Madison in the Sixties – 1967 – Civil Rights 1967 is the worst year yet for race relations in Madison. The summer sizzles with what the Equal Opportunities Commission calls “tension- filled incidents with racial overtones.” More than a dozen racial conflicts all over town, including “numerous hostile confrontations” resulting in fights between white and […]
MMSD Board approves preliminary 2020-2021 budget
Last Monday, the Madison school board voted 5-2 to approve a preliminary 2020-2021 budget. The decision comes after a tumultuous financial year for the district as they struggle with fiscal estimates for the coming school year. As the state continues to cope with economic fallout from the pandemic, how much Madison schools will receive from […]
County, City leadership announce new COVID-19 restrictions
This morning, Public Health Madison and Dane County announced several new restrictions on bars and restaurants. The new measures limit indoor dining at restaurants to a quarter of maximum capacity and limit bars to exclusively outdoor dining and take out. The new measures also limit indoor gatherings to 10 people and outdoor gatherings to 25. […]
Dane County Board introduces new criminal justice reform package
Dane County leadership introduced fourteen new criminal justice reform measures today. Put forward by County Board Chair Analiese Eicher and Supervisor Shelia Stubbs, the reforms would create new jail diversion programs, amend charging and sentencing procedures and establish new transparency policies for Dane County’s police. The proposals are the result of years of study by […]
What’s the Word: Bail
In the last decade calls for bail reform have gained traction in many states. With COVID-19 and the recent protests for black lives, those calls may be getting louder. Today on “What’s the Word,” Adam Schuster looks into the history of bail, and how it became another form of wealth and race discrimination in the […]
Wisconsin Schools Consider Back-to-School
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction or DPI suggests a student to teacher ratio of 10 to 1. Their guidance gives a few options to meet that ratio. One option splits classrooms into two cohorts. Half of the class attends in person Monday and Tuesday, while the other half attend Thursday and Friday. When students aren’t […]
