Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit news organization that uses journalism to make communities strong, informed and connected, is seeking a Pathways to Success Reporter focused on southeast Wisconsin. This reporter will explore what’s needed for residents to build thriving careers in the future economy — and what’s standing in the way. That includes expanding coverage of postsecondary education and workforce training, focusing on how education and economic trends impact people’s lives. The role centers on solution-oriented journalism that serves the public, strengthens community life, and holds those in power accountable.
This Milwaukee-based reporter will join a four-person pathways-focused team that includes an editor, Madison-based statewide reporter and northeast Wisconsin reporter in Green Bay.
You can read our pathways coverage here, and read more about our approach to the beat here and here.
Founded in 2009, Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to producing nonpartisan journalism that makes the communities of Wisconsin strong, informed and connected. We believe that access to local representative news is critical to a healthy democracy and to finding solutions to the most pressing problems of everyday life. Under the Wisconsin Watch umbrella, we have three independent news divisions, a statewide investigative newsroom, a regional collaboration in Northeast Wisconsin called the NEW News Lab, and the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (NNS). All three divisions maintain their unique reporting areas and together are positioned to grow and serve our communities with greater efficiency and impact.
The ideal candidate will have at least 2 years of experience researching, reporting, and writing original published new stories, bring a public service mindset and a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisan journalism ethics, including a commitment to abide by Wisconsin Watch’s ethics policies, and have experience working collaboratively to report stories that explore solutions to challenges residents face.
Click here for a full job description.
Location: The reporter will be based in Milwaukee. They will have space to work in the Milwaukee NNS newsroom (NNS is a division of Wisconsin Watch).
Salary and benefits: The salary range is $45,500-$64,500. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, and higher compensation may be available for someone with advanced skills and/or experience. Wisconsin Watch offers competitive benefits, including generous vacation (five weeks), a retirement fund contribution, paid sick days, paid family and caregiver leave, subsidized medical and dental premiums, vision coverage, and more.
To apply: Please submit a PDF of your resume, work samples and answer some brief questions in this application form. If you’d like to chat about the job before applying, contact Northeast Wisconsin/Pathways Editor Jennifer Zettel-Vandenhouten at jzvandenhouten@wisconsinwatch.org.
Deadline: Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Apply by Jan. 9, 2026 for best consideration.
Wisconsin Watch is dedicated to improving our newsroom by better reflecting the people we cover. We are committed to fostering an equitable workplace that reflects, understands, and listens to the people we serve. We are an equal-opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, or any other status protected under applicable law.
Wisconsin Watch seeks pathways to success reporter in southeast Wisconsin is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Wisconsin Watch published 83 original fact briefs this year. Fact briefs are 150-word answers to yes/no questions based on surprising or dubious statements made by politicians or other information influencers.
We tend to focus on statements made by Wisconsin politicians, though their statements can range from local to national issues. Many of those are based on statements made about what’s in the news. They’re timely, relevant and easy to digest.
Other fact briefs shed light on topics that remain relevant weeks, months or years after the initial statement was made. Here’s a look at some of those from 2025.
Do unauthorized immigrants have constitutional rights? Yes. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that all people in the U.S. have constitutional protections, though citizens have additional rights, such as voting.
Is violent crime in the U.S. higher than 25 years ago? No. Violent crime rates, nationally and in major cities, are lower than they were 25 years ago.
Are airline flights the safest mode of transportation in the U.S.? Yes. Federal data show that airline flights are safer than other major transportation modes in the U.S.
Are National Guard troops generally trained in law enforcement? No. National Guard troops, like those President Donald Trump has used to crack down on big-city crime, generally are not trained in law enforcement.
Do tens of millions of unauthorized immigrants receive federal health benefits? No. Unauthorized immigrants are not eligible to enroll in federally funded health coverage.
Is there evidence linking marijuana use to psychosis? Yes. Peer-reviewed research has found links between marijuana use and psychosis — the loss of contact with reality, experienced as delusions or hallucinations.
Does Medicare Advantage cost more than traditional Medicare? Yes. The federal Medicare program spends more per beneficiary for a person on Medicare Advantage than if the person were on traditional Medicare. The difference is projected at 20% higher, or $84 billion, in 2025.
