The Social Development Commission’s property corporation faces a foreclosure lawsuit for owing nearly $3 million in mortgage payments on its North Avenue buildings in Milwaukee, according to court records.
SD Properties Inc. is the tax-exempt corporation that owns the buildings of the Social Development Commission, or SDC.
Forward Community Investments Inc., a community development financial institution with Madison and Milwaukee offices, filed a complaint March 27 against SD Properties and SDC with the Milwaukee County Circuit Court.
SD Properties owes Forward Community Investments approximately $2.3 million in principal and interest for a 2020 construction mortgage and about $679,000 for a 2023 mortgage, for a total of just under $2.98 million, according to the complaint.
“FCI would be thrilled to see the critical services provided by CR-SDC return to the community,” said Ryan Zerwer, president & CEO of Forward Community Investments, in a statement. “However, the past 12 months, communication from SD Properties, Inc. has failed to provide sufficient information on actionable plans to fully resume operations and start meeting their financial obligations.”
William Sulton, SDC’s attorney, confirmed that SD Properties is in default on its mortgage payments.
“SDC has been in discussions with FCI about what kind of remedies they intend to pursue, so I guess it’s not a complete surprise,” Sulton said.
“I think the impact of the foreclosure case is it puts the North Avenue building at risk, and if there is no North Avenue building, then that is the majority of programs that SDC had in ’23.”
SDC also is listed on the lawsuit as a defendant as a guarantor for SD Properties.
Background and timeline
Forward Community Investments has been a lender to SD Properties since 2015 through its Community Development Loan Fund, which provides “financing to nonprofit organizations and community organizations for mission-focused projects that will work to reduce racial and socioeconomic disparities across the state of Wisconsin,” according to the complaint.
SD Properties entered into a construction mortgage on Jan. 22, 2020, of approximately $1.98 million plus interest, and then modified the agreement on July 22, 2020, to increase the total amount to $2.36 million.
In March 2023, SD Properties entered into a separate agreement in which it would owe about $665,000 and interest for a mortgage of five property parcels, which include the main office at 1730 North Ave., a warehouse at 1810 North Ave. and parking lots, according to court documents.
SD Properties defaulted on a “significant loan” in April 2024, according to Zerwer.
SD Properties also defaulted because it did not pay the entire amount of debt and interest owed for 2020 mortgage by the end date, or maturity date, of Dec. 22, 2024, according to the complaint.
Forbearance action stalled
Before the legal filing, Forward Community Investments presented SD Properties in the fall with a forbearance agreement, in which it would refrain from immediately collecting the obligations due from SD Properties, and revised it several times.
However, Zerwer said revisions on the agreement reached an impasse in March.
SDC board members discussed a “time-sensitive” resolution related to SD Properties at an emergency meeting on March 24 and decided to postpone taking action.
“We’ve been doing many strategic moves to prevent the foreclosure of this building and possibly a deficiency judgment against our Teutonia (location),” said Vincent Bobot, an SDC commissioner and chair of the SD Properties board, at the meeting.
“If there’s not a foreclosure, it means it’s still going to be drawn out and still take quite some time, but nevertheless, we want that time,” he said.
Board members planned to return to the item at a later meeting so they could discuss it directly with Sulton, who was not at the meeting.
The forbearance agreement would allow SD Properties to keep the North Avenue main office and the 18th Street warehouse, Sulton said, but SDC’s main issue now is having no funding.
“Even if we win the lawsuit, without any funding, we’ll just end up with another lawsuit down the road,” Sulton said.
Legal proceedings
SD Properties has retained attorneys from Kerkman & Dunn to represent it in the foreclosure case, Sulton said.
SDC and SD Properties have 20 days to respond to the summons and complaint before the case proceeds in court.
“We feel we have been patient and extended every opportunity to the leadership of SD Properties, Inc. to work in partnership with us to resolve the loan default,” Zerwer said. “In fact, we call upon SD Properties, Inc. to once again work with us on a forbearance plan.”
Public hearing Friday on SDC
The Wisconsin Department of Children and Families is hosting a public hearing on SDC’s designation as a community action agency from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, April 4.
The hearing will be held in the Milwaukee State Office Building, 819 N. 6th St., in Conference Rooms 40 and 45 on the first floor.
When East Noble School District’s transportation operation needed to make security updates, the district found itself in urgent need to move to Transfinder’s cloud-based Routefinder PLUS platform.
The move to PLUS was a game-changer for the Kendallville, Ind. District that serves some 4,000 students. Josh Buhro, the Kendallville, Ind district’s transportation director, set out to not only restore the district’s transportation operation but also significantly enhance its efficiency.
He accomplished both by implementing Transfinder’s Routefinder PLUS routing solution.
“We jumped in full steam ahead,” Buhro said.
A History of Transportation Technology at East Noble
Buhro has been in transportation for nearly a decade. When he first joined East Noble, the district was using (another company), a routing software he described as clunky and not user-friendly. Looking for an upgrade, East Noble had switched to Transfinder’s Routefinder Pro solution five years ago, which had been recommended by neighboring districts.
Then in 2024, the district moved to the award-winning Routefinder PLUS.
“There are districts around us who had moved to PLUS and had nothing but good things to say,” Buhro recalled. “They were implementing is and moving forward and I was maybe a little stubborn.”
He added, it was more of an “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it kind of thing. But looking back, I was scared of stuff. I shouldn’t have been scared. Ultimately, I think we’re in a better place now.”
During the move to Routefinder PLUS, Buhro and his team, including a newly hired transportation secretary who attended Transfinder University Livestream. This training proved invaluable, allowing them to quickly adapt to the new platform. The secretary, with no prior experience with Transfinder’s solutions, found PLUS to be highly intuitive, taking to it “like a fish to water,” Buhro said. “They said, ‘Josh, don’t be scared of it!’”
The Advantages of PLUS
One of the biggest surprises for Buhro and his team was how seamlessly PLUS integrated with other Transfinder tools the district uses, such as Tripfinder, the district’s field trip management solution, and Viewfinder, a solution that provides an overview of the district’s operation and student rider data.
“We love Tripfinder,” he said. “It allows us to manage our buses, our resources and our drivers. We’ve got some custom reports set up. Quite frankly, I don’t know how we would manage our extracurricular activity trips without the use of Tripfinder. It cuts out so much of that cumbersome sort of communication piece that used to have to take place by phone or email,” Buhro said.
He noted that one morning he had 36 extracurricular and field trips requests that he was able to quickly assign.
“It does it all for us, other than drive the bus,” Buhro said, “and that’s the part that’s easy for us to manage.”
Regarding the PLUS platform, Buhro described it as more user-friendly, efficient and responsive. He highlighted:
Ease of Use: Editing routes is easy. PLUS allows for simple, drag-and-drop modifications. “You just right-click and edit,” Buhro noted, highlighting how much more intuitive the system is.
Streamlined Communication: Tripfinder revolutionized how East Noble manages field trips, athletics and extracurricular activities. Requests are processed digitally, eliminating the cumbersome back-and-forth that used to take place via phone and email.
Transfinder Community: The online Transfinder Community portal provides a wealth of resources, including video tutorials and guides, which allows Buhro and his team to troubleshoot issues independently. “Anytime we’ve got a question, that’s the first place we go and there are usually videos in the library or trainings that have been done. Rarely, if ever, do we actually reach out to support.”
Enhanced Support: When direct support is needed, Transfinder’s response times were “obscenely fast,” often returning calls within minutes.
Buhro said the Transfinder team understands the need for speedy response times.
“Even three days before school started they need it was critical for us to have things up and running,” he said. ‘They put in the time to help us make things happen. We’re very grateful for all that support and input.”
A New Era for East Noble’s Transportation
In a district serving multiple schools, including a high school, middle school and five elementary schools, an efficient transportation system is crucial. The ability to quickly assign drivers, manage routes, and coordinate field trips is no small feat.
Thanks to Transfinder’s PLUS platform, East Noble has improved its transportation operation. What began as an urgent need has ultimately led to a stronger, more resilient system that better serves students, staff and the community.
“There are so many pieces of it that are just intuitive,” Buhro said.
As Buhro reflected on the transition, he expressed gratitude for the support and partnership from Transfinder. “We were very fortunate with the trainer we were assigned. They let us work at our own pace and answered every question we had.”
With a solid foundation in place and considering new tools in the future, East Noble School District is well-positioned for what’s around the bend.
Future Plans with Transfinder
With the great results from the move to PLUS, East Noble is now exploring additional Transfinder tools, such as the driver app Wayfinder, which offers turn-by-turn navigation and attendance, and the parent app Stopfinder, which provides information on bus location and two-way communication between parents and the transportation department. These tools could further assist the transportation operation in dealing with issues such as substitute drivers and last-minute route changes.
“Based on the success with that [PLUS] implementation, that’s what’s been the impetus for us to investigate Wayfinder and Stopfinder solutions for turn-by-turn directions and fleet tracking,” Buhro said.
Buhro emphasized the importance of ensuring these tools integrate smoothly with their existing processes.
“I need to make sure it’ll do everything we’re doing now—and do it better,” he said.
Buhro said he knows the Transfinder team will be there to help along the way.
“You guys did a beautiful job of easing concerns and getting us rolling with the new stuff,” he said.
To learn more about Routefinder PLUS or Transfinder’s suite of solutions, visit Transfinder.com, email getplus@transfinder.com or call 800-373-3609.
The views expressed are those of the content sponsor and do not reflect those of School Transportation News.
Jack Kelly of Wisconsin Watch waits with reporters outside the state Capitol for a press conference to begin in September 2023. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)
Journalists at Wisconsin Watch — a nonprofit news organization that includes the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service — have ratified their first union contract.
The agreement, signed on Friday, March 28, includes minimum salary guarantees and annual cost-of-living increases along with layoff restrictions, severance pay and benefits as well as “just cause” protections against arbitrary terminations, according to the Wisconsin Watch Union. The contract also includes provisions for medical, parental, caregiver and bereavement leave.
The union is a subunit of Milwaukee NewsGuild Local 34051, which also represents newsroom employees at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“I’m really proud of the outcome,” said Jack Kelly, a Wisconsin Watch reporter and union bargaining team member. Staffers represented by the union were active in advocating for their priorities during contract negotiations, giving personal testimony about issues important to them, he said.
“They put some faces and names to the numbers we were asking for,” Kelly said in an interview Monday. “I think the contract is going to make Wisconsin Watch and Neighborhood News Service better places to work.”
Kelly also commended Wisconsin Watch management’s handling of the bargaining process.
“We certainly had meetings that were long and stressful, but I think in general we were able to engage a collegial approach to bargaining,” Kelly said.
“We’ll continue to do great journalism knowing our workplace is more structured, secure and protected,” said Phoebe Petrovic, a Wisconsin Watch investigative reporter who was among those who initiated the union organizing effort, in a statement released by the union.
Wisconsin Watch journalists announced theirunion organizing campaign in October 2023, and the organization’s board subsequently agreedto voluntarily recognize the union. Protection against arbitrary firings was among the goals employees cited.
