Three women killed when gunman opens fire in spa; School report cards released today; One third of presidential ‘swing counties’ are in Wisconsin; more briefs

Talk about it

Three women were killed and four others were wounded when a gunman opened fire Sunday at a salon where his wife worked in the Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield.

Radcliffe Haughton, 45, of Brown Deer was found dead in the spa several hours later after he shot himself.

Brookfield Police Chief Daniel Tushaus said the incident appeared to be part of a string of domestic violence incidents. But he could not confirm the motive, and he would not immediately say if Haughton’s wife, Zina, was one of those killed.

One of the four women injured remains hospitalized in critical condition this morning. The other three are satisfactory.

Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa released the condition updates. But officials have not released the names of the four wounded victims or of the three women who were killed. The four survivors were ages 22 to 40

Police said Haughton stormed into the Azana Salon and Spa near the Brookfield Square mall at about 11 a.m. Sunday and fired numerous shots.

The Journal Sentinel said Haughton might have also tried to take a receptionist hostage after he was shot in the leg. Friends of the woman told the paper that the gunman tried to drag her up a set of stairs, but she couldn’t move due to a broken hip. The woman, who’s said to be in her 20’s from East Troy, told friends she found an open door and rolled down a hillside.

Haughton’s estranged wife Zina worked at the spa.

Police said Haughton slashed his wife’s car tires Oct. 4, and last Thursday, a judge granted a four-year restraining order in which he was supposed to stay away from Zina. He was also ordered not to own a firearm.

Authorities said they’re still talking to witnesses – and they’re still trying to establish a firm time-line of what led to the shootings. The police chief said Haughton apparently set a fire, and the building was filled with smoke when the first officers arrived. A one-pound propane tank was found – and that slowed the search for victims, as a bomb squad check out the tank. Officers were not sure if Haughton brought in the tank, or if some contractor left it behind.

Officials have not said whether Zina was among those killed, but Milwaukee’s WTMJ TV said she was.

Brookfield Mayor Steve Ponto called it “a senseless act on the part of one person.” The shootings occurred just a half mile from where a gunman killed seven people at a hotel church service in 2005. It comes just 11 weeks after a white supremist killed six people and wounded four others at the Sikh Temple in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek.

---------

School report cards released today

Wisconsin parents will find out today how their schools measure up to the state’s new and tougher educational standards.

The Department of Public Instruction has issued report cards for each school, and parents with questions should be able to get answers. The schools have had a few weeks to analyze the new data and discuss internally how to do what’s expected of them.

By starting its own evaluations, Wisconsin escaped many of the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The new system has more comprehensive methods of evaluating both students and teachers as opposed to the federal law which set scores on standardized tests that schools had to meet for all students by 2014.

Among other things, the new test results will not look as rosy. Officials tried to get parents ready for that predicament a few weeks ago by releasing what the scores from last year’s standardized tests would have looked like under the new system. They showed large decreases in both math and reading. The new scores are closer in line with a well-established national exam.

Many school officials welcome the new system. Tony Brazouski of the Whitnall district in suburban Milwaukee says it’s about time that schools are judged on more than their test scores.

But Waukesha Superintendent Todd Gray said officials have not had enough time to adjust. Menomonee Falls Superintendent Patricia Greco wrote parents to say the transition will be “confusing for families.”

----------

A third of presidential ‘swing counties’ are in Wisconsin

Wisconsin may very well end up deciding the presidential contest in 15 days.

The Associated Press has identified 106 swing counties in nine states that voted for both Republican President Bush in 2004 and Democratic President Obama in 2008. Almost a third of counties – 32 of them – are in Wisconsin.

The candidates and their parties are zeroing in in the swing counties as President Obama and Republican Mitt Romney try to nail down the 270 electoral votes they need to win the White House.

As a state, Wisconsin has not carried a Republican since Ronald Reagan’s second term in 1984. But two Democratic victories since then were by .4% or less, and the swing counties have a lot to do with that.

Those are the places where registered voters are being swamped with robo-calls, several mass mailings a day and nearly constant TV ads.

Most of Wisconsin’s 32 swing counties are in the northern two-thirds of the state. They vary in population from as large as Racine and to as small as Washburn County in the far northwest.

