David Crowley is no stranger to crowded political races. Before becoming Milwaukee’s first African American county executive in 2020, he had to emerge from a hotly contested primary that included Democratic Sen. Chris Larson (D-Madison), former state Sen. Jim Sullivan, Glendale Mayor Bryan Kennedy and then-county board chairman Theodore Lipscomb. Both Larson and Crowley advanced to the general election, which Crowley narrowly won. Over six years later, Crowley again finds himself in a Democratic primary, this time for the governor’s office, packed with experienced policymakers. 

Crowley’s opponents this time  include Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, state Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison), state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), former Department of Administration chief Joel Brennan, and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. In a straw poll at the Democratic Party convention in mid-June, Crowley placed fourth, with Rodriguez and Hong finishing first and second and Roys placing in third.

“Even though they’ve done great work in their respective roles, the one thing they’ve never done is actually run government,” Crowley said of the other Democratic candidates during an interview at Pilcrow Coffee in Milwaukee. “I’m the only executive in this race. And what’s also different for me is that I know what it means to be accountable and responsible for my actions and decisions, and how they’re going to affect the masses and the people that I represent.” Another key difference, he added, is that he’s got the  “receipts.”

Crowley highlighted how under his tenure, close to 1,000 units of affordable housing have been created across Milwaukee County. The past four years have also seen drug overdose deaths decrease by 40% with the expansion of harm reduction strategies. In 2023, the county also saw the largest property tax cut in its history, totalling $21 million. 

“What sets me apart is the fact that I’ve delivered for folks,” said Crowley. “And I continue to deliver for folks, and I’ve been able to do it in some of the most contentious times, if you will — especially with how partisan we are nowadays — as a lead Democrat representing the largest and most diverse community in the state of Wisconsin.”

In his first statewide race, Crowley said he wants to avoid labeling himself. “I’m a voting Democrat,” said Crowley. “I’m a Democrat that gets things done.” Crowley scoffs at ideological purity tests and the buzz about a rift among Democrats who identify as Socialists versus those who see themselves as moderates. “This is about how do you fight back against the Trump administration, but more importantly not just reacting, but how do we become more proactive when it comes down to Democratic policy that we need to push so we can actually win?”

Crowley is leaning on his  track record in his campaign. His platform is laid out in what he calls his  “Badger Basics Plan” which includes:

• Bringing universal childcare to Wisconsin, and working to cap childcare costs at 7% of household income 
• Establishing universal K-4 across Wisconsin, giving kids a better foundation of learning before entering the school system 
• Making sure that school districts have the funding, staff and resources that they need
• Expanding Badgercare as a public health option, and increasing reimbursements 
• Repealing Act 10 and restoring the collective bargaining rights for workers 
• Implementing restrictions on data centers and Artificial Intelligence (AI), while making sure AI enhances productivity rather than replacing job opportunities 
• Supporting programs for vulnerable people, especially the victims of domestic violence

When he’s not busy with his full-time day job running the county, he has been campaigning all over the state. “We have been everywhere,” he said. “I think we’ve done 40-plus forums around the state already, whether we are in southeastern Wisconsin, or Taylor County, or in Brown County, or in Marinette County, or Wausau, La Crosse. We’re traveling everywhere not only to spread the message, but more importantly to listen.” When he was a young organizer, Crowley likes to say, he learned that “if you don’t have a seat on the table, you’re on the menu.” 

Confronting questions about race

In his travels, Crowley said, he believes he can overcome negative racial perceptions some voters have about him and  the county he represents. “It’s not a real concern for me,” he said of the history-making task of becoming Wisconsin’s first Black governor. “They already trust me to deliver because I’ve been doing it as a county executive and I’ve done it as a state representative.” 

In fact, Crowley feels that the question of race comes up mostly in the state’s more diverse communities. “We have been conditioned, because we have been listening to the Republican talking points for so long, to where we have internalized it more and we use it as a reason as to why we can’t get certain things done,” he said of all the conversation about Wisconsin’s racial divide. “And honestly, I think it stops us from getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. Building those relationships, going outside of our geographic comfort zone to talk about the things that we have done here, in one of the largest urban centers in the entire country, and how we can bring those best practices to communities across the state. What’s good for Milwaukee is good for every single town, village, and city in the state of Wisconsin.” 

Crowley points out that Wisconsin elected Tammy Baldwin, its first openly LGBTQ U.S. Senator. Wisconsin voters also elected “a skinny kid with a funny name by the name of Barack Obama,” he said. “We have been put into a box. It’s our job to think outside that box. It’s our job to shatter that glass ceiling and focus on how we’re going to deliver. Because people don’t care where you’re from. People don’t care what you look like. People don’t care who you love. They care about whether or not you’re going to care for them, and deliver real results moving forward.” 

The fact that he performed well in his election to his current post in suburban areas built up Crowley’s confidence. “I know they’ll vote for me, because they voted for me twice already,” he said. “That’s the type of experience that we need to not only stand up to Donald Trump, but that’s going to be proactive and be on the offense to deliver for the 6 million people that call Wisconsin home.”

Going around the state, Crowley has met people who want their voices heard on important issues from childcare and healthcare to lowering utility costs and making housing more affordable. He said he’s learned that even in a divided state like Wisconsin, people agree on more than they realize. “I think that in this particular political climate, as things become more polarized, no matter if you’re the far left or the far right, I think we can all agree that government isn’t working,” he said.  “And right now, we need to make sure that we are electing individuals who are not just going to fight back against policies that are going to leave families behind, but how are we going to be proactive in making sure that we’re pushing policies to make sure that when the tides rise, all of us rise.”

Data centers

One of the hottest issues in local communities around the state is the rise of giant data centers, proposed in communities across Wisconsin, and needed to feed the energy demand of a rapidly expanding artificial intelligence infrastructure. By 2023, a United Nations report found, global data centers will require the same amount of water annually as the 1.3 billion people who live in Sub-Saharan Africa, and require enough electricity to equal the annual needs of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria combined. Communities in Wisconsin have been pushing back on data centers due to concerns about increased utility costs, environmental fallout and the trajectory of AI. 

Crowley said “it’s asinine” that the Legislature ended its recent session without doing anything to regulate data centers. 

Crowley, who is not opposed to data centers, said it’s crucial that the state develop a “framework” to protect natural resources and the people of Wisconsin.

Earlier this year, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission approved an energy rate, requiring data centers to pay 100% of their own energy costs. Data centers should also have to pay 100% of the cost of the energy grid upgrades they require, Crowley said, as well as any infrastructure upgrades. He also wants to tie their development to investments in renewable energy. “I want to see more energy opportunity that doesn’t cost us any money,” he said. “Wind doesn’t cost us. Sunlight doesn’t cost us.” If Wisconsin invests in renewables, “moving forward it won’t be a huge drain on resources for ratepayers, or for these utility companies.” 

Crowley also said that as governor he would require data centers to use union labor, project labor agreements and community benefit agreements. He added he wants to explore  how data centers could be leveraged to benefit public schools, communities and already existing industry.

As the leader of a county that has experienced the rise and fall of heavy industry, he said he thinks about  how to plan ahead 50-100 years with data centers, to prevent them becoming empty shells, like abandoned Rust Belt factories, in the communities where they are built. He also feels that moving forward, Wisconsin needs to be “intentional” when it comes to giving out tax exemptions and tax credits for data centers, which have already been given $2 billion in tax exemptions. Crowley said that it’s not just the surge of up-front jobs which build the data center to consider, but also the smaller number of long-term jobs on the back-end. Protections need to be put in place to make sure communities are getting ahead, Crowley said. 

Education and school choice

Crowley describes himself as a strong advocate for  public schools. He, his wife, and his three daughters are all public school graduates But, he said, he also doesn’t believe in eliminating Wisconsin’s entire private school choice system outright. Half of the kids enrolled in school in Milwaukee go to public school while the other half go to private or charter schools. If charter schools were eliminated, that would create a strain on an already stressed public school system, Crowley said. He said he believes in accountability for choice schools and recognition that public schools have a greater responsibility and level of accountability, since they are required by law to serve every child who comes in the door. 

Working across the aisle

Crowley is optimistic that, as a Democratic governor, he can work with Republicans in the Legislature, especially since, he says, new voting maps will help depolarize the state. He believes that the old maps forced people into separate corners. “We have to focus on partnerships and collaboration if we want our state to move forward,” said Crowley. He also feels that Democrats need to be prepared to play offense and be proactive. He said voters will need to be patient with a Democratic governor as the party adjusts to its new identity after this year’s elections. With the new voting maps, Democrats have an opportunity to gain a majority in the Legislature as well as the governor’s office for the first time in almost 30 years. 

“We have a lot to prove as Democrats,” Crowley said. “We have a lot to prove as leaders of our community, to show that we can govern, we can win elections moving forward, and we can plan for the long term.”

Editor’s note: The Examiner is running periodic profiles of the contenders in the Aug. 11, 2026 gubernatorial primary as well as the candidates in the general election Nov. 3. 

Seven candidates vying to become governor addressed a large audience in Pewaukee Monday night at a forum organized by WISDOM, a non-partisan organization dedicated to social justice and prison reform. Moderated by James Causey and Mary Spicuzza of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the question and answer session covered policing and incarceration, healthcare, immigration and other issues.  

Republican frontrunner U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany did not attend. Andy Manske, a 26-year-old medical service technician who is running a longshot Republican campaign for governor  joined Democrats Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison), Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), former Department of Administration chief Joel Brennan, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. 

Below are each candidate’s answers to a handful of key questions from the moderators. 

How would you reduce incarceration while improving public safety?

Manske answered the question by drawing on his personal relationships with people who struggled with addiction and incarceration. He said  he believes that people need not only a path out of prison, but support so they can become healthy and productive citizens. This is especially true for people leaving jail or prison and people living on the street without housing, he said. He added that he supports building a location in Madison where the best professionals could gather “and those who want help can get that help.” 

Roys said she favors following evidence-based practices and expanding treatment and diversions.  “This is not rocket science,” she said, adding that it’s possible to reduce the number of people Wisconsin incarcerates while also saving money and human lives. Addiction and mental health should be treated as medical issues, not with incarceration, Roys said. She connected these medical struggles to her proposal to open up the state employee health insurance plan to all Wisconsinites to get the same health insurance that she enjoys as a state employee. Roys also endorsed ending crimeless revocation, which has increased Wisconsin’s prison and jail population by reincarcerating nonviolent offenders for minor violations of their conditions of release and implementing restorative justice practices.

“Everybody in our state deserves to live a life of dignity, including people who are incarcerated right now,” said Hong. She said that the overcrowded conditions in prisons across the state — especially for incarcerated women — are “abhorrent.” Hong said that some communities are creating local programs the state should support and fund, including  efforts to provide affordable housing, community centers and  mental health resources. “For too long our local governments have been starved of resources due to Robin Vos and the Republicans freezing and not funding our local governments,” said Hong. Many of the problems communities face could be best addressed through increased state support for local organizations that are already doing the work on the ground, she said. 

Brennan said that about one-third of all state employees work for the Department of Corrections, making it the largest state agency. “We have about three times as many people incarcerated in Wisconsin as they do in the state of Minnesota,” Brennan said,  adding that Wisconsin’s  neighboring state spends $100 per capita less than Wisconsin on incarceration. He suggested that  the state could make a profound positive impact by investing  $600 million “on the front-end,” dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline by increasing prevention and education and providing opportunities for job training and re-integration for people leaving prison.  

Crowley said one of his  first jobs after high school was working at Project: Return with formerly incarcerated people, helping them find housing. Under his leadership, Milwaukee County has taken on responsibility for running the Community Re-Intergration Center, formerly called the House of Corrections. He said that government’s focus needs to be directed at “how we invest upstream” to address the root causes of crime. Supporting mental health care, continuing the commutation process started by Evers, decriminalizing cannabis, creating a pathway for expungements and expanding drug courts are among the measures he said he supports. 

Barnes highlighted lack of opportunity as a contributor to Wisconsin’s high incarceration rate. He said he  has known people who’ve made bad decisions because they felt the consequences of their actions were no worse than their living conditions. “That’s something we need to reckon with,” said Barnes. “Right now, we’re doing things totally wrong. We’re spending so much money and the cost is not just in dollars and cents, the cost is in lives.” During his time as a state lawmaker, Barnes visited many prisons around the state and was the ranking Democrat  on the Legislature’s  Corrections Committee. He recalled talking to a boy who’d spent time in Lincoln Hills who said that when he was released, “that he knew for a fact that he was going back in because he did not know what else to do.” Barnes said that people need to be rehabilitated and provided opportunity, not just warehoused. 

Rodriguez connected Wisconsin’s incarceration rate to its “shameful” record of failing to invest in public health. “And so what ends up happening is that people do not get the services that they need,” she said. When she chaired the governor’s healthcare workforce task force, she said, she learned that Wisconsin could double the number of therapists it provides “and it would still not be enough.” She stressed the disproportionate rates of  incarceration of of Black and brown Wisconsinites despite similar rates of drug use and addiction. Like Brennan, Rodriguez pointed to Minnesota’s record reducing incarceration without triggering an increase in crime. Rodriguez said that Wisconsin could look at how other states have tackled the issue. “I am not about re-inventing the wheel,” she said, adding that Wisconsin needs to adopt the best practices from other states.

How would you use the pardon and clemency powers as governor? 

Roys stressed that community safety is “the most important aspect” of decisions about releasing people from prison. Gov. Tony Evers  should have used his power to reduce prison sentences and pardon Wisconsinites  “much more” aggressively. She also said that the governor has significant power to shape how the Department of Corrections operates, and to help provide meaningful pathways to reintegration of incarcerated people. Yet the state continues to incarcerate people who have served such long sentences they have grown old and have aged out of crime. “I actually think that we have a constitutional problem here in Wisconsin,” said Roys. “How long you go away depends on when you committed the crime and when you were sentenced.” The power to pardon should be used “because justice is not always served,” she added. 

