Since early in the pandemic, people with long COVID have faced challenges in applying for disability benefits, including from their employers, insurance providers and the U.S. Social Security Administration. Applications often take a long time and are denied even for people who clearly have debilitating symptoms, leading to years-long, arduous appeals processes. The same has been true decades prior to 2020 for people with other infection-associated chronic diseases.

To learn more about the disability insurance system, Betsy Ladyzhets spoke to Barbara Comerford, a longtime disability lawyer based in New Jersey who specializes in these cases. Comerford has represented people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome or CFS) for more than 30 years, including high-profile cases like that of journalist Brian Vastag.

Comerford discussed how the process works, her advice for putting together applications and appeals, how long COVID has impacted her practice, and more. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Barbara Comerford: Should we focus on disability insurance, or do you want to focus on Social Security disability, or both?

Betsy Ladyzhets: Both, because people (with long COVID) are applying for both.

BC:  Right. And often, people think they should only apply for one, (but they should apply for both.)

Most of the disability plans that people have are often through their employer. Those plans are known as ERISA plans, referring to Employee Retirement Income Security Act. It was created in the 1970s. … Congress created this regulatory scheme and then immediately created a zillion loopholes that corporations can drive a truck through. Later, ERISA covered all employee benefits in general.

Insurance companies wound up selling policies to corporations saying, “You can get the best people if you offer incentives.” And what’s a better incentive than, if someone gets sick, they can collect a substantial percentage of their salary until full retirement age? These are the sorts of perks that … People think, “If something happens to me, I’ll be protected.” The promise of these policies is that they will give people, usually, between 50% and 80% of their pre-disability income if they satisfy the requirements. Well, that’s a big if.

I’ve been doing this for 38 years. And I can tell you that 38 years ago, these (disability claims) were not problem cases. I used to do them for free for my litigation clients … But over the years, and really starting after 2001 with Sept. 11, all hell broke loose. They (insurance companies) began to get very aggressive. Every time there is an economic downfall, whatever it is, they get extremely aggressive. So you can imagine, with the onset of the pandemic, they knew what was coming.

I did, for many years, advocacy for ME/CFS cases. I represented thousands of people … A lot of my colleagues say, “Long COVID Social Security cases are almost impossible” because they don’t know what to do with them. My office hasn’t found that to be the case. I think the difference is, you have to document these cases with as much objective documentation of symptoms that people have … Get neuropsych testing, cardiopulmonary exercise testing and other tests.

I started doing webinars and seminars (about disability benefit applications) in 2020 because I knew this was coming. At that point, they weren’t calling it long COVID, they were just saying, some people with COVID weren’t getting better. But I knew it was going to turn into another ME/CFS disaster.

BL: How have you found the rise of long COVID has impacted your practice? Do you find you’re more in demand now?

BC: We’ve always had a high volume of cases. Quite a few of them were ME/CFS cases. We did a case, Vastag v. Prudential, in 2018. Brian Vastag, who was a science writer for The Washington Post, was my client, and I could not get over how aggressively Prudential was just dismissing him because it was an ME/CFS case.

And the same is happening with long COVID. We do cases all over the country on long COVID and ME/CFS. It’s my livelihood, so it’s important for me, but it also makes me a little crazy that people get treated the way they do and that they have to hire people like me.

One of the things that people get upset about is that they have to spend money to medically document their symptoms. And worse than that … I see these long COVID clinics, with doctors who are completely ignorant on long COVID, who surreptitiously write notes in the chart that they think it’s a psychiatric case. I don’t know how familiar you are with this.

BL: Unfortunately, I’m very familiar.

BC: It’s awful. Not only is it really hard on my clients …  it triggers them to read things that might not be what they said or might not be pleasant. And the number of times that I have seen that and it has sabotaged cases! I have to reconstruct the cases and have the clients contact the clinic (and get them to make corrections).

Mental/nervous limitations exist in all of these (insurance) policies … They can limit someone’s payments to two years if the case is a psychiatric case or mental/nervous limitation with a DSM diagnosis. 

BL: I wanted to ask also — there’s been a lot of research on long COVID at this point, and there was a report this summer from the National Academies specifically in response to a request from the Social Security Administration about long COVID as a disability, in which they found that this disease can result in inability to work, poor quality of life, all that stuff. Have you seen that report, or other research, like the growing body of research on these diseases, have an impact?

BC: I was asked to comment on that (report). Part of the problem with Social Security’s initiatives in this regard is that every Social Security case goes through what they call “sequential evaluation process.” You have to go through five steps to determine whether or not someone’s disabled. And among those steps is (matching people to a “medical listing of impairments,” but the list doesn’t include major symptoms for ME/CFS and similar diseases).

Years ago, there was an ME/CFS ruling called 99-2p. It offered guidelines (for ME/CFS cases that don’t fit the typical Social Security process). After that, I was asked to present to the national association of Social Security judges, there were 500 judges in the audience. And I asked, “By show of hands, how many of you are familiar with 99-2p?” Two hands went up.

Despite the guidelines, in practice, (the judges aren’t familiar with these diseases). Until there is a time when we can come up with a firm diagnostic criteria for long COVID, and we can say, “This is what you have to document for this illness.” … And it can’t just be a positive COVID test because many people got sick before testing was prevalent or they got sick after people stopped documenting that they were positive.

The other problem for long COVID cases is it’s not like cancer or a broken leg or herniated disc or something that people are accustomed to. Those people are not told they’re crazy. Those people are not told they’re imagining it. Those people are not told, “Well, we just don’t buy it.” This is what happens with (long COVID) and ME/CFS. The psych component that they try to pigeonhole these cases into is really a master stroke by the insurance industry that spends billions of dollars trying to persuade people that anyone who files for these benefits is a crook or fraud.

BL: It’s infuriating, especially when you see how deeply people’s quality of life is impacted by these diseases.

BC: Yes, every part of their life is impacted.

BL: I see what you’re saying about needing diagnostic criteria. In this time where we don’t have that yet, what would you want to see the Social Security Administration or other government agencies do to make it easier for all these people who are applying for benefits with long COVID and ME/CFS?

BC: They should (reevaluate) the sequential evaluation process, which has been there forever, and look at medically determinable impairment in the context of long COVID and ME/CFS. These diseases can be documented by things like neuropsych testing.

I’ll quickly go through the five-step sequential evaluation process. The first step is, “Is the person engaged in substantial gainful activity?” That is something you can do predictably, something that will last at least 12 months, and something that leads to gainful work, where you get paid and you can report for a job either part-time or full-time. In long COVID cases … you have to document that this person is not engaged in substantial gainful activity because they don’t know tomorrow if they’re going to be able to get up and get out of bed and take a shower, never mind report for work.

If you satisfy step one, they go to step two. There, they ask, “Do you have the ability, in light of your disability, to perform basic work-related activity?” Sitting, standing, reaching, pushing, pulling, reading, concentrating, things of that nature. And, “Does the disability negatively impact your ability to do these things?” (You need medical evidence, which can come from) a physician’s evaluation from a long COVID clinic, for example.

If you have that, you go to step three, which is where that horrible “medically determinable impairment” crap comes in. There isn’t (a specific listing) yet for long COVID, although they’re talking about it. Frankly, we’re still waiting for them to do one for ME/CFS, so I’m not holding my breath. That’s the only step in the process where, if they don’t satisfy it, you can still move on to the next step.

The fourth step is, “Is this person capable of performing the work that they performed for the last five years?” Until June of this year, it was the last 15 years … So we go through each job they had, all their symptoms and limitations and why they can’t do (the job anymore). If we document successfully that they can’t perform their past relevant work for the last five years as a result of their disability, we can then go to step five.

Step five, the burden shifts to the Social Security Administration. Social Security has to document that, in light of a person’s age, education and work experience, that there is no work in the national economy that they could perform. (To do this), Social Security has a big graph called the “medical vocational guidelines.” And essentially, the younger you are, the more skills you have, the more education you have, and the more skills that are transferable, generally you are found not disabled. But the graph is not supposed to be used for cases that involve what we call non-exertional and exertional complaints together. Pain, fatigue, things of that nature are all part of the non-exertional limitation.

That is how we lift ME/CFS and long COVID cases out of that graph. Despite the fact that many of our clients are very young, many of them are highly educated, many of them have developed skills that are not only transferable, but are also in high demand in the national economy — (we say that) because they can’t predictably perform sustained work of any kind, the grid should not be used to find them not disabled. But with all of this, every one of these cases, medical documentation of limitations is crucial. I can’t emphasize that enough.

BL: I know a lot of people in the long COVID community, they’ve already sent in their applications, and then it gets denied, and then they have to appeal. What is that process like, and how would you suggest people go about finding someone like you?

BC: It’s really important to do some research. You want to know if the doctor or attorney you’re dealing with has experience in these cases … I do (webinars and one-on-one education) for lawyers all the time because I’d rather them hear what has to be done and understand what happens if they don’t do it.

If I’m giving people advice on appeals … If it’s coming from a United States employer, you’re going to be governed by ERISA. That’s important because people might file a claim without knowing the exact company policy. Despite the fact that federal regulations require employers to give that information to employees, when someone gets sick and files a (short-term) disability claim, they are immediately cut off from the employee benefits portal (that has all the exact policy information). So then I’ve got to write a letter to the employers and fight to get that information.

You can’t even get discovery in these cases … Sometimes they will award benefits, and then six months in they’ll say, “We no longer believe you’re disabled.” Under ERISA, (employers and insurance companies) get all the advantages.

BL: It seems like people should know, if you’re filing against an employer, to save that policy information before you lose access to it. 

BC: When you get the notice of a denial, you can request a complete copy of the administrative record. You are entitled to see everything that the insurance company had on the case, and under federal regulations, they have 30 days to produce it.

And then you have 180 days to appeal that (denial). People say that’s a long time. It’s really not. Because you’ve got to go through thousands of pages of documents. You’ve got to document where they abuse their discretion. It’s not enough to have medical evidence … (The standard you have to push back on is that) the insurance company or the employer has a “reason” to deny the claim.

The lawyer’s job or the claimant’s job is to show all the examples they found in the administrative record that show (mistakes or poor judgment on the part of the insurance company or employer) … Sometimes, you will see reports of experts that they’ve retained to review the case, and the expert will say, “I think it’s a payable claim.” And then the next thing you find is them looking for another doctor who’s a little more receptive to their suggestions. If we see they’ve ignored the opinion of one of their experts, that’s an example of abuse of discretion and arbitrary, capricious conduct. Cherry-picking the evidence is another thing you often see in these cases.

BL: So it’s not just sending your own medical records, you have to show that the company has messed up.

BC: The insurance company or the employer, whoever is paying, you have to show that they abused their discretion.

BL: Is there anything else, any other advice or resources you would give people?

BC: This is really important. If it’s an ERISA case and they do not get that appeal in within 180 days, they’re foreclosed from pursuing it any further … (It’s a big mistake) if you blow those time deadlines.

This article was originally published by The Sick Times, a nonprofit newsroom that chronicles the long COVID crisis.

Have long COVID? Here’s what to know about disability insurance is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

The reopening of the Social Development Commission, after months of disruption, has sparked mixed reactions from elected officials.

While some welcome its return, others anticipate challenges ahead, with Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson calling for greater transparency from the agency.  

The Social Development Commission, or SDC, reopened its main office at 1730 W. North Ave. earlier this month. It’s now focusing on resuming its Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, career services, child care and housing programs.

The agency provided programs and services that helped Milwaukee County residents living in poverty before it stopped services and laid off employees in late April because of its inability to meet payroll and other financial concerns. 

Mayor calls for more transparency 

At the SDC board’s meeting where leadership announced plans to reopen, Jackie Q. Carter, the board’s commissioner appointed by the mayor, voted against executive board nominations and asked for more community involvement, a formalized process and public transparency in the board’s decisions.

“The vote accurately reflected the mayor’s concerns about the lack of transparency in the latest moves,” said Jeff Fleming, a spokesperson for Johnson.

The mayor would like SDC to follow requirements of Wisconsin open meetings law, which includes publicly posting notice of its board meetings and providing agendas with information regarding the matters of discussion, Fleming said.

Since SDC suspended operations, the board has only been meeting part of the law’s notice requirements. SDC has notified individuals and members of the press of upcoming meetings, but it has not been posting meeting notices in public places or online. 

“The mayor is hopeful SDC will, once again, be a leading provider of help to low-income residents of the region,” Fleming said. “It is essential that SDC regain trust before it can resume the important work it previously undertook. The services are needed, and well-run organizations are key to serving those who deserve assistance.”

Other officials weigh in

Before the reopening announcement in November, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said in an interview that the county wants to continue working with the Social Development Commission.

He said many of the services SDC provided have been picked up by other agencies, and his office has not received any constituent calls related to service issues. 

“But we also know that as a CAP (community action program) agency, there are dollars that are probably on the table at the state and federal level that we haven’t been able to take advantage of because they aren’t open,” Crowley said. 

Following the reopening announcement, Jonathan Fera, the communications director for the county executive’s office, said the state and the federal Office of Community Services are working with SDC to determine how to move forward, and Crowley is ready to collaborate with them when needed. 

“It’s encouraging that people are back at the table working on a solution to the challenges that have impacted public services provided by SDC,” Fera said. 

The county administration is encouraging residents who can no longer access services through the SDC to reach out to the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services. 

Another official interested in SDC restarting services is U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore.

When SDC abruptly shuttered in April, Moore wrote letters to SDC’s board and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, calling for a federal investigation. 

“The Social Development Commission’s closure was a loss that was deeply felt in the community,” Moore said. “While I am grateful that the Social Development Commission is resuming some of its services, I know it still faces many challenges ahead.”

County Supervisor Priscilla E. Coggs-Jones, who represents the 13th District on Milwaukee’s Near North Side and is the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors’ second vice chair, called the reopening a “critical step toward restoring vital services for Milwaukee County residents.” 

“The SDC has been a cornerstone of community support for years, and its relaunch reaffirms our commitment to uplifting people in need,” she said. 

State Sen. LaTonya Johnson, who represents the 6th Senate District, said the reopening is great news for Milwaukee County. 

“The commission’s ability to provide housing assistance and child care food services has been a lifeline for families who need a little support,” Johnson said. “I’m glad to have them back in our community, and I encourage those who need help to take advantage of their services.”

