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This is your WFHR Daily News Roundup for locally grown radio 97.5 FM and 13.20 AM
WS Country 105.5 FM WIRI in Wisconsin Rapids.
For WFHR and WIRI News, I'm Melissa K.
The ground is totally covered with snow now and the Department of Natural Resources
reminds snowmobiles to stay sober on the trails this season and be aware of unsafe ice.
Two of the most common reasons for off-highway vehicle crashes around the holidays
are weak ice and operating the vehicle while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Both factors can be mitigated through planning and smart decision-making.
Often when alcohol is involved in a crash, it is the main contributing factor and can lead to tragedy.
Make a plan to get home safely by riding sober.
Not only is it illegal to operate under the influence of drugs or alcohol,
it also puts you, your passengers and other recreators at risk.
Wisconsin has seen several alcohol-related crash deaths so far in 2024.
Also monitor ice conditions by asking the local experts, including outfitters,
bait shops and fishing clubs.
Remember that the DNR does not monitor ice conditions.
Be aware that there are many factors that determine ice quality as outlined in the DNR's ice safety pamphlet.
Be prepared, float coats, life jackets and rescue ropes can be lifesavers.
Visit the DNR's ice safety webpage for more information on staying safe on the ice
and refer to the Wisconsin snowmobile regulations for operational restrictions, safety tips and more.
The town of Rome Transversite will be closed on Wednesday this week for Christmas.
The village of Port Edwards will be picking up trash and recycling on Thursday, December 26.
In Wisconsin Rapids, holiday garbage and recycling will not be picked up on Christmas Day.
Wednesday's route will get picked up on Thursday and Friday will be Thursday's route.
This same thing will happen next week for the New Year's holiday.
Monday and Tuesday will be normal pickups, no pickups on Wednesday and the rest of the week will be delayed by one day.
A special committee has approved a bill allowing native regalia at school events.
Here's join crew lots.
Current law requires schools to provide reasonable accommodations of a pupil's religious beliefs,
along with a ban on discrimination due to factors such as race, religion and ancestry.
But there is no explicit provision guaranteeing the right of students or members of or descended from a federally recognized tribe to wear traditional regalia at school events.
The bill was one of the five special committee on state tribal relations took up on the Capitol Wednesday.
Another allows federally recognized tribes to decide whether someone's seeking a lifetime license to teach their language is qualified to receive one.
The bills will need to be approved by the full legislature.
Adding to a declining snowmobile industry,
Articat announced its suspending operations indefinitely.
Brittany Merlot has the story.
Their plants and thief riverfalls and St. Cloud Minnesota will cease.
Articat already started layoffs about a month ago at the Thief River Falls snowmobile plants.
The announcement from the company sites ongoing business conditions facing the power sports industry.
Articat says though it will continue to sell 2025 model snowmobiles throughout the year and will resume production as planned after this new year.
But will again suspend operations indefinitely after that building is complete.
Articat's competitor Polaris is also facing challenges.
Polaris' snowmobile segment has reported an average decline of 18% year over year.
Another big name in the snowmobile industry, Yamaha, announced in 2023 it would be leaving the snowmobile industry after more than 50 years in the market.
This comes after snowmobile trails in Wisconsin didn't even open last year.
The remains of a Wisconsin airman who died during World War II are coming home. Joanne Krulotz has the story.
The defense POW-MIA accounting agency said military scientist identified the remains of U.S. Army Air Force Private First Class David Hansen of Milwaukee last August.
Hansen was captured after U.S. and Filipino forces surrendered to the Japanese and were subjected to the battalion death march.
He died as a prisoner of war in June of 1942 at age 25 and was buried in a common grave in the Philippines.
Hansen's remains were exhumed in 2019 and later identified. They will be buried in Brookfield as a yet to be determined date.
Santa took time out of his schedule for an interview. Here's Lisa Hale.
Santa Claus said in a recent interview that Bluey, Barbie, slime kits and dinosaurs are the toys kids are looking for this year.
But he has a surefire way to make children happy.
If you really want to please the kids, four things. One they want, one they need, one to wear and one to read.
Santa was a guest on Civic Media's Mino in the Mair Show.
The Inland Trout Early Kitchen release season opens on January 4th. The DNR reminds anglers they can target any of Wisconsin's Inland Trout species using artificial lures only starting in early January.
The season runs through May 2nd, undesignated early season trout streams. Anglers are encouraged to release caught trout immediately.
