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MADISON - Wisconsin state senators have voted to approve a camera ban on themselves.
The Senate voted Tuesday to prohibit the 33 senators from using cameras to take pictures or shoot video from inside the Senate chamber while they are debating bills or voting on passing legislation.
Some senators have taken pictures during debate in recent years and immediately posted them to social media sites, like Twitter and Facebook.
MARATHON COUNTY - The Q & Z Expo Center in eastern Marathon County has hosted more than 40 national bands since March.
Some shows drew 300 to 400 people, but now the expo center will only be able to host a fraction of that number.
Monday night, the Town of Easton Town Board unanimously voted to limit occupancy to 100 people until the owners make updates to the building.
RHINELANDER - A local woman enjoys spending her time preserving Northwoods memories.
Diane Dodge, owns Diane's Frame Shoppe in Rhinelander.
Diane started framing in 2005.
ANTIGO - Puppies love to play and get into trouble, but one puppy in Antigo got into a little too much trouble. Now, he needs major surgery. The Antigo Veterinary Clinic hopes you can help Harry the dog.
Harry looks like any other 4-month-old Wire Hair Terrier mix. He loves to play with other puppies and get lots of attention.
"As long as he is on your lap, or next to your or being petted, he is as happy as can be. As soon as you leave him alone, he wants to be next to you again," says Antigo Veterinary Clinic Client Care Coordinator Derek Goplin.
RHINELANDER - Snowshoes, ATVs, and UTVs can't be used on snowmobile trails, because it could be dangerous.
Right now fat tire bikes aren't banned from using snowmobile trails, but that could change.
Some people are concerned about how safe it is to have bikes and trails on the same trails.
DUNBAR - Sheriff's officials say a 7-year-old girl has died in a fire in northern Marinette County.
Authorities say the girl's father and her 9-year-old brother escaped from the trailer house in the Town of Dunbar. They say the father made several attempts to find his daughter, but was unsuccessful.
WESTON - Everest Metro Police need your help identifying a bank robbery suspect. It happened just before noon Tuesday at U.S. Bank on the corner of Schofield Ave & Camp Phillips Road in Weston.
Everest Metro Police Chief Wally Sparks says the man in the picture fled on foot before an officer arrived.
Police were still searching the neighborhood for the suspect this afternoon.
MADISON, WI - The state board that oversees elections and ethics compliance has selected new officers.
Wisconsin law requires every state agency administered by a board to select new officers at its first meeting every year. The six retired judges who make up the Government Accountability Board picked their new officers during a meeting Tuesday in Madison by drawing names from a glass vase.
Gerald Nichol won the chairmanship, replacing Thomas Barland. Elsa Lamelas was picked as vice-chair, replacing Harold Froehlich. Barland was selected as secretary, replacing Timothy Vocke.
MADISON, WI - A group of black protesters are planning a rally after Madison's police chief wrote that he's tired of them blaming his department for perpetuating racial disparities.
The Young, Gifted and Black Coalition has been staging occasional protests in Madison decrying black men's deaths at the hands of white police officers nationally. They've also been calling for officials to release 350 black prisoners from the Dane County jail and halt funding for a new lock-up.
Last week the group sent a letter to Police Chief Michael Koval demanding his officers stay out of black neighborhoods. Koval, who is white, wrote on his blog Monday that he's sick of the group blaming his officers for minorities' problems.
MADISON - The people who watch over elections in Wisconsin think the rules need an update.
The Government Accountability Board will consider a potential solution Tuesday.
It asks the Legislature to launch a complete review and revision of election laws.
MADISON - Madison's police chief is venting his frustrations at black protesters accusing his department of bias and contributing to racial disparity in the criminal justice system.
Chief Michael Koval wrote in his blog Monday that he's sick of his department being blamed for quote ``everything from male pattern baldness to global warming.'' He says it's time for protesters to look deeper into issues plaguing minorities and stop blaming his agency for their problems. He says he's done with this kind of rhetoric going unchallenged.
