It takes the average Latina, 12 extra months to earn what the average White, non-Hispanic man earns. That is because Latinas are only paid .55 cents to the dollar of […]

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Today is the Spring Election, and to celebrate the democratic process, host Dana Pellebon is in conversation with political scientist, Dr. Marion Orr, about Charles C. Diggs Jr. who Dr. Orr calls “the most consequential Black congressman.”

Orr first learned about Michigan Congressman Diggs when he was an undergraduate student at Savannah State. Unfortunately, many people won’t encounter Diggs in their history books. So Orr set out to write the first biography of Diggs, whose legacy is “scattered across the Civil Rights movement and Black politics.” Orr’s book is called, House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman. Charles C. Diggs Jr..

Orr says that Digg was “in the front seat” of every issue from the 1950s until he resigned from Congress in 1980: he was present at the trial of Emmett Till’s murderers, he founded the Congressional Black Caucus, participated in the Gary Convention of ‘72, and shaped the American anti-apartheid movement.

Orr says that Congressman Diggs put himself at great risk to observe the trial of Emmett Till’s murderers. His presence in the Mississippi courtroom gave courage to the Black witnesses to come forward and testify against the two white killers. By attending the trial, Diggs sent the message that, though he was elected to represent Detroit, he would represent all Black Americans. Diggs was also the first congressperson to show a long-term interest in Africa and US-Africa policy and became the chair of the Subcommittee on Africa, says Orr.

They also talk about Digg’s fall from power after the FBI was tipped off to a payroll violation and how he sacrificed his relationship with his family to serve his elected role. Orr holds that Congressman Diggs should be remembered for his many accomplishments and his role in shaping the length and breadth of so many fights for justice.

Marion Orr is a political scientist and the inaugural Frederick Lippitt Professor of Public Policy at Brown University. An award-winning author, his publications include House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman. Charles C. Diggs Jr.; Black Social Capital: The Politics of School Reform in Baltimore; and The Color of School Reform: Race, Politics, and the Challenge of Urban Education. He was awarded the Biographers International Organization’s Francis “Frank” Rollin Fellowship for his work on Congressman Diggs.

Featured image of the cover of House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman. Charles C. Diggs Jr.

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Yesterday at the polls, voters overwhelmingly supported Chris Taylor for Wisconsin Supreme Court. In Dane County, results are in for Dane County Circuit Court, thirteen competitive races for Dane County Board of Supervisors, two Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education seats, and three Madison Common Council alder races. That’s in addition to the numerous non-partisan races in towns and villages across Dane County, in which many union-backed candidates won their races.

To break down what voters decided in yesterday’s Spring Election, host Ali Muldrow is joined by four local labor leaders: Derek Wallace is the President of AFSCME- Dane County Employee Association Local 720. Kevin Gundlach is the President of the South Central Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. And Molly Grupe who is a teacher in Waunakee and the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) Region 6 PAC Chair. John Wedge is the Executive Director at WEAC Region 6.

Grupe says that she’s heartened by the election results, which are part of a larger national push to elect Democratic candidates. Gundlach says that of AFL-CIO’s 156 endorsements, only 20 candidates lost their races. It takes a ⅔ vote of members to get that AFL-CIO endorsement. Wallace also reports a very high win rate for AFSCME-endorsed candidates: 15 of 16 races. Union endorsements are building trust at a time when there’s a lot of political mistrust.

The election of Chris Taylor to the Supreme Court is exciting for these leaders because Act 10 is one step closer to being overturned. Wedge says that there’s now a reasonable majority on the Supreme Court who don’t want to strip unions of their power. If unions gained their power back, Grupe would like to see them advance DEI and inclusivity, smaller class sizes, more transparency on property tax bills, and all kinds of issues that go beyond salary negotiations.

They also talk about how unions can support their elected officials to be effective and hold them accountable to their campaign promises. They preview what might happen in the August Primary and November Midterm.

Featured image of “I Voted” stickers via Pexels.

