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Wisconsin’s public health managers are once again reaching out to people who’ve been close to someone who’s tested positive for the coronavirus. The state’s Department of Health Services yesterday re-launched its contact tracing text program. DHS Secretary-designee Karen Timberlake says people who’ve tested positive will get a call from a contact tracer, while people who’ve been in close contact will get a text. The text will come from an 844-939-2782 number. The message will start with ‘Health Alert.’ DHS is

It’s now easier for folks to get from Madison to New York City. Dane County’s airport yesterday announced a new, non-stop flight to New York’s LaGuardia Airport. The first flight is next Wednesday. Airport Director Kim Jones says the new flight from Delta will give people across south-central Wisconsin a quicker and easier way to get to New York and the rest of the world.

Facebook is back up and running this morning after an hours-long outage led to chaos yesterday.  So what happened?  In a blog post, the social media giant said configuration changes to its routers led to a “disruption of network traffic” that had an impact on how its data centers communicate.  The outage took down Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.  Additionally, the New York Times reported it led to Facebook employees having trouble accessing buildings because their employee badges were no longer

Investigators are putting a name with the remains found in a suitcase in Chippewa County last year. The Chippewa County Sheriff’s Office yesterday identified the remains as those of 26-year-old Rosaly Cindy Chavarnia Rodriguez. She went missing from Reedsburg last October. She’s from Peru but was working in the Wisconsin Dells. There is a person of interest in her disappearance and death.

Prosecutors in Eau Claire are downgrading the charges against one of the suspects in last March’s home invasion and murder. The D.A. yesterday amended the charge against 25-year-old Juan Olivarez. He was looking at intentional first-degree homicide charges but is now looking at reckless homicide charges. Investigators say Olivarez and another man pushed their way into a home on Kappus Drive last March and killed Edwin Garcia-Smith during a robbery attempt. Both men are due to go on trial in

The measles count at Fort McCoy is now up to nine cases. Fort spokesperson Cheryl Phillips confirmed the cases yesterday, but said none of them is active. Phillips first reported the new measles cases last week, but no one is saying just when the two latest Afghans were diagnosed. Phillips says everyone who’s been diagnosed with the measles is being kept in quarantine. Doctors say nearly 97-percent of the nearly 13-thousand Afghans are vaccinated for the measles and the coronavirus.

The back-and-forth over Wisconsin’s wolf hunt isn’t over. The state’s Department of Natural Resources yesterday set this year’s wolf hunt quota at just 130 wolves. That is far less than the 300 wolves the DNR Board approved last month. Hunters in Wisconsin will be capped at just 74 of those wolves, and the rest will be allotted to the state’s Ojibwe tribes. Earlier this year, hunters trapped or killed 218 wolves in less than 72 hours. DNR wants to avoid another hunt like

Authorities in Elkhorn are asking for help in solving a weekend hit-and-run. Police found 70-year-old Francisco Garcia dead in a ditch on County Highway H Sunday night. Investigators say he was hit by a pickup truck as he was walking along the side of the road. Elkhorn Police are asking people to help them find a silver GMC pickup that may have some front-end damage.

Northeast Wisconsin is remembering its great fire from 150 years ago. This week marks the 150th anniversary of the Peshtigo Fire. It burned over a million acres and stretched as far as Door County and into parts of the UP. Records indicate that over 12-hundred people died in the fire. The Peshtigo Fire isn’t well known because it happened on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire.

A lot more kids are taking the option of learning completely online in Eau Claire schools. The city’s school board last night said enrollment in their Virtual School has tripled since Eau Claire removed its enrollment cap over the summer. Superintendent Mike Johnson says there are now 73 elementary students, 47 middle school students and 74 high school students learning completely online. The Virtual School is different from the online classes that were offered while Eau Claire schools were closed