During the holiday season, picking out a live Christmas tree is a tradition for many families. But according to a survey from the American Christmas Tree Association, more than 80% of households will opt for a fake tree. 

So, which is better for the environment – cutting a new tree every year or reusing a fake one? Lake Effect's Audrey Nowakowski is joined by Stefan Schnitzer, a professor of ecology at Marquette University to find out. 

IMPACT 211 is a free, confidential hotline that people can call for help with basic needs in southeastern Wisconsin. In addition to helping with food and housing support, the calls to 211 provide a snapshot of the region’s social safety net. 

John Hyatt leads the organization, and Bob Waite handles data collection. The two say that the word of the year for 2025 is “uncertainty” - as calls for basic needs have jumped over 100-percent in some areas, and organizations that provide resources for these needs face uncertain financial futures. 

Lake Effect’s Sam Woods is joined by Hyatt and Waite to discuss what they’ve seen in 2025, and what they expect in 2026. 

The Packers took first place in the NFC North this past weekend with a game-ending interception that shut out the Chicago Bears.  

The two teams will face off again on December 20th. The Bears – Packers rivalry has been going on for more than 100 years. And it’s a strong presence here in southeast Wisconsin where it’s not uncommon to see a Bears jersey in the sea of green at the local bar on Sunday. 

WUWM’s Jimmy Gutierrez has more on the rivalry. 

Over the last month, local food pantries say they’ve seen an increase in need not seen since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. One group of women have stepped in to try to meet the needs of the community. They created a mutual aid organization, MKE Grocery Buddy, to connect people experiencing food insecurity with people who can help. 

WUWM’s Jimmy Gutierrez brings us the story and the current food needs around Milwaukee. 

Last summer, a woman working as a teacher's aide at a public school in Milwaukee was forced to self deport to her native country of El Salvador. Yessenia Ruano and her husband Miguel Guerra chose uncertain safety over the constant fear of detainment, after a decade-old deportation order for Yessenia rose to the surface. Immigration officials did not honor her pending application for a visa reserved for trafficking victims.  

Now, the couple and their young twin daughters are trying to create a new life in a country that feels foreign to all four of them. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Sophie Carson visited the family in their new home in San Alfonso, El Salvador. Carson joins WUWM Education Reporter Katherine Kokal to share her  reporting. 

One Wisconsin community has found a solution to the presence of PFAS in their drinking water. The Town of Campbell near La Crosse is building its own water system. In 2020, DNR testing found the presence of PFAS in the wells of Campbell residents. Since then, around 16-hundred households have been drinking bottled water provided by the DNR. 

Now, the town is tapping into a new, clean source of water and creating its own municipal water system – which is no small task. WUWM’s Susan Bence met Lee Donahue from the Campbell town board to learn how they reached this solution. 

Back in 2020 Meagan Johnson learned about the pressing need that many families have for diapers. In Milwaukee – and nationwide - one in two families face diaper needs due to cost and systemic barriers.  

Johnson wanted to help make cloth and disposable diapers more accessible in Milwaukee, and she discovered that there was no local diaper bank. So, she started the Milwaukee Diaper Mission along with Jessica Syburg – collecting diapers, wipes, and period products to distribute out of her own garage. 

Today, the Milwaukee Diaper Mission has grown to become a reliable source for families in need. To date, they’ve distributed 3-point-6 million diapers and 1-point-5 million period products. Meagan Johnson joins Lake Effect's Audrey Nowakowski to share more about their growth these last five years – and how they want to continue to expand.

The first land transfer between a Catholic organization and a Native American tribe took place in Wisconsin in October. The La Crosse-based Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration transferred land that housed their Marywood Spirituality Center to the Lac du Flambeau Tribe.  

The transfer grew from conversations about the sisters’ role in Native American boarding schools. Those schools were used to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children in the 19th and 20th centuries.  

A group called Land Justice Futures helped facilitate the transfer of the property from the sisters to the tribe. Brittany Koteles, is the co-founder and director of Land Justice Futures. She joins WUWM’s Maria Peralta-Arellano to learn about what led to the transfer. 

When you sell a home, the profit you make is taxed. It’s called the capital gains tax. You can exclude a portion of that profit from taxes – up to $250,000 for a single person or $500,000 for a married couple. Some housing experts and politicians think changing the capital gains tax on home sales could motivate more homeowners to sell, and open up homes amid a national housing shortage. 

WUWM’s series, Seeking Solutions: Keys to Homeownership, examines barriers to home buying and possible solutions. WUWM’s Race & Ethnicity Reporter Teran Powell speaks with UW-Madison professor of Urban Planning, Kurt Paulsen, to learn more about the capital gains tax and how reforming it could affect housing in Wisconsin. 

Status Pending is a new podcast from WUWM about the pathways that immigrants take to live and work in the U.S.  

In this week’s episode, WUWM’s Jimmy Gutierrez explores the refugee resettlement program – which has changed dramatically this year under President Trump.