A health clinic in western Wisconsin was temporarily put into lockdown Thursday afternoon after a threatening phone call.

Just after 2 p.m., Barron County officials received a 911 call from a staff member at the Marshfield Medical Center Emergency Department in Rice Lake, stating that someone called and said two men were going to “shoot up the hospital” in about 20 minutes.

After interviewing the staff member later, it was determined that the man who called had disguised his voice and got upset before hanging up the phone, according to the Rice Lake Police Department.

Rice Lake police, the Barron County Sheriff’s Office and Wisconsin State Patrol responded to the scene, and the medical facility was secured.

Any patients who wanted to leave the facility were allowed to do so, authorities noted.

During the lockdown, law enforcement discovered there were similar threats, known as “swatting calls,” at other places across the state on Thursday.

At about 4:18 p.m., the lockdown was lifted, and authorities cleared the scene. Rice Lake police added that no one was injured during the incident.

The police department said it will continue investigating the threat with other law enforcement agencies.

The Rice Lake health center is roughly two hours northeast of the Twin Cities, and approximately 50 miles north of Eau Claire. The center’s website says it offers both inpatient and outpatient practice, covering a wide range of services.

A spokesperson for the health system told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the clinic was closed for the rest of the day Thursday, but hospital operations have since returned to normal.

“The safety of our patients and staff at Marshfield Medical Center-Rice Lake is our top priority,” the system added.

Entering free agency, there was plenty of buzz surrounding the idea that the Detroit Pistons could be set to lose restricted free agent Jalen Duren.

The gap in contract negotiations sent Duren and his camp into free agency, looking to not only prove Detroit wrong about his market value but find a team that would ink him to the massive payday he’s searching for, even if it meant landing on a rebuilding team like the Sacramento Kings.

Between Sacramento’s interest, the Los Angeles Lakers’ flirting with an all-out pursuit for the 22-year-old star, and Duren’s intrigue with landing on the Boston Celtics, it felt like the Pistons didn’t have the leverage they were hoping for, even with Detroit signaling they’d match any offer sheet.

However, the Lakers have landed Walker Kessler, the Celtics have signed Mitchell Robinson and offloaded Jaylen Brown, and the Kings aren’t even a real consideration without Detroit willing to facilitate a sign-and-trade.

The silence from Duren’s camp over the last couple of days is deafening, and it signals that the leverage is back in the Pistons’ court.

Pistons are Jalen Duren’s best option

Detroit may not have offered Duren the supermax extension he was searching for, but several reports have suggested the Pistons did offer a deal they felt was enough for the former first-round pick to return to the Motor City.

With the Lakers now out of the picture, the Celtics’ future in serious question, and no other team with cap space available to make a run, the Pistons are Duren’s best option to not only get paid but also contend.

Duren has a great relationship with superstar guard Cade Cunningham, and while it’s clear that his priorities were landing a bag this summer, there’s no reason why he can’t get the best of both worlds by receiving a notable raise and returning to the place he’s called home since 2022.

The Pistons lost Tobias Harris in free agency, they moved on from Isaiah Stewart, and the futures of Caris LeVert and Duncan Robinson are still very much in question.

Detroit can’t let another key piece of their top-seeded roster exit this offseason, even if there’s a massive gripe about how Duren played during the playoffs.

Fresh off an All-Star season that landed him an All-NBA nod, the Pistons want to retain him, and with his options disappearing fast, Duren should be more open to a return now.

A hospital bed. That was the only thing that could stop Dominique Paul Noth from doing a review.

An ice storm tried a couple of years ago, coming to Milwaukee the same night as a dance recital. It failed. When he could no longer drive and gave up his license, one of his children would take him, or he’d Uber to a performance. That was his level of dedication.

Then, one month before his passing, Noth, stuck in a hospital bed and hooked up to an oxygen tank, acquiesced, calling his editor to inform him he would not be able to review Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None.” For the first time in his 60 years as an arts critic in Milwaukee, the show would go on without him.

“He was not happy about it,” his son Vincent said.

“It’s something I don’t think I’ve ever seen him do before,” added Paul, the third oldest Noth’s nine children.

Noth, who influenced Milwaukee’s discussion of culture and the arts for close to six decades, died on June 26 at 84 years old. He had advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease complicated by heart failure.

Conceived while his parents were escaping the Nazis in France, Noth was born in New York in 1942. He moved to Milwaukee as a teenager and went to Marquette University, where he fell in love with the arts.

Noth graduated in 1963, and worked in New York for three years before being hired by the Milwaukee Journal, where he worked in a variety of positions for three decades. Starting as a copy editor, he soon made a switch to news writing before becoming a film and drama critic.

He kept rising, becoming an arts and senior features editor, working on the publication’s beloved Green Sheet in the 1970’s. Noth stayed at the newspaper long enough to serve as the first online news producer for the merged Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

In the 1970’s and 80’s, he also taught a film course at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. After leaving the Journal Sentinel, he served as editor-in-chief of The Milwaukee Labor Press for a decade before becoming a contributing theater and culture critic for Urban Milwaukee.

Noth’s writing earned numerous honors, including nine gold medals from The Milwaukee Press Club for Best Critic. Never afraid to ruffle feathers with searing reviews, Noth said “the force fizzled” in “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.” He even briefly got himself banned from reviewing a Skylight Theater show in 1974 because of past rhetoric.

“He approached Milwaukee as if it was New York, L.A., Chicago,” said Jeannie Gaffigan, Noth’s oldest daughter. “He really always believed in Milwaukee, and always believed in the arts in Milwaukee.”

His access to subjects often set him apart. Once, when Cary Grant was getting into a taxi to go to the airport, Noth followed the actor into the cab to secure an exclusive interview. He also got a one-on-one with Steven Spielberg by talking his way past security after the filmmaker spurned other media.

Noth juggled working tirelessly with raising a family, and often involved them in his jobs. He would take his children to exclusive, private screenings and even more exclusive interviews. His kids attended his UWM classes, and sat in the Milwaukee Journal offices while he typed his reviews.

He also loved to cook and bake, making everything from scratch.

“I have no idea how he did as much as he did,” son Paul said. “He was able to accomplish a lot.”