New Richmond no longer home of world’s heaviest pumpkin; murder in Milwaukee; cold and raw forecast; voter website; more briefs

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Cold and raw forecast for Wisconsin

MILWAUKEE -- If you need to do something outdoors, you might want to try-and-get it done by Wednesday. Forecasters say dry weather and normal temperatures are expected in the first three days of this week, with highs in the 60’s-and-70’s and lows generally in the 40’s.

A chance of rain is in the Wisconsin forecast Thursday and Friday, with highs cooling down to the mid-50’s on Thursday and the 40’s on Friday. The Wisconsin forecast does not mention the “S” word -- okay, let’s call it snow -- but forecasters in Duluth, Minn., across Saint Louis Bay from Superior, says light snow or a mixture of rain-and-snow is in the forecast late in the week.

Folks in northern and central Wisconsin have already seen a little snow already. Duluth-Superior had one-tenth-of-an-inch of snow on Sept. 21. It was the earliest measurable snow in Duluth since 1995.

New Richmond no longer home of world’s heaviest pumpkin

NEW RICHMOND -- It appears that Wisconsin has lost its world record for the heaviest pumpkin.

Chris Stevens of New Richmond has the Guinness World Record with a gourd of 1,810- ½ pounds, confirmed a year ago at the Stillwater Harvest Fest in Minnesota. Now, Ron Wallace of Greene, RI, has grown a gigantic pumpkin weighing in at 2,000 pounds. It won the $5,500 first prize at the Topsfield Fair pumpkin contest on Friday in Topsfield, Mass., -- and it won $10,000 for breaking the one-ton mark.

A somewhat lighter pumpkin also broke Stevens’ record last week. Steve Geddes of Boscawen, N.H., had a gourd weighing 1,843 pounds at the Deerfield Fair in New Hampshire.

After 25 years of debate, St. Croix County to decide about nursing home business

HUDSON -- Should county government be in the nursing home business? The St. Croix County Board in Hudson is expected to answer that question tomorrow, when it decides whether to keep operating the St. Croix Nursing Home.

Supervisors will consider options to sell-or-close the 50-bed nursing home -- keep running it and cut expenses -- or build a new facility.

Board chairman Daryl Standafer says it’s been a, “contentious political football for at least 25 years.” He favors closing or selling the home -- but most of all, he wants the long-running indecision to stop.

The ‘Friends of the Saint Croix Nursing Home’ are fighting to keep it open. Kim Dupre says the group agrees with Standafer that the home’s future has been in limbo for far too long. She said everyone’s tired of treading water on the issue – and it doesn’t help the nursing home, either.

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Milwaukee police looking for suspects in shooting death of basketball player

MILWAUKEE --- Milwaukee Police were looking for suspects in the shooting death of a 22-year-old man who was playing basketball on Saturday night. Media reports said Alexander Cross was playing with friends at Atkinson Park when he was killed. Several others were wounded by the gunfire.

Frank Lloyd Wright group buys house for visitor’s area

MILWAUKEE -- A group that owns two Frank Lloyd Wright houses on a block in Milwaukee has bought a third house. There are a total of six houses on Milwaukee’s south side that were designed by the legendary architect Wright.

The group “Frank Lloyd Wright-Wisconsin” hopes to create an interpretive area for visitors. Four duplexes and two bungalows are part of the group. They were built in 1915-and-’16, and were prototypes for Wright’s standard home designs.

The Wright group now owns all of the three American System-Built homes that he crafted for the block. The third home will be rented out, while the group restores another duplex and raises money for the project.

Wisconsin’s Paul Ryan says there’s still time to win White House

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan says there’s still time for the GOP to win the White House -- even though the Associated Press says President Obama would win if the election were held today.

Ryan is Mitt Romney’s vice-presidential running mate. The Janesville congressman said on Fox News Sunday that people focus more near the end of a campaign -- and it’s starting to happen now with just over five weeks left.

