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From the Article:

Following nearly 30 years in business, Gary’s Pet Jungle (2857 S. Howell Ave., 414-744-3338) will soon be closing its doors once and for all. Opened by owner, operator, and namesake Gary Johnson, the pet and pet supply retailer has served animal lovers in the Bay View neighborhood and beyond since July of 1994. Sadly, the store’s days are numbered, as Johnson plans to end the business in the next few months.

We spoke with Johnson—who does not own the property where his business has existed for nearly three decades—at Gary’s Pet Jungle on Sunday afternoon. Though he declined our request to be interviewed, he confirmed that he intends to shutter the store in the near future. A closing date has not yet been determined, but Johnson tells us the end of his Pet Jungle could be as soon as the next month or two.

From the Article:

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is now considering a handful of proposed changes to the state's legislative boundaries after Republicans, Democrats, university professors and partisan law firms submitted options as part of a lawsuit aimed at making the state's legislative districts more competitive.

The court received submissions from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, Republican legislative leaders, Democratic lawmakers, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professors, the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty and the petitioners who brought the lawsuit who are represented by Law Forward, a liberal legal firm.

Most of the submissions would reduce the current Republican advantages.

The court will review the seven sets of competing legislative maps as it lurches toward the March 15 deadline to enact new districts ahead of the August legislative primary.

The court on Dec. 22 ordered the Republican-controlled state Legislature to draw new legislative boundaries ahead of the 2024 election, arguing the maps are unconstitutional because many disticts' boundaries are not contiguous — meaning they include pieces of land that are not connected.

In a 4-3 decision, justices said they are also prepared to replace the state's heavily gerrymandered maps if the Legislature and Democratic governor cannot agree on a new plan. In that case, the court ruled that justices will consider the partisan makeup of the new map if they are forced to step in.

Law Forward brought the legal challenge straight to the Supreme Court in August — bypassing lower courts in an expedited effort to put new maps in place before the fall. The lawsuit came to the court shortly after it flipped to a liberal majority for the first time in years with the election of Justice Janet Protasiewicz.

The state's current maps are a product of another court battle — Johnson v. Wisconsin Elections Commission — that ultimately landed at the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2022, the nation's highest court threw out election maps drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. The state Supreme Court embraced a redistricting plan crafted by Republican state lawmakers just three weeks later.

Like now, the decision from the state Supreme Court was released without time to spare, just as candidates could begin circulating petitions to get on the midterm ballot that year.

The court's most recent ruling delivers a political landmine ahead of the 2024 presidential cycle that will all but certainly focus on the battleground state of Wisconsin. It's the latest chink in Republican power since GOP dominance in Wisconsin state government began diminishing in 2016, when Donald Trump became president.

Since then, Republicans have lost the governor's office and control of the state Supreme Court.

In a narrowly divided state that often decides statewide races by a few thousand votes, Republicans have held wide majorities in the state Legislature for years.

The current maps tilt heavily in Republicans’ favor, according to a December analysis by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

From the Article:

A Wisconsin judge ruled that the state’s top election leader can legally remain in her position, handing a blow to the Republican-controlled state Senate that tried to oust her.

The GOP-controlled Wisconsin Senate voted in September to fire Meagan Wolfe, the top election official, from her position at the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), after months of threatening to remove her over how she handled the 2020 election.

They falsely claimed that Wolfe orchestrated a plan to rig the election in the state — a swing state that President Biden secured by over 20,000 votes.

Biden’s win in Wisconsin has withstood multiple partial recounts, a nonpartisan audit, a conservative law firm’s review and multiple state and federal lawsuits, the Associated Press reported.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Ann Peacock declared Friday that she agreed with the WEC, which argued that stability in its elections system ahead of the 2024 election would be best for the public. Thus, Wolfe was cleared to remain in the role.

The injunction, Peacock wrote in her order, will “provide stability to protect against any further legally unsupported removal attempts” against Wolfe.

