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Wisconsin Department of Health Services is investigating whether there is a link between vaping and teenage lung damage.  Several teenagers have been hospitalized at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin with serious lung issues.  The cases were reported to the health department this month.  All the kids reported they were vaping in the weeks and months before becoming sick.  

A Baldwin man is going to prison after being convicted of child sex crimes.  Prosecutors claimed Jay Hoppe communicated with a Rice Lake police officer last March thinking it was a 15-year-old girl.  The two planned to meet for sex but Hoppe was arrested.  Hoppe was found guilty of three charges relating to the case in June and was sentenced yesterday to five years in prison. 

There’s no information on injuries after a crash involving a semi truck and a car on U.S. 53 in Eau Claire.  Reports say the crash happened around 2:45 this morning and carried both cars off the highway.  Authorities are investigating what caused the crash.  The highway was briefly closed but it’s since re-opened. 

A bill that would expand broadband in rural parts of Wisconsin is passed through a state senate subcommittee.  The bipartisan bill is called the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act, or DATA Act.  It would improve how the FCC maps rural areas and help broadband expansion into those areas.  It passed through the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Technology yesterday. 

A new urgent care health center is coming to Menomonie.  Prevea Health will be opening the facility on Stout Road sometime next year.  It will be open for urgent care and occupational health care seven days a week and on holidays.  The 13-thousand square-foot facility is already under construction. 

The man accused of strangling a five-year-old western Wisconsin boy is trying a mental defect defense.  Charles Beenken entered a not guilty by mental defect plea in Burnett County court yesterday.  Police say Beenken choked the little boy after beating him back in December of last year.  Prosecutors dropped attempted murder charges, but are pushing ahead with drug, bail jumping, and strangulation charges.  Beenken is being held on 100-thousand-dollars cash bond. 

Wisconsin prisons no longer have any record of the man who took Jayme Closs and killed her parents.  The Department of Corrections erased Jake Patterson’s name and information from its inmate locator and database.  Prison officials earlier this month transferred Paterson to a prison out of state ‘for his safety.’  The head of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council says it’s outrageous for Wisconsin’s prisons to hide Patterson’s whereabouts. 

The tornado count for Wisconsin is growing again.  The National Weather Service yesterday said last weekend’s storm system produced 16 tornadoes.  There are still no reports of any serious injuries or deaths.  The new count comes as people are still cleaning-up from the storms.  Wisconsin Public Service and WE Energies said yesterday that 16 thousand people were still without power. 

La Crosse is looking to lure more river cruise ships to town.  The city’s Board of Public Works this week approved the design and permitting phase of an expansion of La Crosse’s cruise docks.  Right now, two boats can dock at the same time.  The hope is to expand that.  Explore La Crosse Executive Director A.J. Frels says river cruises bring a huge number of people to the city each year. 

Western Wisconsin’s congressman is worried that people may miss some Packer games this year.  Congressman Ron Kind last week sent a letter to AT&T and Nexstar Broadcasting about their on-going contract negotiations.  Kind says a blackout of the local Fox station could threaten Packer broadcasts.  He said ‘with Packer season around the corner’ a blackout will only hurt the people that the TV station is supposed to serve.