A Milwaukee man is facing criminal charges after he admitted to sending letters threatening President Donald Trump under an immigrant's name, telling police his plan was to have the man deported.
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Protesters gather outside of the Federal Building in Milwaukee to denounce the arrest of Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
A Milwaukee man was charged Monday after writing a letter to the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that threatened to assassinate President Donald Trump. Demetric Scott told investigators that he wrote the letter claiming to be 54-year Ramón Morales Reyes, a Mexican-born Milwaukee resident who does not have permanent legal status. Scott was already incarcerated in the Milwaukee County Jail for armed robbery and aggravated battery and allegedly victimized Morales Reyes when he committed that crime.
WISN 12 reported that Scott told investigators that he wrote the letter framing Morales Reyes because he didn’t want Morales Reyes to testify against him during his trial in July. Scott reportedly told a person during a recorded jailhouse call that if Morales Reyes “gets picked up by ICE, there won’t be a jury trial so they will probably dismiss it that day. That’s my plan.”
The letter Scott authored was written in perfect English, with only a few misspellings. “We are tired of this president messing with us Mexicans,” it stated, adding, “I will self deport myself back to Mexico but not before I use my 30 yard 6 (sic) to shoot your precious president in the head – I’ll see you at one of his big ralleys (sic).” The letter was likely referring to a 30-6 (pronounced 30 odd six) high caliber rifle round, and appeared to be an assassination threat against the president.
On Friday, lawyers representing Morales Reyes and local immigration advocates from Voces de la Frontera held a press conference, asserting that Morales Reyes could not have authored the letter. The 54-year-old father, who works as a dishwasher, comes from a rural part of Mexico where he received little formal education. He does not speak English and cannot read or write proficiently even in Spanish.
After Morales Reyes was arrested by ICE, his daughter contacted Voces de la Frontera and shared information about his background. Days after the arrest, Department of Homeland (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem issued a press statement, condemning Morales Reyes as having threatened President Trump’s life. Noem said the letter was part of a series of dangerous threats to the president.
Morales Reyes’ attorneys and Voces de la Frontera called on DHS to retract Noem’s statement and clear his name. It’s unclear why Noem issued the statement, as CNN reported that MPD was investigating the likelihood that the letter was a fake on the day Morales Reyes was arrested. Scott told investigators that he did not receive any help in writing the letters.
Democratic U.S. Reps. Gween Moore and Mark Pocan visited the Dodge County jail, Wisconsin’s only ICE detention facility Monday, on a congressional oversight visit. They were not permitted to talk to anyone incarcerated there and did not receive any response to their questions from ICE.
“In this facility, ICE is still detaining Ramón Morales Reyes despite being wrongfully accused of a crime,” Moore and Pocan said in a joint statement. “ICE is also working without transparency to Congress, which was only magnified by today’s visit when we tried to call the local Milwaukee field office number on its website, but the number was disconnected. It is unacceptable for ICE to be inaccessible to Members of Congress. As members of Congress, we will continue using all tools available to conduct oversight.”
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A sign for the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS, is seen on its building headquarters on Feb. 18, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The Public Broadcasting Service and Lakeland PBS in Minnesota sued the Trump administration Friday, arguing an executive order seeking to cut off their federal funding violates the Constitution and would “upend public television.”
The lawsuit was filed just days after a collection of National Public Radio stations sued President Donald Trump over the same executive order, which blocked the Corporation from Public Broadcasting from funding the networks.
PBS wrote in its 48-page filing that it disagrees with claims made by the executive order, including that federal spending on public media is “corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence” and that the news organization doesn’t present “a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.”
“PBS disputes those charged assertions in the strongest possible terms,” the lawsuit states. “But regardless of any policy disagreements over the role of public television, our Constitution and laws forbid the President from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBS’s programming, including by attempting to defund PBS.”
The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, but hadn’t been assigned to a judge as of Friday evening.
White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields wrote in a statement responding to the lawsuit that the “Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers’ dime.
“Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS. The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective.”
The lawsuit says Trump’s executive order violates the law that governs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which gives it independence from politicians who might try to control its programs.
“Congress took pains to ensure that the development of public television would be free from political interference, including with respect to content and funding decisions,” the suit states.
It also claims implementing the order would violate the First Amendment of the Constitution.
“The EO makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech,” the lawsuit states. “That is blatant viewpoint discrimination and an infringement of PBS and PBS Member Stations’ private editorial discretion.”
The lawsuit says the loss of funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting envisioned in the executive order would upend programming at PBS and its member stations throughout the country.
“Public television stations receive approximately $325 million in annual federal funding from CPB, nearly all of which goes to PBS Member Stations,” the lawsuit states. “Those funds, which comprise more than 50% of the overall budgets of certain PBS Member Stations, are instrumental to enabling them to operate, to produce programming that serves their local communities, and to pay PBS dues that make PBS programming and services possible.”
Waupun Correctional Institution, photographed in 2017 (Wisconsin Department of Corrections photo)
A federal civil rights lawsuit was filed Thursday over the death of Joshua Botwinski, 43, at Waupun Correctional Institution (WCI). The lawsuit named Randall Hepp and Yana Pusich as defendants, the then-warden and then-security director of the prison.
According to the lawsuit, Botwinski suffered from a severe drug addiction and from mental illness at all times while serving his prison sentence at WCI. It says he died of a fentanyl overdose.
The lawsuit alleges prison staff known to be smuggling drugs were assigned in proximity to Botwinski. It also alleges a failure to order Botwinski into close observation until drug smuggling could be controlled.
The DOC’s online offender locator dates Botwinski’s death on January 19, 2023. Botwinski is at least the eighth incarcerated person to die at the prison since 2023. The death of Damien Evans, 23, was at least the seventh death at the Waupun prison since 2023, according to reporting from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier this year.
Another man incarcerated at Waupun, Tyshun Lemons, died on Oct. 2, 2023 when he overdosed on a substance containing fentanyl, the Examiner reported.
The estate of Joshua Botwinski is the plaintiff for the lawsuit, by special administrator Linda Botwinski. The lawsuit alleges Hepp and Pusich were deliberately indifferent to a serious medical need, knowingly created a danger for Botwinski and knowingly failed to protect him from danger. It argues that their alleged deliberate indifference caused Botwinski’s death.
In January, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that nearly a dozen prison employees had resigned or been fired since the U.S. Department of Justice’s launch of a probe into a suspected smuggling ring within the prison.
