Milwaukee, WI

Protesters rally in Milwaukee as GOP convention begins | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Published

2 years ago

July 16, 2024

Protesters rally in Milwaukee as GOP convention begins | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

MILWAUKEE — Hundreds of demonstrators converged Monday on downtown Milwaukee to protest around the Republican National Convention, saying the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump won’t affect their long-standing plans to rally outside the site.

A wide range of organizations and activists gathered in a downtown park outside the Fiserv Forum’s security perimeter to listen to speakers ahead of a street march coordinated by The Coalition to March on the RNC. The coalition, made up largely of local groups, supports abortion and immigrant rights and is pressing to end the war in Gaza.

The atmosphere was festive, with music playing over loudspeakers, a man strumming a guitar and vendors selling T-shirts and buttons supporting both Republicans and Democrats. One protester wore an orange prison jumpsuit with a giant Trump cutout for a face. Activists carried signs that read “Stand with Palestine,”https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2024/jul/16/protesters-rally-in-milwaukee-as-gop-convention/”We Can No Longer Afford the Rich” and “Defend and Expand Immigrant Rights.”

At one point, a group of demonstrators got into an argument with counterprotesters who denounced LGBTQ+ rights, Muslims, Black Lives Matter and women.

Counterprotester Rich Penkoski of Stillwater, Okla., bellowed through a bullhorn that women should go home and make sandwiches for their husbands. The demonstrators eventually walked away from the counterprotesters as police looked on.

At noon, the demonstrators set off on the march around the arena’s security perimeter, chanting “Hey-hey, ho-ho, Republicans have got to go” and “This is what democracy looks like.” Many carried Palestinian flags.

Marchers passed within a block of Fiserv Forum on the edge of the arena’s security zone before returning to the downtown park where they began. The Milwaukee Police Department estimated the crowd at between 700-800 people and said no one was arrested.

However, an Associated Press reporter saw a man in handcuffs being held by police outside the park after the march ended. An officer told him he was being arrested for disorderly conduct, though it wasn’t immediately clear what led to the arrest or if the man was part of the protest.

The Philadelphia-based group Poor People’s Army, which advocates for economic justice, marched later Monday afternoon. Two dozen protesters gathered in a park about a mile from Fiserv Forum to prepare for the march, jotting slogans on signs decrying corporate greed, mass incarceration, the war in Gaza and other issues as Pete Seeger’s “Which Side Are You On?” played on a speaker.

Perennial Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein addressed the group, calling for less military spending and larger investments in public education, social housing and health care. She didn’t mention the assassination attempt.

Cheri Honkala, 60, said she traveled to Milwaukee from one of the poorest districts in Pennsylvania to “send a strong message to all politicians” that people living below the poverty line “are not surviving.”

Honkala said she was nervous after the attempted assassination of Trump about potential encounters with law enforcement officers and counterprotesters while she marched with the Poor People’s Army, but she said she wasn’t deterred.

“The climate is definitely a scary one,” she said, “but you know what’s scarier? Not saying anything.”

A gunman identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks fired a shot during a Trump rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday evening that grazed Trump’s ear. A rally participant was killed and two more were critically wounded during the assault, prompting widespread calls to improve security and raising questions about Trump’s safety in Milwaukee, as well as that of other convention-goers.

Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, Wisconsin’s largest immigrant rights group, condemned political violence but blamed Trump for fostering anger.

“It’s undeniable that Trump’s rhetoric, policies and actions have contributed to a climate of increased violence and legitimized hate crimes,” she said.

Peter Wilt, 64, of Whitefish Bay, Wis., was in the crowd Monday morning. He held a sign that read “Now Will U Ban Automatic Weapons.” Wilt said the sign referred to the assassination attempt.

“Common-sense gun laws are just that. Common sense,” he said. “The GOP has refused to enact common-sense gun laws, in part because it hasn’t hit home for them.”

There was a heavy police presence in the city, with officers from multiple jurisdictions providing security. Pentagon officials said 1,700 National Guard troops, mostly from Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota, were on active duty at the convention as well.

