Local-Regional News May 7

While the use of ATV's and UTV's is allowed on roadways in Durand, there is no way to get from Durand to Pepin using the trail system. Pepin County ATV Club President Evan Mercer says the club is working with the City of Durand and the Town of Waubeek to allow ATV's and UTV's to cross the Chippewa River on Hwy 10. Mercer says for safety reasons, the ATVs would use the lane of traffic on the bridge.  The City of Durand has approved a resolution in support of using the bridge and according to Mercer, once the Town of Waubeek does the same the request will be sent to the WI Department of Transportation for approval.

Shortages of personal protective equipment is still an issue in Wisconsin. Pepin County Health Officer Heidi Stewart says if someone is caring for another that is sick, they will need medical grade PPE.  Training on how to remove and possibly re-use the PPE will also be needed.

A Holmen man is charged with first-degree reckless homicide for a fight in a La Crosse Menards parking lot that left a 79-year-old dead.  Fifty-year-old Matthew Kinstler is being held without bond in the death of Russell Paulson.  Police say Kinstler got mad at Paulson because he parked too close to his vehicle.  A verbal argument escalated into a fight Friday night.  Paulson died in the hospital Monday from his injuries.  Kinstler was initially arrested for substantial battery and disorderly conduct.

The state Conservation Congress has rejected a wide scale plan to revamp the gun deer season. While traditional meetings of the Congress didn't happen this spring, hunters taking an online survey resounding voted down plans to extend the gun deer season to 16 or 19 days. The question came as the D N R and the Natural Resources Board workshop out ideas to spur interest in the deer hunt. License sales and harvest numbers have been steadily declining over the past few decades.

It's time for emergency responders to start applying for Wisconsin Public Service's annual Rewarding Responders grant money, Spokesman Matt Cullen says the money can be used for training or equipment.   Any police, ambulance, or fire crew that didn't receive a share of the 2019 grant funding is eligible for this year's competition as long as they are a WPS customer. The Deadline to apply is June 15th.

Teenagers trying to get their first driver’s license are getting a break from the state during the coronavirus pandemic.  The Department of Motor Vehicles suspended its driving tests Tuesday.  D-M-V Administrator Kristina Boardman says the agency’s offices are essentially shut down right now – while 10 thousand teenagers have been waiting to be tested.  Boardman says 98 percent pass the test on their first or second try anyway, so this isn’t a safety concern.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services says state hospitals will have to meet three new criteria before Safer at Home restrictions will be eased.  Ninety-five percent of hospitals will have to treat patients without crisis care – meaning when they are under-staffed or lacking supplies.  Hospitals will need to arrange testing for all clinical staff showing symptoms of COVID-19.  And, finally, the state can’t re-open until there is a one-week downward trend in coronavirus cases among health care workers.

The chairman of the Democratic National Committee says his party is still planning to hold an in-person national convention in Milwaukee next August.  Tom Perez conducted a Wednesday conference call with Wisconsin reporters.  He says the meeting expected to bring 50-thousand people and millions of dollars to Milwaukee was moved back five weeks to make sure a robust, in-person convention can be held.  Perez says the party hasn’t set a deadline where it has to decide whether to move forward as planned – or switch to a virtual event.

Another lawsuit filed in federal court in Minnesota seeks to strike down the state's stay-at-home order.  The suit was filed by the Upper Midwest Law Center on behalf of two churches and three small businesses Wednesday.  The plaintiffs allege the governor's executive orders are "unconstitutional under the First, Fifth and 14th Amendments to the U-S Constitution."  Attorney Doug Seaton said, "Governor Walz's scheme of selecting economic winners and losers by wholly shutting down some businesses while allowing others to remain open violates the plaintiff businesses' 14th Amendment due process and equal protection rights."   A lawsuit filed last week called for the re-opening of bars, gyms boxing clubs and yoga studios.

Democrats in the Minnesota Senate are proposing a two-point-three-billion-dollar bonding bill for state public works projects.  Senator Sandy Pappas (PAP-us) of St. Paul says they are making their own proposal because they've been "met with silence" from Senate Republicans.  Pappas says Minnesota has more than five-billion dollars in requests to improve our crumbling public buildings and infrastructure across our state, "and the COVID-19 pandemic has made the urgency for these jobs  these investments will create even greater."  Senate G-O-P leaders earlier tossed around a bonding bill figure of less than a billion dollars.  House Republicans said they won't let a bonding bill move forward unless Governor Tim Walz ends his stay-at-home order.

 The board of directors for Milwaukee’s top business lobby is calling for a “smart restart” of the Wisconsin economy – saying next week would be good.  Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce President Tim Sheehy says hospitals are not in a crisis capacity and the process to reopen the economy needs to be speeded up.  The group is targeted May 11th and the state’s public health emergency order expires the next day.  The M-M-A-C wants Governor Evers to accelerate his Badger Bounce Back plan.  It says Safer at Home was enacted to flatten the curve and ensure that health care systems wouldn’t be overrun during the COVID-19 crisis. Now, that threat has lessened.

The Madison area might not reopen until mid-July. Dane County Executive Joe Parisi just extended the county’s state of emergency to July 15th. Parisi says it’s clear it will take months to get the coronavirus under control. He says the science is telling him that there will be a second wave of the virus, and he wants to keep people safe.

 Governor Tim Walz is cautious about laying off or furloughing state employees, despite Minnesota's two-point-four-billion-dollar budget deficit.  The governor said, "if you laid off every single worker we had -- which meant there's nobody at the Health Department, there's nobody at M-M-B , there's nobody in the schools, there's nobody plowing the roads -- you'd save about seven percent of the budget."  Senate Republican Leader Paul Gazelka says it's not the right time for a state employee pay raise to take effect July 1st, and those contracts should be re-negotiated.  Gazelka says if the legislature does not approve the new contract, state employees' pay would revert to what it was before July 1st of last year -- basically a pay cut.

The New York Times is reporting that Minnesota Senator Klobuchar is on the list potential running mates for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.  The former vice president is reportedly looking at Klobuchar, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and California Senator Kamala Harris.  Klobuchar released a statement of support for Biden as a former Senate staffer accuses him of sexual assault more than 25 years ago.  She says Biden answered questions about the allegations that he has denied.

Another week of beneficial weather has corn planting progress in Minnesota a month ahead of last year and two weeks ahead of normal. The U-S-D-A says 76 percent of the state’s intended acres are planted -  compared to five percent one year ago and the five-year average of 36 percent.  Nick Meixel of Lake Crystal in south-central Minnesota says conditions have been almost perfect.  He said, "it’s dry on the top, and yet we’re still getting the seed down into some moisture."  Soybean planting is also way ahead at 35-percent complete.  That’s the most acreage planted by May 3rd in Minnesota since 1963.   Spring wheat planting is two weeks behind normal, and sugar beets are nine days off the usual pace.

A group of Attorneys General from 11 states -- including Minnesota --  are asking the U-S Department of Justice to start a federal investigation into suspected national price-fixing by meatpackers in the cattle industry.  They say the coronavirus pandemic has magnified the issue because four packers control 80 percent of the beef market and they are able to charge high prices to consumers while live cattle prices are the lowest they have been in years. The group is hoping the D-O-J will see the number of people calling for an investigation and act.

 The Lumberjack National Championships in Hayward have given way to the coronavirus threat.  Organizers announced the cancellation of the annual competition Tuesday.  Lumberjacks from around the world were expected to fill Hayward on the last weekend in July.  The championships will be back in western Wisconsin.  They are on the schedule for the same weekend in 2021.