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An Eau Claire woman is heading to prison for her sixth and seventh OWI. A judge yesterday sentenced 51-year-old Julie Wilson to three years behind bars. Police found her passed out behind the wheel of her car last month. She pleaded guilty to that and another case. After her prison term, Wilson will spend five years on probation.

People in Wisconsin drink too much, and it is costing the state an awful lot of money. A new study from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute says Wisconsin’s problem with binge drinking has a four billion-dollar a year price tag. That includes healthcare costs, criminal justice costs, and lost costs for people who are too drunk or hungover to work. The study says anyone who drinks more than five drinks in one sitting is considered a binge drinker.

Allowing Wisconsin’s local election managers to handle their own voter rolls is actually a security strength. The state’s Election Commission yesterday said Wisconsin’s de-centralized election management model helps keep the state’s voter information safe. Wisconsin has over 19-hundred local election managers. The Election Commission’s Meagan Wolfe said there are on-going election concerns, which is one reason why the commission is offering local clerks part of a million-dollars for computer and security upgrades.

The top man on the Assembly’s education committee says Wisconsin is not getting nearly enough return on the billions of dollars that taxpayers spend on public schools. State Rep. Jeremey Thiesfeldt yesterday said new numbers from the Department of Public Instruction show that Wisconsin is spending more than ever on public schools, four-point-seven billion-dollars this year alone, but yet 60-percent of kids in public schools cannot read or add at grade level. Thiesfeldt says that kind of performance is not living-up to expectations. 

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court will decide if Governor Tony Evers went too far with his veto powers earlier this year. The court yesterday said it will hear a challenge brought by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. The decision fast-tracks the case, and skips the usual route through lower courts. WILL wants the court to check the governor for using his veto powers to create new laws and new spending. The governor’s office has said Governor Evers simply used the powers the

A conspiracy theorist found guilty of defaming the father of a Sandy Hook shooting victim is order to pay 450-thousand-dollars in damages by a Dane County jury.  James Fetzer of the town of Oregon falsely claimed in a book he co-authored that Leonard Pozner fabricated copies of his son’s death certificate.  The six-year-old was killed in the December 2012 massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.  Fetzer claims the shooting was faked by the Obama administration in order to tighten gun laws. 

The Wisconsin Army National Guard’s “Iron Brigade” is back home after ten days of training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.  The Warfighter exercises allowed the Brigade to work with members of the 101st Airborne in an advanced combat simulation.  The were able to test communications networks and war fighting capability as well as real-world decision making in a combat environment.

You may notice the flags flying lower. Governor Evers issued Executive Order # 51, relating to a proclamation that the flag of the United States and the flag of the State of Wisconsin be flown at half-staff as a mark of respect for Former State Representative Joseph Tregoning. Flags will remain at half staff until sunset Saturday.

A Cornell man is accused of sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl.  A criminal complaint claims the victim told police 53-year-old Adam Schilling forced her to touch him sexually on two separate occasions in August of 2018.  Schilling was charged in Chippewa County Court this week with first-degree sexual assault of a child.  He was released and ordered not to have any contact with kids under 16-years-old.

The winner of a new state-wide contest of everything cool is made right here in west-central Wisconsin.  The Big-Boy All Weather rifle manufactured in Rice Lake was recently named the Coolest Thing in Wisconsin.  The contest was put on by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and Johnson Financial Group.  The Big-Boy rifle got over 30-thousand of about 240-thousand total votes.