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Thanks so much to everyone who came out for our LIVE PODCAST event at Anodyne Coffee’s Walker’s Point Roastery in Milwaukee! It might not have been April 14, but we still showed up for the 4-1-4!

Our guests for the podcast included Angela Lang and Kristin Brey, and we were also joined by Milwaukee Day founder Andy Silverman and 414 Day Executive Director Mocha Harris, as well as Carmen Murguia, sales director at the Milwaukee Courier, another publication that, like The Recombobulation Area, has recently come under the umbrella of Civic Media.

It will always be of the utmost importance to us at The Recombobulation Area to build community, and that community would not be possible without the city we call home: Milwaukee.

Thanks again, y’all!

Production and engineering for this episode by Chris Kasper and Aaron Sommers.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

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Today is the day!

Our live podcast event is happening in just a few hours, and we are so excited to see you all and share in the community we have here at The Recombobulation Area.

The event will feature Angela Lang, Kristin Brey and several special guests. While we won’t be celebrating on Milwaukee Day (4/14) like we originally planned, we’re still showing up for the 4-1-4. Milwaukee Day can also be on May 7, right?!?

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Here are the event details:

• WHERE: Anodyne Walker’s Point, 224 W. Bruce St., Milwaukee, WI 53204

• WHEN: 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

  • Podcast is scheduled to start at 6 p.m.

• COST: Free!

• RSVP: Here, on Facebook

Let’s hope this time, we don’t run into any surprise tornado warnings or anything like that. Ope, hope we didn’t just jinx anything.

Anyway, we HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

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Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagramat @ therecombobulationarea.

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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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The Wisconsin Department of Transportation recently held a pair of Public Involvement Meetings about the future of the Lake Interchange in Milwaukee, otherwise known as 794.

This stretch of interstate highway between the Marquette Interchange and the Hoan Bridge has been a topic of debate for several years, since it was identified that it would need to be replaced, with a price tag well into the hundreds of millions of dollars. In the years since, many have argued that this stretch of highway would be better off being significantly reconfigured, or perhaps even torn down entirely.

The meetings that have been held over the past week are part of the the third round of public involvement meetings that have been held on this project, with the first being in August 2023, another in November 2025, and now yet another here in the Spring of 2026.

You can see the latest materials released as part of the public meeting here. BizTimes also has a good breakdown of the various proposals here.

Rethink 794, which has advocated for removal of the freeway, had its own reaction to the latest here.

You can also watch this episode on our YouTube channel here:

And here’s what we had to say about the project in 2023:

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

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Well, this is pretty wild. The Recombobulation Area is nominated for the Milwaukee Magazine - 2026 Best of Milwaukee Readers’ Choice for “Local Social Media Follow.”

We’re honored to be in the mix with so many talented local voices helping tell Milwaukee’s story. If you think we’ve earned your vote, we’d be grateful for it.

Voting is open now through June 5. Find us in Culture, Arts & Entertainment → Local Social Media Follow and cast your vote.

Vote here!

And yes, it is quite something to be nominated for award, 10 years after I was on staff at Milwaukee Magazine. Life is funny, isn’t it?

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Before you head off to vote — vote here! — I want to give a special shoutout to , who has been helping lead The Recombobulation Area’s social media in recent months. If you’ve noticed that our Facebook and Instagram, in particular, have gotten considerably better as of late, that’s all thanks to Jennie! So, she shares this award, too. Congrats, Jennie!

REMINDER: We are hosting our LIVE PODCAST event on Thursday, May 7, at 5:30 p.m. at Anodyne Coffee’s Walker’s Point Roastery. It is FREE to attend, it is family friendly, and you should be there.

Details here:

We originally set out for this event to be held on Milwaukee Day (4/14), but tornado warnings had other ideas. But, we’re still showing up for the 4-1-4 — and for our extraordinary community that we all share with The Recombobulation Area.

The event will now feature Kristin Brey, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist and 620 WTMJ radio host — who is also up for this very same Milwaukee Magazine award! — along with Angela Lang, co-executive director of BLOC and an award-winning contributor to The Recombobulation Area, and special guests.

RSVP on Facebook to let us know you’re coming.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

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Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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An event hosted by the “Living Wage Coalition” was held in Milwaukee on the morning of May Day 2026, as part of the effort to raise the minimum wage to $20 per hour.

