Saturday, August 2, 2025
15-year-old girl pulled out of Lake Michigan in Racine dies Friday afternoon
Mia Thurow
A 15-year-old girl who was pulled from Lake Michigan in Racine on Thursday night died Friday afternoon, the Racine County Sheriff's Office said.
The incident took place July 31 around 6:20 p.m., roughly 30 feet from shore at Carre-Hogle Park.
A 911 call initially reported the girl was struggling, and later that she could no longer be seen and was believed to have gone under water, the sheriff's office said.
The sheriff's office said 20 to 25 mph winds produced 3-foot waves and visible rip currents in the park's lagoon area, causing very poor water conditions.
Within 15 minutes of the original 911 call, authorities found the girl under water roughly 20 feet from shore. She was not breathing when pulled from the water, so life-saving measures were taken.
The girl regained a pulse and was taken to a Milwaukee-area hospital in critical condition Thursday evening before she died Friday afternoon.
Contact Mia Thurow at mthurow@gannett.com.
Friday, August 1, 2025
Microsoft begins hiring for Mount Pleasant data center that opens in 2026. Expansions coming
Microsoft Corp. has begun hiring employees for its $3.3 billion data center opening in Mount Pleasant in early 2026, and is proceeding with expansion plans at the 1,900 acre-site.
Earlier this year the company paused work on the expansion sites as it evaluated the buildout strategy. The latest work in Mount Pleasant will be in addition to what the company pledged in May 2024, a Microsoft spokesman told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
"We’re now preparing our plans to proceed with that expansion," the spokesman said.
The company says that by the end of 2026 it will have around 500 employees and contractors running the Racine County center.
“We’ve already begun to hire full-time employees that will support our operational phase,” the spokesman said, not offering further information.
Data centers housing thousands of computer servers are springing up across the country, enabling activities such as social media, streaming video and ChatGPT.
In Wisconsin, Microsoft has led the way with its project in Mount Pleasant. The company has plans for a smaller project in Kenosha.
Data centers planned in Caledonia, Port Washington
A pitch for a data center in Caledonia, in Racine County, recently ran into resistance as community members spoke out against rezoning 240 acres of farmland. It would be along Douglas Avenue and Botting Road, near the We Energies power plant in neighboring Oak Creek.
The Caledonia Plan Commission postponed a July 28 vote until at least late August to give the developer more time to address concerns.
"As often happens, we are putting the cart before the horse. We don't know any specifics of the proposed data center, who the owners would be, what their reputation is, what economic benefit it would bring the Village in terms of tax base (and) jobs," Caledonia Trustee Fran Martin said, in a statement.
In Beaver Dam, site work is underway for a data center on 830 acres near U.S. Highway 151 and County Road A.
Beaver Dam officials have declined to name the developer of their planned center.
Bloomberg News has cited an unnamed source to report its developer is Facebook parent company Meta and that it's a nearly $1 billion project.
Denver-based Vantage Data Systems is planning a data center in rural Port Washington that’s still in the planning stage. It has already resulted in more than 700 acres of property acquisitions.
QTS Data Centers, of Virginia, has eyed the Town of Vienna in Dane County for a project.
Wisconsin Rapids has plans for a $200 million data center, and Janesville recently announced that it’s seeking one for the former General Motors vehicle assembly plant that’s been vacant since 2008.
Racine girl in critical condition after nearly drowning in Lake Michigan
Drake Bentley
The Racine County Sheriff's Office said the incident took place July 31 around 6:20 p.m. about 30 feet from shore at Carre-Hogle Park, located at 16th Street and Wisconsin Avenue.
The 911 call initially reported the girl was having trouble and then later that the girl could no longer be seen and was presumed to have gone under water, the sheriff's office said.
The conditions of the water were very poor. The sheriff's office said 20 to 25 mph sustained winds were producing 3-foot waves in the lagoon area, with visible rip currents.
Within less than 15 minutes from the time of the call, authorities found the girl under water about 20 feet from shore, according to the sheriff's office.
The girl was not breathing when she was pulled from the water so life-saving measures were initiated. The girl regained a pulse and was transferred to a Milwaukee-area hospital in critical condition.
The sheriff's office said an investigation revealed a group of young people were quickly overwhelmed by the current. Another girl was briefly pulled under water by the "sheer panic" of 15-year-old, authorities said.
This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccurate headline.
Thursday, July 31, 2025
'We don't want it here': Caledonia residents speak against rezoning for datacenter
Holly Gilvary
CALEDONIA — More than 20 residents on Monday spoke against a land use amendment and a rezoning that would allow for the construction of a datacenter in the village.
The Caledonia Plan Commission is considering an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan Land Use Map and a parcel rezoning for 244 acres along Douglas Avenue and Botting Road.
Energy and water usage needed for a datacenter, as well as the disruption of the area’s ecosystem, were among the biggest reasons many residents opposed the rezoning and the possible development.
