Wisconsin State Capitol on a snowy day. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

Depending on your perspective, some of the most anticipated or dreaded parts of Wisconsin’s climate are winter snows and cold. This year, a blanket of snow around the holidays had all but melted away by the new year. In the future, holiday seasons accompanied by white, glittering snowfall will be less and less common. 

That’s according to a report by Climate Central, a recipient of funding by the Bezos Earth Fund and the Schmidt Family Foundation which describes itself as a policy-neutral, independent group of scientists and communicators.  The report found that over the last decade Wisconsin has seen more winter days above freezing. Those warmer temperatures have ripple effects on snowfall, winter recreation and ecosystems. Climate Central researched the effects of climate change in Wisconsin using meteorological data from 2014-2023, with a focus on the winter months from December to February. The analysis found that during those months over the last decade, nearly 40% of Wisconsin’s 72 counties added a week’s worth of above-freezing winter days. 

Wisconsin was one of 50 states and 123 countries and territories included in the report. Data for  901 cities covered observed average temperatures from 2014-2023, as well as estimates of what temperatures would have  been without human-induced climate change due to fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions. The report found “locations across the globe where cold winter days are disappearing in a warming world, compared to a world without climate change.” 

For individual Wisconsin counties, that meant significant increases in the average number of days above freezing. The report found that Milwaukee County, for example, added an average of 13 days above freezing, the most of any county. Ozaukee and Kenosha counties added 12 days, while Door, Racine, and Manitowoc added 11 days. The counties of Kewaunee, Waukesha, Sheboygan, and Washington all added an average of 10 more winter days above freezing over the last decade. 

The numbers across other Wisconsin counties showed a similarly dramatic shift.  In Wood County between 2014-23, according to the report, there was an average of 10 days above freezing during the winter months, with five days added by climate change. In Marinette County, there was an average of 10 days above freezing, with five attributed to climate change. In Brown County, there were 12 days above freezing, with six of them added by climate change, according to the report. 

But in a state known for its harsh winter weather, is milder weather really all that bad? “I like to call these strangely warm winter days delight-mares,” Kristina Dahl, vice president of science at Climate Central, told  Wisconsin Examiner in an email. “Having a relatively warm winter day can be a delightful break from the coldest, darkest season of the year. But if you take a half step back and think about why that day is so warm – or what it might mean for your local economy or ecosystems – you’re confronted with the reality that human-caused climate change is altering so many aspects of our daily lives.”

Addressing the effects of climate change has been a growing concern statewide. Some regions experience greater shoreline erosion, crops grown by agricultural communities struggle because of  volatile winters, unpredictable springs and dry summers. 

Noticeable swings in weather patterns have increasingly made headlines in Wisconsin. In 2021, there was  severe summer flooding in parts of Milwaukee, and strong winds downed hundreds of trees. In mid-December of the same year, temperatures in Milwaukee and Madison reached the low 60s. States across the Midwest experienced a rash of tornadoes which killed dozens of people. In January 2022, the previous year’s record-setting warm weather was replaced by arctic cold. During that summer, lives were lost in Milwaukee due to extreme heat and flooding. Extreme heat was a concern again in 2023, when a wildfire in Waushara County burned over 800 acres.  

The warmer winter weather has also started to change traditional recreation in Wisconsin. Last winter, some snowboarding and skiing spots closed due to lack of snow. The same thing happened during the winter of 2022. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has long highlighted the effects of climate change on activities like ice fishing, snowmobiling, snowshoeing, boating, hunting and other outdoor activities which Wisconsin is known for. Fishing alone represents a $2 billion industry in Wisconsin.

“Warming winter days, like those we document in this report, have repercussions throughout our society,” said Dahl. “When days are above freezing, any precipitation will come in the form of rain rather than snow, and snow on the ground begins to melt. That means that winter sports and recreation – an important facet of staying active in the winter months and an important source of revenue for our economy – are threatened. It also means that traditions and cultures can be impacted, for example, through the loss of access to traditional Indigenous hunting grounds. And because many crops, including apples, require a certain amount of chilling time in the winter in order to produce fruit come spring or summer, warming winter days can translate to reduced crop productivity.” 

As cold and inconvenient as snow can be, its disappearance changes many things which have come to define Wisconsin. 

This report has been updated with a link to the Climate Central webpage for its report.

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A marker for a segment of Enbridge Line 6 in northern Wisconsin. A leak in the line in Jefferson County is now under investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. (Photo | Frank Zufall)

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is investigating a major leak from a pipeline managed by the Canadian oil giant Enbridge. Last weekend environmental groups sounded the alarm after learning that Enbridge’s Line 6 pipeline had spilled the equivalent of 1,650 barrels — more than  69,000 gallons — of crude oil  in the town of Oakland in Jefferson County. 

