Thursday, June 18: Marking Juneteenth, Iran deal skepticism, hunger rises as food assistance shrinks, pregnant patients struggle with Medicaid, administration outlines ceasefire agreement, feds sue transgender health nonprofit
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Juneteenth was only the first barrier. We had to overcome retaliation against Reconstruction by the institution of Jim Crow, followed by mass incarceration and institutions meant to prohibit the advancements of African-Americans and now the attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion.”
– Sen. Dora Drake (D-Milwaukee), at Wednesday’s ceremony to raise the Juneteenth flag over the state Capitol
The Juneteenth flag flies over the Wisconsin State Capitol on June 17, 2026. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Gov. Tony Evers, lawmakers and advocates celebrated Juneteenth on Wednesday, praising the progress the U.S. has made toward racial equality while also committing to continue to work to expand opportunity. The ceremony came two days early, marking the arrival of Union troops in Galveston Bay, Texas, on June 19, 1865, to tell more than 250,000 enslaved Black people there that they were free. Baylor Spears has the story.
The provisional agreement to end the U.S. war with Iran that has cost $30 billion and 13 U.S. lives appears to more or less restore the status quo before the war started. In a commentary, Editor Ruth Conniff writes that none of this sounds like a win to Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who has repeatedly tried and failed to get her colleagues to pass a War Powers resolution to assert congressional warmaking authority and stop President Donald Trump’s illegitimate and “100% unnecessary” war.
Families are facing rising grocery prices at the same time that many of the most vulnerable are losing access to the nation’s largest food assistance program. More than 4 million Americans lost benefits in the last year and more are expected to as a result of the broad tax and spending law President Donald Trump signed last summer. Kevin Hardy of Stateline reports on developments.
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More from Washington:
ICYMI
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin speaks at the Wisconsin Democratic Party convention on June 13, 2026. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
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