Milwaukee, WI

The pursuit of energy equity in Milwaukee, and across the US

Published

3 years ago

April 18, 2022

The pursuit of energy equity in Milwaukee, and across the US

A nationwide dialogue is underway over ensuring that everybody who desires to be a part of the anticipated transition to photo voltaic and different cleaner, renewable types of vitality can be part of up. What occurs within the Milwaukee space is a part of that dialogue.

A current Division of Power examine discovered that photo voltaic adopters are inclined to determine as non-Hispanic white and stay in higher-value houses. Neither of which describes Francesca Dawson, who final 12 months had 12 photo voltaic panels put in on the south-facing roof of her storage.

Dawson says ever since, her electrical energy invoice has been shrinking. “It is form of like a recreation. You already know, how low can I’m going? The month of March, I saved $64. I am attempting to see if I can get it right down to zero, or WE Energies pays me,” she tells WUWM.

Even when she finally sells a little bit of energy to the native electrical firm, Dawson can be paying off the photo voltaic panels for 5 to 10 years. However she says getting in on a gaggle purchase of the panels lowered the price and so did monetary incentives from town of Milwaukee, the state Concentrate on Power program and her credit score union.

Dawson is Black and lives within the modest Lindsey Heights neighborhood, just a few miles northwest of downtown. She says her longtime curiosity about photo voltaic vitality, and the wage she earns as an IT employee additionally made her a superb candidate to go photo voltaic.

She says her neighbors ask her in regards to the panels, however hesitate so as to add their very own.

Dawson says what’s wanted for better adoption of photo voltaic is “if they will have it come down in value, if they will do extra the group buys. I feel that is what scares folks — the price of the panels, ‘I would have one other cost.’”

Dale Willman, Society of Environmental Journalists

Audio system at a current Society of Environmental Journalists plenary session titled “The Power Transition and Environmental Justice” included Pedro Pizarro (second from left) of Edison Worldwide, and Jamal Lewis (second from proper) of Rewiring America.

Incentives are one thing Jamal Lewis appears at on the nationwide entrance, as he works towards equitable electrification. Lewis is with the nonprofit group Rewiring America. He says there is a great alternative to ensure lower-income Black and brown communities get on board the photo voltaic revolution. However Lewis says there additionally must be incentives for issues like updating electrical panels in older houses.

“A variety of the occasions, the houses we’re residing in weren’t constructed to have the ability to stand up to the elevated electrical calls for. So, we’ll want to lift the voltage up in our houses to have the ability to take care of photo voltaic panels, to make use of electrical induction stoves and finally to energy and cost our electrical autos,” he says.

Lewis says he is massive on what he calls assembly folks the place they’re — that means for instance, recognizing homeowners of older houses may must immediately exchange a pure fuel furnace.

“I am 28 years outdated, and my mother and father’ furnace is older than I’m. In the event that they had been to transition and purchase a brand new furnace, we’re mainly locking in 30-plus years of fossil gasoline funding. We won’t let that occur,” he says.

Lewis just lately spoke at a nationwide convention of the Society of Environmental Journalists. So did Pedro Pizarro of Edison Worldwide, the dad or mum firm of the utility Southern California Edison. Pizarro says he is additionally massive on increasing entry to cleaner vitality and extra use of effectivity applications as methods to scale back emissions that contribute to international warming.

However Pizarro says there can be a price: “Let’s make no mistake. It should be costly to mitigate local weather change by decreasing carbon within the financial system.”

However finally, Pizarro says, he thinks the standard client within the U.S. will spend much less cash on vitality. “Electrical may go up. However the whole invoice of electrical, plus fuel, plus gasoline will go down by a few third for the common client by 2045 due to the better effectivity of electrical home equipment,” he says.

Anticipate persevering with battles on whether or not taxpayers or utility ratepayers or firm stockholders ought to foot many of the invoice for the expertise and funding.

But in addition do not underestimate the motivation of curious, socially aware and artistic shoppers like Milwaukee’s Francesca Dawson, who has adopted a primary strategy to vitality use. “How can I stay comfortably, with out spending rather a lot?” she asks.

