U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Wisconsin Republican running for governor, moved to reverse Democrat Joe Biden’s win over Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Dec. 10, 2020: Signed a legal brief supporting Texas’ U.S. Supreme Court bid to overturn the results in Wisconsin and three other battleground states that backed Biden.
Jan. 5, 2021: Announced plans to vote against certifying the Electoral College results, claiming hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin votes were cast illegally, and later said he would have voted against certifying Wisconsin’s election results.
Jan. 6, 2021: Voted to object to counting electoral votes in Pennsylvania and Arizona, which supported Biden.
May 18, 2026: Backed an FBI probe of Wisconsin’s 2020 election.
August 2026: Said he didn’t regret voting against certifying the election.
Sept. 4, 2026: Told Wisconsin Watch that Biden won but he still welcomes law enforcement investigations into Wisconsin’s 2020 election.
This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Our newsroom’s investigation of “obscene” spending in state Supreme Court elections has won top honors at the 2026 Online Journalism Awards.
The awards, run by the Online News Association, have since 2000 honored excellence in digital journalism around the world. Judges awarded Wisconsin Watch first place for explanatory reporting in the small-newsroom division for its three-part series Supreme Costs.
The series — a mix of explanatory, accountability and solutions journalism — examined why Wisconsin set back-to-back national records for spending on state Supreme Court elections, culminating in a record $144 million in spending in 2025, and what can be done about it.
Edited by State Bureau Chief Matthew DeFour, with reporting by freelancer Larry Sandler and Data Investigative Reporter Hongyu Liu, video by Trisha Young and illustrations by freelancer Elena Delzer, Supreme Costs explained how races meant to select impartial judges transformed into extraordinarily partisan, expensive national political battles.
Why are Wisconsin Supreme Court elections breaking national records? Earlier this month, Wisconsin Watch published Supreme Costs, a three-part series by freelancer Larry Sandler that examined why Wisconsin Supreme Court elections have become so expensive — and what might curb those costs. The project included graphics by data reporter Hongyu Liu, illustrating just how unprecedented the $144.5 million spent on the 2025 race was compared with past elections. In this interview, Sandler sits down with Wisconsin Watch video journalist Trisha Young to break down why Wisconsin is an outlier in Supreme Court spending and what’s next for the state. Read Larry Sandler’s full series at wisconsinwatch.org. #wispolitics#wisconsinsupremecourt#wisconsin#springelections
“Judges were big fans of Supreme Costs — thorough, deep reporting paired with smart visualizations and mixed formats that made an otherwise impenetrable topic accessible, even enjoyable,” contest organizers noted. “They especially praised the comparative analysis and the architecture of the series, which anticipates readers’ questions and carries them through a complex story about campaign financing with remarkable clarity.”
Other finalists in the explanatory journalism category among small newsrooms included:
We don’t do this work for awards; we do it because we want our journalism to make a difference in Wisconsin. But it is especially gratifying to receive this kind of recognition from peers we respect so much.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
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Wisconsinites have called or texted the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline more than 345,000 times since it launched in July 2022.
States including Illinois and Minnesota have implemented telecommunications fees on phone bills that fund 988 in their states.
Other states have allocated long-term funding through budget appropriations or by introducing legislation to fine AI companies when their chatbots fail to refer people in crisis to mental health resources.
Wisconsin officials say the line’s growth surpassed all projections they had, and the organization that coordinates the service is continuously recruiting counselors.
Despite bipartisan support for the lifeline, lawmakers have failed to enact a permanent long-term funding mechanism for it.
Every year, millions of people in crisis dial three numbers — not 911, but 988, the national suicide and crisis lifeline. People like Cadence Van Beek, who used the lifeline as a sophomore at Melrose-Mindoro High School in Melrose.
During a mental health crisis, Van Beek worried she would be placed on a waitlist or hurried through the process. Instead, a counselor patiently helped her de-escalate her feelings. At the end, she informed Van Beek about local resources in Jackson County.
“It didn’t feel rushed … She took her time with me, and she was very kind – just a kind soul,” she said.
Van Beek’s conversation is one of over 345,000 texts or calls to the state lifeline since its launch in July 2022. A recent JAMA study found that in the first two and a half years, suicides among 15- to 34-year-olds were 11% lower than expected, corresponding to nearly 4,400 fewer deaths.
Yet despite the line’s proven success and increased demand, long-term funding remains uncertain. Unlike other states, Wisconsin has not passed legislation to permanently fund the service. And Wisconsin trails most states in the share of calls answered in-state.
In May, Van Beek visited the state Capitol and presented lawmakers with a solution: Fund 988 like 911.
Since 2009, Wisconsinites have paid a telecommunications fee on their phone bills for 911, currently 75 cents per month. Twelve states, including Illinois and Minnesota, have enacted a 988 fee to fund the service.
Illinois and Minnesota had in-state response rates of 90% in July — compared with Wisconsin’s 81%. The rest of the calls are routed to a national backup center, which can mean less knowledge of local resources and longer wait times.
Cadence Van Beek presents her 988 funding recommendation at the state Capitol in Madison with the Office of Children’s Mental Health in May 2026. (Courtesy of Cadence Van Beek)
When Van Beek visited Madison with the Wisconsin Office of Children’s Mental Health, she set up a posterboard with her research and told legislators her peers rely on 988.
“988 has always kind of been a given,” she told Wisconsin Watch. “We always kind of assume that it’ll be there … The possibility that there might not be enough counselors on the line because of funding for 988 and funding for those counselors just makes me a little worried.”
State struggles to keep up with increased demand
Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin operates Wisconsin’s 988 line. Senior Vice President Tana Koss said the crisis team planned for a moderate to high level of calls when the three-digit number was launched in 2022.
“Still, Wisconsin has blown all numbers out of the water and continues to … The demand from Wisconsinites for this service has surpassed every model of projection that was available to us,” Koss said.
Family Services is still recruiting counselors to keep up with the need. Koss attributes the increase to lingering mental health effects from the COVID-19 pandemic and the lifeline’s accessibility. She celebrates more people using the service, which she views as a reflection of reduced stigma.
Even though Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin is located in Green Bay, the state’s 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline counselors work remotely from home offices across the state. (Courtesy of Family Services)
Wisconsin received over 11,200 calls in July alone – and responded to just over 9,000 of them in-state. Only eight states had the same or worse in-state response than Wisconsin.
“The longer a person waits on the line, the more likely they are to disengage … When you’re in queue, our primary center gets an opportunity to answer. If we’re not able to, then our backup center gets an opportunity to answer. And then, if they’re not able to, it goes to national backup,” Koss said. “So the sooner in that process you can have the staff available, the more likely you are to engage that caller.”
Still, the state has improved its answer rate over the past few months — growing from 74% in January to 81% in July as demand increased.
“Purely from the administration of the service … we want (the answer rate) to get to 90%, and had the growth not gone up even a little bit more than anticipated, we would have been there.” Koss said.
So, should Wisconsin officials enact a 988 fee, a recurring appropriation or even consider legislation that Ohio and Illinois lawmakers have introduced to fine AI companies for failing to address suicidal ideation? Koss doesn’t care, as long as it means Wisconsin won’t have to depend on federal funding or the state’s biennial budget cycle.
“I’m not personally attached to any route,” she said. “I think the request that I would have and advocate for is sustainability over the long haul because what we’re projecting is this growth hasn’t stopped.”
The case for state funding
Every two years, the National Alliance on Mental Illness’s Wisconsin chapter pushes for 988 funding in the state budget, said Julia Polk, the group’s advocacy coordinator. Last year, Gov. Tony Evers’ budget recommended $12.2 million for the lifeline, but lawmakers approved $7 million.
“What we would love to see is that we can educate our legislators on why 988 is so important and why it’s important to fund it long term, and get them in the next state budget to say, ‘we’re going to permanently fund this,” Polk said.
Polk also said delays from the Trump administration in making grants available are part of why advocates want to secure reliable state funding for the lifeline.
“It’s a lot of us and other advocates, and the 988 Lifeline and the state government having to just trust and hope that those grants will become available,” she said.
Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin operates the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline for the entire state of Wisconsin. The organization is based in Green Bay but employs remote counselors throughout the state who respond to 988 calls, text messages and chats. (Astrid Code / Wisconsin Watch)
Waiting for confirmation on an anticipated federal grant last year left officials fearing the funds had disappeared. In response, state Rep. Ben Franklin, R-De Pere, and state Sen. Jesse James, R-Thorp, authored a bill that would have required the state to provide grants to agencies that administer the 988 Lifeline.
“988 has proven to be highly effective and used frequently amongst Wisconsinites and is a vital service we should be funding,” Franklin said during a committee hearing on the bill in June 2025.
However, the bill included no funding attached. It failed to pass in the Senate and did not come up for a vote in the Assembly.
The federal government announced a grant funding opportunity in January and provided Family Services about $4.5 million per year for the next three years, according to Koss. But that still leaves a gap, since the state needs $12.2 million per year to fund the service.
Officials included $7 million for the lifeline in the 2025-27 biennial budget, but Koss said Family Services needs the next budget to match that. She knows a $6.195 million deficit is coming in 2028.
“We didn’t slow down with recruitment, but administratively, it’s stressful when you have these delays on giant parts of the funding,” Koss said.
Franklin’s Democratic opponent in the November election, Brandy Tollefson, is a De Pere School Board member. The issue is personal to her, and not just because she hears about the youth mental health crisis from school social workers, counselors and teachers.
“I myself went through the experience of having my stepbrother die by suicide years ago, so I know what happens to a family when this happens and the impact it has on families,” Tollefson said. “I fully support working with any Democrat or Republican who wants to get this permanently funded.”
Tollefson echoed other Democrats’ criticisms that Assembly Bill 303 lacked the critical funding needed to ensure 988 would get financial support. Franklin did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.
“There was a lot missing from it to make it a bipartisan bill that people could get behind, because the details just weren’t there,” Tollefson said.
Connecting with younger generations
Megan Zimmerman, NAMI Fox Valley’s outreach program director, educates local schools about mental health and promotes 988. She said many people hesitate to call 988 because they fear emergency services will get involved, but in reality, law enforcement or emergency services respond to only 0.4% of callers in Wisconsin. Counselors resolved the other 99.6% of calls by providing support, coping strategies and resources.
“Even outside of 988, I think when someone expresses that they have suicidal ideation – like they’re having thoughts about it – I think that scares people,” Zimmerman said. “They almost immediately triage to like, ‘OK, this person needs to be hospitalized.’”
Zimmerman noted the person who calls 988 doesn’t have to be the one who is in crisis, as she often calls 988 with her clients.
“If I can get an individual to agree to have that conversation on the phone with someone, and I’m there to support them in whatever way they need, that is just as good of an outcome as telling them to go home and call it themselves, which they may or may not follow through on,” she said.
Cards used to spread awareness about the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline are seen at the Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin’s office in Green Bay, Wis., on Sept. 3, 2026. (Astrid Code / Wisconsin Watch)
Van Beek, who always considered herself the “therapist friend,” often recommends 988 to peers who confide in her. Once, when a friend shared distressing details about her home life, Van Beek quickly realized she wasn’t equipped to handle the conversation.
