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Axe wielding naked man attacks deputies
On Dec. 20, Crawford County Sheriff's Department deputies responded to the village of Wauzeka for a 52-year-old man acting bizarre. According to a Sheriff's Department report, deputies arrived at the man's house and attempted to make contact with him. At one point, the man responded to the deputies from inside the home and invited them in. Entry was attempted by the deputies but the door was locked. Officers continued to knock on the door when the man suddenly appeared at the front door naked and holding a double bitted axe. The man started to come outside with the axe but then went back into his house and shut the door. He then swung the axe, sticking it through the door. A part of the axe went through the door and was protruding out through the other side. The man then barricaded himself inside his house. Deputies backed away from the residence and called the Tri-River Special Operations Team. Deputies set up a perimeter around the man's home and evacuated the close neighbors from their residence while waiting for the Tri-River Special Operations Team. Several attempts were made to contact the man by phone but were unsuccessful. At approximately 7:20 p.m., the man exited his home shouting at police. Members of the Tri-River Special Operations Team used a taser and rubber bullets to subdue the man. The man was not seriously hurt but he was transported to the Boscobel hospital to be examined for any possible injuries. Criminal charges are pending in the case. Assisting at the scene were the Wauzeka First Responders and Fire Department, the Wisconsin State Patrol and the Crawford County Emergency Management Coordinator. The Wauzeka Fire Department was used as a staging area for the officers.
The man's name was withheld due to a possible mental commitment.

Prohibition-era law re-emerges
Some elected government officials in Crawford County and in the various municipalities throughout the county may be in violation of state law. A 1933 law has recently been dusted off and is making waves throughout Wisconsin. The 1933 law was created following Prohibition and apparently has been forgotten for decades until resurfacing recently. Following Prohibition, there was a rush of businessmen seeking to open bars. Lawmakers wanted to avoid conflicts of interest in liquor license decisions, so they made it illegal for elected officials to own businesses that sell products or services to liquor license holders. The law is broad and bans virtually all business dealings between government officials and liquor license holders such as bars, restaurants, convenience stores and grocery stores. The law carries a penalty of up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. The law re-emerged this summer when a Stevens Point council member who sells vacuums to bars and restaurants was forced to quit after learning about the conflict. In Racine, an alderman who sells insurance to restaurants quit last month. In Madison, a councilman who is the owner of a laundry business, will stop cleaning the uniforms of bar and restaurant employees. State lawmakers are seeking to repeal the law and say that the law is outdated and severely restricts who can run for local office. Representative Louis Molepske, 'D) Stevens Point, has introduced a bill that would repeal the law. Liquor wholesalers would still be prohibited from sitting on municipal bodies. It is hoped by supporters that the Assembly and Senate will pass the bill early next year. Ethics laws are designed to prevent officials from using their positions for financial gain. Officials should recuse themselves from decisions that could affect their businesses.

One year later, still no clues in Fischer case
Shannon L. Fischer has been missing for more than a year and sadly, there is still very little evidence in the case. "We are leaving no stone unturned," said Prairie du Chien Police Chief Mike King. "This is still an open case of the highest priority. Anything that anyone can give us, we are interested in." King said that nobody in Prairie du Chien has seen nor heard from Fischer since she was reported missing. Fischer has been missing since Dec. 18, 2006. She was last seen at 4 p.m. in the 200 block of East Blackhawk Ave. "We're treating it as a homicide," said King. "I think we have to at this point. We would like to believe that she is alive but, given the information we have, it seems somewhat unlikely." King said that there has been virtually no evidence found in the case. He said that the case if very unusual because Fischer had no driver's license, no cellphone, no credit cards or other such personal affects. "It makes it very difficult," he said. "We usually have a starting point but we really don't have it in this case." There has been no activity on Fischer's e-mail address since she was reported missing and no leads or information has turned up on the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, which is a national data base used by law enforcement agencies. Two Prairie du Chien police officers have been working on the case as well as an investigator with the Department of Criminal Investigation. King said that the FBI is also very eager to help should any new evidence prompt their involvement. "It's a very, very frustrating case," said King. "We will follow up on any lead, no matter how insignificant." Two billboards showing Fischer's face and description have been put up asking for any information anyone can provide. One billboard is located along Marquette Road near the Smart Buyer Furniture Warehouse building and the other is in Iowa near Marquette. The billboards were arranged through Crimestoppers. "We want to solve this case, whatever the outcome," said King. "I am confident we will solve it." Fischer would be 24 years old now and is described as 5-3, 140 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information can call the Prairie du Chien Police Department at (608) 326-2421 or Crimestoppers at 1-866-799-PAYS.

