State News

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – It will be one busy weekend for a northeastern Wisconsin family.  Triplets Stephanie, Kyle and Ashley Verhasselt, of Freedom, will receive their undergraduate degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in three separate commencement ceremonies.   The triplets and their younger brother, Adam, are all first-generation college students at Madison. The triplets say they More >

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin drivers and passengers should buckle up or they will have a better chance to get a ticket under a new statewide crackdown.  Starting Monday through June 2, more Wisconsin law enforcement officers will be on patrol for longer hours to enforce safety belt use. State Patrol Maj. Sandra Huxtable says more More >

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A bipartisan group of legislators has introduced a bill that makes some changes to Wisconsin’s troubled economic development agency.  The legislation requires an independent annual financial audit of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. Currently the agency is audited every other year by the Legislative Audit Bureau.   The State Journal (http://bit.ly/10waOqD ) says More >

MILWAUKEE (AP) – A tea party group says the Internal Revenue Service asked about its involvement in efforts to verify signatures in the effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.  The Northeast Tarrant Tea Party of Fort Worth, Texas says IRS officials asked for extensive information about its activities, including an explanation of its involvement with More >

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Investigators say a large wildfire caused by logging operations in northwestern Wisconsin wasn’t intentionally set and criminal charges aren’t expected.  The Department of Natural Resources said Thursday that negligence wasn’t involved in the blaze, which destroyed 17 homes and forced dozens of people to evacuate before it was contained Wednesday night.  The DNR More >

SILVER CLIFF, Wis. (AP) – A man is recovering from injuries suffered when he was attacked by a black bear in Marinette County.  Gerre Ninnemann’s wife, Marie, came to the rescue as the bear bit him and clawed his back outside a cabin in Silver Cliff Wednesday. Ninnemann first spotted the bear going after his dog. More >

MILWAUKEE (AP) – A Wisconsin National Guard refueling plane landed safely at Mitchell International Airport after reporting mechanical problems.  128th Refueling Wing Lt. Nathan Wallin says the KC-135 was on a routine training mission Thursday when pilots reported engine trouble. One of the plane’s four engines had failed. The plane circled above the airport for about More >

OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) – One person has been killed and two have been injured in a duplex fire in Oshkosh.  Fire officials say four other people in the lower unit of the duplex escaped the fire Wednesday night. WLUK-TV says two people in the upper unit jumped from second-story windows before firefighters arrived about 11:30 p.m.  Firefighters More >

TOWN OF GORDON, Wis. (AP) – Firefighters battling a 9,000-acre in northwestern Wisconsin have contained the massive blaze.        Department of Natural Resources spokesman Robert Manwell said Thursday the fire in Douglas and Bayfield counties is 100 percent contained. Manwell says fire crews will be handling small brush fires and reworking the lines that More >

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A group of Democrats and an immigration rights organization which sued the state over redistricting have dropped their efforts to determine why Republicans failed to turn over records in the case.  Documents filed in federal court say the two sides in the lawsuit say they found no proof that thousands of files More >