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A proposed bill aims to address the ongoing shortage in Wisconsin by making it easier for drivers to keep their licenses. 

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An updated report confirms that climate change is impacting the Great Lakes region through warmer and wetter weather, greater fluctuation in lake levels and disappearing fish populations.

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Economist Darrick Hamilton’s work shows publicly funded savings accounts for children could reduce income inequality over time. But he said the $1,000 accounts for babies that Congress approved this month were poorly designed and will benefit the wealthy. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)  

With fertility rates declining in the United States, Republicans backed a policy tucked inside the megabill President Donald Trump signed earlier this month that they say will help save for children’s futures.

The $1,000 investment accounts established by the government have some passing similarities to baby bonds, a concept proposed by economist Darrick Hamilton more than 15 years ago as a way to reduce income inequality.

But Hamilton told States Newsroom the design of these so-called Trump accounts, which hinge on contributions from a child’s relatives instead of the government, will benefit those who come from wealthier families that have more money to chip in.

“They’re subsidizing the transmission of intergenerational wealth for those that already have wealth in the first place,” he said.

Money plays a significant role in deciding whether to grow a family, according to a United Nations Population Fund report on falling fertility rates released in June.

Fifty-three percent of Americans surveyed said the ideal number of children to raise is two, but 38% said financial limitations led them to have fewer children than they initially wanted. Unemployment or job insecurity, housing limitations and lack of sufficient child care options — also financial factors — rounded out the list.

Policies restricting abortion play a role, too. Some young Americans have sought voluntary sterilizations or delayed having children, citing how pregnancy care has been diminished by the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned federal abortion rights.

The U.S. fertility rate reached a historic low: 54.4 births per 1,000 women of reproductive age in 2023, down 3% from the previous year, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The GOP that’s branded itself “pro-family” has voiced concerns about fewer people having children in the United States.

A provision included in the tax break and spending cut bill Trump signed into law on July 4 establishes $1,000 savings accounts for babies born between 2025 and 2028. 

Parents, other relatives and friends can contribute up to $5,000 annually, and employers can add up to $2,500 yearly for an employee’s dependent. The Treasury Department will roll out the accounts, which have several tax rules, next year.

Initially, lawmakers included caveats in the policy that said people could only use half of the money for education, home ownership or entrepreneurship when they turn 18, but the final version Trump signed is less restrictive when the account holder reaches adulthood.

Before the bill passed, conservative and liberal tax experts told States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau that the proposal favors the wealthy and contains so many rules that a 529 savings plan — tax-free accounts that must be used for college expenses — would be a better option for parents saving for their child’s future.

Democrats have pitched their version of these accounts since 2019. The American Opportunity Accounts Act, introduced by New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley, would create savings accounts for babies. The legislation was introduced in recent sessions but never gained momentum.

One key difference: Trump accounts rely on individual contributions, while in Booker and Pressley’s proposal, the federal government would contribute up to $2,000 yearly depending on the family’s income. A child born to a family with low income could have a decent-sized launchpad of cash at age 18.

Booker and Pressley’s initiative would be considered baby bonds, according to Hamilton, a professor at The New School and founder of the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy. 

Hamilton has been writing about how baby bonds could reduce the widening wealth gap since 2010. Since then, several states and cities have enacted baby bonds programs.

He said baby bonds stemmed from “understanding the role of assets in poverty” and studying the work of economists focused on income inequality, the racial wealth gap and how they manifest generationally.

Hamilton’s personal experience shaped his scholarship, too: He grew up in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, where he said he was exposed to networks of wealth and poverty. He learned that economic mobility is not about motivations, attitudes or astuteness, but access.

“Individuals from one set of environments will grow into families that can provide a foundation in terms of capital to allow them to get into an asset like a home, like higher education without debt or some capital to start a business,” Hamilton said. “Other individuals will not have access to those things.”

States Newsroom spoke to Hamilton about state baby bonds programs, the pros and cons of Trump accounts, and how investing in children’s futures is connected to reproductive justice.

The following interview has been edited and condensed.

States Newsroom: Baby bond programs have been piloted in 10 places total, including California, Connecticut, Washington, D.C, and most recently Rhode Island. What aspects of the state policies are working?

Darrick Hamilton: The thing that is percolating is the political momentum, as well as a better understanding of the role of the state as it relates to engaging with families, particularly low-income families, one of investment. Narratives are changing, and resources are being invested in children for which we’ll see the full rewards once the children are of age to receive the accounts.

SN: Is there anything that could be improved in the places where baby bond programs have been piloted so far? For instance, I know the latest D.C. mayoral budget hasn’t necessarily given funding to the baby bonds program there.

DH: Yes, so there are several places for which there’s been legislative movement, but one needs executive movement as well. As exemplified in Washington, D.C., the municipal legislator made clear what their priority was in terms of passing the law, but the mayor has yet to offer the resources to yield the accounts. That’s a problem.

