Elizabeth Brown faced five years of housing troubles, homelessness and other barriers. But she can now say she’s a homeowner.
Brown, 51, always wanted to be a homeowner but said it just hadn’t happened for her. Just a few years ago, Brown was choosing between feeding her children and paying her rent. After moving into a home in Milwaukee near North 20th Street and West Auer Avenue that quickly fell into disrepair, she decided it was time to make a dream a reality.
“I just couldn’t do that anymore,” she said. “I knew I didn’t want to deal with landlords anymore.”
Brown purchased her home through Acts Housing and moved in June 27.
Brown is a mother of nine children, four of whom she still takes care of. She is a community organizer and the current president of Amani United, a neighborhood group.
“I love that she has this house now,” said Doris Brown, Elizabeth’s mother. “It feels like she’s reached the beginning of being settled, like she deserves to be.”
The journey
Brown’s homebuying process took about two years. But she spent even longer preparing for it.
“It was hard because one day I was trying to survive,” she said.
Two of Brown’s children are school-aged and two more are in college. As she prepared to buy a home, she was working to support her children and serving her community through her work as a leader for Amani United.
Brown has spent significant time giving back to the community. She said when it came to the process of buying a home, it was that same community that supported her.
Amanda Clark, housing coordinator for the Dominican Center, which often works in partnership with Amani United, has known Brown for eight years. She said she was excited to witness Brown become a homeowner.
“I don’t think anyone is more deserving than Elizabeth,” she said. “Elizabeth acted as a pilot so that we can, as a community, help other residents access homeownership without as many barriers.”
Overcoming barriers
Brown said there were many days when she just wanted to give up on becoming a homeowner.
One challenge, she said, was simply saving the money needed to purchase her home.
“When you are working with programs and following steps toward your goal, life is still happening,” she said. “I was homeless for six months during this process because the home I was living in just became unlivable.”
She said there were times when she’d have to rent hotel rooms to meet her and her children’s hygiene needs or rent other places to cook for them.
“There is always something else you need to do,” Brown said. “You think you’ve taken all the steps, then a coach will say, ‘oh you need to do this and this.’ ”
While she bought the home through Acts Housing, she said other supports, like staff from the Community Development Alliance, Milwaukee Metropolitan Community Church, Northwestern Mutual and LISC, were helpful in her journey.
A fresh start
Brown said buying a home feels like the beginning for her.
“I’m happy, and my children are so proud of me,” she said. “But there is so much more I want to do.”
Brown said homeownership is possible for anyone who wants to achieve it, so long as communities care.
“It was a long fight,” Brown said. “But I’m a firm believer everything happens for a reason, and I had my experience so that I can help others do what I did.”
(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers iwants a court order to enforce his interpretation of a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling on rulemaking that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, recently described as “outside of the law.”
Federal disaster assistance is available to individuals in Milwaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties who were affected by historic rainfall and flooding last month.
The assistance could include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals and families recover from the effects of the storms that occurred Aug. 9-12.
A spokesperson for Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said that how and when the money will be distributed to individuals will be determined by the Trump administration.
People who sustained losses in the designated areas should first file claims with their insurance providers and then apply for assistance online at DisasterAssistance.gov, by calling 1-800-621-3362 or by using the FEMA App.
The request by Gov. Tony Evers for a presidential disaster declaration also included a request to FEMA’s Public Assistance Program for Door, Grant and Ozaukee counties.
On Friday, FEMA officials announced that additional designations may be made at a later date depending on what damage assessments show.
The Evers administration estimates 1,500 residential structures were destroyed and flooding caused more than $43 million in public sector damage throughout six Wisconsin counties.
“Over the past month, my administration and I have been working hard to ensure the folks and families whose homes, businesses, schools, and community centers were impacted have the support they need to recover,” Evers said in a statement released Thursday evening.
A recent Associated Press data analysis found that disaster survivors are having to wait longer to get aid from the federal government than they did in the past.
Wisconsin will receive nearly $30 million in federal disaster relief to aid victims of last month’s flooding.
President Donald Trump announced Thursday in a social media post that he had approved the state’s request to help Milwaukee and other parts of the state affected by floods. The total approved is $29.8 million.
