Editor’s Note
Think politicians and bureaucrats are looking out for you? Think again.
By Mike Nichols
Badger Briefing: Here’s what we’re hearing
Numbers and nuggets from trends we’ve observed on topics from community corrections and revocations to migration from Illinois to dental care access.
Government’s unfair housing foray
The Milwaukee Housing Authority competes with private developers with its luxury apartment project downtown.
By Ken Wysocky
A Housing Authority subsidiary with a social mission
Travaux Inc., the authority’s little-known nonprofit arm, has strong ties to Milwaukee city government.
By Ken Wysocky
Opportunity Zones stray from original intent
“Rich people shouldn’t be the beneficiaries” of a federal program that gives investors tax breaks to help disadvantaged areas, critics say.
By Ken Wysocky
The perils of state-run retirement plans
State government needn’t have a hand in the retirement-savings fix; private-sector options already proliferate.
By Jay Miller
The limited role for government in easing the retirement-savings problem
The federal government has the right approach by revising existing rules rather than starting unnecessary new programs.
By Jay Miller
No need for state-run student loan refinancing
Over 180 credit unions and banks across Wisconsin already offer student loan refinancing products and/or student loans.
By Jay Miller
Where dental therapy is longer in the tooth
Minnesota dentists now see, and get, value from dental therapists, who’ve been practicing in that state for a decade.
By Kevyn Burger
Patients reap the benefits of dental therapy
“I couldn’t tell the difference from a regular dentist,” says a satisfied patient in St. Paul.
By Kevyn Burger
Federal programs won’t go away
Even failed and troubled ones like the Job Corps training centers are nearly impossible to shut down.
By Dave Daley
Legislators in lockstep
Election reforms that are designed to wrest control from the major parties and to fix political dysfunction are gaining support.
By Mike Nichols
Wealth tax doomed Emil Seidel
Milwaukee’s first socialist mayor blamed his 1912 re-election loss on his call to tax the assets of the rich.
By Mark Lisheron
Carl Sandburg recounts his disenchantment
“Hordes of job-seeking Socialists descended on our office wanting the crumbs of victory,” says famed poet, who served as Emil Seidel’s secretary.
By Mark Lisheron
Tax on wealth is counterproductive
The bulk of the wealth of the very rich is in business assets, which benefit the economy.
By Chris Edwards
DNC convention: Who’s gonna pay?
The Democratic Party’s track record and the event’s unknown price tag suggest taxpayers may be on the hook for Milwaukee’s July convention.
By Dan Benson
Frontlines: An unwavering trailblazer
For Margaret Farrow, the longtime state legislator and Wisconsin’s first female lieutenant governor, the public always comes first.
By Marilyn Krause
Culture Con: Madison school district assumes it knows best
The district IS keeping parents in the dark on their gender-transitioning children.
By Richard Esenberg
