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Some of the state’s fastest-growing jobs are in the health care and green energy fields.
Jobs projected to have the most openings tend to have high turnover and pay lower wages, according to state and federal data.
Many jobs that are shrinking the fastest are based on outdated technologies or practices.
Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development keeps a list of the “Hot Jobs” statewide – jobs that pay above the median wage, are expected to grow faster than average and have the most projected openings.
When Wisconsin Watch this spring launched a new pathways to success beat focused on jobs and job training, we set out to learn how Wisconsinites are building family-sustaining careers and what’s standing in their way.
Doing that required knowing how the job tides are changing in Wisconsin. What jobs are growing the fastest? Which are shrinking? What will be the most common jobs in the coming years, and what do they pay? The six charts below use state and federal data to answer those questions.
To learn more about any of these jobs, including what the work entails, how much it pays and how to get trained, click on the links in the article or visit a website like careeronestop.org, onetonline.org or skillexplorer.wisconsin.gov.
We’re planning follow-up coverage related to some of the growing fields on these lists. Which job or jobs would you like to learn more about? What questions do you have? Fill out this short Google form to let us know.
Which jobs are growing the fastest in Wisconsin?
Some of Wisconsin’s fastest-growing jobs are jobs in health and green energy fields, as you might expect. That includes the top four:
Six of the jobs that ranked in the top 10 fastest-growing have median salaries of $85,000 or more. Seven of the top 10 typically require a college degree, and four typically require a graduate degree.
Of the jobs that ranked in the top 10, just two (nurse practitioner and data scientist) are projected to add more than 1,000 jobs. Several are projected to add fewer than 200. By comparison, the state’s most common job, home health and personal care aide, is projected to have 14,150 annual openings, in part because of high turnover among those workers.
Three jobs were tied with physician assistants for 10th place. One is rail yard engineers, also known as hostlers or dinkey operators, who inspect train equipment and drive small locomotives to move railcars. The others are aircraft service attendants, who re-fuel planes and service them between flights, and administrative law judges or adjudicators, who rule on government matters. But while all three are projected to grow by 33% in Wisconsin, the number of physician assistants is projected to grow by 970, and the ranks of aircraft service attendants are projected to grow by just 50. Administrative law judges and rail yard engineers are projected to grow by just 10.
One note: These projections may not account for the latest developments in the job landscape, including how artificial intelligence might change the way Americans work, or what kinds of workers are needed. Gov. Tony Evers in 2023 appointed a task force to study how AI might transform Wisconsin’s labor market. The group found that bookkeepers, data entry keyers, credit analysts and insurance claims processors are among those whose work most overlaps with AI capabilities. They note that that doesn’t mean those workers will necessarily be replaced by AI; they could instead end up using AI tools to make their jobs easier or more efficient.
The task force also did the same analysis for the state’s 10 most common jobs. It found all had “middling” levels of AI exposure, suggesting they may not experience as much change with AI as some occupations will.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s administration has taken steps to reverse renewable energy initiatives, a move that could threaten the projected job growth for wind turbine service technicians. Twice this year the federal government halted construction of offshore wind farms.
Which jobs will have the most openings in Wisconsin?
Some occupations have lots of openings each year not because the industry is growing but because turnover is high. The jobs projected to have the most future openings in Wisconsin also pay some of the lowest wages. The top four have median annual salaries of less than $35,000 a year, and all of the top 10 have salaries under $46,000. None require education beyond a high school diploma, and most don’t require any formal education.
One in 10 Wisconsin workers holds one the top five jobs on this list, all with a 2022 median wage under $46,000. About 215,000 of those people work in jobs with a median wage under $35,000.
Of the 10 most common jobs, two stand out for higher average wages: registered nurse ($86,070) and truck driver ($57,380).
The state’s most common job involves caring for older adults or people with disabilities in their homes, helping with tasks like bathing, medication and grocery shopping. Across the country, demand for these workers is growing as more Americans choose to age in their homes rather than in assisted living or nursing facilities. In Wisconsin, the number of residents over 65 is expected to almost double by 2040, increasing demand. Industry leaders and disability advocacy groups say they already struggle to hire and retain enough workers as wages in other entry-level jobs rise, and they’ve called on the state to raise the Medicaid reimbursement rate, which pays for most of this care. The 2025-27 state budget allocates $19 million to raise that rate, less than half of what Evers requested.
Declining employment
Many of the jobs shrinking the fastest are ones you might expect: those based on outdated technologies or practices. About one in four positions held by telemarketers, switchboard operators, couriers, door-to-door salespeople and street vendors is projected to vanish by 2032.
Of the top 10 fastest-shrinking jobs, nine don’t usually require a college education.
Secretaries and administrative assistants are expected to lose the most jobs (2,420), followed by couriers and messengers (1,990), customer service representatives (1,550) and tellers (1,290).
Nursing assistant ranks are projected to shrink, too (by 720, or 3%), though that field will remain big in Wisconsin, with estimated 26,510 nursing assistant jobs in 2032.
‘Hot Jobs’
Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development keeps a list of the “Hot Jobs” statewide and in each of 11 regions. These jobs pay above the median wage for the state or region, are expected to grow faster than average and have the most projected openings. Visit this website to see the data and sort it in various ways.
One major caveat about this data: It compares 2032 to 2022, when COVID-19 was still disrupting the economy, so it favors jobs that have rebounded after shrinking during the pandemic.
For example, registered nurses don’t appear on the “Hot Jobs” list. The job pays well and it’s growing quickly, but few nurses lost their jobs in the pandemic. That means the field isn’t growing as much as those that saw major pandemic layoffs, said DWD Senior Research Analyst Maria del Pilar Casal. She expects registered nurses will make the list next time.
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Northeast Wisconsin’s fastest-growing jobs span a variety of industries, including health care and logistics.
Jobs in the region with the most openings tend to have low barriers to entry and tend to pay relatively low wages.
While the paper industry has a strong foothold in the northeast, paper goods machine operators are expected to lose the most positions.
What are the roughly 450,000 workers in northeast Wisconsin doing for a living? And how will that change in the next decade? We pored over state workforce data to find out.
Below are six charts you can use to make sense of which jobs are growing and shrinking across the region.
Wisconsin Watch also published a version with data that encompasses jobs across the entire state.
This article is solely focused on job trends in northeast Wisconsin. As we continue to build our new northeast Wisconsin bureau, you can expect us to provide more stories tailored to the region.
Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development — the state agency from which we sourced this data — defines the “Bay Area” as Brown, Door, Florence, Kewaunee, Manitowoc, Marinette, Menominee, Oconto, Outagamie, Shawano and Sheboygan counties.
Home health and personal care aides are the fastest-growing occupation in the region, expected to add nearly 1,200 jobs by 2032. Wisconsin will need more workers to assist older adults as the state’s population continues to age significantly, with the number of residents over the age of 74 expected to increase 41% between 2020 and 2030.
Several of the occupations on this list are already some of the most popular in the region, so the hundreds to thousands of jobs they’re expected to add represent a smaller share of the area’s overall workforce. When looking at growth by percentage, some other occupations are expected to add a smaller number of jobs, but they will constitute a larger share of the workforce.
The occupations expected to grow most percentage-wise include:
Nurse practitioners, projected to grow 62% by adding 450 jobs.
Data scientists, projected to grow 47% by adding 148 jobs.
Physician assistants, projected to grow 41% by adding 128 jobs.
Actuaries, projected to grow 41% by adding 49 jobs.
Information security analysts, projected to grow 41% by adding 115 jobs.
Some occupations have lots of openings each year — not necessarily because the industry is growing but because there are more people leaving their roles.
Many of the jobs projected to have the most future openings have low barriers to entry, meaning they don’t require formal education or certification to obtain. They also pay relatively low wages — for example, topping the list is fast food counter workers, who made an average salary of $27,890 in the region in 2024.
Many of the jobs that have the most openings each year are also the most common jobs for northeast Wisconsinites to hold.
The 10 most common occupations in the region span largely essential jobs, including the workers who treat you at the hospital, those keeping the region’s restaurant industry alive and the people who make sure your packages are safely packed and delivered.
While the paper industry has a strong foothold in the northeast, paper goods machine operators top the list for anticipated job loss. This includes workers who tend paper goods machines that convert, saw, corrugate or seal paper or paperboard sheets into products.
Other industries are expected to lose fewer jobs, but those losses will make a larger dent in the profession. Some of the occupations expected to lose the most percentage-wise are:
Broadcast technicians, expected to lose 35 jobs, a 60% decrease.
Word processors and typists, expected to lose 10 jobs, a 37% decrease.
Nuclear engineers, expected to lose eight jobs, a 23% decrease.
Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials, expected to lose 18 jobs for a 20% decrease.
Data entry keyers, expected to lose 72 jobs, a 19% decrease.
Most of these occupations — telemarketers, typists and data entry keyers — are based on outdated technologies or practices, so the fact that they’re shrinking quickly may not be surprising.
Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development keeps a list of the “Hot Jobs” in every region of the state. To be classified as such, the occupation must pay above the state’s median salary, have an above-average growth rate and top the list of projected job openings.
Use the table to explore what education and training northeast Wisconsin’s “Hot Jobs” provide, what they pay and how they’re expected to grow.
Note: This data may be slightly skewed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The department says it accounts for pandemic impacts “as accurately as possible.” Some occupations that regularly have large growth rates didn’t make the cut if they didn’t show a significant decline in 2020 followed by a notable recovery, the department notes.
Is there a job you’re curious about that didn’t make one of our charts? Use this searchable database of hundreds of occupations to see how each is expected to change in the northeast region by 2032.
We’re planning follow-up coverage related to Wisconsin’s fastest-growing fields. Which jobs would you like to learn more about? Fill out this short Google form to let us know.
Peer-reviewed research found links between marijuana use and psychosis – the loss of contact with reality, experienced as delusions or hallucinations.
The consensus is there is a clear association, but more research is needed to determine if there is causation.
That’s according to the Journal of Cannabis Research editor, researchers at the Institute of Cannabis Research and a review of 32 studies that reviewed research.
The institute’s Jeff Smith said most cannabis users don’t develop psychosis.
Research samples:
Lifetime use is associated with increased odds of psychosis, especially among daily or weekly users.
Psychotic disorders are 11times more likely among adolescent users than non-users.
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who represents most of northern Wisconsin, called for more research on the link to inform legalization policy.
Marijuana for recreational use is legal in 24 states. In May, Republicans nixed a Wisconsin legalization proposal.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Dr. David Gorelick, University of Maryland psychiatry professor and Journal of Cannabis Research editor-in-chief: Interview
Institute of Cannabis Research at Colorado State University Pueblo: director and chemistry professor Chad Kinney; and strategic partnership and outreach specialist and biology professor Jeff Smith: Interview
Americans who earn less than $18,000 are estimated to see a slight federal tax cut under President Donald Trump’s big bill, but the net effect of the bill is likely to lead to a loss in household resources.
The average federal tax change from current levels for the bottom 20% of American earners is a reduction of $150 by 2026 and a reduction of $160 by 2030, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. In contrast, the average income earner will receive a $2,860 cut while the top 1% of earners will see a $75,410 cut on average.
Lower income earners already pay little in taxes. Reductions in Medicaid and SNAP benefits are likely to affect lower income earners disproportionately, resulting in a projected net decline of 2.9% in their household resources.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
As homelessness grows across Wisconsin, social service agencies are feeling a crunch. The federal government is slashing funding for tackling the problem, and state lawmakers aren’t helping much either.
Reporters for Wisconsin Watch, the nonprofit news organization for which I work, unpacked those challenges in a mid-July story. They noted the Legislature’s budget writing committee rejected a $24 million proposal by Gov. Tony Evers to boost funding for homelessness support services and shelter operations.
The reason? Committee leaders won’t say.
The 2,358-word story included perspectives of multiple service providers and policy experts, but the lawmakers were conspicuously absent. My colleagues sent multiple requests for comment to four members of the committee, including its two co-chairs. One declined an interview request. The others did not reply.
The silence leaves the public guessing.
Do the lawmakers disagree on the scope of the problem? Do they think money can be better spent on other issues? How much is just politics between a Republican-controlled committee and a Democratic governor?
We don’t know because they won’t tell us.
