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How Warner Park could become an open-air classroom
on 11/19/09 at 9:00 am | Just a few hundred feet from her home on Madison's north side, Trish O'Kane points out a "hidden treasure" -- a pair of cocoons beneath some leaves at the base of a tree. These are from moths she'd seen mating, this past June. She read up on the subject and was even more amazed. |
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Brian Blanchard v. Scott Jensen: No rematch?
on 11/19/09 at 9:00 am | It's been speculated, in Isthmus and elsewhere, that former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen's legal strategy in defending against misconduct-in-office charges hasn't been to prove his innocence but to exhaust or outlast the prosecution. Might he yet succeed? |
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Madison public school's gift keeps on giving
on 11/19/09 at 9:00 am | Martha Vukelich-Austin admits that when most people think of a high school classroom, they don't think of trout. "In the core school curriculum, it's probably not right up there with literacy and math." |
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Zoning the log cabin at the Madison Children's Museum
on 11/19/09 at 9:00 am | Journalist Jay Rath, a keen observer of Madison's downtown, has a question about the restored log cabin at North Hamilton and East Dayton, behind the new Children's Museum: "Under what zoning does that fall? Residential? Light industrial? Historic? Log?" |
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Capital Newspapers, Lee reopen their profit spigots
on 11/19/09 at 9:00 am | The Capital Times Co., half owner of Capital Newspapers, last week made a $5 quarterly distribution to stockholders, or $600,000 on its 120,000 shares. That's much less than usual (the company's four quarterly dividends topped $60 in 2007) but better than the summer quarter's payout: nothing. |
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Madison should not let itself be flattered, even by the president
on 11/12/09 at 9:00 am | Last week, as I listened to a live Internet feed of President Barack Obama speaking at Wright Middle School in Madison, I couldn't help but feel a swelling sense of pride. "I am so impressed with the work that's been done here at Wright," the president said, prefacing his prepared remarks. "And to the faculty and the staff, but most importantly, the students, who I had a chance to meet with earlier today, they are just some outstanding young people. So if there are any parents of students in the house you should be proud -- and give them all a big round of applause." |
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Taking stock of Lee Enterprises' ups and downs
on 11/05/09 at 9:00 am | It's hard to get a handle these days on the fortunes of Lee Enterprises, the Iowa-based half-owner of Capital Newspapers, whose products include The Wisconsin State Journal and The Capital Times. Staffs, resources and compensation have been cut at both papers, as throughout the Lee chain and most of the newspaper industry. Morale has suffered, and the newsrooms are hard-pressed to keep up with print and online coverage demands. |
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Green Northeast Madison neighborhood gets green light
on 11/05/09 at 9:00 am | Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz is pleased with how it all turned out: "I got less resistance than I thought I would." The mayor is referring to the recent unanimous passage of his Northeast Neighborhood plan, which includes design features aimed at achieving a 25% reduction in the use of vehicles, water and energy. |
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Details, details about a UW research violation
on 11/05/09 at 9:00 am | What did The Wisconsin State Journal not know and when didn't it know it? |
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No biobull
on 11/05/09 at 9:00 am | Phil Lewis, UW emeritus professsor of landscape architecture and main force behind the Nine Springs Greenway, will be honored next week by budding bioneers. |
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Obama visits Madison: The words on the street
on 11/04/09 at 1:00 pm | Today's Wisconsin State Journal contains a charming letter from some Madison school boosters toasting the many excellent reasons President Barack Obama decided to visit Wright Middle School in Madison. These include: "Wright is both a successful charter school and has one of the most diverse student bodies in the Madison school district." It's also a security fortress. |
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What we learned in the All Together Now Madison reporting project
on 11/03/09 at 4:00 pm | All Together Now, the collaborative reporting project by Madison media, is probably the first time something like this has ever been done. It's not likely to be the last. |
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Madison collaborative reporting project All Together Now: An overview
on 10/29/09 at 4:27 pm | As the two-week run date for the inaugural project of All Together Now winds to a close, it's time to take stock of what was achieved. To do, in other words, a little shouting. |
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Does Madison's chronic-nuisance law spur evictions?
