President Donald Trump’s recently enacted big bill removes the federal income tax on certain tips and overtime, but those tax deductions end in 2028 and have other limitations.
Under the new law, restaurant servers, barbers and other workers who typically work for tips can deduct up to $25,000 of tip income – meaning that amount isn’t taxable.
For overtime pay, the tax deduction is up to $12,500.
Both deductions generally are for people who earn less than $150,000 annually.
Federal payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare (FICA), and state and local taxes, stillapply.
The tipped income provision would affect about 2% of households, and they would receive an average tax cut of $1,800 annually, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimated.
About 8% of hourly workers and 4% of salaried workers regularly work overtime, according to the Yale Budget Lab.
The average annual savings for the overtime provision is $1,400, according to the White House.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
We’ve written more extensively about this topic in a different article. You can read more about it here.
A federal appeals court ruled Monday against a Wisconsin town that disavowed electronic voting machines, siding with the U.S. Justice Department’s argument that this would unfairly harm voters with disabilities.
What’s the dispute?
Leaders of Thornapple, a town of 700 people in northern Wisconsin’s Rusk County, voted in 2023 to stop using electronic voting machines, in favor of allowing only hand-marked ballots. They did without the machines for two elections in a row, in April and August 2024.
The DOJ, under the Biden administration, sued the town in September 2024, arguing that its decision violated the Help America Vote Act, which requires every “voting system” to be accessible for voters with disabilities. Accessible voting machines allow voters with disabilities to hear the options on the ballot and use a touch-sensitive device to mark it.
The town argued that it wasn’t subject to the federal law’s accessibility provision because its use of paper ballots didn’t constitute a “voting system.”
A district court judge rejected the town’s argument last September and ordered it to use electronic voting machines for the November presidential election. The town appealed that order, but did use a machine in November.
On Monday, a three-judge panel in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower-court order, finding that “individuals with disabilities would lack the opportunity to vote privately and independently if they only had access to a paper ballot.”
The court based that finding partially on Thornapple Chief Inspector Suzanne Pinnow’s testimony about a blind woman who relied on her daughter’s assistance to fill out a ballot, and a man who had a stroke and who needed Pinnow to guide his hand so he could mark a ballot.
Who are the parties?
The DOJ had sued two northern Wisconsin towns and their officials in September after both decided not to use electronic voting equipment for at least one federal election. One of the towns, Lawrence, immediately settled with the Justice Department, vowing to use accessible voting machines in the future.
Thornapple officials decided to fight the case. They’re currently represented by an attorney with the America First Policy Institute, a group aligned with President Donald Trump.
Why does it matter?
The case reaffirms what has long been election practice in Wisconsin: Every polling place must have an electronic voting machine that anybody can use but is especially beneficial for voters with disabilities.
Distrust of voting machines, which has grown on the right following misinformation about the 2020 election, has led to a movement to ban them across Wisconsin. But the Thornapple case shows that for now, municipalities still have obligations under federal law to allow voters to cast ballots on electronic machines.
The case is relevant nationally, too. Since Trump took office in January, the U.S. Justice Department has withdrawn from multiple voting-related cases. But the Justice Department forged ahead in this lawsuit, signaling that, at least for now, it is not backing the movement to forgo electronic voting equipment entirely.
What happens now?
Thornapple is “considering our options,” said Nick Wanic of the America First Policy Institute. The case could get appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court or proceed in the lower federal court.
Although the order that required Thornapple to use accessible voting machines applied only to the November 2024 election, at this point, two federal courts in this case have ruled that towns must have accessible voting machines for people with disabilities.
“Voters with disabilities already face many barriers in the electoral process, and making sure they have access to a voting system which allows for basic voting rights to be met is a minimum — and legal — standard that they should not be worried about when exercising their right to vote,” said Lisa Hassenstab, public policy manager at Disability Rights Wisconsin.
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
In this video, Wisconsin Watch reporter Bennet Goldstein discusses his recent story about Jess D’Souza, a pork farmer in Dane County affected by the loss of the Local Food Purchase Assistance program that was cut by the Trump administration earlier this year. The video includes images by Joe Timmerman and Patricio Crooker and was produced by Joe Timmerman.
About this video
The Local Food Purchase Assistance program, or LFPA, was a federal program that awarded states two-year grants to help small farmers invest in their local food systems while growing their businesses.
The Trump administration gutted the program in March, just as farmers started placing seed orders. The timing particularly affected livestock farmers who often need to commit to the size of their herd and harvest over a year in advance.
Wisconsin Watch staff writer Bennet Goldstein spent weeks talking with producers affected by the loss of LFPA, including Jess D’Souza, a pork farmer in Dane County. During one of several visits to her farm, he and photojournalist Patricio Crooker watched meat processors harvest her pigs to fully appreciate how food travels from farm to plate.
On a separate visit to the farm, Joe Timmerman photographed Jess and her herd of Gloucestershire Old Spots pigs, documenting many beautiful moments on the piece of agricultural land that she purchased nearly a decade ago and eventually named Wonderfarm.
Collectively, the images tell a story of life, death and resilience on a small farm – but some viewers may find some of the images in the video uncomfortable or even emotionally upsetting. Our decision to include them was the result of many discussions that touch on long-standing debates in newsrooms about when it is justified to publish or showcase disquieting images related to death, injury or violence.
Some of the questions raised in these discussions don’t have simple answers. For instance, Bennet wonders whether our desire to outsource meat production to others — and hide the bloody parts of that business — contributes to the characterization of these photos as being in poor taste or emotionally disturbing.
We welcome your thoughts and feedback on any of the issues and questions raised in this reporting.
As for the LFPA program’s future, Wisconsin producers hope to see funding restored in the yet-to-be-debated federal Farm Bill.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
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The Trump administration has frozen $715 million in previously appropriated adult education funds nationwide, including $7 million in Wisconsin.
That’s left program staff scrambling to figure out how they’ll continue providing free services that prepare people for the workforce, such as helping people learn English and educating people in prisons and jails.
Education leaders say the cuts could kneecap efforts to grow Wisconsin’s thin workforce.
Attorney General Josh Kaul has joined a coalition that is suing the federal government over a freeze he calls “unconstitutional, unlawful, and arbitrary.”
On a recent Wednesday evening, a handful of adults sat around a table in a classroom at Madison College’s Goodman South Campus. They chatted about the week, their plans for the weekend and, finally, the day’s discussion question: Are human rights universal?
The Literacy Network’s “Transitions” class is designed as a final step for immigrants with advanced English skills, preparing them for college or careers. Students spend a year learning to set goals, write resumes and interview for jobs. On this day, the lesson was about finding reliable sources for their next big assignment: a college-style oral presentation on a historical human rights struggle.
The Madison-based adult education nonprofit has surpassed many of its goals in recent years, with particularly high enrollment in Transitions. It scored a $72,000 annual federal grant to grow the program from 100 to 150 students.
But in June, the organization learned the money wasn’t coming.
On June 30, the Trump administration said it was withholding the nearly $7 million Wisconsin was previously set to receive for adult education — threatening programs that help adults complete high school, learn English and improve their literacy skills, among other services.
If the funding isn’t distributed, the shortfall could shrink remedial programs in a state where around 340,000 adults don’t have a high school diploma, Wisconsin providers warn.
“Reducing funding from programs that have been proven to be effective — and impact not just individuals but whole communities — is really short-sighted,” said Literacy Network executive director Robin Ryan.
The administration has frozen $715 million in adult education funds nationwide, its largest blow to community college program funding to date. It’s part of $6.8 billion in total federal education funding frozen while the administration ensures “taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the President’s priorities,” a U.S. Department of Education memo said.
While the majority of funding on hold is for K-12 education, federal dollars make up a greater share of the adult education budgets. That’s left staff scrambling to figure out how they’ll continue to provide their free services, which range from helping people learn English to educating those incarcerated in prisons and jails.
Megan Kennedy, second from right, instructs a Literacy Network of Dane County English Transitions class at Madison College’s Goodman South Campus on July 9, 2025, in Madison, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Sixteen technical colleges and seven community organizations in Wisconsin have received federal funding through a competitive process for adult education and literacy programs. More than 17,000 people attended these institutions for services during the 2023-24 school year, many of whom are people of color or are from low-income backgrounds.
“To me, that’s something that we should be doubling down on and tripling down on, not cutting funding,” said Wisconsin Technical College System President Layla Merrifield.
Wisconsin leaders are fighting to get the promised funds. On Monday, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, joined 23 other states in suing the Trump administration, calling the freeze “unconstitutional, unlawful, and arbitrary.”
“The Wisconsin Technical College System Board has already begun canceling professional development activities, and staff layoffs may soon follow, further disrupting services,” Kaul said in a statement. “This sudden funding loss leaves Wisconsin’s technical colleges facing budget shortfalls that threaten the stability of these essential programs.”
Trump officials allege ‘dismal’ results
Funding fears began swirling in the adult education community months ago. In early May, President Donald Trump sent Congress a fiscal year 2026 budget outline that called for the elimination of grants under the Adult Education Family Literacy Act, asserting the funding produces “dismal” results. Organizations braced for the possibility of not receiving federal funding beyond the next year.
“K-12 outcomes will improve as education returns to the states, which would make remedial education for adults less necessary,” the administration’s discretionary funding request read. “The budget redirects resources to programs that more directly prepare students for meaningful careers.”
The shock came two months later, when Trump’s administration withheld the money adult education providers had budgeted for the upcoming year — funding already approved under the Biden administration.
Ryan of the Literacy Network felt déjà vu when she heard the news.
The Trump administration in April informed her it was canceling a different previously approved grant: $74,000 to help prepare students with green cards to take the U.S. citizenship test.
“It used to be you would always fight for the next budget, the next grant, but once you got a grant, you knew you had it,” Ryan said. “Since this administration started …we’re in a new climate.”
Monday’s lawsuit argues Trump officials are violating the law in refusing to spend the money. The administration has not indicated whether it will eventually release the frozen funds.
Ryan isn’t holding her breath, and she’s preparing for the worst.
Saulo Avella Salas reads coursework with his classmates and instructor during a Literacy Network of Dane County English Transitions class at Madison College’s Goodman South Campus on July 9, 2025, in Madison, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Adult education departments at technical colleges receive most of the adult education dollars allocated to Wisconsin. They are being “extra tight” with their budgets, said Peter Snyder, associate dean of adult education at Moraine Park Technical College. Snyder expects community organizations — like Literacy Network — to feel the impacts of cuts even more because more of their work centers on adult education.
“With our Technical College System colleges, we’re doing a lot of other work, so for us, it’s more of a matter of managing what we have,” Snyder said. “My heart goes out to those other programs that are doing really great work that are solely reliant on that funding.”
Milwaukee Area Technical College runs the state’s largest adult education program, serving more than 12,000 students between the 2020 and 2022 school years. It’s currently missing $800,000 in promised grant dollars, plus around $500,000 in other funds that were contingent on the federal money.
“The loss of (this) funding would result in a significant negative impact for supplying the region’s talent pipeline and would negatively affect our students’ economic mobility and career success,” MATC spokesperson Darryll Fortune said in an emailed statement.
Worsening workforce woes
Education leaders say the cuts could kneecap efforts to grow Wisconsin’s thin workforce.
In the 2023-24 school year, the most recently available data, more than 2,700 Wisconsin adult education students earned a high school equivalency credential, and over 2,500 enrolled in college or workforce training, preparing them for jobs for which they may not have otherwise qualified.
Literacy Network associate director Jennifer Peterson said programs like the Transitions class are a wise investment.
Recipients of these federal dollars must test students throughout their studies and report how many achieved at least one of the benchmarks the federal government tracks, which include raising scores by approximately two grade levels, earning a high school equivalency or enrolling in postsecondary education.
Of the 77 Transitions students tested over the past three years, 71% showed that type of improvement.
The funding freeze unfolds as Wisconsin employers struggle to find workers qualified for jobs in many key industries.
“This is definitely not a case of not aligning with the priorities, because the priority is labor, and that’s what this work is doing,” Peterson said. “Wisconsin needs more workers and will continue to need more workers.”