Democrats argued that the state Senate vote to oust Wolfe from her position was not held properly and they don’t have the power to remove her from her position or appoint an interim administrator.

Peacock’s decision renders the the state Senate’s statute removing Wolfe as moot. The defendants were also barred under the ruling from taking official actions contrary to the order and their counterclaim and pending motions were nixed.

“I hope this will put an end to attempts by some to target nonpartisan election officials and fabricate reasons to disrupt Wisconsin elections,” Wolfe said in a statement to the AP.

“The effort to undermine me was especially cruel given that the defendant legislators themselves admitted in court that I remain the lawful administrator,” she added.

From the Article:

Republican majorities would shrink but the party would maintain an upper hand in the Wisconsin Legislature under new redistricting plans proposed by the Democratic voters who convinced the state Supreme Court to declare the state’s Republican-drawn legislative maps unconstitutional.

Seven sets of map proposals were submitted to the court Friday afternoon by parties to a redistricting lawsuit that has generated national attention.

In its Dec. 22 opinion, the Supreme Court’s liberal majority said remedial maps must comply with the Wisconsin Constitution’s requirements that voting districts be compact, include equal populations and have boundaries that physically connect. That last requirement, known as contiguity, was the justification the court’s 4-3 liberal majority used to strike down current Republican drawn maps.
The majority said it would also consider “partisan impact” to measure political fairness of new maps, telling parties that it would take care to avoid picking new maps that favor one political party over another.

The proposals submitted Friday mark the beginning of the court’s efforts to replace maps that have helped Republicans cement lopsided legislative majorities in a state that’s otherwise known for close elections.

From the Article:

Opponents of a proposed interstate expansion in Milwaukee are arguing those plans should be put on hold because the project is now the focus of a federal civil rights investigation.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation announced plans in 2022 for a $1.2 billion project to expand Interstate 94 on the city's west side from six lanes to eight — four lanes in each direction — on about a 3.5-mile stretch of highway that passes the Brewers' American Family Field.

Opponents of the project believe the expansion would negatively impact people of color, as a majority of Black and Hispanic residents live along the corridor.

Cassie Steiner, the senior campaign coordinator for the Wisconsin chapter of the Sierra Club, is calling on Gov. Tony Evers to halt the project because of the civil rights investigation.

"Highway expansions have caused decades of harm, especially to Black and Brown communities," Steiner said.

Environmental activists have argued that more gas-burning cars on the road will lead to more carbon emissions in the air, contributing to climate change. They believe the expansion will make climate change and air pollution worse in the area. Environmental attorney Dennis Grzezinski said the project is located in a corridor that has a "larger proportion of Black and Hispanic residents than can be found in any other community in the region."

Aside from increasing noise and air pollution as more cars zip down a wider highway, some residents also worry the addition of about 29 acres of asphalt — the equivalent of more than 20 football fields — will increase flows of stormwater into the area.

"Who's it going to impact? Not the folks trying to get to downtown during rush hour from richer, whiter neighborhoods and communities, but the folks who live in and around the center city," Grzezinski said.

Last year, community groups and opponents of the project sent a civil rights complaint to the Federal Highway Administration. The complaint said if the project goes forward, people of color will "bear the brunt of the impacts of highway construction and expansion, while whites, especially white persons living in highly segregated suburbs, will reap most of the benefits."

"This will compound and exacerbate the historical, longstanding disparities and injustices to which these Milwaukee communities have been subjected," the complaint said.

From the Article:

COVID-19 cases are growing in Northeast Wisconsin, but the numbers aren’t significantly higher than a year ago.

A new variant, called JN.1, is spreading. According to a doctor we spoke with at Bellin Health, there’s a small change in part of the virus that’s causing more people who’ve already had COVID or were immunized to get this variant of the virus.

As of right now, the number of cases in our community is similar to this time last year.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services website, COVID hospitalizations in Northeast Wisconsin increased by 17% between Dec. 24 and Jan. 6. Specifically in the Fox Valley, hospitalizations grew 13% during that time period.

