97.5 W F H R and 105.5 W I R I. Your Wisconsin Rapids Home for locally grown radio. Here's
your Daily News Roundup.
From the Wisconsin Rapids Vocal Newsroom, I'm Melissa K.
A new winter farmers market is kicking off in Marathon County this weekend. Marshfield
Summer Market vendors worked with the Marshfield Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry to formalize
a farmers market cooperative in 2025.
Through our meetings from day one, they were like, we want to have a winter market. And
I was like, okay, we got to do all these other things. And if they can do them, like, let's
let's organize a winter market. Like, why not?
That's Melissa Hack, the regional farmers market coordinator for Portage Wood, Wapaka,
Marathon, and Adams counties. She said the winter market will be held in the Second
Street Community Center with space for about 20 vendors.
The community centers also attached to the library. So it's a really nice, like, community
space or, like, community hub where, like, you could go and, like, get some books at the
library and then, like, pop in at the farmers market and then go walk downtown and do some
shopping too. Hack shared a couple tips for first time market shoppers.
If it's your first time coming to a farmers market, I would say bring your own bags, bring
your own totes, just to help out any costs for the businesses.
Hack continues that having cash on hand is a good idea.
Bringing cash is ideal. Some vendors only accept cash. So if you can bring cash, that's
ideal. I think a lot of our vendors are likely to have credit or debit accessibility. But
just to be safe, it's nice to have some cash in your pocket.
The Marshfield Winter Farmers Market is open from nine to two every Saturday, starting
January 10th through the end of May.
We've got lots of data center news from all over Wisconsin. Savannah, Tome Olsen breaks
it down.
In DeForest, residents had circulated a petition asking the village board to add a new ordinance
requiring that any big annexation of land would have to go on the ballot as a referendum.
So voters would have the final say at a meeting Tuesday night, the DeForest Village Board
said no to that idea. QTS wants DeForest to annex 1600 acres of property to build a
data center there. And in Monomony, the city council has instituted new rules for approving
these huge projects. The city now has tighter rules for how data centers should be zoned.
They can't be considered warehousing anymore. And now there's a whole separate zoning
category just for data centers. Council members tell civic media this change allows them
to respond to community concerns in the future like noise, light, and water use. The city
of Monomony has faced pushback over a $1.6 billion proposal from balloonist LLC. Meanwhile,
at the State Capitol, Republican lawmakers have introduced a plan that would further regulate
data centers. The proposal from Republicans remain Quinn and Shannon Zimmerman would ban
data center electricity costs from being passed on to Wisconsinites. It would also require
data centers use closed loop cooling systems, which dramatically decrease their water use.
Democrat Jody Habersson again has introduced her own bill that would regulate data centers.
In a statement to civic media, she says she's encouraged to see more lawmakers joining
the conversation, but neither of those bills has had a hearing yet. And then on top of
that, I candid it for governor once to pause all data center construction across Wisconsin.
Madison Representative Francesca Hong has proposed a statewide moratorium on the projects
until lawmakers have a chance to write new rules for civic media news. I'm Savannah Tome Olsen.
State lawmakers have introduced new legislation to increase the criminal penalties for those
using artificial intelligence to harass or scam people. The proposed bill was introduced
by state senator Sarah Kieski. The bill would make it a misdemeanor to create and post
AI deepfakes to harass people and a felony to use deepfakes to defraud someone of money.
AI experts are encouraging people to improve the security of their own devices and log
in information by using two-factor authentication whenever possible or even by coming up with
a code word for family and friends in emergencies.
The Wisconsin DNR is asking for public feedback on the state's Beaver Management Plan. The
current plan was adopted in 2015 and intended to be used for a period of 10 years. As part
of the new plan development, the DNR has convened the Beaver Management Plan Committee, which
is composed of representatives from tribal agencies, hunting and trapping organizations, conservation
partners, and conservation congress members, as well as technical staff from the DNR and
federal agencies. The new plan will guide the management of beavers in Wisconsin for the
next 10 years. People have until January 31st to submit public comments. You can find
more details and public listening session information at dnr.wisconsin.gov.
The next Ruby's pantry will be Saturday, January 17th in Wisconsin Rapids. Food distribution
is from 8 to 915 AM at pitch early learning center on 17th Street South. Each food bundle
is a $25 donation and approximately 70 pounds of food. You can pay online and reserve
your bundles at rubiespantry.org. Cash pay is first come first serve and there's no
limit on how many you can purchase.
Local news at the top and bottom of every hour throughout the day or on demand any time
at wfhr.com and wri.fm. From the Wisconsin Rapids local newsroom, I'm Melissa K.
A win for Marquette. Hi, I'm I clements with sports men's college basketball Marquette
over Xavier 66 to 65. Thanks to a slam dunk by Ben Gold with less than a minute to play
head coach Shaka smart after the game. It feels good to win. Guys did a great job at the
very end doing one of the most basic things that goes into winning basketball games and
that's, you know, back to back possessions of a score and a stop. The win snapped a six
game losing streak from Marquette NBA. The bucks came up short in San Francisco losing
to Golden State 120 to 113 Steph Curry 31 points NFL. The Packers and the playoffs against
the Bears Saturday night, but they'll do it without one of their most versatile players
bowl Melton to I.R. with a knee injury suffered against the Vikings. Melton has played
wide receiver defensive back and on special teams became a returner. He's the off guy.
You know, he's done so many things. So he'll be missed for sure at special teams coordinator
Rich Misacha with sports on Mike Clemens. A little foggy this morning then scattered
rain developing here by later today. And we could get a quarter to a half inch in spots
are high in the upper 30s to low 40s tonight. Cloudy with some rain and snow and then tomorrow
a little bit of light snow than mostly cloudy with a high in the mid 30s. I mean, you're
all of your Sean cable. That's your Wisconsin Rapids news round up from WRI and WFHR locally
grown radio. Find more news anytime at WFHR.com and WRI.fm. Subscribe to this podcast on Spotify,
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