Investigators say surveillance video shows a school bus aide repeatedly physically abusing a 10-year-old student with disabilities while the bus driver watched and, at times, laughed.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrests on Jan. 30, following a child abuse investigation that began in mid-November, after a witness reported seeing a school bus aide strike the boy while parked at Caminiti Exceptional School.
According to investigators, video capture Juanita Wright, 79, a school bus monitor for Hillsborough County Public Schools, striking the minimally verbal student diagnosed with autism and ADHD on 14 separate days between Oct. 2 and Nov. 14, Authorities say the footage shows Wright hitting the boy in the head and on his back, pulling him by the hair, and wresting his backpack away as he remained seated.
Wright was charged with 14 counts of child abuse. The bus driver, Tonya Rice-Constant, 62, is charged with failure to report child abuse. Prosecutors allege she saw the abuse, did not intervene, and at least once appeared to smile or laugh while watching the incidents in her rear-view mirror.
Sheriff Chad Chronister condemned the conduct as “a level of cruelty that is deeply disturbing,” calling it “an inexcusable betrayal of trust” when adults entrusted with a child’s welfare cause harm and fail to act. Deputies reviewed internal school bus video and identified multiple incidents before the report was made.
The investigation remains active to determine if additional victims exist.
“A defenseless child was physically abused by someone entrusted with their care, while another adult failed to intervene and instead laughed,” Chronister said. “It is an inexcusable betrayal of trust and a profound lack of humanity.”
In a statement shared by local media, the district said Wright was hired in 2012, removed from duty in November after the allegations surfaced, and later fired. Rice-Constant retired from the district in November, when the investigation into the alleged child abuse began. Both cases will proceed through the court system as authorities continue to investigate.
The debate on lap/shoulder seatbelts in school buses has divided the student transportation industry. Advocates champion their life-saving potential, while skeptics raise concerns about evacuation challenges and the added cost of equipping
buses with this technology. However, as we reflect on 20 years of data from California, the first state to mandate lap/shoulder belts on new school buses, it appears the benefits of these safety measures outweigh the concerns.
The Golden State’s experience with lap/shoulder belts offers a compelling case for its adoption. Rather than focusing on student fatalities, which we all know are extremely rare each school year, the report released last month investigates student injuries that are infrequently discussed.
Since the state began requiring lap/shoulder belts on new school buses in 2004, pupil passenger injuries have decreased by three-quarters in absolute numbers and by nearly 50 percent in per million miles traveled. These statistics courtesy of Ron Kinney, a former California state director of student transportation and director of government relations for Laidlaw, are not simply numbers. The data taken from California Highway Patrol crash reports represent thousands of children who avoided injury, trauma and life-altering consequences.
Critics argue that lap/shoulder belts could hinder evacuation during emergencies. However, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has repeatedly emphasized that properly worn lap/shoulder belts reduce the severity of injuries in crashes, particularly in side impacts and rollovers—scenarios where traditional compartmentalization falls short. And as such, these students are better able to self-evacuate, largely because they remain conscious.
The 2014 Anaheim, California school bus crash, cited in Kinney’s research, serves as a reminder of this. NTSB simulations showed that lap/shoulder belts significantly
reduced upper body flailing during the crash and prevented passengers from being thrown into the area of maximum intrusion. This minimized injuries.
California also mandates annual safety training for students, including proper use of passenger restraint systems and emergency evacuation drills. These drills ensure that students are familiar with how to unbuckle their belts quickly and safely in the event of an emergency. Moreover, the data shows that no pupil passengers have been killed in California school bus crashes since the lap/shoulder belt mandate took effect—a testament to their effectiveness in preventing fatalities.
Another common argument against lap/shoulder belts is the cost. Equipping a new school bus with lap/shoulder belts adds a few thousand dollars to the purchase price. However, when spread over a 20-year lifespan of a bus, Kinney’s report claims, this cost amounts to approximately $500 per year or pennies per day per student. Who keeps a school bus that long anymore, you ask? Ahead of the approaching funding cliff for school districts next school year, skipping on replacement cycles is a likely coping strategy. And today’s school buses are at least 90 percent cleaner than 20 years ago, which was a leading reason for hastening replacement cycles, to begin with.
Compare $500 or even $1,000 per year (Blue Bird now makes lap/shoulder belts standard equipment) to the financial and emotional toll of a single injury or fatality, which can result in millions of dollars in litigation costs and immeasurable pain for families. The California data demonstrates that the reduction in pupil passenger injuries alone justifies the investment.
It’s also worth noting that student transporters routinely invest in technologies to improve operational efficiency and safety, such as GPS tracking, routing software and telematics systems, many of which have recurring costs. Lap/shoulder belts are a one-time purchase.
Lap/shoulder belts advantages extend beyond injury prevention. Districts implementing these systems report significant improvements in student behavior and a reduction in driver distractions. When students are properly secured, they are less likely to move around, fight or engage in other disruptive behaviors. This creates a calmer, safer environment for both students and bus drivers, reducing stress and improving job satisfaction.
Fewer behavioral issues mean fewer disciplinary write-ups and less time spent on administrative tasks, freeing up resources for other priorities. Drivers are also
less likely to have to pull over to address misconduct, improving route efficiency, and reducing delays.
The data from California is clear: Lap/shoulder belts not only save lives but reduce injuries and improve the overall safety and efficiency of school transportation. A reconsideration of the three-point seatbelts in school buses is happening. NAPT is expected to release a new paper later this year.
Is it time to finally move beyond the debate?
Editor’s Note: As reprinted from the February 2026 issue of School Transportation News.
