1410 WIZM

He was out. He went back in. He was out again. Now, Joseph Smith has completed the cycle once more. The guy who tried to kill La Crosse officer Jon Wenger more than four years ago during a traffic stop was recently released from the Mendota state hospital. He's had recurring hallucinations and repeated mental illness problems which medication doesn't seem to solve. He's been locked up again after calling police on Saturday to report shots fired and someone killed at his apartment building on third street. No such incident, police say, actually occurred.

Could Bliss Road be reopened to one lane traffic?

Many people living in the town of Shelby hope the answer is 'yes,' but the La Crosse Public Works Department says it's too early to know. Assistant public works director Tony Hutchens says a consultant will check out the road up Grandad Bluff on Friday. And Hutchens adds that it's still up to the city council to decide whether the road should ever be reopened after frequent landslides. The town of Shelby is offering to pay for a traffic signal that could regulate one-lane traffic on Bliss Road.

November 10th of 1998......60-mile-an-hour winds blew constantly for 12 hours – and 50-mile-an-hour gusts were hit after that. The result......4 were killed and six others were injured around the state.

Could that happen again today? Dan Jones with the National Weather Service in Lacrosse says there's a good chance. There is a high wind warning until tonight at 7.

An 87-year-old man was killed that day in West Allis when he yanked open a door and fell head-first on his porch. The winds of '98 also killed a 67-year-old woman in Door County – a 50-year-old woman in Columbia County – and a 16-year-old boy in Kenosha County. Six others were injured around the state.

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan says HUD will speed federal disaster assistance to nine counties in Wisconsin and provide support to homeowners and low-income renters forced from their homes following severe storms and flooding last month.

Last week, President Obama issued a disaster declaration for Buffalo, Clark, Jackson, Juneau, Marathon, Portage, Taylor, Trempealeau, and Wood Counties.

The President’s declaration allows HUD to offer foreclosure relief and other assistance to certain families living in this county.