The COVID-19 pandemic has upended our lives. In higher education, it has sparked pointed questions locally and nationally about the short-term operations and long-term future of the University of Wisconsin System.
The smell of charcoals burning, the sound of Wisconsin beef sizzling and the sight of perfect grill marks are truly hard to beat. As the sun sets later and later and the temperature rises higher and higher, grilling season has officially made its arrival. Whether cooking on gas or charcoal, …
Donald Trump says it’s just not fair.
In drafting next year’s budgets, Wisconsin K-12 districts face uncertainty as to whether and how schools will open this fall and whether the drop in state tax collections will mean a cut in state school aids.
Wisconsin has fresh hope for an eventual “return to normal” with the most-recently issued emergency order to combat the coronavirus pandemic, but the “new normal” may temporarily look a little different.
During this coronavirus pandemic, access to accurate and trustworthy information in your community is as critical to life under quarantine and as sought after as hand sanitizer and face masks.
This spring has certainly brought a new normal to our lives that, in many ways, feels like anything but normal.
Key municipal revenue streams will take a hit as the economic fallout unfolds from the COVID-19 crisis, with greater impact for cities and villages that rely more heavily on fees and taxes tied to tourism and visitors, according to a new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
Believe it or not, this has been a relatively quiet time on the open government front.
Recent trends in how Wisconsin local governments fund their local library suggest they remain a priority, even as the way in which libraries serve their communities is rapidly changing.
The world has been moving pretty fast lately; events are unfolding rapidly, and that can be unsettling.
The media is most definitely not your enemy.
“For God’s sake, Tommy, whatever you do, find a cure.” That was my brother Eddie’s final request before he died of pancreatic cancer. The disease has also taken my brother Artie and my best friend Ervin. It kills roughly 45,000 Americans annually.
If you are a member of the free Nextdoor Monona social networking service, you may know that I and some of my South Winnequah Road neighbors have been feuding with the Monona City Council for more than a year now.
My name is Kendra Lamer, and I am the new reporter for The Herald-Independent and McFarland Thistle. I grew up in Green Bay, with my parents, three sisters, three brothers-in-law, niece and the various family pets we had throughout the years. Growing up, I went camping with my family, took d…
A few weeks ago, I bought a celebratory ice cream cake. You know it’s a monumental occasion when there’s an entire ice cream cake at stake.
When I initially joined Netflix it was for one reason — “Stranger Things.” No one could stop talking about the show when it was initially released in July 2016. But I waited until December 2017 to join the streaming service and when I did, I watched the first season in the course of two days.
Recently, I attended my first phone-free concert since I was in college. Not that I and the other hundreds of fans didn’t bring a phone into the venue. Rather, all of our devices were locked away in pouches for the duration of The Lumineers concert.
I love having pockets on my pants. Seriously, I find pockets to be one of the best additions to clothing, because they provide a convenient storage space for everything I tend to carry around on a daily basis.
Earlier this year, I vowed to learn to play the electric guitar that had been sitting in the corner of my apartment and hadn’t been strummed in more than a decade.
First of all, no one looks good in a graduation gown; I’m pretty sure they were designed to look unflattering on everyone. The garment also means you can pull out a really lame joke about all of you wearing the same outfit. Thankfully, you can accessorize your cap so people can spot you in t…
There are a lot of things I want my nephew to know about when he gets older: the joy of coloring, the fun of reading books, the excitement of music and the happiness of using his imagination.
I have to make sure my dinosaurs have enough water in them. I don’t want to flood them, but I don’t want them to be dried out either. Thankfully, the plants in my dinosaurs (named Wilma and Betty) are pretty drought resistant.
I had a high school English teacher who told me that everyone would benefit from seeing a therapist at least once in their life. The comment came after I told her I wouldn’t be able to make forensics practice after school because I had to see my psychologist.
I made the mistake of drinking a large soda and eating choco-late bunnies after 10 p.m. Saturday. The result was being wide awake into the early hours of Sunday.
People have sold some strange things on eBay, but I recently saw a man listing a baby T-rex skeleton for sale for the price of $2.95 million.
