Wednesday, March 17,2010
Expresso

Issue of the Week: The True Impact of Waukesha’s Water Request

Plus Hero and Jerk of the Week

Will Lake Michigan water allow Waukesha to develop at the expense of minority residents of Milwaukee and low-income workers? That’s likely, according to a new report by the ACLU of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Riverkeeper, Midwest Environmental Advocates, Sustainable Story Hill and the...

Wednesday, March 10,2010
Expresso

Issue of the Week: Pushing for Health Care Reform

Plus Hero and Jerk of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

Here’s a reminder for the folks who don’t think health care reform is necessary: An estimated 2,400 Wisconsin residents will die prematurely this decade if health care reform is not enacted, and 3,500 Wisconsin residents have died from a lack of health coverage since 1995, the last time Congress attempted to enact comprehensive reform...

Wednesday, March 3,2010
Expresso

Event of the Week: Celebrate International Women’s Day

Plus Hero and Jerk of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

The Mequon campus of MATC is hosting four of the state’s most accomplished women to celebrate International Women’s Day. The notable women are household names in Wisconsin, but it’s worthwhile to mention their achievements one more time. Vel Phillips is the first woman to serve on the Milwaukee Common Council, as judge in Milwaukee County, and as secretary...

Thursday, February 25,2010
Expresso

Issue of the Week: The Bad County Budget

Plus Hero and Jerk of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

It’s only February and the 2010 Milwaukee County budget is already imploding—just like all of Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker’s previous budgets that eventually crashed and burned. Walker and a county board committee have agreed to increase the number of unpaid furlough days from 12 to 22 days...

Thursday, February 18,2010
Expresso

Issue of the Week: Finger-scanning Kids

Plus Hero and Jerk of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

The state’s Wisconsin Shares day care program has been under scrutiny since the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel decided to cherry-pick some cases of alleged fraud, sensationalize...

Thursday, February 11,2010
Expresso

Issue of the Week: Withholding Funds From MPS Is Not a Solution

Plus Hero and Jerk of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

He was largely relegated to the background of the debate over the future of the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), but state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers made headlines last week by announcing he’d withhold an estimated $175 million from the district based on its failure to meet goals set by President Bush’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act. The money Evers would withhold...

Wednesday, February 3,2010
Expresso

Issue of the Week: Reining in CCAP

By Shepherd Express Staff

We generally like the state’s online Consolidated Court Automation Programs (otherwise known as CCAP) for providing information about individuals’ court histories. But there’s a downside to such openness: People who...

Wednesday, January 27,2010
Expresso

Event of the Week: Our Milwaukee for Haiti

Plus Hero and Jerk of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

Our Milwaukee, a business alliance of small, locally owned businesses, will host a fund-raiser to gather money for the ongoing relief and recovery efforts in the devastated nation of Haiti at Lakefront Brewery from 1 to 9 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 31. The family-friendly event...

Wednesday, January 20,2010
Expresso

Issue of the Week: Is Wisconsin’s Flagship Research University For Sale to the Highest Bidder?

Plus Hero and Jerk of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Political Science Department entered into a dubious contract to do the polling research for the conservative Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI). UW is receiving thousands of dollars from WPRI to cover a portion of political science professor Ken Goldstein’s salary in return for his...

Wednesday, January 13,2010
Expresso

Issue of the Week: WPRI’s Flawed Report on Clean Energy

Plus Hero and Jerk of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

Over the next three months, the Wisconsin Legislature and governor will try to enact the Clean Energy Jobs Act aimed at creating new jobs and improving the air we breathe through a clean energy...

Wednesday, January 6,2010
Expresso

Issue of the Week: Losing Local Control of MPS

Plus Hero and Jerk of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

The state Senate Education Committee held a rare public meeting in Milwaukee on Tuesday to listen to testimony from legislators and Milwaukee residents about proposals to change the governance of the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). And it’s a good thing they did travel to Milwaukee, since, as one member of the committee...

Wednesday, December 30,2009
Expresso

Issue of the Week: The MPS Bogeyman

Plus Hero and Jerk of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

In the latest effort to push for a mayoral takeover of MPS, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel continues its selective reporting. The Milwaukee Public Schools’ $2 billion unfunded liability is old news, a problem raised in a study commissioned by the MPS Board in 2007 and the Doyle/Barrett-instigated McKinsey report this past spring. But that didn’t stop the Journal Sentinel...

Wednesday, December 16,2009
Expresso

Issue of the Week: End of the Road for Live Bus Information Agents

Plus Hero and Jerk of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

A notable but overlooked casualty of the 2010 Milwaukee County budget is the live phone operator service provided to the community by the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS), which will cut all of its 16 phone agents by the end of the year. As of Jan. 1, 2010, the agents will be replaced by an automated call-in line and an...