In September, William Homan, a former facilities repair worker at WCI, pleaded guilty to smuggling contraband in exchange for bribes. A sentencing memorandum by prosecutors said the presence of contraband in WCI contributed to a “lack of institutional control.”
In late April, Hepp was convicted of a misdemeanor and fined $500 in the death of Donald Maier, who was incarcerated at WCI.
A sentencing memorandum by a lawyer for Hepp said that in March 2023, “conditions and actions of the inmate population created an environment that posed an immediate threat to the safety of the staff and inmates while also threatening the security of the institution.”
The memo said Hepp put the prison in modified movement, “at times referred to as a ‘lockdown.’”
“This led to an investigation of the conditions and a search of the institution,” the memo said. “Information and physical evidence that was developed revealed a level of corrupt behavior taking place that was historical in scope involving trafficking of illegal drugs, cellular telephones, finances, and other contraband.”
The sentencing memo from Homan’s case said the lockdown involved incarcerated people “being confined to their cells twenty-four hours a day except for medical or other emergencies.”
“As part of its efforts to reestablish control, a facilitywide search was conducted, resulting in the recovery of numerous cellular phones, controlled substances, and other contraband,” the memo said. “WCI provided information obtained from its investigation to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which included information that WCI staff were receiving bribes in exchange for smuggling in contraband.”
The lawsuit alleges that before Jan. 19, 2023 — and therefore before the lockdown and investigation — “via the reports they received from staff, both Pusich and Hepp knew that illegal drug use was rampant at WCI, and they knew that prison staff was smuggling drugs into WCI.”
The lawsuit alleges that on August 15, 2022, WCI officials found out that Botwinski was under the influence of drugs. Botwinski tested positive for opiates and stimulants.
Incidents of prisoners being under the influence of drugs “is automatically reported to Pusich as security director,” and Pusich would report incidents of prisoners using illegal drugs to Hepp, the lawsuit alleges.
Before Jan. 19, the day of Botwinski’s death, Pusich and Hepp knew illegal drug use was “rampant” at the prison, the lawsuit alleges.
“From the reports of drug use and overdoses, they knew that inmates had an almost unfettered access to drugs in prison,” the lawsuit alleges. “Botwinski’s access to drugs in WCI was greater than his access to drugs outside of WCI.”
The lawsuit alleges that Hepp and/or Pusich assigned prison staff known to be smuggling drugs into the prison in proximity to Botwinski. It alleges that they knew placing staff who smuggled drugs into the prison in Botwinski’s proximity would lead to overdose.
According to the lawsuit, staff observed Botlinski in his cell at about 5:10 p.m.
“At about 6:45 p.m., Botwinski was discovered in his cell: he had been the victim of a drug (fentanyl) overdose, from which he died,” the lawsuit says.
The Wisconsin Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Examiner.
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A school bus driver in Greenville, Michigan, stopped a stranger from entering a school bus through the rear emergency exit while several students were on board, reported Fox 17.
The incident reportedly occurred Thursday, when a Flat River Academy school bus was transporting students to school. A 17-year-old grabbed the rear emergency door handle while the bus was stopped at a light in an attempt to enter the vehicle.
According to the news report, when the bus started to move the teen was able to get the door open, setting off the emergency door alarm. That’s when the driver stopped the school bus and ran to the back to figure out what was happening.
The driver, who was not identified in this writing, confronted the teen as he was trying to climb into the bus and used his foot to bar entrance and then to close the door.
The Michigan State Police said troppers were already in pursuit of the teen prior to the incident and took him into custody at the scene. The teen is believed to have been involved in the vandalism of a nearby business.
The teen, who has autism, was reportedly experiencing a mental health crisis and was taken to the hospital for evaluation. The teen had left his home without his family’s knowledge. The students and staff on board the school bus were not injured during the incident and the driver was able to finish his route without further interruption.
Related: Man Boards School Bus, Refuses to Leave
Related: Man Armed with Machete Tries to Enter North Carolina School Bus
Related: New Mexico Parents Concerned After Armed Robbery Suspects Board School Bus
Related: Florida Man Boards School Bus with Teen He is Accused of Raping
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Voces de la Frontera Executive Director Christine Neumann-Ortiz (center) discusses the arrest of Ramón Morales Reyes with attorneys Kimi Abduli (right) and Cane Oulahan (left). (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
A strange turn of events followed the arrest of Ramón Morales Reyes, a 54-year-old Mexican-born man, who was living in Milwaukee as he sought a U-visa — a type of visa available to victims of crimes.
On Friday, advocates from Voces de la Frontera joined immigration attorneys representing Morales Reyes to dispute accusations made by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that Morales Reyes — who does not speak or write in English — drafted a neatly handwritten note in English threatening to assassinate President Donald Trump. Voces de la Frontera and Morales Reyes’ attorneys are calling for DHS to correct the record and clear his name.
The affair began on May 21, when Voces de la Frontera received a hotline call reporting a possible sighting of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Milwaukee. Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, said during the Friday press conference that one of the group’s “trained community verifiers” contacted local residents who confirmed the sighting and also provided video footage of Morales Reyes being detained.
“His vehicle was left on the side of the road, and using the license plate we were able to identify the owner and communicate with his family,” said Neumann-Ortiz. “Shortly after, Ramón’s daughter came to our office to seek help. We assisted her in completing a power of attorney and ensuring that her father received the essential medication that was critical to his health. We immediately contacted attorney Kime Adbuli, who has been representing Ramón in his ongoing U-visa case.”
Neumann-Ortiz explained that a “U-visa” is a form of immigration relief for crime victims who have suffered emotional or physical abuse and who have helped law enforcement or government officials in the investigation and prosecution of a crime. “It provides a temporary legal status, and a pathway to permanent residency,” said Neumann-Ortiz. “In the past, the Morales Reyes family had sought resources from Voces.”
Days after the arrest, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem provided statements for a press release describing Morales Reyes as an “illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump.” Noem added, “this threat comes not even a year after President Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania and less than two weeks after former FBI Director Comey called for the president’s assassination.”
Noem was referring to Comey sharing a picture on Instagram of sea shells arranged into the numbers “8647”, which “86” interpreted as slang for “get rid of” and “47” being a reference to Trump, the 47th U.S. president, NPR reported. Comey is now being investigated by the Trump administration. “All politicians and members of the media should take notice of these repeated attempts on President Trump’s life and tone down their rhetoric,” Noem said. “I will continue to take all measures necessary to ensure the protection of President Trump.”