Horrific video shows the moments before a school bus struck 11-year-old Amira Aminova as she ran across a Brooklyn street after buying chocolate at a bodega.
Amira Animova in an undated photo posted on GoFundMe.
Police reportedly arrested Wawa Aurelus, 62, the school bus driver who hit Aminova but did not stop at the scene. He was arrested Friday, according to multiple news reports, following the incident that occurred shortly after school let out at 3 p.m. Thursday in the Bath Beach neighborhood.
Aurelus was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care, both misdemeanors, according to the New York Times.
The video shows Aminova standing on the corner of Bath Ave. at 23rd Ave. and proceeding to cross the street, apparently with seconds remaining on the red-flashing countdown pedestrian signal. As Aminova starts to run across the street, the school bus is seen coming into view heading south on 23rd Ave. and instigating a right-hand turn onto Bath Ave. The bus never stops, and the video cuts out right before it hits the sixth grader.
Aminova was at least the fifth student pedestrian killed this school year nationwide by a school bus, according to School Transportation News research.
State Sen. Steve Chan, a former NYPD officer, represents the 17th district that comprises part of South Brooklyn. He told STN he does not understand how Aurelus did not realize he struck Aminova and continued his route.
“Spending 27 years as a police officer, I’ve seen many accidents involving school buses, tractor trailers and small trucks. Often, a driver will not know when they hit someone in the leg or brushed up against their body. However, in this particular case, I’ve reviewed video tape of the incident from start to finish. This bus driver should have known that he rolled over a person or something,” Chan wrote in an email Saturday. “If he had looked into the rear or side view mirror, he would have seen her on the ground. The intersection was clear and visibility was good. The roadway was dry and flat. The snow built up in the corners was not a factor. There were no other drivers or pedestrians in this intersection. The pedestrian was crossing with the crosswalk and a green light. She did break into a sprint. However, the bus driver had a clear line of sight at the intersection.
“As far as I can tell, this tragedy is the result of complete driver inattention,” he continued. “Of course, I know most school bus drivers are dedicated individuals who help our community every day. But I must ask everyone to use extra caution, especially when making a turn.”
Police later located Aurelus, an employee of Consolidated Bus Service, and took him to the 62nd Precinct for questioning, reported CBS New York. Chan posted on Facebook the driver was detained “a short distance away” from the scene of the collision.
Consolidated Bus Service had not responded to an email seeking comment at this report.
An investigation by the NYPD fatal collision unit continues. A GoFundMe page was set up for Aminova’s mother to help cover funeral and burial costs in Uzbekistan. She immigrated with her daughter to the U.S. several years ago.
Photos of flooded streets in Milwaukee during the August 2025 storm. (Photo courtesy of Anne Tuchelski)
Disaster relief for six Wisconsin counties inundated by historic flooding back in August has again been denied by the federal government. It’s the second time that Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington, Grant, Milwaukee, Door and Grant counties have been denied assistance from the Trump administration since the floods drowned parks, damaged homes and trapped people in their cars in the middle of the night.
This latest denial was in response to an appeal filed by Gov. Tony Evers in November, after the first denial came from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). At the time, Evers stressed that the extreme storms had left over $26.5 million in disaster costs.
In a statement Monday, Evers called the new denial “completely unsatisfactory,” saying that the Trump administration had again denied the relief for Wisconsin “without any explanation” and calling for the decision to be reversed. “Wisconsinites have been hard at work to build back from these historic flooding events, but folks are not out of the woods yet,” said Evers. “Efforts to rebuild will cost tens of millions of taxpayer dollars that local communities will be on the hook for, and it’s really disappointing to see our federal leadership turn their backs on Wisconsin, our families, and our communities in our time of need. We will continue to advocate to the Trump Administration and our federal partners that Wisconsin needs these resources to rebuild and recover, and we will continue to do what we can to support our local partners however we can in the meantime.”
FEMA’s letter to Evers said that assistance “is not warranted,” but does not otherwise explain the rationale for the denial.
Evers declared a state of emergency on Aug. 11, as communities across Wisconsin picked themselves up from the storms. A ceaseless downpour began on Aug. 9, though the extent of the flooding wasn’t apparent to many until after the sun went down. In Milwaukee County, the Wisconsin State Fair had to close early as people fled the grounds in waist-high water. People who traveled the roads that evening found themselves trapped by floodwaters, requiring rescue from local authorities and neighbors.
Swaths of Hart Park in Wauwatosa were left underwater, and the storm’s aftermath left neighborhoods strewn with downed trees and abandoned vehicles. Flooding also challenged emergency response in Waukesha County, though no injuries or missing persons reports had been received by the sheriff’s department. In Milwaukee, reports of people missing from homeless encampments emerged in the days after the floods.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley called the denial for disaster relief “deeply disappointing” in a statement Monday. “My administration has worked to rebuild and recover after last summer’s historic storms and flooding,” said Crowley. “Without federal assistance, the financial burden of these public infrastructure repairs falls to local governments to cover. Communities rely on intergovernmental partnerships in times of crisis, and this decision by the Trump administration erodes that public trust. To move forward, my administration will continue working with the State of Wisconsin, our municipalities, and community partners to identify responsible funding solutions to rebuild our roads, bridges, parks, and public buildings. Our residents should not be forced to shoulder the full cost of disasters beyond their control, and we will continue advocating for the resources our community deserves.”
Leaders from the other counties, most of them Republican-leaning, that were denied disaster relief have not commented. A spokesperson for the Waukesha County Executive’s Office was unable to provide an immediate response, though this story will be updated if one arrives. The executives for Door, Washington, and Ozaukee counties could not be reached and Robert Keeney, the county board chairman for Grant County, refused to comment on the denial.
