Search Results for: BID

How debt relief for Black owned farms was blocked by a White farmer’s claim of discrimination in Wisconsin

Out of 3.4 million farmers working in the United States, fewer than 50,000 are Black, according to the most recent Census of Agriculture taken in 2017. That disproportionately small number is due in large part to historic racial discrimination in federal farm programs—and now efforts to address that history are themselves being attacked as discriminatory. Black farmers, most of whom work land in the South, suffered yet another blow from the U.S. government earlier this summer when a federal judge halted $4 billion worth of debt relief that was targeted to Black and other disadvantaged farmers through the American...

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Community Portraits: Faces from Milwaukee join a 16-city public art tour for the Inside Out project

Milwaukee Downtown BID #21 ended its Jumpst(ART) Downtown summer campaign with a visit from the largest global participatory art project on August 27. The “Inside Out 11M” project, a partnership between French artist JR and Emerson Collective, parked at Chase Tower on the corner of Water Street and Wisconsin Avenue. The visit by the “Citizenship for U.S.” photo booth truck marked the second stop of a 16-city tour across the United States, aimed at creating a portrait of America that highlights both our diversity and unity. Other U.S. tour stops include Madison, Las Vegas, Denver, Philadelphia, and Washington DC....

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Downtown Employee Appreciation Week kicks off for 16th year as a bright spot in the pandemic’s gloom

Milwaukee Downtown BID #21 teamed up with downtown businesses and community leaders again to welcome back downtown employees during the 16th annual Downtown Employee Appreciation Week, August 30 to September 3, 2021. The weeklong celebration features free lunches, Office Challenge Games, and after-hours socials. The ribbon-cutting ceremony, live music, and prize opportunities were held at Red Arrow Park on August 30, kicking off the festivities. Lunch for 1,000 employees was provided by Tatay’s Truck and Davians. Three local caricaturists were also onsite, creating free caricatures for downtown employees. As part of the Art in the Park series, Dave Watkins...

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Delusions of Nation Building: The end of America’s forever wars brings the start of a global reckoning

The lightning speed takeover of Afghanistan by Taliban forces, which captured all 17 of the regional capitals and the national capital of Kabul in about nine days with astonishing ease, was a result of “cease fire” deals. That amounted to bribes, negotiated after former president Trump’s administration came to an agreement with the Taliban in February 2020. When U.S. officials excluded the Afghan government from the deal, soldiers believed that it was only a question of time until they were on their own and cut deals to switch sides. When Biden announced that he would honor Trump’s deal, the...

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Corporate Sponsorship: When Conservatives work to ensure the Federal government is a failure

A study by the Peace Research Institute in Norway and the University of Aarhus that polled 6,000 adults from the United States, Denmark, Italy, and Hungary found that the COVID pandemic has further eroded faith in government among people all across Europe and the United States. This is the capstone of “conservative” or neoliberal efforts to destroy faith in democratic governance in developed countries, an effort that goes back 50 years. In the 1950s and 1960s Americans had a lot of trust in government — around 80 percent of Americans said they trusted government — as did the citizens...

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Closing the wealth gap: Milwaukee considers providing basic income to heal racial inequity

Towanda Perkins is a single mother with two grown sons. She works as an office manager at a nonprofit organization in Milwaukee. During the pandemic, she has seen many mothers with children who have lost their jobs and been evicted by landlords. Perkins is expecting to see more homelessness once the temporary halt on certain evictions issued by the CDC, recently extended to October 3, ends. Between June and November of last year, the national poverty rate increased by 2.4% overall — but 3.1% for Black Americans, according to economists from the University of Chicago and the University of...

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