The DHS press release included an image of the note, neatly handwritten in turquoise-colored pen and in flawless English. “We are tired of this president messing with us Mexicans,” it began. “We have done more for this country than you white people — you have been deporting my family and I think it is time Donald J. Trump get what he has coming to him. I will self deport myself back to Mexico but not before I use my 30 yard 6 to shoot your precious president in is (sic) head — I will see him at one of his big ralleys (sic).” The reference to “30 yard 6” may be an incorrectly written reference to 30-6 (pronounced as “30 odd 6”), which is a high caliber bullet for rifles.
Morales Reyes’ family says that it is impossible that he wrote the note. Described by his attorneys as a soft spoken, hardworking and committed family man, Morales Reyes works as a dishwasher. He was described as coming from a rural part of Mexico where it’s common for people to have no more than a third-grade education. Morales Reyes had difficulty filling out paperwork, does not speak English and is not proficient in writing in Spanish. Neumann-Ortiz said that his family called Voces organizers, confirming that Morales Reyes had very little formal education, and could not read or write in Spanish.
Since his arrest, Morales Reyes’ family has received death threats on social media. “They want his name cleared,” said Neumann-Ortiz. On the day he was arrested, CNN reported, Morales Reyes was questioned by detectives from the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD), who suspected that someone may have been setting him up to get deported. Police were reportedly investigating jailhouse calls from a person who’d allegedly assaulted Morales Reyes during a September 2023 armed robbery.
CNN reported that ICE agents were given a handwritten note by Morales Reyes with family-related information, and agents realized that the handwriting did not match. The questions surrounding the letter are reminiscent of those stemming from the arrest and deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was accused by the U.S. government of being a member of the El Salvadoran gang MS-13. President Trump held up pictures which had been altered to appear as though “M S 1 3” was tattooed on Abrego Garcia’s knuckles.
Getting Morales Reyes deported would prevent him from testifying against the person in custody for allegedly attacking him, his attorneys said at the press conference.
Attorney Kime Abduli said there are due process concerns around Morales Reyes’ arrest, as it could interrupt his testimony as a victim in a criminal proceeding and also impact his U-visa case. The specific visa process which Morales Reyes is undertaking “is really meant to offer protection to people who may be undocumented who are victims of crime in the United States,” Abduli explained.
“It’s meant to encourage them to report those crimes, when they are victims of those crimes, to the authorities, and to cooperate in the investigation. Where a person may be undocumented and fearful of reporting these sorts of things, Congress basically established the U-visa to make it ‘safe’ for them to come forward with that information. As long as they’re cooperating with law enforcement, the U-visa is intended to offer some protection for that individual.” Obtaining a U-visa can be a very lengthy process spanning seven to eight years at a minimum, Abduli said.
Attorney Cane Oulahan, who is representing Morales Reyes in his deportation proceedings, said that ensuring due process is his top priority. Oulahan said that a bond hearing is expected in the coming days, where he expects the government to argue “vigorously” for Morales Reyes to be deported. It’s likely that the accusations from Noem’s DHS will also be raised before the judge.
The controversy and questions come as ICE attempts to expel another Milwaukee resident. Yessenia Ruano, a teacher’s aide in Milwaukee Public Schools, was ordered recently by ICE to return to her home country of El Salvador in a matter of days. This is despite Ruano having a pending visa application for trafficking victims, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
On Friday, the same day Voces and attorneys held a press conference about the Morales Reyes case, ICE ordered Ruano to get on a deportation flight on June 3. Ruano will leave behind her 9-year-old twin daughters, who are U.S. citizens. Ruano’s attorneys said that it appears that ICE is abandoning policies of waiting for processing of T and U visas, which protect people from deportation. Ruano has lived in the U.S. for 14 years, has no criminal record, has a valid work visa, and is employed at a bilingual public elementary school. She said she is hoping that a final legal filing could pause her deportation.
Ruano’s case spurred a flurry of condemnation from local Milwaukee officials. “Deporting valued members of our community who are raising and educating our kids, assisting law enforcement in their important work, and giving back to our neighborhoods should alarm us all,” Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley wrote on X. “These individuals are victims of a broken immigration system. The Trump administration told the country they were only going after ‘the worst of the worst’. But time and time again, we see them targeting the very people who contribute the most — our neighbors, our coworkers, or friends.”
Crowley said that he is “deeply alarmed that our country continues to turn its back on our most vulnerable.” He went on to say that “by not standing up and protecting our neighbors, we’re not just failing them — we’re failing our entire community. Due process is under attack, and that should concern all of us in Wisconsin and across the country.”
Congresswoman Gwen Moore also released a statement, calling Ruano a “beloved member of her community,” and declaring that “deporting Yessenia will not make our country safer.” Moore said the deportation order “will only separate Yessenia from her children and her community while exposing her to danger she was forced to flee in El Salvador. Instead of making America a beacon of hope for people like Yessenia, this Administration’s focus is only pushing cruelty that demonizes immigrants.”
Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) said that the Trump administration’s deportation of Ruano is “wrong and harmful.” Clancy said in a statement that Ruano had volunteered at her local Catholic parish, worked in her neighborhood school, and was taking care of her family.
Recent weeks have seen ICE and the Trump Administration focus more on Milwaukee. Since late March, at least four people have been arrested by immigration agents after attending regularly scheduled hearings at the Milwaukee County Courthouse. Local officials denounced the courthouse arrests, only for Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan to also be arrested by federal agents for allegedly obstructing authorities by escorting a man sought by ICE from her courtroom into a public hallway.
“Yessenia is an asset to our community whenever she touches it,” said Clancy. “Our community and her daughters deserve to continue to have Yessenia with us here, and Yessenia deserves to continue to build a thriving life with her family in Milwaukee.” Clancy condemned ICE, saying the agency “continues to act arbitrarily and with cruelty. We must all do what we can to protect our neighbors from it.”
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Attorneys for a Milwaukee man arrested after federal officials claimed he wrote a letter threatening to kill President Donald Trump say the man can't read or write in English and did not write the letter.
The post ICE arrested a Milwaukee man it says threatened to kill President Trump. His attorneys say that’s not true. appeared first on WPR.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on May 30, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Billionaire Elon Musk said Friday he will continue to advise President Donald Trump despite stepping away from his official role as a special government employee.
