The Milwaukee Art Museum has a new leader at the helm. Kim Sajet was previously the director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, where she worked to increase the representation of women and people of color in the collection. In May, President Trump claimed to have fired Sajet from the Smithsonian in part because of her work to diversify the collection. Although the Smithsonian made it clear the president has no authority to fire employees of the institution, Sajet decided to resign from her position a couple weeks after the incident.

But DC’s loss is Milwaukee’s gain. Sajet brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experience, and a desire to invigorate the Milwaukee Art Museum’s space with new community engagement efforts.

It’s local budget season again, and Milwaukee County and the City of Milwaukee are finalizing budgets. While the Mayor’s proposed budget for the city escapes major cuts to services, Milwaukee County’s budget includes cuts to MCTS, rising public safety and building maintenance costs, and increased property tax rates.

Rob Henken, immediate past president of the Wisconsin Policy Forum joins Lake Effect’s Sam Woods to discuss both budgets, with a focus on Milwaukee County.

The library is more than just books, and our series with the Milwaukee Public Library called Books and Beyond showcases just that.

This month we are exploring some stories in honor of the spooky season with MPL’s special collections and archives department. They’re hosting an event called ‘Milwaukee Mysteries: True Crime and Paranormal’ to take a historical spin on the theme with real people, places, haunts, and events in the Milwaukee area.

To learn more, Lake Effect's Audrey Nowakowski is joined by librarian archivist Casey Lapworth, who begins by explaining how their librarian take on spooky season came about.