Author: Public Radio

Despite not being able to purchase firearms directly, many teens have access to guns, according to a new study released this week by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The study looked at National Youth Risk Behavior Survey data from 1993 to 2017 to determine if the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) changed adolescents’ gun-carrying behavior. It found, on average, about 6 percent of teens reported carrying a gun. Of those adolescents, about 17 percent of them were from states with universal background checks. Meanwhile, data from the state Department of Public Instruction’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey found...

In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott case that black people — both enslaved and not — had no rights within United States borders. The ruling took place just four years before the American Civil War. Fewer than 10 years later, the Union won the war, slavery ended and some began to ask, “What about black people?” Eric Foner, a DeWitt Clinton professor emeritus of history at Columbia University, considers this question in his recently-published book, “The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution.” The results of the conversation about how...

For months, federal, state and local law enforcement officials have been planning for the 2020 Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee. From July 13 to 16, an estimated 50,000 people will come to the city to take part in the event, making security a primary concern for officials. Liz Gilbert, president of the Milwaukee 2020 Host Committee for the Democratic National Convention, said the goal is that security will not affect people in a way that is “totally inconvenient” during the four-day convention. Gilbert oversees the day-to-day operations for the host committee. The convention security perimeter will be announced in...

The first U.S. census to allow all households to participate online is facing another unprecedented challenge, the looming threat of disinformation through social media. As 2020 draws closer, federal officials fear foreign governments and internet trolls could use Facebook, Twitter and other platforms to spread rumors and propaganda to derail the constitutionally mandated count with at least 10 years’ worth of implications on elections around the country. Results from the head count of every person living in the U.S. are used not only to determine the distribution of congressional seats and Electoral College votes among the states but also...

Milwaukee-native Ryan Clancy recently earned a world record after playing pinball for 32 hours straight, for what is called the longest marathon playing pinball by Guinness World Records. The previous record was 30 hours and 10 minutes. “It was actually 32 hours and two minutes, but didn’t feel like a minute beyond 32 hours,” Clancy said of the total amount of time he spent playing pinball. Clancy, the co-owner of an amusement center, Bounce Milwaukee, began the attempt at 9 a.m. Friday, November 1 and finished at 5:02 p.m. Saturday, November 2, at the behest of his daughter Fiona, who...

When Caroline Comstock graduated four years ago with a business degree from Marquette University, she was offered a good paying job at a Milwaukee-based company, and a lower-paying internship in Chicago. She chose the internship. Comstock is one of the hundreds of millennials that leave Milwaukee every year — and the city wants to form a task force to investigate how to stop the so-called “brain drain.” A 2019 report by the Milwaukee Office of Workforce Development found the city and the state of Wisconsin are struggling to attract and retain young, educated workers. The number of 25- to...