The biggest economic development project in recent memory in Grenada County is finally complete.

After more than two years of work, Milwaukee Tool this week opened its largest manufacturing plant in the United States.

The 500,000 square-foot facility will employ more than 800 people from eight surrounding counties and is an investment of $60 million.

The location of Grenada along Interstate-55, about halfway between Jackson and Memphis, has become a hot spot for projects as Ice Industries recently announced a $4 million expansion of its facility, which primarily serves the automotive, HVAC, appliance and off-highway markets as a one-stop stamping, welding and painting center.

“Anytime you have a really good manufacturing presence with a brand name that people will recognize, it just says that the community is open for business. It also says the state is open for business. That’s a positive image for us and for manufacturing,” Matthew Harrison, the CEO of the Greater Grenada Partnership, told the Clarion Ledger.

Manufacturing is the most extensive form of employment in and around Grenada, with up to 35% of the workforce employed in at least one area of the industry.

“Per capita, Grenada is probably the most significant manufacturing community on Interstate 55 in Mississippi,” Harrison said. “The amount of manufacturing here is about double the state average. We are still doing some research on that but right now … the amount of people working in manufacturing is staggering.”

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The cluster of manufacturing in the workforce retail hub consists of the counties of Grenada, Tallahatchie, Calhoun, Webster, Yalobusha, Carroll and Leflore.

The Milwaukee Tool facility building is a visual statement for those driving the I-55 corridor, much like that of Nissan in Madison County and Continental Tire in Hinds County.

“You are not going to miss that facility,” Harrison said. “That’s great for Grenada, and that’s great for the state. All the traffic and the interstate traffic between Memphis and Jackson and people coming into the state to do business, whether it is industrial clients, prospects or consultants or it is just people doing business between the communities.”

The new Grenada facility is a link in the chain of the company’s other locations throughout Mississippi. Milwaukee Tool currently has manufacturing, distribution and assembly facilities in Greenwood, Jackson, Olive Branch and Clinton, having invested more than $209M in expansion in the state over the last seven years.

Ross Reily can be reached by email at rreily@gannett.com or 601-573-2952. You can follow him on Twitter @GreenOkra1.

A Milwaukee man has been accused of swiping items from the same Walgreens store three times during a week’s span. The items were mostly cleaning and sanitary items, like soaps, toilet paper, razors, lotions and other household goods.

John Dzwonkowski, 38, now faces two counts of felony retail theft, according to police records and Fox 6.

A criminal complaint indicates that Milwaukee police were first contacted on Sept. 18 at a store on Howell Avenue. 

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Officers spoke that morning with the store manager who told them that a “thief” entered the store around 7:40 a.m. and began “removing soaps, cosmetics and toilet paper and placing the items into a backpack. The defendant then walked out of the store without paying for the merchandise.”

The complaint states that the stolen items were approximately $178 in retail value.

Officers were called to the same Walgreens location just two days later after another complaint of theft, this time with the defendant “removing razors, lotions and other cosmetic items and placing them into two bags,” the complaint says. The stolen merchandise this time was valued at $435.

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Shoppers walk by a Walgreens in New York. (REUTERS/Andrew Kelly)

Then on Sept. 25, footage from a surveillance camera shows the same defendant at the same Walgreens taking “107 cleaning and household good items valued at $889.63 in a black garbage bag,” according to the complaint.

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The defendant reportedly left the store but then returned inside, “walked to the soda cooler, grabbed a 20 oz. soda, and walked out of the Walgreens without paying for the soda.”

Court records show Dzwonkowski was scheduled to make his initial appearance this week.

MILWAUKEE — After threatening to take the District Attorney’s Office to court, TMJ4 has obtained a full copy of Milwaukee County’s “Brady” list.

The list contains nearly 200 officers – a majority (roughly 150) are from the Milwaukee Police Department.

The District Attorney’s Office finally released a complete copy of the list, which tracks problematic law enforcement officials, after denying multiple open record requests from TMJ4 this year.

TMJ4 battling Milwaukee County DA for keeping ‘Brady’ list secret

Officials finally produced the information after the news station hired an attorney and threatened to sue the county if it continued to keep the full “Brady” list a secret.

The station is currently reviewing the names and corresponding information and plans to publish the list in the coming weeks. In a letter outlining the release of its own “Brady” list, the District Attorney’s Office did not guarantee its accuracy.

“This office makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of the record: all data should be confirmed by review of public records,” wrote Sara Sadowski, an Assistant District Attorney.”

The “Brady” list gets its name from a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case.

In 1964, the court ruled in Brady v. Maryland that officials can’t hide exculpatory information in criminal cases. It’s why many prosecutorial agencies keep “Brady” lists to track law enforcement officers with documented histories of dishonesty, criminal activity, bias, and other integrity concerns.

Milwaukee County’s “Brady” list includes 170 officers, who have either been charged or convicted in criminal cases.

But the list only includes a couple dozen entries tied to internal misconduct investigations.

Legal experts said that raises serious questions as to whether Milwaukee County has been keeping a legitimate and robust list.

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TMJ4 requested the “Brady” list as part of its “Ghosted” investigation.

The series involved a Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office deputy with a history of repeated misconduct, including five suspensions, records show. In 2016, the deputy was suspended for going to a Walgreens drunk and making “racially inflammatory remarks” to Black people.

Records show witnesses said he yelled “Why do Black lives matter?” and “You’re going to f***ing explain to me, just fess up for your people, what the f*** do I owe you people?”

The Sheriff’s Office told TMJ4 the deputy was not on the “Brady” list.

In a previous TMJ4 report, ACLU Wisconsin President William Sultan said that conduct should absolutely land on the “Brady” list.

“It also demonstrates a failure on the law enforcement agency to effectively discipline its employee,” he said. “I think we can all agree that people exhibiting racist behavior should no longer be police officers.”

Sultan believes the case also signals much bigger issues with how Milwaukee County tracks officers with integrity issues.

“It means there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of officers in our state that have demonstrated similar bias, untrustworthiness, that the public doesn’t know about,” he said.

[Editor’s note: Dave Biscobing is Chief Investigative Reporter for KNXV-TV (TMJ4’s sister station) in Phoenix, AZ and a corporate trainer for Scripps investigative news teams. For this story, he can be reached at David.Biscobing@TMJ4.com. TMJ4 Lighthouse Reporter Ben Jordan is also reporting on this issue and can be reached at Ben.Jordan@TMJ4.com. ]

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