MADISON - It’s been an agonizing week for America, as the crisis of police brutality reared its head first in Baton Rouge and then 1,200 miles to the north.

I wrote about the killing of Alton Sterling and —and what those deaths, and so many like them, mean for our democracy—here:

Police brutality: “When is it going to stop?”

A different problem for our democracy, here in Wisconsin, is the rigging of our electoral maps. Here’s an op-ed that we co-signed with Common Cause in Wisconsin, which appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on July 5th:

Democracy is failing when voters don't have real choices

We also posted an item on our website about a new Kohler golf course on the drawing boards, and we noted that Herbert Kohler gave Gov. Walker $40,000 over the last five years. Guess what? Kohler now may be getting the DNR to look the other way, even as the golf course plans to access four acres of one of our state parks. Here’s the story:

Golf course project by big Walker backer up for hearing

Our Influence Peddler for July is someone I’d never heard of before -- Eric Bott. But I’ve sure heard of the organization he works for -- the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity. You can find out more about Bott here:

Influence peddler of the month - Eric Bott

I’m hoping for better news next week. We’ve got a lot to do, all of us, before we can fulfill the prayer from the poet Langston Hughes:

"O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.”  
Thanks for considering these offerings.