The DNR issued a statement saying that a report of a two-gallon spill was sent to the state agency on Nov. 11. Notifications were sent by Enbridge to the DNR, the National Response Center (NRC), and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). The DNR then visited the site on Nov. 11 and 12, with additional follow-up on Dec. 6, according to the agency. On Nov. 14, the spill quantity was updated to 126 gallons (or 2-3 barrels). On Dec. 13, Enbridge again revised the spill estimation to 1,650 barrels (or 69,300 gallons) of crude oil. 

“Under Wisconsin law, entities that cause environmental contamination are responsible for reporting and remediating the contamination,” the DNR states. “Enbridge is providing weekly updates to the DNR regarding the investigation and cleanup process. As investigation and cleanup is an iterative process, the DNR continues to evaluate appropriate next steps, including any potential enforcement actions such as a corrective action order.”

Using the GPS coordinates from the accident report and Google Maps, Wisconsin Examiner found that the spill occurred near a roadway running through a grassy, wooded area. The spill occurred near a waterway that flows into Lake Ripley, close to  a grouping of nature preserves and campgrounds. The accident report noted that the pipeline’s leak detection systems did not notify anyone of the leak. 

The Line 6 leak occurred during the same week that environmental and tribal groups filed new legal challenges against Enbridge’s proposed Line 5 pipeline reroute. Opponents of Line 5 are concerned  that the pipeline, which currently runs through the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa’s reservation, will still present environmental hazards even if it is  rerouted around tribal lands. The Bad River Band argues that the pipeline poses a risk to the health of the Bad River, which the tribe relies on for food, medicine, and important cultural practices. Environmental groups echo those concerns, and feel state and federal agencies have failed to adequately evaluate the environmental risks posed by  Enbridge Line 5. 

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A sign protesting Enbridge Line 5 in Michigan. (Laina G. Stebbins | Michigan Advance)

“The land does not belong to us, it is borrowed by us from our children’s children” said Robert Blanchard, chairman of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. “We harvest our wild rice from the waters, we hunt from the land, fish from the lake, streams, and rivers to feed our families and gather the medicines to heal our relatives.” 

The Bad River Band cites this relationship with the land in its fight against the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline, which has operated in trespass on the Bad River Band’s reservation for years. Now, the Band and its allies are challenging the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) decision to grant permits that the Canadian oil company Enbridge will need to construct a re-route of the pipeline. The new route no longer trespasses on the reservation, it will still run through the Bad River watershed. The tribe and a coalition of state environmental groups say a spill in that area could be devastating.

Last Thursday, Midwest Environmental Advocates, 350 Wisconsin, the Sierra Club of Wisconsin and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin filed a petition for a contested case hearing with the DNR, challenging DNR permitting for Line 5. Shortly after filing the challenge, Midwest Environmental Advocates received a report of a 69,000-gallon oil spill in Jefferson County.

According to an accident report shared with Wisconsin Examiner, the spill originated from Enbridge’s Line 6 pipeline. Some 1,650 barrels of crude oil are estimated to have leaked from the pipeline, with 42 gallons to a barrel. When plugged into Google Maps, GPS data in the accident report point to a roadway running through a grassy, wooded area. The map shows that the spill occurred near a waterway that flows into Lake Ripley, not far from a group of nature preserves and campgrounds. Although the pipeline segment had a leak detection system, the accident report states that this didn’t alert anyone to the leak, which was first noticed on Nov. 11 by an Enbridge technician.

Line 6 is one of four pipeliness that run from Superior, Wisconsin, to Illinois. It carries crude oil from Superior to Lockport, Illinois.

Tony Wilkin Gibart, executive director of Midwest Environmental Advocates, said in a statement that the Line 6 spill highlights the dangers of Line 5. “Consider that in the very same week that DNR issued permits for Line 5 based on its conclusion that the risk for a spill would be ‘low,’ DNR was investigating a significant oil leak on another Enbridge pipeline in Wisconsin,” said Gibart. “DNR’s reasoning for approving Line 5 defies common sense.”

In November, the DNR decided to issue wetland and waterway permits to Enbridge as a step towards moving the pipeline off the Bad River reservation. The DNR highlighted that the wetland permits would include over 200 conditions which Enbridge would need to honor, and which would keep the company in compliance with Wisconsin’s wetland and waterway standards. Both the DNR and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would need to approve the permits before construction of the reroute could begin. 

“Many of our people will feel the effects if we lose these resources,” said Blanchard. “In my view, the DNR failed our children when it gave Enbridge the permits to build this reroute. They failed to consider the company’s multiple disasters in Minnesota and in Michigan, which are still being cleaned up. They failed to consider our tribe, our water quality, and the natural resources of the entire Bad River watershed. As a tribal chairman and an elder, it’s my responsibility to protect the generations still to come. That’s why we are fighting this reroute in court.”

The Band is represented by EarthJustice in a lawsuit filed against the DNR which, like the petition filed last week by the environmental groups, accuses the state agency of producing an inadequate final Environmental Impact Statement on the reroute which violates the Wisconsin Environmental Protection Act. 

