The Couture and US Bank Center. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

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Bloom Alert! The Corpse Flower Has Opened [Reporting Update]

Penelope the corpse flower. Image from the Milwaukee Domes Alliance.

You don’t want to miss the smell. The corpse flower is blooming.

From the Milwaukee Domes Alliance: “We will be open early on Saturday, June 27, and Sunday, June 28, at 8 a.m. for this event, with last admission at 3 p.m., and doors closing at 4 p.m.

Earlier in the week, MDA released this statement: “Penelope, our corpse flower, is preparing to bloom—and when she does, you’ll have just 24 hours to see her before she closes again. In the wild, corpse flowers bloom only once every 7–10 years, so every opening is a rare, fleeting, can’t-miss event. She last bloomed in June 2024, which makes a return this soon a genuine surprise, and a testament to the talent of our horticultural experts.”

Hot tip: Domes members get priority access, skipping a line that can be very long.

– Jeramey Jannene, June 26 4:57 pm

New Food Truck Policies Introduced [Reporting Update]

Details are still scant, but two food truck regulations have been introduced before the Milwaukee Common Council.

Both come after the council unanimously voted to prohibit food trucks in the downtown regulation zone after 10 p.m. in response to violence around the Water Street bar district.

Judge Jean Kies has granted an injunction on that policy’s implementation while the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty is suing the city on behalf of a food truck operator.

Ald. Sharlen P. Moore introduced “n ordinance relating to food truck hours of operation,” but the file is not yet filled with details.

Moore, in an interview on 101.7 The Truth, previously expressed that she didn’t know what she was on voting on with regard to the food truck time restrictions. The city had previously reduced food truck operating hours to 1 a.m. within the downtown zone.

Alderwoman Milele A. Coggs introduced “an ordinance relating to food truck zones,” but it is also filed with title only.

– Jeramey Jannene, June 25 2:51 pm

World Naked Bike Ride Route Revealed [Reporting Update]

Avert your eyes or find a chair to watch. Whichever you prefer, the World Naked Bike Ride Milwaukee has revealed its route for Saturday, June 27.

The ride sets off from Walker’s Point at 4 p.m. You can see the planned route on Google Maps.

– Jeramey Jannene, June 25 9:19 am

More: See our earlier coverage for more on the event

SportClub Reopens Under New Ownership [Reporting Update]

SportClub, dark since early 2026, has reopened at 750 N. Jefferson St.

The bar is now operating under new ownership, led by former manager Henry Meza alongside tavern veterans Drew Deuster and J.J. Kovacovich of Wild Planet Hospitality Group.

The group announced the reopening on social media Wednesday morning, giving fans several hours to make their way downtown before the 2 p.m. kickoff between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Qatar.

Deuster previously told Urban Milwaukee that he and his partners planned to continue operating the business largely as is, with few changes.

Before he joined forces with Wild Planet Hospitality Group, Meza and two other partners, Farhan Arshad and Hassan Khalid, filed license applications to reopen the business as Sports-Club. The trio also planned to reopen the nearby Experts Only and Barrel Burrito Company under a single name: Burrito Donkey. Those plans never materialized.

All three businesses originally operated under Caravan Hospitality Group.

– Sophie Bolich, June 24 4:00 pm

More: Read our past coverage

Bilingual Map Kiosks Installed in McGovern Park [Key Press Releases]

Milwaukee County Parks and the Milwaukee Parks Foundation recently installed four bilingual kiosks around McGovern Park.

The kiosks include a map of the park and highlight potential areas of interest for park patrons, like basketball courts, trails and even an apple orchard.

The kiosks are part of more than $500,00o in improvements at the park funded by Johnson Controls, Milwaukee Parks Foundation and the county parks department. These include a quarter-mile of new trail, removal of invasive buckthorn and new plantings.

– Graham Kilmer, June 24 1:27 pm

Assistant Fire Chief Now Leads Madison-Area Department [Short Take]

A long-time Milwaukee firefighter is now the head of the Verona Fire Department.

David Hensley took his oath of office Monday to lead the Madison suburb’s firefighting effort.

He was most recently assistant chief of emergency medical services, training, education, and wellness for the Milwaukee Fire Department.

Hensley had been with the Milwaukee Fire Department since 1999.

– Jeramey Jannene, June 24 1:03 pm

COVID-19 Fallout Continues to Hamper Milwaukee’s Libraries, Usage Down Dramatically [Short Take]

One of the underappreciated impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic was on how often you go to the library.

By virtually every way you can measure it, the Milwaukee Public Library has yet to recover from a pandemic-induced temporary shutdown.

In-person visits? Down. Materials circulation? Down. Registration and renewal of library cards? Down.

Totals were already falling before the pandemic, but data from the MPL’s Board of Trustees latest meeting packet highlights a pandemic-triggered acceleration.

A partial recovery has occurred since 2020. But graphs show things leveling out starting in 2024.

As a result, since 2014 library visits, circulation and card renewals/registrations are down about 50%.

Digital inclusion, a measure of the number of unique devices connecting to the library’s wireless networks, is up in recent years, but data only goes back to 2020.

The City of Milwaukee operates the Central Library and 12 branch libraries. It has a $38.1 million budget in 2026.

2014-2025 MPL Visits. Image from MPL.

2014-2025 MPL Circulation. Image from MPL.

2014-2025 MPL Registration/Renewals. Image from MPL.

2020-2025 Digital Inclusion at MPL. Image from MPL.

– Jeramey Jannene, June 23 10:38 am

Stinky Corpse Flower About To Bloom at The Domes [Scene on the Street]

Penelope the corpse flower. Image from the Milwaukee Domes Alliance.

From the Milwaukee Domes Alliance: “Penelope, our corpse flower, is preparing to bloom—and when she does, you’ll have just 24 hours to see her before she closes again. In the wild, corpse flowers bloom only once every 7–10 years, so every opening is a rare, fleeting, can’t-miss event. She last bloomed in June 2024, which makes a return this soon a genuine surprise, and a testament to the talent of our horticultural experts.”

Hot tip: Domes members get priority access, skipping a line that can be very long.

– Jeramey Jannene, June 20 7:12 pm

Photo by TwoScarsUp, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

The White House is pushing for Congress to approve a bill allowing the year-round sale of gasoline containing higher volumes of ethanol. Wisconsin politicians across the political spectrum have called for the expansion.

E15 biofuel, also known as Unleaded 88, is a gasoline blend that uses 15 percent ethanol as opposed to the 10 percent blend currently sold year-round. The higher-ethanol content fuel has been barred from sale from June through September due to pollution concerns. However, the Environmental Protection Agency under the second Trump administration issued a waiver in March allowing it to be sold through this summer.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump’s White House made its first formal push to make the year-round sale of E15 permanent.

A wide range of Wisconsin politicians have supported efforts to expand sales of the higher-ethanol blend. Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden and Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin are co-sponsors of two different versions of a bill to make year-round sale permanent. Gov. Tony Evers signed an open letter in 2022 calling for the EPA to sell E15 fuel year-round.

Scott Irwin is a professor and agricultural economist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a biofuel policy researcher. He told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that moving to a 15 percent ethanol blend nationwide would lead to a 50 percent increase in the demand for corn used to make ethanol.

“(That) would be jumping at least 2 to 2.5 billion bushels of increased corn demand … our crop is around 16 billion bushels,” Irwin said. “That would be very significant.”

Corn and biofuel advocates have argued that increasing the use of this higher-ethanol fuel blend will ultimately drive down the cost of gasoline at the pump. However, Irwin said that’s an area of significant debate.

“If we take a look at the fuel supply chain, (it is) divided into three parts: the upstream refining level, the midstream logistical and pipeline level, and at the downstream retail gasoline station level. There are significant costs to transition to E15 at each of those points in the supply chain,” Irwin said. “It’s debatable whether in the end it would save drivers a lot of money once we absorb all those costs.”

The House version of the bill to make year-round E15 sales permanent passed after months of debate. Irwin said the bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate over one small provision: an exemption for small oil refineries from America’s renewable fuel standards.

“Under the first Trump administration, that was basically used as a backdoor mechanism for cutting the size of the mandates,” Irwin said. “That has become a very contentious issue between the crude oil refining sector and the agricultural biofuels sector.”

Petroleum refiners have argued an increase in ethanol production would threaten to put small refineries out of business. Biofuel producers have argued most small refineries asking for exemptions are part of larger companies that could meet the new standards.

Critics of E15 expansion cite environmental, health concerns

Critics of expanding E15 sales have cited concerns around health and environmental effects.

The environmental group Clean Wisconsin released a statement in February arguing against expanding E15 sales year-round permanently, saying the accompanying increase in corn production would run the risk of contaminating drinking water through increased fertilizer and nitrogen application use. The organization also wrote the move would worsen pollution in the summer, leading to an increase in asthma attacks and respiratory infections.

Jeff Hadachek is an assistant professor and extension specialist in agriculture and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He said an increase in E15 use could serve as a “double-edged sword” for the environment.

“If we’re making more of our fuels from corn ethanol, that’s less fossil fuels that we are extracting and emitting into the atmosphere,” Hadachek said.

“On the other side of this, cultivating more land also emits carbon into the atmosphere,” Hadachek continued. “Even though we may be reducing a carbon footprint from the pure fuel perspective, we also have to consider the impacts of purely just cultivating more land.”

Hadachek said farming practices have improved over the past few decades, which may serve to mitigate some of the environmental risks. He said the creation of the Clean Fuel Production Tax Credit would give tax breaks to biofuel producers as well, incentivizing farmers to be financially rewarded for growing crops for biofuel production.

Congress debates selling gas with 15 percent ethanol year-round permanently. Would it help Wisconsin farmers? was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

The Natural Resources Board has approved the DNR’s wolf management plan, which does not set a population goal for wolves in Wisconsin. Photo: dalliedee (CC BY)

Wisconsin’s wolf population fell slightly this year, according to estimates from the Department of Natural Resources.

The department has been monitoring the number of wolves in the state since the 1970s by surveying snow-covered roads for tracks and other signs. Since 1995, volunteers have worked with DNR staff on the annual census. This winter, the surveys covered about 17,000 miles of road and tracks.

The estimates also use data from wolves that have been trapped and fitted by DNR staff with GPS collars — there are about 45 wolves with actively monitored collars in the state.

“This is a huge effort that a lot of people, way beyond the DNR, put into,” said Randy Johnson, large carnivore specialist with the DNR. “We’re tracking, like, two-thirds of the state multiple times. A lot of effort goes into the model.”

Lydia Margenau, a wildlife population research scientist with the DNR, presented population estimates Thursday to the agency’s Wolf Advisory Committee. She told the committee the estimated 2026 population is 1,162 wolves in about 321 packs, slightly down from last year’s estimate of 1,225 and the 2024 estimate of 1,311.

Margenau said the 2026 estimate range is from a low of 1,026 wolves to a high of 1,307.

“Overall the population has been stable and nothing drastic to note here,” Margenau said.

Those numbers are in the range DNR research previously found was the state’s biological carrying capacity of 1,242 wolves.

The full annual wolf population report is likely to be released next week.

Wolves were considered extirpated in Wisconsin, with a bounty system paying people to kill them for nearly 100 years. That bounty was lifted in the state in 1957. The species began returning to the state in the 1970s, moving back into the northern forests from neighboring Minnesota.

The population grew relatively steadily until about 2000, and since then estimates have ranged from a high of 1,300 to this year’s low.

Johnson said the survey looks at territory in five management zones covering about two-thirds of the state. The largest number of wolves are in the northern forests, especially in Zone One in the northwest corner of the state.

Johnson said the wolf population may have fallen slightly in the last two years because lower snowfall totals in recent winters have made it tougher for packs to successfully raise pups.

“Mild winters tend to be bad for wolves,” Johnson said. He said mild winters drive up deer populations, but make it tougher for wolves to hunt successfully.

“We expect to see the impacts of a given winter in the following winter’s estimates, so there’s this one-year time lag. I think what we are seeing is some of the impacts from the winters basically two or three years ago playing out now through reduced pup survival, maybe some changes in dispersal. … The populations are complex, but on this big scale it plays out through time.”

He said the population could swing back up, but it’s limited by the availability of habitat and likely will not change drastically.

Following a federal court ruling in 2022, gray wolves are listed as an endangered species in the lower 48 states including Wisconsin.

In December, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would remove federal protections for gray wolves nationwide. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the leading Republican candidate for governor in Wisconsin, cosponsored the bill.

The Senate version of the bill, sponsored by Wisconsin Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, has not moved forward. Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin has also supported delisting.

Wisconsin’s wolf population declines slightly for second consecutive year was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Sold sign. Photo by Dave Reid.

Every day at The Overhead Wire we sort through over 1,500 news items about cities and share the best ones with our email list. Each week, we take some of the most popular stories and share them with Urban Milwaukee readers. They are national (or international) links, sometimes entertaining and sometimes absurd, but hopefully useful.

Population decline and the built environment: Countries around the world are experiencing or will soon experience population decline. Blaine Brownell argues that people often talk about many reasons for this but tend to skip over the impact of the built environment. While we design our environments for comfort, economic success, and quality of life, those same designs also impact family formation and the ability to care for them. (Blaine Brownell | Architect Magazine)

Value capture for high speed rail: The California High Speed Rail Authority is looking into creating value capture potential around stations but cities have been wary as they also want the rewards of investment. Now the authority is working on an asset commercialization strategy that would use excess land to develop energy and transmission projects as well as data centers. There are potential drawbacks to this approach but it’s also a good way of looking at all the potential value that might be created through the construction of infrastructure. (Joe Edwards | Newsweek)

Carspreading across the Atlantic: Both Europe and the United States are seeing vehicle sizes increase dramatically with disastrous effects. Since 2009 pedestrian deaths have increased on American roads by 75% and writers at the New York Times suggest that vehicle sizes have led to 400 additional deaths per year. In Europe, researchers also believe that if vehicles aren’t “rightsized” by the year 2040, 400 additional people per year will die from collisions there too. (Keller et al. | New York Times + Ajit Niranjan | The Guardian)

What’s in the ROAD to Housing Act: While the ROAD to Housing Act is sitting on a desk in the White House, Emma Waters shares what’s actually in the legislation including changes to regulations surrounding manufactured housing, greater access to small dollar mortgages, guidelines for permitting single stair buildings, the creation of publicly owned land databases, and best practices for local zoning policy reform. There’s a lot in the bill, but this piece is pretty comprehensive. (Emma Waters | Bipartisan Policy Institute)

Reduced air pollution in London: A study out of Imperial College London has found that nitrogen air pollution mostly from cars in the city has fallen 40% while particulates have fallen 28% since 2019. Deaths from air pollution have also fallen 40%. The areas with the highest concentrations of deaths were outside parts of the city where the ultra low emissions zone existed but has now been extended to. (Gwyn Topham | The Guardian)

Quote of the Day

Anna Halprin organized interactive dance and movement events where environmental conditions and general actions were choreographed, or “scored,” but the final performances were left open-ended and completed through audience participation. Lawrence Halprin applied this notion to his work by designing open spaces as scores—choreographed by purposefully placing architectural elements—with the intention to elicit embodied awareness, giving individuals flexibility in choosing direction and pace as they navigated their way through the city.

–CM Turner in C-Ville Magazine discussing how the Charlottesville pedestrian mall was designed.

This week on the Talking Headways podcast, we’re joined by Ryan Avent to discuss his new book In Good Faith: How the Nature of Belief Shapes the Fate of Societies. We discuss human evolution and the impact of collective knowledge and culture and the need to create a new story about the future of society. We also discuss grass is greener thinking on infrastructure, the nature of belief without the need for evidence, and the fact that there is no perfect past.

Want more links to read? Visit The Overhead Wire and signup.

Early rendering of apartment building planned for 2nd and Florida. Image provided to Urban Milwaukee, rendering by Engberg Anderson.

A new apartment building could replace a surface parking lot in Walker’s Point.

Pieper Properties is exploring the development of a six-story building along S. 2nd Street.

The development, which would include about 70 units, would fill the surface parking lot at 212 W. Florida St.

“It would be a really exciting project to bring additional housing to the city, especially since our supply has been rather constrained the last few years,” said Pieper CEO Ann Pieper Eisenbrown in an interview.

The lot is currently used by office tenants at Pieper’s neighboring 234 Florida office building. The office building is an award-winning, environmentally friendly redevelopment of a Cream City brick factory originally built in 1893. Retail space is included on the first floor.

The new apartment building would include about 120 parking spaces, more than is typically provided in a similarly sized apartment building, to offset the loss of the surface parking spaces.

Pieper Eisenbrown said the project would also include shared spaces, where office users could use spaces during the day that residential tenants use overnight. But the arrangement is complicated by a shift to work-from-home and hybrid work arrangements.

Discussions are underway with the Department of City Development regarding a potential tax incremental financing (TIF) subsidy.

In April 2025, the city unveiled a TIF subsidy policy to encourage housing development for “workforce” households earning between 60% and 100% of the area median income who are not traditionally served by either traditional “affordable” (low-income housing tax credit) or new market-rate housing.

The Department of City Development did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

“It’s a long process,” said Pieper Eisenbrown.

The development was previously presented to the Walker’s Point Association.

Engberg Anderson is leading the design on the project.

Pieper Eisenbrown has developed two housing projects on the street already. In 2018, a former warehouse owned by the Pabst Brewing Company at 324 W. Florida St. was redeveloped into the Serif Apartments, a 35-unit apartment complex.

Next door, in 2020, she developed the 60-unit Timber Lofts, the city’s first modern mass timber building, by adding a four-story addition to the existing five-story, Cream-City-brick Louis Bass Building.

Similar to Pieper’s other Florida Street developments, the latest building would back up to the rail line serving Canadian Pacific’s Muskego Yard in the Menomonee Valley. The line’s presence has not deterred development, with several new buildings or redevelopment projects, including the Iron Horse Hotel and The Quin apartments, occurring along the tracks in the past two decades.

In addition to the Walker’s Point project, Pieper is also pursuing the conversion of the top two floors of the Mayer Building, 342 N. Water St., in the Historic Third Ward into apartments from offices. Four lower floors in the building were previously converted to housing.

Renderings

Site Photos

Reconstructed South Shore Beach. Photo taken June 24, 2026 by Sophie Bolich.

It’s been nearly a century since pollution pushed swimmers out of the Milwaukee River Basin. Now, the city is joining a global effort to make its urban waterways swimmable again.

Local leaders and environmental advocacy groups gathered at South Shore Park on Wednesday to announce Milwaukee’s entry into the Swimmable Cities Alliance.

The designation builds on years of local efforts to improve water quality, including the 2025 relocation of South Shore Beach and a multiyear dredging project in the Milwaukee Estuary Area of Concern.

“Water plays a key role in our history, identity and economy; however, due to pollutants, rivers have not been clean enough for people to swim in,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson, who signed the Swimmable Cities charter in 2025. “There’s still a long way to go, but we’re making a lot of progress.”

Swimmable Cities began as a grassroots movement in 2023 before officially launching ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, when athletes were preparing to enter the River Seine for the first time in more than 100 years.

The coalition now includes more than 230 organizations and experts focused on environmental, public health and community issues, all advocating for cleaner urban waterways that are safe for swimming.

Its 10 guiding principles complement those of Milwaukee’s “Water Centric City” initiative, which centers on green infrastructure, applied water research and water technology.

It also aligns with Milwaukee County Parks‘ pursuit of improving outdoor access, said Executive Director Guy Smith. “South Shore Beach is a perfect place to welcome Milwaukee into the Swimmable Cities Alliance because it demonstrates that water quality challenges can be addressed through collaboration, innovation and long-term commitment.”

Alderman Peter Burgelis, who advocated for Milwaukee to join the movement, views the network as an asset for local action. “We can learn from their successes, and we can also share our own innovations,” he said. “Clean water is more than an environmental goal. It’s a public health goal, an economic development goal and a quality of life goal.”

“Our hope is that by joining the Swimmable Cities Alliance, we build on past and current efforts to improve water quality … and work to create an actionable plan for the future,” said Cheryl Nenn of Milwaukee Riverkeeper. “Providing safe and protected swimming areas in our urban rivers is an achievable and realistic goal, especially if we plan for it.”

Milwaukee is the third Great Lakes city to join the coalition, after Sheboygan and Ottawa, Ontario. Although not a member, Chicago has pursued similar efforts. In September 2025, it hosted its first sanctioned open-water river swim in 98 years. The event is scheduled to return later this summer.

Nenn said Milwaukee must continue efforts to improve sewage treatment and stormwater management, especially as climate change brings increasingly volatile weather events to the area. She also stressed the importance of nature cleanups and reducing single-use plastic.

The city plans to work with partners at Milwaukee Riverkeeper, WaterSAFE MKE, Plastic Free MKE and Milwaukee Beach Ambassadors as it works toward a goal of making the river system swimmable by 2030.

Photos

David Crowley, Milwaukee County Executive. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

David Crowley is no stranger to crowded political races. Before becoming Milwaukee’s first African American county executive in 2020, he had to emerge from a hotly contested primary that included Democratic Sen. Chris Larson (D-Madison), former state Sen. Jim Sullivan, Glendale Mayor Bryan Kennedy and then-county board chairman Theodore Lipscomb. Both Larson and Crowley advanced to the general election, which Crowley narrowly won. Over six years later, Crowley again finds himself in a Democratic primary, this time for the governor’s office, packed with experienced policymakers.

Crowley’s opponents this time include Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, state Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison), state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), former Department of Administration chief Joel Brennan, and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. In a straw poll at the Democratic Party convention in mid-June, Crowley placed fourth, with Rodriguez and Hong finishing first and second and Roys placing in third.

“Even though they’ve done great work in their respective roles, the one thing they’ve never done is actually run government,” Crowley said of the other Democratic candidates during an interview at Pilcrow Coffee in Milwaukee. “I’m the only executive in this race. And what’s also different for me is that I know what it means to be accountable and responsible for my actions and decisions, and how they’re going to affect the masses and the people that I represent.” Another key difference, he added, is that he’s got the “receipts.”

Crowley highlighted how, under his tenure, close to 1,000 units of affordable housing have been created across Milwaukee County. The past four years have also seen drug overdose deaths decrease by 40% with the expansion of harm reduction strategies. In 2023, the county also saw the largest property tax cut in its history, totalling $21 million.

“What sets me apart is the fact that I’ve delivered for folks,” said Crowley. “And I continue to deliver for folks, and I’ve been able to do it in some of the most contentious times, if you will — especially with how partisan we are nowadays — as a lead Democrat representing the largest and most diverse community in the state of Wisconsin.”

In his first statewide race, Crowley said he wants to avoid labeling himself. “I’m a voting Democrat,” said Crowley. “I’m a Democrat that gets things done.” Crowley scoffs at ideological purity tests and the buzz about a rift among Democrats who identify as Socialists versus those who see themselves as moderates. “This is about how do you fight back against the Trump administration, but more importantly not just reacting, but how do we become more proactive when it comes down to Democratic policy that we need to push so we can actually win?”

Crowley is leaning on his track record in his campaign. His platform is laid out in what he calls his “Badger Basics Plan” which includes:

• Bringing universal childcare to Wisconsin, and working to cap childcare costs at 7% of household income
• Establishing universal K-4 across Wisconsin, giving kids a better foundation of learning before entering the school system
• Making sure that school districts have the funding, staff and resources that they need
• Expanding Badgercare as a public health option, and increasing reimbursements
• Repealing Act 10 and restoring the collective bargaining rights for workers
• Implementing restrictions on data centers and Artificial Intelligence (AI), while making sure AI enhances productivity rather than replacing job opportunities
• Supporting programs for vulnerable people, especially the victims of domestic violence

When he’s not busy with his full-time day job running the county, he has been campaigning all over the state. “We have been everywhere,” he said. “I think we’ve done 40-plus forums around the state already, whether we are in southeastern Wisconsin, or Taylor County, or in Brown County, or in Marinette County, or Wausau, La Crosse. We’re traveling everywhere not only to spread the message, but more importantly to listen.” When he was a young organizer, Crowley likes to say, he learned that “if you don’t have a seat on the table, you’re on the menu.”

Confronting questions about race

In his travels, Crowley said, he believes he can overcome negative racial perceptions some voters have about him and the county he represents. “It’s not a real concern for me,” he said of the history-making task of becoming Wisconsin’s first Black governor. “They already trust me to deliver because I’ve been doing it as a county executive and I’ve done it as a state representative.”

In fact, Crowley feels that the question of race comes up mostly in the state’s more diverse communities. “We have been conditioned, because we have been listening to the Republican talking points for so long, to where we have internalized it more and we use it as a reason as to why we can’t get certain things done,” he said of all the conversation about Wisconsin’s racial divide. “And honestly, I think it stops us from getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. Building those relationships, going outside of our geographic comfort zone to talk about the things that we have done here, in one of the largest urban centers in the entire country, and how we can bring those best practices to communities across the state. What’s good for Milwaukee is good for every single town, village, and city in the state of Wisconsin.”

Joel Brennan (left), David Crowley (center) and Mandela Barnes (right). (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Crowley points out that Wisconsin elected Tammy Baldwin, its first openly LGBTQ U.S. Senator. Wisconsin voters also elected “a skinny kid with a funny name by the name of Barack Obama,” he said. “We have been put into a box. It’s our job to think outside that box. It’s our job to shatter that glass ceiling and focus on how we’re going to deliver. Because people don’t care where you’re from. People don’t care what you look like. People don’t care who you love. They care about whether or not you’re going to care for them, and deliver real results moving forward.”

The fact that he performed well in his election to his current post in suburban areas built up Crowley’s confidence. “I know they’ll vote for me, because they voted for me twice already,” he said. “That’s the type of experience that we need to not only stand up to Donald Trump, but that’s going to be proactive and be on the offense to deliver for the 6 million people that call Wisconsin home.”

Going around the state, Crowley has met people who want their voices heard on important issues from childcare and healthcare to lowering utility costs and making housing more affordable. He said he’s learned that even in a divided state like Wisconsin, people agree on more than they realize. “I think that in this particular political climate, as things become more polarized, no matter if you’re the far left or the far right, I think we can all agree that government isn’t working,” he said. “And right now, we need to make sure that we are electing individuals who are not just going to fight back against policies that are going to leave families behind, but how are we going to be proactive in making sure that we’re pushing policies to make sure that when the tides rise, all of us rise.”

Data centers

One of the hottest issues in local communities around the state is the rise of giant data centers, proposed in communities across Wisconsin, and needed to feed the energy demand of a rapidly expanding artificial intelligence infrastructure. By 2023, a United Nations report found, global data centers will require the same amount of water annually as the 1.3 billion people who live in Sub-Saharan Africa, and require enough electricity to equal the annual needs of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria combined. Communities in Wisconsin have been pushing back on data centers due to concerns about increased utility costs, environmental fallout and the trajectory of AI.

Crowley said “it’s asinine” that the Legislature ended its recent session without doing anything to regulate data centers.

Residents of communities across Wisconsin have opposed the construction of hyperscale data centers. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Crowley, who is not opposed to data centers, said it’s crucial that the state develop a “framework” to protect natural resources and the people of Wisconsin.

Earlier this year, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission approved an energy rate, requiring data centers to pay 100% of their own energy costs. Data centers should also have to pay 100% of the cost of the energy grid upgrades they require, Crowley said, as well as any infrastructure upgrades. He also wants to tie their development to investments in renewable energy. “I want to see more energy opportunities that don’t cost us any money,” he said. “Wind doesn’t cost us. Sunlight doesn’t cost us.” If Wisconsin invests in renewables, “moving forward it won’t be a huge drain on resources for ratepayers, or for these utility companies.”

Crowley also said that as governor he would require data centers to use union labor, project labor agreements and community benefit agreements. He added he wants to explore how data centers could be leveraged to benefit public schools, communities and already existing industry.

As the leader of a county that has experienced the rise and fall of heavy industry, he said he thinks about how to plan ahead 50-100 years with data centers, to prevent them becoming empty shells, like abandoned Rust Belt factories, in the communities where they are built. He also feels that moving forward, Wisconsin needs to be “intentional” when it comes to giving out tax exemptions and tax credits for data centers, which have already been given $2 billion in tax exemptions. Crowley said that it’s not just the surge of up-front jobs that build the data center to consider, but also the smaller number of long-term jobs on the back-end. Protections need to be put in place to make sure communities are getting ahead, Crowley said.

Education and school choice

Crowley describes himself as a strong advocate for public schools. He, his wife, and his three daughters are all public school graduates But, he said, he also doesn’t believe in eliminating Wisconsin’s entire private school choice system outright. Half of the kids enrolled in school in Milwaukee go to public school while the other half go to private or charter schools. If charter schools were eliminated, that would create a strain on an already stressed public school system, Crowley said. He said he believes in accountability for choice schools and recognition that public schools have a greater responsibility and level of accountability, since they are required by law to serve every child who comes in the door.

Working across the aisle

Crowley is optimistic that, as a Democratic governor, he can work with Republicans in the Legislature, especially since, he says, new voting maps will help depolarize the state. He believes that the old maps forced people into separate corners. “We have to focus on partnerships and collaboration if we want our state to move forward,” said Crowley. He also feels that Democrats need to be prepared to play offense and be proactive. He said voters will need to be patient with a Democratic governor as the party adjusts to its new identity after this year’s elections. With the new voting maps, Democrats have an opportunity to gain a majority in the Legislature as well as the governor’s office for the first time in almost 30 years.

“We have a lot to prove as Democrats,” Crowley said. “We have a lot to prove as leaders of our community, to show that we can govern, we can win elections moving forward, and we can plan for the long term.”

Editor’s note: The Examiner is running periodic profiles of the contenders in the Aug. 11, 2026 gubernatorial primary as well as the candidates in the general election Nov. 3. 

Crowley says he has the experience and the ‘receipts’ to be Wisconsin’s next governor was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.

Austin Commons. Rendering by Eppstien Uhen Architects

Austin Commons, a proposed 100-unit affordable housing development for the north end of Bay View, secured a major win Tuesday when the Common Council approved a $500,000 grant for the $33.4 million development.

But an even larger city award, a $2.1 million tax incremental financing (TIF) district subsidy, remains on hold until a third community meeting about the project.

