Transit Progress: First battery charging station installed for Milwaukee County’s East-West BRT line
Progress continues on Milwaukee County’s innovative East-West Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line with the installation of the first charging station at the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center in Wauwatosa. The planned 9-mile, regional, modern transit line operated by the...
Declining Democracy: How the United States is turning into a “developing country” like Cuba and Bulgaria
By Kathleen Frydl, Sachs Lecturer, Johns Hopkins University The United States may regard itself as a “leader of the free world,” but an index of development released in July 2022 places the country much farther down the list. In its global rankings, the United Nations...
Jail-to-deportation pipeline: ACLU report details the thriving collaborating of Wisconsin sheriffs with ICE
Relationships, both formal and informal, between Wisconsin sheriff’s offices and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cause immigrants to be deported for even minor offenses such as traffic violations while making immigrant communities more fearful of law...
Perpetuating elitism: Why using “Latine” as an alternative “Latinx” is considered more inclusive
By Melissa K. Ochoa, Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Saint Louis University Most of the debates on the usage of “Latinx,” pronounced “la-teen-ex,” have taken place in the United States. But the word has begun to spread into Spanish-speaking...
Risk of death: How the youth suicide problem across America is fueled by easy access to guns
By Matthew Miller, Professor of Health Sciences and Epidemiology, Northeastern University; and Deborah Azrael, Director of Research, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health School shootings in the U.S. are national tragedies, and the toll they take in lives cut...
A source of distress: Viewing social media overuse as a byproduct of dissociation rather than addiction
By Amanda Baughan, PhD Student in Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had an unfortunate Saturday routine. I would wake up in my studio apartment and immediately turn to my phone, telling myself...
“Alexa, are you listening?” How household virtual assistants are “eavesmining” our children
By Stephen J. Neville, PhD Student of Communication & Culture, York University, Canada; and Natalie Coulter, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, and Director of the Institute for Research on Digital Literacies, York University, Canada In many busy...
Reggie Jackson: The Brett Favre welfare fraud case reminds me that Mississippi has not changed much
“If you were to pay me is there anyway the media can find out where it came from and how much?” – Brett Favre text message to Nancy New on August 3, 2017 “No, we never have had that information publicized. I understand you being uneasy about that though…”...
Mayor Cavalier Johnson signs ordinance establishing Juneteenth Day as an official city holiday
Mayor Cavalier Johnson signed Common Council File number 220475 on September 26 that formally established Juneteenth Day as an official holiday for the City of Milwaukee. With the ordinance, Milwaukee joined the federal government and about half the states in formally...
Undermining Equality: Why right-wing attacks on “wokeness” are really targeted against social justice
In late August, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made headlines with a dubious declaration. “Florida is the state where ‘woke’ goes to die,” he said at a Republican Party event in his US state, celebrating a slate of conservative victories in school board elections....
Heritage and Help: Milwaukee’s Pakistani diaspora rally support for flood-stricken homeland
It was a Tuesday in August when Dr. Asad Khan realized he could not reach his family. The worst case scenarios raced through his mind. He talks to his siblings every day, something was wrong. “I deal with life and death, being in the hospital, being a physician,...
Failed Promises: Why Puerto Rico’s vulnerability to hurricanes is magnified by bureaucratic roadblocks
By Carlos A. Suárez Carrasquillo, Senior Lecturer in Political Science, Center for Latin American Studies, University of Florida; and Fernando Tormos-Aponte, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh Five years after Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc on...
