Juneteenth August Ball

Support Our Youth at the 2025 August Ball!

Our talented kids have spent the past 10 weeks preparing for this special event—covering dance, etiquette, community service, motivational speaking, and more. We’re dedicated to making this year’s August Ball a memorable celebration, but we need your help to make it happen!

How you can help:

Purchase tickets  to attend the event on Saturday, August 9 at 6:30 PM at the Cappella Performing Arts Center, La Crosse.

Become a sponsor!

Table sponsorship: $600 for a table of 10 seats. Sponsors will meet the Mayor and Miss Wisconsin, be featured in the event program, and be recognized on social media.

Youth sponsorship: $1,000. Your sponsorship provides a table for 10 and directly supports a youth participant. It includes a special interaction with the youth, a meet-and-greet, and a photo opportunity with Miss Wisconsin and the Mayor. The funds help youth pay for dresses, suits, etiquette classes, dinner attire, and scholarships.

All sponsorships are tax-deductible and offer great exposure for your support!

You can also pay by check as well. Make check out to Hope Restores and send to 231 Copeland Ave, La Crosse 54603 

If you can’t attend, please consider purchasing tickets so that others who can't afford to attend can still participate. Every ticket and sponsorship helps our youth continue to grow and shine.

Call now

 

The Senate is voting TONIGHT on S.J. Res. 34 and 41 - two joint resolutions that would block $13 billion in offensive weapons sales to Israel.

These weapons are being used to kill civilians, destroy infrastructure, and starve Palestinians in Gaza.

We need to flood her office with calls TODAY.

👉 Call NOW and urge her to vote YES on S.J. Res. 34 and 41.

📞 Sen. Baldwin: (202) 224-5653

Please share this with your networks and help us stop these deadly weapons sales.

Peace Action of WI
https://www.peaceactionwi.org/

Wednesday - One Million Rising

 

While the DNC considers hiring even more consultants to come up with a plan about how to talk to men (I am not making this up), Indivisible and countless other grassroots groups are taking action to fight back and turn things around.

The next One Million Rising training call is on Wednesday at 7 p.m. online. Register here (and get the link to view the first session in the series, too).

Across the country, authoritarian forces are getting bolder and more dangerous. Trump and his allies are not hiding their agenda: mass deportations, rollbacks of civil rights, weaponized courts, and full-scale attacks on our democracy. We don’t have to wait until it’s too late. We can stop this. But it’ll take all of us—not just on single days of mass action, but through sustained organizing in our communities.

That’s why this summer, we’re launching One Million Rising—a national effort to train one million people in the strategic logic and practice of non-cooperation, as well as the basics of community organizing and campaign design. This is how we build people power that can’t be ignored. You’re invited to join us—and lead.

Let’s build a force bigger than fear and louder than hate. Let’s get ready. Let’s get organized. Let’s stop Trump.

Thursday - Bike with the Mayor

This Thursday is the Ride with the Mayor. 

Meet at City Hall parking lot (400 La Crosse St.) at 9 a.m. The ride will be about a five  mile long loop, with frequent stops as we  weave throughout the northside of La Crosse, looking at past and current projects, challenges for biking and walking, and opportunities for improvements.

If you don't have a bike, you can rent a Drift Cycle from the WTC station (400 7th St. N.) or the Landmark station (429 2nd St. N.).

The ride is open to everyone. It will end by approximately 11:30 back at City Hall. Individuals are allowed to ride as much or as little as they wish.

Mapping for Justice

Seeing Land Anew: Mapping for Justice, Stewardship and Hope

Monday, July 28 at 6 p.m.
Franciscan Spirituality Center

In this talk, Molly Burhans reveals how mapping land can illuminate powerful opportunities for community building, environmental stewardship, social justice, sustainable development and systemic change. She will share how data, ethics and technology can come together with science-informed community-driven analysis and design to help guide better decisions about land use. This talk invites audiences to reimagine land as a moral landscape with the potential to heal both people and planet.

Learn more and register for this FREE event at https://myemail.constantcontact.com/FREE-presentation-by-visiting-environmentalist-JULY-28.html

Film this Friday: The Encampments

Ask a radical for the location or email Winona's Community Not Cages at WinonaCommunityNotCages@gmail.com

"From Executive Producer Macklemore, The Encampments offers an urgent, intimate portrait of America’s student movement, ignited at Columbia University as students protested their universities’ ties to the war on Gaza. Their actions sparked a nationwide uprising, with encampments spreading across hundreds of campuses. Featuring detained activist Mahmoud Khalil, alongside professors, whistleblowers, and organizers, the film captures the deeper stakes of a historic moment that continues to reverberate across the globe."

This Saturday - Families First

Saturday, July 26

Noon to 2 p.m.

