All Wisconsin frozen road declarations were lifted on Saturday. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation says roads will be deemed Class Two statewide - meaning they could be damaged if heavy trucks drive on them. Fourteen-hundred miles of roadway are eligible for weight restrictions. Local government entities get to decide whether they uphold weight limits on roads like county highways or village streets. Seasonal weight restrictions are now in place in Pepin, Buffalo, and Chippewa Counties.
Over $5 million in grants are going to southeastern Minnesota port projects. $890,000 will go to Wabasha Port Authority to establish a new barge terminal facility, including an access road, sheet pile dock face, steel pile pipe clusters, truck scale, and field office. The total cost of the project is $4.3 million. Meanwhile, the Red Wing Port Authority will receive a $900,00 grant to repair concrete deck, timbers, steel columns, and other portions of the Little River Bulkhead and another $1.7 million to construct four new mooring clusters for the staging of fully laden grain barges. The total cost of the projects is $3.4 million. The grants are coming from the Minnesota Port Development Assistance Program.
The River Falls Police Department is asking for the public's help in identifying a suspect in an armed robbery. According to police, on Friday evening, a man came into Bob and Steve's BP Gas Station armed and demanded money. The man was wearing a ski mask, glasses, and a blue sports coat with a white shirt. Anyone with information is asked to contact River Falls Police. A $5000 reward is being offered by the gas station owners.
A Menomonie man, on parole, has been arrested for possession of child pornography. According to authorities, 43yr old Curtis Ames had told his parole agent on November 29 that he had downloaded child porn onto his Google Drive account. The parole agent then contacted Menomonie Police and a search warrant for the account was obtained and the phone was searched. Video files showing child pornography were found. He has been charged with three counts of possession of child pornography as a repeat offender.
The lawyers for the teenage accused of raping and killing 10-year-old Lily Peters are continuing to fight to have him tried in juvenile court. The lawyers last week filed an appeal of the ruling from a Chippewa County judge to try the now 15-year-old suspect in adult court. They say a trial in juvenile court, and a sentence in the juvenile justice system, is best. The judge ruled about two weeks ago to move the case to adult court. Police claim the teenager beat, raped, then killed Peters as she was walking home back in April of 2022. The trial has yet to be given a start date.
The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development and the West Central Workforce Development Board will host community job fairs in Eau Claire to connect affected workers from the closing of HSHS and Prevea with regional employers on Wed., Feb. 7, 2024, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at The Florian Gardens Conference Center, and Tues., Feb. 20, 2024, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Casper Conference Center and Student Commons of the Chippewa Valley Technical College – Business Education Center.
No one was hurt when a fire broke out in a barn in Fairchild over the weekend. Firefighters are calling it a wildfire. Crews from Fairchild and Augusta's fire departments say the barn was completely on fire when they arrived. They had to stop the fire from spreading. Crews say they are looking for an exact cause, but say it will likely be chalked-up as a wildfire.
Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources says nothing will change in the state following the latest federal decision on wolves. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week said it is going to focus on a national wolf strategy. The DNR says that means Wisconsin's new wolf plan will stay the same, and wolves will remain protected on the federal endangered species list. The DNR just adopted a new wolf management plan for Wisconsin that eliminates a specific wolf population goal, and all but bans hunting of wolves until their population is well over a thousand.
Wisconsin lawmakers are looking to send more help to schools to try and get kids to read better. The Senate Committee on Education tomorrow is set to hold hearings on the plan to spend 50 million-dollars on childhood literacy. Specifically, Senators are being asked to approve a new Office of Literacy at the state's Department of Public Instruction.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court says it will listen to Governor Evers' argument that the state legislature should not be allowed to block his agenda by using statehouse committees, but only for environmental projects. The court on Friday agreed to hear the governor's challenge surrounding the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship conservation project. The governor sued the legislature for blocking a number of conservation projects, including a massive project that would have blocked-off huge portions of the Pelican River Forest. The governor says lawmakers cannot simply use the committee process to scuttle plans that passed as separate laws, or parts of the state budget. The governor also wanted to court to weigh-in on the UW pay raises, but the justice passed. Still, conservative judges say the decision to hear the case turns the Supreme Court into the governor's avenue to do what he wants, regardless of what the people say.
Minnesota will be adding to the money it's already received to help fight opioid addiction statewide. The Minnesota Attorney General's Office says the state will receive just over four-point-four-million dollars as part of a nationwide settlement with Publicis Health announced last week. The company acted as a marketing arm for drug companies during the opioid crisis, developing advertising and sales strategies to help increase the amount of medication prescribed to patients. Minnesota has now received about 564-million dollars from settlements related to the opioid crisis.
The latest in the Dean Phillips primary ballot chase has the state Supreme Court ordering a pause. Phillips is the Democratic congressman from Minnesota who wants to challenge President Biden in Wisconsin’s April primary. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has yet to decide whether it will rule on his request, but on Thursday issued a brief order to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. That order – don’t transmit the primary ballot to elections clerks around the state until further notice. Attorneys representing the Elections Commission argued Phillips filed his request too late – just a week ago. Wisconsin’s Presidential Primary Selection Committee met last month and named Biden as the sole Democrat on the ballot.
New data collected by the University of Wisconsin Health is saying that burnout by doctors is stemming from more time using healthcare record software. When watching the amount of time doctors spent in Epic Systems' application, the increase in MyChart messages led to burnout. In the study the amount of time spent by the doctors increased by almost 30 minutes from May of 2019 to March 2023. The MyChart messages allow patients to directly contact their doctor.
University of Wisconsin Employees are getting a pay raise. Governor Evers signed two bills that will give more than 35-thousand UW employees a four-percent increase. This comes after state Republicans blocked the bill for six months in hopes of dismantling Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from college campuses. There is an ongoing lawsuit over the blockage of the bill citing that the raises were already approved in the executive budget.
The prison in Waupun has begun to lift restrictions after being in lockdown for the past 10-months. Prisoners are now allowed two "bathing" periods a week with other restrictions expected to be lifted in the upcoming future. In an email to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the deputy director of communications said that restrictions were initially put in place due to "multiple instances of assaultive behavior" by prisoners toward staff and other prisoners.
Wisconsin's Attorney General is joining a coalition asking for the protection of medication abortions nationally. The brief, signed by A-G Josh Kaul [ CALL ] and 23 other attorneys general, was signed in the U-S Supreme Court. The group is asking that the drug mifepristone [ muh-fuh-PRIH-stone ], which blocks a hormone required for a sustained pregnancy, be available. The move is in response to a Fifth Circuit Court decision that could restrict access to the pill if it takes effect. Mifepristone is currently the only medication abortion method approved by the U-S Food and Drug Administration.
The first ever functional 3-D printed brain tissue has been printed in Madison at the University of Wisconsin Waisman Center. The scientific breakthrough was done by laying cells side-by-side compared to stacking as most 3-D printers work. While it is still far from printing a whole brain, as it is, it could potentially be used for therapeutics or spinal cord implants.
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