Opinion

Voting patterns in state almost exactly match the 2016 presidential victory for Trump.

Mining company's proposed tailings dam could cause massive pollution of Lake Michigan.

It’s time for Wisconsin to accept federal dollars to expand Medicaid eligibility.

Artificially high prevailing wage laws have cost all of us as taxpayers, and as a legislature, we responsibly chose to ensure that public dollars invested in infrastructure weren’t just thrown at problems, but spent more efficiently to make whatever is spent go further.

The goal of helping ex-offenders get jobs is laudable, but too much public information will be lost.

In Milwaukee, we are entering a new era of opportunity.

Congressional oversight with public hearings, not impeachment, is the best way forward to develop a fuller chronology and accounting. The 2020 elections will bring change.

Democrats can’t write off rural or suburban Wisconsinites, Trump voters or count on automatic support from Democratic-leaning voters. To win the 2020 state Supreme Court election, legislative and presidential contests Democrats must engage the entire state.

Last Monday, Trump ordered the Justice Department to intervene with hard-right GOP governors, asking a federal appeals court to strike down the entire ACA.

Yes on criminal justice reforms and medical marijuana, no on full legalization.

Judge Brian Hagedorn should have been a dream opponent for progressives in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. But thanks to some lucky breaks, late spending and an uninspiring opponent, Hagedorn eked out a victory.

Anger drives votes, media in decline, traditional judicial campaigns are dead, and more.

Massive increase in high speed chases under the new policy. Results are scary.

Tech publication The Verge tries to figure out what Foxconn is actually doing here.

Compressed gravel base can’t support LCD fabrication plant. So what’s being built?

They oppose fee on trucks that destroy roads, while getting big money from the industry.

Forbes sees huge growth in value of franchises since taxpayer-financed stadiums built.

Former governor’s “trampoline” for SNAP recipients is a high-cost failure, report finds.

No, say two researchers. But their data is highly suspect.

His new job: finance chair of a national group opposing non-partisan redistricting.

Who’s gained the most from ACA and why Medicare for All could be a trap.

After my first three months in Washington, I’ve learned that by cutting through the dysfunction, focusing on solutions and listening to you, I can achieve results for Southeast Wisconsin.

Wisconsin lawmakers are seeking to amend the expungement law so that if a person does not ask for expungement at the time of sentencing, he or she can still come back to the judge and request it at a later date if the person successfully completes his or her sentence. Lawmakers are also seeking to allow people 25 years old or older at the time of the offense to request expungement.

The suicide of a young woman in Colorado this week demonstrates that 48-hour waiting periods for gun purchases can save lives.

There’s no question that a Wisconsin Supreme Court full of judicial activists would send Wisconsin back generations, chipping away – or flat out reversing – a number of conservative priorities and Walker reforms.

Devoid of any actual achievement during his first hundred days, Evers has instead settled for giving the appearance of diligence while doing absolutely nothing substantive.

Nancy Pelosi is deathly afraid of impeachment. No, it’s not because of a sudden magnanimous surge of camaraderie. It’s because she understands what her fellow Democrats do not: Impeaching President Trump would be an unmitigated disaster.

Nobody, it seemed, gave Brian Hagedorn even a puncher’s chance.

Democrats constantly remind us that “it’s the top one percent vs. the bottom 99 percent” and “the rich don’t pay their fair share.” So effective is this manipulation that it wholly obscures the truth – the rich don’t just pay their fair share. They pay everyone’s share.

The evidence is clear: In addition to increasing demand through exports and dairy consumption, we also need to be looking at the supply side of the equation.

The mistake that Democrats seemed to make in this Supreme Court race was that they came out of the gate attacking Hagedorn for being anti-gay. Hagedorn very skillfully reinterpreted that as an attack on his religious beliefs.

A small but vocal minority wants to remove police officers from Madison high schools.

According to the latest poll, 70 percent of Wisconsin residents want the state to take federal money to expand Medicaid eligibility. But the Assembly speaker is going to “lead” in a different direction.