The TIF subsidy has been delayed by area Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic. “I cannot ignore what really has been some pretty strong, consistent neighborhood questions and concerns,” Dimitrijevic told Urban Milwaukee in early June.

But she has now voted to approve the smaller grant for the project as part of a package of affordable housing funding from the city’s allocation of federal HOME funds.

The five-story building would replace three vacant homes just south of E. Lincoln Avenue on S. Austin Street. It would have a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units and be reserved for households making between 30% and 80% of the area median income. Rental rates, through the federal low-income housing tax credit program, would be set at a rate intended to equal 30% of a qualifying household’s income.

Austin Commons is being developed by a partnership of Northernstar Companies, a Milwaukee firm led by Brandon Methu, and Madison-based The Commonwealth Companies.

“The money will close a significant gap that we have experienced,” Methu told the Community and Economic Development Committee on June 10. “This goes a ton of distance in bringing the ends together for our project budget.” The funding was sought to address a cost increase he attributed to environmental concerns and “geopolitical issues, things of that nature.”

The development faces a tight July 31 deadline from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WEHDA) to advance or lose its tax credit allocation, first awarded in 2025.

“We are very close, and we intend to have a shovel in the ground at the end of July,” said Methu, expressing optimism.

But Dimitrijevic, who previously told Urban Milwaukee she was “trying to get to yes,” indicated a high-stakes meeting in July awaits.

“This is one step in that direction,” said Dimitrijevic on June 10. “The larger TIF question and neighborhood involvement we’re still working on … this can be an overwhelming process with timing and different funding sources.”

The city uses TIF subsidies, structured as no-risk property tax rebates with set payback periods, to close financing gaps in affordable housing proposals.

She said because of the timing of the still-to-be-announced third neighborhood meeting, the TIF proposal would not be heard at the upcoming Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee on July 7.

In order to meet the July 31 deadline, the proposal would need to be reviewed at the July 28 zoning committee meeting. The full council, operating on a condensed schedule because of its August recess, would then be able to review it at its July 31 meeting.

“The TIF will be considered, likely at zoning in July,” said Dimitrijevic.

The full council unanimously approved the $500,000 allocation at its June 23 meeting. The Board of Zoning Appeals previously endorsed a setback deviation for the project.

Other proposals receiving funding include KG Development Group‘s redevelopment of the former Jewish Home at 2436 N. 50th St. Developer Anthony Kazee told the committee that the $300,000 in funding would cover asbestos that wasn’t found during initial testing and other building upgrades. The project is scheduled to be completed in July. “Excited to get this project completed. It’s the first one in Wisconsin to combine permanent housing with crisis housing,” he said. Milwaukee County is also expected to provide additional funding.

Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity is also to receive $500,000, which Beth Van Gorp, director of advocacy and government relations, said would help the organization scale ahead of schedule to building 40 homes per year.

Milwaukee Community Crossroads, formerly Milwaukee Christian Center, was allocated $500,000 for its owner-occupied homebuilding program. VIA CDC also received $500,000 for a similar program.

Rule Enterprises was allocated $400,000 for its long-delayed KIN at Freshwater development at 200 E. Greenfield Ave. The 140-unit development was recently denied tax credits via WHEDA’s competitive program, but is pursuing funding through the noncompetitive 4% program. The district previously lost its allocated credits in 2025 because of delays in completing the project’s financing. The city previously approved a TIF subsidy for the development.

Through a separate federal allocation of HOME funds tied to the soon-to-expire American Rescue Plan Act, the council also approved allocating $1.1 million to Milwaukee Development Corporation‘s 124-unit redevelopment of the former Milwaukee County City Campus at 2711 W. Wells St. The funding would be provided in exchange for reserving 11 units for permanent supportive housing for individuals making less than 30% of the area median income. The development is to be reserved for those age 55 or older. “The senior population has been a growing population we are seeing on the streets,” said Mario Higgins, Community Development Grants Administration director.

The City Campus project is also receiving a TIF subsidy that was proposed in April alongside the Austin Commons subsidy. The Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee board quickly endorsed both projects, with the council approving the City Campus subsidy on May 12.

The American Rescue Plan Act funding would also cover $1.4 million to renovate the third floor of the Hillview Building, 1615 S. 22nd St. for supportive housing for those facing homelessness. Ariam Kesete‘s AK Development and Wisconsin Community Services would receive a combined $960,000 to renovate and provide housing for those facing homelessness at 1421 W. Atkinson Ave. and the Capuchin Apartments at 2502 W. Tamarack St. “It addresses a lot of other economic mechanisms we get to tackle as well. We appreciate the opportunity,” said Kesete.

Higgins said the city previously wanted to use the remaining HOME American Rescue Plan Act money for a congregate shelter with a 60-bed capacity, but wasn’t able to locate a suitable property and has learned diversifying its investments reduces the risk of a single provider failing, as happened with Heartland Housing.

From Left: Taylor Jenkins, Nate Ament, Brayden Burries and Jon Horst. Photo taken June 25, 2026 by Sophie Bolich.

Milwaukee Bucks personnel packed the gymnasium at Pieper-Hillside Boys & Girls Club Thursday for a press conference introducing the team’s newest members: Brayden Burries and Nate Ament.

Smiles and high-fives greeted the rookies as they entered through a side door, passing through a cheer tunnel before taking seats beside head coach Taylor Jenkins and general manager Jon Horst for a question-and-answer session.

In their new roles, Burries and Ament said they hope to bring a competitive mindset and a commitment to continued growth as they adjust to life in the league.

“I’m all hands on deck and I’m ready to get to work,” said Ament, a former Tennessee Volunteers forward from Manassas, Virginia, adding that he’s eager to build relationships with veteran players. “These guys know best, so I’m excited to learn from them.”

Burries, a former University of Arizona guard, highlighted his versatility. “The strength I bring is being able to impact winning outside of just scoring, whether that’s defending, rebounding, play-making, or just trying to be a good person on the bench for the other guys,” he said.

The San Bernardino, California native, 20, was selected with the 10th pick in the draft. He helped lead the Wildcats to the Final Four in his lone college season before declaring for the draft.

“What I love about Brayden is his ability to impact on both sides of the floor,” Jenkins said. “This guy wants to be a point of attack defender, he wants to be a team defender — it’s infectious.”

Both players, selected in the first round of this week’s NBA Draft, enter the franchise during a rebuilding phase, following Jenkins’ hiring in April and the blockbuster trade that sent Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis to the Miami Heat.

Jenkins, who emphasized a culture of teamwork during his introductory news conference in May, said he heard overwhelmingly positive feedback from the players’ former coaches, teammates and opponents.

“These guys are stellar individual players,” he said. “They’ve got room to grow, and I’m going to remind them of that.”

That process has already begun. Both players said Jenkins started their film sessions by reviewing their biggest mistakes from college.

“When I sat down for my interview, he had a lowlight tape of me, of my five worst plays in college,” Ament said. But he wasn’t offended. “It’s important to have a coach who sees that.”

The same was true for Burries, who received his own lowlight tape. “It just shows how much he cares,” he said.

Both players are expected to make their Bucks debut during NBA Summer League next month, where Jenkins said the focus will be on earning opportunities and “mapping out” their roles on the roster.

“When we talk about building our identity and culture, these guys truly are competitors,” Jenkins said. “They bring the energy … but they’re also going to bring the personalities that allow us to achieve what we want night in and night out.”

Burries and Ament aren’t the only new Bucks. The team drafted 21-year-old small forward Malique Lewis in the second round. The Bucks also acquired Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. and guard Kasparas Jakučionis in the trade.

After the press conference, Burries and Ament posed for photos with their families, Bucks employees and kids from the Boys & Girls Club. In addition to their goals on the court, the players said they look forward to connecting with community members, especially youth, in the city.

“I love working with kids,” Ament said. “If I had NBA players as accessible to me as we are going to be to them, it would have been a lot more motivation for me to get where I wanted to go.”

Photos

An Enbridge post marks the Line 61 corridor near Keith Reopelle’s property in Marshall, Wisconsin. Bridgit Bowden/WPR

The Wisconsin Department of Justice announced a $275,000 settlement Thursday with energy firm Enbridge in a 2019 spill in Jefferson County.

The state alleged Enbridge violated the spills law by failing to report a release from a faulty valve that occurred on its Line 13 pipeline in Fort Atkinson on April 26, 2019. The company didn’t report the spill to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources until July 31, 2020 — more than a year later.

State law requires immediately reporting a hazardous substance spill by calling the DNR’s 24-hour hotline.

WPR previously reported that up to 1,386 gallons of diluent liquids leaked from the pipeline, contaminating groundwater and soil in the area. The DOJ said the petroleum substance is an extremely flammable mixture used to thin out heavy crude oil carried through its pipelines.

“Wisconsin’s Spills Law is a critical protection for our environment,” Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said in a statement. “Those who are responsible for the discharge of a hazardous substance must comply with its requirements.”

In a statement, Enbridge spokesperson Juli Kellner said the company is pleased to reach an agreement with the DNR and the Department of Justice. She said the leak was discovered and repaired in the spring of 2019.

“Ongoing monitoring continues to confirm product released remains confined to Enbridge-owned property. Regular sampling has found no impact to nearby drinking water wells,” Kellner said. “Enbridge is committed to ongoing restoration of this site. We will work with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as monitoring continues.”

The settlement requires Enbridge to pay $275,000 in fines and other fees, and an order was signed Monday by Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge William V. Gruber.

The release is not the company’s only spill in Jefferson County. In 2024, a valve leak caused by a degraded gasket at a pump station for Enbridge’s Line 6 pipeline spilled 1,650 barrels or roughly 69,000 gallons of oil. Enbridge cited the more than 50-year-old valve as a contributing factor in the spill to federal regulators.

The settlement comes as Enbridge is rerouting its Line 5 pipeline in northern Wisconsin around the Bad River Tribe’s reservation. Opponents of the project have cited the company’s track record of spills in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan.

Enbridge has said it’s spent billions of dollars on improving the safety and integrity of its pipelines.

The company previously violated permits and water quality standards when it built parallel pipelines across 14 counties in 2007 and 2008. In 2008, the Wisconsin Department of Justice reached a $1.1 million settlement for more than 100 environmental violations that caused harm to wetlands and waterways.

Wisconsin DOJ announces $275K settlement with Enbridge over 2019 spill was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Home construction by Habitat for Humanity on N. 23rd St. Photo taken May 14 by Graham Kilmer.

A sweeping bipartisan housing bill passed through Congress earlier this week, with provisions aimed at making it easier to build new houses and rezone communities.

The bill comes as Wisconsin faces a shortage of tens of thousands of units of housing. And unusually, the bill united Democratic and Republican members of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation in the final vote.

It faces a hurdle as President Donald Trump withholds his signature — and housing experts caution that, even if it eventually becomes law, by itself it won’t solve the U.S. housing crisis.

“I think absolutely it’s a big deal,” said Paul Aylesworth, director of affordable and sustainable housing development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, on “Wisconsin Today.” “This is a bill that’s trying to crack the big nut that is increasing housing supply in our state, which most folks agree is the main contributor to the high housing costs.”

“Stimulating housing demand is a tricky thing, because it often takes a lot of small fixes, and often takes a lot of time, and this bill certainly is reflective of that,” Aylesworth added.

Research varies about the scale of Wisconsin’s housing shortage, but according to the think tank Forward Analytics, the state needs somewhere between 84,000 and 140,000 new units of housing by 2030 to keep up with population demand.

“Which is a short time period,” said Kurt Paulsen, who teaches and researches affordable housing finance and policy at UW-Madison.

The “21st Century Road to Housing Act” seeks to address those gaps nationwide. Composed of dozens of proposals knit together, the package includes loosening of regulations on building new houses, incentives to communities that change their zoning and land-use policies and a series of pilot projects that would shift how development projects are financed.

The bill also includes a ban on private institutions buying more than 350 single-family homes, with a goal of using more of the housing stock as housing, rather than as investments.

But none of these components on their own will do much, and even pieced together, change will be incremental, said Paulsen.

“It walks this very bipartisan line by providing a study here, a report there, a recommendation, an incentive, a little pilot project,” he said. “Taken together cumulatively, if implemented, (it) could possibly bend the supply and cost curves in the long run. But no single provision in this bill is going to do too much on its own.”

But that’s how major policy passes, he added.

“It shows you that in order to get bipartisan consensus, you kind of have to water it down to the lowest common denominator — which is not a bad thing,” he said. “This is how legislation works. It’s a bipartisan reflection that we have a huge housing affordability crisis and we need to do something about it.”

Politics of bipartisan bill upended by Trump

Indeed, despite overwhelming support for the bill, the politics behind it are complicated. Of Wisconsin’s delegation, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson was the lone no vote. He was one of just five senators to vote against it.

And all Wisconsin U.S. representatives, Republican and Democrat, voted for the package — except for Rep. Tom Tiffany, the leading Republican candidate for governor, who did not vote. In all, just 32 representatives voted against the bill, all Republicans.

But the many years of vote-whipping efforts to find bipartisan consensus on the issue were stalled when Trump on Wednesday abruptly canceled a planned signing ceremony for the bill. He said he will not sign the legislation until Congress passes a controversial package he is backing, the SAVE Act, which would impose restrictions on mail-in voting and voter registration.

As of Thursday, Trump had reportedly not been formally presented with the bill. That presentation would kick off a 10-day timeline, during which Trump would need to sign it or veto it. If he takes no action in that window, it would pass without his signature.

If Trump does veto it, the bill would return to Congress for an override. And while it passed with a veto-proof majority the first time, Republicans this time around would need to decide whether to publicly buck Trump on the issue.

Housing is largely a local issue

While the bill is among the most significant pieces of federal housing legislation in years, many of its mechanisms are highly localized. That’s because housing regulation — things like zoning, land use and permitting — is largely an issue of local control, according to Stephen Malpezzi, a professor emeritus in the Department of Real Estate in the Wisconsin School of Business.

“Most of the action in improving housing supply, and hence affordability, will remain at the local level,” he wrote in an email.

Advocates say that the legislation does little for the lowest-income households, most of whom are renters and face increased barriers to housing stability. Instead, it’s aimed at driving new housing creation, particularly in the wake of the Great Recession, which slowed new construction for years.

Where new construction is the goal, experts say, those units won’t be accessible to low-income people. They also point out that construction costs are also unlikely to be alleviated by these kinds of policy changes, at a time that material prices are especially high.

Sweeping federal housing bill won’t be a magic bullet for Wisconsin affordability, experts say was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Acting Budget Director Nick Sinram (left) alongside County Executive David Crowley at confirmation hearing on June 11, 2026. Screenshot from county meeting livestream.

The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors voted Thursday confirming the appointment of  Nick Sinram to lead the county’s budget office.

Sinram most recently served as the budget director for Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley tapped him to lead the county’s Office of Strategy, Performance and Budget, replacing Joe Lamers, who left to run the county’s Milwaukee County Department of Transportation (MCDOT).

“Since I’ve been County Executive, we’ve ended every single year with a budget surplus. Nick Sinram is well-suited to continue this track record, bringing new experience to this role that will allow us to address our fiscal challenges, responsibly manage taxpayer dollars, and maintain core services in the years ahead,” Crowley said in a statement after Sinram was confirmed Thursday. “As we look ahead to this budget cycle and beyond, we know difficult decisions will need to be made. Nick has spent his career navigating complex budgets, balancing competing priorities, and helping public institutions deliver results while maintaining fiscal responsibility. I am confident that his unique expertise in budgeting, financial oversight, legal analysis, and strategic planning will provide the leadership Milwaukee County needs as we continue charting a fiscally sustainable path forward.”

County policymakers had to close a $47 million budget deficit in 2026. In May, the Office of the Comptroller reported the county is projected to face a $50.9 million budget deficit in 2027 and, by 2031, a $168.7 million deficit. The Milwaukee County Transit System is preparing for a second year of significant budget cuts amid a projected $15.7 million deficit in 2027.

Sinram’s time with MPS was a source of concern for county supervisors. He became director of the MPS Department of Financial Planning and Budget Services in 2023 and was with the district through a financial scandal precipitated by missed financial reporting deadlines that endangered state funding and a $46 million budget deficit.

During a meeting of the board’s Committee on Finance, Sup. Steve Taylor and Justin Bielinski both voted against Sinram’s confirmation, citing his tenure with MPS.

During the county board meeting Thursday, Bielinski again questioned how the board should interpret Sinram’s decision to leave MPS before the district’s fiscal problems were solved. Bielinski said he spoke to members of the Milwaukee School Board and MPS teachers about Sinram, and concluded that he is not right for the role. He pointed to MPS staff cuts and said, “I’m worried that that is what he’s going to be asked to do here, that we’re going to be looking for ways to lay out more county staff, because we’re investing all of our property tax dollars in capital projects, and we’re not investing enough in services.”

Bielinski has expressed opposition for the Crowley administration’s strategy for funding the planned development of a new $500 million Milwaukee County Courthouse.

Sup. Juan Miguel Martinez, who previously voted to recommend approval of Sinram’s confirmation, changed his vote during Thursday’s meeting. He said if Sinram ends up being wrong for the job, the county board is going to take the brunt of the public’s unhappiness with any budgetary or financial mistakes.

Taylor said MPS is a “toxic environment” and that he has no confidence in the institution. He told his colleagues he was uncomfortable with the optics of bringing over the former MPS budget director, but said the decision was Crowley’s. The board only has an up or down vote and Taylor did not want to give his “stamp of approval.”

Other supervisors rose to point out that Sinram had been transparent and open to meeting with supervisors and answering their questions. Others noted that Sinram could not be blamed for the district’s financial mistakes.

Sup. Willie Johnson Jr. noted that there were other officials between Sinram and the decision makers in the district, including the superintendent and the school board. Sup. Sky Capriolo said she was concerned about Sinram’s appointment and even shared her reservations with Crowley’s office, but said after meeting with him she supported his confirmation.

Sup. Shawn Rolland pointed to Sinram’s references, specifically the words offered by Todd Gray, a former Waukesha School District superintendent who was hired as MPS’s interim chief financial officer in the fallout from the financial reporting scandal. Gray said the problems at MPS were not caused by Sinram, that he had no authority over the reporting failures and had no way to stop the overspending. “You can create the world’s best budget, but if the spenders don’t adhere to it, it goes into deficit,” Gray wrote.

Sup. Jack Eckblad said the Crowley administration was transparent and “eager to get [Sinram] in front of me, get him in touch with me and answer my questions.” Eckblad said the board should confirm Sinram, but use their powers of oversight to hold him and the administration accountable going forward. Sup. Caroline Gómez-Tom echoed Eckblad’s willingness to trust the administration’s judgment, but also ensure proper oversight.

Sup. Kathleen Vincent, an educator in Kenosha and member of the Greendale School Board, said Sinram’s willingness to answer her questions and his references overcame her initial concern.

“I hope people realize that one part of our public schools in Wisconsin is a big part of why our public schools are failing right now,” Vincent said.

Sup. Sheldon Wasserman gave Crowley “big kudos” for fighting for Sinram’s appointment because he thinks he’s the right man for the job. Wasserman noted that Crowley is running for governor and connecting himself to MPS and its financial scandals does not make for good politics, but he’s doing it anyway and it took “courage,” Wasserman said.

The board voted 12-3, with supervisors Taylor, Bielinski and Martinez voting against. Supervisors Felesia Martin, Priscilla E. Coggs-Jones and Deanna Alexander were not present for the meeting.

Hayden Clarkin speaks at the Thinking Big Wisconsin passenger rail event. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Approximately 100 advocates of expanding passenger rail service in Wisconsin attended a half-day conference Thursday afternoon on Milwaukee’s Lower East Side.

The event, held at the Oriental Theatre, featured a variety of panels and a keynote speech by New York City-based urban planner Hayden Clarkin, known to his more than 300,000 social media followers as “The Transit Guy.”

Clarkin’s speech focused on the absurdity that a 1991 study to build up to 300 mph rail service between Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison and the Twin Cities was all but forgotten, and that current trips on the Hiawatha have slowed by two minutes since then. Clarkin, using demographic data and a series of maps, highlighted Wisconsin’s similarities with Denmark, while noting that the latter has more than 2,700 train trips per day to Wisconsin’s 30 (including Metra’s Kenosha service). Clarkin, who said his comments would get him in trouble with the media, noted that the Amtrak Hiawatha Service and Borealis, on a percentage basis, are subsidized at a lower percentage than Wisconsin’s roads (22% and 25% vs. 34% in his calculations).

Mayor Cavalier Johnson gave an opening speech, discussing the value of passenger rail in connecting Milwaukee with Wisconsin and the Midwest. Newsradio 620 WTMJ host Kristin Brey served as the event emcee.

A panel on building the vision for passenger rail in Wisconsin included Department of City Development Commissioner Lafayette Crump, Kapur & Associates Vice President and former Republican Assembly Representative Jeff Stone, and West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition Chair, Wisconsin private sector designee to the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission and Eau Claire resident Scott Rogers. The trio spoke of the need to build a coalition across party lines, the potential for a passenger rail caucus in the Legislature, and the cost and time impacts of requiring so many studies.

Rick Harnish, executive director of the Chicago-based High Speed Rail Alliance, presented lessons learned from the privately financed Brightline commuter rail project in Florida, and Racine Mayor Cory Mason gave an update on the MARK planning process, an update to the earlier Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail line.

During the event, Gov. Tony Evers issued a press release confirming a June 6 Urban Milwaukee report that the state was pursuing a federal grant to cover up to 80% of the cost to build the Hiawatha West passenger rail extension from Milwaukee to Pewaukee, Watertown and Madison.

Milwaukee council members Alex Brower and Peter Burgelis, Kenosha Mayor David Bogdala and representatives Robyn Vining (D-Wauwatosa) and Angelina Cruz (D-Racine) were among the elected officials in attendance.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson fills a southside pothole with asphalt. Photo taken June 25, 2026 by Sophie Bolich.

In a typical year, the Milwaukee Department of Public Works (DPW) expects to field about 10,000 service requests for potholes. Less than halfway through 2026, it has already received 18,000.

City officials gathered on the South Side Thursday to address the surge and ask residents for patience as crews work through the backlog.

“This is one of the most challenging pothole seasons that Milwaukee has faced in quite some time,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson, who attributed the rise to “volatile weather conditions” throughout the winter and spring. “Unfortunately, it generated a level of demand that significantly exceeds our normal operations.”

Johnson said crews are working overtime — including on weekends — to fulfill requests in order of urgency. “We understand the frustration that comes with encountering potholes and waiting on repairs,” he added.

The heavier workload has also slowed response times. The city has previously aimed for a three-day turnaround; however, that average has since stretched to two weeks, according to DPW Commissioner Jerrel Kruschke.

For residential streets, the wait can be longer still; the city’s current triage approach prioritizes arterial streets and those with the most severe damage.

After peaking in April and May, the volume of requests has begun to decline. DPW has completed more than 10,000 service requests, leaving an estimated 5,000 to 8,000 remaining.

“Our folks are resolving about 200 to 250 per day, so we’re making headway,” Kruschke said.

After remarks, Johnson and Kruschke donned hi-vis vests and joined crews in repairing a pockmarked section of S. 12th Street with hot mix asphalt.

The method yields a stronger, more permanent bond with existing pavement, according to Kruschke, but can only be used throughout the warmer months. DPW works year-round to patch potholes, relying on a cold patch compound during the winter.

Earlier this year, DPW’s effort received support from the Milwaukee Brewers, which donated $27,500 toward the purchase of an asphalt hot box to keep hot mix asphalt warm and usable throughout the workday.

The department also plans to trial an AI-powered system to detect potholes and last year purchased new equipment to fill potholes more efficiently.

Kruschke concluded his appearance with a plea to the public: ditch the distractions. “If you focus on driving, a lot of times you can avoid potholes on the roadway,” he said. “We know they exist. We know it’s frustrating. There are hazards out here and we’re fixing them as fast as we can.”

Potholes can be reported by calling 414-286-2489, submitting an online service request, or using the MKE Mobile Action app.

Photos

Milwaukee County Courthouse. Photo by Jeramey Jannene

Wisconsin’s criminal justice system is straining from a significant rise in the number of criminal defendants deemed unfit for trial due to mental illness.

Recent reporting by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigative data reporter Eva Wen found that the number of Wisconsin defendants deemed unfit for trial has nearly tripled since 2013. And the number of court-ordered competency evaluations for defendants has nearly doubled over the same period.

Mark Sanders is a Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge for Branch 28, which primarily handles the county’s felony mental health docket. Sanders told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that several factors are driving the spike in felony mental health cases.

“There’s been both an increase in the awareness of mental health issues, that there’s a greater need for community resources, that sometimes, unfortunately, it seems that the criminal justice system is the easiest way to get people involved in the mental health system,” Sanders said. “And people may find themselves getting charged when, hopefully, they would find some other avenue so their mental health issues could be addressed.”

On “Wisconsin Today,” Sanders spoke about the challenges of competency evaluations and their effects on the justice system.

The following was edited for brevity and clarity. 

Rob Ferrett: Why do we pay attention to whether someone is “competent,” as we legally define it, to stand trial? Why is this an important issue? 

Mark Sanders: Competence really is the most foundational thing in any criminal case. If we don’t have a high degree of confidence that a defendant is competent, we can’t have any confidence in anything that goes on in the case. We don’t know if a defendant wants to plead guilty, for example. If we’re not sure that they’re competent, we don’t know whether their desire to plead guilty is because that’s what they want to do, or because they have a misunderstanding about what the case involves, or about defenses they might have or really anything in connection with the case.

We also don’t have confidence in the effectiveness of a case in the criminal system. We don’t just prosecute people and have cases just to prosecute people. The goal is to ultimately reduce crime and reduce crime victims, and if people who are being prosecuted don’t understand that they’ve got a case pending or don’t understand the substance of the case, it’s hard to have confidence that the goals of the system are ever going to be reached.

RF: Your assignment involves the felony mental health docket in large part. Why does Milwaukee County’s court system need this kind of specialized docket for these cases? 

MS: We started this docket about two years ago, and it involves really three different components. The largest component is competency. The competency cases from all of the criminal courts, with the exception of homicide and sexual assault cases, are heard by the judges who preside over those cases. The goal is to concentrate all of these cases in one spot so that systemic issues can be more easily addressed, so that we can free up some space in the other courts and so that hopefully we can also concentrate knowledge both in the lawyers that are in here regularly and in the judge that presides over the calendar. That way, we’ve got a better, more detailed understanding of how competency works and the details of the statute and how things need to move forward in the legal system.

RF: On a practical level, who flags this? Is it a defense attorney or someone in the court system who says they have concerns about the competency of the defendant before moving to trial? 

MS: The issue can be raised by anybody, but it’s most commonly raised by the defense attorney, who, in their engagement with their client, will discover that maybe they don’t understand fully what they’re charged with or maybe they’re not really able to assist in their own defense. They’ll raise the issue with the court if they have concerns about those things. Then we order an evaluation, and the process moves down that direction.

RF: Where do you see the best investment in mental health treatment that helps keep people out of the situation where they’re in jail awaiting competency treatment? 

MS: There are really two areas that I think are ripe for working on that issue. One would be increasing the number of beds that are available at state institutions for competency restoration. I know the Department of Health Services is working on that, and hopefully, that will provide some relief to those people who are on the wait list.

The other resource that I think would be valuable is improving the level of mental health resources at the community level, so that people could access treatment and hopefully never find themselves in the criminal justice system to begin with. We’re trying to use the outpatient competency restoration program as much as we reasonably can, and that’s another area where we could enhance the resources that are available for restoring people to competence. But I think on the whole it’s really increased bed space and increased community resources where we could use the resources the most.

Milwaukee County judge weighs in on rising mental health felony cases was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Grocery store shelves. Photo by Sophie Bolich.

The rate at which Wisconsin distributes too much or too little food assistance is among the lowest in the nation, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

According to the estimates measuring all states and U.S. territories, Wisconsin’s error rate for the last fiscal year was 5.72 percent. That’s just over half of the nationwide error rate of 10.62 percent.

Just seven other states, and the Virgin Islands, had lower error rates, according to the USDA data.

The USDA’s error rate measures both overpayments and underpayments of federal food assistance dollars, known nationally as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and in Wisconsin as FoodShare.

Under a provision of last summer’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, states that exceed a 6 percent error rate will have to shoulder a share of the cost of the program. The size of that share increases as the error rate grows.

That comes as other changes to the program were implemented, including requiring states to take on more administrative costs, and imposing new work requirements on older people and on families with children above age 13. The federal law also requires regular paperwork to prove exemptions from such requirements for some groups, such as families with special needs children.

President Donald Trump’s administration has called the changes an effort at rooting out fraud and abuse. The USDA says error rates show administrative mistakes that are often rectified.

The new federal consequences will go into effect on Oct. 1, 2027, and states can submit their error rates from either this fiscal year, or next fiscal year, per the USDA. Because Wisconsin’s 2025 error rate was under 6 percent, it can avoid the new fines.

In Wisconsin, the new requirements led to a bipartisan deal on food assistance, passed at the tail end of the legislative session, in which dozens of staff positions were added to the Department of Health Services, which administers the program. The positions were added in an amendment to a bill barring FoodShare recipients from buying candy, soda or energy drinks with their assistance dollars.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers had requested that staff to implement the new federal changes, arguing in his State of the State address in February that the investment would save the state a larger amount in penalties. All told, the Legislature approved about $72 million in funding for SNAP administrative and staff costs.

Wisconsin’s error rate in 2024 was 4.47 percent, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, which also detailed Wisconsin’s existing quality control mechanisms. That includes regular audits of the distribution of these benefits, and recouping overpayments or reimbursing underpayments accordingly. About half of those cases are then also reviewed by USDA.

In a statement announcing the new error rates for all states, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that the data shows a lack of “state accountability.”

“USDA has taken historic action to help interested states curb SNAP waste, and I hope other states, regardless of political leadership, prioritize needy families and the American taxpayer over politics,” she said.

A spokesperson for the Wisconsin DHS did not immediately respond to WPR’s request for comment Wednesday.

