Katherine Kokal

2 months ago | wuwm.com | Katherine Kokal

Leaders of Milwaukee Public Schools say the district will clean up lead contamination in 54 schools built before 1950 by the start of next school year. That news comes as families at Westside Academy have learned their school will be closing May 5, and Brown Street Academy families learned that school will close May 12 for cleaning. Students at both schools will be relocated to Andrew S. Douglas Middle School during cleanup. Things are in flux around the city right now.

2 months ago | wuwm.com | Katherine Kokal

Drive around Milwaukee and it’s not hard to find someone willing to buy your house. They advertise on small, often-handwritten signs stuck into the grass or tied onto light poles. There’s usually a phone number. Sometimes a reminder that the unnamed sign creator will take your house in any condition. Kathe Hoffman lives in Glendale and says she sees the signs around the city all the time. And she gets incessant mailers with offers to buy her home — even though she’s not selling.

2 months ago | wuwm.com | Katherine Kokal

Until a few years ago, you could tell UW-Waukesha was a bustling campus. On weekdays, the street leading to and from the university would be lined with cars parked bumper-to-bumper. They belonged to students who wanted to avoid paying for a parking pass. On a recent weekday morning, just three cars are parked on the aptly named University Drive. UW-Waukesha will close by June 30 due to under enrollment and financial constraints on the Universities of Wisconsin.

2 months ago | wuwm.com | Katherine Kokal

Ten international students and recent graduates of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee have had their visas revoked or terminated in recent weeks, according to information shared Wednesday by the university. UWM joins a cacophony of universities sharing the effects on students of the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrant and international communities. The university says the students and graduates impacted have not been provided a rationale for the change in status.

2 months ago | wuwm.com | Katherine Kokal

Cuts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may impact Milwaukee Public Schools’ work cleaning up lead contamination in schools. At a news conference Thursday, Milwaukee Health Commissioner Michael Totoraitis said he requested help from the National Center for Environmental Health on March 26. The request was approved. But this week, the center was decimated by Trump Administration cuts to its parent organization, the CDC.