Urban Milwaukee

You’re reading a weekly rundown of all of our short-format ‘bulletins.’ The members-only content allows us to provide additional news and analysis on topics we haven’t written full articles about.

MMSD Starts Sewer Overflow [Short Take]

If it’s yellow, let it mellow.

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District started a combined sewer overflow Saturday at 12:45 p.m. as a result of heavy rain.

”Half of the District’s 20 rain gauges are showing more than three inches of rain since Friday. The South Shore Water Reclamation Facility is operating at half capacity due to ongoing construction,” said the district in a statement.

The Deep Tunnel was reported to be 87% full at the time of publication.

– Jeramey Jannene, August 1 1:25 pm

More: See the MMSD capacity website

Join Urban Milwaukee at the MANDIs [Short Take]

2026 MANDI awards

We want you to celebrate the best of Milwaukee on us.

We have an extremely limited number of seats available at our table at the MANDIs – The Milwaukee Awards for Neighborhood Development Innovation.

Described as the Oscars for Milwaukee nonprofits, the annual gala recognizes the best of neighborhood revitalization and community organizing.

The 26th annual event takes place at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino on Thursday, Aug. 13 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. and includes a full dinner and awards show. Winners will be announced in seven categories.

Claim your seat today, while supplies last. Tickets will run out.

Didn’t get a seat? Voting opens Monday for the People’s Choice Award, hosted on Urban Milwaukee.

– Jeramey Jannene, July 31 8:21 pm

Curry Hut Plans Mediterranean Rebrand [Short Take]

After just under three years in business at 1888 N. Humboldt Ave., Curry Hut will soon take on a new identity.

The Indian restaurant is planning a rebrand that would change its name to The Gyro Grill. If approved, co-owners Sanjeev Sharma and Mansoor Ahmad plan to debut a new halal menu while maintaining current hours, according to a license renewal application.

Another halal restaurant, Shawarma Palace, operates several blocks south at the corner of N. Humboldt Avenue and E. Brady Street.

Sharma and his sister, Kavita, first launched Curry Hut in 2022 at 9809 W. Oklahoma Ave. and expanded with the East Side location in 2023. The flagship closed in 2025. The building is now home to fast-food restaurant Crispy City.

– Sophie Bolich, July 31 12:57 pm

City Will Celebrate Melvina Park Expansion, Renovation [Short Take]

Three years after a groundbreaking ceremony was held, neighbors are expected to gather Sunday to celebrate the completion of the expansion and renovation of Melvina Park.

Located across from the Century City Business Park, the renovated park at N. 29th Street and W. Melvina streets quadrupled in size as part of the project.

The city-owned park, part of the MKE Plays program, was initially created as a one-acre park in 1976.

The renovation and expansion included stormwater infrastructure as well as a new playground and other amenities.

The Aug. 2 event is scheduled to run from noon until 6 p.m.

“A short program will take place from noon to 1 p.m. The event will include free food, a backpack/school supplies giveaway for youth while supplies last, games, giveaways and more,” says an announcement from area Alderman DiAndre Jackson. “Bring your chairs, tables, tents, and other food to enjoy a day of love, laughter and unforgettable memories.”

– Jeramey Jannene, July 31 10:06 am

More: See our 2023 coverage

County Board Adopts Election Integrity Resolution [Reporting Update]

The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors voted Thursday to adopt a resolution affirming the security, and integrity, of elections in Milwaukee County.

“It’s meant to just encourage confidence in our election system, because it does seem like some forces are at work to undermine that confidence, and people should know that elections are transparent and open,” Sup. Anne O’Connor, who sponsored the resolution, told Urban Milwaukee.

Later in the meeting, multiple supervisors, including O’Connor, took the floor under personal privilege to reiterate faith in the local election systems and to urge constituents to vote.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that the 2020 election was rigged. Recently, the FBI reportedly launched an investigation into the 2020 presidential election. Agents showed up at the home of Michelle Hawley, Milwaukee County elections director, attempting to interview her in May.

– Graham Kilmer, July 30 1:14 pm

More: Read our past coverage

Former Papa Murphy’s Could Become Saucy Slice [Permit Request]

A new fast food restaurant, Saucy Slice, is planned to fill the former Papa Murphy’s restaurant space at 3027 S. 60th St.

Ahmad Kattoum heads up the proposed business, which would offer classic pies with toppings such as sausage, cheese and pepperoni, alongside Philly cheesesteaks, chicken wings, fries and cheese curds.

The counter-service location aims to open in September, according to a license application.

– Sophie Bolich, July 29 3:16 pm

Seafood Shack Plans Southside Expansion [Permit Request]

The Seafood Shack, a local chain specializing in chicken wings, po’boys and fried catfish, is poised to open its third location — this time, on Milwaukee’s South Side.

Owner Tyseria Griffin, who also operates the business on S. 27th Street and N. Farwell Avenue, recently submitted a proposal to open The Seafood Shack at 3954 S. Howell Ave.

Once home to Pat’s Niche Pub and Grill, the building was set to become Precious Vibes, a cafe and study space, in 2022, though the proposal never came to fruition.

Griffin aims to launch the new restaurant, which would include a cocktail lounge, this fall.

A license application is pending before the Milwaukee Common Council. Griffin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

– Sophie Bolich, July 29 2:54 pm

More: Read our past coverage

Dominion Buys East Side Apartment Building [Short Take]

Buckingham Apartments, 1505 N. Franklin Pl. Photo by Mariiana Tzotcheva.

Dominion Properties is the new owner of the Buckingham Apartments.

Dominion acquired the 80-unit building, 1505 N. Franklin Pl., for $5.5 million on July 23, according to state real estate transfer records.

The company, which already has substantial Lower East Side holdings, acquired the property from a limited liability company registered to Lore Hauck, the widow of one-time Shoreline partner Thomas Hauck.

The eight-story building was constructed in 1930.

– Jeramey Jannene, July 27 8:55 am

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

Think you know what happened in Milwaukee last week? Take Urban Milwaukee’s weekly news quiz.

The quiz is available in our bulletins section for Urban Milwaukee members.

Hospital waiting area. (Public Domain)

Wisconsin ranks among the best in the country for high-quality hospitals based on federal data.

Of the 86 Wisconsin hospitals rated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 64 percent received a four- or five-star rating for overall hospital quality.

Compared to other states, it’s the fourth-highest percentage of top-rated hospitals, and the highest percentage reported among states with 50 or more hospitals, according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association.

The quality ratings are based on metrics across five categories including re-admissions, patient experience and mortality.

Nadine Allen, WHA’s chief quality officer, said the ratings are meant to help patients make informed decisions about where they want to receive care. She said for many Wisconsin residents, a four- or five-star choice may not be far away.

“This is not just a couple of our larger systems or larger hospitals,” Allen said. “It’s not just in urban areas, but anywhere you go in Wisconsin, you can see the consistent message.”

Six of the 21 Wisconsin hospitals that received a perfect rating are critical access hospitals, or rural locations that are more than 35 miles from another hospital and have 25 or fewer inpatient beds. Another eight critical access hospitals received a four-star rating, out of the 34 total hospitals with that rating.

“There are some thoughts on critical access hospitals that smaller doesn’t always mean better,” said Kayla Mobley, director of quality services at Tomah Health, a critical access hospital in Monroe County that received a five-star rating this year.

But Mobley said she sees Tomah Health’s small size as a strength for providing a positive patient experience.

“We know that they are members of our community,” she said. “They’re not just a number when they come here. They’re very well our neighbors or our coworkers, and so we want to make sure that we are providing exceptional care for them.”

Tomah Health, a 25-bed hospital in rural Monroe County, is one of six critical access hospitals in Wisconsin that received a five-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services this year. Photo courtesy of Tomah Health

Mobley said comparing the quality of care across health systems of different sizes and with different services is complex, and the star rating system doesn’t always capture the nuances.

That’s in part because not every hospital receives a star rating. Allen said the federal agency requires data from a certain number and variety of Medicare and Medicaid patients.

In Wisconsin, two out of five hospitals in the state did not receive a star rating, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data. That includes just over half of the state’s critical access hospitals.

This year was the first in several years that Tomah Health met the requirements for a rating, according to Mobley. She said it reaffirms what the health system has already seen through monitoring patient outcomes and feedback.

“It was nice to see the five-star recognition,” she said.

Nearly two-thirds of Wisconsin hospitals receive top federal quality ratings was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

30th Street Trail conceptual drawing. Image from feasibility study.

The Milwaukee County Department of Transportation released its plan for a new trail running from Havenwoods State Forest to the Hank Aaron State Trail through the 30th Street industrial corridor.

The preferred route and design is the latest development in a feasibility study developing plans for a trail running through the approximately seven-mile corridor. If the project ever advances to construction, it will create a new direct trail connection for more than 20 neighborhoods in the city of Milwaukee to the wider trail network that stretches across Milwaukee County, including the parks system’s more than 135-mile Oak Leaf Trail.

The 30th Street Corridor was identified in Milwaukee County Parks‘ Northwest Side Trail Plan as a priority trail corridor. The north side of the county and the city of Milwaukee is a trail desert, with many areas lacking a direct connection to the county’s otherwise extensive trail network.

The Milwaukee County Department of Transportation is working on the feasibility study, funded by a $700,000 federal grant, with consultants from SmithGroup. It is expected to be completed sometime next year. The new trail proposal is the recommended trail design. The project partners are still looking for feedback before moving forward to secure funding for construction. Residents can provide feedback on the proposed design through an interactive map and a survey posted to the project webpage. Community input is being collected through the end of August.

“Community feedback continues to be key to the 30th Street Corridor Feasibility Study,” said Milwaukee County Department of Transportation Director Joe Lamers in a statement. “We have used public input in each stage of this project, and now that a proposed trail route has been developed, we want to ensure community voices continue to inform the study.”

The new design largely runs along the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad (WSOR) corridor, owned by Watco. At various points, primarily north of W. Townsend Street, it would stray onto roadways before returning to a separated trailway. The proposed trail route incorporates elements from three conceptual designs released in April.

In Havenwoods State Forest, the trail would run along the southeast edge of the state park until it hits W. Silver Spring Drive, an idea from the “Corridor Direct” concept. Then, as the trail runs across W. Hampton Avenue, near Lincoln Creek and eventually through the Century City Business Park, the trail more resembles a different concept called “Greenway Link.” Route ideas from a third concept, “Explore the Neighborhoods,” which zig-zagged through Old North Milwaukee, Garden Homes, Amani and Midtown neighborhoods did not feature much in the proposed design.

The southern half of the trail would largely run along the rail corridor until it runs below W. Highland Boulevard., at which point it would loop around the western edge of the Molson Coors campus before following the Menomonee River to the Hank Aaron State Trail.

“The excitement and engagement we witnessed during public information meetings reaffirms that the proposed 30th Street Trail route is about much more than creating a path for walking and biking,” said Rev. Christopher Boston, 30th Street Equitable Development Project Team Facilitator. “It is fostering hope with pathways to opportunity. Residents are helping shape a vision that reconnects neighborhoods, expands access, and lays the foundation for equitable investment that reflects the aspirations of the communities that call this corridor home.”

But getting access to the railroad corridor remains an issue.

In April, Ken Lucht, Watco vice president, told Urban Milwaukee, “The county has reached out to us, informing us of their planning process but we are not a stakeholder in their process and we are not participating. The city has a myriad of existing public roadways, trails and other public ways they can use for a future trail. The rail corridor is not for sale, lease or permit to the public.” The county’s designs envision the trail running alongside an active freight rail line.

The City of Milwaukee previously attempted to purchase the railroad corridor and lease it back to WSOR to continue operating, but has been rebuffed.

Proposed Route

Conceptual Renderings

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2020 Study Images

Vacant home slated for redevelopment by Gorman & Co. that the city previously owned through property tax foreclosure. Located at 2628 N. 21st. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

A technical glitch is pushing back the date of the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office‘s (MCSO) first online foreclosure auction.

The MCSO was all set to hold its first digital auction of property tax-foreclosed real estate on Aug. 3. The new online auction would solve a long-running problem with rigged bids, collusion and intimidation during sheriff’s auctions. But “unforeseen technical complications” will delay the auction to Aug. 10, when the issues should be resolved.

It has taken nearly a decade for the county to set up online foreclosure auctions. In 2018, the Milwaukee County Board pushed the MCSO and then-County Executive Chris Abele to set up an online auction system. The push followed changes in state law that allowed online auctions and also allowed the sheriff to reject potential bidders if they were known problem landlords with back taxes or excessive building code violations. Until now, the auctions have taken place in person in the basement of the Safety Building, 821 W State St.

In the past year, the MCSO has worked with Bid4Assets, a digital real estate auction company, to host the sales for the sheriff’s office. It will “modernize” the process and provide “efficiency” for the government program and public bidders, according to the MCSO. It will also solve another problem.

In 2023, then-county Corporation Counsel Margaret Daun explained that the foreclosure auction process has “extensive problems with both intimidation, collusion and other, what I would call negative behaviors, related to foreclosure sales… It is generally considered when you look at foreclosure sales, that moving them online does increase the fairness of the process and reduces the ability for effectively — and I’m going to be pretty blunt here, use some layperson language — bad actor landlords to overwhelm the process and dominate it.”

Then-supervisor Eddie Cullen, now the communications manager in the Office of the County Clerk, authored the 2018 resolution pushing for an online system. The in-person auctions could be “scary” and were “very much an insider’s club of landlords who say, ‘Yeah, don’t bid on this one. I’ve got this one. We’ll let you get the next one,'” he told Urban Milwaukee in 2023.

The new online program was set up using $277,980 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. The funding was allocated in 2023 as part of a $7 million countywide digital transformation project.

Cullen told Urban Milwaukee Friday the new online portal will make it easier for more residents to bid on the properties.

“I’m happy to see the modernization of the auction process become a reality,” he said. “The goal of my resolution was to create a process that was more transparent, accessible, and fair.”

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (center) speaks with Mayor Cavalier Johnson (right) and Paulina Gutiérrez (left). Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson finally found someone who accepted his invitation to tour Milwaukee’s election operations.

After being ignored by U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican candidate for governor, and rebuffed by Vice President JD Vance, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin on Friday toured the Milwaukee Election Commission’s central count facility, 1901 S. Kinnickinnic Ave..

The Democratic senator praised the city’s preparations for the upcoming August and November elections while warning that President Donald Trump’s administration is seeking to undermine confidence in elections and could interfere with voting.

“I hope that after your visit today, that the vice president, that other folks perhaps who are running for high office in Wisconsin may take up the opportunity to do the exact same thing,” Johnson told Baldwin. “We can dispel some of the rumors and myths and, quite frankly, untruths — lies — that they’ve been spewing about elections in Milwaukee and other communities all across this country.”

Johnson invited Vance to tour the city’s election operations during the vice president’s July 8 visit to Milwaukee. Vance declined, saying he did not have time that day, but invited Johnson to meet with him in Washington, D.C., instead.

Johnson said Friday that he still intends to take Vance up on the offer when he visits Washington during the week of Sept. 21.

“Maybe Senator Baldwin and I can do it together,” he said.

Johnson extended a similar invitation in May to Tiffany, who has repeatedly raised concerns about Milwaukee’s elections. Tiffany never responded to the mayor.

Baldwin said Friday’s tour showed her the “high level of rigor and organization” involved in Milwaukee elections, including the storage and labeling of voting equipment, the distribution of supplies to polling locations and contingency plans for delivering additional ballots while maintaining a documented chain of custody.

Election workers, she said, are “patriots” who care about ensuring democracy functions properly.

Baldwin said Wisconsin’s election processes are heavily scrutinized, with Democratic, Republican and nonpartisan observers, equipment testing, audits and recounts offering opportunities to verify the results.

“There are lots of ways to build your confidence,” she said. “But I certainly would say going down conspiracy rabbit holes online is not the way to find out what really happens.”

The senator accused Trump of remaining “obsessed” with his 2020 election loss and using false fraud claims to cast doubt on future elections.

Baldwin said a nonpartisan audit confirmed there was no widespread fraud in Wisconsin’s 2020 election, which former President Joe Biden won. She said Trump has continued to repeat claims that the election was stolen while using the issue to raise doubts about upcoming elections.

She also warned about Trump’s calls to deploy federal agents near polling locations, efforts to obtain state voter records and attempts to place new restrictions on mailed ballots.

Baldwin said she supports the Protect Our Polls Act, which would restrict the deployment of federal agents at polling locations, and the SHIELD Our Elections Act, which would allow state attorneys general to challenge federal seizures of ballots.

Johnson said the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents or other federal officers near polling places would be intended to frighten voters rather than improve public safety.

“People should have the opportunity to go and cast their ballot without fear,” he said. “It’s about scaring people. It’s about tearing communities apart and intimidating people from participating in civil society.”

The tour also highlighted Milwaukee officials’ continuing concerns about U.S. Postal Service handling of absentee ballots during the April election.

Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutiérrez said the city received only 20 mailed ballots on the April election day, despite regularly contacting postal officials throughout the day. The following morning, the commission received a tray containing 331 ballots, most of which had been postmarked before Election Day.

“That has never happened before,” Gutiérrez said.

The director said individual postal employees have been supportive, but the city has struggled to obtain answers from the broader postal system.

Baldwin said problems were reported by approximately two-thirds of Wisconsin’s local election officials and called the April performance a significant departure from the close cooperation that had existed between clerks and the Postal Service in earlier elections.

“It remains a puzzle to me what happened in April,” Baldwin said. “We need answers to that.”

She said the problems could be connected to unusually high turnout, but she has not received evidence establishing that as the cause. Baldwin said the timing is particularly troubling given Trump’s attacks on by-mail voting and other federal attempts to intervene in state election administration.

For the August election, Gutiérrez said Milwaukee had issued approximately 25,000 absentee ballots and received about 12,000 as of Friday. She encouraged voters to return their ballots as soon as possible, preferably through a secure drop box or at one of the city’s six early-voting locations as Election Day, Aug. 11, approaches.

The city’s drop boxes are monitored around the clock, she said, and voters with disabilities may have another person return their ballot for them.

Gutiérrez said election workers are also fielding an increasing number of calls from voters affected by fear and misinformation.

“We want to be the beacon of truth,” she said. “When things get complex, we will walk you through your individual circumstance to help you ensure that all eligible voters have their vote counted.”

She said election administration in Milwaukee is a bipartisan process involving workers and observers from across the political spectrum.

“You watch Central Count, Republican, Democrats sitting at the table making sure that only eligible votes count,” Gutiérrez said. “It’s a beautiful thing to watch.”

Johnson challenged politicians who accept election results when they win but claim fraud when they lose.

Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 and 2024, Johnson noted, but lost the state in 2020.

“This is a swing state. We swung,” Johnson said. “If you celebrate an election victory in the times that you win, you should do the same thing and also recognize that the system worked the way it was supposed to when you didn’t win.”

Johnson said Vance would have seen the same organized operation had he accepted the mayor’s invitation.

The mayor also renewed his criticism of Wisconsin lawmakers for failing to allow election officials to begin processing absentee ballots before Election Day. Milwaukee’s large number of absentee ballots can produce a late-night addition to unofficial election totals, something Trump and other Republicans have used to promote suspicions about the city’s results.

Johnson said the city has sought a legislative change for years and believed a bipartisan agreement was close during the most recent legislative session.

“Unfortunately, it just didn’t [happen],” he said. “So for people who have those claims of malfeasance or anything like that, they should know that there is a fix… They shouldn’t look here. They should look west to the Capitol, because that’s where the holdup is.”

184 S. 2nd St. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Full of Beans Café pulled its final espresso shots last weekend, closing out a nearly 10-year chapter in Walker’s Point as owners Rob and JoAnn Hausknecht prepare to retire.

The married couple are longtime industry veterans, with nearly six decades of combined hospitality experience — the last nine of which were spent running Full of Beans, which opened in 2017 at 184 S. 2nd St.

“Between rising costs, long hours and a distinct desire to take it easy, we will be retiring from the cafe business,” the Hausknechts said in a July 10 social media post. “We’ve enjoyed serving you and being a part of your day. We love our neighborhood and hope to come back to visit often.”

The cafe officially closed July 25. According to the post, JoAnn plans to continue working as a teacher, while Rob is “looking for a new adventure.”

Full of Beans occupied 1,200 square feet within the Mabbett & Breed warehouse building, which was fully renovated ahead of the business’s opening. The space features exposed brick and a kitchen where the Hausknechts prepared their crowd-favorite buttermilk waffles, scones and other baked goods.

Full of Beans also offered paninis, bagels and a rotating daily soup, along with cafe drinks such as lattes, steamers, Americanos, affogatos and an assortment of Rishi Tea.

With neighboring businesses including Purple Door Ice Cream, Avenue M Salon & Spa and Indulgence Chocolatiers, Full of Beans was located near the northern end of S. 2nd Street’s bustling commercial corridor.

Just Art’s Saloon previously operated across the street at 181 S. 2nd St., but closed in 2025 after its owner, Art Guenther, passed away.

Pittsburgh 2nd LLC, with registered agent Adam McCarthy, owns the multi-tenant building, 174 S. 2nd St., where Full of Beans previously operated. Additional occupants include a wedding dress store and several office tenants.

The Hausknechts did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tearman Spencer exits a courtroom in Feb. 2025. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Former City Attorney Tearman Spencer has been found guilty of felony misconduct in office.

Spencer, 69, served as the city attorney from 2020-2024 before losing his reelection bid.

A jury found Friday that Spencer used his position for personal gain by having a subordinate draft a legal opinion that was used to attempt to avoid inspection fees for storing his private car collection in a warehouse on N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. The strategy was alleged to have saved Spencer thousands of dollars.

The maximum penalty for the Class I felony is a $10,000 fine and imprisonment of no more than three-and-a-half years. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 11.

After serving in a week-long trial, the jury also found Spencer not guilty of a lesser charge: misdemeanor obstruction of an officer.

Spencer, when he was voluntarily interviewed in July 2024, was alleged to have falsely denied giving the property owner a City Attorney’s Office memo about vehicle storage and occupancy rules, saying he did not remember providing it and saw no reason to do so. Investigators said email records showed Spencer had forwarded the memo from his city account to his personal account and then emailed it to the owner. Prosecutors allege those statements knowingly misled officers during their investigation, constituting obstruction, a Class A misdemeanor.

“After five days in court, the jury found that Tearman Spencer did not provide false information to investigators. We stand by the fact that requesting legal research does not constitute misconduct in office, and we fundamentally disagree with the jury’s conclusion on that point. We are assessing our options and will determine our next steps soon,” said Spencer’s counsel, William Sulton, in a statement after the verdict.

The case was heard by Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Jorge Fragoso and prosecuted by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office. Nicolas J. Heitman was the initial prosecuting attorney, but took a new job with the Wisconsin Department of Justice in the lead up to the case. Heitman and assistant district attorney Nate Kristian McClure jointly served as prosecutors during the trial, according to court records.

Spencer’s other criminal charges

The split verdict does not end Spencer’s legal troubles.

He still faces two pending cases in Waukesha County Circuit Court stemming from an allegedly improper real estate transaction and his subsequent contact with a potential witness.

In the underlying case, prosecutors allege Spencer and real estate agent Kennard Wragg improperly acquired a house from an estate for $8,000, made repairs, paid delinquent taxes and attempted to sell it for nearly $250,000. Spencer was charged in October 2025 with four felonies: conspiracy to receive stolen property, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit criminal slander of title and conspiracy to falsely exercise the function of a public office. The charges also involve allegations that Spencer acted as a notary after his notary commission had been revoked. Spencer has maintained his innocence, and Sulton has argued that the case was filed because Spencer rejected a plea agreement in the misconduct-in-office case.

The case, according to prosecutors, was discovered during the July 2024 search of Spencer’s phone.

Spencer also faces a felony bail-jumping charge for allegedly contacting probate attorney Bettie Rodgers, a prospective witness in the real estate case. Prosecutors allege Spencer offered to direct legal work to Rodgers in what they characterized as a “veiled bribe.” Investigators discovered the alleged contact while searching Spencer’s phone in May. Spencer’s defense denies that any crime occurred. The cases are being handled in Waukesha County because Milwaukee County judges recused themselves after Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Lena Taylor, who was a practicing attorney at the time of the transaction, was identified as a potential witness.

A status conference is scheduled for Aug. 3 on the real estate transaction charges.

Misconduct in office charge

Prosecutors, in their initial October 2024 complaint, alleged Spencer used the City Attorney’s Office to help himself and the owner of a building where he stored about a dozen vehicles avoid Department of Neighborhood Services (DNS) inspections, violations and thousands of dollars in related fees. After DNS inspectors raised questions about the property’s use and whether it needed an occupancy permit, Spencer allegedly directed subordinates to research the issue without disclosing his personal interest. An assistant city attorney then produced a memo suggesting that a building used primarily for car storage might not be considered vacant or require certain registrations.

The complaint says Spencer forwarded that internal memo from his city email to his personal account and then sent it to property owner Mohammad Arif Ghaffar, who later presented it to DNS inspectors as justification for resisting enforcement. DNS officials said they had neither requested nor received the memo through normal channels. Prosecutors contend Spencer was effectively using the city’s lawyers against another city department, his own client, to protect his vehicle storage arrangement and help stop inspections, violations and fees.

1230 N. Van Buren St. Photo by Mariiana Tzotcheva.

A controversial proposal that would have brought a new sports bar to the former Victor’s space at 1230 N. Van Buren St. was denied by the Common Council Friday morning.

The unanimous decision, one of the body’s final acts before its August recess, follows a highly public Licenses Committee hearing earlier this month that, after hours of testimony and heated debate, ended in a rare deadlock.

Committee members revisited the file in a special session before the full council meeting. Special meetings are routinely scheduled to address unfinished business and are held in the Common Council chambers. Unlike regular public committee hearings, special meetings are not broadcast online, though audio is recorded.

Ald. DiAndre Jackson moved to deny the application. Alds. JoCasta Zamarripa and Alex Brower voted in support, while Ald. Andrea Pratt abstained. Ald. Peter Burgelis, who previously recommended approval for the license, was excused from the meeting.

Zamarripa, who abstained during the committee’s initial vote, recalled the “difficult hearing” on July 21.

“There were valid points made on both sides of the issue, and there were weak points made on both sides,” she said, adding that she’d “taken the time” in recent days to think through her final decision.

Brower said his votes against the proposal were driven by community feedback.

“I think it’s really important for people to have the ability to set up businesses how they want, and normally I err on the side of that,” he said. “But in this particular circumstance, given the amount of neighborhood objection, I can’t support this.”

The committee’s recommendation passed the full council unanimously.

While leadership at Ava’s could reapply in the future, area Ald. Robert Bauman has repeatedly said he does not support a tavern at the site and has instead pushed for residential redevelopment.

The council’s denial comes more than a year after the tavern was initially proposed as Vick’s on Van Buren. Since then, Kyle Atut and Paresha Pesqueira have met with community members and revised several aspects of the proposal, including the business’s name, hours and entertainment offerings.

The future of the former Victor’s building remains uncertain. Greg Kastenholz owns the property through 1230 Van Buren LLC, according to city assessment records.

Neither Pesqueira nor Bauman responded to a request for comment by the time of publication.

