School
Districts across Wisconsin are grappling with holding a traditional
graduation ceremony or not. Durand Arkansaw School Superintendent
Greg Doverspike says many people will be involved in that decision from local health officers, school board members and insurance companies. Doverspike
says this decision is one of the most difficult decisions he has had
to face in his career as an administrator.
As
we get closed to the May 26th
and the end of the safer-at-home orders what then? Pepin County
Health Officer Heidi Stewart says the state will give guidance for
local health orders if there is no statewide order. Stewart
says health officers in the northwest region have been working
together to come up with a plan just in case there is no statewide
order after the 26th.
The
Durand City Council is meeting tonight. Items on the agenda include
a public hearing on the CDBG Grant Program and the city's
application, discussion on possible changes to the class b license
fees due to the Covid-19 pandemic, discussion of the Emergency Loan
Program for businesses and an update on the Tarrant Park Pool.
Tonight's meeting begins at 6:30 at Durand City Hall.
The
city of Mondovi is moving forward with the Pavilion project at Mirror
Lake. Last night the council approved the bids for the project
totaling just over $118,000. Meanwhile, Mirror Lake is starting to
fill back up after the dredging project. After the lake is full the
Department of Natural Resources is planning on restocking the lake
with various fish.
The
suspect accused in the beating death of a 79-year-old La Crosse man
in a Menards parking lot is claiming self-defense.
Fifty-year-old Matthew Kinstler of Holmen is charged with the
first-degree reckless homicide of Russell Paulson. The
complaint says Paulson parked next to Kinstler's S-U-V and he accused
of Paulson of dinging his vehicle. Witnesses say Paulson
slapped Kinstler after he tipped the cowboy hat off Paulson's head.
Kinstler then used Paulson's cane to strike him in the head and he
fell to the ground. Police found Paulson bleeding from the
head, ear and mouth and he died two days later in the hospital.
Kinstler says he acted in self-defense after Paulson started
punching him in the face.
Governor
Tony Evers is nearly ready to release details about the state’s
direct payments to farmers using federal coronavirus relief money. Evers
says Wisconsin has received the 1-point-9 billion in federal CARES
Act funding. The Governor appeared on the Dairy Signal podcast
hosted by the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin Tuesday,
where he told producers he is still consulting with agriculture
leaders before releasing details of the plan.
A
Clark County man charged with sexual assault says he “never meant
to hurt anybody’s feelings.” Matthew Balich of Owen says it
had been a bad night for him. Balich is accused of assaulting a
gas station worker May 8th. He says he had a few drinks before
the incident. Clark County prosecutors have charged him with
second-degree sexual assault, false imprisonment and at least three
more offenses. His next court appearance is set for June 23rd.
Governor
Tim Walz is expected to extend his peacetime emergency powers another
30 days to June 12th. The move would keep Minnesota's
stay-at-home order in place, with possible modifications in the near
future. House Republican Minority Leader Kurt Daudt wants businesses to re-open right now. He said, "we've
now reached the point where the recovery is gonna be much worse than
the actual virus itself, and I don't know if many, many small
businesses across the state will survive this." The
governor says he's not minimizing Minnesotans' economic pain, but
added, "we have to figure out a way that, we want to help you
open back up safely so that there are customers there."
The
91st annual Minnesota F-F-A State Convention is going virtual next
week. Organizers initially postponed the convention due to the
COVID-19 pandemic - but have determined a "virtual"
convention would offer an opportunity to celebrate students and
stakeholder accomplishments. The three-day convention May 19th
through 21st will include many of the annual programs honoring F-F-A
students, chapters and contributors. The 2020 F-F-A Stars
will be named and the 2020-2021 State F-F-A officers will also be
announced. The convention will be carried on the Minnesota
F-F-A YouTube channel.
It
has been a week of waiting for a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling for
most of the state, but one legal expert says the court is actually
moving quickly. Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty
President Rick Ensenberg says the case went from the filing to oral
arguments in two weeks. Ensenberg says the process normally
takes several months. From oral arguments to a ruling also will
often take several months. He says the justices understand the
urgency and that means a much-quicker decision is possible.
