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When Joshua Liston-Zawadi’s wife, Symphony, delivered their fourth child, Harlem, at home_, the 31-year-old felt excluded.

The midwife would check on Symphony frequently, but not him. 

That experience prompted him to do something for the fathers.

In 2021, Joshua launched Dad Doula University to provide non-birthing parents with free workshops on emotional changes, pregnancy and personal growth.

“As you go through becoming a parent, no one educates the non-birthing people or men on how to navigate changes within yourself,” Joshua said. 

Doulas are certified individuals who provide emotional, physical and informational support during the prenatal, birthing and postpartum process.

From struggles to lessons

Symphony and midwife Dr. Lakeeta Watts encouraged Joshua to take his struggles and turn them into lessons for others. 

Symphony helped create curricula, co-facilitate sessions and coordinate, while Watts provided Joshua with certified doula training. 

“To see him commit to supporting other families in his unique way has been a pleasure to watch and support,”  Symphony said. 

A male perspective

Watts noticed Joshua often stepping back to elevate women’s voices in different environments but reminded him that his perspective matters, too. 

“I told him that even though that’s very honorable of him, we often lose the voice of men in these spaces as well,” Watts said. 

Dad Doula University initially started as a virtual program via Zoom and Clubhouse because of the COVID pandemic. 

The program eventually secured a spot inside the Sherman Phoenix Marketplace, 3536 W. Fond du Lac Ave., Milwaukee, where in-person sessions are held. 

(Joshua said the virtual option is still being offered to dads seeking support abroad.) 

“Any dad who needs support, regardless of where you are, I got you,” Joshua said. 

A safe space for dads

Among the participants of Dad Doula University is 34-year-old Markus Thompson, a single dad of two daughters who joined the program to connect with other fathers. 

Thompson described the program as a great emotional space to release anxiety, fears and self-doubt. 

“The men I was around were there during the times I felt alone,” Thompson said. 

Throughout the program, Joshua taught Thompson about a birthing plan, a document created before labor to tell hospital staff one’s preferences on how the birthing should go. 

“I teach men that it’s their job to be in charge of this process, and the only way they can do that is if they involve the person that they’re caring for,” Joshua said. 

Thompson said the birth plan included things you’d never think of like whether the mother wants music during labor or how to advocate for her when she can’t herself. 

“Raising children isn’t a one-parent thing,” he said.

Thompson is now a 2025 alumnus of Dad Doula University’s two-week program and encourages other dads to join. 

At the end of the program, graduates get a certificate, take their first family photo and receive free baby essentials and a year’s supply of diapers. 

For fathers hesitant about seeking support during pregnancy, Joshua lives by a motto that says: “If I’m not OK, then nothing I touch will be.”

For more information

Click here to register and learn about upcoming sessions. 

In case you missed it: Our friends at TMJ4 also profiled the program.

Dad Doula University: Milwaukee program supports new fathers is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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After passing through the suburbs of Milwaukee, Eric “Shake” James realized there was a lack of bikes in Milwaukee’s underserved communities, prompting him to launch an annual bike giveaway called “Black on the Block.” 

James gave away 500 bikes on June 21 at 1935 W. Hampton Ave., along with free resources and food for families. 

James realized North Side children lacked exercise opportunities when he saw suburban children in Whitefish Bay and Oak Creek had tons of bikes and bike racks at their schools. 

“Those kids are riding to school, but when you come to the inner city, the kids here are getting to school solely on buses, and childhood obesity is like a real thing,” James said. 

The giveaway was organized by JAY Academy, his nonprofit organization that provides wellness, arts education, professional development and more to support Milwaukee youths. 

Community support boosts efforts 

Each year the quantity of bikes has increased by 100. To get the bikes, James partnered with local organizations like Bader Philanthropies Inc. and received donations from community members like UFC fighter Montel Jackson. 

“Montel saw me at Walmart getting the bikes, and he just gave me $5,000 right there on the spot and told me he liked what I was doing,” James said. 

Additional support came from Ald. Andrea Pratt and Mayor Cavalier Jonhson, who have visited the event before and helped promote it. 

Those in need

During the bike giveaway, Dannetta Jones and her two daughters, 12-year-old Iyanna and 9-year-old Tianna, returned to get new bikes. 

Dannetta hopes that her daughters and other children take care of their new bikes. 

“Last year, their bikes got torn up fast,” Dannetta said.

Tianna felt bad when there was a hole in her tire after letting her cousin ride it, and no one would share theirs with her. 

“I didn’t like that it was messed up, so I really wanted a new one,” Tianna said. 

Tianna plans to visit her cousin’s house with her new bike.

More than just a bike 

For Iyanna, she sees her new bike as a new form of transportation and a sense of independence as she typically goes to her local store and rides alone. 

“I’m excited to have this new bike because I can go anywhere now without having to walk,” Iyanna said. 

“It’s a gift that someone got for me and I’m thankful for it,” Iyanna said. 

James finds joy seeing the children receive their bikes because he thinks it’s better than being on the phone or a video game. 

“They got to get outside and start enjoying all these different things that the city of Milwaukee has to offer,” James said. 

Better resources for a new generation 

Alecia Ball is a McGovern Park resident who brought her three grandchildren to the bike giveaway. She has full custody of them because of the death of their mother. 

Ball’s grandchildren had toys at home but no bikes. Initially, she aimed to purchase one for them, but found out about the event through Facebook. 

Ball hopes that all the children actually use the bikes and have fun with them as they’re receiving resources she never had. 

“When I was raised, we didn’t have any assistance like this, so this free giveaway makes a difference in the community,” Ball said. 

Plans to improve

James has plans to expand the giveaway by arranging a neighborhood group ride for the children by next year. 

In addition, James is seeking help to promote bike safety for the children by bringing back free helmets. 

During the first year of the giveaway, helmets came with the bikes, but they were excluded in later giveaways because of costs. 

“I’m trying to find somebody to deal with, with the helmet situation, because those run about $20 to $40,” James said. 

According to James, “Black on the Block” is his second-largest event where hundreds of people are in line waiting for something good. 

James wants parents to know that he understands their situation and wants what’s best for the children. 

“I know it’s tough right now, but we’re going to fight our way through it together,” James said.

Philanthropist gives away 500 bikes to Milwaukee youths is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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It’s tempting to begin a story about Emily Sterk with an anecdote about her advocacy around mass incarceration. 

Or with her reflections on how her privilege plays into that work. Or with an exploration of how her religious faith intertwines with her concern for those caught up in the criminal justice system. 

But she also loves musicals – and is a little embarrassed to admit how much she enjoys “Wicked.” She has a beloved tortoiseshell cat named Stevie and is fond of puzzles. 

Having said all that, people are starting to notice how good she is at what she does, said Krissie Fung, associate director of Milwaukee Turners, the state’s oldest civic organization, where Sterk is completing a fellowship.  

“People have heard her speak in public, and folks are beginning to look to her opinion,” Fung said. 