Redeveloping the 0.44-acre property could prove challenging. It’s an L-shaped lot, where the key corner is occupied by two other buildings on separate properties. Additionally, there is no rear alley, which would allow for more flexibility with windows and access.

Shortly before Victor’s closed, the 251-unit Nova apartment complex was completed across N. Van Buren Street.

Houses in Bay View. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The Common Council unanimously approved new short-term rental regulations Friday morning, creating a public registry and notification requirements while pledging to pursue more aggressive restrictions in the future. But they come as several council members expressed frustration with a 2017 state law that restricts their ability to impose tougher regulations.

“This has been a long ride, but it’s not over yet,” said Ald. Milele A. Coggs before the council vote.

The ordinance requires the Department of Neighborhood Services (DNS) to notify residences within 250 feet when a property is registered as a short-term rental. The city must also notify the host platform, such as Airbnb or Vrbo, when a citation or code violation is issued for conduct at a property. DNS will maintain a publicly accessible list of registered rentals.

Coggs described the ordinance as an initial attempt to improve oversight within the limits of state law. She has been seeking regulation since 2023.

“I see this as a first step, looking internally within our departments with what we are able to do to increase the level of transparency,” she said.

The measure follows complaints about parties, gunfire and other quality-of-life problems at short-term rentals. Coggs previously said major incidents in Brewers Hill and Halyard Park included violence involving firearms and, in at least one instance, a shooting.

DNS Commissioner Jezamil Arroyo-Vega said on July 23 that the city believes about 750 short-term rentals are operating in Milwaukee. At least 329 are now registered, up from only 25 properties with tourist rooming house licenses in 2020.

The department has used industry-tracking software and complaints to identify potentially unregistered rentals. DNS can issue written orders and assess reinspection fees against operators who fail to comply with the state’s registration requirements.

Several council members said Friday that the ordinance does not go as far as they would prefer.

Coggs said the council has a “clear intention” to impose a requirement that the property owner or registered agent live in Milwaukee.

“I think that is a demand that many of us are hearing from residents,” she said.

That requirement, along with a proposal requiring short-term rentals to post signs, was removed from the ordinance amid concerns that it could conflict with state law. Coggs urged the City Attorney’s Office to be “courageous” in fighting for residents as the city considers additional regulations.

Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic said the council is attempting to be “progressive and aggressive,” but is repeatedly confronted with threats of litigation.

“I want the public to know that the council hears you,” she said.

Dimitrijevic said “no one wants to be sued,” but argued that many of the city’s largest legal payouts have resulted from a lack of police accountability, not lawsuits stemming from attempts to protect residents.

“No one is anti any of this. We are trying to have some transparency,” she said, comparing the legal uncertainty to her efforts to regulate data centers.

“Thank you to my colleagues for trying to solve these challenges,” said Dimitrijevic.

Ald. Alex Brower similarly said the approved ordinance “unfortunately does not go as far as we all would collectively like.”

Brower said DNS notices on newly registered listings should explicitly tell nearby residents that state law prevents the city from blocking a short-term rental. “When we notice people, they expect that there could be action taken,” he said.

State law requires short-term rentals to register locally but limits certain municipal regulations. City Attorney Evan Goyke has called the 2017 law “underwhelming and confusing.” He previously said his office is tracking several lawsuits challenging how communities may regulate rentals, including a case pending before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

DNS expects the expanded oversight effort to cost more than $150,000 for an additional staff position and approximately $80,000 annually for property-identification software. The city could seek to recover those expenses through registration fees.

The policy was led by Coggs and co-sponsored by Council President José G. Pérez, Mark Chambers Jr., Scott Spiker, Peter Burgelis, DiAndre Jackson, Russell W. Stamper, II and Sharlen P. Moore.

The ordinance now goes to Mayor Cavalier Johnson for his signature.

A Michigan cyclosporiasis outbreak was linked to lettuce. Photo by Sophie Bolich.

A parasitic disease that causes intense intestinal distress has now infected 160 people in Wisconsin, according to the state Department of Health Services.

The rising infection numbers come as a Michigan outbreak of the disease cyclosporiasis linked to lettuce has infected more than 10,000.

Cyclosporiasis comes from a tiny parasite called cyclospora, often infecting humans in the spring and summer through contaminated water or food. The disease often spreads through produce, such as lettuce or raspberries.

It causes diarrhea and stomach pain and has been reported in multiple states. Federal officials are logging hundreds more cases than last year.

As of July 29, Wisconsin’s DHS had reported a total of 160 known cases and three hospitalizations.

That’s up from 35 cases reported statewide as of July 9. That figure was already double the number of cases reported around July 9, 2025, according to state data.

However, authorities say there are no current active cyclospora outbreaks in Wisconsin.

“Cyclosporiasis is rare in Wisconsin and the United States,” DHS said.

Investigators have not identified a common food product causing Wisconsin’s cases of the illness.

Infections come with distressing symptoms

Stomach cramps, watery diarrhea, loss of appetite, weight loss, fever and nausea are all common symptoms of cyclosporiasis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fatigue is another common indication of the disease.

Symptoms can come in waves, where the afflictions seem to disappear only to show up again later.

Many cyclosporiasis cases in the U.S. stem from foods imported from developing nations or from people traveling internationally, according to state health officials.

“Fifty of the confirmed cases did not report traveling outside the United States during the 14 days prior to symptoms starting and are domestically acquired infections,” state officials wrote wrote in their Wednesday update.

Most cyclosporiasis cases are sporadic and in healthy adults, the symptoms may last weeks or up to three months, Dr. David McNamara, infectious disease doctor at Emplify Health by Gundersen in La Crosse, previously told WPR.

It can also be harder to treat, especially for those with weakened immune systems, the elderly or children, according to McNamara.

If a person does become infected, cyclosporiasis can be treated with antibiotics. Rest and plenty of fluids are important for treating diarrhea, according to DHS officials.

Protect yourself

Doctors, state and federal officials agree the best protection against cyclospora is to wash your produce thoroughly.

DHS experts say to wash your hands well with soap and water before making a meal, and to wash all fruits and vegetables under running water before eating, cutting or cooking them.

Also, some experts suggest throwing away outer leaves from a head of lettuce, and scrubbing fruits and vegetables.

McNamara said the safest way to prepare fruits and vegetables for those with a risk for severe illness is to cook them. He also advised switching to other types of produce and avoiding fresh berries and leafy greens.

Medical experts also advise washing all cutting boards, dishes, silverware and counters after preparing food.

Wisconsin now has 160 cases of parasitic stomach illness as cases grow nationwide was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Jordan Morales speaks at a traffic safety press conference in December 2021. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The Common Council rejected Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s nomination of Jordan Morales to the Fire & Police Commission on Friday, handing the mayor his first loss on an appointment to the public safety oversight board.

Morales received six votes in favor and six against, with three council members abstaining. He needed eight votes to be confirmed. A list minute attempt at the end of the meeting for one member to flip their vote and attempt to reverse the council’s action was denied.

Several council members said their opposition was not a reflection of Morales’ qualifications or character, but of whether he would push the diminished commission to challenge police practices and emerging surveillance technology.

“This is no reflection on the individual as a person,” said Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic, who said she had met with Morales.

But Dimitrijevic said “this is not the FPC of maybe five or 10 years ago,” referring to 2023 state legislation that stripped the commission of its power to establish police and fire department policies and the Trump administration’s actions.

“I am looking for an FPC that is not okay with the status quo,” she said.

Dimitrijevic raised concerns about federal immigration enforcement, the city’s troubled 911 system and the Milwaukee Police Department’s use of Flock license plate recognition cameras. She said she wants commissioners willing to ask difficult questions and forcefully use the authority they retain.

“I want to see not just questions, but action,” she said.

Ald. Alex Brower also objected. He said he had a productive meeting with Morales and emphasized that his opposition was not based on whether Morales was capable of serving.

“My objection here today comes not from a qualification standpoint, but from an ideological standpoint,” Brower said.

Brower said he did not believe Morales was as concerned as he is about the growth of a “surveillance state.”

Common Council President José G. Pérez said he agreed with the concerns expressed by his colleagues.

The mayor was critical of the council’s vote.

“Of course, I am disappointed. Mr. Morales has a solid record of advancing public safety in Milwaukee, and he would be a great addition to the Fire and Police Commission,” said the mayor in a statement. “Those Council members who failed to support the nominee, and would not even sit down to meet with him, are neglecting their obligation to the people of Milwaukee.”

The failed confirmation leaves a vacancy on the nine-member commission.

Johnson nominated Morales, a Lower East Side resident and chair of the Historic Preservation Commission, to replace former FPC Vice Chair Bree Spencer. Morales has been a vocal advocate for public safety solutions, particularly around traffic safety, a booster of a Milwaukee and a supporter of Johnson’s push to improve safety on the city streets.

Morales is an assistant superintendent for Mortenson Construction and serves as a structural craftsman and noncommissioned officer with the Wisconsin Air National Guard. He previously worked as an air traffic control watch supervisor for the U.S. Air Force and as an air traffic controller for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

During a July 23 confirmation hearing before the Public Safety & Health Committee, Morales discussed his own negative encounters with Milwaukee police officers.

Morales said that when he went to a police station after his vehicle was stolen, he asked the desk sergeant whether the officer lived in Milwaukee. The officer said no and, according to Morales, indicated that he did not want to live in the city.

Morales said a responding officer also encouraged his family to leave Milwaukee after their Grant Boulevard home was burglarized.

“I just don’t want our police officers driving good families out of this city,” Morales told the committee.

He said those interactions did not reflect every officer, but could be “indicative of a larger culture problem that exists.”

The committee recommended confirming Morales on a 4-0 vote, but he failed to secure the eight votes required from the full council.

Council members Andrea Pratt, Larresa Taylor, Sharlen Moore, Peter Burgelis, Scott Spiker and Russell W. Stamper, II voted for the nomination. Robert Bauman, Brower, Lamont Westmoreland, DiAndre Jackson, Dimitrijevic and Pérez voted against it. Council members Mark Chambers, Jr., Milele A. Coggs and JoCasta Zamarripa abstained, effectively casting no votes under the council’s rules. None of those abstaining spoke about why they were abstaining. Chambers, a Public Safety & Health Committee member, was excused from the July 23 committee hearing where Morales presented.

At the end of the council meeting, after this article was first published, Zamarripa attempted to flip her vote from abstention to no. The move would have put her on the prevailing side, allowing her to move reconsideration and allowing everyone to revote. But she needed unanimous consent to first switch to a no vote and Bauman voiced objection, killing the effort. After the meeting, Zamarripa told Urban Milwaukee she intended to move reconsideration.

Morales would have replaced Spencer, one of the commission’s most outspoken members during her approximately four years on the board.

Spencer repeatedly pushed for tighter restrictions on police pursuits, faster public release of police video and stronger oversight of license plate recognition cameras and other emerging technologies. She declined to serve a second term after her initial term expired.

Her departure comes as the commission operates with significantly less policymaking authority than it once had. Wisconsin Act 12, enacted in 2023, stripped the FPC of its power to establish police and fire department policies. That authority now rests with the police and fire chiefs, though the council may override a policy with a two-thirds vote.

FPC members serve part-time and are paid $6,600 annually to participate in regularly scheduled meetings and other commission work.

Johnson recently reappointed Dana World-Patterson and LaNelle Ramey for new five-year terms. They were both first appointed in 2021. The Common Council confirmed their reappointments earlier in July.

Morales, after this article was first published, told Urban Milwaukee he wasn’t pleased with the outcome. “I’m disappointed by today’s vote, but I’ll always be on team Milwaukee. I know there will be opportunities for me to make a difference in the city I love, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds,” he said.

Hospital waiting area. (Public Domain)

Wisconsin health officials warn that tens of thousands of Medicaid recipients could lose their health care coverage when new federal work requirements go into effect next year.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services estimates 200,000 current participants in Medicaid, or what the state calls BadgerCare, will be subject to the new requirements included in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The Trump administration published a final rule with further details on June 1.

Adults between the age of 19 and 64 will be required to work, volunteer or complete school or job training for at least 80 hours a month to qualify for coverage.

On Jan. 1, new Medicaid applicants will need to have proof of meeting the requirement during the month before they apply. Starting in March, current members will need to have proof of meeting the requirements for at least one month in the year before their annual renewal.

DHS Secretary Kirsten Johnson told reporters on Thursday that the state currently has no work history for around 63,000 Medicaid members, putting them at risk of losing coverage if they can’t provide the needed documentation or prove that they qualify for one of the exemptions listed under the federal law.

People who are pregnant, have a child under the age of 19 who lives with them and people with a federal disability determination are excluded from the new requirements.

There are also exemptions for some caregivers and people with serious medical conditions, or what’s known as “medically frail.”

But Johnson said her agency is still waiting for further guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, to be able to determine who qualifies.

Wisconsin is part of a multi-state lawsuit against CMS that claims the agency’s June 1 guidance “unlawfully narrows Congress’s protections for medically frail Medicaid recipients” by adopting a stricter definition of the term.

Johnson told reporters that the agency’s goal is to build a process that eases the paperwork burden on both Medicaid recipients and DHS staff.

“We are hopeful that once we have a clear definition and CMS has given us additional guidance, that we are able to use that information and look at current diagnoses codes and information that we have already collected on Medicaid members who this may apply to,” Johnson said.

In the meantime, Wisconsin Medicaid Director Amanda Dreyer told reporters that DHS’ clinical experts have been developing their own definition of “medical frailty” in line with other states. She said the same is true for work to develop systems to verify other activities like caregiving or unpaid work.

“At some point, we maybe need to just make a choice and go. But in the meantime, we’re still expecting CMS to tell us what that should be looking like,” Dreyer said.

The federal work requirements do not provide an exemption for people experiencing homelessness, despite it being a significant barrier to employment.

Dreyer pointed out that work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or what Wisconsin calls FoodShare, also don’t provide an exemption for homelessness.

She said DHS is hoping to get help from local organizations working with unsheltered people to help them navigate the new requirements or qualify for an exemption.

“In some cases, that’s going to mean a very human kind of workflow,” she said. “Technology certainly helps us in a lot of ways, but we’re going to need to lean in and hold hands with our partners around the state to take care of people who are unhoused and help them get food and healthcare in an entirely new and difficult way.”

Johnson said DHS will begin notifying current Medicaid members of the coming work requirements in August. She urged recipients to make sure their contact information, including mailing address and phone, are up-to-date.

Democrats and liberal advocacy groups have continued to sound the alarm about the coming changes to Medicaid, calling for people to voice their opposition to the changes through public comment on CMS’s recently published rule.

During a press conference hosted by national advocacy groups this week, Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin said she has heard from residents around Wisconsin about the stress they already face ensuring they maintain Medicaid coverage.

“Now, Republicans are pushing forward even more red tape for families,” Baldwin said. “Their new rule will make Americans jump through even more hoops just to access sometimes lifesaving care that they are clearly eligible for.”

Wisconsin resident Rebecca Reed shared her experience relying on Medicaid coverage through treatment for breast cancer during the press conference. She is a mother of three children and was working as a paralegal and going to school when she received her diagnosis last year.

Rebecca Reed, a Medicaid recipient from Wisconsin who recently underwent extensive treatment for breast cancer, said she is worried about maintaining her coverage under new federal work requirements. Reed spoke during an online press conference held by Democrats and liberal advocacy groups on July 29, 2026. Source: YouTube

Reed said during the press conference that she is now finished with active treatment after undergoing a double mastectomy and months of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. And she worries what no longer having a cancer diagnosis will mean for her eligibility for coverage, with years of rehabilitation and medication needs ahead.

“I know that there’s an end (of medical treatment) in sight for me, and I think that I’m lucky in that way,” she said. “But I honestly don’t know what I’ll do if I lose my coverage in the next year. I won’t be able to finish my treatment.”

DHS: 63K Medicaid members lack documentation to meet federal work requirements next year was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

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

The head of the company that owns Wisconsin’s largest utility says he’s confident that tech giant Oracle will meet financial requirements for data centers imposed by state utility regulators.

Scott Lauber, president and CEO of WEC Energy Group, made the remarks Wednesday during an earnings call. The company owns Milwaukee-based We Energies, the state’s largest electric and natural gas utility.

In April, the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin approved a “very large customer” rate for We Energies that required data center developers in its territory to maintain a higher credit rating. Otherwise, they must post cash or a letter of credit to cover the cost of investments in new power plants built to serve their data centers in order to protect ratepayers.

Oracle is one of three developers partnering to build the $15 billion Lighthouse data center campus in Port Washington. The company has said it may need to post collateral in excess of $7 billion to meet the PSC requirements, and Lauber said he’s confident they can get that.

“Oracle has stated it remains committed to the project, paying its full share of energy and providing the financial support needed, so there’s no risk to other Wisconsin customers,” Lauber said. “We are actively working with Oracle to update their financial security in line with the PSCW requirements.”

In June, We Energies and data center developers petitioned regulators to reconsider the requirements. Not long after, Oracle sued to overturn them, saying they imposed “substantial and unreasonable” costs. The PSC didn’t act on the petition, and regulators accused the company of trying to avoid oversight in favor of the utility’s more lax requirements.

Tom Content, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, said the utility executive reassured analysts that Oracle would meet requirements despite its lawsuit.

“I feel like Oracle didn’t want to have that tougher requirement. But now that it’s in place, they’re complying,” Content said. “That shows that the PSC taking a stronger stand to protect customers from risk is paying off, in my mind.”

On July 9, the tech company’s credit rating was downgraded to a BBB- rating, an investment-grade rating just above junk bond status. We Energies is working with Oracle to obtain either a letter of credit or cash deposit within 30 days of the downgrade.

Lauber acknowledged Oracle’s current rating is below even the utility’s proposed credit threshold.

“I don’t think they’re taken by surprise by that at all because we already had that as a provision in our filing,” Lauber said.

Meanwhile, WEC Energy Group has been in talks with three or four customers that are seeking to build data centers using up to 500 megawatts of power. That’s less than half the amount of energy needed to power the first phase of the Port Washington data center campus, which would demand 1.3 gigawatts or enough energy to power 640,000 homes.

Lauber said he doesn’t think the financial requirements or potential need to post collateral will be an issue long-term when asked if issues with Oracle are prompting any concerns.

“I don’t think it’s going to hurt at all as we look at those new customers,” Lauber said.

But attorneys for We Energies argued in its June petition that the commission’s changes to financial support requirements “would impose significant limits on billions of dollars of investment in the state.”

In the meantime, the utility executive said he didn’t think the lawsuit or financial requirements would affect the timeline for building the Port Washington data center campus. However, environmental groups have also sued the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources over permits issued for the project.

Midwest Environmental Advocates sued the DNR on behalf of Sierra Club Wisconsin over the agency’s decision to grant approvals without conducting an environmental impact statement.

A Marquette Law School Poll this month shows 76 percent of voters in Wisconsin surveyed think the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits. Supporters have touted their potential to create jobs and generate tax revenue. The data center campus in Port Washington could create more than 4,000 construction jobs and more than 1,000 permanent positions.

Construction of the roughly 670-acre campus is slated to wrap up in 2028.

WEC Energy Group CEO confident Oracle will meet financial requirements for data centers was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

3954-3956 S. Howell Ave. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The Seafood Shack, a local chain specializing in po’boys, crab boils and fried catfish, is again poised for growth, with plans to open a new location in a former tavern on Milwaukee’s South Side.

Owner Tyseria Griffin recently submitted a proposal for The Seafood Shack Cocktail Lounge at 3954 S. Howell Ave. The building was previously home to Pat’s Niche Pub and Grub, which closed in 2022. A college student-focused cafe, Precious Vibes, was later slated for the space, but never came to fruition. Most recently, Miss Cherrie’s Childcare Center explored plans for the site.

Its incoming tenant would expand both the neighborhood’s food scene and The Seafood Shack’s local footprint, which has fluctuated in recent years. The business’s Wauwatosa location shuttered in March 2024, followed by its South Milwaukee flagship in June 2025. An East Side outlet at 2336 N. Farwell Ave. remains open.

Griffin aims to launch the new restaurant, which would include a full cocktail program, this fall. A proposed menu lists catfish, perch, cod, shrimp skewers and crab kebabs alongside handhelds such as po’boys and fish tacos. Appetizers could include seafood nachos and oysters Rockefeller. The Seafood Shack also plans to serve brunch, featuring options like catfish and grits, salmon grilled cheese and waffle breakfast sandwiches.

Featured cocktails are not noted in the proposal; however, the Farwell Avenue location is known for its lemon drops and margarita flights.

The 2,400-square-foot Howell Avenue space includes a bar and dining area with a total capacity of 99, Griffin noted in the application. In addition to food and drink, she has requested permission to host DJs, karaoke and dancing. Given city approval, the business also plans to offer darts, amusement machines and hookah service.

A license application is pending before the Milwaukee Common Council. The business’s proposed hours of operation are Sunday through Thursday from noon to midnight and Friday through Saturday from noon to 2 a.m.

Griffin did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Dog. Photo by SEO007 (Own work) (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons

August 1: Wisconsin IPA Fest

Dozens of breweries will compete for the title of best IPA at the 10th annual Wisconsin IPA Fest at Third Space Brewing Company. Guests will be treated to unlimited samples of hundreds of Wisconsin-brewed beers. Don’t like IPAs? That’s okay, the event will feature many different styles to try. After you’ve had your fill, cast your vote for your favorite and help them win the People’s Choice Award. The event will also feature food courtesy of Tots on the Street, Wisconsin Fried Cheese Curds and Sweet Smoke BBQ. General admission tickets are $57.95 and can be purchased on Third Space Brewing’s website.

August 1-8: Bronzeville Week

Bronzeville Week, the city of Milwaukee’s annual celebration of Black culture, history and art is back and will feature a packed week of events around town. On Saturday, participate in the HaRUNBe 5K Walk/Run and then check out some live music at the Royal Rhythm Experience. On Sunday, the Bronzeville Cultural Arts Festival will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the stretch of North Ave. between N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. and 7th St. For a complete list of Bronzeville Week happenings, check out the City of Milwaukee’s website.

August 1: Black Arts Fest

Celebrating Black heritage and creativity since 2018, Black Arts Fest will once again take over the Henry Maier Festival Park with the theme “Unity & Community.” This year’s theme will highlight togetherness, wellness and community while putting Black artists, musicians, makers and more in the spotlight. The festival will run from noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and will feature a Michael Jackson tribute performance, tons of food and the “largest festival dance line.” For more information, visit the Black Arts Fest MKE website.

August 1: ‘The Odd-yssey

Everyone’s talking about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, but what if Odysseus instead washed up on the shores of Lake Michigan and attempted to navigate the city of Milwaukee? That’s the plot of Interchange Theater’s Odd-yssey, a spoof on the classic Greek tale. The show promises to feature some of Milwaukee’s best improvisers and will run from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. at its theater at 628 N. 10th St. Admission is $10.

August 2: Wisconsin Vintage Fest

Whether you’re shopping for nostalgia or rare finds, Wisconsin Vintage Fest could be your one-stop shop. More than 80 vendors will set up shop at the Harley-Davidson to sell clothing, media, furniture and more. The event will also feature unique Harley-Davidson photo opportunities and live screen printing. Wisconsin Vintage Fest will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Harley-Davidson Museum and is free to attend.

August 2: Dog Day at Boerner Botanical Gardens

Have you ever been strolling through the Boerner Botanical Gardens and thought to yourself, “The only thing that could make this better was if my dog was here?” Well, for one day only, the Boerner Botanical Gardens will be pet-friendly. Bring your leashed dog along for an event that will feature pet-focused vendors and activities, pet photography, food trucks and more. Have your furry friend take on the ALT Dog Run Lure Course and enjoy some live music together courtesy of the GIL Jazz Combo. Dog Day will run from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and admission is $6.

Korean corn dog from Asian Street Food Night Market Festival in Minnesota. Photo courtesy of Ka Vang.

A new-to-Milwaukee festival will bring Asian street food, beverages, handmade art and traditional performances to Veterans Park later this summer. The Minnesota-based Asian Street Food Night Market Festival will travel to the lakefront Aug. 22-23, setting up at 1010 N. Lincoln Memorial Dr., near the lagoon. Dozens of vendors representing cultures across Asia are expected to participate.

The festival was inspired by organizer Ka Vang‘s childhood trips to local night markets in Thailand. “It’s kind of similar to the state fair,” said Vang, who launched the inaugural event in Minnesota in 2022 with just 14 vendors in a restaurant parking lot. It has grown rapidly since then, with recent festivals drawing crowds of up to 30,000.

Vang, who moved to Eau Claire at age 10, felt a pull to bring the festival to her home state and said she saw Milwaukee as a natural choice for the festival’s expansion. “It’s close to a lot of Asian communities,” she said. “The festival isn’t just for food; it also brings our cultures together.”

Food will be the festival’s main draw, with more than 70 vendors offering pho, Korean corn dogs, baked goods and treats like tanghulu — crunchy, candy-coated fruit skewers. Many vendors will travel from out of state, Vang said, introducing Milwaukee diners to dishes and flavors that are not yet widely available in the city.

Attendees can also expect live music, dance performances, martial arts demonstrations, kids’ activities and retail vendors. A Pattaya-inspired thatched village will fill one area of the festival, featuring shaded seating and a “tropical atmosphere” modeled after the coastal city in Thailand.

Milwaukee’s robust Asian dining scene has expanded in recent years with new omakase experiences, a growing number of Burmese spots, fast-casual Korean restaurants and, most recently, its first Cambodian sandwich shop. The city is also home to regional and global events, such as Milwaukee Dumpling Fest, Phobruary and the Incredible India Festival.

Vang said the market’s size, scope and focus on street food set it apart from others in the area. “I just wanted to bring something unique for street food, culture and community,” she said.

Though billed as a night market, the event will also operate during the day. The free festival will run from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Aug. 22 and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Aug. 23. Drivers may have to pay for parking. If the Milwaukee debut is successful, Vang said she would consider extending the hours for future festivals.

Prospective vendors should contact asianstreetfoodnightmarket@gmail.com to submit an application before Aug. 5. For additional information, including details of past festivals, visit the event website or follow Asian Street Food Night Market Festival on social media.

Mandela Barnes. (Public Domain).

Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes ended his campaign for governor Thursday.

Barnes dropped out of the race in the wake of the latest Marquette University Law School Poll placing him well behind front-runner state Rep. Francesca Hong.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel also reported Thursday that Barnes’ decision comes amid the newspaper’s investigation of allegations that Barnes “was taking advantage of his role in the party to have sexual encounters with young adult women.”

Barnes did not mention any of this in a short video posted to social media announcing his departure from the race.

The Democrats remaining in the race for governor include Hong, state Sen. Kelda Roys, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and Greater Milwaukee Committee President Joel Brennan. The winner of the primary will face Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the presumptive Republican nominee, in the general election. Tiffany is endorsed by President Donald Trump.

“It’s become very clear to me who our nominee is going to be,” Barnes said. “We have to do everything to beat Tom Tiffany; this is life or death. We’re losing their health care under the Trump administration. People who can’t afford child care, the folks who are being squeezed by bills, while the rich continue to get richer.”

