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The Department of Health Services says 826 positive COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in the last 24 hours.  The positivity rate in the state is seven-point-eight-percent and the seven-day average is 690 new cases per day.  There was one more death reported since yesterday, bringing that toll to one-thousand-and-68 Wisconsinites killed by the virus.

A ten month deployment in the Ukraine is over for dozens of Wisconsin Army National Guard soldiers.  About 100 members of the 32nd Infantry Brigade combat team are returning to Wisconsin today.  The unit served as a training group at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center.

Home sales are up in Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin Realtor’s Association. Nearly ten-thousand homes were sold in July, a record for the state. Home sales were up in every county compared to July last year. Locally, sales are up more than 20-percent.

Gas prices are up in Eau Claire. Gas Buddy shows an analysis of gas prices in the city. It shows prices are up nearly six-cents from last month’s average. Gas prices are down nearly 54-cents from this time last year. Right now, it costs an average of 2.12 for a gallon of gas in Eau Claire.

The flash and fanfare that came with the end of the Democratic National Committee came in Delaware, not the streets of downtown Milwaukee. Fireworks soared over Wilmington, Delaware last night after Joe Biden accepted the nomination for president. Milwaukee hosted this year’s convention in name only. Just a few hundred people came to Milwaukee for the DNC. Most of them and the gear they brought are expected to be gone by Monday at the latest.  Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden

 Wisconsin’s jobless picture is improving. The latest numbers from the state’s Department of Workforce Development show the unemployment rate for July fell to seven percent. That’s down from eight-point-six percent in June, but is still double what the jobless rate was before the coronavirus back in February. Wisconsin is down over 200 thousand jobs since this point last year.

Eau Claire’s Catholic schools are giving parents an option to let kids learn from home this fall. The plan for Regis Catholic Schools is for in-person classes, five days a week. There is also a virtual option. Regis Schools’ President Kelly Mechelke says they are working with the city-county health department to make sure kids are safe and socially distanced when they come back to class in two weeks. CLICK FOR MORE INFO

 If you were at Half Moon Beach in Eau Claire on Monday, you may want to get a coronavirus test. The city-county health department yesterday said it traced a coronavirus case back to the beach. The person who tested positive says they were at the beach in the afternoon and evening.

UW President Tommy Thompson is talking about the benefits of borrowing a billion-dollars to get past the coronavirus, but he is not saying how the school would pay the money back. Thompson yesterday told UW Regents they need the power to borrow to cover the school’s coronavirus losses. He said most six billion-dollar entities have their own lines of credit. State lawmakers will have to agree to the borrowing. That may be tough, given the two billion-dollar deficit Wisconsin will likely face

The state of Wisconsin is giving people more time to pay their power bill. The state’s Public Service Commission yesterday agreed to extend the ban on utility disconnections until October 1st. Power companies in the state have been banned from shutting-off service since March. Wisconsin’s yearly winter utility disconnection moratorium is set to begin November 1st. The PSC is suggesting that people who are behind on their bills make payment arrangements as soon as possible.