Civil Rights & Immigration
Wisconsin pride showcased at ‘the gayest political convention in history’
The LGBTQ Caucus meeting at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday was a clear celebration of Wisconsin. Naturally, the first speaker was Sen. Tammy Baldwin and the second up was Rep. Mark Pocan. It didn’t stop there. The third speaker was the secretary of the DNC Jason Rae — also a Wisconsinite. “You may notice a […]
Trump campaign gives activists a taste of what’s at stake in the election
“We should be moving towards progress, and now it just seems that we kind of went backwards,” Idalia Cervantes, a regional organizer with Voces de la Frontera Action, a branch of the immigrant and Latinx advocacy group Voces de la Frontera, told Wisconsin Examiner. November is approaching, and the group has continued to shape and […]
100 years of women voting, yet the battle is still not over
One hundred years ago Tuesday, the United States ratified the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote. Some women, that is. Wisconsin has bragging rights as the first state to ratify the 19th Amendment on June 10, 1919. While it is a day to celebrate women’s suffrage, it is important […]
The scene as a protester is arrested in Wauwatosa
On Aug. 14, the Wauwatosa police made one of their first arrests of a Black Lives Matter protester after weeks of sustained protests in the Milwaukee County suburb. Protesters had started in Milwaukee, and marched down Wells Street to cross into Wauwatosa. Police confronted the marchers as they reached the city limits. On Aetna St. […]
A look at the DNC’s “security footprint” and plans for the days ahead
Opening day for the Democratic National Convention (DNC) was supposed to be a huge opportunity for Milwaukee. Thousands of people were expected to stream into Wisconsin’s largest city for events spanning four days. The economic boost Milwaukee would have received would have been unrivaled. But then COVID-19 happened, and the format of the DNC had […]
Tosa PD escalates tactics against protesters following incident at officer’s home
Despite escalating tactics to restrain protesters, the suburban City of Wauwatosa has become the epicenter of Milwaukee’s Black Lives Matter movement. Following a confrontation with protesters at the home of Officer Joseph Mensah, the Wauwatosa Police Department (WPD) pledged to take the gloves off. The threats of arrest and surveillance, however, haven’t deterred The People’s […]
Shawano County: ‘The Land the Constitution Forgot’
There’s a saying in Shawano County, usually attributed to the county’s former district attorney, that if you come on vacation, you’ll leave on probation. Decades of law and order prosecutors and a historically punitive culture have created a court system that mistreats outsiders, locals, Native Americans from the neighboring Menominee Reservation, defendants and victims. At […]
New report examines the power of poor and low-income voters
America’s poor, over 140 million strong, have the power to shift the direction of this country. That’s according to a report compiled by the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC), examining how trends in American poverty translate to votes in the ballot box. The report’s title is a call to action “Unleashing the power of poor and […]
Reverend William Barber discusses what’s at stake in the 2020 election
Reverend Dr. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, says more is at stake in the 2020 election than people realize. The question, he says, is “whether or not we’re going to address these five interlocking injustices”— systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and distorted moral narratives, which plague America’s poor. Barber […]
Milwaukee continues to reel from the demotion of Police Chief Morales
The demotion of Alfonso Morales from chief of the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) to captain has triggered a shake-up in leadership both in MPD and within the Fire and Police Commission (FPC), which called for his removal. Although some marked the demotion as a victory, others are concerned that his replacement by former assistant chief […]
Why I wrote 500 toe tags during a pandemic
This column first appeared in the Kansas Reflector, our sister news outlet in Kansas. Huascar Medina is the current Poet Laureate of Kansas. The Undocumented Migration Project’s Hostile Terrain 94 art exhibit will be on display in Milwaukee on Sept. 24 at the UW-Milwaukee. I recently completed the task of filling out more than […]
Tosa’s Equity and Inclusion getting into “good trouble” with police reforms
As chair of Wauwatosa’s Equity and Inclusion Commission (EIC), Sean Lowe feels it’s his duty to get into what the late Congressman John Lewis called “good trouble.” The commission was formed in 2019, after a group of residents pushed the idea as part of the solution to the suburb’s checkered legacy with racial issues. Right […]