News 05.04.18
4 May 2018 News
Construction is expected to begin this month on a new Fond du Lac animal shelter. Fond du lac Humane Society Board president Joe Leventhal says the new shelter will be built just to the north of the existing shelter. Leventhal says the new shelter will be approximately double the size of the current building. Leventhal says the expansion will provide much needed room for dogs and cats and to be able to isolate animals that are sick. Construction is expected to be completed before the end of the year.
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Waupun school officials are excited about a new facility that will teach students the skills that local employers are looking for. Groundbreaking ceremonies were held this week on the new Warrior Innovation Center. Waupun superintendent Dr. Tanya Olson says the center will provide students with technology education and hands on training. The center will feature production areas for fabrication, welding, a large shop room and house Warrior Fabrication, a student run business. Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation also announced this week that Waupun is one of nearly two dozen schools statewide to receive a Fab Lab grant to help equip a high-tech workshop in the Innovation Center.
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Wisconsin has received hundreds of applications to grow industrial hemp for the first time in the state. The state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection has received about 340 applications over the past two months. Preliminary numbers indicate about 250 of the applications are for growing industrial hemp, while more than 90 are for processing the plant. The Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation says the state’s hemp production history from the 1940s may be influencing the currently high level of interest. The state legalized industrial hemp production last year. Industrial hemp has less than 1 percent THC, the main psychoactive part of the cannabis plant. Marijuana contains between 3 and 15 percent THC. Hemp can be turned into many items, including food, clothes, insulation and construction materials.
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Data from the state Department of Natural Resources show about 6 percent of deer tested last year were infected with chronic wasting disease. According to the data, 600 of 9,882 deer analyzed tested positive for the disease, an infection rate of nearly 6.1 percent. The 2016 infection rate among tested deer was 7.3 percent. The 2015 rate was 9.4 percent, the highest since the disease was discovered in Wisconsin in 2002. The testing season runs from April 1 through March 31. Three of the 50 deer the DNR has tested since March 31 were infected. Gov. Scott Walker announced Wednesday he was directing state agencies to develop regulations requiring enhanced deer farm fencing and limiting movement of dead deer from CWD-affected counties in an effort to slow the disease’s spread.
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