The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources sought approval in February of its program to oversee disposal of coal combustion residuals, or coal ash, from the state’s electric utilities. Wisconsin has six coal ash landfills that are owned by Dairyland Power Cooperative, Alliant Energy, Wisconsin Public Service and We Energies.
Coal ash is what’s left behind from burning coal at power plants to produce electricity. Metals or pollutants within that waste, including arsenic, lead and mercury, can contaminate groundwater without proper storage.
Anne Vogel, EPA’s regional administrator for its Chicago-based office, said the agency wants to eliminate duplicate regulation.
“It’s really about having to go to two different regulators and eliminating that barrier makes things more efficient, more cost effective for the management of these landfills in a protective way,” Vogel told WPR.
The state’s regulations must be at least as stringent as federal requirements, but they could be even more protective.
Wisconsin moved to streamline regulations under an update to rules for coal ash landfills in 2022, said Kate Strom Hiorns, director of DNR’s Waste Materials Management Program. Those changes incorporated 2015 regulations imposed by the Obama administration that addressed landfill design, groundwater monitoring and closure requirements.
“By submitting this and getting this program approval, it’s that recognition that our regulations are as protective as the federal regulations, and that the sites that are being regulated can be regulated for the most part solely under state regulators and inspections,” Strom Hiorns said.
Wisconsin utilities support a shift to one set of regulations for their coal ash landfills.
“Utilities in Wisconsin have been regulated by the state for many years; transferring this particular permitting authority from the federal to state government is a positive step for Wisconsin,” said Dairyland spokesperson Katie Thomson.
However, Cheryl Nenn with the environmental group Milwaukee Riverkeeper said she’s in favor of dual regulation.
“Given the changes in politics at the state level and the federal level, there’s some benefit to having that dual oversight,” Nenn said, highlighting the state’s adoption of federal regulations.
The Obama and Biden administrations strengthened coal ash regulations, including a 2024 rule that required oversight of inactive landfills. Under the Trump administration, the EPA has proposed rolling back and revising those requirements.
“They’d essentially remove or exempt a lot of these coal ash dump sites from regulation entirely, even though many of them are already showing evidence of groundwater contamination,” Nenn said.
Nenn said there has been groundwater contamination at the closed, unlined Cedar Sauk Ash Landfill in Ozaukee County that received coal ash from We Energies’ Port Washington power plant from 1969 to 1977.
Strom Hiorns said the state requires utilities to conduct groundwater sampling and has long monitored groundwater at closed coal ash landfills, which wouldn’t change under the federal proposal.
She said other landfills owned by We Energies and Alliant Energy have also exceeded preventive action limits or enforcement standards for groundwater. Those detections are tied to older parts of those sites or naturally occurring substances, such as boron or molybdenum.
Brendan Conway, a spokesperson for WPS and We Energies, said their landfills are actively monitored for groundwater impacts and managed in line with state and federal requirements. An Alliant spokesperson said it’s committed to full compliance.
Under the EPA’s proposal, Wisconsin would assume authority only for coal ash landfills. The EPA would continue to oversee coal ash ponds. The EPA is currently accepting public comments on its proposal to shift regulation to Wisconsin’s program. A virtual public hearing will be held Nov. 9.
Enbridge said an early morning fire destroyed a drill rig and support equipment on a $1 billion project to reroute its Line 5 oil and gas pipeline in northern Wisconsin.
In a statement, Enbridge spokesperson Juli Kellner called the fire that damaged a horizontal directional drill rig and related equipment an act of vandalism. She said there was also graffiti found at the site. No details were provided on where the fire took place, but Kellner said no injuries were reported.
Iron County Sheriff Paul Samardich confirmed the blaze occurred in Ashland County. The Ashland County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to requests for additional details on the fire.
The incident follows two other fires targeting Enbridge that occurred last month, including a blaze in Ashland County that destroyed a drill rig on the Line 5 reroute.
“This is the second major vandalism involving construction equipment on the project,” Kellner said. “These incidents put the local community, landowners, first responders and our workers at risk and result in environmental impacts.”
The FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, are investigating the cause of the two previous fires that occurred in the town of Gingles and the city of Superior. Representatives of the FBI and ATF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kellner said Enbridge supports people’s rights to express their views “legally and peacefully.”
“Acts that damage property and put people or the environment at risk are neither legal nor peaceful,” Kellner said. “We take these incidents very seriously and will cooperate fully with authorities as they investigate and seek to hold those responsible accountable.”
Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline carries up to 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids daily from Superior to Sarnia, Ontario, serving 10 refineries and propane facilities in the Great Lakes region.
The fires come after an Aug. 25 gas leak on Line 5 in the town of Saxon released more than 1.3 million gallons of natural gas liquids into the atmosphere. Preliminary findings suggest a subcontractor’s truck was in neutral when it rolled into an open construction trench, striking the pipeline. No one was injured in the incident, and response to the spill is still ongoing.
Following the leak, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources asked Enbridge to halt work on a temporary bypass around the site of the leak, saying the company lacked necessary approvals.
On Sept. 28, Enbridge also reported a release of groundwater at a site where crews were directly installing pipe underneath the Marengo River. It was initially reported as an aquifer breach, and the DNR has since said it’s still investigating the source of the release and determining any negative effects to groundwater.
Rebecca Evans is trying to raise three children with her husband. She was working two jobs but had to quit to take care of one of her children.
While her husband makes good money, the Oshkosh resident said their household costs just keep rising.
“With grocery prices and gas prices, we’ve had to go on government assistance, and that’s not something that I want to be doing,” Evans told WPR, speaking outside of a Pick ‘n Save grocery store in Oshkosh. “But I have no choice. It’s definitely a hard time financially right now.”
She isn’t the only one feeling pinched.
The latest Marquette Law School poll released Sept. 30 found that 45% of Wisconsin voters cited inflation and the cost of living as their most important issue this election cycle. No other issue even came close.
Both candidates running for Wisconsin governor agree that affordability is the state’s biggest challenge, but they’re offering starkly different ideas on how to address it.
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany’s plan addresses affordability primarily through tax cuts and deregulation while Democratic Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley’s plan focuses on creating or expanding state programs to address rising household costs.
Tiffany, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, is running in a midterm election that could become a referendum on the administration’s handling of the economy.
In 2024, Trump campaigned in Wisconsin on lowering prices. Two years later, the September Marquette poll showed 65% of registered voters said they think Trump’s policies will increase inflation.
Evans said she voted for Trump two years ago hoping he would fight for the working class.
“I’m not seeing any change whatsoever,” she said. “He seems to be doing a lot there, but it’s not affecting me at all, and I’m very disheartened. I’m not happy at all with the way he’s doing things.”
In the Midwest, inflation over the last year has been around 3.6%, driven in large part by rising prices of oil and gas related to the war in Iran, said David Fuller, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
Fuller said gas prices can be especially difficult for consumers because daily commutes remain the same even when fuel costs rise.
Evans, the mother from Oshkosh, said gas prices have been a major source of financial hardship in her household over the last year.
“My husband works like 50 minutes away, so gas to and from is a huge chunk out of his paycheck,” she said. “He’s considering changing jobs just because the gas is taking away a good part of his income.”
Another Oshkosh resident, Alexzandria Wiegand, planned a cross-country road trip months ago in response to a spike in airline prices during the beginning of the Iran war.
“We weren’t planning for gas prices to be this high,” she said. “We’re still in a position where we’re going to go with it, but it’s not ideal.”
High oil prices also filter through the rest of the economy by raising the cost of shipping goods throughout the country and the globe. That means high gas prices are reflected in higher prices on other goods.
On top of rising gas prices related to the war in Iran, consumers have also had to navigate an international trade war and a flurry of tariffs imposed by Trump since returning to office.
The nonprofit Tax Foundation estimates tariffs imposed in 2025 amounted to a $1,000 tax increase per U.S. household on average. This year, it’s estimated the average tax increase to households from tariffs will be $820.
And while Wisconsinites have been facing high inflation since the COVID-19 pandemic, wages have struggled to keep up with rising prices over the last year, Fuller said.
“Real wages, which are wages adjusted for inflation, are down slightly over the past year — and a little bit more in Wisconsin than nationally,” he said. “That’s why consumers are rightfully noticing that the cost of living has increased faster than their wages have gone up.”
Median wages in Wisconsin have generally kept pace with overall inflation over the last 25 years, but the costs of many household essentials, like housing and health care, have outpaced both inflation and wages over that period. That’s according to a report from Forward Analytics, the research arm of the Wisconsin Counties Association.
Jeremy Albrecht, a nurse from Oshkosh, said he and his wife both work middle-class jobs and it doesn’t feel like their incomes are keeping up with the cost of living.
“It is harder for families to get by these days,” he said. “I can’t even imagine someone making less than what my wife and I do, like how they can get through this.”
Candidates for governor offer competing visions to address affordability
The two major-party candidates for governor have offered competing visions for trying to provide relief to residents.
Crowley’s plan focuses on lowering costs of essentials, including child care, health care and housing, through increased state spending. Meanwhile, Tiffany’s proposal focuses on delivering savings to residents by cutting income and property taxes, eliminating taxes on tips and cutting regulations.
Crowley’s proposal calls for increasing funding to existing child care providers to give families access to subsidized child care slots, as well as expanding BadgerCare and increasing funding for housing programs addressing supply and demand.
Crowley didn’t specify how the plan would be funded, but suggested the state could use its roughly $3 billion budget surplus, as well as taxes on “billionaires” and “billionaire companies.”
“This is about how we’re going to uplift communities,” he told WPR. “We have to tackle the affordability crisis, whether we’re talking at the gas pump, groceries, housing, child care, health care, you name it.”
Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley shakes hands as he enters a press conference Oct. 1, 2026, at Milwaukee Public Market in Milwaukee. (Angela Major / WPR)
Meanwhile, Tiffany’s plan calls for cutting regulations that he says make it more expensive for companies to do business and result in higher prices for consumers, from housing to child care.
