The first day of school today for Durand-Arkansaw School District Students. As part of the back to School Plan, masks will be optional for students according to Superintendent Greg Doverspike. As part of the federal covid relief money, the district was also required to included teaching students proper hygiene to prevent the spread of germs, something Doverspike says the district has been doing for decades.
One of three suspects in the death of a Hayward man has reached a plea deal with Dunn County Prosecutors. Ashley Gunder pleaded no contest to being party to reckless homicide on Friday in Dunn County Court. Gunder told investigators that Ryan Steinhoff and Chad Turgeson beat Bruce McGuigan for hours and that after McGuigan died, Turgeson told her to clean up the scene. She will be sentenced in December while Turgeson returns to court in September and Steinhoff in October.
The truck of the missing fire chief of the Arcadia-Glencoe Fire Department has been found. According to the Trempealeau County Sheriff's Department, the department received a call from Sawyer County Sheriff's Department that they had found the truck belonging to Jeff Halvorsen in a wooded area near Hayward. Sawyer County reported there was a deceased body in the truck. The investigation is ongoing to determine the identity of the deceased person, and at this point, there is nothing that leads authorities to believe that foul play is suspected.
Treasure Island Resort and Casino near Red Wing is now requiring all guests to mask up indoors. The company says everyone will have to wear one regardless of vaccination status starting today (Friday). The measures are being introduced as Goodhue County faces high transmission of COVID-19 and the Delta variant. Barriers, sanitizing stations, and reduced hotel capacity are also being implemented at Treasure Island.
Former Altoona superintendent Daniel Peggs is pleading guilty to one count of possession of child pornography as part of a deal with federal prosecutors. U-S District Judge James Peterson conditionally agreed to the deal Friday but won't officially approve it until sentencing in November. Peggs is looking at ten years in federal prison and a possible 250-thousand-dollar fine. The plea agreement dismisses the more serious charges Peggs faced including sex trafficking a minor and production of child pornography. Peggs initially claimed he thought the girl was age 19 and cut off contact with her after learning she was only 17. Prosecutors say he did admit to keeping an explicit photo of her on his phone.
One person is dead and two others injured after a single-vehicle accident involving high speed in Taylor County on Saturday. According to authorities, the driver of the vehicle was traveling on Hwy M in the town of Grover at speeds of 100mph when he lost control on a turn and the car flipped into the ditch. The driver and another passenger were taken to the hospital, while a second passenger, 20yr old Hunter Ried of Medford died in the crash. Authorities say speed and negligent operation of the car appears to be the cause of the accident. Charges against the driver a possible.
American Family Insurance will require vaccinations for employees working in-office. The Madison-based company plans to reopen its offices on September 13, and employees who want to return to office work will need to get vaccinated before doing so. The company said in a statement that the vaccination requirement will be in place "for the foreseeable future." Employees who currently work onsite because of job responsibilities will have extra time to get vaccinated if needed. The policy doesn’t apply to American Family agency owners, who are independent contractors.
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A Q-Anon supporter has admitted he shot paintballs at Army Reserve members in Pewaukee. Ian Olson of Nashotah pleaded guilty to one count of an attack on U-S servicemen Wednesday. Witnesses say Olson pointed what appeared to be a rifle at the servicemen last March, saying, “This is for America.” That weapon turned out to be a paintball gun that jammed before the service members subdued him. He will be sentenced in Waukesha County Court on November 18th.
A closed company in Merrill has agreed to pay its former employees 650 thousand dollars. Semling-Menke Company failed to give legal notice of its shutdown in December 2019. A spokesperson for the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters, Luke Kramer, calls the settlement a “win for blue-collar workers” in Wisconsin. The 130 employees got a letter telling them the window-and-door company was ceasing operations the very next day. Wisconsin law requires employees to be given 60 days’ notice. Attorney General Josh Kaul says the checks went out to those employees last week.
Jennifer Carnahan is getting more than 30-thousand dollars for stepping down as chair of the Minnesota Republican Party. Some G-O-P members aren't happy that Carnahan will receive three months' pay. Carnahan reportedly cast the tying-breaking vote at Thursday night's executive committee meeting to approve the 38-thousand-150-dollar severance package. Members say she initially called for eight months of annual salary. Carnahan insists she did nothing wrong and didn't know about the alleged child sex trafficking by G-O-P donor and campaign manager Anton Lazzaro. She was also accused of running a “morally bankrupt” operation that was rife with verbal abuse, intimidation, and sexual harassment. Deputy Chair Carleton Crawford is now the acting chair of the state Republican Party until a new leader is elected.
The number of Wisconsin households receiving food assistance has increased during the coronavirus pandemic. Enrollment in the FoodShare program in Wisconsin has risen 30-percent since 2019. Food stamp spending jumped 33- percent in the same two years, to well over a billion dollars. Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services says more people are getting the maximum amount of benefits. In all, more than 792-thousand people are on FoodShare in Wisconsin.
Meteorologists say it would take about 18 inches of rain over the next three months to end the drought in the Boundary Waters area. That is currently the driest part of Minnesota. National Weather Service forecaster Brent Hewett says a lot of the rivers in western and northern Minnesota are at less than 10 percent of their average or normal flow. It’s dry in the Twin Cities metro, but it is worse the farther north you go in Minnesota. Many streams and rivers are said to be hitting a critical stage. Getting a lot of rain over the next three months isn’t likely because Minnesota only averages 10-to-14 inches of precipitation total between September and March.
Employees at Cedar Creek Marketplace in Appleton know their jobs are going away in a week. The store that has been doing business there for 50 years is permanently closing. A sign has been posted inside asking customers to quit questioning workers. They are already sad about losing their positions and their uncertain futures. Store manager Maggie Spierings says everyone keeps asking what’s going on. Since some of the employees have been working at Cedar Creek Marketplace for more than a decade, the questions are painful. The sign says, “Please don’t question our staff,” but, so far, the questions haven’t stopped. The store closes a week from Saturday.
Some rainy weather and COVID-19 hangover can be blamed for lower attendance figures at the 2021 Wisconsin State Fair. Officials report over the 11-day run a little over 841 thousand people walked through the gates. Wisconsin State Fair Park C-E-O Kathleen O’Leary says seeing smiling faces come in after 724 days “was a tremendous accomplishment.” More than eight thousand animals were entered in competitions and seven thousand competitive exhibit entries were judged. Twenty-five hundred exhibitors took part in livestock shows, horticulture, textiles, crafts, culinary, cheese, meat, wine, and other competitions.
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