1410 WIZM

The La Crosse Central Basketball Association will be hosting the 7th Grade Wisconsin State Invitational Championship Tournament to be held here in La Crosse on Saturday and Sunday. With over 95 teams coming to La Crosse, this tournament will draw over 5000 fans and family members to the community each day. Over 700 hotel rooms have been reserved by team members and their families.

The tournament brings the very best 7th grade teams from all around the state who have participated in the Great Northwest Basketball League. The league organizes weekly tournaments in local communities from December - March culminating in this by invitation only tournament.

The La Crosse Central Basketball Association has been chosen from among several communities to host this tournament each of the last 5 years in part because of their ability to host multiple sites and the cooperation they receive from the La Crosse School District, Viterbo, UWL, and the Boys and Girls Club. 17 courts and 6 different sites will be utilized almost non stop on Saturday and Sunday.

Gundersen Lutheran’s high-quality performance has been recognized by one of the nation’s premier ratings systems. For the fourth year in a row and the fifth time overall, Gundersen Lutheran was named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals.

Among hospitals this year who have received the award at least five times, Gundersen Lutheran is one of only 13 hospitals in the nation to achieve this distinction four consecutive years. CEO Jeff Thompson says being in the top 100 is a great honor........being number 1......that's the goal.

The winning hospitals were announced in the March 28 edition of Modern Healthcare magazine.

The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation today released the 2011 County Health Rankings. Of the 72 counties in Wisconsin, La Crosse County ranked 22nd in health outcomes, the same as in 2010.

In the category of health factors, the rank went from 6th in the state last year to 4th this year. Health behavior rankings rose from 21st to 8th in Wisconsin and for the 2nd year in a row, La Crosse County came out on top in the state for the quality of its clinical care.

The La Crosse Area Medical Health Science Consortium, a coalition of health and education partners from the Coulee Region, has set a goal to make La Crosse County the healthiest county in Wisconsin by 2015. More detailed information on the rankings specific to La Crosse County will be analyzed and released over the next few weeks.

Whether a contentious Wisconsin law is actually a law became a little clearer after today. A court hearing in Madison clarified the status--for now--of the new law that limits collective bargaining by public unions. Republican leaders had been working on the assumption that the law was in effect. Even though the Secretary of State has been barred from publishing it, necessary under state statutes.  Now, a Wisconsin judge has ruled that there should be no further implementation of the law.  Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi said today that her earlier restraining order saying the law shouldn't be enacted had either been ignored or misinterpreted.
Sumi stopped short of saying the law was not already in effect.

The Legislative Reference Bureau posted the law on a legislative website Friday, leading Gov. Scott Walker's administration to declare the law was in effect.