Dunn County voters will see a ballot question on health care next month. The advisory referendum asks if voters think the federal government should create a new national health insurance program. The question carries no weight, no laws will change based on the vote. Supporters say the idea is to let national leaders know what voters in the Chippewa Valley think. Critics say it's a political ploy to get more people to vote.
Kidnapping charges will be filed against a 22-year-old Tennessee man for taking a teenage girl from her home. Bail was set at one-million dollars for Trevor Blackburn. He is being held at the Chippewa County Jail. Investigators say Blackburn and 15-year-old Kryssy King had been in contact online – but when the girl tried to end communications Blackburn began blackmailing and threatening her. He made a Tuesday court appearance. Blackburn was arrested Sunday night in Douglas County.
An Eleva woman has been charged with seven felonies and is accused of stealing over $200,000. Kimberly Wilson was charged with theft through false representation, identity theft, and other charges after the victim contacted police with concerns over his bank accounts. Authorities allege that Wilson forged documents, set up fake accounts, and made withdrawals from his retirement account. She was released on a $10,000 signature bond and will be back in court in November.
The Mayo Clinic is spending nearly five-million dollars to move employees to northwest Rochester. Mayo is remodeling parts of their 41st Street Professional East Building to expand their clinical space next year. The number of employees moving to northwest Rochester is currently unknown.
A nurse at the jail in Sparta is out of a job and facing charges that she had sex with an inmate. Prosecutors filed charges this week against 52-year-old Teresa Fennigkoh. They say she had sexual contact with an inmate at least four times while she examined the man in the Monroe County Jail. She's also accused of giving him prescription medication without a proper prescription. The inmate says nothing happened, Fennigkoh says any sexual contact was consensual.
It is the clearest sign yet that Wisconsin is getting over the coronavirus. The Wisconsin Policy Forum yesterday released a report on hotel/motel room taxes across the state. The numbers show a huge rebound from 2019 and 2020. Most of the state is almost back to where it was before the outbreak. The report says last year's hotel/motel taxes brought in nearly 90 million dollars across the state.
A conservative Wisconsin law firm is suing to halt the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan The suit was filed in U.S. District Court by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on behalf of the Brown County Taxpayers Association. WILL alleges the loan forgiveness program violates the constitutional separation of powers since it was unilaterally created by President Biden, and the constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law because it will “disproportionately benefit Black borrowers.” WILL is seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent the cancelation of any debt before a decision is reached in the lawsuit.
Wisconsin lawmakers didn't spend much time on Governor Evers' special session on abortion yesterday. Republicans gaveled-in and gaveled-out of the session in less than a minute. The governor wanted the legislature to approve a constitutional change that would have allowed voters to vote on a new abortion law directly. Democrats yesterday accused Republicans of ignoring the needs of women. Republicans say the governor's special session call was pure election-year politics.
The final F-16 fighter jet of the 115th Fighter Wing leaves Madison’s Truax Field later today (Wednesday). That unit is getting ready for the next generation of fighters to arrive – the F-35. A ceremony will be held at 10:00 a-m. W-M-T-V reports that participating in the ceremony will be Chief Master Sergeant Brian Carroll who was present 29 years ago when the F-16s first arrived. The first F-35 fighters are expected to arrive at the field next spring. Construction work and training of the base personnel will be conducted in the interim.
There was perhaps one small silver lining in the path taken by Hurricane Ian. Josh Linville is a fertilizer marketing expert with Stone-X. He says the nation’s agriculture industry dodged a bullet when Ian made landfall well south of Tampa, missing key phosphate production facilities in Florida. The damage overall to Florida is bad enough, with damage estimates at around 47 BILLION dollars and at least 80 deaths.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is starting a 10-million-dollar grant program to help people fix their contaminated private wells. The state started accepting applications Monday. W-S-A-W/T-V reports that state funding could cover the entire cost of a new well or a treatment system with a cap of 16-thousand dollars. State Representative Katrina Shankland says almost one in four people with private wells in Portage County can’t drink from their tap. Drinking water containing high levels of nitrate can cause serious health problems including cancer.
Poll-takers say preserving Social Security is a top-of-mind issue for Wisconsin’s older voters. A-A-R-P Wisconsin spokesperson Lisa Lamkins says the poll taken by that organization finds 84-percent of Wisconsin voters over the age of 50 say they would be willing to vote for a U-S Senate candidate who would protect Social Security from cuts. Lamkins says the support for the social safety net comes from Republicans, Democrats, and independents. Inflation also worries older voters – not surprising since most are living on fixed incomes.
The owners of Milwaukee’s vacant Northridge Mall have been ordered to tear the remaining buildings down. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge William Sosnay issued the order Monday, saying the buildings are a public nuisance and they are dangerous. W-I-S-N/T-V reports that a representative for the Chinese-based owners' group U-S Black Spruce Enterprises says the company is doing its best. The cost of demolition has been estimated at 10-to-12-million dollars. Sosnay wants the demolition to happen immediately. It isn’t clear if Black Spruce will appeal.
The Minnesota State Patrol is committed to increasing the percentage of female state troopers to 30 percent by the year 2030. The pledge is part of the M-S-P’s 30-by-30 initiative. Lieutenant Colonel Rochelle Schrofer says they want to ensure that in all aspects of their agency that women are represented “as they should be.” About ten percent of the Minnesota State Patrol’s troopers and support staff are currently women. Schrofer says they want their workforce to reflect the communities they serve.
It is going to be more difficult for the Wisconsin Elections Commission to go beyond the letter of the state's election laws. A judge in Waukesha last month upheld the order that only the full Elections Commission can offer guidance to local clerks. The judge specifically said the Elections Commission's administrator and staffers do not have the power to offer guidance on their own. The ruling came as part of the hearing over the guidance that suspended special voting deputies for nursing homes back in 2020. The judge said Wisconsin law is clear about who can do what at the Elections Commission.
The CEO of MyPillow will have to face a lawsuit over his claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election. That's because the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt the case Dominion Voting Systems brought against Mike Lindell. Dominion is suing for more than a billion dollars as it claims Lindell committed defamation. He said Dominion's machines helped make sure Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump.
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