“I just realized I’m a high school kid, and I can’t take this on,” Van Beek said. “I don’t have the knowledge to help you get to where you need to be with the situation. So that’s an instance where I recommended calling or texting 988 and just going through with that. And she did.”
The 24/7 chat feature, introduced in 2024, particularly appeals to her generation and was helpful when she had to use it.
“Gen Z in general, we’ve always been behind a screen,” Van Beek said. “988 gives youth the option to text it, and I always have liked that, because talking or maybe even going in person can be overwhelming for youth, and I can personally relate to that.”
Amid increasing reports of generative AI enabling suicides, proposed legislation in Illinois would fine AI companies for not addressing suicidal ideation and deposit the money into a 988 trust fund. Companies under the legislation would face a penalty of up to $15,000 per day if they don’t refer users to crisis services like 988 when they express thoughts of self-harm.
Zimmerman said the chat feature of 988 has led her to encourage students to message the lifeline instead of an AI companion.
“Every suicide prevention presentation I give, especially in a school, I just always stress (that) I know it’s easy to bring up ChatGPT or your Claude or your Gemini or whatever it is, and start essentially texting or chatting that feature,” Zimmerman said. “But I always really encourage people to instead think about 988 … because then you’re getting a real live human being.”
Having graduated as president of her high school’s Raise Your Voice mental health advocacy club, Van Beek recently began studying psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where she wants to continue raising awareness about mental health.
“The events that I participate in, whether it’s through NAMI or NAMIWalks — the mental health walk that we do — it has never felt like a chore to me,” Van Beek said. “I’ve always felt like that’s my purpose.”
Median wages have hit a record high in Wisconsin, but job growth has stalled and the state’s Black unemployment rate is rising.
Those are the main findings from “The State of Working Wisconsin 2026,” a new report on the state’s job market. The annual report is released by the High Road Strategy Center, a left-leaning “think-and-do tank” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The report found that after hitting a record high number of jobs — 3,051,000 — in November 2024, the state had just 3,042,900 jobs in July 2026.
“Job growth has ground to a halt, and though wages hit a new high in 2025, high inflation is undermining workers’ wages in 2026,” said Laura Dresser, author of the report and the associate director of the High Road Strategy Center.
“The (report) still shows some very bright spots, but the clouds are gathering on the economic horizon.”
Dresser told WPR the report’s findings showed a “mixed picture.”
“There’s some really great news still in this economy,” she said. “We’ve had a strong recovery from the pandemic lockdowns, it’s been sustained and we show again that we got a new high in median wages in 2025.”
Last year’s report found that the economy was softening, and Dresser said some of those trends have continued.
Report sees higher unemployment ahead
The state’s unemployment rate is at 3.3%. That is low but “drifting upward” compared to the 2.6% unemployment rate in 2023, the report found.
“With the state losing jobs, it is likely that the rate will continue to rise,” the report said.
And the state has been losing jobs since 2025.
“Wisconsin’s economy has grown slowly relative to the national economy for years, and now job growth has ground to a halt,” the report said.
It also found that Wisconsin’s economy “is riddled with inequalities by geography, race, education and gender.”
The report said the unemployment rate for Black Wisconsinites is, “growing much more rapidly than unemployment for other groups.”
Wisconsin’s Black unemployment rate was 7.2% during the first quarter of 2026, matching the national rate, according to the report. But the state’s unemployment rate for white residents was 2.3%.
“In 2023, when the unemployment rate was at its low and the labor market was strong, the gap between Black and white unemployment shrank,” the report said. “But as the overall rate has drifted up, the Black rate has grown much more swiftly.”
Wisconsin’s median wage hit a record $26.17 per hour last year. Data for this year are not yet available, “but the signs there are troubling,” the report said.
“Inflation has risen and wage gains have been weaker,” the report said. “As it did in 2022, inflation could wipe out the wage gains of 2026.”
State unionization rate plunges
The state’s unionization rate is also fell from 14% in 2011 to 7.5% in 2025.
“State trends in unionization reflect both state policy and industrial structure,” the report said.
Pam Fendt, president of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, pointed to the impacts of Act 10 on union membership in Wisconsin. She also said growing interest in unions makes her “hopeful for the future.”
“We do see a lot of interest in organizing,” Fendt said.
A new Gallup Poll found 71% of Americans approve of labor unions.
“An increase in the state minimum wage to $20 by 2030 would raise wages for more than 730,000 Wisconsin workers,” the report said.
“All the neighboring states except for Iowa are on a dramatically different path for minimum wages, and this state has (for) too long just not attended to the minimum wage and raising it for the state’s lower paid workers,” Dresser said.
Fendt said Milwaukee Area Labor Council also supports raising the minimum wage.
“Getting it to $20 an hour by 2030 is something that we support because, honestly, the minimum wage has been stagnant for way too long,” Fendt said.
McKenna and Celia Olson expanded their family by adopting four children, completing their South Side Milwaukee home. The adoption closed a chapter in their journey as foster parents with the Wellpoint Care Network.
McKenna and Celia, closed their foster care license in May after spending the past eight years fostering 10 children.
In June, the couple celebrated their 6, 5, 2 and 9-month-old children with an adoption party at Milwaukee’s Humboldt Park.
“We have four kids now and they’ve been with us since birth,” McKenna said. “This is our family unit now and we’re grateful to be alongside the kids as they grow.”
Adjusting to a new parenting lifestyle
As the Olson family has grown, McKenna and Celia have adapted to new parenting routines such as staying home when a child is sick, making multiple drop-offs to daycare or extracurricular activities and more.
“As the older kids are growing up, they’re getting more involved in things,” McKenna said. “We’re being aware of what works and understanding what’s best for each kid.”
McKenna said she’s also adjusting to no longer having to follow certain policies and procedures.
Last month, McKenna and Celia took the kids on vacation without going through an approval process.
“One part of being a foster parent is you have to get approval if you want to go out of state, and sometimes you might have to share your itinerary or birth parents have to get involved,” she said.
As they navigate new parenting routines, McKenna and Celia are excited to create memories as a family such as celebrating birthdays and capturing moments from the first and last days of school.
“In my dream ideal world, I would love to have so many people around the table during Thanksgiving and birthdays and that would include the birth families of my kids,” McKenna said. “I really just look forward to being a family, spending quality time and having our extended family come together.”
Celia Olson, left, and McKenna Olson pose with their four newly adopted children inside the Milwaukee County Courthouse. (Courtesy of McKenna Olson)
Feeling mixed emotions
No longer foster parents, McKenna and Celia still reflect on the bittersweet moments they’ve shared with other foster children.
“The kids that have left us, we still think about them and miss them,” McKenna said. “You’re in people’s lives for a reason during certain stages of their life.”
McKenna and Celia said they were grateful to care for all 10 children over the years.
“Every kid that came into our home, we open our hearts,” McKenna said.
Using resources to help with trauma
McKenna and Celia chose to become foster parents through Wellpoint Care Network because of its Trauma Informed Care Program, which teaches principles for responding to people who have experienced trauma.
“Children who experience trauma, their brains formulate differently than children who may have not gone through trauma,” said Emily Davis, Wellpoint foster care recruitment and retention supervisor.
In addition to supporting foster parents, the training has helped social workers, librarians, educators, police officers and others.
According to Julie Scott, Wellpoint director of trauma-informed strategy and practice, the organization developed the training after discovering its former residential boys group wasn’t receiving enough mental health support.
“We found that traditional mental health services and therapies weren’t enough,” Scott said. “Because of adversity and trauma there are particular needs that aren’t always met.”
Davis said there are five levels of foster parents, all of whom are required to take the free Trauma-Informed Care training to become licensed through Wellpoint Care Network.
“We don’t want children to be moved from home to home, and our biggest goal is to only have a child in one placement the entire time they’re in foster care,” Davis said. “Providing foster parents with the training allows them to have the knowledge and ability to be that one foster parent the child needs rather than multiple.”
The Olson family spends time at a Milwaukee Brewers game at American Family Field. (Photo provided by McKenna Olson)
The training helped McKenna and Celia understand that no parent is perfect and that they shouldn’t take a child’s response to trauma personally.
“It’s about being aware that everyone comes with their own story and situations,” McKenna said. “It’s all a work in progress because the kids are changing and you’re changing right with them.”
Scott and the Olson family encourage foster parents to meet children where they are instead of expecting them to reach a certain development stage.
“Be compassionate, understanding and stick around a little longer,” Scott said. “A child may behave a certain way because they don’t understand their trauma.”
McKenna wants aspiring foster parents to know that the process requires them to embrace change.
“If you’re entering a new world, you shouldn’t be going in the same person you were,” she said.
Information for new or aspiring foster parents
To become an eligible foster parent in Wisconsin applicants must meet the following requirements:
Be at least 21 years of age.
Pass a background check.
Show proof of income.
Meet all home safety requirements.
Have car insurance with valid license.
Have no past history with child welfare agency involving child neglect or abuse.
Be willing to work alongside the child’s biological family.
Demonstrate positive qualities such as patience and humor.
McKenna said she and Celia could always reopen their license if they wanted to. They are grateful for the support Wellpoint Care Network provided them as foster parents.
“Wellpoint Care Network has been a part of our life, and because of this nonprofit, our family is the way that it is,” she said.
The family of a Milwaukee man falsely accused last year of threatening to kill President Donald Trump plans to sue the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for $5.5 million for emotional pain and suffering.
Ramón Morales Reyes, 56, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on May 22, 2025. Six days later, then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem issued a press release accusing him of sending a handwritten letter to ICE stating he would self-deport after using a hunting rifle to “shoot your precious president in his head.”
The letter was fake and didn’t come from Morales Reyes. Milwaukee resident Demetric Scott later admitted writing it to frame Morales Reyes to prevent him from testifying against Scott in an upcoming trial. Scott was convicted of identity theft and witness intimidation and sentenced in February to more than 16 years in prison.
At a press conference Friday in Milwaukee, attorneys representing Morales Reyes said DHS knew the threat was fake but still told the nation their client intended to assassinate Trump.
His children said the lie hurt their family and they just want things to go back to normal.
“Seeing my dad being framed for something he did not do was very heartbreaking,” said Ana Morales, the 25-year-old daughter of Morales Reyes. “He’s been going through depression, anxiety, he doesn’t like going out anymore because he feels like everyone knows him due to what he was framed as, and ever since it has taken a lot from us.”
Milwaukee immigration attorney Caine Oulahan, who represents Morales Reyes, said local law enforcement and the U.S. Secret Service had determined he didn’t write the letter days before issuing their release.
“And after they determined it was likely not him, it was still published,” Oulahan said.
An affidavit from a Milwaukee Police Department officer who also works with the FBI states that they interviewed Morales Reyes on May 22, 2025. The officer said he didn’t believe Morales Reyes sent the threatening letter. A search warrant of Scott’s calls from jail also produced recordings in which Scott coordinated with someone to send packets to several law enforcement officials. Scott said his plan was to have Morales Reyes arrested so the criminal case against him would be dropped.
“And the judge will agree ’cause if he gets picked up by ICE, there won’t be a jury trial so they will probably dismiss it that day,” Scott said. “That’s my plan.”
That DHS press release is still online. A small disclaimer was added at the bottom stating Morales Reyes “is no longer under investigation for threats against the President” but he still faces deportation proceedings
The Morales Reyes family has notified DHS it intends to sue the agency for $5.5 million for emotional pain and suffering caused by the federal government’s false claim. According to the legal claim, DHS also posted that day on X thanking ICE officers for detaining Morales Reyes for threatening to assassinate Trump.
