It appears that the fissures in the Republican Party are getting deeper and more public, as we see in Cory Liebmann’s Eye on Wisconsin blog of July 25: When I wrote about how nasty Scott Walker supporters have been toward Mark Neumann and his backers, I had no idea that one person...

The literary community was saddened by last week’s news that Broad Vocabulary bookstore would be closing for good at month’s end. Owned by Jennifer Morales and Tina Owen, the enterprise fell victim to big-box media stores and online sellers. Happily, a community group is organizing to save one of Milwaukee's...

Even more people have been injured or killed by repeat drunken drivers this past week. The recent tragedies included a crash at Sheboygan’s Brat Days, in which four people were injured by a drunken 21-year-old from Manitowoc who was sentenced to serve time in jail for previous drunken driving convictions, plus a death and injury caused by a Pewaukee man who already has four drunken driving convictions.

Almost 90% of women use or have used birth control, yet the Bush administration wants to make it more difficult for these women to access it. The Department of Health and Human Services is attempting to change the definition of abortion so that it could include the pill, emergency contraceptives and IUDs.

The state Legislature overwhelmingly passed the Great Lakes Water Compact last week, which creates new rules regarding water taken out of the Great Lakes basin. The agreement was years in the making, and for lengthy, highly technical bill, it provided plenty of drama.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) is the state’s largest and most powerful business lobby, but in recent years WMC has become much more than that. To the dismay of some of its own members, the group has taken a very deliberate partisan turn to the right.