Anna Mykhailova, a cardiologist who fled Ukraine after the 2022 Russian invasion, landed a new job after taking the Transitions class.
Licensing laws make it complicated for many foreign-trained medical professionals to practice in the United States, so Mykhailova took what she learned in the class and became a phlebotomist — someone trained to draw blood — at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison.
She later moved up to a role as a cardiac sonographer, taking ultrasounds with the skills she’d used as a doctor in Ukraine. Literacy Network, where she still attends tutoring to improve her English, awarded her scholarships to cover the cost of her board certification exams.
Mykhailova’s husband Sasha Druzhyna, who worked as an anesthesiologist in Ukraine, took the same class. In fall, he’ll start a graduate program at the Milwaukee School of Engineering to become a perfusionist, a specialist who operates a heart-lung machine during open-heart surgery.
That class won’t expand without the frozen funds, and Literacy Network has already cut some classes.
Juan Garcia, right, talks with his classmates and instructor during a Literacy Network of Dane County English Transitions class at Madison College’s Goodman South Campus on July 9, 2025, in Madison, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Message to public: Please help
Trump’s move to withhold already-appropriated funding surprised even those who have seen priorities ebb and flow under previous presidents.
“This has historically, for many decades, been very stable funding that has strong bipartisan support. It has been, up until now, pretty outside of political winds blowing,” Peterson said. “It’s a big change in our field.”
Staff at Neighborhood House of Milwaukee had already found a way to do without these funds before the news came down. The nonprofit offers ESL and citizenship classes for around 150 immigrants each year, many of them refugees from the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America.
The organization previously received a $75,000 annual federal adult education grant, but staff didn’t submit all the necessary paperwork when the latest applications were due, so it wasn’t expecting a fresh round of funding. The organization instead turned to private donors and other grants — a shift others who long depended on federal funding may soon need to make, too.
Liliane McFarlane, who manages the organization’s International Education program, said the organization raised enough to replace the federal funding for a year.
The Literacy Network is bracing for the possibility of additional federal cuts. It relies on three other federal grants, with about 15% of its $2.6 million budget coming from Washington.
“We consider all of that to be endangered,” Ryan said.
For now, Ryan said, the goal is just to keep all programs afloat and hope so the organization can scale up during a future presidential administration.
“We are hoping that this is a Trump administration duration of difficulty,” she said. “We are very much reaching out to the public and saying, ‘Please help us. These are important, effective programs that affect the whole community and help people thrive.’”
Natalie Yahr and Miranda Dunlap report on pathways to success in Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Gov. Tony Evers’ 2023 partial veto increased K-12 public school districts’ revenue fundraising limits by $325 per student each year until 2425, but that doesn’t guarantee property tax increases each year.
Revenue limits set how much a district can increase funding through a combination of property taxes and general state aid. School districts could raise property taxes in order to reach the maximum revenue, or the Legislature and governor could provide more general aid through the biennial budget. The average limit across districts last year was $13,363.
This year, the Republican-controlled Legislature kept general state aid flat. School boards can raise property taxes up to their allowed maximum funding in their annual budgets.
In future budgets, the Legislature and governor could provide enough state aid to cover the limit increase in whole or even exceed it, which would force districts to reduce property taxes. They also could repeal the 400-year revenue limit provision.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Homer Blow, a well-known radio personality and producer in Milwaukee, saw more than fireworks shoot off outside his North Side home on the Fourth of July.
He witnessed flames from a fire that damaged homes, destroyed at least one garage and engulfed two vehicles – the result of illegal fireworks.
“There were multiple people on multiple blocks setting off those really big fireworks,” Blow said.
Blow filmed firefighters working to put out flames just four houses down from his home on the 2900 block of North 53rd Street near Sherman Park.
Growing problem in Milwaukee
The incident is part of a growing trend in Milwaukee: fires caused by illegal fireworks on the Fourth of July. This year, there were seven fireworks-related fires on July 4, according to data provided by Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski.
In 2020, there was one. Five of the seven fires this year – including the fire on North 53rd Street – occurred on the north or northwest sides of the city, according to fire department reports.
Since 2020, there have been 17 fires on the Fourth of July linked to fireworks. That total could be higher because determining the precise cause of a fire is difficult, Lipski said.
“We do not always either know or have available to us the exact cause just based upon the realities of fire damaging/destroying evidence for all of these fires,” Lipski wrote in an email to NNS.
The fire on North 53rd Street also damaged this garage and destroyed several garbage carts. (Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)
‘I just needed to make sure my family was safe’
Shanise Sanders knows all too well the damage fireworks can cause. Her Northwest Side home erupted in flames last year on the Fourth of July.
Sanders said she and four family members were in their apartment at 6279 N. 84th St. when it caught fire.
“At the time, I had no fear – I just needed to make sure my family was safe,” Sanders said. “But it was definitely scary.”
Everyone made it out safely, Sanders said, but she and her family lost their home and all their possessions.
Illegal fireworks were used near the rear of the building, one of which reportedly lodged behind the electrical meter and exploded, according to information from the fire department.
Two years before Sanders’ fire, Christina Blake said her North Side home burned down on July 4 – with her daughter and grandchildren inside.
“They called me and said they see smoke coming from the wall,” Blake said.
According to Blake, a firework went between the sun porch and the house, where a socket was on the other side of the wall, resulting in an electrical fire.
“I wish people could know firsthand the damage it causes,” Blake said. “There should be more consequences.”
Fireworks banned in the city
The sale, possession and use of fireworks is illegal in the city without a permit approved by the fire chief, according to a city ordinance. Violators can face fines ranging from $500 to $1,000, and those who fail to pay may be jailed for up to 40 days.
The ban on fireworks came after the Milwaukee Common Council created a fireworks task force in 2006 to examine the impact of fireworks on public safety after a Milwaukee home was destroyed.
Ald. Mark Chambers Jr., who represents the district Sanders lived in, said in a statement that the fire that destroyed her home was entirely preventable, suggesting the Legislature revisit regulations surrounding these “commercial, high-grade explosives.”
Undeterred by the fire on July 4, people on North 53rd Street were setting off fireworks the next day, Blow said.
“I understand people want to light fireworks, but, I mean, you have to understand fire safety,” Blow said. “My whole thing is – what goes up must come down,” he said. “When those fireworks come down, they’re going to be hot.”
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
For over a decade, Wisconsin has heard the same message from Republicans regarding full Medicaid expansion: Accepting 90% federal reimbursement to cover more low-income people will only set Wisconsin up for failure if the federal government abandons its part of the deal.
At first glance, President Donald Trump’s recently signed big bill appears to validate that argument. The 40 states that have fully expanded are now expected to lose billions of dollars in federal aid while getting tagged with additional administrative costs to create work requirements and eligibility assessments required in the bill.
But it turns out Wisconsin is still going to be subject to the new federal mandates without the higher federal reimbursement rate that expansion states will continue to receive. In other words, at a time when the Republican-controlled federal government is supposedly pulling out the rug from expansion states, Wisconsin is still left holding the bag.
A look back
Back in 2014, then-Gov. Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republicans made the controversial decision not to accept full Medicaid expansion.
At the time, Walker explained his goal “is to get more people out into the workplace, more people covered when it comes to health care and fewer people dependent on the government, not because we’ve kicked them out, but we’ve empowered them to take control of their own destiny.”
But he also argued that the federal government would eventually pull back on its commitment to fund Medicaid at 90%.
“That commitment is not going to be there and taxpayers all across America will be on the hook,” Walker said. “They are not going to be on the hook in Wisconsin.”
At the time, Wisconsin was one of 25 states not accepting expansion. Now, the state is one of the 10 remaining holdouts, with most of the others in the deep red South. Even reliably red states, like Arkansas and Louisiana, have accepted full expansion.
Instead of accepting full expansion, Wisconsin chose to cover individuals through BadgerCare, the state’s Medicaid-supported health insurance program for low-income residents set up by former Gov. Tommy Thompson, a Republican.
Walker and Republicans lowered Medicaid coverage to 100% of the federal poverty line from the previous 200% and eliminated the waiting list for childless adults. Those above the poverty line without employer-sponsored insurance could purchase it through the Affordable Care Act marketplace using federal subsidies, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
But Wisconsin taxpayers are paying more to cover individuals below the poverty line: 39.3% of costs rather than 10% under full Medicaid expansion. In 2023, Medicaid accounted for 15.7% of state taxpayer spending, according to the policy forum.
Under its approach, Wisconsin doesn’t have an eligibility gap like some states, something Republicans highlight as a reason the state doesn’t need to expand.
But that has come with a loss of federal funds. Over the past decade, Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services estimates, the state has spent about $2.6 billion more to cover the costs of a partial expansion compared with the projected cost under a federal expansion.
Under an expansion, more individuals would be able to access Medicaid. But the Wisconsin Policy Forum found it would have a somewhat modest impact on coverage levels — the percentage change in Medicaid enrollees would be 7.2%, compared with nearly 30% or more in other non-expansion states.
Work requirements still in effect under Trump bill
With the recent federal bill, Walker and other Republicans still argue Wisconsin was right not to accept federal expansion. The state is going to experience the impacts to a lesser extent than fully expanded states.
But because Wisconsin receives federal waivers for its Medicaid program, the state is still subject to some provisions under the new law, including the work requirements, eligibility determinations and provider taxes.
Under the new work requirements, individuals covered by Medicaid are required to prove they are working 80 hours per month — parents with dependent children or people who are medically frail are exempted.
As a result, some 230,000 Wisconsin residents could lose coverage while the state incurs administrative costs to account for the new requirements, according to an estimate from U.S. Senate Democrats based on data from the Congressional Budget Office.
The work requirements don’t stop at individuals covered by Medicaid alone; it also extends to coverage through marketplace subsidies, affecting over 200,000 Wisconsin residents.
Work requirements used to be required for Wisconsin residents to access coverage through federal waivers, but in 2021 then-President Joe Biden removed the work requirement.
The labor force participation rate has dipped from about 68% in 2017 to a little over 65% as of May 2025 but has remained higher than the national average, which is about 62%. Some reports suggest that decline is due to the aging workforce in the state.
Work requirements have also been found to increase the uninsured rate.
The Wisconsin Policy Forum reports that one of the main reasons work requirements may lead to higher uninsured rates is that they are confusing and time-consuming. Some people may choose to get rid of coverage altogether to avoid unnecessary paperwork.
What could happen with the federal bill?
The Kaiser Family Foundation also found that implementing work requirements will be costly for states, costing anywhere from $10 million to over $270 million, depending on the size of the state. DHS estimates the state will pay $6 million annually to implement work requirements, while receiving a lower federal match rate than fully expanded states to reimburse for administrative costs.
With a lower federal match rate, Wisconsin has increased Medicaid funding through hospital taxes, which the new state budget just increased from 1.8% to the federal maximum of 6% for the 2025-27 biennium budget.
Republican lawmakers in the state were quick to approve the hospital tax increase, despite their previous opposition to Medicaid expansion as a means for drawing down additional federal funding. If they hadn’t, the state’s 1.8% tax would have been frozen under Trump’s big bill. The increase will raise some $1 billion more annually in federal matching funds that the state can use to pay hospitals for care they provide Medicaid patients.
States that expanded will not lose the 90% federal match rate, but those like Wisconsin that didn’t will now miss out on an additional incentive to expand created during the Biden administration.
The incentive would have raised the federal match rate to 95% for two years, but was eliminated by Trump’s big bill. Instead Wisconsin will remain at about 60% reimbursement, while still facing the same bureaucratic requirements as expansion states.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
A program at Marquette University that trains Milwaukee-area teachers to incorporate the city’s untold stories – particularly those of communities of color – into their classrooms is losing federal funding.
The U.S. Department of Education sent a letter that stated it will not continue the grant, saying the program – called MKE Roots – reflects “the prior administration’s priorities and policy preferences and conflict with those of the current administration.”
The decision means funding will end this fall, leading to staff cuts and scaling back of programming.
It’s a loss for the teachers who participate – but one that will affect thousands of Milwaukee students, said Melissa Gibson, faculty director of MKE Roots.
