News – September 9, 2020

(Waupun) A Dodge County prison is reporting new coronavirus cases. The Wisconsin Department of Corrections says Dodge Correctional has recorded 46 positive tests among inmates in the past week, and that number now stands at 118 total confirmed cases. 89 of those cases are still active while 29 have recovered. The facility also had two additional staff members test positive, bringing that number to seven.

(Dodge County) Wisconsin health officials are reporting 717 positive coronavirus cases in Tuesday’s daily update, which is a record 17.6-percent of 4,000 tests conducted. Wisconsin’s coronavirus positive-test-rate is rising, but not because infections are going up instead because fewer people are getting tested. Wisconsin has not tested more than ten-thousand people in nearly a month. The state’s hospitalization numbers have been steady for weeks. There are 8,169 active cases in the state, which includes 166 people in Dodge County. For the third straight day, state health officials recorded no deaths and that number remains unchanged 1,168. Dodge County has six deaths on record.

(Wisconsin) A COVID-19 vaccine trial underway at UW Health in Madison is on hold after one participant in the United Kingdom suffered a serious adverse reaction. A UW Health spokesperson confirmed to 27 News the trial would pause new enrollments in the study. Stat, a health news website, reported that the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford was the one to cause the reaction.  The vaccine study at UW Health was in the third and final phase of testing before going to the Food and Drug Administration for approval. -WRN

(Beaver Dam) A Beaver Dam man was sentenced to nine months in jail with work release privileges yesterday (Tuesday) for having inappropriate contact with a minor. When questioned by authorities, 30-year-old Robert Lee Haley said they met on a dating app, her profile said she was 19 and that any contact between them was consensual; the victim said it was not consensual.

(Ashford) Authorities in Fond du Lac County have identified the person killed in motorcycle crash Monday. Jude Sesing of Pewaukee failed to negotiate a curve on Highway W at Midland Drive in the Township of Ashford. The bike went into the ditch and overturned multiple times, ejecting the 60-year-old who was not wearing a helmet. Sesing was later pronounced dead at St. Agnes Hospital.

(Juneau) Local elections officials are encouraging the public to register to vote now. Dodge County Clerk Karen Gibson says proof of residence is needed to register and she suggests a driver’s license, so long as it did not expire before the previous general election in 2018. If your driver’s license has your correct address, then election officials already have that information because that is shared between agencies. Gibson says you can print the registration form online and mail the form to your local municipal clerk with proof of residence. If registering in person, proof of residence documents can be presented on your cell phone. Voter registration by mail and online ends 20 days prior to the election, which Gibson says this year is on October 14. After that date, you have to register in person at your local municipal clerk’s office or at the polls on election night.

(Wisconsin) Failure is not an option. That’s the message from the co-chairs of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’ Task Force on Racial Disparities. Madison Democrat, Representative Sheila Stubbs says politics will need to be left at the door in order for the task force to meaningfully address Wisconsin’s worst in the nation disparities for Black families. Stubbs said that she’s “willing as a Democrat to come to the table and move forward.” -WRN