OPINION
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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
Don’t delay on police records
Under the state’s open records law, state and local officials are required to respond to records requests ‘as soon as practicable and without delay.’ Read more
Aug 9, 2023
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
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
Aug 4, 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
8:00 AM
Running interference
As spelled out on the Madison Metropolitan School District’s website, its communications department is supposed to serve “students, parents, the community and the media by delivering clear, timely and accurate information.” Read more
Jul 10, 2023
8:00 AM
Freepik
Let the market overbuild
The Madison city council's rejection of a 12-story student housing project is an exception to an overall positive change in the council to fight for lower housing prices by simply approving more housing. Read more
Jul 8, 2023
8:00 AM
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
8:00 AM
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
Where have the county beat reporters gone?
With the advent of the internet, and the economic damage it has inflicted on journalism, news outlets have shrunk. One of the impacts we have seen locally is the loss of reporters whose sole focus is to cover county government and county issues. Read more
Jun 5, 2023
6:00 AM
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
