Author: Lee Matz

Wisconsin historians Tom Ludka and Margaret Berres have so far brought recognition to more than one hundred veterans of the Civil War buried at Forest Home Cemetery, with a program that finally puts headstones on their unmarked graves after more than a century. During President Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, he expressed the need for the Nation to “care for those who had borne the battle, as well as their widows and orphans.” That responsibility was passed to following generations, to remember the men who fought and died to preserve our Union. A multi-year project compiled by local historians...

Dontre Hamilton dіеd on April 30, 2014 at the age of 31 in Red Arrow Park along Water Street, after a phone call was made to pоlіcе by a Starbucks Coffee employee. The circumstances of his dеаth have been reported by the new media over the past four years, and are the subject of an award winning documentary The Blood is at the Doorstep by filmmaker Erik Ljung. The press coverage has been as slanted over issues of race as the public reaction was to the dеаth of Hamilton. In a hyper-segregated city like Milwaukee, where citizens tend to...

The first of five vehicles for the city’s streetcar fleet took to the tracks and completed its inaugural run of testing on a stretch of rail along West St. Paul Avenue on April 11. The white, blue, and gold painted commuter vehicle stretches just under 70 feet, and was delivered from its manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania to Milwaukee on March 26. For its hour of testing, the streetcar rolled out of its maintenance facility near 4th Street using its internal battery power. After making the turn onto St. Paul Avenue, it automatically hooked onto the overhead electrical grid. Milwaukee...

Marches to demand an open housing ordinance started on August 28, 1967

88Nine RadioMilwaukee hosted its Studio Milwaukee series to a full house on April 6 with the synth-pop sound of Reyna. Victoriah “Vic” and Hannah Gabriela “Gabby” Banuelos were one of Milwaukee’s most popular bands as Vic and Gab. After their final show in October 2015 under that name, the group transitioned into Reyna, which means ‘queen’ in Spanish. The 88Nine performance on April 6 was a preview for the sister-duo’s evening concert at Company Brewing, with Siren from New Age Narcissism. Three songs were played to the audience at RadioMilwaukee and broadcast live, with a special fourth song played...