Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.
Wisconsin sheriffs have discretion on whether to report a person booked into county jails to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Racine County Republican, alluded to the background checking Feb. 25.
Vos spoke about an Assembly bill he co-sponsored that would require sheriffs to request proof of legal presence status from individuals jailed for a felony offense.
Former Brown County Sheriff John Gossage, executive director of the Badger State Sheriffs’ Association, said most Wisconsin sheriffs report to ICE a person who is jailed on a felony charge and doesn’t have proof, such as a Social Security number or immigration visa, of legal presence in the U.S.
ICE can ask, but jails are not required, to hold a person for 48 hours if ICE wants to pick up that person for an alleged immigration violation.
Milwaukee County doesn’t report inmate immigration status to ICE. Dane County also doesn’t assist ICE.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Are Wisconsin sheriffs required to check the immigration status of people in jail? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
A seventh inmate has died at Wisconsin’s oldest prison, less than a year after the then-warden and multiple members of his staff were charged with misconduct and felony inmate abuse.
The state Department of Corrections offender website notes that 23-year-old Damien Evans died Tuesday at the Waupun Correctional Institution. The site does not offer any details. A Corrections spokesperson didn’t immediately return a message Wednesday. Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt said in an email to The Associated Press that his agency is investigating Evans’ death but he had no information to share.
Online court records indicate Evans was sentenced in 2019 to seven years in prison for armed robbery and an additional two years to be served concurrently for bail jumping. Both cases were filed in Racine County.
Evans is the seventh Waupun inmate to have died in custody since June 2023. One killed himself, one died of a fentanyl overdose, one died of a stroke, and one died of dehydration and malnutrition. Another inmate, 66-year-old Jay Adkins, died in May. A sixth prisoner, 57-year-old Christopher McDonald, died in August.
The Dodge County Sheriff’s Office has said McDonald’s death appears to have been a suicide. He was sentenced to 999 years after pleading no contest to being a party to first-degree intentional homicide in 1992. Schmidt didn’t immediately respond to follow-up emails Wednesday afternoon seeking updates on the investigations into Adkins’ and McDonald’s deaths.
Prosecutors last year charged warden Randall Hepp with misconduct and eight members of his staff with felony inmate abuse in connection with the deaths of two of the prisoners, Cameron Williams and Donald Maier. Three of the eight staff members also were charged with misconduct. Hepp subsequently retired.
According to criminal complaints, Williams died of a stroke in October 2023. His body went undiscovered for at least 12 hours.
Maier died of dehydration and malnutrition. He had severe mental health problems but either refused or wasn’t given his medication in the eight days leading up to his February 2024 death.
Federal investigators also have been looking into an alleged smuggling ring involving Waupun prison employees. Gov. Tony Evers office has said the probe has resulted in the suspension of nearly a dozen employees. A former prison worker pleaded guilty in September to smuggling cellphones, tobacco and drugs into the facility in exchange for money.
Waupun inmates have filed a class-action lawsuit alleging mistreatment and a lack of health care.
The maximum-security prison was built in the 1850s. Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike have been calling for years to close it. Concerns about local job losses and the cost of building a replacement prison have stymied progress.
Evers, a Democrat, last month proposed a multitiered, $500 million plan for the state’s prisons that includes converting Waupun to a medium-security center focused on job training for inmates.
This story has been updated to correct that Evans is the seventh inmate to die at Waupun Correctional Institution since June 2023, instead of the sixth inmate, and to correct that one inmate killed himself, not two.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup. This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.
Seventh inmate dies at Wisconsin’s Waupun Correctional Institution is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
James Stancil came to work at the Zablocki Veterans’ Administration Medical Center in Milwaukee just like every other Monday.
As a supply technician, he made sure nurses and doctors had the medical equipment they needed, like wound vacuum supplies or infusion pumps that deliver fluids and medications. He cleaned, stored and sterilized equipment used to care for veterans just like him.
But by the end of the day, he was out of a job.
The 61-year-old veteran served in the Army from 1985 to 1989, spending two years in West Germany along the Iron Curtain. Stancil said he received an honorable discharge, but that’s not how he described his firing on Feb. 24.
“This is just a slap in the face,” he said.
Stancil is among 10 employees who were fired at Zablocki and more than 2,400 veterans who have been laid off in recent weeks by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Stancil was on “probationary” status after he was hired last April. He, along with other federal employees in Wisconsin, received almost identical termination notices that said their performance did not show “further employment at the agency would be in the public interest.”
“To disparage my character by saying my performance has not met the burden to show that I’d be in the public interest. How dare you?” Stancil said, adding he’s appealing the decision.
The most recent available federal data shows Wisconsin had around 3,000 federal workers who have been serving for less than one or two years in their current roles. Often called probationary employees, they’ve been the first to be fired as President Donald Trump and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency seek to slash the federal workforce.
While a federal judge has ruled the firings were illegal, the Trump administration is directing agencies to develop plans for “large-scale reductions in force” by March 13.
Almost 11,000 federal employees work for the VA in Wisconsin, but it’s unclear how many have been affected. A VA spokesperson didn’t provide details on how many workers have been fired in Wisconsin, but confirmed a “small number of probationary staff” had been “dismissed” at Zablocki.
“This decision will have no negative effect on veteran health care, benefits or other services and will allow VA to focus more effectively on its core mission of serving veterans, families, caregivers and survivors,” VA spokesperson Bill Putnam said.
Michele Malone is president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3 union that represents Zablocki, which she said has more than 2,000 employees. Even so, she said the center was already running on a “skeleton” crew. A report last year by the VA’s Office of Inspector General found the facility had a severe shortage for 21 types of positions, including one of the positions held by Stancil.
“They’re harming people that work hard. … They do an awesome job in their jobs, and they’re just deliberately dismissing them without any probable cause,” Malone said.