“Students realize that their communities have this whole rich history of organizing and advocating, making our city not only what it is but also a better place,” Gibson said. “They feel more empowered to be their own community and civic leaders.”
‘A rich tapestry of cultural experiences’
MKE Roots is a professional development program for Milwaukee-area teachers that includes a weeklong summer training in which they visit local landmarks and meet with historians and community leaders.
Places this summer included America’s Black Holocaust Museum and Sherman Phoenix Marketplace.
Before the school year begins, teachers get help developing lesson plans that reflect what they’ve learned, then they meet at least four more times to collaborate.
There is also an online map with lesson plans and primary sources tied to Milwaukee neighborhoods.
“We are heralding the men and women – the legacies of our city’s past – so that our students understand that they are part of a rich tapestry of cultural experiences,” said Robert Smith, director of Marquette’s Center for Urban Research, Teaching & Outreach, which houses MKE Roots.
Milwaukee schools often teach local history through a curriculum that focuses largely on traditional narratives – such as beer barons and European immigrants, Gibson said.
“Students don’t know that Black Milwaukeeans have been here since the 1800s” before Wisconsin was a state, she said. “They don’t know how and why Mexican migrants came to Milwaukee in the 1920s. They don’t know that Wisconsin was one of the first states to pass anti-LGBTQ discrimination laws.”
“No matter where you are as a teacher, you do something like this, and it gives you perspectives that I think truly, as a teacher – especially today – you need,” said Jeffrey Gervais, a fifth-grade teacher at Hamlin Garland School who is participating in this year’s training.
The letter
In 2023, the Department of Education awarded MKE Roots a three-year grant for $1.27 million. However, on June 18, the department sent a letter to Gibson that stated it will not fund the program for the third year.
The letter gave four possible reasons for the decision: The program violates the letter or purpose of federal civil rights law; conflicts with the department’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness and excellence in education; undermines the well-being of the students the program is intended to help; or constitutes an inappropriate use of federal funds.
It did not specify which reason – or reasons – apply in this case.
The Department of Education did not respond to questions about its decision, but Smith said he can only assume it is because of the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion, often known as DEI.
It calls for eliminating federal funding that supports “gender ideology” or “discriminatory equity ideology” in K-12 curriculum, instruction, programs or activities, as well as teacher education, certification, licensing, employment or training.
DEI or not DEI?
Smith rejects the idea that MKE Roots is a DEI program.
“The notion of DEI is fundamentally based on people having equal access to institutions,” he said. “What we are doing is actually attending to the various populations of students we serve.”
Smith also disputes the reasons listed in the letter from the Department of Education.
“None of the reasons are accurate relative to what we do with MKE Roots,” he said. “This is civics education at its purest – making sure our teachers have the tools to engage in important conversations with their students about Milwaukee, Wisconsin, their neighborhoods and communities, and their role in shaping those neighborhoods and communities.”
Smith and Gibson said they are appealing the decision.
Gibson said she is considering applying for a new Department of Education grant for civic education programs that develop “citizen competency and informed patriotism” especially among low-income students and underserved populations, according to the grant’s description.
It would require redesigning aspects of MKE Roots to put “founding documents in conversation with local context,” Gibson said.
“We would need to find a different funding stream to maintain what MKE Roots currently does,” she added.
Regardless of the outcome, she said, the work will continue.
“I was doing this work before I had funding, and I’ll do it after I have funding.”
Wisconsin will receive an estimated $1 billion more annually in federal funds for Medicaid because the state budget includes a change that pre-empts a provision in President Donald Trump’s big bill.
Trump’s bill would have prevented Wisconsin from raising its hospital tax.
But days before Trump signed it, the Republican-led Legislature and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers approved a 2025-27 state budget that raises Wisconsin’s hospital tax from 1.8% to 6%.
The increase will raise some $1 billion more annually in federal matching funds that the state can use to pay hospitals for care they provide Medicaid patients.
Wisconsin’s largest Medicaid program is BadgerCare Plus, which provides health insurance to about 1 million low-income people age 64 and under.
Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who represents western Wisconsin, claimed that Trump’s bill “secured” the $1 billion.
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Boosting corrections officers’ pay initially helped address chronic staffing shortages in Wisconsin prisons, but vacancies have been rising again in recent months.
Corrections officers say the trend is predictable as new officers, attracted by competitive starting wages, discover the demands of the work. Improving training, safety and workplace culture would help, they say.
Some Democratic lawmakers, prisoner rights advocates and even correctional officers argue that reducing the prison population would improve conditions for inmates and staff.
Responding to staffing shortages that imperiled guards and staff, Wisconsin lawmakers in 2023 significantly increased pay for corrections officers — hoping to retain and attract more workers to the grueling job.
It helped, at least initially. But following significant progress, staffing vacancies are again growing in many Wisconsin prisons. The data support a common complaint from correctional officers and their supporters: The Department of Corrections and the Legislature must do more to retain officers in the long run. Improving training, safety and workplace culture would help, they say.
Meanwhile, some Democratic lawmakers, prisoner rights advocates and correctional officers argue that reducing the prison population would improve conditions for inmates and staff by reducing overcrowding and easing tensions.
The two-year budget Gov. Tony Evers signed last week included a small boost in funding for programs geared at limiting recidivism and additional funding to plan the closure of one of Wisconsin’s oldest prisons. But Republicans removed broader Evers proposals that focused on rehabilitating prisoners, and a plan to close Green Bay’s 127-year-old prison includes few details.
“Reducing the number of people we incarcerate in Wisconsin is critical, both because of the harm that mass incarceration does to individuals and communities, and because of the resulting stress from overburdening prison staff,” Rep. Ryan Clancy, D-Milwaukee, told Wisconsin Watch. “Packing more people into our prisons leads to worse services and worse outcomes when incarcerated folks are released back into the community.”
Wisconsin Watch and The New York Times last year detailed how Wisconsin officials for nearly a decade failed to take significant steps to slow a hemorrhaging of corrections officers that slowed basic operations to a crawl. During that period prisoners escaped, staff overtime pay soared and lockdowns kept prisoners from exercise, fresh air and educational programming, leading some to routinely threaten suicide.
Waupun Correctional Institution is shown on Aug. 29, 2024, in Waupun, Wis. Staffing vacancies at the prison peaked at 56% that year but now hover around 20%. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
At Waupun Correctional Institution, staffing vacancies peaked at 56% in February 2024, leaving more positions open than filled.
As aging staff members retired, the state struggled to replace them, particularly after Act 10, a sweeping 2011 state law that gutted most public workers’ ability to collectively bargain for more attractive conditions. Vacancy rates steadily climbed to 43% in the state’s maximum-security prisons and 35% across all adult institutions before pay raises took effect in October 2023.
Following two years of partisan infighting, the Republican-led Legislature approved a compensation package that increased starting pay for corrections officers from $20.29 to $33 an hour, with a $5 add-on for staff at maximum-security prisons and facilities with vacancy rates above 40% for six months straight.
Within a year, vacancy rates plunged as low as 15% at maximum-security prisons and 11% across all adult prisons.
Rep. Mark Born, a Beaver Dam Republican who co-chairs the Legislature’s budget-writing Joint Finance Committee, credited legislative action with greatly reducing staffing shortages.
“As I’ve talked to the prisons in my district, they’re happy to see that the recruit classes are much larger and the vacancies are about half of what they were prior to the action in the last budget,” he told Wisconsin Watch.
Vacancies rise following initial progress
It’s true that vacancies are nowhere near their previous crisis levels. Those include rates in Waupun and Green Bay, where officials previously locked down prisoners during severe staffing shortages. Green Bay now has just over half the vacancy rate it had during the height of the crisis. Waupun has recovered even more dramatically. After plunging much of last year, its vacancy rate has hovered near 20% in recent months.
But vacancies are increasing across much of the prison system, corrections data show. As of July 1, rates reached 26% at maximum-security prisons and more than 17% overall. The department has lost more than 260 full-time equivalent officer and sergeant positions over the past nine months.
The vacancy rate at Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, which has the most gaping staffing shortage, reached 41% on July 1, up from a low of 11% a year ago.
Push to close Green Bay prison
The new state budget appropriated $15 million “to develop preliminary plans and specifications” to realign the Department of Corrections and eventually close the Green Bay prison, whose vacancy rate has grown from a low of 9% last October to nearly 25%.
Republicans proposed closing the prison by 2029, but Evers used his veto power to remove that date, saying he objected to setting a closure date “while providing virtually no real, meaningful, or concrete plan to do so.”
How a future prison closure would shape long-term population trends may hinge on what replaces the prison. Evers earlier this year proposed a $500 million overhaul to, among other provisions, close the Green Bay prison; renovate the Waupun prison — adding a “vocational village” to expand workforce training; and convert the scandal-plagued Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake youth prison into an adult facility.
Republicans rejected that more ambitious proposal in crafting the bill that became law.
Green Bay Correctional Institution’s front door reads “WISCONSIN STATE REFORMATORY,” a nod to its original name, in Allouez, Wis., on June 23, 2024. Many have pushed for the closure of the prison, constructed in 1898, due to overcrowding and poor conditions. The latest two-year state budget appropriates funding to plan its replacement. (Julius Shieh / Wisconsin Watch)
Closing the Green Bay prison without replacing its capacity might reduce the prison population — and ease staffing shortages, Clancy argues. With less space to put those convicted of crimes, judges might issue shorter sentences, he said.
“Every time I’ve spoken with a criminal judge, I’ve asked if they are aware of the number of beds available when they sentence someone. They always are,” Clancy said. “And I ask if that knowledge impacts their sentencing decisions. It always does.”
But for now, corrections employees are supervising a rising number of prisoners. The state’s total prison population is up about 7% since the compensation boost took effect. Wisconsin now houses more than 23,400 prisoners in facilities built for about 17,700, with the state budget estimating that number to rise over the next two years.
The Department of Corrections did not respond to multiple requests for comment on staffing trends.
‘How much of your soul can you afford to lose?’
Multiple corrections officers called rising vacancies predictable as new officers, attracted by competitive starting wages, discovered the demands of the work.
“It doesn’t surprise me one bit,” said a former officer who recently left a job in Waupun. He requested anonymity to avoid jeopardizing future employment in law enforcement. “They put a Band-Aid on the problem. They lured people in, thinking they were going to make more money. But the reality is the job hasn’t changed.”
Even before the raises, it was not uncommon for officers to make upwards of $100,000 as they banked overtime pay while being forced to cover for open shifts. That pay came at a steep cost to work-life balance, said Rich Asleson, a correctional officer between 1997 and 2022, most at the former Supermax facility in Boscobel.
“It’s not a matter of needing more money. It’s a matter of how much of your soul can you afford to lose?” Asleson said.
Additionally, officers say they feel added risks — whether reprimands, lawsuits or even criminal charges — as news media increasingly scrutinize their actions. Multiple deaths of Waupun prisoners, for instance, resulted in rare criminal charges against the warden and eight other staff members. Officers say they get little support, with a larger focus on penalties and firings than reforming conditions.
More predictable hours, improved training practices and restored union protections would make the work more attractive, officers said.
“It’s one thing to do a job where you’re getting paid and you’re miserable,” the former Waupun officer said. “But can you imagine doing a job and feeling like you’re not even backed up by Madison? There’s people that are getting into trouble because the powers that be are scared, too. (Leaders) think if they’re ever called to the carpet, they can point to all the people they terminated.”
The officer said veterans, fearing reprisals, are increasingly choosing posts that separate themselves from prisoners and riskier work. They are less willing to train incoming officers due to turnover — seeing that time as wasted if new officers won’t stay long, he added.
The Department of Corrections should improve training and retention by pairing veteran officers with rookies on shifts to show them the ropes — designating training specialists, he said.
Waupun mayor: Prison guards go unappreciated
Waupun Mayor Rohn Bishop blames news media for recruiting and retention challenges, saying coverage disproportionately scrutinizes officers without recognizing their difficult jobs.
