Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Local-Regional News Oct 25

 The Durand-Arkansaw School Board is meeting tonight.  Items on the agenda include the annual budget hearing for the 2023-24 school year budget, discussion and possible action on the new library contract with the City of Durand, and the settlement with Altria Group and Philip Morris.  The board will also go into a closed session to discuss the listing agreement to sell the Hanson Park Property.  Tonight's meeting begins at 6pm in the board room at Durand-Arkansaw High School.


The Durand City Council is meeting tonight.  Items on the agenda include discussion and possible action on the Tarrant Park Pool Project, an update on the 2024 budget, and reports from the Mayor and Department Heads.  The council will also go into a closed session to review and discuss proprietary information regarding the Tarrant Park Pool Project.  Tonight's meeting begins at 6:30 at Durand City Hall and will be livestreamed on the Video Streaming Page of the WRDN Website.


The City of Mondovi is offering employment contracts to fill vacant police officer and city administrator positions.  Mondovi Mayor Brady Weiss says the personnel committee approved moving forward with both contracts. If both individuals accept the offer of employment it is hoped they will start on December 1.


Gov. Tony Evers announced that he is seeking applicants for appointment as register of deeds in Buffalo County. The appointment will fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Carol Burmeister on Jan. 2, 2024. The new register of deeds will serve for the remainder of the unexpired term that ends Jan. 5, 2025.  Those interested in applying must submit an online application with a cover letter detailing professional and academic qualifications, civic activities, and community involvement.   For more information about the position, please contact Buffalo County.


Eau Claire's former election manager could soon be one of Wisconsin's newest election managers. Governor Tony Evers yesterday appointed former Eau Claire city clerk Carrie Riepl to the state's Elections Commission. Riepl spent five years handling Eau Claire's elections before moving on to become the city's HR director. The job is not her job yet, however. The Wisconsin Senate still has to confirm her. Senators last week voted down Governor Evers' previous appointment to the Elections Commission as part of the ongoing feud between lawmakers and the WEC. 


World Relief is trying to calm the fears of people in Eau Claire who don't want to see 75 migrants moved into the community. World Relief says the plan to move refugees into the Chippewa Valley is completely separate from what's happening at the southern border. Word Relief's Matthew Soerens says the refugees they're talking about are referred to them by the UN, or the US government. He says everyone is interviewed and vetted. A number of people in and around Eau Claire are worried where the migrants will work and live. The city of Eau Claire says the migrant resettlement plan is a federal issue, and the city has little to do with it. 


A Wisconsin congressman is paying for his own trip to Israel  The office of U.S. Representative Derrick Van Orden told WisPolitics that the Prairie du Chien Republican is paying for the trip out of his own pocket, not using taxpayer or campaign funds. Van Orden is visiting Israel amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war which has claimed thousands of lives. Van Orden left on this fact-finding trip as House Republicans struggled to find a new Speaker.  Van Orden’s office said he’ll be back in the U.S. later this week.


A bill has been introduced that would name a popular highway after Wisconsin’s native American code talkers. Sen. Patrick Testin says the Ho-Chunks' role in the project has been historically ignored. At this time, fourteen Ho-Chunk World War II veterans, such as Bill Whitebear, and Bill Mike, who served as code talkers, have been identified by the Department of Defense.


Wisconsin-based Kwik-Trip says their Rewards Program is fully back up and running again.  The store chain computer system was hacked, also shutting down the Rewards for more than a week.  The company says Rewards cards that were used during the outage are now credited for those purchases. They are offering double Rewards for every purchase for the next two weeks.


 Wisconsin is among the states suing Meta over youth mental health harm. Attorney General Josh Kaul yesterday signed on to the lawsuit along with 42 other states. The AGs say Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, "knowingly designed and deployed harmful features" that ended up "addicting" children and teens. Their lawsuit says those features allowed young users to get constant updates, and fall down 'rabbit holes.' Kaul and the other AGs are also investigating TikTok for similar problems and harm to the mental health of young people. 


Minnesota Congressman Tom Emmer is out of the race for Speaker of the House.  Emmer failed to rally the necessary support from the Republican conference yesterday, as more than two dozen of his colleagues opposed his bid for the Speaker's gavel.  Former President Trump also spoke out against Emmer's nomination on Truth Social, saying it would be a tragic mistake if he were elected Speaker.  Republicans wound up picking Louisiana Congressman Mike Johnson for the position and could hold a floor vote on his nomination later today.


One person is dead after a Monday night police shooting at a Germantown school Monday night.  The Wisconsin Department of Justice says Germantown police responded to a person "acting erratically" in the parking lot of Kennedy Middle School.  After the person climbed onto the school's roof, two officers followed.  The person then fired a gun at officers who returned the gunfire.  The person who fired at the officers died at the scene.   During the incident, anywhere from 50 to 70 students were inside the school, which the Germantown School District says was placed on lockdown due to a "school safety threat." No one else was injured.  Classes in the Germantown district have been canceled for Tuesday.


Governor Tony Evers' administration announced more than $406 million in federal funds for safe drinking water in Wisconsin. The funding has been allocated to more than 106 municipalities. Some of the projects getting preliminary approval for funding include more than $30 million to help Milwaukee replace lead service lines and more than 17 million for the city of Wausau to reduce PFAs contamination in drinking water through the creation of a new water treatment system, along with another 5.8 million to replace lead service lines. In all, Evers said the investments will help replace more than 167,00 lead service lines in the state.


Following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, a bill from Republican state lawmakers would prohibit race-based college admissions. The bill from Representative Nik Rettinger of Mukwonago and Senator Eric Wimberger of Green Bay would require existing grant programs to provide financial support to disadvantaged students instead of minority students, and eliminate requirements in state law that aim to boost minority representation. This comes amid calls by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos for the Universities of Wisconsin to eliminate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion positions. The Republican lawmakers cited the Supreme Court ruling which found colleges and universities cannot consider race as a factor in admissions.


A Milwaukee man and three men from Illinois stole over 11 million dollars in COVID relief funds by faking a country. The Journal Sentinel reports that Aziz Hassan Bey, who is also known as Chauncey Hooks, and the three other men claimed to be from the fake country of Al Moroc. They set up a phony consulate in Milwaukee and used that fake country to claim numerous benefits during the pandemic. They also used their bogus diplomatic status to clear liens from luxury cars. They were convicted of 18 charges in total this month. Bey and his conspirators are set for sentencing in February.


Debate heats up on a book ban in the Menomonee Falls School District.   The topic of the district banning 33 books from the high school's library surfaced at a Monday night school board meeting, with those on both sides of the issue speaking up.  A couple of the books banned include Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five" and the book that’s the basis of the TV series "The Handmaid's Tale." The district said the books were banned because they broke district guidelines for profanity or sexually explicit content.  The banned books topic wasn’t a scheduled item on the meeting’s agenda, but it came up during a comment period later on.


The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is running into some hiccups with its new EagleCam.  Last week, the department announced that it was bringing back the popular live feed and installing a second camera near a new eagles nest.  However, they're having some problems with getting electricity to the new site.  It's unlikely the camera will be ready for the 2024 nesting season, but officials say it should be up and running by 2025. 


Two Wisconsin brothers have set a new Guinness World Record for the largest grilled cheese sandwich. Ten-year-old Iggy and 11-year-old Exodus made the sandwich ten-point-nine feet long, six-and-a-quarter feet wide, and two-and-three-quarters inches thick. They used more than 300 pounds of Bread dough and 60 pounds of cheese.  The Delavan, Wisconsin, boys already have their own YouTube channel, The Exodus and Iggy Show, with 150,000 subscribers.

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