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.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
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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.
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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.
A Wisconsin court commissioner has resigned from his job after he asked to see an immigration arrest warrant, the latest conflict between judges and President Donald Trump’s administration over the Republican’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
Peter Navis, who worked as a Walworth County court commissioner for four years, resigned from his position last month, county clerk Michelle Jacobs said Thursday. She declined to comment further because it is a personnel matter.
The incident that cost Navis his job happened on July 15. It was first reported on Thursday by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The blowup in Navis’ courtroom comes after Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was charged in May with obstructing federal officers and attempting to hide a person to avoid arrest. Authorities said Dugan tried to help a man who is in the country illegally evade U.S. immigration agents who wanted to arrest him in her courthouse.
Dugan is seeking to have the charges against her dropped, arguing that she was acting in her official capacity as a judge and therefore is immune to prosecution. A ruling on that motion by U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman is pending.
Navis was presiding in his courtroom that day in the case of Enrrique Onan Zamora Castro, of Milwaukee, who faced a misdemeanor charge of operating a vehicle without a valid driver’s license for the second time in three years.
Navis said in an interview Thursday that about 15 minutes before Castro’s case was to be called, a deputy told him that Castro was going to be arrested on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, on an immigration warrant.
A court transcript shows that Navis objected to sheriff’s deputies attempting to detain Castro without a valid federal warrant.
“In my courtroom, a person cannot be detained without lawful authority,” Navis said in the transcript.
The prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Herrmann, said Navis had no right to see the warrant, according to the transcript. Herrmann did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment.
Navis said he spoke with Walworth County Judge Kristine Drettwan for guidance, and she told him he had the authority to run his courtroom as he saw fit. Drettwan did not return an email seeking comment.
Sometime after Castro was detained, ICE officers appeared with deputies to make a second arrest of someone in the courtroom. Navis said he didn’t know who that person was.
According to the transcript, Navis said, “I’ve been instructed by the judges of this county to require warrants before individuals are detained in my courtroom.”
Navis said he met with three of the court’s judges six days after the incident and they told him that because he misstated their position he could either resign or be fired. None of the judges in that meeting returned emails seeking comment Thursday.
Navis said on Thursday that he misspoke in the courtroom.
“I misstated it, I did,” Navis said. “It’s not something I had intended to misstate. It’s not like I was trying to mislead anyone. What I was trying to express was I had been given the authority to act in my courtroom. That’s what I meant to say, but it didn’t come out that way.”
Navis said he is currently looking for work.
Walworth County Sheriff Dave Gerber did not respond to an email seeking comment. ICE officials had no immediate comment.
Walworth County, home to about 100,000 people, is in south-central Wisconsin along the Illinois border. Trump won the county with about 60% of the vote in November.
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.
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A judge’s order promises compensation to potentially thousands of disabled workers who were denied unemployment benefits under a state law struck down as discriminatory.
The invalidated law prevented recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) from collecting unemployment insurance.
Two classes of workers may be eligible for compensation: those denied unemployment benefits after Sept. 7, 2015, and before July 30, 2025, under the invalidated law, and those who had to repay benefits they received during that period for the same reason.
A federal judge has ordered Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development to compensate disabled workers who were denied unemployment benefits under a state law struck down as discriminatory.
U.S. District Judge William Conley’s order promises relief to potentially thousands of workers affected by a 2013 Wisconsin law that banned recipients of federal disability aid from collecting unemployment compensation when they lost work.
But many details remain to be ironed out, including how quickly the state will reprocess a decade’s worth of denied claims and whether any claims should draw priority.
“Some work needs to be done yet to put the order into practice, and counsels for the class are working diligently to get to that point,” said Paul Kinne, one of the attorneys representing plaintiffs.
Conley issued his order Wednesday following a hearing in which attorneys representing workers and the state discussed remedies for denials under a law that Conley ruled violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.
The overturned law prevented recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) — a monthly benefit for people with disabilities who have worked and paid into Social Security — from collecting unemployment insurance.
Republican lawmakers who approved the law claimed in 2013 that simultaneously collecting disability and unemployment benefits represented “double dipping.” But SSDI guidelines have long allowed and even encouraged recipients to supplement their income with part-time work, so long as their earnings remain below the threshold of “substantial gainful activity.”
Conley’s order covers two classes: workers who were denied unemployment benefits after Sept. 7, 2015, and before July 30, 2025, due to receiving SSDI, and those who had to repay benefits they received during that period for the same reason.