Rohn Bishop, the mayor of Waupun, blames news media for recruiting and retention challenges in Wisconsin prisons, saying coverage does not recognize the difficulties of guards’ jobs. He is seen outside his home in Waupun, Wis., on Nov. 28, 2020. (Lauren Justice for Wisconsin Watch)
“I’m the mayor of a town with three prisons within its city limits. Any time an inmate dies all the TV trucks show up and reporters put microphones in my face,” Bishop said. “But when an officer gets killed or hurt for just doing their job, almost no media pay attention. And I think there’s a burnout because of that.”
Compared to other front-line workers, correctional officers often go unseen and unthanked, Bishop said.
“You see firefighters. You see nurses. You see cops. You see these other front-line workers. You don’t see correctional officers because they walk on the other side of the wall. And I just think we don’t appreciate them,” Bishop said.
Improving conditions for prisoners would simultaneously benefit correctional officers by boosting morale across prisons. That includes expanding the Earned Release Program, which offers pathways for early release to eligible prisoners with substance abuse issues who complete treatment and training — with the potential to ease overcrowding. Evers’ initial budget proposal included provisions that would have expanded eligibility for the Earned Release Program. The final budget included about $2 million to support programs to reduce recidivism and ease reentry.
“There needs to be a reimagining of what corrections are,” said the former Waupun officer. “It would make it easier for the inmates and the officers.”
Asleson agreed. “You can’t keep people locked away forever,” he said. “I think it’s about hope on both sides of the fence. If nobody has hope, it shows.”
A powerful doctor: Dr. Nancy Harper is a leading child abuse pediatrician based in Minnesota. She testifies in criminal trials across the Midwest, almost always for the prosecution.
Casting doubt: Defense attorneys and judges have called Harper’s testimony into question. Two families have filed federal lawsuits against Harper.
A new review: Prosecutors in Hennepin County said they are conducting a “final, thorough review” of one of Harper’s cases that will include an evaluation of the “medical conclusions.”
In court, Dr. Nancy Harper comes across as professional and authoritative. Often she begins her testimony by explaining her subspeciality: child abuse pediatrics, which focuses on the diagnosis and documentation of signs of child abuse. Her role, she often reminds judges and juries, is solely medical. Whether or not to remove a child from their home, terminate the parent’s rights or, in the most serious cases, charge a caregiver criminally is not up to her.
According to Harper’s testimony, she and her team at the Otto Bremer Trust Center for Safe and Healthy Children in Minneapolis handle about 700 cases of suspected abuse each year. She has testified that 10% to 20% of those wind up confirmed for physical abuse, although it is difficult to determine if these figures are accurate since child protection cases are not public.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a case where I thought it was abusive head trauma and the other specialist didn’t,” Harper testified in 2023, in the case of a day care provider charged with the death of a child in her care.
The defense attorney in the case pressed her: “Have you ever incorrectly diagnosed a child with abusive head trauma?”
“Not currently to my recollection,” she answered.
But in a handful of cases, judges and juries have found day care providers and parents not guilty of crimes after Harper has testified that abuse occurred, though a verdict cannot necessarily be interpreted as a repudiation of Harper or any other expert witness’ determinations or credibility.
Additionally, two federal lawsuits filed recently accuse Harper of ignoring or even concealing alternative explanations for children’s injuries. And, more broadly, medical and legal experts are increasingly questioning a leading child abuse diagnosis, shaken baby syndrome, which is also known as abusive head trauma.
Harper did not respond to requests for comment. She has yet to respond to either lawsuit. In past court testimony, Harper has said that both shaken baby syndrome and abusive head trauma are considered scientifically valid diagnoses by the mainstream medical community. Any controversy, she has said, exists primarily in the legal world rather than the medical one.
Kathleen Pakes, a former prosecutor who now specializes in the forensics of child abuse cases for the Office of the Wisconsin State Public Defender, said Harper’s claim of never making an incorrect diagnosis strains credulity.
“There is no other specialty in medicine that has zero error rate. None,” she said.
Below are four cases in which Harper concluded there was abuse but courts or juries determined otherwise.
On July 12, 2017, an 11-month-old boy named Gabriel Cooper collapsed in his high chair at the day care that Sylwia Pawlak-Reynolds operated in South Minneapolis. Paramedics took him to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he was declared brain dead a day later.
Harper reviewed Cooper’s medical records and wrote that “in the absence of a well-documented consistent severe accidental injury, non-accidental trauma or abusive head trauma remains the primary diagnostic consideration.” The child, she wrote, was essentially shaken to death. Before any criminal charges were filed, Pawlak-Reynolds boarded a plane for her native Poland to care for her ailing father, according to her attorney. In February 2018, prosecutors charged Pawlak-Reynolds with two counts of second-degree murder, citing Harper’s diagnosis.
According to her husband, Will Reynolds, they did not realize Pawlak-Reynolds was pregnant when she boarded her flight to Poland. She remained there to give birth to their third child, who is now 6, while Reynolds remained in Minnesota with their two older children, who are now 13 and 16. Reynolds said he and his wife have no confidence that she will get a fair trial, and that she fears she will lose custody of their youngest child if she reenters the country. The family has now been separated for eight years.
Sylwia Pawlak-Reynolds’ husband, Will Reynolds, remains in Minnesota with their two older children. (Sarahbeth Maney / ProPublica)
Early in the case, Pawlak-Reynolds’ attorneys obtained the same copy of Cooper’s hospital records that had been provided to Minneapolis police, which included the paramedics’ report. The document had been printed out at a significantly reduced scale, shrinking the text to the point that some fields were illegible. Two years later, they obtained a second copy, printed at normal size, which revealed a possible alternate explanation for the injuries: “Mom recalls (patient) did fall 2 days ago, striking the back of his head.”
“That was the sort of proverbial silver-bullet evidence that we’re always looking for in every case and usually never find,” said Brock Hunter, Pawlak-Reynolds’ lawyer.
Polish courts, including an appeals court, have denied extradition requests from the U.S. three times, and the country’s minister of justice has affirmed the rulings. The denials are particularly critical of Harper’s assessment. Polish forensic experts evaluated the case records and took note of a finding by a neurology expert hired by Pawlak-Reynolds, who wrote that Cooper carried a gene tied to a blood clotting disorder.
The ambulance report, the Polish judges wrote, “was concealed from the defense.”
“Then, after the fact was made public, it did not affect the actions of the American authorities in any way,” a Polish district court judge wrote in 2022.
Hennepin County Medical Center (Sarahbeth Maney / ProPublica)
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office certified Cooper’s manner of death as “undetermined” and the date and place of injury “unknown,” a tacit disagreement with Harper’s opinion that Cooper would have collapsed “shortly after infliction of the trauma.”
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office declined to comment.
Then in 2023, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty wrote to Pawlak-Reynolds’ attorneys after meeting with them: “We agree that to resolve the current impasse regarding Ms. Pawlak-Reynolds, the best course for all involved is to dismiss the pending charges without prejudice, and for her to return to the United States.”
But months later, Moriarty changed her mind.
In a statement to ProPublica, a spokesperson for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office wrote that the office is completing a “final, thorough review” of the case that will include an evaluation of “concerns regarding the medical conclusions and the overall strength of the case.”
Gabriel’s parents, Joseph and Samantha Cooper, did not respond to requests for comment. In a television interview in June, they denied that Cooper struck the back of his head two days before his collapse. They said that they want justice for their son.
Pawlak-Reynolds declined to comment through her attorney. In late February, her husband filed a federal lawsuit against Harper that claims she “knowingly and intentionally falsified, modified and erased exculpatory information” from her evaluation of Cooper, and she diagnosed abusive head trauma to “promote her own personal, academic, reputational and financial needs.”
Harper has yet to respond to the lawsuit. A spokesperson for Hennepin Healthcare, which operates Hennepin County Medical Center, declined to comment on the case or the lawsuit.
“There is no oversight,” Reynolds said. “It’s the thing they’re most resistant against and the thing that is most necessary to stop this legacy of brutality, that results in kids being taken away from innocent caregivers and innocent caregivers going to prison.”
An old photograph shows Pawlak-Reynolds and one of her children. (Sarahbeth Maney / ProPublica)
In August 2017, Kathryn Campbell called 911 after a 4-month-old girl at her day care seemed lethargic and was “breathing wrong.” First responders did not take the baby to the hospital, but her mother eventually did. At the hospital, MRI scans showed fluid in the baby’s brain and doctors noted small bruises.
Dr. Barbara Knox, a child abuse pediatrician then with the University of Wisconsin, told police it was “obvious child abuse.” The Dane County district attorney charged Campbell with physical abuse of a child. Campbell pleaded not guilty.
But before the 2021 trial, Knox left the University of Wisconsin after she was placed on leave for “unprofessional acts that may constitute retaliation” and intimidation of her own staff. A Wisconsin Watch investigation cast doubt on Knox’s judgment in several cases of alleged abuse.
Knox did not respond to the Wisconsin Watch series or to ProPublica’s requests for comment. After two families in Alaska sued her in 2022, alleging she had wrongly concluded their children had been abused, Knox wrote in an affidavit that she has no control over whether police and child protection services workers take children away from parents, that she did not “conspire” with police or anyone else on custody issues, and that she did not personally evaluate one of the children. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2024 after the families agreed to drop the matter.
Knox moved on to a job at the University of Florida. According to a spokesperson for the university, Knox resigned as a pediatrician with the Child Protective Team in late June, effective Aug. 15. He declined to comment on the circumstances.
At Campbell’s trial, Knox’s name was never mentioned. Instead, Harper stepped in as an expert witness. When Campbell heard Knox had been replaced, she was initially hopeful.
“I’m like, oh, great, new eyes,” Campbell said. “They’re going to look at it and go, ‘This is nuts, I don’t agree with this.’ And I definitely was wrong.”
Harper’s assessment affirmed Knox’s diagnosis of abuse. She told the jury that the bruises were likely caused by squeezing by an adult’s hand. A medical expert hired by Campbell’s defense argued that the child’s bleeding could not be precisely dated and that a preexisting medical condition could have caused it.
After just two hours of deliberation, the jury returned a not guilty verdict. Campbell said she is grateful to have the case concluded, though she said she is still haunted by the accusations against her.
“That was the hardest thing too, going home after this case was done, and being like, ‘Am I allowed to be alone with my children now?’” she said. “It’s all because of the quote-unquote experts not doing their due diligence and looking further into underlying issues that these kids could have.”
In a statement to ProPublica, Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne expressed confidence in both Harper and Knox, saying “their testimony had been consistent with many different medical professionals and experts in their own areas of practice.”
“It is important to note that a not guilty verdict by lay jurors hardly invalidates the widespread acceptance of abusive head trauma as a diagnosis in the medical community nor would it cause us to have concerns about Dr. Harper’s qualifications or knowledge in the field,” he added. “Jurors are not bound to accept any expert testimony as accurate.”
In the winter of 2022, a 4-month-old boy began breathing abnormally at his day care in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. His parents took him to a hospital, where he died days later. A police investigation determined that his day care provider, Joanna Ford, left him and several other children alone in her home for over an hour while she went to a tattoo and piercing parlor.
Prosecutors used Harper as an expert witness in the case. After evaluating the child’s medical records, she concluded that his injuries were “clinically diagnostic of abusive head trauma,” or, put another way, Ford shook the baby violently. She was charged with first-degree reckless homicide. Ford pleaded not guilty.
Ford’s defense lawyers successfully petitioned the judge in the case for a hearing to determine whether Harper’s expert witness testimony would be scientifically valid and admissible at trial. In response to questions, Harper explained why the child’s symptoms — brain swelling, blood under his skull, damage to his eyes — pointed to abuse, and why, despite the controversy surrounding it, the diagnosis of abusive head trauma was scientifically sound. She also explained that, because the baby was not walking or crawling, the fact that none of his caregivers could explain his injuries indicated abuse.
“People should know what happened,” she testified.
On cross examination by Ford’s lawyers, Harper said she couldn’t say for certain what time the abuse would have occurred, exactly how Ford had injured the baby and that there are no “great biomechanical models” for shaken baby syndrome.
