Home

Millions of families are getting some extra cash today.  The IRS is depositing a fourth child tax credit payment.  This is part of the COVID stimulus bill passed in March.  Two more payments are scheduled this year, worth up to 300-dollars for each child.  The rest of the credit will come when parents file their 2021 tax returns next year.  Anyone who wants to stop the advanced payments can do so online by November 1st.

UW-River Falls is the latest campus to hit 70 percent vaccinated. School leaders confirmed the news yesterday. This now means that students at River Falls are eligible for some of the nearly 500 thousand-dollars in scholarship money the university is offering. River Falls is also offering some prizes of its own, including seven one thousand-dollar scholarships, two scooters, a Nintendo Switch, and Falcon dollars. UW-Eau Claire, UW-Stout, and UW-La Crosse are all at 70 percent vaccinated as well.

The number of people in the hospital with the coronavirus in Wisconsin is relatively steady. The Wisconsin Hospital Association yesterday said there are still about 11 hundred people in the hospital with the virus. ICU admissions, however, are down. There are now just under 300 people in the ICU with the virus. The Hospital Association doesn’t track how many people are hospitalized because of the virus, as opposed to simply with the virus.

Congressman Ron Kind is throwing his support to Brad Pfaff in the race for Congress in western Wisconsin. Kind yesterday said Pfaff has roots in western Wisconsin and will continue the work he’s done for the past 24 years. Pfaff, who is currently a state senator, is the leading Democrat in the race to replace Kind. Eau Claire business owner Rebecca Cooke jumped into the race this week as well. The Republican candidate, Derrick Van Orden, is running for his second time.

Wisconsin’s special election investigator is holding-off on interviews with the state’s election managers, for now. Former Supreme Court Justice Mike Gableman yesterday postponed his interview with Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe. She is one of several people Gableman subpoenaed in his investigation into last year’s election. Gableman has said he wants to know the relationship between the state of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Racine, and Kenosha and the Mark Zuckerberg-funded Center for Tech and Civic Life.

The group that represents Wisconsin’s school boards is once again asking parents to be nice. The Wisconsin Association of School Boards yesterday released a letter asking parents for civility when speaking with their local school leaders. The School Boards say passion is fine, but threats and violence are not. The association, however, didn’t provide any examples of threats against school board members. This is the second time the association has asked parents to watch how they speak to school board members in the

A northeastern Wisconsin lawmaker is back at work after a flight with the coronavirus that landed him in the hospital. De Pere State Senator Andre Jacque hosted a Senate committee meeting by phone yesterday.  He was hospitalized with the coronavirus back on August 16th, and eventually ended-up on a ventilator. He left the hospital at the end of September. Jacque is walking with the help of a walker, but says he feels better every day.

If not the Democrats, Milwaukee is more than willing to host the Republican National Convention next year. The city says they are ‘efforting’ a bid for the RNC. Milwaukee landed the Democratic National Convention last year, but the coronavirus canceled it. Mayor Tom Barrett has said he’d consider applying for the DNC again. Milwaukee’s tourism office, Visit Milwaukee, is the group that will have to make any official convention pitch.

Matt Wormer loves the fast pace of working in a kitchen. Hired in May, Wormer is the University of Wisconsin-Stout University Dining Merle M. Price Commons executive chef. “You have to be ready for 100 or 200 people to walk up the stairs of the Commons. They are hungry and they want to eat,” Wormer said. “It’s all hands on deck. “It’s exciting for a chef to see people being happy and being fulfilled,” he added. Wormer, of Ridgeland, grew up in