Hong also said that the governor should wield executive power more assertively . The conditions of Wisconsin’s prisons could be considered “a state of emergency,” Hong said. “There are executive orders that should have been placed during the Evers administration that I was disappointed not to see happen,” she said. She felt Evers could have been more responsive to  families, formerly incarcerated people, and advocates who are “organizing and demanding justice,” adding that those folks deserve a place at the table when discussing pardons and clemency powers. “It should be the folks who are closest to the problem who are closest to the power,” she said. By listening to these voices, she suggested, Wisconsin can move away from being among the  states with the highest Black incarceration rates and  where women’s prisons are desperately overcrowded. “This is about dignity,” she said. 

Brennan said that Evers’ was dedicated to using his pardon powers to right wrongs. “The pardon process was one where he was emotionally invested in the stories,” Brennan said. He promised to continue that commitment. He expressed optimism that the end of Republican gerrymandering will help create a state where justice and vengeance are not blended together. “We have had a generation in Wisconsin that in some ways we have lost because of that confusion,” he said, adding that pardon and clemency powers need to be used judiciously and that the governor cannot rely solely on those powers to achieve criminal justice reform.

Crowley promoted the idea that anyone and everyone should be able to apply to get their record expunged once they’ve served their time. Pardons need to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, especially since everyone’s situation is different, he said. He highlighted that his former deputy chief of staff was a four-time felon. “Yes, I hired a four-time felon,“ he said, adding that one of the charges was for child abuse. But what that charge obscures, he said, is that his employee was convicted of child abuse after getting into a fight as an 18-year-old with someone who was 17. “And even though the victim said ‘this is not what we want to do to his life,’ the judge still threw the book at him.” This is why every case needs to be reviewed carefully, and that assumptions should be avoided, Crowley said.

Barnes said that politically polarized positions on pardons and clemency have contributed to problems in Wisconsin. He reiterated that people who find themselves on the wrong side of the law have been blocked from opportunity, which led them to prison in the first place. Non-violent offenders and people suffering from mental illness or addiction and other unique situations are all treated the same under the current system, which needs to change, he said. 

Rodriguez said that she would continue the pardon, commutations and clemency process Evers began. Each case should be viewed individually, she said, but  public safety has to be the first consideration, followed by justice, fairness in sentencing, and finally a demonstrated commitment to integrate back into the community. Rodriguez and Crowley both said  that cannabis needs to be legalized and that convictions based on outdated laws, including cannabis convictions, need to be expunged. 

Manske agreed that cannabis should be legalized “with rules and guidelines,” and cannabis convictions should be expunged. He added that the justice system should treat the powerful no differently than those who are not wealthy or well connected.

How would you make immigrant communities feel safe and reduce labor shortages?

Hong said that no one should have to live in fear in their own communities and described the pain of immigrant workers who are afraid of being arrested by federal agents if they show up for their jobs. Ensuring that people know their rights is important, she said, so they can fight back against wage theft and workplace maltreatment, while also navigating life under the threat of deportation. 

Brennan said he recently toured a Manitowoc foundry where the CEO spoke to employees in Spanish and discussed a recent chilling of the labor market. “For the first time in many months, he found no Spanish speakers at all,” said Brennan. The federal immigration crackdown has harmed the dairy industry and agriculture generally as well as manufacturing and the service industries in Wisconsin, he said. Brennan described it as a joint responsibility to ensure Wisconsin is the state “we thought we were.” He said that means making sure that state resources are not being used for immigration enforcement, ending agreements between local law enforcement and immigration enforcement, and creating a welcoming state where people are treated with respect and can contribute their cultures. 

Crowley said he has been dealing with the federal immigration crackdown directly in Milwaukee, adding that his county has the state’s largest Latino and Muslim populations statewide. Both the state and local governments and the community itself need to step up to protect neighbors, he said. Milwaukee County has created an online resource hub for immigrants and concerned  residents. Crowley stated his position that local law enforcement should not become a tool of a federal immigration agenda. 

Barnes said that Wisconsin grew because people, including immigrants, chose to move here. Being able to access the middle class has become more difficult over time, causing people to point fingers at each other and to blame immigrants, he said. He called scapegoating immigrants unfair, describing immigrant workers as essential to the state’s economy. Fundamentally, Barnes said, there is a broken immigration system that needs to be fixed at the federal level.

Rodriguez recalled when her young child first asked her if Donald Trump won, and whether the president would send  his father — a naturalized citizen — back to Mexico. “And it broke my heart that that man’s words had gotten into my child’s head,” she said. She added that her husband now walks around with his passport card after Trump was elected for a second time. “We have to make sure that immigrants feel safe in Wisconsin,” she said.

Manske said he doesn’t like seeing immigration enforcement going into communities and hurting people. He said two classes of “oligarchic Republicans and corporate Democrats” look at immigrants almost as a “slave caste.” Manske said that it’s heartbreaking that immigrants are facing threats and repression. He added that he wants to see a working legal immigration system, but that communities shouldn’t be lied to and told “they’re safe when they’re not safe.” 

Roys said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) needs to be abolished, a position she has articulated over the last  decade. “I foresaw how it could be used as a paramilitary force,” said Roys. America can have secure borders, a functional immigration system and public safety “without dehumanizing people,” she added. “What is happening now is an abomination,” she said. She highlighted her record of supporting legislation to limit or prohibit state and local cooperation with ICE, and to allow ICE agents to be sued and prosecuted for breaking laws. Roys also added that  she supports raising the minimum wage, providing universal childcare, and providing driver’s license for immigrants as ways to support workers. 

All of the candidates were asked specifically whether they support 287(g) agreements between local law enforcement and ICE. They all said they would not support the agreements except for Manske, who is skeptical that state law can trump federal law in this circumstance. 

What would you do to significantly reduce childhood lead poisoning?

Crowley said he believes the discussion of lead poisoning  plays into the political divide in Wisconsin. “We don’t just talk about clean drinking water,” he said. “We pit lead laterals against PFAS contamination in rural communities … when what we need to be focusing on is “how do we just talk about getting people access to clean water?” He said he wants to  empower the Department of Natural Resources to hold polluters accountable, and work to overcome the daunting barriers to replacing lead laterals across the state, a task challenged by a lack of plumbers and tradespeople trained to do the replacements. 

Barnes said that, although federal funds to address lead are drying up, the state still has a responsibility and an opportunity to step in. He described going into communities and talking to people who got good, union-paying jobs to replace lead laterals, and how the loss of those jobs is another serious problem. Barnes said that besides lead pipes, the state also needs to hold landlords accountable for having lead paint on their properties. 

Rodriguez also pointed to cuts and changes at the federal level, which have frustrated efforts to replace lead laterals. She feels instead of relying on the federal government, neighboring states should collaborate to tackle the lead crisis. 

As a  Republican, Manske said, he doesn’t mind the idea of spending money on issues like this. He doesn’t want Wisconsin communities to deal with a water crisis like Flint Michigan, which seems to never end. Manske said he doesn’t like hearing about people being sick and not being able to pay for the bill. “At the end of the day, whatever it takes,” he said, stressing that investing in people is important. 

Roys said that corporate money in politics is the reason clean water isn’t coming out of every tap in the state. She recounted working to hold corporate polluters accountable for curbing disparities in infant mortality rates, which have environmental components. On the Joint Finance Committee, she fought for funding to clean up water contaminates. “We need to restore environmental law and order in the state,” she said, adding that science needs to be put back “in the driver seats at the DNR.” 

“Delete existing tax exemptions for data centers and the additional subsidies,” said Hong, keeping her remarks brief and pointed. The $2.1 billion the state could recoup from data centers, could be put back into infrastructure to address issues like the lead crisis, she said. 

Brennan said the state could use a clean water loan fund at the local level, and could view the cleanup effort as an opportunity to create good paying jobs. Brennan recalled visiting a woman who lived in a rural PFAS-contaminated community and asking her what she wanted out of state government. Her community had been dependent on bottled water for the last five years. She turned on her tap and told him “I want to be able to use this to cook, to brush my teeth.” Brennan said, “it’s our responsibility to do better.”

What is something you disagree with your party or its leadership on?

Barnes said that “we have to tax the wealthiest in our society” and restore opportunity. The reason people can’t access the middle class is because so much wealth has been concentrated in the hands of just a few people, he said. Allowing money to influence politics has allowed the wealthiest people to control who is elected, “not the voters, not the people.” Barnes said that Democrats need to “reject this level of corporate influence,” hold the wealthiest accountable, and stop profiting from systems that oppress people.

Rodriguez said that people are forced to choose unnecessarily between moderate and progressive Democrats. In reality, there is a lot of agreement across the board, she said. She added that there’s an illusion of difference among Democrats who share the same principles but differ on the right  methods to achieve the same ends. 

Manske said that other Republicans see him as an “enigma.” He believes the government should spend money to help people, he supports a high-speed train from Milwaukee to Green Bay, “if the money would allow it.” He  also supports legalizing cannabis, and is pro-choice even though he is religious. Manske feels that people are unable to afford the families they may want. “The conditions need to change. People choose life if they have hope,”  he said. 

Roys said Wisconsinites value independent thinkers, which is why she’s well suited to take on Tom Tiffany, whom she called a “rubber stamp” for Trump. She’s gone against her party even when it hurt her, she said. “I was one of the first candidates in the country to say that I’m not going to fund my campaigns with corporate money, back in 2011,” said Roys. “You can’t tell me how many rooms I was laughed out of.” She said she believes in public financing, and pushed for fair maps when other Democrats wanted to draw maps that favored themselves. Roys also said she supported bills to put more nurses in rural communities, despite multiple vetoes from Evers. She has also pushed for ending mass incarceration, despite other Democrats not being as enthusiastic, she said. 

Hong said she disagrees with some of the political strategies favored by the Democratic Party. Working class people, especially in rural communities, feel left behind, she said, and the party has a problem with “elitism.” Independents and moderate Republicans should not be seen by Democrats as more important voters than working class people, she said. She pointed to farmers who’ve been crushed by tariffs and big agriculture. Young voters also need to be valued, and issues like childcare and mass incarceration need to be taken seriously, she said. “I think I disagree with who we have been prioritizing, and I think we have an opportunity to course-correct,” she said.

Brennan said he disagreed with Evers on the provision of  Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill that offered a $1,700 tax credit for contributions to school choice programs. Evers said he wouldn’t let Wisconsin opt into the tax credit, but Brennan said taking the money was better than sending it elsewhere. The money, he said, could send a kid to camp at Discovery World — which Brennan led — or could support kids who need opportunities. Brennan added that he believes that every dollar that can be used to support kids in Wisconsin should be used. 

Crowley said that the Democrats are playing “the part of reaction.” All the party has done for the last 12 years is react to what the Republicans and Trump are doing, he said. Doing this allows Trump and the Republicans to “define us, for us,” he argued. No one wins a game if they’re only playing defense, he said. Crowley recalled when Trump said that private equity firms shouldn’t be buying single family homes, something he agrees with and that Democrats had fought for years to achieve. Democrats have forgotten how to be proactive and how to sell a vision of what they want for their communities, he said. 

The Democratic primary will be held on August 11, followed by the general election for governor on Nov. 3. 

This article has been edited to correct that Rep. Francesca Hong referred to $2.1 billion in tax exemptions and subsidies for data centers, not $2.1 million. 

Salah Sarsour, a Muslim leader in Milwaukee and the president of Wisconsin’s largest mosque, who was arrested by immigration agents in late March, has been ordered released by a federal judge. The news comes after sustained pressure from Sarsour’s family, his community and elected officials. 

“We are ecstatic for Salah Sarsour and his family that they will soon be reunited,” Sarsour’s lawyers said in a statement. “In issuing this order, the federal judge made clear that the government cannot detain a lawful permanent resident for speaking out about Palestinian rights.” 

In his 29-page decision, U.S. District Judge James P. Hanlon, an appointee of President Donald Trump, ruled against arguments by prosecutors that the federal court had no jurisdiction over immigration detentions. Hanlon sided with Sarsour’s attorneys who charged that Sarsour’s arrest was based on his speech supporting Palestinian human rights. Hanlon wrote that Sarsour “has presented a substantial claim of First Amendment retaliation” that his detention is unlawful. Hanlon’s decision has no sway over his pending immigration proceedings for possible deportation, the judge wrote. 

The Trump administration maintains that Sarsour should not have been granted legal residency in the U.S. in 1993 because of a decades-old conviction by an Israeli military court of attacking Israeli soldiers in the West Bank.

While lawyers “continue to fight these baseless claims in court, today is about celebrating a family being reunited,” Sarsour’s lawyers said in their statement. “It is also a sober reminder that, if the government can target Mr. Sarsour, everyone’s free speech rights are at risk.”

Sarsour’s oldest son, Kareem, praised the news. “We’re getting our dad back!” he said in a statement. “This experience has been a nightmare to wake up to every day, with his health at risk in a cruel basement cell simply for speaking up for Palestine. But we know who my dad is, he’s been a voice for the voiceless and the heart of our family and our community. I can’t wait to hug him, and I hope everyone like him will be released.”

Earlier this month, Sarsour’s attorneys also said that staff at the jail had impeded his religious liberties by interrupting or blocking his ability to pray. Jail staff offered Sarsour pork rinds — a food that is forbidden under Muslim dietary laws — his attorneys and family say, and did not provide adequate treatment for his type 2 diabetes, causing him to lose over 30 pounds while in detention. The Department of Homeland Security has denied the accusations.

U.S. Rep.  Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) applauded Sarsour’s release. Moore visited Sarsour at the Clay County Jail in Indiana last Sunday as an interfaith rally of supporters gathered outside and to protest.

“Over the course of two visits, I observed troubling signs of declining health and raised serious concerns about the conditions of his confinement,” said Moore. “No person in ICE custody should be denied adequate nutrition, medical attention, or humane treatment.”