A little over a month later, Judge Lisa McDougal delivered a highly critical ruling that barred Harper from telling the jury that the child died as the result of “abusive head trauma, non-accidental injury, child abuse or murder.” She also took issue with the idea that a lack of explanation for injuries is indicative of abuse, calling it a “leap in logic.”
“Offering a conclusive opinion as to how an injury may have occurred crosses a line and does not fit within the dictionary definition of what diagnosis is,” McDougal said. The judge also said that Harper views herself as an advocate, and that that casts doubt on her “fidelity to the scientific validation of abusive head trauma diagnoses, especially when it is a close call.”
The murder charge was dismissed. For leaving the children alone, Ford pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of neglect of a child where the consequence is death. She is serving a 10-year prison sentence. Ford, through her attorney, declined a request for an interview. The Iowa County district attorney also declined to comment.
On Feb. 4, 2022, Paul and Sarah Marshall hosted a dinner for her parents and a family friend at their home in Hudson, Wisconsin. Afterward, their 7-week-old son, Fox, became fussy. Paul Marshall carried him into the mother-in-law unit on the lower level of the house, which was cool and dark, to try to calm him. He emerged minutes later in a panic, yelling that the baby spit up and stopped breathing.
Paramedics rushed Fox to Children’s Minnesota, a hospital about 25 minutes across the state border in St. Paul. Doctors ran tests, and a scan showed Fox had a skull fracture with fluid pooling on both sides of his brain. He died days later.
Harper examined Fox, as well as his twin sister, Liana, and found “skull fractures, likely rib fractures, metaphyseal fractures.”
“This constellation of findings in a nonambulatory infant is clinically diagnostic of inflicted injury or child physical abuse likely occurring on more than one occasion,” she wrote.
But the Marshalls said that wasn’t true. They told Harper that Sarah Marshall had experienced a difficult pregnancy with gestational diabetes and severe anemia, and that Liana had a vacuum-assisted delivery. Both twins had been to their regular pediatrician over health concerns. While Liana’s health improved, Fox’s had not.
A spokesperson for Children’s Minnesota declined to comment on the case.
Because he was the last person alone with Fox before he stopped breathing, Paul Marshall was charged with first-degree reckless homicide. He was also charged with physical abuse of a child for hurting Liana. Sarah Marshall said there was no evidence that her soft-spoken husband had hurt their children.
“The state wanted to cast me as a naive idiot,” she said. “I chose not to believe it because of the logic and facts in my face. I had no reason to believe the accusation.”
At Paul Marshall’s 2023 trial, his defense lawyer, Aaron Nelson, cross-examined the other doctors who treated or evaluated Fox and Liana, and was able to highlight points of medical disagreement. A doctor who tested Liana for genetic disorders said she could not rule out rickets as a possible cause of her bone fractures. A neuropathologist did not agree with Harper that Fox had a trauma-induced blood clotting disorder. By Harper’s own admission on cross-examination, determining the age of the skull fractures in children Fox and Liana’s age was difficult. Nelson called six of his own medical experts to suggest that the difficult birth or a vitamin deficiency could explain the twins’ injuries.
“How many people have to be wrong for Dr. Harper to be right?” Nelson said in closing arguments.
After an 11-day trial, the jury found Marshall not guilty.
In a statement to ProPublica, St. Croix County District Attorney Karl Anderson pointed out that Harper was not the only treating physician who was concerned that Fox and Liana had been abused.
“A not guilty verdict does not mean that the jury concluded that the children were not abused,” Anderson said. “Rather, it means that they did not conclude that the state proved that Paul Marshall caused the death, beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Paul and Sarah Marshall with their children at home, which is decorated with memories of their son, Fox.
(Photos by Sarahbeth Maney / ProPublica)
Six weeks after the trial, the family moved three hours away into a century-old farmhouse that is far from the community that they felt wrongfully villainized by.
One of the cruelest impacts of the abuse diagnosis, they said, came after it was clear that Fox would die and the hospital staff began making preparations for his organs to be donated. Sarah Marshall said she had hoped to someday hear her son’s heart beating in another child’s chest. Instead, a court order put a halt to the procedure.
“They were already treating him as evidence,” she said.
The experience of going from a grieving parent to an accused murderer, her husband said, has given the couple post-traumatic stress. Paul Marshall said he is grateful to be with his wife and children, but what he calls a “broken system” has left them unsure whether or not to have another baby or even be left alone with one of their daughters.
“You get pregnant. You go to all of your appointments. You voice all of your concerns. You do everything you’re supposed to do as a parent and your child still dies. And the state tells you it’s your fault,” Sarah Marshall said. “I don’t understand why I live in a world like that.”
Former Madison Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl violated multiple state laws when her office failed to count nearly 200 absentee ballots in the 2024 presidential election, according to a draft report released Wednesday by the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
The commission cited a lack of leadership in the clerk’s office, referring both to Witzel-Behl and the deputy clerk who assumed control during her vacation shortly after the election.
Witzel-Behl, who was put on leave by the city after the error and then resigned, broke state law by failing to supervise absentee ballot handling, neglecting post-election processes, and by not training poll workers to check the bags used to transport ballots, the commission concluded.
“There is no evidence that the City Clerk took any steps to investigate the uncounted ballots once they were brought to her attention,” the commission wrote. “The evidence demonstrates that the City Clerk began her vacation on November 13 and then had little to do with the supervision of her office until almost a month later.”
The draft report follows a months-long investigation into the 193 ballots that went missing on Election Day. The ballots were found over the next several weeks — some of them before final certification of results — but were never counted. Commission Chair Ann Jacobs, a Democrat, jointly led the investigation alongside Republican commissioner and former Chair Don Millis.
For months, Madison election officials have been saying that the ballots that went uncounted were delivered to two polling sites but weren’t unopened. But the commission found no evidence the ballot bags were ever delivered. A chief inspector at one site testified he was confident there was no unopened bag in the supply cart sent to his ward.
The errors have already prompted significant changes in Madison’s election processes. Officials have overhauled ballot tracking procedures, which Madison and Dane County leaders say should prevent a repeat of the 2024 mistake.
Still, the commission emphasized “it is essential that the public understands what has occurred, so that municipalities throughout the state can review their own processes and make certain that they too do not find themselves in this very unfortunate situation.”
The commission’s sharp criticism extended beyond Witzel-Behl, noting that “the staff of the City Clerk’s office failed to take any action regarding those ballots.”
Deputy Clerk Jim Verbick said that his post-election involvement was “minimal” and that he didn’t think it was his job to do anything about the missing ballots, the commission’s findings state.
“However, he did not attempt to speak to the City Clerk about the matter,” the review continues. “There was nobody who took responsibility for these ballots. It was always someone else’s job.”
Madison Interim Clerk Mike Haas said in a statement that the city is reviewing WEC’s report and that he hopes that it can provide lessons that prevent similar errors in the future. He did not respond to a request for further comment.
Former clerk violated laws, gave contradictory statements
The report focused on lapses in training by the clerk’s office. For example, it said, Witzel-Behl stored absentee ballots in green courier bags, but didn’t mention that in poll worker training, and the bags weren’t labeled as carrying absentee ballots. She also failed to train poll workers that absentee ballots could also be stored in red security carts, which the commission said contributed to the ballots going uncounted. That lack of training broke state law, the commission stated.
The commission also found that Witzel-Behl violated a law requiring her to supervise absentee ballot handling. In her deposition, she “could not answer basic questions about absentee ballot handling procedures in her office.”
The commission’s report highlights contradictions between Witzel-Behl’s actions in office and deposition testimony. Although she claimed not to know about the uncounted ballots until December, the commission said she messaged an election worker in late November with instructions on how to handle the first batch of uncounted ballots.
Upon learning of the missing ballots in November, the commission said, Witzel-Behl should have alerted the city attorney, the County Board of Canvassers and the commission and immediately investigated her office’s procedures — but she didn’t.
The commission also alleged she violated laws by printing pollbooks too early, failing to oversee poll workers and inadequately preparing for the city’s review of election results.
Draft findings include several orders for Madison compliance
The report lists draft recommendations that the commissioners will vote on at their July 17 meeting. These include requiring the Madison Clerk’s Office to create a plan detailing which employee oversees which task; printing pollbooks no earlier than the Thursday before each election; clearly labeling and tracking the bags carrying absentee ballots; checking all ballot bags and drop boxes before the city finalizes election results; and explaining how it’s going to comply with each of the orders.
Witzel-Behl’s office printed pollbooks for the two affected wards on Oct. 23 — nearly two weeks before Election Day — despite state guidance to print them as close to the election as possible.
Had they been printed later, absentee voters whose ballots had already been returned would have been marked automatically, alerting poll workers that those ballots were in hand but not yet counted.
But printing pollbooks no earlier than the Thursday before an election could be challenging, said Claire Woodall, who was formerly Milwaukee’s top election official. Cities like Madison and Milwaukee must print tens of thousands of pollbook pages, often using private printers, and distribute them to chief inspectors.
“It seems like you’re rushing a process” with the Thursday requirement, Woodall said. “The last thing you want is for voters to show up at 7 a.m. and discover you don’t have the correct pollbook.”
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.
If you live in northeast Wisconsin, I want to hear about your experience forging your path to meaningful, family-sustaining work.
But first, let me introduce myself. I’m Miranda Dunlap, and I’m Wisconsin Watch’s new reporter covering pathways to success in the region. That means I’ll write stories about how local people prepare themselves for their dream jobs and what roadblocks stand in the way.
I’m a native Michigander, and I previously spent two years reporting on community colleges and K-12 education for Houston Landing in Texas. I’ve spent countless hours learning about the experiences of people pursuing affordable education and training to change the trajectory of their life. That was after community college opened doors in my own career. Completing a year’s worth of credits at my local institution helped me afford enrolling at a university and shaved thousands of dollars off my total student debt.
I’m Wisconsin Watch’s second pathways to success reporter but the first journalist hired specifically to serve northeast Wisconsin. My colleague Natalie Yahr covers pathways from a statewide perspective, and I’m focused on reporting for Brown, Calumet, Door, Kewaunee, Manitowoc, Marinette, Oconto, Outagamie, Shawano and Winnebago counties. Based in Green Bay, I hope people will see me as more than a trusted source of information, but also their neighbor — someone who will ensure Wisconsin Watch’s work reflects the perspectives of local residents.
My goal is to produce journalism that confronts your challenges, highlights resources and opportunities for economic mobility and answers your burning questions.
You can expect my stories to explore barriers that prevent them from finding sustainable employment, and I’ll examine whether leaders and higher education institutions are investing in solutions and tools to overcome these obstacles. I’ll do it all with an eye toward the unique identities of northeast Wisconsin communities.
As I dig into this beat, I’m particularly interested in hearing from people with nontraditional routes to the workforce — or those who face added barriers to success. That might include incarcerated or formerly incarcerated people, those from low-income families, folks living in rural, under-resourced communities or workers returning to education to switch careers.
I hope you’ll point me in the right direction by answering some of my questions.
What do you think I need to know about northeast Wisconsin to understand the challenges that people and communities here face when it comes to economic stability and mobility?
What are your career dreams — to fulfill your own professional goals and support your family? What, if anything, is standing in the way?
Have you attended a community or technical college in the region, such as Northeast Wisconsin Technical College or Fox Valley Technical College? If so, what was your experience?
Are you a local employer struggling to find skilled workers to fill your jobs? What would help?
Do you know of an organization or institution successfully guiding people toward the skills and information they need to succeed?
Your insights and experiences will shape my reporting. You can share them with me by filling out this form.
Yessenia Ruano’s home in Milwaukee is in a state of limbo. Some of the family’s belongings have been sold. Some were gifted, out of necessity, to friends and family, including plants Ruano offered to her coworkers. The most essential — clothing, her daughters’ American birth certificates — were packed into suitcases.
Ruano’s husband, Miguel, is now contending with the rest: two cars in their driveway waiting to be sold, travel documents for their dog, boxes with additional household items he promised to pack up and ship before he, too, departs for El Salvador in a few weeks.