Not every class member is automatically entitled to benefits, Kinne said, and it may take time to determine eligibility. That’s due to a variety of factors, including potential difficulties in retrieving and analyzing past claims data — and locating the claimants. Still, Kinne expects an “overwhelming majority” of class members to be compensated.
In addition to receiving compensation for past denied claims, class members can file certifications for subsequent weeks in which they were told they were ineligible to file. These certifications should be submitted within 90 days of receiving notice from the department, the order said.
Eugene Wilson of Madison, Wis., receives federal Social Security Disability Insurance due to health issues that prevent him from working full time. After he lost his part-time job during the pandemic, the state denied his unemployment claim — citing a law that banned workers on disability from collecting unemployment insurance. He’s among workers who may be eligible to be compensated for past denials after a federal judge struck down the ban. He is shown with his dog Kane on Aug. 18, 2025. (Brad Horn for Wisconsin Watch)
The order also states that claimants who were charged with unemployment fraud for not properly disclosing their SSDI status will be eligible for benefits they had to repay.
Class members who received federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) — aid for people who lost work during the COVID-19 pandemic but didn’t qualify for regular benefits — will not receive additional benefits for weeks in which they already received pandemic aid. PUA claims were paid at a higher rate than regular benefits, Conley’s order states, and federal law bans the collection of both.
The Department of Workforce Development will begin notifying affected workers by Oct. 1, the order said. The parties must still agree on the language for those notifications, which should inform affected workers about the outcome of the lawsuit and how to claim benefits to which they should be entitled.
“I was generally pleased with the order,” Kinne said. “There is now light at the end of the tunnel for disabled people to receive the unemployment compensation that they should have received in the past.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Last week’s storms destroyed Sabrena Henderson’s Milwaukee home, leaving her family displaced.
Not only did the basement of her Garden Homes rental unit flood, destroying her washer, dryer and freezer, but the heavy rains collapsed her ceiling.
While she does have renters insurance, she said, it’s been a long process of trying to apply for assistance, file claims and figure out next steps.
“It’s only thanks to my family that we are not homeless,” she said. “But we can’t stay in our house, and we are waiting for the landlord to do their part.”
Additionally, Henderson is a breast cancer survivor who is still in cancer care and should not be anywhere near her home. Mold buildup could be dangerous for her immune system, she said, making cleanup another major concern.
Henderson’s family is one of thousands trying to put their lives back together.
Impact
Two American Red Cross shelters have been set up in Milwaukee at Holler Park, 5151 S. 6th St., and Washington Senior Center, 4420 W. Vliet St., to assist temporarily displaced individuals.
Jennifer Warren, the regional communications director with the Red Cross, said on Sunday, Aug. 18, the shelters housed 39 people.
She said since the shelter has been set up, the Red Cross has served over 1,400 meals and snacks. Workers handed out 3,400 emergency relief supplies.
Vickie Boneck, the director of marketing and communications with IMPACT 211, a central access point for people in need, said her organization is supporting local emergency management offices by collecting reports of property damage caused by flooding.
Days after the storm, calls for flood-related assistance continue.
As of the afternoon of Aug. 18, over 16,500 flood-related service requests had been made to 211 from Milwaukee County and the surrounding counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington. About 85% of those requests originated from Milwaukee County alone.
According to 211 data, the highest concentration of service requests came from Milwaukee County’s Northwest Side and the West Milwaukee area, particularly from ZIP codes 53218, 53209 and 53216.
ZIP code 53218, where Henderson’s home falls, reported the most significant impact, with 1,851 damage reports. It also led in utility disruptions, with 2,562 reports, and had over 850 reports of structural damage.
Of the data collected, approximately 6,000 referrals were for storm-related assistance, helping connect residents to county emergency services, disaster food programs, cleanup supplies and other recovery resources.
What’s next
Milwaukee County’s disaster teams are assessing damage. The Salvation Army has teams out handing out water and snacks to those impacted.
Benny Benedict, the emergency disaster services director for the Salvation Army of Milwaukee County, said people are still trying to understand the full impact of the floods.
“It takes a while to figure out basically what you’re dealing with, and it seems that this flood is definitely very significant,” Benedict said.
Teams from partner agencies are also on site to help residents clean homes and basements.
Both the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross are accepting monetary contributions to help those impacted as on-site donations are too much to manage at the moment.
“Today it might be the masks that everyone needs, and then we get thousands of them, and next thing you don’t know, the need is baby formula, and all we have are masks,” he said. “So the monetary donation, we don’t have to sort it, it’s very fluid, and the Salvation Army takes great care in making sure that we’re just meeting the critical needs.”
Benedict said in his experience, this will be a case of long-term recovery for many of those impacted.