Targeted First Amendment retaliation

Judge Hanlon acknowledged in his decision that Sarsour was born in the West Bank, where he was convicted in 1989 “by the Israeli Ramallah Military Court” of throwing Molotov cocktails and stones at Israeli forces, and of attempting to possess weapons in 1995. Sarsour became a conditional lawful U.S. resident in 1993, and became a full lawful permanent resident in 1998. Under Republican president George W. Bush, Sarsour’s naturalization application was approved by immigration authorities in 2002. Sarsour has not had a criminal record of any kind since arriving in the U.S. over 30 years ago.

Since his arrest, the Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly brought up Sarsour’s conviction by the Israeli military. Sarsour’s family and supporters, however, say that such convictions are often based on coerced confessions and should not be given weight. Sarsour often told stories of being detained and tortured by Israeli forces, his family members said. United Nations experts found that Israel has denied due process rights to Palestinians in the West Bank for the last 60 years, and there are pervasive reports from Palestinian prisoners of torture, sexual abuse, and maltreatment by Israeli authorities. 

Hanlon noted that Sarsour is president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, the largest mosque in Wisconsin, and is also a board member of American Muslims for Palestine. “Mr. Sarsour speaks openly about his support for Palestinian human rights,” Hanlon wrote. For this, Sarsour was added to the Canary Mission, an Israel-based doxxing website with “anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian animus,” Hanlon wrote. 

In October 2024, American Muslims for Palestine was labeled as part of a terrorist network which supports Hamas in a report authored by the conservative Heritage Foundations’ called “Project Esther: A National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism.” Hanlon noted that the New York Times reported on Project Esther’s plan to brand “a broad range of critics of Israel as ‘effectively a terrorist support network,’ so that they could be deported, defunded, sued, fired, expelled, ostracized and otherwise excluded from what it considered ‘open society.’” 

 

Video of Salah Sarsour being reunited with his family. (Video courtesy of Yaseen Najeed)

 

Shortly after Trump was reelected, “government agents arrested or attempted to arrest noncitizens who had spoken publicly in support of Palestinian rights or critically of the Israeli government,” Hanlon wrote. In June 2025,  Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a Homeland Security memorandum stating that Sarsour was eligible for deportation “because his actions undermine U.S. foreign policy to combat antisemitism around the world as well [as] U.S. foreign policy to combat activity that supports foreign terrorist organizations.” 

Hanlon highlighted that in early February 2026 the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights announced that the department would “investigate,” “prosecute” and “dismantle” organizations like American Muslims for Palestine. Sarsour’s profile on the Canary Mission was updated on March 26, followed by his arrest by armed plainclothes agents four days later on March 30.

The judge denied requests from prosecutors to impose a $25,000 bond and an ankle monitor on Sarsour. 

“Such conditions are not necessary here,” Hanlon wrote. “Mr. Sarsour has no history of non-compliance and is well established in the Milwaukee community.” Sarsour’s family members all live in the U.S. and he has not traveled outside the country since 1998. Hanlon ruled that Sarsour had “provided voluminous evidence demonstrating that he is not a risk of flight.” 

Sarsour was ordered to be released on his own recognizance with the conditions that he remain in Wisconsin, attend all court hearings and participate in his removal proceedings.

“The court’s ruling affirms what many of us have been saying for months,” said Moore, “Mr. Sarsour’s continued detention is unjustifiable.” She expressed gratitude “to the legal advocates, community leaders and family members who fought tirelessly for Mr. Sarsour’s release.”

Nihad Awad, national executive director for the Council on American Islamic Relations, called the court decision “a welcome and long-overdue step toward justice for Salah Sarsour, a respected Muslim community leader whose detention has caused immense pain to his family and community.” 

Awad said that “no one should be punished for their faith, advocacy, or identity. We urge ICE to immediately comply with the judge’s order, reunite Mr. Sarsour with his loved ones, and end the disturbing pattern of targeting Muslim, Palestinian, and other community members for detention and intimidation. This case is a reminder that due process, human dignity, and constitutional rights must never be optional.”

Moore visits Sarsour in jail  

In an interview on Wednesday, before Hanlon issued his order, Moore told the Wisconsin Examiner that she believed Sarsour had become a “high value target for censoring people” as the Trump administration carried out its mass deportation campaign and the targeting of pro-Palestine activists. She visited Sarsour Sunday at the Indiana Clay County Jail, where he was detained. 

“It’s not a rundown place,” Moore said, adding that some of the facility was “definitely a new construction.” However, during her visit, she said, “I didn’t go back into the area where the prisoners live.”

After surrendering her phone, Moore sat with Sarsour, who she said appeared surprised to see her. 

Sarsour hugged her, Moore said. He’d clearly lost weight, even since her last visit in late April, she noted. 

“His health is at risk,” said Moore. “He has diabetes, as has been reported. And you know, I’m not a doctor, I’m not in a position to diagnose anything, but he has continued to lose weight. And he says that’s because he tries to exercise to manage his blood sugar.”

She added that she saw “other things that I noticed that I reported to his doctor, and I think he needs to see a doctor about his diabetes.”

Moore said that since Sarsour’s health began deteriorating, the facility had been asked to change his diet to accommodate his diabetes. She said jail personnel didn’t change his diet but simply gave him smaller portions of food. 

“If they served bread they just gave him a smaller piece. If they had mashed potatoes, they served him a smaller portion of mashed potatoes,” she said. “He hasn’t seen a fresh fruit or vegetable since he’s been in there.”

 Moore stressed that while in custody Sarsour “had earlier episodes of illness and he had to just wing it on his own.” She said that neither his doctor nor a jail doctor have visited him.

While Moore was visiting the jail on Sunday, a large Jewish-led interfaith rally uniting 150 supporters had gathered outside, Moore said. They chanted so loud that Sarsour could hear the commotion from inside the facility. 

They chanted “Free Salah Sarsour!” “No ICE Terror!” “You can’t deport a movement!” Kareem Sarsour was also outside the jail in support of his father’s release. 

“We never imagined we would be placed in the situation we are today,” said Kareem, according to a press release from the group that led the rally. “Every day is nerve-wracking knowing my father is only a few hours away, suffering, and we can’t reach him.”

Moore said she told Sarsour about the rally. “I told him that indeed there were people out there and described the crowd, and he was very — he said that it gave him hope for justice,” said Moore. 

The rally demonstrated how important Sarsour is to his community as a leader, activist, business owner and bridge builder, Moore said.

Moore said she met a minister outside the rally who told her he was a Trump supporter. “He was just hanging around,” said Moore. “Before that was over we had him praying for justice for Mr. Sarsour.” 

Like Sarsour’s attorneys, Moore said she believes Sarsour is a victim of retaliation by the Trump administration for speech. 

“Nobody gets to speak against the Trump deportation strategy,” she said. “We know that he told people who voted for him that he was going to target the murders and the rapists and the gang members. And these are people that no one has any problem with him removing. But no, people like teachers — like Yessenia Ruano —  people like Abrego Garcia, people like Salah Sarsour.”

Administration officials, Moore charged, are “thinking that they can create an inflammatory environment to cover up the outrageous immigration raids and programs that they’re conducting.”

A federal judge has denied a request by former Milwaukee judge Hannah Dugan to either overturn her December conviction for obstructing an immigration proceeding. In a 32-page decision filed Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman disagreed with Dugan’s attorneys that a recent appeals court decision that immigration enforcement actions are not “proceedings” means  her conviction should be overturned. 

In early 2025, Dugan was in court when she learned of that plain-clothes immigration agents were in the hall outside her courtroom, waiting to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who was appearing for a routine hearing, for being in the country illegally. How to handle immigration enforcement had been a top concern among local judges, following a string of arrests by federal agents in and around the Milwaukee County Courthouse. Neither the county sheriff nor the Milwaukee Police Department participate in immigration enforcement and detention. 

Dugan confronted the agents in her judge’s robes, and directed them to check in with the chief judge. When most of the arrest team went to the office, Dugan went back into her courtroom and called Flores-Ruiz, set a new court date, and then led  him and his attorney out of the courtroom through a non-public hallway. Flores-Ruiz rode down in an elevator with one of the federal agents and was arrested outside after a brief foot pursuit. Dugan was later charged with obstructing agents and concealing Flores-Ruiz from them.

The appeals court decision centered around United States v. Hernandez, involving a man who’d been charged with obstruction after escaping immigration custody. In that case, the defendant argued that executing his removal order was not part of the proceeding, which ended once the final removal order was issued. When Dugan went to trial, the Hernandez case was still on appeal. Adelman instructed Dugan’s jury that “‘pending proceeding’ simply means any process taking place in the manner and form prescribed for conducting business by or before a department or government agency, including all steps and stages in such an action from its inception to its conclusion.” Federal agents testified that there are a number of steps in an immigration proceeding, beginning before an arrest and continuing through removal.

When Adelman approved the jury instructions, which were recommended by prosecutors, he relied on United States v. Hernandez. Adelman said that the instructions proposed by the defense team defined “proceeding” too narrowly. “In the present case, the government alleged that defendant obstructed an arrest (step eight),” Adelman wrote in his decision denying Dugan acquittal or a re-trial. Adelman also wrote that motions for reconsideration serve the limited function of correcting errors of law or fact, or to present newly discovered evidence. “Motions for reconsideration are not to be granted lightly,” Adelman wrote. 

Dugan’s attorneys argued that Adelman originally relied on the Hernandez case in deciding that “proceeding” was broad enough to include obstructing immigration agents from executing an administrative warrant. Now that an appeals court reversed the decision in Hernandez and ruled that  immigration enforcement is not a “pending proceeding” as presented to Dugan’s jury, they said Adelman should reconsider his own decision and grant an acquittal. 

Prosecutors countered that the Hernandez ruling “is neither binding nor persuasive, and thus fails to satisfy the ‘heavy burden required for consideration,’” according to Adelman’s summary of the arguments. 

“The problem for the defense is that this case did not involve some random encounter on the street,” Adelman wrote. “It was a targeted operation, conducted pursuant to agency procedures, including the issuance of an arrest warrant for a specific person.” Adelman also wrote that classifying immigration enforcement as “mere police activity” is inappropriate, as “the FBI, ICE can issue its own warrants and adjudicate and effectuate a removal…without the involvement of a court.”

For those reasons, Adelman ruled that the burden for reconsideration in Dugan’s case had not been met. A new court date for Dugan’s sentencing or other proceedings was not yet available Tuesday in online court records.

A final agreement has been reached to release the remaining beagles housed at the Ridglan Farms dog breeding and research facility in Dane County, finding them medical treatment and new homes. Animal welfare groups praised the settlement. 

Dr. Alka Chandna, vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), called the news “a milestone” which reflects years of “relentless pressure” from people “who refuse to accept a system that breeds dogs and other animals only to confine, mutilate, poison, and kill them in laboratories.”

Ridglan Farms operated for decades, accumulating a long list of complaints from concerned citizens. The facility both breeds beagles which are sold to labs for animal testing and maintains its own research branch. Animal rights groups have spent years bringing attention to what they described as deplorable living conditions for the dogs as well as painful medical procedures without anesthesia. 

Last year, prosecutors found that Ridglan Farms had violated state animal cruelty laws and ordered the facility to shut down its breeding operation. Animal rights groups, fearing that Ridglan would euthanize the dogs if it couldn’t sell them off, stormed the facility earlier this year, breaking into the farm and carrying off  some of the more than 2,000 beagles housed there. A larger group numbering hundreds of people arrived for a second rescue attempt, but was  confronted by local law enforcement using tear gas and rubber bullets. In the aftermath of the raid, the participants were described as violent burglars by Ridglan Farms and Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett. 

Four activists, including lead organizer Wayne Hsiung, were charged with felony burglary, and Ridglan Farms was cited for filling a trench around the facility with manure to deter the crowd, creating  an environmental hazard. As the activists prepared for court proceedings, animal welfare groups worked out a deal to purchase 1,500 of the dogs to find them new homes and medical treatment. 

The remaining dogs were included in the latest agreement to shut down the farm. In a statement, Ridglan Farms said the dogs were sold to Big Dog Ranch, with the remaining dogs to be re-housed by the end of August. The farm called the dogs “happy, healthy animals,” despite reports of sores and other medical and behavioral issues among the rescued beagles. Ridglan highlights that it passed federal regulatory inspections. “Now that transfer plans have been finalized for the rest of Ridglan Farms’ dogs, we ask that the years-long harassment campaign targeting the research facility’s owners, staff, and neighbors comes to an end,” the facility said in a statement. “We also hope Wisconsin’s legal system will hold accountable the individuals who organized and carried out the repeated violent assaults and thefts that have recently taken place at our facility.”

Ahmet Kerem Korkaya, a 28-year-old pro-Palestine activist from Milwaukee, pled not guilty Monday to federal charges that he and seven other students at the University of Michigan conspired to commit acts of vandalism, harassment and threats targeting university officials, local businesses, and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit in an effort to get the University of Michigan to sever ties with Israel. Online court records show that Korkaya, who appeared before Magistrate Judge Kimberly Altman for the Eastern District of Michigan, was released on bond. 

A grand jury indicted Korkaya and the other activists including 23-year-old Zainab Aliasgar Hakim; 21-year-old Amatullah Aliasgar Hakim, 28-year-old Paige Elizabeth Feyock, 22-year-old Jonathan Hongru Zou, 24-year-old Mariam Muhammed Odeh, and 24-year-old Colin Hunter Weger — all of Michigan — as well as 23-year-old Alexander Matthew Sepulveda of Illinois.

Korkaya was a student at the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he was studying medical science, with a focus on cancer and tumor immunology, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. He also conducted research at the University of Michigan in 2023 and 2024, and holds bachelor’s and master degrees from two different universities.

In a press release, the Department of Justice points to public social media posts and activist demonstrations carried out by the group demanding that the University of Michigan enact a “full and complete divestment” from Israel and any businesses supporting Israel. The federal government asserts that when the university didn’t respond the way the group wanted, it engaged in tactics such as occupying university buildings, spray-painting buildings and disrupting university events. 

