The crisis and cure for Wisconsin politics

An editorial — 2008-08-26T05:00:00Z

John Wiley is leaving his post as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a bang. A political bang. In an article penned for Madison magazine, Wiley takes on the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce corporate lobbying machine in language that rocked the state's political scene. It wasn't that Wiley said anything new. There has for a number of years now been a dawning consciousness among thinking Wisconsinites that WMC is leading a race to the ...

Getting kids off to a good start

An editorial — 2008-08-26T05:00:00Z

Hats off once again to the 100 Black Men of Madison. For the 12th straight year, the local organization held its annual back-to-school picnic at Demetral Field on the east side and distributed hundreds of free backpacks to get local children off on the right foot as school begins next week. In those 12 years, 100 Black Men of Madison has given away more than 14,000 backpacks filled with notebooks, pencils and other school supplies.

State Debate: Weigh more, pay more? Good idea

Compiled by Judie Kleinmaier — 2008-08-26T05:00:00Z

Weigh more, pay more? Good idea, says the Beloit Daily News. If you work for the state of Alabama and you choose an unhealthy lifestyle, your paycheck may be growing smaller by the month. That's because Alabama officials have decided the cost of providing health care benefits must be brought under closer control, and one way to do it is to pressure employees to make better choices. First, officials added a charge for ...

Biden comes out fighting

An editorial — 2008-08-25T05:00:00Z

Barack Obama stumbled at one point in his introduction of his vice presidential pick, telling the crowd in Springfield, Ill., that he had come to "introduce you to the next president ... the next vice president of the United States of America: Joe Biden." But, in the last setting that will ever see Obama introducing Biden, it was the vice presidential candidate who drew the most raucous cheers from the crowd.

State Debate: Let's talk about binge drinking

Compiled by Judie Kleinmaier — 2008-08-25T05:00:00Z

Open the discussion on binge drinking, says the Green Bay Press-Gazette. It's too simplistic to dismiss out of hand a call by about 100 college presidents to examine the practicality of the 21-year-old drinking age. It's also too simplistic to embrace dropping the age to 18, and that's not what the so-called Amethyst Initiative is about. David Joyce, the president of Ripon College and so far the only Wisconsin college leader to sign ...

Need to get busy on clean air

An editorial — 2008-08-22T05:00:00Z

It wasn't good news for people in Madison and Dane County when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently reported that our air quality is bad. It's small consolation that Dane County wasn't alone. The EPA's review also flunked Brown, Columbia, Racine, Waukesha and Milwaukee counties. All six counties have unacceptable levels of fine particulate matter in the air, and that harms people with breathing problems and can lead to complications for otherwise-healthy folk. Additionally, our ...

Why Obama's choice matters

An editorial — 2008-08-22T05:00:00Z

Barack Obama says he has made his choice. "I made the selection, and that's all you're going to get," the presumptive Democratic nominee for president said Thursday when reporters cornered him at a store counter. Presumably, we'll get more soon -- in the form of a text message. There's no question at this point that Obama is playing the process for all that it is worth. The presumptive Democratic nominee's got ...

Time to talk seriously about lakes

An editorial — 2008-08-21T05:00:00Z

The county's Lakes and Watershed Commission this week took the bull by the horns and proposed that the time has come to get serious about cleaning up our lakes and finding ways to alleviate what has become a perennial flooding problem for all too much of the Yahara River's chain of lakes. The commission decided to ask County Executive Kathleen Falk to set aside $1 million in the budget she submits to the County Board ...

State debate: Federal deficit missing as campaign issue, La Crosse Tribune says

Compiled by Lynn Danielson — 2008-08-22T05:00:00Z

Why isn't the federal deficit a campaign issue? the La Crosse Tribune asks. The federal deficit is estimated to reach $389 billion by the end of this fiscal year, and the national debt is at an all-time high -- at about $9.6 billion. And we owe much of that to banks in China. Does anyone care? Apparently not. During the 1990s, when a Democratic president and Republican Congress actually balanced the budget, ...

Help United Way help others

An editorial — 2008-08-20T05:00:00Z

It's time to get behind United Way of Dane County once again. The 2008 campaign kicks off on Aug. 26 and the needs of the community have never been greater. The goal this year is $16,650,000, almost all of which is distributed to the more than 160 nonprofit agencies that work directly with everyone from newborns to the elderly to make our community a better place for all. This is a critical year for United ...

State Debate: Be wary of ads in spring high court election, La Crosse Tribune urges

Compiled by Lynn Danielson — 2008-08-21T05:00:00Z

The La Crosse Tribune is urging voters to be wary during next spring's election for Wisconsin Supreme Court. Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson will be up for re-election and likely will face opposition from big-money groups running so-called "issue ads" that actually are de-facto campaign ads. Based on past history, the ads will likely play on negative, nasty themes. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a private group that tracks campaign spending and advocates ...

madison.com rss 2.0