Madison to reactiviate multi-stall parking meters
Bill Knobeloch, Madison's parking utility manager, says the city is just about to activate its newfangled multi-stall terminals, where parkers can pay with cash or credit. Why does that sound familiar?
View ArticleMore than a dozen Wisconsin candidates diss League of Women Voters questionnaire
There is nothing partisan about the League of Women Voters' mission, to help the electorate make informed choices. There is nothing tricky or unfair in the questions it asks candidates for its helpful...
View ArticleHow committed to healthy choices is the Madison school district really?
At last month's Food for Thought Festival in Madison, Martha Pings attended a panel discussion titled "Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children." Among the panelists was Frank Kelly,...
View ArticleDane County Republicans enjoy triumphant 2010 election night
What a difference two years makes. In November 2008, I hung with Dane County Republicans on the night of the election that brought Barack Obama and the Democrats to power. It was a sad assemblage, with...
View ArticleMadison Ald. Bridget Maniaci seeks source of leak to "State Journal"
Bridget Maniaci is trying to determine who ratted her out to the press. Last Friday, the Madison alderperson initiated an open records request to all Common Council members seeking emails from the...
View ArticleThe never-ending misconduct probe
Last month, a milestone of sorts was reached as the state Justice Department's investigation into misconduct allegations against a former Dane County prosecutor entered its third year.
View ArticleDown and out at Capital Newspapers
The "Wisconsin State Journal"'s circulation continues to fall, consistent with national trends, at times more so.
View ArticleNew Madison minister, Jane Esbensen, does not believe in God
Jane Esbensen tells a story from the mid-1990s, when she worked as a chaplain at Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park, Minn. An elderly woman on her deathbed asked for Communion. Esbensen, who at the...
View ArticleWorld Naked Bike Ride citation dropped
In a ruling that bodes ill for the city of Madison's determination to penalize participants in this year's World Naked Bike Ride, a municipal judge has dismissed the first such case to be adjudicated.
View ArticleWisconsin election proves the power of bad ideas
At a recent discussion on the Nov. 2 election hosted by the local Society for Professional Journalists, UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin was expounding on why Republicans emerged...
View ArticleWhat do you say to a naked litigant?
The city of Madison plans to appeal a judge's dismissal of a disorderly conduct citation against a participant in last June's World Naked Bike Ride in Madison.
View ArticleWill geese be killed at Vilas Park?
Another battle may be brewing over the use of fatal methods to minimize goose populations in Madison parks -- this time at Vilas, where geese have long been pegged as a problem.
View ArticleHistory revisited
The "Wisconsin State Journal" last week ran an interesting "Know Your Madisonian" profile on local historian Erika Janik. It concerned her book "A Short History of Wisconsin", published in July by the...
View ArticleMadison news outlets grapple with 'inappropriate' comments
The "Janesville Gazette" drew national attention for its recent decision to shut down its online comments section for certain types of stories -- namely, those that concern crime, courts, accidents,...
View ArticleDavid Blaska is not telling the truth
Normally I don't get involved in the ongoing controversies over David Blaska's commentaries on The Daily Page. "Isthmus" has given Blaska license to say pretty much whatever he wants and I usually...
View ArticleThe sacking of Arthur Ross
In his 23 years as Madison's bicycle-pedestrian safety coordinator, Arthur Ross has impressed a lot of people and made a lot of friends. So it's not surprising that Mayor Dave Cieslewicz's move to dump...
View ArticleDane County pols seem resigned to airport scope or grope
Few issues have aroused the chattering classes more than the Transportation Security Administration's latest airport security measures: full-body scans and, for those who don't want their junk eyed by...
View ArticleA learning opportunity at McFarland High School
Thoreau argued that he learned more from the young than from his elders, since "age...has not profited so much as it has lost." Jim Hickey, the principal of McFarland High School, has been sounding a...
View ArticleGlenn Grothman on Madison snow job: 'Mission accomplished'
State Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) raised a fuss last December when, displeased with the difficulty of his post-blizzard commute, he announced plans to have the state set policy for plowing and...
View ArticlePractical holiday ideas for Wisconsin pols
Dear Santa, With the Christmas season and other holidays upon us, our thoughts turn to giving -- not the giving we do, but the giving we ask you to handle. You're the one with the fancy workshops,...
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