Local and State News
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local and state news 5-17-2012
Wisconsin’s monthly report on jobs is due out today – and it’s expected to contain bad news that Governor Scott Walker’s administration has spent all week downplaying. Milwaukee Wells Fargo economist Brian Jacobson expects disappointing numbers after the national jobs report produced weaker trends in April. Walker’s people have already said that today’s report would show a loss of almost 34-thousand private-and-public jobs over the past year. The Republican governor has questioned the validity of the figure, saying it was based on incomplete monthly surveys. And on Tuesday, his administration trotted out a more complete survey of employers which showed that Wisconsin actually gained 23-thousand jobs during Walker’s first year in office in 2011. Walker touted that number in his campaign ads leading up to his recall election in 19 days. And the state Democratic Party filed a complaint about that yesterday. The Democrats told the Dane County district attorney and the state elections’ agency that Walker illegally used state time and resources to craft what it called a political message. Ciara Matthews of the Walker campaign says the Democrats have it all wrong. She said Walker filmed the ad before the exact final job numbers were known. Matthews said the final version of the ad was completed yesterday morning, and was sent electronically to T-V stations and cable outlets.
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Police are still trying to figure out what happened to a north central Wisconsin man who was found dead last weekend near a parking ramp in downtown Milwaukee. The medical examiner’s office said 32-year-old Robert Pierzchalski of Birnamwood died from injuries consistent with a fall. A bank security guard who found the victim’s body early Sunday said he appeared to be shot. But an autopsy did not reveal a gunshot wound – and officials said Pierzchalski died from quote, “multiple blunt force injuries consistent with a fall from a height.” The medical examiner’s report said there was evidence of somebody scuffling in the parking ramp six floors above the sidewalk where Pierzchalski’s body was found. Officials said the victim apparently got into a couple of altercations earlier in the night. Pierzchalski and a friend went to Milwaukee last Saturday morning to see the Brewers-Cubs baseball game that day. After the game, they checked into a downtown hotel, and authorities said they spent the night drinking in the Water Street tavern district until around two a-m – an hour before the victim was found dead.
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A 53-year-old man could die in prison, after a judge in Green Bay sentenced him to 40 years for repeated sexual assaults of his girlfriend’s daughter. Authorities said Luis Salinas was on probation when he was arrested two years ago for having sexual relations with the girl from 2007-to-’09, beginning when she was 13. Salinas was sentenced in Brown County Circuit Court, where he was also ordered to spend 30 years under extended supervision if he’s still alive when his prison term ends.
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Those who investigate criminal gangs will get together in Wisconsin Dells next week. The Midwest Gang Investigators Association will hold its annual conference Monday through Wednesday. The group has over two-thousand members from Wisconsin and eight other states as far away as Kentucky and Nebraska. Speakers and panel discussions will focus on gang investigations, prevention, enforcement control, and homeland security. Wisconsin Attorney General J-B Van Hollen will be one of the speakers.