Some demonstrations involved using red paint to write messages on buildings, to simulate blood staining the hands of demonstrators and on white sheets representing the bodies of some of the at least 75,000  Palestinians killed in Israel’s war on Gaza. Although these were common tactics used by student activists who mobilized across the nation to condemn Israel’s attack on Gaza in late 2023, prosecutors have framed the actions as intimidating. 

Prosecutors also accuse the group of researching home addresses, photographs, business ownership and other details of university leaders. Korkaya and others are accused of discussing ways to “kill,” “torment,” “terrorize,” or “get” these people and their families. The group is also accused of carrying out nighttime actions where businesses and homes were spray-painted with pro-Palestine and anti-Israel messages. Prosecutors highlight that some of the incidents involved the spray-painting of a red upside-down triangle which the government claims is associated with Hamas. The Jewish Federation of Detroit was among the buildings spray-painted, prosecutors say. The group is also accused of throwing jars of noxious chemicals into the homes of people they targeted.

The allegations and evidence were not enough to persuade judges to keep members of the group behind bars as court proceedings continue. In considering the government’s claims that the activists pose a  danger to the community and a flight risk, U.S. District Magistrate Judge Anthony Patti said that the alleged actions were “terrorizing, but not terrorism,” Michigan Advance reported, in a separate hearing last week. 

That hearing was protested by about 50 people, who held signs that said: “Drop the Charges” and “Divest Don’t Arrest. Protesters described the arrests as “witch hunts,” asserting that pro-Palestine activists are being unfairly painted as terrorists by the federal government.

The indictments represent the latest move by the Trump administration to target pro-Palestine activism. In January 2025, shortly after returning to office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for the deportation of international students who attend pro-Palestine protests. Just a few months later at least 300 students had their visas revoked for “destabilizing” college campuses, and federal agents arrested Palestinian student activists including Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi. This year Salah Sarsour, the president of Milwaukee’s Islamic Society and an outspoken Palestinian activist, was also arrested by federal immigration agents and sent to an Indiana detention center. 

“Our justice system must carefully distinguish between alleged criminal acts and constitutionally protected political advocacy,” Dawud Walid, executive director of the Center for American Islamic Relations Michigan chapter, said in a statement about the arrests.

NSPM-7, a national security order signed by Trump, directs law enforcement members of regional  Joint Terrorism Task Forces  to “investigate, prosecute, and disrupt” groups and individuals with ideologies harboring themes of “anti-Americanism,” “anti-capitalism,” “anti-Christianity,” “extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.” 

Numerous law enforcement agencies participated in what the government called a “multi-state operation” in order to arrest Korkaya and the others. Among the participants were FBI field offices in Detroit, Chicago and Milwaukee, as well as 12 local law enforcement agencies including the Milwaukee Police Department, the Michigan State Police, university campus police and public safety, and the Michigan Intelligence Operations Center, which is one of the nation’s Fusion Centers originally designed for homeland security and counter-terrorism functions. 

The Milwaukee Police Department also maintains a Fusion Center. The department would not comment on whether it was involved in gathering intelligence related to Korkaya’s arrest. The FBI office of Milwaukee also wouldn’t comment on whether the arrests are related to NSPM-7, directing the Examiner to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Michigan, which has not responded to a request for comment.

A federal judge heard from attorneys Monday about the treatment of Salah Sarsour, the Palestinian president of Milwaukee’s Islamic Society and a legal U.S. permanent resident who is being held in an Indiana immigration detention facility.

Sarsour’s lawyers say that since arriving at the Clay County Detention Center in Brazil, Indiana, following his arrest by federal immigration agents in March Sarsour has lost 30 pounds, is not receiving appropriate care for his type 2 diabetes, and has been denied the ability to practice his religion. Separate from Sarsour’s immigration proceedings, Sarsour’s attorneys pushed in federal court for his release, arguing that his treatment at the detention center amounted to a First Amendment violation. 

Luna Droubi, an attorney who represents Sarsour, said that U.S. District Judge James Patrick Hanlon listened closely during the Monday status hearing and asked questions about the 53-year-old business owner, activist and grandfather’s experiences. The judge “addressed and directed the facility to take a look at Salah Sarsour’s medical guidance, and I do think he has real concerns about his treatment,” said Droubi, adding that Sarsour “really has been tormented for exercising his religious beliefs.” 

Initially, Droubi explained, “he wasn’t able to pray five times a day; they would disrupt his prayers at certain hours and tell him to stop doing it.” Sarsour’s requests for Halal meals, foods which are considered permissible in Islam, have been denied, and obtaining a makeshift prayer towel proved challenging as well. When he asked for food that would help him maintain balanced blood sugar levels because of his diabetes, Sarsour was offered pork rinds by detention facility staff according to his attorneys, in violation of his religious dietary requirements.

“It’s been a very difficult time for him,” Droubi told the Examiner. “He’s the president of the largest Islamic Center in Milwaukee. … He is a type 2 diabetic and he has very clear medical instructions that he requires daily glucose testing. At today’s hearing, they represented that they had started daily glucose testing and then somebody at the facility was instructed that they only need to do it once a month.” That goes directly against medical guidance, she added, since glucose levels can drop and rise on a daily basis, “and that can be incredibly dangerous.” 

At one point, Droubi said, Sarsour experienced severe abdominal pain and then was told “there’s nothing we can do for it. There’s no medical professional here. You’re going to have to wait until morning.” She stressed that “he couldn’t even stand up, and it’s only been two months. So he’s really, really struggled.”

Since Jan. 1 of this year, there have been 18 deaths of people detained in immigration detention facilities nationwide. This has outpaced the deaths reported last year –  the highest in two decades. This comes as Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that it will stop reporting the deaths of people who’ve been recently released by detention, the AP reported.

Sarsour’s attorneys argued that there are numerous reasons why Sarsour needs to be immediately released, and that it’s within the federal court’s authority to do so. Droubi said that Sarsour is being held “because of his speech and associations,” and that the arrest was purely punitive for that speech.

Sarsour grew up in the West Bank and became an outspoken critic of the Israeli government and a supporter of Palestinian rights and freedoms as an adult. That activism continued after the militant arm of Hamas attacked Israel in late 2023, killing 1,200 people, followed by a large-scale Israeli assault on Palestinians living in Gaza which has killed at least 75,000 people while displacing thousands more. 

The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly called Sarsour a “terrorist” who was convicted of throwing Molotov cocktails into the homes of Israeli forces.

“This was an Israeli military kangaroo court,” Othman Atta, executive director of Milwaukee’s Islamic Society, said of Sarsour’s conviction during a community gathering and press conference held in early April after Sarsour’s arrest. “Human rights groups will tell you that these claims are coerced under torture, under interrogation. So absolutely, that’s not true.” At the gathering Atta also said that Sarsour spent two years in Israeli detention as a teenager. “He would talk to us many times how for 80 straight days, he was interrogated, and brutalized, and tortured while he was in Israeli military custody.”

These experiences are widely reported by detained Palestinians. In 2024, United Nations experts found that due process rights for Palestinians in the West Bank, where Sarsour grew up and was detained, had been violated by Israeli authorities for the past 60 years. 

“He is also an illegal alien that lied on his green card application to fraudulently gain legal status in the U.S. under the Clinton Administration,” a DHS spokesperson said in an emailed statement to the Examiner. “Any accusation of discrimination by ICE agents is FALSE. All illegal aliens in ICE custody receive three meals a day and proper medical treatment. Sarsour is a criminal and a terrorist and will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.”

Droubi said that the federal judge is considering the argument for Sarsour’s release. Attorneys representing the government say that the federal court has no jurisdiction over a claim of unlawful detention. 

“He should be home with his family,” Droubi told the Examiner. “He really should.”

Controversy over Flock license plate reading cameras has rippled across Wisconsin, causing people to fill public hearings as some regions remove the cameras, and others overhaul auditing and oversight. Activists, elected officials and police departments are navigating disagreements over privacy, safety, freedom and the facts about the surveillance network.  

Communities including Dane County, Verona, Monona, Fitchburg, Appleton, Oshkosh and Sturgeon Bay are dropping contracts with the multi-billion company Flock Safety because of heightened awareness and public anxiety over surveillance. 

Officers and deputies from three different agencies and three separate counties stand accused of misusing Flock cameras, which compile images of vehicles and their license plates into a database which can be searched by police. When the Examiner reviewed five months of Flock data last year, it contained many thousands of searches conducted by 221 Wisconsin law enforcement agencies.

All three officers are accused of tracking their romantic partners, with officers Josue Ayala of Milwaukee and Cristian Morales of Menasha facing charges for which they have upcoming court appearances. Ayala is scheduled for sentencing in June and Morales has a jury trial in July. Kenosha County Deputy Frank McGrath was not charged for misconduct over his use of Flock to track another deputy he was dating and a John Doe petition seeking charges in the case has been sealed by a judge, according to court records.

“It’s powerful technology,” Heba Mohammad, an organizer with Milwaukee4Palestine — one of the local groups pushing against Flock cameras — told the Examiner.  

Milwaukee4Palestine has focused on police surveillance as cameras, automatic license plate readers like Flock, and facial recognition technology and drones came to Milwaukee. “As Palestinians, we know what that is a signal of,” said Mohammad, pointing out that similar surveillance tested on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank has been adopted by U.S. law enforcement agencies. “The road to fascism is paved with well-intentioned surveillance technology.”

Milwaukee4Palestine organized to oppose facial recognition technology and then Flock. “We know this is what is next,” said Mohammad. “We’ve seen how surveillance can be used to oppress people.”

Although MPD stands by its use of Flock, the department has also been forced to revamp its auditing procedures. Over the last couple of months, the department has limited the number of officers who have access to Flock. James Lewis, risk manager for MPD, told the Wisconsin Examiner that access was restricted to an “as needed basis,” and that requests need to go through the chain of command, creating more of a paper trail when Flock is used. 

While some units or bureaus investigating serious crimes had clearer needs for Flock, “in patrol, we wanted to make sure that the officers who had it really had the need to have this software,” said Lewis. MPD is also using audit data to flag “outlier” data that indicate questionable Flock uses, such as an officer searching the same vehicle multiple times over a short period, or not attaching case numbers to searches. MPD shares its Flock network with state partners, but not with federal agencies. 

Nevertheless, community members have expressed a lack of confidence and trust in MPD surveillance, especially after the passage of Act 12, which stripped some of the Fire and Police Commission’s oversight powers in exchange for allowing Milwaukee to adopt a sales tax. 

“We are of the position that the risks far outweigh the benefits of this technology and again, particularly with a police force like the Milwaukee Police Department that has been granted a lot of impunity through Act 12 [and has] basically no accountability,” said Mohammad. “And they are demonstrating time and time again that they don’t care what the community thinks.”

Lewis said that the department is trying to nail down exactly how Flock affects the community. “I think a lot of what we’ve seen through public comment, through the commissioners’ comments, through news media coverage for this is, ‘Hey this is this big data surveillance network and it’s got a lot of these pitfalls in it,” said Lewis. “But I think the other piece of it that we’re really trying to get our hands on is how is this making police work more efficient? Is it driving public safety outcomes? Are we getting what we want out of it and through audit, we’re trying to tell those stories as well.” 

Lewis said MPD is working on answering some of those questions, especially the question of whether there is a return on investment in terms of public safety. “If there is outlier data generated, I want to know not just compliance or not, but also what did the city get out of this? Is it a safer place because of this?” Lewis said that MPD has chosen to overhaul its auditing practices on its own in a tailor-made fashion, rather than waiting on Flock Safety to develop a fix. 

The department highlighted 24 different situations where Flock was used, including felony firearms investigations, parole violations, narcotics trafficking, homicide, material witnesses needed at criminal trials, stolen vehicles, overdose death investigations, sexual assault, shootings and armed robberies. In one of the examples involving theft, MPD specified in an email that “Flock was used to develop patterns of movement in the suspect vehicle” to determine whether it was related to other thefts. 

Balancing tracking, privacy, and public safety

The extent to which Flock can track and surveil people has been a source of tension at public meetings. In December, Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball and Chief Deputy Brain Barkow said that calling Flock a form of tracking is a misrepresentation. They argued that although Flock alerts officers that a vehicle has been sighted, they would still need to go to the area of the alert and search for the vehicle. In other words, Flock doesn’t see everything.

But the technology appears to have greater surveillance capabilities than some departments and even Flock itself have described.

The Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department has also said that Flock is “not used for general surveillance, traffic enforcement, or monitoring individuals not connected to an investigation.” However, the agency’s Flock data shows that officers entered “surveillance” and “traffic offense” as reasons for searching the camera network. 

Oshkosh officials voted to continue a Flock contract only to reverse course the next day, saying that they’d been misled by Flock representatives over the camera’s ability to produce heat maps visualizing where a vehicle has been. At a meeting in April, Oshkosh Police Chief Dean Smith told local elected officials that because of that “misrepresentation” he could “I can no longer recommend Flock.”

“I think it depends on how it’s used,” Green Bay Police Chief Chris Davis told the Examiner. “I think if it’s misused, you can misuse this technology in a way that would allow you to track someone.” Yet, Davis feels that Flock can be an asset when used for legitimate criminal investigations. “I think people sometimes misunderstand how the technology works.” 

Davis concedes of Flock use that in some ways, “yeah, that’s kind of tracking someone. But I have a legitimate criminal predicate for doing so.” At the same time, he condemns the use of Flock for personal reasons, like spying on ex-wives or partners. “The government doesn’t get to do that,” said Davis. “That’s unlawful overreach into someone’s life because there’s no legitimate public safety reason for getting access to that data.”

Davis was hired at Green Bay in late 2021, when the city was experiencing a rise in gun violence. After deciding not to adopt gunshot detection tech, the city pivoted to automatic license plate readers. 

“At the time Flock was one of very few, if not the only company that had stationary license plate reader technology,” said Davis. “With gun crimes, the faster you can develop a suspect and make an arrest, the better, because there’s a retaliatory cycle that happens.” The department has been able to locate homicide suspects who fled to other states, hit-and-run suspects, and stolen vehicles using Flock. 

