RHINELANDER - In a turn of events, Minocqua's Jonathan Thormann reached a plea agreement today in Oneida County Court.
He is accused of hurting a woman, smashing cars with a hammer, and setting a house on fire in Minocqua. You may remember him from his outbursts several months ago.
"Would you mind sharing your address?"(Judge Bloom) "Nope."(Thormann) "If you don't mind, would you tell us your address?"(Judge Bloom) "Figure it out. You're the judge and you're the cops. I-r-o-n-w-o-o-d, M-I" (Thormann)
Thormann was scheduled for a motion hearing to change venue after a request last month was denied.
But instead a plea agreement was reached dismissing three of the five felonies. Most noticeably the charge of substantial battery. He still had four more charges which he respectfully answered to.
"Ms. Hogan, at this time, how does your client plead to counts three and six as alledged in the information and then counts four and five as ammended?" (Judge Bloom) "No contest your honor."(Hogan) "Is that correct Mr. Thormann?"(Judge Bloom) "Yes sir."(Thormann)
He pleads no contest to two felonies, "strangulation and suffocation", as well as, "unsafe burning of own building". Judge Michael Bloom found him guilty.
His sentencing is scheduled for August 28th. He could do six years in jail along with five more years of extended supervision.
LAC DU FLAMBEAU - Ruby's pantry opened their doors Tuesday in Lac du Flambeau. This is the first time the Ruby's pantry has set up shop there. They decided to come to Lac du Flambeau because of the good turnout in Rhinelander. The food pantry asks that people give a $20 donation.
“It's not your typical food pantry,” says Gloria Cobb, Ruby's Pantry Lac du Flambeau Lead Coordinator. “This is an opportunity to give people dignity, to serve with dignity, and it's a donation base.”
“I mean look at the hustle and bustle going on we've got the community coming together not only Lac du Flambeau but the surrounding community coming together to meet a very basic need and that's to help with hunger,” says Cobb.
The pantry offered items like strawberries, cake mix, and toilet paper. More than 400 people were expected to show up.
“A participant will go through the line with a laundry basket and or box and they will be offered items,” says Cobb. “They can refuse them however we will encourage them to take the item because somebody else that they may know may have a need.”
“They get a certain amount of each item and they go through the line like an assembly line,” says Cobb.
The pantry had more than 21,000 pounds of food to give away.
WAUSAU - Students at Northcentral Technical College in Wausau got to see Tibetan monks create a work of art steeped in Buddhist history.
The Mandala Sand Art is an ancient Tantric Buddhist tradition dating back thousands of years.
The Tibetan Monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery are on an international tour called Mystical Arts of Tibet where they create mandalas in front of an audience.
"The colored patterns we are using, we are following the scriptures, the Buddhist scriptures. It's a very old tradition, more than 2,500 years ago," says Geshe Loden, head of the Mystical Arts of Tibet.
The monks' last visit to Northcentral Technical College in 2011 was so popular, they were invited back.
"At NTC we feel like it's important to offer our students a variety of different programming, and one of the things we feel our responsibility to do is expose our students to other cultures, other religions, other ideas," says Director of Student Development Shawn Sullivan.
The monks work hours at a time placing sand delicately in the lines of the intricate pattern.
The mandala will take them four days to complete, but the beautiful creation won't last long.
"After finishing this, making the mandala, we consecrate this completed mandala, and we dismantle it to symbolize the impermanence of all the conditioned things, all the phenomena," says Loden.
The monks' tour raises money for more than 3,000 monasteries in India. They also do it to raise awareness about the plight of Tibetans.
"Lord Buddha had started this, and that tradition keeps going on."
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