The Pepin County Sheriff's Office is increasing patrols and taking part in the national "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over" campaign, running this Holiday Season through January 1, 2025. This campaign aims to ensure the safety of everyone traveling this holiday season by preventing impaired driving. Law enforcement officers across Wisconsin will work throughout the campaign to identify and stop impaired drivers. The department's message is simple: if you’re driving impaired, you will be caught.
The Buffalo County Board is meeting tonight. Items on the agenda include discussion and possible action on an ordinance allowing former owners of property lost due to taxes preference to repurchase the property, a resolution on the issuance of a $400,000 general obligation promissory note, and approval of 2025 non-union wages. Tonight's meeting begins at 7 in the board room at the government center in Alma.
The Buffalo County Sheriff's Department is warning residents of phone scams. The department is telling residents if they receive a phone call with an unfamiliar number to ignore the call. According to Sheriff Mike Osmond, the calls are from international scammers and make victims believe a loved one has called for bail money, is in a medical emergency, or victims have been made to think they are being blackmailed. If you receive a call you are suspicious about, residents are advised to call the sheriff's department. Remember Law Enforcement will never call you asking for money.
There's already another delay in Lily Peters' murder trial. The judge in the case yesterday pushed back the next hearing in the case till June. The two sides were supposed to be in court in Chippewa Falls in April to get a trial date for the case. The judge has previously said he doesn't expect a trial until 2026. Peters was killed in April of 2022. Lawyers for the teenager accused of killing her want to move the trial out of Chippewa County. They say it would be tough to get a fair trial in Chippewa Falls.
There is a suspect in custody for a deadly weekend stabbing at the Do Dodge Inn. Eau Claire Police got a call about the stabbing at about 6 p.m. on Saturday night. Officers say they tried to save the victim, but say the victim died at the hospital. There's no word yet on who was arrested, who died, or what led-up to the stabbing. Eau Claire Police say some of those answers may come later today.
Authorities in Barron County are investigating after they found two people dead at a home in Chetek. Deputies say they got a call yesterday afternoon about a woman lying outside the house in a pool of blood. When they arrived, they found the woman outside and a man inside. He was dead as well. The sheriff's office is not saying how the two died, but investigators say there's no danger to the public. We are waiting to see just who the two are, and how they knew each other.
It's prison time for a Chippewa Falls man caught by Bikers Against Predators. A judge yesterday gave 26-year-old Steven Burich four-and-a-half years in prison for sending pictures to a child under 13-years-old. Burich had just been released from prison one month before his arrest last year. The group Bikers Against Predators worked with authorities on a sting. They met Burich at a Kwik Trip in Chippewa Falls, they say he was there to have sex with an 11-year-old girl.
A Winona County judge is granting a request to allow media coverage of the sentencing of Adam Fravel. Fravel was found guilty of the murder of Madeline Kingsbury last month and his sentencing hearing will be held next week. The judge denied requests for in-court coverage of Fravel's trial but approved audio and video coverage of the sentencing hearing yesterday. Kingsbury's family plans to give victim impact statements during Tuesday's sentencing.
One of Eau Claire's lawmakers has gone to the police after he says his daughter stole thousands of dollars from his campaign fund. State Senator Jesse James on Friday announced that he discovered 32 thousand dollars in missing campaign money. He said his daughter, who is his campaign treasurer, is suspected of taking it. James says he is going public with the story to be honest with voters. And he said no one in Wisconsin is above the law. There's no word about just where the investigation into the missing money stands, or whether any arrests are pending.
We're getting word of a pipeline leak in central Wisconsin that saw thousands of gallons of oil spill last month. The Department of Natural Resources says the leak on the Enbridge Line 6 pipeline spilled 70 thousand gallons of oil in Jefferson County. The leak was discovered on November 11th, but state regulators say the oil may have been leaking for days before that. Crews immediately jumped on the clean-up. There is no word just how bad the spill damage was. Environmentalists in Wisconsin say the leak was happening at the same time that the DNR was giving Enbridge the go-ahead to reroute its Line 5 pipeline through northern Wisconsin.
President Biden has pardoned or ended the sentences for eight people from Wisconsin, including a couple of drug dealers. The president this week issued pardons or commuted the sentences of 15 hundred people across the country. In Wisconsin that meant two pardons, and six commuted sentences. Those six include heroin and meth dealers, as well as a Green Bay woman convicted of stealing millions from elderly investors, and a Sheboygan man convicted in a rare coin scheme. Biden's office said the people he commuted were 'serving long prison sentences - many of whom would receive lower sentences if charged under today's laws.'
Wisconsin's presidential electors will follow the federal law next week, not the state law. The state's Republican Party yesterday said it will vote for the president next Tuesday, instead of on Monday. State law requires a vote on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. But the federal law requires a vote on the first Tuesday following the second Wednesday. The Republican Party filed a lawsuit this week, hoping to clear-up any confusion. Republicans say they are going to follow the federal law so there's not any confusion or challenges to their vote.
One of President-elect Trump's cabinet picks can count on a vote from Wisconsin's Democratic U.S. Senator. Senator Tammy Baldwin yesterday said she plans to vote for Sean Duffy for Transportation Secretary. The two met this week, and yesterday Baldwin said she will support him for the new job, Baldwin says she looks at every cabinet appointment through the lens of 'will you be good for Wisconsin?' She said she knows Duffy will be. Duffy served five terms as the northwoods congressman before stepping away in 2020.
Wisconsin is getting a million dollars to help Central Wisconsinites better understand health issues. The Department of Natural Resources says the money will go toward programs that help people better understand water quality, fish consumption, and other related health issues. Urban and rural communities in Marathon, Clark, Taylor, Lincoln, Langlade, Shawano, Portage, and Wood counties will benefit. The DNR says residents in Tribal, Hmong [[ MUNG ]], and Hispanic communities in the area can be disproportionally affected by these issues. Education projects will go on until 2027.
A Fillmore County judge has dismissed four of the 21 charges facing one of the defendants arrested for a deadly 2023 buggy crash. The judge announced Wednesday that four of the felony charges filed against Samantha Petersen lack probable cause. He accepted a defense argument that evidence related to THC use by Petersen at the time of the crash is circumstantial. Petersen still faces 17 charges related to the crash, which killed two Amish children and hurt two others.
A Dane County family is celebrating an early Christmas miracle after being reunited with their cat that was missing for more than a decade. Dave Dexter says the family cat, Rutherford, apparently slipped out of the house one day in 2013. He said that after about six months or a year, "we kind of resigned ourselves to the fact that he wasn't coming back." A few weeks ago, they received a call from a veterinary office in Georgia saying they identified Rutherford through his microchip. He had been found on the side of a road in the town of Dillard, about 900 miles away from the Dexter household and not far from where Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit during the summer. After letting Rutherford stay a couple weeks with the Georgia vet for treatment, Dexter flew down, picked him up and brought him back home.
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