Forecasters say it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas across Western Wisconsin and Minnesota today. The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings, a blizzard warning, and winter weather advisories across the area.. Temperatures will drop from the 30s to single digits as an arctic front arrives and northwest winds ramp up. The precipitation is expected to start as rain then change over to all snow by this evening. The Weather Service says some areas to the west could receive 4-6inches of snow while areas to the east could see 2-5inches.
The Pepin County Board approved a new position in the Human Services Department. The board approved the creation and filling of a Family Preservation Worker Position starting in 2021. The county had contracted with Almost Family to provide child protection services but the employee has retired and the company has no replacement to continue services. The board had approved a position in the 2021 budget.
Congressman Ron Kind is happy to see a broader rollout of the new COVID-19 vaccines, both the Pfizer and the Moderna versions. Kind says everyone, even those who don't think they need to worry about COVID, need to get their shots. Kind say that it's important to remember that the virus doesn't discriminate along party lines, faiths, or creeds, and that the more people get vaccinated the safer we will all be.
A former Eau Claire man is facing theft charges. Tim Jones has been charged with felony theft in a business setting after authorities accused him of stealing more than $94,000 while working as a division manager at Van Ert Electric in Eau Claire. Authorities claim Jones took the company's scrap metal to a scrapyard and kept the proceeds. Jones says the money was used for company expenses. He will be back in Eau Claire County Court in March.
Owners of Electric Vehicles will have new options to charge their vehicles. A group of Electric Co-ops in Western Wisconsin, including Dunn Energy and Pierce-Pepin Electric Co-Op are joining 29 other co-ops to install charging stations over the next years. The goal is to add 30 new charging stations in the next year. The new stations are part of a new network called Charge EV, LLC.
The Northern Wisconsin State Fair has announced its dates for 2021. The fair will be July 7th-11th at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair Grounds in Chippewa Falls. Organizers say that advance tickets from 2020 will be good for 2021 and announced that Trace Adkins and Lanco will make up part of the Main Stage lineup. The fair was canceled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to a Dane County ban on indoor gatherings. Tuesday’s vote was four-to-three. The ban was put in place to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, but it has been devastating to bars and restaurants. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty had argued the county and city of Madison unlawfully ceded their authority to make laws to the city-county health department. Justices emphasized their court isn’t designed to take up cases “in the first instance.” That’s supposed to happen on the circuit court level.
Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature say the only compromise in the package of bills sought by Governor Tony Evers would be on their part. Evers is pushing them to pass additional COVID relief by the end of the year. He says one of his bills should pass easily because it includes provisions he and the legislative leaders agree on. Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says the governor essentially ended negotiations with them by releasing the two bills. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu says the state needs to assess the impact of federal relief. He says if Governor Evers wants to talk – his door is still open.
Wisconsin residents will soon be able to take a coronavirus test in the comfort of their own home. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services says at-home COVID-19 saliva collection kits will be available to anyone who wants one for free. Governor Tony Evers said, "getting to a health care provider or community testing site isn't easy for everyone and that's why we are excited to offer this new option to make testing even more accessible for folks across our state." The kits can be ordered online and shipped to your home. You will have to collect the saliva during a video call with Vault Medical Services and then send it back to the lab.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz set a goal of enrolling one-million acres by the end of 2022 in a voluntary agricultural program that helps protect the state's water. The governor says 977 farms totaling over 685-thousand acres are already participating in the Water Quality Certification Program, and have added over 110 thousand acres of new cover crops and almost two thousand new conservation practices. Walz says that effort has kept over 38-thousand tons of sediment out of Minnesota's rivers and saved nearly 108-thousand tons of soil. Farmers and landowners interested in becoming water quality certified should contact their local Soil and Water Conservation District.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Brian Hagedorn says he is receiving extra police protection after several controversial rulings. Hagedorn sided with the court’s liberal justices on high-profile cases like the rejection of President Trump’s effort to have 220-thousand absentee ballots thrown out. Hagedorn tells W-I-S-N Television he is doing the best he can to follow the law “regardless of politics.” Conservatives back him when he was elected to the high court last year. The president has targeted him in a series of tweets. Hagedorn says he’s not aware of any death threats. He says he’s not the only justice to get the extra protection.
All six Republicans representing Wisconsin in Washington D.C. voted no, on the massive coronavirus relief and government funding legislation passed Monday night. The legislation, combining a 900 billion dollar coronavirus relief plan with 1.4 trillion dollars to fund the federal government through the end of next September passed with large majorities in both chambers. In the U.S. Senate, Republican Ron Johnson was one of only six no votes. In the House, Wisconsin Republicans Tom Tiffany, Bryan Steil, Mike Gallagher, Glenn Grothman and Jim Sensenbrenner were among the 53 Republicans voting no
More than 10-thousand people in Wisconsin have been vaccinated against COVID-19. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services says health care workers and people living in long-term care facilities were among the first to get the vaccine in this state. Wisconsin began administering Pfizer’s vaccine after it received F-D-A approval for emergency use on December 11th. As of Sunday, 10-thousand-538 doses of the vaccine have been administered to people in Wisconsin. Nearly 185-thousand doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been allocated for people in the Badger State.
Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Shane Blaser says talks with Verso Corporation about the local paper mill have picked up in recent weeks. Blaser says the company still intends to sell the mill. More than 900 workers lost their jobs when operations were shut down earlier this year. The mill had been operating in Wisconsin Rapids for more than a century. Blaser says for the first time Verso has given an indication it might continue operating the mill once the COVID-damaged economy turns around. Efforts to save the mill went off the tracks in October when Verso suspended its efforts to sell it due to the current economic climate.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office has declined to charge nine Minneapolis police officers for a fatal shooting last December. Chiasher Vue was killed when officers responded to a 9-1-1 call about a man carrying a knife and shooting a gun inside the house. Several family members got out safely, but one was still inside with the 52-year-old armed man. County Attorney Mike Freeman determined the officers’ actions were justified because Vue escalated the situation when he raised a rifle to his shoulder and pointed it at them.
A Kenosha woman can thank her roommate for saving her from a knife attack earlier this month. Karen Robenson says her nephew was visiting on December 11th, but he was behaving strangely. Suddenly, Jarron Johnson started stabbing her. Robenson’s roommate, Linda Boyd, heard the struggle, came into the room, grabbed a heavy glass ashtray, and hit the attacker in the head. Then, the two women ran to safety. Robenson was stabbed 18 times but she’s expected to survive. Her 30-year-old nephew faces one felony count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide. He is being held on a 700-thousand-dollar cash bond
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