Devin Blake, PrincessSafiya Byers and Edgar Mendez contributed reporting to this story.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Milwaukee leaders weigh in on reopening of Social Development Commission is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Arlene Meyer is a busy woman. 

The 86-year-old starts each morning by watching the news in her room at Pine Crest Nursing Home in Merrill, Wisconsin. Then it’s off to the dining hall for breakfast so she can “BS with everybody out there.” She never skips her daily walk and devours books delivered by the public library each week — anything except romance or science fiction. 

The event calendar in Meyer’s room lists a smorgasbord of other options: manicures and mimosas, chair Zumba, trivia, Packers watch parties and beer pong. Meyer spent a recent Friday at an exercise class in an area of Pine Crest that later hosted a happy hour with live music. 

“The concept of old people, it’s out,” Meyer said, adding that “the days go by so fast” — an observation that surprises outsiders with duller expectations for nursing home life.

Meyer moved to Pine Crest in 2023 to recover from pneumonia. She liked it so much she stayed permanently. The nursing home’s social media posts show her holding a lizard, relaxing during a spa treatment and singing a Willie Nelson song at karaoke — photos that brought joy to those who know her.

“Sassy Arlene! Love it!” one person commented on a photo. “Happy you haven’t changed Arlene,” wrote another. 

Lincoln County owns Pine Crest, one of 36 county-owned nursing homes in Wisconsin. They tend to be better staffed, have higher quality of care and draw fewer complaints than facilities owned by for-profits and nonprofits, a WPR/Wisconsin Watch analysis of U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data shows. 

Wisconsin has more county-owned nursing homes than any state but Indiana. But perhaps not for long. 

Over more than three decades, residents in 22 Wisconsin counties lost public nursing homes to sales or closures. This year alone at least five counties — including Lincoln — considered selling, started the sales process or sold.

County leaders say they have only two options while facing financial pressures and staffing shortages: sell or close the homes. Local organizers disagree, arguing counties should continue providing high-quality care for low-income older people and disabled adults. 

Lincoln County’s board voted to sell Pine Crest to a for-profit at the start of this year. After that buyer backed out, the board is planning to find a new one.

Meyer worries about potential disruptions at Pine Crest.

“I love it here,” she said. “I sincerely do.”

A flurry of nursing home sales and closures

Meyer, a former Lincoln County Board supervisor, doesn’t own a phone, but she stays up to date on local happenings. It didn’t take long before she heard rumblings about selling Pine Crest. 

“I was teed off about it because of some of these SOBs,” Meyer said. “They said, ‘well, the cost factor.’ Now I think about what jerks were running this.”

Running a nursing home is expensive, and counties aren’t required to do so — something officials often realize during recessions and inflationary periods.

The financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 was Wisconsin’s busiest stretch for nursing home sales, with four counties selling.

Since inflation started surging in 2021, at least five counties outside of Lincoln have sold or considered selling: 

• Iowa County closed its nursing home in 2022 after failing to find a buyer.
• A private nursing home chain took over Washington County’s nursing home in July. 
• The St. Croix County Board considered selling before voting against it.
• Sauk County’s board this year approved a sale to a for-profit that still requires state health department approval. 
• Portage County heard interest from one prospective buyer but chose not to sell following public pushback. It will decide later this month whether to look for a different buyer.

Meanwhile, dozens of for-profit nursing homes have closed in recent years. 

Lincoln County started debating Pine Crest’s future in 2022 while the board sought budget cuts. Then-board chair Don Friske noticed Pine Crest had for years run substantial annual deficits.

That’s been the case since the 1980s for county-run nursing homes nationwide, said Anne Zahradnik, an associate professor of health administration at Marist College.

Those remaining “are a holdover from an orientation toward government solving problems,” she added. 

From ‘poor farms’ to nursing homes

Wisconsin’s county governments have a long history of housing vulnerable populations. 

Many ran “poor farms” or “poor houses” for residents experiencing poverty starting in the 1800s. Most states eventually created centralized nursing homes to serve older people and those with disabilities from across the state, while Wisconsin prioritized keeping people close to home. A Wisconsin network of local nursing homes and converted poor farms started receiving federal Medicaid funding in 1974, according to a Legislative Audit Bureau report.

Nursing homes for decades were the only long-term care option for populations they served, and people who relied on government assistance had few choices outside of county homes. 

That is changing as people increasingly age at home or in assisted living facilities that offer more independence at a lower cost. Wisconsin’s assisted living options hold more than double the beds of its nursing homes. 

But assisted living, unlike nursing homes, can’t care for people who need regular medical attention. Nor do they offer the same protections against evictions for residents who rely on Medicaid, the joint state and federal aid program to help low-income residents afford care. 

More than a quarter of nursing home beds, on average, at for-profit and county-owned nursing homes sit empty, according to federal Medicaid data.

Almost 40 of Pine Crest’s 120 beds are vacant, but Wisconsin can’t afford to lose them. 

Without nursing homes, hospitals struggle to find housing for their sickest patients, Zahradnik said. The Wisconsin Counties Association projects a need for roughly 10,000 new skilled nursing beds by 2035 as state demographics trend older. 

To keep Pine Crest running, Lincoln County’s board debated converting part of it into assisted living or even knocking it down to build a smaller nursing home with lower operation costs. Both options would require up-front money the county lacks, Friske said. 

The only remaining option the board sees: selling.

Counties struggle to keep up

Medicaid policy is complicated and frequently changes. The program is also how most nursing home residents pay for care. 

Lincoln County’s board lacks expertise on nursing home management, making it hard to keep up, Friske said, echoing officials in other counties.

“We’re horrible at it,” he said.

As the board discussed exiting the nursing home business, it learned the county was short more than $1 million in expected revenue to cover one year’s costs.  

The state has traditionally subsidized county-owned nursing homes, and it started increasing Medicaid reimbursements in 2022. The change shrunk ongoing county deficits to provide care, wrote Elizabeth Goodsitt, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, which distributes the nursing home supplements. 

That was positive. But shrinking those deficits meant counties would get smaller lump sum subsidies for operating nursing homes – something officials in multiple county governments didn’t anticipate, leading to budget shortfalls.

“Just when you think you’re one step ahead, you’re two steps back,” Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann said.

He described the unexpected loss of the subsidies as “just another brick in the wall” for a nursing home the county ultimately sold to a for-profit this year.

Lincoln County used federal pandemic funds to cover the unexpected subsidy loss — a short-lived option.

Despite supporting county-owned nursing homes, state officials don’t always effectively communicate with counties, said Rene Eastman, vice president of financial and regulatory services at LeadingAge Wisconsin, an advocacy group for older adults. 

Still, Eastman said, the recent Medicaid rate reimbursement hikes could ease financial pressures over time.

“If counties hung on for a little bit longer, they would really see the effects of that funding infusion, and they would see the increased need in their communities,” she said.

St. Croix County commits to nursing home

St. Croix County Board Vice Chair Bob Feidler said his colleagues didn’t seriously consider selling its nursing home. But a discussion about that possibility prompted opponents to flood an August board meeting. 

The board voted against selling, deciding that nursing home revenue would likely grow, aided by higher Medicaid rates and a federal grant to open a dementia wing. 

“All of a sudden, we went from what had been a negative revenue to barely a positive revenue, to a more solid projection,” Feidler said.

Many Lincoln County residents hope their board will reach the same conclusion. But increased Medicaid rates alone won’t cover needed costs outside of care, like renovating Pine Crest’s  building, Friske said. That would likely require a property tax increase.

“You can’t just go on a whim, ‘Hey, yeah, we’re going to throw this extra money on the property tax,’ ” Friske said. “People are struggling.”

County leaders have historically asked voters to support nursing homes through ballot measures.

Voters in Green County, for instance, approved an April ballot measure to continue funding their nursing home. 

Portage County voters approved one referendum in 2018 and a $20 million referendum four years later for the construction of a new nursing home — renovations that still haven’t started. Rising construction costs since the delay mean millions more are needed to fund the project, according to county board members who have blocked calls for a fresh referendum.

In Lincoln County, more than 80% of respondents to a 2023 Merrill Foto News and Tomahawk Leader online survey opposed selling Pine Crest.

But the board blocked two efforts to put Pine Crest’s future on the ballot.  

How private homes profit: Cutting staff, benefits 

Friske had gotten unsolicited calls from brokers even before putting Pine Crest on the market, as have officials in other counties. 

Why buy a money-losing nursing home?

For-profits can’t simply build new facilities. The state determines the need for nursing home beds in different communities — requiring newcomers to typically buy a license from an entity already operating a facility. 

Deficits under government ownership don’t mean private companies can’t turn a profit.  

They might find savings by rejecting applicants with behavioral issues who require costlier care. Counties that own a nursing home typically send higher-needs residents there. Counties that don’t own a nursing home still pay to send such residents to another facility that will accept them. 

Private owners frequently reduce staffing and benefits upon purchasing county-owned facilities, Eastman said. Lower staffing correlates with poorer care. 

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rates nursing home staff on a 1 to 5 scale, considering time they spent with residents and turnover. 

The median staff rating at Wisconsin’s county-owned nursing homes is 5, the highest possible, according to WPR and Wisconsin Watch’s analysis. That’s compared with a median rating of 3 at for-profit facilities in the state.

A sign outside of the Portage County Health Care Center touts its 5-star rating. Grace Skibicki, a resident of 13 years and a former care center nurse, recognizes that as impressive. 

She expects care to decline if a chain with a lower rating purchases it. She wouldn’t plan to stick around. 

“It’s really scary because you don’t know what’s going to happen to you,” Skibicki said.

Staff are also waiting to see what their future holds.

Nursing home work can be grueling with modest pay, accounting for significant staff turnover across the industry. But county-owned nursing homes employ public workers who earn county benefits and access to one of the country’s best-funded retirement systems. That may explain why median turnover trends at Wisconsin’s county-owned homes (41%) are lower than they are at for-profits (51%), WPR and Wisconsin Watch found. 

Wisconsin’s for-profit nursing homes drew a median of three substantiated complaints over the last three years, compared to a median of zero at county-owned facilities, which also fared better than for-profits and nonprofits in health inspection and overall quality ratings.

Nursing homes owned by Lincoln, Portage and Sauk counties all rate above average, but county officials believe private owners could run them better.  

Counties struggle to make quick decisions the fast-changing industry requires, Friske said.

Potential buyers named in Lincoln, Portage and Sauk counties all own multiple facilities across the state. Two own facilities in other states. That setup makes it easier for them to fund repairs or convert rooms to assisted living quickly without repeatedly asking taxpayers. 

Care & Rehab Company, which initially sought to buy Pine Crest, owns six facilities in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Two share Pine Crest’s “much above average” federal rating, but two others received “below average” ratings.  

People for Pine Crest

Dora Gorski kept her husband Ken at home for as long as possible. 

Ken, a father, veteran, martial arts instructor and first responder, was often too proud to admit to falling — even when Dora woke up to find him on the ground.

She initially got help from neighbors and home health aides who warned her about his worsening dementia. Ken eventually ended up hospitalized and in need of a wheelchair. 

When Dora realized she’d have no way to get him into their house upon their return, Pine Crest was her first call.

The woman in admissions knew Ken, who had taught her children aikido. Once he moved in, a maintenance worker recognized Ken as his former martial arts teacher. A caretaker told Dora she knew Ken, too — having worked with him as a phlebotomist. 

It turned out that Arlene Meyer, a fellow first responder who had long known Ken, lived down the hall.

“It was people who not just knew him as a doddering old man who is barely able to talk,” Dora said. “They knew him as a respected instructor.”

Two weeks before Ken’s death in December 2023, Pine Crest hosted his 90th birthday party. His children, former students and friends, including Meyer, packed a community room. 

“That meant a lot to Ken,” said Dora, who still participates in a group called “People For Pine Crest,” which opposes a sale.

“We own it. It’s our place. We all take pride in it being here,” she said.

The group spent 2023 urging the Lincoln County Board to keep the nursing home. Their flurry of petitions, yard signs, T-shirts, public testimonies, phone calls and emails didn’t work. The board voted to sell to Care & Rehab.

But an attorney and ally on the county board noticed a language problem in the sale agreement and sued the county to halt the sale.

Care & Rehab backed out before the case could move forward, offering People For Pine Crest a reprieve. 

But Friske, who lost reelection this spring, sees a ticking clock. He expects Pine Crest will face a fiscal crisis that will force a closure unless it sells. 

He resents any suggestion that his board colleagues don’t care about those who depend on Pine Crest.

“The county board is not a congressman from Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, telling Wisconsin how to live,” Friske said. “What’s happening here is friends and neighbors who are elected to the county board. They live here, their families are here, we’re all here.”

Lincoln County has just two other nursing homes, both in Tomahawk and with lower federal ratings.

Dora Gorski, who lives 20 minutes from Pine Crest, said the short distance allowed her to eat breakfast with Ken most mornings. That routine would have been tough to maintain — doubling the length of her drive — had he lived in one of Lincoln County’s two private facilities or the state veterans home in King, Wisconsin.

The county hopes to keep some nursing home beds in Merrill, said current Lincoln County chair Jesse Boyd, but they won’t be county-owned. He agrees with Friske’s financial outlook. 

“Right now, we’re drowning,” he said. 

The county now has lined up a couple of potential buyers for Pine Crest.

If a sale proceeds? Pine Crest won’t be the same, Gorski expects. For now it’s “full of neighbors and friends and people from our community, people who love us and know us,” she said.  

“You don’t find that in some big city, and you don’t find that in a private, for-profit nursing home.”

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

‘We own it. It’s our place.’ Worsened care feared as counties privatize their nursing homes is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

In 2022, the percent of Wisconsin residents who had fluoridated water dropped sharply. According to data from the state’s Department of Health Services, 86.9% of residents had fluoridated water in 2021. A year later, that had dropped to 84.9%. Combining data from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency shows that, in 2024, about 83.6% of the state’s residents have fluoridated water.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported that multiple communities are removing fluoride from their water systems. Opponents of fluoridated water cited a report on fluoride being harmful to children. However, the CDC named fluoridated water systems as one of the greatest health achievements of the 1900s. The CDC recommends 0.7 milligrams of water per liter, or about three drops of fluoride per 55 gallons of water.