State and federal officials found the floods caused more than $33 million in damages to private property in Milwaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties. The request by Gov. Tony Evers for a presidential disaster declaration also included a request to FEMA’s Public Assistance Program for Door, Grant, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties.
In a statement, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson called the approval “a significant stride forward in this area’s recovery efforts.”
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, spoke on the House floor Thursday to advocate for federal help for the city. In a statement, she said the funds “will help my constituents pick up the pieces, and I will keep fighting for the resources they need until they are made whole.”
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, received the news of the declaration from Trump.
“Thank you to President Trump for continuing to deliver BIG TIME for Wisconsinites,” Johnson wrote on social media.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, in a statement said she would “continue to closely monitor to make sure Wisconsin gets everything we need to be on the road to recovery and the whole-of-government recovery effort does right by all Wisconsinites.”
FEMA representatives are scheduled to return to Wisconsin this month to assess damage to public infrastructure. In addition to the damages to private property, initial reports collected by the state found more than $43 million in damage to public property across six counties.
“I’m beyond excited to lead NNS through its next chapter of growth, as we continue to build on a strong foundation of trust and respect in the community,” Edgar Mendez says. “Our focus is going to be guided by their needs as we map out our future.”
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, the nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering the city’s diverse neighborhoods, has promoted veteran journalist Edgar Mendez to managing editor following a national search.
Mendez, a Milwaukee native and one of the newsroom’s founding reporters, will guide the award-winning newsroom into its next chapter of community-driven journalism.
Mendez’s promotion marks a moment of growth as NNS expands its staff. Alex Klaus joins as an education reporter focused on accountability and solutions in Milwaukee’s K-12 schools, while Jonathan Aguilar, a bilingual multimedia journalist, brings reporting and photojournalism expertise to the team.
‘Trust and respect in the community’
A resident of Milwaukee’s Clarke Square neighborhood, Mendez has long grounded his work in the needs of the community. “I’m beyond excited to lead NNS through its next chapter of growth, as we continue to build on a strong foundation of trust and respect in the community,” Mendez said. “Our focus is going to be guided by their needs as we map out our future.”
Ron Smith, executive director of NNS, said the newsroom’s national candidate search confirmed what Milwaukee already knew: Mendez’s leadership, track record and connection to the city make him uniquely suited for the role.
“It’s funny how the national search for managing editor led us to a local treasure who was already in our newsroom,” Smith said. “Edgar has been with us since our beginning and has built trust in our community through his rigorous, people-centric reporting. He’s not only a champion of great journalism, he’s also a champion of the great journalists who do the work.”
A distinguished career
Mendez has built a career telling the stories of his Clarke Square neighborhood and beyond. His award-winning reporting has earned him a 2018 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award and multiple Milwaukee Press Club honors.
With Mendez’s appointment and the additions of Klaus and Aguilar, NNS is strengthening its capacity to deliver fearless, fact-based reporting to communities of color in Milwaukee.
Mendez’s deep roots in Milwaukee and his reputation for editorial excellence align with NNS’s mission to elevate local voices and cover stories that matter to the people who live, work and serve in city neighborhoods. As part of Wisconsin Watch, NNS continues to expand its impact and rebuild local news in Milwaukee and across Wisconsin.
“We want to give Milwaukee the newsroom it deserves,” Smith added. “The hiring of Edgar gives us the momentum we need to serve our neighbors at a time when fearless, community-centered journalism is needed more than ever.”
As immigration enforcement increases in Milwaukee, some community members want to better document the activities of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
Comité Sin Fronteras, an arm of Voces de la Fronterra, is training people to serve as “community verifiers,” who confirm or deny reports of ICE actions and document incidents when they do happen.
A key element of the project, dubbed “La Migra Watch,” is to raise awareness about the hotline anyone can use to report possible ICE activity, said Raul Rios, an organizer with Comité.
“That is how, statewide, we can get involved and get on the ground to help each other,” Rios said.
In the video above, Rios explains how the verification process works, and we follow a verifier after a call to the hotline is made.
