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Support of defense spending reduction is gaining momentum on the Hill and in one of the country’s most prominent newspapers. Less than a week after Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) circulated a letter urging $200 billion in nuclear weapons spending cuts over the next ten years, a bipartisan group of six representatives is calling for the Super Committee to curb spending on defense programs by billions of dollars.

Barbara Lee (D-CA) is joined by three Democrats–Barney Frank of Massachusetts, Gwen Moore of Wisconsin and Rush Holt of New Jersey–and two Republicans–John Campbell of California and Ron Paul of Texas–in a letter that will circulate on the Hill until Fridays, seeking support and signatures.

The letter comes on the heels of Monday’s excellent New York Times editorial, which calls for reassessing a defense budget, “ill suited to America’s 21st-century military needs.”

Six years ago a group of local women put on wedding gowns (theirs or ones they had borrowed) and walked through the streets of the south side to raise awareness against domestic violence.

This year what’s become the annual Bride’s Walk against domestic violence will take place Saturday, September 10. It begins at 10 a.m. at the UMOS Latina Resource Center, 802 W. Mitchell St. and ends at noon at Tres Hermanos restaurant where there will be a “speak out.”

The women wear wedding gowns to call attention to the fact that domestic violence often occurs among those in intimate relationships with partners, spouses and ex-spouses and partners.

The walk will be led by U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, (D-Milwaukee, along with Mayor Tom Barrett, County Sup. Peggy West and Milwaukee police Officer Isabel Monreal.
In the past, the Bride’s Walk has been part of the UMOS Mexican Independence parade. But this year the event has been separated from the parade to call attention to the seriousness of domestic violence, said UMOS President and CEO Lupe Martinez.

Washington – President Barack Obama urged Congress to end the “political circus” and act to help a nation still facing economic hardship, outlining a $447 billion legislative package that includes tax cuts for working families and small businesses and spending to rebuild infrastructure.

Obama, in a Thursday evening address to lawmakers in a special joint session, argued there “is nothing controversial” about his plan, although the price tag was larger than expected and perhaps more than the Republican-led Congress will seriously consider.

Obama acknowledged the political prism through which his speech was being viewed. His approval rating is at or near the low point of his presidency, and the Republican campaign to unseat him is in full swing.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore are right to challenge a U.S. Postal Service plan to close offices in the city. The USPS plan targets five locations in the central city as part of a national downsizing, but those closings – Mid City, Parklawn, Teutonia, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Hampton

MILWAUKEE — Local, state and federal lawmakers come together to help save several Milwaukee post offices.

Milwaukee’s mayor joined city aldermen and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore to make a plea to the Postal Service on Wednesday.

The leaders are asking the agency to reconsider a plan to close five office locations in the city.   They said the five locations in danger of shutting down are in predominantly black neighborhoods.   The group said closing the offices would eliminate an essential service for more than 162,000 Milwaukee residents.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore have challenged the U.S. Postal Service over a list that targets five central city offices for closure in a far-ranging downsizing.

The Mid City, Parklawn, Teutonia, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Hampton post offices are among 41 in Wisconsin to be assessed, and 3,700 nationwide. To cut costs, the financially troubled postal service plans to shutter more than 10% of its retail locations. Barrett objected to the potential action in a letter sent Tuesday to Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. Moore, a Milwaukee Democrat, sent a similar letter earlier in the month.

The five locations in Milwaukee are the only postal locations being reviewed in southeastern Wisconsin, and their closure would harm the thousands of low-income and African-American residents that use them, Barrett said. His office estimated that 162,648 residents would lose access to a post office if the five locations closed.

“It just struck us as odd that within the seven-county region, the five all slated for closure were in the heart of the city, where the population is predominantly African-American,” Barrett said.

Madison – In a deal that preserves millions of dollars in federal aid to Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker’s administration will drop hundreds of private contractor employees who work for the state’s food assistance program and hire scores of public workers as replacements.

The agreement comes after federal officials had threatened in recent months to withhold some money for the state’s FoodShare program because of what they said were improper privatization efforts that were started by the administration of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and initially intensified by the administration of Walker, a Republican.
“We didn’t create this mess but we sure are getting it fixed,” Kitty Rhoades, deputy health services secretary for the state, said of the agreement with the federal Food and Nutrition Service. “It’s a good workable solution.”

If the state fails to keep up with the schedule to replace the private contractors, the federal government could still cut money that it sends the state to administer the FoodShare program, which replaced food stamps in Wisconsin. In 2010, the state received $20.5 million in federal money for administrative costs for FoodShare and another $2.3 million in one-time federal stimulus money.

Wisconsin’s new Voter ID law is slowly being rolled out during this summer’s recall elections.

Proponents have argued that the new law—one of the most restrictive in the country—will crack down on widespread voter fraud.

But the law will do no such thing, since evidence of widespread voter fraud simply doesn’t exist, according to an investigation by then-U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic, a Republican.

What the new law will do is suppress the votes cast by minority citizens, the elderly, students and the poor—voters who typically support Democrats, which is why it was passed without a single Democratic vote of support.

Even worse, the new Voter ID law—enthusiastically signed by Gov. Scott Walker, who had introduced a similar bill when he was a state representative—contradicts Wisconsin’s history.

Reversing its position, the state Department of Health Services has cleared the way for the City of Milwaukee and others to apply for federal grants totaling roughly $30 million over five years for public health initiatives to stop smoking, reduce obesity and promote healthier lifestyles.

The department’s support is required to apply for the grants.

Stephanie Smiley, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health Services, said that Gov. Scott Walker decided the state should support the grant applications after he received more details on the planned initiatives.

Dennis Smith, secretary of the department, had contended that the initiatives would duplicate services already being offered in Wisconsin and would not provide the needed letters of support.

Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (D-OH) held a press conference on Capitol Hill today in opposition to the voter ID laws sweeping states across the country. The event featured statements from Reverend Jesse Jackson, the ACLU, the National Action Network, and other civil rights leaders, along with a host of congressional representatives.

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), Rep. Corinne Brown (D-FL), Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI), and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) were among the leaders who spoke out in strong opposition to photo ID requirements at the polls, emphasizing the laws’ disproportionate effect on the elderly, students, low-income communities, and people of color. This week, Rep. Fudge and twenty congressional representatives signed on to a letter addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder, requesting that the Department of Justice investigate the constitutionality of voter ID requirements, which could possibly violate the Voter Rights Act of 1965. As Campus Progress previously reported, on June 29 Senator Michael Bennett (D-CO) circulated a similar letter to AG Holder which was signed by 15 Senators.

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