More than one in 10 Wisconsinites receive food assistance each month. Roughly 40 percent of those recipients are children.

Wisconsin’s SNAP error rates are low, according to federal review was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Site of Dead Bird Brewing, 1726 Dr. William Finlayson Dr. Photo taken September 18th, 2019 by Jeramey Jannene.

Join us for an Urban Milwaukee members-only beer bash. Our next stop on the 2026 edition of the free event series (RSVP required) takes us to Dead Bird Brewing.

Come and enjoy a pint and chat with some of your favorite journalists and fellow Urban Milwaukee members.

Dead Bird Brewing was founded in 2015 in Madison, and in 2019 it found it its way to its new home in Milwaukee.

Owner Nick Kocis strives to minimizing the brewery’s carbon footprint with energy-efficient appliances, solar panels, recycling and composting.

Part of the drive for sustainability is why Dead Bird Brewing Company is Wisconsin’s only all-vegan brewery, because a vegan diet can reduce an individual’s food-related carbon footprint by up to 73%.

The brewery offers a variety of food options, including homemade pizzas, soft pretzels, famous nachos, and more.

And about that name? There’s a story there, which surely the staff at Dead Bird will tell during the tour.

Urban Milwaukee members are invited to a Dead Bird Brewing Beer Bash on Friday, June 26 starting at 5:30 p.m. An RSVP is required as space is limited.

Members can bring one guest, but must request an additional ticket when reserving their spot. The team at Dead Bird Brewing Company will lead Urban Milwaukee members through guided tasting tours – which will include free beer samples and conversation on the specific beers and some brewery history. This tour will last about thirty minutes, and questions and comments are welcomed.

The event is planned to reward Urban Milwaukee’s loyal members and create an easy-going way for our staff and writers and readers and supporters to get together to try multiple tasty beers in a classic city neighborhood. Here’s the rundown: arrive at 5:30 p.m., join the first tour at 6:15 p.m. or the second at 6:45 p.m., sample some beer and enjoy your favorite beers and convivial conversation for the rest of the night.

We’d love to have a locally-made craft beer with you. Oh, and if you’re looking to chat less, but enjoy the beer? That’s great, too. There are 50 plus arcade and board games in the taproom, so come for a beer and stay for a game or two. Dead Bird Brewing Company is located at 1726 Dr. William Finlayson Dr. in Milwaukee.

So, RSVP today.

Not a Member, But Still Want to Come?

Urban Milwaukee offers the city’s most robust membership program, with many perks such as this one. By becoming a member, not only will you help support Urban Milwaukee’s journalism, but you’ll help us continue to grow our publication, which publishes more than 75 stories and 100 press releases per week.

This event is only one of the great perks you get by becoming an Urban Milwaukee member. Here are just a few others:

• Completely ad-free content on our website and a configurable email newsletter
• Bypass the paywall and get access to all Urban Milwaukee stories
• Free access to News Bulletins with insider scoops of interest to anyone following the Milwaukee scene.
• A chance to provide the support that assures Urban Milwaukee can continue focusing on smart, substantive news coverage rather than clickbait
• Free tickets to concerts, festivals, and other great events as they become available through our partners
• A 10% discount on all merchandise at Urban Milwaukee: The Store
• The ability to comment on articles
• A faster photo browser

We’d love to have you join us. Simply sign-up to become a member for just $9/month or $99 per year and you will immediately be able to reserve your Beer Bash tickets.

Milwaukee County Courthouse. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley announced a new state-funded public safety initiative Wednesday that will bring nearly a dozen community organizations and providers together to coordinate a community response to violence.

The county is launching the “Destined for Greater” initiative using a $1.5 million grant from the Wisconsin Office of Violence Prevention. The county is local community organizations to coordinate, and fund, new and existing community safety programs that seek to disrupt violence before it occurs.

Local Organizations involved include Milwaukee Turners, InPower Solutions, C.C. We Adapt, Milwaukee Community Justice Council, Milwaukee Bucks Foundation. For youth in detention, Muhibb Dyer, Speak Wellness, AJH Solutions and La’Ketta Caldwell will provide services and participate in community coordinating efforts. Bloom Therapies and Youth Advocate Program will work on youth employment.

Funding will be used to expand some of the programs offered by participating organizations. They will also meet regularly to share updates and coordinate programming and interventions. Funds will also help the county expand some of it’s own intervention programs working on housing, wellness and community safety.

“At Milwaukee County, we know that community safety and community health go hand in hand,” Crowley said in a statement Wednesday. “That’s why we’re investing in prevention, intervention, healing, housing stability, behavioral health services, and pathways to opportunity for our young people.”

In 2024 the county’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) launched a violence interruption program called the Advance Peace Fellowship. The new initiative will build on the work of that program, which the Crowley administration reports is showing positive results.

The Advance Peace Fellowship aims to disrupt the cycle of retaliatory gun violence by reaching out directly to the people in Milwaukee who are committing the shootings. Once in contact, program ambassadors attempt to persuade them, mostly young men, to join the program. To date, 95% of participants have not sustained a new gun injury since joining the program, according to the Crowley administration.

The Crowley first launched a violence interruption program early in his first term with the creation of the Credible Messenger program, which reaches out to at-risk youth or youth who have become involved in the justice system, to provide them mentorship and counseling. Since it launched, 76% of participants had no referral or criminal offense while in the program.

“For DHHS, this work brings together Children, Youth and Family Services, Behavioral Health Services, housing, prevention efforts and community-based violence intervention strategies,” said David Muhammad, DHHS deputy director. “It recognizes that public safety is achieved by meeting the basic needs of youth and families to change behavior and requires more than one kind of support.  In addition to intervention and helping navigate conflict, they may need housing, mental health support, transformative mentoring, a job, or other services to help them thrive.”

Racers sprint to the finish while the crowd cheers them on at the 2024 Centraal Bay View Classic in the Tour of America’s Dairyland. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

You can feel it in the air – there’s an overwhelming gloominess in the city right now thanks to the unfortunate news of the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade. That’s why it’s important to get out there, take your mind off of it and celebrate what we love about Milwaukee summers – the events! Summerfest is on weekend two, and will feature performances by Post Malone, Kim Gordon, The Mountain Goats and more. The Tour of America’s Dairyland will bring bicycle races to various Milwaukee neighborhoods, and Deer District is hosting a weekend-long tailgating party.

June 25-27: Summerfest Weekend Two

The Big Gig has arrived! Summerfest, the world’s largest music festival,  is here and will once again take place over the course of three weekends at the Henry Maier Festival Park. Each weekend will be packed full of live music on both free and ticketed stages, entertainment such as skateboarding and bmx demonstrations, vendors and more. Music highlights for weekend two include Post Malone, Kim Gordon, Petey USA and more. Be sure to catch featured local acts like Vincent Van Great, Fuzzysurf, and Wire & Nail, and don’t forget to check the Summerfest website to find out about admission promotions like Throwback Thursday, where the price of admission is only $5 and most beverages are half off from noon to 6 p.m.

June 25-28: Tour of America’s Dairyland

Professional and amateur cyclists from all over the world will hop from neighborhood to neighborhood to compete against one another for the fastest completion times! These races are also block parties that will feature various entertainment, food and drinks and family-friendly activities. The races will take place in Bay View on Thursday, Shorewood on Friday, Downer Avenue on Saturday and Wauwatosa on Sunday. The Tour of America’s Dairyland is free to spectate. For more information, visit the race’s website.

June 25-28: Deer District Tailgate

Nobody tailgates better than Milwaukee, and the Deer District is proving that point this weekend. Starting and Thursday and running through Sunday, Deer District will host various sports-themed viewings, live music, family-friendly activities and more. Check out a showing of The Mighty Ducks on Friday at 7:30 p.m., and shop the Deer District Farmers Market on Sunday. For a full schedule of Deer District Tailgate happenings, visit the Deer District website.

June 26-28: The Wisconsin Card Show

Whether you’re attempting to “catch ‘em all” in Pokemon or collecting your personal MVPs, there’s something for every trading card enthusiast at the Wisconsin Card Show. All weekend long, vendors will set up shop at Fiserv Forum, giving guests the chance to find that rare card they’ve been searching for or to get autographs from dozens of Packers, Brewers and Bucks current and former players. The Milwaukee Card Expo will run from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. More details on the event website.

June 28: Pride on Brady

Brady St. will be filled with live music, performers, vendors and more as part of Pride on Brady, an event that aims to bring Milwaukee communities together in celebration of our LGTBQIA+ members. The event will take place between Farwell Ave. and Van Buren St., and guests can watch live drag shows, get their groove on at a dance stage, speak with community organizers and more. Pride on Brady is free to attend and will run from noon to 10 p.m.

June 28: The Gig’s 25 Year Block Party

Riverwest gem The Gig is celebrating its 25th birthday this weekend and is throwing a party to commemorate the milestone. The Grateful-Dead-themed bar is throwing a block party that will feature plenty of food, live music, raffles and more. Music will begin at 1 p.m. and will feature performances by Midnight Hound, Chicken Wire Empire and Grateful Dead cover band Another One. Guests can play yard games and are encouraged to bring their own yard chairs. The Gig 25 Year Block Party will run from noon to 10 p.m.

An individual rides a scooter on a sidewalk in downtown Milwaukee. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The fallout from a serious collision between a person riding a dockless scooter illegally on a downtown sidewalk and a pedestrian walking out of a bar could have a significant impact on how scooters are allowed to operate on city streets.

Ald. Robert Bauman is proposing to reduce the speed limit from 15 mph to 5 mph downtown and increase the fine for sidewalk riding from no more than $20 to a minimum of $100 and a maximum of $200.

As a result of the June 16 collision that injured Dave Wolz, the owner of La Cage nightclub, Jonpierre D. Cherry was charged with one felony count of second-degree reckless injury. If convicted, Cherry could face up to 12½ years in prison and a $25,000 fine. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 26.

Wolz, who was stepping out of Old German Beer Hall, required spinal surgery as a result of the collision and suffered other broken bones.

The dockless scooters are rentable via a smartphone application and debit or credit card. Operators are required to scan an ID to access the platform.

After a series of pilot programs, the dockless scooters were approved for permanent use starting in 2024. Lime, after achieving an overwhelming market share, is now the only company operating in Milwaukee.

Bauman, who represents Downtown and the Near West Side, has been a longtime skeptic of the scooters, in large part because of the potential harm they could cause to pedestrians and parking concerns.

He is now advancing legislation, introduced Thursday, that would reduce the state-imposed 15 mph speed limit to 5 mph in Downtown and west through the Marquette University campus. It would expand on already imposed 5 mph limits on the lakefront, in the heart of the Historic Third Ward and around Fiserv Forum.

“I don’t think there is a solution. That’s the rationale for the speed limit,” said Bauman. “If they can’t fix the sidewalk riding problem, the speed limit reduces the danger for pedestrians.”

He acknowledged that a 5 mph limit could be problematic for those operating lawfully in the street.

A communication file has also been introduced for the Department of Public Works to publicly address what could be done.

The boundaries offered by Bauman’s speed limit resolution are formally the portion of DPW’s Zone 1 scooter regulation area that falls within Bauman’s 4th Aldermanic District. The northern tip of Walker’s Point is outside of the aldermanic district and not impacted by the proposal despite being in the zone.

Almost one-third of the 1,292,091 scooter trips taken in 2025 were within Zone 1.

According to DPW’s 2025 annual report, 454 riders were banned by the companies, 5,020 fines were issued and 203,674 warnings were given. More than 78% of 266 complaints submitted to DPW were about improper parking. Sidewalk riding represented an additional 16% of complaints.

The Public Works Committee could first review the policies on July 1. An agenda for the meeting has yet to be published.

Sara Rodriguez.

Two months from the primary to choose the Democratic nominee for governor, with a field of seven candidates who have been campaigning for months, two-thirds of voters are undecided about who to support, according to the latest Marquette poll.

How can that be?

One thing I have heard from any number of Democrats, as I travel the state to talk about Alzheimer’s caregiving, is that they are undecided because they really want to find and back a candidate who can win in November. They know Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany as governor would be a nightmare scenario.

I’ve watched and listened for months and have just endorsed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, a proven winner with a compelling story to tell.

She’s a caregiver. A former Peace Corps volunteer and epidemic officer at the federal Centers for Disease Control who fought outbreaks in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. A nurse who worked emergency room night shifts to pay her way through school.

The rest of her story is what sets her apart. In 2020, when we all paid the price for the first Trump administration’s complete failure to effectively respond to the pandemic, Sara didn’t just sit on the sidelines and complain. She stepped up to run for State Assembly and won a Trump district, beating a four-term Republican in Waukesha County – one of only two seats that flipped Democratic that year.

When Governor Tony Evers needed a partner on the Democratic ticket in 2022, Sara stepped up again to run for Lieutenant Governor and they won statewide. She is the only candidate who is from a red county. She has never lost an election. Winning matters, and Sara Rodriguez is a proven winner. She will beat Tiffany and help take back Democratic majorities in the Assembly and Senate.

As a partner with Gov. Evers the last four years, she has fought for Wisconsin working families and produced a record of results: fighting to increase funding for public schools, protecting reproductive freedom, and delivering fair maps in the state Legislature. In addition, Sara has learned how important it is that our next governor continues standing strong for Wisconsin against Trump’s ongoing chaos, corruption and failure.

As Lieutenant Governor, Sara has traveled to all 72 counties every year because she knows how important it is to connect with people, listen to them, and stay grounded in Wisconsin. Sara is the granddaughter of Richland County dairy farmers. She grew up in a working-class union family. Her mom was a teaching assistant for kids with special needs and a proud WEAC member. Her dad served in the Navy during Vietnam and came home to fix phones for Wisconsin Bell. Sara knows what families are going through, because she’s been there too, living paycheck to paycheck. She gets it because she’s lived it.

Health care is a deeply personal issue to families across Wisconsin as it is for me. After more than 20 years as a nurse and public health leader, Sara knows the health care system from the frontlines and how too often it puts profits over people. And as a working mom, she knows what it means to juggle child care for her kids while facing the daunting challenge of caring for her father with Alzheimer’s. She knows the challenges Wisconsin families face every day and has put forward solutions to make life better for Wisconsinites.

When the Republican nominee is an out of touch MAGA extremist who just does what Trump says, the stakes could not be higher this year.

Congressman Tiffany has supported allowing insurance companies to deny quality health coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. Tiffany has voted to repeal Affordable Care Act tax credits and increase insurance premiums for Wisconsinites. He has even opposed capping the price of insulin and repeatedly voted against lowering the cost of prescription drugs.

Tom Tiffany raised costs; Sara Rodriguez has a plan to lower them. Her health care reform plan, Badger Choice, will always protect preexisting conditions no matter what happens in Washington. Her plan protects BadgerCare and creates universal access to an affordable, Wisconsin-based public health care option to bring down insurance premiums and prescription drug costs.

Making health care more affordable, fully funding our public schools and providing property tax relief, and reducing the cost of living for housing, rent and child care — all Wisconsin Democrats support getting this done, but we must elect a nominee for governor who will win in November and get the job done.

I support Sara Rodriguez for governor because I know Wisconsin can count on her to win and make a real difference in people’s lives. She has the passion, the determination, the ability and the energy to build on the success of Gov. Evers and move Wisconsin forward.

Martin Schreiber, Wisconsin’s 39th governor, author and leading Alzheimer’s caregiver advocate.

Cash. (CC0) https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/cc0/

A new report from a progressive think tank argues that hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin workers would benefit from raising the state’s minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2030.

For 17 years, Wisconsin’s minimum wage has sat at $7.25 an hour — the same as the federal minimum.

If that hourly wage had kept pace with inflation, it would have reached $10.60 in 2026, according to a recently released report from the High Road Strategy Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

As of now, Wisconsin’s current $7.25 an hour minimum amounts to roughly $15,000 a year for someone working 40-hour weeks.

“It’s just not enough money to get by with the way rents and fuel prices and other costs are,” said report author Laura Dresser, a clinical associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The cost of living has moved so far away from that $7.25 an hour.”

The report relies on analysis from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

It projects that, if Wisconsin raised its minimum hourly wage to $20 by 2030, 458,800 Wisconsin workers would see higher wages, representing 16 percent of the state’s workforce. It also estimates that some 277,700 Wisconsin workers would be “indirectly affected” because, as people earning just above the minimum wage, the report argues that they would see raises as pay scales adjust upwards.

The report says those wage increases would be more likely to benefit women, as well as Black and Hispanic Wisconsinites.

It also says that a minimum wage increase would be especially felt in the service industry.

“Nearly 40% of all Wisconsin workers who win with a $20 minimum wage are employed in just two sectors: Retail and Restaurants,” the report says. “The wage increase would bring higher wages to nearly half of retail workers in the state and raise wages for some 152,000 workers. Wage increases would reach most restaurant workers with earnings up for 4 of every 5 restaurant workers, accounting for another 134,000 workers who see wages rise.”

In addition to raising Wisconsin’s minimum hourly wage, the report also argues in favor of eliminating Wisconsin’s separate minimum wage for tipped workers. In Wisconsin, businesses have to pay tipped workers at least $2.33 an hour. However, if an employee doesn’t make at least $7.25 an hour from wages and tips combined, the employer is required to make up the difference.

In Wisconsin, state law prohibits local communities from setting a minimum wage that’s higher than the statewide minimum.

And proposals to raise that statewide minimum have stalled in Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled state Legislature. Conservatives have argued that a minimum wage increase would burden small businesses, and raise prices for consumers. They’ve also argued that it could lead to worse outcomes for workers, by decreasing the number of jobs employers are able to hire for.

But Dresser argues that higher minimum wages have come with benefits in other states.

“Thirty states now have higher minimum wages than Wisconsin,” Dreseser said. “And many of them, many large ones, have very substantially higher minimum wages, have pushed up to $15 (dollars an hour), and without real negative effects.”

In Wisconsin and throughout the country, “there aren’t a ton of workers” who earn as little as $7.25 an hour in 2026, Dresser acknowledged.

But she doesn’t see that fact as an argument against raising the legal minimum.

“That just means that the wage floor has become less relevant, and the workers who are at it are really in desperate need of a boost,” she said.

$20 by 2030? Progressive think tank explores raising Wisconsin’s minimum wage was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Boxes of ballots wait to be counted at Milwaukee’s central count on Election Day 2024. (Photo by Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)

Recent polling from the Democracy Defense Project found that three out of every 10 Wisconsin voters aren’t confident this year’s elections will be conducted accurately.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the presumptive Republican nominee for governor, has often been a vocal election conspiracy theorist — including voting against the certification of the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021 and appearing at events with people who insist that election was stolen.

Republicans in control of Congress have spent months debating bills to add restrictions to voting while President Donald Trump has signed executive orders demanding states turn over voter data, sent FBI agents to Democratic cities across the country — including Milwaukee — to investigate the 2020 election and uses the bully pulpit of the White House to rehash the debunked theories that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him and that Democrats are unfairly winning elections because large numbers of immigrants who are ineligible to vote are illegally casting ballots.

Since Trump’s return to office last year, fears that he will send armed federal agents to polling places have percolated across the country.

With less than 50 days until Wisconsin’s primaries for governor, congressional and state legislative seats and four months until the Nov. 3 midterm election, the past six years of Republican efforts to reduce faith in the country’s election systems have created a whirlwind of headlines, social media rumors, court rulings and fearmongering.

All of that is set to collide this summer with Wisconsin’s actual election administration system — which involves thousands of clerks, volunteers and state officials managing the polls, counting ballots and certifying the results.

Ann Jacobs, a Democrat on the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said that getting too worked up about the potential risks can turn people off from voting, even if they wouldn’t have been affected.

“There’s a lot we can prepare for, and scaring people in advance of the election is the worst thing we can do, because we don’t need to depress our own turnout,” she said.

TR Edwards, staff counsel at the voting rights-focused firm Law Forward, told the Wisconsin Examiner that people’s fears often don’t exactly match what happens on the ground.

“A lot of it is just fear-based and not necessarily rooted in what’s possible, but that being said, I am understanding of that,” he said. “I recognize why people are concerned, and I do think, particularly with some of the actions the administration has taken over the last six months, that they have every right to be concerned. I just don’t know if the level of concern matches either the level of preparation or the reality on the ground.”

Edwards said that he and Law Forward are focused on three areas ahead of the elections: the threat of the federal government seizing 2020 election ballots, building trust between election clerks and local law enforcement and working to prevent Trump’s election-related executive orders from taking effect.

Ballot seizures

The FBI over the last year has been re-investigating long debunked claims of fraud in the 2020 election. Agents have already seized ballots and documents in Fulton County, Georgia and Maricopa County, Arizona. They’ve also been conducting interviews in the Milwaukee area, raising worries that ballots there will also be seized.

In Milwaukee County, nearly 180,000 absentee ballots from the 2020 election have yet to be destroyed because of ongoing efforts from election deniers to obtain the ballots through the state’s open records law.

Under normal Wisconsin election law, ballots and other election materials are destroyed 22 months after an election is held. But because of the ongoing litigation, the county’s ballots still exist.

State officials have raised concerns that the federal government could seize those ballots, revealing how thousands of Milwaukee residents voted up and down the ballot in 2020.

Don Millis, a Republican member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, told WISN’s UpFront on Sunday that the ballots need to be destroyed as soon as possible.

“Those ballots should have been destroyed. No one’s entitled to see those,” he said. “Our Constitution was built on the idea of a secret ballot, and I’m just frustrated that this hasn’t happened. I just wish the decision makers who are in charge of this would see that and move more quickly.”

But the discussion of the 2020 ballots has raised fears that the administration will attempt to do the same with this year’s ballots.

Jacobs told the Examiner there isn’t much an individual voter can do if that’s what happens — but that local elections officials and voting rights advocates are preparing for the possibility and planning to head off any attempts in the courts.

“I am thoughtful and cautious about how I talk about things that might affect an election, right, and in part it’s because there’s only certain things we can or cannot affect going into an election,” she said. “You know, ‘Donald Trump’s going to come in and steal all our ballots.’ Well, there’s absolutely nothing a voter can do about that if that’s in fact what’s going to happen, right? An individual voter has nothing they can do about that, so I don’t want them to not vote, thinking that that’s going to happen with me, and so I’m concerned that there’s a certain amount of fearmongering around what might or might not happen in a fall election.”

She added that with proper planning — having court documents pre-written, knowing which local judge will be on duty to hear a case right away — challenges to these kinds of actions can be made “in minutes instead of hours.”

Cops and feds

Edwards pointed to Riverside County, California, where the local sheriff — a Republican candidate for governor — seized ballots and opened an investigation into the state’s recent primary election, as an example of the risk posed by law enforcement intrusion into elections. In Wisconsin, Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling has often been at the center of the state’s election skeptic circles.

Edwards said that the goal this summer is to build trust between cops, outside groups and local clerks ahead of the election so everyone knows what the law says and where it’s appropriate for law enforcement officers, local, state or federal, to be.

“We are less concerned about law enforcement being present, as long as they are in compliance with applicable law,” Edwards said. “But I am more concerned with ensuring that voters can cast ballots free from intimidation. Our goal is to make sure clerks and voters understand their rights and that any conduct that violates state or federal law, or could reasonably be viewed as voter intimidation, is identified and addressed appropriately.”

If law enforcement is entering areas of polling places that they shouldn’t be, the remedy would be filing lawsuits to get a judge to remove them.

Jacobs said this threat again comes down to planning.

“Certainly I can contemplate the possibility that a goal would be to go into a minority community and essentially stand around with guns and try to intimidate voters,” she said. “Unfortunately, our nation has a history of that, and it wouldn’t be the first time that has happened. That said, we can also plan ahead for that. … if that is something where a person is like, ‘Boy, if that happens, I would be really scared to go to a voting place.’ That person should be encouraged to vote absentee, right?”

In addition to voting by mail, voters can cast absentee ballots in person at drop boxes or at their local clerk’s office.

Executive Orders

Trump has signed executive orders that aim to require additional proof of citizenship to register to vote, restrict absentee ballot use and more tightly manage how the U.S. Postal Service handles absentee ballots. All of the orders have been hung up in the federal court system.

At a Senate hearing Wednesday, U.S. Postmaster General David Steiner said that under his agency’s proposed rule, the post office won’t deliver mail-in absentee ballots in states, including Wisconsin, that have refused to comply with Trump’s order to turn over voter data to the federal government.

Since Trump returned to office, his administration has been working to obtain voter registration lists in a number of states, including Wisconsin. So far, the state elections commission has resisted these efforts, arguing the administration is trying to gain access to personal voter data that can’t be released.

Jacobs said that the executive orders and any proposed rules from the USPS are going to be challenged in court and are unlikely to be in effect by the fall election.

Edwards said that Law Forward has filed amicus briefs in the lawsuits against the orders and is working to help overworked local election officials digest information about potential changes.

“There’s no way [clerks] can keep up with the velocity of everything that’s going on, so we’ve been trying to do what we can to partner with people to help make sure they have all the information they need,” he said.

Wisconsin officials, voting rights advocates address fears about election security was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.

Lunch is served at Franklin Square Playfield. Photo taken June 24, 2026, by Sophie Bolich.

Hunger Task Force representatives and community partners gathered at Franklin Square Playfield on Wednesday to launch the 2026 Milwaukee Summer Meals Collaborative, a countywide effort to ensure children have access to free meals while school is out of session.

The initiative, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provides breakfast, lunch and dinner at more than 130 sites across Milwaukee County, including schools, parks, apartment complexes, and community centers.

“One in four kids in Milwaukee lives in poverty, and for local families, eating healthy is harder than it has ever been,” said Matt King, CEO of Hunger Task Force.

King, who took over leadership of the nonprofit in 2024, praised last summer’s efforts, which distributed more than 500,000 meals. This year, partners expect to serve more than 450,000 meals across Milwaukee County.

“Food insecurity, especially for kids, peaks during the summer months,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson, adding that the collaboration “addresses a critical need” for the community. “It’s really, really important.”

“This program is more than just meals. It’s about dignity, stability and opportunity,” added state Rep. Kalan Haywood II. “We know children cannot focus on learning and cannot focus on their dreams when they’re worried about what the next meal will be or where it will come from.”

Sample menus adhere to USDA guidelines, offering proteins such as chicken and beef, alongside fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grain bread, and milk. Some meals also incorporate local ingredients, such as Sargento cheese.

The balanced meals not only align with federal nutrition standards but also reflect a longtime goal for the county.

“We have a vision to make Milwaukee County the healthiest county in the state — and really in the country,” said David Muhammad, deputy director for the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services, who attended the event on behalf of County Executive David Crowley. “We need to make sure our kids have access to fresh food every day.”

The kickoff event came with a side of community, as children played basketball and giant Connect Four before lining up for barbecue chicken, green beans, and cornbread during a break in the day’s intermittent rain.

The collaborative relies on more than a dozen partner organizations to cover a wide geographic area. The approach, which Hunger Task Force refers to as the Milwaukee Model, connects meal providers and community partners to ensure families don’t have to travel far for access to food.

“Chances are, there is at least one meal site near you,” said Reno Wright, public policy and advocacy director for Hunger Task Force.

Deon Canon, representing Congresswoman Gwen Moore, and Jacquelyn Judkins, director of Corporate PR and philanthropy at Kohl’s, were also in attendance.

“Everyone deserves reliable access to nutritious food, and we recognize that achieving this goal requires continued dedication and collaboration,” Judkins said. “We are fortunate to have organizations like Hunger Task Force in our community leading this important work and creating meaningful change for those who need it most.”

A full list of meal sites and operating hours is available online. Many locations are already serving meals, with additional sites expected to begin service in the coming weeks. The program will continue through late July and, at some locations, through August.

Photos

This is an aerial rendering of what the planned data center campus in Port Washington could look like. Source: City of Port Washington

Tech giant Oracle is suing the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin over financial requirements for data centers as work is underway on its $15 billion campus in Port Washington.

The tech giant’s subsidiary filed the lawsuit Friday in Ozaukee County Circuit Court. Milwaukee-based utility We Energies, Vantage Data Centers and Cloverleaf Infrastructure are separately asking the PSC to revisit financial requirements regulators approved in April to protect ratepayers.

Oracle is asking a judge to reverse the commission’s financial provisions and order the PSC to approve financial support requirements proposed by We Energies. Oracle’s subsidiary said it could spend more than $100 million each year under the decision by utility regulators.

“The Commission’s modifications to Wisconsin Electric’s proposed Financial Support Requirements will create harmful and unintended consequences that will force significant investment outside of Wisconsin. The cost of posting the required security will deter investment in the state from many firms, who will likely pursue opportunities in other jurisdictions,” the filing states.

A PSC spokesperson said the commission doesn’t comment on pending litigation, and each commissioner is reviewing the petition filed by We Energies and others.

Oracle said it would hold off on court proceedings if Wisconsin utility regulators revisit the decision.

The PSC approved the utility’s proposed “very large customer” rate in April, but it removed the ability of We Energies to waive financial support requirements and strengthened them. The PSC required an A- credit rating from Standard & Poor’s or A3 rating from Moody’s, which considers companies at low risk of default.

Oracle currently has a BBB credit rating, which is an investment-grade rating below the PSC requirement. Under the changes, Oracle’s subsidiary would be required to post a letter of credit or cash deposit at what it called a “substantial and unreasonable” cost.

Julia Robin, vice president of infrastructure capacity and sourcing for Oracle, said only a handful of companies worldwide could meet the requirements in an affidavit submitted in support of We Energies’ petition.

“The Commission’s decision imposes one of the most stringent—if not the most stringent—credit support requirements I have seen,” Robin said. “Even tariffs that regulators recently approved in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio do not impose inflexible mandates for customers to post cash deposits or letters of credit equivalent to the net book value of generation assets built to serve them.”

The Citizens Utility Board said in a filing to the commission that tightening the financial security requirement was a “reasonable approach” to protect customers, saying commissions in Ohio and Indiana have adopted an A- credit rating.

Tom Content, CUB’s executive director, highlighted fears of an AI bubble as companies invest trillions of dollars to develop data centers. He pointed to testimony filed by one of its experts that highlighted a Vanderbilt University paper that underscored Oracle’s high debt load and credit rating just above junk status.

