We're getting some more details about this week's arrest of a man with a knife at the Walmart in Menomonie. Prosecutors in Menomonie yesterday said 32-year-old Tanner Marion knocked on the window of a car in the Walmart parking lot Wednesday and started threatening the couple inside. That sent police rushing to the parking lot and forced officers to put the store on lockdown. No one was hurt, and police arrested Marion without incident. He's now looking at weapons and disorderly conduct charges, and a charge for threatening to kill an officer.
Construction of the new Dollar General is underway. As part of that project, the city of Durand will be replacing part of 12ave East with the new store. During last week's council meeting the council approved bids from Pepin County Highway Department for $12,500 and Next Level Excavation for $35,694 for the project. The replacement of 12 Avenue East won't begin until the Dollar General Store is nearly complete later this summer.
The Buffalo and Pepin County Sheriff's Departments in cooperation with the Wisconsin Department of Justice are participating in National Perscription Drug Take Back Day on Saturday. It is a chance for area residents to bring expired and unwanted prescription drugs to be disposed of in a safe manner. Unused or expired medicine should never be flushed or poured down the drain. Water reclamation facilities are not designed to remove all pharmaceuticals and trace amounts are showing up in rivers and lakes. Buffalo County Residents can go to the Buffalo County Highway Shop in Mondovi and Pepin County Residents can go to the Sheriff's Department from 9-1 on Saturday.
Governor Tony Evers was in Bloomer Thursday to talk about safe conservation farming practices. Evers toured Breezy Haven Farm, talking about his proposed budget and why he wants to increase funding for the Watershed Protection Grant Program that allows counties to apply for sustainable farming practices including planting cover crops and other programs to improve soil and water quality.
Authorities have identified the body pulled out of the St. Croix River on Wednesday as a missing man. The Hudson Police Department yesterday said Hai Quoc Nguyen was pulled out of the water. He'd been missing since early March. Police found his car and personal belongings abandoned in downtown Hudson. Investigators say they are still looking into his death.
Three Children injured in an apartment fire in Cannon Falls on Wednesday have been placed into a medically induced coma. The children were injured when the 12-unit apartment complex started on fire. The children's mother was also injured in the blaze, and the Cannon Falls Fire Department and Minnesota Fire Marshall are investigating the cause of that fire.
Wisconsin's unemployment rate has hit another historic low. The latest jobless numbers say unemployment in Wisconsin fell to two-point-five percent last month. That's down from two-point-seven percent in February. The Department of Workforce Development says just 76 thousand people are officially unemployed in the state. The national jobless rate for last month is three-point-five percent.
Wisconsin's housing shortage is making it tougher for first-time home buyers to buy a home. The Wisconsin Realtors Association released a new report yesterday that says new home buyers are having a very tough time finding a place they can afford. The report says there are just 13 thousand homes for sale in the state, that's a 'historic low.' In addition to the low supply, prices are going up. The Realtors say the median price of a home in Wisconsin jumped almost seven percent to 272 thousand dollars. The price spike came even as home sales dropped nearly 24 percent compared to March of last year.
Loons are falling from the sky in Wisconsin. The folks at the Raptor Education Group in Antigo say Wisconsin's recent cold snap is too much for the birds, and is freezing their feathers and forcing them out of the skies. Loons can only fly and swim, so there's no opportunity for them to land where there's no water. The Raptor Group says it's gotten calls from Wausau, Stratford, Rice Lake, and other places in northern Wisconsin. Volunteers and vets check out the birds to make sure they are safe to be released back into the wild.
The top Republican in the Wisconsin Assembly says he's building support for a medical marijuana program. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said yesterday that Republicans are still looking at a strict medical-only program. Vos has been clear that there is not enough support in the Wisconsin legislature for recreational pot. That hasn't changed. No one is saying when lawmakers may try to create a medical-only marijuana program. The top Democrat in the Wisconsin Senate, Melissa Agard, yesterday said she doesn't believe Vos will ever actually vote on marijuana for the state.
The Minnesota Legislature is one step closer to passing a measure to legalize marijuana in the state. A House vote is anticipated to legalize the purchase of marijuana by those who are at least 21-years-old. The bill would set up an Office of Cannabis Management, apply sales tax to purchases, and require sellers to be licensed. Opponents say the bill doesn't go far enough to address concerns about the detrimental effects of legalization.
Health officials are looking into possible toxic impacts from last week’s wildfire near Necedah. The Juneau County Health Department says piles of tires and drums of unknown contaminants in a former junkyard were burned in the blaze. Several state and county agencies will examine soil and water samples from the one-time junkyard and nearby homes to determine potential environmental and health impacts connected to the fire. Residents around that area are being provided bottled water as a cautionary measure.
Free speech advocates are cheering the latest vote in the Wisconsin Senate. Senators yesterday approved a measure that would charge local governments for legal fees in cases where they hold on to public information. The proposal comes after a Supreme Court ruling from last year that said local governments only had to pay legal fees if they lost an open records case. Senators say they want to avoid a situation where governments can delay and delay, then release the information at the last moment and avoid paying any legal fees.
Wisconsin's former parole chief is now facing a felony charge for public corruption. Prosecutors in Racine yesterday filed formal charges against John Tate the Second. The D.A. says Tate, a Racine alderman, voted to create a new violence interruption coordinator position last summer. He then accepted that job last fall. Prosecutors say Tate broke the state's 'private interest in a public contract' law by voting for a job that he had an inside track on. Tate never started as violence interruption coordinator because state law bars local officials from taking jobs that were created during their time in office. He resigned as an alderman on Monday. He could see as much as six months in jail if convicted.
U.S. Senator Tina Smith is working to improve maternity care in rural Minnesota. The senator recently visited Cloquet Community Memorial Hospital to observe a live birthing simulation demonstration. Smith says securing funding to expand Rural Obstetric Simulation Training is key to helping rural communities. She has helped secure 520-thousand dollars in federal funding to expand the initiative.
Be wary of where and how you're buying prom and wedding dresses this spring. Lisa Schiller with the Better Business Bureau says the recent bankruptcy announcement of David's Bridal shows how important it is to get your dresses early and to make sure to pick them up after alterations. Schiller says it's vital to make sure you know what your budget is and stick to it, so you won't feel pressured into overspending on an already emotionally charged purchase.
Deputies in Portage County will be telling this story for a while. The sheriff's office got a call Tuesday night from someone who said they had a bobcat in their car. The sheriff's office responded, as did a DNR warden, and they found a bobcat sitting behind the front grill of the caller's Toyota. The DNR warden was able to snag the cat, pull it out, and stash it in the back of his truck. No one was hurt. There's no word just how the bobcat got into the front-end of the car, or how long it was there. The DNR warden later released the cat into the wild.
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