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UPPER PENINSULA - Another gun deer hunt starts Saturday in Wisconsin.
In Michigan, it's been going on for a week already.
For the western Upper Peninsula, it's not going well.
MINOCQUA - Winter enthusiasts will get an extra treat this Thanksgiving weekend in the Northwoods.
Minocqua Winter Park will open up again for a small session during the Friday through Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend.
This comes just after the park opened for a few days last weekend.
RHINELANDER - Teachers can be influential and important people in children's lives.
For the ones that go above and beyond in the classroomâ€"it's the students who benefit.
A Crescent Elementary School special education teacher is really making a difference in her student's lives.
ANTIGO - Saturday kicks off the start to the nine day gun deer hunting season here in Wisconsin.
Many people in the Northwoods spent this Orange Friday shopping for their last minute hunting gear.
428 of them lined up outside Mills Fleet Farm before they even opened.
RHINELANDER - A Northwoods man believes our early winter has laid the foundation for early kite skiing. The combination of snow and wind gives Mark Collar the chance to use his skis and his kite.
Collar calls wind a friend, but that sometimes seems like the only friend at first.
"There is certainly a learning curve," Collar said. "When you're beginning you're falling."
RHINELANDER - Hundreds of people will shop for bargains on Black Friday. The sales at chain retail stores can take business away from local shops.
That's why one Northwoods toy store wants to promote shopping local for the holidays. Imaginuity is holding their own sale to compete with Black Friday.
Instead of a one day sale, the store will cut prices through the end of November. The store owner thinks it's important to give her customers more time to shop in a relaxed environment.
CRANDON - Students in some Northwoods school districts won't go to school at all next week.
The districts decided not to stand in the way of family hunting traditions.
The School District of Crandon gave students Friday and all of next week off.
MADISON - The state Department of Natural Resources' board is set to consider next month whether to make the first revisions to the state's invasive species list since it was created in 2009.
The DNR has proposed classifying 49 more species as prohibited, which means people can't sell, possess or transport them and must destroy them if they find them on their property.
The agency also wants to list 32 more species as restricted, meaning people can't sell or move them but can possess them, and downgrade the emerald ash borer's status from prohibited to restricted.
PRENTICE - Administrators now know what caused a fire in the Prentice School art room, and it's ironic.
A sign that guides people to an exit in case of a fire shorted out.
The fire happened last Tuesday.
MADISON - Governor Scott Walker's administration says Wisconsin faces a $2.2 billion budget shortfall by mid-2017, a problem that will have to be tackled by the Republican-controlled Legislature next year as Walker is building his resume for a potential presidential run.
The estimate released Thursday by the state Department of Administration is required under the law. It takes into account spending requests made by state agencies for the next two years.
The figures will be further refined by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau in January.
RHINELANDER - The opening of the gun deer season often leaves wives and girlfriends at home on their own.
Downtown Rhinelander hopes it can attract many of those women, and maybe even some men, to get started on holiday shopping.
The first-ever Holiday Open House on Saturday will feature sales, special events, and demonstrations at several businesses.
ODANAH - An American Indian band in northern Wisconsin will join an effort to get land on reservations returned to tribal ownership.
The U.S. Interior Department says the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Tribe will join the program.
It's among 21 Indian communities in 12 states that will become part of the land buyback program by 2017.
MOSINEE - A 55-year-old man died from blunt force to the head at a Mosinee Paper mill on Monday, according to a statement released Thursday from the Mosinee Police Department.
An autopsy shows that severe trauma to his head and chest injuries contributed to Matthew C. Ament's death.
He was installing insulation on the outside of the Expera Specialty Solutions paper mill on Monday.
KENOSHA - A 34-year-old Kenosha man is charged with killing his 11-month-old daughter.
Russell Rose Jr. was charged Thursday with first-degree intentional homicide, aggravated battery, strangulation, arson and recklessly endangering safety. He is being held on $1 million bond.
Police say Rose was arrested Tuesday. Officers found the girl when they responded to a call in which a woman was screaming that someone had killed her baby. Police say the girl was severely bruised and her face was disfigured.
EAGLE RIVER - Hundreds of kids in third world countries will get to open a Christmas gift this year. It's all thanks to people who donate a shoebox filled with supplies for kids.
The boxes are part of a world-wide organization called Operation Christmas Child.
No two boxes are the same, but they all have one thing in common. They give kids in third world countries the chance to know what it's like to open a present on Christmas morning.
RHINELANDER - The national pet supply company Petco will buy one of the Northwoods' largest employers.
About 530 people work at Drs. Foster and Smith in Rhinelander.
Drs. Foster and Smith sells pet supplies online.
MERRILL - One Northwoods County sits near the top of the list when it comes to vaccinating for HPV.
The Human Papillomavirus can cause certain types of cancer, like cervical cancer.
A vaccine for the virus came out in 2006.