Federal agents in fatigues gather in Minneapolis last month. Health care workers in Minnesota and other states say ICE is increasing its presence in health care facilities, deterring people from seeking medical care. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
Last month, the parents of a 7-year-old girl whose nose wouldn’t stop bleeding took her to Portland Adventist Health in Portland, Oregon, for urgent care. Before the family could get through the doors, federal immigration agents reportedly detained them in the parking lot and took them to a detention center in Texas.
At Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, workers say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers hang around the campus, asking patients and employees for proof of citizenship. Last month, tensions came to a head when ICE agents used handcuffs to shackle a 31-year-old Mexican immigrant to his hospital bed. ICE claimed the man, who had broken bones in his face and a fractured skull, had run headfirst into a wall on purpose while handcuffed and trying to flee.
And last summer, ICE agents chased an immigrant into the Ontario Advanced Surgery Center in Ontario, California, precipitating a confrontation with two surgery center workers wearing scrubs. The two workers were later indicted by a federal grand jury, charged with assaulting and interfering with federal immigration officers.
As the Trump administration intensifies its immigration crackdown, health care workers in multiple states say ICE is increasing its presence in health care facilities, deterring people from seeking medical care and creating chaos that jeopardizes the safety of their patients.
Even before Trump took office last year, Republican-led states such as Florida and Texas began mixing health care and immigration enforcement by requiring hospitals to ask patients about their immigration status. Now that ICE has extended its enforcement activities to hospitals and health care facilities — areas that were largely off-limits during the Biden administration — an increasing number of Democratic-led states are pushing back.
Last month, Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey filed legislation “to keep ICE out of courthouses, schools, child care programs, hospitals and churches,” and signed an executive order to limit ICE actions on state-owned property.
In December, Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker signed a measure that bars health care providers from sharing sensitive health information with federal immigration agents and requires hospitals to develop policies around how they will interact with agents.
And in September, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation that makes immigration status and place of birth protected health information, and prohibits agents from entering nonpublic, patient-sensitive areas of health care facilities without a warrant signed by a judge.
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers in Arizona are pushing legislation that would require hospitals accepting Medicaid patients to include a question on intake forms about immigration status.
Skipping medical care
Whether or not ICE presence is actually increasing at health care facilities, it’s clear that people living in the country illegally are being deterred from seeking medical care, said Drishti Pillai, director of immigrant health policy at the health policy research group KFF.
A KFF and New York Times survey released last November showed that 43% of respondents identifying as immigrant parents living in the country illegally skipped or delayed health care for their children over a 12-month period because they were concerned about immigration enforcement. Even among lawfully present immigrants,10% said that they avoided seeking medical care for their children due to immigration-related concerns.
The one part that is really hard to know is people who are not showing up to the hospital when they usually would.
– Dr. Paula Latortue, an OB-GYN who volunteers with the Migrant Clinicians Network
Pillai also pointed to the Trump administration’s efforts to consolidate the bits of personal data held across federal agencies, creating a single trove of information on people who live in the United States.
“We are expecting that these fears have further been exacerbated this year since the data sharing agreement was made public, and there are certain concerns around privacy of data going forward,” Pillai told Stateline.
Dr. Paula Latortue, an OB-GYN in Washington, D.C., who volunteers with the Migrant Clinicians Network, a nonprofit group that provides health care to immigrants, said it’s unclear how many people are avoiding health care, and how often.
“The one part that is really hard to know is people who are not showing up to the hospital when they usually would for some sort of urgent or emergency complaint,” Latortue said in an interview. “But I think there’s a concern for many physicians in the community that has happened.”
States step in to protect sensitive locations
The Biden and Obama administrations directed ICE to avoid enforcement activities in “sensitive” places such as hospitals, schools and churches unless it received permission from top leaders at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
In January 2025, however, the Trump administration rescinded those guidelines, opening up these spaces to immigration enforcement.
Stateline reached out to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security multiple times but did not receive a response. When the administration changed the guidelines, the Department of Homeland Security said that opening up “sensitive” areas to agents “empowers the brave men and women in CBP [Customs and Border Protection] and ICE to enforce our immigration laws.”
The previous guidelines didn’t prohibit ICE from operating in those locations, but it did “strongly discourage” them, according to Sophia Genovese, a legal fellow specializing in immigration law at Georgetown University.
She added, however, that states and cities can enact laws to protect such spaces, even though they are limited in their capacity to “infringe and engage in immigration lawmaking.”
“Warrants are always needed to conduct searches or investigations in private, nonpublic areas, and these warrants need to be signed by a judge. This is just a basic Fourth Amendment right,” Genovese said. “When it comes to ICE entering hospitals and gaining access to private areas of hospitals, that’s an issue of individual hospital policy.”
Genovese said states also can require that hospitals standardize their policies on where law enforcement agents can go within a medical facility and create protocols to ensure agents are presenting a warrant before entering the premises.
Health care workers want protections
Those moves are exactly what health care workers in many states are asking for.
“There’s a high level of fear and anxiety. Nurses see the videos of what’s happening around the country, and nurses have experienced it themselves,” Peter Starzynski, spokesperson for the Oregon Nurses Association, told Stateline.
Last month’s incident involving the 7-year-old girl and her parents in Portland highlighted the importance of protecting health care spaces from ICE, he said.
“That should never happen. That’s disgusting,” Starzynski said.
The Oregon Nurses Association also has condemned ICE’s presence at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, claiming agents are violating hospital policies, including on access to patients. Legacy has disputed the union’s allegations, saying that no ICE officers have entered its facilities “unless accompanying a patient in custody.”
