Special Projects

As Pfc. Robert G. Mueller was leaving his home, he looked back at the farm where he grew up and said he would never see the place again. It was as if he knew his fate was to never return home. Mueller was the third child of eight children in the two-story red farmhouse with […]

James Vielbaum grew up in Hartford, Wisconsin, raised in a tight-knit family, as one of five children. His father, Louis, was a machinist in West Allis. His mother, Dorothy, helped maintain a hospital. He enjoyed a typical childhood in Wisconsin. James enjoyed spending his free time outdoors, including frequent visits to Pike Lake to swim. […]

As authorities launched an aggressive search for the killers of Laylah Petersen, the 5-year-old Milwaukee girl who was shot twice in the head while sitting on her grandfather’s lap inside her own home, one of the alleged murderers was already in gun court: For another shooting that occurred the month before Laylah was slain. Carl […]

Roughly a year after his 1966 graduation from Lakeside Lutheran High School, Paul Kuehl volunteered for the United States Army. The tall, athletic and handsome 19-year-old was sent from Hartford, Wisconsin to Fort Campbell in Kentucky for basic training and then to a military police platoon in Fort Gordon, Georgia. Members of Paul’s Platoon were […]

Read the Media Milwaukee investigative report into Milwaukee’s gun court here. Meet our investigative team (click on their names to obtain more information, including how to contact our journalists): Pakou Lee: I am a multimedia journalist at UW-Milwaukee. My interest in journalism derived from watching television. Television was my window view to the world when I […]

A police car raced through the outskirts of 60’s Germantown, in hot pursuit of a ‘64 Chevy Impala. But it wasn’t anything sinister, only the fast-paced hobby shared between an officer with a secret, and a high school car buff. John North had a passion for hot rods, commanding the Impala and a ‘48 Mercury […]

On an unseasonably mild, rainy, Sunday December afternoon, Nancy Wichert revisits her hometown and stops by the former corner drug store she would frequent as a kid, which is now the Coffee Corner Bistro. She reminisces about her brother Jim’s upbeat personality and his passions in life, like the outdoors, athletics and flying. Wichert was […]

As much as big business and technology can replace jobs and establishments, the barbershop is irreplaceable. With this stationary trait, the Barbershop culture dates back decades and continues to add layers as years pass. Gee’s Clippers is located on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Milwaukee. The vibe of the shop blends classic barbershop culture […]

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NEaQzfKCCg&w=700&rel=0]   It’s 20 ’til midnight, and Media Milwaukee is out shopping for food. The stores are closed, but there’s still plenty of produce to sort through. Whole sacks of clementines tossed out because one of them is a little banged up. A bag of cereal disposed of because the box has a dent in […]

They are the survivors of the survivors of one of the greatest horrors in the world’s history: The Holocaust. And they live among us. These are stories the Nazis never wanted told. These are people the Nazis wanted to forever silence. But the stories of these men and women, who age from 87 into their […]

The streets of Milwaukee are the skateboarder’s urban playground. Stairs and handrails are normally seen as a necessary piece of architecture but to skateboarders doing a trick down it can be the final banger for a video part. The rough ground can gash the palms of any innocent skateboarder mistakenly hitting a single pebble. It […]

Customers all over the Milwaukee area and the country, including teenagers, are turning to spray tans thinking they are a safe alternative to UV tanning beds, but a Media Milwaukee investigation unearthed a pattern of consumers and employees who had no idea that some research has found potential health risks, including possible genetic alterations. The […]