The Mondovi City Council is meeting tonight. Items on the agenda include discussion and possible action on increasing the assessment for the Mondovi Ambulance Service, increasing the city's revolving loan line of credit for optional use in processing payments for the Waste Water Treatment Plant, and reports from the mayor, administrator, and department heads. Tonight's meeting begins at 6:30 at the Marten Center.
The reconstruction of 3rd Avenue East and Laneville Road in Durand is scheduled for 2021. Durand Mayor Patrick Milliren says once the weather warms up the work will begin. The city will be holding public hearings on the project and also the special assessment for property owners on Laneville Road in the coming weeks.
Eau Claire County investigators say a woman who has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors had written checks to herself, failed to deposit fundraiser money, and even had run tabs in bars on the victims’ accounts. Christine Busse has pleaded guilty to two of the three charges she faced. Busse took the money while serving as treasurer of the Sam Davey Elementary School P-T-A and Eau Claire Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops. Busse told investigators she planned to pay it all back when she was confronted, but she admitted the situation got out of hand. She will have to do nine weeks of community service, pay the money back at one-thousand dollars-a-month, and can’t serve as treasurer of any more organizations.
A Dunn County Taxi Cab driver has been found guilty in a sexual assault case. Edward Woodberry was driving a cab in Menomonie in 2017 when he picked up an intoxicated passenger and assaulted her multiple times. Woodberry was found guilty on two counts of sexual assault and could receive 80yrs in prison. DNA evidence also ties Woodberry to unsolved sexual assaults in Green Bay and Chicago.
A cut fiber optic line in the Green Bay area is caused 911 outages in WI. The Pierce County Sheriffs Department on their Facebook page notified residents of the outages last night. As of early this morning, the service has not been restored or was intermittent. If you need law enforcement in Pierce County and 911 is not working you are to call 715-273-5051.
The St. Croix County Republican Party is facing criticism for using violent rhetoric on their website following the events of last week's attack on the US Capitol. On Monday, the homepage for the GOP office told Republicans to prepare for war, and that Republicans need to remove "leftist tyrants from all local and county positions" in the April elections. County chairman John Kraft was unapologetic in a message to the Journal Sentinel and said that Democrats were making "twisted inferences" in the language.
The F-B-I is warning of plans for armed protests at all 50 state capitols and in Washington, D-C, prior to the inauguration of Democrat Joe Biden. Federal investigators are saying the protests are most likely between Saturday and January 20th. They believe some of the people will be members of extremist groups. Governor Tony Evers has activated the Wisconsin National Guard to protect the Capitol building in Madison and ordered ground-floor windows to be boarded up. The troops involved are part of the state’s National Guard Reaction Force, which is made up of members who have had special training. The Wisconsin Department of Justice says that the state office is “monitoring” the situation.
The latest version of a COVID-19 relief bill goes before the full Wisconsin Senate today (Tuesday). The new legislation serves as something of a compromise between the bill Democratic Governor Tony Evers backs and legislation passed by the Assembly last week. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu says he and other Republicans liked the Assembly bill, but changes had to be made to come up with something the governor might sign. To accomplish that, the bill gets rid of limitations on local health departments and school boards and it removes a section to stops employers from requiring their workers get vaccinated. There are still some Senate Democrats not on board with this version.
At least five Minnesotans have tested positive for the new, more contagious variant of COVID-19. The first confirmed cases were in the Twin Cities but health officials warn it is not confined to the metro counties. The Minnesota Department of Health's Sarah Vetter says they expected it would arrive here eventually. Vetter says "while it is thought to be more easily spread from one person to another, it has not been found to cause more serious disease." Health officials say the COVID-19 vaccine has shown to be effective against the new strain.
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Wisconsin small businesses have received 240-million dollars through the state’s “We’re All In” program. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation says the grants helped almost 55-thousand small businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic. WEDC says it’s the largest direct-aid program for small businesses in the agency’s history. Funding comes from the federal CARES Act, and the money was distributed to small businesses in three phases.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused today/Monday to fast-track challenges to Wisconsin's presidential election from President Trump and his allies. The cases the court declined to expedite challenged the results here in Wisconsin, as well as Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. The rejections came without comment or noted dissent. President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn on January 20, and the cases presumably will become moot after that.
Governor Tony Evers is pushing the federal government to send more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Evers and some other Democratic governors say they want some of the thousands of doses that are being held in reserve. The request was made last week even though Wisconsin hasn’t used half of the doses it has already received. The Department of Health Services reports that – as of last Friday – Wisconsin doctors have administered 123-thousand of the 266-thousand doses already sent to the state. Wisconsin has been allocated 420-thousand doses, but not all of them have been delivered.
Mount Pleasant police say accused Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse wasn’t violating his bond agreement when he was seen in a bar last week. Rittenhouse is free on bond, waiting for his trial for shooting and killing two men during last year’s protests. A woman contacted police saying she was concerned the 18-year-old wasn’t supposed to be in Pudgy’s Pub in Mount Pleasant last Tuesday. He’s free on a two-million-dollar bond right now. It was legal for him to be in the pub because he was in the company of a parent that afternoon.
Congressman Scott Fitzgerald says the storming on the U-S Capitol last week by Trump supporters was “a tragic event.” The Wisconsin Republican says he was inside the House chamber when protesters broke in and he calls it “a very scary time.” Fitzgerald was interviewed by T-M-J-4 Television in Milwaukee. He says he wants to know why there was a breakdown in security, but he also holds the president accountable for the violent incident. Fitzgerald says the language used by the president and Rudy Giuliani was “unacceptable” because it encouraged people to march to the Capitol and take that kind of action. Fitzgerald says he doesn’t regret his vote to toss out Joe Biden’s election victory in Arizona and Pennsylvania – even though the effort had no chance of succeeding. He opposes the impeachment of the president.
The annual rankings of the safest cities in the U-S have Green Bay right at the top. U-S News and World Report rank the northeast Wisconsin city number one in the country. Police Chief Andrew Smith calls the ranking “great news,” saying it’s good for the business community, the local residents, and his department. The report compiled data from the F-B-I on murder and property crime rates per one-thousand people. Homicides actually doubled in the city last year, from three to six. Smith points out that every homicide case in the last five years has been solved.
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