2318 State Road

On July 26, Americans in every corner of the country will come together in peaceful marches, rallies, and actions to say: our families come first—not billionaires, not authoritarians, and not corrupt politicians.

From rural towns to major cities, Families First actions will bring people together to collectively demand an end to policies that harm children, seniors, and our families. We reject the Administration's actions that have gutted essential programs like Medicaid, FEMA, food stamps, school lunches, and more, all so a handful of billionaires can get tax giveaways.

We are coming together to say in unity: our families come first.

A core principle behind all Families First events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values and to act lawfully at these events. Weapons of any kind, including those legally permitted, should not be brought to events.

Register here: https://www.mobilize.us/familiesfirst/event/816636/

Feedback Hwy 53 & 14/61 Corridor Study

 

If you weren't able to attend the July 16 public input session on the Wisconsin DOT's Highway 53 and 14/61 corridor studies, you can still weigh in on your preferred options.

Visit the Public Involvement page to view the presentation and slides. Then, use this link to access the online feedback form: https://us2.list-manage.com/survey?u=bf26b9fe1344a22cdd6a5a42e&id=2f639c7bca&attribution=false

According to the project supervisor Michael Richardson, "This survey will close at the end of the day Friday, 7/25. Please submit your surveys by then or let me know if you need more time or are having issues accessing the slides or survey."

The options include major upgrades for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure along these corridors! Please participate and encourage the DOT to include protected bike lanes on these important corridors!

This week in action, learning, networking

Take advantage of these online and local opportunities to learn and network.

Monday, 7/21

4 p.m. at Kane St. Garden - Beekeeping & Honey Workshop

6 p.m., online - Messaging for Solidarity - Race Class Narrative with Anat Shenker-Osorio (Indivisible)

7:30 p.m. online - Fight the Oligarchy Town Hall (Our Revolution)

Tuesday, July 22

8:30 a.m. online - Decarbonizing Affordable Housing: Policy, Practice, and Financing Pathways

10 a.m., online - Going for Zero: Decarbonizing the Built Environment on the Path to Our Urban Future

Wednesday, 7/23

Noon online - Accountability August: Tell Congress What the Megabill Means at Home (Indivisible)

6:30 p.m. online AND 401 West Ave. S. - Citizens Climate Lobby

Thursday, 7/24

2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Myrick Kids Coulee lot - Bike Rodeo for elementary school children

A Watershed Moment

Sustain our River will host a Press Conference on August 4, 2025 at the Black River Beach House at 11:45 a.m. Our goal is to draw awareness and facilitate discussion on the value of the Mississippi River and the federal and state agencies whose work supports the sustainability of this natural resource.

We are part of the vast web of businesses, residents, and field experts who value: the health of the Mississippi River and Great Lakes; the economic impact of recreational and commercial fisheries; and the Mississippi River navigation channel administered by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

We recognize the critical importance of dedicating funding to control: invasive species, sediment and erosion, and improve water quality, nutrient reduction and habitat restoration.

The Sea Lamprey pharmaceutical (lampricide) was developed by researchers at USGS (UMESC) Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center on French Island in Wisconsin. The program is administered through the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and control activities are executed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Controlling sea lamprey populations led to extensive recovery of the Great Lakes commercial fishery. The program boasts an exceptional return on investment and protects an annual fishery valued at nearly $7 billion including 75,000 jobs.

USGS continues protecting waterways by developing and implementing controls for invasive carp, recently found near the mouth of the Root River flowing into the Mississippi River migrating upwards to French Island.
These carp (up to 20 pounds) respond to water agitation by jumping out of the water as high as ten feet. Without dedicated controls the physical impact to boaters, skiers, even kids tubing behind boats will be devastating. The invasive carp are voracious eaters and quickly out-compete (and outgrow) native fish compromising the millions of dollars generated by recreational fishing and fishing tournaments in the Mississippi River.

Funding is imperative to uphold the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program including the Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Program (HREP) and Long-Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP) both imperative to maintaining river health which supports our economic stability.

Imminent threats to our waterways are real. Investing in the Mighty Mississippi, Great Lakes and other waterways throughout our region and nationwide, is crucial to Sustain our River for the next hundred years.

Saturday Good Trouble

 From Tasha (paraphrased):

We will join millions of other protests across the nation to commemortate the late U.S. Representative John Lewis who dedicated his life to nonviolent social change during the Civil Rights movement  and is best known for his role in the Selma to Montgomery Marches, in particular "Bloody Sunday." 

Our visibility event will take place on Saturday July 19 at the intersection of State Rd. and Losey Blvd from 12 Noon to 2 p.m. Here is the link: https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/810929/

Also, there is an IPhone app called ICEBlock. This app made an appearance on CNN and reportedly does not take the data of the user but allows the user to locate ICE on the map and choose a different route and also report ICE sightings. I am not aware of anything for ANDROID users at this time. [App developers explain why Android ICE BLOCK is not feasible and suggesg alternatives here.]