Barnes entered the race with by far the most statewide recognition of all the Democratic candidates, with a name ID among 61% of respondents, compared to 29% for Hong. But since then Hong has steadily risen in the Marquette polls, which most recently showed her with 38% of the vote, compared to 16% for Barnes.

Barnes, 39, served as a state Assembly representative for one term (2013-17), unsuccessfully sought a state Senate seat and then ran for and won the position of lieutenant governor in 2019, at age 31, becoming the first Black person to hold the position in Wisconsin history. He served under Gov. Tony Evers for one term, 2019-23. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate against Republican Ron Johnson in 2022, losing by just 1% of the vote.

Barnes’ departure marks the third time a Democrat has exited the race before the primary election. Former WEDC Secretary Missy Hughes suspended her campaign in June and endorsed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez. Crowley did the same in July. But when a campaign finance scandal sank the Rodriguez campaign, Crowley relaunched his own with an endorsement from Gov. Tony Evers.

Crowley was the first Democrat to release a statement after Barnes’ departure. “To everyone who backed Mandela: there’s a place for you in what we’re building,” he said in a statement on social media. Hong quickly followed suit, announcing, “The Barnes campaign helped grow the progressive movement,” and also welcoming his supporters to back her campaign. Brennan released a statement doing the same, and saying, “It’s unfortunate for voters that this primary has gotten more attention for chaos than the stakes of this election.” A spokesperson for Roys declined to comment on Barnes leaving the race, but said Roys is best placed to beat Tiffany and has “no drama, no baggage.”

Barnes exits the race with more than $204,207 remaining in his campaign account, having raised more than $841,000 since the start of the year. Just days before exiting the race, an attorney supporting Crowley filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission alleging the Barnes campaign violated state election law.

Salah Sarsour being released from immigration detention. (Photo courtesy of Yaseen Najeed)

On the second day of federal immigration court hearings for Salah Sarsour, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, federal prosecutors attempted to cast doubt on Sarsour’s claims that he’d been tortured by Israeli authorities in the 1980s, when he was a teenager living in the occupied West Bank during the First Intifada uprising, and that he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result.

Sarsour, a legal permanent resident of the U.S., was targeted for deportation earlier this year, after the Trump administration accused him of having lied on his green card application when he came to the United States more than 30 years ago.

Attorneys also argued over the results of a polygraph test Sarsour took while he was asked whether he knowingly voted in an election in 2004 as a non-citizen. Mark Robel, an FBI polygraph examiner, conducted the test which he said Sarsour passed. “If he had tried to register to vote in any election, he would not have passed that test,” Robel testified. Robel charged Sarsour’s attorneys $800 to conduct the test, plus $250 an hour for his court appearance, prosecutors pointed out.

Community members call for the release of Salah Sarsour after his arrest in late March. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Robel said that the test did not assess Sarsour’s claims of being tortured while being held in Israeli detention, because polygraph tests need to focus on a single topic at a time, and there would be subsequent charges for each test. Robel testified that Sarsour’s attorneys chose to only focus on the voting question, allegations which had not previously come up publicly after Sarsour was arrested in late March and detained in an Indiana detention facility until his release in mid-June.

Defense attorneys also called Amahl Bishara to the stand, a professor at Tufts University where she serves as chair of the Department of Anthropology. Bishara testified as an expert on Palestinian political expression and resistance in the context of Israeli occupation. Bishara described the West Bank in the late 1980s as a place under full military occupation. Soldiers were often the focus of protests and acts of resistance during the First Intifada, Bishara said. Many children also participated in the act of stone throwing, which Bishara framed as a form of political expression rather than a direct act of violence.

Groups of children threw pebbles or stones at fully equipped soldiers in armored trucks parked dozens of meters away, Bishara said. She cited a human rights report, using data from the Israeli Defense Forces, which found that 60% of stone throwing was done by children 13 or younger.

In this environment, Sarsour was detained by Israeli military authorities in 1988, when he was 15. The Department of Homeland Security has said that Israeli officials convicted Sarsour of throwing a Molotov cocktail at the homes of Israeli soldiers. This conviction in an Israeli military court, is what the federal government accuses Sarsour of omitting from his green card application.

Bishara testified that Israeli authorities treated children harshly for throwing stones in the late 1980s. Children were often tortured to give false confessions or implicate other children, she said. Prosecutors attempted to challenge Bishara, asking whether the political assassinations of leaders in Egypt were also political expression, but the judge struck down that line of questioning as not relevant. Prosecutors also brought up Bishara’s participation in protests calling for the release of Palestinian students of her university who were arrested by federal immigration agents after writing opinion pieces for the school newspaper.

Community members gather to support Sarsour after his arrest. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Jackie Bashkoff, a forensic psychologist who met with Sarsour twice testified for the defense about her  evaluations she said showed that Sarsour suffers from PTSD, which she attributed to his torture by Israeli forces as a boy in the 1980s and another stint in detention in the 1990s. “He met all the criteria” for PTSD, Bashkoff said. She said Israeli authorities beat Sarsour daily, threatened him with rape, hit him so hard in the chest that he heard something snap and tied him to bars and a chair in stress positions. “He wasn’t given proper food, water,” said Bashkoff, adding that Sarsour described having flashbacks, nightmares, and that he displayed startle responses to guards walking in unexpectedly as they talked.

“He anticipates that if he is deported then he’s likely to be killed by the Israelis if he is sent back to the West Bank,” said Bashkoff.

Prosecutors attempted to discredit Bashkoff by  noting that she had charged Sarsour’s attorneys $4,000 so far, not including for her testimony Wednesday. They also pressed her on why Sarsour wouldn’t state on his green card applications that he had been tortured or convicted by Israeli authorities, something about which Bashkoff was unable to offer an opinion. At one point, prosecutors suggested that Sarsour’s diabetes could cause the psychological symptoms Bashkoff attributed to  PTSD, or that Sarsour could be faking it. Bashkoff dismissed these suggestions in  tense exchanges with the prosecution.

Another hearing is scheduled for Tuesday morning. Defense attorneys say they are still waiting on documents to be provided by the government. The judge said he doesn’t expect to render a final decision on whether Sarsour will be deported until early September.

PTSD and torture claims by Salah Sarsour put under microscope in federal hearing was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.

Children paint during an event at Bronzeville Week 2025. (Photo by Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)

It’s almost the time of the year to celebrate the Bronzeville neighborhood’s history, culture and small businesses.

The City of Milwaukee’s 16th annual celebration of arts, culture and commerce in the historic Bronzeville neighborhood starts on Saturday, Aug. 1 and will run through Saturday, Aug. 8.

District 6 Ald. Milele A. Coggs, who created and hosts Bronzeville Week, said the city has worked to blend the schedule with crowd-favorite events while introducing new events reflective of the current state of the neighborhood.

“I hope the community is as excited as I am about the tremendous schedule of events we have lined up this year, and I encourage everyone to participate in one, or multiple, events as part of this year’s annual celebration,” Coggs said in a statement.

Here’s what the city has in store for Bronzeville Week.

Saturday, Aug. 1

HaRUNbee 5K Walk/Run: 

HaRUN for a good cause with the National Coalition for Healthy Black Families at North Martin Luther King Drive and West North Avenue on Saturday, Aug. 1.  Registration opens at 6 a.m. and the race begins at 7:30 a.m. Register here. More information here.

The Royal Rhythm Experience: 

Head to the Summer of 85 at 2213 N. Martin Luther King Drive on Saturday, Aug. 1 from 5 to 9 p.m. for an evening of live music, culture and community. Entry is $35 and free to the first 20 people. More information here.

Sunday, Aug. 2

Empowerment Sunday: 

Enjoy an outdoor church service with the King Solomon Baptist Church, Ephesians Missionary Baptist Church and Bethel Temple C.O.G.I.C. at the Gospel, Jazz and Blues Stage at      North Martin Luther King Drive and West North Avenue on Sunday, Aug. 2 from 10 a.m. to noon.

Bronzeville Cultural & Arts Festival: 

Shop local vendors and enjoy three stages of live entertainment on West North Avenue between North Martin Luther King Drive and North 7th Street on Sunday, Aug. 2 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. More information here.

Dear Home – An Ode and a Love Letter to Milwaukee: 

Immerse yourself in themes of memory, migration, longing, return and belonging at Jalayna Muhammad’s photography gallery at America’s Black Holocaust Museum, 401 W. North Ave., on Sunday, Aug. 2 from 5 to 7 p.m.

Monday, Aug. 3

Just Us and Books with Dannette Justus: 

Dannette Justus will be hosting Just Us and Books, a weekly read aloud for children that connects reading with a virtual field trip of a business or landmark in Milwaukee. Watch virtually on the Bronzeville Week Facebook Page on Monday, Aug. 3 from 10 to 10:30 a.m.

Bronzeville Lunch & Learn:

Head to Confectionately Yours Café and Bakery, 1920 N. Martin Luther King Drive, on Monday, Aug. 3 at noon for a “lunch and learn” about leveraging culture for economic, political and social impact.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: 

Visit America’s Black Holocaust Museum, 401 W. North Ave., for a look at how Halyard Park and historic Bronzeville laid the foundation for what is being built in the neighborhood today on Monday, Aug. 3 with a reception at 5 p.m. The program begins at 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Aug. 4

Building Bronzeville: 

Listen to a panel discussion of local members of the development community at Bronzeville Kitchen & Lounge, 2053 N. Martin Luther King Drive, on Tuesday, Aug. 4 from noon to 1 p.m.

Glow Like Bronzeville Naturally You: 

Join Jadah Webb for a 30-minute virtual makeup tutorial aimed at empowering Black women to enhance their natural beauty with soft, skin-kind techniques on Tuesday, Aug. 4 at 2 p.m. Watch on the Bronzeville Week Facebook page.

Tuesday, Tacos & Games: 

Summer of 85, 2213 N. Martin Luther King Drive, is hosting a game night with music bingo, trivia, Twister and more on Tuesday, Aug. 4 from 7 to 9 p.m.

Wednesday, Aug. 5

Bronzeville Business Breakfast:

Hungry? Head to America’s Black Holocaust Museum, 401 W. North Ave., on Wednesday, Aug. 5 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. for breakfast. Registration is required here.

Rooted ‘N Natural:

Head to Allah Mode, 1942 N. Martin Luther King Drive, for an indoor-outdoor experience of confidence and healing through natural hair, with food, music and live hair demonstrations on Wednesday, Aug. 5 from noon to 4 p.m.

Line Dancing with Lady Jai Janay:

Join Jamila Carney, also known as Lady Jai Janay of Outsideington, for a beginner-level line dancing class for all levels and ages on     West Garfield Avenue between North Martin Luther King Drive and Vel Phillips Avenue on Wednesday, Aug. 5 from 4 to 6 p.m.

Thursday, Aug. 6

Cool Aid & Canvases:

Turn canvases into works of art for a kid-friendly paint session at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, 2901 N. Martin Luther King Drive, on Thursday, Aug. 6 at noon. Seating is limited.

National Night Out:

Milwaukee Police Department District 5 is hosting its National Night Out with basketball, food, face painting, a petting zoo and more at James W. Beckum Park, 900 W. Brown St., and Carver Park, 911 W. Brown St., on Thursday, Aug. 6 from 3 to 7 p.m. More information here.

Bronzeville Trolley Rides: 

Head to America’s Black Holocaust Museum, 401 W. North Ave., on Thursday, Aug. 6 for a ride on a trolley with the first tour at 3:30 p.m. and the second at 5 p.m. Seating is limited.

Bronzeville Fashion Show: 

Kennedy Harris and America’s Black Holocaust Museum, 401 W. North Ave., are hosting a fashion show on Thursday, Aug. 6 from 7 to 9 p.m. The event is a platform for storytelling, entrepreneurship and community pride explored through fashion.

Friday, Aug. 7

Bronzeville Lunch & Learn – Housing & Neighborhood Resources: 

Connect with resources to strengthen your neighborhood at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, 2901 N. Martin Luther King Drive, on Friday, Aug. 7 at noon.

Lit in Bronzeville:

Kalaya Tatum is hosting a community movement experience bringing together residents, families, artists and wellness advocates at Salute Society, 2372 N. Martin Luther King Drive, on Friday, Aug. 7 from 5 to 8 p.m.

Friday, Aug. 7 and Saturday, Aug. 8

Bronzeville Sleepover for Education: 

Donate school supplies at North Martin Luther King Drive and West North Avenue between 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 7 and 8 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 8.

Saturday, Aug. 8

Pancakes & Poetry:

Mario the Poet is hosting a pancakes and poetry event at Rise & Grind Café, 2737 N.  Martin Luther King Drive, on Saturday, Aug. 8 at 9:30 a.m.

Bronzeville Farmers Market:

Shop the Bronzeville Farmers Market at 414Loral, 1739 N. Martin Luther King Drive, on Saturday, Aug. 8 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Bronzeville Ride: 

Meet for a ride through Bronzeville at Niche Book Bar, 1937 N. Martin Luther King Drive, on Saturday, Aug. 8. The meetup starts at 10 a.m. and the ride starts at 10:30 a.m.

Local Legends Softball Game: 

Watch the Local Legends Softball Game led by Bronzeville business owners at Carver Park, 911 W. Brown St., on Saturday, Aug. 8 from noon to 2 p.m.

Together We Dream – Bronzeville Art Walk:

Explore the Capstone Gallery at Salute Society, 2372 N. Martin Luther King Drive, on Saturday, Aug. 8 from 4 to 7 p.m.

High Hearts – A Mono Series: 

Join a spiritual theatrical experience exploring perseverance, awakening, identity, empowerment and higher consciousness through the actions of unforgettable women at Allah Mode, 1942 N. Martin Luther King Drive, on Saturday, Aug. 8 at 6:30 p.m. Free to the first 20 attendants.

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.

County Executive David Crowley at Coggs Center Groundbreaking. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Less than a month before primary day in the race for governor, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said he’d give it a shot — for the second time.

Ten days after suspending his campaign, saying he had no path to victory, Crowley stood in front of a crowd of supporters in Milwaukee to announce a move that would sound far-fetched in most election cycles. But somehow, in the topsy-turvy Democratic primary of 2026, it seemed right at home.

“Allow me to reintroduce myself,” Crowley said.

He was back.

Crowley reentered the race for governor on July 18, a step that had been set in motion by a shocking turn of events that forced Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez to end her candidacy.

Just a week earlier, Rodriguez seemed headed toward frontrunner status, on her way to locking down the mainstream Democratic vote. She’d been endorsed by other Democrats who dropped out of the race — including Crowley.

But, as Rodriguez’s campaign began to collapse around her, Crowley started getting phone calls asking him to jump back in. He rejected them — at first.

“I was not going to get into this race,” he told WPR. “I was done.”

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley speaks at the WisDem Convention as a candidate for governor Sunday, June 14, 2026, at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

Crowley said he even got a call from Rodriguez on July 16 and assured her he was still backing her candidacy. But Rodriguez bowed out the next day.

The morning of July 17, Crowley recounted, he wanted to sleep in. Instead, his wife woke him with the news of Rodriguez’s departure. Over the course of a chaotic few hours, he made the decision to restart his campaign, this time with the endorsement of Gov. Tony Evers.

“This election is too important to gamble on,” Crowley told supporters.

But by the standards of any traditional campaign for office, Crowley and his backers are making a high-stakes political bet — one that could affect the direction of the party for years to come.

Crowley has presented himself as a mainstream Democratic alternative to Madison Rep. Francesca Hong, the democratic socialist who has energized liberals but left some Democrats worried she’ll lose a general election.

None of Hong’s Democratic opponents had generated serious momentum by mid-July. But up to that point, Crowley hadn’t either, leaving some observers to question the endgame.

“The strategy is baffling,” said Tommy Vietor, who worked in former President Barack Obama’s administration and now cohosts the liberal podcast “Pod Save America.”

An alternative to a popular democratic socialist

In some ways, the strategy is straightforward: Republicans have made it clear they want Hong to win the primary, believing her progressive brand of politics will scare off the kind of moderate and independent voters that candidates need to win in Wisconsin.

A group affiliated with the Republican Governors’ Association is spending millions of dollars on ads that purport to attack Hong, but may be aimed at helping her. The ads, which are running in Democratic markets, warn that she’ll return Wisconsin to its “progressive roots” — a welcome prospect for many liberal voters.

Crowley, without naming Hong directly, positioned himself as an independent alternative at his campaign relaunch.

“They’re deciding the Democratic nominee that they want to beat in November, y’all. They’re making an investment right now, and this should all be a five-alarm warning sign to all of us,” he said of Republicans. “We cannot allow the GOP to choose the Democratic nominee for governor.”

But if anyone is better positioned to edge out Hong for the party’s nod, it’s never been obvious it should be Crowley.

After Rodriguez left, the primary field still included three other Democratic alternatives: former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Madison state Sen. Kelda Roys and former Evers cabinet secretary Joel Brennan.

Crowley’s initial run for governor lasted nearly 10 months, but he failed to gain much momentum or to build a strong, statewide profile from his county-level position.

The Hail Mary effort by the Evers team to get him back in might give Crowley a boost, said Jessica Taylor, a senior editor at Cook Political Report — but it might not be enough.

“If he didn’t do great the first time around in a crowded field, what’s going to be different in the last couple of weeks?” she said. “It just feels like he’s starting way back on home plate, and (Hong is) already on third base.”

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley speaks during a governor candidate forum Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, at the Cooperage in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

And the 10 days that Crowley took off from the campaign weren’t just a hiccup. On Wednesday, a Dane County court ruled that voters who already cast early ballots can’t recast them because they changed their minds, or because the candidate they voted for dropped out. That means Crowley lost days of early voting that cannot be recovered.

But Crowley argues that his relaunched campaign — this time with Evers’ support and Rodriguez out — has given him a running start. One recent poll put him in second place, nearly tied with Barnes. The latest survey from Marquette University had Crowley placing third, but still in single digits.

Less than two weeks out from the primary, it still appears to be Hong’s race to lose.

“If Hong wins the primary and loses the general, (it’s because) the establishment decided to put in someone else, potentially split the vote with Barnes, and that’s where we ended up,” said Jon Favreau on a recent episode of Pod Saves America. Favreau, like Vietor, worked for Obama.

Evers’ backing key to Crowley’s relaunch

The theory on how this works out for Crowley rests largely on Evers, who remains popular with voters after eight years in office.

On Tuesday, Crowley’s campaign announced it had raised $775,000 since getting back in the race with the governor’s support. Assuming that number is correct, it would far outpace Crowley’s earlier fundraising clip.

Crowley was a state representative when Evers first took office and was elected Milwaukee County executive in 2020.

State Rep. David Crowley, D-Milwaukee, left. Photo courtesy of Rep. Crowley’s legislative website

Crowley played a prominent role in negotiations with Evers and legislative Republicans over a massive rewrite of Wisconsin’s system for funding local governments. The bipartisan shared revenue law cleared the way for Milwaukee County to raise its sales tax, a longtime priority of county leaders.

Evers had previously stayed out of the Democratic primary because he said he wanted to give the candidates the opportunity to make their own cases.

“I also believe that, in a race this close, Wisconsinites deserve to have the perspective of someone who’s done the job,” Evers wrote in a statement on social media. “I’m all in on David Crowley.”

As the campaign winds down, it would appear the feeling is mutual. When the candidates debated Tuesday night, Crowley was the only Democrat to voice support for Evers’ budget surplus deal that failed in the Legislature earlier this year.

Gov. Tony Evers attends the second day of the DNC on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, at the United Center in Chicago, Ill. Angela Major/WPR

Crowley’s opponents have attacked his ‘establishment’ support

If there’s a downside for Crowley, it’s that Evers’ blessing has turned him into the “establishment” candidate, seemingly overnight. Barnes and Brennan have used the label to attack Crowley, suggesting that party leaders — their former boss, in this case — are trying to tell voters what to think.

“You see potentially, in the fall, some risk around what happened when Joe Biden blessed Kamala Harris just 20 minutes after he decided he wasn’t running,” said veteran Democratic strategist Joe Zepecki in an appearance with WISN-TV’s “UpFront.”

“The risk is that this looks like the establishment once again deciding for voters.”

Crowley takes issue with the Harris comparison and the establishment label. He points out that, unlike Harris, his name has been on the ballot the whole time.

While his political service bona fides run deep, nothing was handed to him. He made history when he became the first Black candidate elected Milwaukee county executive. And he said growing up in Milwaukee’s troubled 53206 ZIP code hardly qualifies him for establishment status.

Crowley said he’d rather voters look at his accomplishments in office, like helping to secure county-wide affordable housing and working in a bipartisan fashion in Madison to get more money for Milwaukee.

“I don’t look at myself as the establishment, but … I know that I am established when it comes down to my record,” he said.

The renewed attention on Crowley has also shined a light on things he said in the past.

NBC News reported that Crowley operated a Twitter account, beginning in 2010, that posted crude, sexist and homophobic messages, alongside banal musings about sports, music and working out.

Crowley says that the “Dirt McGirk” account was shared with several friends and that he wasn’t the author of the most troubling tweets, which he condemned.

“I absolutely don’t endorse any of that stuff,” he told WPR.

“I want folks to know that I’m not going to get caught up in these distractions because clearly this was related to me … getting back into this race and starting to gain momentum,” he added.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley speaks about the Milwaukee County Center for Youth at a press conference Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

Just weeks ago, when he was perceived as anything but a frontrunner, Crowley frequently faced questions about whether Wisconsin, a state that has only ever elected white men as governor, is ready to elect someone who is Black.

“People always ask me, ‘David, can a Black candidate become governor?’” he said at the state Democratic Party convention in June. “If it’s a candidate with a track record of delivering results and winning, and not just talking about them, yes.”

The fact that Crowley has taken heat for his “establishment” ties has angered some supporters, like Nick Truog, who chairs the Wisconsin Democratic Party’s Black Caucus. Truog posted on social media that Crowley is being held to a double standard.

“Where was all of this outrage when folks kept questioning David Crowley’s ability to win statewide because he was Black or ‘too Milwaukee’?” he wrote. “Or better yet why weren’t you crying ‘establishment’ when insiders, donors, and other organizations weren’t giving him the light of day compared to other candidates with less experience than him?”

Speaking to voters of all backgrounds

Outside of the primary field, even Crowley’s critics say he plays well with others.

Steve Taylor, a Milwaukee County Board supervisor, was vocally critical of how Crowley handled a major slip-up on his watch: when the county benefits administrator let health insurance lapse for tens of thousands of county employees earlier this year. At the time, Taylor said Crowley, who fired the administrator, needed to be more transparent and accountable.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley speaks during a press conference Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Waukesha, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

But in an interview with WPR, Taylor said Crowley is respected by Democrats and Republicans in state government, thanks to how he approaches the job.

“What I tell people,” Taylor said, “is I bet if you went to Madison and you polled every Republican state senator and state rep and said you’re going to get one of these (Democratic candidates) … Who would you choose? I bet Crowley gets 90 percent of the vote.”

Taylor, a conservative, plans to vote for Tiffany, but said he considers Crowley a friend. He respects how Crowley ran the county through challenging times like the COVID-19 pandemic, and his advocacy for more state funding.

“David is a really good person, and he’s very likable,” Taylor said. “He doesn’t play the partisan games.”

WPR is profiling all of the candidates for governor. To read more, visit wpr.org/elections.

Listen to the WPR report

Mainstream Democrats pin hopes on David Crowley’s reboot campaign for governor was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

An absentee ballot. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

A last-minute attempt to let absentee voters change their ballots because their candidate has dropped out of the race has been rejected by a Dane County judge.

For now, that means more than 112,000 absentee ballots returned in the chaotic Democratic primary for governor are locked in ahead of the August 11 election.

A lawsuit filed last week by three Democratic voters sought to overturn recent guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission specifying that absentee voters cannot “spoil” their ballots and request new ones because they have changed their minds or their first-choice candidate dropped out of the race. The voters behind the suit cast absentee ballots for Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez before she dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination following a campaign implosion.

The challenge claimed absentee voters are being treated differently than in-person voters and their rights under the Wisconsin Constitution are being violated. That’s because people voting in person on election day can spoil their ballots and get replacements.

The lawsuit asked Dane County Circuit Court Judge David Conway for an injunction blocking the commission’s guidance.

In an order published Wednesday, Conway disagreed and declined to block the commission’s guidance. He said in-person voters are able to request new ballots if they make mistakes, or even if they change their mind while filling it out. But Conway said state law doesn’t allow them to change their minds after the ballot has been turned in.

“In effect, this means an absentee voter who has not yet returned his ballot and who accidentally or mistakenly fills in the ballot for the wrong candidate may take the ‘spoiled’ ballot back to the clerk and exchange it for a new one,” Conway wrote. “But it does not mean (they) can still ‘spoil’ their ballots after they have returned them.”

Conway went further, stating spoiling ballots after they’d been accepted by election workers should never have been allowed.

“At no time before or after July 9, did the law allow absentee voters to spoil their returned ballots, even if some clerks may have mistakenly allowed this to happen out of confusion or misunderstanding about the law.”

An attorney representing the Democratic voters who brought the suit did not immediately respond when asked if they plan to appeal Conway’s ruling.

As of Wednesday, the Wisconsin Elections Commission reported more than 112,000 absentee ballots have already been returned ahead of the August 11 primary election for governor.

Judge rejects attempt to let absentee voters recast ballots after candidates withdraw was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Sunshine. (CC0 Public Domain).

As Wisconsin navigates repeated heat waves this summer, public health leaders in the state are worried about how more frequent and severe heat waves affect vulnerable populations.

Temperatures in the 90s and high humidity first hit the state from June 29 to July 3 as part of an atmospheric heat dome that hit the Midwest and southern United States.

A second high-pressure system covered much of the U.S. starting this past Saturday, leading to a heat advisory across two-thirds of the state and an extreme heat advisory for southwestern Wisconsin at the start of the week.

These extreme weather events can lead to a spike in cases at emergency rooms across the state, according to Abby Novinska-Lois, executive director of Healthy Climate Wisconsin. Her organization represents doctors, public health workers and other medical professionals who are concerned about the detrimential health impacts of climate change.

“When people think about heat, they often think about heat illness or heat stroke as one of the things to look out for,” she said. “But there are other physical illnesses and conditions that are also worsened by heat.”

The human heart has to work harder when trying to cool itself down, according to Novinska-Lois, which puts people with heart disease and related illness at increased risk.

Prolonged hot spells can also lead to kidney problems. Recent research by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found deaths among adults receiving regular dialysis increased by 15 to 20 percent during periods of high heat and humidity.

But Novinska-Lois said it’s not just people who are in kidney failure.

“Somebody who might work outside often, is sweating during the day and dehydrating, and then that happens day in and day out, and we start to see more kidney issues,” she said.

Common medications to control blood pressure and antidepressants can also make people more vulnerable heat-related illness. And extreme heat can be especially dangerous to people struggling with substance abuse.

Public Health Madison and Dane County issued an alert on July 1 warning of a spike in overdoses related to the summer’s first heat dome.

Public health supervisor Julia Olsen said the department wanted to warn the community about the increased risk of overdose when using opioids during extreme heat. But she said using any substance, including stimulants or alcohol, can also increase the risk of heat-related illness.