Satya Rhodes-Conway identified her voters, closed the deal with them and got them to the polls. No wasted effort.

History is replete with stories of how some businesses can't be trusted to not let greed and profits get in the way.

Scaremongering over socialism is silly and dishonest. Those who dwell in that dishonesty are on the wrong side of history.

Trump is so obsessed with promoting fossil fuels regardless of their contributions to long-term climate change that he's now decided to make wind power, the renewable energy powering more and more homes every year, a villain of major proportions.

Evers needs to understand that repeal of any element of the minimum markup law isn't good for many small family businesses that still exist in Wisconsin, but awfully good for those who want to put them out of business.

Time will tell how Wisconsin will fare, perhaps sooner than we think.

Existing truck fees, both in Wisconsin and in most states, barely cover 35 percent of the damage they cause, according to the American Automobile Association and the Federal Highway Administration.

He lost last week's election, ironically, to a candidate who is full of ideas and plans for the city, much as he was back in 1973. What will never be lost, though, is that Soglin was a blessing for Madison. That's how he'll be long remembered.

Deserving people need a second chance. Unfortunately, Walker, a self-proclaimed devout Christian, didn't believe in that.

As the rich get richer and the poor poorer, the Ubers and Lyfts of the world are giving us another lesson in why that's so.

The Mueller report is definitive as in “case closed” — there was no collusion with Russia.

Supporters of Brian Hagedorn knew that they had to wake up a lot of dormant Trump voters and turn them out to vote.

If his win holds up, it is doubly depressing for Democrats since he will replace for a 10-year term one of the most respected jurists in Wisconsin history, Shirley Abrahamson, and give the court an insurmountable 5-2 conservative majority with only one supreme court race on the horizon in the next three years.

According to a survey by the Wisconsin Public Research Interest Group, students on our 24 college campuses in Wisconsin said they wanted more transportation options beyond the traditional family car … although 85 percent want the traditional car as well.

In late March a group of visiting young Russian journalists who cover the parliament in Moscow visited Washington, D.C., and Madison, meeting a variety of academic, political, and media figures. They were asked to share their impressions.

Gov. Tony Evers 2019-21 budget makes expansion one of its centerpieces, addressing the health care needs of Wisconsin while maximizing taxpayer dollars to fund other important priorities such as education.

My respect and admiration for his brand of politics, along with his love of country and his deep fondness for his fellow citizens, has been echoed by millions who also know him to be smart and capable.

In both Madison and Chicago gay candidates for mayor won office.

Elections have consequences. That is one of the basic understandings students will come to accept as civics is studied in classrooms around the state. But as news stories this week demonstrate some leaders in Madison, who are to work for the people ‘back home’, have forgotten that precept.

Republicans continue to claim that the tax law changes benefit all Americans and boost the broader economy. However, the mounting evidence demonstrates the critics were right all along: the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is a de facto massive giveaway to large corporations and the top one percent.

This is the right time in Wisconsin to stand up for water rights.

There are bigger questions raised by the Foxconn project than what devices the company may build on disappearing farmland in Mt. Pleasant and how many human workers will eventually he hired in subsidized production there.

Wisconsin Republicans want to grab many more thousands of taxpayer dollars to keep what's left of environmental law tllted towards their donors and other special interests.

Remembering that he's visiting battleground Wisconsin in a few days, Trump is now threatening to 'help' Harley-Davidson after bashing the company last year, hurting H-D profitability with import duties on metals he triggered and even urging foreign competitors to set up shop in the US.

Gov. Tony Evers’ education policies are having trouble winning popular support, according to a new poll released Tuesday by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty.

Rep. Adam Neylon and his fellow Assembly Republicans are trying to outbid Gov. Tony Evers on creating charging stations for electric cars, a part of an “Earth Day” plan to have more government intervention in subsidizing renewable energy.

City of Racine residents received a flyer with their tax bills in December listing how much of the total property tax bill was being spent on the local technical college, county taxes, city taxes, taxes for the school district, and supposedly the tax bill for funding the Racine Parental Choice Program, the private school voucher program.

