97.5 W F H R and 105.5 W I R I. Your Wisconsin Rapids Home or locally grown radio. Here's your Daily News Roundup.
On the Wisconsin Rapids local newsroom, I'm Melissa Kayley.
Scams are nothing new, but new legislation in Wisconsin is taking aim at Scams involving cryptocurrency kiosks.
It's not unique to Wood County. It is a statewide issue.
That's Wood County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Quentin Ellis talking with W F H R.
He said the scammers use a variety of scripts.
They will call with any amount of different scenarios.
One was actually people were calling saying they were me. Me from the Wood County Sheriff's Department needed you to put money in a cryptocurrency kiosk to avoid coming to jail.
Scammers using emotional manipulation to threaten their victims with arrest or jail if they don't respond immediately.
They target vulnerable populations often elderly individuals and will pose as trusted authority figures.
It's definitely a statewide problem. It's just there hasn't been one telltale way to respond to it because of the lack of regulation of these machines.
Chief Deputy Ellis says several other states already have legislation in place to protect against this type of scam.
I'm very hopeful that this passing legislation will act as a major deterrent to these companies and keep them from allowing this type of thing to happen to our people in Wisconsin.
The bill has broad bipartisan support and would protect both consumers and operators.
Everybody except these major major corporations that are based wherever else in the nation or in the world even.
They're getting their money and everybody else here in Wisconsin that's falling to these is becoming a victim.
Assembly Bill 968 will have a second reading on the assembly floor on February 17th.
Local news at the top and bottom of every hour throughout the day or on demand any time at WFHR.com and WIRI.FM.
From the Wisconsin Rapids Local Newsroom, I'm Melissa K.
For Civic Media News, I'm Lisa Hale.
A bill to limit what Wisconsin food share users can buy is heading to the Senate.
The assembly voted last week to seek a federal waiver to block the purchase of candy and soft drinks.
Republicans say the goal is to improve public health.
Opponents say it adds red tape and stigmatizes people using food benefits.
New developments for an oil pipeline through Northern Wisconsin. Civic Media's Maddie Schaefer reports.
The legal fight over emberages proposed Line 5 rerout in Northern Wisconsin is continuing.
Just days after a state administrative law judge upheld a key Wisconsin DNR permit for the project,
the bad river band of Lake Superior Chippewa has filed a petition for judicial review in Iron County Circuit Court.
The tribe is also asking the court to immediately pause any construction while the case moves forward.
The proposed project would move the pipeline off the reservation and onto a new 41-mile corridor in Ashland County.
Crossing roughly 186 waterways and more than 100 acres of wetlands.
In a statement, tribal chair Elizabeth Arbuckle says the bad river watershed is the tribe's homeland and not an oil pipeline corridor.
Attorneys with Earth Justice argue the permit ignores key environmental risks and could threaten treaty protected resources like wild rice and fish in the Cachegan bad river slows.
Enbridge maintains the rerout is the safest long-term solution and says the state's environmental review was thorough.
Construction remains on hold pending final federal approval as the case now heads to Circuit Court. For Civic Media News, I'm Maddie Schaefer.
State lawmakers have finally reached a deal to start using more than $130 million to fight PFAS pollution.
The assembly approved the plan unanimously after negotiating how to treat property owners who didn't cause the contamination.
The package creates new grant programs to help communities clean up chemicals. The bills now move to the Senate and Governor Evers says he is on board.
A Wisconsin Environmental Advocacy Group is suing the Environmental Protection Agency, saying that the EPA broke the law when it rolled back key climate protections.
Clean Wisconsin joined a national coalition in filing the lawsuit in Washington, D.C. arguing that the EPA is failing to protect people from car and truck pollution that they say drives climate change.
Clean Wisconsin claims the state has already seen more severe weather rising health threats and worsening air quality.
The EPA has not yet commented on the suit.
Governor Tony Evers is touring the state following his final state of the state address.
Last week he was in Eau Claire where Civic Media's James Kelly caught up with him.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers visited North High School in Eau Claire on Wednesday following his final state of the state speech.
Governor Evers highlighted his priorities for his final year as governor during the visit, specifically addressing funding issues that have forced school districts to propose ballot referendums just to maintain their current operations.
School districts going to referenda every other year for just general stuff that's not right and it's not that they're overspending.
They're responding to the needs of kids and I think we need to do some things there too, especially in equalization.
Governor Evers also called on the state legislature to continue negotiations on additional state funding for special education and noted that he does not support a Republican introduced plan to send out one time rebate checks to taxpayers for civic media news.
The plan to keep Wisconsin I on the air a little longer got the green like in the Wisconsin Senate.
The plan allocates almost $600,000 to the public affairs television agency over the next year.
The financing is a stopgap to help with side while it hunts for more long term funding solution.
Lawmakers approved it by a voice vote.
The bill now heads to the assembly, which has its own idea using an endowment instead of direct cash.
While last week saw Governor Tony Evers deliver the state of the state address earlier this month, Nicole Boyd, chairwoman of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, gave the Wisconsin state of the tribe's address.
The Dairy Land Patriot reports that she covered issues ranging from protecting the state's natural resources, health care access, gun control, and online gaming to combating the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women.
While Boyd praised Governor Evers willingness to acknowledge the seriousness of that issue, she said more must be done.
The new office of violence prevention, committees and task force are not enough.
We must improve our policies.
We must invest the resources needed to prevent violent crimes against women and children.
Boyd also pushed back against federal agencies during her address, calling out the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, saying that tribal leaders have had to work to shield their members from the disruptions that these agencies have caused.
Read more on this and other stories at the dairylandpatriot.com.
For news anytime, visit our website at civicmedia.us.
Upon further review, Hi, I'm Mike Clements with Sports NBA.
The Milwaukee Bucks reviewed the tape of their loss at home to the Toronto Raptors Sunday.
Doc Rivers wants his players to spread out, share the ball.
So what did they learn?
It's a good lesson for us, especially for young guards.
They got into them, and then instead of just playing right and playing the same way, it made them go one-on-one back at them.
And the game turned into a one-on-one game.
We're just that good enough to play that way.
The Bucks host the Miami Heat tonight, baseball.
Brandon Woodruff is back in the brewer clubhouse.
And anytime you have a type of surgery that I've had, it's a tough deal.
If I sit back and look at what I did last year, I'd be really proud of that.
Getting back to the major league mound after a potentially career in injury, and thankfully I was able to perform.
NFL, we're at the scouting combine.
We're over 300 players, including two from the Wisconsin Badgers, undergoing physical exams,
and preparing to show off their speed and agility from Indianapolis with sports on Mike Clements.
Mostly cloudy and breezy with a little light snow from late this morning into early this afternoon.
We could get around an inch or so of accumulation with a high right around 30 today.
Tonight breezy eight above tomorrow, partly cloudy and colder with a high of 22.
I'm Eda Euron with your Sean Cable.