Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Videos show shift in Milwaukee ICE tactics
On a quiet residential street on Milwaukee’s near south side on June 27, immigration agents surrounded 31year-old Estenderly Marte Polanco while she was sitting in her car. They smashed the driver and passenger windows, pointed a Taser briefly at the...
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Teacher’s aide returns after ICE forced her out
After hours on a plane and more time at immigration checkpoints, Yessenia Ruano emerged from the secure zone of Chicago O’Hare airport and broke into a smile. After a year in El Salvador, Ruano, a former Milwaukee teacher’s aide who captured the...
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Trash, harassment, blood in MATC student housing
Milwaukee Area Technical College student Raaven Nash thought Westown Green would be a good place to live. MATC declared the apartment building its “preferred student housing” on posters outside the building and promoted it on the school’s website. But...
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UWM creates dorm village for interns
While college dorms across the country sit empty over the summer, with vacant rooms and quiet hallways, Cambridge Commons still teems. ● Scooters line up outside the building. ● Young people shuffle through the front doors, and scanners beep as...
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Developer recreates 1990s east side in video game
Rich Altenbach will never forget the first time he visited Milwaukee’s east side. Oh, how different it was. How captivating. A whole new world, equipped with a bustling nightlife, a cool cast of characters and a fresh perspective on life. It was 1990,...
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Soaring NATIONAL SYMBOL
Big, powerful and beautiful, they would have drawn the attention of the first humans to set foot in the area we now call the United States. ● They attained spiritual significance as Native American cultures developed over the following millennia. ● As...
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SWEET LAND OF LIBERTY
The 56 steps, cut from pink granite, ascend to a neoclassical temple that seems plucked from ancient Greece and deposited on a Kentucky hilltop. One for each year of President Abraham Lincoln’s life. If the first eight steps, rising amid the site’s...
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Milwaukee builds pollution ‘bathtub’
As Summerfest crowds surge toward the lakefront, a far less flashy but highly consequential lakeshore project is quietly wrapping up: construction of a $122 million storage facility for toxic waste. Underneath the Hoan Bridge, just south of the...
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Wisconsin to Thailand
BANGKOK – Behind a bartop framed by Green Bay Packers signs, Matthew Fischer pushes back on the idea his dive in the middle of Thailand’s capital city is a “Wisconsin bar.” A Wisconsin flag hangs just inside the entrance to Fatty’s Bar & Diner, and...
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ICE arrests 39 people as outcry expands
The eNewspaper is an electronic copy of your print newspaper. Enjoy every page by going to jsonline.com/enewspaper or scan this code on your mobile device. You will also find late news and sports in the bonus sections. Check it out today! As U.S....
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Mariah Antetokounmpo showed up for Milwaukee
S hometime between starting an apparel brand all about spreading positivity and becoming a mom times four, Mariah Antetokounmpo turned into a matriarch of Milwaukee. Giving back has always just been a part of who Mariah is, she told the Journal...
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A forever feeling
On Oct. 19, 2018, I stood on the footbridge that feeds fans into the plaza area behind then-Miller Park’s centerfield wall, looking back at the stadium that had gone weirdly quiet in the moments after the Milwaukee Brewers had won Game 6 of the...
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New report finds school segregation persists
Tennessee schools are the most racially segregated in the South and the sixth-most segregated in the nation, a new report reveals. The national report released June 22 by Brown’s Promise and the Segregation Tracking Project shows the varying degrees...
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Rep. Steil proposes strict bill on voter ID
Wisconsin Republican Congressman Bryan Steil introduced a federal voter identification legislation that, if passed, would limit the forms of ID that can be used in federal elections and be stricter than Wisconsin’s voter ID law that was recently...
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More than 160 killed in Venezuelan earthquakes
Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodrı́guez said an initial fund of $200 million would be created using resources from the International Monetary Fund dedicated to rebuilding infrastructure, after back-to-back major earthquakes struck the country’s...
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Leader
The story of Milwaukee’s Leader Paper Products, which marks its 125th anniversary this year, is its continuity across five generations of family ownership – while making big changes to help it thrive. Amid decades of technological breakthroughs such as...
