Wisconsin
‘Not a hiding place’: Ogden police lauded for role in catching Nevada, Wisconsin murder suspects
OGDEN — In the last week, Ogden police have helped track down two suspects wanted outside of Utah in connection with separate homicides, which has Chief Jake Sube lauding the efforts of local law enforcement.
“Ogden is not a place where violent criminals come to run, hide or blend in. If you victimize people and come here to hide, we will find you,” he said in a social media post Tuesday.
In the most recent case, Ogden officials on Sunday arrested Randy Darius Jenks, 36, wanted in Mount Morris, Wisconsin, in connection with the death of his grandmother. The woman’s body had been discovered that same day at her Wisconsin home, according to court papers filed in 2nd District Court in Ogden as part of Jenks’ arrest accusing him of being a fugitive from justice.
On March 3, police arrested Ziaire Jacob Ham, 22, who is charged in Las Vegas with murder in the killing of a woman and a toddler, according to court papers and Sube’s statement. Ham had been spotted in Ogden by an Ogden officer and subsequently fled to Roy, where he was arrested.
“The arrest of these two individuals reflects exactly how we protect Ogden every day. We use technology, relentless police work and coordinated action with our regional partners to find violent offenders, take them into custody and deliver them to justice,” Sube said.
Ogden Mayor Ben Nadolski echoed Sube’s comments. “Ogden is not a hiding place,” he said.
Waushara County, Wisconsin, law enforcement officials found a dead woman on Sunday at a Mount Morris home. Jenks “admitted to multiple family members” that he had stabbed the woman in the neck and killed her, and then drove to Ogden, according to court papers filed in Ogden. Wisconsin authorities alerted Ogden officials, who were also alerted on Sunday by the man’s family here that he was in their home.
“Randy Jenks was located and taken into custody and officers noted the presence of blood on Randy’s person and clothing,” court documents state. Police body camera footage posted to the Ogden Police Department Facebook page shows Jenks surrendering to officers.
According to WLUK, a Green Bay, Wisconsin TV station, Jenks faces a count in Wisconsin of first-degree intentional homicide. The court papers filed in Ogden say Jenks confessed to killing his grandma, complaining that the woman “pushed him too far.” A bloody folding knife found in the Ogden home where Jenks had fled to is the weapon he used to kill the woman, with whom he lived, the charges allege.
In the Ham case, an Ogden officer on March 3 spotted a car that had been reported stolen out of Phoenix, Arizona, with Ham inside, driving. The officer attempted to pull him over, but Ham fled, eventually making it to Roy and abandoning his car. Authorities arrested him nearby.
Ham is charged in 2nd District Court with theft by receiving stolen property, a second-degree felony; failure to respond to an officer’s signal to stop, a third-degree felony; and reckless driving, a class B misdemeanor. According to court papers filed Tuesday, he has waived extradition to Las Vegas. Sube’s statement on Tuesday said Ham confessed to the killings in Nevada when interviewed by Ogden detectives.
Authorities said they thought Ham had discarded a gun somewhere between Ogden and Roy. Ogden police said Saturday that the gun had been located.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
MADISON, Wis. (Gray) – Wisconsin is working to assess damage from last week’s severe weather that brought extensive flooding, wind damage and 25 reported tornadoes across the state.
“We have pretty widespread damage, really in most areas of the state,” Greg Engel, a Wisconsin Emergency Management administrator, said.
As Wisconsin begins its path to recovery, Gov. Tony Evers is urging Wisconsin’s congressional delegation to start conversations with the Trump administration to “convey the importance of FEMA assistance.”
In a Friday letter to Wisconsin’s congressional delegation, Evers wrote, “It would be unfortunate if Wisconsin’s anticipated requests for emergency assistance are once again declined.”
The historic storms come after August’s thousand-year floods in Wisconsin, which particularly impacted Milwaukee. While FEMA approved homeowner relief funds, it denied Evers’ request for more than $26 million to support public assistance and hazard mitigation for six impacted counties.
Now, Wisconsin is still working to tally up the extent of the destruction from April’s storms. Some communities likely won’t complete their damage assessments until early next week, Engel explained.
Marathon County Emergency Management said they’ve already assessed nearly 150 damaged residences, and Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson said recovery will be expensive.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that all those communities together will be millions of dollars worth of damage,” Nelson said.
After the end of these severe weather events, Evers will have 30 days to submit an application to FEMA for federal assistance. Engel said they’re working to collect as much information as they can for their report and will continue to provide resources for recovering communities.
A White House official said they “continue to monitor forecasted weather and flooding that is affecting Wisconsin.”
If you are an impacted homeowner, Rock County is encouraging homeowners to contact their insurance early, start a claim, ask what they are required to do or not do, ask about temporary housing or emergency coverage and not throw out major items until approved.
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Copyright 2026 WMTV. All rights reserved.
Wisconsin Lutheran High School basketball star Zavier Zens has officially committed to play for the University of Illinois next season.
Zavier Zens Makes It Official with the Illini
Zens, a tenacious 6-foot-7, 215-pound senior forward, initially committed to play collegiately for Northern Iowa but reopened his recruitment as the result of a head coaching change, ultimately narrowing his final choices to Illinois, Utah State, and Wisconsin.
On April 17, the highly touted three-star recruit signed a Big Ten Conference Athletics Scholarship Agreement to compete for Illinois, ending the greatly anticipated recruitment journey.
A Chance to Maximize His Development Was the Key
“What I was looking for was the best chance to develop and become the best player I can become,” said Zens, in an interview with Zac Bellman of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Illinois, they arguably have the best team in the country coming in next year, and the chance to get to go up against them every day, along with the good development program and their record of developing guys, was really big to me. Obviously, the fit and culture was right as well.”
