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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When adjusted for inflation, Wisconsin's per-pupil spending on public school students continues to fall behind the national average, according to U.S. Census data analyzed by the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
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The event has set new attendance records each year since 2022.
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The Senate passed the funding cut Thursday morning, and the House of Representatives gave its final approval in a 216-213 vote early Friday, sending it to the president's desk.
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Officers resolve the mystery of the missing family heirloom and the police close the investigation; Cecil makes a surprising discovery about Danioni.
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The Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building pictured on Nov. 25, 2024. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration confirmed Friday that it’s releasing funds that support before- and after-school programs as well as summer programs, a portion of the $6.8 billion in withheld funds for K-12 schools that were supposed to be sent out two weeks ago.
The administration has faced bipartisan backlash over its decision to freeze billions of dollars that also go toward migrant education, English-language learning, adult education and literacy programs, among other initiatives. Those other funds apparently remained stalled on Friday, and Democrats, a key Republican appropriator and school leaders called for them to be released as well.
The funds that will be released total $1.3 billion, according to Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and are intended for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative.
The Education Department says the program “supports the creation of community learning centers that provide academic enrichment opportunities during non-school hours for children, particularly students who attend high-poverty and low-performing schools.”
A senior administration official said the programmatic review for 21st Century Community Learning Centers has concluded and funds “will be released to the states.”
“Guardrails have been put in place to ensure these funds are not used in violation of Executive Orders,” the official added.
The announcement came after 10 Republican senators sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought on July 16 urging him to release the $6.8 billion in funds to states.
West Virginia GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who led the letter, said in a statement Friday that “21st Century Community Learning Centers offer important services that many West Virginians rely on.”
“This program supports states in providing quality after-school and summer learning programs for students while enabling their parents to work and contribute to local economies,” said Capito, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who leads the broader Senate Appropriations panel, also signed the July 16 letter, along with: Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, John Boozman of Arkansas, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Jim Justice of West Virginia.
While Collins said in a Friday statement she is glad she and her colleagues were able to work together to “effectively urge the Administration to get these funds released,” she noted that “there is more funding that still needs to be disbursed.”
“I will continue to work to ensure it is delivered swiftly so educators can prepare for the upcoming academic year with certainty and Maine students and families have the resources they need to succeed,” she said.
The Education Department notified states of the freeze just a day before July 1, when these funds are typically sent out as educators plan for the school year, saying the funds were under review.
A slew of congressional Democrats and one independent pushed back on the funding freeze.
Thirty-two senators and 150 House Democrats urged Vought and Education Secretary Linda McMahon in two letters dated July 10 to immediately release the funds they say are being withheld “illegally.”
A coalition of 24 states and the District of Columbia also sued the administration over the withheld funds.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, the top Democrat on the Senate spending panel, called on the Trump administration to release the rest of the frozen funds.
“After we spoke up — and after weeks of needless chaos — the Trump administration is now releasing funding for after school programs while continuing to block billions more in funding for our students, teachers, and schools,” Murray said in a statement Friday.
“Every penny of this funding must flow immediately,” she said. “Whether or not parents know the afterschool program they depend on will exist should not depend on whether Republicans will push back against Trump’s lawlessness — he should simply get the funding out, just as the law requires him to do. I am going to keep pushing until every dollar goes.”
David Schuler, executive director of AASA, The School Superintendents Association, expressed similar concerns in a statement Friday.
“While we’re pleased to see crucial dollars going to afterschool programs which are vital for students across the nation, the bottom line is this: Districts should not be in this impossible position where the Administration is denying funds that had already been appropriated to our public schools, by Congress,” said Schuler, whose organization helps to ensure every child has access to a high quality public education.
“The remaining funds must be released immediately — America’s children are counting on it.”
Minister of Justice and Public Security Héctor Villatoro, right, accompanies Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, center, during a tour of the Terrorist Confinement Center (CECOT) on March 26, 2025 in Tecoluca, El Salvador. (Photo by Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — House Democrats sent a letter Thursday to the heads of Homeland Security and the State Department seeking more information about the financial agreement between the United States and El Salvador to detain more than 200 men at a notorious megaprison.
“Congress has the right and the obligation to conduct oversight over the executive branch and determine what deals our government has struck with a foreign dictator to imprison individuals seized in the United States in an effort to place them beyond the reaches of our court,” according to the letter by California’s Robert Garcia, Maryland’s Jamie Raskin, Mississippi’s Bennie Thompson and New York’s Gregory Meeks.
In March, the Trump administration flew several planes to El Salvador containing 238 men removed either under an 18th-century wartime law, known as the Alien Enemies Act, or because they are immigrants who had final orders of removal and are citizens of El Salvador. The men arrived at the notorious prison known as CECOT.
The letter challenges the Trump administration’s position publicly and in courts that any individuals removed to El Salvador to be detained are no longer in U.S. custody and any court order to facilitate the return of wrongly removed immigrants cannot be fulfilled.
According to court documents filed last week, testimony from Salvadoran officials noted that those individuals removed and detained at CECOT were considered in the jurisdiction of the U.S. government.
“The actions of the state of El Salvador have been limited to the implementation of a bilateral cooperation mechanism with another state, through which it has facilitated the use of the Salvadoran prison infrastructure for the custody of persons detained within the scope of the justice system and law enforcement of that other state,” according to the court document submitted by the American Civil Liberties Union.
That document was submitted in a court case that relates to the Trump administration’s use of the wartime law, and whether or not officials violated a federal judge’s order to return the planes to the U.S. The planes still landed in El Salvador.
