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RHINELANDER - Event chairman Charlotte Schowalter says the group's been holding the "Frokost" or brunch event for 25 years at Trinity Lutheran Church in Rhinelander.
"It's a fraternal organization all over the world really, but it probably began in Norway, and there are many in the United States, we call them lodges," said Schowalter.
The main goal of the Son's of Norway is to spread Norwegian culture.
LAND O'LAKES - The Northwoods works hard to get ready for Memorial Day Weekend.
It's a popular destination for people across the country.
It may still be two weeks away but businesses are anticipating a big welcome back as people return for the unofficial kickoff to the summer.
"Memorial Day weekend is a big weekend for everybody up North," Land O' Lakes Area Artisans Program Director Wendy Powalisz said. "It's everybody coming back to the woods for fun in the sun and recreation and in Land O'Lakes we're doing a whole lot."
ARBOR VITAE - The Arbor Vitae Fire and Rescue Department hosted a trench rescue class Saturday.
Officials say there is a growing need for education on trench rescue.
The Highway 51 project in the Minocqua-Woodruff area created more trenches for the use of construction workers.
The Arbor Vitae Fire Department invited first responders in the area to learn more about trench rescues.
"Utility work, concrete work, here are tons of masons up here doing foundations, gas utility workers, there's a potential for what we call a trench collapse and that's where a sidewall would fail and the dirt would slide in a potentially trap or crush the worker," said Arbor Vitae Fire Chief Mike Van Meter.
MADISON - Police first want to hear from the public how they think officers should use the cameras.
The department ordered ten cameras.
Each one costs 400 dollars.
RHINELANDER - Little league baseball began around the Northwoods Saturday.
Kids in Rhinelander got to lace up their cleats and play against some of their friends.
Officials behind the scenes say the players have been ready to go for a while now.
PHELPS - The popularity of high school trap shooting seems to be spreading all across the Northwoods.
The Phelps School District is one of the latest to take up the sport.
Students came up with the idea to start a trap shooting club last year, and the program got started this spring. But even with the help of overwhelming community support, the club has experienced some growing pains.
WISCONSIN - A Wisconsin group thinks the state needs to fix its roads. The Local Government Institute of Wisconsin just released a study that gives the pavement on less than half of Wisconsin's highways a "good" grade.
The group argues that Wisconsin's fortunes are more closely tied to the quality transportation than those of some other states because many Wisconsinites work in the manufacturing, farming, or trucking industries. As a result, the Local Government Institute worries that poor road conditions could hurt the state's economy.
Wausau Mayor Jim Tipple sits on the Local Government Institute's board of directors.
RHINELANDER - Rhinelander keeps filling empty storefronts and adding restaurant variety at a fast pace. The community will get three new restaurants within about a month.
In a year's time, four restaurants, and two large retail stores have opened.
"It's definitely a much bigger pace here," said Rhinelander Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Dana DeMet. "There's a lot more new places that people are still trying out, and there are a lot of places that have been here for a year that people haven't had the opportunity to check out yet. So the pace is definitely quickened. I attribute that to availability of real estate,"
NORTHWOODS - People use fertilizer to help their plants grow. But strong winds and runoff from rain can move those nutrients into local lakes and rivers, causing significant problems for the habitat and water quality.
Many fertilizers contain phosphorus, which can be harmful to lakes. The DNR says that, while the nutrients in fertilizer are helpful to plants, they can cause an overgrowth in lakes and rivers.
"Fertilizer provides nutrients that plants need to grow," said Rhinelander DNR Fisheries Biologist John Kubisiak. "That's why we apply it--to make things grow. And in our lakes and rivers, it does the same thing: it makes plants grow. And that can be a problem if you get excessive plant growth."
WASHINGTON, DC - Local veterans got the thanks they deserve when they took the Never Forgotten Honor Flight to Washington, DC last month. For many, it was a chance to share their special day with a loved one. Their children, grandchildren, and other family members served as their guardians on the flight. In many cases, the families convinced the veterans to go.
"It's a great honor to be able to go with him," said Steve Kropidlowski, who accompanying his father, James, on the 19th Never Forgotten Honor Flight.
James Kropidlowski is a Korean War veteran, but he was hesitant to go on the trip. He felt other people were more deserving of the honor. However, his wife, Maggie, urged him to go.