Illinois tied for second in the Big Ten Conference under the guidance of head coach Brad Underwood, advanced to the NCAA Tournament’s Final Four for the first time in 21 years (2005), and finished with a 28-9 overall record.
“Zavier first and foremost is a winner,” said Underwood, in an official release posted on fightingillini.com. “He is an extremely high IQ player who has been well coached and brings a championship pedigree to the table, winning three straight state titles. He fits our recruiting mold as a 6-foot-7 versatile wing who can score at all three levels and process the game.”
Zens Helped Wisconsin Lutheran to a WIAA Three-Peat
Zens averaged 23.4 points per game (including a 61.8% field-goal percentage) with 5.4 rebounds, and 4.4 assists this season in leading the Vikings to a third consecutive WIAA state championship and statement-making 30-0 overall record.
Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball contributed 20 points with four 3-point baskets, six rebounds, three assists, two blocked shots, and one steal as top-seeded Wisconsin Lutheran defeated third-seeded Madison Memorial 57-37 in the WIAA Division 1 state championship game at the University of Wisconsin’s Kohl Center on March 21.
The 2026 Wisconsin Gatorade Player of the Year finished his memorable four-year high school career with a 109-7 overall record (including an 88-2 mark during the three-year championship run) and as the third-leading scorer in program history (1,611 points).
Zens Continues the Trend of Mr. Wisconsin Playing Out-of-State
In an interesting twist, Zens (a cousin of NBA rookie sensation Kon Knueppel who competes for the Charlotte Hornets) joins an elite group of seven recent Wisconsin Mr. Basketball recipients who opted to play out of state.
Wisconsin, under current head coach Greg Gard, has advanced to the NCAA Tournament eight times, with the fifth-seeded Badgers most recently falling to No. 12-seeded High Point 83-82 in this year’s opening round on March 19.
The impressive list of Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association honorees includes:
2025: Xzavion Mitchell, Oshkosh North (Iowa State)
2023: (co-winner) Milan Momcilovic, Pewaukee (Iowa State)
2023: (co-winner) John Kinzinger, De Pere (Illinois State)
2022: Seth Trimble, Menomonee Falls (North Carolina)
2021: Brandin Podziemski, St. John’s (Illinois, Santa Clara)
— Jeff Hagenau | jeffreyhagenau@gmail.com
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WISCONSIN (WBAY) – Wisconsin residents contributed more than $36 million in marijuana taxes to Illinois last year and nearly $6 million to Michigan in 2024, according to new numbers released by the state Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
The revenue comes from counties bordering Wisconsin that legally sell marijuana, while bills to legalize both medical and recreational marijuana remain stalled in the Wisconsin Legislature.
Wisconsin will have a new governor, new speaker in the Assembly and a new majority leader in the state Senate next January.
All three people holding those leadership positions decided not to seek re-election.
State lawmakers will have a fresh debate regarding marijuana for the first time in a while, and the latest numbers from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau are likely to be a big part of it.
Illinois dispensaries generate millions from Wisconsin buyers
On the Wisconsin border, from Michigan to Illinois, marijuana sales have become big business.
“The economic value to restoring this plant back to our economy is huge. We can’t even put a dollar amount on it,” said Jay Selthofner, founder of the Wisconsin Cannabis Activist Network.
According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo, Wisconsin residents contributed $36.1 million last year to the overall marijuana tax collected by Illinois.
That’s based on data from 36 dispensaries located in five of the six counties bordering Wisconsin. Jo Daviess, Lake, McHenry, Winnebago and Boone counties have dispensaries, while Stephenson County does not.
Among the five counties with dispensaries, a total of $319.4 million in sales was generated. The report concludes $132.4 million, or 41.5%, of these sales were made to out-of-state residents.
“It’s concerning that yeah, revenue is leaving the state both tax wise and tourism dollars without being a state that is looked at as recreational marijuana, we’re losing some tourism there,” Selthofner said.
Michigan collects nearly $6 million in taxes from Wisconsin residents
On the other side of the state, Michigan is making money off Wisconsin residents.
The most recent data from 2024 shows the state with 854 retailers and microbusinesses licensed to sell cannabis. Of those licensees, 22 were located in counties bordering Wisconsin: Gogebic, Iron, Dickinson and Menominee.
The report states, “Assuming that each retailer/microbusiness makes an equal amount of sales,” those businesses in the Upper Peninsula brought in $85.4 million. Using the same estimate as Illinois, 41.5% of sales came from Wisconsin residents, translating into $5.8 million in tax revenue collected.
Minnesota is also mentioned in the report. The state began legalized cannabis sales in September 2025, but so far there is no data on taxes paid by Wisconsin residents.
Gubernatorial candidates weigh in on legalization
If Wisconsin makes changes, it’s likely to be next year after the November election.
Republican candidate for governor Tom Tiffany said he is open to medical marijuana and supporting veterans.
“I think in particular we should look out for our veterans. I’ve heard from so many veterans that suffer from PTSD and I’m very open to that as well as medicinal. I think we just work our way through it and get to a good spot in regards to marijuana,” Tiffany said.
Among the Democrats running for governor, at least seven have come out supporting efforts to legalize marijuana, aligning with the state party platform.
“A lot of people look at it as the wild west right now here in Wisconsin, it’s not. It’s the wild Wisconsin and what Wisconsin is going to do is it’s going to show the rest of the country how innovative a state can really be on cannabis,” Selthofner said.
Twenty-four states, along with the District of Columbia, legalize recreational marijuana, and 40 total legalize medical marijuana. The most recent additions are Ohio, Minnesota and Missouri.
Copyright 2026 WBAY. All rights reserved.
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