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A meeting will let people give feedback on a new rule that would give local education entities the ability to start school before September.  The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction says it’s been seeing an increase in school districts asking for a school start date exemption. The current rule was put in place in 2002. The virtual meeting for feedback on the proposed new rule will be on March 25.

ABOVE PHOTO: The students created their Pringles packaging contest entry in UW-Stout labs. They designed a 3D model before 3D-printing it in a lab. Imagine creating a new package for a product that has been on store shelves around the world for more than 50 years. How would you make the package better while ensuring consumers still recognized their favorite brand? “Pringles packaging is one of those things that I’ve always found myself frustrated by but had never thought too

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s Center for Communication Disorders (CCD) is expanding its speech-language health care service options to respond to community needs after the announcement that multiple clinics and hospitals are closing in the Chippewa Valley. HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire and HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls will close along with several Prevea Health clinics in the region in March and April, reducing the available speech therapy and audiology services. “With the HSHS and Prevea

The city manager in Eau Claire wants the state to investigate the Chippewa Valley’s hospitals sooner-than-expected closing. HSHS yesterday said Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire will close next Friday, instead of the original closing date in April. Eau Claire City Manager Stephanie Hirsch says she wants the state to look into the ‘circumstances of the closure.’ She says she is shocked by the ‘lack of corporate responsibility.’ HSHS announced that it is closing Sacred Heart, as well as St.

Police say an Eau Claire man accidentally shot himself outside a downtown bar over the weekend. It happened in the early morning hours of Sunday. Police say the man was outside of the bar, showing off his new gun, when he accidentally pulled the trigger. The man was hit in the arm. He’s expected to survive.

Authorities in Clark County have identified the nine people killed in Friday’s crash. The sheriff’s office yesterday said 51-year-old Daniel Liddicoat from Remey, in Iowa County died when his semi truck crashed into a van carrying an Amish family from Virginia. Both the truck and the van caught on fire after the wreck. Liddicoat was driving for his family milk company at the time of the crash. He leaves behind a wife and two children. The lone survivor in the

The reward for the missing Manitowoc County boy is now up to 40 thousand-dollars. Elijah Vue, 3, is still missing.(Two Rivers Police Department) Police in Two Rivers yesterday said they raised an extra 15 thousand-dollars for information on three-year-old Elijah Vue. He’s been missing since February 20th. His mom and her boyfriend are being held on neglect charges, but neither of them have said anything about where he is. The FBI originally offered 15 thousand-dollars for information in the case.

Wisconsin’s governor made his case for more PFAS money in one of the communities hit hardest by the so-called forever chemicals. Governor Tony Evers was in Marinette yesterday to demand that lawmakers give him 125 million-dollars to start a PFAS grant program. Republican lawmakers want to use the money to clean-up drinking water across the state, but the governor says he will not sign the new law to do that. The governor says he wants to hold polluters accountable, while

Wisconsin’s public-school managers are looking to let local schools decide if they want to start before September 1st. The state’s Department of Public Instruction yesterday said it will hold a public meeting later this month on a proposed rule that would allow local schools to set their own start dates. Wisconsin law sets the first day of school on September 1st, and schools currently need a waiver if they want to start earlier. DPI says the new rule will allow

Wisconsin lawmakers are moving ahead with new reading lessons. The powerful Joint Finance Committee yesterday approved four new reading curriculums. Schools across the state do not have to use the four chosen lessons, but the state will not pay for any reading programs not on the approved list. Republican Mark Born says the new lessons are a must because over 60 percent of kids in Wisconsin cannot read at grade level. Democrats worry about local control, and say the state