In May, The 19th wrote about Ruano’s fight to remain in the country despite a pending order of deportation. Ruano, a teacher’s aide at a local public school and the mother of twin daughters who are U.S. citizens, argued that her deep roots in her community and her pending application for a visa should at the very least buy her more time.
Ruano was among the millions of immigrants living in the United States who lack permanent authorization. They now face the Trump administration’s intensifying efforts to drive up the number of immigrants deported or otherwise removed from the country. That includes many immigrants who, like Ruano, have been in the country for a decade or longer, who have no criminal record, and whose ties to the country include young children — some of them U.S. citizens — and also careers and community.
Before her first check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following Trump’s inauguration, Ruano decided to make her struggle public, summoning the help of her local community to avoid deportation. A petition in her support gathered 2,800 signatures within its first 24 hours, and a fundraiser for the family had raised close to $16,000 as of the week of July 1, with the average donation hovering under $60.
The Trump administration’s message has been that the focus of its efforts is on people who have committed crimes and pose a threat to public safety. In order to reach their ambitious deportation goals, immigration officials have also targeted immigrants who are among the easiest to locate and remove: people like Ruano, who regularly attend check-ins with ICE.
Ten-year-old twin sisters Paola and Eli pack their suitcases in their bedroom on June 3, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
As of last month, Ruano had attended 19 in-person check-ins with ICE over her 14 years in the United States, in addition to logging dozens of virtual check-ins and, for a time, submitting to 24-hour monitoring.
Ruano appeared for her last check-in at the end of May, holding a much-awaited “receipt number” from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency showing that her visa application for victims of human trafficking was being processed. Before Trump, such an application would have likely paused deportation proceedings. Instead, Ruano was told she was expected to depart the country within days and given instructions for how to confirm she had arrived in El Salvador through ICE’s monitoring app. Failure to do so could lead to her immediate detention.
Ruano and her daughters, Eli and Paola, 10, boarded a United Airlines flight scheduled to leave Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport on June 17 at 11:35 a.m. local time. The girls’ first time on an airplane was with a one-way ticket out of their first and only home.
Ruano, who by the time of her departure had captured the attention of many people in Milwaukee and elsewhere in the country, spoke to news cameras and a group of supporters in the hall of the airport. She pleaded for a fix to the nation’s immigration system for herself and millions of immigrants in a similar situation.
“For the good of the United States, given this ongoing chaos, our political parties need to have serious conversations about our immigration system — and stop treating it like political soccer,” Ruano said.
As Ruano started to speak, she was interrupted by an automated message from the mayor that rang over the intercom, reminding travelers that in Milwaukee, “there’s so many opportunities to live, work and have fun.”
Ruano continued, thanking her school community and her broader community in Milwaukee for their support.
“To my immigrant community, I want to say that we cannot live in fear. We need to keep working for our children’s futures. … Our love and our togetherness is what will get us through.”
Ruano exchanged hugs with many of the people gathered: relatives, colleagues, supporters. Then, she joined her daughters to go through airport security.
Eli hugs a family member at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport before leaving for El Salvador on June 17, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
Hours before their scheduled flight, Ruano said that the girls were experiencing a convoluted mix of emotions. They vacillated between afraid and sad, and somewhat excited, “as if they were going on vacation.” Ruano chalked it up to their age and the fact that the flight coincided with the end of the school year and the start of summer.
At the terminal, Ruano sat between her two daughters, chatting and sending messages to loved ones until it was time to board.
The family’s departure bore a hole in the community they had built in Milwaukee.
Miguel embraces his 10-year-old twin daughters before they leave with their mother to El Salvador on June 17, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
With most of their relatives in El Salvador, Miguel, Yessenia and their twin girls came to lean on his sister and her family, who in turn, leaned on them. They would trade rides to school, handiwork around their homes when something broke and child care — all of the normal beats of extended families.
“We were there for each other for anything the other needed, a tool, a favor,” Miguel said. “It was just the two of us.”
Days before Ruano and the girls boarded their flight, the family got together for what was supposed to be a 10th birthday celebration for the twins. It was the last occasion they got to mark together, and with Ruano’s departure imminent, the focus shifted in part to goodbyes.
Miguel said he and his sister will continue to lean on each other during his final days in the United States. Her close circle of support will be permanently altered once he leaves.
Arriving home from the airport without his family to an empty house, Miguel said, was one of the hardest moments of his life.
“It’s an ugly feeling. I’ve never been alone without them,” Miguel said.
A mug sits on a shelf with a photo of Yessenia Ruano, her husband and their daughters at their civil ceremony on April 3, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
Before he joins them later in the summer, Miguel is packing up boxes to ship to El Salvador. Each box costs $450 to ship. Some boxes hold his tools. Others hold extra clothes and shoes for his daughters, along with some of their toys and trinkets. Miguel is packing pots, pans and other kitchen items for Ruano, “so she can feel like she has her things, like she’s home.”
The first box to be packed and ready is covered in a criss-cross of duct tape. “One of three boxes holding 14 years of dreams and hard work,” Miguel said. “Sometimes I think this was all just a nice dream that now we have to wake up from, but it’s not fair, not for my girls.”
Sarah Weintraub, a special education teacher at ALBA School, poses for a portrait outside the school on June 27, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
The heart of Ruano’s support was her school community at ALBA School, a bilingual public school in Milwaukee known in Spanish as Academia de Lenguaje y Bellas Artes. Sarah Weintraub, a middle school teacher at ALBA, said she became invested in Ruano’s plight, and in the lead-up to Ruano’s February appointment with ICE, began rallying community support from organizations like the local teachers’ union.
Weintraub and Ruano had worked together over the years and connected over the looming threats and challenges facing immigrants in the United States. Weintraub said she has loved ones in a similar situation. Weintraub’s daughter also attends ALBA and bonded with Ruano even though she was never her student.
Weintraub described ALBA as “a very tight-knit school.” Ruano’s absence will be sorely felt.
“Many of us have our own kids at the school. I have my kids there. Her kids are there. So, much of the staff is just very close in general,” Weintraub said. “My daughter loves her so much and has never been in any of her classes, just knows her from the school and the cafeteria.”
Weintraub said Ruano’s absence is a significant loss for the school as a workplace.
“Right now, it’s summer break, so we’re not in our usual routine. But I know already, just thinking about going back and her not being there will be — her absence will be very felt.”
Ruano, she said, was the type of colleague who “jumps in right away” when there’s a need, and “you don’t just find the energy every day.” The school district, like the rest of the country, is struggling with a shortage of teachers — especially bilingual educators. “I don’t even know if her position will be filled right away,” Weintraub said.
The playground outside of ALBA School is seen on June 27, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
Voces de la Frontera, an immigrant advocacy group, worked closely with Ruano and her colleagues at ALBA to elevate Ruano’s story as they worked to avert her deportation. Through events, news releases and outreach to elected officials, her story reached many people who didn’t know her, but saw themselves in her situation.
For Milwaukee’s immigrant community, Ruano’s departure brought home the reality of life under the new administration, said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, co-founder and executive director of Voces de la Frontera. “It definitely highlights that we’re in a new time,” she said, adding that there’s a “cruelty” and “senselessness” to the way the administration is handling immigration enforcement.
Christine Neumann-Ortiz, founding executive director of Voces de la Frontera, stands for a portrait outside the Voces office on June 27, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
For the members of Voces de la Frontera, Neumann-Ortiz said, “there’s a feeling of sadness because it’s not what people want, or fought for.” During a meeting following Ruano’s departure, many members said they wanted to find ways to stay in touch with immigrants who are removed and deported, including Ruano.
Ruano also left behind her church community at Nuestra Señora de la Paz, where she was an active member of the prayer group and a mentor for a group of children preparing for their First Communion.
Blanca Cisneros, 70, said Ruano was a constant presence at the church’s community activities, always willing to volunteer when help was needed. “She’s really special: She’s both really humble and really strong,” Cisneros said. “Her situation just breaks my heart. It will be a big loss for our group because she has a strong desire to serve.”
On a recent Monday, Ruano woke up early to help her sister prepare grains of corn for milling, setting a large pot over a wood fire on the patio that was still glowing red hours later. In a video call from a rural community in Comasagua, El Salvador, where they’re living, Ruano said her family is slowly adjusting to their new life.
Ruano and her daughters were reunited with her mom, a grandmother whom the girls had only met through video calls. They’re also spending time with aunts, uncles and cousins; Ruano’s sister lives next door, and they take turns cooking for the entire family. There are no playgrounds or parks nearby, and shopping options are very limited. But recently, Ruano took the girls on a hike near the vast mountain range she grew up calling home. They picked guavas right from tree branches, a highlight of the last few weeks for the girls, and, Ruano said, “a lesson in living more with Mother Nature and less with things that are artificial.”
In many ways, the adjustment has been hard for all of them.
Ruano says she feels blessed to have been able to purchase a small, modest home for her mother last year, a home with a bright blue door that they now all share. But the roof leaks when it rains — which is nearly every day — so at night, Ruano and her girls move their bed from one end of their room to another to avoid the largest drips. They have to walk across the yard at night to use the nearest bathroom, which Ruano says no one has gotten used to.
“They got here happy, telling me they were relieved I wouldn’t be sad anymore and that we were all together,” Ruano said. “But after a few days, seeing how life is — it’s nothing like Milwaukee — they started to cry. And that breaks my heart.”
As for Ruano, a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders as soon as she boarded their plane out of Milwaukee, having shed the worry of being detained by ICE.
“I traded one burden for another,” she said.
The outside of Nuestra Señora de la Paz Catholic Church, where Yessenia Ruano and her family were devoted members. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
Now, she and Miguel have some difficult decisions to make: where to send the girls to school, how to find gainful work. “I’ve already felt that feeling again that I felt when I was young, the feeling of wanting to flee,” Ruano added.
In a video recorded shortly after taking off in Milwaukee, one of Ruano’s daughters says in the background, “Las casas parecen casas de muñecas” — the houses look just like doll houses — while the camera points to the city’s skyline.
“Adiós, Milwaukee,” Ruano then says, popping into the frame. “Es mi segunda casa, donde vine a madurar, donde vine a aprender más, a realizar mis sueños económicos y familiares.”
Goodbye, Milwaukee. This is my second home, where I came to mature, to learn, to realize my dreams financially and for my family.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court cleared the way Tuesday for the state to institute a ban on conversion therapy.
The court ruled that a Republican-controlled legislative committee’s rejection of a state agency rule that would ban the practice of conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ people was unconstitutional.
The 4-3 ruling from the liberal-controlled court comes amid the national battle over LGBTQ+ rights. It is also part of a broader effort by the Democratic governor, who has vetoed Republican bills targeting transgender high school athletes, to rein in the power of the GOP-controlled Legislature.
What is conversion therapy?
What is known as conversion therapy is the scientifically discredited practice of using therapy to “convert” LGBTQ+ people to heterosexuality or traditional gender expectations.
The practice has been banned in 23 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ rights think tank. It is also banned in more than a dozen communities across Wisconsin. Since April 2024, the Wisconsin professional licensing board for therapists, counselors and social workers has labeled conversion therapy as unprofessional conduct.
Advocates seeking to ban the practice want to forbid mental health professionals in the state from counseling clients with the goal of changing their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed in March to hear a Colorado case about whether state and local governments can enforce laws banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ children.
What is happening in Wisconsin?
Since April 2024, the Wisconsin professional licensing board for therapists, counselors and social workers has labeled conversion therapy as unprofessional conduct.
But the Legislature’s powerful Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules — a Republican-controlled panel in charge of approving state agency regulations — has blocked the provision twice.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the committee has been overreaching its authority in blocking a variety of other state regulations during Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ administration. That clears the way for the conversion therapy ban to be enacted.
Republicans who supported suspending the conversion therapy ban have insisted the issue isn’t the policy itself, but whether the licensing board had the authority to take the action it did.
Evers has been trying since 2020 to get the ban enacted, but the Legislature has stopped it from going into effect.
Evers called the ruling “incredibly important” and said it will stop a small number of lawmakers from “holding rules hostage without explanation or action and causing gridlock across state government.”
