Author: Wisconsin Public Radio

Cheesehead Couture: From geographic slur to hometown pride and global fashion accessory

Many Wisconsinites have personal reasons for plopping giant triangles of yellow foam on their heads at every Wisconsin sporting event — from football to baseball, but many forget the origins of the uniquely Dairy State tradition. It all started with taunts from Chicago sports fans in the 1980s. Bears, Cubs, and White Sox fans were not the first group of people to use the term “cheesehead” disparagingly. The Nazis called Dutch people “cheeseheads” or “kaaskop” — meaning stupid or dense — while invading their country during World War II. “Our lovely neighbors to the south from Illinois have been...

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Mitchell International Airport prepares logistical plans to support guests for next year’s DNC

When the 2020 Democratic National Convention arrives in Milwaukee in mid-July, many of the city’s 50,000 guests will travel there by airplane. Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport is getting ready in a number of ways, from sprucing up its restaurants and shops to developing a marketing plan to compete with O’Hare International Airport. Airport officials spoke with their counterparts in Philadelphia, Cleveland and Charlotte, North Carolina — all of which have hosted political conventions in recent years. What they learned is one of the biggest challenges for Milwaukee’s Democratic National Convention will be ground transportation. Harold Mester, the airport’s director...

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Mayor Tom Barrett suggests President Trump select Milwaukee to host 2020 G-7 Summit

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has invited President Donald Trump to host next year’s meeting of leading industrial nations in Milwaukee. In a letter to the president, dated Sunday, Barrett wrote hosting the 2020 Group of 7 meeting in Milwaukee “would be an opportunity to show the world America’s Fresh Coast — a Great Lakes city that is growing in this strong economy, reinventing itself through innovation and investment, and building on its established high quality of life.” In the decades since the G-7 was organized, the United States has hosted meetings in a number of locations, but never in...

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Empty and Unfinished: Foxconn innovation centers in Wisconsin remain hollow shells

Not long after Foxconn Technology Group announced plans to build a massive manufacturing facility in southeast Wisconsin, the tech giant began making promises to share its model for economic development across the entire state. But 18 months after purchasing its first building in downtown Milwaukee, there is little evidence that what Foxconn calls its innovation centers are moving forward. In addition to Milwaukee, innovation centers have been announced in Green Bay, Eau Claire, Racine and Madison. Development directors in those cities say Foxconn now appears to be focused on its main manufacturing campus in Mount Pleasant. Foxconn officials didn’t...

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Milwaukee’s Host Committee focused on inclusion and diversity surrounding hundreds of DNC events

Since being chosen as the host city for the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Milwaukee’s host committee has been committed to making the city as inclusive as possible. The 2020 convention will mark the first Democratic National Convention to be hosted in a Midwest city, outside of Chicago, in the past 100 years. Liz Gilbert, president of the Milwaukee 2020 Host Committee, said the event will provide an opportunity for the region to showcase its economy and culture. “We want to host the most accessible and intentionally inclusive DNC of our lifetime,” Gilbert said on October 14 during a Greater Milwaukee...

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Legislation seeks to make Hmong veterans from the Vietnam War eligible for state benefits

A new bill in the Wisconsin Legislature would extend state benefits to Hmong veterans of the Vietnam War. The legislation would change the state’s definition of a veteran to include Hmong people who served in the CIA and U.S. military in Laos between 1961 and 1975. The change would make them eligible for state veteran benefits like education grants, financial aid and funeral honors. Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling is an author of the bill. At a press conference on October 15, she said the cost of expanding benefits is still undetermined because the exact number of Hmong vets...

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