Announcer:
The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

Frederica Freyberg:
I’m Frederica Freyberg. On this Thanksgiving week, tonight we bring you a compilation of some of our favorite stories our reporters have fanned out across the state to bring you. Zac Schultz breaks down the balance of political power in Wisconsin. Reporter Steven Potter shows the ongoing cleanup of lead in Milwaukee public schools. Murv Seymour reports from the tiny town of Stella about PFAS contamination, and Erica Ayisi reports on UW Madison’s tuition guarantee for indigenous students. It’s “Here & Now” for November 28.

Announcer:
Funding for “Here & Now” is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:
In September, new commercial building codes went into effect, nearly two years after a legislative committee blocked a rule that would have brought Wisconsin building codes into compliance with international standards. Now, the rule update was at the center of a Wisconsin Supreme Court case that did more than just change building codes. “Here & Now” senior political reporter Zac Schultz has this story about how this case is part of a series of court decisions that have dramatically shifted the balance of power at the Capitol.

Adam Neylon:
Any discussion? Hearing none, clerk will call the roll.

Zac Schultz:
The Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules is probably not well known by most people outside the Capitol.

Adam Neylon:
I’ve been on the committee the entire time I’ve been on the Legislature.

Zac Schultz:
But for Representative Adam Neylon, it’s one of the most important committees because it’s been the place where Republicans can stop what they view as executive overreach by the administration of Governor Tony Evers.

Adam Neylon:
The reason I did is because the real-world impact of administrative rules. People don’t necessarily understand that rules have the same impact as law.

Zac Schultz:
Administrative rules are proposed by state agencies. So when the DNR wants to update the standards on how to clean up a hazardous waste spill, or the Department of Safety and Professional Services wants to update the commercial building codes, they have to go through a series of steps, including scope statements and public hearings, and eventually the proposed rule will end up in front of the Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules.

Arielle Exner:
On behalf of the department, I respectfully request that this committee extend the expiration date for emergency rule 2502 by 60 days.

Zac Schultz:
The committee can request changes, but one of the laws passed during the lame duck session at the end of Governor Scott Walker’s term gave JCRAR the ability to indefinitely block rules. Both new rules and old rules that have already been in effect for years. In 2023, the committee blocked an update to the building codes.

Adam Neylon:
When they proposed the building code, it went, what we believe, far above and beyond legislative intent.

Zac Schultz:
The committee also blocked a proposed rule that would have banned gay conversion therapy.

Adam Neylon:
We’re not here specifically to discuss the merits of any conversion therapy or any other type of therapy.

Zac Schultz:
Governor Evers filed a lawsuit claiming JCRAR’s ability to indefinitely suspend rules was a pocket veto and unconstitutional.

Brian Hagedorn:
This case is as consequential for the operation of government as maybe I’ve seen in my time on the court.

Zac Schultz:
At oral arguments, conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn seemed to acknowledge the decades-old arrangement may not be legal, but so many laws have been passed giving state agencies the power to make new rules with the understanding the Legislature had oversight to make sure they didn’t go too far.

Brian Hagedorn:
That’s not what the Constitution says, but hey, this is how we’ve been operating for a long time, and the Legislature has passed a lot of laws accepting the framework that’s been given.

Zac Schultz:
Maybe it’s not what the Constitution says was the key phrase from Hagedorn. In a split decision, the liberal majority struck down JCRAR’s ability to object and suspend rules.

Tony Evers:
Sanity will reign, that’s what I think. We’ve been dealing with this for all the time I’ve been in office, and that is this committee, mainly the leadership, were able to stop everything dead in their tracks and then it — things just don’t happen.

Zac Schultz:
Governor Tony Evers celebrated the decision, while Republicans like Neylon fear what rules may be coming now that they can’t object.

Adam Neylon:
What we’re seeing now is how much this has expanded executive authority and how much is actually expanded the ability to sidestep the Legislature and potentially have agency heads create a super legislature where they’re able to implement rules with no oversight from the Legislature.

Janine Geske:
Both at the national level and particularly at Wisconsin, there is a redefining and shifting of what people thought was the balance of power and what the court is saying is now the balance of power.

Zac Schultz:
Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske says as the partisan divides grow, the court is being asked to look at the constitutionality of old agreements on how government works.

Janine Geske:
They either have to say there’s a justification for it, not just a gentleman’s agreement or party’s agreement. There has to be a constitutional legal justification, or if not, we’re going to redefine it.