AMHERST - Alissa Niggemann, a junior at Amherst High School, took home the state title in Nordic skiing this year. She finished ninth her freshman year, jumped to third her sophomore year, and came in ahead of the pack this time around. She has skied for most of her life, but this was her first year competing with the Ashwaubenon Ski Club.
She says the new competition helped her bring home the trophy.
Boaters in Alaska found the body of an Eagle River man who has been missing for nearly a year now.
Roger Yaeger, 73, was found dead on the Chena River on Saturday. The Alaska Medical Examiners Office says Yaeger's death was a suicide.
Yaeger's family reported him missing in December after they didn't hear from him for months.
MENASHA - Funeral services are set for a father and daughter killed in Sunday's night's shootings on the Fox Cities Trestle Trail Bridge in Menasha.
Visitation for 33-year-old Jonathan Stoffel and his 11-year-old daughter, Olivia, will be held Wednesday and Thursday evenings at Calvary Bible Church in Neenah. Funeral services will begin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the church.
Thirty-two-year-old Erin Stoffel was shot three times but survived. Theda Clark Medical Center spokeswoman Megan Mulholland tells Post-Crescent Media (http://post.cr/1IVHqA7 ) that Stoffel was upgraded to fair condition Friday.
MADISON - Gov. Scott Walker says he does not support raising vehicle registration fees, an idea being floated by some Republicans in the Legislature to help pay for roads.
Walker told reporters Thursday that he stands by the position he took in his re-election campaign against raising taxes without a decrease someplace else. And Walker says given stagnant revenue forecasts, he does not think it will be possible to cut sales or income taxes.
Vehicle registration fees are currently $75 but some Republicans have talked about raising them by $25 or $35.
NEW RICHMOND - One of the three inmates who walked away from a corrections boot camp in western Wisconsin has been recaptured.
New Richmond police say Kyle J. Peterson was arrested around 8 a.m. Friday at a home in Whitewater on a tip from the public. He's being held in the Walworth County jail.
Peterson and fellow inmates Andre L. Vance and Jesse J. Fairley walked away from the St. Croix Correctional Center in New Richmond on Wednesday night. It's a minimum security facility where the men were taking part in a boot camp program that includes manual work assignments and discipline.
UPPER PENINSULA - Historically low deer harvest numbers concern hunters and biologists in the Upper Peninsula. Long, cold, snowy winters have cut the deer population deeply.
In fact, the Michigan DNR even studied the possibility of canceling the U.P. deer hunt to try and improve deer herd numbers. A DNR commission decided against that plan.
The agency is still waiting for final deer hunt numbers from this past season. But it expects the harvest to be very low.
MILWAUKEE - Bird flu killed an owl in northeastern Wisconsin.
It's the first wild bird in the state to test positive for a bird flu strain that has swept through poultry farms in the Midwest.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says the snowy owl died from the H-5-N-2 virus.
WOODRUFF - A fire Wednesday destroyed the Lakeland Senior Center in Woodruff and shut down the Senior Meal Program that many people depend on.
But seniors who get meals delivered to their home got some good news today when organizers announced that home meal delivery will restart Friday.
Meals will be cooked and packed in Rhinelander and then delivered to Lakeland area homes.
STEVENS POINT - An important part of successful fishing can be finding the right bait.
Because of that, fishing shops in the Northwoods go through a lot of bait
"It's a lot of work, it keeps you busy 7 days a week but I enjoy doing it, I like to keep doing it and keep a lot of customers happy," said Co-Owner of Cyran's Live Bait Shop Rob Cyran.
Shops all the way up in Presque Isle, Mercer, Minocqua, and Manitowish Waters get bait from Cyrans Live Bait in Stevens Point. The Cyran family business goes all the way back four generations. Back then it took a bit longer to make it up north.
RHINELANDER - The Second Continental Congress called the first day of prayer in America in 1775. Its observance became law in 1952.
Rhinelander religious leaders observed the National Day of Prayer on Thursday near the Oneida County Courthouse. The first observance in Rhinelander was last year.
"One of the reasons National Day of Prayer is so great is that no one owns it," said Calvary Baptist Church Pastor Rod Ankrom. "The citizens own it. The churches own it. We all come together for the express purpose of praying to the one God that we all love and serve."
RHINELANDER - Ryan Sisco might need to testify against Ashlee Martinson to keep his end of a deal with prosecutors. The 22-year-old Sisco is charged with having sex with an underage Martinson, who is 17.
