Free Republic

Wausau voters ousted Mayor Katie Rosenberg, electing conservative challenger Doug Diny with 52 percent of the vote. Wausau spent millions modifying a new water treatment facility after testing in 2022 found all city wells contained elevated PFAS levels. The city instituted new filtration systems in early 2023, but facility costs led to skyrocketing water bills that became an issue in the local race. Diny, who was elected to Wausau City Council in 2020, won 5,222 votes to Rosenberg’s 4,798. Like many local races, the nominally nonpartisan race was characterized by ideological spending on both sides. According to WisPolitics, the state...

Kevin Rusch was at home on a recent Sunday evening scrolling through Facebook when he saw a photo that shocked him: A man with an American flag bandanna wrapped around his head stood at a rally demanding Wisconsin lift orders that had shuttered schools and businesses. That man was David Murdock, a cardiologist from his hometown, Wausau. And, like the hundreds of other people at the rally, Murdock was maskless and did not appear to be practicing social distancing. In one photo, Murdock’s arm was slung around a priest, with the two holding a sign that read “We are an...

Trump MAGA Rally in Mosinee, WI tonight at 6:30 PM CDT.

In a scandalous example of corrupt media supporting the Obama agenda, a mainstream newspaper reporter simultaneously wrote “objective news” about the First Lady’s contentious public school lunch program while secretly promoting it for a district, a Judicial Watch probe has found. It involves a small public school district in Weston Wisconsin. Last month a student at the high school, D.C. Everest High, organized a boycott of the new and despised school lunch, which is part of Michelle Obama’s $4.5 billion law (Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act) to combat childhood obesity and end childhood hunger in low-income neighborhoods. The student, a senior...

WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) - The organizer of what would have been Wausau's first gay pride parade has cancelled it, saying he has experienced a wave of ugliness in the community. Daxx Bouvier told Daily Herald Media (http://wdhne.ws/12ZwKye ) that he cancelled Saturday's parade after negative comments from a City Council member and in articles in local media. Bouvier says people who had planned to be in the parade told him they were concerned about their safety. City Council member Dave Nutting said at meeting earlier this month that people should boycott the parade or, if they went, turn their backs...

WPS Health Insurance announced today that it is adjusting its resources in response to competitive pressures and recent losses in the government contract market. The company will adjust resources across the corporation. Staffing impacts could affect 600 positions, though this number is subject to change. The actual adjustments and timeframe depends on the outcome of protests and additional opportunities. Adjustments will occur in phases over the next year. Notices to staff will begin as early as November 2012. Recent activity in the company’s government business lines makes the reductions necessary.

Democrats appeared to have assumed control of the state Senate with results posted early Wednesday showing former Sen. John Lehman (D-Racine) defeating incumbent Van Wanggaard in a tight race. Republicans held on to three other state Senate seats in Tuesday's recall voting. Democratic challengers lost recalls bids against Sens. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) and Terry Moulton (R-Chippewa Falls.). Rep. Jerry Petrowski (R-Stettin) was elected to fill the vacancy left by Sen. Pam Galloway (R-Wausau), who resigned earlier this year after opponents gathered enough signatures to initiate a recall election. All eyes Wednesday will be on the 21st District. Results posted early...

(edit) A witness told a Wausau Daily Herald reporter at the scene that he was sitting on the back porch of a home when the suspect pulled up in his vehicle, got out and accused the victim of criticizing his Islamic religion.The victim denied that he had been critical of Islam, but the suspect then grabbed a tire iron, hit the victim in the head and punched him before speeding off in his vehicle, witnesses said. (edit)

WAUSAU, Wis. (WLS) - The Marathon County Labor Council has reversed a decision that excluded Republican politicians from participating in the Labor Day parade in Wausau. Labor Council President Randy Radtke earlier said Republican elected officials were not invited because they supported changes to collective bargaining for public employee unions. Wausau Mayor Jim Tipple responded by threatening to withhold financial support for the parade unless everyone was allowed to participate. WSAW-TV says Radtke released a statement Wednesday which said the Labor Council didn't want community groups and school bands affected, so Republicans will be allowed in the parade. Tipple told...