During a wide-ranging Oval Office press conference, Musk — sporting a bruised right eye he blamed on a punch he invited from one of his sons, 5-year-old X — also said he expects U.S. DOGE Service will continue trying to cut at least $1 trillion in federal spending, setting the middle of next year as a target date.
“This is not the end of DOGE, but really the beginning,” Musk said. “My time as a special government employee necessarily had to end — it was a limited time thing, it’s 134 days I believe, which ends in a few days. So it comes with a time limit. But the DOGE team will only grow stronger over time. The DOGE influence will only grow stronger.”
Musk then compared his initiative to Buddhism, a religion practiced by hundreds of millions of people, saying DOGE jobs were “like a way of life” that he hoped would permeate throughout the federal government.
DOGE’s efforts so far have led to about $160 billion in spending cuts, Musk said. That’s a small fraction of the $6.8 trillion the federal government spent during the most recent fiscal year and short of the goal he set before joining the administration.
Musk said DOGE was “relentlessly pursuing” at least $1 trillion in spending cuts to benefit American taxpayers, shortly after pointing out a golden eagle on the ceiling of the Oval Office that Trump said used to be plaster.
“Nobody ever really saw it. They didn’t know the eagle was up there, and we highlighted it,” Trump said. “Essentially it’s a landmark, a great landmark, and that’s 24-karat gold. And everybody loved it. Now, they all see it when they come in. So it’s been good.”
Musk hailed Trump for ensuring the Oval Office “finally has the majesty that it deserves.” Neither man shared how much was spent to redesign the eagle.
Musk plans to refocus his professional efforts on his companies, including Tesla and SpaceX.
Trump said he “hopes” that Musk continues to advise him on government issues, even though he will no longer be employed by the White House.
Republican lawmakers, Trump said, are “totally committed to making the DOGE cuts permanent and stopping much more of the waste in the months to come.”
“We want to get our great, big, beautiful bill finished and done,” Trump said, referring to a tax and spending cuts package the House passed earlier this month. “We put some of this into the bill, but most of it’s going to come later. We’re going to have it (codified) by Congress, affirmed by Congress. In some cases, we’ll make cuts, in some cases we’ll just use it in a different layer to save the money. But it’s hundreds of billions of dollars.”
Musk declined to answer a question about a bombshell New York Times report published earlier in the day that detailed his ongoing use of drugs, including ketamine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms.
Trump said during the press conference he hopes the U.S. Senate amends the “big, beautiful bill” by cutting more government spending, without specifying which programs.
That package would cut about $1.5 trillion in federal funding for several programs during the next decade, including Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is expected to release its full analysis of the package next week, including how changes made just before the bill went to the floor will impact state budgets and people’s access to safety net programs.
Trump also called on senators to further lower taxes in the package,
“It’s an unbelievable bill…It cuts, you know, it’s a huge cutting,” Trump said. “But there’s things I’d like to see, maybe cut a little bit more. I’d like to see a bigger cut in taxes. It’s going to be the largest tax decrease or cut in the history of our country. I’d like to see it get down to an even lower number. I was shooting for a slightly lower number. I would have liked to have done that.”
Trump appeared to renew his call for Congress to completely eliminate the debt limit, even though the tax and spending cuts package would raise that ceiling by $4 trillion.
“I agree with Elizabeth Warren on that. I think we should get rid of it,” Trump said, referring to the Democratic senator from Massachusetts. “It’s too catastrophic.”
Shawano County was included on a Department of Homeland Security list of jurisdictions "defying federal immigration law"
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security listed Shawano County along with Dane County, Madison and Milwaukee as Wisconsin jurisdictions “defying immigration law” on Thursday.
The department released the list as part of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump requiring that sanctuary jurisdictions across the country be listed.
“Sanctuary jurisdictions including cities, counties, and states that are deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws endangering American communities,” the DHS announcement states. “Sanctuary cities protect dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences and put law enforcement in peril.”
Dane County, Madison and Milwaukee have enacted policies that limit local law enforcement agencies’ collaboration with federal immigration authorities. Earlier this year, Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett announced that the county would no longer participate in a program that provides funding in exchange for telling federal agencies when an immigrant without legal status is in custody in the local jail. Milwaukee also refuses to share such information.
“DHS demands that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with Federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens,” DHS stated.
But Shawano County, which Trump won with 67% of its vote last year, is a Republican Party stronghold that appears out of place on the list. The DHS announcement states that “no one should act on this information without conducting their own evaluation of the information.”
In 2021, the Shawano County board voted to declare the county a “Second Amendment sanctuary county,” which declared the county sheriff would not enforce any laws which “unconstitutionally impedes our fundamental Second Amendment right to Keep and Bear Arms.”
The Shawano County administrator and sheriff did not respond to requests for comment.
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We can all agree that this Tesla Model Y has certainly seen better days. After the driver hit a bright yellow bollard in a parking lot, the passenger-side rear door has been dented and scratched. The plastic fender? Completely ripped off. Oh, and there are some scratches on the rear quarter panel too.
But in the grand scheme of things, it’s not catastrophic damage, just a bit of a rough day for the car. So, naturally, Tesla quoted a repair bill of $11,671, which has understandably left the owner with a few more scratches, this time, on his head.
Read: Tesla’s Cybertruck Costs 30% Less To Insure Than A Model 3
It’s no secret that car repairs have gotten a lot more expensive in 2025 compared to a decade ago, even more so when it comes to EVs. This helps explain why insurance companies are quick to total cars over what seems like minimal damage. Still, the quoted price for this repair is nothing short of insane.
Roughly half of the quoted repair is for labor, totaling $5,486 for a claimed 60.7 hours of labor, working out to be $91 an hour. Now, if you’re the owner of this Model Y, you’re probably doing the math in your head and thinking that it doesn’t look like this car needs 60 hours of labor. But the service center begs to differ.
When presented with a repair bill like this, many car owners would simply let their insurer pay for the repairs, and get on with their lives. However, doing so could cost in the long run. Writing on Reddit, the owner of the car says that if he makes an at-fault claim with his insurance, his premium will increase by $1,000 per year for the next five years. And on top of that, they’ll lose their good driver discount. Oh, and don’t forget that $1,000 deductible they’d need to cough up.
In an ideal world for the owner, the insurer would decide Tesla repair costs are too high and decide to total the car. But, that doesn’t appear likely. As such, the best option is likely for the owner to go to an independent repair shop who can replace the door, fender, and perhaps the quarter panel, likely for far less than Tesla would charge the insurer.