The White House Instagram account later posted Morales Reyes’ face alongside the letter used to frame him.
Antonio Morales, the 20-year-old son of Morales Reyes, said he was scared when he saw negative comments about his father online. He said he believes DHS knew the posts contained false information at the time.
“It was hard seeing your dad all over social media posted as some sort of assassin almost, and that’s just not who my father is,” Antonio Morales said. “I really think that they knew what they were doing. They wanted to do this to more immigrants, and they really want to keep terrorizing the community going forward.”
Attorney Mark Thomsen, who also sits on the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said the case is about more than compensation for the family.
“They knew it was a lie, and they still haven’t taken it down,” Thomsen said. “They haven’t thought for a second about apologizing. This is the most powerful government in the world, and here they are out to crush us, each of us, like bugs, like gnats on a rhinoceros.”
Thomsen said it’s up to everyone in America to stop tolerating a federal government willing to lie in pursuit of the Trump’s aggressive deportation efforts.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the family’s claim.
The deportation proceedings against Morales Reyes come amid reporting that ICE arrests and detentions in Wisconsin have hit new highs this summer, with 220 arrests in June — up from 119 in May, according to a Wisconsin Watch analysis.
Voces de la Frontera Executive Director Christine Neumann-Ortiz said the most recent surge occurred mostly in Milwaukee from late June through the July 4 holiday weekend. She said immigration agents used excessive force in several alleged cases, and that the group’s statewide network of ICE observers must continue.
I’m 32 and I’ve already had more jobs than I care to admit. In my first job after college, I joined the marketing team at a big corporation. I remember asking my manager one day, “Hey, I’ve done everything on my list. Can I help with something else?” Their response: “No.” The message was clear: stay in your lane.
After that, I tried other roles, including operations, sales, construction and custodial work. Like many of my peers, I was searching for a place where I could grow and keep learning. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was looking for the right culture.
Then, two years ago, I saw a job posting at DSG, a wholesale contractor supply company based in the Midwest. I remembered a college coach who worked for DSG. He seemed to have a great experience there. DSG had a training program, so I decided it was worth a try, even without experience in contractor supply. I had run out of other ideas.
That was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’ve turned off all my old job alerts because I hope to work here until I retire. I believe I’ll keep improving my skills and moving upward even if I’m here for decades, and my co-workers will value creativity and unconventional ideas.
We’re 100% employee-owned through an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP. It’s a retirement plan that allows companies to share ownership with workers. Our employee ownership culture is the secret ingredient that makes me excited to stay here for the next 30 years.
When I started, I didn’t know anything about ESOPs or what being “employee-owned” meant. During my orientation, my manager showed me our company’s ESOP retirement wealth calculator. If I stayed at the company long enough, I could accumulate generational wealth for myself and my family without contributing a cent to my ESOP account. From year one to year two, my ESOP account balance grew by more than 200%.
From the start, DSG’s training program encouraged me to get involved in every aspect of the business. Instead of a “that’s not my job” attitude, my co-workers went out of their way to answer my questions and help me learn. They celebrated when I got involved outside my direct job and listened to my ideas. When the training program ended, DSG hired me full time as an inventory planning analyst. I learned that this welcoming environment was the norm across the company.
As employee owners, we all have an interest in doing our best and helping others excel. For example, all 63 of our branches share inventory. Rather than compete, we cooperate. We know the savings across the organization benefit our finances in the long run. I also travel for my job. Instead of using company funds to buy expensive meals on the road, my co-owners in other branches have invited me over for home-cooked dinners. By doing what’s best for each other and the company now, we all reap the rewards in our ESOP accounts later.
Most importantly, it’s not just people with college degrees who are building generational wealth. Whether we’re working with spreadsheets, driving delivery trucks or loading equipment in the warehouse, we have the same opportunity to change the trajectory of our financial futures. No matter the position, background or education level, each full-time employee at DSG gets an ESOP retirement plan.
I’ve read studies that found companies with ESOPs tend to have higher employee retention and withstand economic downturns better than non-employee-owned companies, but there are only 240 ESOPs in Wisconsin. Still, momentum is building.
The Expanding ESOPs coalition is building a movement of nearly 100 organizations focused on expanding employee ownership in Wisconsin and beyond.
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., previously introduced H.R. 3105, the Promotion and Expansion of Private Employee Ownership Act of 2025. The bill would help small businesses establish S corporation employee stock ownership plans (S ESOPs), provide technical assistance to companies pursuing S ESOPs and create an employee ownership advocate within the U.S. Department of Labor.
Two years ago, I took a chance and applied for a position meant for recent college grads. I knew nothing about ESOPs. I thought it would be just another job. I couldn’t be happier that I was wrong. If employee ownership can have that kind of impact on me, imagine the impact of having more ESOP companies in Wisconsin.
Conner Scott lives in Eau Claire with his wife and two sons. He is an SIOP analyst at DSG, which has locations across Wisconsin.
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To build or not to build, that’s the question Wisconsin voters have about state prisons as they choose between Republican Tom Tiffany and Democrat David Crowley.
Tiffany said this week he supports building new prison capacity, while Crowley said he would prefer reducing prison time for nonviolent offenders.
Gov. Tony Evers and a bipartisan group of lawmakers has crafted a plan to expand the state’s prison capacity by 530 beds, close Green Bay Correctional Institution and implement other changes to address overcrowding.
As Wisconsin’s prison population hits record highs, Republican gubernatorial candidate and U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany said he is open to expanding and building prison capacity to address the rising number of people behind bars without releasing those in custody.
An Aug. 28 state Department of Corrections report showed 23,854 people were incarcerated in Wisconsin’s adult institutions, exceeding the previous record in 2019 by 28. The population grew to 23,870 as of Sept. 4. That was just over 6,000 beyond the capacity of the state’s facilities, which include the aging Green Bay Correctional Institution.
“I will work with lawmakers, corrections officials, and law enforcement to determine where we need to expand and build prison capacity so we can safely close Green Bay without releasing violent criminals back into our communities,” Tiffany said in a statement to Wisconsin Watch. “Every decision will be made with the safety of our communities and our corrections officers at the forefront.”
It has been 25 years since Wisconsin opened any new prisons. The medium-security Redgranite Correctional Institution and the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility, intended for probation and parole holds, both opened in 2001, according to DOC.
Tiffany faces Democratic nominee and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley in the open race for governor this November. When asked about Tiffany’s comments on expanding prison capacity, Crowley said in a statement that “violent criminals must be held accountable for breaking the law, but we have to give nonviolent offenders a second chance.”
“That means expanding mental health services, offering substance use treatment support, and providing job training and career readiness courses so we can save taxpayer dollars by providing a real pathway to rehabilitation,” he said.
Crowley pointed to Milwaukee County initiatives under his tenure as county executive that he said have “focused on prevention, intervention, healing, housing stability, behavioral health services, and pathways to opportunity for our young people.”
The candidates’ responses show a stark divide in how the next administration might approach criminal justice issues. Tiffany and Crowley recently clashed over allegations that a Milwaukee County inmate used a county-provided tablet to intimidate witnesses.
Wisconsin’s governor appoints the head of the Department of Corrections, the agency that oversees the state’s prisons. The governor also has the constitutional authority to grant pardons and commutations. Gov. Tony Evers has issued more than 2,000 pardons during his two terms in office and signed executive orders earlier this year to reinstate commutations.
Green Bay Correctional Institution in Allouez, Wis., pictured on June 23, 2024, is being eyed for closure under a bipartisan plan the Legislature could take up in the coming months. (Julius Shieh / Wisconsin Watch)
Tiffany and Crowley have also taken opposing views on commutations. Tiffany previously told Wisconsin Watch he would rescind those executive orders and said he would “not release violent criminals early.” Crowley said he would also not commute the sentences of those convicted of murder — a break from criteria Evers laid out that bars applications only from those previously convicted of several categories of sex crimes or child abuse. Crowley expressed support for using the governor’s executive clemency powers as a “tool to correct past wrongs” but said cases should be handled in a way that respects victims and communities.
The state’s next governor is likely to face prison problems that have gone unresolved during years of political gridlock at the Capitol between Evers and the Republican-led Legislature.
Evers in 2025 proposed a series of projects at a cost of $325 million that included closing Green Bay Correctional Institute and converting Lincoln Hills into an adult facility. Republican lawmakers objected to any plans that would reduce the capacity of the state’s facilities.
Republicans in the 2025-27 state budget approved just $15 million for Evers’ proposal and suggested a 2029 closure date for GBCI, but Evers partially vetoed the 2029 closure deadline without a detailed plan from the Legislature to do so. The state building commission in October signed off on releasing the $15 million to start the planning process for Evers’ proposed projects.
Rep. Benjamin Franklin, R-De Pere, told the Allouez Village Board on Sept. 1 that state agencies, the governor’s office and a bipartisan group of lawmakers have been working on draft legislation that would incorporate parts of Evers’ plan to revamp state facilities, close GBCI by 2031 and raise the statewide capacity by 530 beds to 18,503. The Legislature could act on the bill if Evers called a special session, Franklin said.
The estimated total cost of the projects in the legislation would be about $628.7 million, Franklin told the board members, but a “more solid number” is expected from the Department of Administration in the next 30 to 45 days, Franklin said.
“People have asked me as I’ve knocked doors and talked to people, attended the events, ‘Well, what about building a new mega facility somewhere?’” Franklin said at the meeting. “That would cost the state, by the estimates, anywhere between $1 billion to $1.3 billion. So, by adopting this plan again, that allows us to literally cut this approximately in half.”
Wisconsin Watch asked the Tiffany campaign whether the congressman supports the elements in the plan Franklin described. The campaign reiterated that Tiffany supports closing GBCI.
“As governor, he will work with corrections officials, law enforcement, legislators, and local communities to determine the best path forward. Closing Green Bay will require additional prison capacity, whether through new construction, expansion, or other options,” the campaign said in a statement. “Tom will pursue the solution that best protects taxpayers and public safety while ensuring violent criminals remain behind bars and capacity is not reduced.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
A judge in Milwaukee County has tossed out a trespassing citation a Shorewood man received last year for walking past a public beach along Lake Michigan’s shoreline, saying the action was protected by the public trust doctrine.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge J.D. Watts on Thursday reversed the decision of a municipal judge, who found Paul Florsheim guilty of trespassing. Florsheim, with the help of the nonprofit Midwest Environmental Advocates, appealed that decision, saying he hoped the case would make its way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court so the court could weigh in on public beach access in the state.
“It was very gratifying to read the decision,” Florsheim, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, said in an interview with WPR. “I did feel vindicated.”
Florsheim received a $313 trespassing ticket from the Shorewood Police Department after he walked along the shoreline past Atwater Beach last summer. He represented himself during a municipal court hearing, arguing the part of the beach where he was walking was public land, and he was allowed to be there.
The state’s public trust doctrine protects the public’s rights on navigable waterways in Wisconsin. Florsheim argued the doctrine protects his right to walk along the shoreline up to the ordinary high water mark.