Stancil said he was among two guys fired out of four in his department, saying that means double the work for those who remain. As for him, he still receives VA benefits as a veteran, but he received no severance and must now seek unemployment benefits.
“I drive a 1990 Buick that I just spent 1,800 bucks on to get out of the shop, so to lose that paycheck … I’ll be running out of money here in about 10 days,” Stancil said.
In recent town hall meetings, Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin noted veterans can receive special preference for jobs and may work their entire career on probationary status. She demanded transparency over mass layoffs at the agency. When asked by a constituent about cuts at the VA, Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said the agency has been mismanaged, adding he hoped Trump and Musk could make it run more efficiently.
Rob, a disabled combat veteran, found out via email on Feb. 13 that he had been fired from his position at the Natural Resources Conservation Service within the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Rob requested WPR to only use his first name because he fears retaliation as he appeals his termination.
Rob served for more than a decade in the U.S. Army, including in the 82nd Airborne Division. He deployed in 2003 to Iraq and in 2004 to Afghanistan. In 2005, he joined the honor guard at Arlington National Cemetery, performing military honors for late President Gerald Ford and thousands of fallen service members.
When he got out of the military, he went back to school and worked in the oil and timber industries. Last year, he and his wife moved roughly 2,200 miles from northwest California to Chippewa Falls to accept a job he had held about three months before his firing. Struggling for words, he described his termination as his face reddened.
“It was frustrating. I’ve served my country and I’ve fought in war, and this is what I get,” Rob said.
Rob said he feels betrayed and wants to see all federal workers reinstated, including more than 50 people he said lost their jobs at the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Wisconsin. He said he’s heard some farmers may lose their farms due to the loss of aid from the agency.
With no severance, Rob is trying to figure out unemployment benefits and applying for jobs in his field with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and private consulting firms.
“My wife and I gave up everything. We owned a house that hasn’t sold yet. We’re renting here till our house sells. We left our friends, our family, everything, to come across the country for this,” Rob said. “Then, we just get basically kicked to the curb, and they haven’t even paid me my last paycheck yet.”
He and his wife reached out multiple times to the office of former Navy SEAL and Wisconsin Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, but Rob said that’s gone nowhere. He said his 10 years of military service counts toward time served in the federal government.
WPR reached out to Van Orden’s office about Rob’s termination and veteran status. In a statement, a spokesperson said the office has reached out to him.
“Since he is a veteran, he was first contacted by the congressman’s veterans liaison to ensure his well-being. Additionally, our agriculture staffer spoke with (Rob) today to gather more information on his situation. We are actively looking into ways to assist him,” the spokesperson said.
Five months pregnant with her second child, Hayley Matanowski was planning to take maternity leave in the coming months. Now, she’s hunting for a job after the U.S. Forest Service fired her from her role as an administrative operations specialist at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center in Ashland.
Matanowski said she was terminated for poor performance on Feb. 18 after working in the role for about 10 months. Her husband also works for the agency.
“It’s been really hard. We have a 3-year-old, so at home when she’s awake and we’re interacting with her, we’re trying really hard to just be, you know, business as usual,” Matanowski said. “She doesn’t know that mommy lost her job.”
Matanowski said three other center employees were also fired, including two she supervised who had no record of poor performance. At least a dozen employees with the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest have been fired, according to a union official.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which houses the Forest Service, said it didn’t have state-specific figures on firings. The agency said thousands have been let go in line with Trump’s order to “eliminate inefficiencies” and strengthen services.
“As part of this effort, USDA has made the difficult decision to release about 2,000 probationary, non-firefighting employees from the Forest Service,” a USDA spokesperson said. “To be clear, none of these individuals were operational firefighters. Released employees were probationary in status, many of whom were compensated by temporary IRA funding.”
In her position, Matanowski supervised three front desk staff and assisted the center’s director with overseeing the annual budget. The Forest Service shares the center with several other agencies, and she said they lost half of the four staff members who interact with tens of thousands of visitors who stop there every year.
“It’s hard for us to schedule our five days a week with just three people, like, if someone’s out sick,” Matanowski said. “With two of the four gone, I know for a fact that they’ve had to have other completely non-related Forest Service and also partner employees step in to staff the front desk that … are being taken away from their other duties and responsibilities.”
As for Matanowski, she said she and her husband have some savings, as well as support from family for child care. While he’s still employed, they stress over whether his job may also be eliminated.
She still worries more for others who have been let go, including her fired staff. One of them shared with WPR that they had lost their “dream job.”
That’s how Rachel felt when she was placed on administrative leave on Feb. 15. She was responsible for translating research for patients, clinicians and policymakers in her role working remotely in Milwaukee for the National Institutes of Health.
Rachel asked WPR to use only her first name because she fears retaliation as she’s appealing her termination.
Her work included helping people understand the science behind daily habits or preventive measures that can either avoid chronic conditions or keep them from growing worse. Rachel felt her job helped make the agency more efficient and accountable, which included developing a report to Congress on the agency’s performance.
She was just shy of her one-year anniversary when she received her notice of termination, which is set to take effect on March 14.
“It’s just really hard to accept. I wasn’t prepared for this. I’m pretty devastated,” Rachel said, her voice wavering.
The day before, she said a virtual goodbye to her team and frantically downloaded her performance review and federal records in anticipation of mass firings. As many as 1,500 probationary workers were cut at the National Institutes of Health, according to NPR.
Rachel lost her health insurance, and she said she never thought she would be applying for unemployment benefits. It’s still unclear whether her termination letter that cited poor performance will affect her ability to apply for benefits or future employment prospects.
While Rachel’s partner has a stable job, it’s been unsettling and destabilizing for them both. As she appeals her termination, Rachel doesn’t know what the future holds if she’s reinstated due to “return to work” mandates.