But Obama spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said, “We’d rather be us than them.”

The AP no longer includes Wisconsin among the states up for grabs, despite millions-of-dollars being spent by both candidates in the Badger State.

The latest independent polls have shown Obama pulling away in Wisconsin by at least eight points. The AP says its electoral vote numbers are only meant to be a snap-shot, and they’re not a predictor. A lot could still change -- including a domestic or foreign incident, or a wide swing in public opinion after three presidential debates and one vice-presidential debate.

The first Obama-Romney debate is scheduled for Wednesday night in Denver, and Obama plans a visit to Wisconsin the next day. Analysis shows Obama winning at least 271 electoral votes -- one more than he needs to win his second term. For Romney to win, he’d need to be Florida, Colorado, Nevada, Virginia, New Hampshire, and North Carolina, all of which are up for grabs -- and either Ohio or Iowa.

Website will help voters for November election

WISCONSIN -- The state’s election agency has set up a website to help Wisconsinites make their votes count on Nov. 6. It includes information on what districts you’re in, and where to vote -- and you can get a look at sample ballots as well.

For many, November will be the first time they’ll vote under the new congressional and legislative districts set up by Republicans last year. And if people need to register, the site has tools to get people started. Government Accountability Board director Kevin Kennedy says the new website will “empower voters, reduce the workload on local election officials, and help ensure fair-and-transparent elections.” To check it out go to www.MyVoteWI-Dot-Gov.

Dairy farmers feel pinch as federal farm programs expire

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The latest package of federal farm programs expired yesterday, when the government’s fiscal year ended.

But industry experts say farmers will not feel an immediate impact -- except dairy farmers who get federal assistance to make up for falling milk prices. Wisconsin’s August milk price was almost $19 per hundred pounds produced -- down by almost $3.50 from a year ago.

Mary Kay Thatcher of the American Farm Bureau says the expired Farm Bill covers this year’s crop harvest, so farmers should not feel much of an impact there.

The proposed new Farm Bill is tied up in the U.S. House in a dispute over spending on food stamps. If a new one is not passed, the farm packages could revert back to a permanent law from 1949 -- but Thatcher says it’s highly unlikely. She says it would be too costly to return to the law from 63 years ago -- so there will be a sense of urgency to do something before the end of the year.

Sentencing set for man convicted of crime spree, murder

JACKSON COUNTY -- Sentencing is set for Oct. 19 for a man convicted of a crime spree in Jackson County in 2010 that included a murder.

25-year-old Aaron Powers struck a plea deal in January in which he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of reckless homicide and vehicle theft as a repeat offender.

On Friday, visiting Judge Mark Goodman of Monroe County rejected a request by Powers to withdraw his pleas. He contended he was not allowed to review all the evidence, and therefore he was entitled to withdraw his plea deal.

But the judge disagreed, saying Powers repeatedly denied remembering the murder and other events because he was under the influence of drugs. Authorities said Powers broke into three houses in rural Jackson County before he killed 56-year-old Terrance Stoen of North Bend, who lived in the final house.

Prosecutors said Powers slept overnight in the second house he burglarized before busting into Stoen’s home -- where Powers reportedly stole a computer, a cell phone, and other items before shooting Stoen and stealing the victim’s pickup truck.

Five other charges were dropped in his plea deal, including three counts of burglary.

Lake Superior water levels remain normal despite flooding and dry weather

GREAT LAKES -- Water levels on Lake Superior have remained normal this year, despite massive flooding in mid-June and relatively dry weather since then.

Drew Gronewold of the Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab says the Great Lakes are very resilient, and it will take time to see how they’ll respond to the extreme changes in weather. Scientists will study that subject over the next five to ten years.

Don’t plan on taking a driver’s test in Wisconsin next Monday

MADISON -- Wisconsin’s Division of Motor Vehicles says its customer service and phone centers will be closed on Columbus Day, Monday, Oct. 8, so customer service employees can get training and technical updates.