Wisconsin Watch was founded in 2009 as the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, still its legal name. The Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service became part of Wisconsin Watch in July 2024 and its employees became part of the bargaining unit.
Devin Blake, a Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service reporter who joined the bargaining team, said that in addition to tangible gains the union brought him closer to coworkers. “I have such a clearer sense of what matters to their lives and work,” Blake said in the union’s statement.
Digital news outlets and nonprofit news organizations have seen growing union representation in the last several years, with outlets including ProPublica and The Marshall Project joining the ranks of unionized newsrooms.
Rivians and other EVs can be costly to repair after an accident, so one owner found a solution.
He replaced a damaged tail light himself and used paintless dent repair to fix body damage.
This solution could become a viable option for R1S and R1T owners facing similar situations.
How many times have we seen Rivian owners grumble about spending a small – or sometimes large -fortune on seemingly minor repairs after a fender bender or mishap? Dominic Wilkerson uses his Rivian R1T like the off-road-ready truck that it is. As such, he’s had a mishap or two on the trails.
In one recent incident, he accidentally damaged his rear tail light and tailgate. Rather than take it to Rivian for an expensive repair, he decided to tackle the job himself. The result? The total cost came in under $1,000, and the truck looks almost as good as new.
As Wilkerson points out, many Rivian owners (rightly) live in constant fear that any kind of damage, no matter how minor, will result in a total loss. And, honestly, those folks aren’t totally out of their minds. Rear-end damage to a Rivian can be both expensive and complicated to fix, as we’ve seen time and time again. But Wilkerson wasn’t about to roll over and accept that fate. He took matters into his own hands.
The Repair Process: Not As Hard As It Sounds
First, he needed a tail light, which he sourced from Rivian’s Seattle service center for $700. In the video below, he demonstrates exactly what it takes to replace the part. In short, it’s a simple procedure that most gearheads and shadetree mechanics can accomplish. The really tricky part of the entire process was fixing the dents he’d put in his tailgate.
As it turns out, though, he’s familiar with paintless dent repair. No, he didn’t tackle the job himself, but rather he sourced a high-quality PDR professional to do the work. For just $200, the technician managed to pull out the big dents in his tailgate and even straighten some imperfections in the middle of it.
While Wilkerson admits that it’s not technically perfect, it’s the kind of fix that most people wouldn’t notice from 10 feet away. His attitude about it now is that, while he might eventually get the rest fixed, part of him appreciates the “battle scars” that show his truck is actually used for what it was made for.
Why Not Use Insurance?
Now, some readers might be asking why Wilkerson didn’t just file an insurance claim. Well, he addressed that too. “By the time I go through the whole process, I’d be without my vehicle for weeks,” he explained. And that’s a very valid concern. Given the notoriously long repair wait times at Rivian service centers, it’s not surprising that many owners would rather avoid the hassle entirely.
On top of that, insurance companies are totaling more vehicles than ever before. A recent study says that there’s a 42 percent chance of damage leading to a total loss than there was just a few years ago. While Wilkerson’s incident might not have led to that outcome, doing it the way he did assured that it wasn’t even possible.
President Donald Trump holds up an executive order after signing it during an indoor inauguration parade at Capital One Arena on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. The executive order canceling refugee resettlement funding was among those Trump signed on his first day back in office. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Tuesday appealed a federal judge’s order that the State Department restore contracts to nonprofits that aid in refugee resettlement.
In a late Monday written order, U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead of the Western District of Washington found the department unlawfully canceled contracts to the group, saying executive branch management of a refugee resettlement program did not extend to an order virtually eliminating it.
“While the Government enjoys significant discretion in administering (U.S. Refugee Admissions Program), that discretion does not extend to abandoning statutory obligations or rendering the program effectively inoperative,” Whitehead, whom President Joe Biden appointed to the bench, said in the order.
Whitehead gave the government until March 31 to submit a report showing that it is complying with the order.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed an appeal Monday that will be heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
Melissa Keaney, the lead attorney for International Refugee Assistance Project, the group representing the religious organization challenging the cancellations, said in a statement that “it’s time for the government to live up to its moral and legal obligations by fully restoring funding and access to this lifesaving program.”
“The court has been clear yet again,” she said. “The government’s efforts to dismantle the refugee resettlement system are unlawful and harming refugees whose lives have been thrown into limbo.”
Written order follows verbal
The additional injunction came after the State Department seemed to ignore a verbal injunction Whitehead granted from the bench last month ordering the Trump administration to restore the refugee processing services.
The department terminated its contracts with several religious groups providing refugee services just one day after Whitehead’s verbal order.
The lawsuit was filed by the International Refugee Assistance Project on behalf of Church World Service, Lutheran Community Services Northwest and Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, or HIAS. The suit also includes nine individuals who are affected by the pause in services, such as refugees who had their resettlement flights canceled, a local refugee sponsor and families trying to reunite.
The suit stems from President Donald Trump’s executive order suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, as well as the administration’s withholding of funds appropriated by Congress for those services.
That order directed officials at the State Department and U.S. Department of Homeland Security to submit a report every 90 days to the White House about refugee resettlement. From that report, the president will then determine whether refugee resettlement is “in the interests of the United States.”
Democratic U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey of Maryland speaks at a rally in support of federal workers outside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has begun the process of reinstating tens of thousands of fired federal workers, though most are just being placed on administrative leave as the government cites the “burdens” of rehiring, court filings reviewed by States Newsroom show.
The documents also show, agency by agency, the wide swath of firings that swept across the federal government in February and early March.
A federal judge in Maryland last week ruled the recent terminations of probationary employees were illegal and ordered the administration to reinstate the workers across 18 federal agencies by 1 p.m. Eastern Monday. Nineteen Democratic attorneys general and the District of Columbia sued the administration over the firings.
The mass firings began in early February as part of President Donald Trump’s U.S. DOGE Service cost-cutting agenda. Elon Musk, a White House adviser and top donor to Trump’s reelection, is the face of the temporary DOGE project, though the administration maintains he has no decision-making power.
According to the courtfilings late Monday, the agencies have returned almost 19,000 employees to administrative leave out of the 24,418 fired. The filings provided the most comprehensive list to date of the federal workforce downsizing that spanned February into March.
Judge James Bredar of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland ordered the agencies on Tuesday to provide a progress update by early next week. Bredar was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2010 and confirmed by a Senate voice vote.
The lawsuit was filed March 6 by Democratic attorneys general in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
Workers on leave, some ‘until further notice’
Some agencies, like the departments of Commerce and Transportation, indicated that employees would only be on paid administrative leave temporarily until paperwork and other procedures were finished.
Others, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, have given employees paid administrative leave status “until further notice.”
The government argued that reinstating the terminated employees to full duty status “would impose substantial burdens” on the agencies and cause “turmoil for the terminated employees”
“[T]hey would have to be onboarded again, including going through any applicable training, filling out human resources paperwork, obtaining new security badges, reinstituting applicable security clearance actions, receiving government furnished equipment, and other requisite administrative actions,” according to the filings from several department representatives.
But “nonetheless,” the agency representatives said they began complying with Bredar’s order even as the cancellation of terminations was a “very time and labor intensive process,” wrote Mark D. Green, deputy assistant secretary for human capital, learning and safety at the Department of the Interior.
“The tremendous uncertainty associated with this confusion and these administrative burdens impede supervisors from appropriately managing their workforce. Work schedules and assignments are effectively being tied to hearing and briefing schedules set by the courts. It will be extremely difficult to assign new work to reinstated individuals in light of the uncertainty over their future status,” Green continued in his legal declaration required by Judge Bredar.
The agency representatives also wrote “employees could be subjected to multiple changes in their employment status in a matter of weeks” if an appellate ruling reverses the lower court order.
The Trump administration appealed the district court ruling Friday to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
California judge issues warning
The March 13 temporary restraining order out of Maryland was the second on that date mandating agencies rehire terminated workers. A federal judge in California separately ordered the government to reinstate thousands of employees at six federal agencies.
District Judge William Alsup in the Northern District of California warned in a court filing late Monday that the agencies must comply by fully returning employees to their jobs.
“The Court has read news reports that, in at least one agency, probationary employees are being rehired but then placed on administrative leave en masse. This is not allowed by the preliminary injunction, for it would not restore the services the preliminary injunction intends to restore,” Alsup wrote, requesting a status report Tuesday. Alsup was appointed by former President Bill Clinton in 1999 and confirmed by a Senate voice vote.
The Trump administration quickly appealed the California ruling last week to the U.S. Appeals Court for the 9th Circuit.
A three-judge panel for the 9th Circuit Monday ruled 2-1 to deny the Trump administration’s emergency request to block the workers’ reinstatement.
Employees new on the job
Probationary employees were targeted by the Office of Personnel Management on the first day of Trump’s second presidency, according to court documents.
The employees, who are within one or two years of being hired or beginning a new position, have “extremely limited protections against termination,” agency representatives wrote.
The Office of Personnel and Management sent emails Jan. 20 to department heads stating that “agencies should identify all employees on probationary periods” and “should promptly determine whether those employees should be retained at the agency,” according to the court filing.
Agency by agency list
Department and agency representatives detailed the following termination numbers in the Monday filings (not all agencies provided total numbers of probationary employees):
Health and Human Services: 3,248 of its 8,466 probationary workers were placed on administrative leave between Feb. 15 and March 13 (and remain on extended leave); 88 were subsequently fired and placed back on leave as of Monday.
Environmental Protection Agency: 419 probationary employees were terminated between Feb. 14 and Feb. 21. “Most” were returned to paid administrative leave Monday. Some who were in “unpaid leave status” were returned to that status.
Energy: 555 were terminated “on or around” Feb. 13 and Feb 14. All 555 were returned Monday to retroactive administrative leave status “that will continue until their badging and IT access are restored, at which time they will be converted to an Active Duty status.”
Commerce: 791 of the agency’s roughly 9,000 probationary employees were terminated up until March 3. Twenty-seven were reinstated soon after, and 764 were placed back on paid administrative leave Monday. The agency plans to move them to full duty status within a week, according to the filing.
Homeland Security: 313 employees were terminated through March 14. With a few exceptions of employees who resigned or declined to return, DHS placed 310 back on paid administrative leave.
Transportation: 788 employees were terminated between Feb. 14 and Feb. 24. DOT informed 775 that they’ve been placed on paid administrative leave until Wednesday. “The Department of Transportation will coordinate the specifics of their return, including the restoration of their government equipment and Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card,” according to the filing.
Education: Without providing specific dates, the department terminated 65 of its 108 probationary employees before Judge Bredar’s March 13 order. All have now been placed on paid administrative leave.
Housing and Urban Development: The agency terminated 312 of its 549 probationary employees on Feb. 14. About 299 are being brought back “temporarily” on administrative leave.
Interior: As of Monday night, Interior had reinstated roughly 1,540 of the 1,710 workers fired on Feb. 14.
Labor: 170 were terminated but reinstated before March 7.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 117 employees were terminated between Feb. 11 and Feb. 13. All were notified Sunday that they “will be immediately placed on administrative leave status while the CFPB continues to act to comply with the TRO and/or employees are to be assigned work by management/supervisors,” according to the filing.