“Your body is already working harder to stay cool, and adding substances to that can affect your breathing. It can affect your heart functioning, alertness or your body’s ability to just regulate its own temperature. And that can get really overwhelming to your body very quickly,” Olsen said.

She said the risk is often even higher for people who are unsheltered and don’t have a way to escape the heat.

Heat-related illness and an overdose can also look similar in some cases, according to Olsen, since both can cause confusion, abnormal breathing and loss of consciousness. She said it can make it harder for people to know how to respond if they encounter someone having a health emergency.

In either case, Olsen recommends quickly calling 911 and, if possible, giving the overdose-reversing drug naloxone.

“Giving someone naloxone, if it’s not an overdose, is not going to harm them,” she said. “But if that is what’s happening, it could certainly save their life.”

Heat waves have already become hotter, longer-lasting and more frequent due to climate change, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These weather events are projected to become more severe and affect more of the country.

Olsen said public health departments are already thinking about how to respond to a hotter future. That includes more public education about heat risks and making resources like ice packs and cold water more available during the hottest days.

Health Climate Wisconsin advocates for policy changes to support clean energy and reduce emissions to stop climate change from worsening. But Novinska-Lois said there are also immediate responses needed in Wisconsin, such as creating heat safety standards.

“Right now, we do not have heat protections in the workplace in Wisconsin,” she said. “That is something we could do right away.”

Those heat protection policies could affect farm workers and other laborers who work outdoors, but they could also include other workers such as teachers. Novinska-Lois noted many K-12 schools lack air conditioning, which can lead to missed days of school and increased risk of heat-related illness among students and staff.

Repeated heat waves increase health risks for Wisconsinites, from strokes to overdoses was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

1716 W. Layton Ave. Photo taken July 30, 2026 by Sophie Bolich.

A new public-facing restaurant is proposed to open at Travelodge Milwaukee, near the airport.

Cafe Monarca Chivolin would fill a large commercial space on the southwest side of the property at 1716 W. Layton Ave., joining a portfolio of three restaurants operated by Floralia Tellez Ortiz and Luis Alvarez.

The husband-and-wife duo also own La Casa del Chivolin Mexican Restaurant at 2423 S. 6th St., Hacienda Chivolin Mexican Restaurant in Greenfield and Casa Chivolin in Two Rivers, along with a food truck.

Tellez Ortiz brings nearly 15 years of experience to the venture, having worked as a chef specializing in American breakfast dishes. Alvarez is also a seasoned restaurateur, though he had an unusual introduction to the industry.

“He was a clown years ago,” Tellez Ortiz said, noting that her husband later discovered “a love for the kitchen,” something the couple has in common. Alvarez eventually incorporated the hobby into his bookings, showing up to parties with a red nose, oversized shoes and trays of freshly prepared ceviche.

The dish was a hit and is now a staple at each of the Chivolin restaurants, the first of which opened during the COVID-19 pandemic. It will also appear at Cafe Monarca, though the upcoming business plans to focus mostly on breakfast, fulfilling a longtime goal for Tellez Ortiz.

“It’s always been my dream to have a breakfast cafe,” she said. “I love doing breakfast.”

The variety at Cafe Monarca reflects her enthusiasm. A proposed menu features a wide sampling of sweet and savory breakfast items, including omelets, crepes, skillets, chilaquiles, French toast and Greek yogurt bowls topped with fresh fruit, granola or nuts.

Lunch and dinner options could include burgers, tacos, shrimp ceviche, grilled chicken and more. Tellez Ortiz also hopes to feature drinks such as mimosas, margaritas and micheladas.

The business has requested permission to host entertainment, including DJs and mariachi bands, which Tellez Ortiz said she envisions hosting for a one-hour window twice a month.

Cafe Monarca’s main dining room can accommodate up to 150, while a private dining room seats 60. The location, previously home to Mai Cafe, also features a small game room, bar area, on-site parking and an outdoor patio.

Though it’s co-located with the hotel and welcoming to guests, Cafe Monarca’s operations will remain separate, Tellez Ortiz said.

The business is awaiting city approval for its licenses and final inspections, with a goal of opening by the end of summer. Expected operating hours are daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Chairman of Wisconsin Republican Party Brian Schimming at 2024 Republican National Convention. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

Wisconsin Republican Party chair Brian Schimming said he thinks his job will be easier during the coming midterm elections if state Rep. Francesca Hong is the Democratic candidate for governor.

As chair of the party, Schimming is in charge of turning out Republican voters ahead of the midterm election. “We don’t do the messaging. We state parties do the organization, the turnout, all that sort of thing,” he said during an event organized by the America First Policy Institute with U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner.

Historically, midterm elections provide an opportunity to vote against the party in control of the presidency, energizing voters for the party out of power. Democrats in Wisconsin believe national political trends and President Donald Trump‘s unpopularity put them in a position to score big victories in the midterms, including possibly winning majorities in both chambers of the state Legislature while hanging onto the governor’s office.

Schimming said his job ahead of the midterms is to turn out the Republican base and independent voters, adding, “[Hong] just does make it a little bit easier. I’ll say that.”

Schimming sees Wisconsin Democrats divided, pointing to Gov. Tony Evers‘ decision to endorse County Executive David Crowley over other candidates, such as former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes or his former Cabinet official Joel Brennan. On the other hand, Trump’s decision to endorse Tiffany remains “a strong endorsement,” according to the party chairman.

The latest Marquette University Law School poll placed Hong well ahead of her Democratic opponents, with 38% of respondents saying they would vote for her. Asked whether Republicans want to see Hong as the Democratic nominee, Schimming said Hong has “unique weaknesses” and “a lot of people, not just Republicans,” view Hong as the “weaker of the candidates.”

“I mean, the information on [Hong]’s record goes to the ceiling,” Schimming said. During a debate for Democratic candidates for governor Tuesday, Hong faced questions about her past support for abolishing the police and calling the police killing of Corey Ruiz an “execution.” As a socialist, Hong could also be attacked for positions taken by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which calls for abolishing the U.S. Senate and prisons.

Republicans across the country are already attempting to frame the upcoming midterm election cycle as a battle against far-left political ideology and, more specifically, communism. Trump has taken to referring to political opponents as communists, and a recent memo from the House Republican Conference published by Ms. Now shows the group urging House Republicans to lean into using the word “communist.”

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the presumptive Republican nominee for governor, attended the America First Policy Institute event at Clifford’s Supper Club in Hales Corners on Wednesday. Security would not let media near the Republican candidate.

But the day prior, during an interview with Fox Business, Tiffany said Democrats had “turned their party over to the radicals, to the big government socialists” and “We’re going to be the firewall here in Wisconsin that’s going to stop socialism here in the heartland.”

Protesters rally at Wisconsin’s Capitol building to oppose Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill, later called Act 10. Photo by Richard Hurd. (CC BY 2.0)

A state appeals court has upheld the landmark collective bargaining law known as Act 10, likely sending the case challenging the law to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

The appeals court’s decision overturned a ruling from a Dane County Circuit Court judge, who declared Act 10 unconstitutional in 2024. But that same judge stayed his ruling almost immediately, keeping the law in place ever since.

Writing for the majority in a 2-1 decision, Judge Mark Gundrum said the lawsuit challenging Act 10 raised issues that had already been answered by previous rulings that upheld the law, both in state and federal court.

“Courts must respect both precedent and our role in deferring to the Legislature’s fiscal policy decisions,” Gundrum wrote.

Act 10 effectively ended union rights for most public employees, but not for others.

In her dissent, Judge Lisa Neubauer argued that this lawsuit had raised a fresh set of issues not argued in previous cases, and the circuit court got it right.

“The circuit court correctly determined that allowing some public safety employees to retain collective bargaining rights while excluding others violated the equal protection guaranty of the Wisconsin Constitution,” Neubauer wrote.

Assuming the case is appealed, it would go next to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where liberals hold a 4-3 majority that will grow to 5-2 next month.

How the case got here

While the legal wrangling over Act 10 began before it even became law in 2011, this latest case was filed by a group of unions in November 2023.

Act 10 created two groups of employees. “Public safety employees,” like police officers and firefighters, preserved their union rights under the law. “General employees,” who make up the rest of the public workforce, did not.

The problem, unions argue, is that the list of “general employees” includes people like correctional officers working in state prisons, conservation wardens and Capitol Police. Unions contend there’s no “rational basis” to treat them differently than police or firefighters, and in December 2024, Dane County Circuit Court Judge David Frost agreed.

After Frost stayed his order, lawyers for unions asked the state Supreme Court to take the case directly on an expedited appeal. Justices declined that request in February 2025, sending the case to the District 2 Court of Appeals, which decided it Wednesday.

District 2 is based in Waukesha, and the judges who signed on to the majority decision have conservative ties. Gundrum, who wrote the majority opinion, was once a Republican state representative. Judge Shelley Grogan, who wrote a concurring opinion, was backed by a GOP group when she ran for the bench.

A much different mix of jurists will decide the case on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where a liberal majority is about to grow. Grogan noted that shift in her opinion.

“The timing of this lawsuit is, to say the least, suspect,” Grogan wrote. “Renewed attempts to attack Act 10 on already-rejected bases simply because the composition of our Supreme Court has changed must be rejected.”

A Supreme Court with mostly liberal justices will have the final say

When Justice-elect Chris Taylor joins the court in August, it will give liberals a 5-2 majority, up from the 4-3 edge they have now. Taylor was an outspoken opponent of Act 10 when she was a Democratic state lawmaker and told WPR during her 2026 campaign that her past advocacy would not prevent her from hearing an Act 10 lawsuit on the court.

Judge Chris Taylor, right, is greeted by Wisconsin Supreme Court justices during her election night event Tuesday, April 7, 2026, at the Madison Concourse Hotel in Madison, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

Justice Janet Protasiewicz, whose 2023 election flipped the court from a conservative to a liberal majority, said as a candidate that she agreed with the dissent in a previous ruling that upheld Act 10. Republicans asked her to recuse herself from this case, but in February 2025, she said she won’t step aside.

In a written statement, the unions challenging the lawsuit said they were confident the circuit court’s original ruling would be affirmed but did not immediately promise an appeal.

“We remain confident in the merits of our case,” the unions said. “We are considering all options available.”

The list of plaintiffs in the case includes SEIU Wisconsin, the Abbotsford Education Association, the Beaver Dam Education Association, the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 47, AFSCME Local 1215, the Teaching Assistants Association and the Wisconsin Teamsters.

As of now, only conservative swing Justice Brian Hagedorn has announced he won’t hear the Act 10 lawsuit. Hagedorn previously served as chief legal counsel for former Republican Gov. Scott Walker during the period when Walker introduced and signed the landmark law.

That could leave five liberal justices and just one conservative — Justice Annette Ziegler — to consider the case that seeks to overturn the defining law of Walker’s governorship. Ziegler has announced she’s retiring, and two liberals are running to replace her,  but she’ll remain on the court through the end of her term next July.

Appeals court upholds Act 10, likely sending case to Wisconsin Supreme Court was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

5814 W. Blue Mound Road. Photo taken April 2, 2026, by Sophie Bolich.

Story Hill has a new spot for Caribbean cuisine. Dos Islas quietly opened in mid-July at 5814 W. Blue Mound Road with a menu of Puerto Rican and Dominican dishes sourced from family recipes — all paired with a selection of fresh juices and Colombian coffee.

The business replaces Mexican restaurant Tavo’s Signature Cuisine, which operated in the cozy, standalone building for seven years until relocating to Elm Grove in 2025.

Dos Islas owners Gloria Castro Tapia and José Luis Soto DeLeon took over the space several months later.

Since then, they’ve transformed the exterior with a coat of black paint, a matching awning and an outdoor patio. In place of a permanent sign, the restaurant’s initials, DI, are posted in gold lettering on its front entrance.

Inside, Dos Islas features updated furniture and island-inspired decor, including musical instruments, flags and a pava, or Puerto Rican straw hat. New additions also include a countertop bakery case stocked with sweet and savory Caribbean treats, and a coffee bar featuring hot and iced drinks, espresso and signature lattes, according to an online menu.

A selection of fresh juices, lemonades and teas is also available. The restaurant has a liquor license, though alcoholic beverages are not listed on its menu.

For sit-down diners, the restaurant offers a wide selection of breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner dishes. Standouts include empanadas, or pastelillos, filled with seasoned yuca or pork; Dominican tres golpes, a classic breakfast made with fried salami, cheese and eggs over smashed green plantains; and French toast triangles topped with fresh berries and edible flowers.

Dos Islas also serves stuffed pancakes, crepes and sorullitos de maiz — Puerto Rican corn fritters with cheese — along with scratch-made family recipes such as slow-roasted pernil and mofongo pounded fresh in a traditional pilón, Castro Tapia noted in an online post.

A former bartender with experience working in her family’s restaurants, Castro Tapia is now studying for her master’s in accounting. The program sparked an interest in business, she told the Licenses Committee during a June 30 hearing, which led to the initial proposal for Dos Islas.

The new business is backed by area Alderwoman Sharlen P. Moore, who spoke in favor at the hearing. “They have a beautiful space and I’m excited about their opening,” she said. “Milwaukee is definitely a food city, so bringing diversity to not only the district but the city — I’m excited about that.”

Dos Islas remains in its soft opening phase, serving weekday breakfast and lunch, as well as weekend brunch. Dinner service is offered Wednesday through Sunday.

A grand opening celebration is set for Aug. 13.

County Executive David Crowley. File photo by Sophie Bolich.

You could argue that Gerron Jordan and Matt Smith, the broadcasters who moderated the candidate debate on WISN 12 last night, missed the boat on what this governor’s campaign was about. As Marquette Law School polls have consistently shown, the foremost concerns of the voters are inflation and the cost of living, immigration and health insurance. But there were no questions about this.

That said, this was a five-candidate debate and it’s pretty difficult in just one hour to tease out differences between the candidates, and the moderators did a pretty good job of this. They started out going after each candidate’s weakness and grilled State Rep. Francesca Hong, the socialist and leading Democrat in the race, on her past support for abolishing the police and calling the killing of Corey Ruiz “an execution” and “state sanctioned violence.” Hong had difficulty handling this other than to say the “governor can’t defund the police.” It’s an issue that will be a Republican attack should she win the primary and she still hasn’t quite figured out how to handle it. Hong suggested that she would not have made the comments before an investigation as a governor, but shouldn’t she be similarly responsible as a legislator?

Another weak point came when she was asked if she feared that a higher income tax on millionaires could lead to them fleeing the state, and she looked like a deer in the headlights, saying “I’m confused by that” and “that’s a hypothetical.”

That said, Hong may have smiled more than any of the other candidates and had an engaging physical presence, which is pretty important in a visual medium like television. And she offers the most clarity in her views, favoring a “government that puts working-class people first.”

In contrast to this, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and Greater Milwaukee Committee CEO Joel Brennan, who have the most executive experience, seemed to be looking to operate as the adults in the room. Crowley is the only candidate who favored the failed budget surplus bill backed by Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Tony Evers, and had his strongest moment defending it. “I loved the fact that we were going to give relief to our schools and property tax relief, and there are other things in this bill that I didn’t like. At the end of the day, we know that there are many Wisconsin families who are desperate. We should be focusing on how we lift them up and not playing politics.”

But no candidate spoke less than Crowley, and his effort to offer more moderate views on school vouchers, higher taxes on millionaires and other issues didn’t come through very strongly.

By contrast, Brennan repeatedly offered memorably nuanced answers.

On his campaign: “The challenge that I have had from day one is not that anybody thinks I’m unqualified. The challenge I have had is that people don’t know me as well as they know some other candidates,” he said, noting that half of the electorate is still undecided.

On school vouchers: Brennan emphasized his support for public education but warned that a bill to end school vouchers in Milwaukee will never pass the Legislature. “There are representatives in Milwaukee… for whom more than half the people who live there are sending their kids to private schools. We have to live in the real world.”

And on taxing the rich: Brennan said millionaires “should pay a little bit more,” but cautioned that could drive wealthy individuals out of Wisconsin if it’s Democrats’ only focus. “If it’s just going to be penalties, then we are going to start to lose,” said Brennan. “We need to make sure we’re growing with everybody.” And he was the only one to call for ending the manufacturing and agriculture tax credit, which is a giveaway to the rich and would gain some $400 million per year in revenue.

Yet if Brennan made a strong case for his insider experience as a former head of the state Department of Administration, it’s far from clear that this is what today’s angry voters are seeking.

State Sen. Kelda Roys was consistently knowledgeable and passionate in her answers, but unlike Brennan had trouble explaining what she offers that other candidates ahead of her don’t. She is dead last (along with Brennan) in the polls and couldn’t offer any reason to think that will change.

Probably no candidate spoke more than Mandela Barnes, and he did a good job of explaining his loss in 2022 in the race for U.S. Senate, noting the tiny margin he lost by was the same margin that he and Tony Evers won by in 2018 as lieutenant governor and governor. As for being passed over when Evers endorsed Crowley, Barnes said, “I have zero interest in being the establishment candidate… I am pushing the envelope to make sure that we are as bold as we can possibly be in the Donald Trump era, because that’s what people have been calling for Democrats to be all along.”

Barnes was consistently articulate, yet there was an undercurrent of frustration in his comments that made him seem the least friendly of the five candidates. “I want you to know that the establishment is trying to rig this election,” he warned viewers. “They want you to choose between their preferred candidate [a reference to Crowley] and also Republican billionaires are lining up to the tune of three and a half million dollars to choose a Democratic nominee in this race,” a reference to the sneaky Republican ad that seems to attack Hong but tells us she is a liberal who opposes ICE and repeatedly quotes her saying she wants to bring Wisconsin “back to our progressive roots.”

No ad in the Democratic primary has run more than this. It ran just before the debate and right after it on Channel 12, and it has helped drive Hong’s support from about 22% a month ago to 44% in a poll by State Navigate released yesterday and to 38% in a new poll released today by Marquette Law School. With less than two weeks left in the election, that ad may decide who wins the primary.

Francesca Hong speaks to the Milwaukee Club. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

The upheaval within the Democratic primary for governor was so significant that Marquette University Law School had to release two surveys of Wisconsin voters in one week. The latest results show democratic socialist Francesca Hong has pulled away from her remaining four challengers.

The Marquette poll asked 407 Democratic primary voters from July 22 through July 27 about who they support for governor. It was a bit of a do-over for Marquette pollster Charles Franklin and his team because their survey just weeks before was disrupted when Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez dropped out of the race, with Crowley relaunching his campaign soon after.

The current slate of candidates remained intact while the latest Marquette Survey was in the field. Of the respondents, 38 percent said they’d vote for Hong on August 11. That’s a 12 point jump from last week’s Marquette results, which included Rodriguez. Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes came in a distant second with 16 percent. Crowley’s relaunch didn’t appear to have caught respondents attention, as just 7 percent said they’d vote for him. Because he dropped out when Marquette’s last survey was in the field, he wasn’t included in last week’s results.

State Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, and Former Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan were tied in last place with just two percent of respondents supporting them in the newest Marquette survey.

There’s been a plurality of polls in the final days of the August 11 primary race and they’ve all shown Hong ahead. The largest margin for her came in a poll released Tuesday by nonprofit State Navigate, which was funded by two liberal groups. The survey showed Hong with a commanding 44 percent among Democratic respondents, compared to 15 percent for Crowley and 14 percent for Barnes.

Whoever emerges from Democrats’ primary will likely compete in the general election with Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who isn’t facing any major GOP primary challengers. As Democrats’ wide field has split donor resources, Republicans have united behind Tiffany, helping him raise more than $8 million in his latest campaign finance report.

Hong leads Democratic primary for governor once again in new Marquette poll was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Rev. Teresa Thomas-Boyd, a faith partnership consultant for the Walnut Way Conservation Corp. in Milwaukee, speaks at a news conference in Madison Tuesday calling on Wisconsin’s next governor to commit to a clean energy future. Behind her to the left is Laura Lane, Wisconsin outreach director for Faith In Place. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)

A multifaith group focused on the environment is calling on whoever sits in the governor’s office in 2027 to commit Wisconsin to a clean energy future.

“More than 100 faith leaders from across the state have signed an open letter to the next governor declaring that the climate crisis is a spiritual crisis, and our next governor must lead us to a just transition to 100% renewable energy,” said Laura Lane, the Wisconsin outreach director for Faith In Place, at a Tuesday morning press conference outside the state Capitol.

“Clean energy is the solution for lowering energy bills, having cleaner air and water, and enjoying a livable planet,” Lane said. “All Wisconsinites deserve the dignity of a life where the basic conditions of health and joy can be met. And the next governor must lead us to that future.”

Faith In Place is made up of individuals as well as houses of worship in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, organizing to improve environmental conditions in the Upper Midwest. Lane said it was founded 27 years ago and has helped spawn “green teams” dedicated to environmental issues in religious congregations in all three states.

“Although God created everything good, we have not been good in America to the beautiful creation,” said Rev. Teresa Thomas-Boyd, a faith partnership consultant for the Walnut Way Conservation Corp. in Milwaukee.

“We need to have cleaner energy and not only to reduce the cost of energy for Wisconsin, but also to mitigate the natural disasters that we experience each year,” Thomas-Boyd said. “So I urge the future governor of Wisconsin to move us to be good stewards.”

Rev. Kelly Asbrooth-Jackson, a Madison Unitarian Universalist minister, said Wisconsin is behind both Illinois and Minnesota in the transition to renewable energy.

“The need for an environment friendly to human beings and the need for each of us to make ends meet have been pitted against each other for a very long time now,” Asprooth-Jackson said. “It is time for us to let go of that story because it has kept us from practicing the values common to so many of our religions, including my own — to care for the precious gift of this planet that has been entrusted to us and to care for our neighbors with whom we share it.”

The effects of climate change have been most recently experienced in severe weather events, including historic flooding and destructive tornados in Wisconsin, as well as wildfires in Canada that sent smoke hundreds of miles, including to the Wisconsin skies.

“We were breathing the smoke with our most dangerous air quality ever recorded,” said Rev. Nick Uptall, a Lutheran pastor. “And we know that it’s getting worse.”

Climate change threatens the future of a longstanding tradition for the young people in his church, Uptall said — an annual canoe trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on the border of Minnesota and Canada. Worse, however, it has harmed people as well as animals and plants, “which my faith understands to be our siblings in God’s creation,” he said.

“Jesus called us to love our neighbors as ourselves,” Uptall said. The state’s next governor must “lead Wisconsin to a better future, turning us from the waste and destruction of dirty energy and instead caring for God’s creation.”

The harms from climate change “fall disproportionately on those who have the least resources,” said Rabbi Abby Phelps of Milwaukee. “Ending our reliance on fossil fuels is a practical necessity and it is also a religious obligation.”

“The Earth becomes ours to use only after we bless it,” Phelps said, citing an interpretation of scripture by rabbinical commentators. “To take without blessing is theft. To take with blessing is partnership.”

Committing to renewable, clean energy honors that spirit, she added: “What better way could there be to bring blessing into this world than by harnessing its power in a way that protects the Earth and its inhabitants?”

Faith leaders call on the next governor to go all in on clean energy was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.

From left, Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos speak at a joint press conference in January announcing an agreement to fund WisconsinEye. That bill died after passing the Assembly, but this week a committee of leaders from both parties approved funding the livestream service through the end of this year. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

A bipartisan committee of Wisconsin legislators has signed off on a $250,000 funding deal for WisconsinEye, the livestream service that covers the state Legislature.

The Joint Committee on Legislative Organization approved the funds, to be paid out $50,000 per month starting Aug. 1, on a 9-1 vote, the nonpartisan Legislative Council announced Tuesday. The committee is made up of six Republican and four Democratic leaders of both the Senate and the Assembly.

Sen. Dan Feyen (R-Fond du Lac), the assistant Senate majority leader, cast the only vote against the proposal.

The funding is to support WisconsinEye so it can provide livestream coverage of floor sessions in the Legislature as well as public hearings and votes held by Senate and Assembly committees, as it continues to seek long-term funding to operate.

WisEye President Jon Henkes welcomed the vote Tuesday, saying that it provided “a strong statement of support” in both chambers “for unfettered citizen access to state government proceedings,” with both Republicans and Democrats signing on.

“They’ve put action to their words that transparency is essential to our democracy, and we are extremely grateful,” Henkes said in a statement.

Henkes said the sum was sufficient for WisconsinEye to maintain operations through December, including its coverage of events in the 2026 election campaign as well as coverage of the Legislature’s joint study committees, which are discussing a variety of topics with future policy implications.

The vote also provides “an existing foundation of ongoing support” that will be important to charitable donors and WisEye program sponsors, according to the WisconsinEye statement.

The streaming service is counting on the new Legislature that takes office in January 2027 to reach a bipartisan agreement for future partial funding for the service.

WisconsinEye launched as an independent nonprofit in 2007 to livestream and archive government meetings and legislative sessions. The service has operated on donations and runs independently from the state Legislature.

WisconsinEye’s management announced in November 2025 that it needed additional revenue to support the service’s $900,000 annual budget after donations fell behind in the last couple of years. The service went dark for nearly two months at the end of December, resuming in February.

Two separate proposals to fund the service passed earlier this year, one in the Assembly and the other in the Senate, but neither one got a vote in the opposite chamber.

WisEye streaming service gets $250k to operate for the rest of 2026 was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.

The Medical College of Wisconsin breaks ground on its first student housing facility on Tuesday, July 28, 2026 in Milwaukee, Wis. Photo courtesy of the Medical College of Wisconsin

For the first time in its history, the Medical College of Wisconsin will have on-campus student housing.

The project broke ground Tuesday on the Wauwatosa campus, with college and city officials hoping it will ultimately help connect students with each other and the community.

The four-story, 266-unit building, dubbed Trailmark at MCW, will open on what was a surface parking lot at Watertown Plank Road and 87th Street in Spring 2028.

“We have almost 40 different programs,” said Matthew Lester, chief operating officer of the Medical College. “This gives (students) the perfect opportunity to interact — a pharmacy student, a PhD in biochemistry, a genetic counselor —  because those teams are going to be so critical in the health care world of working together.”

A rendering of the new Trailmark building at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Its the first student housing the college has offered in its history. Rendering courtesy of the Medical College of Wisconsin

The $70 million project is being paid for by the Medical College. Lester said most of the units will be one-bedroom, since the students are older, established and prefer to live by themselves.

The cost of the units for students has not yet been determined.

Lester said the goal is to be “below what the average price of a unit in the market would be.”

According to the online real estate website, Zillow, the average price for a rental in Wauwatosa is about $1,700 a month. In Milwaukee the average rental price is $1,300 a month.

On-site living will also cut down on the tens of thousands of vehicles who visit the grounds daily.

The Medical College is tightly packed onto a bustling campus of two dozen buildings including Froedtert and Children’s Wisconsin hospitals.

Trailmark at MCW is expected to take about 300 cars off the complex a day.

The on-campus apartment building marks a shift for the 133-year institution, which has relied on off-campus housing for its approximately 1,200 Milwaukee-area students.

The project was driven by growing student demand for housing closer to campus.

The Medical College is one of a few standalone medical colleges that doesn’t currently have a residence hall.

Studies have found living on campus can affect students’ attitudes and academic performance.

MCW student Paul Sidlowski said the importance of accessible and affordable housing for students at MCW really can’t be overstated.