The amendment would change the land use category from Agricultural, Rural Residential, and Open Land and Low-Density Residential to Transition Light Industrial to allow for the future rezoning of the site to M-1, Light Manufacturing and Office District. The rezoning would change the parcels to M-1 from A-2, Agriculture, allowing for the opportunity for a future development of a datacenter.
The Caledonia Village Board approved the creation of the Transition Light Industrial land use category in February.
Addresses for the land involved include 8591, 8414 and 8127 Botting Road; 6005 County Line Road; and 8632 Douglas Ave., as well as multiple parcels along Douglas Avenue without numeric addresses.
The applicant for the land use amendment and rezoning, Rich Brittingham of Dewberry Engineering, said Monday that there are “many unknowns” about the project at this point, including what type of technology would be used and how buildings would be laid out on the property.
The Plan Commission postponed voting on both items until its next meeting, at 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 25 at the Caledonia Village Hall, 5043 Chester Lane.
If the commission approves the land use map amendment and the rezoning, the items will be sent to the Village Board for final approval.
The board’s approval would not necessarily mean a datacenter will be constructed on the land, but gives developers the opportunity to propose a more detailed plan to the village.
Resident Tiffany Hammond said she works in construction and converts a lot of “beautiful farm land” into industrial parks or new residential developments, and said she has seen developers go against their word on conservation efforts and other promises made to residents for development projects.
“They’re going to do whatever they want,” she said.
Hammond added that she and many other residents moved to Caledonia to escape “industrial parks.”
“We don’t want that here,” she said. “We’ve never wanted it here. We’re never going to want it here.”
Andrew Hendricks questioned the benefits of a datacenter to the village, saying neither Plan Commission members nor Brittingham had addressed this.
“All I really took away … was, ‘We want to put this thing here, and it’s OK because there’s (the WE Energies) power plant nearby,’” Hendricks said. “What does this offer us?”
Trustee Nancy Pierce said the question of a datacenter’s benefits should be discussed at future meetings after a decision is made on the land use.
Lee Wishau, who is a Village Board trustee but not a member of the Plan Commission, said that if a datacenter project materializes in Caledonia, it should be built in one of the village’s Tax Increment Finance districts, such as the development at the former South Hills Golf Course.
“In our budget, we are subsidizing our TIF districts to the tune of a million dollars a year because … they’re not producing the income yet, at this point, that we need it to to be in positive territory” Wishau said.
Brittingham encouraged the commission to delay the vote until the August meeting, saying he didn’t feel it was appropriate for the commission to rush into a decision when the conditions of approval were new both to Dewberry and the village.
He also encouraged residents to continue asking questions about the land use, rezoning and possible development.
“We don’t take it lightly that this is a request that poses a lot of questions to everyone in this room, and those conditions of approval are really the guiding conditions … that are going to shape how this development occurs,” Brittingham said.
He also addressed residents’ concerns about water usage, saying new datacenters use a “closed-loop” liquid cooling system, unlike those built five to 10 years ago that “admittedly, used a ton of water.”
“The water usages that you hear about are from the old technology, and the industry has adapted, because that is not sustainable,” Brittingham said. “The water usage (for new datacenters) is negligible.”
In other business, the commission approved appointments to the village’s new Special Comprehensive Plan Review Committee, which will assist in the development, review and recommendations of updates to the village’s Comprehensive Plan. The committee will serve in an advisory capacity to the Plan Commission.
The commission voted 6-1 to appoint Michael Moore, Josh Sobczak, Laura Million, Dave Pennings, Chris Tribbey, Marla Wishaw, Bob Prochaska, Kim Hood, Roger Therkelsen, Torben Christensen and Nate Haig.
Pierce voted against the appointments, saying she did not recognize a majority of the appointees listed and that several nominees told her they were not contacted by the village for interviews. Village President and Plan Commission Chair Tom Weatherston said he reached out to all nominees, but some never returned his phone calls.
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Thai gunman motivated by revenge over car being scratched 6 years ago: Wife
200 child sex offenders nabbed by ICE in Houston immigration crackdown
Monday, July 28, 2025
US immigration crackdown | Texas ICE agents arrest 200+ illegal alien child s*x offenders in Houston
Franksville man sentenced after child porn conviction
Milana Doné
RACINE — A Franksville man was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison in connection child pornography charges from 2024.
Thomas Firmani, 79, was found guilty of one count of child pornography possession, which is a felony.
He also was ordered to serve three years of extended supervision.
Firmani originally was charged with nine additional counts of child pornography possession. Those counts were dismissed but read into the court record.
Firmani was identified as a person of interest during an investigation by the Racine County Sheriff’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children unit.
During a search of his home, investigators seized multiple electronic devices, which reportedly contained numerous images and videos of child pornography, according to RCSO.
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