The event was hosted by The Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization (MASH) and Citizen Action of Wisconsin, and featured three Democratic candidates for governor — State Sen. Kelda Roys, State Rep. Francesca Hong, and former lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes. Per a press release, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley also supports raising the minimum wage to $20 per hour, but was “unable to attend.”

You can see what each of the candidates had to say at the event here.

Remarks from Kelda Roys:

Remarks from Francesca Hong:

Remarks from Mandela Barnes:

After the event, I spoke with the candidates.

Roys spoke about how she is the “lead author” on legislation to raise the minimum wage, saying, “I am the progressive who can not only win the election, but actually has a track record of delivering on important progressive issues.”

Barnes talked about his working class upbringing, and said that “when it comes to experience, that’s where I lead the pack.”

Several of the speakers at the event were in the food service and hospitality industry. An issue that has come up frequently in recent years pertaining to those kinds of roles is about proposals to eliminate taxes on tips. I asked the candidates about those proposals and here’s what they said.

Barnes: “Eliminating taxes on tips would go a long way to help working people. I do think that’s something we should consider.”

Roys: “I think (eliminating taxes on tips) is really a false promise. We don’t discriminate against people based on how they earn their money. If someone pays you in cash versus direct deposit, you shouldn’t be paying more or less in taxes because of it.”

Hong: “I oppose the policy to have no tax on tips. I think that it distracts us from increasing wages and abolishing a tipped minimum wage. I think it is a way that actually keeps some of our lowest income earners in a certain income bracket by not working toward fair wages, and it’s a revenue loss for the state.”

Tony Evers recently vetoed a bill on no tax on tips, saying it was because the GOP-passed bill included a measure that would sunset the tax in 2028. Evers has advocated for a permanent change. Roys voted against the bill, and Hong abstained, because she is a “tipped worker,” she said. Find more on that from the Wisconsin Examiner here.

More from our May Day coverage:

REMINDER:

More details here:

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

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Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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Thousands gathered in Milwaukee for the annual “May Day: Day Without Immigrants” rally and march on May 1.

Organized by Voces de la Frontera, the event began on Historic Mitchell Street on Milwaukee’s south side, with speeches from local elected officials, including Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson.

The march got underway at 11 a.m., made its way across the 6th Street bridge, and ended at the Federal Building in Downtown Milwaukee, where Christine Neumann-Ortiz, founding Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera spoke.

The Recombobulation Area featured live coverage of the march and rally on social media…

…and we have a few more photos to share with you here.

REMINDER:

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend.

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Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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Our guest for this episode is Angela Lang, the co-executive director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities and an award-winning contributor here at The Recombobulation Area.

Whenever Angela and I get a chance to catch up, there’s always a lot for us to talk about, so for these episodes, we use a format we call “three headlines.” We’ve done this a couple times before, but if this is your first time hearing one of these episodes, we each bring three headlines or topics to discuss, they can be about anything happening in the news, but at least one of them has to be a Milwaukee story. We don’t show these to each other in advance, so you get some genuine reactions here.

Topics for this episode include:

• Recent flooding in Milwaukee and the questions that arise about the city’s infrastructure

• The recent candidate announcements for those running for Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2027, including Pedro Colón and Lyndsey Brunette (and Angela’s recent column)

• Detained Islamic Society president Salah Sarsour, and Congresswoman Gwen Moore’s recent trip to visit him at the Clay County Jail in Indiana — and free speech issues in the second Trump administration

• Milwaukee County’s tremendous success battling opioid overdoses, where the number of deaths have been cut in half since 2022.

• The city of Milwaukee’s recent decision to limit operating hours for food trucks downtown past 10 p.m.

• Milwaukee Alderman Peter Burgelis running for Congress in the 1st Congressional District — a district he does not live in, and the political fortunes of Republican incumbent Bryan Steil

Watch at the video above, or on our YouTube Channel here:

Angela and I will be part of The Recombobulation Area’s LIVE podcast event next week at Anodyne Coffee in Walker’s Point on Thursday, May 7. The great Kristin Brey will also be joining the event. Find all of the details here:

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend.

Give a gift subscription

Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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The Recombobulation Area Podcast: LIVE! at Anodyne Coffee’s Walker’s Point Roastery has been rescheduled! We won’t be doing it on Milwaukee Day as originally planned, of course, but we’re still showing up for the 414.

