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NEWS
Homicides in Milwaukee are down nearly 50 percent this year compared to two years ago and 23 percent lower than the same time last year.
Milwaukee officials believe it’s a sign that community outreach and partnerships are working to help lower the rate of gun violence in the city.
“We continue to see the right direction, right trajectory, but we also know we still have a lot of work to do,” Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said during a press briefing Tuesday morning.
So far this year, there have been 30 homicides in the city, according to crime data from the Milwaukee Police Department. In 2023, that number was at 39, while there were 56 homicides in Milwaukee at this same point in 2022.
Nonfatal shootings are also on the decline. So far this year, there have been 157 nonfatal shootings reported. That number was at 213 in 2023 and 189 in 2022.
—WI Public Radio
With an $8 million loan to his U.S. Senate campaign, Republican Eric Hovde has quickly closed the gap with Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, becoming the latest example of a self-funder in high-profile Wisconsin election.
The approach, experts say, offers major benefits, but also some drawbacks. Previous self-funders in Wisconsin have had a mixed record, and a few recent examples lost their races.
In the first three months of the year, Federal Elections Commission data shows Baldwin raised $5.4 million dollars and spent $3.2 million dollars. Her campaign finished the quarter with just more than $10 million cash on hand.
Hovde’s campaign raised just more than $1 million from Jan. 1 through March 31, which includes maximum contributions from GOP Megadonors Elizabeth and Richard Uihlein. But it was Hovde’s $8 million loan to his campaign that helped him spend $3.7 million during the first quarter. Hovde finished the period with $5.3 million cash on hand.
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Political Science Professor Anthony Chergosky said Hovde’s loan to his campaign is well timed, because “we find that early money often matters more than late money.”
“Developing name recognition is a significant hurdle for candidates, and candidates need money in order to develop that name recognition,” Chergosky said. “So, if a candidate can spend a lot of money early on in the campaign, it gives them the opportunity to put themselves in front of voters on TV, and on digital advertising and on other forms of advertising.”
—WI Public Radio
The best fast food restaurant in the United States, according to Fodor’s Travel, has a Wisconsin flavor.
Of course, it’s Culver’s.
Fodor’s Geena Truman wrote that she spent a year “driving around the U.S. on a quest to eat (and experience) the true culture of America.”
She ranked 12 fast-food chains, leaving out large corporations like McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King.
And in the top spot as “the most delicious fast food pit stop in America” is Culver’s, the restaurant founded in Sauk City in 1984 by George, Ruth, Craig and Lea Culver.
The article said Culver’s “gives the outer appearance of fast-food but outperforms all others in taste.”
The rest of the list? In order, it’s Shake Shack, In-N-Out, Whataburger, Raising Cane’s, Five Guys, Chick-fil-A, Dave’s Hot Chicken, Kelly’s Roast Beef, White Castle, Dick’s and Zips (tied) and Jollibee.
—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The first seven jurors for Donald Trump’s hush money trial were seated Tuesday after lawyers grilled the jury pool about their social media posts, political views and personal lives to decide who can sit in fair judgment of the former president.
The panelists who were selected are an information technology worker, an English teacher, an oncology nurse, a sales professional, a software engineer and two lawyers.
Eleven more people still must be sworn in before opening statements begin as early as next week in the first criminal trial of a former commander in chief.
—Associated Press
NPR suspended a top editor who ripped the network last week over its left-leaning bias – but the journalist doubled down on Tuesday, saying its new, controversial CEO is the “opposite” of what the embattled radio outlet needs.
Uri Berliner – who published a bombshell essay last week claiming NPR has “lost America’s trust” by reporting the news with a left-wing slant – was sidelined for five days without pay beginning last Friday after his article ignited a firestorm.
Nevertheless, Berliner in a Tuesday interview ripped NPR CEO Katherine Maher over a trove of past posts unearthed on X. Those included calling Donald Trump “racist” in 2018 and blasting Hillary Clinton for using the terms “boy” and “girl,” saying she was “erasing language for non-binary people.”
“We’re looking for a leader right now who’s going to be unifying and bring more people into the tent and have a broader perspective on, sort of, what America is all about,” Berliner told NPR media scribe David Folkenflik Tuesday. “And this seems to be the opposite of that.”
—NY Post
As students returned to college campuses across the United States, so did campus crime, data shows, alarming some parents so much that they hired their own security force.
They raised more than $40,000 to hire private security at the University of California, Berkeley – much to the chagrin of campus administrators.
Half a dozen unarmed guards patrolled the campus for more than two weeks in March, according to Sagar Jethani, a father of two Berkeley sophom*ores involved in the effort. A month after Jethani dropped off his kids for their freshman year in October 2022, there was a fatal shooting near their dorm.
“This was a real rude awakening,” he told USA TODAY.
The number of crimes reported by college campuses across the country rebounded to pre-pandemic levels in 2022, government data shows.
Crime reported from nearly 6,000 institutions rose about 8% from 2019, even though enrollments dipped during that timeframe. The jump in offenses between 2019 and 2022 coincided with students’ post-pandemic return en masse to campuses. Compared with year-over-year changes before 2019, the recent spike represents the largest increase since post-secondary institutions that receive federal funding began reporting campus safety statistics.
Experts see little reason to worry and say the numbers are largely consistent with what colleges have been experiencing since 2013, according to S. Daniel Carter, president of the consulting firm Safety Advisors for Educational Campuses.
When foot traffic on and around campuses diminished in 2020 after classes went online during the pandemic, crime dropped precipitously in 2020. In the years since it has inched up again.
The recent increase was mostly driven by a surge in reported motor vehicle theft, which more than doubled from 2019 and accounted for more than a quarter of offenses in 2022.