“The return-to-office (order) puts some pretty big barriers in the way because I’m not sure that we can afford for me to move out to (Washington) D.C. I’m not sure I want to do a long-distance marriage,” she said. “I’ve even thought about commuting weekly and finding an apartment, but I don’t think that that’s feasible either.”
In the days leading up to her firing, Jules Reynolds had heard from leadership that the Department of Agriculture was a “safe ship” amid rumors of looming layoffs.
On the morning of Feb. 14, she woke to an email notifying her she had been terminated from her position at the Dairy Forage Research Center in Madison due to poor performance.
The center is the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service station. Reynolds had been employed for about six months as program coordinator for the Soil Health Alliance for Research and Engagement or SHARE initiative. She supported research conducted by the program’s partners on issues like soil health and education by strengthening collaboration and guiding internal resources.
Reynolds said around a quarter of the center’s staff were fired, which included 20 scientists. That morning, she went into the office where she was told she needed to return a government-issued laptop and access card by the end of the day.
“There was this overwhelming sense of loss at the center, and not sure what would happen within the research or the projects of the center, because we had lost so many people,” Reynolds said.
While she said about half a dozen researchers were reinstated, Reynolds said the future of her position remains uncertain.
She was able to download her employment records and has since signed up to be part of a class action lawsuit. For the last six years, Reynolds said she worked as a server and bartender during grad school. Now, she’s once again looking for jobs or other sources of income to pay her rent and other bills.
“Even though I want my career to be one thing in the short term, I can go back to the service industry and at least buy groceries that way,” she said.
While she wants her USDA job back, she wonders whether it may be only temporary. She fears the firings will have ripple effects on early career scientists, as well as research that relies on federal funding.
As federal workers stare down large-scale layoffs, Reynolds said they’re not alone and support systems are available.
Rachel encouraged federal employees to hang in there, and Rob urged employees who have not yet been cut to download their electronic Official Personnel Folder to maintain copies of their records.
As federal workers fight for their jobs, James Stancil said he would go back to the Zablocki VA Medical Center in a heartbeat if reinstated. He likes the work and helping fellow veterans.
If not, Stancil said he’s not too worried because he believes God’s plan is more about being a good person rather than any job or title one may hold.
“If you’re a good person, don’t worry about the other stuff,” Stancil said. “It’ll take care of itself.”
Editor’s note: Anna Marie Yanny contributed reporting for this story.
This story was originally published by WPR.
‘A slap in the face’: Federal workers in Wisconsin fight their firings after mass layoffs is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Mass terminations at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are “crippling” the agency, upending federal workers’ lives and leaving farmers and rural communities without needed support, according to interviews with 15 recently fired employees stationed across the U.S.
Since taking power Jan. 20, the Trump administration has quickly frozen funding and fired federal workers en masse. USDA terminations started Feb. 13, the day Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins was sworn in. Rollins welcomed the quasi-governmental Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, led by billionaire Elon Musk, to find parts of the USDA budget to cut.
Terminated employees helped farmers build irrigation systems, battled invasive diseases that could “completely decimate” crops that form whole industries and assisted low-income seniors in rural areas in fixing leaky roofs. That work will now be significantly delayed — perhaps indefinitely — as remaining employees’ workloads grow, the employees said.
“It’s really crippling the agency,” said Bryan Mathis, a former USDA employee based in New Mexico.
Caught up in the terminations are single parents and new moms, recent hires and longtime employees, and military veterans. Some had uprooted their lives months ago to start their new career. Justin Butt, also based in New Mexico, said that without the health insurance and parental leave offered by his federal job, he and his wife may hold off on having a child.
Many of the USDA employees were on probationary status, meaning they had worked less than a year (or three years, in some instances) in the civil service. However, several had put in years working for the government and had been permanent employees at other federal departments.
The terminations have left employees distrustful and leery of returning to public service. “I don’t feel safe,” said Latisha Caldwell-Bullis, who served in the Army for 21 years before joining a USDA office in Oklahoma. “The whole reason I got back into the federal system was because it has job security.”
The USDA did not return a request for comment. In an interview with Brownfield Ag News, Rollins said her department has done “significant reinstatements” but added new job cuts might be coming. “I do think that moving forward, it will be more intentional,” she said.
The American Farm Bureau Federation, which represents farmers and rural communities across the country, said cuts at USDA should be “strategic.” The farm bureau has supported the Trump administration.
“Reports are still coming in about staffing decisions at USDA, which are causing concern in rural communities and beyond,” Sam Kieffer, the farm bureau’s vice president of public policy, said in a statement to Investigate Midwest. “USDA plays a vital role in ensuring a safe and abundant food supply, from loan officers and disaster recovery experts to food inspectors, animal disease specialists and more.
“We support the goal of responsibly spending taxpayer dollars,” the statement continued, “but we urge the administration to empower the Secretary to make strategic staffing decisions, knowing the key roles USDA staff play in the nation’s food supply.”
Leading up to the terminations, a feeling of unease pervaded USDA offices, said a former employee based in the Midwest who requested anonymity to protect job prospects. The employee’s agency within the USDA used to have regular town halls, but they were canceled after the “fork in the road” email — which promised federal workers a buyout — hit inboxes in late January. “Then, basically, it was crickets from our leadership,” the employee said.
As news of mass firings at other agencies circulated, USDA staffers wondered if they were next. Some cried in offices. Others coped by telling jokes.
The firings were haphazard.
Many received the same email late at night on Feb. 13 saying they were terminated immediately. Jacob Zortman, who sold his house in Kansas in January to move to Nevada, received his work phone on Friday, Feb. 14, only to be fired the following Tuesday, he said.
Another employee said his job title was listed incorrectly on the termination letter. One said they had received an award days before their termination. Several employees said their supervisors had no idea they were fired.
Mathis, who worked for the Forest Service, received a phone call on Monday, Feb. 17, a federal holiday, from a higher-up, who told him he was fired, he said. His direct supervisor was instructed to terminate him but refused.