This new event will feature Angela Lang, co-executive director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC); Kristin Brey, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist and 620 WTMJ radio host (and founder of As Goes Wisconsin); and Dan Shafer, founding editor of The Recombobulation Area. Special guests will be announced closer to the event date.

We’ll still be celebrating the city we call home, but with this event not happening on Milwaukee Day, we’ll be planning to spend a bit more time taking questions from those of you in attendance.

Given these changes, too, we want to give a special shoutout to our friends at Milwaukee Record, as co-founder Matt Wild was originally going to be part of this live podcast event, but is unable to make it on the new date. Go support their patreon and subscribe to their email newsletter, because Milwaukee Record is great.

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We’re very much looking forward to seeing all of you and sharing in this wonderful community we have here with The Recombobulation Area.

RSVP on Facebook to let us know you’ll be there, and we’ll see you on Thursday, May 7, at Anodyne.

We (still) love our country, Milwaukee!

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend.

Give a gift subscription

Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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In the 2026 Spring Election in Wisconsin, Judge Chris Taylor won with more than 60% of the vote in her bid for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Being that Wisconsin’s statewide elections can often be decided by a single percentage point, this felt significant.

I actually spoke to Judge Taylor back before she announced her campaign and expressed my concerns about dog whistles and “tough on crime” messaging in past campaigns. She told me she wanted to run a different kind of campaign.

In past campaigns, voters were met with a barrage of TV ads and mailers that painted each candidate as “soft on crime.” The Wisconsin Supreme Court has little to do with crime in our neighborhoods, but you wouldn’t know that based on many recent campaigns. Research and polling have shown that these messages are not effective. Oftentimes, these messages are racist and feed into stereotypes that put communities of color at risk. Last year, I saw more people on social media and my non-political friends mentioned their frustration over the violent ads more than ever before. It felt like a tipping point. So, it was refreshing to hear that Taylor wanted to run a different type of campaign — and the election results prove that you can actually run on your values and win.

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We now have our first candidate who has announced for next year’s state Supreme Court race, Lyndsey Brunette, current Clark County Circuit Court judge and previously the Clark County District Attorney. Already, there has been some criticism. In 2013, when she was the Clark County DA, she said a police officer was justified in their use of deadly force.

This is already raising concerns and questions about whether this is the candidate the Democratic Party of Wisconsin will get behind. There is an opportunity to think outside of the box and add diversity to the court. Pedro Colon1, District 1 Court of Appeals judge, and Judge Everett Mitchell, Dane County Circuit Court judge, are both being mentioned as potential candidates.

There is a lot to unpack with Taylor’s win, but one of the main takeaways is that the formula for winning isn’t just filled with former prosecutors and DAs who run “tough on crime” ads. We can break out of the cookie cutter campaigns that have dominated previous elections.

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Perhaps this being a relatively “safe” election for the Democratic-aligned candidate — no outsized spending from the likes of Elon Musk, ideological control of the court not being at stake, a significant fundraising advantage, etc. — meant a candidate like Taylor could take certain risks in the campaign. But even if it wasn’t a “safe seat,” can we still take “risks” and run on our values instead of compromising for the sake of winning?

This is worth considering for future elections in Wisconsin, especially when it comes to primaries. After Annette Ziegler, a right-wing justice, announced she wouldn’t be seeking another 10-year term on the court, we have an open race for state Supreme Court in spring 2027 — and there will likely be a primary. We also can take these lessons as we head into the August partisan primary in the race for governor. Primaries allow people to vote their values. Electability isn’t always a part of a voter’s analysis. In this race, voters have a range of strong candidates to choose from. The primary is an opportunity to really differentiate yourself from the field.

Candidates should lean into their progressive values, especially if it brings in new voters. Voters want to be excited about a candidate. In this political climate, excitement is a rare commodity — but one that should be embraced.

From the archives:

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Throughout my career as an organizer, I have heard time and time again about how we may need to run from our values in order to win. I was told once by a campaign manager that “we just need them to win now and they can be progressive later.” This does not help excite the base that you need to turn out and win.

