AltWeeklies Wire
The Death of a Local Newspapernew

The 1995 merger of the liberal afternoon Milwaukee Journal with the morning Milwaukee Sentinel was painful for journalism, but the latest drastic turn by Journal Communications could be worse.
Shepherd Express |
Joel McNally |
08-08-2014 |
Media
Right-Wing ALEC Playbook Is Crippling Wisconsin’s Economynew

Small-government proposals are killing jobs, not creating them.
Shepherd Express |
Lisa Kaiser |
02-21-2013 |
Economy
Tags: ALEC Organization
New Day Care Background Check Law May Not Be Constitutionalnew
Legislators and the state Department of Children and Families may have gotten positive headlines when creating a law that allows the state to permanently revoke child care provider licenses based on a wide range of offenses.
Shepherd Express |
Lisa Kaiser |
03-12-2010 |
Children & Families
One Man's 'Life After Hate': A Former White Supremacist Works for Peacenew
Back in 1988, Arno Michaels even helped to organize Skinfest in Doctors Park, which attracted skinheads from all over the country, featured swastika flags and led to a drunken rampage throughout Milwaukee, during which the racist skinheads beat up anyone in their way.
Shepherd Express |
Lisa Kaiser |
02-12-2010 |
Race & Class
Questions Surround Wisconsin Pro-Life Organization's Rhetoricnew
Wisconsin Right to Life's ads against proposed abortion services at a Madison clinic are seen by some as reckless and inflammatory.
Shepherd Express |
Lisa Kaiser |
06-12-2009 |
Policy Issues
Advice for Job-Seekers in Tough Timesnew
Every day seems to bring worse news about the economy, both national and local. So what's the class of 2009 supposed to do? Be positive and persistent. Job opportunities are out there, even as companies are shedding jobs in all segments of the economy.
Shepherd Express |
Lisa Kaiser |
05-15-2009 |
Business & Labor
Tags: employment, recession
Milwaukee District Attorney Still Investigating Advocates for Student Achievementnew
The "reform" group created by a Milwaukee Public Schools board member is still under investigation by the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office.
Shepherd Express |
Lisa Kaiser |
05-15-2009 |
Education
High-Speed Rail and Race Relationsnew
Are central Milwaukee politicians blatantly selling out their constituents to support the Democratic rail transit pipe-dream? How can a fixed-rail trolley system serving white collars and tourists downtown be supported by black politicians over a bus system targeted directly at the inner city?
Shepherd Express |
Theodore Hausmann III |
04-03-2009 |
Race & Class
How Milwaukee Does Itnew
As always, the Shepherd’s Fifth Biennial Sex Survey is an unscientific sample, so it’s best to assume that its large, self-selected sample skews more sexually adventurous than the average Milwaukeean. But kinky as they can be, it seems that at heart Milwaukeeans are a bunch of romantics.
Shepherd Express |
Evan Rytlewski |
02-13-2009 |
Sex
Mr. Jobs: Investment Board Head Discusses Milwaukee's Efforts to Create Employmentnew
When Donald Sykes took over the Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board in 2007, he had decades of experience in training new workers. Now Sykes faces the worst job losses in the United States since 1945, including large layoffs in our area, and a shaky employment future.
Shepherd Express |
Louis Fortis and Lisa Kaiser |
01-23-2009 |
Economy
Credit Unions Thriving in the Chaotic Economynew
At a time when banks look more like wards of the state than the venerated institutions they once were, it's difficult to imagine that anyone is still happy to lend money. But stodgy, dependable, nonprofit credit unions are still chugging along, approving loans to members at reasonable rates.
Shepherd Express |
Ken Reibel |
10-17-2008 |
Economy
Heroin Use on the Rise in Wisconsinnew
Heroin has always had a presence in southeastern Wisconsin, and there have always been some hardcore users in the area. But things changed in the 1990s, when Colombian cocaine traffickers saw the profits that Asian producers were making on heroin, primarily China White.
Shepherd Express |
Lisa Kaiser |
09-26-2008 |
Drugs
How Paid Sick Days Could Save Milwaukee Moneynew
According to a study conducted by the nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), there are very real economic benefits for both employers and employees that would result if the proposed Milwaukee Paid Sick Days referendum is approved by city voters on Nov. 4.
Shepherd Express |
Lisa Kaiser |
09-19-2008 |
Policy Issues
Inflation's Bad, But it Could Be Worsenew
Although consumer inflation is at a 17-year high, historically high oil prices are not necessarily to blame. In fact, high oil prices, the economic slowdown and the Chinese work in tandem to keep inflation from becoming even worse.
Shepherd Express |
Ken Reibel |
08-22-2008 |
Economy
Nukes in Wisconsin Still Not Likelynew
Nuclear supporters claimed that Gov. Jim Doyle, who's seeking to become a green governor, wants to end the 25-year-old moratorium on building nuclear power plants in Wisconsin. The problem, though, is that this simply isn't true.
Shepherd Express |
Lisa Kaiser |
08-15-2008 |
Environment