It’s hard to address homelessness — or any complex challenge — if we don’t even know where leaders stand.
Jim Malewitz
Unfortunately, independent journalists are growing accustomed to being ignored. In a trend spanning multiple levels of government and political parties, public officials are increasingly avoiding answering inconvenient questions about matters of public concern. They’re sending generic statements instead of agreeing to interviews that are more likely to yield clarity. That’s if they respond at all.
It’s happening in Wisconsin and beyond.
“Patterns of media evasion and selective engagement have become the norm for many newsmakers. They may work with media that are friendly to or aligned with the source’s views, resulting in little to no accountability questions or pushback,” states a 2024 Poynter Institute report. “Many sources who once engaged with reporters, even if grudgingly, have become masters of media avoidance.”
Such tactics are less harmful to journalists than they are to constituents. We ask questions on behalf of the public — not to satisfy our own curiosities. Ignoring us is ignoring the public.
Earlier this year, a McFarland man who arrived three years ago from Cuba attended what he thought would be the first hearing in his asylum case — after following steps laid out by the federal government. Instead, a judge dismissed Miguel Jerez Robles’ case and agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him.
“He had everything in order, and he was arbitrarily arrested and placed in expedited removal when he doesn’t qualify to be in expedited removal,” his attorney told the Capital Times and Wisconsin Watch.
The news outlets reached out to ICE for comment. It did not respond. A month after his arrest, the man was released, still with no explanation.
Thankfully, such stonewalling is not universal. Some officials still value transparency, agreeing to interviews that help the public understand their actions. It’s probably not always easy. Engaging with journalists takes time and energy, and requests may flow in with tight deadlines.
But their constituents are better off for it.
While writing this column, I emailed the four lawmakers who did not comment during Wisconsin Watch’s homelessness reporting in July: Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam; Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green; Sen. Romaine Robert Quinn, R-Birchwood; and Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto. I offered a fresh chance to discuss their vote and share their perspectives on receiving media requests.
None of them responded.
Your Right to Know is a monthly column distributed by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council (wisfoic.org), a group dedicated to open government. Council member Jim Malewitz is managing editor of Wisconsin Watch.
Sponsored content allows partners to reach our civic-minded readers through clearly labeled and transparently produced stories. The views expressed do not reflect those of Wisconsin Watch or Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, and sponsors do not influence our editorial decisions. Learn more about our mission.
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Paid posts allow organizations to share their perspectives on issues relevant to our audience. These posts are labeled as sponsored, reviewed for clarity and relevance, and published outside of the editorial team’s control. This helps sustain independent journalism while keeping readers informed about community-driven efforts and public interest topics.
Wisconsinites lost $109 million to fraudsters in 2024, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
As our use of technology to manage our money increases, so does the potential for fraud. Financial scams are constantly evolving, so it’s important to stay informed. Here’s how you can avoid becoming a victim.
Imposter scams from an organization
The most common type of fraud, imposter scams have common themes:
Someone calls claiming to be from your financial institution, credit card company, the county sheriff, the IRS, a charity or a similar type of trusted entity.
Using “spoofing” technology, they make it look like the call is coming from a legitimate institution.
The caller tries to convince you to send money as a donation, to cover fraudulent charges on your account or because of a violation or debt you’ve incurred.
They ask you for personal information like verification codes or login credentials.
They create a sense of urgency.
If you receive a phone call like this, especially if it’s unsolicited or unexpected, pause. Do not feel pressured to respond right away.
Hang up and contact the organization the caller says they represent using a verified number from a legitimate website – or send a secure message through the legitimate organization’s app or website. It’s unlikely that government officials and agencies would call you about official business or ask you to wire money or purchase gift cards.
Imposter scams from a loved one
Beware of calls from people attempting to sound like a family member such as a grandchild or relative asking you to wire money or provide credit card numbers to help them get out of trouble.
These calls often occur late at night to confuse the call recipient and may use enhanced technology to mimic a loved one’s voice.
Resist the pressure to act immediately. Instead, end the call and independently contact the person who allegedly made the call, in order to verify the details.
Romance scams
Sweetheart scammers pretend to fall in love with people in order to win their trust and steal their money. These scams may unfold over a year or more. They are often initiated on dating websites and apps, or via social media.
Common reasons for requesting money include airline tickets, tuition, medical costs or paying off debt.
Even if someone has professed their love to you or you feel like you’ve established a bond, be reasonably cautious before reacting. Don’t wire money to someone you’ve never met, or someone you’ve only known for a short amount of time.
Phishing and smishing
Using email (phishing) or texts (smishing), scammers send messages that appear to be from your financial institution, popular merchants or someone you know. They create a sense of urgency to convince you to click a link, open an attachment, take an action such as wiring money or share confidential information like account numbers, login credentials or personal information.
Red flags to watch for:
Email addresses with domain names (the segment after the “@” symbol) that don’t match the company’s real domain, which is typically the homepage of the company’s website.
Generic greetings (“Hello user”).
Frequent misspellings, bad grammar or word choices that seem off.
Links or attachments that stress acting quickly.
Never click the link or open the attachment. This is a common tactic for downloading malware or spyware to your device and tracking your confidential information.
When in doubt, conduct an online search to verify the website or phone number, and independently contact the entity to confirm the validity of the email or text you received.
Ransomware
Ransomware is a kind of software that holds your device hostage by restricting access until you pay a ransom. Ransomware spreads to your devices when you click on an infected email attachment or a link that leads to a contaminated file or website. Ransomware also can affect a network of computers in the workplace or be passed around on a contaminated thumb drive.
Never click on attachments or links in unsolicited emails or texts.
Avoid using thumb drives from others.
Run antivirus software to search for and remove malicious software on your computer.
Employment scams
If you receive an unsolicited job offer that seems too good to be true, it probably is. Scammers may pose as employers or recruiters, offering exceptional employment opportunities, including working from home. But once you get the job, you’re asked to deposit an official-looking paycheck in your account and wire a portion of the money to someone else for business purposes.
Before you commit to an employment situation:
Research the company on trustworthy public websites to make sure it’s legitimate.
If the job is for a well-known organization, double-check its website to confirm the job is posted there.
Avoid on-the-spot job offers, especially when they don’t involve interviews.
Always get job details and an offer in writing before taking next steps.
Fake check and overpayment scams
These scams might begin with a merchant reaching out to say you’ve overpaid for something and they need to issue you a credit. However, when you initiate the credit process, suddenly the $50 you were supposed to be credited shows as $50,000 and now they’re instructing you to send that money back.
Or someone messages you on Instagram about using your photo or modeling, then they “accidentally” send you a check for too much and ask you to send back the extra money.
Just like with imposter scams, pause before agreeing to do anything with your money. Don’t send money back to someone who sent you a check. If a company claims they need to access your account to process a refund, hang up and do some research to determine if this is a legitimate situation.
Overall, following a few basic rules can help you avoid being the victim of financial fraud:
Always listen to your intuition if something feels off.
Take time to thoughtfully respond rather than reflexively react.
Never share account details or personal information.
Create a unique username and password for every online account.
You’ve worked hard to earn a living, build your savings and pursue your financial goals. Stay up to date and be aware of ways to protect what you’ve achieved by taking smart steps to avoid the growing number of financial scams out there.
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Klein Hall, which has helped some 1,000 veterans rebuild their lives since opening in 2007, is set to close on Sept. 12, displacing more than two dozen residents.
Gov. Tony Evers proposed $1.9 million in new funding to support Klein Hall and a veterans home in Green Bay. The Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget writing committee rejected the proposal.
Elected officials have pointed fingers, but some lawmakers say their colleagues should put politics aside to prevent the closures. A pair of bills seek to do that, but opinions differ on the best path forward.
Meanwhile, most veterans already moved out of the Chippewa Falls and Green Bay homes.
Air Force veteran Blake Haynes faced an impossible choice during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic: pay rent or buy insulin. He couldn’t afford both. One month, he chose rent. His blood sugar spiked, sending him into cardiac arrest. Clinically dead for 10 minutes, he was revived by doctors, only to see him fall into a coma.
When he woke up almost three weeks later, Haynes said, everything changed for him physically and mentally. He couldn’t work. He faced eviction. He could no longer stay with his kids.
“I was going to end it all,” he said.
Eventually a nurse connected him with Veterans Outreach and Recovery. That led him to Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls, which provides housing, job training and recovery services to veterans. During his year and a half there, Haynes stayed on track with medical appointments and found direction in his life.
Two years after leaving Klein Hall, Haynes lives a new reality. He’s renting a home, leasing a new car, staying out of the hospital for diabetes issues and pursuing a nursing degree. Most importantly, he’s back with his kids.
“I have a life,” Haynes told Wisconsin Watch.
But Klein Hall, which has helped some 1,000 veterans rebuild their lives since opening in 2007, is set to close on Sept. 12, displacing more than two dozen residents.
That’s after lawmakers enacted a budget without funds to cover rising costs at veterans homes.
A state of Wisconsin flag, United States of America flag, and a POW/MIA flag fly outside Klein Hall on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, in Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Gov. Tony Evers proposed $1.9 million in new funding for the Veteran Housing and Recovery Program. VHRP supports the veterans homes like Klein Hall as well as facilities in Green Bay — also slated to close — and Union Grove. The Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget writing committee rejected the proposal before hashing out the two-year budget Evers signed in July.
Evers, a Democrat, called closures “a direct result of the Legislature’s failure to approve the investments” he proposed.
Amid the finger pointing, some lawmakers say their colleagues should push politics aside to prevent closures that leave veterans with fewer services. A pair of bills seek to do that, but opinions differ on which offers the best path forward.
Meanwhile, most veterans already moved out of the Chippewa Falls and Green Bay homes, and their closure date is fast approaching.
A ‘stepping stone’ toward recovery
Klein Hall was a place of recovery for veterans like Haynes who wanted to get their lives back on track. For Army veteran Randy Nelson, it was a chance at stability after years of battling a methamphetamine addiction.
“I feel so lucky by everything I’ve been given, and Klein Hall was a stepping stone for me,” Nelson said.
Randy Nelson, an Army veteran, looks through the dresser in his room, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, at Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
In February, Nelson completed a two-month chemical dependency program at the St. Cloud Veteran Affairs Medical Center to address his bipolar disorder and substance use. After completing the treatment, he was advised not to return to his trailer in Minneapolis and was directed to Klein Hall, where he could continue his recovery near his daughter.
Beginning in April, Nelson took part in many of the programs that help him manage his anger and remain drug-free. He met regularly with a social worker who helped him schedule medical appointments and drove him to places he needed to go.
When veterans first enter the program, they are evaluated, with two major focus areas being mental health and substance abuse, which affects about 60% to 70% of residents, said Randy Withrow, site director of Klein Hall.
Other programs focus on housing retention and anger management, like the one Nelson joined. Each resident also has an individualized service plan. Case managers work with them on housing, finances and health, but also tailor to more individual needs like job searches or accessing disability benefits.
In their leisure time, veterans often play puzzles and games, read books from the facility’s library or spend time coloring, an activity that Withrow noted can help those with anxiety redirect their focus.
Randy Withrow, site director of Klein Hall, stands in front of a mural painted by veteran James Heber that depicts Chippewa Falls and a veteran’s journey at Klein Hall is painted on the wall, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, at Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
As part of his therapy, one veteran, James Heber, turned to painting to create a mural for the facility. Filled with shades of green and blue, the artwork depicts Chippewa Falls and follows a veteran’s journey at Klein Hall — from military service to homelessness to stability, ending with finding a home of their own.
“It tears me apart that we can’t save this in some way,” Withrow said.
Finding new homes
Klein Hall can house 48 veterans. At the time the closure was announced in mid-July, the facility housed just under 30 residents. Now there are just two. Staff worked quickly as soon as news broke to find alternative housing and program options for veterans. Efforts in Green Bay look similar, where the priority is finding veterans the resources and support they need to transition into new places ahead of the closure, said Katrina Currier, site director at the Green Bay facility.
“We’re losing a critical housing program,” she added.
Fortunately, many have found new arrangements and are in the process of moving into those places, the goal being to make sure no veterans are left on the street as the facilities close, Withrow said.
Nelson recently signed a lease for a place in Eau Claire, which he found through HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing. He said he hopes to stay there until he needs assisted living.