Do recent studies link water fluoridation with less dental decay in children? Yes. Peer-reviewed studies published in the past several years connect water fluoridation with less dental decay in children.
Are homosexual acts criminalized in 65 countries? Yes. Homosexual acts are illegal in 65 countries, including seven that impose the death penalty.
Is there a U.S. law that bans the Communist Party? Yes. The Communist Control Act of 1954 bans the Communist Party. It remains part of the U.S. Code, but has rarely been enforced, and Congress has repealed most of its provisions.
Are interstate truckers required to read and speak English? Yes. Interstate truckers in the U.S. are required to read and speak English under guidance by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Does the typical public housing tenant in the U.S. stay in public housing 12 years? No. The median stay in public housing in the U.S. is four years, a 2024 study of U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department data found. Median means half the tenants in public housing projects stayed more than four years, and half stayed less.
Is the majority of federal government spending mandatory? Yes. About 60% of federal spending is mandatory — appropriations are automatic. About 27% is discretionary spending, and about 13% pays federal debt interest.
Have Wisconsin electricity price increases exceeded the Midwest average for 20 years? Yes. Wisconsin electricity rates — for residential, industrial and commercial users — have exceeded regional averages annually for 20 years.
Can Wisconsin require state jobs go only to Americans? No. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that states cannot restrict public employment to citizens. Both public and private employers are generally barred by federal law from treating people differently based on national origin or ethnicity.
Does Wisconsin require daily exercise for K-12 students? No. Wisconsin doesn’t require daily exercise for students, though there are non-daily requirements for physical education.
Has biennial state funding for the Wisconsin DNR dropped by $100 million over 30 years?Yes. State funding of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has been reduced by more than $100 million per biennium (two-year budget periods) in the past 30 years, though a key factor is smaller debt payments.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
A look back at the Wisconsin Watch fact briefs from 2025 with lasting value is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
A row of footprints followed John and Terri Cooper, both 70, as they carefully navigated an icy road near Sheboygan, Wisconsin. They stopped at a row of concrete slabs.
“This is our house,” John said, waving at the first snow-covered block.
“It’s pretty big,” Terri added while standing on the foundation.
As they do every Sunday, the Coopers had driven around 20 miles from their independent living community to the construction site of their soon-to-be home. John flies a drone over the neighborhood taking shape around it, which will include a grocery store, a spa and a gym. He photographs progress on the 45-acre development designed specifically for people like Terri, who has Alzheimer’s disease.
The couple has moved a lot during their 50-year marriage. But this summer’s move will be different from all the others.
Dementia Innovations, a nonprofit started in Sheboygan County, is developing what it describes as the first U.S. village where people diagnosed with dementia will live and own homes. It’s similar to a European model that encourages people with memory loss to remain more independent. The Sheboygan County village, Livasu, short for “living as usual,” will allow people with dementia to live alone or with loved ones and continue typical routines from their homes as their disease progresses.
Applauded for years in other countries, experts say the village care model is difficult to replicate in the U.S. Livasu’s founders hope the estimated $14 million village will show it can work in Wisconsin and other states.
To limit costs, the village is using manufactured homes, a more affordable alternative to site-built options. People will buy their home and set hours of caregiving, depending on their level of need.
Unlike a traditional risk-averse memory care facility with locked doors, homeowners will be free to travel throughout the village with support from staff.
“We all take risks every day, but as we age, and especially as we age with dementia, there’s a safety-at-all-cost approach,” said Livasu’s project lead, Mary Pitsch. “That cost is actually a loss of personhood.”
Rather than a fence surrounding the village or automatically locking doors, landscaping will direct people from their home toward the community’s “downtown.” People living in the village’s 124 houses will have access to a lodge with support staff and a place to eat meals with neighbors and to watch the Packers, Pitsch said.
The village will eventually feature a public grocery store and a restaurant.
“We are changing the way we are thinking about care and support,” Pitsch said.
The Coopers met in college.
“I picked Terri out almost immediately. It took me some months to convince her that I was the right guy,” John joked.
