Stories you might have missed from around Wisconsin.
Green Bay: Green Bay hotels charging as much as 15 times their normal rate during the NFL Draft.
NFL fans from around the state and the world will be paying attention to Green Bay when the NFL Draft comes to town in April. If those fans want to be part of the event, they’ll be paying a lot more than attention. We all expect to pay higher prices for hotels, airfare and meals during special events, but the Press Gazette is reporting that while some hotel rooms are still available during the draft, fans can expect to pay up to 15 times the regular price. A few Green Bay area hotels still have rooms available during the draft in April, but it will cost visitors anywhere from 3 to 14 times more than a normal spring weekend. Per-night prices for a Green Bay area hotel room for the days of the draft currently start at about $800 and can go as high as $2,000 for a hotel a few blocks from the draft zone. If you’re willing to stay outside Green Bay, prices are a little better. Hotels in communities 30-60 minutes away from the draft have instituted more modest price increases for the days of the draft. One property that doesn’t appear to have raised its rates at all for the NFL draft. Full Story
Madison: Clinic sees record demand for long-term birth control.
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, women have had to make sometimes drastic changes to their reproductive health care planning. Madison medical professionals are seeing the results of those changes. Medical providers in Madison are seeing increased demand for long-term birth control, with UW Health inserting a record number of IUDs in patients last month and UnityPoint Health-Meriter scheduling special clinics for IUDs and implants. There has been a “sharp uptick” in demand since Donald Trump’s reelection in November, which raised new concerns about access to reproductive health care, said Dr. Shannon Reed, associate medical director for primary care at Meriter told the State Journal. “There are a lot of people who are afraid that they will lose access to either long-acting contraception or sterilization procedures,” Reed said. “People, in general, are thinking more about their reproductive health.” Most of the growing demand is among women in their late teens to late 20s, but some is among women in their 30s who have had children and don’t want more. In Wisconsin, the state Supreme Court is scheduled to decide a case that challenges Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion law, which in 2022 was revived and initially interpreted as a near-complete ban on abortion. Full Story
New Glarus: Snowy Owl making a home in New Glarus.
Maybe it’s the beer. Maybe it’s the Swiss culture or the rolling hills, but New Glarus is a draw for visitors. Since December, one of those visitors has been garnering a lot of attention for their Yellow eyes and feathers. A Snowy owl, which is usually a native of the Arctic, is in Little Switzerland and local bird watchers are trying to figure out why. During the winter months, a small number of these owls travel south and sometimes call Wisconsin home for a few months. Also referred to as an Arctic owl, white owl or polar owl, the snowy owl is the heaviest of all owls found in North America. More active during the day, these owls prefer flat landscapes and are usually found close to the ground rather than hiding in trees. The Wisconsin DNR told Channel 3000 that at least 50 snowy owls were reported to have been in Wisconsin by December 12th. One was spotted in Deforest, but a different snowy owl may have been calling the New Glarus area home since the start of December. This particular snowy owl has been drawing in avid birders or folks wanting to see the striking bird, nearly every day. It’s been speculated that the New Glarus snowy owl may be a female since male snowy owls tend to be more white whereas female snowy owls not only have more black markings on them but also tend to be larger. Full Story
