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Paul Fanlund: A first look at the Center for Black Excellence and Culture
Led by Alex Gee, the Center on Madison’s West Badger Road will open early next year. It’s intended to celebrate and foster Black culture.”

John Imes: COP30: From Rio to São Paulo to Belém—local leadership driving global impact
After opening COP30 in Rio de Janeiro with hundreds of mayors, governors, and regional leaders at the Local Leaders Forum, the momentum carried straight into São Paulo and then Belém – and the message has remained consistent, clear, and urgent: the world is looking to local and state leaders to deliver real climate progress when national governments stall. America is showing up – and America is still in.

John Nichols: Maybe Grothman never heard about Ripon’s utopian socialists
U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Glenbeaulah, joined 198 other House Republicans — along with 86 of the more ill-thought members of the Democratic caucus — in voting last week for a resolution that “denounces socialism in all its forms and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States.”

Jeffrey Leverich: Democrats can ride health care issue into 2026
Republicans now own the hardships they created as premiums increase for millions of families, costing them hundreds or thousands of dollars.

John Torinus: How would Cheney have dealt with Putin?
Dick Cheney would have cut through Putin’s manipulations. He would have had no illusions about how Putin operates.

Ashlyn Brown: Why a state Senate bill to redefine abortion will hurt, not help, patients and doctors
We need people to be able to trust their health care providers, and we need politicians to stop making laws that pigeonhole physicians into even narrower definitions of care.

David Crowley: Trump to Wisconsin: You’re on your own
Rather than helping with disaster relief and affordability, the Trump administration is actively making things worse for Wisconsinites.

Richard Moore: Here’s a stewardship deal worth signing
Why we need these guardrails before spending one more dollar

Gregg Hoffmann: Latest transmission line spurs public input
Dozens, if not hundreds, of citizens showed up to ask questions and give their input on the MariBell Transmission Project.

David Blaska: We thought it was a good idea to challenge Madison’s uni-party
Anyone who challenges the progressive machine is risking Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg.

Michelle Orge: Hunger doesn’t begin or end with a government shutdown
The need for strong, consistent support — both from policymakers and from members of the community — remains as urgent as ever.

Dave Cieslewicz: The lost community of deer hunters
DNR is saving some money with virtual registration. And it seems to me that the cost is much too high.

Bill Kaplan: Trump’s illegal orders and gunboat diplomacy
The Trump administration’s military actions in the Carribean is reminiscent of U.S. gunboat diplomacy in the 19th and 20th centuries: threats and military force supporting U.S. corporate interests and foreign policy.

Gregory Humphrey: The price tag for federal troops in our cities, fiscal conservatives stay quiet
Have you noticed the quiet from conservatives when it comes to the waste that should make every budget hawk furious? Nary a word about the deployment of federal troops into American cities for immigration raids that have proven to run against the grain of the public.

Michelle Bryant: Who you calling piggy?
Trump’s particularly antagonistic tone when it comes to female journalists and women in general is working my nerves.

John Nichols: GOP reps slow to back accountability in Epstein case
Only after Trump changed his position did the Wisconsin Republicans join in the historic 427-1 vote.

Richard Kyte: Epstein scandal cuts deep into nation’s moral fabric
What Epstein did, and what his friends and associates allowed him to do, violates our most deeply held convictions about justice.

Terrence R. Wall: The crash of 1929 vs today
The stock market crash of 1929 reminds me a lot of both the cryptocurrency and the stock market trading in AI-perceived stocks.

WisOpinion: ‘The Insiders’ analyze the race for Wisconsin attorney general
The WisOpinion Insiders, Chvala and Jensen, take an early look at the race for the Wisconsin attorney general. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Counties Association and the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public leadership.

Bruce Murphy: 9 winning issues for Democrats
Trump and Republicans seek 80/20 issues to run on. Should Wisconsin Democrats do the same?

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.