MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled Legislature has repealed Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ statewide mask mandate. Health experts have warned against repealing the mandate, saying masks are probably the most effective way to slow the spread of COVID-19. The Assembly vote Thursday came a week after the Senate also voted to kill the resolution. Wisconsin is one of only 10…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell to 779,000 last week, a historically high total that shows that a sizable number of people are still losing jobs to the viral pandemic. Last week’s total dropped from 812,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said Thursday and is the lowest in two months. Before the virus erupted…
SUPERIOR, Wis. – A judge in Douglas County has ruled there’s enough evidence to support an attempted homicide charge against a 12-year-old boy accused of stabbing his younger brother. According to a criminal complaint charging the boy with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, the attack occurred on Jan. 11 at a home in the Town of Solon Springs. The complaint says…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota’s state-run health insurance exchange said Wednesday it will open a three-month special enrollment period to help uninsured and other Minnesotans obtain coverage. MNsure said the open enrollment will begin Feb. 16 and run through May 17. The announcement follows a nationwide special enrollment period ordered by President Joe Biden last week for states that participate in…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin prosecutors have asked a judge for a new arrest warrant for an Illinois teen charged with fatally shooting two people during an anti-police protest in Kenosha in August. Kyle Rittenhouse faces two counts of intentional homicide. He was arrested the day after the shootings but went free after he posted $2 million bail. Conservative groups…
(John Autey/Pioneer Press via AP,Pool) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Republican proposal to strip Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of the emergency powers he used to close schools as the coronavirus pandemic took hold in Minnesota has passed its first test in the state Senate. Sen. Carla Nelson, of Rochester, says her bill would put the decision-making back with local school boards….
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Assembly plans to send the question of whether the state’s mask mandate should be repealed back to the state Senate, which voted last week to end the requirement. The Assembly delayed a vote last week amid concerns that repealing Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ emergency order tied to the pandemic would result in Wisconsin losing…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s top infectious disease expert doesn’t want the Super Bowl to turn into a super spreader. Dr. Anthony Fauci, says when it comes to Super Bowl parties during the pandemic, people should “just lay low and cool it.” He said during TV interviews Wednesday that now isn’t the time to invite people over for watch parties…
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon said Tuesday that Jeff Bezos is stepping down as CEO later this year, a role he’s had since he founded the company nearly 30 years ago. In a blog post to employees, Bezos said he planned to focus on new products and early initiatives being developed at Amazon. He said he would have more time for…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s COVID-19 vaccination rate increased relative to other states over the past week and demand continues to far exceed supply. State health officials said Tuesday that Wisconsin vaccinated more than 200,000 people last week and the state’s allotment of vaccine from the federal government is increasing by 18%. However, last week alone, nearly 300,000 doses were…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A national hunting group is suing to force an immediate start to Wisconsin’s wolf season. Kansas-based Hunter Nation Inc. filed the suit Tuesday in Jefferson County Circuit Court in Wisconsin. The group is seeking an order forcing the state Department of Natural Resources to start the season immediately. The Trump administration removed wolves from the federal…
(Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP, Pool) ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tim Walz has raised $1.7 million for his likely 2022 reelection bid since he took office two years ago and finished 2020 with $1.3 million in the bank. While Walz has not formally announced that he’ll seek a second term, his campaign also said Tuesday that he…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration will begin providing COVID-19 vaccines to U.S. pharmacies, part of its plan to ramp up vaccinations as new and potentially more serious virus strains are starting to appear. White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients said Tuesday the government will initially ship about 1 million doses to some 6,500 pharmacies around the country, starting next…
NEW YORK (AP) — Uber is bringing the booze. The mobile ride-hailing company said Tuesday that it is acquiring the alcohol-delivery platform Drizly for $1.1 billion in stock and cash. Uber expects more than 90% of the consideration to be paid to Drizly stockholders in shares of Uber common stock and the remainder paid in cash. Boston-based Drizly formed about…
(photo: Facebook/USS Minneapolis Saint Paul Commissioning Team) DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — The U.S. Navy says the commissioning of the USS Minneapolis-St. Paul in Duluth is on hold after a design defect was discovered. The high-speed combat ship was christened at the Marinette, Wisconsin shipyard in 2019. The commissioning ceremony was expected to take place this spring before a problem with…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minneapolis mayor and police chief say officers will no longer be allowed to turn off their body cameras to talk privately when they respond to calls. The move announced Monday is one of several changes that followed the death of George Floyd and was an issue in another widely-publicized Minneapolis police killing. Floyd, who was Black…
RIVER FALLS, Wis. (AP) — Two people are hospitalized after suffering injuries when a house exploded and caught fire in River Falls. Neighbors helped the victims escape the fire following the explosion Monday night, according to city officials. One of the victims was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota and the other to the hospital in River Falls….