Customers from some of Wisconsin's largest electric utilities this week asked state regulators to block the utilities from increasing electric rates in each of the next two years.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is accusing Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature of ignoring a recent state Supreme Court decision about when proposed rules submitted by state agencies can be given the force of law.
A UW-Madison counseling psychologist offers advice for helping young people and adults manage mental health after traumatic events like recent shootings.
The assistance could include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals and families recover from the effects of the storms that occurred Aug. 9-12.
Robots are first conceptualized in ancient Rome; how uses for robots have evolved over the centuries, from the calculator to the Roomba; what future robots might be able to do.
Gov. Tony Evers and Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. CEO Missy Hughes at the Hannover Messe trade show in Germany last week. (Photo courtesy of WEDC)
Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation Secretary and CEO Missy Hughes will step down from her position in the Evers Administration on Sept. 19, according to a Friday announcement.
Hughes was first appointed to the position in 2019 and was confirmed by the state Senate in 2021 and in 2023. She is the first woman to serve in the position. Prior to that, she served as general counsel and chief mission officer at La Farge dairy cooperative, Organic Valley.
Hughes thanked Evers in a statement for “his vision and support for our efforts to build an economy for all.”
“Each of our state’s successes serves to inspire more development, more innovation, and more growth,” Hughes said. “People start seeing something good happening in their communities, and they want to keep it moving forward. Opportunities to be in the national news for positive accomplishments show companies and talent that Wisconsin competes on the global stage. Every day, Wisconsin is solving problems for the world, and we’ve made sure the world has us on its mind. I’m incredibly grateful to have been a part of this work and the Evers Administration.”
According to Evers’ office, WEDC during Hughes’ tenure has worked with companies to commit over $8 billion in planned investments and to create or retain over 45,000 jobs.
Hughes’ departure comes as she considers a run for governor in 2026, in the first open race since 2010, though she made no indication of her future plans in her statement.
Gov. Tony Evers’ decision not to run so he can spend time with his family has left a lane for Democratic leaders across the state to consider a run. So far, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez entered the race first and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley launched his campaign this week. Others considering include state Sen. Kelda Roys, Attorney General Josh Kaul and state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison).
Evers said Hughes has played an important role in his administration’s focus on “building an economy that works for everyone, investing in Wisconsin’s homegrown talent and Main Streets, and supporting and expanding some of our state’s most iconic brands and companies while attracting new industries and opportunities here to Wisconsin.”
Wisconsin Superintendent Jill Underly called on the Trump administration to reconsider the decision in a statement this week. Underly at a rally for 2025 Public Schools Week. Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner
The U.S. Department of Education has abruptly terminated nearly $11 million for two grant programs that have been helping Wisconsin serve children with vision and hearing loss and others receiving special education services, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
Wisconsin is one of several states to be affected by the cuts to Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part D grants. Others include Washington, Oregon and a consortium of New England states including Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, according to ProPublica.
Wisconsin Superintendent Jill Underly called on the Trump administration to reconsider the decision in a statement this week.
“Make no mistake, losing these funds will directly impact our ability to serve some of our most vulnerable kids,” Underly said. “Wisconsin had planned work with these funds that includes direct support for deafblind learners and their families and efforts to recruit and retain new special education teachers.”
According to DPI, the Trump administration said the programs “reflect the prior administration’s priorities and policy preferences and conflict with those of the current administration.”
The first program to be affected is the Wisconsin Deafblind Technical Assistance Project, which provides assistive technology tools, coaching, family support and professional training for young people up to the age of 21 with vision and hearing loss. The program currently serves 170 students, and of those, 85% have four or more disabilities.
The funding cut comes in the middle of a five-year grant cycle. Wisconsin was supposed to get a total of about $550,000 that was expected to last through September 2028.
“These are kids who depend on specialized support just to access their guaranteed right to a free and appropriate public education,” Dr. Underly said. “Losing these dollars at this point in the year will be devastating for the kids who need these supports the most.”
The other program being cut is the State Personnel Development Grant, which focuses on helping address Wisconsin’s critical special education teacher shortage as well as assisting with recruitment, retention and development.
The grant funds from the program, which totaled $10.5 million, was helping to fund a number of programs, including the Special Educator Induction Program. In its first year, the state program helped 280 new special education teachers.
