Madison police caused Richard Lee Johnson’s death in 2024, not a drug overdose as the county medical examiner concluded at the time. That’s according to a bombshell report this week from the city’s independent police watchdog.

Interim Independent Monitor Aeiramique Glass joined our News Producer Faye Parks this afternoon for a closer look at their findings – and the systemic changes she’s recommended to address gaps in MPD policy.

Image courtesy: Scott Rodgerson via Unsplash.

Gun violence is the leading cause of death for Wisconsin children and teens. For the fourth year in a row, Wisconsin Democrats have put up a display in the Capitol rotunda that aims to humanize the statistics – and pressure their colleagues across the aisle to consider gun control legislation.

Image courtesy: Senator Chris Larson via Bluesky.

If you have ever been asked “What’s your sign?” you have Linda Goodman to thank—or blame. She was America’s first New Age Celebrity, and today host Ali Muldrow is joined by her biographer, Courtney Ann LaFaive, to talk about her legacy. They discuss LaFaive’s new book, Follow the Signs: Searching for Linda Goodman, America's Forgotten Astrology Queen.

Featured image of the cover of Follow the Signs: Searching for Linda Goodman, America's Forgotten Astrology Queen.

According to the group Citizen Action, there are 800,000 Wisconsin workers who make less than $20 an hour. That’s a third of all workers, and yet in every area of Wisconsin the living wage, the amount needed to afford the basics of life, has been estimated to be over $21 an hour for a single person. Yet parents with dependent children make up about a quarter of those workers earning minimum wage. Wisconsin’s minimum wage sits at $7.35 an hour.

There are data that show how minimum wage is connected to our health. Her Turn reporter Arlene Zaucha recently spoke with Dr. Jessica Stein from Unbiased Science, who has been researching the issue.

Image Courtesy of Dr. Jessica Stein and Unbiased Science

A roadmap guiding the future of Madison’s southwest side is heading to a vote in the city council next week. Among other long term goals, the draft area plan aims to encourage more walkable neighborhoods and improve access to public green space.

Ben Zellers is a planner with the city of Madison and one of the co-project managers for the Southwest Area Plan. He joined our News Producer Faye Parks this afternoon to go over the highlights.

Image courtesy: The City of Madison.

The Wisconsin Legislative Black Caucus hosted their annual celebration this afternoon in the Capitol rotunda.

On today’s show, host Dana Pellebon is in conversation with Dr. Mary Fariba Afsari about her new memoir, Labor: One Woman's Work. Dr. Afsari is a child of Iranian immigrants, a working mother, and the founder of a mobile health clinic, bringing reproductive healthcare to rural patients in the Pacific Northwest.

Featured image of the cover of Labor: One Woman's Work.

The annual picnic put on by the quintessential Madison organization Open Doors for Refugees is at the Elver Park Pavilion on Sunday, June 21st from noon to 3:00 PM.

All are invited to come for all kinds of food, music, games and fun, no matter who you are or where you come from.

OPEN DOORS FOR REFUGEES ANNUAL PICNIC

Sunday, June 21, 2026

Noon to 3:00 PM

Elver Park Pavilion, 1259 McKenna Boulevard

Open Doors for Refugees, or Open Doors for short, was started in Madison to welcome refugees with furnished, ready-to-move-into homes along with the federally certified organizations they worked with. Madisonians worked together to find out what people coming from other countries needed most and to figure out how to help provide it.

Now, with federal refugee resettlement in the U.S. effectively closed down, ODFR people are finding more ways to help more people. In his conversation with WORT’s Gil Halsted, the Open Doors Executive Director Jason Mack talks about all the activities and ways the organization is helping to make Madison the multicultural community that many of us want to see and be part of.

So come to the picnic, bring food if you like but don’t worry if you can’t and join in the music, dancing, eating, playing and the most interesting conversations you will have all year. You may even make new friends. You will surely have a great meal!

Open Doors for Refugees website: www.odfr.org

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1332003042074441/

Madison’s Office of Independent Monitor released Monday their investigative report into a death that occurred in police custody in 2024. The report suggests that Richard Lee Johnson died due to restraint-related cardiac arrest, and recommends changes to how Madison police handle medical assistance after physical incidents.

Image courtesy: Brian Standing / WORT News.

In late March, a team of federal immigration agents detained Salah Sarsour, a Palestinian immigrant and president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee. He’s spent the last two months at an ICE-contracting facility in Indiana.

Led by a coalition of Jewish midwesterners, over 150 people gathered outside the Clay County Jail this weekend for an interfaith vigil demanding his freedom. Rachel Ida Buff, an immigration historian and a member of Jews for Salah, joined our News Producer Faye Parks this afternoon to explain why she got involved.

Image courtesy: Jews for Salah via Facebook.