Bryan Wendt, a 27 year old teacher from North Prairie, has been convicted of second degree sexual assault on Monday. Formally, he was charged with two counts of second degree sexual assault with a child and two counts of child enticement-sexual contact in connection with having sex with a 15 year old girl.

The girl was an eighth grade student of his at Waukesha Central Middle School in 2008. In the summer of 2009, their relationship became sexual. However, when he was arrested, Wendt was teaching gym at Summit Elementary in the Oconomowoc School District – a position in which  he resigned from in July.

The two child enticement charges, as well as one sexual assault charge, were dropped as a part of his plea bargain. He will be sentenced January 14.

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A New Berlin doctor has four years in prison to think about dispensing powerful painkillers with no medical purpose.

Roger Pellmann, the operator of the Center for Medical Imaging and Vein and Laser Skin Care Clinics in Germantown, was charged with 16 counts of dispensing the painkillers, including fentanyl and morphine, to a nurse who worked with him last year.

After his four years of thinking are up, he is ordered to serve three years of supervised release after prison, plus he has to pay a fine of $2,000. The maximum amount of jail time the 56 year old faced was 51 months.

Pellmann says he gave her the cornucopia of drugs to treat a broken tooth, though he admitted she was not charged for the drugs and had no patient file. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, assistant US attorney Matthew Jacobs recommended the prison time in lieu of probation for the doctor, explaining:

“Licensed professionals are not free to hand out drugs or they become common drug dealers, and that is what happened here.”

Pellmann has been in jail since August for disobeying a court order stating that he could not contact the nurse that received his generous gifts.

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A Mukwonago high school is being forced to give up its Indian name and logo courtesy of a state order.

Students of Mukwonago High attempted to show the state that their name and logo was being used in a respectful way, but the state deemed their attempts insufficient and ordered the school to change it within a year. The school has used the name and likeness for 86 years.

Wisconsin newspaper JSOnline reports that the principal, Shawn McNulty, will not contest the ruling by the Department of Public Instruction and is leaving it up to the students and community to find a new team name.

The school has alumni Rain Koepke to thank, a Shawnee tribe member who filed a complaint saying the name and logo stereotyped Indians.

A group with a mile-long name, the Wisconsin Indian Education Association’s Indian Mascot and Logo Taskforce, is scouring Wisconsin schools looking for “stereotypical” Indian-themed school team names and striving to get them changed. So far they have found 28 school team names that they want changed.

Other schools, such as Osseo-Fairchild and Kewaunee, have been hit with the politically-correct axe in the recent past, changing due to complaints filed.

For more information, read the story on JSOnline.

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The cost of college is formidable, preventing many deserving students from attending at all and leaving many others to graduate with an overwhelming amount of debt. Last year, the average tuition at a private four-year institution rose 4.4 percent, reaching $26,273, and the average cost of attending a public four-year university increased 6.5 percent*. The Elks National Foundation Most Valuable Student Scholarship contest, which launched on September 1, 2010, aims to alleviate this financial burden for 500 ambitious students.

Thanks to their MVS scholarship, the two 2010 top scholarship recipients are now attending the universities of their dreams. Jenny Van, sponsored by Fort Smith, Ark., Lodge No. 341, will attend MIT, and Bryan Dongre, sponsored by Waukesha, Wisc., Lodge No. 400, will be attending Princeton. Each received a $60,000 scholarship from the Elks National Foundation.

“My Elks National Foundation scholarship will unquestionably enable my college experience,” says Jenny. “Not only will I have financial security, but I will also be able to thrive and mature with the awareness that I have the support of such a generous organization.”

This year, through the MVS Scholarship, the Elks National Foundation will award $2.296 million, giving students a chance to earn a college education without incurring insurmountable loans. The Foundation awards 18 top winners scholarships ranging from $8,000 to $60,000. The remaining 482 runners-up receive $4,000 scholarships.

This scholarship is available to all high school seniors who are United States citizens. Applicants do not need to be related to a member of the Elks. Males and females compete separately, and are judged on scholarship, leadership and financial need. Completed applications must be turned in to the applicant’s nearest Elks Lodge, no later than December 1, 2010. The 500 national winners will be announced in mid-April.

Applications for the 2011 contest are available at Elks Lodges, local high schools, and for download at www.elks.org/enf/scholars.

For complete Most Valuable Student scholarship contest details, visit www.elks.org/enf/scholars.

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New Transducer Division Answers a Growing Demand

MedPro Imaging, a premier provider of economic ultrasound solutions, today announced the launch of its Ultrasound Transducer Repair Division. Based on proprietary repair technology not previously available in the U.S. market, MedPro Imaging will offer high quality computer-based transducer repair services designed to counter a growing emphasis in the industry on probe exchange programs.