The DOT said it chose Columbus Day for the training because it’s a federal holiday, and fewer people tend to visit the state DMV facilities on a day like that. People can still use the department’s automated telephone system, and get information from the DMV’s website, accessible at www.Wisconsin.gov.

Supreme Court Justice’s appointment questioned

MADISON -- State Supreme Court Justice David Prosser helped appoint a critic of the ethics case against him to the state’s Judicial Commission – even though the panel could still have a hand in that case.

On a 4-to-3 vote last month, the Supreme Court named retired attorney Frank Daily to the commission, which oversees the state’s entire judicial system.

Sources at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal said Daily wrote a letter-to-the-editor of that paper in May, calling the ethics charges against Prosser unfair.

Daily said he was speaking as a private citizen, and now that he’s on the Judicial Commission, he’ll toss aside his personal views and act fairly on the matter at hand.

Daily, a Milwaukee attorney for 40 years, told the Journal Sentinel he was not named to “carry out a political agenda.”

The Judicial Commission filed ethics charges against Prosser in March, in connection with Prosser’s physical confrontation with fellow Justice Ann Walsh Bradley last year. But the case has been stalled, because four of the seven justices have said they would not vote on whether to punish Prosser if-and-when it gets to the Supreme Court for a final decision.

The commission’s chief prosecutor contends that a panel of appeals judges can still decide the case against Prosser, but that proposal has gone nowhere, either.

Prosser told the Journal Sentinel that he saw nothing wrong with helping appoint a Judicial Commission member while his ethics case is still pending.

He said he believes the case is coming to an end because the majority of the justices say they won’t act on it. Those justices said they witnessed the incident, and therefore cannot be fair-and-impartial arbiters.

Wisconsin’s largest power plant cost 8% more than expected, regulators to decide who will pay

OAK CREEK -- Wisconsin’s largest power plant cost 8% more than expected, and utility regulators will decide this fall who will pay for that overrun.

The state Public Service Commission will decide whether We Energies’ electric customers in eastern Wisconsin should pay for about $178 million in legal fees connected with the plant at Oak Creek.

It’s a key issue in We Energies’ request to raise electric rates by 5% next year, and 3.6% in 2014.

The PSC will hold public hearings on that rate hike request today and tonight in the Milwaukee area.

Consumer groups say stockholders should have to pay for things like lawsuits and a contractor dispute during the construction process. But the utility says the Oak Creek plant is a bargain for customers, even with the cost overruns.

We Energies customers have had a series of rate hikes in recent years as the utility has completed a series of new-and-improved power plants designed to handle rising demand.

The Oak Creek plant has been down for much of the year due to plant repairs, and a drop in the price of natural gas which has made it cheaper to run other plants. The Oak Creek facility runs on coal. CEO Gale Klappa said the Oak Creek facility played a key role this summer in keeping electricity moving, when the demand for air conditioning rose during the hot weather.

Adams man due in court on charges that he killed a man in a drunken boating crash

JUNEAU COUNTY -- An Adams man is due in court Oct. 17 on charges that he killed a man in a drunken boating crash.

Christopher Collin, 22, is charged in Juneau County with homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle, causing injury by drunken boating.

Prosecutors said Collins was driving a boat with four passengers on a night in July when he struck a rock on Castle Rock Lake. The crash killed 23-year-old Michael Miklavicic of Friendship.

Sheriff’s investigators quoted Collins as saying he heard somebody yell a warning and he tried to steer around a bridge support but couldn’t. Officials said his blood alcohol content at the time was .13, more than one-and-a-half times the minimum level for intoxication.

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Milwaukee Police are investigating murder near nightclub

Milwaukee Police are investigating a murder near a nightclub on the city’s northwest side.

Police said the body of a 32-year-old man was found early yesterday behind a parked car outside Dee’s Elegance. Police said the man was shot-to-death, but officials did not say what prompted it. Also, there was no immediate word on suspects.

Tags: state news, legislature, wisconsin