Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Local-Regional News Jan 12

 While many areas of the country are having delays in covid 19 testing, that is not the case at Advent Health in Durand.  According to Angela Jacobson, Director of Emergency services at Advent Health, the hospital lab is doing approximately 90 tests per day.  Jacobson says one of the reasons for the increased testing numbers is Advent is testing the results in-house and will have results within 24hrs. If you need a test you are to call Advent Health to set up an appointment time.  Jacobson says do not go to the ER to ask for a covid test.


The Durand City Council is meeting tonight.  Items on the agenda include reports from the mayor and department heads, and discussion and possible action on a certificate of significant completion of the Laneville Road, Drier Street Project for Skid Steer Guy LLC.  Tonight's meeting begins at 6:30 at Durand City hall and will be live-streamed on our website.


He has served as Wisconsin’s governor for four terms.  Now, Republican Tommy Thompson has told Milwaukee television station W-I-S-N he won’t rule out another campaign.  The 80-year-old with the best name recognition in the state is wrapping up more than a year-and-a-half as the interim president for the University of Wisconsin System March 18th.  He told reporters “everything is on the table.  Former Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch is the Republican with the highest profile currently running for the position held by Democratic incumbent Tony Evers.


What if the students showed up to learn and there was nobody to teach them?  That’s the challenge facing Eau Claire schools.  The district has sent a note to parents saying the surge in COVID-19 cases has taken nearly 40 teachers out of the classrooms.  District officials say if this trend continues, they may be forced to move all classes online.  The progression would start with individual classes, then on to complete grade levels.  Only after that would the district shut down an entire school building.


Eau Claire Firefighters responded to a house fire on the northeast side of the city on Tuesday evening.  According to the Eau Claire Fire Department, firefighters entered the home and found smoke on both levels of the home and fire within the walls and floors near the chimney and fireplace.  The fire was quickly extinguished.  All of the occupants of the home were able to leave the home and no injuries were reported.  The cause of that blaze is under investigation.


The Minnesota  Department of Employment and Economic Development says Minnesota's exports of agricultural, mining, and manufactured products increased 19 percent to five-point-seven-billion dollars in the third quarter. DEED Commissioner Steve Grove says exports have bounced back two percent higher than before the pandemic.  Grove says," to be back up before where we were in 2019 is also really impressive, and I think it's just a sign that Minnesota businesses are ready to do business abroad again and are doing that."  Exports to the state's top foreign markets made strong gains, including a jump of 37 percent to Canada, 22 percent to Mexico, and 127 percent to the Philippines.


 Republican State Representative Mark Born says transportation utility fees are really nothing more than tax increases bearing a different name.  Born serves on the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee that writes the Wisconsin two-year budget.  He wants to force any city that passes a transportation utility fee to reduce property taxes on a dollar-for-dollar basis.  State law puts limits on the ways local governments are allowed to raise local taxes.  Some city and county officials say they are being strangled when the cost of providing services goes up and they can’t increase revenue to cover the expense.


The American Red Cross is once again appealing for donors, amid a historic nationwide blood shortage. Laura McGuire is with the Red Cross Wisconsin Region says for a variety of reasons, the number of donors is down about ten percent, which is forcing doctors to make difficult choices. Donations take about an hour and can be done safely, although the Red Cross does ask that you delay donating if you’ve had COVID exposure or a positive test. Register online at Red Cross blood dot-org.     


It’s a “big bucks” pursuit.  The Wisconsin governor’s race is costing the candidates tens of millions of dollars.  Governor Tony Evers has reported he ended 2021 with more than 10 million in the bank.  Evers is expecting to raise a lot more as he seeks a second term.  Republican frontrunner Rebecca Kleefisch checks in with three million dollars raised over the last four months.  Political observers say control of Wisconsin politics is so important it will drive the price tag up by millions between now and election day.


An official with the Wisconsin Department of Justice has gone to federal court saying her civil rights have been violated.  Tina Virgil was recently promoted to lead the Division of Criminal Investigation.  She says she’s the victim of racial and sexual discrimination.  An agency spokesperson says it denies the allegations in the latest suit and an earlier complaint that was filed with the U-S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  Virgil says she was hired by Attorney General Josh Kaul at a salary lower than her predecessors – who were white men.  She says she has more experience than any of the administrators with the state agency but was being paid less than all of them when she was appointed.


 Minnesota health officials are encouraging residents to test their homes for radon this winter.  January is radon action month.  The state Health Department's Dan Tranter says radon occurs naturally in soils all across Minnesota.  He says it is a lung carcinogen, it's the second-leading cause of lung cancer and the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers.  Tranter says about 40-percent of Minnesota homes have dangerous levels of radon and the only way for residents to know if their home has radon is to test.  He says testing is recommended every five years if earlier results were low.


Assembly Speaker Robin Vos will have to answer questions about the lack of documents released as part of an open records request.   A Dane County judge ordered Vos to sit for depositions from American Oversight last week for failing to properly explain why so few records were released in regards to the ongoing Republican-led elections probe. At Wednesday's deposition, Vos will be required to respond under oath to what searches his office has done for records, and whether or not those records have been destroyed.


 The family of a missing Waukesha school teacher is asking the U-S government to help search for her body.  Seventy-year-old Deb Velleman was in a plane that crashed into the Pacific Ocean last week.  Her husband, one other passenger, and the pilot were rescued.  They had been flying back to Panama from Contadora Island.  Josh Velleman says the U-S government has denied requests for search teams and the technology to help find his mother.  Deb Velleman taught in Waukesha schools for more than 40 years before she retired.


Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is announcing a new incentive to get more children fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in Minnesota.  Walz says Minnesota families who get their five- to 11-year-old children fully vaccinated in January and February can get a 200-dollar Visa gift card per child.  In order to be eligible for the gift cards, the first and second doses must be administered between January 1st and February 28th.  Officials say families are able to receive one gift card for each eligible child who is vaccinated in that time frame.

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