Author Archives: dave cieslewicz

Looks like we’re entering the middle innings now. A couple of weeks ago I wrote that the race for Wisconsin governor was in the third inning. The first three frames were the preliminary moves: putting together a campaign, carving out an identity, choosing issues to emphasize and, crucially, raising money. The campaign finance reports, whichContinue reading “Guv Race Hits the Drop Out Phase”

Alex Pretti may not have died in vain. While the videos of Renee Good’s death were open to interpretation, Pretti’s killing looks like a flat out murder. It was so clear that even MAGA and Republican-leaning news outlets, like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, are decrying it and calling for a real investigationContinue reading “Pretti’s Death Creates a Chance for Sanity”

When it comes to my understanding of the Madison school district’s new grading system put me down as “emerging.” MMSD will expand its “standards-based” system to all of its regular high schools next year after a trial period at East. Instead of letter grades, students will receive words: advanced, proficient, developing and emerging. Here’s aContinue reading “In Defense of Failure”

This week’s quote comes to us from none other than Donald J. Trump, who said near the end of a nearly two hour rant before the White House press corps summing up his first year back in office: “I think God is very proud of the job I’ve done.” A) “Is he freaking nuts? IContinue reading “The Quote & Quiz For 1/24/26”

The forecast was for “life-threatening” cold. So yesterday I drove north. Here in Watersmeet this morning I woke up to -23 with a windchill of -37 thanks to a cooling breeze from the northwest. Actually, it’s not all that much colder than it is in Madison where it’s -17. The dog stayed down there withContinue reading “Chilly Today”

Now that the college football season is over, let’s evaluate all the gloom and doom coming from those who said that paying the players and allowing them to transfer between programs would kill the sport. Here’s our official analysis: not. Turns out television ratings were never higher. If NIL and the portal obliterated fan interestContinue reading “Flash: College Football Not Destroyed!”

If this works out sports writers might start talking about “The Wisconsin Way.” I refer to our state’s reluctance to fire its football coaches. Most people expected Wisconsin to fire Luke Fickell late last season as his team struggled for the third year in a row. Fickell’s record at Wisconsin is a dismal 17-21 andContinue reading “Maybe It’s the Wisconsin Way”

To put this in baseball terms (and let’s look ahead instead of looking back to an ugly end to the Packers’ season) it’s about the third inning in the Wisconsin governor’s race and there’s finally a score to look at. The bottom line is that it’s a close game with no clear favorite right now.Continue reading “State of Guv’s Race in the Third Inning”

Martin Luther King Day is a good time to reflect on the efficacy of street protests. My view has long been that these things are usually ineffective, often counterproductive and rarely successful. The movement King led is a case in point because it was the rare exception that, after he was killed, degenerated into theContinue reading “Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, MPLS Street Protests Have Got To Go”

For the past several weeks the researchers, writers and editors on the YSDA’s Q&Q Desk have been frustrated by the lack of material generated by news makers that meets our high standards. So, we’ve gone silent. And wouldn’t you know it. The last couple of weeks we’ve been flooded by candidates for the highly prizedContinue reading “The Quote & Quiz For 1/17/26”