“Court filings last week suggest the Administration misled federal judges, Congress, and the American people about the legal status of individuals the U.S. government has spirited away to El Salvador and who are being held in torture prisons like Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT),” the Democrats wrote.
The Democrats addressed the letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, asking to see the agreement between the U.S. and El Salvador to accept non-Salvadoran citizens and information on the men detained at CECOT.
“This document indicates that the Department of Justice has misled federal courts in assertions regarding the agreement with El Salvador,” wrote the Democrats, who sit on House committees on Homeland Security, Foreign Affairs, Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform.
The State Department is paying up to $15 million to house immigrants removed from the U.S. at CECOT, but the agreement has not been made publicly available. Former State Department officials and foreign policy aides have raised concerns that the State Department payments violate a human rights law.
The Leahy Law bars financial assistance to “units of foreign security forces” — which can include military and law enforcement staff in prisons — facing credible allegations of gross human rights violations, such as CECOT.
The State Department has denied any wrongdoing.
The Trump administration has resisted court orders to return wrongfully deported men from CECOT, such as in the high-profile deportation case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and a separate case out of Baltimore, Maryland concerning another wrongly deported man sent to the megaprison. Abrego Garcia detailed how he experienced physical and psychological torture while at CECOT.
Noem visited CECOT earlier this year, and said the prison would be one of the Trump administration’s tools amid its aggressive immigration crackdown.
At the location of the future Moss Universal Park, surrounded by about 50 people, including Democratic lawmakers and community members, Vining focused her remarks on creating a world where everyone can thrive. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
WAUWATOSA — Continuing Senate Democrats’ effort to flip control of the state Senate next year, Rep. Robyn Vining (D-Wauwatosa) announced her campaign late Thursday afternoon for Wisconsin’s 5th Senate District, which is currently represented by Sen. Rob Hutton (R-Brookfield).
At the location of the future Moss Universal Park, surrounded by about 50 people, including Democratic lawmakers and community members, Vining focused her remarks on creating a world where everyone can thrive.
“It’s going to take some construction — just like at this park,” Vining said, referring to the playground, which is designed to be accessible to children with disabilities and open to everyone in the community. “If we want a world that works for everyone, we need a government that works for everyone — not the few and the connected, but for everyone. That is the world I want to fight for. That is the world that we all deserve, and when we flip this seat and when we win the majority, we will work hard to create that world. We will move closer to a government that works for everyone.”
November 2026 will be the first time new, more competitive legislative maps adopted in 2024 will be in effect for the 17 odd-numbered Senate seats up for election. All the seats in the state Assembly and the governor’s office will also be up for election.
“We’re going to have a trifecta,” Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) told reporters. “We’re finally going to be able to get things done for the very first time in a very long time. We’re going to be able to fund K-12 education, higher education, child care and all the priorities that we’ve been fighting for for over a decade.”
Whether Democrats achieve “trifecta” control of both houses of the Legislature and the executive branch of state government hinges in part on a Democrat holding the governor’s seat. Gov. Tony Evers has not yet announced whether he’ll seek a third term in office, but the decision could come any day.
“It’s my understanding that Gov. Evers is going to make up his mind in the next week and a half,” Hesselbein said. “If the governor wants to run again, we’re behind him all the way.”
“It’s either going to be him or it’s going to be someone from the absolutely fabulous bench that we have, so we’re not worried,” Vining said.
The path to the Senate majority, Vining and Hesselbein said, runs through Senate District 5. Republican lawmakers currently hold an 18-15 Senate majority, meaning Democrats need to flip two seats and hold all of their current seats to win the majority for the first time in more than 15 years. Two other competitive seats include Senate District 17, where Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) is up for reelection and Rep. Jenna Jacobson (D-Oregon) announced her candidacy last week, and Senate District 21, where Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) is up for reelection.
Senate District 5 includes portions of Milwaukee County, encompassing West Allis and Wauwatosa, and Waukesha County, including Pewaukee, Brookfield and Elm Grove.
According to data from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, the current 5th Senate District went for former Vice President Kamala Harris by 6 percentage points and Sen. Tammy Baldwin by 5 percentage points. The three Assembly districts that make up the Senate District are split — represented by Vining, Rep. Angelito Tenorio (D-West Allis) and Rep. Adam Neylon (R-Pewaukee).
“We see this as like a 50-51-ish… race where we’re favored ever so slightly,” Vining told reporters. “I mean, that’s the challenge.”
Vining is not the first Democrat in the race. Sarah Harrison, a Brookfield small business owner who ran a failed campaign for the Assembly in 2024, launched her campaign for the seat last month.
The incumbent, Hutton, hasn’t said whether he will run for another term in office.
Hutton was first elected to the seat in 2022. In the Senate, he currently serves as the chair of the Senate Universities and Technical Colleges Committee and vice-chair of the Senate Transportation and Local Government Committee and has introduced legislation related to transgender Wisconsinites, including banning transgender girls from sports teams that align with their gender and allowing for civil action against medical professionals who provide gender affirming care, and some criminal justice bills, including some related to parole revocation and Wisconsin’s John Doe law.
Prior to the Senate, Hutton served in the Assembly from 2012 to 2018 and on the Waukesha County Board of Supervisors from 2005 to 2012.
Vining said of Hutton that constituents are “frustrated because they don’t know where he stands” on many issues, adding that education funding should be one of the top priorities for lawmakers.
“What’s the special ed reimbursement rate that he supports? What is it? He’s not going to tell you. There’s going to be issue after issue where you really don’t know where he stands because he’s not going to tell you. I’m going to tell you, I support a 90% special ed reimbursement [rate], I’m going to tell you where I stand on issues,” Vining said.
