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This is your WFHR Daily News Roundup for locally grown radio 97.5 FM and 13.20 AM
and WISC country 105.5 FM WIRI in Wisconsin Rapids.
4 WFHR and WIRI News, I'm Melissa K.
Be extra careful on the roads today.
There's a winter weather advisory for patchy freezing drizzle with a light glaze of ice accumulating.
Sidewalks, roads and bridges are likely to be very slippery.
With gift giving over from any now comes the time for holiday returns and exchanges
while stores aren't legally required to accept exchanges or give refunds some do.
However, policies can vary greatly from store to store.
If possible, know the stores policy before you buy and use your credit card.
Paying with a credit card may offer additional protections for returns or disputes.
Keep your receipt and packaging and always include a gift receipt with the items you give.
Bring your ID to the store when you take an item to return.
Some stores also require the original form of payment so you may need help from the gift giver.
If you have to make a return, do it sooner rather than later.
Some stores modify their return period during the holidays.
Also watch out for return scams.
Don't trust suspicious third party return services who promise to handle the process for you.
Always follow official channels and platforms with returning items.
You can find more tips at bbb.org
Childcare is a critical piece in supporting a thriving economy.
Childcare is considered affordable if it is no more than 7% of a family's household income.
According to Healthy People Wood County, families in the county spend an average of 21% of their income on a child care slot.
And this is for one child.
That's three times what the federal government considers affordable.
49% of the recent Wood County Community Health Assessment respondents identified affordability and availability of child care as an important area of improvement needed in the county.
42% of parents surveyed say they struggled to obtain child care due to financial barriers.
You can find out more at HealthyPeopleWoodCounty.org.
This year, Kwanza and Hanaka are celebrated in the same week. Lisa Hale takes a closer look at Kwanza.
Kwanza begins on December 26th. It's an African-American and Pan-African celebration created in 1966.
Dr. Alfonso Simpson Jr. is the director of African-American studies at UW-Ashkosh.
It's a celebration of family, a celebration of community and culture and is rooted in raising up and bringing forth the ancient African model of cultivating harvest and sharing good in the world.
It's really about sharing good in the world.
According to officialquanzawebsite.org, participants celebrate Kwanza with feasts, music, dance, and stories.
They also honor the seven principles of unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources celebrates a successful elk hunting season.
The state's seventh-managed elk hunt opened on October 12th and concluded December 20th.
The 2024 hunt represented a milestone in Wisconsin's elk management.
For the first time, hunters had the opportunity to hunt in both the northern and central elk zones.
The eight Wisconsin hunters who participated in this year's hunt were randomly selected from a pool of more than 25,500 applicants.
The DNR received over 17,000 applications to hunt in the northern elk zone and more than 7,500 applications for the central elk zone.
In the central elk zone, all four hunters successfully harvested a bull elk on the third day of the season.
Two hunters in the northern elk zone successfully harvested a bull elk and Ojibwe tribal hunters met their four bull harvest declaration.
Holiday leftovers can be a favorite part of the holiday season for many, but be sure you handle them with care.
Leftovers should be refrigerated within two hours of cooking to prevent bacterial growth.
You should eat leftovers within four days or freeze them.
Reheat leftovers to an internal temperature of 165 degrees before eating.
You can find more food safety tips and even chat live at ask.usda.gov.
It's cold and flu season and people with diabetes are at higher risk of more frequent or severe infections.
Dr. Alexandra Carton, MD and family medicine physician with the Spiris Health says infections can complicate diabetes management.
When our body is infected, our metabolism can change and oftentimes what we feel like eating or drinking changes or what we feel like doing changes.
So those who have diabetes may need to check their glucose more often.
Dr. Alexandra Carton recommends people stay up to date on their immunizations.
Because this can not only reduce their risk of getting an infection, but if they do get that infection, it would typically be less severe if they have had the immunization for it.
He also said it's good to maintain good control of your diabetes.
Have a plan with your healthcare provider to get your numbers where they need to be to keep your risk low.
The easiest way to lower your risk of contracting a respiratory infection is washing your hands.
Of all the technology advances through history, perhaps the biggest impact on health is modern plumbing where we have running water in our home and at our workplace.