Wisconsin has a long history of progressive values and it is core to who we are. We don’t need to run away from our values in order to win. This goes for where, regionally, certain messages can be expressed, too. A constant theme we’re hearing in so many organizing meetings is the idea that you need to have a “Black Milwaukee message” but it should be different (and sometimes in conflict) with other messages throughout the state. We don’t need to run a “Milwaukee only message” and then change messages for the rest of the state. Whether you’re in the northwoods or on the North side, people are struggling. Everyone is dealing with the gas prices and the effects of the war in Iran, or struggling with issues like child care, housing, access to affordable healthcare, and so much more — no matter where you live. Speak to the people. It is a crowded gubernatorial primary, but that just means there’s more opportunity to create your own lane and stand out.

Candidates should not throw Milwaukee under the bus for the sake of winning votes in the rest of the state — specifically Black and Brown Milwaukee. We are incredible voting blocs that you can’t win without. Speak to us. Speak to working class people. Speak to the people who are curious about what Democratic Socialism is, but then also speak to the people whose first protest was No Kings — and everyone in between.

There is a moment here. The moment is to embrace the frustration. Embrace the imperfection. The real way to win is to have clarity on the points of common ground but then to educate and organize further discussion.

Following Chris Taylor’s victory, there is a moment to strip away labels and have conversations around values. We can have robust conversations about police accountability and affordability, and demand more from our candidates. We don’t need to negotiate against ourselves and talk about “electability” when there are candidates who can excite people. We don’t need to push our values aside in order to get elected and then “be progressive later.” No matter who wins the gubernatorial primary, the candidate needs to do the difficult work of connecting with voters who you may not agree with, who may have supported someone else in the primary.

We’re at a critical moment in Wisconsin that, yet again, has national implications. We can have all of these considerations in the back of our minds, but we also can push for real action from candidates. I have faith in the people of this state that we can dream big and also have a sophisticated political analysis of what’s happening. It’s what this moment demands.

Angela Lang was born and raised in the heart of Milwaukee. She has an extensive background in community organizing. In the past, Angela served as both an organizer and State Council Director for the Service Employees International Union, working on such campaigns as the Fight for 15. Before founding BLOC, Angela was the Political Director with For Our Future Wisconsin. She is a graduate of Emerge Wisconsin. She currently is the Vice President of the ACLU of Wisconsin Board and sits on the board for Diverse and Resilient, a non profit organization that supports the LGBTQ community in Wisconsin, as well as on the board for the Milwaukee Parks Foundation.

Angela is motivated by making substantial and transformative change in her community while developing young, local leaders of color. Her journey in organizing hasn’t always been easy, but through it all she has remained a fierce advocate for securing more seats at the table for those who represent the New American Majority.

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The 18th annual Milwaukee Film Festival is happening from April 16 - 30, with nearly 250 films screening as part of the festival. The Recombobulation Area is proud to be a Community Partner on three films in the Documentary Festival Favorites Program — “The Dads,” “Seized,” and “Your Attention Please.”

If you missed it last week, we had the opportunity to talk with the filmmakers behind “Your Attention Please,” so be sure to check that one out.

For this episode, we are joined by the new Marketing Director at Milwaukee Film, Milan Zori, whose work you might also be familiar with as the legendary Milwaukee illustrator Dwellephant, and who is a friend of The Recombobulation Area (and a fellow Milwaukee Bucks superfan).

We talked about what’s unique about this year’s festival, the amazing film community that exists in Milwaukee, how the festival has grown over the years, and much more (including, of course, our beloved Milwaukee Bucks).

You can also watch on our YouTube Channel here:

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend.

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Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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The Spring Election in Wisconsin was just a couple short weeks ago, and while the big headline statewide was on Chris Taylor’s landslide victory in the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court, one of the local elections that drew a lot of attention was the race for mayor in the city of Waukesha, where Council President Alicia Halvensleben, a Democrat, defeated longtime Republican state representative Scott Allen.

Mayor-Elect Halvensleben will be sworn in as mayor on Tuesday, April 21, and she joins us here on the podcast on the eve of becoming mayor.

Topics discussed include: reflecting on the campaign, Election Day, shifting political tides in Waukesha County, and what’s next as she becomes mayor.

Watch the video above, or on our YouTube Channel here:

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

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Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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The 2026 Milwaukee Film Festival officially kicked off last night with the premiere of “UECK” at the Oriental Theatre. Over the next two weeks, nearly 250 films will screen as part of the festival, which runs from April 16-30.