Source link

Milwaukee, WI

Milwaukee ICE detention facility proposed for city's northwest side

Published

25 minutes ago

January 15, 2025

Press Room

Milwaukee ICE detention facility proposed for city's northwest side

article

What we know:

MILWAUKEE – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has proposed to open an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Milwaukee, an alderwoman announced Tuesday, Jan. 14.

Ald. Larresa Taylor, who represents Milwaukee’s 9th District, said DHS requested modifications to a building located at 11925 W. Lake Park Dr. Those modifications include adding a sally port and a chain link fence with privacy slats. A sally port would be used to transport prisoners to and from the facility.

SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News

“I want District 9, and the rest of the city, to know that we do not support the Department of Homeland Security in their decision to move into our district, and we definitely do not support any such modifications to any building in our district (as a location to house prisoners!),” Taylor said in a statement.

What’s next:

Taylor scheduled a news conference at 1 p.m. Wednesday outside the building. She invited all organizations that will be impacted to join her, noting “Milwaukee’s 9th Aldermanic District will no longer be Wisconsin’s dumping ground for detention facilities.”

The Source: Ald. Larresa Taylor provided information.

MilwaukeeNews

Source link

Milwaukee, WI

Criminal justice advocates express high hopes for Milwaukee’s new district attorney | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Published

9 hours ago

January 14, 2025

Press Room

Criminal justice advocates express high hopes for Milwaukee’s new district attorney | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

In the Milwaukee County Safety Building at 821 W. State St., Kent Lovern discusses his past, present and future as a prosecutor within the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office. (Photo by Devin Blake)

District Attorney-elect Kent Lovern has made it a priority to listen to residents on the North and South sides of Milwaukee.

“What I have heard loudly and clearly is everyone wants to feel safe, and everyone wants that safety in their daily lives, and they want that for their children,” Lovern said.

At a ceremony on Thursday, Jan. 16, Lovern will be publicly recognized in his new role. With nearly 30 years of experience as a prosecutor, he’s recognized for his collaborative approach to systemic issues.

Lovern focuses on collaborations outside his office, in part, because he believes these collaborations are necessary to sustainably reduce violence and increase public safety in Milwaukee.

“I just feel like we need to better connect into one another and develop our own system of public safety – one that is really framed up as community development, economic development, educational development and the public safety comes with that,” he said.

Among Milwaukee’s large network of criminal justice advocates, many say they feel heard by Lovern.

“Kent has always been thoughtful and responsive to me,” said Emilio De Torre, executive director of Milwaukee Turners, which advocates for various criminal justice initiatives as well as those impacted by the criminal justice system.

Working together

“We can’t unring the bell of a crime, right? If somebody commits a crime, like myself, they need to be prosecuted,” said Adam Procell, who coordinates the monthly resource fair Home to Stay, for formerly incarcerated individuals reentering society. “But after that time period, when somebody gets out, he (Lovern) also understands that if we don’t provide the person with an opportunity to lead an optimal lifestyle, they’re going to have to prosecute them again for another crime.”

For Lovern, people reentering have a unique ability to lead others away from crime.

“People returning back to communities, looking to be proactive members of their community, looking for ways to help mentor young people and help instruct young people about the pitfalls and the mistakes they made – that’s a very powerful group,” he said.

Milwaukee County has the largest population of people on parole, probation or extended supervision in the state. At the end of October, nearly 13,000 people were under supervision, state correctional data show.

“On the whole, I have heard more interest in reentry across the board … than I have heard at any time in my career,” Lovern said.

Causes of crime

Lovern’s support of reentry is consistent with an overall preventive approach to crime.

He cites the relationship between drug addiction and crime as a good example.

“We’ve had a strong approach to this for some time, because right after John (Chisholm) was elected, 18 years ago, we created an early intervention unit, and that was immediately designed to offer opportunities for people to work through a criminal charge…and we’ve seen a lot of success with that.”

WISDOM, a statewide faith-based organization, wants Lovern to expand on this philosophy.

“There’s a lot of room for certainly expanding treatment alternatives to incarceration for people living with mental illness and with addiction issues, and there are many opportunities to divert more people from the system. I’m definitely optimistic that those types of programs will continue and will expand,” said Mark Rice, coordinator of WISDOM’s Wisconsin Transformational Justice Campaign.