“Thankfully,” Terri chimed in with a laugh.
As the couple raised two daughters, John worked different technology jobs and photographed sporting events like triathlons on the weekends. Terri was a structural steel detailer.
After watching her mother battle Alzheimer’s, Terri made sure to eat healthy and exercise to prevent herself from getting the same disease. But in 2019, John started noticing changes. Two years later, Terri was officially diagnosed.
“I mean right now,” she asked John outside of the Livasu construction site, “I think I’m OK, right?”
“Yeah, you’re great!” he responded emphatically, prompting another round of laughs.
Terri shook her head.
“This is what I live with,” she said.
The couple moved into an independent living center over a year ago after John was diagnosed with two forms of cancer that are now in remission.
“We wanted to be someplace where, if I was gone, Terri could live and have people take care of her,” John said. “That’s still the goal.”
Unlike institutional settings, Livasu will allow them to age in their home together.
The Coopers are excited to again own a home, even if it’s smaller than they’re used to.
First they left their 2,400 square foot home in Neenah for a 1,500 square foot duplex. Their future manufactured home in Livasu measures just 1,140 square feet, John said. But unlike the independent living duplex they rented, they are purchasing this home.
Home prices in Livasu currently range between $95,000 and $175,000 — less than traditional site-built houses.
Like with any manufactured homes, savings come from finding scale in mass production, with factories buying materials in bulk and cutting down material waste through computer design.
The Livasu homes are built off-site, limiting construction time and noise as people move in at different times, Pitsch said. The homes have a title, similar to a car, instead of a traditional deed. That will make transferring the homes between owners easier.
Terri Cooper lived in a mobile home during one year at college, John recalled. But today’s manufactured homes are higher quality, he said.
“They’re actually built pretty nice,” he said.
Every detail is designed for someone aging with dementia, Pitsch explained while walking through a model home placed outside the Livasu construction zone.
More lights in each house help aging eyes. Dark door handles contrast to lightly painted doors. The homes feature safer electric stoves instead of gas.
While homes in most manufactured housing communities — traditionally called “mobile home parks” — have stairs, Livasus will place homes at ground level.
Bedrooms will have a direct line of sight to the toilet, which can help prevent incontinence.
“The shower was a big discussion. Do you have glass doors? Do you have a shower curtain?” Pitsch remembered debating with the other designers.
“Lots of conversations about some things that would seem really simple, were long conversations,” she said, “and we made the best decisions we could.”
Pitsch, a social worker, developed her passion for this work while working with older adults. She has run an at-home care company with her husband for close to 20 years. She learned Sheboygan-area law enforcement often responded to emergencies involving people with dementia.
She and other community members started a task force to evaluate the county’s response to residents with dementia. That prompted changes in the county’s emergency protocols and the creation of Dementia Innovations.
“I’m kind of one of those people that if it’s not me, then who’s going to do it?” Pitsch said.
Pitsch and others started planning a way to better care for people with dementia and to prevent emergency situations in the first place. They learned about Hogeweyk, the world’s first dementia village in the Netherlands.
“We are far behind other countries in a better, humanistic way of providing care for those with dementia,” Pitsch said.
Dementia care in the U.S. tends to prioritize safety above all else, said Emily Roberts, an associate professor at Oklahoma State University who researches the connection between older adults and their physical environment.
Creating environments where people can make choices and take risks can be expensive, especially in a litigious country like the U.S., she said.
Support staff in Livasu will regularly monitor the grounds. Cameras can alert them if someone walks in or out of the village through an unexpected area.
Creating a home-like environment also prevents people from wanting to leave, Roberts said. As the number of people with dementia continues to grow, the country will need more environments that support people with dementia, she said. That’s especially true in aging Wisconsin.
A private room in a nursing home cost $127,750 on average in the U.S., according to the Alzheimer’s Association — more than a smaller home at Livasu. Village residents will pay for care as they need it, similar to at-home care, and potential homeowners discuss their finances with Livasu volunteers, Pitsch said.
Livasu raised more than $8 million dollars for the first phase of construction. It still needs to raise around $6 million more to complete the entire village, but the first houses are already waiting to get placed on foundations.
