The Durand City Council is coming out in support of the Durand-Arkansaw School District applying for a FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Grant to pursue building a new fieldhouse at the high school. The fieldhouse would be multipurpose with one use being a community storm shelter. Preliminary plans say it would be constructed near the library/cafeteria area of the school.
Three people were injured in a SUV vs train accident in Elk Mound. According to the Dunn County Sheriff's Department a southbound SUV traveling on 970th street failed to yield the right of way from the stop sign at the railroad crossing causing a collision with a train on the passenger side of the SUV. The driver of the SUV was med-flighted from the scene while two juvenile passengers were taken by private vehicle to the hospital. That accident remains under investigation.
A rash of vehicle vandalism is being reported in Dunn County. According to the Dunn County Sheriff's Department, several vehicles in the Village of Downing had their tires slashed the evening of November 22 into the early hours of November 23rd. The Sheriff's Department is asking for the public's help in identifying the suspect or suspects involved.
Another phone scam alert for Pepin County residents. According to the Pepin County Sheriff's Department, residents are receiving calls claming to be coming from the Sheriff's Department regarding jury duty being missed and the caller demands money over the phone. This is a scam as the Sheriff's Department will never call you ask for payment for anything over the phone.
H5N1 bird flu has been confirmed at a turkey farm in Barron County. State Veterinarian Darlene Konkle says there have been more cases of avian influenza in poultry nationwide. The Barron County flock contains more than 13,000 birds. Wisconsin has not yet identified cases of the H5N1 virus in dairy cattle or other livestock.
Chippewa County says the area needs a psychiatric hospital now that Sacred Heart and St. Joe's have closed. The county board this week passed a resolution asking either the state legislature or Congress to provide more money to treat people who need to spend the night, or more than one night, in a psychiatric facility. Right now those people are usually taken to Winnebago, and the county is billed for their stay. But Chippewa County Human Services director Tim Easker says that's expensive, and not always available. The resolution doesn't say just how much Chippewa County needs, or just how many patients the county has seen. The Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative has talked about reopening St, Joe's this fall, but nothing has been decided.
The city of Eau Claire is asking the state and federal governments for help with the city's homeless. The city council on Tuesday passed a resolution of its own that asks for money and resources to deal with the growing number of homeless in the city. Council President Emily Berge says it feels like the number of homeless has jumped year-after-year, and she says the costs to care for them have certainly increased. Eau Claire is a hub for homeless people in other communities. Begre wants lawmakers to give the city the power to mandate affordable housing, which she hopes will get some people off the streets. She says Eau Claire doesn't have many tools in its tool belt, and needs to look upstream for help.
Eau Claire Police say their latest meth bust took 10 pounds of drugs off the streets. City police, along with the West Central Drug Task Force this week arrested three people who they said had a large drug shipment in Eau Claire. The meth has a street value of over 360 thousand-dollars. All three are looking at a possible life sentence if convicted.
The northwoods' congressman is once again pressing for answers about plans to resettle refugees in the state. Congressman Tim Tiffany fired-off a letter this week to the Bureau of Refugee Programs for the Evers administration, asking about plans to send Afghan and Ukrainian refugees to Marathon County. Tiffany said just like in the Eau Claire refugee case, there aren't a lot of answers about who these people are, and just where they are coming from. Tiffany says he has no faith in the Biden Administration's attempts to vet refugees. He said he hopes the Evers Administration is doing a better job.
Minnesota Congresswoman Angie Craig is reportedly a strong contender to head the U.S. House Agriculture Committee. Democrats are scheduled to vote next week on the ranking member. Two others are in contention for the position of ranking member including incumbent Georgia Representative David Scott and California Democrat Jim Costa.
Wisconsin's Republican U.S. Senator is not going to be ambassador to Mexico under President-elect Trump. A different Ron Johnson will be. The new president yesterday named Johnson, who is a former ambassador to El Salvador, to the Mexican ambassadorship in his second term. Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson had to take to Twitter to say it's not him, and explain that there are a lot of Ron Johnsons in the country.
Wisconsin's state superintendent says if lawmakers would spend the state's surplus on schools, maybe property taxes wouldn't be going-up as much. State Superintendent Jill Underly yesterday reacted to the new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum that says local school tax increases are driving the largest property tax spike in Wisconsin in almost two decades. Underly said if lawmakers would spend the four billion-dollars sitting in Madison on schools, local schools may not have to ask for as much money. Underly has been making the case for months to spend all of the surplus on public schools, but lawmakers and even Democratic Governor Tony Evers have said that's not likely going to happen.
There is a new challenge to Act-10, and it could get around the liberal-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty filed the challenge yesterday. It says while a Dane County judge has struck down Act-10 as unconstitutional, that ruling doesn't cancel out rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court that says people cannot be forced into unions, or forced to pay union dues. The case was filed on behalf of a Kenosha school teacher who says her union is not asking for a recertification vote this year. WILL says the U.S. Supreme Court is clear that there are First Amendment protections against forced unionization, and protections against compelled speech
Children's Hospital Wisconsin says there is a desperate need for foster families. The hospital this week said there are about 700 kids who need foster care each year in southern Wisconsin, but there are just seven homes for them outside of Dane County. Children's Maria McDermott says they are facing a dire need for treatment-level foster homes in particular. There are some requirements to become a foster parent, but Children's says the opportunity is there for most people.
Latest numbers show five times more air quality advisories than average in Wisconsin in a single year due to Canadian wildfires. The Department of Natural Resources says there were 15 PM advisories during 2023. The warnings are issued when air is deemed unhealthy for sensitive groups. Last year historic wildfires burned areas of land in Canada, about two-million acres more than the area of the state of Wisconsin.
A Funeral urn was intentionally left at movie theatre in Beloit. The woman who did so says she has no plans to pick up the urn at the Beloit Police Department. The woman, who wants to remain anonymous says the remains were those of her father who she had no relationship with. She left the urn in the theatre during a screening of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice in October because she didn't want his presence inside of her house. The woman told Rockford TV station WREX that she left the urn in a specific location thinking she would never really hear about it. The theater turned in the urn to police after waiting a few weeks for someone to come back for it.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation is accepting entries for its fifth annual Name a Snowplow contest. Entries will be accepted through noon on December 20th. The agency will sort through the entries and pick a group of finalists that will be posted online next month. Eight winners will be selected through an online vote. More information about the contest is available on the Mn-DOT website.
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