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RHINELANDER - The Salvation Army in Rhinelander still needs more money. Donors have just a few more days to chip in some change.
The annual Bell Ringing Campaign ends January 16. The Salvation Army is still accepting donations. Some Northwoods towns have already met their goals for the year.
But overall donations are down in the area. As of today, Rhinelander has raised almost $27,000, which is short of its $35,000 goal.
MARATHON COUNTY - Four people face multiple drug charges after a traffic stop in Marathon County Monday night.
A Marathon County Sheriff's deputy was watching the Econo Lodge in Rothschild.
According to the police report, there was a heroin dealer who rents rooms at the hotel.
STEVENS POINT - The Stevens Point Brewery plans for a $1.5 million expansion.
The brewery is adding new brewing and quality control equipment. The gift shop will also be remodeled.
Operating partner Joe Martino says the brewery had a double-digit increase in volume production in 2014.
MADISON - Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker gives another sign he may run for President.
Walker hired former Republican National Committee political consultant Rick Wiley as an advisor.
Wiley once served as the Wisconsin Republican Party's executive director.
MADISON - Shooting video up a woman's skirt would be a felony under a Republican-sponsored bill that's one of the first introduced this year in the Wisconsin Legislature.
The bill would make ``upskirting'' a felony punishable by up to three and a half years in prison. Current Wisconsin law doesn't address such an offense. District attorneys have been prosecuting it as an invasion of privacy, a misdemeanor punishable by up nine months in jail.
MADISON - Assembly Republicans are about to increase by 56 percent how much lawmakers can receive in per diems when staying overnight in Madison.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Wednesday that expense payments for senators and representatives have stalled at $88 per day since 2001. That amount will increase to approximately $138 under the proposal to be voted on Thursday by a Republican-controlled Assembly leadership committee.
Representatives taking day trips to the Capitol would receive $69 a day, a 22 percent decrease.
MILWAUKEE - Health officials say Wisconsin has recorded its first flu-related child death of the season.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (http://bit.ly/1Fq4KGr) reports the 12-year-old Milwaukee girl died on Jan. 1. Although the Milwaukee Health Department would not disclose the age, gender or date of the death, the newspaper reports the information was obtained through the Milwaukee County medical examiner's office.
Milwaukee Health Commissioner Bevan K. Baker urged all residents to reduce the spread of flu and to protect those most vulnerable, including infants and young children, the elderly, pregnant women and people with certain medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes and chronic lung disease.
RHINELANDER - Oneida County's Veteran's Service Officer won't be fired.
The Oneida County Board spent the entire day on Wednesday discussing Tammy Walters' job.
She was accused of misconduct at her job.
EAGLE RIVER - Many of us can't stand these frigid temperatures, but the workers at the Eagle River Derbytrack welcome them, especially just days before it hosts the largest snowmobile derby in the world.
Groomers need to create a base of ice 14 to 16 inches thick. The trucks have been hard at work making ice and snow for the track. The cold temperatures came at the perfect time:just before this weekend's 2015 Classic Vintage Snowmobile Championship.
"They work around the clock when they can," said Chuck Decker, the derby track's owner and race coordinator. "When the weather's cold enough, like right now, they never shut off. They got two crews and they just work around the clock."
FOREST COUNTY - A former Forest County jail worker faces charges for allegedly abusing his authority. Prosecutors think Melvin Donek stole phone cards from the Forest County Jail and gave them to an inmate.
They also accuse him of lying to an officer about how the phone cards were given to an inmate without payment.
Prosecutors also believe he knowingly bought a stolen trailer.
TOMAHAWK - People in Tomahawk will see more changes to their wastewater treatment plant after a water utility rate increase. The renovations first started in 2013 after replacing the roof of their digester after it failed to contain methane gas. The replacement cost the city more than $600,000 and drained funds. That's why city managers recently applied for, and received, a State Trust Fund Loan.
