Property owners on Laneville Road will have a chance to talk with Durand City Council members on the possible special assessment of those properties for the Laneville project. Durand Mayor Patrick Milliren says 65 property owners are affected. That special meeting will be held on October 27th starting at 6:30pm.
There’s a new bill to get tougher on catalytic converter theft in Wisconsin. State Representative Clint Moses would require scrap-metal dealers in Wisconsin to ask for proof of ownership and keep records on all catalytic converters that come into their shops. Catalytic converters are popular among thieves because of the expensive metals inside. Moses says Minnesota recently passed a similar law, and thefts there dropped. He says it appears that once catalytic converter thefts dropped in Minnesota, they increased in Wisconsin.
The managing editor of a journalism website is suing the La Crosse Police Department. Peter Cameron of The Badger Project says his open records request was wrongly denied. Cameron was trying to access copies of public records concerning a police officer who resigned two-and-a-half years ago. His attorney filed the complaint in La Crosse County Circuit Court on September 30th. The department cited “internal disciplinary” as the official reason it denied his request. His attorney points out that the Wisconsin Court of Appeals has ruled that internal disciplinary records can’t be withheld completely from open records requests.
A La Crosse doctor is accused of inappropriately touching a ten-year-old girl under her clothes. Mayo Clinic Health System pediatrician Joseph Poterucha appeared in court Friday on one count of first-degree child sexual assault-sexual contact with a child under 13. Prosecutors say additional victims are being interviewed and there could be more charges filed against Poterucha. The criminal complaint says he has denied the allegations. Poterucha was jailed on 25-thousand dollars cash bond. Mayo Clinic Health System has placed him on administrative leave.
Middle school students in the Wisconsin Dells School District say they started receiving social media messages last Thursday evening saying they were on a “hit list.” Police say their investigation determined there was no real threat. Officers worked overnight to identify the juvenile suspect, interviewed them, then took the person into custody. Wisconsin Dells police say the threats turned out to be a joke. No names have been released. Additional officials were on the school campus Friday morning to make sure everyone was safe.
Former President Donald Trump is calling on a former congressman from Wisconsin to run for governor. Trump released a statement Saturday saying he is working hard to get Sean Duffy to run for Wisconsin’s top elective office. There has been no indication Duffy is even considering a campaign for the job – and it is significant that Trump is backing him rather than former Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch. Duffy and his wife sold their Wausau home last month and list a home in New Jersey as their current residence. He has been a strong Trump supporter. He represented Wisconsin’s Seventh Congressional District from 2010 until he resigned in 2019.
The death toll on Minnesota roads in 2021 is nearing 400. The Department of Public Safety says the state is on pace for the most fatal crashes since 2007. D-P-S scheduled a Monday press conference to highlight dangerous driving habits that are contributing to the increased deaths. The 384 traffic fatalities so far this year is a 23 percent increase over the same time last year. The state is on pace for 475 traffic-related deaths, nearing the 510 deaths in 2007.
Concerns over shortages and long wait times for products could ramp up the holiday shopping season early. The Better Business Bureau says scammers are ready to take advantage, particularly online. A recent study found 35-percent of scams reported so far this year were online purchase scams. The B-B-B reports 75-percent of the people who report online shopping scams lose money and the largest demographic targeted by online scams are people ages 18-years-old to 24-years-old.
Wisconsin’s school board leaders are again asking parents to be civil. The Wisconsin Association of School Boards is out with a letter asking parents for civility when speaking with their local school leaders. The association says it’s okay to feel strongly about an issue, but that threats and violence are over the line. This is the second time in two months that the school boards association has asked parents to watch how they interact with school officials.
A student at Sparta’s Meadowview Middle School has served her second suspension for not complying with the district’s mask mandate. Her parents say they aren’t against the mask policy, but they are pro-choice. Misty and Eric Morales say their daughter has asthma and wearing a mask causes issues for her health and safety. Misty Morales says she is working with the school to find a compromise. If her daughter is handed a one-day suspension three more times, she will be expelled.
Authorities in Clark County are asking homeowners in Owen to check their security cameras for footage of a home invasion suspect. A woman says she woke up at 1:30 a-m Thursday to find a man going through her dresser. She says the intruder tried to suffocate her with a pillow but stopped when her daughter came into the room. He took off running. No names have been released and investigators haven’t reported any serious injuries to the victim. The Clark County Sheriff’s Office is hoping a surveillance camera on a nearby home may have caught the suspect coming or going.
The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin is awarding nearly 100-million dollars in broadband grants to 83 projects across the state. The federal funding will expand broadband internet to more than 28-thousand homes and just under 15-hundred businesses in 40 counties and three tribal lands. Governor Tony Evers said, "expanding reliable, high-speed internet access remains a top priority for our state and we continue to move quickly to get federal funding allocated so construction on these projects can begin as soon as possible.” The P-S-C received 242 applications requesting more than 440-million dollars
Republican lawmakers are trying again to let Wisconsin parents choose their kids’ schools based on coronavirus rules. State Representative Barb Dittrich of Oconomowoc says her bill would let parents open-enroll their students if their local district requires masks or COVID vaccinations. It also lets parents transfer their kids if their local schools do not require masks or vaccinations. Dittrich says the idea is to let parents choose the school with which they’re most comfortable.
The Minnesota National Guard is gearing up to support the state's COVID-19 action plan this week. Seventy-five soldiers and airmen will head to community testing sites today across Greater Minnesota. Adjutant General Shawn Manke said the Guard has helped with public health activities since March of 2020 and is prepared to do so again. The service members will be split into seven teams assisting with management, performing administrative tasks, and administering COVID tests. Governor Tim Walz says the National Guard is also on alert to provide staffing support at long-term care facilities facing worker shortages.
Crushed once by COVID-19, Milwaukee may be ready to give it another try for a major political convention. Just weeks after Mayor Tom Barrett told the Democratic National Committee that the city wanted another shot at that party’s big event, Milwaukee may file a proposal for the Republican National Convention in 2024. Wisconsin’s largest city was supposed to host tens of thousands of Democrats last year, but the convention went virtual due to the pandemic – costing the local economy millions of dollars. Local officials are currently going over the R-N-C’s request for proposal. If they want to apply, the deadline is December 1st.
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