On today’s show, host Esty Dinur previews four films screening at the Wisconsin Film Festival: Celtic Utopia dir. by Dennis Harvey, Do You Love Me dir. by Lana Daher, Everybody to Kenmure Street dir. Felipe Bustos Sierra, and The Spies Among Us dir. Jamie Coughlin Silverman and Gabe Silverman.

Dennis Harvey is a filmmaker from Ireland, based in Sweden. With a cinema vérité approach and a particular sensitivity to the human, his work interrogates the political through the personal. He is a member of the European Film Academy, the Irish Film and Television Academy, and Noncitizen, a film collective which works to hand over the means of making films to migrants.

His film, Celtic Utopia will be screening tomorrow, Saturday, April 11 at 1:45 at the Barrymore Theatre.

Lana Daher is a filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist based in Beirut, Lebanon. With a background in fine arts and graphic design as well as filmmaking, she has long been active in Beirut’s vibrant art and music scenes, working across sound, image, and archival practices. Her work is grounded in deep research and intuitive storytelling, exploring the space between documentary and fiction by bringing different time periods and emotional landscapes into dialogue.

Her film, Do You Love Me, plays today, April 10 at 1:45 at the UW Cinematheque and Wednesday, April 15 at 8:45 at Flix Brewhouse, Cinema 7.

Felipe Bustos Sierra is a Chilean-Belgian film director, producer, and editor based in Scotland. His debut feature-length documentary, Nae Pasaran (2018), won the Best Feature award at the 2018 British Academy Scotland Awards, where Bustos Sierra was also nominated for Best Director. Bustos Sierra is also the founder and creative director of Debasers Filums, an independent film company based in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

His film, Everybody to Kenmure Street, will show on Wednesday, April 15 at 1pm at Flix Brewhouse, Cinema 8 and Thursday, April 16 at 5:30pm at Flix Brewhouse, Cinema 1 (rush only).

Jamie Coughlin Silverman and Gabe Silverman are journalists turned filmmakers. The Spies Among Us premiered at SXSW and won the Best Documentary Award in Warsaw. It’s been called the most important film about the topic since the Oscar-winning film The Lives of Others.

The Spies Among Us screens at the Bartell Theatre, Friday, April 10 at 8:30pm (rush only).

Featured image of full theatre.

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It takes the average Latina, 12 extra months to earn what the average White, non-Hispanic man earns. That is because Latinas are only paid .55 cents to the dollar of […]

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Ahead of Tax Day, host Bert Zipperer tackles gritty tax policy and the future of fair and progressive taxes. He’s joined by Jon Whiten of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a non-profit, non-partisan tax policy organization.

ITEP reports that people at the bottom of the economic spectrum pay the most when it comes to taxes. And in nearly all states, the top 1% of earners are taxed at the lowest rate. A recent analysis from ITEP finds that undocumented immigrants pay a considerable amount of taxes. Whiten says that states that invest in the child tax credit and earned income tax credit can help folks at the bottom of the economic ladder.

Whiten breaks down the differences between income, property, consumption, and corporate taxes. The 2017 and 2025 tax laws have made it so that companies like Tesla and Meta are paying little to no federal corporate income tax. And though a “flat tax” may sound fair, it’s a regressive form of taxation because “not everyone is in the same economic situation,” says Whiten.

Property taxes are the least abstract tax, you can see where your money is going, to schools or libraries, etc. But cutting property taxes would inevitably result in reductions to all kinds of public services. It’s possible to make property taxes more fair, like mansion taxes or tax credits like “circuit breakers.”

They also talk about how taxes help to build the common good. And we hear from callers about school referendums in Wisconsin, the attempt to pass a “circuit breaker” in Wisconsin, how the wealthy place a high demand on government services funded by taxes, the uses of debt, and more.

Jon Whiten is the Deputy Director at ITEP. He helps guide ITEP’s overall strategy and approach to policy change, works to properly resource ITEP’s work, and leads ITEP’s work to shape the public debate around tax policy and ensure that policymakers, advocates, and other stakeholders are using ITEP’s data and analysis in order to make sound decisions.

Featured image of a protester holding a sign at a Tax Day rally in New York City in 2012 via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).

