Citizen Dave
-
Why is college so expensive?
The cost of college has grown well beyond general inflation over the past couple of decades. We really need a comprehensive deep dive into this at both the national and the state levels. Read more
Huskies and Ducks are about bucks
Why are the Oregon Ducks and the Washington Huskies joining the Big Ten next year? Money, specifically television and streaming money. Read more
Aug 8, 2023
Wisconsin Public Service Commission door revolves again
Former Wisconsin PSC member Ellen Nowak did just what you would have expected her to do. Don’t be surprised if, in a few years, Evers’ appointments follow her through that same door. Read more
Aug 2, 2023
Audrey Thibert
Rudi! Rudi! Rudi!
There are no bad guys in this story. City officials are just enforcing the ordinances. The ordinances made sense for a time when people did actually keep lots of farm animals in an urban setting and before anybody thought pigs could be pets. Read more
Jul 19, 2023
The $3 billion question
Because Gov. Tony Evers rejected most of the massive Republican income tax cut in the budget he signed a couple of weeks ago, a question remains: what to do with the roughly $3.3 billion left in the state surplus? Read more
Jul 19, 2023
Madison from a distance
After a career around or in politics followed by a decade of observing it from the outside, I’ve come around to the view that things are more straightforward than they seem. Read more
Jul 11, 2023
Baldwin wins
The last thing Baldwin and the Democrats can afford to do is to take the election for granted. Tommy Thompson did that in 2012 and look where it got him. Read more
Jun 21, 2023
Where is Madison schools Superintendent Carlton Jenkins?
LeMondsgate is a serious mess, not just because of what the Madsison school district spokesperson may have done, but because it’s part of a bigger story about the lack of responsiveness from MMSD about a wide variety of things. Read more
Jun 8, 2023
10:00 AM
David M. Russell/HBO
An unlikely ‘Succession’ fan appreciates the finale
For those of you who are fans of the HBO series Succession and have not yet watched the final episode, flee now. Spoilers will follow. Read more
May 31, 2023
3:00 PM
Not talking 'bout my generation
It would be a good thing if we stopped assigning people specific traits based on when they were born. It would be nice to be seen as an individual, not the caricature of the know-it-all, self-satisfied Boomer (any of my writing to that effect to the Read more
May 20, 2023
10:00 AM
Who was that about?
In a 2020 Isthmus profile of Joe Parisi, the only member of the Dane County board who was openly supportive of the county executive was then Supv. Shelia Stubbs. Read more
May 6, 2023
1:00 PM
Who’s going to watch you die?
When I would visit my mom we’d reminisce about different things and she’d often correct my memory or I’d correct hers. No more. It’s all in my own head now. Read more
Apr 25, 2023
8:00 AM
Wisconsin remains purple
The Republican victory in the state Senate contest in the Milwaukee suburbs suggests that even the powerful abortion issue cannot reliably deliver swing districts to Democrats. Read more
Apr 5, 2023
3:00 PM
In the July issue
Teaching an old party new tricks
Few in politics are better at raising money than Ben Wikler. The nonprofit Wisconsin Democracy Campaign estimates that, between his election as party chair in spring 2019 and this spring, Wikler-led Democratic committees have raised a stunning $110 m Read more
Happy Isthmus rebootiversary #2
In April 2021 Isthmus became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We returned to print in August 2021, 17 months after the shutdown. We have not missed a month since and are now a small staff of 6.5. Read more
Two of Madison’s first rap crews regroup for a Mad Lit concert
An Aug. 11 show will bring two of the city’s earliest rap crews back to the stage for the first time in a long while: Fresh Force and Black Poets Society. Read more
The Borough Beer Co. & Kitchen’s comfort food menu
Borough’s cautious start with its brewing program seems to have given them license to really put the kitchen to the test, and with more than a few clear successes. Read more
Behind the Isthmus cover: August 2023
Triangulador, a self-taught artist, has earned deserved cult status for turning abandoned mattresses into works of art. For the cover of the August issue of Isthmus, he photographed one of his most recent curb creations. Read more
