More than three million, 250-thousand COVID-19 vaccines have been administered throughout Wisconsin. Deputy Health Services Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk says the state "is moving in the right direction." Here in Western Wisconsin, Pepin County has 24% of its residents who have completed the vaccine series, Buffalo County 25%, Pierce and Dunn County are at 15% completed. So far, 35 percent of the state has gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, and just under 22 percent have completed the vaccine series.
Former Republican Candidate for the 3rd Congressional District, Darrick Van Orden has announced he is running for the seat again. Van Orden lost to incumbent Ron Kind by just under 11,000 votes last year. Van Orden says hundreds of people in the 3rd District asked him to run again and he wants to restore our constitutional freedoms and focus on fiscal responsibility.
Two human trafficking suspects facing more than 30 charges have been arrested in Eau Claire County. Deputies responding to a call about a woman walking on a county road between Fairchild and Stanley Wednesday morning found Catherine Ottinger lying in a ditch. She told them she and Mark Scoville had been living in a tent in Chippewa County. Arrest warrants for Ottinger and Scoville had been issued last month. Scoville is charged with multiple counts including sexual assault, human trafficking, false imprisonment, and others. Ottinger is charged with trafficking a child and causing a child to view or listen to sexual activity.
Republicans in the state legislature are calling for restrictions on elections during a hearing at the Capitol on Thursday. One major sticking point was funding from private groups to assist in elections. Republican Senator Duey Stroebel says that the sponsors behind the private funds were biased towards Democrats. Democrat Senator Jeff Smith says over 200 communities received these funds, and Republicans are only focusing on the Democrat strongholds. It's unlikely that any of these bills will pass by the Governor's office without being vetoed.
Firefighters from Fall Creek, Augusta, and Fairchild were called to a fire at the Black Bear Supper Club on Hwy 27 north of Augusta Wednesday. When crews arrived they found flames through the roof and sides of the building. The home of the supper club's owner was protected and no one was hurt in the fire. The building is considered a total loss and no cause of the fire has yet to be determined.
A Rochester woman is facing six federal charges for her alleged role in the January 6th attack on the U-S Capitol. F-B-I agents arrested 39-year-old Victoria White Thursday and she made her initial court appearance. The charges against White include violent entry and disorderly conduct, obstruction of Congress, and impeding or attempting to impede law enforcement officers. Investigators say the video appears to show White participating in the storming of an entrance to the Capitol building. She is accused of helping hoist a rioter, who assaulted officers trying to control the crowd.
A Clark County woman is charged with mistreatment of animals after a dog was found with its legs zip-tied together last fall. Thirty-four-year-old Jill Warminski will find out next month if her case will head to trial. Deputies were dispatched to a home in Thorp after receiving a report that a dog had been zip-tied around its front two legs. One reported a cut on the dog’s leg was so deep he could see the bone. Warminski reportedly told investigators she couldn’t take care of the dog and couldn’t find another person to take over for her.
About 144-thousand dollars in federal funding through the CARES Act will be used to help economic recovery in the Wisconsin Rapids area. About 900 employees lost their jobs when the Verso paper mill shut down operations last year. The federal aid will be used to develop a city recovery strategy. It isn’t known what’s next for the Verso paper mill. Some local groups have talked about buying the plant, but most of the workers have had to find other jobs. At the time of the closing, Verso said it would explore “viable and sustainable alternatives.” It indicated the mill could be restarted if market conditions improve. That hasn’t happened yet.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is calling for passage of the Governor's Biofuels Infrastructure Grant Program. It would award two million dollars in grants per year to service stations for the installation of equipment to pump higher blends of ethanol and biodiesel. Walz says biofuels are critical to Minnesota, our agricultural and rural economies and to help meet climate goals. The governor touted the proposal at a Holiday Stationstore in New Hope. Owner Christ Robbins received a state grant to upgrade his facility to offer E-15, E-30, and E-85 fuels.
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Supporters of criminal justice reform in Wisconsin say they are encouraged by the results of a poll released this week. The poll numbers released Wednesday show almost three-in-four Wisconsin voters want prisons to focus on preparing inmates for life after their sentence is completed. The Badger Institute says there is strong support for helping those inmates acquire job skills that would make jobs easier to find and help avoid recidivism. The Institute has pushed for criminal justice reform for several years.
The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development reports more than 75-hundred people have signed up for secure messaging about unemployment benefits. The state started using a new online unemployment portal last week. The new system offers the ability to talk directly with claims specialists, sign up for text notifications and securely upload documents. Importantly, it also includes a more user-friendly interface for people communicating through their mobile devices. In the week since the new portal debuted the state has issued more than 27-million dollars in claims to 18-thousand applicants.
Wisconsin is finding out when last week’s decision by the state Supreme Court will begin to have an impact. The ruling that struck down the governor’s emergency order means Wisconsin will begin losing more than 50-million dollars a month in emergency supplemental FoodShare benefits in May. One day will make a difference. The Department of Health Services says if the court had allowed the governor’s emergency order and mask mandate to continue for that one additional day, pushing it into April, FoodShare members would have been covered through the end of next month.
An 18-month-old child is in critical condition after being pulled from a pond in Stewartville Wednesday afternoon. The boy was in a medically induced coma at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester. Deputies say the toddler was outside being watched by a family friend when he disappeared. He was found in a retention pond and C-P-R was immediately started at the scene. Investigators believe he was in the water for five minutes. The family says he appears to be doing well and that his organs are functioning. No word on how long he'll be in a coma.
Democrats in the Minnesota House say the transportation funding bill they are trying to pass would raise about one-and-a-half-billion dollars over a four-year period. It would be the biggest such bill passed since 2008. Republicans spoke out, saying the bill and tax increases were introduced late in the legislative session without any public hearings. The measure would connect future gas tax increases to the inflation rate. Some people giving testimony Wednesday said the bill isn’t clear about what constitutes a luxury vehicle. It’s authored by Representative Frank Hornstein. He says he's willing to talk about it and make adjustments that are needed.
The Department of Natural Resources has agreed not to release the records of testing for PFAS, in an agreement with the state's largest business lobby. The agreement was announced on Tuesday, and it will confirm a judge's order that would have blocked the release in the first place. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce says those records could damage business reputations if released, and that the D N R doesn't have any laws on the books for PFAS regulations in the first place. The Department is currently working up rules and standards on just how the contaminant will be regulated.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says he won’t send any more money to the Department of Public Instruction now that Jill Underly is elected superintendent. Vos says teachers’ unions own the D-P-I. Underly easily won Tuesday’s race, thanks in part to almost a million dollars in outside help from Democratic groups and the Wisconsin Education Association Council. Underly says she wants to work for all kids in the state, regardless of how their parents voted.
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