But Shorewood Municipal Judge Margo Kirchner ruled against Florsheim, citing a 1923 Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling, Doemel v. Jantz, that found the public cannot walk on the area of the shoreline between the ordinary high water mark and the edge of the water. It said private property owners have exclusive rights to that area.
On its website, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says the ordinary high water mark is defined as, “the point on the bank or shore of a waterway up to which the presence and action of the water is so continuous as to leave a distinct mark either by erosion, destruction of terrestrial vegetation or other easily recognized characteristic.”
Watts, in his decision, wrote, “the strip of land below the (ordinary high water mark) is lakebed owned by the state of Wisconsin,” and that the state’s property extends to that point along Lake Michigan.
Watts said Florsheim walking along the shoreline of Lake Michigan, below the ordinary high water mark, was a “recreational activity.”
The 1923 Wisconsin Supreme Court decision related to a dispute along Lake Winnebago, an inland lake. In his decision, Watts said Doemel v. Jantz, “may guide decisions in cases involving tort actions for trespass on inland lakes but provides little guidance for this case.”
The judge found the walk was protected under the public trust doctrine and “did not infringe on any riparian landowner’s rights.”
A Thursday press release from Midwest Environmental Advocates said the decision from Watts, “did not overrule Doemel.”
In a statement, Michael Greif, an attorney with Midwest Environmental Advocates, said, “The dismissal affirms that the shore of Lake Michigan is public land, and, while the direct impact of the decision is limited to the dismissal of Paul’s ticket, we believe the principles affirmed in this case should be broadly applied.”
Note: This is the first story in the Cap Times seriesDeadly Divide, investigating Wisconsin’s ongoing Black infant mortality crisis. This reporting is supported through a National Fellowship from the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism.
Click here to read highlights from the story
Wisconsin’s Black infant mortality rate was 12.5 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2024, compared with 4.8 for white babies; nearly 850 Black babies died before age 1 from 2015 through 2024.
Preterm birth and low birth weight are the leading causes of death among Black infants, and Black mothers in Wisconsin are 50% more likely to give birth early than white mothers.
Experts say income, education and health care access alone do not explain the disparity, pointing instead to the lasting health effects of systemic racism, chronic stress, segregation and generational trauma.
State health leaders say improving outcomes will require support before and beyond pregnancy — including more time and trust in health care settings, culturally informed care and efforts to address housing, child care and other stressors.
For generations, Black families in Wisconsin have buried babies at rates far higher than their white neighbors — a disparity that has withstood medical advances, public health initiatives and decades of promises to close the gap.
The numbers have remained stubbornly consistent, with Wisconsin regularly ranking the worst in the nation when it comes to the rate at which Black babies die before reaching age 1. In 2024, the most recent year for which the Wisconsin Department of Health Services has publicized data, the state had an infant mortality rate of 12.5 deaths for every 1,000 live births among Black babies. For white babies, that rate was 4.8.
Between 2015 and 2024 nearly 850 Black babies died in Wisconsin before turning 1, according to state data. Over the first half of that decade, nearly 25% of the deaths of Black infants were caused by being born into this world too early and too small to survive.
Researchers and health experts say the crisis cannot be explained by lack of access to quality health care alone. They point to the cumulative effects of systemic racism, chronic stress and generational trauma that shape maternal health long before pregnancy begins and influence birth outcomes from one generation to the next.
That these disparities transcend socioeconomic factors like income or level of educational attainment show the root cause lies elsewhere. Black babies are dying at higher rates even when their parents make a decent living. Black babies are dying at higher rates even when their moms are well-educated.
For Dr. Jasmine Zapata, Wisconsin’s state epidemiologist for maternal and child health and chronic diseases, the numbers have never just been numbers.
Every chart tracking premature births, every report on infant death and every statewide trend carries the memory of her own pregnancy, when she unexpectedly delivered her daughter at just 25 weeks.
As a second-year medical student at the time, she knew something wasn’t right when she felt sharp pain in her lower abdomen. Her due date was not until Jan. 2. It was Sept. 20.
Zapata’s pain was repeatedly dismissed by doctors as Braxton Hicks contractions — a type of contraction that typically takes place earlier in a pregnancy and doesn’t result in cervical dilation or labor.
“I called about two, three times and I was just brushed off,” Zapata said.
But when Zapata began bleeding, she rushed to the hospital where providers found her cervix was already 10 centimeters dilated, the threshold typically required to give birth.
“They told me ‘You’re going to meet your daughter today,’” Zapata said.
Though she was nearly 15 weeks out from her due date and her baby was barely beyond the point of viability, Zapata gave birth to her little girl.
“When my baby came out, she was not crying. It was quiet, because her little lungs were too fragile to even breathe,” Zapata said. “I knew that complications of prematurity, this little baby fighting for her life … I was right there at the verge of being one of the infant mortality statistics.”
Zapata’s experience with preterm birth, even though her pregnancy was not categorized as high-risk, is common in Wisconsin, where Black mothers are 50% more likely to give birth before their due dates than white women.
Preterm birth and low birth weight are the leading causes of death among Black infants, defined as younger than age 1.
National experts on health and development say there’s a painful and deep-rooted reason these statistics persist despite medical advancements.
‘This is the world you’ll be born into’
Dr. Tony Iton, a nationally recognized public health leader and advocate for health equity, has spent much of his career studying how chronic stress related to discrimination puts people’s health at risk. Iton is the CEO of The Health Trust in California.
Decades of research, he said, shows that living in a society built on a legacy of structural racism can result in consistently elevated levels of cortisol, the body’s stress hormone. Those levels increase the risk of pregnancy complications like preeclampsia (pregnancy-related high blood pressure) and early labor.
“We don’t have a preterm crisis, we have a chronic stress crisis,” he said in an interview with the Cap Times.
Dr. Tony Iton, CEO of The Health Trust in California, has spent his career studying the effects systemic racism has on chronic stress and adverse health outcomes. (Courtesy of Dr. Tony Iton)
Those effects don’t disappear when a pregnancy ends. They accumulate over a lifespan and, in many cases, across generations.
Research has shown that prolonged exposure to adversity can influence fetal development through changes in the mother’s body and health, said Nicole Bush, a clinical psychologist and director of the Division of Developmental Medicine at the University of California San Francisco.
The science, she said, increasingly shows that a mother’s environment and experiences across her lifespan can affect a child’s health before birth, with consequences that can then extend into that child’s adulthood.
Those intergenerational effects can happen through epigenetic changes. Different from genetic mutations, epigenetic changes don’t alter core DNA sequences but instead perform like chemical switches that can turn specific genes on or off, Bush said. That switch affects how genes activate processes in someone’s body.
“Our epigenetic marks can be influenced by nutrition. They can be influenced by sleep. They can be influenced by social experience,” Bush said. “Epigenetic changes related to experience can be stable for a long time after they’ve been changed, and so major stressors can have a long-standing impact on our bodies. They can affect our perceptions, our brain chemistry, our physiology.”
Nicole Bush is a clinical psychologist and director of the Division of Developmental Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. (Courtesy of Nicole Bush)
As a result, trauma and stress that someone experiences as a child can alter how their body responds later in life and, during pregnancy, influence how a fetus develops and preemptively trains an infant in utero to expect more stress in life.
“In addition to placing the mother and her uterus and her pregnancy functions at immediate risk for challenges such as preterm birth or postpartum depression, it can also send certain chemicals and signals to the baby in utero that then program that baby to come out ready for a strong fight or flight and reactive immune system,” Bush said, “because the mom’s biology is trying to communicate to the baby ‘This is the world you’ll be born into, come out as prepared as you can.’”
The national infant mortality rate for white babies that same year was 4.4 deaths per 1,000 births.
Also that same year, Wisconsin health data showed Black women were five times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related complications.
According to a 2025 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Americans are living longer than ever and the difference in mortality between Black and white Americans has shrunk over the last half century, except when it comes to infants, where the disparity in mortality between Black and white babies has grown.
That Wisconsin ranks so poorly for Black infant and maternal mortality is not new. In 2009, Black babies were almost four times more likely to die within their first year of life than white babies.
The year before that, Dr. Richard Allan Aronson submitted a white paper to the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health highlighting racial disparities in the state’s birth outcomes. Aronson served as medical consultant and chief medical officer for family and community health at the Wisconsin Division of Public Health from 1988 to 2002.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services publicizes infant mortality statistics going back to 1985. In the four decades since, the mortality rate among white babies has consistently decreased in line with medical advancement. The rate among Black babies has remained largely stagnant, with the state having a higher rate of mortality among Black infants in 2023 than it did in 1991.
In his 2008 paper, Aronson identified segregation and disparate access to services as key factors in the racial gap in birth outcomes.
“Since infant mortality is a sentinel indicator of a community’s overall well being, the factors that contribute to racial and ethnic birth outcome disparities relate to all sectors of society. The neighborhoods in Wisconsin with the highest rates of black infant mortality are characterized by hypersegregation, unemployment, economic hardship, and inadequate housing,” Aronson wrote. “Systems that serve children and families in these communities are often fragmented, burdensome, culturally and linguistically disrespectful, and deficit-based.”
Aronson’s assessment of the situation in Wisconsin is as true today as it was nearly two decades ago. And from the year he issued his report to 2024, nearly 1,500 Black babies in Wisconsin died before their first birthday, according to data from the Wisconsin health department.
Had the rate been the same as it was for white babies, more than 970 of them would have survived.
Gaps in access to care and a lack of culturally competent medical services still play a key role in how Black Wisconsinites interact with the health care system, particularly during and after pregnancy, Zapata said.
Wisconsin’s largest cities still carry the spectre of racial segregation and redlining, policies that separated whole populations from necessary services.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city with the highest population of Black residents and the highest total annual number of Black infant deaths, has also been consistently ranked as one of the most segregated cities in America.
“If you were going to design a strategy to adversely impact the well-being of a population, you couldn’t come up with a better policy than racial residential segregation. It’s actually brilliantly evil in its manifestations,” Iton, with The Health Trust in California, said.
‘It shouts racism’
Poor health outcomes are often explained away by poverty or low educational achievement, Iton said. But disparities in maternal and infant health outcomes for Black women and babies are shown to transcend both of these factors. This shows that something else is at work, he said.
National data shows Black mothers with a college degree still have higher infant mortality rates than white women who drop out of high school.
“It shouts racism,” Iton said. “If you’re not protected by income and social status from this outcome, that suggests that it’s not just material poverty or lack of resources, but it’s also your situatedness in society and what you perceive to be essentially a pervasive, large-scale devaluation of you as a human being.”
Those effects become clearer looking at data that show Black immigrants have better health outcomes when they come to the United States but exhibit poorer health outcomes the longer they are here, Iton said.
“The birth outcomes are so much better in the African immigrant women, and then as they acculturate, spend more time in America, their birth outcomes get worse,” he explained. “So the suggestion is that it’s really something in the environment in the United States.”
‘Preventing the fire in the first place’
Zapata, Wisconsin’s state specialist in child and maternal health, said she wants more focus on preventing the problems that hurt people in the first place.
“There’s always so much focus on just when you get pregnant and right after. It’s kind of like a house is on fire and it’s burning, and then you’re always just focusing on how can the fire truck get there faster,” she said. “Let’s focus on preventing the fire in the first place.”
That means addressing stressors faced by Black Wisconsinites across their lifespan.
