River Falls Opens Season with Win over Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln

River Falls raced past Wisconsin Rapids in their Week 1 opener by a score of 44-21.

Tino Massa completed 15 of 18 passes for 227 yards and a pair of touchdowns for River Falls.

River Falls           7 21 3 13 – 44

Wisconsin Rapids 7  7  7  0  – 21

stats link HERE

Rapids stats not available, will be shared if submitted

Athlete of the Week and Team of the Week:

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Pancakes or Waffles!  We feature top area athletes with our world-renowned feature. Send us your nominations for who you’d like us to interview HERE

College Athlete Roundup! We want to recognize student-athletes from the area who are competing at the college level. Send us information on college athletes from the area with our simple form HERE

Where are they Now? We feature athletes and difference makers from the past, standouts in sports who excelled over the years and have moved on. Know of a former athlete, coach, or difference maker who we should feature? Know of a former standout competitor whose journey beyond central Wisconsin sports is one we should share? Send us information on athletes and difference makers of the past with our simple form HERE

Baked or Fried! We also feature difference makers throughout central Wisconsin: coaches, booster club leaders, administration, volunteers, you name it. Send us your nominations for who you’d like us to interview HERE

Wayne County commissioners plan a public discussion Tuesday on a controversial plan to bring hazardous and radioactive waste into a Van Buren Township landfill.

The public discussion is set for 1 p.m. Tuesday at 500 Griswold St. in Detroit, inside the Guardian Building. Several officials were concerned about the plan after the Detroit Free Press reported that Wayne Disposal will take 6,000 cubic yards of soil and concrete, and 4,000 gallons of groundwater contaminated with radiation from a site in New York where the Manhattan Project developed the atomic bomb during and after World War II.

“Transferring nuclear waste poses a serious threat to residents in the area and throughout our county, and we want to make sure their voices are heard,” Wayne County Commission Chair Alisha Bell said in a statement. “We are the nation’s 19th most-populated county and we sit alongside the world’s largest freshwater supply. Surely, there are other, less-populated and less-risky places where this waste can be stored.”

Environmental officials are expected to participate in the discussion, including Elizabeth Browne from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, and Patrick Cullen from the county’s environmental services department. Van Buren Township Supervisor Kevin McNamara is also expected to participate. Commissioners aim to provide sufficient information to divert the hazardous waste elsewhere, according to the Wayne County Commission.

Wayne County Executive Warren Evans previously questioned why wastes find their way to Wayne County. Arizona-based waste giant Republic Services’ Wayne Disposal and Michigan Disposal operate as among the largest hazardous waste landfills and processing facilities in the nation.

“While I understand that these materials have to go somewhere, and few if any public officials are willing to welcome toxic waste with open arms, there needs to be a solution, through new policy or legislation, that doesn’t equal Wayne County as dumping ground for what no one else wants. Because that is an assignment we simply will not accept,” Evans said in a statement.

State and local officials are hamstrung in regulating hazardous waste. A 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on imported garbage declared out-of-state trash “articles of commerce” — essentially a commodity or good — that could not be restricted under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. That case arose from St. Clair County officials attempting to restrict a local landfill from accepting out-of-state waste.

State Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Trenton, in a statement Monday said the plan to accept the waste is “alarming” and called for a larger discussion about hazardous waste management in the country.

“Wayne County is the most populous county in Michigan, and our state is surrounded by 20% of the world’s fresh water. We cannot continue to be America’s dumping ground for toxic waste. Our district and our community deserve so much better,” Camilleri said.

The meeting will also be livestreamed on the Wayne County Commission YouTube page and available through Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/2234975895.

More: How southeast Michigan became a dumping ground for America’s most dangerous chemicals

Free Press reporter Keith Matheny contributed to this story.

Dana Afana is the Detroit city hall reporter for the Free Press. Contact: dafana@freepress.com. Follow her: @DanaAfana.

Milwaukee Brewers legend Robin Yount said he was “the luckiest guy in the world” to have been drafted by the team.

When wood artist Isaac Wynter Weins — a lifelong fan of the Crew — was commissioned by the ball club to make a custom piece to honor Yount, he felt pretty darn lucky, too.

“It’s one thing to partner with big companies and do cool collabs, but it’s a whole different ballgame when it’s things that are from your hometown, things you grew up with,” said Weins, known as Ike Wynter to his massive social media following. “It’s definitely a dream come true.”

Spring marked the 50th anniversary of Yount’s debut as a Brewer at 18 years old. The Kid, who’d become the face of the franchise, would spend his entire 20-year career with Milwaukee, during which he batted .285 while amassing 3,142 hits, 251 home runs and 1,406 runs batted in.

Ahead of Sunday’s game at American Family Field, the ball club recognized Yount and his milestone anniversary. That included a 35-second standing ovation as the Baseball Hall of Famer took the field to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

But before that, in a more intimate setting by the clubhouse, Weins — who’s had quite the career himself — got to unveil to Yount and his family the custom wood mosaic he spent 75 hours creating in his Butler studio.