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Giannis’ departure, like Abdul-Jabbar’s, could bring years of pain
No matter the egos involved, the belief in one’s own exceptional individualism, or the insistence that “this time will be different,” history does indeed repeat itself. It’s why, were the swath of concrete outside Fiserv Forum meant for monuments, the...
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Siblings revive a piece of Mohican history
The hours are long and sometimes frustrating. • Lon Allen and his sister Chrystal Wedde continue trying to restore a historic home to its former grandeur on the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Reservation in northeast Wisconsin. • They’re heartened when...
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Gay softball league hits 50-season milestone
Mark Hare had never touched a softball before joining Milwaukee’s Saturday Softball League nearly 20 years ago. “I walked in, said ‘I don’t know how to play,’” Hare said. “They said, ‘We don’t care, welcome to the team, have a beer.’” Now, the league...
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STAR SEARCH
Milwaukee has the No. 10 pick in the NBA draft. Does a star await?
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Keeping a promise
More than 73 years after his Air Force plane crashed into an Alaskan mountain, a Wisconsin airman’s remains came home. ● Airman Second Class Daniel McMann was the 51st of 52 people aboard a cargo plane that crashed Nov. 22, 1952, to be brought to their...
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Healing with horses
Along time ago, in the days before the legal drinking age in the United States was 21, Isaac Steele spent time at a nightclub called Payback. There was loud music, bright lights, dancing. Cold drinks that seemed to flow perpetually. Steele would look...
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A second calling
ELKHART LAKE – The most interesting person at Road America for this IndyCar weekend, or really for any racing weekend here, probably isn’t one of the obvious suspects. He’s never won the Indianapolis 500 or quickstepped on “Dancing with the Stars” or...
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DIET, EXERCISE AND LOTS OF LOVE
Sarah Levin has zero interest in getting mic’d up on this celebratory afternoon. She calls it “monkey business.” Something she is “too old” for. ● Poppycock. This is a woman who, when only 100 years old, underwent hip surgery — and came out the other...
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Rodriguez leads field for governor in Dem straw poll
MADISON - Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez received the most votes in a straw poll of Wisconsin Democrats at the party’s state convention this weekend − a shot in the arm to Rodriguez’s campaign that has trailed the field’s two frontrunners in statewide...
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DHS, State Dept. delays hit seasonal businesses
Salute Mexican Lounge in Egg Harbor has been forced to shut its doors on Mondays and Tuesdays due to staff shortage. The general manager at Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik in Sister Bay has been working 100 hours a week, cooking and prepping...
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THE GREAT SUMMERFEST DEBATE
Just looking at the numbers, what Summerfest in Milwaukee offers is staggering. Six hundred acts. Nine days. Thirteen official stages. Plus 15 ways to get in for free. And the lineup for its biggest stage, the American Family Insurance Amphitheater,...
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Waterways
Thunder rumbled over a packed meeting room at the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District’s headquarters Thursday evening while an hours-long water drop alert aptly underscored what’s at stake for Lake Michigan and local waterways. About 100 people...
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‘Food collective’ gives meals, community
The 27-gallon plastic bins filled up quickly with a bounty of fresh produce, meat and dairy. Salmon fillets, with $26 price tags, went into the bins. Heads of cabbage, Chobani yogurt drinks, Planters peanut packets, boxes of pasta – into the bins,...
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If you want Ferney’s pizza, get in that long line early
Church bells bonged 12 times at Our Lady of Divine Providence in Riverwest. It was noon, and across the street at Clarke Foods, 832 E. Clarke St., a makeshift pizza shop in the back of the store had already drawn a line 20 deep in its first seconds of...
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Israel, Iran halt retaliatory attacks
Israel and Iran said they would halt strikes on each other for now but warned of forceful responses to any future aggression – ending, at least temporarily, an exchange of missile attacks over the weekend that put a fragile ceasefire and diplomatic...
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Hidden TREASURE
Just east of the Capital City Trail crossing at the Yahara River, a nondescript warehouse rises on Madison’s east side. Its blank exterior offers no hint of what’s inside, and even the interior is not set up for glass cases and museum spotlights. • But...
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MCTS announces ‘modest surplus’
A year after a surprise $10.9 million budget hole, the Milwaukee County Transit System is on the mend. So says the county, at least. At a press conference on June 4, County Executive David Crowley and MCTS President and CEO Steve Fuentes announced...
