Thomas A. Rudesill Jr., 78, of Gresham, passed away Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014. Arrangements are pending with the Swedberg Funeral Home in Shawano. www.swedbergfuneralhome.com

Hillcrest Primary School This past month the LEADS kindergarten class has been busy learning all about the Arctic. The children have discovered many interesting connections between the habitat, weather and animals. This week the kids have done experiments to help them understand how Arctic animals adapt to survive in such cold weather.

Max Shabani and his wife, Buki, have opened Max’s Restaurant at the former Amicos location at W7389 River Bend Road south of Shawano. The couple has 40 years of experience in the restaurant business, most recently in Illinois. Max’s menu includes breakfast, Angus burgers, melts, chicken sandwiches, appetizers, hot sandwiches, wraps, club sandwiches, salads, diet plates, stir fry, homestyle meals with old-fashioned recipes, seafood, Italian specia

Felony drunken driving charges were filed this week against a Hortonville man accused of crashing into a horse and buggy on Thanksgiving Day and seriously injuring two people. Robert J. Egbert, 38, is charged with two counts of operating while intoxicated-causing injury and two counts of operating with a prohibited alcohol concentration-causing injury.

The Relay For Life of Shawano-Menominee kicked off its 2014 fight against cancer Wednesday, but whether the fight will continue locally depends on more participation. Relay For Life is an international fundraiser for the American Cancer Society.

Chargers second at Bluejay Challenge The Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School wrestling team took second Saturday at the Bluejay Challenge in Merrill. Merrill won the tournament with 538 points. The Chargers finished with 488. Menominee Indian (138) finished 16th. Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s Ben Vosters won the 120-pound championship with a 2-0 decision over Adams-Friendship’s Cole Clark.

Austin Siolka led all Bonduel High School wrestlers in winning the 113-pound championship Saturday at the Brawl in the Falls wrestling tournament in Oconto Falls. The Bears took fourth in the 15-team tournament, scoring 167 points. Kaukauna (200.5) won, followed by Reedsville (178) and Oconto Falls (172.5). “We probably didn’t do as well as we were hoping to,” Bonduel coach Chris Rank said.

Shawano County officials are hoping a wage study being conducted here will get a better reception than a similar study did in Oconto County. The Oconto County study was done by Madison-based Carlson-Dettmann Consulting LLC, which the Shawano County Board of Supervisors voted 25-1 last month to do a wage and job classification study here at a cost of $42,000. Though Oconto County officials expected some dissatisfaction, administrators estimated pe

A relentless band of heavy snow that lingered for most of the day brought a virtual standstill to all but essential services and plow drivers Tuesday. The storm forced early school closings and event cancellations throughout the area and was a factor in at least 29 county traffic accidents between 6:40 a.m.