Bill To Criminalize 1st-Time OWI Dies In Committee

The effort to make first-time drunken driving convictions a crime in Wisconsin has been killed.  The state Senate pulled a measure which would criminalize the first O-W-I from the next hearing.  Committee chair Van Wanggaard has said for years he doesn’t want to ruin someone’s life over a first-time drunken driving arrest.  Wisconsin is the only state without such a measure on the books.