the mid to upper sixties.
I'm meteorologist Sean Cable.
Local news, local sports and local people you know.
Your hometown station 93.1 and AM 1600 the wave.
If your heart feels like a drum that's pounding or a fish flopping in your chest, you may be suffering from atrial fib relation.
To help us understand what causes a fib and how to treat it, we're joined by Kimberly Horness and Kirsten Lompry, both nurse practitioners with Dale Michaels, heart and vascular care.
Ladies, thank you for joining us.
Thank you.
Thank you for having
us.
Let's start out with
An easy question, what exactly is atrial fibrillation or AFib?
Yeah, so atrial fibrillation is a very common heart rhythm problem where the upper chambers of the heart beat irregularly instead of in a normal coordinated rhythm.
Some people will feel it as our heart is racing, palpitations, fluttering, or any regular heartbeat.
But sometimes people don't feel anything at all.
And we did talk about an example before too.
It's kind of like an orchestra.
So they're following along with the orchestra.
Everyone's playing in tune together.
Everything's beating nice and normally.
That's how your heart normally beats.
That's how the electricity should go.
through.
Age of fibrillation is like if everyone put blindfolds on and nobody knew what the conductor was doing and everyone's just playing their instrument.
It's chaotic heart rhythm so the top chambers are beating fast and then the bottom is beating fast and irregular to just try to keep up.
Okay so what is it that makes it dangerous?
Yeah so first of all we worry about that the erratic signals making your heartbeat too fast.
faster than it usually should and your heart can only withstand those rapid rates for an amount of time.
We also worry about the risk for stroke.
We can have blood that pools and a little appendage off the side of our heart that can form a clot.
So typically when we identify atrial fibrillation, we also identify what risk of stroke is relevant to and we will start anticoagulation or a blood thinner to prevent stroke.
We like to identify atrial fibrillation first although, you know, sometimes people come in with stroke symptoms and you backtrack and you and you find that they've had atrial fibrillation.
All right, so who's most likely to suffer from AFib?
Yeah, age is the most common risk factor.
So as we age electricity phrase just like power cords, vacuum cords.
So age is the most common.
More than 2 million Americans have atrial fibrillation, the most common arrhythmia.
Usually everyone knows someone that has it, whether that's a family member, a neighbor, it's very common.
It can be linked to, so other risk factors, caffeine, alcohol, sleep apnea, other heart history problems, other medical history problems, diabetes.
can also be risk factors to make it more likely that you'll develop atrial fibrillation.
Okay, not to be dramatic, but I am one of the two million Americans that has a fit.
So
you are.
Yeah.
Yep.
I've been over there and, uh, you know, got assessed.
They tried shocking my heart back in the rhythm at one point and it worked, but not permanently.
So I'm on eloquence.
Okay.
Anyway, just to be, you know, truthful about the whole situation.
Well, in addition to a regular heartbeat, what are some of the other signs of AFib?
Yeah, so obviously heart palpitations are rapid heartbeats or something we would absolutely encourage to get checked out.
But other signs and symptoms can be vague and some people might not have any symptoms at all.
You can maybe experience like a little pain or pressure in your chest.
You might get dizziness, feel faint.
It could cause you to be more short of breath, even with minimal activity.
You might get more sweaty with activity, feel tired, weak.
And now
that
we have the addition of technological advancements like watches, your watch might even alert you if you're one of those that don't have symptoms.
Apple watches in particular can alert to an irregular rhythm or potential atrial fibrillation that we'd encourage you to get checked out.
Alright, so how do you diagnose AFib then, in addition to the watches?
Yeah, so sometimes people know they're in AFib right away.
They feel terrible.
They're heart racing, they have palpitations, they know something's wrong, so they go to the ER.
Um, sometimes people have no idea they're in AFib and they find it incidentally, right?
We, we tell you, you went to
for
a colonoscopy and they found it when they had you hooked up to the heart machine.
Um,
you go to your primary care doctor, they take a listen and they notice something's irregular.
Um,
I found out when I went in for a colonoscopy, so you hit the nail right on the head there.
Um, are there different types of AFib?
Not so much different types, but we kind of identify it in duration or how long it lasts.
