(The Center Square) – A plan to use $9 million in settlement money to fund opioid initiatives in Milwaukee is being pushed through by County Executive David Crowley and could be given the OK as soon as next week.
The funds would support a seven-part plan to expand treatment, prevention and harm reduction by the opioid epidemic in Milwaukee County through 2028, according to Crowley.
The Milwaukee County Board Committee on Finance approved the plan unanimously recently, and the full county Board of Supervisors is set to vote on it at their meeting Thursday.
“My administration continues to deploy opioid settlement dollars across Milwaukee County,” Crowley said. “These upstream investments are proving to be effective, but we know there’s more work to do in expanding substance use prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery efforts.”
Milwaukee County alone is expected to receive $111 million over 18 years from recent national opioid lawsuit settlements, according to Crowley.
Already, $34 million has been allocatedto a handful of funded in the county.
This proposal would allocate more than $9 million to Crowley’s opioid initiatives only for fiscal years 2026-2028.
The seven programs Crowley will be asking the Board of Supervisors to approve are to include residential room and board funding for people receiving substance abuse treatment, door-to-door outreach to older adults and disabled individuals, supporting organizations partnered with the Department of Health and Human Services, and funding other staffing positions in the Medical Examiner’s office.
Milwaukee County has seen a continual upward trend in fatal and non-fatal opioid overdoses, with the Medical College of Wisconsin reporting a 495% increase in heroin-related deaths in the county since 2005.
“This funding will allow DHHS to continue the life-saving work that began with the initial round of opioid settlement funds,” said Shakita LaGrant-McClain, executive director of the county’s DHHS. “We are seeing promising trends and look forward to continuing our prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery work, including ensuring residents have access to harm reduction supplies, targeted community outreach, and collaboration with community partners.”

(The Center Square) – The State Bar of Wisconsin will remove diversity, equity and inclusion language from its programs in a shift that is expected to reshape how the organization structures trainings and educational requirements in the future.
In the federal lawsuit settlement with Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, the Bar also agreed to change its definition of diversity by no longer considering race, religion, sex or “other characteristics” when determining eligibility for its programs, according to WILL.
WILL Deputy Counsel Dan Lennington said the result is that DEI has been effectively removed from all Bar programming in an announcement.
“For now, DEI is dead at the State Bar of Wisconsin,” Lennington said. “Race discrimination should play no role in the regulation or training of Wisconsin’s lawyers, and it no longer does. We will continue to monitor the Bar closely and challenge race-based programs wherever we find them.”
In December 2023, WILL filed a federal lawsuit against the Bar for promoting DEI practices, specifically its “Diversity Clerkship Program,” which offered internship opportunities based primarily on race.
The plaintiff, Daniel Suhr, a trial and appellate attorney in Wisconsin, objected to mandatory bar dues, which all practicing lawyers with a Wisconsin license are required to pay, being used for race-based programming.
While the lawsuit was partially settled in April 2024, the Bar had only changed their definition of “diversity” while keeping the program mostly intact. This settlement, according to WILL, finally resolves the entire lawsuit.
In the settlement, the Bar agreed to the following:
The Bar will not alter its definition of “diversity” to include “any consideration of race, ethnicity, color or national origin.”The Bar will remove DEI language from its Leadership Development Summit.The Bar will remove DEI language from its Leadership Academy program.The Bar will not consider race, ethnicity, or other immutable characteristics when considering applicants for the Leadership Development Summit or Leadership Academy.The Bar will be more transparent on how it spends mandatory dues, publishing an annual charge or chargeable activities.
During the lawsuit, WILL said Bar leaders were found to have used race-based DEI policies throughout several programs and application processes.
According to WILL, even when a Bar leader’s essay nominating an attorney for the Leadership Summit did not overtly mention race or sex, a chart compiled by the Bar included a column clearly identifying many nominees’ “ethnicity/gender/age.”
The changes to the Bar policies are expected to be made effective immediately.
The Bar did not immediately respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s elections managers are walking away from their investigation into nearly 200 uncounted absentee ballots in Madison.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission closed its investigation into former Madison City Clerk Marybeth Witzel-Behl, and the 193 ballots she didn’t count in November, without asking for any criminal charges.