Staying current on vaccines, maintaining good glucose control and practicing good hygiene can help reduce the risk for those with diabetes during the respiratory virus season.
I'm Melissa K for WFHR and WIRI News.
Buck's basketball tonight.
Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with sports.
It's the Bucks and the Brooklynettes tonight at Pfizer Forum.
Chris Middleton, making progress, scoring 21 points in their win over the bulls as he comes back from ankle surgery.
Doc Rivers.
It's just going to take him time.
These minutes have been fantastic for him.
To keep him under 25 in the last two games when we have Dayman, Yannis out.
Still keep Chris under 25.
That's huge for us.
Hannah Fell, the Packers, getting ready to play the Viking Sunday in Minnesota.
Wide receiver Christian Watson talked about that bruised knee injury he suffered Monday night on a 14-yard and run against the Saints.
It was just an awkward fall. I went to the ground and then the DB just kind of fell into my legs and just kind of fell something with the knee.
I mean, it definitely hurt right away, but I mean, it felt like it was good enough to go back in so I went back in and it was feeling alright.
But I mean, it just kind of was just linger in a little bit and I just couldn't play the type of football I wanted to play.
So to shut it down.
That's the Packers Christian Watson with sports on Mike Clemmons.
On your entertainment beat, I'm Pete Schwabba.
Most of the big Christmas releases opened on Christmas Day.
But if you're looking for some offbeat entertainment at the theater this weekend, there are a couple films that have nothing to do with Christmas cheer.
Opening in limited release are 2073, a futuristic mystery thriller shot documentary style, which actually looks kind of cool if you're not completely tired of the whole post-apocalyptic theme in movies.
Another film opening in limited release is Brace Yourself Bloody Axe Wound.
The film is a horror comedy about a girl who finds out the family business is selling recordings of people being killed.
The family name, Blade Cut.
As you might expect, the film is rated R.
Overall, the box office rallied after a slow start in 2024 and looking ahead to the new year and right around the corner are two films Hollywood is hoping achieve blockbuster success.
Opening in January are Wolfman and Captain America Brave New World.
If you're looking for things to do between Christmas and New Year's, there's lots to see in the theaters at the moment.
If you're looking for a well-reviewed musical biopic where the lead character is a monkey, the film Better Man might be for you.
It tells the story of the meteoric rise of British pop sensation and former boy band member Rob Williams and his fall from grace.
If you're wondering why they made him a monkey in the film, it's because Williams says he always felt less evolved and because when he's on stage, he sometimes feels like a monkey.
One of the weirdest trailers I've ever seen, but it is getting good reviews.
Other films that open on Christmas Day include the fire inside about a female boxer from Flint, Michigan, who becomes the first woman to win gold in the sport at the Olympics.
Great reviews.
The Bob Dylan biopic, a complete unknown starring Timothy Chalamet is currently in theaters and is also incredibly well-reviewed and is getting Oscar buzz.
Let's go to the movies.
Golden Globe Awards are just around the corner. The award show does not anticipate as much controversy as last year when host Joe Coy offended some of the attendees and writers.
This year, comedian Nikki Glazer has been selected to host and will fly solo making her the first woman to host the show alone.
If you like watching Celebrity Squirm, you might want to check out the broadcast because Glazer told people magazine she received advice from Ricky Jervais and intends to be edgy with the A-Listers.
The Golden Globe Awards will be broadcast January 5th.
The fun tradition on Saturday Night Live has been the Christmas jokeswap on weekend update for co-hosts Michael Shea and Colin Jost, where they write jokes the other has to perform.
Kind of cute, especially when one of them is married to Scarlett Johansson, Jost.
Jost ripped on his own wife thanks to the jokes written by his co-host while she watched in the wings from backstage and cracked up.
Very funny and worth a Google.
For more showbiz fun, tune in the night light with me, Peach Wabba, weeknight from 6 to 8 p.m. on the Civic Media Radio Network.
It is going to be foggy and drizzly today, but it is going to be a little warmer with a high in the upper 30s this afternoon.
Tonight cloudy with more fog and drizzle 35 tomorrow cloudy and warmer with scattered areas of light rain are high tomorrow 42.
I'm meteorologist Sean Cable. Currently it's 28.
That's your WFHR and WIRI daily news roundup from Civic Media.
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