“If a company is running short on cash, that’s going to be the one of the hardest times for them to do more borrowing, and so that’s why we wanted a sign of somewhat stronger financial strength than what was being proposed,” Content said.

CUB’s expert also noted that the failed energy and commodities firm Enron had an investment-grade rating four days before the company filed for bankruptcy protection.

Oracle has said the company is willing to post a letter of credit of $700 million or 10 percent of the PSC’s financial requirement. The company is partnering to build its massive multi-billion-dollar Lighthouse campus in Port Washington.

We Energies has previously said the commission’s changes would “add significant costs and remove flexibility” and its rate was designed so data centers pay the full cost of infrastructure to serve them.

Environmental group Clean Wisconsin recently urged regulators to reject the petition filed by We Energies and others to reopen its data center rate case. Amy Barrilleaux, the group’s communications director, said the PSC acted well within its authority to impose collateral and credit rating requirements on tech companies.

“This helps shield all those other customers from the risks associated with these enormous energy users,” Barrilleaux said. “We Energies says it’s going to double its electricity generation capacity in just the next five years as AI data centers come online. That is something unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”

Oracle argues the PSC did not have substantial evidence to support its decision and acted outside authority granted by the Legislature. The company said regulators misinterpreted the law and unlawfully exercised their discretion.

Oracle sues Wisconsin utility regulators over financial requirements for data centers was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Zenith Rendering. Rendering courtesy of New Land Enterprises.

Zenith, a proposed 25-story, 226-unit condominium tower, would add something Downtown has effectively gone without for almost two decades: newly constructed housing designed for owner-occupants.

It could also provide a substantial financial boost for the entire city.

The combined initial sales prices of the units are expected to total between $180 million and $190 million, said Tim Gokhman, managing director of developer New Land Enterprises, during an event unveiling the tower Monday evening.

“That makes it the single most important residential project in the state,” he said.

At the city’s current property tax rate of $22.42 per $1,000 of assessed value, a $190 million development could generate approximately $4.26 million in annual property tax revenue. The funding would be divided among the city, Milwaukee Public Schools, Milwaukee County, Milwaukee Area Technical College and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.

The city’s share would be approximately $1.45 million annually, while MPS would receive approximately $1.84 million.

Each government entity would need to vote to increase its levy to take full advantage of the potential revenue. Expanding the tax base without increasing the levy would reduce the tax burden for existing property owners.

“This development will further put Milwaukee on the map,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson. “I am truly excited about what the possibilities are, what this means for Downtown, what this means for Milwaukee, what this means for Wisconsin. This is truly, truly the zenith.”

New Land intends to develop the tower at 711 E. Kilbourn Ave., a vacant lot across the street from its record-setting Ascent apartment tower. The 25-story Ascent is the world’s tallest hybrid mass-timber building. Monday’s event was held in its top-floor amenity space.

Zenith would be Milwaukee’s first new condominium high-rise since the urban condo boom came to an abrupt halt during the Great Recession. While Downtown has gained thousands of rental units since then—including two apartment towers exceeding 30 stories that were completed in 2024—the supply of newly constructed housing for sale has remained effectively frozen.

New Land, one of the developers that led the city’s earlier condominium boom, believes the market is finally ready to shift.

“Over the last decade, New Land Enterprises has built over 1,200 apartments,” said Gokhman, describing the growth of the city’s urban housing market. “All of this development, all of this energy confirms that we are indeed a world-class city. But one question remained, asked over and over for the past few years: ‘When will we have a project so that people can own a piece of that energy in a building built for that purpose?’ Zenith is our answer.”

The company expects one-bedroom units to sell for between $458,000 and $655,000. Two-bedroom units would range from $772,000 to $1.2 million. Penthouses, ranging from 1,997 to 3,670 square feet, would be priced between $1.8 million and $3 million.

Gokhman, in an interview before the event, described Zenith as a “signature condo tower” that would provide luxury amenities and modern building systems while offering units at prices below those found in some of Milwaukee’s existing lakefront condo towers.

The amenity package would include an indoor-outdoor swimming pool atop the building’s parking podium, a sauna, an outdoor terrace with fire pits, a rooftop deck, a pet spa, a golf simulator and a two-story fitness center. Building staff would be on site around the clock.

Gokhman, on Monday evening, said the amenities would “truly make you question if you should hold onto that 4% mortgage.”

New Land hopes to presell half of the tower’s units before starting construction in 2027. Falk Ruvin Gallagher is leading sales, and Korb Architecture is designing the building. Stevens Construction was announced as the general contractor at the event.

Unlike Ascent, Zenith would use concrete construction. The building is being designed without exposed structural beams, a feature intended to provide cleaner ceilings and more attractive interiors.

“You have to be very intentional with your floor plan design,” Gokhman said previously of achieving the beamless design, which he said is increasingly sought by luxury buyers.

The project will require a zoning change, but area Alderman Robert Bauman has promised to champion it before the Common Council.

“I’m sure this will be a tremendous development and a huge tax-base increase in the city,” said Bauman. “And when dealing with New Land Enterprises, my personal objective is to get out of the way and to make sure their expertise, their architects, their designers can move forward as quickly, as judiciously as possible and the city makes the process as seamless as it can possibly be.”

He said they have made a tremendous impact on Downtown. “Certainly in modern times, no one has had a greater impact on the built environment,” said Bauman of New Land’s impact.

New Land co-founders Boris Gokhman and Walter Shuk have eyed the Kilbourn Avenue property for development for years. When the partners initially pursued the parcel, they learned that frequent financial backer Jim Weichmann was competing to acquire it. Rather than bidding against one another, the parties partnered to purchase the site.

They held the property through the Great Recession and the collapse of a previous proposal known as The Bookends. That plan, approved in 2008, called for a 19-story apartment building spanning the Zenith site and a neighboring parcel, 822 N. Van Buren St.

Bauman praised New Land for having the foresight to purchase the property outright rather than controlling it through a temporary purchase option.

Boris Gokhman said the partners received another unexpected opportunity only two months after buying the site when they learned that Eduardo’s restaurant across the street was closing. They acquired that property as well and ultimately redeveloped it with Ascent.

The vacant Zenith site has been considered for several interim uses in the years since The Bookends fell apart. New Land pursued a small food truck park in 2022, but the proposal did not advance. A zoning modification approved in 2025 allows Ascent residents to use a portion of the property for gardens.

New Land is now betting that rising housing prices and demand from buyers who want to live Downtown—but do not want to rent—will finally allow the long-vacant site to support a tower.

No city subsidy is proposed for the development.

Renderings

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2022 Site Photos

UPDATE: A description on the process of capturing the revenue has been added.

Western front of the U.S. Capitol.

Two years ago, a May 2024 Data Wonk article in Urban Milwaukee explored the question of bipartisanship among the members of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation. Using a website called the Lugar Index, the article found that two Republicans, Sen. Ron Johnson and Rep. Tom Tiffany, were the state’s least bipartisan members, while Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin and particularly the now-retired Rep. Mike Gallagher were the most bipartisan.

The Lugar Index is named for Richard Lugar, a former Republican senator from Indiana. Lugar was known for his ability to work with his Democratic colleagues, particularly in four focus areas: global food security, weapons of mass destruction nonproliferation, foreign aid effectiveness and bipartisan governance.

For each legislator, the Lugar Index is calculated from two pieces of data: the number of co-sponsorships collected for bills from members of the other party and the number of co-sponsorships made to bills authored by members of the other party.

The graph below updates the previous analysis using data from the 117th Congress, which covered the period between January 3, 2023, and January 3, 2025. The larger (or less negative) the score, the more bipartisan the member is judged to be. As before, Johnson and Tiffany were the least bipartisan and Gallagher and Baldwin scored highest, but Gallagher subsequently left Congress.

Surprisingly, based on his behavior in other contexts, Derrick Van Orden ranked next highest, which suggests a willingness to co-sponsor bills authored by Democrats and to recruit Democrats to co-sponsor his bills.

Lugar Scores for Wisconsin’s Congressional Delegation

Recently, a second website to rate the bipartisanship of members of Congress has been established on the internet. The site describes itself as a “report card for Congress (like Rotten Tomatoes for politicians).”

This site issues “Bridge Grades” for members of Congress, as in bridging the divide between Democrats and Republicans. It distinguishes between “Bridgers” and “Dividers” as follows:

Bridgers are collaborative, seek consensus, build coalitions, have a growth mindset, look for win-wins, negotiate, listen, make tradeoffs, are pragmatic, and seek solutions. They unite.

Dividers dig their heels in, are dogmatic, see the world as black and white (no shades of gray), and see the world through the lens of a “zero-sum game” – when I win, you lose. They divide.

Bridge Grades uses objective 3rd party data to score members of Congress on how collaboratively or divisively they govern.

The next graph shows the Bridge Grades for the Wisconsin Congressional delegation as of June 3, 2026. Report cards are updated monthly for every House member and every senator.

As with the Lugar scores, Bridge Grades makes heavy use of cross-party sponsorship of legislation. In addition, the Bridge Grades model credits several other factors in its ratings, including membership in the cross-partisan Problem Solvers Caucus, making fewer public personal attacks and more bipartisan public statements than their peers, and showing courage by engaging in bridging behaviors even when representing a hard-leaning voter district or when dealing with ideological positions far from the center. The higher the score, the more willing to work across party lines the legislator is judged to be.

In this ranking, Baldwin ranks highest, but Republican Rep. Tony Wied is close behind. Tiffany ranks as the worst, with Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan second worst and Johnson third worst.

Bridge Scores for Wisconsin Congressional Delegation

The next graph plots scores for the entire House (except for recent arrivals and party leaders). The horizontal axis plots the percentile of the grade compared to all grades.

Bridge Scores

There are both differences and similarities between Lugar Scores and Bridge Grades. Both incorporate sponsorship in their model. But the Bridge Grades use many factors.

Another source of difference is the time period used in the calculation. The Lugar model looks back to the most recent two-year legislative session, which is the 118th Congress running between Jan. 2, 2023, and Jan. 2, 2025. Bridge Grades updates its model monthly, putting it into the 119th Congress.

The horizontal axis in the graph below shows the Lugar House scores for the 118th Congress. The vertical axis shows the current Bridge Grades for the same member in the current 119th Congress.  While there is considerable scatter, on average a higher Lugar score is associated with a higher Bridge score.

A Comparison of Scores for House Bipartisanship

The Bridges Votes website allows one to generate a summary for individual members. A look at several individual Wisconsin congressional members shows the report cards below.

Ron Johnson’s bipartisanship score is shown below. The yellow bars show Johnson’s score on five measures. The white bar shows the average Senate score. The Bridge Grades model gives Johnson an F grade mainly because of his apparent lack of interest in cross-party legislative sponsorship. This is consistent with Johnson’s Lugar score, the lowest of Wisconsin’s delegation.

Sen. Ron Johnson’s bipartisanship score.

The next picture shows the Bridge report card for Rep. Van Orden. His grade of B is surprisingly high considering his well-publicized irascibility. Despite his attacks on Democrats, it appears that he is an active participant in cross-partisan bills.

Van Orden was one of only 17 Republicans — and the only member of the Wisconsin delegation — who broke with his party to vote for a bill to allow continuation of enhanced tax credits that would have made health insurance affordable to several million Americans. However, he then turned around and attacked Democrats for creating bad laws that necessitated the vote.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden’s bipartisanship score.

Tiffany’s report card is shown below. His grade of F is consistent with his indifference toward working across partisan divides.

Rep. Tom Tiffany’s bipartisanship score.

Following a successful campaign for office, it is common practice for the winner of an election to include a comment to the effect that he or she is concerned about the welfare of everyone, not just his or her voters. It is hard to envision Tiffany, under the influence of President Trump, making that assurance.

The next table summarizes the scores of the ten members of Wisconsin’s Congressional delegation. There are no grades of A, three grades of B, four of C, and three of F.

Clearly, identifying and supporting legislators willing to talk to people in the other party is no panacea. But if it moves candidates to put more emphasis on what is good for their potential constituents, that could be a gain.

American Patriot at Pier Wisconsin with skyline. Photo by Urban Milwaukee staff.

You can’t get more American than the American Patriot.

The new cruise ship docked in Milwaukee for the first time Wednesday. But unlike the competition, it hadn’t recently visited a Canadian port.

Built in Maryland, the American-made, flagged-and-crewed vessel can avoid the restrictions of the 1886 Passenger Vessel Services Act, a protectionist trade measure that prohibits cruise lines from transporting passengers between U.S. ports on foreign-flagged vessels.

The rest of the Great Lakes cruising industry operates with foreign vessels, necessitating itineraries that start or end in Canada or make a round trip. But American can offer a Buffalo-to-Milwaukee itinerary.

“Being United States-only, we’re able to have folks come up over here and experience the Great Lakes without needing a passport,” said Capt. Jerry Smith Jr.

The vessel is among the smallest that call on Milwaukee, with a capacity of up to 130 passengers and 40 crew members.

But the city is still happy to have the ship visit as part of its record-breaking cruise season, which is expected to include 64 vessel calls and more than 20,000 passengers.

“This is a sign that Milwaukee is continuing to be a growing and premier destination along the Great Lakes,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson, who greeted Smith at the ship at Pier Wisconsin and presented a plaque.

The ship is expected to call on Milwaukee eight times in 2026.

“American Cruise Lines is making a long-term commitment to the Great Lakes. We believe deeply in this region and our American Great Lakes itineraries will continue for years to come,” said Smith.

Each of the ship’s visits is a coveted turnaround call, where one itinerary ends and another begins. The changeover doubles the number of passengers through the port while also generating additional spending through hotel stays and flights. Port Milwaukee has sought to capitalize on the city’s geographic location within the Great Lakes to secure as many turnaround calls as possible.

The new cruise ship dock, scheduled to open in August at the south end of the port, is designed to efficiently provide the services the vessels need, including fuel and other supplies.

But it’s unlikely that the American Patriot will use the new terminal.

American Cruise Lines is affiliated with Pearl Seas Cruises, which already has a 10-year priority docking agreement at Pier Wisconsin at Discovery World for its foreign-flagged Pearl Mist vessel.

The American Cruise Lines business has long operated in the United States with Mississippi River cruises, but the U.S.-only Great Lakes cruise is a new offering. In addition to Milwaukee-to-Buffalo, the company is offering a Syracuse-to-Buffalo cruise.

The 14-day, 13-night Buffalo to Milwaukee cruise starts at $12,810. A nine-day, eight-night Lake Michigan round-trip from Milwaukee starts at $8,395. Airfare is included.

Additional ports on the Lake Michigan round trip include Sheboygan, Escanaba, Green Bay and Muskegon.

The Buffalo-Milwaukee itinerary includes Holland, Muskegon, Mackinac Island, Sault Ste. Marie, Alpena, Detroit and Toledo. Guests can choose from multiple itineraries in each port.

Joining Johnson in presenting the plaque was Ald. Peter Burgelis, the council’s former designee to the Harbor Commission.

Johnson, Burgelis and port officials were given a tour of the vessel after the press conference, but media were not allowed to attend.

The American Patriot is 243 feet long and 56 feet wide. The affiliated Pearl Mist that also commonly docks at Pier Wisconsin is 335 feet long and 56 feet wide. The two Viking Cruises vessels that require a larger dock in Milwaukee are 665 feet long and 77 feet wide.

Port Milwaukee is expecting six companies, with eight unique vessels, to call on the city in 2026. Those scheduled to call on the city include American, Pearl Seas and Viking as well as Hapag Lloyd, Ponant and Victory Cruise Lines.

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At the end of June, over 1,400 Milwaukee childcare centers, including PaPa Bear Daycare on the South Side, will lose critical funding that supported staff retention and daily operating costs. (Photo by Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)

It isn’t easy running a childcare center.

But for business owners like Daniel Balderas, who owns two centers, a monthly stabilization payment from the federal government called Child Care Counts was a major help to bring the children on field trips and take care of his employees.

“I’m giving teachers bonuses based on performance, or sometimes it’s random or I see teachers working hard,” Balderas said. “Gifts for teachers’ birthdays, I buy the teachers’ lunches often.”

When those funds dried up last year, the state stepped in to offer one more year of stabilization payments through a Child Care Bridge Payment Program.

Now, Balderas’ daycares are among almost 1,400 childcare centers in Milwaukee that will lose state funding at the end of June.

Without the support, about one in five Milwaukee County childcare providers predict they’ll have to close, 39% will have to raise tuition and another 44% will have longer waitlists, according to a 2025 study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty.

‘Don’t got the funding anymore’

Daniel Balderas picks up his daughter Mila, 2, inside of his PaPa Bear Daycare on Thursday, June 11. (Photo by Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)

Balderas’ biggest challenge has been finding and retaining staff.

Balderas, who is also certified as a lead teacher, said he’s lost some great teachers to schools or franchises that offer higher pay he can’t afford to match. As a result, he covers shifts and employees sometimes work between his two childcare centers when they are short staffed.

The number of children a childcare center can legally serve is limited by the number of staff working at that business, even if a facility has the physical space and materials to accommodate more, said Paula Drew, director of Early Care and Education Policy and Research at the Wisconsin Early Childcare Association.

Balderas has not struggled with retention alone. Research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2024 found that about 33,000 potential childcare spots across the state could be filled if staffing barriers were addressed.

Childcare stabilization funding made it easier for providers like Balderas to offer more competitive benefits to retain staff.

Daniel Balderas is one of many Milwaukee childcare providers who struggles with vacancies. Childcare stabilization payments helped him offer more competitive pay and benefits for staff. (Photo by Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)

But when the federal government cut Child Care Counts funding in half in 2023, Balderas said there were times that the business was merely breaking even as he continued supporting the staff with the reduced funds.

Ninety percent of providers who received Child Care Counts funding before payments were cut in 2023 said the funding cuts changed their ability to offer competitive compensation, and 81% said the payment cuts contributed to changes in their ability to hire new staff, according to the 2024 study.

Balderas said he can keep his business afloat once the state’s childcare stabilization payments end this month, but it will cut into his bottom line and he will have to absorb the losses.

“I can’t tell a teacher that deserves a raise that ‘well, we don’t got the funding anymore, I can’t give you the raise I promised,’” Balderas said.

Subsidy payments may not adjust for tuition increases

With 39% of Milwaukee County childcare providers reporting they will have to raise tuition after childcare stabilization payments end, one of the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association’s biggest concerns for Milwaukee is how the tuition increases will impact families on subsidy.

The Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program subsidizes a portion of monthly childcare costs for low-income families, at or above the price of 75% of childcare slots.

Ruth Schmidt, executive director at the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association, said childcare tuition in Milwaukee is already one of the highest in the state, and Wisconsin does not have the ongoing funding to support increased subsidy payments for growing tuition.

Schmidt said she’s concerned that the state subsidy payments will not keep up with rising tuition.

“It will be underfunded as it exists right now,” Schmidt said.

Almost all of Balderas’ families at his two childcare centers receive childcare subsidies.

A play area inside of Papa Bear Daycare on Thursday, June 11. Wisconsin Shares subsidies are serving more Milwaukee County children than ever before. As childcare tuition starts to rise, experts worry subsidy payments won’t be able to catch up. (Photo by Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)

The state is also paying more toward childcare subsidies than it ever has in the last 24 months. As of March 2026, the state paid $28.4 million in Wisconsin Shares childcare subsidy payments to Milwaukee County families, supporting almost 25,000 children in the county.

Wisconsin did invest in education for 4-year-olds in last year’s budget, Drew said. She anticipates that more providers will turn to serve these ages due to the expenses of providing care for infants and toddlers.

State lags behind with solutions

State Sen. LaTonya Johnson, who represents District 6 on Milwaukee’s North Side, can relate to the challenges of Milwaukee childcare providers.

Sen. LaTonya Johnson, pictured here with Rep. Supreme Moore Omokunde at Auer Avenue School’s 105th Anniversary celebration in 2017. Johnson is a former childcare center owner. (NNS file photo)

A former early childhood educator, Johnson transitioned her daycare, open 24 hours, seven days a week, to entirely serve families on subsidies.

“For my kids, that was one of the best things that ever happened to them,” Johnson said. “But for me, by the time I ran for the seat, my house was in foreclosure. I almost lost my house.”

Since the state bridge payments were temporary, Johnson and her colleagues introduced a bill last year to allocate $220 million in childcare stabilization payments for 2025-26 and 2026-27 using federal Child Care Development Funds and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grants.

The bill also would have provided additional subsidies for childcare providers to cover the costs to care that family subsidies don’t cover.

Johnson said those bills died because Republican colleagues did not give the bills public hearings before the legislative sessions ended.

A play area inside of Papa Bear Daycare on Thursday, June 11. After the bridge program ends, Wisconsin will not have any dedicated funds for childcare centers serving infants or toddlers. (Photo by Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)

The Wisconsin Early Childcare Association is watching states like New Mexico, Louisiana and Alaska that are finding new ways to fund childcare on a long-term scale, but the state is falling behind.

“Wisconsin is one of the very few states that does not put state revenue directly into childcare, or didn’t until last year” Schmidt said. “They now do through the 4-year-old program.”

Balderas said there isn’t much other funding for childcare owners like him who take care of toddlers and infants. He said there’s a food program, but “it’s super tedious,” requiring providers to serve certain food with specific portions.

“I try to apply for grants for improving our flooring, painting on the outside, stuff like that,” he said. “There’s really no help.”

Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.

Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

This article first appeared on Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

4320 S. 6th St. Photo and map by Milwaukee County.

Milwaukee County is soliciting proposals for a 5.4-acre strip of land it owns on the south side of the city of Milwaukee and is hoping for affordable townhomes.

The parcel sits at 4320 S. 6th St., near W. Layton Avenue and Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport. It is bounded on the north end by W. Bolivar Avenue and, beyond that, Interstate 43/94. Wilson Park Creek runs along the south end of the parcel, forming a southern border and separating it from nearby commercial properties.

The land was previously used by the Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad, commonly known as the North Shore Line, which ran between the two cities. The line was shut down in 1963.

The county recently put the property out to bid for acquisition and development. It is looking for housing proposals. Affordable housing is encouraged, as are townhomes or so-called “missing middle” housing developments that provide housing options other than single-family homes or large multiunit apartment buildings.

In 2024, the City of Milwaukee reformed its zoning code to allow more “missing middle” development. The plan, originally called Growing MKE, was pushed by Mayor Cavalier Johnson as an effort to encourage more affordable, medium-density housing development across the city.

The parcel on S. 6th Street is already zoned RT4, which is the city’s most common zoning designation. It allows the development of one-to-four-unit buildings.

The site is part of 6th Street’s “Green Corridor,” which runs for three miles between W. Howard Avenue and W. College Avenue. It was designated in 2011 by the city. The corridor contains green infrastructure and community gardens. The county is looking for future development to incorporate green infrastructure and environmentally sustainable design in line with the rest of the corridor.

A future developer will also need to consider the local environment, as the southern end of the parcel lies within the floodplain of Wilson Creek. The channel runs underneath S. 6th Street just north of its intersection with W. Armour Avenue.

The creek is currently lined with concrete. In the middle of the 20th century, streams in the area were turned into concrete channels to move stormwater out of the watershed and into Lake Michigan as fast as possible with the goal of reducing flooding.

But heavy rains, which are more common today, create flows that are too large and fast for the channels, leading to flooding at bottlenecks. They also create dangerously fast currents that have taken the lives of residents. The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) is engaged in a long-term effort to remove concrete channels and naturalize the streambeds wherever possible, allowing creeks and streams to naturally swell and spread out during rain events without flooding homes or developing dangerous currents.

MMSD is working on removing the concrete from Wilson Creek, and the section running past the site on S. 6th Street is targeted for eventual removal.

The county will accept and review proposals for the site on a rolling deadline every three months beginning in September.

Alex Brower and electrical infrastructure. Brower photo from campaign, electrical image in public domain.

It was a major step, but only a small start in the process.

The “Power to the People” campaign, which aims to replace We Energies with a city-owned electric utility, was granted its first public hearing at Milwaukee City Hall on Wednesday.

The three-hour meeting of the city’s otherwise dormant Public Transportation, Utilities and Waterways Review Board included testimony from the American Public Power Association, an attorney analyzing the campaign for Power to the People, a representative of one of the unions working with We Energies, and dozens of advocates.

Ald. Alex Brower, elected in spring 2025, made the creation of a public electric utility the top issue in his campaign. His vision is that by eliminating We Energies’ profit motive from the equation, electricity could be provided at a lower cost. But opponents have raised concerns about reliability issues with creating a new utility and the challenges of operating at a smaller scale.

“This is the start of what I believe will be a serious conversation about how we can transform this city,” said Brower. State law already allows the city to negotiate with We Energies to buy out the municipal distribution system within city boundaries or to start a state-regulated condemnation action to take ownership of the equipment, but many questions remain about the cost and feasibility of the idea. “This is the start of the conversation.”

“There is more interest now than there ever has been,” said Ursula Schryver, vice president of the American Public Power Association. She said examples of large-scale conversions are rare, but it is possible and consumers are increasingly demanding it because of concerns about rising costs, reliability and renewable energy. “There will be lawsuits. There will be PR campaigns. And you have to be prepared for that.”

Ald. Robert Bauman, the committee chair, said he believes the next step is to consider a dedicated task force with representatives of the council and various city departments. He said a request for proposals for a feasibility study could be issued. “And then the council would have to make the hard choice as to how to fund that feasibility study, which could be in the several hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said the alderman.

“Ninety percent of the concern is the political will,” said Brower, encouraging activists to continue to organize around the issue.

Brower called We Energies “one of the worst corporate actors” in Milwaukee, but said the company was welcome to appear at future events. A referendum, required by state law, would enable We Energies to spend to oppose the measure, and Brower said he expected the company to spend heavily. A similar situation played out in Maine in 2023.

Kat Grant, an attorney with Madison-based Pines Bach, detailed for the committee various legal technicalities, potential pitfalls and mitigation measures the city could take. The city, said Grant, would only be able to take ownership of We Energies equipment used solely for the benefit of city customers. An appraisal process overseen by the Public Service Commission and the state court system would determine the price and could take several years. The timing of the referendum would depend on whether the city and We Energies could reach a negotiated price or proceed to a contested appraisal process.

But the vice chair of IBEW Local 2150, which represents the frontline workers maintaining the distribution system, warned the committee that a takeover might not be as easy as described. Sam Rozenberg, a system operations dispatcher and vice chair of IBEW Local 2150’s Unit 5, said the city would face many challenges in setting up a maintenance and operations team once it owns the equipment. “It is not something Milwaukee should gamble on,” he said.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the union announced its opposition to any takeover.

Grant said the union’s concerns about losing collective bargaining protections under Act 10, which strips bargaining rights for most government employees, could be mitigated by creating a third-party entity to operate the system.

Brower said a public owner could also provide better benefits to its workforce. “We want every dispatcher to have a better job, we just want the CEO to not have a job,” he said.

Several Wisconsin communities already own and operate their own electric utilities, including Manitowoc, Cedarburg and Oconomowoc. The City of Milwaukee owns the Milwaukee Water Works, which sells water to Milwaukee and more than a dozen other communities. The water utility generates an annual profit for the city based on its book value.

Schryver said a feasibility study is needed to determine which equipment would be included and what the city’s associated costs would be, but she said it is the norm for a public utility not to own any power generation equipment and instead to purchase power from outside providers via the regional grid. Grant said the city would be able to finance the purchase with revenue bonds, backed by future customer payments, which would not affect the city’s other borrowing capacity.

Over the course of an hour, dozens of speakers, many of whom were self-described Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America members, asked the city to advance a We Energies takeover. Those speaking in the public comment period included state Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee), Democratic Socialist congressional candidate Amy Donahue and AFSCME Local 47 President Ian Gunther, a Milwaukee Water Works employee.

“We’re listening. We hear you,” said Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic. Ald. Scott Spiker also attended the hearing.

“This has been an informative public hearing,” said Bauman. “This is an enormously complicated process.”

UPDATE: Gunther’s role with 47 has been clarified. He was elected president in January.

Site of Dead Bird Brewing, 1726 Dr. William Finlayson Dr. Photo taken September 18th, 2019 by Jeramey Jannene.

Join us for an Urban Milwaukee members-only beer bash. Our next stop on the 2026 edition of the free event series (RSVP required) takes us to Dead Bird Brewing.

Come and enjoy a pint and chat with some of your favorite journalists and fellow Urban Milwaukee members.

Dead Bird Brewing was founded in 2015 in Madison, and in 2019 it found it its way to its new home in Milwaukee.

Owner Nick Kocis strives to minimizing the brewery’s carbon footprint with energy-efficient appliances, solar panels, recycling and composting.

Part of the drive for sustainability is why Dead Bird Brewing Company is Wisconsin’s only all-vegan brewery, because a vegan diet can reduce an individual’s food-related carbon footprint by up to 73%.

The brewery offers a variety of food options, including homemade pizzas, soft pretzels, famous nachos, and more.

And about that name? There’s a story there, which surely the staff at Dead Bird will tell during the tour.

Urban Milwaukee members are invited to a Dead Bird Brewing Beer Bash on Friday, June 26 starting at 5:30 p.m. An RSVP is required as space is limited.

Members can bring one guest, but must request an additional ticket when reserving their spot. The team at Dead Bird Brewing Company will lead Urban Milwaukee members through guided tasting tours – which will include free beer samples and conversation on the specific beers and some brewery history. This tour will last about thirty minutes, and questions and comments are welcomed.

The event is planned to reward Urban Milwaukee’s loyal members and create an easy-going way for our staff and writers and readers and supporters to get together to try multiple tasty beers in a classic city neighborhood. Here’s the rundown: arrive at 5:30 p.m., join the first tour at 6:15 p.m. or the second at 6:45 p.m., sample some beer and enjoy your favorite beers and convivial conversation for the rest of the night.

We’d love to have a locally-made craft beer with you. Oh, and if you’re looking to chat less, but enjoy the beer? That’s great, too. There are 50 plus arcade and board games in the taproom, so come for a beer and stay for a game or two. Dead Bird Brewing Company is located at 1726 Dr. William Finlayson Dr. in Milwaukee.

So, RSVP today.