Pitsch recently watched as a construction crew drove excavators and bulldozers over the giant field where a restaurant, post office, and ice cream shop will eventually go.
“I pinch myself,” Pisch said. “It gets pretty emotional actually, to see that it’s actually happening,”
When the Coopers move in, they don’t expect to need any caretaking. They still make weekly visits to see their grandkids and take weeks-long hiking, camping and cycling excursions.
“Wherever I go, she goes, wherever she goes, I go. Except in the women’s bathroom,” John said, eliciting more laughs from Terri.
“We kind of like each other, so that’s OK.”
As the couple finished checking in on construction of their future community, they carefully walked back to their car — holding hands the entire way.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
‘Living as usual’: A new village in Sheboygan County reimagines life with dementia is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
If Democrats win a majority in one or both chambers of the Legislature in 2026, the party will have more power to govern than any time in more than 15 years.
Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, said she saw a sign of what that future could look like during the state budget-writing process earlier this year. With just a three-seat advantage in the Senate, Republicans needed to work across the aisle to advance the budget, and Senate Democrats had a seat at the negotiating table, Hesselbein said.
For the past 15 years of Republican majorities in the Senate and the Assembly, GOP lawmakers have been able to operate largely without input from legislative Democrats. In 2011, following the Republican midterm surge during President Barack Obama’s presidency, a GOP trifecta in the Legislature and the governor’s office advanced legislation aimed at cementing a permanent majority.
They passed laws such as Act 10, which dismantled Democratic-supporting public sector unions; strict voter ID, which made it harder for students and low-income people to vote; and partisan redistricting, which kept legislative Republicans in power with near super-majorities even after Democrats won all statewide offices in 2018.
After years of being shut out of the legislative process, Senate Democrats won’t operate that way if the party wins control of the chamber next year, Hesselbein said.
“We have an open door policy as Democrats in the state Senate. We will work with anybody with a good idea,” she said. “So we will try to continue to work with Republicans when we can and seek common values to really help people in the state of Wisconsin.”
Newly redrawn legislative maps put into play during last year’s elections, when President Donald Trump won Wisconsin, resulted in 14 flipped legislative seats in favor of Democrats. Following those gains in 2024, Senate Democrats need to flip two seats and hold onto Senate District 31, held by Sen. Jeff Smith, D-Brunswick, to win a majority next year.
The party’s campaign committee is eyeing flip opportunities in seats occupied by Republican Sens. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green; Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield; and Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, which are all districts that former Vice President Kamala Harris won in 2024, according to an analysis last year by John Johnson, a Lubar Center Research fellow at Marquette University.
Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, in an email to Wisconsin Watch said a Democratic majority in the chamber “won’t happen.”
With political winds during a midterm year typically favoring the party not in control of the White House, Democrats could see gains in the Assembly as well, although there are more challenges than in the Senate. All of the Assembly seats were tested under the new maps last year, but Democrats still made gains during an election year when Trump’s name on ballots boosted Republicans. Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier this month that she is “optimistic” about chances to flip the Assembly, where five seats would give Democrats control of the chamber for the first time since 2010.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos did not respond to questions from Wisconsin Watch about how Republicans might work with Democrats if the party wins a majority next year.
If there is a power shift in the Capitol in 2026, few lawmakers have experienced anything but Republican control of the Legislature. Just 11 of the 132 members across both political parties previously held office at a time when Democrats controlled both legislative chambers.
Some of the longest-serving Democrats said they agree with restoring more bipartisanship in the legislative process if the party gains power in 2026.
“I don’t want to repeat the same mistakes as the Republicans did,” said Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, who was elected to the Assembly in 1984 and the Senate in 2002. “We have to give them an opportunity to work on things.”
Carpenter and Rep. Christine Sinicki, D-Milwaukee, who was elected to the Assembly in 1998, said if the party wins one or both majorities they want to make sure members are prepared for governing responsibilities they’ve never experienced, like leading a committee.
“It’s a lot more work,” Sinicki said of being in the majority. “But it’s very fulfilling work to actually be able to go home at night and say, ‘I did this today.’”
