Milwaukee, WI
Milwaukee County is not paying into the Common School Fund. Is that constitutional?
A provision in the 2025-27 Wisconsin budget allowing Milwaukee County to divert $4.4 million from school libraries to fund district attorney positions is being challenged in court.
The Common School Fund was established in the Wisconsin Constitution in 1848. The fund is maintained by money generated by counties through traffic fines and forfeitures.
But a provision in the biennial budget exempted Milwaukee County, instead allowing the county to use that money — $2.2 million per year — to help pay for 12 prosecutors.
News with a little more humanity
WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” newsletter keeps you connected to the state you love without feeling overwhelmed. No paywall. No agenda. No corporate filter.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, or WILL, filed a lawsuit this week in Waukesha County Court, calling the move a “flagrant and unconstitutional money grab by Milwaukee County.”
The suit says if the provision stands, the next budget could include more carveouts from the Common School Fund.
Milwaukee County Treasurer David Cullen, who is named in the suit, and other county officials did not respond to requests for comment.
WILL is representing Waukesha County resident Christine Stueland, a former Menomonee Falls School District board member who is referred to as a “library user and taxpayer.”
The suit argues Stueland is directly harmed because her library will have fewer resources. And it contends the state Legislature overstepped its constitutional authority by granting a unique carveout to a single county.
“It’s frustrating to watch politicians in Madison give Milwaukee special treatment while others are shortchanged,” Stueland said in a statement. “If we don’t fight back for fairness and equal treatment for all, it will only get worse.”
In 2025, the Common School Fund distributed $70 million to school libraries across the state. The biennial budget increased school library aid by $36 million over the biennium.
The Common School Fund is managed by the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, or BCPL.
The group has been uneasy about the budget provision since it was passed and has also considered taking action, said Tom German, executive secretary.
German and the BCPL board believe the provision violates a 1973 Wisconsin Supreme Court decision regarding the fund and the Legislature’s authority.
The Legislature’s budget committee added the provision during the last executive session of this budget cycle under a “miscellaneous items” section of the motion as part of a budget deal with Gov. Tony Evers.
On Sept. 2, the BCPL board passed a resolution “expressing its serious concerns” with the budget change.
“BCPL recognizes Milwaukee County’s need for funding the District Attorney’s office, but not at the expense of a constitutionally created and protected trust fund that benefits public education,” the resolution states. “BCPL and the other parties seek a legislative solution that addresses the above concerns prior to commencement of litigation.”
Board member and Attorney General Josh Kaul abstained from voting.
Kaul’s office did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Evers’ spokesperson Britt Cudaback said providing additional assistant district attorney positions for Milwaukee County was part of the negotiations with Republican leaders during the budget process, but the mechanism for funding them were not.
“The decision to specifically use the Common School Fund was made by Republican lawmakers alone,” Cudaback said.
Joint Finance Committee chairs Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, and Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Board of Commissioners of Public Lands manages four funds: the Common School Fund, Normal School Fund, University Fund and Agricultural College Fund.
German said the funds become less consequential if their financial support does not continue to grow.
“The Common School fund has grown over the years to $1.5 billion,” German said. “But the University Fund and the ag college fund did not have a mechanism for growing, and so those funds are roughly the same size as they were 150 years ago. At one time, the University Fund could pay for about half the cost of running the entire system. Now it couldn’t pay for the cost of a (teacher’s assistant).”
Wisconsin Public Radio, © Copyright 2025, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.
West Allis Fire demonstrates using Narcan for opioid overdoses
West Allis Fire Department Assistant Chief Armando Suarez Del Real illustrates how a Narcan nasal spray kit is administered in the event of an overdose.
The number of Milwaukee County residents who died from a drug overdose fell for a third year in 2025, which county officials say is a promising sign that more money spent on harm reduction, treatment and prevention efforts is working.
New data released April 21 show 387 overdose deaths across the county last year, down about 43% from their peak in 2022.
“The work is paying off,” Dr. Ben Weston, Milwaukee County’s chief health policy adviser, said at a news conference, touting the county’s vending machines stocked with Narcan and drug testing strips, as well as a state-sponsored data collection system that helps local health departments understand when and where overdoses occur.
Still, the hundreds of county residents who lost their lives last year to a drug overdose means that work isn’t close to done, officials say – especially as the drug landscape continues to change, presenting new challenges.
“We can’t let our foot off the gas quite yet,” said Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.
Drug mixing continues to drive lethal outcomes
Milwaukee County’s decline in overdose deaths is a trend mirrored across the state and the country, following years of climbing fatalities that were deemed a public health crisis.
The county will spend $111 million in opioid settlement funds over the next several years and is already putting what it has received to use, focusing on “reaching residents where they are,” said Jeremy Triblett, prevention integration manager with the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services.
That includes initiatives like the harm reduction vending machines and also knocking on doors, providing county EMS workers with Narcan and seeking the opinions of people who use drugs to shape the county’s strategy.
But officials say they still see a concerning trend of combinations of drugs leading to overdose, particularly fentanyl being cut with stimulants such as cocaine. These mixes of drugs make it harder to reverse an overdose, said Dr. Wieslawa Tlomak, Milwaukee County’s chief medical examiner.
Nearly a third of all autopsies the medical examiner’s office conducted in 2025 were deaths by drug overdose, Tlomak said, and the majority involved multiple drugs. Data show the most common combinations were fentanyl and cocaine, cocaine and alcohol, and opoids and fentanyl.
