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MADISON - Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says he will sign into law a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Walker on Tuesday issued what he called an ``open letter on life'' in which he stated his support for the ban, saying he expects the Republican-controlled Legislature to pass such a bill.
Walker, a likely presidential candidate, also says he supports a federal ban.
RHINELANDER - Habitat for Humanity Northwoods wants the homes it builds to be more energy efficient.
In that spirit, the home it is currently building in Rhinelander will have solar panels.
Habitat for Humanity has all the money it needs to build the house, but it needs to raise more money to install the solar panels.
MADISON - A bill that would increase speed limits on some Wisconsin highways and freeways has coasted through another green light at the Capitol.
The state Assembly Transportation Committee voted 12-1 in favor of the measure Tuesday. The full Assembly is expected to vote on it this month.
The bill allows the Department of Transportation to increase speed limits to 70 mph in approved areas, up from the current 65 mph limit.
CHESTER, IL - A former suburban Chicago police officer convicted of killing his third wife and suspected in his fourth wife's disappearance has pleaded not guilty to trying to hire someone to kill the prosecutor who helped put him in prison.
Drew Peterson entered the plea Tuesday in a southern Illinois courtroom with his feet shackled. He also waived a preliminary hearing.
Peterson was charged in February with soliciting an unidentified person to find someone he could pay to kill Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow.
MADISON - Public testimony on the "Right-to-Work" bill lasted more than 11 hours.
Opponents spent hours Monday speaking out against the fast-tracked measure that's expected to pass the Republican-controlled Assembly on Thursday or early Friday.
Governor Scott Walker has promised to sign it into law by the end of the week.
MADISON - Some people want to get rid of Wisconsin's waiting period for buying handguns.
Governor Scott Walker supports the idea, saying he would like to be a leader on the issue.
Currently Wisconsin requires a 48-hour wait after a background check is submitted to the Department of Justice.
HURLEY - "There's just no opportunity here anymore," said Sharon Ofstad regretfully on Monday morning.
Ofstad has owned Sharon's Coffee Company at Hurley's main intersection for six years.
She was hoping a mine would help pull the area out of its major economic struggles.
WAUSAU - A Wausau teen could spend up to 60 years in prison for allegedly stabbing a middle school student last Friday. Prosecutors think the crime is gang related.
Fifteen-year-old Dylan Yang is being charged as an adult with first degree reckless homicide. Police say Yang stabbed 13-year-old Isaiah Powell twice in the back.
Court documents say doctors think Powell died because the stab wounds punctured Powell's lungs, liver, and vena cava, large vein in the human body.
EAGLE RIVER - A 41-year-old Northwoods woman will go to prison for three years for having sex with a teenager younger than 16 years old. Jody Shepherd was sentenced in Vilas County court Monday.
She had met the teenager as a special education teaching assistant at North Lakeland School in Manitowish Waters.
Shepherd was originally charged with two felony counts of 2nd Degree Sexual Assault of Child. She agreed to a deal to plead no contest to one felony charge.
EAGLE RIVER - Ken Schels, the owner of KMS, a custom wood and metal shop in Eagle River, makes pieces to honor his family's past as well as nature itself. His family was one of the pioneer families in Eagle River. That's how he came to appreciate all that the forest has to give.
"They moved out to the Nicolet National Forest, and they lived there for eight years without water or electricity, squatting on government land," Schels said. "You know, my mom used to go to Anvil Lake and chop a hole in the ice to get the water for themselves, as well as for the animals."
Schels says that his job is like putting together puzzle pieces, but that nature does most of the work.
NORTHWOODS - Sheriff's Offices in the Northwoods sometimes struggle to find qualified applicants to become sheriff's deputies, and they're not alone. It's a growing trend across the country.
"We want to attract the best deputy sheriff applicants that we can, and that's what we strive for," said Vilas County Sheriff Joe Fath.
He says people aren't half as interested as they used to be in working in law enforcement.
RHINELANDER - Some people call the Northwoods home, but one Northwoods woman calls Africa her home.
Twenty-year-old Tanya Whittaker grew up doing missionary work with her family in Sekanani, Kenya. The village is about six to eight hours from the capital city of Nairobi. Since she was two, she helped her father, a Northwoods native, and her mother, from Germany, serve the small community, building structures and teaching Christianity.
In 2012, she returned to Wisconsin at the age of 18, and she says her homecoming was a culture shock.
MADISON - Round two of the right-to-work fight is set to begin at the Wisconsin Capitol.
The state Assembly labor committee is set to hold a 10-hour hearing Monday about the right-to-work bill that rapidly passed in the Senate last week. Assembly Republicans planned to start the day with a news conference and then convene the hearing.
The full Assembly is expected to vote on the bill on Thursday.
MADISON - Nearly 100 private and religious schools have applied to be a part of Wisconsin's voucher program next fall.
The state Department of Public Instruction reported Monday that 98 schools applied by the deadline to be in the program where taxpayer-funded subsidies pay for students to attend private schools. That is up from 68 schools that applied for this year.
