Court mulls insurance for surrogate moms

MADISON -- The Wisconsin Supreme Court is expected to decide whether insurance companies can refuse to pay the maternity costs of surrogate mothers.

The court has agreed to review a dispute between MercyCare HMO and two surrogate mothers denied coverage by the company during their pregnancies.

The company had a policy of covering pregnant women, but excluding surrogate mothers who act as "gestational carriers" for others' babies.

The Wisconsin Commissioner of Insurance said the company could not deny them benefits, saying insurers should not be free to inquire why customers are pregnant.

The company appealed and a Rock County judge ruled in its favor, saying the exclusion was appropriate.

Veterans home leader reinstated after firing

MADISON, Wis. -- The administrator of the state's largest veterans' nursing home, who was fired in

August as the home faced an investigation into its spending, has been reinstated.

Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary John Scocos reinstated Bill Crowley as commandant of the Wisconsin Veterans Home in King, according to Mike Trepanier.

Scocos told agency employees Crowley's reinstatement was appropriate after the Department of Justice declined to press charges against anyone in connection with spending irregularities at the home. The Department of Justice's report cited miscommunication and confusion at all levels and portrayed Crowley as relying heavily on subordinates.

Prosecutors will not

charge legislator

MADISON -- State prosecutors have decided not to charge Rep. Pedro Colon with falsifying nomination signatures, closing the books on a complaint his primary opponent filed last year.

In a Justice Department release, agency attorneys wrote they believe nomination papers Colon certified himself include four signatures from people who didn't sign them. But they said they probably don't have enough evidence to prove intentional wrongdoing.

Prosecutors did, however, charge a woman with falsifying signatures on Colon's papers and voting under a false address.

Ex-boyfriend, 2 others accused of murder plot

WAUKESHA -- Authorities have arrested three men in the October murder of an Oconomowoc woman in what they say was part of a plot by her ex-boyfriend to get custody of their 4-year-old son.

Kimberly Smith's ex-boyfriend is accused of conspiring with a longtime friend to kill the mother on Oct. 1. A third man is accused of stabbing her to death.