Sidlowski said medical students and scientists keep long, odd hours.

“One of the great strengths of MCW is the fact that we are a place that brings together clinicians and scientists,” Sidlowski said. “And I know that for the future generations of students who are able to live here amongst each other, amongst all of the different types of perspectives that MCW has to offer, this new Trailmark building has the potential to become a hub where those connections can happen really naturally.”

Medical College of Wisconsin adding student housing for the first time in school’s history was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Democratic candidates for governor largely avoided direct attacks on one another during their only televised primary debate Tuesday night. (Screenshots via WISN-12)

Democratic candidates for governor largely avoided direct attacks on one another during their only televised primary debate Tuesday night, with two weeks remaining before the Aug. 11 primary, instead laying out differences on issues including school vouchers and data centers.

This year’s election is the first open race for governor in Wisconsin since 2010, and the five candidates left in a field that used to include seven are former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Joel Brennan, former state Department of Administration chief, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, state Rep. Francesca Hong and state Sen. Kelda Roys.

More than 40% of Wisconsin voters have not made up their minds about which candidate to support.

Recent polls show Hong leading the race.

The debate was hosted by WISN 12 on the Marquette University campus and moderated by Gerron Jordan and Matt Smith, WISN 12 journalists and hosts of “Upfront,” on the first day of in-person early voting. The candidates were told at the beginning that they were allowed to speak to one another at the start of the debate, but direct back and forth and criticism was minimal throughout the hour-long debate.

The winner of the primary will likely face U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the presumptive Republican nominee in November.

Addressing criticisms

The debate started with each candidate addressing a critique of their candidacy.

Crowley, who recently reentered the race for governor with the endorsement of Gov. Tony Evers, was asked about his decision to drop out and then restart his campaign and whether he is a “prop” of the Democratic establishment.

“I was never born into the establishment. I was actually born into struggle… I’m not here to protect the establishment. I’m here to deliver real results for Wisconsinites all over our state,” Crowley said, adding that the “stakes are too high and that’s why I got back into this race.”

Barnes, who served as lieutenant governor in Evers’ first term, was asked about entering the race after losing his 2022 U.S. Senate race against Sen. Ron Johnson, his failure to garner Evers’ endorsement, and why voters should trust him to win in November when he previously lost.

Barnes said that his narrow loss to Johnson taught him about the influence of money on elections as well as “how low Republicans can go.” He said that he thinks his campaign will have the resources and support to win, and he appeared to take a poke at Crowley.

“I have zero interest in upholding the status quo. I have zero interest in being the establishment candidate,” Barnes said. “That is the difference right here on the stage because I am pushing the envelope to make sure that we are as bold as we can possibly be in the Donald Trump era, because that’s what people have been calling for Democrats to be all along.”

Hong, who identifies as a democratic socialist, was asked whether she supports the full platform of the Democratic Socialists of America, which includes abolishing the U.S. Senate. Tiffany has been criticizing her for a tweet from 2021, in which she said “Abolish the Senate.” She said no.

“I do not support the full platform of the national DSA and I am not endorsed by DSA National,” Hong said. She then focused on defining democratic socialism, saying it is a “form of government that puts working class people first.”

Brennan and Roys, who are both polling in the single digits, were asked about whether voters were “wasting” their vote by voting for them.

“The challenge that I have had from day one is not that anybody thinks I’m unqualified for the office,” Brennan said, noting his experience as a cabinet member under Evers. “The challenge I have had is that people don’t know me as well as they know some other candidates around the state.”

Brennan said the recent upheaval in the race — as well as the perception of insiders “putting their thumb on the scale” — has gotten people more engaged and that will help his candidacy.

Roys responded to the same question by saying, “If you want the best public schools in the nation for your children, if you want to open up the state’s healthcare plan so that everyone can buy in and we can lower costs for all Wisconsinites, if you want a candidate who is going to stand up and fight Donald Trump and bring an end to this authoritarian regime, then you should vote for me.”

Public safety funding

Each candidate said he or she would not sign a budget that cut funding to law enforcement and all said that they would sign a bill requiring police across the state of Wisconsin to wear body cameras.

Candidates were asked about the killing of Corey Ruiz, a Black man, by Madison police. Hong was asked about her public speech on the site of the killing in which she called it an example of state-sanctioned violence and an “execution.” Hong suggested during the debate that she would not have made the comments before an investigation as governor, since the office has “the largest microphone in the state” and there is “deep responsibility” with that. “It was clearly the type of violence where no one’s life should have been taken,” Hong said.

Asked about previous comments she made supporting defunding the police, Hong said she would not cut funding for public safety, but wants to invest in local governments and communities to help reduce crime including by investing in schools, addressing the opioid epidemic and ensuring people coming out of incarceration have proper resources.

“The governor cannot defund police, and I am not here to govern by slogan,” Hong said. “I am here to make sure I am the governor that’s most serious about public safety.”

Barnes faced criticism during his 2022 Senate campaign over comments supporting reducing police funding. He said during the debate he would not sign a budget that decreased police funding in part because he said police departments must be able to afford body cameras, which Madison police do not have.

Roys said that she wouldn’t cut police funding and added that the state also needs to invest in local governments, so they can invest in evidence-based programs that reduce and prevent crime.

“We have to invest in proven strategies that actually do that, unlike what Republicans like Tom Tiffany have done, which is cut funding to local governments and take away local control,” Roys said.

“We cannot defund the police. We should be investing in public safety,” Crowley said, adding that that includes investing in wraparound services.

Brennan said there needs to be robust funding for local governments, and that the state should look to Minnesota as a model for how to reduce crime, spend less and reduce the prison population while investing in early childhood and K-12 education.

Voucher program

When it comes to the state’s school voucher system, candidates took different positions.

Barnes said he would reduce the voucher programs in the state, including in Milwaukee where nearly half of students in the city use publicly funded private school vouchers.

Roys laid out her three-step plan to sunset the voucher programs including implementing transparency and accountability measures to close schools that don’t adhere to higher standards, end the statewide program in the first state budget and wind down the programs while allowing current participating students and their siblings to continue attending private schools with vouchers.

Hong said she would not put a “firm” number on when the voucher programs would need to end, but she supports strengthening public schools and would wind down the voucher program through a “responsible program and process where we work directly with the families and the different schools.”

Crowley said he would not sign a bill reducing the programs, though he added that he doesn’t want to see them expand either.

“I don’t think the question is whether or not we should have vouchers,” Crowley said. “The question should be, how do we continue to invest in our public schools to make sure that they’re the school of choice.”

Brennan offered the strongest argument for not signing a bill to reduce or close the programs. He said he wants to cap enrollment and disclose costs of private voucher schools on taxpayers’ property tax bills, but he said reducing the program is not politically feasible.

“There is not going to be a bill passed in the Legislature that is put on the governor’s desk right now to end vouchers in Milwaukee. There are representatives in Milwaukee… for whom more than half the people who live there are sending their kids to private schools. We have to live in the real world. This is dividing Democrats,” Brennan said. “I wouldn’t put legislators in a position where they’re going to have to tell parents that they can’t send their kids to their schools of their choice.”

Brennan added that he wants to make Wisconsin’s public schools better than any private school.

Data centers

Data center construction has become a key issue in the race for governor with polling suggesting that 76% of Wisconsinites say they believe the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits. Candidates provided different solutions for regulating data centers.

Hong touted the fact that she is the only candidate to call for a moratorium on data centers and said she would call a special session on the issue to have lawmakers take action on a bill that would impose regulations on data center construction in the state.

“This moratorium is necessary so that we can responsibly put in enforcement mechanisms to protect communities,” Hong said, noting that some local governments have already imposed moratoriums. “We also want to make sure that there are the guard rails, the legal resources, and that if data centers are going to come here in our state that they pay their own way and actually pay up front.”

Crowley said that he did not think a moratorium would address the long-term concerns, and said he would rather focus on ensuring that data centers have to pay for their energy use, grid upgrades and use clean energy.

Brennan said he has not called for a moratorium, but would put a 100-day pause on construction. He said he would also ensure that Wisconsinites are not paying for the construction, ensure there are regulations with “teeth” and that companies are using renewable energy, ensure that union workers are employed on the projects and ban non-disclosure agreements between companies and local governments.

“If we can do that in the first 100 days, it’s not going to make everybody happy, but it’s going to set the bar and take away that uncertainty and take away another reason why people distrust government and why they’re so angry,” Brennan said.

Barnes said that he wanted no new data center construction without guardrails being put in place to ensure the state’s natural resources and air quality are protected and that residents’ energy bills are not climbing.

“If a community rejects a data center proposal, then there should be no new data center constructed,” Barnes said.

Roys said she doubted a moratorium bill could pass, but a bill focused on strong regulations could be successful.

“I will not stop there,” Roys said. “I will also establish a public negotiating team so that any community that decides it would like to engage with a data center has the opportunity to have expert negotiators. I will increase shared revenue so that communities don’t feel desperate … I will also end the subsidies for data centers because they should be paying us and not the other way around.”

In 30-second closing statements, as each candidate made a pitch for voters’ support, Barnes made some of the most pointed remarks of the night taking shots at Crowley and Hong.

“I want you to know that the establishment is trying to rig this election. They want you to choose between their preferred candidate and also Republican billionaires are lining up to the tune of three and a half million dollars to choose a democratic nominee in this race,” Barnes said, referring to the money the Republican party has invested in ads widely seen as aimed at boosting Hong. “I’m here to say, that’s BS. I’ve been a progressive fighter who’s taken on the tough fights.”

Brennan suggested he is the only one who could win the general election, Roys and Crowley each emphasized their experience and Hong said she was already beating Tiffany by garnering statewide support and would be a fighter for working class voters.

Wisconsin Democratic candidates for governor debate, mostly hold back direct attacks was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.

Early voting and a ballot drop box at Good Hope Library, 7715 W. Good Hope Rd. Photo taken July 28, 2026 by Sophie Bolich.

The parking lot at Milwaukee Public Library‘s Good Hope Branch was nearly full Tuesday afternoon as residents turned out for the first day of early voting.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson was among them, chatting with voters in line before casting his ballot in the Aug. 11 partisan primary.

He encouraged others to do the same.

“I want every single eligible voter to participate in this election, especially in the governor’s race,” Johnson said. “Of course, folks can do that on Election Day, but it’s just as easy to vote early.”

Located at 7715 W. Good Hope Rd., the library is one of six early voting sites across the city. Others include Midtown Voting Center at 4170 N. 56th St., Tippecanoe Library at 3912 S. Howell Ave., Washington Park Senior Center at 4420 W. Vliet St., Zablocki Library at 3501 W. Oklahoma Ave., and Zeidler Municipal Building at 841 N. Broadway.

Only city of Milwaukee residents can use early voting centers. Unlike on Election Day, early voters may cast a ballot at any city early voting site, regardless of their home address or usual polling place.

Johnson urged those voting absentee to turn in their ballots on time, citing an April incident when the U.S. Postal Service delivered hundreds of absentee ballots the day after Election Day.

“Unfortunately, those votes did not get counted,” he said. “If you do vote absentee by mail, please, please, please make sure you get those ballots turned in as quickly as you possibly can.”

In May, the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) surveyed Wisconsin county and municipal clerks about the incident and sent a letter to the U.S. Postal Service urging it to address delays. More recently, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Gov. Tony Evers sent a joint letter to Postmaster General David Steiner and members of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors raising similar concerns.

Previous guidance advised voters to mail absentee ballots at least one week before Election Day. Officials now recommend allowing at least 10 days, if not longer.

“If you’re not putting it in the mail today, please make sure that you put it inside of one of our official drop boxes,” Johnson said.

Milwaukee operates 14 secure ballot drop boxes. A full list of locations is available online. Voters may also return absentee ballots directly to their municipal clerk’s office or their polling place on Election Day.

Wisconsin is one of 36 states that require mailed absentee ballots to be received by Election Day to be counted. A lawsuit filed last week seeks to create an alternative for voters who believe their ballot will not arrive in time.

The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin filed a July 23 lawsuit targeting WEC guidance that prohibits people who request an absentee ballot from casting an in-person ballot if the mail ballot will not arrive by the time polls close on Election Day.

“Absent relief, WEC’s guidance will disenfranchise voters with late-arriving absentee ballots,” the complaint argues.

The lawsuit seeks to allow voters who believe their ballots will not arrive in time to cast a provisional ballot in person. It would be set aside and only be counted if the original ballot does not arrive by the deadline.

Aug. 6 is the deadline for most voters to request an absentee ballot by mail through My Vote Wisconsin.

According to WEC data, Milwaukee voters had requested 22,806 absentee ballots as of July 28. Of those, 22,753 had been sent to voters and 8,461 had been returned.

Photos

Students walking along Johnson Street on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Bill Martens/WPR

Five top administrators at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are named in a lawsuit involving former Gov. Scott Walker targeting race-based scholarships.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, Walker’s organization — Young America’s Foundation — and Citizens Defending Liberty filed the suit Monday in Waukesha County Circuit Court.

The groups allege race-based scholarships and grants at Wisconsin’s flagship university are discriminatory and violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment.

The lawsuit names Interim Chancellor Eric Wilcots, Provost John Zumbrunnen and three others.

It comes one month after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled undergraduate retention grants for certain minority students are unconstitutional.

“While UW-Madison has abandoned several race-based scholarships and grants since 2023, UW-Madison has resisted abandoning them entirely,” according to the latest complaint.

It names the Universities of Wisconsin System’s Lawton Undergraduate Minority Retention Grant Program.

The Lawton program was created by lawmakers in 1985 for minority undergraduate students to “improve their opportunities for retention and graduation and lessen the burden of student debt.”

“The Lawton Program is far from the only race-based scholarship or grant at UW-Madison,” according to the complaint. “UW-Madison currently administers at least 20 race-based scholarships in both the undergraduate and graduate schools, many of which lack the same level of public transparency as the Lawton Program.”

UW-Madison student Jenna Lawrence is a plaintiff in the case.

“Students should earn scholarships for merit and financial need, not simply due to their race,” Lawrence said in a statement. “I am proud to stand alongside YAF and WILL and argue for our universities to treat all students equally.”

Gillian Drummond, a spokesperson for UW-Madison, said the university just received the complaint and is still reviewing it.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling in June was based on the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023 that significantly curtailed race-based college admissions.

The U.S. Supreme Court laid out five independent tests that a racial classification must survive to pass constitutional scrutiny. WILL says the UW scholarships do not pass those tests.

“The University of Wisconsin-Madison continues to administer scholarships and grants to students based on race, and it’s happening with our tax dollars,” WILL deputy counsel Rebecca Furdek said in a statement. “WILL is holding the university accountable so eligibility for scholarships doesn’t depend upon the color of a student’s skin.”

UW-Madison sued for continuing race-based scholarships after Supreme Court ruling was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

An absentee ballot. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

After voting against guidance telling residents they can’t change their absentee ballots just because they changed their minds, two Democrats on the Wisconsin Elections Commission are getting involved in a lawsuit aimed at blocking the policy shift.

Commissioners Ann Jacobs and Mark Thomsen claim the board they sit on acted “inconsistent with the law.”

The guidance passed by the Wisconsin Elections Commission states that people voting absentee cannot “spoil” their ballots and cast new ones if that voter changed their mind or their preferred candidate dropped out of the race. During a chaotic Democratic primary in the race for governor, three candidates have dropped out, with one getting back into the race days later.

A lawsuit filed by three residents whose preferred candidate, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, dropped out, seeks to block the commission’s guidance, which passed on July 9 by a vote of 4-2. Jacobs and Thomsen, who voted against the change, filed a motion Monday seeking to intervene against the commission.

In their brief, Jacobs and Thomson said they have to intervene as individuals because their interests “are not adequately represented” by commission attorneys. They say the agency “has now taken the position that it may change guidance at any time while an election is pending.”

“Moreover, the Commission’s guidance at issue unlawfully treats absentee voters worse than voters who cast their ballots on Election Day,” their motion claims. “Voters who vote on Election Day can spoil their ballot twice and obtain up to two new ballots. Treating absentee voters differently violates equal protection.”

Jacobs and Thomsen are asking the court to act quickly on the case. Their motion said if that happens, the judge can order the commission to discard its July 9 guidance and notify Wisconsin’s local election clerks, to “allow them and the public as much time as possible to process any requests from voters to spoil their returned ballots and vote before 8 pm on August 11, 2026.”

In an interview with WISN-TV on July 21, Wisconsin Elections Commission Chair Don Millis, a Republican, said he wasn’t interested in reconsidering the absentee ballot spoiling guidance because it emphasizes existing state law. He said it would be “crazy” to reverse it now. Millis said it’s unfortunate some residents voted for candidates who have left the race for governor, “but that’s life in the big city” and making clerks dig through thousands of ballots to find the ones absentee voters want to spoil would be chaotic.

“That’s going to affect not only those ballots, it’s going to affect other ones that are in storage that are sealed, that should be held in sealed containers until the election day,” said Millis. “So again, I just think it would be just a big mistake.”

Also on Monday, the Republican National Committee announced it too was intervening in the absentee ballot lawsuit. A statement from chairman Joe Gruters accused Democrats of wanting a “do-over when they don’t like the outcome.”

As of Monday, the elections commission reported nearly 262,000 absentee ballots have been sent out and around 100,000 have already been returned to clerks.

Elections commission members want in on lawsuit challenging absentee ballot policy was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Madison Rep. Francesca Hong speaks to her supporters as she hosts a rally for her gubernatorial campaign Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Madison, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

A new poll finds state Rep. Francesca Hong with a commanding lead in the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor.

The poll released Tuesday by the nonprofit State Navigate asked nearly 1,100 Wisconsinites their preference in the Aug. 11 primary. The survey was in the field from July 23 through July 26 — after the chaotic withdrawal of Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez and reentry into the race of Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 points.

It found Hong leading other Democrats by nearly 30 points.

“She’s gonna win this primary,” said Chaz Nuttycombe, founder and executive director of State Navigate in an interview with WPR. He pointed to her being strongly favored among voters in the survey, and a strong backup choice to other candidates.

When pressed to make a choice, 44 percent of Democrats polled said they would vote for Hong, compared to 15 percent for Crowley and 14 percent for former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. State Sen. Kelda Roys, former Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan and Rodriguez all had 4 percent support. Thirteen percent of voters said they did not know who they favored.

It’s the second poll in two weeks to name the democratic socialist as the leader in the primary. In a survey that did not include Crowley, the Marquette Law School Poll found Hong in the lead. But Marquette also found almost half of Democratic voters were still undecided about who they’d ultimately pick.

On Wednesday, Marquette will release another survey that reflects Crowley’s reentry.

Wisconsin’s five remaining Democratic candidates will spar at 7 p.m. Tuesday during a debate hosted by WISN 12 in Milwaukee  The debate will be streamed on the WISN website.

Hong, who represents Madison in the state Assembly, has largely defined the race, harnessing enthusiasm on the left. More moderate Democrats appeared to be coalescing around Rodriguez before she announced she had discovered serious financial mismanagement of her campaign funds, which later forced her to drop out.

State Navigate surveyors posed an open-ended question about what will influence their vote, if they head to the polls in November. State Navigate says the most frequent answers were economic issues, affordability, cost of living, data centers, healthcare and the electability of the candidate.

Nuttycombe says Hong scored high with many of the voters pollsters talked to.

“Data centers are a big thing in this primary, and Hong has been very smart to really make that the focal point of her campaign,” he said.

State Navigate’s new poll showed that Hong has strong support from young voters, especially those under age 29.

Nuttycombe says the State Navigate survey included Rodriguez because she will appear on the Democratic ballot, and researchers asked voters if they knew she had dropped out and who they would vote for instead.

“Some people still pick Rodriguez, but when that happens, Barnes goes up 1 percent Crowley goes up 1 percent, and Hong stays at 44 percent,” Nuttycombe said.

State Navigate said Crowley’s jump back into the race “appears to have scrambled the contest for second place rather than consolidating it, while Hong has surged past her opponents.”

For Crowley voters, 34 percent picked Barnes as their second choice, the survey found. Nuttycombe said this is likely an indicator Crowley “siphoned support from Barnes rather than Hong.”

On the Republican side, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Minocqua, has run largely on his own terms, despite token opposition by a little-funded candidate.

Tiffany, who represents the state’s conservative 7th Congressional District, also boasts the support of President Donald Trump.

Editor’s note: More details on all these candidates, and their stances on major issues, are available in WPR’s Partisan Primary Voter Guide. PBS Wisconsin also sat down to speak with many of the candidates running to fill Tiffany’s seat in Congress.

Ahead of Democratic debate, poll finds Francesca Hong up in primary for governor was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility, 700 E. Jones St. Photo taken July 21 by Graham Kilmer.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is reportedly investigating claims of mismanagement and malfeasance at the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District‘s two sewage treatment plants.

The plants, Jones Island and South Shore, are operated by Veolia Water Milwaukee, a subsidiary of Veolia, a French multinational corporation specializing in water services. In April, the community organization Common Ground went public with allegations from anonymous whistleblowers that Veolia was intentionally mismanaging the sewage treatment plants to save money, causing the systems to run below capacity and increasing the risk of sewer overflows and basement backups.

Bob Connolly, a Common Ground founder and a leader of the organization’s groundwater team, told Urban Milwaukee that a DNR investigative warden recently approached two whistleblowers who have come forward publicly: Steve Jacquart and Greg Gryskiewicz.

Investigative wardens “specialize in investigating complex cases, most often involving the commercialization of natural resources and environmental violations. Investigative wardens work closely with field conservation wardens, as well as other DNR program staff (environmental enforcement, fisheries, etc.), to gather and review information, conduct investigative interviews and build legal cases,” according to the DNR website.

A spokesperson for the DNR has not responded to a request for comment on the investigation. Jacquart told Urban Milwaukee he was visited at his home by a DNR investigative warden, who asked him questions about the sewerage district and the public allegations leveled by Common Ground and other whistleblowers.

A detailed whistleblower report released by Common Ground also alleges the company has falsified water quality reports, equipment reports and records of sewage dumps. MMSD regularly submits reports and data to the DNR, the state’s top environmental regulator. The district also must apply for a pollutant discharge permit from the state every five years. The district is currently applying for a new permit, which is up for renewal in October.

Connolly told Urban Milwaukee the investigator approached Jacquart and Gryskiewicz asking “about what we know about what’s going on at MMSD.” Jacquart told the investigator to contact Connolly, who has worked to protect the identity of the whistleblowers working with Common Ground. He and others rebuffed an earlier attempt by MMSD to investigate their claims using a human resources attorney seeking interviews with whistleblowers.

Connolly said he suspects the DNR is interested in allegations that Veolia has falsified reports. “That’s part of the way the DNR monitors MMSD,” he said.

The DNR held a public meeting Tuesday on MMSD’s latest application for a new five-year pollutant discharge permit. Most of the attendees were members of Common Ground. After the meeting, Kevin Shafer told Urban Milwaukee that DNR “inspectors” have been to the sewage treatment facilities in recent months, but that he hasn’t heard of the DNR interviewing any MMSD officials. “We always have inspections,” Shafer said. “DNR is very good at making sure that we operate the system per the permit, and they do a great job.”

Common Ground Whistleblowers Working With Auditor

After Common Ground went public with allegations in April, the organization’s immediate demand was for a third-party audit of Veolia’s operations before a new 10-year contract is awarded.

Veolia is currently bidding on a new contract for operation of the treatment plants valued at approximately $700 million. The company is bidding for the contract against an industry competitor, Dallas-based Jacobs Solutions, for the first time since securing the contract in 2008. The contract is scheduled to be awarded in September and will go into effect in March 2028.

In June, the MMSD Commission, an oversight body primarily appointed by the mayor of Milwaukee, approved an independent audit to look into whistleblower claims. The audit is being conducted by EMA Inc., based in St. Paul, Minnesota. The firm was selected for its deep technical expertise and experience in water utility performance and compliance management, according to the commission.

Since then, Connolly and other Common Ground leaders have met three times with EMA President and CEO Sharon Peters, an engineer with extensive experience in water management and utility systems. EMA also has experience working with whistleblowers, Connolly said.

“We concluded that we can trust her and that she will write an honest report,” he said. “And so we decided as a group that we would start scheduling our whistleblowers to meet with her staff.”

Update: This story was updated to include information about the DNR investigation from Steve Jacquart.

Milwaukee Public Schools Administration Building. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Milwaukee Public Schools needs 200 teachers and 150 paraprofessionals, and it is looking to the City of Big Shoulders to fill the openings.

“Milwaukee is just a short 90-minute drive or train trip away, and we are ecstatic to welcome Chicago educators to Milwaukee as we work to manage and reduce class size and ensure that a highly qualified teacher is in front of every student,” said Dominick Maniscalco, MPS chief human resources officer, in a press release.

MPS recruiters are heading down to Chicago for a two-day recruitment fair Wednesday and Thursday. Chicago Public Schools is facing a budget shortfall of $732 million and contemplating laying off 760 teachers, 801 teacher aides and 162 central office personnel, as CBS News has reported.

“MPS hiring officials will conduct on-site interviews and make immediate, on-the-spot job offers,” states the press release.

Last month Urban Milwaukee reported that MPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius sought to hire 89 additional teachers to reduce average system class sizes and that it might be difficult to fill all the positions, given an ongoing teacher shortage and a longtime decline in teacher salaries and benefits.

But Maniscalco told Urban Milwaukee that in total the district needs 111 more teachers and that MPS will “overshoot” that number and seek 200 teachers, given the natural turnover of staff. Some teachers retire at the last minute, move or take other positions in other school districts or careers. “There is natural movement that takes place,” he noted.

Plus, the district needs 150 paraprofessionals. And the district’s schools will be opening just a month from now, which leaves MPS under pressure to find more recruits.

Hence the Windy City hunting trip. “When we go to Chicago, we will take over 200 teachers,” Maniscalco emphasized in an interview with Urban Milwaukee.

Chicago Public Schools and teacher union officials are still lobbying the Illinois state Legislature, seeking additional funds for the school district. They are calling for the Illinois governor to call a special legislative session to deal with the crisis. The Illinois Federation of Teachers has filed a lawsuit against the Cook County treasurer for failing to disburse millions of dollars in property tax funds to the county’s school districts. But if no additional funding is delivered soon, many teachers could be out of a job.

That said, just because more than 1,700 Chicago school employees are receiving layoff notices does not mean that many employees will be laid off. Last year, 1,450 Chicago school employees received layoff notices and about 75% were rehired. This year, Chicago district officials say most of the teachers receiving layoffs will ultimately be rehired, which could still leave hundreds who aren’t.

MPS says it has been getting the word out in Chicago about the opportunities in Milwaukee through paid targeted social ads, LinkedIn, Facebook and local media outlets.

“MPS hiring officials will conduct on-site interviews and make immediate, on-the-spot job offers,” the press release promises. It could be a tempting offer for some Chicago teachers.

Event Details

• Milwaukee Public Schools Chicago Recruitment & On-the-Spot Hiring Fair
• MPS district leaders, talent management team, and displaced CPS educators
• Wednesday, July 29, 2026 | Hours: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Thursday, July 30, 2026 | Hours: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Hotel Zachary, 2nd floor library, 3630 N. Clark St., Chicago IL 60613

Key District Highlights for Applicants:

• Active Hiring Need: 200 open teaching positions.
• Active Hiring Need: 150 open paraprofessional positions.
• Classroom Investment: District adding teaching positions to manage and reduce class sizes and increase individual student support.
• Salary and Benefits: Average teacher salary of $90,000 with a robust pension and health benefits.

