The growing season may come to an end early Friday morning. The National Weather Service has issued a Freeze Warning for Western Wisconsin and Eastern Minnesota from 1am-8am Friday morning. Temperatures are expected to drop into the upper 20's which will damage or kill crops and other sensitive vegetation.
The Dunn County Health Department in northwest Wisconsin is confirming its first death from COVID-19 complications. Officials say the unidentified patient was elderly. Dunn County Health Officer K-T Gallagher said, "this death and our current high rate of infections emphasize the need for us all to do our part to preventing spreading COVID germs." A total of 612 people in the county have been diagnosed with the coronavirus. Dunn County is considered to have "very high" case activity.
One man has been arrested in Strum after a traffic incident. According to the Trempealeau County Sheriffs Department, deputies responded to a call that a male driver in a silver car had bumped the rear bumper of another car in the Co-Op Credit Union Parking lot. When Deputies arrived on scene the male driver of the car fled on foot. The K-9 unit was brought in and after a lengthy pursuit the male subject was arrested and identified as Jesse Honaker who had a Department of Corrections Warrant for his arrest.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission is continuing to have to deal with random mail and text spam to Wisconsin voters. Spokesman Reid Magney says those random voter registration forms you're getting in your mailbox are not probably not what's required. Magney says they're also having to deal with claims that people aren't registered to vote. If you're worried about your voting status, check online at My Vote dot W I dot Gov, or call your local clerk's office.
As the covid 19 pandemic contniues, tele-medicine has become an important part of medical care. 93rd Assemblyman Warren Petryk says tele medicine is more than just a nice thing to have for hospitals. Recently the Federal Communications Commission awarded Mayo Clinic $1 million to help them expand their video telehealth program throughout the Midwest, including in Western Wisconsin These funds will be used to help local clinics connect with patients directly in their homes allowing them to continue to receive their regular and follow-up care without costly delays.
Teachers unions from Wisconsin's largest cities want state health officials to order all K-12 schools, colleges and universities move to virtual learning until community spread COVID is contained. Milwaukee Teachers Education Association president Amy Mizialko said, "we're calling on the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to do their job, protect Wisconsinites, protect our students, protect our educators, protect our families." She claims that Wisconsin has reached "out of control, uncontained, exponential spread." Mizialko noted that it has been two weeks since Bay Port German teacher Heidi Husli died of coronavirus complications.
A federal judge is dismissing a lawsuit by U-S Senate candidate Jason Lewis challenging Minnesota’s coronavirus restrictions. The judge rejected his arguments that the rules unconstitutionally limit his freedom to campaign and that Governor Tim Walz acted within his authority to respond to the public health crisis when he imposed restrictions on crowd sizes, travel and other measures meant to slow the spread of COVID-19. Lewis says he intends to file an appeal. He said this fight is "for every Minnesotan whose business was hurt, who missed a paycheck, or lost their job because of this one-size-fits-all economic lockdown."
Senator Tammy Baldwin is calling on Verso Corporation to keep the community in mind in any future sale of a now shuttered paper mill. The mill in Wisconsin Rapids has been there for over 100 years, and Baldwin says it has maintained jobs and families for generations. She said "Verso Corporation should do right by the Wisconsin Rapids workers and small businesses that depend on the mill's success by selecting new owners that are committed to north central Wisconsin's future." The mill has changed hands several times after being sold off by the Mead family in 2000
The Washington County youth football coach accused of knowingly exposing his team to COVID-19 won't face charges. The Kewaskum Gridiron Club says it dismissed the coach and the county sheriff's office says he won't receive any further punishment. The sheriff also says the coach didn't violate Wisconsin's mask mandate.
UW-Madison’s student government is declaring it has "no confidence" in the university’s police department because it helped Madison police during protests over the summer. The Associated Students of Madison approved the symbolic measure on a vote of 9-5 Tuesday with nine abstentions. A-S-M voted against letting UW-Madison Police Chief Kristen Roman speak to the council during debate. Chairman Matthew Mitnick and other A-S-M members pushed the "no confidence" vote to express students’ discomfort with U-W-P-D’s involvement in policing protests off campus , as well as call attention to the department’s "unwillingness" to make changes requested by students.
A new audit report shows the Wisconsin Elections Commission reported 19 cases of possible voter fraud since 2018. W-E-C public information officer Reid Magney said these are possible, not proven cases and that Wisconsin has relatively low numbers of potential fraud cases. Magney said, "it almost never happens." He says most cases involve people voting twice, providing inaccurate information or felons trying to cast a ballot, and many cases are accidental. Magney said there are measures in place to ensure voter fraud doesn’t happen this year. He predicts around three-million people will vote in Wisconsin for the November election.
New research indicates that agriculture and forestry contribute more than 37-billion dollars to Minnesota's economy. Minnesota AgriGrowth and more than two dozen ag stakeholder groups released a study conducted by Decision Innovation Solutions. AgriGrowth executive director Tamara Nelsen says 37 billion dollars is "a tremendous number and hopefully in the next census of ag it’ll be $40 billion. We will hopefully have recovered from COVID." She says the study also shows 388-thousand jobs are attributable to the ag sector. Nelsen says the industry overcame numerous challenges "to ensure that Minnesotans get the food, fuel and fiber they need to keep our economy moving and families fed."
The Minnesota D-N-R is investigating after a 115-pound cougar was apparently struck and killed near the intersection of Interstates 35-W and 494 in Bloomington. Conservation officers say the cougar was taken to the D-N-R Wildlife research office in Grand Rapids for a necropsy. Officials have verified just 14 cougar sightings in the state since 2007. One was spotted earlier this month in southeastern Minnesota's Dodge County. Biologists say it's nearly impossible to determine how many cougars there might be in Minnesota.
Nearly half of Wisconsin hotels are at risk of closing. A recent internal survey by the Wisconsin Hotel & Lodging Association shows a staggering 47-percent of Wisconsin hotels and motels could be forced to close in the next year without government loans or grants. More than half of hotel staff in Wisconsin are furloughed or laid off in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some hotels are adjusting by promoting private workspaces available to rent -- as an alternative to working from home.
October is American Cheese Month, and there's more to American cheeses than just processed slices. Alice in Dairyland Julia Nunes says that many of your favorite cheeses originated right here. Colby, jack, Muenster, and brick are all from Wisconsin. Nunes says "we have a strong passion for dairy, and that's just a really big pride thing, they don't call us the Cheeseheads for nothing. "
No comments:
Post a Comment