Small Business Administration: 304 of the SBA’s 700 probationary employees were terminated between Feb. 11 and Feb. 25. The agency was unable to notify seven employees about reinstatement. Roughly 164 were returned to non-pay intermittent status, while the rest were returned to paid administrative leave.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: 156 of its 261 probationary employees were terminated between Feb. 18 and 19; 151 were placed on paid administrative leave as of Monday.
USAID: 270 of the agency’s 295 probationary employees were fired March 7. All have been reinstated to paid administrative leave.
General Services Administration: 366 of its 812 probationary employees were terminated between Feb. 13 and March 7. While two declined reinstatement, 364 were placed Monday on paid administrative leave.
Treasury: 7,605 of Treasury’s 16,663 probationary employees were fired between Feb. 19 and March 7. All have been reinstated to paid administrative leave status.
Agriculture: 5,714 probationary employees were terminated between Feb. 13 and 17. The department is “working diligently” to restore employees to active duty status, according to the filing. The employees have been returned to paid or unpaid leave as of March 12.
Veterans Affairs: 1,683 of the VA’s roughly 46,000 probationary employees were terminated between Feb. 13 to 24. All were placed on paid administrative leave.
USAID ruling
In a separate case against Trump and DOGE’s workforce-slashing agenda, a federal judge in Maryland on Tuesday ruled Musk likely violated the Constitution when orchestrating the shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.
Judge Theodore David Chuang for the U.S. District Court in the District of Maryland demanded Musk and any personnel working for DOGE refrain from any further action related to dismantling USAID.
Chuang also ordered Musk and DOGE to reinstate computer and email access for all current USAID employees and contractors within seven days. Additionally, he ordered Musk and DOGE to strike an agreement within 14 days that would reopen the former USAID headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Musk’s DOGE personnel forced their way into the humanitarian agency’s headquarters in early February ahead of the mass firings.
The shuttering of U.S. humanitarian missions around the world sparked protests in the nation’s capital.
Chuang, an Obama appointee, was approved by the Senate in 2014 in a 53-42 vote.
The White House slammed the court order Tuesday, alleging that “rogue judges are subverting the will of the American people in their attempts to stop President Trump from carrying out his agenda.”
“If these Judges want to force their partisan ideologies across the government, they should run for office themselves. The Trump Administration will appeal this miscarriage of justice and fight back against all activist judges intruding on the separation of powers,” said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly in an emailed statement.
Earlier Tuesday, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare statement following Trump’s morning social media attack on federal judges, calling for their impeachment.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
U.S. Capitol at sunset on March 8, 2024. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate cleared a stopgap spending bill Friday that will fund the government through the end of September, sending the legislation to President Donald Trump.
The White House said on Saturday afternoon that Trump had signed the measure, avoiding a partial government shutdown.
Trump’s signature, a day after the 54-46 Senate vote, will keep the federal government mostly running on autopilot under spending levels and policy similar to what Congress approved about a year ago when lawmakers passed the full-year appropriations bills for the last fiscal year. But the stopgap bill does slightly boost defense spending while reducing domestic funding authority.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was the only Republican to vote against passage. Maine independent Sen. Angus King and New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen voted to approve the bill, the only ones backing it besides Republicans.
Senate approval followed days of debate among Democrats over whether to support moving forward with the GOP-authored bill or see a shutdown begin that Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said would allow Trump to take even more power over the government.
Debate on the House-passed stopgap spending bill was more complex than usual. A majority of Senate Democrats believe the continuing resolution shortchanges important federal programs and doesn’t do enough to reinforce Congress’ constitutional authority over spending in light of Trump’s efforts to remake the size and scope of the federal government.
Many of those actions are on hold as dozens of lawsuits move through the federal court system. But Democrats who opposed the bill felt that lawmakers must make their voices heard as well.
Other Democrats argued a partial government shutdown would give Trump more leeway to make funding decisions and further harm federal workers.
Republicans largely supported the stopgap spending bill. However, many lamented that the House and Senate didn’t do more to reach agreement on the dozen full-year government funding bills.
‘Inherently a failure
Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said the stopgap spending bill wasn’t her first choice for funding the government, but that it was the only option on the table to prevent a funding lapse.
“Government shutdowns are inherently a failure to govern effectively and have negative consequences all across government,” Collins said. “They inevitably require certain government employees — such as Border Patrol agents, members of our military and Coast Guard, TSA screeners and air traffic controllers — to report to work with no certainty at all on when they will receive their next paycheck.”
Washington state Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, ranking member on the Appropriations panel, rebuked House Republican leaders for drafting the stopgap spending bill on their own and then expecting Democratic votes.
“Let me be clear, in my time in Congress, never, ever has one party written partisan full-year appropriations bills for all of government and expected the other party to go along without any input,” Murray said.
The stopgap spending bill, she said, cuts overall spending on domestic programs, a choice Democrats never would have agreed to had GOP leaders tried to negotiate with them.
“We are talking about a nearly 50% cut to life-saving medical research into conditions affecting our service members,” Murray said. “It is a giant shortfall in funding for NIH. It is a massive cut in funding for Army Corps projects and $15 billion less for our domestic priorities.”
“This bill will force Social Security to cut staff and close offices and make it harder for our seniors to get the benefits they spent their careers paying into the system to earn,” Murray added. “It creates a devastating shortfall that risks tens of thousands of Americans losing their housing. So this bill causes real pain for communities across the country.”
Murray also criticized House Republicans for releasing their stopgap spending bill just days before the deadline and then leaving for a recess right after voting to send the measure to the Senate. The move prevented the Senate from amending the CR in any way if Congress wanted to avoid a shutdown.
The Senate voted to reject amendments from Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley, Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Paul before approving the bill.
Schumer’s decision
Schumer said he voted to limit debate to avoid giving Trump, Elon Musk and U.S. DOGE Service the authority to determine which federal employees would have been exempt from the effects of a shutdown and which would have essentially been furloughed. Under federal law, both categories of federal workers receive back pay once the shutdown ends.
“In a shutdown, Donald Trump and DOGE will have the power to determine what is considered essential and what is not — and their views on what is not essential would be mean and vicious and would decimate vital services and cause unimaginable harm to the American people,” Schumer said.
The Democrats who voted to advance the stopgap spending bill, Schumer said, wanted to keep attention on Trump’s actions as president and not divert focus to the wide-reaching repercussions of shutting down the government.
“A shutdown will be a costly distraction from this all important fight,” Schumer said.
The stopgap spending bill, he noted, doesn’t change the Constitution or the laws that say Congress controls spending and that the president must implement those laws.
“The CR does not change the underlying law, making the Trump administration’s impoundments and mass firings illegal,” Schumer said. “Nothing in the CR changes the Impoundment Control Act, the foundation of Congress’ appropriations authority. And the authorization laws that require USAID and other agencies to exist and to operate the programs Congress has assigned to them. Nothing changes Title 5, governing the civil service, the Administrative Procedures Act and so on.”
Senate rules require at least 60 lawmakers vote to cut off debate on a bill. The GOP holds 53 seats at the moment and needed Democratic buy-in to proceed with regular bills. That procedural vote was 62-38.
Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Dick Durbin of Illinois, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Gary Peters of Michigan, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, King, Schumer and Shaheen voted to limit debate.
Delays on spending bills
Congress was supposed to draft, debate and approve the dozen annual appropriations bills by the start of this fiscal year on Oct. 1, nearly six months ago.
The bills fund the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans’ Affairs.
They also provide funding for Congress, the Supreme Court and numerous smaller agencies, like NASA and the National Science Foundation.
The House Appropriations Committee approved all 12 of its bills on party-line votes and the House was able to pass five of those across the floor last summer without broad Democratic support.
The Senate panel approved 11 of the bills in July and August with broadly bipartisan votes, but none of the measures came up on the floor for debate.
The House and Senate have regularly negotiated final versions of the spending bills, even if they didn’t receive floor approval, and could have begun that conference process in September, or even during their August recess.
But congressional leaders opted to focus their attention on the November elections and used a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running through mid-December, an expected and rather predictable move.
After Republicans won unified control of government, Congress used a second continuing resolution to keep the government funded through March 14. GOP leaders and Trump wanted to hold over negotiations on the full-year bills until they were in office.
The leaders of the Appropriations committees spent the last couple months trying to get bipartisan, bicameral agreement on the total spending level for the current fiscal year. But that ended this weekend when House Republicans released a stopgap spending bill to fund the government through September.
The House voted 217-213 on Tuesday to send the continuing resolution to the Senate. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie was the only GOP lawmaker to vote against it and Maine Rep. Jared Golden was the only Democratic member to support the bill in that chamber.
“H.R. 1968 includes a focused set of critical funding anomalies to ensure the Administration can carry out important programs and fulfill its obligations, including veterans’ healthcare and benefits, pay raises for junior enlisted servicemembers, operations of our air traffic control system, along with nutrition and housing programs,” the SAP states.
“The bill also provides the Department of Defense with the resources and flexibility necessary to align funding to current priorities in consultation with the Congress and responds to emerging threats by allowing for ‘new starts,’ including other key provisions.”
Trump took to social media ahead of the procedural vote to thank Schumer for announcing he’d vote to limit debate.
“Congratulations to Chuck Schumer for doing the right thing — Took ‘guts’ and courage! The big Tax Cuts, L.A. fire fix, Debt Ceiling Bill, and so much more, is coming. We should all work together on that very dangerous situation,” Trump wrote. “A non pass would be a Country destroyer, approval will lead us to new heights. Again, really good and smart move by Senator Schumer. This could lead to something big for the USA, a whole new direction and beginning! DJT”
Some Milwaukee organizations are starting to feel the effects of federal funding cuts, the result of Trump administration efforts to shrink the federal government and make it more efficient.
Although many attempts to roll back funding face legal challenges, and the federal and state budgets are under review, neighborhood and advocacy-focused organizations in Milwaukee are making difficult decisions around staffing, program planning and fundraising as they wait for answers.
“I think the biggest challenge for us is just the uncertainty of the situation,” said Bill Schmitt, executive director of Rooted & Rising, a social service agency based in Washington Park.
Vina Xiong, education and outreach director at HAWA, said 63% of the organization’s budget relies on federal funds.
“We had to do this because a lot of the federal grants covered our staff pay, and without us really knowing if we’re going to be getting the funds, we couldn’t allow to keep anyone on our team without paying them fairly,” Xiong said.
HAWA receives funding to advocate for domestic abuse and sexual assault survivors through the Victims of Crime Act, or VOCA, and other grant programs administered by the state Department of Children and Families or End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin.
Schmitt said the first funding cut to directly impact Rooted & Rising is tied to Section 4, a capacity-building and community development grant program from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The Associated Press and Bloomberg CityLab reported that HUD terminated awards in February to at least two of three national organizations that distribute Section 4 grants to local community organizations, including Local Initiatives Support Corp., or LISC.
LISC Milwaukee distributed $225,000 in Section 4 grants to four local organizations with contracts ending between February and May, according to Theodore Lipscomb, executive director of LISC Milwaukee.
