4/20/2026

IRON COUNTY - Following Charles Maslanka's April 2nd conviction in Iron County for false imprisonment, battery, and disorderly conduct, defense attorney Joe Rafferty Jr. moved for a new trial, alleging constitutional violations. Rafferty claims jury foreman Jason Roberts, who allegedly misrepresented himself as a former police officer and task force member, prejudiced the jury by falsely claiming Maslanka had a prior prison term for the same offense, in violation of judicial instructions. On April 13th, Rafferty filed a second motion alleging Roberts concealed law enforcement ties and "highly prejudicial outside information" during jury selection, requesting Roberts be held in contempt for "sabotaging the judicial process," a pre-evidentiary hearing, and an independent investigation.

4/20/2026

ASHLAND COUNTY – Strong Storms pushed though the region on Friday.  According to Ashland County officials, a tornado was observed 7 miles southeast of Clam Lake in the southern part of the county.  Iron and Ashland County were under a tornado warning for the first time this year for a short time.  The worst of the storms stayed to our south affected areas of central and southern Wisconsin.  Minimal to no damage reported in our local area. 

4/20/2026

IRONWOOD – Construction season begins today in Ironwood.  Ayer Street will be shut down starting at 8:30 AM for work near Rigoni’s Inn restaurant.  Reroute will be via Easy Street and Country Club Road.  This will be for numerous lead water service lines to be replaced in this area. Also starting today the Phase 5 Utility project will begin, crews will begin to install temporary water piping on the ground surface from the fire hydrants to each of the houses on all of Ridge Street and on Arch Street west of Lowell Street.  Over the next several days the city will hook up the temporary water piping to homes.  After that, construction crews will remove the old asphalt and curbs in preparation for beginning to dig new water and sewer mains on these streets.  Once the remaining snowbanks melt and the ground dries up construction crews will be adding more topsoil and hydroseeding on Coolidge, Harding and Michigan Ave, where construction took place last year.  The top lift of pavement will be added onto those streets sometime in June or July.  This year’s construction for Phase 5 and the Lead Service Line job both have a deadline of needing to be completed by September 1st, 2026.