Milwaukee officials and federal authorities have repeatedly said their priority is safety and insist that they’ve made free speech accommodations.

Information for this article was contributed by Kathleen Foody and Lolita Baldor of The Associated Press.

Protestors march near the Fiserv Forum during the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention, Monday, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Protestors march near the Fiserv Forum during the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention, Monday, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Protestors speak at Red Arrow Park near the Fiserv Forum during the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention, Monday, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Protestors march near the Fiserv Forum during the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention, Monday, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Peter Wilt, 64, of Whitefish Bay, Wis., holds a sign Monday, July 15, 2024, during protest in downtown Milwaukee, by the Coalition to March on the RNC 2024. Wilt said his sign referred to the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. “Common sense gun laws are just that. Common sense,” he said. “The GOP has refused to enact common sense gun laws, in part, because it hasn’t hit home for them.” (AP Photo/Corey Williams)

Protestors march near the Fiserv Forum during the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention, Monday, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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Milwaukee, WI

Milwaukee County overdose deaths continue to fall, but challenges remain

Published

12 hours ago

April 21, 2026

Press Room

Milwaukee County overdose deaths continue to fall, but challenges remain

New data show 387 drug overdose deaths in Milwaukee County in 2025, down about 43% from their peak in 2022.
County officials credit efforts to increase access to Narcan, addiction treatment and drug testing strips.
Overdose deaths caused by multiple drugs are still a concern. The combination of cocaine and fentanyl was most prevalent in the county in 2025.
The county is spending $111 million over the next several years in opioid settlement funds.

The number of Milwaukee County residents who died from a drug overdose fell for a third year in 2025, which county officials say is a promising sign that more money spent on harm reduction, treatment and prevention efforts is working.

New data released April 21 show 387 overdose deaths across the county last year, down about 43% from their peak in 2022.

“The work is paying off,” Dr. Ben Weston, Milwaukee County’s chief health policy adviser, said at a news conference, touting the county’s vending machines stocked with Narcan and drug testing strips, as well as a state-sponsored data collection system that helps local health departments understand when and where overdoses occur.

Still, the hundreds of county residents who lost their lives last year to a drug overdose means that work isn’t close to done, officials say – especially as the drug landscape continues to change, presenting new challenges.

“We can’t let our foot off the gas quite yet,” said Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

Drug mixing continues to drive lethal outcomes

Milwaukee County’s decline in overdose deaths is a trend mirrored across the state and the country, following years of climbing fatalities that were deemed a public health crisis.

The county will spend $111 million in opioid settlement funds over the next several years and is already putting what it has received to use, focusing on “reaching residents where they are,” said Jeremy Triblett, prevention integration manager with the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services.

That includes initiatives like the harm reduction vending machines and also knocking on doors, providing county EMS workers with Narcan and seeking the opinions of people who use drugs to shape the county’s strategy.

But officials say they still see a concerning trend of combinations of drugs leading to overdose, particularly fentanyl being cut with stimulants such as cocaine. These mixes of drugs make it harder to reverse an overdose, said Dr. Wieslawa Tlomak, Milwaukee County’s chief medical examiner.

Nearly a third of all autopsies the medical examiner’s office conducted in 2025 were deaths by drug overdose, Tlomak said, and the majority involved multiple drugs. Data show the most common combinations were fentanyl and cocaine, cocaine and alcohol, and opoids and fentanyl.

Methamphetamines are also involved in more overdose deaths than a few years ago, Tlomak said.

For drug users, not knowing exactly what’s in the drug they are getting is one of the most dangerous elements of the current drug landscape, she said.

Fatal drug overdoses were most common among American Indian and Alaska Native residents in 2025, the data show, followed by Black residents. About two-thirds of fatal overdoses were in men, and the median age of death from an overdose was 49, a number that’s been climbing steadily since 2018.

Triblett said the county is focusing on how substances interact with cultural norms in different communities and that a community advisory board is convening to develop harm reduction messaging for specific populations. His team will also host a door-knocking event June 12 to reach new people across the county with prevention and treatment resources.