Other veterans were relocated to the facility in Union Grove, which is the only of the three VHRP-operated sites that remain open. But the adjustment came quickly.
Books are stacked on the shelves in the library, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, at Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Marine veteran Derek Aune said the sudden closure “thrust” him and other veterans at Klein Hall “into high gear.”
Aune came to Klein Hall after spending time in and out of jail and institutions. As someone who prefers to take things slow, he said he had no place to go after being released from prison and described Klein Hall as a stable place to land, somewhere he could get back on his feet before planning where to go next.
Instead, he relocated to Union Grove, a facility much farther from the people and hometown he knows. He said the closure forced him to switch medical providers, disrupted his plan to move forward at his own pace and made it harder as someone who deals with depression.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine after a while, but it sucks when you have mental health issues like that, and then you get flung from one thing to another,” Aune said. “It’s not very easy to deal with.”
Navy veteran Rob Lewandowski arrived at Klein Hall in early July, also hoping to better his life with the support of a community of fellow veterans. Just a week later, he learned the facility was shutting down.
Lewandowski spent years recovering from PTSD and maintaining sobriety, and said he was looking for a way to become a “productive member of society” again. He left his apartment in Rice Lake, where he had been isolating, in search of that at Klein Hall.
Instead, Lewandowski found himself at Building 47, a housing facility for veterans in Minneapolis. He said he’s grateful for the sense of community and progress in his housing search he’s found there, but the move had him give up a new job opportunity in Chippewa Falls that he secured right before he had to leave.
“I really, really, really wish that they hadn’t closed. I would still be there. I’d already be working,” Lewandowski said. “I would be that much further along on the way to being self sufficient, which I strive to be and I’ll be there one day.”
Saving Klein Hall
Before the closure was announced, the facility just received new mattresses, which still remain bagged in plastic. The next project was to refresh all the furniture.
But with the facility’s remaining days numbered, the priorities have shifted. Staff are focused on placing veterans and preparing to shut down the building.
“Sadly, every day we come to work, we’re here to shut the program down,” Withrow said.
New, unopened mattresses are stacked in the hallway, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, at Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Still, some advocates haven’t given up on saving the program. The funding that was cut from the budget was intended to lease a new building for Klein Hall residents, due to the aging condition of the nearly 50-year-old facility. Withrow said the building’s biggest issues are the roof and air conditioning system, along with other plumbing problems. The main concern, he noted, is that these repairs tend to be expensive.
Jerry Green, a veteran with 40 years of experience in real estate development, said the building is so outdated that repairing it to code standards would likely cost more than leasing a new space. He works for Goldridge Companies, a real estate firm based in Eau Claire, and explained that the plan was to use the proposed budget funding to lease a new facility in Altoona, close to transit, restaurants and pharmacies.
There would be no construction cost to the state, Green said, only the cost of leasing the replacement building for Klein Hall. He pointed to the need to save the program, noting that a number of veterans die by suicide due to their struggles. In 2023, Wisconsin Department of Health Services data showed that while veterans make up about 6% of Wisconsin’s adult population, they accounted for 15% of adult suicides.
“(Klein Hall) gets the veterans back on course, and helps them get employment and straighten out their lives, mostly to save their life,” Green said.
It’s just a matter of coming up with the funds to pay for it, but legislators remain divided on who is to blame and how to move forward.
Randy Withrow, site director of Klein Hall, walks into a room that formerly housed a veteran, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, at Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, spoke to veterans in Howard last week, blaming Evers for the planned closures. He argued that the governor and Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs had enough funding to keep the facilities open.
WDVA Assistant Deputy Secretary Joey Hoey pushed back on the claims, saying the department can’t freely spend its funds. Costs from Lutheran Social Services, the nonprofit managing the facilities, rose about 30%, he said — more than the department could cover without additional state funding.
The VHRP facilities operate under two grant and per diem awards from the Federal VA: one for Chippewa Falls, and another for Green Bay and Union Grove. Hoey told Wisconsin Watch the department could not renew the grant for Chippewa Falls without the extra funding from the state.
In the renewal application for the other two facilities, WDVA reduced the total number of beds from 57 to 40 to reflect the closure of the Green Bay facility. Hoey said there were beds available at Union Grove to accommodate those displaced by closures.
The sun shines on Klein Hall on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, in Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
After Evers’ funding proposal was rejected by the joint finance committee, Sen. Jeff Smith, D-Brunswick, and several other Senate Democrats introduced an amendment on the Senate floor to fund the programs. But it was voted down by all but one Republican on the committee.
Budget committee co-chair Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, told Wisconsin Watch in a statement that the Legislature invested in veterans’ programs in the state budget. The budget included a 15% increase to VHRP, $5 million to support the state’s veterans homes and $2.5 million for the Veterans Community Project, with additional funding to county-level services.
However, Born did not address the decision to exclude funding for the facilities set to close or outline any future plans to address those closures.
In response to the lack of funding for the facilities, Smith introduced a standalone bill aimed at keeping both Klein Hall and the facility in Green Bay open before their scheduled closure deadline.
Smith hopes that a floor session expected in September could address this issue, but it is ultimately up to the Republican leadership to decide what gets discussed and whether the bill moves forward. Sen. Jesse James, R-Thorp, cosponsored the bill, and told Wisconsin Watch that he would “be honored to vote yes” on the bill once it reaches the Senate floor.
Sen. André Jacque, R-New Franken, introduced another bill that includes the over $1.9 million to keep the VHRP sites open, along with other veteran-focused initiatives. The legislation aims to also expand the property tax credit for veterans and fund the University of Wisconsin-Madison Recovery Project to help recover and identify remains of Wisconsin service members missing in action.
Jacque told Wisconsin Watch his bill aims to address other important veterans’ issues left out of the final budget, while also providing funds to save Klein Hall. He said “it appears that the governor could still use discretionary funds to keep the facilities open and I encourage him to do so.”
Official portraits of Gov. Tony Evers, President Donald Trump, and WVDA Secretary James Bond hang on the wall, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, at Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Smith expressed frustration at what he described as a “political cat and mouse game,” rather than simply passing a “clean bill” to ensure veterans have access to critical recovery and housing services.
Hoey believes that if a funding bill passes, the Green Bay facility could reopen relatively quickly. Reopening Chippewa Falls would take longer, as WDVA would have to reapply for the grant, and funds would not be available until Oct. 1, 2026.
For Smith, the solution lies in putting politics aside to do what is right for veterans.
“It is not about Democrat or Republican. This is about people that we owe every available resource to, to be sure that they are able to recover or to have housing,” he said. “We have a program for that, and it’s provided through Klein Hall, it’s provided through the facility in Green Bay, which they are also going to close, and we cannot let that happen, period.”
Lasting impact
Withrow reflected on the effect Klein Hall has had on numerous veterans. He recalled one veteran who came in after losing his leg, wheeling himself around in a wheelchair while struggling with addiction and unemployment. Withrow got to see him leave the program. The veteran now has a prosthetic leg and showed Withrow a video of him jogging.
Randy Withrow, site director of Klein Hall, poses for a portrait in front of books stacked on the shelves in the library, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, at Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
He witnessed another veteran come in with a poor rent history, anger issues and substance abuse. He now owns a home.
“We had residents that come in with nothing and then end up in a place that they’ve always dreamt about being, that (they) didn’t think they could have,” Withrow said.
Nelson, one of the last remaining residents at Klein Hall, moved into his new apartment. He said he’s grateful for the support he received at the facility and that it’s been instrumental in maintaining his sobriety. He didn’t think once about using during his time at the facility.
“It’s a shame that this is shutting down,” he said. “I don’t know where I’d be right now had it not been for here.”
Students in Wisconsin who receive free or reduced lunch can apply for free driver’s education classes.
“Doing what’s best for our kids is what’s best for our state and ensuring the next generation of drivers can make good and safe decisions behind the wheel is critically important to building safer roads and communities for everyone,” Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement this week.
The Driver Education Grant Program has provided $6 million annually to more than 10,000 students since it began in September 2024.
The first $1.5 million in grants this year will support the first wave of applicants with the same amount released every three months.
Common Ground pushes for access
Common Ground, a nonpartisan coalition that addresses community issues, has advocated for more access to driver’s education for low-income high school students.
“This grant program will reduce racial and economic disparities around access to driver education and the ability to obtain a driver’s license,” the organization said in an Aug. 25 news release.
Common Grounds launched a listening campaign in 2021. Its leaders spoke with about 1,000 people, and reckless driving was the primary concern.
According to data from the Milwaukee County Motor Vehicle Collision Dashboard, individuals younger than 20 years of age had the highest injury rate by age group in Milwaukee County.
What you need to know
The program will pay to send approximately 11,500 low-income students per year to driver’s education classes on a first-come, first-served basis.
Interested students and/or their families ages 14 to 19 can go to the WisDot website and fill out an application. WisDOT also created a map to help students and families find a program near them.
Funds are paid directly to the driving school. The funding covers 30 hours of classroom time, six hours of observation time and six hours of driving.
After applying, eligible students will receive a confirmation email with confirmation “coupon” numbers for the course.
They can share the coupon number with any licensed driving school in the state to start the course.
Driving schools will enter the coupon number in their student records upon course enrollment. Payment for the course will be sent electronically to the schools from Wisconsin DMV.
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.
A conservative justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court said Friday that she will not seek reelection, creating an open race for a seat on the court that’s controlled 4-3 by liberals.
Justice Rebecca Bradley’s decision not to run for a second full term comes after conservative candidates for the highest court in the battleground state have lost each of the past two elections by double-digit margins. Both of those races broke national spending records and the liberal won in April despite heavy spending by billionaire Elon Musk.
Liberal state Supreme Court candidates have won four of the past five races, resulting in them taking over the majority in 2023, breaking a 15-year run of conservative control. Regardless of who wins the April election, liberals will maintain their 4-3 court majority until at least 2028. If they can win next year, their majority would increase to 5-2.
The open race comes as several high-profile issues could make their way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in the coming months, including abortion, collective bargaining rights, congressional redistricting and election rules.
Chris Taylor, a state appeals court judge and former Democratic state lawmaker, is the only announced candidate.
Bradley had said in April that she planned to run again, but ultimately changed her mind.
“I will not seek reelection to the Wisconsin Supreme Court because I believe the best path for me to rebuild the conservative movement and fight for liberty is not as a minority member of the Court,” she said in a statement.
Bradley said her warnings about the court being controlled by “judicial activists” went unheeded “and Wisconsin has seen only the beginning of what is an alarming shift from thoughtful, principled judicial service toward bitter partisanship, personal attacks, and political gamesmanship that have no place in court.”
“The conservative movement needs to take stock of its failures, identify the problem, and fix it,” she said.
Bradley, 54, was appointed to the Supreme Court by then-Gov. Scott Walker in 2015 and won election to a full 10-year term in 2016. Before joining the court, Bradley had served three years as a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge and a year as a state appeals court judge.
Bradley was a reliable conservative voice on the court, dissenting on a July ruling that found an 1849 Wisconsin law did not ban abortions. Another case, brought by Planned Parenthood that seeks to make abortion a constitutional right, has been accepted by the court, but a date for oral arguments has not been set.
When conservatives had the majority, Bradley voted to uphold the Act 10 law that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for most state workers. A new challenge to that law is in the state appeals court and could go before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Bradley also voted with conservative justices in a 2020 case brought by President Donald Trump in a failed attempt to overturn his loss in Wisconsin that year. The court ruled 4-3 against Trump.
Jesús Daniel Ruiz Villamil wanted to be proactive, so before he started his junior year at Milwaukee’s South Division High School, he asked his counselors about courses beyond normal high school classes.
They suggested dual enrollment, where Ruiz Villamil could get college credit for taking university-level courses like Latin American and Caribbean studies and advanced Spanish taught by his high school teachers.
Now a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Ruiz Villamil credits the dual enrollment classes he took at South Division for the success he’s experienced so far in college.
“I think those college classes … helped me to improve my writing and reading skills to be prepared for my English classes, psychology classes and political science classes,” he said.
Dual enrollment gives students the opportunity to earn college credit while still in high school. South Division is one of several Milwaukee Public Schools that offer dual enrollment in the school – MPS teachers teach college classes in the classroom.