On taxes, his plan includes a 10% tax cut for families earning less than $150,000 per year. It also calls for freezing property taxes after repealing a partial veto from Gov. Tony Evers that increased school district revenue limits for 400 years, and returning the state surplus to residents.
“We are going to return more money to the people of the state of Wisconsin,” Tiffany told WPR. “State government has plenty of money. It does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.”
Crowley and Tiffany have traded barbs over their respective plans and records.
Tiffany has attacked Crowley for tax increases in Milwaukee County, arguing the county executive would raise taxes statewide. Meanwhile, Crowley has attacked Tiffany for his votes in Congress, framing him as a rubber stamp for Trump.
Midterm politics and affordability challenge collide
While both candidates say they want to address affordability, Fuller, the UW-Oshkosh economist, said the governor’s powers to affect national policies fueling inflation — from foreign wars to tariffs — are quite limited.
“There isn’t a whole lot that local or state politicians can do to meaningfully affect the inflation rate because that tends to be driven by national forces,” Fuller said. “In this case, it’s the price of energy, it’s actions by the Federal Reserve Bank (and) the federal government — those things are driving inflation.”
Even so, Crowley said he believes the governor has a role to play when it comes to the national economy.
“A governor may not be able to do much, but we can stand up to this Trump administration,” he said.
Tiffany said he believes his opponent is too focused on Trump, and the governor would need to work with the president on disaster relief.
“He’ll be judged by history — he’ll be judged over the course of his four years,” Tiffany said.
Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany talks with supporters at his gubernatorial campaign’s “Freedom Fest” event at West Bend’s Elderberry Manor wedding barn June 28, 2026. (Rich Kremer / WPR)
In the September Marquette Poll, Trump had a negative approval rating in Wisconsin at 38%, and 60% of voters disapproved of Trump’s job performance.
Aaron Weinschenk, a political science professor at UW-Green Bay, said midterm elections are generally tough for the president’s party if voters feel they aren’t getting ahead economically.
“Maybe it matters more in a race like ours, where we’re a battleground state and things are looking to be pretty tight between the candidates,” he said. “It might be that (the candidates) don’t even need to talk necessarily about the economy. They could just talk about the president in general.”
While he said candidates’ economic plans and platforms are important for accountability, Weinschenk admitted most voters don’t actually read them in detail.
“A lot of people are operating on much more simple cues than reading a document from the candidate,” Weinschenk said. “They know how things are going in their life. They know which party they like. They know how they feel about the president. Those are pretty good guides for the decisions they’re going to make.”
For Evans, the former Trump voter from Oshkosh, affordability is her top concern this election, though she hadn’t yet made up her mind in the governor’s race.
“It is top of mind because it affects us so greatly,” she said. “It’s something that I think about every day, ‘Oh man, where’s the money gonna come from here?’ And it’s definitely on the forefront of my mind and how I would vote.”
President Donald Trump says he will approve nearly $18 million in disaster relief for Wisconsin related to the tornado and severe storms that hit the state this summer.
An EF-3 tornado hit Menasha on July 27, plowing through the city, destroying homes, overturning cars and uprooting trees. The storms also caused damage in Forest, Outagamie, Vilas and Winnebago counties.
Trump’s social media post announcing the money did not reference Evers’ request but did call attention to U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican candidate for governor. In his post, Trump said he “just spoke with Tom Tiffany, who has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next Governor of the Great State of Wisconsin.”
Trump said he would be approving $17.9 million for severe storms and tornadoes Wisconsin experienced.
The federal agency put out a statement later Wednesday evening announcing that federal disaster assistance was available “to supplement recovery efforts in the areas affected by severe storms and tornadoes on July 27, 2026.”
The FEMA statement did not include a dollar amount of aid available. It stated that aid would include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans and other programs to help families and individuals. It also stated that assistance would be available to state, local and tribal governments, along with some nonprofit organizations, in Vilas and Winnebago counties.
In Evers’ request to the president, the damage to residential buildings from the July 27 storms was estimated to be more than $8.2 million while government property suffered another $13.8 million in damage.
A spokesperson for the governor’s office said it did not have any additional information beyond the content of the president’s post.
“Clearly, President Trump and Congressman Tiffany are continuing to play politics with emergency aid that’s meant to help communities recover in the wake of disasters like tornadoes and floods,” Evers added. “That’s Complete and Total (Bull****).”
In a statement, Tiffany said securing federal disaster relief is a priority and he had been in “regular contact with the administration.”
“Today, President Trump called to let me know that roughly $18 million in aid for Wisconsin has been approved,” Tiffany stated. “I appreciate the administration responding to Wisconsin’s needs.”
“Local officials, first responders, and community members have worked hard to help their communities recover, and federal assistance can help build on those efforts,” Grothman stated. “I especially want to thank the volunteers who have given their time to help neighbors clean up and begin rebuilding.”
The city of Menasha was the hardest hit community by the tornado. According to the state’s request for federal aid, 663 homes were damaged, including 140 that were unsafe and likely needed to be demolished.
Menasha Mayor Austin Hammond said the city was aware of the president’s announcement, but had received no confirmation from state or federal emergency management officials that the disaster relief had been approved.
“We’re waiting for additional details,” he said. “Once we’ve received a bit more confirmation from (Wisconsin Emergency Management) and FEMA, then everybody — city staff, other governing agencies — will disseminate that information out as quickly and accurately as possible.””
Hammond said the community’s recovery effort hinges on federal relief coming to the community.
“The support of the federal government is imperative to the road to recovery, which will be long,” he said. “It’s going to be months and years, so that support is imperative.”
Winnebago County Executive Gordon Hintz said the county was “encouraged” by Trump’s announcement, but did not yet have any details on the disaster relief.
“The president’s out there and he’s committing federal resources, and I’m encouraged by that,” he said. “On the other hand, we don’t have the details on exactly what it means, where the dollar figures align with what the reported damages are.”
Trump’s announced nearly $18 million comes in more than $4 million short of the $22 million in damage to private and government property identified in the state’s request for federal aid.
While he’d like more information, Hintz added that he’d rather “have a positive commitment made by the president than nothing.”
“Maybe the administration made the approval and he was excited to get out there, and the information will be forthcoming,” he said. “But this is how President Trump has done most things, and apparently, disaster relief is no different.”
Adam Paul, who owns Vintage Rose Bakery & Sandwich Shop in west De Pere with his wife, says health care is the biggest financial stress he faces.
He struggles with mental health, and his wife has a thyroid condition. For the last three months, Paul said they’ve been negotiating with their insurance provider to try to get an MRI covered for his wife’s condition.
“Fighting with the insurance company, and owning a business at the same time, to get things covered is a nightmare,” Paul said. “It’s a constant fight of, ‘OK what is my health worth?’”
As a business owner, he said he “would love” to offer his employees insurance, but his company is just “way too small” for him to make it work financially.
Paul and other Brown County community members spoke at an affordability roundtable in De Pere last month, moderated by former Democratic Party of Wisconsin chair Ben Wikler.
Paul wasn’t the only one at the roundtable who spoke about health care costs being a major source of financial stress.
Inflation and cost of living rank as the top issue among Wisconsin voters, according to a September Marquette Law School Poll. Health insurance was the third highest ranking issue among voters and outranked data centers, abortion, schools or crime.
Candidates running for Wisconsin governor, Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany and Democratic Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, both say they want to lower health care costs and make care more accessible. But they’re offering different views on how to do that.
Wisconsin hospital prices among highest in nation as ACA coverage declines
The biggest increase among essential costs came from hospital services, which increased by 274%, the report found. Median household incomes in Wisconsin increased by an estimated 90% over the same period.
Dan Sacks, a professor of risk and insurance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, said health care, in general, is expensive — accounting for around 18% of the nation’s gross domestic product.
He said Wisconsin’s hospital prices are among the highest in the nation, as the health care sector has become “dominated by a relatively small number of very important health systems.”
He said those who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace are seeing higher costs after pandemic-era subsidies ended at the start of the year. He said the subsidies helped keep ACA premiums down.
Sacks said tens of thousands fewer Wisconsinites enrolled in ACA coverage this year than last year, and people are generally “paying more out of pocket for their health care.”
Beyond the ACA marketplace, Medicaid work requirements included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act are set to begin at the start of 2027, which would affect those enrolled in BadgerCare, Sacks said.
“In Wisconsin, the work requirements will apply only to childless adult BadgerCare members,” Sacks said.
Crowley, Tiffany differ on the role government should play
While both candidates say they want to lower health care costs and expand access to care, Tiffany and Crowley differ on the role government should play in achieving those goals.
Crowley’s health care proposal calls for opening up BadgerCare enrollment to any household that wants it, making premiums based on income and giving targeted subsidies to small businesses, single parents, college students, farmers and gig workers.
The plan also proposes making BadgerCare comprehensive to include medical, dental, vision and mental health care.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, left, and U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany. The Wisconsin gubernatorial candidates have opposing plans for tackling rising health care costs. (Andy Manis for Wisconsin Watch and Zoey Elwood / Wisconsin Watch)
“It’s about creating BadgerCare as an alternative to for-profit insurance, giving our veterans, our entrepreneurs, our students, our child care workers, anybody, the ability to pay into a system that’s going to be cheaper and is going to work well for them, so they don’t fall through the cracks,” Crowley told WPR.
Meanwhile, Tiffany’s health care proposal calls for requiring hospitals and insurance companies to provide upfront prices to patients, allowing primary care patients to pay their doctor directly through a subscription model and allowing the Wisconsin Farm Bureau to offer health plans to members.
The plan also calls for increased oversight of pharmacy benefit managers, which he says contribute to higher prescription drug costs.
“We’re going to create a system that makes health care more affordable in Wisconsin and brings greater resources to the table to make sure that we have top-notch health care,” Tiffany said. “We are going to make sure that all health care providers provide maximum transparency.”
Crowley has been critical of Tiffany for his vote in favor of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and its Medicaid spending cuts. Tiffany has defended the bill for providing funding for rural health care and said he supported a federal rule that could bring additional Medicaid funding to the state.
