WFHR Friday News Roundup

Transcript

WFHR Friday News Roundup

WFHR News · Fri Mar 20, 2026

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 local newsroom, I'm Melissa K.

There's a winter storm watch in effect beginning Saturday evening and continuing through Monday afternoon.

Heavy snow is possible with accumulations of 12 to 18 inches with some areas possibly receiving 24 inches or more according to the National Weather Service in Green Bay.

Wind gusts as high as 45 mph are expected during the storm. The strong winds and the weight of the snow on tree limbs may cause downed power lines. This could result in sporadic power outages.

White out and near blizzard conditions are possible making traveling treacherous and potentially life threatening.

Travelling could be very difficult to impossible with this combination of snow and wind. This storm is expected to impact the following counties moving from west to east.

Wood, Portage, Washera, Wapaka, Winnebago, Outagami, Calumet, Brown, Manitawak and Kiwani.

Any residents in Wasa who need smoke alarms installed in their home can have that done for free later this month.

The American Red Cross will offer free smoke alarm installations on March 24 for the Sound the Alarm event.

You'll need to sign up on redcross.org or by calling 888-376-4056.

The installation event will run from 11 a.m. to 130 p.m. on Tuesday, March 24.

Red Cross volunteers and community partners will go door to door in neighborhoods vulnerable to home fires,

installing free smoke alarms and sharing information on the causes of home fires, what to do if a fire starts and how to create an escape plan.

If you'd like to volunteer to do installations, you can sign up at redcross.org slash Wisconsin.

I'm Melissa K. Find more news any time at WFHR.com and w-i-i-dot-f-m.

Wicific media news. I'm Stase Keane.

Three more Wisconsin Republicans are headed for the exit, including Kevin Peterson, Devon Lamehu and Rick Gundram.

Peterson is from the 57th district in the Fox Valley and says he's proud of his time in the assembly and thanked his staff, colleagues and constituents.

Senate Majority Leader Lamehu from Oosferg says he's ready for a new chapter and wants to spend more time at home.

Gundram is from the 58th assembly district in central Wisconsin.

He says he's looking forward to family and travel after 20 years in local county and state government.

Lamehu is the 4th Republican state senator not seeking re-election this fall, joining wrestling's Van Wongard, Brookfield's Rob Hutton and Whitewater Steve Nash.

In the assembly, Gundram is also the 4th GOP member stepping aside, along with Speaker Robin Voss of Rochester, Speaker Pro Tim, Kevin Peterson of Opaca and Representative Dave Murphy of Hortonville.

Public school enrollment is shrinking again across the state of Wisconsin.

State data showing public schools lost more than 14,000 students this year was 68 of the state 72 counties seen declines.

Overall enrollment dropped nearly 2% as compared to last year, continuing a long-term slide that's pushing some districts

to consider closing or combining districts and schools.

A new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum says the state has been losing students faster than the national average for more than two decades, though the gap has started to shrink recently.

And Bayfield County is standing apart from its up-north neighbors over the Line 5 pipeline project.

The county board there voted 10-2 last month to reject an agreement with Inbridge that would have reimbursed the county for emergency and law enforcement calls at the construction site.

The district attorney in Bayfield County said taking that money could make it look like law enforcement is working for the company, not the public.

Some supervisors have argued that Inbridge should still help to pay for the extra costs.

Iron and National counties have already said yes to that same deal.

More news is available at civicmedia.us

The Badgers season ends.

Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with sports, men's college basketball.

The Wisconsin Badgers lose in an upset.

To the high point Panthers, 83-82, the Panthers hitting 3-point shots 15 times in the game.

Did the Badgers have a bad performance? Head coach Greg Gard.

I don't think we played bad. I thought they beat us.

They beat us. They were banging in that many threes that was their chance to do that.

And credit to them, tip your cap to them.

That they were able to make shots, then take more and make more than they have in a long time.

The Badgers Nick Boyd, after the loss.

Disappointing. It's the name of the game, man. You ain't, you lose.

You know, I keep your head up, get yourself back up, and you know, keep fighting.

I mean, I ain't disappointed about another. It is what it is.

NBA, the Bucks blown out in Utah by the jazz. 128-96.

We played awful. Didn't play with any competitive spirit tonight.

That's Bucks head coach Doc Rivers with sports on Mike Clemens.

It is going to be partly to mostly cloudy today with a high right around 52 this afternoon.

Tonight, mostly cloudy with temperatures dropping into the low to mid-30s tomorrow.

A great day, partly to mostly cloudy with a high right around 58.

I'm meteorologist Sean Cable.

That's your Wisconsin Rapids News Roundup from WIRI and WFHR,

locally grown radio.

Find more news anytime at WFHR.com and WIRI.FM.

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