This summer Hwy 85 will be closed at Rock Falls for replacement of the bridge, and while the detour route is Hwy 10 to Hwy 37 and then to Eau Claire, many will use Hwy T to Hwy H to avoid the long detour. Pepin County Sheriff Joel Wener says there are two areas of concern for authorities in taking that route along County Line Road and Hwy 85 and the Amish School on County Line Road. Wener reminds motorists that just because Hwy 85 will be closed the 55mph speed limits will remain in effect and there will be patrols monitoring speeds.
The Department of Natural Resources says planes will begin gypsy moth spraying in western Wisconsin this week. The effort will last for several weeks. The planes will be overhead in Barron, Chippewa, Dunn, and Trempealeau, counties. Gypsy moths eat the leaves off of trees and plants during their caterpillar stage. That stresses the trees and can even kill them. State officials say the gypsy moth is a threat to Wisconsin’s forests and a “periodic public nuisance.” People living in those 14 counties will see the small, yellow planes flying overhead from time to time this month.
Authorities arrested a Chetek man after a 6-hour standoff on Sunday. According to the Barron County Sheriffs Department, Chetek Police responded to a call of a man acting strange and paranoid Sunday afternoon. When they arrived on the scene, 35yr old Kevin Swartz told police he had a gun and would shoot them and that he also had explosives in the house. Authorities evacuated the area and a SWAT team was called in and went into the home. Swartz attempted to escape by climbing into the ceiling but fell through and was arrested. No explosives or guns were found in the home.
A fire at an Eau Claire Area Bar yesterday has caused nearly $200,000 in damage. Firefighters were called to the Alibi Lounge early Monday morning after witnesses said they heard an explosion and saw the fire. The fire caused extensive damage to the bar and the cause of the fire is still under investigation. One firefighter was injured in that blaze.
Chippewa Valley Technical College held a groundbreaking ceremony yesterday for the new transportation center. The 120,000 square foot facility will house the automotive repair, truck driving and servicing, marine and outdoor power, and agriculture servicing programs. The building is part of the $48 million referenda passed in April of 2020. The cost of the project is $29 million and is expected to be ready for the Fall 2022 semester.
A Durand student and a member of the Buffalo/Pepin County Teen Court will receive a scholarship for her role in juvenile restorative justice. Breleigh Bauer is the annual recipient of the Buffalo / Pepin County Teen Court $500 Scholarship. To apply, applicants were asked to describe their role in their local Teen Court as what impact they felt Teen Court has on their community. The scholarship is accompanied by a $500 cash award from the Buffalo / Pepin County Teen Court Advisory Board to be utilized for secondary education in the fall of 2021. Bauer plans to attend the University of Minnesota-Rochester pursuing a degree in the health sciences.
Two Wisconsin men have been arrested for taking part in the riots inside the US Capitol in January. Federal investigators say Brandon Nelson of Dane County and Abram Markofski of La Crosse County both made their way inside of the Capitol Building after it was breached during the insurrection in January. Both men were spotted on video inside the building, but neither is being charged with violent crimes. They face charges of illegal assembly inside the Capitol and disorderly conduct.
A Dane County judge says the battle over emergency orders issued by local health departments should be decided by the Legislature, not the courts. Circuit Court Judge Jacob Frost ruled against a request for an injunction Monday. He determined Public Health Madison and Dane County director Janel Heinrich did have the authority to issue the orders. The conservative law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty filed the suit on behalf of A Leap Above dance studio in Oregon. The studio was fined more than 23-thousand dollars for violations of the county’s limits on the size of gatherings.
Republican leaders in the Wisconsin Legislature are appealing a court ruling that deemed the hiring of attorneys at taxpayer expense in the fight over redistricting was illegal. The initial ruling by Dane County Circuit Judge Stephen Ehlke voided contracts between Republican leaders and two law firms. Ehlke ruled they lacked authority to hire attorneys, for expected litigation over new congressional and legislative maps. New maps are drawn every ten years following the federal census.
Republican legislative leaders would like a meeting with the governor on state budget concerns. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, along with the co-chairs of the legislature's budget committee, made the request in a letter sent to Governor Tony Evers Monday. This comes as the budget panel prepares to begin work on Evers' proposed budget this week. The panel plans to remove some 300 items from it.
Minnesota Senate Republicans are renewing their push to require Minnesota voters to have a photo I-D in order to cast an election ballot. The G-O-P majority advanced a bill Monday over Democratic objections. D-F-L Senator Lindsey Port of Burnsville said "it would only address one type of fraud - voter impersonation - of which there are zero cases in Minnesota." Lino Lakes Republican Roger Chamberlain told members, "It's a simple idea: We want all eligible voters to be able to vote, and we want their votes to count." Those without a photo I-D could cast a provisional ballot. Minnesota voters rejected a proposed voter I-D amendment in the November 2012 election.
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A group of Midwestern farmers has filed suit against the federal government over the guidelines for a COVID-19 stimulus loan forgiveness program. The farmers say they aren’t eligible because they are white – and they say that violates their constitutional rights. The farmers from Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Illinois, and Ohio filed the suit in Milwaukee federal court Thursday. One farmer says no federal dollars should be going anywhere “just based on race.” The plan being challenged provides loan forgiveness to socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers defined in its guidelines as Black, American Indian, Hispanic, or Pacific Islander.
We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service have presented a proposal to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission to build a 649-million-dollar solar and battery storage project. If approved, the Koshkonong Solar Energy Center would be the largest renewable energy project in the state. It would have a capacity of 465 megawatts and be located in Dane County, southeast of Madison. We Energies and W-P-S would combine to own 90 percent of the project, with Madison Gas and Electric owning the other 10 percent. This is the third large-scale solar and battery project announced this year by the two utilities.
The Republicans who head the Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee say Governor Evers isn’t going to be allowed to include policy changes in the state budget. State Representative Mark Born and state Senator Howard Marklein say they have already cut out pieces of the governor’s proposed two-year spending plan. They call much of it a liberal wishing list. The panel holds its first official meeting Thursday. Examples of policy changes already dumped are a vaping ban, a minimum wage increase, a ban on no-knock warrants, and letting cities and counties begin early voting even earlier. Marklein says those issues don’t have anything to do with the Wisconsin budget. About 300 of the governor’s proposals won’t make it into the final version.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission has rejected two Republican complaints about the finalized results of the November vote. A Republican commissioner had said Wisconsin’s vote totals had been improperly certified. The commission disagreed, ruling that its director and Governor Tony Evers had acted properly when they determined Democrat Joe Biden won the presidential election in Wisconsin and all of the state’s electoral votes. At least one of the three Republicans on the six-member commission sided with the three Democrats to find the election results weren’t handled improperly.
The National Education Association reports the average paycheck for public school teachers in Minnesota falls in the middle of the pack. Minnesota pays its teachers more than 26 other states, but less than the national average of 65-thousand, 100-dollars. N-E-A reported Sunday that Minnesota teachers earn an average of 59-thousand, 100-dollars-a-year. Minnesota pays its classroom instructors less than neighboring Wisconsin, but more than Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota. The weekend release quotes N-E-A President Becky Pringle as saying she worries the coronavirus pandemic may have set the industry back from the modest gains it had been making in pay levels.
A little more than one in three people in Wisconsin are now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. The Department of Health Services says about two million people have now had both doses of the vaccine. Another two-and-a-half million people have had at least one dose. But Wisconsin’s vaccination numbers are dropping. State health officials say 225-thousand doses were administered last week, that’s 200-thousand fewer than the state’s peak in early April.
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