Wisconsin Weekly: Critics Say Lead Pipeline Pullback Is Too Slow

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Reading time: 4 minutes Replacement of lead pipes; disabled workers file complaints; COVID-19 outbreak angers Madison hospital workers; conservatives fund culture wars in Wisconsin school districts

Please Note: This week we highlight our update on efforts to remove unsafe lead pipes serving hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in Wisconsin. Diana Butsko, a Fulbright scholar who reported for Wisconsin Watch this summer, found that communities statewide have cut about 20% of known lead service lines. But in Milwaukee, progress has been much slower. At the current rate, it would take 70 years for the city to take the lead. Butsko also found that public health departments investigating cases of lead poisoning in children rarely test water as a possible source. The package includes an introduction to what families can do if a child has been addicted to lead. In a supporting article, Madeline Fuerstenberg, intern at Wisconsin Watch, member Ann Devroy of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, examines the city’s program to eliminate all of its 1,266 lead service lines.

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To receive the free Wisconsin Weekly newsletter (as well as article alerts and Center news) straight to your inbox, sign up here! You can change your preferences at any time. Nazir Al-Mujaahid, top, and his sons, bottom left: Shuaib, 9, Sayfullah, 3, Suraqah, 6, and Naser, 10, are seen outside their rental home in Milwaukee July 8, 2021. Shuaib and Sayfullah have tested positive for high levels of lead, a neurotoxin that damages the brain and nervous system, especially in young children. The family suspects that the lead pipe that brings water to their house is to blame. Nazir Al-Mujaahid is among Milwaukeeans calling on the city to replace its remaining 70,000 lead pipelines more quickly. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Wisconsin Watch His Criminal: Milwaukee Residents Call for Faster Lead Pipeline Removal to Reduce Childhood Poisoning

Wisconsin Watch September 9, 2021

Sitting in his North Side rental home in Milwaukee, Nazir Al-Mujaahid spoke in a neutral tone about the challenges his son Shuaib faces, as the 9-year-old lingered in another room. Shuaib has been tested for high levels of lead. He excels in sports, Al-Mujaahid said, but his speaking skills have developed late and he is still behind his 6-year-old brother in reading. Al-Mujaahid, 45, believes lead poisoning is hampering his son’s development. It is impossible to confirm precisely where the lead came from, but Al-Mujaahid suspects the aging lead pipes that carried drinking water to his home.

Related Wisconsin Watch Coverage: Spurred on by Flint Crisis, Eau Claire Aims to Eliminate Lead Pipelines

Campaigners attacking Wisconsin school boards are aided and funded by national conservative groups and GOP donors

Associated Press September 3, 2021

A loose network of conservative groups with ties to major Republican donors and party-aligned think tanks is quietly lending firepower to local activists engaged in cultural warfare fights in schools across the country. While they are drawn to the anger of parents opposed to school policies on racial history or COVID-19 protocols like mask warrants, groups are often led by political agents and lawyers willing to amplify local conflicts. . In an affluent Milwaukee suburb, a law firm heavily funded by a conservative foundation that has fought climate change and has ties to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overthrow the 2020 election has helped parents seeking to dismiss members of the Mequon-Thiensville school board, mainly on the boards hire a diversity consultant. A new national advocacy group, Parents Defending Education, has promoted the Wisconsin Parents Tactic as a model.

Lawyers Victor Forberger and Paul Kinne speak at a press conference announcing a class action lawsuit challenging a Wisconsin law that prohibits people receiving federal disability assistance from qualifying for state unemployment benefits at Madison, Wisconsin, September 7, 2021. Eight plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit in Madison U.S. District Court on Tuesday in hopes of recovering benefits denied to them, and other Wisconsin disabled people, and to ” overturn the law that prohibited them from accessing aid. Credit: Will Cioci / Wisconsin Watch People with disabilities sue to overturn Wisconsin law denying them unemployment benefits

Wisconsin Watch September 7, 2021

Tracy Long of Fond du Lac County is no stranger to the Wisconsins unemployment system. With 30 years of manufacturing experience, it has been subjected to the ups and downs of the industry. Long says she has applied for unemployment assistance dozens of times over the past three decades. But after a work injury that led to three back surgeries in as many years left her unable to perform most of the tasks previously performed, in 2019, she turned to the unemployment system of the State for relief that would soon be strained near its breaking point. by the pandemic. This time, however, due to her disability, the system which in the past helped her to stay afloat prevented her from receiving aid intended to help the unemployed overcome job shortages. use. With the help of Madison’s attorney, Victor Forberger, Long and seven other plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit in Madison U.S. District Court on Tuesday in hopes of recovering their denied unemployment benefits, as well. than other people with disabilities in Wisconsin, and overturn the law that barred access to help.

Related Green Bay Press-Gazette Coverage: Will End of Pandemic Unemployment Benefits Alleviate Wisconsins Worker Shortage?

Exhausted, heartbroken and angry: St. Marys Hospital staff face another wave of COVID-19

Wisconsin State Journal September 9, 2021

When coronavirus patients flooded hospitals in November and December, nurse Jackie Rehberg worked in the COVID-19 unit at SSM Health St. Marys Hospital in Madison, even though she was worried about her own health because that she was pregnant. As she went on maternity leave in May, shortly after vaccines became widely available, cases and hospitalizations plummeted. By the time she returned last month, a wave fueled by the delta variant was underway. Her 12-hour shifts, the protective clothing she must wear and the uncertain fate of her patients remain the same, but this wave is different. Before, there was a lot more fear, said Rehberg. This time it’s more frustrating. Sometimes this can be really exasperating because there is a vaccine that can help prevent some of the serious illnesses we see.

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