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The Pablo Center at the Confluence is adding a news face to the downtown team. A new Marketing and Communications Manager has been filled. Stephanie LaBair, a resident of downtown Eau Claire and Pittsburgh native, has started at the Pablo Center. She brings her experience and talents to the Pablo Center and its team. She has built her career on the idea that creativity and strategy are a symbiotic relationship that can further the mission of a non-profit.

A man accused of killing a passenger in a 2018 crash is pleading no contest to homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle.  Reports say Mavrick Kolpien entered a plea deal yesterday in exchange for having another charge in the case dismissed.  Kolpien’s accused of being drunk and high when he turned in front of an oncoming car near a bar parking lot in Chippewa County, killing his passenger Zachary Evanson.  Kolpien is facing 40 years in prison.

A man accused of biting off another man’s nostril is avoiding jail time.  A criminal complaint claims Donald Henson recently began fighting a man in Eau Claire for an unknown reason.  It says Henson admitted to biting the other man’s nostrils but that it was in self defense.  Henson pleaded no contest yesterday to substantial battery and bail jumping. 

A Whitehall man is going to jail after being convicted of a road rage incident.  Reports say Joseph Taylor is accused of sideswiping and ramming an SUV that passed him on Interstate-97 in Eau Claire County in December of 2017.  The victim claims Taylor then punched him in the face and claimed to have a gun.  Taylor was sentenced yesterday to two months in a work release facility followed by 18 month probation.

A man convicted of killing two people in a Chippewa Falls bar 40 years ago wants out of prison.  Charles Coogan is asking for parole.  He’s been in prison since the 1979 murder at the Four Corners bar.  Coogan is 72-years-old and says if released he will live with his brother in southern Wisconsin.

A western Wisconsin man is likely looking at charges after police say they found his hidden bathroom camera.  Osseo police arrested Kyle Coleman earlier this week after they say they found a camera hidden to record an underage girl in the shower.  Investigators say he also hid the camera in another bathroom to catch another woman showering.  Trempealeau County prosecutors haven’t yet filed formal charges.

There’s good news for western Wisconsin entrepreneurs.  The folks at Verizon say La Crosse and Eau Claire are some of the best places in the country to start a small business.  Verizon’s latest poll ranks La Crosse as the 20th best place to start a business, Eau Claire is ranked 31st.  Appleton also made Verzion’s list

Lawyers for a transgender woman are suing the state of Wisconsin because she cannot legally change her name.  Karen Krebs cannot legally change her name, she was born Kenneth, because she’s a sex offender.  Wisconsin law does not allow sex offenders to change their names.  Krebs’ lawyer this week said that law is unfair and causes her a number of problems.  Lawyers filed a similar lawsuit this week in Illinois over a similar name-change law there.  

The city of Milwaukee is going to have to get busy if it’s going to expand the Hop before next summer.  City leaders yesterday said they want to expand the streetcar service to reach Fiserv Forum ahead of the Democratic National Convention.  Mayor Tom Barrett also wants to take the Hop to Wisconsin Avenue, and south into Walker’s Point.  There’s no price tag for the full expansion, but the mayor says he wants to use TIF dollars to pay for it all. 

Senator Ron Johnson is holding a public forum in Hudson to talk about the removal of gray wolves from the endangered species list.  The meeting is at the Hudson House Grand Hotel on Friday from 10 a.m. until noon.  Representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will present information about the proposed rule to remove the wolves from the list in the lower 48 states.  Wildlife officials from Wisconsin and Minnesota will also be on hand.