Milwaukee, WI
Outside the RNC, small Milwaukee businesses and their regulars tried to salvage a sluggish week
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Jay Nelson was standing outside the convenience store he manages in downtown Milwaukee when one of his regular customers walked by on her daily stroll around the neighborhood.
“I’ve been telling people to come and buy even just a bottle of wine,” she said, stretching out her arms. “I hope it helps.”
Pulling her in for a hug, Nelson said they needed all the help they could get.
The store he has managed for nearly a decade, Downtown Market & Smoke Shop, was among the many businesses sealed off by tall metal fencing for the 2024 Republican National Convention, a sprawling footprint that shut down portions of the city’s downtown for more than a week.
For small businesses like Downtown Market, the RNC didn’t deliver a decisive victory, instead hindering sales despite earlier promises that it would bring an economic boost.
“I want you to take all your money to Milwaukee, spend it that week, and leave it in Milwaukee,” Mayor Cavalier Johnson said two years ago at the RNC’s summer meeting where it was announced that the city would host the GOP’s national convention.
But Samir Saddique, owner of Downtown Market and the neighboring Avenue Liquor, said the convention brought “a lot of nothing.” Traffic and sales took a nose dive soon after the fencing went up in front of the stores. By Thursday, the RNC’s final day, the liquor store had made just 10% of its usual sales, he said.
“We’re barricaded away from the rest of the world,” Saddique said.
Claire Koenig, a spokesperson for Visit Milwaukee, which promotes the city as a tourism destination, said economic impact reports will likely take three months to compile.
Across the Milwaukee River, which marked the eastern edge of the RNC secure zone, just one seat was taken at the bar inside Elwood’s Liquor & Tap during their Wednesday happy hour, which is usually a reliably busy night for the red-booth bar near Fiserv Forum where the convention’s main stage was housed.
“Everybody was promised that this was going to be a giant moneymaker for businesses,” bar manager Sam Chung, 30, said. “So it’s strange seeing how much it’s actually killed business for a lot of people outside the perimeter.”
Even their most loyal customers hadn’t stopped by this week, Chung said.
“They don’t even want to come down here because it’s obviously a mess to get here,” she said, adding that she thought “a big part of it is that a lot of our regulars are Democrats.”
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Milwaukee is the deepest blue city in Wisconsin, a key swing state.
Adam Buker, a 21-year-old barista at a coffee shop near one of the convention’s exits, which leads attendees onto a wide-open street, said that all week he had been playing music by queer artists as his own protest.
Yet the door kept swinging open at Canary Coffee Bar.
“It 100% has to do with our location,” Buker said Thursday as he packed espresso grounds for a cortado, with a Frank Ocean track playing in the background.
Though it was outside the secure zone, the cafe’s glass storefront and buttery yellow sidewalk seating weren’t obstructed by the fencing like Saddique’s liquor and convenience stores were. RNC attendees also didn’t have to cross the river to get to the coffee shop, unlike Elwood’s.
After closing this week, Buker said he had been spending his cash tips at some of the struggling bars around the convention’s perimeter.
“From one service worker to another,” he said. “Spread the love.”
As Buker’s final shift during RNC week was coming to an end Thursday evening, a last-minute party outside Saddique’s convenience store was just underway. Saddique and Nelson, the manager, hoped catered tacos and ice-cold green tea flowing from orange coolers would bring customers into the stores that have been open for 20-plus years, surviving a recession and a global pandemic.
Debra Lampe-Revolinski, who has lived in the building adjacent to Saddique’s businesses for 15 of those years, said she pitched the idea for the party earlier in the week, when she realized the expected boost in business would not materialize for her friends.
She knew Saddique and Nelson went to great lengths preparing for the RNC, having seen them hard at work for weeks while they remodeled parts of the stores, she said.
“And then there was just this deflation because the stores were blocked out by those tall metal fences,” she said. “It was so uninviting.”
By the time Trump took center stage Thursday to formally accept the GOP nomination, Lampe-Revolinski said the party, originally aimed at bringing in business, instead had turned into a celebration of surviving the week.
“If anything, this week strengthened our little community on this block to support its local businesses,” she said.
___
Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed from Madison, Wisconsin.
Billionaire Wes Edens, co-founder of Fortress Investment Group and co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks NBA club, is shown at Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 9, 2015. The Wall Street Journal on Sunday identified Edens as the victim of a billion-dollar extortion plot allegedly hatched by an ex-lover. File Photo by Andrew Gombert/EPA
May 10 (UPI) — Wes Edens, the billionaire co-founder of Fortress Investment Group and an owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, was the target of a billion-dollar extortion scheme allegedly perpetrated by an ex-lover, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
A spokesman for Edens, 64, confirmed to the newspaper that the financier is the unnamed alleged victim in a federal indictment brought against Changli “Sophia” Luo of New York City.