Hesselbein said if Senate Democrats secure power in their chamber next year, members will continue to focus on affordability issues that they’ve proposed during the current session. Some of those bills included providing free meals at breakfast and lunch to students in Wisconsin schools, lowering the cost of prescription drugs and expanding access to the homestead tax credit.
LeMahieu, though, said Democrats have “no credibility” on affordability issues.
“Senate Republicans delivered the second largest income tax cut in state history to put more money in Wisconsin families’ pockets for gas and groceries while Senate Democrats propose sales and income tax hikes to pay for a radical agenda nobody can afford,” he said.
Senate Democrats in the meantime are holding listening sessions across the state and working on a list of future bills to be ready to lead “on day one,” Hesselbein said. “If we are fortunate enough.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Wisconsin Democrats say they won’t act like Republicans if they win a legislative majority in 2026 is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
For the past 13 years, the Salcherts have adopted five children who have terminal prognoses. They hope to give the children love and a comforting home during their illness.
The post ‘The miracle zone’: This Wisconsin family adopts terminally ill children appeared first on WPR.
The Biden-era student loan repayment plan was the most flexible and generous income-driven repayment plan available. On Dec. 9, the U.S. Department of Education announced the SAVE plan is ending.
The post More than 130K Wisconsin borrowers in SAVE student loan program will need a new plan appeared first on WPR.
A broad majority of Wisconsin banking executives believe the state economy is strong, but enthusiasm is down compared to past surveys. That’s according to a new end-of-the-year survey from the […]
The post Broad majority of Wisconsin bank CEOs believe economy is ‘good’ — but none say it’s ‘excellent’ appeared first on WPR.
More than 100 patients received whole blood transfusions before even getting to the hospital in the past year as part of new initiatives in Madison and Milwaukee to help prevent deaths from severe blood loss.
The post First responders in Milwaukee, Madison see success in first year of whole blood transfusion initiative appeared first on WPR.
The COVID-19 pandemic drove Scott Theis and his teenage son Ayden to take a leap and form the band Power Take Off.
The post How father-son relationship and rural roots shaped this Madison-area rock band appeared first on WPR.
Minnesota’s largest power company is backing away from plans to develop a proposed $1 billion gas-fired power plant in northern Wisconsin due to legal challenges and permitting delays.
The post Minnesota utility says it won’t buy from planned $1B power plant in Wisconsin appeared first on WPR.
Sleighs weren’t just for work — they were also a source of joy. Communities gathered together for “sleigh rallies.”
The post Oh what fun it is to ride: A brief history of sleigh travel in Wisconsin appeared first on WPR.
The bill would require any registered sex offender in Wisconsin to wear a GPS ankle monitor unless they can provide a permanent address.
The post Sex offenders who are homeless would have to wear GPS monitors under Republican bill appeared first on WPR.
Similar to European models, a nonprofit-led development — the first in the U.S. — will replace locked memory care with homeownership, choice and community.
The post ‘Living as usual’: A new village in Sheboygan County reimagines life with dementia appeared first on WPR.
Obsolete power plants continue to cost ratepayers. Now, the push to generate
unprecedented amounts of electricity for data centers risks creating another $1 billion in "stranded assets."
The post As energy-hungry data centers loom, Wisconsin ratepayers owe $1B on shuttered power plants appeared first on WPR.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an attorney for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, speaks following a hearing in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Dec. 22, 2025. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
GREENBELT, Md. — U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis will retain an order keeping the wrongly deported El Salvador national Kilmar Abrego Garcia out of federal custody for the rest of the year, the judge said at a Monday hearing.
In the first hearing that Abrego Garcia was present for after his release last week, Xinis pressed U.S. Department of Justice attorneys to say by Friday how they planned to proceed, including whether they would seek a new warrant to arrest Abrego Garcia. Attorneys for Abrego Garcia would then be able to respond to the government next week, with a decision coming in the new year.
Xinis expressed frustration with the Trump administration Monday, as she has throughout the monthslong case that has highlighted the nationwide crackdown on immigration.
