Bail has been set at one-million dollars for the juvenile suspect accused of killing 10-year-old Lily Peters Sunday night. Chippewa County District Attorney Wade Newell says the victim was punched in the stomach, knocked to the ground, and strangled with a stick before she was sexually assaulted. The 14-year-old boy is charged in adult court with first-degree intentional homicide and sexual assault of a child. His name hasn’t been released. Authorities say he and the victim are related but they haven’t said how. The two left an aunt’s house together Sunday and the girl’s body was found Monday morning. Newell says the teenager told detectives it was his intention to rape and kill the victim from the start.
Wisconsin 3rd District Congressman Ron Kind has joined Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin and other members of Congress in asking congressional leaders to include Medicaid expansion into any future budget reconciliation package. The expansion would automatically expand Badger Care eligibility to over 90,000 Wisconsin residents who have not been covered due to Wisconsin not expanding Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act. In a press release Kind said, "we need to increase access to coverage and expand Badger Care once and for all".
Galesville officials are fed up with the repeated vandalism at Cance Park. Mayor Vince Howe says it’s “getting out of hand.” He says the light for the flag is repeatedly broken or removed. Howe says he can’t keep track of all the damage. W-K-B-T / T-V reports vandals damaged a water fountain, then broke it off. Galesville has had to lock its tennis courts due to the vandalism. It would be hard to play there because someone stole the nets. Howe says video surveillance may be the answer. He says the park has been hit many times over the last two years and Galesville is still waiting for the insurance company to respond to its claims.
Charges have been filed in Monroe County Circuit Court against a man accused of crashing into a school bus Monday morning, then leaving the scene. Thirty-two-year-old Timothy Larson faces eight felony and four misdemeanor charges. He rear-ended the school board from the Town of Leon just before 7:00 a-m. Deputies found him carrying a backpack about two miles away. Larson initially told investigators the brakes went out on his car and he was walking to a nearby tavern to call someone to pick him up. Drugs were found in the backpack.
The president of the Holmen Board of Education is apologizing for creating a fake Facebook profile, but some members of the community say that’s not enough. W-K-B-T / T-V reports Cheryl Hancock went by the name “Annie Allmaras” online. She used the page to respond to critical posts about the school board and to challenge conservative school board candidates. Opponents say they think that violates the board’s ethics policy. Hancock says it was a lapse in judgment and she’s committed to being a better person. After her apology, the board voted to re-election her as its president Monday night.
The Republican-led investigation into Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election will continue. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos had previously said he was closing down Michael Gableman’s probe later this week. Now, it has been extended, but with no more taxpayer funds used. Vos released a Tuesday statement saying he wants to “guarantee the legal power of our legislative subpoenas and get through the other lawsuits that have gridlocked this investigation.” The contract with Gableman was scheduled to end Saturday. Vos now says the review of President Joe Biden’s victory will go beyond that date.
A Taylor County deputy can return to duty after spending five years on paid administrative leave. W-S-A-W / T-V reports Steve Bowers was charged with misconduct in office for handing over cold case files to producers of the television show, Cold Justice, without prior approval. Taylor County Sheriff Larry Woebbeking was the lead investigator in one of those cases in 2017. He says the county is paying Bowers a full-time salary to work and he hasn’t been able to do that. He just thought it made sense to bring the deputy back starting May 9th. Bowers has said he may retire.
Findings from the latest Marquette Poll show some indications of which candidates voters prefer for the fall primaries. Among Democrats vying for the opportunity to challenge incumbent Republican U-S Senator Ron Johnson, Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes was the choice of 19 percent of poll respondents, followed closely by Bucks executive Alex Lasry at 16 percent. State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski was at 7 percent, Outagamie County Exec Tom Nelson at 5 percent, and the remaining seven candidates at one percent or less. In the Republican primary for governor, former Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch polled at 32 percent, business consultant Kevin Nicholson at 10 percent and Representative Tim Ramthun at four percent. The poll was conducted before construction executive Tim Michels entered the race.
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A Dane County judge has indicated he is ready to rule against Michael Gableman and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos in the legal fight over releasing documents connected to the investigation of the 2020 presidential election. In a Tuesday hearing, Judge Frank Remington told the court if there is no new evidence he anticipates the Office of Special Counsel will be held in contempt. That means the attorney for Vos will have to prove to the court there was no intent to disobey Remington’s order not to destroy documents. The liberal watchdog group American Oversight has accused the Office of Special Counsel of knowingly destroying documents after the court told it not to.
Nearly 300 Wisconsin National Guard members are returning home after helping at the state’s nursing facilities during the last three months. Residents say they will be sad to see the guard members leave and the soldiers, though happy to be going home, say it was an enjoyable deployment. W-L-U-K / T-V reports the nursing facilities were in crisis during the pandemic when they couldn’t hire enough workers. The C-E-O of the Odd Fellow Rebekah Home Association in Green Bay says March was the first time it had shown a profit in 18 months. About 40 National Guard members have left and the rest will be leaving throughout this week.
Republicans on the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee have made some minor changes to Evers administration plans for money from the bipartisan federal infrastructure bill. The Republican majority approved using 123 million dollars of that federal funding for state highway rehabilitation, with 83 million for local transportation facilities and 60 million for local bridge improvements, all of which were proposed by the state DOT. Republicans placed restrictions on a little over four million dollars that would provide funding for projects that cut transportation-related pollution or reduce congestion, including bike paths, stipulating that the money can only be used to reduce congestion or improve traffic flow or for traffic signaling improvements.
The Minnesota Senate, in its major health and human services funding bill, voted to expand eligibility for the SNAP program -- food stamps -- for those up to 200 percent of the federal poverty line. But an amendment from Ham Lake Republican Michelle Benson would require SNAP recipients have a job to be eligible. That brought an angry response from at least one Democrat -- Roseville Senator John Marty called the work verification move “shameful,” and challenged “any member” of the Senate to find “somebody who’s been hungry who refuses to work when they’re able to work.” There will likely be more debate on the issue when the House and Senate go into negotiations on the bill.
Minnesota’s attorney general has sued four Utah-based solar panel sales companies for deceiving homeowners. Representatives of Brio Solar Energy, Bello Solar, Avolta Power, and Sunny Renewable were accused of going door-to-door in Minnesota using high-pressure sales tactics, then failing to deliver on their promises. The solar panels being sold cost anywhere from 20-to-55-thousand dollars. Attorney General Keith Ellison says the victims were tricked into signing binding contracts that they didn’t realize were binding.
State officials say former Wisconsin first lady Elaine Schreiber is dead at the age of 82. She had lived with Alzheimer’s for the past 18 years. Her husband was former Wisconsin Governor Marty Schreiber. He chronicled the effects of the disease in a book titled “My Two Elaines.” It is called a love story and a story about coping and surviving as a caregiver. Marty Schreiber was lieutenant governor when Patrick Lucey left to become the U-S ambassador to Mexico and he became governor. His wife died in her sleep Monday morning at the Elaine’s Hope Memory Care Assisted Living Center at the Lutheran Home in Wauwatosa.
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