The 3rd Avenue East, Drier Street, Lanville Avenue project is beginning today. A-1 Excavating is starting to stage equipment on 3rd Avenue East and installing erosion control measures, removing trees, and removing asphalt. Traffic on 3rd avenue east will be affected and eventually, 3rd avenue east will be closed. Skid Steer Guy will also begin to remove trees around Drier Street and Laneville Avenue this week. The complete project is expected to be completed in October.
Motorists traveling from Durand to Eau Claire via Hwy 85 will have a longer travel time starting in May. The Department of Transportation announced that starting May 3 the bridge and dam over Rock Creek in the Town of Rock Falls will be replaced. While there will be a construction zone initially, Hwy 85 will be closed to traffic starting on May 17th. Motorists will be detoured on Hwy 10 to Hwy 37 in Mondovi and then to Eau Claire. That project is expected to be completed in September.
A Menomonie man has been arrested for OWI 4th offense. According to the Wisconsin State Patrol, troopers pulled over 50yr old Kenneth Porter of Menomonie on Hwy 29 Saturday night after a domestic incident in St. Croix County. The troopers detected signs of impairment and conducted field sobriety tests and Porter was arrested. A woman and a 5yr old child were in the car at the time of the arrest and both the St. Croix County and Dunn County Sheriffs Departments are investigating the domestic incident.
A Rochester man is pleading not guilty to killing his pregnant girlfriend and her two-year-old daughter. Thirty-year-old Renard Carter is facing two counts of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree murder. The bodies of 23-year-old Keona Foote and Miyona Miller were found in an apartment last September. Carter fled to South Carolina and was arrested in that state after threatening to kill police while streaming on Facebook. No trial date has been set in Olmsted County.
The Augusta Fire Department responded to three fires over the weekend. According to the department, firefighters were called to a house fire on Madison street where the first floor was damaged. While at that fire another structure fire broke out on Warner Road, and then the department was called to a grass fire. The department received assistance from Fall Creek, Osseo, and Fairchild Fire Departments. No injuries in any of the fires were reported.
Federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act is headed to Minnesota to help build three veterans' homes. The 32-million dollars will fund the construction of homes in Montevideo, Bemidji, and Preston. The Minnesota Department of Veteran Affairs plans to start construction on the homes this fall. Another 80-million dollars in federal funding will also go towards helping the homes purchase P-P-E, vaccinate residents, and pay overtime costs to staff built up over the past year.
Two people picking up trash along Highway 53 in Onalaska Sunday morning reported finding what they thought could be a dead body. Police confirmed the discovery of human remains, saying it appeared that the body had been there for some time. Authorities say it could take several weeks to identify the remains. Highway 53 was shut down to traffic for several hours while evidence was collected. State investigators are helping with the case.
Veterans Honor Flights participants will initially be required to have proof of COVID-19 vaccination: According to local Never Forgotten Honor Flight leaders the requirement comes from the national Honor Flight organization in the name of safety for both the Veterans and Guardians on each flight. Should a Veteran not have proof of vaccination, or if they can't be vaccinated, they'll remain on the waiting list for future flights- but they won't be scheduled until the requirement is lifted. Honor Flights have been on hold since last spring when the COVID-19 pandemic set in. Current plans are to restart flights by August 15th, but that is subject to change- again based on guidance from the National Honor Flight organization.
Governor Tony Evers vetoed another pair of bills restricting how health officials can handle the fight against COVID-19. The legislation would have prevented health officers from requiring people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and also from closing places of worship due to the pandemic. Evers says that he remains committed to following the science in the fight against the pandemic and giving health officials all the tools they need. Republicans say that health departments are stifling freedom of religion and the right to choose their own medical treatments.
A new report finds that federal pandemic relief coming to Wisconsin and its local governments totals 20 billion dollars. The report, by the non-partisan Wisconsin Policy Forum, provides the most accurate accounting yet of the nearly 20-billion dollars to Wisconsin from Washington. The report also notes that figure probably understates how much Wisconsin will ultimately get and that the influx of money from D-C means "communities in the state may be able to address some of their most longstanding needs."
Several lawmakers want the University of Wisconsin-Madison to allow parents to attend next month’s in-person graduation ceremony. State Senator Andre Jacque is the sponsor of a bill that would require U-W System campuses to let mom, dad, or guardians attend any and all in-person graduations this year. Fifteen lawmakers have signed on to the plan. A spokesperson for the system said Thursday it would love to have families back in the crowd, but social distancing requirements and coronavirus safety measures make it impossible. Even Camp Randall Stadium isn’t big enough.
Rapper Cardi-B is responding quickly to a Wisconsin congressman’s comment about her performance during the televised Grammy Awards last month. Republican Glenn Grothman said he received complaints about her performance. Grothman said “millions of Americans would view” the performance as “inconsistent with basic decency.” The artist responded by saying Grothman is ignoring more important issues like police brutality. Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan, a Democrat, chimed in by re-tweeting Cardi-B’s post and saying she is “100-percent right.”
Students on the UW System’s two largest campuses will not need a coronavirus shot to return to class this fall. The chancellors at Madison and Milwaukee say vaccinations will not be mandatory. Madison’s Rebecca Blank says students who don’t get the shot will be required to get tested. Milwaukee’s Mark Mone says about 75-percent of his faculty, and 20-percent of U-W-M students are vaccinated.
A Madison man will spend more than three years in federal prison for his guilty pleas in two separate fraud cases. The U-S Attorney's Office says 49-year-old Ahmad Kanan was awaiting trial in an access device fraud case when he applied for two Paycheck Protection Program loans last year. He applied for a 72-thousand-dollar CARES Act loan on behalf of Alkin Labs, Inc., but the bank noticed he spelled his name incorrectly and did not award funding. He did receive a 47-thousand-dollar P-P-P loan from a bank in New Jersey while under federal indictment. Kanan was indicted for using routing and account numbers from the Embassy of Libya to pay Wisconsin taxes, interest, and penalties. The Libyan Embassy did not give him permission to use their bank account to make 191-thousand dollars in payments.
Minnesota tourism is dealing with a black eye – a bad look – the state has gotten from the Chauvin trial, followed by the Daunte Wright killing. Both made international headlines. A Colorado woman who visited Minnehaha Falls during her first-ever visit to the state says her family questioned her vacation destination. Kelly Foster says her father told her not to go to Minnesota, saying, “It’s really dangerous right now.” Foster says she’ll be back. She says she doesn’t think of the situation as a Minnesota problem, but instead as a country problem.
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