“Preliminary numbers are showing that there is a significant number of destroyed homes,” he said. “So, we know that the unmet needs are going to be quite large. That could be everything from just cleanup kits, flood kits, help getting the house mucked out, basically rebuilding, and then there’s going to be needs for household items that were destroyed.”
How to get help
Residents who wish to report property damage may contact IMPACT 211 and speak to a community resource specialist. That is also the best way to access information and referral to programs and services that may help in the aftermath of this storm. If people just want to report property damage, the best way is to complete the online form 211 Wisconsin.
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A special prosecutor was appointed in March 2024 to look into Judge Mark McGinnis’ decision to jail a concrete contractor in December 2021 over a money dispute during a probation hearing for an unrelated crime. The money dispute was with a courthouse employee.
The special prosecutor, La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke, said he plans to make a decision on the case around Labor Day.
Criminal charges against a judge for a decision made from the bench are possible, but unlikely and without recent precedent. Judicial misconduct cases have been reviewed by the Wisconsin Judicial Commission since 1978, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court has the final say on any penalty.
A special prosecutor expects to decide in early September whether to take the extraordinary step of filing criminal charges against an Appleton-area judge over his actions from the bench.
The special prosecutor, La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke, declined further comment to Wisconsin Watch on his investigation of Outagamie County Circuit Court Judge Mark McGinnis.
Wisconsin Watch reported in January 2024 that McGinnis’ actions were the focus of a Wisconsin Department of Justice criminal investigation that had been ongoing for more than a year. The March 2024 appointment of the special prosecutor has not previously been reported.
Read the Wisconsin Watch report detailing allegations of misconduct by Outagamie County Circuit Court Judge Mark McGinnis.
McGinnis had jailed cement contractor Tyler Barth in December 2021 over a private dispute that was not a matter before the court.
When Barth 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 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.
“I think it’s definitely crazy, just lock a guy up with no charge, no pending charge, no nothing and then get away with it,” Barth told Wisconsin Watch in a recent interview.
The 32-year-old Fremont resident said he spent three days in jail before Fond du Lac attorney Kirk Evenson intervened and persuaded McGinnis to release him.
“I just don’t think the guy should be able to do this to anyone else,” Barth said.
Barth later settled the money dispute with his customer. An attorney advised him it would be difficult to win civil damages against McGinnis because of judicial immunity, but Barth is waiting to see what happens with the criminal case before deciding whether to pursue a federal civil rights lawsuit.
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)
McGinnis did not reply to requests seeking comment.
McGinnis was first elected in 2005, at age 34, and has been re-elected each time, 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.
Judicial historian Joseph Ranney, an adjunct professor at Marquette University Law School, said he is not aware of any instance in which a sitting Wisconsin judge was charged with a crime for actions taken as a judge.
Jeremiah Van Hecke, executive director of the Wisconsin Judicial Commission, also said he was not aware of such a case.
Since 1978, the Judicial Commission has been the body responsible for investigating complaints against judges, which are then referred to the state Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has published 31 decisions that carried some form of punishment, often a reprimand, including several for actions taken from the bench.
In 1980, Milwaukee County Judge Christ Seraphim was suspended for three years without pay for a number of violations, including “retaliatory use of bail.” In 1985, retaliatory use of bail was one of the charges brought against Rusk County Judge Donald Sterlinske, who was ordered removed from office even though he had resigned.
Former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman has agreed to a three-year suspension of his law license, but is awaiting formal action in that case. It centers on his work as a special counsel investigating the 2020 presidential election, not his work as a judge.
Marquette University law professor Chad Oldfather said, though it’s unlikely, McGinnis could be charged with misconduct in public office. That state law prohibits, among other things, officials from knowingly exceeding their lawful authority.
But a referral to the Judicial Commission seems much more likely than a criminal charge, Oldfather said.
The commission could also initiate an investigation on its own.
A special prosecutor, Sauk County District Attorney Patricia Barrett, decided not to file criminal charges following a 2011 incident in which state Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley accused Justice David Prosser of choking her during an argument in a justice’s office.
The Judicial Commission recommended that the Supreme Court discipline Prosser for misconduct, but the court took no action for lack of a quorum of four of the seven justices. Three justices recused themselves because they were witnesses to the incident.
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.
There have been criminal charges filed in connection with a judge’s role as a judge, though they were not in response to official actions taken by a judge.
In April, federal prosecutors charged Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan with two crimes for allegedly obstructing Immigration and Customs Enforcement from arresting a criminal defendant in her courtroom. Her case is pending.