(AP) – “Saved by the Bell” star Dustin Diamond died Monday after a three-week fight with carcinoma. His spokesman confirmed Diamond’s death. He was 44. Diamond, best known for playing Screech on the hit ’90s sitcom, was hospitalized last month in Florida and his team disclosed later he had cancer. “Saved by the Bell” aired from 1989 to 1993, and…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsinites will be able to sign up online to get their coronavirus vaccinations later this month. The state is working with Microsoft to set up an online signup system. Wisconsin Public Radio reports the system will launch in 10 communities on Feb. 15. The state’s plan is to use those communities as a test of the software before…
(William Glasheen/The Post-Crescent via AP) GRAND CHUTE, Wis. (AP) — Police say they are looking for a teenager suspected in a shooting at a mall in northern Wisconsin that left one person dead and another wounded. Police say 17-year-old Dezman Ellis is being sought after gunfire erupted around 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Fox River Mall in Grand Chute. Police…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to meet Monday with a group of 10 Republican senators who have proposed $618 billion in coronavirus aid, about a third of what he’s seeking. The Republicans propose slimmer benefits, including $1,000 in direct payments to individuals earning up to $40,000 a year, or $80,000 for couples. White House press secretary Jen…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota health officials are expected Monday to announce “significantly more” coronavirus vaccine will be allotted to people 65 and older. The state has run a two-week pilot of community vaccination clinics since the federal government lowered the recommended age for vaccinations to 65 and up. But getting appointments has been difficult since states are getting far less…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A large Minnesota school district has been forced to return to distance learning after an outbreak of COVID-19 among its transportation workers. Bloomington Public Schools brought back preschoolers through second graders on Jan. 19 and had planned to bring back third to fifth graders on Monday. But the district informed parents Thursday evening that the plan is…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has admonished rival Republicans for trying to repeal his statewide mask mandate, saying killing the order would be akin to abolishing speed limits. Senate Republicans voted Tuesday to end Evers’ health emergency declaration, which would end the mask mandate. Assembly Republicans were poised to follow suit on Thursday but delayed a vote…
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) – Michigan’s environmental agency is approving the construction of an underground tunnel to house a replacement for a controversial oil pipeline in the Great Lakes. State officials have awarded permits to Enbridge for the $500 million tunnel project. The company is resisting Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s order to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5 in the Straits…
(from left, Derek Chauvin, Tuo Thao, Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Prosecutors in Minnesota have appealed a judge’s ruling that split the trials of four Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd’s death and kept the first trial scheduled to start in March. Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill ruled earlier in January that Derek Chauvin, the…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are rejecting a Republican pitch to split President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue plan into smaller chunks. Democrats and the White House appear ready to leave their GOP opponents behind and push the sweeping economic and virus aid forward on their own. Despite Biden’s calls for unity, Democrats say the stubbornly high unemployment numbers and…
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A new coronavirus variant identified in South Africa has been found in the United States for the first time. South Carolina officials say two such cases have been diagnosed in the state. Viruses mutate constantly, and many variants of the coronavirus are circulating around the globe, but scientists are primarily concerned with three that appears to…
(courtesy: WI Dept of Health Services via AP) MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Assembly has backed off on voting to repeal Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ mask mandate. The retreat Thursday came in the face of broad criticism from the state’s health, school and business leaders and out concern the move would jeopardize more than $49 million in federal…
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — Authorities say two police officers who were on the scene when a white officer shot and partially paralyzed a Black man in Wisconsin have returned to duty. The update announced Wednesday comes as Officer Rusten Sheskey, who shot Jacob Blake seven times on Aug. 23 in Kenosha, remains on administrative leave while a police review board…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The fight has heated up over whether Minnesota should tighten its election laws or make voting easier. A key Senate panel Wednesday backed a Republican proposal to require voters to present photo identification. Sen. Scott Newman framed it as aimed more at increasing voter confidence in election results than at preventing fraud. But Democratic Secretary of State…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Stuck in the grip of a viral pandemic, the U.S. economy grew at a 4% annual rate in the final three months of 2020 and shrank last year by the largest amount in 74 years. For 2020 as a whole, a year when the coronavirus inflicted the worst economic freeze since the end of World War II,…
(Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File) LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cloris Leachman, a character actor whose depth of talent brought her an Oscar for “The Last Picture Show” and Emmys for her comedic work in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and other TV series, has died. She was 94. Leachman died of natural causes at her home in Encinitas, California, publicist…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The state Department of Natural Resources policy board has overwhelmingly approved new rules that would dramatically raise costs for nonferrous mining in Wisconsin. The rules require mining applicants to pay more for permits and licenses and supply more detailed plans to the department. The DNR estimates the changes could cost applicants about $502,000 more per project….
