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The big dogs say they are going forward with appointments. The University of Wisconsin is assuming that Republican lawmakers will win the court fight over their December reforms.  The UW board yesterday said it will swear-in Scott Beightol and Torrey Tiedeman at this week’s regents meeting.  Governor Walker appointed the two in his final days in office.  But they were fired by Governor Evers after a judge struck down the law that protected their appointments.  UW Regents say that law

The Bucks are one win away from bringing the Eastern Conference playoffs through Milwaukee.  The Bucks walloped the Brooklyn Nets last night, 131-121.  The win puts Milwaukee one victory away from clinching home court advantage throughout the playoffs.  

A Manitowoc man faces two life sentences after being formally charged today with two counts of first-degree murder.  Karl Hess is being held on a one-million-dollar bond for the robbery and deadly shooting of Richard Miller and his daughter Jocelyn last fall.  Hess allegedly told police he was having financial problems and knew Miller had money.

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month.  The Kids Count Data Center of Wisconsin shows that overall, child abuse and neglect cases reported remained virtually the same from 2016 to 2017, but there has been a steady rise each year since 2011.  Over 42-thousand cases of child abuse were reported in Wisconsin in 2017, about 140 fewer cases than in 2016. 

A new report reveals the Service Employees International Union directly spent more than any other union on outside electioneering activities for last November’s election.  The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign says today the union dropped nearly 720-thousand-dollars on behalf of Democratic candidates for governor and lieutenant governor.  The union is also involved in the lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of lame-duck laws passed by the legislature in December to limit the authority of the incoming Evers Administration.

A 74-year-old woman is dead after being swept away by the flooded Mississippi River in Wheatland.  The Vernon County Sheriff’s Office says Mary Heath wandered away from her home Saturday morning and was later found by a boater about 300 yards away from her house.  Heath was pronounced dead at the scene.

An Eau Claire business has about five-thousand dollars in damage after a fire.  The Eau Claire Fire Department says Phillips-Medisize on Mondovi Road caught fire on Sunday but no smoke was seen when firefighters arrived.  The fire was found to be confined to a piece of manufacturing equipment and it had not spread into the building.  The fire department says employees who used fire extinguishers before leaving the building helped keep the fire under control.

A man is in custody after deputies say they found drugs in his car during a traffic stop in Vernon County.  The sheriff’s department says Joshua Lusk was pulled over on Highway 35 in Genoa and a search turned up cocaine, marijuana, a digital scale, and other drug paraphernalia.  Lusk is facing multiple drug charges.

The Eau Claire School Board is voting today on a multi-million-dollar upgrade to Memorial High School’s athletic complex.  A proposal calls for the board to match a one-point-two-million-dollar donation toward the improvements, making the overall cost around two-point-four-million dollars.  If the proposal passes the upgrades could be completed by September. 

UPDATE: Investigators in Chippewa Falls say they don’t suspect foul play in a man’s death in the river over the weekend.  Police say all evidence points to a suicide.  Crews pulled the man from the river Sunday morning, he was not far from the Pumphouse Road boat landing.  Crews say his car is still in the river.  They won’t be able to get that out until the river falls a bit. Chippewa Falls Police say they don’t know how a