Local-Regional News July 17

Two people were injured in a motorcycle accident in the Village of Stockholm on Thursday afternoon. According to the Pepin County Sheriffs Department, 55yr old Dwight Gorder of New Hope MN was traveling northbound on Hwy 35, when it lost control ejecting both Gorder and his passenger 54yr old Joy Gorder. Into the southbound ditch. Both were med-flighted to Mayo Rochester with serious, life threatening injuries. That accident remains under investigation.

As the Durand-Arkansaw School Administration works on re-opening schools for the fall the topic of school lunch is being discussed. Durand-Arkansaw Superintendent Greg Doverspike says with the district looking at a hybrid of in person and virtual learning, some new issues have cropped up.  During the school shut-down, the district served nearly 65,000 meals to students .

Pepin County has a new highway commissioner. During this weeks county board meeting, members voted 11-1 to elect Robert Platteter as the new commissioner effective Monday. Platteter replaces Kris Quandt who resigned on June 4^th. Interim commissioner Brent Bauer will return to his foreman position on Monday

Olmsted County Public Health says 70 new COVID-19 cases are linked to an outbreak among people who visited bars in Rochester.  Officials had been urging anyone who spent time at downtown bars without coronavirus restrictions to consider getting tested.   That recommendation led to a big spike in the number of people seeking tests last weekend.  Fifty-eight cases were directly linked to downtown bars and  12 more secondary cases have been identified in people who had contact with infected patients.  More than 220 others may have also been exposed and are being contacted by tracers. .

Pepin County Residents will be receiving county information on the covid-19 pandemic with a new online dashboard. Pepin County Health Officer Heidi Stewart says the department has been working with emergency management in designing the dashboard.It is hoped the new online information will be available starting sometime next week.

State Senator Andre Jacque  says he is concerned the state’s new Dairy Innovation Hub might not get all the funding that was intended. Jacque says there is no doubt the state will have to work on a budget repair bill because of the revenue lost to COVID-19 and the shutdown of the economy. He says Governor Tony Evers already called for spending reductions from state agencies.  The Dairy Innovation Hub was signed into law earlier this year providing nearly eight million dollars annually for dairy research through the University of Wisconsin’s Madison, River Falls, and Platteville campuses.

Contact tracing is turning out to be more difficult than expected during the coronavirus pandemic.  A spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services says about 20 percent of the cases can be traced back to bars and restaurants.  Doctor Ryan Westergaard says there is “incomplete data” on the other 80 percent.  Westergaard says it’s likely those positive cases came when people picked up the virus at home.  He says there have been outbreaks at work and in long-term care facilities, but no one knows for sure just where people are catching the virus.

 The Democratic Party has told members of the U-S House and Senate not to attend next month’s national convention in Milwaukee.  The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to run August 17th through the 20th.  Delegates will vote remotely between August 3rd and the 15th.  They’ve been told not to attend the convention either.  An email from Chasseny Lewis, a senior advisor to the convention committee, was sent to congressional aides this week.  The presumed nominee, Joe Biden, is still planning to accept the party’s nomination in Milwaukee.  All caucus and council meetings will be held virtually.

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections reports the April escape at the state prison in Columbia has cost 11 guards their jobs.  Seven staff members were fired and four more resigned as the investigation was being conducted.  The workers affected were notified Thursday.  Most of the seven staff members fired and one who was suspended for five days have the right to appeal the decision in their cases.  Two were in their probationary period and can’t appeal.  Thomas Deering and James Newman escaped the Columbia Correctional Institution April 16th and were taken into custody in Rockford, Illinois the next day.

The A-T-F is offering another five-thousand-dollar reward for information about five people suspected in the firebombing of the City-County building in Madison.  Police say Marquon Clark was arrested and identified as a person of interest in the case.  A Molotov cocktail was thrown into the building on June 24th following a protest and an office caught fire.  Special Agent in Charge Jon Ortiz says they were thrilled with the amount of response the A-T-F received related to the previous reward.  Anyone with information about the five people is asked to contact Madison Area Crime Stoppers.

A legislative bill announced Wednesday at the Wisconsin Capitol would make defacing or destroying a statue a felony.  Democratic State Senator Tim Carpenter, who was physically attacked by protesters last month, is one of two sponsors.  Republican State Representative Rob Hutton is the other.  The two are introducing the measure after protesters tore down a statue of Wisconsin abolitionist Hans Christian Heg and another representing the state’s Forward motto.  The penalty for damaging or defacing a statue, painting, or monument on public property could include up to three-and-a-half years in prison and a 10-thousand-dollar fine.

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers is granting 18 pardons this week -- the largest group so far.  The Governor's Pardon Advisory Board heard from the applicants virtually two weeks ago and sent its recommendations to the governor.  Evers said, "a pardon won’t fix the challenges facing our criminal justice system, but it can have a tremendous impact on a person’s life."  The governor says each of these people earned a pardon by serving their sentence and making positive contributions to society.  Evers has pardoned a total of 47 people following an eight-year hiatus under ex-Governor Scott Walker.  

 A big drop in Wisconsin's unemployment rate in June.  The Department of Workforce Development says the jobless rate fell from 12-point-one percent in May to eight-and-a-half percent last month.  It was 13-point-six percent in April due to major layoffs early in the COVID-19 pandemic.  Wisconsin added 104-thousand-600 non-farm and 99-thousand-300 private-sector jobs in June.  D-W-D Secretary Caleb Frostman said, "another month of strong job growth and a declining unemployment rate tells us that more Wisconsinites are getting back to work, driving our economic growth."

 The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is reversing course and decided to offer in-person hunter safety classes.  That means the state’s hunters will be able to get the training they need before heading out into the fields later this year.  The D-N-R had suspended the classes due to the coronavirus outbreak, but that brought on a lawsuit from Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.  The firm argued the D-N-R didn’t have the power to continue the class cancellations after the governor's Safer at Home order was ended.

 Target is the latest company to require its customers to wear face coverings during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The new takes effect August 1st in Target stores.  The Minnesota-based retailer says it will provide masks to those who do not have one.  Target says around 80 percent of its stores already require masks under local and state health regulations.  Wisconsin-based Kohl's and Walmart are also mandating face coverings in their stores on Monday.

The Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley is re-opening next week.  The zoo says it will allow a limited number of guests starting next Friday.  The zoo will open for special previews for employees Sunday through Wednesday.  Tickets are available online and will need to be purchased in advance.