The Durand City Council is meeting tonight. Items on the agenda include discussion and possible action on using ARPA funds for the creation of an Employee Assistance Program, a Grant Assumption Agreement between the City and the Durand-Arkansaw School District and reports from the mayor and department heads. Tonights meeting begins at 6:30 at Durand City Hall.
A Western Wisconsin man is charged with his twelfth OWI. Officers in Altoona say they pulled over 63-year-old Mitchell Bundy on Highway 12 for going 58 in a 45-mile-per-hour zone. Officers say they noticed the suspect's eyes were bloodshot and he smelled like alcohol. Bundy had already been convicted of eleven OWIs in three different states. He could face 15 years in prison and a 50-thousand dollar fine if he's convicted of another.
A challenge to a Wisconsin school district's policy on transgender and gay students has been rejected by the US Supreme Court. Parents in Eau Claire objected to a new school policy allowing students to discuss and change their gender identity with teachers and staff without involving parents. District officials instituted the policy to help students discuss their worries about their identity without outting them to their parents or guardians. Parents claimed the policy violated their religious freedoms and parental rights, but multiple courts, including a federal appellate court, all rejected the complaints because no parent could prove any direct harm caused by the policy.
The Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative says it's looking to see if it makes sense to reopen St. Joe's Hospital. Co-op manager Dr. Erik Dickson said it will be two or three years before the co-op can build and open a new hospital in Lake Hallie. He said there's a need to help people right now, and reopening St. Joe's could fill that need. Dickson said the co-op will spend the next month studying the plan to reopen St. Joe's. If it's a go, St. Joe's could be open for patients as early as next fall.
Once again, it was a false alarm. Chippewa Falls Police and the city's school district says yesterday's threat to the high school turned out to be a false threat. In fact, the school says it was part of a wave of false threats throughout Wisconsin yesterday. Police rushed to the school after getting a bomb threat yesterday, and officers searched the school. Chippewa Falls Police say they take all threats to local schools very seriously.
Pleas are entered for a former police officer accused of soliciting nude images from a child. 27yr old Peter Schneider of Sparta entered no contest pleas for two counts of disorderly conduct in Monroe County Circut Court and was fined $100 for each count. The Court agreed to a 12 month diversion agreement on one count of attempted sexual assault of a child by a person who volunteers with children.
UCare has closed its Minneapolis and Duluth offices this week following what officials call a concerning comment in a phone call to the healthcare company. The phone call came a few days after the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. UCare and other health plan companies are taking extra precautions to protect employees as a result of Thompson's death. Last Friday another Minnesota-based health plan -- Medica -- announced it would be closing its offices for a week as a precaution.
The Minnesota Department of Corrections is looking into the death of an inmate in a prison facility in Stillwater. Prison staff discovered David Ojeda unresponsive on December 1. Laie-saving procedures were applied by first responders until the defendant passed away. Ojeda was sentenced in February after he was found guilty of criminal sexual conduct with a child younger than 16. He was serving a 25-year sentence.
Wisconsin is moving ahead with its deer management changes. The Department of Natural Resources yesterday said it's looking for feedback on its plan to shift the boundaries for some hunting zones in the state. The DNR says the idea is to return to habitat-based deer management units in the Northern Forest Zone and adjusts a portion of the Central Forest Deer Management Zone boundary and select Metropolitan Sub-unit boundaries. There's a public meeting on the proposal set for early next month. That meeting will be online.
A T and T is phasing out landline phones in Wisconsin. Over the next 5 years, the company will move all landlines to newer digital services. Specifically, landlines mean phones that still connect directly by wire to the phone network, not ones that run off wireless connections or from home internet routers. Company officials say it's too expensive to maintain the copper network, and only 5 percent of homes and businesses in the country still use landlines
The Food and Drug Administration performs the critical task of providing consumers with clear nutritional information by enforcing labeling standards. Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin says she’s worked for years with farmers and dairy processors o eliminate the misuse of dairy terms in labeling imitation dairy products. She says the FDA isn’t clearing up the problem. She said during a hearing that studies show conclusively that consumers mistakenly believe that plant-based alternatives are nutritionally equivalent or superior to dairy products. The imitation products have also been linked to health problems in infants and children.
Environmental advocates are critical of utilities' decision to delay retirement of a coal fired power plant. In a statement, Sierra Club Wisconsin Senior Campaign Coordinator Cassie Steiner expressed outrage that Alliant Energy, Madison Gas and Electric and Wisconsin Public Service “have once again kicked the can” on shutting down the Columbia Energy Center located near Portage in Columbia County. She also expressed exasperation that the utilities are considering converting the plant to run on natural gas. After previously delaying its closure planned for this year, the utilities last week announced that retirement of the coal plant is being pushed back from 2026 to 2029. The utilities say doing so “provides the companies time to explore” converting one of the energy center’s units to natural gas before 2029.
There's plenty of ways to reduce waste this holiday season. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Waste Reduction Coordinator Jennifer Semrau says you need to take batteries and electronics such as tablets, laptops, computers and cell phones should never go in curbside recycling bins. Semrau says containers made of steel, aluminum, glass and plastics one and two, as well as cardboard newspaper magazines, office paper and other papers can be recycled in your bin. Semrau says string lights shouldn't be recycled, as they can damage recycling equipment. A full list of what can and can't be recycled can be found on the DNR's website.
Minnesota's Judy Garland Museum isn't getting back a pair of ruby slippers stolen from the venue in 2005. The slippers used in "The Wizard of Oz" were sold at auction for 28-million dollars over the weekend. Officials from the Grand Rapids museum couldn't afford to buy the shoes but came home from the Texas auction with an unexpected prize. A painting by Minnesota artist Bill Mack was up for auction and the museum paid 20-thousand dollars for it. The painting of the Wicked Witch reaching for Dorothy's ruby slippers is painted on metal taken from the original Hollywood sign. The museum hopes to have Mack join them for an event when the painting eventually goes on display.
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