The mayor of a Wisconsin town said on Tuesday a local labor council would have to reimburse the city up to $2,000 for a Labor Day parade if organizers exclude Republican lawmakers from attending. The move in Wausau, Wisconsin, came after a county labor official said last week that Republican politicians were not welcome at the event due to their party's stance against collective bargaining when state lawmakers voted to curtail it earlier this year. Wausau Mayor Jim Tipple told Reuters on Tuesday that the decision to exclude elected Republicans "flies in the face of public policy." "This is not...

Organizers of Wausau's Labor Day parade say Republican lawmakers aren't welcome in this year's event. The Marathon County Central Labor Council sponsors the September 5th parade. The council includes about 30 local unions from the Marathon County area. Council president Randy Radtke says they choose not to invite elected officials who have "openly attacked worker's rights" or did nothing to intervene.

Wausau Mayor Jim Tipple: "The banning of a political party from participation at any event co-sponsored by the City is against public policy and not in the best interest of all the citizens of the City of Wausau. And therefore, we encourage the event organizer to invite all interested parties, or reimburse the city for other costs."

In previous years, Republicans have worked the parade route, but this year they will not be allowed to take part. The parade is organized by local unions, which said Wisconsin Republicans "have openly attacked worker's rights." Wisconsin politics — which hasn't been pretty of late — has made its way into a local Labor Day parade. The organizers of the Wausau Labor Day parade announced they would not let Republican lawmakers take part in the Sept. 5 display. The parade is organized by 30 local unions. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports: In a statement, [Randy Radtke, president of the council,] added...

WAUSAU, Wis. — Waterways across the upper Midwest are increasingly plagued with ugly, smelly and potentially deadly blue-green algae, bloomed by drought and fertilizer runoffs from farm fields, that's killed dozens of dogs and sickened many people. Aquatic biologists say it's a problem that falls somewhere between a human health concern and a nuisance, but will eventually lead to more human poisoning. State officials are telling people who live on algae-covered lakes to close their windows, stop taking walks along the picturesque shorelines and keep their dogs from drinking the rank water. Peggy McAloon, 62, lives on Wisconsin's Tainter Lake...

3 Of 4 Words Misspelled On Road SignA road sign that was put up near Wausau, Wis., has every word misspelled -- except for one.

ROTHSCHILD (WAOW)-- A sign directing drivers onto Business Highway 51 in Rothschild spelled every word incorrectly except for "exit." A spokesperson with the Department of Transportation says it should be fixed tomorrow morning. He says the company who made the sign apparently just put a few letters out of order and added some extra letters. He joked that it was quote "just a bad day" for whoever made it.

Employees and shoppers are being allowed back into the Rib Mountain Wal-mart after a bomb scare. The Marathon County Sheriff's Department tells NewsChannel 7 that the incident happened shortly before 4 p.m. After everyone was evacuated, the Marathon/Oneida County Bomb Squad swept the building. Employees were then allowed back in, followed by the shoppers. Stay tuned to www.wsaw.com and NewsChannel 7 for further details.

WAUSAU, WI (AP) - Two people found with 160 neglected dogs, cats and other animals in their Marathon County home were sentenced to three years probation during which they will not be allowed to own or come in contact with animals. Mary E. Morse, 42, and Clark W. Petitt, 58, were sentenced Thursday after authorities found rabbits, dogs, cats and goats living in unsanitary conditions in their Hamburg home in December. Several of the animals had to be euthanized and at least four puppies were found in a kennel with feces halfway up their legs. Many were not given enough...

Court refuses to reinstate lawsuit over slip on french fry (Published Wednesday, October 8, 2003 09:17:49 AM CDT) By Robert Imrie/Associated Press WAUSAU, Wis. -- A divided state appeals court refused Tuesday to revive a woman's lawsuit that alleged a Green Bay arena was unsafe because she slipped on a ketchup-soaked french fry on a stairway and broke her ankle. The 3rd District Court of Appeals said allowing the lawsuit to proceed as the woman contended would have impractical ramifications for stadiums, theaters, restaurants and shopping malls. "Imagine, for example, the consequences for Lambeau Field when more than 70,000 people...