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This event is only one of the great perks you get by becoming an Urban Milwaukee member. Here are just a few others:

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We’d love to have you join us. Simply sign-up to become a member for just $9/month or $99 per year and you will immediately be able to reserve your Beer Bash tickets.

Data center. (CC0)

Xcel Energy has filed a rate proposal with Wisconsin utility regulators that would require data centers to pay all costs tied to their projects.

The utility filed an application Monday with the Public Service Commission. The proposal requires data centers or other large customers to pay all costs tied to new transmission lines or power plants needed to meet their energy demand.

“We recognize the growing energy needs of large customers, including data centers, and the important role they play in driving economic growth and innovation in Wisconsin. At the same time, it’s critical that growth is managed in a way that does not raise the rates of customers and supports the communities we serve,” Karl Hoesly, Xcel Energy’s president in Wisconsin and Michigan, said in a statement.

Xcel’s proposed rates are not tied to any specific customers or projects. However, the company has 2.9 gigawatts of pending requests from large customers in Wisconsin, said Tyrel Zich, regional vice president of regulatory policy for Xcel Energy.

For context, the Hoover Dam generates about 2 gigawatts of power or enough to power a city of 750,000 people.

“As we know, some of those requests are going to be speculative. They’re not all going to materialize,” Zich said.

Last year, the mayor of Menomonie put a hold on a $1.6 billion data center proposal by developer Balloonist, LLC in Xcel’s service territory, which includes western and northern Wisconsin. The city council there later passed an ordinance restricting data center development.

The utility’s proposed rates would apply to significant load additions of 100 megawatts or more for future projects that do move forward. New large electric customers would be subject to binding 15-year terms and minimum monthly payments regardless of how much power they use.

Tom Content, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, said the ratepayer advocacy group will review the proposal to ensure customers are protected.

“The PSC has set a pretty firm stance … with the message to the utilities and to tech companies that the customers of the utilities who aren’t data centers should not be paying a dime or a nickel or a cent for data centers,” Content said. “We’re going to review this with that lens in mind.”

Cassie Steiner with the Sierra Club Wisconsin chapter said it would also review the proposal to ensure there are “appropriate guardrails” for customers, communities and the climate.

Robb Kahl, executive director of Madison-based Construction Business Group, said in a statement that large projects like data centers provide value to Wisconsin communities.

“Done right, this means more jobs, more economic activity and a stronger tax base,” Kahl said. “Xcel Energy’s proposal helps make sure these projects are done right.”

Under Xcel’s proposal, data center developers would face financial security provisions to ensure there’s enough money available in case they’re unable to pay their bills or want to leave the utility system’s early, in which case they would also face exit fees.

Zich said customers who don’t have a good credit rating would be required to post letters of credit or cash to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Creditworthy customers or a parent company could pledge to assume financial responsibility if a subsidiary defaults.

Last month, the Public Service Commission changed Alliant Energy’s proposed rates for Meta. Regulators required the company to cover any costs if its subsidiary Degas, LLC couldn’t foot the bill for costs tied to a $1 billion data center campus in Beaver Dam.

In April, the PSC also changed financial support requirements under We Energies’ proposed rates for large customers, which data center developers and the utility have asked regulators to revisit. They want to lower the amount of money Oracle and others would need to put up as collateral for new projects.

Wisconsin utilities and tech companies have faced scrutiny from the public and regulators over use of nondisclosure agreements or keeping details of data center proposals hidden, including projected energy and water use.

Xcel’s application notes details of individual customer requests are confidential. Zich said the utility doesn’t disclose details about who is developing proposals or where they would be located until a customer wants to release that information to the public.

When asked whether the utility has signed nondisclosure agreements, utility officials say they treat all customers with the same level of confidentiality whether it’s a home or business.

“We effectively have a policy of nondisclosure for all customers,” Zich said.

Xcel hopes the commission will sign off on its proposed rates for large customers by February of next year.

Xcel Energy files rate proposal for data centers to pay full costs of projects was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

From left to right: Kirsten Rhude, Callie Grones and Deanna Erickson at the offices of the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve in Superior. Callie Grones is being honored as an AmeriCorps Member of the Year during the Governor’s Service Awards. Her position was temporarily terminated when the Trump administration canceled grant funding for AmeriCorps in 2025. Danielle Kaeding/WPR

Working for AmeriCorps at the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve in Superior has been transformative for Callie Grones.

Since 2024, the 23-year-old Kimberly native has been splitting her time between the Reserve and the Friends of the Lake Superior Reserve as a community outreach coordinator for the nonprofit group. For her, it’s been a great opportunity to connect with the land and people after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

“I’ve gotten twice as much out of it from my own personal growth, not only as a professional, but as someone who really cares about the environment,” Grones said.

And it shows.

Grones has coordinated more than 100 volunteers to remove invasive species and conduct beach cleanups that collected nearly 600 pounds of trash. She also coordinated meetings as part of an effort to return fire, or “ishkode” in Ojibwe, to Wisconsin Point, a sand spit on the shore of Lake Superior. The Indigenous practice of managing forests through fire hadn’t regularly occurred there since local tribes signed the 1854 Treaty with the U.S. government.

But Grones’ work was abruptly halted in April last year when the Trump administration dismantled AmeriCorps and fired her as part of cost-cutting efforts through the Department of Government Efficiency initiative. Wisconsin was among two dozen states that sued the administration over the move and its cancellation of $400 million in grant funding to state and community projects.

“I had developed this connection with this place. The idea of not being able to come back to my work and these people, I felt nervous and sad if that was going to be the case,” Grones said.

AmeriCorps member Callie Grones helps out with the first prescribed burn on Wisconsin Point in more than a century. Photo courtesy of Deanna Erickson/Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve

Despite her unceremonious termination, Grones is now one of three being recognized as an AmeriCorps Member of the Year during the Governor’s Service Awards in Madison on Wednesday.

Kyle Clower, executive director of Serve Wisconsin, said the awards honor outstanding national service members addressing needs in their communities.

“Callie’s service was just outstanding for the large impact that she’s had in numerous ways through her work … and then her resiliency when the grant terminations happened, continuing to serve and make a difference,” said Clower.

Will Mowchan, a board member with the Friends group, recalled Grones reacting with resolve when she received an email telling her to return equipment and leave her host site.

“It stunned her, of course,” Mowchan said. “Then she had this powerful reaction from deep inside. She just said, ‘I am home. I’m not going anywhere.’”

Mowchan said board members and Reserve staff raised or found funds to pay her salary until a federal judge reversed the dismantling of AmeriCorps and termination of grants last June. AmeriCorps and the Office of Management and Budget did not return requests for comment. The Trump administration’s disruption of AmeriCorps programs and volunteers has had lingering effects in Wisconsin. Last year, Serve Wisconsin administered around $14 million in federal AmeriCorps funding that was authorized for 868 positions across 25 programs, said Clower.

“We had a couple of our programs that were longstanding programs not come back because of the disruptions,” Clower said. “The lack of stability and federal funds made it so that they weren’t sure that they could operate an AmeriCorps program during the year.”

Now, he said Serve Wisconsin funds 20 programs that are authorized for 697 positions, and around 650 members are currently serving. Clower said the drop in positions is due to federal funding decisions, as well as the loss of programs. He said College Possible Wisconsin and the state’s Farm to School program were among those that did not continue as AmeriCorps programs for a mix of reasons, including uncertain funding.

For fiscal year 2027, President Donald Trump has proposed eliminating AmeriCorps and cutting more than 90 percent of its budget with the intent to wind down programs. The agency’s budget request has a stated goal of “returning responsibility to fund national service and volunteerism to the private and nonprofit sectors.”

A U.S. House appropriations subcommittee has proposed $1.22 billion for the agency, a 2.6 percent cut from its fiscal 2026 budget.

As lawmakers deliberate over the agency’s funding, Grones will wrap up her service by the end of August.

Deanna Erickson, director of the Lake Superior Reserve, said AmeriCorps members like Grones have provided incredible value to the community.

“There are many other small communities that likewise benefit from service members who do a lot of work to help care for people, or in our case, care for land and water as well,” Erickson said. “That, I think, is something that the people of Wisconsin collectively value.”

As for Grones, she was excited to learn that she’s been named an AmeriCorps Member of the Year, and she hopes to continue working on environmental stewardship in the region.

“I feel like I’m making a difference every day,” Grones said. “That’s something that really fulfills me.”

Axed by the Trump administration, Wisconsin native named AmeriCorps Member of the Year was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Chettinadu House, 2258 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. Photo taken June 23, 2026, by Sophie Bolich.

Chettinadu House, once a promising new arrival to Bay View‘s growing restaurant scene, has closed after five months in business.

The Indo-Chinese restaurant encountered financial challenges early in its tenure at 2258 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. and is now facing an eviction lawsuit from Baylawn Properties LLC, according to online court records.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the restaurant remained closed during regular operating hours. Owner Ameen Khan could not be reached for comment by publication time.

Chettinadu House opened in January, replacing Caribbean restaurant Sabor Tropical in a prominent commercial space along the neighborhood’s main commercial strip.

Khan redecorated the dining room in a reflection of his own South Indian background and created a menu to match, offering curries such as tikka masala, vindaloo and dal tadka; tandoori-grilled meats and seafood; soups; and crispy dosa paired with a variety of flavorful dipping sauces. The fusion restaurant also served Indo-Chinese dishes, including fried rice, noodles and gobi Manchurian.

A seasoned restaurateur, Khan previously operated similar businesses in Middleton and Waunakee. Both have since closed. The Bay View restaurant aimed to introduce his signature cuisine to a local audience, he told Urban Milwaukee before it opened.

Signage from Sabor tropical remains posted at the premises, advertising a “Latin Kitchen & Rum Bar,” even as flyers for Chettinadu House — which is halal and does not serve alcohol — fill the front windows. City records indicate that Khan applied for a signage permit in December, but issuance is stalled pending fees.

In addition to the Milwaukee lawsuit, court records show eviction filings involving Khan’s other restaurant locations at 1920 Parmenter St. in Middleton and 300 N. Century Ave. in Waunakee.

The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development has also filed multiple warrants against Khan for delinquent state taxes. Records show filings dating back to 2018, one of which has since been satisfied. More than $3,700 remains outstanding.

The Bay View eviction case remains pending in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, with an upcoming hearing scheduled for Aug. 3.

Missy Hughes. (Hughes campaign photo)

Yesterday’s announcement that Missy Hughes is withdrawing from the Democratic primary for governor might have seemed like a minor development; after all, she had the support of just 1% of respondents in the most recent Marquette poll measuring this.

But in a race that has seemed static for months, this was actually a pretty big deal that points to several ongoing developments: (1) moderate Democrats like Hughes may be having trouble getting traction at a time when President Donald Trump’s policies are enraging Democrats; (2) Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, whom Hughes immediately endorsed and who won the straw poll at the state Democratic convention, is on the rise; (3) state Sen. Kelda Roys’ announcement of a $500,000 ad buy could up the stakes in the campaign and may have helped Hughes decide to quit; (4) three Democrats are well ahead of the others; and (5) we may see another candidate or two drop out.

Hughes served for six years as CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation under Gov. Tony Evers and before that as an executive with Organic Valley. It’s an impressive résumé, but as former legislator and UW-Milwaukee political science professor Mordecai Lee told Urban Milwaukee, her lack of experience with elected office was a flaw. “Holding lower office is like the farm league for statewide elected office: honing person-to-person campaigning skills, experience with the media, developing a core of volunteers, developing a core of donors. These are the building blocks for being a successful politician and moving up the ladder.”

She also stood out as perhaps the most moderate of the Democratic candidates, and the only one who backed the deal Evers made with Republican legislative leaders to give a tax refund to all Wisconsin taxpayers along with more money for K-12 schools. And this may be the wrong time to be a moderate.

The Democratic Party has changed considerably from the one that elected moderate liberal Evers in 2018, as Marquette Law School pollster Charles Franklin explained to Urban Milwaukee. The polls over time have shown that “very liberal” folks now “make up just about a quarter of Democrats (24%), up from about 15% in 2016 and from 11% in 2012. In that time ‘somewhat liberal’ Democrats have climbed from 35% to 41% from 2016 to 2026. That leaves moderates falling from 33% to 28%, and the conservative wing that was 15% in 2016 is now 6%.”

The party is still more moderate than Wisconsin’s Republicans, he noted. “Fifty percent of Republicans now say they are somewhat conservative and 29% are very conservative. The Republicans lean further to the right by this measure than Democrats lean to the left.”

Franklin sees former Evers cabinet member Joel Brennan and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley as the two moderate candidates left in the race, with Roys, Rep. Francesca Hong and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes as the progressive liberals in the race and Rodriguez poised between the two groups. This is arguably more about the tone of their campaigns, as there aren’t big differences on policy.

But the shift to the left of the state’s Democratic Party might help explain why Brennan and Crowley aren’t getting much traction and why Democratic Socialist Hong jumped quickly to first place in the MU poll.

It might also help explain a recent internal poll released by the Rodriguez campaign and reported by Dan Shafer, which showed 26% of respondents favoring Barnes, 22% favoring Hong and Rodriguez at 15%. Everyone else was far back, with Crowley doing best with 5%.

The precise wording of this poll was not revealed. “It has everyone a little higher than other polls I have seen, but the spread and positioning looks right,” a veteran Democratic consultant told Urban Milwaukee. It strongly suggests Democrats aren’t looking for a centrist liberal or another Tony Evers. Even moderate Democrats are probably angry about Trump.

“Voters are looking to be inspired and for a fighter, not just who can best do the job,” says the consultant. And Hughes’ central pitch was about her experience and competence.

All of which had to be on her mind in weighing whether to quit. “I’m guessing the moment of truth for Hughes happened over the weekend when Roys announced a half-million-dollar media buy,” Lee said. “That forced Hughes — and perhaps a few others — to decide if they were viable. After all, money is the mother’s milk of politics.”

Hughes has endorsed Rodriguez, which won’t have a huge impact given Hughes’ tiny support in the polls. But it could widen the Lt. Governor’s appeal, Lee suggested: that a moderate like Hughes endorsed Rodriguez could give the latter more appeal with “middle-of-the-road liberals.”

Rodriguez also won the state Democratic convention’s straw poll, with 27.5% backing Rodriguez as the Democratic nominee for governor and Hong a close second at 23.1%. These are Democratic insiders and activists, not the average primary voter, but it still gives Rodriguez a bump.

The Roys ad is pretty good, and could have some impact if she spends the entire $500,000 as promised. But “so far, none of the ad buys have shown up,” says the consultant.

Meanwhile, Brennan has released a new ad. Like the first, it’s witty and fun. But Brennan only spent about $110,000 on the first ad buy and may do the same on this one. His first was released in the Milwaukee, Green Bay and La Crosse markets, meaning Brennan is conserving money and conceding Madison, the state’s second-biggest area for Democrats, to the liberal candidates.

With just seven weeks before the primary election, the top three candidates in that internal poll are still in the running, with the rest looking for some way to crack the top tier. “The world of politics is cruel, inexorable, and merciless,” Lee notes. “The same dynamic that led to Hughes dropping out may well lead one or two more candidates to face reality.”

WISDOM hosts a forum with seven gubernatorial candidates. Francesca Hong speaks to the crowd as Kelda Roys, Joel Brennan and David Crowley look on. (Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Seven candidates vying to become governor addressed a large audience in Pewaukee Monday night at a forum organized by WISDOM, a non-partisan organization dedicated to social justice and prison reform. Moderated by James Causey and Mary Spicuzza of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the question and answer session covered policing and incarceration, healthcare, immigration and other issues.

Republican frontrunner U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany did not attend. Andy Manske, a 26-year-old medical service technician who is running a longshot Republican campaign for governor joined Democrats Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison), Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), former Department of Administration chief Joel Brennan, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes.

Below are each candidate’s answers to a handful of key questions from the moderators.

How would you reduce incarceration while improving public safety?

Manske answered the question by drawing on his personal relationships with people who struggled with addiction and incarceration. He said he believes that people need not only a path out of prison, but support so they can become healthy and productive citizens. This is especially true for people leaving jail or prison and people living on the street without housing, he said. He added that he supports building a location in Madison where the best professionals could gather “and those who want help can get that help.”

Joel Brennan (left), David Crowley (center) and Mandela Barnes (right). (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Roys said she favors following evidence-based practices and expanding treatment and diversions. “This is not rocket science,” she said, adding that it’s possible to reduce the number of people Wisconsin incarcerates while also saving money and human lives. Addiction and mental health should be treated as medical issues, not with incarceration, Roys said. She connected these medical struggles to her proposal to open up the state employee health insurance plan to all Wisconsinites to get the same health insurance that she enjoys as a state employee. Roys also endorsed ending crimeless revocation, which has increased Wisconsin’s prison and jail population by reincarcerating nonviolent offenders for minor violations of their conditions of release and implementing restorative justice practices.

“Everybody in our state deserves to live a life of dignity, including people who are incarcerated right now,” said Hong. She said that the overcrowded conditions in prisons across the state — especially for incarcerated women — are “abhorrent.” Hong said that some communities are creating local programs the state should support and fund, including efforts to provide affordable housing, community centers and mental health resources. “For too long our local governments have been starved of resources due to Robin Vos and the Republicans freezing and not funding our local governments,” said Hong. Many of the problems communities face could be best addressed through increased state support for local organizations that are already doing the work on the ground, she said.

Brennan said that about one-third of all state employees work for the Department of Corrections, making it the largest state agency. “We have about three times as many people incarcerated in Wisconsin as they do in the state of Minnesota,” Brennan said, adding that Wisconsin’s neighboring state spends $100 per capita less than Wisconsin on incarceration. He suggested that the state could make a profound positive impact by investing $600 million “on the front-end,” dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline by increasing prevention and education and providing opportunities for job training and re-integration for people leaving prison.

During one round of questions, participants were given “yes” and “no” paddles to hold up in answer to questions. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Crowley said one of his first jobs after high school was working at Project: Return with formerly incarcerated people, helping them find housing. Under his leadership, Milwaukee County has taken on responsibility for running the Community Reintegration Center, formerly called the House of Corrections. He said that government’s focus needs to be directed at “how we invest upstream” to address the root causes of crime. Supporting mental health care, continuing the commutation process started by Evers, decriminalizing cannabis, creating a pathway for expungements and expanding drug courts are among the measures he said he supports.

Barnes highlighted lack of opportunity as a contributor to Wisconsin’s high incarceration rate. He said he has known people who’ve made bad decisions because they felt the consequences of their actions were no worse than their living conditions. “That’s something we need to reckon with,” said Barnes. “Right now, we’re doing things totally wrong. We’re spending so much money and the cost is not just in dollars and cents, the cost is in lives.” During his time as a state lawmaker, Barnes visited many prisons around the state and was the ranking Democrat on the Legislature’s Corrections Committee. He recalled talking to a boy who’d spent time in Lincoln Hills who said that when he was released, “that he knew for a fact that he was going back in because he did not know what else to do.” Barnes said that people need to be rehabilitated and provided opportunity, not just warehoused.

Rodriguez connected Wisconsin’s incarceration rate to its “shameful” record of failing to invest in public health. “And so what ends up happening is that people do not get the services that they need,” she said. When she chaired the governor’s healthcare workforce task force, she said, she learned that Wisconsin could double the number of therapists it provides “and it would still not be enough.” She stressed the disproportionate rates of incarceration of of Black and brown Wisconsinites despite similar rates of drug use and addiction. Like Brennan, Rodriguez pointed to Minnesota’s record reducing incarceration without triggering an increase in crime. Rodriguez said that Wisconsin could look at how other states have tackled the issue. “I am not about re-inventing the wheel,” she said, adding that Wisconsin needs to adopt the best practices from other states.

How would you use the pardon and clemency powers as governor?

Roys stressed that community safety is “the most important aspect” of decisions about releasing people from prison. Gov. Tony Evers should have used his power to reduce prison sentences and pardon Wisconsinites “much more” aggressively. She also said that the governor has significant power to shape how the Department of Corrections operates, and to help provide meaningful pathways to reintegration of incarcerated people. Yet the state continues to incarcerate people who have served such long sentences they have grown old and have aged out of crime. “I actually think that we have a constitutional problem here in Wisconsin,” said Roys. “How long you go away depends on when you committed the crime and when you were sentenced.” The power to pardon should be used “because justice is not always served,” she added.

Hong also said that the governor should wield executive power more assertively . The conditions of Wisconsin’s prisons could be considered “a state of emergency,” Hong said. “There are executive orders that should have been placed during the Evers administration that I was disappointed not to see happen,” she said. She felt Evers could have been more responsive to families, formerly incarcerated people, and advocates who are “organizing and demanding justice,” adding that those folks deserve a place at the table when discussing pardons and clemency powers. “It should be the folks who are closest to the problem who are closest to the power,” she said. By listening to these voices, she suggested, Wisconsin can move away from being among the states with the highest Black incarceration rates and where women’s prisons are desperately overcrowded. “This is about dignity,” she said.

Andy Manske (left), Kelda Roys (center), and Francesca Hong (right). (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Brennan said that Evers’ was dedicated to using his pardon powers to right wrongs. “The pardon process was one where he was emotionally invested in the stories,” Brennan said. He promised to continue that commitment. He expressed optimism that the end of Republican gerrymandering will help create a state where justice and vengeance are not blended together. “We have had a generation in Wisconsin that in some ways we have lost because of that confusion,” he said, adding that pardon and clemency powers need to be used judiciously and that the governor cannot rely solely on those powers to achieve criminal justice reform.

Crowley promoted the idea that anyone and everyone should be able to apply to get their record expunged once they’ve served their time. Pardons need to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, especially since everyone’s situation is different, he said. He highlighted that his former deputy chief of staff was a four-time felon. “Yes, I hired a four-time felon,“ he said, adding that one of the charges was for child abuse. But what that charge obscures, he said, is that his employee was convicted of child abuse after getting into a fight as an 18-year-old with someone who was 17. “And even though the victim said ‘this is not what we want to do to his life,’ the judge still threw the book at him.” This is why every case needs to be reviewed carefully, and that assumptions should be avoided, Crowley said.

Barnes said that politically polarized positions on pardons and clemency have contributed to problems in Wisconsin. He reiterated that people who find themselves on the wrong side of the law have been blocked from opportunity, which led them to prison in the first place. Non-violent offenders and people suffering from mental illness or addiction and other unique situations are all treated the same under the current system, which needs to change, he said.

Rodriguez said that she would continue the pardon, commutations and clemency process Evers began. Each case should be viewed individually, she said, but public safety has to be the first consideration, followed by justice, fairness in sentencing, and finally a demonstrated commitment to integrate back into the community. Rodriguez and Crowley both said that cannabis needs to be legalized and that convictions based on outdated laws, including cannabis convictions, need to be expunged.

Manske agreed that cannabis should be legalized “with rules and guidelines,” and cannabis convictions should be expunged. He added that the justice system should treat the powerful no differently than those who are not wealthy or well connected.

How would you make immigrant communities feel safe and reduce labor shortages?

Hong said that no one should have to live in fear in their own communities and described the pain of immigrant workers who are afraid of being arrested by federal agents if they show up for their jobs. Ensuring that people know their rights is important, she said, so they can fight back against wage theft and workplace maltreatment, while also navigating life under the threat of deportation.

Brennan said he recently toured a Manitowoc foundry where the CEO spoke to employees in Spanish and discussed a recent chilling of the labor market. “For the first time in many months, he found no Spanish speakers at all,” said Brennan. The federal immigration crackdown has harmed the dairy industry and agriculture generally as well as manufacturing and the service industries in Wisconsin, he said. Brennan described it as a joint responsibility to ensure Wisconsin is the state “we thought we were.” He said that means making sure that state resources are not being used for immigration enforcement, ending agreements between local law enforcement and immigration enforcement, and creating a welcoming state where people are treated with respect and can contribute their cultures.

A large crowd turned out to listen to the candidates and speak with them one on one before and after the forum. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Crowley said he has been dealing with the federal immigration crackdown directly in Milwaukee, adding that his county has the state’s largest Latino and Muslim populations statewide. Both the state and local governments and the community itself need to step up to protect neighbors, he said. Milwaukee County has created an online resource hub for immigrants and concerned residents. Crowley stated his position that local law enforcement should not become a tool of a federal immigration agenda.

Barnes said that Wisconsin grew because people, including immigrants, chose to move here. Being able to access the middle class has become more difficult over time, causing people to point fingers at each other and to blame immigrants, he said. He called scapegoating immigrants unfair, describing immigrant workers as essential to the state’s economy. Fundamentally, Barnes said, there is a broken immigration system that needs to be fixed at the federal level.

Rodriguez recalled when her young child first asked her if Donald Trump won, and whether the president would send his father — a naturalized citizen — back to Mexico. “And it broke my heart that that man’s words had gotten into my child’s head,” she said. She added that her husband now walks around with his passport card after Trump was elected for a second time. “We have to make sure that immigrants feel safe in Wisconsin,” she said.

Manske said he doesn’t like seeing immigration enforcement going into communities and hurting people. He said two classes of “oligarchic Republicans and corporate Democrats” look at immigrants almost as a “slave caste.” Manske said that it’s heartbreaking that immigrants are facing threats and repression. He added that he wants to see a working legal immigration system, but that communities shouldn’t be lied to and told “they’re safe when they’re not safe.”

Francesca Hong (left), Joel Brennan (center), and David Crowley (right). (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Roys said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) needs to be abolished, a position she has articulated over the last decade. “I foresaw how it could be used as a paramilitary force,” said Roys. America can have secure borders, a functional immigration system and public safety “without dehumanizing people,” she added. “What is happening now is an abomination,” she said. She highlighted her record of supporting legislation to limit or prohibit state and local cooperation with ICE, and to allow ICE agents to be sued and prosecuted for breaking laws. Roys also added that she supports raising the minimum wage, providing universal childcare, and providing driver’s license for immigrants as ways to support workers.

All of the candidates were asked specifically whether they support 287(g) agreements between local law enforcement and ICE. They all said they would not support the agreements except for Manske, who is skeptical that state law can trump federal law in this circumstance.

What would you do to significantly reduce childhood lead poisoning?

Crowley said he believes the discussion of lead poisoning plays into the political divide in Wisconsin. “We don’t just talk about clean drinking water,” he said. “We pit lead laterals against PFAS contamination in rural communities … when what we need to be focusing on is “how do we just talk about getting people access to clean water?” He said he wants to empower the Department of Natural Resources to hold polluters accountable, and work to overcome the daunting barriers to replacing lead laterals across the state, a task challenged by a lack of plumbers and tradespeople trained to do the replacements.

Barnes said that, although federal funds to address lead are drying up, the state still has a responsibility and an opportunity to step in. He described going into communities and talking to people who got good, union-paying jobs to replace lead laterals, and how the loss of those jobs is another serious problem. Barnes said that besides lead pipes, the state also needs to hold landlords accountable for having lead paint on their properties.

Rodriguez also pointed to cuts and changes at the federal level, which have frustrated efforts to replace lead laterals. She feels instead of relying on the federal government, neighboring states should collaborate to tackle the lead crisis.

(Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

As a Republican, Manske said, he doesn’t mind the idea of spending money on issues like this. He doesn’t want Wisconsin communities to deal with a water crisis like Flint Michigan, which seems to never end. Manske said he doesn’t like hearing about people being sick and not being able to pay for the bill. “At the end of the day, whatever it takes,” he said, stressing that investing in people is important.

Roys said that corporate money in politics is the reason clean water isn’t coming out of every tap in the state. She recounted working to hold corporate polluters accountable for curbing disparities in infant mortality rates, which have environmental components. On the Joint Finance Committee, she fought for funding to clean up water contaminates. “We need to restore environmental law and order in the state,” she said, adding that science needs to be put back “in the driver seats at the DNR.”

“Delete existing tax exemptions for data centers and the additional subsidies,” said Hong, keeping her remarks brief and pointed. The $2.1 million the state could recoup from data centers, could be put back into infrastructure to address issues like the lead crisis, she said.

Brennan said the state could use a clean water loan fund at the local level, and could view the cleanup effort as an opportunity to create good paying jobs. Brennan recalled visiting a woman who lived in a rural PFAS-contaminated community and asking her what she wanted out of state government. Her community had been dependent on bottled water for the last five years. She turned on her tap and told him “I want to be able to use this to cook, to brush my teeth.” Brennan said, “it’s our responsibility to do better.”

What is something you disagree with your party or its leadership on?

Barnes said that “we have to tax the wealthiest in our society” and restore opportunity. The reason people can’t access the middle class is because so much wealth has been concentrated in the hands of just a few people, he said. Allowing money to influence politics has allowed the wealthiest people to control who is elected, “not the voters, not the people.” Barnes said that Democrats need to “reject this level of corporate influence,” hold the wealthiest accountable, and stop profiting from systems that oppress people.

Rodriguez said that people are forced to choose unnecessarily between moderate and progressive Democrats. In reality, there is a lot of agreement across the board, she said. She added that there’s an illusion of difference among Democrats who share the same principles but differ on the right methods to achieve the same ends.

Mandela Barnes (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Manske said that other Republicans see him as an “enigma.” He believes the government should spend money to help people, he supports a high-speed train from Milwaukee to Green Bay, “if the money would allow it.” He also supports legalizing cannabis, and is pro-choice even though he is religious. Manske feels that people are unable to afford the families they may want. “The conditions need to change. People choose life if they have hope,” he said.

Roys said Wisconsinites value independent thinkers, which is why she’s well suited to take on Tom Tiffany, whom she called a “rubber stamp” for Trump. She’s gone against her party even when it hurt her, she said. “I was one of the first candidates in the country to say that I’m not going to fund my campaigns with corporate money, back in 2011,” said Roys. “You can’t tell me how many rooms I was laughed out of.” She said she believes in public financing, and pushed for fair maps when other Democrats wanted to draw maps that favored themselves. Roys also said she supported bills to put more nurses in rural communities, despite multiple vetoes from Evers. She has also pushed for ending mass incarceration, despite other Democrats not being as enthusiastic, she said.

