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NEWS

Will Milwaukee be a boom town or a ghost town during the RNC?

In the last city to host a full-blown Republican National Convention, the big economic windfall that some local businesses expected to come with it never materialized, a picture that could play out in Milwaukee when the convention arrives in mid-July.

As in Milwaukee, Cleveland leaders sold the convention in 2016 as a major economic driver that would bring around $200 million into the regional economy and be good for local businesses.

But in Cleveland, the last place to hold an in-person RNC eight years ago, the economic impact of the four-day convention was felt unevenly and depended on factors that were sometimes outside of an individual business’ control. Some businesses were able to cash in on the more than 40,000 visitors in town, while others ultimately lost out and got less business than a typical summer day.

A similar picture could play out in Milwaukee, where some bars and restaurants have not seen the private bookings they expected would come flooding in for the convention, set to take place July 15-18 at Fiserv Forum, UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena and Baird Center in downtown Milwaukee.

If Cleveland’s experience is any guide, bars and restaurants inside the security zone in Milwaukee could see heavy foot traffic and crowds, while those outside the zone but close enough to the convention to keep regulars away might see a drop in business, if they aren’t near visitors’ hotels.

—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Republican National Convention to build on Milwaukee’s growing visibility, tourism leader says

Visit Milwaukee’s president and CEO Peggy Williams-Smith addressed Milwaukee’s reputation during an event at the Milwaukee Press Club Monday. She said she takes pride in Milwaukee’s “current swagger.”

“We are people who are very proud even though we’re not braggadocious,” Williams-Smith said.

The convention, which runs July 15-18, is expected to draw 50,000 visitors to the city.

Williams-Smith said the economic impact was the No. 1 reason for hosting the RNC, with an expected almost $200 million coming in — a number some experts dispute. Williams-Smith said the convention plus the expansion of the Baird Center are the “perfect storm” of tourism and publicity for the city.

In 2023, the total economic impact of tourism in Milwaukee County exceeded $4.1 billion. Direct and indirect spending from the RNC will contribute to the reported economic impact for 2024.

In August, Visit Milwaukee plans to make an announcement about an upcoming event whose organizers “would have never considered Milwaukee” without the expansion of the Baird Center and the RNC. Williams-Smith declined to share more details about the event.

—WI Public Radio

Wisconsin Republican hopeful urges conservatives to vote early this year

Wisconsin Republican Senate hopeful Eric Hovde on Monday implored fellow conservatives in his swing state to vote early this election cycle, claiming that the party needed a good “ground game” in order to beat Democrats in November.

The Wisconsin conservative warned voters that waiting until Election Day is too unpredictable, because other things could come up. Issues like bad weather have dampened voter turn out in the past, because it makes it hard for voters to wait in long lines outside of polling stations.

“We need everybody to get out and vote. If, you know, don’t just wait till Election Day, vote early, because something may come up on Election Day,” Hovde said on the “Just The News, No Noise” TV show.

—Just the News

Organizers defend decision to shut down Tacos & Tequila early in Franklin

Was it ludicrous that the Tacos and Tequila event was shut down early in Franklin due to a severe thunderstorm?

Some attendees think so, while others were pleased with the event considering the complications.

A comment storm swept the festival’s social media account following the event shutdown Saturday night, with many upset that headliner Ludacris was only on stage for a few minutes.

“As much as it pained us to receive the news, we had to shut down due to extreme weather conditions and lightening. Safety is always the first priority,” the official Tacos and Tequila Facebook page wrote at 9 p.m. June 22. “Other festivals and live events in the area were also forced to evacuate. Our weather teams were able to closely monitor and get in as much of the show as possible and Milwaukee, you guys showed up and showed out and we appreciate you. Stay dry and see you all next year!”

The festival was promoted on the same social media page as a “rain or shine event” earlier in the day, noting umbrellas were allowed ― as long as they weren’t of the large golf-style or pointed tip variety.