Data centers may provide a major economic development opportunity for local communities in Wisconsin, but concerns around water and energy use and potential costs to residents have made them increasingly controversial.
A new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum aims to put those issues — and Wisconsin’s data center debate — into context. Researchers examined tax incentives supporting those projects as well as their energy and water use.
Communities have ‘significant protections’ under data center incentive deals
State law allows qualified developers to avoid paying sales and use tax on most purchases supporting the construction and operation of a data center.
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates Wisconsin will lose out on $1.5 billion in sales tax revenues related to data center construction between 2024 and 2028, as well as forgo $369 million annually in sales tax revenue related to data center operations.
Wisconsin is one of 38 states that offer tax incentives to data centers. Jason Stein, one of the report’s authors, said without its sales tax exemption, Wisconsin might not have attracted the prominent developments.
“I think it’s reasonable to think that a lot of this investment — maybe most of this investment — would not have occurred without the incentive,” he said.
The report says the state could “recoup a significant portion of the forgone sales tax revenues” if the sales tax exemption helped attract a significant share of data center investment to Wisconsin.
That’s through income and sales taxes paid by construction workers and corporate income taxes paid by construction companies, as well as additional taxes paid by utilities serving data centers.
Data centers are also expected to generate increased property tax revenues in the communities hosting them.
Researchers reviewed local development agreements in Mount Pleasant, Port Washington and Beaver Dam, as well as proposed deals in communities where developments fell through. They found that, in general, local communities were striking “reasonable deals” that included financial safeguards.
Those safeguards often included limits on municipal borrowing, guaranteed property values and incentives tied to project performance, the report said.
“If the developer and the community follow through on their agreement and it moves forward as laid out, then those agreements offer substantial protections for the communities,” Stein said. “There are significant protections in each of these deals.”
Data centers use water, but Wisconsin water use has declined
While much of the public debate around data centers in Wisconsin has centered around water use, policy forum researchers found the bigger challenge is meeting the large electricity demands of those projects while protecting existing ratepayers.
That’s because water use in Wisconsin has declined over the past generation as some heavy industry left the state, industrial and residential users became more efficient and electric utilities shifted some energy generation from “water-intensive” coal plants to natural gas and renewable energy, the report said.
From 2011 to 2024, water withdrawals in the state fell by more than 500 billion gallons, or almost 24%, according to the report.
The three main data center projects in Wisconsin are projected to use less water than the decline in water withdrawals over that period, the report states.
“We were on this track to use less and less water because of changes in our society, and maybe this will slow that down somewhat,” Stein said. “But that is a different thing than saying, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re using more water than ever before.’”
For example, Racine Water Works, the utility providing water for Microsoft’s data center campus in Mount Pleasant, saw its annual water sales decline by 2.3 billion gallons from 2000 to 2025, according to the report.
That’s “more than 250 times” as much water as the 8.4 million gallons annually Microsoft’s data center will use when fully operational, the report states.
Electricity demand expected to rise significantly
While long-term declines in water use are expected to help offset demand from data centers, Wisconsin’s electricity demand is expected to grow, in large part driven by demand from data centers.
Peak demand from all customers on the grid is expected to rise from 14.6 gigawatts in 2024 to 19.9 gigawatts by 2030, the report states.
The report found that the state Public Service Commission modified proposals from We Energies and Alliant Energy establishing rates for data center-scale customers to shield existing residential customers from costs associated with data centers.
But it remains to be seen how data centers will affect transmission rates, which are set at the federal level, said Tyler Byrnes, one of the report’s authors.
“It’s a little bit easier to do the math on one power plant for one data center, whereas you’re starting to divide up electrons moving across power lines (and) across state lines, so it’s more complicated,” he said.
He also said there is not currently an approved data center rate framework for developments of that scale outside the service territories of Alliant Energy and We Energies. He said policymakers may want to consider adopting a statewide framework for electric rates tied to data centers.
The report also notes that there are unresolved questions about whether utilities will be able to bring new energy generation and transmission lines online quickly enough to meet the growing demand.
A report filed with federal regulators estimates an August gas leak on Enbridge’s Line 5 oil and gas pipeline in northern Wisconsin will cost at least $15.1 million.
An accident report filed by Enbridge Energy Limited Partnership Thursday with the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration shows emergency response makes up the bulk of the costs, estimated at nearly $9.9 million.
The company estimated public and private property damage and repairs at about $5 million. Environmental remediation and lost product account for the remainder of the estimated expenses.
Enbridge has said the leak occurred after a subcontractor’s unoccupied flatbed truck rolled into an open excavation site for a Line 5 valve project in Iron County, striking and puncturing the pipeline.
“The affected pipeline section was immediately isolated, and Line 5 was shut down. No injuries occurred, and one nearby rural residence was evacuated as a precaution,” wrote Stacy Soine, Enbridge’s regulatory compliance advisor.
The company told regulators about 33,000 barrels, or more than 1.3 million gallons, of natural gas liquids escaped during the incident. Most has not been recovered because propane and butane vaporized upon release. The company recovered 165 barrels from the trench with a vacuum truck.
The report sheds no new light on how the truck rolled into the trench, saying the cause remains under investigation. But WPR obtained a corrective action order issued by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA, that states preliminary findings indicate “the tractor trailer was left temporarily unattended and placed in neutral transmission on a gradient slope prior to the failure.”
Enbridge told PHMSA it shut down the pipeline within three minutes of the leak. Line 5 resumed service Sept. 13. The report states that systems monitoring the pipeline were operating when the incident occurred. However, Soine wrote the company’s leak detection system did not trigger because of the immediate shutdown of Line 5.
The company reported the incident to the National Response Center an hour later at 11:02 a.m. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has said its spills hotline received notification at 11:15 a.m.
Enbridge said wildlife and water have not been affected.
“Community air monitoring is ongoing and has consistently shown safe air quality outside of the incident site. Monitoring wells continue to show no contamination, and soil and water monitoring remains ongoing,” Enbridge spokesperson Juli Kellner said.
The company plans to test, remove and properly dispose of soil from the excavation area.
A PHMSA spokesperson said the agency’s investigation remains ongoing. Texas-based Stress Engineering Services will conduct a mechanical and metallurgical analysis of the failed section of pipe. The agency’s accident investigation team will also inspect the truck. Inspectors are in the region overseeing construction of the Line 5 reroute.
“PHMSA may pursue additional enforcement action if its investigation identifies any violations of federal pipeline safety regulations or if additional corrective actions are necessary,” a PHMSA spokesperson said.
WPR previously reported that federal accident data shows the leak is the company’s and state’s largest oil and gas pipeline spill in Wisconsin in more than 50 years.
Environmental advocates and the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa have called on Gov. Tony Evers and the DNR to do more in response to the leak, including calling for a disaster declaration and revocation of permits for Enbridge’s Line 5 reroute. They pointed to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s call for removal of Line 5 in theStraitsof Mackinac, as well as a new regulatory review of Michigan permits issued for Enbridge’s tunnel project.
Neither the governor’s office nor the DNR has responded to those calls.
Line 5 carries up to 23 million gallons of crude oil and natural gas liquids daily from Superior to Sarnia, Ontario. The pipeline serves 10 refineries and propane facilities in the Midwest and Great Lakes region.
Enbridge built a temporary bypass to bring the pipeline back online amid objections from the Wisconsin DNR, which said the company lacked state approvals. Enbridge contends the construction complied with existing permits and an application for changes to its stormwater permit. A DNR spokesperson has said the agency continues to review options in response to the unpermitted construction.
Last week, fires damaged two company sites — an office building in Superior and drilling equipment at a Line 5 reroute site in Ashland County. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is leading a probe into both fires.
Roughly two-thirds of the $1 billion Line 5 reroute has been built. The project employs 700 workers. As many as a dozen other spills have occurred during the project, according to a court filing by the Bad River band.
In 2020, Enbridge proposed the reroute after the Bad Riverband sued the company in 2019 to shut down and remove the pipeline from tribal lands where easements had expired.
Three years ago, a federal judge found the company was trespassing and ordered Enbridge to pay roughly $5 million and shut down or reroute Line 5. The band and Enbridge appealed the decision. In August, a federal appeals panel ruled that Enbridge has been trespassing and must remove the pipeline from the Bad River reservation. However, the panel gave the company more time to complete the Line 5 reroute.
The median home price in northeast Wisconsin has more than doubled over the last decade while fair market rents in the region’s two largest cities have also climbed sharply.
Local officials, housing advocates and economists say those cost increases — fueled by tight supply and high demand — have made it harder for young families to purchase their first home and for renters to make ends meet.
Northeast Wisconsin is home to Green Bay and the Fox Valley. It’s a mix of medium-sized cities and rural communities. Wisconsin Realtors Association data shows median home prices in the region climbed from $145,000 in July 2016 to $331,000 in July 2026.
David Clark, an economist for the Wisconsin Realtors Association, said home prices across the state didn’t rise very fast for much of the 2010s, and neither did housing supply.
He said a surge of millennials entered the housing market when mortgage rates fell below 3% in 2020 while many baby boomers remained in their existing homes, contributing to a supply and demand imbalance and rising prices. While homebuilding has picked up in recent years, he said supply remains limited.
“We’ve got tight inventory statewide, and that same statewide picture is pretty similar to the circumstances in the northeast region,” Clark said.
Local officials and advocates say tight inventory in the owner-occupied housing market has led some residents interested in purchasing a home to continue renting, putting upward pressure on those prices as well.
“There are bottlenecks everywhere,” said Mindy Howell, housing services lead case manager for The Salvation Army-Fox Cities. “Housing is more expensive, so more people are renting.”
She said that’s meant people with moderate incomes are competing with lower-income residents for available rental units, saying it’s “very hard to find affordable housing.”
Beyond supply and demand, property managers say rising costs from insurance, property taxes and repairs all factor into rent prices.