In 2019, a Winnebago County jury found Leonard Kachinsky, a municipal court judge, guilty of misdemeanor violation of a harassment restraining order involving his court manager.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
That’s what I tell myself as my family and I prepare to move across the state.
We currently live in Superior, but we’ll soon lay roots in Door County, where I grew up. I’m a little over a week into my role as Wisconsin Watch’s regional editor for northeast Wisconsin.
The journey so far
I grew up in Egg Harbor and graduated from Sevastopol High School before attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison. There, I earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and English.
I’ve spent the majority of my career in Wisconsin: first as an education reporter in Watertown, then reporting and editing in the Fox Cities and Superior.
My most recent role was managing editor for Project Optimist, a nonprofit news outlet that reports on greater Minnesota (everything outside of the Twin Cities metro area).
When I saw Wisconsin Watch post this job, I knew I had to apply. Several friends and former colleagues worked as Wisconsin Watch interns. They spoke highly of their experiences, and they’re some of the most talented, hardworking journalists I know.
Furthermore, I published Wisconsin Watch stories as an editor for the Superior Telegram. I know firsthand how vital the organization’s coverage is to news outlets throughout the state.
What we’re up to
The NEW News Lab launched in 2022. Wisconsin Watch joined the collaboration along with five media organizations, Microsoft, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, the Greater Green Bay Area Community Foundation, and the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region.
The effort puts in-depth local journalism front and center, and it gained traction. We’ve collaborated to explore solutions to a range of challenges that affect northeast Wisconsin families — from unaffordable housing and child care to dangerous conditions at nursing homes and the region’s labor crunch. However, Wisconsin Watch hasn’t had staff in northeast Wisconsin until now.
The northeast Wisconsin newsroom is our way of crystallizing our commitment to the region. We want to build on the partnerships forged through the NEW News Lab and strengthen them. I believe journalists serve communities best when we set competition aside and put readers first.
Fellow Door County native Jessica Adams is our director of partnerships for the northeast region and has been helping us learn about what people want and need from local news. Over the past several months, she held listening sessions at public libraries and met with stakeholders. If you want to let Jessica know your thoughts, you can take her online survey here.
Miranda Dunlap is our first reporter in Green Bay. She’s focused on pathways to success – a beat I’m thrilled to lead. Learn more about it from Miranda here.
I’m excited to meet new faces, connect and see where Wisconsin Watch fits into the local media landscape.
Seizing on that assertion — despite there being no credible evidence to support it — Trump promised on Truth Social to “lead a movement” to phase out mail‑in ballots and voting machines and promote “watermark paper.” He suggested he would implement these changes with an executive order ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The post contains many other false, misleading or unsubstantiated statements about the use of mail ballots, including claims Trump and his allies have made before — even as more Republican officials have tried to encourage voting by mail.
His claims notwithstanding, courts have repeatedly rejected allegations of widespread fraud tied to mail ballots, and many democracies around the world use them. And under the Constitution, he has no explicit authority over the “time, place and manner” of elections. Experts say that an executive order like the one Trump describes in his post would be immediately challenged in court and unlikely to take effect.
Beyond that, any major change to voting by mail before the 2026 midterms would be a logistical nightmare for election administrators, and it would disproportionately affect voters who rely on it most, including overseas service members, veterans and people with disabilities.
Here’s a fact check of some of the key claims in his post.
What Trump said:
“States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them.”
Fact:
Trump’s claim that states are “merely an agent” of the federal government in elections is false, and contrary to decades of Republican orthodoxy on this point.
Meanwhile, Republicans for decades have framed states’ rights as a fundamental principle. This stretches back to Barry Goldwater in the 1960s, through Ronald Reagan’s emphasis on “federalism,” and into recent decades where GOP leaders have framed decentralization of power as protection against “big government.”
Voting has been a primary example for that very point.
For example, after the contentious 2000 presidential election, Republicans fiercely defended Florida’s right to set its own recount rules. GOP leaders and state attorneys general argued in the Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder (2013) that federal oversight of state election laws was unconstitutional. Over the last decade, Republicans in Congress have opposed Democratic efforts to pass federal voting-rights legislation like the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, arguing they represented “federal takeovers” of elections. Then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2019 called the legislation “a one-size-fits-all partisan rewrite by one side here in Washington.”
In 2020, when Democrats proposed federal requirements to expand mail voting due to COVID-19, Republicans fought them off. And when Trump floated the idea of delaying the November election, Republican senators like McConnell, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio reminded him that Congress and the states control election timing and procedures.
