One person is dead after a farm accident in Rock Elm Township on Saturday. According to the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, 66yr old Raymond Leffingwell of Elmwood was delivering haybales ato a farm when the load shifted and the haybales fell onto 60yr old John Robey of Elmwood. Robey was transported to Western Wisconsin Health in Baldwin and was prounced dead at the hopsital. Leffingwell was not injured in the accident.
The Durand City Council has approved a one-time premium pay bonus for city employees working in 2021 during the pandemic. Durand Mayor Patrick Milliren says both full-time and part-time employees were included. The money is coming from the city's share of ARPA funds and will cost approximately $19,000. The city will have approximately $10,000 remaining in ARPA funds after the payout.
Police in Chippewa Falls are not saying much about a shooting downtown on Saturday, but they are calling it an attempted homicide. Investigators say they got a call from a woman Saturday night who said she'd been shot. About two hours later, police found the suspect who they say shot her. Officers say the two know each other, but they're offering any more specifics. They are also not saying what led-up to the shooting.
Hundreds of truck drivers came out Saturday to honor the life of 12-year-old Blaze Himle, who was killed in a snowmobile crash on January 8th in Wabasha County. The effort came about after Blaze’s family asked truck drivers to help honor their son, as he loved semi-trucks. More than 300 truck drivers from all over the Midwest made a caravan from his funeral at First Lutheran Church in Lake City to his final resting place in Theilman. The line of trucks was reportedly at least a half-mile long.
It's like there is a circle around Western Wisconsin that's keeping the worst of the winter weather away. The National Weather Service says there will be snow and ice to the west and to the east, but our area shouldn't see much of anything to start the week. There will be some rain today and into tonight, and then a good chance for snow later in the week. Forecasters aren't saying anything about accumulation.
One of the candidates for state supreme court says she's embracing her 'progressive' label. Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz [pro-ta-say-wich] was on Capital City Sunday and said she is not embarrassed by being called a progressive. She says she is certainly a progressive when it comes to Wisconsin's election maps, marriage equality, and a woman's right to choose. She is one of four candidates running for the Supreme Court in the fall. There's another liberal candidate and two conservatives. Voters will narrow the field next month.
A federal program bolstering Wisconsin's FoodShare program will end before March, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services said Thursday. Since passed by Congress in late December, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, of 2023, gave FoodShare households additional funds. DHS said FoodShare members got an additional $95, or the maximum amount available for their household. DHS reports February will be the last month households will receive additional benefits, though regular FoodShare benefits will continue.
A referendum on public assistance is being proposed by Republican leaders in the Wisconsin legislature. A question they're hoping to put on the April ballot would ask if able-bodied childless adults should be required to look for work in order to receive taxpayer-funded benefits. The Assembly and Senate will vote on the measure this week. Wisconsin's temporary assistance for needy families program already requires participants to work or take part in job training programs, while other state benefit programs have not had such a requirement.
After donations for memorials for the victims of the Waukesha Christmas parade attack stall at the end of last year, the fundraising drive gets some needed help Thursday. We Energies donated $50,000, and Pro Health Care gives $25,000 to the Waukesha County Community Foundation to support the two Waukesha memorials, one to be placed on Main Street, and the other in the city’s Grede Park. The total cost of the memorials is estimated to be around $1.5 million. As of Thursday, about $250,000 has been raised. In December, the chairman of the Waukesha Parade Memorial Commission expressed doubts that the memorial would be dedicated by the second anniversary of the attack, with funds raised at the time at about $95,000, or just over 6% of the goal.
A Minnesota man is out of prison after spending nearly 25 years there for a conviction reviewers say was based on faulty evidence. Thomas Rhodes was released Friday from the Moose Lake facility after the Minnesota Conviction Review Unit of the state's Attorney General's office examined his case in partnership with the Great North Innocence Project. Reviewers found that the 63-year-old had been convicted based on "erroneous and incomplete evidence." He was found guilty in July 1998 of murdering his wife Jane Rhodes, who drowned during a nighttime boat ride with him on Green Lake in Spicer, Minnesota in 1996.
A proposed flat income tax is now before the State Senate and Governor Tony Evers opposes it. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu introduced the three-point-five percent income tax proposal on Friday. LeMahieu's bill would phase in the flat tax by 2026, ending the current progressive income tax rates that range from three-point-54 percent to seven-point-65 percent. Evers tweeted on Friday that tax relief should be targeted to the middle class to, as he put it, "give working families a little breathing room, not to give big breaks to millionaires and billionaires." LeMahieu argues that the flat tax would make Wisconsin more competitive and help the state's economy.
A contractor accused of scamming dozens of southern Wisconsin homeowners out of thousands of dollars has been arrested. Tyler Hansen was arrested Friday and booked into the Columbia County Jail in Portage. The 51-year-old Hansen is charged in Dane and Monroe counties on accusations that he and his contracting companies signed contracts for work but never finished the jobs. He's expected to face similar charges in Columbia County.
Following a committee vote at the Capitol on Thursday, therapists in Wisconsin will be allowed to offer the controversial practice of “conversion therapy.” Republicans claimed that the Marriage and Family Therapy, Professional Counseling, and Social Work Examining Board enacted a rule to ban the practice without legislative approval. Thursday’s 6-4 party-line vote in the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules will allow Wisconsin therapists to try to change a person’s sexual orientation.
Be careful of ads offering you the hottest new weight loss drug, something that will make you feel like a muscle mountain or any of those other tempting ad lines. State consumer protection director Mike Domke says you may be tempted to buy some of those medications to kick off your New Year's goals, but be careful. Domke says these are age-old tactics to get you to spend money on phony, untested medications that probably don't even have the ingredients they say they do. If you want to lose weight, consult your doctor, and put together a weight loss plan.
Hundreds of personal care assistants are stuck in limbo due to a backlog of background checks in Minnesota. WCCO reports around 950 people are waiting for their background checks to clear before they can start getting paid. Tammy Heuer told the news outlet she submitted her background check to the Minnesota Department of Human Services nearly three months ago, but it's still processing. She also said Cambridge home care agency that hired her is otherwise ready to get her working. In a statement, a DHS spokesperson said they're working to resolve the high volume of applications, but most are typically cleared within a couple of days.
A new state report says adolescents in Wisconsin are reporting more thoughts of suicide and feelings of depression and anxiety. The report released Friday by the state's Office of Children's Mental Health found that nearly 34 percent of students said they feel sad and hopeless almost every day. On the positive side, the report said bullying has decreased slightly, the teen birth rate has dropped, and the number of school social workers, counselors, and psychologists has increased.
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