Spring Valley Voters split on two school referenda questions yesterday. Voters approved by a 9 vote margin, question one to allow the district to exceed the revenue limits by $500,000 a year for the next two years to help with operating expenses. Voters did not approve question two which would have allowed the district to spend $7.1 million to build a new track and field and football complex. That vote was 901 no to 637 yes.
The Mondovi School District will have one new board member. Yesterday voters elected newcomer Amy Berger to the board while incumbent Chris Rud won the other seat. In Elmwood, voters re-elected both Brook Glaus and Bernie Christman to the school board, and in the town of Eau Galle, Audrey Marten defeated Cheryl Sagstetter for town supervisor.
Voters in Altoona have said 'No' to the local school's 26 million-dollar referendum. The question narrowly failed, losing by just 83 votes. Altoona Schools were asking for the money to convert the old National Business Institute building into an elementary school. Superintendent Dr. Heidi Eliopoulos says voters have decided what they want for their schools. There's no word if the district will try with another referendum in the next election.
A faulty space heater is being blamed for a trailer house fire in Pepin on Monday. Firefighters from Pepin and Lund responded to the blaze at 404 7th Street Lot 7 and found the trailer home fully engulfed. The heat of the fire did cause some minor damage to the siding of adjacent homes, and firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the fire. No one was injured, and the home is a total loss.
A Trempealeau County man has been arrested for pointing a gun at people and threatening them. A press release from the sheriff’s office says when they responded to a Saturday night report of an intoxicated man pointing a gun in the city of Blair, the suspect was already gone. The suspect was located and arrested Sunday morning. He’s identified as 59-year-old Douglas Stegerwald of Arcadia. Deputies executed a search warrant at Stegerwald’s property and found a pistol matching the description of the weapon used in the incident.
Authorities in Chippewa County have charged a former resident in connection with the death of his wife. Laramie Schemenauer has been charged with homicide by the intoxicated use of a vehicle and other charges. According to authorities in May of 2021, Schemenauer lost control of his vehicle on I-94, entered the median, and rolled over. His wife Stephanie died at the scene. Troopers say Schemenauer was traveling over 90mph at the time of the accident, had a blood alcohol content of .182 and troopers found open intoxicants in the vehicle. His first court appearance will be in May.
There are new charges in a 2017 baby's death in northwestern Wisconsin. Prosecutors in Polk County last week filed first-degree reckless homicide charges against Geway Braman. Investigators say he was babysitting a seven-month-old girl back in 2017 when she was severely injured. The little girl died of blunt-force trauma. Prosecutors initially charged Braman in 2019 with neglecting a child but later dropped those charges. The new charges are more serious.
Wisconsin's bail system is changing. Nearly 70 percent of voters in the state last night approved two constitutional amendments that will give judges more power to keep people in jail. The amendments will allow judges to look at the charges as a whole, as well as consider a suspect's criminal history when setting bail. The changes come after years of work but were spurred along by the low bail given to the man who killed six people at the Waukesha Christmas Parade back in 2021.
The governor’s office reschedules a bill-signing ceremony. Governor Tony Evers will sign legislation co-authored by Joint Finance Committee co-chairs Senator Howard Marklein and Representative Mark Born on Thursday. The lawmakers accused Evers of a “blatant political move to purposely exclude us from the bill signing” originally scheduled for today (Wednesday), while the budget panel holds a public hearing in Waukesha. In a statement, Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback said the governor’s office doesn't "spend every waking minute obsessing over ways to irritate Republicans in the Legislature,” and that Marklein and Born could have just picked up the phone to request a rescheduling.
Leaders of the Minnesota Republican Party criticized the agenda of the DFL legislative majority at a rally inside the State Capitol Rotunda yesterday. The conservative think tank called the American Experiment sponsored the rally, which drew a large crowd to the state capitol. Speakers took specific aim at bills Governor Tim Walz signed this year, including the measure that codified the right to an abortion in Minnesota. Speakers also criticized the bill that pushes for carbon-free energy by the year 2040, which Republicans say shuts down coal plants before renewable energy sources are in place.
Officials in Juneau County say carbon monoxide poisoning may be behind the death of a man inside a cabin in the town of Armenia last week. Authorities say 36-year-old Joseph Gudella, of Bloomingdale, Illinois, was found deceased at the property last Monday. A man now identified as 36-year-old Richard Griffith, of West Chicago, Illinois, was also found unconscious and taken by MedFlight to a hospital in the region for care. Officials with Batavia, Illinois police have confirmed that Gudella was an officer with the department.
Spending on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race has almost tripled the previous record amount nationally for a judicial election. A report from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which tracks campaign spending, says the race between former Justice Dan Kelly and Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz has gone over the $42 million mark. The report points out that, as of Monday, the Protasiewicz campaign spent $23.3 million as compared to the Kelly campaign’s $17.6 million. Special interest groups have also heavily contributed, with groups backing Kelly have spent nearly $15.4 million, and pro-Protasiewicz groups chipping in $11.3 million. The previous high mark for spending was $15 million in a 2004 Illinois supreme court race.
The owner of the Milwaukee Brewers chimes in on state-funded ballpark renovations. Ahead of the team's 2023 home opener Monday afternoon, Mark Attanasio said in a press conference that legislative negotiations on financing repairs and upgrades to American Family Field are still in what he called the "early innings". Democrat Governor Tony Evers proposed to spend $290 million on repairs to the stadium in his state budget, but Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said the proposal was likely dead in the Republican-controlled Legislature, adding that they could create a better deal to keep the Brewers in Milwaukee.
Minneapolis businessman and Republican operative Anton Lazzaro will be sentenced this summer after he was convicted on child sex trafficking charges. Federal Judge Patrick Schiltz set the defendant's sentencing yesterday for August 9th. Lazzaro took part in a short hearing when he waived his right to have a jury decide which of his assets can be seized. Co-defendant Gisela Castro Medina, who testified against Lazzaro, will be sentenced on August 29.
Two people are dead after a Saturday night shooting in the Town of Hull. The Marathon County Sheriff’s Office says a man called 911 saying he found his father and uncle both dead when he arrived at his home. The two men were determined to have died from apparent gunshot wounds, with a firearm found at the scene. Investigators believe the incident was a murder-suicide. The identities of the two fatalities have not yet been released.
Two more tornadoes from Friday’s storms in Southern Wisconsin have been confirmed. The National Weather Service says a "very brief" EF-1 was on the ground for about a minute two miles north of the Iowa County village of Rewey. The twister, which uprooted pine trees and caused "significant damage" to a home under construction, traveled just over a tenth of a mile and had peak winds of 95 miles per hour. Another EF-1 with maximum wind speeds of 100 miles per hour was confirmed four miles west of Belmont in Lafayette County. It was on the ground for almost 13 miles. Nine other tornadoes were confirmed in Dane, Rock, Green, Jefferson, and Walworth counties.
No comments:
Post a Comment