“This is not a criminal investigation,” Election Commission chairwoman Ann Jacobs said. “The focus of this investigation has been discovering what happened, and making sure it doesn’t ever happen again.”
Jacobs, and Republican Commissioner Don Millis, found that Witzel-Behl broke the law by ignoring the missing ballots once they were found, and then doing nothing to count the ballots in the weeks and months after.
“The lack of curiosity. The testimony that, you know, ‘Oh there might have been ballots there, but I didn’t ask for a full month,’ was not plausible. Or if that was the truth, it was a rather shocking dereliction of just ordinary responsibility,” Jacobs said. “Nobody likes admitting mistakes are made, and we recognize that that’s a very human thing. But in this case nobody took responsibility for these ballots.”
Instead of recommending criminal charges, Jacobs and the Election Commission are recommending a series of new requirements for Madison’s elections office.
Madison city attorney and interim clerk Michael Haas said while the city doesn’t dispute the findings of the WEC investigation, he’s not sure the new requirements are “appropriate, feasible, or legal.”
“In addition, the proposed orders are framed as directing that those specific policies continue permanently into the future, regardless of any other developments such as changes in the law, technology, or improved best practices,” Hass added. “The recommended orders also do not take into account the steps that have already been taken by the city.”
WEC commissioners voted to give Haas an extra three weeks to review the orders and offer feedback. The Commission is expected to finalize its recommendations at its Aug. 15 meeting.

(The Center Square) — The latest snapshot of Wisconsin schools shows many schools are seeing fewer students, while others continue to spend more and get worse results.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty opened its 2025 School Scorecard Dashboard on Thursday.
The dashboard is an interactive way for parents and policy makers to see how schools across the state are doing.
WILL said the dashboard tracks several things, including:
● An interactive map of Wisconsin’s school districts
● Enrollment by grade level
● Absenteeism
● Disciplinary Incidents
● Math and reading test scores
● Local school spending
“WILL’s School Scorecard Dashboard gives parents, taxpayers, and stakeholders key data on school district performance,” WILL’s research director Will Flanders said. “With this updated tool, Wisconsinites can hold districts accountable and make better informed decisions about education in their communities.”
The dashboard paints a dire picture of Wisconsin’s enrollment crisis.
“…298, or 70.6%, of districts have seen enrollment decline since 2015,” WILL noted. “Statewide, first-grade enrollment is only 76% of the size of 12th-grade enrollment.”
But fewer kids doesn’t mean less spending for many public schools in Wisconsin.
WILL’s dashboard shows “Milwaukee Public Schools spend more per student (up 19%) but teach less students (enrollment down 13.4% since 2015), and academic achievement continues to lag the rest of the state with Math and ELA proficiency below 25%.”
Wisconsin’s enrollment bright spot remains school choice.
“Choice enrollment is up 389% from 2016 in Sheboygan Schools,” WILL’s numbers show. “Choice enrollment is up 556% from 2016 in Oshkosh Schools.”
You can find the dashboard, and see your local school’s performance, at KnowMySchoolWI.com.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives have launched an effort to urge the state Supreme Court to shut down the latest challenge to congressional maps before it can even start.
The lawsuit, filed by Law Forward on behalf of Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy and others, alleges the state’s current congressional district maps are “anti-competitive gerrymanders” that disadvantage voters by protecting incumbents, The Center Square previously reported.
However, unlike previous unsuccessful challenges to the current maps, Law Forward filed the lawsuit in the Dane County circuit court, not in the state Supreme Court.
They want the court to appoint a three-judge panel to hear the case and potentially redraw the maps before the 2026 midterm elections.
Wisconsin GOP House members are arguing that the Wisconsin Supreme Court should defend the current maps and consider delaying action on the new lawsuit before appointing a panel to hear the challenge.
“This Court should order the parties–as well as any proposed intevenors–to address, inter alia, whether this Court should dismiss this case because an inferior tribunal cannot lawfully adjudicate the constitutionality of the relief that this Court issued in Johnson II,” wrote Misha Tseytlin, the attorney representing the representatives and other individual voters.
“Johnson II” refers to the current maps adopted by the court in 2022 in Johnson v. Wisconsin Elections Commission.
