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Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin is introducing a bill that would create annual federal funds to prevent chronic wasting disease in deer.  Reports say the money would fund research to learn how to detect the disease, suppress it, and determine if there’s genetic resistance.  Baldwin says the bill is important because CWD threatens hunting tradition in Wisconsin and the health of deer herds.

The City of Eau Claire and a contractor could be fined tens-of-thousands of dollars for asbestos violations.  The Department of Natural Resources claims Black Thermal Systems Incorporated mishandled asbestos removal during the Eau Claire city hall renovation that started last November.  An enforcement conference with everyone involved is scheduled for next Monday.  The city and the company are looking at a possible 75-thousand-dollar fine.

A new report suggests that adding more people to Wisconsin’s government-run healthcare rolls could lower health insurance costs.  The consulting group says as many as 30 thousand people who currently buy their health insurance would shift to the government’s system, and that could lower costs.  Republican lawmakers say the Medicaid expansion plan would ultimately cost everyone in Wisconsin more.  Governor Evers is trying to figure out a way to make the expansion a reality. 

Wisconsin is likely headed for a showdown over abortion.  Republican lawmakers started moving four plans that deal with abortions yesterday, but Governor Tony Evers is already promising a veto.  The plans would stop paying Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid provider, ban selective abortions for gender or birth defects, clarify the process about chemical abortions, and the final plan would create a born alive procedure.  Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke says there’s no harm in passing the plans and seeing what the

Two major western Wisconsin health providers are looking to merge together.  Marshfield Clinic centered in Marshfield says it and Gundersen Health are looking to merge into one health system with over a dozen hospitals and 100 clinics.  Marshfield has clinics and a hospital in Eau Claire and Gundersen has hospitals in Whitehall and Independence.  The Gundersen CEO says the merger could be complete by the end of the year. 

UPDATE: Authorities say a missing Menomonie man is safe and sound.  Police canceled yesterday’s Silver Alert for 60-year-old David Twite.  He walked away from his treatment center in Menomonie on Monday.  Officers are not saying where he was found.  Police in Menomonie are on the lookout for a missing elderly man.  A Silver Alert was issued yesterday afternoon for 60-year-old David Twite who was last seen at a treatment center in Menomonie yesterday morning.  Twite has dementia or some other

A Menomonie man who admitted to sexually abusing a four-year-old girl is being sent home with a warning to stay away from children.  A Dunn County judge yesterday sentenced Chase Johnson to probation in the case.  Johnson told police he abused the little girl, he claimed to be a sex addict.  He pleaded guilty in the case back in November.

Prosecutors in Chippewa County are dropping their case against a man charged with murder in Rusk County.  The district attorney in Chippewa Falls yesterday dropped reckless endangerment charges against Preston Kraft.  He was accused of firing a gun at Robert Petit last year.  Kraft is still facing charges in Rusk County that he killed Petit last May.  That case is headed for trial.

There are still some people in Wisconsin who don’t want to let voters take a picture with their ballot.  Lawmakers are considering a plan to rollback Wisconsin’s ban on pictures of completed ballots.  Supporters say a lot of voters in 2019 want to take a ballot selfie.  But the clerks in Dane County and Brown County say allowing for ballot selfies could ‘undo the secrecy of the ballot.’  

Governor Tony Evers says Wisconsinites can push for Medicaid expansion.  The governor tweeted a number today to call to weigh-in on the issue and to ask legislators to support it.  Most Wisconsinites have expressed support for Medicaid expansion, which will help ensure healthcare for thousands of residents now without coverage.