Davis said that “license plate reader technology has been a game changer for all of us. On the other hand, you still have to take people’s privacy concerns seriously.” He stressed that “anytime you’re collecting that much data about people as they just go about their daily business, you have to be really careful with how that’s used.” 

How Flock can be layered with other surveillance technologies also worry community members. In May, officers in Wauwatosa used Flock surveillance and a drone to track a robbery suspect.

The debate reminds Davis of the words of a mentor, that being a police chief is “the great balancing act of municipal government.” He added that, “I think it would be a mistake for us to not take people’s privacy concerns seriously in this conversation.”

As cases of misuse have popped up, the Green Bay Police Department has also tightened its use of Flock. They used their own audit to look for suspicious searches, and didn’t detect any instances of misuse. “We didn’t find any of that in our audit that we did, but it doesn’t hurt to ratchet it down as much as we can,” said Davis. “Because again, I understand, like you’re talking about people’s sensitive information. We have to be responsible with how we use that, and there have to be safeguards in place.” 

The department has also restricted which outside agencies can access its Flock network. While there was an initial belief that “the bigger the network, the more valuable the tool,” Davis said that Green Bay PD has “re-thought that over the last few weeks.” Now only agencies in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, eastern Wisconsin from Green Bay to Milwaukee, and the Chicagoland area (including Racine, Kenosha, and Cook counties along with some Chicago suburbs and a small portion of Indiana around the city of Gary) can search within Green Bay’s network. 

“We figure that makes more sense to have more of a rationale for why we share data,” said Davis. “Because I don’t have control over how those other agencies manage their employees. It’s not that I don’t trust them, but if they want that information then they can call us and they can explain what they’re working on, and we’ll see if we can help them.”

Green Bay PD is also utilizing a drop down menu with pre-designated options for using Flock, rather than allowing officers to type whatever they want. When the Examiner conducted its first analysis of Flock last year, there were several departments which used vague search terms, even just putting a dot or “.” as the reason for searching Flock. When the Examiner brought it to the Waukesha Police Department’s attention, the department said an officer was re-trained and counseled. 

Captain Dan Baumann of the Waukesha PD said in an email statement that since then, the department has “strengthened its oversight of Flock Safety by increasing formal audits from twice per year to monthly.” There are also random audits in addition to the mandatory audit, as well as an AI-powered Flock audit assistance tool to flag suspicious searches. The department’s standard operating procedure has also been adjusted. No further instances of vague labeling have arisen, and no discipline has been issued in connection to use of Flock. 

Baumann said Flock has assisted investigations such as in a vehicle break-in where leads were limited, and using Flock allowed investigators to identify a suspect’s vehicle and connect it to cases in Dane County. Flock was also used to locate someone involved in a shooting, and who pointed a gun during a road rage incident, Baumann said.

Communities waking up to surveillance risks

While it may be encouraging that departments are changing procedures and upping auditing, advocates still have  questions about whether it will  be enough. Jon McCray Jones, policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin, hopes that people “don’t miss the forest for the trees” by focusing solely on Flock, when other companies sell similar technology. 

“I don’t believe that law enforcement are just acting out of good faith with a lot of these regulatory changes and auditing changes to Flock,” McCray Jones told the Examiner. “I believe that it comes from sustained pressure started at the most local level from people understanding and realizing the dangers associated with all these cameras and automated license plate readers, and specifically Flock, who is the worst company out of all of them so far.” 

It all also ties back to a growing mistrust and fear over the federal government. Under President Donald Trump, federal immigration agents have flooded Democratic-led cities across the country, resulting in multiple shootings and deaths in Minnesota earlier this year. The Trump administration has also directed federal agencies to begin investigating left-wing groups it has accused of domestic terrorism. 

Mohammad said that the ICE surges really brought surveillance to the forefront when people began to see “ICE agents scanning people’s faces in different cities, and telling them that we have a database and we can recognize your name. Or pulling people’s license plates and figuring out what their names were so that they could harass them directly by name.” She added, “I think this political moment is also a moral and ethical one.” 

McCray Jones also said the issue of police surveillance has new urgency as communities are “being targeted and their neighbors being disappeared by the federal government.” ICE and other federal agencies have access to Flock either directly, or through assistance from local and state agencies which have contracts with the company. Public officials, under pressure from voters, are “jumping on board,” McCray Jones said, “and they’re feeling courageous and empowered to take on these surveillance systems.”

Public meetings about surveillance technology in Milwaukee are energized, Mohammad said. “I don’t want to say exciting because I think that really betrays the seriousness of the moment,” she said. “But there is that buzz that often happens when that room is full, or there was a time when they had to open the overflow room.” It’s shown Mohammad that “people care about this stuff and that’s why I think that it’s really incredible that even though the FPC doesn’t really have any teeth to its accountability anymore, we as residents are using as many avenues as are open to us to make our voices heard.” 

McCray Jones suggests that people care about Flock because “at its core, it’s one of the easiest surveillance technologies for people to understand.” He believes that people understand that “anyone who drives is impacted by this technology in a way that other surveillance technologies, say like ShotSpotters or Stingray…I think people have a harder time one: knowing how these technologies work but two: viewing themselves as potential victims.” 

He added that in several cases, including in Milwaukee, officers who misused the technology were caught by people using websites like HaveIBeenFlocked, not by the department. “So we don’t know how much these systems are being abused,” he said. “And I think elected officials should use these moments of high, intense scrutiny from the community and in the media, and having anecdotal stories of officers doing this right now, to really be courageous and take the lead to fight for more accountability measures before the public forgets about this story, and forgets about the danger that they are under due to law enforcement’s ability to track where you are at all times.”

Mohammad said that she and her allies are not quitting anytime soon. “We understand our position, we understand the risks here,” she told the Examiner. “And so we’re not going to back down. We do not want our communities to be surveilled. And we believe that public safety comes from investments in other areas, not in police surveillance.”

Attorneys squared off in federal court again Wednesday over the fate of former Milwaukee judge Hannah Dugan, who was convicted of obstructing immigration agents when they went to her courtroom to arrest a man last year. What was initially set to be a sentencing hearing for Dugan was postponed, replaced by oral arguments on a motion from Dugan’s attorneys to overturn her conviction.

A  jury found Dugan had obstructed a “proceeding” when she allowed a man living in the U.S. without legal documentation and his attorney to exit out of the courtroom into a non-public hallway. Prosecutors argued her action was to avoid immigration agents who waited in the hallway. 

Dugan’s attorneys argued that a recent appeals court ruling held that federal immigration enforcement actions are not “pending proceedings.” As a result, the attorneys argued Wednesday, improper instructions were given to the jury by U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman during the high-profile trial in December. 

Prosecutors countered that the jury instructions were correct, and that the case Dugan’s lawyers cited does not apply to Dugan. 

Adelman now must consider whether to rely on the original guilty verdict, or to overturn the jury’s decision. Adelman denied the defense’s request for a new trial or for Dugan to be acquitted in April, WPR reported. 

Democratic U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin, Bernie Sanders, and Chris Van Hollen have sent a joint letter to the secretary of  the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), condemning the arrest and detention of Salah Sarsour, the president of Milwaukee’s Islamic Society, and charging that Sarsour has received inadequate medical care Sarsour at an Indiana immigration detention center where he’s being held. 

Sarsour has been detained since late March.  His family and supporters say that Sarsour, a man of Palestinian descent, was targeted for his criticism of the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians and the mass slaughter in Gaza. DHS has accused the father and business owner of lying on his green card application more than 30 years ago. 

The federal government has called Sarsour a terrorist who was detained as a teenager for attempting to possess weapons or ammunition. As a boy Sarsour was detained by Israeli forces in the West Bank, where torture and abuse of Palestinian prisoners have been reported for decades, something Sarsour said had happened to him as well. 

In their letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Baldwin, Sanders, and Van Hollen called Sarsour a business owner, father, grandfather and a “respected leader in the Milwaukee community.” He has lived in the United States as a legal permanent resident since 1993 and has not acquired a criminal record in that time. 

“We are deeply concerned that Mr. Sarsour was targeted in retaliation for his activism,” the senators wrote. “Through his work with the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and American Muslims for Palestine, Mr. Sarsour has spoken out passionately against the war in Gaza and on issues impacting the Islamic Society. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees everyone in our country, including lawful permanent residents, the right to speak freely without fear of retribution from the government.”

The senators added that they are concerned about Sarour’s health in detention. “Those in federal custody must be treated humanely and receive the level of care required,” the senators wrote. “Mr. Sarsour is a diabetic and we are concerned that he does not have appropriate access to healthcare, medical supplies, and a healthy diet required to properly manage that chronic condition, including by regularly testing blood glucose.” 

Sarsour has also not been provided “reasonable religious accommodations, such as a prayer mat,” the senators wrote. “He had been using a facility-issued bath towel to perform his prayers, but this was recently confiscated without explanation and Mr. Sarsour has been forced to pray on the facility’s barren floors. This treatment is unacceptable.”

Baldwin, Sanders, and Van Hollen demanded answers to several questions by May 31. They asked DHS to provide documentation that immigration officers relied on when they decided to arrest Sarsour and requested communications with the White House or Office of Budget and Management regarding Sarsour’s detention. 

They also asked whether Sarsour has access to proper healthcare and nutrition, what protocols immigration detention centers have regarding detainees with hyperglycemia or hypoglycemia, whether those protocols are being followed with Sarsour, and what protocols exist for providing detainees with reasonable religious accommodations. 

“Our nation’s founders realized that democracy cannot exist in a nation with a government that restricts or limits the speech and expression of its people,” they wrote. “The Constitution protects an individual’s right to express their political views and have their voice heard. We condemn any attempts by this Administration to use the power of the United States government to unfairly target and punish people for simply disagreeing with it.”

Members of Congress, including U.S. Reps. Gwen Moore, Mark Pocan, Greg Cesar of Texas, and Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, have also called for Sarsour’s release, joining a list of supporters   including Gov. Tony Evers, Milwaukee elected leaders, former elected officials  and numerous local activist and advocacy groups. 

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It’s been over six years since Tracy Cole learned that her 17-year-old son Alvin had become the third person killed by Joseph Mensah, at that time a Wauwatosa police officer. Alvin’s death in February 2020 was followed a few months later by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis officers, fueling months of protests and clashes with the Wauwatosa Police Department, followed by years of litigation in court. 

The Cole family is finalizing a confidential settlement over Alvin’s killing, and his mother has been reflecting on her personal journey to find solace amidst grief. The settlement, coming after two hung juries and as a third trial neared, will not come out of Mensah’s pocket despite what his attorneys implied during the trials, the Cole family’s lawyers told the Wisconsin Examiner. 

“We haven’t had time to grieve yet but it’s coming along,” Tracy Cole told the Examiner in an exclusive interview. The settlement, she said, brings some “closure to my family.” 

Alvin Cole was killed in February 2020 after a foot chase at Wauwatosa’s Mayfair Mall. The teen and his friends left the mall after being involved in a noisy quarrel, during which witnesses told police that a handgun had been displayed. The group ran as officers intercepted them outside the mall, with Mensah arriving in an unmarked squad car without first announcing his presence on the police radio. 

As Cole ran away from officers and mall security a single gunshot rang out and Cole fell to the ground, having shot himself in the forearm. Mensah shot at Cole five times shortly thereafter, while Cole was on his hands and knees listening to officers yell contradictory commands,  “Drop the gun” and “Don’t move!” 

Mensah told police investigators that Cole pointed a gun at him while he was on the ground. Further testimony gathered by the Cole family’s attorney’s, however, found that a security guard and Wauwatosa officer who were closest to Cole when he was shot asserted that neither the teen nor the gun had moved at all before Mensah fired. The only Wauwatosa officer who also said that Cole pointed a gun — Evan Olson — contradicted Mensah by saying that the gun had been pointed in a completely different direction, towards Olson and away from Mensah. 

The contradictions led to a federal civil lawsuit over Cole’s death that went to trial twice. Testimony at those trials revealed that Mensah and Olson were good friends on and off the job and had violated protocols requiring officers to be separated after a shooting. They got into a squad car alone together and turned off their dash cameras and audio equipment before driving back to the police department. According to trial testimony, they did not share those facts with police investigators. Both trials ended in hung juries, leaving jurors unable to decide unanimously whether Mensah’s killing of Alvin Cole was excessive. 

Tracy said that she still remembers those trials, and what it was like to see Mensah for the first time. 

“It’s like I could finally see a person instead of a name,” she said. “It never changed anything of how I feel about him.” 

She also recalled other officers taking the stand as she sat with her husband and remaining children “listening to the different testimonies, just listening to the videos.” Images of Alvin’s body were also briefly shown, something that Tracy said “I’ll never forget.”

The two trials were tense at times, as attorneys battled over what evidence could be shown or attempted to discredit each other’s witnesses while bolstering their own.  At various points, U.S. Marshals stood sentry or increased their presence, which confused both the Cole family’s attorneys and U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman. Several Wauwatosa officers also arrived to watch the proceedings in the gallery, dressed in full uniform, sitting around Mensah’s wife, who is a disgraced Milwaukee officer, or chatting with the pair in the hallways. The Cole’s attorneys argued that the presence of fully uniformed Wauwatosa officers could influence the jury, and that the officers were expressing a sort of solidarity with Mensah, which the Cole family was prohibited from doing for Alvin. 

Nevertheless, the two hung juries were encouraging for Alvin’s mother. “It was somebody in the jury [who] basically believed that my son was never a threat,” said Tracy. “It was somebody listening.” 

Although Alvin’s father was allowed to testify freely in the first trial, Tracy was not allowed to testify. The effort to keep her testimony out of the court record stuck out to Tracy and her attorneys, especially after her testimony was limited during a separate trial in 2023, when Wauwatosa PD stood accused of spying on and surveilling the Cole family and protesters who supported them in 2020. 

