The Mondovi City Council is meeting tonight. Items on the agenda include a presentation on proposed improvements to the Farrington Field Pavillion, an update on the Independence Day Celebration and discussion, and possible action on an application for a Community Development Block Grant. Tonight's meeting begins at 6:30 at the Marten Center.
New charges are filed against a Dunn County man in Eau Claire County Court in a second case of sexual assault in which the man pretended to be an Uber driver and offered to give a woman a ride. According to authorities, 28yr old Larry Young of Menomonie pulled up to a woman walking back to her residence on the UW-Eau Claire Campus posing as an Uber Driver. Once the woman got into the vehicle, Young locked the doors and attempted to sexually assault her. Young is free on a $2500 cash bond. He was arrested in March and charged with a similar crime after picking up a woman outside an Eau Claire Bar.
Attorneys for the Chippewa County Department of Human Services and three of its employees have filed a brief in federal court asking that the case against them be dismissed. The workers were singled out for the death of a six-month-old boy in 2018. The attorneys say the agency and its employees acted appropriately when a 10-year-old girl was placed in a foster home with Jaxon Hunter. She assaulted the infant causing his death. D-H-S attorneys say daycare operator Amber Sweeney was responsible. She was outside doing yard work when the girl dropped Jaxon on the floor and stomped on his head. Sweeney told investigators she hadn’t shown any aggression toward the other children.
A man in La Crosse has been charged with child sexual assault for the third time. The charges were filed against Vanin Dell McKinnon last week. Investigators say McKinnon sexually assaulted a girl between 2008 and 2012. They say the victim was four years old when the abuse began. McKinnon is already serving an 11-year sentence after being convicted in 2019 of repeatedly assaulting a young girl. His criminal record also includes a 2009 conviction for having sex with a 16-year-old girl. This latest alleged victim says McKinnon was supposed to be watching her while her mother was at work. She says he told her not to tell anyone what he had done.
Minnesota House Democrats unveiled a nearly one-billion-dollar bonding bill for state public works projects Sunday. That is double what Governor Tim Walz proposed and on the heels of last year's record-breaking one-point-nine-billion-dollar bonding package. House Speaker Melissa Hortman says "needs are still great" across Minnesota and investments are important to get the state's post-COVID economy moving. Senator Tom Bakk (BOCK), who chairs the Senate Bonding Committee, says with federal monies headed to the state he wants to minimize the amount of borrowing done by the state.
A report from the federal government says Wisconsin hasn’t invested in its infrastructure in decades. The White House report was issued Monday as the Biden administration tries to build support for a two-point-three-trillion dollar program to upgrade the nation’s roads and bridges. Like most states, Wisconsin was given a grade of “C.” Eight states were given grades of “D,” and eight more weren’t graded. No state received an “A” or “B” – and no state failed. Researchers estimate Wisconsin drivers pay an extra 500-dollars-a-year in car repairs due to road conditions.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin has recovered about forty percent of the more than two million dollars stolen by hackers last year. That's according to a filing with the Federal Elections Commission. Just before the November 3 election, state party Chair Andrew Hitt said 2-point-3 million had been stolen from the party in a cyberattack. Hackers manipulated information in emails and invoices to vendors the party was using and obtained the funds that way. In an FEC filing late last month, the party noted it had recovered just over 943 thousand dollars through insurance and BMO Harris Bank's Fraud Department in coordination with law enforcement.
A Wisconsin man will be sentenced in July for fraudulently obtaining more than 600-thousand dollars in federal loans. Forty-two-year-old Stephen Smith got the funding through the Paycheck Protection Program. He has entered a guilty plea to one count of bank fraud. Federal prosecutors say Smith made applications on behalf of three companies. They told the court those loan applications included several false and misleading statements about payroll expenses. Smith entered the guilty plea during a Monday appearance in Federal Court.
A Chippewa County judge has sentenced a man who led police on a long chase last November to two-and-a-half years in prison. Andrew Premo had been charged with fleeing an officer. The high-speed pursuit crossed through four communities. Authorities used spike strips to deflate all of the tires on his S-U-V, but they say Premo kept driving on the rims until he crashed. Authorities had to use non-lethal means to take him into custody after he refused to comply with their commands.
The Rusk County Sheriff’s Office reports it has one person of interest in custody as it investigates a fatal shooting that happened Friday. Deputies were called about a fight near Sheldon at about 6:30 p-m. When they arrived, they found the dead body of a man who had been shot. The arrest was made shortly after deputies got there. No names have been released and no charges have been announced yet. The investigation is being shared by the sheriff’s office, the Rusk County Medical Examiner’s Office, the Wisconsin State Patrol, and the state crime lab.
The Seventh U-S Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled Wisconsin’s Democratic governor can exclude members of a conservative think tank from his press conferences. The federal appeals court upheld the ruling by a lower court that said Governor Tony Evers could keep the MacIver Institute for Public Policy off his email list. The Institute had alleged the governor violated its staffers’ constitutional rights to free speech, freedom of the press, and equal access. Federal Judge James Peterson ruled last year that MacIver can still report on Evers’ actions without being invited to his press conferences or getting emails from his office.
It’s not clear what last week’s Wisconsin Supreme Court’s ruling on the state’s eligible-voter list means for the next election. The high court on Friday ruled local clerks, not the state, are responsible for removing more than 70-thousand voters who have either moved or not voted in years. The Elections Commission says it’s reviewing the ruling. Conservative groups say the ruling sets back efforts to make sure only eligible voters can cast ballots in Wisconsin. Liberal groups say such efforts are an attempt to disenfranchise voters.
The entrance to the headquarters for the University of Wisconsin System is closed. The front door to Van Hise Hall in Madison could stay closed for some time. A concrete slab fell off the building on Friday. Governor Evers has ordered all of the other slabs on the building to be removed as a precaution. The governor’s office ordered 50-thousand dollars for an emergency repair at the headquarters building.
U-S Senator Amy Klobuchar is working with a colleague from Maine to expand training and support services for families and caregivers of people with dementia. The Minnesota Democrat is partnered with Republican Senator Susan Collins on the bipartisan Alzheimer’s Caregiver Support Act. It would authorize grant money for expanding training and support services. The senators say more than six million people in America are living with Alzheimer’s disease and that number is expected to more than double to 13-million by 2050.
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