Monday, August 21, 2023

Local-Regional News August 21

 One person was killed, and another injured in a motorcycle vs automobile accident in Trenton Township on Saturday.  According to the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, 58yr old Michael Cardell of Red Wing was traveling northbound on Hwy 63, when traffic slowed in front of him.  He went into the southbound lane and struck a southbound vehicle driven by 35yr old Jade Helsper from Red Wing.  Helsper had a passenger in the vehicle identified as 34yr old Alicia Doane of Red Wing.  Cardell was thrown from the motorcycle and pronounced dead at the scene by the Pierce County Medical Examiner.  Doane was taken to Mayo Hospital in Red Wing.


One person was injured in a UTV accident in Trimbelle Township on Saturday.  According to the Pierce County Sheriffs Department, 22yr old Tyler Gerhardt of Hammond was traveling southbound on Hwy 65 when he attempted to make a sharp turn and lost control of the UTVV.  A passenger, 25yr old Tyler Kattre of Hammond was med flighted to Regions Hospital in St. Paul.


One person was injured in a single motorcycle accident in Oak Grove Township on Friday.  According to the Pierce  County Sheriff's Department, 59yr oild David McMahon of Prescott was traveling northbound on Hwy 35, when he lost control of the motorcycle and entered the ditch.  McMahon was med flighted to Regions Hospital in St. Paul.


 It gets hotter after today. The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning for the WRDN Listening area from 11am tomorrow until 10pm on Wednesday.  The weather service says we could have heat index values near 110 and with overnight lows in the 70's there will be little relief from the effects of the heat during the nighttime periods. The extreme heat may also lead to buckling roads.  A heat advisory is in effect for Wednesday night through Thursday.


There is a search for a missing teen in Boyceville. Boyceville Police say Caleb Olson has been missing since Friday. They say he left his house with a backpack. Investigators say they got a report of Olson in the area north of Glenwood City yesterday. His pictures are online, and police are asking anyone who knows anything to please reach out. 


 Gas prices are a little lower across Wisconsin this weekend.  Triple-A reports the statewide average was down a penny on Friday, to three-71 a gallon for regular.   Here in Western Wisconsin, Gas prices are averaging $3.68 in Durand, $3.54 in Eau Claire and $3.72 in Ellsworth.


There is more union support for striking workers at Leinenkugel's brewery in Chippewa Falls. Public workers union AFSCME and the local Wisconsin Allegiance for Retired Americans joined the Teamsters on the picket line yesterday. About 45 union workers at the brewery have been on strike for more than a month. They want a bigger pay raise and other concessions. Leinie's says the offer they've made to the striking Teamsters is competitive and exceeds local rates for similar jobs. 


Eau Claire County is looking for a grant to build a bike trail along McKinley Road. The county is applying for a Safe Routes to School grant. The idea is to create a bike path along McKinley from Highway 312 to River Prairie Drive. Planners say that will give kids at both the McKinley Charter School and Northwoods Elementary a safe way to get to and from school. The total cost of the new bike trail would be about 700-thousand dollars. Eau Claire County would have to come-up with about 150-thousand dollars of that money.


There is a manhunt in Barron County for a woman who authorities say cut off her ankle bracelet. The Barron County Sheriff's Department is looking for Lorie Mullins. Deputies say she cut off her ankle monitor while on work release earlier this week. She was allowed out of the county jail to go to work but never returned. The sheriff's office thinks she fled with a man. Her pictures are online, and the sheriff's office is asking anyone who knows anything to reach out. 


Interstate 35 was temporarily shut down near Faribault on Sunday due to a six-vehicle crash. The crash occurred just after noon in the northbound lane of the interstate, when an SUV and a semi-truck collided and caused a chain reaction crash. The Minnesota State Patrol responded to the scene and say while there were some injuries, nobody was killed in the wreck. An investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing at this time. 

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 Wisconsin's jobless ticked up slightly last month. The latest numbers from the Department of Workforce Development show the unemployment rate in Wisconsin jumped to two-point-six percent. It was at two-point-five percent in June. DWD says Wisconsin added about 11-thousand jobs, which brought the labor participation rate up to 65-and-a-half percent. That's a half percent jump from June. 


Folks to the north and west of Madison continue to see the worst of Wisconsin's drought.  The latest drought report for Wisconsin shows things improved across the state over the past week.  It helped that Wisconsin saw a couple of days of soaking rain last week.  In Madison and Dane County the drought continues to be severe, but areas to the north and west are in an extreme drought.  As of this week, 78-percent of Wisconsin is seeing some kind of drought conditions. 


We have a few new details, but not many answers about the two crashes at EAA in Oshkosh this year. The NTSB yesterday released an update about the crashes. Investigators say the crash that killed Devyn Collie-Reiley and Zach Colliemoreno saw the plane climb to nearly four thousand feet, before plummeting back to the earth. The other crash which killed Mark Peterson and Thomas Vol happened about 250 feet above the ground when a helicopter and a gyro-copter collided. 


Researchers at UW-Madison say they've hacked voice ID protections with PVC pipes. The university this week announced a team figures out a way to use modified PVC pipes to get around the voice ID security systems that many banks are using. Researchers say they are trying to stay one step ahead of hackers and scammers who are getting creative in their attempts to steal people's identities and/or money. Using custom-cut PVC pipes and paper towels, the team fooled the voice ID protections about 60 percent of the time. The UW researchers say voice ID protections are advertised as 'as secure as a fingerprint,' but say their test proved that's not true.


The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is getting a regional award for the Flex Lane on the Beltline.  This week the D-O-T was awarded the America's Transportation Award by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.  The Flex Lane received the award for cutting down on commute times.  The Flex Lane is now entered into a national competition and the winner will be announced next month.


A Germantown hotel had some unwanted, unpaid guests last weekend: a bunch of snakes. Video footage shot at the Country Inn and Suites and posted to social media shows a number of snakes in the hotel's pool, the hot tub, and in the hallways. The Washington Ozaukee Health Department reports the snakes are likely northern water snakes that entered the hotel from nearby wetlands. Choice Hotels, which operates the Country Inn, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel management at the location has gotten rid of the snakes. 

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