Methamphetamines are also involved in more overdose deaths than a few years ago, Tlomak said.
For drug users, not knowing exactly what’s in the drug they are getting is one of the most dangerous elements of the current drug landscape, she said.
Fatal drug overdoses were most common among American Indian and Alaska Native residents in 2025, the data show, followed by Black residents. About two-thirds of fatal overdoses were in men, and the median age of death from an overdose was 49, a number that’s been climbing steadily since 2018.
Triblett said the county is focusing on how substances interact with cultural norms in different communities and that a community advisory board is convening to develop harm reduction messaging for specific populations. His team will also host a door-knocking event June 12 to reach new people across the county with prevention and treatment resources.
Madeline Heim covers health and the environment for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at 920-996-7266 or mheim@usatodayco.com.
Drone video shows dug‑up yard at former Michael Lock home
Drone video shows a dug‑up yard at a Milwaukee home once owned by Michael Lock, following a police search for possible homicide victims.
Milwaukee police on Monday, April 20, began digging up a home once owned by notorious Milwaukee drug dealer Michael Lock.
The dig marks another chapter in Lock’s long criminal history in Milwaukee, which has included convictions for homicide, drug dealing, kidnapping, torture and running a prostitution ring.
As of 6 p.m., April 20, police had partially dug up the concrete driveway and yard in Lock’s former home. Lock has been convicted of murders of other drug dealers whose bodies were found under concrete slabs at a different home he owned.
As the dig continues, here’s what to know about Lock:
Who is Michael Lock?
Lock was the head of a murderous criminal organization known as the “Body Snatchers” and one of the leading criminal operators in Milwaukee until his 2007 arrest.
Over the course of a decade, Lock’s organization sold large volumes of cocaine, tortured and killed other dealers, prostituted women across the Midwest and ran a mortgage fraud scheme.
A jury convicted Lock in July 2008 in the homicides of two drug dealers in 1999 and 2000, whose remains were found in 2005 under concrete slabs in the backyard of a home once owned by Lock at 4900 W. Fiebrantz Ave. He has also been found guilty of running a prostitution ring, various kidnapping and drug dealing charges and mortgage fraud.
Where is Michael Lock now?
Lock is is serving multiple terms of life in prison at Waupun Correctional Institution without the chance of parole.
Where are Milwaukee police digging on April 20?
Milwaukee police confirmed they are executing a search warrant at the home on 4343 N. 15th St. in Milwaukee’s north side. City tax records show the property is owned by Shalanda Roberts, formerly Shalanda Lock, Michael Lock’s former wife.
Why are police digging up the yard of Lock’s former home?
There has long been suspicion on the part of law enforcement that there are additional bodies buried under the yard. In 2011, police dug another Milwaukee yard looking for remains.
In that warrant 15 years ago, investigators said at least four victims are buried somewhere in Milwaukee. Before that, police had dug a half-dozen other yards. Police have found no remains in the other digs.
Who lives at the property now?
It is unclear if anyone currently lives at the North 15th Street property. Shalanda Roberts told the Journal Sentinel she owns the property where police are digging, but it is a rental and she lives out of state now.
She said she has no information on the dig and has not spoken to her former husband in years.
Read the Journal Sentinel’s past coverage on Michael Lock
The Journal Sentinel documented the case against Lock in a five-part investigative series, “The Preacher’s Mob,” published in 2009.
You can read the series below:
Marvin Bynum, adjunct professor at Marquette University Law School, was named to BizTimes Milwaukee’s list of Notable Leaders in Law.
Bynum, shareholder and real estate attorney with Milwaukee-based Godfrey & Kahn, teaches a course on real estate transactions at Marquette. He has experience with a range of property types, from sports facilities to manufacturing plants and office spaces, and works to help clients navigate transactions including development, financing, leasing, acquisitions, dispositions and low-income housing tax credit-financed projects.
Notable Leaders in Law is part of BizTimes Milwaukee’s Notable series, which recognizes leaders in the southeastern Wisconsin business community.
Six alumni were also named to the list:
- Jim Brzezinski, managing partner and CEO of Tabak Law
- Adam R. Finkel, partner at Husch Blackwell
- Jeremy Guth, shareholder and attorney at O’Leary-Guth Law Office S.C.
- Keith Kopplin, shareholder at the Milwaukee office of Ogletree Deakins
- Isioma Nwabuzor, associate general counsel and assistant corporate secretary at Modine Manufacturing Co.
- Joe Pickart, partner at Husch Blackwell
-
New York3 minutes agoN.Y.P.D. Narcotics Unit Under Review After a Beating Is Caught on Tape
-
Detroit, MI33 minutes agoMI Healthy Climate Conference in Detroit focuses on green funding and strong future
-
San Francisco, CA45 minutes agoCalifornia’s New Hotel Edit: The Best Places to Stay Across the Golden State in 2026
-
Dallas, TX51 minutes agoThe Brandon Aubrey Deal | DZTV
-
Miami, FL57 minutes agoRanking the Miami Heat’s Top Trade Targets
-
Boston, MA1 hour agoFormer Massachusetts doctor faces 81 new sexual assault charges
-
Denver, CO1 hour agoHouston County murder suspect returns to face charges after her arrest in Denver
-
Seattle, WA1 hour agoWest Seattle Tool Library to host annual tool sale this Saturday, April 25 | The White Center Blog