Mandela Barnes. (Public Domain).

Legal complaints have been filed with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission against Democrat Mandela Barnes’ campaign and a political action committee (PAC) benefiting the former lieutenant governor, alleging violations of state law.

The Barnes campaign insisted it did not violate the law in a response to Urban Milwaukee. The attorney filing the complaint is Michael Maistelman, who is supporting Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley’s campaign for governor in the Democratic primary.

The complaint makes two allegations involving The Long Run PAC, the successor PAC to Barnes’ U.S. Senate campaign in 2022.

First, that the Long Run PAC sponsored a statewide poll for Barnes in October 2025 but did not register as a Wisconsin political committee until about two months later, which appears to be a violation of state law.

The PAC paid Impact Research $62,000 on Oct. 14 for “polling consulting,” according to Federal Election Commission reports. Yet the PAC did not register with the state until Dec. 22, 2025, and under Wisconsin law it was required to do so before making any disbursements or incurring any obligations.

But the Barnes campaign pointed to a 2017 state Ethics Commission decision regarding a complaint against Republican candidate Andy Gronik for setting up a politically focused nonprofit called Stage W and commissioning a political poll without registering a campaign committee. The commission found that there was “no reasonable suspicion that a violation of the law occurred,” as a story by reporter Dan Bice noted.

The second violation charged in the complaint is that the PAC spent more than allowed to support Barnes’ gubernatorial campaign. Under state law, the maximum donation is $86,000, and the complaint charges that the PAC donated $112,000, including the $62,000 spent on the poll.

Maistelman argues the $62,000 was an in-kind contribution to the Barnes campaign, but a spokesperson for the campaign denies this, noting this was a “testing the waters” poll, which does not constitute the receipt of a “contribution” because the poll was (1) conducted for a private individual (Barnes) who had not yet registered as a candidate for governor; (2) not provided for the purpose of expressly advocating the success or defeat of the candidate; and (3) not commissioned for the purpose of bringing about the candidate’s nomination or election, but for the purpose of “testing the waters.”

Maistelman’s complaint was filed on behalf of a woman named Claudia Pogreba. “My client is asking for a thorough and impartial investigation so the public can have confidence that Wisconsin’s campaign finance laws are enforced equally for everyone,” the attorney told Urban Milwaukee.

His client “was referred to me by mutual friends,” he added. Pogreba is listed as donating $250 to the campaign of Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul.

Barnes Long Run PAC has gotten considerable negative coverage over the past two days, with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporting yesterday morning that the PAC was created to “invest in working-class candidates, young candidates, candidates of color and LGBTQ+ candidates,” but less than 15% of the committee’s spending went to candidates, with most of the funds going to administrative costs, consultants and salaries. And last night Drake Bentley’s story for the Milwaukee Courier was the first to report on the legal complaints by Maistelman.

Some Democratic observers suspect there is a battle of opposition research going on between the Crowley and Barnes campaigns. After Crowley re-entered the campaign for governor, Barnes himself issued two press releases attacking Crowley, one titled “David Crowley Left This Race for a Reason” and the other declaring “Crowley ‘Was Never Really Able to Catch Fire.’”

Four days later came a story, first reported by NBC and then by Urban Milwaukee, that some 15 years ago, when Crowley was in his mid-20s, he had a secret Twitter account with crude messages. It had the feel of a leaked story, perhaps by someone close enough to Crowley to know about his youthful indiscretions. And now we have an attorney who supports Crowley filing an ethics claim against Barnes.

School lockers. Photo by Phil Roeder (CC BY 2.0) 

Wisconsin high school students are taking more advanced placement exams than ever before, and their test scores are higher too.

On the surface, that’s great news — the college-level standardized tests allow high schoolers to earn college credit, saving them both time and money.

But some teachers and experts are questioning whether students actually know more than their counterparts who graduated before them, or whether the scores are a result of the College Board changing its grading criteria for AP exams.

In the 2024-25 school year, students in the state took 84,584 AP exams and scored a 3 or above on 78 percent of tests taken, according to data from the Wisconsin Policy Forum. 

That’s up 11 percent from the year before when students took 76,196 AP exams. That year, about 71 percent of exams scored a 3 or above, according to Policy Forum data.

Most colleges and universities give students college credit if students receive a 3 or above.

Sara Shaw, deputy research director at the Wisconsin Policy Forum, said there are a few different hypotheses for why scores are trending up, including the fact that the the College Board, the non profit arm of AP, recalibrated its threshold for what constitutes a “3.”

Between 2022 and early 2024, the College Board adjusted how it scores AP subject exams using a data- and numbers-based approach aimed at eliminating some of the subjectivity and inconsistency that had previously been part of AP exam scoring.

The “recalibration” resulted in a higher percentage of students getting the 3’s, 4’s, and 5’s that qualify them for college credit in nine subjects.

“When we see these numbers of increasing exam taking and increasing scores, I think it’s important to know that we don’t think that it’s just that Wisconsinites are suddenly doing a lot better on AP exams,” Shaw said. “Although that would be wonderful news. I think there’s a degree to which some of that may be happening. But it seems like the larger factor here is this recalibration that the College Board did.”

Libby Wissing has taught AP math classes at Divine Savior Holy Angels, a private girls school in Milwaukee, for 12 years. She said last year, for the first time, it was clear what the free response questions, or non-multiple choice questions, on the AP pre-calculus test were going to be.

AP statistics was revamped this summer, so Wissing will know what those questions will be next school year.

“It does feel like there’s more direct expectations, which then makes it easier as a teacher — if the goal is to get students to do well on this exam,” Wissing said.

But Wissing doesn’t believe this is a good thing.

“I don’t know that them knowing exactly what the questions are going to be is a benefit. It takes less critical thinking,” Wissing said.

“I love the courses and I love my students and it definitely feels like I am more aware of what’s expected of my students,” she continued. “And because I know what my students, their parents, the colleges want, then it’s like, OK, well, I’ll make sure you have the phrase that you need to use for this question memorized.”

In an email to WPR, a spokesperson for the College Board said AP has challenged students for decades, and it continues to do so today.

“Our responsibility is to ensure AP scores reflect high and durable college standards, not changing college grading trends,” the statement says. “The work we’ve done in recent years has strengthened our ability to apply those standards consistently across subjects and over time.”

The email continued that information is provided widely about AP courses and exam requirements so that “every teacher and student understands the expectations and no student is disadvantaged by a lack of information when they sit down to demonstrate what they know on their AP exam.”

Wisconsin is not an outlier in higher scores. Nationwide, high school teachers have seen the trend.

For example, in AP Chemistry, the share of students scoring a 3, 4 or 5 increased from 54 in 2022 to 75.1 in 2023, according to the 74, an education website. 

By one estimate, roughly 100,000 more students hit the passing threshold on AP U.S. History in 2024 than in 2023, according to the 74.

The surge in AP test scores in Wisconsin and across the nation comes at a time when math and reading levels and chronic absenteeism rates have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.

Changes to how AP exams are scored have led some researchers to question whether the board was trying to boost the percentage of students receiving passing grades, or compete with other programs such as dual credit classes, where students don’t have to take a test.

Gabriel Velez is the associate professor of educational policy and leadership at Marquette University. He also runs the University’s Dual Enrollment program.

He says high schoolers are looking for every opportunity to bolster their college applications and get college credits at a lower cost.

“We are seeing similar rises in participation in dual enrollment courses, which offer greater flexibility for earning college credit but do not have the historical reputation of high AP scores,” Velez said. “

But Harvard political scientist Paul Peterson accused the College Board of “dumbing down” its AP tests in a series of recent essays. 

“Those who rely on AP scores must recognize that some exam results reflect not a surge in student learning but a quiet lowering of the bar,” Peterson wrote.

Wisconsin high schoolers scoring higher on AP tests, but some question why was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

IPA Fest 2022. Photo courtesy of Third Space Brewing Company.

Wisconsin IPA Fest returns to Third Space Brewing Company on Aug. 1 for its 10th installment, with organizers reporting that ticket sales are already outpacing last year ahead of the milestone event. The hop-heavy festival will feature 40 Wisconsin breweries competing for the title of Wisconsin’s best IPA or India pale ale.

This year’s festival will take place at 1505 W. St. Paul Ave. and run an hour longer than past events, featuring unlimited sampling from 2 to 6 p.m., with beer-friendly snacks available for purchase from Tots on the Street, Wisconsin Fried Cheese Curds and other vendors.

VIP ticket holders will be granted entry at 1 p.m. for an extra hour of sampling time. A variety of IPAs — West Coast, hazy, imperial — will be on offer alongside styles including lagers, stouts and seasonal ales. Special attractions such as the Lager Lounge and Sour Station will also return this year.

Attendees are invited to vote on their favorite IPA to determine the People’s Choice Award; however, a panel of industry experts will determine the official champion before the festival begins.

On Thursday, July 30, certified judges will conduct a double-blind tasting of every beer entered in the competition, scoring each on aroma, flavor, balance and style accuracy. The top five IPAs will advance to a final peer-judged round on Friday, July 31, where Wisconsin brewers whose beers are not finalists will select the overall winner.

A full list of participating breweries is available to view online.

Though divisive among beer drinkers for their bold, often bitter flavor profile, IPAs remain among the nation’s most popular craft beer styles. The beers are often linked to 18th century Britain, where higher hop content helped preserve them during long sea voyages; however, enthusiasts continue to debate the style’s exact origins.

After its early inception, the style began gaining traction across the U.S. in the 90s and is now nearly ubiquitous at breweries across the country, with interpretations ranging in flavor from astringent pine and citrus to juicy and grain-forward varieties.

Third Space said the 2026 festival reflects continued support for Wisconsin craft breweries despite what organizers described as a “tumultuous” period marked by a wave of brewery closures. “Ticket sales are already up 25% from last year, with VIP tickets nearly sold out, providing proof that even as the industry faces real headwinds, Wisconsin’s craft beer community is showing up stronger than ever,” organizers noted in a news release.

Wisconsin IPA Fest 2026 is presented by Briess Malt, Cansource, and Workforce.com. Tickets, including general admission, VIP and a discounted designated driver option, are available to purchase online.

Carmen Schools of Science and Technology’s Southgate campus, 2005 W. Oklahoma Ave. Photo taken July 27, 2026 by Sophie Bolich.

When students begin classes later this month at Carmen Schools of Science and Technology‘s new southside campus, they may notice exposed fire suppression systems in the stairwells and a third-floor electrical room enclosed by a glass door rather than solid wood.

The design is intentional, inviting curiosity about the building’s inner workings and encouraging students to connect careers such as electrician, cable technician and engineer with the work they complete in classrooms just steps away.

That is just one advantage of building a school from the ground up, said Carmen CEO Aaron Lippman, who led reporters on a tour of the school’s $55 million Southgate campus Monday afternoon.

Carmen’s three-story, 120,000-square-foot high school took shape over nearly two years at 2005 W. Oklahoma Ave. The project received support from neighbors, community partners and Alderman Scott Spiker, while students, families and staff provided input on the building’s design and amenities.

That feedback influenced the equipment, furniture, layout and amenities in the new building, designed by Ramlow/Stein Architecture + Interiors, with Catalyst Construction and Gilbane Building Co. leading construction.

The southside site was most recently used as a Medical Arts Pavilion extension of Ascension‘s nearby St. Francis Hospital. An affiliate of Carmen paid $4.45 million for the property in August 2025 and demolished a previous one-story, 51,000-square-foot building, Urban Milwaukee previously reported.

The school will open its inaugural year with nearly 1,100 students from Carmen’s south and southeast campuses, both of which previously leased space from Milwaukee Public Schools.

While enrollment is larger than Carmen’s typical small school model, Lippman said the growth has its perks.

“With 1,100 kids, you can offer a range of Advanced Placement (AP) courses, dual enrollment, electives and extracurriculars that we couldn’t offer before — and we have a school building that is ours. So access to it is 24/7, 365, and we can do with it what we want,” Lippman said.

The 6.2-acre campus features a surface parking lot, synthetic turf soccer field and an exterior mural created by local muralist Austin Wronski, of El Guero Murals, with help from students.

A main office and visitor entrance are located on the building’s southeast corner, though students will enter through southwest-side doors and pass through metal detectors at the start of the school day.

A large, open common area anchors the first floor, featuring tables and chairs, booths and picnic table-style seating for up to 400 — plus outdoor seating for fair-weather days. The space will function daily as a cafeteria, though it also includes two screens and overhead projectors for professional development and other events.

“We try to make this feel as much like a college environment as possible,” Lippman said.

The school’s largest gathering space is its gymnasium, which seats up to 1,600 people and doubles as a theater with dressing rooms and backstage storage. Also on the first floor is a workout space with weights and cardio equipment, a trainer’s office, a college and career center, band and choir rooms, locker rooms and a science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) lab equipped with butcher block tables, 3D printers, overhead power, makerspaces and more.

“It’s like a new-fashioned version of a workshop,” Lippman said of the space, which will serve as a home for Carmen’s Project Lead the Way courses. “We’ve been a school of science and technology forever, so this is really staying true to the namesake.”

Upper floors include plentiful classroom space, two art rooms, a student-run IT help desk, a mental health suite and a multipurpose Learning Commons that serves as both a library and gathering space. Girls’ and boys’ restrooms, along with single-stall gender-neutral restrooms, some reserved for staff, are located throughout the building.

The third floor is primarily for ninth- and 10th-graders, while the second is for 11th- and 12th-graders, Lippman said. The separation is intended to make the larger school feel smaller. That philosophy also extends to Carmen’s one-on-one advisory program and classroom design, with most classrooms accommodating no more than 30 students.

“We’re a nonselective, nontuition-based public school, so kids come in, usually from 30 or 40 different elementary schools,” Lippman said. “It’s our job to get them on track academically, social-emotionally and behaviorally. And for us, that starts with our core values: empathy, belief, growth and community.”

That approach also informs the merger, which will be guided by a cultural alignment committee made up of student leaders who collaborated on a number of activities from December 2025 through June 2026. “We know that merging two cultures takes time; it is not just going to happen overnight,” Lippman said. “So we’ve been really intentional about it.”

The opening of Southgate marks a new chapter for Carmen after a multiyear split with Milwaukee Public Schools. In October 2024, the MPS board voted to terminate Carmen’s leases at its South and Southeast campuses, which were co-located with MPS schools. Carmen vacated portions of Casimir Pulaski High School, 2500 W. Oklahoma Ave., and ALBA School, 1712 S. 32nd St., at the end of last school year.

In February 2026, Carmen announced plans to relocate its Northwest campus to a vacant school building at 3215 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. for the 2026-27 school year.

Carmen was founded in 2007 and currently operates four campuses serving grades six through 12. The charter network is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is part of Open Sky Education. In July 2025, Carmen sold its elementary school, which it acquired through a 2019 merger, to Rocketship Education.

Lippman said the stand-alone campus has been a vision for years. “We’re just really excited.”

An official ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. Aug. 4, followed by the first day of school on Aug. 24.

July 2026 Photos

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Construction Photos

Renderings

Pre-Construction

Milwaukee County Courthouse. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

Milwaukee County officials are again preparing for a year of deep budget cuts.

The county is entering the 2027 budget cycle with a projected $50.8 million budget gap, largely a result of state aid failing to keep pace with inflation for more than a decade. The gap represents the county’s structural deficit, the annual difference between how much it would cost to maintain the previous year’s services and how much the county has to spend.

Last year, county policymakers had to close an approximately $46 million gap. Little has changed for the county fiscally between then and now. The primary strategy left to policymakers remains the same: spending cuts and property tax increases. The county is currently projecting a $12 million increase in the property tax levy in 2026, most of which will go toward paying back the debt incurred for funding of the new Center for Forensic Science and Protective Medicine and the Nature & Culture Museum of Wisconsin.

Leading up to the 2026 budget process, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley issued across-the-board spending reduction targets for department heads totaling $10 million. County departments will have to make do with even less again in 2027. On top of not receiving an inflationary funding increase, the administration has asked department heads to reduce spending by a total of $10 million across the county, said Daniel Laurila, county operating budget director, during a recent meeting of the Milwaukee County Board’s Committee on Finance.

“This is not ideal, but it’s a way to get us closer to the requirements of the balanced budget,” Laurila said.

In 2024, the county was buoyed by an infusion of funding from the new 0.4% sales tax, which was secured through state legislation that created a pathway to close the county’s pension plan and also created a new stream of revenue — the sales tax — to pay down the county’s pension costs. By 2025, however, all of the new sales tax revenue was being consumed by the county’s pension obligations, a legacy of a disastrous pension deal two decades ago that created the infamous pension sweetener known as the backdrop. Some retirees have collected million-dollar payments, and the total cost of backdrops has topped $415 million.

Over the past decade, the physical footprint of the county has been reduced and the public workforce has shrunk, Laurila said. Departments have been consolidated, retiree health care adjusted and salaries constrained, all to limit the county’s spending. But it’s not enough to overcome the structural funding imbalance, and there are fewer fixes available, as Urban Milwaukee has reported previously.

The Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS), which cut service by $9.3 million in 2026, accounts for nearly one-third of the county’s structural deficit next year — an estimated $16 million. MCTS, under President and CEO Steve Fuentes, is proposing a 25% service cut in 2027 to stabilize service at a budget level that can be maintained without additional revenue. At the same time, the system is planning to redesign the bus network.

A recent report by the Milwaukee County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) shows the county could increase the local vehicle registration fee to close the transit funding gap in the short term.

Crowley’s administration is also pushing forward plans for a new $858 million criminal courthouse. The administration is proposing to borrow for the massive project, the largest in the county’s history, which will require larger property tax increases to pay down the county’s debt in the future.

County officials frequently return to the lack of state funding when discussing the courthouse project, the transit system budget or the general county budget. If shared revenue, transit aid and property tax increases had kept pace with inflation for the past 26 years, the county would have an additional $146 million in revenue next year, Laurila said.

“There are many reasons why this is our budget reality, but a large one is that revenues have not kept pace with inflation,” he said.

Dugout 54. Photo by Cari Taylor-Carlson.

When the friend of a friend suggested a restaurant that I might want to review, I listened, and that’s how I discovered Dugout 54 on W. Bluemound Road.

At Dugout 54, I found a mac and cheese dish that set the bar so high for that entrée I may never order it again except when I return to this restaurant. The impossibly creamy cheese sauce included ale that added a hint of beer, and because there was so much cheese, every cavatappi noodle dripped with tasty, oozy sauce. The bacon was incidental in the dish because I added barbecue pulled pork that overshadowed the bacon. It, too, was delicious and something I would absolutely add to my mac and cheese again.

If pulled pork is your jam and you want something besides mac and cheese with your meat, order the Pig Pen sandwich: pulled pork topped with cheddar, bacon and onion rings.

The Dugout Reuben, served with Thousand Island dressing on the side, was thick with several slices of corned beef, Swiss and kraut. A smear of mustard on the marbled rye gave it the right balance of meaty, sour, creamy and spicy. The sandwich came with fries or house-made kettle chips and, at my request, included a dish of coleslaw, both creamy and tart. You can also order the corned beef on a Reuben pizza or in a Reuben roll with the meat wrapped in a wonton wrapper.

If you like your salmon in a salad, order the blackened salmon salad. The piece of salmon in my companion’s bowl weighed at least 8 ounces. It topped a salad filled with cucumber, cherry tomatoes, grilled corn, avocado, croutons, red onion and, of course, lettuce. When a spicy poblano dressing served on the side mingled with the vegetables and the salmon, it was memorable. This was not your average pub meal.

There were three soup choices on the menu: the soup of the day, fire-roasted chili and my companion’s gumbo, a bowl of andouille sausage, chicken, green pepper, onions and celery. She added shrimp and said the gumbo was very spicy. I agreed and suggested it should come with a warning. Instead of serving the gumbo separate from a serving of rice, the chef cooked the rice in the gumbo, which was fine, but more rice would have soaked up more of the delicious Cajun flavors.

Also on the menu, you will see many shareables: fried cauliflower; shrimp with boom boom sauce; wings with many sauces; cheese curds; beer-battered chicken tenders; and much more.

This is a bar where you can count on, in our server’s words, “elevated bar food.” Which it definitely was. Since it is a bar, you will see a long list of tap beers as well as many different brews in cans and bottles. We ordered Downeast Cider House blueberry cider and found it very blueberry-forward and a bit tart. It was the lone cider on tap.

Because Dugout 54 is a sports bar, there are many TVs and several games to entertain. It’s one of several bars on Bluemound that run shuttles to Brewers games, and we were warned that things might get rowdy on days when there is a game. A tin ceiling over the bar, a brick wall and scarred wooden tables gave the restaurant that charming old Milwaukee ambiance.

I’m a fan, and I won’t wait very long to come again for the bacon mac and cheese, and I will top it with BBQ pulled pork and indulge, because this is what comfort food is all about.

On the Menu

Photo Gallery

The Rundown

• Location: 5328 W. Blue Mound Rd.
• Phone: 414-259-1200
• Hours: 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Mon-Sun
• Neighborhood: Story Hill
• Website: https://dugout54.com

Kirk Bangstad holds a can of “Nope, Not My President” sparkling water at the Minocqua Brewing Company Taproom in Madison, Feb. 4, 2024. Bangstad’s business and his political action committee are entwined. Rob Mentzer/WPR

Kirk Bangstad, the controversial liberal owner of the Minocqua Brewing Company, has had his brewer’s permit revoked by the state.

The Wisconsin Department of Revenue confirmed to WPR that it had issued a notice of a brewer’s permit revocation for two Minocqua Brewing Company locations. The business has locations in Minocqua and in Madison.

“The business has until Aug. 4th to appeal and can operate during the appeal process,” the Department of Revenue wrote in an email.

Additionally, a notice of an alcohol beverage warehouse permit revocation was issued for one location, according to the department.

Bangstad, in a post online, claimed the DOR has been investigating for multiple months, and questioned the abilities of the investigator.

“As you can imagine, I’m not taking this lying down,” Bangstad said.

In a factsheet on brewer’s permits, the DOR says the permit allows and controls the manufacture of beer at breweries; the bottling, packaging and storing of the product; restaurant operations; and sales to retailers.

Bangstad declined to comment, saying in an email message that WPR is not a reliable news outlet as a result of a profile of him the outlet published in early 2025.

Kirk Bangstad points out the “Progressive Beer Hall of Fame” at the Minocqua Brewing Company Madison Taproom. Rob Mentzer/WPR

Bangstad, who operated a liberal super PAC that he closed in June, has been politically polarizing. He blames the investigation leading to the notices on political motives.

He’s faced multiple lawsuits about his postings online, his use of campaign funds and was questioned  by the FBI over comments made on Facebook after an alleged assassination attempt on President Donald Trump.

On the Minocqua Brewing Company Times Substack and on his social media, Bangstad has spoken openly about the notices.

Bangstad posted a picture to his Substack which he said shows an email claiming his alcohol beverage permits will be revoked.

Bangstad said the DOR is “trying to shut down the state’s most progressive brewery for violations that can only be described as laughable.”

He said in the post that he received the letter two weeks ago, and the brewery has tried to rectify issues identified by a DOR agent over six months.

Bangstad provided a chart explaining what violations were allegedly in the document from the DOR. Those include unauthorized running of a retail outlet, violation of shipping laws and untaxed beer possession in an unpermitted warehouse.

The DOR said it is dedicated to fair and consistent enforcement of alcohol beverage regulations in Wisconsin and takes action when the laws are not followed.

Bangstad, who admits to owing taxes to the state, says the “punishment doesn’t fit the ‘crime.’” He says the revocation is tied to organizations against his political leanings, and claims his beer has been boycotted by distributors and stores because of his political statements.

“Our brewery is very popular among progressives throughout the Upper Midwest because we actively fight against right-wing authoritarianism and corruption,” he wrote.

He further claims that far-right online posts had an impact on the investigation into the brewing company’s operations. Bangstad also claims his failed run for governor and other political activity influenced the investigation. He was critical of the administration of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

In another section, Bangstad claims his brewery was raided by the DOR, after his run for governor, and says the beer he created in Illinois was confiscated.

“We’re going to fight the state of Wisconsin tooth and nail, and once again, they’ll have to pry me out of my taprooms before I stop selling beer to thirsty progressives who come to visit us,” he said

State revokes brewing license for liberal provocateur Kirk Bangstad was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Data center. (CC0)

At first glance, our districts could not be more different.

One includes neighborhoods with some of the highest property values in Milwaukee, and the other includes neighborhoods with some of the lowest. Our communities have different histories, different housing markets, and different daily realities.

Yet we often find ourselves voting together on legislative issues because we share a belief that the people of Milwaukee should always be in the driver’s seat when decisions are made that will shape their future.

That belief is why we are calling for a temporary moratorium on new data centers until Milwaukee adopts thoughtful regulations built with public input.

This is not about opposing artificial intelligence. AI is transforming the economy, and Milwaukee should be positioned to benefit from that transformation. However, we should not let wealthy corporations dictate the terms under which that future arrives in our city.

Communities across the country are grappling with hard questions about what data centers mean for electricity, water, neighborhoods, noise and public infrastructure. Too often, residents are left playing catch-up after the decisions have already been made.

We watched our neighbors in Port Washington literally get removed from public meetings while trying to make their voices heard. That community is now facing litigation over alleged noise impacts. Whether one supports or opposes that particular project is beside the point. The lesson is that communities deserve a genuine chance to ask questions, get honest answers, and help shape outcomes before decisions become irreversible.

Data centers like those being built in Racine and Port Washington consume as much energy as an entire city. Because our energy infrastructure remains overly reliant on fossil fuels, huge increases in energy demand inevitably result in increases in climate change-causing emissions. Every unit of government needs to do what’s possible to slow down this type of development and figure out the most appropriate way to minimize negative impacts.

Milwaukee has the chance to do just that.

We believe residents — not algorithms, not outside interests, not wealthy corporations — should help decide what our collective future looks like. That means taking the time to get the answers right before approving projects that could shape our city for generations.

A temporary pause is not anti-business. It is pro-democracy. It gives residents, businesses, environmental experts, labor, utilities, and neighborhood organizations the chance to build a framework that welcomes innovation while protecting Milwaukee’s people, resources, and neighborhoods.

Milwaukee doesn’t have to choose between innovation and self-determination, but it does have to choose whether residents help write the rules, or simply live with them.

The people of Milwaukee, not AI, and not the companies selling it, should decide what comes next.

By Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic and Ald. Russell W. Stamper, II

Matty Ring (CC-BY)

The images are sickening. Four Madison police officers are wrestling a Black suspect onto the ground and one of the officers shoots him three times, killing a man suspected of looking into car windows for a possible theft. The police say the suspect, Corey Ruiz, pulled a knife on them, but it doesn’t look that way from the angle of bystander videos. And why are there no police body cameras, why aren’t they required in the most liberal city in Wisconsin?

