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RHINELANDER - Hanson's Garden Village in Rhinelander will be wrapping up their season soon.
But before they do, they're hosting their second annual Fall Fest this weekend.
This is a free, family event. New this year, is an indoor straw bale maze. There's also a scavenger hunt inside the hay bales to challenge older kids.
Hanson's asks that everyone enjoying the maze bring a non-perishable food donation for the Rhinelander Area Food Pantry.
MADISON - Same sex couples in Wisconsin can now get some of the benefits that had been denied to them.
The Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds has opened a 30 day enrollment period.
Same-sex married couples may apply for changes to their state benefits plans from now through November 14th.
CRANDON - A 30-year-old Forest County man will go to prison for nearly killing a toddler in 2013 by throwing the child across the room. He was sentenced in Forest County court Tuesday.
The two year old will deal with significant brain damage for the rest of his life, according to family members.
Brandon Brunette says he knows he can't change what he did last October. Brunette pled guilty to a felony for child abuse. After talking to investigators, Brunette later admitted to throwing his girlfriend's toddler after getting frustrated by his crying. It nearly killed the boy.
MANITOWISH WATERS - The wolf season starts Wednesday. The hunt stirs controversy across the state, but Tuesday, a guest speaker wanted to focus on the importance of the species.
Northland College's ecologist Dr. Erik Olson of Ashland says field verifiers go to spots where they get complaints. Then they find out if it was actually a wolf.
RHINELANDER - Same-sex couples in Wisconsin got good news last week.
Inaction by the U.S. Supreme Court meant their marriages were no longer blocked.
A Northwoods congregation took a major step to open themselves even further to homosexual, bisexual, and transgender people just six days later.
GREEN BAY - The 18-year-old captain of a Green Bay high school football team is among 24 people arrested following an online sex predator sting in eastern and central Wisconsin.
Cameron Batty of Bellevue was charged with child enticement and use of a computer to facilitate a child sex crime. A criminal complaint says he arranged a meeting with an undercover Door County officer who was posing as a 15-year-old girl.
MILWAUKEE - State and local health care providers as well as emergency responders are gathering in Milwaukee to make sure they are ready for any potential cases of Ebola.
About 250 people are expected to attend a symposium Tuesday where national, state and local experts will discuss the Ebola virus epidemiology, testing, infection control and prevention practices.
LAC DU FLAMBEAU - Businesses that cater to tourists in the Northwoods need to stay competitive to keep attracting visitors to the area.
On Tuesday, about 40 business owners and community members joined together to share ideas on how to maintain and improve their businesses.
Vilas County Tourism and Publicity and the Lac du Flambeau Chamber of Commerce hosted a fall accommodations tour and workshop in Lac Du Flambeau.
RHINELANDER - We should start preparing for bad winter storms now. Winter will be here before we know it.
The Oneida County Health Department didn't see a lot of power outages last winter, but people should still be prepared.
"We want to be prepared at home and our preparation really involves having things together that if all of a sudden we have severe weather we can rely on these things to get us by for a few days," says Oneida County Health Department Registered Sanitarian Todd Troskey.
LAC DU FLAMBEAU - The Lac du Flambeau Tribe will get nearly $800,000 in grants from the Department of Justice to improve police equipment and fight underage drinking.
The police will buy software to help officers better track sexual predators in the area.
Right now the department keeps a book of area predators that is updated monthly.
EAGLE RIVER - Hoopsters of all ages will lace up their basketball shoes in Eagle River for a special event in a few weeks.
The Northland Pines Basketball Association will host the fourth annual Northwoods Basketball 3 on 3 and Skills Challenge.
One of the highlights of the day includes the Shooting Stars event with high schoolers and local celebrities.
WISCONSIN - On November 4th you'll be asked what the state should do with its transportation fund.
That includes things like federal and state gas taxes, vehicle registration fees and driver's license fees.
Voting "yes" means money will stay in the transportation fund.
THREE LAKES - A local high school will give their students a chance to work hands on with renewable energy.
Three Lakes High School received a grant from Wisconsin Public Service to install solar panels.
They are the latest school to join the SolarWise School Family. They are the 53rd high school to receive the grant.
ONEIDA COUNTY - Last decade's economic collapse can still be felt around the Northwoods. Oneida County foreclosed on a record number of properties this past year.
The county finalized foreclosures against twenty five homes and pieces of land last month. The owners didn't pay their taxes and fees. Oneida County won't start foreclosures until four years after people stop paying taxes. The properties foreclosed on were from 2009... Right around the time the economy took a turn for the worse.
