The Mondovi Police Department has put a new squad car into service. The K-9 Squad features a digital dash camera system and has a smaller profile that will allow traffic to maneuver around the squad and for officers to be seen during calls. The squad was made patrol ready by Emergency Vehicle Systems.
One person was injured in a single vehicle accident on I-94 near mile marker 77 on Thursday. According to the Wisconsin State Patrol, 71yr old Piotr Pazola was driving a semi westbound when he left the road way, struck a guardrail and rolled onto its side. Pazola was pinned under the door frame of the cab and had to be extricated by firefighters. I-94 was closed for several hours while crews cleaned up the scene.
The City of Wabasha, in conjunction with Homeland Security and Emergency Management in the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, has applied for Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a new warning siren. The new warning siren will upgrade the city’s existing public notification system by resolving a critical coverage gap. The project will include the procurement and installation of a high-power rotating siren in the city’s higher-elevation residential district, mounted on a 50-foot wood pole. The system will include a dedicated battery backup and controller to ensure reliability during power outages and seamless integration with the Wabasha County Commander base station.
A driver involved in a single-vehicle crash Wednesday afternoon is continuing to recover from injuries suffered in that accident. The crash happened near Otter Creek and Hobbs Road with the driver losing control on a curve and hitting a number of trees. The Eau Claire County Sheriff's Office says that alcohol or controlled substance use was a factor in the accident.
Officials in La Crosse County are considering pulling the plug on Scenic Mississippi Regional Transit. The bus service links La Crosse with a number of surrounding rural communities. Proponents of cutting the bus service point to a drop in ridership with a climb in operational costs. The La Crosse County board held a hearing on the matter yesterday and a final vote is expected on Monday.
A federal judge is ordering the Trump administration to pay full November SNAP benefits by Friday, including Wisconsin's FoodShare. The judge in Rhode Island said during Thursday's hearing that "people have gone without for too long." The judge ruled the government must now draw from additional USDA funds so states can deliver full SNAP benefits by today. About 700-thousand Wisconsin residents get benefits from the state's FoodShare program, including roughly 270-thousand children. A health chunk of the benefits go to residents of Milwaukee County.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services is applying for federal funding to support rural healthcare. DHS is applying for $1 billion as part of the Rural Health Transformation program. DHS says more than 200 community partners have offered feedback to shape the state's application. More than $335 million would be used to strengthen rural healthcare workforce recruitment and retention. Nearly $330 million would be invested to upgrade rural provider systems and digital infrastructure. Another $279 million would create a grant program to improve healthcare coordination among rural regions. DHS will find out if it's been awarded funding at the end of December.
The FAA is cutting flights from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport due to the government shutdown. MSP is expected to have 41 flights cut by Friday. This comes as ten percent of all air traffic will be canceled. The FAA said it's reducing flights numbers to help alleviate pressure from the nation's already-strained air traffic control system. Delays in air travel have once again become a political flashpoint amid the government shutdown that's entering day 37.
Wisconsin schools are using emergency teaching licenses more than ever. A Wisconsin Policy Forum report shows that 3,832 Tier I "emergency" licenses were given out by the state in 2023-24, which is almost 20% more than in 2022. The report says schools are using the emergency licenses because traditional teacher training programs aren't producing enough educators. An emergency license lets someone with a college degree start teaching right away while they work on getting their full teaching certificate. In 2019, only 2.5% of Wisconsin's licensed teachers had emergency licenses. By 2024, that number had grown to 3.6%.
Wisconsin residents are once again protected from having their heat and power turned off for non-payment. The winter disconnection moratorium started on Wednesday, which means people who cannot afford their utility bills will have until the spring to get current on them. Help is available through the Wisconsin Home Energy Assistance Program, and you can find out if you qualify for assistance by calling Home Energy Plus at 1 800 506 5596, or by contacting your local United Way at 2 1 1.
Wisconsin Badger football fans have consumed their fair share of alcohol this year. Online college sports newsletter Extra Points reports that at home football games between August and September, UW - Madison sold 80,435 units of alcohol for a total of $971,781 in revenue. Wisconsin was 8th among schools that reported alcohol sales revenue. The revenue from alcohol sales is roughly 84 times the amount of the lowest reported school, Ball State, which sold just $11,500 worth of alcohol. Wisconsin began selling alcohol at Camp Randall football games in 2024. The Badgers head into Saturday's game against Washington with a 2-6 record.
DeForest is home to Kwik Trip's newest distribution center. The company held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the facility on Tuesday, with the DeForest Pep and Marching Band and others in attendance to celebrate the occasion. It's the first distribution center in southern Wisconsin and is creating hundreds of new jobs. The building is 280-thousand square feet in size and will serve hundreds of stores in the region.
Volunteers help with the harvest for a Minnesota farm family in need. Last weekend, a group of volunteers converged on Buffalo, Minnesota to harvests around 200 acres of corn for a farmer recovering from a stroke. Farm Rescue is a 20-year-old nonprofit that helps farm families in crisis across the midwest. The nonprofit estimates that more than 90 percent of the farmers who ask for their help stay in business after the emergency passes.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is now accepting application for free tree seedlings. The initiative is part of the state's Arbor Day tree planting program. The offer is available to Wisconsin fourth-grade principals, teachers and homeschoolers. More details can be found at dnr-dot-wisconsin-dot-gov.
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