The armed officers claim was made Dec. 19 by school safety advocate Ryan Petty in an interview about a mass shooting Dec. 16 at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin.
Petty’s daughter was killed in the 2018 mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida, school, which did.
Petty said the connection is “proven.” He didn’t cite research to Wisconsin Watch.
Whether arming school resource officers “leads to net harms or benefits … could be addressed with strong scientific research designs or observational studies,” RAND said.
A 2023 University at Albany-RAND study found school resource officers reduce some violence and increase weapon detection, “but do not prevent gun-related incidents.”
A 2021 U.S. DOJ-funded study said “data suggest no association” between armed officers and deterring mass shootings.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Candles, flowers, crosses and plenty of television cameras have accented the Madison cityscape following a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School that wounded six and killed three, including the 15-year-old shooter.
Here’s what it looked like this week as community members gathered to support traumatized families and memorialize lives lost.
University of Wisconsin-Madison students gather at a small vigil at Abundant Life Christian School on the evening of Dec. 16, 2024, in Madison, Wis., just hours after a shooting left three dead at the school. (Julius Shieh for Wisconsin Watch)
(Julius Shieh for Wisconsin Watch)
(Julius Shieh for Wisconsin Watch)
(Julius Shieh for Wisconsin Watch)
Police and first responders lined Buckeye Road as investigations continued.
Abundant Life remains closed to students. The United Way of Dane County has established an Abundant Life Christian School Emergency and Recovery Fund, with all proceeds going to those affected by the shooting, according to the school’s website. Supporters can donate online or text help4ALCS to the number 40403.
(Julius Shieh for Wisconsin Watch)
(Julius Shieh for Wisconsin Watch)
By Tuesday morning, news media vehicles swarmed where parents would have dropped off their children on normal school days. Reporters conducted interviews along Buckeye Road, lining sidewalks and street parking spaces.
(Julius Shieh for Wisconsin Watch)
(Julius Shieh for Wisconsin Watch)
Police tape surrounded the school and neighboring City Church. Flowers and candles lined the sidewalk.
(Julius Shieh for Wisconsin Watch)
On a chilly Tuesday evening, hundreds mourned at a candlelit vigil at the Wisconsin Capitol.
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway speaks at the vigil. (Julius Shieh for Wisconsin Watch)
Joe Gothard, superintendent of the Madison Metropolitan School District, speaks at the vigil. (Julius Shieh for Wisconsin Watch)
Madison Metropolitan School District Superintendent Joe Gothard and Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway called on the community to support those affected.
“That is where our focus is right now — caring for everyone who has been impacted,” Rhodes-Conway said. “Let us be a community that takes care of each other.”
She highlighted resources available through the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Office of School Safety and Office of Crime Victim Services, available 24-7 at 1-800-697-8761 or schoolsafety@doj.state.wi.us.
(Julius Shieh for Wisconsin Watch)
Attendees placed flowers and signed memorial crosses for the victims of a school shooting at Abundant Life Christian School during the vigil. (Julius Shieh for Wisconsin Watch)
Vigil attendees sang and held their hands near their candles, protecting flames from gusts of wind. They wrote messages on crosses representing the dead.
(Julius Shieh for Wisconsin Watch)
(Julius Shieh for Wisconsin Watch)
(Julius Shieh for Wisconsin Watch)
“We will fight for change so this can’t happen again,” read one message.
When the Wisconsin Legislature returns to work in January, Republicans will still be in charge but will have the narrowest majorities since taking control in 2011. That’s giving Democrats, including Gov. Tony Evers, optimism that both sides will be able to work together better than they have since Evers took office six years ago.
Both sides are eyeing the state’s massive budget surplus, which sits at more than $4 billion. What to do with that money will drive debate over the next two-year budget, which will be written in 2025, while questions hang in the air about whether Evers plans to run for a third term in 2026 and how the state will interact with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.
Here is a look at some of the biggest pending issues:
New dynamic in the Legislature
Democrats gained seats in the November election because of redrawn maps ordered by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The Republican majority now sits at 54-45 in the Assembly and 18-15 in the Senate. Democrats have 10 more seats in the Assembly than last session and four more in the Senate and are hopeful about gaining the majority after the 2026 election.
“We have already seen a shift in the Capitol due to the new maps,” Assembly Democratic Minority Leader Greta Neubauer told The Associated Press.
She and other Democrats predict it will lead to more pressure from rank-and-file Republicans in competitive districts to move to the middle and compromise with Democrats.
“Everybody understands, at least at this point, that we need to work together, pull together,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu told the AP. “And it’s important to get some things done.”
Pushing back against Trump
Democrats say they have been talking with Evers and Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul about how Wisconsin can push back against the incoming Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations. But Democrats say they are also looking at other ways the state can fight Trump’s policies on issues like abortion and LGBTQ+ rights.
“We’re worried about a lot of the things that former and future President Trump might do, especially when it comes to deportation and immigration,” Senate Democratic Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein said.
Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he would support Trump’s efforts to deport people who are in the country illegally and commit crimes.
Republicans prioritize cutting taxes. Democrats are open
Republicans passed a $3.5 billion tax cut that Evers gutted to just $175 million with his veto in the last budget. With another large surplus, Republicans say they want to try again.
“People struggling to pay their bills,” LeMahieu said. “We heard that in our local races. And so we want to help help help families out there. We have the money to do it. And that’s going to be our number one priority.”
Both he and Vos said they would like a tax cut of around $2 billion.
Democrats say that they aren’t opposed to cutting taxes, but that they want it to be targeted to helping the middle and lower classes and families.
“We are not interested in tax cuts that primarily benefit rich Wisconsinites or corporations,” Neubauer said. “But we are certainly open to tax cuts that help those who are struggling to make ends meet.”
K-12 education funding
The state superintendent of schools, Jill Underly, proposed spending more than $4 billion on K-12 schools in her budget proposal, which is subject to legislative approval. That’s almost certainly not going to happen, both Republicans and Democrats said.
“We’re not going to spend $4 billion on education, I can guarantee you that right now,” LeMahieu said.
While Democrats say they are prioritizing education funding, “I don’t think we’re going to be able to match that,” Hesselbein said of the $4 billion request.
Universities of Wisconsin
Leaders of the cash-strapped Universities of Wisconsin have asked for $855 million in additional funding in the next budget, nearly an 11% increase. System President Jay Rothman says schools need the money to stave off tuition increases, cover raises, subsidize tuition, and keep two-year branch campuses open in the face of declining enrollment and flat state aid.
Evers has promised to include the request in his budget, but Republican leaders said they would not approve that much, and Democrats also said it was a goal that was unlikely to be met.
LeMahieu and Vos both said UW would not get what it wants.
“We’re going to need to see some substantial change in how they’re doing their programing,” LeMahieu said. “We can’t just keep spending more and more on a system that’s educating less and less people.”
Marijuana, health care and other priorities
Vos said he intends to create a state-level task force to improve government efficiency, similar to what Trump created at the national level dubbed DOGE. He also supports passing a bill that would allow for the processing of absentee ballots the day before Election Day, a measure that’s had bipartisan support in the past but failed to pass.
Democrats say they will continue to push for ways to expand and reduce costs for child care, health care for new mothers and prescription drugs. Both Republicans and Democrats say they want to do more to create affordable housing. The future of the state’s land stewardship program also hangs in in the balance after the state Supreme Court said Republicans were illegally blocking funding of projects.
Democrats also say they hope to revive efforts to legalize medical marijuana, an effort that was backed by some Republicans but that failed to pass last session.
LeMahieu predicted the slimmer Republican majorities will make it more difficult for any marijuana bill to pass because some lawmakers “are dead set against it.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup.This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.
Since early in the pandemic, people with long COVID have faced challenges inapplying for disability benefits, including from their employers, insurance providers and the U.S. Social Security Administration. Applications often take a long time and are denied even for people who clearly have debilitating symptoms, leading to years-long, arduous appeals processes. The same has been true decades prior to 2020 for people with other infection-associated chronic diseases.
To learn more about the disability insurance system, Betsy Ladyzhets spoke to Barbara Comerford, a longtime disability lawyer based in New Jersey who specializes in these cases. Comerford has represented people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome or CFS) for more than 30 years, including high-profile cases like that of journalist Brian Vastag.
Comerford discussed how the process works, her advice for putting together applications and appeals, how long COVID has impacted her practice, and more. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
Barbara Comerford: Should we focus on disability insurance, or do you want to focus on Social Security disability, or both?
Betsy Ladyzhets: Both, because people (with long COVID) are applying for both.
BC: Right. And often, people think they should only apply for one, (but they should apply for both.)
Most of the disability plans that people have are often through their employer. Those plans are known as ERISA plans, referring to Employee Retirement Income Security Act. It was created in the 1970s. … Congress created this regulatory scheme and then immediately created a zillion loopholes that corporations can drive a truck through. Later, ERISA covered all employee benefits in general.
Insurance companies wound up selling policies to corporations saying, “You can get the best people if you offer incentives.” And what’s a better incentive than, if someone gets sick, they can collect a substantial percentage of their salary until full retirement age? These are the sorts of perks that … People think, “If something happens to me, I’ll be protected.” The promise of these policies is that they will give people, usually, between 50% and 80% of their pre-disability income if they satisfy the requirements. Well, that’s a big if.
I’ve been doing this for 38 years. And I can tell you that 38 years ago, these (disability claims) were not problem cases. I used to do them for free for my litigation clients … But over the years, and really starting after 2001 with Sept. 11, all hell broke loose. They (insurance companies) began to get very aggressive. Every time there is an economic downfall, whatever it is, they get extremely aggressive. So you can imagine, with the onset of the pandemic, they knew what was coming.
I did, for many years, advocacy for ME/CFS cases. I represented thousands of people … A lot of my colleagues say, “Long COVID Social Security cases are almost impossible” because they don’t know what to do with them. My office hasn’t found that to be the case. I think the difference is, you have to document these cases with as much objective documentation of symptoms that people have … Get neuropsych testing, cardiopulmonary exercise testing and other tests.
I started doing webinars and seminars (about disability benefit applications) in 2020 because I knew this was coming. At that point, they weren’t calling it long COVID, they were just saying, some people with COVID weren’t getting better. But I knew it was going to turn into another ME/CFS disaster.
Click here for tips for applying for disability benefits
Barbara Comerford, a longtime disability lawyer, recommends that people applying for benefits extensively document their symptoms.
Medical tests such as neuropsychiatric testing and cardiopulmonary exercise testing are her recommended method for documentation, though such tests can be expensive.
Comerford says applicants should be careful to find lawyers and medical providers who have experience with these cases and won’t dismiss their symptoms.
During the appeals process, Comerford recommends requesting a company’s administrative record and combing through it for any evidence that they abused judgment, cherry-picked evidence or made other errors in assessing the case.
Make sure to follow deadlines for filing appeals, as cases are closed if documents are not submitted on time.
BL: How have you found the rise of long COVID has impacted your practice? Do you find you’re more in demand now?
BC: We’ve always had a high volume of cases. Quite a few of them were ME/CFS cases. We did a case, Vastag v. Prudential, in 2018. Brian Vastag, who was a science writer for The Washington Post, was my client, and I could not get over how aggressively Prudential was just dismissing him because it was an ME/CFS case.
