Yearly Archives: 2021

(The Center Square) – Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, said there is a “plantation mentality” in Milwaukee because many of the city’s police officers are white.

Carpenter made the remarks during the Tuesday's debate over police reforms in the city of Milwaukee.

“People [of color] in the city of Milwaukee, brown people, Native Americans, black people, make-up a majority of the city. A big part of the police officers are white, and they don’t live in the city of Milwaukee,” Carpenter said during the debate over proposed police reforms.

“That makes me feel it’s a plantation mentality that white people that live outside of the city who are coming in to enforce laws for people that are minorities. And they aren’t being treated right.”

Carpenter’s comments came during the debate over a Democratic plan to require members of Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission to live within the city of Milwaukee.

Fellow Democratic Senator Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, argued there needs to be a connection between the people who oversee police officers and the community.

“We do not have occupying forces within the state of Wisconsin,” Larson said. “So this, at the very least, says those members of a fire and police commission...have to live there. [They] gotta be a member of the community.”

The residency requirement proposal failed, and no one mentioned Carpenter’s “plantation” comments.

The head of Milwaukee’s police officers’ union did not respond to The Center Square's questions about Carpenter’s remarks.

The Wisconsin Senate on Tuesday did pass four police reform plans, including one that mandates changes to Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission.

Se. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, said the Milwaukee FPC “has been an embarrassment for years.”

(The Center Square) – The latest snapshot from Wisconsin’s small businesses show almost half of them are struggling.

A new National Federation of Independent Business report says 44% of small businesses in the state have open jobs they cannot fill.

“The labor shortage continues to challenge small business employers as they struggle to emerge from the devastating economic impact of COVID-19,” NFIB Wisconsin State Director Bill G. Smith said.

The number of small businesses with open jobs and no workers has been increasing since the end of January. Smith says the historical average for open jobs in Wisconsin is half what it is now, just 22%.

“The tight labor market is hindering our small business owners and could be detrimental to helping Wisconsin’s economy bounce back from the pandemic,” Smith said.

The 44% of businesses that can’t find workers pale in comparison to the over 90% of businesses that say they cannot find ‘qualified’ workers.

“Ninety-two percent of those owners hiring or trying to hire report few or no ‘qualified’ applicants for the positions they were trying to fill in April,” the report states.

To counter the trend, Smith said small business owners in Wisconsin are offering more money or other incentives.

“A net 31% reported raising compensation, the highest level in the past 12 months,” the report notes. “A net 20% of owners plan to raise compensation in the next three months.”

Smith says the shortages are hurting all small businesses, from restaurants to construction companies.

“Small business owners are trying to recover from mandated shutdowns and are now having trouble finding workers to fill open positions,” Smith added.

(The Center Square) – A federal grand jury has indicted four ex-Minneapolis police officers on federal civil rights charges related to the death of George Floyd.

The first indictment charges Derek Chauvin, 45; Tou Thao, 35; J. Alexander Kueng, 27; and Thomas Lane, 38. The three-count indictment alleges that all four defendants willfully deprived Floyd of his constitutional rights, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 242.

Count one of the indictment alleges that on May 25, 2020, Chauvin pressed his left knee on Floyd’s neck, and his right knee on Floyd’s back and arm, as Floyd lay on the ground, handcuffed and unresisting, and kept his knees on Floyd’s neck and body even after Mr. Floyd became unresponsive.

The indictment alleges Chauvin’s actions violated Floyd’s constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer and resulted in Floyd’s death.

Count two charges that Thao and Kueng willfully failed to intervene to stop Chauvin’s use of unreasonable force, resulting in Floyd’s death.

Count Three of the indictment alleges that all four defendants saw Floyd lying on the ground in need of medical care and willfully failed to aid him. The indictment alleges that all four defendants willfully deprived Mr. Floyd of his constitutional right not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law, which resulted in Floyd’s death.

A separate, two-count indictment also charges Chauvin with willfully depriving a 14-year old Minneapolis resident of the constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 242.

Count one of this indictment alleges that on Sept. 4, 2017, Chauvin, without legal justification, held the teenager by the throat and struck the teenager multiple times in the head with a flashlight. The indictment alleges that this use of a flashlight equates to a dangerous weapon and resulted in bodily injury.

Count Two of the indictment charges that Chauvin held his knee on the neck and the upper back of the teenager even after the teenager was lying prone, handcuffed, and unresisting, also resulting in bodily injury.

Both indictments charge violations of Title 18, United States Code, Section 242. 18 U.S.C. § 242, which states that it is a crime for a government official to willfully violate a person’s constitutional rights.

An indictment is merely a formal accusation of criminal conduct.

These charges are separate from the charges Minnesota has brought against these former officers, and the Department of Justice probe announced April 21. Specifically, these charges allege criminal offenses for violating the U.S. Constitution.