“It’s like once you’re pregnant, you can qualify for all these services. But sadly, from a physiological and biological standpoint, a lot of times it’s too late,” Zapata said. “Because that birthing person — what happened to them all the way into their childhood, and even what was going on with their parents, and when they were in utero, the environment, the stress that their parents were having — that impacts them, that impacts their birth outcomes.”
Dr. Jasmine Zapata gave birth to her daughter, Aameira, at 25 weeks after going into labor 15 weeks early. (Ruthie Hauge / The Cap Times)
Zapata said reducing Wisconsin’s Black infant mortality rate will require more than improving medical care. It will require confronting the centuries of systemic racism and inequity that have shaped Black women’s experiences with health care, government and other institutions — and rebuilding trust that has been eroded over generations.
“We’re not going to be able to undo some of the things that got us here in just five years,” she said.
She pointed to a history of exclusion and abuse that is not as distant as it can seem. Less than a century ago, Black people were barred from medical schools, she said, while unethical government and medical practices against people of color have contributed to generations of distrust.
“All of that accumulated harm plays a role into what we’re seeing today,” Zapata said.
That history is reflected in the health care system Black women encounter today, she said. Even when women have access to a doctor or hospital, that doesn’t necessarily mean they feel heard, respected or safe enough to fully engage with the system.
“We’re working within a system that’s just not designed to provide equitable care to all people in all backgrounds,” Zapata said. “We want to look around and see that it reflects the diversity of our community, or just come in and see someone that looks like me.”
Building that trust, she said, requires something the current health care system often does not give providers or patients: time.
Providers can be expected to see dozens of patients a day, while appointments designed to take an hour are squeezed into 15-minute slots. Long waitlists can make it difficult for patients to establish relationships with providers in the first place.
For Black women who already approach the health care system with distrust, those constraints can be especially consequential, Zapata said. A rushed appointment can leave a patient feeling dismissed even when the provider is not intentionally doing so.
“Patients who feel brushed off will be less likely to engage with that system again,” she said.
Dr. Jasmine Zapata, state epidemiologist for maternal and child health and chronic diseases, records a public service announcement video on mental health at the Department of Health Services building in Madison. (Ruthie Hauge / The Cap Times)
If something goes wrong during a pregnancy, that can mean a mother is less likely to call her doctor or seek help.
“There’s a lot of Black women that are scared to have children in our state, just because of the statistics,” Zapata said. “When we come into a provider, because of that unique background, we need more time.”
That need extends beyond the exam room. Zapata recalled treating a mother who, just 24 hours after giving birth, was pleading to leave the hospital because she had no child care. Another mother was discharged with her newborn to a homeless shelter.
“They don’t even have a place for the baby to sleep,” she said. “It is just heartbreaking.”
Those circumstances can make it difficult for a mother to focus on her own health or her baby’s health, even when medical care is available.
“Do you think they’re listening to us with their whole heart, with their full attention?” Zapata said of patients in these circumstances. “No, because their brain is thinking about how they’re going to survive.”
Doulas are one option to help bridge some of that divide, she said. Because they can provide advocacy, emotional support and culturally informed guidance, doulas can help women feel safer navigating a health care system that might not feel built for them.
For Black women, she said, that kind of support is not an extra. It is part of what they are asking for as the state tries to change outcomes that have persisted for generations.
‘Too many funerals’
Zapata’s daughter, Aameira, was in the neonatal intensive care unit for three months after she was born. She is now almost 16 years old. Her mother describes her talent for photography, her sassy personality, her beautiful singing voice — each moment of praise an appreciation for the fact that her daughter survived what many babies born that early do not.
It was the moments, days, weeks and months that followed Aameira’s birth that Zapata says shaped the trajectory of her life’s work.
“When I walked out of the NICU with her in my arms, I made a commitment that I’m going to dedicate my career to finding ways to make sure every baby gets to walk out,” Zapata said.
That has remained a driving factor in her work as a doctor, as a state health official, as a mother and as a resident of a state where too many babies don’t make it to age 1.
“I’ve been to too many funerals of babies who didn’t make it to their first birthday. Words can’t express that. I’ve had to do CPR on a baby that came into the hospital already basically gone,” Zapata said. “When you have those types of memories, and screams of family members, and faces drilled in your mind, in your soul, it just really impacts the work that you do.”
Erin McGroarty is a health and policy reporter for the Cap Times in Madison. She can be reached atemcgroarty@captimes.com.
Nine out of 446 bills with a Democrat as the first author got a hearing in the Wisconsin Legislature in the 2025-26 session.
The nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau provided statistics that confirmed most of the numbers in a social media post about the fate of bills introduced by Democrats, who are in the minority.
The LRB confirmed that no bills with a Democrat as the first author became law. That doesn’t take into account three laws where the Assembly or Senate version of the text passed, but a Democrat led the companion bill in the other chamber, such as a bipartisan law that expanded the missing child alerts system.
This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
The first election issues story reported and produced by the Northeast Wisconsin News Lab (NEW News Lab for short) was published Wednesday.
The consortium of newsrooms includes the Post-Crescent in Appleton, the Green Bay Press Gazette, the Green Bay Press Times, Wisconsin Public Radio and yours truly — Wisconsin Watch.
The collaborative effort formed in 2021 to advance in-depth local reporting on important topics. Previous seasons of the NEW News Lab focused on racism as a public health crisis, lack of affordable housing, local school funding and coverage of local judicial systems.
This time around, leaders from the partner newsrooms used feedback from the Local News Landscape Study conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay to decide which issues to cover.
Reporters from the Post-Crescent and Press Gazette will focus on public safety and education.
The Green Bay Press Times called dibs on the environment.
WPR will tackle the economy.
And here at Wisconsin Watch, we’re reporting on health care.
One thing I appreciate about the NEW News Lab is the collaboration. Working with fellow journalists toward a common goal is part of why I love this work.
We hope this coverage helps you make informed decisions when you head to the voting booth in November.
And if there’s an issue the NEW News Lab is not focusing on that matters to you, reach out to Wisconsin Watch’s statehouse team. They’re covering a different set of issues ahead of the election.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Reading Time: 7minutesClick here to read highlights from the story
A UW-Madison police officer received a letter of reprimand after a student journalist in April 2025 brought to light allegations of inappropriate behavior.
The behavior included late-night texts and flirtatious conversations with female students while on duty and relaying confidential police information to help students avoid consequences for underage drinking.
The internal police investigation into the officer’s behavior included no interviews with students.
Two students reported the officer’s behavior to Greek life officials in October 2024. Greek life discussed the concerns with the officer, but did not alert UWPD.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison police officer received a letter of reprimand last summer after a student journalist alerted UWPD about allegations of the officer’s inappropriate conduct with sorority and fraternity members. A follow-up Wisconsin Watch investigation has found UWPD interviewed no students as part of its internal review.
Additionally, six months before the student journalist alerted police, two former sorority executives reported the officer’s unsettling behavior to UW-Madison’s Greek life staff, who discussed the matter with the officer but did not forward the complaint to UWPD.
Wisconsin Watch first reported in July 2025 on allegations that UWPD Officer Diego Lema Hernandez had initiated late-night texting conversations, asked female students on coffee dates while on duty and relayed confidential police information to help students avoid consequences for underage drinking.
Wisconsin Watch is now naming Lema Hernandez because UWPD confirmed he received a letter of reprimand in June 2025. Lema Hernandez did not respond to requests for comment.
UWPD investigators found that Lema Hernandez failed to exercise good judgment in communicating with students about his knowledge of when Madison police would check bars for underage patrons.
Other allegations, which are fully redacted from the final report, were not sustained.
Lema Hernandez, who joined UWPD in 2017, remains a downtown community liaison officer for the department.
Student journalist prompts investigation
UWPD learned of allegations against Lema Hernandez in April 2025 from a UW-Madison student journalist, who spoke with 11 students on the condition of anonymity.
“We took these concerns and allegations very seriously and launched an internal investigation based on the information provided to us,” UWPD spokesperson Marc Lovicott said in an email.
UW-Madison Police Officer Diego Lema Hernandez received a letter of reprimand after a UWPD investigation into allegations he was sending inappropriate text messages to students. (UW-Madison)
According to the internal investigative report obtained under the state’s public records law, UWPD conducted two interviews with Lema Hernandez and a five-minute phone call with a Madison police officer. Investigators also reviewed dozens of Lema Hernandez’s text conversations and identified 70 that related to bar checks, often followed by short phone calls.
Referred to as “raids” by students, bar checks are police inspections of drinking establishments for compliance with alcohol laws, including age and capacity restrictions.
In one February 2025 example, a student texted Lema Hernandez about whether Whiskey Jacks Saloon would be checked that night and if they should leave. Lema Hernandez responded that he could call in five minutes. They spoke for about a minute, and the student later thanked him on the way home.
In other texts when asked about bar checks, Lema Hernandez responded with phrases like “likelihood is high tonight,” “nothing for tonight that I know of,” and “yesterday and tonight run a good probability.”
When questioned, Lema Hernandez told investigators that he called students to tell them he did not have information about when or where bar checks would occur — and that even if he did, he would not share it.
Throughout UWPD interviews, Lema Hernandez recognized that a lot of the text messages “look bad” when it comes to sharing information about bar checks. He also acknowledged the optics of a male officer meeting with sorority members and said he does not want to put himself or UWPD “in that position.”
An excerpt from the call log for University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Officer Diego Lema Hernandez that was reviewed as part of an internal disciplinary review. (UW-Madison Police Department)
“Better judgement should have been used in the language to convey what information you do and don’t have in several areas,” UWPD Assistant Chief Kari Sasso wrote in Lema Hernandez’s June 2025 letter of discipline. “You know you should have been more direct in your text messages sharing that you do not have information on where and when bars will be checked.”
“Your verbal and written communications must be clear to ensure there are no misunderstandings. You are a valued member of the department. You go above and beyond to be a resource for your community, providing safety tips, meeting with community members, and assuring students have a sounding board to guide them through tough situations.”
UWPD concluded its investigation before Wisconsin Watch published the student journalist’s report in July 2025. The department did not interview any of the students who made the allegations, according to the investigative report.
Lovicott said UWPD still has not received any formal complaints from any campus department or students about Lema Hernandez. He said UWPD could not interview students because the student journalist did not provide the sources’ identities. He did not respond to a question about whether police attempted to use the text message records to contact students.
“Based on the findings of our investigation, there was no new information in the article that warranted reopening the investigation,” he said in an email.
University policy unclear on reporting police complaints
After last year’s article was published, Wisconsin Watch spoke with two former student sorority executives who said they brought concerns about Lema Hernandez to staff at the UW-Madison Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL) in October 2024 — six months before UWPD learned about separate allegations from the student journalist.
Both requested anonymity because they feared potential consequences for speaking publicly about former colleagues. Neither was among the 11 anonymous sources who were interviewed for the Wisconsin Watch article.
“I really appreciate you all making a story about this, I think this officer has made so many women feel this way,” one of the women wrote to Wisconsin Watch in response to the article.
She said Lema Hernandez was openly flirtatious, calling her sweetheart in conversation and texting her late at night.
“I had gone back and forth so many times, wondering, ‘Am I overreacting? Am I in the wrong? Is this my fault?’” she said later in an interview. “It became more and more clear to me that he was creating a power dynamic and really stepping over the line of being a professional resource.”