“It kind of went up the chain,” he said.
Doug Berry, who worked for the USDA’s Rural Development agency in Texas, said, when he attempted to get a copy of his performance review, it was “mysteriously blank.” He then asked his supervisor to write him a recommendation but was rebuffed. The supervisor mentioned an interview Berry gave to USA TODAY, in which he said his agency “helps the towns that voted for Trump every day.”
“I don’t know who’s watching what, but as soon as they saw my comments, any good will evaporated,” he said.
Another former USDA employee, who requested anonymity to protect job prospects, said the terminations will result in a leadership void. The job cuts affected training intended to give the new generation of leaders a holistic view of the agency.
“It’s just going to create a lot of chaos,” the employee said.
DOGE’s stated goal is to improve efficiency across the government, but former employees said they were already working on improving government service efficiencies.
When one former employee joined the department six months ago, they faced a five-year backlog. They had worked through three years when they were terminated, said the employee, who is based in a Western state and requested anonymity to protect future job prospects. Now, other workers will “have to pick up the slack,” meaning delays for projects that farmers and ranchers want done.
Stephanie Gaspar worked for a USDA agency that helped prevent plant, animal and insect diseases from entering the nation’s food supply. Her job was to decrease IT costs. “I and my team had already reduced tens of thousands of dollars of the budget,” she said. “It’s going to cost more in the long run because there’s not enough people to do this work.”
Gaspar, based in Florida, said she had worked hard to get her position. “This ultimately was going to be a career that would pull me out of poverty,” she said. “I’m not some rich federal worker. I’m a working mom.”
One of the USDA’s many responsibilities is providing financial assistance to rural, low-income communities. For example, a small town in central West Virginia requested USDA’s help to find funding for a new police cruiser.
Rural Development was also coordinating a plan to help impoverished families access transportation to medical care, said Carrie Decker, a single mom of four children who worked in the West Virginia office. “You have three generations sharing one vehicle, and people have to work and get to school, so finding time to go to a dentist appointment is not high on the priority list,” she said. The project now lacks USDA support, which could delay it.
After the Trump administration took over, she and her coworkers were instructed not to perform community outreach, which was “90% of what we do,” Decker said. Decker worries the lack of investment in rural areas — which Trump largely won in his reelection bid — will have long-lasting consequences.
“We’re going to see less funding into these critical access places that really, really need to have it and have needed it for decades,” she said. “I think what’s going to happen is these rural places across the nation are going to continue to decline instead of see the growth and opportunity that we were hopeful for.”
Two primary goals of rural development are to provide affordable housing and to help maintain low-income seniors’ homes.
One former USDA employee in the South, who requested anonymity to protect future job prospects, said they were hired to help expedite environmental compliance reviews, which were required before any funding was disbursed. Before they started, the employee said, another employee performed these duties on top of a full-time job.
The situation delayed help to seniors, the employee said. “Their roof is being covered up by a tarp because it’s been blown off by a storm, and they can’t get their grant money to get their roof fixed until compliance reviews are done,” they said. Former coworkers would “basically hound the guy to get it done. It wasn’t efficient.”
The USDA also invests heavily in preventing diseases among plants and animals essential to the food supply.
But the department fired employees working to address the bird flu that’s contributing to skyrocketing egg prices, according to NBC News. The USDA said it was trying to rehire them.
Matthew Moscou worked at a lab in Minnesota, where he helped monitor diseases that could wipe out wheat production in the U.S., he said. He spent the past two-and-a-half years learning from a long-tenured employee so institutional knowledge could be passed on, but it’s unlikely that information is retained now, he said.
“They’ve destroyed the institution,” he said.
Without labs like this, crop diseases, such as wheat-killing stem rust, could flourish, he said.
“Either we’re going to have to rethink how we’re doing this whole thing, or we’re going to have a significant collapse in the long run,” Moscou said. “This current push has really cut us off at the knees.”
Since Investigate Midwest interviewed Moscou, he has been reinstated, at least temporarily, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Mass terminations have cut USDA ‘off at the knees,’ ex-employees say is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
An election that could tip the ideological balance of the Wisconsin Supreme Court is less than one month away, but large numbers of Wisconsinites in a new poll say they don't know enough about the two candidates who are vying for the job.
The post Poll shows many don’t know about Crawford or Schimel in pivotal Wisconsin Supreme Court race appeared first on WPR.
A lot of things aren’t allowed through the doors of Wisconsin’s prisons. Cell phones are banned and even underwire from a bra is considered a possible weapon. But recently, a […]
The post ‘Concerts for Hope’ brings classical music to a Wisconsin prison appeared first on WPR.
Much of northern Wisconsin, from La Crosse through Stevens Point and up to Superior, is under a winter storm warning lasting through Wednesday evening, issued by the National Weather Service.
The post Expect stormy weather through tonight in northern Wisconsin appeared first on WPR.
The Green Bay Packers’ all-time leading scorer is officially retiring from the NFL as a member of the Packers, the team announced Wednesday.
The post Green Bay’s all-time leading scorer Mason Crosby retires as a Packer appeared first on WPR.
Four Wisconsin high school musicians perform with the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
The post Wisconsin Young Artists Compete: The Final Forte 2025 appeared first on WPR.
Over the next two months, the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association and high school athletic directors will decide if student athletes should profit from their name, image and likeness.
The post Wisconsin could allow high school athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness appeared first on WPR.
President Trump implemented new 25 percent tariffs on most goods from Canada and Mexico and increased tariffs on imports from China. Wisconsin businesses are figuring out how to adjust.
The post How new tariffs on Mexico and Canada affect Wisconsin industries appeared first on WPR.