And the same is happening with long COVID. We do cases all over the country on long COVID and ME/CFS. It’s my livelihood, so it’s important for me, but it also makes me a little crazy that people get treated the way they do and that they have to hire people like me.
One of the things that people get upset about is that they have to spend money to medically document their symptoms. And worse than that … I see these long COVID clinics, with doctors who are completely ignorant on long COVID, who surreptitiously write notes in the chart that they think it’s a psychiatric case. I don’t know how familiar you are with this.
BL: Unfortunately, I’m very familiar.
BC: It’s awful. Not only is it really hard on my clients … it triggers them to read things that might not be what they said or might not be pleasant. And the number of times that I have seen that and it has sabotaged cases! I have to reconstruct the cases and have the clients contact the clinic (and get them to make corrections).
Mental/nervous limitations exist in all of these (insurance) policies … They can limit someone’s payments to two years if the case is a psychiatric case or mental/nervous limitation with a DSM diagnosis.
Share your long COVID experience
If you have long COVID and are facing barriers to treatment or benefits — or you just want to share your broader perspectives about living in Wisconsin with long COVID — we’d like to hear from you. Reach us through our tips form, which you can find here.
BL: I wanted to ask also — there’s been a lot of research on long COVID at this point, and there was a report this summer from the National Academies specifically in response to a request from the Social Security Administration about long COVID as a disability, in which they found that this disease can result in inability to work, poor quality of life, all that stuff. Have you seen that report, or other research, like the growing body of research on these diseases, have an impact?
BC: I was asked to comment on that (report). Part of the problem with Social Security’s initiatives in this regard is that every Social Security case goes through what they call “sequential evaluation process.” You have to go through five steps to determine whether or not someone’s disabled. And among those steps is (matching people to a “medical listing of impairments,” but the list doesn’t include major symptoms for ME/CFS and similar diseases).
Years ago, there was an ME/CFS ruling called 99-2p. It offered guidelines (for ME/CFS cases that don’t fit the typical Social Security process). After that, I was asked to present to the national association of Social Security judges, there were 500 judges in the audience. And I asked, “By show of hands, how many of you are familiar with 99-2p?” Two hands went up.
Despite the guidelines, in practice, (the judges aren’t familiar with these diseases). Until there is a time when we can come up with a firm diagnostic criteria for long COVID, and we can say, “This is what you have to document for this illness.” … And it can’t just be a positive COVID test because many people got sick before testing was prevalent or they got sick after people stopped documenting that they were positive.
The other problem for long COVID cases is it’s not like cancer or a broken leg or herniated disc or something that people are accustomed to. Those people are not told they’re crazy. Those people are not told they’re imagining it. Those people are not told, “Well, we just don’t buy it.” This is what happens with (long COVID) and ME/CFS. The psych component that they try to pigeonhole these cases into is really a master stroke by the insurance industry that spends billions of dollars trying to persuade people that anyone who files for these benefits is a crook or fraud.
BL: It’s infuriating, especially when you see how deeply people’s quality of life is impacted by these diseases.
BC: Yes, every part of their life is impacted.
BL: I see what you’re saying about needing diagnostic criteria. In this time where we don’t have that yet, what would you want to see the Social Security Administration or other government agencies do to make it easier for all these people who are applying for benefits with long COVID and ME/CFS?
BC: They should (reevaluate) the sequential evaluation process, which has been there forever, and look at medically determinable impairment in the context of long COVID and ME/CFS. These diseases can be documented by things like neuropsych testing.
I’ll quickly go through the five-step sequential evaluation process. The first step is, “Is the person engaged in substantial gainful activity?” That is something you can do predictably, something that will last at least 12 months, and something that leads to gainful work, where you get paid and you can report for a job either part-time or full-time. In long COVID cases … you have to document that this person is not engaged in substantial gainful activity because they don’t know tomorrow if they’re going to be able to get up and get out of bed and take a shower, never mind report for work.
If you satisfy step one, they go to step two. There, they ask, “Do you have the ability, in light of your disability, to perform basic work-related activity?” Sitting, standing, reaching, pushing, pulling, reading, concentrating, things of that nature. And, “Does the disability negatively impact your ability to do these things?” (You need medical evidence, which can come from) a physician’s evaluation from a long COVID clinic, for example.
‘Medical documentation of limitations is crucial. I can’t emphasize that enough.’
Barbara Comerford
If you have that, you go to step three, which is where that horrible “medically determinable impairment” crap comes in. There isn’t (a specific listing) yet for long COVID, although they’re talking about it. Frankly, we’re still waiting for them to do one for ME/CFS, so I’m not holding my breath. That’s the only step in the process where, if they don’t satisfy it, you can still move on to the next step.
The fourth step is, “Is this person capable of performing the work that they performed for the last five years?” Until June of this year, it was the last 15 years … So we go through each job they had, all their symptoms and limitations and why they can’t do (the job anymore). If we document successfully that they can’t perform their past relevant work for the last five years as a result of their disability, we can then go to step five.
Step five, the burden shifts to the Social Security Administration. Social Security has to document that, in light of a person’s age, education and work experience, that there is no work in the national economy that they could perform. (To do this), Social Security has a big graph called the “medical vocational guidelines.” And essentially, the younger you are, the more skills you have, the more education you have, and the more skills that are transferable, generally you are found not disabled. But the graph is not supposed to be used for cases that involve what we call non-exertional and exertional complaints together. Pain, fatigue, things of that nature are all part of the non-exertional limitation.
That is how we lift ME/CFS and long COVID cases out of that graph. Despite the fact that many of our clients are very young, many of them are highly educated, many of them have developed skills that are not only transferable, but are also in high demand in the national economy — (we say that) because they can’t predictably perform sustained work of any kind, the grid should not be used to find them not disabled. But with all of this, every one of these cases, medical documentation of limitations is crucial. I can’t emphasize that enough.
BL: I know a lot of people in the long COVID community, they’ve already sent in their applications, and then it gets denied, and then they have to appeal. What is that process like, and how would you suggest people go about finding someone like you?
BC: It’s really important to do some research. You want to know if the doctor or attorney you’re dealing with has experience in these cases … I do (webinars and one-on-one education) for lawyers all the time because I’d rather them hear what has to be done and understand what happens if they don’t do it.
If I’m giving people advice on appeals … If it’s coming from a United States employer, you’re going to be governed by ERISA. That’s important because people might file a claim without knowing the exact company policy. Despite the fact that federal regulations require employers to give that information to employees, when someone gets sick and files a (short-term) disability claim, they are immediately cut off from the employee benefits portal (that has all the exact policy information). So then I’ve got to write a letter to the employers and fight to get that information.
You can’t even get discovery in these cases … Sometimes they will award benefits, and then six months in they’ll say, “We no longer believe you’re disabled.” Under ERISA, (employers and insurance companies) get all the advantages.
BL: It seems like people should know, if you’re filing against an employer, to save that policy information before you lose access to it.
BC: When you get the notice of a denial, you can request a complete copy of the administrative record. You are entitled to see everything that the insurance company had on the case, and under federal regulations, they have 30 days to produce it.
And then you have 180 days to appeal that (denial). People say that’s a long time. It’s really not. Because you’ve got to go through thousands of pages of documents. You’ve got to document where they abuse their discretion. It’s not enough to have medical evidence … (The standard you have to push back on is that) the insurance company or the employer has a “reason” to deny the claim.
The lawyer’s job or the claimant’s job is to show all the examples they found in the administrative record that show (mistakes or poor judgment on the part of the insurance company or employer) … Sometimes, you will see reports of experts that they’ve retained to review the case, and the expert will say, “I think it’s a payable claim.” And then the next thing you find is them looking for another doctor who’s a little more receptive to their suggestions. If we see they’ve ignored the opinion of one of their experts, that’s an example of abuse of discretion and arbitrary, capricious conduct. Cherry-picking the evidence is another thing you often see in these cases.
BL: So it’s not just sending your own medical records, you have to show that the company has messed up.
BC: The insurance company or the employer, whoever is paying, you have to show that they abused their discretion.
BL: Is there anything else, any other advice or resources you would give people?
BC: This is really important. If it’s an ERISA case and they do not get that appeal in within 180 days, they’re foreclosed from pursuing it any further … (It’s a big mistake) if you blow those time deadlines.
This article was originally published by The Sick Times, a nonprofit newsroom that chronicles the long COVID crisis.
The school shooting this week at Abundant Life Christian in Madison, Wisconsin, is tragic and senseless, but it’s not at all shocking. Deliberately planned school shootings happen multiple times every school year, mostly in smaller rural and suburban communities. The perpetrators of these attacks are almost always actively suicidal current or former students at the school they target.
Back in April, I wrote an article for the 25th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting. This trend line turned out to be sadly accurate. With the shooting at Abundant Life Christian, there have been five pre-planned attacks at schools this year.
(David Riedman)
Regardless of how you measure school shootings — guns fired, wounded, killed, active shooter, planned attacks, or near misses — the trend line is going up. While these planned school shootings have taken place since the 1960s, the frequency of the attacks is steadily increasing.
Like the other planned attacks this year in Perry, Iowa; Mount Horeb, Wisconsin; Apalachee, Georgia; and Palermo, California, these incidents have common patterns and connections to prior school shootings. The number of “near misses” where a school shooting almost happens are also going up.
Columbine connection
The father of the 15-year-old Madison, Wisconsin, school shooter posted a Facebook photo of his daughter at a shooting range in August. His cover photo shows Natalie Rupnow, who went by the name Samantha.
Natalie can be seen wearing a black shirt with the name of the band KMFDM. The German industrial rock band’s lyrics were thrust into the dark subculture of school shooters by the students who carried out the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School.
In the Columbine “basement tapes,” Dylan Klebold can be seen wearing the same shirt. It’s critical for parents to study prior school shooters, know their names and faces, and recognize symbols like KMFDM that represent idolization of prior attacks.
The Madison shooting follows the common patterns with planned attacks at schools. The perpetrator was a student (insider), committed a surprise attack during morning classes and died by suicide before police arrived.
(David Riedman)
Most school shootings are committed by current or former students who are “insiders” at the school and know the security plan/procedures.
(David Riedman)
Since an insider is someone who is allowed to be inside the school, most of these attacks are committed by current students.
“The public’s attention often focuses on the gender of the perpetrators. After the March 2023 mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, the shooter’s transgender identity was much discussed. After other school shootings, “toxic masculinity” has been highlighted, along with the well-documented fact that the majority of mass shootings are perpetrated by men and boys.
In our recently released K-12 school homicide database, which details 349 homicides committed at K-12 schools since 2020, only 12 (3%) of the perpetrators were female. There have been some notable cases involving female school shooters. In 1988, a female babysitter walked into a second-grade classroom in Winnetka, Illinois, and told the students she was there to teach them about guns; she opened fire, killing an 8-year-old boy and wounding five other students.
In Rigby, Idaho, in 2021, a 12-year-old girl plotted to kill 20 to 30 classmates. Armed with two handguns, she walked out of a bathroom and began firing in the hallway, wounding two students and the custodian. A teacher heard the shots, left the classroom and hugged the shooter to disarm her.