Her friend, another sorority executive, recalled one incident when Lema Hernandez spent the entire day hanging out at the Fraternity and Sorority Life office. When arrests came up in conversation, Lema Hernandez offered to “arrest” her, she said. She agreed, thinking it was funny — but left the interaction “physically, mentally and emotionally” uncomfortable after he handcuffed her hands behind her back. Wisconsin Watch reviewed a copy of a photo of the incident.
The women reported Lema Hernandez’s behavior to FSL staff, and their concerns were escalated to director Maggie Hayes, who told them later that month that she would reach out to Lema Hernandez directly, the sorority executive said.
In an email, Hayes initially told Wisconsin Watch that the complaint was shared “with the UWPD team.” After UWPD said it was not contacted about the complaint, she clarified that the office called Lema Hernandez directly to discuss the complaint.
Two sorority members contacted University of Wisconsin-Madison Greek life officials about Diego Lema Hernandez in October 2024, six months before UWPD learned about his behavior. Greek life officials contacted Lema Hernandez about the complaint, but not UWPD. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
UW-Madison’s Office of Student Affairs said in a statement that the complaint did not meet Title IX reporting requirements for sexual harassment or rise to the level of notifying Lema Hernandez’s supervisors or UWPD.
UWPD policy creates a clear internal reporting process once a complaint reaches UWPD. UW-Madison’s university-wide reporting policies, however, do not appear to require employees to forward non-Title IX complaints about UWPD officer conduct to the department.
“The FSL team confirmed that the described behavior did not meet the criteria for mandatory staff reporting,” said Jenny Bernhardt, director of communications for the university’s Office of Student Affairs. “With the student’s consent, (FSL) addressed the general issue directly with Officer Lema Hernandez as concerns raised by a larger group of FSL student leaders.”
Bernhardt spoke on behalf of Hayes, who did not respond when asked why she initially said FSL spoke with the UWPD team. Bernhardt confirmed FSL did not further escalate the information after speaking with Lema Hernandez.
“In the FSL staff conversation with Lema Hernandez in October 2024, it was agreed that his future communications with FSL students would be related to safety, security, and event management only, conveyed through UW-Madison channels, and include FSL Office staff,” Bernhardt said.
UWPD records show Lema Hernandez communicated with students about bar checks about two dozen times between the October 2024 conversation and when UWPD launched its internal investigation in April 2025.
‘Who do you hold responsible?’
Lema Hernandez often visited sorority houses to give presentations covering campus safety, medical amnesty and behavior-based policing.
The student journalist who wrote the original Wisconsin Watch article attended one of Lema Hernandez’s sorority presentations and recorded audio in which Lema Hernandez told freshmen and sophomores, “Every now and then I might hold whatever door I’m manning open for the three or four of you to leave without any real consequences — but don’t tell my boss that. I say that because I’ve actually done it.”
UWPD investigators did not review the recording itself, but asked Lema Hernandez about the student journalist’s account of it. He told investigators he probably said something like he would “rather hold the door” but it’s not something he can or would do.
He also told investigators that part of his role as an officer is to ensure the Greek life community is following the university approval process when hosting social events at bars.
University of Wisconsin-Madison sorority houses along Langdon Street in this photo illustration on June 4, 2025, in Madison, Wis. A UW-Madison police officer, who serves as a downtown liaison community officer for an area that includes Langdon Street, is under investigation after a student journalist presented allegations the officer engaged in unsolicited text communications with students and offered to help students avoid underage drinking tickets. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Sylvia Butters, another student journalist, interviewed Lema Hernandez for a class project in February 2025. In a recording Butters provided to Wisconsin Watch, Lema Hernandez described how students would alert him about planned social events at bars, which he would relay to Madison police. He said he would then personally monitor the events and tell Madison police not to worry about checking them.
He mentioned a February 2024 fraternity event at 7 Iron Social, a since-closed sports bar on State Street. The event appears to match one where police found 106 of the 125 patrons were underage, according to an official city report on the incident.
“I (told the officers), from 9 to 11, there’s an event, it’s been checked. I will continue doing my checks. Essentially, don’t touch it until at least 11:30,” he told Butters.
Lema Hernandez told Butters that Madison police entered 7 Iron Social at 11:46 p.m. after an intoxicated individual “stumbled into a group of cops” who were planning to check a different bar. They found no one checking IDs or monitoring capacity at 7 Iron Social, he said.
“Who do you hold responsible?” Lema Hernandez told Butters. “For Officer Diego, like, y’all were good until 11:30 … Then, I have a conversation with the (fraternity), like, ‘I had you up until I couldn’t have you anymore.’”
“There’s a lot of things that I can do for people,” Lema Hernandez added. “I take, obviously, a big risk when I do it.”
Asked if Lema Hernandez was authorized to communicate with Madison police in the manner he described — including conveying when officers should or should not conduct a bar check — Lovicott said UWPD officers routinely work with Madison police.
“That is precisely what happened in this instance; information sharing helps our partners know about official events and where they’re located,” Lovicott wrote in an email. “It is purely information sharing, and has nothing to do with how MPD conducts patrols or enforcement actions.”
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
All three of the Milwaukee Police Department’s automatic license plate reader systems will be subject to new security safeguards, department officials confirmed Wednesday.
The department’s confirmation follows Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s announcement regarding new restrictions aimed at preventing officer misuse and protecting privacy.
An MPD spokesperson said the changes will be incorporated into the department’s official policy.
The mayor’s initial announcement focused on Flock Safety, one of three automated license plate reader systems used by MPD. NNS previously reported that the department also uses Genetec and Axon systems.
All three systems automatically capture license plate information that can be searched later.
As of June, MPD had access to: 35 Flock cameras; 39 Genetec cameras; and Axon license plate readers installed in 80 patrol vehicles.
New limits
Only MPD supervisors will be allowed to access automatic license plate reader systems, Johnson said in his announcement.
Some MPD personnel have been accused of misusing Flock. MPD officer Josue Ayala was convicted in June of attempted misconduct in public office in connection with his use of Flock cameras.
Access to Milwaukee’s license plate reader systems will also be limited to MPD, excluding other law enforcement agencies.
Supervisors may use the systems only to investigate Part I crimes, which include homicide, rape and aggravated assault, among others. They may also use the technology to investigate critical missing persons, drug trafficking organization and abductions.
A department said automatic license plate reader cameras will continue to passively capture data, but supervisors may access it only for appropriate investigations.
Transparency efforts
The mayor announced transparency measures as well.
MPD will create a public dashboard detailing its use of license plate reader systems, and the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission will conduct semi-annual independent audits of use.
Johnson said the commission has already initiated an audit of Flock systems.
The announcement does not specify what information will appear on the dashboard or what metrics the audits will examine.
NNS asked the mayor’s office whether MPD will write the changes into its policies and for additional details about the dashboard and audits.
The mayor’s office referred the questions to MPD, confirming that the police chief has authority over department policy.
Risks and concerns
After Johnson’s announcement, Amanda Merkwae, policy and advocacy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, said in a written statement the changes are “a step in the right direction” but that “Flock is still an incredibly invasive technology that has the power to indiscriminately surveil our communities on a mass scale.”
Merkwae argued that using Flock should require a warrant based on probable cause. She also called for independent oversight and written policies for all MPD surveillance technologies use.
“We cannot only accept a solution where police are responsible for policing themselves,” Merkwae said.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership betweenCatchLight LocalandReport for America.
Editor’s note: This storyhas been updatedwith new information from the Milwaukee Police Department.
Although Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson has announced new safeguards for the Milwaukee Police Department’s use of Flock Safety cameras, it remains unclear whether the rules will apply to all three of the city’s license plate reader systems or only to Flock.
Flock is one of three automated license plate reader systems used by MPD. NNS previously reported that the department also uses Genetec and Axon systems.
All three systems automatically capture license plate information that can be searched later.
As of June, MPD had access to: 35 Flock cameras, 39 Genetec cameras and Axon license plate readers installed in 80 patrol vehicles.
New limits
According to Johnson’s announcement, only MPD supervisors will be allowed to access Flock. Officers and detectives will no longer have access.
Some MPD personnel have been accused of misusing Flock. Former MPD officer Josue Ayala, was convicted in June of attempted misconduct in public office in connection with his use of Flock cameras.
Access to Milwaukee’s Flock cameras will also be limited to MPD, excluding other law enforcement agencies.
Supervisors will be allowed to use Flock cameras only for investigating Part I crimes, which include homicide, rape and aggravated assault, among others. They can also use the cameras in cases involving critical missing persons, drug trafficking organization investigations and abductions.
The mayor also announced transparency measures.
MPD will create a public dashboard with information about its use of Flock, and the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission will conduct twice-annual independent audits of the department’s Flock use.
Johnson said the commission has already begun an audit.
The announcement does not specify what information will appear on the dashboard or what metrics the audits will examine.
NNS asked the mayor’s office whether the safeguards would extend to Genetec and Axon, whether the changes would be written into MPD policies and what the dashboard and audits would include.
The mayor’s office referred the questions to MPD, saying that the police chief has authority over department policy.
MPD did not respond to questions from NNS.
Risks and concerns
After Johnson’s announcement, Amanda Merkwae, policy and advocacy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, said in a written statement the changes are “a step in the right direction” but that “Flock is still an incredibly invasive technology that has the power to indiscriminately surveil our communities on a mass scale.”
The use of Flock, Merkwae argued, should require a warrant based on probable cause. MPD should also face independent oversight and adopt written policies for all of the surveillance technologies it uses, she added.
“We cannot only accept a solution where police are responsible for policing themselves,” Merkwae said.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership betweenCatchLight LocalandReport for America.
Bryn Schraven is no stranger to death. When Schraven was 19 years old, their dad died in a car accident in the middle of their small Wisconsin town. A mountain of paperwork soon piled up, and so did the comments from well-meaning community members.
“It was very tragic and very sudden … I had some issues feeling unheard by the funeral director and funeral company I went with,” Schraven said, “and I felt a little hurt by some of the things that people said to me at that time because people don’t know how to talk about death and dying.”
Neighbors said things like, “At least he’s in a better place,” or asked if Schraven was wondering if he was in heaven. As Schraven sat down for breakfast on the morning before the funeral, a waitress shared her experience of seeing the accident happen in uncomfortable detail.
“I decided at that time that I wanted to be part of the change … I have to be able to help somehow and turn this negative experience into something more positive for other people,” they said.
Schraven started reading books about grief and death, researching what other options were out there. They discovered the term “death doula” – a trained companion who helps people through the processes of death, dying and grief.
Bryn Schraven, founder of Silver Glass Deathcare, with their partner Darby Casperson in Oshkosh on Aug. 10, 2026. Schraven’s goal is to reach members of the LGBTQ+ community, who can have a unique relationship to grief and death. (Astrid Code / Wisconsin Watch)
How it works
After spending years training with various death doulas, Schraven started a business this year called Silver Glass Deathcare to help others through the experience of loss and to change the conversation around death. They provide support in the form of death education, planning end-of-life rituals for people and their pets, and being with individuals in their final hours.
