My siblings in California called me a few weeks ago and told me that they have to put our dad in hospice as his health is ailing. It is a long story to explain how I have two families — one my birth family with my father and mother, and the other my adopted American family with my mom and dad.

Even as state sales tax collections overall slipped 10% for May amid the COVID-19 crisis, internet sales have shot upward as consumers flocked online. But instead of being a bright spot for a struggling state budget, Wisconsin law requires this e-commerce bonus be used to reduce state income…

If the owners of Aunt Jemima syrup can phase out a brand that's been around since 1889 because it's racist, certainly the Washington NFL team can get rid of the racist R-word that has only been around since 1933.

Journalists sometimes land in harm’s way when doing their jobs. But in more than 30 years of covering news there was only one time for a brief moment I thought I was going to be killed.

President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden agree on one thing -- the other side is trying to steal the election.

For many years, both Wisconsin and Iowa have enjoyed “trifectas” where the Republican Party held majorities in the executive branch and both houses in their state legislatures. In Wisconsin, the 2011-2018 trifecta was led by Gov Walker, Speaker Vos and Majority Leader Fitzgerald. The extreme…

While the attention of media, elected officials and community leaders has been focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, another crisis — opioid addiction — has worsened in Wisconsin.

In your article regarding the village balking at tax impact calculations for the Fire station addition I feel compelled to correct some of the things mentioned in the article. The five municipalities have been successfully operating under an Intergovernmental Agreement that was originally pu…

In the Cambridge Fire District, the issue at hand is looking at providing additional space for the fire and EMS departments.

For hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin residents who have sought unemployment aid due to COVID-19, a job loss this spring may have been just the first rung in their crisis.

Public Health — Madison & Dane County Animal Services is seeking information regarding a dog that bit a man on July 3 in Deerfield. This incident occurred around 2:30 p.m. at the BP gas station, 109 N. Main St. in Deerfield.

I just read something on Facebook that cracked me up. Oh, and I so needed some laughs, too, after being trapped in our house for months.

If the owners of Aunt Jemima syrup can phase out a brand that's been around since 1889 because it's racist, certainly the Washington NFL team can get rid of the racist R-word that has only been around since 1933.

In 2018, women continued to earn less than men for full-time work both locally and nationally. According to Census data, the median annual earnings of women in Milwaukee County ($41,206) was about 85% of the median among men ($48,413). By comparison, women’s median annual earnings were just …

They're coming for Thomas Jefferson.

Months into a global pandemic, the country was jolted in May by the escalation of a longtime conversation about systemic racism and police brutality.

Summer is finally here, but continued hijinks by Mother Nature make it anything but normal. And this recently completed spring will be an outlier for phenologists — those who study the cyclical ecological events and their natural timing.

Lawmakers, regents, chancellors, staff and faculty all largely praised former Gov. Tommy Thompson’s appointment to serve as interim UW System President.

In this day and age of satellite-driven mapping technology, any location on the globe can be pinpointed to the very spot on which a person stands.

As school districts across Wisconsin enter budget season amid extraordinary financial uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Milwaukee officials offered a $1.2 billion “placeholder” 2021 budget that defers many key questions to be resolved later in the budget process.

He might be correct: Donald Trump has influenced the lives of African Americans as much as any president, with the possible exception of ... Jefferson Davis. No wonder he sides so consistently with those who want to maintain statues of Confederate leaders, including Jefferson Davis, presiden…

Now that summer is in full swing, I’m realizing how unique this season will be.

Punch bowls may not come back after COVID-19.

For teens, the COVID Spring was a devastating interruption that cost them prom, end-of-school-year celebrations and in-person interaction with teachers and friends. It left them at home where they least wanted to be, with parents and screens.

To all those generous Cambridge residents, Cambridge businesses, churches and the Cambridge Foundation, a big thank your for supporting Cambridge Area Resource Team (CART) this spring. We have all been dealing with this unprecedented time of social distancing, business closure and job loss. …

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot had big news last week -- the city is opening up its iconic Lakefront Trail after months of being closed off as part of a COVID-19 lockdown.

Coming off the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s first-ever virtual state convention, Chair Ben Wikler says the party has built a “presidential-class campaign” that will now link up seamlessly with the operation of presumptive nominee Joe Biden.

Confronted by a clear and present fascist threat, the staff of The New York Times rose up to humiliate and punish quislings in its ranks.

A while back, I wrote about “Heart Sutra,” a true story of a Buddhist monk who traveled to the west (India) during the Tang Dynasty, 618-926 A.D. After traveling three years on foot through uninhabited mountains and deserts, he finally reached India and obtained the noble sutras.

Teachers and students have barely wrapped up the distanced 2019-20 school year, but intense discussion is already underway about how to bring them back.

The Dane County Equity Consortium, a representative body of the school districts across Dane County and beyond, is committed to creating equitable opportunities and taking collective action against the deep-rooted institutionalized racism present throughout our society and in our schools.

Back during the pandemic (remember that?), nearly every corporate advertiser rushed out TV commercials stating, "We're all in this together."

We, the undersigned members of the Dane County Board of Supervisors, condemn the murder of George Floyd. The Dane County Board of Supervisors is committed to continuing prioritizing criminal justice reform and equity and inclusion initiatives.

The grass was heavy with dew and a foggy mist shrouded the creek bottoms as I arose early to begin the task of removing unused fence. I removed wire clips, rolled up barbed wire and pulled up the steel fence posts. My boots and pants were soon fully soaked.

Despite safer-at-home orders in place through May 26, many Wisconsinites already had become more mobile than in the opening weeks of the pandemic, according to data from Cuebiq, a private company that uses GPS features on mobile devices to track movement anonymously.

Assembly Democrats will face 22 more contested races this November than they did in 2018. Still, only a handful of those seats were even close to competitive in the 2016 presidential race, and only one is among Republicans’ top targets this fall.

In March, as Wisconsin enacted Safer at Home, state and local governments scrambled to build new ways to govern from remote locations while still complying with our open meeting laws. Even in the age of COVID-19, we still have the right to watch public bodies in action.

I can still hear the music coming.

Outside a much-needed spring rain soaks the ground. Crabapple trees are blooming, two turkeys are walking along the creek and the recently returned hummingbirds are greedily ingesting sugar water.

Young people found it easier in 2019 than in recent years to buy cigarettes, e-cigarettes and related items in suburban and rural Dane County, according to an annual report from the Tobacco Free Columbia-Dane County Coalition.

Farmer interest in the state’s hemp program has stayed steady despite cratering wholesale prices for the newly legalized crop.

"No justice, no peace." Surely we have all heard that chant for decades at various protests ... well, all but the most cloistered in their white privilege. One can debate about the justification for violence in the wake of still another police murder of an African American man, this time Geo…

Restoring order to America's cities isn't a complicated proposition.

I am a penny-pincher, always have been and always will be. An old habit that is too late to change at my age.

There is an art to kindness. Kindness is being friendly, generous, and considerate. One could, therefore, conclude that kindness is giving more care than is expected to ensure another person’s safety. Kindness asks that we look out for each other, care for each other’s safety.