Last week, Amazon admitted employees sometimes eavesdrop on what people are telling their Echo smart speakers. The technology company has thousands of people hired to transcribe the captured recordings and feed it into the software to improve the speech comprehension of Alexa.
It’s officially National Library Week, which is a great time to remember how important libraries are to our communities.
Last week, I woke up to my building trembling. Was Wisconsin experiencing small shifts of tectonic plates below the surface? Had a meteor crashed into the earth? Nah, nothing that exciting.
There’s a small indent on the passenger side back door of my car. It looks like the kind of ding from another car door, the kind of blemish you don’t make an insurance report on because the damage is a minor cosmetic concern. The ding in my door is going to bug me until it’s fixed.
Last week, one of my favorite musicians had a concert in Milwaukee. I don’t go to shows in Milwaukee often, but the chances of him bringing his show to Madison were slim so I decided to make the haul. The show was great (the fact Pabst Theater has great acoustics doesn’t hurt), and I was rol…
Get rid of “orange peel” skin, buy a tactical flashlight, local women want to meet you for discreet affairs, free Trump coin.
As a proud 42-year member of the McFarland Lions Club, it may be timely to review what the Lions are all about since much of what we do is done quietly without a lot of fanfare or publicity.
The movie was better than the book. There, I said the phrase I doubted I would ever say. But there is a disclaimer – the movie was the source material and not the other way around in this instance.
Last week, I had the chance to play one of my favorite games, “is it ice or just a wet spot?” There is only one way to win – by not falling on the ice. So far, I’m still winning but not without the ice trying to take me down.
Nearly once a week, millennials are accused of killing something.
When we adopt a pet, we all know our time with them is going to be limited – animal life spans are typically much shorter than a human’s, but it’s something we push to the back of our mind. Instead, we focus on how great it is to have an animal companion and what they bring to our lives unti…
In the last three weeks, I’ve been seeing a lot of posts on social media about Marie Kondo. It seems Netflix released a series with Kondo, who is known as an organizing consultant and author, coming into homes and teaching families how to declutter using the KonMari method.
A few months ago I sent a message to a group of friends. I wanted to get the band back together and by band, I meant book club. After more than a year on hiatus, the club reunited Friday, Jan. 4..
How much does it matter to the Republican leaders of the Wisconsin State Legislature what the people they are elected to represent think?
Playing an instrument was a large part of my years growing up. If it wasn’t the sqwauks of the recorder, it was the early squeaks and eventual solid playing of the cello to keep me occupied.
Do you know what’s better than one library card? Two library cards. Well, technically, a second library system barcode.
Now that I have a nephew, I have a valid excuse for visiting the toy aisle. Granted, Bennett is only almost 6 weeks old and hasn’t really gotten into toys yet, but there are some things for infants. Still, I like to see if I can find something especially noisy I can buy for him to play with.
I remember when my co-worker told me he had to find a way to make a sweater outlandish and tacky in hopes of winning the ugly sweater grand prize (because it was a party, I’m pretty sure the prize came in a bottle or six-pack). We talked about how to make his thrift store find, which was alr…
During the summer, I introduced my parents and sister to The Oregon Trail card game. On Thanksgiving, my parents were further brought into the world of gaming with The Oregon Trail: Hunt for Food and Exploding Kittens.
Disgusted. Offended. Concerned. Three words I can use to sum up the photograph taken the day of Baraboo High School’s prom where it appears boys are giving the Nazi salute while standing on the steps of Sauk County Courthouse.
I had just come from grabbing some lunch Monday when I saw Stan Lee was trending on Twitter. At 95 years old, the man who brought some of Marvel’s beloved comic book characters to life had died.
When PBS launched the Great American Read several months ago, I considered what book the public would select as the most beloved novel of all time. I knew what novels I’d be voting for but had no idea what other people would choose.
Like a lot of people I know, I’ve signed a few Change.org online petitions. Most of the ones I’ve put my name on are related to protecting animals, but once you sign a few, you get regular emails from the website about other petitions available to support.
It’s not you, it’s me. All right, so maybe it’s a bit of your fault, too. But it’s my decision and I’ll live with it.
They’re coming to get you, readers.
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