Lovern is proud of Milwaukee’s mental health courts, which address cases involving mental health concerns, including assessments of competence and insanity pleas.

An intermediate goal the DA’s office is close to achieving, he said, is increasing the number of cases handled in these courts to 30 cases on an ongoing basis, compared to 10 cases previously.

“Somebody might come first through the police department or to the DA ‘s office, and we may be saying, ‘Look, this person isn’t really committing criminal behavior – the bigger concern here is the mental health piece,’” said Lovern.

Current crime and safety risks

Recent data from the Milwaukee Police Department show notable declines since 2023 in violent crimes, especially homicides and non-fatal shootings, and a reduction in most property crimes.

But certain violent crimes have increased since 2022, including robberies and carjackings.

“There’s no question that there is additional work that needs to be done to drive down the level of violent crime we see in this community,” Lovern said.

The problem, he added, is not evenly spread throughout the city.

A quarter of Milwaukee County homicides since 2023 occurred in only two ZIP codes.

“Everyone’s concerned about crime everywhere, but we know where the concentrations of violent crime exist,” said Lovern, adding that many residents in these neighborhoods tell him that we need “a strong response” to crime and that these “neighborhoods need to be valued.”

Limits of the office

Rice, of WISDOM, does not want fairness and justice to be lost, however.

“We still in Wisconsin incarcerate Black people at one of the highest rates in the nation,” he said. “There’s a lot of discretion up front when plea bargains are reached in terms of who gets diverted from the system and who goes in.”

Rice and others also worry about the systemic limitations of the DA’s office to address such problems.

“Jobs like the DA’s office, mayor’s office, police chief tend to be very difficult, with unforeseen pressures and inherent flaws in how they’ve been systemized over the years,” said De Torre, of Milwaukee Turners. “The real test is how a person acts and what they do within a flawed system.”

Source link

Milwaukee, WI

Milwaukee Bucks injury report: Khris Middleton out tonight vs. Kings. Starters, TV channel, odds

Published

17 hours ago

January 14, 2025

Press Room

Milwaukee Bucks injury report: Khris Middleton out tonight vs. Kings. Starters, TV channel, odds

The Milwaukee Bucks try to bounce back tonight vs. the Sacramento Kings following a disappointing 34-point loss to New York on Sunday.

The Bucks (20-17) have won three of four and are in a dogfight in the middle of the Eastern Conference as they begin the day two games behind the Knicks in the loss column for the No. 3 seed but are behind Orlando (23-18) and Indiana (22-18) in the playoff standings.

The Magic, led by Milwaukee native and head coach Jamahl Mosley, are in town tomorrow night.

Sacramento fired head coach Mike Brown on Dec. 27 when they were 13-18 and under interim head coach Doug Christie the Kings have seven in a row and are 20-19 overall.

Is Giannis playing?

He is probable to play vs. the Kings. He has been managing pain in his right knee since training camp but has yet to miss a game with the issue.

Khris Middleton ruled out of Kings game

First, Khris Middleton was pushed back to the bench and now the team is taking him out of back-to-back situations. Middleton played 12 straight games from Dec. 6-Jan. 4, including a back-to-back set on Dec. 20-21.

But on Jan. 8 he was moved to the bench because of his continued minute restriction and issues surrounding his complete return from offseason ankle surgeries.

And he was immediately ruled out of Tuesday night’s game against the Kings on Monday, presumably to make sure he’s ready to play in a more important Eastern Conference game against Orlando on Wednesday night.

In a Bucks win over the Magic on Jan. 10 in Florida, Middleton scored 11 points and had four assists in just under 23 minutes of play.

Bucks guard Andre Jackson Jr. hosts coat drive

Second-year Bucks guard Andre Jackson Jr. is hosting a coat drive outside Fiserv Forum prior to home games on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. New and gently used coats, hats, gloves and scarves will be accepted and donated to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee and the Greater Amsterdam School District. Cash donations are accepted online here: Andre Jackson Coats | Powered By GiveSmart

The 23-year-old guard is from Amsterdam, New York, and played collegiately at the University of Connecticut.

What channel is the Bucks game on?

The game will tip off at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast local on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin with Lisa Byington, Marques Johnson and Melanie Ricks on the call.