Lake Effect Spotlight

How does Wisconsin keep track of teachers accused of misconduct? 

That’s the subject of a recent yearlong investigation by Cap Times reporter Danielle DuClos. She found that between 2018 and 2023 nearly 200 school employees were investigated for sexual misconduct or grooming.  

Internal records obtained by the Cap Times show the department investigated allegations of sexual assault, educators soliciting nude photos from children or initiating sexual relationships immediately after students graduated.  

WUWM education reporter Katherine Kokal is joined by DuClos of the Cap Times to learn about the reporting.  

The Milwaukee Art Museum has a new leader at the helm. Kim Sajet was previously the director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, where she worked to increase the representation of women and people of color in the collection. In May, President Trump claimed to have fired Sajet from the Smithsonian in part because of her work to diversify the collection. Although the Smithsonian made it clear the president has no authority to fire employees of the institution, Sajet decided to resign from her position a couple weeks after the incident.  

But DC’s loss is Milwaukee’s gain. Sajet brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experience, and a desire to invigorate the Milwaukee Art Museum’s space with new community engagement efforts.

It’s local budget season again, and Milwaukee County and the City of Milwaukee are finalizing budgets. While the Mayor’s proposed budget for the city escapes major cuts to services, Milwaukee County’s budget includes cuts to MCTS, rising public safety and building maintenance costs, and increased property tax rates. 

Rob Henken, immediate past president of the Wisconsin Policy Forum joins Lake Effect’s Sam Woods to discuss both budgets, with a focus on Milwaukee County. 

Jazz legend Herbie Hancock plays in Milwaukee tonight. He’s produced dozens of albums, spanning jazz, jazz-rock fusion, funk, and electronic music. He’s also collaborated with other music greats, from Miles Davis to Joni Mitchell.  

On that journey, Hancock has picked up 14 Grammys and an Oscar for best soundtrack. He's playing at Milwaukee's Pabst Theatre tonight. Ahead of that he joins WUWM’s Maayan Silver who first noted that he has a voice for radio. 

The library is more than just books, and our series with the Milwaukee Public Library called Books and Beyond showcases just that. 

This month we are exploring some stories in honor of the spooky season with MPL’s special collections and archives department. They’re hosting an event called ‘Milwaukee Mysteries: True Crime and Paranormal’ to take a historical spin on the theme with real people, places, haunts, and events in the Milwaukee area.  

To learn more, Lake Effect's Audrey Nowakowski is joined by librarian archivist Casey Lapworth, who begins by explaining how their librarian take on spooky season came about.

Today, we’re continuing our tour of some of Milwaukee’s Yemeni coffee shops. Over the past year, five of them have opened in the area. The shops offer drinks made with Yemeni coffee beans and stay open late into the night.  

WUWM’s Maayan Silver and Eddie Morales visit one shop that has a particularly active evening social scene. 

It’s been just over a decade since the game-changing discovery of gravitational waves in the distant universe. Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time caused by cosmic collisions. By processing massive amounts of data, UW-Milwaukee scientists played key roles in the discovery, contributing to a Nobel Prize in Physics.  

The discovery of gravitational waves opened a new door of study, and this work continues in our backyard today. To learn more about the significance of this anniversary and the new discoveries it led to, Lake Effect’s Audrey Nowakowski speaks with UWM physics and astronomy assistant professor, Lia Medeiros.

A Black-owned art gallery in Milwaukee is at risk of closing. Fatima Laster purchased the building in 2018 seeking to make a communal space for underrepresented artists. Since then, hundreds of artists have come through the doors of the 5 Points Art Gallery.  

Laster acquired the building through the city of Milwaukee’s Art and Resource Community Hub loan program, or ARCH. She’s now in talks with her lender, the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, about restructuring the terms of her loan. She’s also launched a fundraising campaign to help with a large mortgage payment due on December first. 

Laster joins WUWM’s Race & Ethnicity Reporter Teran Powell to talk about the gallery and how she’s trying to make sure it stays open. 

October marks the start of the respiratory viral vaccine season in earnest. Illnesses like the flu, covid, and RSV are making the rounds. Fortunately, there are tried and tested tools to help us stay healthy while protecting others – like vaccines.  

To go over the vaccines available, how they work, and the importance of getting your annual shots, Dr. Jim Conway joins me now. He’s the medical director of the UW Health immunization program, and he begins by explaining what factors contribute to the flu and other illnesses peaking at this time of year.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, thousands of Native American children were sent to schools run by the federal government and churches. Many suffered abuse at the schools, where the goal was to erase Indigenous cultures starting with the communities’ children.   

On this Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we have the story of a Wisconsin survivor of one of these schools. His name is Dewey Schanandore (shan-an-door). When he was a child on the Menominee reservation, he went to a Catholic school called St. Anthony’s. Dewey shares his story and what it took to heal with WUWM reporter Jimmy Gutierrez and Eric Von Fellow, Maria Peralta-Arellano.