Blanchard highlighted his tribe’s reliance on wild rice fields growing along the Bad River and Lake Superior, as well as natural medicines, wild game, and the land itself which are crucial to the Bad River Band’s cultural practices and way of life. Every year the tribe holds an annual wild rice harvest, and Bad River Band members hunt and gather from the land all year. 

“If something was to happen during that time, or when that pipeline is in place, you know, it’s really going to affect a lot of things that we do here, and the way that we do things here on the reservation as far as our way of life,” Blanchard warned. 

Currently the Line 5 pipeline crosses the Bad River inside the boundaries of the reservation. If the reroute goes through,  Enbridge would construct 41 miles of new pipeline to cross the river outside of reservation land. The reroute would still place the natural resources the tribe relies on in danger if an oil spill or leak were to occur. 

Stefanie Tsosie, senior staff attorney at Earthjustice, also warned that constructing new pipeline damages natural formations and resources which are often irreplaceable. “Once construction starts they can’t undo the damage,” Tsosie said in a statement. “Enbridge has a terrible track record for pipeline construction and operation. And this place — this watershed and this territory — is not another place they can just plow through.” 

Opponents to the pipeline point to a history of ecological disasters due to spillage from Enbridge pipelines. In 2010, millions of gallons of crude oil contaminated the Kalamazoo River, creating a crisis which took years to address. Over the past 50 years, Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline has spilled over 1 million gallons in dozens of different incidents. 

Today, an area known as the “meander” is also creating concern for the Bad River Band. “The river is changing course, and it does that throughout the way it runs,” said Blanchard. At the meander where the pipeline crosses,  he added, “If we have high water events, flooding, harsh winter with a lot of ice build up, and all that breaks loose in the spring, then we get this high water that very well could take that pipeline out, and cause a spill.”

The tribe is monitoring the situation regularly, but this does little to ease their anxieties. The meander is “quite difficult to get to,” said Blanchard, and it’s also just one area of concern along the pipeline’s route. “A few years back, we had an exposed pipeline coming down one of the sidehills up there,” said Blanchard. “There was quite a ways where the pipeline was exposed and just kind of hanging in mid-air, which could have been disastrous if it wasn’t found and something done about it.”

If Line 5 were rerouted, it would still go through other wetlands and habitats outside the reservation. “These are some of the most treasured areas in Wisconsin,” said Brett Korte, an attorney with Clean Wisconsin. “When we think of the beauty of our state, our precious freshwater resources, the places we must protect, these areas are at the top of the list.” 

In a statement, Korte added, “This push from Canadian oil giant Enbridge is getting national attention because what it’s proposing to do here in Wisconsin is dangerous.”

This report was updated with additional information about Line 6.

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Kerrie Hirte, the mother of Cilivea Thyrion, looks over autopsy reports sent by the medical examiner. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

On a recent chilly November evening, Kerrie Hirte confronted a piece of mail she’d both anticipated and dreaded. Sitting at her kitchen table, beneath a picture of her late daughter Cilivea Thyrion, 20, Hirte examined the contents of an orange envelope from the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office. Inside were unredacted autopsy reports, with details that raised new questions about her daughter’s death in the Milwaukee County Jail nearly two years ago. 

Hirte invited the Wisconsin Examiner to her Green Bay home to accompany her when she first viewed the unredacted autopsy reports. They show that correctional officers were aware that Thyrion, who died after eating pieces of an adult diaper while on suicide watch, had a previous history of eating the very item she was given the day she died. In autopsy protocol records, the medical examiner also noted evidence of blunt force injuries to Thyrion, including injuries to her head, lower extremities, liver, and ribs. 

The reports described the scene of Thyrion’s death on Dec. 16, 2022. By then, Thyrion had been in the jail just two days short of 10 months. Thyrion was arrested by the Wauwatosa Police Department in February, after getting in a fight at her residence and charged with felony suffocation/strangulation and misdemeanor battery. Thyrion died before she was sentenced for the charges. 

According to the records later mailed to Hirte, medical examiner investigators found Thyrion “lying on a bare metal slate” with her arm “resting on a green mattress pad on the floor.” The green mattress was one of the only items in the cell besides a toilet, sink, a paperback book and intercom. Thyrion had been housed in the jail’s Special Needs Unit, where she’d been on suicide watch since Dec. 11. “It is unknown at this time what [led] to her needing this type of cell and supervision,” the medical examiner’s investigation report states.

On the morning of Dec. 16, Thyrion pushed the assistance button inside her cell to call guards for help. When correctional officers arrived, they saw Thyrion gesturing towards her neck. After gathering other correctional staff, they called 911 as it was apparent that the 20-year-old was suffocating. The medical examiner’s report states that correctional officers performed a Heimlich maneuver to help Thyrion clear whatever she was choking on. The report states that correctional officers called 911 three times, but Thyrion was unconscious by the time medics arrived. 

