It is incredibly easy to run a red light. The urge is especially great when the roads are empty and no one is around. You are sitting impatiently waiting for the light to turn, knowing that if you simply pulled out the chances of getting caught would be slim. Yet, the vast majority of drivers don’t. They abide by the social contract that says there are rules and rules are in place for a reason.

Bad things happen when communities lose their local newspapers. Communities lose transparency and accountability. Taxes go up and voter participation goes down. “And when you lose a small daily or a weekly, you lose the journalist who was gonna show up at your school board meeting, your planning board meeting, your county commissioner meeting,” said Penny Abernathy, a professor at the

It’s hard to reach a middle ground when people are busy fortifying imagined battle lines. Taylor County Veteran Service Officer Shellie Shaw does an outstanding job in helping local veterans receive the benefits they have earned through their military service. Shaw, along with benefit specialist Nikki Sherman, are likewise outstanding in their commitment to going above and beyond the minimum

After tossing around and then tabling the issue for months, members of the Rib Lake Village Board should drop plans to install streetlight-mounted video cameras in the downtown area. The cameras are an unneeded expense at a time when budgets are already tight due to rising material and labor expenses. These costs include both the upfront installation expenses and long-term data storage and management

It is time to end the nanny-state policies of the recent decades and return the power to local governments to set tax levies based on the needs of their communities rather than politics at the state capitol. Since the 1990s Wisconsin state government has routinely imposed limits on the amount local governments can spend as a way to keep property taxes artificially low. The state does this through