Hong said she disagrees with some of the political strategies favored by the Democratic Party. Working class people, especially in rural communities, feel left behind, she said, and the party has a problem with “elitism.” Independents and moderate Republicans should not be seen by Democrats as more important voters than working class people, she said. She pointed to farmers who’ve been crushed by tariffs and big agriculture. Young voters also need to be valued, and issues like childcare and mass incarceration need to be taken seriously, she said. “I think I disagree with who we have been prioritizing, and I think we have an opportunity to course-correct,” she said.

Brennan said he disagreed with Evers on the provision of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill that offered a $1,700 tax credit for contributions to school choice programs. Evers said he wouldn’t let Wisconsin opt into the tax credit, but Brennan said taking the money was better than sending it elsewhere. The money, he said, could send a kid to camp at Discovery World — which Brennan led — or could support kids who need opportunities. Brennan added that he believes that every dollar that can be used to support kids in Wisconsin should be used.

Crowley said that the Democrats are playing “the part of reaction.” All the party has done for the last 12 years is react to what the Republicans and Trump are doing, he said. Doing this allows Trump and the Republicans to “define us, for us,” he argued. No one wins a game if they’re only playing defense, he said. Crowley recalled when Trump said that private equity firms shouldn’t be buying single family homes, something he agrees with and that Democrats had fought for years to achieve. Democrats have forgotten how to be proactive and how to sell a vision of what they want for their communities, he said.

The Democratic primary will be held on August 11, followed by the general election for governor on Nov. 3.

Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls address criminal justice, inequality was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.

A Microsoft data center in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin appears in a June 2026 photo. Photo courtesy of Microsoft

Microsoft has completed construction of a massive data center in Mount Pleasant.

Workers at the 315-acre facility started bringing equipment online in April. Now, the center is fully operational, and is employing close to 550 full-time people, according to the company.

Construction of a second Microsoft data center is ongoing in Mount Pleasant. That facility is located next door to the first. It’s set to be completed by 2028. Once that facility is fully online, the number of full-time data center employees in the area could grow to 800, Microsoft says.

In January, the Mount Pleasant village board approved site plans for up to 15 more Microsoft data centers, which could be built over the next decade.

The newly completed Mount Pleasant data center is referred to as “Fairwater” by Microsoft. In a statement Tuesday, Mount Pleasant Village President David DeGroot described its construction as a “historic milestone” for the village, which is home to some 28,000 residents in Racine County.

“As this campus continues to grow, it will create lasting opportunities for residents, strengthen our regional economy and help position Wisconsin for long-term succes,” DeGroot said in a statement.

Data center construction has been growing throughout the Great Lakes region, fueled largely by the data demands of artificial intelligence technology.

In some Wisconsin communities, data center proposals have been met with intense pushback, from people concerned about high energy and water use by the facilities.

Microsoft finishes construction of Mount Pleasant data center, plans for more was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Mitchell Park Domes. Photo taken July 14, 2025, by Graham Kilmer.

In less than three months, the Mitchell Park Domes have drawn another $1 million in donations to finance their redevelopment.

The Milwaukee Domes Alliance (MDA), the nonprofit that operates the Domes, is leading a massive, multi-stage redevelopment of the structures estimated to cost $133 million in total.

The MDA is banking on significant philanthropic support for the project’s complicated financing. The project calls for three distinct phases of fundraising and construction. To break ground on the first phase and release funds committed by Milwaukee County, the group needs to raise $17.1 million in private donations. To date, it has raised $9.2 million, according to Christa Beall Diefenbach, who presented the latest fundraising numbers to the Milwaukee County Board’s Committee on Parks and Culture Tuesday.

That’s up from the $8.2 million MDA was reporting at the end of March. Since then, the project has also secured listing on the state’s register of historic places, moving the project into place for national registration. Historic registration is critical to securing historic preservation tax credits needed to finance the project. The State Building Commission has also granted the project $2 million.

The budget for the first phase includes $2.9 million from the state. “So we still have $900,000 left to raise in that area, but that was a really great push forward in terms of those funds and on the fundraising campaign,” Beall Diefenbach said. 

The project has also secured lead gifts from the We Energies Foundation, Herb Kohl Philanthropies and Lynde Uihlein. For this, the new lobby will be called the We Energies Foundation Lobby and Herb Kohl Philanthropies will have its name on the Little Sprouts Dome, a signature piece of the first phase of development.

The latter will be created by redeveloping an existing greenhouse into an interactive play area for children, or “Little Sprouts.” The first phase also involves the redevelopment of the entryway and lobby, an expansion of the gift shop and development of a cafe. Beall Diefenbach expects the Little Sprouts Dome will be “very popular” and drive revenue through admissions and memberships.

The project is on track to hit fundraising benchmarks in time to release the first tranche of $12.9 million in taxpayer funding from Milwaukee County, Beall Diefenbach said.

In 2025, Milwaukee County committed $30 million over six years to the project. The county owns the Domes, and under the development agreement, MDA will control the structures through a long-term lease and be responsible for operations and maintenance costs.

The project was developed in partnership between MDA and Milwaukee County Parks. It was the result of more than a decade of work by county staff, supervisors and consultants to chart a sustainable path forward for the unique conoidal structures built in the 1960s.

The county had deferred major maintenance at the Domes for years when, in 2013, chunks of concrete began breaking off from the structure, leaving policymakers with a choice between finding a plan to save the Domes or eventually financing their demolition. The project moving forward now draws on ideas first developed by consultants working with the county’s Domes Task Force, which convened in 2016.

Under the deal with the county, MDA has to break ground no earlier than April 2027 and no later than December 2028. Beall Diefenbach told the committee that shouldn’t be a problem.

Karl Kopp honorary street name sign. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Be on the lookout for new blue signs.

Since the start of 2025, the Milwaukee Common Council has approved 17 honorary street names.

The program, initiated in 2005, avoids the complications of completely renaming an entire street in favor of applying relatively low-cost honorary blue street signs next to the traditional green signs on select blocks. The program has grown dramatically in recent years. Only 25 existed as of 2020, but 20 more were added by 2025, and now several more are on the way. Many of the latest batch honor religious leaders.

Individuals need to be at least 70 years old or deceased to be eligible for an honorary street name. Applicants must cover the cost of printing the signs. The names are initially reviewed by the Citizen Advisory Committee on the Naming of Public Buildings, Facilities and Streets.

Here are the stories of the latest honorees.

Cecilia Gilbert

One block of E. Wells Street adjoining Cathedral Square Park is now honorarily named for Cecilia “The Queen” Gilbert. She spent more than four decades in various public relations roles for the city and county. Gilbert was well known for her ability to get things done and work with almost anyone.

Gilbert’s street was dedicated on June 18, as Michael Horne covered for Urban Milwaukee. Urban Milwaukee also published a remembrance of Gilbert in 2024, when she died at age 75.

Sedgwick Daniels

One of Milwaukee’s most prominent ministers is now honored with a lengthy honorary street name. In 2025, “Bishop Sedgwick Daniels” was assigned to W. Hampton Avenue from N. 32nd Street to N. Hopkins Street. The five-block stretch honors the founder and senior pastor of Holy Redeemer Institutional Church of God. The church and Daniels family own a substantial amount of property in the area, including the church itself at 3500 W. Mother Daniels Way. Daniels died in 2023 at age 64.

Betty Hayes

W. Garfield Avenue between N. 21st and 23rd streets now honors Betty Hayes, the founder and bishop of Holy Mount Carmel Baptist Church, 2127 W. Garfield Ave. Hayes died in 2023 at age 83. She led the building of the church in 1981. The church is now known as New Direction Christian Church.

George Heriott DeReef

Two blocks of N. Hubbard Street in Brewers Hill now honor attorney George Heriott DeReef, a relatively unknown Black civil rights trailblazer in Milwaukee. A one-time leader of the Milwaukee chapter of the NAACP, DeReef was also the president of the Columbia Savings & Loan Association, a director of the Milwaukee Urban League and co-editor of the publication Advocacy. Heriott DeReef died in 1937 at age 67. The honorary street passes his former home. Nominator Celia Jackson said Heriott DeReef was one of three Black practicing attorneys in Milwaukee upon his arrival in 1913.

Otha Howard

“Pastor Otha Howard” now adorns N. 56th Street from W. Parkway Drive to W. Fairmount Avenue. In 1994, Howard founded Divine Template Church of the First Born, 5532 W. Hampton Ave., and subsequently led the church for 24 years. Howard died in 2017 at age 77.

Carl Hunt

N. 47th Street between W. Capitol Drive and W. Olive Street now honors Carl E. Hunt. He had a varied career, including as a firefighter and head volleyball coach at Rufus King High School. The naming location recognizes where he now lives.

Karl Kopp

Cecilia Gilbert isn’t the only notable Milwaukeean with an honorary street near Cathedral Square Park. The west side of the park, N. Jefferson Street, now bears the name “Karl R. Kopp” in honor of the eponymous, second-generation owner of the Kopp’s Frozen Custard chain. Why Downtown? Kopp, 87, also owns Elsa’s on the Park, 833 N. Jefferson St. The restaurant is named for his mother.

Mary McCormick

Members of the Rotary Club of Milwaukee will continue to be greeted by Mary McCormick after she retires next week. McCormick, who has led the club for 25 years, will be recognized with an honorary street name on N. Prospect Avenue between E. Mason and E. State streets. The street leads into the Milwaukee County War Memorial Center, where the club meets. McCormick has played key roles on behalf of the club in several civic projects, including the MKE Urban Stables, Rotary Amphitheater at Discovery World, and Rotary Centennial Arboretum.

John W. McVicker

The founder of Christ the King Baptist Church, 7750 N. 60th St., is now honored on the street outside the church. W. Port Avenue from N. 60th Street to N. Edgewood Drive is now honorarily named for the Rev. John W. McVicker Sr. McVicker founded the church in 1985 and led the construction of the current structure in 1997. He retired in July 2025.

Everett Moore

The longtime proprietor of Garfield’s 502, a blues bar and anchor establishment in Harambee and Bronzeville, is now honored outside the bar. Everett “Boobie” Moore is recognized with an honorary street name running from N. 5th to N. 6th streets along W. Garfield Avenue. Today’s Garfield’s 502 was founded by Moore’s family as Ozell’s 502, renamed Boobie’s Place by Moore and later became Garfield’s 502. In addition to running a bar, Boobie ran Moore’s Barbershop and cofounded Garfield Days, now known as Garfield’s 502 Rhythm & Blues Festival. Moore died in 2003. After a fire and a couple of years of vacancy, the original 502 bar was torn down 20 years ago and replaced by a new building that continues to operate as a tavern today.

Clarence Parrish

The block of N. Teutonia Avenue between W. Clarke and W. Center streets now includes the name “Judge Clarence R. Parrish.” Parrish was the first Black person to win a contested judicial race in Wisconsin. He served on the bench from 1981 until his death in 1992.

Ronald Sadoff

The founder of Milwaukee College Prep and Sadoff Investment Management is now recognized with an honorary street name on N. 36th Street from W. Meinecke Avenue to W. Wright Street. “Ron Sadoff” adorns the street in front of MCP’s 36th Street Campus. The charter school network has four locations in Milwaukee.

Sadoff was 85 at the time the city approved the honorary street naming in November 2025.

Shirley Smith

Most of Milwaukee’s honorary street names are concentrated close to Downtown, in the oldest parts of the city. But not Shirley Smith’s. Smith’s newly approved designation runs along N. 111th Street from W. Green Tree Road to W. Daphne Street. The location marks the Heritage subdivision she lived in for more than two decades. Described as the matriarch of the development by retired Assistant Police Chief Ray Banks, the nominator, Smith also was the president of the Granville Heritage Neighborhood Association. Smith died in 2025 at age 76.

Cherrye Trotman

W. Roosevelt Drive between N. 20th Street and N. Teutonia Avenue has been approved for blue signs honoring “Mrs. Cherrye J. Trotman.” She founded the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Club in 1968 to mentor youth. Trotman also worked for Milwaukee Public Schools for more than three decades. Trotman died in 2024 at age 93. The naming location recognizes the street she lived on for more than 60 years.

Michel Twerski

N. 51st Boulevard now honors Rabbi and composer Michel Twerski. The rabbi has led Congregation Beth Jehudah, 3100 N. 52nd St., since 1973. The honorary street name covers a four-block stretch of N. 51st Boulevard between W. Burleigh Street and W. Keefe Avenue, where many congregation members live, including the Twerski family.

JC Williams

The founder of Holy Tabernacle Church of God in Christ, Bishop Johnie C. Williams, is now recognized with an honorary street name in front of the church, at 2753 N. Teutonia Ave. “Bishop JC Williams” runs along N. Teutonia Avenue between W. Center and W. Hadley streets. The church has been in that location since 1965. Williams died in 2017 at age 95. He had led the church for 70 years.

John J. Williams

One of the most sought-after honorary street namings in Milwaukee now belongs to the late John J. Williams, the founder of The Milwaukee Globe and the first Black taxi driver in Milwaukee. An educator by trade, Williams couldn’t initially get a job with Milwaukee Public Schools, according to a biography, because the district didn’t hire Black teachers in 1923, so he worked in Oklahoma for a period. He was recognized by the United States Postal Service in 1963 for his role in implementing ZIP codes in Wisconsin. He was a co-founder of the Milwaukee Urban League. Williams died in 2001.

Williams lived on N. 14th Street and the street now honorarily bears his name from W. Capitol Drive to W. Olive Street.

Area Alderwoman Andrea Pratt said in November 2025 that three different families were seeking honorary street naming for the same block. The designation was approved by the council in June.

182 E. Lincoln Ave. Photo taken June 23, 2026, by Sophie Bolich.

Bay View sports bar Brown & Gibbs is ceasing operations after the Milwaukee Common Council blocked its license renewal on Tuesday.

The decision followed an earlier recommendation from the Licenses Committee, which cited owner Julio Maldonado’s failure to attend two consecutive license renewal hearings.

“I think we’ve used too much of the community’s time and your time on this,” Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic told committee members during a June 9 hearing, also noting a lack of communication from the business. “If it’s within our purview, I think denial is appropriate.”

Alderman Alex Brower moved for nonrenewal based on a second nonappearance. There were no objections.

Maldonado did not file written objections to the nonrenewal before Tuesday’s Common Council meeting, where members voted unanimously to uphold the recommendation, effectively closing the business.

Brown & Gibbs opened in March 2025 at 182 E. Lincoln Ave., replacing Satchmo’s in the corner tavern space. In addition to a full bar program, the business served Mexican cuisine from Montes Kitchen, including tacos and birria.

Service has been suspended since February, when the tavern’s liquor license lapsed. A subsequent request for a provisional license was denied because of outstanding fines. During an April licensing hearing, Maldonado pointed to catastrophic flooding early in the business’s operation as the cause of significant financial hardship, leaving Brown & Gibbs behind on taxes and other bills.

“Our hands are tied,” Assistant City Attorney Travis Gresham said at the time.

State tax records show two filings against Revival Bay View LLC, the business entity behind Brown & Gibbs, for unpaid state taxes.

Under city licensing rules, failure to appear at two consecutive renewal hearings can serve as grounds for nonrenewal. Maldonado missed both hearings following the April meeting.

The building is owned by Boomers Building LLC, whose registered agent is Ting Burazin. Burazin previously co-owned Satchmo’s with her husband, Sam, before Brown & Gibbs took over the space.

Ron Brisbois, Grant County Economic Development Corp. executive director, poses for a portrait in his office, June 4, 2026, in Lancaster, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

Even for a guy like Ron Brisbois, whose job is to cultivate prosperity, a data center proposed for Wisconsin’s Driftless Area was too big to imagine.

Nothing like this had come along in Brisbois’ quarter-century as economic development director in rural Grant County. An up to $2 billion project spanning 500 acres would be at least three times larger — in dollars and space — than any development in the county.

The construction contracts. Dozens of new permanent jobs. Millions of extra tax revenue for schools and local government. This is what economic development is all about.

For months, the out-of-state developers pitching the data center spoke repeatedly with Brisbois. They toured the county in Wisconsin’s southwest corner. They visited Madison to discuss details with state officials.

Their talk was big.

But Brisbois never dug into the developers’ backgrounds.

Then, as if someone flipped a switch, they stopped returning his calls.

Now, a project that would have been historically transformational — and was already highly controversial — is all but dead.

Drawing on two months of behind-the-scenes interviews Wisconsin Watch conducted with Brisbois, here’s the behind-the-scenes story of the rise and fall of a data center proposal.

Out for a drive

The Driftless Area’s rugged hills and steep valleys inspire strong pride in Grant County — and concern about large-scale development. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

Brisbois first heard about the data center last fall. A colleague told him the developers were scouting northern Illinois for a cryptocurrency project when they drove across the border into Grant County and looked up to see the Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line. It delivers electricity along a 100-mile corridor from Dubuque County, Iowa, through Cassville in Grant County, to Dane County.

The developers quickly surmised that with access to the kind of power that artificial intelligence data centers desperately need, the town of Cassville (population 400) could be ideal.

“There’s a chunk of power there, Ron, and we need to grab it before someone else does,” Brisbois recalled the developers saying. “If we don’t, someone else will.”

Brisbois’ reaction: “Well, why shouldn’t we?”

The median $67,000 household income among Grant County’s 52,000 residents is $10,000 below the state median; 12% live in poverty.

Brisbois said he initially felt curiosity, not excitement, “because I never would have thought a project like that would look at this area.”

The two-man team included a businessman from the Northeast and a technical expert from the South.

Even now, citing a custom of confidentiality common to economic development proposals, Brisbois won’t identify them.

The man for the job?

Early in his career, not long after working in economic development for the former state Department of Commerce, Brisbois yearned to bring jobs and industry to his home area.

Ron Brisbois, Grant County Economic Development Corp. executive director, poses for a portrait in his office, June 4, 2026, in Lancaster, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

Married with two grown daughters, Brisbois, 60, grew up on a southwest Wisconsin dairy farm and still does a little farming of his own. After six years in the state job, he became executive director of the Grant County Economic Development Corp. in 1999. A resident of Ithaca in Richland County, which borders Grant, he’s a former Ithaca School Board member and currently serves on the town board.

“I’ve had multiple staff, people from multiple governors tell me, ‘Ron, we love what you do, but we like to see these projects done in Milwaukee, Madison or the Fox Valley,’” he said.

“And that’s because of votes. And I get it. I’m not naive. I mean, people want to get reelected. They want to have their impact. And I appreciate it. But things like that really motivated me. It’s like, what could I do out there (in the Driftless)?”

First meeting, excitement builds

Brisbois began work in earnest on the project Nov. 6. He gave the developers a book of maps, noting where the transmission line runs. He emailed Grant County Board chair Bob Keeney, saying he would meet the next week with a “data center prospect who is flying in from Rhode Island.”

Keeney called the news exciting.

“My meeting is the first of the day for them,” Brisbois told Keeney. “Then they meet with the energy reps. Land is my primary assignment, plus they want to know about the political feel for such a project.”

The meeting, requested by the developers, was at Scenic Rivers Energy Cooperative in Lancaster, the county seat. Because of a storm on the East Coast, they drove instead of flying.

“It was about a less than a half-hour meeting,” Brisbois recalled. “And I just said, ‘What are you guys thinking?’ And that’s where they started talking about a hyperscale project.”

“It was more of just feeling them out,” he added. “OK, what scale? And that’s where they talked about $1 billion to $2 billion. And they started to talk in the 500-acre range.”

They understood there would be a lot of work to confirm that enough power would be available.

The developers were also considering sites in Indiana and North Dakota. They didn’t ask about financial incentives, but wondered what the public might think about a data center. Brisbois told them residents would want to know about jobs, but he emphasized more local tax revenue. The developers had seen a headline in the Grant County Herald Independent about local schools and municipalities struggling with budgets.

Momentum built after more conversations with the developers.

Brisbois began to let himself feel excited.

“I was (thinking): OK, there’s potential here.”

Going public, progress continues

Brisbois went public a month after the first meeting. He announced Dec. 3 at the annual meeting of the Grant County Economic Development Corp. that a $1 billion data center had been proposed for the county. The Herald Independent reported on it a week later.

It would be three times or more larger than the largest development in the county, A.Y. McDonald’s $350 million, 100-acre foundry.

Brisbois said the developers later asked, “How did this get out?” He told them he wanted to be transparent.

“I’m sure my (economic development) colleagues would have said, ‘You were a fool to do it. I would never have released that information.’”

But progress continued.

Brisbois met again in early February at Scenic Rivers with the developers.

“It was more of, you start getting into the brass tacks of the project. The formality kind of is done. You’ve met them, now you’re on a first-name basis, that type of thing.”

Brisbois was also encouraged by a virtual meeting he had in February, the same month that officials two hours away in Beaver Dam announced they were working to land a $1 billion data center, which is now under construction. The meeting was with Prescott Balch, who has been sought out by data center opponents around Wisconsin for his expertise. Balch confirmed that he agreed that Brisbois’ estimate of 50 permanent jobs seemed solid.

“If I start talking 50 jobs, that’s a big deal in Grant County,” Brisbois said.

And yet, the developers never told Brisbois where exactly in the county they wanted to locate.

Opposition takes hold

A “No Data Center In The Driftless” sign is posted outside of a home, June 4, 2026, in Grant County, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

Data center opponent Pete Moris poses for a portrait on June 4, 2026, in Grant County, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

People in Grant County have particular affection for being part of the Driftless Area, with its rugged hills and steep valleys, the result of being missed by the last glacier that covered most of Wisconsin. They worry about too much development.

Data center opponents began mobilizing early in 2026, but interest peaked March 8, when hundreds attended a rally featuring comedian Charlie Berens. The efforts of Pete Moris and Melodie Betts were beginning to pay off.

Moris, a public relations executive and Grant County native, has a son Grant, named after the county. He believes the data center would be too large for the Driftless Area and fears it would harm water wells.

Moris recalled the December newspaper story about Brisbois announcing the proposal.

“That set off alarm bells because if Ron’s talking about it in the paper, then this had to be in the works for a while,” Moris said. “And the fact that we weren’t being told who the developer was and who the end user is, that’s scary.”

Betts, a restaurant owner who drinks only reverse osmosis-purified water, also worries a data center would harm the water supply and attract more development.

“If we don’t stop this now, we’re going to lose everything that’s precious in the Driftless Area,” she said. “You let one in, you open up the door.”

Progress and optimism rise

Data center opponent Melodie Betts poses for a portrait, June 4, 2026, in Grant County, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

As opponents claimed the spotlight, the developers seemed to back off.

About a week after the Berens rally, the developers called Brisbois out of the blue. “That was unusual,” Brisbois recalled.

They said a potential operator of the data center had asked about incentives, including a tax increment district (TID).

A TID is a common tax break that commits future property taxes from a land parcel’s anticipated increase in value to finance a proposed development.

Brisbois said he told the developers he didn’t think a TID would be legally possible for a town. He said he thought that not offering the tax break would appeal to residents, but sensed the developers disagreed.

“I don’t think they saw it as that,” he said. “After that, dead quiet.”

Brisbois followed up with two calls, leaving messages — but, for the first time, got no response.

They had always been “very prompt,” he said.

Then the developers reengaged.

They flew to Chicago and drove to Madison to meet with Brisbois and the Department of Natural Resources on March 19. They discussed state regulatory issues such as permits for air, water, wetlands and other issues. The developers emerged “feeling very good,” even as they began to hear the approval process would be time consuming, Brisbois said. In later phone calls, the developers were enthused that the data center might qualify for a state sales tax exemption.

That exemption is expected to be worth billions of dollars to data centers around the state.

The Eagle Valley Nature Preserve observation tower overlooks the Mississippi River and Gutenberg, Iowa, June 4, 2026, in Grant County, Wis. The 1,450-acre preserve is just north of site that was considered for a data center. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

By early April, Brisbois was confident enough to release more details, including an estimate that the data center would produce $5.5 million per year in property tax revenue to municipalities and school districts in Grant County. He said he had received fewer than five phone calls or emails opposing the data center, which had been “demonized” through social media, and dozens of supportive contacts, particularly from the local school district.

Keeney called local data center supporters “a silent majority.”

Brisbois also was optimistic because he felt he provided the developers what they needed. It was up to them to proceed with financing and acquiring land.

“From my perspective, they should have all that they need to put their ducks in a row,” he recalled. “I don’t know then why they wouldn’t proceed in Grant County.”

Brisbois had rated the chances of getting the data center as 1-in-12 after his first meeting with the developers, then 1-in-6 after the second meeting.

On April 6, he said it was better than a coinflip. “I would say right now, it’s leaning towards.”

‘Dead quiet’ and a town residents uprising

A “No Data Center In The Driftless” sign is posted, June 4, 2026, in Grant County, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

It didn’t take long for that optimism to fade.

Data center opponents had been contacting Brisbois’ board members, so he emailed them April 14. He tried to rebut claims about water and electricity use and emphasized the jobs and property tax revenue. “This data center project is going to be located somewhere,” he wrote. “If it’s going to be somewhere, it should be here.”

But asked the next day if there had been more progress with the developers, Brisbois said: “It’s gone dead quiet.” He adjusted the chances of landing the data center back to less than 50-50.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever had one (developer), after they were hot to trot, and then they went cold, and then they come back and they’re hot to trot,” he said, admitting that despite his optimistic nature, he was a bit deflated. “I don’t think I’ve ever had one of those yet. But we’ll see.”

Meanwhile, the opposition was doing more than rallying.

In Cassville, home to Nelson Dewey State Park, named after Wisconsin’s first governor and a longtime Grant County resident, the town board approved a data center moratorium. That was significant for a town that previously had no zoning regulation.

Following Cassville’s lead, several Grant County towns and the County Board adopted data center moratoriums. Lawmakers proposed legislation for statewide regulation. The state Public Service Commission moved to require data centers to pay the cost of generating and transmitting the electricity they would need. And gubernatorial candidates from both parties were vowing to protect communities from data centers.

Meanwhile, Brisbois continued to call the developers, with no luck. His daughters told Brisbois they were “ghosting” him — like a person who doesn’t want to go on a second date.

“When people go quiet like this, it’s an indicator to me that the project is not moving forward, or at least their interest is waning,” Brisbois said in late-April.

“Historically, that has been a very common practice in my industry. They just fade away.”

Brisbois admitted he was turning more attention to other projects and feeling disappointed.

“I put a lot of time into this and lost a lot of sleep over it,” he said at the time. “It stings a bit. I don’t know that it’s done-done. But I’m pretty calloused over by now.”

‘Very little due diligence’

Brisbois acknowledged he did “very little due diligence” into the developers, saying he had limited ability to background check out-of-state residents.

He said that left him feeling vulnerable.

“I’m making a leap of faith,” he said. “But I do that all the time. I’m assuming that a business has the financial means to pull this off.”

“It’s not my job to really scrutinize — OK, you’re a good candidate versus … you’re not qualified,” he continued. “I don’t necessarily have the resources to do that, I’m a one-person show.”

Newspaper clippings and posters hang in the office of Grant County Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Ron Brisbois, June 4, 2026, in Lancaster, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

By late May, the proposal seemed like only a memory. No return phone calls. Nothing scheduled, even as opponents continued public protests.

It’s possible the developers will never announce whether or where they’re building a data center. But Brisbois expressed no regrets.

“I felt that the project certainly has its merits,” he said, “and certainly was worth pursuing.”

This article first appeared on Wisconsin Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Milwaukee Police Administration Building. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

For the first time since being given the authority, the Common Council has used its power to formally change Milwaukee Police Department policy.

With a unanimous vote Tuesday morning, the council altered an MPD standard operating procedure (SOP) to require officers to “intervene” when they observe another officer, including those from outside agencies, use force that is not compliant with state law or “beyond that which is objectively reasonable.”

The policy change was part of the Common Council’s ICE Out package and was inspired by the perceived inaction of Minneapolis police officers during U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Minnesota surge in January that resulted in the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

“This is an opportunity for us to put some teeth to the multitude of proposals we put forward to keep ICE out of our city,” said Ald. Alex Brower, a lead sponsor of the proposal. First elected in 2025, Brower said it was one of the most consequential votes he has made.

Act 12, the 2023 sales tax law, stripped the Fire & Police Commission of its authority to set public safety SOPs and instead gave the council the power to modify SOPs by a two-thirds vote of members.

“This will change what our police are required to do on the ground. And what we are demanding that they do with this change to the SOP is uphold the oath that they took to protect and defend the residents of the city of Milwaukee,” said the alderman. “Even if it’s another officer, and even if it’s the federal government, we demand that they protect our people here in Milwaukee.”

Assistant Chief Craig Sarnow, during a committee hearing on June 11, confirmed that officers can be disciplined for not following standard operating procedures.

The proposal passed despite the objection of the Milwaukee Police Association, which represents rank-and-file officers. Union President Alexander Ayala, during the June 11 hearing, said the policy puts officers in a bad position.

“There’s no way that any police officer can intervene and know all the policies that another jurisdiction or a federal jurisdiction has,” he said. He cited concern over things like chokeholds, which MPD policy now prohibits, but other jurisdictions still allow.

The term “intervene,” said Ayala, is “a very vague and loose term here.” He said adopting the policy, as proposed, would likely violate the collective bargaining process.

Deputy City Attorney Naomi Sanders said notices were sent to the two police unions on May 28, triggering a 30-day window to meet and confer about the policy. But she declined to state in open session on June 11 whether the policy violated the unions’ bargaining rights if adopted before the 30-day window expired.

Excluding the internal collective bargaining issues, the City Attorney’s Office signed off that the policy is legal and enforceable.

Brower said the policy wasn’t perfect, and that no legislation is, but that it is a positive step to protect residents.

Ald. JoCasta Zamarripa said she has heard calls for the council to focus on things like picking up garbage and potholes. “I want to assure our constituents that we are focused on these matters, but I want to remind our constituents that we are here because of the incompetence and the outrageousness of the Trump administration,” she said.

“We are here because of the ineptitude and incompetence of Trump’s ICE. We are here because of the Americans murdered in the streets of our neighbors, Minnesota just next door to us, Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good. We are here because of constituents, Milwaukeeans like Salah Sarsour and Yessenia Ruano who were unjustly and illegally plucked from their communities or forced from their homes. This is why local leaders are taking this charge.”

