Signed, sealed and delivered… for now

Last week I wrote about our upcoming community newsroom so first a report on that. About 25 people came out on Wednesday night to the Goodman South Madison Library on Park Street despite the rain and high winds. Community members initiated discussion about coverage of the Madison school district, Madison’s immigrant communities, and how people can respond as individuals to impacts from the Trump administration. We also talked about the lack of transparency among some government officials and entities and how that affects our reporting and what information we’re able to provide to readers. A couple of people expressed some interest in writing for Isthmus so you might see some new bylines in the paper. We are planning similar gatherings in the future and hope some of you can join then.

In the news: Postal workers and supporters of the United States Postal Service rallied outside of the Milwaukee Street office Thursday as part of a national demonstration pushing back against calls for privatization. According to a report from staff writer Liam Beran, President Trump has floated both the idea of privatizing the USPS and bringing it under the authority of the U.S. Department of Commerce (it’s been an independent agency since 1970).

At the protest Liam spoke with Evan Elkins, an officer with the American Postal Workers Union, who organized Thursday’s rally. It was his first time putting together a demonstration. “Right now is the time to be courageous,” he tells Liam.

In other content: The April 1 election is less than two weeks away and this week we posted completed questionnaires from the candidates for Madison school board. Only one of the three races is contested, but we collected responses from those running unopposed as well. Bret Wagner will face Martha Siravo for District 3; board chair Nichelle Nichols is running for a second term; and former board chair Ali Muldrow is running for a third term.

We also have questionnaire responses from Dane County Executive Melissa Agard who, it might surprise some, is running again for the job, just six months after she rode to victory in a special election. That’s due to the timing of former Dane County Executive Joe Parisi’s resignation. Agard will face Stephen Ratzlaff on the April ballot.

In more election coverage, Steven Walters reports that the themes of this year’s Supreme Court race echo years past. For instance: The election “will — again — decide whether liberals or conservatives have a four-justice majority on the state Supreme Court,” Steven writes. And “Both [campaigns] — again — have aligned with the state’s two political parties, a reminder of how meaningless is the requirement that Supreme Court elections be ‘nonpartisan.’” Read more here.

Dave Cieslewicz opines about two faculty members from the Universities of Wisconsin who got in trouble with their respective institutions but faced different fates: Joe Gow, the former chancellor of UW-La Crosse, and LaVar Charleston, the former DEI chief at UW-Madison. Gow was fired as chancellor and stripped of his tenure; Charleston was removed from administration but allowed to return to teaching.

ICYMI: Art director Tommy Washbush visits with sculptor Thanasi Papapostolou in his backyard “atelier” for our “Workspaces” feature. Papapostolou, Tommy writes, studied figurative sculpture in New York, Philadelphia, and Florence, Italy, and eventually moved to Wisconsin in 2019. Everything in his studio was purposefully planned, Papapostolou explains to Tommy, from the floors to the window placement. “You need concrete floors, so you can roll everything. You need northern light because you want indirect light. Direct sunlight is too strong for sculpture as it bleaches out the forms and produces shadows that are too dark.”

Publisher Jason Joyce writes about his favorite brunch spot/craving even as he disses the idea of brunch. (“Please don’t rope me into a multi-hour feast-plus-cocktails that leaves me with a 4 p.m. hangover and a regrettable charge on my credit card.”) But the siren call of the shrimp cake eggs Benedict at Gates & Brovi is apparently too strong. He’s been back twice already for the “firm and flavorful” shrimp cakes, served with fresh spinach and “pillowy poached eggs on English muffins topped with a hollandaise of ideal consistency.”

I write in my column about the teaching of civics at a time when political norms are being smashed and Trump and his supporters appear eager to test the limits of executive branch power. I started the piece with a quote from Wisconsin Congressman Tom Tiffany, who, when asked if he had a problem with the president halting funds that had been authorized by Congress, seemed to forget that he too was elected to represent his constituents.

“I believe it’s appropriate that this administration is saying, hold it, time out, we want to make sure this money is going to appropriate purposes,” Tiffany said. “So did we appropriate the money? Yes we did. But it is up to the executive branch to make sure that the money is going out in a fashion that represents the will of the American people.”

I spoke with UW-Madison education professor Jeremy Stoddard about how teachers could approach this moment. He said they need to be straightforward, explore the historical record and what is in the Constitution, and have students examine what is going on today through that lens. “And try to ask that very question: If Congress has the power of the purse why are they not using that power now?”