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Investigators in Wood County say a wanted felon is facing even more charges after a search at his home yesterday. Austin Knuesel is already facing charges as a felon who was found with a sawed-off shotgun, and charges from a weekend shooting and hostage situation. Yesterday, police in Wisconsin Rapids searched his home. That search led to more charges for Knuesel, and charges for four other people. Knuesel was out on bond before the weekend hostage situation. He was waiting

A police officer in Monroe County is looking at charges after investigators say he tried to get two teenage girls to send him naked pictures. Prosecutors filed child enticement, attempted sexual assault, and attempted possession of child pornography charges against 26-year-old Peter Schneider. He was an officer for the Ho-Chunk Police Department, and a firefighter in Sparta. He was fired as an officer as soon as he was arrested, and is on leave from the fire department. Prosecutors say they

There’s a lawsuit that’s challenging Governor Evers’ 400-year school funding increase. Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce’s legal arm yesterday asked the state supreme court to strike down the governor’s veto. Evers crossed-out a few numbers and dashes, and turned a two-year school funding increase into a 400-year increase. The WMC suit says that’s unconstitutional, both because it goes beyond the governor’s veto power, and because lawmakers must sign-off on all spending plans. The governor’s office defended the veto last summer as

It was a day of training for Eau Claire Police at North High School yesterday. Officers took to the school for an active-threat training. Eau Claire Superintendent Michael Johnson says the idea is to make sure everyone knows what to do if the worst were to happen. The students weren’t in class, they had yesterday off. Yesterday’s training brought nearly 100 police officers and other first responders to the school.

Just in time for tax day. Governor Evers yesterday named David Casey to serve as the state’s new revenue secretary. Casey has decades of experience in tax policy, and was the DOR’s deputy secretary from 2019 til 2022. He replaces long-serving Peter Barca at the Department of Revenue.

Today is tax day, and if you haven’t already filed, the IRS is making it easier for some. The agency released an update for Direct File, its free tax filing program. The update allows taxpayers to import the previous year’s information from the IRS in order to easily validate the current year’s return. The Direct File pilot program is only available to taxpayers in 12 states as a test this year. To learn more about this or possible extension options,

Wisconsin’s residential energy disconnection moratorium is over starting today. The state prohibits power disconnections annually from November first through April fifteenth, even if bills are unpaid. Financial assistance may be available for low-income households through the Wisconsin Home Energy Assistance Program. Customers are also encouraged to contact their energy providers to ask about payment arrangements and you can CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Two rustic scenic routes are added to a state registry. The first Rustic Road runs for almost ten miles through Northwestern Wisconsin forests, near the Birkie Trail. The second route is an addition to a 760 mile Rustic Road, running through 61 Wisconsin counties. The new addition passes a former one-room schoolhouse in Walworth County, near Honey Creek. The Rustic Road Program was established in Wisconsin in the seventies, and encourages people to enjoy rural scenery in the state. 

ABOVE PHOTO: Visitors at the semiannual Stout Game Expo, SGX, use virtual reality goggles to try a student-made game.  One of the nation’s premier college ranking organizations has given high marks to University of Wisconsin-Stout’s academic programs in game design. The 2024 rankings by Princeton Review list the Bachelor of Fine Arts in game design and development-art and Master of Fine Arts in design-game design focus as the best in Wisconsin and Minnesota, top five in the Midwest and, for public colleges, top

Authorities in far northwestern Wisconsin say they have a person in custody for a deadly weekend shooting in Park Falls. It happened Saturday afternoon. Police say they found the dead body and a handgun at the scene. Investigators say the person had been shot several times. There’s no word on an ID for either the victim or the suspect, those details could come later today.