The earliest case in our records was in 1979, when a 16-year-old girl opened fire at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, killing two and injuring nine. This was when the American public was first introduced to a female school shooter. Her infamous explanation for her actions — “I just don’t like Mondays” — is etched in pop culture. But it was less about a flippant attitude and more about despair. At a parole hearing years later, the shooter admitted the truth: “I wanted to die.” She saw her attack as a way to be killed by police.
Her story reflects what we now know: Most school shooters are suicidal, in crisis and driven by a mix of hopelessness and rage.
With each school shooting, we tend to concentrate on details: the rare female shooter, the high-profile massacre, the immediate response of authorities. But if we step back, we tend to see the same story repeated again and again. A student insider. In crisis. Suicidal.”
Inside during morning classes
Pre-planned school shootings usually take place during morning classes or at the start of the school day when the building is open before classes start.
(David Riedman)
Just like the shooting in Wisconsin this week, the most common outcome is the teenage student shooter commits suicide, surrenders or is subdued by students or staff before police intervene.
(David Riedman)
Begins and ends in the same room
While “active shooter training” videos produced by the Department of Homeland Security and ads by security tech vendors portray assailants roaming throughout a building while searching for every possible victim, most school shootings begin and end in the same room.
There isn’t much use for a ballistic chalkboard, drop bar lock on the door or panic button when the victims are all in close proximity to an armed assailant who is inside the same room with them.
(David Riedman)
Following this pattern, the shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, took place in a classroom during study hall, and the victims were in the same age group. The teenage shooter didn’t roam the building looking for the elementary school kids; she killed herself before police arrived.
(David Riedman)
Police usually don’t stop these single shooter insider attacks because they are very short duration incidents that are usually over within the first two minutes.
During just these deliberately planned attacks over the last 60 years (these victim counts in the chart do not represent all shootings on school property), there have been roughly twice as many victims killed or wounded with handguns versus rifles.
This doesn’t mean that rifles aren’t as dangerous. At Apalachee High, a student committed an insider attack by sneaking an AR-15 into the building inside a posterboard. Until the last decade, AR-15s weren’t cheap and easily accessible. As there continue to be more school shootings involving rifles, this chart will likely even out over time (unless we take meaningful action to stop these attacks).
Preventing the next school shooting
I spoke to NBC 5 Investigates on Monday afternoon right after the school shooting. I said that this shooting at Abundant Life Christian School followed a common pattern in that it was carried out by an “insider” — a student familiar with the school grounds.
“We need to understand the actual nature of this problem and apply solutions towards identifying the student who has a grievance, identifying a student who is talking about students and realizing that these are rarely random acts. All the opportunities to prevent it happen before they ever come to campus with a gun,” Riedman told NBC 5 Investigates.
Riedman said the focus should not be on fortifying schools with additional weapons detectors or metal detectors but focusing on the students’ behaviors that may help foretell a future incident — adding that there is a need to “dispel the myth that these school shootings are committed by scary outsiders,” when data shows that they are often committed by those who are familiar with the school and have a grievance that ends in violence.
“We will probably hear in the coming days about a series of missed warning signs, social media posts, a manifesto and so on,” he said.
David Riedman is the creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database, chief data officer at a global risk management firm and a tenure-track professor at Idaho State University. He originally published this story on his Substack: School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports.
The reopening of the Social Development Commission, after months of disruption, has sparked mixed reactions from elected officials.
While some welcome its return, others anticipate challenges ahead, with Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson calling for greater transparency from the agency.
The Social Development Commission, or SDC, reopened its main office at 1730 W. North Ave. earlier this month. It’s now focusing on resuming its Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, career services, child care and housing programs.
The agency provided programs and services that helped Milwaukee County residents living in poverty before it stopped services and laid off employees in late April because of its inability to meet payroll and other financial concerns.
Mayor calls for more transparency
At the SDC board’s meeting where leadership announced plans to reopen, Jackie Q. Carter, the board’s commissioner appointed by the mayor, voted against executive board nominations and asked for more community involvement, a formalized process and public transparency in the board’s decisions.
“The vote accurately reflected the mayor’s concerns about the lack of transparency in the latest moves,” said Jeff Fleming, a spokesperson for Johnson.
The mayor would like SDC to follow requirements of Wisconsin open meetings law, which includes publicly posting notice of its board meetings and providing agendas with information regarding the matters of discussion, Fleming said.
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson would like to see more transparency from the Social Development Commission’s board. (Sue Vliet / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service file photo)
Since SDC suspended operations, the board has only been meeting part of the law’s notice requirements. SDC has notified individuals and members of the press of upcoming meetings, but it has not been posting meeting notices in public places or online.
“The mayor is hopeful SDC will, once again, be a leading provider of help to low-income residents of the region,” Fleming said. “It is essential that SDC regain trust before it can resume the important work it previously undertook. The services are needed, and well-run organizations are key to serving those who deserve assistance.”
Other officials weigh in
Before the reopening announcement in November, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said in an interview that the county wants to continue working with the Social Development Commission.
He said many of the services SDC provided have been picked up by other agencies, and his office has not received any constituent calls related to service issues.
“But we also know that as a CAP (community action program) agency, there are dollars that are probably on the table at the state and federal level that we haven’t been able to take advantage of because they aren’t open,” Crowley said.
Following the reopening announcement, Jonathan Fera, the communications director for the county executive’s office, said the state and the federal Office of Community Services are working with SDC to determine how to move forward, and Crowley is ready to collaborate with them when needed.
“It’s encouraging that people are back at the table working on a solution to the challenges that have impacted public services provided by SDC,” Fera said.
Another official interested in SDC restarting services is U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore.
When SDC abruptly shuttered in April, Moore wrote letters to SDC’s board and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, calling for a federal investigation.
“The Social Development Commission’s closure was a loss that was deeply felt in the community,” Moore said. “While I am grateful that the Social Development Commission is resuming some of its services, I know it still faces many challenges ahead.”
County Supervisor Priscilla E. Coggs-Jones, who represents the 13th District on Milwaukee’s Near North Side and is the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors’ second vice chair, called the reopening a “critical step toward restoring vital services for Milwaukee County residents.”
“The SDC has been a cornerstone of community support for years, and its relaunch reaffirms our commitment to uplifting people in need,” she said.
State Sen. LaTonya Johnson, who represents the 6th Senate District, said the reopening is great news for Milwaukee County.
“The commission’s ability to provide housing assistance and child care food services has been a lifeline for families who need a little support,” Johnson said. “I’m glad to have them back in our community, and I encourage those who need help to take advantage of their services.”
Devin Blake, PrincessSafiya Byers and Edgar Mendez contributed reporting to this story.
Wisconsin Watch spoke with Bethany Highman, age 29, mother of a student who was unharmed in the shooting. She talked about how she heard about the incident, what she is feeling, and where she finds hope and comfort.
A 15-year-old student killed a teacher and another teenager with a handgun Monday at a Christian school in Wisconsin, terrifying classmates. A second-grade teacher made the 911 call that sent dozens of police officers rushing to the small school just a week before its Christmas break.
The female student, who was identified at a press conference Monday night, also wounded six others at a study hall at Abundant Life Christian School, including two students who were in critical condition, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said. A teacher and three students had been taken to a hospital with less serious injuries, and two of them had been released by Monday evening.
Emergency vehicles are parked outside the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wis., following a shooting, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (Morry Gash / Associated Press)
“Every child, every person in that building is a victim and will be a victim forever. … We need to figure out and try to piece together what exactly happened,” Barnes said.
Barbara Wiers, director of elementary and school relations for Abundant Life Christian School, said students “handled themselves magnificently.”
She said when the school practices safety routines, which it had done just before the school year, leaders always announce that it is a drill. That didn’t happen Monday.
“When they heard, ‘Lockdown, lockdown,’ they knew it was real,” she said.
Police said the shooter, identified as Natalie Rupnow, was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound when officers arrived and died en route to a hospital. Barnes declined to offer additional details about the shooter, partly out of respect for the family.
Families leave SSM Health, set up as a reunification center, following a shooting on Dec. 16, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (Morry Gash / Associated Press)
A family leaves SSM Health, set up as a reunification center, following a shooting on Dec. 16, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (Morry Gash / Associated Press)
He also warned people against sharing unconfirmed reports on social media about the shooter’s identity.
“What that does is it helps erode the trust in this process,” he said.
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school — prekindergarten through high school — with approximately 420 students in Madison, the state capital.
Wiers said the school does not have metal detectors but uses other security measures including cameras.
Children and families were reunited at a medical building about a mile away. Parents pressed children against their chests while others squeezed hands and shoulders as they walked side by side. One girl was comforted with an adult-size coat around her shoulders as she moved to a parking lot teeming with police vehicles.
Students board a bus as they leave the shelter following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wis., on Dec. 16, 2024. (Morry Gash / Associated Press)
A motive for the shooting was not immediately known, but Barnes said they’re talking with the parents of the suspected shooter and they are cooperating. He also said he didn’t know if the people shot had been targeted.
“I don’t know why, and I feel like if we did know why, we could stop these things from happening,” he told reporters.
A search warrant had been issued Monday to a Madison home, he said.
Barnes said Tuesday the first 911 call to report an active shooter came in shortly before 11 a.m. from a second-grade teacher — not a second-grade student as he reported publicly Monday.
First responders who were in training just 3 miles away dashed to the school for an actual emergency, Barnes said. They arrived 3 minutes after the initial call and went into the building immediately.
A child is embraced at SSM Health, set up as a reunification center, following a shooting, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Classes had been taking place when the shooting happened, Barnes said.
Investigators believe the shooter used a 9mm pistol, a law enforcement official told the AP. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Police blocked off roads around the school, and federal agents were at the scene to assist local law enforcement. No shots were fired by police.
Abundant Life asked for prayers in a brief Facebook post.
Wiers said the school’s goal is to have staff get together early in the week and have community opportunities for students to reconnect before the winter break, but it’s still to be decided whether they will resume classes this week.
Husband and wife Bethany Highman, left, and Reynaldo LeBaron are shown near the scene of a shooting that left three dead at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wis., on Dec. 16, 2024. LeBaron says his daughter, along with six nieces and nephews, attended the school. The incident showed “this can happen anywhere,” he says. (Brad Horn for Wisconsin Watch)
Bethany Highman, the mother of a student, rushed to the school and learned over FaceTime that her daughter was OK.
“As soon as it happened, your world stops for a minute. Nothing else matters,” Highman said. “There’s nobody around you. You just bolt for the door and try to do everything you can as a parent to be with your kids.”
In a statement, President Joe Biden cited the tragedy in calling on Congress to pass universal background checks, a national red flag law and certain gun restrictions.
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes speaks during a press conference at Fire Station 14 in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School on Dec. 16, 2024. Barnes says three people, including the teenage shooter, a teacher and another student, were killed. (Brad Horn for Wisconsin Watch)
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway speaks during a press conference at Fire Station 14 in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School on Dec. 16, 2024. She says it is important to meet the mental health needs for those affected by the violence. (Brad Horn for Wisconsin Watch)
“We can never accept senseless violence that traumatizes children, their families, and tears entire communities apart,” Biden said. He spoke with Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and offered his support.
