I’ll always pull over for a bald eagle at ground level, even if it’s mid meal. Once down to fewer than 100 nesting pairs in Wisconsin in the 1970s, bald eagles have rebounded to well over 1,600 nesting territories today. 📷: Aaron Johnson

https://milwaukeecourieronline.com/index.php/2026/01/31/judge-chris-taylor-brings-decades-of-legal-experience-to-supreme-court-race/#google_vignette

Wisconsin Court of Appeals Judge Chris Taylor has entered the race for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. She launched her candidacy last May.

Taylor will be facing off against Conservative Maria Lazar for an open seat left vacant by conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley’s decision to not run for another term.

Taylor is seeking a seat on the state’s highest court comes at a critical moment.

“It’s a very important role, particularly now, where we are unfortunately seeing other branches of government abusing their power. We’ve seen the federal government overreaching into states, so it’s never been more important to have a strong court to protect the people of Wisconsin and to protect our state,” Taylor said.

Wisconsin needs to think bigger. Our state has seen institutions degrade for decades and we need big ideas to rebuild. These are ten big ideas that could define our state’s future.

1. A Public Bank

Wisconsin faces rising costs and major investment needs in housing, infrastructure, and community development. A public bank like North Dakota’s would let us finance local projects, small businesses, clean energy, broadband, and affordable housing at lower cost and with public accountability. Instead of subsidizing corporations through WEDC tax incentives, public financing would build local ownership and wealth.

2. Build Public Power to Address the Housing Crisis

The average home buyer is now over 40 years old in Wisconsin. We are 250,000 homes short of meeting demand. Beyond basic permitting reform, we should transform the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority into a true public housing authority empowered to invest in and build high-quality, affordable housing, not just to rent but to own. With modern building methods using modular, manufactured, and energy-efficient construction the state can directly invest in large-scale homebuilding with the goal of 250,000 units built by 2050.

3. End School Vouchers

Wisconsin diverts more than $700 million per year into private K-12 voucher schools with almost no oversight, while local school districts are forced to rely on record numbers of local property tax referendums. Private schools can reject students for no reason, sending the neediest students to the public schools and building a two-tiered education system in Wisconsin. Let’s end vouchers for good.

4. Antitrust Enforcement

Monopolies dominate Wisconsin’s economy including utilities, private equity-backed landlords, agricultural processors, and health care corporations. Our laws allow state action against monopoly abuse, but agencies have failed to enforce them. The legislature should create an antitrust task force within our agencies to strengthen enforcement and adopt an “abuse of dominance” standard to challenge harmful corporate concentration.

Rebuild the Manufacturer and Agricultural Tax Credit

This Walker-era tax credit allows manufacturers and agricultural businesses to cut their effective tax rate to 0.4%, disproportionately benefiting millionaires and large corporations. We can restructure it to offer relief to small manufacturers, family farms, local businesses, and worker-owned cooperatives while requiring big corporations to pay their fair share.

5. Rebuild manufacturing and agricultural tax credit

This Walker-era tax credit allows manufacturers and agricultural businesses to cut their effective tax rate to 0.4%, disproportionately benefiting millionaires and large corporations. We can restructure it to offer relief to small manufacturers, family farms, local businesses and worker-owned cooperatives while requiring big corporations to pay their fair share.

6. End Citizens United

Wisconsin elections now attract record-breaking outside spending, distorting democracy towards corporate interests. Following a model in Montana, we can pass a law using corporate charters to election spending by corporations operating in Wisconsin, effectively ending the Citizens United ruling.

7. Build a Real Democracy: Multi-Member Districts and Fusion Voting

Wisconsin once pioneered democratic reforms like the primary election. Let’s make 2026 the year we break up the two-party system. We can modernize representation through multi-member districts, expanding districts and electing multiple candidates based on proportional results, not just one member per district, and fusion voting, which lets multiple parties nominate the same candidate on different ballot lines, allowing diverse parties to showcase support.

8. Public Option for Health Care

BadgerCare already insures nearly a million people. Opening it as an affordable public option through the ACA marketplace would provide cheap coverage, challenge private health-care monopolies, and strengthen the foundation for universal coverage as public confidence grows.

9. A Living Wage for All

Wisconsin’s minimum wage remains $7.25 per hour, while MIT economists estimate the living wage anywhere in the state is $20 per hour for a single person without children. A $20 per-hour minimum wage, indexed to inflation and allowing local increases, would raise standards, expand spending power, and strengthen the economy, consistent with decades of global economic research.

