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Vandals hit a state representative’s home with paintballs. Eau Claire police say Representative Jodi Emerson’s house and political signage in her yard were hit with blue paintballs. Police are investigating.

A field hospital for COVID-19 patients is opening today at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds. Governor Tony Evers signed an emergency order in April to prepare the facility.  Wisconsin is seeing record numbers of hospitalizations. The site could eventually host up to 530 patients.

The City of Eau Claire is looking for 9-1-1 dispatchers. Dispatchers make between 23-and-27-dollars-per-hour and work 8 or 12-hour shifts. Civilian telecommunications employees are responsible for all 9-1-1 calls and non-emergency calls in the county. The police department says applications are due October 26th.  CLICK HERE FOR MORE

Eau Claire is not going to vote on the new public health ordinance. Instead, the city council last night agreed to study the issue instead. Councilman Andrew Werthmann said a task force will look at the need for new public health rules during the coronavirus. The city-county health department says the rules are needed, but the Eau Claire Chamber and a number of local businesses said the rules would allow the government too much power to close shops, restaurants, bars,

A former Barron firefighter who admitted to starting three fires this spring will spend the next two years on probation for his crimes. A judge yesterday sentenced Justin Cloud to probation and community service. Investigators say Cloud lit three fires, and responded to one as a firefighter. Prosecutors allowed him to plead down to charges of negligent handling of burning materials.

A Chippewa County sex offender is no longer living on the streets. The sheriff in Chippewa Falls says 74-year-old Donald Newell will now be living in a home on Beaver Street, which is just a few doors down from the city’s senior center. Newell served time for sexual assault from a 2008 conviction. He was released last month, but was homeless because the state’s prison system couldn’t find him a home.

There is a new lawsuit challenging Governor Evers’ limits on bars, restaurants, and stores. The Tavern League yesterday filed a suit that calls the governor’s order to limit bars and restaurants to just 25-percent of capacity a ‘defacto closure.’ The Tavern League’s Scott Stenger says the governor’s response to the coronavirus has ‘wiped away’ generations of businesses. The lawsuit seeks to have lawmakers step into the debate. The governor said last week that his order isn’t closing anything, and dismissively

The ACLU is pressing the state of Wisconsin for an update on the coronavirus in the state’s prison system. The ACLU yesterday filed an open records request that asks about the number of cases, the number of deaths, the number of people in the hospital, and how well the state is quarantining sick inmates. The ACLU’s Chris Ott says the state may need to release older and less violent inmates to minimize the risk for the virus.

The young man accused of killing two people and wounding a third during Kenosha’s nights of violence back in August will not face weapons charges in Illinois. Prosecutors in Lake County yesterday said the rifle that Rittenhouse used in Kenosha never left the state of Wisconsin, therefore there is no crime in Illinois. Rittenhouse continues to sit in jail in Illinois, and his lawyers are fighting his return to Wisconsin to face homicide charges for the shooting in late August.

The question about late absentee ballots in Wisconsin could soon have a national answer. Democrats in the state, along with advocates in Washington, D.C., yesterday asked the United States Supreme Court to decide whether absentee ballots that come in after Election Day should be counted. A federal appeals court last week said they should not be counted. But the Supreme Court may take the case because courts in other states or other federal regions have said that late ballots can be counted.