A Milwaukee woman is facing six felony charges after she allegedly impersonated a substitute teacher at a Milwaukee Public Schools high school last month.
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Hosted by U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, the ministerial comes at a time when President Donald Trump's tariffs, a trade war with Canada and high fuel prices sparked by the war in Iran have left Americans uneasy about the economy.
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An immigration judge has ruled that the leader of Wisconsin’s largest mosque can be deported, his legal team announced Wednesday.
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Mount Pleasant is getting back financial incentives that were originally set to go to Microsoft for its massive data center campus in the village.
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A notice on the front of the buildings says it was "illegally occupied and unfit for human habitation." An emergency order said an inspection found "conditions that violate" Milwaukee ordinances and the building is a "hazard to the safety and welfare of the occupants or the public."
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A plan to build homes and multifamily units on the site of a closed college campus in Waukesha is moving forward.
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Giese Elementary School in Racine opened in 1965, but was torn down in 2022. The land has been vacant ever since.
The post Racine wants to build 34 homes on vacant school lot and help city and school employees buy them appeared first on WPR.
Milwaukee's Oriental Theatre opened nearly 100 years ago. Now, the cinema will be the subject of the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) "Still Now Showing" series — a program that showcases historic movie theatres.
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Greenfield's mayor is seeking the removal of his police chief "for the good of the police service."
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A new health center is set to open next year inside a closed school building in Milwaukee.
The post Aurora Health Care ‘health and wellness hub’ going into closed school building in Milwaukee appeared first on WPR.
Milwaukee's top election official says steps are being taken to ensure an error that led to a delay in results during the primary election will not happen again.
The post Milwaukee’s top election official says steps taken to ensure ‘human error’ during primary will not happen again appeared first on WPR.
The event was titled a "Community Conversation." Residents were able to speak with representatives from the companies at different booths set up inside an event space.
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A lawsuit has been filed against municipalities in Waukesha County over their use of Flock Safety's license plate reader camera system.
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Median wages have hit a record high in Wisconsin, but job growth has stalled and the state’s Black unemployment rate is rising.
Those are the main findings from “The State of Working Wisconsin 2026,” a new report on the state’s job market. The annual report is released by the High Road Strategy Center, a left-leaning “think-and-do tank” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The report found that after hitting a record high number of jobs — 3,051,000 — in November 2024, the state had just 3,042,900 jobs in July 2026.
“Job growth has ground to a halt, and though wages hit a new high in 2025, high inflation is undermining workers’ wages in 2026,” said Laura Dresser, author of the report and the associate director of the High Road Strategy Center.
“The (report) still shows some very bright spots, but the clouds are gathering on the economic horizon.”
Dresser told WPR the report’s findings showed a “mixed picture.”
“There’s some really great news still in this economy,” she said. “We’ve had a strong recovery from the pandemic lockdowns, it’s been sustained and we show again that we got a new high in median wages in 2025.”
Last year’s report found that the economy was softening, and Dresser said some of those trends have continued.
The state’s unemployment rate is at 3.3%. That is low but “drifting upward” compared to the 2.6% unemployment rate in 2023, the report found.
“With the state losing jobs, it is likely that the rate will continue to rise,” the report said.
And the state has been losing jobs since 2025.
“Wisconsin’s economy has grown slowly relative to the national economy for years, and now job growth has ground to a halt,” the report said.
It also found that Wisconsin’s economy “is riddled with inequalities by geography, race, education and gender.”
The report said the unemployment rate for Black Wisconsinites is, “growing much more rapidly than unemployment for other groups.”
Wisconsin’s Black unemployment rate was 7.2% during the first quarter of 2026, matching the national rate, according to the report. But the state’s unemployment rate for white residents was 2.3%.
“In 2023, when the unemployment rate was at its low and the labor market was strong, the gap between Black and white unemployment shrank,” the report said. “But as the overall rate has drifted up, the Black rate has grown much more swiftly.”
Wisconsin’s median wage hit a record $26.17 per hour last year. Data for this year are not yet available, “but the signs there are troubling,” the report said.
“Inflation has risen and wage gains have been weaker,” the report said. “As it did in 2022, inflation could wipe out the wage gains of 2026.”
The state’s unionization rate is also fell from 14% in 2011 to 7.5% in 2025.
“State trends in unionization reflect both state policy and industrial structure,” the report said.
Pam Fendt, president of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, pointed to the impacts of Act 10 on union membership in Wisconsin. She also said growing interest in unions makes her “hopeful for the future.”