While they change allegiances, the AP says very few swing counties have a lot of undecided voters at this point. Voters express a variety of themes. The most common is that the incumbent has not lived up to his promise, and the challenger seems to have better leadership potential.

---------

Early voting begins today

Long lines are expected this morning – at least in some of Wisconsin’s larger cities – as early voting begins for the Nov. 6 elections.

About 22% of Wisconsinites voted early in the last presidential contest in 2008, using the absentee process.

In Milwaukee, about 9,000 people have applied for absentee ballots – about the same as in 2008.

Kevin Kennedy of the state Government Accountability Board and Neil Albrecht of Milwaukee’s Election Commission also predict large numbers of observers to watch the absentee voting process. It could create some tight quarters in some places, and officials remind observers to give voters their space.

In-person voting continues through Nov. 2, the Friday before Election Day.

Voters can also ask for absentee ballots by mail. Clerks must receive those requests by the end of the day on Thursday, Nov. 1. Completed absentee ballots must be postmarked by Election Day, and the clerks have to get them by the Friday after the elections.

Clerks will also be busy registering new voters in the 15 days before Election Day. Voters can begin the process by going online to myvote.wi.gov which is run by the Government Accountability Board.

---------

Smaller dairy farms hurting for lack of Farm Bill

Smaller dairy farms, including many in Wisconsin. are among those suffering the most by the lack of a federal Farm Bill.

Small family-owned farms were still getting federal subsidies under the Milk Income Loss Contract program when the old farm package expired Sept. 30, and Congress never passed a replacement. Many other farm programs continued into the harvest season, but the milk program expired. Benefits for larger farms ran out earlier, but smaller farms were cut off.

The program gives support to dairy farmers when market prices fall before certain levels. Since last October, Wisconsin farmers received $75 million from the milk program – twice as much as any other state.

For a number of Wisconsin producers, the cutoff made a rough year even worse. Dick Gorder of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation said a number of farms in southern areas could not grow all their own feed during the drought. Those farmers are now buying feed at a cost that’s twice as much as in 2009.

Gorder is confident that a new Farm Bill will be passed, but he says the gap is really hurting farms with low equity and without their own feed source.

House Republicans have held up the package because of a dispute over spending on food stamps, which covers most of the bill’s allocations.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he thinks the Farm Bill was stalled so Republicans could avoid a debate on the extent of the spending cuts they’re seeking.

Wisconsin House Republican Reid Ribble of Sherwood said he’s not hearing from farmers – most likely because they expect a new Farm Bill to be approved by the end of the year.

---------

Man out on bail accused of sexually assaulting girl again

He was out on bail for sexual assault. Now 19-year-old Steven J. Holt, Manitowoc, has been charged with sexually assaulting the same 14-year- old girl.

Holt was in court last Friday. He had been charged two weeks ago with felony second-degree sexual assault of a child. The victim was the same in both cases.

He had been bonded out Oct. 10 with the condition that he not having contact with the victim or anyone under 18. When police picked Holt up Oct. 13 in connection with a retail theft, they found out he had sexual contact with the 14-year-old again after his release.

Holt is scheduled to make a court appearance tomorrow afternoon. He now faces five felony charges and one misdemeanor.

---------

Daughter says six rings stolen from dead mother’s hands

A Manitowoc woman says she can’t understand how someone could steal from a dead person.

Ann Stradal said her mother died at Holy Family Memorial Medical Center this month. Stadal says six jeweled rings disappeared from her mother’s fingers in the hours after she passed away.

The rings showed up on a CAT scan just before the older woman died, but when her daughter tried to recover the rings from the funeral home the next day, the funeral director told her he had found no rings on her fingers.

Manitowoc police are investigating the theft report.

---------

Officer who fired gun in governor’s mansion fired

Capitol police say the officer whose gun accidentally fired in the governor’s mansion Thursday night has been fired.

Gov. Scott Walker and his family weren’t home at the time of the incident.

The Wisconsin Department of Administration reported the officer was initially suspended while the investigation was completed, but because the person was still in a probationary period of employment, that employment was terminated.

Nobody was injured when the weapon discharged at about 10:45 p.m. inside the security office at the governor’s mansion.

Tags: state news, elections, crime, politics, education