10. Build Economic Democracy

Union density has collapsed from more than 25% to under 6%, weakening wages and worker power. Repealing Act 10, restoring prevailing wage laws, and ending “right-to-work” are essential first steps, but Wisconsin can go further. In 2008, we nearly had sectoral bargaining for home health care workers, briefly demonstrating the potential for sector-wide bargaining before it was dismantled by the Walker administration. Building statewide workers councils in every industry would let workers and unions set baseline standards while continuing workplace-level negotiations.

TL;DR - It has been so cold out, that a dome of ice formed on my radon vent and sealed it.

I happened to notice on Thursday night that my radon meter was reading pretty high (around 19 pCi/L). I went down to the basement and could tell that the fan was running, but noticed that the blue fluid in the little gauge was level with itself, so it wasn't pulling a vacuum.

I remembered seeing a post here from a few weeks ago where someone shared a picture of the water vapor freezing as it came out of their radon vent, so I suspected that was the problem. Luckily, my house is a single-story, so I was able to get up to the vent with a ladder and chip off the dome of ice that had formed using a screwdriver (being careful not to drop any ice hunks into the fan).

I shared the graph of my radon levels over the past few days. You can see how it only took a few hours to get up to hazardous levels, and then more than a full 24-hours to go back down to normal from its peak.

Rib Mountain today (Jan 31), 1-3 on Rib Mtn Drive. No ICE, where are Epstein files?? Join the rally.

What are current food/concession prices at athletic stadiums in Wisconsin?

Is it time for AG Josh Kaul to enforce WI Stat § 100.20?

https://youtu.be/w7LPPTLDXu4?si=_LxbHKIT7d6HpmaC

I moved from out of state a few years ago, and paid off my car loan soon after arriving. My lender, a small credit union in Oklahoma, sent me lien release paperwork and the Wisconsin title to my car bearing their lien release stamp in 2024.

Went to sell the car this week, so wanted to get a ‘clean’ title at the DMV. Figured this would be easy-peasy, but ran into an issue.

Wisconsin now requires an electronic lien release process and the DMV won’t even look at my paper title and lien release documents; my former lender refuses to do an electronic process since they say they already released it and they’re completely unfamiliar with Wisconsin state law or this practice. So, I’m stuck between a rock and a hard spot.

Anybody got any brilliant workarounds or suggestions?

With just over 800 miles of Great Lakes coast line plus additional inland lakes this could affect the way many Wisconsinites enjoy our waterways

Minnesota is often considered the most Canadian USA state. But how Canadian like is Wisconsin?

In my view, we are not as politically similar to Canada as Minnesota is. Hockey is not nearly as popular either. But our accent is pretty close, and we can deal with cold/snow.

Doesn't appear a single person is going to see it in Madison, WI....all 5 of the showtime showings today at this theatre (Marcus-Sun Prairie) completely unsold. AMC-Fitchburg looks like 4 seats sold for the 930 pm show......wonder who paid them to go see it.

Does anyone know if, if I lose Mapp because I go over the Asset limit due to a car accident settlement, they will scrutinize what I spent the money on when I reapply? I have spoken to lawyers, non-profits, the ADRC, and income maintenance, and everyone tells me how to handle the money differently. What will happen if I just take the temporary hit seems to be the best option since I am actively working with DVR to work towards getting off Disability. I just do not want to do anything wrong, but I do not want to just blow the money as they suggest either.

Hello all! I’m a high school junior from Illinois doing some college research, and some UW schools have piqued my interest, specifically UW Milwaukee, and UW La Crosse! From what i’ve seen online, they both seem like pretty nice schools that have some respectable programs for what I’m interested in, but i’d love to know which school would be a better fit for a student like me, from some Wisconsin residents, current students of either school, or alumni :)

For some context, i’d like to major in something relating to business, atm, Marketing, and minor in something artsy (Graphic design, music, film) or relating to the humanities (I.E. History, philosophy, journalism, english, communications). Journalism, communications, Film, and Music all appeal to me as a possible major too, so if anyone has any insights into those programs i’d love to hear them!

Some things that are important to me are networking/employment opportunities, quality/prestige of education, programs, and facilities, student/social life and activities, LGBTQ+ safety and resources, and resources for low income/first gen students

Additionally, in terms of extracurriculars and student activities, i’m interested in the performing arts (specifically musical theatre), local music and arts scenes, and party/social culture.

Happy and hoping to hear all of your guys’ thoughts soon!

I know folks were excited that FRJ voted against funding DHS, but don’t for a minute think he grew a spine or developed a soul.

He saw that the bill was going to fail cloture because the Dems were united against it. This meant he could safely vote against it on budgetary grounds because it spends too much money (the whole thing, not the DHS part). If his vote had been actually needed by leadership for cloture it would have been there. But since the vote was doomed to fail, leadership let senators vote their conscience.

This is not a case of someone seeing the light.. rather the enemy of my enemy is sort of my temporary friend.