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MADISON - Nearly 243-thousand people in Wisconsin can now carry a concealed gun.
A report from the state Department of Justice shows 34-thousand permits were issued last year.
That was the third full year after the concealed carry law was approved.
PRICE COUNTY - A Catawba firefighter in Price County will recover in a Minneapolis burn center. That's after helping at a house fire Monday morning.
Kennan's Fire Chief Tim McCormick says the fire started around 10:30 a.m. on Buck Run Road in southwestern Price County.
The chief says the Catawba and Hawkins Fire Departments helped at the scene. He's not sure how the firefighter exactly got burned.
MADISON - Gov. Scott Walker is proposing that all schools receiving public money also be graded on a variety of performance measures.
But unlike Assembly Republicans, Walker is not calling for there to be sanctions for failing schools.
Walker released his plan as part of the state budget Tuesday.
PARK FALLS - A carbon monoxide leak at a Park Falls theater sent 30 people to the emergency room Monday night.
Park Falls police and paramedics responded to the Park Theater just after 9 p.m.
The caller said a woman had a seizure. First responders saw another woman collapse when they arrived.
WISCONSIN - People hunt more black bears in Wisconsin than any other state in the country. Hunters can expect to hunt even more bears this year. Wisconsin's Natural Resources Board will allow hunters to harvest 4,750 bears this year. That's a fifty bear increase from last year.
More than 100 thousand hunters applied for black bear hunting permits this year. That was a record number of applicants. The DNR also issued more than 10,600 permits, which set a new record.
The state's management program focusses on four zones, but bear harvest numbers vary in the state's four zones.
The three people stabbed at a Wausau nail salon returned to work today. Newswatch 12 spoke with them off camera.
The owner was stabbed near his left shoulder. His wife has stab wounds on her head. Another male employee has stab wounds on his hand. He says he got them when trying to hold back the suspect.
The owner says he hired the suspect about two weeks ago. He and his wife said they had trouble working with him.
RHINELANDER - Students at a Northwoods high school can start applying for some local college scholarships Wednesday.
Rhinelander High School seniors can apply for scholarships through the Rhinelander Area Scholarship Foundation.
Last year students got almost $300,000 in scholarships.
ANTIGO - The School District of Antigo will spend nearly $1.9 million this year to bus children to and from school.
But next year, the school district will likely save as much as $150,000 compared to this year because of a new busing contract the school board approved Monday night.
The board considered bids from three area bus companies. Two of them currently bus for the district, but one of those companies, the Malliette Bus Company, will take over all the routes starting next year.
RHINELANDER - Snowmobilers might navigate more easily through Wisconsin's national forest next year with the help of a new map. Workers with the Chequamegon Nicolet National Forest will put together a snowmobile map soon. They believe it will help complement existing club maps in the area.
Chequamegon Nicolet National Forest Spokesperson Hilary Markin says the map will show every snowmobile trail in the more than 1.5 million acre forest. Forest workers will start working with partners to start piecing the map together.
"You know, counties hold them, or other entities have their own, and some of the clubs have their own maps of the snowmobile trails that include the ones on the forest, but [now] the forest [service] will be producing their own snowmobile map," Markin said.
WAUSAU - Police in North Central Wisconsin see meth labs becoming smaller. These labs are so small that you can make the drug in a two-liter bottle of soda.
This trend is called the "one-pot" method Police have seen it becoming more of a trend during the last three years.
Community leaders consider this a growing threat, and they met with a Department of Justice agent to talk about the problem at a conference in Wausau on Tuesday
ESCANABA, MI - Officials say power has been restored in the city of Escanaba following an explosion at an electrical substation in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
WLUC-TV reports (http://bit.ly/1Ao4YLs ) the Escanaba Electric Department says power was restored as of Tuesday morning. The area had been under rolling blackouts. City officials, however, are asking people to use power conservatively as they work on a permanent fix.
The outage happened after an explosion Monday morning at an Escanaba Power Plant substation. Crews from the Escanaba Power Plant, the Upper Peninsula Power Co. and other agencies worked to restore electrical service. A warming center was opened for residents.
MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office is investigating three deaths believed to be connected to heavy snowfall over the weekend.
According to the office, a 69-year-old Shorewood man with a history of heart issues died Sunday afternoon after shoveling snow. Officials say a 62-year-old West Allis man who has a history of high blood pressure and cholesterol died Sunday night after he collapsed while snow blowing.
The office reports the third snow-related death happened Monday afternoon, following an incident involving a 64-year-old Milwaukee man with a history of heart disease.
WASHINGTON - At least one possible area of common ground is emerging as Obama administration officials testify before Congress about the president's budget for next year. That issue is a boost in tax credits for the working poor.
The Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, agrees with President Barack Obama on extending the earned income tax credit to more workers without children. He says he hopes Congress and the administration can agree on ways of financing that expansion.
ut at a Senate hearing, there was little sign of cooperation. Obama budget director Shaun Donovan defended the $4 trillion plan to the Senate Budget Committee, saying it will stabilize the deficit while raising taxes to ease what he called the ``mindless austerity'' of automatic spending cuts.
PARK FALLS - A theatre in Park Falls needed to be evacuated after a carbon monoxide scare.
According to a post on the Park Theatre Facebook page, last night's show was ended early because of carbon monoxide in the building.
They asked that anyone who was at the theatre who was feeling any symptoms go to the emergency room to be checked out.
RHINELANDER - Many companies spent more than four million dollars apiece to air a 30-second ad during the Super Bowl.
