Saturday, April 18, 2026
19-year-old Racine man sentenced for possessing child pornography
Milana Doné
RACINE — A 19-year-old Racine man was sentenced to five years prison Friday in connection to allegations of possessing child pornography.
Ernesto Roman was charged with six counts of possession of child pornography in April 2025. After pleading not guilty to all counts in May 2025, Roman pleaded guilty to three of the counts in January. The remaining three counts were dismissed but read into the court record.
Roman also was ordered to serve four years of extended supervision, and the the court imposed a $500 surcharge on each of the three counts.
According to previous Journal Times reporting, Roman was arrested after the Racine County Sheriff’s Office received two cyber tips from the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation.
According to a criminal complaint, both tips contained child pornography and were generated by WhatsApp.
Information obtained through a warrant to WhatsApp reportedly indicated that Roman was the account owner and revealed six videos containing child pornography.
RCSO investigators searched Roman’s home April 14, 2025.
During questioning, he allegedly provided information connecting him to the cyber tips and the account.
Recent stories by Racine Journal Times reporter Milana Doné
Friday, April 17, 2026
Thursday, April 16, 2026
Modine taps president for newly created data centers division
Francesca Pica
Modine Manufacturing has appointed a leader for its newly created data centers division, as the company pursues the rapidly growing data center cooling business.
The Racine-based manufacturer of heating and cooling systems announced that Art Laszlo will serve as president of the newly created data centers segment effective April 1. Laszlo has held multiple leadership positions since joining Modine in 2022, most recently group vice president of global data centers.
He previously served in leadership roles at IDEX, General Electric, Mars Incorporated and General Motors.
"I am thrilled to announce Art's promotion to this critical leadership role," Modine President and CEO Neil Brinker said in a statement on April 14. "Art's proven leadership and deep focus on providing critical cooling solutions make him the ideal choice to lead this new segment."
The move comes as Modine is pivoting hard to the data center market. In 2025, the company announced more than $100 million in capacity expansion to support data center growth. Part of that investment included a new cooling system manufacturing plant in Franklin, Wisconsin.
Between fiscal year 2021 and 2025, data centers grew from 4% to 25% of the company's annual net sales, according to annual filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Data center cooling services brought in more than $640 million in revenue in fiscal year 2025, according to public filings.
Modine says Laszlo and his new division will strengthen the company's position "as a leading provider of innovative cooling solutions to the world's leading data center operators."
"The creation of the global Data Centers segment is a testament to the significant growth and opportunities we see in this market, and I am confident that under Art's guidance, we will continue to deliver exceptional value to our customers," Brinker said.
Modine also announced it will spin off its Performance Technologies segment and combine it with thermal technologies company Gentherm Incorporated. The division produces air- and liquid-cooled systems for use in vehicles and other industrial applications.
The division has posted weaker performances compared to the Climate Solutions segment, which until now included data center cooling. Net sales were down 12% in fiscal year 2025, according to public filings, while Climate Solutions jumped 30%.
The shift will allow Modine to focus more intensely on data centers and other high-growth markets, the company says.
During a Feb. 5 earnings call, Brinker said he expects annual data center revenue will grow 50-70% over the next two years, "comfortably exceeding" Modine's 2028 target of $2 billion.
Francesca Pica can be reached at fpica@usatodayco.com.
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
Tuesday, April 14, 2026
Monday, April 13, 2026
Wisconsin ranks among the states with the worst roads, report says
Maia Pandey
As Milwaukee officials buckle down on traffic safety measures, a new report has ranked Wisconsin among the states with the worst roads.
Wisconsin has the 14th-worst roads in the country, worse than any of its neighboring states, according to the analysis by ConsumerAffairs, a consumer news platform. To rank the states, researchers used data from the Federal Highway Administration and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics on the conditions of urban and rural roads and the rates of car accident fatalities in each state.
Wisconsin's ranking was, however, improved from its spot as 8th-worst in the same analysis conducted by ConsumerAffairs last year.