Government data is not yet available for 2023, so these numbers don’t account for the turmoil on college campuses in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. Recent surveys show many Muslim and Jewish students reported feeling unsafe on campus since the Oct. 7 attacks, which prompted massive campus clashes and protests, as well as spikes in Islamophobic and antisemitic incidents.
The reported numbers from 2022 include offenses that occurred on and off campus, including on university properties located elsewhere; offenses that occurred on public property adjacent to campuses, and a small number of offenses reported to institutions by local police.
—USA TODAY
A top psychology group is urging technology companies and legislators to take greater steps to protect adolescents’ mental health, arguing that social media platforms are built for adults and are “not inherently suitable for youth.”
Social media features such as endless scrolling and push notifications are “particularly risky” to young people, whose developing brains are less able to disengage from addictive experiences and are more sensitive to distractions, the American Psychological Association wrote in a report released Tuesday.
But age restrictions on social media platforms alone don’t fully address the dangers, especially since many kids easily find workarounds to such limits.
Instead, social media companies need to make fundamental design changes, the group said in its report.
“The platforms seem to be designed to keep kids engaged for as long as possible, to keep them on there. And kids are just not able to resist those impulses as effectively as adults,” APA chief science officer Mitch Prinstein said in a phone interview. He added that more than half of teens report at least one symptom of clinical dependency on social media.
“The fact that this is interfering with their in-person interactions, their time when they should be doing schoolwork, and — most importantly — their sleep has really important implications,” Prinstein said.
The report did not offer specific changes that social media companies can implement.
—NBC News
Caitlin Clark going No. 1 in the WNBA draft was a foregone conclusion long before she was selected with the first pick by the Indiana Fever on Monday night. But for much of America, it still delivered one major surprise.
Her salary is what?! Clark will make $76,535 this season. That’s the prescribed base compensation for each of the top four picks in the draft, according to the WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement with players.
Sports fans and the general public, many of whom aren’t familiar with the salary structure of the 28-yearold league, were stunned at the idea that the new face of women’s basketball is now making the same amount as a junior accountant
—Wall Street Journal
OPINION
Earlier this month, Caitlin Clark played the final basketball game of her college career. Though the Iowa Hawkeyes ceded the national championship to the undefeated South Carolina Gameco*cks in an 87-75 loss, Clark finished the game with an impressive 30 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists.
On March 3, Clark became the NCAA Division I all-time scoring leader for men and women and just days later, she broke Stephen Curry’s NCAA record for the most 3-pointers in one season. For her 2023-24 senior season, she was the all-time leader in assists for the Big Ten and won both the Naismith Player of the Year and the AP Player of the Year awards for the second year in a row.
But in addition to her talent, Clark has grown to become a grounded, unselfish, and motivating leader who is an example to all her fans of what can be achieved when leaders encourage their team.
As Clark said, “The things I can say about my teammates and truly believe and instill that confidence in them, that’s one of the coolest things as a point guard, as a leader, as a friend, as a teammate. That’s how much better you can make people by just believing in them and telling that to them, to their face.”
In addition to her teammates, coaches and fans, Clark’s success is supported by her tight-knit family and her Catholic faith. A native of Des Moines, Iowa, Clark attended Catholic school throughout her elementary and high school years.
While playing varsity basketball for Dowling Catholic High School, Clark said in an interview, “We get to live our faith every day. Dowling starts every day with prayer and ends every day with prayer. This is a big reason why Dowling has such a special culture and is such a special place to go to school.”
Throughout college, Clark’s brother, Blake, the quarterback for the Iowa State Cyclones, consistently reminded her to remain steadfast in her faith. He encouraged her to pray the Rosary and to attend Mass near campus, where she was often spotted in the pew.
For Clark, success is about more than scoreboards and statistics. “It’s not just about scoring a lot of points or winning; she loves playing in front of a sold-out arena because she gets to entertain people and bring a smile to their face,” Clark’s high school basketball coach Kristin Meyer said. “For two hours she lets them have this great experience and she takes that pretty seriously and knows that those gifts from God are an opportunity to bring joy to other people.”
As Clark embarks on the next chapter of her career with the 2024 WNBA draft, where she was to No. 1 pick by the Indiana Fever, she leaves Iowa without a championship ring but with her head held high.
“When I reflect back on my [Iowa] career, I know I gave it every single thing I had,” she said. “[E]verybody believed there’s no way Iowa was making the Final Four once. But to do it twice? That’s pretty incredible.”
Coming off a record-crushing season and astounding tournament finish, sports fans across America are eager to see what comes next for Caitlin Clark. But one thing is for sure: she’s just getting started.
—Fmr. Ambassador Callista L. Gingrich is the Chief Executive Officer of Gingrich 360, a multimedia production and consulting company based in Arlington, Virginia.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY – 60 years ago today in 1964 Americans got their first glimpse of Ford’s new sporty car. The Mustang first appeared in showrooms at the 1964 World Fair in New York City for a retail price of $2,368 (equivalent to $23,263 in 2023). Because it was introduced four months before the usual start of the 1965 production year, it is affectionately known as the Ford 1964-1/2.
400,000 units were sold in its first year; the one-millionth Mustang was sold within two years of its launch, making it the most successful car since the Model A in 1927. The success of the Mustang launch led to multiple competitors from other American manufacturers, including the Chevrolet Camaro, Pontiac Firebird, AMC Javelin, and Dodge Challenger, though it wasn’t originally envisioned as a long-hooded heavy muscle car.
Project Design Chief for Ford, Joe Oros remembers: “I told the team that I wanted the car to appeal to women, but I wanted men to desire it, too. I wanted a Ferrari-like front end, the motif centered on the front — something heavy-looking like a Maseratti… as sporty as possible and look like it was related to European design.”
