A Durand man is dead after a one-vehicle accident on Thursday. According to the Pepin County Sheriffs Department, 41yr old Corey R. Bignell was eastbound on Hwy 10 near Rustad Lane, when he lost control causing the vehicle to roll multiple times. Bignell was ejected from the vehicle. He was transported to Advent Health in Durand and later to Mayo Hospital in Eau Claire where he was pronounced dead. No seatbelt and alcohol are believed to be factors in the cause of the crash and death. That accident remains under investigation by the Pepin County Sheriffs Department.
The Pepin County Government Center will remain in lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. At this month's county board meeting, members voted to continue the lockdown. Those that need to meet with a county department in person will have to call ahead and make an appointment. Supervisors also extended until June 1st the online option of public meetings and will allow board members, committee members, and staff to attend the meetings remotely and be counted for quorum with full per diem. Supervisors will review the building lockdown next month.
The group wanting to save the grotto at the Pepin County Government Center has been given an extra 6 months. The Pepin County Administrative Committed approved the request during this month's committee meeting. The group is raising money to have the grotto moved to Round Hill from the government center and blamed the current covid-19 pandemic for limiting fundraising efforts. The group now has until June 1st to have the grotto moved.
There will be a spring break for Durand-Arkansaw school district students for the 2021-2022 school year. Durand-Arkansaw Superintendent Greg Doverspike says it can be a long stretch of school from January to Easter without a break. Board members had an option of a calendar without a spring break and earlier end of year date but went with the spring break version of the calendar.
An Eau Claire man, who admited to beating his neighbor to death, has been denied a request to be released from a state mental institution. James E. Olson petitioned for conditional release from the Mendota Mental Institution in September. A psychiatrist testified that he believed Olson no longer poses a threat to himself or others but did admit that Olsons Illness would return if treatment stopped. Olson was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the murder of Paul Oberle in 2012.
Wisconsin’s largest dairy group is joining with a group of conservationists and environmentalists to look at clean water. The Wisconsin Dairy Business Association is signing-on to an agreement with Clean Wisconsin, The Nature Conservancy in Wisconsin, and the Wisconsin Land and Water Conservation Association. The D-B-A says farmers want to find a way to project clean water in the state and work toward a solution. Most of the focus will be on well water in rural parts of Wisconsin and paying for well improvements.
The incoming Wisconsin Senate majority leader says allowing earlier counting of absentee ballots is one of his priorities as the next legislative session approaches. Republican Devin LeMahieu says he wants to pass a bill to change the state law and allow those ballots to be counted before Election Day. He tried to get it passed last year by working with Democrats, but his own party stopped it. Members of the Wisconsin Legislature are said to be looking at making election-related changes after claims of widespread fraud during and after the November vote.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul is joining a bipartisan group of attorneys general suing Google for anti-competitive conduct. The 38 states allege that Google illegally maintains its monopoly over general search engines and related advertising markets through a series of anticompetitive exclusionary contracts. The suit claims Google has deprived customers of competition that could lead to greater choice, innovation, and better privacy protections. Nearly 90-percent of all internet searches in the U-S are on Google, leaving consumers with little choice other than to accept its privacy practices and data collection policies.
Wisconsin's unemployment rate dropped a full point in November to five percent. The Department of Workforce Development reports the state lost one-thousand private-sector jobs last month. Wisconsin's labor force participation rate was 61-and-a-half percent in November - five-point-four percent higher than the national rate. The U-S unemployment rate was six-point-seven percent last month.
Minnesota regulators are giving the nod to Xcel Energy dropping its request for a rate increase. Minnesota Public Utilities Commission officials say with the economic effect of the ongoing COVID pandemic, it will ensure that base rates for all Xcel customers remain unchanged for 2021. Xcel has also committed to increasing its contribution to the Residential Payment Plan Credit Program by about nine million dollars.
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The Wisconsin Building Commission has approved the spending of 350-million dollars on renovation projects. Much of the money will go toward repairing or renovating buildings in the U-W System. One of the big ones is the construction and renovation of the Veterinary Medicine addition in Madison. Renovation is coming for the Student Union on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus. A half-million dollars is dedicated to planning for the design of the new Engineering Building there. Governor Tony Evers has called the projects “important investments” in the state’s infrastructure.
There's partisan disagreement, over who's to blame for the slow pace of getting unemployment checks to people in need. Republicans say it's poor leadership from a Democratic governor - Democrats blame Republican unwillingness to take action. Auditors say changes are needed in the adjudication process at the Department of Workforce Development. Tens-of-thousands of applicants have had to wait five weeks or more before they find out if they qualify for unemployment. Leaders at D-W-D say they’ve been dealing with the equivalent of four years of claims in just nine months, due to COVID-19 job losses.
A rural prosperity plan for Wisconsin calls for more spending on numerous needs. The plan from Governor Evers’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Rural Prosperity is out with a list of ten recommendations. It wants more investment in high-speed internet and rural roads. The commission also wants to spend more on the arts and to build inclusive communities in rural Wisconsin. To help pay for all of this, commission members want to allow local communities to raise local taxes more easily, and get more state money to smaller communities.
Illinois authorities say they are going to be billing Green Bay-based REDI Transports for the cost of tracking down an accused killer. Surveillance video tells a different story about the way 22-year-old Leon Taylor escaped from a transport van at an Indiana McDonald’s. Taylor is still at large. The driver said he jumped out a window, but the video shows Taylor wasn’t wearing shackles and got out through a door on the van. Lake County, Illinois Sheriff Oscar Martinez Junior says his office believes Taylor wouldn’t have escaped if he had been wearing shackles. Lake County says it will take the Wisconsin business to court to recover its costs if it has to.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is among a group of Midwest governors telling people to stay home and stay away from others during the holidays. Walz joined the governors of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin is urging people not to travel for Christmas or New Year’s – and not to celebrate with anyone outside their home. The governors say even one infection could flood hospitals. The same sentiment was expressed before Thanksgiving.
Wausau police say an unidentified man who found three thousand dollars cash and gift envelopes on the street Wednesday morning, contacted the bank where it had been withdrawn. Lieutenant Lew-eish Lopes says the money was returned to the rightful owner. Lopes calls the actions of the good Samaritan "very awesome."
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