The Wisconsin outdoor recreation industry’s latest numbers show a record-breaking boost to the state economy. The state Department of Tourism says eleven-point-two-billion dollars went toward the state’s gross domestic product in 2023. Most of the money came from boating, fishing, and apparel. Last year was the second consecutive record-breaking year for tourism as a whole, with 25-billion-dollars of economic impact.
Read MoreThe Eau Claire Community Foundation announced the distribution of $136,000 in grants from the William A. Bingham Family Endowment Fund to three local nonprofit organizations. Recipients were selected after careful evaluation by a panel of ECCF grant reviewers. The following organizations received grants in support of their missions: Chippewa Valley Habitat for Humanity – $25,000 to support volunteer coordination. YMCA of the Greater Chippewa Valley – $66,000 to support renovations at the YMCA Eau Claire South facility. Friends of Beaver
Read MoreABOVE PHOTO: UW-Stout’s fall commencement for 510 graduates will be on Saturday, Dec. 14. Fall commencement will be held for 510 graduates on Saturday, Dec. 14, at University of Wisconsin-Stout. A total of 414 undergraduate and 96 Graduate Studies students will receive degrees. Two ceremonies will be held in Johnson Fieldhouse: The ceremonies also can be seen via livestream on the UW-Stout commencement website and at the Memorial Student Center. Provost Glendalí Rodríguez will host the ceremonies. Chancellor Katherine Frank will provide remarks to the
Read MoreABOVE PHOTO: Kris Tjornehoj, a longtime music professor at UW-River Falls, leads UW-River Falls musicians during a performance in the Kleinpell Fine Arts building on Oct. 6 as part of the university’s homecoming celebration. Tjornehoj, who is active in other regional music endeavors, is retiring after 31 years at the university and 44 teaching music. UWRF/Pat Deninger photo “I have used the tools of music and education to make the world a better place, one individual at a time.” An
Read MoreThe Chippewa Valley Health Cooperative says it’s looking to see if it makes sense to reopen St. Joe’s Hospital. Co-op manager Dr. Erik Dickson said it will be two or three years before the co-op can build and open a new hospital in Lake Hallie. He said there’s a need to help people right now, and reopening St. Joe’s could fill that need. Dickson said the co-op will spend the next month studying the plan to reopen St. Joe’s. If
Read MoreThe teenager accused of killing Lily Peters is due in court today. The young man, still only identified as C.P.-B. has been in custody since his arrest back in April of 2022. He’s set to answer the charges in the case today, in adult court for the first time. Prosecutors say he beat, strangled, then raped Peters as she was walking home. The case has been in limbo for years as the two sides fought over whether to charge the
Read MoreOnce again, it was a false alarm. Chippewa Falls Police and the city’s school district says yesterday’s threat to the high school turned out to be a false threat. In fact, the school says it was part of a wave of false threats throughout Wisconsin yesterday. Police rushed to the school after getting a bomb threat yesterday, and officers searched the school. Chippewa Falls Police say they take all threats to local schools very seriously.
Read MoreThe U.S. Supreme Court will not hear a challenge to Eau Claire Schools’ gender policy. The court yesterday fell one justice short for a review of the policy that says parents have to ‘earn’ the ability to know if their kids are transitioning at school. A number of parents sued over the policy back in 2022, but the court said they didn’t have standing in the case. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which represented those parents, yesterday said
Read MoreWisconsin is moving ahead with its deer management changes. The Department of Natural Resources yesterday said it’s looking for feedback on its plan to shift the boundaries for some hunting zones in the state. The DNR says the idea is to return to habitat-based deer management units in the Northern Forest Zone and adjusts a portion of the Central Forest Deer Management Zone boundary and select Metropolitan Sub-unit boundaries. There’s a public meeting on the proposal set for early next
Read MoreAT&T is getting out of the home phone business. The company yesterday said it is going to end landline service in 20 states, including Wisconsin, by 2029. AT&T said the copper wire service is both expensive and outdated. The company says fewer and fewer people have landlines in their homes, though a 2022 survey said as many as 360 thousand people in Wisconsin still use their landlines. AT&T says it will offer landline users a system that allows them to
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