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Earlier this week, the Atlanta City Council approved an addition $31 million dollars for the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. This was after more than 16 hours […]

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This month, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission is expected to release price rates for hyperscale data center companies. The issue of who foots the bill for the energy use of these data centers is just one element of the growing concern over the flood of tech interest in building data centers in our state. To talk about hyperscale data center energy use and how regular consumers can hold tech companies accountable, host Douglas Haynes is in conversation with Tom Content of the Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin and local journalist, Chali Pittman, whose latest essay on data centers is available from Isthmus.

The term “data center” is broad and encompass the hyperscale projects undertaken by Meta, Microsoft, and other tech companies. But there are a number of smaller data centers around the state that many people might not know about, says Pittman. All require constant power and cooling, but no where near the scale of their hyperscale counterparts.

Hyperscale data centers use more power and take up more land. Pittman and Content discuss how tech companies go about buying land and how Wisconsin legislators opened the door to new proposals when they created a tax incentive in the state budget. Content says that we need state-level guides and frameworks to address the issue of data centers and economic development.

Content’s organization wants to see the Public Service Commission set rules in a way that will protect all customers, not just the utility or tech companies. He says the CUB has seen utility bills increasing at a rate higher than inflation. They also talk about the importance of zoning and how local groups are successfully keeping hyperscale data centers out of their neighborhoods.

Tom Content leads the Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin, the nonpartisan independent nonprofit that serves as the consumer advocate for utility customers in proceedings that affect what Wisconsinites pay for power as well as the path the state takes on its energy future. Tom is currently vice president of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates. Before joining CUB 9 years ago, Tom was a journalist covering energy, utilities, and sustainability for more than 20 years at the Green Bay Press-Gazette and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Chali Pittman is a freelance journalist based in Madison. You can read her reporting on data centers in Wisconsin on Substack.

Featured image of a Google data center in Iowa via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

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“The Philippines is under a new administration, but still the government’s case against de Lima hobbles along, a symbol of the country’s degradation from the Duterte years of violent populism […]

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Sold in headshops and on the grey market, “spice” or K2 is a way to get high while avoiding showing up on a drug test. Whether or not they’re legal […]

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Today, Allen Ruff speaks with Erik Gustafson, founder and executive director of Enabling Peace in Iraq Center to talk about some of the history as well as the latest developments in Iraq. Modern Iraq has undergone many years of devastating war, including the Iran/Iraq war of 1980-1988 which was costly for both countries and included the use of chemical weapons, the 1991 Gulf War and the years of conflict following, in addition to the economic sanctions and air strikes 2003 US-lead invasion and the years of war which came after. Many unintended but foreseeable consequences resulted in decades of suffering in Iraq.

Gustafson said that not all of Iraq is desert, and there are beautiful places that have suffered the environmental costs of ongoing war. After 2003, Iraq was no longer cut off from the rest of the world, and there is a desire to make systemic changes mirroring Dubai, and other Western countries. However, the prime minister, currently Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, does not have the decision-making power to make needed reforms, answering to Tehran, not Baghdad. Weak government, Iranian backed militias, and constant war has led to unclear sovereignty. Nuclear weapons became an appealing strategy for Iraq to increase its sovereignty. Both Iran and the US have not helped Iraq become a sovereign state.

Gustafson noted that this war was started on a whim, and was not planned out. Trump didn’t build support prior to going to war. There were no clear objectives, no clearance from congress, and no feeling of being backed by the American people. Trump is attempting to clear out the nuclear weapons by launching ballistic missiles rather than undergoing weapon inspections. Gustafson said that other countries are observing the conflict and noting that they need to have nuclear weapons to survive modern warfare, or they will end up like Iraq. The Center for Civilian Protection, which is an organization established to reduce harm to citizens, previously there were hundreds employed, but under the Trump administration, there are only dozens still employed.

Erik Gustafson is the founder and executive director of Enabling Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC), a nonprofit organization focused on strengthening accountable governance, supporting human rights, and working with local partners to address the impacts of conflict and environmental stress in Iraq. He founded EPIC in 1998 after traveling to Iraq and witnessing firsthand the humanitarian toll of sanctions on ordinary civilians—an experience that has shaped his work ever since.

Featured image of Erik Gustafson by Sara Gabler/WORT.

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