Durand City Council members are reviewing a proposal to re-open the Tarrant Park Pool this year. Durand Mayor Patrick Milliren says it's something the council does every year due to the age of the pool. As part of the resolution, the city won't spend more than $10,000 in capital expenses beyond the typical annual maintenance this year unless approved by the council.
You may not see them unless there is a snowstorm, but members of the Durand Public Works Department are busy behind the scenes. Public Works Superintendent Matt Gills says winter is the best time to work on all of the pumps for the sewer and water system. Staff is also working on city equipment getting it ready for the summer.
Red Wing Firefighters were pushed into action in the bitter cold Saturday to put out a house fire. Officials arrived to find what they called heavy fire coming from the roof of a third-story residence. Everyone had gotten out of the home, but crews faced significant difficulties battling the blaze as temperatures dropped as low as minus 17 degrees.
A Barron County Woman accused of killing her boyfriend is in court this week. The trial of Melanie Kuula is underway and authorities accuse her of stabbing and killing her boyfriend after she found him with another woman in August of 2019. That trial is expected to continue through the week.
A Wisconsin economist says unemployment trends seen this year are not long-term. Wisconsin Workforce Development's Scott Hodek told W-Q-O-W T-V the pandemic has fast-tracked several trends that were already in motion before the pandemic hit. He says people have largely returned to the office with the availability of COVID vaccines, which is slowly returning the unemployment rate to pre-pandemic levels.
Don’t expect today’s (Tuesday’s) turnout for the Wisconsin State Primary Election to be anything like three months ago. Only one contest is on every ballot – the race for state school superintendent. Governor Tony Evers held the position for more than 10 years. Carolyn Stanford Taylor has been state superintendent since she was appointed by Evers in January 2019. There are seven candidates for the job and the top two finishers will advance to the spring election April 6th. Issues discussed during the campaign have included voucher programs, inequities and racism in the education system, and how schools should be reopened during a pandemic. Polls are open from 7:00 a-m to 8:00 p-m.
Wisconsin’s Natural Resources Board has set a quota of 200 wolves for the rapidly-organized winter hunting season. The board met online Monday, unanimously supporting the Department of Natural Resources recommendations. Division Administrator Keith Warnke says the application for permits will begin at the DNR’s Go Wild website at 12:01 am Tuesday, February 16th, and close Saturday, February 20th at 11:59 pm. Online applications for the November hunt will open March 1st, and applicants can apply for preference points without seeking a harvest tag. Permits cost 10 dollars and if applicants are drawn for a license, wolf harvest tags cost 49 dollars.
Today's event at Milwaukee’s Pabst Theater is the first for the venue since last March. President Joe Biden will be in the city for a C-N-N Presidential Town Hall. The 8:00 p-m event will be socially distanced, with Biden answering questions from an invitation-only audience of Democrats, Republicans, and independents. Anderson Cooper will moderate the hour-long broadcast. The White House says the president will use the appearance to make his case for passage of the one-point-nine-trillion-dollar coronavirus relief plan. Last March, comedian Dave Chappelle was completing a two-show, sold-out appearance at the Pabst. After that, all events were canceled due to the pandemic.
U-S Senator Tammy Baldwin will chair the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration. The Wisconsin Democrat said she looks forward to working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support farmers, ranchers, and producers to build a stronger and more secure agriculture economy. Baldwin says our farmers work hard and we should work just as hard in Washington to support them.
Governor Tony Evers is announced more COVID-19 aid for small businesses in his proposed state budget. The funding is part of the "Badger Bounceback" program and would increase the amount of grant funding available through W-E-D-C to 200-million dollars. Another 130-million dollars in workforce development and venture capital grants would also be included in the program. The Governor will be rolling out his full budget plan Tuesday.
Governor Tony Evers says there's a chance his legal marijuana proposal will become law. The governor was a guest on UPFRONT on Channel 12 yesterday. He said he is not pessimistic about his chances for the proposal to become law. Republican lawmakers have said there could be a conversation about medical marijuana, but they are not interested in full legalization. The governor said legal pot could be an economic boom for the state.
Wisconsin is closing-in on new milestone numbers for coronavirus vaccinations. The state's Department of Health Services says nearly 250-thousand people in the state have been fully vaccinated. Nearly a million people in the state have gotten at least one dose. Most of the people who've gotten a shot are over 65, but most people who've been fully vaccinated are younger. D-H-S says the tight supply of vaccine doses continues to be a problem.
Governor Tim Walz says the state is using a "first-in-the-nation educator testing program" to get kids back in schools. On Friday at Roseville's Parkview Center school, Walz showed off the "key tool" where stations were used to test all school workers using a saliva sample, which is mailed directly from the school with results in about two days. The governor said the state-supplied program that started in early January gives each school a designated day every two weeks to conduct testing. According to Walz's office, 96-percent of school districts, along with 41-percent of nonpublic schools and two out of four tribal schools, have signed up to participate.
Madison's Air National Guard unit is taking to the skies once again. The 115th Fighter Wing will be running nighttime training flights this week. That means folks in and around Madison could hear the jets at night. It was back in December that a pilot from the 115th died in a nighttime training flight after a crash in Michigan's upper peninsula.
Ely, Minnesota recorded an actual air temperature of 50 below zero Saturday morning, a daily record low for the city. The entire state is wrapping up more than a week of deep freeze low temperatures. Other spots along the northern edge of the state hit temperatures in the 40 below zero range including Effie, Bigfork, International Falls and Cass Lake.
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