Zamarripa said she previously thought this would be the most complicated aspect of the ICE package. She praised the Public Safety & Health Committee chair, Scott Spiker, for scheduling the proposal for debate and the committee for endorsing it.

The council passed the measure on a 14-0 vote, with Council President José G. Pérez excused from the entire meeting.

The final vote was met with applause from the gallery. A coalition of a few dozen people has been present at each council vote regarding the ICE Out package.

“Let’s be the bulwark against that rising tide of fascism,” said Brower.

A separate request from the Fire & Police Commission to modify a standard operating procedure regarding police chases was voted down unanimously without discussion. After substantial debate at its June 11 meeting, the Public Safety & Health Committee recommended rejecting the request.

Mother’s, 2900 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. Photo taken June 17, 2025 by Sophie Bolich.

After a whirlwind first year marked by critical acclaim, controversy and maintenance issues in its Bay View space, Mother’s is saying goodbye.

Chef and owner Vanessa Rose confirmed the news in early June, attributing the decision to burnout, costly repairs and growing disillusionment with the restaurant industry.

“Could I probably keep going? Yeah, sure,” she told Urban Milwaukee in an interview. “Do I want to? Not at all.”

The closure comes almost exactly a year after the restaurant made its highly anticipated brick-and-mortar debut at 2900 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. following a series of successful area pop-ups.

Standout dishes like Madeira mushrooms and berbere-spiced hanger steak garnered immediate praise, while a European service model offered an intriguing alternative to the typical tipping structure — an experiment Rose implemented as part of her ambitious plans to restructure the local restaurant industry.

The business later expanded with a brunch program and happy hours, small steps toward Rose’s vision of opening the full building as a third space for the LGBTQ community.

Seven months into service, Rose was nominated for a James Beard Award in the emerging chef category, a milestone she later described as unexpectedly stressful.

“The burden of delivering something people deem ‘Beard worthy’ is exhausting, wildly subjective [and] misunderstood,” Rose shared in an online post in late March after she did not advance as a finalist for the award. “The relief I feel now that I know we’ve not made it further is astronomical.”

At the time, Rose also alluded to challenges at the restaurant, linking her feelings of burnout to what she described as “poor judgment” and a “culture of dependency.”

Rather than the typical hourly pay model, Mother’s put its opening staff on salary and built gratuity into its menu prices, decisions that drew equal parts praise and criticism. Some employees later argued that the arrangement required more time and dedication than the salary justified, while Rose expressed frustration that staff members didn’t take on as much responsibility as she’d hoped.

“I am disappointed in myself, in them and in the situation,” Rose told Urban Milwaukee. “I assure you, there’s very few people on this earth feeling more disappointment than me.”

Meanwhile, the restaurant’s 130-year-old building, now owned by SNSHN Realty LLC, showed its age through a string of maintenance failures, including frozen pipes, sewage backflow and black mold — though not the toxic kind.

The fallout led to a temporary closure followed by service in fits and starts. It also put Rose behind on payments, which worsened when an insurance claim related to the backflow was denied. She is now facing an eviction lawsuit, according to online court records.

The compounding challenges eventually proved too much. “I think that if I really wanted to, that we could keep going,” Rose said. “But I don’t have the energy or the passion or the heart to keep it going when these things are being said against me.”

Discontent has also persisted among some staff members, leading to turnover and a series of anonymous tips and social media posts criticizing Rose’s management. Among the allegations were claims of late paychecks and employee nondisclosure agreements.

Rose acknowledged requiring NDAs for business security reasons and said payroll issues were ultimately resolved. When contacted by Urban Milwaukee, one former employee did not comment on the record. Others did not respond to interview requests.

Though the future remains uncertain, Rose said she expects to continue cooking both at home and in professional settings, but no longer sees entrepreneurship as a path.

“I’ve learned a lot about myself, some of it I didn’t want to learn, but I’m happy I did,” Rose said. “I’m not a business person. I have a love for cooking. I don’t think I have much of one for restaurants.”

Site of Dead Bird Brewing, 1726 Dr. William Finlayson Dr. Photo taken September 18th, 2019 by Jeramey Jannene.

Join us for an Urban Milwaukee members-only beer bash. Our next stop on the 2026 edition of the free event series (RSVP required) takes us to Dead Bird Brewing.

Come and enjoy a pint and chat with some of your favorite journalists and fellow Urban Milwaukee members.

Dead Bird Brewing was founded in 2015 in Madison, and in 2019 it found it its way to its new home in Milwaukee.

Owner Nick Kocis strives to minimizing the brewery’s carbon footprint with energy-efficient appliances, solar panels, recycling and composting.

Part of the drive for sustainability is why Dead Bird Brewing Company is Wisconsin’s only all-vegan brewery, because a vegan diet can reduce an individual’s food-related carbon footprint by up to 73%.

The brewery offers a variety of food options, including homemade pizzas, soft pretzels, famous nachos, and more.

And about that name? There’s a story there, which surely the staff at Dead Bird will tell during the tour.

Urban Milwaukee members are invited to a Dead Bird Brewing Beer Bash on Friday, June 26 starting at 5:30 p.m. An RSVP is required as space is limited.

Members can bring one guest, but must request an additional ticket when reserving their spot. The team at Dead Bird Brewing Company will lead Urban Milwaukee members through guided tasting tours – which will include free beer samples and conversation on the specific beers and some brewery history. This tour will last about thirty minutes, and questions and comments are welcomed.

The event is planned to reward Urban Milwaukee’s loyal members and create an easy-going way for our staff and writers and readers and supporters to get together to try multiple tasty beers in a classic city neighborhood. Here’s the rundown: arrive at 5:30 p.m., join the first tour at 6:15 p.m. or the second at 6:45 p.m., sample some beer and enjoy your favorite beers and convivial conversation for the rest of the night.

We’d love to have a locally-made craft beer with you. Oh, and if you’re looking to chat less, but enjoy the beer? That’s great, too. There are 50 plus arcade and board games in the taproom, so come for a beer and stay for a game or two. Dead Bird Brewing Company is located at 1726 Dr. William Finlayson Dr. in Milwaukee.

So, RSVP today.

Not a Member, But Still Want to Come?

Urban Milwaukee offers the city’s most robust membership program, with many perks such as this one. By becoming a member, not only will you help support Urban Milwaukee’s journalism, but you’ll help us continue to grow our publication, which publishes more than 75 stories and 100 press releases per week.

This event is only one of the great perks you get by becoming an Urban Milwaukee member. Here are just a few others:

• Completely ad-free content on our website and a configurable email newsletter
• Bypass the paywall and get access to all Urban Milwaukee stories
• Free access to News Bulletins with insider scoops of interest to anyone following the Milwaukee scene.
• A chance to provide the support that assures Urban Milwaukee can continue focusing on smart, substantive news coverage rather than clickbait
• Free tickets to concerts, festivals, and other great events as they become available through our partners
• A 10% discount on all merchandise at Urban Milwaukee: The Store
• The ability to comment on articles
• A faster photo browser

We’d love to have you join us. Simply sign-up to become a member for just $9/month or $99 per year and you will immediately be able to reserve your Beer Bash tickets.

In addition to being a health hazard for anyone living downwind of the coal-burning plants, coal is more expensive and less reliable than other cleaner sources for power. (Photo of AES Indiana’s Petersburg Generation Station by Robert Zullo/States Newsroom)

Recent administrative efforts to endorse new coal-fired power plants and repair outdated plants are making my blood boil. For more than 30 years, I have worked tirelessly along with thousands of other public health and climate scientists to understand the very real public health threats posed by burning fossil fuels like coal. Coal-fired power plants are some of the worst offenders when it comes to causing harm to human health and the environment. In addition to being a health hazard for anyone living downwind of the coal-burning plants, it’s more expensive and less reliable than other cleaner sources for power.

Let’s look at some of the reasons why coal is bad for health.

• When coal is burned in power plants, it releases soot – tiny particles that get deep into people’s lungs and bloodstreams. Mercury in soot is also a severe health hazard because it releases a potent neurotoxin that contributes to many chronic illnesses. Exposure to soot is linked to cancer, respiratory disease, heart disease, neurological and developmental disorders. Children and senior citizens are particularly vulnerable to impacts from coal-fired soot.
• Coal ash, the hazardous residue left after coal is burned, is a concoction of toxic metals (like lead, mercury and arsenic), cancer-causing compounds, and other dangerous substances. Power plants produce about 70 million tons of it each year. In April 2026, the Trump EPA proposed weakening federal coal ash standards.
• In 2023, a study published in Science magazine reported that:
  • Air pollution from coal power plants is associated with greater mortality than previously thought.
  • Such deaths have decreased due to air pollution regulations and coal power plant retirements.

Coal is not cheap

Prior to this administration, many utilities had already started phasing out coal plants in favor of clean energy because coal plants often need expensive repairs and emit costly, dirty fuel. Coal power is so expensive that, according to a 2023 study, 99% of the time it would be cheaper to get electricity by building entirely new wind and solar farms than it would be to buy power from existing coal plants.

The Trump administration announced plans to provide up to $500 million in funding to coal-fired power plants in 10 states, along with an export terminal in California. The Columbia Energy Center, coal-fired plant co-owned by Alliant Energy, Madison Gas and Electric, and Wisconsin Public Service near Pardeeville, is expected to receive $19 million in federal funding for a modernization project. The plant was originally scheduled to retire by 2024. Alliant is exploring a gas conversion for one of the two primary generating units, so there is a potential for continued operations beyond the end of 2029 (the updated retirement date for the facility).

Note the Columbia plant has released more emissions of the health-harming pollutants nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide than any other Wisconsin coal-fired power plant from 2019 to 2023, the most recent five years for which data are available.

Additional costs for coal-fired energy also come from federal taxpayers subsidizing the industry for nearly 100 years. In 2026, the subsidies will be around $5.5 billion. Plus think about all the additional costs that taxpayers must absorb from the impacts of air pollutants on their health – at a time when healthcare subsidies have lapsed for millions of Americans.

There is no such thing as clean or cheap coal. As we approach America’s 250th anniversary, it’s more than time for a real Energy Independence Day from throwback policies that harm Americans and a focus on cleaner energy sources that protect human health and the environment.

Coal is not beautiful, clean or cheap! was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.

Dr. Jonathan Patz, MD, MPH, is a Vilas Distinguished Professor and John P. Holton Chair of Health and the Environment at the Nelson Institute & Department of Population Health Sciences for the UW-Madison. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and former Health Co-chair for the first U.S. National Climate Assessment. He also served as a Lead Author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Penelope, a corpse flower, is seen here at the domes in Milwaukee on June 22, 2026. Evan Casey/WPR

A rare and stinky flower nicknamed Penelope is set to make its mark at Milwaukee’s Mitchell Park Domes.

Penelope is a corpse flower and she’s expected to bloom later this week — the second time the plant has flowered in two years.

“The name really does it justice,” said Michelle Pinnola, a horticulturist at the domes. “It is like a dead animal smell, and what that does is it attracts pollinators.”

The endangered plant is native to Sumatra, Indonesia. There are fewer than 1,000 of the plants left in the wild, according to the website for the domes.

“So what’s exciting about the corpse flower is that it takes about eight to ten years to bloom from a seed, and then after that it can bloom more frequently,”  Pinnola said.

“So it’s exciting that Penelope is blooming again so soon,” she added.

Once it blooms, it’s only open for around 24 to 36 hours. Pinnola said it could be open for 48 hours, “if we’re lucky.” After it blooms, “it’ll shrivel up and kind of fall over,” she said.

“People know it for the smell, but I think it’s really cool that it is the largest flower that we know of on earth and also that it is thermogenic, which means that it generates its own heat,” Pinnola said.

According to the Milwaukee Domes Alliance, the flower “produces the largest unbranched flowering structure in the plant kingdom.”

A growth tracker is keeping tabs on Penelope’s growth. Evan Casey/WPR

On Monday morning, the flower was around 48 inches tall and 36 inches in diameter. Penelope bloomed at 62.5 inches in 2024. By Pinnola’s estimation, it will bloom on Thursday.

“The smell is most powerful in the first hours after the bloom opens — often overnight — and fades well before the bloom itself closes, so what you notice depends on when you visit,” the website for the domes said. “It’s a full sensory experience: towering, warm to the touch of the air around it, and impossible to forget.”

Doris Maki, the director of the Mitchell Park Domes, said she expects trips to the domes to increase over the next few days.

“There’s some people that have seen it before, they’re like true corpse flowers fans,” Maki said. “You’re gonna see some people with t-shirts, corpse flower t-shirts, and some people that come to see it for the first time. It’s just as exciting every time.”

Maki said she enjoys seeing peoples faces when they catch a glimpse of the flower.

“And they all want a picture, so it’s just like taking turns and posing with a corpse flower, because it’s a thing,” she said. “You want it for social media, and to have fun with it.”

Maki encouraged people to check the Domes website and social media to find out when it finally blooms. She said they may also extend hours or open up early to allow more people in to witness the spectacle.

The Mitchell Park Domes in Milwaukee were temporally closed in 2016 due to falling concrete and glass. This photo was taken Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019. Alana Watson/WPR

Rare — and stinky — flower expected to bloom at Milwaukee’s Mitchell Park Domes was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Workers from the Salvation Army’s Feed the Kids summer meal program distribute food to children in Milwaukee’s neighborhoods. (Photo by Carolyn Portner)

For families looking for places to feed their children during summer break, there are local organizations across Milwaukee’s North and South Sides offering summer meal sites for children to eat for free throughout the week.

Here are a few that you can visit.

1. Summer Meals program

Hunger Task Force will be offering meal services to children under 18 through its Summer Food Service program. Meals will be given out daily, except weekends. Click here to see a map of sites near you and various dates and times. More information here.

2. Resources & Beyond Summer Meals

Resources & Beyond will be feeding healthy meals to children and teens from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays. The program begins on June 24 and runs through Aug. 21 at 9155 N. 76th St. More information here.

3.  Feed the Kids program

Salvation Army is running its Feed the Kids program from June 24 to Aug 21 for children 18 and under in underserved communities in Milwaukee. In accordance with U.S. Department of Agriculture policy, all meals must be eaten onsite. Click here to view a list of site locations and meal times.

This article first appeared on Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

State Sen. Kelda Roys is taking her second shot at running for governor. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

State Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) wants voters to know that she has plans and bills.

In Wisconsin’s six-way Democratic contest for the gubernatorial nomination on August 11, Roys says, “It’s a big differentiator in this primary that I have by far the most experience in and around state government.”

“And I don’t just have bullet points that some consultant generated for me,” she adds.

Roys is taking her second shot at running for governor. She came third in the 2018 Democratic primary behind Gov. Tony Evers and Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin, with a campaign centered on abortion rights and an online ad that went viral in which she breastfed one of her children. This year she again faces a crowded primary field.

The five other candidates who will be on voters’ ballots are Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, and former head of Gov. Tony Evers’ Department of Administration Joel Brennan. Missy Huges, former head of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., dropped out Monday.

Roys is betting that the political experience she has gained since her last run can help her break through with primary voters.

In a March Marquette Law School poll, 18% of Wisconsin voters said they recognized her name and 1% of Wisconsin Democratic primary voters said they would vote for her, putting her behind five other candidates and tied with Hughes.

Roys doesn’t put much stock into those results.

“Polls are a reflection of who has spent money and the vast majority of people are not paying attention and will not start paying attention, much to my chagrin…until much later in the summer,” Roys said. In her December campaign finance report, Roys reported raising more than $355,000. The next reports aren’t due until July. “It’s important to be able to have the resources to reach voters and communicate with them when and where they pay attention,” she said.

Roys thinks Democratic voters will ultimately prioritize governing experience and detailed policy proposals in a crowded field and will go her way when they learn about her.

Roys came in third in a straw poll conducted by WisPolitics at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin convention — behind Rodriguez and Hong. Breaking into the top three was a marked improvement compared to her standing in previous polls.

Last week, Roys sought to build on the momentum, investing $500,000 in a statewide ad buy to try to swing voters her way.

In the ad, Roys pulls two of her children along with her on a bike ride through Madison, laying out her experience and talking about her plans for the state.

“For 25 years, I’ve worked to make Wisconsin better for my kids and yours. As a state senator, attorney and small business owner, I’ve delivered for Wisconsin,” Roys says in the ad. “As governor, I’ll protect our democracy from Donald Trump’s regime, lower costs and open the state healthcare plan so anyone can buyin and fully fund our schools. Let’s ride.”

State Sen. Kelda Roys calls attention to the issue of child care funding during a June press conference alongside her Democratic colleagues on the Joint Finance Committee. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Roys, an attorney who also runs an online real-estate brokerage platform and who previously served as the executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin, often highlights her experience outside government as part of her pitch to voters.

According to a press release, her ad will target Democratic primary voters across the state “based on robust polling and research identifying Roys’ target voters.” She is the second candidate to make a statewide ad buy after Brennan.

Roys, who first was elected to the Senate in 2020 and serves on the Joint Finance Committee, currently represents one of the bluest districts in the state. It includes downtown Madison, the UW–Madison campus and the near-west and east sides of the city.

During the 2025–26 legislative session, Roys authored 177 proposals. Those policy ideas have become the platform of her campaign.

Since joining the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee in 2023, Roys has been deeply involved in state budget debates, though her ability to advance legislation was limited in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Schools are the “defining fight”

Roys told the Examiner in an interview in April that school funding would be the “defining fight of the next budget.”

She highlighted the legislative record of U.S. Rep Tom Tiffany, the Republican candidate who is running for governor with President Donald Trump’s endorsement. When he was first elected to the Wisconsin Legislature, she said, “He attacked public education and put in the most devastating cuts in the history of the state to public schools. Our kids have never recovered from that.”

Roys says that the state’s projected $2.5 billion budget surplus is money that has been “stolen” from public schools and their students. She, along with other Senate Democrats, voted against a $1.8 billion tax-cut and school-funding deal negotiated by Evers and Republican leaders that would have provided $300 million for special education, $300 rebate checks to taxpayers and property tax relief. She said sending out checks to people would be like setting the surplus on fire.

“This is a last-ditch, desperate attempt by Republicans to try to hold on to their dying power,” Roys said. “I can’t imagine why a Democratic governor would want to go along with that.”

Roys told the Examiner that “our kids getting shortchanged again” is the thing that would make her veto a state budget and that she wants the entire surplus put back into the public school system. She often ties her focus on education to her upbringing in rural Taylor County, where she grew up in a remodeled one-room schoolhouse and attended the local public school.

“It was never contemplated that we wouldn’t be going to public school. We got a great education,” Roys said.  Attending one of her child’s parent-teacher conferences recently she said she was struck that “what my kids are getting is just not close to what I had: the class sizes, the learning opportunities. They’ve got one-to-one Chromebooks, but they have art once a week for a third of the year, music is once a week, gym is once a week. It’s not good.”

Her positions on education won her the endorsement of the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) in April. She called it the “most important endorsement that’s going to happen in this Democratic primary.”

“They have the most reach. They have the most resources. They have the moral authority, representing 70,000 educators and public school support professionals across the state of Wisconsin. And people in this state love their public schools,” Roys said, adding that she “earned it because of my policy positions, because of my plans for public education, and because I think they recognized that this election is in some ways existential for our public schools.”

Roys, with one of her five children sitting on her lap, answered questions and discussed prominent issues with a group of teachers at a bar in Muskellounge and Sporting Club in Madison on April 24.

Molly Grupe, a member of WEAC, said she was thrilled the WEAC board took action on the endorsement, saying that waiting too long can blunt the impact and now they can start organizing educators to get out the vote.

“So smart. So quick. So prepared. I mean, she just knows what she’s talking about,” Grupe said. “I just think Kelda is really poised to exercise power as a strong woman and a Democrat. We’ve never had a woman governor in the state, which is crazy.”

“We live in kind of a garbage political culture that values reality TV, aesthetics over competence and substantive knowledge, but I actually think that’s pretty bad for a governor.

– Sen. Kelda Roys

Kelly Peggy Sullivan, the vice president of the Monona Grove Education Association who helped organize educators for the Friday event, said she was happy to bring people out to learn more about Roys’ campaign.

Sullivan said “funding cuts and voucher schools and de-professionalizing parts of our profession” has had an impact on schools, and that there needs to be a candidate who’s going to prioritize public education and make schools stronger for children.

“It’s very clear that she has some of the best understanding of what we’re dealing with on a day to day basis, and what we’ve kind of struggled with over the last 15 years with the Republicans in control,” Sullivan said.

Roys has said she wants to bring the state’s voucher program to a “responsible” end. She has said she has a three-step plan.

“I’m not calling for immediate elimination but we are spending nearly $700 million each year on unaccountable, discriminatory, non-transparent voucher programs that the evidence shows on balance perform no better than public schools.” Roys said.

The plan includes implementing additional accountability, transparency and nondiscrimination requirements for any private or charter school that receives public funds; no longer covering the costs for students enrolled in the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program; and then slowly ending the Milwaukee and Racine Parental Choice Programs over the span of about 20 years.

Roys said that under her plan students currently participating in the Milwaukee and Racine Parental Choice Programs and their siblings would be able to complete their education in the program, but additional students would not be able to enroll.

“These are kids who have already faced some significant challenges and it would be highly disruptive to just make them change schools…We know that having a stable school environment is important for them,” Roys said. “Over time, as these kids… graduate, you are gradually reducing the number of kids who are enrolling in voucher programs. At the same time, you’re increasing the capacity and the quality of the public schools, so that more and more Milwaukee parents will feel excited about their kids attending the public schools in their district.”

Roys added that any voucher school would have the option to convert to a public instrumentality charter school if they wanted to continue to receive public funds even as the voucher program ended.

Childcare, healthcare and taxation

Roys said understanding how state government is structured and funded is essential to advancing priorities including expanding healthcare and childcare access and reducing costs for families.

“We live in kind of a garbage political culture that values reality TV, aesthetics over competence and substantive knowledge, but I actually think that’s pretty bad for a governor,” Roys said.

Roys also served in the state Assembly, the last time Democrats held a trifecta in Wisconsin. Her legislative experience is shaping her plans for how she would approach the job as Wisconsin’s top executive, especially as Democrats are seeking to flip the Assembly and Senate this year.

Roys supports providing universal access to early childhood education by ensuring that no family pays more than 7% of their income for childcare. She says that can be done by expanding the Wisconsin Shares program to bring in more federal money and legalizing and taxing cannabis. She said the working title for her program is “get baked for babies.”

Roys speaks to a group of local teachers at a campaign event in April. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

To help Wisconsinites struggling with high costs, Roys has said she wants to increase the minimum wage. She has co-authored legislation that would place the minimum wage, currently $7.25 an hour, at $15 an hour with a path to make it $20 by 2030. Another of Roys’ proposals, which she is hoping differentiates her from other candidates focused on expanding Medicaid and a public option, is opening up the state employee health insurance plan to allow private citizens and businesses to buy into coverage. She’s calling it “KeldaCare.”

Roys began circulating a cosponsorship memo for the idea in bill form as SB 1096 on Feb. 12. She announced the campaign platform the same day.  A Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo on the bill warns that the plan could reduce the state’s “bargaining leverage” with health insurance companies and could “increase administrative complexity and increase premium volatility.”

Roys has said she would “restore” the top tax rate as governor so the state’s wealthiest pay more. In 2013, Wisconsin’s highest individual income tax rate was 7.75% before being reduced to 7.65% under Republican lawmakers.

“It’s not fair for working people and retirees and the middle class and young people just starting out to have to pay our fair share of taxes and the wealthiest among us don’t. It’s not fair for small businesses to bear the brunt of providing public services,” Roys said. “Meanwhile big multinational corporations, not only do they not pay their fair share… oftentimes, we’re shoveling money at them. We’re giving them huge tax credits.”

Roys says she is the “proven fighter” people want

While Roys has positioned herself as a sharp critic of Republicans and the Trump administration, she said she would still work with lawmakers across the aisle as governor.

“I understand that as governor — this is no kings. So this is going to be an open discussion that I am going to have as we craft the budget together with public input and public oversight, and in conjunction with the Legislature who are governing partners,” Roys said.

Roys noted in an interview that she hasn’t always agreed with people in her own party. “I believe that my job is to do what I think is right to the best of my ability after listening to the people whom I represent, which I always consider to be the entire state of Wisconsin.” She ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012, losing to now-U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, and took a shot at becoming the Senate minority leader in 2023, losing to now-Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton).

Roys has sought to position herself as the firebrand candidate who will be able to take on the Trump administration. If she makes it through the primary, she’ll need to win in a purple state where statewide elections are often decided by a razor-thin margin of about 20,000 votes, including when Trump won the state in 2024.

Roys told the Examiner that her strong positions will help her in Wisconsin, not hurt.

“The most important thing right now is that we are in a really scary and pivotal moment for this country,” Roys said. During the campaign, Roys has confronted Tiffany’s support of Trump, including at one of his press conferences outside the state Capitol that she filmed and made into a campaign ad.

“People want a proven fighter. Someone new or inexperienced and a mealy-mouthed moderate is not going to cut it in this moment… If we have someone that isn’t capable of being aggressive and making Tom Tiffany accountable for his horrible record of hurting Wisconsinites… we’re not gonna win.”

State Sen. Kelda Roys makes a move to break through crowded Democratic primary was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.

Workers count absentee ballots Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, at the Central Count facility in Milwaukee. Angela Major/WPR

The chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission wants state Attorney General Josh Kaul to push for the destruction of what he says are more than quarter-million absentee ballots from Milwaukee’s 2020 election, after the FBI interviewed city officials and police.

The call by Wisconsin Elections Commission Chair Don Millis, a Republican, comes after the FBI seized 2020 ballots in Georgia earlier this year amid President Donald Trump’s repeated false claims the election was stolen.

During a Sunday appearance on WISN 12’s “UpFront,” Millis said FBI agents have been “offered up various conspiracy theories” about Milwaukee’s 2020 results that “certain grifters have put out there.” Millis said the agents have been professional and have been given information showing that “there was not any conspiracy or that the counting of the ballots in 2020 was wrong or done improperly.”

Millis said it seems that the FBI is tasked with writing a report for “higher-ups in Washington,” and he voiced frustration about Milwaukee County still storing “265,000 absentee ballots” showing which candidates those people voted for. Millis said they need to be destroyed fast.

“No one is entitled to see those,” said Millis. “Our constitution was built on the idea of a secret ballot, and I’m just frustrated that that hasn’t happened. I just wish that the decision makers who are in charge of this would see that and move more quickly.”

Under state law, election officials may destroy ballots and other records after 22 months.

Millis referenced a “litigation hold” on the absentee ballots in Milwaukee, but didn’t elaborate. Multiple lawsuits against Milwaukee’s election commission and individual commission members have been filed in state and federal court by activist Peter Bernegger of New London. In 2022, Bernegger was fined by the Wisconsin Elections Commission for filing frivolous lawsuits making voter fraud claims.

Milwaukee County has hired outside legal counsel to assist, but Millis said Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, should intervene to prevent those ballots from being released.

“There certainly is a statewide interest in keeping these ballots, these voters’ preferences secret,” said Millis. “So, I think that may help speed it up, but I think that he’s been frustrated with the slow pace of the litigation.”

A spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Justice didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Millis said he believes Milwaukee has the authority under state law to destroy the 2020 ballots regardless of the FBI’s involvement. A best case, he said, would “be tomorrow, but I just don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Fellow Republican WEC member Bob Spindell thinks the FBI should take a look at Milwaukee 2020 ballots

Wisconsin Elections Commission member Bob Spindell, a fellow Republican, told WPR the ballots should be released to the federal government.

Spindell said each absentee ballot has a voter number on it, “but to think that the federal government is going to take several hundred thousand ballots and try and match them up is really ridiculous, and we know that 85 percent of the voters in the city of Milwaukee vote Democratic anyway.”

“So, I think that’s a red herring, and I think the FBI should take a look at these,” Spindell said. “And I think the Wisconsin Election (Commission) should cooperate with any investigations.”

Spindell also said the commission should turn over its voter registration list to the federal government, so that it can check and make sure that any non-citizens be taken off the voter rolls.

The U.S. Department of Justice is currently appealing a lawsuit seeking voter registration records that include individuals’ driver license numbers or portions of their social security numbers. A federal district court judge dismissed the case last month.

Milwaukee mayor says FBI questions about the 2020 election are part of Trump’s ‘vanity project’

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson was more direct in his criticism of the federal government’s interest in how it conducted the 2020 election during his appearance on WISN-TV. Johnson claimed the FBI has only focused on states where Trump lost.

“There’s nothing that’s going on,” said Johnson. “This is a vanity project. I don’t want to give any additional light to these efforts to relitigate an election that was decided.”

Johnson said Trump is refusing to abide by the will over the voters “unless he wins” and took a swipe at Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany, who is running for governor and said in May that the FBI should be able to question election officials.

“That’s why I encouraged the representative to, if you have an issue, come to City Hall,” said Johnson. “Let’s have a conversation. I’ll have you meet with our elections folks yourself. Don’t sign up for this mess that the president is dragging this country through.”

Wisconsin elections chair wants state to speed destruction of Milwaukee’s 2020 ballots amid FBI probe was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Giannis Antetokounmpo. Photo by David Bernacchi.

The Giannis Antetokounmpo era in Milwaukee is over.

The Milwaukee Bucks are trading the two-time Most Valuable Player and fan favorite Bobby Portis to the Miami Heat in a blockbuster deal that launches the Bucks into a full-scale rebuild.

Milwaukee will receive four players: guard Tyler Herro, center Kel’el Ware, forwards Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kasparas Jakučionis. The Bucks will also acquire the 13th selection in Tuesday night’s NBA Draft, unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, and the right to swap first-round picks with Miami in 2030 and a 2033 second-round pick.

The trade ends Antetokounmpo’s 13-season run with the only NBA franchise he has known. The Bucks selected the relatively unknown Greek prospect with the 15th pick in the 2013 draft.

He developed into the greatest player in franchise history, winning back-to-back MVP awards in 2019 and 2020 and the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award in 2020. His defining achievement came in 2021, when he scored 50 points in the championship-clinching victory over the Phoenix Suns and delivered Milwaukee its first NBA title in 50 years.