Lipscomb said the grants are foundational to LISC’s efforts to help other organizations become prepared to develop new work and pull in other investments, especially with affordable housing projects.
“It can include a portion of staffing,” Lipscomb said.
“It also can be about organizational capacity, like making sure that you have good, strong financial oversight and governance and that sort of thing to make sure that you’re successful long term.”
Rooted & Rising used its $50,000 community development grant, ending in March, to support neighborhood engagement. Losing that funding would impact the work, Schmitt said, but it is not fully reliant on one grant.
“But if it’s a sign of things to come, it certainly becomes a much bigger problem for us,” Schmitt said.
Supporting projects and programming
VIA CDC, a community development corporation serving the neighborhoods of Silver City, Burnham Park and Layton Park, also received a $50,000 Section 4 grant from LISC Milwaukee that it used to pay staff salaries.
“My fingers are crossed that there will be a resolution that comes forward that allows us to apply for this funding or some version of it,” said JoAnna Bautch, executive director of VIA CDC.
Bautch said she doesn’t think the grant changes will cause VIA to make staffing changes, but it may have to reallocate some other funding.
VIA’s Section 4 contract ended at the end of February, but Bautch said LISC offered support to the organizations for 30 days after the grants were halted.
LISC Milwaukee had planned to distribute another award of $420,000 to extend contracts to four organizations and provide contracts to five additional organizations – all of which are currently suspended, according to Lipscomb.
“Then what that really means is that there’s a project somewhere that’s going to stall because someone’s not going to be working on it,” Lipscomb said.
Thinking about funding alternatives
At HAWA, Xiong said the organization has been able to submit reimbursements to cover pay and services so far this year, but that the organization’s leadership team is thinking about ways to pursue other funding.
“I think this current situation makes us really think about where else we need to look, in terms of more stable funding or funding that can also help support advocacy work that doesn’t rely on federal state funding so much,” Xiong said.
Bautch and Schmitt both said they are working to identify alternative sources of funding.
“I see our philanthropic funders wanting to step up to the plate,” Bautch said. “I had a brief conversation with folks at Zilber Family Foundation who give us a lot of support, and they are trying to strategize on how they can support us.”
How you can help
HAWA, Rooted & Rising and VIA recommend following their social media accounts and newsletters for updates, contacting your senators and representatives, or donating to their programs to show support for their work.
“For the most part, what we’re talking about here are really essential services for our community that are being provided by agencies like ours, that are mission-driven and meeting real needs for the community, and it’s really vital that those programs continue,” Schmitt said.
U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Black Earth) addresses union members at a weekend rally in support of federal workers whose jobs are on the line under the administration of President Donald Trump. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)
Moves by the Trump administration to cut the federal workforce have caused chaos and fear inside agencies ranging from the U.S. Forest Service to the Social Security Administration, advocates for federal employees say.
Some two dozen Forest Service employees in Wisconsin returned to work Monday, five weeks after receiving termination notices and being walked out, as a result of a court order March 13 holding the termination notices issued on Valentine’s Daywere illegal.
Wisconsin is home to some 18,000 federal workers, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Black Earth) said at a rally in Madison Saturday — workers whose jobs are on the line under orders from Washington, D.C.
“I am getting record numbers of calls in our office, literally thousands of calls every single week,” Pocan said. “People are pissed. They’re upset about cuts to the Veterans Administration. They’re upset about what’s happening with the Social Security Administration. They’re upset about Medicare and Medicaid potential cuts. They’re upset about cuts to agriculture and education.”
At the Social Security Administration, the acting Social Security commissioner hasannounced plans to close regional offices and cut 7,000 jobs “through buyouts, layoffs, resignations and terminations,” said Jessica LaPointe, president of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Council 220, who joined the Saturday rally at the headquarters of the South Central Federation of Labor. The council represents Social Security field office employees.
Social Security operations have been “historically understaffed,” LaPointe said, and the planned reductions “will lead to longer service delays, systems failures, and even inevitably benefit disruptions.”
Inan interview with the Wisconsin Examiner during a Wisconsin visit in October, Martin O’Malley, Social Security commissioner at the time, said staff at the agency’s Madison field office has dropped by 40% since 2019. O’Malley said he told members of Congress they should increase staffing at the agency to restore “at least an adequate level of customer service.”
The cuts the agency has announced are “exacerbating the chaos, confusion and anxiety felt by workers under siege,” LaPointe said Saturday. She added that the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s project to slash operations across the federal government “are destroying the public’s ability to access timely and effective service from the Social Security Administration, with the intent — let’s be real about their intent — of turning the American people against Social Security.”
William Townsend, president of the AFGE local at the Department of Veterans Affairs VA hospital in Madison, said the department’splan to cut 80,000 or more positions nationwide would be detrimental to the health care of veterans counting on the agency.
AFGE also represents employees at the Transportation Security Administration. The union and the Biden administration signed a new contract in 2024, but Trump administration TSA leaders told the union last month they were canceling the contract and would no longer recognize the union.
Nevertheless, said TSA worker and AFGE Local 777 president Darrell English, the union will continue to stand up for its members’ rights while conducting a legal battle to restore their union contract. “We know it’s going to be a long fight, but we’re here,” English said at Saturday’s rally.
At the U.S. Forest Service, 24 Wisconsin employees were fired on Feb. 14 — part of a wave of thousands of “probationary” employees let go, said Carl Houtman, a union official.
Houtman works at the Forest Service Products Laboratory in Madison and is president of the National Federation of Federal Employees union local there. He is also the national negotiation chair for the union’s Forest Service Council. In an interview Monday, he stipulated he was speaking strictly as a union leader, not as a Forest Service representative.
About 170 of the Forest Service’s 672 Wisconsin employees work at the laboratory, researching the use of wood as a building material and wood chemistry for papermaking and in a variety of new applications. Most of the other Forest Service employees in the state are associated with the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in northern Wisconsin.
After a series of legal challenges, a federal judge in California ordered the Trump administration to reinstate the fired probationary workers, ruling that Trump administration officialshadn’t followed required procedures.
The fired workers returned Monday, said Houtman, including a colleague who was among those who had been dismissed.
“It’s crazy the inefficiency that has caused,” he said Monday. “They walked her out the door, took her computer and her door card, and they basically had to hire her back. In this intervening month she could have been reasonably doing her job, but the agency was forced” by the federal Office of Personnel Management, now under the Trump administration’s control, “to fire these people.”
The federal judge’s ruling requires the administration to follow thelegal procedures for reducing the federal workforce. Houtman said federal workers and their unions involved in the February firing expect to learn more about the administration’s intentions in the next month.
“We anticipate about the middle of April getting an idea about what’s going on,” he said. “It’s possible that a large number of people in Wisconsin will get wiped out — we just don’t know.”
Houtman said there are concerns among employees that “this administration wants to wipe out the science arm of the Forest Service” and possibly sell most or all federally owned forest land, harming the nation’s natural resources.
Established in 1910, the forest products lab remains a vital source of research, he said. Its findings help shape codes and standards for building as well as for product manufacturing — such as a project currently underway to develop a consistent test for how recyclable consumer packaging is.
The lab also plays a role in training new scientists, he added.
“Most of the probationary employees were new hires, starting to learn wood science from us,” Houtman said. “You basically have wiped out the next generation of scientists. It’s going to do irreparable harm.”
From 2018 to 2021, nearly 6.25% of children younger than 6 in Milwaukee County tested for lead were considered lead-poisoned, with percentages of children poisoned in some Milwaukee neighborhoods nearing 25%, according to data from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
Lead hazards in paint, water and soil are common throughout many of Milwaukee’s older homes and buildings, contributing to the widespread issue of lead poisoning. Here are some ways that you can identify and manage lead hazards.
One reason why is because lead paint, identified as a leading cause of lead poisoning by the health department, was used often in homes and buildings before it was outlawed in 1978.
“You should always assume that a building has lead paint if it’s older than 1978,” said Michael Mannan, home environmental health director at the health department.
But lead contamination in water can extend beyond the city’s water mains and service lines. Plumbing materials like pipes and faucets inside the building can still contain lead.
Before 1986, interior plumbing materials like pipes and faucets could be made entirely of lead, and plumbing materials made before 2014 may contain higher levels of lead.
Soil is another common source of lead contamination. Paint chips and dust from the exterior of homes built before 1978 can result in high lead levels in soil, and deposits from leaded gasoline and industrial activity also can contaminate soil.
What can you do?
“Make sure that your child gets screened for lead,” Mannan said.
The health department recommends testing all children for lead poisoning at the ages of 12, 18 and 24 months and then once every year until the age of 6.
The health department Lead-Safe Registry also lists properties that have been inspected and verified to be lead-safe. However, at the time of this story, only 18 properties in the city have participated in the registry program.
Milwaukee’s land management system also lists important information about a property, such as past lead orders or permits that would indicate that lead abatement has been completed.
But this only provides information for one point in time, Mannan said. Even if a home has undergone lead abatement in the past, new renovations and construction or further deterioration may introduce lead hazards.
Property owners also are required to disclose any past lead abatement to a tenant at the time of lease. A lead disclosure is also required to be provided to tenants at any building built before 1978.
“If you’re not receiving those documents, that should be a concern,” Mannan said.
Lead-safe practices
It is also important to maintain lead-safe practices, especially if you live in a building built before 1978.
The first step, Mannan said, is to check for flaking or chipping paint, especially around high-movement areas such as windowsills, which can cause toxic lead dust to gather. Areas with deteriorated paint can be a risk and will require professional remediation and repair efforts, such as repainting or sealing an area.
If you see any serious paint hazards, there are a few interim controls you can make to an area before completing more permanent repairs. Before cleaning lead dust, make sure that children are not present.
Mannan recommends using wet cleaning methods, like wiping or mopping, to clean off lead dust, and to make sure to dispose of a mophead or paper towel after wiping an area clean. A HEPA vacuum, which has additional filtration over a typical vacuum, also can be used to clean up lead dust. Free HEPA vacuum rentals from the health department are available to property owners during cleaning or renovation projects.
Covering a paint hazard with tape can help in especially deteriorated areas, but removing the tape afterward can cause more damage to the paint.
While these practices are helpful, “these are just intermediate controls until you can really rectify the paint hazard,” Mannan said.
It also is important to use cold filtered water for drinking and cooking. Using hot water from the tap can cause lead to dissolve more quickly, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Not all filters remove lead, however. Look for a point-of-use filter, such as a pitcher or faucet-mounted filter with the NSF/ANSI 42 and 53 designations, for lead certification. More information is available here.
In some situations, Milwaukee Water Works will provide a voucher for a free water filter at properties when a lead service line replacement is scheduled.
The health department also recommends maintaining other clean practices to help lower lead risks. These recommendations include washing hands regularly, washing children’s toys and removing shoes at the door to prevent tracking in soil with lead dust.
As it moves forward, Columbia’s leadership wants to modernize while continuing to serve Milwaukee’s Black and underserved communities by helping more families own homes in their neighborhoods.
After Milwaukee native Sharon Adams moved back to her parents’ home in Lindsay Heights in 1997, she opened up an account at the nearby savings and loan association at 2020 W. Fond du Lac Ave. with her cousin when they learned its history.