But Republican Sen. Steve Nass, co-chair of the legislative committee in question, said the ruling gives Evers “unchecked dominion to issue edicts without legislative review that will harm the rights of citizens.”
Legislative power weakened by ruling
The Legislature’s attorney argued that decades of precedent backed up their argument, including a 1992 Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling upholding the Legislature’s right to suspend state agency rules.
Evers argued that by blocking the rule, the legislative committee is taking over powers that the state constitution assigns to the governor and exercising an unconstitutional “legislative veto.”
The Supreme Court agreed.
The court found that the Legislature was violating the state constitution’s requirement that any laws pass both houses of the Legislature and be presented to the governor.
The Legislature was illegally taking “action that alters the legal rights and duties of the executive branch and the people of Wisconsin,” Chief Justice Jill Karofsky wrote for the majority. She was joined by the court’s three other liberal justices.
Conservatives decry ruling
Conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley said the ruling “lets the executive branch exercise lawmaking power unfettered and unchecked.” She and fellow conservative Justice Annette Ziegler said in dissents that the ruling shifts too much power to the executive branch and holds the Legislature to a higher legal standard.
“Progressives like to protest against ‘kings’ — unless it is one of their own making,” Bradley wrote.
Conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn, in a dissent, said the court’s ruling is “devoid of legal analysis and raises more questions than it answers.”
Hagedorn argued for a more narrow ruling that would have only declared unconstitutional the legislative committee’s indefinite objection to a building code rule.
The issue goes beyond conversion therapy
The conversion therapy ban is one of several rules that have been blocked by the legislative committee. Others pertain to environmental regulations, vaccine requirements and public health protections.
Environmental groups hailed the ruling.
The decision will prevent a small number of lawmakers from blocking the enactment of environmental protections passed by the Legislature and signed into law, said Wilkin Gibart, executive director of Midwest Environmental Advocates.
The court previously sided with Evers in one issue brought in the lawsuit, ruling 6-1 last year that another legislative committee was illegally preventing the state Department of Natural Resources from funding grants to local governments and nongovernmental organizations for environmental projects under the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup.This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.
When Joshua Liston-Zawadi’s wife, Symphony, delivered their fourth child, Harlem, at home, the 31-year-old felt excluded.
The midwife would check on Symphony frequently, but not him.
That experience prompted him to do something for the fathers.
In 2021, Joshua launched Dad Doula University to provide non-birthing parents with free workshops on emotional changes, pregnancy and personal growth.
“As you go through becoming a parent, no one educates the non-birthing people or men on how to navigate changes within yourself,” Joshua said.
Doulas are certified individuals who provide emotional, physical and informational support during the prenatal, birthing and postpartum process.
From struggles to lessons
Symphony and midwife Dr. Lakeeta Watts encouraged Joshua to take his struggles and turn them into lessons for others.
Symphony helped create curricula, co-facilitate sessions and coordinate, while Watts provided Joshua with certified doula training.
“To see him commit to supporting other families in his unique way has been a pleasure to watch and support,” Symphony said.
A male perspective
Watts noticed Joshua often stepping back to elevate women’s voices in different environments but reminded him that his perspective matters, too.
“I told him that even though that’s very honorable of him, we often lose the voice of men in these spaces as well,” Watts said.
Dad Doula University initially started as a virtual program via Zoom and Clubhouse because of the COVID pandemic.
The program eventually secured a spot inside the Sherman Phoenix Marketplace, 3536 W. Fond du Lac Ave., Milwaukee, where in-person sessions are held.
(Joshua said the virtual option is still being offered to dads seeking support abroad.)
“Any dad who needs support, regardless of where you are, I got you,” Joshua said.
A safe space for dads
Among the participants of Dad Doula University is 34-year-old Markus Thompson, a single dad of two daughters who joined the program to connect with other fathers.
Thompson described the program as a great emotional space to release anxiety, fears and self-doubt.
“The men I was around were there during the times I felt alone,” Thompson said.
Throughout the program, Joshua taught Thompson about a birthing plan, a document created before labor to tell hospital staff one’s preferences on how the birthing should go.
“I teach men that it’s their job to be in charge of this process, and the only way they can do that is if they involve the person that they’re caring for,” Joshua said.
Thompson said the birth plan included things you’d never think of like whether the mother wants music during labor or how to advocate for her when she can’t herself.
“Raising children isn’t a one-parent thing,” he said.
Thompson is now a 2025 alumnus of Dad Doula University’s two-week program and encourages other dads to join.
At the end of the program, graduates get a certificate, take their first family photo and receive free baby essentials and a year’s supply of diapers.
For fathers hesitant about seeking support during pregnancy, Joshua lives by a motto that says: “If I’m not OK, then nothing I touch will be.”
After passing through the suburbs of Milwaukee, Eric “Shake” James realized there was a lack of bikes in Milwaukee’s underserved communities, prompting him to launch an annual bike giveaway called “Black on the Block.”
James gave away 500 bikes on June 21 at 1935 W. Hampton Ave., along with free resources and food for families.
James realized North Side children lacked exercise opportunities when he saw suburban children in Whitefish Bay and Oak Creek had tons of bikes and bike racks at their schools.
“Those kids are riding to school, but when you come to the inner city, the kids here are getting to school solely on buses, and childhood obesity is like a real thing,” James said.
The giveaway was organized by JAY Academy, his nonprofit organization that provides wellness, arts education, professional development and more to support Milwaukee youths.
Community support boosts efforts
Each year the quantity of bikes has increased by 100. To get the bikes, James partnered with local organizations like Bader Philanthropies Inc. and received donations from community members like UFC fighter Montel Jackson.
“Montel saw me at Walmart getting the bikes, and he just gave me $5,000 right there on the spot and told me he liked what I was doing,” James said.
Additional support came from Ald. Andrea Pratt and Mayor Cavalier Jonhson, who have visited the event before and helped promote it.
Those in need
During the bike giveaway, Dannetta Jones and her two daughters, 12-year-old Iyanna and 9-year-old Tianna, returned to get new bikes.
Dannetta hopes that her daughters and other children take care of their new bikes.
“Last year, their bikes got torn up fast,” Dannetta said.
Tianna felt bad when there was a hole in her tire after letting her cousin ride it, and no one would share theirs with her.
“I didn’t like that it was messed up, so I really wanted a new one,” Tianna said.
Tianna plans to visit her cousin’s house with her new bike.
More than just a bike
For Iyanna, she sees her new bike as a new form of transportation and a sense of independence as she typically goes to her local store and rides alone.
“I’m excited to have this new bike because I can go anywhere now without having to walk,” Iyanna said.
“It’s a gift that someone got for me and I’m thankful for it,” Iyanna said.
James finds joy seeing the children receive their bikes because he thinks it’s better than being on the phone or a video game.
“They got to get outside and start enjoying all these different things that the city of Milwaukee has to offer,” James said.
Better resources for a new generation
Alecia Ball is a McGovern Park resident who brought her three grandchildren to the bike giveaway. She has full custody of them because of the death of their mother.
Ball’s grandchildren had toys at home but no bikes. Initially, she aimed to purchase one for them, but found out about the event through Facebook.
Ball hopes that all the children actually use the bikes and have fun with them as they’re receiving resources she never had.
“When I was raised, we didn’t have any assistance like this, so this free giveaway makes a difference in the community,” Ball said.
Plans to improve
James has plans to expand the giveaway by arranging a neighborhood group ride for the children by next year.
In addition, James is seeking help to promote bike safety for the children by bringing back free helmets.
During the first year of the giveaway, helmets came with the bikes, but they were excluded in later giveaways because of costs.
“I’m trying to find somebody to deal with, with the helmet situation, because those run about $20 to $40,” James said.
According to James, “Black on the Block” is his second-largest event where hundreds of people are in line waiting for something good.
James wants parents to know that he understands their situation and wants what’s best for the children.
“I know it’s tough right now, but we’re going to fight our way through it together,” James said.
Wisconsin lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers approved a $111 billion state budget early Thursday morning that will increase spending on child care and the Universities of Wisconsin system, while cutting taxes by $1.5 billion.
The budget was the first since Democrats gained 14 seats in both chambers of the Legislature under new legislative maps and reflected a stronger bipartisan compromise than in previous cycles.
Senate Republicans, with only one vote to spare, needed Senate Democrats at the negotiating table to pass the budget after multiple Republican senators indicated their disapproval with the budget. Four Republican state senators voted against the budget, and five Democratic state senators voted for it.
The budget was approved in both chambers on Wednesday evening and signed by Evers after 1 a.m. because lawmakers wanted to finish the state budget before President Donald Trump’s big federal bill passed. The federal bill capped Medicaid reimbursement for state taxes on hospitals at 6% and would have frozen tax rates on states like Wisconsin, which previously was at 1.8%. The move helped Wisconsin secure $1.5 billion in additional federal funds.
Evers called 2025 the “year of the kid,” prioritizing more funding for child care, K-12 education — particularly special education reimbursement — and higher education. While those areas received significant funding increases, and Republicans got their desired tax cut, postpartum Medicaid extension, renewal of the popular Knowles-Nelson public land acquisition fund and several other items, many with bipartisan support, were missing from this budget.
Postpartum Medicaid eligibility not extended to a year
Notably missing from the budget is extending postpartum Medicaid coverage to 12 months — an item that every single senator on the budget committee voted for when it was last brought before the Senate.
“The governor called this budget the ‘year of the kid,’ and the year of the kid really needs to include mothers and parents and their mental health because the first indicator of a child’s well-being is their parents’ mental health, their mother’s mental health,” said Casey White, marketing and communications manager for Moms Mental Health Initiative.
Evers asked for the state to allocate over $24 million to extend postpartum Medicaid eligibility to 12 months. Advocacy groups and women’s health experts say the most risky time for a mother’s health is six to nine months postpartum, but eligible new mothers currently only receive about two months of coverage.
Wisconsin is one of only two states that do not extend eligibility for 12 months, despite the severe maternal morbidity rates rising in the state and increases in perinatal depression diagnoses.
Extending postpartum Medicaid has received bipartisan support in both the Senate and Assembly. In April, the Senate passed a stand-alone bill that would extend postpartum Medicaid coverage. But the bill has stalled in the Assembly.
Former Rep. Donna Rozar, R-Marshfield, told Wisconsin Watch in January she authored the bill because she wanted to support new mothers. Even with bipartisan support in his chamber, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, refused to schedule it for a hearing last session.
This time around, Joint Finance Committee Republicans did not remove Evers’ proposal to extend postpartum Medicaid eligibility from budget consideration, meaning the committee could have introduced and passed a motion including the provision.
But as the committee wrapped its work last Tuesday, the extension was missing. Now, the stand-alone legislation awaits an unlikely hearing in the Assembly.
Child care provisions enough?
Late in the budget process it became clear that one of Evers’ highest priorities was funding a child care program supported by expiring federal pandemic relief dollars. The budget includes more than $361 million to fund direct payments to providers, increase child care subsidies for low-income families and fund an early school readiness program.
While the bipartisan willingness to address the ongoing issue of child care access in the state is a significant step, Ruth Schmidt, executive director of the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association, explained the $110 million in direct payments to providers is far from enough to stabilize the field.
Another critical part of the budget was the early school readiness program. Schmidt said allocating general purpose revenue to this program demonstrates lawmakers trust in the provider community to supply a school readiness curriculum to families around the state.
The third major piece of funding approved this budget cycle is raising the Wisconsin Shares child care program to the 75th percentile of market rates, allowing low-income families to access affordable, quality care.
“I always will argue that we can do more, and we can and other states do more, but for us to be at a place where we are restoring payments to 75% of the market is hugely important,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt noted that not all of the provisions are what is recommended by child care advocates, particularly the ratios of children to caretakers.
The budget would increase the class size for 18- to 30-month-olds by instituting a ratio of one caregiver to seven children rather than the recommended one-to-four. Schmidt said that is not something WECA would stand behind as best practice in the state and is not necessarily the right move for long-term investment into child care.
WECA is preparing to provide additional training to the facilities that take on this pilot program over the biennium.
