Wisconsin Weekly: Waxing and waning waves create havoc along Lake Michigan

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Reading Time: 5 minutes
Lake levels fluctuate; public official dodges abuse charge; electrical dangers; Rittenhouse trial exposes rifts; Trump country clerks embraced drop boxes

 

Of note: Today we highlight the launch of our latest series, Imperiled Shores, which explores how wildly fluctuating levels on Lake Michigan are causing damage on Wisconsin’s eastern shore. Reporter Mario Koran explains that the lake’s normal ebbs and flows are being magnified by climate change. Communities in Wisconsin are expected to spend an estimated $245 million over the next five years to blunt the effects of lake levels that have fluctuated by up to 6 feet between record low waters in January 2013 and a record high in July 2020. Koran found the hundreds of barriers erected along the shore to protect individual properties in the past few years threaten to erode beaches and properties downstream, potentially accelerating the damage. 
Access to some stories listed in the Wisconsin Weekly roundup may be limited to subscribers of the news organizations that produced them. We urge our readers to consider supporting these important news outlets by subscribing. 
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As Lake Michigan shoreline vanishes, Wisconsinites fight waves with walls. (Spoiler: The waves will win.)

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Reading Time: 7 minutes

This piece was produced for the NEW News Lab, a local news collaboration in Northeast Wisconsin. Microsoft is providing financial support to the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation and Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region to fund the initiative. Bo and Mindy Ellis needed to act to keep their house from sliding into Lake Michigan. 
With their home 8 feet above the waves and 20 feet from the shore of Whitefish Bay in Door County, Wisconsin, the couple watched last year as the lake’s waters rose, whittling away the shoreline. 
Crashing waves undermined a protective stone revetment. A creek cutting across their property compounded the erosion. The beach used to gradually incline into the water.

Amid utilities’ resistance, Wisconsin proposal would clear barrier for third-party rooftop solar

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Reading Time: 6 minutes

After years of regulatory uncertainty, a new proposal in Wisconsin would finally clarify that utility customers do not need to own their rooftop solar installations. The draft legislation would authorize an arrangement known as third-party solar, in which a company installs panels for a customer and then either leases the panels or sells the power or net-metering credits to the property owner. The model is allowed in most states and is a popular option for helping homeowners and businesses avoid the steep upfront costs of solar, and it also allows government and nonprofit entities like schools, churches, and hospitals to access tax incentives that they couldn’t otherwise tap. Such arrangements are not explicitly prohibited in Wisconsin, but developers have been reluctant to enter them since utility We Energies halted a third-party-owned installation in 2018 for the city of Milwaukee, arguing that the solar developer would be acting as a public utility. Two Republicans are co-sponsoring draft legislation, LRB 1550/1, which would specify third-party ownership is legal and mandate utilities interconnect such projects.

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Reading Time: 2 minutes
Your donation to support investigative journalism in Wisconsin will be doubled when you give today

 

For more than 12 years, we’ve made it our mission to produce investigative journalism that you can trust — journalism that informs and strengthens our communities, that makes Wisconsin a better place to live. This is essential work — especially these days — and it would not be possible without the support of readers like you. 
That’s why we’re excited to share an opportunity to double your donation this year. This year, generous members of our Leadership Circle and Watchdog Club are pledging $40,000 to encourage you to match this amount by Dec. 31! Every dollar is matched and monthly donations are matched at their annual amounts.

‘The water always wins’: Calls to protect shorelines as volatile Lake Michigan inflicts heavy toll

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Reading Time: 12 minutes

 

This piece was produced for the NEW News Lab, a local news collaboration in Northeast Wisconsin. Microsoft is providing financial support to the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation and Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region to fund the initiative. Mike Kahr, an engineer and owner of Death’s Door Marine, has watched Lake Michigan’s water levels fluctuate during his 40-plus year career. But even the veteran engineer hasn’t seen the lake’s water levels swing from low to high quite this rapidly. 
Eight years ago, Kahr and his crew stayed busy dredging sand from the lake bottom so boats carrying passengers or heavy cargo could reach port. But as water levels surged to a record high last year, Kahr fielded call after call from property owners rushing to protect their shorelines by installing rocks and barriers to keep the waves from eroding their beaches — a flood of requests beyond what his crew could handle.