This ability to gain trust within criminal justice reform circles is especially valuable as the organization grows, said Emilio De Torre, executive director of Turners.

“Having someone who can help us build stronger networks, have an informed leader in these different rooms – it expands our ability to educate others who don’t understand this and to empower people who are impacted but unsure of what to do,” De Torre said.

From the academy 

During her final year of graduate school at Pennsylvania State University, Sterk – in her spare time – taught in two correctional institutions. 

“That was one of the first times I felt like, ‘Oh, well, I should be doing something about this,’” she said. 

Sterk arrived in Milwaukee last fall as a Leading Edge Fellow with the American Council of Learned Societies, a national program that places Ph.D. graduates at justice-focused nonprofits.

At Turners, she conducts research, participates in advocacy and develops policy ideas geared toward confronting mass incarceration.

‘Watching the watchers’

One area Sterk has focused on is civilian oversight of law enforcement. 

At an April 15 meeting of the Milwaukee County Board’s Judiciary, Law Enforcement and General Services Committee, Sterk testified in support of a civilian board that would oversee the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office. 

She told committee members that, in order to be effective and independent, such a board must have the authority to hire and fire law enforcement officers – including the sheriff – and have policymaking authority. 

Sterk pointed to a 2024 audit of the county jail that, she said, “unearthed deeply troubling policies, practices and procedures that have long since been ingrained in the facility and its staff.” 

She highlighted an instance in which an officer accused of misconduct was assigned to respond to the grievance filed against them.

With emotion in her voice, Sterk reminded supervisors that the audit devoted just three sentences to a suicide attempt that auditors personally witnessed during their visit.

Two weeks after this committee meeting, Sterk presented to the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission the findings of a six-month monitoring period of the commission’s activity – “watching the watchers,” as Fung put it.

The commission was significantly restructured in July 2023 after Wisconsin Act 12 stripped its ability to shape police policy, shifting that power to police and fire department chiefs.

The public report resulting from the monitoring concluded that the commission “appears to serve as a rubber stamp.”

Honey, not vinegar

However, Sterk is not hostile or self-righteous in her criticism. Care and sincerity are at the center of her approach – even for the offices and bodies she’s criticizing.

At the Fire and Police Commission presentation, multiple commissioners thanked the Turners and echoed the call to improve public engagement.

Currently, Sterk is fostering a collaboration on jail-based voting between the Turners and the League of Women Voters of Milwaukee County. Here, too, her thoughtfulness has left its mark.

“The first thing she talked to me about was educating people about having respect for people who are incarcerated,” said Gail Sklodowska, the second vice president of advocacy and action for the league. “Like how we refer to them, how we talk about them. And I went, ‘Wow, I never even thought of that as a place we should start.’

“But she’s right.”

This combination of rigor, respect and resolve is rooted in deeper values, said Carlos de la Torre, Sterk’s partner and a rector at a church in Chicago. 

“Amidst the work of justice, of restoration, of reconciliation, of liberation,” he said, “Emily knows that there’s a place for beauty in all this.

“The point of all this work is to offer people access to a good life, to the beauty of this world, to be free in creation.”

Sterk’s fellowship ends September 2026, but she is open to staying in Milwaukee after that – and so are others.

“I would love for us – and for Milwaukee – to keep her,” Fung said. 

‘There’s a place for beauty in all this’: Faith informs scholar’s advocacy for Milwaukee’s incarcerated is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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If you or someone you know is planning to drink for the holiday, there are safe rides being provided. 

To help reduce drunken driving and encourage safer celebrations this Independence Day, Pemberton Personal Injury Law Firm is providing free Uber rides, worth up to $25, for eligible Wisconsin residents on the night of July 4.

How it works

The offer is available to Wisconsin residents from 4 p.m. on Friday July 4, to 9 a.m. on Saturday, July 5. 

You just make sure you have an Uber account set up. 

Tap this link or scan the code on Pemberton’s website and order your Uber when you are ready. 

You must be 21 or older to use this link. 

Wisconsin law firm paying for free Ubers for July 4 festivities is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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The Social Development Commission, or SDC, is asking the federal government to reverse a decision made by the state that could alter the anti-poverty agency’s funding options. 

Here’s what we know.

The community action decision 

The Wisconsin Department of Children and Families decided in May to remove the SDC’s community action agency status, effective July 3.

Although the department believes SDC has not been operating anti-poverty services since it shut down in April 2024, despite reopening in December, SDC’s leaders have said the state did not follow the proper process to make this decision.

Without this designation, SDC will not be eligible for a Community Services Block Grant, which is a small portion of its budget but significant to its efforts to pay back employees and rebuild its service programs.

How does a federal review work? 

When a state decides to rescind community action status or the related block grant funding from a local agency, the agency can request a review from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services within 30 days. 

SDC submitted a request for a review of the state’s community action decision to the department on June 9, citing concerns about due process. 

The Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, will evaluate if the state’s determination process followed the guidance on the termination or reduction of funding for entities eligible for the Community Services Block Grant, according to a spokesperson from the department. 

The Division of Community Assistance, which is part of the Office of Community Services within the federal department, oversees block grant funding for community action agencies. 

“I think that HHS is concerned about the process that was used to de-designate SDC, and so my expectation is that they will be talking to the state about the process,” said William Sulton, SDC’s attorney.

The Department of Children and Families received notification on June 11 from the Office of Community Services that SDC requested a review, but did not receive the request itself, according to Gina Paige, communications director for the department.

The review will be completed within 90 days of receiving all required documentation from the state, according to federal law. If not completed in the 90-day time frame, the state’s decision will be upheld. 

As part of the request, SDC is asking the Department of Health and Human Services for direct financial assistance. 

According to the CSBG Act, if a state violates the de-designation process –  by terminating or reducing funding of an eligible entity before the state hearing and the secretary’s review – the Health and Human Services secretary is authorized to provide financial assistance to the entity affected until the violation is corrected.

SDC’s concerns 

SDC raised two main concerns with the state’s determination process in the request, based on state and federal laws.  

The first concern is that the public hearing on SDC’s community action status, held by the Department of Children and Families on April 4, did not meet the legal requirements of a “hearing on the record.”

“You’re supposed to be permitted to call witnesses and present evidence,” Sulton said. “… We were given seven minutes to make a speech, and that was it.” 

SDC also says that both the Department of Children and Families’ secretary and the legislative bodies of the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County would have to sign off on the decision, based on a state statute that requires the legislative body that initially granted the agency community action status to approve rescinding it. 

“They didn’t go out and get position statements from the city and the county’s legislative bodies,” Sulton said. 

The department did not comment on these claims. (Paige previously said it has worked closely with the Office of Community Services and Milwaukee County to determine the process needed to move forward with de-designating SDC.)

Although Milwaukee County’s Office of Corporation Counsel submitted a letter to say it found no records of the Board of Supervisors taking action on SDC’s status as a community action agency, Sulton said that doesn’t mean there are no records. 