Br sure to KNOW YOUR RIGHTS. Here are good resources:

• The Immigrant Resource Legal Center where you can print off your rights protected by the consitituion in case of an ICE interaction available in 39 languages for free: https://www.ilrc.org/red-cards-tarjetas-rojas#item-4477
• American Civil Liberties Union: https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/immigrants-rights
• Voces De La Frontera Madison, WI: (470) 454-4508 or nindik@vdlf.org

If you are interested in helping start an Indivisible chapter in La Crosse, please connect and we will forward you to organizers

Connections

It's frustrating to hear of an event only after it's happened. For those of us who aren't members of FB or don't want to sign up for accounts with 20+ different organizations, it can be even harder to find out about events.

If you hear of an event and don't find it on the CP calendar, please use the calendar form to add it or use the contact form to send the link so we can highlight it.

Here are some things we know about this week:

Tonight - People's Town Hall (without DVO) from 6 to 7:30 p.m. You have to register to get the location: https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/813270/

Also tonight, feedback on WisDOT plans for State Highway corridors 53 and 14/61 from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the Black River Beach Center. https://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/projects/by-region/sw/533516-lacrosse/us53us1461-pi.aspx

Friday, City Hall honk and wave from noon to 1 p.m. at the intersection of La Crosse Street and Copeland Ave. (3rd & 4th Streets). No sign up required.

Friday from 4 to 5 p.m., a "La Crosse Community Roundtable" at the Main Library, 800 Main St., hosted by Our Wisconsin Revolution. https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/813831/

Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. (NOT THURSDAY!) Good Trouble honk & wave at Losey & State Road. https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/813270/

As always, please use 5calls.org to keep up the pressure. 

Bold Ideas symposium

 

Bold Ideas For A New Progressive Majority
The Institute for Policy Studies, The Nation, and Public Citizen in partnership with the Wallace Global Fund present the 2nd Annual Henry A. Wallace Symposium.

July 17 from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Live streamed from the University of California Washington Center in Washington, DC

The Institute for Policy Studies, alongside The Nation and Public Citizen, is hosting its second annual Wallace Symposium on Thursday, July 17th. This symposium is a capstone event of IPS’s Henry A. Wallace Fellowship Program, supported by the Wallace Global Fund.

As FDR’s vice president in 1944, Henry Wallace presciently warned about how racism, oligarchy, and media manipulation were nurturing the conditions for fascism in the United States. In order to defeat American fascism, Wallace wrote, we must boldly “go forward on the great adventure of making political, economic, and social democracy a practical reality.”

As the fascism Wallace warned about becomes a reality, progressive movements are fighting back on multiple fronts. But as Wallace pointed out, only a bold vision for the future can gather the forces necessary to preserve and rebuild our democratic institutions, rein in the oligarchs, and achieve a once-in-a-generation transformation.

How can we inspire the nation to build anew after the Trump administration? How can we replace the GOP’s cruel, militaristic budget for the few with a budget for people and the planet?

How do we expand democracy, transition to a green economy that lifts all workers, and advance a progressive rural agenda that actually comes from rural America? How can the U.S. be a good neighbor internationally, not a global cop or bad actor?

Bringing together elected officials, movement leaders, policy experts, and grassroots activists, this year’s Wallace Symposium will offer vigorous conversation about those big questions — and how to unite our different movements around the answers.

Learn more and register at https://ips-dc.org/event/2nd-henry-wallace-symposium

July 16 Town Hall

PEOPLES TOWN HALL

JULY 16  *  6 to 7:30 p.m.

REGISTER FOR LOCATION 

Trump, Derrick Van Orden, and the GOP just passed the big UGLY bill. This bill will take away vital services from working class families — just to give more to billionaires who already have it all. Come to our town hall and LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!

This bill will take health care away from Wisconsin families, including the elderly and children, as well as take food assistance away from hungry kids — all so they could fund an even bigger tax handout to the billionaires who will never have to worry about paying a single bill.

Hosted by WisDems.

Learn more: https://www.mobilize.us/wisdems/event/813270/

Rummage for Good

Support our Neighbors Garage Sale on July 11 & 12 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 4816 33rd St S to benefit the  Coulee Region Immigration Task Force and the Hmong Cultural and Community Center. Cash donations also accepted on sale days.

Donations for the sale accepted Wednesday from 4 to 8 p.m. Text Jaralee at 608-317-5834 with questions

 

7/8: Town Hall with 3rd CD Candidate, Laura Benjamin

Town Hall with Laura Benjamin (Rep. Van Orden invited)

July 8 from 6 to 7 p.m.

