Civil Rights & Immigration
Native American agricultural leaders detail farm bill priorities at U.S. Senate hearing
WASHINGTON — A roundtable of Native American agricultural leaders at a recent U.S. Senate hearing lobbied for increased sovereignty and social justice in the coming farm bill by expanding tribes’ jurisdiction over U.S. Department of Agriculture programs. It’s called “638” authority and refers to Public Law 93-638, which gives tribes the power to manage certain […]
Contradiction raised in Wauwatosa curfew lawsuit ruling
A motion was filed in federal court Friday to restore claims that were dismissed in a federal lawsuit filed over the city of Wauwatosa’s handling of protests in 2020. Claims raised by 17 of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs argue that Wauwatosa police Lt. Joseph Roy violated the Drivers License Protection Act (DPPA) by sharing personal information […]
Judge dismisses more claims in Wauwatosa curfew lawsuit; others remain
A federal judge has thrown out First Amendment claims raised in a lawsuit over the city of Wauwatosa’s handling of Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, while leaving in place other claims, including those relating to the collection by law enforcement officers of personal information about people present during the demonstrations. On Monday, U.S. Magistrate […]
Milwaukee sheriff drone flights dropped in 2022
Drone flights carried out by the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) dropped significantly in 2022. According to a log of drone flights obtained by the Wisconsin Examiner through open records requests, the office flew drones twice last year. That’s a sharp decline from 2021, which saw over 20 drone flight days. The updated flight log […]
National ban on transgender athletes in girls’ sports passed by U.S. House panel
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee early Thursday passed a bill on a party-line vote that would block transgender girls from competing in school sports consistent with their gender identity, a reflection of a broader push in multiple states to curb the rights of transgender student athletes. The bill, H.R. 734, introduced […]
GOP bill mandating federal Parents Bill of Rights passed by U.S. House committee
WASHINGTON — A national “Parents Bill of Rights” is headed for a full U.S. House vote after the House Committee on Education and the Workforce early Thursday approved the measure designed to empower parents to inspect books and other teaching materials in schools. Lawmakers on the committee debated the GOP-backed bill that would federally mandate […]
This International Women’s Day, U.S. anti-abortion laws violate human rights, groups say
Ahead of International Women’s Day, hundreds of U.S. and global human rights groups, doctors, and attorneys have asked the United Nations to intervene on behalf of the millions of women in the U.S. who have been left without access to legal abortion and vital forms of reproductive health care in the wake of last summer’s […]
Proclaiming March 31 César Chavez Day in Wisconsin
State representatives from the Latino Caucus are collecting co-sponsors to proclaim March 31 as César Chavez Day. This commemorative holiday would be an uplift of the countless migrant workers who serve Wisconsin’s dairy industry, and it would honor the valiant history of migrant labor movements in Wisconsin. In the 1960s, Wisconsin was a home for […]
Enslaved workers are making your breakfast: Wisconsin confronts labor trafficking
On Friday, a coalition of advocates for migrant workers and state officials announced a $5.1 million grant to fight labor trafficking in Wisconsin. Milwaukee, where the coalition made the announcement, from the headquarters of United Migrant Opportunity Services (UMOS), was identified not long ago as a center for human trafficking in the U.S. “We have […]
Lawmakers weigh in as Wauwatosa asks state to undo racial covenants
The fate of decades-old racially restrictive housing covenants in parts of Wisconsin is now up to the state. Earlier this month, the city of Wauwatosa’s common council unanimously voted to move towards dissolving the restrictions against selling properties to nonwhites or non-Christians that still remain on some property deeds. A resolution passed by the council […]
Death on a dairy farm
This story was originally published by ProPublica. The call to 911 came in a little after 11 p.m. A man said a small boy on his dairy farm had severe head injuries. He said he thought the boy had been trampled by a cow. Ann Ingolia, a deputy for the Dane County Sheriff’s Office, was […]
Wisconsin should restore driver’s licenses for immigrant workers
No one could possibly favor putting thousands of unlicensed and uninsured drivers on the road. Yet the Wisconsin Legislature did just that back in 2007 when it passed a law taking away driver’s licenses from people who don’t have valid Social Security numbers. The result is that undocumented immigrant workers, people we rely on to […]