He argues that this provision of the law, added in 1983, was put in place to protect SDC from arbitrary state action.

Funding deadline

In May, three state lawmakers asked SDC to consider voluntarily de-designating, which would allow the state and Milwaukee County to more quickly find an interim service provider to use SDC’s allocated funds in Milwaukee County. 

The $1.18 million in 2024 block grant funding could be recouped by the federal government if not spent by Sept. 30, 2025, according to the Department of Children and Families. 

However, Sulton said when he reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services before filing the review, an employee told him the 2024 funds had to be obligated by 2026.

“To the extent that anybody has the impression that this money has to be obligated by September or it’ll be lost, HHS says it’s not the case,” he said. 

States and subrecipients usually have two years to distribute funds, but it depends on state-specific policies, according to HHS.

The state’s Sept. 30 deadline marks two years after the beginning of the 2024 fiscal year in October 2023, according to Paige. 

Though Paige said that SDC’s request for review is perpetuating the lack of services in Milwaukee County, she added that the department plans to seek a six-month liquidation extension from the federal government.

“It’s quite possible that we’re gonna be on a really tight timeline to get that money out the door, so that’s why we’re hoping that we can work with the federal government and see if they can allow us an extension to expend it a little bit longer,” Paige said. 

Board member changes

The SDC board added two commissioners in May – Milwaukee Public Schools appointed Michael Harris, and the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee appointed Peter Fetzer, an attorney at Foley & Lardner LLP. 

In the last seven months, the SDC board has expanded from three to 10 commissioners, thanks to several appointments to vacant seats. The board is designed to have 18 members at full capacity. 

Commissioner Lucero Ayala’s term has ended, according to Sulton. Ayala was nominated and selected last year to fill the remainder of Serina Chavez’s term as an elected commissioner.

Milwaukee Social Development Commission wants feds to reverse state funding decision   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.

U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, participates in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on May 13, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

U.S. Sen. Mike Lee says he will revamp his controversial proposal to require the sales of vast acres of federal lands in the West so it can be included in Senate Republicans’ sweeping tax and spending cut package.

Lee will be seeking approval for his revised plan from the Senate parliamentarian, who will decide if the provision complies with the chamber’s strict rules for the fast-track procedure Republicans are using to pass their bill. An earlier version of Lee’s plan was dropped from the measure.

Lee, a Utah Republican who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, wrote on X on Monday night that he would alter the proposal to include only Bureau of Land Management land within 5 miles of a population center and exempt U.S. Forest Service lands altogether.

The amended version would also create “freedom zones” and protect “our farmers, ranchers, and recreational users,” Lee said.

It was not immediately clear what either point would mean and legislative text of the proposal was not publicly available Tuesday. A spokesperson for the committee Lee leads did not return a message seeking comment Tuesday morning.

The original version of the proposal would have mandated the sale of at least 2 million acres of BLM and Forest Service land in 11 Western states. The Senate parliamentarian ruled that language did not comply with the Senate’s rules for budget reconciliation, according to Senate Budget Committee ranking Democrat Jeff Merkley of Oregon.

Budget reconciliation is the procedure Republicans are using to pass the package that contains most of President Donald Trump’s domestic policy priorities, including extension of the 2017 tax cuts.

The process allows passage with only a simple majority in the Senate instead of the usual 60 votes but comes with strict rules that every provision has a substantial impact on the federal deficit and relates to spending and taxes.

Polarizing provision

Lee’s social media post emphasized his goal was to expand housing supply by making public lands available for new construction.

“Housing prices are crushing families and keeping young Americans from living where they grew up,” Lee wrote. “We need to change that.”

Democrats and some Republicans from the affected states — Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming — strongly opposed the measure, seeing it as a one-time sell-off of public lands used by hunters, hikers, ranchers and other users of public lands.

The provision “would have gutted America’s public lands and auctioned them off to the highest bidder, in yet another bid to benefit the wealthy,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday.

“Republicans tried to rip away hundreds of millions of acres of public land—not to help families, not to solve real problems—but to hand yet another gift to the wealthy and well-connected,” he added. “It was outrageous, it was shameless, and it would have forever changed the character of the country. Senate Democrats fought tooth and nail to keep public lands in public hands because these lands belong to everyone—not just the privileged few.”

A similar provision was removed from the House’s version of the reconciliation bill in the face of heated opposition from Western Republicans led by Montana U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke.

The former Interior secretary said last week he remained firmly opposed to the Senate version of the bill that included Lee’s proposal.

“I have said from day one I would not support a bill that sells public lands,” he wrote on X. “I am still a no on the senate reconciliation bill that sells public lands. We did our job in the House. Let’s get it finished.”

Other energy provisions stripped

Merkley reported the Senate parliamentarian also ruled several other provisions of the Energy Committee’s section of the package to be out of compliance with the “Byrd Rule,” which governs what can be included in a reconciliation bill.

Among the provisions the parliamentarian removed were items that would have waived environmental review requirements for offshore oil and gas development, mandated approval of a controversial mining road in Alaska, required annual lease sales for geothermal energy lease sales while changing how geothermal royalties are calculated and allowed natural gas exporters to pay a fee to have projects exempted from environmental requirements.

Other provisions in the committee’s reconciliation instructions were still under review Tuesday, Merkley said.

In a statement, Merkley said he would continue to lead Democrats’ campaign to strip provisions from the GOP bill.

“Democrats will not stand idly by while Republicans attempt to circumvent the rules of reconciliation in order to sell off public lands to fund tax breaks for billionaires,” he said. “We will make sure the Byrd Rule is followed and review any changes Republicans attempt to make to the bill.”

The Lucid Air has earned its reputation as one of the best electric vehicles on the market, blending luxury, performance, and efficiency in a way that few EVs can match, especially outside of China. However, as is the case with most modern cars, the Air is basically a high-tech gadget on wheels, and like any laptop or smartphone these days, it comes with its fair share of tech troubles.

Read: Lucid Promised Luxury But All This Owner Got Was Regret And Nightmares

To make matters worse, getting a Lucid technician to fix a stranded Air seems to be more difficult than contacting tech support to help you troubleshoot your (much cheaper) phone.

A Familiar EV Saga

Recently, a member of the Lucid Owners Club on Facebook shared the saga of his Air GT, the flagship variant of the EV that starts at $110,000. According to the owner, “We have been locked out of our Lucid GT since Monday evening. Have tried phone, fob and Key Card”. And, of course, the issues don’t end there.

The owner pointed out that he’s been in contact with customer service from Lucid and they’ve tried, and failed, to get access to the car remotely. Apparently, they couldn’t connect to it or get it to wake up. That’s annoying, but it may not seem like the end of the world, right? Lucid should be able to get the car towed and fixed quickly, right? Wrong.

According to the owner, the local Minneapolis mobile service tech was on vacation until the following week, so they aren’t around to try and remedy the non-responsive Air. Not all hope is lost, however.