“Nurses in emergency rooms deal with local law enforcement on a regular basis, and those relationships are built on mutual respect, where law enforcement understands what they need to do once they enter a hospital,” Starzynski said. “That has changed with the increase in federal agents in Oregon.”
This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
An absentee ballot drop box with updated signage in Madison following the Wisconsin Supreme Court's decision to allow the use of ballot drop boxes. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)
A Dane County judge on Monday denied a motion from the city of Madison to dismiss a lawsuit against the city over its loss of nearly 200 absentee ballots during the 2024 election.
Since misplacing and failing to count the ballots, Madison has been subjected to penalties from the Wisconsin Elections Commission and has hired a new city clerk. The lawsuit against the city was brought by a group of the voters whose ballots were not counted. The voters are represented by the voting rights focused firm Law Forward.
Madison’s defense against the lawsuit has sparked criticism from voting advocates across the state for diminishing the importance of the right to vote. The city had argued it could not be sued for losing the ballots because absentee voting is a “privilege” and not a constitutional right. A legislative policy statement adopted in 1985 states that “voting is a constitutional right,” but that “voting by absentee ballot is a privilege exercised wholly outside the traditional safeguards of the polling place.”
The lawsuit comes as Wisconsin election officials and Democrats have been defending absentee voting rights from Republican attacks for years. The argument by Madison officials drew criticism from a number of Democrats, including Gov. Tony Evers.
Dane County Judge David Conway wrote in his order denying Madison’s motion to dismiss that it wouldn’t make sense if the constitutional right to vote did not extend to absentee voting.
“Just because the absentee voting process is a privilege does not mean that those who legally utilize it do not exercise their constitutional right to vote,” he wrote. “Of course they do. Once a voter casts a valid absentee ballot that complies with the Legislature’s rules for utilizing the absentee process, the voter has exercised the same constitutional right to vote as someone who casts a valid in-person ballot at a polling place. And that right to vote would be a hollow protection if it did not also include the right to have one’s vote counted.”
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive for the National Governors Association Evening Dinner and Reception in the East Room of the White House on Feb. 22, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Trump hosted the governors in Washington for the annual National Governors Association meetings. (Photo by Tierney L. Cross/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump decided to exclude Democratic governors from a traditional annual meeting at the White House and to disinvite several others from a black-tie dinner, according to the White House, the governors and the National Governors Association.
The National Governors Association organizes the bipartisan winter gathering that usually includes a working meeting with the U.S. president and a major dinner at the White House. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, serves as current chair of the association, and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, is vice chair.
The governors’ visit to the nation’s capital comes amid rising tensions over Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and surge of federal immigration border patrol agents into Democratic-led states, including California, Illinois, Minnesota and Oregon.
Moore: ‘blatant disrespect’
Moore issued a statement Sunday that he was “uninvited” from the dinner, adding that the decision was “especially confounding” given that he was among a bipartisan group of governors at the White House in recent weeks to discuss lower energy costs.
“My peers, both Democrats and Republicans, selected me to serve as the Vice Chair of the NGA, another reason why it’s hard not to see this decision as another example of blatant disrespect and a snub to the spirit of bipartisan federal-state partnership,” Moore said. “As the nation’s only Black governor, I can’t ignore that being singled out for exclusion from this bipartisan tradition carries an added weight — whether that was the intent or not.”
Moore’s exclusion also comes on the heels of Trump’s posting of a racist video Friday depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes. Trump deleted the post following loud disapproval that included criticism from his own party but has declined to apologize.
The offices of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz did not immediately respond for comment. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek decided “some time ago” not to attend the event so that she could be in her state during the legislative session, according to spokesperson Elisabeth Shepard.
Moore added: “As Governor of Maryland and Vice Chair of the NGA, my approach will never change: I’m ready to work with the administration anywhere we can deliver results. Yet, I promised the people of my state I will work with anybody but will bow down to nobody. And I guess the President doesn’t like that.”
The office of Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, learned Friday about the exclusion of Democratic governors and similarly issued a statement of concern.
“Gov. Polis has always been willing to work with anyone across the political spectrum who wants to help work on the hardest problems facing Colorado and America, regardless of party or who occupies the White House. This is a disappointing decision for a traditionally bipartisan event between governors and whomever occupies the White House,” according to a statement from his office emailed to States Newsroom.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office confirmed Monday he had also been uninvited.
‘Many Democrats’ invited, but not all
A White House official on Monday confirmed Trump’s exclusion of some Democratic governors from the annual dinner.
“Many Democrats were invited to dinner at the White House, and others were not. These are White House events and the President reserves the right to invite whomever he wants,” the official told States Newsroom in an emailed statement.
Brandon Tatum, the National Governors Association’s acting executive director and CEO, said, “The bipartisan White House governors meeting is an important tradition, and we are disappointed in the administration’s decision to make it a partisan occasion this year.”
“To disinvite individual governors to the White House sessions undermines an important opportunity for federal-state collaboration. At this moment in our nation’s history, it is critical that institutions continue to stand for unity, dignity, and constructive engagement. NGA will remain focused on serving all governors as they deliver solutions and model leadership for the American people. Traditionally the White House has played a role in fostering these moments during NGA’s annual meeting. This year, they will not,” Tatum said in a statement.
This year’s meeting follows a tense exchange during the 2025 gathering between Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, and Trump, who threatened to withhold all federal funding from the state unless Mills complied with the president’s executive order to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports.
The association’s 2026 meeting is scheduled for Feb. 19-21. The gathering will include “special guests and national experts for solutions-driven conversations on pressing national issues including education, energy, economic growth, artificial intelligence and more,” according to the association website.