Why not just delay?

Some commented on the post noting how Summerfest reopened after an all-clear was issued for the storm. The Tacos and Tequila account responded by calling them “two different situations.”

“Summerfest has places for people to shelter in place, a minor league baseball stadium does not,” the official account wrote.

Franklin mandated a 10:30 p.m. curfew for the event, according to organizers, and the event account said it wouldn’t have been possible to clear the venue of the 10,000 attendees, wait for the storm to pass, reset the venue and re-scan tickets before that time safely.

“We made the right choice,” the Tacos and Tequila account said. “We understand you and others are upset but we tip our hat to our staff and all that get it.”

—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Green Bay Packers name Ed Policy to succeed Mark Murphy as president and CEO in 2025

The Packers board of directors on Monday voted for Policy, the team’s chief operating officer and general counsel, to replace Mark Murphy as chairman, president and CEO of the club in July 2025, when Murphy reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70.

Policy, 53, joined the Packers in 2012 as general counsel. He was promoted to chief operating officer, essentially the No. 2 man in the organization, in 2018. He has been responsible for development of the Packers’ Titletown district west of Lambeau Field. He also joins Murphy in representing the Packers at league meetings. He leads the organization’s communications, marketing and fan engagement, sales and business development, security, and development and hospitality departments.

“This is the absolute best job in sports. We are the stewards of the most iconic and unique organization in all of professional sports. I am excited to continue to work with so many talented teammates who have ensured the Packers’ consistent success on and off the field. We are the people’s team, and I love being a part of it,” Policy said in a prepared statement.

—Green Bay Press Gazette

As Trump eyes VP hopefuls, JD Vance is the MAGA king in the Senate

JD Vance has been in the Senate for less than two years. But in that short time, he has already separated himself as the most consistently MAGA-aligned of the three GOP senators on former President Donald Trump’s shortlist for a running mate.

Vance, an Ohio Republican, has distinguished himself as a harsh critic of American engagement in foreign conflicts and as a populist on most domestic issues. When he splits from the other senators Trump is eyeballing for his ticket — Marco Rubio of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina — it is often by embracing GOP base positions at the expense of establishment priorities such as funding government operations, according to an NBC News analysis of their voting records compiled by Congressional Quarterly.

Vance’s adherence to MAGA activists’ preferences, particularly on foreign aid and curbing federal spending, is one of the reasons he is popular enough with the base to have emerged as a leading favorite, along with North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, to land in the VP slot on Trump’s ticket.

Trump said this weekend that he knows whom he will choose, but he is waiting to make an announcement. NBC News reported Friday that Burgum and Vance are the leading candidates, according to interviews with more than a dozen sources wired into the process, and that Rubio remains in contention.

—NBC News

CNN abruptly takes Trump campaign spokeswoman off the air mid-interview

CNN abruptly cut Donald Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt from the air Monday morning — just days before the network is set to host the first 2024 presidential debate between her boss and President Biden.

Anchor Kasie Hunt pulled the plug just minutes after the interview got underway after asking Leavitt what the former president’s strategy was for when he takes to the stage in Atlanta, Ga., on Thursday.

“President Trump is well prepared ahead of Thursday’s debates. Unlike Joe Biden, he doesn’t have to hide away and have his advisers tell him what to say. President Trump knows what he wants to say,” Leavitt started.

The spokeswoman then noted the debate stage would likely be a “hostile environment” for her boss — and accused CNN’s debate moderators, co-hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, of biased coverage of him in the past.

“That’s why President Trump is knowingly going into a hostile environment on this very network on CNN with debate moderators who have made their opinions about him very well known over the past eight years in their biased coverage of him,” she said.

“Ma’am, we’re going to stop right there if you’re going to keep attacking my colleagues,” Hunt said. “I would like to talk about Joe Biden and Donald Trump, who you work for.”

“I’m sorry, guys … Karoline, thank you very much for your time. You’re welcome to come back at any time,” Hunt suddenly declared.

