Wisconsin is arguably only 1 out of 3 swing states left in America (Georgia and Arizona are the other two). Biden won by 20K votes out of 5 million people in 2020, and those votes were almost overturned by a corrupt right-wing Wisconsin Supreme Court, and a sleight of fraudulent Republican electors. Since the January 6th insurrection, The Minocqua Brewing Company has become a strong progressive voice in the reddest part of the state, and has spent over $1.2M to protect Wisconsin's democracy. We helped Elect Governor Tony Evers and helped elect a 4-3 progressive majority on Wisconsin's Supreme Court, ensuring that Wisconsin's democracy would not fall in the 2024 presidential election. Statewide Republicans are doing everything they can to cancel our company, and are now trying to do it through targeted and abusive zoning regulations. Winning this battle will show progressives in red areas that they too can stand up to corruption and MAGA extremism.

Have you ever used DoorDash or Uber Eats? Booked a flight or a hotel room? Paid an overdraft fee from your bank? Bought concert tickets for yourself or a loved one? If so, you're in the 85% of Americans who have had the unfortunate experience of dealing with junk fees. Many Americans are just trying to survive and provide for their families, and these little fees add up the most for lower-income and working class families. We have tools to lessen the burden of deceptive junk fees. There's the Junk Fee Prevention Act and rules and regulations individual agencies can pass to make it happen. Join us in the fight against junk fees!

The summer heat has begun and farm workers and other outdoor workers desperately need a federal heat standard. With the way the government has shifted to the right, the need is more urgent than ever. An example occurred on June 17. Texas is first in work-related heat exposure deaths and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott just made it worse. He signed a bill to nullify local laws mandating water breaks for construction workers. Farm workers will surely face the same risks if conservative values overrule common sense protections in state and local government. The only real solution to save lives is federal action. Demand OSHA enact immediate heat regulations. Heat risk is real. Climate change is happening and outdoor workers are more and more in danger every year. Extreme temperatures could make thousands of workers seriously ill -- and even suffer heat stroke and die. Farm workers are as much as 35 times more likely to die from heat than any other civilian occupation. Only a handful of states -- California, Oregon and Washington -- have policies on farm work in extreme heat. This lack of regulations puts farm workers in an impossible situation where they are forced to choose between making a living and taking care of their health. Currently, OSHA is relying on the "general duty" clause that says the general duty of an employer is to provide safe working conditions. That's not enough. Instead, workers need more robust enforcement, including criminal proceedings. The men, women and children working in our fields can't wait. A Department of Labor committee just recommended OSHA pass permanent rules, but that can take years. Workers need immediate heat standards to be put in place NOW -- before people die due to political gamesmanship like Gov. Abbott's move. Leaders in Congress have been working on this, but to date, nothing has been passed. Heat deaths are preventable tragedies. The prevention is nothing complicated: shade, cool water, rest, education and monitoring. Sign our petition today and demand OSHA enact immediate heat regulations NOW!

Time and time again, the far-right majority of the Supreme Court puts special interests and politics ahead of people and above delivering justice under the law. But we will not be silenced. Millions have had to wait in economic limbo for nearly a year—we will not accept a return to the failed status quo. It’s up to President Biden and his administration to ensure we finally receive promised relief another way. Student debt fuels economic, gender, and racial inequality. Our persistent racial wealth gap means that students of color, especially those who are Black and brown, are more likely to have student debt, borrow in higher quantities, and face more struggles in repayment. A higher education should be the key to a better future, instead of a lifetime debt sentence that limits borrowers’ ability to buy homes, start small businesses, and save for retirement, cutting into opportunities for wealth-building over their lifetimes. This is why student loan cancellation is so important. Republicans and Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices cannot have the last word. We won’t let them win. We have to push back and be in solidarity with each other. Together, we can keep getting loud to show the Biden administration that we need them to use every single tool in their toolbox to give millions of Americans the relief they need.