Zac Schultz:
Neylon may not like it, but Democrats say the case was only filed because of what they call the excessive abuse of authority to shut down rules ranging from the DNR setting safe levels for PFAS contamination, election rules on absentee ballots or the conversion therapy ban.

Adam Neylon:
But I don’t think the headline should be about conversion therapy. I think the headline should be we lost legislative oversight because that’s what really happened.

Zac Schultz:
Geske says she was happy so many of the cases cut across the partisan labels on the bench, with conservatives joining with liberals, at least in part on all these cases.

Janine Geske:
I think that’s healthy. I really was glad to see that because I think a court that is totally predictable is really a court that looks like a legislature.

Zac Schultz:
Neylon says they were already drafting legislation in a more narrow fashion to reduce the need for agencies to draft rules.

Adam Neylon:
You’re already seeing bills be much more prescriptive and not granting rulemaking authority explicitly through legislation.

Janine Geske:
Well, I think that’s what happens on decisions that particularly upend what people have been doing. And I think that what happens is that the branches get more creative.

Zac Schultz:
Neylon says his next bill will attempt to restore some oversight for JCRAR in a way both sides can agree on.

Adam Neylon:
I think there needs to be some sort of bipartisan agreement, some sort of working together to make sure that we put checks and balances back into our system.

Zac Schultz:
Reporting from Madison, I’m Zac Schultz for “Here & Now.”

Frederica Freyberg:
As children return to classrooms at Milwaukee Public Schools this past fall, more than 50 schools built before 1950 were cleared of lead contamination. That work happened after a student tested positive for lead poisoning in January of last year and was traced back to chipped paint in a grade school. Subsequently, at least nine schools were found to have high levels of lead. By December 31 of this year, the district and health department are scheduled to clear all buildings built before 1978 of lead hazards. Still on the list, some 14 schools. Reporter Steven Potter was in the schools in late summer with the story.

Brenda Cassellius:
So they’ll come back before school starts and make sure that they get every single spot and it’s just a constant upkeep.

Steven Potter:
Brenda Cassellius is the superintendent of the Milwaukee Public School system. Since her first day on the job less than six months ago, she’s faced the daunting task of how to manage a significant health risk facing the school district’s more than 60,000 students. The problem is lead contamination, specifically chipping lead paint and lead dust and the extent of the problem is very widespread.

Brenda Cassellius:
So we have to assume that the schools built prior to 1950, when there was the understanding that there’s lead in paint happened, that those schools have lead in them.

Steven Potter:
Cassellius says the Milwaukee Public Schools were using lead paint until it was federally outlawed in 1978. That means a majority of schools are considered contaminated.

Brenda Cassellius:
That’s about 106 schools.

Steven Potter:
The lead crisis began when a student at the Golda Meir Elementary School tested positive for lead poisoning back in January. That’s when the City of Milwaukee Health Department got involved.

Mike Totoraitis:
We’re very concerned about developmental delays and cognitive regulation. So if a child has significant lead poisoning, it can cause behavioral issues and make them more impulsive, and it can cause permanent brain damage that has significant long-term effects. So this is why lead is regulated at the federal level and why we’re taking this so seriously here in the city.

Steven Potter:
Early last spring, after another MPS child tested positive for lead poisoning, the health department ordered the school district to come up with a lead abatement and management plan to address the most contaminated schools and the student populations most in danger of lead poisoning.

Mike Totoraitis:
The district was required to produce a lead plan to ensure that we could get back to compliance with the lead standards that are set forth for any school across the state of Wisconsin.

Steven Potter:
Around 600 students have been tested, Totoraitis says, and the testing of students continues.

Mike Totoraitis:
This is an ongoing effort that’s really going to span into the coming years to ensure that we keep eyes on the students at MPS and frankly, across the city.

Steven Potter:
Part of the school district’s new plan, released last April, included temporarily closing several schools and relocating the students to another school while cleaning and repainting was done. Over the spring and now through summer, school officials say they’ve made progress but still have dozens more schools to clear.

Brenda Cassellius:
We’re hoping that we’ll have our schools finished and tested by the September 2nd school start date.

Mike Totoraitis:
It’s a fluid process, so as we do our screenings and ensuring that the schools are ready to reopen, we’ve uncovered, hey, you actually need to reclean this room or you need to restabilize this surface and that adds more time.

Steven Potter:
Despite all of their efforts so far, MPS officials say that there’s still a lot more work to do with cleaning and painting the schools to get them to a standard that’s safe for students. And once the schools are stabilized, additional maintenance and regular inspections will be needed to keep them that way.

