Month: September 2025

By Gino Recchia

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    ESTABROOK PARK, Wisconsin (WISN) — What looks like a peaceful waterfall at Estabrook Park is actually a man-made barrier that has blocked fish for generations.

“We are removing some of the bedrock from Estabrook Falls to make the falls more supportive of migration for fish,” said Beth Wentzel with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.

Wentzel said the waterfall was never natural. Instead, it was left behind more than a century ago when workers quarried the river for rock used in cement. Now it acts as a fish barrier.

“Fish need to move, especially there’s a number of fish that’s been part of their life down in Lake Michigan. But they need to get up into a river, to spawn, reproduce, and also to find food,” Wentzel said.

The project is funded through grants. Crews started work in July, lowering the bedrock on one side of the river while diverting water with sandbags. The project will leave a small waterfall on one side and a deeper channel for fish to swim through on the other.

The timeline for completion has been complicated by heavy August rains that delayed construction by several weeks. District officials say they have a permit through the end of September, and within the next week, they’ll know whether regulators will allow work to continue into October.

The timing matters because salmon are beginning their fall migration upstream, and anglers will soon crowd the riverbanks for the season.

“The Milwaukee River is a really special place for this community, and restoring it to a healthy river is really exciting,” Wentzel said.

This project could help lake sturgeon return to the Milwaukee River, a species that once thrived here generations ago but disappeared after dams and pollution wiped out their population.

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By Ja Nai Wright

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    HARFORD COUNTY, Maryland (WMAR) — Formally known as the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, Six Triple Eight was an all-Black women’s Army Corps unit serving overseas in World War II.

Stationed in England and France, 855 Black women had one job — to sort massive mail backlogs for millions of American service members and civilians.

Despite facing racial discrimination, segregation and difficult working conditions, the Six Triple Eight cleared the backlog of around 17 million pieces of mail ahead of schedule.

“They were backlog they said for over two years or something and they got through it in a couple months,” Tamala Mosby-Byrd said.

Mosby-Byrd who lives in Joppatowne,is the last living daughter of Private Elizabeth Moraney. She says she was the only person she knew whose mother served in World War II.

But that’s not where the firsts end.

“And after she got out, she was the first black woman to be at the post office in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,” Mosby-Byrd said.

After the women of the Six Triple Eight returned home, they were never honored for their hard work.

Now, 80 years later, Moraney along with the other 854 women in the Six Triple Eight are being recognized nationally for their efforts.

“I’m so proud of her, but I am just sorry that she is not here to see it,” Mosby-Byrd said.

Wednesday there will be a ceremony at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery in Annville, Pennsylvania to honor Private Elizabeth Moraney.

Mosby-Byrd says she is excited about the event.

“I’m just happy that I’m here to do it and I hope like people say I just hope somewhere there’s someway that she’s gone but she knows that I’m here,” Mosby-Byrd said.

Wednesday’s event is part of a bigger effort to locate descendants of members of the 6888 and to ensure members receive proper military burial honors.

“This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. WMAR’s editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.”

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By SHELBY COUNTY, Alabama

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    SHELBY COUNTY, Alabama (WVTM) — 12 years ago, Peter Jackson faced one of the hardest days of his life after losing his wife to a stroke.

“I lost my wife due to a sudden and massive hemorrhagic stroke. That was on a Monday evening. By Friday, we had to disconnect and let her go,” said Jackson.

Grief support classes with GriefShare helped him navigate that loss.

“I attended the program, went through all the classes, and it pretty much saved my life in more ways than one,” said Jackson.

GriefShare started in Wake Forest, North Carolina and now helps those who are grieving all across the country and right here in Alabama.

For the last 10 years, Jackson has been a leader and facilitator for GriefShare.

“What the program will enable them to do is manage and control their grief. It’s something that doesn’t go away entirely, but they are able to manage and control it, rather than the grief managing and controlling them,” said Jackson.

The 13-week series for the grief classes kicks off on Thursday.

The classes are freestanding, so if you experience a loss now or later on in the series, GriefShare invites you to join.

You can also attend the classes if you are struggling with grief from a less recent loss.

To get connected with GriefShare in Shelby County you can reach out online, by phone at 205-908-6529 or by email at FromMourningToJoy@gmail.com

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By Hannah Hilyard

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    GREEN LAKE, Wisconsin (WISN) — For the first time, we’re hearing from Ryan Borgwardt in his own words. The man, once known as Green Lake’s missing kayaker, told investigators during a three-hour recorded conversation how he faked his drowning and ran away to eastern Europe to meet a woman he’d met online.

And 12 News Investigates obtained it through an open records request.

From his final text exchange with his wife to the first dispatch call, it’s all revealed in the newly released video and documents.

“He was on a kayak,” the dispatch call stated. “And she woke up, and he is not home. And she can’t get a hold of him.”

“Oh dear,” the other person on the call responded.

Body camera footage, time-stamped August 2024, then showed the moment deputies found his van and overturned kayak in Green Lake.

Investigators initially believed Borgwardt’s disappearance was a drowning, but a deep dive into his laptop revealed he was actually alive.

“Ryan, I beg you, give me a call,” Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said in a video to Borgwardt.

After 54 days of searching the lake, the sheriff’s office turned to an all-out blitz to reach the missing kayaker through video messages, news conferences, and emails to the European girlfriend with the subject “Call us. Very Important.”

It worked.

“I’m in my apartment. I am safe, secure, no problem,” Borgwardt said in a video message sent to detectives and eventually released publicly.

WISN 12 News even obtained Borgwardt’s video proof of his flight back to the United States. All of this evidence led up to his first sit-down with investigators in December 2024.

During the interview, Borgwardt described his late-night kayak ride and elaborate plan. “Countless times, I said, ‘Why am I doing this?’ But I kept going,” he said. “The amount of hours that I spent trying to disappear would blow your mind.”

He explained how he used an inflatable boat to reach shore, rode an e-bike to Madison, and took a Greyhound to the Canadian border. It’s at the border he met with agents suspicious because he showed up with a dead phone and no license.

“I think he started to wonder if I was trying to run away from something because he started to ask questions like ‘Are you married? Is everything OK?'” Borgwardt said.

Borgwardt eventually made his way to Georgia in Eastern Europe, staying there until he received the email from detectives that made his “heart fall through the floor.”

The email exchange with detectives lasted a month before he returned home to face the consequences.

“Everybody’s a bit perplexed as to why you took this path,” a detective said during the interview.

Borgwardt responded, “I guess, in the end, it came down to the feeling of failure in about every aspect of your life.”

After returning to the U.S., he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor obstruction charge. Last month, a judge sentenced him to three months in custody, and he has already paid $30,000 to Green Lake County to reimburse them for the costs incurred.

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