MADISON - Governor Scott Walker may propose replacing Wisconsin's gas tax with a sales tax on the purchase of gas.
Walker threw out the idea during a meeting with the Wisconsin State Journal editorial board on Monday.
The State Journal reports Tuesday that he offered few details of the idea.
RHINELANDER - Oneida County Sheriff's Deputies arrested two men for child enticement earlier this month.
Paul Loucks of Weston and Ted Wasson of Rhinelander appeared in court today.
Wasson is a registered sex offender.
MADISON - Gov. Scott Walker says hundreds of same-sex marriages performed in June will be recognized by the state.
There had been questions over whether those marriages would be legally recognized, since they happened when the gay marriage ban was blocked only temporarily.
LANSING, MI - Deer hunters venturing into woods and fields for next month's start of firearms season should encounter conditions similar to those of a year ago, when harsh winter weather took a toll.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources says in its annual deer forecast that some areas may have fewer fawns and yearlings than usual because of this year's record low temperatures and above-average snowfall. The Upper Peninsula was hit especially hard.
ONEIDA COUNTY - Oneida County prosecutors think Benjamin Marquardt pulled off a string of burglaries at restaurants in Rhinelander this spring. He faces 18 charges for burglarizing Burger King, Arby's, Sportsman's Cafe and Sunset Junction.
Marquardt was in court Monday. He's in prison for a different crime right now.
WAUSAU - Marathon County Sheriff's Deputies arrested two Wausau men on Friday as part of a drug trafficking investigation with the FBI.
Investigators think both men planned to buy and sell large amounts of high grade marijuana. They arrested a 44-year-old man in Wausau Friday afternoon.
ONEIDA COUNTY - One third of all hunters using deer stands will fall from a tree stand and get hurt. Experts want to make sure you're safe when using a deer stand.
Hunters usually set their stands in trees 12 to 20 feet tall. People have been seriously hurt or even died from the fall.
"Even in Oneida County, we've had incidents where we've had people fall out of tree stands and die as a result of their injuries," said DNR conservation warden Jim Jung. "I believe it was three or four years ago. In Piehl Township, we had that occur. Hunter fell out of a stand."
RHINELANDER - The USDA's discovery of emerald ash borer in Rhinelander didn't necessarily surprise city officials.
The city's parks director knew it was just a matter of time before it made its way into the area.
The USDA discovered the pest near James Williams Middle School.
MADISON - Wisconsin's third annual wolf hunt gets underway this week.
The season opens Wednesday, and will end February 28th.
The season can be stopped earlier if hunters and trappers reach the 150-animal statewide kill limit.
WAUSAU - Marathon County deputies want to find an inmate who got out on work release, and never came back.
Dustin Gottschalk left the jail Friday morning around 11:00 a.m.
He was supposed to go to work at Ski's Meat Market on Rib Mountain Drive.
MARSHFIELD - Police do their best to help their community and keep them safe, but sometimes animals need their help too.
A horned owl was tangled in a soccer Net at Madison Elementary School Saturday afternoon. A father and his kids noticed the owl in distress and called the Marshfield Police Department.
RHINELANDER - You can see bears just about anywhere in the Northwoods.
It's important to keep them in their natural habitat.
That's why a local non-profit organization, Wild Instincts, rescued and released 12 cubs back into the woods.
RHINELANDER - The wolf season will kick off Wednesday morning.
The Department of Natural Resources has been holding mandatory trapping education classes for first time wolf license holders and people not currently engaged in farming.
Wisconsin has been a pioneer state in offering these helpful courses.
ANTIGO - A local rehabilitation clinic for animals want to do their best to help animals in need, but they need your help to keep it going. That's why they invited the public to see everything they do Saturday.
Antigo Veterinary Clinic teamed up with Raptor Education Group to show people how they help animals who are hurt. They gave people a behind the scene look at how clinic helps them.
MADISON - Wisconsin's attorney general hopefuls are sparring over their philosophies in their first debate.
Republican Brad Schimel and Democrat Susan Happ met at Marquette University's law school Sunday afternoon. Happ kicked things off by reiterating she would not defend a number of state laws she believes are unconstitutional, including Wisconsin's gay marriage ban and voter photo identification requirement. She chided Schimel for saying he believes he must defend all state laws, saying his approach is robotic.
MINOCQUA - A Northwoods community needs more volunteers to help package meals for hungry children around the world.
Food For Kidz will bring dry food for people to measure and package. It's no easy task. The goal is to package 150,000 meals in four hours. Organizers say they'll need up to 600 volunteers to get the job done.