This isn’t just a Wisconsin problem. Across the country, fluoride in water is becoming a controversial topic. Coverage from the Associated Press indicated that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s push for removing fluoride from water systems is one of the inciting factors to the controversy. Kennedy is now President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the federal Department of Health and Human Services. 

According to a 2018 publication by the American Dental Association, having fluoride in water systems prevents 25% of tooth decay in children and adults. It can also help reverse tooth decay and lower dental costs for the average consumer. Annually, fluoridated water can lower the cost of dental care by over $32 per person. 

The Fluoride Action Network, an organization dedicated to ending water fluoridation, argues that fluoride is an unnecessary, toxic and dangerous chemical that should not be added to water systems. It cites a 2024 report by the HHS’s National Toxicology Program that says having twice the CDC-recommended amount of fluoride in water systems correlates with lower IQs in children. The study was not conducted with any data from the United States and does not specify that fluoride causes a lower IQ.

DataWatch: Fight against fluoride is expanding on the local and national stage is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

After months of disruption, the Social Development Commission will restart some key programs on Dec. 2 in what is considered a major step toward restoring vital services to Milwaukee’s neediest residents. 

The agency plans to focus on offering the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, or VITA, program; career services; child care; and housing programs at its main office at 1730 W. North Ave. and its location at 6850 N. Teutonia Ave., which operated SDC’s child and adult care food program.  

SDC’s Board of Commissioners discussed the programs on Thursday during a meeting at SDC’s main office.

It was the first public meeting in the building since the anti-poverty agency suspended operations and laid off employees in April. 

The closing of the quasi-governmental community action agency, which managed approximately 30 programs and employed 85 people, has left a major gap in services for many low-income Milwaukee residents. 

“In my opinion, it must be opened immediately,” said Jorge Franco, an SDC commissioner and newly named interim CEO. “There’s things that can be done today that increase the likelihood of getting service back in, back to the people who are of lowest income in our community.” 

The Social Development Commission will use its existing funding to support the programs and hire staff and is also seeking private donations, according to William Sulton, SDC’s attorney.

“We know we have the ability to run these programs, and we are betting on ourselves that we will be able to secure state and federal funding in the future,” Sulton said. 

A few of SDC’s former program managers were present at the meeting, including Diane Robinson, who was the manager of SDC’s VITA program and senior services. 

In the months since SDC stopped its VITA services, Robinson said she has had numerous customers reach out to ask if SDC will reopen. 

“They’re wanting to know when is SDC coming back online because they don’t trust anyone else outside of SDC to do their taxes and do them right,” she said. 

Franco named board chair and interim CEO

The board voted to appoint Franco as chair and interim CEO, replacing Vincent Bobot, who was named interim CEO in September. 

“The thing is I want to stay on as a commissioner, but I think everybody here is aware that I have a full-time law practice, and I have a couple other things going on,” said Bobot, an attorney who owns a general practice, Bobot Law Office.

Bobot is also on the board of SD Properties Inc., the tax-exempt corporation that owns SDC’s buildings. He will remain on the SDC’s board and was appointed to serve as its secretary. 

Franco, who is also the CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin, will not be compensated as interim CEO, according to Sulton.

Jackie Q. Carter was nominated to serve as board treasurer. She was appointed to the board by Mayor Cavalier Johnson in June. 

Carter did not accept the nomination to be treasurer and voted against the executive nominations of Bobot and Franco, urging the board to wait until it gets more members.

New board member appointed

The board voted 2-1 to appoint Lucero Ayala, a licensed practical nurse and vice chair of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin, to serve District 5 on the South Side. She has experience working with an assisted living facility and day care centers. 

“I’ve been helping the community and I’ve seen the impact firsthand, being in child care, how a lot of the kids count on those meals that SDC was providing,” Ayala said. 

Carter voted against Ayala’s appointment, saying that the board needs to go through a more thorough vetting process before voting. 

“I think it’s important for the commissioners that are here to ensure that we are not doing things in a way that is same old business and doing the things that got us here in the first place,” Carter said. 

“Nothing personal, but we’ve got to do the process in a way that makes sense, that’s transparent, that’s collaborative, and the community needs to be engaged,” she said. 

In the meantime, Commissioner Matthew Boswell’s term expired on Nov. 18.  Boswell was appointed by Milwaukee Public Schools.

A Milwaukee Public Schools representative said earlier this week that Boswell would remain on the board until the district finds a new appointment. 

Sulton disagreed and said Boswell is no longer serving on the board. 

“I will reach out to former Commissioner Boswell, but that’s not my understanding at all,” Sulton said. 

Boswell did not attend Thursday’s meeting.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Milwaukee’s SDC plans to reopen key programs in December is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

In May, a CBS News reporter asked the Illinois Department of Agriculture if there were bird-flu-positive dairy herds in Kane County, only to be told the department “doesn’t have any role in this testing” and was directed to the state’s health department.

But an internal email from Connie Austin, the public health department’s veterinarian and deputy state epidemiologist, revealed disagreement.

“I just want to reinforce that IL Dept of Ag should be the source of information about positive dairy herds as they would be coordinating the testing/getting results from USDA etc.,” she wrote to high-ranking agency members in the public health department.

The reporter’s email request came nearly two months after the first reported case of bird flu in dairy cattle.

Because bird flu poses a risk to both animals and humans, state departments of agriculture and health have overlapping roles. However, records and emails obtained by Investigate Midwest show the two agencies in multiple states often disagreed on who was responsible for testing and whether confirmed cases should be publicized. Emails also showed that officials within state agriculture agencies disagreed on how to investigate suspected cases. 

Avian influenza, also called bird flu or H5N1, first appeared two years ago among commercial and backyard poultry. In March, the virus was found in U.S. dairy cattle. Since then, more than 330 dairy herds and 36 people have been infected with the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

While the risk to the general public remains low, according to the CDC, the total number of human cases of H5N1 nationwide has grown significantly in the last month, having more than doubled this month. 

Bird flu cases in cattle have been found in at least 14 states, and local agencies often dictate testing requirements, the dispersal of protective equipment and how warnings and guidance are issued to dairy farm operators. 

Asked about the May emails that showed disagreement between the two agencies, the Illinois health and agriculture departments issued a joint statement, saying the statutory responsibilities of the agriculture department are “to surveille, respond, identify, contain, and eradicate the disease from the affected herd or flock. Outbreak response pertaining to human health, exposure, etc. is conducted by IDPH.”

However, similar disagreements and confusion were found in other states. Investigate Midwest’s review of emails showed: 

• State officials in Michigan decided not to notify the public of a suspected case earlier this year and grew frustrated when local officials intended to alert their community.
• In Illinois, few farms have requested personal protective equipment, and a state advisory board on livestock diseases has not met in years.
• Wisconsin officials did not have a plan for issuing guidance in Spanish, the dominant language for most dairy farm workers in that state.
• Some state health officials were at odds with how federal agencies were dispersing information and the lack of unique guidance between dairy farms and poultry farms.

Dr. Rosemary Sifford, chief veterinary officer for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told Investigate Midwest that compared to years of experience with the virus in poultry, the explosion of bird flu in dairy cattle caught states off guard. Sifford works with federal and state agencies to track and prevent the spread of the virus across the country.

“We just haven’t had that kind of experience on the dairy side,” she said. 

Michigan officials disagreed on publicizing second dairy herd outbreak 

On April 8, a veterinarian with the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development alerted her bosses to an outbreak in Montcalm County, in the central part of the state. The agriculture department had issued a press release about the first outbreak 10 days earlier, on March 29.

But the state vet, Nora Wineland, said that was not the plan this time. “We do not have plans for a specific press release about this finding,” she wrote in emails obtained by Investigate Midwest through a public records request.

The next day, Joseph Coyle, one of Michigan’s top epidemiologists at the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services, pushed back. 

“Our feeling is that a proactive vs. reactive media statement is warranted,” he wrote. “Of course, the farms could not be named and (the state health department) and the (local health department) would work with (the agriculture department) on the content of the media statement.”

Over the next two days, state officials had a series of calls, which are not described in the emails. Ultimately, state agriculture officials would lead on messaging. 

On the afternoon of April 11, the state agriculture department released its statement. It did not mention that a second dairy herd had an outbreak. Instead, Tim Boring, Michigan’s agriculture director, said farms “must act now to heighten and tighten biosecurity measures to contain the spread” of the virus. State health officials did not release a press statement.

However, hours later, a health department spokeswoman, Lynn Sutfin, emailed her agriculture counterpart, Jennifer Holton. The local health department responsible for Montcalm County — the Mid-Michigan District Health Department, which also serves two other counties — had prepared a public guidance related to bird flu and was going to announce local herds had tested positive.

“Don’t shoot the messenger,” Sutfin told Holton. “Deep breath.”

Holton appeared blindsided. “My understanding that was no longer the case,” she replied. “So, I am surprised there is a planned news release for tomorrow.”

An email exchange between Michigan health and agriculture officials over plans to publicize a positive case.

On April 12, the local health officials published their guidance on their website. The locals’ guidance had similar information as the agriculture department’s release the previous day, and it urged those working with dairy herds to take precautions. It also said that “two herds in Michigan” had tested positive.

In a joint statement to Investigate Midwest, Sutfin and Holton said there was a miscommunication that was quickly addressed. The discussion was about “ensuring … clear, consistent and correct information was getting out on a rapidly evolving animal health emergency,” the statement reads.

“During the rapid response to the growing outbreak, commitment to providing clear and consistent information to Michigan’s farming community and residents was always the priority,” the statement continues. “There was a bit of a misunderstanding on the local health department level, (the state health department), and (the state agriculture department) that was quickly and effectively cleared up.”

Liz Braddock, the health officer leading the Mid-Michigan District Health Department, is not included in the email thread. She said having the agriculture department involved changed the usual lines of communication.

“It didn’t come out right away that there was an animal industry (involved), so maybe that’s the miscommunication,” she said in an interview. “(Avian influenza) was new to our area and we wanted to make sure that those in the community knew what avian flu was and they were not getting any misinformation or misguidance because we had seen that happen with past pandemics.

“It was an odd way at the beginning,” she continued. “We were unfamiliar with animal industry law, and (the agriculture department is) a part of animal health, and we are human health. … It became better.”

Around this time, Braddock said, her health department started having weekly calls with officials from the state agriculture department. All local health departments in the state were eventually invited to the weekly calls, she said.

The next month, as the number of dairy herds testing positive for bird flu rapidly increased — 27 herds had tested positive by mid-May — Michigan agriculture officials argued over whether and how to respond to a possible case of the virus, records show.

On Friday, May 17, agriculture officials were tipped off that a state employee suspected a cow in southern Michigan might have died from the virus. According to the state’s data, four dairies had tested positive for the virus on just that day. 

Wineland, the state veterinarian, asked if a dairy inspector could contact the farm. 

“I thought we had a plan to have dairy inspectors call to check in and that there would be a generic script they could follow,” Wineland responded. “That’s what I was thinking at this point. Is that plan still in the works?? Sorry if I missed the update on that plan.”

RE_ HPAI Ingham County (Reported Case)_Redacted

Tim Slawinski, the state agriculture department’s bureau director of Food Safety and Animal Health, which oversees dairy inspectors, disabused her. 

“Our plan has evolved and does not have them asking about whether there are sick cows,” he responded. 

The farm could submit samples to the Michigan State University veterinary diagnostic lab, which is not associated with the state, if they suspect bird flu, Slawinski recommended. 

Boring, the state agriculture director, agreed, writing in an email that the agency doesn’t need vets chasing down every call. He suggested an agency official walk the producer through how to send samples to the lab.

“I do take these reports seriously with our growing sense that this disease is underreported,” he wrote. “I find it very plausible there are dead cows from (bird flu) on non-identified farms today.”

Asked by Investigate Midwest about the email chain, Michigan’s state agriculture department said the tip was handled correctly. 

“While a dead animal is not an unusual occurrence for (state agricultural) staff to hear about, we always want to make sure to handle appropriately and expeditiously and during the HPAI outbreak in dairy cattle there were reasons to quickly determine not only the validity, but if this was actually related to HPAI and be able to take immediate action on this reportable disease,” the state agencies said. “This tip was followed up on and determined to not be HPAI-related within a short timeframe. It also underscores the importance of working with a local veterinarian.”

As of Oct. 14, 38 dairy herds have tested positive for bird flu, according to the state agriculture department. At least two people in Michigan have tested positive for the virus, according to the CDC.

Survey reveals gaps in Illinois bird flu readiness;  Illinois Cattle Disease Committee has not met 

In April, the CDC asked that all states update their bird flu plans. In September, the Illinois Department of Public Health internally shared the results of a survey of the state’s local health departments to determine their capabilities and needs if bird flu was found within their counties. 

The survey found the majority of local health departments that responded to the questionnaires could set up adequate ways to test for bird flu and get treatment to anyone who tested positive within two days. However, less than a quarter of hospitals and clinics said they had space available where symptomatic workers or families could isolate while infected.

In a statement sent to Investigate Midwest, a spokesperson for the IDPH said: “In the event of a public health emergency that overwhelms an LHD’s (local health department’s) capabilities, state or federal assistance could be requested by the LHD.”

According to the University of Illinois, there are 423 dairy farms in Illinois. Sixteen farms were selling raw milk as of mid-April. 

“That is a practice that is always discouraged, but even more so now,” said public health veterinarian Connie Austin, according to notes sent out by the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. “Farmer workers (sic) need to step up their PPE including gloves, goggles, boots, head covers, N95 masks and aprons.” 

But as of Sept. 5, only one Illinois dairy farm near Rockford has requested personal protective equipment for five employees, which included protective face shields, N95 respirators, polyethylene aprons and disposable gloves. 

It took the agency 10 days to fulfill the request.

The spread of avian influenza would also seem to be a relevant time for the state’s little-known Cattle Disease Committee to gather, as its role is to meet in the “event of a disease outbreak or other significant disease situation.” The state’s director of agriculture, Jerry F. Costello II, is the only person who can convene the 18-person board. 

However, the Cattle Disease Committee has not met this year. 

The state’s Advisory Board of Livestock Commissioners also has not met since 2021. According to public records, 53% of the positions on the advisory board (15 out of 28 positions) are vacant. That accounts for every governor-appointed position except for Dave Thompson, a representative of poultry breeders, and Jane Zeien, a representative of sheep breeders. 