RightWisconsin's James Wigderson looks at the winners and losers in Tuesday's election beyond the candidates.

This election was a lay-up and only the WisDems could figure out a way to muff it in grand fashion.

Vote by party lines on governor’s capital budget breaks with bipartisan tradition.

After years of deferring vital maintenance and safety upgrades, Gov. Tony Evers prioritized our state infrastructure to improve our public buildings while creating jobs and boosting local economies statewide.

The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com. One of the clearest lessons from...

Hagedorn’s victory was nothing short of stunning. His campaign had been left for dead by some business groups in the state after his opponents attacked him as an anti-LGBT bigot for founding a private Christian school that upholds traditional Christian beliefs about marriage and sex.

We have strong construction performance even with the repeal of prevailing wage.

Eric Genrich, a member of the Assembly from 2013 to 2019, was elected as the new mayor of Green Bay. His win is a big deal politically, as it represented a shift in direction for the state’s third-largest city — and another sign that progressive ideas are gaining traction in cities well beyond Madison and Milwaukee.

By delivering this bold pro-union message as a front-running presidential contender, Bernie Sanders is sending a “Which Side Are You On?” signal that other contenders will not be able to ignore, and that has the potential to transform not just our politics but the lives of working-class Americans.

Congressman Mark Pocan and other progressives are calling on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to reverse its decision to not grant contracts to pollsters, strategists and communications specialists working with Democrats who mount primary challenges to incumbents in 2020.

It is rare for anyone to run for vice president, and Baldwin won’t actively campaign for the position. But Democrats, particularly progressive Democrats who are serious about winning in 2020, would be wise to talk her up as a running mate for whoever is nominated.

No matter where people come down on the question of whether Trump was personally engaged with, or aware of, Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election campaign on his behalf, the fact that the Trump campaign was focusing the attention of foreign figures on Wisconsin is a serious matter.

Economic development that works.

Wisconsin’s law, which requires a judge to decide on expungement at the time of sentencing, is unlike any in the nation.

Team Trump is going to win the White House again next year, and Wisconsin will undoubtedly play a major role in this outcome, but it all gets started now. One day, we’ll look back on the Green Bay rally as the start of another wild ride to victory.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are signaling their interest in investments for Wisconsin’s publicly-available electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The Customers First! Coalition applauds these efforts because of the broad benefits the investments could have for citizens across the state.

Despite the large demand for nursing assistants, wages remain low. Wisconsin Technical Colleges showed nursing assistant as number one in their ‘Jobs in Demand Listing’ for 2018. It also showed the median starting salary of $26,752.

Just as Americans were outraged at the unexplainably slow response to the survivors of Katrina, I have noticed the same has been evident with the rescue and relief effort for Mozambique.

Evers appears to favor a return to a system where the vast majority of Wisconsin’s kids have no option about where to attend school other than their government-assigned district school.

MPS was contacted by at least two interested buyers for Hayes in 2012 and 2013, but the building has sat empty for the last several years.

The conservative grassroots appeared to get its groove back Tuesday. And southeast Wisconsin’s WOW counties wowed again in helping to deliver a narrow victory to conservative state Supreme Court candidate Brian Hagedorn, a victory that could keep the court in conservative hands until at least 2023.

If there had ever been any question whether Gov. Tony Evers’ Big Labor allies would be directing policy, that question has been settled early and often. The latest example — the governor’s press conference last week announcing his executive order creating a task force to examine payroll fraud and worker misclassification.

50 counties’ voters or their boards have now voted for nonpartisan redistricting.

Waupaca is conservative territory, and the passing of the referendum there is yet more confirmation that this is an issue that’s popular across the board.

The E-Cigarette Excise Tax is part of Gov. Tony Evers’ “People’s Budget” proposal. At 71 percent, it would be among the highest vape tax in the country.