The Recombobulation Area is proud to be a Community Partner for several films at this year’s festival, all of which are part of the Documentary Festival Favorites Program, including “The Dads” (on fathers of trans and nonbinary children), “Seized” (on the police raid on the Marion County Record in the small town of Marion, Kansas), and “Your Attention Please” (on social media and the attention economy, and fighting back against Big Tech).

I recently had the opportunity to talk with the filmmakers of “Your Attention Please,” which screens on Saturday, April 18, and on Thursday, April 23.

Director Sara Robin and producer Jack LeMay joined us to talk about the film, and they will be in attendance at the Saturday screening at the Oriental Theatre at 1:15 p.m.

As someone who is entirely too online myself, this film gave me a lot other think about, both on a personal level and from a policy standpoint.

“Even over the course of making the film from 2023 to now, you can see this marked shift in the average person that you talk to,” said LeMay. “When we approached people three years ago and said, ‘is this one of the major issues we’re facing?’ or ‘is your relationship with your phone dysfunctional?’, (or) ‘is it at the root of some of the issues you have in your life?’, most people would say it probably has something to do with it, but they’d be skeptical of how deep that problem really gets. Now, we have a lot more people saying, ‘thank god this film is coming out, I’ve been thinking a lot about this’.”

“(Attention) is something that’s being taken away from us,” said Robin. “Our focus is not as much in our control as it used to be, and as we want it to be. So, I think understanding the immense power that’s on the other side of that is a really helpful first step to realizing that this is a really difficult battle for the individual, but it’s a really important one.”

Watch the trailer below, and find times to screen the film at the Milwaukee Film Festival here.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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Well, that was a pretty weird Milwaukee Day.

Yes, Milwaukee weather this time of year can be rather unpredictable, but a Milwaukee Day Tornado Watch (and later Tornado Warning) was a new one.

While it was unfortunate that we had to put the brakes on our live podcast event, it’s probably good that we did, considering the nature of yesterday’s severe weather. Apologies to any of you who made plans to be there and then had to scrap them at the last minute (or may have been there in person before seeing our announcement).

But soldier on we must! We are rescheduling this event and extending our Milwaukee Day subscription sale! We’re recombobulating, folks.

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The 41.4% off sale will run until midnight tonight, giving you an extra opportunity to subscribe with our biggest sale of the year. That means you can get a full-year subscription for just $29.50 (down from $50) or a monthly subscription for just $2.95 (down from $5). Not bad, right?

Subscribe here:

Get 41% off for 1 year

We will also be rescheduling this live podcast event for May 7 at Anodyne Coffee’s Walker’s Point Roastery.

We will have more details on the event in the coming weeks, but mark that date on your calendar for the next opportunity to recombobulate together at one of our live events.

So, for one last time…

Here is the link to go directly to our Milwaukee Day Sale.

And if you already subscribe, you can give a gift subscription at that same 41.4% off sale rate.

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Thanks to all of you who subscribe and support our work. The more of you who subscribe, the more we can do to cover news and politics in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Simple as that.

Let’s keep recombobulating, folks.

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ANNOUNCEMENT:

After reviewing the weather forecast for the evening, which includes a Tornado Watch for all counties in southern Wisconsin, including Milwaukee County, we have made the difficult decision to postpone our live podcast event.

We will be rescheduling this event for a later date. Apologies to those of you who have made plans to be there, but we don’t want to be potentially putting anyone in harms way.

Thanks to Anodyne and our special guests and partners in this event for understanding. Stay tuned for additional updates.

To quote the great philosopher Andre 3000, “You can plan a pretty picnic, but you can’t predict the weather.”

Alas, we hope to see you all real soon.

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We will also be extending our Milwaukee Day sale through tomorrow, for those who might have been planning to subscribe at tonight’s event. It’s our biggest sale of the year, and you’re going to want to subscribe for 41.4% off, even if we can’t celebrate the 4-1-4 the way we planned.

Any questions? Send them to me at dan.shafer@civicmedia.us or therecombobulationarea@gmail.com, or directly here on Substack.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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Every year, the Recombobulation Area celebrates Milwaukee Day with our biggest sale of the year — 41.4% off to celebrate the 4-1-4!

Go right to the sale here. Subscribe!

Get 41% off for 1 year

We love Milwaukee. And we love Milwaukee Day.

We hope you’re out there celebrating this glorious made-up holiday. Maybe you’re out there having a brat and a beer for lunch. Why not!? It’s Milwaukee Day!