Evers said it’s “unthinkable” that a child or teacher would go to school and never return home.
The episode was the 323rd shooting at a K-12 school campus thus far in 2024, according to researcher David Riedman, founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database. The database uses a broad definition of shooting that includes when a gun is brandished, fired or a bullet hits school property.
“This shooting follows the common patterns with planned attacks at schools. The perpetrator was a student (insider), committed a surprise attack during morning classes, and died by suicide before police arrived,” Riedman wrote Monday on his website.
Police stand outside of SSM Health, which served as the reunification area for families and students of Abundant Life Christian School following a shooting that left three dead at the Madison, Wis., school on Dec. 16, 2024. (Brad Horn for Wisconsin Watch)
The shootings have set off fervent debates about gun control and frayed the nerves of parents whose children are growing up accustomed to doing active shooter drills in their classrooms. But school shootings have done little to move the needle on national gun laws.
Firearms were the leading cause of death among children in 2020 and 2021, according to KFF, a nonprofit that researches health care issues.
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said the country needs to do more to prevent gun violence.
“I hoped that this day would never come to Madison,” she said.
Wisconsin Watch contributed information to this story.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup.This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.
But what made this year particularly special was the introduction of the Forward newsletter. Each week the Wisconsin Watch state team produces shorter stories about what we expect to be the big news and trends in the days, weeks and months ahead. It’s something our local media partners asked for and our state team reporters delivered.
As the year winds down, we gave each state team reporter the assignment of picking a favorite story written by another member of the team (Secret Santa style!). Here were their picks:
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, speaks during a Republican press conference on June 8, 2023, in the Wisconsin State Capitol building to announce a tentative agreement between legislative Republicans and Gov. Tony Evers on a shared revenue bill. (Drake White-Bergey / Wisconsin Watch)
To some, radio is a source of entertainment and information from a bygone era. They’re mistaken. Hallie Claflin’s deeply reported, authoritative story illustrates the immense and continuing influence of talk radio — especially conservative talk radio — in Wisconsin politics. The rise of former Gov. Scott Walker, the toppling of a Democratic mayor in Wausau and the deaths of certain bills in the Legislature can all be tied, at least in part, to advocacy or opposition from conservative talk radio hosts. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, the state’s most powerful Republican, makes regular appearances on broadcasts and described talk radio as being “as powerful as it’s ever been.” This story is worth your time as you look ahead to 2025.
Phoebe Petrovic’s profile of militant, anti-abortion Pastor Matthew Trewhella, her first investigation as Wisconsin’s first ProPublica local reporting network fellow, was an engaging read. But I especially liked the companion piece she wrote. It’s a reader service to do this kind of story when we do a large takeout on a person or subject unfamiliar to most readers. It also might drive readers to the main story when they learn more about why we did it. It puts the readers behind the scenes a bit and has the potential to make readers feel more connected to Wisconsin Watch.
Tom Kertscher does an amazing job with all of his fact briefs, but my favorite has to be a compilation that fact-checked presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump right before their September debate. Over the past few races, presidential campaigns have been full of misinformation. Debates are a vital time to show the reality of candidates and their beliefs. Tom’s story made sure people could accurately judge the claims both candidates were making. I learned about many new and important topics across party lines like Trump’s for-profit college, Harris’ claim about tracking miscarriages and accurate deportation statistics.
The Waupun Correctional Institution — shown here on Oct. 27, 2023 — was not over capacity as of late July 2024. But the state prison system as a whole has long incarcerated more people than its prisons were designed to hold. (Angela Major / WPR)
Khushboo Rathore’s DataWatch report detailing that the state’s prison population was at nearly 130% capacity stood out as one of my favorite pieces this year. Not only did this short story shed light on severe deficiencies in Wisconsin’s prison system, it also presented the findings in a digestible format that helped readers understand overcrowding in prisons through striking data. It’s one thing to report that Wisconsin prisons are overwhelmed, and it’s another to have the numbers that show it. This piece has the power to reshape future conversations about statewide prison reform, which is what our work here at Wisconsin Watch is all about!
The Wisconsin Supreme Court holds its first hearing of the new term on Sept. 7, 2023, at the Wisconsin State Capitol. (Andy Manis / For Wisconsin Watch)
Jack Kelly has some of the best sourcing this newsroom has ever seen. He’s such an affable people-person, and it enables him to get coffee with anyone and everyone and build legitimate relationships that result in wild scoops, like this one. It’s a testament to his brilliance as a reporter.
Wisconsin Watch seeks a pathways to success reporter who will expand our coverage of issues surrounding postsecondary education and workforce training. The right candidate will be a curious, collaborative, deep listener who can understand bureaucracies and economic trends that affect peoples’ lives.
Wisconsin Watch provides trustworthy reporting that investigates problems, explores solutions and serves the public. We aim to strengthen the quality of community life and self-government in Wisconsin by providing people with the knowledge they need to navigate their lives, drive forward solutions and hold those with power accountable. We pursue the truth through accurate, fair, independent, rigorous, nonpartisan reporting.
Funding cuts and other financial pressures have forced higher education institutions to rely more heavily on tuition — increasing affordability challenges for students and affecting the quality of education. Meanwhile, Wisconsin faces a shortage of skilled workers, including in manufacturing, construction, health care, agriculture and information technology. This shortage is exacerbated by an aging workforce, particularly in rural areas, and a gap between the skills employers need and those job seekers have.
Reporting on this beat will help policymakers and civic leaders understand how to expand pathways to jobs. It will also help Wisconsin residents learn the skills needed to build thriving careers. We’re taking a different approach to higher education coverage than news outlets traditionally do. Rather than prioritizing breaking news or scandals at major universities, we’re centering the experiences of learners, families, and employers to better understand how the state’s broader postsecondary landscape meets their needs. That includes paying close attention to technical colleges and trades programs.
Job duties
The reporter will:
Work with the Wisconsin Watch managing editor and other colleagues to frame, report and write news stories. These stories will appear on Wisconsin Watch platforms and be distributed to news outlets across Wisconsin and the country.
Listen to those struggling to find family supporting jobs and to those unable to fill positions to find disconnects between workforce recruitment, development and training and those who are underemployed. Find evidence-based best practices to address this challenge.
Develop sources in secondary and postsecondary education, industries struggling to fill jobs, workforce development, labor and the general public to identify breakdowns in systems, information gaps and success stories that could inform pathways to success.
Research the jobs that will be in high demand for years to come to inform reporting on effective programs for gaining the necessary skills to perform these jobs, from jobs in nursing and health care, where demographics show increasing demand, to developing technologies, such as those in artificial intelligence and robotics.
Work with the Wisconsin Watch audience team to make sure this reporting reaches the people who most need the information.
Cultivate collegial and productive relationships with collaborating news organizations to gather and analyze data, research best practices and maximize impact on stories with national scope. This includes Open Campus, a national news network aiming to improve higher education coverage.
At Wisconsin Watch we make sure that we are producing quality journalism and give our reporters the time they need to make sure the job is done well.
Required qualifications
The ideal candidate will bring a public service mindset and a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisan journalism ethics, including a commitment to abide by Wisconsin Watch’s ethics policies. More specifically, we’re looking for a reporter who:
Has researched, reported and written original published news stories and/or features on deadline.
Has demonstrated the ability to formulate compelling story pitches to editors.
Aches to report stories that explore solutions to challenges residents face.
Has experience with or ideas about the many different ways newsrooms can inform the public — from narrative investigations and features, to Q&As and ‘how-to’ explainers or visual stories.
Has experience working with others. Wisconsin Watch is a deeply collaborative organization. Our journalists frequently team up with each other or with colleagues at other news outlets to maximize the potential impact of our reporting.
Bonus Skills:
Be able to analyze and visually present data.
Familiarity with Wisconsin, its history and its politics.
Multimedia skills including photography, audio and video.
Spanish-language proficiency.
Don’t check off every box in the requirements listed above? Please apply anyway!
Wisconsin Watch is dedicated to building an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible workplace that fosters a sense of belonging – so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to still consider submitting an application. You may be just the right candidate for this role or another one of our openings!
Location
The pathways to success reporter should be located in Wisconsin. Wisconsin Watch is a statewide news organization with staff based in Madison, Milwaukee and Green Bay.
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.
Deadline
Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. For best consideration, apply by Jan. 10, 2025.
To apply
Please submit a PDF of your resume and answer some brief questions in this application form, and send links or PDFs of four published writing samples to Managing Editor Jim Malewitz at jmalewitz@wisconsinwatch.org. Contact Jim if you’d like to chat about the job before applying.
Wisconsin Watch is dedicated to improving our newsroom by better reflecting the people we cover. We are committed to diversity and building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and ages. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities. 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.
The Supreme Court on Friday said it would take up a new religious rights case over whether a Catholic charitable organization must pay Wisconsin’s unemployment tax.
The justices will review a divided state Supreme Court ruling that refused to grant an exemption to the Catholic Charities Bureau, based in Superior, Wisconsin. The state court ruled that the work of Catholic Charities and four related organizations is primarily not religious, although it found that the motivation to help older, disabled and low-income people stems from Catholic teachings.
The case probably will be argued in the spring.
The Supreme Court in recent years has issued an unbroken string of decisions siding with churches and religious plaintiffs in disputes with states.
Lawyers for the Wisconsin groups argued to the court that the decision violates religious freedoms protected by the First Amendment. They also said the court should step in to resolve conflicting rulings by several top state courts on the same issue.
“Wisconsin is trying to make sure no good deed goes unpunished. Penalizing Catholic Charities for serving Catholics and non-Catholics alike is ridiculous and wrong,” Eric Rassbach, the lead lawyer for Catholic Charities at the Supreme Court, said in a statement.
Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul had urged the high court to stay out of the case, arguing that much of the groups’ funding comes from state and local governments, and the joint federal and state Medicaid program.
Employees don’t have to be Catholic and “people receiving services from these organizations receive no religious training or orientation,” Kaul wrote.
Catholic Charities has paid the unemployment tax since 1972, he wrote.
Wisconsin exempts church-controlled organizations from the tax if they are “operated primarily for religious purposes.” The state high court ruled that both the motivations and the activities have to be religious for organizations to avoid paying the tax.
A group of religious scholars, backing Catholic Charities, told the court that “the case involves governmental interference with religious liberty” that warrants the justices’ intervention.
Catholic, Islamic, Lutheran, Jewish and Mormon organizations also filed briefs in support of Catholic Charities.
At the state Supreme Court, the Freedom from Religion Foundation argued that a ruling for Catholic Charities would extend to religiously affiliated hospitals and some colleges across Wisconsin, potentially taking their employees out of the state unemployment insurance system.
Catholic Charities in Superior manages nonprofit organizations that run more than 60 programs designed to help older or disabled people, children with special needs, low-income families, and people suffering from disasters, regardless of their religion, according to court documents.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup.This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.
The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) is a national organization whose mission is to ensure that people in every community have access to trustworthy news and reliable information about issues that affect them. Today, it supports more than 475 independent newsrooms across the country to leverage their collective power – helping them raise funds, grow their audiences, and learn from each other.