MPS high school students at any school can also take advantage of dual enrollment on a college campus – where students can earn high school and college credit at the same time for taking college classes – through the district’s M-Cubed partnership with UWM and the Milwaukee Area Technical College.
Participation in dual enrollment is growing in Wisconsin, but Milwaukee lags behind many other districts in the state, a Wisconsin Policy Forum report found.
In Milwaukee Public Schools, 2.8% of high school students participated in dual enrollment, the study found using 2023-2024 state report card data. The report card data is based off enrollment data from the previous school year.
In Oak Creek-Franklin Joint School District, the rate is 47%, while at Racine Unified, the dual enrollment participation rate is 40%.
Concerns with state funding
Vicki Bott, UWM outreach program manager, said she thinks dual enrollment could grow at MPS, but limits in state funding force schools to weigh the benefits of increasing access with other pressing district needs.
The district covers nearly the entire cost of programs like M-Cubed or in-classroom courses like those at South Division, MPS postsecondary engagement coordinator Hannah Ingram said. Wisconsin does not give school districts funding to help cover these dual enrollment costs.
For each UWM course that a high school teacher teaches, MPS pays $330 per student at no cost to the student. For this coming school year, the district is paying a little over $3,200 per student to participate in the M-Cubed program, Ingram said.
“It’s too much of a burden on school districts and high schools, so that’s where we’ve got some inequity,” Bott said. “If it’s a matter of like, you know, repainting to prevent lead poisoning or providing tuition for dual enrollment, they’re going to choose the lead poisoning prevention.”
Other hurdles
Some schools don’t have dual enrollment courses inside the classroom because no teachers have the necessary qualifications to teach a college-level course, MPS career and technical education manager Eric Radomski said. Teachers also don’t get incentives to teach dual enrollment courses.
South Division can offer several courses in the high school because several teachers already had the necessary qualifications, including master’s degrees, Principal José Trejo said.
Trejo said not many South Division students participate in M-Cubed. He said students tend to just participate in the courses within the high school.
South Division High School Principal José Trejo said students typically do well in the school’s dual enrollment courses because students are already familiar with the teachers, and teachers are familiar with their unique needs and circumstances. (Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)
Most dual enrollment courses across Wisconsin are similar to South Division’s program, where high school teachers get credentialed to teach courses for college credit in the classroom, Wisconsin Policy Forum researcher and report author Don Cramer said.
South Division is one of 10 MPS schools that offer classes through UWM in the high school, Ingram said. Radomski said 15 high schools have career and technical education classes, eight of which offer dual enrollment career and technical education courses.
Despite the financial constraints, Radomski said, “We have seen a gradual trend in the right direction with more and more (career and technical education) teachers offering dual enrollment courses over the past several years.”
The district adds about one to two career and technical education dual enrollment courses in the high school each year, he said.
Different schools, different priorities
Another reason dual enrollment access varies, according to Ingram, is because some MPS schools choose to prioritize other programs over dual enrollment in the classroom, like Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, the Rising Phoenix program through the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, or Early College Credit Program and Start College Now, Wisconsin’s two dual enrollment programs.
At Pulaski High School, for example, three students dual-enrolled during the 2022-2023 school year, but 84% of students completed AP or IB courses.
Not all students who take AP courses take the exam, and not everyone who takes the exam receives college credit. Students need to take and score high enough on an AP exam to earn college credit.
AP exams are graded on a scale of one to five. Students typically need to score three or higher depending on the course and the requirements of the university to which the student is transferring. Students can check what AP scores their prospective college accepts using the College Board’s AP credit policy search.
Radomski said despite the benefits of advanced courses like AP and IB, a lot of MPS students see greater success in dual enrollment courses because they need to pass an entire class to receive college credit, not just a test.
“We have over a 75% pass rate, for example, in Career Tech Ed, but the number is not nearly that high for students getting a three or four on their (AP) test in order to get that credit,” Radomski said.
Ruiz Villamil said the rigor of AP courses helped him prepare for college classes, but he preferred dual enrollment. He said he failed two AP exams and didn’t earn credit despite taking the classes for a year.
Helping students find their path
At South Division, principal Trejo has seen dual enrollment courses help students gain better clarity about what they want to do after graduation. With this clarity, Trejo said, students can avoid pursuing a college degree only to realize they don’t like it.
“It’s a really good experience in terms of understanding ‘maybe that’s not what I want to do’ and it’s OK,” Trejo said. “But at least you found that out early enough so that you’re not spending so much money in college.”
For example, students interested in becoming a teacher can learn how they like working in a classroom by taking college-level education classes and participating in an internship at an MPS school — an opportunity Trejo said students might not have if they didn’t start their education career until college.
Ruiz Villamil said his dual enrollment courses helped expose him to new pathways of study.
“That’s one of the reasons that I’m doing a Spanish minor, probably major,” Ruiz Villamil said. “Nowadays, I can look back to it and appreciate that I took those classes.”
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
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Judge Mark McGinnis will resign Feb. 1, but won’t face criminal charges after jailing a man during a probation hearing for an unrelated financial dispute in December 2021.
The special prosecutor, La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke, said the decision was based on McGinnis’ decision to resign, acknowledgement he could have handled case differently and concerns about the separation of powers.
The cement contractor who was jailed for three days said he may pursue a lawsuit now that the criminal case is resolved.
An Appleton-area judge won’t face criminal charges for jailing a man during a probation hearing over an unrelated financial dispute, but he will resign in February before his term expires, a special prosecutor assigned to the case said Thursday.
Outagamie County Judge Mark McGinnis had jailed cement contractor Tyler Barth in December 2021 over a private money dispute that was not a matter before the court. McGinnis accused Barth of theft, but Barth had not been arrested or charged with a crime. Wisconsin Watch first reported the case in January 2024.
La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke was appointed as a special prosecutor in the case in March 2024, more than a year after the Wisconsin Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation.
“That’s crazy, the fact that nobody’s going to prosecute him for it, that’s insane,” Barth said in an interview Thursday. “If he’s retiring, I guess that’s good, he can’t do that to nobody else,” but “it’s just bullshit, in my opinion.”
Gruenke said several factors led him not to charge: McGinnis had acknowledged through his attorney that he could have handled the matter differently; McGinnis’ decision to retire; and concerns about the separation of powers between the executive and judicial branches of government over charging a judge for a “mistake” made on the bench.
“This isn’t a case to test those parameters, especially since he acknowledged that he should have done it differently,” Gruenke said in an interview.
Read the Wisconsin Watch report detailing allegations of misconduct by Outagamie County Circuit Court Judge Mark McGinnis.
McGinnis informed Gov. Tony Evers in a letter Wednesday of his retirement effective Feb. 1, which he said would follow his 55th birthday and make him eligible for retirement benefits. McGinnis did not mention the investigation. He said his plans include educating judges in the U.S. and internationally.
McGinnis and his attorney Michelle Jacobs, the former top federal prosecutor in Milwaukee, did not reply immediately to calls and emails requesting comment.
Barth had appeared before McGinnis for a probation review hearing on a felony conviction for fleeing an officer. McGinnis accused him of stealing several thousand dollars from a cement contracting customer.
The customer’s spouse worked in the same courthouse for another Outagamie County judge.
Even though Barth had not been arrested or charged with theft, McGinnis ordered him jailed for 90 days, saying he would release Barth as soon as he repaid the customer.
Tyler Barth, a Hortonville cement contractor, says Outagamie County Judge Mark McGinnis jailed him over a financial dispute with a disgruntled client who worked in the courthouse. He is seen on Sept. 8, 2023, at a job site in Appleton, Wis. (Jacob Resneck / Wisconsin Watch)
The 32-year-old Fremont resident spent three days in jail before Fond du Lac attorney Kirk Everson intervened and persuaded McGinnis to release him.
Barth said Thursday he would seek an attorney in hopes of filing a lawsuit.
McGinnis was first elected in 2005, at age 34, and has been re-elected every six years without opposition. Most recently he was re-elected in April 2023 for a term that runs through July 2029.
Wisconsin judgeships are nonpartisan.
Gruenke, a Democrat, is a 30-year prosecutor, including the past 18 years as the La Crosse County district attorney.
Gruenke was appointed as special prosecutor by the Outagamie County Circuit Court in March 2024 after Outagamie County District Attorney Melinda Tempelis determined it would be a conflict of interest for her office to handle the case.
Legal experts agree judges have unparalleled latitude for taking away someone’s liberty, especially if the person is on probation. But invoking criminal penalties to compel action in an unrelated dispute arguably goes beyond a judge’s lawful authority.
Wisconsin legal experts said they weren’t aware of any instance in which a sitting Wisconsin judge was charged with a crime for actions taken as a judge.
Experts also had said they did not expect criminal charges against McGinnis, but that a referral to the state Judicial Commission would be possible.
With McGinnis’ announced retirement, it’s unclear if the commission, which could take up the matter on its own, would do so.
Any matters before the Judicial Commission are generally confidential. They become public only if the commission files a complaint against a judge or if the judge being investigated waives confidentiality.
Editor’s note: This story corrects the spelling of Kirk Everson’s name.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
A jail lieutenant for a northern Wisconsin sheriff’s office resigned in 2022 after an internal investigation found he sent sexually explicit messages and photos to female subordinates. He now works as a police officer in a neighboring county.
Jeffrey Johnson worked at the Sawyer County Sheriff’s Office for 10 years, rising to administrator of the county jail, before he “resigned in lieu of termination,” according to a Wisconsin Department of Justice database that tracks law enforcement officers who leave a position under negative circumstances. Johnson started working for the Minong Police Department in Washburn County a little over a year later, according to the same database.
His resignation came after he admitted to sending “text messages of a sexual nature to a subordinate jail deputy, including pictures of your genitals,” according to a document from the sheriff’s office The Badger Project obtained in a records request. “When confronted about these text messages, you did not deny sending them and noted you could not recall the messages, given you were likely intoxicated when they were sent.”
Sawyer County refused to release the full investigation report to The Badger Project, citing client-attorney privilege, but one of the documents it did release notes that Johnson interacted similarly with “a number of other female deputies.”
Sawyer County Sheriff Doug Mrotek said in an interview that scrutiny on Johnson was greater because he was a leader and oversaw the jail’s staff of about 17 people. But he was not on duty when he sent the messages and the interactions didn’t constitute harassment, Mrotek said.
“We all make mistakes,” Mrotek said. “We all can have a bad day. It’s tough for me not to have a lot of respect for his integrity and character. Now make no mistake, I’m not saying that I condone his wrong action … but he made a mistake. And that mistake cost him his position as a leader.”
Mrotek said if Johnson had been a patrol deputy and not a jail lieutenant at the time, he would probably still be working for the Sawyer County Sheriff’s Office.
“It’s a leader-subordinate issue,” Mrotek said. But “he’s not going to make the same mistake twice.”
Johnson used Mrotek as a reference when he applied to his current job, where he works as a patrol officer and not in a supervisory role.
Johnson did not respond to requests for comment.
Minong Police Department Chief Lucas Shepard wrote in an email that Johnson was recommended for the position by the command staff at Sawyer County Sheriff’s Office.
Shepard also said Johnson was unanimously approved for the position at his department by himself and four citizen representatives. The chief and Johnson are Minong’s only full-time police officers.
Shepard said his department’s own background check revealed that the allegations of misconduct against Johnson involved consensual behavior that happened off duty.
“Beyond his resignation from that department, Officer Johnson offered the Minong Police Department years of valuable knowledge, training, and experience in law enforcement,” Shepard wrote. He “exemplifies what community-based policing strives for and if he has one definite characteristic as an officer, it is the care that he has for the people that he is policing.”
Wandering officers increasing in Wisconsin during cop crunch
This cop crunch has been a problem for years across the country, experts say.
Statewide, the number of wandering officers, those who were fired or forced out from a previous job in law enforcement, continues to rise. Nearly 400 officers in Wisconsin currently employed were fired or forced out of previous jobs in law enforcement in the state, almost double the amount from 2021. And that doesn’t include officers who were pushed out of law enforcement jobs outside of the state and came to Wisconsin to work.
Despite their work histories, wandering officers can be attractive to hire for law enforcement agencies, as they already have their certification, have experience and can start working immediately.