“I would basically had said how my son was,” she told the Examiner. “The events that I had with the Wauwatosa Police Department, what they did to me as a mother, that should never had happened.” 

After the Cole family began protesting in 2020, Wauwatosa PD put them, their attorneys, a Wisconsin Examiner reporter, and dozens of supporters on what they called a “target list” on at least one occasion. The list was shared with numerous local, state, and federal agencies. Wauwatosa officers also violently arrested Tracy and her daughters, one of whom claimed to have been stripped searched at a jail and questioned by the FBI. 

Tracy would have testified to all of this if asked, she said, “but they didn’t want a mother’s testimony,” because it would’ve been emotionally impactful to the jury. “But my husband, he was able to speak on my son’s behalf.” 

Tracy feels that the protests, held for over 400 days after George Floyd’s death, changed Wauwatosa for the better. 

“We changed laws,” she told the  Examiner. Wauwatosa PD adopted body cameras in 2021 after the protests, one of the family’s key demands. The department refused to adopt body cameras previously, even after Mensah killed three people over five years. Two of those were less than a year apart, when Mensah was still a rookie, and all the incidents were troubled by a lack of good video. The Milwaukee County District Attorneys Office declined to charge Mensah with any of the killings. The first jury in the Cole family’s case stated that a lack of good video was a main reason they couldn’t agree on a verdict. 

No other fatal police shootings occurred in Wauwatosa during Mensah’s time at the department, and the Cole family’s attorneys say that they’re unable to find other examples of fatal police shootings in Wauwatosa besides Mensah’s, no matter how far back they look.

The protesters also pushed for a ban on no knock warrants, and for Mensah and longtime Police Chief Barry Weber to be removed. Mensah resigned in late 2020 followed by Weber, who retired after leading the department for over 30 years as local media covered how Weber’s department had targeted anyone who was seen as anti-police. 

Finding forgiveness 

Memories of those days are still with Tracy, regardless of how much Wauwatosa officials claim their community has moved on. Fighting back was something she had to do, she said, even though it took a lot out of her. She also needed to learn to forgive Mensah, she said. 

“At the end of the day, I had to learn to forgive him, for what he did to my son,” she told the Examiner. “It took a process to learn to forgive him. I can’t hold a grudge, because that would take a whole part of me. I had to learn to forgive him.” Mensah left law enforcement in 2025 after a stint at the Waukesha County Sheriffs Office, following his time at Wauwatosa PD.

Alvin’s death was tragic and painful for the Cole family, yet it also brought them together.

“It made us stronger, it made us united as one,” said Tracy Cole. She’s had to learn again how to trust law enforcement after her experience with not just Mensah, but with Wauwatosa PD and the suburb as a whole. 

Yet, her experience of being surveilled remains with their family. Tracy watches her every move now. “I never had to, but now I’m very particular where I go, who I be around, who I talk to.”

Since Alvin’s death, more families have been touched by police-related violence and killings in Milwaukee County. 

“I would tell people that’s going through what I went through to never give up,” said Tracy. “Never give up. …the Devil wanted me to give up but I didn’t. Don’t give up. Keep fighting for your child.”

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To understand psychedelics — those powerful and cryptic agents of the mind — scientists are exploring uncharted landscapes. “We don’t yet really know why psilocybin or other psychedelic drugs seem to have the effects that they do,” Professor Paul Hutson, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Transdisciplinary Center for Research in Psychoactive Substances, told the Wisconsin Examiner. “We don’t know to what extent the magnitude or the type of psychedelic experience, altered state of consciousness, is required to maximize benefit.”

UW-Madison researchers are actively pursuing answers to those questions as they study the effects of psilocybin (the active component of many psychedelic mushrooms) on depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and various addictions, and by seeing how other psychedelics — like 3, 4 Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) sometimes called Ecstasy or Molly — stack up in comparison. 

A new executive order signed by President Donald Trump has expedited the review of psychedelics as mental health treatments. The order could open new doors for researchers. Other universities and private companies are exploring the potential of other psychedelics including Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD), derived from the ergot fungus, and 5-MeO-DMT, which is produced by plants and a species of toad. 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has identified certain psychedelics — LSD, Psilocybin, and MDMA — as “breakthrough” substances that can help treat difficult to manage diseases, and has encouraged the development of new treatments. Hutson says a national voucher program is another recent tool used to stimulate the creation of psychedelic medicines. The Usona Institute, a nonprofit in the city of Fitchburg, received one of the vouchers. Another voucher was granted to develop methylone, which is similar to MDMA, to treat PTSD. “It’s a very similar chemical structure, has some similar effects, and it’s done very well in some of the early studies,” said Hutson. 

Hutson said he was surprised when the federal government chose to support methylone over MDMA. 

Yet, Hutson told the Wisconsin Examiner, “it was gratifying to see that they have helped accelerate the evaluation.” He thinks that the new regime will help companies and universities funnel data to the FDA more regularly “as opposed to a package that’s delivered on their doorstep that they then need to go through,” Hutson explained. “So there will be more of a staggered or sequential evaluation of the data as it comes out.”

Until recently, the use of psychedelics had gone underground, after a burst of mainstream optimism about their use in the 1950s and 60s. Researchers and psychologists experimented with the drugs openly, until negative attention led to their prohibition in 1970, five years before the public would also learn about their covert use by the CIA in its infamous and illegal MK-Ultra program.

Building the right treatment programs

As legitimate and ethical treatment programs return today, Hutson feels that one barrier will be finding sites that will be able to provide treatment, “both in terms of the room and also the therapists that the FDA is requiring,” he explained. “Right now, the FDA is requiring two people to be in the room,” he said, both of whom must be college graduates including a primary monitor with a background in psychology, social work, therapy, or counseling at the doctoral or masters-level, and a secondary monitor with a bachelors degree. State-level credentials, and also at least a year of mental health experience for the secondary monitor, are further requirements.

“And if those are the expectations for the people that are sitting in the room for eight hours with these patients that are being dosed, we’re going to have a really hard time addressing the demand that’s going to come when these drugs are approved,” said Hutson. 

“We’re grappling with what kind of training program we might be able to provide, not yet knowing what the FDA is going to require,” he added. He also said that although the FDA would require the primary therapist to be a psychologist or a physician with a mental health background, the federal agency does not require any psychedelic-specific special training.

There’s also the actual space where patients undergo the psychedelic journey to consider. “I think the key for any dosing space is that it be safe and comfortable,” Hutson said. “We’re typically looking for a place that has private bathrooms so you won’t have to go out into the hall. And the different dosing spaces around the country have different levels of extravagance, and ours is one of the nicer in the country. But you can’t afford to spend that kind of money on every dosing. You don’t really need a place as nice as ours.” 

What’s more important, Hutson said, is the care patients receive. “With the psilocybin studies that we are doing and most other scientists are doing, there’s the expectation that the two monitors are there primarily to provide reassurance and if the subject gets anxious, provide reminders that they are in a safe place.” 

Researchers and companies are also beginning to form various camps, creating disagreements over things like the role of psycho-therapy in psychedelic treatment. While some groups argue that psychotherapy needs to follow a protocol — and their treatments rely heavily on that strategy — others have been trying to back away from that model. Hutson pointed to methylone as an example of a psychedelic treatment that doesn’t put an emphasis on psychotherapy. Other companies are using LSD without psychotherapy, arguing that improvements within the patient are brought about by the drug alone. 

This approach allows companies to simplify the treatments and thus the package that would go to the FDA for approval. Meanwhile, Hutson said that donors who once supported research want to switch gears and become investors in psychedelic companies. 

“They want to be putting their money into companies that are now increasingly in the space that they’d like to make some money on it,” explained Hutson. “Which is really disappointing because in our methamphetamine use disorder study, we had enough money to dose three individuals, and those three individuals — adding psilocybin to their therapy — decreased their methamphetamine use by over 90%. So really remarkable. We’re seeing where others are reporting similar results with other substances of abuse such as alcohol, tobacco, cocaine and so on.”  

Research into opioid recovery is ongoing, though Hutson said they’re finding that the impulsive behaviors associated with opioids can be difficult to treat or change. Participants may show up intoxicated and not be able to participate, for example. “So we just have a hard time herding cats,” said Hutson. 

Differences in perspective

The influence of profit motives on psychedelic medicine has also led some to explore ways of using fast-acting psychedelics like 5-MeO-DMT (produced by many plants and at least one species of toad) to treat more patients and make more money. “Perhaps those drugs don’t give the patient time to deal with it or to get over the shock of the experience and to get a therapeutic benefit out of it,” Hutson cautioned. “We don’t know yet. We don’t know if you need the psychedelic experience at all, [or] can you just use the biochemical reaction of the drug to the receptors. Is there something critical to the consciousness effect, not just the psychedelics, you know, the hallucinations?…We’re trying to figure that out.” 

There is also the question of how future patients will pay for care, and whether insurance companies will cover treatments. 

Hutson thinks that once the FDA approves methylone for mental healthcare there will be pressure on insurance companies to cover the costs. Yet, Hutson mused, “anti-depressants are fairly cheap, they’re a lot less expensive than a dose of psilocybin, but psilocybin may have more durable and more impressive results.” 

Getting insurance companies to commit to covering addiction treatment is another hurdle. “I think it’s going to be a tough job to get the insurance companies to cover those off-label prescribing efforts,” Hutson said. Right now, psychedelic treatment can range anywhere from $3,000-$10,000 out of pocket, depending on who’s in the room and what they charge, he added.

There are also people questioning whether the visionary part of the psychedelic experience is even necessary for treatment. One man who participated in UW-Madison’s study using psilocybin to treat opioid addiction described being in the presence of what he called a “god” or “higher power” that manifested as a sort of “energy that was in front of me.” He also called the dosing space the “sacred room in there,” where he took “the medicine.”

Such encounters are common in the world of psychedelic research. Yet so-called “non-psychedelic psychedelics” are being developed that produce no visionary effect at all. Hutson also highlighted a study at UW-Madison where people are given a drug to make them forget their psilocybin visions, and another where people are given psilocybin while they are asleep to test whether you need to be awake to receive a benefit. 

Visionary plant medicines have been used by humankind for millennia. Some users say the spiritual aspect is important to the experience and that therapists and researchers can benefit from personal experience with psychedelics. 

“That is an opinion that many hold that in order to understand what the subject is going through you need to have had that experience,” said Hutson. “And so I disagree with that. You know, my background is in cancer therapy and I don’t feel like I need to take a cancer drug just to know how miserable a lot of them can make people feel. So I can have a sense of what they are likely to experience, and appreciate that and try to deal with that. The other thing, though, is that right now it’s illegal for people to be taking these drugs. So for these therapists to be taking it exposes them to some risk.” 

There are also concerns about therapists imposing their own expectations on patients’ experiences. Questions like “Did you see god in your experience like I did?” could make patients feel they didn’t have the experience they should have had, Hutson cautioned.

Nevertheless, a therapist should also never disregard the reported experience, however incredible, he said. Hutson recalled Bill Richards, a psychologist from Johns Hopkins University, who talked about encountering a monster during a psychedelic journey. “And you don’t run away from the monster, ” said Hutson, recounting what Richards said. “You approach it, and perhaps jump into its mouth and look out through its eyes to see what it sees, which is you. What does the monster see in you? Who’s the monster?” 

Hutson said that therapists and researchers at UW-Madison try to keep an open mind when asking patients to reflect on their experiences. “Reassure, kind of redirect sometimes,” he said. “If there was some kind of intention that was set beforehand, maybe we could return to that.”

Confronting the future

Questions about dosing concern researchers, such as whether boosters are needed, how far apart, and whether there are people or conditions that should not be treated with psychedelics.  While dosing people with schizophrenia isn’t recommended, Hutson said there may be potential benefits from the drugs for people with bipolar disorders, neurological degenerative diseases, end-of-life distress and eating disorders. 

“We haven’t looked at all the possible other chemical effects that these drugs have.  They’re very potent compounds and they have very potent effects on the mind,” Hutson said. “Can we dose these individuals? Is there any benefit to these individuals? Is there any harm to these individuals?”

Hutson worries that it’s too soon for widespread acceptance that psychedelics are safe. While there is not a risk of fatal overdose or addiction for LSD, psilocybin or DMT,  there is the potential for harmful accidents when people are on the drugs. Hutson also mentioned research into Ibogane — a visionary psychedelic used by African tribal cults for ancestor–based ceremonies — which shows that the plant-derived compound could be damaging to the cardiac system. 

The professor is also skeptical of “micro-dosing,”  taking small non-psychoactive amounts of psychedelics in order to improve mood or cognition. He said there’s little evidence to suggest it works better than a placebo, and that it can also be damaging to the heart. Recreational users also cannot determine whether their mushrooms or drugs are contaminated with something, Hutson cautioned. When sold on the black market, drugs like MDMA could be adulterated with fentanyl or other dangerous substances, and something sold as LSD may actually contain risky research chemicals or designer drugs. 

After each psychedelic experience, it’s also crucial for the patient to have  a period of integration or debriefing in order to process their journey and integrate any lessons learned or improved symptoms into their daily life.

“It’s a mind-altering drug,” Hutson said. “And it produces suggestibility and flexibility, and the experiences during the dose may not be as important as the experiences afterward. So if somebody leaves a psychedelic dosing environment and goes into an unsafe or threatening environment, there may actually be harm from that reenforcement that occurs, that negative reenforcement. And so I’m concerned that people will think that these are safe by its FDA approval.”

Caution and trepidation, however, are accompanied by enthusiasm and curiosity in the psychedelic research world. UW-Madison has several ongoing research projects Hutson said have had “remarkable results.” Methylone is being studied for use treating PTSD, and more. “Very active,” Hutson said. “A lot going on.”

This article has been updated with further information about the FDA requirements that the primary and secondary monitors for psychedelic therapy sessions must meet.

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FBI agents have visited the home of Milwaukee County’s elections director, Michelle Hawley, leaving a business card after attempting to contact her, Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson said Wednesday, prompting sharp reactions from county officials. 