Wisconsin Watch is a founding member of INN, and we are honored to be one of several local news organizations featured in INN’s 15th Anniversary video released today, explaining why independent newsrooms are so vital, and the role they play in the communities they serve.
One of the key ways that INN supports community-focused newsrooms like ours is through its annual Newsmatch campaign, which awards matching funds to member news organizations that set and reach certain goals in their end-of-year fundraising campaigns.
This year, Wisconsin Watch has a goal of getting 100 new donors between Nov 1 and Dec 31. We are nearly there, and if you aren’t already a donor, your support could make all the difference to our newsroom.
However, William Sulton, SDC’s attorney, said that staff doing new work is precisely how former employees are going to get paid.
“I would say … the way that those folks are going to get paid is by the organization reopening and submitting the required reporting documentation to get paid on grants,” Sulton said.
Who does SDC owe?
As of last week, 45 people have unresolved claims concerning pay from SDC, according to a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, the state agency that handles employment and labor-related disputes.
Sulton also said that among these 45 employees are highly paid employees like George Hinton, SDC’s former CEO who resigned at the request of SDC’s Board of Commissioners.
The Department of Workforce Development did not provide a clear timeline for when it will make a decision about people’s claims, but the investigator assigned to these claims is actively working on them, the department’s spokesperson said.
Sulton said he believes there is a path for how former employees will be paid: new, or rehired, employees providing services.
If SDC hadn’t brought in employees to do new work, grant money couldn’t be accessed to resolve Department of Workforce Development claims, Sulton said.
The quasi-governmental community action agency provides a variety of programs and services to meet the needs of low-income residents in Milwaukee County.
Case-by-case basis
But making a claim with the Department of Workforce Development does not guarantee that person will get the full amount they say they’re owed.
Each claim is being evaluated individually, and there are some disputes, Sulton said.
“For example, there’s one employee whose time we’re unable to confirm. There’s one employee who claims that she had a conversation with their supervisor and the former supervisor promised her an increase in pay,” Sulton said.
A common theme among claims is about getting paid out for unused paid time off, Sulton said.
Department of Workforce Development staff are assisting former employees with supplying the right documentation, which can include pay stubs, records they kept or other communications, according to the spokesperson.
Woods thought ahead in this regard.
“On the last day, I just was taking screenshots and printing whatever I needed and emailing to myself,” she said.
Some progress
Since the April layoffs, SDC has paid $51,000 toward what it owes people, Sulton said.
The value of food imported into the U.S. exceeds what is exported.
That’s a recent reversal of a long-term trend, as U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden stated Dec. 2.
But it doesn’t necessarily mean the U.S. is “beholden on other nations,” as the western Wisconsin Republican claimed.
The U.S. was an annual net exporter of agricultural products from at least the 1970s through 2018, but since then has mostly been a net importer, and the gap is widening.
In fiscal 2025, the value of agricultural imports is projected at $215.5 billion and exports $170 billion.
William Ridley, a University of Illinois agricultural and consumer economics professor, said the U.S. produces more food for itself than ever, but it’s a net importer because of demand for imported food, much of it from allies.
Some imports, including out-of-season produce, come from foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies, said Steve Suppan, of the nonprofit Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Wisconsin Watch is seeking an intern to report on information and accountability gaps in rural Wisconsin communities that lack robust news coverage, telling stories that explore solutions to broken systems and center the voices of community members.
This internship is available through a Scripps Howard Fund/Institute for Nonprofit News partnership, which in 2025 is supporting 13 paid internships for journalism students in newsrooms across the country.
Applications for the INN/Fund internships close on Jan. 31. Apply here.
The Wisconsin Watch reporter will:
Work with the Wisconsin Watch managing editor and other colleagues to frame, report and write news stories that fill information and accountability gaps and seek solutions to challenges faced by rural Wisconsin residents. These stories will appear on Wisconsin Watch platforms and be distributed to news outlets across Wisconsin.
Cultivate collegial and productive relationships with collaborating news organizations. This could include sharing bylines on high-impact stories.
At Wisconsin Watch we make sure that we are producing quality journalism and give our reporters the time they need to make sure the job is done well. Stories could take anywhere from one week to one to two months to report and write, depending on the complexity and timeliness of the issue and access to data.
This intern will be expected to work approximately 40 hours per week throughout the reporter’s time at Wisconsin Watch. No additional benefits are included.
Location
This reporter must live in Wisconsin (the exact location is negotiable) and would have opportunities to work within Wisconsin Watch’s Madison and Milwaukee newsrooms. Wisconsin Watch is a hybrid workplace, meaning work on some days can be performed remotely. But the intern would be expected to conduct some of the reporting in person, depending on the story, and would work with the managing editor to map out a schedule for occasional work from the newsroom.
Duration
This is a temporary position, with the expectation of work full time (40 hours/week) over 10 weeks.
Compensation
The reporter will earn $15 per hour.
Once selected, an intern can apply to the Fund for an additional grant to help with housing, relocation and other expenses to support the ability to accept an internship. Those applications will open in the spring.
About Wisconsin Watch
Wisconsin Watch is a nonpartisan, independent nonprofit with offices in Madison and Milwaukee.
Our mission is “to increase the quality, quantity and understanding of investigative journalism to foster an informed citizenry and strengthen democracy.” Our multimedia journalism digs into undercovered issues, documents inequitable and failing systems, puts findings into regional and national contexts and explores potential solutions. We aim to generate impact that improves people’s lives and holds power to account. Wisconsin Watch also trains diverse groups of current and future investigative journalists and entrepreneurs through workshops, internships and fellowships, mentoring and collaborations with journalism classes and news organizations. And we share information about journalistic practices, ethics and impact with the public.
Wisconsin Watch embraces diversity and inclusiveness in our journalism, training activities, hiring practices and workplace operations. The complex issues we face as a society require respect for different viewpoints. Race, class, generation, sexual orientation, gender, disability and geography all affect point of view. Reflecting these differences in our reporting leads to better, more nuanced stories and a better-informed community.
We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including Black, Indigenous and other people of color, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities.
Act 10, which effectively ended collective bargaining for most Wisconsin public employee unions, has saved taxpayers billions of dollars.
The 2011 law could be reviewed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court because of a recent judge’s ruling.
The law achieved savings mainly by shifting costs for pension and health benefits for public employees to the employees.
The nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum found in 2020 that state and local governments saved $5 billion from 2011 to 2017 in pension costs alone.
PolitiFact Wisconsin reported in 2014 that public employers saved over $3 billion on pensions and health insurance.
Getting rid of Act 10’s pension, health insurance and salary limits would raise annual school district costs $1.6 billion and local government costs $480 million, the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty estimated in September.
However, the recent court ruling doesn’t invalidate Act 10’s higher employee contribution requirements, said attorney Jeffrey Mandell, who represents unions in the pending case.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
A new contract between Kalamazoo, Michigan, and utility Consumers Energy signals a change in direction for the city’s clean energy strategy as it seeks to become carbon neutral by 2040.
Solar was seen as a pillar of the city’s plans when it declared a climate emergency in 2019 and set a goal of zeroing out carbon emissions by 2040. After spending years exploring its options, though, the Michigan city is tempering a vision for rooftop solar in favor of large, more distant solar projects built and owned by the utility. It’s not alone either, with Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, Muskegon and other cities taking a similar approach.
“Folks want to see solar panels on parking lots and buildings, but there’s no way as a city we can accomplish our net-zero buildings just putting solar panels on a roof,” said Justin Gish, Kalamazoo’s sustainability planner. “Working with the utility seemed to make the most sense.”
Initially there was skepticism, Gish said — “environmentalists tend to not trust utilities and large corporate entities” — but the math just didn’t work out for going it alone with rooftop solar.
The city’s largest power user, the wastewater treatment pumping station, has a roof of only 225 square feet. Kalamazoo’s largest city-owned roof, at the public service station, is 26,000 square feet. Spending an estimated $750,000 to cover that with solar would only provide 14% of the power the city uses annually — a financial “non-starter,” he said.
So the city decided to partner with Consumers Energy, joining a solar subscription program wherein Kalamazoo will tell Consumers how much solar energy it wants, starting in 2028, and the utility will use funds from its subscription fee to construct new solar farms, like a 250-megawatt project Consumers is building in Muskegon.
Under the 20-year contract, Kalamazoo will pay a set rate of 15.8 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) — 6.4 cents more than what it currently pays — for 43 million kWh of solar power per year. If electricity market rates rise, the city will save money, and Kalamazoo receives Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to help meet its energy goals.
The subscription is expected to eliminate about 80% of Kalamazoo’s emissions from electricity, Gish said. The electricity used to power streetlights and traffic signals couldn’t be covered since it is not metered. As the city acquires more electric vehicles — it currently has two — electricity demand may increase, but city leaders hope to offset any increases by improving energy efficiency of city buildings.
Consumers Energy spokesperson Matt Johnson said the company relies “in part” on funds from customers specifically to build solar and considers it a better deal for cities than building it themselves, “which would be more costly for them, and they have to do their own maintenance.”
“We can do it in a more cost-effective way, we maintain it, they’re helping us fund it and do it in the right way, and those benefits get passed on to arguably everybody,” Johnson said.
Grand Rapids, Michigan, joined the subscription program at the same time as Kalamazoo. Corporate customers including 7-Eleven, Walmart and General Motors are part of the same Consumers Energy solar subscription program, as is the state of Michigan.
Costs and benefits
“There’s a growing movement of cities trying to figure out solar — ‘Yes we want to do this, it could save us money over time, but the cost is prohibitive,’” said John Farrell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.
Until the Inflation Reduction Act, cities couldn’t directly access federal tax credits. The direct-pay incentives under the IRA have simplified financing, Farrell said, but cities still face other financial and logistical barriers, such as whether they have sufficient rooftop space.
Advocates acknowledge deals with utilities may be the most practical way for budget-strapped cities to move the needle on clean energy, but they emphasize that cities should also strive to develop their own solar and question whether utilities should charge more for clean power that is increasingly a cheaper option than fossil fuels.
“Our position is rooftop and distributed generation is best — it’s best for the customers, in this case the cities; it’s best for the grid because you’re putting those resources directly on the grid where it’s needed most; and it’s best for the planet because it can deploy a lot faster,” said John Delurey, Midwest deputy director of the advocacy group Vote Solar. “I believe customers in general and perhaps cities in particular should exhaust all resources and opportunities for distributed generation before they start to explore utility-scale resources. It’s the lowest hanging fruit and very likely to provide the most bang for their buck.”
Utility-scale solar is more cost-effective per kilowatt, but Delurey notes that when a public building is large enough for solar, “you are putting that generation directly on load, you’re consuming onsite. Anything that is concurrent consumption or paired with a battery, you are getting the full retail value of that energy. That is a feature you can’t really beat no matter how good the contract is with some utility-scale projects that are farther away.”
Delurey also noted that Michigan law mandates all energy be from clean sources by 2040; and 50% by 2030. That means Consumers needs to be building or buying renewable power, whether or not customers pay extra for it.