An investigation by the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department found that Thyrion had ingested an adult diaper, which correctional officers gave her while she was on suicide watch. Although why the diaper was provided is redacted in Waukesha’s reports, interviews with correctional officers strongly imply that it was to help Thyrion deal with her menstrual cycle. In a letter stating that no charges would be filed for Thyrion’s death, the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office wrote that the guards tried unsuccessfully to find underwear made specifically to limit self-harm risks, but could only find an adult diaper. The district attorney’s letter states that “they wanted to meet a basic need for Ms. Thyrion and did not consider that the diaper could be used in a way to self-harm.”

What correctional officers knew about Thryion’s self-harm risks is woven in and out of the redactions in the Waukesha sheriff’s investigation. One interview of a correctional officer noted that the guard “was aware of Thyrion’s history and had conversations with her about [redacted]”, and that the guard was “very sad about the situation because nobody thought that Thryion would hurt herself by [redacted] and they were just trying to make her ‘feel like a woman.’” 

Yet, the medical examiner’s scene report states that “according to Correctional Officers (CO) and jail staff, [Cilivea] had a history of trying to swallow inedible objections (sic) including plastic forks and diapers. She was seen trying to swallow unspecified objects today around 1030 hours and it is believed that she was unsuccessful at actually swallowing anything.” After reading that section of the report Hirte wondered why her daughter would be given a diaper if jail staff were aware of the risk. “They make it sound like they just gave her diapers all the time,” Hirte told Wisconsin Examiner. 

After reading a portion of the reports stating that Thyrion had no next of kin, but that detectives were aware that she’d called an unknown female, Hirte began to weep. While Thyrion was incarcerated, Hirte recalled talking to jail health care staff “several times about Cilivea.” She told Wisconsin Examiner that her daughter had signed “a release of information so that I could find out what was happening to her in there. And when you’re reading that [the medical examiner reports] it makes it sound like they had no idea who she was talking to. When they know darn well it was me.”

According to the medical examiner report, jail staff “stated they were not aware of any triggers, upcoming court proceedings, or recent events that would make Cilivea want [to] harm herself today or for any of the past self harm attempts.” 

Hirte wonders if jail staff knew that Thyrion had swallowed plastic forks and diapers before, and if so,  “why would you give her anything then?”

In late 2023, among Thyrion’s belongings released to Hirte by the jail was a handwritten note from Thyrion requesting to see a nurse. “I think I need a med adjustment,” Thyrion wrote. Electronic messages Thyrion sent jail staff throughout her incarceration also show that she regularly communicated her needs, without many results. The messages were obtained by Wisconsin Examiner through open records requests. 

In late March 2022, Thyrion messaged jail staff asking to be moved to another part of the facility because activity going on in her pod was “mentally upsetting.” The following month in April, Thyrion wrote complaints about jail staff mocking her with “fat jokes” and being rude. In June, Thyrion was denied access to the gym, and made multiple requests for a Bible and hygiene products. 

Redactions in the messages obscure crucial details about Thryion’s needs. Anything related to Thyrion’s mental health history, including the word “suicide” is redacted in most reports. “I have not been [getting] my [redacted] and I don’t know why. I really need it. I have been getting really bad [redacted],” she wrote on June 29, 2022. In August, she reported being verbally threatened by a correctional officer, and asked why she wasn’t getting her mail. When she asked to speak with friendlier and familiar jail staffer, Thyrion was denied. “I promise to be better,” Thyrion wrote in the electronic messages. “I Just need to talk to her please she’s a good friend she’s great to talk to please she was in cell four please I’m sorry.” 

On Dec. 2, 2022, court records show that Thyrion’s sentencing had been scheduled for January 2023. In her last message sent on Dec. 12 to jail staff, just four days before her death on Dec. 16, Thyrion reported that jail staff had used her cell’s intercom system to call her fat, pathetic, and that “no one in my family should have raised an inmate” and that “it all started because I threw up my food and she said that maybe if I stopped eating everything I would not be throwing up.”

 

RECORD REQUEST FORMS_Redacted

Records from the Milwaukee County Jail showing correspondences between Cilivea Thyrion and jail staff during her time at the jail, obtained through open records requests.

 

Thyrion’s messages to jail staff about harassment and neglect, her note asking for “a med adjustment,” the medical examiner’s note that correctional staff knew about her history of ingesting objects like diapers (seemingly at odds with the district attorney’s letter mentioning that jail staff didn’t consider the diaper to be a self-harm risk), and their subsequent decision to furnish an ordinary diaper rather than one designed to prevent self-harm, raise serious questions about the lack of accountability in her case. Hirte feels what happened to her daughter was intentional, “because they gave her something and then walked away.” 

With many crucial details about Thyrion’s medical history at the jail hidden behind black inked redactions, these various pieces form a picture of what her life inside the jail was like. Normally, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office does not release autopsy protocols. As Thyrion’s mother, however, Hirte was sent an unredacted copy which was also reviewed by Wisconsin Examiner. The report notes “blunt force injury” including an abrasion to Thyrion’s head, fractures to four ribs, and contusions or abrasions to her abdomen, liver, left hand, and “lower extremities and the bottom of the right foot.” Instead of food, plastic fragments were found in Thyrion’s stomach, and “a crumpled piece of cloth fabric” in her large intestine. 