Overall, COVID symptoms are still fairly mild for people who’ve been vaccinated, according to doctors. People with a compromised immune system, underlying health conditions, and older adults still face significant risk.

If you think you have COVID, doctors urge you not to go to an emergency room to get tested unless you’re very ill and need to be evaluated by a provider.

“We just opened a fast lane clinic by [Austin Straubel] airport -- that’s new -- where people can get a test that’s ordered by their doctor or their nurse practitioner and get that test through the drive-through. So there’s easier ways than going to the emergency room and waiting a long time. We really want to make sure we’re protecting our emergency departments in this community when people truly need it,” Bellin Health Dr. Brad Burmeister said.

From the Article:

Keep those shovels and snowblowers handy.

Southeastern Wisconsin has been dusted with two rounds of snow this week; the first as part of the winter storm that rolled through Wisconsin on Tuesday. The second arrived overnight Thursday, and we're not done just yet. Another system is expected to arrive in the area on Friday and bring with it both snow and below zero temperatures.

From the Article:

As part of multiple cost-cutting measures and real estate divestitures, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee intends to sell its chancellor’s residence at 3435 N. Lake Drive in Milwaukee.

The university said Thursday it will seek permission from the Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents to sell the home. If approved, it will publicly list the property for sale in the coming months.

UWM chancellor Mark Mone in December 2023 moved into another nearby home, according to the announcement. Public records show Mone purchased a home one block closer to the campus in mid-November. He paid $1.13 million.

“Selling the chancellor’s residence is the smart financial move for our university,” Mone said in a statement.

The UWM Real Estate Foundation purchased the chancellor's residence for $955,000 in 2012. The current value is estimated to be $1,402,600, according to Zillow.

Built in 1926, the 4,818-square-foot home has six bedrooms and four bathrooms. It's in the Downer Woods neighborhood just east of the UWM campus.

Other properties that UWM has divested in recent years have included the former UWM Alumni House, which it sold for $1.8 million to Milwaukee businessman Andy Nunemaker in 2021.

Last year, UWM demolished its Northwest Quad Building A and permanently closed its Purin residence hall. It plans to demolish its old chemistry building, which previously was slated to be renovated for other purposes, according to UWM.

From the Article:

The penthouse at the top of the Couture tower – Wisconsin’s tallest residential building – is being marketed for lease for $11,650 a month.

That’s the highest-priced unit listed for the 44-story building at the downtown Milwaukee lakefront. Those penthouses are to open to tenants in August, but apartments in the Couture’s fourth through 30th floors will be ready for move-ins in April, according to a Thursday announcement by Barrett Lo Visionary Development. That move-in date follows a more than decade-long effort by Milwaukee-based Barrett Lo to get the about $190 million project approved and financed.

The top levels of the Couture have two penthouses, each with about 2,350 square feet. The two-level units have three bedrooms, 2.5 baths and outdoor terraces with about 350 square feet. The north-facing penthouse is priced at $11,585 a month, and the slightly larger south-facing one is $65 more.

The pricing goes down to $2,045 a month for the smallest apartment, a one-bedroom with 576 square feet facing west on the building’s fifth floor. In between are a number of two-bedroom units priced starting around $3,865 a month.

“The Couture will mark Milwaukee as a premier destination for discerning individuals who value living a world-class lifestyle in our energetic and beautiful city,” said Rick Barrett, founder of Barrett Lo. “We’re thrilled to welcome our soon-to-be residents to their new home.”

The Couture’s amenities include its outdoor terrace with a swimming pool with views of Lake Michigan, 24-hour concierge service, a dog park and an indoor clubhouse and lounge. The lower levels of the building also have large public spaces, including a park that will open this summer and a transit center to be served by The Hop streetcar system beginning in April.

There is about 45,000 square feet of retail space on the Couture’s three lower levels. No tenants have been announced.

