One person is dead following a collision with a Wisconsin State Patrol vehicle in Chippewa County. According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, a Dunn County Sheriff’s Deputy began pursuing a vehicle just before 1:30 Friday morning. The chase entered Chippewa County, where the pursued driver reached a dead end, turned around, and crashed into a state patrol cruiser that was assisting in the chase. The DOJ said the driver was killed in the crash and a passenger was taken to a hospital with significant injuries. The state trooper was also hospitalized and later released. The state Division of Criminal Investigation is leading the investigation into the incident. The names of the people involved have not been released.
The Durand Improvement Group is meeting tonight. The group will continue its discussion of the future of the Durand Fest. With the construction expected next year on Madison Street, the loss of a lot next to Memorial Park for the Carnival, and the lack of volunteers, the future of the event is in question. Fun Fest is expected to again be held downtown, but DIG is in critical need of volunteers to help with the organization and running of the event. Tonight's meeting begins at 5:45 at the community center at Durand City Hall.
Add Menomonie Schools to the list of school districts in Wisconsin that are asking voters for more money. The city's school board this week okayed a referendum question for next spring. Menomonie Schools say they need another four million dollars to make payroll and keep up with day-to-day expenses. The tax hike vote comes after Menomonie Schools got more money in the new state budget.
The man who police say killed his neighbor back in 2016 is expected to be in Eau Claire County court later today. Shane Helmbrecht was brought back to Eau Claire on Friday. He's been on the run since September when police say he walked away from a halfway house. He was arrested last month in Mexico. Doctors originally declared Helmbrecht unfit for trial, but that could change after his escape. Prosecutors in Eau Claire, however, have not made any formal announcements.
We're waiting for more answers about a fire on Balsam Road Thursday night. Fire crews from Eau Claire and several other fire departments battled the fire for more than an hour. Investigators say the fire started about 9 p.m. Thursday night. No one is saying how it started. It appears that the house is a total loss.
There's another CWD case in western Wisconsin. The DNR yesterday confirmed a case in a wild deer that was shot in Jackson County. The two-year-old buck was harvested in the town of Garfield, which is within ten miles of Trempealeau and Eau Claire Counties. The DNR says the confirmed case means Jackson County will have to restart its ban on feeding and baiting for three years. Both Eau Claire and Trempealeau counties already have bans in place.
Wisconsin airports will be getting more than 38-million dollars for safety and infrastructure upgrades. State US Senator Tammy Baldwin says the funding came from the Federal Aviation Administration Airport Improvement Grants. Projects include runway, terminal, and roadway improvement projects, along with sustainability projects. The Chippewa Valley Regional Airport in Eau Claire got one-million dollars.
Minnesota wildlife officials are expanding the scope of a special deer hunt to manage chronic wasting disease. This comes as nearly two dozen deer have tested positive for chronic wasting disease this fall. As a result, the CWD management hunt held December 15th through the 17th has been expanded to include deer permit area 342 near Wabasha. More information is available on the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' website.
Wisconsin gas prices are essentially unchanged, and the story's the same in Madison. Triple-A reports the statewide average price for regular remained at two-93 a gallon Saturday, while the average price in the Madison metro area was pretty much flat at two-94 a gallon. The average price in the Janesville-Beloit area was down a penny at two-88 a gallon.
The Rice Lake Fire Department was on the scene of a barn fire Wednesday morning. According to the Rice Lake Fire Department, firefighters were called to the fire on 23rd Street in the Township of Oak Grove shortly before 4 a.m. Officials said when crews arrived, they found a 40x100 two-story barn fully involved in fire with a complete roof collapse. They were on the scene for more than four hours. The damage estimate is $225,000. One horse, one cow, and approximately 150 goats and some chickens died in the fire. Some other animals were able to escape. No people were hurt.
The median pay for teachers in Wisconsin has fallen more than twelve percent in the last decade, according to a new report. The Wisconsin Policy Forum report shows the median, inflation-adjusted pay in 2009 was 67-thousand-500. In 2023, it's 59-thousand-250 - an eight-thousand dollar difference in salary. The forum says the 2011 Wisconsin Act 10 is a factor, limiting school spending from the time it was enacted, resulting in smaller budgets and less money for raises. The report predicts the trend will continue into 2025.
Democrats at the Wisconsin Capitol want to roll back the spending restrictions included in the state's new shared revenue agreement. Lawmakers agreed in the state budget to share more state sales tax money with local governments. In exchange, Republicans put limits on how local governments can spend that money. Yesterday, a group of Democrats said those restrictions are hurting cities, towns, villages, and counties. The Democrats want to keep the money, end the spending restrictions, and allow local governments to do more like ban gas-powered cars, invest more in apartment complexes, and give local public health managers more power to close businesses like they did during the coronavirus outbreak.
Unions in Wisconsin are asking the new liberal-majority Supreme Court to strike down Act 10. A group of public sector unions, including the state's teachers' union, yesterday asked the court to overturn the 2011 state law that limited how teachers unions could bargain. That law limited teachers' unions to only getting raises, capped at the rate of inflation, in their contracts. The union lawsuit says Act 10 created two separate categories of public employees and violated the state's equal protection clause. Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos yesterday said ending Act 10 would bankrupt local schools across the state.
Wisconsin's former attorney general is running for the Supreme Court in 2025. Brad Schimmel Thursday said he is running to put a check on the new liberal-majority court. Schimmel will be running against liberal Justice Anne Walsh-Bradley in the spring election in 2026. That race is expected to be just as contentious, and as expensive, as last spring's election that flipped the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Schimmel served as Wisconsin Attorney General for one term, he lost his re-election bid in 2018.
An online guide is spotlighting holiday light displays across Minnesota and western Wisconsin. The Give Me The Mike Holiday Lights Guide has been providing information about displays created by homeowners, nonprofits and other organizations since 2017. Information for each show's free listing includes the number of lights on display and at least one photo. The producer of the guide says 80-percent of the light shows have more than ten-thousand lights on display.
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