A
resolution which would open the door for the party to hold a virtual
presidential nominating convention now goes to the full Democratic
National Committee. The rules and bylaws committee voted
unanimously Tuesday to let the convention committee in Milwaukee
change the format. The resolution gives local officials more
flexibility to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Convention
leaders say they are working with federal, state and Milwaukee health
officials as they balance safety and politics. When the event
was first awarded to the Milwaukee area it was anticipated 50
thousand visitors would mean tens of millions of dollars to the local
economy. That picture has changed.
--
There's
more signs that the state will be opening up businesses sooner,
rather than later, under the Governor's Badger Bounce Back Plan. New
numbers from the Department of Health Services show that the state is
now meeting 5 out of the 6 criteria that are needed to start rolling
back the Governor's Safer at Home orders. The percentage of positive
COVID-19 detections is down across the state over the past two weeks
and hospitals say they're ready to handle more cases without causing
a crisis in their facilities.
While
the majority of Wisconsinites continue to support Safer At Home, the
Marquette Law School poll says Republicans are becoming less
enthusiastic. Poll director Charles Franklin says approval of the
Governor's orders seems to be splitting along party lines. 53
percent of respondents also said they trust the Governor over the
Legislature in how to handle the outbreak.
The
Madison Metropolitan School District still plans to vote next month
on whether to go to voters for a 350-million-dollar tax increase.
Most of the money is earmarked for school improvements, but 33
million would be set aside for pay hikes. School board member
Ali Muldrow says she understands the coronavirus pandemic has made
money matters tight, but she maintains the district shouldn’t keep
pushing this issue off into the future. Board members could
decide that asking people for more money at the same time thousands
are out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic might be a tough
sell.
Milwaukee
is one of seven U-S cities receiving federal grant money to continue
the fight against violent crime. The Department of Justice
grant worth almost three million dollars will be used to fund 10 new
law enforcement positions through the Operation Relentless Pursuit
initiative. Some immigration advocates are worried about the
focus of increased enforcement. The other cities getting the
grants are Albuquerque, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City
and Memphis.
The
Wisconsin company that operates Sylvan Crossings assisted living
facilities is beating the odds during the coronavirus pandemic.
No residents or workers at any of the eight locations have tested
positive. C-E-O Jaime Schwingel says she put a plan in place to
fight the virus before it first arrived in the U-S. Visitors
were restricted, training and education were carried out, and workers
and residents were monitored and screened during every shift.
She says a key is making sure employees stay safe and healthy when
they are away from work, so they don’t bring the deadly virus
inside to the residents.
Nearly
200 workers at the Pilgrim's Pride poultry plant in Cold Spring now
have coronavirus. Employees staged a vigil by car Monday
afternoon to protest what they called unsafe working conditions.
The workers are asking for mass COVID-19 testing, a deep cleaning of
the processing plant and paid sick time. Pilgrim Pride's parent
company - J-B-S U-S-A - said, "the health and safety of our team
members remains our number one priority." J-B-S says it
has implemented preventative measures including taking the
temperatures of team members daily, providing extra personal
protective equipment, increasing sanitation and disinfection, and
physical partitions on production lines.
The
Minnesota Senate is giving the green light to a bill appropriating
60-million dollars for small businesses in crisis from the pandemic.
The measure takes 57-point-six million from the federal
Coronavirus Relief Fund and two-point-four million from the Small
Business Guarantee Loan. It designates 30-million dollars
for businesses in greater Minnesota and 30 million in the
seven-county metro area. A
business is eligible if it has a brick and mortar location in
Minnesota, is owned by a permanent resident, employs 50 or fewer
full-time staff, and can demonstrate financial hardship as a result
of COVID-19.
Planting
progress continues to run about two weeks ahead of normal in
Minnesota. The latest weekly U-S-D-A crop report says 89
percent of the state’s intended corn acreage and 57 percent of the
soybean acreage has been planted. Corn emergence is at 32
percent - nearly three weeks ahead of last year and almost a week
faster than the five-year average. Spring wheat planting is
40-percent complete, nine days off the usual pace. Cool weather
has also slowed emergence. Sugar beet planting has crossed the
halfway point at 53 percent done.
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