Dunn County authorities say one suspect is jailed and there's an arrest warrant for another man in connection with the deaths of four Minnesotans found in an abandoned S-U-V. Sheriff Kevin Bygd (big) says 56-year-old Darren McWright was arrested Wednesday night in St. Paul and 38-year-old Antoine Suggs is still at large. McWright and Suggs are accused in the fatal shootings of 26-year-old Matthew Pettus, 30-year-old Jasmine Sturm, and 35-year-old Loyace Foreman III, all of St. Paul, and 30-year-old Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley of Stillwater. Their bodies were discovered Sunday inside a vehicle in a cornfield near the town of Sheridan. Investigators say Suggs is considered armed and dangerous and anyone with information should call law enforcement right away. There was a vigil in Sheridan last night for the victims.
The Durand-Arkansaw School District's budget for the upcoming year is in the black. Durand-Arkansaw School Superintendent Greg Doverspike says the district is in a good spot budget-wise. The budget is expected to be finalized next month.
The passenger in the truck that killed three girl scouts and their leader in Lake Hallie has been sentenced to three years in prison. John Stender was riding with Colten Treu when Treu drove into the group of girl scouts who were cleaning trash along a county highway three years ago. Jayna Kelly, Autumn Helgeson, Haylee Hickle, and her mother Sara Schneider were killed. Stender had been found guilty of helping Treu hide the truck the day of the crash. Investigators say Treu and Stender were high after huffing chemicals earlier in the day. Stender was taken into custody immediately after his sentencing Thursday to begin serving the prison term.
Milwaukee congresswoman Gwen Moore is calling for an investigation into the treatment of Afghan refugees at Fort McCoy. Some of the refugees at Fort McCoy say there’s not enough to eat, with supplies of food running low toward the ends of designated meal times. Refugees also complain they don’t have any clean clothes to wear. Many of them are still wearing what they had on when they fled their home country weeks ago. Representative Moore, and Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar, issued a statement Wednesday demanding answers.
University of Wisconsin System interim President Tommy Thompson is recovering from surgery on his bicep. Thompson said on social media earlier today (Thursday), "On my way into surgery this morning. Had a little water skiing accident over the weekend and have to have my bicep reattached to the tendon." A UW System spokesman says Thompson had a little pain and is getting taken care of by medical staff. The 79-year-old longtime Wisconsin governor has been traveling to U-W campuses to rally students to get the COVID vaccination. Thompson also served as U-S Health and Human Service secretary under President George W. Bush.
A Wisconsin cheesemaker has told members of Congress the milk pricing system needs to be changed. Bob Wills is the founder of Clock Shadow Creamery in Milwaukee. He testified before Congress Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Wills says he fears for the future of Wisconsin’s dairy industry, and he says he told the members of Congress that federal milk pricing guidelines need to be changed. Wills says it they are it could help save family farms while lowering prices for customers. Wisconsin has lost more than 11 hundred dairy farms in the last two years. Wills told lawmakers we have an unfair system that benefits large companies, foreign competitors, and non-dairy products like soy milk – at the expense of family farmers.
Minnesota's unemployment is down another tenth to three-point-eight percent for August. The state Department of Employment and Economic Development reports Minnesota gained 43-hundred jobs last month. The private sector added 62-hundred jobs. DEED Commissioner Steve Grove said it’s great to see continued job growth, especially after the strong month we had in July. Grove says his department plans to highlight "the extraordinary opportunities that exist in our economy now – and work directly with businesses and job seekers to accelerate hiring.” The U-S jobless rate was five-point-two percent in August.
A federal panel of three judges has refused to dismiss the redistricting lawsuit brought by Democrats. The ruling against Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature keeps the federal case alive. Republicans want it to be decided at the state court level. The judge also combined two lawsuits and allowed five Republican members of the state’s congressional delegation and Democratic Governor Tony Evers to intervene. A third lawsuit over redistricting is still pending before the state Supreme Court.
Parents in the Sparta School District say two members of the board of education aren’t doing their jobs. An effort has been started to recall Nancy Sikorski and Eric Soldberg. The two joined two other board members in a vote to reinstate the district’s mask mandate. The parents claim the board members aren’t listening to them. They believe masks should be optional. A Wednesday night gathering was held in a Sparta park to organize and start the recall effort. The parents involved say they also plan to attend the next school board meeting to continue the fight for an optional mask policy in the district.
A federal agency is accusing a ginseng producer in the Wausau area of creating a hostile work environment for employees. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing Baumann Farms. Female workers there say they were harassed with sexual propositions, lewd photos, and text messages, and were touched inappropriately over a period of 16 months. The victims say they were fired when they complained about the sexual advances. The suit also accuses the business of violating Title Seven of the Civil Rights Act by having an English-only policy for its workers. The incidents allegedly happened between April 2018 and August 2019.
The U-S State Department is reporting that Wisconsin is expected to receive almost 400 Afghanistan evacuees from the first group arriving in the country. Thirty-seven thousand evacuees are going to be resettled around the country. They fled from their homes in Afghanistan when the U-S decided to withdraw its troops last month while ending the long war. The Biden administration has reportedly asked Congress for funding to pay for the resettlement of 65 thousand Afghans by the end of September and 95 thousand by this month next year.
A Dane County judge has ruled that a hunting group and some Republican lawmakers won’t be allowed to join a lawsuit against the Department of Natural Resources. The Attorney General’s Office has filed the suit in an effort to remove board chairman Fred Prehn from the post. Prehn’s term as chairman ended in May and Governor Evers appointed his replacement – but nominee Sandra Naas has never been confirmed. Republicans control the Wisconsin Senate and they haven’t held a vote or made any moves in that direction. Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn denied the requests to intervene Tuesday.
An attorney who worked in the Trump administration has joined the Wisconsin election review. No announcement has been made, but Republican Andrew Kloster is listed as the author of a letter sent to county election clerks this week. The letter was signed by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman who is heading the Wisconsin investigation. Kloster has a record of claiming the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. Gableman is heading the taxpayer-funded investigation into how the November election was conducted.
A non-profit organization is donating 950 thousand dollars to buy body cameras for law enforcement officers in Eau Claire County. P-E-S-I, Incorporated is based in Eau Claire and describes itself as a non-profit continuing education organization. The money would go for the purchase and implementation of body-worn cameras, the replacement of in-squad camera systems, the replacement of interview room camera systems, and the cloud-based storage of video data for Eau Claire police and the Eau Claire Sheriff’s Office. The funding means installation and training should be completed by the end of January.
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