Wednesday, December 9,2009
Expresso

Event of the Week: Buy Local and Win Great Prizes

Plus Hero and Jerk of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

To encourage our readers to shop locally this holiday season, the Shepherd Express and the local business alliance Our Milwaukee have teamed up to reward those who promise to spend $100 at local establishments in the next few weeks. Just go to expressmilwaukee.com and take the Buy Local Pledge. When you sign up, you’ll...

Wednesday, December 2,2009
Expresso

Issue of the Week: Demonizing Day Care Providers

Plus Hero and Jerk of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

The Journal Sentinel did an investigative series on day care providers, which is good, but the paper’s sensationalized coverage was disgraceful. If there is fraud, it should be prosecuted, but the vast majority of the cases being labeled as fraud simply appear to be reporting errors. It is similar to the person who puts a number...

Tuesday, November 24,2009
Expresso

Issue of the Week: A Breakthrough on Health Care Reform

Plus Hero and Jerk of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

The news of health care reform’s death has been greatly exaggerated. While there’s still much more work to be done, on Saturday 60 senators—all Democrats plus two independents—cast historic votes to prohibit a filibuster on...

Wednesday, November 18,2009
Expresso

Issue of the Week: Lying Your Way to the Top

Plus Hero and Jerk of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

What’s worse: Knowingly approving a racially charged campaign ad that wrongly implies that your opponent did something horrendous, or determining that airing that lie-filled ad isn’t so awful? That’s the problem created by a three-judge panel’s ruling...

Wednesday, November 11,2009
Expresso

Issue of the Week: MPS Takeover

Plus Hero and Jerk of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

We’re not going to argue that Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) is doing a stellar job of educating our kids, just like we won’t argue that Milwaukee as a whole is some sort of urban idyll. Both the city and the school district are plagued by a tremendous number of families in need, high-crime neighborhoods, too-few jobs and a crumbling infrastructure. Yet the city and school district also have inspired students...

Wednesday, November 4,2009
Expresso

Expresso

Issue of the Week, Jerk and Hero of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

The Milwaukee Common Council has backed off the city’s attempt to lease the Milwaukee Water Works to a private corporation as a way to generate revenue for the cash-strapped but water-rich city. Earlier this year, Milwaukee Comptroller Wally Morics had estimated that a 99-year lease would add $30 million to the city’s coffers every year. Not bad, when you consider that the city is facing an eye-popping $90 million deficit next year. But that’s what the city government would have gained if a deal had gone through...

Wednesday, October 28,2009
Expresso

Expresso

Issue of the Week, Hero and Jerk of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

Issue of the Week City of Milwaukee-Operated Schools vs. Milwaukee Public Schools Everyone agrees that MPS needs reform. But what kind of reform will best serve the educational needs of the stude

Tuesday, October 20,2009
Expresso

Issue of the Week: Where’s the MPS Plan?

Plus Hero and Jerk of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

Gov. Jim Doyle and state Superintendent Tony Evers announced their plan to reform the state’s education system—and possibly net some funds from the federal government. They trotted out some ideas for the press, including lengthening the school day, linking teacher pay to performance, changing the...

Wednesday, October 14,2009
Expresso

Issue of the Week: Restoring the Vote

Plus Heroes and Jerks of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

Wisconsin legislators should restore the voting rights of about 42,000 Wisconsin residents who have been released from prison but are still unable to vote. Wisconsin not only bars those with felony convictions from voting until they have completed their time in incarceration, but their time on probation or parole...

Wednesday, October 7,2009
Expresso

Hero of the Week: Dolly Grimes-Johnson

Plus Jerk of the Week & Issue of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

Based on the idea that every woman, man and child deserves respect, the staff and many volunteers of the Sojourner Truth House provide shelter, safety, support and education in an effort to break the cycle of domestic violence. In recognition of nearly 30 years...

Wednesday, September 30,2009
Expresso

Issue of the Week: Regulating Payday Lenders

Plus Heroes and Jerks of the Week

By Shepherd Express Staff

Payday lenders prey on the working poor by providing extremely high-interest loans (for example, a 10-week loan for $200 could cost an additional $200 in interest and fees). This issue was so serious

Wednesday, September 23,2009
Expresso

Issue of the Week: WellPoint's Health Care Hypocrisy

By Shepherd Express Staff

While health insurance companies spend more than $640,000 per day on lobbying—and, yes, that is just for direct lobbying of Congress, not TV, radio and newspaper ads—to defeat health care reform, Marquette University invites the CEO of WellPoint, the second-largest health insurer in America...