Local-Regional News Dec 3

 

Cold weather is on the way to Wisconsin. Following weekend snowfall of 11 inches or more across southern Wisconsin, an arctic front arrives midweek with light snow, followed by the coldest air of the season. Wednesday night into Thursday morning will see lows in the single digits below zero in southern and central Wisconsin and in the teens below zero accompanied by dangerous wind chills dipping to -25° for northern Wisconsin.

Sentencing for a Menomonie man charged following a 2023 attack. Investigators say that Juan Hernandez-Roque battered a man who would not buy him beer. Hernandez-Roque was ordered yesterday to spend five years in prison.

The Salvation Army of the Chippewa Valley is in need of bell ringers. The organization say it is short on volunteers this holiday season and could use more folks to ring their bells next to their trademark red kettles. Details on how you can volunteer can be found at registertoring-dot-com.

The suspect charged in the homicide of 10-year-old Lily Peters made a court appearance yesterday. A motion hearing was held for 17-year-old Carson Peters-Berger in Chippewa County, who appeared via Zoom. Law enforcement took the stand to discuss their interviews with Peters-Berger, who is charged with killing Lily Peters in 2022. Defense attorneys argued police used leading questions and that Peters-Berger may not have known he could end the interviews. The trial remains scheduled for November 2026.

Authorities are sharing the name of the person who died after a Saturday evening crash near Black River Falls. Reports say two people were in a vehicle that slid on a patch of ice on I-94 Eastbound and then rolled into a ditch. The victims are from Milwaukee County. Both were taken from the scene to a local hospital where one of the victims, 67-year-old Robin Johnson, was pronounced dead. The other was treated for less severe injuries.

There's an effort to put a pause on all data center construction in Wisconsin. Clean Wisconsin has gathered 1200 signatures since last Wednesday calling for legislators to stop approval of data center projects until stricter standards on energy and water use are put in place. The group points out that two of the data centers that have been already approved will use more power than every single residential customer combined. There has been widespread community pushback against the centers, and Microsoft has already dropped plans to build a facility near Caledonia. A plan to build another center in DeForest has a tech company asking the city to annex land away from a neighboring town after community protests prevented a transfer of property.

Preliminary numbers from the state's Department of Natural Resources are showing small declines in gun-deer license sales and harvest totals. The 2025 season ended on Sunday and shows just over 182-thousand deer were registered during the nine-day gun hunt, down just under one-percent from 2024. Total deer hunting licenses sold slipped about point-12-percent, though archery participation continues growing. Muzzleloader season is currently underway, followed by late antlerless hunts through early January 2026.

Mandela Barnes is running for Wisconsin governor. The former lieutenant governor during Governor Tony Evers’ first term released a video Tuesday morning announcing his candidacy. An October poll from Badger Battleground showed Barnes as the only Democrat gaining double-digit support as the party’s candidate for governor, ahead of Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and other contenders. Republicans running for governor include U.S. Congressman Tom Tiffany and Washington County Executive Josh Schoeman. The primary will be held next August, with the election in November of next year.

Wisconsin health officials are keeping an eye on rising cases of respiratory illnesses across the state. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services is tracking flu, COVID-19, and RSV. Last winter, Wisconsin saw a 211-percent spike in flu-related hospitalizations from late December to late January, right after the holidays. Official say its a reminder of how fast these viruses can spread once gatherings pick up. DHS data show less than a quarter of the state's population have received a flu shot. About nine percent have gotten the updated COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccination rates among young children and older adults are below state goals.

The attorney for Morgan Geyser, who was convicted in the 2014 "Slender Man" stabbing, is requesting she be moved out of the Waukesha County Jail. Lawyer Tony Cotton wrote a letter to the Waukesha County judge asking Geyser be transferred to the Winnebago Mental Health Facility. The letter cites reasons such as having no new charges in Waukesha County, among other things. Geyser was 12 years old when she and a friend stabbed another girl nearly to death in a bid to appease the fictional "Slender Man" character. Geyser was found in Illinois last month after cutting off an ankle monitoring bracelet and leaving a group home in Madison.

A woman already in prison for a gruesome murder is getting extra prison time. Taylor Schabusiness was sentenced Monday to an additional 90 days confinement on top of the life prison sentence she's already serving. Schabusiness pleaded guilty in October to attacking a staff member at Taycheeda Correctional last July while she was receiving treatment for an injury. Schabusiness also attacked her attorney during a plea hearing in the case this April.

The U.S. Treasury Secretary is investigating Minnesota over claims of a financial fraud pipeline to terror group. The claim is that Minnesota state welfare dollars flowed through fraudulent programs, to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab [[ al-sha-bahb ]]. However, there is little evidence to support the claim. This comes amid fraud cases such as the 250-million-dollar Feeding Our Future racket and recent charges against an autism therapy center. Many of those convicted or charged with crimes, though not all, are members of the Twin Cities' Somali-American community.

Holiday budgets are varying across Wisconsin this year. That's according to a recent study by finance website WalletHub, which looked at hundreds of cities to determine what residents should spend this month. The research takes into account several factors, including income, age, and savings-to-expense ratios. Appleton has the highest budget this year at two-thousand-92-dollars, followed by Waukesha at one-thousand-819-dollars. The lowest rated city in Wisconsin was Racine at just over 12-hundred dollars.