Or, for all the DIYers out there, there’s always the option of fixing it themselves. Used Model Y rear doors can be found for just a few hundred dollars, and a new fender shouldn’t break the bank either. Maybe it’s time to roll up your sleeves.
Guess how much to repair this @ Tesla
byu/sgrinavi inTeslaModelY
An irate South Carolina father is being accused of running a school bus with 19 student passengers off the road after authorities say his child was allegedly assaulted by a school bus monitor.
The Marlboro County Sheriff’s Office released a statement on May 23 confirming that two individuals had been charged in connection with a physical altercation involving a student on a school bus the day before.
According to the statement, allegations were brought forward from statements obtained by the Marlboro County School District officials from students on the bus, indicating that bus monitor Sharona Ford Cooper had physically assaulted a student after the student refused to remain seated in assigned seating.
Authorities added that Cooper was \charged with third-degree assault after utilizing her arm to restrain the student from moving down the school bus aisle, as depicted in the video from the school bus monitoring system obtained by law enforcement.
Police stated that shortly after the incident, Anthony Chavis, the father of the student, arrived at the school and became verbally abusive toward administrators and law enforcement staff, using profanity, racial slurs and physical intimidation.
Chavis’ children had been removed from the school bus and left on the school grounds. Once the school bus departed and continued its route to transport 19 other students home, Chavis followed the school bus in his vehicle with his five children as passengers and then forced the bus off the road. He exited his vehicle and struck the bus numerous times with his fist in an unsuccessful effort to gain entry, causing damage to the door.
According to authorities, as the school bus driver continued the route,circumventing Chavis’s car, the father threw an object at the back of the bus and damaged the window. The incident was captured on the school bus video.
Chief Deputy Larry Turner said Chavis was charged with interfering with operations of a school bus, child endangerment, threatening the life of a public official, aggravated breach of peace, malicious injury to government property, and disruption of a school. He was taken into custody and was denied bond, as he was already out on bond for an assault charge at the time of this arrest.
The investigation is ongoing.
Related: Colorado School District Pays $16.2M for Abuse of Student by Bus Attendant
Related: Maryland School Bus Aid Charged with Sexual Assault
Related: North Carolina Student Target of Racial Slurs on School Bus
Related: Arizona School Bus Driver Assaulted, Student’s Mother Charged
Related: Ohio Man Smashes School Bus Window
The post South Carolina Parent Runs School Bus Off Road After Alleged Child Assault appeared first on School Transportation News.
It’s the kind of exchange that criminal justice data is meant to clarify: a police official insisting that law enforcement practices are fair and targeted, while a city commissioner questions whether those practices contribute to racial disparities.
“If I’m understanding what you’re saying correctly, it’s the police department position – not that you are policing in a racially motivated way, but just that it’s Black youth that are committing more crimes,” asked Krissie Fung, a commissioner on the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission during a recent meeting.
“I would not say Black youth are committing more crimes,” responded Heather Hough, chief of staff for the Milwaukee Police Department. “I would say that when we are arresting suspects, we are ensuring reasonable suspicion or probable cause, whether or not the identity of those youth is one race or another.”
This conversation – about the overrepresentation of youths of color in Milwaukee’s criminal justice system – unfolded during the May 1 meeting of the Fire and Police Commission. However, it relied in part on a misunderstanding of the county-run dashboard that tracks youths in the justice system.
Such misinterpretations have been common, said Kelly Pethke, administrator for Milwaukee County Children, Youth and Family Services, which hosts the dashboard.
“There’s been a lot of misunderstanding,” Pethke said. “We are in the process of making some changes.”
The dashboard was designed to provide real-time transparency about Milwaukee County youths in secure custody.
“We didn’t have a good, single place to go to really look at the scope of the child incarceration problem,” said Rep. Ryan Clancy, D-Milwaukee, who helped move the dashboard through the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors when he served as a supervisor.
But the dashboard doesn’t yet offer a complete picture, including when it comes to race.
Because of this limitation, conversations about racial disparities in Milwaukee’s youth justice system – like those during the Fire and Police Commission meeting – are incomplete.
To understand what’s missing from the dashboard, it helps to know that Milwaukee youths in secure custody can fall into three categories.
Some youths are held at the county-run Vel R. Phillips Youth and Family Justice Center for lesser offenses, remaining fully under Milwaukee County’s responsibility.
Others, deemed serious juvenile offenders, are in the custody of the state and housed at state-run youth prisons such as Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls.
A third group consists of youth who are the county’s responsibility but are housed in state-run facilities. The dashboard currently only shows racial data for this third group.
Pethke provided NNS with point-in-time data that helps fill out the racial picture of youths in county custody. As of May 19, there were 113 youths in the county detention center: 92 were Black, 12 were Hispanic, seven were white, and two were Asian.
Even with the updated county data, overrepresentation of youths of color – especially Black youth – in the criminal justice system continues, said Monique Liston.
She’s the founder and chief strategist of UBUNTU Research and Evaluation, a Milwaukee-based strategic education organization.
“The disproportionality is still the same for me. Still the same flag,” she said.
Liston wrote a blog that generated a wide community response and was cited by Fung during her exchange with Hough.
Liston doesn’t dispute Hough’s claim that Milwaukee police are acting legally and fairly. Still, she argued, the city’s criminal justice system is structured in such a way that disproportionately targets Black youths.
“Black youth are more surveilled. That means you’re going to end up with more incidents.”
It’s a cycle, Liston said – data collected on these incidents presents an imbalanced picture of who is committing crime.
That picture reinforces the notion that more money and policing are needed to address crime by Black youths, resulting in continued – or escalated – monitoring, she said.
Yes, Liston wants to see clearer and more complete data from the dashboard. But she also wants that data to be used for real accountability and change.
“Whatever we measure becomes a priority,” she said. “The cycle is not disrupted if we don’t think about the data.”
Hough does not dispute the county’s data and acknowledges that racial disparities exist in Milwaukee’s criminal justice system. But she told NNS she is confident the city’s police department is not the source of those disparities.
“We get a call for service, and we respond,” she said.
Hough emphasized that the department holds officers accountable if they fail to meet standards of reasonable suspicion and probable cause.
She also said that the police department – and Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman – are committed to working with the community to address the root causes of the disparities highlighted by the county’s dashboard.
