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• Father of Menomonie soldier gets spotlight put on bad Ft. Bragg barracks
• Minnesota GOP says Franken owes Wisconsin too
• Weekend vandals in River Falls quickly caught

By Gil Halsted, Wisconsin Public Radio

The father of a western Wisconsin soldier wants the Pentagon to either repair the barracks his son is living in, or pay rent so the soldiers can live off-the-base.

Edward Frawley, Menomonie, put a video on You-Tube showing peeled paint, leaky pipes, and drains plugged with sewage.

He said flooded bathrooms and more greeted members of the 82nd Airborne Division when they returned from Afghanistan to Fort Bragg, N.C.

Frawley says he's "mad as hell" that his son - U.S. Army Sgt. Jeff Frawley - had to come home to conditions like that.

In the video, the elderly Frawley told viewers to call their congressmen.

U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., of La Crosse wrote the Pentagon demanding repairs. He says it's inexcusable for the Bush administration to spend billions to re-build Iraq, while not taking care of their own soldiers.

That was apparently enough to get Fort Bragg officials moving.

They say Frawley's unit will have new quarters by next summer. In the meantime, Kind's trying to get the House Armed Services Committee to provide other housing for the unit.

By Wheeler News Service

Does Al Franken owe Wisconsin money?

The Minnesota Republican Party says Wisconsin is one of at least 19 states where the liberal author and talk show host owes back taxes.

Franken is running for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota as a Democrat.

He admitted on Tuesday he owes back taxes in 17 states.

Wednesday, state GOP chairman Ron Carey added Wisconsin and Connecticut to that list - saying he had book-signing events in those two states.

Jess McIntosh of the Franken camp says book-signings don't generate taxable income, only the actual books do.

But the former Saturday Night Live comedian tells Twin Cities' Public TV that small tax errors might surface in other states beside the 17 he reported.

By Phil Pfuehler, RiverTown Staff

Some 20 night vandalism reports at Cudd's Mobile Home Park, 1450 S. Wasson Lane, were filed over the weekend.

It didn't take River Falls police long to identify the suspects: Boys, ages 13, 15 and 16.

Two live in the local trailer court; one lives there part-time with a parent, and the fourth boy is from Rice County, Minn.

Sgt. Janis Bock, who had the case solved by Sunday afternoon, said all four boys were already on court-ordered supervision for past offenses. All will be dealt with for these violations in juvenile court.

The weekend case involves graffiti spraypainted on trailer homes and sheds; a broken shed window; break-ins and illegal entries to various sheds; five parked vehicles with punctured tires; a sliced clothesline; stolen items, including ice cream from a freezer, a boom box stereo and a dozen decorative knives.

The latter was recovered Monday afternoon after being stashed under the trailer home of one of the boys who was arrested.

Bock said the boys' activities were done at two or possibly three different times: For sure around 4:30 a.m. Saturday and again at 1 a.m. Sunday; the first may have occurred in the early morning hours of Friday.

There were no eyewitnesses to the vandalisms, thefts, break-ins and illegal entries. The break-ins involved severing the locks on shed doors.

Bock went out to the trailer court late Sunday morning. She looked around and found one trailer and shed that had old graffiti and paint marks.

The resemblance to the weekend spraypainting and other visible evidence led her to question the boy who lived there. Soon, she had the story pieced together and the names of three other suspects.

Bock said that by Sunday afternoon the four boys had confessed. They were released from custody to the parents.

The total loss for theft and damage is believed to exceed $2,500, though the knives and boom box were recovered.

As a reminder to Journal readers, if you have information about a possible local crime, either call police at 425-0909 or visit www.rfcity.org/police and go to the "Anonymous Tips" link.