“We’ve tracked five years of financial data across more than 5,000 rental units: Operating costs rose 34.2% from 2019 to 2023,” said Rick Van Der Leest, president of the Apartment Association of Northeast Wisconsin and Fox Valley Apartment Association.
The fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Appleton increased from $718 in 2016 to $810 in 2020 and $1,236 in 2026, federal data shows. Those rents in Green Bay increased from $756 in 2016 to $822 in 2020 and $1,164 in 2026.
Amber Edwards is a community organizer for JOSHUA, a faith-based nonprofit in Green Bay that works on housing and other social issues. She said rising costs and tight supply have been hard on residents of all backgrounds.
“There are people that I know that have really good jobs, stable careers that are struggling to find housing in their 40s because it is so tight and difficult to obtain, and difficult to maintain,” she said.
Green Bay and Appleton each need to build thousands of housing units, a mix of single-family and rentals, in the coming years to keep pace with projected housing demand, according to recent housing reports.
A 2025 housing market study from the city found Green Bay needed to build 2,100 rental units and 2,159 owner-occupied units by 2040 under a conservative growth scenario and 4,575 rental units and 5,072 owner-occupied units under a high-growth scenario.
This graphic shows the city of Green Bay’s projected housing need. (Liz Dohms-Harter / WPR)
“We need everything, from low income to high income, small apartments to large,” said Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich. “That’s been our focus is just to do whatever we possibly can to partner with high-quality developers to make this happen for the residents here.”
Genrich said the number of units per year built within the city has increased from an average of 144 units per year from 2015 to 2019 to an average of 368 units from 2023 to 2025.
He said private developments, in which the city played no role, did contribute to that increase. But he also said the city has tried to use a variety of tools from crafting more flexible zoning codes to using tax increment financing to encourage development.
Meanwhile, the city of Appleton needed to build 3,981 single-family, 442 two-family and 158 multi-family units between 2019 and 2040 to accommodate population growth projections, according to a 2024 housing affordability report from the city.
Appleton Mayor Jake Woodford said the city was currently working its way through zoning code revisions aimed at promoting duplex development and other zoning designations. He said the city has also worked to “streamline” the development process itself, but he said there isn’t a silver bullet that will solve the issue.
“I think the underlying issue of the cost of building housing is a huge factor,” he said. “Land availability to some extent, but cost of construction is a big challenge.”
Due to high construction costs, he said, a newly built home that may be considered a “starter home” based on its size and number of bedrooms is likely to cost $400,000 or more, which is “unattainable” for many first-time buyers.
“Housing is becoming less affordable, and that presents a real challenge for our communities,” he said. “Because here in the city of Appleton, if people cannot afford to live in this community, how do we expect to have a thriving local economy?”
To address the issue, local leaders and housing advocates said they would like to see state leaders invest in expanding low-interest loan programs for affordable housing developers and first-time homebuyers and create more tools to help housing developments make financial sense for builders.
A plane carrying Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany was forced to make an emergency water landing in Wausau Saturday night.
Tiffany, who represents Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, said the small aircraft lost power during its final approach for landing at the Wausau Downtown Airport.
During a press conference at the Wausau Fire Department Sunday, Tiffany said he believes the pilot, Leonard Boltz, attempted to restart the plane, but was unsuccessful.
“At that point, he just said, ‘Hang on, Tom, and buckle up because we’re going to go down,’” Tiffany told reporters. “It was just real shortly after that, I would guess 10 seconds, we hit the water.”
Boltz landed the plane in the middle of Lake Wausau on the Wisconsin River, according to information shared by the Marathon County Sheriff’s Office.
Tiffany said he lost his phone in the crash, but Boltz was able to call 911. He estimates they stood on top of the sinking plane for roughly 10 minutes, before beginning to swim toward shore. He said they discovered a sandbar after 150 feet and were able to wait there for emergency responders.
The sheriff’s office reported dispatchers received the call at 8:49 p.m. Saturday. Firefighters from the Wausau Fire Department rescued the two men using an airboat around 9:05 p.m.
Tiffany credited Boltz for pulling up the landing gear before hitting the water, which he said likely kept the plane from cartwheeling and may have saved their lives. He estimates the plane was going around 70 miles per hour at the time of the crash.
“It was quite a night, quite a day, and (I’m) just grateful for the Lord for sparing us to see another day,” said Tiffany, who became emotional when speaking to reporters Sunday.
Tiffany and the pilot were the only people aboard the aircraft. Both were transported to Aspirus Wausau Hospital with minor injuries.
GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany became emotional while reflecting on the emergency water landing and rescue from Lake Wausau. (Avery Martinez / WPR)
Tiffany said he received 12 stitches to close a laceration in his eyebrow after his head hit the dashboard. The pilot also sustained minor injuries. Both men were released from the hospital Saturday night.
The congressman repeatedly thanked the Wausau Fire Department and other first responders for their quick rescue.
He said the incident would not keep him from continuing his campaign for governor, adding that he planned to be back on the campaign trail Monday.
“I signed up for this job. We’re going to finish the job,” Tiffany told reporters.
An investigation into the loss of power on the Beechcraft K35 airplane will be handled by the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board.
The aircraft remained in Lake Wausau, according to a statement from the Marathon County Sheriff’s Office. Officials asked boaters to avoid the area and use caution until crews can remove the plane.
David Crowley, the Democratic candidate for governor, wrote on X that he is grateful that no one was hurt in what he called a “horrifying incident.”
Airport manager praises pilot for ‘awesome flying’
John Chmiel, Wausau Downtown Airport manager, was among those to survey the waterlogged plane on Sunday morning.
Chmiel noted aircraft incidents like this are incredibly uncommon.
“You think about it, in your community there’s probably multiple car accidents a day,” he said. “In the United States of America, there are less than a half dozen (aircraft incidents) a day in the entire USA, so that kind of puts things in perspective.”
Chmiel said the pilot – in his opinion – had done everything right in identifying the area for the plane to land and guiding it into the water, especially after the sun had gone down.
“Which was a very difficult maneuver to execute safely,” Chmiel said. “And he was able to actually retract the landing gear, so he would have a better result of landing on the water.”
He’s also a pilot and owns Wausau Flying Service.
“Regardless of what happened leading up to the accident, once he knew he was committed to a water landing, he did every single thing right. It was awesome flying,” Chmiel said.
When asked by WPR if this is a normal procedure for an emergency, to look for a water landing, Chmiel said he’s always taught pilots to look for alternative landing areas.
“The beautiful thing about water is there typically isn’t obstructions or people or vessels in there that you have to worry about hitting,” he said.
That said, actually pulling it off safely is its own art, he added.
“We spend our whole careers trying to prevent that from happening, and sometimes things slip through the Swiss cheese, as we call it,” he said.
When an aircraft accident happens at an airport, the process is different, Chmiel said. In this case, where the plane hit water off airport property – it wasn’t necessary for him to be involved, but he said he was Saturday night.
“It’s not a common occurrence, but we’re always prepared for it, if it does,” he said.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin filed a new lawsuit challenging Wisconsin abortion restrictions Thursday, just days after the Wisconsin Supreme Court returned to work with a newly cemented 5-2 liberal majority in place.
The lawsuit, filed in Dane County against Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, argues that two Wisconsin laws violate the state constitution’s guarantee of personal liberty.
One of those laws requires people seeking abortions to wait 24 hours between requesting an abortion and receiving one. The other states that only licensed physicians may provide abortions; this limits a person’s ability to self-administer abortion drugs through telehealth.
“This case asks our court to recognize … that our constitutional freedom includes the ability to make deeply personal decisions about our reproductive health care without unnecessary government interference,” said Tanya Atkinson, the president of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, during a press briefing announcing the lawsuit.
The case names Ozanne as a representative of all Wisconsin district attorneys because they would prosecute violations of the rule that only physicians can administer abortions, said Diane Welsh, a lawyer for Planned Parenthood.
“Anywhere in the state where an abortion would be provided, there could be criminal charges for a person who’s not a physician,” said Welsh.
Lawsuits challenging Wisconsin’s abortion restrictions have been anticipated since Roe vs. Wade — which federally protected abortion access — was overturned in 2022, effectively throwing the issue back to the states. The most significant challenge was over a Civil War-era statute that had been interpreted as banning abortion in Wisconsin and that went back into effect when Roe was overturned.
That law was at the heart of campaigns to elect liberal justices to the state Supreme Court, and last year, the high court overturned the statute, allowing abortions to be administered within the state under certain restrictions.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court found that the 19th-century law had been superseded by a series of additional restrictions passed in the ensuing decades. Immediately, abortion advocates signaled they might challenge those restrictions.
Thursday’s announcement makes good on those possibilities. In the briefing, attorneys for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin argued that requiring a physician to be present during abortions and requiring a person to receive counseling and wait a full day before receiving abortion care are unnecessary and illegal barriers to health care access.
“Through this case, we are asking Wisconsin courts to recognize that these restrictions conflict with the freedoms and protections guaranteed to each of us under our state’s constitution,” said Atkinson. “It’s about whether our constitutional freedoms belong to each of us, or whether the government can make our most personal decisions for us.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Wisconsin Right to Life said Planned Parenthood is seeking a “permanent constitutional shield” for abortion access.
“This lawsuit isn’t about access,” said Samantha Craig. “It’s about removing the last few guardrails standing between a woman and the procedure table. It is incredible to us that such basic protections for informed consent and women’s safety are disregarded for the sake of protecting Planned Parenthood’s abortion-first business model.”
The Wisconsin Supreme Court, which would have the final say in the case, has a definitive liberal slant that is all but guaranteed to be in place for years to come. Liberal Justice Chris Taylor, whose 10-year term began in August, was once a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood. Liberal Justice Susan Crawford, who was sworn in a year earlier, once represented the group as a private attorney.
Median wages have hit a record high in Wisconsin, but job growth has stalled and the state’s Black unemployment rate is rising.
