The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT), yesterday announced approximately $149 million in state funding for 342 local improvement projects to be completed across Wisconsin over the next five years. Locally, Buffalo County received over $424000 for three county highway improvement projects, Pepin County $383000 for three projects, and Pierce County received $429000 for two highway improvement projects. The funding comes from six components of the state-funded Local Roads Improvement Program (LRIP), administered by WisDOT.
One person was injured in a tractor accident in the Town of Albion yesterday. According to the Trempealeau County Sheriff's Department, a tractor pulling a hay wagon was traveling southbound on Hwy Y when the tractor left the roadway and rolled over. The driver was med flighted to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. The name of the driver of the tractor has not been released.
Wisconsin lawmakers may consider creating a new statewide alert system to find missing children. A Lily Alert would cover local cases that don’t meet the criteria for a statewide Amber Alert. Eric Henry of Chippewa Falls has collected more than 187-thousand petition signatures. State Representative Jesse James has created a draft bill outlining the details of the Lily Alert. Lily Peters is the ten-year-old girl who was murdered in Chippewa Falls in April. The bill from James would need to be introduced in the next legislative session.
A convicted sex offender is being released back to Eau Claire County on June 7th. According to Eau Claire Police, 58yr old Mark Staffa will be living in a Department of Corrections monitored home on the 100 block of Randall Street. Staffa will be monitored with GPS tracking, comply with all sex offender registrant rules, and have no contact with minors.
The new head of the UW System wants to keep a tuition freeze in place. Incoming president Jay Rothman talked with reporters on Thursday. He said that the administration is hoping to keep undergraduate tuitions in place and continue a spending freeze at the universities. Base tuition prices have remained the same for the past nine years. The System has the option of raising those tuitions, but legislative Republicans have warned against doing so in the last budget cycle.
An arrest warrant has been issued for a man accused of election fraud who skipped a Marathon County Court appearance. Forty-five-year-old Timothy Hedstrom of Schofield allegedly lied on a voter registration form by saying he wasn’t a felon. At the time he was on probation for a suspended sentence for felony theft – something that still makes him ineligible to vote. If he is found guilty, Hedstrom could still be sentenced on both charges. No further hearings were scheduled for Thursday
Northwoods businesses and developers are renovating vacant motels into apartments to increase the amount of housing in the area. A number of formerly vacant motels and hotels are being converted into housing so that businesses can hire workers. Rick Wilson owns Pukall Lumber in Minocqua and he tells W X P R that he lost several potential employees because they couldn't find a place to live. That's when he bought out the Little Arbor Vitae Motel and converted it into homes. Developers say apartments are being rented as soon as they've converted, simply because the demand for housing is so high.
Online retail giant Amazon is ramping up its criticism of an anti-trust bill co-authored by U-S Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Amy Klobucar of Minnesota. Amazon maintains its consumer business targeted by the bill is more like big-box retailers Walmart and Target than it is like Apple, Facebook, or Google. The company is trying to distance itself from other tech giants that are being focused on. Klobuchar’s legislation would limit giant tech firms from giving preferential treatment to their own products.
The partisan investigation into the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin is reported to be about 200-thousand dollars over its budget. When Assembly Speaker Robin Vos first appointed former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to conduct the review a budget of 676-thousand dollars was established. A report this week reveals the state has spent a little over 896-thousand dollars on the review and five lawsuits connected to it. The Journal Sentinel reported the figures after obtaining invoices under the state’s open records law. The investigation was launched almost a year ago.
The lawsuit filed by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman against the mayors of Madison and Green Bay has been postponed for a second time. W-L-U-K/T-V reports Gableman is suing Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich for refusing to sit for depositions as he reviews the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin. Gableman’s attorney for another delay during a Wednesday hearing due to a scheduling conflict involving a member of his team. Waukesha County Judge Ralph Ramirez rescheduled the hearing for August 30th.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court rules against 17 businesses trying to recoup their losses due to the coronavirus pandemic. The business owners say the pandemic, and resulting precautions forced them to close their doors, costing them customers and profits. Their insurance company, Society Insurance, says their policies didn’t cover coronavirus losses. The high court ruled unanimously that the businesses’ policies covered things like fires that destroy a business, but not events like a virus outbreak. Wednesday’s ruling reverses a decision from a Milwaukee County judge.
The Racine Common Council has voted to put a two-million-dollar property tax increase on the August election ballot to pay for the hiring of 11 new police officers. Council members debated the question for two hours Wednesday. Approval would mean a property tax hike of about three-and-a-half percent. Racine Mayor Cory Mason tells W-I-S-N/T-V he proposed the referendum in response to an alarming increase in violent crimes in the city. If approved by voters, the higher taxes would go into effect next year.
It’s under one week to the June Eighth opening date for Minnesota’s front-line workers to apply for COVID bonuses approved by the legislature after nearly a year of political wrangling. State Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove says the application window will be open for 45 days beginning June Eighth. After that, the 500 million dollars authorized by the legislature will be evenly divided, with each eligible applicant receiving an equal payment not to exceed 15-hundred dollars. Grove advises those who may be eligible to visit frontline-pay-dot-m-n-dot-gov ahead of time to get questions answered.
Minnesota’s Rural Finance Authority is making zero-interest loans available to ag producers who suffered storm losses in May, after the latest round of severe weather left widespread damage across Minnesota on Memorial Day. State Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen says low-interest loans will also likely be authorized by U-S-D-A to repair damaged buildings. He also says farmers will probably know in the next month whether they’re in what’s called a “prevent plant” situation due to cold and wet weather plus severe storms, which delayed spring planting. Such a situation could trigger compensation for farmers.
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