networking - After 16.04 clean install the WiFi tries to connect when disabled

After performing a clean install of Ubuntu 16.04, my WiFi is trying to connect when disabled. My router WiFi is disabled so my system is hard wired via the ethernet connection. So I don't need the WiFi unless I'm out and about. Both the WiFi and the ethernet operate and connect just fine so there is no problem with the actual connectivity. The hardware works.

However, with the wired ethernet connected, I disable the WiFi via the network indicator in the panel. After the Upgrade, while disabled the WiFi still continues to seek a connection, which because of the router and my location, it can barely detect. So I get constant notifications that I don't have a connection, then I do, then don't, etc.

What could be happening such that with 14.04 the WiFi was disabled when disabled but now with 16.04 disabled is not disabled although it says it's disabled. There's no hardware switch to enable or disable the WiFi and the keyboard function toggle has never worked. It's just permanently "on" and does nothing which is fine with me.

I have an HP ENVY 17 Laptop and the wireless device is an Intel Dual-Band Wireless 3160 (rev 83).

My networking info is are as follows:

lspci

01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Wireless 3160 [8086:08b3] (rev 83)
DeviceName:
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160 [8086:0070]

09:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 0c)

DeviceName: Hanksville Gbe Lan Connection
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [103c:1965]

lsusb

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp.

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Bus 003 Device 002: ID 174c:55aa ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1051E SATA 6Gb/s bridge, ASM1053E SATA 6Gb/s bridge, ASM1153 SATA 3Gb/s bridge

Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub

Bus 002 Device 004: ID 05c8:036e Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co., Ltd (Foxlink) Webcam

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 8087:07dc Intel Corp.

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver

Bus 002 Device 006: ID 138a:0050 Validity Sensors, Inc. Swipe Fingerprint Sensor

Bus 002 Device 005: ID 0eef:a80f D-WAV Scientific Co., Ltd

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

rfkill

0: hci0: Bluetooth

Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

1: phy0: Wireless LAN

Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr

      inet addr:192.168.1.4  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
      inet6 addr: fe80::5461:abea:fced:c913/64 Scope:Link
      UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
      RX packets:7858 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
      TX packets:6426 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
      collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
      RX bytes:7406246 (7.4 MB)  TX bytes:883972 (883.9 KB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr

      BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
      RX packets:9 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
      TX packets:226 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
      collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
      RX bytes:1087 (1.0 KB)  TX bytes:41881 (41.8 KB)

iwconfig

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:off/any

      Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=off
      Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
      Power Management:on

Thanks.