Enbridge pumping station, Mackinaw City, Feb. 7, 2023 | Laina G. Stebbins
On Friday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released the final version of its Environmental Impact Statement on Enbridge’s proposed Line 5 tunnel project, starting a 30 day waiting period before making its final decision on whether to grant the pipeline company a permit to move forward with the proposal.
Canada-based Enbridge celebrated the release of the statement as a true milestone, with spokesperson Ryan Duffy praising the six-year review as “thorough, transparent, and science driven.” However, Line 5 opponents argue the final document fails to address several key concerns, including the project’s impacts on Indigenous treaty rights and alternatives for transporting oil outside of the Great Lakes.
The Line 5 tunnel project would replace the segment of dual pipelines operating in the Straits of Mackinac – where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet – with a new, single segment housed in a tunnel in the bedrock beneath the lakes.
The 645-mile long pipeline runs from Northwestern Wisconsin, through Michigan where it ends in Sarnia, Ontario. It carries up to 22.68 million gallons of crude oil and natural gas liquids through the Straits of Mackinac each day.
Proposed Line 5 tunnel project diagram | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers screenshot
Julie Goodwin, a senior attorney for Earthjustice, which is supporting the Bay Mills Indian Community in its fight against the pipeline, said the final environmental impact statement sets up a predetermined decision to approve the tunnel by failing to consider scenarios where oil is not flowing through the straits.
In its review, the corps looked at four main scenarios: taking no action and allowing the dual pipelines to continue operating, constructing a tunnel beneath the lakebed as Enbridge would prefer, placing a gravel/rock protective cover over the dual pipelines, and replacing the dual pipelines with a new segment installed using horizontal directional drilling under the lakebed.
“The corps had the opportunity, of course, during this environmental review process to look at alternatives that transport oil outside of the Great Lakes region or in different ways. And they just, they never took that opportunity,” Goodwin said.
A 2016 study from the University of Michigan determined more than 700 miles of shoreline in lakes Huron and Michigan would be vulnerable to pollution should Line 5 rupture. A 2018 study published by Michigan State University determined that the economic damage from a Great Lakes oil spill would amount to $5.6 billion dollars.
While the environmental impact statement acknowledges the straits are a profoundly sacred place in the culture, history and spirituality of Anishinaabe Tribal Nations, it does not address the tunnel project’s impact on treaty rights, which grant tribal nations the right to hunt, fish and gather on lands ceded to the federal government.
The corps writes that its review of treaty rights is separate from its review of the project under the National Environmental Policy Act and that it is consulting on a government-to-government basis with federally recognized Tribes to determine if the tunnel project would infringe upon treaty rights. The final finding will be included in its record of decision.
On March 21, 2025, Bay Mills Indian Community alongside the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi, and Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi sent a letter to the Army of Corps of Engineers withdrawing their participation as cooperating agencies in drafting the environmental impact statement, due to President Donald Trump’s Administration’s plan to expedite review of the tunnel project.
Nichole Keway Biber, the Mid-Michigan campaign organizer for Clean Water Action and a Tribal citizen of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, calls out concerns in Enbridge’s Line 5 tunnel project plan. Aug. 26, 2025 | Photo by Kyle Davidson/Michigan Advance
Whitney Gravelle, president of the Bay Mills Indian Community, said it has been frustrating to watch the corps move forward with the environmental impact statement without completing surveys and research on cultural resources and treaty rights.
“That’s one of the reasons we left as a cooperating agency,” Gravelle said. “The corps has disregarded tribes. They’ve disregarded tribal treaty rights, they’ve disregarded cultural resources, and it has just been one of the most dehumanizing processes I have ever participated in.”
The tunnel itself will bore through several cultural sites, archaeological resources and what Anishinaabe consider to be the site of creation, Gravelle said and there are hundreds if not thousands of archaeological sites on the north and south ends of the straits.
“Those burial places are how we understand our history, how we understand our culture, how we understand our trade movements, or where we’re meant to be harvesting, hunting and gathering,” Gravelle said. “To then be told that all of these places can be destroyed and that it doesn’t really matter, what you’re really saying is that our Indigenous lifeways then don’t matter.”
Gravelle emphasized that the impacts from the tunnels construction are not abstract or theoretical, telling Michigan Advance that these places are where parents go to teach their children ceremony on the water, uncles teach their families how to hunt and put food on the table and elders share stories so their community can understand who they are as a people.
“To have those rights limited or overlooked or misunderstood is really undermining the impact that will be felt by generations,” Gravelle said. “Not only by myself, but by my niece, you know, by my children, by the generations that will exist long after I’m gone from this earth.”
Whitney Gravelle speaks at “Enbridge eviction” celebration, Conkling Park, Mackinaw City | Laina G. Stebbins
In a statement, Sean McBrearty, the campaign coordinator for anti-Line 5 Oil & Water Don’t Mix coalition pointed to several of the environmental impacts included within the assessment.
“The EIS confirms that the tunnel would result in permanent wetland loss and require excavation and removal of roughly 665,000 cubic yards of bedrock from beneath the Straits of Mackinac, the ecological heart of the Great Lakes system,” McBrearty said. “These impacts are not temporary, and they cannot be undone.”
While much of the focus on Line 5 has centered around the Straits of Mackinac, Gravelle noted that concerns about an oil spill stretch the length of the pipeline, which has leaked more than 30 times over its lifespan, spilling more than 1 million gallons of oil.
However, Gravelle and several other pipeline opponents emphasized that a permitting decision from the Army Corps of Engineers does not give Enbridge a green light to move forward with the project, as the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy has yet to decide on a Clean Water Act permit for the project. The Sierra Club and Oil and Water Don’t Mix have already called on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to block the project from moving forward.
