Only one Pepin County Board of Supervisors Seat will be contested in the spring election. Former Supervisor Frank Milliren is challenging incumbent Tessa King for the 6th district. Meanwhile, three current supervisors decided not to run for re-election. Kris Keys Winkler in District 3, Bill Ingram in District 7, and John Mcdonough in District 11 all decided not to run for re-election.
The Mondovi City Council is meeting tonight. Items on the agenda include a review of bids for the new water tanker for the fire department, discussion and possible action on submitting a state grant application for municipal flood control, and discussion on extending the city's cable franchise agreement with Ntec to the city's Westside Industrial Park Development. Tonight's meeting begins at 5:30 tonight at the Marten Center.
Two people were hurt after a two-vehicle accident near Elk Mound on Monday. According to the Chippewa County Sheriffs Department, a vehicle traveling on 20th Street Ran a stop sign and crashed into the side of a truck traveling eastbound on Hwy 29. Both people in the vehicle were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries while the truck driver was not hurt.
The person killed Saturday in La Crosse has been identified. According to La Crosse Police, 36yr old Ernest Knox died at the hospital after being shot in the 700 block of Rose Street early Saturday morning. Authorities believe the shooting is not a random act and the shooting remains under investigation.
Students and families of the Melrose-Mindoro School District were notified Monday that because of the large number of staff and students testing positive for Covid-19 the district was close to transitioning to virtual instruction. In the letter, the district said that there was not enough staff to supervise the remaining students and that families should develop backup plans now if the district is forced to go to virtual instruction in the next few days. Meanwhile, the Eau Claire School District is also considering virtual learning due to staffing shortages.
A southeast Minnesota woman who received large amounts of methamphetamine through the mail won't be going to prison. Freeborn County prosecutors say 46-year-old Marivel Ramos was sentenced to ten years of probation after pleading guilty to second-degree drug possession. Court records say three packages sent to Ramos contained teddy bears stuffed with ten-and-a-half pounds of meth. Ramos admitted to sending cash to California for the drugs.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says there is “zero chance” the Legislature will take over Wisconsin elections. The Republican Vos says he also is against the dissolution of the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission. There has been national attention focused on Wisconsin since President Joe Biden won the state’s 10 electoral votes by just 21 thousand ballots last November. Vos calls such a takeover a false argument. He says rules need to be changed so that things are fair for everybody and not just one side. Those rule changes could be taken up during the regular legislative session in March.
Look closely at your pay stub next time and you should see a little less state income tax being withheld. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue revised its withholding tax tables Monday. This is the first change in eight years. Single filers making 50 thousand dollars a year should see a total of about 550 dollars more in their paychecks this year. If you’re paid twice a month, that’s about 23 dollars per pay period. The last two-year state budget included about two billion dollars in individual tax relief for just over one-point-six million Wisconsin taxpayers.
The head of the Republican-led legislative rules committee is demanding that the state elections board issue rules on drop boxes and absentee ballots. The joint committee for review of administrative rules voted on party lines on Monday to order the Wisconsin Elections Commission to issue rules for review within 30 days on absentee ballot dropboxes and ballot fixing. Senator Steve Nass says the committee has the authority to prevent the elections commission from issuing directives on these matters. Previous Republican attempts to pass laws that would limit dropbox usage and change how absentee ballots are handled were vetoed by Governor Evers.
A judge in Madison has declined to issue a temporary injunction, against subpoenas issued as part of a partisan probe of Wisconsin’s 2020 election. Michael Gableman, who’s heading the effort, was trying to compel testimony from Meagan Wolf, the head of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Attorney General Josh Kaul had asked for a temporary injunction; he said the interviews could not be done in private, as Gableman wanted. Dane County Judge Rhonda Lanford on Monday ruled against Kaul on the injunction. But Lanford also said there are no grounds for contempt charges against Wolfe, for so far ignoring the subpoena. Judge Lanford also denied Gableman’s motion to dismiss the case.
A Waukesha fire inspector has formally determined the Horizon West condominium building should be torn down. A raze order has been issued and sent to the homeowners association and the unit owners. They were evacuated last month after deterioration was found in some building supports. The Waukesha Fire Department evaluated the structure and determined it was at imminent risk of collapsing. The order issued last week means the building has to be torn down within 120 days. Condo owners have 30 days to file an appeal.
A Minnesota airport is among 50 that will have a buffer zone when cell phone companies turn on 5-G service in a few weeks. Experts are worried using frequencies on the C-band could impact flight operations. A-T-and-T and Verizon recently agreed to delay the rollout. Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is on the list. Activity on the C-band could impact altimeter readings as commercial planes are landing. Wireless carriers plan to turn on the 5-G service January 19th.
Wisconsin school districts are being asked to step up their efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19. A letter to school administrators from the Department of Health Services urges them to require masks for everyone, follow the CDC's new quarantine guidelines, and offer school vaccination and booster clinics. The request comes as Wisconsin is experiencing an unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases. DHS on Monday reported the 7-day average of new confirmed cases at 9,063 – a one hundred and fifty percent increase over two weeks. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jill Underly supports the recommendations from DHS.
Senate Republicans late Friday released their plan for redrawing Minnesota's legislative and congressional district boundaries to reflect population shifts in the 2020 census. That paves the way for possible negotiations with House Democrats as the mid-February deadline draws near. Both sides are at least publicly optimistic for agreement, but Hamline University analyst David Schultz doesn't share that optimism, adding it is likely to be a decision made by the courts, just as it has every decade but one over the last 50 years.
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