“So there are diminishing returns (to a subscription deal) at that point,” Delurey said. “You better be getting a price benefit because the power on their grid would be clean anyways.”
“Some folks are asking ‘Why do anything now? Just wait until Consumers cleans up the grid,’” Gish acknowledged. “But our purchase shows we have skin in the game.”
A complement to rooftop
In 2009, Milwaukee adopted a goal of powering 25% of city operations — excluding waterworks — with solar by 2025. The city’s Climate and Equity Plan adopted in 2023 also enshrined that goal.
For a decade, Milwaukee has been battling We Energies over the city’s plan to install rooftop solar on City Hall and other buildings through a third-party owner, Eagle Point Solar. The city sought the arrangement — common in many states — to tap federal tax incentives that a nonprofit public entity couldn’t reap. But We Energies argued that third party ownership would mean Eagle Point would be acting as a utility and infringing on We Energies’ territory. A lawsuit over Milwaukee’s plans with Eagle Point is still pending.
In 2018 in Milwaukee, We Energies launched a pilot solar program known by critics as “rent a roof,” in which the utility leased rooftop space for its own solar arrays. Advocates and Milwaukee officials opposed the program, arguing that it encouraged the utility to suppress the private market or publicly owned solar. In 2023, the state Public Service Commission denied the utility’s request to expand the program.
Wisconsin’s Citizens Utility Board opposed the rent-a-roof arrangement since it passed costs it viewed as unfair on to ratepayers. But Wisconsin CUB Executive Director Tom Content said the city’s current partnership with We Energies is different since it is just the city, not ratepayers, footing the cost for solar that helps the city meet its goals.
Solar panels atop Milwaukee’s Central Library. (City of Milwaukee)
Milwaukee is paying about $84,000 extra per year for We Energies to build solar farms on a city landfill near the airport and outside the city limits in the town of Caledonia. The deal includes a requirement that We Energies hire underemployed or unemployed Milwaukee residents.
The Caledonia project is nearly complete and will provide over 11 million kWh of energy annually, “enough to make 57 municipal police stations, fire stations and health clinics 100% renewable electricity,” said Milwaukee Environmental Collaboration Office director Erick Shambarger.
The landfill project is slated to break ground in 2025. The two arrays will total 11 MW and provide enough power for 83 city buildings, including City Hall – where Milwaukee had hoped to do the rooftop array with Eagle Point.
Meanwhile, Milwaukee is building its own rooftop solar on the Martin Luther King Jr. library and later other public buildings, and Shambarger said the city will apply for direct pay tax credits made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act — basically eliminating the need for a third-party agreement.
“Utility-scale is the complement to rooftop,” said Shambarger. “They own it and maintain it, we get the RECs. It worked out pretty well. If you think about it from a big picture standpoint, to now have the utility offer a big customer like the city an option to source their power from renewable energy — that didn’t exist five years ago. If you were a big customer in Wisconsin five years ago, you really had no option except for buying RECs from who knows where. We worked hard with them to make sure we could see our renewable energy being built.”
We Energies already owns a smaller 2.25 MW solar farm on the same landfill, under a similar arrangement. Building solar on the landfill is less efficient than other types of land since special mounting is needed to avoid puncturing the landfill’s clay cap, and the panels can’t turn to follow the sun. But Shambarger said the sacrifice is worth it to have solar within the city limits, on land useful for little else.
“We do think it’s important to have some of this where people can see it and understand it,” he said. “We also have the workforce requirements, it’s nice to have it close to home for our local workers.”
Madison is also pursuing a mix of city-owned distributed solar and utility-scale partnerships.
On Earth Day 2024, Madison announced it has installed 2 MW of solar on 38 city rooftops. But a utility-scale solar partnership with utility MGE is also crucial to the goal of 100% clean energy for city operations by 2030. Through MGE’s Renewable Energy Rider program, Madison helped pay for the 8 MW Hermsdorf Solar Fields on a city landfill, with 5 MW devoted to city operations and 3 MW devoted to the school district. The 53-acre project went online in 2022.
Farrell said such “all of the above” approaches are ideal.
“The lesson we’ve seen generally is the more any entity can directly own the solar project, the more financial benefit you’ll get,” he said. “Ownership comes with privileges, and with risks.
“Energy is in addition to a lot of other challenging issues that cities have to work on. The gold standard is solar on a couple public buildings with battery storage, so these are resiliency places if the grid goes down.”
This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.
Shortly after former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman commenced his error-ridden and fruitless investigation into the state’s 2020 election, he raised eyebrows when he derided chief election official Meagan Wolfe’s clothing choices.
“Black dress, white pearls — I’ve seen the act, I’ve seen the show,” he said on a conservative radio program in spring 2022.
Not long after that comment, Wolfe was scheduled to appear at a county clerk conference, and a county clerk bought fake pearl necklaces for everyone in the room, according to Wood County Clerk Trent Miner, a Republican.
“Every one of us, men, women … were wearing those pearl necklaces to show support for her,” he said. “There’s nothing but support from the county clerks for Meagan and the job that she does.”
In contrast with that virtually unanimous support from clerks, he said, most of the criticism she’s received is based on false conspiracy theories or from people who don’t know her or understand her role on the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
Since becoming the commission’s nonpartisan administrator six years ago, Wolfe has faced death threats, repeated efforts to oust her, opposition from President-elect Donald Trump, and more lawsuits than you can count on two hands.
It’s the kind of intense pressure that has caused many election officials to leave their roles in recent years. But in the eyes of other election officials, Wolfe has thrived. Many of her peers say she is a nonpartisan and clear-headed model for navigating the world of election administration at a time when election officials are under ever-increasing scrutiny.
For Wolfe, that pressure was just a din of mostly political noise seeping into the already-complicated work of election administration. Even before the 2020 election, she learned how to cope with a level of stress that has now become the norm.
“I cannot imagine what it would be like to be in a position or an environment where we’re not constantly putting out fires,” Wolfe told Votebeat. “I’ve come to really like and appreciate those challenges. Where a challenge comes up, we have to figure out how to overcome it, how to accomplish this thing that’s never been done before.”
Politics inherent to the job for Wolfe
Wolfe, who has degrees in strategic communications and English writing, came into her administrative job with a long election background. That stands out from the many election chiefs across the country who start their roles with little or no election experience.
When Wolfe was hired at the commission’s predecessor, the Government Accountability Board in 2011, her role was to help implement and train clerks and voters about the state’s new voter ID law. The law, which was the target of litigation, was “very divisive,” Wolfe said.
In her training sessions, she said, “I’d start everything by saying, ‘I’m not here to talk about if this is a good law or this is a bad law. I’m just here to tell you what the law is and what we all need to know to be able to navigate it.’”
Those experiences, along with the continuing political and legal battles she faces, she said, have given her an ability “to separate the noise that’s intended to distract us, intended to sway us from what the important things are that actually deserve our resources and our attention.”
“If you don’t have that experience and perspective,” she said, “then it’s really easy to fall into the trap of, here’s this really loud voice or this really loud claim that’s being made, let’s shift all of our resources and our time and everything over to dealing with that, and then it allows other things to fall by the wayside.”
Wolfe moved into IT and leadership roles before becoming administrator in 2018. Some of her work has been groundbreaking across the country.
For example, Wolfe oversaw the in-house development of the statewide registration system and made Wisconsin among the first states to deploy multi-factor authentication for election officials to access that type of system — a crucial cybersecurity tool.
Wisconsin seems like an “unlikely candidate” to develop those complex systems, Wolfe said, but the state has the most decentralized election system in the nation, which means there are few ready-made programs that it could easily implement.
“We’re used to having to just sort of trailblaze,” she said.
Both of those systems became models for other states, including Rhode Island, whose former election director Rob Rock called Wolfe when the state was trying to develop its own custom-built system.
“I really had no idea how to do this, and so to have someone who kind of helped me out through this process was really instrumental,” said Rock, who is now Rhode Island’s deputy secretary of state. “We certainly wouldn’t have the system we have today if it wasn’t for folks like Meagan and her insight into how they did it in Wisconsin.”
Added Rock, “Meagan is one of the best election administrators in this country. I say that without hesitation at all.”
Wolfe’s accomplishments led to her taking leadership roles in national organizations, such as the Electronic Registration Information Center and National Association of State Election Directors.
A significant portion of Wolfe’s job is to be a conduit between state and local election officials.
She appears at clerk conferences to update local election officials on changing laws and oversees programs to train an ever-evolving cast of full- and part-time county and municipal clerks.
Marathon County Clerk Kim Trueblood, a Republican, said she has come to lean on Wolfe, sometimes for emotional support and other times for advice.
This past election cycle, Trueblood faced a contentious primary from an opponent who, she said, accused her of corruption and targeted her over an outstanding speeding ticket, calling her a fugitive from justice and saying she was unfit to serve.
As the attacks wore on, Trueblood said, Wolfe gave her a call to see how she was doing.
“She was not taking any sides,” Trueblood said. “She wasn’t involving herself politically at all. She was just checking in on a fellow human.”
“That says a lot about a person’s character,” Trueblood added.
Another local election official, Douglas County Clerk Kaci Jo Lundgren, a Democrat, recalled Wolfe being there for her when she was in a pinch.
Ahead of the August election this year, Lundgren mistakenly assigned the wrong Assembly district on every ballot in a small town. After catching the error on election day, Lundgren said, one of her first moves was to call Wolfe for advice.
There wasn’t much the commission could do, Lundgren recalled, but Wolfe offered her templates to communicate the error to the town’s voters. Additionally, Lundgren said Wolfe provided emotional support.
“I felt like one mistake ruined everything for me. And she affirmed that I was here because I’m doing a good job, and I’m upset because I care,” Lundgren said. “She knows what it’s like to deal with difficult situations in elections, and because it was my first time having to deal with something so difficult, it was just nice to have her as a resource.”
One figure in national elections, Carolina Lopez, the executive director of the Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions, recalled a particularly volatile time in Wisconsin elections around 2022, when courts were flip-flopping on the legality of drop boxes.
During that time, she said, the elections commission sent rapid updates to make local election officials aware of the recent changes.
“That’s probably the biggest thing you could do for … your counties and the people that you partner with – it’s prompt communication, clear communication.”
For all the credit that clerks give Wolfe, the state’s top election official said she has it easy compared to them.
“If we don’t have them and we don’t have people that are resilient and resourceful and compassionate and tough in each of our communities, then this doesn’t work, right?” Wolfe said. “And so my job is really just to support them.”
Wolfe becomes GOP target after 2020 election
After the 2020 election, a multitude of prominent Republicans, including Trump, blamed Wolfe for Trump’s loss in that year’s election. They baselessly alleged fraud and called for investigations and her ouster, blaming her for a slew of decisions by election commissioners that she had no vote on, like bypassing a state law that ordinarily requires sending election officials to conduct elections in nursing homes.
Calls for a new administrator haven’t entirely ceased. But now, over four years after Wolfe became a target, scores of people in the election community — and even many Republican leaders — are ready to move on.
The Legislature’s top Republican, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, was recently asked on WISN 12 if the Assembly would move to impeach Wolfe. Vos, who had authorized Gableman’s investigation, called it unlikely, adding, “I really want 2020 to be in the rearview mirror.”
