Disability Politics

This year marks the 40th anniversary of a landmark ruling that reaffirmed the 1837 treaty rights of a northern Wisconsin tribe to hunt, fish and gather on ceded territory. In 1983, two brothers from the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Fred and Mike Tribble, were arrested for spearfishing outside the boundaries of…

In a lower Manhattan off-Broadway theater, tucked away from the traffic and bright lights, an old farm house nestled on 40 acres of remnant prairie introduces theatergoers to a Wisconsin woman making zucchini bread, and Rebecca Gilman’s play “Swing State” begins. The play, set “somewhere in the Driftless area of Wisconsin” in the late summer…

People with mobility challenges will have easier access to state parks and forests as the Department of Natural Resources launches an outdoor wheelchair program throughout Wisconsin. Later this month the DNR will introduce its second motorized all-terrain outdoor wheelchair at Point Beach State Forest. A non-motorized all-terrain outdoor wheelchair is also coming to Kettle Moraine…

State authorities and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay are seeking to train 10,000 people this year as certified direct care professionals with a new online program. The $1.85 million program is free to participants and is being funded mostly by federal aid, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. The agency says the state’s…

Milwaukee’s temperature hit 101 degrees Wednesday. This high beat the previous record of 98 degrees, which was set on the same date in 1947. The Midwest is currently covered by a heat dome stretching from Texas to Wisconsin. Record-breaking temperatures sitting high in the atmosphere have Wisconsinites in the southern half of the state under…

Prisoners locked in their cells for days on end report walls speckled with feces and blood. Birds have moved in, leaving droppings on the food trays and ice bags handed out to keep prisoners cool. Blocked from visiting the law library, prisoners say they have missed court deadlines and jeopardized appeals. Unable to access toilet…

She was late for school. Her grades were slipping and she didn’t want to go to soccer practice. That’s when Angela Reilly knew something was off with her teenage daughter. She thought that was a normal stage for a high schooler. “Oh, part of this is just being a teenage girl, this is just part…

Wisconsin schools reported nearly 6,000 instances of seclusion and nearly 7,000 occurrences of physical restraint during the 2021-22 school year, according to the latest data available from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Among those instances, 1,920 students at 32 percent of Wisconsin’s schools were secluded and 2,856 students at 44 percent of the state’s…

Shelley Peel moved into Apple Creek Place in Appleton nine months ago. Apple Creek Place advertises itself as a facility with 22 beds and care options tailored to those who are physically disabled and those with dementia or Alzheimer’s. But Peel said that’s not her experience. Peel, 61, said she’s lucky if she can get…

When Chamomile Harrison returned to the hospital for another oncology appointment, she noticed the change immediately. The workers taking her blood for tests were maskless. So were the workers who connected her to machines for an MRI. Harrison’s doctor was maskless, as well, until she asked him to put one on. The hospital had rescinded…