The Chippewa Valley is bracing for blizzard-like conditions this week. The National Weather Service has already issued a Winter Storm Watch for the entire area. It runs from tomorrow evening through Thursday afternoon. Forecasters say the Chippewa Valley could see as much as 12 inches of snow, and winds that could hit 45 miles-per-hour. The Weather Service says there will be two waves of the storm, the first will be tomorrow night into Wednesday. The second will come Wednesday evening into Wednesday night.
Wisconsin gas prices have been holding steady over the past week but prices could slowly start to climb. The statewide average for regular unleaded is three dollars and 17 cents a gallon, the same as last Friday. Triple-A says gasoline stocks have been going up but demand remains low, which is keeping prices from going up quickly.
Eau Claire's city council vice president is optimistic that the state may send cities more money in the new state budget. Vice President Emily Berge said during her State of The City speech on Friday that both Republican lawmakers and Governor Tony Evers are talking about sending more shared revenue to local governments. No one knows just how much will be coming from Madison, but Berge says it will help. The talk of more state money comes as city leaders are looking at creating a 25 dollar wheel tax. They will talk about that tax at tomorrow night's meeting.
Friday, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin visited Hudson and Eau Claire to highlight federal funds delivered for the St. Croix Valley Food Bank to help provide nutritious food to the communities they serve and the City of Eau Claire to remediate PFAS in their drinking water. Senator Baldwin visited the St. Croix Valley Food Bank in Hudson to highlight $4.3 million in federal funds for a new food bank. The funding will be used to construct a new facility that will allow the organization to accept more fresh and healthy food, and expand its reach to receive, store and distribute food to their service region of St. Croix, Pierce, Polk, and Burnett Counties. She then went to Eau Claire to highlight the $1.6 million dollars the city received to help with PFAS remediation for the city's water system.
Firefighters in Ladysmith are looking for the cause of a weekend fire that killed a woman. The fire happened Friday night, and crews found the woman inside the home. Investigators say it looks like she died in the fire, though they say the case remains open.
It's time to vote again in Wisconsin. Tomorrow is the primary for April's spring election. There is all manner of local races on the ballot, but the big race is for Wisconsin Supreme Court. Voters will narrow a field of four down to just two. There are two liberal and two conservative justices running for the court. The top two vote-getters will meet again in April.
Wisconsin's governor wants to get tougher on drunk drivers in the state. Governor Evers is proposing ignition interlock devices for all OWI cases. Currently, there's no requirement for ignition locks for drunk drivers, and first-time OWI cases in Wisconsin continue to be treated like traffic tickets. The idea of mandatory ignition locks for OWIs has been pitched before at the Capitol. It has faced stiff opposition in the past and has never become law.
The remembrances are pouring-in for former UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank after she died from cancer. She died Friday. Blank led the Madison campus for 10 years before leaving last year to become the president at Northwestern University. She never started that job because of her diagnosis. President Obama is one of the people who remembered Blank over the weekend, she worked in his treasury department before becoming chancellor. Blank leaves behind a husband and an adult daughter. She was 67-years-old.
The Brewers' business president says that American Family Field will need more funding sooner or later to maintain the park. Rick Schlesinger tells WISN's UPFRONT that the stadium district will need to continue to maintain and repair AmFam Field as part of its contract with the Brewers. Governor Tony Evers has proposed sending 290 million dollars from the state's budget surplus to the stadium board to both keep the field maintained and also extend the Brewers' lease on the facility to 2043. The five-county sales tax used to pay for the construction of the field expired in 2020, and there are about 87 million dollars left in that fund.
A Wisconsin firm is fined for employing children in dangerous jobs. The U.S. Department of Labor said Packers Sanitation Services, with corporate headquarters in Kieler, had at least 102 children ages 13 to 17 working in meat processing facilities in eight states. The Labor Department said the kids were working dangerous jobs like using caustic chemicals to clean razor-sharp saws, head splitters, and other high-risk equipment. Packers Sanitation Services has paid $1.5 million in penalties, and Under the Fair Labor Act, must pay $15,000 for each minor who was employed in violation of the law.
Legislation to stiffen reckless driving penalties in Wisconsin is introduced. One bill would double reckless driving citation fines and allow judges to double the jail time for criminal reckless driving offenses, with the maximum sentence increasing to three years in jail. A second would let municipalities pass laws authorizing police to tow vehicles if a reckless driver who is caught has a previous fine for the offense within the past four years, and the fine hasn’t been paid. The measures have bipartisan support. They come a week after Governor Tony Evers allocated tens of millions of dollars in his proposed budget to help communities 're-engineer' roads to decrease reckless driving.
The Department of Natural Resources has awarded more than six-point-five million dollars to benefit nonprofits, lake associations, and local governments across Wisconsin. The DNR said on Friday the money will go toward a variety of projects and that many local and regional partnerships are working to improve water quality, habitat restoration, runoff and pollution reduction, and aquatic invasive species control. The DNR's Surface Water Grant program received close to 450 applications for grants.
It's almost time to get those ice shanties off Wisconsin lakes, rivers, and streams. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says the first deadline is February 20th when ice shanties that are on Iowa boundary waters must be removed. A full list of deadlines is available on the Department of Natural Resources' website. The DNR says portable ice shanties are still allowed but they must be removed when not in use.
A Marathon County man is now a member of the Packers Fan Hall of Fame. John Breske of Elderon became the 25th inductee at an event at Lambeau Field Thursday morning. The Green Bay Press Gazette reports that the 92-year-old Breske has rarely missed a game since the Lombardi era. He also has hosted numerous bus trips to Lambeau Field on home game Sundays. Breske, who was selected from among 10 candidates during January voting on the Packers website, will have his name permanently displayed in a place of honor in the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame.
Spring break is on the horizon, and TSA officials have tips for travelers heading through the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The agency says spring break season starts today and lasts through late April. Travelers are encouraged to arrive to the airport early to give plenty of time for traffic, check-in, security, and all that jazz. They also suggest enrolling in TSA PreCheck to avoid long wait times. Last month, 92-percent of people with TSA PreCheck got through security in less than five minutes.
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