“Lucid has gotten in contact with me and we have tried everything but jumping 12v,” the owner added in the comments. “They are having towed to a partner collision center and it sounds like they will try to jump it. If that doesn’t work, we will see what happens.

If it doesn’t, the owner may be left without the golf clubs he so desperately needs by Saturday. What a predicament…

Are Modern Cars Too Complicated For Their Own Good?

Jokes aside, the issue does raise an interesting question: are cars too complicated nowadays? Do they feature too many fancy electronics that can go wrong, potentially leaving owners stranded like this? Without even a physical key slot for emergency cases, it appears this Air is useless if the 12-volt battery runs flat.

It’s not just Lucid, of course. Just earlier this week, Ford had to recall nearly 200,000 Mustang Mach-E EVs in the U.S. and another 100,000 overseas due to a problem where the doors could get stuck if the 12-volt battery fails.

More: Ford Pulls Mustang Mach-E From Sale Over Dangerous Door Lock Flaw

Call us old-fashioned, but this would never happen with a good ol’ internal combustion engine vehicle. In the past, you’d simply jump-start the car or swap out the battery, and off you’d go. Sure, every new technology has growing pains, and it’s only fair to give automakers time to work out the bugs. Electric vehicles are still relatively new, and there’s a learning curve. The truth is, the tech has made incredible strides in just a few short years.

Nevertheless, most end users expect everything to run smoothly and glitches to be fixed in heartbeat, especially if they’ve paid big money in the first place. Otherwise, they may lose their patience and steer clear of EVs until they’re damn good and ready.

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As Wisconsin’s prison population climbs toward pre-pandemic levels, Senate Bill 153 seeks to expand alternatives to incarceration.

Wisconsin’s Treatment Alternatives and Diversion program was established in 2005 to provide counties with funding to create programs to divert adults with nonviolent criminal charges into community-based treatment for substance abuse. 

Senate Bill 153 would formally expand the scope of these programs to explicitly include individuals with mental health issues.

Access to more funding

While some counties, including Milwaukee, already provide some diversion options for individuals with mental health needs, Senate Bill 153 could allow Milwaukee County to access funding not currently available. 

“The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office has always supported the expansion of the Treatment Alternatives and Diversion program to include those individuals with severe and persistent mental health issues in addition to those with alcohol and drug dependency issues,” said Jeffrey Altenburg, Milwaukee County’s chief deputy district attorney.

He added that such an expansion would allow the district attorney’s office to focus most of its traditional prosecutorial resources on violent crime. 

Bipartisan support

State Sen. André Jacque, R-New Franken, who co-authored the bill, said that the legislation enjoys broad bipartisan support as well as backing from those who work inside the criminal justice system.

“Folks that I’ve talked to – whether it’s probation and parole, law enforcement more generally – these are folks that see that it works because you don’t see repeat involvement in the criminal justice system,” he said. 

“It is transformative and uplifting when you see the changes that people are able to make in their lives.”

Marshall Jones, currently incarcerated at Fox Lake Correctional Institution, hopes more lawmakers have that sort of mindset. 

“If politicians were more proactive in helping people in the system address the underlying issues they have, then more people will be in a position to experience lasting, genuine change,” Jones said.

Research shows that treating the underlying causes of criminal behavior helps individuals rebuild their lives after incarceration and prevents future offenses.

“Most people who have mental health issues are already running or hiding from a fear they have,” said Aaron Nicgorski, a patient at a Wisconsin Department of Health Services facility. 

“Providing treatment says ‘Hey, we understand you have an issue, here are some programs to get you on a path to a better future’ versus ‘Hey, we’re gonna put you in a cage to think about what you’ve done.’”

Diversion vs. incarceration

Over time, the criminal justice system has recognized that many people commit crimes because of economic or psychological factors rather than some sort of character flaw. 

Diversion – the process by which people get “diverted” into voluntary programs and away from formal prosecution – has been used to address these factors.

“The whole idea is to divert them from the traditional system and get them placed with, hopefully, programs that can break the cycle of any criminal behavior,” said Nick Sayner, co-founder and chief executive officer of JusticePoint, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit organization that provides diversion-related services among other criminal justice programs.

Breaking that cycle is better for the public’s safety as well as the safety of the person being diverted, said Mark Rice, coordinator for the Wisconsin Transformational Justice Campaign at WISDOM, a statewide faith-based organization.

It’s also much more cost-effective to treat people in communities rather than to incarcerate them, Rice added.

Incarceration is not an experience that lends itself to improving a person’s mental health, he said.

“One man attempted to commit suicide; several other men had to be put on suicide watch; others mutilated themselves,” said Rice, referring to his time in the special needs unit at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility. 

What’s next?

On May 8, the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety unanimously recommended Senate Bill 153 for passage. It is now awaiting scheduling for a vote by the full Senate.

People can track the bill’s progress on the Wisconsin Legislature’s website. 

Wisconsin lawmakers seek to expand alternatives to incarceration for people with mental illness is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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As the Milwaukee Police Department moves to expand its use of facial recognition technology, a June report from the federal government finds this technology continues to disproportionately misidentify people of color. 

Elected officials and civil rights groups have been raising this concern as a clear reason why MPD’s plan should be paused or rejected entirely.  

MPD says there are ways to address this limitation. 

The Milwaukee Equal Rights Commission on Wednesday, June 18, will hold a public meeting to assess potential discrimination-related risks. 

The report

In 2019, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology released a major report evaluating how demographics affect outcomes in facial recognition systems. 

The report found skin color and ethnicity often had an effect. 

With domestic law enforcement images, for example, the system most often led to false positives – when someone is incorrectly identified – for American Indians. Rates were also elevated for African American and Asian populations. 

On June 2, the agency issued a report showing that facial recognition systems were more likely to mistake people from predominantly darker-skinned regions for someone else. This included people from sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the Caribbean, compared with people from Europe and Central Asia. 

Higher rates of misidentifications for people of color raise concerns that facial recognition could lead to more wrongful stops and arrests by police.  

MPD’s plan

MPD Chief of Staff Heather Hough, speaking during an April meeting of the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission, said the department has used facial recognition technology in the past in coordination with other police departments. 

She stressed its crime-fighting benefits. 

“Facial recognition technology is a valuable tool in solving crimes and increasing public safety,” Hough said. 

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson supports the use of this technology for the same reason, Jeff Fleming, spokesperson for the mayor’s office, wrote in an email.

“Identifying, apprehending and bringing to justice criminals in our city does reduce crime,” Fleming wrote. 

During the commission meeting, Paul Lau, who oversees MPD’s criminal investigations bureau, said the department is considering an official agreement with a company called Biometrica. 

“We anticipate this usually being used by our detective bureau in the investigation of major violent felonies,” Lau said.   

Community response

Emilio De Torre, executive director of Milwaukee Turners, cited some of the 2019 federal findings in an op-ed, arguing that “entrusting facial recognition to routine policing is not public safety; it is an avoidable risk that history shows will fall hardest on Black Milwaukeeans.” 

