Government

A judge has allowed a Lac du Flambeau teen a signature bond prior to his sentencing for allegedly trying to stab his mother's boyfriend.

Numbers compiled by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance show per school student spending rose just over one percent during the last school year.

A new report by the Madison-based non-profit finds per student school spending rose 1.1 percent.

WISTAX spokesperson Dale Knapp says the latest numbers reflect the legislature's move in 2012 that cut district revenue limits by more than 5 percent then increased them modestly last year. Knapp says school districts used the changes brought about in the controversial ACT 10 legislation...

An effort is underway in the legislature to scale back access to some online court records. The Circuit Courts Automation Programs...or CCAP...puts court actions online for public view. These are state records, as is the circuit court system.

The website is visited more than 8 million times a year. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that the site is popular but fears people found innocent of charges or had charges dropped also are scarred unfairly. People with money judgements who pay them back also feel they could be unfairly judged.

It’s Native American Heritage Day.  One Lac du Flambeau tribal member says it’s an opportunity to reflect on the tribe’s history and future. 

WXPR's Natalie Jablonski spoke with Richard Jack, a member of Lac du Flambeau Constitution Committee, involved in tribal governance and planning.  

Jack says Native people’s contribution to broader society has not been returned equally. 

“We always have to fight for everything that we get.  But to be grateful for the challenge.  We are still here.  We are an enduring people.” 

It's that time again when cellphone, landline and voice over I. P. owners can renew or sign up for Wisconsin's No Call List.

The list stops private company telemarketers from calling you.

State Consumer Protection spokesperson Jerad Albracht says the quarterly sign up has proven popular...

The appeals continue for a family hoping to build a religious camp and meeting facility on Squash Lake west of Rhinelander.

The Jaros family has been denied by  federal courts in their attempts to get the needed permits from Oneida county to build the Eagle Cove Camp and Conference Center. Most recently, the federal 7th Circuit Courrt of Appeals in Chicago denied a petition by the family to overturn a federal judge's decision from Wisconsin, also denying the needed permits. The family had been denied at the county level and took the matter to U.S. District Court in Madison.

The president of the company that's pursuing a new iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin may be tied to alleged environmental violations at a mine in Spain. Bill Williams of Gogebic Taconite was previously a manager of Cobre Las Cruces, an open pit mine in Spain that's accused of breaking laws in the handling of the mine's groundwater.

Northwoods unemployment  levels are falling into traditional patterns says a state economist, but one county in this area now tops the list for joblessness.

In the Northwoods, figures from the Department of Workforce Development find Price county with the lowest rate at 5.1 percent, Oneida at 6.9 percent, Lincoln at seven percent, Langlade at 7.2, Vilas at 7.8 percent, and Forest at 7.9 percent. Iron county has the state's highest rate at 12.1 percent.

The state noticed something about Rhinelander's drunk driving arrests and decided to fund stepped up enforcement.

Police Chief Michael Steffes says the DOT has given the city more than $17,000 to up patrols through next September....

"...the DOT actually contacted us...they had collected statistics about accidents and traffic stop data and selected us for our population size compared to the number of vehicles(they) assumed were operating under the influence. So they gave us the grant based on that selection criteria..."

Wisconsin's six Chippewa tribes met last week in Mole Lake with state officials to talk about natural resource issues within the ceded territory.

Lac du Flambeau tribal spokesperson Brandon Thoms says the tribes and the state meet to keep communication open.