On April 20, a jury found Chauvin guilty on charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.

Floyd’s family settled a civil lawsuit with the city of Minneapolis for a record $27 million.

The federal criminal cases are being prosecuted by Acting U.S. Attorney W. Anders Folk of the District of Minnesota, Special Litigation Counsel Samantha Trepel and Trial Attorney Tara Allison of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Samantha Bates, LeeAnn Bell, Evan Gilead, Manda Sertich and Allen Slaughter of the District of Minnesota.

(The Center Square) – The teachers union in the middle of a scandal for influencing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's official school reopening guidance gave nearly $20 million to Democrats in the 2020 election cycle, filings show.

Federal election filings reveal that the American Federation of Teachers and its local affiliates spent $19,903,532 on political donations during the 2020 cycle, with nearly all of the funds going to Democrats and liberal groups.

Last year’s AFT donations include $5,251,400 for the Democrats Senate Majority PAC and $4,600,000 for the Democratic House Majority PAC, according to data compiled by The Center for Responsive Politics’ Open Secrets database.

Besides PACs that supported Congressional Democrats, the AFT network also gave to groups like “For Our Future,” a liberal organization that received more than $1.5 million and heralded Biden’s inauguration on Twitter.

“There is so much to celebrate today,” the group wrote on inauguration day. “While we know there is ‘much to repair, much to restore, much to heal, much to build, and much to gain.’ And we're ready, #PresidentBiden & #KamalaHarrisVP!”

AFT affiliates gave to Democratic federal Congressional candidates over Republicans more than 99% of the time in the 2020 cycle, filings show.

The AFT has come under fire recently for its role in shaping CDC guidance around schools reopening. The New York Post reported last weekend on emails between top White House, CDC, and AFT officials that show the AFT crafting language and overall working closely with the CDC. The communication intensified ahead of the CDC’s planned Feb. 12 announcement to recommend whether schools should reopen.

In that February announcement, the CDC ultimately sided with the teachers union and delayed issuing guidance that schools should resume fully in-person classes.

After the emails emerged, Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter Wednesday to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky alleging that political influence from the teachers unions and White House influenced the federal agency’s official guidance. The Republicans argue the agency put “politics over science and Biden-Harris campaign donors over children.“

“Despite prior questions on the matter, recently released emails show that the AFT and NEA were able to weigh in on and lobby for changes made in the CDC’s Operational Strategy for Reopening Schools, the agency’s guidance for reopening schools around the country,” the Energy and Commerce Committee said in a statement.

The AFT defended its lobbying Thursday, saying the CDC should welcome input from other stakeholders and that it is simply representing the interests of their members.

“The AFT represents 1.7 million educators, healthcare professionals and public employees who spent the last 14 months serving on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said. "So naturally, we have been in regular touch with the agencies setting policy that affect their work and lives, including the CDC. We appreciate that under Dr. Walensky’s leadership, the CDC welcomes stakeholder feedback, as opposed to ignoring it.”

The National Education Association network, another large teachers union that consulted on the CDC guidance, gave nearly $15 million to Democratic-tied causes in the 2020 cycle, the vast majority of its spending. The AFT and NEA both endorsed Biden for president in March of last year.

Critics say the donations show teachers unions used their wealth as leverage to influence the Biden Administration.

“The unions knew exactly what they were buying in 2020,” said Aaron Withe, CEO of the Freedom Foundation. "We now see how well that investment is paying off.

“For over a year now, we’ve been told to listen to the science and to follow the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control,” Withe added. “Now we learn the government health bureaucracy we’ve been told is leading us through this pandemic is actually taking its cue from the teachers unions who’ve been holding our kids hostage to their political demands.”

Weingarten argues, though, her union lobbies Republicans as well, not just Democrats.

“In fact, we contacted the agency more in 2020 during the Trump administration than we have during the Biden administration in 2021 – requesting additional guidance, questioning policy, providing testimony and offering an educator and healthcare worker perspective,” Weingarten said. “And while we have at times been concerned about their conclusions – as we were initially with the change in classroom physical distancing rules – we respect deeply that the CDC career staff has always taken its responsibility seriously.”

Some on the right have called for Walensky’s resignation over the controversy.

“The CDC is supposed [to] be occupied by scientists who do not bow to political influence. This obviously is not the case under Dr. Walensky’s leadership,” said Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., who is also a doctor. “As the most important public health official in America, she should have had the fortitude to reject AFT’s influence in the CDC’s recommendations.”

(The Center Square) – A grassroots coalition of conservatives and Republican state leaders is pushing back after the Biden administration tied federal education funding to adopting controversial critical race theory teachings in schools' curriculum.

The Biden administration in April proposed a new Department of Education rule that gives preference in grant awarding to schools that incorporate into their curriculum content from the “1619 Project,” a controversial history project that is the most prominent work containing critical race theory ideas.