“A lot of people seem to have this idea that talking about death is going to bring it on faster,” Schraven said. “That’s a big misconception that I see a lot, is that I’m morbid for wanting to talk about death and dying and grief, and it’s simply not true.”
Similar to how a birth doula helps clients make a birth plan, Schraven and other death doulas will create a custom death plan for each person, allowing people to express their wants and needs for their last few hours. This could include dimming the lights, choosing what music to play and deciding who they want to take shifts at their bedside.
Bryn Schraven, founder of Silver Glass Deathcare, sometimes uses herbs and essential oils for end-of-life rituals. (Astrid Code / Wisconsin Watch)
Schraven, who is nonbinary, usually opts for a more gender-neutral term instead of doula: death companion or deathwalker. They created Silver Glass Deathcare with the goal of reaching out to members of the LGBTQ+ community, who can have a unique relationship to grief and death. For example, some might want a nonreligious approach to funerals or a bedside vigil that doesn’t involve a church.
Others might not be married to their significant other, which means that legally, their family would decide what to do with their body, Schraven said. Filling out an Authorization for Final Disposition form allows people to designate someone to carry out their final wishes.
“After you pass away, there’s a chain of custody that determines who is in charge of what happens to your body,” Schraven said. “Your spouse comes first, and if you’re not married, then it’s your family – your parents, your next of kin – and not everybody in the queer community has a great relationship with their next of kin.”
“There’s always one or two students in each of the sessions that really stand out for their passion in this space, for the experience that they’ve already had in it and for the vision they have of where they want to take it and how they want to serve,” Merelli said. “And Bryn definitely showed up as that person.”
Merelli trains hundreds of death doulas throughout the country and said businesses like Silver Glass Deathcare are important to spread this type of work to different communities and regions.
“For any movement, for any type of culture shift we’re hoping to make, we need a broad range of diverse and dynamic voices,” she said. “It’s not my voice alone, and these ideas are not my ideas alone.”
Bryn Schraven, founder of Silver Glass Deathcare, reads at their home in Oshkosh. Books like “The Grieving Brain” by Mary-Frances O’Connor helped Schraven understand grief, death and dying from a different perspective. (Astrid Code / Wisconsin Watch)
In Merelli’s classes, Schraven learned that death isn’t always a taboo subject. In some Muslim or Hindu traditions, for example, it’s common for the deceased’s family to wash and prepare the body to be buried or cremated.
“There are a lot of cultures out there that are less shy about death than we are, and they hide it less,” Schraven said. “I think that that’s really important in as far as spending time with the person that you’ve lost after they’re gone.”
Schraven wants to let families know that this is an option and suggests a ritual that acknowledges each part of their loved one’s body, one at a time — their head, eyes, ears, hands and heart.
“It’s just a really beautiful way to say, ‘We honor your body and what you did for us while you were here, and we are giving you the opportunity to go and be at peace,’” Schraven said.
Schraven is also starting a death and grief book club at Author Apothecary & Bookstore in Oshkosh, which will meet the last Thursday of the month starting Sept. 24. The goal is to normalize the conversation around death and dying through discussing books like “Lost Souls Meet Under A Full Moon” by Mizuki Tsujimura.
“I don’t advocate for censoring death,” Schraven said. “It happens to all of us, and the more openly and freely we can talk about it, the better prepared we are for when that eventuality happens.”
This story is part of Meet a Neighbor, an ongoing feature series focused on the people who make a difference in northeastern Wisconsin. Know someone we should spotlight?Nominate them here.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
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Nebraska and Montana implemented the new work requirement rules for Medicaid recipients earlier this year.
In Nebraska, officials say there’s been confusion about basic eligibility, with some people who should have received exemptions being denied coverage due to procedural errors.
Montana leaders stressed the importance of communication, particularly to Native American tribes, who should be exempt from the new rules.
Officials in Wisconsin say they’re implementing ways to automatically determine whether someone is working or if they’re required to follow the new rules.
Federal officials also narrowed the definition of medical frailty, meaning that people who have Medicaid because they are too medically frail to work will be required to prove their condition and the fact that it prevents them from working.
Starting in January, some Wisconsinites must prove they meet federal work requirements to enroll in Medicaid. Around 63,000 people are at risk of losing coverage, state officials say. It’s part of an effort by the Trump administration to reduce “waste, fraud and abuse” in the program and reduce federal spending by $326 billion over 10 years.
As Wisconsin prepares to implement the measures detailed by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, states like Nebraska and Montana have already put work requirements into effect. How the process is unfolding offers key lessons for states like Wisconsin facing a Jan. 1 deadline.
Who needs to meet work requirements?
The new Medicaid requirements apply to states like Nebraska and Montana that voted to expand Medicaid to families living at 138% of the poverty level — with the exception of a few states that submitted a waiver to partially expand Medicaid, like Wisconsin.
That program, called BadgerCare Plus, applies to individuals who live at or below the federal poverty level — $33,000 annually for a family of four — as compared to the $45,540 income limit for expansion states.
Only childless adults aged 19 to 64 under the BadgerCare Plus program must meet work requirements — about 200,000 people, according to state officials. That means parents of dependent children under age 19 and people with coverage other than BadgerCare Plus, such as SSI Medicaid or home- and community-based service programs, are exempt.
Other exempt groups include Native Americans, pregnant or postpartum people, caregivers of young children or disabled individuals, veterans with a total disability rating, participants in addiction or rehab programs, and those too medically frail to work.
Starting Jan. 1, 2027, new BadgerCare Plus applicants must show they worked, volunteered or attended school for at least 80 hours in the previous month, or prove they were exempt for that month.
Current BadgerCare Plus members will face the requirements beginning in March 2027. They must show they met the work requirement in any one month of the last 12, or that they are exempt. They can show they received at least $580 in income in a single month or completed combined activities adding up to 80 hours.
In July, Wisconsin Department of Health Services Secretary Kirsten Johnson told reporters officials aim to automate the process as much as possible.
Those system changes will cost an estimated $10 million in the first year, Wisconsin Medicaid Director Amanda Dreyer confirmed, which will be split between the state and federal government.
(Courtesy of KFF)
Nebraska’s early lesson
Nebraska became the first state to implement the new requirements on May 1.
Officials began to disenroll Nebraskans who didn’t meet the requirements on Aug. 1. Nebraska Medicaid Director Drew Gonshorowski told Tradeoffs in July roughly 200 people could lose coverage on that day. The state Department of Health and Human Services has not released official numbers.
The state sent more than 75,000 letters, 38,000 text messages and 10,000 emails to notify people of the change. Amy Behnke, CEO of the Health Center Association of Nebraska, told Wisconsin Watch some residents still had basic eligibility questions.
“There’s some confusion over who the work requirements apply to and who they don’t apply to,” Behnke said. “The communication that went out from the state was pretty lengthy. It was about four pages long and at a collegiate reading level, and so it was a lot for somebody to digest.”
It’s also hard to know whether someone is part of the Medicaid expansion without contacting the state directly.
“Our health centers don’t have a really good way of being able to look that up,” she said.
Her organization supports Nebraska’s federally qualified health centers, which provide low-cost medical care and help people apply for Medicaid.
She’s already seen patients have their Medicaid applications denied due to procedural errors. One woman was denied because she didn’t meet work requirements — even though pregnancy made her exempt.
“She was able to get her Medicaid restored,” Behnke said. “But that’s always been our fear – that somebody’s not going to know that they’ve lost their coverage until they show up to pick up a prescription or they show up for a medical appointment.”
A stethoscope sits on a table at the Bread of Healing clinic on Nov. 24, 2025, in Milwaukee. Officials in Nebraska, who implemented work requirements early, say they’ve had to work through issues like figuring out whether someone is part of the Medicaid expansion population or if they were denied coverage because of a procedural error. (Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)
Residents can call the state’s Medicaid help line, but wait times have stretched as long as 90 minutes, Behnke said. She recommends states consider hiring additional caseworkers, which Nebraska has not done.
“They are hardworking individuals (at the call center), and there is just an additional load of work and information that’s needed that comes with these requirements,” Behnke said.
Wisconsin DHS plans to use the additional FoodShare staff secured last year to help with implementing Medicaid requirements, Johnson said, noting the increased budget will add flexibility for other staff to help Wisconsinites.
Behnke urged Wisconsin to prioritize flexibility in implementing the program. She highlighted that Nebraska requires members to meet requirements in just one month of the last 12 and allows individuals to self-attest to medical frailty — policies Wisconsin DHS confirmed it will follow.
A balancing act in Montana
Montana also implemented work requirements on July 1 — the first state to do so after the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released stricter guidelines on medical frailty. For three months, Montana enrollees won’t be penalized if they fail to document community engagement hours.
Dr. Aaron Wernham, CEO of the Montana Healthcare Foundation, said the effects won’t become clear until Oct. 1 – the first day the state begins to disenroll people. The foundation estimates 29,000 people could lose coverage.
Wernham said it remains unclear how Native Americans, who are exempt from the requirements, will be asked to document their status. The state had limited interaction with the tribes and other stakeholders on how to communicate the change, he said, and urged Wisconsin officials to engage those groups now.
Wisconsin could improve implementation by working with partners such as Covering Wisconsin to develop forms, define medical frailty and plan outreach, Wernham said.
Montana has effectively automated systems to determine whether someone is working, Wernham said. But automatically verifying medical exemptions has been more difficult as officials struggle to access claims data, the Montana Free Press reported.
Defining medical frailty
The challenge comes as federal officials have tightened the definition of medical frailty. Rather than automatically exempting people with certain medical conditions, the rules require people to prove their condition and show that it significantly prevents them from working.
The tightened medical frailty definition has overshadowed concerns over Montana’s ability to automate processes, Wernham said.
“There are many patients with cancer that may have a disease that will be lethal if not treated, and yet they might not be too sick to work,” Wernham said. “The real question is, what’s going to happen with those people who have a very serious illness, any doctor would consider them medically frail, and yet it may be hard to say they’re too sick to work?”
An exam room is seen at the Mayo Clinic Health Systems clinic in Arcadia, Wis., on Sept. 19, 2019. The area’s hospital closed in 2011, and this clinic was built to meet the needs of the area’s rural residents. Officials expect rural hospitals to be hit the hardest by Medicaid cuts. (Coburn Dukehart / Wisconsin Watch)
For the first year, people can self-attest that they are too medically frail to work. Wisconsin officials confirmed DHS will rely on self-attestation and existing diagnoses codes, reassuring providers they would not have to determine medical frailty. But in 2028, states will have to determine how to verify those exemptions while risking federal audits.
Montana and other states should outline their plans for monitoring who is disenrolled from Medicaid and the potential impacts, Wernham said. That’s something Wisconsin has done by announcing that roughly 63,000 are at risk of losing Medicaid due to a lack of work history on file.
“States aren’t always eager to share their data, especially if it doesn’t look good with the public,” Wernham said. “But the fact is that transparency with regard to data on this program leads to better government.”
State budget woes
Medicaid funding is often the largest source of federal funds for states, so it can have a big impact on their budgets. State Medicaid budgets could be reduced by an estimated $665 billion through 2034 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
This leaves officials with few choices: raise taxes, cut other programs or cut Medicaid — which would mean reducing provider rates or limiting benefits or coverage. The Congressional Budget Office estimated 10 million more people will be uninsured nationwide by 2034 as a result of the new law.