Milwaukee County looks to tweak youth incarceration dashboard after community feedback is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
The Milwaukee Police Administration Building downtown. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Across the nation, law enforcement agencies are accessing Flock Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) camera databases, regardless of whether they have their own contract for the AI-powered system. Researchers from 404 Media published a data trove derived from Flock audits earlier this week. Although the audit data came from the Danville Police Department in Illinois, Wisconsin Examiner found that intelligence units within the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) also appear in the database.
The audit data shows that last year on July 15 and Oct. 21, personnel from the Southeastern Threat Analysis Center (STAC) — a homeland security-focused arm of the MPD’s fusion center — conducted a total of three searches within Danville PD’s Flock network. STAC gathers and disseminates intelligence across eight counties in southeastern Wisconsin.
MPD’s own Fusion Division is co-located with the STAC. Together the units operate a “real time event center,” a vast network of both city-owned and privately owned cameras and operate Milwaukee’s gunshot detection system known as Shotspotter. They also monitor social media and conduct various types of mobile phone-related investigations. STAC has also explored the use of drones, facial recognition technology and predictive intelligence.
MPD’s Flock searches were logged under the user name “D. Whi” from “Milwaukee WI PD – STAC”. In the dataset’s “reason” column, the searches were recorded as “HSI investigation” and “HSI vehicle loader.” Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) specialize in matters of immigration, illegal exporting, cyber crime and national security.
By tapping into Danville’s Flock data, according to the audit, STAC was able to access 4,893 Flock networks and an equal number of individual devices, such as cameras, for the July 15 search alone. The other two searches from October reached 5,425 Flock networks and devices and captured data from a one-month period.
404 Media’s investigation focused on how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has accessed Flock databases nationwide, despite not having a contract with the company themselves, and how various agencies appeared to conduct immigration-related searches. Whereas many searches were logged as “immigration violation,” “ICE” or even “ICE ASSIST,” others only noted the involvement of HSI.
In a statement sent Wednesday morning, an MPD spokesperson denied that STAC’s use of Danville PD’s Flock network was immigration-related. “Information regarding this investigation is classified and not available as it is ongoing,” the spokesperson wrote in an email to Wisconsin Examiner. “I can confirm it is related to a criminal investigation with HSI and not immigration related.” The spokesperson later added that this was a “HIDTA investigation,” referring to a federal task force linked to the federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program.
MPD’s HIDTA units are attached to the department’s Special Investigations Division, a separate branch from the Fusion division and STAC. “The majority of HIDTA and STAC investigations are classified,” the spokesperson wrote in the statement. “Oftentimes, these investigations involved confidential informants and sometimes it could take years to resolve.”
Several police departments in Milwaukee County utilize Flock cameras. MPD entered into its contract in 2022. Over 1,300 registered cameras operate across the city as part of Community Connect, a program supported by the Milwaukee Police Foundation, according to the program’s web page, with nearly 900 “integrated” cameras which grant MPD real-time access.
Both the use of automatic license plate readers and MPD’s ability to participate in immigration enforcement are governed by specific policies. The department’s immigration policy, SOP-130, cautions that “proactive immigration enforcement by local police can be detrimental to our mission and policing philosophy when doing so deters some individuals from participating in their civic obligation to assist the police.” The policy limits MPD’s ability to assist ICE with detaining or gathering information about a person to “only when a judicial warrant is presented” and when the target is suspected of involvement in terrorism, espionage, a transnational criminal street gang, violent felony, sexual offense against a minor or was a previously deported felon.
Privacy advocates have raised concerns and filed lawsuits over Flock’s ability to collect and store data without a warrant. The license plate reader policy – SOP 735 – allows personnel to access data stored “for the purposes of conducting crime trend analyses” but only when those activities are approved by a supervisor and are intended to “assist the agency in the performance of its duties.”
MPD personnel may use Flock to “look for potentially suspicious activity or other anomalies that might be consistent with criminal or terrorist activity” and are not prohibited from “accessing and comparing personal identifying information of one or more individuals who are associated with a scanned vehicle as part of the process of analyzing stored non-alert data.” Automatic license plate reading technology captures information from any passing car. In some cases, investigators may also place specific vehicles on a Be On the Lookout (BOLO) list, also known as a “hot list”, which notifies law enforcement whenever a specific vehicle is seen by a license plate reader-equipped camera.
A Thursday morning public hearing held by the city’s Finance and Personnel Committee considered whether more Flock cameras should be added to Milwaukee’s already existing network. Ald. Scott Spiker spoke in support of the cameras, and said he worked to install license plate readers in his own district. Spiker described having discussions with local business district leaders and MPD’s fusion center, which resulted in cameras being deployed on 27th Street. “Don’t ask me where, because I won’t tell you,” said Spiker, adding that the cameras “serve a variety of purposes” from combating car theft to aiding Amber and Silver Alerts.
“There’s going to a broader question, which I imagine will be a subject of the public testimony, however, and I’m fine hearing it, but ultimately there’s going to be a discussion to be had in the city of anything that smacks of surveillance software, and what sort of oversight is provided, and should be provided,” said Spiker. He added that such a discussion “will be had in full in Public Safety” and that although he welcomed public testimony, the committee was there to discuss approving a contract, and not concerns over surveillance.
“The camera’s already in use by MPD, and in use by our parking checkers,” said Spiker. “When they do night parking enforcement, they use ALPR’s. When they do zoning enforcement during the day, they use ALPR’s. So these are already in use. They have no facial recognition or any of the stuff that’s been in the news. But it is a legitimate question to ask what degree of surveillance of any sort, given the national context, do we want to have oversight over?”
Spiker said that there’s a “big debate” about surveillance but that “we can’t sort that out today.”
Amanda Merkwae, advocacy director with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin, complained that the public had not been alerted ahead of time about the discussion of the Flock contract. “I’ve been checking daily and the documents in this file and the text of the resolution weren’t posted until yesterday [Wednesday] afternoon,” said Merkwae. “So I think for an item that has significant implications for the civil liberties of Milwaukeeans, particularly the most vulnerable resident, that’s concerning.”
The agenda had been out for over a week, and was amended a couple of days before the hearing, Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic later explained.
Merkwae said, “We know that ICE has gained access to troves of data from sanctuary cities to aid in its raids and immigration enforcement actions, including data from the vast network of license plate readers across the country.” She cited a 404 Media investigation earlier this month, which found that Flock is building a massive people look-up tool which pulls in different forms of data, including license plate reader data, “in order to track specific individuals without a warrant.”
Merkwae also referenced 404 Media’s findings this week revealing immigration-related look-ups, as well as the classified investigation that involved MPD’s intelligence units. The advocacy director also questioned what MPD’s policies mean in practice when federal or out-of-state law enforcement want to access its Flock databases.