TOWN OF EASTON - Leaders on the Town of Easton town board lowered the occupancy level at a eastern Marathon County concert hall at its town board meeting Monday night.
The school turned concert hall will need to cap attendance at 100 people until it finishes with upgrades. The decision revolves around fire safety.
The Q&Z Expo Center has hosted more than 40 national bands in eastern Marathon County since March.
MADISON - Wisconsin state senators would not be allowed to take pictures with their cellphones or any other camera inside the Senate chamber under a proposed new rule.
That would stop lawmakers from taking pictures during debate. Some have taken pictures during debate and immediately posted them to social media sites, like Twitter and Facebook.
Members of the public observing debate are already precluded from taking pictures from the gallery. Now senators would be barred from doing it as well.
EAGLE RIVER - Some high school graduates go to college or get a job when the fall comes around, but Madeline Consoer spent this past fall realizing her dream. The 18-year-old singer from Eagle River went to Nashville in November to record songs she wrote.
Her first album will release on January 16.
On Friday, Consoer put on her first concert at Northland Pines High School in Eagle River, where she grew up.
"I'm really excited to just share my music because it's going to be really awesome to play my own music and see what people think of it," Consoer said.
WISCONSIN - We might be in the middle of winter, but state nurseries want you to consider ordering your seedlings for spring right now.
The Griffith Nursery in Wisconsin Rapids has been around since the late 1920's. It grows conifers, hardwoods and shrubs, all native to Wisconsin.
The nursery's manager says planners should take some early action.
WAUKESHA - A State Court of Appeals will decide if a Northwoods sex offender's new case will move forward.
Prosecutors think 32-year-old Albert Chagnon made a booklet of more than 270 photos of young girls with pornographic phrases in it. They say he clipped many of the photos from The Lakeland Times. He faces 23 felony counts for it.
But Chagnon's attorney argues his client didn't do anything illegal. Raymond Edelstein says his client didn't take the photos or digitally store them, so Chagnon technically didn't break the law as it is written.
RHINELANDER - A proposal from President Obama would make community college tuition free for the first two years of school.
Under America's College Promise, students would need to be at least half-time students and maintain at least a 2.5 GPA.
Nicolet Area Technical College in Rhinelander would likely meet the requirements the proposal sets forth for colleges because all of its programs transfer into 4-year universities.
RHINELANDER - Paul Ryan won't run for president in 2016.
The Wisconsin lawmaker represents parts of southern Wisconsin in the U.S. House of Representatives.
"After giving it a lot of thought, I've decided not to run for president," Ryan said in a release Monday. "Our work at the House Ways and Means Committee over the next few years will be crucial to moving America forward."
PARK FALLS - Our Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. For some people, practicing that freedom means escaping from beliefs they no longer respect. For people living in religious colonies that require separation from the rest of society, that escape can be very difficult. But that is the story of nine former Hutterites who recently moved to Park Falls.
"They live about 100 people per community, and each family has their own home," said Cindy Waldner, a former Hutterite. "The women are not allowed to have any driver's license. They don't vote or anything. It's three head leaders that are in charge of all the daily decisions in the colony."
Cindy, her two sisters, and six others, now known as The Nine, all come from a Hutterite Colony in Manitoba, Canada. It was a tightly-controlled, male-dominated community.
OCONTO FALLS - Police are investigating a two-vehicle crash that killed both drivers in Oconto County.
The accident occurred late Sunday afternoon on Highway 22 in Oconto Falls. The sheriff's department says an 18-year-old Lena man died after his vehicle crossed the center line and hit another vehicle head on.
VILAS COUNTY - One person died when a car left the road and hit a tree in Vilas County. The accident happened on Saint Germain Boulevard just before 4 in the afternoon on Sunday.
