Treading on Wisconsin’s frozen lakes has gotten more dangerous, creating cost for taxpayers and business owners and calling into question the future of an important state pastime.
The post On thin ice: Falls through the ice on Wisconsin lakes are becoming more common. There’s more than just warm weather to blame appeared first on WPR.
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Wisconsin, which produces less electricity than it consumes, imports on average 15% of its electricity from other states, federal statistics show.
In 2024, Wisconsin used about 73 million megawatt-hours of electricity. That included about 8 million – 11.1% – imported from other states.
Minnesota imported 10.3%.
Iowa (14.5%), Illinois (22.7%) and Michigan (14.6%) were net-exporters.
Wisconsin imported more in previous years:
2023: 14.8%
2022: 18.4%
2021: 14%
2020: 15.7%
About 10% of U.S. electricity generation is traded across state lines.
Wisconsin participates in a grid run by Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), which aims to ensure power flows across 15 central U.S. states.
Electricity rates in Wisconsin, which produces most electricity from coal and natural gas, have exceeded regional averages annually for 20 years.
Wisconsin utility ratepayers owe nearly $1 billion on coal-powered plants that have been or soon will be shut down, Wisconsin Watch recently reported.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Does Wisconsin import about 15% of its electricity from other states? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Zabi Sahibzada’s team of refugee resettlement caseworkers has shrunk. The Trump administration’s pause on refugee admissions in January 2025 dealt a blow to Sahibzada’s employer, Jewish Social Services of Madison, which previously counted on federal funding tied to each new refugee arrival to support its resettlement program.
A few new arrivals trickled in over the following months, entering the U.S. with special immigrant visas available to Afghan and Iraqi nationals who worked with the U.S. government or its international partners. The same visa enabled Sahibzada, a former USAID employee from Afghanistan, to reach the U.S. in 2022.
But even those admissions have now halted. The State Department in November stopped issuing any visas to Afghan nationals after authorities identified the man who shot two West Virginia National Guard members near the White House as an Afghan special immigrant visa holder.
Though the Trump administration says it will permit up to 7,500 refugees to resettle in the U.S. this fiscal year, it plans to prioritize South Africans – primarily Afrikaners, a white minority descended largely from Dutch, French and German settlers.
Eleven South African refugees arrived in Wisconsin in September, followed by another 32 in late 2025. They were the only refugees resettled in the state since last January, U.S. State Department records show.
The dramatic slowdown leaves agencies searching for ways to maintain Wisconsin’s resettlement infrastructure until the refugee pipeline widens again. For some agencies, that includes resettling South African refugees, even if some remain skeptical of the Trump administration’s motives for privileging them in admissions. Jewish Social Services lacks that option: Federal officials did not include the nonprofit in the South African refugee program.
Providers warn that if Wisconsin’s resettlement infrastructure – trained caseworkers, volunteers and employer partnerships — withers, the state won’t be prepared for any future surge of refugees.
The near-total shutdown of refugee admissions followed the most active period for resettlement in decades.
More than 5,000 refugees reached Wisconsin between October 2020 and September 2024 – a span in which refugee resettlement in the U.S. reached the highest annual peak since the early 1990s.
Most recent refugee arrivals came from Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Those figures do not include special immigrant visa holders, asylees or immigrants with humanitarian parole, many of whom come from the same countries as those admitted as refugees. Roughly 370 Afghans with special immigrant visas settled in Wisconsin between October 2020 and October 2025.
Refugees reach Wisconsin through a network of international, federal and state agencies, national nonprofits and state-level partners. In the process, they pass through a series of screening interviews, background checks and medical examinations.
Six organizations currently contract with Wisconsin’s Department of Children and Families to provide resettlement services, connecting new arrivals to housing, employment and English language courses. Relying on a mix of federal and state funding, they provide some services for up to five years after an arrival. The federal government ties much of its funding to the number of refugees resettled.
Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan planned to resettle more than 400 people in fiscal year 2025. Instead, it resettled 163 people between October 2024 and January 2025, after which it received only a half-dozen new arrivals, resettlement director Omar Mohamed said. All were Afghans with special immigrant visas who arrived in Wisconsin without ties to a resettlement agency and reached out for help.
“At least 27 people were scheduled to arrive in January when the stop work order happened,” he added. President Donald Trump’s inauguration day order to suspend the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program rendered their plane tickets useless.
The sudden shift prompted Lutheran Social Services to cut nearly a third of its resettlement program staff, Mohamed said.
Most Wisconsin refugee resettlement agencies face similar predicaments. Jewish Social Services in Madison laid off two case workers and a housing specialist. Hanan Refugee Relief Group, a relatively new nonprofit operating out of an office above a South Side Milwaukee pizzeria, cut 10 members of an already small team. World Relief Wisconsin, which resettles refugees in the Fox Valley, also laid off staff.
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Green Bay, which has resettled hundreds of refugees in northeast Wisconsin in recent years, ended its resettlement program after its national affiliate, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, severed its partnerships with the federal government in April.
But Sean Gilligan, the diocese’s refugee services director, says Catholic Charities is still providing housing referrals, English classes and other basic services to refugees who already settled in greater Green Bay.
Resettlement agencies are still receiving some federal funds to support refugees who arrived within the past five years, along with state grants for educational and health programs.
That funding may temporarily help the agencies stay afloat.
Hanan Refugee Relief Group is ramping up its focus on employment training, Executive Director Sheila Badwan said. That includes offering on-the-job English language training for refugees employed at a Milwaukee Cargill meat processing plant.
But the loss of funding from new arrivals leaves Hanan and other agencies scrambling to find donors to support their work.
“We are hoping just to keep our doors open to serve not just the ones we welcomed (recently),” said Uma Abdi, the nonprofit’s refugee program director, “but all of those refugees and immigrants that still need support.”
The International Institute of Wisconsin, an older and well-established resettlement agency, is an outlier. It’s growing as others scale back. Revenue from contracts with medical clinics and other businesses to provide translation services has allowed it to grow as others scale back.
“We can operate without any government contracts,” President and CEO Paul Trebian said.
With the doors closed to refugees from most of the world’s conflict zones, some Wisconsin resettlement agencies are now turning their attention to South Africans.
The Trump administration launched the South African refugee admissions program through a February executive order, filling in the details after the fact. Alleging a “shocking disregard of its citizens’ rights,” the order pointed to a 2024 South African law that allows the state to seize land without compensation in limited circumstances.
The law’s supporters call it necessary to redistribute land from the country’s white minority, who own much of South Africa’s farmland, to a Black majority still recovering from decades of racial apartheid that ended in the 1990s. Trump decried the law as “racially discriminatory” and accused the South African government of “fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has not set a date for the law’s implementation, and police statistics do not bear out claims that white farmers are more likely to be targets for violence than Black farmers.
Trump’s order specifically offered refugee status to Afrikaners, but his administration has since said the resettlement program is open to members of any racial minority in South Africa, including those of English or South Asian descent, so long as they can “articulate a past personal experience of persecution or fear of future persecution.” Unlike most refugees, South Africans may apply for refugee status only while living in South Africa.
Refugee advocacy groups and the South African government have criticized the program for legitimizing false claims of “white genocide” and bypassing some steps through which refugees from other countries must pass.
But the Wisconsin resettlement agencies participating in the program say their responsibility is to welcome refugees, not to determine who deserves refugee status.
“We’re here to serve everybody,” said Lutheran Social Services President and CEO Héctor Colón, whose nonprofit expects next year to resettle up to 75 new arrivals, mostly or all South Africans in the Milwaukee area.
Colón adds that working with South Africans keeps his organization’s resettlement infrastructure in working order during the pause in other admissions.
“We’ve been through ebbs and flows, we understand how this works,” he said, “but our organization has made a commitment that we want to keep this program up and running. There are many programs all across the country that cannot absorb the hit.”
But World Relief Wisconsin Regional Director Gail Cornelius, whose nonprofit helped resettle South Africans this year, noted that some of the South Africans who arrived in Wisconsin last year have already moved on to other states.
A wave of federal rules changes following the November attack of National Guard members further complicates the work of resettlement agencies.
Among the changes: halting green card and citizenship applications for immigrants and refugees from 39 countries, including Afghanistan and Myanmar.
“People that were going in for their citizenship oath were actually pulled out of line,” Cornelius said.
The Trump administration also vowed to revet and reinterview all refugees who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration, regardless of their current legal status. Such a review could affect thousands of Wisconsin refugees, but resettlement agencies are still awaiting clarity about how the administration will follow through.
“How are they going to review all of these cases?” Badwan asked. “Do we even have the resources to do that?”
Sahibzada wonders whether he, too, will face revetting. Meanwhile, the White House’s bar on immigrant visas for Afghan nationals placed his plans to reunite with his wife and children on hold. They remain in Kabul, his daughters confined to their home after the Taliban forbade girls from attending school.
“I was waiting for things to be calm,” he said, referring to the conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan that previously stalled his efforts to secure visas for his family. “I talk to my kids every morning, and they’re asking me that question, like, what’s gonna happen? I have no answer to them. I’m just saying, maybe things will get better.”
Working with Afghan families who made it to Wisconsin before the door closed is bittersweet, Sahibzada added. “Even if my kids are not here, at least they are here.”
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Refugee resettlement agencies try to keep doors open as White House shuts out new arrivals is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Reports have surfaced in recent months of a not-so-jolly buccaneer working Lake Michigan’s Caribbean-clear waters just north of Milwaukee. He has gained an almost mythical status among southeastern Wisconsin’s swimmers, boaters and internet surfers.
He is not shaking down sailors for sugar, silk or gold. He is after something arguably more precious – the sole right to use the Lake Michigan beach behind his home and yard on the 4000 block of North Lake Drive, the second property north of Atwater’s swimming beach in the village of Shorewood.
“I dont want to be the dick but I stopped swimming there because a dude would always come out in a little black zodiac (raft) and yell. Stuff like ‘this is a historical site you cant be here,” grumbled one Redditor in an early December post. “…Watched the dude chase off all approaching boats too.”
Added another: “dude who lives just north of atwater is a menace. Hes yelled at me for swimming 100+feet off shore and came out in his little zodiac. Yall know the house lol.”
The house he is talking about is indeed an eye-catcher.
Distinct among other waterfront properties in Shorewood, this residence has a cluster of huts and an expansive deck at the bottom of a private cable car built to shuttle the owners from the main house on Lake Drive to the beach some eight stories below.
To call the beachfront development a patio, deck or even cabana doesn’t do it justice. It looks more like someone bought the set from the 1960s sitcom “Gilligan’s Island” — walled cabins, thatched roofs, boat ramp, surfboards, the works — and plopped it on a sandy Wisconsin beach that’s frozen half the year.
“Someone needs to introduce them to some Jimmy Buffet,” another Redditor posted in the December conversation. “You build a tiki porch… you share drinks and make new friends. Isn’t that a requirement to get the building permit approved?”
And that raises a question: How did regulators from the village of Shorewood and the state Department of Natural Resources allow this homemade Margaritaville to be built so close to the public’s lake?
Paul Florsheim is a 66-year-old clinical psychologist and a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor who grew up on Lake Drive several houses north of Atwater Park. That was an era when he says the beach behind all the private homes perched atop the bluff was commonly treated as a public right of way, like a sidewalk. People were free to walk up and down it and enjoy it — within reason. Walking a kid and maybe a dog, yes. Tapping a keg or having a luau smack in front of someone’s house, of course not.
That’s why it bugged Florsheim when he moved back to Milwaukee after a tenure on the faculty at the University of Utah and saw signs posted at the edge of Atwater Park that read “Private Property Beyond this Sign – Trespassers may be subject to citation.”
Florsheim didn’t see things that way and, legally, they aren’t.
Those signs should actually read: “Public property beyond this point: No trespassing.”
And if that doesn’t make sense to you, it didn’t to Florsheim either.
Two of Wisconsin’s neighboring states on Lake Michigan – Indiana and Michigan – have laws that ensure public access to the lake’s shoreline, as long as beach walkers leave their limbo sticks at home, keep moving and stay below the “Ordinary High Water Mark” (OHWM), commonly understood as where the sand stops and terrestrial vegetation starts.
Wisconsin is different. It acknowledges public ownership of the beach up to that line, but it gives “exclusive” use of that public beach to the private property owner adjacent to it. The law is based on a 1923 Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that beachcombers are free to walk the shoreline, so long as they stay in the water, even if it’s only enough to keep their feet wet.
This means, if you want to abide by the letter of the Wisconsin law while walking the beach, you have to skitter along the beach like a sandpiper, only in reverse – ever chasing the lapping waves back toward the water instead of running away from them.