In recent years, Milwaukee officials have adopted a goal of reducing the city's annual number of traffic deaths to zero by 2037. That includes implementing hundreds of traffic calming projects citywide, including an additional 60 projects recently announced for 2026.
So far, the efforts seem to be showing returns: Traffic fatalities in Milwaukee hit a six-year low in 2025, city officials announced in March. The city logged 57 traffic fatalities in 2025, compared 70 deaths in 2024 and 77 deaths in the peak year of 2022.
Here's what else the report found about Wisconsin's roads:
About 57% of Wisconsin's urban roads and 15% of its rural roads are considered in "poor" condition by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, per the report. In contrast, about 36% of urban roads nationwide and 10% of rural roads are in poor condition.
Wisconsin has about 4,400 miles of urban roads and about 12,750 miles of rural roads.
Neighboring states Illinois, Michigan and Iowa ranked as 19th worst, 25th worst and 34th worst (or 16th best), respectively. Minnesota, meanwhile, had the second-best roads in the country.
Though the lowest-ranked states were scattered across the country and varied in size, certain climate and weather patterns were among the unifying characteristics in the states with the worst roads. In cold areas, for example, freeze-thaw cycles can increase potholes, per the report. States with heavy commercial truck traffic, such as New Mexico and Oklahoma, are also likely to see increased wear and tear on roadways.
Here are the top five states with the worst roads, per ConsumerAffairs:
- New Mexico
- Mississippi
- Rhode Island
- Hawaii
- Oklahoma
And here are the top five states with the best roads:
- Indiana
- Minnesota
- Vermont
- Georgia
- Kansas
How to track Milwaukee's traffic calming projects
You can keep tabs on the progress of Milwaukee's traffic calming projects with this dashboard maintained by the Department of Public Works. The dashboard includes information for nearly 400 projects the department is currently pursuing.
For completed projects, the city is collecting data on whether speeding and traffic crashes have reduced in the area since the construction was completed. Overall, traffic calming measures since 2022 have reduced speeding by 32% and crashes by 15% citywide, per the dashboard. You can follow the progress here.
Cartoon raindrop falls prettily but not accurately
ASK THE WEATHER GUYS | PRECIPITATION
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A large raindrop, about one-quarter of an inch across, or about the size of ahouse fly, has terminal fall speeds of about 20 mph. The smallest raindrops fall at about 2 mph. |
Question: What is the shape of raindrops?
Answer: While cartoonists typically draw raindrops like a teardrop or a pear shape, raindrops are not shaped like that.
They are drawn as teardrops to give the image of falling through the atmosphere, which they do. But as they fall, raindrops are flattened and shaped like a hamburger bun by the drag forces of the air they are falling through.
Raindrops are at least 0.5 millimeters or 0.02 inches in diameter. You will not find a raindrop bigger than about one-quarter of an inch in diameter. Larger than that, the drop will break apart into smaller drops because of the air resistance. Precipitation drops smaller than 0.02 inches in diameter are collectively called drizzle, which is often associated with stratus clouds.
The typical speed of a falling raindrop depends on the size of the drop. Gravity pulls everything downward. As an object falls it experiences a frictional drag that counters the downward force of gravity. When the gravity and frictional drag are balanced, we have an equilibrium fall speed that is known as the terminal velocity of the object. The terminal velocity depends on the size, shape and mass of the raindrop and the density of the air. Thus, it is worth talking a bit about the shape and size of raindrops.
A large raindrop, about one-quarter of an inch across or about the size of a house fly, has terminal fall speeds of about 10 meters per second or about 20 mph. That kind of speed can cause compaction and erosion of the soil by the force of impact. Since raindrops come in a variety of sizes, they fall with different speeds. The smallest raindrops fall at about 2 mph. Water droplets smaller than these smallest raindrops (known as cloud liquid water droplets) can resist falling in the atmosphere because there is upward moving air that overcomes the force of gravity and keeps them suspended in the cloud.
Steve Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, are guests on WHA radio (970 AM) at noon the last Monday of each month. Send them your questions at stevea@ssec.wisc.edu or jemarti1@wisc.edu.
The terminal velocity depends on the size, shape and mass of the raindrop and the density of the air.