Police think the driver was going east on state highway 70 when the car went through the intersection of state highway 70 and state highway 1-55.
They believe the driver then turned onto Saint Germain Blvd.
GALESBURG, MI - State police say a 193-vehicle pileup that closed a stretch of Interstate 94 in Michigan for two days started in eastbound lanes and likely spread to westbound lanes because motorists became distracted by the crashes.
Lt. Dale Hinz says investigators have no evidence that cars or trucks crossed the median in eastern Kalamazoo County. He says a trucker killed Friday was not at the front or the back of the crashes.
Hinz tells the Kalamazoo Gazette that it could take weeks to determine what happened. That work started Monday with the help of GPS data.
RHINELANDER - Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwestern Wisconsin will expand this year.
They're looking for volunteers to help. The Rhinelander program now includes community-based mentoring.
Big Brothers Big Sisters came to Rhinelander in January 2014. For the past year, it has exclusively focused on school-based mentoring. That is because Kinship of the North provided community mentoring.
ONEIDA COUNTY - Living in the Northwoods, many people get used to driving in the winter, but sometimes driving conditions can be very difficult. In Oneida County, the highway department says they do their best to keep our streets clear, but it's expensive to do so.
The Oneida County Highway Commissioner Freeman Bennett says they have 27,000 tons of sand and salt. They have about 7,000 tons of sand just in Rhinelander alone. That costs about $70,000.
Inside their dome there is about 10,000 tons of salt. At $78.60 per ton, that's $780,000 worth of salt.
TOMAHAWK - The temperatures may be a little bit higher this weekend, but it still gets chilly on the lake. The few gust of winds didn't stop anglers from getting the best catch Saturday.
We weren't able to catch any big fish on camera, but some anglers were successful Saturday.
The 7th annual Lake Nokomis ice fishing tourney kicked off on the Lake Nokomis boat landing with more than 300 anglers.
GREEN BAY - Green Bay rallied from an 8-point deficit as Aaron Rodgers threw for two second-half touchdowns to beat Dallas 26-21 Sunday in an NFC divisional-round playoff.
The Packers (13-4), helped immensely by a video reversal with 4:06 remaining, went undefeated at Lambeau Field this season. They head to Seattle for the NFC title game. The Seahawks (13-4) beat Green Bay in the season opener 36-16.
Dez Bryant's leaping catch at the Packers 1 on fourth-and-2 was reversed by referee Gene Steratore after Green Bay challenged.
GREEN BAY - A Green Bay hospital has reopened after a water main break shut down the heat and forced the transfer of about 50 patients.
St. Mary's Hospital Medical Center reopened Sunday, a day after the break caused flooding in the basement and shut down the boiler.
Dr. Ken Johnson, the hospital's chief physician executive, says the hospital used 12 ambulances to transfer patients to St. Vincent Hospital.
MADISON - Gov. Scott Walker's fifth State of the State speech comes as he's ramping up exploring a run for president and amid questions closer to home about how he's going to solve a $2.2 billion budget shortfall.
The speech is set for Tuesday night before a joint meeting of the Legislature.
Walker isn't revealing much about what he's going to say. Most of his plans for solving the budget problem will come when he releases his two-year tax and spending plan on Feb. 3.
RHINELANDER - Many animals call the Oneida County Humane Society their temporary home.
The shelter has made a few changes in the past two years to better the animals' lives. The changes could also increase the animals' chances to get adopted into a forever home.
Some animal shelters can seem like sad places. The Oneida County Humane Society wants to change that perception.
EAGLE RIVER - You can expect to see a couple of snowmobilers in Eagle River along Highway 45 this weekend.
The World Championship Racing event brings it a lot of snowmobilers and revenue for the city. That starts Thursday, but leaders at the vintage snowmobile event this weekend says it brings in just as many people.
The 52nd annual Amsoil Snowmobile Derby kicked off this weekend. Most racers couldn't compete unless their sled was at least 30 years old.
