Edgewater a lobby lollapalooza
During the last six months of 2009, a group pushing the Edgewater Hotel expansion spent $96,314 lobbying city officials, about the same amount spent during this period by all other city-registered...
View ArticleA bad time for broadcast news
Carl Agnelly started planning to leave broadcasting last August, while making (and reporting on) the 300-mile Wisconsin AIDS Ride. "You spend four days on a bicycle and you have lots of time to think,"...
View ArticleHulsey handles it
Want an example of a classy response to a scurrilous attack? Check out Dane County Supv. Brett Hulsey's reply to mean-spirited comments made by Jim Brigham, vice president of the Dane County Deputy...
View ArticleWiley shines light on Brothers case
The deposition was taken Feb. 16 as part of a lawsuit filed by the owners of Brothers Bar & Grill against the UW Board of Regents. The owners, Marc and Eric Fortney, are trying to block the...
View ArticleWisconsin Freedom of Information Council honors highs and lows with Opee Awards
As part of national Sunshine Week, March 14-20, the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council is bestowing its fourth annual Opee Awards to people and institutions that have had an impact on open...
View ArticleAnthony Brown's beautiful friendship, the untold story
In the fall of 2008 I became aware of a remarkable friendship between Anthony Brown, executive director of the Madison Equal Opportunities Commission from 1994 to 2004, and a Madison man named Matthew....
View ArticlePETA, Alliance for Animals seek criminal charges against the UW-Madison
Two animal right groups, one national and one local, jointly petitioned a state circuit court on Tuesday to bring criminal animal cruelty charges against the UW-Madison for what the district attorney...
View ArticleBlanchard or Leineweber? You be the judge
Leineweber, 61, Richland County's sole judge since 1997, is running for the appeals court against Brian Blanchard, the district attorney of Dane County, following a low-turnout primary last month. (Of...
View ArticleAbout that park job…
Anyone who's ever re-parked a car to get a bit closer to the curb should eyeball this photo of a parked car on Livingston Street, between East Mifflin and Dayton. It's almost far enough from the curb...
View ArticleTerminal conditions in new downtown Madison parking system
Bill Knobeloch says not to worry. Madison's parking manager admits there was a recent technological glitch with the server that runs the city's spanking-new downtown parking terminals. Something...
View ArticleWKOW vs. DATCP: The backstory
Dan Cassuto says he's terribly disappointed: "This is not how democracy is supposed to work." The WKOW 27 consumer/investigative reporter has lately been doing a bang-up job on stories that question...
View ArticleMadison activist arrested for asking Jeb Bush about the weather
Former Madison activist Miles Kristan, bless his heart, remains something of a troublemaker. Earlier this month he was busted in Milwaukee at an event for Republican governor candidate Scott Walker.
View ArticleChazen goat sculpture by Beth Cavener Stichter is a true work of art
Let me be clear: I am not on any level revolted by the kissing-goats-with-boners sculpture at the UW-Madison's Chazen Museum. But I am shocked -- on both a visceral and intellectual level.
View ArticlePETA sues UW-Madison over animal research records
The Virginia-based national group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) today filed a lawsuit against the University of Wisconsin for what it says are multiple violations of the state's...
View ArticleBishop Morlino takes aim at messengers in clergy abuse scandal
It's not surprising that Madison Bishop Robert Morlino is just livid about news accounts tying Pope Benedict XVI to the protection of pedophile priests in Wisconsin and elsewhere, accounts that have...
View ArticleNew meters will take the money and run
An "Isthmus" reader responding to a report in this space about Madison's new multi-space parking meters notes an "annoying windfall for the city" in how the new system works: "If you pay for two hours...
View ArticleWill more animals suffer at UW if law is 'strengthened'?
Rick Bogle doubts the UW-Madison paid much attention to the state's animal cruelty statute until last year, when the local Alliance for Animals began questioning the legality of sometimes-fatal...
View ArticleTree reprieve
The postcard from Madison Gas and Electric is pretty clear. Headlined "Tree-Trimming Notice," it informs homeowners that the utility "will be trimming trees near our power lines in your neighborhood in...
View ArticleThoreau wouldn't be a-tweeting
I've just finished reading Walden again, for I believe the fourth time. It's been more than a decade since my last visit, and I'm stunned by the widening vastness of the gulf between Thoreau's message...
View ArticleMy not-so-crazy tea party pals
A reporter who can't find crazy at a tea party rally is like a farmer who can't find pig urine in a sty. Yet I confess I came up empty in my search for crazy at today's Tea Party Rally on the Capitol...
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