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Wisconsin in drought, raising fire danger

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Wisconsin in drought, raising fire danger


GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – Eight counties in Wisconsin are now in a severe drought, while much of the rest of the state is in a moderate drought.

We’ve been following the dry conditions all week on Action 2 News This Morning. The dry conditions are also leading to an increased fire danger.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says most of the state has a moderate fire risk Friday while some counties in Northeast Wisconsin are at a high risk, including Menominee, Shawano, Oconto, and Marinette.

The fields are dry and winds are going to pick up this weekend. One spark to dry vegetation could set off a huge fire.

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That’s why the DNR is asking you to be extremely cautious.

The DNR says gusty winds plus the lack of significant rainfall during the past month are behind the elevated fire risk.

Forest rangers say we typically see conditions like these in spring, not October.

In our area, Door, Kewaunee, Oconto and Shawano counties are considered to be in a “D2,” or severe drought.

“What we may be able to do is adjust to the weather,” Gene Schriefer, Wisconsin Farm Service Agency executive director, said. “I’m fond of, maybe it’s a bit of a cliche, but it’s not how much rain you get, it’s how much rain you keep. I think of this in terms of, if I get a three-inch rain can I capture it or do I get a three-inch rain and two-and-a-half inches of it runs off? That’s the difference in making a farm more drought resilient. If it does flood, does my field drain quickly?”

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It’s less than ideal for farmers, but the executive director of the Wisconsin Farm Service Agency says he’s trying to stay optimistic.

“It’s a lot of year ahead of us. We’re currently in a dry pattern. The two-, three-, four-week forecast is warmer than normal and a little drier than normal, but drier than normal doesn’t mean no rain, it just means the odds of something happening are less that what we’d normally expect this time of year,” Schriefer said.

Conditions could change in the next few months.

The National Integrated Drought Information System predicts that through the end of the year the drought conditions will improve and we could come out of it completely.

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Wisconsin

Pewaukee’s Giselle Janowski commits to Wisconsin women’s basketball

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Pewaukee’s Giselle Janowski commits to Wisconsin women’s basketball


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MADISON – Giselle Janowski, a 5-foot-8 junior guard/forward from Pewaukee High School, announced her commitment to Wisconsin on Wednesday.

Janowski, the younger sister of former Pirates standout Nick Janowski, who is a freshman at Nebraska, averaged 15 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game for the Pirates last season. Pewaukee went 29-1 last season and won the WIAA Division 2 state championship.

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Janowski, who plays club ball for Wisconsin Lakers, scored a team-high 20 points on 6-for-11 shooting in a 60-52 victory over Green Bay Notre Dame in the final.

Janowski is a career 35.7% three-point shooter and has hit .44.3% of her shots overall. She has scored 886 points so far in her career

She announced her decision on X.



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Wisconsin election clerks referred 30 instances of suspected fraud to prosecutors over the past year

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Wisconsin election clerks referred 30 instances of suspected fraud to prosecutors over the past year


Madison, Wis. – Wisconsin election clerks referred 30 instances of suspected fraud and voting irregularities to prosecutors over the last year, according to a new report.

The nation’s multilayered election processes provide many safeguards that keep voter fraud generally detectable and rare, according to current and former election administrators for the Democratic and Republican parties. America’s elections also are decentralized into thousands of independent voting jurisdictions – Wisconsin, alone, has more than 1,800 local clerks – making it almost impossible to pull off a large-scale vote-rigging operation that could tip a race. But fraud does happen occasionally.

Wisconsin law requires clerks to inform the Wisconsin Election Commission whenever they refer a case of suspected fraud or some other voting irregularity to a district attorney. The commission, in turn, is required to compile the data into an annual report to the Legislature. The commission is poised to approve a report Friday that lists referrals made between July 1, 2023, and Sept. 12 of this year.

Eighteen referrals involved someone voting twice. Clerks in Milwaukee County reported seven instances of someone voting twice during the 2024 spring election and eight instances in the 2023 spring election. In each election, those people voted absentee in-person and by absentee mail ballot, according to the report.

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Clerks in Douglas and Kenosha counties also reported a person voting twice in the 2024 spring election. In the Douglas County case, the person voted in-person and in-person absentee. In the Kenosha County case, the person voted in-person in two different municipalities. Clerks in Calumet County reported that someone voted twice in-person absentee in the 2024 partisan primary.

Kenosha County clerks also reported six instances of a felon registering to vote during the 2024 spring election. Polk County clerks referred a case of someone who voted in Wisconsin in the 2023 spring election after registering in another state. Douglas County also referred discrepancies between municipal and county totals for write-in candidates in the 2024 spring election to prosecutors.

The report does not identify anyone and does not include case dispositions.

The commission’s 2023 report showed that clerks referred 44 cases of suspected fraud to district attorneys between June 25, 2022, and June 30, 2023.

Wisconsin’s voting-age population stood at almost 4.7 million as of 2022, according to the elections commission.

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Wisconsin poll shows Harris leading Trump by 4, former president ahead on key issues

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Wisconsin poll shows Harris leading Trump by 4, former president ahead on key issues


Vice President Kamala Harris is maintaining her lead over former President Trump in Wisconsin despite Trump leading on the key issues, according to a Wednesday poll.

The new poll from Marquette Law School finds Harris leading Trump in a 52%-48% match-up. The poll also found that voters are deeply invested in the election, with 46% of respondents saying they have stopped talking to someone about politics due to the presidential race.

Marquette conducted the survey from Sept. 18-26, polling 882 Wisconsin registered voters and 798 likely voters. The poll advertises a margin of error of 4.4%.

Despite trailing in the polls, Trump leads Harris in the top issues in the race, including border security, the economy, and handling the Israel-Hamas war.

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YOUNG SWING STATE VOTERS DELIVER ADVICE FOR KAMALA HARRIS

Former President Donald Trump trails in the polls against Vice President Kamala Harris in Wisconsin by 4 points, a new poll finds. (Reuters)

Trump enjoys a sizable 49-37% lead over Harris on immigration. Meanwhile, 50% of Wisconsinites say he will handle the economy better than Harris, with the vice president getting just 42% support. Trump also enjoys a 45%-33% lead when it comes to Israel’s conflict in the Middle East. He also has a narrow lead over Harris when it comes to foreign relations more generally.

FOX NEWS POLL: HARRIS, TRUMP LOCKED IN TIGHT RACE IN BATTLEGROUND PENNSYLVANIA

Harris does have a lead over Trump in a number of other issues, however, namely abortion and election concerns. Roughly 53% of respondents said they trusted Harris to handle the former, compared to 36% for Trump. Another 49% said Harris would be better for ensuring a fair and accurate election, compared to Trump’s 39%.

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Hurricane Helene is in the eye of the political storm

Trump continues to campaign across the country as he and Harris remain neck-and-neck in national polls. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Wisconsin is among a handful of swing states that are likely to determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. Other states like Ohio and Pennsylvania are also critical to either a Trump or Harris victory.

Pennsylvania in particular is one of the tightest contests in the nation, where Harris leads Trump in a razor-thin 49%-47% match-up, according to new data from AARP. 

Harris in Michigan

Harris holds slight leads over Trump in several key battleground states. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

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The AARP survey spoke with 1,398 likely voters in Pennsylvania and has an overall margin of error of four percentage points. 

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