“At a time when schools in every corner of the state are struggling to find and keep special educators, cutting this support is unconscionable and harmful to every student with an IEP,” Underly said.
According to DPI data, only 46% of new special education teachers in Wisconsin remain in the field after seven years.
The state agency plans to appeal the Trump administration’s decision.
A Planned Parenthood clinic in Salt Lake City is pictured on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by McKenzie Romero/Utah News Dispatch)
WASHINGTON — Planned Parenthood clinics throughout the country began telling Medicaid patients Friday that their routine health care appointments will no longer be covered as a federal court order takes effect.
The change, which could remain in place for months, if not longer, will likely impact the hundreds of thousands of Medicaid enrollees who go to Planned Parenthood clinics for health care not related to abortion.
“This decision is devastating to patients here in the state and across this country. And it is compounding what is an already broken and overstretched health care system,” said Shireen Ghorbani, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah. “We know that cancers will go undetected, STIs will go untreated.”
Dominique Lee, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, said there is no plan for other health care providers to absorb the Medicaid enrollees.
“There’s no one waiting in the wings to take care of our patients,” Lee said. “Planned Parenthood is the safety net.”
Planned Parenthood has identified at least 200 clinics out of about 600 that could close if they cannot treat Medicaid patients and receive reimbursements from the state-federal health program for lower-income people and some people with disabilities.
“We are working, you know, feverishly with our colleagues and teams to mitigate that number,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said. “We have to remember 50% of Planned Parenthood patients use Medicaid for their health care insurance. And so that is a very meaningful impact to the health centers that also rely on reimbursement in the same way every other single health care provider relies on reimbursement for the services provided.”
GOP law targets Planned Parenthood
Federal law for decades has barred funding from going toward abortion services with limited exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the pregnant patient.
Earlier this year, Republicans in Congress included a provision in their “big, beautiful” law that prevents Medicaid funding from going to certain health care organizations that provide abortions and received more than $800,000 in reimbursements from the program during a recent fiscal year.
The language, which originally applied for 10 years but was reduced to one year in the final version of the bill, appeared to specifically target Planned Parenthood. It prevents the organization from receiving any Medicaid funding for health care services unrelated to abortion, like annual physicals, cancer screenings and STI testing.
Planned Parenthood quickly filed a lawsuit in the federal district court in Massachusetts in July, shortly after President Donald Trump signed the legislation.
A district court judge issued a temporary restraining order and then a preliminary injunction that month, blocking the Department of Health and Human Services from implementing that one aspect of the law and allowing Medicaid patients to continue going to Planned Parenthood for routine health care services.
On Thursday, a three-judge panel from the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court’s ruling, clearing the way for the Trump administration to stop reimbursing Planned Parenthood for Medicaid patients while the case continues.
Peyton Humphreville, senior staff attorney at Planned Parenthood Federation of America and one of the lawyers handling the lawsuit, said on a call with reporters Friday the organization is evaluating all of its options but doesn’t expect additional rulings until later this year at the earliest.
“The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals has entered a briefing schedule on the preliminary injunction appeal that will be fully briefed by mid-November,” Humphreville said. “From there, the court will schedule oral argument and will at some point after the oral argument rule on the preliminary injunction appeal.”
Law enforcement officials asked the public for help identifying a college-age man who they said is a person of interest in the death of Charlie Kirk. (Photos courtesy of FBI)
A suspect in Charlie Kirk’s fatal shooting is in custody, federal and state officials announced Friday morning.
Law enforcement arrested Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old Washington County resident. He was booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of aggravated murder and felony discharge of a firearm, both first-degree felonies, and obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony.
“We got him,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said in a news conference Friday morning.
Tyler Robinson, suspected of shooting Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. (Courtesy of the Utah Governor’s Office)
Aggravated murder is a capital crime in Utah, reserved for particularly heinous murders involving torture, sex crimes and assassinations, and if sentenced, Robinson could be executed. Cox said twice this week that prosecutors will be pursuing the death penalty. Robinson is currently being held without bail.
