One person was injured in a motorcycle accident in Lincoln Township on Sunday. According to the Buffalo County Sheriff's Department, 56yr old Julio Castillo of South Saint Paul was traveling on Hwy 88 when he lost control of the motorcycle and was ejected into the northbound ditch. Castillo was med-flighted to Mayo of Rochester with severe injuries. Speed and inexperience operating a motorcycle were contributing factors in the accident.
One person injured in a motorcycle accident in Gilmanton Township on August 18th has died. 74yr old James Ruecker was found lying in the roadway on Hwy 37 near the intersection of Steiner Road on August 18th. Ruecker had entered a sharp curve too fast and struck a guardrail. The Buffalo County Sheriff's Department reports that Ruecker died on Sunday as a result of his injuries from that accident.
The Mondovi City Council has approved a contract with CBS Squared for engineering services for the North Eau Claire Street Project. Mondovi Mayor Brady Weiss says the company helped the city receive a CDBG Grant for the project. The cost of the contract was $379,160 and Weiss says the large cost of that contract was an "eye-opener" for himself and council members.
As the school year gets underway, school districts are monitoring for possible covid 19 outbreaks. Durand-Arkansaw School District Greg Doverspike says the district will monitor the situation inside the schools and work with Pepin County on any possible outbreaks. Doverspike says Pepin County will be in charge of any contact tracing and the current back-to-school plan is required to be reviewed every 6 months.
A Fort McCoy spokesperson reports Afghan refugees from 27 flights arrived at the Wisconsin military installation over the weekend. Before Monday, a total of 44 flights carrying refugees had landed at Volk Field as part of Operation Allies Refuge. The U-S completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan late Monday, ending the nation’s longest war. President Joe Biden has said he will address the nation this (Tuesday) afternoon to explain his decision not to extend the August 31st deadline to get the country out of Afghanistan. The U-S military says it is working to expand its capacity for refugees to 50 thousand by the middle of September.
The chairman of the Natural Resources Board apparently consulted with leading Republicans on his decision to stay on the panel after his six-year term expired. The Journal-Sentinel is reporting Fred Prehn sought advice from Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, Congressman Tom Tiffany, and former University of Wisconsin Regent Gerald Whitburn. Prehn’s term ended in May and Democratic Governor Tony Evers appointed Sandra Naas to fill the position. Prehn has refused to step down before the Wisconsin Senate confirms Naas and there has been no move toward a vote in that chamber.
Ho-Chunk Gaming-Wisconsin Dells is back open this afternoon for the first time since late last week. What was called a "system issue" shut down the casino early Friday morning. Other Ho-Chunk casinos in Madison, Black River Falls, Nekoosa, Wittenberg, and Tomah aren’t affected. Executive Manager John Phillipp in a statement thanked the I-T management team for working "tirelessly" to fix the issue. He also said during the closure they took the time to "deep clean the entire property."
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is scoring high marks with the Washington Monthly's Annual College Guide and Rankings. U-W ranks fourth overall among national universities behind only Stanford, M-I-T, and Duke. Wisconsin is listed as the number one ranking National Public University. U-W is ranked in the top ten at number eight for Best Bang-for-the-Buck rankings in the Midwest. Milwaukee School of Engineering ranks sixth in that category.
The number of traffic deaths in Minnesota reached 300 this year on the earliest date since 2007. The state Department of Public Safety reported the 300th fatal crash on August 28th - compared to 240 on the same day in 2020. The preliminary figures show 103 of the 303 traffic fatalities were speed-related crashes, 74 were alcohol-related and distracted driving is blamed for eight deaths. Sixty-four of the victims were not buckled up. State Traffic Safety director Mike Hanson said Minnesotans had been making progress changing their driving behaviors, but recently motorists are falling into bad habits, ignoring the law, and it's costing lives.
A former high school teacher from northwest Wisconsin is facing federal child pornography charges. Thirty-four-year-old McKenzie Johnson is accused of producing child pornography when he was still a teacher at Ladysmith High School earlier this year. According to court documents, his victim is a 13-year-old girl from California, and Johnson used a false name in emails and video chats with the girl. A heavily-redacted screen capture from one of the videos, taken from Johnson’s iPad, was used to help identify the child. Johnson is currently being held in Rusk County Jail awaiting bond and a date for his initial hearing in U.S. District Court in Madison.
A former airline pilot from Kenosha has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for what is being called “sextortion.” Twenty-nine-year-old Devery Moses had been accused of threatening to share sexually explicit photographs and videos he had been sent if they didn’t have sex with him. Some of his victims were as young as 12 years old and they were located all across the U-S, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Prosecutors say many of his victims suffered significant, ongoing emotional damage – including one who reported have serious thoughts about committing suicide. The federal sentence will run concurrently will a state sentence for a child porn conviction.
Tony Evers is critical of Republicans who've questioned the screening process for thousands of Afghan refugees. On Monday, the Democratic governor said they're "vastly uninformed" or want to raise the specter of terrorism. Evers and called such comments "dog whistle crap."
Interim University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson continues to defend his decision to implement campus COVID-19 protocols, without first getting approval from Republican legislators. Thompson spoke to WisPolitics on Thursday, the same day that Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steinke indicated in a tweet that lawmakers would be unlikely to sue the UW System over its pandemic response.
Video shot by a drone shows what is being called a “collapsed” bean field in rural Polk County. A big section of the farm reportedly fell an estimated 25 feet creating a ravine a quarter-mile in length. The daughter of the farm owner posted on social media saying a crack in that field was noticed earlier in the summer. University of North Dakota geologists think dry weather, a drop in levels on the nearby Red River, and recent rains caused the section of land to fall away.
The World Naked Bike Ride made its return to Madison after a year off due to the pandemic. The 11th annual ride promotes body image positivity and alternatives to fossil fuels. Dozens of mostly bare cyclists rode across Downtown on a hot, humid Saturday, including up State Street and around Capitol Square. Milwaukee is a bit behind Madison on this event -- that city's first-ever World Naked Bike Ride is scheduled for Saturday, September 11.
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