But it was a Public Service Announcement, not an ad, that left many people talking.
During the PSA, viewers heard a 911 call from a domestic abuse victim.
MADISON - Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley has raised $265,000 so far in her re-election campaign.
Bradley reported Monday that she had raised that much through the end of last year.
Her challenger, Rock County Circuit Judge James Daley, reports raising nearly $74,600. That includes a personal loan of $6,300.
MADISON - Governor Scott Walker's state budget proposal is coming into clearer focus, with the second-term Republican revealing major portions including $300 million in cuts to the University of Wisconsin System and no new taxes to pay for transportation projects.
Much also remains unknown Monday, the day before Walker is to release his two-year spending plan to the Legislature.
Walker faces a roughly $2 billion shortfall by mid-2017, based on spending requests submitted by state agencies.
NORTHWOODS - The measles seemed to virtually disappear from the U.S. in recent years. But now, people in 14 states have gotten the virus.
Fortunately Wisconsin isn't one of those states.
Health workers say the best way to keep you and others around you healthy is to get vaccinated. The vaccination comes in two doses. You are immune to measles if you get the shots. Many people get it as a baby and then again at age four or five.
WOODRUFF - Florian Bieschke teaches bookbinding to students at every level in Woodruff at his studio "Atelier Bindery".
Bieschke considers it a rare craft. It's one from which he didn't expect to learn so much.
"Nothing to me in the arts is a hobby," said Bieschke. "I have no Martha Stewart approach to anything. It's all dead serious."
WASHINGTON D.C. - President Obama will push Congress to pass a $4 trillion budget that he released Monday. The proposal would increase spending for military and domestic programs, while also ending "sequester" spending caps implemented just a few years ago.
Obama framed the budget as an aid package to the middle class. He believes it will help working families.
"It helps working families' paychecks go farther by treating things like paid sick leave and child care as the economic priorities that they are," Obama said in a speech Monday. "It gives Americans of every age a chance to upgrade their skills so they can earn higher wages."
RHINELANDER - Most adults teach children not to play with their food.
However, for one day, the Rhinelander Area Food Pantry hopes you will.
It will host the CANtastic building competition in March.
RHINELANDER - Most people probably won't think about St. Patrick's Day for at least a couple of weeks, but a group in Rhinelander wants to get an early start.
The group's main concern is making sure people who drink get home safely. The Rhinelander St. Patrick's Day parade chairmen's plan is to use the Safe Ride Home Program. They started the planning process at the beginning of January.
Having a yellow Safe Ride Home tag in the back of your car after you've called for a safe ride home was one of their top priorities.
TRAVERSE CITY, MI - President Barack Obama's proposed budget for 2016 seeks a $50 million cut in a multi-year program to clean up the Great Lakes.
The president's spending plan released Monday requests $250 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, down from $300 million appropriated for this year.
The program focuses on the lakes' most serious long-term ecological challenges such as invasive species, toxic pollution, degraded fish and wildlife habitat, and runoff from farms and cities that causes toxic algae blooms.
MADISON - Officials with a Florida company looking to dig a huge iron mine just south of Lake Superior say field work has come to a standstill, but they're not abandoning the project.
Gogebic Taconite spokesman Bob Seitz says the company has ended consulting contracts and no work is being done at the site. He says staffers are focusing on analyzing data gathered over the summer.
He says the company is concerned federal officials could propose severe restrictions similar to ones they're considering applying to the Pebble gold mine in Alaska.
ONEIDA COUNTY - Little Rice town leaders believe a Tomahawk woman stole more than $2,000 from the fire department in 2013 and 2014, but she will avoid jail time.
34-year-old Raginamarie Reimert reached a plea deal with prosecutors in Oneida County Court.
Reimert pled no contest to misdemeanor theft. Prosecutors dropped a felony for misconduct in office.
MADISON - Gov. Scott Walker is prepared to spend millions more on rural schools, but some education officials say it won't be enough for some struggling districts.
State aid has dropped to schools in recent years, including a $1.2 billion cut four years ago. The pain has been worse in some rural districts that face challenges such as increased transportation costs.
Walker said last week his budget will include a $19 million increase to help with that and also to improve broadband access.
RIB MOUNTAIN - Three victims and a suspect are hospitalized following a stabbing in Rib Mountain.
The Marathon County Sheriff's Office received a call at 9:24 a.m. Monday about a stabbing at Best Nails in Rib Mountain.
Lieutenant Bill Millhausen told us a man stabbed three people in the salon.
MERRILL - A tradition of need for speed on the ice continues in Merrill. Racers hit the ice for a friendly competition Saturday.
Engines roared at Counsel Grounds State Park in Merrill Saturday.
"I just can't believe they've been here for fifty years. I talked to some people I know in Medford and they're like, 'Really that's still going?'" said first time racer Ken Heser.
RHINELANDER - You may need to pay more for an ambulance in Rhinelander soon.
The city currently charges less for ambulance services than many other departments in the Northwoods. But its current cost may not be enough to keep the city ambulance running.
The city charges the same rate as Oneida County. Rhinelander's fire chief says the price was set years ago. Now, it doesn't cover the current cost of supplies the ambulance service needs.
MINOCQUA - Police want snowmobilers to be careful on the ice. It may be too thin to safely snowmobile in some areas.
Earlier Sunday, police in Minocqua rescued a twelve-year-old boy who fell through the ice.
It happened just after four this afternoon in the channel between Lake Kawaguesaga and Lake Minocqua.
