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Beginning the morning of Tuesday, May 7th, Starr Avenue will be closed between Seymour Road and Valley View Place to complete an asphalt patch. The street is expected to be re-opened to traffic by 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, May 7. If you need a detour, Seymour Road to North Hastings Way to Birch Street is recommended.

Senator Ron Johnson is saluting Wisconsin small businesses.  This is National Small Business Week and Johnson says nine-point-four-percent of businesses in Wisconsin are small businesses.  Johnson says one-point-two-million Wisconsinites work for small business which is nearly half of the state’s workforce. 

Wisconsin tourism is on the rise.  Visitor spending grew by nearly five-percent to over 213-billion-dollars, which generated nearly 22-billion-dollars in total business sales.  Nearly 200-thousand jobs were supported directly or indirectly by tourism last year.  About 112 million people visited the state in 2018.  Here locally however, it was a little dip: Tourism spending in Eau Claire County is down slightly.  According to the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, visitors spent just over 255-million-dollars in 2018, down point-four-percent from 2017.  Spending in Chippewa

An audit of the University of Wisconsin system shows a large growth in tuition revenue.  State Auditor Joe Chrisman says today tuition and fees totaled one-point-three-billion-dollars in fiscal year 2017-2018.  That’s an increase of over 335-million-dollars over the last ten years.  In terms of expenses, salary and fringe benefits were the system’s largest expense at three-point-two-billion-dollars, about 63-percent of total budget’s expenses. 

A Washington man received a 4th OWI while in Wisconsin. 31 year old Jason Kubitschek, from Mount Vernon, was arrested for operating a motor vehicle under the influence, 4th offense. Just before 8:30 on Sunday night, the Wisconsin State Patrol received a driving complaint of a Toyota Camry all over the road on I94 from MM 19WB. A trooper was dispatched but before he could find the vehicle it hit a median barrier and came to rest in the ditch

A southern Wisconsin man is one of three people confirmed dead after a plant explosion in Waukegan, Illinois.  Reports say Salem resident Allen Stevens died in a hospital burn unit on Saturday after the explosion at AB Specialty Silicones late Friday night.  Nine people were in the plant at the time of the explosion.  Two other people have been found dead and one person is still missing.

An Elk Mound man is going to prison after being convicted in a child pornography case.  Police say child porn was found on Jeremy Deen’s phone and computer late last year and he pleaded no contest to possessing child porn in January.  On Friday Deen was sentenced to three years in prison followed by ten years of supervised release. 

Eight Wisconsin students will be competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee this year.  The top three finishers in the Badger State Spelling Bee will be joined by five other students who qualified for the national bee through the Scripps RSV-Bee program.  The national bee will be held in National Harbor, Maryland from May 26th through the 31st.

A west-central Wisconsin police canine is the winner of a national dog competition.  Campbell Police Department’s Belgian Malinois Tasja was recently named Vohne Liche Kennels and Kinetic Dog Food Canine of the Year.  Tasja has won a year’s supply of kibble and will be used in advertising material for Kinetic and Vogne Liche for the rest of the year.  Tasja’s partner says the dog food prize will likely save the department about one-thousand dollars. *PHOTO CREDIT: LaCrosse Tribune

Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge Celebrating Birding Festival The Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge is celebrating the annual Birding Festival this week.  The festival will kick off Thursday evening with wine tasting at Elmaro Vineyards before various different themed hikes take place Friday morning.  All activities will start at the Refuge office.