
Paul Fanlund: Democratic leader Ben Wikler reflects and looks ahead
Ben Wikler’s recent announcement that he’s stepping down as Wisconsin’s Democratic leader generated a volume of national coverage I’ve never seen for the head of a state party.
Submit columns for consideration to wisopinion@wispolitics.com
Ben Wikler’s recent announcement that he’s stepping down as Wisconsin’s Democratic leader generated a volume of national coverage I’ve never seen for the head of a state party.
For 40% of America’s retirees, the payments they receive from Social Security makes up half or more of their total monthly income.
The governor has now visited five European countries in less than two years’ time, and if past performance is any indication of what’s to come, the ‘Evers Effect’ is likely to reduce, not increase, Wisconsin trade.
The order, which effectively dismantles Title VI protections established during the Obama and Biden administrations, has raised alarms about potential increases in suspensions, expulsions, and arrests that disproportionately impact Black and Brown students, and students with disabilities.
Debt reduction is a pressing need, but current remedies will likely hurt three of Wisconsin’s key industries – manufacturing, agriculture and science-based research. In the long run, it will be economic growth from those kinds of industries nationwide that reduces the national debt. Let’s keep that economic principle in mind.
Terms likes stagflation and the Misery Index have already come back into our vocabulary in 2025. It will take several years and a dramatic shift in leadership before we have a healthy domestic economy again.
While the cranes may have made progress, the nation’s grassland birds, spread across 320 million acres in 14 states, have declined 43% since 1970, more than any other category, and are “in crisis,” according to the U.S North American Bird Conservation Initiative’s “U.S. State of the Birds” report released last month.
Dorothy Day, in her decades of activism from the 1910s to the 1980s, made common cause with American socialists, trade unionists, civil rights campaigners and anti-war protesters.
The WisOpinion Insiders, Chvala and Jensen, discuss the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court decision that upheld the governor’s line-item veto authority after Gov. Tony Evers edited the ’23-’25 state budget to extend a two-year school funding increase by 400 years. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Counties Association and the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership.
I’ve asked for clarification on the department’s directive related to diversity, equity and inclusion. But so far, we’ve received nothing. The silence is frustrating — and telling.
Proposed spending would bring General Fund balance to dangerously low level.
High-speed rail, with rare exceptions, is a boondoggle. The massive cost overruns, project delays and incompetence with the proposed line in California further prove that my logic was correct.
If co-presidents Donald Trump and Elon Musk really want to find some savings in the administration of Medicare they’d do away with the wasteful program we know as Medicare Advantage.
Lawsuits and stern statements won’t cut it—and nothing short of escalated resistance will.
‘Donald Trump and Elon Musk are trying to break Social Security so they can rob it,’ says the former agency head.
This week, much of the world can witness the differences between a man known to be honorable and caring and one known to be a blowhard and the epitome of malodorous.
Gov. Evers, county officials call for due process and are condemned for this.
Wolves deserve to live where they once thrived, and we have a moral obligation to right a past wrong.
Meeting in Chippewa Valley Tech’s Energy Education Center, chancellors or presidents from UW-Eau Claire, UW-River Falls, UW-Stout, Northwood Technical College and CVTC talked about how they cooperate among themselves to produce students who contribute to western Wisconsin’s economy – often working with business and industry along the way.
The NFL is a billion dollar industry. So, why is the state kicking in $2 million in taxpayer money to help pay for their party?
Ben Wikler’s recent announcement that he’s stepping down as Wisconsin’s Democratic leader generated a volume of national coverage I’ve never seen for the head of a state party.
For 40% of America’s retirees, the payments they receive from Social Security makes up half or more of their total monthly income.
The governor has now visited five European countries in less than two years’ time, and if past performance is any indication of what’s to come, the ‘Evers Effect’ is likely to reduce, not increase, Wisconsin trade.
The order, which effectively dismantles Title VI protections established during the Obama and Biden administrations, has raised alarms about potential increases in suspensions, expulsions, and arrests that disproportionately impact Black and Brown students, and students with disabilities.
Debt reduction is a pressing need, but current remedies will likely hurt three of Wisconsin’s key industries – manufacturing, agriculture and science-based research. In the long run, it will be economic growth from those kinds of industries nationwide that reduces the national debt. Let’s keep that economic principle in mind.
Terms likes stagflation and the Misery Index have already come back into our vocabulary in 2025. It will take several years and a dramatic shift in leadership before we have a healthy domestic economy again.
While the cranes may have made progress, the nation’s grassland birds, spread across 320 million acres in 14 states, have declined 43% since 1970, more than any other category, and are “in crisis,” according to the U.S North American Bird Conservation Initiative’s “U.S. State of the Birds” report released last month.
Dorothy Day, in her decades of activism from the 1910s to the 1980s, made common cause with American socialists, trade unionists, civil rights campaigners and anti-war protesters.
The WisOpinion Insiders, Chvala and Jensen, discuss the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court decision that upheld the governor’s line-item veto authority after Gov. Tony Evers edited the ’23-’25 state budget to extend a two-year school funding increase by 400 years. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Counties Association and the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership.
I’ve asked for clarification on the department’s directive related to diversity, equity and inclusion. But so far, we’ve received nothing. The silence is frustrating — and telling.
Proposed spending would bring General Fund balance to dangerously low level.
High-speed rail, with rare exceptions, is a boondoggle. The massive cost overruns, project delays and incompetence with the proposed line in California further prove that my logic was correct.
If co-presidents Donald Trump and Elon Musk really want to find some savings in the administration of Medicare they’d do away with the wasteful program we know as Medicare Advantage.
Lawsuits and stern statements won’t cut it—and nothing short of escalated resistance will.
‘Donald Trump and Elon Musk are trying to break Social Security so they can rob it,’ says the former agency head.
This week, much of the world can witness the differences between a man known to be honorable and caring and one known to be a blowhard and the epitome of malodorous.
Gov. Evers, county officials call for due process and are condemned for this.
Wolves deserve to live where they once thrived, and we have a moral obligation to right a past wrong.
Meeting in Chippewa Valley Tech’s Energy Education Center, chancellors or presidents from UW-Eau Claire, UW-River Falls, UW-Stout, Northwood Technical College and CVTC talked about how they cooperate among themselves to produce students who contribute to western Wisconsin’s economy – often working with business and industry along the way.
The NFL is a billion dollar industry. So, why is the state kicking in $2 million in taxpayer money to help pay for their party?