Or, maybe you’re like me, and wanted to make it down to City Hall for their official Milwaukee Day celebration!

Here’s my view of the official 414 flag being unfurled.

Immaculate vibes all around as we celebrated this glorious city.

And on the drive back, this really did happen.

Wild!

So, while you’re here in the Milwaukee Day spirit, take a moment and subscribe to The Recombobulation Area.

Get 41% off for 1 year

Already a paid subscriber? Give a gift subscription to a friend!

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Today is the best day of the year to subscribe — or upgrade to paid — because you are not going to get a better deal all year than with this one today. You can save more than $20 on a full-year subscription. What’s normally $50 is just $29.50 today. Not bad, right?

Or maybe you want to just test the waters with a subscription? Well, you can get a monthly subscription for just $2.95.

Our prices are already pretty low. We haven’t changed our subscription rates since we launched in 2019. What else can you say that about these days, am I right? And this deal is even lower! How could this be possible?!?

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All hyperbolic sales pitches aside, subscribing to The Recombobulation Area today is a great way to help fund our work for the rest of the year. The more people subscribe, the more we can do. It’s that simple.

Every subscriber helps fund original reporting, commentary, analysis, podcasts, videos and all the work that we do all year round. We want to keep building, keep growing, keep doing more and more, and the best way to do that is with a subscription.

So, subscribe today. Help fund our work — and save some money in the process.

Oh, and attend our live event tonight at Anodyne Walker’s Point, 5:30 p.m.

[We are monitoring the severe weather situation unfolding in the state and will be sure to keep you posted if anything changes with our event this evening. Stay tuned!]

Details here:

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend.

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Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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Every year, the Recombobulation Area celebrates Milwaukee Day with our biggest sale of the year — 41.4% off to celebrate the 4-1-4!

Go right to the sale here.

Get 41% off for 1 year

The Recombobulation Area itself — the actual one, with the famous signs in the post-security area at Mitchell Airport — is a perfectly Milwaukee thing.

It is something that exists no place else; it uses a word that is not technically a word; and it imbibes an otherwise annoying, stressful situation with a sense of humor and a bit of whimsy. It is wonderful and clever and silly and unique — just like Milwaukee.

For everything else that we might have gotten wrong over the years here at The Recombobulation Area, we know we got one thing right — the name.

“Recombobulation” is a word and a name I’ve always been a bit enamored with, and back when I was working at another Milwaukee publication, I did a bit of research on how The Recombobulation Area came to be, and the story was actually quite simple. The former longtime director of the airport, Barry Bateman, just decided to go ahead and put the signs up and make this A Thing. That’s another great thing about Milwaukee: you can just do things.

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Just as that spirit is part of the actual Recombobulation Area, it’s part of ours here at this scrappy little publication, too. When we launched this effort nearly seven years ago now, it wasn’t entirely clear how this would take shape, but from the very beginning, along with creating a new place for locally-focused independent journalism here in Milwaukee and Wisconsin, we also made it part of our core mission to build community.

You, as our loyal reader and subscriber, have helped us build this community. This effort got off the ground because of you. It has grown because of you. We have built this place one piece at a time — one subscriber, one follower, one reader, one listener, one viewer at a time — and it’s this shared effort in building this community that has made this place a success. We’ll always be pretty proud of that.

And this community exists because of the city we call home. This community exists because of Milwaukee.

Milwaukee Day, too, is yet another example of inventive, creative spirit. The holiday was born in 2010 as a half-joking idea between friends Andy Silverman, Brent Gohde, and Timm Gable. They started a holiday. Now, it’s a signature celebration in a city that loves to celebrate. You can just do things!

And hey, that’s what we’re doing tonight. We’re just doing things. We’re building community. Along with our subscription sale — 41.4% off for the 4-1-4, don’t forget! — we’re getting together with some of our friends and supporters and collaborators and fellow Milwaukeeans to have a conversation and share in that community, at 5:30 p.m. at Anodyne Coffee’s Walker’s Point Roastery.

The event will feature Angela Lang of BLOC, Matt Wild of Milwaukee Record, and more special guests. The event is free (FREE!) to attend, doors open at 5 p.m., and we’ll be planning to get the podcast started at about 6 p.m.

Hope to see you there. Let’s recombobulate. Together.

