Submit columns for consideration to wisopinion@wispolitics.com

Jessica McBride: Leave Kristi Noem alone. She’s not responsible for balloon-gate
I’m tired of the snap judgments that fall so much harder on women, especially conservative women. We don’t really know what went down in Kristi’s marriage and, frankly, it’s hard to see how it’s any of our business, as weird as it all is. Leave Kristi alone. She has enough to deal with.

Jason M. Walter and Eric Olson: Why should WI pay for data center costs before they exist?
All of ATC’s customers, Wisconsin households and businesses, started paying for a project the day construction began, eighteen months before the facility opens.

Courtney Graves: SNAP reform underway in Wisconsin
Wisconsin lawmakers just advanced two major bills related to the SNAP program; one was signed by the governor, and the other just passed the Assembly.

David Blaska: Give Hong a 20-second hug; she writes bills that never pass
Hong is the beating heart of the pro-Palestine, “reimagine policing,” social justice warriors here in Wisconsin. The huddled masses yearning for more free stuff support legislation like her Assembly Bill 370. It required prisons and jails to allow inmates to get and give a 20-second hug.

Gregory Humphrey: Republicans are in a pickle, a very sour one
There is palpable anger afoot in this nation. Not violent fist-a-cuff anger. But rather a determined, reasoned, and righteous commitment against the destruction of our national norms and the constitutional guardrails that govern this land.

Peggy West: Don’t let Cesar Chavez’s actions erase Latino history in Milwaukee
The Chicano Movement was our Civil Rights Movement and we cannot stand by and watch it be erased by the actions of one man, no matter how much he contributed to it.

Michelle Bryant: The NFL: Play or get played
Will the league stand by inclusion efforts?

Steven Walters: Republican unity shatters in final Wisconsin Senate session
There were some surprises along the way.

Richard Moore: Three women and a Legislature: The lawmakers who made the session matter
In a session otherwise defined by circular firing squads, three Republican legislators did something rare in Wisconsin politics. They led.

Joe Gothard: Wisconsin must fix how it funds public schools
Wisconsin is sitting on a significant state budget surplus. Investing these resources into special education services would provide real relief while ensuring schools have the resources needed to serve all students. A more balanced approach to school funding, including a new approach to general aid disbursements, is necessary.

Shannon Whitworth: Ditch identity politics to save Wisconsin’s urban schools
It is up to us as adults to put young people in an environment where they can be successful. And when we do that, these kids respond positively. When provided an equal level of expectations and a positive environment, Black students can perform just as well as their white counterparts.

Jon Knudson: Ideological groups behind Wauwatosa school board candidates
Wauwatosa ‘2030 Slate’ mum on governing Ideas, promises school board recall elections

Bill Kaplan: There’s hope; organize, protest and vote
Americans have had enough of Trump-GOP’s cruelty, incompetence, lies and stupidity. There’s hope; Americans are organizing, protesting and voting.

John Nichols: No kings! No wars!
The founders of the United States feared monarchically inclined presidents who could wage wars of whim.

Paul Fanlund: George McGovern’s war diary and how times have changed
The book’s foreword says McGovern’s diary provides “a sense of the man he was to become. We also come to understand why McGovern, having experienced combat firsthand, in later life was not among those given to glorifying war or to sending their fellow citizens to fight when not absolutely necessary.” Times have changed.

Ashanti Hamilton: Milwaukee can’t treat violence like a public health issue—without treating the conditions that cause it
Most of our strategies focus on managing the symptoms of violence—not changing the conditions that produce it.

‘The Insiders’ debate affordability and the midterm elections in Wisconsin
The WisOpinion Insiders, Chvala and Jensen, look at the affordability issue and how it will play in the upcoming midterm elections in Wisconsin. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Counties Association and the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership.

James Bohn: The Wisconsin experiment in economic freedom
Evidence from border counties indicates increased economic freedom encourages prosperity

Tom Still: A clash of policies endangers broadband progress in Wisconsin
There’s a nationwide shortage of fiber-optic cable due to backlogs and price demands, thanks to the data center building boom and federal requirements for domestic sourcing of such cable.

Colleston Morgan Jr.: It’s time for Wisconsin Democrats to lead on education
Democrats must embrace a fundamental reality: choice is already here, and it’s serving families well.

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.