An April ritual took place Monday evening in every Wisconsin county: the Conservation Congress held its annual spring meeting. The hearings are a chance for the public to give input on the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) proposed rule changes and advisory questions related to fish and wildlife management in the state. And Conservation Congress advocates think more people should care about the process. First order of business at Milwaukee County’s Conservation Congress meeting,

As summer approaches, temperatures rise and so does crime. It's widely known that summer months are often witness to an uptick in crime. This is not news to Milwaukee's Office of Violence Prevention . In fact, they have been busy, rolling out a number of violence prevention initiatives. One particular initiative is violence interrupters. "They were once considered to be part of the problem but now they are part of the solution," says Derrick Rogers, the director and program manager for 414LIFE .

Kewaunee County, 100 miles north of Milwaukee, has become the poster child of unfortunate distinction: an alarming number of its private wells are contaminated. On Tuesday, residents will hear from a scientist who has been studying the county's drinking water. So, how are the wells becoming contaminated? In recent years, more mega dairy operations called CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations) have swallowed up Kewaunee County's fragile fields. Two years ago, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Some engineering students strive to design a faster or more fuel efficient car. But not at UWM’s Bicycle and Motorcycle Engineering Research Laboratory . The lab, started a few years ago within the Department of Mechanical Engineering, tests bicycle tires and works with motorcycle parts. It also has a team that's been building a human-powered, recumbent three-wheeler. Since it's a recumbent, the rider's feet are roughly at the same height as his or her head. The bike has one, standard-looking

The three bee-hive shaped glass structures that are home to tropical, desert and rotating show installations have glistened within Mitchell Park on Milwaukee's near south side for nearly 50 years. But like other Milwaukee County facilities, the buildings' maintenance has been chronically deferred. Safety concerns piqued in 2016 when a piece of concrete fell inside the Desert Dome. As a result, all three closed for several weeks. Soon after, a task force formed to try to come up with a long-term

Construction is ramping up at the Foxconn site in Racine County. Spring means road projects are underway and other land preparation. And more projects are planned, including an 18-month effort to put up a high-profile manufacturing building for small video display screens. Foxconn will soon ask potential contractors to submit bids for the additional work. But can the firms trust Foxconn's request? Just months earlier, the Taiwan-based company made international news with reports about possibly

Updated on April, 8 12 p.m. CT: Final election results affirm union-endorsed Marva Herndon's win in District 1. Preliminary results show union-backed candidates winning four of five open Milwaukee School Board seats in Tuesday's election. The race between Marva Herndon and Shyla Deacon in District 1 is too close to call. Herndon, a community activist, has 3,125 votes. Deacon, a mother of four MPS students who studied education policy, garnered 3,098 votes. Results will be finalized after

The 2018 fall elections set records for voter turnout in Wisconsin. However, Tuesday's election isn't expected to have quite the level of voter turnout. Actually, the predictions are significantly less. Neil Albrecht, the executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, estimates the April 2 voter turnout to be 25 percent. That means 60,000-70,000 voters citywide compared to the 216,000 this past November. But that's actually a good turnout for a spring election, Albrecht says. I doubled

The presence of Native American people in Wisconsin dates back thousands of years — before any of us knew America's Dairyland to be what it is today. But as the population decreased, so did the prevalence of its languages. However, places like the Indian Community School (ICS) in Franklin, Wis., are continuing to move the culture forward and keep the languages current with biweekly language courses. On a recent Tuesday night, several students gathered in a small classroom at the Indian Community

It's bird migration season in Wisconsin, and scientists are noticing unsettling changes. Ornithologist Bill Mueller is among them. As the director of the Western Great Lake Bird and Bat Observatory north of Port Washington, he has been observing a drop in numbers over recent years. Mueller coordinates counts of bird species that nest and migrate through Wisconsin. While he celebrates every song bird and water fowl he sees, Mueller is hearing and seeing fewer. "Mid-May signals peak migration.