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The City of Chippewa Falls is borrowing over two-point-four-million-dollars to pay for infrastructure improvements.  If you happen to be paging through the paper then you might have seen that The Chippewa World Herald reports the borrowing package will be over five years and the city will pay about 165-thousand-dollars a year in interest.  The official borrowing rates will be approved next month.

Governor Tony Evers wants a new deal with Foxconn because he doubts the company will ever hire 13-thousand people.  The governor yesterday said the current deal to bring a factory to southeast Wisconsin is ‘no longer in play.’  Evers isn’t saying what he wants to change about the package that offers up to four-billion-dollars in tax breaks if Foxconn hires enough people.  The governor would only say he wants to protect taxpayers, and protect the environment in Wisconsin. 

Eau Claire and Chippewa counties are on the positive side of the latest Census Bureau count.  New numbers show both counties have grown over the past decade.  Eau Claire County added 56-hundred people since 2010, while Chippewa County added just over 15-hundred.  Dane County is the fastest growing in Wisconsin.  It added more than 50-thousand people.

A conservative group in Madison wants a judge to stop the city of Eau Claire from giving redevelopment benefits to a downtown building owner.  The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty yesterday filed the suit over Eau Claire’s TIF district.  The suit says Eau Claire claimed it needed the TIF to lure developers to the Water Street area.  But WILL says there were already plans to develop the area, and there was no need to divert money into the TIF. 

The plastic straw ban at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse isn’t saving much money, but students say it is working in other ways.  UW La Crosse Student Association President Ben O’Connell this week said thousands of straws have not been used across campus since the school banned them earlier this school year.  University managers say the ban only saved about a thousand dollars, but O’Connell says it’s more about saving the environment than saving money. 

Chippewa County’s deer advisory council wants to see four-thousand deer harvested this fall.  The council yesterday finalized its deer hunting regulations for 2019.  Hunters will be able to ask for one of over nine-thousand deer tags on both public and private land.  But the deer council nixed the idea of a special holiday hunt.  State regulators must now agree to the county’s proposal.

You might have some late nights cleaning up after those Packers Parties this season. The Packers are getting a lot of prime time games in 2019.  The NFL released the full 2019 schedule yesterday.  The Packers will play two Thursday night games, two Monday night games, and one Sunday night game.  The Packers open the season on Thursday Night Football against the Bears in Soldier Field. 

Wisconsin’s Republican U.S. Senator is changing how he talks about the crisis at the southern border.  Senator Ron Johnson yesterday said it’s not just an immigration crisis at the border with Mexico, it’s a national security crisis.  Johnson is in El Paso, Texas to see the border for himself.  He says the U.S. needs more places to hold the thousands of people who are illegally coming into this country every month.

Top Democrats are due in Milwaukee next week to continue the planning for the Democratic National Convention.  Mayor Tom Barrett says he’s excited to have Democratic leaders back in town, even if it is just for a logistics meeting.  Democrats are bringing their convention to Milwaukee in July of next year. 

Governor Tony Evers is hoping residents will share their thoughts about his budget proposal when he presents his plan in Oshkosh.  The governor is taking his budget listening tour to the Oshkosh Senior Center on Tuesday night.  Doors open just before 5 p.m.  Registering for the free event is suggested.