Madeline Heim covers health and the environment for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at 920-996-7266 or mheim@usatodayco.com.

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Milwaukee, WI

What to know about Michael Lock as police execute warrant on his former home

Published

1 day ago

April 21, 2026

Press Room

What to know about Michael Lock as police execute warrant on his former home

Milwaukee police on Monday, April 20, began digging up a home once owned by notorious Milwaukee drug dealer Michael Lock.

The dig marks another chapter in Lock’s long criminal history in Milwaukee, which has included convictions for homicide, drug dealing, kidnapping, torture and running a prostitution ring.

As of 6 p.m., April 20, police had partially dug up the concrete driveway and yard in Lock’s former home. Lock has been convicted of murders of other drug dealers whose bodies were found under concrete slabs at a different home he owned.

As the dig continues, here’s what to know about Lock:

Who is Michael Lock?

Lock was the head of a murderous criminal organization known as the “Body Snatchers” and one of the leading criminal operators in Milwaukee until his 2007 arrest.

Over the course of a decade, Lock’s organization sold large volumes of cocaine, tortured and killed other dealers, prostituted women across the Midwest and ran a mortgage fraud scheme.

A jury convicted Lock in July 2008 in the homicides of two drug dealers in 1999 and 2000, whose remains were found in 2005 under concrete slabs in the backyard of a home once owned by Lock at 4900 W. Fiebrantz Ave. He has also been found guilty of running a prostitution ring, various kidnapping and drug dealing charges and mortgage fraud.

Where is Michael Lock now?

Lock is is serving multiple terms of life in prison at Waupun Correctional Institution without the chance of parole.

Where are Milwaukee police digging on April 20?

Milwaukee police confirmed they are executing a search warrant at the home on 4343 N. 15th St. in Milwaukee’s north side. City tax records show the property is owned by Shalanda Roberts, formerly Shalanda Lock, Michael Lock’s former wife.

Why are police digging up the yard of Lock’s former home?

There has long been suspicion on the part of law enforcement that there are additional bodies buried under the yard. In 2011, police dug another Milwaukee yard looking for remains.

In that warrant 15 years ago, investigators said at least four victims are buried somewhere in Milwaukee. Before that, police had dug a half-dozen other yards. Police have found no remains in the other digs.

Who lives at the property now?

It is unclear if anyone currently lives at the North 15th Street property. Shalanda Roberts told the Journal Sentinel she owns the property where police are digging, but it is a rental and she lives out of state now.

She said she has no information on the dig and has not spoken to her former husband in years.

Read the Journal Sentinel’s past coverage on Michael Lock

The Journal Sentinel documented the case against Lock in a five-part investigative series, “The Preacher’s Mob,” published in 2009.

You can read the series below:

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Milwaukee, WI

Marvin Bynum named to BizTimes Milwaukee’s Notable Leaders in Law | Marquette Today

Published

2 days ago

April 20, 2026

Press Room

Marvin Bynum named to BizTimes Milwaukee’s Notable Leaders in Law | Marquette Today

Marvin Bynum, adjunct professor at Marquette University Law School, was named to BizTimes Milwaukee’s list of Notable Leaders in Law.

Bynum, shareholder and real estate attorney with Milwaukee-based Godfrey & Kahn, teaches a course on real estate transactions at Marquette. He has experience with a range of property types, from sports facilities to manufacturing plants and office spaces, and works to help clients navigate transactions including development, financing, leasing, acquisitions, dispositions and low-income housing tax credit-financed projects.

Notable Leaders in Law is part of BizTimes Milwaukee’s Notable series, which recognizes leaders in the southeastern Wisconsin business community.

Six alumni were also named to the list:

Jim Brzezinski, managing partner and CEO of Tabak Law
Adam R. Finkel, partner at Husch Blackwell
Jeremy Guth, shareholder and attorney at O’Leary-Guth Law Office S.C.
Keith Kopplin, shareholder at the Milwaukee office of Ogletree Deakins
Isioma Nwabuzor, associate general counsel and assistant corporate secretary at Modine Manufacturing Co.
Joe Pickart, partner at Husch Blackwell

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