Author

Ruth Conniff
Ruth Conniff is Editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Examiner, part of the States Newsroom network. She formerly served as Editor-in-chief of The Progressive Magazine where she worked for many years from both Madison and Washington, DC.
The right-wing assault hits close to home
By: Ruth Conniff - July 14, 2022
And a case from North Carolina threatens to topple American democracy It’s pretty hard not to take it personally when the highest court in the land erases your humanity. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has rolled back a woman’s right to choose whether to have an abortion, the power of the state reaches right through us, deciding what happens inside our bodies. What we think and feel doesn’t matter. It doesn’t get more personal than that.
Wisconsin jury finds Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts
By: Ruth Conniff - November 19, 2021
Kyle Rittenhouse, the white teenager who shot three people, killing two of them, during Black Lives Matter protests in downtown Kenosha, was found not guilty of all the charges against him on Friday. The Kenosha County jury in the Rittenhouse murder trial found that Rittenhouse acted in self-defense when he fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum […]
Republicans torpedo debate on voting rights in dangerous moment for democracy
By: Ruth Conniff - October 22, 2021
When Senate Republicans voted unanimously to block debate on the Freedom to Vote Act on Wednesday, they fulfilled Mitch McConnell’s “hope and anticipation” that not a single GOP senator would break ranks — ensuring that a measure protecting voting rights and secure elections, increasing campaign finance transparency and cracking down on partisan gerrymandering would not […]
On Earth Day 2021, ‘a complicated dance between hope and despair’
By: Ruth Conniff - April 22, 2021
Environmentalist Tia Nelson, daughter of Earth Day’s founder, reflects on what it will take to save the planet On Thursday, the 51st anniversary of the first annual Earth Day on April 22, 1970, Tia Nelson will be speaking to a classroom full of fourth graders in the school named after her father in the town […]
Update from Wisconsin: Election 2020 is finally over
By: Ruth Conniff - December 15, 2020
Trump and the GOP fail to subvert the will of the voters The Electoral College vote affirming the election of Joe Biden as the next president of the United States made official what we’ve known since early November — that Biden won and President Donald Trump lost. But Trump turned what should have been a […]
Dissecting Trump’s weird, rambling Rose Garden speech on policing reform
By: Ruth Conniff - June 17, 2020
Was anyone comforted by Donald Trump’s Rose Garden speech announcing his executive order on safe policing? “There are bad police officers,” Trump acknowledged, “but they are very tiny.” This statement came after the president assured the families of Black people killed by police, “We are going to pursue what we said we will be pursuing, […]