Environmental advocates look to fall session for stewardship, PFAS fund
Two major environmental initiatives — reauthorization of the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund and increased funding for the PFAS trust fund created in the last budget cycle — failed to make it into the final budget.
But Republican lawmakers have shown a willingness to reauthorize the stewardship fund, with a separate bill by Rep. Tony Kurtz, R-Wonewoc, and Sen. Patrick Testin, R-Stevens Point, aiming to fund the stewardship program through 2030. The fund supports land conservation and outdoor recreation through grants to local governments and nonprofits and also allows the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to purchase and maintain state land.
Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin, D-Whitefish Bay, shared her disappointment that the budget deal did not reauthorize the stewardship fund and pointed to it as one of the reasons she voted against the budget.
“Beyond the long-time importance of this program to me personally, Knowles-Nelson funding has stood out as the single-most popular issue I have heard from my constituents during my first six months in office – from voters across the political spectrum,” Habush Sinykin said.
The state Supreme Court recently limited the power of the state budget committee to block conservation projects. Although funds for the program are currently set to expire on June 30, 2026, most funds are already awarded, and a lapse in funds could impact planning for land trusts and local governments hoping to access the funds, according to the program.
Paul Heinen, policy director at environmental policy organization Wisconsin Green Fire, and a lobbyist for the first stewardship fund in 1989, said the battle over reauthorization mirrors past debates over the fund.
“The stewardship fund is, could very well be, the single most loved state program,” Heinen said. “But oftentimes it’s leadership who says, no, we’re spending too much money. We’re not going to spend money on this, and then invariably, the other 120 legislators overrule them at some point, and the stewardship fund is reauthorized. That’s where we’re at right now.”
Heinen said he was “99% sure” the fund would be reauthorized in future legislative sessions but was uncertain at what level the fund would be restored. Evers’ budget proposed reauthorizing the fund with $100 million of bonding authority per year through 2036. The Republican bill proposes $28 million per year for the next four years.
UW system funding rebounds with some strings attached
Just two weeks ago, Republican lawmakers floated an $87 million cut to the Universities of Wisconsin budget, yet in the final deal between lawmakers and Evers, the system will see a $256 million increase, the largest increase in over two decades.
Republican lawmakers conditioned their support for additional funding on several things, including a required transfer credit policy between system schools, the continuation of a cap on state-funded positions and workload requirements for faculty.
UW-Madison faculty advocacy group PROFs celebrated the increased funding for the system, but called the updated workload requirements an overreach “that would intrude on the responsibilities of both institutions and their faculty members.”
The budget also specifies certain funding to be directed toward lower-enrollment universities. The funding formula the UW system uses to distribute state aid among schools has been a source of controversy among Republican lawmakers who have argued for more transparency.
Jon Shelton, president of AFT-Wisconsin and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, said he was frustrated faculty and staff were not part of negotiations over work requirements.
“It takes something that otherwise could have been, I think, relatively positive for the UW system and created a poison pill that was unnecessary,” Shelton said.
Although the $256 million increase is a significant boost to the system, the funding is only a fraction of the $856 million that Evers and UW requested.
UW system President Jay Rothman had indicated that if the $856 million request was fulfilled, the remaining two-year branch campuses, several of which have closed in recent years, battling funding shortfalls and enrollment decreases, would stay open, and tuition would not increase. System spokesperson Mark Pitsch did not respond to a request for comment on the potential impacts on branch campuses or tuition.
DAs but no public defenders
Republicans voted to increase assistant district attorneys in Wisconsin counties, notably adding seven ADAs in Brown County, but they didn’t add any public defender positions. Without filling these positions, the American Civil Liberties Union reports current public defenders are overburdened and cannot conduct thorough investigations into a case.
Brown County already faces a backlog of cases, with reports saying there has been an increase of over 2,000 open criminal cases in the past decade. While adding ADAs may allow the prosecutors to bring more cases to the courts, failing to add public defenders will not address the backlog of criminal cases.
That means as more cases are presented by ADAs, there might not be enough public defenders to actually represent the individuals, so those accused of a crime may spend more time in jails as they await an attorney.
Republicans also added 12.5 ADA positions in Milwaukee County.
Milwaukee has been addressing backlogs but still faces challenges. By adding more ADAs to bring cases forth, while ignoring a shortage of public defenders, backlog challenges could be exacerbated.
A Wisconsin Watch reader asks: The state expungement statute seems very strict. Does anyone actually get their record expunged?Is it easier to get a pardon or commutation from the governor? Why is it so difficult?
While it is certainly possible for people to get their records expunged, the laws and conditions surrounding expungement remain nuanced.
Expungement seals a person’s criminal records, meaning the public can no longer access them through court databases, such as Consolidated Court Automation Programs, or CCAP.
Oftentimes, employers and landlords use court databases, such as CCAP, to review someone’s criminal records. State law prohibits discrimination unless the crime is materially related, like someone convicted of bank fraud applying to work at a bank. By removing a public criminal record, it removes the stigma that could lead to discrimination in housing and job opportunities. Employers are not allowed to use an expunged record against an applicant, even if the crime is materially related.
But obtaining expungement in Wisconsin is much more difficult than it appears. First, anyone requesting expungement must have been under 25 years old at the time of sentencing and not convicted of a violent felony. Only misdemeanors and Class H and I felonies qualify. The attorney must also request expungement at the time of sentencing; it cannot be requested after the fact.
“I’ve seen judges just disagree with expungement as a concept and never order it,” said Natalie Lewandowski, senior clinic supervisor at the Milwaukee Justice Center. “I think some judges don’t believe that people can be rehabilitated enough to deserve to be back in society and have that not be counted against them.”
Even district attorneys can take expungement off the table. In some cases, defense attorneys may not even know expungement exists and therefore won’t know to bring it up during a person’s trial.
As a new attorney, Lewandowski wasn’t aware of expungement until she was told minutes before the trial. It is not something that is often taught, and there is no handbook, she said.
If the judge recommends expungement, a person must then meet all conditions of probation, including paying all financial obligations and supervision fees in full. The person cannot be convicted of a subsequent offense or violate any Department of Corrections rules.
But even with the expungement conditions laid out, the process is nuanced, and the success rate is low.
For those who were found eligible for expungement at the time of sentencing, Lewandowski said a shocking number of them fail to get their case successfully expunged.
In general, people believe that if they complete probation, they will have their case expunged. But they also must meet all the requirements of probation before they are discharged.
“I’ve had to tell too many people that they can never get their case expunged because at the time of their discharge, they still owed $10 in supervision fees,” Lewandowski said.
A probation office has to submit a form either notifying that the person completed conditions for expungement or failed to meet the conditions, with each condition laid out directly on the form.
It’s unclear how many people have their record expunged each year. The DOC does not keep data on how many cases meet the requirements for expungement, and court data is unreliable and not readily aggregated. Wisconsin Policy Forum estimates that around 2,000 people have their record expunged each year.
Pardons, on the other hand, have a more clearly defined process.
Requirements for a pardon include an old felony conviction and at least five years since the individual completed a sentence. To be granted a pardon, a person either applies to the Pardon Advisory Board, where a hearing is held on the pardon application, or the person can qualify for the expedited process in which the application is forwarded directly to the governor without a hearing.
The applicants have to include certified court documents. The cost of copies of court documents is $1.25 per page and an additional $5 to get the document certified.
“The kicker is the application processing times, the time it takes from when you submit your application to get a hearing in front of the pardon board, where they’ll decide, is like two years right now,” Lewandowski said. “If you’re eligible for a pardon, it’s still something that you have to prove to the pardon board that you’re deserving of, so a lot of people don’t get pardoned.”
Most of the pardoned cases are low-level, non-violent offenses. Pardoning does not expunge the record or indicate innocence, but instead symbolizes forgiveness from the governor and restores certain rights — such as the right to serve on a jury, possess a firearm or hold a state or local office.
Unlike expungement, pardons also depend on who is governor at the time of the request.
For example, Gov. Tony Evers has granted over 1,436 pardons as of April 2025 — the most ever — while former Gov. Scott Walker was adamantly against pardons during his time in office.
For individuals seeking expungement or pardons, there are resources available.
There have been attempts by lawmakers to decrease the barriers to expungement, such as eliminating the age requirement and allowing a person to petition the court for expungement after sentencing.
Evers most recently requested these changes in the 2025-27 budget, but it was removed from discussion by Republicans in early May.
It’s tempting to begin a story about Emily Sterk with an anecdote about her advocacy around mass incarceration.
Or with her reflections on how her privilege plays into that work. Or with an exploration of how her religious faith intertwines with her concern for those caught up in the criminal justice system.
But she also loves musicals – and is a little embarrassed to admit how much she enjoys “Wicked.” She has a beloved tortoiseshell cat named Stevie and is fond of puzzles.
Having said all that, people are starting to notice how good she is at what she does, said Krissie Fung, associate director of Milwaukee Turners, the state’s oldest civic organization, where Sterk is completing a fellowship.
“People have heard her speak in public, and folks are beginning to look to her opinion,” Fung said.
This ability to gain trust within criminal justice reform circles is especially valuable as the organization grows, said Emilio De Torre, executive director of Turners.
“Having someone who can help us build stronger networks, have an informed leader in these different rooms – it expands our ability to educate others who don’t understand this and to empower people who are impacted but unsure of what to do,” De Torre said.
From the academy
During her final year of graduate school at Pennsylvania State University, Sterk – in her spare time – taught in two correctional institutions.
“That was one of the first times I felt like, ‘Oh, well, I should be doing something about this,’” she said.
Sterk arrived in Milwaukee last fall as a Leading Edge Fellow with the American Council of Learned Societies, a national program that places Ph.D. graduates at justice-focused nonprofits.
At Turners, she conducts research, participates in advocacy and develops policy ideas geared toward confronting mass incarceration.
‘Watching the watchers’
One area Sterk has focused on is civilian oversight of law enforcement.
At an April 15 meeting of the Milwaukee County Board’s Judiciary, Law Enforcement and General Services Committee, Sterk testified in support of a civilian board that would oversee the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office.
She told committee members that, in order to be effective and independent, such a board must have the authority to hire and fire law enforcement officers – including the sheriff – and have policymaking authority.
Sterk pointed to a 2024 audit of the county jail that, she said, “unearthed deeply troubling policies, practices and procedures that have long since been ingrained in the facility and its staff.”
She highlighted an instance in which an officer accused of misconduct was assigned to respond to the grievance filed against them.
With emotion in her voice, Sterk reminded supervisors that the audit devoted just three sentences to a suicide attempt that auditors personally witnessed during their visit.
Two weeks after this committee meeting, Sterk presented to the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission the findings of a six-month monitoring period of the commission’s activity – “watching the watchers,” as Fung put it.
The commission was significantly restructured in July 2023 after Wisconsin Act 12 stripped its ability to shape police policy, shifting that power to police and fire department chiefs.
However, Sterk is not hostile or self-righteous in her criticism. Care and sincerity are at the center of her approach – even for the offices and bodies she’s criticizing.
At the Fire and Police Commission presentation, multiple commissioners thanked the Turners and echoed the call to improve public engagement.
Currently, Sterk is fostering a collaboration on jail-based voting between the Turners and the League of Women Voters of Milwaukee County. Here, too, her thoughtfulness has left its mark.
“The first thing she talked to me about was educating people about having respect for people who are incarcerated,” said Gail Sklodowska, the second vice president of advocacy and action for the league. “Like how we refer to them, how we talk about them. And I went, ‘Wow, I never even thought of that as a place we should start.’
“But she’s right.”
This combination of rigor, respect and resolve is rooted in deeper values, said Carlos de la Torre, Sterk’s partner and a rector at a church in Chicago.
“Amidst the work of justice, of restoration, of reconciliation, of liberation,” he said, “Emily knows that there’s a place for beauty in all this.
“The point of all this work is to offer people access to a good life, to the beauty of this world, to be free in creation.”
Sterk’s fellowship ends September 2026, but she is open to staying in Milwaukee after that – and so are others.
“I would love for us – and for Milwaukee – to keep her,” Fung said.
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