Wisconsin
Florida man sentenced in Wisconsin for selling fake Indigenous jewelry
A Florida man has been sentenced in Wisconsin to three years of probation and to pay a $25,000 fine for selling fake Native American jewelry across the country.
Investigators with U.S. Fish and Wildlife said Jose Farinango Muenala, 47, of Casselberry, Florida, had attended dozens of art shows as a vendor in the U.S. since 2012, including the 2023 Loon Day Festival in Mercer, Wisconsin, posing as a Pueblo tribal member.
Prosecutors said he told customers the jewelry he sold was handmade by himself or other Pueblo members. It was actually mass produced and imported from the Philippines. Muenala made nearly 41,000 sales, which grossed more than $2.6 million.
The Indian Arts and Crafts Board starting receiving complaints about Muenala’s Southwest Expressions business misrepresenting the jewelry in 2023. That led to an investigation.
Muenala was arrested in 2024 for violating the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, a truth-in-marketing law.
“The Act is intended to rid the Indian arts and crafts marketplace of fakes to protect economic livelihoods and cultural heritage of Indian artists, craftspeople and their tribes, as well as the buying public,” said Meridith Stanton, director of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, in a statement. “Authentic Indian art and craftwork is an important tool for passing down cultural traditions, traditional knowledge and artistic skills from one generation to the next.”
Muenala was prosecuted by the Department of Justice’s Western District of Wisconsin. He was sentenced Jan. 28.
“This kind of thing does incredible harm,” said Karen Ann Hoffman, a renowned Oneida Nation beadwork artist from Wisconsin. “I’m glad to see every effort made to protect and preserve our authentic Native art and artists.”
GREEN BAY (WLUK) — It was a bittersweet sign off on Good Day Wisconsin Tuesday.
It was morning anchor and field reporter, Savannah Wood’s last day at FOX 11.
The Good Day Wisconsin crew says goodbye to Savannah Wood on her last day at FOX 11, July 7, 2026. (WLUK)
She thanked the station and the Northeast Wisconsin community for embracing her over the past two years.
You’ve all watched many of my early morning field trips across Northeast Wisconsin over the last couple of years, many, too many to count, and I’ve had the privilege of getting to experience so much of what makes this community truly what it is and meet amazing people along the way,” Savannah said.
Savannah will be staying in news but going back to her home state of Pennsylvania to be closer to family.
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Goodbye and good luck Savannah!
GREEN BAY (WLUK) — Delays and disruptions will be coming to your daily commute.
A project involving I-41 flyover ramps in Brown County starts Tuesday, where a total of six flyover ramps will see closures.
The good news is, they won’t all be closed at the same time.
Delays and disruptions will be coming to your daily commute. A project involving I-41 flyover ramps in Brown County starts Tuesday, where a total of six flyover ramps will see closures. July 6, 2026 (WLUK/Tony Langfellow).
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation said this project is necessary to help preserve the roads.
It’s been more than 10 years since the I-41 corridor was completed.
Now with the creation of some new technology, six I-41 flyover ramps in Brown County and one in Winnebago County are getting an upgrade.
This includes the I-41/I-43 interchange and the I-41/WIS 29 interchange.
“The project will be milling off the existing deck overlay and then be doing any necessary deck repairs. And then we’ll be putting on this new overlay, which is a more robust weather resistant overlay that will protect the bridge decks here,” Wisconsin DOT Project Manager Josh Lang said.
The new overlay is called “Polyester Polymer Concrete.”
But what exactly is that? When you’re driving on the ramps, you may notice patchy black and white spots on the road — that’s what the DOT is fixing, with a new specialized type of concrete.
Lang said the new overlay is key for high traffic areas.
“The main purpose of this material is to protect the bridge decks. That’s what our structures see the most wear and tear, but it does have those added benefits. The traction benefits the durability and such there,” Lang said.
The $6.87 million project is being funded through a mixture of state and federal funding.