Milwaukee Turners is one of 19 organizations that sent a letter to the Milwaukee Common Council expressing concerns about surveillance technology. The letter urges the council to adopt an ordinance ensuring community participation in deciding if and how it is used.

Some members of the Common Council have come out in strong opposition to MPD’s plan as well. 

“It’s both embarrassing and dangerous for false positives to occur at such a high rate,” Alderman José G. Pérez, Common Council president, told NNS. 

Such flaws would likely lead to due process violations, he said. 

Addressing flaws

Hough said MPD knows there are people in the community who are “very leery” of police using this technology, adding that their “concerns about civil liberties are important.” 

“I want to make it very clear: Facial recognition on its own is never enough. It requires human analysis and additional investigation.”

MPD is committed to a “thoughtful, intentional and mindful” policy that considers community input, Hough said. 

Lau said MPD will look into racial bias training provided by Biometrica, and people using the technology will need to have training on best practices. 

Biometrica directly addresses concerns about racial disparities on its website.  

The company says errors identified in 2019 stemmed from several flaws that can be countered with, for example, anti-bias training for analysts who review facial recognition alerts.  

Who gets to decide?

Since Wisconsin Act 12, Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman is free to develop any official policy he chooses. The Common Council has the only formal check that exists.

By a two-thirds vote – or 10 of Milwaukee’s 15 aldermen – the council can block or modify MPD policies. But it must wait for a policy to be officially implemented. 

The state Legislature could pass a statewide ban or restrictions, and the Common Council could adopt an ordinance regulating or banning its use.

Alderman Alex Brower told NNS he will be doing everything in his power, as a member of the Common Council, to oppose MPD’s acquisition of facial recognition technology. 

What residents can do

People will have an opportunity to share their opinions about MPD’s plan – for and against – at an upcoming meeting of the Milwaukee Equal Rights Commission.

Commission members will use testimony about facial recognition to help determine the discrimination-related risks it may pose, said Tony Snell, chair of the commission.

“We want to listen to as many people as possible,” Snell said. 

The commission can make recommendations to the Common Council, the mayor, MPD and the Fire and Police Commission. 

The commission meeting will be held at 4 p.m. Wednesday, June 18, at Milwaukee City Hall, 200 E. Wells St.

People may attend in person or virtually. 

Those who wish to speak must register by emailing ERC@milwaukee.gov. Each speaker will have up to three minutes. People can also send written testimony to this email address so it can be included in the public record. 

Milwaukee police push for more facial recognition technology as federal report shows persistent bias 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.

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, speaks on the Senate floor on June 17, 2025, about how he was forcibly removed from a press conference with the secretary of Homeland Security. (Screenshot from Senate webcast)

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat who was forcibly removed from a press conference with the secretary of Homeland Security, said Tuesday that his home state is the testing ground for President Donald Trump’s push to deploy the military within the United States.

Trump is using immigrants in the country without legal status as scapegoats to send in troops, said Padilla, who in a speech on the Senate floor choked up as he related how he was wrestled to the ground by law enforcement officials. “I refuse to let immigrants be political pawns on his path toward fascism,” Padilla said.

It’s the first floor speech the senior senator from California has given since the highly publicized incident in Los Angeles last week. The Secret Service handcuffed Padilla after he tried to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was defending to reporters Trump’s decision to send 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines to LA.

Trump sent in the troops following multi-day protests over Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and against California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wishes. An appeals court Tuesday is hearing arguments on a suit by California contending that the president unlawfully took control of the state National Guard.

“He wants the spectacle,” Padilla said of the president. “To justify his undemocratic crackdown and his authoritarian power grab.”

The LA protests were sparked after ICE targeted Home Depots, places where undocumented day laborers typically search for work, for immigration raids.

Arrests, confrontations

The Padilla incident, widely captured on video, was a stark escalation of the tensions between Democratic lawmakers and the administration over Trump’s drive to enact mass deportations.

A Democratic House member from New Jersey is facing federal charges on allegations that she shoved immigration officials while protesting the opening of an immigrant detention center in Newark. And on Tuesday, in New York City, ICE officers arrested city comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander while he was escorting an immigrant to their hearing in immigration court, according to The Associated Press.

In a statement to States Newsroom, DHS Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said Lander “was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.”

“No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences,” McLaughlin said.

The president late Sunday directed ICE to conduct immigration raids in New York, LA and Chicago, the nation’s three most populous cities, all led by elected Democrats in heavily Democratic states.

“We will follow the President’s direction and continue to work to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off of America’s streets,” McLaughlin said.

‘They opened the door for me’

Padilla in his Senate remarks gave an account of the events that led to him being handcuffed and detained last week.

On June 12, he had a meeting scheduled with General Gregory M. Guillot, commander of the U.S. Northern Command, to discuss the military presence in LA.

Padilla, the top Democrat on a Judiciary panel that oversees DHS and immigration policy, said his meeting with the general was delayed because of a press briefing across the hall with Noem. 

Padilla said he has tried to speak with DHS because for weeks LA has “seen a disturbing pattern of increasingly extreme and cruel immigration enforcement operations targeting non-violent people at places of worship, at schools, in courthouses.”

So Padilla said he asked to attend the press conference, and a National Guard member and an FBI agent escorted him inside.

“They opened the door for me,” he said.

As he listened, he said a comment from Noem compelled him to ask a question.

“We are not going away,” Noem, the former governor of South Dakota, told the press. “We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”

Padilla said her remarks struck him as “an un-American mission statement.”

“That cannot be the mission of federal law enforcement and the United States military,” he said. “Are we truly prepared to live in a country where the president can deploy the armed forces to decide which duly elected governors and mayors should be allowed to lead their constituents?”   

Padilla said before he could finish his question, he was physically removed and the National Guard member and FBI agent who escorted him in the room “stood by silently, knowing full well who I was.”

As he recounted being handcuffed, Padilla paused, getting emotional.

“I was forced to the ground, first on my knees, and then flat on my chest,” he said.

Padilla said a flurry of questions went through his head as he was marched down a hallway, and as he kept asking why he was being detained: Where are they taking me? What will a city, already on the edge from being militarized, think when they see their U.S. senator being handcuffed just for trying to ask a question? What will my wife think? What will our boys think?

“I also remember asking myself, if this aggressive escalation is the result of someone speaking up about the abuse and overreach of the Trump administration, was it really worth it?” Padilla asked. “If a United States senator becomes too afraid to speak up, how can we expect any other American to do the same?”

Padilla-Noem meeting

In a statement, DHS, said that the Secret Service did not know Padilla was a U.S. senator, although video of the incident shows that Padilla stated that he was a member of the Senate.

“I’m Sen. Alex Padilla and I have questions for the secretary,” he said as four federal law enforcement officers grabbed him and shoved him to the ground.

Noem met with Padilla after he was handcuffed, his office told States Newsroom.

