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The obscure intersection of Canfield Drive and Copper Creek Court in Ferguson, Mo., has turned out to be a crossroads for American policing. Since then-Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown near that intersection last Aug. 9, “Ferguson” has become shorthand for a wide variety of complaints about law enforcement practices. . . . Attorney General Eric Holder addressed the findings of his department’s investigation into the circumstances underlying the community outrage over Brown’s death. “Some of those protesters were right,” Holder said.

— Editorial in the St. Louis PostDispatch

Parks group should refocus

Instead of trying to restrict people’s access to Lake Michigan by having 2nd St. or Van Buren or 27th St. — or whatever its desired du jour happens to be — designated as the start of Lake Michigan, Preserve Our Parks should be spending its time and money on turning the Park East corridor into green space. No one else is doing anything to make that area other than a home for weeds, rodents and rubble.

That would at least be close to what I presume Preserve Our Parks’ mission to be. Not initiating goofy lawsuits to stop worthy and important developments to make Milwaukee’s most valuable asset attractive to residents and visitors.

A mini-Central Park would make for a spectacular gateway to downtown. Milwaukee likes to tout itself as the city of water, yet it does little to further that cause. What better symbol of that intent than a one-of-a-kind, must-see fountain in the middle of such a park? It could be the city’s Gateway Arch or Golden Gate, drawing people the world over.

It would be a welcome sight to see an activist group like Preserve Our Parks work on constructing rather than always obstructing.

Jerry Slaske

Wauwatosa

Study criticism off-base

Gordon Lafer’s March 2 op-ed blasting the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute’s study on a right-to-work law in Wisconsin, of which I was the senior author, is off base on several levels (“Flawed study, flawed conclusions,” Opinion).

Lafer asserts that WPRI “is telling us that the key to economic improvement is cutting wages.” Nowhere does the WPRI study assert that. His claim that there is some “premier research” done by Heidi Shierholz does not accord with an objective review of past studies; indeed, a literature search on EconLit or Google Scholar lists no peer-reviewed journal articles by Shierholz on the wage effects of rightto-work laws.

Lafer’s assertion that what is important from an economic welfare perspective is wages, not income, because income includes “investment earnings of the wealthiest individuals,” does not accord with the views of most economists.

Lafer criticizes the WPRI study authors for being paid, saying he has “not been paid a cent for this work” on right-to-work. Get real. Lafer’s Labor Education and Research Center asserts on its website that “we believe that the presence of a strong union movement . . . is essential” and goes on to state it teaches “the basics of union representation.” Everyone doing research is paid by someone, and for Lafer to imply intellectual purity is disingenuous.

For truth, look at the evidence. On balance, states with right-to-work laws have had higher rates of economic growth and in-migration of people from non-right-to-work states. That is an undeniable fact.

Richard Vedder Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus

Ohio University

Moore’s amnesty advocacy

In her March 3 commentary, “Wisconsin still the ‘Selma of the north,’ ” Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) says voter ID laws disenfranchise “voters of color” (Opinion).

These concerns ring hollow given her immigration voting record. Like all Democrats — and quite a few Republicans — she supports work permits and Social Security numbers for millions of illegal aliens while 18 million Americans can’t find full-time work. Blacks and Hispanic-Americans have the nation’s highest unemployment and poverty rates.

Can it be said that her amnesty advocacy also is contributing to the economic “disenfranchisement” of the very people she claims to care about?

Dave Gorak

La Valle