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Milwaukee’s 2022 budget proposal depends on Federal pandemic funds to cover the absence of state support

Posted by Staff | Sep 22, 2021

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett presented the Common Council with his 2022 budget on September 21, highlighting the fiscal challenges ahead due to the Republican-dominated state legislature’s refusal to give the city the tools it needs. The Milwaukee Common Council has until November 5 to make changes to Mayor Barrett’s budget proposal. It will also be the last budget drafted by the Mayor, as he is awaiting Senate confirmation to serve in the Biden administration as the new U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg. The proposed $1.7 billion budget for Milwaukee will be supported by $305.2 million in property taxes, up 2...

Made in the USA: Homegrown terrorism has existed throughout American history

Posted by Reggie Jackson | Sep 20, 2021

“This land is your land and this land is my land From California to the New York island From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters This land was made for you and me” Woody Guthrie’s 1944 folk song In light of the twentieth anniversary of the September 11 terrorists attacks, most Americans memories of terrorism are related to that horrific day. I clearly remember that day as if it just happened. There are images and sounds from that day that will never leave my consciousness. However, we as Americans need to be clearly aware of two things....

New data shows decline of poverty in 2020 as a result of COVID stimulus funds

Posted by Common Dreams | Sep 20, 2021

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing spike in unemployment, poverty in the U.S. declined by roughly 2.6% from 2019 to 2020 as a result of the federal government’s expansion of the social safety net, new data released on September 14 showed. For the first time since 2011, median household income decreased last year, and the official poverty rate rose, from 10.5% in 2019 to 11.4% in 2020. But according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s supplemental poverty measure (SPM), which takes into account additional expenses plus the value of government aid, the poverty rate fell to 9.1% last year, compared...

Corporate Welfare: When Republicans punish the poor with “Capitalism” and reward the rich with “Socialism”

Posted by Robert Reich | Sep 18, 2021 |

Much of the news from Republicans in Congress has been about their attacks on the agenda of Democrats, with abundant false claims of scary “socialist” policies. We do have socialism in this country — but it is not policies promoted by Democrats. The real socialism is corporate welfare. Thousands of big American corporations rake in billions each year in government subsidies, bailouts, and tax loopholes—all funded on the taxpayer dime, and all contributing to higher stock prices for the richest 1 percent who own half of the stock market, as well as CEOs and other top executives who are...

Deadly Profit: Big Tech companies continually put revenue over the safety of their users

Posted by Common Dreams | Sep 18, 2021

Are social-media companies killing people? President Biden recently said they were. But then he clarified his remarks, explaining that misinformation was the real threat. It is actually the combination of the two that is costing lives. Biden’s comments followed a U.S. surgeon general advisory, which found that the user-engagement model driving businesses like Facebook and YouTube makes it easy for deadly misinformation to spread at a speed and scale never before possible. These online platforms have designed their products in a way that encourages users to share false content—causing people to reject public-health initiatives against COVID-19, attack public-health workers,...

Segregated Infrastructure: Removing urban highways can repair neighborhoods blighted by racist policies

Posted by TheConversation | Sep 17, 2021 |

By Joan Fitzgerald, Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Northeastern University; and Julian Agyeman, Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts University The US$1.2 trillion infrastructure bill now moving through Congress will bring money to cities for much-needed investments in roads, bridges, public transit networks, water infrastructure, electric power grids, broadband networks and traffic safety. We believe that more of this money should also fund the dismantling of racist infrastructure. Many urban highways built in the 1950s and 1960s were deliberately run through neighborhoods occupied by Black families and other people of color, walling these communities...