And, while the Ordinary High Water Mark remains relatively fixed, the water level does not.
The level of Lake Michigan can, in fact, fluctuate by 6 feet over a period of several years. This means in low-water years, such as 2025, what was just recently a submerged public lakebed becomes vast expanses of exposed sand that becomes, in essence, private beach.
Florsheim wants that to change, so in late July he walked down the 100-some steps to the beach at Atwater Park. Then he crossed the park boundary by scrambling over a dock-like concrete structure (called a revetment) jutting into the water separating Atwater Park from the neighbors to the north.
On the other side of the revetment that morning was tiki compound owner Daniel Domagala, who was preparing to take his kids out on their kayaks on an 80-degree, flat-as-glass water morning, conditions he described in courtroom testimony last month as “perfect.” Then he saw Florsheim, whom he did not know, making his way over the revetment with a couple of dogs.
“You’re in my backyard,” Domagala said he told the stranger after he cleared the concrete structure. “Why don’t you turn around and go back to Atwater?”
“No, I’m not,” he said Florsheim replied before ambling north.
Domagala said he was baffled by what he saw as a brazen attitude toward his property rights.
“Just imagine somebody is in your house telling you: This is not your house,” he testified.
Domagala said he remained calm and courteous during the exchange. He called police, but Florsheim was gone by the time they arrived.
A surveillance camera Domagala has placed at his beach compound revealed Florsheim returned to walk the dry sand above the water line in the following days. Florsheim even cordially ignored face-to-face warnings from Shorewood police who, cordially, told him to stop.
Police finally wrote him a trespassing citation that packs a $313 fine. Florsheim was happy to get what he saw as a ticket to where he really wanted to go — Shorewood Municipal Court.
On Dec. 2 Florsheim appeared at trial without a lawyer to make his argument that Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan shoreline should be open to the public up to the Ordinary High Water Mark.
At the conclusion of the folksy four-hour trial (Florsheim called his 95-year-old dad to testify that he and his shorefront neighbors always viewed the beach abutting their homes as public property), Shorewood municipal judge Margo Kirchner said she would render a decision in the coming weeks.
Florsheim said he hopes to lose so he can appeal his case all the way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which he hopes will see things his way.
The ramifications of Florsheim’s summer hike are potentially staggering. In low-water years, such as 2025, vast expanses of dry sandy beach can appear in places where, just a few years earlier, that lakebed was completely submerged. If Florsheim were to take his case all the way to the state Supreme Court and get a favorable ruling, the result could open untold thousands of shorefront acres on Wisconsin’s roughly 800 miles of Great Lakes shoreline to the public for beach walking, at least in low-water years.
Meanwhile, it appears the compound owner has his own history of violations on the same stretch of beach Florsheim was ticketed on.
Shorewood Planning & Development Department records show in August 2015 Domagala, who did not respond to emailed questions from Wisconsin Watch, applied to build a fence and a covered patio on the beach adjacent to his property, in front of an aged concrete breakwater at the base of the bluff.
Domagala didn’t stop with the covered deck and the fence that separates the public beach from his property. He ultimately built a larger deck that, in high-water years, stretches almost to the water along with two enclosed cabins. Most of that work received permits, but not all of it.
In 2018 the village notified Domagala that one of those cabins was out of compliance with village regulations because Domagala, who identifies himself as the contractor in documents submitted to the village, equipped it with a bathroom that had no connection to the village sewer system.
A letter from the village instructed Domagala to “Remove all plumbing fixtures including the Separett toilet, shower stall and sinks from the boat storage house as it is in violation of State Plumbing Codes and Village of Shorewood Municipal Codes.”
Separett toilets are composting devices that are designed to aerobically decompose waste but require regular disposal.
Domagala told the village he installed the plumbing so his family and guests wouldn’t have to shuttle up and down the towering bluff just to relieve themselves.
“This issue is important to me because I cannot imagine hanging around the beach all day without a toilet or running water,” Domagala wrote to the Shorewood planning department in October 2018.
The village stood firm and ordered the removal of all plumbing fixtures – toilet included.
Two years later, on April 6, 2020, an anonymous person complained to the village that a boat ramp attached to Domagala’s compound appeared to have been built inside the Ordinary High Water Mark, where development is prohibited.
Domagala was not happy.
“I’m really bothered by the complaint,” Domagala wrote to Shorewood building inspector Justin Burris. “These people have nothing to do but be in my business. I think we have some good track record of working together and following the rules. I once lived in the country full of communists who thought they can tell you how to live…. This is deeper than a complaint for me. It’s the idea, and if it continues I will move out of the area.”
Domagala went back to the village later in summer 2020 after his wife reported a drone flying over their property during an unsettling time due to the pandemic and public demonstrations against the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“Can you confirm that it was not (a) village of shorewood drone?” he wrote to building inspector Burris, who informed him he did not believe it was.
“… This situation is becoming more and more annoying. Between People from out of town who want to use my front lawn as their own, My driveway being constantly blocked by cars on a day like yesterday,,Atwater being occupied by A crowd that does not live in shorewood where I can’t go to the playground with my own kids and perhaps meet a neighbor, the trespassers, the riots and finally the village chasing me whenever there is some communist with the idea that they want a piece of my beach, I’m trying to find reasons to stay in shorewood and Justify 25K spent on taxes every year.”
Burris, who described Domagala as cordial and cooperative in all his dealings with the village, nevertheless ordered the ramp shortened so it did not trespass on the public’s lakebed.
“I ask that you obtain a permit for the deck/boat launch structure that was constructed without a permit,” Burris wrote on June 19, 2020. “The structure will have to be modified so it does not project beyond the OHWM.”
Domagala did that work but he also drew attention from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources that summer for installing piles of rocks directly in front of his compound to protect it from encroaching water after Lake Michigan water levels had climbed dramatically. State regulators found that the fortification was in an area they considered clearly below the Ordinary High Water Mark, where structures are not allowed without meeting rigid permit requirements.
“This would require a DNR permit for a structure on the bed of a waterway,” the DNR’s Michelle Hase wrote to the Shorewood Planning & Development Department on June 4, 2020. She said the DNR wasn’t about to grant such a permit. “Even if this area was exempt from permitting for rip rap/revetment, this project would not meet the exemption standards and would require a permit. It is also very unlikely we would permit this amount of fill/type of structure.”
Several days later, the DNR backed off.
“We received some guidance on Lake Michigan erosion control projects and unless there is a major resource impact, the DNR is not pursuing active enforcement,” Hase wrote to Shorewood’s planning department.
After hearing that news from the village, Domagala asked Burris if he should ask the DNR whether it would require any other modifications.
“You could contact the DNR, but how I read it was that they’re not going to be following up or asking you to remove or modify anything,” Burris wrote to Domagala. “That isn’t to say that they may not in the future, but the old adage says, let sleeping dogs lie.”
The DNR did not answer Wisconsin Watch’s question about why it took no enforcement action. A spokesperson wrote: “A member of DNR’s compliance team did reach out to the property owner regarding unpermitted shoreline erosion control, but the matter did not result in elevated enforcement.”
Since then it seems most of the barking has been coming from Domagala; he testified at the Dec. 2, 2025, beach-walking trial that he had called police to report people trespassing on the beach last summer “at least” 50 times.
Todd Ambs, a former head of the DNR’s water division, says the agency does not routinely police Wisconsin beaches for development violations. It instead relies on public complaints to point out potential problems that, in turn, prompt the DNR to investigate.
The standing-room-only trial last month has indeed riled an avid lake-advocating community eager to point out potential problems with Domagala’s property. It includes Cheryl Nenn of the conservation group Milwaukee RiverKeeper. She has spent more than two decades working to protect the region’s waterways, and when she looks at the compound that has sprouted from the Shorewood sands in the past decade she is left with one word to describe it.
“Crazy.”
She is not alleging the compound as currently configured is out of compliance but says, from her experience with waterside developments, it appears that the compound may at least partially sit in the no-build zone below the Ordinary High Water Mark, especially when she compares it to the high-water line the DNR drew for nearby Atwater Park. That line goes right up to the greenery at the base of the bluff.
“It would be a good idea to have someone from the DNR get down there and delineate the Ordinary High Water Mark,” she said of the beach in front of Domagala’s compound, adding she isn’t looking to cause trouble for the homeowner. Quite the opposite. The no-build rule below the high-water mark, she says, “protects the lake and public rights, but it also protects the landowners …because the lake can be a mean, mean bitch.”
Dan Egan is the author of the New York Times bestseller “The Death and Life of the Great Lakes” and the Brico Fund Journalist in Residence at the Center for Water Policy in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences.
Public property. No trespassing? Man hopes his $313 ticket will reshape Lake Michigan shoreline access is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
This story was produced in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Investigative Journalism class taught in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
When Alec Hembree fell through the ice on Lake Wingra last winter, he remembered, “it was instantaneous.”
It was just after dark on Jan. 20. The temperature was around 2 degrees. Hembree was riding his bike across the frozen lake from his work on Madison’s east side to his home on the west side, a commute he had tried successfully for the first time the previous week. When he fell in, his feet couldn’t touch the bottom. He barely had time to be scared.
“I think there were a couple people on the lake,” Hembree said. “They wouldn’t have been able to get to me before I got out.”
The air was so cold, Hembree’s leather gloves immediately froze to the icy surface of the lake when he tried to pull himself out. After about 30 seconds in the water, he was able to pull himself and his bike out. It all happened so fast, he wasn’t sure how he did it. He thinks his training from being an Eagle Scout helped.
“Everything was in an ice shell at that point,” he said. He biked 10 minutes to a co-worker’s house, where he used a hair dryer to thaw his jacket zipper and get out of his frozen clothes before his co-worker gave him a ride home.
Hembree’s experience is becoming more common on Wisconsin’s lakes. For some, falls prove deadly. The Department of Natural Resources last winter recorded five people statewide who died falling through the ice on off-highway vehicles across the state. Between 2020 and 2024, similar accidents accounted for a total of seven deaths.
According to the Madison Fire Department, the Lake Rescue Team was dispatched four times to rescue people who fell through the ice in 2025 and six times in 2024, though only once in 2023. Through the end of 2025, the department had responded to 39 incidents of people falling through the ice since 2016. On Dec. 27 (as this story was being finalized for publication) the department rescued another individual who had fallen through the ice on Lake Mendota.
But those are only the incidents where the Lake Rescue Team was dispatched, so the stories of Hembree and others who fell through the ice and managed to escape aren’t included.
“This (past) year has probably been one of the more dangerous years on ice that I can remember,” said Lt. Jacob Holsclaw, the Wisconsin DNR’s off-highway vehicle administrator.
Treading on Wisconsin’s frozen lakes has gotten more dangerous, creating cost for taxpayers and business owners and calling into question the future of an important state pastime.
Trekking on Dane County’s frozen lakes is a common winter activity for southern Wisconsin residents.
“Walking on frozen lakes” was the most common activity on the lakes among respondents to a 2010 Dane County Land & Water Resources Department survey. At 28%, that was more common than swimming, kayaking, boating, or fishing from a boat or pier. Other ice-related activities such as skating and fishing were more popular than water skiing, jet skiing and sailing. The study authors estimated that close to 110,000 Dane County residents — more than a fifth of the population — walked on the county’s frozen water bodies at least once in 2010.
The heavy usage of the frozen lakes provides a revenue stream for numerous Dane County businesses and nonprofits. For example, the Clean Lakes Alliance hosts the annual Frozen Assets Festival, in which hundreds of participants take part in a fundraising 5K on frozen Lake Mendota and others enjoy scientific demonstrations, ice skating, kiting, boating and other ice-related activities.
But the future of frozen recreation in Dane County is in peril. Madison winters are getting shorter and less predictable. And falls through the ice are becoming more common.
Ron Blumer, a Madison Fire Department division chief who heads the department’s Lake Rescue Team and has been with the city since 1995, said in recent years his team has conducted “a lot more responses” to calls to rescue people who fell through the ice.
Part of the uptick can be attributed to climate change and the shrinking number of days of 100% ice cover on the Yahara lakes. Since 1855, when the Wisconsin State Climatology Office began consistently tracking Lake Mendota’s freezing and thawing dates, the lake has stayed frozen for an average of 102 days every winter. But only in four of the last 25 years has Mendota been frozen that long. During the 2023-24 winter, the lake was frozen for 44 days — a more than 20-year low. Last winter it froze for 69 days.
While information about how thick ice should be for walking or driving varies between sources, there is some consensus: No ice is ever completely safe.
