The Durand City Council is meeting tonight. Items on the agenda include discussion and possible action on a zoning variance to allow a proposed Dollar General Store to have a smaller parking lot, discussion and possible action on the proposed site for a dog park, and reports from the mayor and city department heads. Tonight's meeting begins at 6:30 at Durand City Hall.
A Pepin County man has settled sexual assault charges against him. On Monday in Pepin County Court, Michael Wulff of Durand, pleaded no contest to sexually assaulting a 10yr old girl in a separate case from 2021. Charges of sexually assaulting an 11yr old girl in 2022 were then dismissed in return for the no-contest plea. Wulff will be sentenced in August and faces up to 60yrs in prison.
Authorities in Dunn County are searching for 23-year-old Jesse D. Nelson. He failed to show up for his jury trial which was supposed to start Tuesday. W-E-A-U/T-V reports Nelson faces two charges of sexual assault of a child. He’s also accused of having sex with a child under 16. Jurors and witnesses were all in the courtroom in Menomonie Tuesday – but Nelson wasn’t there and his defense attorney told the court he didn’t know where his client was. He has another appearance scheduled in Dunn County for July 26th in another case.
A 24-year-old convicted armed burglar in Chippewa County has been sentenced to three years’ probation. Quinnten Schug and Antonio Obrien were taken into custody after a reported home invasion in March 2021. Chippewa County deputies were called to a home south of Cadott and two men – Schug and Obrien – matched the suspect description that had been given. Authorities recovered a loaded handgun and face masks. Obrien is scheduled to return to court next week.
A new report calls for the continued support of broadband expansion in Wisconsin. In its second annual report released on Tuesday, the Governor's Task Force on Broadband Access calls on state leaders to continue support for broadband expansion in Wisconsin, which so far has included nearly 300 million dollars in state and federal funding. The governor's task force was established in 2020 and called for more funding, better data, and streamlined permitting among other things, in order to bring high-speed internet to all of Wisconsin by 2025.
Flags in Wisconsin are at half-staff Tuesday in honor of a slain former judge. The funeral for retired Juneau County judge John Roemer was Tuesday in Mauston. Police say a convicted criminal broke into Roemer’s home last month and shot him to death. Roemer was retired from the bench, but years ago had sentenced the suspect to prison for a burglary conviction
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety (D-P-S) is awarding more than three-point-seven-million dollars to 42 schools and bus companies for stop-arm cameras. The grants will reimburse schools and companies for purchasing and installing stop-arm camera systems and supporting software programs. Traffic Safety director Mike Hanson says when the stop arm is out and somebody goes through that stop arm, it will take a picture of a license plate so the bus driver can turn that information over to law enforcement. Authorities have cited more than 46 hundred drivers in Minnesota for stop-arm violations over the past five years.
School safety officials have met to talk about the plans at Wisconsin schools to be ready for a shooting incident. The latest discussion covered topics like staff and leadership turnover, a lack of dedicated safety professionals on campuses, and increasing mental health issues. The head of Wisconsin’s Office of School Safety says it is trying to implement a public health approach to school safety. W-I-S-C/T-V reports that all of the school officials at Monday’s meeting in Madison say state policymakers could do more to support what they need.
Republican State Representative Tim Ramthun is renewing his call to decertify the results of Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election. Ramthun wants a special session to be called. He points to last week’s Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that absentee ballot drop boxes can’t be used in elections here. Ramthun says that means all 2020 ballots placed in those drop boxes are invalid. He says he’s not a conspiracy theorist but he maintains if the ballots in the drop boxes are invalid that would be enough to hand Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes to Donald Trump. Election officials say decertification is impossible.
U-S Senator Tammy Baldwin is among two dozen Democrats supporting the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act of 2022. The bill is set up to make sure people can cross state lines to get an abortion without breaking the law. It would open the door for a civil lawsuit to be filed against anyone who tries to keep them from crossing a state line to access reproductive services. Baldwin says the measure would protect health care providers in pro-choice states from being sued for working with patients from pro-life states. The Wisconsin Democrat pointed to draft legislation in Missouri aimed at stopping residents of that state from getting an abortion in another state.
Astronaut Mark Lee is scheduled to make an appearance at a Sparta fundraiser next month. He will be the featured guest at the Deke Slayton Memorial Space and Bike Museum August 4th. W-K-B-T/T-V reports Lee is a native of Viroqua who flew four space shuttle missions during his 17 years as an astronaut with NASA. He completed four spacewalks. The event will be held at the American Legion in Sparta.
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan says he’s not much of a crier but something snapped inside him when he watched the January 6th Capitol riots. The former Wisconsin Congressman told author Mark Leibovich he was “absolutely horrified” by what he saw. The revelation is included in a Leibovich book entitled “Thank You For Your Servitude.” The Republican Ryan has kept a low profile since leaving Congress three years ago. He reportedly hasn’t spoken to former President Donald Trump since he left office. About Trump, Ryan told Leibovich he expects “never to speak to him again.”
The Department of Natural Resources is saying people are throwing away so much wasted food it is filling up Wisconsin’s landfills. State officials estimate that 20 percent of everything at the dump is basically wasted food. D-N-R Solid Waste Coordinator Casey Lamensky tells W-A-O-W/T-V that the decisions you make at home have a big impact as officials work on the food waste problem. He says most of the food was still edible as it was tossed out. That leads to an effort to get people to reduce, reuse, and recycle – through activities like composting.
Campus safety is a growing concern for the University of Minnesota community. Around 100 parents and Dinkytown residents met Monday and pleaded to a panel of police and Minneapolis leaders for a solution to a rise in violent crime near campus. Minneapolis Interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman says crime is up 45 percent since the COVID pandemic but also says the department and campus police share a strong relationship and are committed to combating crime. Out of 278 shootings in Minneapolis this year, 10 percent have happened in the precinct that includes the U, while 40 percent happened on the city’s north side. The University says it invested 60 million dollars in public safety in two years, including mobile lighting and a new safety awareness campaign.
Gas prices are slowly dropping in the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota. Gas-Buddy reports that prices have trickled down five cents in the last week. The average price for a gallon of regular is currently four-63 in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Meanwhile, some stations across the state have gas priced below four dollars a gallon. However, the money-saving app and website says Minnesota drivers were paying one-65 less a year ago.
The Minnesota State Fair is out with its list of 38 new foods for 2022. Fair spokeswoman Maria Hayden says she’s most excited about the “new rice and meat options from Union Hmong Kitchen.” Other new items this year include deep-fried ice cream, two vegan dishes called poultry-geist and steak-x-orcist, lemon cookie tortilla chips, and pickle pizza. For a full list of new state fair foods, you can visit m-n-state-fair-dot-org. The Great Minnesota Get Together runs this year from August 25th to September Fifth.
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