Local-Regional News Sept 17

 

The Durand-Arkansaw School Board is meeting tonight. Items on the agenda include introduction of the new staff, approval of the fall 2025 duel credit requests, an update on the 2025-26 preliminary enrollment and reports from the district and building administrators. Tonight’s meeting begins at 6pm in the board room at Durand-Arkansaw High School.

The Dunn County Board of Supervisors is meeting tonight. Items on the agenda include discussion and possible action on amending the county supervisory district maps, issuing $3 million in general obligation promissory notes, and reports from the county committees and county administrator. Tonight’s meeting begins at 7pm in room 54 of the Dunn County Government Center.

Due to a lack of agenda items, tonight’s Pepin County Board Meeting has been canceled. The County Board is expected to meet again on October 22^nd.

Bond is being set at ten-thousand dollars for a man accused of recording a woman in the shower on the campus of the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. The incident happened this past Saturday at Towers Hall South with the victim saying the suspect -- since identified as 26-year-old Deshaun Barkus -- fled the scene after being spotted. Barkus was later arrested on a charge of capturing an intimate representation without consent and invasion of privacy with a surveillance device.

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers is promoting the state's clean energy efforts. Evers was in La Crosse on Tuesday, visiting a residence that has seen multiple improvements through the Badger State's Energy Innovation Grant Program. The governor says it is important for folks to seek out credits available through that program and others like the HOMES program so that they can make similar improvements to their residence when possible.

A man who prosecutors say fatally shot his stepfather is learning his fate. Reports say that on January 18th of 2024, Alan Fry went to his mother's Farnam Street home in La Crosse and shot 61-year-old Brady Fredrickson multiple times. Fredrickson died at the scene. Fry pleaded no contest by reason of mental disease or defect to second-degree intentional homicide charges back in July, and has now been remanded to a state mental health facility for a term of 35 years.

Sentencing is being ordered for a Chippewa Falls man convicted on federal drug charges. Leroy McNamara was busted after prosecutors say he sold methamphetamine twice to a confidential informant. He later pleaded guilty to a distribution charge and has now been ordered to serve seven years in prison.

A Wisconsin supermarket chain will have new ownership. The latest consolidation in the industry will have St. Louis based Schnucks Markets buying 100% of the shares of DePere based Skogen’s Festival Foods and its Hometown Grocers. The deal includes shares in the trust of the employee stock ownership plan. Schnucks, Festival Foods and Hometown Grocers will become part of the new 1939 Group, named for the year the first Schnucks store opened. Festival Foods has more than 40 locations around Wisconsin, while Schnucks currently has a single store in Janesville. Both will maintain their separate corporate headquarters.

An elementary school in Menomonie is getting a new playground built by four former Green Bay Packer Players. As part of its Hometown Huddle program, former Packers Jared Abbrederis, Esera Tuaolo, Junius Coston, and Chris Francies helped install the new accessible equipment at River Heights Elementary School. The school is currently renovating its playgrounds to include an accessible playground. The project was funded by both the Green Bay Packers along with donations from the River Heights Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization.

The Eau Claire Police Department is planning an event aimed at helping families to recognize and deal with sextortion. The event, called Protecting Our Youth: Understanding Sextortion, will take place October 1st at the Eau Claire Even District and will include comments from members of law enforcement and from parents who have experienced the loss of a child due to sextortion. The event will run from 4:30 to 8 p.m.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is running for a third term. He launched his campaign this morning with a video posted on social media. Walz is expected to have a new running mate because Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan is running for Tina Smith's U.S. Senate seat. So far, no other Democratic candidates have announced a bid for governor. Several Republicans have entered the race, including Representative Kristin Robbins of Maple Grove, Scott Jensen, Kendall Qualls, Phillip Parrish, and Brad Kohler.

The mother of a 6-year-old central Wisconsin girl who was the subject of an AMBER Alert has been arrested. Ruby Lehman's 31-year-old mother Chelsie Lehman is charged with aiding a felon and obstructing an officer. Ruby was located Saturday after last being seen Thursday at her grandmother's home in the Village of Almond. The girl was found in a wooded area along with her 34-year-old uncle Jordan Coyle, a registered sex offender who's being held on a probation violation.

Cleanup has been completed at multiple Wisconsin locations where electronic waste was illegally dumped. Those sites were connected to a criminal case against former state Senator Kevin Shibilski. Shibiliski was convicted of fraud for taking payments to process e-waste, but his company 5R Processors and related firms simply dumped the waste at sites in Ladysmith, West Bend, Glen Flora, and Catawba. In all, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources spent 4 and a-half million dollars to remove millions of pounds of old TVs, computer monitors, and other assorted waste. Shibilski was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison in 2022.

A Rochester man is in custody for threatening to shoot a woman. Lawrence Hamilton has been charged with possession of ammo/any firearm and terroristic threats. Police arrested the 41-year-old defendant on Saturday after he allegedly threatened a female adult and her juvenile brother in a hallway of the Falcon Landing Apartments. Hamilton then pulled out a handgun and threatened to shoot the woman. After his arrest, police searched the suspect's apartment and found a handgun that was determined to be a BB gun, along with two boxes of nine mm ammo. Jamilton is expected back in court on September 25th.

Governor Tony Evers is working to give all Wisconsin residents access to vaccines. The governor signed an executive order on Monday directing the state Department of Health Services to take every action to ensure access to vaccines. It comes two weeks after Florida's surgeon general announced a move to end all vaccine mandates in the state. Governor Evers said in a press release that the Trump Administration is inserting partisan politics into healthcare.

Bad news for consumers of a beverage many Wisconsinites love. A new study from Radboud University in the Netherlands shows that mosquitos are especially attracted to beer drinkers. Researchers had 500 volunteers in Amsterdam filled out questionnaires about their hygiene, diet, and behavior, then placed each participant’s arm into a cage of mosquitos. Beer drinkers were 1.35 times more likely to encounter mosquitoes than those who didn’t.