News – February 23, 2021

(Beaver Dam) Beaver Dam Mayor Becky Glewen says as the city continues to grow, access to quality health care will be a critical component of social and economic success. Glewen was on hand yesterday (Monday) for the Chamber’s virtual ribbon cutting at SSM Health’s new physician offices, 130 Corporate Drive. The 40,000-square-foot facility has primary and specialty care providers, a prescription center, a lab and medical imaging. You can find links to take a virtual tour, or watch yesterday’s virtual ribbon cutting, at DailyDodge.com.

(Beaver Dam) Beaver Dam Women’s Health announced yesterday (Monday) that it will join the Marshfield Clinic Health System. The entire Women’s Health team has signed on to stay with the practice, including co-founder Dr. Ken Ostermann. There will be a name change, to Marshfield Medical Center-Beaver Dam Women’s Health, but the practice will keep its location on the hospital campus, working out of the third floor of the Vita Park Medical Building. Many of its current operations will be maintained including obstetrics, gynecology and minimally invasive surgery. The transition will be final later this spring.

(Wisconsin) For a second straight day, there were no deaths due to COVID-19 reported in Wisconsin. On Monday, the U.S. as a whole surpassed 500,000 coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic, about 19-percent of the global total, although the U.S. accounts for just 4-percent of the world’s population. In Wisconsin though, the state Department of Health Services reported no deaths for a second day on Monday. Dodge County health officials say there have been 155 deaths and they are monitoring 127 active cases.

(Fond du Lac) Two Fond du Lac residents have been charged for a fatal shooting in the city from February 5. Denell Logan is facing First Degree Intentional Homicide and Possessing a Firearm, while Callie Bender is charged with a Straw Purchase of a Firearm and Aiding a Felon. Both are accused of causing the death of David Posey when he was shot in the leg inside a vehicle.

(Campbellsport) The state’s Department of Transportation says a project website is now online for the upcoming construction of 2.2 miles of State Highway 67 through the village of Campbellsport in Fond du Lac County. Construction is expected to begin next month and finish in December. Highway 67 will be closed to through traffic during construction. Local access will be maintained. The website includes construction details, traffic impacts, detour maps and temporary signing information for businesses.

(Wisconsin) Kohl’s is fighting back against an investor group’s efforts to take control of the department store chain’s board of directors, arguing that it would derail its progress and momentum. The response comes after the investor group said it had nominated nine members for Kohl’s board as it looks to boost the company’s stock and its financial performance.

(Beaver Dam) State Representative Mark Born says employees of a Dodge County company were impacted by President Joe Biden’s (quote) “reckless decision” to halt the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Born says thousands of good-paying, family sustaining jobs at Michels Corporation, based in Brownsville, would have been supported by the project. He says according to those involved in the industry, as many as two-thousand laborers, operators and welders from across Wisconsin were set to work on the pipeline over the summer. The Beaver Dam Republican says that was all wiped out on Biden’s first day in office. Opponents cite devastating environmental impacts.

(Wisconsin) Last week in Milwaukee, President Biden said he’d like to increase the funding available to public defenders across the country. John Patrick Gross with the UW-Madison Public Defender Project says that either the country needs to hire many more public defenders as a whole to keep up with the need, or reduce the need by ending needless arrests.

(Wisconsin) The Wisconsin Court of Appeals has dismissed a request from the D-N-R to stop the wolf hunt, which began yesterday. The Department of Natural Resources was appealing a court order requiring that hunt to be held this month. The appeals court ruled the order was not a final judgment so it has no jurisdiction over any appeal. The wolf hunt is scheduled to run through Sunday. The deadline to apply for permits ended Saturday at midnight. The guidelines will allow up to 200 animals to be harvested this week. -WRN

(Madison) Governor Tony Evers wants to spend $2-point-four-billion-dollars on building projects across 31 counties in Wisconsin. It’s part of his capital budget proposal unveiled Monday, with nearly a half of that going toward projects across the U-W System. The state building commission is slated to vote on it next month, which would then send the plan to the Legislature’s budget committee which will then decide what to fund. -WRN

(Madison) The governor wants to pay Wisconsin high schools to do away with their Native American mascots and nicknames. Evers’ budget also includes $400-thousand-dollars to pay high schools to change their team names. The money would come from tribal gaming in Wisconsin. More than 200 school districts have signed a petition asking schools with those team names to change them. The name change money, along with almost all of the rest of the governor’s budget, is not expected to pass the Legislature. -WRN