Oh, and be sure to subscribe for the…

BIGGEST SALE OF THE YEAR!!!

Get 41% off for 1 year

Find more event details here:

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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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Folks, we are just days away from MILWAUKEE DAY, the glorious holiday celebrating our wonderful city every year on April 14 (4/14). And in case you missed it, we’ve got plans to celebrate.

First, we are holding our biggest subscription sale of the year, where both monthly and full-year subscriptions will be 41.4% off. That means you can help support our work for a full year for less than $30, or become a monthly subscriber for less than $3 per month. This publication launched in 2019, and while we’ve never raised our prices, you’re not going to get a better deal this year than the one we’ll have on Tuesday. So, be sure to subscribe or upgrade to paid — and tell a friend, while you’re there.

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ALSO: We are hosting a LIVE PODCAST EVENT at Anodyne Coffee’s Walker’s Point Roastery on Tuesday, featuring Angela Lang of BLOC, Matt Wild of Milwaukee Record, and several special guests, including Milwaukee Day founder Andy Silverman and 414 Day Executive Director Mocha Harris.

Here are the event details:

• WHERE: Anodyne Walker’s Point, 224 W. Bruce St., Milwaukee, WI 53204

• WHEN: 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

  • Podcast is scheduled to start at 6 p.m.

• COST: Free!

• RSVP: Here, on Facebook

• BONUS: We’ll be giving away a pair of Club Level tickets to the Milwaukee Brewers game on April 25, courtesy of Civic Media, AND we’ll be giving away passes to the Milwaukee Film Festival. All the more reason to BE THERE!

Any questions? Send us a message right here on Substack…

… or email us at therecombobulationarea@gmail.com.

The Recombobulation Area is so proud to call Milwaukee home. We love this city. And we’re going to celebrate it every chance we get — especially on Milwaukee Day.

We hope to be celebrating with you fine folks, too. See you there!

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend.

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Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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Today is April 8, 2026, and that means we just wrapped up the Spring Election here in Wisconsin. There’s a whole lot to recombobulate on as we dig through the results from races across the state, but the big headline is from the statewide race for Wisconsin Supreme Court, where Chris Taylor delivered a resounding landslide victory over Maria Lazar, winning by an astonishing 20-point margin. Not only does this mean a 10-year term on the state’s highest court for Taylor, but it means the court will remain in liberal control through at least 2030.

ICYMI, here’s my column on Taylor’s astonishing victory:

There will be much more to dissect and analyze with this race and others across the state in the Wisconsin Spring Election — our usual “10 Takeaways” deep dive is coming soon — but first, we wanted to talk a bit more about this enormously important Wisconsin Supreme Court race.

To do that, we were joined by someone who knows these state Supreme Court campaigns well — Sachin Chheda, who has led or co-led six campaigns for Wisconsin Supreme Court, including three races to help win this majority, with Justice Rebecca Dallet in 2018, Justice Jill Karofsky in 2020, and Justice Janet Protasiewicz in 2023.

We talked about the big picture for these Wisconsin Supreme Court races, why candidates matter, how political realignment is driving some of these shifts, and how the template for success in these campaigns was set with Justice Dallet in 2018, which began the liberal winning streak, where five of the last six state Supreme Court races have been won by the Democratic-aligned candidate.

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PLUS: A couple reminders:

1. On Saturday, April 11, Dan Shafer will be joining “Laughing Liberally Milwaukee” at their monthly political comedy show at Comedy Sportz. The show starts at 8 p.m., and features comics Raegan Niemela, Chloe Mikala, Diego Avila, Alecia Altstaetter, and sketch comedy troupe The Accountants Of Homeland Security. Details here and tickets here.

2. We are less than a week away from our LIVE PODCAST on Milwaukee Day, April 14! The event will be held at Anodyne Coffee’s Walker’s Point Roastery, beginning at 5:30 p.m. It’s free to attend, families are welcome, and the podcast will feature Angela Lang of BLOC, Matt Wild of Milwaukee Record, and several special guests. Find out all about it here, and RSVP to attend on Facebook here.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend.

Give a gift subscription

Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.

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While Chris Taylor’s astonishing 20-point landslide victory was the biggest story statewide for Wisconsin’s April 7 Spring Election, one of the biggest results of the night on the local level was Alicia Halvensleben winning the race for mayor in the city of Waukesha.

