Wisconsin’s deteriorating roads and bridges could finally be repaired under $1T infrastructure bill
The $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill introduced by the U.S. Senate could mean sweeping investments for roads, bridges, internet and water infrastructure in Wisconsin. But, Republican senators are calling for changes on how to pay for the bill as House...
A system on overload: How the COVID-19 pandemic could alter Wisconsin’s system of incarceration
Even before COVID-19 began to snake through Wisconsin’s jails and prisons, Chad Billeb saw a storm coming. As chief deputy for the Marathon County Sheriff’s Department, Billeb was already studying ways to reduce the number of inmates in the jail, a challenge that...
The risks of going to trial: Why the pandemic pushed even innocent defendants into pleading guilty
By Shi Yan, Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Arizona State University • David M. Zimmerman, Associate Professor of Psychology, Missouri State University • Kelly T. Sutherland, Ph.D. Candidate in Applied Psychology and Prevention Science; Data...
Mask wearing returns to Wisconsin with vaccine mandates as new COVID cases surge from Delta variant
As the resurgence of COVID-19 continues, driven by the especially contagious delta variant of the coronavirus, masks are coming back, and vaccine mandates are cropping up. A growing number of employers, primarily in health care and related fields, have announced they...
When AIDS became an epidemic: Memories of finding joy during the struggle despite all of the grief and loss
Forty years ago the CDC reported the first cases of what would come to be known as AIDS among five previously healthy gay men. I was a teenager at that time, coming to grips with my sexual orientation. When I moved to San Francisco as a 23-year-old gay man, AIDS was a...
James Baldwin: On speaking the naked truth to a country caught in a lie of its pretended humanism
Honoring the loss and the inestimable gifts left behind, we mark what would have been the 97th birthday of James Baldwin. An incandescent writer, masterful orator, out gay Black man, and fierce advocate for justice who long and incisively spoke “the naked...
DNC 2024: Milwaukee contemplates another attempt to host the Democratic National Convention
Mayor Tom Barrett said Milwaukee “remains interested in being a national political convention site.” But he added that the process of bidding to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention would require buy-in from a number of parties. The national party has sent...
The Unvaccinated Penis: Research finds mild COVID-19 can cause male infertility and sexual dysfunction
By Ranjith Ramasamy, Associate Professor of Urology, University of Miami Contrary to myths circulating on social media, COVID-19 vaccines do not cause erectile dysfunction and male infertility. What is true: SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, poses a risk for...
The Splinternet: How a global fight for control of the digital superhighway threatens to destabilize it
By Nick Merrill, Research Fellow, University of California, Berkeley You try to use your credit card, but it doesn’t work. In fact, no one’s credit card works. You try to go to some news sites to find out why, but you can’t access any of those, either. Neither can...
Fearing Eviction: Milwaukee-area residents endure long waits to receive federal rental assistance
Freda Young had to move quickly in November. A dispute with her upstairs neighbor made staying in her home unsafe, she said. The Milwaukee woman was juggling moving and caring for her daughter, who suffers from seizures. Three months had passed without an update on...
Cycles of debt: Research indicates that driver’s license suspensions over unpaid fines targets Black drivers
By Sian Mughan, Assistant Professor of Public Affairs, Arizona State University Imagine being unable to pay a US$50 traffic ticket and, as a result, facing mounting fees so high that even after paying hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars toward your debt you still...
COVID-19 Funerals: Grieving families can receive sizable financial aid if they can navigate FEMA’s bureaucracy
Shenora Staten-Jordan felt lost when her father, Gary Lee Staten, died of COVID-19 in May. She had not expected to lose him so soon at age 61, or for a contagious disease to hinder her goodbye. All of that only strengthened her Milwaukee family’s wishes to give Staten...