“If law enforcement told us that they wanted to put a tracking device on every single car in the country so that we know where every car is every single moment of the day, and we’re going to build a database of all those locations run by an unaccountable private company, and accessible to every law enforcement agency across the country without needing any type of a warrant, I think we would be alarmed and we would have some follow-up questions,” said Merkwae. “So at the end of the day, we think the public deserves to know how it is being surveilled and the common council deserves to know the answers to some pretty basic questions before approving contracts for surveillance technology that’s deployed without a warrant.”
In 2023, Fox 6 published a map of Flock cameras operated by MPD. The map, broken up by aldermadic district, shows a large cluster of cameras located on the North Side around District 7, as well as a cluster on the South Side around District 8. Smaller clusters of cameras were located on the East, far Southwest Side and Northwest Side of the city.
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After Merkwae testified, Spiker raised a question about whether public testimony should continue, given open meetings laws. A lengthy discussion followed about which issues and topics may be discussed in the hearing by committee members, which halted public testimony for over 20 minutes as alders heard from city attorneys and MPD. Ald. Miele Coggs said hearing the public’s concerns before a contract is approved for surveillance technology was important. Ald. Dimitrijevic also stressed that public comment was an important step, saying that the committee would not go into closed session to discuss the Flock contract before the public finished speaking, or otherwise limit public testimony.
When public testimony continued, Milwaukee residents shared further concerns about the technology. Ron Jansen said that the city has seen a surge of surveillance gear used by MPD. “Between the growth of a fascist regime in Washington … and our own militarized and violent police force here in Milwaukee, it’s clear that the last thing we need is more ways for police to track us,” Jansen said. He added that Flock networks are capable of tracking and cataloging “people’s every movement throughout a given day” even if they’re not the target of an investigation.
Other residents, including locals from Spiker’s district and representatives from the court diversion non-profit program JusticePoint, also spoke against Flock’s expansion. Tara Cavazos, executive director of the South 27th Street Business District, said Flock cameras had made her area safer. “We are the initiators of these three additions to the Flock network,” said Cavazos. “And we donated the funds for two years of use of these Flock cameras. So they’re not coming from MPD’s budget, it’s coming out of our budgets. These Flocks are not going to be placed in a neighborhood, it’s not specific to any vulnerable communities, they are in business districts on state and county highways.”
Cavazos said that since Flocks have been deployed, car thefts declined “significantly on the south end of our corridor, where the border between Milwaukee and Greenfield is,” and that “we’ve caught a homicide suspect.” Leif Otteson, an executive director of two business districts, said that he hears from people who want more surveillance. Otteson recalled working to expand the city’s ring camera network, which STAC and other parts of MPD’s fusion center have access to. Otteson has talked with people who want cameras in their community gardens and other areas. “I just want to make that clear, that people like myself are getting those requests,” said Otteson.
Once public testimony concluded, the committee went into closed session for over an hour. The discussion pertained to an unspecified “non-standard” provision in the Flock contract, which had been raised by the city attorney’s office. When the committee returned to open session, they voted 4-1 to hold the file due to legal concerns with the contract until the next committee meeting on June 18.
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Prosecutors asked the jury to use their "common sense" during the opening statements for the trial of a Milwaukee man charged with killing and dismembering a 19-year-old woman after they went on a first date last year.
The post Trial underway for Milwaukee man charged with murdering woman after meeting for first date appeared first on WPR.
With just over a year until the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, authorities in the Mexican state of Jalisco are already gearing up for the massive soccer event. They’ve recently added three specially outfitted Tesla Cybertruck patrol vehicles to their fleet, which will be deployed in high-traffic tourist areas during the tournament.
One of these Cybertrucks was recently taken out onto the local city streets and tailed by a pair of F-Series trucks that police are also using. The local mayor, Pablo Lemus Navarro, is keen to maximize safety during the World Cup, although the expensive purchases do seem to have upset some locals.
Read: Las Vegas Gets First Cybertruck Police Fleet In America
The Tesla truck rocks a matte black wrap complete with all the necessary police livery. Flashing red and blue lights have also been neatly incorporated into the front and rear bumpers, as well as the side skirts. Local police have yet to release any photos of the Cybertruck’s cabin, but it’s likely also been modified with all the necessary equipment needed to patrol the streets and target criminals.
These Cybertrucks form just a small part of a much larger fleet of new vehicles that the state is introducing.
Governor Navarro has big plans to improve security in the region ahead of the World Cup. “We also need to work a lot on the perception of security; we are going to deliver 678 patrol cars for the State Police, State Highway Police, and State Police, including some ‘Black Mambas,’ which are this kind of tanks,” he said.
Mexico isn’t alone in adopting the Cybertruck for law enforcement. Earlier this year, Las Vegas announced it would receive 10 of the trucks, thanks to an anonymous donor. Some of these will be put into service with SWAT teams, while others will simply patrol the streets. Who knows? Maybe other cities will soon follow suit.
The 2026 World Cup is set to run from June 11 to July 19 across 16 host cities in the US, Mexico, and Canada, featuring 48 teams. While Jalisco’s decision to roll out high-tech, bulletproof Cybertruck patrol vehicles might look impressive on paper, it also raises questions about whether this extravagant spending is really the most effective use of resources for an event of this scale.
@prensaxtremard El Gobierno de Jalisco presentó esta semana las nuevas patrullas Tesla Cybertruck, blindadas con acero grado balístico y equipadas con inteligencia artificial, cámaras 360°, conexión en tiempo real con centros de mando y acceso directo a bases de datos de órdenes de aprehensión. Estas unidades, capaces de resistir impactos de alto calibre, formarán parte del operativo especial de seguridad previo al Mundial 2026, que tendrá a Guadalajara como una de sus sedes. Además del uso de tecnología de punta, se anunció la instalación de 1,500 nuevas cámaras de videovigilancia en más de 300 puntos estratégicos del estado, incluyendo carreteras hacia Guanajuato, Colima y Michoacán. También se sumarán 678 nuevas patrullas. Para seguir informado, síguenos en #rotativodemexico 📰🌐 #Jalisco #Cybertruck #Tesla #Mundial2026 #Seguridad #Guadalajara #Tecnología #FIFA2026 ♬ sonido original – PRENSA XTREMA RD ✅️
The Wisconsin Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Social Development Commission on Friday to secure back pay for former employees.