“It’s a bit of a mystery to me that Columbia has survived without a merger throughout these years and it’s still, for me, the place to go and support and I would expect to be supported,” said Adams, who is a founder of Walnut Way Conservation Corp., a nonprofit focused on community-led development in Lindsay Heights.
The Halyards and Columbia’s history
Wilbur and Ardie Clark Halyard founded Columbia Savings & Loan Association in 1924 to help Black people secure home loans when redlining and racial covenants restricted housing options and banks discriminated against Black people.
The Halyards moved from the South to Beloit in 1920, then to Milwaukee in 1923, advocating for the rights of African Americans along the way, according to Clayborn Benson, director of the Wisconsin Black Historical Society, 2620 W. Center St., Milwaukee.
“People wanted to buy their homes, and the Halyards made it possible to be able to do that,” Benson said.
The Halyards worked hard (and without pay for many years) to establish the association, which survived through social, economic and political changes to Milwaukee and the country.
“It’s one of those things where you knew if you needed to get a loan, or you wanted to buy a house, they would work with you, whereas other more traditional institutions might overlook you,” said Steven DeVougas, chairman of the North Avenue Marketplace Business Improvement District 32.
The bank’s lasting impact on Milwaukee can especially be felt in Halyard Park, where the Halyards worked closely with real estate agent Beechie O. Brooks to finance homes in a new development after the construction of Interstate 43.
Modernizing the mission-focused bank
Ernest Jones, the chair/president and CEO of Columbia Savings & Loan Association since 2022, said the bank has stayed true to its mission but needs to modernize.
As a savings and loan association, Columbia offers savings accounts, loans, mortgages and certificates of deposit.
Jones said he understands the limitations of Columbia’s niche market and model — it has no checking or online banking, but has built relationships with customers and partner banks.
“We need money to advance our technology, and it’s going to be a significant investment,” he said.
In addition to pursuing technology updates, Columbia has added new staff and plans to add new board members.
Seeking new deposits
The Republican National Convention Host Committee, Horicon Bank and other banks and institutions have made deposits to Columbia, bringing in new funding to support the bank’s lending efforts to local homebuyers.
The Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce committed to depositing $1 million in Columbia Savings & Loan Association in 2023. Ruben Hopkins, the chamber’s chairman and CEO, said the amount is small compared to what other institutions could deposit to support the bank.
“I congratulate them on being around for 100 years, and I’d like for them to be around for 100 more,” Hopkins said. “But again, if they don’t get the resources they need, it’s just something for the history books.”
Still focused on homeownership
Columbia’s mission stays relevant because the ZIP codes around the bank, 53205 and 53206, have some of the highest rates of poverty in the state, and mortgage payments can be more affordable than rent, Jones said.
“A part of our mission is not only to put people in homes, but to educate our community on the value of homeownership,” Jones said. “It extends to everything else economically and financially for people’s lives.”
A Lucid Air owner endured a twelve-hour repair wait due to limited service center access.
Expensive repairs, long travel, and poor communication leave owners doubting Lucid’s future.
Not all owners share negative experiences, but service gaps are becoming more noticeable.
Lucid may have entered the electric vehicle market relatively late, especially compared to the class-leading, when it comes to experience and sales, Tesla, Lucid has managed to roll out a pretty competitive first product in the form of the Air sedan. However, while the EV itself has been praised by those who have driven it, one customer is seriously considering ditching his car.
A Good Car, But Poor Support
The owner, who posted his story on Reddit under the alias MtrCityMadMan, purchased an Air GT in June 2022. He states that he has been very satisfied with the car so far, as it is “a pleasure to drive” and its range is “fantastic”. However, he says that Lucid’s customer service leaves a lot to be desired and, due to the very unpleasant experience, is thinking about getting rid of it despite its positive attributes.
His troubles began when he accidentally damaged the fairing of a side view mirror in his garage, which he admits was entirely his own fault. After contacting Lucid, he was told he would have to come to the service center to have the mirror fixed – which wouldn’t be much of an issue if it didn’t necessitate a 2.5-hour drive. Nevertheless, even though he was annoyed, he understood that the company had chosen a “strategic location”, as he put it, and so decided to make the trip.
In theory, it was a pretty straightforward job that should be completed fairly quickly. The technicians at the service center told him that it would take one to two hours, and he didn’t complain. That estimate, though, turned out to be overly optimistic.
“I sat in a McDonald’s for over 5 hours,” he wrote on his post on Reddit. “No updates and when I’d call they didn’t have any timeline. What should have been a morning repair (left early and planned on being back midday) turned into a 12 hour day. Barely an apology.”
Bumper Issues: Same Story, New Repair
The next issue was when he had to fix the Air’s bumper that had been tagged by another vehicle. It wasn’t a serious damage, but he likes to keep his cars in perfect condition – which is perfectly fine. What isn’t is the fact that he had to drive 2.5 hours again, as there is no certified Lucid shop in his city, leave the car there for at least three days, and then, if all went well and the technicians fixed the bumper on time, travel again to retrieve it. He concedes that he could use a flatbed and save himself the trouble, but it would cost him $1,500, which he decided was too much.
With the bumper fixed, the man was able to enjoy his Air once more. Yet, another issue popped up, and this time it was the car’s fault (although dealing with the shop was, again, problematic). “Two weeks ago car starts throwing all sorts of warnings,” he explains. “Text customer service (24/7), call customer service. Nothing. I didn’t get a call back for 5 hours (when it was 11:30pm local time). Never got a text. Luckily, car was drivable.
“Local service finally reached out and said they’d like to pick up the car and bring it to center to see what’s up, and to replace battery since my deg is larger than expected. Cool. I’ve now called 3 more times to report more issues, left messages and specifically asked for a call back. Nothing. I’ve texted. Nothing.”
The Takeaway: Customer Service Is Key
That was last straw: “I can deal with a lot, but I think I’m done with this brand. I love the car but can’t trust the service that I may need in the future,” he wrote. He nevertheless had a word of advice: “To any Lucid execs that may end up reading this – you have to do better. Build quality is great but customer service builds loyal customers.”
What’s more, this man isn’t the only one that is dissatisfied with Lucid. Another Air owner wrote: “I am going through the mirror thing now. Exact same thing bumping it against the garage. They are requiring a full replacement at $3000+… insanity. The mirror works, it turns in and out.”
It’s Not Just One Person
Another had an explanation why the shop was so far away: “It costs over $200K to become a certified repair shop which is at the expense of the body shop. Why would they spend that type of money when hardly any cars are on the road? The ROI would be an extremely long one and many body shops probably don’t want to drop that cash if Lucid can’t prove that it’s going to be more than a niche player.”
Not everyone had a negative experience though. One owner, who lives close to a Lucid service center, states that “they have been fantastic, like far better than any experience I have had with previous ICE cars.”
In any case, it’s clear that since its range is expanding, with the 800 hp, $95,000 Gravity SUV joining the Air and other models set to follow in the future, Lucid must ensure that owners are satisfied not only by its cars, but by the brand’s customer service too. After all, people who are willing to spend close to, or more than, $100k on a car, expect only the best – and Lucid has been found lacking by customers who may not be returning to the brand but choose a rival automaker’s model for their next purchase.
Several state lawmakers are working on a bill that would keep immigration officers out of “safe havens” throughout Wisconsin.
Their move comes as members of immigrant communities can no longer rely on places to be free from immigration enforcement, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the department that oversees U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
Reversing policy from the Biden administration, ICE officers can detain or arrest people for immigration violations inside churches, schools and hospitals.
“Given the recent executive orders and initiatives that the Trump administration has put forth, it is very harmful for our immigrant and migrant communities in various ways,” said state Sen. Dora Drake, D-Milwaukee, one of the co-authors of the bill.
“I’m a firm believer that families should be strengthened and not pulled apart.”
Federal policy
In 2021, the administration of former President Joe Biden issued guidelines about where immigration enforcement should be restricted — places referred to as “protected areas” — including schools, medical and mental health facilities, places of worship or religious study, locations where children gather, social service establishments, sites providing emergency or disaster relief, and venues for funerals, weddings, parades, demonstrations and rallies.
The guidelines stated that enforcement should be restricted in, or even near, these spaces so as not to discourage people from accessing essential services or participating in essential activities.
On Jan. 21, the day after President Donald Trump took office, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement about the cancelation of this Biden-era policy, effectively eliminating safe havens and allowing immigration enforcement, such as raids and arrests, to take place in these areas.
“We are protecting our schools, places of worship and Americans who attend by preventing criminal aliens and gang members from exploiting these locations and taking safe haven there because these criminals knew law enforcement couldn’t go inside under the previous administration,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary of public affairs, in an email.
Local response
The sorts of places identified by the proposed bill overlap with but are not identical to the ones in the policy of the Biden administration.
It identifies schools, places providing child care, places of worship, places providing medical or health care services, and state and local government buildings.
State Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, another co-author of the bill, said that he and his colleagues “wanted to hit the main ones right away that we were hearing from people.”
However, Carpenter, whose Senate district has the highest percentage of Hispanic residents in the state – more than 45% – said that he is open to amending the bill to include more places.
The sorts of spaces in Milwaukee currently mentioned in the bill are responding in varied ways.
Milwaukee Public Schools has taken quite a clear stance, reaffirming in January its own “safe haven” resolution adopted in 2017.
The resolution vows to oppose actions by ICE on school grounds by “all legal means available.”
The union representing MPS teachers, Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association, fully supports the resolution as well.
In other types of places, the response is less clear-cut.
A spokesperson for Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin, one of the largest hospital systems in the state, said in an email that staff is “closely reviewing recent federal policy changes and discussing their potential impacts,” adding that they “remain focused on our commitments to delivering exceptional care with dignity and respect while achieving the best possible health outcomes.”
Places not identified in the initial version of the bill also are grappling with the changes in immigration policy.
Milwaukee Christian Center, for example, which provides social services such as housing support and violence prevention, intends to comply with the law in terms of a judicial warrant and would confer with counsel about what to do regarding an administrative warrant, said Karen Higgins, executive director of the organization.
Difference between warrants
This difference between types of warrants is crucial for the authors of the bill.
A judicial warrant is issued and signed by a judge, while an administrative warrant is issued by a federal agency specifically for immigration violations.
Unlike judicial warrants, administrative warrants do not require compliance from local law enforcement or private entities, including schools, churches and hospitals, unless they choose to comply.
The state bill, if it became law, would apply to administrative warrants rather than judicial ones.
No one is trying, Drake said, to provide havens for people who are being detained or arrested on a judicial warrant.
“We’re not saying that there aren’t individuals that are causing harm out there,” she said.
McLaughlin, of the Department of Homeland Security, described a thoughtful process when a safe haven is involved in immigration enforcement.
“Our agents use discretion. Officers would need secondary supervisor approval before any action can be taken in locations such as a church or a school.”
“We expect these to be extremely rare,” she added.
‘I am asking them to follow the law’
Rep. Sylvia Velez-Ortiz, D-Milwaukee, the main author of the bill, frames the issue in basic constitutional terms.