Ingredients Directions: Drain tomatoes in a metal strainer set over a medium bowl. Transfer liquid and half of tomatoes to a blender along with ginger. Blend on high speed until […]
The post Spinach and Chickpea Stew appeared first on WPR.
The investigation into the March 2024 container ship collision that resulted in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
The post NOVA:Baltimore Bridge Collapse appeared first on WPR.
Proposed legislation would penalize the Milwaukee Public Schools if the district cancels plans to place police officers inside school buildings. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Republican lawmakers are proposing a law that would financially penalize the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) and the city of Milwaukee if they stop complying with a state law that requires police officers in schools.
The bill, coauthored by Rep. Bob Donovan (R-Greenfield) and Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine), comes after months of noncompliance with state law by the school district. Wisconsin Act 12, which provided a boost in funding to local governments, included requirements that Milwaukee Public Schools place 25 school resource officers — sworn police officers assigned to schools.
The law took effect in 2023, and officers were supposed to be in MPS schools by Jan. 1, 2024, but the district missed the deadline. On Tuesday, the city and the school district voted to approve an agreement to install the officers in response to a lawsuit.
Donovan said during an Assembly Criminal Justice and Public Safety hearing Wednesday that it’s “unconscionable” the district took so long to follow through on the requirement.
“The biggest district, the one in my estimation that could benefit the most, has, along with the city, dragged their feet for 400 days. It’s absurd and the safety of our kids is at jeopardy,” Donovan said.
Citing a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report found MPS averaged 3,700 police calls each year over 11 years, Donovan said the calls were “pulling officers from street patrols to respond.” He added that “SROs trained specifically for school incidents can handle many of these situations quickly, leaving officers to stay in our communities.”
The school resource officer requirement was controversial when Act 12 was passed. Officers had not been stationed inside Milwaukee schools since 2016, and the district ended its contract with the Milwaukee Police Department in 2020 in response to student and community opposition to the practice. At Wednesday’s hearing, Wanggaard blamed the district’s contract cancellation on a “fit of anti-police bias.”
Many advocates opposed to police officers in schools have pointed to potential negative impacts.
A Brookings Institution report found that the presence of school resource officers has led to increases in use of suspension, expulsion, police referral and arrest, especially among Black students and students with disabilities.
The agreement that the Milwaukee Common Council and Milwaukee School Board both voted to approve Tuesday was in response to a lawsuit against the district.
In October 2023 the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) sued MPS and the city of Milwaukee on behalf of Charlene Abughrin, a parent in the district, arguing the district’s noncompliance presented a “substantial risk to her and her child’s safety.”
Last month a judge ordered the district and city to comply with the state law and instructed the district and the city to split the cost for the officers evenly.
According to the agreement, officers in schools will have to be properly vetted and required to attend state- and city-mandated training, including a 40-hour National Association of School Resource Officers course. The agreement also specifies that officers will not participate in enforcing MPS code of conduct violations and that school conduct violations and student discipline will remain the responsibility of school administrators, not police officers.
Despite the agreement, the bill’s authors said Wednesday that a law is needed to serve as an enforcement mechanism and address potential future noncompliance.
“If that agreement is terminated, this legislation provides a similar compliance framework to ensure that both remain in compliance with Act 12,” Donovan said. “To prevent the ongoing and future non-compliance, consequences must be in place.”
If the agreement is terminated, the bill would implement a timeline requiring a new agreement within 30 days, another 30 days for the city to certify with the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee that officers are trained and available. The district would then have 30 days to certify with the committee that officers are present in schools.
If there is noncompliance, 10% of the city’s shared revenue payment will be withheld by the state and 25% of the school district’s state aid payments would be withheld.
Under the bill, MPS would be responsible for paying 75% of the cost for the school officers program, while the city would be responsible for the remaining 25%.
Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire) asked about the discrepancy between the 50-50 payment implemented by the judge and the one in the bill.
Wanggaard said that bill assigns a larger share of the cost to the school district because “it was MPS that made the schools less safe by not having officers in the school, not the city, and based on these factors and other conversations I’ve had, I believe MPS was the major cause of delaying returning officers to the schools.” However, he appeared open to amendments, noting that the bill is still pending.
MPS is opposed to the bill, in part because of the difference in how it apportions the cost.
The district said in written testimony that school officials have been working on getting a memorandum of understanding with the city for over a year, sought the selection and training of police officers, and worked to negotiate a fair apportionment. The statement noted that the district has no authority to train or hire officers.
The district statement endorsed a plan proposed by Gov. Tony Evers, which assigns 75% of the costs to the city and 25% to the district. The statement said that because “the school resource officers were part of a legislative deal negotiated without the participation of MPS and that provided hundreds of millions of dollars to the City of Milwaukee, the Governor’s proposal appears as the fairest.”
The district statement also called for the state to reimplement a law in the 2009 budget that allowed districts to use generated funds to “purchase school safety equipment, fund the compensation costs of security officers, or fund other expenditures consistent with its school safety plan.”
“Whatever the apportionment, there should be no debate that school safety costs be adequately funded,” the district statement said.
The Wisconsin Police Association and WILL support the bill, according to the state’s lobbying website.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
We Energies has invested in renewable energy such as this solar farm, yet it continues to push for new gas-powered plants. Columnist John Imes argues that these proposals would set Wisconsin back, delaying progress toward a smarter, clean energy future. (WEC Energy Group photo)
Wisconsin stands at a critical energy crossroads. We Energies’ plan to build massive new methane gas plants is a costly misstep that threatens to lock in high energy costs, undermine clean energy goals, and leave ratepayers footing the bill for outdated infrastructure.
At a time when clean energy and storage solutions are proving to be more reliable and cost-effective, doubling down on fossil fuel dependency is a financial and environmental mistake Wisconsin simply can’t afford.
We Energies has publicly committed to reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Yet, its proposed gas plants move in the opposite direction — locking in long-term fossil fuel reliance when cleaner, cheaper alternatives are available.