Those are the main findings from “The State of Working Wisconsin 2026,” a new report on the state’s job market. The annual report is released by the High Road Strategy Center, a left-leaning “think-and-do tank” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The report found that after hitting a record high number of jobs — 3,051,000 — in November 2024, the state had just 3,042,900 jobs in July 2026.
“Job growth has ground to a halt, and though wages hit a new high in 2025, high inflation is undermining workers’ wages in 2026,” said Laura Dresser, author of the report and the associate director of the High Road Strategy Center.
“The (report) still shows some very bright spots, but the clouds are gathering on the economic horizon.”
Dresser told WPR the report’s findings showed a “mixed picture.”
“There’s some really great news still in this economy,” she said. “We’ve had a strong recovery from the pandemic lockdowns, it’s been sustained and we show again that we got a new high in median wages in 2025.”
Last year’s report found that the economy was softening, and Dresser said some of those trends have continued.
Report sees higher unemployment ahead
The state’s unemployment rate is at 3.3%. That is low but “drifting upward” compared to the 2.6% unemployment rate in 2023, the report found.
“With the state losing jobs, it is likely that the rate will continue to rise,” the report said.
And the state has been losing jobs since 2025.
“Wisconsin’s economy has grown slowly relative to the national economy for years, and now job growth has ground to a halt,” the report said.
It also found that Wisconsin’s economy “is riddled with inequalities by geography, race, education and gender.”
The report said the unemployment rate for Black Wisconsinites is, “growing much more rapidly than unemployment for other groups.”
Wisconsin’s Black unemployment rate was 7.2% during the first quarter of 2026, matching the national rate, according to the report. But the state’s unemployment rate for white residents was 2.3%.
“In 2023, when the unemployment rate was at its low and the labor market was strong, the gap between Black and white unemployment shrank,” the report said. “But as the overall rate has drifted up, the Black rate has grown much more swiftly.”
Wisconsin’s median wage hit a record $26.17 per hour last year. Data for this year are not yet available, “but the signs there are troubling,” the report said.
“Inflation has risen and wage gains have been weaker,” the report said. “As it did in 2022, inflation could wipe out the wage gains of 2026.”
State unionization rate plunges
The state’s unionization rate is also fell from 14% in 2011 to 7.5% in 2025.
“State trends in unionization reflect both state policy and industrial structure,” the report said.
Pam Fendt, president of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, pointed to the impacts of Act 10 on union membership in Wisconsin. She also said growing interest in unions makes her “hopeful for the future.”
“We do see a lot of interest in organizing,” Fendt said.
A new Gallup Poll found 71% of Americans approve of labor unions.
“An increase in the state minimum wage to $20 by 2030 would raise wages for more than 730,000 Wisconsin workers,” the report said.
“All the neighboring states except for Iowa are on a dramatically different path for minimum wages, and this state has (for) too long just not attended to the minimum wage and raising it for the state’s lower paid workers,” Dresser said.
Fendt said Milwaukee Area Labor Council also supports raising the minimum wage.
“Getting it to $20 an hour by 2030 is something that we support because, honestly, the minimum wage has been stagnant for way too long,” Fendt said.
The family of a Milwaukee man falsely accused last year of threatening to kill President Donald Trump plans to sue the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for $5.5 million for emotional pain and suffering.
Ramón Morales Reyes, 56, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on May 22, 2025. Six days later, then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem issued a press release accusing him of sending a handwritten letter to ICE stating he would self-deport after using a hunting rifle to “shoot your precious president in his head.”
The letter was fake and didn’t come from Morales Reyes. Milwaukee resident Demetric Scott later admitted writing it to frame Morales Reyes to prevent him from testifying against Scott in an upcoming trial. Scott was convicted of identity theft and witness intimidation and sentenced in February to more than 16 years in prison.
At a press conference Friday in Milwaukee, attorneys representing Morales Reyes said DHS knew the threat was fake but still told the nation their client intended to assassinate Trump.
His children said the lie hurt their family and they just want things to go back to normal.
“Seeing my dad being framed for something he did not do was very heartbreaking,” said Ana Morales, the 25-year-old daughter of Morales Reyes. “He’s been going through depression, anxiety, he doesn’t like going out anymore because he feels like everyone knows him due to what he was framed as, and ever since it has taken a lot from us.”
Milwaukee immigration attorney Caine Oulahan, who represents Morales Reyes, said local law enforcement and the U.S. Secret Service had determined he didn’t write the letter days before issuing their release.
“And after they determined it was likely not him, it was still published,” Oulahan said.
An affidavit from a Milwaukee Police Department officer who also works with the FBI states that they interviewed Morales Reyes on May 22, 2025. The officer said he didn’t believe Morales Reyes sent the threatening letter. A search warrant of Scott’s calls from jail also produced recordings in which Scott coordinated with someone to send packets to several law enforcement officials. Scott said his plan was to have Morales Reyes arrested so the criminal case against him would be dropped.
“And the judge will agree ’cause if he gets picked up by ICE, there won’t be a jury trial so they will probably dismiss it that day,” Scott said. “That’s my plan.”
That DHS press release is still online. A small disclaimer was added at the bottom stating Morales Reyes “is no longer under investigation for threats against the President” but he still faces deportation proceedings
The Morales Reyes family has notified DHS it intends to sue the agency for $5.5 million for emotional pain and suffering caused by the federal government’s false claim. According to the legal claim, DHS also posted that day on X thanking ICE officers for detaining Morales Reyes for threatening to assassinate Trump.
The White House Instagram account later posted Morales Reyes’ face alongside the letter used to frame him.
Antonio Morales, the 20-year-old son of Morales Reyes, said he was scared when he saw negative comments about his father online. He said he believes DHS knew the posts contained false information at the time.
“It was hard seeing your dad all over social media posted as some sort of assassin almost, and that’s just not who my father is,” Antonio Morales said. “I really think that they knew what they were doing. They wanted to do this to more immigrants, and they really want to keep terrorizing the community going forward.”
Attorney Mark Thomsen, who also sits on the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said the case is about more than compensation for the family.
“They knew it was a lie, and they still haven’t taken it down,” Thomsen said. “They haven’t thought for a second about apologizing. This is the most powerful government in the world, and here they are out to crush us, each of us, like bugs, like gnats on a rhinoceros.”
Thomsen said it’s up to everyone in America to stop tolerating a federal government willing to lie in pursuit of the Trump’s aggressive deportation efforts.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the family’s claim.
The deportation proceedings against Morales Reyes come amid reporting that ICE arrests and detentions in Wisconsin have hit new highs this summer, with 220 arrests in June — up from 119 in May, according to a Wisconsin Watch analysis.
Voces de la Frontera Executive Director Christine Neumann-Ortiz said the most recent surge occurred mostly in Milwaukee from late June through the July 4 holiday weekend. She said immigration agents used excessive force in several alleged cases, and that the group’s statewide network of ICE observers must continue.
A judge in Milwaukee County has tossed out a trespassing citation a Shorewood man received last year for walking past a public beach along Lake Michigan’s shoreline, saying the action was protected by the public trust doctrine.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge J.D. Watts on Thursday reversed the decision of a municipal judge, who found Paul Florsheim guilty of trespassing. Florsheim, with the help of the nonprofit Midwest Environmental Advocates, appealed that decision, saying he hoped the case would make its way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court so the court could weigh in on public beach access in the state.
“It was very gratifying to read the decision,” Florsheim, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, said in an interview with WPR. “I did feel vindicated.”
Florsheim received a $313 trespassing ticket from the Shorewood Police Department after he walked along the shoreline past Atwater Beach last summer. He represented himself during a municipal court hearing, arguing the part of the beach where he was walking was public land, and he was allowed to be there.
The state’s public trust doctrine protects the public’s rights on navigable waterways in Wisconsin. Florsheim argued the doctrine protects his right to walk along the shoreline up to the ordinary high water mark.
But Shorewood Municipal Judge Margo Kirchner ruled against Florsheim, citing a 1923 Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling, Doemel v. Jantz, that found the public cannot walk on the area of the shoreline between the ordinary high water mark and the edge of the water. It said private property owners have exclusive rights to that area.
On its website, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says the ordinary high water mark is defined as, “the point on the bank or shore of a waterway up to which the presence and action of the water is so continuous as to leave a distinct mark either by erosion, destruction of terrestrial vegetation or other easily recognized characteristic.”
Watts, in his decision, wrote, “the strip of land below the (ordinary high water mark) is lakebed owned by the state of Wisconsin,” and that the state’s property extends to that point along Lake Michigan.
Watts said Florsheim walking along the shoreline of Lake Michigan, below the ordinary high water mark, was a “recreational activity.”
The 1923 Wisconsin Supreme Court decision related to a dispute along Lake Winnebago, an inland lake. In his decision, Watts said Doemel v. Jantz, “may guide decisions in cases involving tort actions for trespass on inland lakes but provides little guidance for this case.”
The judge found the walk was protected under the public trust doctrine and “did not infringe on any riparian landowner’s rights.”
A Thursday press release from Midwest Environmental Advocates said the decision from Watts, “did not overrule Doemel.”
In a statement, Michael Greif, an attorney with Midwest Environmental Advocates, said, “The dismissal affirms that the shore of Lake Michigan is public land, and, while the direct impact of the decision is limited to the dismissal of Paul’s ticket, we believe the principles affirmed in this case should be broadly applied.”
Sheboygan’s police chief and city administrator plan to ask the common council to terminate the police department’s contract with Flock Safety during an upcoming meeting, according to an Aug. 25 statement.
The statement said the police department has been using automated license plate reader technology for over 10 years, while 15 Flock Safety cameras have been used since 2024.
“ALPR (automated license plate reader) technology and Flock-captured data have been successfully used to solve several serious criminal cases in the City,” the statement said.
Last month, the police department “became aware of actions by Flock Safety believed to be inconsistent with the terms and expectations of the City’s contract and which undermine trust in the services provided,” according to the statement.
“The Police Department confirmed the circumstances and will therefore ask the Common Council to terminate the contract,” the statement said.