“The industry has been moving away from repairing customers’ probes to simply exchanging them with used or refurbished probes. Most customers know intuitively that it is less expensive to repair a probe than it is to replace it, no matter how an exchange model is presented,” said Joseph Masek, director of MedPro Imaging’s Transducer Division. “MedPro is proud to enter the market with a repair-first business model and we have invested heavily in state-of-the-art repair technology to provide high quality repair services designed to help customers reduce their ultrasound lifecycle costs by keeping their own probes in service.”

Reducing Transducer Repair Costs

Transducer repair costs generally range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars with an average of about $1,500 on a standard transducer and an average of $5-8,000 for TEE transducers. However, the average replacement cost for a standard probe ranges from $5,000 for a refurbished probe to $14,000 for a new probe and $14,000-20,000 for TEE replacement probes.

According to Masek, not only is this not the customer’s most cost-effective solution, the exchange approach makes it difficult for them to control and manage their transducer assets. “With their own probes, they have complete visibility on performance and life expectancy variables, such as when it was purchased, and how it has been used and maintained. Without this visibility on an exchanged probe, how can you be sure you are not giving up a newer probe for an old probe near the end of its lifecycle?”

“Transducers are not commodities, they are essential to good patient care and should be afforded the same level of service and maintenance as the system itself,” said Charles Jahnke, president and CEO of MedPro Imaging. “Our goal is to provide a singular source of ultrasound solutions from system sales, ultrasound staffing and mobile services to state-of-the-art transducer repair.”

Transducer repair is no doubt vital to the medical world, and MedPro is taking a big step in the right direction when it comes to that.

Popularity: 2% [?]

The Waukesha County Airport was the scene of a no-injury accident this week, when a Mooney M20 single-engine aircraft landed with its landing gear up. The aircraft had been for a short 30 minute flight with two Boy Scouts on a Young Eagles Flight, with a Germantown man.

The aircraft slid approximately 800 feet along the runway. The passengers were not injured.

In 2007 there were 27 reported accidents in Mooney M20s, 13 in 2009 and no accidents in the first four months of 2010.

mooney m20d aircraft

Authorities are investigating to determine why the landing gear was not deployed.

The Waukesha County Airport is quite busy, with over 59,900 operations (takeoffs and landings) in 2009.

See more about this story at JSOnline.com Waukesha News

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Waukesha County Sheriff Dan Trawicki says he is the best man for the Sheriff job, having improved services, reduced crime and created a budget surplus.

With the Republican primary election coming up September 14, Trawicki has three challengers, Deputy Sheriff Mike Doud; former deputy Mike Landsgaard; and former Lisbon police sergeant Tom Alioto. Trawicki says he is the only one with experience running a large department.

See the story at JSOnline.com Waukesha News

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Mayor Jeff Scrima, the lone voice publicly opposing requesting water from Lake Michigan, caused the Department of Natural Resources to stop working on the City’s application, after he wrote a letter opposing the application.

This week, the Waukesha Common Council voted 13-1, to approve writing to DNR, asking state environment officials to resume the review process for the city’s application for water.

The Common Council told DNR Lake Michigan water is the old reasonable alternative for the city.

JSOnline reports that more than 50 residents attended Tuesday’s meeting, with 16 speaking, six for the application, two against and eight recommending the application proceed, without stating a position.

See the full story at JSOnline.com

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Waukesha – Even before Gov. Jim Doyle’s appointee as Waukesha County circuit court takes a seat on the bench in August, an unsuccessful applicant for the appointment has announced he’ll run for election to the post in April.

View full post on JSOnline.com Waukesha News

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Like a lone voice in the wilderness, Waukesha Mayor, Jeff Scrima is the only city official opposed to an application for a Lake Michigan water supply. As a candidate for mayor, Scrima opposed the Great Lakes plan and remains committed to that position.

Scrima has an alternative plan, but each of his proposals have been previously rejected by various water supply experts. Rather than requesting access to Lake Michigan water, with an estimated start-up cost of $164 million, critics say Scrima’s plan would cost around $211 million. The basis of his plan is to treat water from deep wells that is high in radium, drill more shallow wells and treat water pumped from quarries.

Some people question what Waukesha locals are doing to conserve water, saying they are using much more water than their fair share and want to take water from other places to meet their selfish needs.

When the Water Utility presented him with a letter stating a lake water supply was the only reasonable option available to the city, Scrima refused to sign it, and he wrote to Department of Natural Resources saying the city should not move ahead with the application. That caused the department to suspend reviewing the city application.

As reported at the end of last month, the Chamber of Commerce supports the bid for Lake Water Waukesha Chamber of Commerce Asks Members to Support Lake Michigan Water Bid

Critics of the radium treatment plan say the operating costs of radium treatment will climb as radium concentrations continue to increase. They also say continued drawing of water from the local wells is unsustainable, citing the fact that water levels are already down 600 feet.

See the in-depth story at JSOnline.com Waukesha News

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