1410 WIZM

A young boy reportedly was hurt in an accident on the Torchlight Parade route in La Crosse Thursday night...

Sources report that the boy, about eight years old, was run over by a vehicle in the Gillette Street area around the time the parade was starting.  He apparently had arm and leg injuries.  City police could not confirm whether the vehicle was taking part in the parade, but the parade was stalled for several minutes because of the accident.

 

Downtown La Crosse business owners can apparently breathe a little easier today. Police have nabbed a guy they figure has been behind all sorts of burglaries downtown. They arrested 26 year-old Nathan Holmes early yesterday morning after he broke into the Pearl ice cream shop and nabbed hundreds of dollars. They suspect it's the second time in about a week he's hit the Pearl. They also think he knocked over Coney Island a couple of times and Big Al's once. They caught Holmes with a portable police scanner, a flashlight, multi-tool and schematics for other places he was apparently targeting.

Sometime in the not-too-distant future, getting caught with a one-hitter in your pocket may turn into nothing more than a ticket in La Crosse. But maybe not right away. A city council committee is the first to say no to a proposal to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. Council member John Satory is pushing hard for this one.  He says it's time the city council realize that there are far more problems than marijuana in the city and that tough enforcement of pot laws make it more likely young people will turn to hard drugs. The proposal under consideration by the city council would decriminalize possessing anything less than 25 grams.

In the battle of dueling campaign war chests, one local legislative race is close to being a dead heat. According to a new report from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, Republican West Salem state rep Mike Huebsch and democratic challenger, Cheryl Hancock both have just about 14 thousand dollars in their respective campaign accounts. Cash stockpiling is pretty close in the 96th assembly race as well.  Westby Republican incumbent Lee Nerison and democratic challenger Brian Murphy have both managed to gather around 40 thousand dollars for that race. More lopsided is the race for La Crosse's legislative seat, in which democrat incumbent Jennifer Shilling has over fifty thousand dollars in her campaign account, compared to about a hundred bucks for Republican challenger, Nick Charles.