Black River Beach Neighborhood Center

1433 Rose Street, La Crosse

RSVP: https://actionnetwork.org/events/la-crosse-town-hall-with-laura-benjamin-rep-van-orden-invited

info@laurabenjaminforcongress.com

ACLU People Power training

From ACLU:

Ready to turn your passion into action? Join our new ACLU People Power Series: Organizing to Protect Democracy. Our kick off session happens July 8th! 

We are in the fight of a lifetime to defend our rights, our freedoms, and our democracy. This is the first session in our free, high impact, virtual training series built to ignite your activism and give you the tools to organize, mobilize, and lead in this critical moment. Our communities need bold action, and we need you in the fight. 

You'll learn how to: 

• Organize effectively in your community 
• Have persuasive conversations that move people to action 
• Build lasting connections with others who are ready to rise to the moment 

This is the first in a 4-part training series that is designed for people ready to turn passion into action - and to take on an even greater leadership role in their community. Space is limited, so sign up now to reserve your spot. All we ask is that you commit to attend and share info about this training with friends and family. Organizing is relational, and the path forward depends on all of us. 

Now is the moment to stand up for our democracy, so join us for this training and be part of the movement for change. 

Register here: https://act.aclu.org/a/pplpowerpoped1

July 19 Good Trouble

From Tasha (paraphrased):

We will join millions of other protests across the nation to commemortate the late U.S. Representative John Lewis who dedicated his life to nonviolent social change during the Civil Rights movement  and is best known for his role in the Selma to Montgomery Marches, in particular "Bloody Sunday." 

Our visibility event will take place on Saturday July 19 at the intersection of State Rd. and Losey Blvd from 12 Noon to 2 p.m. Here is the link: https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/810929/

Also, there is an IPhone app called ICEBlock. This app made an appearance on CNN and reportedly does not take the data of the user but allows the user to locate ICE on the map and choose a different route and also report ICE sightings. I am not aware of anything for ANDROID users at this time. [App developers explain why Android ICE BLOCK is not feasible and suggesg alternatives here.]

Br sure to KNOW YOUR RIGHTS. Here are good resources:

• The Immigrant Resource Legal Center where you can print off your rights protected by the consitituion in case of an ICE interaction available in 39 languages for free: https://www.ilrc.org/red-cards-tarjetas-rojas#item-4477
• American Civil Liberties Union: https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/immigrants-rights
• Voces De La Frontera Madison, WI: (470) 454-4508 or nindik@vdlf.org

If you are interested in helping start an Indivisible chapter in La Crosse, please connect and we will forward you to organizers.

Strategic non-cooperation training

From Indivisible:

One day mass mobilizations like No Kings Day are incredible shows of movement energy, but they are, by definition, confined to a single day. To defeat MAGA, we’re going to have to mobilize more people, and we’re going to have to do it on a sustained basis. That’s where One Million Rising comes in. 

The success of an authoritarian takeover is dependent upon a population choosing to comply. It only takes a (relatively) small number of people practicing non-cooperation to make implementation of their fascist ideals impossible -- so let’s train one million. 

If we can motivate, train, and equip this movement in the practice of strategic non-cooperation, we can disrupt, delay, and even, at times, make it impossible for this administration to enact corrupt policy. 

We’re breaking this down into three sessions -- join us for all three if you can! (Yes, they’ll be recorded if you can’t.)

Learn more and register: https://indivisible.actionkit.com/mailings/view/118965

The Anti-Autocracy Handbook

"The Anti-Autocracy Handbook is a call to action, resilience, and collective defence of democracy, truth, and academic freedom in the face of mounting authoritarianism. ...

"To this end, it sets out how autocracies often follow a common playbook, built around the '3 Ps': populism, polarization, and post-truth. ...

"The handbook also sets out a framework for action based on personal risk level—low, medium, high, or extreme."

###

Watch for "election reform" coming next, per former Trump operative Lev Parnas. Plans include restricting early and mail-in voting, revising voter eligibility requirements, installing MAGA election officials, using the new Trump goon squad to intimidate voters, criminalizing voter education and registration, giving Trump more power over elections, and more.

The Brennan Center for Justice explains P2025's plans for making elections less free and fair. Democracy Docket, a year ago, warned about the push to change how much dark PAC money can be spent, along with plans to open the floodgates to dis- and mis-information, and to use the Department of Justice to remove voting rights protections.

Self-Evident

The Self-Evident Truths of Freedom—and of Tyranny

Twenty-seven truths about America, our Democracy and Rule of Law, and our rights, freedoms, and liberties by Judge J Michael Luttig. July 2, 2025.

Watch the interview.

The end.

 

Bonus - Trump's private army wins the gold.

"With this vote, Congress makes ICE the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in history, with more money per year at its disposal over the next four years than the budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons combined." - Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Senior Fellow, American Immigration Council. Learn more here: https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/fact-sheet/house-reconciliation-bill-immigration-border-security/