"So this $900,000 trust fund loan is actually there to be some bridge funding between the funding that we've done," said Tomahawk Public Works Director Mike Tolvstad. "It will reimburse those accounts, and it will carry us over into our Clean Water Fund and we'll start with that payment in 2016."
The loan will help city employees make more improvements this year. The city plans to replace several pieces of equipment in the sewer system and the wastewater treatment plant. It will come at an additional cost for people in Tomahawk.
ANTIGO - Wolf River Valley Seeds could see more financial growth this year. The White Lake-based company specializes in growing and shipping seeds used for dairy cow feed. The company bought the building on the corner of 3rd Avenue and Edison in Antigo this August. Employees have been working in the new distribution center since November.
"It's really helped us to consolidate some of our shipping and do a better job logistically for our customers," explained Production Manager and Part-Owner Mark Resch.
Wolf River Valley Seeds is one of the leading producers of triticale in the nation. It's a high-protein forage crop that's widely used in the dairy business, and the company ships it from coast to coast. That's why more people are getting involved with the company.
FOREST COUNTY - The husband of a former Forest County jail worker faces charges for allegedly assisting his wife in the crimes for which she's charged.
Prosecutors think Richard Pitts gave a person the names of three confidential police informants. Pitts told police he got the names from his wife, Jeanie Pitts.
Prosecutors also think he knowingly helped his wife in getting stolen farm equipment.
WAUSAU - We saw 23 deadly snowmobile crashes during last year's season.
Thirteen of those involved alcohol.
During the 2011-2012 season there were only 10 total snowmobile deaths.
ST. GERMAIN - Many people across the Midwest make the St. Germain Radar Run a winter tradition.
Organizers hope you'll make a new event part of that tradition.
Radar Run volunteers will host the Pink Carpet Gala for the first time this Saturday evening.
RHINELANDER - A new study shows deer eating habits have led to a huge shift in the plant community in Wisconsin.
The study compared plant life inside and outside of deer exclosures. They're fenced in areas to prevent deer from eating plants inside.
UW Professor of Botany Don Waller was part of the research article. The study found that plant species that benefitted from protection, inside of exclosures, tended to be the species that have declined since 1950. He says it is typically difficult to find a direct correlation for why a plant species declines because of the ever changing factors in our ecosystem.
Personnel records for the Milwaukee police officer fired after fatally shooting a mentally ill man during a struggle in a downtown park show several commendations for his performance in the past.
Christopher Manney's file also detailed a 2006 encounter in which he and another officer disarmed a man in a downtown parking ramp stairwell. The police report says the man produced what appeared to be a handgun, and Manney pushed his arm toward the ground. The gun turned out to be a replica.
ANTIGO - City workers in Antigo want a handful of people to start running water.
The Director of Administrative Services there sent out around 200 letters to customers Tuesday.
MADISON - Federal officials have until Friday to approve a deal that calls for the state to ensure the Forest County Potawatomi are reimbursed for any losses tied to a new Kenosha casino.
Gov. Scott Walker has until Feb. 19 to approve or deny the Menominee Nation's request to build a new off-reservation casino in Kenosha. The Potawatomi, however, operates its own lucrative casino in Milwaukee and its gaming compact requires the state to reimburse them for losses linked to a Kenosha facility. Walker's administration has warned that could cost the state millions.
COLUMBUS, OH - A Columbus airport official says a police officer fatally shot a man during a confrontation just outside the terminal.
David Whitaker, a Columbus Regional Airport Authority vice president, says the man was shot by the officer at about 1 p.m. Wednesday outside the departures area of the terminal. The officer was not injured.
Whitaker didn't have details of the confrontation but said the officer was responding to a threat. He didn't have the name of the man who was shot. The man did not fire at the officer.
MADISON - The Supreme Court will be asked to review a decision on night deer hunting in Wisconsin.
Attorneys for the state Justice Department plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a federal appellate decision.
