Author: Wisconsin Watch

Some regional nonprofits administering the $322 million emergency rental assistance program created by Governor Tony Evers may be unintentionally discouraging non-U.S. citizens from applying, even though immigration status holds no bearing on eligibility for the federally financed program. At least eight of the 14 organizations administering the Wisconsin Emergency Rental Assistance (WERA) program ask applicants to share their Social Security numbers through pre-screening forms, a review has found. In some cases, applicants are asked to submit the Social Security numbers of every member of their household. The eight agencies administer aid to 35 of Wisconsin’s 68 WERA-eligible counties. Meanwhile,...

Brandon Cacek filed for unemployment insurance in mid-March last year after losing his substitute teaching job due to the pandemic. He is still waiting for that crucial aid 11 months later. “I keep leaving out hope that I’m going to get some kind of assistance through this,” said Cacek, 40, a Marine Corps veteran and father of two in Marinette, Wisconsin. “But the longer this goes on the less hope that lingers.” Nearly every person who has reviewed Cacek’s case has found no reason to deny him compensation, he said. That includes an administrative law judge who ruled on...

In May of 2017, eight men met at Mackesey’s Irish Pub in downtown Madison to drink beer and talk politics. The men, all of them White and most in their 20s, had met online and were getting together for the first time. The meeting would establish the Wisconsin chapter of an emerging national group called the Proud Boys. For Thaddeus Pall, it was a rare opportunity to openly express his support for President Donald Trump in liberal Madison. As the men were leaving the bar for a member’s apartment, Pall, then 26, separated from the group to buy cigarettes....

Working digitally and on the streets of Milwaukee, activists tried to convince nonvoters to go to the polls, but distrust and disgust kept some away. When Angela Lang reflected on the thousands of conversations she and other members of her community organization, BLOC, have had with Milwaukee residents, one floats to the top of her mind. It was with a 54-year-old Milwaukee resident who explained to Lang’s colleague that she was not voting because she was a convicted felon. Unbeknownst to her, she had been eligible for about 12 years — since she completed her probation. A BLOC staffer...