“He raised concerns with the deployment of military forces and the needless escalation over the last week, among other issues,” according to his office. “And he voiced his frustration with the continued lack of response from this administration. It was a civil, brief meeting, but the Secretary did not provide any meaningful answers. The Senator was simply trying to do his job and seek answers for the people he represents in California.”

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson has suggested that the Senate take action against Padilla, such as a censure. Johnson criticized the senator’s actions and accused him of charging at Noem, which Padilla is not seen doing in the multiple videos of the incident.

“I’m not in that chamber, but I do think that it merits immediate attention by other colleagues over there,” the Louisiana Republican said. “I think that behavior, at a minimum, rises to the level of censure. I think there needs to be a message sent by the body as a whole.”

Senate Democrats have coalesced their support around Padilla. During a Tuesday press conference, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer praised Padilla for his speech on the Senate floor.

“It was basically a strong plea for America to regain the gyroscope of democracy, which has led us forward for so many years and now we’re losing it,” the New York Democrat said. “It’s a wake-up call to all Americans.”

Jennifer Shutt contributed to this report. 

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., holds up an Elmo toy while the chamber debates a bill that would eliminate previously approved funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides grants to public radio and television stations, including the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS, which airs "Sesame Street." (Screen shot taken from House Clerk website livestream.)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House narrowly passed legislation Thursday that would revoke $9.4 billion in previously approved funding for public media, including National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, as well as foreign aid, though the bill’s future in the Senate amid a strict timeline is uncertain.

The 214-212 mostly party-line vote marks just the third time in several decades the House has approved a bill to claw back funding that lawmakers formerly agreed to spend. President Donald Trump sent the rescissions request that led to the House bill to the Republican-controlled Congress earlier this month.

Republican Reps. Mark Amodei of Nevada, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Nicole Malliotakis of New York and Mike Turner of Ohio voted against approving the bill along with all of the chamber’s Democrats.

Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon and New York Rep. Nick LaLota, both Republicans, switched from opposing to supporting the bill after Speaker Mike Johnson spoke with them on the floor as the vote was held open.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., contended during floor debate that pulling back the funding is the right place to start, but said the GOP will seek to do much more in the months and years ahead.

Scalise said PBS and NPR should have to compete against other media organizations without grant funding from the federal government.

“There is still going to be a plethora of options for the American people,” Scalise said. “But if they’re paying their hard-earned dollars to go get content, why should your tax dollars only go to one thing that the other side wants to promote? Let everybody go compete on a fair basis.”

Maine Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree said every state in the country would feel the impact of eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

“I rise today in strong opposition to the reckless attack on public media contained within this rescissions bill and millions of Americans who rely on and treasure their local public television and radio stations,” Pingree said.

Efforts to defund CPB, she said, were the result of Trump’s “agenda against the free press and his authoritarian desire to control the media.”

Public media would lose $1.1 billion

The seven-page bill would rescind all funding that Congress approved for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for fiscal years 2026 and 2027, a total of $1.1 billion.

CPB, which provides grants to public radio and television stations throughout the country, is one of the few programs that receives an advanced appropriation. So the funding elimination envisioned in the House bill would take effect starting on Oct. 1.

The legislation revokes more than $8 billion from several foreign aid programs run by the U.S. State Department or the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Florida Republican Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, chairman of the State-Foreign Operations Appropriations subcommittee, said during an interview Wednesday there were extensive talks between GOP lawmakers and the Office of Management and Budget before the Trump administration officially submitted this rescissions request.

But Díaz-Balart cautioned there would need to be substantial pre-negotiations ahead of any future rescissions requests for programs within his annual funding bill.

“This rescission package — which I’ve had communication with OMB on — if this passes, we can move forward,” he said. “Now, if you’re talking about a potential for future additional rescissions, that could potentially create a problem and tie the president’s hands when it comes to dealing with adversaries or helping allies.”

Díaz-Balart said that OMB officials hoping to make any additional rescissions requests on foreign aid would need to engage in “a level of coordination that is so detailed, so intense to make sure that nothing comes forward that could potentially hurt the president’s ability to really do the America First agenda internationally.”

Florida Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel, ranking member on the State-Foreign Operations spending panel, said during floor debate Thursday the bill was an attack on American values and posed a threat to national security.

“It’s not charity, it’s strategy,” Frankel said of foreign aid. “Don’t take my word for it, military leaders from both parties have warned us for years — if we fail to lead with soft power, we’ll end up paying in blood, bombs and more boots on the ground.”

“Cutting foreign assistance will deepen desperation, fuel extremism, push fragile societies toward collapse and when that happens we all pay the price,” she added. “Refugee crises surge, diseases spread, trade routes shut down, our troops and diplomats face greater danger and our homeland security is weakened.”

First of many requests

The House vote took place just one week after the Trump administration sent lawmakers the rescissions request, the first of many proposals the White House budget office plans to submit. 

The $9.4 billion cancellation proposal represents a small fraction of the roughly $6.8 trillion the federal government spends each year.

The recommendation said some of the foreign aid should be cancelled because it supported “programs that are antithetical to American interests and worsen the lives of women and children, like ‘family planning’ and ‘reproductive health,’ LGBTQI+ activities, and ‘equity’ programs.”

The rescissions request allows the Office of Management and Budget to legally freeze funding on the programs listed for 45 days while lawmakers decide whether to approve the recommendation as is, amend it, or ignore it.

The House and Senate must agree to approve the same rescissions bill before mid-July for the changes to take effect. Failure to reach a bicameral agreement before then would require the Trump administration to spend the funding and block the president from requesting the same cancellation for the rest of his term.

Rescissions requests are rare since Congress typically negotiates spending levels on thousands of federal programs in the dozen annual spending bills that are then signed by the president.

The first Trump administration proposed rescissions in 2018, but the bill never made it through the Senate.

The last time Congress actually approved rescinding funding was in 1992 during the George H.W. Bush administration, according to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

More action in the Senate

The Senate will need to take up the bill before mid-July if it wants to approve any of the spending cuts, though several GOP senators told States Newsroom during brief interviews Wednesday ahead of the House vote they may amend the package, which would require it to go back to the House for final approval before the 45-day clock runs out.

Rescissions bills come with a vote-a-rama in the Senate, giving Republicans and Democrats the chance to call up as many amendments as they want for a floor vote. The GOP holds a 53-member majority, so four or more Republicans opposing any element of the bill would likely lead to its removal.

Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she will give the rescissions bill “careful consideration.”

In a statement released earlier this month just after the White House sent the request to lawmakers, Collins wrote the committee would “carefully review the rescissions package and examine the potential consequences of these rescissions on global health, national security, emergency communications in rural communities, and public radio and television stations.”

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the State-Foreign Operations Appropriations subcommittee, said he’s mostly supportive of the rescissions request, though he didn’t rule out offering an amendment to restore full funding for the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, often called PEPFAR.

“I think I’ll be okay with most of it. I’m concerned about PEPFAR. I’ll have to look at that,” Graham said.

West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, chairwoman of the spending panel that oversees the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, said she’s planning to evaluate the bill once it arrives.

