Special Projects

Kenosha’s City Hall was standing room only as residents packed the Common Council chambers to voice concerns on Microsoft’s proposed data center on the west side of the county on Nov. 17. Among many concerns, multiple citizen comments raised issues with transparency, environmental impacts and increased cost of living. Several people advocated for a vote […]

The AI data center is a specialized facility designed to handle massive AI workloads, featuring high-density machine learning that is extremely proficient at identifying patterns in the data. They solve problems at an unfathomable speed and arguably reduce the potential for human error. The future of AI will continue to evolve. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee […]

Vast fields of grass with generational history lay desolate. Lonely, abandoned houses sit in wait to be demolished. The land is fated to become an Artificial Intelligence Data Center. Where houses once stood, large warehouse-sized buildings will be constructed. Instead of the distant sound of tractors and combines running, it will be replaced with the […]

From the mysterious “Project Nova” to Microsoft backing down to community criticism, residents opposed to a data center in the small village of Caledonia were victorious. On Oct. 8, Microsoft announced it would no longer pursue 244 acres of land for a data center. The project was originally going to accompany the tech giant’s much […]

From Menomonie to Port Washington to Caledonia, tech companies have been eyeing Wisconsin towns and cities as sites for the next generation of artificial intelligence data centers – megastructures poised to drive the future of computing. While some mayors and community leaders welcomed the ventures, others have remained skeptical. Media Milwaukee interviewed two such leaders, […]

The AI data center surge has stoked fears in communities across the United States, not just for their insatiable energy requirements, but also for the dramatic economic impact they have on the communities they occupy. Port Washington, Wisconsin, a town of roughly 13,000, stands at a crossroads as the issue swiftly hits the mainstream. The […]

The Milwaukee School of Engineering is building a $76.5 million engineering building—the Robert D. Kern Engineering Innovation Center—at the southeast corner of State and Milwaukee streets. The builder will include flexible labs, AI, and robotics. This will be a space that encourages collaboration and firsthand learning in the Innovation Center. The roadmap for the AI […]

On the night of the Oct. 7 Port Washington Common Council meeting, hundreds of residents crowded the entrance, attempting to enter the chambers to express their concerns about the proposed Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Center in Port Washington. Many were unable to get inside, and the media were barred from entering for more than 30 minutes after the meeting began.  […]

Earlier this year, the Port Washington Common Council announced its controversial partnership with Vantage Data Centers, based out of Denver, to build a new AI data center for OpenAI, north of the town. This announcement was met with uproar from residents in Port Washington and the surrounding communities with fear about how this data center […]

The City of Racine is being sued by Midwest Environmental Advocates on behalf of Milwaukee Riverkeeper after the city allegedly failed to deliver a document describing the estimated water usage at the then-proposed data center in Mount Pleasant under open records laws. Wisconsin law states that a response to a record request must be made […]

AI’s rapid growth is driving a surge in massive data centers, boosting innovation but raising environmental concerns. Expanding energy and water demands strain local resources, while Big Tech’s dominance concentrates power. As AI infrastructure scales, questions about sustainability, accountability, and equitable access are becoming increasingly urgent for communities and policymakers. Believe it or not, a […]

Over the course of a semester, three UW-Milwaukee students committed themselves to a three-month investigation into the deaths of Milwaukee youth. Their focus was urgent: children and teenagers, ages four to 17, all who were school-aged. While the team drew initial inspiration from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s “The Lost Class,” their project quickly evolved into […]