“I’ve never said the word ‘safe haven’ or ‘sanctuary,’” she said. “I am asking them (the federal government) to follow the law. I expect them not to do illegal searches and seizures.”
“And,” she added, “I expect them to pay for their own operations.”
What’s next?
Velez-Ortiz said that the bill has about 20 co-sponsors and was expected to be handed to the clerk Tuesday and posted online.
Unless things change soon, it appears unlikely that the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Public Schools will meet the Feb. 17 deadline to place at least 25 student resource officers in schools.
Wisconsin Act 12, a law enacted in summer 2023, mandated that police officers be placed in MPS and stipulated that they must first complete 40 hours of training through the National Association of School Resource Officers.
This has yet to happen.
A school resource officer is a law enforcement officer who works full time in collaboration with a school district, according to Act 12.
School resource officers typically carry firearms, according to the National Association of School Resource Officers.
No trainings scheduled
Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, said no Milwaukee Police Department officers have completed or are scheduled to take the weeklong training before Feb. 17.
“We are never going to recommend that an officer start working in a school without first being put through this training,” Canady said. “We’re talking about the most unique assignment in law enforcement: putting men and women in schools and trusting them to do good work with adolescents in the school environment.”
MPD did not confirm its timeline for training or whether it has enough officers who have completed the training in the past.
Even if there were officers with past training, though, that wouldn’t necessarily be the best or safest option, Canady said.
“We don’t have a timeline on when you should retake the training,” but “there have been massive changes” in the past five years, Canady said.
Subjects that have been updated or added include training on how adolescent brains develop, forms of bias and how to understand trauma, he said.
A spokesperson for MPD deferred all questions to the City Attorney’s Office, stating the department is “unaware of the status of the agreement.”
Several attempts to speak with the City Attorney’s Office were unsuccessful as were attempts to speak with every member of the Milwaukee Board of School Directors except one.
Training is the most important concern when it comes to officers in schools for Henry Leonard, Milwaukee Public Schools board director of District 7.
Without this training, Leonard said he fears “a haphazard approach to this and it turns into a disaster.”
Next steps
There are no consequences for having not met the 2024 deadline stipulated by Act 12, according to an analyst with the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, a nonpartisan agency that provides research and legal services to lawmakers.
An additional hearing has been scheduled if the Feb. 17 deadline is not met.
Jeff Fleming, a spokesman for Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, said there have been some productive meetings between the city and MPS.
“The Mayor is optimistic the outstanding issues can be resolved,” he wrote in an email to NNS.
How we got here
In 2016, MPS pulled officers from inside its schools and, four years later, ended a contract with MPD for patrols outside its buildings.
Act 12 required the city to beef up its police force by 2034 and ordered officers back into MPS by Jan. 1, 2024. That deadline came and passed as the school district and city jostled over who would pay the estimated $2 million cost to fund the officers.
Pressure to bring officers back into schools picked up after a mother of an MPS student who was bullied sued the city and school district for not meeting Act 12 requirements.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge David Borowski decided in favor of the mother, ruling that the city of Milwaukee and MPS are responsible for getting officers in schools by Feb. 17.
Impact on current officer shortage
NNS reported in December about hiring challenges within MPD as the number of new recruits wasn’t enough to offset the retirement and departure of other officers or potentially the new requirements of Act 12.
Leon Todd, executive director of the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission, said officers placed at MPS would come from the current ranks of the MPD, which could stretch the department’s already thin ranks.
“One of our top priorities is to grow the size of MPD, and we obviously want to limit the strain,” Todd said. “While these officers would be placed in MPS and wouldn’t be available to take other calls for service, the number of calls are going to be reduced as they won’t need to respond because they will already have officers in schools.”
According to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, there were 40,643 calls to police from MPS-associated addresses from 2013 to 2024, although 7% of those calls were during nighttime hours.
The Fire and Police Commission is typically in charge of hiring all new officers. But because the school resource officers are going to be current officers, Todd said, the police chief or the department’s executive command staff will decide who is sent into schools.
Canady emphasized the importance of carefully selecting those officers.
“There should be input from the school community,” Canady said. “These should be officers who are veterans, who have been with the department at least three years, so we know something about their character. They should be officers who have shown sincere interest in working with youth.”
Leaders Igniting Transformation, a youth-led nonprofit in Milwaukee, doesn’t want officers back in schools at all.
“We are angry and terrified at the thought of placing armed police officers back in Milwaukee classrooms, who have shown time and time again that they are unfit to work with students and have no place in our schools,” a recent statement from the group said.
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Milwaukee County is among dozens of U.S. counties where drugs are disproportionately killing Black men born between 1951 and 1970.
Black men of the generation accounted for 12.5% of all drug deaths between 2018 and 2022. That’s despite making up just 2.3% of the total population. The trend has only accelerated in more recent years.
Most of the men who died used cocaine that was cut with stronger fentanyl — the faster-acting drug has fueled the national opioid epidemic. Most had a history of incarceration.
Limited options and lingering stigma prevent a generation of Black men from accessing drug treatment.
In many ways, Hamid Abd-Al-Jabbar’s life story involved redemption. A victim of abuse who was exposed to alcohol and drugs while growing up on Milwaukee’s North Side, he made dangerous choices as a teenager. By age 19, he landed in prison after shooting and killing a man during a 1988 drug house robbery.
But he worked on himself while incarcerated, his wife Desilynn Smith recalled. After he walked out of prison for good, he found a calling as a peace activist. He became a violence interrupter for Milwaukee’s 414 Life program, aiming to prevent gun violence through de-escalation and intervention.
Abd-Al-Jabbar may have looked healed on the outside, but he never moved past the trauma that shaped much of his life, Smith said. He wouldn’t ask for help.
That’s why Smith still grieves. Her husband died in February 2021 after ingesting a drug mixture that included fentanyl and cocaine. He was 51.
Smith now wears his fingerprint on a charm bracelet as a physical reminder of the man she knew and loved for most of her life.
“He never learned how to cope with things in a healthy way,” said Smith, executive director of Uniting Garden Homes, Inc., an organization that provides mental health and substance use services on Milwaukee’s North Side. “In our communities addiction is frowned upon, so people don’t get the help they need.”
Desilynn Smith is still grieving the loss of her husband Hamid Abd-Al-Jabbar, who died in 2021 after ingesting a mixture of cocaine and fentanyl. She is shown Jan. 23, 2025, in her office at Uniting Garden Homes, Inc., in Milwaukee. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Abd-Al-Jabbar is part of a generation of Milwaukee’s older Black men who are disproportionately dying from drug poisonings and overdoses, even as the opioid epidemic slows for others.
Times and Banner reporters initially identified the pattern in Baltimore. They later found the same effect in dozens of counties nationwide.
In Milwaukee, Black men of the generation accounted for 12.5% of all drug deaths between 2018 and 2022. That’s despite making up just 2.3% of the total population.
The county’s older Black men were lost to drugs at rates 14.2 times higher than all people nationally and 5.5 times higher than all other Milwaukee County residents.
Six other Wisconsin counties — Brown, Dane, Kenosha, Racine, Rock and Waukesha — ranked among the top 408 nationally in drug deaths during the years analyzed. But Milwaukee was the only one in Wisconsin where this generation of Black men died at such staggering rates.
Hamid Abd-Al-Jabbar, right, helps distribute masks in Milwaukee during the pandemic-impacted April 2020 elections. After spending years in prison, Abd-Al-Jabbar found a calling as a peace activist. (Courtesy of City of Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention)
Milwaukee trend accelerates
The trend in Milwaukee County has only accelerated since 2022, the last year of the Times and Banner analysis, even as the county’s total drug deaths decline, Milwaukee NNS and Wisconsin Watch found.
Drugs killed 74 of the county’s older Black men in 2024. The group made up 17.3% of all drug deaths — up from 16.2% in 2023 and 14.1% the previous year, medical examiner data shows.
Abd-Al-Jabbar’s story shares similarities with many of those men. Most used cocaine that was cut with stronger fentanyl — the faster-acting drug has fueled the national opioid epidemic. Most had a history of incarceration.
Boxes of Narcan are stored in the Uniting Garden Homes, Inc., office, Jan. 23, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Marc Levine, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee researcher, concluded in 2020 that “Black Milwaukee is generally worse off today than it was 40 or 50 years ago” when considering dozens of quality of life indicators.
Meanwhile, limited options and lingering stigma prevent a generation of Black men from accessing drug treatment, local experts told Milwaukee NNS and Wisconsin Watch.
“Black men experience higher rates of community violence, are often untreated for mental health issues and experience greater levels of systemic racism than other groups,” said Lia Knox, a Milwaukee mental wellness consultant. “These all elevate their risk of incarceration, addiction and also death.”
A network of organizations providing comprehensive treatment offers hope, but these resources fall far short of meeting community needs.
A silent struggle
Smith and Abd-Al-Jabbar first started dating at 14, and they had a child together at 16. But as their relationship blossomed, Smith said, Abd-Al-Jabbar silently struggled with what she suspects was an undiagnosed mental health illness linked to childhood trauma.
“A lot of the bad behaviors he had were learned behaviors,” Smith said.
Desilynn Smith, executive director of Uniting Garden Homes, Inc., wears a bracelet bearing the fingerprint of her late husband Hamid Abd-Al-Jabbar at Uniting Garden Homes, Inc., in Milwaukee. “I keep that with me at all times,” Smith says. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Abd-Al-Jabbar became suicidal as a teen and began robbing drug dealers.
When he entered prison, Abd-Al-Jabbar read and wrote at a fifth grade level and coped like a 10-year-old, Smith said. By age 21, she said, he’d already spent two years in solitary confinement. But he had the resolve to change. He began to read voraciously and converted to Islam.
He was released from prison after 11 years, but returned multiple times before leaving for good in 2018. Smith and Abd-Al-Jabbar married, and he started earning praise for preventing bloodshed as a violence interrupter.
Still, he struggled under the pressures of his new calling. The work added weight to the trauma he carried into and out of prison. His mental health only worsened, Smith said, and he turned back to drugs as a coping mechanism.
“The main thing he learned in prison was how to survive,” she said.
Most men lost were formerly incarcerated
At least half of Milwaukee’s older Black men lost to drugs in 2024 served time in state prison, Milwaukee NNS and Wisconsin Watch found by cross-referencing Department of Corrections and medical examiner records. More than a dozen other men on that list interacted with the criminal justice system in some way. Some served time in jail. For others, full records weren’t available.
Most of the men left prison decades or years before they died. But three died within about a year of their release. A 55-year-old North Side man died just 22 days after release.
In Wisconsin, DOC officials and prisoners say drugs are routinely entering prisons, putting prisoners and staff at risk and increasing challenges for people facing addiction.
Thousands wait for treatment in prison
The DOC as of last December enrolled 815 people in substance abuse treatment programs, but its waitlist for such services was far higher: more than 11,700.
“You don’t really get the treatment you need in prison,” said Randy Mack, a 66-year-old Black man who served time in Wisconsin’s Columbia, Fox Lake, Green Bay and Kettle Moraine correctional institutions.