Because the state constitution provides that the state Supreme Court is the “court of last resort,” Tseytlin argues that a lower court isn’t allowed to overrule or revisit the decision in Johnson II.
Although Law Forward wants the court to appoint a three-judge panel after receiving a challenge, that process has never been completely used before.
Law Forward attorney Doug Poland said the panel could be used to address the issues raised by House Republicans to avoid “miring” the court in “endless briefing.”
“This Court can, and should, use this opportunity—nearly six years before redistricting in the wake of the 2030 decennial census—to establish a thoughtful, measured, and procedurally proper template for future invocations of these untested venue statutes unique to redistricting actions,” Poland told WisPolitics.

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Transportation plans to give $21 million for improvements to Milwaukee’s PurpleLine transit in the near future.
The BUILD grant award, announced by Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley on Wednesday, will invest in one of the county’s most heavily utilized bus routes, serving more than 1.2 million riders each year.
According to Crowley, revisions to corridors will allow people to connect to more than 50,000 jobs and access to services throughout the county.
“I will partner and collaborate with anyone to deliver results and investments for Milwaukee County. That’s why I am proud we are bringing home federal funds to support our residents who are traveling to work, school, healthcare, and other essential services,” Crowley said in a statement.
PurpleLine, which operates for 18 miles primarily along 27th street, connects municipalities like Milwaukee, Greenfield, Franklin, Oak Creek and Glendale.
New improvements also include traffic signal updates, new bus shelters at almost 70 bus stops, 15 of which currently have no bus shelters, raised transit platform heights for disabled passengers, and other pedestrian and bike-friendly features.
Full implementation is anticipated in 2027.
The grant comes at a challenging period for the Milwaukee County Transit System amid the surprise announcement of the system’s $10.9 million budget deficit, leading to the resignations of two Milwaukee transportation leaders and MCTS’ decision to use remaining COVID-19 relief funds to help fill the deficit through 2025.
MCTS has an overall structural deficit of $12 to $18 million.
The operating deficit – and operating cuts to service hours that may occur because of it – are largely separate from investments like the BUILD grant, which is a competitively awarded infrastructure project.
The BUILD grant supports long-term infrastructure, not daily operations, and is funded through a separate federal channel with different application criteria.
However, persistent budget instability could weaken Milwaukee County’s competitiveness for future federal grants if operational constraints begin to undermine project feasibility or stakeholder confidence.

(The Center Square) – A new bill to prevent the closure of two veterans’ homes is now on the table in Wisconsin.
The legislation would restore $1.9 million to the Veteran Housing and Recovery Program that was ultimately rejected during the biennial budget process.
As a result, two housing locations in Chippewa Falls and Green Bay, that house 23 and about 17 homeless veterans respectively, are set to close by September.
“Assembly Democrats offered Republicans plenty of opportunities to fund the VHRP and ensure that the essential services of the centers it funds can continue,” bill co-author Rep. Ryan Spaude, D-Ashwaubenon, said in a statement. “Now we are seeing the direct consequences of inaction from our legislative majorities in Green Bay.”
The VHRP provides temporary housing, job training and support services to homeless military veterans, according to a statement by Sen. Jeff Smith, D-Brunswick.
The program helps secure permanent housing, increase their income and skills, and self-sufficiency to reintegrate into communities.
During the budget process, Senate Democrats introduced Senate Amendment 10 to Senate Substitute Amendment 2 to fund VHRP.
It was rejected by the Wisconsin state Senate by a margin of one vote, 17-16.
Sen. Andre Jacque, R-New Franken, was the only Republican to vote with all Democrats to keep the amendment.
Jacque previously told The Center Square that the funding could have been amended to the budget, had Democrats not “voted for the budget in greater numbers than required for it to pass, which greatly reduced the leverage of legislators like myself to insist on its inclusion in the budget.”
A spokesperson for Jacque’s office declined to say whether he would support the Democrats’ new bill to keep the facilities open.
Democratic legislators are seeking co-sponsorship to the bill before the September 30 deadline, when the Green Bay and Chippewa Falls facilities are set to close.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation are giving more than $174 million in quarterly transportation aids to improve local roads around the state.