Vining has some experience running in competitive races. She flipped Assembly District 14 in 2018, beating out Matt Adamczyk, a former Wisconsin State Treasurer, by slightly more than 130 votes — less than half of 1 percentage point. In her reelection campaign in 2020 with Republicans targeting the seat, Vining beat the Republican candidate by 8 percentage points. In 2024 with new legislative maps in place, Vining ousted one of her Republican colleagues with whom she shared the new district.
“I’ve been the same person in politics the whole time — fighting for families as if they’re my own, fighting for affordable health care. I’m fighting for the things that people care about. People care that you A) listen to them and B) act on it,” Vining said. “I want to continue being the person that hears that you want a 90% special ed reimbursement rate and write the bill to do it and when your EpiPen is too expensive, I’m going to write a bill to try to make that better.”
Showing up to talk to constituents helps win tough districts, Vining said. She has represented about two-thirds of the new Senate district and said she is excited to get out and meet voters in areas she is less familiar with.
“We have events. We talk with people. We listen. We build relationships,” Vining said.
“Democrats want to take the majority, and we can now spend the next 16 months casting vision for what it would mean to Wisconsinites for us to be in the majority,” Vining said. “It’s our job to cast vision so that people can latch onto it.”
Vining’s vision focuses on finding the best way to serve people. She listed a number of issues that would be her priority to work on if she were elected and Democrats won the majority, including boosting education funding, improving child care, finally passing postpartum Medicaid expansion and addressing gun violence. She also said she wants to finally pass some of the bills she has proposed over the years while in the Assembly minority, including mental health related measures and a bill that would mandate universal adult-sized changing stations in restrooms in public buildings and encourage businesses to install them as well to help ensure accessibility for those who need it.
“What we do as representatives is we need to see what we’re missing, and then make sure that we’re talking about those things,” Vining said. In the Assembly, Vining currently serves on the Children and Families Committee, the Health, Aging and Long-Term Care Committee, the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Prevention committee and the Small Business Development Committee.
Constituents brought the issue of universal changing stations to her attention, she says — something that other states across the country, including Alabama, have taken action on. A voter named Sarah and her son Matthew, who is disabled, had trouble going to public events because he would have to be changed on the floor of restrooms, she said.
“Sarah came into my first office hours in February of 2019, right after I was elected, with Matthew [her son]. I met them, then she told me about the problem,” Vining said. “We wrote the legislation. We introduced the legislation and I’ve introduced it every cycle since.”
Vining said she plans to introduce the legislation again next week.
“Getting the majority also means making Wisconsin more accessible,” Vining said.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
The U.S. Capitol on July 2, 2025. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House cleared legislation just after midnight Friday that will cancel $9 billion in previously approved spending for public broadcasting and foreign aid, marking only the second time in more than three decades Congress has approved a presidential rescissions request.
The 216-213 mostly party-line vote sends the bill to President Donald Trump for his signature and notches another legislative victory for the White House, following passage earlier in July of a giant tax and spending cut package. Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mike Turner of Ohio voted against approval along with Democratic lawmakers.
The Senate voted to pass the bill earlier this week after removing the section that would have eliminated hundreds of millions of dollars for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.
South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds also secured a handshake deal with the White House budget director to transfer $9.4 million from an undisclosed account within the Interior Department to Native American radio stations in rural areas.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting will lose $1.1 billion in funding that Congress had previously approved for the fiscal year slated to begin Oct. 1 and for the year after that.
The corporation provides funding for National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting Service and hundreds of local stations throughout the country.
Another $8 billion of foreign aid will be eliminated once Trump signs the legislation.
The White House budget office’s original rescissions request included more than a dozen accounts for reduced spending, including those addressing global health and democracy programs.
The proposal called on lawmakers to cancel $500 million the U.S. Agency for International Development used for “activities related to child and maternal health, HIV/ AIDS, and infectious diseases.”
“This proposal would not reduce treatment but would eliminate programs that are antithetical to American interests and worsen the lives of women and children, like ‘family planning’ and ‘reproductive health,’ LGBTQI+ activities, and ‘equity’ programs,” the request states. “Enacting the rescission would reinstate focus on appropriate health and life spending. This best serves the American taxpayer.”
The final bill includes that spending cut but says the cancellation cannot affect HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, nutrition, or maternal and child health programs. It also says that “does not apply to family planning and reproductive health programs.”
The White House asked to eliminate $83 million from the State Department’s democracy fund, writing that “aligns with the Administration’s efforts to eliminate wasteful USAID foreign assistance programs and focus remaining funds on priorities that advance American interests. This best serves the American taxpayer.”
Lawmakers included that request in the bill, along with nearly all the others, without any caveats or additional guardrails.
Congress last approved a stand-alone rescissions bill in 1992 following a series of requests from President George H.W. Bush, according to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
The first Trump administration sent Congress a rescission request in 2018 that passed the House, but didn’t receive Senate approval.
House debate largely fell along party lines, with Republicans citing disagreements with how the Biden administrations spent congressionally approved funding as the reason to claw back money that would have otherwise been doled out by the Trump administration.
North Carolina Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx said the $9 billion, spread across accounts that have existed for decades, was a prime example of “wasteful spending (that) overtook Washington during the Biden-Harris administration.”
“The American people saw the fiscal ruin that was created by the previous administration,” Foxx said. “That’s why they overwhelmingly chose Republicans to lead the nation and restore fiscal sanity. That restoration is here.”
The federal government spends about $6.8 trillion per year, with $4.1 trillion going to mandatory programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Another $1.8 trillion is spent on discretionary accounts, including for the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Justice, Transportation and State. Nearly $900 billion goes toward net interests payments on the country’s debt.
Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said during floor debate the bill represented the Trump administration “stealing from the American people.”
“This bill will shut down rural television and radio stations, cutting off coverage of local news; eliminating emergency information, like severe weather alerts; jeopardizing access to PBS kids children’s programs, like Sesame Street,” DeLauro said.
The foreign aid spending reduction, she said, “rips life-saving support away from hungry, displaced and sick people in developing countries and conflict zones.”
DeLauro raised concerns that U.S. withdrawal as a source of support for people and nations that are struggling would leave space for non-democratic countries to increase their influence.
“When we retreat from the world, diplomatically and through our assistance to vulnerable people, America will be alone — without allies, in a less stable world, without the support of the international community,” DeLauro said. “And do you know who will come out ahead? China, Russia, Iran.”
Cindy Eastling, Isaiah Eastling, Robert “Bobby” Bintz and David Bintz (from left to right). Photo courtesy of Carla Broadnax of Jarrett Adams Law.
David and Robert Bintz appeared at a hearing of the Wisconsin Claims Board last week, seeking compensation for decades spent behind bars before their release in September for a wrongful conviction.
The brothers’ attorney and the Brown County District Attorney expressed different views on a confession made by David Bintz prior to conviction.
The Bintz brothers spent more than two decades in prison for the murder of Sandra Lison. Robert Bintz is now 69 years old and David is 70, and the brothers have faced health problems and challenges reintegrating into society. In February, Adams’ law firm sent the Examiner their compensation requests, which sought over $2 million for each brother.
“I missed all the simple things in life that makes life beautiful,” Robert Bintz said via a statement read by his lawyer, Jarrett Adams, at the hearing.
In April, the Examiner reported on the Bintz brothers’ return from prison and the gap in support to help exonerees in Wisconsin re-enter society.
“We don’t know if David will still have his housing the next day,” Jarrett Adams, an attorney representing the brothers, said at the hearing. “We don’t know if David will have resources for his medical needs and medication. We don’t know a lot of things…But what we do know is that David is in need right now.”
Wrongly convicted people in Wisconsin can attempt to obtain compensation through the state law, which caps payouts at $25,000 and $5,000 per year of imprisonment. The exception is when the state Legislature approves a higher amount, which is rare. The claims board can recommend that the Legislature issue more compensation.
Wrongly convicted people can also try to obtain a payout through a lawsuit. The Examiner previously reported that Adams said the brothers might not have an opportunity to get compensation if the state does not award it.
“This may be their only shot,” Adams said at the hearing.
The claims board has said that the Wisconsin statute does not provide money to someone who only establishes that their conviction was vacated. The board must find that there is clear and convincing evidence of innocence, not just that a conviction was overturned.
The statute says that the board will decide an amount of compensation for a person if it finds the person is innocent and that they did not contribute to bring about their conviction through their act or failure to act.
Adams argued that the brothers did not contribute to their convictions. He said David had a documented learning disability and was made to sit under questioning for hours until he signed a confession.
Brown County District Attorney David Lasee said he didn’t think it was his role to take a position on whether the Bintz brothers should receive additional funds, but he disagreed with Adams’ portrayal of the confession, saying that concern was considered during the legal process.
“…They were not charged until 12 years after the death of Ms. Lison, and that was based on statements that were made by David,” Lasee said at the hearing. “And there’s a confession from David. There’s also statements that David made to other inmates in prison, which is what prompted the investigators to come back and interview him. So that didn’t happen in a vacuum. And again, I take issue with the notion of the statement being coerced…so the defense attorney for David litigated the motion of whether it was a coercive statement that should be suppressed, and the statement obviously was not suppressed, and we proceeded to trial.”
Lasee was asked about how it was determined that the statement was not coerced. He said it was litigated but he did not recall the specifics of the decision.
The Brown County District Attorney’s Office prosecuted the Bintz brothers with a theory of robbery and murder.
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, when David’s trial began, the prosecution’s theory changed from the way the case had been investigated at the outset.
“It was no longer that Lison had been robbed, raped, and killed,” the registry says. “Now, the prosecution contended that the Bintz brothers went to the bar to rob it because they felt Lison had overcharged them for a case of beer and ended up killing her because she could recognize them.”
The registry says that “by the time David’s trial began in May 2000, DNA testing had excluded both brothers from the semen found in the rape kit. Blood found under Lison’s body was not their blood, according to testing.”
According to the registry, during closing argument in Robert’s trial, the prosecution argued that it was “‘clear that this was not a sexual assault, and whoever the donor of those spermatozoa is, [he] was not involved in this murder.’”
In 2006, the Wisconsin Innocence Project obtained additional DNA testing that confirmed blood found on Lison’s dress came from the same male whose sperm was found in the rape kit, the registry says. A motion for a new trial based on the testing was denied.
The registry also says that police interviewed 32 year-old David Bintz and his brother, as well as a friend, Vincent Andrus.
“David reported that Robert and Andrus had gone to the bar from David’s house during the evening to buy a case of beer,” the registry says. “Lison had sold them four six-packs for $3.50 each. When Robert and Andrus got back to David’s home, David, who was intellectually disabled, became angry because he thought Lison should have charged them for the price of a case, which was cheaper.
“He had called the bar at one point and chewed out Lison. Some would later say he threatened to come over and blow up the tavern.”
The exonerations registry says prisoners testified that David had made various admissions to the crime.
The registry says that when detectives interviewed David, he eventually agreed to a statement admitting he and Robert were involved and that Robert had strangled Lison. David also said he was home at the time of the crime and was not involved.
