RHINELANDER - Daylight savings time means we'll finally get a little more sunlight, but it's also the time firefighters want you to make sure your homes are safe.
Fire Departments recommend checking your smoke detector once a month. They also want people change the batteries twice a year. That's why daylight savings is the perfect time to remind people to do so.
"With fire situations in homes the earliest detection possible will save your life because a bad situation only keeps getting worse if you don't know the fire is going on it's easy to get possibly trapped, or in a situation you can't get out of. Or maybe get the rest of your family members out of your house in time," says Ryan Berghammer, from the Rhinelander Fire Department.
Firefighters say the worst mistake people make is taking out the batteries when something gets smoking in the kitchen, or stealing the batteries to use in other things. The smoke detector often gets left with the batteries out.
Another thing they want people to know is carbon monoxide detectors are NOT good indefinitely. Because of the sensors inside they last from five to seven years.
Snow on an overhang causes damage to downtown building
Submitted: 03/10/2014
RHINELANDER - Warm temperatures and lingering snow on roofs doesn't make for a good combination.
Around 3 p.m. Monday, the weight of the snow on the roof of the building next to the Elbo Room in Rhinelander caused major damage to the building.
The awning to the building fell down onto the Brown Street sidewalk.
Fire leaders say it's important to remember to how dangerous heavy snowfall left on roofs can be this time of year.
“Well with this heavy snowfall this winter there's a lot of snow load with warm weather today the snow melting it created a lot of weight and it can damage structures with all the weight from the snow,” says Josh Schmitz, Rhinelander Fire Deptartment Deputy Chief.
No one was injured in the collapse. The fire department is not sure when cleanup will begin.
------------------------ An earlier version of this story indicated that the facade of the Elbo Room awning had fallen. That was incorrect. It was the building next to the Elbo Room. That has been corrected in the story above.
6 arrested in violent home invasion, sex assault of pregnant woman
Submitted: 03/10/2014
MADISON - Madison police say six people have been arrested in connection with a violent home invasion in which a pregnant woman was repeatedly sexually assaulted.
Police released details Monday about the incident that happened Feb. 23.
Authorities say several armed robbers forced their way into the home of a Madison couple at 4 a.m., demanded money and assaulted them for 40 to 50 minutes.
Several suspects sexually assaulted the woman, who was six months pregnant.
The residents walked to a local business to call 911 after the ordeal. They were hospitalized for their injuries.
Police say the suspects were targeting a different home and robbed the victims by mistake. Several items that were stolen have been recovered.
TOMAHAWK - The Tomahawk School District will need to make big budget cuts in the next year. The district will need to cut more than $500,000. Rising transportation costs along with declining enrollments challenge many Northwoods School Districts.
“We have a lot of issues in Northern Wisconsin that many districts in the state of Wisconsin don't have,” says Cheryl Baker, Tomahawk School District Superintendent. “For instance in the Tomahawk School District there's about 425 and I'm rounding that off, square miles of terrain that has to be covered everyday two times a day to pick kids up, to bring them to school, and to take them home.”
“That cost is our cost,” says Baker.
The school district does not plan to cut any electives. Instead they are moving from an 8 to a 7 period day.
“We're moving from an 8 period day to a 7 period day purely for economic reasons,” says Baker. “In other words had we not gone to the 7 period day for next year we would have had to of cut entire classes, electives, and or start cutting down teachers full time positions.”
The school district will also need to cut its full time social worker.
Rhinelander intersection could get a permanent stop sign
Submitted: 03/10/2014
RHINELANDER - Drivers might need to get used to a stop sign at one intersection in Rhinelander.
The City Council held a public hearing to decide if the temporary stop sign on Davenport and Sutliff should stay.
The stop sign was put up at the three-way intersection during a construction project last summer.
"We put up a temporary stop sign because we had the closure on Kemp, and we sent all the traffic this way," says Rhinelander City Administrator Blaine Oborn. "Once we had the stop sign up, a lot of people in the community started voicing support for keeping it."
Members of the community voiced their support for or against the permanent stop sign at the public hearing.
"People who live on the west side over here go straight through, it slows them down a little bit by having to do a stop sign," says Oborn. "The people on Sutliff that have to make a left or right turn, they really favor the three-way stop sign here because it makes it a lot safer for them."
The permanent signs could be in place in the next couple of weeks if the council approves the move.
MADISON - A bill that would allow Wisconsin schools to extend school days and shorten school years to save money is up for a vote in the Senate this week.
The bill would get rid of the requirement that schools teach for 180 days or lose state funding. Schools are still required to teach the same number of hours under the bill.
Another change under the law allows the state Department of Public Instruction to fund remedial courses and interim school sessions. The package is being viewed as a cost saving measure for districts that have seen state funding decrease in recent years.
Three Democrats joined the bill's Republican sponsors, and DPI and other education groups have voiced strong support for the proposal.
Bills to change election rules draw some opposition
Submitted: 03/10/2014
MADISON - A coalition of groups is speaking out against elections-related bills up for a vote in the state Senate.
One that would limit in-person absentee voting hours and another that would allow lobbyists to give donations to politicians sooner than they can now.
Members of the Coalition to Protect Wisconsin Elections held a news conference Monday to urge the Senate to reject the bills that are up for votes Tuesday.
The bills are sponsored by Republicans, who control the Senate, and expected to pass.
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