Author: Wisconsin Public Radio

All downtown Milwaukee businesses will remain open and residents will be able to access their homes and parking structures during the Democratic National Convention in July. Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales, Mayor Tom Barrett and members of the Democratic National Convention Committee announced preliminary details of the security plan for the July 13-16 convention Friday. The Fiserv Forum will be the hub of the convention. Local and federal law enforcement agents have been working since May to develop the plan, which will affect 7,000 delegates, 25,000 media members and as many as 50,000 visitors. “My No. 1 priority is...

At a press conference on January 9, the governor and former school teacher laid out some of his legislative priorities for 2020. They are things he said have bipartisan support. Governor Evers called on legislators to remain in session long enough this year to pass bills he identified as having been introduced in one or both houses of the Legislature. On the list of priorities released by the governor’s office are capping copay amounts for insulin; closing the state’s “dark store” loophole; improving water quality; and addressing homelessness. He pointed to a bipartisan bill on homelessness and the results...

Businesses are suffering and taxpayers are shelling out due to the Trump administration’s increased import taxes, according to new analysis from a free trade group. Tariffs Hurt the Heartland says Wisconsinites have paid almost $830 million so far in additional taxes — $84 million in October alone. The Trump administration started imposing tariffs — or increased import taxes — on Chinese goods in 2018. President Donald Trump said last week the tariffs are working, and he has no deadline to make a deal to end the trade war. He added that it might be better to wait until after...

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...