Local-Regional News June 2

Taxpayers in Durand will still have to pay the 2^nd half of their property taxes on time this year. Durand Mayor Patrick Millren says for the city to have extended the payment time, Pepin County needed to take up the issue first but the county decided to not allow the extension.

Hospitalizations for Covid-19 here in Western Wisconsin continue to fall. Pepin County Health Officer Heidi Stewart says only 11 patients are in intensive care units.  Stewart says while some patients may be in Minnesota being treated, the numbers continue to fall and that could mean more things will continue to re-open. 

His seventh drunk driving offense has earned a Chippewa County man a one-year jail sentence.  Fifty-four-year-old Mark Hoel was arrested in June 2018 when he had a blood alcohol content level more than two-and-a-half times the legal limit.  This will be Hoel’s second jail term.  He spent a year behind bars in 2011 for a similar offense.  For this conviction, he also has to pay almost 25 hundred dollars in fines and complete 300 hours of community service. 

  A 35-year-old Onalaska man faces felony charges for his role in a La Crosse homicide last year.  Odell Thompson is charged with being a party to the crime of first-degree intentional homicide.  Javier Hall was shot to death in an alley in November.  Shavonte Thompson was arrested in Illinois in January.  Investigators think he was the shooter.  They say Odell Thompson drove the suspect to the alley where the shooting happened, then drove him from the scene. 

The Norhthern Wisconsin State Fair is canceled for the first time in its 123yr history. In a press release, fair officials site limitations placed on large public gatherings due to the covid-19 pandemic as the main reason for the fair cancelation. Fairground events in 2019 brought in $12 million and the fair's cancellation will have an economic impact on the Chippewa Falls Community. All advance tickets purchased will be honored for next years fair that will be held July 7-11, 2021. 

Summer means it's time to start getting serious about ticks. One of the biggest issues related to ticks is that they can carry Lyme Disease. One expert is calling Wisconsin a "hotspot" for the disease. Doctor Andreas Kogelnik is Director of the Tick-Borne Illness Center of Excellence at Howard Young Medical Center in Woodruff. He says people are still grossly underestimating the issue of Lyme Disease. He is advocating for increased testing and awareness of the issues. 

Investigators say there's no indication it was intentional when a tanker-truck drove into a group of protesters on the I-35W bridge Sunday afternoon.  Authorities call it a miracle there are no reported injuries.  Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington says the driver -- a 35-year-old man from Otsego -- was speeding, saw the crowd and panicked.  Harrington says he saw a young woman on a bike fall down in front of him and he slammed on the brakes, and he slid for a certain period of time until the vehicle stopped.  He says it happened as MnDOT was closing the freeway earlier than planned because of demonstrations and that the driver might not have realized it was closed.

An Illinois man is accused of traveling to Minnesota to distribute explosive devices, riot and burn and loot buildings.  The U-S Attorney's Office says 28-year-old Matthew Rupert of Galesburg is charged with civil disorder, carrying on a riot and possession of destructive devices.  Prosecutors say Rupert posted a Facebook video of himself on Friday in Minneapolis passing out explosives and encouraging others to throw them at law enforcement officers, damaging property, appearing to light a building on fire and looting businesses. Rupert was arrested in Chicago early Sunday for violating curfew and officers found destructive devices, a hammer, heavy-duty flashlight and cash in his vehicle.

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents will vote Thursday on higher fees and room-and-board costs for students this fall.  Student fees would go up by an average of 30 dollars at the system’s four-year schools.  The biggest bump in fees would be 60 dollars at U-W-Oshkosh.  U-W-River Falls would have the biggest increase in room-and-board charges at 96 dollars.  Tuition for in-state undergraduate students at the schools would still be frozen by language in the current Wisconsin state budget.

Wisconsin's governor is trying to draw a line between protests and the riots and looting that he saw in Madison and Milwaukee. Governor Tony Evers yesterday said people should be able to protest, but he says a "few bad actors" were in the crowd in Madison and led to two nights of violence. Madison Police reported that 75 businesses in the city were damaged over the weekend. Governor Evers called out the National Guard last night to protect the State Capitol and other buildings in Madison.

Minnesota-based Target says it is closing 105 stores in 10 states after several were broken into by looters.  The damage was done during protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.  Thirty-three of the closed stores are in Minnesota.  Employees at the stores will be paid for up to 14 days, including the premiums they have been earning for showing up to the job during the coronavirus pandemic.  They will be given the option of working at Target locations which remained open.

Things seemed to be almost normal at Milwaukee’s Catholic Churches Sunday.  Several opened their doors to parishioners.  The city’s public health order is still in effect, limiting crowds to just 10 people.  Archbishop Jerome Listecki says the churches in Milwaukee were open at just 25-percent of capacity.  Listecki says it’s a way for church members to “dip their toes” back into the services.

Some Republican Party members aren’t giving up their opposition to a voting by mail push.  State Representative Adam Neylon criticized the Wisconsin Elections Commission last week for its decision to send absentee ballot applications to voters.  Neylon says if the state is going to spend millions on the November election, it should spend that money on making the election more secure.  He says blindly mailing applications to millions of Wisconsin homes doesn’t make it more secure.

An online fundraiser to help downtown Madison businesses which were damaged during weekend rioting has raised more than twice its 50-thousand-dollar goal.  The Boys & Girls Club of Dane County, Madison 365 and Paulo Delgado helped to organize the GoFundMe page.  As of Sunday evening, the fund had more than 122 thousand dollars in pledges.  An estimated 75 businesses suffered some form of damage.

 Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has apologized to media workers who were hurt by law enforcement efforts and, in some cases, arrested.  Walz apologized Sunday and took responsibility for what they went through.  The Minnesota Department of Public Safety is urging journalists to wear credentials that can be seen from at least four feet away.

When two ranking members of the Beloit Police Department took a knee along with protesters, that seemed to calm the situation over the weekend.  Police Chief David Zibolski and Captain Andrew Sayles spoke with the crowd and told them what the Minneapolis officers did when they killed a black man last week was wrong.  Chief Zibolski said, “It was criminal.”  The white chief and black police captain took the action last weekend and Sunday’s protest remained peaceful in Beloit.

You're encouraged to get out and enjoy Wisconsin state parks this weekend. The occasion is the Department of Natural Resources' annual Free Fun Weekend. All state parks will be open, and not charging admission. The same goes for A-T-V trails. Fishers won’t need a license this weekend, and all boat launches in Wisconsin will be open as well. The only thing that will not be open are D-N-R campgrounds. Those are closed because of the coronavirus.