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Earlier this week, the Atlanta City Council approved an addition $31 million dollars for the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. This was after more than 16 hours […]

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Yesterday at the polls, voters overwhelmingly supported Chris Taylor for Wisconsin Supreme Court. In Dane County, results are in for Dane County Circuit Court, thirteen competitive races for Dane County Board of Supervisors, two Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education seats, and three Madison Common Council alder races. That’s in addition to the numerous non-partisan races in towns and villages across Dane County, in which many union-backed candidates won their races.

To break down what voters decided in yesterday’s Spring Election, host Ali Muldrow is joined by four local labor leaders: Derek Wallace is the President of AFSCME- Dane County Employee Association Local 720. Kevin Gundlach is the President of the South Central Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. And Molly Grupe who is a teacher in Waunakee and the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) Region 6 PAC Chair. John Wedge is the Executive Director at WEAC Region 6.

Grupe says that she’s heartened by the election results, which are part of a larger national push to elect Democratic candidates. Gundlach says that of AFL-CIO’s 156 endorsements, only 20 candidates lost their races. It takes a ⅔ vote of members to get that AFL-CIO endorsement. Wallace also reports a very high win rate for AFSCME-endorsed candidates: 15 of 16 races. Union endorsements are building trust at a time when there’s a lot of political mistrust.

The election of Chris Taylor to the Supreme Court is exciting for these leaders because Act 10 is one step closer to being overturned. Wedge says that there’s now a reasonable majority on the Supreme Court who don’t want to strip unions of their power. If unions gained their power back, Grupe would like to see them advance DEI and inclusivity, smaller class sizes, more transparency on property tax bills, and all kinds of issues that go beyond salary negotiations.

They also talk about how unions can support their elected officials to be effective and hold them accountable to their campaign promises. They preview what might happen in the August Primary and November Midterm.

Featured image of “I Voted” stickers via Pexels.

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“The Philippines is under a new administration, but still the government’s case against de Lima hobbles along, a symbol of the country’s degradation from the Duterte years of violent populism […]

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Today is the Spring Election, and to celebrate the democratic process, host Dana Pellebon is in conversation with political scientist, Dr. Marion Orr, about Charles C. Diggs Jr. who Dr. Orr calls “the most consequential Black congressman.”

Orr first learned about Michigan Congressman Diggs when he was an undergraduate student at Savannah State. Unfortunately, many people won’t encounter Diggs in their history books. So Orr set out to write the first biography of Diggs, whose legacy is “scattered across the Civil Rights movement and Black politics.” Orr’s book is called, House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman. Charles C. Diggs Jr..

Orr says that Digg was “in the front seat” of every issue from the 1950s until he resigned from Congress in 1980: he was present at the trial of Emmett Till’s murderers, he founded the Congressional Black Caucus, participated in the Gary Convention of ‘72, and shaped the American anti-apartheid movement.

Orr says that Congressman Diggs put himself at great risk to observe the trial of Emmett Till’s murderers. His presence in the Mississippi courtroom gave courage to the Black witnesses to come forward and testify against the two white killers. By attending the trial, Diggs sent the message that, though he was elected to represent Detroit, he would represent all Black Americans. Diggs was also the first congressperson to show a long-term interest in Africa and US-Africa policy and became the chair of the Subcommittee on Africa, says Orr.

They also talk about Digg’s fall from power after the FBI was tipped off to a payroll violation and how he sacrificed his relationship with his family to serve his elected role. Orr holds that Congressman Diggs should be remembered for his many accomplishments and his role in shaping the length and breadth of so many fights for justice.

Marion Orr is a political scientist and the inaugural Frederick Lippitt Professor of Public Policy at Brown University. An award-winning author, his publications include House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman. Charles C. Diggs Jr.; Black Social Capital: The Politics of School Reform in Baltimore; and The Color of School Reform: Race, Politics, and the Challenge of Urban Education. He was awarded the Biographers International Organization’s Francis “Frank” Rollin Fellowship for his work on Congressman Diggs.

Featured image of the cover of House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman. Charles C. Diggs Jr.

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Sold in headshops and on the grey market, “spice” or K2 is a way to get high while avoiding showing up on a drug test. Whether or not they’re legal […]

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