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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.
For WFHR and WIRI News, I'm Melissa K.
With less than two weeks before voters head to the polls, the two candidates competing to become the next state superintendent of public instruction met Wednesday night for an online forum to discuss differing visions for Wisconsin's public education system. Lisa Hale reports.
Incumpant Jill Underley and challenger Brittany Kinzer disagreed starkly on where Wisconsin schools are right now. Kinzer says she's running to restore standards that were lowered last year.
She pledged to work with parents, increase transparency, ensure money gets into classrooms, reward great teachers and decrease bureaucracy.
Right now, unfortunately, three out of ten children are only reading well enough to go to college or have a career.
And in Milwaukee where I live, we have the worst outcomes for our black students with only 5% of children reading well enough to go to college or have a career.
Underley disagreed arguing that Kinzer's claim that only 3 of 10 children are reading well enough to go to college is misleading.
Underley, who's been the state superintendent since 2021, pointed to different successes during her tenure.
All Wisconsin's moved from 14th in the nation for education in 2020 to 6th in 2024 and now we have the highest graduation rate in our state history and the progress that we've made is real, but our work isn't done.
The candidates disagreed markedly on a range of issues from teacher pay, special education funding, challenges for Wisconsin's rural districts, diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and expansion of vouchers and expansion of vouchers and charter schools.
The election is April 1st. For Civic Media, I'm Lisa Hale.
The term for mayor in Wisconsin Rapids will extend from two years to three years after the next election.
The Common Council passed the charter ordinance at their regular meeting on Tuesday.
Previous discussion also included extending the terms for older persons, however everyone agreed that that was not necessary.
General discussion at a meeting in February ended with the consensus that it's difficult for the mayor to accomplish objectives within two years if they have to spend the second half of their term campaigning for the next election.
The committee agreed to the ordinance change because they also have oversight if an elected mayor isn't doing their job.
In Wisconsin, a city council can remove or fire an elected mayor if there is due cause and a three-fourth vote in the council.
Senator Tammy Baldwin is raising concerns on how the NOAA firings will impact the Great Lakes.
Meteorologist Brittany Marlowe tells us more.
Baldwin wrote a letter to NOAA's Vice Admiral Han, wanting to know in detail the number of people fired at NOAA, how many of those served the Great Lakes, and what services will be lost as a result.
She also wants to know how they plan to preserve these services.
Baldwin says not only do the Great Lakes attract millions of visitors each year, but they also provide drinking water to over 30 million people, generate clean hydro power, and generate 3.1 trillion in gross domestic product.
Now there are 12 sectors within NOAA that deal with Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.
They range from things like providing critical marine forecasts for shipping, storm surges, and coastal flooding, to investing in clean drinking water or protecting wildlife from invading water.
Acting wildlife from invasive species. There are even programs to prevent microplastics from entering the Great Lakes.
There's a Red Cross blood drive today in Wisconsin Rapids. They'll be at McMillan Library from 10 to 3.
I'm Alyssa K for WFHR and WIRI News.
Tournament time for Wisconsin. Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with sports, March Madness, the Badgers in Denver to face Montana today.
Now the city of Milwaukee will also host some tournament games this weekend.
Head coach Greg Gard asked if he'd preferred Pfizer form instead of ball arena in Colorado.
I thought we got a really good seed. I understand why we got sent to Denver based on the seed lines.
With Kentucky, Texas Tech, Iowa State all ahead of us at the three lines. So Sunday didn't matter.
I don't think even Saturday mattered in terms of the committee's eyes. I think we were locked.
So you turn the page and get ready to go play.
Baseball opening day a week from today in New York when the brewers play the Yankees.
One picture for the crew to watch for is 25 year old right-hander Craig Yeoho who's at a good spring training.
But for now is being sent to the minors.
I mean, yeah, it was a good experience. I played well. A lot of confidence going into the season.
And that's where I want to be. And, you know, I want to be helping the team win as much as possible this season.
And so, you know, when my time comes, I'll be ready for it.
That's Brewer's pitcher Craig Yeoho with sports on my clements.
On your entertainment beat, I'm Pete Schwabba.
Things are moving forward on the boys' prequel about rising.
Producers just added actress Elizabeth Fosie to one of the lead roles.
Although they are not divulging much about the character.
Fosie joins cast members Jensen Ackles and Aya Cash who are reprising their roles as Soldier Boy in Stormfront from the boys.
Amazon Prime is the studio behind the show, which we'll see Ackles and Cash as executive producers,
along with the boys' series creator and writer Eric Kripke.
Dicking with casting, according to Deadline, Greg Canere will join the show Margot's Got Money Troubles.
The Apple TV show stars Elle Fanning and Michelle Fyfer. Fanning plays the daughter of a hooters waitress and a pro wrestler who finds herself as a new mom with no money.
So she starts an only fans page and uses her father's pro wrestling tactics to make it work.
Sure, it sounds confusing, but wait until you see it.
Margot's Got Money Troubles is based on the novel of the same title by Rufy Thorpe.
Here's one of Pete's picks.
A couple weeks ago, I talked about the film The Gorge on Apple TV and I refer to it as not a great movie, but a great streaming movie that you can watch at home.
The same applies for the film Elevation.
It's yet another post-apocalyptic film where giant insect-type creatures emerge from the middle of the earth and wipe out 95% of the population.
Leaving only those who live in the mountains above 8,000 feet, due to the fact that the creatures cannot survive at that altitude.
The film is well cast, well acted, and has some pretty harrowing moments as star Anthony Mackey has to descend below 8,000 feet in search of inhalers for his son who has asthma.
Not a bad watch, and I do recommend.
For those of you eagerly awaiting season 4 of Ted Lasso, if your favorite character was Lasso's son Henry, you'll be disappointed to know that the show will recast the role played by Gus Turner who played the role for three seasons.
On the bright side, if you're an actor and can pull off playing a 12-year-old, this could be your big breakthrough.
If you're headed to the theaters this weekend, here are some moving pictures to consider.
Disney's live-action version of Snow White is called Disney's Snow White.
The film stars Rachel Zegler as Snow White and Gal Gadot as the evil witch, and it's packed with Snow White, pals, bashful, doc, sleepy, and the gang.
The story might be an age old Disney favorite, but this new iteration is pulling only a 45% on rotten tomatoes.
Not good when you mess up a classic. Here are a couple suggestions for films that are reviewing well.
Sci-fi horror film Ash is the story of a woman who wakes up on a foreign planet only to find her crew has been murdered.
The film has been called riveting and is pulling an 84% on rotten tomatoes.
Magazine Dreams also has excellent reviews.
The drama tells the story of a bodybuilder pursuing his dream of being on the cover of muscle magazines, but struggles with loneliness.
Let's have fun at the movies.
For more showbiz fun, tune in to Nightlife with me, Peach Wabba, weeknight from 6-8pm on the Civic Media Radio Network.
It is going to be mostly sunny today. We'll get to the upper 30s for a high this afternoon with wind northwest switching to the southwest at 5-15.
Tonight partly cloudy will drop to the mid-20s tomorrow partly to mostly cloudy some afternoon sprinkles with a high in the upper 40s.
I'm meteorologist Sean Cable. Temperature now 24.
That's your WFHR and WIRI daily news roundup from Civic Media.
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