Be on the lookout for counterfeit money. That’s the warning from western Wisconsin law enforcement after someone used a fake $100 bill to buy a low-cost item from a garage sale in Eau Claire over the weekend. Police in Chippewa Falls added that a similar incident happened there. Eau Claire Police advised residents through social media to be careful and examine larger bills should you be having a garage sale or yard sale this summer. A suspect in the Chippewa Falls incident has been identified.
Pepin County residents won't have to send private well water tests down to Madison in the future. The Pepin County Health Department is building a new testing lab here in the county. Pepin County Health Officer Heidi Stewart says the Department earmarked ARPA funds to pay for the lab. The department also has grants available for nitrate mitigation equipment for homeowners who have private wells with nitrate issues. Contact the Health Department for more information.
Public health managers in Eau Claire are now making it easier to track opioid trends. The city and county's joint health department yesterday launched a dashboard to help people track opioid use, opioid deaths, and opioid trends. The idea, the health department says, is to put all of its opioid information in one place. That includes a portion of the dashboard that tracks prevention and harm reduction, like how to keep opioid pain pills safe and out of the hands of people who are looking to abuse them.
Chippewa County wants to join the list of counties in Wisconsin with a Narcan vending machine. The county's public health department says the public health vending machine would allow people easier access to fentanyl strips and Narcan spray. Both are used to make sure people don't die from accidentally using fentanyl. The health department's Hailey Bomar says they are also looking to add condoms to Plan B, hygiene kits, and even toothbrushes. The money for the machine would come from the state. Bomar said if Chippewa County is approved, the county should see its vending machine by the end of the year.
An Eau Claire man is now looking at child sexual assault charges. Prosecutors filed formal charges against Jeremy Shilts yesterday. Shilts is accused of abusing a young girl for years. Investigators say the abuse started when she was five or six, and continued until she was 14. Stilts is looking at first-degree sexual assault of a child charges. He's due back in court next month.
An agriscience teacher in western Wisconsin is being honored as one of Wisconsin's Teachers of the Year. According to the state Department of Public Instruction, New Richmond High School teacher Rachel Sauvola helped develop the Students Opportunities with Agriculture Resources educational center and manages the school farm, which gives students the opportunity to produce goods for school lunch. Sauvola is one of five Wisconsin teachers to receive the award.
A Dane County judge has tossed a lawsuit that accused the DNR of listening to wolf hunting groups too much in the state's new wolf management plan. The Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf & Wildlife sued the Wisconsin DNR for meeting with groups that support wolf hunting. The DNR met with the groups outside of the normal wolf management plan hearing process, but there were not enough DNR members to make it an official meeting. The Friends' lawsuit sought to toss whatever information was shared. Ultimately, the judge said there was no open meetings violation, and the judge rejected claims of due process and administrative procedure violations. The judge says the Friends didn't cite any evidence of what they are calling discrimination.
Governor Tony Evers is again calling a special meeting of the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, to approve funding to address hospital closures and PFAS contamination. WisPolitics reports that while the Democratic governor can call a special meeting of the Republican-controlled budget panel, he can't force the committee to meet. Co-chairs Senator Howard Marklein and Representative Mark Born quickly rejected Evers’ call. The committee is already set to meet Tuesday on the Department of Health Services Plan for opioid settlement dollars and funding for Department of Transportation driver Ed grants among other requests. Evers has repeatedly pushed JFC Republicans to approve the $125 million set aside in the budget to fight PFAs contamination and $15 million to address hospital closures in western Wisconsin.
More information is coming to light about the alleged "inappropriate conduct" that ended with an elementary teacher in Hudson being placed on on administrative leave. River Crest Elementary School's principal met with parents yesterday. He says the parents of a fifth-grade student claim 24-year-old teacher Madison Bergman was exchanging text messages with their child, describing "making out" with the student and other sexually suggestive messages. Bergmann is facing criminal charges.
Minnesota lawmakers are moving forward with a bill that would set new restrictions on they way firearms are stored. The state House approved a measure on Thursday that would make it a crime to store, keep, or leave a firearm in any place, unless the gun is unloaded and equipped with a locking device, or locked in a firearm storage/locked gun room. Proponents of the bill hope it will help keep guns out of the hands of children. The legislation now moves to the Senate.
Wisconsin lawmakers are going to look into diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across the state. The state's Joint Legislative Audit Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow on a proposed DEI audit. The Republican-controlled legislature has made no secret of its dislike of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, particularly on UW campuses. The Republican Assembly speaker has called DEI the new religion of the Left. Lawmakers famously held-back 32 million-dollars from the university that was supposed to be spent on DEI positions. Republicans say that money should be spent on getting people back to work.
Mount Pleasant is getting ready to host the president again. President Biden is planning a visit to the old Foxconn site on Wednesday to celebrate Microsoft's development there. Microsoft has bought nearly 15 hundred acres at the old site, and the company plans to use the land for new data centers. There's no word yet just what President Biden will do or say. Democrats in Wisconsin panned the original Foxconn deal when President Trump came to Mount Pleasant back in 2017. Governor Evers negotiated the deal with Foxconn, and has paid the company its tax benefits for the past couple of years.
A Wausau educator is in custody and accused of bringing drugs on a local middle school's property. John Muir Middle School math teacher 23-year-old Nevan Larson, was arrested and will go to court on Friday. The Wausau Police Department says a school resource officer got information that Larson may have cocaine in his car. A K-9 hit on the vehicle, and a search of the car found a baggie of suspected cocaine. Initial tests of the substance are positive for cocaine. PD says they don't believe students were involved.
Tickets are now on sale for additional Amtrak service between the Twin Cities and Chicago, affecting eight Wisconsin stations. The second daily round trip trains, named Borealis, will start running on May 21st. Wisconsin stations seeing extra stops include Milwaukee, La Crosse, and Wisconsin Dells. Coach fares start at 41-dollars, with discounts for students, seniors, and military personnel and families.
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