(Wisconsin) Governor Tony Evers says people can prevent deaths in Wisconsin by staying home. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos wants increased and faster testing and is considering a second state coronavirus relief package, as cases and deaths continue to hit record highs. Vos told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an emailed statement that (quote) “obviously, what we are doing now as a state is not working.”
(Madison) A lawsuit challenging the emergency powers of Governor Evers is on its way to the state supreme court. The state’s high court is agreeing to take up the matter next month. The lawsuit says Gov. Evers does not have the authority to issue multiple health emergencies after his original expired at the beginning of the pandemic. The governor has since issued a statewide mask mandate which could now be in jeopardy of being struck down. The court’s three liberal justices dissented the decision to hear the case, arguing that there were already pending cases in the lower courts. Arguments will be heard on November 16.
(Dodge County) Wisconsin health officials are reporting 3,815 positive coronavirus cases in Wednesday’s daily update. There are 43,468 active cases in the state, an increase of 305 from Tuesday. State health officials recorded 45 deaths, bringing that total to 1,897. Dodge County has 26 deaths and 4,168 cases, an increase of 117 from Tuesday. County health officials are actively monitoring 1,144 people.
(Juneau) The weekly percentage of positive COVID-19 tests in Dodge County again jumped above 30-percent, according to the latest update from the Dodge County Health Department. From October 19th through the 25th, county health officials say 34.8-percent of all tests administered were positive; the previous week it was 20.8-percent and before that 32.8-percent. Dodge County remains in phase one of its three phase Safe Restart Plan. After weeks of being in the yellow hospital capacity was downgraded to red, joining contact tracing and case totals. PPE and testing are the only metrics in the green.
(Wisconsin) Clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine are expected to resume next week at the University of Wisconsin. The U-W got the go-ahead recently to re-open its clinical trial of AstraZeneca’s investigational COVID-19 vaccine. 36 people – who got the first of two shots before the study was paused on September 6th – kept getting checkups and blood draws throughout the pause. They will now have the option to get their second dose. Enrollment is expected to resume over the next several weeks. The U-W study team will begin contacting people who said they were interested in participating.
(Wisconsin) The final Marquette Law School poll is in and Joe Biden continues to hold a 5 point lead over President Donald Trump among likely voters. That lead is a much more conservative number than the 9 point lead in the UW-Madison polling or a 17 point lead in the ABC News/Washington Post poll. All of those leads still remain outside the margin of error, in favor of Joe Biden.
(Wisconsin) The total number of absentee ballots returned as of yesterday (Wednesday) in Wisconsin is now 51-percent of total votes cast in the 2016 election. The latest absentee ballot information for Wisconsin, six days before the election, shows more than one-million, 800-thousand ballots have been sent, with more than one-million, 500-thousand returned. There are more than 287-thousand absentee ballots yet to be returned. The Postal Service recommends those be dropped off in person, not mailed.
(Beaver Dam) A Beaver Dam man has been charged with attempting to receive illicit images from a minor. David Goeller allegedly asked for suggestive images from a 14-year-old girl through Facebook. An agent with the Wisconsin Department of Justice was posing as the minor. If convicted, the 37-year-old faces no more than 10-and-a-half years in prison. An initial appearance is scheduled for November 16th.
(Columbia County) Columbia County Sheriff’s officials have one of the two recent walkaways from their jail back in custody. Twenty-seven-year-old Amanda Montroy was a Huber inmate with work release privileges. She failed to return from work on October 16th. Montroy was convicted of Escape, Resisting an Officer and Theft. Her sentence ran through March 9th of next year. Adams County assisted in taking her into custody. The other walkaway was 35-year-old Kirk Curtis who failed to return from work on October 21st.
(Markesan) The Markesan Fire Department is once more. The change to the Markesan Fire Department name was noted on Facebook Wednesday morning where the department was previously identified as the Grand River Fire District. Officials say at one time there were the Grand River Rural Fire District and the Markesan Fire Department, which had the same firefighters but used different trucks. The two departments merged in 1994-1995 to become the Grand River Fire District. The decision to return to the Markesan Fire Department name was because the Grand River name was confusing to people and other fire departments calling for mutual aid.
(Madison) The candidates for Wisconsin’s Sixth Congressional District made their pitch to undecided voters during recent appearances on WBEV’s Community Comment. You can hear our interviews with incumbent Republican Glenn Grothman who is facing a challenge from Democrat Jessica King at DailyDodge.com.