Brenda Cassellius:
So far, we think it’s going to cost somewhere around $25 million to do. And then there’s the ongoing costs so we put in an additional $16 million of ongoing investments within our facilities department to add custodial support, to add painters, to add plasters, to add lead abatement or lead inspectors to the team to make sure that we’re keeping up with our lead action plan.

Steven Potter:
And those are costs that MPS is having to cover alone.

Brenda Cassellius:
We have not received any help from the state.

Steven Potter:
Still, some are concerned that not enough is being done fast enough or thoroughly enough to keep their kids safe. And one group wants more transparency about what’s being done. Shannon Pahlicek is a parent with Lead Safe Schools Milwaukee.

Shannon Pahlicek:
It shouldn’t have been a problem in the first place. It’s an issue of aging buildings is a big part of it, but it’s also an issue of deferred maintenance, which is, you know, a multifaceted problem. The administration’s job is to know what’s going on in the schools. And so the idea that there was, you know, as much degradation in the paint as there was and as much dust in the schools as there was, I think that’s, that’s disheartening. No child deserves to be unsafe on day one. So they’ve got to do what they’ve got to do. But the faster the better but you want it done right.

Steven Potter:
MPS Superintendent Cassellius says she understands the parents’ concerns.

Brenda Cassellius:
We’re working as fast as we can with all urgency and no expense spared. So I’ve told my team, if you need additional painters, we will buy them. If you need additional plasters, we will buy them. The only thing that I can’t give them more of is time. We are up against a deadline on September 2nd to get this work done.

Shannon Pahlicek:
You can’t make a mistake like this and then ask the public to just trust you. You have to be willing to build that trust by being completely transparent.

Steven Potter:
Regardless of how much cleaning and repainting is done. One fact remains that these schools still have decades of lead paint inside them. So the only way to truly eliminate this risk, MPS officials say, is to rebuild.

Brenda Cassellius:
I think that we need to do some either major renovations or new builds, and we need a significant 100-year plan in Milwaukee Public Schools. We have to make some hard decisions as a community about the investments we want to make in our children’s future.

Steven Potter:
Reporting from Milwaukee, I’m Steven Potter for “Here & Now.”

Frederica Freyberg:
In environmental news, at more than 100 sites across the state, from Mount Pleasant to Superior, people are dealing with water contaminated with the man-made chemicals known as PFAS. Last month, “Here & Now” reporter Murv Seymour went to the Northwoods community of Stella, which is currently under review for a Superfund designation where residents put health and environmental officials in the hot seat.

William “Casey” Crump:
Stella is a farming community.

Murv Seymour:
Welcome to the small town of Stella.

William “Casey” Crump:
I think we’re 700 and some individuals out here.

Murv Seymour:
Its lakes, its wildlife, the people.

William “Casey” Crump:
Everybody is a neighbor and everybody knows everybody.

Murv Seymour:
They’re some of the reasons people move here.

William “Casey” Crump:
It’s a very caring community.

Murv Seymour:
And it’s part of why locals never leave.

William “Casey” Crump:
When somebody needs something out here, everybody shows up.
Obviously, it’s a good turnout.

Murv Seymour:
On this night, people have shown up at Stella Hall filling the parking lot and roadsides.

William “Casey” Crump:
We’re all here for the same reason.

Murv Seymour:
Inside, they fill nearly every seat as they stand together listening because tonight, they need answers from town, state and federal officials about their precious lakes and wildlife that are contaminated with man-made chemicals known as PFAS.

William “Casey” Crump:
They’re here to work with us. They’re here to work with us. They’re here to answer our questions.

Murv Seymour:
Stella town chairman Casey Crump lives in this community.

William “Casey” Crump:
I love the community. I love the people.

Murv Seymour:
He has for almost 25 years.

William “Casey” Crump:
These are neighbors. They’re friends.

Murv Seymour:
As the organizer, he put this information session together to provide his community and himself with the first update in almost two years on fact…

Man:
We’re learning more and more.

Murv Seymour:
… and fiction into just how contaminated are the water and ground, whose wells are affected and what’s the impact on people, wildlife, crops and property values. Casey’s quest for answers is personal.

William “Casey” Crump:
It was personal before but now it’s even more personal.

Murv Seymour:
Like everyone else here…

William “Casey” Crump:
We have permanent residents that live around it, and we have vacationers that come up during the summer.

Murv Seymour:
… Casey Crump has plenty of questions.

William “Casey” Crump:
What does PFAS do to us when we have it in our body? And then also, how can we find out if we do have it in our body? If my well’s been tested positive and I’ve been drinking this well for 30 years, you know, do I have it in my body? How can we find out about that?