Law enforcement agencies can look up job applicants in the state DOJ’s database to get more insight into officers’ work history. And a law enacted in 2021 in Wisconsin bans law enforcement agencies from sealing the personnel files and work histories of former officers, previously a common tactic for cops with a black mark on their record.
About 13,400 law enforcement officers are currently employed in Wisconsin, excluding those who primarily work in a corrections facility, according to the state DOJ. Wandering officers make up about 2.5% of the total.
At least one major study published in the Yale Law Journal has found that wandering officers are more likely to receive a complaint for a moral character violation, compared to new officers and veterans who haven’t been fired or forced out from a previous position in law enforcement.
This article first appeared on The Badger Project and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
The Badger Project is a nonpartisan, citizen-supported journalism nonprofit in Wisconsin.
State environmental regulators can require large livestock farms to obtain permits that seek to prevent manure spills and protect state waters, a state appeals court has ruled.
Last year, a Calumet County judge ruled in favor of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in a case challenging the agency’s authority to require permits for concentrated animal feeding operations or CAFOs. Those farms have at least 1,000 animal units or the equivalent of 700 milking cows.
In 2023, the WMC Litigation Center sued the DNR on behalf of the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance and Venture Dairy Cooperative. They argued that agency rules that require CAFO permits and regulate stormwater runoff from farms can’t be legally enforced because they’re inconsistent with state and federal law.
In a decision Wednesday, a three-judge panel upheld the lower court’s decision.
“Because we conclude the two challenged rules do not conflict with state statutes and do not exceed the DNR’s statutory authority, we affirm the circuit court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of the DNR,” the panel wrote.
A DNR spokesperson said it’s reviewing the decision and unable to comment further at this time.
An attorney for farm groups had argued the DNR can’t go beyond federal requirements under state law, adding that state and federal laws exempt farms from regulation of their stormwater runoff.
Federal appeals court rulings in 2005 and 2011 found the Clean Water Act doesn’t allow the Environmental Protection Agency to require CAFOs to get wastewater discharge permits until they actually release waste into waterways. The three-judge panel noted state permitting programs may impose more stringent requirements than the EPA’s permitting program.
In a joint statement, Wisconsin Dairy Alliance and Venture Dairy Cooperative said the decision is disappointing for Wisconsin’s ag community.
“We believe that there is no place for bad actors and that polluters should face penalties, but this case had nothing to do with weakening environmental laws. Our sole mission in challenging the DNR’s authority was to ensure that Wisconsin farmers are held to standards consistent with federal law,” the groups wrote.
“We continue to believe that a ‘presumption of guilt’ runs contrary to the very fundamentals of the American justice system. We are disappointed with today’s outcome and will continue to fight for Wisconsin farmers regardless of the size of their farm,” the groups continued.
The ruling affects the state’s 344 CAFOs. Under permits, large farms must take steps to prevent manure spills and runoff that include developing response plans, nutrient management plans and restricting manure spreading when there’s high risk of runoff from storms.
Midwest Environmental Advocates is among environmental groups that intervened in the case. They said the legal challenge could have severely limited the DNR’s ability to protect state waters from manure pollution, noting CAFOs can house thousands of cows that produce more waste than small cities.
Adam Voskuil, an MEA attorney, said the ruling affirms environmental regulations.
“We’re continuing to protect water resources in the state, and (it’s) a prevention of rolling back really important, necessary regulations,” Voskuil said.
Without them, Voskuil said the DNR would be responsible for proving whether each individual CAFO has discharged pollutants to surface water or groundwater. He said it’s likely the agency wouldn’t have the resources to do that work, meaning many farms wouldn’t be permitted or taking required steps to prevent pollution.
Darin Von Ruden, president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, said there has to be oversight of any industry.
“There needs to be some kind of authority that can call out the bad actors and make sure our water supply is safe,” Von Ruden said.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice has been defending DNR in the case. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul has previously said the state should be strengthening protections for state waterways, not weakening them.
Manure has been linked to nitrate contamination of private wells. Nitrate contamination can lead to blue-baby syndrome, thyroid disease and colon cancer. Around 90 percent of nitrate in groundwater can be traced back to agriculture.
The lawsuit is not the first to challenge DNR’s authority to require permits for CAFOs. In 2017, the Dairy Business Association sued the agency in part over its permit requirements, dropping that claim as part of a settlement with the DNR. Large farms have also challenged the agency’s authority to impose permit conditions on their operations. In 2021, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled the DNR had authority to impose permit requirements on large farms to protect water quality.
Today I want to discuss something more fundamental: Out of the infinite stories we could report at a given time, how do we decide which to pursue with our finite resources?
This requires us to evaluate whether a potential story would fit within our mission and deliver impact for residents. How we do that is something we’re constantly refining.
Our mission is to make the communities of Wisconsin strong, informed and connected through our journalism. Our intended impact: that people use our reporting to navigate their lives, be seen and heard, hold power to account and come together in community and civic life.
Before green-lighting a story, we consider its potential impact. If we can’t identify any, it’s likely not worth pursuing — at least not yet. We ask where the idea originated (bonus points for ideas directly from the public) or whether other newsrooms have covered this topic. Recognizing that we want to fill gaps rather than re-report the news, we consider whether the story will add knowledge and understanding to previous reporting — and whether our story would elevate different perspectives.
Another question: Why is it important to tell this story now, as opposed to other stories?
We’ve formalized this process, which begins with a pitch form that reporters fill out and discuss with their editor. The process has sparked productive conversations about how we can best serve the public. In some cases, we’ve decided an idea doesn’t fit. In other cases, the process has persuaded a skeptical editor that a story is worthwhile.
If you have questions about why we have — or have not — reported a particular story, feel free to reach out. I’m at jmalewitz@wisconsinwatch.org.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
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Wisconsin’s latest budget diverts 100% of funds from the Common School Fund to pay for 12 assistant district attorneys in Milwaukee.
The constitution requires net proceeds from a county’s traffic fines and forfeitures to go to the Common School Fund. A 1973 Supreme Court ruling found the Legislature can’t have a nominal amount of that money go toward the school fund, which pays for school library books in many counties.
The Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, which oversees the fund, has asked the Legislature’s attorney for an opinion.
Editor’s note: This story was corrected to reflect that the 12 assistant district attorney positions are existing positions funded by expiring federal funding, not new positions.
A provision in the recently passed state budget that diverts $2.2 million annually from schools to fund 12 Milwaukee County prosecutors may violate the Wisconsin Constitution.
The budget act redirects all traffic fines and forfeiture revenues in Milwaukee County to the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office to fund 12 assistant district attorney positions that had been paid for with federal funding set to expire.
But under Article 10, Section 2, of Wisconsin’s constitution, all “clear proceeds” from traffic fines are required to go to the Common School Fund.
A statute later established the “clear proceeds” at 50% of total revenue, while counties could retain the other 50% to reimburse the cost of prosecuting traffic violations or seizing and managing forfeitures.
In a 1973 Wisconsin Supreme Court case, the court granted limited power to the Legislature to define “clear proceeds.” In doing so, the decision said counties couldn’t keep so large a percentage of fine and forfeiture revenue that “the sum left for the school fund is merely nominal.” It also ruled that a county can only use these funds to reimburse for the prosecution of the fines and forfeitures.
By giving all revenue to the Milwaukee County DA, the new law, part of the biennial budget, contradicts the Supreme Court’s decision that all “clear proceeds” — or net profits — from forfeitures and fines be directed to the Common School Fund.
Established in 1848 under the state constitution, the Common School Fund is used by public schools to purchase school library books and instructional materials and may be the only source of library funding for some counties. The Office of the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands (BCPL) manages the fund.
In two recent BCPL meetings, board members discussed how the amendment appears to contradict the Supreme Court decision — raising the prospect of litigation, according to meeting minutes.
“This provision appears to directly violate the 1973 Wisconsin Supreme Court opinion regarding Article 10 of the Constitution,” Tom German, board executive secretary of BCPL, said during an Aug. 19 meeting. “That opinion expressly limited the Legislature’s authority to define clear proceeds in order to prevent only a nominal amount of fines and forfeitures going to the school fund. Zero is less than nominal.”
The provision is projected to reduce revenue directed to the fund by $2.2 million annually. Wisconsin’s remaining 71 counties are still required to direct 50% of revenue from fines and forfeitures to the Common School Fund. A report from April 2025 estimated the 2024-25 library aid to be $8.3 million for more than 130,000 pupils in Milwaukee County.
The Milwaukee County DA’s office has about 120 ADAs and 160 support staff. The provision allows the county to maintain 12 ADA positions, which German says also violates the Supreme Court opinion.
The Legislature’s budget committee added the provision during the last executive session of this budget cycle under a “miscellaneous items” section of the motion as part of a budget deal with Gov. Tony Evers.
Before the provision was proposed and passed by the committee late in the budget process, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau did not publish budget papers to explain the redirection of revenue from fines and forfeitures, as it often would for other budget proposals that come before the Joint Finance Committee during normal budget deliberations.
“The DPI will work with our partners in state government and professional organizations to ensure the Common School Funds — which are critical to student learning — continue,” a DPI spokesperson told Wisconsin Watch in response to the funding change.
In the last BCPL meeting, German said he informed the Wisconsin Legislative Council — the nonpartisan state agency in charge of providing legal and policy analysis — of this violation, and the council is currently investigating the provision.
The Legislative Council declined to comment. Evers’ office did not respond to a request for comment.
A Milwaukee County spokesperson said the funding for the 12 assistant district attorneys was a “bipartisan solution” to an “urgent need” to address court backlogs in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office.
“Without this funding, Milwaukee County will lose a dozen assistant district attorney positions, which will significantly increase court backlogs that will impact public safety efforts now and in the future,” the county spokesperson said in an unsigned email.
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Pay raises and other efforts have done little to ease the 911 dispatcher shortage in Brown County: The county is short more than one in three of its needed dispatchers.
Boosting pay isn’t enough to attract and retain dispatchers, experts say – departments must boost morale, get creative with hiring and training and address the mental health toll the job takes.
Waukesha County officials made changes that show promise: The county’s 911 center went from over half-vacant to almost fully staffed in two years.
Furthermore, advocates support federal legislation that would reclassify all 911 dispatchers as first responders, which would allow dispatchers to access benefits like additional mental health resources.
For years, Brown County has struggled to hire people to answer 911 calls and coordinate responses to emergencies. Its emergency dispatch center was among many that grappled with worsened staffing shortages after the COVID-19 pandemic.
But as the crisis eases nationwide, major shortages still beset Brown County’s 911 center. Despite past pay raises and other efforts, the county is missing more than one in three of its needed dispatchers. Industry experts say boosting pay isn’t enough to attract dispatchers nowadays. Departments must also boost morale, get creative with hiring and training and address the mental health toll the job takes.
Waukesha County’s 911 center offers an example of how such measures can help alleviate shortages. It placed a laser focus on employee mental well-being and went from over half-vacant to almost fully staffed in two years.
The Brown County vacancies haven’t impacted how quickly dispatchers pick up the phone when residents dial 911 — employees still answer faster than the national standard recommends. But some county leaders are worried that mistakes will be made if the issue continues.
Only one of the five elected supervisors who helm a committee overseeing the county’s public safety operations answered calls and emails for this story. Supervisor Michael LaBouve, who represents most of the east side of De Pere, told Wisconsin Watch the county is following a plan to address the shortage and solving it is “going to take time.”
“I think we’re all seeing progress, so that’s all I have to communicate about that,” LaBouve said. “I feel good about what’s happening.”
But at 19 employees short, the center tallies more vacancies today than it did several years ago when the county first prioritized the crisis, and some are losing their patience.
During a public meeting in late May, supervisors aired their frustration at the lack of progress. Dispatchers worked a combined 8,600 hours of overtime so far this year, the department said, and they’ve routinely taken to local government meetings to voice their experiences with stress and burnout.
“Looking at us to go 60, 70, potentially 80 hours and being called in on the days off and 24/7 is just — it’s mind-boggling,” dispatcher Kirk Parker said during a May meeting.
Money not the answer?
Staffing shortages have plagued the public safety communications industry for years, but the issue peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 2019 and 2023, about one in four dispatch jobs across the country were vacant, research by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch suggested.
