First Amendment

Johnson’s efforts have largely succeeded. Since 2020, the federal government and social media companies have scaled back their work to counter online disinformation

How U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson helped derail a fight against election lies

BY: - November 26, 2023

Back in July, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. A federal court had recently granted a temporary injunction, in Missouri v. Biden, finding that the Biden administration had violated the First Amendment by coercing social media companies to remove content, related both to elections and the COVID-19 vaccine, that […]

Wisconsin State Capitol

Local, state officials condemn neo-Nazi march in Madison

BY: - November 19, 2023

About 20 neo-Nazis marched up State Street from the UW-Madison campus to the Capitol on Saturday and gathered at James Madison Park in front of the Gates of Heaven synagogue, a historic 19th-century building run by the city parks department. “To see neo-Nazis marching in our streets and neighborhoods and in the shadow of our […]

COMMENTARY
finger pointing, people arguing

 Voters don’t agree with the GOP. Republicans don’t want to hear it.

BY: - November 10, 2023

Wisconsin Republicans passed a pair of  campus “free speech” bills through the Assembly this week, one of which gives students unfettered editorial control of campus newspapers, and another that sets new free speech standards and heaps fines and punishments on campuses if they violate them. As Baylor Spears reports, floor debate on both measures revolved […]

COMMENTARY
A doctor talks with a patient

More physicians need to speak out against attacks on health care — and employers need to let us

BY: - September 25, 2023

A friend once asked me why more doctors don’t speak out against laws restricting health care access and delivery, like those imposed on abortion access and gender affirming care. This was a tough question for me. As someone who regularly speaks out against the enactment of these dangerous and restrictive laws, I was surprised at […]

COMMENTARY
Wausau, Wisconsin

Cory Tomczyk wages war on small media outlet

BY: - August 17, 2023

This is not a great time to be a newspaper. Besides continually meager, often plunging readership and ad revenues, there’s the fact that some people would like nothing more than to shut you down as a way to shut you up. Last Friday in Kansas, police raided the offices of the local newspaper, the Marion […]