“To me,” Hirte told Wisconsin Examiner,  “it’s like, should she have been in the hospital if she had that towel in her large intestines?” A few days after viewing the autopsy reports, Hirte traveled from Green Bay to Milwaukee, to speak before a Milwaukee County committee reviewing an audit of the Milwaukee County Jail. The audit revealed “systemic issues ranging from dangerous suicide watch practices and a mental health challenge to critical staffing shortages and occupant overcrowding.” 

Auditors noticed “unsafe restraining of occupants” on suicide watch, including being handcuffed to benches for hours at a time. Although the jail places an average of 36 people in suicide watch on a weekly basis, mental health assessments were inconsistent. While auditors were visiting the jail, staff realized that someone on suicide watch had not been logged on a white board. “This discrepancy highlights a critical breakdown in communication and procedure,” the auditors wrote. There was also a backlog of 51 people awaiting competency evaluations. Despite there being a high number of pre-trial jail occupants taking psychotropic drugs, suggesting “a significant mental health burden within the jail” according to the audit, medications are distributed in bulk stock, meaning they’re not individually prescribed or even properly labeled with instructions on how to take the drugs. 

The auditors also found a lack of supervision and clear duties for correctional staff in the jail’s restrictive housing units, and found that the jail’s suicide prevention policies — while complying with Department of Corrections (DOC) regulations — lacked “specificity and clarity.” The auditors warned that “this vagueness hinders consistent and effective implementation of critical procedures, particularly those related to suicide watch.” Throughout the audior’s visit, the auditors recommended that the Milwaukee County Sheriffs Office and its contracted jail health care provider Wellpath emphasis suicide prevention training and address staffing shortages, lack of supervison, and the various nonfunctioning light fixtures, graffiti, and damaged windows which create an unfavorable atmosphere within the jail.

Thyrion’s death came as part of a string of six deaths within the jail over a 14-month period. During the audit committee hearing on Dec. 2, Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball said that after each death, the office does a review to see what could be done better. As a result, Ball said before a committee of county supervisors, there hasn’t been a suicide at the jail since January 2023. “We’re putting things in place that is helping,” said Ball. “One death is one too many.” 

After the sheriff spoke, the floor was opened up for public comment. “From what I see from this audit shows all my concerns,” said Hirte. “It shows more. There’s stuff I didn’t even know that I now know. And I hope it opens everybody’s eyes as to why I came back here to fight for my 20-year-old daughter. The only daughter I have died, who died in the Milwaukee County Jail, they say while she was on suicide watch. This basically says how unequipped they were to handle her.” 

In November, days before the jail audit report was sent to Milwaukee County Audit Committee officials, the jail’s contracted health care provider Wellpath filed for bankruptcy.  The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office declined to comment, and the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office also did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. 

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Students gather outside the meeting Thursday of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. (Photo | CodePink)

On Thursday protesters disrupted a meeting of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, holding signs and chanting slogans including “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,” and “Free, free Palestine!” Numerous groups participated in the demonstration including CODEPINK, UW-Milwaukee Popular University for Palestine, Wisconsin for Palestine, Wisconsin Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) UW-Madison, Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) Wisconsin, and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)-UWM. 

Protesters gathered both inside and outside the room where the Board held its meeting. With chanting and speeches the protesters interrupted the meeting with one demonstrator at one point saying that protesters “will not be allowing” the Board to conduct business during the meeting, followed by loud chants from the group as officers flowed into the room to begin arrests. Activists say that 19 people were arrested during the demonstration. 

According to a CODEPINK press release, the demonstration stemmed from questions student activists sent the Board of Regents about the University of Wisconsin’s response after students joined a wave of encampment protests on college campuses. Students pitched tents on the grounds of college campuses nationwide last spring calling for institutions to sever their ties with the government of Israel. With U.S. support, Israel launched retaliatory strikes into the Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, which killed around 1,200 Israeli civilians and resulted in hundreds being taken hostage. Since then the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed over 44,000 Palestinians, with a United Nations Special Committee recently finding the IDF’s warfare tactics are “consistent with genocide”. Both Hamas and Israel have been accused of war crimes in the ongoing conflict. 

University of Wisconsin students involved in protests against the war in Gaza say they continue to face hands-on law enforcement responses. Arrests during demonstrations and threats of academic punishment targeting student activists are increasing tensions with school administration, activists say, after negotiations in May quelled the college encampment protests. 

UW students have demanded that the university divest from Israel, and disclose all of the investments made in the country to date. At UW-Madison, campus police and Dane County Sheriffs broke up the encampments last spring, arresting 34 people in May. Injuries were reported both among people in and around the encampments, and among law enforcement. No arrests were ever made at the UW-Milwaukee encampments, though police monitored the protests closely.  

