Local Wausau News

MERRILL (WAOW) - Days after the Merrill City Council voted to buy the historic Lincoln County Fairgrounds, a business promotion group has launched a campaign to rename it. And there's only one rule - the new name cannot include the word fairground or fairgrounds, according to the Merrill Area Chamber of Commerce. 

 Bird flu that's devastated Midwestern farms likely spread by several means, including on machinery and workers, by rodents and possibly even by the wind.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush entered the 2016 presidential campaign on Monday with a rally and speech at Miami Dade College, joining 10 other Republicans already in the race for the party's nomination. 

A new study suggests putting more green space around an elementary school may help students develop some mental abilities.

The president of the NAACP's Spokane, Washington, chapter has resigned as furor mounted over her racial identity, after her parents said she has falsely portrayed herself as black for years even though she is actually white.

 A French company says it will open a facility on the Alabama coast to support a new Airbus factory in Mobile.

A spokesman for the state Department of Transportation says county highway crews will begin posting 70 mph speed limit signs this week.

A new drug collection drop box now calls the Portage County Sheriff's Department home after a grant from CVS Pharmacy, according to a press release from the department.

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The archbishop of St. Paul, Minnesota, and a deputy bishop have resigned after prosecutors there charged the archdiocese with having failed to protect children from unspeakable harm from a pedophile priest. 

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) -- Rescue workers in the Georgian capital are still searching for at least two dozen people and an undetermined number of potentially dangerous animals missing after severe flooding ravaged the city's zoo and left at least 12 people dead. 

GRETNA, La. (AP) -- The trial is set to begin Monday for a man authorities say killed a stripper he and his girlfriend lured from a New Orleans French Quarter bar, then dismembering her and dumping her into the Gulf of Mexico. 

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The friend who was with Michael Brown last summer when the unarmed Brown was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer is due in court on a misdemeanor charge stemming from an unrelated incident. 

A Newman High School religion teacher is set to be sentenced in Marathon County court Monday after pleading guilty to 10 counts of possession of child pornography as part of a plea deal.

BELOIT, Wis. (AP) -- Authorities say one person was killed and seven others were injured when a semitrailer struck three cars on a highway in southern Wisconsin after people stopped to help a woman accused of driving drunk. 

A fire ravaged a 19th-century basilica in western France on Monday, starting at the close of morning Mass and leaving just a charred shell of the rooftop.

Two young people are recovering from separate shark attacks at a North Carolina beach after surgery.

This list depends a bit on where you are living, in terms of travel and costs, but in general you should be able to find a cost effective way to get any of these places and see quite a bit.

LINCOLN CO. (WAOW)--Four people have been charged in a Lincoln County home invasion robbery that happened in March.

Packers fans filled Appleton's Fox Cities Stadium Sunday afternoon for the annual Jordy Nelson Charity Softball Game. The defense beat the offense 29-19 Sunday, but this is a game where the score is the least important number. 

The 229th Horizontal Engineer Company of the Wisconsin National Guard is helping the community of Mosinee build a new athletic complex.