Secrecy in government, compounded by court-ordered secrecy, gives rise to speculation and rumor. That never serves the public interest.

Trump and his Republican allies — supported by what truly is the “fake news” media — have demonized the traditional practice of objective journalism that questions government authority.

Nov. 6 is the midterm election, and nearly every topic on the table this election season directly impacts women and our fundamental rights — the rights that many of us take for granted. This election is about taking care of our daughters, our mothers, our sisters, our friends, our co-workers, and our neighbors. But it’s also OUR time to do something really important for ourselves.

There are fringe elements in our society that only need the smallest nudge to go straight over the edge. Trump is pushing them, daring them to leap to violence.

In a few months, I suspect, Trump’s evil perversion of the words “immigrants,” “asylum,” “sanctuary” and “caravan” – once noble words in the English language – will vanish as he will from our memories; the original power and humanity of the terms will return.

State aids to schools are at the highest level of actual dollars in history. When accounting for inflation, those dollars dip below prior year investments when taking a traditional view of state aids as a line item. Yet, not accounted for in that metric is the savings to districts that they can now make, if they choose, through the tools of Act 10. Those savings add up, to the tune of $3.2 billion in just five years.

School choice, vouchers — take your pick — have been rapidly expanding since the days of Tommy Thompson’s modest Milwaukee voucher plan. This has been especially so since Republican Scott Walker and a Legislature dominated by his fellow party members took over state government.

After allowing the tail to wag the dog to the point the legislative branch in Washington looks bedraggled, Ryan finally found his strong voice this week. In a forthright fashion Ryan broke with Donald Trump concerning citizenship conferred on babies born in the United States.

Advocates hope their Supreme Court case — now being rewritten — will succeed.

But will it mean compromise — or deadlocked government?

Politics in this country has rapidly degenerated into all-out tribal warfare. Everyone talks about the base. This game was once about addition, but now it’s about multiplication.