Balsam Lake News

Nov. 16, 2009 3:10 p.m. A voluntary initiative that began four years ago to collect data from Wisconsin's insurers, hospitals, major employers and others announced Monday it has launched a database of information taken from millions of claims that can be used to analyze health system performance.

The Eau Claire Fire Department is needed all the way in Polk County after a suspicious container was found.

Eau Claire Royal Credit Union will be acquiring 11 branches in northwestern Wisconsin from AnchorBank.

Gov. Jim Doyle threw his support behind a bill Wednesday that would require people to submit a DNA sample when arrested on felonies, rather than when convicted.

A Polk County judge has ruled in favor of the state of Wisconsin in the state's second case of a farmer refusing to register a livestock premises.

Oct. 21, 2009 4:40 p.m. Madison a ' Gov. Jim Doyle threw his support behind a bill Wednesday that would require people arrested on felonies to submit a DNA sample, rather than when convicted.

Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle said Wednesday he supports a bill calling for DNA to be collected at the time a person is arrested for a felony instead of upon conviction.

Samples of DNA, the so-called gold standard of proof in criminal cases, could be taken from anyone suspected of a serious crime in Wisconsin.

Requiring people to submit DNA when they are arrested for felonies - instead of when they are convicted - will save lives, a state senator and the parents of murder victims said Monday.

A Wisconsin lawmaker wants to make it cheaper for people to scoop up fresh road kill and fill their freezers or decorate their mantles.

A Wisconsin lawmaker wants to make it cheaper for people to scoop up fresh road kill and fill their freezers or decorate their mantles.

Muskego a ' A photograph of himself standing beside the grave of his great-great grandparents and enveloped in a bluish-white mist that seemed to have emerged from the grave propelled Terry Fisk into a career as a ghost hunter.

Samples of DNA, the so-called gold standard of proof in criminal cases, could be taken from anyone suspected of a serious crime in Wisconsin.

After a long and fruitful career with Southern Baptist missions in New Mexico and later with the Home Mission Board , Gerald and Libby Palmer retired to his family's farm in Balsam Lake, Wis.

When asked how valuable DNA evidence can be in solving crimes, Eau Claire County Sheriff Ron Cramer quickly pointed to a 2005 robbery at Lasker Jewelers in Eau Claire in which $57,000 worth of Rolex watches were stolen, and that area native Bill Marquardt is facing murder charges in Florida.

It is no overstatement that DNA has been a boon to law enforcement, providing tools that can often conclusively tie suspects to crimes that at one time were unsolvable.

Unemployment checks for about 30,000 Wisconsin residents were delayed at least a day this week, officials said.

Unemployment checks for about 30,000 jobless workers were delayed for at least a day this week, officials said Thursday.

A western Wisconsin man was flown to the hospital after being hit by a truck as he checked the oil in his own truck.

An Inver Grove Heights man crashed a stolen semi truck in western Wisconsin on Saturday, pinning a man between two vehicles and fracturing both his legs.