“We really shy away from saying that there’s ever any ice that’s 100% safe,” Holsclaw said. The DNR’s website offers no hard and fast rules for what’s considered a “safe” thickness.
“You cannot judge the strength of ice by one factor like its appearance, age, thickness, temperature or whether the ice is covered with snow,” the website reads. “Ice strength is based on a combination of several factors.”
Air temperature is just one of those factors. But others include wind, sunlight, whether the ice is near a spring or other moving water, and whether the ice is frozen water (black ice) or mixed with snow (white ice).
“Black ice can withstand a lot more force (than white ice),” said Adrianna Gorsky, a freshwater and marine sciences Ph.D. candidate at UW-Madison. “Even if you have really thick white ice, it might not be as strong as if you had black ice only.”
Fluctuations in temperature during winter can also have a marked effect on ice thickness and quality. In January and February of 2025, it wasn’t uncommon for temperatures to fluctuate by tens of degrees within a single week in Dane County. On Jan. 21, the day after Hembree fell through the ice, Madison temperatures were in the single digits. A week later, on Jan. 28, the high temperature was 49 degrees. This frequent melting and thawing back and forth, Gorsky said, could result in mixed layers of black and white ice that would compromise the ice’s structural integrity.
Variations in temperature can also make lake ice expand or contract, causing pressure heaves or large cracks to form in the surface of the ice.
“And there will be a gap in there where there’s thin ice or no ice at all,” said Jon Mast, a lieutenant on MFD’s Lake Rescue team. These areas can be especially dangerous to walk near.
For as much that is known about factors affecting ice thickness and qualities, “there is a lot of unknown,” said Gorsky. That’s because winter limnology is relatively understudied compared to other areas of marine science.
“There’s a lot of things we still don’t know and a lot of theory that we’ve based off summer open water season that doesn’t really hold true for winter,” Gorsky said.
Increasingly visible effects of climate change on lake ice have precipitated “a cry for more research” in winter limnology, Gorsky added. And it can’t come soon enough. Because falls through the ice are costing local businesses, nonprofits and taxpayers money.
In Madison, there are no fines associated with being rescued from falling through the ice. Because, Blumer said, “we want people to enjoy the lakes and to have fun.” But that fun still comes at a cost.
Businesses and organizations that rely on the ice for income are feeling the strain of weakening lake ice too.
In 2024 the Clean Lakes Alliance canceled all on-ice events for its Frozen Assets Festival, including the annual 5K. According to Sarah Skwirut, the Clean Lakes Alliance’s marketing coordinator, only around 200 participants participated in the on-land “winter workout” the organization hosted in lieu of the 5K, down from 800 who ran the 5K the previous winter, which generated around $30,000 for the nonprofit.
“If the lack of ice becomes more common in the future,” Skwirut said in an email, “we will need to adapt and find new ways to engage the community and promote our work.”
Small businesses are equally if not more affected by the phenomenon. In 2022, Pat Hasburgh purchased D&S Bait and Tackle in Madison, “very aware of what I was getting myself into as far as climate change and running a business that kind of depends on ice,” Hasburgh said. He admitted the recent, mercurial winters have made it difficult to plan for the ice fishing season.
“I mean, I had a pile of augers waist high in 2022,” Hasburgh said, citing that people are less likely to need such a high-powered tool to break through the ice in warmer winters. And 2024 was even worse.
“We had four weeks of ice, as opposed to three months,” he said. “That was a rough one to try to make it through as a business.” Hasburgh is used to around a third of D&S’s business coming from ice fishing, but guessed that it was probably less than a quarter in 2024.
The increase in falls through the ice is easier to see in a populous part of the state like Dane County. But the trend is apparent across Wisconsin. And in many cases, the cost is more than just lost business or an icy bike ride.
The five deaths this past winter happened in Pewaukee, Kenosha, Fond du Lac, Superior and Westfield, an hour north of Madison, where a man died on Jan. 6 after falling through the ice on Lawrence Lake while riding a UTV.
In a Facebook post, the Marquette County Sheriff’s Office urged the public “to avoid venturing onto frozen lakes or rivers unless they have confirmed the ice is thick enough for safe activities.”
The temperature in Westfield on Jan. 6 was below freezing and had been every day the previous week.
An October 2024 study published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment warned that lakes between 40 and 45 degrees north latitude — a range that includes all of Wisconsin south of Wausau — could lose all safe ice for the winter sometime this century.
A solution may lie in more research. Gorsky said predicting the future of what winter is going to look like for lakes “is a really big research topic.”
For Hembree’s part, he considers himself lucky to be alive. But he has “no concerns” about going back on the ice. He’s enjoying it while he still can.
“If I do go out commuting on the lake again I will be, certainly, more cautious,” he said.
The Madison Fire Department offers these tips for those planning to go out on the ice this winter:
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
On thin ice: Falls through the ice on Wisconsin lakes are becoming more common. There’s more than just warm weather to blame. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
More than a decade ago, I covered the opening of a tuition-free charter school aimed at growing the Fox Cities’ advanced manufacturing workforce.
Students are still enrolling at Appleton Technical Academy, getting hands-on experience, accessing paid apprenticeships and completing courses for college credit.
So I wondered: How is the school really doing? Has it met the goals education and industry leaders set?
I pitched the idea to reporter Miranda Dunlap, and she dug in.
Her reporting shows mixed results, and it’s a strong example of the type of solutions journalism we prioritize at Wisconsin Watch.
Solutions journalism is just what it sounds like: rigorous, evidence-based reporting on responses to problems.
Every solutions journalism story reports on four elements:
ATECH was created to address a shortage of advanced manufacturing employees in the Fox Cities.
The response from local industry and education leaders was to create a public charter school housed inside Appleton West that would not only introduce students to these careers, but also jump-start their journey to a certification or degree in the field. The story examines how the school got started, the application process and the four areas students can choose to study.
Nuance comes in with the evidence. Data or anecdotes fit the bill. Miranda’s story includes comments from ATECH students about why they chose to enroll. Their thoughts illustrate the need for the school.
However, the industry leader who helped found the school told Miranda ATECH didn’t become the employee pipeline he hoped. His business is no longer closely tied to the school.
The limitations of ATECH vary. The cost to run the school is one challenge. It takes a lot of metal to teach students how to weld, for example. School leaders look for donations from businesses to help with supplies and equipment.
They also mentioned a stigma that the broader public has against technical education.
Insights tend to be the trickiest pillar. I try to answer this question when I look for insights: What nuggets of information would be important to know if I were trying to implement this response in my community?
For ATECH it’s the need for industry mentors. The school needs those connections not only for students to meet professionals working in the field, but also to teach ATECH educators how to use the latest technology.
Miranda also includes context about the push for more career and technical education training, as well as how these efforts are funded at the state and federal levels.
I hope you read her story to get a full, unvarnished look at how ATECH is doing.
And if reading this sparked an idea for a story, send it my way: jzvandenhouten@wisconsinwatch.org.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
ATECH story shows how we focus on solutions is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.
The U.S. Postal Service adopted a rule effective Dec. 24 clarifying that some mail is not postmarked when it is first received – at a post office, for example – but rather on a later date, during processing.
The rule doesn’t change practices, but instead is “intended to improve public understanding of postmarks and their relationship to the date of mailing.”
Postmarking can affect whether local officials accept election ballots.
Fourteen states, including Illinois, accept a mailed ballot if it is received after Election Day, as long as it is postmarked on or before Election Day.
Thirty-six states, including Wisconsin, require absentee ballots, including those cast by mail, to be received by the local election office by Election Day. They aren’t affected by the rule change.
Manual postmarks can be requested at post offices.
The postal service has been reducing operations, increasing postmarking delays, the Brookings think tank reported.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Does the US Postal Service always postmark an election ballot on the day it is mailed? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Almost half of all private school students in Wisconsin now receive school vouchers, signaling a rapid reshaping of the state’s educational landscape powered by state taxpayers.
When it launched in 1990, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, the nation’s first modern private school voucher program, included just 300 students at seven secular private schools. The students came from families earning less than 175% of the federal poverty level, and state taxpayers covered $2,446 of tuition for each. The total price tag that year: about $700,000, or $1.78 million today adjusted for inflation. It was a pittance compared to the $1.9 billion of state aid and $2.4 billion of property taxes provided to public schools in Wisconsin that year.
By 2011, enrollment in Milwaukee’s voucher program reached 23,000 students, or about three out of four private school students that year. Former Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-led Legislature helped spur the creation of three more private school choice programs similar to MPCP: one for students in Racine (RPCP), one for students elsewhere in the state (WPCP) and another for students with special needs (SNSP). This expansion was part of a national effort to boost private school education with support from Walmart founders, the Walton family, according to previous Wisconsin Watch reporting.
Flash forward to last school year: Nearly half (46%) of all private school students in Wisconsin received vouchers across the state’s four programs. Taxpayers this school year will spend more than $700 million to defray tuition costs for about 60,000 students. Almost all (about 96%) attend religiously affiliated schools. The vast growth of the voucher system has helped Wisconsin’s private school system grow modestly as public school enrollment declines. Critics, particularly Democrats and public school teacher unions, describe the state as funding two school systems.
Taxpayers through school district budgets provide $10,877 for each K–8 voucher student and $13,371 for each voucher student in grades 9-12 who enrolls in one of the three voucher programs. Each student who participates in the Special Needs Scholarship Program receives $16,049. Those amounts will increase by 4%, 3.2% and 2.6% respectively next school year.
Except in Milwaukee, where the program is directly funded by the state budget, the funding is deducted from the state aid to each school district. This school year, $357.5 million was deducted.
For public schools, state aid roughly represents 45% of school funding. Federal aid, property taxes and other revenue cover the rest. Although the exact amount varies by district, public schools collected an average of $14,104 per student in property taxes and state general and categorical aid during the 2024-25 school year.
When the state redirected aid from public schools to pay for the Racine, statewide and special need vouchers, school districts were still allowed to raise revenue as if the private school student were attending the public school. So while the district pays $10,877 to the private school for a K-8 student, it can still collect roughly $13,362 in state general aid and property taxes, keeping the difference to pay for other students still in the public system.
Some cities, like Green Bay, have started adding a note to property tax bills stating the amount of money school districts levied to pay for private school vouchers.
In the meantime, Republican lawmakers proposed “decoupling bills,” which would have the state fully cover the Racine, statewide and special need voucher programs, similar to Milwaukee. That would prevent the money from passing through the public school districts, reducing the net revenue school districts have been able to collect for the past decade.
“The funding system is broken, and the link in current law between school choice funding and property taxes needs to be repealed,” said Carol Shires, vice president of operations, School Choice Wisconsin, an advocate group for the voucher system, in an email to Wisconsin Watch.
As homeschooling has gained considerable popularity over the past decade, the voucher program has saved many private schools from losing enrollment and likely closure.
“There really would not be a private school sector in Milwaukee, with a few exceptions, if it wasn’t for the voucher program,” said Alan Borsuk, senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette University Law School, “because nobody had the money to pay tuition, and there was just no way to afford schools.”
Wisconsin private schools gained 1,687 students from 2011 to 2024, a stark contrast to public schools, where enrollment declined by more than 65,000 students. Homeschooling grew even more, by nearly 13,000 students.
More than half of all private schools (56%) now accept vouchers. This year, 91 private schools had 90% or more of its students participate in the voucher program.
A Wisconsin Watch data analysis found that about half of the private schools that joined the voucher program between 2008 and 2024 grew their student population.
When the voucher program was introduced in Milwaukee, lawmakers envisioned the program empowering low-income parents who couldn’t otherwise afford private schools to choose where their children are educated, bridging the education gap, and improving education quality for both the private and public school systems.
“Choice gives poor students the ability to select the best school that they possibly can,” former Gov. Tommy Thompson said in a telephone interview with the New York Times in 1990. “The plan allows for choice and competition, and I believe competition will make both the public and private schools that much stronger.”
About 35 years after the program’s introduction, people still cannot come to a consensus on whether it improves education quality.
“Taxpayers fund choice students at a lower dollar amount than they fund public school students, yet those choice students achieve better outcomes,” Shires wrote, referring to the school year 2024-25 state testing results from DPI.
The DPI data cited by the organization showed a higher average test score for voucher students compared to their peers in public schools.
However, that methodology has been criticized by reviewers affiliated with the National Education Policy Center, a university research center housed at the University of Colorado Boulder’s School of Education. The reviewers criticized the approach of directly comparing standardized test scores of voucher students with those of public school students, arguing that such comparisons are overly simplistic and misleading.