Lasee said that he would “unequivocally state that based on the evidence that exists right now, I do not believe that the state of Wisconsin would be able to prove their guilt at trial.”
But he said that “we did not stipulate that there was clear and convincing evidence of their innocence, because that’s not what we do. That’s not the standard we operate under.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission expressed alarm Thursday at how much time former Madison Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl spent on vacation while a crisis was erupting in her office: the discovery of 193 missing ballots from the November 2024 election that never got counted.
In its 400-page investigative report, finalized at a meeting by a 5-1 vote, the commission said that Witzel-Behl began her vacation in mid-November, days after the election, “and then had little to do with the supervision of her office until almost a month later.” No staffers took responsibility during the extended absence, the commission chair, Democrat Ann Jacobs, complained before the vote. The missing ballots were not reported to the commission until mid-December.
Records obtained by Votebeat provide some clarity into what Witzel-Behl was doing around the time: baking thousands of cookies and calling on her staff to help deliver them.
Most of that activity began after Dec. 2, when the second batch of uncounted ballots was found.
These records have not been publicly reported and were not included in the investigative report finalized Thursday.
“This is remarkable,” Republican Commissioner Don Millis said when Votebeat showed him some of the findings. “None of the witnesses we deposed disclosed her cookie staycation.”
After approving the report, the commission voted 4-2 to delay action on proposed corrective orders after city and county officials argued that the requirements were overly specific and exceeded state law. The city now has until Aug. 7 to provide a more complete response to the recommendations, and a follow-up meeting has been scheduled for Aug. 15.
Witzel-Behl didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Emails show that Witzel-Behl took time off for all or part of 17 days between Nov. 11 and Dec. 6 and said, according to an event invite, that part of it was for “devoting a staycation to baking.”
Beginning in November, she invited city staff and election officials in Madison to what some staff called a “cookie extravaganza” held on Dec. 7, a Saturday, to help decorate cookies and take some home for their families. She baked “100 different types” of cookies, the invite said.
According to the commission, Witzel-Behl knew about the first batch of ballots on Nov. 12. That was well before the cookie event.
The second batch of uncounted ballots was discovered on Dec. 2 by office staff. Witzel-Behl was out of the office that day and for the rest of that week. She told the commission she learned of the second batch of ballots on Dec. 10. “While on vacation, she did not inquire of her staff whether there were absentee ballots in the bag,” the report reads.
On Dec. 10, she sent an email to three staffers, including Deputy Clerk Jim Verbick, saying she’d reserved three cars for cookie deliveries. “Maybe each of you can make at least one cookie delivery to a library,” she wrote.
She also arranged additional deliveries and rented more cars for later the following week, an email sent Dec. 13 shows. “We still have several packages of cookies, so feel free to pick a few agencies for another delivery,” she suggested to 16 staffers across her office and other city departments the same day.
“I had assumed — obviously erroneously — the clerk was vacationing in some faraway place,” Millis told Votebeat, denouncing Witzel-Behl for not personally managing the discovery of the uncounted ballots.
The clerk’s staff didn’t tell the commission about the missing ballots until Dec. 18. By that point, the state had already certified the election and the missing ballots couldn’t have counted.
Jacobs said before the vote that she was surprised by Witzel-Behl’s “complete lack of action” during the relevant time period. Marge Bostelmann, a Republican appointee on the commission and the former longtime Green Lake County clerk, said that even if she had been on vacation in such a situation as a county clerk, she would have remained accessible if urgent questions arose.
Commissioner Bob Spindell, a Republican, was the lone dissenter on the vote to approve the report, saying he didn’t want Witzel-Behl to be “crucified.”
One person close to the Madison Clerk’s Office, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, told Votebeat that the task of making thousands of cookies and arranging deliveries “became all-consuming” for Witzel-Behl. “You could see how she was not focused on getting through reconciliation or whatever.”
“For some people, baking is calming,” that person continued. “It seemed like she needed a break. But then she worked her ass off (on the cookies). It was a huge operation.”
Between early and mid-December, city employees from a variety of departments thanked Witzel-Behl for her cookies. It’s not clear how many cookies she ultimately made.
On Dec. 16, one person in the city’s transportation department sent a clerk’s office staffer an email asking, “Are these cookies for the entire first floor? The entire building? The entire universe?”
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin’s free newsletter here.
Madison clerk was on a cookie-baking staycation as missing-ballot mess unfolded is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
As she sits on her living room sofa surrounded by a large cutout, framed photos and a houseful of other reminders of her son Javon, Andrea Wilson, 41, can’t help but lose hope that her son’s murder will ever be solved.
“Nobody’s ever going to be held accountable,” she said. “It just feels like no one is going to be held responsible for his murder.”
It’s been nearly a year since she’s heard from Milwaukee homicide detectives and more than 16 months since Javon, 21, was hanging out with a group of friends when someone opened fire on them. They took him to St. Joseph’s hospital, where he died from a gunshot wound to his stomach.
Losing her firstborn is bad enough, she said, but not having justice makes it harder. Wilson is not alone in her struggles. In Milwaukee, hundreds of families share the unenviable bond of having a loved one murdered, with no one held responsible for it.
From 2020 to 2024, 901 homicides occurred in the city of Milwaukee. Over 350 of those murders remain unsolved, based on homicide clearance data provided by the Milwaukee Police Department.
The homicide clearance rate refers to the percentage of cases cleared through arrest or because an arrest is impossible because of certain circumstances such as death, divided by the total number of homicides. Clearance rates also factor in murders solved during a calendar year for incidents that occurred in prior years.
