Wisconsin agencies are navigating funding losses and layoffs after the Trump administration halted most refugee admissions. Some are resettling South Africans under a controversial Trump program, out of principle and to preserve a system they say will be needed again.
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Posted inEducation
DataWatch: Nearly half of Wisconsin private school students receive a taxpayer-funded voucher
The cost of the private school choice program has grown from $700,000 in 1990 to $700 million this year.
Posted inCommunity, Government
Wisconsin Democrats say they won’t act like Republicans if they win a legislative majority in 2026
When Republicans swept into power in 2011, they passed laws to cripple Democrats. As the pendulum swings the other way, what might happen in 2027?
Posted inCommunity, Government
Mandela Barnes called early Democratic front-runner, but Wisconsin governor’s race could be ‘wide open’
Strategists and party operatives don’t expect the field to clear for the former lieutenant governor.
Posted inCommunity, Government
Here’s why Milwaukee elections are always viewed with suspicion
A series of real and perceived errors, along with Wisconsin’s rural-urban divisions, draw attention to Milwaukee election operations.
Posted inCommunity, Criminal justice
Background check delay shows crackdown’s strain on immigration system
An immigration judge backed a green card for a Sheboygan Falls mother arrested after accidentally crossing the Canadian border, but a delayed background check prolonged her ICE detention for weeks.
Posted inCommunity, Economic Development
As energy-hungry data centers loom, Wisconsin ratepayers owe $1 billion on shuttered power plants
Obsolete power plants continue to cost ratepayers. Now, the push to generate unprecedented amounts of electricity for data centers risks creating another $1 billion in “stranded assets.”
Posted inCriminal justice
A century after pioneering work release, Wisconsin corrections officials don’t track how many prisoners participate
Wisconsin was the first state to let some incarcerated people work in the community, allowing them to save money and pay for room and board. Today, prisoners say there aren’t nearly enough of these jobs to go around, and prison officials say they don’t keep count.
Posted inCriminal justice, Government
Wisconsin prosecution of 2020 fake elector scheme moves ahead as other state efforts falter
Legal experts say Wisconsin has a better case against the architects of the national plan, rather than the fake electors themselves.
Posted inCommunity, Government
Wisconsin Elections Commission refuses to send Justice Department unredacted voter list
The move could prompt a lawsuit as the federal government has sued over a dozen states in its quest for unredacted voter rolls and other information.