By May, administrators at both UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee reached separate agreements with students to end the encampment protests. In September, CODEPINK said in its press release, the Board of Regents met with student activists, who had questions about the university’s handling of the encampment protests. Activists say that the Board deferred responsibility for the protest responses to university administration, prompting the demonstration on Thursday morning. 

The Board of Regents did not respond to a request for comment on the protests Thursday. Relaying a statement to Wisconsin Examiner on behalf of the protest group, a spokesperson for CODEPINK’s branch in Madison said that the Board’s use of police against student activists “reflects a troubling disregard for dialogue or transparency.” The spokesperson added that “instead of engaging in a one-minute statement from peaceful protesters, they chose to shut off the recording and summon a heavy police presence. This response escalated to harassment by university police and arbitrary arrests of individuals who were peacefully exercising their right to participate in a public meeting.”

CODEPINK questioned why the Board won’t engage with student activists, and said that the Board is responsible for “a significant portion of the UW-Madison endowment money” and should explain how it can use that money to support Israel when the Board’s own guidelines prohibit it from knowingly providing gifts, grants, etc, to “any company, corporation or subsidiary, or affiliate” that practices or condones discrimination against particular groups. 

“The police’s use of force against peaceful protestors underscores a disturbing trend of prioritizing secrecy over public trust,” reads CODEPINK’s emailed statement to Wisconsin Examiner. “Transparency and accountability should not be met with violence, especially in spaces meant to serve the public and promote education.”

Such sentiments aren’t exclusive to UW-Madison. In late October, UW-Milwaukee student members of SDS-UWM held a press conference claiming to have faced continued intimidation by campus police. UW-Milwaukee student Robby Knapp recounted being awoken to someone banging on his door one June night at 2:30 a.m. Initially, he thought that the police car parked outside was from the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD), but the officers were actually from UW-Milwaukee. They’d driven over 20 minutes from campus to Knapp’s home in Milwaukee’s Washington Heights neighborhood. Addressing him by name, they asked about an alleged vandalism incident near campus. Knapp said he didn’t know anything about it, stepped outside, and was immediately arrested. 

Knapp told Wisconsin Examiner that the officers took him back “the long way,” taking side streets instead of the freeway. When they got to the campus, “they photographed me, booked me, the whole nine yards with that,” Knapp said in the October press conference. “They gave me a letter saying the DA [District Attorney] might give you a call, which I haven’t gotten a call from the DA since that night.” Knapp was never taken to the county jail, but was released after an hour, he recalled. 

After Knapp was taken in, officers visited the homes of SDS members Audari Tamayo and Kayla Patterson. “They went to my house at least twice,” said Tamayo. “And we found this out through the police report that they went to my house twice, but I didn’t open the door. They needed to get to the third floor, they needed to get through three different hallways.” Tamayo said that after the officers failed to get into the apartment, “they started calling me repeatedly saying that I had to come down for an interview or else.” 

A spokesperson for UW-Milwaukee was unable to comment on any aspect Knapp’s arrest due to federal laws protecting student records. The spokesperson also said that UW-Milwaukee cannot comment on the ongoing investigation related to the alleged vandalism incident, nor comment on what exactly the vandalism was. “SDS recognition as a UWM student organization is suspended due to student organization misconduct, and only officially recognized student organizations are permitted to use UWM’s name in their organization’s name,” spokeswoman Angelica Duria said. 

A Milwaukee PD spokesperson told Wisconsin Examiner that the department is, “aware that Students for a Democratic Society UWM have engaged in protest activity in Milwaukee. We monitored the tent city situation at UWM to ensure there was no impact to emergency services in the City of Milwaukee. We do not have requests from UWM to conduct any investigations related to the group. We do share when we are aware of a planned protest for the sake of public safety.”

SDS says that its members have also faced academic sanctions, directly related to their protests. Besides Knapp, whom SDS says is facing academic sanctions due to protest activity, Patricia Fish is also facing sanctions due to an occupation protest in February. Additionally, both Patterson and Tamayo were unable to enroll in time for the fall 2024 semester after holds were placed on their student accounts. 

The stress has  affected Knapp’s academic performance. “Since then I’ve been behind … I have to kind of  go to school, and go to class every day understanding that  any work, any midterms, any quizzes, any papers, any exams, any credit, as soon as that suspension becomes effective, then all of that is out the window,” said Knapp. “I have about four courses left until I graduate. I was going to take two this semester, and two that semester. So not only is my education up in the air, but my ability to graduate is now up in the air … It’s the energy, it’s the money, it’s the time, it’s the effort that I’ve put into getting this close to graduating and just this semester in general after having to deal with them holding me back to be able to take these classes in the first place.”

Duria said that “no student is subject to the misconduct process based on considerations other than their own behavior.” Duria said that the Dean of Students Office assesses “reports it receives to determine whether there are potential nonacademic misconduct violations.” Duria went on to say in a statement to Wisconsin Examiner that “UWM has communicated protest guidelines and behavior expectations in several previous emails sent to faculty, staff and students. UWM has also updated its free speech website to make behavior expectations and expressive activity policies easily visible. Protests and expressive activity must abide by state law and university policy and UWM will take appropriate action to enforce the law, and its policies and codes of conduct.”