You will need a 2024-25 fishing license and an Inland Trout stamp to participate in the Early Kitchen release season.
You can find out more and get your license at DNR's Go Wild website.
I'm Melissa K for WFHR and WIRI News.
The Packers dominate the Saints. Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with sports. The Packers beat the Saints.
34 to nothing. Head coach Matlow Flurr.
It's hard to shut out an opponent in this league and from what I was told it was the first one this season.
So I was really proud of our defense.
Running back Josh Jacobs with a total of over 100 yards of offense and a touchdown.
I tell people all the time I feel like I'm the heartbeat of the scene. In the sense of I get everybody energized, I get everybody with the right type of mentality that I feel like we need to have to play in the game.
With the win, the Packers have clinched a spot in the playoffs. NBA, some of the Bucks players, not happy.
They won't be playing on Christmas Day, feeling snubbed by the NBA.
Last night, the Bucks beat the Bulls, 112 to 91. Chris Middleton with 21 points.
Chris and I thought maybe his best game of the year.
Early in the year, we wouldn't want to either game.
Now we're not only winning games and winning them, you know, with a cushion.
I thought defensively where it may be our one best defensive ever.
That's Buckshead Coach Doc Rivers with sports on Mike Clemens.
On your entertainment beat, I'm Pete Schwama.
Francis Ford Coppola is a five-time Oscar-winning filmmaker.
He's also a survivor of polio, the 85-year-old director shared his experience with the disease during an interview with Deadline.
Warning people about the skepticism for polio vaccines expressed by Trump's incoming health and human services secretary, Robert Kennedy.
The godfather creator says it was his father who saved his life when he contracted polio at a young age and actually lost the use of his legs for 10 days.
Coppola's father refused to believe that his son should stay bedridden while dealing with the illness, which was the common belief of how to combat polio at the time.
Instead, Carmine Coppola sought a second opinion and found a different approach that suggested mild exercise for those that contracted the disease.
Francis Ford praised the vaccine, which came along a couple years later, and says he has never forgotten memories of children in iron lungs calling for their parents.
Interesting.
Side note, Coppola's father was a composer who created music for many of his son's award-winning films.
In trying to make Christmas sexy news, Kim Kardashian has put out a new music video.
The reality TV personality released a video under her brother-in-law Travis Barker's label.
She used a breathy version of her own rendition of Santa Baby, one of the worst Christmas songs ever, and put images of herself crawling through a party in a blonde wig and skin-colored jeggings.
I'm not sure if she realizes it either, but her cleavage was totally showing. I'm sure she's going to give that editor an earful.
In the video, there's a donkey, Mary and Joseph, people fighting, people raking money, and a bonfire while people play Twister.
For what seems like an eternity, Kim crawls through the chaos with her own singing as a backdrop until she finally stops between Santa's legs and looks up to find, it's really McCulley Culkin.
The only good thing about the video is that her singing mercifully stops along with the music about midway through, so it's just her crawling with weird images.
It's just something you have to see for yourself, folks. You can check it out free on YouTube, but you'll still want your money back.
Sequals led the way at last weekend's domestic box office. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 led the way with 62 million bucks and was followed up by Mufasa, the Lion King prequel, which finished with a disappointing 35 million at the US box office, despite playing on 400 more screens than Sonic.
Despite grabbing second place in the US, Mufasa was number one globally, with a take of 122 million, finishing in third place was the Juggernaut Wicked, which pulled in 13.5 million at the box office, putting its grand total domestically at about 400 million dollars.
Wicked leapfrog Moana 2, which finished in fourth place with 13.1 million at the box office.
The borderline religious film Homestead finished in fifth place with 6.6 million, despite not so great reviews.
The brutalist, a 3.5 hour film that actually has an intermission opened and limited release and pulled in 266 thousand dollars, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it was only on four screens.
For more showbiz fun, tune in to Nightlight with me, Peach Waba, weeknights from 6 to 8 p.m. on the Civic Media Radio Network.
A mix of clouds and sunshine today will get to around 28 for a high this afternoon.
Tonight will be partly to mostly cloudy, some patchy fog after midnight, and with temperatures in the teens, we could see some of that fog frost on the roads and surfaces.
On Christmas Day, cloudy with a high in the low 30s.
I'm meteorologist Sean Cable. Temperature now 24!
That's your WFHR and WIRI Daily News Roundup from Civic Media.
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