Legislators preying on transparencyThe Janesville GazetteWinding its way through the Legislature is a bill that would undermine this state’s commitment to transparent government.It must be stopped, and we’re asking readers to contact their legislators and voice their objection to AB70 and its companion bill in the Senate, SB42.The stakes are high for people who depend on newspape.... Read More
As in the rest of the nation, Wisconsin’s public school system is under assault from corporate America and the religious right, who’d sacrifice the nation’s youth to an educational theory that puts the market in control of academic quality.Fortunately, on Feb. 22, voters went to the polls and rejected the radical agenda of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her Wisconsin acolytes. In a .... Read More
Ed Garvey, the friend of many, the leader of "what could have been" and a good man has died and I am saddened.When he and Barbara Lawton ran for governor and lieutenant governor in 1998, they were a fantastic team that offered hope and moxie to the people of Wisconsin.But big money talks.Gov. Thommy Thompson was running for his fourth term and as the ALEC (American Legislative Exchange C.... Read More
A day-by-day review of the Trump administration’s first month shows that virtually every day has been marked by a new, extraordinary grant of power to corporate interests and/or another development in Donald Trump’s get-rich-quick-scheme known as the American presidency.Trump started his first full weekday in office with a breakfast meeting with CEOs of a dozen corporations including Arcon.... Read More
While Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Patience Roggensack pushes for judicial pay raises of more than $20,000 annually, the number of decisions issued by judges on the state's two appellate levels has fallen dramatically, statistics show.Roggensack's big boost request fell flat with Gov. Scott Walker. She wanted the state to spend $6.4 million per year on judicial pay increases, but Wa.... Read More
Voters deserve an impartial investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race by a Bipartisan Select CommitteeThe resignation of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn only raises more questions about communications and possible links between the Trump team and the government of Vladimir Putin. It also begs more serious questions about what President Donald Trump knew and whe.... Read More
The Department of Transportation audit announcement felt like a sucker punch to the gut. Projects in the works for our state roads have cost $3 billion more than projected — $3 billion more than the Legislature planned for. This is simply unbelievable. Wisconsin roads have gone from 53 percent “good” to 41 percent “good” in just five years.How do our roads deteriorate that much in just.... Read More
Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke was made for events like the Milwaukee Memorial Day Parade. Astride a large horse, he cuts quite a figure, his tall frame decked out in dress uniform and cowboy boots, his jaw hard-set in a Clint Eastwood spaghetti-western scowl.The crowning touch of Clarke’s drag is the pair of aviator sunglasses perched on his nose beneath the trademark 10-gallon hat, .... Read More
The DeVos confirmation as Secretary of Education is a symptom of our political system’s disease. Twenty U.S. senators who voted yes to confirm DeVos received from $23,000 to $98,000 from the DeVos family during the last election.Millions of calls and emails, along with multiple petitions signed by hundreds of thousands of Americans, urged senators to vote no. But 50 of the 52 Republicans in .... Read More
It’s Black History Month, so please get to know an unsung heroine: Nellie Sweet Wilson.A self-described “thorn in the side of management,” Wilson achieved many “firsts” as an African-American woman in the labor union and feminist movements in Wisconsin. I interviewed Wilson for the Women of Wisconsin Labor Oral History Project in 1988.Nellie Sweet was born in 1916 in Lufkin, Texas. H.... Read More
