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The price of regular gas in Wisconsin is 12-cents-a-gallon below the national average.  Triple-A says the average price statewide is $ 2.06 a gallon, the national average is slightly higher at 2.18 for a gallon of regular gas today.  Drivers are paying about 2.05 in Milwaukee and Madison, 2.10 in Eau Claire, and as low as 1.88 in Fond du Lac.

Local authorities are now responding to the mask order and urging residents to not occupy emergency responders with complaints. Since the Governor issued Emergency Order to mandate wearing face coverings/masks our 911 Emergency Communications Center is already receiving calls from residents concerned about this order and it is expected that this will only intensify when the order goes into effect. In Chippewa County, Sheriff Kowalczyk issued a press release urging all members of the community not call 911 or non-emergency

An Eau Claire woman is dead after she was hit by a runaway tractor at a beach in Iowa. The Cerro Gordo  County Sheriff’s Office said 21-year-old Mercedes Kohlhardt died Tuesday after the tractor that was owned by the state rolled down a hill onto the beach she was sitting at.  The Sheriff’s Office says the accident is still under investigation. 

More money is available for businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Eau Claire and the West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission applied for more CARES Act funding, and the Economic Development Administration gave them both over 500-thousand dollars. City leaders say they’re finalizing the details on the application process, and several Western Wisconsin counties are eligible.

Students who play in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference are making decisions about returning to school. The conference canceled sports for the fall 2020 season including football, softball, women’s volleyball and women’s soccer at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Today is the last day most of Wisconsin can go out without a mask. Governor Tony Evers yesterday ordered a statewide mask requirement to try to slow down the rising coronavirus numbers in the state. The mask requirement takes effect tomorrow, it applies to anyone who is five-years-old or older and applies to bars, restaurants, shops, offices, and other indoor spaces. It also applies to beer gardens and outdoor restaurants. People can face a 200 dollar fine for not wearing a mask.

The latest coronavirus count in Wisconsin shows more people in the hospital because of the virus. The state’s Department of Health Services yesterday reported that 341 people are being treated for the virus in the hospital. DHS says 104 people are in the ICU. DHS has not yet explained why the hospitalization numbers have jumped up-and-down this week. The state yesterday reported just over a thousand positive coronavirus tests, and over 16 thousand negative tests.

There will be less parking in downtown La Crosse, but there will be more places to sit and eat. City leaders unanimously approved a plan yesterday to switch on-street parking spaces into outdoor tables for downtown restaurants. The idea, Downtown Mainstreet, Inc.’s Robin Moses says, is to help restaurants who cannot seat that many people inside. Those restaurants can apply for on-street tables now, they will be able to seat people outside til mid-November.

Milwaukee’s Democratic National Convention will be here and gone in a flash. DNC planners yesterday said they will meet for just two hours each night starting August 17th. The convention ends on August 20. That means the total convention time will be about eight hours. Most of the convention will happen online. Planners yesterday did say that Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick will deliver a speech from Milwaukee on the 18th. Biden himself is supposed to speak from Milwaukee the

About 40 thousand kids across Wisconsin do not have a high-performing school within ten miles. A new study from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty looks at what it calls high-performing school deserts. WILL says the shortage is worse in rural parts of Wisconsin, but there are issues in many communities. WILL’s Will Flanders says the study is evidence that more school kids need more school choices. Flanders says expanding school choice in the state will help kids who are stuck in poor-performing schools.