Local Rhinelander Headlines

MADISON - Students from a dozen Wisconsin high schools, including some Northwoods teens, are preparing for a big debate. The state bar's annual mock trial semifinals start next week at the Dane County courthouse in Madison. Full Story: WJFW

THREE LAKES - You're ice fishing with frozen hands, struggling with line, or even losing fishing rods. All of that can ruin your day on the lake. Karol Baugh of Three Lakes thought there had to be a better way. Full Story: WJFW

MADISON - Assembly Republicans are preparing for what promises to be the last, brutal debate on their mining bill this week. Debate lasted nearly nine hours in the state Senate last week. That doesn't bode well for Assembly Republicans who hope to pass the mining bill quickly. Full Story: WJFW

MADISON - You'll have a little longer to check out some unique films this year. The University of Wisconsin Madison is making their hugely popular film festival even bigger. Full Story: WJFW

EAGLE RIVER - Stepping into Klondike Days is like stepping back in time. “So therefore we try to develop something that stays consistent with our heritage and just show examples of everything that they might have seen back then,” said event director Christine Schilling. Full Story: WJFW

ELIZABETHTOWN, KY - Police say six members of an extended Wisconsin family were killed and two injured when their SUV was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer and burst into flames on a Kentucky highway. Minutes later, another crash in the opposite direction injured three, one critically. Full Story: WJFW

RHINELANDER - It can kill you the first time you try it, but kids and adults seem to be doing it anyway. Inhaling aerosol sprays for a simple high. It's called huffing. But it wasn't illegal in Wisconsin until 2005. "Having a legal thing that people can do made it more appealing that you can just go to the store and get chemical sprays and dusters and get high off that and not face any consequences," Full Story: WJFW

MADISON - A Middleton labor consultant signed nearly $600,000 in contracts. This is a result of changes to collective bargaining for state workers in 2011. The lack of public sector unions created a void that allowed counties and cities to set their own pay scales without bargaining. It also allowed them to compare wages to the private sector. Full Story: WJFW

PARK FALLS - Flambeau River Paper Mill in Park Falls helped itself by installing a Sulfur Burner generator in October. It’s how the company is adding to the 11-million dollars it's already saved since re-opening in 2006. CEO Butch Johnson has been with Flambeau Paper Mills since it re-opened. He knows the company failed the first time because its strategy was out-of-date. Full Story: WJFW

WESTON - A prayer vigil is planned in Weston for a missing woman whose husband is accused of killing her in Minnesota. Kira Trevino is a Wausau, Wisconsin area native and a 2001 graduate of D.C. Everest Senior High School. Full Story: WJFW

- It's an event that is rare in the Northwoods and can easily happen with other animals such as deer. But not as potentially life threatening. A driver crashed into a moose on a rural Oneida County roadway last night near Monico. Full Story: WJFW

TOMAHAWK - We hear about foreign exchange programs all the time, but those usually involve students. A Northwoods school has a teacher exchange program. The Tomahawk School District opened its doors to Yuliya Gamza. Full Story: WJFW

TOMAHAWK - Tomahawk seems to be saving a lot of money by changing the focus of its recycling program. Leaders have saved over 40 thousand dollars in the past two years. Part of their savings was having commerical businesses do their own recycling. Full Story: WJFW

CRANDON - A new idea could help Forest County with its obesity problem. Right now, nearly a third of adults in the county are obese. But the Crandon School District wants to help that problem. Full Story: WJFW