“We do see a lot of interest in organizing,” Fendt said.
A new Gallup Poll found 71% of Americans approve of labor unions.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s minimum wage remains $7.25 per hour, despite efforts by some to raise it.
“An increase in the state minimum wage to $20 by 2030 would raise wages for more than 730,000 Wisconsin workers,” the report said.
“All the neighboring states except for Iowa are on a dramatically different path for minimum wages, and this state has (for) too long just not attended to the minimum wage and raising it for the state’s lower paid workers,” Dresser said.
Fendt said Milwaukee Area Labor Council also supports raising the minimum wage.
“Getting it to $20 an hour by 2030 is something that we support because, honestly, the minimum wage has been stagnant for way too long,” Fendt said.
A version of this story was originally published by WPR.
Report: Wisconsin wages reach record high, but job growth stalls 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 Waukesha County judge has ruled a provision that allowed Milwaukee County to redirect funds slated for a state school library fund is unconstitutional.
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A judge in Milwaukee County has tossed out a trespassing citation a Shorewood man received last year for walking past a public beach along Lake Michigan’s shoreline, saying the action was protected by the public trust doctrine.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge J.D. Watts on Thursday reversed the decision of a municipal judge, who found Paul Florsheim guilty of trespassing. Florsheim, with the help of the nonprofit Midwest Environmental Advocates, appealed that decision, saying he hoped the case would make its way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court so the court could weigh in on public beach access in the state.
“It was very gratifying to read the decision,” Florsheim, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, said in an interview with WPR. “I did feel vindicated.”
Florsheim received a $313 trespassing ticket from the Shorewood Police Department after he walked along the shoreline past Atwater Beach last summer. He represented himself during a municipal court hearing, arguing the part of the beach where he was walking was public land, and he was allowed to be there.
The state’s public trust doctrine protects the public’s rights on navigable waterways in Wisconsin. Florsheim argued the doctrine protects his right to walk along the shoreline up to the ordinary high water mark.
But Shorewood Municipal Judge Margo Kirchner ruled against Florsheim, citing a 1923 Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling, Doemel v. Jantz, that found the public cannot walk on the area of the shoreline between the ordinary high water mark and the edge of the water. It said private property owners have exclusive rights to that area.
On its website, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says the ordinary high water mark is defined as, “the point on the bank or shore of a waterway up to which the presence and action of the water is so continuous as to leave a distinct mark either by erosion, destruction of terrestrial vegetation or other easily recognized characteristic.”
Watts, in his decision, wrote, “the strip of land below the (ordinary high water mark) is lakebed owned by the state of Wisconsin,” and that the state’s property extends to that point along Lake Michigan.
Watts said Florsheim walking along the shoreline of Lake Michigan, below the ordinary high water mark, was a “recreational activity.”
The 1923 Wisconsin Supreme Court decision related to a dispute along Lake Winnebago, an inland lake. In his decision, Watts said Doemel v. Jantz, “may guide decisions in cases involving tort actions for trespass on inland lakes but provides little guidance for this case.”
The judge found the walk was protected under the public trust doctrine and “did not infringe on any riparian landowner’s rights.”
A Thursday press release from Midwest Environmental Advocates said the decision from Watts, “did not overrule Doemel.”
In a statement, Michael Greif, an attorney with Midwest Environmental Advocates, said, “The dismissal affirms that the shore of Lake Michigan is public land, and, while the direct impact of the decision is limited to the dismissal of Paul’s ticket, we believe the principles affirmed in this case should be broadly applied.”
This story was originally published by WPR.
Milwaukee County judge overturns trespassing citation in Lake Michigan beach access case 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 judge in Milwaukee County has tossed out a trespassing citation a Shorewood man received last year for walking past a public beach along Lake Michigan's shoreline, saying the action was protected by the public trust doctrine.
The post Milwaukee County Judge reverses trespassing citation in Lake Michigan beach walker case appeared first on WPR.
Although median wages hit a record high in Wisconsin, job growth has hit a snag, while the state's Black unemployment rate is rising.
The post Report: Job growth in Wisconsin has ‘ground to a halt’ appeared first on WPR.
Storms and heavy rainfall have caused power outages in some parts of the state Thursday morning.
The post Storms cause power outages across southeast Wisconsin appeared first on WPR.
More changes have been made to how the Milwaukee Police Department uses a license plate reader camera system.
The post Milwaukee Police announce more changes to use of Flock Safety cameras appeared first on WPR.
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