“All eyes are really turning to Governor Whitmer,” Goodwin said. “She has two choices to either cave to the Trump administration’s agenda and their friends in the oil industry, or stand up for Michigan and protect the Great Lakes.”
This story was originally produced by Michigan Advance, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Gov. Tony Evers vetoes legislation in April 2024 that would have eliminated work permits for 14- and 15-year-olds. A large child labor case against a Burger King franchise owner demonstrates the importance of the work permit requirement in educating employers and youth workers about the state's child labor regulations, says Amy Pechacek, the head of Wisconsin's Department of Workforce Development. (Governor's Facebook page photo)
A child labor investigation that uncovered more than 1,600 violations of Wisconsin law at more than 100 Burger King restaurants was probably the largest case of its kind in the state’s history, according to the head of the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.
DWD has ordered Chicago-based Cave Enterprises to pay more than 600 Wisconsin teens back pay as well as damages totaling $237,436. The company owes the state an additional $828,000, according to DWD — $500 for every one of the 1,656 violations uncovered in an extensive audit of the company’s payroll and employment records.
The company has until Feb. 25 to pay the back wages and penalties, although it also has the option of challenging DWD’s actions in court.
Cave Enterprises has not responded to requests for comment about DWD’s audit findings, which the department announced Friday.
Amy Pechacek, the department’s secretary-designee, said in an interview after the agency announced the results of its investigation that the case was the largest one DWD could document.
“Since the records are somewhat limited in terms of going back several decades, we just chose to be safe and said this was the largest violation we have in modern history,” Pechacek said.
Cave Enterprises received a formal letter notifying it of the investigation findings on Thursday, according to DWD. But in the months before, there were repeated communications between DWD auditors and management personnel for the company, Pechacek told the Wisconsin Examiner.
The investigation was triggered by a series of complaints DWD’s Equal Rights Division received in 2024, Pechacek said. The division’s responsibilities include enforcing Wisconsin’s child labor and wage laws.
Pattern of company behavior
The complaints in 2024 prompted investigators to look back through department records. Investigators turned up 33 previous complaints in the years since 2020. Pechacek said those complaints were resolved individually.
The number of complaints, however, showed investigators a disturbing pattern in “how this employer interacts with its minor-age workforce,” Pechacek said. “And due to that, they then said, this warrants a very deep-dive, intensive audit about their practices as it relates to employing minors here in the state of Wisconsin.”
DWD has 25 auditors who review workforce practices in response to complaints, eight of them focusing on minors.
“So this was a large undertaking,” Pechacek said of the Cave Enterprises review. “They poured their heart and soul into this, and we’re just really proud of that work and what this means in terms of making sure our youth can engage and work in a meaningful and safe way in our state.”
The audit showed that the problems weren’t confined to just a handful of the more than 100 Burger King locations that Cave owned between 2023 and 2025, the audit’s time span. There were violations found at 103 of the company’s stores, according to DWD.
Work permits underscore child labor rules
In the letter to Cave detailing the audit findings, DWD reported that 593 14- and 15-year-olds started work without required work permits — 84% of the company’s employees in that age group, according to the agency. At a Green Bay Burger King, one teen started working at the age of 13, auditors reported — too young for that work under Wisconsin law.
Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development’s secretary designee, Amy Pechacek, right, with Gov. Tony Evers at a DWD event in Madison in 2023. (Photo courtesy of DWD)
In 2024, Republican majorities in both houses of the state Legislature passed bills that would have repealed Wisconsin’s work-permit requirement for 14- and 15-year-olds. Supporters of the repeal argued they amounted to a needless bureaucratic roadblock and discouraged young people from working.
Democrats opposed the bill and Gov. Tony Evers vetoed it. Pechacek said cases like the audit of Cave Enterprises demonstrate the value of the work permit requirement.
“Every time a permit is even requested for a minor child, there is an explanation of obligations that are sent to the employer as it relates to child labor laws,” Pechacek said. Those informational documents list Wisconsin’s wage and hour laws, the requirements for breaks and the restrictions on what machines minors can operate under state law. The parents, who must sign the work permit, get the same information.
“We want to be able to allow youth to participate in a safe manner that doesn’t impact or impair their ability to still go to school and still be children, but also help out our local economies and our businesses,” Pechacek said. “These duties of the employer and the rights of the minor-aged worker are continually enforced and communicated throughout the process.”
The widespread lack of work permits at the Cave Burger Kings means that neither the employer nor the teenage workers would have received that communication at hiring. Despite that, each of the previous 33 complaints would have resulted “in another explanation of the law throughout the complaint process,” Pechacek said. “So there are many opportunities for this employer — and for every employer — to get it right.”
The audit also found 627 workers 17 or younger — 45% of the company’s minor employees — who worked longer than six hours without a required 30-minute meal break.
“All minor employees under the age of 18 must have a 30-minute, duty-free break during shifts of six or more consecutive hours,” states the DWD audit report sent to Cave management. “Multiple shorter breaks totaling 30 minutes are not a lawful substitute for the required 30-minute break.”
Breaks that are less than 30 minutes must be paid under Wisconsin law, regardless of the worker’s age, the DWD report states. Unpaid breaks must be at least 30 minutes, with no duties during that time and with the employee free to leave the worksite.
“We found multiple instances of employees taking unpaid breaks of less than 30 minutes in length,” the DWD letter states — one of the reasons for back pay owed to teen workers.
Large Wisconsin footprint
The Cave Enterprises website states the company currently owns 100 Wisconsin restaurants and that it has the largest number of Burger King franchises under a single owner in the country. The company also operates 77 Burger King franchises in seven other states.
