Local-Regional News June 23

 Human remains discovered in Blaine, Minnesota are identified as a missing Wisconsin woman that a Rochester man is accused of killing.  The Wisconsin Department of Justice confirmed the remains found were Beth Johnson of Nelson.   Randall Merrick is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, domestic abuse and hiding Johnson's corpse in Buffalo County. Nelson was last seen at the trailer home she shared with Merrick on Christmas 2016. Investigators believe Merrick murdered Johnson sometime between December 2016 and March 2017.  The criminal complaint says Merrick admitted to a friend that he killed Johnson.  A police dog located burned remains on property near their mobile home in April of 2018.

The Mondovi City Council is meeting tonight. Items on the agenda include discussion and action on a resolution to allow for open containers during the Mondovi Business Association Shamrock Shuffle for July 30^th, discussion of the board of appeals decision, petition to detach and road repair of Valley Estates Road, and discussion of replacement recommendations for the Buffalo County Fair. Tonights meeting begins at 6:30 at the Marten Center in Mondovi.

If sports are coming back this fall, it will likely be professional teams playing in large facilities. Dr Jeff Pothof with UW Health says it's unlikely that high school sports will have the same resources to protect the safety of players and fans that professional sports have.  He says that schools and organizations are going to have to take a very close look at how to protect the safety of student athletes and fans.

School Districts around the state are reviewing the guidance from the Department of Public Instruction on re-opening school in the fall. One issue all districts will have to contend with is parents rights to not have their child attend school in the building over concerns over covid 19. Durand-Arkansaw School Superintendent Greg Doverspike says the district is working on a plan to make distance learning seamless for parents who do not want their child in the building. Doverspike does believe that there will be in person school this fall, but it will not be like it has been in the past.

A federal judge has sentenced a Clark County man to six years in federal prison for meth possession.  Agents say 50-year-old Keith Strong of Thorp intended to sell the 102 grams of meth in the trunk of his car when he was arrested last year in Wheaton.  Chippewa County deputies say Strong game them a fake name at first, then admitted there was a warrant for his arrest.  Investigators found texts on his phone discussing drug sales.  Strong pleaded guilty in February.

A Rusk County Man will be spending time in prison for distributing child porn. 32Yr old Gregory Huftel, pleaded guilty to posting child porn into a Kik chat room and to sending those images to an undercover officer. Huftel was sentenced to 10yrs in prison and 15yrs of supervised release. He will also have to register as a sex offender when released.

Minnesota health officials are concerned about a big decline in emergency room usage in Minnesota. E-R visits for things like heart attacks, strokes and diabetic incidents have dropped a significant amount over the last ten weeks.  The Minnesota Department of Health's Kris Ehresmann says the decline suggests that patients with these conditions could either not access care or were avoiding seeking care.  She says they want to make sure that people who are experiencing signs or symptoms of serious illness should seek immediate emergency care regardless of the pandemic.

Though officials have expressed disappointment that the special session failed to accomplish its objectives, one important thing was accomplished.  Lawmakers passed a 62-million-dollar relief package for small businesses that have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.  Local government relief, a bonding bill and police reforms were left undone when the Senate adjourned early Saturday and the House followed suit a few minutes later.  It is expected that Governor Tim Walz will call a second special session to deal with those items.

Wisconsin is driving more and that means gas prices are rising again. The cost of regular gas in the Badger State is reported to be higher by two cents-per-gallon over last week. Triple-A says the average statewide price was two-dollars-and-seven cents per gallon Friday, four cents below the national average. Drivers are paying about one-dollar-and-97-cents in Appleton, two-dollars-and-five-cents in Green Bay, two-dollars-and-six-cents in Madison and Milwaukee, and as much as two-dollars-and-nine-cents in Eau Claire. Some locations were selling gas for less than one-dollar-per-gallon in April.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction is issuing guidelines for the safe return of students and staff to in-person classes. The D-P-I released the guidelines today as part of the Education Forward program. Officials say schools may have to reduce class size, or have students attend class in shifts and districts need to be ready to navigate a fluid situation that is dictated by the coronavirus. The Education Committee in the State Assembly will discuss the reopening plan this week.

 Governor Evers is including one-million dollars for community outreach in his police reform package. The governor introduced nine pieces of legislation on Friday he says will hold police officers across the state accountable and increase transparency for folks concerned about police brutality. The package would impose a statewide set of rules for police, ban chokehold and no-knock warrants, and spend a million dollars on community outreach. Some of the ideas have been introduced in the past, but didn't go anywhere at the state Capitol.

In the wake of the protests and riots following the death of George Floyd more than 15-thousand people in the Twin Cities metro were reportedly tested for COVID-19. Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said the results have been encouraging, with a less than two percent case positive rate for those tested. The statewide total case positive rate for the virus has been falling over the last month.

Delta Air Lines will be the first U-S airline to resume routes to China since President Trump ordered a halt to travel from China on January 31st due to COVID-19. Delta will resume flights on June 25th, operating two flights per week between Seattle and Shanghai. In July, Delta will add a once weekly flight from Detroit to Shanghai.

An online study ranks Eau Claire among the most livable small cities in the U-S.  The western Wisconsin community was ranked third and Oshkosh was sixth.  The interim executive director for Visit Eau Claire, Benny Anderson, points to the beautiful parks, amazing people and a strong sense of community.  Last year, Eau Claire was ranked the 11th-best place to own a small business.  Eight of the top-10 small cities were located in the Midwest.  SmartAsset-dot-com used several metrics to rank cities of at least 65 thousand population, but less than 100 thousand.