The investments are a part of the $1.1 billion in new funding for the state’s transportation infrastructure that were included in the recent biennial budget.
“Local roads are the first and last mile of nearly everyone’s trip, so keeping local infrastructure in good repair is essential,” Evers said in a statement.
“Over the past six years, we’ve made considerable progress to ensure our local communities have the 21st-century infrastructure needed to get folks from point A to point B safely and efficiently and keep our economy moving forward, and I was proud to sign a budget that continues to invest in the safe, efficient transportation system Wisconsinites deserve,” Evers said.
In the year 2025, Evers announced local governments will receive more than $540 million in financial assistance to support transportation-related projects.
The 2025-27 budget includes a 3% increase in the General Transportation Aids program over the biennium, up from the 2% increase in the previous biennial budget.
The hike provides municipalities with $33.2 million more and counties with nearly $10 million.
In total, of the third quarter payments totaling over $174 million, $170 million are going to local units of government and “connecting highway aids.”
Of the remaining funds, $4.2 million will go to eligible municipalities and nearly $256,000 to aid Milwaukee County for the costs of patrolling expressways within the county – a state investment county officials had long asked for.
“Wisconsinites shouldn’t have to wonder if the road or bridge they’re driving on is safe,” WisDOT Secretary Kristina Boardman said. “Thanks to increased transportation investment, our department’s commitment to fixing roads and maintaining bridges, along with the strong partnerships we have with local governments, infrastructure improvements can be felt in all corners of our state.”

(The Center Square) – The city of Milwaukee has new rules for THC products.
The city’s common council unanimously approved a new set of rules that ban anyone under 21 from buying THC gummies or other THC- laced drinks, snacks or candies.
The push comes after Alderman Peter Burgelis says a couple of children got sick after eating THC gummies.
“We started looking at this soon after a licensing committee meeting where we saw that someone had sold, a store clerk had sold 600mg of gummies to a child, actually handed them over the counter,” Burgelis added.
Marijuana remains illegal in Wisconsin, but hemp-derived THC products, including Delta-8 products, are legal.
And Burgelis said, in many places in the state, those products are unregulated.
“It’s the wild, wild west for hemp THC because there is zero regulation,” Burgelis said.
There have been attempts to regulate THC and Delta-8 in Wisconsin, but those efforts have stalled.
Lawmakers said in January that they are open to new THC and Delta- 8 regulations, but that’s not the same as an agreement on what the specifics of those regulations should look like.
“We should be making sure that there’s a standard for purity and potency so that it is not the wild west,” Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in January.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos was a bit more specific about the hold-up.
“I think [regulations are] the wise move,” Vos said. “But I think it’s super unlikely with Democrats wanting to go in the opposite direction and legalize recreational marijuana, so we’re kind of in a quandary.”
Milwaukee’s new rules come with fines of up to $1,000 per-sale.
The city’s rules do not, however, affect THC or hemp products that do not produce a high.

(The Center Square) – Two Veterans Housing and Recovery Program facilities in Wisconsin are set to close by September following a lack of state funds in the current biennial budget.
The sites, overseen by the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, provide housing and supportive services to military veterans who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless to help them obtain permanent housing.
In a statement, Gov. Tony Evers said he had included $1.9 million for the program in his proposed budget but Republican lawmakers removed it.
He said Republicans approved zero dollars in new funding for the program, causing the veterans housing facilities in Chippewa Falls and Green Bay, to close as soon as Sept. 30.
“Our veterans should not have to worry about being able to afford to keep a roof over their heads. Period,” Evers said. “The bottom line is that there will now be fewer options for homeless veterans as a result of the Legislature’s irresponsible decision to reject the investments that I proposed.”
According to Evers, during the budget process, the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau had told the Joint Finance Committee that “without additional funding, the Department [of Veterans Affairs] would not have sufficient resources to maintain the program’s three sites.”
After the budget was signed into law, WDVA confirmed this to be the case.
Although Evers blames legislative Republicans for the sites’ closures, Sen. Andre Jacque, R-New Franken, who chairs the Senate committee on Natural Resources, Veteran and Military Affairs, said legislative Democrats and Evers’ negotiation tactics are culpable.