The Illinois Department of Agriculture is in the process of appointing new members to the  Advisory Board of Livestock Commissions, according to an IDOA spokesperson. The state’s Cattle Disease Committee has not met because “meetings shall only occur in the event of a disease outbreak or other significant disease situation,” according to the spokesperson.

Majority Spanish-speaking dairy workforce left out of Wisconsin’s initial response plans

The Midwest’s largest dairy-producing state has not had a confirmed case of bird flu in dairy herds, but as the state’s agencies prepared for potential outbreaks, inter-department breakdown often got in the way.

Emails show leadership within the health department division responsible for dealing with communicable diseases were unclear on answers to questions regarding the size of the state’s dairy industry, where the state’s farms were located, if they should be contact tracing for the virus, and the availability of PPE.

Department of Health Services employees also asked leadership about the need for Spanish-language communication plans, which weren’t an initial part of the state’s response. A DHS employee wrote that they would be “supportive of creating a Spanish-speaking comms plan,” but weren’t sure how to incorporate it into already established communication plans. 

Wisconsin DHS did not answer specific questions about whether the agency had Spanish-language communication plans early in the onset of the bird flu crisis.

The majority of dairy workers in Wisconsin are Hispanic and speak Spanish, according to UW-Madison research. 

When members of the state’s dairy industry reached out to DHS about guidance in May, the health department was still waiting on guidance from the state department of agriculture. 

In a statement provided to Investigate Midwest, Wisconsin DHS said it has been meeting with its agricultural counterpart from the outset of the bird flu crisis. A spokesperson with the department said it has had to react to new information from federal partners and other states, as well as communication plans that cast a wide net.

“Part of our routine work in a public health response is working with partners uniquely suited to help reach communities and get information to people who need it from sources they already trust, and it appears these records reflect that important work,” the agency said, referring to the emails reviewed by Investigate Midwest. 

Colorado cases spike as lead epidemiologist questions PPE protocol 

Over the summer, Colorado saw a spike in bird flu cases in dairy cattle. From early June to August, the state had 60 new cases, nearly one each day.

However, the state was still dealing with its bird flu outbreaks among poultry and how the two industries differ.

In a July email, Dr. Rachel Herlihy, the state’s leading epidemiologist, said she disagreed with how the federal government was communicating different PPE guidelines.

“I feel that OSHA and other federal agencies need to clarify that there are risk differences and exposure differences on dairy farms and poultry farms,” she wrote. “PPE guidance should be distinct for the two settings. Face shields are definitely not adequate during poultry culling.”

Three poultry workers in Colorado were confirmed with positive cases in early July. According to a report obtained through an open records request, the state’s ag department witnessed and was involved in a mass culling of poultry at a commercial poultry operation in Platteville, Colorado, in mid-July.

Colorado agriculture department employees praised the efficient communication among state, local and federal officials who were present at the culling event, according to the records.

“Numerous USDA people communicated to me that they aren’t used to having a state department of ag be such a collaborative partner like the (Colorado Department of Agriculture) has been for this incident,” one employee wrote. “The (poultry operation) employees also conveyed their appreciation for the assistance they have received during this HPAI crisis.”

This story was originally published on Investigate Midwest. Investigate Midwest is an independent, nonprofit newsroom whose mission is to serve the public interest by exposing dangerous and costly practices of influential agricultural corporations and institutions through in-depth and data-driven investigative journalism.Visit online at www.investigatemidwest.org.

State agencies initially struggled to coordinate bird flu response, records show is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

For Mariah Johnson, losing her brother to a speeding driver in 2021 is the hardest thing she’s ever endured in her life. 

“The moment my brother died, I felt like my light turned out a little bit,” said Johnson, a 30-year-old mother of two girls. “But, I also think that I went through this so I can make a difference in my city, take my pain of the loss of my brother and turn it into something that helps other people.”  

Johnson’s brother, Jerrold Wellinger, was driving back home with his friend, Davante Gaines, when both were killed by a driver who was racing another car down 60th Street and Hampton Avenue in Milwaukee. 

A popular TikToker, who goes by the name MariahDaWeatherBookie, Johnson is sharing her brother’s story as part of an effort by the city of Milwaukee to prevent reckless driving. 

“Speeding – We Can Live Without It” is a social media billboard and grassroots awareness campaign that aims to increase traffic safety and change driving habits in a city plagued by reckless driving. 

“These are our streets,” Johnson said. “As a community we need to come together and stop (reckless driving). We can all slow down.” 

Campaign resonates with residents

Slowing down, said Jessica Wineberg, director of the Vision Zero Initiative for the city of Milwaukee, is a surefire way to help prevent tragedies such as Johnson’s. 

“You could be that person who hits someone and changes their life forever, or you can just slow down,” she said. 

So far, according to Wineberg, the campaign is resonating with residents, with one video garnering more than 200,000 views on social media. 

Billboards featuring the campaign have also been placed at city intersections that have experienced crash-related injuries. 

Community members share their stories

Milwaukee residents who have been impacted by speeding have been sharing their messages on a social wall created as part of the campaign. 

One story was about Marcus Robinson, a father of four who was hit and killed by a speeding SUV in downtown Milwaukee on Aug. 11. 

“Marcus never made it home to his family and the driver of that (sports utility vehicle) never stopped and still has not been arrested. Now his loved ones are forced to go on without him and without having justice,” read the post. 

Another message was shared by Gloria Shaw, a woman who lost her only son, Xavier Davis, to a hit-and-run in 2022. 

“He was an amazing young man with a very bright future ahead of him in TV video production,” Shaw wrote. “We are still looking for the truck and person who hit and killed my Sonshine.” 

According to Wineberg, traffic deaths and injuries are down compared to last year.  

“Where we have changed the built environment, we are seeing less crashes,” said Wineberg, referring to the wide-scale engineering changes that have been implemented as part of the Vision Zero initiative to eliminate traffic deaths in the city. 

Jerrold’s story

Raised on Milwaukee’s North Side, Jerrold Wellinger was quite the character, said his sister.  Sometimes, Johnson said, he was the next Tony Hawk and other times a wrestler. 

“We grew up poor with a single mother, but we always rented ‘Wrestlemania,’” she said. “My brother would be flipping off the couch watching it.” 

She described him as strong-willed and not afraid to speak his mind, but like her, he had a silly side. 

“He was the one person in life that understood my personality because we both are goofy,” Johnson said. 

Turning tragedy into action

Johnson said her brother’s death led her to community work, leading chats with kids about reckless driving and conducting other outreach on the issue. She currently works with teens as a program coordinator for the PEAK Initiative.

PEAK is a year-round program that promotes leadership development for kids from first grade through high school. 

Through PEAK, Johnson has been able to help organize a block party and pop-ups, where she urges residents to think about how their driving can impact others. 

“I tell them, it’s not just speeding, it’s driving while on your phone or even just driving 10 miles over the speed limit,” she said. “We all have to be honest with ourselves and realize that we are all part of the problem, but we’re also the solution.” 

Reckless driving prevention information and resources

Learn more about the city of Milwaukee’s Vision Zero plan. 

The “Speeding – We Can Live Without It” website offers resources and information to help prevent reckless driving.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Milwaukee campaign aims to curb deadly reckless driving is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

A family stood outside the doors of St. Francis Community Free Clinic at 4:55 p.m. on a recent Monday, five minutes before it was set to open. 

A volunteer receptionist switched on the Oshkosh, Wisconsin, clinic’s “open” sign and welcomed them inside. Within minutes, more patients filed into the waiting room. Volunteers called people back to see Dr. Weston Radford on a first-come, first-served basis.

The clinic technically closes at 7 p.m. on Mondays, but Radford, who volunteers here weekly, said he often stays to treat patients past 8 p.m. — 14 hours after starting his workday as an internal medicine doctor at a private clinic nearby. 

Still the free clinic in its limited hours can’t reach everyone who needs it, including many who lack adequate health insurance.   

“Health care is still a big need that we’re not really filling,” Radford said. 

Health care is on the minds of plenty of Wisconsin residents ahead of the November election. 

More than two dozen people who responded to WPR’s America Amplified project said they want politicians to prioritize health care access. Eight called for expanding access to Medicaid, the joint state and federal aid program to help low-income residents afford care.

Wisconsin is home to more than 1.2 million Medicaid recipients and an estimated 310,000 people who lack insurance.  

Voters weighing their options for president have heard little from former President Donald Trump, a Republican, or Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, about Medicaid policy. Still, their past records and party affiliations paint drastically different possibilities for the program after November, according to the health policy research firm KFF.

“Medicaid and its future, whether it faces existential threats, will depend on the outcome of this fall’s federal election,” said Edwin Park, a public policy professor at Georgetown University.

Trump previously pushed Medicaid cuts 

Residents could lose Medicaid access, experts say, if Trump as president successfully revives his past proposals to shrink the size of the program — leaving more low-income adults reliant on busy clinics like St. Francis.

Project 2025, a plan for a second Trump administration published by the far-right Heritage Foundation, including chapters written by former Trump administration officials, proposes major cuts to federal Medicaid spending and toughened eligibility requirements. 

Those proposals align with Trump’s track record. His administration increased scrutiny over eligibility for recipients, allowed states to add work requirements and proposed trimming around $1 trillion over 10 years from the federal Medicaid budget — cuts that Congress did not pass in 2017.

Nevertheless, Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025.    

“Only President Trump and the campaign, and NOT any other organization or former staff, represent policies for the second term,” Danielle Alvarez, a senior adviser for Trump’s campaign, wrote in a statement to WPR and Wisconsin Watch.

The campaign did not respond to questions about whether Trump supports Project 2025 proposals to limit state Medicaid funding through block grants and impose lifetime limits on benefits. 

“President Donald J. Trump is unwavering in his mission to lower costs for seniors and protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid,” Jacob Fischer, a Wisconsin spokesperson for Trump’s campaign, told WPR and Wisconsin Watch.

A 16-page Trump policy plan promises protections for Medicare, the government health coverage for seniors and adults with disabilities, but never mentions Medicaid.

Harris touts high Medicaid enrollment with few specifics

Meanwhile, an 82-page Harris campaign document touts record-high coverage levels during her administration with President Joe Biden, but it doesn’t articulate specific Medicaid policies. 

A Harris campaign spokesperson did not directly answer when asked about specific Medicaid proposals.   

“Donald Trump is campaigning on a promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act and would spike costs under his extreme Project 2025 agenda, a stark contrast from Vice President Kamala Harris’ plan to take on Big Pharma and bring down health care costs for families across Wisconsin,” Brianna Johnson, the campaign’s Wisconsin spokesperson, responded via email.

Harris pushed a more dramatic health care overhaul in 2019 while running in the Democratic presidential primary. She cosponsored the failed “Medicare for All” bill, which would have granted Americans universal coverage to replace private-pay insurance and Medicaid. 

Harris has since sought to distance herself from Medicare for All. Trump has attacked Harris for having “flip flopped” on what his campaign calls a “socialist” proposal, and he has spread misleading claims about what it would have meant for immigrants who entered the country illegally. 

Harris does not mention Medicare for All in her current platform. She instead describes plans to bolster Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as “Obamacare” — a law Trump has repeatedly pushed to repeal. 

What does Medicaid policy mean for Wisconsin?

Wisconsin has a smaller proportion of uninsured residents than most states, but it remains among just 10 that haven’t expanded Medicaid to cover adults below 138% of the federal poverty line, around $20,800 a year for a single adult. 

Adopting expansion would allow Wisconsin to extend government coverage to up to 90,900 additional adults and reap a net benefit of $1.7 billion over two years, according to a Wisconsin Policy Forum estimate. 

Trump’s Affordable Care Act repeal efforts would have ended Medicaid expansion nationwide. The federal government can’t force states to expand coverage, but Congress during the Biden-Harris administration approved financial incentives to encourage expansion.

Wisconsin’s Republican-led Legislature rejected the most recent expansion proposal. Legislators have argued it would cause more residents to overly rely on the government, increase private insurance costs and burden future taxpayers.

Republican expansion critics point out that of the states that haven’t expanded Medicaid, Wisconsin is the only one without what some call a coverage gap. 

That’s because the state’s Medicaid program covers low-income adults making up to the federal poverty level — the same point at which they qualify for subsidized plans on the federal Health Insurance Marketplace.

But Medicaid is seen as more comprehensive coverage than Marketplace options. Wisconsin’s Medicaid program covers dental care. But a Marketplace enrollee may need to pay an extra premium for dental coverage.

Two-thirds of respondents in a KFF poll of non-expansion states, including Wisconsin, said they favored expansion.

While voters in six Republican-led states approved Medicaid expansion through ballot initiatives since 2020, Wisconsin voters lack the ability to put referendums on the ballot.

Some experts see Wisconsin’s new electoral maps as a potential path for expansion.

This is the first election after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered lawmakers to draw new state Assembly and Senate district boundaries. The new maps create the possibility of Democrats gaining a majority in the state Assembly due to more competitive districts. 

While a Democrat-led Senate remains unlikely, control over one chamber could still move expansion debates forward, said Philip Rocco, an associate professor of political science at Marquette University.

“Even if there’s not a victory immediately, it might create some political momentum for one to happen eventually,” Rocco said.

Radford isn’t sure why Wisconsin hasn’t expanded Medicaid, but he remains hopeful.

It would ease some of his work at his day job at the private clinic. Having more people on Medicare or Medicaid could decrease worries about denials or big out-of-pocket costs.

“It’d be nice just to be able to treat the people what we think medically is the best for them,” Radford said.

Even under expansion, plenty of Wisconsin residents will still need to visit free clinics like St. Francis. 

‘We just take care of them’ 

Each week Radford sees patients who lack adequate private insurance, are in between coverage or can’t qualify for Medicaid because of their citizenship status.

Such needs aren’t new. Radford’s dad volunteered at St. Francis for around 30 years, spanning several  presidential administrations.

While health care policies have changed over time, the clinic’s mission hasn’t. No one at the front desk asks questions about insurance or other types of payment. No one gets turned away.

“People got to be seen,” Radford said. “So we just take care of them.”

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

Medicaid covers 1.2 million in Wisconsin. The election will determine its future is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan made a surprise visit to Baraboo on Thursday, speaking at an event organized by Sauk County residents who sought to ratchet up pressure on state regulators to block the county’s sale of the nursing home it operates.