For the past seven years, our Communication and Civic Renewal research group has been studying contentious politics in Wisconsin. We are particularly interested in how the state’s communication ecology interacts with political, economic and social contexts to affect how people engage in politics.

Seemingly every action in Gov. Tony Evers' first three months has been marked by incompetence, rank partisanship, childishness, or all three — and he doesn’t seem to be improving.

Wisconsin’s tax burden is not good, but it has been improving for the last eight years. Republicans should fight hard to maintain that trajectory for the benefit of all Wisconsinites.

We have two goals with the Growing Opportunities Act; we want to build confidence at every level of the hemp industry, and we want to guarantee that Wisconsin will continue to manage the development of this crop.

Without change, the challenges facing our long-term care system will grow. We need real solutions and partnerships to prepare for the future.

For former Cap Times editor-in-chief Elliott Maraniss, his wife, Mary, and their four children, his start at the Cap Times in 1957 rescued a family that was both beleaguered and nomadic.

Approval by the Dane County Board is possible in June on a $150-million annex, or “south tower,” next to the Public Safety Building downtown.

Some analysts are saying both sides of the political aisle are responsible for an increase in political hate, but if it's rage we're talking about, that's coming from Trump supporters.

Rhodes-Conway won by a resounding 62 percent to 38 percent, marking a change that is both generational and transformational.

With Gov. Tony Evers suggesting a new Foxconn contract and Earth Day approaching, here is an excerpt from Peter Annin's "Great Lakes Water Wars" detailing a controversial diversion to help the Tawainese company.

Pete Buttigieg has made Christianity a cornerstone of his candidacy, but while he talks the talk, his record in office doesn’t show he is walking the walk.

Data science is an area that is flourishing, with applications covering the humanities to engineering. The research conducted through the American Family Insurance Data Science Institute will help propel this field forward.

To the surprise of some, conservatives flipped the seat they wanted to capture for decades. They once again own a 5-2 majority on the Court.

The governor has proposed essential funding for the Treasurer’s Office that will help protect your tax dollars and build a stronger economy for everyone.

We have a new governor and a new team in charge of the DNR and by all accounts, happier days are ahead for those of us who cherish our Wisconsin outdoors.

Evers wants full reform but big lobbying groups oppose it. Lawmakers seek compromise.

Democrat Tony Evers has been governor for almost three months. If they were the first innings of a baseball game, the score might be 3-3 between Evers and Republicans who control the Legislature.

Tech jobs, whether they are found inside tech-based companies or in other business sectors, are vital to state and regional economies. Wisconsin is no exception to what is becoming a national rule.

Despite being well-intentioned upon enactment in 1989, the stewardship program primarily allows the state to purchase land it cannot otherwise afford, through borrowing, pushing costs onto future generations.

The FDA just issued draft guidance that would expedite the development of groundbreaking cures by empowering drug makers to utilize "adaptive trial designs."

Liberal proponents of expansion are attempting to muddy the waters and undermine the common sense notion that there is no free lunch, even in healthcare.

To make the claim that school choice is undermining public school spending is one of the biggest fallacies regularly repeated by choice opponents.

Modern capitalism thrives best when government provides essential public goods and services to complement the growth of the private sector.

With Paul Soglin leaving office this week, WisOpinion Insiders Jensen & Chvala reflect on the legacy of the capital city's longtime mayor. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Counties Association and Michael Best Strategies.

With Lisa Neubauer's concession to fellow Appeals Court Judge Brian Hagedorn in the race to replace Supreme Court Justice Shirley Abrahamson, the WisOpinion Insiders, Chvala and Jensen, trade views on what the outcome means for future elections and the high court. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Counties Association and Michael Best Strategies.

With Joint Finance Committee public hearings concluded, WisOpinion Insiders Chvala & Jensen outline the competing budget strategies of Gov. Tony Evers and the GOP Legislature. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Counties Association and Michael Best Strategies.

With recent questions about the type of construction proceeding at Foxconn, the WisOpinion Insiders, Chvala and Jensen, consider the past stumbles by the Taiwanese...