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John Imes: Wisconsin needs rules for the data center boom before customers get the bill
For Wisconsin, the key question is not whether the digital economy should grow. It is who pays for that growth, who benefits and who bears the risk.

Ruth Conniff: Another broke back-to-school season begins with anxiety, hope for change
If you don’t happen to live in one of the 72 Wisconsin school districts that went to referendum last spring, begging local property taxpayers to cover basic costs the state is not meeting, you might get the impression from Evers’ valedictory tour that he is leaving office having solved the urgent problem of chronic underfunding of Wisconsin schools.

Shannon Ross and Rebecca Konkel: Commutations highlight what crime survivors need from a better justice system
Repair alone cannot resolve every harm; punishment alone can never restore what was lost.

Dave Zweifel: War on immigrants cements America’s status as a cruel nation
America, that fabled nation with the shining light on the hill, whose Statue of Liberty welcomed the world’s tired and poor, the huddled masses yearning to be free, has become among the world’s most cruel.

Xavier Yarn: Regional problems require regional solutions
If we want to address transportation, housing affordability, homelessness, and economic opportunity effectively, we must embrace a simple truth: we rise or fall together.

Brian Fraley: One Wisconsin dad’s thoughts on 9/11’s 25th anniversary
Twenty-five years later, our divisions can feel deeper and more personal than they did before. I cannot fix that, but I am not helpless. I can do something smaller, but nevertheless important. I can make sure my daughters know what happened on September 11, 2001.

James E. Causey: If Trump wants Americans to have more babies, lower costs
Milwaukee spent years reducing teen births. America’s falling fertility rate is no reason to reverse that progress.

John Nichols: Honor Gloria Steinem by making the ERA the law of the land
The ERA Coalition marked Steinem’s passing with an announcement: “The most fitting way to honor her is to finish what she started: to see the ERA finally recognized as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”

Steven Walters: Next attorney general will control $219 million legal settlement
Could spending of settlement cash from Meta and Facebook become issue in fall election?

Dave Zweifel: Tiffany as governor would be an ecological disaster
Tom Tiffany’s voting record in the Wisconsin Legislature earned him the nickname “Toxic Tom.”

Jessica McBride: Rebecca Cooke tricked Democratic primary voters
Derrick Van Orden is the real working-class candidate in the 3rd CD.

Stephanie Bloomingdale: Union solidarity gives economic security to support democracy
In the last year across America, nearly half a million workers joined a union for the first time. There are more union members in America today than at any time in the last sixteen years.

Marcease Warren: Employee-ownership culture makes companies a special place
A growing coalition of companies and organizations is working to expand employee ownership in Wisconsin.

Patrick McIlheran: Data center boom means good times for old-line manufacturing, 50 or 500 hires at a time
Moving around data turns out to demand a lot of Wisconsin-made metal.

Bill Kaplan: Dale Schultz still stands up for Wisconsin
Would that we all could be like Dale and Rachel Schultz, big-hearted and wise, who engage and listen to everyone.

Richard Moore: Once again, the DNR is trying to rewrite state law
The agency’s wolf depredation rule shows some things never change.

Gregg Hoffmann: Is it time for return to nuclear?
Last week, the “nuke” movement got a boost when Realta Fusion and Madison Gas and Electric announced they will jointly explore developing a 200-megawatt electric fusion energy plant in the coming years through a new strategic partnership.

Peggy Wirtz-Olsen: Voters need to prioritize school funding
If we don’t advocate for changes to the way our schools are funded and supported, those changes will not happen. If those changes don’t happen, we can’t give students everything they need and deserve.

Michelle Bryant: I feared for my life: unfairly complicated
The law may be written in black and white, but its application gets really hazy when the person standing before it is Black. And nowhere is that contradiction more interesting, or more complicated, than when we talk about guns, self-defense, and the concept of stand your ground.

Debra Cronmiller: Damaging constitutional amendment is on Nov. 3 midterm ballot
The “Equality Amendment” could reduce Wisconsin’s capacity to address systemic inequality and increase gaps in education, health and economic opportunities. It could strip public systems of tools essential for promoting equal opportunity and equitable access for vulnerable communities

WisOpinion: ‘The Insiders’ examine the battle for control of the Wisconsin Legislature
The WisOpinion Insiders, Chvala and Jensen, review the upcoming races to control the Wisconsin Legislature and the issues that favor each party. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Counties Association and the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership.

Rewind: Your Week in Review for Sept. 18
On this week’s episode of “Rewind,” WisPolitics.com’s JR Ross and Wisconsin Public Radio Capitol Reporter Anya van Wagtendonk discuss Tom Tiffany’s plane crash, the U.S. Supreme Court halting President Trump’s mail-in balloting restrictions, oral arguments before the state Supreme Court in two cases challenging the state’s congressional lines and more.