The Sauk County Board of Supervisors voted last month to sell the Sauk County Health Care Center to for-profit Aria Healthcare. The nursing home was built in 2008, but the county has operated a care facility in some form since 1871 — using it to treat diseases ranging from smallpox in the early 1900s to Alzheimer’s in the 1990s, according to the county’s website. 

Opponents fear that selling the publicly run nursing home will worsen care. 

Aria, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment, operates three Wisconsin facilities in the Milwaukee area. One facility received 39 federal health citations in a year, nearly 30 more than the U.S. average.

“The concerns that you’ve raised about what you worry will happen if this sale goes through is very salient for us,” Khan said.

Three other county boards in Wisconsin have attempted to privatize public facilities this year. Experts say nonprofit and government-owned facilities nationwide are exploring sales due to increasing labor costs and other challenges worsened by the pandemic.

“We’ve been watching with some alarm as more and more mergers and consolidation mean that fewer and fewer players are coming to control important parts of the health care system,” Khan said. 

The FTC, an independent agency that enforces antitrust law, typically reviews sales much larger than that of the Sauk County Health Care Center. That leaves the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to decide its fate, Khan said. 

State officials consider a company’s financial stability and past performance in evaluating a change of ownership application.

The state health department has not received that application for the Sauk County facility, spokesperson Elizabeth Goodsitt said.

The department will have 60 days to approve or deny the sale once it does.  

The department blocked the sale of three SSM Health nonprofit nursing homes to New Jersey-based Complete Care last month, citing the for-profit company’s frequent federal citations. Complete Care operates four Wisconsin nursing homes. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services gives one of those homes “below average” ratings. 

“We have submitted additional information that we believe will address their concerns and hope to receive a final decision soon,” a Complete Care spokesperson told WPR and Wisconsin Watch in an email. 

The Sauk County nursing home has an “average” Medicare rating under its public ownership. One of Aria’s homes has a “below average” rating. The other two are “much below average.” 

That doesn’t worry Sauk County Board Chair Tim McCumber.

“Aria is committed to taking harder cases, and while they would love to see those ratings improve, it doesn’t take much to knock them down,” he said in an interview.

David Grabowski, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, calls that line of defense a bit of an excuse. Everyone is entitled to quality care, he said in an interview, and research suggests residents of public nursing homes often fare better than folks in privately owned homes.

“Really the safety net in a lot of markets are those government-owned facilities,” Grabowski added.

But local governments have been gradually selling nursing homes to for-profit companies over the past 25 years, he said. 

Joice Meyer, who lived at Sauk County Health Care Center in 2020 while recovering from temporary leg paralysis, said the county can’t let that happen.

“Sauk County is going to take care of you, and they always have, and I’m sure that they’re going to keep it up as long as they’re allowed to,” Meyer told the gathering in Baraboo on Thursday. 

Staff called her by name, making her feel like more than just another room number.

“I still have nurses that I see that remember me,” Meyer said. “I don’t think you’re going to get that in another kind of nursing home.”

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

In surprise Sauk County visit, FTC Chair Lina Khan hears concerns about nursing home sale is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Milwaukee attorney William Sulton’s mission is to represent those considered to be the least, the last or the left behind. 

Although he has been in the news for his work with the troubled Social Development Commission and as one of the attorneys representing the family of D’Vontaye Mitchell, who died after a confrontation at the downtown Hyatt Regency, Sulton serves in various legal and board leadership roles in Milwaukee. 

“I just try to do what I can do that’s the right thing and use the legal tools that I have available to me,” he said. “But they’re often difficult problems.”

Sulton estimates that he spends a third of his time running his law practice, The Sulton Law Firm, 2745 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, which specializes in civil rights and public interest cases.  

He devotes another third of his time to volunteering, which includes serving as the board president of the ACLU of Wisconsin. He is the legal redress chair of the NAACP Milwaukee Branch and director of the Honorable Lloyd A. Barbee Foundation, which is named for the late activist lawyer and state legislator who fought for school desegregation.

Sulton is also on the board of Convergence Resource Center, 2323 N. Mayfair Road, an anti-human trafficking nonprofit in Milwaukee.

How it all started

During his childhood, Sulton lived in Maryland, Wisconsin, Colorado and New Jersey.

His mother is from Racine and worked as a civil rights lawyer, which Sulton said had a huge impact on him and his siblings.  

“All three of us (siblings) had a really strong sense of social justice and wanting to help people, particularly racial justice issues,” said Sulton’s sister Patrice Sulton, who also is an attorney. 

She now runs DC Justice Lab, an organization focused on criminal justice reform policy. 

Sulton remembers one case in which his mom was defending Gil Webb, a Black teenager who was charged in the death of a police officer after a car crash in Denver in 1997. People called their home and left racist and threatening messages on the answering machine. 

“I remember being a little kid and riding my bike home so I could erase these messages because I didn’t want my mom to hear them,” he said.

Sulton studied political science as an undergraduate student at Michigan State University, where he started representing students in plagiarism cases. 

While attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, Sulton met his wife, Stephanie, and later moved to her hometown of Milwaukee. 

Public interest law

After finishing law school, Sulton noticed that many people in the courtroom were unrepresented because they believed lawyers were beyond their reach. 

Wisconsin ranks low in lawyers per capita and has an even smaller number of civil rights lawyers, Sulton said. 

Public interest lawyers usually represent poor, marginalized or underrepresented individuals or organizations not served by private sector law firms, including civil rights and social justice cases. 

“These cases are important,” he said. “They mean something. It’s not just about how much money can you make on a case, right? It’s about, can you really change government policy? Can you really make things better, right?” 

Sulton has gained a reputation for taking cases he says that few attorneys will take and demonstrating that they can be profitable. 

“If I had a magic wand and I could do one thing, I would shift the way that we talk about public interest work,” Sulton said. “I think the number one reason that people don’t do public interest work is they don’t think that it’s profitable.” 

Sulton also makes time to speak to law students at UW-Madison. 

One law student asked him about the traumatic weight of his cases and if it impacts him, which Sulton said he had not thought about before. 

“I think I’m just callous because it doesn’t,” Sulton said. 

The ultimate volunteer

Through his volunteer work with the NAACP, Sulton has taken on equal employment opportunity cases and helps clients understand legal problems if they are considering filing complaints, said Clarence Nicholas, president of the NAACP Milwaukee Branch.

“He has a friendly personality and he’s personable,” Nicholas said. 

Sulton started representing the Social Development Commission, also known as the SDC, in late 2022 on a volunteer basis when longtime attorney James Hall Jr. was getting ready to retire and brought him on. Hall died in early 2024.

SDC suspended operations in April, halting a variety of programs and laying off employees. Sulton is working with the SDC board to find paths forward for the agency.

“I don’t know anybody else that would do what he has done, the amount of work that we have put on him, especially in the last four months,” said Barbara Toles, chair of the SDC Board of Commissioners. 

Patrice Sulton said she doesn’t know anyone else in the legal field or elsewhere who holds as many time-consuming positions at the same time.

“I think it’s probably too much to juggle, but I also see how those things work together,” she said. 

One of Milwaukee’s unsung heroes

Sulton said he tries to work early in the morning or late at night to spend the final third of his time with his wife and four kids, ages 13, 10, 8 and 5. 

He said he likes the life he has built, and his main goal is to try to help people.

Debbie Lassiter, executive director of Convergence Resource Center, thinks Sulton is one of Milwaukee’s unsung heroes for his work in the community.

“He never makes you feel like: ‘Listen, I’m too busy to talk to you,’ ” she said. 

“You don’t hear a lot about him getting awards or people thanking him for what he’s done, but we will be forever grateful for what he did for us,” Lassiter added.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Attorney William Sulton advocates for Milwaukee’s most vulnerable is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

The Social Development Commission is selling its properties on Milwaukee’s North Avenue for about $3 million to help pay for expenses needed to move the now-closed agency forward, NNS has learned.

The SDC’s main office at 1730 W. North Ave. and two parking lots are listed for $2.59 million, and its nearby warehouse and parking lot at 1810 W. North Ave. are listed for $639,000 by Ogden & Company, Inc.

William Sulton, SDC’s attorney, confirmed on Tuesday that the buildings are for sale. 

He said the board made the decision on Sept. 18 to sell the properties to limit ongoing expenditures, plan for future operations, pay some of SDC’s debts and avoid future debt. 

“Obviously, the board has to scale down its operations,” he said. “And the North Avenue properties, it was unlikely that those properties would be fully utilized.” 

Both locations are owned by SD Properties, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a separate board. It also owns SDC’s office on Teutonia Avenue, Sulton said. 

SD Properties was established in 2002 to acquire properties for SDC, according to a 2022 tax document.

In the months since the social service agency closed its doors to the public in late April, SDC’s Board of Commissioners has tried to unravel the agency’s financial situation and restructure it for the future. 

Former commissioner and SDC volunteer selling properties

Kimberly Njoroge is listed as the Ogden agent for the properties. 

Njoroge served as an elected member for District 3 on the SDC’s Board of Commissioners. Sulton said her term expired in June.

She has continued to attend board meetings and be included on the board roll call, sometimes taking roll at meetings. Sulton said she has continued to volunteer with SDC. 

“I think it’s fair to say that she received access that no other non-board member received,” Sulton said. 

SD Properties entered into a standard broker contract with Ogden, which includes a commission, according to Sulton.

The SD Properties board now consists of commissioners Terese Caro and Vincent Bobot.

Sulton said SD Properties did not go through a bidding process.

When considering how to utilize its resources in SDC’s crisis, the board looked at the options of selling the North Avenue locations. 

“Then the question was, who would do it and who would do it at a rate that was more favorable than the market, and Njoroge was the person,” Sulton said. 

Njoroge did not respond to a request for comment. 

Why sell?

With funds from the sales, SD Properties could pay off debt on the two defaulted mortgages of the properties as well as owed maintenance costs, Sulton said. 

“I think that SD Properties would be able to pay off all of its debt and I think SD Properties would be in a position to be able to deliver a donation to the commission that the commission could use to whatever advantage the commission believed appropriate,” Sulton said. 

As recently as January, SDC had planned to expand its properties, Sulton said. 

The main office is 32,400 square feet, according to the property listing.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Milwaukee’s Social Development Commission to sell office and warehouse is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

The Social Development Commission was reeling from a scandal in 2013. 

The federal government had flagged numerous deficiencies in how the Milwaukee anti-poverty agency managed the city’s Head Start early childhood development services. Federal officials picked another vendor to run the program, costing SDC a $22 million contract that cut its budget by more than half, eliminated 154 jobs and prompted the CEO to resign.  

SDC would survive that blow. State, federal and local agencies over the next decade entrusted it with millions of dollars for services such as emergency furnace installation, tax support, career advancement, senior companionship and rent assistance. Over time, SDC absorbed other poverty-fighting initiatives, going on to earn more revenue in 2022 than 46 Wisconsin counties.  

About a decade later, another scandal leaves SDC’s future in doubt. The organization’s leaders this spring acknowledged having “misallocated” funds for its home weatherization program, costing SDC a $6.7 million state contract that created ripple effects across its wider budget. The details echoed those from 2013 and earlier in SDC’s tumultuous history.  

The agency in April abruptly shut down and laid off its entire staff, creating gaps in essential services for low-income Milwaukee residents. Former vendors and employees are still trying to collect payment for past work, and multiple SDC Board of Commissioners members have resigned. Whether the organization will ever reopen remains unanswered. 

What caused SDC’s unraveling? The results of a state audit launched just before its closing should fill in some details. Already clear, however, is that SDC’s past leaders significantly weakened internal financial controls with little outside scrutiny.   

State, county and city governments awarded SDC major contracts even after the organization eliminated its internal auditing department and board auditing committee, WPR and Wisconsin Watch found.

These actions should have raised red flags to any independent monitors, experts say. But few were looking at SDC’s broader operations. Wisconsin Watch and WPR could not locate a comprehensive government audit of the organization’s finances conducted before 1996, when dial-up internet was still popular and Mike Holmgren still coached the Green Bay Packers. 

SDC additionally failed to update financial procedures or internal controls for more than 15 years, even after eliminating the role of internal auditor.

SDC was created by governments but functions outside of them. State, county and city statutes define the organization as an intergovernmental commission, with each government appointing board representatives. No government claims broader oversight authority.

Government officials told WPR and Wisconsin Watch they largely focused on how SDC executes contracts with their individual offices — rather than broader operations issues. 

A Milwaukee County spokesperson wrote in an email: “there appears to be no statute or ordinance that directly assigns responsibility for monitoring SDC generally (to any entity – including the county, state, and city).”

“Who’s responsible for fixing this agency that is too big to fail?” asked Wyman Winston, who spent 50 years in community development, eight of them directing the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority.

State and local governments should intervene, regardless of how statutes delegate responsibility, he said, with the constitutional responsibility to protect residents’ welfare taking precedence. 

“Why would you let this entity that serves the largest number of people in the state with critical services wither away?”

SDC shutdown was no surprise

Toni Hamelin learned of SDC’s closing on April 26, a Friday. That left her little time to plan the next Monday’s breakfast, lunch and dinner for up to 40 children at the child care center where she works.

Like 30 other Milwaukee County child care centers that serve low-income families, Hamelin’s Bright Rainbow Academy counted on SDC to prepare and deliver meals through the federal Child and Adult Food Program.

SDC’s closing required her to arrive to work early to prepare meals including cabbage rolls, shepherd’s pie and chicken tacos — with nothing more than a crock pot, a roaster and a hot plate.

Hamelin said SDC’s shutdown wasn’t a surprise. The organization’s meal quality declined during her 30-plus years in child care, and SDC stopped sending infant formula over a year ago, she said.  

“I’ve been questioning things for sure, six months, because things just didn’t seem the way they were,” Hamelin said in July. 

But it took officials months longer to notice SDC again faced the type of trouble that clouded every decade in its history. 

Decades of scandals at SDC

Controversy has surrounded SDC since the 1960s, when residents argued over whether it should supply birth control and discuss police brutality. Within a decade, the scrutiny focused less on politics and more on corruption and mismanagement.

Headlines in the 1970s described leaders using grant dollars for lavish trips, moving SDC money into private accounts and keeping abysmal records that prevented auditors from investigating the agency.

During the turmoil, SDC leadership in the 1980s eliminated an internal auditing position. The organization’s outdated financial procedures manual referenced the role for years after it no longer existed.