Big shout out to Connecticut, for instance, and in particular, (former) Treasurer (Shawn) Wooden and Treasurer (Erick) Russell for not only ensuring that the legislation passed, but being diligent in both economically and politically generating the funds — politically building up momentum and movement to command it from the executive branch, and then economically having the wherewithal and the astuteness to be able to best find within the state budget how to fund the accounts.

But the big point is at the end of the day, it is the federal government that really has the capacity to fully fund this in the way that it should be funded.

SN: The tax break and spending cut bill approved by Congress earlier this month includes a provision that sets up $1,000 savings accounts for babies born between 2025 and 2028, and lets them use the money, whatever that may end up being, when they turn 18. What’s your take on these so-called Trump accounts?

DH: Well, they co-opted a good idea in both rhetoric and design. The regressive design is essentially tax shelters akin to the 529 college and education savings plans that will lead to further inequities. The problem of wealth inequality in America is largely one of endowment and capital, rather than the behavior of active savings, so they’re going to further facilitate the capacities of those people that have resources in the first place.

The legislation as is doesn’t address the benefit cliff. A $1,000 seed growing over time would render individuals perhaps ineligible for some of the social safety net programs. That’s a regressive design that I don’t know if they even did it intentionally.

The $1,000 seed in and of itself is not bad. However, if you add on the regressive component, that’s going to grow inequality rather than reduce inequality. And a $1,000 seed, even if compounding over time with interest, is not going to be nearly enough to achieve the goal of the program, which is to allow individuals who otherwise would not have access to something like a home and education without debt, or to be able to start a business.

SN: The Democratic-backed American Opportunity Accounts Act would create $1,000 savings accounts the federal government would add money to annually, depending on the family’s income. How would this proposal affect economic inequality?

DH: I’d say two things. One is the progressive design — it will have an impact on reducing inequality. So it facilitates those that will have the least resources to actually have enough to get into an asset that will appreciate over their lives. It facilitates the capability of wealth-building in a progressive way, in an inclusive way, which is the opposite of what the Trump accounts do. The second part is it will have the added benefit of redressing the racial wealth gap, because if we look at the dimension by which Blacks and whites are most disparate, it’s wealth.

SN: Do baby bonds, in your view, have a connection to reproductive justice?

DH: You can’t isolate these so-called Trump accounts from the larger reconciliation bill that passed in the first place. What they’re investing is trivial compared to the ways in which they’re structuring inequality writ large with the tax code for the wealthy. This is a rhetorical distraction that’s aimed at trying to appear populist, especially when they’re cutting Medicaid, SNAP and other investments that go toward low-income individuals. So that’s thing one. We’d be naive to ignore the political context in which this comes up.

The second part is, again, with the larger package that they’re putting forth. This is almost trying to manage the demography, and if they’re not saying it out loud, they certainly are saying it implicitly. With policies aimed at trying to promote additional births, the subtext is which women are they trying to incentivize to have children or not.

In contrast, what baby bonds do is they invest in the fertility decisions of our people. A good way to promote fertility and family formation is to trust the American people, to ensure that there’s resources directed at them in fair and just ways, and allow them to make fertility decisions for themselves. In other words, part of our humanity should be able to reproduce, to be able to form family formations in ways in which we identify. We need a role of government to facilitate these decisions in ways that are just and inclusive.

Nasal Narcan, used to reverse an overdose, stock the inside of Milwaukee County's first harm reduction vending machine. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley is proposing to utilize over $9 million in opioid settlement funds to support seven initiatives aimed at expanding treatment and reducing opioid use disorder. Crowley said in a statement that his administration “continues to deploy opioid settlement dollars across Milwaukee County.” 

“These upstream investments are proving to be effective,” Crowley said, “but we know there’s more work to do in expanding substance use prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery efforts.” 

The Milwaukee County Board Committee on Finance unanimously approved Crowley’s proposal during a meeting Thursday. Next week, the full county board will vote on whether to approve the plan. The projects, proposed for the 2026-28 fiscal years, include providing outreach to older adults with disabilities through door-to-door canvasing and  funding community-based organizations which partner with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Providing more staffing to the medical examiner’s office, funding residential room and board programs for people struggling with addiction and enhancing the county’s publicly available data analysis of the overdose crisis are among the other proposed initiatives. 

“Through these proven initiatives and by working together, we will keep leading the way to change the lives of individuals affected by substance use disorder and reduce the likelihood of overdose-related fatalities in our community — because lives depend on it,” Crowley said in a statement. 

Shakita LaGrant-McClain, executive director of DHHS, said the funding will allow the department to “continue the life-saving work that began with the initial round of opioid settlement funds…We are seeing promising trends and look forward to continuing our prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery work, including ensuring residents have access to harm reduction supplies, targeted community outreach, and collaboration with community partners.”

A publicly available dashboard illustrates the toll the overdose epidemic has taken on Milwaukee County. It provides information on both fatal and non-fatal overdoses, which communities are most impacted, how much anti-overdose Naloxone has been utilized, and more. Across Milwaukee County, over 4,500 people have lost their lives to an overdose between 2016 and 2024. The deaths peaked in 2022, which saw 674 people lose their lives to an overdose. Non-fatal overdoses are even more common; more than 5,400 occurred during 2022. There have been 1,061 non-fatal overdoses so far this year and 124 people have died of an overdose in 2025. 