Martinson and Sisco were arrested while driving through Indiana in March. Prosecutors believe Martinson killed her mother and stepfather the day before in Rhinelander. They don't believe Sisco was involved in the killings. But he faces a misdemeanor charge of sex with Martinson.
EAGLE RIVER - Oneida County and Vilas County tourism workers might hope for another year as good as 2014. Visitors spent $207.5 million, $415 million combined, in each county last year.
For Vilas County, it's an increase of nearly 2.3 percent compared to 2013. For Oneida County, it's a 5.4 percent increase compared to 2013. Tourism experts like Cindy Burzinski, director of Vilas County Tourism & Publicity, didn't know exactly what to expect from the 2013-14 winter. That's because much of Wisconsin had snow.
"So it's not like the northern half just had snow alone," Burzinski said. "And so, that always makes a big difference for the simple reason, we don't know if people are traveling north."
MERRILL - Young scientists got their chance to shine in Merrill Tuesday evening. More than fifty K-5 students made projects for the Merrill Science Fair. This was the first district-wide fair to be held in years.
"It's really just an exploration and a chance to dip your hands into science," said MAPS Board of Education Member Eric Geiss. "There have been themes in the past like innovation and what you can do for inventions. Since we're just getting it rolling again, we're just letting them get their fingers wet with science."
Projects included volcanoes, light bulbs, and even a hovercraft. The lack of a fair-theme allowed students to explore all aspects of science, but some of the students also learned the value of sharing ideas.
MILWAUKEE - A body found in Jefferson County earlier this month has been identified as that of a woman who went missing from Milwaukee in 2013.
Surveillance cameras recorded 27-year-old Kelly Dwyer going into her boyfriend's lakefront apartment in October 2013. But, she was never seen leaving.
The boyfriend Kris Zocco has been considered a person of interest in her disappearance but was never charged for any crime related to that. Since then, he's been convicted of child porn and drug charges.
WOODRUFF - A fire Wednesday destroyed the Lakeland Senior Center in Woodruff and shut down the Senior Meal Program that many people depend on.
But seniors who get meals delivered to their home got some good news today when organizers announced that home meal delivery will restart Friday.
Meals will be cooked and packed in Rhinelander and then delivered to Lakeland area homes.
MERRILL - The weather can affect which flowers people choose for their moms on Mother's Day.
Usually, potted flowers and garden flowers are popular picks. But this year some floral shops that focus on fresh cut flowers have more orders to fill.
Blooming Wishes in Merrill has received almost 100 orders for Mother's Day so far. Typically, the busiest day for the store is Valentine's Day, but this year many people are requesting fresh cut bouquets and corsages.
WASHINGTON, DC - Veterans who fly on northcentral Wisconsin's Never Forgotten Honor Flight to Washington, DC get no shortage of cheers, handshakes, and hugs. But those signs of appreciation from family, friends, and complete strangers likely mean more to one group of veterans. Vietnam veterans fought in a controversial, unpopular war. They got no welcome home.
"I can still feel the rotten eggs hitting me as I walked across the tarmac to the terminal," recalled Vietnam War veteran Larry White of Wausau.
"[I] was called baby killer. That hurts, and it hurts to this day," White added.
NORTHWOODS - Firefighters blame high winds and falling trees for starting a number of power line fires in the Northwoods Thursday.
Downed power lines caused fires in Pelican Lake, Cassian, and Elcho.
The Pelican Lake Fire Department and the DNR responded to a fire Thursday afternoon on the corner of Highways G and 45.
MADISON - The Legislature's finance committee has voted to raise state park and camping fees.
Gov. Scott Walker's budget proposal calls for an end to funding park operations with tax dollars and make the parks self-sustaining through fees and sponsorships.
His plan calls for raising annual entrance fees for state residents and non-residents by $3 and park and forest camping fees by $2. The state Department of Natural Resources has indicated it would consider selling naming rights to state parks as well.
MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee police officer who was fired for improper procedure in the lead-up to a fatal shooting has started the process to appeal his firing in circuit court.
Christopher Manney has filed a notice with the Fire and Police Commission, which certifies the case records and sends them to the court and that starts the action. The commission has five days to do that.
Chief Edward Flynn fired Manney for inappropriately frisking the mentally ill Dontre Hamilton in a downtown park in April 2014. Manney was checking on Hamilton's welfare, but it turned into a confrontation in which Hamilton allegedly grabbed Manney's baton and hit him.
