A Public Apology - Archbishop Jeffrey Grob

Oct 25, 2026

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
 
I write this message to you from the Dominican Republic while visiting with fellow pilgrims our sharing parish, La Sagrada Familia.
 
Over the past several days, I have received many questions and comments about the October 22 meeting I and 11 other bishops attended at the White House, which was soon thereafter publicized by the administration without the consent of the participants. Please know that my intention was never to cause confusion, anger, or disappointment among the people entrusted to my care. My hope here is to provide some measure of context for my decision to participate.
 
To begin, the meeting was in no way an endorsement of the president, his policies, or his party. In mid-September, I was invited to join a group of a dozen bishops to discuss matters of importance to the Church and our people, including immigration enforcement, religious worker visas, and human dignity. The meeting was the second of two such gatherings arranged by the Heritage Foundation. The first, to which I was not invited, was held last June. We were told the meeting was to be a private discussion, that several Catholic members of the cabinet might make an appearance, and that there could be an opportunity to pray privately with the president.
 
I took some time to weigh the decision and ultimately felt that, if I had the opportunity to offer my voice in a way that might improve the lives of God’s children, I ought to take it. I pray for our elected officials on a daily basis, so it seemed appropriate to do so in person.
 
So, following a 90-minute discussion with White House domestic policy staff and advisors, we were eventually ushered into the Oval Office. The president greeted us, took a seat at his desk and presented us with commemorative tokens. We were then directed to stand behind him and pray. After which several photos were taken and we were ushered out. Unbeknownst to the group of bishops a video was also taken. But permission for the public distribution or posting of either the video or photos was not given by the bishops.
 
It did not take long thereafter for the White House to post a video and photos of the prayer. I soon began receiving messages of serious concern over the possibility that I had inadvertently participated in a political event less than two weeks before a national election. I also heard from some who felt wounded because of the ways they or their family had been harmed by the president’s policies.
 
I feel a heavy sadness, not only over the pain I caused, but also for the fact that something so sacred to a group of religious leaders, prayer to our Heavenly Father, would be manipulated in that way. We came in good faith to try to work for the betterment of our fellow human beings, to ease their suffering, to build up the common good, and to pray with a president, not to pose for a political photo opportunity to benefit the few. We should never have been put in that position by the White House. I did not go without reservations. I wish I had heeded them. Please know that I have heard these concerns, understand how I caused them, and I apologize for any damage my actions have done.
 
We are, as ever, a pilgrim people. And that includes bishops.
 
With sincere regret,
 
Most Reverend Jeffrey S. Grob
Archbishop of Milwaukee

​

David Crowley (D) leads Tom Tiffany (R) by about 4 points in the 7 public polls my forecast counts. Before you trust that, here’s how Wisconsin’s governor polls have done. In the five governor’s races since 2010, counting the 2012 recall, the final polls were off by up to 4 points, in both directions: they underrated Scott Walker by 4 in 2014 and Tony Evers by almost 4 in 2022, and they called the 2012 recall almost exactly. Across all five, the misses average out to about even.

My forecast doesn’t treat Wisconsin as special. Five races are too few to build a Wisconsin rule on, so it applies the rule it uses everywhere: because governor polls nationwide have tended to overstate Democrats, it shades every governor’s race about 2 points toward Republicans. That takes Crowley’s 4-point lead to about 2. Blending in Wisconsin’s recent results and the national mood moves it back to about 3: a 67% chance he wins.

If this year’s polls miss like 2014’s, which underrated the Republican, the race is a dead heat. If they miss like 2022’s, which underrated the Democrat, Crowley wins by about 8. Tiffany needs a miss bigger than 2014’s, the largest of the five. Bigger ones have happened in other states’ governor’s races, so the forecast still gives him a real chance: 33%.

The upcoming election offers several referendums.

DO support your local school systems that have been systematically strangulated by the know nothings.

DO NOT support the Constitutional Amendment meddling by the party of lazy loyalists who have no idea how to govern, But who are really good at making a mess of everything they touch.

my bf and i have been wondering this since we moved to the area. almost every single light post in Kohler has the symbol at the bottom… i know they recycle a lot / get certain decorations from donations sometimes. i haven’t seen anything about this online so im curious if anyone even knows

Basically overnight, any suburb outside Milwaukee has a Flock camera. I'd say this happened within the last several weeks. I saw one outside Cedarburg on backroad between a farm field and a forest. What the hell is happening?

I feel bad for the person who bought gas before me. I hope they get where they are going.

Tom Tiffany: this white, dorky, Trump boot licker has been hiring and FLYING IN out of state African American people to canvas for him against his African American opponent David Crowley. It’s clearly a tactic to confuse voters and create distrust.

My wife and I has spoken to two of these canvassers flown in from New York. We even invited one of them in to get something to drink. These poor guys don’t even seem to know what they’re being paid to do. The GOP can just kiss my ass. Just a bunch of scumbags.