McGregor woman gets working furnace by Christmas
Reinhardt holds her grandson, Alan Millin, who stays with her after school until his mother comes to pick him up. Connie Reinhardt of McGregor now has a working furnace for Christmas, but will probably still have to take her showers elsewhere. Reinhardt hasn't had running water since the July flood that inundated the town, and since the onset of winter, she's been heating her house by turning on her electric stove oven, leaving the door open, and using a fan to distribute the warmth. Her furnace and water heater were destroyed by the floods, and although the Clayton County Disaster Relief committee and Community Action have paid for the new appliances, which have already been installed, neither one was working last week. The installer, she said, put in the water heater and connected it, but a leak from a broken pipe soon flooded her basement and the water was disconnected. Reinhardt says she had running water before the flood, and doesn't know how the pipe was damaged. Either way, she says, no one has returned to fix it, and she doesn't have the money to pay for it. And even then, without a working furnace, she feared the water pipes would freeze and break. The furnace too, was installed, but not connected to heating ducts or to the lp gas she uses for heating. The installer, she said, kept promising to come back "next week," but didn't show up. To get by, she has been heating with the oven of her electric stove. "I don't know what I'll do when the electricity bill comes this month.," she said. As it turned out, however, the installer, Rick Kirby, had been waiting for her to have her gas tank filled so he could connect and test the furnace. Reinhardt said she thought the tank was already filled. A Dec. 20 call to the gas company, Fauser Oil of Postville, revealed that, although Reinhardt had called them for service, she had indicated no urgency. "We had no idea she had no heat in the house," said a spokesman. They made the delivery the same day, and Kirby hooked up her furnace that evening. The water problem will probably not be solved as easily. Kirby, who also installed the water heater, said he believes the leak is in the pipe running from the street to the house. That, he said, will require someone with a back hoe to dig up the pipe, and he doesn't have the equipment for it. She manages without water by filling large jugs at friends' houses and using the water judiciously. To conserve water, she uses paper and plastic disposable utensils as much as possible. Because of the water shortage, she does minimal cleaning or scrubbing. She takes her showers at the local truck stop, and dreams of once again "being able to take a shower in my own bathroom." An additional problem, said Reinhardt, is that the flood shifted the house off the foundation. She pointed out a spot where daylight can be seen between the wall of the house and the foundation. From the outside, the shifting is even more visible. She has tried patching her leaking roof, but says the patches don't work because the house continues to shift. She blames that at least partially on the erosion in her front yard. A large drainage ditch runs between her yard and the highway, and a large unfilled hole part of what used to be her yard is clearly visible beside a culvert in the ditch. She believes the whole bank along the ditch is unstable. Reinhardt said she was told by a city official that the ditch is her problem. A spokesperson for the city, Norm Lincoln, said more work will be done on the ditch with the next construction season, but did not comment on whether or not that would help Reinhardt's situation. Although she still cares for her grandson after school, he and his mother, who lived with her, had to move out after the flood due to the lack of heat and water. Reinhardt says she suffers from reflex sympathetic disease which leaves her unable to work. Her income consists of a social security disability check. Reinhardt lived in the house, the historic Ringling circus family house, for over 15 years when she was married. She moved out and went through a divorce. When the house later came up for sale she bought it back and moved in last spring, getting settled just in time for the flood. Reinhardt produced a wry smile at the thought of this irony and the even greater one that she moved out of the town of Littleport, Iowa because it was in a flood zone of the Volga River. The town was destroyed in a 1999 flood and rebuilt on higher ground. Reinhardt has a picture of the original Main Street and pointed out the house where she used to live. The site of her old house in now part of a park. And what of her present house, with its leaky roof, shifted foundation and plumbing problems what if they can't be fixed? "I don't have anywhere else to go," she said. Editor's note: A series of telephone calls has established that Reinhardt has not been forgotten by authorities. Joel Biggs of Clayton County Emergency Management and Randy Frank, who worked with the Clayton County disaster Recovery Committee, have worked with Reinhardt in replacing her furnace and water heater, but said the disaster recovery funds cannot be used to replace the leaking pipe. They were concerned to hear that her furnace was not working and were ready to act had that problem not been resolved. They added, however, that part of their mission is to empower the people they serve, and their wish would be for Reinhardt to take more responsibility in handling her affairs. Bill Fassbrenner, family service worker for Community Action of Clayton County, has also been working with her. He said he had referred her to a rural development agency that could possibly assist her in repairing the leaky pipe. He continues to monitor her situation.

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