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Local high school seniors are graduating this week. Schools are taking different approaches to commencement ceremonies, but Regis High School is holding an in-person individual ceremony for 65-students Wednesday and Thursday. The school says students are being given a ten-minute time slot to come pick up their diploma with family and friends, and the school will live stream the ceremony online. North High School is doing something similar on Thursday, and Memorial High School students will graduate Friday.

Firefighters are using donated homes to practice putting out fires. Over the weekend, local firefighters from Altoona and Eau Claire used a home on Highway-12 to simulate a live fire and practice putting it out.  Altoona Fire Chief Mark Renderman said the hands-on experience helps save lives when a real emergency comes. 

A week from now, city officials are hosting a virtual water safety training. The Eau Claire Parks and Recreation and Forestry departments said water safety experts will use Red Cross guidelines to provide eight lessons on swimming safety including how to help for a struggling swimmer. The Parks and Recreation program supervisor says the skills will teach people how to stay safe around the rivers and lakes.   CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO.

Wisconsin is hoping that people get out and enjoy the outdoors this weekend. The state’s Department of Natural Resources says this weekend is the annual Free Fun Weekend. That means all state parks will be open, and free. Same goes for ATV trails. Fishermen don’t need a license this weekend. And all boat launches in the state will be open as well. The only thing that will not be open is the state’s campgrounds. Those are closed because of the coronavirus.

The weekend protests in Eau Claire never turned violent like in other places here in our state. A few hundred people marched through downtown Eau Claire yesterday. It was one of many protests that have followed George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis last week. Organizer Jaylin Carlson says the goal of the entire march was to raise awareness and do it in a peaceful and safe way. But that wasn’t the story everywhere. Milwaukee Police say another day of protests turned

Wisconsin’s coronavirus numbers are down. The state’s Department of Health Services yesterday reported 173 positive tests yesterday, and just over seven thousand negative tests. That brings the state’s positive-test-rate to just two-point-three percent. That is the lowest it’s ever been. On the heels of weekend protests, Eau Claire’s public health boss says protests are allowed under the county’s coronavirus emergency order. Health director Lieske Giese yesterday said the hundreds of people who marched through downtown Eau Claire did not technically

Leaders at the Chippewa Valley Technical College say their next budget may be smaller despite a 49 million-dollar tax increase. CVTC President Bruce Barker says he expects less money from the state of Wisconsin next year. He says about 40 percent of the school’s money comes from the state. Barker says they are trying to be very conservative in their cost projections.

The push to get more people in Wisconsin to vote by mail will cost at least four million-dollars. The Wisconsin Election Commission announced on Friday that it plans to spend four million-dollars to mail almost every voter in the state an absentee ballot application. The money is coming from the state’s coronavirus stimulus fund. WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe says the money will be shared with local election managers who will do most of the heavy lifting for the November election.

Peaceful protests in Madison, Wisconsin became destructive Saturday night.   Police say two officers were hurt while working to quell the violence that erupted on Madison’s streets during a George Floyd protest.  Rioters were throwing rocks and other objects at officers and set a police unit on fire.  The vandals damaged multiple places of businesses including Goodman’s Jewelers with reports of scattered acts of looting.  This, as Wisconsin joins nine states and the nation’s capital calling in the National Guard to help restore

Welcome to your weekend. As we continue to live and write pages in our history, here are some quick events that have happened on this day in past pages: Today is Saturday, May 30th, the 151st day of the year.  There are 216 days until the end of the year. On this day: In 1783, “The Pennsylvania Evening Post” became the first daily newspaper in the United States. In 1868, Memorial Day was observed for the first time in the