Sheboygan Police Chief Kurt Zempel said the use of technology “is an important part of our effectiveness in providing justice and safety for our community.”
“But as with any system that involves access to powerful technology or sensitive information, strong internal controls and community trust are vital,” Zempel said. “That trust must extend to the partners who provide those services.”
The common council could vote to terminate the contract during a Sept. 8 meeting. Sheboygan Mayor Ryan Sorenson said public works staff have wrapped the cameras in plastic ahead of that meeting.
Sorenson said he supports the decision by the police chief and city administrator.
“Fundamentally, this is a bigger conversation that you’re seeing across the country,” Sorenson said. “And when you have powerful AI tools, we want to make sure that our community feels safe and trusted.”
Sorenson said the police chief has told him the technology has been used to help solve a few crimes.
“The crux of the decision that we’re making on this primarily comes from an erosion of trust from Flock itself and how they were using our data,” Sorenson said.
Sheboygan Ald. Susie Boorse, the common council president, said she also has concerns around the data usage related to the technology.
“I guess it boils down to the fact that we just can’t be too careful about how our data is being used,” Boorse said. “And in the end, while we obviously want public safety to be a priority, I think that we have to make those judgment calls about the way that we go about doing that, to the best of our capabilities.”
Meanwhile, Brookfield Ald. Catherine Kahler is asking the city to “review its use of automated license plate reader (ALPR) technology and participation in the Flock Safety network before our current agreement automatically renews in July 2027,” according to an Aug. 26 statement.
“I think we should understand how information collected through the system can be accessed and shared, what rights the vendor has regarding that information, how the technology and its capabilities are evolving, and whether our existing safeguards and oversight are sufficient,” Kahler said in the statement. “I also think it is appropriate to consider the implications of using public funds to participate in a privately operated system of this scale.”
Letter from Milwaukee council members calls for further reforms
This week, members of the Milwaukee Common Council sent a letter to Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman and the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission, or FPC, about the use of the camera system by the police department.
It comes after the department announced changes to department access to the system and changes to its audit process this year. Those changes were made after a former Milwaukee police officer was charged with using the system to check the location of the vehicle of the person he was dating and that person’s ex.
The letter requested the commission look into more reforms related to the system and asked for a “complete history of all searches conducted by outside agencies using MPD camera data or conducted by MPD officers on behalf of outside agencies.”
It also asked that a policy be adopted to suspend access to the Flock system, “when there is credible evidence of intentional personal or unauthorized use.”
“This is an urgent moment, and a problem that will not correct itself,” the letter said.
In response to that letter, a spokesperson for the department said MPD “respects and values the concerns and positions of our elected officials.”
“We will work with the FPC to address our Council members’ concerns and respond to the Council after we have carefully reviewed their request and can provide a factual and thoughtful response,” the statement said. “The exchange of information, positions and ideas between MPD and our elected officials is important as we both serve the same community. MPD is committed to transparency and engaging in important dialogue such as this.”
And DNR officials say that 15 of those who died were over the age of 60 — meaning they were among those who are not required to take safety courses under state law.
DNR data shows most of the people killed in off-highway vehicle incidents were not wearing seat belts or helmets, and frequently alcohol was a factor in the crashes. Those are all aspects the state’s safety courses try to explain to riders.
Jacob Holsclaw, the DNR’s off-highway vehicle administrator, said that’s a notable trend and one the state is starting to look at.
“Many of the crashes could be prevented simply by adopting a safety code of conduct,” Holsclaw said. The DNR offers tips and class information on its ATV/UTV page.
The DNR recommends all operators to take a safety class, no matter their age.
The data for 2026 shows most people killed in ATV/UTV incidents were born before Jan. 1, 1988.
“What we’re seeing is a majority of the folks involved in these fatal or serious injury crashes were born before that date,” Holsclaw said. “So the class would have been optional.”
Under the law, riders over 38 are not required to take courses.
Only five people killed in OHV incidents were younger than 38, according to state data.
Three UTV/ATV operators were confirmed by state officials to be safety-certified at the time of the crash, according to DNR’s data for 2026.
There are still five cases with unclear safety certification, but the DNR said their status is pending at this time.
Randy Harden, the president of the Wisconsin ATV/UTV Association, said his group has been working with the DNR to improve safety in the state’s riding population.
He says it’s often difficult to get older Wisconsinites to take protective gear seriously.
“That’s our challenge,” he said. “How do we keep communicating effectively to get the message over?”
Only three women died in UTV/ATV incidents this year. Two were over 65; the youngest was 40. All three women died on public roadways in Wisconsin.
Most of the fatalities were men, with a total of 25. The oldest was 83. One child died at 10 years old.
And while 29 deaths this year were directly tied to crashes that happened this year, DNR officials said an additional OHV-connected fatality occured when a person died this year from injuries in a crash that occurred years ago, Holsclaw said. The medical examiner listed that death as a result of an ATV crash.
The top three kinds of fatal crashes were: rollovers, with 15 crashes; motor vehicle collisions with six; and people being ejected from the vehicle in four crashes, according to DNR data.
Harden says many riders mislead themselves into thinking they’re safe enough to ride in a machine without a helmet.
In reality, Harden says the vehicle doesn’t have air bags and riders have a real risk of being thrown out of the vehicle in a crash.
“Even if you have your seat belt on, then your noggin is taking a beating in that roll cage,” he said.
It’s not clear how many fatalities reflected in 2026 crash report data had alcohol in their system — but Holsclaw said it’s common in many OHV crashes.
As of Aug. 14, the DNR webpage for crash reports shows, out of 29 fatalities, 21 incidents where the BAC level is listed as “Pending.”
“It can take months for us to get alcohol or drug results back, and so that’s why we leave those open until we get that confirmation,” he said.
But, Holsclaw said in a typical year, the department finds alcohol is a factor in between 40% and 50% of fatal crashes.
“That’s a pretty big percentage,” he said.
Five fatal crashes were confirmed to have involved alcohol, according to the DNR data.
A measles outbreak in the southwestern corner of Wisconsin continues to grow.
As of Friday, the state Department of Health Services has identified 41 confirmed and 7 probable cases across Iowa, Lafayette and Grant counties.
All but one of the people infected with measles in Wisconsin this year have been unvaccinated, according to state data. Just over half of the cases have been in children and teens, while 44% are in adults.
State and local health officials are working to stop the highly-contagious virus from spreading further. But that work is being made more complicated by low vaccination rates in some communities.
DHS spokesperson Jennifer Miller said in an email that while the situation remains fluid, “we are seeing confirmed cases in pockets of our communities where individuals are under-vaccinated or unvaccinated.”
“Whenever there are pockets of lower immunization coverage — whether due to geographic location, health care access, or personal reasons — highly contagious viruses can spread quickly,” Miller wrote.
Like the rest of the U.S., childhood vaccination rates have fallen in Wisconsin as parents’ uncertainty, and in some cases skepticism, around vaccines has spread in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But state data shows some of the southwestern communities have had declining uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine series well before pandemic.
Only 60% of two-year-olds in Lafayette County had received one or more of the shots in 2025. Grant County’s rate was just under 64%.
Iowa County, where the majority of the recent measles cases have been located, had a rate similar to the statewide average at nearly 81%. But it’s still well below the threshold needed to prevent an outbreak at 95%.
Plain community may be affected
One community in the region that may be affected by lower vaccination rates are the Amish and Mennonite faith groups. The Christian communities are collectively known as Plain people because of their selective use of modern technology and conservative style of clothes.
Wisconsin has the fourth-largest Amish population of any state in the country, with an estimated 27, 535 Amish people living in the state as of 2025. The population data from Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania shows more than 3,000 Amish live across Grant, Lafayette and Iowa counties.
Mark Louden, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of Germanic linguistics, is an interpreter and cultural liaison for the state’s Plain communities. He said the Plain people in Grant and Lafayette Counties have strong family ties to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
“There’s a lot of back and forth, just like people traveling back and forth, visiting and so forth, especially this time of year,” he said.
Lancaster County is home to the largest Amish settlement in the U.S. and is at the center of a major outbreak of measles that has sickened more than 300 people in Pennsylvania.
Louden said that while Amish and Mennonites have community standards for technology, health care choices are left up to individuals and their families.
“Even the most conservative or traditional groups out there do access Western healthcare,” Louden said. “While there may be some families that have their kids not vaccinated at all, that’s pretty exceptional.”
Louden characterized Plain communities as “vaccine cautious.” He said they’re more likely to choose which shots they want their children to get instead of just following a recommended vaccination schedule.
But he said their caution or even distrust of vaccines doesn’t just come from their cultural beliefs.
“(It) has been amplified by what they hear from their non-Plain neighbors, who are going down internet rabbit holes and watching certain networks,” Louden said.
Jack Sauer, chair of the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors, said like many places in the U.S., his county used to have higher rates of vaccination. But he questioned how much national rhetoric that questions childhood vaccinations, including from leaders of President Donald Trump’s administration, have had an impact.
“If you listen to anyone on the federal level, there’s a lot of going back and forth on whether the immunizations are good for you or bad for your or whatever they are,” Sauer said. “But I know when I was growing up, which was a long time ago, they were pretty well acceptable.”
Given the rapid spread of cases in neighboring Iowa County, he expects to see more cases in his county before the outbreak is over.
Iowa County Health Officer Debbie Siegenthaler said in an email that her department is working to identify cases and potential exposures and make sure people have access to testing and vaccination.
She strongly encouraged residents to check their vaccination status through the Wisconsin Immunization Registry or through their healthcare provider, especially as children head back to school.
“With increasing number of cases, we want residents to be aware of measles even if they have not been notified of a direct exposure,” Siegenthaler said in the email.
The county is holding a community vaccination clinic at the Mineral Point Rescue Squad office on Monday, Aug. 24 from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Starting next year, adults ages 19 to 64 will be required to work, go to school or volunteer for 80 hours per month to qualify for coverage under the safety-net program.
