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Hope continues to grow for Amtrak service to Eau Claire. The West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition met yesterday to talk about the plan. Representatives from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and Amtrak were both there. Eau Claire is on the short list for federal grants that could bring an Amtrak line to town. Local planners are optimistic, but say there’s still work to be done.

It’s not what the volunteers at the Goodwill in Ashland expected to find last weekend. The store called Marathon County’s bomb crew after someone donated a World War Two era hand grenade. Ashland Police Lieutenant Brandon Marten says it was a Japanese grenade, and based on the explosion when the bomb squad detonated it, they believe it was still live. Marten says they believe someone was cleaning-out an attic, placed it in a donation box, and never really checked to

Snow plows in Wisconsin could soon have the power to control stop lights. Lawmakers are considering a plan that would give state and local government plows the same kind of gear that police officers and firefighters have to control traffic lights. The idea is to allow plows to do their job without having to stop every other block or so.

Wisconsin’s election managers should have new rules for absentee ballots by the end of next week. The Wisconsin Elections Commission is looking to vote next week on how to abide by a judge’s ruling that absentee ballot witness slips don’t need a full address in order to be counted. The judge from Dane County ruled earlier this month that witness slips can be missing things like full zip codes or town names and still be counted as a valid ballot.

A judge says the state of Wisconsin can force large dairy farms to get environmental permits before they do anything with their manure. The judge in Calumet County yesterday ruled that state law allows the DNR to proactively protect Wisconsin’s waterways, and said that gives the DNR the power to force dairy farms to prove their manure won’t pollute the local water system. On the other side, some farmers fought the idea, saying federal law doesn’t allow environmental regulators to

A proposed bill in the Wisconsin Legislature would require Wisconsin schools to teach a comprehensive sex education class. Democratic State Senator Melissa Agard introduced the Healthy Youth Act again, which requires all students have medically accurate and age appropriate sex education. The Act was passed in 2009 initially, but was repealed in 2011 by former Republican Governor Scott Walker. Abstinence became the preferred instruction method instead. Required classes would have to include curriculum about puberty, pregnancy, body image, and communication

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers is vetoing legislative maps that were passed by Republicans in the State Legislature last week, as he said he would. The veto means the Wisconsin Supreme Court will decide which maps are used. The maps proposed by Republicans were similar to those Evers had introduced to the state Supreme Court earlier this month, but included changes that reduced the number of GOP incumbents running against each other in November. Evers says his version of the maps

The Dunn County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the recovery of several suspicious items that appear to have a substantial amount of blood on them. These items were recovered on STH 40 near the Whitetail Golf Course in the Township of Colfax on Sunday, January 21, 2024 at approximately 6:00 PM. It is unknown at this time if the items were intentionally discarded on the roadway or if they fell off a vehicle. The Dunn County Sheriff’s Office is requesting that

Price County Sheriff Brian Schmidt reports that on January 27, 2024, at approximately 4:13 a.m., the Price County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a third party advising of a possible suicidal subject who had just killed his wife, located at a residence on South Minnow Lake Road in the Township of Elk. When deputies of the Price County Sheriff’s Office arrived on scene, they were unable to make contact with anyone inside the home. Deputies made entry into the

An early morning bar shooting leads to a search for the suspect. The St. Croix County Emergency Communication Center received a call at about 12:51 a.m. on January 30, 2024, reporting a disturbance at Ras’ on Main, located at 855 Davis St, in the Village of Hammond. The caller advised that there had been an altercation in the bar, and that one of the subjects had been removed from the bar. While that subject was outside on the sidewalk, he