She said she would “happily” consider a lawful request from the administration to detain Abrego Garcia under a different section of law than the one she has already rejected. But the government has not given her the assurance that they would pursue a different authority to detain him again.
“But the problem is, you want me to lift the (temporary restraining order) so that we don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said. “Why should I give the respondents the benefit of the doubt in this case? Why should I do that here? Show your work. That’s all.”
DOJ lawyer Ernesto Molina objected to a restriction on the government’s ability to detain Abrego Garcia.
“There’s no period during which an alien cannot be detained under the appropriate circumstances,” he said.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, told reporters following the hearing that Abrego Garcia, who is married to and the father of U.S. citizens, would be with his family for the holidays.
“As of right now, Mr. Abrego Garcia is going to return to his home with his wife and his children and his family members in Maryland,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “And he will be at home through Christmas and New Year.”
Sandoval-Moshenberg also blamed the federal government for keeping Abrego Garcia in the country, rather than allowing him to self-deport to Costa Rica.
Costa Rica has agreed to accept Abrego Garcia, who entered the United States without legal authorization in 2011. The Trump administration has rejected deportation to the Central American country, instead proposing he be removed to several African nations to which he has no relationship.
Abrego Garcia “remains willing” to move to Costa Rica, Sandoval-Moshenberg told Xinis. If not for the government’s actions to pursue criminal charges in Tennessee and to reserve the right for future immigration enforcement in Maryland, Abrego Garcia would now be out of the country, Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
“It’s the government that’s preventing him from doing so,” he said. “He’s literally in a double bind. …. He’s got two ankle bracelets.”
Abrego Garcia after his deportation was imprisoned in a brutal prison in El Salvador and returned to the United States to face criminal charges in Tennessee stemming from a 2022 traffic stop. After he was ordered released from U.S. marshals’ custody by a federal judge, Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained him again at an appointment at the Baltimore, Maryland, ICE field office.
In mid-December, he was released from the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania. He had remained there since September.
An accounting error at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation that erroneously increased the paper value of state infrastructure assets has been corrected, according to the Legislative Audit Bureau. (Getty Images)
An accounting error led the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to erroneously increase the value on paper of the state’s infrastructure assets by nearly $900 million, legislative auditors said in a new analysis.
WisDOT corrected the error after the Legislative Audit Bureau drew it to the attention of the department, and the erroneous information was not included in the state’s 2024-25 fiscal year financial statements.
WisDOT had initially added $896 million to the value of the state’s capital infrastructure assets. It took that step after a previous audit report recommended a change in some of the department’s accounting procedures. In the process, however, WisDOT overlooked other accounting principles and procedures, which if followed would not have led to the error, according to the audit bureau’s report on the Wisconsin’s 2024-25 financial statements
WisDOT officials agreed with the new audit finding and said they would follow through on the audit bureau’s recommendations to update their procedures.
WisDOT was one of two state agencies that the Legislative Audit Bureau spotlighted in the financial statement audit report. The report was released Friday, Dec. 19, and highlighted Monday by the co-chairs of the Legislature’s Joint Audit Committee.
The audit report also said the state Department of Administration hasn’t adequately addressed security concerns relating to the state’s information technology systems that have been raised in previous audits.
“These audit findings have been found for numerous years, with no corrections taken by DOA,” stated a press release from the audit committee’s Republican co-chairs, Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto) and Rep. Robert Wittke (R-Caledonia).
Corrections are underway, however, according to Kathy Blumenfeld, DOA secretary-designee.
In a letter responding to the audit, Blumenfeld wrote that while the audit bureau’s findings were “repeated from previous years,” the department “has in the last year implemented certain corrective actions consistent with the auditors’ recommendations.”
Those changes will require “sustained multiyear execution,” she wrote, given the nature of the audit findings. She also wrote that lawmakers have declined to increase DOA funding for cybersecurity, adding that more state funding “will be imperative to ensure the long-term security needs of the state.”
