CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Sara Rodriguez is one of the seven democrats in the running for her party's nomination for governor. She won the straw poll at last weekend's state party convention. Perhaps this is her moment. Or, perhaps, as the current lieutenant governor, she won because she's known to her party's inside...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - The success or failure of any deal with Iran is simple. It's a success if they don't get a nuclear weapon. That's all. That was the goal when we started this conflict. It's still the goal at the end of it. Everything else is background noise. Who controls the Strait of Hormuz? Well, it is an...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Data Centers are so unpopular now that it would be difficult to get one approved anywhere in Wisconsin. We are told that they are polluters, using large amounts of water for cooling and sucking up energy for power. Some places, like Winnebago County would require that a new data center genera...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - We have an anger problem. It was on display earlier this week, in the Karmelo Anthony case. He's the 19-year-old who will spend the next 35 years in jail for a stabbing at a high school track meet. He wandered into the wrong team's tent. The exchange of words that followed resulted in a 17-ye...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - It's unusual for me to be undecided about a public policy issue. I am undecided about Wausau PD's use of Flock cameras. Flock is a private company. They operate thousands of license plate reading cameras around the country. In many cases they partner with police departments. In other communit...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Political debates with more than two or three candidates are useless. A cattle call debate usually involves the participants speaking over each other, and not enough time to make intelligent points. The debates often degenerate into silly "raise your hand if..." questions or shoutin...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Here is a basic standard for vote counting that we have let slip away. We ought to expect election results on Election Night. We cast our votes on a Tuesday; we wake up Wednesday morning and know who the winner is. The idea that a state like California now takes a month to count their vote is...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Perhaps you remember the summer of love in Seattle. Some radicals in the Capital Hill neighborhood set up barricades in the streets, and declared a 6-squre block area a no-go zone for police. "We'll handle our neighborhood," they said. Of course, it was a utopian disaster. Sanitatio...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - I learned an important lesson about giving generously and helping others in the past week. There is a family at my church that has welcomed a new child. The child was born premature and weighed only 4-pounds. The mother and father are poor and have nothing. Our church has been helping them. W...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - A federal appeals court in Virginia released an illegal immigrant on a technicality. The illegal alien had escaped from custody. He was recaptured, and was convicted on a federal obstruction charge. That court ruling says that under an obstruction charge, the defendant must have obstructed a...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Francesca Hong, the most liberal candidate in the race for governor, has a vision. She imagines an ideal world where there are no prisons and no police. Well, granted, if men were angels. We are all free to dream of utopia. But Francesca Hong isn't dreaming. She actually stands by her comment...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Imagine this situation. At work, you are a long-standing and highly respected employee. You've been there forever. Co-workers know you're doing a good job. One day, management hires a new department head. They will be your new boss. And at the first meeting where the boss is set to introduce ...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - If the rolling of eyes made a sound, you would have heard it from the state's uber-liberal Supreme Court. Earlier this year they appointed two panels of local judges to review lawsuits claiming Wisconsin's congressional maps are unfair. And both panels of judges - full of hand-picked liberals...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - You probably know the parable of the prodigal son. Jesus tells the story this way: A father has two sons. One son asks for his share of his inheritance early. He leaves home and squanders his money through reckless living. When his money runs out, he hires himself out to a pig farmer. He is s...

ONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Liberals are outraged that some January 6th defendants may get payouts from a new anti-government weaponization fund. It's been stocked with $1.8-billion. We can debate the merits of such a fund some other time. Today's issue is whether those who were swept up in the riot at the U.S. Capitol m...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - The final legal maneuvers before Hannah Dugan is sentenced will play out in the next two weeks. She's the Milwaukee County judge who was found guilty of helping an illegal immigrant avoid being arrested by ICE. She showed him and his lawyer to a side door that led from her courtroom to the st...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - When most Americans think of the good ole days, we are probably thinking back to the period just after World War II. The war was fought "over there" - or somewhere else. Our nation was not battle scarred. While the cities of Europe and Asia were in ruins, we emerged as the world's o...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - 90 years is a long time. Most historians believe that the Gospel of John was written 90 years after Jesus walked the earth. Many of Jesus' followers would have presumed that he would have come back by then. How soon Jesus would return was a confusing issue for the early church. Considering ho...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Reid DaLew knew exactly what he was going. He's the director of the Watertown High School wind ensemble. There's no other reason why he would have sent a note home with his students last October about 'Mother of a Revolution.' It's an instrumental piece dedicated to the memory of one of the ...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - World War I isn't taught properly in our history classes. We lack proper perspective. Back then, America was naive. We had a very small standing army, about 10,000 men. Our top general John Pershing was sent to France before we joined the fighting. He watched trench warfare through a telescop...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Could Governor Tony Evers and Republican legislative leaders try again? What are the chances that they might try to negotiate a new deal, to build on the proposal that was rejected in the state senate. It's doubtful. Would just changing the numbers work? I'd said before that a $300 tax rebate...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Over the weekend there was endless talk about the just concluded summit between the United States and China. Who won? Donald Trump or Xi Jing Ping? Did Trump give away too much? Did he mishandle Taiwan? Was it wrong not to get the Chinese involved in ending the war with Iran? Here is the most...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Each morning observant Jews pray before they get our of bed. They believe that when they sleep, their soul is with God in heaven. It is returned to them each morning as they awaken. "Dear God, thank you for seeing me through the night to another morning, and for setting this day before m...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - We think of retreats as a way to get away from the everyday hustle and bustle. That perhaps people of different backgrounds and different opinions might form bonds that let them work better together if they spend a weekend at a cabin on a lake somewhere. My church's board of elders might bene...

CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) - Did you know that Wisconsin has an Office of Environmental Justice? It's hard to find. It has no web site. It has no line item in the state budget. The office is run as part of the Governor's Department of Administration. It was originally funded by COVID grants; that money has since run out....