The clearance rate in Milwaukee fluctuated between 50% and 59% from 2020 to 2023. The year Javon was murdered, in 2023, 59% of 172 murders were cleared.
Last year, when homicides dropped in the city by 30%, the clearance rate rose to 78%. Unsurprisingly, the clearance rate was lowest during the peak of the COVID pandemic when the number of homicides exploded in Milwaukee.
Javon was a fast talker and good kid who excelled at wrestling and other sports in school. He was also extremely bright, graduating from West Allis Central High School with a 3.9 GPA. Offered two college scholarships, he chose instead to attend MATC and pursue his dreams of being a rapper and entrepreneur.
The day he got shot began like any other. He went to play basketball, came home to shower, and he let his mother know that he was heading out again.
Then there was a knock at the door, and she learned Javon had been shot and was in the hospital.
As she arrived, she asked about his condition.
All the hospital staff would tell her, she said, is that they were waiting for detectives to arrive.
“I should have realized then that he was already dead,” Wilson said.
Wilson said her son wasn’t the intended victim but got caught up in someone else’s beef.
After he died, she said, she called detectives for two weeks straight, even providing the names of potential suspects.
“It didn’t matter. They called it hearsay,” Wilson said. “I feel like I know who murdered my son.”
MPD stated that it continues to seek suspects in Javon’s homicide.
Janice Gorden, who founded the organization Victims of Milwaukee Violence Burial Fund 10 years ago, said it’s common for mothers to conduct their own investigations in their loved one’s murder.
“Sometimes they have way more information than the detectives do,” she said.
Sadly, she said, many become consumed with trying to solve the murder themselves.
“They drive themselves crazy trying to find answers to who killed their loved one,” she said. “I try to help but I can’t. I just listen to people like that because there’s no helping them. There’s no stopping them.”
Since Javon’s death, Wilson said she’s gone through thousands of emotions, one of them being severe depression. Her mother, who helped raise Javon, her first grandson, is equally devastated. Javon also had a special bond with his little brother Shamus, who’s 8 years old.
Shamus keeps a large cutout of Javon’s high school graduation photo in his bedroom and even grew out his hair to mimic his brother’s dreadlock hairstyle. Wilson said Shamus has struggled with anger issues since his big brother was killed.
“He doesn’t know how to adjust his emotions,” she said. “It’s been a very downward spiral for all of us.”
Like Wilson, Brenda Hines knows the pain of losing a son to gun violence.
Her middle child, Donovan, 23, was shot and killed while driving a car near North 29th Street and West Hampton Avenue in 2017. His case also remains unsolved.
Hines said Donovan was never afraid to travel somewhere new without a plan other than to make it. She said she isn’t sure whether her son was killed in an ongoing dispute over a car or whether it stemmed from a woman.
“I know there were people at the funeral home and at his vigil who knew,” she said.
Hines has worked as a Salvation Army chaplain since 2014, heading to crime scenes to help other families deal with tragic incidents such as murders.
“I never knew it would happen to me,” she said.
Since Donovan’s death, she’s turned her pain into action, opening the Donovan Hines Foundation of Exuberance to honor her son and to help other families by providing mental health, grief counseling and other support.
She also hosts an annual vigil to honor homicide victims in Milwaukee, part of a national series of events. Many of the families she’s met along the way are also waiting for justice for their loved one’s murders.
“It really tears the family apart,” she said. “It’s like an open wound that is still bleeding. The tears flow every day.”
Hines says she can’t tell families she knows exactly how they feel.
“Every situation is different. But, I can tell them I understand,” she said.
James Hutchinson, captain of the Milwaukee Police Department’s Homicide Division, said his team of 33 detectives remains committed to solving a case even as the days grow into years.
“If someone comes in and says we have info on something that happened five years ago, we’ll take that info and follow up,” he said. “From the first two weeks, to a month, or months or years down the line, we’re equally as committed to solving a murder as we were today.”
Many families, such as those of Hines’ and Wilson’s, question whether every stone gets turned in an investigation.
“I don’t know if they did their due diligence,” Wilson said. “I don’t know if they care.”
Hines, who has worked closely with officers during her time as a chaplain, said she respects the challenges police officers face.
“They don’t have enough evidence,” she said.
Still, she can’t help but feel that more could have and should be done.
“I’ve met personally with detectives because they won’t call back,” she said. “It’s a bad process.”
Though it may not be much solace to the hundreds of families in Milwaukee still hoping for justice, Hutchinson said he and the detectives in his unit take each case personally. They know that the victim’s family and friends are devastated by their loved one’s murder.
“It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “Making a death notification is one of the hardest parts of this job.”
Hutchinson said resources in his department were spread thin when murders exploded in the city during the pandemic, which increased the challenge of building a case.
The biggest challenge, though, he said, is that witness cooperation isn’t what it used to be.
“It’s changed for the worse,” Hutchinson said. “There wasn’t a no snitching campaign back then.”
Wilson admits that witnesses to her son’s murder were reluctant to talk to police. She tracked down suspects on her own and offered those names to officers. That wasn’t enough to warrant charges, police told her. She needed her son’s friends to step up.
“At this point y’all should tell what happened,” she told them. “Somebody needs to be held responsible.”
Thomas Hargrove, founder of the Murder Accountability Project, the largest database of unsolved murders in America, said Milwaukee homicide clearance rates are similar to what he saw nationally, especially during the pandemic.
Many cities have struggled to solve murders since then. Part of the challenge is resources.
“When you have enough resources, good things happen. When you don’t, bad things happen,” Hargrove said. “When you have over 200 murders, your system is off.”
