CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Who are you in the Easter story? Are you one of the women who heads to the tomb early that Easter morning? They're expecting a task of drudgery: embalming Jesus' body. God had different plans for that day. Are you Mary Magdalene, doesn't recognize Jesus at first, and asks Him "if you hav...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) How do you negotiate with someone when you know they aren't trustworthy? You could reach an agreement only to find that they won't do what they promised. Something unusual happened this week. Assembly speaker Robin Vos said that he and Governor Tony Evers will sit down to negotiate a tax cut. T...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Three members of the Wausau Ethics Board have terms that expire on April 30th. That's the same day that the committee is scheduled to sit in judgement of Mayor Doug Diny. Here's a quick review of the case: the board has already decided that there is probable cause that Mayor Diny exceeded his...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Dr. Jill Underly is a terrible choice to be Wisconsin's top education official. How bad? She dumbed down the state achievement tests - giving the appearance that Wisconsin students are doing better in school. They aren't. All she's succeeded in doing is making it impossible to compare the ol...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - "Your monthly payment is going up." That was the notice I received over the weekend from my mortgage company. During these commentaries I've talked a lot about last year's revelation in Wausau and the property tax increase that followed. This weekend was a reminder that we, only now...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) The four Gospels tell slightly different Easter stories. They don't contradict each other; they tell the same story from different perspectives. I prefer the story that has the least detail, because it allows for the most mystery. It's the story that suggests the mighty hand of God played the b...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) Irony can be delicious. New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who campaigned that she would "get Donald Trump" - and she did - is now embroiled in her own legal battle. If you recall, she successfully prosecuted Donald Trump for business accounting irregularities. The case it...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - There are some people on the political left who have gone insane. Their thought process is irreparably broken. There's a large and growing group, mostly of 'fan girls', for United Healthcare murder suspect Luigi Mangione. At least 50,000 dream on conjugal visits with the man who killed insura...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - We used to air news stories during the Christmas season about shoppers getting into brawls over the last Tickle Me Elmo. It was the hottest gift for years. At the start of the school year, kids show up at class with their Big Bird lunchboxes. And Bert and Ernie pencil boxes. And Oscar The Gro...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - The Las Vegas A's, and the Kansas City Royals had better hurry. They're the latest baseball teams that are working on new stadium deals. And now Congress is debating a bill that would block public funding for new sports stadiums. It would ban the issuing of tax free municipal bonds. Amen to t...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - This will be Palm Sunday. It's one of the few scenes in the Bible where we see Jesus as triumphant. He is entering Jerusalem and is being cheered by an adoring crowd. Men are placing their outer garments onto the street to guide his way in. Women and children are waving palm branches as he en...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Maybe you remember when Obamacare was rolled out. People who needed to pick health insurance would log onto the healthcare.gov web site. They're enter some personal information, and would see the choices and prices of health insurance that was available in your area. You may also remember it ...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - You probably know that I'm a lover of trains. I've taken two train trips already this year. In coach, from Chicago to New York... and in a sleeping compartment from Chicago to New Orleans. Perhaps you'd heard in the news that the new train from Chicago to Milwaukee and St. Paul - the Boreali...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - If someone is arrested in Wisconsin, and it turns out they were also wanted for crime in some other state, they would not be bailed out of jail to go free. There'd be an extradition hearing, and the suspect would be sent back there to answer those charges. Law enforcement agencies from one j...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - What's the number one rule of the stock market? Buy low, sell high. And yet many investors do the exact opposite. They buy the hottest stock after its price rockets upward. Perhaps that company's fundamentals don't allow it to go any higher. And we sell when a stock begins going down; less sa...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - This started out as a conversation about nutrition. One of my coworkers believes in clean food and earring healthy. He follows a health and nutrition effort online who claims that based on why you eat and what vitamins and supplements you take, it's now possible for a human being to live fore...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - I have a well meaning email from a listener - he says I should stop berating Trump voters for not turning out during this week's spring elections. He says the voting irregularities yesterday were in mostly conservative and Republican districts; and he suspects ongoing vote-counting irregulari...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Tariffs take effect today on manufactured goods from China, Mexico, Canada and the European Union. If you're worried, I encourage you to remember two things: first, the United States is a huge country with abundant resources; second, we are the largest consumer market in the world. Canada sa...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Today ends an unusual spring election season in Wisconsin. There's a candidate on the ballot for State Superintendent of Public Instruction who actually dumbed down our state's standardized tests. I'm amazed that Jill Underly is even a viable candidate. She's been our state's top education o...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Nestled in between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue in upper Manhattan is Columbia University. The school's main campus is small; one block wide and seven blocks long. Over the years Columbia has expanded and now owns some of the buildings across the street and blocks away further uptown. What's...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - My Great Dane, Argos, is big and dopey. But he's also protective and unfailingly loyal. Argos also has only one cat friend. Argos allows Faye Kitty to come up on the bed with him. The two snuggle together. Argos won't tolerate the other cats. He'll paw at Coca Kitty, and he'll chase Montague...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Joe Hoppa used to serve on Wausau ethics committee. He's written a letter to the Wausau Pilot and Review about how off-base the current ethics committee is. He notes that former mayor Katie Rosenberg dissolved the ethics committee. At the time, the committee had been inactive for some time be...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - We now know the date - April 3rd - when the Wausau ethics genie will be out of the bottle, and there'll be no way to put it back. April 3rd is the date when the Ethics Committee will meet, and decide if the complaint against Mayor Doug Diny will more forward. It's a foregone conclusion that i...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - The New York Post has published a must-read editorial about Donald Trump's crackdown on science grants for universities. Trump proposes a cap of 15-percent on indirect costs. And - of course - the colleges are squealing. Indirect costs are a grab-bag of cash exchanges that colleges pass on to...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - It's a double standard of all double standards in Wisconsin's State Supreme Court race. The conservative candidate Brad Schimmel, is backed by Elon Musk's political action group, America PAC, is buying TV and radio commercials supporting Schimmel's candidacy. And democrats are horrified. But ...