At the same time, three state legislators are asking the agency, also known as the SDC, to consider voluntarily giving up its community action status.
According to court records, the Department of Justice lawsuit filed on behalf of the Department of Workforce Development alleges that SDC failed to pay $359,609.73 in wages and benefits owed to former employees.
However, the department is seeking double that amount – a total of $719,219.46 – as a penalty for “willful failure to pay.”
Sarah Woods’ claim against SDC seeks roughly $4,800 of back pay.
“These are not small payments,” said Woods, a former youth and family services supervisor for SDC.
This marks the latest stage in a long-running wage dispute following the agency’s abrupt April 2024 shutdown, leaving some employees unpaid. SDC, which reopened in December, has provided a variety of programs to serve low-income residents in Milwaukee County.
William Sulton, the attorney for SDC, said Thursday that the agency will file a third-party complaint against the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, which he claims failed to reimburse the agency for services SDC provided.
“DCF needs to be held to account,” he said, adding that SDC should sue the Department of Children and Families regardless of what the Department of Justice does.
Woods remains skeptical that further legal back-and-forth will get people what they’re owed.
“I just want the workers to get paid,” she said. “SDC needs to … just leave it alone.”
Sulton said a major dispute between SDC and the Department of Children and Family Services is about documentation.
“They had all of the required paperwork, but they kept asking for additional information that had never been asked for before,” he said. “We met every one of those obligations.”
In a letter sent last month, the Department of Children and Families said SDC failed to meet federal audit requirements and had not provided enough documentation to justify its reimbursement request.
Earlier this month, the Department of Children and Families decided to rescind SDC’s status as a community action agency effective July 3, making the agency no longer eligible to receive certain federal block grants that support anti-poverty work.
SDC plans to request a review of the decision from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Sulton said, which could take up to 90 days after the department receives documentation.
On Thursday, however, State Sen. LaTonya Johnson, Sen. Dora Drake and Rep. Kalan Haywood — all Milwaukee Democrats — sent a letter to SDC’s Board of Commissioners, asking the agency to voluntarily de-designate.
In the letter, the lawmakers said voluntarily de-designating would create a pathway for $1.182 million in block grant funding that had been allocated to SDC to be used in Milwaukee to support services such as food security, rent assistance and workforce development.
“These dollars must be spent by September 30, 2025, or they will be lost to the federal government,” the letter states. “At present, SDC’s operational instability prevents these funds from reaching the people who need them most.”
Sulton said this pathway does not seem viable because the state has not presented a plan. There is, he said, a lack of alternative agencies prepared to provide these anti-poverty services.
“If you want the board to consider de-designating so that these funds can go to another program, you gotta tell us what that is,” Sulton said.
Additionally, SDC leaders argue the state lacks authority to make this de-designation decision without also getting approval from the city and county’s boards, based on state statute.
Even if SDC steps down, Johnson said in an interview, there is no guarantee the money will be spent in time, as the state must meet federal requirements to move the funds and find another agency to administer services.
“This is a really difficult place to be if you are an African American elected official because this is an agency that has been in the community forever that has a lot of support,” Johnson said.
“Everybody is rooting for SDC to be successful. … But the reality is that I cannot choose the side of an organization over the community’s needs.”
Edgar Mendez contributed to this report.
Meredith Melland is the neighborhoods reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.
Wisconsin Department of Justice sues SDC as lawmakers push for new funding path is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
A new report from the Gun Violence Data Hub reveals that Milwaukee is one of many police departments in the country that traded in their Sig Sauer P320s after multiple instances of the gun firing without a trigger pull.
The post Milwaukee police switched service weapons due to safety concerns. Where did the used firearms go? appeared first on WPR.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has agreed to suspend Dane County Circuit Judge Ellen Berz for seven days after concluding she committed judicial misconduct.
The post Wisconsin Supreme Court suspends Dane County judge over ‘intemperate’ behavior appeared first on WPR.
The National Public Radio headquarters in Washington, D.C., is pictured on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — A collection of National Public Radio stations sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, seeking to block an executive order that would cut off their federal funding.
The 43-page filing says the order that President Donald Trump signed earlier this month “violates the expressed will of Congress and the First Amendment’s bedrock guarantees of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of association, and also threatens the existence of a public radio system that millions of Americans across the country rely on for vital news and information.”
The executive order called on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which receives its funding from Congress, to cease sending money to the Public Broadcasting Service and NPR.
The order stated that government funding for public media “is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”
The Trump administration also appeared to take issue with the types of news stories that PBS and NPR report, arguing “that neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.”
The lawsuit says the executive order has an “overt retaliatory purpose” and “is unlawful in multiple ways.”
“The Order is textbook retaliation and viewpoint-based discrimination in violation of the First Amendment, and it interferes with NPR’s and the Local Member Stations’ freedom of expressive association and editorial discretion,” the lawsuit states. “Lastly, by seeking to deny NPR critical funding with no notice or meaningful process, the Order violates the Constitution’s Due Process Clause.”
The lawsuit was filed by NPR along with three Colorado stations — Aspen Public Radio, Colorado Public Radio and KSUT Public Radio — in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The case has been assigned to Judge Randolph D. Moss, who was nominated by then-President Barack Obama.
White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields wrote in a statement that the “Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers’ dime.
“Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS. The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective.”
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is funded by Congress and in turn provides grants to more than 1,500 public radio and television stations throughout the United States, was established as a private “nonprofit corporation” and is not “an agency or establishment of the United States Government,” according to the lawsuit.
Congress has consistently approved funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting on a bipartisan basis, including its current $535 million appropriation.
The lawsuit contends that the “loss of all direct funding from CPB and the loss (or significant decline) of revenue from local stations would be catastrophic for NPR.”
It also states the president “has no authority under the Constitution to” interfere in funding decisions made by lawmakers.”
“On the contrary, the power of the purse is reserved to Congress, and the President has no inherent authority to override Congress’s will on domestic spending decisions,” the lawsuits says. “By unilaterally imposing restrictions and conditions on funds in contravention of Congress, the Order violates the Separation of Powers and the Spending Clause of the Constitution.”
A police department in western Wisconsin lost all of its officers due to resignations this year. Law enforcement veterans say what happened in the Trempealeau County city of Arcadia isn't unusual and highlights unique staffing challenges small departments face in an increasingly tight and competitive job market.
The post A western Wisconsin city lost its entire police force, highlighting staffing challenges for smaller departments appeared first on WPR.
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