The new rule, which was included in Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” last year, provides exemptions for several groups, including people who are pregnant, live with children under 19 and those with a recognized disability.
There is also an exemption for people with serious or complex medical conditions, or those considered “medically frail.”
In guidance released in June, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, said state Medicaid programs should consider not only a person’s diagnosis or condition but also “the extent to which the condition impairs an individual’s ability” to meet the new requirements.
But Dr. Ken Schellhase, a primary care physician and member of the Wisconsin Medical Society, said making that determination is not simple, even for a doctor.
“That will require training and skills that the typical primary care doc does not have,” he said. “Honestly, that’s a big reason why most docs in primary care practices don’t do the official disability evaluations for Social Security.”
Doctors working in occupational medicine or rehabilitation are specially trained to objectively determine someone’s functional capacity, Schellhase said, but few such providers practice in those fields.
Speaking to reporters on July 30, Wisconsin Department of Health Services Secretary Kirsten Johnson said the state needs more guidance from CMS as it develops a system for verifying who qualifies for the exemption.
She said DHS plans to use existing records like medical billing to verify that someone is unable to meet the work requirements. CMS will also allow recipients during the first year to self-attest that they are unable to work.
Scott Stewart, CEO of the Wisconsin Primary Health Care Association, said the existing system for health insurance claims is not designed to indicate a person’s level of impairment or their ability to work.
“It’s set up to say this is what a patient has, but it’s not set up to say anything more than that,” Stewart said. “You have to really also think about the privacy aspects of that. Now you’re saying that I have to potentially give a patient’s chart, which they have to sign off on in terms of HIPAA, to say that they are medically frail and meet all definitions?”
Schellhase worries that involving medical charting and billing could influence how doctors care for their patients, including how quickly they make a diagnosis. He described someone seeking for treatment of asthma symptoms.
“Not everybody who wheezes has asthma, and so sometimes we struggle with as a diagnosis code,” he said. “Do we put in just wheezing? Or have we seen it enough times, but it’s just not absolutely confirmed that yeah, this person probably has asthma? There’s a lot of gray area in that.”
He said patients with conditions not considered severe enough for exemption could see their health decline if they lose health insurance. And he worries the new process will create a conflict of interest for doctors who have a professional obligation to help, not harm, their patients.
“We’re supposed to be that patient’s advocate, to do whatever’s in our power to help them and get them the help that we think that they need,” he said.
Stewart, whose organization represents the state’s federally supported community health centers, said increasing paperwork requirements have lead to more people losing access to care.
He’s concerned that health systems will be incentivized to help patients qualify for an exemption to keep their coverage so providers can continue to bill the program for care.
“We’ve seen issues with the Medicare Advantage program and things like that in the same way, around wanting patients to have access to these programs, but having the kind of perverse financial incentive to get them on (the program),” he said.
WPR contacted several major Wisconsin health systems for comment on the potential impact of the work requirements but received no responses.
The Wisconsin Hospital Association, or WHA, declined WPR’s interview request. In a statement, WHA’s senior vice president for finance and payment, Christian Moran, said the association appreciates DHS’s efforts to “minimize additional regulatory burdens on hospitals and providers while helping eligible individuals maintain Medicaid coverage and reducing the risk of higher uncompensated care in Wisconsin hospitals.”
Moran wrote that WHA will continue to watch the state agency’s plans as more details become available.
Twenty-two people have been arrested since the city of Madison began clearing out a protest encampment on the city’s near east side, officials said Wednesday after a night marked by clashes between protesters and police.
After city workers approached the encampment around 5 a.m. Tuesday and some of those occupying the space did not leave, a police spokesperson said the demonstrators threw rocks and set fires. Police moved in, and the street reopened to traffic just after 9 a.m.
For close to 13 days, the area had been blocked off by a memorial to Ruiz, a 38-year-old Black man. That memorial morphed into an encampment spanning several city blocks, as people brought tents, mattresses and grills to the site at South Baldwin and Williamson streets, known as Willy Street to Madison residents.
Madison police surround the site of an encampment as city officials clear out the protest site that has closed a busy intersection in Madison, Wis., since July 22, 2026. (Jenny Peek / WPR)
Around 8 a.m., city street sweepers moved in to clean the area. City workers placed memorial objects into boxes that were later taken to Demetral Field, a nearby park.
“For nearly two weeks, I and City staff have been working day and night to peacefully resolve the occupation of Williamson and Baldwin without law enforcement intervention,” Mayor Satya-Rhodes Conway said in a video message on Tuesday, adding that city officials plan to work with the Ruiz family and other community members to create an ongoing space to grieve. “But that work could not begin while city streets were occupied, local businesses were on the verge of closing, and residents in the Marquette neighborhood were caught in the middle of an increasingly volatile situation. ”
MPD: People threw objects, set fires
The operation to clear the streets started at roughly 5 a.m., according to Madison Police Department spokesperson Stephanie Fryer. She told WPR that the city initially sent in non-police staffers to tell people to clear the area. She said that the city sent in its Community Alternative Response Emergency Services and that street division workers walked through the encampment with a megaphone “essentially telling people now is the time to begin grabbing your belongings and leave.”
Fryer said police got involved after people started starting fires and throwing objects at Streets Division workers.
“We also had been told that they were taking candles that were lit for the memorial and also throwing those in the air, trying to start fire that way,” Fryer said.
Two people protesting were injured while the encampment was being cleared, according to Fryer. One person was evaluated by medical staff and taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and the other refused treatment. Fryer said a city employee was taken to the hospital after suffering a “medical event.”
Fryer emphasized that one’s personal property from the site was being thrown away.
“The only things that were removed and actually thrown away were the items that obviously were started on fire or actual trash in the area,” Fryer said.
Sidewalk chalk and flowers are seen on the curb at the site of a July police shooting in Madison, Wis. City officials and police moved to clear the encampment site Aug. 4, 2026. (Jenny Peek / WPR)
Protesters describe heavy machinery clearing camp in pre-dawn hours
Samuel Brooks of Portage was among those cited. He said he was handcuffed, taken downtown and later released by police after being at the encampment early Tuesday. Brooks says he previously spent more than a decade living in the Willy Street neighborhood, and he had been at the encampment overnight.
“We saw city vehicles moving around, and then we got word that the police were massing nearby, and yeah, they just circled up,” Brooks said.
Brooks said city officials arrived some time before dawn. When that happened, he said he was among the people trying to wake up a couple who were sleeping in a tent and who he believed to be homeless.
“Bulldozer was coming straight for their tent,” Brooks said. “People were trying to get things under his wheels so we could get these people like out of the way before they came through.
Brooks’ arrest report showed that he was arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest. It listed a $449 fine from the city. He said he wasn’t worried about the citation.
“I’ve got resources,” said Brooks, who is white. “I think my skin is a shield against police violence in a lot of situations.”
City officials on Aug. 4, 2026, were clearing out the encampment site at Williamson and Baldwin streets in Madison, Wis. (Jenny Peek / WPR)
Chaous Riddle of Madison said she was also at the encampment when it was forcibly cleared early Tuesday.
“The whole thing was actually horrific,” Riddle said, as she recalled seeing heavy machinery and construction equipment plowing through the encampment. “They came in with their ToolCats. They barely missed people because it was dark.”
A sculpture of a raised fist that had been part of a memorial for George Floyd in Minneapolis had been brought by protesters to the Madison site. That sculpture, flowers and signs were also moved to the nearby park.
Encampment began as protest site for Corey Ruiz
The encampment started as a protest site following the death of Ruiz in a struggle with police. It has blocked a busy thoroughfare and shut down traffic to businesses and residences in the neighborhood since.
Police said Ruiz, who was homeless, produced a knife during a struggle with police, injuring one officer. Police used a Taser that they said was unsuccessful, and then an officer fatally shot Ruiz. The shooting, which was captured on video by bystanders, is being investigated by the state Department of Justice.
Protesters have called for a permanent memorial to Ruiz as one of their demands following the shooting.
Devon Snyder, a civil rights activist who is part of Madison’s Police Civilian Oversight Board, said he found the city’s move to clear the site “hypocritical.”
“This is disheartening,” Snyder told a WPR reporter at the scene. “Something that was a tragedy, built a beautiful community. And they come and do this? … They want to call this an unlawful assembly. If this was an unlawful assembly, then why did the city support this for the last week?”
On Sunday, she said the city would issue tow orders for vehicles blocking the street. On Monday, she signaled that city action was imminent.
“Countless efforts have been made to convince people that the occupation of Williamson Street and Baldwin Street is counterproductive,” Rhodes-Conway said in a statement Monday. “A huge amount of patience has been given because the last thing Madison needs is a large-scale police operation. That’s why those occupying the area need to leave immediately.”
Madison’s Common Council will be meeting Tuesday night for the first time since the shooting. That meeting will be in virtual format only. A city spokesperson previously said that decision came out of an abundance of caution after threats against multiple elected officials.
Editor’s note: WPR’s Sarah Lehr and Jenny Peek contributed reporting.
Most Wisconsin law enforcement agencies use body-worn cameras.
The Madison Police Department, despite being one of the largest in the state, does not — at least not department-wide.
That could change, if Common Council members support a budget proposal backed by the mayor and the police department.
Madison’s lack of body cameras has drawn renewed attention in recent days after a Madison officer fatally shot Corey Ruiz, a 38-year-old Black man last Wednesday. Police say the officer was injured after Ruiz pulled a knife. Four officers are now on leave pending a Wisconsin Department of Justice investigation.
Currently, the only Madison officers with body-worn cameras are those on the SWAT team and motorcycle unit.
But at a Thursday press conference about the killing of Ruiz, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said she wanted to fund body-worn cameras for the entire police department. She’s backing a three-year phased plan, that would lead to full adoption by 2029.
That comes after years of contentious debate and multiple failed proposals to broaden the use of body cameras.
“We are in a major metropolitan city in the state of Wisconsin, and Madison is one of the few cities that still does not have police body cameras,” attorney B’Ivory Lamarr said. “In 2026, solving a police shooting should not be a mystery.”