Trueblood, the Marathon County clerk, said there’s a sense of camaraderie between local election officials and Wolfe, especially after she became targeted in the wake of the 2020 election.
“For a while, she wasn’t going anywhere by herself for fear of her own safety,” Trueblood said. “I don’t care what your political feelings about somebody are, things like that just aren’t okay. And I think we all developed a really close bond with her.”
If that vitriol gets under Wolfe’s skin, she’s not expressing it.
“I’ve always felt really strongly that we cannot allow people threatening us, harassing us, bullying us, whatever you want to call it – we cannot allow that to sway how we behave or, in my position, to stop me from going out and talking to the public about how elections work,” Wolfe said. “Because in some ways I view that as almost giving in to partisan pressure … and I’m just not going to do that.”
Smooth 2024 election sign that Wolfe should continue, former chief says
Despite efforts to move forward, the fight to target and oust Wolfe has continued into 2024, past the November election, which for the most part went off without a hitch.
After 2020, the commission received thousands of calls and emails replete with election conspiracy theories and false claims, she said. Since the 2024 election, she said, conspiracy theory-laden calls and emails number in the single digits.
At least one significant hurdle awaits, though.
As Wolfe’s term expired in the summer of 2023, the election commission deadlocked on her reappointment. She remained in her role as a holdover appointee and, along with the commission, filed a lawsuit against GOP legislative leaders who sought to oust her.
Both of Wolfe’s predecessors expressed support for her to stay in her job.
Mike Haas, who was administrator at the accountability board and later became the commission’s first administrator, said the smooth administration of the 2024 election “is evidence that the right person is in the job and should continue in it.”
Added Haas, “It would be nice in Wisconsin if we could get to a position of people supporting election officials, rather than being focused on creating imaginary conspiracy theories.”
Kevin Kennedy, who was Wisconsin’s chief election official for over 30 years, said both he and Haas were replaceable — and Wolfe is too.
But Kennedy wondered why people would want to replace “someone who’s really good.”
“I think it’s best for Wisconsin if she stays,” he said.
For her part, Wolfe said she has “no immediate plans to leave” if she wins that case and continues to receive the election commissioners’ approval. She has many ongoing projects, but also wants to gauge what next year looks like, she said.
Wolfe also questioned whether she may get in the way of her agency’s functions, like budget negotiations. If there’s ever a time “where me being in this role seems like it’s not productive to the needs of our agency or the state,” she said, then she may reevaluate staying at the commission, “because this isn’t about me. It’s much bigger and more important than me.”
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
Update, Dec. 12, 2024: A federal judge dismissed the Republican Party of Wisconsin lawsuit on Thursday, saying there’s no controversy over the main issue in the case. Both the GOP and the defendants agree they should cast electoral votes for President-elect Donald Trump on Dec. 17, in compliance with a federal law, not the Dec. 16 date dictated under a state law.
Original story: The Republican Party of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit Friday to resolve a discrepancy between state and federal law directing when appointed presidential electors must meet to cast Electoral College votes.
State law requires presidential electors to meet on Dec. 16 this year, but a federal law passed two years ago calls for them to meet on Dec. 17. The state GOP is calling on a U.S. District Court of Western Wisconsin judge to enforce the federal requirement and strike the state one.
“The presidential electors cannot comply with both requirements,” the lawsuit states.
Resolving the current conflict is key to avoiding the state’s electoral votes getting challenged or contested in Congress, the state GOP states.
The lawsuit highlights the Legislature’s failure to pass a bill that would have brought Wisconsin in line with the new federal law. That inaction, the state GOP says, “led to the current conflict between the federal and state statutes.”
The lawsuit is filed against Gov. Tony Evers, Attorney General Josh Kaul and Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe.
The GOP is asking for the federal court to declare the current state law requirement — for the electors to meet on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, as opposed to the federal law’s requirement to meet on the first Tuesday following the second Wednesday — unconstitutional and unenforceable. Given the tight timeline, it’s seeking a hearing “as soon as the Court’s calendar allows.”
Spokespeople for the Wisconsin Elections Commission and Evers declined to comment for this story.
Generally, federal law supersedes state law if there’s a conflict between the two, said Bryna Godar, a staff attorney at the University of Wisconsin Law School’s State Democracy Research Initiative. Under the current, conflicting laws, electors this year definitely have to meet on Dec. 17, but it’s less clear what they should do on Dec. 16, she told Votebeat in May.
The new designated day arose as a result of the new federal law, commonly called the Electoral Count Reform Act. Congress designed the law in 2022 to prevent the post-election chaos that then-President Donald Trump and his allies created after the 2020 election, which culminated in efforts to send fake electoral votes to Congress, block certification of legitimate electoral votes and then storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The new federal law sets specific schedules for certifying election results and casting electoral votes. It cleared up ambiguities contained in the previous version of the law, which was enacted in 1887 but never updated until two years ago.
As of mid-October, 15 states had updated their laws to comply with the Electoral Count Reform Act, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. A Wisconsin proposal to bring the state in line with the new federal law passed the Senate nearly unanimously in February. But it never received a vote in the Assembly.
“It would have been beneficial if Wisconsin had also done that,” Godar said.
Scott Thompson, a staff attorney at the liberal-leaning legal group Law Forward, said the Legislature knew about this problem for over a year but chose not to resolve it with a simple fix.
“This eleventh hour lawsuit merely confirms that our state Legislature needs to stop peddling election conspiracy theories and start taking the business of election administration seriously,” he said.
Wisconsin Republicans were among those who sent documents to Congress in December 2020 falsely claiming Trump won the state. Trump won the state in 2024. The Wisconsin fake electors were subject to a civil lawsuit, and there’s an ongoing criminal case against their attorneys.
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
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Wisconsin has 36 county-owned nursing homes, more than any state other than Indiana.
But residents in 22 Wisconsin counties lost public nursing homes to sales or closures over the past three decades.
Six counties — Iowa, Lincoln, Portage, St. Croix, Sauk and Washington — have sold, closed or considered selling their nursing homes since 2021.
County-owned nursing homes tend to be better staffed, have higher quality of care and draw fewer complaints than facilities owned by for-profits and nonprofits.
Listen to Addie Costello’s story from WPR.
Arlene Meyer is a busy woman.
The 86-year-old starts each morning by watching the news in her room at Pine Crest Nursing Home in Merrill, Wisconsin. Then it’s off to the dining hall for breakfast so she can “BS with everybody out there.” She never skips her daily walk and devours books delivered by the public library each week — anything except romance or science fiction.
The event calendar in Meyer’s room lists a smorgasbord of other options: manicures and mimosas, chair Zumba, trivia, Packers watch parties and beer pong. Meyer spent a recent Friday at an exercise class in an area of Pine Crest that later hosted a happy hour with live music.
“The concept of old people, it’s out,” Meyer said, adding that “the days go by so fast” — an observation that surprises outsiders with duller expectations for nursing home life.
Arlene Meyer throws an inflatable baseball to another resident during her morning ball exercises on Nov. 15, 2024, at Pine Crest Nursing Home in Merrill, Wis. Meyer has lived in the nursing home since late 2023. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Meyer moved to Pine Crest in 2023 to recover from pneumonia. She liked it so much she stayed permanently. The nursing home’s social media posts show her holding a lizard, relaxing during a spa treatment and singing a Willie Nelson song at karaoke — photos that brought joy to those who know her.
“Sassy Arlene! Love it!” one person commented on a photo. “Happy you haven’t changed Arlene,” wrote another.
Lincoln County owns Pine Crest, one of 36 county-owned nursing homes in Wisconsin. They tend to be better staffed, have higher quality of care and draw fewer complaints than facilities owned by for-profits and nonprofits, a WPR/Wisconsin Watch analysis of U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data shows.
Wisconsin has more county-owned nursing homes than any state but Indiana. But perhaps not for long.
Over more than three decades, residents in 22 Wisconsin counties lost public nursing homes to sales or closures. This year alone at least five counties — including Lincoln — considered selling, started the sales process or sold.
County leaders say they have only two options while facing financial pressures and staffing shortages: sell or close the homes. Local organizers disagree, arguing counties should continue providing high-quality care for low-income older people and disabled adults.
Lincoln County’s board voted to sell Pine Crest to a for-profit at the start of this year. After that buyer backed out, the board is planning to find a new one.
Meyer worries about potential disruptions at Pine Crest.
“I love it here,” she said. “I sincerely do.”
A flurry of nursing home sales and closures
Meyer, a former Lincoln County Board supervisor, doesn’t own a phone, but she stays up to date on local happenings. It didn’t take long before she heard rumblings about selling Pine Crest.
“I was teed off about it because of some of these SOBs,” Meyer said. “They said, ‘well, the cost factor.’ Now I think about what jerks were running this.”
Arlene Meyer is shown at Pine Crest Nursing Home in Merrill, Wis., on Nov. 15, 2024. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Running a nursing home is expensive, and counties aren’t required to do so — something officials often realize during recessions and inflationary periods.
The financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 was Wisconsin’s busiest stretch for nursing home sales, with four counties selling.
Since inflation started surging in 2021, at least five counties outside of Lincoln have sold or considered selling:
Iowa County closed its nursing home in 2022 after failing to find a buyer.
A private nursing home chain took over Washington County’s nursing home in July.
The St. Croix County Board considered selling before voting against it.
Sauk County’s board this year approved a sale to a for-profit that still requires state health department approval.
Portage County heard interest from one prospective buyer but chose not to sell following public pushback. It will decide later this month whether to look for a different buyer.
Meanwhile, dozens of for-profit nursing homes have closed in recent years.
Lincoln County started debating Pine Crest’s future in 2022 while the board sought budget cuts. Then-board chair Don Friske noticed Pine Crest had for years run substantial annual deficits.
That’s been the case since the 1980s for county-run nursing homes nationwide, said Anne Zahradnik, an associate professor of health administration at Marist College.
Those remaining “are a holdover from an orientation toward government solving problems,” she added.
From ‘poor farms’ to nursing homes
Wisconsin’s county governments have a long history of housing vulnerable populations.
Many ran “poor farms” or “poor houses” for residents experiencing poverty starting in the 1800s. Most states eventually created centralized nursing homes to serve older people and those with disabilities from across the state, while Wisconsin prioritized keeping people close to home. A Wisconsin network of local nursing homes and converted poor farms started receiving federal Medicaid funding in 1974, according to a Legislative Audit Bureau report.
Fall decorations fill the halls of Pine Crest Nursing Home on Nov. 15, 2024, in Merrill, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Nursing homes for decades were the only long-term care option for populations they served, and people who relied on government assistance had few choices outside of county homes.
That is changing as people increasingly age at home or in assisted living facilities that offer more independence at a lower cost. Wisconsin’s assisted living options hold more than double the beds of its nursing homes.
But assisted living, unlike nursing homes, can’t care for people who need regular medical attention. Nor do they offer the same protections against evictions for residents who rely on Medicaid, the joint state and federal aid program to help low-income residents afford care.
More than a quarter of nursing home beds, on average, at for-profit and county-owned nursing homes sit empty, according to federal Medicaid data.