The company’s list of Wisconsin locations has 105 restaurants, but internet search results for three of them — two in Milwaukee and one in Waukesha — describe them as permanently closed.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s review Friday of a job portal on the company website showed 379 openings at the company’s Wisconsin Burger King locations.
Pechacek acknowledged that filling job openings has been a stiff challenge for employers for years.
“We know that youth are a very important part of our workforce, especially during worker shortages,” Pechacek said. “There is no excuse ever to violate labor laws — especially when it comes to protecting our youth, but for any worker.”
DWD has an outreach operation and can send personnel to help train employers about the ins and outs of state and federal child labor regulations. The department has videos available online along with other information in plain language, she said.
“We aren’t here just to be a compliance arm. We would rather have this conversation before any type of laws are violated and before anybody’s rights are infringed on,” Pechacek said.
“So there are many opportunities for education and compliance before forfeitures and penalties even come into play — or large-scale audits. And we are always available to have those conversations with any employer and any minor-aged child or parent who is unclear about what the rules are.”
Milwaukee's Fire and Police Commission (FPC) holds a public hearing on facial recognition technology used by the Milwaukee Police Department. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
A years-long debate over the use of facial recognition software by the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) came to a head at a contentious Thursday meeting of the city’s Fire and Police Commission (FPC) attended by more than 60 local residents. Over the course of questioning, stretching late into the evening hours, commissioners learned from MPD leadership that the department had continued using facial recognition software, even as a draft policy to put guardrails on the technology was still being developed outside of the FPC’s control.
By meeting’s end, FPC vice chairwoman Bree Spencer expressed a desire for the commission to consider finding some way to push for a pause to MPD’s use of facial recognition software, though the FPC itself did not take any immediate formal action. Less than 24 hours later, MPD Chief Jeffrey Norman announced that the department would ban the use of facial recognition technology, and discontinue its efforts to acquire permanent access to the technology.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
During the Thursday meeting, Norman and his staff were grilled by FPC commissioners after hours of impassioned public testimony. The sweltering meeting room was packed almost shoulder-to-shoulder, with every seat taken and people standing along the wall in spaces not already taken by the local news station’s bulky cameras. Many others waited in the hallway, as an overflow room had not been set up.
One by one, local residents expressed a variety of grievances about facial recognition. Some decried MPD’s prior use of software without disclosure to the public or FPC, while others expressed fears about how the technology could be used against Milwaukeeans by what many called an authoritarian federal government.
Paul Smith, a member of the Oneida Nation who serves on Milwaukee’s Equal Rights Commission, was the first to speak. Smith described how his relatives had been among the first to come down from the Oneida reservation to Milwaukee seeking factory work. “We are also people who have to carry two IDs all the time,” said Smith. He suggested that facial recognition and other camera technologies are methods the government uses to track people it considers enemies.
“I live in fear every day,” said Smith, describing how his heart rate accelerates when he drives out of Milwaukee County. Smith added that facial recognition technology is unreliable. “My dad can use my phone because his face looks like mine,” he said. “These cameras don’t work and they punish people, and there’s no presumption of innocence when you’re being watched all the time.”
Nadiyah Johnson, founder and CEO of the Milky Way Tech Hub, highlighted the notoriously high error rates facial recognition software has for people of color. Johnson said that federal tests have shown false positive rates as much as 10 to 100 times higher for Black people. “I’m sure that we all can understand why that would be a problem for the city of Milwaukee,” said Johnson. She added that “guardrails do not fix the core problem.”
When surveillance infrastructure is created, Johnson said, the scope of who is targeted expands. She and other community members who spoke brought up Flock license plate reader cameras which, like facial recognition, are AI-powered and a top concern for many who attended Thursday night’s FPC meeting. Flock has attracted criticism for being used for vague or unlawful reasons by police, and for leaving some feeds exposed on the open internet. “This is not a future concern, this is already happening nationally,” said Johnson. “The public cannot meaningfully consent to systems we can not see, audit, or challenge.”
The Milwaukee Police Administration Building downtown. A surveillance van, or “critical response vehicle” is in the background. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
Amanda Merkwae, advocacy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, recounted her attempts to learn more about MPD’s use of facial recognition by filing open records requests. After waiting five months and threatening to sue, the ACLU was sent a response that the MPD does not track requests made for use of facial recognition in individual investigations. When the city’s IT department ran an email search, the term “facial recognition” appeared in 196,688 emails from 2020-2025.
When the ACLU narrowed the request to 16 cases which MPD cited in presentations to city commissions, they found that “in a handful of those cases” which had been “hand picked” by MPD for those presentations, “the police reports did not mention [Facial Recognition Technology] at all,” Merkwae told the FPC. “In conversations with some defense attorneys, it appears that [Facial Recognition Technology] use was not turned over to the defense in discovery in some cases,” said Merkwae. “In cases where attorneys filed pre-trial motions to get insight into the notoriously racially biased [Facial Recognition Technology] algorithms, they hit a brick wall because that information is proprietary.”
In its presentations to city officials, MPD had said that facial recognition helped identify suspects in cases including sexual assault and shooting investigations.
Much of the public testimony Thursday focused on the potential for surveillance technologies to harm democracy. Speakers focused on the immigration crackdown in Minnesota, where thousands of people have been arrested and two people killed by federal agents. Videos posted online show immigration agents taking pictures of protesters, legal observers and vehicles, using facial recognition technology to identify detainees, and taunting members of the public by saying their pictures were going to be uploaded to a database of domestic terrorists. An immigrants’ rights group recently discovered what it describes as a watchlist of immigration attorneys created by ICE.
Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission (FPC) holds a public hearing on facial recognition technology used by the Milwaukee Police Department. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Taleavia Cole and her husband Caliph Muab-El have experienced police surveillance after protesting the killing of Cole’s brother Alvin. Several of Cole’s family members, their lawyers and dozens of others were placed on a list created by the Wauwatosa Police Department. The list, which also included a Wisconsin Examiner reporter, was shared with numerous state, local, and federal agencies and was also referred to by police as a “target list”.
Muab-El said Black and brown communities have been used as test subjects for surveillance and militarized policing. This is how he views MPD’s deal with the data company Biometrica, which has offered to trade 2.5 million jail and booking photos from Milwaukee for MPD to have access to facial recognition software.
“We’re talking about people,” said Muab-El. “And when we’re talking about people, we need to focus on the things that are most important for people to thrive in circumstances like this. Everything in our society and our community has been gutted from us almost. The resources are very scarce already…To institute something like this that will exacerbate the circumstances of our already falling and broken-in-pieces communities is definitely an attack on justice on our people.”
He stressed that “anybody can be misidentified at any time,” and that the city will not be able to prevent federal agencies from accessing the data it collects using facial recognition software. “No one is safe,” said Muab-El. “Bystanders who believe in justice and the cause of people, these people are going to become more vulnerable. These attacks are going to become more prevalent…They’re going to become more intense.”
Cole recounted her own experiences of being placed on the target list, and her belief that even her family’s phone calls were being monitored. “So whose side are you on is the real question, because someday it could be your family member,” she said. “And next thing you know, they want to know what you know, what you’re saying, what you’re doing. Like you’re a criminal, like you’re nobody.”
Testimony went on for several hours, pausing for a presentation on facial recognition technology from the New York University Law School Policing Project. The presenters said that while facial recognition can assist law enforcement investigations, the technology also carries serious constitutional and civil risks. Whether a city or town uses facial recognition software should be a decision made by the entire community, the presenters said, adding that having guardrails to prevent abuse of the technology is important.
Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Late in the meeting, after many people had left, Chief Norman and MPD staff provided an update and took questions from the FPC. Norman said a draft policy his department’s use of facial recognition technology had not yet been finalized, and that he was “slow walking” the process to get as much input as possible. He stressed that facial recognition software is used to develop leads, and cannot be used as the sole basis for establishing probable cause for an arrest. The department had also begun logging uses of facial recognition, but those records only captured uses since 2024.
Under sharp questioning from FPC Commissioner Krissie Fung the commission learned that MPD had continued using facial recognition technology even as the drafting of a policy was ongoing. Some sort of of a draft policy — described by Fung as a “draft of a draft of a draft” — appeared to have been viewed by at least some members of the city’s common council, but not the FPC.
Although several commissioners expressed concerns about facial recognition technology and MPD’s deal with Biometrica, the FPC’s power to do anything about it is limited, since the Republican-controlled Legislature had worked to eliminate the FPC’s policy-making powers for the Milwaukee police. The debate over the use of facial recognition software in Milwaukee had gone on since last year, with members of the public speaking against its adoption consistently and in great numbers. Spencer, the FPC’s vice-chairwoman, said that the public shouldn’t have to attend more meetings to say the same things, and that her own trust in the department on the issue had eroded.
A Milwaukee police squad car in front of the Municipal Court downtown. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
In a statement issued Friday, Heather Hough, Norman’s chief of staff, said the police department understands “the public concern, particularly in light of national circumstances…Despite our belief that this is useful technology…we recognize that public trust is far more valuable.” Hough’s statement continued, “therefore, effective immediately, Chief (Jeffrey) Norman will issue a department directive banning the use of facial recognition for all members.”
Hough said that MPD will continue work on creating a policy, but will not use facial recognition technology until that process is complete. While MPD appeared to be responding to the public outcry, the Milwaukee Police Association (the department’s union) said in a statement that it was “deeply concerned and disappointed” by the decision to restrict facial recognition technology. The police association was also irked by recent restrictions on vehicle pursuits saying that both policy shifts do not “eliminate crime or danger,” but instead “risks shifting that danger onto Milwaukee residents and the officers sworn to protect them.”
The union’s statement described facial recognition as “an investigative tool that can assist detectives in generating leads in violent crime cases. It does not replace traditional police work or serve as a basis for arrest without further investigation. When used responsibly and with appropriate safeguards, this technology can help identify violent offenders, support victims, and improve case clearance rates.”
Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore (BV) has granted an Approval in Principle (AiP) to Greenroom Robotics for its maritime autonomy software, GAMA. This...
Windstar Cruises is pleased to announce the appointment of Paul Chapple as the company’s new vice president of hotel operations. Paul joins Windstar a...
Norwegian security agencies have warned of increased Chinese and Russian intelligence operations in 2026, with maritime infrastructure a major target...
The European Commission's latest proposal for sanctions on Russia includes a full ban on European maritime services for the shipping of Russian crude...
While there appear to be signs of a normalization in the U.S. container import flows and less impact from frontloading, the expectations are that vol...
PaxOcean marked the opening of its new Singapore shipyard, which is larger and incorporates the latest technologies to strengthen Singapore’s newbuild...
On Monday evening, a fire broke out aboard a DFDS ferry off the coast of the Isle of Wight, the large island opposite Portsmouth at the entrance to t...
A fuel barge has gone aground on the rocks outside of San Juan's harbor, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. On Monday afternoon, Coast Guard Sector S...
According to a stock exchange filing, Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries canceled the delivery of the first of two crude oil tankers just as the vessel...
A key figure in Hezbollah’s smuggling operations in Lebanon, and a godfather figure in particular in the Beirut docks, Wafiq Safa resigned his formal...
Login