In Illinois, pain patients are a very marginalized and stigmatized community. Pain medicine prescriptions continue to decrease, as doctors become afraid of legal reprisal, while we have a record number of overdose fatalities. Previously stable patients on long-term pain therapy have taken their lives or, in desperation, been forced to resort to the illicit market, which has caused even more overdoses. Illinois has one of the lowest prescribing rates in the US but the 14th highest number of deadly overdoses. Recent data reveals that not a single overdose fatality is attributable to prescription pain medicine. The state agencies are substituting their judgment for doctors and destroying the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship. Many people are unaware of the toll that restrictive state policies have taken on Illinoisans. Oncologists have decreased prescriptions by 50%. Children with terminal illnesses are denied pain relief. Veterans, who became injured serving our country, have lost access to their medicine—to such an extent that suicides increased by over 1/3. Millions of Illinoisans are one accident away from being a chronic pain patient, and even palliative care and hospice specialists are turning people away because they’re afraid of legal consequences. The American Pain & Disability Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization that tries to protect the pain community. We have to fight with hospitals who won't give terminally ill children pain medicine, veterans who served us but are now in terrible pain from combat injuries, and more---but we can't protect doctors and patients as they need to be protected without legislation. The current policies are harming one of the most vulnerable communities in the state. You can visit our website for more information, at www.4APDF.org. Please support HB 2046 to protect pain patients and their healthcare providers—countless lives depend on it! Sign the petition to help get this bill passed now!

Former President Donald J. Trump is facing 37 federal charges, including 31 violations of the Espionage Act, for stealing from and refusing to return top-secret nuclear and military documents to the government. Trump believes he is above the law, and the outcome of this federal case is critical to proving to the nation that he is not. It’s imperative that an impartial, trustworthy judge oversee this high-stakes trial. Judge Cannon is not this person. Last year, Judge Cannon wrongfully intervened in the Department of Justice investigation into Trump’s withholding of classified documents, barring the DOJ from using the seized materials in the continued investigation. Her ruling was ultimately reversed by a conservative court, citing she had no authority to intervene. She claimed to be protecting his reputation as former president of the United States, but the court responded with, “To create a special exception here would defy our nation’s foundational principle that our law applies ‘to all, without regard to numbers, wealth, or rank.’” It’s clear she did not adhere to the mandate of equal justice under the law. Despite federal law requiring judges to recuse themselves when their “impartiality might reasonably be questioned” or when they have “a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party,” she has yet to do so. And with the stakes this high, we can’t wait any longer for a judge with integrity to oversee this trial. Chief Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga has authority under federal law and internal court procedure to reassign a new judge to this case, one who will prioritize equal justice under the law. Photo credit: Illustrated / AP Photo / Southern District of Florida

“The mission of the social work profession is rooted in a set of core values. These core values, embraced by social workers throughout the profession’s history, are the foundation of social work’s unique purpose and perspective: -service -social justice -dignity and worth of the person -importance of human relationships -integrity -competence.” (NASW) Social Work Core Competencies: Competency 1: Demonstrate Ethical and Professional Behavior Competency 2: Advance Human Rights and Social, Racial, Economic, and Environmental Justice Competency 3: Engage Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) in Practice Competency 4: Engage in Practice-Informed Research and Research-Informed Practice Competency 5: Engage in Policy Practice Competency 6: Engage with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities Competency 7: Assess Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities Competency 8: Intervene with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities Competency 9: Evaluate Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities The links between human-animal violence have long been evidenced and recorded. The white supremacist patriarchal capitalist colonial machine objectifies and commodifies the living Earth through processes of social stratification, hierarchy, and psychological wages. Between factory farming, food deserts, social-economic inequities, health disparities, social determinants of health, environmental racism, colonial and patriarchal constructs of medicine, rape-culture, human-trafficking, drug-trafficking, wildlife-trafficking, global climate change, intimate partner violence, family violence, intergenerational abuses and traumas, urbanization, industrialization, housing injustices, genocide, displacement, and political-economic constructs of kyriarchal conglomerates of the Earth(ling) industrial complex, spawning from a culture of toxic masculinity, white supremacy, patriarchal, and imperialist senses of entitlement to the exploitation, abuse, domination, and possession of Earth(lings’) bodies, perpetuating cultures of exploitation and violence, the empirical evidence of the interconnectedness is irrefutable. The recognition of sentience and life in all beings is critical for fostering empathy and compassion for a harmonic and peaceful society and OTH animals deserve rights of their own. Several of our human clients’ main social support and sometimes only trusted social support, consists of their interspecies families. This ranges from the child who is bullied in school with little to no human friends, who cannot wait to go home to their canine family member, the cat being burned alive by the youth who feels helpless and enraged identifying with dad who is beating his mom while he is intoxicated as he learned it from his dad, and then that young person grows up to beat his partner, people experiencing poverty where there closest confidant and sometimes only confidante is their OTH companion or family member, the person who doesn’t attempt suicide and holds on, because of the love and connection they feel with their companion or family member, the examples are endless. The more-than-human world and re-connecting with our “roots” is essential for collective and individual healing, with more access to Our shared Nature as belonging to Earth, embracing values of connection, reciprocity, reverence, and compassion for all living beings. For more information on OTH animals in social work: https://socialwork.du.edu/humananimalconnection/about-institute-human-animal-connection https://www.routledge.com/Post-Anthropocentric-Social-Work-Critical-Posthuman-and-New-Materialist/Bozalek-Pease/p/book/9780367677855 https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/janimalethics.7.1.0096 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10560-020-00697-x https://socialworksynergy.org/2014/12/03/social-work-beyond-human-rights/ https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9780230306868 https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137372291 For more information about the links between human-animal violence: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/animal-oppression-and-human-violence/9780231151887 https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780742517769/Animal-Rights-Human-Rights-Entanglements-of-Oppression-and-Liberation https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-19201-2 https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvxhrmr1 https://burningbooks.com/products/racism-as-zoological-witchcraft http://blackyouthproject.com/three-ways-black-veganism-challenges-white-supremacy-unlike-conventional-veganism/ https://www.routledge.com/Gender-Violence-in-Ecofeminist-Perspective-Intersections-of-Animal-Oppression/Hunnicutt/p/book/9780367776916 https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781786606464/Critical-Animal-Studies-Towards-Trans-species-Social-Justice https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/the-link-between-animal-cruelty-and-human-violence#:~:text=Animal%20cruelty%20is%20a%20predictor,and%20sexual%20abuse%20of%20children. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7246522/#:~:text=Often%2C%20companion%20animals%20can%20become,43%2C44%2C45%5D. https://nationallinkcoalition.org/what-is-the-link https://vetsocialwork.utk.edu/ https://www.fordham.edu/info/20361/gss_continuing

