Authorities in north-central Wisconsin believe drugs and distracted driving are factors in a crash involving an Amish buggy that left nine people injured. The Taylor County Sheriff's Office says a car driven by 35-year-old Sklyer Opelt of Medford rear-ended the buggy Wednesday afternoon in the town of Little Black. Deputies say nine of the ten occupants in the buggy were taken to the hospital with significant injuries. Investigators say Opelt is expected to be charged with operating under the influence and inattentive driving.
A long-time Durand Business has been sold. Bauer's Gas and Appliance was started in 1953 as a bulk lp gas company. Current owner Dan Bauer said he started working with his father to haul and deliver LP gas when he was 10 and has worked there ever since. Bauer said his father added appliances as a way to increase the consumption of LP gas. This past Monday, Alciva Co-Op took over control of the company. All the current employees will stay with Alciva and Bauer says he will continue to work at the store in Downtown Durand for the next month before finally retiring after nearly 63 years working at the store.
Covid-19 cases in Dunn County are at their highest levels so far this year. According to the Dunn County Health Department, as of Wednesday, there were 508 active cases of Covid-19 with a 7 day average of 48 new cases per day. The health department says it will no longer be able to follow up with everyone who is positive with Covid-19 and their close contacts and has gone into a crisis model for notifying positive cases.
One person was arrested during an hour-long standoff at a mobile home park in Eau Claire yesterday. According to Eau Claire Police, officers responded to an incident involving a weapon at the Villa Diann Mobile Home Park at 10am. A perimeter around one of the homes was set up and after communication with someone inside the home one person was arrested. No one was injured.
The 2021 navigation season is officially over on the Upper Mississippi River. The Army Corps of Engineers reports the last tow departed Tuesday from the lock in St. Paul. The Motor Vessel Johnathon Erickson was pushing five barges with scrap metal, soybeans, and grain. The last tow usually leaves the last week of November or the first week of December. The shipping season started on March 19th.
The Fall Creek School District has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against the district regarding their covid-19 mitigation measures. The lawsuit, filed in October accuses the district and school board of failing to implement reasonable covid-19 mitigation measures, which recklessly endangered the health and safety of students. The district is asking the lawsuit be thrown out because contracting covid-19 does not violate a student's constitutional rights and that any student attending public schools have an inherent risk of contracting covid regardless of what the district's mitigation strategies are. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for December 29th.
Firefighters from the town of Wheaton, Tilden, Elk Mound, and Howard responded to a house fire in Chippewa County near Hwy T and 60th Avenue on Wednesday afternoon. The two occupants inside the home were able to get out of the house and no injuries were reported. Firefighters believe the fire was caused by a heater in the garage. The home is considered a total loss.
Wisconsin's unemployment rate in October dropped to 3.2% compared to 3.4% in September. According to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development Wisconsin added 2000 private-sector jobs in the month of October. In Western Wisconsin, Pepin County had a 1.8% unemployment rate, Pierce County 1.9%, Dunn County 2% and Buffalo County had a 2.3% unemployment rate.
State health officials say nearly one million people in Wisconsin have gotten their coronavirus booster shot. The Department of Health Services reports more than 915-thousand residents had the extra COVID vaccine dose as of Tuesday. Three-point-four-million people in Wisconsin have gotten at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine
A southern Minnesota man is pleading guilty to barricading himself inside a home and making a bomb threat to an Albert Lea school. Anthony Woodraska of Walters also admitted to felony theft and offering a forged check. Investigators say someone called in a bomb threat to Lakeview School on October 7th while officers were negotiating with Woodraska. He was later taken into custody and admitted to calling in the threat. Woodraska will be sentenced in February.
A Madison Police officer on leave since being involved in an alleged on-duty sexual encounter will resign. Police Chief Shon Barnes confirmed that Lieutenant Reginald Patterson has submitted his resignation. That follows an internal investigation that stemmed from a bystander video showing Patterson engaged in sexual activity inside an MPD vehicle. That video was posted to social media in mid-September, and Patterson had been on administrative leave since then. The investigation found Patterson, who’s been with MPD for 15 years, violated multiple department policies. He has apologized for his behavior, according to the statement from Barnes.
A Florida man affiliated with the far-right militia group Oath Keepers has been arrested in Milwaukee. Forty-nine-year-old James Beeks was taken into custody Tuesday for his actions during the riot at the U-S Capitol on January 6th. Beeks was charged Tuesday with one felony count of obstruction of Congress and a misdemeanor count of unlawfully entering a restricted building or grounds. Beeks joined a group protesting Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory over former President Donald Trump. Five people died.
Hopes that the Park Falls paper mill will operate again have finally died. Parts of the idled mill were sold during an auction last week. The winning bidders began picking up their parts this week. The mill shut down operations last May. An effort to provide state funding for it and the Verso paper mill in Wisconsin Rapids was ended when Governor Tony Evers vetoed a bill using COVID-19 relief money for loans. At its peak, almost 800 people work at the mill. When it closed earlier this year about 60-to-80 were still on the job.
A group of homeowners in La Crosse will be able to cancel their flood insurance next March. That will save about 121 homeowners some money following the completion of the Ebner Coulee Floodplain Analysis Project. The study determined that existing premiums should be reduced and new policy purchases shouldn’t be required. Those homeowners will likely be required to wait until the end of a 90-day appeal period before the change goes into effect.
A constitutional amendment on bail reform has been introduced in response to the Waukesha Christmas Parade incident that has left six people dead. State Representative Cindi Duchow says her amendment would remove restrictions Wisconsin judges face now when they set bail. The state constitution mandates that every suspect is eligible for bail. It stops judges from considering how dangerous they might be – or the violence the defendant has shown – when the bail amount is being determined. The suspect in Waukesha, Darrell Brooks Junior, was released on a thousand-dollar bail for a domestic violence charge less than a week before he drove an S-U-V through the parade crowd.
Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner Mark Afable has announced he is leaving the position next month. Governor Tony Evers appointed Afable to lead the state agency three years ago. Afable had previously worked for American Family Insurance, serving as its chief legal officer. Evers says he has made a “huge difference.” Deputy Commission Nathan Houdek will take his place, serving as interim commissioner after Afable leaves.
The 20-year-old Kenosha man who bought the rifle used by Kyle Rittenhouse is asking that the charges against him be thrown out. Dominick Black faces two counts of providing a firearm to a minor, resulting in death. He bought the A-R-15-style rifle that Rittenhouse used to shoot three men during last year’s riots, killing two. A jury decided last week that Rittenhouse had acted in self-defense. Attorneys for Black say if the Illinois teenager could legally possess the rifle he used it wasn’t a crime for Black to give it to him. Instead, Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schroeder has said he will set a new hearing date in January for Black.
An Edgerton doctor is going to prison for defrauding the Medicaid program. Doctor Ravi Murali is sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for his role in a multi-million-dollar billing scam. Prosecutors say Murali wrote thousands of fake orders for 26-million dollars’ worth of medical equipment. Medicaid paid for half. Murali pleaded guilty in March.
No comments:
Post a Comment