One person is dead after a roll-over accident in the Town of Colfax on Saturday. According to the Dunn County Sheriffs Department an SUV was traveling northbound on Hwy M when the driver of the vehicle lost control on a curve, causing the vehicle to roll over multiple times. Emergency responders attempted life saving measures but were unsuccessful. The Dunn County Medical Examiners offices pronounced the driver deceased. The crash remains under investigation by the Dunn County Sheriffs Department.
A federal jury in Madison has found a former Chippewa Falls man guilty of stealing about four million dollars from the Pentagon. The court determined Craig Klund used fake companies to charge the government for work that was never done 30 years ago. Klund was accused of moving to South Dakota two years ago to avoid investigators. He already spent two years in prison in the 1990s for the same scam. If he is convicted this time, he could be sentenced to 20 years in prison.
A Rochester man is sentenced to 24 years in prison for sexually assaulting a young girl. Thirty-seven-year-old Mark Mitchell pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. Olmsted County prosecutors filed a motion seeking a lengthy prison sentence for Mitchell based on the multiple assaults suffered by the child. The criminal complaint says Mitchell began abusing the girl last December and it continued for several weeks before Rochester police were contacted in February.
La Crosse firefighters found a body of a person inside a burning garage early Sunday morning. Emergency responders found the detached garage fully involved, with heavy fire and smoke, when they arrived. The dead body was found inside. No identification has been reported. La Crosse Battalion Chief Jeff Schott says fire crews first arrived on the scene at about 3:45 a-m. They were able to put the fire out in about 10 minutes before it spread to any nearby buildings. The fatality victim was the only person injured.
The Wisconsin Public Service Commission has voted to continue the moratorium on utility disconnections until April 15th. While the moratorium continues, customers who are behind on their bill are reminded that while the utility cannot disconnect service, you are still responsible for the bill. You encourage to contact your utility to work out a payment plan and also to ask about home heating assistance plans from the state of wisconsin.
COVID-19 vaccine trials at the University of Wisconsin are among those which have been resumed. Pharmaceutical giant Astra-Zeneca suspended the testing last month when a trial participant in the United Kingdom became since. A review determined the test vaccine didn’t cause the illness. The resumption of the trials was announced over the weekend. Scientists at U-W Health and the U-W School of Medicine will begin contacting participants after getting the approval to resume the trials.
A new report from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources suggests the state's air quality is improving. The report finds that concentrations of most pollutants under E-P-A national standards have decreased in all regions of the state since monitoring begin. The D-N-R says the air quality has improved 25 percent along the Lake Michigan shoreline, which is historically impacted by elevated ozone concentrations. The reports also shows air pollutant emissions decreased substantially from 2002 to 2017. Researchers say the greatest reductions are the result of cleaner burning and more efficient fuel combustion from highway vehicles and electric utilities.
A bill co-sponsored by Senator Amy Klobuchar calls for a study on the effects of the COVID pandemic on the travel and tourism industry. The results would be used to identify policy recommendations to assist the hard-hit industry. Klobuchar said, “from Lake Superior to the Mall of America, Minnesota is home to exceptional tourist destinations—but as travel has been limited during the coronavirus pandemic, the tourism industry has been hit particularly hard.” She says this bipartisan legislation will help support the travel and tourism industry, which will boost local economies. Klobuchar co-chairs the Senate Travel and Tourism Caucus with Missouri Republican Roy Blunt.
Wisconsin officials question whether Foxconn’s plant in Mount Pleasant will ever fully open. The Department of Administration confirms it sent a memo cited in a recent investigative report that said Foxconn’s plant may be a better demonstration facility than a factory. The administration and the article both question whether Foxconn will ever make good on its promises of thousands of Wisconsin jobs. Foxconn says it remains committed to its project in Mount Pleasant, but didn’t offer any specifics.
Unemployment Wisconsin workers will be getting a little additional help. The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development says people will have their benefits bumped up by 300 dollars-a-week. The change means people getting unemployment could receive up to 18 hundred dollars for payments retroactive to August 1st and lasting up to the week of September 5th. The additional funding comes from the federal Lost Wages Assistance Program as part of FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund.
A new liberal legal group called “Law Forward” has been formed to defend what its organizers call “progressive traditions” and to fight voter suppression efforts. Wisconsin attorneys who have represented Democrats and opposed interests against Republicans announced the formation Thursday. The effort is to strike a counter-balance to the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. It has initiated several high-profile legal challenges to the actions of the Evers administration. It’s currently asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to accept a case seeking to have the governor’s face mask emergency order overturned.
The U-S Department of Justice is taking the first steps toward the creation of a national center to help law enforcement agencies. It will provide training and assistance to help prevent the use of excessive force. The announcement was made this week in Minneapolis where federal officials are hoping the city will be the first to use the federal resource. The Minneapolis Police Department has been pressured to reform since the May 25th death of George Floyd. Police Chief Medaria Arradondo says he is grateful for the offer and hopes city leaders will take advantage of it.
Many Minnesota businesses have open jobs but are reporting having a hard time finding the employees they need. At the same time, the state’s unemployment rate remains elevated with workers continuing to seek job opportunities. That’s why DEED is launching the hashtag #GoodJobsNow, an interactive set of resources connecting Minnesota employers hiring right now with job seekers looking for work. DEED Commissioner Steve Grove says "while we know that for many Minnesotans that changing jobs might be hard, we do want to highlight both what is available in the market and also how we can help people get those jobs."
The McIver Institute is questioning just how much it is costing the state of Wisconsin to treat one person at its 15-million-dollar overflow hospital at the state fairgrounds. The hospital was built to handle up to 500 patients if Wisconsin hospitals were overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. Governor Evers ordered it opened up for 50 patients last week, but only one is being treated there right now. The institute’s Brett Healy says Wisconsin’s regular hospitals were supposed to get nearly a half-billion dollars to treat coronavirus patients. He wants to know where that money is and whether it is efficient to spend so much on the unused beds in the overflow hospital.
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