8 O'Clock Buzz

No standardization of community correction / community supervision policies in Wisconsin — according to Karen Reece Phifer, V.P. of Research and Education at the Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development in Madison. The probation and parole system is heavily overburdened and under supported, which leads to inconsistencies in administration and makes Wisconsin the worst state in the Midwest and one of the worst in the country for failure rates of probation. Dr. Reece Phifer talks with Jerome Dillard from Ex-PO about these and other issues.

In today’s 8 O’Clock Buzz Ex-PO hour, Jerome Dillard speaks with Melissa Sargent, candidate for the 16th District Senate seat vacated by Mark Miller. The discussion focuses on her work on social justice issues, investing in people and opportunities rather than punishment, disproportionate rates of arrest for people of color, legalization of cannabis, and more.

Efforts to undermine and privatize the U.S. Postal Service has continued since the mid-1970’s, according by the recently published research by Lisa Graves, Executive Director of True North Research, in her article “Wait a Minute, Mr. Koch-Man: The Plot to Kill the Public’s Postal Service”. Libertarians, led by the Koch Brothers, have undermined, and continue to sabotage, funding and the financial solvency of the USPS. Even in the continued importance of the mail system in light of the COVID crisis, bills to help support the Post Office (and its hundreds of thousands of employees) are threatened by this group.

Photo by Tariq Ismail from Unsplash

“Monitoring from birth to death” — this is how author and prison reform activist, Victoria Law, describes the juncture of liberal prison reformists and financial conservatives efforts to monitor people …focussing on people of color…in efforts to reduce the cost of prisons. The result is electronic monitoring which may start in schools (and before), and last a lifetime. She talks to Jan Miyasaki about these issues and her new book: “Prison By Any Other Name”.

Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz in exile, Damita Brown talks with…

Tatiana Washington, Director of 50 Miles More talking about their march from Milwaukee to Madison, work with young people, and carrying the torch of John Lewis!

Heymiss Progress, Sabrina Madison, joins to talk about black women entrepreneurs, supporting black-owned businesses, the Progress Center for Black Women, their events and especially the Black Women’s Leadership Conference in the time of COVID.

Photo by Ken Fager on Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/2jjQ6iF

In 2015, the United Nations set a goal of ending hunger worldwide by 2030.  Five years into that project, the world is headed in the wrong direction.  According to the U.N.’s latest report, “The State of Food Security and Nutrition 2020,” the percent of the world’s population who is undernourished grew for the fifth year in a row.  8.9% of the world’s population, 690 million people, do not regularly get enough to eat.  To put that in perspective, that’s more than twice the entire population of the United States.  Michael Fahkri is an Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Oregon, and he is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.  He joined the Monday Buzz on July 20, 2020.

On May 26, 2020, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers’ executive order putting a moratorium on landlord evictions expired.  In the first two weeks after the order was lifted, evictions across the state spiked 40%.  The Governor also dedicated 25 million dollars to help households pay their rent.  However, according to many of the agencies responsible for getting that money into renters’ hands, that money may already be mostly gone.  What happens when the emergency outlasts the emergency relief efforts?  Brad Paul, Executive Director for the Wisconsin Community Action Program Association joined the Monday Buzz on July 20, 2020.

In 2008 — the last time the global economy was on the brink of collapse — the U.S. Federal Reserve opened up its wallet and began buying up all kinds of financial assets, such as subprime mortgage instruments, that had suddenly become too risky for the private banks to handle.  The Fed spent several trillion dollars acquiring assets and providing loans, all on its own initiative, without independent actions of Congress. Twelve years later, in 2020, in response to a global health and economic crisis ushered in by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fed is once again wielding its independent financial might to try to prop up a floundering market, on an even larger scale than in 2008.  Meanwhile, in Atlanta, the Center for Disease Control, a similarly technocratic, but differently structured, federal agency finds itself mired in political infighting with other cabinet agencies and the White House.  Under intense pressure from the White House, the CDC has pulled coronavirus infection guidance for schools, and can no longer post its own data about new infections.   Mitchel Abolafia is a Professor Of Public Affairs and Policy at State University of New York at Albany, and the author of the book “Steward of the Market.”

Damita Brown talks about getting out there and doing something with…

– Briley Thirion, Ann Murphy and Jeffrey Jackson about their Vigils for Black Lives at Oscar Rennebohm Park.

– LaNia Sproles and Jennifer Bastian about their art auction fundraiser for Chrystul Kizer and Chrystul’s tragic story.

Photo by Ken Fager on Flickr:

When you think of professional modern dance, does “cold war politics” immediately come to you mind? No? Well, Victoria Phillips, Lecturer in History at Columbia University, writes about dance as propaganda for democracy in her latest book: “Martha Graham’s Cold War: The Dance of American Diplomacy”. Jan talks to her about this great read.