In his review, Stephen Kotok, an associate professor at St. John’s University, wrote that simply comparing average test scores between the two groups without accounting for nonrandom selection into voucher programs overlooks other factors that may influence student performance besides school quality. He also wrote that relying solely on standardized test scores to judge educational quality or productivity is a “crude” measure.
DPI uses report card systems to provide a more comprehensive review of school performances in addition to test scores. Last year, 85% of public schools and 85% of voucher schools met, exceeded or significantly exceeded expectations. However, less than half (43%) of the voucher schools were scored due to insufficient data. DPI cited small student populations and low test participation rates among voucher students for not assessing those schools.
Several recent studies indicate that the academic benefits of voucher programs are marginal.
An analysis of 92 studies on school choice students’ academic achievements published between 1992 and 2015 found a very slight rise in standardized test scores among students who transferred from public schools to voucher schools, according to Huriya Jabbar, an associate professor at the University of Southern California.
Even though earlier data tended to show positive effects from voucher programs, math scores for students who switched to voucher schools were less impressive, and even negative, particularly in newer and larger programs, according to a study by Christopher Lubienski, director of the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University.
Borsuk wrote that the voucher system does not improve the overall quality of education in a column for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He noted the education quality of voucher schools varies by school, with a mixture of excellence and disappointment.
In addition, state laws do not protect private school students from discrimination as they do in public schools. Previous reports by Wisconsin Watch have found some voucher school students have faced discrimination because of their disabilities or sexual orientation.
RPCP and WPCP generally do not accept students previously registered in private schools, but the program makes an exception for grades K4-1 and 9.
This year, one in four (1,129) newly enrolled WPCP students studied in a private school the previous year — even more than the 948 students who transferred from Wisconsin public schools. Comparatively, most newly enrolled Racine students came from public schools or had not previously attended any school.
MPCP does not have a similar requirement, and DPI stopped publishing the source of enrollment data in 2006.
Enrollment at MPCP jumped in 1998 as the program began incorporating religious schools after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 4-2 the program didn’t promote state-sponsored religious education.
As of the 2025-26 school year, nearly all of the voucher schools are religiously affiliated.
Parents cite the religion-based curriculum, safer environments, strict discipline and small classrooms in their decision to send their children to private schools.
Parents of voucher students may opt out of the religious curriculum under the law, yet no available data show how often that happens.
“Almost 30 years now, if there have been 25 cases of opt-outs, I’d be really surprised,” Borsuk said. “If you’re going to a religious school and don’t want to be there, then why are you going to that school? It’s basically as simple as that.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
DataWatch: Nearly half of Wisconsin private school students receive a taxpayer-funded voucher is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
It’s a new year in Wisconsin, and an election one, too. There are many state government and politics storylines we plan to follow at Wisconsin Watch in 2026 from major policy debates to races that could determine the future of the state.
But we value accountability here, including for ourselves. Before we dive into predictions for the year ahead, we want to look back at what our state team thought might happen in 2025.
Here’s what we predicted and what actually happened.
2025 prediction: The Wisconsin Supreme Court will expand abortion rights.
Outcome: True.
The court in a 4-3 July ruling struck down Wisconsin’s 1849 near-total abortion ban, determining that later state laws regulating the procedure enacted after the ban superseded it.
There are still restrictions on when someone can receive an abortion, including a ban on the procedure 20 weeks after fertilization and a 24-hour waiting period and ultrasound before an abortion is performed. President Donald Trump’s big bill signed in July has also threatened Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood clinics in Wisconsin that offer abortions. A federal appeals court in December paused a lower court ruling and allowed the Trump administration to continue enforcing that part of the law.
2025 prediction: Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and the Republican-controlled Legislature will again strike a deal to increase funding for public education and private voucher schools, similar to the compromise they made in 2023.
Outcome: Mixed.
Evers and the Republican-controlled Legislature did reach an agreement on K-12 education funding during the budget process, approving a $500 million boost for special education funding. But this wasn’t like 2023, when conservatives secured significant funding increases for private voucher schools.
General school aid was kept at the same level as previous years. The Department of Public Instruction in October said, because of that decision, 71% of school districts will receive less general aid during the current school year. Private voucher school funding increased based on past per pupil funding adjustments. As a result of revenue limits going up $325 a year for the next 400 years (no change there from Evers’ creative veto in 2023) and general aid staying flat, property taxes increased significantly.
2025 prediction: The state Supreme Court election will set another spending record.
Outcome: Nailed it!
Total spending for the 2025 state Supreme Court race between liberal candidate Susan Crawford and conservative Brad Schimel hit $144.5 million, shattering the record set in 2023. The spending in last year’s race broke records even without a $30.3 million giveaway from tech billionaire Elon Musk to conservative voters in the state.
As Larry Sandler recently reported for Wisconsin Watch, it was another year demonstrating how expensive and highly political Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court elections have become over the years.
2025 prediction: Ben Wikler will be the next chair of the Democratic National Committee.
Outcome: Swing and a miss!
Former Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair Ken Martin was elected chair of the Democratic National Committee in February. Wikler was the runner-up in the contest.
Following the DNC chair race, Wikler announced in April he would not seek reelection as chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party. Devin Remiker took on the leadership role following the state party’s convention in June.
It’s not clear what’s next for Wikler. He announced in October he would not seek the Democratic nomination for governor.
There is a lot on the line this year, especially with several key elections on ballots in the spring and fall. Here are storylines we expect to follow in 2026.
2026 prediction: The Wisconsin Supreme Court election will NOT set a new spending record.
The big factor here is that the outcome of the April race won’t determine who controls the majority of the court, which lowers the stakes compared to elections in 2023 and 2025. The contest is expected to be a race between Appeals Court judges Chris Taylor, a liberal, and Maria Lazar, a conservative.
A clearer picture of the fundraising for the 2026 race will appear after campaign finance reports are released this month. Lazar entered the race in October, so her campaign fundraising since then is not yet available.
Taylor, who announced her campaign in May, reported raising more than $584,000 as of July. Following the August announcement that conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley would not seek reelection, a spokesperson for Taylor’s campaign said it had raised more than $1 million.
2026 prediction: Data centers will continue to be a major subject of public interest in Wisconsin as public outcry causes the Public Service Commission to delay approvals of new power plant projects.
Public protests against data centers punctuated the 2025 news cycle as tech giants saw pushback in communities where they sought to build. The Marquette University Law School poll conducted in October shows a majority of Wisconsin voters across the state believe the costs of data centers outweigh their benefits.
The public opposition to data centers and rising utility bill costs will lead to closer scrutiny of power plant projects, which the Public Service Commission is set to review this year.
2026 prediction: In the governor’s race, Republicans will focus on rising property taxes. Democrats will focus on rising health care costs. But the ultimate X factor will be the public mood about what’s happening at the federal level — just as it was in 2018.
Already in December, Republicans have slammed Evers’ 2023 creative veto that increases public school funding for the next 400 years as a centuries-long property tax increase. Democrats have condemned Republicans for not voting to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies, which expired at the end of December.
Federal issues and public opinion about Trump will ultimately be what sways voters to one party or the other. During the 2018 governor’s race between Evers and then-Gov. Scott Walker, health care was a key issue with Walker authorizing a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act and Evers calling to expand BadgerCare. But as we’ve noted before, the public is turning against public education in favor of lower taxes, which could keep Republicans in Wisconsin from suffering major swings the party has seen in other states in 2025 off-year elections.
2026 prediction: Democrats will flip at least one chamber of the Legislature for the first time in nearly two decades (not counting that short-lived Senate flip after the 2012 recall elections).
New legislative maps being used for the first time in state Senate races and midterm elections favoring the opposite political party from the one in the White House are signs it could be a good year for Democrats to secure at least one chamber of the Legislature — if not both.
The more likely of the two is the Senate, where Republicans hold an 18-15 majority. Democrats need to flip at least two Republican seats and hold onto the Eau Claire area seat held by Sen. Jeff Smith, D-Brunswick, to win the majority. The party is targeting GOP districts currently held by Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine; Sen. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield; and Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, where new maps have yet to be tested. Kamala Harris won those three districts, and Democrats running in other states in 2025 have made double-digit gains.
The Assembly, where Republicans hold a 54-45 majority, could also be in play, but Democrats need to flip five Republican-held Assembly seats. Of the 12 Assembly districts in 2024 decided within less than 5 percentage points, five were won by Republicans. Assembly Democrats would need to flip those five seats and hold onto the other seven close districts from 2024 to win the majority.
Democrats already flipped 10 seats under the new legislative maps in 2024 during a year when Trump’s name atop ballots gave a boost to Republicans. If Democrats see big wins across the country, there could be down-ballot momentum to flip the Assembly.
2026 prediction: Fundraising by candidates for Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District will exceed 2024, especially as that seat draws national attention in the Republican fight to keep the U.S. House majority.
Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden defeated Democrat Rebecca Cooke by less than 3 percentage points in 2024. Van Orden raised nearly $7.7 million and Cooke brought in nearly $6.4 million during the 2024 cycle, outraising all other Wisconsin congressional candidates at the time, according to Open Secrets.
The 2026 race for the 3rd District is likely to be a rematch between Van Orden and Cooke, who have already raised millions for the 2026 cycle. As of late September, Van Orden reported bringing in about $3.4 million and Cooke nearly $3 million. National attention on who wins the U.S. House majority will also bring more money into the race. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee put the 3rd District on a list of “offensive targets” for 2026.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Here are 5 Wisconsin political predictions for 2026 (and a review of our 2025 predictions) is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
As the cost of everything, especially energy, increases, nonprofit organizations stockpile wood to help neighbors stay warm through winter.
The post Firewood banks offer heat, and hope, to rural homes in need appeared first on WPR.
When Denny Blodgett learned his northwest Wisconsin county intended to burn wood harvested during a road-widening project near his home, he thought it would be unthinkable for that fuel to go to waste.
As Blodgett recalls, he offered some of the harvested wood to an older man from his church, and word spread around his community of Danbury that he had firewood to give.
“And pretty soon, we’re helping 125 families,” said Blodgett, who founded Interfaith Caregivers’ Heat-A-Home program.
That was three decades ago.
Last year, volunteers delivered nearly 200 loads of split wood to local households.
And as the cost of living increases amid federal cuts to social safety net programs, struggling families increasingly face a winter of tough choices as they try to meet their basic needs.
Food, medicine or heat?
Interfaith is one of about 250 known firewood banks across the country that seek to ameliorate the demand for energy assistance.
There isn’t a clear definition for firewood banks, which have been around since at least the 1970s, but have roots in Native traditions since time immemorial. They can take the informal form of Good Samaritans delivering logs to neighbors to large take-what-you-need distribution sites operated by cities or Indigenous tribes.
But the common denominator to these networks of care is their low- or no-cost service to people who lack the means to purchase alternative forms of heat and process their own firewood. Often, both factors stem from the same issue, such as illness or aging.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimated as of 2020 that 2.3 million households in the United States rely on firewood as their primary source of heating fuel.
But one of the great paradoxes of what researchers term “fuel poverty” is that those struggling to keep their homes warm in rural, often heavily forested areas lack ready access to wood.
“I’ve got 20 acres of oak and hardwood here and a chainsaw and a log splitter, but I’m pretty much unable to really do much with it,” said Danbury resident Peter Brask, 78, who struggles with neuropathy. “I just still feel embarrassed asking for help because I’ve been so self-sufficient all my life.”
Last year’s wood delivery from Interfaith was a “lifesaver” for getting through the winter, the retired IBM software specialist said.
Blodgett, a former U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, purchases and accepts donated wood, delivered to a yard adjacent to his home. A processor cuts “cattywampus” piles of timber into smaller pieces, and volunteers split them into burnable portions.
The wood dries until it’s “seasoned.” The less moisture in a log, the cleaner and more efficiently it burns.
Interfaith purchased two trailers a few years ago with money the group obtained from the Alliance for Green Heat, a nonprofit that advocates for the use of modern wood-burning heating systems.
Buoyed with money from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, it has issued more than $2 million in grants to firewood banks that help them purchase safety equipment, chainsaws and wood splitters, as well as smoke detectors for wood recipients.
Overlooking a renewable resource like wood at the potential cost to human health is unthinkable, said the organization’s founder John Ackerly, especially when so much potential firewood ends up in landfills — the “scraggly stuff” that lumber mills can’t offload. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calculated 12.2 million tons of wood ended up as municipal solid waste in 2018.
“Usually, firewood is not a very profitable thing to sell, very labor-intensive and very heavy,” Ackerly said.
