Advertisement Teen dead after disappearing in Chippewa River
CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. (AP) — Divers recovered a teen’s body from the Chippewa River Saturday after a report of a possible drowning in the Chippewa County town of Eagle Point.
The sheriff’s department said the report came in shortly after 3 p.m., and divers located the victim about 4:30 p.m.
The victim, identified as 16-year-old Zachary Lato of rural Chippewa Falls, was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead just after 6 p.m.
Authorities said Chippewa Falls High School will be open with counselors available for students on Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.
Whooping crane chick hatched in wild, with help
NECEDAH, Wis. (AP) — A pair of whooping cranes hatched a chick in the wild in central Wisconsin, although it took some help from humans to get it done.
Natural reproduction by the reintroduced cranes has been an elusive goal for the researchers working for the past nine years to establish a second flock of the endangered birds in North America.
The nonprofit group Operation Migration reported Saturday that the pair’s first nesting failed when two eggs they produced were infertile. The pair later re-nested and produced more eggs, but researchers determined they also were infertile.
However, a soon-to-hatch egg from a captive breeding flock at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo was placed in the nest, and it hatched on Friday.
Workers from the ICF said the pair is being extremely attentive to the chick.
The only pair of the reintroduced cranes to successfully reproduce in the wild as part of the new flock had two chicks in 2006 and one of them survived to adulthood. Operation Migration said as of Saturday that original pair of adults and one other pair also had re-nested and could still hatch offspring in the next week or so.
Since 2001, researchers have used ultralight aircraft to lead young cranes on a migratory route from the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge to a refuge on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
7-year-old wounded when shots fired in vehicle
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A 7-year-old boy shot in the face apparently was hit by a bullet intended for someone else.
Police Lt. Ray Gibbs said the boy was in a car when someone fired multiple shots into the vehicle about noon Saturday.
Gibbs declined to say who else was in the car with the boy but said the shooting might be drug-related.
He said the boy was hit in the cheek area and was in satisfactory condition at a hospital.
The shooting remains under investigation.
Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://www.jsonline.com
Corps calls meeting on condition of Fox River dams
KAUKAUNA, Wis. (AP) — A public meeting is planned Wednesday evening at the Kaukauna Municipal Building in Kaukauna on the condition of the nine federal dams on the lower Fox River that runs from Lake Winnebago to Lake Michigan’s Green Bay.
The Detroit District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rates five of the dams as in urgent need of attention and the other four as marginally safe.
The urgent ratings went to the Upper Appleton, Cedars, Little Chute, Rapide (ra-PEED’) Croche (CROSH) and De Pere dams because of cracking at the gate anchorages, raising a risk of gate failure.
But the corps has monitored the cracks since the 1970s and hasn’t seen signs of rapid progression.
The marginally safe ratings went to the Little Kaukauna, Menasha, Lower Appleton and Kaukauna dams.