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Leader feels uncertain with refugee resettlement gutted
Adecade ago, Sheila Badwan was working in health care administration when a friend connected her with a few local Syrian refugee families that needed help. • Seeing the Milwaukee home where one family of 13 had been placed, she was horrified. • Badwan...
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NEGOTIATORS REACH POSSIBLE IRAN DEAL
Negotiators for the United States and Iran have reached a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and extend the 60-day ceasefire while discussions continue over Tehran’s nuclear program, according to an American official. President Donald Trump has yet...
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SILENT SHOP TALK
They call it “mill talk.” • At least, that’s what Menominee tribal members who don’t work in the tribe’s sawmill call it. • It’s a kind of sign language that mill workers at Menominee Tribal Enterprises use to communicate when heavy, loud machinery is...
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Free mobile dental clinic is ‘life-changing’
The clinic where Francesca Malensek and Vanessa Zuniga bent over their young patient looked like any other dentist’s office: laid-back chairs, a TV for distraction and photos of smiling children on the walls. But it isn’t like any other clinic. The...
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GA hopefuls vie to be ‘more MAGA’
The Georgia Republican gubernatorial runoff election is set. Current Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and health care CEO Rick Jackson have been battling it out for months in a crowded Republican primary field for the top seat in the state. Both have painted...
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TREASURED VIEWS
From Taliesin to the Great River Road, these sites showcase Wisconsin’s natural beauty and cultural impact
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Gabbard to resign, cites husband’s cancer
WASHINGTON − Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced May 22 she was resigning from her post as the nation’s top intelligence official amid her husband’s rare bone cancer diagnosis. “I am deeply grateful for the trust President Trump...
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Insensitive officer added insult to injury
CEditor’s note: This article contains descriptions of sexual violence. The National Sexual Assault Hotline can be reached at 1-800-656-4673. harlotte Nozar had forgotten how bad it was. Not the rape – that is seared into her memory – but what came...
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‘This one felt like home’
WATERTOWN — When Martice Scales moved his family to a farm in rural Dodge County last fall, the life they led in Milwaukee sometimes felt a world away. • Nights were dark without the glow of city lights. It was quiet. In the car, they were more likely...
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‘We are reframing ... what rehabilitation looks like’
OREGON – Visitors aren’t normally allowed on Mondays at Oakhill Correctional Institution, but May 18 was an exception. ● Instead of routine and monotony at this minimum-security prison just south of Madison, there was pride and joy. Instead of prison...
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Chicks with transmitters usher in a new chapter
OAK CREEK – Greg Septon of Muskego had banded about 1,500 falcon chicks since he founded the Wisconsin Peregrine Falcon Recovery Project in 1986. ● Each was fitted only with colored and numbered leg bands to help identify the bird. ● Until May 18,...
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A SHINY NEW MUSEUM
Museum President and CEO Ellen Censky answers questions on May 14 while giving a tour of the butterfly vivarium on the top floor of the new Nature and Culture Museum of Wisconsin. The tour revealed elements as museum work progresses, including a...
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OWNER OCCUPIED AGAIN
Less than a decade ago, Milwaukee was nearing the end of a long and painful downward spiral. The city had seen its working-class neighborhoods battered by the aftershocks of the Great Recession. Thousands of homes that once offered their owners a...
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FBI probes 2 more ’20 election staffers
Federal investigators are seeking interviews with Milwaukee city employees who helped administer the 2020 election, according to three sources with knowledge of the investigative activities. The latest federal inquiry comes after FBI agents...
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Commercial properties also suffered under Stair
Beauty and Bargains, a hybrid salon and convenience store, has been located in a small storefront near West Greenfield Avenue and South Layton Boulevard for five years, according to store owner Danyell Austin. Austin, who rents the storefront from S2...
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Would-be Canadians pile work on archivists
One Friday in April, archivists at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay set aside all other work to tackle a growing backlog. Fifty-two nearly identical research requests had piled up. All asked about French-Canadians who once lived in northeastern...