Patterson feels negotiations between students and the administration were mainly “to save face,” and to also learn more about student activist groups in preparation for more crackdowns. She told Wisconsin Examiner, “It’s very heavy monitoring. They’re going both at the organizational level, and the individual level, in order to crack down.” 

This article has been edited to correct the last name of Robby Knapp, not “Napp”. 

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The Milwaukee Police Administration Building downtown. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

Back in July, a lot happened while the Republican National Convention (RNC) was going on in downtown Milwaukee. Donald Trump accepted his party’s presidential nomination. Local residents protested the RNC. Out-of-state police killed an unhoused man in King Park, and the convention brought so much traffic to the gay and bisexual dating app Grindr that it crashed. Those events and more were probably followed by the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) using a new tool to scan, scrape and search online activity. 

In April, the MPD announced that it was seeking an open source intelligence tool ahead of the RNC. Basically, anything which can be openly seen and accessed online counts as open source intelligence. Using the tool, the MPD planned to augment its online monitoring capabilities. What would have taken hours just a few years ago could be reduced to minutes. By the end of May, MPD had settled on an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered software called Babel Street. The contract for Babel Street, which was not to exceed $43,673.50, was awarded on May 23.

A Request for Proposal (RFP) document, compiled by the Pewaukee-based technology brokerage company Abaxent, provides details on Babel Street. The document was obtained by Wisconsin Examiner through open records requests. Utilized by the U.S. Armed Forces, intelligence agencies and the federal government, Babel Street “empowers users to extend their search to the farthest corners of the globe, netting data beyond the traditional scope of [publicly available information] in a safe and secure environment,” the RFP document states. “It opens the door to enriched and standardized [publicly available information] data from over 220 countries.”

Not only can Babel Street search online content in over 200 languages, it also employs “sentiment scoring” in over 50 languages. A Babel Street glossary of terms webpage states that sentiment analysis involves determining “if a given text is expressing a positive, negative sentiment or no particular sentiment (neutral).” The RFP document also claims that Babel Street’s use of AI “accelerates investigations and uncovers connections.”  

An MPD spokesperson echoed that point, saying in an emailed statement to Wisconsin Examiner that the software has “increased the speed of investigations.” The spokesperson said that Babel Street is used by MPD’s Fusion Division. Social media investigations are a staple for Milwaukee’s Fusion Center, composed of both MPD’s Fusion Division and the Southeastern Threat Analysis Center (STAC). Originally created for homeland security, the Fusion Center serves a variety of roles today — whether that’s operating the city’s Shotspotter gunshot surveillance system, monitoring a camera network spanning Milwaukee County, conducting ballistic tests, accessing phones seized by officers, or processing information from cell towers. 

Within the Fusion Center, analysts assigned to the Virtual Investigations Unit monitor social media, investigating not only people but entire social ecosystems. Babel Street “pinpoints key online influencers, allowing investigators to explore networks from a powerful starting point,” the RFP document states. “Rapidly exposing and unlocking their web of relationships delivers crucial information in a matter of minutes.” All of that data then gets plugged into sophisticated visualizations such as maps, algorithmic scores, or graphs. “Visualized mapping unearths influencers who have the greatest impacts on organizations, senior leaders, and world events,” the document explains. “Advanced algorithms score and prioritize critical online entities to measure this influence, bringing to the forefront obscure identities that make up their network.” 

Babel Street can track the growth of online influence emanating from a person or group of interest to police. Investigators can also set real-time updates alerting them to new developments online, as well as “persistent” monitoring. “A persistent Document Search on an identified threat actor continuously monitors filtered topics the actor is publicly engaging in,” according to the RFP document. “By establishing a persistent collection via user-built filters/queries, users can not only increase their data access and insight, but they can also automate the rate aspects of analysis.”

 

Contract B20203, Purchase Order PUR20203 (RNC Open Source Tool – Abaxent response)_Redacted

Records from the City of Milwaukee Purchasing Division, obtained through open records requests.

 

Babel Street draws on a wealth of online information to gather intelligence for police. An aspect of the software known as “Synthesis” allows MPD “to understand the profile of key influencers based on attributes, such as person/organization, location, occupation, interests, areas of influence, and communication style, which are automatically tagged for millions of accounts using an AI model, while still giving the City the option of manual tagging.” Babel Street also allows MPD to pair keyword searches with geo-fencing, thus alerting the department to posts within a specific geographic area. MPD’s new open source intelligence tool also enables data to be extracted from the dark web — parts of the internet which are not indexed in search engines and require specialized internet browsers to locate.

The ability of law enforcement to map online connections between people worried privacy advocates leading up to the RNC. In early April, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) warned that using an open source intelligence tool, MPD could more effectively track and profile people who were exercising their constitutional rights. David Maass, director for investigations at the EFF, told Wisconsin Examiner that open source intelligence tools “are designed to produce ‘results’ even if there’s no evidence of a nefarious plot.” 

