Wisconsin Watch: Independent local news, reporting and analysis

Reading Time: 4 minutes
Wearing orange high-visibility vests as they mount TVs, conduct basic car care, assemble furniture and complete other tasks, participants of Handyman Academy are busy at work on Milwaukee’s North Side.
Program founders Daniel McHenry and AJ Batchelor say learning these skills helps provide structure and mentorship for students with limited support at home....

Reading Time: 3 minutes
As children continue to enter foster care across Milwaukee, agencies working the front lines say the greatest need isn’t funding or policy promises, it’s people willing to open their homes. Especially to teenagers.
We spoke with Jakob Eisen, director of social services, and Karen Steinbach, treatment foster care supervisor, with La Causa’s Treatment Foster Care program, to understand what becoming and supporting foster parents can look like....

Reading Time: 6 minutes
This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.
When President Donald Trump pressured state and local officials to intervene in his behalf in the 2020 election, it wasn’t a matter of abstract constitutional theory for the people running elections. It was armed protests outside offices, threats against...

Reading Time: 3 minutes
For Char Brandis, a hobbyist photographer in Appleton, the darkroom is her happy place.
But being outside of the professional photography industry, Brandis often found herself working on projects alone, without the support of an artistic community....