SDC cemented its scandal-plagued reputation in the 1990s. 

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported between 1993 and 1996 that SDC leadership tapped organization funds for resort stays for staff retreats, spent exponentially more on a board dinner for 285 people than a Thanksgiving dinner that served 295 seniors, hired an executive director who falsified items on her resume, lost key financial documents in a series of burglaries, spent $400,000 in grant dollars without approval on a suspended construction project and allowed 1 million pounds of food to rot in storage.

State and county auditors responded in 1996 by laying out three options for SDC: Close, become a part of an existing government office or make serious changes. 

Following some recommendations, SDC cut its board from 24 to 18 seats, created a comprehensive budget and rehired an internal auditing staff.

Just a few years later, however, it couldn’t account for grant money to feed low-income children.

By 2011 complaints surfaced over SDC’s management of Milwaukee’s Wisconsin Works and Head Start programs. The organization within two years lost both contracts and roughly 70% of its budget.

That prompted SDC to fire its internal audit staff – eliminating the same positions state auditors previously recommended creating.

Just as in the 1980s, the organization failed to update financial procedures to reflect the change, state records show.

Questions about oversight 

Weakened financial controls can make organizations more vulnerable to mismanagement or wrongdoing. Internal auditors serve a key governance role by offering objective views of an organization, said Mike Varney, the North American board chair of the Institute of Internal Auditors.

While external auditors typically review records from a prior year, internal auditors monitor financial controls and processes in real time, Varney said.

SDC’s internal audit team had caught serious issues, such as a lack of action around a $300,000 state weatherization grant in 2004. An internal audit just before the team was eliminated in 2013 revealed SDC was making inappropriate payments to employees.

Hearing that an organization removed internal auditing controls would “begin to raise red flags,” Varney said.

But SDC’s grantors didn’t seem overly concerned. Its government funding increased after the changes.

Even without internal auditing, the state still required SDC to contract an independent auditor to conduct an external audit, Tatyana Warrick, a Wisconsin Department of Administration spokesperson, wrote in a statement to WPR and Wisconsin Watch.

“The absence of an internal audit director should not be conflated to suggest there is a total absence of internal controls in that organization.”

Pandemic brings big contracts and big deficits

SDC faced a stress test in 2020 as time-limited federal pandemic dollars poured in, more than doubling its budget.

Its problems quickly snowballed. The organization’s balance in 2022 decreased by more than $600,000 — just under the combined worth of the 12 grants it was denied that year. In 2023, SDC lost out on 16 grants worth $16 million, board minutes show.    

Attorney William Sulton, who voluntarily provides legal counsel to SDC, said the organization’s former CEO George Hinton and former Director of Finance Patrick Kirsenlohr failed to act. They should have known about the financial problems but never acknowledged the full scope of the problems to the board, he said. Neither Hinton nor Kirsenlohr responded to requests for comment. 

Still, minutes from monthly board meetings in 2022 and 2023 show Kirsenlohr told the board that SDC would need to slice its administrative budget in half in 2024, that a food service program was operating at a $250,000 loss and that SDC sought a $1.5 million loan to help cover expenses. (The board did not approve the major loan application and lacked a procedure to do so, Sulton said.)

The board should have had better practices, Sulton said. But members likely lacked expertise to pick up on warning signs from SDC management, he added.

Around that time the board voted to eliminate its audit committee, typically a mechanism for members to learn about organizational finances and ask questions without management’s influence.

The board dissolved the committee because it never met, board chair Barbara Toles said, noting it happened before she joined. 

Sulton questions how helpful the committee could have been had it met. No one on SDC’s all-volunteer board had accounting expertise, he said.

Government grantors miss problems

Government grantors are required to monitor and report on their contracts. But they didn’t catch SDC’s fundamental vulnerabilities either until noticing SDC missed payments to some of its contractors. 

As a recipient of more than $750,000 in federal funding, SDC was required by the federal government to commission an annual external audit. CliftonLarsonAllen conducted the most recent audit, which examined 2022. SDC submitted it past a deadline. Auditors found no issues with SDC’s controls or financial reporting.

But year-in-review audits can’t stop financial missteps in real time.

And one report can’t always catch every issue simmering at lower levels of an organization as large and complex as SDC, said Brian Mayhew, executive director of the Center for Financial Reporting and Control at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  

Who should have monitored SDC? 

No other organization like SDC exists in Wisconsin. 

State, county and city officials established SDC as a public, anti-poverty commission for the state’s largest county. Later, SDC also gained the title of Community Action Agency and joined a nationwide network of social service organizations intended to fight President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty of the 1960s.

SDC’s dual titles make it hard to determine who oversees it.

A 1996 audit lists the city and county of Milwaukee as two of SDC’s founding entities. Meanwhile, state statutes give local governments authority to fund commissions like SDC.

Asked if the city of Milwaukee had monitoring authority over SDC, Jeff Fleming, a spokesperson for Mayor Cavalier Johnson, said no.

“SDC was intentionally structured so as not to be part of city, county or state government,” Fleming told Wisconsin Watch and WPR. “With that autonomy comes an independent obligation to manage funds and programs.” 

The federal government designated an office to oversee community action agencies. But in 1981, President Ronald Reagan eliminated that office and designated states to pass federal dollars to community action agencies like SDC. 

The decentralization of social welfare programs makes it harder to track taxpayer dollars, said Ryan LaRochelle, a senior lecturer at the University of Maine’s Institute for Leadership and Public Service.

“As you give more authority to the states, which are even sometimes less administratively capable than the federal government, it just gets really, really difficult.”

The inclusion of government officials on the SDC board offers some opportunities for scrutinizing the organization, but having so many other organizations appointing board members complicates accountability efforts.  

Auditors in 1996 recommended that SDC trim some of the 11 appointing organizations and the eight elected board seats at the time.

“It has been suggested that with so many appointing entities, none can be responsible for the performance of the agency as a whole, and public accountability is undermined,” auditors wrote.

That audit prompted the agency to cut six board seats, but by 2022 the number of appointed members rose to 12. Today, five of those appointing agencies have not filled their seats on the board, leaving the agency with 10 members to repair SDC. 

Representatives of each government typically focused mostly on SDC’s contracts with their organization. 

While the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families performed on-site reviews of SDC at least once every three years, other holistic reviews were less frequent. The Legislature and the county could have ordered comprehensive audits of SDC’s operations, but neither has exercised that power in more than two decades. 

State Rep. Robert Wittke, R-Racine and a co-chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, said the committee has not received requests to investigate SDC since its closure and has “been busy with a number of other things.” 

His fellow co-chair, Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Green Bay, wrote that accusations of fiscal mismanagement at SDC “raise major questions regarding this and similar quasi-governmental entities.”

Some SDC leaders seemed to view government oversight warily. The organization’s 2019-2024 strategic plan lists government oversight as one of three threats facing the organization, alongside state politics and SDC’s “sketchy brand.”

What happened this time? 

SDC’s latest trouble came from trying to continue programs it couldn’t afford after budget cuts, said Toles, the SDC board chair. Rather than scaling back operations, executive leadership tried to move funds around — using grant dollars for one program to cover costs for another following accounting errors. 

“And that’s a no-no,” Toles said. “Never do that.”

When that practice began is unclear, but by late 2023 the Wisconsin Department of Administration noticed SDC’s weatherization contractors weren’t getting paid on time. The agency terminated the weatherization contract in March and launched an audit into that SDC program. 

“It really is an example of state administrators and the tools that state administrators use actually working as they’re designed to work,” said Cheryl Williams, executive director for the National Association of State Community Services Programs.

The cancellation eliminated more than one-fifth of SDC’s proposed 2024 budget and prompted  layoffs of one-third of the agency’s staff. The final blow came when Hinton, before he resigned as CEO, told the SDC board that the agency couldn’t make payroll.

SDC wasn’t the first Wisconsin social service organization to lose a state weatherization contract due to mismanagement. Two others lost contracts in past years. SDC’s weatherization program grew in 2005 after another Milwaukee-based organization lost its contract.

What’s next for SDC? 

Hamelin, the child care director, learned about SDC’s closing on the same day the organization’s employees did.

Hamelin for three months struggled to afford the extra costs of buying three meals a day for Bright Rainbow Academy kids. She considered raising rates for parents, but another local organization stepped in to provide meals before that was necessary.

Bright Rainbow isn’t the only organization to move on since SDC’s closure.

Grantors at the state, county and city level told WPR and Wisconsin Watch they already reallocated funding previously pledged to SDC. At least three agencies plan to decide on next year’s grant before the end of the year.

Reopening will only become harder the longer SDC’s programs remain paused. 

Back during the scandals of the 1990s, state auditors wrote that no one could anticipate the consequences of an SDC closure. 

Winston, the former community development official, said Milwaukee residents still need the  vital services SDC provided.

His recommendation: “Look at what occurred, fix it, make sure it gets reestablished and that there are protections to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” 

Meredith Melland, a reporter with Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and Report for America corps member, contributed reporting.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

How Milwaukee’s giant anti-poverty agency unraveled: weak controls, little oversight is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Roughly five months have passed since the Social Development Commission abruptly shut down and laid off its entire staff, creating gaps in essential services for low-income Milwaukee residents. 

So what happened? The results of a state audit launched after its closing should fill in some details. Already clear, however, is that SDC’s past leaders significantly weakened internal financial controls with little outside scrutiny, an investigation by WPR and Wisconsin Watch found. 

Here are some takeaways from our investigation.  

What is SDC?

State, county and city officials established SDC as a public, anti-poverty commission for Milwaukee County.

The organization provided a range of services such as emergency furnace installation, tax support, career advancement, senior companionship and rent assistance.

Why did SDC pause its programs?

Pandemic relief grants more than doubled SDC’s budget in 2020. 

But as those extra dollars dwindled, SDC’s executive leadership failed to scale back operations. Instead, the agency moved funds around — using grant dollars for one program to cover costs for another. That’s a “no-no,” Barbara Toles, SDC board chair, said.

By late 2023, the Wisconsin Department of Administration noticed SDC’s weatherization contractors weren’t getting paid on time. The agency terminated SDC’s $6.7 million weatherization contract in March and launched an audit.

That loss eliminated more than one-fifth of SDC’s proposed 2024 budget and prompted layoffs of one-third of the agency’s staff. The final blow — and further layoffs — came after former management told the SDC board that the agency couldn’t make payroll.

Does SDC have a history of issues?

Controversy has surrounded SDC since it opened in the 1960s.

Headlines from SDC’s first decades described leaders using grant dollars for lavish trips, moving SDC money into private accounts and keeping abysmal records that prevented auditors from investigating the agency.

SDC cemented its scandal-plagued reputation in the 1990s. 

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported at the time that SDC leadership lost key financial documents in a series of burglaries, spent $400,000 in grant dollars without approval on a suspended construction project and allowed 1 million pounds of food to rot in storage.

By 2011 complaints surfaced over SDC’s management of Milwaukee’s Wisconsin Works and Head Start programs. The organization within two years lost both contracts and nearly 70% of its budget.

Who’s in charge of SDC?

SDC was created by governments but functions outside of them. State, county and city statutes define the organization as an intergovernmental commission, with each government appointing board representatives. No government claims broader oversight authority.

Government officials told WPR and Wisconsin Watch they largely focused on how SDC executes contracts with their individual offices — rather than broader operations issues. 

The inclusion of government representatives on the SDC board offered some opportunities for scrutinizing the organization, but the vast number of other organizations that appointed board members complicated accountability efforts.  

Was SDC audited?

As a recipient of more than $750,000 in federal funding, SDC was required by the federal government to contract an independent auditor to conduct an external audit. The most recent audit examined 2022 and found no issues with SDC’s controls or financial reporting.

But year-in-review audits alone can’t guarantee an organization’s financial health, experts say.

Such audits can’t stop financial missteps in real time. Nor can one report catch every issue simmering at lower levels of an organization as large and complex as SDC, said Brian Mayhew, executive director of the Center for Financial Reporting and Control at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Wisconsin Legislature and the county had power to order comprehensive audits of SDC’s operations. Neither has exercised that power in more than two decades. 

Were there signs of trouble?

SDC leadership’s elimination of the internal audit staff in 2013 and audit committee in 2022 should have raised red flags to any independent monitors, experts say. 

The board dissolved the audit committee because it never met, Toles said.

Weakened financial controls can make organizations more vulnerable to mismanagement or wrongdoing. Internal auditors serve a key governance role by offering objective views of an organization, said Mike Varney, the North American board chair of the Institute of Internal Auditors.

SDC additionally failed to update financial procedures or internal controls for more than 15 years, even after eliminating the role of internal auditor.

SDC’s grantors didn’t seem overly concerned. Its government funding increased after the changes. 

“The absence of an internal audit director should not be conflated to suggest there is a total absence of internal controls in that organization,” Tatyana Warrick, a Wisconsin Department of Administration spokesperson, wrote in a statement to WPR and Wisconsin Watch.

What’s happened since SDC halted services?

Former vendors and employees are still trying to collect payment for past work.

Meanwhile, grantors at the state, county and city level said they already reallocated funding previously pledged to SDC. At least three agencies plan to decide on next year’s grant before the end of the year.

Reopening will only become harder the longer SDC’s programs remain paused.

Meredith Melland, a reporter with Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and Report for America corps member, contributed reporting.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

Why did SDC fail? Takeaways from our investigation of Milwaukee’s anti-poverty agency is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Barbara Hendricks needs at least 10 residents to pay out of pocket for her 22-bed assisted living facility in Horicon, Wisconsin, to survive.

That’s because the other residents in the Dodge County home, Marvin’s Manor, rely solely on Medicaid, which Hendricks said pays her a little more than half the private-pay rate she charges — far below the cost of paying her workers.

“We will just make it,” Hendricks said.

Squeezing by required Hendricks to close the other assisted living facility she ran in Waupun. The decision to close by August left the city with no assisted living providers for seniors who rely on government funding after exhausting their savings. The facility sits empty after the closure forced 12 residents to find new homes, an increasingly difficult task for seniors already on Medicaid, the joint state and federal aid program to help low-income residents afford care.

“Going to see the residents now you can see they’re sad. They’re not home,” Hendricks said. “They’re just not home.”

