The Pepin County Government Center will be reopening starting April 1st. Last night the county board agreed to allow the center to open. The board also approved recommending employees or members of the public to wear masks but there would be no requirement of mask-wearing if the governor's mask mandate ends on April 5th. The Board approved allowing non-essintial business travel to resume starting on June 1st, and allow Essential Business Travel with a maximum of 2 people per vehicle with a mask recommendation to continue. The board is expected to discuss whether or not to continue holding county board meetings and committee meetings via zoom at its next monthly meeting.
School could be starting in August for the 2021 School year in the Durand-Arkansaw School District. During last night's board meeting, members discussed the possibility of having school start as early as August 23rd, if allowed by the state. Superintendent Doverspike told the board that 41% of the staff is fully vaccinated and its hoped the rest of the staff will be vaccinated in the coming weeks. Spring sports will be held starting in mid-April and because events are outside, there would be no limit on the number of fans allowed to attend the games. The exception would be for track meets that would have 8-10 teams in attendance.
A Chippewa Falls man is being held in the Washington County Jail on charges of sexual assault and using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime. The man’s name hasn’t been released. He met a 12-year-old girl on social media and drove to West Bend to have sex with her. He got in trouble when the girl told someone she was “dating” a 20-year-old man. The investigation was prompted March 10th by a call from the adult the girl had told about it.
No one was injured when an ultralight airplane struck a utility pole near Bloomer on Wednesday. The crash happened on Hwy Q just north of Hwy 64 between Bloomer and New Auburn. The pilot was attempting to land when the plane struck power lines and the utility pole. The pilot was not hurt and the aircraft sustained light damage.
For the second year in a row, Wisconsin taxpayers are getting a little extra time to filing their federal income taxes. The Internal Revenue Service says it is delaying the filing deadline from the traditional April 15th to May 17th. In each of the last two years, people have had to deal with tax situations complicated by the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, the I-R-S moved the deadline to July 15th, giving tax filers an extra three months. This time they are getting one extra month. The I-R-S is extra busy because it currently distributing about 150-millions federal stimulus payments. As of Wednesday, 90-million had been sent out.
The State Assembly has passed a bill that will make it legal for bars to sell drinks to go. The law would allow for bars and restaurants to sell single-serve mixed drinks and wine glasses in sealed packages alongside other takeout orders. It's something the business leaders have been asking for, ever since public gathering limits were put into place because of the pandemic. Having those drinks on the road would still be illegal.
Governor Tony Evers accuses legislative Republicans of playing politics with his two-point-four billion-dollar capital budget. The State Building Commission deadlocked on a four-to-four vote Wednesday, killing plans for projects in 31 counties. Evers claims the projects would have provided about 29-thousand jobs and had an estimated economic impact of four-point-three billion dollars. Evers says the decision is only the second time in commission history that it failed to collaborate on a state budget program.
FEMA is going to be reimbursing families of coronavirus victims for funeral expenses. According to the posting, FEMA has $2 Billion for reimbursements. The funds are for individuals and households for COVID-19 related funeral expenses included between January 20th and December 31st of 2020. The money comes from the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act. FEMA says it will set up a funeral assistance program and work with various groups to help with outreach to communities and families.
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Three people are dead following a workplace shooting in Oconomowoc. A union official says a worker at the Roundy’s distribution center shot and killed two co-workers. The shootings happened early Wednesday morning in different locations inside the facility, which is about 30 miles west of Milwaukee. A possible shooter has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound following a police chase in Milwaukee. The names of the victims and possible shooter have not been released.
Members of the Wisconsin Senate are working on two bills to codify the processing of sexual assault kits into state law. Lawmakers say they want to head off another backlog of kits and clear the path forward in the criminal justice system for sexual assault victims. The legislation would include an anonymous way for victims to track their kits. The co-author is Republican Senator Bob Cowles who is hoping to avoid what stopped the very same bill two years ago. It took three years to clear out the backlog of hundreds of sexual assault kits last time.
The Wisconsin Assembly has passed legislation that would require pharmacy benefit managers to register with the state and submit annual reports. The bill getting final approval Tuesday is designed to lower prescription drug costs. The benefit managers would have to reveal the rebates they received from drug makers and show whether those savings were passed on to consumers. Members of the Assembly are also working on a bipartisan measure to guarantee those with pre-existing conditions can’t be turned away by health insurance companies.
Under legislation debated Tuesday in a Minnesota House committee, the names of state lottery winners would no longer be made public. Eden Prairie Democrat Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn says her bill would let the winner’s name be released if they request it. She says it allows additional flexibility for the lottery itself. Kotyza-Witthuhn says some winners might want to be “Instagram-famous,” or participate in marketing opportunities based on their big prize. Lottery officials still have some concerns about the bill.
Hundreds of former students who were defrauded by the Minnesota School of Business and Globe University may be getting all of their money back. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced the tentative agreement Tuesday. A total of 920 students who lost out at those schools between 2009 and 2015 would be affected. As a part of the agreement, more than 23-million dollars in federal student loan debt would be forgiven and 15-point-six million dollars in cash compensation would be paid out to students fraudulently enrolled in the criminal justice programs at the two schools. The courts and the U-S Department of Education still have to approve the agreement.
UW-Stevens Point plans to hold in-person graduation ceremonies. Chancellor Thomas Gibson says it's made possible by several factors including a low COVID-19 infection rate on campus. Students will be limited to two guests. The ceremonies will be held May 21st and 22nd, with six events in all.
Several people in central Minnesota will have to get another shot in the arm after their first shot was mistakenly filled with a saline solution instead of the COVID-19 vaccine. Centra Care Health said it happened in Sauk Centre last Friday. Doctors say the saline solution isn't harmful. This is the second reported vaccination mistake of this kind after 62 people were given incorrectly mixed doses at a Mankato HyVee last month.
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