He also said it’s also much harder to get a conviction now than it was 20 years ago, which can create friction between the district attorney’s office and local police.
Although police might make an arrest in a homicide case, that doesn’t mean that charges will be filed.
Police, Hutchinson said, only need probable cause to make an arrest. The burden of proof at the district attorney’s office, which files homicide charges, is higher.
“They have to be able to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said. “Many times we will make an arrest for probable cause, but we can’t get to that level.”
What often happens, Hutchinson said, is that officers will bring a case to the DA’s office or discuss what evidence they have and then have a dialogue about whether more is needed to file charges.
While that can bring some frustration, admits Hutchinson, it is better than arresting the wrong person.
“My worst nightmare I would have in the world is to have the wrong person held accountable for a crime,” he said.
Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern acknowledges that the work to hold someone accountable for murder can be burdensome on families seeking justice.
“Obviously there is a significant gap between the evidence needed to make an arrest versus the evidence needed to successfully prosecute a case,” Lovern said.
The reason for caution and continued dialogue with officers in hopes of building a strong case is because there’s no room for error.
“We really have one opportunity with a particular suspect to bring forward charges, and we want to get it right. Not only for the person charged, but the victim’s family and the integrity of the system,” he said.
Regardless, said Hargrove, the more murders that remain unsolved, the worse it is for everyone.
“The more murders you clear, the more murderers you get off the street, the more the murder rate will go down,” he said.
As Hines reflects on the ripple effect her son’s murder has had on her family, she does the only thing she can to maintain hope.
“I have to have the peace of God,” she said. “He has taken care of the situation. I still get angry but I have to let God take control.”
Meanwhile, Wilson, who still talks to Javon’s friends regularly, visits his grave monthly, and she threw him a huge birthday bash in May.
She wonders whether it’s time to put away some of his photos. Among them are large poster boards filled with pictures that were on display during Javon’s funeral.
“I have to admit it is kind of depressing,” she said. “But it makes me feel like he’s still here with me.”
Anyone with any information about murders is asked to contact Milwaukee police at (414) 935-7360. If you wish to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at (414) 224-TIPS (8477).
Hargrove urges families of those whose murders have not been solved to request a formal review under the Homicide Victims’ Families’ Right Act.
It allows for an individual to request federal agencies conduct a review of a homicide case investigation to determine whether it warrants a reinvestigation.
‘Nobody’s ever going to be held accountable’: Families of unsolved murder victims in Milwaukee fight to maintain hope is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
The federal budget bill that passed this month has drawn much attention for polarizing Medicaid work requirements, cuts to food aid and new funding for immigration enforcement. But one item tucked into the lengthy bill has been on bipartisan wish lists for more than a decade.
It allows eligible Americans to use Pell grants, the federal government’s largest grant program for undergraduates, to pay for shorter workforce training courses than what previously qualified.
Such courses could train a range of workers, including welders, truck drivers, emergency medical technicians and cybersecurity analysts, though exactly which programs will be eligible for funding hasn’t been decided.
In Wisconsin, where many such jobs regularly go unfilled, proponents say the grants could set low-income residents on a path to better jobs, while also aiding the employers and the communities that rely on those workers. Meanwhile, a small group of critics say the new program could lead some students down a dead end road of low wages.
Like existing grants, the new Workforce Pell grants are available to students who demonstrate “exceptional financial need.” Funding will vary based on the number of hours or credits of the training, hovering below the maximum annual Pell grant of $7,395, according to Jobs for the Future, a national nonprofit focused on education and workforce issues.
Unlike the existing grants, Workforce Pell is open to people who already have a bachelor’s degree, as well as those without. People who hold graduate or professional degrees are still barred. Students apply by filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
The grants, which can be used for qualifying courses of eight to 14 weeks and are expected to serve 100,000 students a year, are supposed to be available starting in fall 2026. Jobs for the Future calls that timeline “aggressive” and warns that the Department of Education, which the Trump administration has sought to dismantle, may need more time to implement the program. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the administration may follow through with plans to fire nearly 1,400 education department employees, with plans to assign duties to other agencies.
Leaders at the state’s 16 technical colleges have pushed for such a Pell grant expansion for years, said Layla Merrifield, president of the Wisconsin Technical College System.
“It’s a good idea to expand access to workforce credentials and help entry-level employees who are trying to join a career and get themselves into a better place economically,” Merrifield said. “This could be really important for moving folks into careers.”
The funding could allow tech colleges to train more students for in-demand jobs like truck driving, Merrifield said. Wisconsin truck drivers earn a median salary just over $50,000, and Wisconsin employers are projected to hire more than 6,000 of them in each of the next seven years. That puts truck drivers at the top of the state’s “Hot Jobs” list.
But training those drivers is expensive, Merrifield said, so colleges can’t necessarily afford to enroll more students.
“You start to see employers starting their own (commercial driver’s license) programs because there’s such a tremendous need for folks with this credential out in the industry,” Merrifield said.
Roger Stanford saw those challenges during his time as vice president of instruction at Chippewa Valley Technical College, where students had to pay around $5,000 up front for truck driving training, no matter their income.
Thirty-two states directly fund short-term credential programs by supporting students or schools, but Wisconsin isn’t one of them, according to a report by higher education consulting firm HCM Strategists.
Students in some programs can apply for federal student loans, and all students can apply for scholarships if their college offers them.
“When you’re coming out of poverty or you’re a single parent, it’s just impossible to come up with the cash. And so we were really limiting how many people could go into that program,” Stanford said.
Still, some experts worry about using federal aid to fund such programs. A 2016 analysis by the left-leaning think tank New America found two in five adults with a short-term credential didn’t have jobs, and half of those who did earned $30,000 a year or less.