Thanks u/DontBeDenied1961 for linking the ad. My transciption:

AOC: if you are in this country and you are not black, you benefit from a system of white supremacy

Ilhan: Our country should be more fearful of white men

credit u/Phreddd Sunny Hostin: everything is about race

Voiceover: today's liberals are full of hate. They hate america, they're obsessed with skin color. I can't even show my face because my skin is white, and they'll spew hate at me. Hate leads them to racism, liberals are the new racists

PAID FOR BY AMERICA NEXT on bottom of screen

I recently made, what I believed, was a Wisconsin-authorized brandy old fashioned, only to be scolded by a native Wisconsinite. I don't know any better because I'm from the east coast and, through my Badger's attendance at UW, I've been working on my cultural appropriation skills (making my own cheese curds, drinking Spotted Cow, etc.).

Apparently, my old fashioned was what others may consider an abomination. I'm interested in learning from the masters how to properly prepare a brandy old fashioned sweet so I don't embarrass myself or insult Wisconsin in the future. Thanks in advance.

How I made it

2oz brandy
1 tsp simple syrup
2 dashes angostura bitters
Orange slice
Maraschino cherry
Large ice cube

Mix bitters and syrup
Add to ice cube
Add brandy
Add orange and cherry

Maybe this is more widely known and I just missed the memo, but in case it helps anyone else...

I just stopped at my local polling place to drop-off absentee ballots for myself, my wife and my neighbor. They accepted mine and my neighbor's (since he is disabled) but would not accept my wife's from me without her present. I've dropped hers off in this manner multiple times in the past, so I assume this is new? When I asked for clarification I was told "its a state statute". I'm assuming I could have dropped everything off it it were a formal dropbox?

Any who, plan accordingly and FTT

I was just wondering if any other fellow Wisconsinites are looking to buy a home in Wisconsin right now, despite the market slowdown and interest rates. Where are you looking to buy and what are you looking for? I would love to buy near a lake or in the country where I can have a large garden. I used to want a large kitchen but realized you can still cook an amazing meal in a small one lol! so, kitchen size doesn’t matter at this point.

*I’ll refinance when/if the rates come down.

For years, billionaire Republican donors Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein have given a lot of money to right-wing causes and Republican politicians. The Washington Post recently reported they rank second only to Elon Musk among the biggest donors in the current election cycle. While they live across the border in Lake Forest, Illinois, they take a special interest in Wisconsin. Yet the millions of dollars in donations they’ve given to the Wisconsin Republican Party look like chump change compared to the massive amount of money they’ve showered on the state since Tom Tiffany announced his run for governor.

The Uihliens upped their contributions to the state party from $20,000 in 2014 to $500,000 in 2017 and more than $1 million in 2018, according to campaign finance data published on the Wisconsin Ethics Commission’s Sunshine website.  Altogether, they gave about $3.6 million to the party between 2016 and 2024. But in 2025 and 2026, as Tiffany launched his campaign for governor, the Uihleins gave exponentially more —  about $34.8 million. 

Thanks to a loophole created under former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, donors can sidestep limits on their contributions to particular candidates by giving unlimited money to political parties, which can then pass the money directly to the candidates. And the Republican Party of Wisconsin has funneled the Uihleins’ money directly to Tiffany. Almost all of the money Tiffany raised in the most recent reporting period came from the Uihleins and one other billionaire, Diane Hendricks.

The Uihleins support a lot of Republican candidates and causes, and would likely have supported the Republican no matter who was running for governor this year. But they have a special relationship with Tiffany. 

Back when he was serving in the Wisconsin state Senate, Tiffany’s district included Manitowish Waters, the small town where the Uihleins opened a resort, restaurant, spa, condominium complex and other businesses, turning the sleepy, lakeside community into a fancy tourist destination. 

Tiffany, who lived 30 miles away in Hazelhurst, was very helpful to the Uihleins when some local residents and environmentalists asked the DNR to study the damage caused by a dam on Rest Lake in Manitowish Waters. The dam kept water levels low in the fall so lakeshore property owners didn’t have to take in their piers and high in the spring, just in time for them to take out their boats. According to the River Alliance of Wisconsin, partially closing the dam’s gates in the spring, “to raise the levels back up in time for boating season” meant ”starving the Manitowish River of water at a time when fish spawn. Downstream river property owners would find mud flats where water had been the day before.”

A 2015 article, “Requiem for a River,” posted by the River Alliance, describes how Tiffany slipped a few sentences into the 2015-17 state budget undercutting regulation of the dam and pronouncing a “death sentence” for the Manitowish River, essentially turning Rest Lake, where the Uihliens owned a condominium complex, into a private lake. 

The tiny provision Tiffany added to the budget (#49 in a long list of last-minute budget tweaks), is titled “Dam Water Level Orders” and specifies that the Legislature must approve changes to a dam in Vilas County. With that deft maneuver, Tiffany killed a years-long effort by citizens to save the Manitowish River and rendered moot an environmental study by the DNR.

