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An Elk Mound business is cleaning up after a dust explosion.  Reports say a fertilizer leg pipe exploded last night at Synergy Cooperative on Highway 40.  No injuries were reported and the explosion resulted in a brief shutdown of the business. 

Wisconsin’s unemployment rate is at a record low.  According to Wisconsin Workforce Development, the unemployment rate dropped to two-point-eight percent in April, matching the all-time low set in April of last year.  However, Wisconsin also lost more than five-thousand jobs last month. 

The new Stillson Elementary School in Lafayette is officially under construction.  Reports say there was a groundbreaking ceremony yesterday and members of the school district were in attendance to take part.  The school is about a mile west of the current school location in Chippewa Falls near Lake Wissota. 

How much more will state lawmakers spend?  That’s the central question at the Capitol in Madison.  The legislature’s budget writing panel, the Joint Finance Committee, yesterday debated spending more on roads, colleges, and healthcare.  Lawmakers agreed to spend 25-million more on technical schools, but disagreed on most other items.  The legislature is supposed to have a new budget to Governor Evers by the end of June. 

The private equity firm that now owns ShopKo says it has plans to re-open the store’s optical department.  Monarch Alternative Capital yesterday said they plan to open 80 ShopKo Optical stores in the coming months.  The company says it wants to continue to work with the patients, doctors, opticians and the communities that it serves. 

Add Wisconsin to the list of states suing one of the makers of opioid pain pills. Attorney General Josh Kaul yesterday announced that the state is suing Purdue Pharma which makes OxyContin.  Kaul, along with attorneys general in four other states are suing, as they blame the company for pushing opioid pains pills despite serious worries about addiction.  Those pills, the lawsuit states, went on to fuel the opioid crisis in Wisconsin and across the country. 

Vice President Mike Pence says Wisconsin could see a trade boom if Congress were to ever vote on a new agreement with Canada and Mexico.  The vice president spoke in Eau Claire yesterday about the potential of the USMCA.  He said the new agreement levels the playing field for farmers and businesses in Wisconsin. But the deal is on-hold because Congress has yet to vote on it.  On the other side of the isle, Wisconsin’s Democratic U.S. Senator says she doesn’t see Congress

An Eau Claire man is in trouble after police say he tried to snap a picture of a woman at a local tanning salon.  Prosecutors filed charges against 34-year-old Nicholas Peterson earlier this week.  Police say a woman was tanning when she noticed a cell phone pop-over a divider.  Peterson is due back in court next month. 

About a dozen ducklings are looking for a new home after Eau Claire police pulled them from a busy stretch of Highway 53.  Officers say someone ran over the momma duck, and the ducklings didn’t know what to do.  Police say they were able to stop traffic yesterday and collect all 13 ducklings.  They will be sent to a center till they can find new homes. …but I hear they are early rises, all awake at the QUACK of dawn. Photo

Funeral arrangements are pending for the Appleton firefighter shot and killed in the line of duty.  The body of the firefighter was escorted from Milwaukee to Appleton today with police cars, fire vehicles and officers lining the streets to pay their respects.  The firefighter was killed yesterday during a shooting at Valley Transit Center.  Officials say he’s a veteran of 14 years on the department, but his name has not yet been released.