The Durand City Council will have some new faces after the spring election. Nick Weisenbeck, incumbent Travis Hooker, and former Councilman Dony Hayden were the top three vote-getters in the election for the three at large seats. Incumbent Mayor Patrick Milliren defeated Herb Schneider in the Mayoral Race. Meanwhile, all the Pepin County Board seats only had one candidate. In Buffalo County Gary Stanton defeated Corey Lews for the District 4 County Board Seat, while Brian Michaels defeated Terry Schoonover for the District 9 seat.
Plum City voters have approved a referendum to allow the district to exceed state levy limits. The vote was 374 yes to 178 no. In Ellsworth, voters approved a referendum to allow the district to exceed the revenue limit by $1.3 million per year for four years on a vote of 1149 yes, to 659 no. In Menomonie, there will be three new school board members after Donminique Stewart, Abe Smith, and Rachel Henderson were elected.
People in western Wisconsin are warned to throw out potentially-tainted lettuce. The division of Trade and Consumer Protection says bags of Ocean Mist Farms brand romaine hearts, sold mainly in western Wisconsin, may be contaminated with Cyclospora. State officials say all of the suspect packages show a harvest date of March 10th. The questionable greens were grown in Coachella, California.
It’s Severe Weather Awareness Week and Xcel Energy is reminding customers to be prepared. Xcel’s John Marshall says before severe weather strikes, there are some simple things customers can do to stay safe. “If you come across any downed power lines, assume they’re energized and therefore very dangerous.” Marshall says don’t touch or try to move any downed power lines – “stay very far away” and leave the reported area immediately. He also suggests visiting Xcel’s website to sign up for outage notifications.
Wisconsin’s moratorium on winter-time power disconnections the power ends a week from Friday. The Wisconsin Public Service Commission says people behind on their heat and light bills need to get caught up – or to make payment arrangements before April 15th. The state also has some money available for people who need help paying their utility bills.
Authorities are looking for the thieves who have stolen dozens of road signs in Vernon County. Sheriff John Spears says more than 25 signs have been taken – some removed from the posts and, in some cases, the posts were cut and taken, too. W-E-A-U / T-V reports stealing a road or traffic sign can result in a fine of up to 100-dollars and a 30-day jail sentence for first offense. The Department of Transportation says the second offense doubles the maximum time in jail. Sheriff Spears says missing signs can cause crashes and put people at risk while they are driving. No arrests have been reported.
Wisconsin’s two senators will split their votes along party lines on the confirmation of U-S Supreme Court nominee Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson. Democrat Tammy Baldwin said Jackson is well-qualified and offers strong experience as a federal judge. Republican Ron Johnson released a statement saying while Judge Jackson “is a decent person with a compelling life story,” she is a judicial activist and he won’t vote for her confirmation. A final confirmation vote could come as soon as Thursday – and Jackson is expected to become the first Black woman to serve on the high court.
Sixth District Congressman Tom Emmer was joined by Minnesota Republicans Pete Stauber and Michelle Fischbach and two other members of Congress in sending a letter urging action from President Joe Biden on rising fertilizer prices. Emmer said, “Skyrocketing and unprecedented input prices are robbing our farmers of their livelihoods, and even today’s high commodity prices simply can’t keep pace.” Fertilizer prices rose significantly through March of this year. Diammonium phosphate (DAP), the world’s most commonly used fertilizer, reached its highest price on record last week, up 16 percent from the previous month. The price of urea rose 10 percent. Prices have been further impacted by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, with sanctions bringing Russian fertilizer imports to a standstill. Russia is consistently among the world’s leading exporters of fertilizer.
Spring temperatures are nearly here and that means not only road construction but also bridge inspections, beginning in southeast Minnesota and expanding north as the weather improves. M-N-DOT’s Mike Dougherty in Rochester says some bridges are inspected annually, while others are on a longer schedule “based on the type of materials that they are, their age, any things that have been detected in a previous inspection.” Among the tools, M-N-DOT uses are “snooper trucks” with long, multi-jointed arms so crews can inspect the underside of bridges. Dougherty says in his part of the state, Mississippi River bridges are typically inspected every year. Drivers should watch for lane closures, slow down in work zones, and never enter a road blocked with barriers or cones.
The UW-System wants to poll its students on free speech issues. That poll is being conducted by the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service. WIPPS will be asking students basic questions on the First Amendment and its protections, as well as questions on diversity in viewpoints. They're also interested to see if students are self-censoring for fear of blowback from fellow students for expressing their views. That survey will be released on Thursday.
The coronavirus pandemic created a huge backlog of criminal cases in Wisconsin courts and, now, a shortage of public defender lawyers is making the situation worse. State Public Defender Regional Attorney Manager Thomas Reed says more than 200 cases a day are delayed in Milwaukee County alone. W-I-S-N / T-V reports the State of Wisconsin is going to use 14-million dollars in American Rescue Plan Act funding to ease the backlog but that may not fix the overall problem.
Authorities in Wood County are investigating the cause of a Monday house fire and the cause of death for the woman who was found inside. Her name hasn’t been released. She was taken to Aspirus Riverview Hospital in Wisconsin Rapids where she died. Fire crews were reportedly called just after 10:00 a-m to the house in Saratoga. They say active fire was coming from the single-family home as they arrived. The victim was found while firefighters were battling the flames.
Prosecutors in Missouri have dropped one of the state charges against the man accused of killing two brothers from Shawano County. Court officials say the charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm was dropped because the federal penalty is harsher. K-S-H-B / T-V reports Garland Nelson still faces nine felony charges. Nick and Justin Diemel were killed when they went to Nelson’s farm in northwestern Missouri to collect on a 250-thousand-dollar bad check. The trial in state court is scheduled to be held next February. He also faces federal mail fraud charges.
Republican State Representative Joe Sanfelippo says decertifying Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election is “never going to happen.” During an appearance on W-I-S-N / T-V’s Capital City Sunday Sanfelippo says it is “nutty” to think the result of the last presidential election in the state can be overturned. The vice-chair of the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections says he would rather see lawmakers focus on new election laws and holding members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission accountable for what he says were violations of election laws last November.
Will we see a recession in 2022? St. Cloud State Economist King Banaian doesn’t believe the U-S will fall into a recession in 2022, but 2023 is still a possibility. He says if there’s a recession, it’ll likely be because “we’ll have to hit the brakes much harder to prevent runaway inflation than we would normally do -- and that could trigger a recession.” Banaian says he thinks at this moment, the U-S is “at least nine months to a year away” from a potential recession. Inflation continues to cause increases in products across the board. Some of the bigger ticket items include new houses and vehicles.
As the weather starts to turn warmer and you look to get outside and enjoy the sunshine, Minnesota health officials are reminding you that so do the ticks. State Epidemiologist Elizabeth Schiffman says when the temps climb into the ‘50s and ‘60s, the ticks become active and are looking to eat. She warns people to take preventative measures, like using repellant and checking yourself for ticks when you get back indoors. She says deer ticks are especially dangerous, as they can transmit diseases like Anaplasmosis, Lyme Disease, and Babesiosis. Schiffman says if you are wearing long pants, permethrin works very well on clothing and will actually kill ticks -- but it should NOT be used on bare skin. For that, use a repellent with DEET.
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