• WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2015 • VOLUME 83 • NO. 20 • 2 SECTIONS
A cartoonist’s look back at 2015
Giving gifts of kindness PAGE 6
PAGE 2
Leader
The local year in review part 1
INTER-COUNTY
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),567 5($' NORTHWEST WISCONSIN - An anticipated winter storm Monday evening, Dec. 28, brought only a dusting of snow to Burnett and Polk counties. But elsewhere in the state the weather has caused dozens of car accidents. The Department of Transportation put the number at 165 as of late Monday afternoon, with the number expected to rise during rush hour. The DOT’s Gina Paige said the spike LVQ¡W VXUSULVLQJ ´$ ORW RI WLPHV ZLWK WKH Ă€UVW ZLQWHU VWRUP LW¡V NLQG RI OLNH ULGLQJ a bike; it takes a little bit to get back into it,â€? said Paige. “So we’re just trying to remind drivers to slow down and leave some space and take some time getting to their destination.â€? Most of the crashes have been in the southern part of the state. - with information from Parth Shah, WPR News ••• STATEWIDE - After a rough year in the dairy market, milk prices have continued to fall throughout the last month of 2015. And dairy experts believe this downward trend will continue into the new year. Wisconsin dairy producers will continue to see falling prices through December, with the price of milk already dropping $1.30 since last month. Dr. Robert Cropp, a professor emeritus of agricultural economics at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, said this year’s decline in exports to China and other countries has been hard on the dairy market. And he said farmers can expect even lower prices in January and February as the market experiences its yearly postholiday slump. “It’s not uncommon after the holidays here to see a downturn in milk prices, and that’s very normal,â€? Cropp said. “Difference here, because of the loss of exports and that, we’re seeing a bigger downturn in prices than we’d like to see.â€? Cropp said he doesn’t expect dairy prices to increase until the second half of 2016. - Hope Kirwan |WPR News.
from the staff of the Inter-County Leader and Inter-County Cooperative Publishing Association
FEATURE
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Happy New Year!
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