Some people experience just we call paracysmal episodes of atrial fibrillation, where you can kind of flip in and out of atrial fibrillation on your own.
You know, and that's maybe when it goes undetected, can occur minutes, hours, sometimes days.
Then we have more persistent atrial fibrillation that typically lasts for more than seven days.
or that you need help, you know, like you inside a cardio version or shocking you out of the rhythm or starting a medication to consider, you know, getting out of atrial fibrillation.
And then we have permanent atrial fibrillation, you know, sometimes that we've tried a lot of different measures and we just can't get that person back into a normal rhythm, which is rare, but we can just leave them in atrial fibrillation permanently.
Okay.
So training AFib.
How do you go about that?
You mentioned some of those ways.
Yeah, so whenever we talk about AFib, there's kind of two parts of it.
One, what do we do with the AFib?
And the second part, you know, what do we do to protect you from stroke, right?
Upload thinner.
Sometimes people, when they go in AFib, they go very fast, so they need medicines to slow down their heart rate.
Sometimes if somebody has symptoms of api, kind of like you said before too, you had a cardio version or a shock to the heart.
And we think of that as kind of like a band-aid, you know, will it work?
How long will it last?
Sometimes it lasts quite a while.
If it doesn't last very long, as we talked about, technology evolves.
We have different treatment options.
There's a surgery called an ablation, which is a heart surgery.
It's a pretty common heart surgery.
We do everything done through an IV in the vein in your leg.
up into your heart, so not open heart surgery.
But the goal of anything we do for AFib is to try to get a significant reduction in the amount of AFib to make you feel better.
So there's no cure.
And like Kim said, you know, sometimes we do, you know, medicines, we do ablations, but sometimes AFib is tricky and it keeps coming back.
And then the other part of it is making sure you're protected from stroke with blood thinners or alternatives to blood thinners, something like the Watchman, especially geared towards people with bleeding concerns, bruising concerns, people that may be a blood thinner is not the safest option for them.
Right, right.
Well, ladies would like to thank you very much for joining us this morning and telling us all about atrial fib relation or AFib.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for having us.
Thank you.
We've been talking with Kimberly Horness and Kirsten Lomfrey, both nurse practitioners with Dale Michael's heart and vascular care.
They work for SSM Health.
If your heart feels like a drum that's pounding or a fish flopping in your chest, you may be suffering from atrial fib relation.
To help us understand what causes a fib and how to treat it, we're joined by Kimberly Horness and Kirsten Lompry, both nurse practitioners with Dale Michaels, heart and vascular care.
Ladies, thank you for joining us.
Thank you.
Thank you for having
us.
Let's start out with
An easy question, what exactly is atrial fibrillation or AFib?
Yeah, so atrial fibrillation is a very common heart rhythm problem where the upper chambers of the heart beat irregularly instead of in a normal coordinated rhythm.
Some people will feel it as our heart is racing, palpitations, fluttering, or any regular heartbeat.
But sometimes people don't feel anything at all.
And we did talk about an example before too.
It's kind of like an orchestra.
So they're following along with the orchestra.
Everyone's playing in tune together.
Everything's beating nice and normally.
That's how your heart normally beats.
That's how the electricity should go.
through.
Age of fibrillation is like if everyone put blindfolds on and nobody knew what the conductor was doing and everyone's just playing their instrument.
It's chaotic heart rhythm so the top chambers are beating fast and then the bottom is beating fast and irregular to just try to keep up.
Okay so what is it that makes it dangerous?
Yeah so first of all we worry about that the erratic signals making your heartbeat too fast.
faster than it usually should and your heart can only withstand those rapid rates for an amount of time.
We also worry about the risk for stroke.
We can have blood that pools and a little appendage off the side of our heart that can form a clot.
So typically when we identify atrial fibrillation, we also identify what risk of stroke is relevant to and we will start anticoagulation or a blood thinner to prevent stroke.
We like to identify atrial fibrillation first although, you know, sometimes people come in with stroke symptoms and you backtrack and you and you find that they've had atrial fibrillation.
All right, so who's most likely to suffer from AFib?
Yeah, age is the most common risk factor.
So as we age electricity phrase just like power cords, vacuum cords.
So age is the most common.
More than 2 million Americans have atrial fibrillation, the most common arrhythmia.