THREE LAKES - Young kids in Three Lakes didn't get to go to kindergarten back in the 1960s. It wasn't offered. So, some community leaders wanted to find a way to prepare children for school.
They created Story Hour at the Demmer Library in 1964 to help. Parents and community members saw it as a way to help children learn to socialize and work in a classroom setting.
"It involves play time - open, free play time, story time, a craft or some activity, song, and movement, and usually a snack," says Library Director Erica Brewster.
NORTHWOODS - The Wisconsin Deer Donation program needs help from hunters this fall. The program lets hunters donate their deer to help feed those in need. Experts are concerned that the winter weather could cut into the number of deer kills this season. DNR managers think it will be difficult to find and hunt them.
"This year it's looking a little lean, especially in the north," said DNR Wildlife Biologist Jeremy Holtz. "With this deep snow, it's changed the deer behavior and it's going to change hunter behavior too. So I wouldn't be surprised if we saw that our donations were down this year under the circumstances."
Donating takes three simple steps: you register your kill, field dress the deer, and then you take it to a DNR approved processing center. The venison is then ground-up, frozen, and shipped to local pantries, as well as people in need.
MERRILL - The Drew family will pass its Piggly Wiggly grocery store on to a new family soon.
Brothers Steve and Phil Drew own Drew's Piggly Wiggly in Merrill.
Their family has had a grocery store in Merrill since 1944.
EAGLE RIVER - You can call the Eagle River Chain's invasive species project a success so far. Eurasian water milfoil has been reduced by 91.3 percent since 2007, but work isn't done.
Eddie Heath, aquatic ecologist for Onterra LLC has been working on the project. Onterra is the firm that does the planning for the Unified Lower Eagle River Chain of Lakes Commission. He say the success is above and beyond what they've seen on other lakes across the state, and it has served as a model for other systems.
"By which we learn from some mistakes, we build upon some successes, and we move forward in an adaptive management strategy," Heath said.
NEAR RHINELANDER - A semi-truck carrying logs and a compact car collided this morning on highway 17 near Rhinelander.
The crash happened on Highway 17 at the intersection of Cross Country Road across from the Cross Country Bar and Grill in Rhinelander around 8 this morning. At this time, the cause of the crash is still under investigation.
L'ANSE, MI - Agents working undercover ran a fish business in Michigan's Upper Peninsula while investigating illegal catches of lake trout.
The disclosure is in a document unsealed in Marquette federal court.
Since 2012, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it's been investigating illegal catches of lake trout in the upper Great Lakes. The population has been affected by sea lampreys and excessive fishing.
MILWAUKEE - A 26-year-old Fond du Lac woman is charged with felony child abuse after she was caught on video jamming cotton swabs into her son's ears, causing them to bleed.
According to the complaint, Jenna Schumacher took her 15-month-old son to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin for treatment of chronic ear bleeding and perforated eardrums.
The complaint says doctors found no medical reason for the ear injuries, but discovered a piece of a cotton swab in the boy's ear.
SHAWANO COUNTY - A citation against a school bus driver claims his failure to yield at a stop sign caused a deadly crash in Shawano County.
75 year old James Mueller has been cited in a crash near Pulaski that killed one woman and injured members of a high school volleyball team.
A report from the Shawano County Sheriff's Department shows Mueller was cited for failure to yield at a stop sign -- resulting in death.
MERRILL - You might not think of Merrill when it comes to hair products, but a salon in the town sells more of a brand than any competing salon in the U.S., according to Cost Cutters Family Hair Salon Vice President/Co-Owner Thomas Christensen.
Stylists at Cost Cutters in Merrill can take credit for selling so much of the Piranha X brand. The company uses stylists and marketing to target young men.
"You got to speak their language, and so we really want to do that make sure that is important," Piranha X CEO Michael Vincent said. "And we want to do it with credibility so we are just not posing, we're actually really a part of that lifestyle."
NORTHWOODS - You may need to wait a little longer to go cross-country skiing on certain trails. Trails in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest are packed with snow, but they're not ready for skiers just yet.
"We found with the ground so warm, that all of the snow that we received in the last week really packed down to very little of a base," explained Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest Lands and Recreation Program Manager Jeff Mell. "We're really waiting for that base to build up where we can put a track on top of it at this time."
LAONA - A drive through Laona might convince you that the community is struggling economically.
That's true for many small Northwoods towns.
But one locally-owned, independent store is trying to move things in a better direction.
THREE LAKES - You'd think cold weather would slow down business for boating shops.
But our recent early major snow storm has actually kept boat maintenance and storage businesses busy.
"Normally we've got, you know, nicer weather than now," said Ryan Lamon, sales manager at Watercraft Sales in Three Lakes.
CRANDON - Forest County health workers hope they can help people maintain their weight over the holidays.
A national study found average Americans gain one or two pounds around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
"That weight typically doesn't come off," said Forest County Health Department Director Jill Krueger. "You're accumulating a pound or two every year, which is a risk factor for obesity down the road."
