Local-Regional News March 6

The Durand-Arkansaw School District and the City of Durand have reached a preliminary agreement on the Tarrent Park Softball Fields and Pool. The agreement calls for the City of Durand to turn over ownership of the current softball field complex to the school district and $175,000 to help offset the cost of construction for that portion of the project. The school district, in exchange, will contribute $275,000 towards the renovation of the swimming pool in Tarrant Park that is owned and operated by the City of Durand. Both government entities are making their contribution to the pool contingent upon funds being raised by March 4, 2024. The two projects have an estimated combined cost of $3.5 million. The plan calls for an estimated $1 million construction project to construct two softball fields in Tarrant Park with concessions stand and bathrooms. The second piece of the project is an estimated $2.5 million upgrade to the pool in Tarrant Park that is owned and operated by the City of Durand. With the City’s previous commitment of $500,000 towards the pool project, and the School District’s $275,000, the local Save Our Swimming Pool group will be charged with raising the additional $1.75 million needed for the project.

Two fishermen fell through the ice near Alma on Thursday. The Buffalo County Sheriffs Department is warning anglers to consider not going out onto the ice. The two fishermen fell through the ice in the backwaters of the Mississippi River one mile south of Alma. Deputies were able to get to the fishermen and pull them to safety. The Wisconsin DNR is telling anglers to check with local bait shops to keep up with ice conditions.

Pepin County has been awarded 2 grants for road projects from the state of Wisconsin. A $712,000 grant was given for the Brunner Road and Kee's Lane in the town of Durand, and a $168,000 grant was given to repair the bridge on Swede Ramble Lane in the Town of Frankfort. In Pierce County, $1 million was given for reconstruction of 450^th avenue in the Town of El Paso. The one time funding was approved in the state budget last year.

Pepin police say a suspect is being held for making a “credible threat” which resulted in a lockdown lasting two hours at Durand-Arkansaw Schools Wednesday afternoon.  No information about the suspect has been released.  Investigators say they tracked a cell phone to find the person in the Village of Pepin.  The lockdown was lifted just before 5:00 P-M and the students in the school district were allowed to go home.

Coronavirus fears are thought to be driving a run on hand sanitizer inside Eau Claire convenience stores.  W-Q-O-W television reports it contacted 10 different stores and found about half of them were completely out of hand sanitizer.  Several of the stores say they don’t know when they will be able to meet the growing demand again.  Some online stores like Amazon-dot-com are selling two-packs of the product for up to 90 dollars.

Olmsted County first responders are crediting with rescuing three people who fell through the ice on Lake Zumbro.  Three people were in the water where a four-wheeler went through the ice Wednesday afternoon.  A woman who had been in the water around 45 minutes was taken to the hospital.  Two other men were okay.  It all began when a dog fell through the ice and the woman went through the ice trying to save it.

The Minnesota Senate approved a 30-million-dollar injection into the state's Disaster Assistance Fund.   Winona Republican Jeremy Miller says it currently has a three-million-dollar deficiency due to previous weather events.  Miller says "this 30-million dollars will take care of the deficiency, as well as prepare the state for any future natural disasters."  A similar bill is awaiting a vote in the Minnesota House.  There's talk of also including a proposed 50-million-dollar appropriation for the Rural Finance Authority, the state agency that makes loans to farmers

A new report from U W Madison says the same sorts of Russain social media bots that drove conversations online in the 2016 election cycle are still at work. A new report from Professor Young Mie Kim and the Brennan Center for Justice says that Russian actors who were using social media to incite chaos ahead of the 2016 election have spent the last 4 years working to better hide their tracks. Kim says the groups use legitimate logos and group names to spread misinformation on Facebook and Twitter, and have turned to targeting all political spectrums.

With Wisconsin's 3rd district court of appeals as the backdrop, Governor Tony Evers signed a bill creating twelve new state circuit courts. Evers says it will also help areas make investments in rehab courts that have been so successful elsewhere.  The 12 courts will come online over the next three years, four at a time. The location of the courts hasn't been determined but many will be in northern Wisconsin.

A Milwaukee man is now charged with second-degree murder in the death of his two-year-old daughter in Minnesota.  The body of Noelani Robinson was found wrapped in a blanket in a Steele County ditch last March.  Dariaz Higgins was arrested a few days earlier in Milwaukee for the shooting death of the girl's mother - Sierra Robinson.  The complaint says Higgins had been staying at a motel in Austin and Noelani died there before he dumped her body.  Higgins claimed his daughter died falling off the toilet, but the autopsy determined she died of blunt force trauma to the head.  He remains jailed in Milwaukee for the first-degree murder of Robinson.

Federal charges are being added to the state charges already filed against a former D-C Everest High School teacher.  A grand jury in Madison released the indictment Wednesday.  Travis Greil was already facing state charges for allegedly letting female students use his computer – while he captured “upskirt” videos of them without their knowledge.  If found guilty, Greil could spend between 15-and-30 years in federal prison.

A Pentagon employee from Minnesota is accused of leaking classified material while working in Iraq.  Charges were filed Wednesday against Mariam Thompson.  Investigators accuse her of telling a Lebanese national with ties to the Hezbollah terrorist organization about informants.  Thompson was working as a contract linguist in Iraq and the Lebanon native held a top-secret security clearance.  She was arrested last week and has been charged with delivering defense information to aid a foreign government.

The Minnesota Department of Education is reporting a record-high graduation rate of 83-point-seven percent.  A total of 51-thousand-171 students graduated with the class of 2019.  That represents a half-percent increase from 2018.  Another 38-hundred students from earlier classes also earned their diplomas last year.  Graduation rates increase from most racial and ethnic groups, but the rate for American Indian students remains stagnant.  The statewide high school dropout rate decreased from four-point-six percent in 2018 to four-point-four percent in 2019, and dropped for every student group.

Doctors and pharmacists in Wisconsin say there is no need to load up on face masks and hand sanitizer over fears of the coronavirus.  Some stores and pharmacies are reporting shortages.  The C-D-C says the best way to prevent getting sick is to wash your hands and stay away from people who have a virus.  Wisconsin was awarded one-million dollars Wednesday to fight Covid-19.  Wisconsin health officials say a public health emergency declaration is not currently needed.  Test results on five more suspected cases are pending.