Property owners in the City of Durand should be receiving their property tax bills in the mail soon. Durand Mayor Patrick Milliren says if you want to pay your taxes in person at city hall you need to call ahead to make an appointment. Taxpayers will see a reduction in the lottery and first home tax credits in this year's bills.
Pepin County has applied with the state to have another free covid-19 test day. Pepin County Health Officer Heidi Stewart says there are discussions of having the site in Pepin. The Wisconsin National Guard is conducting the free test sites.
Dunn County non-profits are splitting $20,000 in funding provided by The Dunn County Covid-19 response fund from the Community Foundation of Dunn County's Common Good and Healthy Future Funds. Organizations receiving grants include The Bridge to Hope, United Way, West Cap, and The Dunn County Humane Society. A total of $91,634 has been granted across 24 nonprofit organizations to help with COVID-19 relief so far this year.
Eau Claire police report the 37-year-old Indiana man who was stabbed on Thanksgiving has died. Officials say the cause of death for Travis Smith is listed as a stab wound to the chest and the manner of death was a homicide. Kelly Weiberg is being held in the Eau Claire County Jail. Witnesses told police Weiberg was the one who stabbed Smith. Investigators say he admitted to being intoxicated and using a knife against a man.
Republican leaders in the Wisconsin Legislature accuse Governor Tony Evers of making too many unilateral decisions on the state’s response to COVID-19. They want oversight of how Wisconsin spends the federal pandemic relief money it receives and how vaccines are distributed in the coming months. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and incoming Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu made the comments during a conference call with the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce Wednesday. Vos and LeMahieu say legislative oversight would create more transparency.
Authorities in Monroe County say a domestic abuse incident in a rural home near Norwalk led to a two-hour standoff starting early Wednesday. Deputies were called to the location just after 6:00 a-m. The information they received gave them probable cause to arrest 39-year-old Kenneth M. Sizemore. Because he was reportedly armed, the Monroe County Tactical Unit was called in. Authorities say Sizemore refused to communicate with them for almost two hours but eventually gave up just as they were about to deploy chemical agents. He’s being held in the Monroe County Jail on charges of recklessly endangering safety, false imprisonment, child abuse and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
A proposed 216-million-dollar Minnesota state aid package for COVID-closed restaurants, bars and other businesses is in jeopardy over unemployment benefits. Republican Senator Eric Pratt of Prior Lake said, "we were too far apart. We wanted to do something that was truly a gap. They wanted to do something that was much broader, going out 'til June." House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler says "we are not going to help businesses and then screw the very workers who got laid off from those businesses. He says the House will not pass the relief package without an unemployment benefits extension: Lawmakers and the governor are trying to get a deal in time for Monday's special session.
The risk of fires in your home goes up during the holidays -- making it an important time to check your smoke detectors. Wisconsin Emergency Management spokesman, Andrew Beckett, you should have smoke detectors on every level of your home. Be sure that they have fresh batteries and have been tested recently. Smoke detectors need to be replaced about every ten years. Find out more about holiday fire safety, at readywisconsin-dot-gov.
Minnesota's Keith Ellison is among 23 attorneys general urging the U-S Supreme Court to reject a lawsuit by the Texas A-G seeking to overturn election results in four states. President-elect Joe Biden won Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania by a total of 270-thousand votes - and recounts in Wisconsin and Georgia confirmed his victory. Ellison said in a statement, "the attorney general of Texas is making a last-ditch, evidence-free effort to undemocratically throw out the votes in states where he just doesn’t like the result." G-O-P Senator John Cornyn of Texas criticized the lawsuit saying "he doesn't understand why Texas is seeking to dictate how other states run their elections.'
--
One of several lawsuits against the election filed by a former Trump attorney has been tossed out of a federal court in Wisconsin. That lawsuit, one of the so-called 'Kraken' cases filed by former Trump attorney Sidney Powell, was dismissed on Wednesday by federal Judge Pamela Pepper. In her order, Judge Pepper called the lawsuit quote - an extraordinary intrusion on state sovereignty from which a federal court should abstain - unquote. Judge Pepper further wondered why the private citizen Powell was representing even thought that they had standing to file the case, given that they were not a candidate in the election. That loss to the Trump campaign follows three other losses at the State Supreme Court.
Public health officials say they are concerned by the steep and steady decline in the number of people getting tested for COVID-19. Wisconsin is said to be equipped to test far more people than the number who have been showing up at testing sites. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services expected a drop-off during Thanksgiving week, but the trend has continued. Secretary Andrea Palm says a few other states have also seen declines, but many more have actually seen an increase since the holiday.
Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm says it could take several weeks before all of Minnesota's health care workers and nursing home residents are vaccinated for COVID-19. She says they are a high priority for vaccination -- but the vaccine supply will be limited in the early weeks and months of distribution. There are an estimated 500-thousand people in the category of "health care workers and long-term care residents." The state is expecting enough doses by year's end to vaccine about 183 thousand.
Southwest Airlines says it is furloughing 144 workers at Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee. The coronavirus pandemic has caused a drop in the number of travelers, costing the company billions of dollars. Southwest says CARES Act funding has helped it stay afloat, but the program has ended for now and Congress is deadlocked. With future help from the federal government uncertain, the airline decided to start cutting expenses this month. Southwest revenue was off by about 70-percent in the third quarter of this fiscal year.
Senator Tammy Baldwin wants the FBI and Homeland Security to investigate the Q-Anon group and report back to Congress. Baldwin says the damage is already being done by the movement. The House of Representatives has already passed a measure denouncing the movement, and Baldwin wants to make sure that federal agencies and law enforcement are giving Qanon the proper attention.
The University of Minnesota Board of Regents is expected to take up the idea of a tuition-free program for low-income students when it meets Friday. The program would be limited to Minnesota families with an adjusted gross income of 50-thousand dollars-a-year or less. The program could start as soon as next year. The students would apply for other forms of financial aid, then the new program would cover the remaining costs. The school leaders are also focusing on ways to reduce the average student debt to less than 25-thousand dollars for those who graduate.
No comments:
Post a Comment