KIEL, WI (WTAQ) - Anticipated large crowds for the funeral of Wisconsin State Trooper Trevor Casper had local officials scrambling to get organized before today.

Kiel’s population is about 3,700, but that number could be doubled by those wanting to honor the fallen trooper. Governor Scott Walker plans to attend.

The Kiel chief of police is warning people to be prepared for crowded conditions and delays.

Casper was killed in a shootout last week. He graduated from Kiel High School three years ago. 

A memorial service will be held at the high school at noon before the funeral, which is set for 5 p.m. 

Kiel businesses are showing support for Casper and his family with signs honoring the fallen trooper.

The downtown is where a procession will take place Monday leading up to Casper’s private funeral. It begins at 9:45 a.m. Monday. People are invited to stand along the route.

The procession starts at the funeral home on 6th Street. The route continues south to Fremont Street. From there, vehicles will head east to First Street and then to East Water Street, east to Highway 67, and then to Mueller Road.

The procession will end at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Cemetery where Casper’s private funeral and burial will be held. Only Casper’s family and members of the Wisconsin State Patrol are able to attend.

(Additional reporting from FOX 11 and Wheeler News Service)

UNIVERSITY PARK, ILLINOIS (WTAQ) - Authorities have reportedly cancelled an Amber Alert issued for an Illinois girl.

FOX affiliate WFLD-TV in Chicago says that 5-year-old Samiah Lomax has been found safe and was dropped off at a police department in the city.

WFLD a FOX station in Chicago tells us Samiah Lomax was found safe. She was dropped off at a police department in Chicago.

Earlier, police were looking for two suspects in her disappearance, Serena and Andre Johnson. It's unclear at this point the status of that search.

KIEL, WI (WTAQ) - Authorities say they arrested a man during the private burial of slain Wisconsin State Trooper Trevor Casper.

Around 10:15 a.m. Monday, police officers noticed a 56-year-old Kiel man walk past the cemetery borders carrying a bag with something sticking out of it. 

Officers went up to the man and questioned him. When they tried to take him away from the cemetery, he began to argue with the officers and physically resist them. Police said they had to use physical force to arrest the man.

He was taken to a Manitowoc hospital and then was cleared to be taken to the county jail.

It happened while family members were saying their final goodbyes to Casper, who was killed during a shootout with a bank robbery and murder suspect in Fond du Lac last Tuesday.

WAUSAUKEE, WI (WTAQ) - Thomas Christ will be buried today.

He's the Marinette County man who was reportedly killed by Steven Snyder during a crime spree a week ago.

A visitation and funeral for the 59-year-old Christ will take place at the Presbyterian church in Wausaukee.

Authorities said Snyder robbed a bank in that community last Tuesday afternoon, stole an employee's truck, and left it near Wausaukee where Christ's body was found close by.

Investigators believe that Snyder killed Christ to car-jack the victim's auto -- which he drove to Fond du Lac where state trooper Trevor Casper found it. Snyder and the officer ended up in a shootout in which they both died.

Casper, who was the state's youngest trooper at 21, was buried Monday in his hometown of Kiel.

An online obituary said Christ leaves behind a wife of 35 years, two sons, and a pair of grandchildren.

(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)

MADISON, WI (WTAQ) - One of the six men convicted in the 1992 murder of Green Bay paper mill worker Tom Monfils is having his initial parole request reviewed by the state.

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections tells FOX 11 that Keith Kutska has applied for parole. 

Kutska, along with five others, were given life prison terms for the murder of Monfils.

One of the six, Michael Piaskowski, had his conviction overturned by a federal court and was released. Thus far, Dale Basten, Michael Hirn, Michael Johnson and Rey Moore have had their parole requests denied.

Online court records indicate that the now 64-year-old Kutska is being held at the Jackson Correctional Institution.

GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) - A man has been sentenced to 30 months in a federal prison for possessing child pornography.

