INSIDE WISCONSIN

“Big Tech” in the United States has gone from wearing a white hat to much sootier headgear, and not without reason. The question at hand is how best to address public concerns over privacy, disinformation, cybersecurity and the everyday reach of mega-companies such as...

By Tom Still MADISON, Wis. – Tom Erickson is quick to talk about his days growing up in the western Wisconsin community of Mondovi, just south of Eau Claire, as well as his time as a computer and electrical engineering student at UW-Madison. Once he left Madison in...

By Tom Still MADISON, Wis. – When the venture capital arm of American Family Insurance got off the ground in the early 2010s, it was ahead of the game when it came to corporate venture capital – especially within the insurance world. In fact, only two other insurance...

By Tom Still MADISON, Wis. – Largely unnoticed amid the stream of tweets and bilateral tariff threats this summer was the quiet creation of a Democratic “working group” on trade in the U.S. House of Representatives. Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s charge to the nine-member...

By Tom Still MADISON, Wis. – Before writing her award-winning 2016 book on “The Politics of Resentment” in Wisconsin, UW-Madison political scientist Katherine Cramer spent a lot of time talking with people in diners, gas stations and other gathering spots across rural...

By Tom Still MADISON, Wis. – With the carnage of World War I just over, a popular 1919 song was “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree)?” The lyrics captured the worry that American soldiers who had grown up on farms or in small towns would...