—NY Post

Top doc says treat weapons like cigarettes

The soaring number of children killed by firearms has created an “urgent public health crisis” worthy of the response the government took to preventing cigarette smoking or car accidents, the nation’s top doctor said in a first-of-its-kind announcement Tuesday.

In an advisory, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said gun violence demands a public health approach rather than the polarizing political response that has numbed Americans and public officials to enacting change, as gun violence became the leading cause of death in children. Prior public health campaigns provide a playbook for addressing the uniquely American problem of gun violence that kills nearly 50,000 people annually, he said.

“I want people to know this is a profound public health crisis, but it is a solvable public health crisis,” he told USA TODAY. “As a nation, we are not powerless. We can do something about it.”

Murthy’s approach involves a range of responses, including warning labels on firearms, as with other consumer products, reinstating the ban on assault weapons and laws on safe gun storage to reduce the risk of homicides and suicides.

—USA TODAY

As Ukraine Expands Military Draft, Some Men Go Into Hiding

First, Vladyslav stopped going into Kyiv’s city center to avoid draft officers checking papers. Then he stopped exercising at the gym because of patrols in his neighborhood. Now, he spends most of his days holed up in his apartment, often using his binoculars to watch officers serving draft notices to commuters leaving a nearby subway station.

“They’re everywhere now,” said Vladyslav, 45, who requested that his last name not be published. “I’ll try to avoid getting caught,” he said, “but I’m not sure it’s possible.”

As Russian forces are on the attack across the front line, the Ukrainian military has been desperately trying to replenish its war-battered forces, embarking on a large-scale mobilization campaign backed by new laws.

While many Ukrainian men have answered the call to serve, some others have tried to evade conscription. Even before the latest mobilization push, thousands of men had fled the country to avoid service, some of them swimming across a river separating Ukraine from Romania. Now, as officers scour the country’s cities to draft men of military age, currently 25 to 60, many people like Vladyslav have gone into hiding, fearful that conscription is a one-way ticket to the front line.

Social media groups alerting members to the movements of draft officers include tens of thousands of members.

Interviews with a dozen men who say they are staying at home to avoid conscription revealed a range of reasons. All expressed fear of dying in a conflict characterized by bloody trench warfare and devastating bombings. Many also said that they opposed conscription because of what they described as harsh draft tactics and a lack of sufficient training.

—DNYUZ

OPINION

Dobbs at Two

Two years ago yesterday, the Supreme Court issued the Dobbs decision, overturning Roe v. Wade and ending the fantasy that our Constitution included a “right to abortion.” Ever since 1973, American women have been told about the so-called “right to abortion” and how important it is.

Countless American women have been taught that the “right to destroy” a preborn baby makes them “free,” unlike the freedom of speech, the right to assembly, and the freedom of religion. Those rights, which actually are in the Constitution, have been diminished and undermined.

But the Biden administration and the Biden campaign are doubling down on abortion. It’s disgusting, but true. I don’t think it’s going to work.

Young women in any urban area are more afraid for their safety than at any point in their lives. Men are taking over women’s sports teams. Men are coming into their bathrooms and locker rooms. Men are demanding they be treated like women because they say they are women.

Young Jewish women can’t walk safely across a university campus in America today. For most young Americans, the idea of owning a home is laughable because Bidenomics is a bust and Bidenflation is busting budgets.

Joe Biden will try his best, but I don’t think standing on a mountain of dead babies will convince the American people that we need four more years of this disaster.

—Gary Bauer

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY – In 1967, the first live television show via satellite was watched internationally by an estimated 400 million people. Our World featured segments produced in 14 countries on 5 continents (like, Marshall McLuhan in Canada and Pablo Picasso in Spain). The Beatles performed live, debuting a song specially composed for the occasion, ‘All You Need Is Love’, with backing vocals provided by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Graham Nash, Keith Moon and Marianne Faithfull.