Another opportunity presented by firewood banks is providing a local outlet that avoids spreading wood infested with invasive species. Banks also avert the dumping of wood sourced from storm-damaged trees, exacerbated by climate-change-magnified severe weather — winds and snow.
“We’re losing our power, our electricity in these storms all the time,” said Jessica Leahy, a University of Maine professor, who co-authored a guide to starting community wood banks. “It would be great to have everybody in the most carbon-neutral heating source for their house. That sounds great, but there are people burning their kitchen cabinets in order to stay warm.”
Now in its fourth year issuing grants with federal dollars, the Alliance for Green Heat had to rebrand after the Trump administration pushed for increased timber harvests on federal lands in the name of national economic security.
This year, firewood banks seeking grants must source wood from actively managed federal forests, a potential problem for the handful of states that lack them.
“Before, we really touted the program as serving ‘low-income populations’ with a ‘renewable, low-carbon fuel,’” Ackerly said. “We had to remove that language, but we were able to keep doing what we had been doing the same way.”
Researchers who mapped wood banks across the U.S. identified a second in Wisconsin — the Bear Ridge Firewood Bank, sponsored by the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians — and a handful in other Midwestern states, including Indiana, Michigan and Minnesota.
Clarisse Hart — director of outreach and education at Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts, and one of the researchers — said firewood banks often go by different names depending on the region: firewood assistance program, firewood for elders, firewood ministry, wood pantry and charity cut, to name a few.
Other exchanges happen behind the scenes, she said, often on private, community social media pages — making banks harder to identify.
Often, the operations depend on the commitment of volunteers.
“A lot of people want to give back, but they don’t know what to do,” said Ed Hultgren, who started an Ozark, Missouri, wood bank in 2009. “It doesn’t have to be wood ministry. You find a gap in your area and see if there’s something you can do to fill it.”
Wayne Kinning — a retired surgeon who volunteers with his Fenton , Michigan, Knights of Columbus council — is one of a dozen or so men from St. John the Evangelist parish who cut, split and sell low-cost firewood. The proceeds support local charities.
“We donate all our time and even our chainsaws,” he said. “That, of course, then gives a person a sense of meaning in their day and a sense of worth in their giving.”
Among Blodgett’s helpers are a snowmobile club, several churches and a Jewish summer camp. Another dedicated volunteer — Wendy Truhler, 74, of Danbury — has assisted Blodgett for nearly two decades, since her spouse died.
“Listen, I helped my husband split for 30 years. I know how to lift and work a splitter and this and that,” she told Blodgett when she started. “I would rather be outside than glued to a little 12-inch computer screen.”
Blodgett delivers wood throughout the year, which takes the pressure off the winter rush.
He fills the extra time working on other Interfaith projects: constructing wheelchair ramps for families and running the Christmas for Kids program.
Last year, 335 children received toys and clothes from their wish lists. Families also get a $50 food card. And he makes sure they get another resource wood provides.
A decorated tree for Christmas.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Firewood banks offer heat, and hope, to rural homes in need is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
A cacophony of humming, drilling, banging and buzzing fills Appleton Technical Academy’s cavernous lab.
In one corner, a student drills ventilation holes in a piece of metal that will eventually be a firepit ring. Another cuts through a thin piece of metal with clippers. Shrouded by red vinyl curtains, several students weld metal, sending blue sparks flying through the air.
As more schools embrace career and technical education, scenes like these are increasingly common in high schools nationwide: fewer students gripping pencils at desks; more wielding expensive tools and receiving hands-on training for their future career.
Part of that trend, Appleton Technical Academy (ATECH) opened a decade ago to ease the region’s shortage of advanced manufacturing workers. Today, many of the students love their hands-on classes, enroll in paid apprenticeships and collect free college credit before continuing on to trade school.
But it hasn’t been without difficulties. The school has struggled to attract students, combat a persistent stigma around technical education and afford the pricey equipment and tools it requires. Plus, it’s hard to determine if the school has met the original goal of producing local manufacturing employees.
What’s happening at ATECH shows how preparing Wisconsin teenagers to eventually fill workforce holes, especially amid the state’s dearth of skilled trade workers, can be a tall task.
ATECH lead teacher Paul Endter spends his lunch breaks and free time trying to grow local support for the school and get more students interested.
“I continue to tell people we’re the best-kept secret in the Fox Valley, and that’s not by design,” Endter said. “I wish I had more people who wanted to get involved.”
In the early 2010s, Jared Bailin, CEO of Appleton-based Eagle Performance Plastics, was struggling to find enough advanced manufacturing workers. The plastic manufacturing leader thought introducing high schoolers to the jobs would help.
He took the idea to Greg Hartjes, who was principal of Appleton West High School at the time. Hartjes is now the school district’s superintendent and has always worried about students who don’t mesh with traditional high school education structure — students who, he says, “perhaps didn’t want to sit in English class and read Shakespeare,” but rather wanted “their hands in the work that they were doing.”
Together, they built ATECH, a tuition-free charter school inside Appleton West that aims to prepare students for manufacturing jobs. They secured state grants to fund the launch, and Appleton voters approved a district referendum that put $2.4 million toward renovating labs and classroom spaces.
The school opened in the 2014-15 school year. Here’s how it works: Students can apply to the school at any point, but most enroll their freshman year. They choose to specialize in one of four growing industries: electronics and automated manufacturing, machining, mechanical design or welding.
At first, students take a small number of classes that introduce them to the basics of manufacturing alongside the traditional courses required of all high schoolers, such as language arts and math. Students gradually take on more courses aligned to their specialization, such as programming for electronics students or blueprint reading for machining students.
Beginning their junior year, students take free college classes that earn both high school and Fox Valley Technical College credit. The classes chip away at a certificate in their focus area, which can shave thousands off tuition for students who enroll in technical college after graduation. Some juniors and seniors can work for local employers as paid youth apprentices during part of the school day, earning money and gaining work experience.
“ATECH kids are kids that wanted to use their hands along with their brain in learning,” Hartjes said.
That’s the reason senior Izzy Chappell enrolled. On an early December morning, she dipped into one of the lab’s eight welding booths wearing a helmet to protect from the harsh UV rays and flying sparks. She put the finishing touches on a welded metal skull sculpture she entered in a regional SkillsUSA competition that night.
“Other classes are hard,” Chappell said. “This comes easy to me.”
ATECH leaders hoped the school would be a magnet for students, but getting them interested has been a challenge.
The school debuted with 56 students. Enrollment has fluctuated a bit over the decade, never reaching the district’s goal of 120. In the 2024-25 school year — the most recent year with available state data — 68 students enrolled.
Leaders chalk the lower-than-desired enrollment up to several difficulties: The district doesn’t provide transportation to charter schools, meaning these students typically have to find their own way to school. A jump start toward a career simply doesn’t resonate with many teenagers as young as 14, who Endter said are more motivated by sports or where their friends go to school.
And most of all, ATECH leaders find many families still see college degrees as the gold standard. Despite growing investment in career and technical education programs nationwide and the critical need for skilled workers in Wisconsin, they say a stigma still plagues technical education, leading many to believe it’s for students who don’t perform well in school.
“I think a misconception often is that it’s not rigorous, and it’s not for students that have an aptitude or are intelligent,” Hartjes said. “That’s not the case. We’ve given kids an opportunity to really learn using both their hands and their head.”
When ATECH was brand new, a state grant helped the school afford TV commercials and mailers. That money is long gone. Nowadays, Endter visits nearby middle schools to talk to students about career education. They organize tours and career fairs, where ATECH leaders try to entice students with the spacious labs and high-tech equipment.
“It’s not for lack of trying, you know?” Endter said. “But again, as an incoming eighth grader, charter schools represent something different. For some kids, different is good. And for some kids, different is not. So many kids don’t know what could or should be the best pathway for them.”
Sophomore Noah Siong enrolled in ATECH because his brother graduated from the school and went on to open his own car repair shop.
“That kind of opened the gateway to me,” Siong said. “It was like, ‘Oh, this stuff is pretty cool.’”
Siong wants to pursue a career in metal fabrication after graduation. Hartjes estimates hundreds of students like Siong have learned “skills that have prepared them for careers” over the last decade. But it’s difficult to know exactly how many students have gotten jobs that use the skills they learned at ATECH.
Wisconsin, like many states, doesn’t have a system connecting education and employment data, according to a 2024 Education Commission of the States analysis. The evidence ATECH leaders collect is largely anecdotal, but Endter said it indicates the vast majority either continue to technical college to finish their programs or turn their youth apprenticeships into full-time jobs after graduation. Endter estimates about 10% pursue a four-year degree.
Bailin, the Eagle Performance Plastics CEO, said ATECH hasn’t produced as many local manufacturing employees as he hoped when he helped create the school.
“It didn’t really come out the way I would have hoped,” Bailin said. Eagle has hired between one and three apprentices from ATECH each year. He estimates roughly half have moved into full-time jobs, but it hasn’t been enough to produce the pipeline of machining employees he wanted. The company is no longer closely tied to the school, Bailin said.
In a measure of its academic performance, ATECH’s state rating has averaged a score of 58, which the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) defines as “meets few expectations.” Hartjes said the hands-on skills students learn are not reflected in the state’s rating system. For example, the college classes students take, however advanced, don’t factor into the school’s rating.
“If they were … tested on their aptitude for mechanics, I guarantee you that they would outscore many other students across our state,” Hartjes said. “If they were being tested on those different things that we focused on, I guarantee you that their knowledge, their experience and their aptitude is going to shine through. But, you know, they don’t.”
“I’m going to teach you about different kinds of metal!” technology education teacher Carrie Giauque shouts so students hear her in the noisy lab. She pulls scraps out of a large trash barrel filled to the brim, identifying them to the students crowded around her: “Carbon! Steel! Aluminum! Galvanized steel! Copper!”
Behind them, sheets of metal are stacked floor to ceiling. The school goes through countless sheets teaching students the basics of welding and metal fabrication. It’s ATECH’s largest expense.
“It’s a lot less costly to have 30 students sit in math class,” Hartjes said.
Despite needing costly materials, ATECH’s state funding is determined by the same formula as all other schools in the district, so it relies on grants and donations to make up the difference. To date, the school has received $266,000 in donations toward equipment and curriculum.
“A lot of the learning exhausts materials, exhausts some of our resources,” Hartjes said. “(We’re) having to get support from our local manufacturing community, from a financial aspect, because as a school district, we just can’t fund all of this.”
Endter said ATECH also badly needs mentoring from industry employees, who can teach students and teachers how to use the complicated technology they receive as donations. In one classroom, a large robot sits untouched in a locked box after a college donated it. ATECH employees don’t have enough experience with the programming language to teach students how to use it.
For their part, employers are often stretched too thin to offer up staff to mentor teachers and students. Eagle Performance Plastics used to send someone to ATECH to teach students about a pricey machine it helped buy, but there weren’t enough interested students to make the trip worth it, Bailin said.
Inside ATECH, a “sponsor wall” is decorated with the logos of organizations and employers that have invested in the school. Two-thirds of the spaces are empty — a visual reminder of the school’s need for added support.
Endter jokes he wears “27 hats” trying to find it.
“Every hour that I am not teaching, including working through my lunch hour, is dedicated to phone calls, emails, site visits, networking, cold calls,” he said. “You name it. I am doing it.”
The work could soon pay off. Beginning in 2024, Appleton students between kindergarten and fifth grade began taking weekly STEM classes. Endter hopes that will spark interest in career and technical education.
“I’m on the precipice,” Endter said. “And I’m hoping that there’s going to be this giant surge of students who are looking for opportunities.”
The dilemma isn’t unique to ATECH. Many schools are eager to provide this kind of technical education, Karin Smith, a DPI education consultant, said. However, the equipment and tools are costly, and many schools are struggling to fund basic offerings. (Appleton expects a $13 million deficit this school year.)
Wisconsin is one of five states that don’t designate state funding for career and technical education programs, relying solely on federal funding. Many states allocate more funding to school districts specifically for these programs because the federal dollars alone cannot meet the costs, according to Advance CTE, a nonprofit representing state career and technical education leaders.
“In Wisconsin, we have used (the federal funds) to, generally speaking, keep the lights on,” said Sara Baird, DPI’s career and technical education director.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jill Underly requested the 2025-27 state budget include about $45 million in career and technical education grants to districts. Gov. Tony Evers suggested a pared-down version of $10 million, which was scrubbed by the Legislature’s Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee and not included in the final bill.
“We’re seeing tremendous growth and tremendous interest in expanding CTE,” Smith said. Still, school district leaders are frustrated by the lack of funding for it. “They are feeling like their hands are tied behind their back,” she said.