Of those 98, 36 are newly applying, 62 were a voucher school this year.
RHINELANDER - A building that has been a part of the Rhinelander Community for almost 100 years was torn down Monday.
Lindey Cleaners has been around since 1920, but the building in downtown Rhinelander hasn't been used in years. Many thought it was necessary for the building to finally come down.
"The building is dilapidated," said Sand Creek Consultants President Christopher Rog. "It looks like that on the outside, but if you've ever been in it in the last two or three years since it's been abandoned, it's extremely dilapidated. Walls are falling in, ceilings falling in. There are places where you can fall right through the floor. So it's a safety hazard."
MINOCQUA - A Park Falls man will likely face charges for a crash that left three people injured.
It happened Sunday night near the intersection of Blue Lake Road and Strasburg Road in Minocqua.
Twenty-one-year-old Zechariah Hilgart was driving the vehicle that hit another car. He was arrested for driving under the influence.
ESCANABA MI - Three Upper Peninsula school bus drivers say in a gender discrimination lawsuit that their buses showed signs of tampering.
The Daily Press of Escanaba reports Sandy Wanic, Jody Bergeon, and Sharon Curtin say tampering was discovered during a pre-trip inspection.
The lawsuit filed late last year says the hood on Curtin's bus was sealed shut with silicone; dip sticks on Bergeon's bus were tied together; and Wanic had a paint dot put on an oil dip stick. The women say a mechanic also used a derogatory term to refer to a female bus driver.
WAUSAU - A 15-year-old Wausau teen was charged with first degree reckless homicide in Marathon County Court on Monday for the stabbing death of 13-year-old Isaiah Powell of Wausau.
The teen's bond was set at $1,000,000.
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The Wausau Police Department released the name of the teenager who was killed Friday evening.
PORTAGE CO. - A 3-car crash in Portage county hurt two people Sunday afternoon.
The crash happened on County Highway W near Wisconsin Rapids.
Police believe a pickup truck driven by 48-year-old Christian Crump of Wisconsin Rapids crossed over the centerline. The truck hit a car driven by 28-year-old Amelia Russell of Bancroft.
EAGLE RIVER - Each year, nearly 800,000 people experience a stroke. It's the fourth leading cause of death in the United States.
A Northwoods man who's had six strokes found a way to help others who've experienced them.
Rick Bozic found that writing poems helped him cope with his health problems.
ST. GERMAIN - Newswatch 12 has learned the name of the victim from Sunday's snowmobile accident.
Nineteen-year-old Emily Lyons of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin died Sunday at the hospital.
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The crash happened near highway 70 in St. Germain.
BAYFIELD - Plenty of people made the trip to see the ice caves along Lake Superior over the weekend.
According to the National Park Service, the caves near the Apostle Islands attracted more than 7,000 people when they opened Saturday.
By 10 a.m. there was a mile's worth of cars parked on nearby Highway 13.
THREE LAKES - People living in Three Lakes should start running their water.
The Three Lakes Sanitary District wants everyone to run a pencil sized stream of water from one faucet.
It should run from the cold faucet 24 hours a day.
EAGLE RIVER - Each year, nearly 800,000 people experience a stroke, and it's the fourth leading cause of death in the United States.
A Northwoods man who's had six strokes found a way to help others who've experienced them.
Rick Bozic found that writing poems helped him cope with his health problems.
WAUSAU - The Wausau Police Department released the name of the teenager who was killed Friday evening.
13-year-old Isaiah Powell was the stabbed during a fight in Wausau.
Powell went to Horace Mann Middle School in Wausau.
MINOCQUA - It's the fifth year for the ski-snowshoe event.
The event is a fundraiser for both the Minocqua J1 school, and Arbor Vitae-Woodruff school. More than 350 people went this Saturday.
Event organizer Judy Jurries says that's a lot more than last year.
WAUSAU - A local restaurant owner hopes his customers can taste and see how much he loves making traditional Vietnamese noodle soup.
Payao Lo is originally from Laos. He moved to Wausau and opened his Vietnamese restaurant, Pho 76, seven years ago. He's been serving the community ever since.
When he opened his restaurant, it was the only one in the area that served the soup, called pho. He says he didn't think many people knew about the soup.
WISCONSIN - Disabilities advocates say Gov. Scott Walker's budget cuts could be devastating to programs that help Wisconsinites live independently.
Changes to the popular Family Care program and other cuts could save the state $33 million over the next two years. But questions remain as to how programs for people with disabilities would work.
Claire Yunker, spokeswoman for the Department of Health Services, says the changes are aimed at preventing abuse in the existing system and creating a more coordinated care regimen.
WAUSAU - Playoff hockey looks like it's in full swing across the Northwoods.
One of the teams that's still fighting is the Northland Pines girls team.
They beat GNC rival Northern Edge last Tuesday 5-2.
STEVENS POINT - You could see more championship hockey in Stevens Point Saturday afternoon.
Antigo took on Wausau West for the right to go to state.
It started well for the Red Robins.