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin will become one of only 10 states without statewide mask mandates when the Assembly votes this week to overturn Gov. Tony Evers’ order. More than two dozen public health organizations, as well as state and local health officials, have urged the Republican-controlled Legislature to reconsider. The vote to repeal the mask order, planned for Thursday,…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Some hospital systems around Minnesota are flouting the state and federal guidance on the hierarchy for receiving the coronavirus vaccine, according to health officials. The Minnesota Department of Health has deputized large health systems to distribute the vaccine as part of a public-private partnership. Currently, the state has prioritized vaccinating people who provide in-person health care services…
DETROIT (AP) — One of six men charged in an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has pleaded guilty to conspiracy. Ty Garbin appeared in federal court in Grand Rapids, a few hours after prosecutors filed a plea agreement that’s loaded with details about the operation and his pledge to cooperate with investigators. The deal signed by Garbin…
(AP) – President Joe Biden says the U.S. is ramping up vaccine deliveries to hard-pressed states over the next three weeks and expects to provide enough doses to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of the summer or early fall. Biden is calling the push a “wartime effort.” He said Tuesday that his administration is working to buy an…
WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Holocaust survivors will commemorate their lost loved ones and world leaders will issue pleas for tolerance on Wednesday as the world marks the 76th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Nazi German extermination camp is the most notorious of the death camps operated by Adolf Hitler’s regime during World War II to carry out the…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate voted Tuesday to repeal Gov. Tony Evers’ statewide mask mandate, despite warnings from virtually every sector of the health care community that doing so would impair efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Both legislative chambers have to pass the resolution in order to undo the mask requirement. The Assembly, controlled 58-30 by…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans have voted overwhelmingly against moving forward with Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial. The Senate on Tuesday rejected a Republican attempt to dismiss the trial, allowing the case on “incitement of insurrection” to move forward. Yet the support of 45 Republicans for declaring the trial invalid indicates that there are long odds for Trump’s conviction. The…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP/FOX9) — Gov. Tim Walz proposed raising taxes on the wealthiest Minnesotans and large companies Tuesday to help plug a projected $1.28 billion gap in the next two-year budget while increasing spending on education and on helping the state recover from the coronavirus pandemic. The Democratic governor’s budget proposal includes new spending of $745 million on education through 12th…
WASHINGTON (AP) — There were fewer air travelers in the United States last year, but a higher percentage of them were carrying guns. The Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday that screeners found 3,257 firearms on passengers or in their carry-on bags in 2020, or about 10 for every million travelers. About 83% of the guns were loaded. That was double…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The Wisconsin Senate plans to vote on repealing Gov. Tony Evers’ statewide mask mandate, while it remains unclear whether the Assembly would follow suit as required to undo the order. A joint resolution co-sponsored by 29 Republicans in the Legislature was up for approval in the Senate on Tuesday. Assembly Republican leaders have not yet said…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Gov. Tim Walz will today propose a two-year budget with a heavy focus on helping Minnesota recover from the impacts of COVID-19. The budget Walz is planning to announce at 12:00 p.m. is expected to top $50 million. It will emphasize assistance to small businesses, help for working families affected by the disease itself or…
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Medical Society on Monday announced its opposition to a Republican-authored resolution that would overturn the statewide mask mandate put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The state Senate planned to vote Tuesday on the resolution. The Assembly, also in session on Tuesday, has not said if it will vote on the resolution….
(AP Photo/Jim Mone) MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Gov. Tim Walz on Monday announced changes in the sign-up process for a community vaccine program for seniors, teachers, and child care workers after heavy demand last week crashed a website and angered many people who could not get through. State officials have shifted from a first-come, first-served system to a lottery that allows…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to issue an executive order to reverse a Pentagon policy that largely bars transgender individuals from joining the military. Doing so would dump a ban ordered by his predecessor, Donald Trump, in a tweet during his first year in office. A person briefed on the decision tells The Associated Press that the…
NEW YORK (AP) — For the first time since 1983, when Anheuser-Busch used all of its ad time to introduce a beer called Bud Light, the beer giant isn’t advertising its iconic Budweiser brand during the Super Bowl. Instead, it’s donating the money it would have spent on the ad to coronavirus vaccination awareness efforts. The decision to not do…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The number of Minnesotans who have received at least the first dose of the two-shot COVID-19 vaccine is nearing a quarter-million or less than 5% of the population, the Minnesota Department of Health reported Sunday. A total of 247,415 Minnesotans have received at least one dose. More than 63,000 people have received both shots to complete their…