Corey Ruiz’s brother, Adam Ruiz, also said body cameras are needed.
Candles and flowers mark a makeshift memorial at the site where Corey Ruiz was fatally shot by a Madison police officer, July 22, 2026 in Madison, Wis. (Wes Hogg for Wisconsin Watch)
“I believe that system is corrupted and us, as the people, we need to stand up and come together to put a stop to this madness,” Adam Ruiz said. “They need body cameras to stop future incidents to stop future incidents from happening.”
Bystanders took video of the shooting, and Ruiz’s attorneys said, given MPD’s lack of body camera, that footage is essential.
“If there wasn’t video, we can only imagine what the narrative would have been,” attorney Ben Crump said. “Thank God for all of those people who had their cell phones out.”
Mayor says cost swayed her decision
Previously, Rhodes-Conway supported a pilot program that tested out body cameras on a limited basis. But until now, the mayor had not committed to backing a permanent body camera program.
On Thursday, Rhodes-Conway said budget considerations had swayed her decision.
“My main concern has been the cost,” Rhodes-Conway said in response to question from WPR. “When we initially got the estimates from the pilot, there was a very large price tag, and the (police) chief has worked to bring that price tag down in various ways.”
In a budget request submitted earlier this year, Madison’s police department asked for $414,784 over three years to roll out body cameras. That phased approach would start with officers in the city’s north policing district in 2027. By 2029, the cameras would be used across the entire city.
Rhodes-Conway says she plans to back that request from the police department when she submits her own budget proposal later this year. The funding would ultimately need to be approved by Madison’s Common Council.
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway speaks during a press conference, Dec. 16, 2024. (Brad Horn for Wisconsin Watch)
For more than a decade, Madison body cam proposals have stalled
For more than a decade, Madison’s elected officials have debated whether the city’s entire police force should use body cameras. But efforts to introduce the cameras have been stymied. Over the years, opposition has come from some of the Common Council’s more left-wing members, as well as from some local activists.
The use of body cameras often gains attention in the context of police misconduct. But increasingly, law enforcement officials are using body camera footage as evidence to secure convictions.
During a Common Council meeting in 2023, Madison resident Steve Verburg was among those who spoke out against body cameras.
“What’s happening is this ongoing surveillance ends up worsening over-policing of marginalized communities,” he said.
Another resident, former Common Council candidate Michelle Ellinger Linley, told the council the purpose of body cameras is “not to make our communities safer, but to uphold unnecessary surveillance, tracking and record-keeping of communities at highest risk for exploitation.”
Council president: Community now wants body cameras
More recently, in November 2025, Alder Barbara Harrington-McKinney introduced an amendment that would have redirected just over $400,000 from the Office of the Independent Police Monitor to fund “staffing capacity needs related to implementing body worn cameras.” That amendment failed 17-3.
The amendment would have eliminated the police monitor’s annual budget. And some alders complained it was introduced too late in the budget process.
On Thursday, Madison Common Council President Sabrina Madison said she believes a body camera proposal will clear the council in 2026.
“The community, for a while, was not wanting to implement body-worn cameras yet,” Madison said. “That has changed.”
The city’s police cruisers are outfitted with dashboard and backseat cameras. And cellphone videos from bystanders have been circulating online after Wednesday’s shooting.
But DOJ investigators have no way to review body camera footage if it doesn’t exist.
In an interview with WPR, Madison said it’s impossible to know whether a body-worn camera would have changed the outcome of Wednesday’s shooting. But she said those cameras could provide additional information.
“Now folks are really having that discussion more often about what is the gap that we’re missing when we don’t have that footage,” Madison said.
Madison Police Department backs body cameras
During Thursday’s news conference, Police Chief John Patterson spoke about tensions in Madison following the killing of Ruiz.
“Everyone in this room can feel the thinness of trust in this city right now,” Patterson said.
He called MPD’s lack of body cameras “another challenge to repairing trust in our community.”
Patterson’s predecessor, former Police Chief Shon Barnes, tried to implement department-wide body cameras. Barnes was unable to do so before he left to lead Seattle’s police department last year.
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes speaks during a press conference on Dec. 16, 2024. (Brad Horn for Wisconsin Watch)
The Wisconsin Professional Police Association, a union representing police officers, has also advocated for body-worn cameras.
“Unfortunately, because Madison officers are not equipped with body-worn cameras, investigators and the public will not have the benefit of video from the officers’ perspectives in this most recent case,” said the association’s executive director Jim Palmer, referring to the shooting of Ruiz. “Body-worn cameras aren’t perfect and don’t always capture everything an officer sees or experiences, but they can provide critically important additional evidence and context.”
During Madison’s last mayoral election in spring 2023, Rhodes-Conway’s opponent, Gloria Reyes, came out in support of citywide body cameras. Reyes is a former Madison police detective, who was endorsed by the city’s police union.
At the time, Rhodes-Conway did not categorically oppose the proposal. But she cautioned that body cameras alone cannot solve police violence.
Rhodes-Conway expressed a similar sentiment in the days after the killing of Ruiz.
“(Body cameras) are part of a solution,” Rhodes-Conway said Thursday. “But they are not the solution.”
If the police department’s latest proposal is approved, Madison would purchase 220 of body cameras by 2029.
A Madison police officer shot and killed a man after that man produced a knife, Madison Police Chief John Patterson said.
The same officer who fired the shots was injured by the man’s knife, according to Patterson.
The incident happened at about 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, according to an incident report posted by the Madison Police Department that afternoon. Multiple streets in the area were blocked off Wednesday afternoon — and crowds gathered in protest.
Patterson said officials had notified the deceased man’s family about his death. However, Patterson declined to disclose the man’s race or name during a news conference just before 5 p.m. Wednesday. He said the man was in his 30s.
Patterson said one officer fired shots, although a total of four officers were involved in the incident and have been placed on leave. The Division of Criminal Investigation at Wisconsin’s Department of Justice is investigating the incident.
Patterson said police initially responded to a call about a man who was checking cars in Madison’s Marquette neighborhood. When officers arrived, Patterson said the man fled on his bike.
The chief said the man produced a knife while officers were trying to arrest him.
“This is not a small folding knife,” Patterson told reporters. “It’s a large fixed blade knife that was there and present.”
During the incident, Patterson said, police used a stun weapon on the man.
“A less lethal device, a Taser, was deployed,” Patterson said. “Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful.”
During the incident, Patterson said a second officer was injured, but police do not believe that officer was injured by the man’s knife.
“It’s not clear how that occurred,” Patterson said.
A video posted to social media on Wednesday shows police cruisers arriving at an intersection with sirens on. A person can be seen riding into the intersection and then falling off a bike onto the pavement, before multiple officers are on top of the person. The video shows the person trying to get away. Then, an officer appears to fire multiple shots at the person.
Madison Police officers block the intersection of Williamson Street and S. Baldwin Street in Madison, Wis., after police shot and killed a man on July 22, 2026. (Alyssa Allemand / WPR)
The video was posted by Richard Hegwood, who lives at the intersection and witnessed the shooting. He told a reporter he began recording when he saw police chasing a man on a bike.
“They catch the dude, they have him on the ground. He’s struggling, he’s struggling to get up, and that’s when they shot him. They shot him three times,” Hegwood said. “I never saw a weapon. He never brandished a weapon.”
Hegwood said three officers had been struggling with the person before the shots were fired.
A second video from a closer vantage point was taken by resident Michael Doubek, who said he saw an officer knock the man from a bike.
“He was on the ground, he had nearly been handcuffed, he had already been tased,” Doubek said. “One of the officers says he has a knife, after which one of the officers pulls a taser, yells, ‘Taser taser taser,’ tases him. Then all three, all of them sort of all fall on the ground together, after which one of the cops stands up kind of on one knee and shoots him three times in the head point blank while he is on the ground.”
Doubek said he does not know the details of what led to the confrontation. “But from where I was standing 10 feet away, that looked an awful lot like an execution to me,” he said.
After the shooting, the area was closed off by police tape. The person’s bicycle remained on the ground.
Advocates for Madison’s Black community said the man killed was Black.
“Another Black man is dead on a Madison street, and our community watched him die before we even knew his name,” said Brandi Grayson, the head of the Madison-based Black community advocacy group Urban Triage. “That is the cruelty of state violence.”
Hundreds of protesters gathered near the scene Wednesday evening before marching together to the state Capitol where a Concerts on the Square event was underway.
Protesters chanted and held signs with slogans, including “no justice, no peace” and “Madison police executed a human today.” Some concertgoers showed support by clapping and raising fists.
The concert was eventually canceled by organizers.
Protesters gather at the Wisconsin Capitol during Concerts on the Square on July 22, 2026. The demonstration followed the fatal shooting of a man by a police officer on Madison’s east side earlier that day. (Angela Major / WPR)
During Wednesday’s news conference earlier in the afternoon, Patterson asked Madisonians to “please take a moment to to reflect and offer some support to one another.”
He referenced the man who died, and added, “I want to take a moment to honestly and sincerely offer my my heartfelt sympathies to his family for this loss.”
Wednesday’s shooting took place in the same neighborhood where a Madison police officer fatally shot Tony Robinson, a 19-year-old Black man, inside an apartment building in 2015.
Robinson was unarmed. The Dane County district attorney did not issue charges against that police officer, after determining the officer had reason to fear for his life after concluding that Robinson had physically assaulted the officer at the top of the stairs within the building.
“I want to start with an acknowledgement that today involves a very traumatic incident,” Patterson said, referencing the Robinson shooting during Wednesday’s news conference. “A traumatic incident that has occurred in a neighborhood that has experienced a lot of trauma in the past.”
In an update sent just before 2:45 p.m. Wednesday, District 6 Madison Ald. Davy Mayer said he was “aware of an officer-involved shooting on Williamson and Baldwin Street earlier this afternoon.”
“My priority is to make sure the community remains safe and that the public receives full details about what happened as soon as possible,” Mayer wrote in the blog post.
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