“We can’t do this alone … Every school has a tech ed teacher who is desperately trying to get kids excited about career pathways,” Endter said. “They need business support. They need donations. They need mentors in the classroom.”
Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus. Email her at mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
‘Can’t do this alone’: An Appleton school prepares students for skilled trades. It’s not easy. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
ATECH students like hands-on classes, enroll in paid apprenticeships and collect free college credit before continuing on to trade school. But the school has struggled to attract students, combat a persistent stigma around technical education and afford equipment and tools.
The post ‘Can’t do this alone’: An Appleton school prepares students for skilled trades. It’s not easy. appeared first on WPR.
As the year winds down, we’re reflecting on the work we produced in 2025, including what we learned and who we met along the way — from ‘just plain old Larry’ Jones to Darnell Price.
In that spirit, we asked each of our reporters to pick their favorite story written by a colleague (Secret Santa style!). We’ve rounded up their picks below. While this isn’t a comprehensive summary of our work from an eventful year, it illustrates our broader effort to make Wisconsin’s communities stronger, more informed and connected through our journalism.
If you have a favorite Wisconsin Watch story, we’d love to hear it. Email me at jmalewitz@wisconsinwatch.org.
— Jim Malewitz
Suicide is a leading cause of death in the U.S., and experts agree that it can be prevented — in part, by talking about it. But when we talk about this public health crisis, how many of us think about people over age 65? This story by Wisconsin Watch intern Sreejita Patra, packed with statistics and human details, explains why we should. Sreejita talked to a variety of experts, including people who’ve attempted suicide themselves, to understand why older people are at higher risk and what efforts are underway to protect them.
— Natalie Yahr
Amid the flurry of federal funding cuts this year, Bennet Goldstein invited readers to slow down for a few minutes to walk in the shoes of Jess D’Souza, a pig farmer in Dane County. D’Souza was on track to finally break a profit this year. Then the Trump administration slashed the program that boosted her pork sales.
Goldstein’s writing places you on the farm and inside D’Souza’s mind as she ruminates on what the decision means for her business — and her dreams. The package included a behind-the-scenes video, produced in collaboration with Joe Timmerman, with animal sounds to boot. I came away with something that the best kind of journalism gives: empathy for someone who lives a wildly different lifestyle than I, and a clear understanding of why the issue at hand matters to real people.
— Miranda Dunlap
I have loved seeing Wisconsin Watch’s new pathways to success reporters cover our webpage with solutions-focused stories this year. One of Natalie Yahr’s first stories about a local community college sticks out as one of my favorites. The underdog story highlights Southwest Wisconsin Technical College’s journey from nearly losing accreditation to winning an award known as the “Oscars of great community colleges.” It’s powerful to read about Wisconsinites finding solutions for their communities.
— Addie Costello
In Joe Timmerman’s story with Janelle Mella about Brown County volunteers counting the homeless in the middle of the night, the writing and photos showed me a place I didn’t know existed. The images and quotes from the volunteers and the people they counted put me on the scene. I appreciate Joe’s conscientiousness in approaching stories. He seems to keep the people he’s photographing or writing about foremost in his mind, and it shows in the work he produces.
— Tom Kertscher
This story was a great example of a Wisconsin Watch forté: identifying a persistent, unanswered community question, then taking pains to locate a satisfactory explanation. Brittany Carloni interviewed reams of sources to help readers understand the seemingly intractable and futile operations of the Legislature: All too often, politicians spend their time pandering to their bases during an election year with symbolic bills rather than engaging in actual governance. We hear from experts rather than the usual talking heads and spokespeople. Brittany raises a broader question that synthesizes larger themes only revealed when the writer takes the long view, getting beyond the daily drip of news headlines.
— Bennet Goldstein
I work pretty regularly with Tom Kertscher and his reporting, especially on his fact briefs, so I might be a little biased. He’s a fact-checking powerhouse, and one of my favorite stories of his leans into those strengths. It focuses on Wisconsin’s permanently disabled workers who haven’t received a raise in worker’s compensation in nine years. I also had the privilege of creating a companion video for it, so it’s near and dear to me.
It’s an underreported issue affecting people who are often overlooked. Tom does a great job weaving together the voices at the heart of this story while explaining laws with very real consequences for them.
The story opens with a vignette of Jimmy Novy, who, at the time of the interview, had just $8 in his checking account to last him through the month. Novy was exposed to toxic levels of manganese while working at a battery factory in Wonewoc during the Vietnam War, leaving him with neurological issues that severely affect his ability to walk. While permanently disabled workers like Novy stretch every dollar, Wisconsin employers have been saving hundreds of millions of dollars each year in worker’s compensation insurance premiums.
This story lays out the facts clearly despite the issue being complicated. Tom explains the stagnation in worker’s compensation — why it’s happening and what might come next for the people living with its consequences.
— Trisha Young
Paul Kiefer joined the newsroom earlier this year at a time when immigration reporting felt about as important as ever. His dogged approach to find local, human-centered stories addressing the national topic of immigration hasn’t ceased to impress. In this story, Paul reported on sides of the H-2A work visa program, revealing the struggles that both workers and farmers face through it, that I had never considered before. Beyond Paul’s rich understanding of immigration processes, ability to unravel complex laws and personability that allows him to find strong sources, the enlightening data visualization and powerful photography he used to help tell the story were the cherries on top.
— Joe Timmerman
Miranda Dunlap is a gifted reporter who builds deep relationships with the people she interviews. When she investigates the possibility of reviving the shuttered Kewaunee Power Station, she doesn’t stop at the fences. Instead, she listens to residents of surrounding communities and amplifies their perspectives that might otherwise go unheard. Her journalism reflects the very spirit and mission of Wisconsin Watch.
— Hongyu Liu
There’s a moment in this video produced by Trisha Young that nearly swerves into the genre of Fred Armisen and Bill Hader’s mockumentary called “Documentary Now.” Asked from a distance whether his family still lives in the area, Jim Hoffman responds by asking “beaver?” He might have misheard the question, or he might be asking for clarification. Did Bennet Goldstein, the question-asker, mean his beaver family or his human family?
I think our writing — and video editing, in this case — should have personality, even surrealism whenever possible. The world is surreal, and readers might appreciate a recognition of the topsy-turvy ways of the world from journalists who are supposed to document life accurately.
Trisha, possibly because she is exceedingly well-read and possibly because she is such a Wisconsinite, is unusually capable of incorporating personality into her work. This video embraces the seemingly absurd — portage routes for beavers — without an aggressive wink-wink-nudge-nudge. It’s a tour de force. Bravo, and merry Christmas.
— Paul Kiefer
As a policy and history nerd, I particularly enjoyed Hongyu Liu’s reporting on the withering impact of Wisconsin’s homestead property tax credit and how little it has changed over the years to help those who need it. I’ve become a big fan of how Hongyu uses data to visualize and break down challenging topics, which he does several times in this story including showing how the eligibility levels to receive homestead credits have largely remained stagnant while inflation has skyrocketed. Hongyu’s reporting also explains both the early and recent history of the homestead credit and features real people in Wisconsin who are impacted by receiving smaller dollar amounts at a time when individuals across the country are worried about affordability. It’s a smart story and the kind of work I like to bring up in conversations at the Capitol.
— Brittany Carloni
Margaret Shreiner is who I want to be when I grow up, and she’s only a grade my senior. After her brilliant story on Wisconsin’s public defender shortage was published in September — centering around Wisconsin mother Tracy Germait and her struggle to find legal representation for years after being charged on felony drug charges — a criminal justice attorney took on Germait’s case within days. Through months of thoughtful, diligent reporting, Maggie has effected real, tangible change for a Wisconsinite disadvantaged by the problems within our government. I couldn’t be more proud of her!
— Sreejita Patra
Addie Costello’s persistence as a reporter and compassion for others shine through in this Wisconsin manufactured housing series. Her ability to take a tip and turn it into a thorough investigation demonstrates her talent as a journalist. Addie dedicated so much time and effort into listening to sources, pulling state records and filling in gaps when telling this story, but her attention to detail makes the result appear seamless. Her reporting not only exposes the ongoing issue but provides solutions and resources to individuals impacted, again showing the care that she brings to her work and those who may be affected. The companion piece on Addie’s takeaways from this series highlights her devotion to the stories she pursues and illustrates the time she dedicates to listening to her sources. The entire manufactured housing series is a must read.
— Margaret Shreiner
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
‘Secret Santa’ picks: Our favorite stories of 2025 is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Every week in Forward, our Monday newsletter about the week ahead in Wisconsin government and politics, Brittany Carloni shares a short story from Wisconsin history.
We like to select stories that tie into current events to illustrate how the past speaks to the present. Whether it’s Teddy Roosevelt, after being shot in Milwaukee, warning against factional fighting or the origins of multicultural centers on university campuses or the spirit of gift-giving tied to the first evergreen tree in the Capitol rotunda, the past teaches us a lot about the present.
Today we present the last 12 editions of Back Words. If you like local history tidbits, political analysis and a preview of upcoming state government happenings, make sure you’re subscribed to Forward.
On Oct. 6, 1917, just six months after the U.S. entered World War I, Wisconsin Sen. Robert La Follette Sr. spoke for three hours on the floor of the U.S. Senate about the importance of free speech during war time.
“Fighting Bob” earlier that year voted against Congress’ declaration of war with Germany and criticized war time initiatives from President Woodrow Wilson’s administration. His remarks followed news that a Senate committee received a resolution to expel him from the chamber.
“Our government, above all others, is founded on the right of the people freely to discuss all matters pertaining to their government, in war not less than in peace,” reads a copy of La Follette’s remarks published in the congressional record. “For in this government the people are the rulers in war no less than in peace.”
On Oct. 14, 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt was shot during a campaign stop in Milwaukee while he sought a third term for president as a member of the Progressive Party.
The shooting occurred as Roosevelt left the former Gilpatrick Hotel on his way to give remarks at the Milwaukee Auditorium. Despite his injuries, Roosevelt followed through with the speech.
“Every good citizen ought to do everything in his or her power to prevent the coming of the day when we shall see in this country two recognized creeds fighting one another, when we shall see the creed of the ‘Havenots’ arraigned against the creed of the ‘Haves,’” Roosevelt told the crowd, even as supporters implored him to seek medical attention. “When that day comes then such incidents as this to-night will be commonplace in our history. When you make poor men — when you permit the conditions to grow such that the poor man as such will be swayed by his sense of injury against the men who try to hold what they improperly have won, when that day comes, the most awful passions will be let loose and it will be an ill day for our country.”
The episode made headlines the next day. The front page of the Oct. 15 afternoon edition of the Green Bay Press Gazette read: “Crank Shoots Roosevelt at Milwaukee; Wound Not Dangerous.”
A Wisconsin Historical Society marker notes that on Oct. 20, 1856, abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave a speech in Beaver Dam about the “brutality and immorality” of slavery. Douglass was born into slavery but escaped and grew to become a renowned activist, writer and speaker.
Newspaper notices show Douglass spoke in several other Wisconsin cities during that period. A Kenosha newspaper at the time previewed his visit to the city, describing Douglass as “the eloquent champion of freedom.” Though there isn’t a record of his Beaver Dam speech, his July 5, 1852, speech in Rochester, New York, had a similar theme.
“The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretence, and your Christianity as a lie,” Douglass said. “It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a bye-word to a mocking earth. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers your Union.”
As election season ramped up in 1908, the “Red Special” train carrying Socialist Party presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs made stops in Wisconsin on Oct. 30 and 31 and Nov. 1 during his third campaign for the White House.
An Oct. 31, 1908, story in the Social-Democratic Herald quoted Debs at a stop in Beloit.
“The last panic, so-called, occurred under a Democratic administration in 1893. The Republicans were swift to exclaim, ‘Behold, the fruit of Democratic misrule!’” Debs said. “Up to this time the working class had not yet learned to any great extent to think or to act for themselves. They were still responsive to the plea of the capitalist demagogue. Hundreds of thousands of them swept from the Democratic Party into the Republican Party, and that party went into power upon that issue.”
Debs ran for president again four years later with a Wisconsin connection. In 1912, former Milwaukee Mayor Emil Seidel ran as the Socialist Party’s vice presidential candidate.
On Nov. 3, 1998, Wisconsin voters elected Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson to an unprecedented fourth term. He was first elected to the governor’s office in 1986.
Thompson won the 1998 election with 60% of the vote to Progressive labor attorney and Democrat Ed Garvey’s 39% of the vote. That same night, Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold won re-election against Republican Mark Neumann by only 2 points.