The reaction was anger and outrage among many in Madison and across the state. State Rep. Francesca Hong, the socialist and leading Democrat in the race for governor, channeled that rage. Hong, whose district includes part of the city of Madison, spoke to the protesters through a bullhorn. “A man died at the hands of state-sanctioned violence,” Hong declared. “This state sanctioned violence was an execution.”

Eric Toney, the Republican candidate for Wisconsin attorney general, slammed Hong’s comments, calling them “appalling,” “disgusting” and “irresponsible,” while the Republican candidate for governor, Tom Tiffany, charged that “Too many politicians rush to the cameras before the facts are even known. Francesca Hong chose to do that.”

Conservative, anti-Trump columnist James Wigderson, who has been warning Democrats that a Hong victory in the primary will be a problem, dubbed her “Gov Bullhorn,” predicting that this “indelible image” will “haunt Hong” in the general election.

How much will it hurt Hong? And is this issue, along with that of data centers, beginning to clearly distinguish the Democratic candidates for governor, who have often seemed a unified chorus on the major issues?

Let’s begin with a key factor in driving elections: voter anger. Democrats across the country are angry about the policies of President Donald Trump, and polls show their turnout will be higher. That’s what the Marquette Law School polls this year have consistently shown. Respondents are angry about inflation and the cost of living, insurance and housing; these are all top issues, the MU poll has found. The only non-pocketbook issue among the top five concerns is immigration.

Now you can add the anger over the killing of Corey Ruiz. It will drive turnout even higher in Madison, the second-biggest area of Democratic votes in the state. Hong was already popular with Democrats there, but this could push it higher.

But it will open the door to Republican attacks, should she win the primary. They may run ads about Hong’s comments with a bullhorn, combined with past statements by her supporting “defunding the police as a first step toward abolishing the police.”

That said, there will be Republican attacks against whoever wins the Democratic primary. You can expect a very negative general election because Tiffany is so out of step with the electorate on issues like abortion, and so supportive of Trump on unpopular issues like tariffs and the Iran War, that his campaign must even the playing field with attacks on his opponent. If it’s former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Republicans will repeat ads used against him in the 2022 campaign for U.S. Senate charging he wanted to abolish the police (though he really talked about “redirecting or decreasing” police funding). If it’s Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, he will be attacked for the Twitter account he had as a young man which posted crude and offensive remarks.

Even someone like Joel Brennan, who has been sold as a centrist candidate that will be more difficult for Republicans to target, won’t be invulnerable. They would run ads quoting the Milwaukee Courier story blasting Brennan for his ad that “attacks every person of color in the race for Governor” with its warning that Hong, Barnes and Crowley will “all lose to Republicans in November.” This could become fodder for suppression efforts — ads targeting Black voters to discourage them from voting.

Last week’s Marquette Poll found that 67% of Democratic respondents said that winning the November general election was “extremely important” to them. Barnes has pointed to the poll’s finding that he leads Tiffany in a head-to-head matchup, with 44% vs 40% for the Republican, while Hong and Brennan trailed Tiffany by 3% and Democratic State Sen. Kelda Roys trailed by 4%. But with at least 10% of likely voters undecided in all cases and the poll’s margin of error of 4.5%, the results are suggestive but far from definitive.

Far more striking are the numbers that break down support for Hong by age: Among registered voters in the Democratic primary, 43% of those aged 18-29 support Hong (Barnes is a distant second with 14%) and 38% of those aged 30-44 support Hong (with Barnes at 16%). Hong is behind Barnes only among voters 60 and over. Though you could weigh those figures against the average respondents’ view of Democratic Socialists of America (net unfavorable by 18%) and Democratic socialists (net 30% unfavorable). That, too, might be fodder for attack ads.

Meanwhile, Hong continues to get national media attention, with The New York Times today doing its second story in three weeks on the surprising rise of the democratic socialist in Wisconsin. Hong continues to offer the clearest stands and most sweeping policies. Only Hong has proposed a one-year moratorium on data centers, allowing time to create a state regulatory structure to prevent “tech giants” from treating “our communities, land, water, energy grid, and ratepayers as collateral in a speculative gold rush.” All the other Democrats oppose any taxpayer subsidies of data centers. But so has Tiffany.

And none of the Democrats were so harsh in their criticism of the Madison police as Hong is. All, including Hong, talked about the need for body cameras and better training and stricter procedures for police, but only Brennan talked about how a governor might make this happen, noting that more shared revenue for local governments could pay for more thorough training of police.

Brennan’s candidacy has sought to repeat Gov. Tony Evers‘ formula for winning office in 2018, offering Democratic moderation from an experienced Capitol hand. But this is not 2018. Democrats are angry and want a fighter, and no one fits that description better than Hong. Yet that very clarity may make her the easiest to attack.

Violet LaClair demonstrates her apprenticeship skills on a peer volunteer at UW Health on July 16, 2026, in Madison, Wis. LaClair started a medical assistant apprenticeship through UW Health after spending four years as a certified nursing assistant. (Narayan Mahon for Wisconsin Watch)

Violet LaClair was ready to leave her job.

As a certified nursing assistant at UW Health in Madison, she used the skills she developed while caring for her dying grandmother for nine years. Her co-workers had supported her through her gender transition. She’d even won an award for providing “extraordinary” care.

She loved her workplace, but after four years, she wanted a change.

“I felt like I’d done it all,” LaClair said. “I felt like at some point I needed to challenge myself more.”

She thought about going back to school, but that didn’t seem doable. She was already in her 40s and didn’t have time or money to spend.

Then she learned she could get trained to be a medical assistant for free, while working, through an apprenticeship program UW Health started in 2018. She pays no school costs, and she gets paid for the time she spends in class.

Three days a week, she works at the company’s Union Corners clinic, where she gets patients situated, takes blood pressure, flushes ears and more.

“I can pretty much do anything the doctor asked me to,” LaClair said. Two days a week, she takes classes on pharmacology, laboratory procedures, and law and ethics.

“I think the program is great,” LaClair said. “It’s given me a whole new chapter in my life, and something to be excited about.”

Opportunities like these are novel, but increasingly common. The idea is simple: Maybe the country’s next nurses, surgical technologists and medical assistants are already working in hospitals and clinics. The people who’ve spent years booking appointments or drawing blood might jump at the chance to train for new careers — if their employers will help them do it.

UW Health now offers apprenticeship options for 17 professions, including surgical techs, pharmacy technicians, respiratory therapists and registered nurses. Apprentices pay nothing for their course work, and they get paid to be in class.

To date, more than 1,000 apprentices have graduated.

Bridgett Willey, who oversaw the launch of those apprenticeships, said they’ve helped fill a critical gap. Wisconsin colleges alone just aren’t graduating enough students to meet the needs of the three major health systems in southern Wisconsin, Willey said.

The popular programs, which attract far more applicants than they can accommodate, have helped the company fill entry-level roles and hold onto existing staff. Before it began offering apprenticeships, as many as 3 in 10 positions for medical assistants, nursing assistants and pharmacy technicians were unfilled, Willey said. Today, it’s around 1 in 10.

“We’ve increased our supply by growing our own and training our own folks,” Willey said.

UW Health isn’t the only health system trying this model. Apprenticeships, once a rarity in health care, have become increasingly common at hospitals and clinics nationwide.

But offering this kind of on-the-job training isn’t always easy. Now, UW Health plans to use what it’s learned to help other states overcome the financial and bureaucratic barriers that can stand in the way. In May, the health system announced it created a separate company called WorkForward to help health systems and state agencies elsewhere set up apprenticeships. Willey, who directs that new project, thinks it’s the first such initiative by a U.S. health care company.

The health care apprenticeship surge

Historically, apprenticeships have been a key on-ramp to technical trades like plumbing and carpentry, allowing trainees to earn as they learn.

Now, apprenticeships are flourishing in U.S. hospitals and clinics, too. In just five years, the number of registered apprentices in the health care field has grown by more than 40%, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, as employers have expanded existing programs and others have started new ones.

Stethoscopes are pictured at UW Health on July 16, 2026, in Madison, Wis. UW Health started its apprenticeship program in 2018. To date, more than 1,000 apprentices have graduated. (Narayan Mahon for Wisconsin Watch)

The boom comes as demand for health care workers has shot up across the country, triggered by the growing needs of an aging population and a wave of longtime health care workers retiring. By 2038, the country will be short about 109,000 registered nurses, 61,000 physical therapists, 33,000 pharmacy technicians and 13,000 respiratory therapists, according to projections by the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis.

Meanwhile, vocational and on-the-job training is becoming increasingly popular across the board, said Susan Skillman, senior principal research scientist at the University of Washington Center for Health Workforce Studies.

“Apprenticeships in general are growing,” Skillman said. “We’re kind of in that place in the nation where the pendulum is moving away from four-year college degrees.”

Staff seize opportunity to advance

Some health apprenticeships last months while others last years. At UW Health, apprentices training to become medical assistants finish in 10 months while future registered nurses train for four years.

No matter the length or industry, all apprenticeships involve a combination of on-the-job training and classroom instruction. In the case of Wisconsin’s registered apprentices, who are approved through the state’s Department of Workforce Development, employers must pay apprentices for the time they spend in class. In some cases, the employer pays for the apprentices’ school costs, too.

At UW Health, the employer covers tuition. The health system’s staff also coordinate the apprentices’ work and school schedules to avoid conflicts.

Violet LaClair practices drawing blood from a mannequin arm while Lisa Fahey, manager of Ambulatory Apprenticeships, observes. (Narayan Mahon for Wisconsin Watch)

Those were big selling points for Brianna Matheson, 35, who had worked as a medical assistant for 12 years when she learned last spring that UW Health was starting a three-year surgical tech apprenticeship. She’d spent time in the operating room before, and she liked helping with clinical procedures.

“I was just ready for something more,” Matheson said. “I was in clinics for so long, doing the same thing for so long. I wanted to learn again, be a student again, and be a novice.”

When the application opened, she was the first to apply.

“I had kind of given up on the idea of going back to school because I, like so many others, need full-time income, and I didn’t really want to give up all of my free time to work full time and go to school in the evenings and weekends,” said Matheson, who now processes and delivers supplies to the operating room at Madison’s University Hospital.

Not only does she not pay tuition, but the Department of Workforce Development offers a stipend for scrubs, reimburses mileage to and from school, and even covers some daycare costs for apprentices with kids, Matheson said.

The position also let Matheson keep her prior $25 hourly wage, reflecting the raises she’d earned during more than a decade on the job. When Matheson graduates in May 2028, she’ll earn surgical tech wages, which range from around $30 to $44 an hour, according to current UW Health job listings.

“I would not have been going back to school at this point in life to pursue this without the support of specifically the apprenticeship program that UW Health is offering,” Matheson said. “I wouldn’t have done it on my own.”

Apprenticeships attract new job applicants

Offering apprenticeships could help health systems draw entry-level job applicants like 25-year-old DeForest native Alex Lippman.

Lippman trained as a certified nursing assistant in high school, then worked at a skilled nursing facility in Madison. He started college at Arizona State University with plans to become a doctor, but moved back to Wisconsin when his grandmother fell ill in his sophomore year. He wanted to continue his education but figured he’d missed his chance.

Then, in 2023, UW Health announced it was starting the state’s first apprenticeship for registered nurses. That apprenticeship, like all of UW Health’s multiyear apprenticeships that lead to degrees, are open only to employees who’ve worked for the system for at least six months.

“I had a plan of trying to get into this program because going back to school on my own was no longer feasible,” Lippman said. He got a job as a certified nursing assistant and began the apprenticeship the next year.

Today he takes classes at Madison College and works three night shifts a week caring for patients with brain and spine injuries in University Hospital’s neuro intensive care unit. He’s on track to graduate in 2028.

Violet LaClair works three days per week as a medical assistant in a UW Health clinic, where she gets patients situated, takes blood pressure, flushes ears and more. “I can pretty much do anything the doctor asked me to,” she said. (Narayan Mahon for Wisconsin Watch)

UW Health’s shorter training programs, meanwhile, are open to new applicants as well as current employees. Already, some have finished one and moved onto another, looking to advance their careers, Willey said.

“What we’re seeing is that people come in through one of our entry-level (apprenticeship) programs like medical assistant or nursing assistant, get their feet under them working in that capacity, and then now they’re applying for our degreed registered apprenticeship programs,” Willey said.

This isn’t the first time the company has built its own pipeline of health care workers. In 2013, Willey started a program called Health Occupations and Professions Exploration, or HOPE, where high school students spend a Saturday learning to do CPR, place a breathing tube in a mannequin, and more. The goal, Willey said, is to show students the range of careers available in health care. The program has trained about 6,500 students.

How much can the model grow?

Apprenticeships offer a unique way to address workforce shortages and help employees move up on the job, said Andy MacCracken, who coordinates health workforce planning for North Carolina at the NC Center on the Workforce for Health. That, he said, is one reason the number of apprentices and apprenticeships in the health care field has soared in recent years.

Still, he said, it’s not clear exactly how much of the health worker shortage can be solved through apprenticeships.

“We need to have a realistic view about what we’re actually aiming for when deploying apprenticeships as a solution,” MacCracken said. “I think apprenticeships are a really helpful tool in the toolbox. They’re not the only one.”

One challenge: It’s expensive to pay the clinical staff needed to supervise apprentices, so it can be hard for health system leaders to make the business case to their boards. Even health systems that embrace apprenticeships may not be able to accept as many apprentices as they’d like.

UW Health pays for its apprenticeship program with a mix of its own funds, private donations and public funds, though Willey said the latter is usually only available for starting up a new program.

Mannequin arms wait for UW Health staff to practice drawing blood on July 16, 2026, in Madison, Wis. UW Health created a company called WorkForward in May to help health care systems and state agencies build their own apprenticeship programs. (Narayan Mahon for Wisconsin Watch)

Still, there are always far more applicants than openings. When the registered nursing apprenticeship launched in 2023, 200 employees applied for 16 slots. Last year, 70 people applied for 40 medical assistant apprenticeships.

Another challenge: Each state has its own laws about what counts as an apprenticeship and what standards an employer must meet when offering one. Likewise, the regulations for each profession may vary from state to state too. And then there are the accrediting agencies that approve educational programs, which are still getting used to the idea that students might get paid for their clinical training hours.

Willey said WorkForward will publish research on apprenticeship approaches that work, lobby for resources to support such programs and help other states identify potential funding sources. The company is a nonprofit, she said, which will apply for private and public grants. It will not receive direct funding from UW Health.

Currently, she said, WorkForward is working in Massachusetts with Tufts Medicine and Mass General Brigham — the state’s largest health care employer — and 12 of the state’s community and technical colleges.

“It would be great if we could take the solutions that we’ve built and spread (them at) scale across the U.S. … Health care continues to be a driver of new jobs for the U.S. economy,” Willey said, “and we have an aging population who needs more care, and so we need to be addressing these things now.”

MacCracken said he hasn’t heard of another health care employer taking on this role, but he thinks it makes sense, as employers may be more willing to listen to other employers.

In North Carolina, he said, he’s already seen how a few model programs can pave the way for others.

“I think because of the successes of some of the early adopters who have put these programs in action, we’re seeing great results, and so that’s helping inspire more action and scalability and replication.” MacCracken said.

Natalie Yahr reports on pathways to success statewide for Wisconsin Watch, working in partnership with Open Campus. Email her at nyahr@wisconsinwatch.org.

This article first appeared on Wisconsin Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Cocina Filipina food truck. Photo taken June 24, 2023 by Sophie Bolich.

After years of slinging lumpia at local festivals from its food-truck-based business, Cocina Filipina is poised to debut its first brick-and-mortar location in early August.

Located on Milwaukee’s Near West Side at 3801 W. Vliet St., the corner restaurant will host guests for a daylong grand opening and block party on Aug. 1.

“We’ve been long awaiting this announcement,” owners Lupe Moreno and Edu Aragon Guzman shared in an online post over the weekend, noting that the business and team are finally settled into the “revamped” restaurant space. “We’ve found our forever home.”

Saturday’s family- and dog-friendly festivities will run from 3 to 8 p.m., featuring eats from both the food truck and newly opened restaurant, along with live performances from a range of local bands and desserts from the pop-up bakery Ube MKE.

Musicians including Rob Knapp & the Soup Patrol, Los Tejadas, Donovan Clark and Home Going will set up in a newly paved lot facing the restaurant. The block party will also feature drinks and family-friendly activities.

Founded in 2023, Cocina Filipina’s mobile business has gained a following for Filipino classics, including marinated pork rice bowls, spicy tofu and thin, crispy lumpia stuffed with seasoned chicken, pork or cream cheese and vegetables.

The new location aims to build on that selection, adding a cocktail program alongside snacks and desserts such as churros, corn dogs, cucumber salad and turon — a deep-fried Filipino treat made with sweet plantain and chocolate chips in a spring roll wrapper.

Once the new location finds its footing, Moreno said she’s eager to continue experimenting in the kitchen, with new dishes potentially making their way onto the specials list or permanent menu in the months ahead.

Cocina Filipina’s approved hours of operation are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Moreno previously told Urban Milwaukee the business will likely close at 8 p.m. during its initial weeks. For updates and additional information, including food truck appearances, follow Cocina Filipina on social media.

The Vliet Street building, located on the same block as Pete’s Pops, was previously home to Lisa Kaye Bistro. The catering company-turned-restaurant spent just over a year in the space before closing last spring, with owner Lisa McKay noting plans to continue the business in a new space. Lisa Kaye continues catering operations in the meantime.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. File photo by Sophie Bolich.

If the July drama of Wisconsin Democrats were a play, it might be called You Can’t Make This Up.

One candidate for governor quits the race. The lieutenant governor blames her campaign manager for falsifying campaign-finance reports and then also quits the race. The Democratic governor then bypasses two candidates he had worked closely with to endorse the candidate who had ended his campaign days earlier.

The chaos wasn’t lost on Republicans, who are counting on their presumptive candidate for governor, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, winning on Nov. 3.

“Watching Wisconsin Democrats is like watching a clown car crash into a parked semi-truck,” Republican Governors Association spokesperson Kolin Crompton told WisPolitics.

You’ve been busy, so you may need a short ticktock summary of the July adventure of Wisconsin Democrats.

July 8: Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley ends his campaign for governor. No poll or unofficial survey had him leading the field of candidates to replace the retiring Gov. Tony Evers.

July 13: Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez announces that her campaign manager had filed false campaign finance reports that included donations counted twice. The errors were discovered when Rodriguez’s campaign couldn’t pay for a new round of TV ads.

July 16: Rodriguez quits the race, saying the campaign finance controversy killed her chances. She was the third candidate to quit the race, if you count Crowley’s July 8 exit. Missy Hughes, former CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Authority, ended her campaign on June 22.

July 18: Crowley restarts his campaign for governor. While on a trade mission to Africa, Evers sends Wisconsin Democrats a gift they didn’t expect: an endorsement of Crowley in the Aug. 11 primary for governor.

“I’m all in on making sure Wisconsinites continue to have a governor who will stand up for the people of our state, who understands the challenges facing working families and has real plans to help, and who will work to do the right thing when it matters most, and that’s why I’m all in on David Crowley — and I’m urging Wisconsinites to join me in supporting him,” Evers said in a social media statement.

The endorsement stunned many Democrats, since Crowley said on July 8 he could not be elected governor.

The Evers endorsement also bypassed two other candidates who had worked closely with the governor: Mandela Barnes, lieutenant governor in Evers’ first term, and Joel Brennan, whom Evers appointed his first secretary of the Department of Administration (nicknamed “Department of All”) weeks after his 2018 election. Brennan held that job until 2022.

For his part, Crowley said it was an “honor” to get Evers’ endorsement.

“This isn’t about any of the other primary candidates,” Crowley told the Wisconsin Examiner. “This is about making sure that we have the best candidate that can defeat Tom Tiffany and his extreme MAGA agenda.”

It all left many Wisconsin Democrats asking why Evers endorsed Crowley.

Choose from some of these theories, or come up with your own:

-Evers believes Tiffany would easily defeat state Rep. Francesca Hong, of Madison, a Democratic Socialist, despite the wins those candidates have had in New York City, Colorado and Washington, D.C.

-The governor also remembers that Hong voted against the tax refund and K-12 education package he negotiated with the two top Republicans in the Legislature.

-Evers also doesn’t think state Sen. Kelda Roys, also of Madison, can be elected governor. Since she isn’t up for reelection this year, Roys is also in line for an important committee assignment — co-chair of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee — if Democrats win control of the Senate. Roys was also one of the 15 Senate Democrats who killed that tax refund and school aid package in May.

-Evers may also doubt that Brennan is well-known enough to be elected governor. When he announced Brennan’s resignation, Evers praised him for helping lead through the COVID-19 pandemic, calling him “a critical partner in supporting our state and our economic recovery efforts.”

Now, Evers’ message to Brennan may be, “It’s not personal, Joel. It’s politics.”

-Evers may feel that the political capital of Barnes peaked in 2022, when he lost a very close election to Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson.

-Since Evers has stressed diversity, appointing a record number of minorities and women, he may want part of his legacy to be helping elect Crowley as the first Black governor.

What’s next? A new Marquette University poll this week will estimate whether Evers’ endorsement helped Crowley’s campaign.

Steven Walters started covering the Capitol in 1988. Contact him at stevenscotwalters@gmail.com 

Riverwest Elementary School, 2765 N. Fratney St. File photo taken March 30th, 2021 by Dave Reid.

Milwaukee school superintendent Brenda Cassellius is introducing a new program to Milwaukee Public Schools: instructional facilitators. But the IF program is not entirely new. Instead, Cassellius is reaching into her toolbox for a program she used when she oversaw the Memphis middle schools in the 2000s.

Nor is the concept unknown nationally. The Council of Great City Schools lists other large urban districts utilizing IFs, such as Los Angeles and Chicago. As outlined by Franklin University, “Instructional facilitators develop instructional material, coordinate educational content and incorporate current technology into instruction in order to provide guidelines to educators and instructors for developing curricula and conducting courses. They may train and coach teachers. The role includes educational consultants and specialists, and instructional material directors.”

“It worked for me in Memphis,” Cassellius told Urban Milwaukee. “This district [MPS] used to have something similar.” MPS had SST (school support teachers); the new IF program reflects many of those characteristics.

Currently, the MPS website “offers different programs and services to support” students and schools. All those programs lack coordination with each other. We need to “streamline and focus that work,” Cassellius explained.

To create a single, comprehensive program, MPS had to string together a series of disjointed and overlapping programs. “Each bucket of money required separate approval,” Cassellius said, including a carryover from federal Title I funding of $2 million or $3 million. “We worked with DPI over a four-month period.”

Each previous program operated in different ways in every school. “Multiple principals used them in multiple ways,” said Cassellius. She has instituted a centralized, basic standard of curriculum and support for each school in the district.

Cassellius wants a “coherent program between all our schools… working systemically rather than as individual schools.”

Cassellius would like to have an individual instructional facilitator for each school, but budgetary limitations cap the number of IFs with some schools having to share an IF. Candidates are being vetted centrally through the Office of Academics. IFs will be paid consistent with their status on the teacher pay scale. More than 80 IF employees now come from the current MPS staff. There are still openings for 17 people coming from outside the district. Only three or four former assistant principals elected to be part of the IF program. Cassellius did not roll over the employees from the previous programs into the IF program, requiring them to reapply.

What each school should receive is an IF leader whose strength matches what has been identified as a need in the state report for their school. If a school was weak in reading or math, for example, the IF for that school will focus more closely on those areas.

The job description outlines how IFs will operate:

“Each school will submit a school-based school improvement plan. The instructional facilitator will play a critical role in enabling schools to implement evidence-based strategies.” IFs will develop professional development, coach staff and monitor strategies. They are there to ensure that district and statewide standards are being followed. For example, IFs are to make sure that schools follow Act 20, which requires the science of reading. But most of all, IFs are there to help.

IFs are expected to attend professional development before the beginning of the school year and on an ongoing basis.

While each IF will be evaluated by the principal, Cassellius says there will be a team approach, with input from central office playing a significant role. IFs are strictly prohibited from performing continuous administrative functions, evaluating teachers or handling supervision functions such as field trips and lunchroom duties.

When Cassellius was put in charge of the Memphis middle schools in the mid-2000s, only four schools out of 31 met state standards, she noted, and four years later, 22 of the 31 schools were now meeting the standards. Reading scores were raised by 22%.

She hopes for similar results in Milwaukee. The IF program, Cassellius believes, can play an important part in improving MPS.

DACA supporters rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019. (Photo by Robin Bravender/States Newsroom)

Gov. Tony Evers sent a letter Thursday to President Donald Trump and Wisconsin’s congressional delegation urging the White House to resolve delays in the processing of applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The DACA program has existed since the administration of President Barack Obama and allows people who were brought to the country as children without documentation to live and work in the U.S.

There are 500,000 DACA recipients across the country and more than 5,000 in Wisconsin. The Trump administration has put their renewal applications on “processing holds.” For some of the program’s participants, those holds have now pushed their renewal beyond the deadline, putting their ability to obtain work permits and driver’s licenses at risk.

Since its inception in 2012, the DACA program has been broadly popular among Democrats and Republicans. Earlier this year, Evers signed into law a bipartisan bill that allows DACA recipients to obtain occupational licenses from the state.

But Trump attempted to end the program during his first term and amid his administration’s harsh crackdown on immigration, DACA recipients have been detained and deported despite their legal status. The delays in application processing have put even more people in legal limbo.

“Mr. President, I urge you to end this harmful practice by your administration and resume expeditious processing and renewal of DACA applications,” Evers wrote. “And to Wisconsin’s Republican congressional delegation, I urge you to stand up for Wisconsin’s Dreamers, who will be or are up for renewals, and join me in demanding that the Trump Administration immediately identify and resolve the source of these unconscionable delays and resume processing and renewal of DACA applications, as Senator Baldwin, Congressman Pocan, and Congresswoman Moore have done. These hardworking members of our community should not endure the consequences of the Trump Administration’s failure to uphold the DACA program to basic standards.”

Evers pushes Trump to speed up DACA renewals was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.

A Wauwatosa police officer wears a body camera while working Tuesday, April 20, 2021. Angela Major/WPR

Most Wisconsin law enforcement agencies use body-worn cameras.

The Madison Police Department, despite being one the largest in the state, does not — at least not department-wide.

That could change, if Common Council members support a budget proposal backed by the mayor and the police department.

Madison’s lack of body cameras has drawn renewed attention in recent days after a Madison officer fatally shot Corey Ruiz, a 38-year-old Black man, on Wednesday of last week. Police say that officer was injured after Ruiz pulled out a knife. Four officers are now on leave pending a Wisconsin Department of Justice investigation.

Currently, the only Madison officers with body-worn cameras are those on the SWAT team and motorcycle unit.

But at a Thursday press conference about the killing of Ruiz, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said she wanted to fund body-worn cameras for the entire police department. She’s backing a three-year phased-in plan, that would lead to full adoption of body cameras by 2029.

That comes after years of contentious debate in the city and multiple failed proposals to broaden the use of body cameras in the city.

People hold signs as they listen to speakers at a vigil for Corey Ruiz on Thursday, July 23, 2026, in Madison, Wis. One sign calls for police to wear body cameras. Angela Major/WPR

Ruiz family calls for body cameras

Now, following Ruiz’s killing, attorneys for his family have expressed outrage about Madison’s lack of department-wide body cameras.

