As part of Black History Month, kids in Milwaukee are learning about the history of hip-hop and how they can still be involved in the culture if they want. 

A group of high school kids met inside Villard Square public library on Milwaukee’s north side earlier this week.

Fidel Verdin handed out papers and pencils so they could take notes. The kids have their heads down, they're a little quiet, but they're engaged as Verdin gives a presentation on the history of hip-hop — a form of music and dance that he says started in the U.S. in 1973.

The Wisconsin prison system is facing a lot of challenges for both adults and young people. Wisconsin is second in the country for racial disparity among African Americans and whites who are in prison. The ratio is 11.5 African Americans to one white prisoner in the state, according to census data gathered by the Sentencing Project.

After Scott Walker was elected Wisconsin governor in 2010, Milwaukee County was left without an executive. At the time, Chris Abele was a local philanthropist, whose work led him to a greater understanding of the budget shortfalls facing the county — and he thought he could help. 

Wine contributor Ray Fister has been chatting with Lake Effect about the fruits of the vine for almost a decade. He has always insisted you don’t need a special occasion to open a nice bottle of wine. But if you're looking for something, why not choose wine made in Wisconsin?

“There’s frontenac, there’s st. pepin, there’s st. croix. There are all these different grapes that survive nicely in this weather, making very good reds, very good whites, and in the end a lot of these winemakers blending them to make something they think is very special,” Fister says.

Coming up with the perfect gift is no easy task. But essayist Mel Miskimen thought she'd found just the thing for her husband on their first wedding anniversary. Turns out, it didn't exactly get the reaction she expected.

It was our first anniversary. Paper according to Hallmark. We were in our late 20s, had just bought a fixer upper that had sucked our meagre savings account dry. So, no money. I had come with what I had thought was the perfect gift for my husband. Oh. My. God. He was going to love it!

Wisconsin health officials say a second child has died from the flu this winter, and there's been a big rise this week in flu-related hospitalizations.

The Department of Health Services says it also still regards the coronavirus as a very serious matter despite no new additional cases of that reported in Wisconsin. Also, officials say the coronavirus diagnostic test kits the state received from the Centers for Disease Control are flawed.

Flu in Wisconsin

Pregnancy can be incredibly difficult. Sometimes the hardest part is not knowing what’s really happening to the fetus and whether it’s developing into a healthy human being.

When Dr. Aoy Tomita-Mitchell was pregnant, she was faced with a serious dilemma that could have risked the health and safety of her fetus. She and her husband, Dr. Michael Mitchell, took their problem and created a solution: the Harmony prenatal test.