Many police reform activists in Milwaukee also remember the protests of 2020, when police departments heavily relied on social media to surveil protesters. All of that information, however, takes time to collect and sift, especially when a department may only have so many analysts on hand. “No longer are analysts manually checking multiple data sources to identify changes,” according to  the RFP document, “as Babel Street Insights persistently and automatically collects, ingests, and alerts users when new information is available, dramatically increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of each analyst.” 

All of that information, however, also needs to be vetted to ensure that it’s accurate. “Intelligence often requires vetting in order to determine whether it is reliable or not,” MPD’s spokesperson wrote in an email statement. “Additional investigation would be required with all intelligence.”

MPD said that it does not track Babel Street’s involvement in investigations, either during the RNC or after. There is also no standard operating procedure governing the software’s use by MPD, a spokesperson told Wisconsin Examiner. “This software is utilized to investigate crimes or to assist with mitigating threats to pre-planned large-scale events,” wrote the spokesperson in a statement. No decisions have been made yet about renewing the MPD’s one-year contract for Babel Street. 

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A billboard promoting Enbridge Inc. (Susan Demas | Michigan Advance)

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has decided that it will issue an individual wetland and waterway permit to the Canadian oil and gas company Enbridge, as the company seeks to relocate its Line 5 pipeline. Permits will also be issued to the company for stormwater site construction and pollution discharge elimination systems. The state agency’s decision is the latest development in the contested operation of Line 5 in Wisconsin. 

A DNR press release states that the wetland permit authorizes specific construction-related activities that may impact waterways and wetlands. The permit contains “more than 200 conditions to ensure compliance with state’s wetlands and waterways standards,” according to the DNR. The construction permits for stormwater sites also involve “specific plans for erosion control and water quality protection.”

Both the DNR and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must approve the permits before the project can proceed. Enbridge may need to also obtain other permits involving  groundwater, burning and incidental takes of species listed as threatened or endangered. Enbridge will also need to apply for a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit to discharge dredge or fill material to waterways, which is required under the Clean Water Act. The DNR has issued a water quality certification “that serves as a determination that the project as proposed will meet State of Wisconsin water quality standards.” The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will also have to consider Wisconsin’s water quality certification as part of the permitting process. 

The announcement earned praise from the Wisconsin Building Trades Council, a union with  a membership of over 40,000. Emily Pritzkow, the union’s executive director, issued a statement saying the decision “reflects an intentional and balanced approach to addressing the state’s energy infrastructure needs while ensuring responsible environmental stewardship.” Calling the relocation of Line 5 “a win for Wisconsin workers, Wisconsin families, and the Wisconsin economy,” Pritzkow said the reroute “ensures operation with the highest safety standards by incorporating cutting-edge technology and construction practices.” Pritzkow added, “together, we can advance Wisconsin’s infrastructure needs while protecting the natural resources that make our state exceptional.”

Plans to reroute  Line 5 have been debated for years. In 2019, when the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa filed a federal lawsuit to remove the pipeline from the tribe’s reservation, a judge determined that the company had trespassed on the Bad River Band’s land, and ordered the pipeline to be removed within three years. Although the decision was a victory for the Bad River Band, the tribe argues that Line 5’s rerouted path still crosses the Bad River watershed, and thus still poses a threat to the tribe’s natural resources. 

In late August, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received over 150,000 public comments opposing the continued operation of Line 5. Nearly a month later, the DNR released a final environmental impact statement on the reroute plan, which itself was a step necessary for Enbridge to receive the permits it needed to relocate the pipeline. 

Opponents to the decades-old crude oil pipeline were displeased by the DNR’s decision to issue permits to Enbridge. “I’m angry that the DNR has signed off on a half-baked plan that spells disaster for our homeland and our way of life,” said Bad River Band chairman Robert Blanchard in a statement. “We will continue sounding the alarm to prevent yet another Enbridge pipeline from endangering our watershed.”

Stefanie Tsosie, who is helping represent the Bad River Band as senior attorney at Earthjustice, said in a statement that the DNR “chose to serve Enbridge’s interests at the cost of the Bad River Band’s treaty rights and the state’s future clean water supply.” Tsosie added, “it’s sad that they are willing to gamble the region’s irreplaceable wetlands, the wild rice beds, and even Lake Superior to secure Enbridge’s cash flow.” 

Clean Wisconsin is considering legal challenges against the permit issuances. “Wisconsin law makes it clear that projects causing harm to our waters must meet a high bar to move forward,” said Clean Wisconsin attorney Evan Feinauer. “Given the enormous impacts that construction of this pipeline would cause, we are skeptical that the proposed project meets these legal standards.” Opponents of the pipeline also point out  that constructing the reroute would involve clearing trees, digging trenches, filling wetlands, and other activities which could disturb vulnerable ecosystems in northern Wisconsin. 

“We will evaluate what actions are needed to protect our state,” said Feinauer. 

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