Usually everyone knows someone that has it, whether that's a family member, a neighbor, it's very common.
It can be linked to, so other risk factors, caffeine, alcohol, sleep apnea, other heart history problems, other medical history problems, diabetes.
can also be risk factors to make it more likely that you'll develop atrial fibrillation.
Okay, not to be dramatic, but I am one of the two million Americans that has a fit.
So
you are.
Yeah.
Yep.
I've been over there and, uh, you know, got assessed.
They tried shocking my heart back in the rhythm at one point and it worked, but not permanently.
So I'm on eloquence.
Okay.
Anyway, just to be, you know, truthful about the whole situation.
Well, in addition to a regular heartbeat, what are some of the other signs of AFib?
Yeah, so obviously heart palpitations are rapid heartbeats or something we would absolutely encourage to get checked out.
But other signs and symptoms can be vague and some people might not have any symptoms at all.
You can maybe experience like a little pain or pressure in your chest.
You might get dizziness, feel faint.
It could cause you to be more short of breath, even with minimal activity.
You might get more sweaty with activity, feel tired, weak.
And now
that
we have the addition of technological advancements like watches, your watch might even alert you if you're one of those that don't have symptoms.
Apple watches in particular can alert to an irregular rhythm or potential atrial fibrillation that we'd encourage you to get checked out.
Alright, so how do you diagnose AFib then, in addition to the watches?
Yeah, so sometimes people know they're in AFib right away.
They feel terrible.
They're heart racing, they have palpitations, they know something's wrong, so they go to the ER.
Um, sometimes people have no idea they're in AFib and they find it incidentally, right?
We, we tell you, you went to
for
a colonoscopy and they found it when they had you hooked up to the heart machine.
Um,
you go to your primary care doctor, they take a listen and they notice something's irregular.
Um,
I found out when I went in for a colonoscopy, so you hit the nail right on the head there.
Um, are there different types of AFib?
Not so much different types, but we kind of identify it in duration or how long it lasts.
Some people experience just we call paracysmal episodes of atrial fibrillation, where you can kind of flip in and out of atrial fibrillation on your own.
You know, and that's maybe when it goes undetected, can occur minutes, hours, sometimes days.
Then we have more persistent atrial fibrillation that typically lasts for more than seven days.
or that you need help, you know, like you inside a cardio version or shocking you out of the rhythm or starting a medication to consider, you know, getting out of atrial fibrillation.
And then we have permanent atrial fibrillation, you know, sometimes that we've tried a lot of different measures and we just can't get that person back into a normal rhythm, which is rare, but we can just leave them in atrial fibrillation permanently.
Okay.
So training AFib.
How do you go about that?
You mentioned some of those ways.
Yeah, so whenever we talk about AFib, there's kind of two parts of it.
One, what do we do with the AFib?
And the second part, you know, what do we do to protect you from stroke, right?
Upload thinner.
Sometimes people, when they go in AFib, they go very fast, so they need medicines to slow down their heart rate.
Sometimes if somebody has symptoms of api, kind of like you said before too, you had a cardio version or a shock to the heart.
And we think of that as kind of like a band-aid, you know, will it work?
How long will it last?
Sometimes it lasts quite a while.
If it doesn't last very long, as we talked about, technology evolves.
We have different treatment options.
There's a surgery called an ablation, which is a heart surgery.
It's a pretty common heart surgery.
We do everything done through an IV in the vein in your leg.
up into your heart, so not open heart surgery.
But the goal of anything we do for AFib is to try to get a significant reduction in the amount of AFib to make you feel better.
So there's no cure.
And like Kim said, you know, sometimes we do, you know, medicines, we do ablations, but sometimes AFib is tricky and it keeps coming back.
And then the other part of it is making sure you're protected from stroke with blood thinners or alternatives to blood thinners, something like the Watchman, especially geared towards people with bleeding concerns, bruising concerns, people that may be a blood thinner is not the safest option for them.
Right, right.
Well, ladies would like to thank you very much for joining us this morning and telling us all about atrial fib relation or AFib.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for having us.
Thank you.
We've been talking with Kimberly Horness and Kirsten Lomfrey, both nurse practitioners with Dale Michael's heart and vascular care.
They work for SSM Health.