There are still “alarming strains” on the industry, but there are recent signs of progress, said April Heinze, chief of 911 operations for the National Emergency Number Association, a national nonprofit of dispatch industry professionals. Research by NENA shows 74% of centers reported having vacant positions in 2025, improved from 82% in 2024.
However, those improvements aren’t reflected locally. Brown County was short 19 staffers in early August, according to officials, leaving about 35% of the center vacant.
“Like playing a game of Whack-a-Mole: as quickly as one issue can be addressed, another issue pops up,” Chancy Huntzinger, Brown County’s director of public safety communications, said in a statement to Wisconsin Watch.
In 2023, in one of its first major efforts to attract and retain staff, Brown County’s Board of Supervisors voted to allocate over $400,000 for raises, retention bonuses and a starting pay boost. Pay now starts at $24.60 per hour, according to the department.
“Obviously, pay is not always the most important thing,” Heinze said. Data from the study NENA completed in May showed the largest affliction for dispatchers across the country is burnout.
Plus, the pay boost didn’t do much to make Brown County stand out to job seekers. The department’s minimum pay is middle-of-the-pack compared to other northeast Wisconsin counties.
Waukesha’s methods show promise
Roughly two hours south, Waukesha County’s 911 agency has made outsized progress in solving its dispatcher shortage.
When COVID-19 prompted the “Great Resignation,” dozens of dispatchers left Waukesha County Communications Center for higher-paying, lower-stress jobs in public safety technology startups, utility company call centers and other nearby 911 centers.
By October 2023, the center was over half empty. Down over 20 dispatchers, senior staff were forced to pick up call-taking shifts. Staff worked during their time off. Employees regularly picked up back-to-back 12-hour shifts.
“People were starting to feel burnt out, and really it became a snowball effect,” said Gail Goodchild, the county’s emergency preparedness director. “We saw bad attitudes. People didn’t want to come into work. The culture was waning.”
Department leaders realized they needed “all hands on deck” to turn things around, Goodchild said — which they did. According to NENA, they had only two vacancies in July.
The department did raise pay, bringing the starting hourly wage to $29.44 from roughly $27. This helped, but “wasn’t the leading thing that really turned us around,” Goodchild said. Department leaders also parted with staff they felt “didn’t contribute to a positive culture.” They revamped their hiring and training processes and eased the job requirements. And they introduced an intense focus on dispatchers’ mental health.
Waukesha’s hiring process once heavily relied on CritiCall, a software commonly used in 911 centers that tests potential dispatchers’ skills at multitasking, decision-making, map reading and more. It was determined the test was “weeding people out that would have probably been a really good fit,” said Chris Becker, Waukesha’s communications operations manager.
“We looked at our numbers in that and determined that there was no correlation between our successful trainees and their CritiCall scores being high,” Becker said. “So we tossed that out.”
Now, the hiring committee strictly focuses on if a candidate will fit the department’s culture. To ensure people learn the hard skills the exam measures, the department has refined and revamped its training. (Brown County candidates must pass the CritiCall exam to be hired, and the county has not considered changing that, Huntzinger said.)
An officer walks into the Green Bay Police Department on Aug. 12, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Waukesha also removed its two-year work experience requirement from the job description to yield more candidates, a move it may soon reverse because it’s seen that having “some of that life experience” is good, Becker said.
Finally, the county ramped up mental health support to dispatchers. In addition to regular benefits offered in the county’s employee assistance program, it contracted a local mental health provider specializing in first responders. Dispatchers now regularly attend mandatory, confidential 90-minute meetings with the providers, who help employees work through vicarious trauma, a type of trauma common among first responders that compounds when hearing, reading or witnessing distressing events. The grant-funded initiative costs roughly $16,000 for 18 months, Becker said.
“In case our staff ever gets to a point where they need them, they feel more comfortable to reach out for that help, rather than living with it and burying it and then getting to that point of burnout again,” Becker said.
Brown County has not explored increased mental health support as a method of retention. Staff are encouraged to visit the Public Safety Communications director’s office if they have concerns, and they can receive counseling benefits through the county’s employee assistance program, Huntzinger said.
“We’re listening to people’s worst days, right? We hang up the phone when the first responders get there, and then it’s left to our imagination to fill in the blanks,” Becker said. “But some of those traumatic calls just don’t go away, and they’ll pop up at random times, or a call three years later will remind you of a call that you took, and you’re right back to that place again. … It’s super important for our staff to have that outlet.”
Looking ahead
After bumping pay, Brown County’s Board of Supervisors requested an independent review of the dispatch center in 2024. The report, delivered in January 2025, made 65 recommendations on how the center could improve operations and its staffing.
The department has made mixed progress on implementing the recommendations, which vary in complexity, and gives monthly progress updates to the board’s Public Safety Committee.
Per the advice of the consultants, the department introduced employee referral bonuses and now has candidates visit the call center before they interview, rather than after.
The department will also hire “traveling dispatchers” — temporary contractors who will work at the center for six months to cover some shifts, Huntzinger said. She did not answer a question from Wisconsin Watch about how much this will cost the county.
Next year, the center will introduce a new shift schedule to help it operate more effectively with less staff, Huntzinger said. Though consultants recommended the county’s “unnecessarily complex” schedule be changed immediately, it was delayed following employee pushback.
The report also suggested the county “substantially expand” partnerships with local education institutions to create a pipeline of candidates. Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, which offers workforce training in emergency dispatch, said it has not been formally assigned recruitment efforts but it aims to support the region’s workforce needs.
In the last four years, 84 students have completed programs that certify them in emergency dispatch. Twenty-seven of those included a tour of the Brown County Dispatch Center.
“One of the biggest barriers is awareness,” Jeff Steeber, the college’s associate dean of public safety, said of the struggle to get students into the field. “Many students enter our programs without knowing that emergency dispatch is a viable and rewarding career option.”
Industry leaders have spent years advocating for legislation they believe would change this.
The federal 911 Saves Act, championed by both NENA and Waukesha leaders, would reclassify all 911 dispatchers as first responders for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which currently lists them as clerical or secretarial employees, alongside office clerks and taxi dispatchers.
This would allow dispatchers to access a slate of benefits, such as increased mental health resources, and it would reinforce the cruciality of the job, Heinze said.
“You hear little kids say, ‘I want to be a firefighter. I want to be a police officer,’” Goodchild said. “They don’t look at a 911 telecommunicator dispatcher as a career path. That hurts the industry, too.”
Eighteen states have passed their own laws reclassifying telecommunicators, but Wisconsin is not one of them.
“We’re hopeful this year that it is going to (pass), and it would help us, I think, very, very, very much,” Heinze said.
Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
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Wisconsin Watch reporters joined more than 60 volunteers in Brown County’s summer point-in-time count last month — a one-night snapshot of the number of people experiencing homelessness in communities across the United States, including Wisconsin.
Some volunteers had experienced homelessness themselves.
The volunteers officially counted 179 people experiencing homelessness. That’s seen as an undercount because volunteers do not count people who are sleeping or unable to respond to surveys. And some people don’t want to be found.
At 4:31 a.m. the first slivers of light peeked through dark clouds over Green Bay’s waters.
Along the edge of Point Comfort in the town of Scott, a pair of volunteers surveyed the landscape for people experiencing homelessness as the summer “point-in-time” (PIT) count wound down in Brown County.
One was Cody Oberhuber, a county economic support specialist. He has missed just one count since January 2022, initially working as part of his former job at the anti-poverty agency Newcap, Inc. His passion for talking to the people behind the numbers prompted him to return this year as a volunteer after switching jobs.
“It gives you a fresh perspective of being boots on the ground talking to these individuals, you’re kind of looking at the humanity side of things,” Oberhuber said. “That’s what drives me, that’s my mission.”
Cody Oberhuber, economic support specialist for Brown County, leads a group of volunteers during the first of three routes he was assigned to in the summer PIT count at 11:47 p.m. on July 23, 2025, in downtown Green Bay, Wis. After parking outside the Brown County Central Library, Oberhuber led the group across the east side of downtown.
Oberhuber joined 66 other volunteers between 11:30 p.m. to nearly 6 a.m. beginning on July 23, hitting spots where the group previously encountered people experiencing homelessness.
The PIT count serves as a one-night snapshot of the number of people experiencing homelessness in communities across the United States, including Wisconsin. Wisconsin Watch in January followed the annual winter count in Jefferson County — examining why the data recorded in the process underestimate the true levels of homelessness in communities, especially rural ones. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development mandates such winter counts.
Wisconsin Balance of State Continuum of Care, which covers all 69 counties in Wisconsin besides Milwaukee, Dane and Racine, requires each county to also count during the summer, when the tally is typically far higher than winter, when freezing weather pushes more people to shelters.
The majority of Brown County volunteers most years work with direct housing providers or other housing-related programs, according to Meaghan Gleason, Newcap’s funder expert and the Brown County PIT count lead.
But this year, almost half of volunteers had no association with housing providers, a record number of unaffiliated folks. Thirteen volunteers shared that they previously experienced homelessness in their life. That’s a point of pride for Gleason.
To address the problem of homelessness, she said, “we need to include the people who know what that experience is.”
Volunteers drive alongside farm land in northwestern Brown County during the summer point-in-time count at 2:07 a.m. on July 24, 2025, heading to their route in Pulaski, Wis.
The Brown County volunteers broke into groups to cover more ground. In the county’s northwest corner, a group searched for people sleeping in cars in the rural village of Pulaski. In the county’s urban center, volunteers counted people camping in Green Bay’s downtown parks.
PIT counts often happen at night, when people settle into the places they sleep, Oberhuber said. This approach, he explained, prevents volunteers from simply assuming where someone stays.
Volunteers usually see the most unsheltered people on downtown Green Bay’s east side, and that was the case this year. Several people sheltered in open spaces and under hooded structures, often surrounded by their belongings: bikes, coolers, wheelchairs, bags and blankets. Some slept on church steps or on park benches. Bugs swarmed in the humidity following recent rain.
State Sen. Jamie Wall, D-Green Bay, second from left, fills out a survey while speaking with a man experiencing homelessness during the point-in-time count at 12:15 a.m. on July 24, 2025, at Jackson Square Park in Green Bay, Wis. This was Wall’s first year as a volunteer. He said he was motivated after hearing so much from his constituents about housing costs.
A volunteer asked a man where he had gone earlier to stay dry.
“Nowhere,” he replied. “I’m wet. I’m still wet.”
Others asked volunteers for food or dry tarps. Volunteers handed out gift cards and asked people to take a brief survey to shed light on what resources might help.
The surveys included questions such as: Have you served in the active duty or other armed forces of the U.S.? Are you fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence, dating violence or stalking? Have you ever been in the foster care system? Is this the first time you’ve been homeless?
Volunteers search for people experiencing homelessness under the Mason Street Bridge ramp during the summer PIT count at 12:55 a.m. on July 24, 2025, in downtown Green Bay, Wis.
Some people answered questions they were comfortable with. Others thanked the volunteers and declined to participate.
“I’m going through enough as it is,” one person told the volunteers.
From left, state Sen. Jamie Wall, D-Green Bay, Newcap, Inc. employee Lucia Sanchez and volunteer lead Cody Oberhuber plan their next steps during the summer point-in-time count at 12:33 a.m. July 24, 2025, in downtown Green Bay, Wis.
When people are found sleeping, decline to participate in the survey or are in locations volunteers can’t safely access, their presence is documented through observation forms. Although the official count tally excludes those observations, they paint a broader picture of the unhoused landscape. Outreach workers sometimes later follow up to verify their status and connect them with services.
Brown County’s official tally this year: 179 people experiencing homelessness. That included 100 single individuals and 25 households with children. The official unsheltered count has increased each year since at least 2022, when 89 people were counted in July.
Volunteers drive into the parking lot of a Kwik Trip during their route of the summer PIT count at 2:28 a.m. July 24, 2025, in Pulaski, Wis.
Northwest of Brown County, Newcap’s Northeast Coalition counts unsheltered people in mostly rural Florence, Marinette, Menominee, Oconto and Shawano counties. The summer count recorded 36 people.
“That may not sound like much,” Gleason later wrote in an email. “But it is the highest count I have seen out of the last eight counts.”