Citing an unnamed source, WISN 12 News reported that the FBI was interested in 180,000 absentee ballots cast during the 2020 presidential election that reportedly have not yet been destroyed. 

President Donald Trump lost Wisconsin in 2020 by about 20,000 votes, then unsuccessfully sought in court to overturn the results. 

In a statement Wednesday, Christenson said the county will follow up on the FBI’s attempt to interview Hawley. He defended the 2020 presidential election results in Milwaukee as fair, transparent and accurate. 

”This has been proven repeatedly over the last six years by the post-election canvass, the Presidential Election Recount, State court-based challenge, Federal court-based challenge, the forensic audit by the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau, and two additional independent audits,” said Christenson. “Continuing to relitigate settled questions does not strengthen public confidence in elections but it undermines it.” 

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, reiterating that Trump lost the 2020 election, said that Trump has “crossed a line if he is sending FBI agents to the private residence of Milwaukee County’s elections director.” 

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has previously reported that the FBI recently interviewed Robert Kehoe, deputy administrator for the Wisconsin Elections Commission. 

Local officials “will always cooperate with law enforcement officers and the investigations they are pursuing, but this action raises serious concerns of intimidation,” Crowley said. “Regardless of how this situation evolves, the facts are clear: In 2020, election clerks did their jobs. The election was safe and secure. Donald Trump lost the popular vote in Wisconsin. No amount of fear and intimidation from the Trump Administration will change that truth.”

Trump and his supporters have persisted in denying that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election more than five years ago.

Word of FBI agents visiting election officials in Milwaukee comes after the federal agency seized 2020 ballots in Georgia earlier this year. The British newspaper The Independent reported that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was seen at the raid, and the New York Times reported that Trump called her on the phone during the raid.  Georgia was a focus of Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, when he called Georgia’s secretary of state and falsely claimed he had won the state that year. 

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As former Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan approaches sentencing after being convicted of obstructing federal agents during an immigration arrest last year, attorneys on both sides of the case are battling over whether new precedents around federal statutes should apply to the former Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge. 

The FBI arrested Dugan last year on charges she helped a man who was making a routine appearance in her court evade immigration officers who were waiting for him in the public hallway outside the courtroom. 

Court staff initially noticed the agents and informed Dugan, who approached them and told the agents to go check in with the chief judge. 

While the agents waited to talk to Chief Judge Carl Ashley, Dugan went back to her courtroom and quickly called 30-year-old Mexican-born Eduardo Flores Ruiz and his attorney, set a date for them to come back, and then allowed them to exit the courtroom through a non-public hallway, at the end of which was a door back into the hallway where the agents waited. After going out that door, Flores-Ruiz and his attorney unknowingly rode the elevator down with one of the undercover agents. Flores Ruiz was arrested outside after a brief foot pursuit. 

Dugan was charged with obstructing federal agents and concealing Flores Ruiz. After a trial in December, a federal jury found Dugan guilty of felony obstruction but not guilty of misdemeanor concealment. Dugan’s attorneys highlighted the split verdict and moved for U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman to overturn the conviction. 

In April, Urban Milwaukee reported, Dugan’s legal team filed a motion arguing that a recent U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision changed the precedent governing the legal interpretation of the federal statute under which Dugan was convicted. The decision, in United States v. Hernandez, held that immigration proceedings do not include deportation operations, relevant since Dugan, who resigned shortly after her trial, was convicted of obstructing an immigration “proceeding.” 

Federal prosecutors have countered that the appeals court decision “is neither binding nor persuasive, and it does nothing to call into question this Court’s reasoning.” They argue that the jury instructions crafted by prosecutors and provided to the jury by Judge Adelman over instructions crafted by the defense team were sound. Adelman had previously denied a request from Dugan’s legal team for acquittal and a new trial.

Dugan faces up to five years in prison and $350,000 in fines. Her sentencing is scheduled for June 3. 

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Hundreds of people marched in Milwaukee’s annual May Day protest on a chilly, cloudy Friday, joining thousands of other protests, walk-outs, and economic black-outs taking place nationwide. After first gathering outside of the offices of the immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera on Mitchell Street, a crowd spanning multiple city blocks marched north towards the downtown Federal Building. 

The action aimed to draw attention to the contributions of working class people, including immigrants,  while condemning the policies of the Trump administration, and calling for the release of Wisconsinites who’ve been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

“No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here,” the protesters chanted, marching down the roadway with traffic assistance from both their own volunteers and Milwaukee police officers. 

Marchers were greeted with a performance by a mariachi band playing  music as people cheered and danced. Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, said that those at the protest were joining “over 3,000 actions across the country, and tens of thousands of people in more than 30 cities that are part of a national immigrant-rights network.” 

Backed by the occasional rhythms of parade drums and cheers Neumann-Ortiz declared, “We are May Day strong!” She said that those participating in May Day protests are “leading the way in the movement against authoritarianism, against white nationalism, against ICE gestapo terror.” She praised the immigrant workers who couldn’t be there, as well as the students who participated in the May Day protest. Neumann-Ortiz said that President Donald Trump and his allies “want us to believe that we are powerless, and we know that is a lie.”

People of all ages and ethnic backgrounds came from as far away as Racine and Green Bay to attend the Milwaukee protest. They carried signs calling for the abolition of ICE, an end to the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza and occupation of Palestinian people, rolling back U.S. militarism, taxing billionaires, an end to local police cooperation with ICE, and generally denouncing Trump’s policies and character.

From the stage, speakers also demanded the reunification of immigrant families separated by ICE, investment in human needs, and the establishment of what Neumann-Ortiz called “a dignified immigration system with a path to citizenship for the undocumented,” as well as for recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and people  fleeing danger in their home countries. 

She also called for lawmakers to support granting state driver’s licenses for immigrants and praised members of Congress who withheld funding from  the Department of Homeland Security as they sought accountability and standards for ICE officers. 

 

 

Speakers’ remarks in English were  translated to Spanish for the crowd. 

José Ramirez, president of the Milwaukee Chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, said he is both the  son of immigrants and an immigrant himself. Ramirez and his sister were born in Mexico and came to the U.S. in the early 2000s. Both of his parents worked in the meat packing industry. When he grew older, Ramirez became a first-generation union member, and worked jobs in concrete and demolition. 

Ramirez asked the crowd to look around at the different colors, flags, signs, and people. “I like to believe that everybody here truly believes in the same thing,” despite their differences, Ramirez said. “That women’s rights are human rights. That gay rights are human rights. That workers’ rights and immigrant rights are human rights.” 

Ramirez stressed that the victories working-class people have achieved have not come because of the sympathy of career politicians, whether Democrat or Republican, but from the sacrifice of working-class people.

Kareem Sarsour, the son of Salah Sarsour —  the president of the Milwaukee Islamic Society who was arrested by ICE in late March — also addressed the crowd. While he was born and raised in Milwaukee, Kareem said that his father was an immigrant who’d grown up as a Palestinian boy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Sarsour was a legal permanent resident for over 30 years when ICE officers ambushed him at a property he owned. Sarsour’s family and supporters believe that he was targeted because of his longtime advocacy for Palestinian liberation, and for sharing his experiences while in Israeli custody. Sarsour is being held in an immigration detention facility in Indiana.

Kareem recalled that on March 30, his wife called him at work and told him  that his father “was abducted and nowhere to be found.” Kareem Sarsour said that “no family should get that call.” He said of Salah Sarsour and other people he called “heroes”  “we believe God is with them, and with our unity we’re able to take a stand and say enough is enough! In sha’ Allah — God willing — justice will prevail, our heroes will come back home, Palestine will be free, and our families will be reunited.”

Ingrid Walker Henry, President of the Milwaukee Teacher Education Association (MTEA), said, “ Everywhere we turn, our rights are under attack. Our neighbors are being terrorized by a hostile administration, they are using every trick in the fascist playbook.” Walker Henry called Sarsour a “pillar of our community,” and denounced his detention. “I have three words — and I’m going to want you to repeat them — free Salah now!” 

Walker Henry said that her union members are getting organized “because we know that no one is coming to save us, except us.” MTEA members established school defense teams to protect schools and families this school year, “because no family should have to choose between taking their children to school and risking their family’s safety,” she said. “Across this city, MTEA members are stepping up to protect our children from this administration.” 

Walker Henry said  actions like May Day teach the next generation how to fight back against oppression. “MTEA members will not rest until every student, every public school, and every family has what they need to thrive.”

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The fate of most of the beagles held at Ridglan Farms took a turn Thursday, when animal welfare groups Center for a Humane Economy and Big Dog Ranch Rescue announced they had reached an agreement with the Dane County dog breeder and research facility to buy 1,500 of the beagles. The dogs will be transferred to the groups  for rehabilitation and adoption. Ridglan Farms, which both breeds beagles for testing and maintains its own biomedical research facility, has been embroiled in controversy following multiple recent attempts by animal rights activists to breach the facility and free the beagles held inside. 

“This is a moment to celebrate that 1,500 dogs will soon know only the kindness of the most caring people and will be treated for the rest of their lives like little kings and queens,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Center for a Humane Economy, at a press conference Thursday. “This life-saving project comes as we also charge ahead with our work to wind down the archaic and inhumane era of animal testing and embrace innovative 21st century strategies that do not harm and deliver more palliatives and cures to people.” 

Amy Good of the Dane County Humane Society said during the press conference that the Humane Society will stage 500 of the dogs. At least 50 of the dogs will be up for adoption in Dane County in the coming weeks, Good said. Another 300 dogs will go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Florida and Alabama. A nationwide network of partner organizations will help take in the remaining dogs.

During the press conference, Pacelle said that “Ridglan, to my vantage point, looks like it’s winding down operations.” In order to comply with a deal with prosecutors to avoid penalties for violations of Wisconsin animal cruelty laws, Ridglan is required to discontinue its beagle breeding program by July 1. The deal was established last year, after a judge found that probable cause existed that animal cruelty violations had occurred at Ridglan, and appointed a special prosecutor to oversee the case. 

Animal rights activists have accused Ridglan of housing the beagles under inhumane conditions, and of subjecting them to painful experiments and procedures — including the removal of eyelids — without anesthesia. In March, a group of activists arrived at Ridglan and, using tools, breached its perimeter fence, and managed to enter one of the buildings housing beagles. The group managed to get 22 beagles out of the facility, eight of which were seized by law enforcement and returned to the farm. The activists argued that because Ridglan was in violation of animal cruelty laws, they had a right to rescue the beagles. 

About a month after the first action, a larger group numbering hundreds of people returned to Ridglan Farms but were confronted by law enforcement using rubber bullets and tear gas. Several people were injured and one man lost teeth during a beating by police, activists said. Activists filed a civil lawsuit over the use of force against the Dane County Sheriff’s Office. A lead organizer of the rescue operation, Wayne Hsiung of California, and three others were arrested and charged with felony burglary stemming from  the first break-in. 

While the recent dramatic actions and clashes with police garnered  national media attention, tensions over Ridglan had been brewing for years. 

Shannon Keith, founder and president of the Beagle Freedom Project, said that negotiations to get the 1,500 beagles out of Ridglan and into safe homes had been in the works for a long time. “We have built the infrastructure to not only rescue these dogs, but to give them full lives beyond the laboratory system,” Keith said in a statement Thursday. “Every one of these dogs will be treated as an individual deserving of care, healing, and a home.”

Eilene Ribbens, executive director of the Wisconsin Puppy Mill Project, and Pam McCloud Smith, executive director of the Dane County Humane Society, praised the deal to rehome the dogs. “We are proud to stand with the national organizations to help bring these dogs to safety,” said Ribbens. 

“This effort reflects the strength of collaboration across the animal welfare community,” said McCloud Smith. “Our focus is on ensuring these dogs receive the care, stability, and support they need to begin their new lives.” 

The dogs being taken from Ridglan have never been outdoors or seen grass, the animal welfare groups said. People who adopt the dogs will need to be patient with them and understand that each dog will need time to adjust. 

Pacelle said that the effectiveness of animal testing for human medicine and products is being increasingly questioned in the scientific community, and said that Ridglan’s practices are outdated. Pacelle said that, “the only way that we’re going to solve this problem is if the United States takes the next set of steps to defund grant-making to research institutions and others that are using beagles, and primates, and other animals.” 

On Wednesday, Congressman Mark Pocan added language to an amendment in the House Appropriations Committee markup of the agricultural funding bill for the 2027 fiscal year. The language would require the U.S. Department of Agriculture to review federal licenses of breeders that have lost their equivalent state-level breeding license, and to take action if it becomes clear that they are no longer eligible for a federal license. The amendment was directly inspired by Ridglan, which maintained a relationship with the federal government despite the controversy surrounding its facility, and its violations of state law. 

“If a breeder is turning in their state license due to code violations, the USDA should at least take a look to see if they should be allowed to continue to have this privilege,” said Pocan. “And this situation is so nonpartisan that even Lara Trump and Laura Loomer have spoken out against what’s happening at Ridglan Farms.”

Lead animal rights organizer appears in court

A day before the announcement that 1,500 of the approximately 2,000 beagles housed at Ridglan would be released, Hsiung appeared in Dane County Circuit Court in Madison. “They have threatened these dogs with violence,” said Hsiung, standing outside the courthouse surrounded by supporters and press on Wednesday. “This should’ve been resolved more than 10 years ago.” 

Hsiung and others who were involved in the actions at Ridglan have repeatedly condemned local and state government in Wisconsin for allowing the facility to operate despite years of reported concerns. “It shouldn’t be private citizens who have to step up,” said Hsiung, who claimed that the families involved in Ridglan’s operation are well connected to local politicians. “It makes a big difference that the story is getting out.”

A judge found enough evidence to continue a criminal case against Hsiung during the  preliminary hearing on charges related to the March break-in. He was represented by attorneys Benjamin Carraway and Kristin Schrank. Prosecutor Mattew Moeser sat at the opposite table, calling only a single Dane County Sheriff detective — Leslie Keith —  to the stand as a witness. Court Commissioner Brian Asmus presided over the hearing. 