What Trump said:
“We are now the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting. All others gave it up because of the MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD ENCOUNTERED”
Fact:
Many democracies use mail voting, including Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and Australia. Some use it more extensively than the U.S. No country has “given it up” because of widespread fraud. Fraud is rare in countries that use vote by mail, as it is here.
Germany has been using vote by mail since the 1950s; in its 2021 federal election, about half of German voters cast their ballots through the mail. In Switzerland, nearly all voters receive their ballots by mail, and more than 70% of voters return them in the same way. The United Kingdom allows any voters to request a mailed ballot, and about 20% of voters take advantage of the policy. The vast majority of European countries allow at least some form of mail voting, especially for citizens living abroad or for those with disabilities.
What Trump said:
Voting machines are “Highly ‘Inaccurate,’ Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial” and “cost Ten Times more than accurate and sophisticated Watermark Paper, which is faster, and leaves NO DOUBT, at the end of the evening, as to who WON, and who LOST, the Election.”
Fact:
Paper ballots still have to be counted — either by hand (which is slow and error-prone) or by machine. That’s why nearly every state that uses paper ballots still relies on scanners to tally them quickly and accurately.
Existing federal law also requires the use of at least one voting machine in every single precinct in the country, for use by voters who have disabilities that make casting a paper ballot difficult. Trump cannot invalidate federal law through an executive order, so voting machines aren’t going anywhere.
Watermarks are not a standard or proven safeguard, though some states do have them (or something like them). The places that use them still use machines to count these ballots.
What Trump said:
“Democrats are virtually Unelectable without using this completely disproven Mail-In SCAM. ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING, and everybody, IN PARTICULAR THE DEMOCRATS, KNOWS THIS.”
Fact:
There is no evidence that one party “cheats” with mail ballots. Voting by mail is used by Republicans and Democrats alike, and in jurisdictions led by Republicans and Democrats. In fact, Republican voters are often more likely to use mail voting, especially in states like Arizona and Florida, where Republicans championed the practice until recently. In fact, there’s no evidence that vote by mail benefits either party over the other — multipleacademicstudies have reached this conclusion.
What Trump said:
“ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING.”
Fact:
Mail‑in voting has consistently been shown to operate extremely securely due to robust safeguards. In states like Pennsylvania, counties that offer ballot curing — the ability to correct errors like missing signatures — report significantly lower rejection rates, demonstrating that the system isn’t rigged, but rather is responsive and adaptable.
Votebeat’s coverage highlights what research studies have shown repeatedly: Instances of fraud in mail-in voting remain exceedingly rare. Even when ballots get rejected, that’s typically due to procedural mistakes — not attempts at manipulation or deceit. Election administrators across the country work under strict, bipartisan protocols, including signature checks and secure handling procedures, to protect integrity. Courts and election officials routinely affirm the reliability of mail ballots when these protocols are followed. In both routine practice and under close scrutiny, mail-in voting stands out as both secure and trustworthy.
What Trump said:
“I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS…by signing an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections.”
Fact:
Courts have ruled that Trump does not have the authority to unilaterally change federal election rules, as they consider several lawsuits challenging his March executive order.
In halting some provisions of that executive order, for example, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote in April that “our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States — not the President — with the authority to regulate federal elections.” That ruling blocked Trump’s direction to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to take steps to require voters to prove citizenship when registering to vote.
A federal judge in Massachusetts later blocked the same provision of the order, writing that Trump exceeded his authority. That judge also blocked parts of the order telling the U.S. Justice Department to enforce a ballot receipt deadline of Election Day.
Nothing stops Trump from leading an informal movement, however. He’s arguably been doing that for years already, and while it has had some impact on policy, voters haven’t really changed their habits much.
Jen Fifield contributed reporting.
Jessica Huseman is Votebeat’s editorial director and is based in Dallas. Contact Jessica at jhuseman@votebeat.org.
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization covering local election integrity and voting access. Sign up for Votebeat‘s newsletters here.
Reports in 2024 and 2025 said China controls up to 90% of global drone markets.
Mediareports citing market research firm Drone Industry Insights said China controls nearly 90% of the global commercial drone market.
The U.S., reliant on Chinese-made parts, is “years behind building the manufacturing infrastructure that could come close to rivaling China’s,” Forbes reported.
MIT Technology Review reported that DJI, one China-based drone maker, has more than a 90% share of the global consumer market and that the supply chain there is “so competitive that the world can’t really use drones without it.”
The Atlantic Council think tank said China’s market dominance means Chinese-made drones operating in the U.S. can send sensitive information to China and gives China a military advantage.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, a former Wisconsin congressman, raised the issue Aug. 5.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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