Author: Hannah Dugan

“Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose. But fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I was going to make a long speech, and there is a bullet – there is where the bullet went through – and it probably saved me from it going into my heart. The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best.” –...

After years of effort, a Waubeka, Wisconsin school teacher successfully lobbied for the 1916 creation of the annual observance of National Flag Day. Every year since on June 14th the United States commemorates its flag as an emblem of the country, a standard for promoting patriotism and activism, and a focal point for national pride in our democracy. Every year since 1966 the United States commemorates “National Flag Week” as Congress so designated: during the week in which June 14 occurs. The flag commands respect – as a symbol of the Republic’s founding principles of liberty and freedom. The...

The highly anticipated upsurge of flight activity post-COVID vaccine at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport is second only to the surge expected 75 years ago this month. In April 1946 “Camp Billy Mitchell,” Milwaukee’s prisoner of war work camp, was finally decommissioned. The closure made way for Milwaukee County’s long-delayed post-war civilian air travel to soar. However, the War Department’s continued “squatting” would delay the anxiously anticipated air travel rush from taking flight for another two years. Between 1945 and 1946, over 3000 German prisoners of war (PW’s was the abbreviation used in 1945) were interned at General Mitchell Field,...

During Women’s History Month the achievements and the impact of women are recounted, and assessments of the trajectory of inclusion are reviewed. This year marks not only a milestone for women in the law in Milwaukee, but also reveals the slow but steady equitable inclusion of women – as judges, public servants, and elected officials. Fifty years ago, then-Milwaukee Alderperson Vel Phillips resigned her office to become the first woman judge in Milwaukee County and the first African-American judge in the state of Wisconsin. Governor Lee Dreyfus appointed her to the Children’s Court (a designated appointment at the time)....