It’s a home plate with two bats that appear to be crisscrossing through it. A nameplate atop says “Yount #19” with a baseball above and a “50th anniversary” with the Brewers glove logo below.

Besides a couple of bats given to him by the team, the artist used nothing but reclaimed wood — which is Weins’ medium — and his go-to tools: A scroll saw, band saw and sander. He cuts all the pieces to fit together almost like a puzzle. And, he never uses stains or paints.

To bring the piece for Yount to life, Weins used wood from a school desk he found on the side of the road, a sheet of wood paneling and birch plywood from dumpsters, a bulletin board from a Milwaukee elementary school and a kitchen cabinet door from his time in Minnesota.

He knocked out the glove first, then worked his way around the piece, section-by-section, he said. The baseball was one of the last parts he tackled, having to make “the tiniest incisions and cuts” to create its intricate stitching.

Local artist Ike Wynter unveils the custom wood mosaic he made for Robin Yount

“Are you the artist?” Yount pointed to Weins in a video he shared on social media.

“I’m Robin Yount,” the man of the hour said, walking over to shake the artist’s hand.

Awaiting the grand reveal, Yount joked, “I hope you made me look good,” probably expecting a portrait of sorts, Weins recalled. The two-time MVP was in for quite the surprise.

After Weins pulled off a black sheet to reveal the large wood mosaic, Yount’s response was: “Oh wow, very cool.”

Weins walked Yount through the piece and the elaborate journey that went into making it. Weins said Yount “really got” and appreciated it.

Weins said he had heard from folks who watched Yount’s career unfold in real-time that he was “the greatest” both on and off the field.

“Meeting him was a testament to that,” Weins said. “The whole time we were talking and chatting, it wasn’t meeting like an A-list celebrity or anything. He was just a very down-to-earth, Milwaukee dude. And, a community-driven dude. And, you can just tell that.”

Weins also made a plaque to attach to the back of the mosaic that’s embedded with the pencil he used to sketch and mark up the piece. “That’s awesome, Ike,” Yount told him.

To memorialize the moment, Yount, his crew and Weins posed for pics with the mosaic, which will be shipped to the baseball icon’s Arizona home.

And, this wasn’t Weins’ only photo op of the day. He also got to go onto the field — which he had never done before — and to a sentimental spot outside of the stadium.

In 2003, 10-year-old Weins got to play at Helfaer Field, the youth baseball diamond adjacent to where the Brewers play.

Ahead of Sunday, Weins dug up an old photo from that exciting day of him and his teammates outside of what was then Miller Park.

While at the ballpark for the unveiling, Weins stopped by that same spot. It was a “full-circle moment” for him.

“Whatever you want to do or believe in, it’s doable. It’s not out of reach,” Weins said. “If you set out to do something, you can make it happen. You just got to figure it out.”

If Weins’ name sounds familiar, that’s probably because it is. He was the artist behind that giant wooden Crayola crayon box that was making its rounds on social media earlier this summer.

The Mequon resident’s muses are nostalgia and mental health awareness.

The piece that helped launch Weins’ social media career a couple years back was the one he made for former boxing champ Mike Tyson. Since then, he’s constructed Tommy Pickles from “Rugrats,” a “Hoan Town Lager” for 414 Day, a Polaroid camera with interchangeable photos, Legos, a depiction from “Giannis: The Marvelous Journey,” a Father’s Day surprise for “Power Ranger” and singer Chance Perez, and more.

“I feel like a lot of us, your childhood is your greatest years,” Weins said in a previous Journal Sentinel interview. “You just have so many beautiful, warm thoughts. If I can create art that makes people remember things and experiences in their child for that glimpse of a moment as adults now, I just think it’s a cool opportunity.”

His own mental health journey is what led him to start creating art that brings awareness. One of those pieces is “YOU HAVE PURPOSE,” a phrase Weins spelled out with wooden Scrabble letters that span six feet. The number values on the letters made up the Suicide Hotline, which has been simplified to 988.

Weins’ first gallery showing was at Unfinished Legacy in 2023. Since then, he’s displayed pieces at the Milwaukee Night Market, the Milwaukee Athletic Club and a private art gallery at the New York Stock Exchange.

But, before Weins became a full-time artist, he lived many other lives.

He was in the hardcore metal band Narrow Hearts, which played shows at The Rave and all across the country.

He started a junk removal business with his older brother, Andrew, who was formerly in the U.S. Army and remains in the Reserves.

It was during that time that Weins found art as a way to breathe new life into the discarded wood the business collected. And in 2021, Wynter moved to Minneapolis in pursuit of his passion.

Soon after, however, he’d split his time between his own dream and helping make the dreams of others come true. He landed a “dream job,” working as a tour manager for the Los Angeles-based Dream Machine Foundation.

In April 2023, Weins moved back to the Milwaukee area and took his art full-time.

You can read more about Weins and his journey here.