The drought has caused a shortage of flattened, dried cow manure – or cow chips – for the Wisconsin State Cow Chip Throw and Festival, which attracts about 300 throwers and 40,000 spectators to Prairie du Sac, Wis, the Associated Press reports. "This is my 24th throw, and it's never been this difficult to find chips," one competitor said.

Nearly 10 years after two Boy Scouts discovered a skull near Houlton, Wis. -- and after detectives recently chased one especially promising lead all the way to Japan -- investigators are back to square one. The skull's identity remains a mystery, and the St. Croix County Sheriff's Office is again asking for the public's help. The Star Tribune dives into the mystery....

More than 1,000 dairy calves throughout the Midwest have died during the past two-three weeks as a result of heat stress, officials said Friday. Half of the more than two dozen herds of dairy cows struck by the heat stress deaths are in Wisconsin.

Bird-watchers are catching a glimpse of something pretty special as snowy owls make a rare migration south of the Arctic in search of food.

Fresh from their only debate of the campaign, in which Vice President Joe Biden and vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., badgered each other for 90 minutes, the two candidates plan Dairy State stops. Biden will be in La Crosse Friday. Ryan is in Ohio Friday, but he'll speak at a fundraiser for Senate candidate Tommy Thompson Sunday, and plans a town-hall meeting Monday at Carroll University in Waukesha.

The La Crosse Tribune reports the Minnesota-based company is shutting down the Brice Prairie plant near Onalaska in the next couple of months.