Assisted living has grown in popularity across Wisconsin and the country, offering aging residents and people with disabilities more independence in less institutionalized settings than traditional nursing homes. But providers continue to struggle. Low state reimbursement rates through Medicaid have depressed provider revenue and worker pay.

That has led some facilities to oust residents who rely on government assistance or even close, limiting options for residents in need. 

In 2023 alone, 148 Wisconsin assisted living communities closed voluntarily, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

WPR and Wisconsin Watch obtained reports from 86 assisted living facilities that closed between 2020 and the first half of 2024, displacing more than 750 people. Each report asks providers to list their reasons for closure. About two-thirds blamed low Medicaid reimbursements or staffing shortages.

A Jefferson County provider cited “the historic and compounding gap between government long-term care provider reimbursement rates and the costs associated with providing care — in particular wages” as the biggest factor in its deficit.

The owner of a shuttered Green County facility wrote simply: “NO STAFF TO WORK.”

The state has incrementally boosted Medicaid reimbursement rates to cover assisted living and home health care, but not every provider benefited, and the rates continue to lag behind the cost of care.  

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in August directed the state health department to spend more than $250 million in federal pandemic relief on assisted living. That was after the Republican-led Legislature’s budget writing committee blocked an earlier plan in an ongoing struggle over spending power.  

Long-term care experts say Evers’ action will help, but only temporarily, and it still falls short of the full cost of care. 

The emergency dollars must be spent by June 2025.

The Legislature will then decide whether to keep the funding in the state’s two-year budget. Republican leaders have previously called the rate increases too expensive. 

“I don’t think (state officials) understand it,” Hendricks said. “They don’t see it. They don’t live it. We do.”

Providers seek relief

Wisconsin since 2020 has increased its average monthly Medicaid payments by roughly $790 per care recipient. But not every provider has seen recent raises.

Reimbursement rates for some of Hendricks’ residents haven’t budged in five years, said her daughter Tonya Maldonado, who handles billing for the company. 

How is that possible? Managed care.

The state doesn’t reimburse providers directly. It pays managed care organizations, which negotiate rates with providers, aiming to limit costs. Wisconsin’s four MCOs later pay providers.

Managed care systems intend to provide higher value care to Medicaid recipients for less money, said Vincent Pohl, a senior researcher at Mathematica, a social policy research firm.

Managed care companies want to keep their costs low and maximize profits by passing as little Medicaid funding to providers as possible, Pohl said. They are navigating tough economics themselves, and historically low state reimbursement rates have left them little room to pass more money to providers, said Rene Eastman, vice president of financial and regulatory services at LeadingAge Wisconsin. 

The state has little say over how much MCOs pay providers for assisted living.

“Under federal rules, there are very few ways in which the department can direct a managed care organization to spend its money,” said Wisconsin Medicaid Director Bill Hanna.

But the state can set minimum Medicaid reimbursement rates for MCOs to send providers, Hanna said. It has done so for nursing homes and other forms of medical care, but assisted living facilities have long lacked such assurance. 

Evers’ pandemic relief plan sets aside $258 million to increase Medicaid reimbursements. Unlike previous increases, it guarantees minimum payments to providers.

Nearly two-thirds of assisted living providers will see a more than 40% increase to their reimbursement rates, the Department of Health Services estimates. Three-fourths of supportive home care services would see a more than 16% increase, showing that most providers are currently getting less from MCOs.

Hanna said some providers see the plan as a lifeline. 

“I got phone calls the day of the announcement, from providers who called and said, ‘We were about to tell our board we needed to start closing procedures, but because of the minimum fee, we’re able to stay open,’” he said.

Susan Osteen, president and CEO of Diverse Options in Fond du Lac County, hasn’t yet felt relief. 

“Whenever the state does something like this, we always just wait and see what’s coming next,” Osteen said. “And I don’t know what that’s going to mean for us.”

Diverse Options operates three four-bed assisted living homes for adults with developmental disabilities. The company closed an eight-bed facility in 2022 due to staffing issues.

Osteen says she’s waiting to see where the state sets minimum rates.

A reimbursement hike previously blocked by lawmakers would have required MCOs to reimburse providers at a $15.75 hourly wage for caregivers, up from the current $13.02 per hour. Britt Cudaback, an Evers spokesperson, said the governor’s latest proposal matched the previous plan. 

The hike would still fall short of the $18 to $22 per hour wages Osteen pays employees.

Meanwhile, some providers worry the minimum reimbursement rates will become ceilings in practice — with no motivation for MCOs to pay more competitive rates, said Janet Zander, advocacy and public policy coordinator with the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources, Inc.

“Even those that are lifted, will they be lifted high enough to truly change the course that we’re experiencing now?” Zander asked.

Little room for error

Rosa Landa bought her first assisted living home in 2019, starting with just two residents in the Madison facility. With particularly low Medicaid reimbursement rates at the time, she dipped into her own savings to keep the home running — even before she had additional staff to pay. 

She considered closing Good Hand Care AFH before a slight Medicaid reimbursement hike allowed the home to survive and higher demands filled all four of its rooms.

Landa and her family take on most of the work alongside two employees. Their business turns a modest profit, but still-low Medicaid reimbursement rates offer little wiggle room.  

She and her husband opened a new home in Monona at the start of this year. So far, the new home only has one resident, leaving three of its four rooms sitting empty. Although more residents plan to move into the home soon, Landa can’t help worrying.

“I cannot breathe basically, until I see everybody in the house,” said Landa, who hadn’t heard about Evers’ $258 million plan.

The state health department will hold a webinar for providers in a month or two, Hanna said, and it will implement new rates by Oct. 1. All providers should start benefiting from the new rates by early 2025. 

But the change could be short-lived.

Continuing the higher rates after June would cost the state and federal governments an estimated $516 million over two years, adding to Wisconsin’s roughly $30 billion biennial Medicaid budget. The Department of Health Services will request the increase in the next budget cycle. 

While the department can set minimum rates on its own, the Legislature controls the funding to make it viable. 

A member of the Republican-controlled Joint Committee on Finance blocked the minimum rate from implementation in April. Committee leaders say they worry about the annual cost of maintaining higher rates once pandemic relief runs out.

“Just nine months ago, the Joint Committee on Finance approved nearly half a billion dollars in new money to support the long-term care industry in our state, bringing our total new investment in the past three budgets to well over a billion dollars,” committee co-chair Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, wrote in a statement.

The state allocated more than half of new long-term care investments to nursing homes rather than assisted living facilities or at-home care, according to a WPR and Wisconsin Watch analysis of the past three state budgets.

But more than 90% of Wisconsin Medicaid recipients received long-term care outside of nursing homes or other institutional settings, according to an analysis of 2020 data by KFF, a health policy research firm.

It’ll be hard on the providers if the Legislature does not extend the rate increases from Evers’ plan —  especially for those who raise employee wages with the extra funding, Eastman of LeadingAge Wisconsin said.

“Once a caregiver wage is increased it’s extremely difficult and morally impossible to take that away,” Eastman said. “Providers need to be reassured that higher reimbursement will continue so that they can continue to pay their employees a fair and living wage.”

Jack Kelly of Wisconsin Watch contributed reporting. This story was co-published with WPR and Isthmus, an independent, local news source based in Madison.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.

Wisconsin’s long-term care crisis: Staffing troubles, low Medicaid rates prompt closures is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Milwaukeeans’ need for food resources continues to rise.

Food insecurity peaked in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic but declined with the help of financial support programs. Now that those programs are ending, service providers are seeing an increase in those in need.

“Someone pointed out to me recently that even the cost of McDonald’s is going up,” said Solana Patterson-Ramos, executive director of the Milwaukee Food Council, which works to ensure Milwaukee has a healthy, affordable and sustainable food system. “So, even those things that people relied on to get by are becoming more expensive.”

A June report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum shows FoodShare usage remains higher than pre-pandemic levels.

FoodShare is Wisconsin’s version of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as “food stamps.”

“As of March 2024, data from the state Department of Health Services show Wisconsin’s FoodShare program totaled 702,700 recipients. That was well below the most recent peak of 793,300 participants in May 2021 but still 99,000 (16%) more than in March 2020, which was the last month with recipient levels not impacted by the pandemic,” the report said.

How many people are affected?

According to Bob Waite, the senior account manager with IMPACT 2-1-1, during IMPACT’s full year in 2022, there were 12,509 requests for food resources, which accounted for 9.5% of all calls to IMPACT 2-1-1 that year.

IMPACT 2-1-1 is a group that connects people in need to resources and services in their communities. 

But Waite said, for the 12-month period from August 2023 to July, there were 21,436 requests for food resources. This accounted for 16% of all calls to IMPACT 2-1-1 during this period, representing a 45% increase in requests compared to all of 2022, according to Waite. 

He said referrals for food pantries accounted for 95% of all food-related calls.

Jonathan Hansen, chief strategy officer for Hunger Task Force, said the organization has also seen an increase in people needing emergency food as well as in those seeking help from homeless shelters and meal programs. 

Hunger Task Force is a food bank and advocacy organization based in West Milwaukee. 

Hunger Task Force’s food bank delivers healthy emergency food to a local network of food pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters in Milwaukee County.

Hansen said there has been a 40% increase in the number of people and families utilizing those programs. The group is currently serving 27,000 people monthly.

Why is the need for food increasing?

A report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum on continued high FoodShare usage noted that “this may reflect a number of factors, from changes to eligibility requirements to reduced stigma and high food prices.”

Hansen said the biggest issue the Hunger Task Force is seeing is the higher costs of food and everything else.

“We hear so many stories about families who need to choose between paying their rent or buying groceries month to month,” he said. “During Wisconsin winters, families with little or no income for food often have to choose between keeping the heat on or keeping food on the table.”

Patterson-Ramos, of the Milwaukee Food Council, said because of inflation, people are losing their safety nets.

“Our reality is we need to do everything we can to improve the emergency food system we have now while working to ensure it can become obsolete in the future,” she said.

How you can help

You can volunteer: Hunger Task Force has 15,000 volunteers annually who support its various programs, including food sorting and emergency food box building at its food bank facility.

You can donate unused food to the Hunger Task Force, Feeding America, or local food banks.

Any financial donation helps, said Patterson-Ramos.

“Sometimes a pantry has food to distribute but no staff to work, so operational costs can be an issue,” she said. 

You can also be a voice.

Both the Hunger Task Force and the Milwaukee Food Council offer opportunities for people to advocate for new policies or changes to existing ones.

You can look at the Hunger Task Force’s website for more information on the group, and you can sign up for the Milwaukee Food Council’s newsletter to keep up with developments. 

A version of this story was originally published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Milwaukee’s food programs see a rise in demand is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service sat down with Monica Wendel, the new dean of the Zilber College of Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, to discuss the state of COVID-19 and the continuing health recommendations for the disease. 

In this video, Wendel discusses why there has been a summer uptick in COVID-19 cases as well as how the community can keep safe as the trend continues.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Video: With COVID-19 on the rise, UW-Milwaukee health expert shares safety tips is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

In bankruptcy filings and consumer complaints, thousands of people across the country make pleas for relief from high-interest loans with punishing annual rates that often exceed 600%.

Although they borrowed small sums online from a slew of businesses with catchy names — such as Loan at Last or Sky Trail Cash — their loans stemmed from the same massive operation owned by a small Native American tribe in a remote part of Wisconsin.

Over the past decade, the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians has grown to become a prominent player in the tribal lending industry, generating far-reaching impact and leaving a legacy of economic despair. A ProPublica analysis found companies owned by the LDF tribe showed up as a creditor in roughly 1 out of every 100 bankruptcy cases sampled nationwide.

That’s the highest frequency associated with any of the tribes doing business in this sector of the payday loan industry. And it translates to an estimated 4,800 bankruptcy cases, on average, per year.

ProPublica also found that LDF’s various companies have racked up more than 2,200 consumer complaints that were routed to the Federal Trade Commission since 2019 — more than any other tribe in recent years.

“THIS IS THE TEXTBOOK DEFINITION ON LOANSHARKING,” one Californian with an LDF loan complained in all caps in June 2023 to federal regulators. The person, whose name is redacted, argued that “no one should be expected to pay over $11,000 for a $1,200 loan,” calling the 790% rate “beyond predatory.”

In a separate complaint, a Massachusetts customer wrote, “I thought this kind of predatory lending was against the law.”

Such confusion is understandable. Loans like these are illegal under most state statutes. But tribal-related businesses, including LDF, claim that their sovereign rights exempt them from state usury laws and licensing requirements aimed at protecting consumers. And so these businesses operate widely, facing little pushback from regulators and relying on the small print in their loan agreements.

As LDF climbed in the industry, it kept a low profile, garnering little publicity. For years it operated from a call center above a smoke shop in the community’s small downtown, before moving to a sprawling vocational training building, built in part with federal money, off a less visible, two-lane road.

But staying under the radar just got harder. Court filings show that LDF tribal leaders and some of their nontribal business partners have come to an agreement with consumers in a 2020 federal class-action lawsuit filed in Virginia. Nearly 1 million borrowers could finally get relief.

The deal calls for the cancellation of $1.4 billion in outstanding loans. Tribal officials and their associates would also pay $37.4 million to consumers and the lawyers who brought the suit. Although they settled, LDF leaders have denied wrongdoing in the case, and its president told ProPublica it adheres to high industry standards in its lending operations.

A final resolution of the case will take months. If approved, the total settlement would be the largest ever secured against participants in the tribal lending industry, lawyers told the court.

“This is a big one,” said Irv Ackelsberg, a Philadelphia attorney who has faced off in court against other tribal lenders and followed this suit closely. “Is it going to stop tribal lending? Probably not because it’s just a fraction of what’s out there.”

The LDF tribe is central to the suit but is not named. Nor is LDF Holdings, the corporate umbrella over the various lending subsidiaries.

Knowing that both those entities likely would have been entitled to sovereign immunity, lawyers for the borrowers chose a different approach. Instead, they brought the case against members of the tribe’s governing council; high-level employees of LDF’s lending operations; and a nontribal business partner, Skytrail Servicing Group, and its owner, William Cheney Pruett.

Pruett also denied wrongdoing in the case. He did not respond to requests for comment from ProPublica.

The proposed settlement notes that the tribal leaders and their partners understood that continuing to defend the case “would require them to expend significant time and money.” LDF, under the settlement, can continue its loan operations.