Lang said the project is happening now because this new overlay technology didn’t exist until after the original highway project was complete.
There are no other issues with the flyover ramps, according to Lang.
Most of the closures will be quick, but will cause delays and detours.
Lang called this project an important step in preserving the roads for years to come.
“It’s really exciting. It’s really a great application of this material and I’m excited to see how this performs to keep our infrastructure, everything that was built with this 41 expansion in great shape,” Lang said.
The first ramp closure starts Tuesday with I-41 south to 29 west.
Lang said that work will last about a week.
The DOT expects all of the Brown County improvements to be done by September.
The Winnebago County project will begin in 2027.
I-41/I-43 interchange, Brown County:
- Northbound I-41 to southbound I-43 southbound (over Velp Avenue)
- Northbound I-43 to southbound I-41 (over I-41)
- Northbound I-43 to northbound I-41
I-41/WIS 32/WIS 29 interchange, Brown County:
- Southbound I-41 to westbound WIS 29 (over WIS 29)
- Eastbound WIS 29 to northbound I-41 (over I-41/WIS 29)
- Northbound I-41 to westbound WIS 29 (over I-41)
Winnebago County:
- Northbound I-41 to northbound US 45 (over I-41)
Share questions about immigration, ICE in Wisconsin
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a team of reporters dedicated to helping readers understand and contextualize what’s going on with immigration.
MADISON – The Wisconsin Supreme Court is putting on hold a case challenging the legality of ICE detainers in Wisconsin until federal judges determine whether they will reconsider where the case should be tried.
In its July 6 order, the state Supreme Court also held off on deciding whether to allow the U.S. government to join the case, which seeks to block county jails from holding immigrant detainees at federal authorities’ request.
The case continues to sit in jurisdictional uncertainty. It’s currently under the state Supreme Court’s purview, but the county sheriffs being sued have asked a federal appeals court to take it.
The court’s order seeks to “avoid potential uncertainty and conflict” as the federal appeal plays out.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin filed the lawsuit in September 2025, on behalf of the immigrant advocacy group Voces de la Frontera, against five Wisconsin sheriffs who have partnered with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house immigrant detainees, an action known as a detainer.
The state’s highest court agreed to take the case in December 2025, but the five sheriffs named in the lawsuit – Dave Gerber of Walworth County, Todd Delain of Brown County, Chad Billeb of Marathon County, David Zoerner of Kenosha County and Chip Meister of Sauk County – sought to have the case moved to federal court.
U.S. District Judge William Conley on May 15 issued an order remanding the case back to the state Supreme Court, and the sheriffs filed an appeal of Conley’s ruling with the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on May 26.
Last month, Voces de la Frontera asked the state Supreme Court to set a briefing schedule to run simultaneously with the federal appeal, while the sheriffs asked the state’s high court to grant a stay pending the resolution of their appeal.
And last week, the federal government filed a motion to intervene in the case at the state level.
The state Supreme Court’s July 6 order denies Voces de la Frontera’s request to allow the case to proceed at the same time as the federal appeal and does not address the U.S. government’s motion to intervene.
The case now awaits action from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
When a sheriff honors a detainer from ICE, they agree to hold a person for 48 hours after they would have been released under state law to give ICE time to pick up and take custody of the person.
The ACLU is asking the state Supreme Court to declare that civil immigration violations are outside the authority of a law enforcement officer in Wisconsin, and to prohibit the sheriffs from holding people on ICE detainers.
The sheriffs said in their response to the lawsuit last year that their offices have worked with ICE for decades and some have been trained by ICE to serve administrative warrants on their behalf.
Attorney Sam Hall, who represents the sheriffs, has argued throughout the case that the issue should be resolved at the federal judicial level. ACLU of Wisconsin attorney Tim Muth has accused the sheriffs of using “repeated delay tactics.”
Jessie Opoien can be reached at jessie.opoien@jrn.com.
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