Murv Seymour:
Because PFAS levels in some areas are more than three times the recommended levels, the town is in the early assessment phase of being designated a federal Superfund site. Superfund status would mean federal funds and an expedited cleanup process. Behind town hall sits one of many EPA and DNR groundwater testing sites. Water samples taken from various wells like this are part of the lengthy assessment process, which could take decades. For now, the DNR tells people within five miles of Stella to limit their consumption of deer meat to one meal per month, and they’ve been told not to eat deer liver at all. And they shouldn’t eat any fish from almost a dozen different lakes in the area, which includes fish in all of the lakes that make up the heavily populated and popular Moen Lake Chain. Nearby Snowden Lake is on the list, too. At the edge of the highway, 50 yards from shore, you’ll find a wooden gate that leads down towards the lake with a sign that warns people about the contaminated lake water and the risks of being exposed to it from swimming, fishing, or ingesting it.

Audience Member:
Do we have any idea are the levels staying the same or are they getting worse or getting better?

Murv Seymour:
Back at town hall, the panel takes questions from people who have written them on index cards.

Jean Pederson:
The rumor is that there was some illegal dumping that caused this. Is that true or not true?

Murv Seymour:
The DNR confirms that former owners of the paper mill, now called Ahlstrom and Wausau Paper, are the primary PFAS polluters in the area. They’ve notified both companies and their previous owners, requiring them to fund and clean up the contamination. In an email statement, an Ahlstrom spokesperson tells me they’ve received the notification and they’re carefully reviewing it with the recent site inspection report. The statement goes on to say, we continue to actively engage as a partner with the DNR, EPA and other agencies. Less than a mile from Jean Pederson’s home on the shores of Third Lake and the other lakes, all is pretty quiet on shore and on the water, aside from a few boaters fishing and cruising the lake. One day after that community meeting, I meet Jean Pederson at the Oneida County Courthouse in Rhinelander. According to the DNR, lengthy exposure to certain types of PFAS can lead to an increased risk of cancer, developmental delays, thyroid and heart issues, infertility and low birth weights in infants. Residents are encouraged to use bottled water or treat water that they consume.

Narrator on video:
First visit DNR.wi.gov and search PFAS.

Murv Seymour:
The DNR has created an interactive website where people can search and learn if they’re in one of the PFAS contaminated zones in Wisconsin. There are thousands of types of man-made PFAS in things like nonstick cookware, plastic wrappings, microwave popcorn bags, waterproof clothing and foam commonly used in airport fire trucks.

William “Casey” Crump:
I have a spring on my land. What do I need to do to get it tested?

Murv Seymour:
At that community town hall, at times, each answer leads to more questions.

William “Casey” Crump:
They spread this stuff on my fields for years and years and years. I lived on that field. I grow vegetables in my garden, which turned out really good this year. But now I have concerns about consuming those vegetables because we water with our well water.

Murv Seymour:
In Madison, state lawmakers have set aside $125 million to help pay for cleaning up PFAS contaminated sites across the state, a drop in the bucket of what will be needed.

Man at legislative public hearing:
We need to get the perfect wording for that, so it includes all the landowners that actually are innocent.

Murv Seymour:
For now, the funds are on hold as lawmakers hash out language in the bill that protects the environment and protects farmers, families and business owners from liability and the anticipated astronomical costs of cleanup.

Jodi Habush Sinykin:
Wisconsin has done an excellent job under the Spills Law for decades, and — but it does need funding.

Murv Seymour:
Community groups representing municipalities and environmental groups from all over the state came here to weigh in on the conversation.

Mark Pauli:
You don’t have to treat the water to do your laundry, to do your dishes, to flush your toilet. But you should be treating the water that you’re using for food preparation and for drinking water.

Murv Seymour:
In a case-by-case situation, the state is footing the bill to test and redrill some private wells. People are already drinking bottled water and some are paying for the testing of their own wells, something Casey Crump believes his small community might have to do if they want the water quality here to get better before it gets worse.

William “Casey” Crump:
We’re willing to step up and we’re willing to do what we need to do, but we still want answers.

Murv Seymour:
Reporting from Stella for “Here & Now,” I’m Murv Seymour.

Frederica Freyberg:
In a look at education reporting, UW-Madison sits on ancestral Ho-Chunk land. In recognition of that and to give back, the Wisconsin Tribal Education Promise offers full tuition, including housing costs and fees, to native undergraduate students in Wisconsin. The promise also extends tuition waivers to native law and medical students. “Here & Now” reporter Erica Ayisi looked at the program and the history behind it. This report is a collaboration with our partners at ICT, formerly Indian Country Today.