It will help ease suffering to many families, provide more research opportunities, and give newborns / kids a chance to thrive even with a rare illness or genetic disorder

Antonio Robinson is well known in his community. He is a licensed Barber, owns his own moving company and started investing in property. Each year he gives back to families by giving out free cuts and backpacks at the start of the school year. He is a dedicated father to all his children and is very active in their lives, school, and other activities. Antonio is a black male that grew up in Monroe NC. He was taken from his parents at a young age and went from foster home to foster home. He went back to school to get his GED and then went on to college. He is a licensed barber and master educator. I am fighting for justice for Antonio because the system is not treating him fairly. I have done my research and pulled all other persons in jail with him that are of a different race and have the same or higher charges but their bonds are way lower. Also Antonio’s charges have been dismissed but they still have him under a 1.5 million dollar bond.

Israel Saldana and Michael Maldonado are two of many people who were either convicted when they were children, or who were given sentences way out of proportion to their crimes, or who are still in prison years after others with identical criminal histories have been released. They are two of the many who have grown and changed during their years in prison. Excessive sentences like theirs are part of the reason Wisconsin's prison racial disparities are, by many measures, worst in the nation.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently announced a new tax filing software that will go live for a select group in 2024. This question-based software will allow people to send their returns electronically to the government for free! If broadly available, this software would allow Americans to avoid profit-hungry companies that act as middlemen when we e-file our taxes. But the tax preparation lobby will strongly oppose IRS free direct filing software — so we need your help to demonstrate overwhelming support for the program! Image Credit: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently announced a new tax filing software that will go live for a select group in 2024. This question-based software will allow people to send their returns electronically to the government for free! If broadly available, this software would allow Americans to avoid profit-hungry companies that act as middlemen when we e-file our taxes. But the tax preparation lobby will strongly oppose IRS free direct filing software — so we need your help to demonstrate overwhelming support for the program! Image Credit: Orange County Register

Donald Trump is a twice-impeached former president, who has now been indicted by a jury of his peers in New York and in Miami. During Trump's two impeachment trials, GOP Senators who acted as the jury prevented Trump from being convicted and barred from future office because they were more interested in playing politics and holding onto power than in justice and accountability. Trump is facing very serious criminal charges—34 felony counts in New York, and seven federal felonies in Miami, reportedly including violations to the Espionage Act and Conspiracy. They could put him in prison for a long time. And we still are waiting for expected charges for attempting to sabotage the 2020 election and inciting insurrection. It is critical for the future of our democracy that Trump be held accountable for his actions. These juries cannot be allowed to treat him differently for the fact that he's rich, or a former president, or a contender to be our future president. He must be treated as if he is not above the law.