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• Senate District 10 candidates to meet in public forum
• Serious accident occurs at River Falls Golf Course

RIVER FALLS - Candidates for Wisconsin Senate District 10 will respond to questions from voters during a primary election forum Wednesday. The forum will start at 7 p.m. in the Kleinpell Fine Arts Building on the University of Wisconsin-River Falls campus.

The primary election Sept. 14 will select the Democrat who will face Republican incumbent Sheila Harsdorf in the November general election. The four Democratic candidates have agreed to attend the forum. Harsdorf also has been invited.

Democratic candidates are Gary Bakke, a lawyer from New Richmond; Democrat Alice Clausing, Menomonie, who held the District 10 seat 1992-2000; Elise O'Meara Nooney, River Falls, a retired librarian; Dennis Paulaha, Hudson, an economist and former university professor.

The forum is sponsored by the American Association of University Women River Falls Branch, League of Women Voters of Pierce-St. Croix Counties and the UWRF Social Work Program.

Three young men from a wedding party were seriously hurt as they left the River Falls Golf Course, 1001 E. County Road M, Sunday just after midnight.

The three were in a car when the driver lost control on the steep, winding driveway from the golf course and hit a tree. A River Falls ambulance crew and police officers responded.

Because of the seriousness of the accident, the Wisconsin State Patrol is helping with the investigation.

River Falls Police Chief Roger Leque said the cause of the crash is still undetermined but that alcohol hadn't been ruled out as a contributing factor.

The three out-of-town crash victims all ended up at Regions Hospital in St. Paul. One of the injured men was reported to have lost an arm; another was said to be on life-support care.

The injured men were: Jerrod R. Keller, 20, Port Washington; Ryan R. Tesch, 23, Saukville; and the driver, Francis M. Rabitoy, 29, Sheboygan.

The car was a 2000 Chevy Malibu. More on this story can be found in this Wednesday's River Falls Journal.