Riley Aguirre:
It means a lot to me and my people, my community, the Native community. We are still here. We’re still fighting for our rights to be here.

Erica Ayisi:
Riley Aguirre is a freshman at the University of Wisconsin’s Madison campus.

Riley Aguirre:
Education was used as assimilation to get rid of our culture, our language, our traditions but now it’s used as a way of teaching.

Erica Ayisi:
She’s an enrolled member of the Oneida Nation and attending the university at no cost to her or her family using the Wisconsin Tribal Education Promise program. How would your family have paid for college otherwise?

Riley Aguirre:
Other scholarships, definitely, applying for scholarships outside of the school to help me as well. And probably funding through the tribe as well.

Erica Ayisi:
The Wisconsin Tribal Education Promise program provides financial support for students who are enrolled in one of the state’s 11 federally recognized tribes. Carla Vigue, tribal relations director of UW-Madison, says the university wants to make the Madison campus more accessible to Native students.

Carla Vigue:
We worked with tribal leaders from across the state to create the program, and now we’re seeing the fruits of those labors. You know, we’re seeing our first class. We’ve got nearly 80 students in this first class. And we’re hoping it will grow from here.

Erica Ayisi:
Tuition, housing, books and all other school-related fees totaling about $30,000 are covered for undergraduate Native students through the promise program.

Carla Vigue:
It’s not a taxpayer-funded program, and, you know, we’re pretty proud that people want to support this program.

Erica Ayisi:
The program is funded through private donations. Vigue says the legal precedent surrounding federally recognized tribes is a specific eligibility requirement for the students applying to the program.

Carla Vigue:
Federally recognized tribes are sovereign nations who determine citizenship. And so that’s a political classification. It’s not a race or ethnicity.

Erica Ayisi:
Undergraduate recipients of the Tribal Promise are reserved one wing of dorms inside the Smith Residence Hall. There’s also an Indigenous student center close by that hosts tribal student groups like Wunk Sheek. Vigue says the university wants to do what’s right for Wisconsin’s Native people considering the university is on Native land belonging to the Ho-Chunk, also known as the people of the Big Voice.

Carla Vigue:
This is Ho-Chunk ancestral land, and I think there’s now some sense of pride in that and wanting to share and celebrate that history but there’s also, you know, with this promise, a chance to give back too.

Erica Ayisi:
The University of Wisconsin’s Madison campus extends over 900 acres of land, including a four-mile stretch of shoreline along Lake Mendota. But this land is the ancestral home to the Ho-Chunk Nation, the Native people who were living here for over 10,000 years. Through a series of treaties, the Ho-Chunk were forced to cede or give up this land to the state of Wisconsin and the federal government.

Jon Greendeer:
The 1837 treaty wasn’t a revered treaty at all. These are forced agreements to cede our land, such as that particular treaty, move west of the Mississippi, and, you know, and relinquish our ownership of our historic homes.

Erica Ayisi:
Jon Greendeer, president of Ho-Chunk Nation, says the final treaty with the government was signed under duress.

Jon Greendeer:
I don’t think any representatives of authority could walk away from one of those agreements and say they were the beneficiary of something.

Erica Ayisi:
Ho-Chunk had already surrendered this part of their land in an 1832 treaty, paving the way for UW-Madison to be built in 1848.

Jon Greendeer:
I think the Wisconsin promise is a very old promise that is finally getting kept, at least at the UW level, at least at the college level.

Erica Ayisi:
For Aguirre, a free university education on Native soil is personal.

Riley Aguirre:
Our education is not only for me, but for our community and for the resiliency of my ancestors. We fought so long through so many generations of trauma and abuse and neglect and being here is like resiliency.

Carla Vigue:
They were forcibly removed, and this university has spent some time coming to accept and share that story and part of the reason this promise exists is because, you know, there is some recognition that that all happened, but there’s also, you know, there’s also the need and want to do what’s right and good for Native people too.

Erica Ayisi:
Reporting from Madison Ho-Chunk lands, I’m Erica Ayisi for “Here & Now” and ICT.

Frederica Freyberg:
For more on this and other issues facing Wisconsin, visit our website at PBSWisconsin.org and then click on the news tab. That’s our program for tonight. I’m Frederica Freyberg. Have a good weekend.

Announcer:
Funding for “Here & Now” is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.