One of the key justifications for these plants is the anticipated electricity demand from data centers. However, rapid advancements in AI-driven efficiency — such as DeepSeek — could dramatically cut data center energy consumption. If We Energies locks in billions for gas plants just as these efficiency gains accelerate, Wisconsin ratepayers could be left footing the bill for infrastructure that is no longer needed. Instead of overbuilding based on outdated projections, Wisconsin should prioritize flexible, adaptive energy solutions that can evolve with technology.
If Wisconsin continues to lag in clean energy, it risks losing business investment. Major corporations like Microsoft, Google, and Meta have committed to 100% carbon-free energy by 2030. We Energies’ push for new gas plants directly contradicts these corporate sustainability goals, which could drive investment out of the state.
Rather than doubling down on fossil fuels, Wisconsin should implement on-site demand response incentives for large energy users—reducing peak demand without costly new gas infrastructure.
We Energies’ push for new gas plants isn’t just unnecessary — it’s an economic gamble that could burden ratepayers for decades. Natural gas prices remain volatile due to global market instability, making long-term reliance on gas a risky bet for Wisconsin’s energy future.
Meanwhile, states across the Midwest are rejecting new gas plants in favor of renewables, battery storage and energy efficiency. If Wisconsin fails to follow suit, residents and businesses could face skyrocketing energy costs and stranded fossil fuel assets that quickly become obsolete.
Rather than allowing utilities to dictate energy policy, Wisconsin must take a more strategic approach. Other states have already adopted comprehensive energy transition plans that prioritize renewables, storage and grid modernization. Without a coordinated strategy, Wisconsin risks falling behind — leaving businesses and consumers to bear unnecessary costs.
The recent GreenBiz 25 conference, where more than 2,500 sustainability professionals gathered, underscored a key reality: Businesses are proving they can “do well by doing good.” Companies are cutting energy use, reducing emissions and making strategic clean energy investments that align with both business and environmental goals.
Despite political resistance, responsible businesses are stepping up. But they can’t do it alone — Wisconsin policymakers must work with business leaders to create a regulatory environment that supports clean energy innovation rather than hindering it.
The outdated notion that natural gas is the only way to meet peak demand is being disproven across the country. Texas, California and even Alaska are deploying large-scale battery storage systems to replace gas-fired peaker plants. Battery storage costs have fallen 90% over the last decade, making it the clear economic winner over new fossil fuel generation.
Before committing billions to new gas plants, Wisconsin should first maximize cost-effective battery storage—proven technology that reduces emissions while keeping electricity rates stable.
Instead of building expensive new gas infrastructure, Wisconsin should follow the lead of other states that are repurposing existing fossil fuel plants into clean energy hubs. By investing in solar, wind, and battery storage at existing power plant sites, Wisconsin can leverage existing grid connections and transition to a cleaner, more resilient energy system.
This “clean repowering” strategy allows for a smoother transition while maintaining grid stability—without saddling ratepayers with the cost of unnecessary new gas plants.
Wisconsin has a historic opportunity to lead the Midwest in clean energy innovation. But We Energies’ gas expansion plan is a step in the wrong direction.
Investing in clean energy solutions creates jobs, lowers costs and aligns with corporate sustainability goals. Locking in new gas plants while battery storage and renewables continue to outpace fossil fuels is an expensive mistake Wisconsin can’t afford.
The choice is clear: Do we cling to outdated, expensive fossil fuel infrastructure, or do we embrace a smarter, more resilient clean energy future?
The answer should be obvious—for our economy, our environment and the future of Wisconsin.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court chambers. (Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)
Wisconsin voters view both candidates in this spring’s state Supreme Court race slightly unfavorably, according to a poll released by the Marquette Law School Wednesday, but many voters still don’t know enough about either candidate to have an opinion.
The poll did not assess how the candidates, Dane County Judge Susan Crawford and Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel, would fare in a head-to-head matchup.
The poll, which surveyed 864 registered voters in the state between Feb. 19-26, found that 29% of those surveyed have a favorable view of Schimel and 32% have an unfavorable view. Although Schimel is a former Republican state attorney general who has previously run two statewide campaigns, 38% of voters said they didn’t know enough about him.
After the poll’s release, the Schimel campaign said Wisconsin’s liberals were repeating the mistakes that allowed President Donald Trump to win the state in November and characterized Crawford as “deeply flawed” and having “an extreme ideologically driven agenda.”
Both candidates have been the subjects of negative ad campaigns by their opponents and opponents’ allies.
“We’ve known all along that this race is going to be close,” the Crawford campaign said in a statement, which claimed that “right-wing billionaires like Elon Musk are trying to save Brad Schimel’s flailing campaign.”
Crawford had a lower favorability rating than Schimel, but far more voters still don’t know enough about her. The poll found that 19% of voters have a favorable view of her while 23% have an unfavorable view, but 58% still haven’t heard enough to form an opinion. That includes 54% of surveyed Democrats who say they don’t know enough about the liberal candidate in the race.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Max Glass-Lee uses an electronic communication device, picking words that the device then speaks to his mother, Tiffany Glass. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)
Max Glass-Lee is an energetic 14-year-old who romps through the modest home on Madison’s West Side where he lives with his mother.
Born with Down syndrome and diagnosed as autistic, Max can read words and understand what’s spoken to him, but he doesn’t talk. Instead, he communicates with an electronic device about the size of an iPad, pressing words that the machine then speaks on his behalf. “Good-bye,” he tells his mother through the machine one recent morning, as she sits with him in his bedroom.
Tiffany Glass smiles affably, acknowledges her son’s assertion of independence, and steps out of the room.
Their interaction isn’t so different from those any number of parents and children have every day. For this parent and this child, however, it might have seemed unimaginable a generation ago.
