8 O'Clock Buzz

Community Shares of Wisconsin is the oldest social action fund in the country, dating back almost 50 years. Cheri Dubiel, Executive Director, shares some of the work the organization and its 70 member non-profits have done to support systemic change of social inequities, and talks about the annual “Change Maker Award Event“, being held virtually this year on Thursday, September 17th at 5PM.

Photo: John Urban

Back in March, Wisconsin governor Tony Evers issued an eviction moratorium  related to the covid-19 pandemic. That moratorium lasted until May, one of the first state moratoriums to expire. Since then, housing advocates have seen spikes in evictions  across the state, but particularly in Milwaukee. Now the federal Center for Disease Control has issued a nationwide eviction moratorium. How much help will it be to people who have lost income as a result of the pandemic? Katy Ramsey Mason is a professor of Law and director of the medical legal Partnership Clinic at the University of Memphis.

The Conversation | What the CDC eviction ban means for tenants and landlords: 6 questions answered

Ever since her nomination, Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ Wikipedia page has been the subject of intense debate and chaos. Wikipedia took the unusual step of locking down the Kamala Harris page to keep ahead of edits questioning her racial background.  The Wikimedia brouhaha is a microcosm of a larger controversy.  Harris’s father was from Jamaica, and her mother was from India, while Harris herself was born in Oakland, California. Echoing the “birther”  conspiracy theories surrounding Barack Obama’s citizenship, many among the far right have questioned  Harris’s bona fides as both an African American and an Asian American. Jennifer Ho is director of the Center for Humanities and the Arts and the Eaton Professor of Humanities and the Arts and Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The Conversation | With Kamala Harris, Americans yet again have trouble understanding what multiracial means

Wisconsin state government got some good fiscal news when the nonpartisan legislative fiscal Bureau reported on August 31st that tax revenues were still relatively high this year, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. That makes it less likely that the legislature will have to enact a budget repair bill for the current year. While the 2020 budget is looking bearable, all bets are off for 2021. A new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum warns that the state’s public school system is already falling behind, and new budget cuts could make things worse. Anne Chapman is a senior researcher for the Wisconsin Policy Forum.

Kevin Alexander Gray, writer, activist, organizer, and author of “Waiting for Lightning to Strike: The Fundamentals of Black Politics” talks about his ideas for needed coalition building: a multi-racial, multi-issue, multi-ethnic, multi-gender, and multi-generational movement to develop and promote programmatic progress for Black Politics.

In mid-August, for the first time, the 12 wealthiest individuals’ assets have exceeded $1 Trillion. Jan talks with Omar Ocampo, researcher for the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, about how their wealth has increased by $283 Million since March, while at the same time the average American has struggled to buy food and make rent payments in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ACLU of Wisconsin has called upon Governor Evers and Attorney General Joshua Kaul to investigate crimes and/or civil rights violations by Law Enforcement officials in Kenosha during protests of the Jacob Blake Shoot, according to ACLI-WI Advocacy Director Molly Collins. In addition, the ACLU has called for the resignation of Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis and Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth for fostering a “white supremacist mindset in Kenosha law enforcement”

Damita Brown talks with..

* Kailea Saplan from Tone Madison about her recent article challenging Madison’s plan for downtown recovery, and how helping businesses is coming ahead of fixing policing and racism in Madison.

* Mahnker Dahnweih, Director of Community Power Building from Freedom, Inc about police brutality, the attempted murder of Jacob Blake, and what we as a community can do to reform and heal.

Photo by Ken Fager on Flickr

100 years ago, if you were an industrialist who wanted to keep unions out of your plant, you hired the Pinkerton detective agency to infiltrate the unions and, if necessary, bust some heads. Today, corporations employ more subtle, but perhaps more effective strategies  to prevent their workers from organizing.  Law firms such as Ogletree Deakins and IRI Consultants have worked not only with high-profile corporations like Google and Ikea, but also with nonprofits like the ACLU of Kansas, to block union drives among their employees.  John Logan is a professor and the director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University who has studied modern-day union-busting outfits.

On Friday August 28th, the Republican Party of the United States wrapped up its nominating convention. Ostensibly taking place in North Carolina, the convention was largely a virtual event, although with more in person activities then the Democratic Convention the week before. Throughout the week President Trump and his Republican colleagues painted a picture of both a more dangerous and a more promising America the many in the grips of pandemic and unrest might have felt. Joining us once again  to analyze how successfully the GOP delivered their message, Allison Prasch from the University of Wisconsin Communications Arts Department.