The Broadsheet: Elections called early
Headlines from the Barron News-Shield April 2, 2025 edition, plus some extra, newsy recommendations from the editor.
Headlines
Statewide races were surprisingly decisive and so were most local races in the Spring Election on Tuesday, April 1. Among local municipal and school board seats, there was a fair amount of turnover, with some incumbents overtaken by new candidates. See the results of all contested races here.
The names of those involved in a crash on Hwy. O on March 18, including a man who was killed, were released this week by the Barron County Sheriff’s Department. Back seat passenger Brent M. Greene, 50, of Osceola, was pronounced deceased at the scene, according the sheriff’s department crash report. The report states that at 5:55 a.m. the SUV, a GMC Acadia SUV driven by 34-year-old Amber S. Kaeder, was traveling southbound in excess of the speed limit on Hwy. O when it crossed the centerline into the northbound ditch.
The Barron Police Department is looking for 2001-2008 Chevy Trailblazer, tan or silver in color, that ran head-on into a brick block retaining wall that fronts the property owned by Barron Mayor Rod Nordby and his wife, Carla. The crash happened Saturday evening, March 23, at approximately 11 p.m. The vehicle, which left the scene of the accident, sustained damage to the front passenger-side bumper and is missing the area of where a fog light normally is mounted, but there were no fog lights at the scene of the crash, according to Barron Police Chief Joe Vierkandt.
Fifty-one years after Mary K. Schlais was murdered in Dunn County, a man has been sentenced for the crime. Jon K. Miller, 84, of Owatonna, Minnesota, pleaded no contest to 1st-degree murder in Dunn County Circuit Court on Thursday, March 27. He was sentenced to life in prison. Miller was arrested in November of 2024 after genetic testing created the break in the cold case, as Miller was linked to DNA sample from a hat found at the scene of Schlais’s murder.
A 17-year-old has been arrested for allegedly striking and killing a woman with her vehicle on a rural Dunn County highway on Saturday, March 29 . At approximately 7:14 a.m. the Dunn County Communications Center received a 911 call reporting a female lying in the ditch who appeared to have been struck by a vehicle on County Highway Y between 330th Ave. and 370th Ave. in the Town of Dunn. The woman was later identified as Ann M. Seidl, 54, of Eau Claire. She was pronounced deceased at the scene.
Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald has announced their newest K9 officer, Creed. The dog and its handler, Deputy Raymond (Bo) Nelson, are currently in the Saint Paul K9 Academy. The academy is run by the Saint Paul Police Department.
GOOD READ/WATCH: This gloomy weather lately strikes me as good board game weather. There’s a couple in this story from Wisconsin Life that I’d like to try. The story features a UW-Stout instructor who has designed his own video games and now board games. “Distilled” anyone?
That’s all I’ve got for this week. Thanks for reading. If you need to catch up on local news or are looking for more Editor’s Picks, check out the archives at newsshield.substack.com.
—Ryan Urban