“We’ve got all these other things I’m thinking about. I haven’t even focused on it,” Capito said, referring to ongoing negotiations over the party’s “big, beautiful bill.”

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, said she’s going to “try to” ensure the Corporation for Public Broadcasting keeps its funding.

“I’m a supporter of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It’s a lifeline for many of my small, rural communities,” Murkowski said

Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran, a senior appropriator, said he’s “trying to figure out a strategy of how to deal with” both the foreign aid and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting provisions once the bill comes over from the House.

“I’m looking at both of them to see what the right outcome should be.”

‘The risk of living in a news desert’

Both PBS and NPR released statements following the House vote, pledging to do their best to keep their funding intact.

Katherine Maher, NPR president and CEO, wrote in a statement the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is essential to the organization.

“Americans who rely on local, independent stations serving communities across America, especially in rural and underserved regions, will suffer the immediate consequences of this vote,” Maher wrote. “If rescission passes and local stations go dark, millions of Americans will no longer have access to locally owned, independent, nonprofit media and will bear the risk of living in a news desert, missing their emergency alerts, and hearing silence where classical, jazz and local artists currently play.”

Paula Kerger, president and CEO at PBS, wrote in a separate statement the “fight to protect public media does not end with this vote, and we will continue to make the case for our essential service in the days and weeks to come.

“If these cuts are finalized by the Senate, it will have a devastating impact on PBS and local member stations, particularly smaller and rural stations that rely on federal funding for a larger portion of their budgets. Without PBS and local member stations, Americans will lose unique local programming and emergency services in times of crisis.”

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Despite arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the Milwaukee County Courthouse complex, many county officials want residents to know that courthouse services remain available regardless of citizenship status.

Israel Ramón, the Milwaukee County register of deeds, sees access to his office at the courthouse as a fundamental right of every resident in the county.

“I work for 950,000 people,” Ramón said. 

What is a register of deeds?

When people think of essential county services, the register of deeds might not come to mind. But Ramón has a way of making his office sound impossible to live without. 

If people want to drive a car, prove legal identity, apply for Social Security or access food benefits in Milwaukee County, among other tasks, they need documents maintained by Ramón’s office.

When Wisconsin became a state in 1848, the register of deeds was established as one of a handful of constitutional county offices – positions created by the state constitution and filled by local elections. 

Like a sheriff or a judge, people needed a register of deeds to help organize aspects of their daily lives. 

It’s the same today, Ramón said. 

“Most of the time, people don’t think that my office impacts their lives. But from birth to death and throughout their tenure in the county – my office does it all.” 

Ramón’s office issues birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates – documents known as vital records.

His office also records and archives real property documents for Milwaukee County. Real property includes real estate – the physical land and buildings – as well as the legal rights associated with owning, using and transferring it.

Altogether, Ramón said his office maintains an archive of about 12 million documents. 

Access to courthouse complex

All residents of Milwaukee County, Ramón argues, deserve access to these records – regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or immigration status. 

If, for example, an undocumented mother needs to obtain a birth certificate for her U.S.-born son to enroll him in school, she has the same right to that document as any other parent, according to Ramón. 

Ramón believes the ICE arrests at the courthouse complex threaten that right.

These arrests also threaten access to the full range of services offered in the complex, said Alan Chavoya, outreach chair of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racism & Political Repression, a community group critical of the immigration policies of the Trump administration. 

Chavoya spoke with NNS at an April news conference at the courthouse, organized to oppose ICE arrests there. 

“People don’t realize that this complex actually houses so many different services,” Chavoya said. “The county supervisors are here. People pay some taxes here. I served jury duty here.”

“A restraining order – you’re supposed to be able to get help here to file one,” he added. “People who might need one but have mixed status probably aren’t going to come here to get one, right?”

ICE at the courthouse

The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution on April 24 calling on the county executive, chief judge and sheriff to work together to ensure access to courthouse services. 

However, the resolution does not impose any new restrictions on immigration enforcement. 

Ramón remains focused on what he can do. He said he will ask anyone not conducting official business in his office to leave, including ICE agents without a judicial warrant. 

A judicial warrant allows officers to make arrests in both private and public areas, while administrative warrants – typically used for immigration-related arrests – permit arrests only in public areas. 

As a constitutional officer, the register of deeds has authority over how services are provided, in accordance with state and federal laws, said a spokesperson from the Milwaukee County Executive’s Office. 

Failing to remove barriers that prevent people from accessing his office, including fear of immigration enforcement, would mean failing to uphold the oath of office he took, Ramón said.

His office also offers free notary services to all Milwaukee County residents, including for documents immigrant rights groups are urging families to prepare. 

This includes legal documents such as power-of-attorney forms, which people fearing family separation can use to ensure someone else is able to legally care for their children or manage their finances. 

But, again, Ramón makes clear that this service is for every resident of the county. 

In addition to what he sees as his public duties, he draws on his personal background to underscore his commitment to accessibility. 

He told NNS he is a U.S. citizen born in Mexico, the first Latino constitutional officer in Wisconsin and one of the first openly LGBTQ+ ones.

Gesturing to the LGBTQ+, U.S. and Mexican flags displayed on his bookshelf, Ramón said, “That’s who I am.” 

For more information

Milwaukee County residents can request records in person, online or by phone, depending on the type of record. 

For more information or to request records online, visit the Milwaukee County Register of Deeds website. 

Ramón’s office can be reached at 414-278-4021 with questions. 

The office is located at 901 N. 9th St., Room 103, and is open to the public Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

People can find a list of other services available at the courthouse complex. 

‘I work for 950,000 people’: Milwaukee County official reminds residents of their rights amid ICE arrests is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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As they hit the streets, members of 414LIFE, a community and hospital-based violence intervention program, know their efforts could literally mean the difference between life and death. 

That theory was put to the test recently when 414LIFE members showed up to diffuse a neighborhood dispute that also involved law enforcement officers on Milwaukee’s North Side. If not for that intervention, Lynn Lewis, executive director of 414LIFE, believes the incident could have ended in tragedy. 

“Frontline workers go into situations where emotions are high, where people are riled up and thinking about retaliation,” Lewis said. 

As temperature rises, so can violence

Lewis said her 414LIFE team of 15 violence interrupters and outreach workers has hit the streets hard in recent weeks, responding to an uptick in violence. 

“There have been about seven shootings and four homicides in the last 72 hours,” Lewis said during a community pop-up recently near Milwaukee Fire Station 5 on the North Side. 

Reggie Moore is the director of violence prevention policy and engagement at the Comprehensive Injury Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin, which implements the program for the city of Milwaukee.

He said shootings over the past three weeks have kept the 414LIFE team busy. 

Many of the shootings, he said, involved interfamily conflict or intimate partner violence. And while the violence typically rises with the temperature, Moore said, it’s the sheer volume of guns on the streets that presents the biggest problem. 

