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A local police department is helping kids at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic celebrate their birthdays. The Durand Police Department is teaming up with Dairy Queen to give elementary kids and younger a birthday card and a gift certificate for a sweet treat at the Durand location. The police department said they’d also be happy to participate in a parade-style birthday party for kids. Parents are encouraged to message the department Facebook page to participate. 

It will get worse before it gets better. That is the message for the week ahead as we launch into a new week, we will have new changes ahead as we all navigate life in the climate of a world health pandemic. But, as we are taking each day together we will let you know the latest, laid out in simple form. Your Covid-19 Cliff Notes are here. As we follow the latest of the world pandemic, there is a

Wisconsin could see 23-hundred confirmed cases of the coronavirus by the end of the day. The state’s Department of Health Services yesterday confirmed that two-thousand-267 people in the state are sick with the virus. DHS says 68 people have died from it. But over 25-thousand people have been tested for the coronavirus and confirmed to not be sick. There will be more federal money coming to Wisconsin to fight the coronavirus. FEMA yesterday granted Wisconsin’s request for a federal disaster declaration. Governor Evers asked

Election Day is tomorrow, but no one is sure what it will be like for voters. The Republican-controlled legislature on Saturday refused Governor Evers’ call to move the election til next month and make it vote-by-mail only. Top lawmakers say the governor shouldn’t be changing the election just days before voters cast their ballots. There are also some pending legal challenges heading into Election Day. The main question is how Wisconsin will handle absentee ballots that are mailed-in, or come-in after Election

Wisconsin’s governor says it is more important for people to stay at home than to go to church for Easter or go to temple for Passover. Republican lawmakers on Friday asked that the governor allow people to attend religious services this weekend despite his Safer at Home order. The governor’s office said in a statement that protecting public health is more important at this point and time.

The folks at the L.E. Phillips Career Development Center are helping-out during the coronavirus outbreak. The residents and volunteers are making masks for healthcare workers in western Wisconsin. The center’s Angela Kjellberg says they hope to make 40-thousand masks. She says a number of recent donations have given them enough material to make that goal possible.

The wheels on our buses might be turning, but the seats in Eau Claire will be a bit more empty for the next little while. Eau Claire Transit managers on Friday announced that they are limiting buses to just 11 people. Transit Manager Tom Wagener says they are trying to enforce some social distancing. Wagener says they see about 800 to 900 bus riders a day, as opposed to 35-hundred a day before the outbreak.

It’s the next best thing to a room full of friends and family. Dozens of people in Eau Claire turned out yesterday for a parade for Geraldine Olson’s 100th birthday. She sat in a lawn chair in her front yard as the cars rolled-by, honked, and waived. Olson says she’s had a lot of birthdays over the years, but this one takes the cake.

Responders were busy with over a dozen crashes after the winter storm over the weekend. On Friday afternoon precipitation began as rain and quickly turned to freezing rain and snow. The region responded to 14 crashes, two of which were injury crashes, six runoffs, and 8 motorist assists. In Jackson County at approximately 11:40 PM, the Wisconsin State Patrol and Jackson County Sheriff’s Office responded to multiple crashes on I-94 westbound between the Hixton and Black River Falls areas. The

State lawmakers fail to vote during Saturday’s special session on whether to delay the primary elections.  The Republican majority opted not to act either way on Governor Tony Evers coronavirus inspired proposal to convert the election into an absentee ballot only event and move the primary election date from this coming Tuesday to May.  Lawmakers instead will meet again Monday to take up the matter again. As you might expect, Governor Tony Evers is not happy with Republican lawmakers’ failure