The data shows that so far this year, 14% of fatal overdoses have been people between 55-59 years old and 11% were  60-64. People aged 35-39 made up 13% of the fatal overdoses this year. The lowest percentages came from young people 15-29 years old, and much older people aged 75-85 years or more. 

Over 18 years, Milwaukee County will receive a total of $111 million in opioid settlement funds. So far, $34 million has been allocated across three cohorts of funded projects focused on breaking cycles of addiction, advancing racial equality and improving community health.

Then-Detective Joseph Mensah testifies before the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety in 2025. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Detective Joseph Mensah, a  Waukesha County Sheriff’s detective who attracted protests and controversy for his involvement in three fatal shootings over a five year period while employed at the Wauwatosa Police Department (WPD) will resign from the Sheriff’s office. Mensah, hired to the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department in 2021, issued a resignation letter on July 17. In a resignation letter, Mensah said he plans to leave the law enforcement profession all together. 

An version of the letter was posted on social media by Jessica McBride, a contributor to the right-wing media outlet Wisconsin Right Now. Mensah’s resignation will be effective on July 31, according to the letter.

A Waukesha County Sheriffs Department spokesperson sent a slightly different version of the letter to Wisconsin Examiner upon request. “After much consideration, I feel it would be in the best interest of the Sheriffs Department, the community, my family, and my own personal well-being, that I transition out of the law enforcement profession,” Mensah wrote in the letter. “Words can not express how grateful I am that you, Sheriff Severson, along with Inspector Gumm, Deputy Inspector, the command staff, and the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department accepted me and brought me into your family when I needed you most. I am beyond grateful and thankful, that I had the opportunity to serve alongside the men and women of this agency. If there is anything I can do to assist with this process, please let me know.”

Mensah was hired by the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department after resigning from WPD in 2020, following months of protests. After he was  hired by WPD in 2015, Mensah was involved in three fatal shootings. In his first year on the job Mensah shot 29-year-old Antonio Gonzales, who was wielding a sword when officers arrived at his home. Less than a year later, Mensah fatally shot 25-year-old Jay Anderson Jr., who was sleeping in his car in a county park. Mensah said that Anderson lunged for a handgun that sat beside him on the front passenger seat. Four years later in early 2020, Mensah killed 17-year-old Alvin Cole, who was fleeing Mayfair Mall with his friends after being involved in a fight, and brandishing a handgun. Mensah said that Cole attempted to shoot him during the chase. 

The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office declined to charge Mensah in any of those shootings, stating that his actions were either justified or privileged. 

Residents and elected officials in Wauwatosa called for criminal charges against Mensah for the three shootings. When the district attorney declined to issue charges in the Cole shooting, protests ensued and a curfew was declared in Wauwatosa with  protesters confronted by militarized law enforcement.

An independent investigation found that Mensah violated department policies when he gave radio interviews in which  he discussed the Cole shooting, which was still under investigation at the time, and gave misleading information about his fatal shootings, according to the report, authored by attorney Steven Biskupic. 

Mensah’s three shootings in Wauwatosa also became the subject of several lawsuits. In 2021, a John Doe hearing was called to review the Anderson shooting, after which a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge ruled that probable cause existed to charge Mensah with a crime. Special prosecutors appointed to the case, however, declined to pursue charges. 

In 2025, Mensah testified before state legislative committees to advocate for prohibitions against the use of the John Doe law to review fatal shootings by police. Mensah told Wisconsin Examiner that he’d sought a promotion to lieutenant while at the sheriff’s department, but was unsuccessful. 

Another federal civil lawsuit involving the Cole shooting was brought to trial, and a judge found that Mensah and other officers provided contradictory statements. Wisconsin Examiner also found that Mensah and other officers violated policies related to police shooting investigations in the Milwaukee area. The Cole trial in 2025 ended in a hung jury, with a retrial scheduled for early September. 

In a statement to Wisconsin Examiner, a spokesperson for the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department said that agency staff “support Detective Mensah and wish him the best.” 

Attorney Kimberley Motley, who has represented the families of those killed by Mensah and the protesters who supported them, said in a statement to Wisconsin Examiner that the Cole family “is looking forward to the trial that is set in September against Joseph Mensah. Both the Alvin Cole and Jay Anderson family continue to focus on fighting for justice on behalf of their loved ones.”

Northern Wisconsin is home to Lake Superior, to beautiful streams and wetlands, to thousands of acres os mesic forests--and to a 72-year-old oil pipeline called Line 5. Now the foreign oil company, Enbridge, that owns and operates the line is pushing to blast and trench its way across northern Wisconsin to build a reroute. Amy gets the latest on legal action to stop it.

Host: Amy Barrilleaux

Guests: Clean Wisconsin attorneys Brett Korte and Evan Feinauer

Resources for You:

Information on Line 5

What Line 5 means for me (video)

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Former Wauwatosa police officer Joseph Mensah, who killed three people in the line of duty before joining the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department, is leaving law enforcement.

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