A Jackson County man was arrested in Buffalo County on Wednesday after meth was found in his vehicle. According to the Buffalo County Sheriff's Department, deputies pulled over 74yr old Gary Gilberg of Taylor on Hwy 35 in the town of Buffalo for a traffic violation. During the stop, a K9 detected drugs and during a search, 31 grams of meth in packages for sale was found in Gilberg's pocket. A search warrant was executed at his home in Taylor where another 397 grams of meth was found in packages for sale. Gilberg remains in custody in the Buffalo County Jail.
A Wisconsin medical network hopes to negotiate with Hospital Sisters Healthcare System about buying their properties. The system, along with Prevea announced it will leave Western Wisconsin in the spring. OakLeaf Medical Network says it reached out to HSHS yesterday to open up conversations about the sale, with the intent of creating an independent community hospital. It hasn't clarified if it's also interested in Prevea properties. Currently, the OakLeaf network has 26 clinics in northwestern and western Wisconsin.
The City of Durand is alerting residents over a survey request coming via social media or text. The city is telling residents that those receiving texts or Facebook messages from a Dynata or anyone else asking you to take a survey about the issues in Durand that the city is not affiliated in any way with the request.
It's the latest measure of just how warm it is across western Wisconsin. A number of golf courses in and around Eau Claire are opening this weekend. Mill Run and Wild Ridge both say they'll open tomorrow, and expect to stay open til at least next Thursday. The folks at Princeton Valley Golf in Eau Claire may also open, they're telling golfers to check their Facebook page for updates.
Xcel Energy today proposed a new clean energy plan for the Upper Midwest that advances the company’s ambitious carbon reductions while ensuring customers continue to have the reliable, safe and affordable electric service they depend on. Under the proposal, carbon emissions reductions are expected to exceed 80% by 2030, potentially reaching up to 88%. The plan calls for extending the use of Xcel Energy’s two nuclear plants one of which is on PIne Island near Red Wing, while adding more wind and solar energy, battery energy storage systems, and always-available sources of electric generation capacity.
Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources is asking for help in finding whoever shot two elk in Jackson County. Both of the elk were cows, and both were shot back in November of 2022. The DNR says it was monitoring the elk with radio collars. The original plea for help back in 2022 produced some tips, but DNR investigators say they need some more information. Wisconsin allows elk hunting, but the DNR says the two elk were killed illegally.
Kids who don't go to school would be held back under a new plan at the Wisconsin Capitol. State Representative Bob Donovan is pushing the idea. He says far too many kids, particularly in Milwaukee Public Schools, skip too many classes. His proposal would hold kids back if they miss more than 30 days in a school year. The state's Department of Public Instruction says nearly one-in-four kids in Wisconsin schools are 'chronically absent.' Donovan introduced the legislation this week, meaning the earliest it could go into effect would be for the 2025-26 school year.
The experts hired by Wisconsin's supreme court to redraw the state's political maps say there won't be anymore Republican gerrymandering. The court's outside experts yesterday rejected maps drawn by Republican lawmakers and the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. The experts said both maps continued to gerrymander the state for Republicans. The pair, however, did not recommend any of the maps drawn by Democrats. They do have the option of drawing maps on their own, which they told the court they could do quickly. Wisconsin will need new legislative maps by March 15th if they are going to be used in this year's elections.
The Internal Revenue Service is not budging on its demand that Minnesotans pay taxes on rebate checks they received last year. The agency recently sent letters to state lawmakers saying the rebates don't qualify as relief under current tax rules. Over two-million Minnesotans received checks after the legislature decided to return some of the state's budget surplus to taxpayers. The size of the tax bite on the checks is expected to vary between 26 and 286 dollars.
Attorney General Josh Kaul says Wisconsin will receive $6 million from a $350 million settlement with a firm that helped to market opioids. As part of the settlement Publicis Health, a global health marketing company, has agreed to recognize the harm its conduct caused, although a Department of Justice statement doesn't specify how the company will do that. The agreement also gives communities hit hardest by the opioid crisis more financial support and Publicis will have to disclose on a public website 1000s of internal documents detailing its work for opioid companies like Purdue Pharma
There's a new way for people in Wisconsin to report illnesses they suspect could be from food or water. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services says the online questionnaire takes fewer than five minutes to fill out. The answers will help local health departments find sources of contamination. It will be ready just in time for Wisconsin's expected wintertime spike in norovirus cases, which it says is the leading cause of vomiting and diarrhea.
A package of five bills meant to expand dental care access has been signed into law in Wisconsin. Governor Tony Evers signed the bills this morning, one of which legalizes the licensure of mid-level dental providers called dental therapists in the state. Those who decide to pursue dental therapy will be required to limit their practice to areas with shortages and have a patient base with at least 50-percent Medicaid patients, veterans, or other specific populations. Another approved bill requires the Wisconsin Technical College System to use two-million dollars from the 2023-2025 budget for the expansion of dental hygienist and assistant programs.
The most common consumer complaints made to the State of Wisconsin were about landlord and tenant disputes for the second year in a row. The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection says it got ten-thousand complaints in 2023 and released the top ten most common today. More than two-thousand-200 complaints were about rental issues, including landlords entering a property without notice, and eviction disputes. The second most popular complaint was about telemarketing. The department also points out the commonality of misleading advertisements for car accessories, and installation of parts that don't work. For those complaints, DATCP says it's given three-point-three-million-dollars back to consumers and general school funds.
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development is handing out over 13-million in workforce grants to groups around the state. The agency announced yesterday that 43 organizations would share the money through the Pathways to Prosperity program. The funding will help provide skills training and support services to Minnesotans to face barriers to employment. DEED estimates that nearly 28-hundred people will be helped by the grant funding.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission is asking the State Supreme Court to deny a potential Democrat candidate from getting into the presidential primary ballot. Potential candidate Dean Phillips was kept off the April primary ballot by the state's Presidential Preference Selection Committee last month, and Phillips says that violates his rights. He's seeking to challenge President Joe Biden in Wisconsin. Lawyers from W E C say Phillips didn't get the required number of signatures to get on the ballot, and he didn't respond in time to his initial denial from the ballot. Phillips is currently a sitting Congressman from Minnesota.
A Northwoods animal care group has released several bald eagles back to nature. The Raptor Education Group released 6 orphaned bald eagles in Prairie du Sac on Wednesday. Those eagles fell out of their nests as eaglets, and were suffering from injuries and illnesses. Experts at the clinic made sure the eaglets had proper interaction with adult eagles so they knew how to behave and vocalize with other eagles in the wild. The agency handles anywhere from 800 to 1000 native bird rehabilitations a year.
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