Search Results for: BID

CDC announces that masks are no longer required indoors or outside for fully vaccinated people

Americans fully vaccinated against COVID-19 do not need to wear a mask in most situations, indoors and outdoors, federal health officials said in an updated set of recommendations on May 13 that marks a major turning point in the pandemic. The announcement is a shift from earlier federal guidance, which had urged people who are vaccinated to continue wearing a face mask when indoors with anyone not vaccinated or when in large-group settings. With a larger share of Americans vaccinated and a growing stack of studies confirming the vaccines’ effectiveness, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease...

Read More

Milwaukee awarded $20M from HUD grant to increase affordable housing and address homelessness

Marcia L. Fudge, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), announced the allocation of nearly $5 billion in American Rescue Plan funds to help communities across the country create affordable housing and services for people experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness. Nearly $90 million was awarded to regions across Wisconsin, with more than $20 million specifically for Milwaukee. Secretary Fudge released the news on April 12 during a Zoom call with U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (OH), Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and Birmingham, Alabama Mayor Randall Woodfin. The supplemental funding was allocated through the HOME...

Read More

Milwaukee in May: Annual community march highlights immigrant rights and representation

Members of Voces de la Frontera Action, Souls to the Polls, Youth Empowered in the Struggle (YES), The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) and many Milwaukee residents marched on Saturday, May 1 showing support for essential and immigrant workers. This year’s annual celebration of May Day particularly focused on the plight of essential workers, immigrant families and the Biden administration’s promises to reverse punitive Trump administration policies. A Voces press release noted that two-thirds of all essential workers in the United States are undocumented and have been risking their lives and health, and that of their families, while...

Read More

Leaving Afghanistan: How twenty years and $2 Trillion did not bring peace, democracy, or freedom

As the mother of an Army infantry officer who served for 13 months during former President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan surge, in the Zhari District of the Kandahar Province, I feel tremendous relief that President Joe Biden is calling the troops home from Afghanistan. I also feel an overwhelming sadness for the men and women who served in Afghanistan, especially for those who did not come home, were injured (physically or mentally), or committed suicide. I also feel great sadness for the huge losses and suffering the Afghan people endured and will continue to endure in their homeland, destroyed by...

Read More

Finding an end to the “never-ending war” and dismantling an empire of military infrastructure

Here is the strange thing in an ever-stranger world: I was born in July 1944 in the midst of a devastating world war. That war ended in August 1945 with the atomic obliteration of two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, by the most devastating bombs in history up to that moment, given the sweet code names “Little Boy” and “Fat Man.” I was the littlest of boys at the time. More than three-quarters of a century has passed since, on September 2, 1945, Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijiro Umezu signed the Instrument of Surrender on the...

Read More

An obstruction of progress: The word “filibuster” was derived from the term for “pirate”

By Joshua Holzer, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Westminster College “The word filibuster derives from the Spanish filibustero, itself deriving originally from the Dutch vrijbuiter, ‘privateer, pirate, robber.’ The Spanish form entered the English language in the 1850s, as applied to military adventurers from the United States then operating in Central America… The term was revived in the mid-19th century to describe the actions of adventurers who tried to take control of various territories by force of arms.” – Wikipedia As the U.S. Senate proceeds with its business, split 50-50 between Republicans on one side and Democrats and independents...

Read More