The Durand City Council approved the purchase of a new plow for the public works department. The plow can be fitted to the current front-end loader and according to Durand Mayor Patrick Milliren says is multi-purpose. The cost of the plow is approximately $45,000.
The Pepin County Health Department has hired a new public health specialist. Pepin County Health Officer Heidi Stewart says the new specialist will be handling covid 19 and recovery. Stewart says the department is working on resuming other services and programs now that Strand is on board handling covid 19 duties.
A Chippewa Falls man says the county wasn’t responding and legal action was his only option. W-E-A-U Television reports Jake Rooney lives about a mile from the Chippewa County Public Gun Range in Tilden. Rooney says several bullets from the range have damaged his property. After trying to find a safe solution with county officials he served them with a Notice of Claims Tuesday. Rooney says he has 11 bullet holes in his shed and it was new when he moved in a few years ago. He’s asking the court to award him one point-seven million dollars to cover the cost of repairs and the property value he’s lost.
A December jury trial has been scheduled for a 26-year-old Eau Claire man accused of killing a teenager last year. Austin Vang faces a charge of first-degree reckless homicide. Investigators say Vang shot 14-year-old Marwan Washington in the neck last July. W-E-A-U Television reports Vang told emergency responders he was handling his gun and forgot it was loaded. Police say their investigation revealed he had a history of being negligent with firearms.
Rochester-based Mayo Clinic is easing hospital visitor restrictions as new COVID cases continue dropping. Beginning today (Thursday), two visitors will be allowed for each adult inpatient. They'll still need to be designated, consistent, and at least five years old. Two visitors over age 15 per patient will also be allowed in the Family Birth Center, plus Mayo is easing overnight restrictions.
A Monroe County Circuit judge has sentenced a Milwaukee man to spend the rest of his life in prison for a 2020 killing in Sparta. Sparta police detectives believe the shooting was connected to the sale of drugs. Thirty-nine-year-old Michael Hartmann was sentenced Tuesday. He had been found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide in the shooting death of 61-year-old Anthony Koopman. A jury found Hartmann guilty last November.
The Wisconsin Assembly has approved legislation that would limit the civil liability for gunmakers. Republican state Representative Gae Magnafici of Amery says she just feels that when a crime has been committed “we should blame the criminal and not the gun.” Democrats wanted votes on other measures like mandatory background checks for all gun purchases but they didn't happen. Governor Tony Evers is likely to veto the bill.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says the probe into Wisconsin's 2020 presidential election is dragging on because liberals have been spending all their time obstructing the process. The Republican says he hopes the probe will be done by the end of this month. Vos says there has been a lack of cooperation with the investigation conducted by Mike Gableman, a former state Supreme Court justice. Gableman has also said he expects to conclude the investigation by the end of February.
Oral arguments have been offered over accusations that the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board is violating the open records law. The suit was filed last October. W-I-S-C reports Midwest Environmental Advocates to accuse former board chairman Fred Prehn of withholding communications connected to his refusal to step down at the end of his term. M-E-A says a text it found indicates there could be existing records that weren’t shared when it made an open records request. Dane County Judge Everett D. Mitchell says he will issue a ruling this week.
Some lawmakers in the Minnesota Senate, bemoaning what they label a shortage of state funding for roads and bridges, are pushing for an electric vehicle tax -- the rough equivalent of Minnesota's gasoline tax, which they call a "dying star." Hutchinson Senator Scott Newman says he believes the state constitution allows them to tax “any substance that propels a motor vehicle,” including electricity. Newman also proposes all Minnesota sales tax on auto parts -- not only about half of it -- to go exclusively for road and bridge projects. But he also says funding beyond that is necessary to meet the need.
Almost every business in Wisconsin reports problems due to either inflation or the supply chain. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce’s latest employer survey says nearly half of businesses in Wisconsin have seen prices rise more than ten percent, and one in five have seen prices jump by more than 20-percent. 98-percent of Wisconsin businesses say inflation has driven their costs up, and 82-percent say inflation has hurt them. 93-percent report costs going up because of supply chain problems. 48-percent say they had to turn down orders, and 12-percent canceled product lines because of supply chain problems.
With the peak of the omicron surge in the rearview mirror, the number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is dropping. But Mayo Clinic COVID-19 experts caution that vaccination and boosters are still key. Doctor Melanie Swift says “vaccination has moved us to a very different place than we would have been without it.” Despite surges and record-high hospitalizations, Swift says without vaccinations, they would have been so much more devastating. She adds that the majority of hospitalized COVID patients are unvaccinated.
Wisconsin lawmakers have taken one of the first steps toward the dissolution of the state’s largest school district. Assembly members Tuesday passed a bill to break up Milwaukee Public Schools. Democratic Governor Tony Evers would be expected to veto the legislation if it makes it through the Wisconsin Senate. M-P-S officials, Milwaukee leaders, and candidates for mayor oppose the idea.
Members of the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee spent Tuesday working on clean water bills. Legislation was approved that will set aside up to one-point-four-million dollars each year aimed at keeping farm fertilizers out of the groundwater. The funds would also be used to pay for a new position in the University of Wisconsin System that would be responsible for monitoring water quality. State agriculture groups support the package of bills.
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