Randy Mack, a resident of Serenity Inns, talks with Ken Ginlack, executive director, in the facility’s library on Dec. 19, 2024. Expanding on its original outpatient treatment center on Milwaukee’s North Side, Serenity Inns also runs a residential treatment facility and a transitional living program and opened a drop-in clinic in January. (Andy Manis for Wisconsin Watch)
Leaving prison can be a particularly vulnerable time for relapse, Mack said. Some men manage to stop using drugs while incarcerated. They think they are safe, only to struggle when they leave.
“You get back out on the streets and you see the same people and fall into the same traps,” Mack said.
Knox, the wellness consultant, agrees. After being disconnected from their communities, many men, especially older ones, leave prison feeling isolated and unable to ask for help. They turn to drugs.
“Now with the opioids, they’re overdosing and dying more often,” she said.
Access to the program is uneven across the state. Corrections officials have sought to expand it using settlement money from national opioids litigation. In its latest two-year budget request the department set a goal for hiring more vendors to administer the program.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers plans to release his full budget proposal next month. His past proposals have sought millions of dollars for treatment and other rehabilitation programs. The Republican-controlled Legislature has rejected or reduced funding in most cases.
Mack said he received some help while in prison, but it wasn’t intense enough to make a breakthrough. Now he’s getting more holistic treatment from Serenity Inns, a North Side recovery program for men.
Executive Director Kenneth Ginlack said the organization helps men through up to 20 hours of mental health and substance use treatment each week.
What’s key, Ginlack said, is that most of his staff, including himself, are in recovery.
“We understand them not just from a recovery standpoint, but we were able to go back to our own experiences and talk to them about that,” he said. “That’s how we build trust in the community.”
Fentanyl catches cocaine users unaware
Many of the older men dying were longtime users of stimulants, like crack cocaine, Ginlack said, adding they had “no idea that the stimulants are cut with fentanyl.”
They don’t feel the need to use test strips to check for fentanyl or carry Narcan to reverse the effects of opioid poisoning, he said.
A group discussion is shown at Serenity Inns in Milwaukee on Dec. 19, 2024. (Andy Manis for Wisconsin Watch)
Last year, 84% of older Black men killed by drugs had cocaine in their system, and 61% had fentanyl, Milwaukee NNS and Wisconsin Watch found. More than half ingested both drugs.
Months after relapsing, Alfred Carter, 61, decided he was ready to kick his cocaine habit.
When he showed up to a Milwaukee detox center in October, he was shocked to learn he had fentanyl in his system.
“What made it so bad is that I hear all the stories about people putting fentanyl in cocaine, but I said not my people,” Carter said. “It puts a healthy fear in my life, because at any time I can overdose — not even knowing that I’m taking it.”
Awareness is slowly increasing, Ginlack said, as more men in his program share stories about losing loved ones.
Milwaukee’s need outpaces resources
Expanding on its original outpatient treatment center on West Brown Street, Serenity Inns now also runs a residential treatment facility and a transitional living program and opened a drop-in clinic in January.
Still, those don’t come close to meeting demands for its services.
“We’re the only treatment center in Milwaukee County that takes people without insurance, so a lot of other centers send people our way,” said Ginlack, who said the county typically runs about 200 beds short of meeting demand.
“My biggest fear is someone calls for that bed and the next day they have a fatal overdose because one wasn’t available.”
‘I don’t want to lose hope’
Carter and Mack each intend to complete their programs soon. It’s Mack’s fourth time in treatment and his second stint at Serenity Inns. This time, he expects to succeed. He wants to move into Serenity Inns’ apartment building — continuing his recovery and working toward becoming a drug counselor.
“My thinking pattern has changed,” Mack said. “I’m going to use the tools we learned in treatment and avoid high-risk situations.”
Butterfly stickers adorn the windows of Desilynn Smith’s office at Milwaukee’s Uniting Garden Homes, Inc., on Jan. 23, 2025. They remind her of her late mother. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Carter wants to restore his life to what it was before. He spent years as a carpenter before his life unraveled and he ended up in prison. He knows he can’t take that life back if he returns to drugs.
“I have to be able to say no and not get high. It doesn’t do me any good, and it could kill me,” he said. “I have to associate myself with being clean. I don’t want to lose hope.”
As Smith reflects on her partner’s life and death, she recognizes his journey taught her plenty, too. “I was hit hard with the reality that I was too embarrassed to ask for help for my husband and best friend,” she said. “I shouldn’t have had that fear.”
The topic of lead poisoning is back in the news in Milwaukee after officials confirmed a case this month at Golda Meir Lower School.
A student at the school was exposed to chipping lead paint in a bathroom in the school’s basement, said Tyler Weber, deputy commissioner of environmental health at the Milwaukee Health Department.
Weber said the Health Department’s investigation continues, but said: “The most apparent lead paint hazards have been controlled.”
The Health Department also plans to conduct testing for lead in the school’s water.
Here are some things you should know about lead poisoning.
1. How serious is lead poisoning?
Lead poisoning can pose a significant risk, especially to young children and pregnant people. According to a Milwaukee Health Department webpage, lead poisoning is “one of the most serious health threats facing young children in Milwaukee.”
Lead exposure and lead poisoning can contribute to learning and behavioral difficulties in children, according to the World Health Organization. Lead is absorbed into the body at a much higher rate for young children, and extremely high exposure to lead can be deadly.
But lead poisoning can sometimes be difficult to detect from symptoms alone.
“It’s not always apparent if your child is lead poisoned,” Weber said. “That’s why it is important to follow our blood screening recommendation … especially if you are a child in the city of Milwaukee.”
2. Importance of blood tests
Blood tests for lead can show whether you and your child are being exposed to dangerous amounts of lead. Both the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and the Milwaukee Health Department recommend blood tests for lead for all children under the age of 5.
The Milwaukee Health Department recommends testing all children at the ages of 12, 18 and 24 months, and then once every year until the age of 5. Testing is recommended for all children, regardless of previous testing frequency and results.
3. Where can I get tested for lead poisoning?
Blood testing for lead poisoning is free for those enrolled in BadgerCare Plus, Wisconsin’s Medicaid program.
Even if you are not eligible for coverage under BadgerCare, your children could be. BadgerCare provides coverage for adults at 100% of the poverty level, but children are covered in families with an income of up to 300% of the poverty level.
(Current income limits for BadgerCare eligibility are available here, and you can find out more about BadgerCare and enrollment here.)
Testing for lead poisoning is covered under most private insurance plans.
4. Free community resources
For those without health insurance, local options for free lead testing are available.
In Milwaukee, the MacCanon Brown Homeless Sanctuary and the Coalition on Lead Emergency offer a free monthly lead testing clinic on the second Saturday of every month from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 2461 W. Center St. Every participating child will receive a free stuffed animal, and each participating family will receive a $10 gift card.
“Lead paint is the primary source of lead poisoning in the city of Milwaukee,” said Caroline Reinwald, a public information officer with the Milwaukee Health Department.
Lead paint was banned for residential use in 1978, but homes built before 1978 can contain lead paint. The paint can chip or create dust, which is dangerous to ingest.
A guide published by the Environmental Protection Agency recommends several steps if you think your home may contain lead-based paint, including regularly cleaning surfaces with warm and soapy water and making sure that you and your children regularly wash hands, pacifiers, bottles and toys.
Contaminated water can also be a cause of lead poisoning. Many buildings in Milwaukee have lead service lines or water mains, and the city is currently conducting a Lead Service Line Replacement Program to change the old pipes. You can check to see if your building has lead pipes here.
Even if a building does not have lead service lines or water mains, some older water fixtures may still contain lead. Milwaukee Water Works recommends running your water pipe for three minutes before drinking or cooking with it and only using the cold water tap to reduce the amount of lead in your water.
“A water filter can also help. Not all filters remove lead, however – look for a point-of-use filter, such as a pitcher or faucet mounted filter, with the NSF/ANSI/CAN 42 and 53 for lead certification. More information is available here.”
Maintaining a full diet with enough iron, calcium and vitamin C can also help limit lead absorption among children. This guide includes food and recipe recommendations that can provide these nutrients.
Milwaukee Alderwoman Larresa Taylor said at a news conference Wednesday that she is confident of two things: that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wants to move its Milwaukee-based facility to the northwest side of the city and that she is going to fight any such move.
“We are a district that has tremendous potential, but that doesn’t mean that we’re going to accept any and everything, and it certainly doesn’t mean that we’re going to allow someone to just come into our district without warning or without knowledge,” she said.
She is not alone in her opposition.
Many officials and activists stood in solidarity with Taylor, including other alderpeople, Milwaukee County Board supervisors, community organizers, business improvement district representatives and state lawmakers.
“People are scared. Kids are scared. This is the time to push back hard,” said Milwaukee Common Council President José Pérez at the news conference. “Whether here or somewhere else in the city, my role as council president is to assure that the laws are followed, and those laws are to protect our families, our most vulnerable.”
What might happen?
The current building ICE is using downtown as a processing center is being sold, said Taylor, who said her office received a request on Dec. 9 regarding the modification of a building at 11925 W. Lake Park Drive on Milwaukee’s northwest side.
These modifications include a sally port, a type of secured entryway and a chain link fence with privacy slats.
Taylor said that these modifications are consistent with the use of the building as an ICE processing center, where ICE could transport and temporarily hold people.
Nuts and bolts
As far as zoning goes, the West Lake Park Drive location is designated as planned development, rather than traditional zoning.
With traditional zoning, there are clearly delineated uses, but, with planned development, “Everything done gets either approved or denied by the (city of Milwaukee) Department of City Development,’ said Tyler Hamelink, plan examiner from the city of Milwaukee’s Permit and Development Center.
Taylor said that her office is “definitely in communication with the Department of City Development.”
“That is where our information is coming from,” she added.
Taylor also is planning to meet with the owner of the building to discuss possibilities.
What happens next?
Pérez said that options to fight back include “legal appeal or by the screaming of our voices.”
Milwaukee County Board Supervisor Juan Miguel Martínez announced the formation of a coalition to oppose an ICE facility at this District 9 location.
The coalition is currently solidifying support and mulling its options, said Eddie Cullen, spokesperson for the county board.
“The mayor has not publicly opined about a plan to replace the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility currently located at Broadway and Knapp Street,” said Jeff Fleming, spokesperson for Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson. “The contact the city has had about the proposed northwest side location has come only from private sector building owners.”
Newly elected Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern has made it a priority to listen to residents on the north and south sides of Milwaukee.
“What I have heard loudly and clearly is everyone wants to feel safe, and everyone wants that safety in their daily lives, and they want that for their children,” Lovern said.
With nearly 30 years of experience as a prosecutor, he’s recognized for his collaborative approach to systemic issues.
Lovern focuses on collaborations outside his office, in part, because he believes these collaborations are necessary to sustainably reduce violence and increase public safety in Milwaukee.
“I just feel like we need to better connect into one another and develop our own system of public safety – one that is really framed up as community development, economic development, educational development and the public safety comes with that,” he said.
Among Milwaukee’s large network of criminal justice advocates, many say they feel heard by Lovern.