Not so long ago, a child like Max was likely to spend his life inside the walls of an institution. Changes in social attitudes, medical ethics, and state and federal policy have made it possible for him to grow up and thrive at home.
One of those policies, says Tiffany Glass, is Medicaid — and without it, she believes Max’s life would have been much worse.
“His medical problems would not have been treated as effectively,” she says. “His quality of life would have been absolutely terrible. He would have been much more excluded from our community than he is now.”
Medicaid is the state-federal health insurance plan launched in the 1960s to provide health care for people living in poverty. In Wisconsin, it’s best known as BadgerCare Plus, which covers primary health care and hospital care for people living below the federal poverty guideline. But Medicaid touches hundreds of thousands of other Wisconsin residents as well.
More than half of Wisconsin’s nursing home residents are covered by Medicaid after spending down most of their other personal savings and assets. Other Medicaid programs provide long-term skilled care to people living in their own homes or in the community — people who are frail and elderly, but also people living with disabilities.
“I’m not sure people are aware of the lifeline Medicaid is to so many people,” says Kim Marheine, state ombudsman for the Wisconsin Board on Aging and Long Term Care. “Without Medicaid some of these people have no place to go for services.”
Congress is currently rewriting the federal budget in ways that patients, families, health care providers and advocates fear will upend the program dramatically, ending coverage for millions who have few or no alternatives.
The Republican majority in the U.S. House wants to find $4.5 trillion in federal funds to pay for renewing tax cuts enacted in 2017 during President Donald Trump’s first term. On Feb. 25, the House, voting along party lines, cleared the way for a budget resolution that carves $880 billion over 10 years from programs under the purview of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The text of the bill doesn’t doesn’t specify where those cuts come from — a point Republicans have emphasized to rebut claims that the vote was an attack on people’s health care. Nevertheless, Medicaid “is expected to bear much of the cuts,” according to KFF, a nonpartisan, nonprofit health news and research organization.
“What is in the jurisdiction of that committee? Well, the largest dollar amount is Medicaid,” said U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Black Earth) at a press conference in Madison Feb. 19. Advocates dismiss Republican denials, treating Medicaid cuts as a foregone conclusion and holding GOP lawmakers responsible.
“The draconian cuts to Medicaid that every single Wisconsin Republican voted for are an absolute wrecking ball,” says Joe Zepecki of Protect Our Care, a national advocacy group for the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid. In that wrecking ball’s path, he says, are the state budget, tens of thousands of Wisconsin businesses that bill Medicaid, and more than a million state residents whose health care Medicaid covers.
Medicaid is funded jointly by federal and state governments. Federal law guarantees that the U.S. will pay at least half of the program’s cost, with the state paying for the rest. Wisconsin has a 60% federal contribution; the remaining 40% comes out of the state budget.
For fiscal year 2023, Wisconsin’s Medicaid expenditures totaled $12.5 billion, according to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, a Congressional agency. The federal government paid just under $8.2 billion of that; Wisconsin paid the remainder, about $4.4 billion.
A Medicaid reduction on the scale that the budget resolution requires “will leave enormous shortfalls for the state heading into the next two years, all so Trump and his MAGA majorities can deliver another tax cut to huge corporations and CEOs like Elon Musk,” Zepecki says. “The federal money disappearing doesn’t mean the needs disappear, which is likely to force everyone else to pay even higher costs for their own health care.”
According to the January 2025 enrollment numbers from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS), about 1.3 million Wisconsin residents rely on Medicaid for day-to-day health care, long-term care or both — more than 1 out of 5 state residents.
They include more than 900,000 Wisconsinites who are enrolled in BadgerCare Plus. The health insurance plan for people up to age 65 covers doctor’s office visits, preventive care, surgery, hospital stays including childbirth, and other day-to-day health care needs for families living below the federal poverty guidelines. Children are covered in families with incomes up to 300% of the federal guideline; BadgerCare covers one-third of Wisconsin’s children.
Medicaid also covers alcoholism treatment, substance abuse treatment and other forms of care for mental health. “Medicaid is one of the largest payers of mental health care in the state,” says Tamara Jackson, policy analyst for the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities. It is the major funder of county mental health services, whether provided directly by a county agency or in partnership with a community agency, according to the Wiscons Counties Association.
Covering mental health is more than simply covering the cost of medications that may be prescribed. “Depression and anxiety medications are most effective in combination with the use of counseling services,” says Sheng Lee Yang, an Appleton clinical social worker. But if patients prescribed a medication aren’t able to get counseling as well, “their symptoms are only being treated at a 50% rate. That’s not real effective.”
Medicaid is part of health care all across Wisconsin. A study from Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families released in January found that residents of rural counties in the U.S. are more likely to rely on Medicaid for their health coverage than urban residents. In 27 northern and central Wisconsin rural counties, the share of children on Medicaid is higher than the state average, the study found.
Medicaid’s reach doesn’t stop there, however. Through nearly 20 different programs, Medicaid covers the health care of more than 260,000 additional Wisconsin residents.
For about 10,800 frail, elderly people who could not otherwise afford nursing home care, Medicaid pays the cost — about 60% of the state’s nursing home population.
Medicaid has also expanded beyond primary health care or nursing home care. Programs launched over the last several decades now allow eligible people who need long-term care to get the same services through Medicaid at home or in the community that they would receive in a nursing home.
To join those programs states apply to the federal government with proposals that would waive standard Medicaid rules. The idea is that if someone who needs long-term care can remain at home or in another homelike setting, the overall cost of care will be far lower than in a nursing home, stretching the Medicaid dollar farther.
More than 43,000 frail elderly or disabled adults in Wisconsin receive long-term care at home or in the community — in assisted living, for instance — under Medicaid waivers. Family Care began piloting in individual Wisconsin counties about 25 years ago as a nursing home alternative. It has since gone statewide, joined by allied programs that allow people to customize their care plans.