Keith recalled that early on the morning of March 15, dispatchers began receiving 911 calls both from Ridglan employees saying people were entering the facility, and from the activists themselves calling to report animal abuse. Officers arrived from Mt. Horeb, not far from Blue Mounds where the beagle breeding facility is located, and began questioning people and telling them to stop. Several activists were walking around the facility, carrying beagles or attempting to get into more of the buildings. 

Moeser played body camera footage from the officers, which Carraway objected to, saying that they’d only been given the video a few seconds before the hearing began and hadn’t been able to review it. The court commissioner allowed the video to be played. “I will put you in handcuffs right now,” an officer yelled at some of the activists. “Everbody stop!” Many of the activists were dressed in white biohazard suits. Hsiung was filmed talking to the officers, describing himself as “a lawyer on site” with a “judicial opinion” regarding Ridglan. “Why are you stopping people from seeing what’s happening?” one person yelled in the body camera footage. 

Moeser also played social media videos posted by Hsiung and drone footage showing the activists entering Ridglan. The prosecutor emphasized that the group was breaking into and burglarizing the facility, and ultimately stole more than 20 dogs worth $2,000 each. 

Carraway’s attempts to question Detective Keith were repeatedly interrupted by objections by Moeser, which were sustained by the court commissioner. Carraway wasn’t allowed to ask whether law enforcement were already aware of animal cruelty reports at Ridglan. His mention of the surgical removal of beagles’ eyelids was struck down. Carraway also wasn’t allowed to ask why the activists chose to wear the biohazard suits, as well as other questions. “Any defense is not relevant at a preliminary hearing,” the commissioner told Carraway from the bench.

The hearing ended in a debate about bail conditions which had been set by the same court commissioner. Among other things, Hsiung is prohibited from contacting other co-defendants who were charged in the March break-in. Carraway argued that this was unreasonable because Hsiung intends to represent himself at some point, and would need to be able to communicate with co-defendants as witnesses. 

Hsiung was also banished from all of Dane County, which Carraway said was a First Amendment violation and could be satisfied with a simple banishment from Blue Mounds and Ridglan. Hsiung is an organizer and is regularly involved in protests and demonstrations in Wisconsin and Dane County, Carraway said. The commissioner opted to keep the no-contact for co-defendants, but loosened the banishment from Dane County, conceding that it was overly broad.

This article has been edited to clarify that Congressman Mark Pocan added language to an  amendment to the agricultural funding bill for the 2027 fiscal year. 

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Over six years after 17-year-old Alvin Cole was fatally shot by then-Wauwatosa officer Joseph Mensah, the two sides in a contentious civil case have confirmed that they are close to reaching a confidential settlement deal, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. 

A third jury trial in federal court has been set for early May. Each of the first two trials — both held in 2025 — ended in hung juries, with jurors unable to unanimously decide whether Mensah used excessive force when he shot Cole in February 2020. 

The shooting occurred at Mayfair Mall, after a group of teenagers got into an  argument. One of the teens flashed a handgun and Wauwatosa police officers responded to a call  and encountered the group outside the mall. The teens fled when they saw the police, Cole among them. As Mensah and other officers chased Cole, Cole accidentally shot himself in the arm when the handgun he was carrying went off. Cole fell to the ground as police surrounded him, shouting various commands. 

Mensah told investigators that he shot Cole, believing that Cole was raising or pointing the handgun at him. Other officers’ accounts contradicted Mensah’s.  An officer who was closer to Cole, David Shamsi, said that neither Cole nor the gun moved after Cole was on the ground. Another officer, Evan Olson said that the gun was pointed at him, even though he was in a different position from Mensah. After the shooting, Olson and Mensah — who said that they were friends on and off the job — went off alone together in a squad car, violating policies which state that officers need to be separated after shootings to avoid contaminating statements. 

During the trials, Mensah said that he fired to protect himself and others around him, and that he didn’t want to die. Mensah also testified that he did not remember much of what happened that night. Cole was the third person Mensah had killed on the job during his five years as a Wauwatosa officer. Mensah resigned from the department in 2020 following months of protests over the shooting, and was hired by the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department before he  retired from law enforcement. Jurors  in the case were not allowed to know about Mensah’s two other shootings in 2015 and 2016, less than a year apart.

The terms of the settlement, including the amount awarded to the family, will remain confidential, lawyers said. During the first trial, attorneys representing Cole’s family asked for $22 million, and then $9 million in the second trial.

This article has been edited to correct the settlement figures sought during the first and second trials. 

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Elected leaders and public health officials in Milwaukee gathered at the Marcia P. Coggs Center for Health & Human Services building to announce that opioid overdose deaths in Wisconsin’s most populous county have declined for the fourth straight year in a row. 

According to data provided through the county’s overdose dashboard, there has been a 17.7% decrease in fatal overdoses and a 22.7% decrease in fatal opioid overdoses since 2024. There has been a 42.6% decline since 2022 in all forms of overdose death, with a 54.6% decline in opioid-related overdose deaths specifically.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley praised the use of opioid settlement funds to expand  treatment and harm reduction strategies. The funds originate from lawsuits against the producers and distributors of pain killers that triggered the opioid crisis. The nationwide epidemic of addiction and overdoses is also tied to the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl which began spreading in  the mid-2010s, causing deaths on an unseen scale.

“As we acknowledge the progress we have made, we must also remember those we have lost,” said Crowley. “Their lives matter, and their stories remind us why this work is so critical. I am committed to continuing this work until every person in Milwaukee County has access to the care, support and second chances they deserve.” 

The latest data shows that 387 people in Milwaukee County still lost their lives to an overdose last year. “These are our neighbors, these are our loved ones, these are our family members,” said Crowley, “people who we care about that live in our own communities.” At a press conference Tuesday, Crowley said he has seen family and neighbors struggle with addiction as he grew up. “And I saw firsthand the barriers that they faced when trying to access treatment, but also continue to take those steps towards healing,” said Crowley. “Healing is a lifelong journey. So to me these aren’t just numbers on a dashboard. They’re people, and even one overdose death is one too many.” 

Milwaukee County will receive $111 million over the next 18 years through the opioid settlements. This represents the largest amount recovered by a local government in Wisconsin history, a county press release states. 

“Three years ago, we were losing a life to opioid overdose every 16 hours,” said Chief Health Policy Advisor Dr. Ben Weston, praising the sharp decline in deaths since then.

Weston recalled an April weekend three years ago when there were 16 overdose deaths in Milwaukee County. The scale of the epidemic was “unimaginable” Weston said, and it forced emergency management staff, firefighters, police and community members  to “say enough,” said Weston. 

Over the  last several years Milwaukee County adopted multiple harm reduction strategies. Narcan — the nasal spray used to revive someone from an opioid overdose — has been distributed in vast quantities to emergency responders and average citizens. There are also 27 free-to-use harm reduction vending machines around the county providing narcan, fentanyl testing strips and even gun locks. 

The vending machines were launched through a Department of Health and Human Services program called Harm Reduction MKE. Another program called Pull Up & Pick Up offers residents the opportunity to order free supplies and pick them up at the Coakley Brothers building (400 S. 5th St) on the third Friday every month. Vivent Health Depot has also partnered with Milwaukee County to provide free harm reduction supplies delivered right to people’s homes. 

“We’ve expanded community paramedicine programs and peer support to close the gaps in care and reach people who might never otherwise have entered into the system,” said Weston. “And we’ve partnered with the state using real-time overdose data and predictive learning and modeling to better understand who is at highest risk, and be able to intervene early.” 

Treatment centers have also worked to overcome zoning restrictions and stigma to open in new parts of Milwaukee. Treatment access has also been expanded for people both entering and leaving incarceration, a particularly dangerous time when people are more likely to overdose, Weston said. 

“At the Medical Examiner’s Office, we see firsthand the human toll of this crisis, and while the data shows progress, it also reminds us that this work is far from over,” said Dr. Wieslawa Tlomak, Chief Medical Examiner of Milwaukee County. ”

Tlomak said that it should concern everyone that every third or fourth death in Milwaukee County is due to drug overdose. She noted that usually overdose deaths are caused by multiple drugs. While Narcan can reverse an opioid overdose from fentanyl, there is no equivalent medication to reverse the effects of stimulants like cocaine or meth. “In other words, the landscape of overdose deaths has changed,” said Tlomak. “It is more complex, more unpredictable, and more difficult to treat.”

Tlomak said that of the 387 people who died of fatal drug overdoses last year, 263 involved opioids. 

Jeremey Triblett, Prevention Integration Manager at the Department of Health and Human Services, highlighted the importance of new campaigns in Milwaukee to continue to reduce overdose deaths. One program, dubbed “Better Ways To Cope,” provides residents with strategies to deal with life problems. 

On June 12, recognized as National Harm Reduction Day, the Department of Health and Human Services is inviting residents to participate in the 1,000 Doors Challenge, a neighborhood canvassing project aimed at spreading information and supplies to the people who need it. 

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An ordinance that prohibits local or federal law enforcement officers from wearing face masks, except in dangerously cold weather, passed the Milwaukee Common Council Tuesday. The measure is part of a package the council considered under the heading “ICE Out Milwaukee”. 

CBS 58 reported that there was support for the policy change even from the police union. This comes in response to the recent federal immigration crackdown in Democratic-led cities including Minneapolis and Chicago, where agents dressed in military-style tactical gear and wearing masks made arrests or used force against immigrants, protesters and bystanders. In Minneapolis, two U.S. citizens were killed by federal immigration agents during confrontations. Agents who shot another man in the leg were later found to have lied about the events leading up to the non-fatal shooting. 

The ICE Out Milwaukee package was pushed by a group of Milwaukee alders after these events raised anxieties among area residents. Ald. Alex Brower told the Wisconsin Examiner that after a huge crowd attended a town hall on immigration, he realized Milwaukeeans wanted to see local government do something, anything, to protect residents from immigration enforcement. 

WISN 12 News reported that the vote on the mask ordinance was delayed last month because of City Attorney Evan Goyke’s concerns that it might not be enforceable. But last week, Goyke sent a letter to the council saying it was legal.

“I do want to thank City Attorney Evan Goyke, who he and his team, worked very hard, very diligently. They were committed to getting to yes, in my opinion,” alder JoCasta Zamarripa told WISN-12.

Alds. Brower, Marina Dimitrijevic, Zamarripa and José Perez, who is the common council president, all supported the measure.  

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Fallout from a weekend attempt by animal rights activists to breach the Ridglan Farms Biomedical Research Facility and rescue beagles bred inside continues. On Tuesday, four of the activists were charged in Dane County with felony burglary. Meanwhile, Ridglan Farms has been cited for filling a trench around its facility with manure — an environmental hazard for which it lacked a permit — in an effort to prevent the activists from entering over the weekend.  Calls for an investigation into the farm and  police use of force  against them continue. 

Wayne Hsiung, Aditya Aswani, Michelle Lunsky, and Dean Wyrzykowski were all charged with felony burglary. Hsiung was noted as among the first people arrested within minutes after arriving at the farm. Although the activists had publicly advertised the rescue — which included hundreds of participants — as  planned for Sunday, the activists hit the farm a day early. Images captured on Saturday showed the air thick with tear gas, and witnesses  reported that rubber bullets and pepper balls had been used. Injuries were also reported, including one man who reportedly lost multiple teeth after being beaten by officers. 

The action Saturday was the second one since March, when activists successfully breached fences and doors at Ridglan and carried over 20 dogs away. Some of the dogs were adopted, while others were intercepted by police and returned to Ridglan. Although the activists were  arrested during the April 18 action, the charges against them stem from the first raid in March. 

Thousands of dogs are kept and bred at Ridglan Farms. The facility has been accused of subjecting beagles to cruel and inhumane conditions by enclosing them in gated cages, not allowing them outside or play time, and removing parts of their bodies or subjecting them to experiments without anesthesia. Ridglan has denied some of the allegations.

Last year, a special prosecutor made a deal with the farm to discontinue its beagle breeding operations by July or face penalties. Animal rights activists, elected officials, and others have called for the dogs to be adopted  before that deadline. 

The plight of the Ridglan beagles has gained national attention. During hearings in Washington D.C. last week, Democratic Congressman Mark Pocan asked Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. why the National Institutes for Health continue to provide grants to groups that use Ridglan beagles for experiments, Democracy Now reported. 

Pocan highlighted that Ridglan has had 311 code violations, stating that the institute has policies about beagle testing prohibiting animals from being tortured. “And that’s part of what’s happening with this facility,” said Pocan. “So grants are still, in the last month, going to groups that are getting beagles from Ridglan Farms.” Pocan asked Kennedy to look into grants provided to the facility, adding that if Ridglan doesn’t get rid of the beagles then they’ll likely be euthanized. Kennedy said “I believe you but I have a hard time believing that. I need to look into this…Because we’re trying to end…We’ve done more than any administration in history to end animal testing.”

Following the attempted rescue on Saturday, animal rights activists and community members held vigils near the Ridglan property as well as a rally at the Capitol. Activists and supporters also visited the office of Gov. Tony Evers, calling on him and Attorney General Josh Kaul to shut down the facility. 

Meanwhile, Ridglan was cited for constructing or altering a manure storage facility without a permit, Channel3000 reported. Ahead of the weekend, Ridglan erected barriers around its facility to prevent the activists from entering as they had in March. Reports have also circulated describing masked armed men believed to be security guards discouraging people from being nearby, but Ridglan denied those claims. In a statement to Channel3000, Ridglan denied constructing a manure facility, but said  it took “reasonable measures” to protect the facility “from the announced unlawful invasion.” The facility acknowledged that it dug a trench around Ridglan Farms. The trench was filled with manure. 

Two elected members of the Dane County Board of Supervisors have also said they’re initiating the steps needed to begin an independent investigation into the force used by the Dane County Sheriff on activists and protesters Saturday. Sheriff Kalvin Barrett has said that the actions of his deputies was proportionate and appropriate to the situation they faced Saturday.

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