Edens, one of world’s most successful global investment management firm leaders with Fortress, has developed and owned businesses in real estate, transportation, infrastructure, health care, financial services, media and entertainment.
He is also a high-profile sports team owner, including the Bucks and soccer club Aston Villa of the English Premier League. He is credited turning the Bucks from a perennial cellar dweller into a champion squad over a five-year span, culminating in the 2021 NBA championship.
But he also fell victim to a lurid alleged “sextortion” scheme, his spokesman confirmed to the WSJ, admitting the Edens is the unnamed “Victim 1” cited an indictment filed last year in Manhattan federal court against Luo.
The indictment reportedly accuses her of trying to extort Victim 1 of more than $1 billion by threatening to release videos and photos of them engaged in sex. Prosecutors alleged Luo also threatened to contact the victim’s family members and business partners in a threat to destroy his fortune if he did not pay up.
According to the indictment, Luo was arrested June 14 at JFK International Airport as she tried to board a flight to China, the New York Post reported.
“Mr. Edens will be making no comment on the case as the indictment speaks for itself with respect to the charges against the defendant,” his spokesman told the Journal. “Mr. Edens expects to testify under oath at the upcoming trial.”
MILWAUKEE – Forecast from FOX6 Meteorologist Lisa Michaels
Mostly sunny skies with partly sunny skies in the afternoon. There is a slight chance for a few sprinkles, but most areas remain dry. Highs near 60F on Sunday.
Patchy frost is possible again Sunday night into Monday morning as low temps inland can reach the lower 30s.
Cooler on Monday with easterly winds- low 50s near the lake to upper 50s inland.
A big boost in temperatures on Tuesday in the low 70s associated with a clipper system will bring the next chance of rain and a few storms.
Today: Mostly Sunny. Slight chance sprinkles.
High: 60°
Wind: NW 5-15
Tonight: Mostly Clear. Patchy frost.
Low: 38°
Wind: N 5
Monday: 53 LAKE. Mostly sunny.
High: 57°
Wind: E 5-10
Tuesday: Chance storms. Breezy.
AM Low: 39° High: 71°
Wind: SW 10-25
Wednesday:Partly sunny.
AM Low: 46° High: 59°
Wind: NW 5-15
Thursday: Mostly Sunny. Slight chance sprinkles.
AM Low: 42° High: 64°
Wind: S 5-10
Friday: Chance of Rain
AM Low: 47° High: 72°
Wind: SW 5-15
6-day planner
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School and business closings
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Milwaukee, WI
Milwaukee Brewers Flamethrower Jacob Misiorowski Has Historic Night Against Yankees – World Baseball Network
The Milwaukee Brewers shut out the New York Yankees in a 6-0 victory on Friday night, and Jacob Misiorowski was dominated at a historic level.
In the first two innings of Friday night’s game, Misiorowski threw eight of the 10 fastest pitches ever by a starting pitcher. Of those eight, seven are now the fastest pitches ever thrown by a starting pitcher, according to Codify Baseball.
Misiorowski’s velocity has been a major topic of discussion ever since he made his debut last season. He lights up the radar gun early in games, but usually sees his velocity drop as the game goes on. However, in the fifth inning, he was able to throw a 103 mph fastball to Ryan McMahon. He also threw a 102.7 mph fastball to Cody Bellinger in the sixth inning.
Misiorowski leads all of baseball in strikeouts, notching his 70th strikeout of the season in the sixth inning of Friday’s game. Misiorowski has a 2.45 ERA on the season and had 11 strikeouts against the Yankees. The 60 fastest pitches thrown by a starting pitcher this season all belong to the Brewers ace.
It was Misiorowski’s first time facing the Yankees, and it was not just fans who were left in awe. Spencer Jones, the Yankees’ No. 6 prospect, made his MLB debut on Friday night and felt happy to just foul a pitch off against the flamethrowing righty.
“I’ve never seen pitches that hard in my life,” Jones said after the game, per MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy. “To foul off a couple is pretty great, so I’ll take that for now.”
Misiorowski’s teammate, Sal Frelick, was also in disbelief when Misiorowski kept touching triple digits late in the game.
“I kept looking up at the velo after every pitch as he got deep,” Frelick said per McCalvy. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Misiorowski picked a great night to showcase his best stuff. CC Sabathia was in the house to be inducted into the Brewers Wall of Honor, and he gave Misiorowski a glowing endorsement before the game.
“I love Misiorowski,” said Sabathia, per McCalvy. “I think he’s going to be a great pitcher.
“Honestly, he reminds me of myself as a young pitcher.”
If Misiorowski can become the type of player Sabathia was, he will be breaking records for years to come. He has played his best in big games so far in his career, but he is still only 24 and getting better with every start.
He credited adrenaline to his sustained velocity on Friday, so it makes sense that he has his best stuff in big games.
Photo: Milwaukee Brewers’ Jacob Misiorowski pitches during the second inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Friday, May 8, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
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