In emails to ProPublica, LDF President John Johnson Sr. defended the tribe’s lending business as legal and beneficial to both borrowers and the tribal members. He said the loans help people “without access to traditional financial services,” such as those with bad credit histories and people facing financial crises. Many borrowers, he said, have had positive experiences.

He also emphasized the economic benefits to the tribe, including jobs and revenue for vital services. “Please make no mistake: the programs and infrastructure developed through LDF Holdings’ revenue contributions have saved lives in our community and are helping preserve our culture and way of life,” he wrote in an email.

Johnson, who is a named defendant in the suit, and other tribal leaders declined requests to be interviewed.

Partnerships fuel lending

Historically, some financial services firms formed alliances with tribes, gaining an advantage from the tribes’ sovereign immunity. For years, consumer lawyers and even federal prosecutors have raised questions about whether some tribal lending operations were just fronts for outsiders that received most of the profits and conducted all the key operations — from running call centers to underwriting and collecting.

The LDF tribe is one of only a few dozen of the nation’s 574 federally recognized tribes that have turned to the lending business as an economic lifeline. Typically those tribes are in isolated areas far from large population centers needed to support major industries or hugely profitable casinos. Online lending, or e-commerce, opened opportunities.

“If you look at the tribes who do it, they tend to be rural and they tend to be poor,” said Lance Morgan, CEO of a tribal economic development corporation owned by the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. “Because they don’t really have any other options to pursue from an economic development standpoint. They just don’t. That’s why this appeals to some tribes.”

He said his tribe considered getting into the lending industry but decided against it.

Tribes in the U.S. still suffer from the legacy of racism and betrayal that saw the U.S. government steal land from Native Americans and destroy cultures. Now, with limited economic resources and taxing options, tribal governments draw upon federal grants and subsidies to help fund essential community services — support promised in long-ago treaties, laws and policies in exchange for land. But these programs have proven to be “chronically underfunded and sometimes inefficiently structured,” according to a 2018 report from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

On the LDF reservation, which is home to about 3,600 people, the median household income is under $52,000, and 20% of the population lives below the federal poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. On lands that are chock-full of lakes, streams and wetlands, the LDF people operate a fish hatchery, hunt deer and cultivate wild rice. The tribe also has a casino, hotel and convention center.

LDF entered the loan business in 2012 and has set up at least two dozen lending companies and websites on its way to massive expansion, a ProPublica examination found. LDF owns the companies and works with outside firms to operate its businesses, which offer short-term installment loans.

Unlike traditional payday loans, these are not due by the next pay period but have longer terms. Borrowers show proof of income and typically authorize the company to make automatic withdrawals from their bank accounts.

Details of the tribe’s business operations are not public. A July 2014 tribal newsletter reported that LDF had three lending companies employing four tribal members. By 2022, an LDF attorney told the Virginia judge that LDF Holdings, the lending parent company, employed about 50 people on the reservation. Johnson told ProPublica it currently employs 170 people “who live on or near the reservation,” of which 70% are tribally enrolled.

Each year, on reservation land, LDF now hosts the Tribal Lending Summit, a gathering of staff, vendors and prospective partners. Attendee lists posted online show dozens of representatives of software companies, call centers, marketing firms, customer acquisition businesses and debt collection agencies.

After this year’s event, in June, the LDF business hosts posted a congratulation message on social media: ”Here’s to another year of growth, learning, and collaboration! We look forward to continuing this journey together and seeing you all at next year’s summit.”

Business practices under fire

Like many operators in this corner of the lending industry, LDF has been forced to defend its business practices in court. It has been subject to at least 40 civil suits filed by consumers since 2019, ProPublica found.

The suits typically allege violations of state usury laws and federal racketeering or fair credit reporting statutes. Johnson, in his statements to ProPublica, said LDF follows tribal and federal regulations, and he cited LDF’s sovereign status as the primary reason state laws on lending don’t apply to its business practices.

“Expecting a Tribe to opine on and/or submit to State regulatory oversight is akin to expecting Canada to submit to or speak on the laws of France,” he wrote.

Most suits against LDF’s lending companies settle quickly with the terms kept confidential. Consumers can be at a disadvantage because of the arbitration agreements in the fine print of their loan contracts, which attempt to restrict their ability to sue.

Karen Brostek, a registered nurse in Florida, borrowed $550 in 2017 from LDF’s Loan at Last at an annual percentage rate of 682%. The contract required her to pay back $2,783 over nine months.

It wasn’t her first foray into short-term borrowing. She said her salary did not cover her expenses and she had “to borrow from Peter to pay Paul.”

Loan at Last tried numerous times to collect the debt, even threatening in one phone call to have her jailed, she said. Finally, in August 2019, she satisfied the obligation.

Brostek sued LDF Holdings in small claims court in Pasco County in 2021. The suit cited Florida laws that make it a third-degree felony to issue loans with APRs over 45%.

The parties settled within weeks. Brostek recalls receiving about $750. LDF’s Johnson did not comment on Brostek’s case in his response to ProPublica.

She said she does not begrudge the tribe making money but said, “We need to find another way to help them so they don’t feel they’re backed into a corner and this is their only alternative.”

A groundbreaking settlement

The Virginia class-action suit claimed that LDF’s governing council delegated the daily operations of the lending businesses “to non-tribal members.” Mirroring allegations in other civil actions, the suit claims that LDF’s partnerships were exploiting sovereign immunity to make loans that otherwise would be illegal.

According to the plaintiffs, LDF Holdings entered into agreements that allow nontribal outsiders to handle and control most aspects of the lending businesses. That includes “marketing, underwriting, risk assessment, compliance, accounting, lead generation, collections, and website management for the businesses,” the suit said. For years, the president of LDF Holdings was a woman who lived in Tampa, Florida. She is a named defendant in the suit, which says she is not a member of the tribe.

Johnson told ProPublica that early on the tribe lacked expertise in the industry and that its partnerships were simply an example of outsourcing, “a standard practice in many American business sectors.”

His statement added, “Recruiting outside talent and capital to Indian country is a mission-critical skill in Tribal economic development.”

The amount of revenue that comes to the tribe is undisclosed, but the class-action suit says the contract with one of its partners, Skytrail Servicing, resulted in only “a nominal flat fee” for LDF.

The 2014 servicing agreement between Skytrail Servicing and LDF is sealed in the court record, and details about the arrangement are largely redacted. In one filing, Skytrail Servicing denies an allegation from the plaintiffs that the tribe received only $3.50 per originated loan.

In a separate filing in the suit, Johnson, the tribal president, said LDF’s lending profits are distributed to the tribe’s general fund, which helps pay for the tribal government, including essential services such as police, education and health care.

The legal strategy crafted by the Virginia consumer protection firm Kelly Guzzo PLC relied heavily on a 2021 federal appeals court decision that concluded that tribal lending was off-reservation conduct to which state law applied. The court found that while a tribe itself cannot be sued for its commercial activities, its members and officers can be.

The class-action suit alleges that tribal officials and their associates conspired to violate state lending laws, collecting millions of dollars in unlawful debts. “In sum, we allege that they are the upper level management of a purely unlawful business that makes illegal loans in Virginia, Georgia, and elsewhere throughout the country,” lawyer Andrew Guzzo said in a September 2022 hearing, referring to LDF officials.

“What I’m trying to say, in other words, is this isn’t a case that involves a lawful business, such as a real estate brokerage firm, that happens to have a secret side scheme involving a few rogue employees,” he said. “The people that are overseeing this are overseeing a business that makes unlawful loans and nothing else.”

The most consequential aspect of the settlement plan is the debt relief it would offer an estimated 980,000 people who were LDF customers over seven years — from July 24, 2016, through Oct. 1, 2023. Those who had obtained loans during that period and still owed money would not be subject to any further collection efforts, canceling an estimated $1.4 billion in outstanding debt.

Eligibility for cash awards is dependent on the state where borrowers live and how much they paid in interest. Nevada and Utah have no interest rate restrictions, so borrowers there aren’t entitled to any money back.

The tribal officials who are listed as defendants have agreed to pay $2 million of the $37.4 million cash settlement. The remaining amount would come from nontribal partners involved in five of the tribe’s lending subsidiaries.

That includes $6.5 million from Skytrail Servicing Group and Pruett, a Texas businessman who has been involved in the payday loan industry for more than two decades.

The largest portion of the settlement — $20 million — would come from unnamed “non-tribal individuals and entities” involved with LDF’s Loan at Last, the company that gave Brostek her loan.

The consumer attorneys are not done. They noted in a memorandum in the case that other LDF affiliates who did not settle in this instance “will be sued in a new case.”

Mariam Elba contributed research.

A Wisconsin tribe built a lending empire charging 600% annual rates to borrowers is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Can you safely walk around your city? Many Wisconsin residents can’t. The vast majority of our state’s cities fall short of walkability, according to Seattle-based walkability metric Walk Score. Apart from Milwaukee, which ranks at 24th most walkable large to mid-sized city in the nation and receives a “somewhat walkable” score, every ranked city in the state is categorized as car-dependent or worse.

Transit spending, adjusted for inflation, has fallen to nearly a fifth of what the state spent during its ridership peak in the 1950s, and past legislation outlawing taxpayer-funded regional transit authorities continues to pose a significant roadblock against planners and municipalities looking to expand transit options. Despite this, a whopping 31% of Wisconsinites, according to census data, are non-drivers.

Whether it be mobility, accessibility or just plain affordability, I’m looking to hear about the experiences of non-drivers in this state and how they get around. In a society that depends so heavily on cars, how are the lives of cyclists, pedestrians and transit users affected? What solutions, looking forward, can lend a helping hand? For drivers, has car ownership introduced any unexpected difficulties into your life? Do you wish there were better alternatives to driving?

If you’re interested in sharing your story, feel free to reach out to me directly at jshieh@wisconsinwatch.org or send a tip to our newsroom.

Hey, non-drivers: Help us report on transportation in Wisconsin is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

As drug overdose deaths continue to scourge the community, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has announced a series of new projects aimed at stemming the tide of death and destruction caused by opioid addiction. 

“My administration is proposing upstream investments to help address racial and health disparities and ensure residents can access the resources and support they need – because lives depend on it,” Crowley said.

The projects, seven in total, are funded by $8.5 million from the $102 million in opioid settlement funds and will focus on opioid use disorder abatement, prevention and recovery programs for the next three years, Crowley said.

The settlement came after Wisconsin and other states filed a federal lawsuit against opioid manufacturers accused of fueling the epidemic. 

The funds will be administered by Milwaukee County’s Department of Health and Human Services, the Office of Emergency Management and the Department of Administrative Services. 

Drug overdose deaths continue at slower pace

Although the projects announced by Crowley are focused on combating the opioid epidemic, local efforts to reduce drug overdose deaths appear to be working. 

Through July 16, there were 204 confirmed drug overdose deaths in Milwaukee County, with 89 additional cases pending toxicology reports, according to data provided by Karen Domagalski, operations manager for the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office. Through the same time period in 2023, there were 354 drug overdose deaths in Milwaukee County. 

Although the pace of drug overdose deaths has slowed in the county, disparities in deaths continue to be particularly acute among African Americans, data shows. 

Forty-three percent of drug overdose victims in Milwaukee County this year have been African American. African Americans have the highest rate of drug overdose deaths based on their population in the county (27%). Forty-six percent of victims this year were white; 20% were Hispanic; and two victims were Native American. Sixty-three percent of victims were men and 37% were women. 

Projects proposed by Crowley

One of the projects proposed by Crowley is the creation of a new public health campaign that targets the issue of opioid overdoses and the use of adulterants in Black and Brown communities.

Adulterants are substances often added to other drugs such as opioids and a contributing factor in many overdose deaths.  

Another project proposed by Crowley is to create a pilot “overdose prediction model.” 

The model would help individuals at risk for an overdose, help assess community needs and support integration of other data collected by the county. 

Another plan is to integrate treatment access during and after incarceration. High-risk individuals would be identified and referred by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office, the Community Reintegration Center and the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office. 

Ken Ginlack, executive director and CEO of Serenity Inns, a drug treatment facility for men located at 2825 W. Brown St., said the proposed projects show a strong commitment to marginalized communities. 

“By ensuring that treatment and resources are available to all individuals, regardless of their background or financial situation, Milwaukee County is taking a crucial step towards equity in health care,” Ginlack said. “These efforts will save lives and provide individuals with the tools they need to achieve long-term recovery and stability.” 

The other projects include grief outreach and grief-informed care, expanded paramedic coverage, adding 20 harm-reduction beds to a county-run center that serves the homeless and an overall enhancement and alignment of treatment services. 

Additional reaction to projects

Michelle Jaskulski, who serves on the advisory board for the Addiction Policy Forum and is an executive assistant for 4th Dimension Sobriety, a sober living facility, said she sees value in each of the projects. 

However, she said, she would have liked to see an expansion of outreach services for families of individuals who are actively using drugs. 

“This population has virtually no resources or support,” she said. 

She also wonders whether funds used for the awareness campaign and data collection would be better used to increase treatment services. 

“I recognize the necessity but it’s hard when people are in immediate need and aren’t able to access care while funds are used for these types of projects,” Jaskulski said. 

Rafael Mercado, founder of Team HAVOC, a group that distributes Narcan and other resources in drug overdose hotspots, said he also would like to see more investment in treatment facilities. 

“We need more inner city treatment centers that provide both detox services as well as in-patient living centers with 24/7 access,” he said.

The projects were adopted July 31 by the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors.

Where to get help in Milwaukee

First Step Community Recovery Center, 2835 N. 32nd St., 414-930-4529.

Gateway to Change, 2319 W. Capitol Drive, 414-442-2033.

10th Street Comprehensive Treatment Center, 4800 S. 10th St., 855-801-3867.

Rogers Behavioral Health, 414-865-2500.

Community Access to Recovery Services, or CARS: 1220 W. Vliet St., 414-289-6085.

Meta House, 2625 N. Weil St., 414-962-1200.

Community Medical Services, 2814 S. 108th St., 414-885-3525.

United Community Center, 1028 S. 9th St., 414-384-3100. 

Visit Addictions.com’s Milwaukee resource page to find more alcohol and drug rehab centers in Milwaukee that feature free treatment and detox centers.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Milwaukee County unveils new projects to stem tide of opioid overdose deaths is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.