The nurse accused of cutting off a man's foot without permission has pleaded not guilty. Mary Brown of Durand was in court in Pierce County in western Wisconsin yesterday to face charges that she amputated a patient's foot without getting the okay from doctors, or the man. It happened last May at Spring Valley Senior Living in Spring Valley. Brown's lawyers say she cut the man's foot off to make him more comfortable. He later died. Brown is looking at 40 years in prison if convicted.
Western Wisconsin's congressman is making the case that problems at the southern border are leading to fentanyl deaths in Wisconsin. Congressman Derrick Van Orden ended his trip to the southern border yesterday. He went with a group of fellow-Republican congresspeople to see the situation along the Texas side of the border for himself. Van Orden says there is a direct link between the drugs that flow across the border and deaths in Wisconsin. He says Gundersen Health in La Crosse reported nine overdoses last month alone. He says those should be blamed on the problems at the southern border.
High School artists in Western Wisconsin are encouraged to submit their work for the 2023 Congressional Art Competition. Students have until April 7th to submit work for the competition to 3rd District Congressman Van Orden's office in Eau Claire. This year's theme is a day in the life of Wisconsin. The winning student from the 3rd District will have their artwork displayed at the US Capitol Building for a year. Other winners of the competition will have work displayed at the Congressman's District offices and Washington DC Office.
Police in Altoona say their new license plate readers could help solve crimes faster. City leaders this week said they will install six license plate readers across the city, including at Highway 12 and Mayer Road near Kwik Trip, in the River Prairie area, and near Spooner Avenue and Harvest Lane. Sergeant Jake Henning says the cameras can make tracking down vehicles much easier, and that can lead to breaks in all sorts of cases. Henning said the cameras are not designed to catch people speeding or running red lights. Wisconsin doesn't allow for those kinds of cameras.
An Amery woman will spend 18 months in federal prison for stealing over half a million dollars from a trust fund. 43-year-old Sarah Tischer was sentenced on Wednesday for stealing 526-thousand dollars from the trust fund for a special needs person. Tischer was the manager of the fund, which was set up in 2017, but in 2020 one of the banks attached to the fund noticed that large amounts of money were being withdrawn and spent on personal items, and at the casino in Turtle Lake. She was removed as the trustee and charged with wire fraud. Once she's free from prison, Tischer will have to pay back the money, if she can.
An armed and wanted man in La Crosse is in custody thanks to help from the U.S. Marshals. La Crosse Police say they found 28-year-old Jerel Jenkins with a number of guns, ammunition, and a bulletproof vest when they arrested him yesterday. Jenkins was wanted on federal firearms charges. The Marshals say police in La Crosse, Onalaska, La Crescent, Minnesota, and as far as Eau Claire helped in the investigation to find and arrest Jenkins.
The top Republican in the Wisconsin Assembly says lawmakers are going to see if there's a way they can help the Brewers pay to fix American Family Field. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos yesterday said Governor Evers has made a stadium funding deal much more difficult by pitting taxpayers against the team. Vos said he's looking for a deal similar to the one former Governor Scott Walker signed in 2016 that paid for about half of the cost to build Fiserv Forum for the Bucks. Vos says he thinks there is a way to make it cheaper to keep the team in Milwaukee.
UW Regents say they may have to raise tuition if lawmakers don't give them more money in the new state budget. Regents yesterday said Governor Evers' proposed budget would leave the university about 130 million dollars short of what they asked for. The university asked for 435 million over the next two years, the governor proposed just over 300 million. Regents haven't raised tuition since the legislature rolled back the state-mandated tuition freeze back in 2021. A UW spokesman yesterday said everything is on the table. The governor said UW Regents can raise tuition if they'd like, but he said he doesn't see it happening.
Minnesota overdose awareness and prevention nonprofits are expressing support for a proposal that would make an opioid overdose reversal drug available over the counter. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to make Narcan, a brand-name naloxone nasal spray, a nonprescription drug. The move would allow the public to purchase it from locations such as gas stations, grocery stores, and vending machines. FDA officials say a major concern would be the packaging and label instructions for administering the drug.
Two more central Wisconsin deer have tested positive for the chronic wasting disease. The DNR reported on Wednesday that two deer from Marathon County tested positive for the degenerative disease. The two does hunted in the towns of Elderon and Ringle, were harvested as part of last year's deer hunts. The detection renews a feeding and baiting ban in Marathon County.
A Colby couple is charged with failing to provide safe living conditions for their kids. Court documents say an anonymous tip was received about an apartment that smelled of rotting garbage, was filled with flies, and had feces smeared on the walls. When officers arrived, what was found included a living room floor covered with garbage, no safe place to prepare meals due to trash and clutter on the counters, a crockpot with rotting food, children’s beds with no sheets, and brown smudges on the wall which the children’s mother said was food and marker. The children who live in the apartment are staying with a relative until the apartment is cleaned and inspected by Social Services.
The Minnesota National Guard is seeing a surge in recruitment. More than a thousand new recruits enlisted last year. The Minnesota Guard had the fourth-highest recruitment numbers in the nation last year, behind Texas, New York, and Pennsylvania. The entire Minnesota Guard worked a combined 100-thousand days in 2020, drastically up from the typical load of a thousand combined days per year. Guard members were also part of an unprecedented security force during the Derek Chauvin trial for the murder of George Floyd.
The Green Bay Packers salute law enforcement with special awards. The NFL team is accepting nominations for the “Packers Protect & Serve Award,” recognizing Wisconsin law enforcement officers who go above and beyond the call of duty. A release from the team says nominees would be those displaying heroism or an extraordinary commitment to public safety. Fifteen awards will be presented in the categories of Individual Officer, K-9, School Resource Officer, and Department. There’s more information available on the homepage of the Packers’ website.
St. Mary's University of Minnesota has received a 25-million-dollar donation. The money will be used to revitalize the liberal arts school, which has campuses in Minneapolis, Rochester, and Winona. A former student and his family made the massive donation anonymously. President Father James Burns said this "major investment" motivates the university to advance its "inspirational Lasallian Catholic educational mission."
Sturgeon season has one Wisconsin man near the top of the record list on Lake Winnebago. Jim Gishkowsky this week pulled a 177-pound sturgeon out of the lake. That's big enough to put him seventh on the list of the largest sturgeon ever caught in the Lake Winnebago system. Gishkowsky says he and a fishing buddy both had to fight to haul the massive fish out of the water. The largest sturgeon ever caught in the lakes is a whopper, weighing over 212 pounds and caught back in 2010.
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