Local-Regional News November 3

Today is election Day. Durand City Clerk Angie Morgan reminds voters that it will take longer than normal to vote this year due to the covid-19 pandemic.  Polls are open in Wisconsin until 8pm tonight.

Over half of Wisconsin voters have voted absentee for todays election and that will delay the results. Durand City Clerk Angie Morgan says four people have to work on counting all of the absentee ballots.   Once all of the vote count is done, Morgan says all of the ballots and ballot envelopes are taken to the Pepin County Clerk.

The Plum City School Board held a special meeting last night to answer any last minute questions on todays referendum. The district is asking voters to approve exceeding the operating levy limit by $500,000 per year for the next five years. If voters approve the referendum, the tax levy will increase 31 cents to 11.43 per $1000 of property value.

One person is dead and another is seriously hurt after a fiery late-night crash. The Eau Claire County Sheriff's Office says a car with two people inside failed to stop at an intersection and hit an embankment. The car caught fire and the people were trapped inside. The sheriff's office said one person was pronounced dead at the scene. The other was taken to the hospital to be treated for their injuries.

Menomonie Pollce have arrested one person in connection with a stabbing incident on Sunday. According to authorities the stabbing happened in the 700 Block of Broadway street early Sunday morning. Police arrested a suspect on Monday and say the stabbing was an isolated incident and there is no threat to the community.

Kids in Bloomer will be learning from home for the next two weeks. The school district told parents on Friday that they are moving to online-only classes because a number of teachers and school staffers are in isolation or quarantine because of the coronavirus. The plan is to return to in-person classes on November 16th.

Wisconsin and Minnesota will see the return of summer-like temperatures this week. The National Weather Service says temperatures will be in the 60's starting Tuesday and could reach the 70's by the end of the week. The Weather Service says temperatures are likely to be below-normal next week.

 Rochester police are identifying the man shot and killed last Friday morning at an apartment building.  Officers say 18-year-old Mikayal Gordon of Rochester was found with a gunshot wound and died at the hospital.  An unidentified 20-year-old victim was also taken to the hospital in critical condition.  Investigators have not reported any arrests in the case.

 Wisconsin now ranks third in the nation for the number of new COVID-19 cases per capita.  Only North and South Dakota have higher rates of positive test results.  The seven-day average for new cases reached four-thousand-463 Monday and that’s nearly double the rate seen one month ago – nearly six times the rate in July.  There have been two-thousand-50 deaths in the state attributed to COVID-19.

A court commissioner in Kenosha County has set a two-million-dollar bail for 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse.  He’s charged with five felonies for an August shooting that left two protesters dead and a third wounded.  Rittenhouse was extradited from Illinois last Friday.  Defense lawyer Mark Richards had requested bail be set at 750 thousand dollars and the teenager be placed on electronic monitoring.  Court commission Loren Keating agreed with the prosecution’s request for two million, saying the first-degree intentional homicide charges are serious and deciding Rittenhouse would be a flight risk.

A 68-year-old Green Bay woman didn’t show up for her sentencing hearing Monday because she had died.  Kathryn Friday gave false testimony in a homicide case during a secret hearing last year.  She pleaded no contest to charges of conspiracy to commit perjury, perjury, and obstruction earlier this year.  Brown County officials haven’t said how or when Friday died.  The homicide trial for James Prokopovitz is scheduled for next February.  He’s accused of killing his wife even though her body has never been found.  Friday was facing a sentence of up to 12 years in prison.

The Green Bay Packers are going into a COVID-19 lockdown. The Green Bay Packers said on Monday that one of their players has tested positive for COVID-19 following Sunday's loss to the Vikings. The whole organization is now going into quarantine protocols and the NFL will be doing contact tracing to make sure that staff and players on other teams are free of the coronavirus. It's unclear if Thursday night's game against the 49ers will still be happening.

The Wisconsin Farm Bureau and Senator Ron Johnson are applauding the U-S Department of the Interior for removing the gray wolf from Endangered Species List.  Wisconsin’s gray wolf population has grown from 14 in 1985 to more than a thousand in the latest D-N-R count in the spring of 2020.  Farm Bureau president Job Bragger said, "Wisconsin farmers and rural residents have dealt with nightmare situations with wolf attacks on pets and livestock."  Senator Johnson added," I've fought for Wisconsin’s farmers, ranchers, hunters, and land owners to delist the gray wolf through multiple pieces of legislation and amendments since 2015, but Congress has repeatedly failed to act."  Management of the wolf population now goes back to the state.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission reports almost half of all the registered voters in the state have cast their ballots early.  As of Sunday, more than one-point-eight million people voted early or by absentee ballot.  Wisconsin is home to about three-point-six-million registered voters.  Election officials say there are still thousands of absentee ballots that haven’t been returned.  To be counted, those ballots have to be dropped off in-person before 8:00 p-m on Election Day.

A federal judge has declined to issue a temporary order stopping the evacuations of homeless people from Minneapolis city parks.  Judge Wilhelmina Wright made her ruling last week saying Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid and the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota failed to demonstrate irreparable harm.  The suit had been filed on behalf of seven people who had been living in the encampments.  The suit alleged Minneapolis and Hennepin County officials had violated the constitutional rights of those seven by kicking them out and destroying their possessions.

The Minnesota State Patrol says it is hiring up to 60 new troopers as it deals with a rapidly-rising number of traffic deaths.  As of last week, more than 300 people have died on state roads this year.  A background in law enforcement isn’t required.  A spokesperson says the Patrol has hired teachers, bankers, and even college graduates who haven’t found a job yet.  Those chosen go through the Law Enforcement Training Opportunity program, with the tuition covered by the state.  Applications will be accepted until November 15th.  The Patrol is looking for a person with a passion for traffic safety and those who “have a feeling they want to make a difference.”

Madison firefighters rescued a passenger from a car sinking in a lake Saturday night.  The victim was trapped in the back seat and didn’t have a pulse when they were pulled out by the emergency responders.  The accident happened near the Warner Park board launch.  The firefighters administered C-P-R until paramedics arrived to provide advanced life support.  The victim regained a pulse before reaching the emergency room.  No names have been released and authorities have provided no update on that person’s medical condition.