Author: Staff

Photo by Gage Skidmore and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 President Trump pardoned former Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, who was found guilty of criminal contempt for deliberately violating a federal court order that prohibited illegal detentions based only on suspicions about immigration status. The court order prohibited Arpaio from violating the constitutional rights of minorities by using racial profiling when stopping and detaining Latinos. The ruling stems from an initial lawsuit brought by Latino residents of Maricopa who successfully challenged Arpaio’s policies of racial profiling and illegal detentions. The plaintiff class was represented by the American...

The Social Development Commission (SDC), in partnership with the Medical Society of Milwaukee County and a coalition of supporting agencies, will present the SDC Summit on Poverty 2017, Dismantling Systems of Poverty from September 6 to 7. The SDC Summit on Poverty will be held at Italian Conference Center and is a key collaboration of service providers and subject matter experts such as policy makers, advocates, faith-based and community based organizations. Imagine living in the United States on two dollars a day, or the only family income came from donating plasma. After two decades of groundbreaking research on poverty,...

The Mayor of Madison has authorized the removal of city-owned Civil War monuments honoring Confederate soldiers interred at Forest Hill Cemetery. Mayor Paul Soglin made his decision public in an August 17 Facebook post, in response to the growing momentum in Washington DC and Southern States to take down Confederate statues. After the tragic domestic terror attack in Charlottesville, Virginia, municipalities have accelerated their efforts to remove symbols of racism connected to the Civil War. “The removal of City owned monuments to Confederate soldiers in Forest Hill Cemetery has minimal or no disruption to the cemetery itself. There is...

Democrats side with Wisconsinites over foreign corporation, wanting to invest in state-based businesses and communities rather than writing $3 billion check to Taiwanese manufacturer. On August 17, joined by a handful of out-state Republicans, members of the Assembly Democratic caucus voted against Special Session Assembly Bill 1 which gives up to $3 billion in taxpayer dollars and guts countless environmental regulations to lure Taiwanese manufacturer, Foxconn, to Southeast Wisconsin. Since existing corporate handouts most likely negate any potential state income tax liability, Foxconn could receive upwards of $3 billion in cash from state taxpayers for building a manufacturing plant...

The 2017 Milwaukee Film Festival announced this year’s festival lineup for the Black Lens program. Now in its fourth year, the program features documentary and fiction films by African American filmmakers that explore a range of topics rooted in the black community and are relevant to all. The lineup includes Academy Award winner and Milwaukee Film Board Member John Ridley’s new documentary Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992, a 20th anniversary, 35mm screening of the classic film Love Jones, and two shorts programs titled Black Lens Shorts: Family Matters and Black Lens Shorts: Lost & Found. “Adding additional films,...