Author

Ruth Conniff

Ruth Conniff

Ruth Conniff is Editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Examiner. Conniff is a frequent guest on MSNBC and has appeared on Good Morning America, Democracy Now!, Wisconsin Public Radio, CNN, Fox News and many other radio and television outlets. She has also written for The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times, among other publications. Her book "Milked: How an American Crisis Brought Together Midwestern Dairy Farmers and Mexican Workers" won the 2022 Studs and Ida Terkel Award from The New Press.

COMMENTARY
Justice Protasiewicz Investiture - left to right Justice Protasiewicz, Husband Greg Sell, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley | Examiner photo

Wisconsin Supreme Court tilts on its axis at historic swearing-in

By: - August 2, 2023

A giddy crowd filled two floors of the Capitol rotunda Tuesday, as the late afternoon sun lit up the gold capstones on marble pillars and the glittering glass mosaic of “Justice” — a classical portrait of a woman holding a set of scales — looked down serenely from her throne. Before Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice […]

COMMENTARY
Portrait of a Latin drag queen from Bogotá Colombia between 30 and 39 years old, with white curly hair enjoying her gay pride day dressed very colorful smiling at the camera while happily holding her gay pride flag

Nazis versus drag queens

By: - August 1, 2023

We’ve reached the dog days of summer and the whole world has retreated to the air conditioned cineplex. Perhaps my perceptions are warped by the heat, but the news seems to have melted together with the movie matinees. U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Glenbulah) took his star turn leading a Congressional hearing on UFOs last week, […]

COMMENTARY
One red wooden figure surround by a group of united plain figure on blue background.

We need to stand up to bullies targeting vulnerable people in Wisconsin and across the country

By: - July 20, 2023

Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan is an affable guy, a progressive Democrat with a reputation for getting along with conservative Republicans. His long-term friendship with Wisconsin’s Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is a matter of puzzlement for many of Pocan’s supporters. So it was particularly dramatic to see him rise to chastise his GOP colleagues on […]

COMMENTARY
Wisconsin Examiner Staff | Photo by Greg Anderson for the Examiner

Happy Birthday Wisconsin Examiner!

By: - July 17, 2023

Four years ago, in July 2019, we launched the Wisconsin Examiner with a mission to provide you, our readers, with a fresh perspective on state politics and policy through investigative reporting and daily news coverage both inside and outside the Capitol. We were the eleventh outlet launched by States Newsroom, the national nonprofit news organization […]

COMMENTARY
A macro shot of the words "state budget" with hundred dollar bills.

The Wisconsin state budget is done. Now what?

By: - July 13, 2023

Wisconsin’s biennial budget battle effectively ended Tuesday when the Milwaukee Common Council voted to raise the city’s sales tax. Getting permission from the state to hike the tax to 2% without going to referendum was the cornerstone of the shared revenue deal struck by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, Republican legislative leaders and local officials in […]

COMMENTARY
Speaker Robin Vos at 11/17/20 news conference

Republicans declare defeat, double down on bitterness after Evers line-item vetoes their budget

By: - July 7, 2023

Normally in politics, public officials try to put a good face on compromise, taking credit for every legislative achievement they can credibly claim. But Wisconsin Republicans are not normal.  Instead of taking a victory lap after Gov. Tony Evers signed the state budget they drafted — having summarily tossed out more than 500 items Evers […]

COMMENTARY
A child waves an American flag during a Fourth of July celebration with frontline workers and military families, Sunday, July 4, 2021, on the South Lawn of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Chandler West)

How the right’s phony patriotism is destroying America

By: - July 4, 2023

In his book “Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America,” best-selling author Kurt Andersen connects the marketing of nostalgia for an idealized American past to the organized campaign led by big business over the last four decades to destroy unions, public schools, progressive taxation and the middle class. Andersen’s highly readable history provides some bracing context […]

COMMENTARY
Man wielding an ax

GOP budget is a declaration of war. How will Evers respond?

By: - June 30, 2023

These are not normal times. As Wisconsin residents endured the worst air quality on the planet this week, Republicans in the Legislature rammed through a budget that defunds critical services including environmental protections. Their message to citizens: choke on this. Among the casualties in the GOP version of the budget, which stripped out priorities that […]

COMMENTARY
Rally to increase funding for school in the state budget at the Capitol | Wisconsin Examiner photo

A desperate, last-minute push for school funding

By: - June 28, 2023

As smoke from Canadian forest fires enveloped downtown Madison in a thick haze Tuesday, prompting health officials to warn people to stay indoors, about 100 public education advocates gathered in the State Capitol rotunda to sound the alarm about another crisis — the abandonment of Wisconsin’s public schools. Students, teachers and public school advocates said […]

The DNR is advising Wisconsinites to reduce their time outdoors due to ongoing air quality alerts resulting from Canadian wildfire smoke. Photo credit: Wisconsin DNR

Wisconsin DNR issues multi-day air quality alert

By: - June 27, 2023

Hazy skies and poor air quality caused by Canadian wildfires will persist across Wisconsin until mid-day Thursday, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources warns.  According to the DNR’s current, multi-day air-quality advisory, the most significant health impacts are anticipated between noon on Tuesday, June 27 and noon on Wednesday, June 28. Conditions may change rapidly […]

hands on a keyboard

Baldwin, Pocan join White House to announce $1B in broadband funding for Wisconsin

By: - June 26, 2023

Wisconsin Democrats U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Rep. Mark Pocan joined Mitch Landrieu, a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, to announce Wisconsin’s share of a massive $42 billion federal investment in high-speed internet infrastructure through the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. Wisconsin will receive $1.1 billion, administered by the Department of Commerce, […]

COMMENTARY
Gov. Tony Evers signs the 2021-23 biennial budget at Cumberland Elementary School in Whitefish Bay, after making 50 partial vetoes (screenshot | Gov. Evers Facebook video)

Will the ‘education governor’ go along with GOP funds transfer from public to private schools?

By: - June 14, 2023

As Republicans advanced their bills to dramatically increase taxpayer funding for private schools during a flurry of overlapping legislative hearings Tuesday, school choice advocates were giddy. Busloads of private school parents, staff and students wearing green T-shirts with the words “Equal funding for ALL KIDS” emblazoned on the back jammed hearing rooms in the Capitol.  […]