A 33-year-old rural Durand man – already charged with sexually assaulting a child – is now accused of sexually assaulting another victim while waiting for his trial. Investigators say Branden Linhart confessed, saying, “I am a monster.” He was already charged in Eau Claire County with the repeated sexual assault of a child in 2017. The victim is now 13 and she says the attacks went on for six years. Linhart has an October court date. He also faces charges he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in Dunn County last August.
One person is dead after a motorcycle crash near Bay City over the weekend. According to the Wisconsin State Patrol, 60yr old Michael Nelson of Elysian, MN was traveling westbound on 170th Avenue and failed to negotiate a curve in the roadway. The motorcycle left the roadway and collided into a drainage ditch. Nelson was pronounced dead at the scene.
Two people were injured in a motorcycle accident in Milton Township on Saturday, According to the Buffalo County Sheriffs Department, 41yr old Curtis Huff of Eau Claire was traveling on Lower Eagle Valley Road and lost control of his motorcycle on a curve when driving over sand in the roadway. Huff laid the bike down on its side on the roadway. Huff was med flighted to the hospital with serious injuries, while his passenger 38yr old Tara Huff received minor injuries.
Two people were injured in a two motorcycle accident in Fountain City on Saturday. According to the Buffalo County Sheriffs Department, the accident happened on Hwy 35 in front of the Monarch Tavern when 51yr old Jeffrey Dahl of Alma was making a right turn and was struck by a motorcycle driven by 64yr old Mark Prevost of Buffalo City. Prevost was thrown from his motorcycle and landed in the middle of the road, while Dahl had his motorcycle land on his leg. Dahl's passenger 48yr old Amy Dahl of Alma was not injured.
Three people were injured in a three vehicle accident in the village of Ettrick on Monday. According to the Trempealeau County Sheriffs Department, A vehicle traveling northbound on Hwy 53 slowed to turn into a driveway, and was struck by another northbound vehicle causing the first vehicle to be pushed into the southbound lane and be struck by a commercial van. All three drivers had to be transported to area hospitals and Hwy 53 was closed for several hours while crews cleaned up the scene. That accident remains under investigation.
The Mondovi City Council is meeting tonight. Items on the agenda include a public hearing on the Wastewater System Improvements, discussion and possible action on the installation of a turning lane off of Hwy 37 onto Countryside Parkway and discussion and possible action on an emergency action plan for the Mirror Lake Dam. Tonight's meeting begins at 6:30 at the Marten Center in Mondovi.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation has told Taiwan tech giant Foxconn it won’t qualify for billions of dollars in tax credits without signing a new deal. The message has been consistent for more than two years since the size of the original project was scaled back. The original agreement called for almost four billion dollars in state and local tax incentives. That was based on plans for a 10-billion-dollar manufacturing plant that would employ up to 13 thousand people. The letter was sent Monday. Foxconn has offered no public response.
It’s the time of year when Wisconsin drivers need to look out for deer. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is out with its annual warning about deer in the road. Deer are most active this time of year, especially at dusk and dawn. The D-O-T says it’s better to hit a deer than to swerve, and possibly cause a worse crash by going into a ditch or hitting a tree.
A survey of around 97-hundred Minnesota teachers finds many are overwhelmed in the classroom during the COVID pandemic. Education Minnesota President Denise Specht says nearly 30 percent of the state's union teachers are thinking about quitting or retiring. She says many of them are stretched thin with in-person teaching assignments, distance learning, and then a hybrid mix. Numbers from the Teachers Retirement Association show applications for retirements in Minnesota increased 35 percent in August of September.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will keep his emergency COVID powers after the Democrat-led Minnesota House voted to support the 30-day extension. Republican Representative Eric Lucero of Dayton voted "no" and said people and businesses, especially in rural Minnesota are struggling because of the governor's decisions. The GOP-controlled Senate voted earlier Monday to terminate the governor's peacetime emergency powers. Governor Walz said, "as we watch cases dramatically rise in states around us, we must double down in our efforts to protect Minnesota from the spread of COVID-19."
A St. Croix County judge has ruled against a conservative law firm who tried to challenge Governor Evers' powers to issue emergency orders. Judge Michael Waterman has denied a request to halt Governor Evers' public health emergency order. The Wisconsin Institute for law and Liberty, backed up by legislative Republicans, said that Governor Evers did not have the power to issue more than one 60 day order in a row for the same crisis. Attorneys for the Governor's office said new orders can be issued if the public health emergency is still ongoing. Judge Waterman agreed with the Governor's office, and said that the 60 day time limit was a sufficient check, because the Governor has to explain in each order why the state of emergency still exists. He says that the legislature can end the state of emergency at any time, but so far, it has declined to do so. Judge Waterman's ruling has an effect of keeping both the mask mandate and the newly issued occupancy mandate in effect.
The owner of the property where federal investigators say men trained while planning to kidnap Michigan’s governor will face no criminal charges. (That person hasn’t been named). Cambria Village President Glen Williams has confirmed the farm is in the Township of Courtland, halfway between Cambria and Randolph - and it has a Cambria address. The farm’s owner apparently has no direct relationship with the 13 men charged in the plot, though he did invite them to practice shooting there. A domestic terrorism analyst says paramilitary training activity isn’t illegal in most states.
Waukesha County Circuit Judge Brad Schimmel is returning to the bench after hearing cases remotely because he refused to wear a mask. Schimmel is a former Wisconsin attorney general. He has been presiding over cases by video from his chambers for several weeks. The dispute over mask use made it all the way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court – where the chief justice was forced to step in. Schimmel is now wearing a mask in his courtroom and he says he has no quarrel with the chief justice moving forward.
The Wisconsin Restaurant Association says without government assistance more of the state’s eating establishments will close for good. Vice President Susan Quam says about one-third of all restaurant employees have already been laid off. Quad says there was an outpouring of support as the pandemic first hit, but those businesses can’t survive with limited capacity. She says another round of Payroll Protection Program loans lasting 24 weeks, instead of eight, are needed to get Wisconsin restaurants through the winter. She warns as many as one-third of all restaurants in the state could be closed forever if the help isn’t forthcoming.
Several neighborhood groups like “MAD DADS” and “A Mother’s Love” think the 22-thousand-square-foot Gordon Center could be put to use to help at-risk kids. The building has been vacant for the last 15 years. Those groups think it could be set up to give the kids a chance to focus on positive things like computer technology, counseling, and peer groups. Minneapolis Public Schools has agreed to sell the building to Hennepin County so it can open a shelter for women. That idea fell apart when people living nearby opposed it.
Leaders of the University of Minnesota System say they are changing spring break plans at five campuses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The weeklong vacation will be delayed from March to April at the Twin Cities and Rochester locations. The days off will be spread across the spring semester for students in Duluth, Morris, and Crookston. University officials say social distancing and face mask requirements will stay in effect during the upcoming semester – while professors will be given the choice of teaching online or in-person once again.
An Ashland couple has made a discovery of an object dating back 30 years to a class project. Lynn and Mike BeBeau say they were enjoying the fall colors on the shores of the Apostle Islands when they found a “piece of wood” buried in the sand. It turned out that the tiny wooden boat painted red, white, and blue had been part of a second-grade class project at Lakewood Elementary School in Duluth in 1993. The boats were released into Lake Superior as an experiment. At least one more of the boats was found a few years ago on the lake’s northern shore.
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