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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.
The Village of Port Edwards has a new police chief. Retired Chief of Police Scott Drew welcomes Chief Brandon Abbott to fill his shoes in the department.
With over 20 years in law enforcement, Chief Abbott has been with the Port Edwards Police Department since 2019. He was born and raised in Wisconsin Rapids.
Retired Chief Drew said he is thankful for the opportunity to serve the community as Chief of Police in his hometown for the past six years. He is honored to turn the department over to Chief Brandon Abbott and looks forward to enjoying his retirement.
Many voters in Wisconsin had to vote on a school referendum this spring. Here's Civic Media's Jimmy Casca.
Wisconsin voters approved the majority of school referendums on 2025 spring election ballots. 51 of the 89 ballot measures passed this spring which adds up to just over $1 billion in additional local property tax levies.
The largest was Oshkosh at just under $200 million. Of the 89 referendums, 56 of them were decided by a difference of less than 10% between yes and no votes.
24 referendums were decided by fewer than 100 total votes. A full list of school referendum results is available at civicmedia.us.
As federal program see funding cuts, Wisconsin food banks are set to lose over $2 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services recently notified two of the state's largest food banks that they will see significant cuts to the commodity credit corporation.
The program seeks to connect farmers with food banks and the proposed cuts would cancel the planned shipments of more than 1 million pounds of food between June and September, which is estimated to be about $2.2 million in value.
U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin and others are introducing a bill that would require 30% minimum tax on those with incomes over 1 million. Joanne Croulott's reports.
In 2022, the top 0.001% or 1,538 households earned at least $85.5 million and paid an average federal tax rate of 23.5%.
The Payne Affair Share Act would ensure that the highest earning Americans paid at least a 30% effective tax rate.
The bill would apply only to taxpayers within come over $1 million, including capital gains and dividends that was approximately 0.58% of taxpayers in 2024.
The legislation includes a phase in for additional tax liability for taxpayers earning between $1 million and $2 million and would preserve the incentive for charitable giving.
The Payne Affair Share Act is expected to raise nearly $120 billion in revenue over 10 years and would provide a backstop to limit future tax dodging by the ultra wealthy.
The Portage County Historical Society is speaking out against the proposed redesign plan for Gorky Park.
The plan calls for the demolition of two historically significant buildings. These include the former Steven's Point Arbery and the Parker Building.
The Historical Society says preserving these buildings honors the past while helping future generations understand how this central public space has served the community for more than a century.
They're hosting a free virtual education program on Wednesday, May 1st at 7pm.
It will be broadcast live on the Portage County Historical Society Facebook page and YouTube channel.
You can also provide feedback before April 11th at stevenspoint.com.
I'm Melissa K for WFHR and WIRI News.
The Bucks are back tonight. Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with Sports.
The Milwaukee Bucks host the Minnesota Timberwolves at Pfizer form. The Bucks are back in fifth place after winning four in a row.
Bobby Portus returns tonight after serving a 25 game suspension for using a band of painkiller.
Doc Rivers says at times they had to get creative to cover while Portus was out.
We had coups at the five Pat Compton at the four. I think that's the smartest line up in the league. We had no choice.
You know, Brook is in foul trouble. You know, you feel like a mad science is a time, but at times you want to just go back to be a normal.
That would be nice.
Baseball Brewers opening a three game series in Denver against the Rockies.
The crew adding a pair of players and trades.
Picture Quinn Priester is a lefty from Baltimore just 24 years old and outfielder dad's Cameron is arrived after a trade with Baltimore.
And the team announcing a celebration of life for Bob Euker will be held at Ampham Field.
Pre-game Sunday August 24th, Bob Constice will be the MC, who is sports on Mike Clements.
On your entertainment beat, I'm Pete Schwabba.
After a couple lackluster weeks, the box office appears to be back gangbusters thanks to the Minecraft movie.
Despite mixed reviews, the film came in first place, set a box office record and brought in 163 million at the gate.
The film shattered the record for a video game-based movie, in addition to the big take domestically Minecraft added another 150 million overseas,
bringing its total weekend haul to 313 million.
Coming in second place and its second week of release was Jason Statham's A Working Man.
The action film about a man trying to rescue his boss's daughter from sex traffickers brought in a little over 7 million giving it a total of 27 million big ones.
The chosen last supper part two came in third place with just under 7 million and its first week in theaters.
Rounding out the top five were Disney's Snow White with 6 million and in fifth place was the woman in the art.
The horror film brought in 4 and a half million dollars.
Trying to navigate a post-apocalyptic world can be very dangerous, even fictitiously.
In the upcoming season of The Last of Us, Bella Ramsey's character Ellie will be better equipped to fight off said dangers.
Ramsey told the gang at the today show yesterday morning that for season 2 they trained with weapons, took to Jitsu, and learned how to box to make the fight scenes more realistic.
Also, they praised their co-star, Pedro Pascal.
The Last of Us, season 2, drops April 13th on Max.
Write this down or make a mental note, but don't forget.
At this year's Wisconsin Film Festival, I saw a film called The Threesome, which is probably the best rom-com I've ever seen.
The film star Zoe Deutsch, Ruby Cruz, and Jonah Howard King.
Writer Ethan Ogleby was a recent guest on Nightlight.
The film is filled with surprises, the characters are thoughtful, and there is great direction and music which make it a home run.
I highly recommend it when it's released on streaming.
Happy days are here again, the cast of the 70 sitcom reunited for the first time in 50 years at Steel CityCon in Pittsburgh.
Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Anson Williams, and Donnie Most all played Milwaukee teens on the show that was set in the 50s.
The actors sounded thrilled to be together again and said it felt like yesterday that they were all filming the show.
They are much older now and definitely look like they're all in their 70s, as opposed to when they were playing high schoolers and look like they were only in their 30s.
Woody Harrelson was being considered for a role on White Lotus season 3 but passed it up for kind of a strange but admirable reason.
The former chairs and white men can't jump actors says White Lotus changed their shooting schedule which conflicted with a family vacation so he had to move on.
Although maybe the trip to Wally World was just an excuse to get out of doing an incest scene.
For more show of his fun, tune in to Nightlight with me, Peach Wabba, weeknights from 6 to 8 p.m. on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Mostly sunny today we'll get to the mid to upper 40s for a high this afternoon with wind out of the Southwest to West at 5 to 10.
Tonight we're going to drop down into the low to mid 30s tomorrow, partly to mostly cloudy with some scattered showers and a high tomorrow in the low 50s.
I'm meteorologist Sean Cable. Temperature now 24!
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