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Wind turbines generate electricity at the Block Island Wind Farm on July 7, 2022, near Block Island, Rhode Island. The first commercial offshore wind farm in the United States is located in the Atlantic Ocean 3.8 miles from Block Island, Rhode Island. The five-turbine, 30 MW project was developed by Deepwater Wind and began operations in December, 2016. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration said Monday it’s halting leases for five large-scale offshore wind projects under construction along the East Coast due to national security risks.
The Interior Department paused the projects — off the coasts of Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia and New York — due to analysis from reports that have “long found that the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers create radar interference,” which poses a national security risk, according to a department release.
“Today’s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement alongside the announcement.
The Interior Department said “the clutter caused by offshore wind projects obscures legitimate moving targets and generates false targets in the vicinity of the wind projects.”
The department said leases for Vineyard Wind 1, off Massachusetts; Revolution Wind, off Rhode Island and Connecticut; Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind; along with Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind 1, off New York, have been paused “effective immediately.”
The department noted that the pause would give it, the Defense Department and other agencies “time to work with leaseholders and state partners to assess the possibility of mitigating the national security risks posed by these projects.”
The moves are part of the administration’s continued attacks against the renewable energy source, which have spilled into courts. A federal judge found this month that Trump’s January order halting permits for offshore wind projects was unlawful.
The action drew swift backlash from major environmental advocacy groups and Democratic officials.
Ted Kelly, director and lead counsel for U.S. clean energy at Environmental Defense Fund, said in a Monday statement the administration is “again unlawfully blocking clean, affordable energy.”
The administration has “baselessly and unlawfully attacked wind energy with delays, freezes and cancellations, while propping up aging, expensive coal plants that barely work and pollute our air,” Kelly added.
Kate Sinding Daly, senior vice president for law and policy at the Conservation Law Foundation, described the move as a “desperate rerun of the Trump administration’s failed attempt to kill offshore wind — an effort the courts have already rejected.”
She added that many of the projects had already won approvals through “rigorous review” and court challenges.
“Trying again to halt these projects tramples on the rule of law, threatens jobs, and deliberately sabotages a critical industry that strengthens, not weakens, America’s energy security,” she said.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also weighed in, saying in a Monday social media post Trump was “trying AGAIN to kill thousands of good-paying union jobs and raise your electricity bill.”
The New York Democrat said he’s “been fighting Trump’s war against offshore wind — a war that threatens American jobs and American energy” and vowed to continue fighting “to make sure these projects, the thousands of jobs they create, and the energy they provide can continue.”
Lawmakers in Rhode Island were also quick to blast the administration’s effort, which affects the Revolution Wind project off its own coast.
Rep. Seth Magaziner said that “at a time when working people in Rhode Island are struggling with high costs on everything, Trump should not be canceling energy projects that are nearly ready to deliver reliable power to the grid at below-market rates and help lower costs.”
The Rhode Island Democrat rebuked the administration’s claims that Revolution Wind and the other offshore wind projects present national security concerns as “unfounded,” noting that “the Department of Defense thoroughly reviewed and signed off on this project during the permitting and approval process.”
Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said in a statement Monday that Revolution Wind “was long ago thoroughly vetted and fully permitted by the federal government, and that review included any potential national security questions.”
Whitehouse, the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said the move “looks more like the kind of vindictive harassment we have come to expect from the Trump administration than anything legitimate.”
“This is President Donald ‘Stop Work’ Trump trying to keep affordable, clean energy off the grid, without a care about how many working people have to lose their jobs to keep his fossil fuel billionaires happy,” he said.
In a statement Monday, Sen. Jack Reed noted that amid an increase in energy prices, policymakers should be promoting new energy sources.
“Trump’s repeated attacks on offshore wind are holding our nation back, increasing energy bills, and hurting our economy,” the Rhode Island Democrat said.
Chequamegon Family Restaurant, also known as the Ashland Family Restaurant, where two workers were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Monday, Dec. 15. (Photo by Frank Zufall/Wisconsin Examiner)
Federal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested two individuals at the Chequamegon Family Restaurant (also known as the Ashland Family Restaurant) Monday, Dec. 15 in the city of Ashland in far northern Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Superior.
This is the second arrest ICE agents have made in the Ashland/Bayfield area since July when an individual was arrested at Washburn Iron Works in the city of Washburn.