That decision ordered a judge to take a new look at a decades-old ruling which stops Wisconsin's Chippewa tribes from hunting deer at night.
ONEIDA COUNTY - Agriculture might not come to mind when you think of Oneida County, but the county does support some farming. The state gives some tax credits to farmers in the county for continuing to farm their land.
The Oneida County Land and Water Conservation Department approved a renewal the program at a meeting Tuesday night. It will now head to the county board, but a representative from Wausau says the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) also gave an extension for the rest of 2015.
The Oneida County Farmland Preservation Program has been in place since 1983. DATCP uses it to preserve working lands in Wisconsin. That's so we have food and fiber.
PARK FALLS - A grant could mean a bus service for people in Park Falls. Price County officials approved the bus project as part of the county's Department of Transportation grant in December.
The bus would help fill a transportation void in the area. Senior Serviced Division Manager Janine Dobson says Park Falls doesn't have a taxi service. A bus, however, would help seniors and others get around the community.
"It will be an on-demand bus where they would call, the bus would pick them up, they would go to their appointments or shopping or to the bank or wherever they need to go, and then be able to come back home again for not a lot of money," Dobson said.
WAUSAU - The Wausau School District needs to make a decision soon on whether to go to referendum.
If it does, voters could decide whether some schools in the district should close.
The board met on Tuesday evening to discuss what a potential referendum would look like.
MADISON - The first bill to be introduced in the Wisconsin state Assembly will likely be a long-worked on school accountability measure.
Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke said Tuesday that the bill is expected to be unveiled on Wednesday, the first day that the Assembly is in session.
Gov. Scott Walker and Republican legislative leaders have said that passing an accountability bill is one of the first things they want to get done this year.
PRESQUE ISLE - An autopsy performed on the woman found dead outside a Presque Isle store last Friday morning revealed that woman,61-year-old Corrine Gerster, died of natural causes.
Richard Jungck says his life changed last Friday morning. Gerster, his fiancee, was dead outside their Presque Isle home and antique store.
"I opened up the front store door and she was [lying] in the snow, off to the side, and I walked over and she was frozen," said Jungck. "The clothing she had on was shredded, off to the side of the body, and that's where the dog had tried to get away.
TRAVERSE CITY, MI - An organization representing U.S. cargo shippers on the Great Lakes says last year's deep freeze cost the economy an estimated $705 million and shows the need for another heavy icebreaking vessel.
The Lake Carriers' Association said Tuesday the volume of freight that U.S.-flagged ships hauled on the lakes between Dec. 1, 2013, and May 30, 2014, was about 7 million tons lower than the same period a year earlier.
The Cleveland-based group says at least two steelmakers had to cut production and some power plants ran low on coal as Coast Guard vessels struggled to keep shipping lanes open during the brutally cold winter. About 3,800 jobs were lost.
LINCOLN COUNTY - Firefighters in Lincoln County think a chimney fire that spread destroyed a home north of Merrill.
The fire started Monday morning near the intersection of Kelly Creek Road and Burma Road. The fire eventually spread throughout the home.
DETROIT - A Detroit man convicted in the abduction and slaying of his girlfriend's 5-year-old niece has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
A jury in December found 23-year-old Darnell Cheatham guilty of first-degree felony murder, arson and child abuse in the July 2011 death of Mariah Smith. Wayne County Circuit Judge Ulysses Boykin on Tuesday gave him the mandatory sentence under Michigan law.
Authorities say Cheatham took Mariah from her east side home, then raped and strangled her. They say he set her body on fire on a mattress in a vacant house about a mile from her home.
WAUSAU - Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley stressed the importance of balance on the high court in announcing her bid for reelection to a third 10-year term in Wausau today.
"Are we going to have a court in this state with balance, where there is room for diversity of opinion?" she asked the assembled crowd of supporters. "Or are we going to have a court that only speaks with one voice, that only sees issues with one view?"
Bradley has often been among a more liberal three-member minority on the seven-justice court recently.
