Governor Evers is expected to sign assembly bill 727 today. The bill would address nitrogen levels in groundwater, by creating a commercial nitrogen optimization pilot program, provides crop insurance premium rebates for planting cover crops, and creates a new hydrogeologist position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension. Evers says the bill is a good first step in protecting Wisconsin groundwater. Farmers in Pepin County have been working with UW-Extension and Discovery farms to find ways to reduce nitrogen levels in groundwater in the county.
The Pepin Public Library is hosting a series of health workshops in April. On Monday, April 18th at 7pm on preventing type 2 diabetes, and then on Monday, April 25th at 1pm a workshop on pain medications and how to use them safely and effectively will be held. There is no charge to attend either workshop and to register call Pepin Library at 715-442-4932.
The University of Wisconsin-River Falls Collegiate Farm Bureau will host Ag Day on Campus on Tuesday, April 19. The event is free and open to all. The event will give UWRF students and community members an opportunity to engage with the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences student-led organizations and agriculture-related companies to learn about the positive impact agriculture is making. The main event is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the UWRF University Center mall area. The outdoor event will include interactive booths from organizations and agricultural-related companies.
The Black River Falls School District will be closed today after an incident involving unauthorized access to the district's computer network. According to Superintendent Shelly Severson, the network includes access to student information, parent contact information, and even medication logs. The district has contacted the FBI and state cybersecurity teams to investigate the incident to determine where this unauthorized access happened.
Dane County Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn says there’s no reason to keep pressing Wisconsin’s Assembly speaker for more records on the partisan investigation of the 2020 presidential election. Speaker Robin Vos has met the judge’s request to provide the records requested by the liberal group American Oversight. Vos’ office provided 10-to-20-thousand emails to that group Wednesday. The judge concluded enough had been done after a cybersecurity expert testified the scrutiny of phones held by Vos and his staffers wouldn’t likely lead to the recovery of more records.
A financial boost, for school mental health services in Wisconsin. Governor Tony Evers announced this week that nearly every K-12 district in Wisconsin will be awarded funding through the 15 million dollar "Get Kids Ahead" initiative. Schools will be able to use the funds for a variety of mental health support services for students and families. Every public school district in the state was eligible to opt-in and was guaranteed a minimum of ten thousand dollars, with the remainder of the money allocated on a per-pupil basis. The funds are from Wisconsin’s share of the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
Somebody could be holding a bunch of money for you, but it’s going away if you don’t beat the deadline. If you haven’t filed taxes in a few years, I-R-S spokesman Christopher Miller says you may have a tax refund waiting for you. Estimates are that almost 22-thousand people in Wisconsin could still get about 20-million dollars in unclaimed refunds. The deadline is April 18th. Miller says that’s when the three-year window to claim the refund money closes. The average refund will be about 750-dollars.
Maplewood, Minnesota police are investigating after a capuchin monkey was stolen from a vehicle outside a Cub Foods. Police say the victim left the animal, named Coco Chanel, inside her vehicle Tuesday night when she went into the store. The victim says she returned to her vehicle and discovered the monkey and its pink carrier were missing. State law makes it illegal to own a “regulated animal” such as a monkey.
Wisconsin stands to receive about 116-million dollars in transit funding from the federal government. A news release from the U-S Department of Transportation says funding increases of 20-billion dollars for the states have been authorized under the president’s infrastructure law. The money will be used by transit agencies to buy new buses and railcars, address repair backlogs, transition to new technologies to “address the climate crisis,” and modernize fleets. The Milwaukee area will receive more than 32-million dollars, Madison will get 12-million, Appleton just under four million, and Green Bay a little over three million.
Congresswoman Angie Craig went after oil company executives during a U-S House hearing Wednesday. Craig complained that their six companies made more than 76 billion dollars in profit in 2021 while Minnesota families pay near record-high gas prices. She said, “I don’t fault you for making money. You’re a business. But we’ve got a pandemic and we’ve got Putin. And you are using these crises to gouge the American people.” Craig also questioned why oil prices are going down but the price is not dropping at the pumps.
The Minnesota House Agriculture Committee is advancing its 2022 finance bill aimed at strengthening farming and food production in the state. Representative Mike Sundin of Esko says there’s funding for soil health, cover crop development, invasive plant species eradication, small meat cutters and processors, and more. He also says, “this package, coupled with the drought package moving separately, represents a strong investment in agriculture” and moves Minnesota in the right direction. The measure also includes a moratorium on new white-tailed deer farms to help prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease among Minnesota’s wild deer population. The bill now heads to the House Ways and Means committee.
A lobbying group says Tuesday’s elections go to show how many local governments in Wisconsin need more help from Madison. The League of Wisconsin Municipalities says voters in seven communities approved local tax increases to pay for firefighters, police officers, or emergency responders. The League’s Jerry Deschane says state lawmakers need to change the law so that local communities can raise taxes for those services without having to go to voters every two years.
The Marathon County Clerk is explaining what happened Tuesday in two Wausau wards where poll workers ran out of ballots during Tuesday’s election. Kim Trublood says due to the ballot shortage some voters chose to use an Express Voting machine to fill out a temporary ballot, which was then transferred over to a ballot that could be read by the tabulators through a process involving the watchful eye of two election inspectors verifying that the votes were transferred with integrity and without changing the intent of the voter. A record of the process has been documented as well.
Mac's Fish, Bub’s Gourmet Aussie Pies, and Soul Bowl are just a few of the food offerings available this season during Minnesota Twins games. Team President Dave St. Peter says, “food and beverage always play a central role in the game-day experience,” but it’s more special this year because concession options were limited by “two years of COVID.” Also new this year is the Market, a self-serve area for prepackaged snacks, hot food, and soft-serve ice cream, plus a massive walk-in beer cooler. St. Peter also says “fan favorites” will be back, including Kramarczuk’s, Red Cow, hot Indian foods, and Turkey to Go.
No comments:
Post a Comment