On election night, CNN senior political analyst William Schneider noted 58% of moderate voters picked Thompson, but only 41% voted for Neumann.
“This really epitomizes the two faces of the Republican Party,” Schneider said. “There’s going to be a split in the Republican Party coming between the governors’ wing, which is dominated by pragmatists and moderate Republicans who are inclusive in their appeal, and the congressional wing of the Republican Party which is dominated by conservative ideologues. Why are the two wings different? Well, clearly, governors represent a whole state, so they have to represent a more diverse constituency and they have to run a government and make things work, whereas members of Congress have much smaller constituencies in the House of Representatives and they can be more ideological and more partisan. I think we’re going to see this division getting bigger and bigger.”
Thompson resigned as governor in 2001 to serve as the secretary of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush.
On Nov. 12, 1836, Wisconsin’s first territorial Gov. Henry Dodge signed the first law approved by the territorial legislature, which set expectations for the conduct between citizens and elected officials.
The legislation authorized the “by fine and imprisonment” of members of the public who disrespect lawmakers or threaten those elected officials for anything they said or did while in session. Fines could not exceed $200, and a prison sentence could not extend beyond 48 hours for one incident. A $200 fine in 1836 would equal roughly $6,000 in today’s dollars.
The initial law also allowed each chamber of the territorial legislature to expel a member with a two-thirds majority. But it exempted lawmakers from arrest during a session “in all cases except treason, felony, and breach of the peace.”
On Nov. 21, 1968, 94 Black students participated in a mass demonstration in University President Roger Guiles’ office at what we know today as the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. The event later became known as “Black Thursday.”
The students sought a series of demands from the university, including providing courses on Black literature and history, hiring Black faculty and creating an African-American cultural center for Black students.
“We envision the center as a place where on a cold winter night any student, black or white, can come and in one minute throw off all the unpleasant association of the university proper and enter the center in a spiritual as well as an intellectual experience,” sophomore Sandra McCreary told the Oshkosh Northwestern in the days after.
Oshkosh police later that day arrested the students for unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct for occupying the president’s office and damaging materials from thrown typewriters to broken windows. In December, the Board of Regents chose to expel 90 of the students who participated in the demonstrations. But changes came in the months following Black Thursday, including a new intercultural center that opened in 1969.
On Nov. 24, 1959, Wisconsin leaders celebrated the opening of a 15-mile stretch of Interstate 90 between Beloit and Janesville. A program from the dedication ceremony described the project as “the largest single segment of four-lane highway to be completed at one time in the history of Rock County.”
Then-Gov. Gaylord Nelson said he hoped the project would reduce traffic accidents and hailed its completion as an example of how officials working together from multiple levels of government “can bring about civic progress.”
“As Governor of Wisconsin I am pleased to note that this cooperation, combined with the foresight and high standards of the citizens of this area, has resulted in providing Wisconsin motorists as well as visitors with the best transportation facility available,” Nelson wrote in a program message.
On. Dec. 2, 1954, the U.S. Senate voted 67-22 to censure Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the Republican senator from Wisconsin who was known for his anti-communism crusades and investigations in Congress. The charges were for the failure to cooperate with the Subcommittee on Privileges and Elections in 1952 and the “abuse” of the Select Committee to Study Censure in 1954.
McCarthy answered “present” on the vote while fellow Wisconsin Republican Sen. Alexander Wiley was absent from the chamber that day on official business, according to the congressional record.
The Senate’s vote came after McCarthy’s hearings in April that year on alleged security issues in the U.S. Army, which further damaged the Wisconsin senator’s reputation. The hearings included the infamous moment when army lawyer Joseph Welch, after McCarthy questioned the communist ties of one of Welch’s colleagues, asked: “Have you no sense of decency?”
In the weeks prior to the official censure vote, McCarthy appeared on the debut program of political show “Face the Nation” where he criticized Democrats and called the upcoming Senate proceedings a “lynch bee.”
“When they’re not basing their vote upon the counts set forth, when they base their vote upon political reasons,” McCarthy said on the program. “When they say ahead of time in effect regardless of what the evidence says, ‘This man has been fighting communism, he’s been shouting that for over 20 years the Democrat party has been infiltrated, therefore we’re going to get him,’ I think lynching bee is a good name for it.”
On Dec. 7, 1943, two years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the USS Wisconsin was christened by Wisconsin first lady Madge Goodland. Official construction on the battleship started in January 1941.
A story on the events in the Wisconsin State Journal said Goodland practiced breaking the ceremonial champagne bottle ahead of the christening by shattering bottles of sherry against the executive residence.
Then-Gov. Walter S. Goodland also attended the christening and called the USS Wisconsin celebration “thrilling and inspiring.”
“What more appropriate than to dedicate this immense fighting craft to the men and women engaged in the world war in which this ship will soon participate,” Goodland said in remarks that day. “And especially to the 250,000 gallant men and women who hail Wisconsin as their home.”
The ship was officially commissioned in April 1944.
On Dec. 14, 2020, the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a 4-3 ruling upheld former President Joe Biden’s election win in the state and rejected a lawsuit from President Donald Trump and his campaign that sought to overturn the election results.
Justice Brian Hagedorn, a conservative, joined liberal Justices Ann Walsh Bradley, Rebecca Dallet and Jill Karofsky in the majority while conservative Justices Patience Roggensack, Annette Ziegler and Rebecca Bradley dissented.
Hagedorn, who wrote the majority opinion, criticized the timing of the Trump campaign’s challenges to Wisconsin’s results, claims which “must be brought expeditiously.”
“Our laws allow the challenge flag to be thrown regarding various aspects of election administration,” Hagedorn wrote. “The challenges raised by the Campaign in this case, however, come long after the last play or even the last game.”
The first evergreen tree placed in the Capitol rotunda during the Christmas season was in December 1916 as the new building neared completion, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.
A 40-foot tree for the rotunda arrived in Madison that year from northern Michigan, news reports show. It was lit on Dec. 23, 1916, during a two-day Christmas celebration organized by the local Rotary Club, which included donated gifts to “every child in the city” from the Capitol Mutual Club.
“Hundreds of children of all ages and sizes tried to stand still yesterday afternoon and listen to the strains of ‘Holy Night’ and other devotional strains interspersed with popular airs at the Rotary club celebration while their eyes were glued on the wonderful tree in the rotunda of the capitol, and the huge baskets of gifts furnished by the Capitol Mutual Club near it,” a Dec. 24, 1916, Wisconsin State Journal story wrote of the festivities. “The singing was very nice but judging from the howl that went up when Santa Claus began to distribute the gifts, the music was not the most interesting feature of the program.”
An evergreen tree is placed in the Capitol rotunda every year during the holiday season while political party leaders have disputed calling it a Christmas tree or a holiday tree. Gov. Tony Evers gave the 2025 balsam fir from Oconto County the theme “The Learning Tree.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Back Words: Read 12 stories from Wisconsin history is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Reflecting on 2025, it was a year of visual firsts in our newsroom. It was my first full year working as Wisconsin Watch’s staff photojournalist, a new position at Wisconsin Watch supported by Report for America. It was also the first full year Wisconsin Watch worked with Catchlight, a visual-first nonprofit that leverages the power of visual storytelling to inform, connect and transform communities. That partnership brought a familiar face back to the newsroom: Coburn Dukehart, Wisconsin Watch’s former associate director, who is now our contract photo editor through Catchlight Local.
This was also the year when Wisconsin Watch set out to publish a new story every day — a major shift for the 16-year-old newsroom that had previously focused on more time-intensive investigative stories. That change — and our growth as a newsroom — meant more reporters were filing photo requests each week. As a result, we published far more original photography compared to past years.
Our visuals transported readers to many places, from underneath the Capitol’s granite dome to inside the homes of residents across Wisconsin. They illustrated that our storytelling isn’t limited to words. Far from it.
Our photojournalism shows the mosaic of people and communities that make up our state and helps to convey their emotional reactions to the circumstances of their lives. That’s true whether it’s a sense of optimism while traveling on Amtrak; uncertainty while preparing to move out of a recovery home; joy while pursuing a new career; or togetherness and resolve in the face of federal budget cuts.
We approach each story with compassion and present stories with the hope that these images make our communities feel more connected. We’re going to keep at it in 2026. Until then, here are our favorite Wisconsin images from 2025.
A visual year in review: Our favorite Wisconsin images from 2025 is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit news organization that uses journalism to make communities strong, informed and connected, is seeking a Pathways to Success Reporter focused on southeast Wisconsin. This reporter will explore what’s needed for residents to build thriving careers in the future economy — and what’s standing in the way. That includes expanding coverage of postsecondary education and workforce training, focusing on how education and economic trends impact people’s lives. The role centers on solution-oriented journalism that serves the public, strengthens community life, and holds those in power accountable.
This Milwaukee-based reporter will join a four-person pathways-focused team that includes an editor, Madison-based statewide reporter and northeast Wisconsin reporter in Green Bay.
You can read our pathways coverage here, and read more about our approach to the beat here and here.
Founded in 2009, Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to producing nonpartisan journalism that makes the communities of Wisconsin strong, informed and connected. We believe that access to local representative news is critical to a healthy democracy and to finding solutions to the most pressing problems of everyday life. Under the Wisconsin Watch umbrella, we have three independent news divisions, a statewide investigative newsroom, a regional collaboration in Northeast Wisconsin called the NEW News Lab, and the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (NNS). All three divisions maintain their unique reporting areas and together are positioned to grow and serve our communities with greater efficiency and impact.
The ideal candidate will have at least 2 years of experience researching, reporting, and writing original published new stories, bring a public service mindset and a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisan journalism ethics, including a commitment to abide by Wisconsin Watch’s ethics policies, and have experience working collaboratively to report stories that explore solutions to challenges residents face.
Click here for a full job description.
Location: The reporter will be based in Milwaukee. They will have space to work in the Milwaukee NNS newsroom (NNS is a division of Wisconsin Watch).
Salary and benefits: The salary range is $45,500-$64,500. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, and higher compensation may be available for someone with advanced skills and/or experience. Wisconsin Watch offers competitive benefits, including generous vacation (five weeks), a retirement fund contribution, paid sick days, paid family and caregiver leave, subsidized medical and dental premiums, vision coverage, and more.
To apply: Please submit a PDF of your resume, work samples and answer some brief questions in this application form. If you’d like to chat about the job before applying, contact Northeast Wisconsin/Pathways Editor Jennifer Zettel-Vandenhouten at jzvandenhouten@wisconsinwatch.org.
Deadline: Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Apply by Jan. 9, 2026 for best consideration.
Wisconsin Watch is dedicated to improving our newsroom by better reflecting the people we cover. We are committed to fostering an equitable workplace that reflects, understands, and listens to the people we serve. We are an equal-opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, or any other status protected under applicable law.
Wisconsin Watch seeks pathways to success reporter in southeast Wisconsin is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Wisconsin Watch published 83 original fact briefs this year. Fact briefs are 150-word answers to yes/no questions based on surprising or dubious statements made by politicians or other information influencers.
We tend to focus on statements made by Wisconsin politicians, though their statements can range from local to national issues. Many of those are based on statements made about what’s in the news. They’re timely, relevant and easy to digest.
Other fact briefs shed light on topics that remain relevant weeks, months or years after the initial statement was made. Here’s a look at some of those from 2025.
Do unauthorized immigrants have constitutional rights? Yes. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that all people in the U.S. have constitutional protections, though citizens have additional rights, such as voting.
Is violent crime in the U.S. higher than 25 years ago? No. Violent crime rates, nationally and in major cities, are lower than they were 25 years ago.
Are airline flights the safest mode of transportation in the U.S.? Yes. Federal data show that airline flights are safer than other major transportation modes in the U.S.
Are National Guard troops generally trained in law enforcement? No. National Guard troops, like those President Donald Trump has used to crack down on big-city crime, generally are not trained in law enforcement.
Do tens of millions of unauthorized immigrants receive federal health benefits? No. Unauthorized immigrants are not eligible to enroll in federally funded health coverage.
Is there evidence linking marijuana use to psychosis? Yes. Peer-reviewed research has found links between marijuana use and psychosis — the loss of contact with reality, experienced as delusions or hallucinations.
Does Medicare Advantage cost more than traditional Medicare? Yes. The federal Medicare program spends more per beneficiary for a person on Medicare Advantage than if the person were on traditional Medicare. The difference is projected at 20% higher, or $84 billion, in 2025.
Do recent studies link water fluoridation with less dental decay in children? Yes. Peer-reviewed studies published in the past several years connect water fluoridation with less dental decay in children.