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City spent millions to train lead removal workers
Damon Green stood over his rectangular block of wood, chisel and hammer in hand, and started carving. The 26-year-old Green was sharpening his skills with six other students inside the workshop of Revitalize Milwaukee, a local nonprofit. Program...
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Milwaukee still has 65,000 lead pipes it must replace
On a cold morning earlier this year, Eddie Christoffel and a crew of workers dug nearly four feet into frozen soil to remove a lead pipe in Milwaukee. “I think it’s important to get that lead out of the ground,” Christoffel, the foreman,...
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The making of a flashpoint
For 60 years, Ridglan Farms has sat on a rural road tucked in the rolling hills of Blue Mounds, a small town about 30 miles west of Madison. ● Over time, the company became the second-largest beagle breeder in the country, supplying thousands of dogs...
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Regulators tell Alliant to set data center rate
State regulators approved Alliant Energy’s proposal to power a hyperscale data center in Beaver Dam, but the utility must set a standard electric rate for all large data center customers. The three-member Public Service Commission approved a modified...
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Health care costs soar for aging inmate population
Wisconsin inmates are getting older, and that’s costing the state millions. A report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum shows the incarceration rate among people 60 and older increased by six times from 2000 to 2023, jumping from 330 to 1,960. In that...
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Some Ascension Wisconsin ICUs to use telemedicine
Ascension Wisconsin is no longer staffing some of its hospitals’ intensive care units with in-person critical care physicians, part of a telemedicine push in its smaller ICUs. As of May 1, critical care physicians are no longer physically present in...
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Renters raise concerns in S2 Real Estate apartments
When the home Cornelia Hall had been renting for six years was sold to a local real estate group in 2024, she felt hopeful. • She thought the new company might be easier to deal with than the previous landlord, who had been convicted of reckless use of...
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Woman reported missing months before body found
Tom Trotter reported his 26-year-old granddaughter missing in January. Four months later, she was found dead in a Milwaukee alley. Frustrated with police and still searching for answers, Trotter knocked on doors and handed out fliers seeking...
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New Meta House treatment center is nearly complete
Meta House, which has served women in addiction recovery and their children in Milwaukee since the 1960s, will start seeing clients at its new campus in the city’s Piggsville neighborhood in May. The development, dubbed Project Horizon, will double...
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American Girl legacy
American Girl dolls and books, which have connected girls to U.S. history for 40 years, were directly inspired by the era that gave birth to this nation. On a trip to the living-history museum Colonial Williamsburg in the 1980s, American Girl founder...
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Water treatment bidder has link to ICE software
One of the finalists for a $700 million contract to run Milwaukee’s wastewater treatment system has ties to Palantir, the software company that is helping ICE agents find and deport undocumented immigrants. Jacobs Solutions, based in Dallas, is one of...
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Ridglan Farms sells 1,500 beagles to rescue groups
MIDDLETON - Ridglan Farms, the Blue Mounds beagle breeding facility raided this spring by animal rights activists, will sell 1,500 of its dogs to animal rescue groups. Two rescue organizations, Big Dog Ranch Rescue and the Center for a Humane Economy,...
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Supreme Court rejects Louisiana voting map
WASHINGTON – After the Supreme Court on April 29 threw out a congressional map in Louisiana that had been drawn to protect the voting power of Black residents, the decision was criticized for “eviscerating” the 1965 Voting Rights Act, though it’s...
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But governor’s race rivals question her electability
MADISON – Within the first few months of the year that Wisconsin will elect its next governor, democratic socialist Francesca Hong is leading the pack in the state’s most prominent public poll and running a campaign at a moment she’s said “may be the...
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Dealing with limitations
With Milwaukee moving toward possible development of a publicly financed convention hotel, one city asset could challenge the goal of attracting more meetings. Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport offers fewer flights than airports at other...
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We Energies’ new electric rate for data centers OK’d
Artificial intelligence data centers in southeast Wisconsin will have to pay more for energy than they – and utilities – anticipated. The state Public Service Commission approved We Energies’ special energy rate for large data centers on April 24, but...
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Nighttime NAVIGATORS
With their gravity-defying ability of flight, birds likely have been a source of fascination for humans as long as they have coexisted on Earth. But the feathered animals gave up their secrets slowly over the millennia. Until the early 1800s,...
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