Bruce Murphy

Milwaukee

Editor at Urban Milwaukee

Editor, Urban Milwaukee, Inc.

Articles

Murphy’s Law: State’s Hospitals Causing Shortage of Nurses?

3 days ago | urbanmilwaukee.com | Bruce Murphy

Nurses are leaving their profession in big numbers. A report released in March by the Wisconsin Hospital Association (WHA) warned that it faces a growing shortage of health care workers.
Murphy’s Law: The Professors Are the Enemy

4 days ago | urbanmilwaukee.com | Bruce Murphy

It was President Richard Nixonwho in a 1972 Oval Office conversation was recorded saying, “The professors are the enemy. Write that on a blackboard 100 times.” The words were echoed by now U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance in 2021, in an address he gave called “The Universities Are The Enemy.”We are seeing this animosity reflected in policy decisions by the administration of Donald Trump and Vance, and by Republican legislators in Wisconsin.
Murphy’s Law: Can Democrats Win More Rural Voters?

1 week ago | urbanmilwaukee.com | Bruce Murphy

Ben Wikler was probably the smartest Wisconsin Democratic Party chair in the last 40 years or so. The Democrats had many victories under him. And he was a zealot about campaigning in rural areas. “We are organized in every county in the state,” he told Urban Milwaukee last fall, including the reddest rural areas. “There’s nothing more powerful than hearing directly from a candidate going door to door and asking for your vote.
Minnesota Shooter’s Hit List Included Sen. Baldwin, Reps Moore and Pocan

1 week ago | urbanmilwaukee.com | Bruce Murphy

Wisconsin’s state Capitol has added additional security measures after numerous Wisconsin lawmakers were included in the hit list of the man accused of killing a Minnesota state lawmaker and wounding another. Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin was among those on the list, a spokesperson for the senator told Wisconsin Public Radio on Monday. “Senator Baldwin was informed by law enforcement that she was included on the alleged shooter’s list of names,” said Eli Rosen, a Baldwin spokesperson.
Murphy’s Law: Trump’s Flip-Flop on Immigrants Impacts Wisconsin

1 week ago | urbanmilwaukee.com | Bruce Murphy

Murphy’s Law Trump’s Flip-Flop on Immigrants Impacts WisconsinHis stop and start on ICE raids affects restaurants, dairy industry, hotels and more. //end headline wrapper ?> This article is available only to Urban Milwaukee's paid members.
Murphy’s Law: Reading Instruction Program for Milwaukee Teachers a Great Idea

2 weeks ago | urbanmilwaukee.com | Bruce Murphy

I had an earlier career before I became a journalist. I was a teacher at Shalom High School, an alternative school (long before the start of school choice) whose students were mostly Milwaukee Public Schools dropouts, and often far behind in reading skills. I later taught adult basic education at Milwaukee Area Technical College, a remedial class for adults with low reading levels, sometimes as low as second or third grade. In nearly all cases phonics instruction worked the best.
Murphy’s Law: How State Has Slashed Milwaukee County’s Funding

2 weeks ago | urbanmilwaukee.com | Bruce Murphy

A new analysis by Milwaukee County staff and requested by Urban Milwaukee shows that state aid to this county has fallen abysmally in real dollars over the last 22 years. Had the funding simply kept up with inflation, the county would have received an additional $1 billion over that period.
Murphy’s Law: Bucks Violating Promises on Unions?

3 weeks ago | urbanmilwaukee.com | Bruce Murphy

Back in 1979 the downtown Hyatt Regency Hotel was built under the leadership of developer Gary Grunau and had unionized staff. That was the last time a hotel in Milwaukee was unionized, says Peter Rickman, President of the Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization. Rickman is trying to organize at the new downtown hotel, The Trade, run by what he calls a “vehemently anti-union company,” NCG Hospitality.
Murphy’s Law: Guns Now Kill More Than Auto Crashes

3 weeks ago | urbanmilwaukee.com | Bruce Murphy

Gun killings have become so common in America that it’s easy to become numb to the issue or how it might be changing. But a report last fall, by the national Violence Prevention Center and the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort, included a stunning statistic: More people in Wisconsin are now killed by firearms than by auto crashes. That’s a huge change. Back in 2002, twice as many people in Wisconsin (16 per 100,000 people) died from motor vehicle crashes than from gun deaths (8 per 100,000 people).
Murphy’s Law: Milwaukee Arts Groups Suffer Federal Funding Cuts

1 month ago | urbanmilwaukee.com | Bruce Murphy

On May 2, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater received an email from the National Endowment for the Arts with this message:“This is to inform you that the above referenced National Endowment for the Arts award has been terminated, effective May 31, 2025.

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