“What happened to the Manitowish River is a case study of how far we have fallen in resource conservation,” the River Alliance article concludes. “The Manitowish River now has upstream winners – well-connected and wealthy people who know how to use their influence to get what they want – and downstream losers without the same clout. Tiffany’s bill practically makes the Rest Lake chain a private waterway, in a state that prides itself on managing water in the public interest.”

“My constituents elected me to get results,” Tiffany said by way of explanation, in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report on his budget maneuver.

Tiffany’s constituents, of course, included the Uihleins.

His intervention in the matter of the Rest Lake dam was no small favor to the most well-connected and wealthy of all the constituents in his northern Wisconsin district. For the Uihleins, the transformation of Manitowish Waters was a special, personal cause.

Elizabeth Uihlein’s intense focus on funding improvements and reshaping even tiny aesthetic details of Manitowish Waters to her liking divided residents, according to a 2015 article in the Journal Sentinel. Some people appreciated the big investment in the community. Others did not like being left out of decisions about public spaces and objected to how their community was forced to conform to one wealthy woman’s tastes. 

Elizabeth Uihlein herself told the Journal Sentinel, “It’s like a little Aspen. It’s beautiful, but it’s dying.” She suggested that local residents should be grateful for her generosity in providing for them, since they would never make it on their own. “The whole thing is dying up there,” she said. “The money had to come from elsewhere.”

The Uilheins, founders of the packing supply company Uline, are among the richest people in the U.S. They were also some of former Gov. Walker’s biggest donors, a fact that was mentioned in news coverage of the sweetheart deal they got on a swath of lakefront property in Manitowish Waters in 2016. Walker’s DNR gave the Uihleins a stretch of Rest Lake shoreline in exchange for a parcel of state forest land the couple owned in a different part of the state. DNR officials came up with the land swap, the AP reported, after critics objected to the state’s proposal to sell the lakeshore property to Elizabeth Uihlein for more than $100,000 less than its appraised value. 

Long before the deal went through, the Uihleins started making unauthorized improvements on the public land they planned to buy. Some local officials were shocked to discover the extensive paths along the shoreline. Elizabeth Uihlein waved away their concerns. Later, with Walker’s help, she was able to claim the property as her own.

The section of Rest Lake shoreline the Uihleins received from the state gave lake access to their condominium complex. Tiffany’s deft tweak to the state budget ensured that boating conditions remained perfect in the spring, and in the fall the Uihleins and residents of their condo complex never had to go through the hassle of taking in their docks. 

It’s worth asking what kind of return on investment the Uihleins expect to receive from their hyperscale donations to Wisconsin Republicans this year.

“The Uihleins wanted to take over a city. Tom Tiffany gave them their law change,” says Democratic analyst Scot Ross. “A decade later the Uihleins give his campaign $35 million. The dam man wouldn’t have a damn campaign without the Uihleins’ millions.”

In addition to the $34.8 million they funneled to Tiffany through the state party, The Uihleins have also given millions of dollars this cycle to try to elect Republican majorities in the state Legislature. In some cases, they’ve provided almost all of the campaign cash those Republican candidates have raised. 

As the progressive group A Better Wisconsin Together put it in a statement on the politicians who received those donations, “it certainly raises questions about who they’re really looking out for.”

Former governor and clean energy/climate guy Jay Inslee endorses David Crowley:

"Governor’s races, more than almost any other, will shape what Americans pay to keep the lights on in the years ahead. And few states have more riding on this year’s choice than Wisconsin.

Families in Wisconsin are already feeling the squeeze, with utility bills up nearly 30% in the last five years. And costs could climb even higher. Utilities in parts of the state have proposed raising rates another 14% over the next two years.

Will Wisconsin’s future be run on cheaper, cleaner, more reliable energy generated in-state with good-paying jobs, or continue to be beholden to global oil and gas markets for costly, polluting fossil fuels?... This November, Wisconsin voters have a chance to decide what their monthly utility bill looks like for years to come. They should choose David Crowley."

So back in June I filed a claim with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development with the Equal Rights department for a case against my former employer. As of September 21st, an investigator has not been assigned to my claim/case. I am just wondering if anyone else has ever filed a claim through the Equal Rights department and how long did it take for your claim/case to be assigned to an investigator. And what was the timeline for your case after an investigator was assigned.

Looking for some advice or words of knowledge for anyone thats been in my situation or has relatable input. Hopefully I explain this well enough. I currently work at a smaller residential shop of 6 guys. Boss recently sold the company and I always liked working for him and with the crew. But have never cared for residential all that much. We do light commercial but not often. Looking at making the union leap. Looking at joining smart 18 but am told I could do 608 since I have refrigerant service training but leaning to 18 since its more relevant to my experience. I have 5 years experience working solely at this company. Because we’re smaller we are trained to do install and service and are scheduled at random for each daily. So I do both equally as much. Though some guys do more of one or the other based on their skill and preference with one or the other. Anyway, I would say Im pretty well rounded but not perfect with each since our training is not too formal. First off wondering if anyone who’s made the switch is glad they did so, second wondering what to expect. Especially since commercial is a different ball game and overall this is a big switch. Figured now is a good time to try something different.