Almost 40 of Pine Crest’s 120 beds are vacant, but Wisconsin can’t afford to lose them.
Without nursing homes, hospitals struggle to find housing for their sickest patients, Zahradnik said. The Wisconsin Counties Association projects a need for roughly 10,000 new skilled nursing beds by 2035 as state demographics trend older.
To keep Pine Crest running, Lincoln County’s board debated converting part of it into assisted living or even knocking it down to build a smaller nursing home with lower operation costs. Both options would require up-front money the county lacks, Friske said.
The only remaining option the board sees: selling.
Counties struggle to keep up
Medicaid policy is complicated and frequently changes. The program is also how most nursing home residents pay for care.
Lincoln County’s board lacks expertise on nursing home management, making it hard to keep up, Friske said, echoing officials in other counties.
“We’re horrible at it,” he said.
As the board discussed exiting the nursing home business, it learned the county was short more than $1 million in expected revenue to cover one year’s costs.
Arlene Meyer, second from left, waits for lunch to be served while sitting with three of her fellow residents — including Florence, left, and Peg, right — at Pine Crest Nursing Home in Merrill, Wis., on Nov. 15, 2024. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
The state has traditionally subsidized county-owned nursing homes, and it started increasing Medicaid reimbursements in 2022. The change shrunk ongoing county deficits to provide care, wrote Elizabeth Goodsitt, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, which distributes the nursing home supplements.
That was positive. But shrinking those deficits meant counties would get smaller lump sum subsidies for operating nursing homes – something officials in multiple county governments didn’t anticipate, leading to budget shortfalls.
“Just when you think you’re one step ahead, you’re two steps back,” Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann said.
He described the unexpected loss of the subsidies as “just another brick in the wall” for a nursing home the county ultimately sold to a for-profit this year.
Lincoln County used federal pandemic funds to cover the unexpected subsidy loss — a short-lived option.
Despite supporting county-owned nursing homes, state officials don’t always effectively communicate with counties, said Rene Eastman, vice president of financial and regulatory services at LeadingAge Wisconsin, an advocacy group for older adults.
“If counties hung on for a little bit longer, they would really see the effects of that funding infusion, and they would see the increased need in their communities,” she said.
St. Croix County commits to nursing home
St. Croix County Board Vice Chair Bob Feidler said his colleagues didn’t seriously consider selling its nursing home. But a discussion about that possibility prompted opponents to flood an August board meeting.
The board voted against selling, deciding that nursing home revenue would likely grow, aided by higher Medicaid rates and a federal grant to open a dementia wing.
“All of a sudden, we went from what had been a negative revenue to barely a positive revenue, to a more solid projection,” Feidler said.
Many Lincoln County residents hope their board will reach the same conclusion. But increased Medicaid rates alone won’t cover needed costs outside of care, like renovating Pine Crest’s building, Friske said. That would likely require a property tax increase.
“You can’t just go on a whim, ‘Hey, yeah, we’re going to throw this extra money on the property tax,’ ” Friske said. “People are struggling.”
Arlene Meyer poses for a portrait while resting in her room following her regular walk through the hallways of Pine Crest Nursing Home on Nov. 15, 2024, in Merrill, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
A family picture is framed on top of Arlene Meyer’s refrigerator in her room at Pine Crest Nursing Home in Merrill, Wis., on Nov. 15, 2024. Meyer is third from the left in the top row of the picture. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
County leaders have historically asked voters to support nursing homes through ballot measures.
Voters in Green County, for instance, approved an April ballot measure to continue funding their nursing home.
Portage County voters approved one referendum in 2018 and a $20 million referendum four years later for the construction of a new nursing home — renovations that still haven’t started. Rising construction costs since the delay mean millions more are needed to fund the project, according to county board members who have blocked calls for a fresh referendum.
In Lincoln County, more than 80% of respondents to a 2023 Merrill Foto News and Tomahawk Leader online survey opposed selling Pine Crest.
But the board blocked two efforts to put Pine Crest’s future on the ballot.
How private homes profit: Cutting staff, benefits
Friske had gotten unsolicited calls from brokers even before putting Pine Crest on the market, as have officials in other counties.
Why buy a money-losing nursing home?
For-profits can’t simply build new facilities. The state determines the need for nursing home beds in different communities — requiring newcomers to typically buy a license from an entity already operating a facility.
Deficits under government ownership don’t mean private companies can’t turn a profit.
They might find savings by rejecting applicants with behavioral issues who require costlier care. Counties that own a nursing home typically send higher-needs residents there. Counties that don’t own a nursing home still pay to send such residents to another facility that will accept them.
Private owners frequently reduce staffing and benefits upon purchasing county-owned facilities, Eastman said. Lower staffing correlates with poorer care.
Arlene Meyer laughs with Paula Streich, a certified nursing assistant, right, while eating lunch with three of her fellow Pine Crest Nursing Home residents in Merrill, Wis., on Nov. 15, 2024. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rates nursing home staff on a 1 to 5 scale, considering time they spent with residents and turnover.
The median staff rating at Wisconsin’s county-owned nursing homes is 5, the highest possible, according to WPR and Wisconsin Watch’s analysis. That’s compared with a median rating of 3 at for-profit facilities in the state.
A sign outside of the Portage County Health Care Center touts its 5-star rating. Grace Skibicki, a resident of 13 years and a former care center nurse, recognizes that as impressive.
She expects care to decline if a chain with a lower rating purchases it. She wouldn’t plan to stick around.
“It’s really scary because you don’t know what’s going to happen to you,” Skibicki said.
Staff are also waiting to see what their future holds.
Nursing home work can be grueling with modest pay, accounting for significant staff turnover across the industry. But county-owned nursing homes employ public workers who earn county benefits and access to one of the country’s best-funded retirement systems. That may explain why median turnover trends at Wisconsin’s county-owned homes (41%) are lower than they are at for-profits (51%), WPR and Wisconsin Watch found.
Wisconsin’s for-profit nursing homes drew a median of three substantiated complaints over the last three years, compared to a median of zero at county-owned facilities, which also fared better than for-profits and nonprofits in health inspection and overall quality ratings.
Nursing homes owned by Lincoln, Portage and Sauk counties all rate above average, but county officials believe private owners could run them better.
Counties struggle to make quick decisions the fast-changing industry requires, Friske said.
Potential buyers named in Lincoln, Portage and Sauk counties all own multiple facilities across the state. Two own facilities in other states. That setup makes it easier for them to fund repairs or convert rooms to assisted living quickly without repeatedly asking taxpayers.
Care & Rehab Company, which initially sought to buy Pine Crest, owns six facilities in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Two share Pine Crest’s “much above average” federal rating, but two others received “below average” ratings.
People for Pine Crest
Dora Gorski kept her husband Ken at home for as long as possible.
Ken, a father, veteran, martial arts instructor and first responder, was often too proud to admit to falling — even when Dora woke up to find him on the ground.
A wedding picture of Dora and Ken Gorski is framed in Dora’s new home on Nov. 15, 2024, in Wausau, Wis. Ken spent the end of his life at Pine Crest Nursing Home in Merrill following multiple bouts with COVID-19 and a dementia diagnosis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Dora Gorski poses for a portrait in her new home, Nov. 15, 2024, in Wausau, Wis. She still participates in a group called “People For Pine Crest,” which opposes a sale of Pine Crest Nursing Home in Merrill, where her late husband Ken spent the end of his life. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
She initially got help from neighbors and home health aides who warned her about his worsening dementia. Ken eventually ended up hospitalized and in need of a wheelchair.
When Dora realized she’d have no way to get him into their house upon their return, Pine Crest was her first call.
The woman in admissions knew Ken, who had taught her children aikido. Once he moved in, a maintenance worker recognized Ken as his former martial arts teacher. A caretaker told Dora she knew Ken, too — having worked with him as a phlebotomist.
It turned out that Arlene Meyer, a fellow first responder who had long known Ken, lived down the hall.
“It was people who not just knew him as a doddering old man who is barely able to talk,” Dora said. “They knew him as a respected instructor.”
Dora Gorski looks through aikido keepsakes from her late husband Ken in Wausau, Wis. While moving into Pine Crest Nursing Home in Merrill, Wis., where he spent the end of his life, Ken interacted with multiple people who knew him from his days as an aikido instructor. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Two weeks before Ken’s death in December 2023, Pine Crest hosted his 90th birthday party. His children, former students and friends, including Meyer, packed a community room.
“That meant a lot to Ken,” said Dora, who still participates in a group called “People For Pine Crest,” which opposes a sale.
“We own it. It’s our place. We all take pride in it being here,” she said.
The group spent 2023 urging the Lincoln County Board to keep the nursing home. Their flurry of petitions, yard signs, T-shirts, public testimonies, phone calls and emails didn’t work. The board voted to sell to Care & Rehab.
But an attorney and ally on the county board noticed a language problem in the sale agreement and sued the county to halt the sale.
Care & Rehab backed out before the case could move forward, offering People For Pine Crest a reprieve.
But Friske, who lost reelection this spring, sees a ticking clock. He expects Pine Crest will face a fiscal crisis that will force a closure unless it sells.
He resents any suggestion that his board colleagues don’t care about those who depend on Pine Crest.
“The county board is not a congressman from Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, telling Wisconsin how to live,” Friske said. “What’s happening here is friends and neighbors who are elected to the county board. They live here, their families are here, we’re all here.”
Lincoln County has just two other nursing homes, both in Tomahawk and with lower federal ratings.
Dora Gorski, who lives 20 minutes from Pine Crest, said the short distance allowed her to eat breakfast with Ken most mornings. That routine would have been tough to maintain — doubling the length of her drive — had he lived in one of Lincoln County’s two private facilities or the state veterans home in King, Wisconsin.
The county hopes to keep some nursing home beds in Merrill, said current Lincoln County chair Jesse Boyd, but they won’t be county-owned. He agrees with Friske’s financial outlook.
“Right now, we’re drowning,” he said.
The county now has lined up a couple of potential buyers for Pine Crest.
If a sale proceeds? Pine Crest won’t be the same, Gorski expects. For now it’s “full of neighbors and friends and people from our community, people who love us and know us,” she said.
“You don’t find that in some big city, and you don’t find that in a private, for-profit nursing home.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Wisconsin parents who wanted to challenge a school district’s guidance for supporting transgender students.
The justices, acting in a case from Eau Claire, left in place an appellate ruling dismissing the parents’ lawsuit.
Parents with children in Eau Claire public schools argued in a lawsuit that the school district’s policy violates constitutional protections for parental rights and religious freedom.
Sixteen Republican-led states had urged the court to take up the parents’ case.
Lower courts had found that the parents lacked the legal right, or standing. Among other reasons, the courts said no parent presented evidence that the policy affected them or their children.
A unanimous three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals included two judges Republican Donald Trump appointed during his first term.
But Alito described the case as presenting “a question of great and growing national importance,” whether public school districts violate parents’ rights when they encourage students to transition or assist in the process without parental consent or knowledge.
“Administrative Guidance for Gender Identity Support” encourages transgender students to reach out to staff members with concerns and instructs employees to be careful who they talk to about a student’s gender identity, since not all students are “out” to their families.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup.This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.
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