Portis, who joined the Bucks before the championship season, became one of the team’s most popular players and a key member of its rotation. He featured prominently in Visit Milwaukee advertising and was known as The Mayor.

The breakup between Antetokounmpo and the Bucks comes after the team struggled to find success after the 2021 title. The team only made it to the second round of the playoffs once after the title. On an annual basis, the team’s playoff appearances would be derailed by injuries to Khris Middleton (2022), Antetokounmpo (2023 and 2024) and Damian Lillard (2025). The team consistently cashed in future assets in an attempt to win now, but ended last year with the worst record since Antetokounmpo’s rookie year. Antetokounmpo expressed a desire to compete for a championship, which, given the Bucks’ lack of future draft picks and talent, seemed unlikely to happen in Milwaukee.

Antetokounmpo, 31, now joins star center Bam Adebayo and coach Erik Spoelstra in Miami. He is entering the final guaranteed season of his contract and is expected to eventually sign a long-term extension with the Heat. Under NBA rules, he will become eligible for a four-year, approximately $275 million extension six months after the trade becomes official.

The focus in Milwaukee immediately shifts to Tuesday night’s draft. The Bucks already hold the 10th overall selection and will now also control the 13th pick, giving the team two opportunities to add young, high-end talent.

Herro, a Wisconsin native and former Whitnall High School standout, is the most accomplished player coming to Milwaukee. He is a proven scorer, though the Bucks could explore another trade rather than make the 26-year-old guard the centerpiece of a long rebuild.

Ware and Jaquez provide younger building blocks, while the distant and unprotected Miami draft picks could become valuable if the Heat decline later in the decade.

The trade, under league rules, cannot be finalized until July 6.

New coach Taylor Jenkins will now lead a substantially different team. After years of trading draft picks and young players to maximize Antetokounmpo’s championship window, the Bucks’ next task is clear: build the franchise’s post-Giannis future.

Bluff Erosion in Sheridan Park. Photo by Milwaukee County Parks.

Milwaukee County Parks is in a race against Mother Nature to stabilize towering lake bluffs that are crumbling away, imperiling public infrastructure and nearby homes.

In Sheridan Park, powerful spring storms and older infrastructure further up the shoreline are creating a ticking time bomb. Near the north end of the park, the bluff is quickly eroding. Other bluffs along Milwaukee County’s south shore are in worse condition, but this bluff is the only one directly adjacent to the Oak Leaf Trail, a public road (S. Sheridan Dr.) and a number of homes.

“And the problem is that this is the only place in our whole park system where people live that close to the bluff,” Deputy Parks Director Jim Tarantino told Urban Milwaukee.

The City of Cudahy is responsible for S. Sheridan Drive and has already worked on a cost estimate for buying people out of their homes if there is a bluff failure that endangers them and public infrastructure.

The homes are part of a subdivision that was largely built in the 1930s. Around the same time, a groin field, composed of a series of concrete jetties, was built along the shoreline of Sheridan Park to stabilize the shoreline and the bluffs above, Tarantino said. At the northern end of the park, a municipal sewer pipe extends into the lake.

Between the pipe and the groin field, a “shadow zone” has formed where the shoreline is quickly eroding, destabilizing the base of the bluff, officials have said. Powerful spring storms have washed away sections of the bluff crest. The bluff is eroding at both the top and the bottom.

“The earth literally went downhill, taking trees and part of Sheridan Park with it,” Sup. Steven Shea told the Milwaukee County Board’s Committee on Finance Thursday. “The most northern [collapse] leaves the bluff just about 12 feet from the Oak Leaf Trail.”

Shea is pushing a resolution to pull approximately $1.12 million from the county’s rainy day fund to finance the complex engineering required for planning, design and permitting for a bluff stabilization project. The total cost of the project is estimated at as much as $20 million, Tarantino said. Funding just the planning and design could push the county budget into a deficit by the end of the year, according to the latest budget projection from the Office of the Comptroller.

To fund the total project, Parks plans to seek funding from a new Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) program called Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, which provides funding for projects that prepare for and protect against natural disasters.

“So now Great Lakes communities can at least apply for that kind of FEMA support, where we couldn’t before,” Tarantino said, adding this caveat: “The recent politics that go along with that are true. We’ve been denied for multiple FEMA submissions for storm damage.”

The Trump administration has repeatedly denied Milwaukee County and the State of Wisconsin funding to repair public infrastructure damaged during storms in 2025.

Cudahy residents, including members of the Sheridan Park Friends group, are advocating for the emergency planning and design funding.

Colleen Grundy, chairperson of the friends group, said she has lived near the park for 18 years. “I’ve seen a lot of erosion, but never to the extent that the bluffs are starting to unravel now,” she said. Bari Svoboda, also with the friends group, said the organization has collected 800 signatures calling for action to protect the bluff.

“This is of utmost importance,” Cudahy Mayor Ken Jankowski told members of the Committee on Finance. The eroding bluff crest is now only 70 feet from S. Sheridan Drive, which is where all the infrastructure that services nearby homes runs.

“So, time is of the essence with this project,” said Sarah Toomsen, Parks director of planning.

If funding is approved, the county would immediately begin contracting for the engineering. The project would need permitting from the state Department of Natural Resources because it would alter the shoreline. Parks is working with Wisconsin Emergency Management to apply for FEMA funding. If that funding is secured, it would cover 75% of project costs and the county would have to cover the other 25%, Toomsen said.

Parks already has a number of conceptual plans to address the project, thanks to a previous coastal assessment funded with federal COVID-19 stimulus money. These concepts could include adding new groins or laying heavy rock at the base of the bluff to stabilize the shoreline. Bluff slopes in this area tend to stabilize at an angle of 22 degrees, Toomsen said. The goal of any project would be to help the slope get there.

Funding the project will be difficult for supervisors charged with minding the county budget. The comptroller’s office recently reported the county is projecting a narrow $300,000 budget surplus for the year. The surplus requires all of the county’s rainy day fund be available to backfill departmental budget gaps. Funding for the emergency bluff project could cause a budget deficit.

Sup. Shawn Rolland asked Toomsen whether they could delay funding until the 2027 budget.

“I can’t say how fast the bluff will continue to move, but we would begin the process of design if we had the money in hand,” Toomsen said. “I anticipate that both design and community analysis that would need to be done, as well as permitting, would take a year.”

Sup. Steve Taylor asked when construction could begin if funding was approved. 2028, at the soonest, Toomsen said.

Taylor said he would rather weigh the project against other county needs during the annual budget process. “I’d rather weigh this versus all the other projects that we have to do in the county. Frankly, you know, there’s no guarantee we’re going to get this FEMA money at all.”

Taylor was the lone member of the Committee on Finance to vote against releasing the funding. The measure will go before the full board for a final vote later this month.

Update: Story was updated to reflect that Sarah Toomsen’s title is Director of Planning.

Kenosha Unified School District administration building. Alexroberson (CC BY)

The Kenosha Unified School District is weighing several options to reduce its expected $17 million budget deficit if a planned November referendum fails.

Those options include eliminating 40 teaching positions and cutting sports programs and art.

The district is also considering increasing class sizes and closing Reuther Central High School, an alternative school for students that have struggled in traditional high schools.

Superintendent Jeffrey Weiss has been meeting with the school board this month to discuss the necessary budget reductions for fiscal year 2027-28.

“I want to put it out right up front that these cuts will happen should the referendum be unsuccessful or if we decide not to go forward with one,” Weiss said.

On Tuesday, the board is expected to approve finalized budget reductions and the general language that will be included in survey questions sent out to the community to gauge their support for a referendum.

Weiss told the board he wants to make sure voters know the consequences of failing to approve a referendum.

“I really think it’s important that we communicate with the public what’s at stake,” he said.

The last referendum — held in February 2025 — failed by an eight-point margin.

During a recent meeting, board member Rebecca Stevens said for the sake of the community, people need to be shown how the possible cuts could affect students.

“And I think that you have to look at the music programs and all the additional programs, theater, everything that we do,” Stevens said. “I’m not saying I want to see that cut, I’m saying that might happen if we don’t have the money coming in.”

Board member Bob Tierney said he doesn’t want to see sports cut.

“That’s just dumb,” Tierney said. “But it would be a good tool if you are trying to pass a referendum.”

Tierney also cautioned the board about telling the community the public school district is losing money to private schools. Doing so pits people against one another, he said.

“Security, safety, teachers, high value, highly qualified teachers, those are the main things,” he said.

The Kenosha Unified School District is facing the same budget woes many public school districts are dealing with.

The district, which covers the city of Kenosha along with Pleasant Prairie and Somers, had about 17,800 students for the 2025-26 school year, down more than 700 students from the previous year.

Wisconsin’s school funding system limits the amount of revenue school districts can receive each year from state aid and local property taxes. These revenue limits are tied primarily to state-approved adjustments and student enrollment.

For many years, state funding adjustments have not kept pace with inflation.

As a result, Kenosha’s revenue has grown much more slowly than the cost of operating schools, according to district officials.

Meanwhile, expenses such as curriculum and instructional materials, utilities, health insurance, transportation and employee salaries continue to increase.

At the same time, declining enrollment driven by an ongoing decrease in birth rates has reduced the number of students attending the district’s schools, which has in turn limited district revenue because the state’s school funding formula is calculated using student population.

Increased competition from neighboring districts, private schools, charter schools and other educational options has also contributed to enrollment challenges, district officials say.

The Kenosha Unified School District board approved a district consolidation and downsizing plan in December 2023 to tackle a $15 million deficit. Four of the buildings were torn down to make way for redevelopment.

Kenosha schools consider cutting sports, 40 teaching positions to address $17M deficit was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Zenith. Rendering by KORB.

Milwaukee could be on the verge of seeing something it hasn’t seen in two decades: a new condominium high-rise.

While the city has seen a wave of apartment towers constructed, culminating in two more than 30-story buildings completed in 2024, the city’s supply of new housing for sale in Downtown has been effectively zero since the Great Recession.

One development firm, New Land Enterprises, is now making a big bet that the market is ready for change.

On Monday, New Land unveiled plans for Zenith, a 25-story, 226-unit tower. The building would be constructed at 711 E. Kilbourn Ave., a vacant lot across from New Land’s record-setting Ascent mass timber apartment tower.

The company, one of the leaders in Milwaukee’s prior urban condo boom that began in the 1990s, believes the market has matured, creating demand for new owner-occupied downtown housing units.

A growing demand for new condos and rising prices for existing housing have made the development financially feasible, said Tim Gokhman, New Land’s managing director, in an interview. The shift, he said, has happened dramatically over the past three years as housing prices have matched construction prices and demand for new owner-occupied housing has grown.

The building would be a “signature condo tower,” said Gokhman. It would offer amenities and building systems not found in other buildings, and at a price point New Land believes other buildings can’t match.

“It’s a luxury building, no question about it, but it is really optimized for efficiency,” said Gokhman. “With a luxury building, with this location, with these amenities, we get a pretty attainable price point.”

One-bedroom units would range from $458,000 to $655,000; two-bedroom units would range from $772,000 to $1.2 million; and penthouse units, with 1,997 to 3,670 square feet, would range from $1.8 million to $3 million.

Zenith would include an indoor/outdoor pool atop the parking podium, a sauna, an outdoor terrace with fire pits, a rooftop deck, a pet spa, a golf simulator and a two-story fitness center. Building staff would always be on site.

Some combination of the amenities can be found in many other new buildings, including Ascent, but Gokhman believes the total offering and ownership option will differentiate the building from both existing apartments and condos.

“There’s a segment of the population that has a strong preference for ownership, and right now they don’t have an option at all,” said Gokhman.

Compared to Kilbourn Tower and University Club Tower, two existing condo towers with a few dozen units each, the Zenith units would be smaller, said Gokhman, but the amenities and building systems would be better because of the number of units and the availability of modern technology. The indoor/outdoor pool with skyline and lake views, he said, would also be unmatched.

“In many respects, you’re chasing a different market,” he said of the two lakefront towers chasing only the very top of the market.

New Land hopes to presell 50% of the units before breaking ground in 2027.

Korb Architecture is leading the building’s design. A general contractor has not been named.

The tower would use a concrete design with no beams, a feature intended to make the units’ interiors more attractive to residents. “You have to be very intentional with your floor plan design,” said Gokhman of achieving the design. He said the beamless design is something prospective luxury buyers are looking for.

The choice to use concrete over mass timber, an engineered wood product that New Land believes gives Ascent an aesthetic advantage versus other apartment buildings, was deliberate to achieve the beamless design.

“Ascent is one of a kind, and it is going to be very difficult to repeat,” said Gokhman. He said the gap between mass timber construction costs and concrete construction costs are dramatic. New Land, he said, continues to look to develop mass timber buildings in other markets.

Gokhman is confident his company has the experience to handle the transition back to for-sale housing from rental housing. “You’re selling a unit to someone. That’s a very different process than renting a unit,” he said.

Falk Ruvin Gallagher is leading sales for the tower. A presale website was scheduled to launch Monday evening.

New Land has long eyed housing for the site. The site was initially rezoned in 2008 for The Bookends development, which envisioned a 19-story apartment tower on the site and a neighboring lot. That proposal did not move forward, but the special zoning designation remains.

New Land, in 2022, sought to develop a small food truck park on the site, but those plans never progressed after a license was initially requested. A zoning modification was made in 2025 to allow Ascent residents to have gardens at the site.

The last condo plan to receive zoning approval, The Fifteens at Park East, called for 15 large townhomes just north of Downtown. It was approved in 2024 and canceled in 2025. A proposal for the Haymarket area near Deer District could include condos, but plans have yet to be publicly introduced.

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2022 Site Photos

Sam Schneider at front of the field at the 2024 Centraal Bay View Classic in the Tour of America’s Dairyland. (Photo by Jeramey Jannene)

The fast-paced Tour of America’s Dairyland bicycle racing series returns to Milwaukee this week. The 11-day series features fan-friendly racing, culminating each evening in professional riders hitting speeds of approximately 35 miles per hour on short loops on city streets.

Each stop in the series is a party in and of itself, with food and beer vendors, a community hour to get out onto the course, and a professional announcer to keep first-timers and superfans alike plugged into the action.

The series formally enters Milwaukee on Thursday with the Centraal Bay View Classic and returns again on Saturday with the Café Hollander Otto Wenz Downer Classic. Many of the other days take place in nearby suburbs, including Shorewood and Wauwatosa.

Bicyclists compete in timed races, completing lap after lap on city streets. An announcer keeps the crowd informed on what’s happening, with pace cars and video display boards also tracking the races. Action picks up not just at the end of the race to determine the winner, but also in single-lap sprints (primes) with cash prizes.

The accompanying street festivals allow spectators to lean on the course walls and cheer on the racers, or sit back in a chair and enjoy a snack and beverage.

All of the races are free to attend, with larger crowds forming later in the day for the professional races. The action concludes around 8 p.m. each day, with racers recovering at host families’ homes.

A community hour is held each day, allowing children to give it their all, even if that includes training wheels, or adults to ride at their leisure. The Downer Avenue and Shorewood races also include the Dairyland Mile, a one-mile sprint for runners.

Daily events begin with amateur riders and progress to 75-minute women’s and men’s pro races. Check the schedule to make sure you’re catching the event you want to see, and monitor the action on Instagram.

If you’re watching the Downer or Shorewood races, pay attention to the extra races in 2026. ToAD is hosting the USA Cycling Masters and Junior Road National Championships. The five-day event starts on the final two days of ToAD before moving to Columbus and Fall River. A race for men age 75 and older at 1:50 p.m. on Saturday is sure to inspire all in attendance to maintain their fitness for decades to come.

More information, including a full schedule for each day, is available on the Tour of America’s Dairyland website.

Remaining Races

• June 23 — Wilo USA Cedar Creek Classic
• June 24 — Tour of Hartland
• June 25 — Centraal Bay View Classic
• June 26 — Shorewood Criterium Cycling Classic
• June 27 — Café Hollander Otto Wenz Downer Classic
• June 28 — Café Hollander Tosa Village Classic

Annie Kubes, Brian D. Litzsey, Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic and Mayor Cavalier Johnson were surrounded by kids for the ribbon-cutting ceremony at Emigh Playfield. Photo taken June 22, 2026 by Sophie Bolich.

Mild weather and cloudless skies set the scene at Emigh Playfield as kids of all ages played on swings, dashed through sprinklers and spun dizzying circles on the merry-go-round at the newly renovated park at 495 E. Morgan Ave.

Representatives of Milwaukee Recreation gathered with city officials and community members Monday morning for an official ribbon-cutting to celebrate the completion of the project, which has been in progress since 2022.

“What you see today is the result of a shared vision,” said Annie Kubes, senior director of Milwaukee Recreation, noting that renovations were guided by community feedback. “This project reflects a significant investment in the Tippecanoe neighborhood … it’s also a powerful example of Milwaukee Recreation’s commitment to providing all members of our community with access to quality green spaces and recreation facilities.”

Features of the reimagined playfield include modern playground equipment; basketball, pickleball and tennis courts; a splash pad; painted play areas; a pump track; shaded seating; and updated lighting. The park is named for Clarence H. (Pete) Emigh, a longtime Milwaukee Public Schools employee and former assistant superintendent of recreation and adult education for the department.

“His legacy of service to our community lives on in this playfield,” Kubes said.

Emigh is the 14th park completed since 2014 as part of Milwaukee Recreation’s ongoing push to update all 52 of its playfields. Work at Emigh was completed last fall, allowing plenty of time for neighbors to experience the refresh before the official reopening.

“Just like many of the families here, I think I’ve been here with my kids over a dozen times already,” said area Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic. “And here’s what we think: It’s unbelievable. MPS and Milwaukee Rec could have just fixed something that was broken, but instead they invested in something that will pay off for generations.”

Mayor Cavalier Johnson, who’s visited the park with his own children in recent weeks, said the project will have a long-lasting effect. “This is where memories are made,” he said, as laughs and happy shrieks emanated from the playground behind him. “That sound is what it’s all about. When kids are able to go out and play and have a good time, it’ll make them have more pride in the area that they call home. That’s one of the things that we’ve been missing in our neighborhoods.”

Located at the heart of a residential neighborhood, Emigh Playfield features on-site parking and restrooms. Existing baseball, softball and soccer fields remain on the southern side of the park.

More than a dozen kids participated in the ribbon-cutting before running off to rejoin the playground games.

“This is what community is all about,” said Brian D. Litzsey, chief family, community and partnerships officer for MPS. “None of this was done in isolation. We don’t own this — this is yours … and every day you walk in this new playfield, take pride in it.”

Photos

Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, at Gov. Tony Evers’ first State of the State address in Madison, Wisconsin, at the State Capitol building on Jan. 22, 2019. Emily Hamer/Wisconsin Watch

Last week was the most significant holiday of the year for Black Americans, and perhaps even more important for Milwaukee’s African American community: June 19, or Juneteenth Day. It celebrates the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce that the Civil War had ended and that all enslaved people were finally free. And Milwaukee was one of the early cities to officially recognize this with a Juneteenth celebration.

The importance of this event was signified by the U.S. Congress, which voted overwhelmingly to make this day a federal holiday, a measure signed into law by President Joe Biden on June 17, 2021. The vote in the U.S. Senate was unanimous. Not even Wisconsin’s radical Republican Ron Johnson, who initially offered objections, voted against it.

The vote in the House of Representatives was 415-14, with mostly a smattering of Southern representatives voting no. Just one Midwestern member of the House opposed it: Wisconsin’s Tom Tiffany, putting him in opposition to 515 members of Congress.

“My vote reflected my belief that America has one Independence Day, and that is July 4th,” Tiffany said in a statement at the time. “Juneteenth and other historic events should be celebrated… but I do not support the premise of establishing another Independence Day when July 4th serves as a unifying moment for all Americans and reminds us of our ongoing work to build a more perfect Union.”

But Juneteenth is not “another Independence Day.” July 4 celebrates the American colonies’ independence from Britain. And while it celebrated that “all men are equal,” this most definitely did not include America’s enslaved people. They were left as property of their white owners, with no upgrade whatsoever in their rights.

Juneteenth is not a celebration of independence from another country, but of freedom from slavery after 246 years of bondage in America, including 89 years since the Declaration of Independence had been written. As the former slave and famed orator Frederick Douglas declared in an Independence Day address in 1852, “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.”

To ask Black Americans to celebrate July 4 as their day of freedom is to ignore our Constitution, which gave no rights to enslaved people and counted them as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of giving Southern slave states more political power. It was a bloody Civil War that gave Black Americans their freedom, not the Constitution.

All of this is history Tiffany must know. If he doesn’t, he lacks the knowledge and wisdom to serve as governor. And if he does, he is offering a misleading and essentially false version of American history. Some of his other stands suggest the latter is the case.

Tiffany and Republican Rep. Scott Fitzgerald were the state’s only lawmakers voting to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory in the key swing states of Arizona and Pennsylvania. Wisconsin Republican U.S. House members Glenn Grothman, Bryan Steil and Mike Gallagher all voted to affirm Biden’s election. Even Ron Johnson, an election conspiracy theorist himself, switched his vote to support the Arizona election.

Grothman condemned the attempt to overturn the election. “I am sure that James Madison and Alexander Hamilton are spinning in their graves. The idea that the President would be determined by a vote of Congress is both absurd and dangerous,” he said.

Gallagher was equally alarmed, writing a column for the conservative National Review declaring “The idea that Congress — not the people in the states — gets to choose the president and the vice president would surprise the Framers. It would stun millions of Americans.”

Tiffany claimed that “unscrupulous” officials in Dane County and Milwaukee County allowed “hundreds of thousands of illegal votes to be cast and counted,” a blatant lie that has never been proven by him or anyone else. He also said he would have voted to overturn the election in Wisconsin had Congress chosen to vote on this.

Tiffany initially offered some resistance to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, saying “violence is unacceptable,” but soon changed his tune, dismissing the House’s Jan. 6 committee hearings as an attempt “to distract the American people from the damage that’s being done to our country right now. Inflation, energy prices out of control, southern border out of control, crime.”

Tiffany has since gone on to support the Jan. 6 attempt to overthrow the government, backing the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund Trump sought to create and which could have rewarded the Capitol rioters. Tiffany embraced the fund, saying, “I would want to take a look at what was the harm that was done to those victims. If it’s significant enough, perhaps they should receive compensation.” He offered an exception only for “anyone who harmed a law enforcement official.”

Ultimately Trump faced so much opposition from Senate Republicans that he backed off on creating the fund. But had it been up to Tiffany, the Jan. 6 rioters would have been given financial awards for trying to overthrow the government. Need I add that the Founding Fathers would have been horrified at this? One of their paramount concerns was to assure the peaceful succession of one president after another.

Tiffany’s comment about Juneteenth Day was made back in 2021, but he has made no attempt to change or clarify it now that he is running for governor. Indeed, his recent comments about Trump’s anti-weaponization fund suggest his views on the 2020 election have gotten even more radical.

Tiffany has falsified our nation’s history, lied about our elections, supported attempts to overthrow an election and supported financial rewards for rioters who attempted to bring down our government. And he wants our vote to serve as governor? As Grothman once put it, America’s founders must be spinning in their graves.

Former WEDC CEO Missy Hughes. (Hughes campaign photo)

And then there were six.

Missy Hughes announced Monday that she was ending her bid for governor, shrinking the Democratic field to six candidates.

“I will always look for ways to serve, but it won’t be as governor. Today, I am suspending my campaign,” said Hughes in a statement. “As a first-time candidate, I experienced the incredible joy of receiving tremendous support from family and friends, and from people from all around the state and beyond who then also became family and friends. Thank you for everything you have done for me. In particular, I want to thank my family, my husband Tripp, and my son Harry, who both spent countless hours in the car driving me to events all over the state, and made sure I ate and laughed. My campaign team did an amazing job, with patience and grace extended to a candidate not willing to bend to the political games needed to grab a headline. I will count my blessings every day for the remarkable adventure this journey has been.”

Hughes was appointed by Gov. Tony Evers to lead the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation in 2019 and held the position until she resigned last September to run for governor.

She immediately endorsed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez.

“Sara is someone who has chosen difficult missions, as a Peace Corps volunteer, an emergency room nurse and a CDC intelligence officer. She has repeatedly placed herself in environments that are uncomfortable, unpredictable and uncertain. In those places, Sara led teams and communities and brought them together. I trust that she will do that as governor, and that she will do it well,” said Hughes.

The most recent Marquette University Law School poll, from April, had Hughes ranked seventh with 1% of respondents who said they were Democratic primary voters indicating they would vote for Hughes.

Rodriguez was ranked fourth in the poll, with 3%. Adding Hughes’ share would push Rodriguez to third, ahead of David Crowley. Francesca Hong was in first with 14%, and Mandela Barnes was in second with 11%. Sixty-five percent of respondents said they hadn’t decided who they were voting for.

The unscientific straw poll at the 2026 Democratic Party of Wisconsin convention had Rodriguez in first with 164 of the 597 ballots cast. Hughes was last with 10 votes.

State Sen. Kelda Roys and another fellow Evers appointee, former Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan, are also running.

All seven candidates qualified for the ballot by the June 1 filing deadline.

Hughes’ withdrawal comes before a July 15 campaign finance filing deadline. Her campaign will still be required to disclose its donors and expenses. She raised almost $500,000 in the prior period, with 49% coming from big or max donors.

Brennan and Roys recently launched advertising campaigns to bolster their campaigns. Barnes has substantial name recognition from his 2022 senate run and previously serving as the lieutenant governor. Hong has the most visible on-the-ground campaign, with canvassers and yard signs popping up in many cities.

An Aug. 11 partisan primary will narrow the field to a single Democrat in advance of the Nov. 3 general election.

Rep. Tom Tiffany is widely expected to win the Republican primary but faces a challenge from Andy Manske. The Republican Party of Wisconsin endorsed the Tiffany campaign at its recent convention.

Evers has served as governor since 2019 but announced his decision in 2025 not to run for a third term.

“My job is not done and the fight is not over. We need to keep a Democrat in the governor’s office and we cannot rest. And on Nov. 3 we can elect the first daughter, sister, mother, wife and nurse to be governor of our great state,” said Hughes.

Prior to her WEDC appointment, Hughes, of Viroqua, served as an executive at the Organic Valley dairy cooperative for 17 years.

Josh Kaul and Eric Toney.

The Nov. 3 election may be months away, but the campaign for attorney general — between two-term incumbent Democrat Josh Kaul and Republican Eric Toney, the Fond du Lac County district attorney who got 49% of the vote against Kaul four years ago — has already begun.

“Do you want a ‘yes man’ for Donald Trump in the attorney general’s office?” Kaul asked Democrats at their state convention. “That’s the last thing we need.”

Meanwhile, Toney told Republicans at their convention that “Josh Kaul has become everything people hate about politics, It’s time we have an attorney general that will proudly stand with our law enforcement.”

Toney, whose father was a police officer for more than 30 years, said his experience prosecuting murder, domestic abuse, kidnapping, and crimes committed by illegal immigrants qualifies him to be attorney general.

The attorney general heads the Wisconsin Department of Justice, which has about 750 employees and an annual budget of $216 million. It investigates major crimes, operates the state crime lab, represents state agencies in court and has offices of victim services, school safety, and public records and open government meetings.

With the approval of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, Kaul said he joined with other Democratic attorneys general to file “more than 50 multistate cases against the Trump administration [with] significant success.” Kaul said he joined suits against Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship and his agencies’ attempts to dismantle public health, clean energy, disaster relief and other programs.

“As your attorney general, it has been my honor to fight back when they are breaking the law,” Kaul said. “I haven’t gotten sick of beating the Trump administration yet.”

President Trump “simply has not been on the side of working families,” Kaul said. “He has looked out for the ultrawealthy. He signed into law tax cuts that provided massive benefits for the wealthy.”

At the Republican convention, Toney didn’t mention Trump — whose statewide approval rating in the most recent Marquette University Law School poll was 38% — by name.

Instead, Toney said Kaul has filed “lawsuit after lawsuit — driving resources away from public safety to push a radical, left-wing agenda.” Kaul broke his preelection promise to not be “too political,” the Republican said.

If elected, Toney vowed that his Justice Department would be a “firewall” against the “liberal supermajority” on the state Supreme Court and the “left-wing agenda that so many — including Josh Kaul — are pushing here in Wisconsin. … I will put public safety over politics.”

Toney said another Kaul “broken promise” is failing to fight the fentanyl and heroin epidemic. “He’s ignored the border crisis of fentanyl, methamphetamine pouring into the United States and here in Wisconsin.”

The state crime lab Kaul oversees is “taking over twice as long” to test DNA samples that prosecutors rely on to solve crimes, Toney said.

But Kaul claimed success in fighting the opioid epidemic, citing what he said was a drop of “more than 40%” in Wisconsin’s opioid-related deaths between 2023 and 2024. “That is saving the lives of hundreds of Wisconsinites.”

Kaul said he joined national lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors that resulted in “the recovery of hundreds of millions of dollars” from those businesses. That has given local communities statewide “significant resources to help fight that epidemic,” the Democrat added.

Kaul said his Justice Department started a “sexual assault kit tracking system” that puts new emphasis on those crimes, fought to strengthen the Office of School Safety and pushed for more resources for crime victims.

“Eric Toney will not stand up to special interests like I have,” Kaul said. “He certainly won’t stand up to Donald Trump like I have.”

The two also traded allegations on their opponent’s record on transgender rights and abortion.

Toney said Kaul refused “to stand up for families in New Richmond to protect girls’ bathrooms and space.” If elected, Toney said he would “stand up for girls and women and protect their spaces in their bathrooms here in Wisconsin.”

Kaul said he successfully sued to stop an 1848 law banning abortions from being enforced after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the procedure was not constitutionally protected. Toney opposed Kaul’s lawsuit to stop the 1848 law from taking effect, Kaul said.

The race for attorney general is expected to again be very close. In 2022, Kaul won by just 35,000 votes out of 2.6 million cast, with Evers at the top of the ticket. But Evers is not running again.

Steven Walters started covering the Capitol in 1988. Contact him at stevenscotwalters@gmail.com.