Control for another decade: Republicans prepare to gerrymander electoral maps to rig next election
Ten years ago, Republicans pulled off what would later be described as “the most audacious political heist of modern times.” It was not particularly complicated. Every 10 years, the U.S. constitution requires states to redraw the maps for both congressional and state...
In Service to Our Country: Milwaukee honors wounded Veterans on Purple Heart Day 2021
August 7 was Purple Heart Day, and Milwaukee hosted a special commemoration at the War Memorial Center in honor of those wounded and killed in service to our country. The “Purple Heart Day of Honor 2021” was held on Friday, August 6 in the Veterans...
A People’s Military: 10 ways the American armed forces can be reinvented to provide a real national defense
As a ROTC cadet and an Air Force officer, I was a tiny part of America’s vast Department of Defense (DoD) for 24 years until I retired and returned to civilian life as a history professor. My time in the military ran from the election of Ronald Reagan to the...
Battle of Bamber Bridge: The little know racially motivated attack on Black soldiers during WWII
By Alan Rice, Professor in English and American Studies, University of Central Lancashire A bloody, little-known battle between Black and white U.S. soldiers in northern England 78 years ago forced a reckoning over the military’s unequal treatment of minority troops....
Ending the Games: How the Olympics became little more than a traveling circus of the global sports industry
The empty seats in the stadiums of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were a blessing in disguise, for the sporting spectacle, no matter how good, was not be able to dispel the fact that the super-spreader event was held in the midst of an unprecedented public health crisis and...
The lasting impact of GANEFO: When the IOC was forced to admit sports could not be separated from politics
By David Webster, Associate Professor of History / Professeur Agrégé, Département d’Histoire, Bishop’s University The Olympic Charter states one of the fundamental principles of Olympism is that “sports organizations within the Olympic Movement shall apply...
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...
“Black Nite Brawl” Day: The birthplace of Milwaukee’s LGBTQ pride movement honored on 60th anniversary
“Black Night Brawl was instrumental in mobilizing Milwaukee’s gay community to resist homophobia, form activist organizations, demand liberation, equality and change…” – From the City of Milwaukee’s Proclamation, declaring August 5,...
Elle Halo: Remembering LGBT heroes like Josie Carter and the trail blazed for future generations
The Cooper Do-Nuts Riot of May 1959. The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot of August 1966. The Black Cat Protests of February 1967. Few of these early LGBTQ uprisings ever made news headlines, and few if any factual police records exist from those incidents. As the greatest...
