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The new Red Cedar Film Festival kicks off in Menomonie this week.  The festival’s website says it will feature over 30 short films, full films, and documentaries from local and international film makers at multiple venues.  Awards will also be given out at the festival.  The opening gala is Wednesday and film viewings start Thursday. 

You’re going to have to carry your own stuff at Miller Park next year.  The Brewers yesterday announced they will ban backpacks from the park starting next year.  The idea is to make it easier for people to get through the security line.  Purses and diaper bags will still be allowed. 

About 200 kids in Eau Claire could be going to new schools next year.  The city’s school district last night approved a new enrollment map.  Superintendent Mary Ann Hardebeck says the idea is to balance enrollment at the city’s schools.  Parents will have the choice to keep kids at the same school next year, or until their kids transition to middle school or high school.  In all, seven schools in Eau Claire will get new boundaries. 

The track at Eau Claire Memorial High School is going to look much better next year.  School leaders say the Pat and Connie Ulrich Trust is donating 250-thousand-dollars to the school to upgrade the track, as well as pay for new lighting and fences.  The donation is far less than the one-point-two million-dollars some anonymous donors were offering Memorial.  That fell apart after school leaders balked at matching part of the donation with public dollars.  

The National Weather Service is adding to the tornado count in western Wisconsin.  Forecasters yesterday said four tornadoes touched down in Barron and Clark counties Friday night.  Two of the tornadoes hit Barron County, two others hit Clark County.  The weather service says each county saw an EF-1 and an EF-0 storm.  Top wind speeds for the storms were about 110 miles-per-hour. 

A former UW-Oskosh professor’s apparent obsession with a student will cost the university 325-thousand-dollars.  The UW System yesterday said it is paying the former student, only identified as A.R, to end a sexual harassment claim against former professor Michael Beitz.  A.R. says Beitz harassed her for years, coerced her into having sex, then tried to contact her after she left the school.  She left the school in 2014.  Beitz resigned from UW Oshkosh in 2015.  

The state of Wisconsin is asking towns and cities to start testing for a new chemical.  The state’s Department of Natural Resources yesterday sent letters to 125 local water treatment plant asking them to start the tests for chemical pollution.  The chemicals, known better as PFAS, can come from firefighting foam and other industrial uses.  DNR says it wants to see how common PFAS pollution is before coming up with a plan. 

Never pay anybody for work they haven’t done, and never give anyone your banking or insurance information.  That’s the advice for folks in Wisconsin who are cleaning-up after last weekend’s storms.  The Better Business Bureau and local utilities are warning folks in the storm zones about storm related scams.  Many of the scammers offer to help with repairs, then never follow through.  But the BBB is also warning of insurance and bank fraud schemes where scammers call and try and get personal

It is Aviation Week in Wisconsin.  The governor today signed a proclamation celebrating the 130 public airports in the Badger State which accommodated six-million passengers last year.  Oshkosh is hosting the World’s Greatest Aviation celebration  this week.  More than ten-thousand aircraft are available with an estimated 170-million-dollars in sales.  More than half-a-million-people are expected to take in the show which runs through Sunday. 

As tourism grows in the Stevens Point area, so does the need to find places for visitors to stay.  To help expand the availability of short term rentals, Mayor Mike Wiza says the city has completed the process to allow homeowners to offer Airbnb or VRBO rentals.  Homeowners can get more information at Stevens Point-dot-com and search for short-term rentals.