From the Article:

The end is nigh for Northridge Mall, according to city officials. Milwaukee could take possession of the long-vacant mall by the end of the month through foreclosure. Demolition could begin in the summer.

That’s according to a multi-department presentation made Tuesday to the Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee.

The mall’s Chinese ownership group, U.S. Black Spruce Enterprise Group, missed a Dec. 20 redemption deadline in a property tax foreclosure case. The final action on the case is expected to occur on Jan. 25.

“That’s kind of like checkmate,” said committee chair Alderman Michael Murphy.

The foreclosure could end a 2019 court case through which Black Spruce is contesting a raze order. The case has been pending before Judge William Sosnay while the parties await an appeals court ruling on the validity of the raze order.

The city intends to begin demolition in the next two months on the one portion of the mall structure it owns, the former Boston Store. Demolition of the remainder of the mall structure would begin in the summer.

After clearing the site by the fall of 2025, the city would have a 58-acre site ready for redevelopment.

Formally announced in December, a $15 million grant from the state’s American Rescue Plan Act allocation would pay for demolishing the approximately 900,000-square-foot mall property, removing any environmental contaminants and preparing the site.

But Ald. Robert Bauman, an attorney, said the city might want to proceed with caution because Black Spruce would have 90 days to appeal the foreclosure and could get a cleared property back. The company could also win its appeal. But deputy city attorney Odalo J. Ohiku said the proper court guidance was followed in issuing the raze order following an earlier successful appeal. Assistant city attorney Hannah Jahn said the property has a negative value, given the cost to demolish the blighted structure, so Black Spruce’s damages would be limited. Bauman voted with his colleagues to move the proposal forward.

The mall, located near N. 76th Street and W. Brown Deer Road, closed in 2003 after 31 years of operation. A predecessor of Black Spruce acquired the property for $6 million in 2008. It proposed creating an Asian marketplace, but those plans have never advanced.

More than a half million dollars in unpaid contempt fines have been levied against Black Spruce for its failure to comply with a 2019 agreement to secure the property. At least four fires took place at the mall in 2022 and it has been a target for trespassing. Another fire took place in November.

A report Tuesday estimated that the city has spent more than $1 million and thousands of hours on securing the property. The Department of Neighborhood Services is said to have performed a daily inspection for more than 500 consecutive days.

From the Article:

Verona resident Libby Belden and her husband chose to buy an electric vehicle almost a year ago. But as Green Bay Packers season ticket holders, they’ve run into hurdles trying to attend games at Lambeau Field.

Belden has tickets to two regular season games each season and a preseason game. Since buying an electric SUV, she has had to stop in Appleton for a charging station compatible with her vehicle before heading home to the Madison area.

While the charger isn’t one that requires the vehicle to be plugged in overnight, it still takes about an hour of waiting because it’s not a high-speed charger.

“We actually decided, after having done that for a few games, to skip a game we were planning to go to with a bunch of family this year, which was really heartbreaking,” Belden said. “It was a night game. We knew we were going to have to drive home, it was already going to be really late, and then it was probably going to be about a four-hour drive home with having to sit at that charger for an hour.”

Belden is not the only EV owner who has to meticulously plan trips throughout Wisconsin. That’s because the Badger State has fewer publicly accessible charging stations than most of its neighbors, according to data provided by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, or DOT.

Citing the Alternative Fuels Data Center Station Locator and state EV infrastructure plans, a DOT spokesperson said Wisconsin has 578 publicly accessible stations with 1,373 total ports, with 90 of those stations having high-speed chargers. Among surrounding states, only Iowa had fewer stations at 363 with 820 total ports.

From the Article:

The Milwaukee Police Department is asking for help to find critically missing 13-year-old Azoria Jones.

Police say Jones was last seen on Saturday, Jan. 6, near 35th Street and Kaul Avenue in Milwaukee wearing a pink coat, tank top and black pants. She is described as 5 feet 2 inches and 190 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Milwaukee Police Department District Four at (414) 935-7242.