The University of Wisconsin-River Falls is suspending in-person classes two weeks due to a spike in COVID cases on campus. Classes will be online-only and a shelter-in-place policy is in place to limit the spread and protect the community. U-W System President Tommy Thompson said" moving to online course delivery for a two-week period while sheltering in place can be an effective tactic, as we have seen elsewhere." The Pierce County Public Health Department has been working with UW-River Falls on testing and protocols.
As girls volleyball and other fall sports return, boys football is next this week with the first game on Friday. Durand-Arkansaw School Superintendent Greg Doverspike says district administrators are already working on winter sports. Doverspike reminds parents and fans to have patience as fall sports plans could change rapidly. Durand will be at Neillsville this Friday and you will be able to hear that game on WRDN and online at our website.
One person is dead after a motorcycle vs SUV accident in Chippewa County Saturday. According to the Chippewa County Sheriff's Department, the SUV was eastbound on Hwy 64 in the township of Cleveland and crossed the centerline while negotiating a curve. The SUV struck a westbound motorcycle. The driver of the motorcycle was ejected from the bike and was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the SUV was treated and released. The accident remains under investigation and the names of the drivers have not been released.
Twelve-year-old J-J Heine remembered the lessons he learned while attending the “Survive Alive House” fire safety program last year, saving his own life by climbing out onto his roof when his home caught on fire. He was the only member of his family on the second floor when the fire broke out Friday morning. His mother says she tried to get upstairs to J-J, but couldn’t get through the smoke. She says she thought her son was dead until she went outside and saw him on the roof. He had crawled out a window and started yelling for help. When firefighters arrived they used a ladder to bring him down to safety.
U-S Senator Ron Johnson says he's now fine, with a vote to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court. That's seemingly a reversal of the Republican's stance in 2016, when President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to fill the seat of the late Antonin Scalia. At the time, Johnson was on board as Republicans blocked the nomination, despite the fact Obama still had ten months remaining in his second term. This time, Johnson says he supports a vote on President Donald Trump's nominee to succeed the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Johnson says there's precedent for such an appointment when the Senate majority and the presidency are both held by the same party.
The state of Wisconsin has surpassed 100 thousand positive test results for COVID-19. Public health officials report 16-hundred-65 new cases Sunday – the first time in four days the state didn’t top two thousand. The record was set Friday when the total was adjusted to two-thousand-626. One death was recorded Sunday, putting the toll at one-thousand-242. Dane County Executive Joe Parisi has renewed his call for the University of Wisconsin-Madison to take action. Parisi says the surge is fueled mostly by the system’s decision to return to in-person classes -- something set to resume after Friday.
The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) announced Friday it has suspended all winter sports competitions through the end of 2020. The decision was a unanimous one by the conference's council of chancellors. It came after several meetings to discuss COVID-19 risks and safety protocols. The suspension includes men's and women's basketball, women's gymnastics, men's and women's ice hockey, men's and women's indoor track & field, men's and women's swimming & diving, and wrestling.
More drivers have been cited for D-W-I in 2020 than in 2019. The Minnesota State Patrol says there have been 300 more arrests for D-W-I than last year at this time. Public safety officials say that is concerning especially since bars and restaurants were closed for most of the summer.
Governor Tony Evers' Secretary of Workforce Development has resigned. The departure of Caleb Frostman from leadership of the department comes at the request of the Democratic governor, as DWD continues to work on a significant backlog of unemployment claims. While blaming legislative Republicans for a system unprepared to handle unprecedented claims during the COVID-19 pandemic, Evers said extended waits for families to receive needed benefits are unacceptable. Deputy Corrections Secretary Amy Pechacek will serve as interim DWD Secretary.
More people are returning to work in Wisconsin. The latest numbers from the state’s Department of Workforce Development show unemployment fell in Wisconsin last month, down to six-point-two percent. That's still twice what the state's jobless rate was before the coronavirus pandemic, but less than half the unemployment rate from April.
Madison Police have released two videos showing fireworks being shot at its officers while they rode in squad cars. The incidents happened in the early morning hours of August 26th during the unrest that broke out following widespread protests. Police say the fireworks were commercial-grade. In one incident, they landed close to the cruiser and the flash from the blast enveloped the squad car. A dashcam recorded a firework exploding right in front of the second squad car. Police say nearby officers were trying to stop criminal activity at the same time. Nobody was injured in either case.
School district officials in the Dallas area are investigating a writing assignment handed out by a high school English teacher. The teacher asked students to write about a modern-day hero – and listed 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse as one possible option. Rittenhouse is accused of killing two people and wounding a third during the Kenosha protests following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. The teacher also suggested Joseph Rosenbaum as a possibility. He’s one of the protesters Rittenhouse is accused of killing. Other possibilities were Mahatma Gandhi, Cesar Chavez, Malcolm X, and George Floyd.
A former Wisconsin high school principal faces up to 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to child sex charges. Forty-year-old David Hay was a principal in Tomah from 2011-to-2014 and had also served as an administrator at Kettle Moraine High School. He admitted exchanging sexually explicit digital images and videos with a 15-year-old boy, while also sending sexually explicit images of himself to the victim. Hay will be sentenced December 18th in Green Bay. He pleaded guilty to federal charges of child enticement and possession of child pornography.
The Washington County Sheriff's Office says the body of a third plane crash victim on Grey Cloud Island has been recovered. The small plane with three occupants onboard went down Sunday evening near the Mississippi River in the Cottage Grove area. A dive team found the wreckage in a water-filled quarry and the bodies of 60-year-old Larry Schlicting of Eagan and 24-year-old Lucas Knight of North Mankato earlier this week. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office will identify the third victim. The F-A-A is investigating the crash.
Wisconsin hunters are being asked to turn in deer heads as the Department of Natural Resources tries to track chronic wasting disease. The deer heads can be dropped off at sampling stations, self-service kiosks, or by contacting a D-N-R biologist. State officials say the heads will be collected for testing during the archery, crossbow, and gun hunting seasons. Scientists say they need a “robust sample size” to find out where the disease is located in Wisconsin. The focus is heightened in northeastern Wisconsin.
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