“Kent has always been thoughtful and responsive to me,” said Emilio De Torre, executive director of Milwaukee Turners, which advocates for various criminal justice initiatives as well as those impacted by the criminal justice system.
Working together
“We can’t unring the bell of a crime, right? If somebody commits a crime, like myself, they need to be prosecuted,” said Adam Procell, who coordinates the monthly resource fair Home to Stay, for formerly incarcerated individuals reentering society. “But after that time period, when somebody gets out, he (Lovern) also understands that if we don’t provide the person with an opportunity to lead an optimal lifestyle, they’re going to have to prosecute them again for another crime.”
For Lovern, people reentering have a unique ability to lead others away from crime.
“People returning back to communities, looking to be proactive members of their community, looking for ways to help mentor young people and help instruct young people about the pitfalls and the mistakes they made – that’s a very powerful group,” he said.
Milwaukee County has the largest population of people on parole, probation or extended supervision in the state. At the end of October, nearly 13,000 people were under supervision, state correctional data show.
“On the whole, I have heard more interest in reentry across the board … than I have heard at any time in my career,” Lovern said.
Causes of crime
Lovern’s support of reentry is consistent with an overall preventive approach to crime.
He cites the relationship between drug addiction and crime as a good example.
“We’ve had a strong approach to this for some time because right after John (Chisholm) was elected, 18 years ago, we created an early intervention unit, and that was immediately designed to offer opportunities for people to work through a criminal charge … and we’ve seen a lot of success with that.”
WISDOM, a statewide faith-based organization, wants Lovern to expand on this philosophy.
“There’s a lot of room for certainly expanding treatment alternatives to incarceration for people living with mental illness and with addiction issues, and there are many opportunities to divert more people from the system. I’m definitely optimistic that those types of programs will continue and will expand,” said Mark Rice, coordinator of WISDOM’s Wisconsin Transformational Justice Campaign.
Lovern is proud of Milwaukee’s mental health courts, which address cases involving mental health concerns, including assessments of competence and insanity pleas.
An intermediate goal the DA’s office is close to achieving, he said, is increasing the number of cases handled in these courts to 30 cases on an ongoing basis, compared to 10 cases previously.
“Somebody might come first through the police department or to the DA’s office, and we may be saying, ‘Look, this person isn’t really committing criminal behavior – the bigger concern here is the mental health piece,’” said Lovern.
But certain violent crimes have increased since 2022, including robberies and carjackings.
“There’s no question that there is additional work that needs to be done to drive down the level of violent crime we see in this community,” Lovern said.
The problem, he added, is not evenly spread throughout the city.
“Everyone’s concerned about crime everywhere, but we know where the concentrations of violent crime exist,” said Lovern, adding that many residents in these neighborhoods tell him that “a strong response” to crime is needed and that these “neighborhoods need to be valued.”
Limits of the office
Rice, of WISDOM, does not want fairness and justice to be lost, however.
“We still in Wisconsin incarcerate Black people at one of the highest rates in the nation,” he said. “There’s a lot of discretion up front when plea bargains are reached in terms of who gets diverted from the system and who goes in.”
Rice and others also worry about the systemic limitations of the DA’s office to address such problems.
“Jobs like the DA’s office, mayor’s office, police chief tend to be very difficult, with unforeseen pressures and inherent flaws in how they’ve been systemized over the years,” said De Torre, of Milwaukee Turners. “The real test is how a person acts and what they do within a flawed system.”
Now with less than a week before Trump’s inauguration, members of Milwaukee’s immigrant community are bracing for the next four years.
“People are taking the (future) administration at their word,” said Alexandra Guevara, communications director for Voces de la Frontera, an immigrant advocacy organization in Milwaukee.
Guevara said her organization has been fielding phone calls from worried residents.
Here are answers to five key immigration-related questions.
Unauthorized immigrants include those who enter the U.S. illegally, overstay a visa or violate terms of admission.
It is unclear how stricter immigration policies will affect those with short-term protections, such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protective Status.
“But I think the writing is on the wall for those” protections, said Marc Christopher, managing attorney and owner of Christopher & De León Law Office, a law firm based in South Milwaukee that practices immigration law.
Trump’s first administration expanded the use of expedited removal, which allows deportation of an unauthorized individual without appearing before an immigration judge.
Many advocates worry that this expansion will happen again, making people who are unable to prove at least two years of continuous physical presence in the country eligible for expedited removal, said Cain Oulahan, attorney with Oulahan Immigration Law.
Because of the general confusion and shifting political landscape, Guevara worries that there will be an increased risk of racial profiling.
2. What can be expected from local enforcement?
ICE relies on local law enforcement to help carry out its duties, but the level of cooperation with ICE varies greatly depending on the area.
Milwaukee Police Department policy states it does not routinely inquire about immigration status during operations, emphasizing that most immigration violations are civil, not criminal.
However, Christopher thinks it is likely the Trump administration will begin to put more pressure on cities to comply with ICE.
The policy of the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department does not completely shut the door on cooperating with ICE in certain scenarios where someone is detained for committing a crime and is also suspected of being an unauthorized immigrant.
On a practical basis, though, the nature of the crime in this scenario is likely to make a difference, said Ruby De León, staff attorney at Voces.
“It doesn’t seem like day-to-day traffic stops – I don’t believe they would prioritize contacting ICE over these incidents.”
NNS reached out to ICE for comment about its priorities and plans for Milwaukee but did not receive a response.
3. What rights do people have?
Advocates stress that constitutional protections apply regardless of citizenship status, including the right to remain silent, the right to talk to a lawyer and protection from illegal search and seizure.
If law enforcement asks people to show immigration documentation, they have the right to remain silent or refuse to answer questions.
Law enforcement must have reasonable suspicion of unauthorized presence in the country to demand proof of immigration status, said R. Timothy Muth, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin.
At the same time, if people are not citizens but have documentation that permits them to stay in the country – such as a green card – they are required to keep that documentation with them, Muth said.
If a person is approached at home, a warrant for deportation allows officers to enter a home only if it is signed by a judge.
“And you should ask to see it,” Muth said. “You ask them to slip it under the door or show it to you at your window. You have a right to see the warrant and look at the signature line.”
With potential immigration violations, people have the right to speak to an attorney. But unlike with criminal arrests, the government does not have to provide the lawyer, De León said.
Additionally, individuals with a legitimate fear of persecution or torture in their home country have a right to seek asylum or asylum-type protection, Oulahan said.
4. What should be avoided if approached by law enforcement?
Voces and the ACLU advise against signing documents without a lawyer, running away or lying.
Running away and lying can be separate criminal acts, Muth said.
If people suspect their rights are being violated, such as being unlawfully searched, then they should not physically intervene, Muth added. They should instead document what they can and clearly state that they do not consent.
Voces and the ACLU also suggest taking photos or videos of agents, noting names and badge numbers.
Advocates recommend ensuring documentation is current, applying for passports for U.S.-born children and pursuing citizenship or legal status if eligible, perhaps through an employer or family member.
A city of Milwaukee municipal ID can serve as a form of identification for city residents who cannot get state identification.
Muth recommends carrying documentation showing continuous presence in the country for more than two years, such as a lease agreement, pay stubs or utility bill in a person’s name.
Voces also suggests completing power-of-attorney forms to plan for potential family separation.
Vacancies for community corrections staff in Milwaukee County, including probation and parole officers, have nearly tripled since before the pandemic, Wisconsin Department of Corrections data shows.
Some people are worried that fewer officers will make it harder to stabilize their lives after incarceration.
“With fewer agents, it can affect the way individuals can participate in programs while in the community and … in the right path to have sustained and continued success,” said Wilfredo Diaz, who is incarcerated at Stanley Correctional Institution.
Gaps in essential services
“The biggest effect is less service to people who need it the most,” said Peggy West-Schroder, former executive director of FREE, a statewide organization that addresses the needs of women and girls who are incarcerated, formerly incarcerated or otherwise affected by the criminal justice system.
Community corrections staff monitor people on parole, probation and extended supervision – with the goal of enhancing public safety and reducing the likelihood the person will reoffend, according to the Department of Corrections.
Those under supervision are supposed to be monitored for compliance with standard supervision rules concerning their activities and whereabouts. Depending on the type of conviction, such as sex crimes, there are additional supervision rules.
This is consistent with the needs of people who are leaving incarceration. Housing and employment are two of the most common needs among those who are reentering, said Conor Williams, who serves as facilitator of the Milwaukee Reentry Council.
Another major need for people post-incarceration is substance abuse treatment, and community corrections staff can help connect people to such resources as well.
According to a report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, 72% of people on supervision in Wisconsin in 2022 had a “substantial need” for some kind of substance abuse treatment.
Unfilled positions
Around March 2020, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the percentage of vacancies among security staff and correctional officers inside prisons began to increase, according to data from the Department of Corrections.
While staffing levels for security positions within prisons have rebounded since the pandemic, the shortage of community-based staff continues.
At the start of the pandemic, the percentage of unfilled community corrections staff serving Milwaukee County was just over 11%, according to Department of Corrections data. By the end of October, it shot up to more than 29% – the highest of any other correctional region in the state, DOC data also shows.
Milwaukee’s adult probation and parole office is located at 1300 N. 7th St., Suite 300. Since the pandemic, vacancies among community corrections staff, which includes probation and parole officers, have nearly tripled. (Devin Blake / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service)
At the same time, the county has the highest number of individuals who require supervision, noted Rep. Darrin Madison, D-Milwaukee, who serves on the state’s Assembly Committee on Corrections.
At the end of August, there were just about 13,000 individuals in the county who were under some form of supervision, correctional data also shows.
The Department of Corrections did not respond to several requests for comment about vacancy rates among community corrections staff.
Unmet needs
“I think a lot of people are just falling through the cracks, honestly,” said Juliann Bliefnick, administrative coordinator for FREE, who also is under supervision.
Bliefnick moved to a different part of Wisconsin in 2018 because she was not able to get her needs met in Milwaukee, she said.
The continued rise in unfilled community corrections positions has made the situation worse, Bliefnick said.
“I know people who have been on probation for three years and had seven different agents in those three years,” she said. “You can’t even get anything done when there’s that much turnover.”
West-Schroder and Bliefnick said there is a much higher risk of people being reincarcerated when they do not get the support they need.
Over 30% of people released from prison in 2020 were reincarcerated in Wisconsin within three years of release, according to publicly available correctional data.
Solutions
Lawmakers and advocates are offering their ideas for attracting more supervision staff.
“We must raise the wages and restore labor rights of community corrections staff in order to fill positions and retain workers for longer,” said Madison.
For the latest state budget, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers requested more money to do just this.
In October 2023, base pay for new probation and parole staff went from $21.21 to $22.06 per hour. In June, it increased again, to $22.51 per hour.
So far, the pay changes have not resulted in a decrease in the number of unfilled community corrections positions.
West-Schroder has a different idea.
“We have talked to DOC (Department of Corrections) several times about implementing in-house peer support services, understanding that officers can’t take on huge caseloads while providing these resources,” she said. “Let people who have been in this position before provide support … .”
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