Civil Rights & Immigration
Trump’s troops in Portland and the march to martial law
President Trump’s use of federal officers to conduct law enforcement operations in Portland —and his threat to bring them to other U.S. cities, including Milwaukee — is just a taste of things to come. As he showed in Lafayette Square, Trump has no compunction about calling on federal forces to further his political ends. And […]
Justice Department sending federal agents to Milwaukee in crackdown on Democrat-run cities
Federal agents will be deployed to Milwaukee and several other midwestern cities run by Democrats in the coming weeks, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday. The move is an escalation of occasionally violent federal intervention in cities that have seen large protests for racial justice. Trump announced that as part of “Operation Legend” agents from the […]
Listening session on race and equity in Tosa is mass catharsis for residents
Over four hours of catharsis followed the 6:30 p.m. kick-off of a public listening session on race and equity issues in Wauwatosa (Tosa), held on July 21. Hundreds of residents from Tosa, Milwaukee County and even from other areas of the state flowed into the football stadiums at Hart Park, chosen for the session to […]
Tosa Officer’s Go Fund Me shows large donations from local police organizations
A Go Fund Me page has been established by the brother of a Wauwatosa police officer at the center of recent protests by citizens demanding he be fired after shooting three young African American residents in five years. Established nearly a week ago, the page has raised more than $44,000 toward a goal of $50,000. […]
Working Wisconsin faces new challenges in the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic imposed significant new hardships on American workers — and it’s exposed just how much hardship many of them have been enduring for years. That’s a central conclusion of a report published today, the 2020 edition of the State of Working Wisconsin. The report is published by COWS — formerly the Center on […]
Trump orders that undocumented immigrants not be counted for apportionment after census
President Donald Trump issued an order on Tuesday to exclude undocumented immigrants from the U.S. population count for the purpose of determining representation in Congress. The U.S. Constitution requires a census of the “whole number of persons” residing in each state, language that replaced the clause that stated that enslaved people should be counted as […]
DOJ records request on protests denied due to “ongoing” investigations
The Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) has denied the Wisconsin Examiner’s request for public records pertaining to police action against protesters in Milwaukee. The requests, made on June 26, were denied because the records “concern an investigation that is continuing at this time,” according to the DOJ’s July 15 letter in response. The Examiner first […]
Madison, Milwaukee groups join in observing Strike for Black Lives
Hospital workers knelt in silence in Madison and fast food workers walked out in Milwaukee as a coalition of unions and community activists marked the Strike for Black Lives across the country on Monday. Actions were planned in more than 25 cities, organizers said, with participants including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Amalgamated […]
Civil Rights hero John Lewis changed America making ‘good trouble’
Civil Rights icon and longtime Georgia Congressman John Lewis, who advocated for change through nonviolence, died late Friday night at the age of 80. The Atlanta Democrat was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer in late December. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed his death, saying the country had lost “one of the greatest heroes of […]
Tosa officer’s suspension is just one chapter in an ongoing saga
By order of the Wauwatosa (Tosa) Police and Fire Commission (PFC), Officer Joseph Mensah has been placed on administrative suspension with pay. For the three families of those who died in police shootings involving Mensah, the move represents a big step forward. Still, the pressure continues to mount from the near daily protests and demonstrations […]
Wisconsin: “An important player in the history of LGBTQ political power”
There has been a 21% increase in openly LGBTQ elected officials nationwide over the past year, according to the LGBTQ Victory Institute’s Out for America 2020 digital report, an annual ‘census’ which was released Thursday. The large increase comes at a time when there are 880 openly LGBTQ people running for office in 2020 — […]
Border officials did not follow guidelines on migrant children’s health care, government investigators find
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has not consistently followed new guidelines for medical care of migrant children and spent some of the agency’s money designated for “medical care” on unrelated items like printers, speakers and its canine program, according to a new federal investigation. The U.S. Government Accountability Office, an independent congressional watchdog, found gaps […]