Online court records indicate that Kory Murphy of Sturgeon Bay was also placed on 7 years of supervised release after he gets out of prison.

On September 5, Murphy and Steven Link were arrested in Door County as part of an internet sex crimes investigation. Images of child pornography were found on computers.

Link will be sentenced on a count of receiving child pornography June 1.

GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) - After nearly 15 years in existence, Brown County's Lambeau Field sales tax will come to an end this fall.

In a release Tuesday, the Green Bay/Brown County Professional Football Stadium District announced that they have sent certification to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue of full funding of reserves.

That means the half-percent county sales tax will end no later than September 30. It was used to pay for the renovation of Lambeau Field and for stadium operations and maintenance.

Currently, the tax brings in over $20 million a year.

Reserve funds from the tax collection will be used to pay costs through Jan. 1, 2031, district leaders announced.

The tax was originally approved in a referendum in September 2000.

OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ) - UW-Oshkosh has become at least the third of the 26 university campuses to offer voluntary retirement buyouts for long-serving employees.

The Eau Claire and Superior campuses announced early retirement packages earlier, as the university deals with a huge expected cut in its state funding.

At Oshkosh, officials say faculty and staffers 60 and older with at least 25 years of state service are eligible for one-time buyouts of 50 percent of their base salaries.

Governor Scott Walker has proposed a $300 million reduction over the next two years -- but even some of the governor's fellow Republicans in the Legislature say they'd favor a smaller cut.

Oshkosh chancellor Andrew Leavitt told employees the school's goal is to keep involuntary separations to a minimum. It expects about 100 employees to be eligible for buyouts, and its workforce reduction goal is around 80 staffers within a three-year period.

(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)

MILWAUKEE (WTAQ) - More than 2,300 Wisconsinites are on a waiting list to receive organ transplants -- and a renewed effort is underway to encourage more donors.

April is "Donate Life Month," and Green Bay Packers' receiver Randall Cobb is heading a public service campaign to encourage organ donations.

Doctor Johnny Hong of the Medical College of Wisconsin tells Gannett Wisconsin Media that only about a-third of those on the waiting list get transplants each year. He says a large number of patients -- mainly those awaiting liver transplants -- die before those organs can become available.

The Medical College has a transplant center at Milwaukee's Froedtert Hospital. It's one of four places in Wisconsin where transplants are performed -- all them in Madison and Milwaukee.

UW-Madison doctors performed 425 transplants in 2014 -- and more than half were kidney operations.

(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)

MANITOWOC, WI (WTAQ) - For the second day in a row, a Kiel man arrested for failing to cooperate with police during at a cemetery burial on Monday didn't appear in court.

The 56-year-old man was arrested on several misdemeanors during the confrontation at Wisconsin State Patrol Trooper Trevor Casper's private burial ceremony. Police said he was walking near the cemetery's border with an object sticking out of a bag.

He was due to appear in front of a Manitowoc County court commissioner Tuesday, but he refused. On Wednesday, the man failed to appear again.

Now, the man is expected to appear before a judge on Thursday.

WAUPACA, WI (WTAQ) - The Fremont woman accused of killing her boyfriend has pled not guilty.

Alison Roe entered that plea Tuesday in the stabbing death of Craig Dake. The Waupaca County Clerk of Courts office says a trial date for Roe has not been set.

According to the criminal complaint, Roe allegedly stabbed Dake at his apartment on March 6 following an argument.

Roe is charged with first-degree intentional homicide and faces life in prison if convicted.

TOWN OF CARLTON, WI (WTAQ) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has fined the owner of the shuttered Kewaunee Power Station nuclear plant.

The plant's owners, Dominion Energy Kewaunee, has agreed to pay the $17,500 fine for a security-related violation.

The NRC says the violation was detected during routine inspections of the facility between June and December of 2014. 

While details of the violation are not made public, the NRC says plant managers corrected the problem before inspectors left the site.

