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A Jackson County man is facing federal charges after drugs and a gun were reportedly found in his home.  The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office says officers searched Victor Williams’ home in Melrose back in July and found fentanyl, marijuana, prescription drugs, thousands of dollars in cash, and a gun.  Williams was charged in federal court yesterday with being a felon in possession of a firearm and four drug counts.  He’s facing up to 30 years in prison.

A man is safe after needing to be rescued from a grain bin in Barron County.  The county sheriff’s department says it was called about the incident late Monday afternoon at a farm in Dallas.  The department says the man was trapped in soybeans all the way up to his mouth but crews were able to use grain bin rescue panels to get him out.  The man was taken to the hospital in stable condition.

A man is dead after allegedly being shot by his brother while squirrel hunting in Dodge County.  According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the brothers were hunting on state property near Mud Lake yesterday when one of them saw movement and accidentally shot the victim.  Both men are in their 60s.  It’s unclear if the man responsible will face charges.

Gas prices are on the rise in Wisconsin but relief could be on the way.  Gas prices are up about five cents from last week at two-dollars and 54-cents per gallon because of a recent drone strike on a crude oil facility in Saudi Arabia.  However, the executive director for the Minnesota/Wisconsin Petroleum Council says it’s believed that about 70 percent of production that was lost in the strike will be recovered.

A pair of Wisconsin lawmakers want to keep kids in rear-facing car seats longer. State Rep. Chris Taylor and state Rep. Ron Tusler are pushing a plan at the Capitol that would require children stay in a rear-facing car seat until they are two. Right now, Wisconsin only requires a rear-facing seat until they are 20 pounds or one-year-old. Taylor says studies show rear-facing seats are the safest for young children.

A Chippewa Falls mom is looking at 60 years in prison after police say she tried to hire a hitman to kill her daughter’s father. Prosecutors filed formal murder-for-hire charges yesterday against 47-year-old Melanie Schrader. Police say she wanted to kill the man because of child custody issues. The hitman she tried to hire last week turned out to be a police officer, and she was arrested a short time later.

A Chippewa Falls man is facing prison time after his fifth OWI arrest. But he’s not going behind bars for drunk driving. Prosecutors want Steven Kolpien sent to prison for violating the terms of his probation in a deadly shooting. A jury convicted Kolpien of helping two men after they shot and killed a third man back in 2016. He never went to prison in that case. Chippewa County’s D.A. wants a judge to send him to prison after his

A detachment of engineers from northwestern Wisconsin is the latest unit to be heading out on deployment. The Wisconsin National Guard yesterday said about 150 troops with the 128th Engineer Company headquartered in Spooner will head to the Middle East in a couple of weeks. The 128th will support a unit from Indiana while on deployment. The Guard is not saying just when the troops will leave, or when they will return.

Western Wisconsin Congressman Ron Kind wants to make college more affordable by allowing young people to refinance their student loans and get more student aid. Kind introduced what he’s calling Higher Education Action Plan yesterday. Kind also wants to make it easier for college students to consolidate their debt. His plan would ask colleges and universities to focus more on outcomes and job training. He also wants to track how much students are paying for their degrees.

There will soon be 60 new assistant district attorneys across the state. Governor Tony Evers said the new hires are critically important.  The governor says DA’s are on the front lines of reforming the criminal justice system and they need help to do it.  Evers says the DA’s have been doing more with less for too long and points out that these are the first new positions to that department in over a decade. Locally, Eau Claire County is in