The cuts could affect the entire health care system, even those who are insured, said Vaishu Jawahar, director of policy programs at the national health care advocacy nonprofit Protect our Care.
Programs could be cut or premiums will increase because hospital budgets will be strained. Hospitals could face more uncompensated care as more uninsured patients seek treatment, tightening budgets and potentially increasing costs for privately insured patients.
Jawahar said people who lose insurance may forgo preventive care until their conditions become severe enough to require emergency treatment.
“They’re still going to have to provide care to uninsured people who will come in sicker,” Jawahar said. “… And so, how do hospitals make up for that? They will have to hike costs on people with employer-based insurance.”
Medicaid cuts are expected to hit rural hospitals hardest. A March report by Public Citizen found 446 hospitals nationwide were at risk of closing or reducing services due to cuts. Samantha Peck, rural hospitals and clinics program manager for the Wisconsin Office of Rural Health, manages funds that benefit critical access hospitals across the state.
About 13% of patients in Wisconsin hospitals use Medicaid, but Peck said critical access hospitals in Door County, Oconto, Shawano and New London average about 48% of patients on Medicaid, leaving them particularly vulnerable if more patients lose coverage.
Maternal and mental health programs could be among the first cut, Peck said.
“The biggest worry is that community hospitals will start reducing service lines,” Peck said. “What we’re already seeing is a reduction in maternal care, specifically labor and delivery.”
The NorthEast Wisconsin Community Clinic mobile unit is parked across the street from St. John’s Park on June 18, 2026, in Green Bay, Wis. Clinic leaders said 47% of its clients were on Medicaid in 2025. As a result, they are using the mobile unit to educate people about the coming work requirements. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Clinics prepare to help Wisconsinites navigate changes
NorthEast Wisconsin Community Clinic, a free and low-cost health center in Green Bay, is educating people about the new requirements with its mobile outreach vehicle.
In 2025, 47% of the center’s clients were on Medicaid, which means it’s preparing its budget to receive less federal reimbursement next year. Executive Director Kim Franzen said the clinic will continue serving the uninsured.
“While I’m concerned, I want to make sure that as a health center, it’s our responsibility to take care of people regardless of their ability to pay,” Franzen said.
Franzen worries people might not realize their coverage was denied before racking up medical bills.
“If you lose your Medicaid, now a person could potentially have four therapy sessions (before realizing) that ‘Oh, I didn’t know my coverage lapsed,’ and then as an organization, we have to step back and go, ‘OK, so do we bill the person? Do you write off the expenses?’” she said.
Adam VanSpankeren is the navigator program manager for Covering Wisconsin, which receives federal funding from the Affordable Care Act Navigator Program and responds to calls about health insurance.
Despite recent funding cuts, VanSpankeren hopes people affected by the changes call Covering Wisconsin for help.
“I don’t love that people are affected, but that means we’re going to be able to help those people,” VanSpankeren said. “It’s the people that don’t call us that I worry more about.”
A few weeks ago, Wisconsin State Journal reporter Chris Rickert was using his cellphone to scan records in the office of the Dane County clerk of circuit court, when an office staffer informed him that this was not allowed.
Rickert complied, but followed up with an email to the office’s clerk of courts, Jeff Okazaki, noting that he and the paper’s former courts reporter had routinely done this to avoid the mandatory $1.25 per-page charge for copies made by office staff. “We have not been secretive about scanning the documents and no one else has ever told us not to,” he wrote.
Okazaki, in reply, explained that while the public can inspect documents for free using the office’s terminals, any copies must be made by staff for the statutory fee. He cited a 2014 opinion by then-state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen stating that clerks of court and registers in probate cannot charge for copies made using personal devices such as a camera phone or handheld scanner, but can “choose whether to allow an individual to make copies in this manner.” Okazaki said most county clerk’s offices, including Dane’s, promptly disallowed this practice, noting that the office has long had a “No Cell Phones!” sign posted in its records room.
Bill Lueders (Provided photo)
But Carlo Esqueda, who headed the office from 2007 to late 2023, shortly before Okazaki was appointed to the post, says it “wasn’t my policy to prohibit people from taking photos of the screens in the records center.” He says the sign about cellphones likely predated the 2014 opinion and was not about preventing people from using them to scan court records: “My recollection is that we just didn’t want folks carrying on phone conversations in that room where people are trying to concentrate on reading.”
In my four decades as a reporter, always working for cash-strapped media outlets, I have rarely forked over the $1.25 per-page copy fee set by statute for court records. In recent years, that has meant snapping photos of court records, mostly in Dane County. If anyone had objected, and no one ever did, I would have simply resumed doing what I did, back in the days before everyone had cellphones equipped with cameras — copy relevant sections from the records by hand.
In other words, barring frugal requesters like me from making copies means additional labor and inconvenience, and potentially hours spent at terminals others might be waiting to use. But it will not necessarily generate additional revenue for the clerk’s office. (Rickert says he is now paying the per-page fee for some records and “taking notes on other, less important stuff.”)
Okazaki, who is running unopposed for a four-year term this fall, insists he has “provided no changes, updates or new policies regarding or related to the use of personal electronic devices to copy court records” and that any enforcement has come from “staff operating under existing policy and training.” He says there may have been instances in which violations went “unnoticed at the time.” And he wonders how anyone could see the “No Cell Phones!” sign and think it was OK to use a cellphone to take photos of records. (Well, one reason might be that this sign goes on to ask visitors to “respect others” in the room by exiting to the lobby to use their phones.)
But even if clerks are within their rights to adopt this prohibition, consistently or otherwise, that doesn’t make it a good idea. Letting people make their own copies, as the AG’s opinion expressly allows, is a harmless practice that reduces the workload of office staff and removes a potential barrier from people seeking to obtain public records for which they are, as taxpayers, already paying. A commitment to openness should trump the ability of government agencies to rake in money.
Court records are among the most important public records we have. Clerks of court should not be making it harder or cost-prohibitive for members of the public to access them.
Your Right to Know is a monthly column distributed by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council (wisfoic.org), a nonprofit, nonpartisan group dedicated to open government. Bill Lueders, editor-at-large of The Progressive magazine, is the group’s president.
Faceless megacorps scouring rural Wisconsin for land have put residents on edge – and it showed in the state’s primary earlier this month.
The big story in Dairyland isn’t the narrow defeat of state Rep. Francesca Hong, who preached a data center moratorium before losing the Democratic primary by roughly 3,000 votes to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.
The big story comes from a small but consequential place that residents love and vowed to protect. Wrightstown, Wisconsin, just wrote the playbook for communities confronted by the proliferation of AI data centers, sometimes planned in secret. Residents learned of a potential project, organized against it, pushed village officials to pause development and forced the issue onto the ballot.
Then nearly 9 in 10 Wrightstown residents spoke through their votes on Aug. 11 and said “Yeah, no” to AI data centers. And what happened next? Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican candidate for governor, made more than a dozen online posts claiming Crowley is too soft on data centers, according to an Aug. 23 Washington Post analysis. Crowley’s campaign countered by highlighting Tiffany’s congressional vote for legislation that included a 10-year ban on state and local AI regulation — and his previous description of data centers as “exciting new technology.”
But as the Wisconsin Examiner reported, the candidates largely agree on key guardrails: Both support giving communities the final say, banning local government nondisclosure agreements and protecting utility customers from added costs. Neither supports a moratorium, though Tiffany wants to repeal state tax incentives for data centers while Crowley has called for scrutinizing whether those incentives benefit taxpayers.
The political brawl comes after an LLC swooped into Wrightstown earlier this year, armed with a generic name and hungry for rural land deals.
Village officials denied at spring community meetings that they’d seen a project proposal from developer Cloverleaf Infrastructure. Yet emails released in response to an open records request revealed they’d been communicating with the company since January, WPR reported.
Residents pushed for and got a June pause on all AI data center projects until they could speak at the polls. Village board members in July unanimously extended the moratorium to a year as residents prepared to vote in a nonbinding referendum on Aug. 11.
NetChoice, a tech industry association that counts Amazon, TikTok, Meta, YouTube and other Big Tech players as members, threatened legal action over the referendum.
But the industry couldn’t defeat months of grassroots organizing.
According to Ballotpedia, Wrightstown was the only Wisconsin municipality with a data-center-related measure on the primary ballot. Nationwide, Ballotpedia is tracking eight such measures in six states, including California, Illinois, Michigan and Nevada. As of Aug. 26, voters had approved four measures that limited development, none that favored it, and four remained pending.
In Wisconsin, Wrightstown’s vote followed Port Washington, where 66% of voters in April backed a measure requiring voter approval for future tax incremental financing districts exceeding $10 million — a referendum spurred by opposition to incentives for a massive data center.
Janesville voters will weigh in next: A November referendum will decide whether projects exceeding $450 million at a former industrial site must go before voters. Any referendum on a specific data center project would come later.
Why do we supposedly need these data centers in the first place?
First, let’s look at some of the people behind these projects.
Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams sprang to action in Wisconsin Rapids this month as a paid adviser to the PNK Group. You may recall that Adams faced an indictment in a five-count federal bribery case. President Donald Trump’s administration bailed him out.
Adams is flacking these days for a 150-megawatt data center campus in Wisconsin Rapids. Attendees didn’t hold back at the pitch meeting, with one asking: “So, one question is how can we trust you because you’re a convicted felon, you’re indicted for bribery, and secondly, you talk about how AI and the medical use of AI, but given your ties to cryptocurrency and to the Russians, what is your AI data center going to be used for?” Adams was indicted but not convicted. Wisconsin Watch reported Aug. 28 that the two partners behind the project have strong ties to Russia — including being born, educated or having worked there.
I’ll get out my scythe now to cut through the facts and hammer home the details.
Residents booed Adams. They pushed for answers about water use, electricity demands, jobs and foreign ownership. Wisconsin Rapids’ Planning Commission will hold a hearing Sept. 16 and recommend whether the City Council should approve a conditional use permit for the proposed data center, Wisconsin Watch reported.
Without solid information on the who, let’s move to the why.
They cry “Just trust us!” as Elon Musk’s company xAI fights for the right to nudify kids.
Does national security include spying on U.S. citizens with Flock cameras, which are so universally loathed that people are chopping them down? The Washington Post documented at least 50 cases across the country of law enforcement officers misusing the cameras, including to stalk women. Right- and left-leaning communities are ending contracts.
So, what’s next? Our state and federal lawmakers should wake up and follow the Wrightstown playbook.
There is room for bipartisanship in Washington. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., introduced the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act to impose a pause on development of data centers.
Elected officials are finally catching up, with Republicans increasingly criticizing data centers nationwide, according to a Washington Post analysis.
What the Flock are the rest of you waiting for? Lawmakers, act now or suffer at the ballot box. Your political action committees can’t save you.
Juliana Keeping is the founder of Keeping Strategies LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy communications firm specializing in moving evidence-based bipartisan reform at scale. She also serves asstrategic artificial intelligence adviser at Our Lady of the Lake University in Houston and a Rotarian.She is the author ofKeeping Shop, a newsletter on Substack.
Guest commentaries reflect the views of their authors and are independent of the nonpartisan, in-depth reporting produced by Wisconsin Watch’s newsroom staff. Want to join the Wisconversion? See our guidelines for submissions.
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