Critical race theory proponents argue that “the law and legal institutions in the United States are inherently racist insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially African Americans,” according to Britannica.

In the rule proposal, the Department of Education specifically notes the “1619 Project,” a long-form history writing project carried out by the New York Times that has come under heavy scrutiny from historians and many on the right. Notably, the 1619 project promoted an idea central to many critical race theorists, the teaching that racism and protecting slavery was a driving motivation for the American revolution. The New York Times later walked back that assertion.

“If you remember, The 1619 Project says America's not founded in 1776 with our revolution, it's not founded in 1788 with the adoption of our Constitution,” said University of California at Berkley Professor of Law John Yoo. “It's really founded in 1619 when the first African-American slaves are brought to the United States, and our history ever since then has been one of oppression.”

Critics argue it over-emphasizes the role of racism in American history and is politically motivated revisionist history.

“Parents in particular fear the dissemination of illiberal ideas to their children under the guise of ‘equity,’ and have begun to band together to challenge the movement at the state level,” the Manhattan Institute said in a statement.

Republican lawmakers sent a letter to the Biden administration last week arguing taxpayer funds should not be used to promulgate the theory but no response has been reported so far.

The DOE’s rule proposal references multiple controversial anti-racist activists and says schools will be given funding preference if they “take into account systemic marginalization, biases, inequities, and discriminatory policy and practice in American history” and help students in “understanding their own biases.”

State Battles

Several states have taken up the fight against critical race theory in the education system, including Louisiana, Florida, Texas and Tennessee, among others.

The Texas Senate passed a bill last week to prevent the states’ teachers from being forced to comply with any mandates to teach critical race theory.

“Texans reject critical race theory and other so-called ‘woke’ philosophies that maintain that one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex or that any individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive,” Texas’ Republican Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said. “These divisive concepts have been inserted into curriculums around the state, but they have no place in Texas schools.”

Republicans in other states have pushed back against the DOE rule, saying local leaders have authority over education in their states, not the federal government.

“When Texan parents send their children to school, they expect their students to learn to think critically without being forced to consume misinformation about our country’s founding and the biases of advocacy groups that seek to belittle our democracy and divide us,” Patrick said.

Tennessee Republicans advanced a bill Monday that would ban the state's schools from teaching critical race theory.

Florida Gov. Ron Desantis expressly attacked the idea in unveiling new education spending for his state in March.

“Florida civics curriculum will incorporate foundational concepts with the best materials, and it will expressly exclude unsanctioned narratives like critical race theory and other unsubstantiated theories,” Desantis said.

Grassroots Opposition

A grassroots swell of Americans, mostly on the right, are pushing back against the ideology and argue their tax dollars should not be used to fund it.

The debate over critical race theory hit a high point last year when former President Donald Trump banned federal agencies from using critical race theory materials in their training.

“It has come to the President's attention that Executive Branch agencies have spent millions of taxpayer dollars to date ‘training’ government workers to believe divisive, anti-American propaganda,” Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget under Trump, wrote in a letter to the heads of federal agencies last September.

“These types of ‘trainings’ not only run counter to the fundamental beliefs for which our Nation has stood since its inception, but they also engender division and resentment within the Federal workforce,” the letter reads.

The Trump administration’s letter sparked headlines and backlash. However, he received praise from Republicans, many of whom say they are wary of left-leaning curriculum that presents anti-American sentiments, especially when used for educating children.

Political Maneuvering

The Biden administration’s push for critical race theory at the federal level has provided a rallying point for Republicans to attack Biden and use his views for fundraising and campaigning going into 2022.

“On Day One, through executive order, I will immediately instruct the Georgia Department of Education to prohibit the teaching of Critical Race Theory within our public schools,” Vernon Jones, Republican candidate for governor of Georgia, wrote on Twitter. “It’s time for our schools to stop teaching our kids to hate America.”

Biden’s position has become a major talking point for conservative grassroots organizations.

“If you’re looking for institutional racism, it exists within Critical Race Theory,” said conservative author and speaker Candace Owens. “Ban it. At every level. It is the new Jim Crow.”

Beyond the state level, critical race theory is also shaping up to be a defining issue of the 2024 presidential race. Those leaders considered top contenders for the Republican nomination – Florida's Desantis, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and former Vice President Mike Pence – have all been vocal critics.

Hawley called for an investigation into the use of critical race theory in federal agencies last year, and DeSantis has used a common conservative line of attack against the educational dogma, calling it “marxism” on Fox News.

“I do think we need to rediscover in our K-12 system the founding of the country, what makes our country unique,” DeSantis said. “But when you do that, it’s got to be true and solid and factual. And you can’t let it become infected with left wing ideology like Critical Race Theory.”

“Critical race theory is basically teaching people to hate our country, hate each other,” he added. “It’s divisive and it’s basically an identity politics version of Marxism.”