Tom Still

As the nation’s “joyless recovery” limps along, the question for many people in Wisconsin is how the state stacks up to others.

If you doubted the pent-up demand for early stage capital in Wisconsin, consider this note from a startup company founder before a bill creating a state-leveraged fund had passed the full Legislature: “We're eager to learn more about who we can contact, and how soon, about presentation opportunities for our company in front of the new fund. We believe we have a great story to tell!”

There were times in recent years when the Wisconsin Assembly couldn't muster 91 votes to pass a resolution confirming the sun rises in the east.

There were times in recent years at which the Wisconsin Assembly couldn't muster 91 votes to pass a resolution confirming the sun rises in the east.

The war against cancer has many fronts. The fight wages on the prevention side, with long-term campaigns against smoking and other known health hazards, as well as the treatment front, with accelerated advances in diagnostics and therapies.

A little more than a year ago, Rebecca Blank visited the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery on the UW-Madison campus to listen to faculty members, entrepreneurs and business leaders. Her topic: What’s working and what’s not when it comes to the role of the university and the economy?

The telegram from President John F. Kennedy to University of Wisconsin President Fred Harrington was both eerie and visionary. Eerie because it was delivered Nov. 20, 1963 – just two days before Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas – and visionary because it seemed to anticipate the challenges confronting science in its quest to explore the human brain.

The latest federal government data shows Wisconsin’s job growth is still lagging the U.S. average, with experts suggesting the reasons range from pre-recall election paralysis to reliance on manufacturing to shortages of skilled workers.

So long, 2012, a year in which the economy took two steps forward for every one step back, and welcome to 2013, a nestling born on the edge of a cliff. Here are some trends worth following.

If you mention “toll roads” to the typical Wisconsin motorist, chances are good the reply will include an unflattering reference to Illinois and its 286 miles of pay-as-you-go interstate highways.

MADISON – On this point, voters in Wisconsin and across the United States seem unanimous: They prefer divided government.

It's hard to find a Mitt Romney or Barack Obama mask for Halloween that's not made in China.