“We are in a major metropolitan city in the state of Wisconsin, and Madison is one of the few cities that still does not have police body cameras,” attorney B’Ivory Lamarr said. “In 2026, solving a police shooting should not be a mystery.”

Corey Ruiz’s brother, Adam Ruiz, also said body cameras are needed.

“I believe that system is corrupted and us, as the people, we need to stand up and come together to put a stop to this madness,” Adam Ruiz said. “They need body cameras to stop future incidents to stop future incidents from happening.”

Bystanders took video of the shooting, and Ruiz’s attorneys said, given MPD’s lack of body camera, that footage is essential.

“If there wasn’t video, we can only imagine what the narrative would have been,” attorney Ben Crump said. “Thank God for all of those people who had their cell phones out.”

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, left, speaks at a press conference on Thursday, June 23, 2026, regarding the police shooting that killed Corey Ruiz, 38. Next to her stands Madison Police Chief John Patterson and Madison Common Council President Sabrina Madison. Sarah Lehr/WPR

Mayor says cost swayed her decision

Previously, Rhodes-Conway has supported a pilot program that tested out body cameras on a limited basis. But until now, the mayor has not committed to backing a permanent body camera program.

On Thursday, Rhodes-Conway said budget considerations had swayed her decision.

“My main concern has been the cost,” Rhodes-Conway said in response to question from WPR. “When we initially got the estimates from the pilot, there was a very large price tag, and the (police) chief has worked to bring that price tag down in various ways.”

In a budget request submitted earlier this year, Madison’s police department asked for $414,784 over three years to roll out body cameras. That phased approach would start with officers in the city’s north policing district in 2027. By 2029, the cameras would be used across the entire city.

Rhodes-Conway says she plans to back that request from the police department when she submits her own budget proposal later this year. The funding would ultimately need to be approved by Madison’s Common Council.

For more than a decade, Madison body cam proposals have stalled

For more than a decade, Madison’s elected officials have debated whether the city’s entire police force should use body cameras. But efforts to introduce the cameras have been stymied. Over the years, opposition to the cameras has come from some of the Common Council’s more left-wing members, as well as from some local activists.

Some have questioned whether body cameras would actually change police behavior. Other haves raised concerns about privacy and “over-policing.”

The use of body cameras often gains attention in the context of police misconduct. But increasingly, law enforcement officials are using body camera footage as evidence to secure convictions.

During a Common Council meeting in 2023, Madison resident Steve Verburg was among those who spoke out against body cameras.

“What’s happening is this ongoing surveillance ends up worsening over-policing of marginalized communities,” he said.

Another resident, former Common Council candidate Michelle Ellinger Linley, told the council the purpose of body cameras is “not to make our communities safer, but to uphold unnecessary surveillance, tracking and record-keeping of communities at highest risk for exploitation.”

Those remarks came just before Madison’s Common Council voted to approve a pilot to test out body camera’s in the North Police District. That 90-day trial has since ended.

Body cameras are docked onto charging stations Tuesday, April 20, 2021, at the Wauwatosa police department. Angela Major/WPR

Council president: Community now wants body cameras

More recently, in November 2025, Alder Barbara Harrington-Mckinney introduced an amendment that would have redirected just over $400,000 from the Office of the Independent Police Monitor so the city could fund “staffing capacity needs related to implementing body worn cameras.” That amendment failed 17-3.

The amendment would have zeroed-out the police monitor’s annual budget. And some alders complained it was introduced too late in the budget process.

On Thursday, Madison Common Council President Sabrina Madison said she believes a body camera proposal will clear the council in 2026.

“The community, for a while, was not wanting to implement body-worn cameras yet,” Madison said. “That has changed.”

The city’s police cruisers are outfitted with dashboard and backseat cameras. And cellphone videos from bystanders have been circulating online after Wednesday’s shooting.

But DOJ investigators have no way to review body camera footage if that footage doesn’t exist.

In an interview with WPR, Madison said it’s impossible to know whether a body-worn camera would have changed the outcome of Wednesday’s shooting. But she said those cameras can provide additional information.

“Now folks are really having that discussion more often about what is the gap that we’re missing when we don’t have that footage,” Madison said.

Madison Police Department backs body cameras

During Thursday’s news conference, Police Chief John Patterson spoke about tensions in Madison following the killing of Ruiz.

“Everyone in this room can feel the thinness of trust in this city right now,” Patterson said.

He called MPD’s lack of body cameras “another challenge to repairing trust in our community.”

In his budget request submitted earlier this year, Patterson referred to body camera funding as his “No. 1 request.”

Patterson’s predecessor, former Police Chief Shon Barnes, tried to implement department-wide body cameras. Barnes was unable to make that goal a reality before he left to lead Seattle’s police department last year.

Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes speaks at a press event for the Wisconsin Coalition for Safe Roads inside the Wisconsin State Capitol on Feb. 21, 2023. Amena Saleh / Wisconsin Watch

The Wisconsin Professional Police Association, a union representing police officers, has also advocated for body-worn cameras.

“Unfortunately, because Madison officers are not equipped with body-worn cameras, investigators and the public will not have the benefit of video from the officers’ perspectives in this most recent case,” said the association’s executive director Jim Palmer, referring to the shooting of Ruiz. “Body-worn cameras aren’t perfect and don’t always capture everything an officer sees or experiences, but they can provide critically important additional evidence and context.”

During Madison’s last mayoral election in spring 2023, Rhodes-Conway’s opponent, Gloria Reyes, came out in support of body cameras city-wide. Reyes is a former Madison police detective, who was endorsed by the city’s police union.

At the time, Rhodes-Conway did not categorically oppose the proposal. But she cautioned that body cameras alone cannot solve police violence.

Rhodes-Conway expressed a similar sentiment in the days after the killing of Ruiz.

“(Body cameras) are part of a solution,” Rhodes-Conway said Thursday. “But they are not the solution.”

If the police department’s latest proposal is approved, Madison would purchase a total of 220 of body cameras by 2029.

Momentum grows for Madison police body cameras after fatal shooting was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Donald Trump speaks at Discovery World. Photo Taken Oct. 1, 2024 by Graham Kilmer.

Economic development leaders in Wisconsin are worried the Trump administration’s latest round of tariffs will make it harder to do business with the state’s biggest trading partner.

This week, the administration announced new 50 percent tariffs on certain products from Canada, ranging from wine and dairy products to hockey sticks and cement. They are set to take effect on Aug. 19. The White House says the tariffs are in response to discriminatory trade practices.

“President Trump is offsetting the burden and disadvantage on U.S. commerce from Canada’s discriminatory treatment of U.S. commerce and is leveling the playing field for crucial American exports — cars, alcohol, and dairy,” the White House announcement reads.

In 2024, Wisconsin had a trade surplus with Canada, exporting roughly $8.5 billion worth of goods while importing $6.3 billion, according to reports from the Wisconsin Policy Forum.

That year, Canada was the largest buyer of Wisconsin goods of any country, and ranked as the state’s second biggest source of imported goods, the policy forum found.

“Wisconsin’s biggest exports tend to be heavy machinery (or) electrical machinery, the big expensive stuff that really drives good paying jobs,” said Tyler Byrnes, a senior research associate at Wisconsin Policy Forum. “If there was something that disrupted access to that market, that could potentially have serious consequences for Wisconsin’s economy.”

Sam Rikkers, chief operating officer for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., said the agency views Canada as Wisconsin’s “single most important trading relationship,” and he’s concerned the new tariffs could further strain business ties and discourage future investment in the state.

Over the last year and a half, he said trade and political tensions have created uncertainty for manufacturers, farmers and exporters.

Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has imposed an array of tariffs on Canada, and has spoken about turning the nation’s neighbor to the north into the 51st state.

WEDC typically schedules an annual in-person trade mission to Canada to help connect Wisconsin businesses to export opportunities.

According to WEDC, a trade mission to Canada with five Wisconsin businesses was scheduled for March 2025. But it was converted to virtual meetings because Canadian firms were reluctant to participate.

The agency tentatively scheduled another in-person trade mission to Canada for November 2025 but it was eventually cancelled because the number of potential participants fell, the agency said.

“We were unable to find meetings for our Wisconsin businesses with Canadian counterparts, just because they were fed up and had no appetite to meet with U.S. businesses,” Rikkers said. “It really hurt our growing exporters.”

WEDC so far has not scheduled any Canadian trade missions for 2026.

Southeast Wisconsin business group ‘deeply concerned’ about new Canada tariffs

Dale Kooyenga, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, said the association is “deeply concerned” about the potential impact of the new tariffs on businesses in Wisconsin.

“Our economy relies heavily on manufacturing and international trade,” he said in a statement. “Therefore, any policy that disrupts long-established supply chains or invites retaliatory measures threatens the economic growth and job creation that have helped make our region competitive.”

Kooyenga called Canada “one of Wisconsin’s most important trading partners,” and said the association would prefer to see federal policymakers use “a more strategic and measured approach to trade policy.”

He added that broad tariffs “often raise costs, increase uncertainty and slow economic growth.”

Dale Kooyenga, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, speaks during an event. Photo Courtesy of the Metro Milwaukee Association of Commerce

A new report from the nonprofit Midwest Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign tried to quantify the impact of tariffs.

The report found that tariffs imposed by the Trump administration in 2025 raised average household costs in the Midwest by more than $2,000 and reduced the region’s manufacturing employment by more than 41,000.

In Wisconsin, the report found average household costs increased by $1,500 and the manufacturing sector lost 6,100 jobs.

And businesses involved in cross-border trade say the latest tariff announcement is already affecting planning and purchasing decisions.

Sandi Siegel is president and managing director of M.E. Dey & Co., an international freight forwarding and customs brokerage firm in Milwaukee. She told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that her company is helping customers try to import the products they need before the tariffs take effect on Aug. 19.

“Canada is close enough that you can get the goods in before that date, and you won’t have to pay those additional tariffs,” she said. “If they come into the U.S. after that date, those tariffs will apply.”

The new tariff announcement comes as the United States is renegotiating its trade pact with Canada and Mexico, known as the USMCA. In a statement on social media, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the new tariffs are a direct violation of that agreement.

Siegel said the new tariffs would apply regardless of whether or not the items are covered under the USMCA.

“It appears that Trump is all but abandoning any agreements that he made in the first administration,” she said.

Dairy groups celebrate tariff announcement, manufacturing group critical of the move

While some business groups have been critical of the new import taxes, the National Milk Producers Federation and the U.S. Dairy Export Council welcomed the administration’s decision to impose 50 percent tariffs on dairy imports from Canada.

In a statement, the groups said Canada was abusing the USMCA to deny U.S. dairy producers opportunities to access the Canadian market.

Gregg Doud, president of the National Milk Producers Federation, said Canada was using unfair trade practices in the dairy industry.

“Canada simply cannot continue to discriminate against U.S. dairy farmers by effectively blocking negotiated access to its market,” Doud said in a statement. “It is well past time for Canada to negotiate in good faith and tackle the outstanding USMCA dairy implementation issues.”

Even so, equipment manufacturers warned new tariffs could put additional strain on supply chains across North America.

Kip Eideberg is senior vice president of Government and Industry Relations for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, a national trade group based in West Allis. He said the equipment manufacturing industry supports more than 180,000 jobs in Wisconsin.

Eideberg said Canada is a crucial market for equipment manufacturers and that the “long-term stability” of that market is critical to the industry’s success.

He said the new tariffs could place additional stress on that trade relationship after it faced “a roller coaster” of strain and pressure in 2025.

“The only way we can continue to build equipment in Wisconsin and create more family-sustaining jobs in Wisconsin is if we have customers to buy that equipment,” Eideberg said. “We obviously need more customers than what is in the United States in order to continue to grow and expand. Canada is an important market.”

Wisconsin economic development leaders worried about new Trump tariffs on Canada was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley relaunches his campaign for governor. Photo taken July 18 by Graham Kilmer.

Taxpayers are currently paying the tab for Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley‘s personal campaign security detail.

The county executive is typically accompanied by one or two Milwaukee County Sheriff‘s deputies while traveling or attending events. But according to reporting by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, those deputies are also providing security for his gubernatorial campaign, which will reimburse the county once the campaign is over.

A spokesperson for Crowley confirmed the county is covering the cost of personal security for Crowley as he campaigns, and that he will reimburse the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) at the end of the campaign. That arrangement is the result of a conversation between Crowley and the county’s top attorney, Corporation Counsel Scott Brown, according to Crowley’s spokesperson Emily Tau.

“The agreement the parties came to was that the campaign office would reimburse the county for costs related to security upon completion of the campaign,” Tau said.

Brown, a Crowley appointee, confirmed that he spoke with the county executive at the beginning of his campaign and that he advised him that reimbursing the sheriff’s office at the end of his campaign is acceptable.

The Crowley campaign said the county does not have a formal policy requiring the county executive to reimburse the MCSO for campaign-related security costs. Rather, the county executive is choosing to reimburse the county because he believes it’s the right thing to do, according to a campaign spokesperson.

“County Executive Crowley believes candidates for office should take responsibility for the costs of campaign-related security expenses — not Wisconsin taxpayers — which is why he’s already committed to reimbursing the county for campaign-related expenses at the conclusion of his campaign,” a campaign spokesperson said.

Crowley’s campaign has already concluded once, albeit only briefly. He ended his campaign on July 8 and endorsed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez. But a campaign finance scandal sunk the Rodriguez campaign a few days later, and he re-entered the race.

Less than a week after relaunching with an endorsement from Gov. Tony Evers, it was reported that Crowley used to have a semi-anonymous social media account filled with crude posts about women, race and LGBTQ people. The account was created in 2010 and remained active through 2014, when Crowley was 28 years old. He is now 40 years old. Crowley’s campaign denied that he wrote the offensive posts and said others had access to the account, but confirmed that other posts on the account were his.

Free hot dogs on Pierce Street. Photo by Sophie Bolich.

Every year in late July, thousands of cyclists take to the streets of Riverwest for the neighborhood’s unapologetically wacky, overnight biking competition: the Riverwest 24.

Participants traveling on two wheels, training wheels and even the rare penny-farthing ride laps of a 4.6-mile route that includes four main checkpoints, along with optional bonus stops for trivia, karaoke and other playful challenges.

Though pre-race dinner is provided — this year from Cafe Zagora, an incoming tenant at the former Riverwest Co-op & Cafe space — the endurance event can leave cyclists with spent quads and ravenous appetites. Luckily, there are plenty of off-beat opportunities to fuel up along the course.

The 2026 lineup included free popsicles, pizza slices straight from the oven and whole pickles swimming in brine. Nimble bikers could nab a drive-by hot dog along N. Pierce Street, and later, follow up with dessert from so-called Twizzler Alley.

There was, of course, plenty of beer on the ride, alongside shots — both of pickle juice and Bacardi — with chasers ranging from cheese balls to lemonade. Cyclists also shared snacks, with one fake-blood-soaked team passing out O-negative cocktails (vodka and red Gatorade) to fellow participants.

Saturday morning brought Pancakes on Pierce, while a number of vendors turned out to sell food along the route, including MKE Bento, Wonderland, and a pop-up cookout benefiting Gaza.

See the gallery below for some of the best bites we spotted during the event’s 18th installment, which went kickstands up at 7 p.m. Friday and concluded at 7 p.m. Saturday.

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Lounge and Restaurant Proposed at Northside Shopping Center

Acez Lounge, a new destination for live music, cocktails, burgers and seafood, is proposed to open at 6081 N. Teutonia Ave.

Pending city approval, the business would fill a commercial storefront within Silver Mill Shopping Center, a multi-tenant building near the border of Milwaukee and Glendale.

“We’re looking to create something different for the nightlife-slash-restaurant life on the North Side of Milwaukee,” owner and veteran club promoter Timothy Milton told Urban Milwaukee.

Since taking over the location earlier this year, Milton has completed extensive renovations, adding new furniture and finishes and lining the spacious lounge with all-black booths.

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New Bar Proposed at Former Sam’s Tap Site

A new operator is slated to take over the former Sam’s Tap, with plans to reopen the neighborhood tavern as Kelly’s Tap.

Kelly Brzycki and co-owner Angelina Brzycki recently submitted a proposal for a new tavern at 3118 S. Chase Ave., which would replace the business operated by Sam Leaf for nearly a decade before its 2025 closure.

The tiny tavern has room for just under 40 patrons and features a small outdoor patio, according to a license application. Like its predecessor, Kelly’s Tap would offer alcoholic beverages and a food program, but the owners did not include a proposed menu with the application.

Sam’s Tap served a casual menu of bar food, including options like hot dogs and sandwiches.

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Soul Food Restaurant Planned For Near South Side

Milwaukee’s near South Side could soon see new options for soul food, as Trap Kitchen prepares to open at 551 W. Becher St.

Wanda Smith is behind the proposed business, which received unanimous support from the Licenses Committee on Tuesday and is now awaiting final city approval before opening.

Smith, who previously owned East Side Pub & Grill at 2178 N. Prospect Ave., plans a new approach at Trap Kitchen.

The upcoming restaurant will feature Southern dishes such as fried chicken, greens, pot roast and macaroni and cheese, she told committee members. Social media posts indicate the business would also offer Saturday brunch — complete with free mimosas during its anticipated Aug. 1 grand opening.

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New Strip Club Proposed For Former Cheetah Club Space

This article is available only to Urban Milwaukee members.

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Polonia Could Get New Corner Tavern

A new southside tavern, Camaleon Bar, is proposed to open at 2900 S. 13th St., filling a vacancy at the longtime neighborhood watering hole most recently home to Nick’s Anvil Inn.

Jose Luis Ibarra Flores leads the upcoming business, whose license received unanimous support from the Licenses Committee on Tuesday. The proposal now heads to the Milwaukee Common Council for final approval July 31.

City officials, including area Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic, endorsed the business during its initial hearing.

“The proposal is promising,” said Terri Williams, a legislative assistant for the alderwoman’s office, noting that the prior operation was “a very quiet bar” — an ideal match for the surrounding residential neighborhood. “We have no objections and wish them the best,” she added in reference to Camaleon.

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Committee Deadlocks on Victor’s Replacement

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$100,000 Grant Will Support Kitchen at MacCanon Brown Homeless Sanctuary

For years, volunteers from MacCanon Brown Homeless Sanctuary have served meals, distributed fresh produce and connected with patrons through cooking tips and recipe suggestions.

A new commercial kitchen, supported in part by a $100,000 grant from Impact100 Greater Milwaukee, would help consolidate those services on the third floor of the organization’s northside resource hub, 2461 W. Center St.

Earlier this summer, the sanctuary was one of five local organizations to receive funds through Impact100’s annual charity event, The Big Give. The grant, combined with approximately $350,000 already raised for the project, would cover much of the construction and equipment costs for the new kitchen, which, if all goes well, will be completed by the end of the year.

“When they announced us, it was like major fireworks went off,” said Holly Morse, a board member and adult tutoring program coordinator at the sanctuary. “We were so ecstatic to get this large sum of money.”

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New Ramen Restaurant for W. Wells St.

After more than a decade in the Milwaukee area, Shuoyi Jiang still hadn’t found a local ramen restaurant that matched his taste, so he decided to open one.

Jiang is taking over the former Tangled Noodles and More space at 1404 W. Wells St. in the city’s Avenues West neighborhood, with plans to launch Tesshin Ramen, a full-service restaurant specializing in traditional and affordable versions of the Japanese noodle dish.

“I’m a ramen person,” said Jiang, who was happy to slurp his way through three to four bowls each day while traveling in Japan. “Hokkaido, Tokyo, Yokohama — they all have their own style of ramen.”

The same is true in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo district, Jiang said. Even with six or seven shops crowded into a single block, “every one had a line.”

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County Seeks Operator for Red Arrow Park Building

Milwaukee County Parks is looking for a new long-term operator of the concession building at Red Arrow Park.

For more than 20 years, the building has been operated as a coffee shop. Starbucks operated a location in the park for 20 years, leaving in 2023. The next year, a short-lived Biggby Coffee opened, closing in March of this year. Now the parks department is looking for a new operator, and it doesn’t necessarily need to be a coffee shop.

The department is looking for a business to lease and activate the 969-square-foot space year-round. It is “open to considering other businesses in this location that activate the space or are complementary to the park uses,” according to public bidding documents. If the business is open to the public, it must be accessible for children and must provide seating space for people renting ice skates.

The park is the location for the county’s popular downtown ice rink. During the summer, the concrete rink also doubles as a roller rink. Parks estimates there were more than 80,000 visitors to the park in 2025, including about 19,000 ice skaters.

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Beloved Bartender ‘Ger’mama’ Is Retiring

Germaine Bowers makes her way down the bar, shaking a basket of cellophane-wrapped hard candies as she passes the occupant of each stool. It’s just before noon on what is shaping up to be a scorching July Friday, but the cool, dark cave of Coffeetails is worlds away from the sunbaked streets outside.

In the 18 years since it opened, the third-shift tavern has maintained three constants: spiked coffee, a colorful cast of regulars, and Bowers behind the bar. Over time, Bowers’ calm demeanor, friend-to-all attitude, and tendency to distribute snacks have earned her the nickname “Ger’mama.”

She fulfills the role with ease. “They’re all my baby girls,” Bowers said of her regular customers. “I’m pretty much the older person and the mama figure.”

Just as summer in Milwaukee nears its fever pitch, Bowers is preparing to leave her post. She’ll soon retire with family to a private lake in Michigan, a plan she announced last year to allow plenty of time for goodbyes.

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New Grocery Store Proposed at Former Aldi

A shuttered grocery store at 5301 N. Hopkins St. could soon reopen under new ownership, restoring a key source of fresh food for residents in the Old North Milwaukee neighborhood.

Gurdev Singh, co-owner of Galst Food Market on North Avenue, has submitted license and occupancy permit applications for the address with plans to open Hopkins Grocery.

Given city approval, the full-service store would sell fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, dairy and frozen foods as well as cigarettes, tobacco products and liquor, according to its plan of operation.

A proposed opening date is set for September.

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Miss Katie’s Diner Is a Milwaukee Classic

Miss Katie’s Diner has served more than a few dignitaries during its 46 years on West Clybourn Street. Thanks to its location, just west of downtown, and close to the Marquette University campus, it’s popular with Marquette students, people who come from downtown, and anyone who appreciates authentic diner food in a restaurant that feels like it just dropped in from the 1950s. There was a Miss Katie, the grandmother of Miss Katie’s current owners and the wife of John Picciurro who founded Pitch’s Restaurant at 1801 North Humboldt Avenue in 1942. Both restaurants remain in the Picciurro family.

When you look around Miss Katie’s, you see a sea of teal-colored vinyl chairs, booths, and more windows than walls. The atmosphere harks back to classic Milwaukee diners and the menu is reminiscent of the 1950s.

On my first visit, one of my companions went back to Mom’s kitchen and ordered the meatloaf, a 35-year favorite at Miss Katie’s and a deluxe blue plate special. The meatloaf came with mashed potatoes and gravy and a cup of the daily special soup, beef and cabbage. It was a classic meatloaf made with ground chuck; the mashed potatoes did not come from a box; the gravy was rich and abundant; and the house-made soup had more meat and veggies than broth.

There were three more deluxe blue plate specials: roast turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce, boneless breaded pork chop with applesauce, and stuffed chicken breast with cranberry sauce. All three specials included mashed potatoes with gravy and soup, salad, or coleslaw.

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A hazy view of the shoreline around the Apostle Islands from Sean and Savanna Campbell’s Northern Lights Adventures Boat Charters and Tours in Bayfield. Photo courtesy of Savanna Campbell

Massive wildfires roaring through Canada and Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness last week created a stream of smoke across much of the Midwest, causing nearly all of Wisconsin to experience record-setting hazardous air quality conditions.

Such poor air from smoke can cause breathing trouble, eye stinging and worsen health conditions like asthma, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Lung disease and an increased risk of heart attack can occur for people exposed to the smoke for longer periods of time.

Some of the fires around Canada and the Boundary Waters might not go out until the first snowfall, according to National Weather Service meteorologists. And the Wisconsin State Climatology Office says warming weather and shorter winters from human-caused climate change are a leading cause for drought conditions and an increased likelihood of severe Canadian wildfires.

Across the state, Wisconsin businesses and organizations must now deal with the lingering possibility of smoke limiting time outdoors throughout the peak summer months. WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” checked in with business owner-operators in the Apostle Islands area, as well as the Milwaukee County Zoo.

Concern in the Apostle Islands

Near the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, extreme smoky conditions last week caused a number of local outdoor events to close down, according to Sean and Savanna Campbell, owners and operators of Northern Lights Adventures Boat Charters and Tours in Bayfield.

Sean said their business remained operational and mostly booked through the worst smoke conditions, but he worries future wildfire smoke events could harm business moving forward.

“There is a lot of concern,” he said. “A lot of other places have already canceled tours over the safety of their workers and guests.”

The Campbells’ charters offered N95 masks for guests on their boats. During the worst of the smoke, Sean said visibility around the Apostle Islands dropped to only a few hundred feet, making navigation and sightseeing difficult.

Sean primarily captains the charter boat while Savanna leads some of their land tours of the islands. Savanna said she doesn’t remember a time before 2023’s Canadian wildfire outbreak when smoky conditions and poor air quality was a concern.

“I’ve lived here all my life … I don’t remember this as a youth, having to consider the wind direction for the smoke forecasts,” Savanna said. “It’s definitely a different phenomenon here for me.”

Both Sean and Savanna’s line of work involves many hours working outdoors. Sean said even while wearing protective gear, he could feel the effects from the smoke in his lungs and eyes.

“The back of your throat kind of burns after a while,” he said. “You do get used to the smell, though. I noticed that a couple of days after the smoke showed up, I wasn’t really smelling the smoke anymore, even though you still couldn’t see.”

Care for animal health

For the Milwaukee County Zoo’s animals, where they go to avoid the worst of wildfire smoke can depend on the species.

“We don’t have a one-size-fits-all for all of our animals,” Tracy Dolphin, director of Animal Management and Health for the zoo, told “Wisconsin Today.” “We take care of small reptiles to our largest elephants. It really depends on species and their habitat on what that plan is going to look like.”

Some animals are better at handling poor air conditions and given the option to stay outdoors, while others like primates remained entirely indoors through poor air quality days.

A bonobo qasai at the Milwaukee County Zoo. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee County Zoo

One of the main factors, Dolphin said, is if animals have preexisting respiratory or heart conditions, making them more sensitive to poor air quality. For some, she said the animals could find the move to an indoor space more stressful than remaining outdoors, so they’d stay outside.

Dolphin said the zoo keeps a 24/7 staff monitoring all animals, especially those that remained outdoors, for concerning symptoms.

“Over the past few years, we’ve been seeing more and more conditions like this, so we have to make sure that we have our plans in place to keep our animals safe, but also to keep our staff safe during these times as well,” she said.

For the humans at the zoo, Dolphin said, all staff wear masks when faced with smoky air. The zoo canceled many of its outdoor activities for the safety of the staff, but remained open for visitors through the smoke, directing them to the indoor exhibits.

How wildfire smoke impacted Milwaukee Zoo animals and Apostle Islands economic activity was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.