In Brown County, volunteers tallied zero people in the rural areas Wisconsin Watch observed. But Oberhuber knows people are experiencing homelessness in communities like Pulaski, based on previous counts and conversations with police. Those people might not want to be found, Oberhuber said. They might intentionally set up camp outside of town or in the woods, where PIT count volunteers won’t look.
“That’s the difficulty with the rural count,” Oberhuber said. “There’s people out there, we just struggle to find them.”
From left, volunteer lead Cody Oberhuber, Brown County count lead Meaghan Gleason and Newcap, Inc. employees Lucia Sanchez and Alexandra Richmond talk through the progress of the point-in-time count between routes at 1:45 a.m. July 24, 2025, at Newcap’s office in Green Bay, Wis.
Gleason said a “happy accident” prompted her to work in housing services after having volunteered at a shelter in college. She wouldn’t give up her position as the PIT count lead for Brown County even if someone told her to.
She knows it’s impossible to count every person. But that’s what drives her to improve each count. Yes, homelessness is increasing, she said.
“But if we can also increase our efficiency and our ability to capture that data and connect with those people, then that’s the best we can do in that moment.”
A lone street light glows as volunteers search for people experiencing homelessness during the summer PIT count at 2:57 p.m. on July 24, 2025, in Pulaski, Wis.
The federal government has extended its lease on a downtown Milwaukee property used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to federal lease records and the building’s owner.
The property at 310 E. Knapp St. is owned by the Milwaukee School of Engineering but will remain in use by the federal government through at least April 2026, with options to extend through 2028, said JoEllen Burdue, the college’s senior communications director.
“We do not have immediate plans for the building and will reevaluate next year when we know whether or not the government wants to extend the lease,” Burdue said.
The lease was originally scheduled to expire in April 2025.
With a new ICE facility under construction on the city’s Northwest Side, the downtown lease extension raises the possibility that the federal government is expanding local immigration infrastructure or enforcement. This would be consistent with other forms of expansion in immigration enforcement, statewide and nationally.
“I’m upset and concerned about what this means for my immigrant constituency. For my constituents, period,” said Ald. JoCasta Zamarripa, who represents the 8th District on the South Side.
Immigration infrastructure
The Knapp Street property is used by ICE as a field office for its Enforcement and Removal Operations, according to ICE.
This includes serving as a check‑in location for individuals under ICE supervision who aren’t in custody and a processing center for individuals with pending immigration cases or removal proceedings.
The Vera Institute is a national nonpartisan nonprofit that does research and advocates for policy concerning incarceration and public safety.
The most people held by ICE at a given time at that Knapp Street location during the Biden administration was six. On June 3, 22 people were held there – also exceeding the high of 17 during President Donald Trump’s first administration, according to data from Vera Institute.
The office generally does not detain people overnight but can facilitate transfer to detention centers that do.
The functions carried out at the Knapp Street office mirror those planned for the Northwest Side facility.
A new ICE field office is expected to open at 11925 W. Lake Park Drive in Milwaukee. (Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)
City records show the West Lake Park Drive property will be used to process non-detained people as well as detainees for transport to detention centers.
The records also state that the property will serve as the main southeastern Wisconsin office for immigration officers and staff.
The U.S. General Services Administration, the federal government’s real estate arm, initially projected the new site would open in October. However, a spokesperson said there was no update and did not confirm whether that timeline still stands.
Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, responded to NNS’ requests for comment.
Rise in immigration enforcement
As local immigration enforcement grows, so does enforcement throughout the state and the rest of the country.
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse is a nonprofit at Syracuse University that conducts nonpartisan research.
Not only are more people being detained, but they are being detained for longer, said Jennifer Chacón, the Bruce Tyson Mitchell professor of law at Stanford Law School.
A July 8 internal memo from ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons instructs agents to detain immigrants for the duration of their removal proceedings, effectively eliminating access to bond hearings.
Eighty-four of 181 detention facilities exceeded their contractual capacity on at least one day from October 2024 to mid-April 2025, according to a July report from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
The Dodge County Jail, which ICE uses to detain people apprehended in Milwaukee, is one of the facilities that exceeded its contractual capacity. On its busiest day, it held 139 individuals – four more than its 135-bed limit.
In addition to Dodge County, Brown and Sauk county jails have also entered into agreements with ICE to house detained immigrants, according to records obtained by the ACLU of Wisconsin.
ICE’s unprecedented budget
Noelle Smart, a principal research associate at the Vera Institute, notes that it remains unclear whether increased immigration enforcement drives the need for more detention infrastructure or expands to catch up with more infrastructure.
But, Smart said, with ICE’s unprecedented new budget, the question of which one drives the other becomes less relevant.
Trump’s proposed ICE budget in 2025 was $9.7 billion – a billion more than ICE’s 2024 budget. An additional $29.85 billion was made available through 2029 for enforcement and removal as part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
“We know this administration intends to vastly increase the number of people subject to arrests and detention, and we expect to see increases in both given this budget,” Smart said.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
In 2023, Arian Rice became a private pilot at age 18.
Now 20, he’s working toward his goal of flying commercial planes and encouraging Black children to explore their dreams.
“After getting the news about getting my license, I can look back and say that I didn’t sit and wait for somebody to do it for me,” Rice said.
Currently, Rice is participating in the aeronautics program at Gateway Technical College to fly commercial planes.
While there, he will complete 125 hours of training to receive his Airline Transport rating, the highest level of pilot certification issued by the Federal Aviation Administration.
First time in a cockpit
Rice was 11 when he was first introduced to aviation. His nana, Isha Kinard, took the family to Burlington to experience the Young Eagles flight program, eat breakfast and explore airplanes.
There, Rice was given the opportunity to fly a plane for the first time.
“I wasn’t scared at all, and when we took off, it felt exhilarating,” Rice said.
During the one-on-one flight, the pilot allowed Rice to take control of the plane, teaching him how to steer and turn.
“I remember we were by a pole, and the pilot tells me to turn around it,” Rice said.
Rice’s aviation journey had just begun.
“I saw a sense of purpose in his eyes as he shared his experience,” Kinard said.
Not old enough for flight school
Rice said his biggest challenge was finding additional flight training. He wanted to train at Spring City Aviation at Milwaukee’s Timmerman Airport, but the minimum age to fly an aircraft solo is 16.
“It was hard, but I didn’t let my dream of aviation die out,” he said.
From ages 13 to 14, he participated in free aviation training through the Young Eagles Sporty’s Learn to Fly course. There he learned the fundamentals of aviation.
In addition, he watched videos on YouTube.
Rice’s mom, Dahneisha Gavin, home-schooled Rice and said he’s good at being a self-learner.
“He can see something and adapt to it,” Gavin said.
Rice mowed lawns and sold fireworks during the summer to pay for the training.
“When we were at the breakfast that day, there was a man that spoke life into not only my son, but us as a unit. He said if we wanted him to fly, we would all have to work together,” Gavin said.
Kinard, Gavin and Rice’s dad, James Sims Robinson, searched for scholarships, pitched in financially and provided other support.
Winning a scholarship
In 2023, mentor and former flight instructor Sean O’Donnell encouraged Rice to apply for a $10,000 EAA Ray Aviation Scholarship, which he won.
“Sean understood my limitations with getting training, and in his spare time, he saw an opportunity for me and forwarded the information to me,” Rice said.
Rice said he was the only Black applicant, which motivated him to work harder.
“Most of the applicants already had the experience and come from families with pilots,” Rice said. “They saw I had worked to do the 10 hours of training, and that stood out to them.”
A generational trailblazer
After passing written exams and completing training hours, Rice received his official private pilot license at 18. He is the first pilot in his family.
Gavin said flying with her son for the first time was one of the proudest moments of her life.
“Arian showed me that he belongs to the sky. It’s not just about flying airplanes. It’s about breaking barriers and creating a legacy to show other young people in Milwaukee that anything is possible,” Gavin said.
Rice said he has moments when he thinks about his first experiences leading up to now and thanks his nana for it.
“My nana invested in my future just by bringing me to that breakfast,” Rice said.
Rice said he believes that Black people aren’t exposed to other careers enough.
“Blacks are always being pushed into music or sports. My license gave me a freeing feeling because some families become too complacent when there isn’t a push,” he said.
For more information
For children looking to go into aviation, Rice suggests reading books about planes at a library and researching resources.
“It’s out there, but you just need to read what’s in front of you,” he said.
Kinard encourages parents to start small. “Break the dreams down into smaller achievable steps and support their efforts to learn and grow along the way,” she said.
Wearing his Milwaukee police uniform, Gregory Carson Jr. stepped into the witness stand, raised his right hand and swore to tell the truth.
Two years earlier, a man had been shot in an alley. His girlfriend said police pressured her to allow a search of the duplex as she held her infant. That search had turned up five guns, and now her boyfriend faced a federal charge.
On the stand that afternoon, a public defender asked Carson if he recalled making inappropriate statements to the girlfriend. Commenting on seeing her underwear on the floor? Reaching out to her hours later? Texting her?
Carson’s answer under oath to each question was the same.
No.
A few witnesses later, the girlfriend swore to tell the truth and read screenshots of text messages she had received.
Hey, it’s me. Honestly it was seeing your thong on the floor that had me like damn lol.
The woman replied to ask who was contacting her. She read the response in court: Hey it’s Carson from yesterday and I understand.
The officer had been caught in a lie.
Gregory Carson Jr. (Provided photo)
At the time, Carson already was on the Milwaukee County district attorney’s list of officers with a history of credibility, integrity or bias concerns, commonly referred to as a “Brady/Giglio” list.
He also was under internal investigation for those same text messages. None of that was known to the defense attorney who questioned him.
After that court hearing, Carson remained on the Milwaukee Police Department payroll for more than two years. In that period, he came under internal investigation three more times.
His nine-year career illustrates the risk of keeping such officers on the force and interacting with the public after their credibility and integrity have come under question. At least a dozen officers, including Carson, kept their jobs after landing on the Brady list, then ended up on the list again for another incident, an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TMJ4 News and Wisconsin Watch found.
Reached in April, Carson declined an interview request.
Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said Carson faced several allegations that overlapped in time and that the officer had due process and collective bargaining rights. Internal investigations can take months or even years to complete, the chief added.
“But we still have to remember, just as a court case, you are innocent until proven guilty,” Norman said in an interview in January.
Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman speaks with reporters at the Milwaukee Police Administration Building in July 2025. (Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Officers’ rights are important, but so is protecting public trust, said Justin Nix, associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Nebraska Omaha.
“Officers can arrest us, they can use force on us, and along with that comes a lot of responsibility to uphold certain values and to be honest,” Nix said in June.
“When officers fail to meet those standards, in my mind, it’s unacceptable.”
Officer lands on Brady list after domestic violence arrest but keeps his job
Carson wanted a long career with the Milwaukee Police Department.
He started as a police aide.
He had relatives who were cops and he wanted to make a difference in his community, “busting down drug houses, getting guns off the streets,” he wrote to a supervisor in 2015.
“I am striving for success, and 25 years plus on the job,” he added.
He became a sworn officer in 2018. Two years later, his own department arrested him on a domestic violence allegation.
A woman had called for help, saying she wanted Carson to leave their shared residence. She had confronted him over infidelity suspicions, and then he held her against the couch and bit her cheek, she said.
Police separated the two. Officer Roy Caul asked the woman about domestic violence incidents that had occurred at any time, not just that night in 2020.
“Just because he’s a cop doesn’t mean that he’s free to do this to you,” Caul said, according to transcripts from body camera footage.
The woman said she just wanted Carson out of the house.
The officer asked if anything occurred that night or within the last 28 days to cause her pain or make her fear for her safety. The woman replied no.
Officers arrested Carson, already in uniform for his next shift, and took him to the training academy for further questioning. He denied hurting the woman.
The department referred the case to the district attorney’s office. Assistant District Attorney Nicolas Heitman declined to charge Carson. In a recent email to the Journal Sentinel, Heitman said the office did not feel it could meet the burden of proof with the available evidence.
Three months later, the woman told Internal Affairs she had not feared for her safety. Carson told Internal Affairs nothing physical happened.
“I feel that I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said, according to department records.
Norman, the chief, disagreed and gave Carson a three-day suspension.