The Ashland City Police Department issued a statement Friday, Dec. 19 saying that ICE and U.S. Border Patrol officers had informed the police department that federal officers had a federal warrant for two individuals at the “Ashland Family Restaurant.”
The police department noted the federal officers had “picked up” one employee in the morning, and then returned after requesting that a city police officer be present because “the restaurant staff was very upset with them the first time they were there.”
A Dec. 15 police dispatch report notes that Officer Mark Campry was requested at 12:04 p.m. to the restaurant.
According to the police statement, when the federal officers returned with the local police officer there was a request to open the doors and a second person was taken into custody.
The police did not say what type of warrant ICE had to make the arrest. ICE has not yet responded to a request for that information.
Alexandra Guevara of Voces de la Frontera, an immigrant workers’ rights organization, says there is an important difference between judicial warrants, signed by judges in cases where individuals are wanted for a crime, and ICE administrative warrants, which lack the same force.
“Nobody should open their doors for an ICE warrant. It’s an illegal instrument,” Guevara said. “When we do our Know Your Rights trainings, it’s the first thing we tell people — you have to be able to get a warrant that is actually signed by a judge, that includes your address, that includes your name, your official name, and you have the ability to get that warrant, send it to a lawyer, send a picture to a lawyer, and ask, ‘Should I open the door or not?’”
Reporters for the Ashland Daily Press said they also were told by an employee of Deltco, a plastics manufacturer, that an employee at the plant was taken in custody by the federal officers Monday. Deltco management did not return calls from the Wisconsin Examiner attempting to verify whether an employee had been arrested.
Voces de la Frontera has identified one of the restaurant employees, a cook, as Luis Davids Coatzeozon Gomes, but has not been able to find out where he is being held.
“One of the things that happens with some of these detentions is that they’re detained and immediately sent somewhere else,” said Guevara, “so they don’t need to report them. And I mean, that creates a lot of confusion, that makes it impossible for their families to find them. It also makes it very difficult for lawyers to represent them, because they need to be in one place to be represented by a lawyer who can have access to them.”
She added, “We know that the ACLU has been dealing with that, talking all over the nation about how difficult it is now to trace where people are being taken because they’re being moved every two to three days, sometimes crossing state borders, like even being sent to places as far as Florida from here. And that makes it very, very difficult to know exactly how many people have been detained because they’re not being reported here.”
Guevara said most ICE detainees in Wisconsin are held, at least temporarily, in the Dodge County Jail. However, nearby Douglas County also has an agreement to hold ICE detainees. The ACLU reported in September that the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office had billed ICE for detaining 111 persons since the beginning of 2025.
State Rep. Angela Stroud, (D-Ashland) questioned why a city police officer accompanied the federal officers making an immigration arrest.
“My view on this is, if there’s probable cause that someone committed a crime, then you know, that’s a reasonable thing for the police to be involved in, because clearly, fighting crime is part of what we want to happen in our communities,” she said.
In answer to a question about the police involvement in the arrest, Ashland City Police Chief Bill Hagstrom sent the Ashland Daily Press a citation from the city’s police manual, 416.6 “Federal Request for Assistance” that states: “requests by federal immigration officials for assistance from this department should be directed to a supervisor. The Department may provide available support services, such as traffic control or peacekeeping efforts.”
Rep. Stroud also expressed concern about taking workers from employers struggling to maintain adequate staffing during a labor shortage in a city of fewer than 8,000 people.
“We have problems finding people to work generally around here,” she said, “and you know, we have an aging population. We have a lot of workforce shortages. What is the big picture goal here, and how does it help our community? How does this help our community? I would like someone to explain that. And I recognize people need to, you know, follow immigration laws, but we’re seeing more and more that even people who do follow the law are being deported. And it’s just irrational. I don’t understand the big picture goal, except maybe to terrorize communities, and that’s, needless to say, is completely unethical.”
She added, “Unfortunately, we’re seeing these large raids and sweeps of people who are working and, you know, sometimes we’re even finding people who are American citizens getting caught up in that. So I recognize that people have a lot of strong feelings on this topic.”
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