Kirk, a widely known and often polarizing conservative activist known for debating students on college campuses, was shot and killed during a Turning Point USA public speaking event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, unleashing a search that involved more than 20 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The FBI also offered a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the shooter.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed by investigators, one of Robinson’s family members reached out to a family friend on Thursday evening — that family friend contacted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office “with information that Robinson had confessed to them or implied that he had committed the incident.”
Investigators at the FBI and Utah Valley University reviewed surveillance footage from the university and identified Robinson arriving on campus in a gray Dodge Challenger at about 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
Robinson was also seen in surveillance footage wearing a “Converse/Chuck Taylor” shoe, according to the affidavit. When investigators encountered him in person early Friday morning, they note in court documents that Robinson “was observed in consistent clothing with the surveillance images.”
A family member who talked with investigators said Robinson had become more political in recent years and that prior to Wednesday, he had mentioned Kirk’s visit to Utah Valley University. He has no prior criminal history, according to court documents.
Court documents also detail a recent family dinner prior to the Sept. 10 shooting, where Robinson “mentioned Charlie Kirk was coming to UVU. They talked about why they didn’t like him and the viewpoints he had. The family member also stated Kirk was full of hate and spreading hate. The family member also confirmed Robinson had a grey Dodge Challenger.”
Robinson was not currently a student at Utah Valley University. He is a third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College, the Utah Board of Higher Education confirmed.
Law enforcement responds after conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk was shot and killed during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
Law enforcement also spoke with Robinson’s roommate, who shared Discord messages from Robinson “stating a need to retrieve a rifle from a drop point, leaving the rifle in a bush, messages related to visually watching the area where a rifle was left, and a message referring to having left the rifle wrapped in a towel.”
The gun, Cox said, was a Mauser .30-06 bolt-action rifle, a gun capable of shooting long distances, often used for hunting deer or elk.
Messages reviewed by law enforcement also referred to engraving bullets. Cox said inscriptions found on the shell casings included messages like “Hey fascist! Catch!” and “bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao” and “if you read this, you are gay LMAO.”
The governor said he didn’t have information about whether Robinson suffered from a mental illness.
Charging documents may be filed early next week, Cox said.
“This is a very sad day for, again, for our country, a terrible day for the state of Utah, but I’m grateful that at this moment, we have an opportunity to bring closure to this very dark chapter in our nation’s history,” Cox said.
The FBI is still pursuing the over 7,000 leads that it had received as of Friday morning, FBI Director Kash Patel said during the news conference.
Patel, who traveled to Utah during the investigation, thanked the governor and the local law enforcement agencies for resolving the case.
Forensic evidence has been analyzed in different FBI labs across the country, and state and local authorities will continue to process evidence, Patel said.
“In less than 36 hours, 33 to be precise, thanks to the full weight of the federal government and leading out with the partners here in the state of Utah and Gov. Cox, the suspect was apprehended in a historic time period,” Patel said.
Earlier on Friday morning, President Donald Trump said a suspect was in custody.
“I think, with a high degree of certainty, we have him,” he said on Fox News.
Law enforcement walks through the Utah Valley University campus after a shooter killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk as he was speaking at an outdoor event at the school on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
‘An attack on the American experiment’
Cox, who has championed a campaign to combat polarization, argued this incident was about the “political assassination of Charlie Kirk,” he said.
“But it is also much bigger than an attack on an individual. It is an attack on all of us. It is an attack on the American experiment. It is an attack on our ideals. This cuts to the very foundation of who we are, of who we have been and who we could be in better times,” Cox said.
The fatal attack on Kirk may make it harder for people to feel like they can speak freely, the governor said. And, without a safe way to discuss opposing views, the country won’t be able to solve issues, “including the violence problems that people are worried about.”
“To my young friends out there, you are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage. It feels like rage is the only option,” Cox said. “But through those words, we have a reminder that we can choose a different path. Your generation has an opportunity to build a culture that is very different than what we are suffering through right now.”
Whether this is a turning point for the best or worst, is yet to be seen, Cox said. But, after gory videos of Kirk’s shooting became widespread, he also called social media “a cancer on our society” and encouraged people to “log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member, go out and do good in your community.”
Gov. Spencer Cox talks to media after conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk was shot and killed during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
This story was originally produced by Utah News Dispatch, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
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