Wisconsin Weekly: Report: 2 in 5 Wisconsin health officers have retired or resigned during pandemic

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Reading Time: 3 minutes
Health department exodus; never ending election; get out the vote tactics; concussion woes; college savings accounts

 

Of note: Today we highlight USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin’s report on the  exodus of local health department leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic in Wisconsin, mirroring national trends. The Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards lists 33 agencies out of 86 that lost top officials since March 2020, Madeline Heim reports. Officials said the turnover may be linked the stress of managing the pandemic and harassment — including threats of physical violence — that health officers have faced while responding to the politicized public health crisis. 
Access to some stories listed in the Wisconsin Weekly roundup may be limited to subscribers of the news organizations that produced them. We urge our readers to consider supporting these important news outlets by subscribing. 
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Wisconsin Weekly: Wisconsin is hotspot for school board recall efforts during pandemic

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Reading Time: 4 minutes
School board recalls; nursing home deaths; GOP redistricting maps; PFAS action; jail’s letter ban

 

Of note: Today we highlight a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report that Wisconsin ranks second nationally in attempted recalls of school board members, trailing only far-bigger California. Driving Wisconsin’s 11 recall efforts and those in other states: political backlash against COVID-19 safety measures and teaching about racism. The attempts have yet to succeed in Wisconsin, Rory Linnane and Molly Beck report. “Still, in some cases, targeted school board members have been threatened, stymied and felt backed into resigning during the recall attempts — then were replaced by those with opposing views.” Mequon-Thiensville residents are set to vote on a recall effort on Nov. 2. 
Access to some stories listed in the Wisconsin Weekly roundup may be limited to subscribers of the news organizations that produced them.

Wisconsin Weekly: ‘A slap in the face’: Wisconsin imprisons 1 in 36 Black adults, highest U.S. rate

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Reading Time: 4 minutes
Color of justice; dark history at Indigenous boarding schools; power of vaccination; misinforming chiropractors; PFAS-shuttered water wells

 

Of note: This week we highlight our story revealing that Wisconsin has the highest Black incarceration rate in the United States. According to a new analysis from The Sentencing Project, Wisconsin imprisons one out of every 36 Black adults in the state. The analysis also examined the disparity in imprisonment rates between Black and white people, Clare Amari reports for Wisconsin Watch. Nationwide, Black adults are imprisoned at nearly five times the rate of white Americans, the report found. In Wisconsin, the ratio is far higher: Nearly 12 times the rate.

Wisconsin imprisons 1 in 36 Black adults. No state has a higher rate.

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Reading Time: 6 minutes
Wisconsin imprisons Black residents at a higher rate than any other state in the country, a new report found, highlighting long-standing and deep disparities in the state’s criminal justice system.  

The report, authored by The Sentencing Project and released on Wednesday, used data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics to calculate states’ rates of imprisoning white residents and people of color. 
A “staggering” one of every 36 Black Wisconsin adults is in prison, the report found. Black people comprise 42% of the Wisconsin prison population, but just 6% of the state’s population. 
The analysis also examined the disparity in imprisonment rates between Black and white people. Nationwide, Black Americans are imprisoned at nearly five times the rate of white Americans, the report found, and in Wisconsin, the ratio is even higher: Nearly 12 times the rate. The report cites pervasive racial bias across the criminal justice system.

Wisconsin Weekly: ‘Something has to be done’: Life along a toxic waterway

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Reading Time: 5 minutes
Polluted waters; knowledge void in partisan election review; solar’s big potential; vanishing campus disability accommodations 

 

Of note: Today we highlight our photo-filled story about efforts to address PFAS pollution in Starkweather Creek — a key waterway in Madison that contains some of Wisconsin’s most polluted water. In 2019, Starkweather Creek contained higher levels of hazardous PFAS than any other waters the Department of Natural Resources tested that year. Isaac Wasserman of Wisconsin Watch interviewed and photographed people who live near the creek — including those who frequently fish there. He found that awareness of the creek’s chemical hazards remains mixed, despite Dane County’s initial steps toward addressing the problem. Shorthand for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS are a nationwide scourge and sometimes called “forever chemicals” because of how they accumulate in the body and persist in the environment.

‘Something has to be done’: Living along Madison’s Starkweather Creek, one of Wisconsin’s most polluted waterways.

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Reading Time: 9 minutes

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit newsroom that focuses on government integrity and quality of life issues. Sign up for our newsletter for more stories and updates straight to your inbox. Carnetta Galvin and Melody Homesly stood on Galvin’s porch holding glasses of wine on an August evening. It was Galvin’s birthday, and the best friends’ laughter reverberated from their corner of the brick apartment and into the streets of the Darbo-Worthington neighborhood in Madison, Wisconsin. Across the street, tall grass surrounded a stagnant body of water that runs parallel to Galvin’s apartment building before fading into the distance beneath bridges and busy streets.

Wisconsin’s special ed system: High stress, sparse state funding

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Reading Time: 11 minutes

This piece was produced for the NEW News Lab, a local news collaboration in Northeast Wisconsin. The full version of the Press Times’ series on special education can be found at gopresstimes.com. Microsoft is providing financial support to the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation and Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region to fund the initiative.  

From the time she wakes up in the morning until the time she goes to bed at night, Green Bay parent Denise Seibert’s life centers around her son, Tyler. At just two weeks old, Tyler was diagnosed with fragile X syndrome, a genetic condition that causes a range of developmental problems, including learning disabilities and cognitive impairment.