“Obtaining only a short-term certificate is not a likely vehicle towards economic mobility for the average student,” the authors wrote. Earnings were particularly low for Black and Latino adults.
The Workforce Pell legislation requires programs to meet wage and employment benchmarks to qualify, but experts disagree about whether that sufficiently protects students and taxpayers.
A 2011 experiment previews the potential effects of the new grants. In the pilot program, the U.S. Department of Education offered Pell grants for short-term training for students who wouldn’t otherwise qualify and compared their outcomes to those without grants. The study found people who were offered the grants were more likely to enroll in and complete training, but long-term wages and employment rates were similar across the groups.
Chippewa Valley Technical College was part of that pilot. Suddenly, Stanford said, more students started signing up to become truck drivers.
“It makes people go, ‘Oh my gosh, if I can get financial aid for this, I’ll go into truck driving.’ It helps you fill those programs which are all tied to good jobs,” Stanford said.
Today, Stanford is president of Western Technical College in La Crosse. Western Tech doesn’t train truck drivers, but the college predicts a handful of its programs will be eligible for the new grants. That could include training in welding, emergency medical services, auto repair, advanced manufacturing and dental care.
Workforce Pell grants will be especially helpful for adults returning to school while working or taking care of children, Stanford said.
“We probably all know some people that just can’t commit to a two-year program right now … Or they look at a two-year program and say, ‘I’ll take three credits each term.’ That puts them on a trajectory of five or six years, and they never finish,” Stanford said. Data show that students who attend school part-time are less likely to graduate than their full-time counterparts.
“If we can put them on a trajectory to get them a credential in eight or 10 weeks, people can get their life around it,’” Stanford said, like by tapping relatives to watch their kids for a couple months.
“They can say, ‘Wow, this is going to be hard, but I know at the end of it, there’s 24 bucks an hour, and I can do that,’” Stanford said.
Another group that can benefit from access to shorter courses: recently incarcerated people.
“When you’re coming out of jail, you don’t have two years,” Stanford said. “If we could turn around and say, ‘We can take you right from the jail and give you 10 weeks and put you into a job that has life-sustaining wages, that helps (lower) recidivism.”
The new grants will encourage colleges to expand their short-term training opportunities to fill other workforce gaps by parceling longer academic programs into stand-alone “stackable” courses, which would let students earn a credential, get a better job and then decide whether to pursue a technical diploma or associate degree, Stanford said.
That model could work well for most of the building trades, Stanford said. About 15 students finished Western Tech’s yearlong program in building construction and cabinetmaking last year, but local construction companies need about five times that, Stanford said. He estimates a “modularized” approach could prepare 60 to 80 students to start working sooner.
Stanford also sees promise for fields like information technology, where the college could offer stand-alone courses in cybersecurity, programming or networking. The same could apply in machining, auto repair or mechatronics, an automation-related field that combines multiple types of engineering. Colleges could prepare students to start in operator jobs making $40,000 or $50,000 a year, with the potential to double that pay after earning a degree, Stanford said.
“I think in the next decade, you’re going to see probably less emphasis on diplomas and associate degrees and more on direct job credentials and certifications that get people (on the job) quicker, and then pathways to associate degrees,” Stanford said. “This is a really, really big opportunity for us … I think it really will help change the economic mobility of so many people that are struggling.”
The grants could help Wisconsin address some of its most serious labor shortages, including in health care. Rural Wisconsin communities have struggled for years to maintain adequate emergency medical services.
Western Tech trains students to work as emergency medical technicians, providing life-saving care and transporting patients to hospitals. The median EMT salary in Wisconsin is just over $43,000, according to federal data, though many rural departments rely on volunteers.
Western Tech’s EMT program trained more than 100 EMTs last year. The region could use far more.
“Say we offer four sections a year right now. We could easily offer eight, and they would all have work, because there’s just so much demand,” Stanford said.
Sometimes rural fire departments or hospitals wait months for new recruits to start training because the college can’t afford to run a class for just a couple students. Stanford expects the new grants will encourage more students to join the field.
“That’ll help across the whole country,” Stanford said. “EMT (training) is needed everywhere.”
Wisconsin lawmakers have also sought to fill the gap. The budget Gov. Tony Evers signed earlier this month includes $3.5 million to reimburse tech colleges for emergency medical services training.
An earlier version of Trump’s bill would have allowed Workforce Pell grants to be used at unaccredited training providers, stirring fears that unscrupulous entities might take advantage.
Lawmakers removed that provision, leaving existing accreditation requirements in place.
Meanwhile, other headline-grabbing Pell proposals didn’t make the cut. House Republicans previously proposed raising the credits required to receive the maximum award and making students enrolled less than half-time ineligible.
Merrifield, the Wisconsin Technical College System president, was relieved to see those provisions removed from the final bill. She estimates around 7,000 students would have lost all aid and thousands more would have seen their aid amounts cut.
“While Workforce Pell would be helpful on the margins, ending part-time Pell would be tremendously harmful to technical colleges and our students,” Merrifield said.
Natalie Yahr reports on pathways to success in Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus.
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New grants aim to fill workforce gaps, boost low-income workers 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.
States will soon have to pay millions of dollars more for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program under the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The post SNAP will soon cost states millions of dollars more. What does that mean for food access? appeared first on WPR.
“To write about women that are desperate for money is certainly and feel like they’re being pushed out of the place they once were is really interesting.” — Megan Abbott […]
The post Megan Abbott’s ‘El Dorado Drive’ explores a women-led pyramid scheme and the decline of the auto industry. appeared first on WPR.
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