The arrest resulted in the district attorney’s office placing Carson on its list of officers with credibility or integrity issues, often called a “Brady/Giglio” list, named after two landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
These lists are maintained to help prosecutors fulfill their legal obligations to share information favorable to the defense. Often, criminal cases come down to the word of an officer against a defendant. Judges and juries must weigh the credibility of both.
With Carson’s name added to the list, prosecutors would need to disclose his criminal referral and integrity violation to defense attorneys if he appeared on their witness list.
Then it would be up to a defense attorney, and later a judge, to determine if it was relevant to bring up in court.
Carson kept his job, his badge and his ability to testify.
Wisconsin does not have statewide standards for Brady lists, leaving it to each county to track material
Until recently, the county’s full Brady list was kept secret.
As a result of reporters’ questions, District Attorney Kent Lovern removed officers and added others. His office released a corrected and updated list of nearly 200 officers in February, which was published by the Journal Sentinel and media partners.
Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern speaks at a news conference on April 8, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Jovanny Hernandez / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Who gets on a list – and whether counties even have a list – varies widely in Wisconsin, where there are no statewide standards. Officers can testify in multiple counties or in federal court, depending on the case and where an investigation leads.
Federal prosecutors, however, have standardized U.S. Department of Justice guidelines. Prosecutors are supposed to ask law enforcement witnesses directly about potential Brady material and check with officers’ home agencies.
“This process is designed to identify information that is even broader in scope than what is legally required and what might trigger being on a list in another jurisdiction,” said Kenneth Gales, a spokesman with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Milwaukee, in an email.
Gales maintained the office followed all proper procedures prior to Carson’s testimony in the federal hearing.
Even if a formal list is not shared by prosecutors, state and federal public defenders in eastern Wisconsin often exchange information between their offices about the credibility of law enforcement witnesses.
Criminal defense attorneys in Wisconsin say inconsistencies in disclosing Brady material can lead to injustice and wrongful convictions.
Such information is crucial for an effective defense, said Bridget Krause, trial division director for the State Public Defender’s Office.
“Our clients have liberty at stake,” she said.
In shooting case, a witness says officer made inappropriate comments in person and through texts
In late 2021, the Milwaukee Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division received a letter from a prisoner at Kettle Moraine Correctional Institution.
In it, a man accused officers of illegally searching his house during a shooting investigation.
It was the call involving Carson.
Internal Affairs opened an investigation and notified Carson, saying he was accused of taking part in an illegal search and failing to activate his body camera.
A third allegation read that “while on scene, you made inappropriate comments to a female citizen as well as sending her an inappropriate text message,” according to paperwork served on Carson on March 1, 2022.
Seven days later at the court hearing, Carson denied knowing anything about the texts.
A transcript shows Milwaukee police officer Gregory Carson Jr. answering questions about texting a witness during a 2022 federal court hearing. The witness’ name was redacted. (Milwaukee Police Department)
He also defended his decision to turn off his body camera, saying he had switched off the device to speak with other officers, who did the same. No one recorded the conversation detectives had with the woman about searching the home.
“My role in the investigation was over once the detectives were on scene inside the residence,” Carson said, according to a court transcript.
When the man’s girlfriend testified, she said she felt pressured to allow the search after an officer mentioned child welfare. She feared her baby would be taken away. She also said that Carson had flirted with her in the house.
When the prosecutor asked her to elaborate, she quoted Carson as saying: “Oh, you might as well kiss your man goodbye, because you ain’t never going to see him again.”
She also remembered this comment: “I’m going to come back and see you later, okay? You going to let me in? It’s just going to be me and you.”
As the hearing closed, Joshua Uller, a federal public defender, sharpened his argument that officers had acted improperly and their search was not lawful.
Carson and others violated department policy when they didn’t record their interaction with the woman as she signed the consent form. They treated a shooting victim as a suspect without evidence to do so, and Carson had acted completely inappropriately, he said.
“Turning a woman with a newborn child whose boyfriend was just taken away in an ambulance into a romantic objective is really beyond the pale,” Uller said, according to a transcript.
Later that month, Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Dries issued his report and recommendation. Though he chided officers for failing to record the woman signing the form, he concluded they had properly gotten her consent and the search was legal.
Carson’s testimony on the text messages, he said, was not credible.
Officer, already on the Brady list, tries to dissuade a woman from filing a complaint against another officer
Two days after the hearing, an internal investigator questioned Carson about the text messages.
He admitted to sending them, contradicting his testimony.
He said he had a “weakness” and had contacted the woman in “romantic pursuit,” department records say.
“In no way shape or form did I ever intend to be inappropriate or disrespect her in that manner,” he said, according to the records. “It was honestly me trying to shoot my shot and that was it.”
He denied making inappropriate comments to her in person and denied using his position as a police officer as an advantage. He said he regretted it and had learned a lesson.
He never mentioned his false testimony. At this point, federal prosecutors had not notified the police department of any concerns.
A portion of Milwaukee Police Department records detailing the internal investigation into Gregory Carson Jr., who was found to have sent inappropriate text messages to a woman he met at a shooting scene. (Milwaukee Police Department)
About three months after that interview, Carson had another troubling interaction with a woman he met on duty when she and her ex-boyfriend walked into District 7 on the city’s north side.
The former couple had a heated property dispute. The woman also said the man had intentionally hit her head while closing a car door. The man said it was an accident.
Carson was one of four officers dealing with the situation.
The woman grew frustrated with an officer who implied she was lying about the car door injury and refused to write a report about the incident. Police cited the man for battery.
Hours later, the woman received a call from a blocked number.
It was Carson.
He explained who he was and said he was off-duty. He pleaded with her not to file a complaint against his co-worker who had implied she was lying, according to police records. All of the officers involved were “good guys” who could only do so much, she remembered him saying.
She also recalled Carson saying that he hoped she would leave her ex-boyfriend alone because he did not want the ex “popping up at her house” while Carson was there, which she believed to be a flirtatious comment.
The next day, she filed two complaints at District 7: one against the officer who implied she lied and one against Carson.
In a recent interview with the Journal Sentinel, the woman called the actions of the officers that day “extremely disheartening.”
“When you’re going through one of the toughest times of your life, the last thing you should have to deal with is them approaching you in a sexual manner or accusing you of lying when you’re literally crying out for help,” said the woman, who asked not to be named publicly for privacy and safety reasons.
Internal Affairs classified her complaint against Carson as potential misconduct in office and assigned a detective to investigate.
A federal prosecutor tells the Milwaukee Police Department an officer gave false testimony in court
That summer, the federal case involving the shooting victim and Carson’s texts continued.
The defense attorney asked another judge to weigh in on the legality of the search.
As prosecutors prepared for another hearing in July 2022, Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Paulson reached out to Carson about his prior testimony.
She then wrote a memo summarizing their conversation, in which she said Carson admitted to sending the texts and not being truthful in his testimony, adding: “I’m human and I’m attracted to women.”
The Milwaukee Federal Building and Courthouse is shown in Milwaukee on Aug. 5, 2016. (Angela Peterson / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
On July 6, 2022, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Funnell emailed Internal Affairs with concerns about Carson’s credibility. He followed up the next day with a transcript from the March hearing, the earlier judge’s report and the defense motion for a second evidentiary hearing.
Asked about the case and the length of time it took the U.S. Attorney’s Office to contact Milwaukee police, a spokesman for the office said prosecutors acted appropriately.
“The United States also timely satisfied all legal disclosure obligations to the Court and to the defense in the matter you have referenced,” Gales said in an email.
Carson was on the county’s Brady list of officers with credibility issues — he had been since 2021 — but Uller, the federal public defender, said he had never seen the county’s Brady list until the Journal Sentinel and other media partners published it in February.
“While I cannot comment on this particular case, I am not aware of any instance in which, prior to the publication of this list, a lawyer in our office was notified of an officer’s inclusion in this list,” he said.
The Journal Sentinel tried to contact the woman who received the texts but was not successful. Her then-boyfriend charged in the case died in a shooting two years ago.
After hearing from the federal prosecutor in July 2022, Internal Affairs opened an investigation into Carson’s false testimony.
Carson was now the subject of three pending internal investigations, had previously received a three-day suspension and was on the county’s Brady list.
Still, he remained on patrol.
“At the time, it’s an allegation,” Norman, the police chief, said in an interview.
“We have, again, due process,” he added. “And so we need to make sure that there is, you know, the fairness of ensuring that there is credibility to everything, even from a prosecutor.”
A domestic violence victim calls for help, and an officer under internal investigation responds
Bobbie Lou Schoeffling called 911 for help on July 11, 2022.
Over the previous months, Schoeffling or her sister had repeatedly called police to report violence from Schoeffling’s ex-boyfriend, Nicholas Howell. Howell had not been arrested despite the multiple reports, having an open warrant for fleeing and being under the supervision of correctional agents for a past robbery conviction.
Bobbie Lou Schoeffling is seen in an undated family photo. (Courtesy of Tia Schoeffling)
That night, Schoeffling called police twice to report threats from Howell. On the second call, she said he had threatened to burn down her house on Hampton Avenue. She had left the area, fearing for her safety, she added.
Carson and his partner were dispatched to the second call. They did not drive to her house. Instead, Carson spoke to her over the phone and failed to activate his body camera to record their conversation.
Carson and his partner — and the two officers who responded earlier that night — did not file any reports or make any arrests.
Schoeffling was found shot to death two weeks later, on July 26.
On Sept. 4, 2022, police leaders finally pulled Carson from patrol, stripped him of his police powers and assigned him to the stolen vehicle desk in the forensics division.
He did not routinely interact with the public in the role, and the job limited him from having to testify, a department spokesperson said in an email to the Journal Sentinel.
As internal investigations conclude, officer faces a suspension, then termination
As Carson sat at his desk job, his discipline piled up.
In February 2023, Norman suspended him for six days for the inappropriate texts and for failing to activate his body camera at the shooting scene.
Milwaukee police officer Gregory Carson Jr. was one of four officers disciplined for their response to 911 calls from Bobbie Lou Schoeffling reporting domestic violence. Carson and his partner were dispatched to her home in the 9000 block of West Hampton Avenue but called her instead of going to the residence. (Ebony Cox / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
That same month, Internal Affairs interviewed Carson about the complaint filed by the woman at District 7. That investigation had slowed, in part, because it was difficult to reach the woman for follow-up interviews, records show.
The woman told the Journal Sentinel that she recalled speaking to an investigator once after filing her complaint and said she received several letters from the department.
Carson told the investigator, Sgt. Adam Riley, that when he called the woman, he did not say anything suggestive, only that she was worth more than her ex-boyfriend, according to department records. He acknowledged urging her not to make a complaint.
Riley pointed out the officer appeared to have a “pattern.”
Riley asked about Carson’s court testimony in the earlier case, pointing out he knew about the allegation related to the texts before his testimony. Carson said he thought he was truthful on the stand because he did not remember the text at the time.
Carson also said the federal prosecutor who wrote the memo had “misinterpreted” their conversation. Riley asked if Carson would have done anything differently.
No, he said.
Federal and state prosecutors declined to file criminal charges of perjury or misconduct against Carson.
But the district attorney’s office did add him to the Brady list for a second time — and the false testimony cost him his job.
Norman fired him for lying under oath and for discouraging the woman at District 7 from making a complaint.
Carson’s discharge date was Aug. 28, 2024, three years after he was first placed on the Brady list in the aftermath of his domestic violence arrest.
The woman who filed the complaint against Carson and the other officer at District 7 knew Carson had been fired. Still, she has concerns about how the department investigates misconduct allegations.
“I think it’s not handled appropriately or quickly enough,” she said.
Tia Schoeffling, Bobbie Lou Schoeffling’s sister, called it “ridiculous” that an officer arrested in such a case could then respond to domestic violence victims.
She thought of Carson on desk duty for two years, collecting nearly $80,000 in annual wages while he was the subject of several ongoing internal investigations.
She questioned if it would have taken that long to investigate a regular citizen for similar allegations.
“It’s mind-blowing that he was even allowed to respond to her call,” she said.
This story is part of Duty to Disclose, an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TMJ4 News and Wisconsin Watch. The Fund for Investigative Journalism provided financial support for this project.
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