From a Manitowoc foundry to a south-central Wisconsin dairy, immigrant workers and their employers are grappling with visa changes, enforcement crackdowns and an increasingly fragile labor pipeline.
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Posted inCommunity, Government
Refugee resettlement agencies try to keep doors open as White House shuts out new arrivals
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.
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, 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 inHealth and Wellness
‘We don’t turn anyone away’: Wisconsin’s free clinics fill gaps as thousands expected to go uninsured
Free and charitable clinics brace for a surge in patients due to spiking Affordable Care Act premiums and the expiration of a crucial tax credit.
Posted inCommunity, Government
Supreme Costs: A condensed version of our series on the ‘obscene’ spending on Wisconsin justices
In a three-part series, Wisconsin Watch examines why our state set back-to-back national records in Supreme Court election spending and what can be done about it.