Alliance for Animals and PETA seeking prosecution for mice aggression...
The local Alliance for Animals and PETA are this week sending a letter asking Dane County's district attorney to prosecute the UW-Madison for allegedly violating a state law against "instigating fights...
View ArticleCops seek new law for deviants
Amy Bramlett says it's surprisingly common. Police gets calls about, or happen upon, people who are -- there's no graceful way to put this -- whacking off in public. "A lot of our resources are going...
View ArticleAnd so it ends
"Watchdog" debuted on April 6, 2001, as the new name of a biweekly column that began in 1989 as "On the Town." The first column under this new name explained, "'Watchdog' was chosen to convey the...
View ArticleJudge Sumi's mailbag, cont.
When last we checked, Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi had gotten dozens of mostly negative letters over her role in blocking implementation of Scott Walker's bill reining in public employee unions....
View ArticleDane County Sheriff's Office hides fired deputy's identity
On June 1, the Dane County Sheriff's Office put out a press release stating that one of its deputies was fired for hitting a handcuffed suspect who was resisting. What deputy was it? The office isn't...
View ArticleWisconsin Republicans vow to add collective bargaining to budget bill
Unless the Wisconsin Supreme Court gets in the spirit and makes a definitive ruling that affirms sweeping changes to collective bargaining by Tuesday afternoon, legislative Republicans intend to...
View ArticleGoodbye to Bailey, and to "Isthmus"
The other day my wife, Linda, and I dug a hole on some land we own in Richland County and buried our dog Bailey. This was shortly after I decided to leave "Isthmus", where I've worked for 25 years, to...
View ArticleProsser allegedly grabbed fellow Supreme Court Justice Bradley by the neck
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser allegedly grabbed fellow Justice Ann Walsh Bradley around the neck in an argument in her chambers last week, according to several knowledgeable sources....
View ArticleJune 4, 2004: Inside the monkey house
We come upon the baby in an incubator in the corner of a typically stark and sterile room. At first he looks dead. Then he stirs and within seconds opens his eyes, squinting at the bright light and...
View ArticleEnd Wisconsin lawmakers' ability to purge records
No one deserves more credit for forging Wisconsin's traditions of open government than the state Legislature. From passing the nation's first public records law in 1849, one year after Wisconsin became...
View ArticleRemembering Dick Wheeler, dean of the Wisconsin Capitol press corps
I didn't know Dick Wheeler well, but I was as fond of him as people who did. The creator of "The Wheeler Report", the single most authoritative source of state Capitol reporting, was the kind of guy...
View ArticleWisconsin's turbine jobs are gone with the wind
For a state that's made "Open for Business" its official mantra, Wisconsin sure seems lukewarm about jobs in the highly competitive -- and lucrative -- field of wind energy.
View ArticleWetland or wasteland? Republicans say jobs should come before environmental...
Call it Bud Harris' theory of environmental relativity. The professor emeritus of natural and applied sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay has found that when people look at the Bergstrom...
View ArticleConservative groups push the limits in pro-Walker ad campaign
Let no one doubt American ingenuity -- especially regarding ways to pour special-interest money into the political process. In recent weeks, two conservative groups -- the Madison-based John K. MacIver...
View ArticleWhat a $pectacular year! Money flooded into Wisconsin politics in 2011
For Wisconsin residents, 2011 was the kind of year that helps explain why the Chinese consider "May you live in interesting times" to be a curse. Amid all of the hubbub and strife, many of us found...
View ArticleAttorney conduct at issue in Gableman dust-up
Michael Gableman, the Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, has been drawing flak over revelations that he received free legal help in an ethics case from a law firm representing clients with past and...
View ArticleIndependent Bob Ziegelbauer decries extremism in Wisconsin politics
Bob Ziegelbauer wants to make it clear he's not placing himself above his fellow state lawmakers: "I don't want to be judgmental and say, all these other guys, they're just money grubbers." That's not...
View ArticleWhat is the extent of Wisconsin lawmakers' conflict of interest in fracking...
Mark Radcliffe is an attorney in private practice in Black River Falls. He represents High Country Sand, a Minnesota-based mining company, in a lawsuit filed Jan. 3 against Eau Claire County,...
View ArticleRemembering Billy: The life and death of a Madison man with mental illness
That I never met Billy Zurlo is, first of all, my loss, and second, surprising. I've known his sister Rosemary and her husband Frank for more than a decade, and over time I've met most other members of...
View ArticleA closer look at Walker recall funds
It's difficult to write about the levels of money now being pumped into Wisconsin's electoral process without using terms like "jaw-dropping" and "eye-popping." It's a wonder we can still recognize...
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