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Eau Claire is helping the Hmong community celebrate their New Year.  A two day Hmong New Year celebration was held over the weekend to celebrate yesterday’s holiday.  The celebration included dancing and singing competitions,authentic Hmong food, games, performing arts, and vendors. 

We don’t know you all, but we owe you all. 

Governor-elect Tony Evers could make some significant changes to healthcare in Wisconsin.  Evers has vowed to expand Medicaid and remove Wisconsin from a lawsuit attempting to scrap the Affordable Care Act.  The Legislative Fiscal Bureau reports that Wisconsin is one of 17 states that haven’t taken federal funding to expand Medicaid.  Evers is predicted to allot over 200-million-dollars in federal funding for Medicaid expansion in his biennial budget.  This could extend coverage to about 80-thousand more individuals.  

Democrats are fighting against potential limits of power against Democratic Governor-elect Tony Evers. Democrats on the legislature’s budget committee said they don’t trust Republican leaders as they attempt to limit the authority of Evers.  They called the Republican effort embarrassing and noted that it shows desperation from Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.  The ways Republicans seek to limit Evers’ authority are still unclear.  A new report shows that Wisconsin needs to come up with over two-billion-dollars in the

We are getting a little BOGGED DOWN with berries inour state. Cranberry growers in Wisconsin are facing asurplus of the crop this year.  Growers worry that because of theabundance, about 25-percent of the crop could be dumped to protect the growers’prices.  There are some other uses for the cranberries though, aside frompairing them with your Thanksgiving meal.  They can be used as fertilizer,donated to charities, sold overseas, or used as livestock feed.  

Local REALTORS come together to help our community. During a “Week of Giving.” The REALTORS Association of Northwestern Wisconsin will be presenting checks to ADRC offices across the region, including one for more than $2,200 to the Chippewa County. This year, all of the donations are going toward “emergency food boxes”, which can be stored by the elderly for times in the winter when weather might prevent Meals on Wheels from delivering.

Anannual report in the National Health Interview Survey says that cigarettesmoking has reached an unprecedented low of 14-percent in 2017, from over40-percent in the mid-sixties.  The senior author of this report sites proven interventions, like smoke-free policies, and the high cost of tobacco products as reasons for the decline in cigarette smoking.  The report also says the majority of smokers are men and live in the Midwest or Southern States. 

The Humane Society of Jefferson County says one dog had to be euthanized and more than a half-dozen others rescued from a hoarder living near Johnson Creek.  Officials say the dogs and other pets were rescued from poor living conditions in a barn with dead rodents and piles of garbage.  The pet owner had a prior conviction in 2010 for failing to provide for animals and was sentenced to nine months in jail. 

Madison Police Chief MikeKoval says overdose deaths in the capital have increased over 80-percent in2018.  So far 38 people have died from overdosing this year compared to 21 at this time last year. The chief says 251 overdoses have been reported to police through the end of October.  Last year 199 overdose cases were reported over the same time period.