Civic Minute

So if multi-member districts with proportional representation are such a good idea, why don’t we have them? Two reasons. For Congress, there’s a 1967 federal law that requires single-member districts. A bill called the Fair Representation Act has been introduced to repeal it. It would let states elect their representatives proportionally from larger, multi-member districts. […]

Here’s a question. If you live in a district where sixty percent of voters lean one way, what happens to the other forty percent? Under our current system — nothing. They lose every election. Their representative has no reason to listen to them. In district after district, a huge chunk of voters effectively has no […]

Something feels broken. You vote, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Your representative doesn’t listen to you. Elections feel like they’re decided before they start. And no matter who wins, nothing really changes. You’re not imagining it. The United States is one of the oldest democracies on earth. That’s something to be proud of. But […]

Did you know that half the states in the country have passed resolutions asking Congress to propose a constitutional amendment on election spending? Idaho became the twenty-fifth state in March. The list runs from Massachusetts to Montana, Oklahoma to California — red states, blue states, and everything in between. All asking the same thing: let […]

The redistricting war is over — and nobody won. Texas, North Carolina, and Missouri redrew their maps to favor Republicans. California and Virginia redrew theirs to favor Democrats. The net partisan result? Roughly a wash. But the country now has dozens more safe seats than it had a year ago. More districts where the outcome […]

In the last presidential election, ninety-four percent of all campaign events happened in just seven states. That means the vast majority of Americans were completely ignored. Whether you live in Texas, California, or forty-one other states — candidates had no reason to talk to you, listen to you, or fight for your vote. Now, Wisconsin […]

Here’s something that might surprise you. Across Wisconsin, fifty-six counties and dozens of municipalities have passed resolutions calling for nonpartisan redistricting. Thirty-two counties have put it to a countywide vote — and voters approved it by overwhelming margins every single time. This isn’t a close call. This isn’t a partisan issue — at least not […]

In 2022, under Wisconsin’s old gerrymandered maps, only four out of ninety-nine state Assembly races were decided by fewer than five points. Four. The other ninety-five? The outcome was basically known before the first vote was cast. Congress is even worse. Since those maps were drawn, the median margin of victory across Wisconsin’s eight congressional […]

You may have noticed something about gas prices. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, prices shot up almost overnight. But when oil markets settled back down, it took weeks — sometimes months — for prices at the pump to follow. Economists have a name for this. They call it "rockets and feathers." Here’s why. When […]

When gas prices spike, you pay more. But where does that extra money actually go? Oil was sixty-six dollars a barrel in February — before the Iran war. By mid-April, it was over a hundred. The price difference flows to whoever owns the oil. In the U.S., it goes mostly to oil company shareholders — […]

Every gallon of gas you buy in Wisconsin includes about fifty-one cents in taxes — roughly thirty-three cents to the state, eighteen to the federal government. People grumble about it. But here’s what that money does: it builds and maintains the roads you’re driving on. Wisconsin’s gas tax used to be indexed to inflation — […]

When gas prices go up, we want someone to blame. The president. The oil companies. The government. But the price of a gallon of gas isn’t one thing — it’s four. About half the price is crude oil — set on a global market that no president, no company, and no country fully controls. Another […]

The United States already produces more oil than any country on Earth — nearly fourteen million barrels a day. That’s a record. And gas still shot past four dollars this spring. Why didn’t all that production protect us? Because American oil enters a global market of over a hundred million barrels a day. Our record […]

In January, the United States invaded Venezuela — a country with the largest oil reserves on Earth. Gas prices that week? Two dollars and eighty-one cents. They barely moved. Because despite all those reserves, Venezuela produces less than one percent of the world’s oil. Reserves don’t set prices. Production does. Then the U.S. and Israel […]

When gas prices spike, most people notice at the pump. What they don’t notice is what happens to the electricity coming out of their wall. Power plants are dispatched in order of cost — cheapest first. When natural gas is cheap, gas plants run. When gas prices rise, coal becomes the cheaper option, and utilities […]

Do you know who sets your electric rate? It’s not your utility. It’s the Public Service Commission — three people, appointed by the governor, who decide what every utility in Wisconsin can charge you. They’re the most powerful government body most people have never heard of. Here’s how it works. Your utility is a regulated […]

Fifteen percent of Wisconsin’s electricity comes from one place: the Point Beach nuclear plant near Two Rivers. It runs day and night, produces zero carbon, and because it was paid off decades ago, it’s some of the cheapest power on the grid. Wisconsin used to have a second nuclear plant — Kewaunee, up the coast. […]

You hear it every election: "energy independence." It sounds simple. Drill more, import less, control our own destiny. But the more you look at it, the more complicated it gets. The United States produces more oil than any country on Earth. We’re also a net importer of crude — over six million barrels a day […]

Every gallon of gas you buy is already ten percent ethanol — alcohol made from corn. You’ve been burning corn in your car for years. Here’s what you may not know: a third of the entire U.S. corn crop — five and a half billion bushels a year — goes to making ethanol. Not food. […]

The federal government has subsidized oil, gas, and coal for over a century. How much? That depends on how you count. The Treasury puts direct tax breaks at a few billion a year. Independent analysts who include cheap access to public land and regulatory exemptions put it closer to thirty-five billion. And if you factor […]

Here’s something worth thinking about. A coal or natural gas power plant has two costs: the plant itself, and the fuel it burns every day. When fuel prices spike — like they are now — your electricity bill goes up too, because your utility is paying more for fuel. A solar farm has one cost: […]

Since 1953, a pipeline called Line 5 has carried oil and natural gas liquids from Superior, Wisconsin, across the Upper Peninsula, down through lower Michigan, and into Canada. You’ve probably heard people argue about it. Environmentalists want it shut down. Enbridge, the company that owns it, says that would be a disaster. Here’s what the […]

Can an electric car handle a Wisconsin winter? The honest answer: it depends on your life. Cold weather does cut range. At freezing, most EVs keep about eighty percent of their rated miles. On the coldest days — zero, five below — plan on losing thirty to forty percent. What most people don’t realize is […]

The United States produces more oil than any country on Earth. It also imports over six million barrels a day. Both of those things are true at the same time. Here’s why. The oil America drills is mostly light and sweet — low sulfur, easy to refine. But about seventy percent of our refineries were […]