Isthmus will list your protest/rally/demonstration. Simply email info to calendar at isthmus dot com: isthmus.com/search/event...

Walz: "It's beyond me that apparently from the federal government, the Homeland Security director herself, has already determined who this person who, what their motive was, and they hadn't even been taken out of the vehicle. We're not living in a normal world."

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent on shot and killed a woman during a confrontation between federal agents and protesters in south Minneapolis. Gift link: www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...

There we go. That there’s a headline.

Google News feeds me such a tremendous amount of garbage on my phone these days: ☹️ Stories from days ago that I READ ON MY PHONE ☹️ Headlines from click baity aggregation sites about sports teams I don't follow ☹️ Women's fashion advice (I guess I did buy something for my wife for Xmas)

NPR built a visual archive of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, showing exactly what happened through the lenses of the people who were there. In "Chapter 2: Stop the Steal," we look at how false claims of a stolen election mobilized Trump supporters.

15 years ago, Ben Reiser (now director of ops for the Wisconsin Film Festival) and I covered Scott Walker's first term inauguration at Monona Terrace. Lots of "where are they now" types in this vid: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOTG...

WH sources say Venezuela's opposition leader committed the "ultimate sin": She accepted the Nobel Peace prize. “If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today,” one said. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

The game has everything. Very, very entertaining. No lead is safe!

So the Badgers basketball team is boldly bad right now, huh? The big men in particular strike me as clueless. And maybe the guys who have played at three schools keep transferring for a reason: they don't know how to play with anyone.

NEW: The Trump-backed MAGA Inc. super PAC raised $100m+ in the 2nd half of 2025, including from donors with interests before his administration: ▶️Greg & Anna Brockman (AI policies): $25m ▶️Juul (Trump's FDA approved Juul's vapes): $1m ▶️American Rights & Reform PAC (cannabis rescheduling): $1m+

NYT starts live coverage of events in Caracas.... www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

went back and grabbed the full video of her intro. absolutely incredible 🇮🇹🍝👩‍🍳🤌🇮🇹🍝👩‍🍳🤌🇮🇹🍝👩‍🍳🤌🇮🇹🍝👩‍🍳🤌

Even Rs who’ve gone after Meta for allowing crime and abuse on the platform (like Hawley) haven’t wagged a finger at Elon.

This person went on a buying spree over the past 24 hours. Fresh wallet. Only existed since Dec 27th and has only bet on Venezuela-related markets. polymarket.com/@0x31a56e9E6...

Sen Mike Lee with the first account I’ve seen of the Admin’s legal theory for the strikes. On the domestic law side — something like: Art II law enforcement power to capture Maduro (by invading his own country) combined with Art II power to protect those personnel executing the warrant.

Breaking News: The “Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz said he would no longer host a gala at the Kennedy Center after its Trump-era changes.

Yes, this is ridiculous. Important? Not sure. People in this country are much more likely to pay attention to the bro knocking on the doors of daycare centers in Minneapolis than CBS for their version of news.

Nino Amato, formerly of the Madison NAACP and a long-ago city council member who was once on a list of potential mayor candidates, has started a new org called "Smart Growth Madison & Dane County," not to be confused with "Smart Growth Greater Madison," a lobby group for developers.

does he work *too* hard??

Ray Lewis and Michael Irvin are very appropriate icons for 2025 college football.

Read that last sentence again:

what a shocking turn of events who could’ve seen this coming

I don't ever want to become one of these guys who gets irritated with people using new terminology and criticize them for being pretentious. I am predisposed to being grumpy, but this is the time of year when the grumps really get their grump on and I think that's a shame.

I don't ever want to become one of these guys who gets irritated with people using new terminology and criticize them for being pretentious. I am predisposed to being grumpy, but this is the time of year when the grumps really get their grump on and I think that's a shame.

Terrible, always a total magnet. His story about getting cast in Goodfellas, basically his first movie, is so charming www.avclub.com/isiah-whitlo...

Big if true

The State Journal believes its top stories of the year were the "most read" in Madison. I bet they weren't.

This is true and I was the only one on set excited about it (and playing the song on my phone to blank stares)

scoop: During a heated conference call this spring, the head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting told Katherine Maher, the C.E.O. of NPR, that she should resign. My profile of Katherine Maher, which goes behind-the-scenes of the most consequential fight in NPR’s history.

What’s going on with the daycares in Minneapolis?

Voting implications:

This is why writers, especially commentators, need to be out in the world. It's so the regular people among us can push back on their awful paragraphs.

These Utah Beavers Are Moving. They’ll Get New Jobs and More Space. (gift link to NYT) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/c...

Via Richard Tofel‬: "What it’s like getting comments these days from the regime in Washington." "Comments" in this context means giving the people involved in a news story the chance to respond before publication. link.propublica.net/view/5f0a0ac... Here's a case I found particularly creepy:

Online prediction markets, like Polymarket and Kalshi, were under intense scrutiny in the Biden administration. But Trump officials are embracing the controversial apps, raising new fears about election interference ahead of the midterms. n.pr/4sfSvX5

This dude works in an industry that has absolutely sold itself out and continues to find new and novel ways to do so.

Adam Serwer: “The reason so many of yesterday’s free-speech champions transitioned so easily into today’s pro-Trump censors is that their definition of free speech never included the right of others to talk back.” [theatlantic.com]

The Wisconsin component of the analysis here is revealing. Evidence is consistent with DOGE strategically delaying contract terminations in WI until after the 2025 state Supreme Court elections to mitigate electoral risk.

When I was on CNN's northeast desk, the first job at 6a every morning was to read the local papers. That guided some of what the massive CNN machine followed every day. When those papers die, CNN doesn't hire new regional reporters. What you get instead is more panel shows, more punditry.

GOP operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, convicted election fraudsters, were paid $960,000 in the second quarter to secure a pardon for a former nursing-home operator who defrauded the government of $38 million. Trump pardoned the man, Joseph Schwartz, last month.

You will be visited by three spirits.

There's a term for this: concentration camp.

Trump withdraws US ambassadors to Africa www.semafor.com/article/12/2...

Sounds legit

You ever have those mornings where you just look in the mirror for a minute and wonder how exactly you ended up who you are www.yahoo.com/news/article...

Today, people consider "Yule" synonymous with "Christmas." But centuries ago, Yule meant something different — a pagan mid-winter festival, dating back to pre-Christian Germanic people. n.pr/3YaZPp6