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The Eau Claire Shopko has an official closing date.  It was announced yesterday that the store on Clairemont Avenue will close by 6:00 p.m. on Sunday.  A store employee says they hope to have everything sold by then.  The store announced it would be closing back in March but it didn’t give an official date. 

A new group of buildings will no longer be built at the Block seven lot and Liner Site in downtown Eau Claire.  Reports say Pablo Properties notified the city on Wednesday that it no longer plans to build in that space because of multiple reasons including rising construction costs.  The economic development authority says it’s already received calls from other interested developers. 

There’s a group of chickens up for adoption at the Eau Claire County Humane Society after they were captured by police.  Cops Vs. the coop?? Officers were called to the Eau Claire Scheels earlier this month where they spent about 40 minutes rounding up a group of roosters on the loose.  All of the roosters were rescued safely.  It’s unclear where they came from. 

Wisconsin’s unemployment rate continues to stay under three -percent.  The latest jobless report from the state yesterday shows Wisconsin’s unemployment rate last month held steady at two-point-eight-percent.  That’s the same as in April, and ties a record-low that was first set back in April of last year. 

As Wisconsin gets ready for the 2020 race for president, the city of Eau Claire says it’s still waiting to be paid from the 2016 campaign.  Eau Claire Finance Director Jay Winzenz says the Trump and Clinton campaigns owe the city about 55-thousand-dollars.  Most of that is the cost to provide extra police protection.  But Winzenz isn’t holding his breath.  He says they sent the campaigns a bill, but doubts the city will ever be paid.  

No one is sure when, or if, the city of Eau Claire will rename the park off Forest Street.  Organizers want to rename the park to honor veterans, but folks who’ve hosted a community garden at the park for years aren’t so sure.  The disagreement so far seems to be about hurt feelings rather than an opposition to supporting vets.  Mark Beckfield, who is leading a two-million-dollar veterans trail project, says the name change really means a lot to many

The reward for information about the man who killed a Racine police officer is growing.  Police yesterday said the pool of money for information about Officer John Hetland’s killer has grown to almost 50-thousand-dollars.  Racine’s Andis Company, Culver’s, the Hiawatha Bar, and Racine Crime Stoppers all donated more money yesterday.  Hetland died late Monday while trying to stop an armed robbery at a bar in Kenosha. 

Top Republicans at the Wisconsin Capitol are changing their state budget plans to keep their own party members from voting ‘No.’  Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald yesterday said they expect to make some tweaks to the 40-billion-dollar-a-year state budget that they want to send to the governor.  Two Republicans, state Senators Steve Nass and David Craig, have already said they won’t vote for the budget because it spends too much.  Two other Republicans, Duey Stroebel and Chris

The legal costs from Wisconsin’s troubled youth prisons are going up.  Governor Evers’ office yesterday agreed to pay nearly five-million-dollars to settle three more claims from inmates at the Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake facilities.  That brings the total legal bill from the two prisons to over 25-million-dollars. 

Lawmakers in Madison are taking some baby steps toward getting tougher on drunk drivers.  The state Assembly yesterday approved two plans to increase OWI penalties.  The first would require first time OWI offenders to appear in court.  The other would set a five-year mandatory-minimum sentence for deadly OWI crashes.  The plans now head to the state Senate where their fate is not 100-percent certain.