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Eau Claire Schools say the latest year of free school lunches has come with a cost. The city’s school district says the debt for this year’s free lunch program is about four thousand-dollars. That’s double what it was before the coronavirus. Still, the district’s Abby Johnson says there are no plans to change the free lunch program. Johnson says Eau Claire Schools will look for donations to pay-off the four thousand dollars.

A railroad overpass at the Galloway Street railroad tracks is a big step closer to becoming a reality. The city this week announced it will get 10-million dollars from Washington, D.C. to build a new rail crossing. The money is part of a half-billion dollars worth of grants in more than 30 states. Planners in Eau Claire have been talking about an overpass at Galloway Street since at least 2015. Federal officials say the new crossing will serve as a

Wisconsin teens may soon have to take a financial literacy class to graduate from high school. The Wisconsin Assembly yesterday approved a plan that would require a class on credit, credit cards, investing, and basic financial skills. State Rep. Calvin Callahan says the idea is to make sure that high schoolers in Wisconsin can make smart financial decisions once they’re off on their own. The class passed the Assembly on a 95-to-1 vote.

 Kids in Wisconsin will not have to get a meningitis shot to enter the seventh grade. Both the Senate and Assembly yesterday voted to scuttle a new rule that would have required the shot. The vote also makes it easier for parents to oppose other vaccines for their children. The vote comes after the Evers Administration tried to go-around the legislature, and impose a vaccine requirement by state rule. The legislature’s rules committee struck down that rule back in March. Yesterday’s vote

Carb loading was the strategy in Columba County. The sheriff in Columbia County says a truck carrying a load of potatoes caught fire near Lodi yesterday morning. The fire closed the interstate for a little while as crews worked to knock down the flames. No one was hurt. The sheriff is not saying just what caused the fire.

A $1,000,000 Powerball winning ticket was sold at Festival Foods on 1125 E. Johnson St. in Fond du Lac. The winning ticket matched five numbers (2-31-45-46-49) but not the Powerball (20) for the Monday, June 5th drawing. “We could not be happier,” said a Festival Foods Associate Manger. The million-dollar winning ticket is not the first for Festival Foods. The Lottery retailer sold a $1,000,000 winning scratch ticket in 2020. Festival Foods also sold large, winning scratch and lotto tickets of $30,000 and $10,000

The Eau Claire Community Foundation (ECCF) is pleased to announce that its annual Community Grant Cycle awarded $213,259 in grants to 50 nonprofits that serve Eau Claire County. This total includes an unprecedented eight grants of $10,000 or more. Grantees represent all four of ECCF’s giving categories: Create Culture (visual and performing arts, museums, literature); Form Futures (education, training); Give Green (animals, fitness, the environment); and Offer Opportunities (basic needs such as food, shelter, and medical care). Each year, ECCF’s

The compost site located at 501 South Hume Avenue, Marshfield, will be closed for approximately two days, Thursday, June 8 through Friday, June 9, to allow for the construction of an additional road inside the site to allow better access for patrons to dump compost material at the site. The site will be open this weekend (June 10-11), but may close on Monday, June 12, if the project needs to be finished. The site is typically open 24 hours a

Pablo Center at the Confluence works to empower artists and connect audiences through the Wisconsin Shakespeare Festival to be presented throughout the summer of 2023. As an integral part of this inaugural season, Wisconsin Shakespeare Festival is proud to introduce the playwright winners for Improbable Fiction: A New Works Series. Playwrights from across the region and country were invited to submit one-act plays in one of three categories: “Young Voices” (for writers ages 16-24), “Diverse Perspectives (for writers who identify

ABOVE PHOTO: Mark Klapatch-Mathias, coordinator of the UWRF Sustainability Office, shows a toy to student Amber Rappl as they sort items donated as part of the Don’t Throw It, Donate It! project. Julian Emerson/UWRF photo. “There are lots of treasures in here…” An annual waste reduction effort at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls is getting items that would be otherwise destined for a landfill to people who need them. Volunteers working with the Don’t Throw It, Donate It! program collected