“The presence of a firearm increases the risk of arguments or conflicts resulting in serious injuries or death,” he said. “People are losing their lives and freedom over a moment of anger. 

“Our team along with our partners have been working around the clock responding to scenes and hospitals to support impacted families and neighborhoods.” 

‘Life is bigger than just the hood’

Lewis said the group held several pop-ups recently along with staff from Credible Messengers, a Milwaukee County violence intervention program. One was at Tiefenthaler Park, 2501 W. Galena St., where a shooting occurred after a vigil recently. 

“We talk to people in hot spots like that about the need to change up before they end up incarcerated or dead,” Lewis said. “We need to stop the bleeding.” 

The interrupters are well versed in the street lifestyle, having lived through the same challenges that people in the community face now. 

One message they share, whether it’s with youths or adults, Lewis said, “is that life is bigger than just the hood.” 

They talk about goals and share resources such as information on jobs, food and other programs to help the people they serve build social capital and eventually change their attitudes toward gun violence, she said. 

“Milwaukee, we need to stop shooting and start healing,” Lewis said. 

Community violence intervention programs like 414 LIFE take a public health approach to reducing violence and improving community safety, Moore said.

He said the 414LIFE program, which was inspired by the Blueprint for Peace, is the longest community violence intervention program in Milwaukee. 

In addition to a street team, 414LIFE also has a hospital-based component that offers services to victims of gun violence.  

“Our colleagues at Froedtert Hospital are also feeling the weight of these shootings just as much as our street teams on the front line,” Moore said. “Working in the streets and hospitals, 414LIFE has been engaging with families and others impacted by shootings across the city.” 

The 414LIFE community team was involved in 49 conflict mediations in 2024, with nearly 90% being resolved, Moore said during a May 22 presentation on the program to the Common Council’s Public Safety and Health Committee. 

The team spent 1,388 hours on conflict resolution activities and 2,678 hours on behavior and community norm change activities and worked with 25 youths in 2024. 

Aside from mediations, team members also have active caseloads of individuals referred to them by hospitals, the Office of Community Wellness and Safety and individuals they’ve met during outreach. 

Data from 414LIFE’s April monthly report shows that caseloads have increased recently, from 36 in January to 50 in April. The team has logged more than 1,200 hours so far this year on behavior change and public accompaniment efforts and more than 100 hours on direct violence intervention. 

Evidence of the program’s effectiveness, according to Moore, is that last year’s 414LIFE priority neighborhood, Old North Milwaukee, experienced a 31% decrease in homicides and a 6% decrease in nonfatal shootings in 2024, based on data from the Milwaukee Police Department. 

So far this year, homicides are down 50% and nonfatal shootings 43% in Old North Milwaukee. 

During his presentation to the Public Safety and Health Committee, Moore said each homicide in Milwaukee costs the city more than $2 million in hospital, criminal investigation, incarceration and other costs, while each shooting costs the city over half a million dollars. 

Who are 414LIFE members? 

While lived experience helps 414LIFE’s street team talk the talk and walk the walk, it’s the extensive training the members receive that gives them the tools to walk into a volatile situation to prevent bloodshed. 

Lewis said her team operates under the Cure Violence model, which works to reduce the risk of retaliation, revictimization and other community violence through credible messengers.  

To strengthen those skills, each member goes through the Academy for Transformational Change training, which uses a community asset approach to serve neighborhoods most impacted by crime and incarceration. 

Members also receive shooting response, Narcan, Stop the Bleed, Mental Health First Aid and other training, she said. 

“The team is highly trained,” Lewis said. “They also have passion and grit.” 

Challenges for violence interruption programs

While violence interruption efforts continue in Milwaukee, funding cuts, particularly at the federal level, threaten the future of violence prevention programming. 

According to a report by the Council on Criminal Justice, the Trump administration has cut federal funding for community safety and violence intervention programming by more than $168 million. 

“This work is under attack,” said David Muhammad, deputy director of the Department of Health and Human Services for Milwaukee County, during a pop-up event. “We have to fight for the resources we have.” 

In addition to 414LIFE and other local community violence intervention programs, a key to help maintain the reduction of violence that Milwaukee has experienced over the past two years is residents, Moore said.  

“Peace starts with the people, and we must ensure that firearms are securely stored and not accessible to individuals prohibited from having them,” he said. 

414LIFE: Milwaukee street intervention team seeks to disrupt gun violence 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 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: PBS supports ‘a particular political party’

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.”

PBS says federal funds ‘instrumental’ for operations

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.”

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.

New York Times story on Musk drug use

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 desires bigger tax cuts from Senate

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.”

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.

sgrinavi/Reddit

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

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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 point of the dashboard 

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. 

What’s missing?

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. 

Persistent problem

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.” 

MPD and root causes

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.

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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.

SDC’s response

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.” 

Dispute over proper documentation 

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. 

State legislators ask for voluntary de-designation 

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.” 

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Edgar Mendez contributed to this report.

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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.

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.”

‘Viewpoint-based discrimination’

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.

Power of the purse

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.”

For most people, a small parking mishap is more of a nuisance than a real problem. But when your vehicle is packed with sensors, custom parts, and carries a price tag north of $65,000, a light tap can spiral into something much more stressful. That’s exactly what happened to one Rivian R1S owner, whose seemingly minor accident now has him worried the SUV could be totaled.

The incident happened when the driver accidentally backed into a parked UPS truck. “I thought I was looking at its shadow in the camera,” the driver wrote on Reddit. To their credit, it appears as though they stopped quickly after making contact.

Small Damage, Big Anxiety

The rear light bar is cracked and the tailgate has a golf ball-sized dent as well. How on earth could someone worry that this is enough damage to total an SUV worth north of $65,000? Well, it’s a common concern for EV owners in this particular community. Almost exactly a year ago, we told you about a Rivian R1T with damage to the rear corner of its truck bed.

More: Rivian Owner’s DIY Repair Saves Thousands After Mishap And Teaches Us A Lesson

The repair bill ended up being $21,149.16. An R1S owner in the comment section showed off their own repair bill of $10,803.65 for an upper C-pillar accident that narrowly avoided cracking the glass. Despite what looks like less than a square foot of damage, the labor alone was $2,322.

Things might be improving for Rivian owners, though. In another incident from February, we see damage that appears almost identical to that of this new case. That accident earlier this year cost $7,490.34. On top of that, another owner showed us in March how they saved thousands by using pointless dent repair (PDR) and their own skills.

Also: Can You Believe This Rivian R1T Damage Repair Cost $21,000?

Others suggested in the comments that this owner go the same route. Light bars like the one he damaged are available on the second-hand market and PDR can cost as little as a few hundred bucks. One guessed that the repair costs through a certified shop would be around $15,000 which, while a considerable amount, wouldn’t be totally shocking for a Rivian.

Of course, it’s always possible the original poster is being a bit tongue-in-cheek. Still, it’s a reminder that even a light bump in a high-tech EV can turn into a surprisingly complicated and expensive process.

Photo Reddit/u auptown