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Local health officials are optimistic Wisconsin is on the road to increased supply of the COVID-19 vaccine. They say that’s the only way to get shots in the arms of more high-priority groups.

Production is ramping up all over the country on the two vaccines already approved by the FDA and in use. But a new Johnson & Johnson vaccine is expected to receive emergency use authorization possibly as early as this weekend.

Greenfield Health Director Darren Rausch said additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are necessary to meet demand.

A Milwaukee alderwoman wants the city to adopt a “universal basic income” pilot program.

The proposal by Ald. Chantia Lewis would supplement low-income families’ wages, so they’re making a living wage. She says cities across the country are beginning to experiment with universal basic income programs, and she wants Milwaukee to do the same.

Wisconsin health officials are creating a statewide COVID-19 vaccination schedule for school employees, in an effort to prioritize underserved communities.

>>Wisconsin Educators And Childcare Workers Next In Line For Vaccine, Beginning March 1

Black history in the United States is often focused on the incredible tragedy and pain Black Americans have faced since the beginning of the nation’s history. While that history can’t be ignored, the success stories across Black history are rarely taught and often forgotten.

Hermione Bell-Henderson is the coordinator of business, technology and periodicals at the Milwaukee Public Library. For this year’s Black History Month, she put together a list of children's books aimed at teaching the stories of successful and influential Black Americans.

When it comes to Jewish holidays, people most likely have heard of Hannukah, the high holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, and Passover — the holiday in which people retell the story of Exodus.

People may not have heard of Purim, which starts on sundown Thursday, Feb. 25 and ends on sundown Friday, Feb. 26.

Cantor David Barash of Congregation Emanu-El B'ne Jeshurun says it’s a fun and festive holiday that congregations around the state are creatively celebrating in the pandemic. He describes the Purim story in a nutshell:

Updated 12:03 p.m. CST

Foxconn and Fisker, a California-based electric vehicle company rebooted after a bankruptcy, announced they've signed a memorandum of understanding to build 250,000 electric vehicles (EVs) per year. The cars would be sold in North America and other parts of the world.

Just where the EVs would be built has touched off a lot of speculation.

Richard Hedderman is a local poet, author and educator at the Milwaukee Public Museum, where he also coordinates the creative writing programming.  

His work has been featured in national and international literary publications, and his latest book of poetry is called Choosing A Stone.

On Monday evening, Nearby Nature Milwaukee held their second Annual African American Environmental Pioneer Awards celebration to honor people in Milwaukee who are helping to create a healthier and more racially just environment.

Sylvia Wilson, program director of  Teens Grow Greens, was one of the honorees.

There's been a shifting of a major COVID-19 vaccination site in the Milwaukee area and more sites are coming — eventually. Some of the locations could help ease racial disparities in vaccinations that include fewer Black and Latino people receiving the vaccine than their percentages in the population.

There's a lot going on in Wisconsin politics. From the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out to funding for the businesses and workers who have been hurt by the pandemic. Not to mention the political divisiveness among state lawmakers.

To unpack some of these issues, Lake Effect’s Joy Powers invited listeners to submit questions to ask Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes to learn more about his and the governor’s work. Here are his answers:

What are you and the governor doing to alleviate some of the confusion around the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out process?

For one week in 1968, late night host Johnny Carson made the historic decision to give up his job on The Tonight Show and allow actor and activist Harry Belafonte to take over.

At the time the country was facing historic protests over racial justice, continued involvement in the Vietnam War and a contentious election that eventually saw Richard Nixon win the White House.

Classical Latin American music comes from a wide range of influences. From classic European artists like Bach and Mozart to the Afro-Indigenous communities across Latin America, each musical influence has melted into what became known today as classical Latin music.

Dinorah Márquez is the founder and director of the Latino Arts Strings Program, a program designed to teach students string technique through various forms of Latin American folk music.

Milwaukee poet Richard Hedderman serves on the education staff at the Milwaukee Public Museum, which often gives him writing inspiration. Here's a poem influences by one of the museum's most popular exhibits:

It is endless, the early October dusk, smelling of smoke,
And lit in the flare of gaslight. The butterfly in the Mason jar
Folds its wings as if under the weight of dust,

Now that close to half of Wisconsinites age 65 and older have received at least one shot, the Department of Health Services is opening eligibility to more people in Phase 1b. It's starting with school and daycare employees – an estimated 225,000 people – who will be eligible March 1.

The Wisconsin Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bipartisan bill designed to jump-start updates to the state's antiquated unemployment claims processing system that led to many people waiting weeks or months to get paid during the coronavirus pandemic.

Gov. Tony Evers has promised to sign the bill which the Senate passed last week on a 27-3 vote. The Assembly passed it 89-0.

On Sep. 6, 1861, George Marshall Clark was lynched on the northwest corner of Buffalo and Water Streets in Milwaukee — becoming the only Black victim of lynching in the city. Efforts are underway today to put a headstone on his unmarked grave.

Clark was only 22-years-old when he was killed. He was studying to be a barber under his father who owned a shop on Wisconsin Ave. 

A Wisconsin researcher has taken on the grim task of looking at how many years, cumulatively, COVID-19 has cut from people's lives. The answer just for last year, and for the U.S. and 80 other countries with good health statistics, is more than 20 million years. 

The co-authors of the study came up with their lost life metric by subtracting the age of everyone who died of COVID-19 from the life expectancy in the dead person's country, taking gender into account.

Joshua Kaiser is a tea expert and founder of Milwaukee-based Rishi Tea. He says while every new type of tea gets some getting used to when brewing, there are some good rules to follow to make the perfect cup of tea.

First, making sure the water is the right temperature.

“You want to bring the water to a boil and then let it cool down a little bit, so maybe, boil the water and let it cool for three, four minutes and pour it over the tea,” he says.

In a normal year, founder of Milwaukee-based Rishi Tea Joshua Kaiser would be traveling around the world in search of the best tea ingredients on the planet. But because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he hasn’t been able to travel for the past year.

Kaiser says during the pandemic, more people have been purchasing tea but the way people are getting their tea has changed.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers rolled out his biennial budget proposal last week. It includes major investments in public health and criminal justice reform, increases taxes by about $1 billion and repeals some parts of Act 10.

A few months ago, Wisconsin had one of the highest per capita rates of COVID-19 in the country. Health officials were pleading with people to wear masks, socially distance and practice good hand hygiene. On Monday, the state reported zero COVID deaths and the lowest number of new cases since June.

Milwaukee County Emergency Medical Services Director Dr. Ben Weston says the first thing this means is that the community is doing a good job.

A three-year battle between solar energy advocates and WE Energies is back before the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, and the state regulatory agency also known as the PSC, wants to hear your thoughts by Tuesday night.

Milwaukee is known for a lot of things but for Black residents, it’s mostly staggering, negative statistics.

From the largest achievement gap between white and Black students, to incarceration and poverty rates, and of course the city’s segregation — simply living in Milwaukee presents significant challenges for Black people. 

Going to court, whether it’s as a criminal defendant, to seek a restraining order or even to fight a parking ticket is a stressful experience. But imagine doing it without understanding what the judge or attorneys are saying.

That’s the case for some who are not proficient in English or hearing impaired who end up in a Wisconsin courtroom.