“I voted across party lines on the Senate floor to provide additional funding for VHRP and expand the Disabled Veterans and Surviving Spouse Property Tax Credit in the budget as I’ve previously authored as standalone legislation,” Jacque said in a statement to The Center Square.
“I am greatly disappointed that the governor did not prioritize veterans assistance higher within his budget negotiations,” Jacque said. “I was further disappointed that the Senate Democrats decided to vote for the budget in greater numbers than required for it to pass, which greatly reduced the leverage of legislators like myself to insist on its inclusion in the budget to earn our support for the document.”
Jacque, who does not sit on the Joint Finance Committee, did not mention legislative Republicans sitting on that committee for their votes against the funding or decision to not adopt alternative funding to the budget.
According to Evers, the 23 homeless veterans living at Chippewa Falls and the about 17 living at the Green Bay facility will be offered alternative placement options and will continue to receive services.
Applications for the Chippewa Falls and Green Bay locations are no longer being reviewed.

(The Center Square) – Milwaukee County Transit System plans to use federal COVID-19 relief funds to close a projected $10.9 million budget deficit this year.
However, concerns are mounting over a larger structural shortfall expected in 2026.
The budget deficit, announced last month, came as a surprise to MCTS, county officials and the public, leading to the resignations of interim MCTS CEO Julie Esch and Milwaukee County Department of Transportation Director Donna Brown-Martin.
Although relief funds were originally planned to have been spent until 2028, the plan to use up the funds this year is causing some transit officials to see 2026 as a “fiscal cliff” for MCTS, Urban Milwaukee reported.
“Now we’re likely going to run out of federal funds in 2026,” Joe Lamers, director of the Office of Strategy, Budget and Performance, told county supervisors at a meeting. “Now we’re getting ready to prepare the 2026 budget, and we are suddenly faced with this federal funding lapse issue that we previously thought we have a little bit longer of a timeline to get to.”
MCTS is the largest transit system in Wisconsin, with a deficit estimated between $12 million and $18 million.
Now, MCTS is also considering cutting some of its bus routes in order to save money, although Esch said that’s the “last thing” they want to do.
“We provide 80,000 rides a day – that’s tens of thousands of Milwaukee County residents who depend on us to get to work, school, and medical care,” Esch told Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Our goal is to ensure that service cuts have minimal impacts on the businesses, organizations, and people who rely on this important service.”
Members of the labor union Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 have expressed criticism and distrust of MCTS following the deficit’s announcement, leading to members voting 98% in favor of authorizing a strike Wednesday.
However, a strike could not happen until at least August as the current contract between MCTS and ATU 998 was extended until the end of July to allow more time for negotiations.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s northernmost congressman is fed up with smoke and haze from Canada.
Congressman Tom Tiffany was on social media recently, complaining about another air quality alert for much of northern Wisconsin.
“Another weekend of Canadian wildfire smoke and air quality warnings across WI, MN. With today’s modern tools to prevent wildfires, this shouldn’t keep happening,” Tiffany posted. “Canada owes us answers for its forest management failures.”
Canada’s wildfires have been burning, in one place or another, since May. Those fires have caused air quality alerts from Montana to New York state. Wisconsin saw at least two air quality alerts this week.
Tiffany has been pushing for Canada to do more to control its fire for a while, including last week when he and a number of members of Congress write a letter to Canada’s ambassador, asking for better forest management.
“In 2023, Canada had its worst year for wildfires on record, last year’s fire season was considered one of the worst, and this year seems to be a continuation of these previous years,” Tiffany and the others wrote. “In our neck of the woods, summer months are the best time of the year to spend time outdoors recreating, enjoying time with family, and creating new memories, but this wildfire smoke makes it difficult to do all those things.”
Wisconsin Congressman Glenn Grothman also signed on to Tiffany’s letter.
As did Brad Finstad (MN-01), Tom Emmer (MN-06), Michelle Fischbach (MN-07), and Pete Stauber (MN-08).
The New York Times on Monday reported that Canada’s wildfire smoke continues to make the air quality in Canada even worse.
Both Montreal and Toronto are among the 10-worst cities for air quality, according to IQair.