Are homosexual acts criminalized in 65 countries? Yes. Homosexual acts are illegal in 65 countries, including seven that impose the death penalty.
Is there a U.S. law that bans the Communist Party? Yes. The Communist Control Act of 1954 bans the Communist Party. It remains part of the U.S. Code, but has rarely been enforced, and Congress has repealed most of its provisions.
Are interstate truckers required to read and speak English? Yes. Interstate truckers in the U.S. are required to read and speak English under guidance by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Does the typical public housing tenant in the U.S. stay in public housing 12 years? No. The median stay in public housing in the U.S. is four years, a 2024 study of U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department data found. Median means half the tenants in public housing projects stayed more than four years, and half stayed less.
Is the majority of federal government spending mandatory? Yes. About 60% of federal spending is mandatory — appropriations are automatic. About 27% is discretionary spending, and about 13% pays federal debt interest.
Have Wisconsin electricity price increases exceeded the Midwest average for 20 years? Yes. Wisconsin electricity rates — for residential, industrial and commercial users — have exceeded regional averages annually for 20 years.
Can Wisconsin require state jobs go only to Americans? No. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that states cannot restrict public employment to citizens. Both public and private employers are generally barred by federal law from treating people differently based on national origin or ethnicity.
Does Wisconsin require daily exercise for K-12 students? No. Wisconsin doesn’t require daily exercise for students, though there are non-daily requirements for physical education.
Has biennial state funding for the Wisconsin DNR dropped by $100 million over 30 years?Yes. State funding of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has been reduced by more than $100 million per biennium (two-year budget periods) in the past 30 years, though a key factor is smaller debt payments.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
A look back at the Wisconsin Watch fact briefs from 2025 with lasting value is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
A row of footprints followed John and Terri Cooper, both 70, as they carefully navigated an icy road near Sheboygan, Wisconsin. They stopped at a row of concrete slabs.
“This is our house,” John said, waving at the first snow-covered block.
“It’s pretty big,” Terri added while standing on the foundation.
As they do every Sunday, the Coopers had driven around 20 miles from their independent living community to the construction site of their soon-to-be home. John flies a drone over the neighborhood taking shape around it, which will include a grocery store, a spa and a gym. He photographs progress on the 45-acre development designed specifically for people like Terri, who has Alzheimer’s disease.
The couple has moved a lot during their 50-year marriage. But this summer’s move will be different from all the others.
Dementia Innovations, a nonprofit started in Sheboygan County, is developing what it describes as the first U.S. village where people diagnosed with dementia will live and own homes. It’s similar to a European model that encourages people with memory loss to remain more independent. The Sheboygan County village, Livasu, short for “living as usual,” will allow people with dementia to live alone or with loved ones and continue typical routines from their homes as their disease progresses.
Applauded for years in other countries, experts say the village care model is difficult to replicate in the U.S. Livasu’s founders hope the estimated $14 million village will show it can work in Wisconsin and other states.
To limit costs, the village is using manufactured homes, a more affordable alternative to site-built options. People will buy their home and set hours of caregiving, depending on their level of need.
Unlike a traditional risk-averse memory care facility with locked doors, homeowners will be free to travel throughout the village with support from staff.
“We all take risks every day, but as we age, and especially as we age with dementia, there’s a safety-at-all-cost approach,” said Livasu’s project lead, Mary Pitsch. “That cost is actually a loss of personhood.”
Rather than a fence surrounding the village or automatically locking doors, landscaping will direct people from their home toward the community’s “downtown.” People living in the village’s 124 houses will have access to a lodge with support staff and a place to eat meals with neighbors and to watch the Packers, Pitsch said.
The village will eventually feature a public grocery store and a restaurant.
“We are changing the way we are thinking about care and support,” Pitsch said.
The Coopers met in college.
“I picked Terri out almost immediately. It took me some months to convince her that I was the right guy,” John joked.
“Thankfully,” Terri chimed in with a laugh.
As the couple raised two daughters, John worked different technology jobs and photographed sporting events like triathlons on the weekends. Terri was a structural steel detailer.
After watching her mother battle Alzheimer’s, Terri made sure to eat healthy and exercise to prevent herself from getting the same disease. But in 2019, John started noticing changes. Two years later, Terri was officially diagnosed.
“I mean right now,” she asked John outside of the Livasu construction site, “I think I’m OK, right?”
“Yeah, you’re great!” he responded emphatically, prompting another round of laughs.
Terri shook her head.
“This is what I live with,” she said.
The couple moved into an independent living center over a year ago after John was diagnosed with two forms of cancer that are now in remission.
“We wanted to be someplace where, if I was gone, Terri could live and have people take care of her,” John said. “That’s still the goal.”
Unlike institutional settings, Livasu will allow them to age in their home together.
The Coopers are excited to again own a home, even if it’s smaller than they’re used to.
First they left their 2,400 square foot home in Neenah for a 1,500 square foot duplex. Their future manufactured home in Livasu measures just 1,140 square feet, John said. But unlike the independent living duplex they rented, they are purchasing this home.
Home prices in Livasu currently range between $95,000 and $175,000 — less than traditional site-built houses.
Like with any manufactured homes, savings come from finding scale in mass production, with factories buying materials in bulk and cutting down material waste through computer design.
The Livasu homes are built off-site, limiting construction time and noise as people move in at different times, Pitsch said. The homes have a title, similar to a car, instead of a traditional deed. That will make transferring the homes between owners easier.
Terri Cooper lived in a mobile home during one year at college, John recalled. But today’s manufactured homes are higher quality, he said.
“They’re actually built pretty nice,” he said.
Every detail is designed for someone aging with dementia, Pitsch explained while walking through a model home placed outside the Livasu construction zone.
More lights in each house help aging eyes. Dark door handles contrast to lightly painted doors. The homes feature safer electric stoves instead of gas.
While homes in most manufactured housing communities — traditionally called “mobile home parks” — have stairs, Livasus will place homes at ground level.
Bedrooms will have a direct line of sight to the toilet, which can help prevent incontinence.
“The shower was a big discussion. Do you have glass doors? Do you have a shower curtain?” Pitsch remembered debating with the other designers.
“Lots of conversations about some things that would seem really simple, were long conversations,” she said, “and we made the best decisions we could.”
Pitsch, a social worker, developed her passion for this work while working with older adults. She has run an at-home care company with her husband for close to 20 years. She learned Sheboygan-area law enforcement often responded to emergencies involving people with dementia.
She and other community members started a task force to evaluate the county’s response to residents with dementia. That prompted changes in the county’s emergency protocols and the creation of Dementia Innovations.
“I’m kind of one of those people that if it’s not me, then who’s going to do it?” Pitsch said.
Pitsch and others started planning a way to better care for people with dementia and to prevent emergency situations in the first place. They learned about Hogeweyk, the world’s first dementia village in the Netherlands.
“We are far behind other countries in a better, humanistic way of providing care for those with dementia,” Pitsch said.
Dementia care in the U.S. tends to prioritize safety above all else, said Emily Roberts, an associate professor at Oklahoma State University who researches the connection between older adults and their physical environment.
Creating environments where people can make choices and take risks can be expensive, especially in a litigious country like the U.S., she said.
Support staff in Livasu will regularly monitor the grounds. Cameras can alert them if someone walks in or out of the village through an unexpected area.
Creating a home-like environment also prevents people from wanting to leave, Roberts said. As the number of people with dementia continues to grow, the country will need more environments that support people with dementia, she said. That’s especially true in aging Wisconsin.
A private room in a nursing home cost $127,750 on average in the U.S., according to the Alzheimer’s Association — more than a smaller home at Livasu. Village residents will pay for care as they need it, similar to at-home care, and potential homeowners discuss their finances with Livasu volunteers, Pitsch said.
Livasu raised more than $8 million for the first phase of construction. It still needs to raise around $6 million more to complete the entire village, but the first houses are already waiting to get placed on foundations.
Pitsch recently watched as a construction crew drove excavators and bulldozers over the giant field where a restaurant, post office and ice cream shop will eventually go.
“I pinch myself,” Pisch said. “It gets pretty emotional actually, to see that it’s actually happening,”
When the Coopers move in, they don’t expect to need any caretaking. They still make weekly visits to see their grandkids and take weeks-long hiking, camping and cycling excursions.
“Wherever I go, she goes, wherever she goes, I go. Except in the women’s bathroom,” John said, eliciting more laughs from Terri.
“We kind of like each other, so that’s OK.”
As the couple finished checking in on construction of their future community, they carefully walked back to their car — holding hands the entire way.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
‘Living as usual’: A new village in Sheboygan County reimagines life with dementia is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
If Democrats win a majority in one or both chambers of the Legislature in 2026, the party will have more power to govern than any time in more than 15 years.
Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, said she saw a sign of what that future could look like during the state budget-writing process earlier this year. With just a three-seat advantage in the Senate, Republicans needed to work across the aisle to advance the budget, and Senate Democrats had a seat at the negotiating table, Hesselbein said.
For the past 15 years of Republican majorities in the Senate and the Assembly, GOP lawmakers have been able to operate largely without input from legislative Democrats. In 2011, following the Republican midterm surge during President Barack Obama’s presidency, a GOP trifecta in the Legislature and the governor’s office advanced legislation aimed at cementing a permanent majority.
They passed laws such as Act 10, which dismantled Democratic-supporting public sector unions; strict voter ID, which made it harder for students and low-income people to vote; and partisan redistricting, which kept legislative Republicans in power with near super-majorities even after Democrats won all statewide offices in 2018.
After years of being shut out of the legislative process, Senate Democrats won’t operate that way if the party wins control of the chamber next year, Hesselbein said.
“We have an open door policy as Democrats in the state Senate. We will work with anybody with a good idea,” she said. “So we will try to continue to work with Republicans when we can and seek common values to really help people in the state of Wisconsin.”
Newly redrawn legislative maps put into play during last year’s elections, when President Donald Trump won Wisconsin, resulted in 14 flipped legislative seats in favor of Democrats. Following those gains in 2024, Senate Democrats need to flip two seats and hold onto Senate District 31, held by Sen. Jeff Smith, D-Brunswick, to win a majority next year.
The party’s campaign committee is eyeing flip opportunities in seats occupied by Republican Sens. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green; Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield; and Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, which are all districts that former Vice President Kamala Harris won in 2024, according to an analysis last year by John Johnson, a Lubar Center Research fellow at Marquette University.
Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, in an email to Wisconsin Watch said a Democratic majority in the chamber “won’t happen.”
With political winds during a midterm year typically favoring the party not in control of the White House, Democrats could see gains in the Assembly as well, although there are more challenges than in the Senate. All of the Assembly seats were tested under the new maps last year, but Democrats still made gains during an election year when Trump’s name on ballots boosted Republicans. Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier this month that she is “optimistic” about chances to flip the Assembly, where five seats would give Democrats control of the chamber for the first time since 2010.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos did not respond to questions from Wisconsin Watch about how Republicans might work with Democrats if the party wins a majority next year.
If there is a power shift in the Capitol in 2026, few lawmakers have experienced anything but Republican control of the Legislature. Just 11 of the 132 members across both political parties previously held office at a time when Democrats controlled both legislative chambers.
Some of the longest-serving Democrats said they agree with restoring more bipartisanship in the legislative process if the party gains power in 2026.
“I don’t want to repeat the same mistakes as the Republicans did,” said Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, who was elected to the Assembly in 1984 and the Senate in 2002. “We have to give them an opportunity to work on things.”
Carpenter and Rep. Christine Sinicki, D-Milwaukee, who was elected to the Assembly in 1998, said if the party wins one or both majorities they want to make sure members are prepared for governing responsibilities they’ve never experienced, like leading a committee.
“It’s a lot more work,” Sinicki said of being in the majority. “But it’s very fulfilling work to actually be able to go home at night and say, ‘I did this today.’”
Hesselbein said if Senate Democrats secure power in their chamber next year, members will continue to focus on affordability issues that they’ve proposed during the current session. Some of those bills included providing free meals at breakfast and lunch to students in Wisconsin schools, lowering the cost of prescription drugs and expanding access to the homestead tax credit.
LeMahieu, though, said Democrats have “no credibility” on affordability issues.
“Senate Republicans delivered the second largest income tax cut in state history to put more money in Wisconsin families’ pockets for gas and groceries while Senate Democrats propose sales and income tax hikes to pay for a radical agenda nobody can afford,” he said.
Senate Democrats in the meantime are holding listening sessions across the state and working on a list of future bills to be ready to lead “on day one,” Hesselbein said. “If we are fortunate enough.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Wisconsin Democrats say they won’t act like Republicans if they win a legislative majority in 2026 is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
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