For elderly relatives who needed the intensive level of care offered by a nursing home, Family Care “gave them a tremendous alternative to skilled nursing care,” says Janet Zander, the advocacy and public policy coordinator for the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources.
“A lot of work Wisconsin has been doing, and other states as well, has been shifting how we provide care to people’s homes,” says Jackson.
Beth Barton’s daughter, Maggie, was born 25 years ago with cerebral palsy. She doesn’t talk and is not able to move about on her own, and for her whole life she’s needed complex medical care, Barton says.
One of Medicaid’s earliest waiver programs is named for Katie Beckett, a child from Iowa whose story led the Reagan administration in the 1980s to authorize long-term health care at home for children with disabilities instead of only in a hospital or nursing home. In Wisconsin, there are about 13,500 children enrolled in the state’s Katie Beckett waiver program.
When Maggie was a child, the Katie Beckett waiver enabled the Barton family to care for her at home. The family’s health care comes through the company plan where Beth Barton’s husband works. Medicaid served as a secondary insurer for Maggie, covering insurance copayments and for her care that the family insurance didn’t pay for.
Growing up, Maggie was able to attend Lakeland School, a public Walworth County school for children with disabilities. School “was difficult” her mother says, but it also provided rewarding interaction for her daughter. The school’s therapeutic pool became part of Maggie’s daily routine, where “she could be free,” Barton says, able to enjoy sensory experiences outside her wheelchair.
After Maggie turned 18, she was enrolled in IRIS — a Medicaid-funded long-term care program. While Family Care works though contracts with managed care providers, IRIS, a more recent variation, allows people to make their own arrangements for services, including home health care and personal care.
IRIS Medicaid funding helps pay for a social worker who visits four times a year and respite care when Barton can’t be at home. It also covers home modifications, such as an accessibility ramp.
Without the support Medicaid has provided throughout Maggie’s life, Barton believes her daughter might well have ended up in an institution. She’s not optimistic about that option.
“Her unique needs are best met one-one,” Barton says. “If we didn’t have private duty nursing, if we didn’t have Medicaid to meet those needs, I honestly don’t think she’d be with us.”
Another Medicaid waiver covers certain purchases children with disabilities need as they grow up.
Danielle Bauer’s 3-year-old son, Henry, was born with Down syndrome and has also been diagnosed with autism. The family lives in Wausau, and Wisconsin’s Children’s Long-term Support waiver helped cover the cost of a sensory chair that offers Henry “a quiet retreat to prevent meltdowns,” Bauer says. The family also got coverage for a specialized high chair that will grow with him as he gets older.
“It has made a huge difference in his quality of life,” Bauer says of her son. “He is capable of so much more, but without these supports, families don’t have resources to help kids like him.”
Until Jessica Seawright’s son was born nine years ago, she and her husband had no inkling their child would have a disability, let alone a serious one. Because of a chromosome abnormality, he has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair.
“We didn’t have anything show up in terms of prenatal testing,” Seawright says. “This came out of the blue.”
The Children’s Long-term Support waiver helped the family purchase a wheel-chair van to transport their son. It also helped cover the cost of widening a doorway in their home on the South Side of Milwaukee so he can get into the bathroom using his chair.
Seawright is a social worker and therapist. Her employer provides the family’s primary insurance, with the couple paying about $300 a month toward the premium as well as covering their own medical and dental copayments.
The Katie Beckett waiver has made it possible for Medicaid, through BadgerCare, to pick up her son’s medical costs, Seawright says. He often has to go to the emergency room and has other complex medical needs. He has recurring seizures, and he has trouble swallowing and needs a gastric tube. He’s been prescribed various medications and formula supplements as well.
Without that support, she says it’s likely that the family would burn through the $5,000 annual cap on their out-of-pocket health care costs.
“We would be making really tough choices — what can we afford out of pocket each year? It would be a question of how often we pay for foot braces when he outgrows them,” Seaward says — along with the medications, supplements and formula he needs.
“It’s not that we don’t want to pay for our fair share, but with the cost of his care it’s not possible to keep up with,” she says.
Tiffany Glass is a University of Wisconsin research scientist, studying why children with Down syndrome often have trouble eating, drinking and swallowing. She was in the process of deciding what direction she wanted her research career to take when her son Max was born; his diagnosis pointed the way.
“Up until the mid-1980s in the United states, a lot of children with Down syndrome and other disabilities were institutionalized, because their communities didn’t have the resources to accommodate them,” Glass says.
UW medical ethicist Dr. Norman Fost wrote in a 2020 journal article that as recently as the late 1970s it wasn’t unheard of for parents to allow newborns with Down syndrome to die without medical intervention.
“It’s a really dark part of our history,” Glass says.
Medicaid changed that for Max — supporting him for his medical care, communication (it paid for the electronic tablet that speaks for him), and activities of daily living.
“He needs help with all of those things,” Glass says. “It adds up to needing skilled care 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For his whole life he’s required that type of care, and he probably always will.”
In addition to providing resources for Max’s care at home, Medicaid has also enabled Glass to pursue her scientific calling. Without it, her research career might have stopped before it started, she says.
Regular child care centers are unlikely to take someone whose disabilities are as severe as his, she has found, but the children’s long-term support waiver has covered the cost of respite care.
“That has allowed me to work outside the home for a decade as a research scientist,” says Glass. “If Medicaid hadn’t been there, I probably would not have been able to develop my research career. I would have had to stay home — to the detriment of scientific research.”
Now, however, she and countless others who have come to rely on the program — adults and children, people with disabilities and caregivers for elderly relatives — have grown anxious about whether they will still be able to count on the care that Medicaid has made possible.
“Those arrangements are still very fragile,” Glass says. “We’re all very worried that if funding for Medicaid is reduced or eliminated, that could have really terrible implications for our families.”
This story is Part One in a series.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Login