Athletic directors at different schools in Manitowoc County plan to meet soon to see if they should make their athletic school codes stricter. The schools want to deter students from underage drinking.

Athletic directors realize drinking at the high school level happens, but they want students to know it's not tolerated.

In about two weeks they plan to meet and see if they all should adopt the same athletic code.

The state Assembly has decided against voting on a bill toughening drunken driving laws even after it approved a similar measure and the Senate passed it unanimously earlier Thursday.

Democratic Assembly leaders said in a press release issued late Thursday night that they needed more time to work out what they called minor differences.

Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan, a Democrat from Janesville, says the bill could be passed in a special session. Thursday was the last scheduled day for the Legislature to be in session this year.

Police said a northwest Indiana man pulled over for DUI early Thursday had this explanation for the Indiana state trooper: "Dude, I do this every night; I'm straight up and not drunk!"

A breath test on Zachary R. Duis of Portage showed his blood alcohol level was four times the legal limit, police said.

Duis was pulled over on Route 149 at 2:20 a.m. Thursday after someone called to say he was driving erratically, police said.

Not long after my return to Penn State as president I spoke out on the issue of alcohol abuse and its heavy toll on young people. I spoke to students and parents, before legislators, at the National Press Club in Washington and to faculty, community and alumni groups. I wrote op-eds on the issue for newspapers around the country, and I spoke out on network television news shows. During those first couple of years there was a heavy backlash from the student body. Many people felt we were out to stop them from having a good time. When the administration announced “A fight against dangerous drinking,” students and a number of alumni often did not hear the word “dangerous” in our statements.

Lacey police say customers and employees ran for safety in a Wal-Mart parking lot as a woman drove her sport utility vehicle through it at 50 mph Wednesday morning.

The woman, Kelly L. Wood, would have sped the wrong way onto Interstate 5 had a Washington State Patrol car not stopped her on the off ramp, police said.

Lacey police responded to a caller at Wal-Mart, 1401 Galaxy Drive N.E., who reported seeing a blue Chevrolet Blazer driving at a high speed through the parking lot just before 6:30 a.m., Lacey police Lt. Jim Mack said. Officers arrived and saw an SUV circling the lot .

The woman accused of driving drunk and causing a collision that killed two men on Highway 1 north of Santa Cruz pleaded not guilty Wednesday morning to two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.

Judge Robert Atack also raised the bail for Sherri Lee Chinn, 38, from $50,000 to $100,000, although her court-appointed attorney said his client is homeless and her only source of income is Social Security benefits.

"Ms. Chinn is destitute," defense attorney Jon Minsloff said in court.

An Oviedo High School teacher resigned Wednesday after admitting she gave alcohol and her sport-utility vehicle to a student later arrested in a drunken-driving crash, a Seminole County Public Schools spokeswoman said.

Meredith Witt, a special education teacher, told the principal of Oviedo High she provided alcohol to "one or more" students at her home Monday, then handed over the keys to a student and let him drive off, according to a school district document.

Dylan Ferguson, 18, an Oviedo High senior, was arrested Monday on counts of DUI with damaged property and leaving the scene of a crash. His stepfather told police the teen drove a 2006 Honda SUV that crashed about 10 p.m. into two cars in the 600 block of Horseman Drive, according to a police report.

A 24-year-old former all-star athlete was sentenced to one to three years in state prison Wednesday for causing a drunken-driving crash that killed her best friend last year.



Meghan Wood, a one-time basketball standout from Carmel High School, wept and bit her lip in court as she learned her punishment for her role in the death of 22-year-old Lisa Marie Moray of Wappingers Falls.

Prosecutors, judges, activists and state officials say Missouri must improve its record-keeping in drunken driving cases to prevent repeat offenses.

Governor Jay Nixon held a roundtable summit Wednesday with law enforcement officials, public safety representatives, and members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. He called the summit after newspaper articles highlighted gaps in the system and problems with handling repeat offenders.

Some VSU students listened to Chris Sandy’s story, a Georgian man convicted of two counts of vehicular homicide by DUI.
Sandy explained how one mistake ended the rest of his life.
On April 11, 2000, he was at a party and had four mixed drinks; a friend called him and told him to come to another party.
He jumped in the car with his best male friend and began to drive to the next party except he never made it to the next party. He began to drive really fast and reached the speed of 80 mph on a 35 mph road. He ran into a gold car and after that he realized he had made a horrible mistake. Sandy had run into the car of Nellie King and William King. He literally split their car into two pieces. Mrs. King died on impact and Mr. King died at the hospital hours later. He was charged two months later and eventually received two sentences of 15 years for each death.