MARINETTE, WI (WTAQ) - Officials with Lockheed Martin said Wednesday that the U.S. Navy has approved funding for another littoral combat ship that will be built at Marinette Marine.

Director of business development for Littoral Ship Systems Neil King says the U.S. Navy approved $362 million for LCS 21 construction during fiscal year 2015, plus another $79 million for material procurement for LCS 23.

According to King, these contracts will allow work at Marinette Marine to continue as scheduled. 

Lockheed Martin is a general contractor for the LCS program, with the work being done at Marinette Marine.

FOX 11 reports that the companies are only expecting to build one ship in FY2016, however – and that could have an impact on the shipyard’s workforce, he said.

LCS 21 and 23 would be the 11th and 12th ships of the class built at Marinette Marine, and are part of a 10-ship contract. Even-numbered LCS are built by Austal in Mobile, Alabama.

(Additional reporting from FOX 11).

TWO RIVERS, WI (WTAQ) - Officials say five kids on a school field trip were hurt Wednesday afternoon when a tree fell on them at Woodland Dunes Nature Center.

The call went out around 12:30 p.m. for a report of the children being trapped under a tree.

Two Rivers firefighters say the students from Bethany Lutheran School in Manitowoc were sitting on a bench along one of the trails when a roughly 20 foot tall rotten willow tree stump fell over.

FOX 11 reports that all 5 kids went to the hospital, one with a serious head injury.

According to Bethany Lutheran School’s calendar, a 4th grade field trip to the nature center was scheduled for Wednesday April 1.

“This afternoon there was an accident involving a tree that fell and injured several students that were visiting Woodland Dunes as part of our maple syrup program,” said Woodland Dunes Nature Center and Preserve Executive Director James Knickelbine, in a statement posted to the nature center’s Facebook page.

Knickelbine says the “situation” is being investigated and in 40 years of providing environmental education programming to about 100,000 school children, “This is the first time that an accident of this type has occurred. We are deeply sorry that students were injured, and wish them and their families all the best for a speedy recovery.”

(Additional reporting from FOX 11).

GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) - A Michigan man is in police custody as law enforcement in Green Bay say he's behind a shooting incident in a west side neighborhood.

The Green Bay P.D. says they were investigating what appeared to be a drive-by shooting in the 300 block of 12th Avenue at 7:15 p.m. Monday.

Authorities believe now that the shots fired were from an attempted robbery during a drug deal.

Green Bay police say two men arranged to meet a third man at that location to buy drugs with a plan to rip the man off.

Both men got into the third man's car and after a short time the two men ran off with the drugs. The third man fired shots at them as they ran away.

Bullets struck two homes nearby, but no one was hurt.

An investigation found that the shooter was apparently a 21-year-old Menominee Michigan man. Investigators worked with police in Menominee to find and arrest the man.

The suspect is currently behind held in Upper Michigan on other charges and the Brown County District Attorney's office is seeking extradition.

Green Bay police also reinforce the fact that the shooting had no direct connection to the neighborhood where it happened. It was just a chosen location for the men to meet up.

SHAWANO, WI (WTAQ) - An ice fisherman had to be rescued Wednesday, after he fell into Washington Lake near Shawano.

Sheriff's officials said the man was fishing for most of the day before he fell through the ice late in the afternoon. Area residents helped rescue the man.

Deputies joined Shawano County rescue divers and an ambulance at the site. The man was in the water for about a half hour, but he refused medical treatment.

Chief Deputy John Gutho called it an expensive response, given the warm conditions. He says if there's any ice left, people should assume it's not safe and not step foot on it any longer.

Gutho says it's not worth it for anglers to put themselves and rescuers at risk for a fish or two.

(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)

GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) - About 150 people attended a meeting on ways to attack the annual summer "dead zones" of oxygen-depleted waters in the Bay of Green Bay.

U.S. House Republican Reid Ribble held a "phosphorus summit" Wednesday to raise awareness of the problem and find solutions.