on 10/29/09 at 9:00 am | Brian Solomon framed it as a plea. At last week's Common Council meeting, the Madison alder argued passionately for a substitute version of the city's chronic nuisance ordinance, with stronger tenant protections. He recalled a case where the firing of shots in his district led to the eviction of "the vast majority of tenants" from a given building, presumably some of whom were not involved. |
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Clarence Kailin, now dead as well as red
on 10/26/09 at 12:00 pm | I'm pretty sure Clarence Kailin would have gotten a kick out of that headline. He was, on the occasions our paths crossed over the last two decades or so, a remarkably warm individual, with a twinkle in his eye. Kailin was serious about the cause of peace and justice -- so serious he risked his life in its pursuit -- but he also enjoyed himself, and liked to have a good laugh. Being an activist wasn't just work; it was fun. |
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Backyard workshop is said to violate Madison zoning laws
on 10/22/09 at 9:00 am | Dan Hefty didn't think he had anything to hide. After all, he says, "the city granted me permits to build what I described as 'a high-tech workshop'" -- a garage-like structure behind his home on Madison's east side. And he built it to code. And so when city zoning inspectors showed up on Oct. 9 and asked to look around, Hefty let them in. Big mistake. |
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Pocan takes on the morality police
on 10/22/09 at 9:00 am | If listeners' jaws did not drop, they weren't paying attention. In an interview on WKOW-Channel 27 last week Wednesday, state Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) was inveighing against efforts by state Rep. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) to expel state Rep. Jeff Wood (Independent-Chippewa Falls) from the Legislature for repeated driving-while-intoxicated arrests. He pegged such exercises as something of a slippery slope. |
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A "community builder" at Capital Newspapers
on 10/22/09 at 9:00 am | Even Chris Juzwik has to chuckle a bit about his new job title: community builder. "It does sound like I have a tool belt on and construct houses." |
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What's in a name?
on 10/22/09 at 9:00 am | The Madison Parks Division has a new name — sort of. "For marketing/logo purposes," says spokeswoman Laura Whitmore, "we are referring to ourselves as Madison Parks." |
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Unable to resolve your complaint
on 10/22/09 at 9:00 am | A little more than a year ago, on Oct. 11, 2008, Joe "Kay" cut his hand while visiting his family in Green Bay. "I was trying to open a jammed window and things went badly," recalls Kay, a Madison resident. "The cut was very deep, all the way down to the bone." |
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Madison's unhappy HMO customers: 28 complaints from the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance
on 10/22/09 at 9:00 am | Isthmus asked the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance to see all complaints filed against health care insurance providers by Madison-area residents from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009. In all, the records for 28 complaints were provided and reviewed at the OCI’s offices. What follows are summaries of each complaint. |
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Madison media launch All Together Now with collaborative reporting project on health care
on 10/19/09 at 12:01 pm | When our jobs were secure, it was easier for reporters and media organizations to bicker with each other. Now we are more inclined to see that we’re all in this together. |
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Man plausibly contends he was falsely accused at Olin-Turville
on 10/15/09 at 9:00 am | The lead "Watchdog" item in last week's Isthmus mentioned a man who received a disorderly conduct citation in March after a mother and daughter reported to police that he appeared to be masturbating in a vehicle parked alongside them at Madison's Olin-Turville Park. |
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Obama terrible choice for Nobel Peace Prize
on 10/09/09 at 12:14 pm | I heard it on the radio coming into work this morning: Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It was on the Stephanie Miller show, so I assumed it was a joke. I wish it had been. |
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MPD tries new ways to curb bad behavior at Olin-Turville
on 10/08/09 at 9:00 am | On March 27, in the early afternoon, a mother and her daughter were having lunch while parked at Olin-Turville Park, off John Nolen Drive in Madison. Their experience was less than pleasant. |
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But can the MPD 'autoChalk' vehicles read bumper stickers?
on 10/08/09 at 9:00 am | Perhaps you've seen them. The Madison Police Department's parking enforcement team recently began using vehicles with space-age scanners on their bumpers and roofs. |
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North bike path still possible -- no bologna
on 10/08/09 at 9:00 am | Madison officials have long hoped to build a bike path connecting the city's north side to the downtown. A segment was added two years ago, along the Yahara River to East Johnson, but plans to extend it further have been stymied. |
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UW gets pass on sheep deaths
on 10/08/09 at 9:00 am | Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard has concluded that the UW-Madison is breaking the law every time it kills sheep through experiments involving decompression, just as local activists have charged. The bad news, from their point of view, is that he's not going to do anything about it. |
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WKOW: 'Health Connections' promotion has no connection to news
on 10/08/09 at 9:00 am | Tom Allen, general manager of WKOW-TV, says his recent letter to local medical professionals seeking "potential partners to educate the community on health issues related to your specialty and others" was never meant to blur the lines between news and advertising: "It's a sales and marketing initiative that's Internet-based." |
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Keep court records system open
on 10/07/09 at 1:15 pm | Neutering WCCA (commonly and incorrectly called CCAP) would be a boon for private providers who charge for access to more complete databases, where existing controls about accuracy cannot be enforced. |
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