Milwaukee Press Club-2022-Column
Wisconsin GOP chair wants to have it both ways on Trump
By now most political analysts have agreed that the midterms were, overall, a kick in the butt for Republicans. As outgoing U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) memorably put it in The Washington Post , after the 2022 midterms, “we have no choice but to heed voters when they say that ‘the grass is green, the […]
Vanity Fair’s ‘Wisconsin Death Trip’: A horror movie version of rural America
I first heard about the new “Wisconsin Death Trip” story from a friend in North Carolina. “After reading this Vanity Fair piece, not so sure I wanna come visit y’all,” she wrote. Wisconsin winters often scare away visitors from the South. But a Nov. 30 glossy magazine feature by journalist, best-selling author and Dartmouth professor […]
Stability or disruption for Wisconsin schools?
Parent-teacher conferences just ended — a process akin to speed-dating, during which my husband and I met with our high school sophomore’s teachers in a flurry of quick, 10-minute Zoom sessions. As frenetic as the process was, it was reassuring to talk to the grownups who are teaching our daughter and to hear what she’s […]
Getting past toxic partisanship: Dairy farmers and undocumented workers
Throughout the late summer and early fall I’ve been traveling, giving talks at bookstores, libraries and university classrooms in various cities about my new book “Milked: How an American Crisis Brought Together Midwestern Dairy Farmers and Mexican Workers.” The subject of my book — the deep economic and personal relationships between dairy farmers and the […]
Tim Michels’ troubles expose Republican hypocrisy on immigration
Tim Michels, the construction company owner and Donald Trump’s favorite Republican candidate for governor in Wisconsin, has been having a hard time squaring his past and present views on immigration. Michels is taking fire from his main GOP rival after Dan Bice reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that a group led by Michels fought […]
‘We saw this day coming’ — midwives prepare to protect abortion access in Wisconsin
The morning after the terrible news broke about the draft Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v Wade, I called my homebirth midwife, Ingrid Andersson. Ingrid is my hero. She helped me have all three of my daughters at home. No one is more dedicated to women’s health and bodily autonomy, to creating a warm, nurturing […]