A photograph of Jayme Closs is prominently displayed on the Barron County governmental website.
This is an important albeit confusing time for citizens.
Maybe I’m jealous, insensitive, old-fashioned or all of the above, but I’m not a fan of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ plan to have “government” cover free tuition and fees to all four-year public colleges and universities for families making up to $125,000 a year.
Nobody asked, but …
Almost two years ago, Oct. 6, 2016, to be exact, state and local public officials joined with other community leaders and hundreds of others to celebrate the groundbreaking on what we now call the Pablo Center at the Confluence, Eau Claire’s new performing arts center scheduled to open next month.
“Perception is reality” is an often-used phrase.
News: A recent government report said Medicare will become insolvent in eight years and Social Security will do the same in 16 years if nothing is done.
One of the things I believe speaks volumes about Eau Claire is that in a city of 68,000 people, if you mentioned the name “Billy,” most would know who you were referring to, especially if you attended local sporting events. No last name necessary.
Underage drinking is a problem without anything close to a perfect solution.
There’s good news and bad news for Eau Claire school district taxpayers.
Editor’s note: The weekly “Thumbs Up-Thumbs Down” editorial offers opinions on highs and lows in the news during the past week.
Abortion and gun control are two topics I generally steer clear of. I figure we all have our minds made up on these highly emotional issues, and my writings aren’t going to change that.
Eau Claire’s need for a major events center (”arena” has always been a word best avoided in this discussion) was a topic more than 30 years ago when I moved here, and as I later found out, years before that as well.
“Quality of place” has been a buzzword of late for officials who work in economic development, but the music variable that helps score points within that category has a long, rich history in Eau Claire.
As a sports reporter during the first phase of my newspaper career, I spent a fair amount of time interviewing high school coaches in their offices.
David Wise, Maddie Bowman and Joss Christensen.
Having lived in Minneapolis the last time the city hosted a Super Bowl, the inevitable chaos associated with orchestrating the game is relatively familiar.
Unless you attend local chamber of commerce breakfasts, regularly read this or some other Wisconsin newspaper, or closely follow the workings of government, you probably have never heard of Todd Berry.
President Donald Trump’s campaign theme, “Make America Great Again,” struck a chord with many voters apparently distraught over the direction our nation was (is?) headed, including illegal immigration.
Editor’s note: The weekly “Thumbs Up-Thumbs Down” editorial offers opinions on highs and lows in the news during the past week.
Anthony Sheppard recently graduated from UW-River Falls with a business administration degree thanks, in part, to some help from his employer.
Editor’s note: The weekly “Thumbs Up-Thumbs Down” editorial offers opinions on highs and lows in the news during the past week.
Editor’s note: The weekly “Thumbs Up-Thumbs Down” editorial offers opinions on highs and lows in the news during the past week.
Editor’s note: The weekly “Thumbs Up-Thumbs Down” editorial offers opinions on highs and lows in the news during the past week.
On the Eau Claire County website it states the county’s core values and beliefs that our government is open and accountable, fiscally responsible, respective to our citizens and good stewards of our county resources.
Editor’s note: The weekly “Thumbs Up-Thumbs Down” editorial offers opinions on highs and lows in the news during the past week.
It’s sad that in today’s political climate it takes a tragedy to rekindle some measure of bipartisanship.
Not long after I started my first newspaper job in 1975 in Fort Atkinson, a long-time employee there came up to me and said, “You don’t have to be crazy to work in this business … but it helps.”
I know it’s not funny, but I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit when I read the story in our Oct. 30 edition in which various professionals were asked what they felt would have been a proper response to the high school girl in South Carolina who got flipped out of her desk recently by a sheriff…
A lot has changed in this business since I joined the ranks of ink-stained wretches 40 years ago this week as sports editor of the Daily Jefferson County Union in Fort Atkinson.
For those of us outside the world of academia, the angst surrounding a provision in the just-passed state budget removing UW System faculty tenure from state statutes doesn’t seem like a big deal, especially because the UW Board of Regents codified the identical language in its bylaws even …
Editor's note: The Saturday "Thumbs Up-Thumbs Down" editorial offers opinions on highs and lows in the news this week.
There were a couple of key pieces missing from a federal government report last week that concluded Wisconsinites are “frugal” if you’re being polite, “cheap” if you’re not.
Three years of fundraising, optimism, intergovernmental cooperation, local referendum support and a can-do attitude unprecedented in our city’s modern history were trashed Thursday in the few moments it took majority Republicans to dominate a 12-4 roll call straight party-line vote in the Le…
The Affordable Care Act has been in the crosshairs of Republicans ever since it became law, and U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., is one of its most vocal, persistent critics.
The news out of Madison keeps getting worse for the UW System.
Those who still believe the concern about the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling equating money and speech is so much whining should consider a recent column by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times.
Those who still believe the concern about the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling equating money and speech is so much whining should consider a recent column by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times.
It’s highly unfortunate that a group is committed to deep-sixing public involvement in the Confluence Project because without that involvement, downtown Eau Claire has zero chance of being remade into a much more vibrant and distinctive place.
Those not directly affected by frac sand mines popping up in west-central Wisconsin like so many mushrooms are conflicted about whether their abundance is good, bad or neutral for our economy and environment.
March Madness is again upon us in high school and college gymnasiums around the country.
Editor's note: The Saturday "Thumbs Up-Thumbs Down" editorial offers opinions on highs and lows in the news this week.
Ask most people in Eau Claire why they like living here, and somewhere high on the list you’ll hear that it’s a “safe place.” Our low crime rate relative to peer cities nationwide is well-documented.
President Barack Obama’s verbal gymnastics to avoid calling the wave of ghoulish beheadings, bombings and burning alive a Jordanian pilot as the acts of Islamic extremists has gotten much news coverage.
Two of the reasons more people don’t run for public office are the time commitment to do the job right, and the inevitability that unpopular decisions sometimes have to be made.
Editor's note:E The Saturday "Thumbs Up-Thumbs Down" editorial offers opinions on highs and lows in the news this week.
There’s a discussion playing out in Los Angeles, Milwaukee and to a lesser extent Eau Claire about the impact of entertainment offerings on the local economy.
Gov. Scott Walker and his Republican colleagues in the Legislature hopefully won’t get their knuckles rapped by Grover Norquist and his no-tax-increase-pledge brethren for proposing modest increases in the cost to visit and camp in Wisconsin’s state parks.
We were disappointed to see that, in his 2015-2017 budget, Gov. Scott Walker is proposing to stop one of the most important public-private programs in Wisconsin — a program that directly benefits our economy and our lives by keeping our lands and waters healthy.
ditor's note:E The Saturday "Thumbs Up-Thumbs Down" editorial offers opinions on highs and lows in the news this week.