Halvensleben is serving in her second term on the Waukesha Common Council, first elected to a three-year term in 2022, and is in her second year as Council President. She has now won the open race for mayor by a 2.5% margin.

What makes this result especially interesting, though, is that Halvensleben is a Democrat. She has been active with Waukesha County Democrats for quite some time, and is currently the party’s chair for the 5th Congressional District. Her victory in the largest city in the former GOP stronghold of Waukesha County is a big, big deal.

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The Republican Party’s eroding support in the suburbs has been an ongoing story in recent years, particularly in the Trump Era where GOP candidates used to put up massive margins of victory in the county. Now in 2026, liberal state Supreme Court candidate Chris Taylor closed the gap in the county to just eight points. In nearby Ozaukee County, it flipped blue for the first time since 1964. The suburbs are indeed shifting, particularly in these types of elections.

When I interviewed Halvensleben for our feature story on mayoral elections in Waukesha County, she talked about helping start a team to do canvassing for local candidates, seeing the political shift unfold right from the street level.

“We knew there were always Democrats in Waukesha County, but we’ve had to (tell people), no, you’re not the only one,” she said. “Over the last 10 years when I’ve been knocking on doors, so many people are like, ‘Don’t tell anybody, but I’m the Democrat on the street.’ And I was like, ‘Actually, there are five of you.’”

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While the city of Waukesha leans more Democratic than the county overall, Halvensleben’s victory is still a stunner. In this open race for mayor, she faced a far more well-known candidate in Scott Allen, a Republican who has served in the State Assembly for more than a decade and had been endorsed by Waukesha County Executive Paul Farrow. And while Waukesha has been trending left, it’s still a rather Republican-leaning county, and the city still broke for Trump by nearly 6% in 2024 and for Ron Johnson by nearly 9% in 2022.

Halvensleben will succeed outgoing mayor Shawn Reilly, who endorsed her campaign. Reilly’s political journey has been perhaps indicative of some of the shifts happening in Waukesha. A lifelong Republican, Reilly disavowed the party on Jan. 6, 2021, and endorsed Kamala Harris for president in 2024, telling The New York Times, “I’m very afraid of the direction our country will head in if Donald Trump becomes president. I think we’ll be heading down a road of authoritarianism and fascism.”

Reilly wasn’t the only former Waukesha mayor who endorsed Halvensleben’s campaign. Larry Nelson, who was elected mayor of the city in 2006, also endorsed her campaign, and is also a Democrat. As columnist James Wigderson, a Waukesha resident and former editor of Right Wisconsin, noted in a recent piece, “the conditions are right for a Halvensleben upset win,” following a similar roadmap from Nelson’s surprise victory in a year with the political winds in Democrats’ favor.

During our interview, I asked Halvensleben what it would mean if a Democrat were to win the race for mayor in Waukesha. Here’s what she said:

“I think that would be a huge message to the GOP. This is no longer your county, (and) you don’t have a stronghold here anymore like you thought you did. I think it would send a very powerful message that Democrats are in play in Waukesha County — and especially in the city of Waukesha. If we can have a big win, a big pickup, I think that it would mean a lot.”

Halvensleben said that while it’s not just Trump driving Waukesha County’s changing politics, the president is certainly a factor.

“I think the Trump thing was the impetus for people to feel like, even if I am the only one, I want to get out there,” she said. “And when so many people felt like they were the “only one,” then suddenly there were a bunch of people. We saw more and more volunteers… Then, you start to feel like maybe I could win if I step up, maybe I have a chance.”

On what’s changing in the county’s politics, she added, “I think there’s kind of a combination of factors. Trump started this, and the Democrats are finishing it. We’re continuing to step up. We’re continuing to be engaged. We have people that want to run for office. And we have people who are truly involved in our communities … I think especially with people like Trump, folks are done with the cult of personality. They’re sick of career politicians. I’m just a normal person. I work in sales, middle management. My life is pretty boring, but I’m really engaged in my community. I love this community and I want to step up. I think that there are a lot of folks who feel that way.”

Halvensleben also said she wouldn’t have run had incumbent mayor Shawn Reilly run for re-election. But once Scott Allen jumped into the race, she felt compelled to run.

“Our community deserves better than Scott Allen, and I know that I’m going to be better than him,” said Halvensleben in that late February interview.

Now, she’ll have her chance to do just that.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.

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Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!

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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.