Monday, August 29, 2022

Local-Regional News Aug 29

 The City of Durand is exploring ways to reduce the costs for the Tarrant Park Pool project.  One area the city is exploring is reducing or eliminating any liquidated damages if the project is not done on time.   The project bids came in at approximately $4.3 million, well over the $3 million budget.  The city is considering rejecting all the current bids and rebidding the project out in January or February of 2023.


A high-speed chase through three counties on Thursday led to the arrest of a Milwaukee man.  The chase started in St. Croix County, where Baldwin and Hudson Police were called to assist in a high-speed chase of two vehicles.  Once in Dunn County, one of the vehicles went into Menomonie where it was stopped but the other continued on I-94 into Eau Claire County.  The suspect crashed in the go-kart area of the Metropolis Resort and fled.  A K-9 unit found the man, 22yr old Me Lar Htoo of Milwaukee and he was taken into custody.

 

A former Altoona financial advisor has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison for defrauding his clients.  Michael Shillin entered guilty pleas to wire fraud and bank fraud charges in May.  Eight other counts were dismissed as part of that plea deal.  Investigators say Shillin faked documents and lied to at least 100 clients when he took their money to make non-existent investments.  He was also accused of taking out more than 450 thousand dollars in loans using one of his clients’ banking information.  He had told the victims he bought shares of high-profile companies like Space-X and Palantir for them.


New Richmond police were called to a home on Saturday and found a man dead.  According to authorities, officers found the 48yr old male with multiple wounds, and was pronounced dead at the scene.  A suspect is in custody and is being held at the St. Croix County Jail. Authorities believe the incident was isolated and there is no danger to the public. 


 Charges could be filed today (Monday) against a man accused of abducting a woman in the Twin Cities and crashing into a Cannon Falls squad car during a chase. Police were called to the Cannon Falls Casey’s General Store Saturday after the woman reported she had been abducted and escaped. Officers spotted the suspect vehicle, but the driver refused to pull over and crashed into the patrol car. The pursuit continued later in Northfield and the suspect was arrested in Faribault. Investigators believe the 25-year-old Minneapolis man abducted the woman in the Maple Grove area.


A potentially destructive exotic pest is headed Wisconsin’s way.  The Spotted lanternfly is a native of China that's been found in 12 US states. The US Department of Agriculture says the lanternfly could seriously impact us grape orchard and logging industries if it continues to spread. P.J. Liesch, the manager of UW Madison's insect diagnostic lab recently told Wisconsin Public Radio it's a matter of when not if the bug arrives here in Wisconsin. He said it's definitely a challenging pest to deal with, and one that could cause problems for operators of Wisconsin orchards and wineries.


Two Wisconsin mayors are no longer expected to testify, in a now-ended partisan probe of Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election.  On Friday, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he'd rescind a standing subpoena against Madison mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and Green Bay mayor Eric Genrich after they refused to come and answer questions behind closed doors for Mike Gableman. Gableman himself was fired earlier this month after backing Vos's primary opponent, leading to the closure of the Office of Special Counsel.


The Madison College dean of access and student success says the president’s executive order erasing student loan debt will be life-changing for some.  Keyimani Alford says some borrowers were never able to catch up, financially, while burdened with those loan payments.  Millions of Americans will have up to 10 thousand dollars of debt eliminated by this week’s order.  Alford says the students have had bad credit ratings due to loan defaults in some cases.  This will give them a fresh start.  Seven-and-a-half million borrowers nationwide actually have loans that are in default presently.


A judge has dropped some charges against the man accused of committing the Waukesha Christmas Parade attack.  On Thursday a Waukesha County judge dropped six charges of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle from the long list of charges that Darrell Brooks faces in the attack. There are still 77 charges on the case, including six of first-degree homicide. There were also arguments over what evidence will be allowed at trial. The court has set a 20-day trial for the case, which will get underway in October.


Minnesota is the first state to receive federal funding for its “Local Food for Schools” program.  That effort focuses on finding Minnesota products that are healthy, with the goal of improving child nutrition and building relationships between schools and local farmers.  A spokesperson for the U-S Department of Agriculture says there is a big emphasis on ensuring the food comes from historically underserved producers while building more economic opportunities for producers across the state.  Minnesota is receiving three-point-four-million dollars for the effort.


The average farmland rent in Wisconsin is now 145 dollars an acre. The U-S-D-A's National Agricultural Statistics Service says this is 12 dollars higher than last year. The highest cash rents are in the southwestern part of the state, with the average in Lafayette County at 235 dollars an acre. The lowest average is in Forest County, at 19 dollars and 50 cents ($19.50) per acre.


 Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison this week announced that the state is getting around 66 million dollars this year from the largest of Minnesota's opioid settlements--with around 300 million due to the state down the road. U-S Senator Amy Klobuchar says the money will be used to help with prevention and treatment. More than five-thousand Minnesotans have died from opioid overdoses.


 A former Two Rivers teacher has entered a not guilty plea to three charges of sexual assault of a student during a court hearing Thursday.  Rebecca Kilps appeared in Manitowoc County Court for arraignment and was bound of for trial.  Kilps is free on bond.  A detective was contacted by a school social worker last May about being informed of a student having a relationship with a teacher.  Kilps husband contacted the same detective the next day saying he had found incriminating messages on his wife’s cell phone when he checked while she was sleeping.  The 17-year-old victim told authorities the two had sex twice.


The Packers are one of the most well-run franchises in the N-F-L. Forbes magazine reports the team’s overall value increased from three-and-a-half to four-point-three billion dollars over the last year. St. Norbert College economics professor Kevin Quinn says that’s a testament to Green Bay's balanced approach to management. The on-the-field success helps. The numbers show that the publicly-owned franchise has rebounded well from the pandemic. Even though they play in the smallest market in professional sports the Packers are listed in the top half of N-F-L franchises when it comes to their overall value.


No comments:

Post a Comment