Those attending said it took decades to create the problem -- so a quick fix cannot be expected. There has been growing concern in recent years about the expansions of "dead zones" on the Great Lakes. They're caused by large amounts of phosphorus from numerous runoff.

It creates large stretches of water where no plants can live. Officials said those conditions lasted for 43 days at Green Bay last year -- up from just four days in 1990.

Over the past week, the federal EPA awarded funding to address dead zones at Green Bay, the Maumee River in Ohio near Lake Erie, and Saginaw Bay at Lake Huron.

Ribble said he expects some type of "regulatory expansion" to deal with the problem, but it's too early to tell what that might be.

DNR officials said they've been working with the state agriculture department for months to address the subject. But state DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp said people should not expect Wisconsin to regulate the matter on its own.

(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)

MANITOWOC, WI (WTAQ) - The Kiel man arrested near the cemetery where the private funeral for Wisconsin State Trooper Trevor Casper was being held finally made his first court appearance.

After failing to show up in front of a Manitowoc County court commissioner Tuesday and Wednesday, 56-year-old Michael Mangan appeared in court on charges of felony resisting an officer causing injury and misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct, obstructing an officer and disrupting a funeral.

Police say they were concerned about a "potential threat to members of the Wisconsin State Patrol and the Casper family due to a possible radical group affiliated with the suspect" who shot and killed Casper. 

Although the criminal complaint does offer specifics about the “possible radical group,” court records show that Steven Snyder was part of a group of skinheads who attacked black and Hispanic people nearly 20 years ago in Fond du Lac. It's also said that Snyder had several “White Power” tattoos.

According to the criminal complaint, Mangan was seen walking along the perimeter of the Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery, carrying a bag with a cylindrical object which police thought could be a weapon. 

When approached, Mangan said he had a right to be at the public cemetery. Police determined object to be pipe insulation. Officers informed him it was closed for the funeral. After an officer placed his hand on Mangan’s back to guide him away from the scene, Mangan became more combative. Eventually, he was placed in a squad car.

“It was clear that the items Michael was carrying with him were not meant to be used or placed on any burial plots. It was clear that Michael’s intentions were disrupt the burial ceremony and to bring attention to himself,” according to the police report quoted in the complaint.

A judge set a signature bond for Mangan, who is due back in court on Monday.

STURGEON BAY, WI (WTAQ) - Lawyers for opponents of a proposed Sturgeon Bay hotel are claiming the project violates Wisconsin law.

Green Bay attorneys Frank Kowalkowski and James Kalny sent a letter to the city of Sturgeon Bay on Wednesday. They cite the Wisconsin Public Trust Doctrine, which requires state waterways to be maintained for public purpose.

The citizens say the hotel project would be built on what was once a lake bed on Sturgeon Bay's west side. 

This letter includes maps and documents explaining the law and how the land was once part of Sturgeon Bay, the body of water.

• Click here to read the full letter

However, attorney Randy Nesbitt said in a statement Thursday that, "The issues raised in the April 2015 letter are not new issues. They were issues identified and dealt with by the City of Sturgeon Bay over the last 2 years.” Nesbitt has worked with the city on the issue.

• Click here to read the city’s response

Back in February, the city council unanimously approved rezoning the property in question to allow developers to build a four-story, 76-unit hotel near the Oregon Street Bridge.

(Additional reporting from FOX 11).

CITY OF MENASHA, WI (WTAQ)- The search for a group of males police say attacked a Neenah man continues.

The 25-year-old Neenah man was staying at a friend’s house on Oak Park Drive in Menasha when he heard a knock on the door around 8:45 p.m. Thursday.

Officials say when he opened the door, no one was there. He then went outside and was attacked.

Police say all the males had their faces covered and then took off after the attack.

We don’t know how severe the injuries to the Neenah man are.

If you have information, call the Menasha Police Department at 920-967-3500.