Local heroes and the American Dream, building out parental choice, state of civil discourse
In 2025, the Badger Institute published more than 150 original pieces of journalism, data and policy analysis. Below you’ll find our 10 most-viewed stories of the year.
Thank you for the attention you give to these Top Picks each and every week. We look forward to serving you in 2026 with even more to make Wisconsin and its people the most prosperous in the nation.
Trevor Tomesh, a professor of computer science at the UW-River Falls, responded to the assassination of Charlie Kirk with an impromptu teaching: “We must pull back from this and encourage dialogue or the American project is dead.”
The biggest data centers planned for Wisconsin, the Microsoft project in Mount Pleasant and the Vantage project in Port Washington, are not a threat to local water systems or to Lake Michigan — a fact opponents either can’t believe or won’t admit.
Tony Evers has had enough and that’s not a good thing for Democrats.
More Wisconsinites (48%) approve of the way he handles his job than disapprove (46%), but that’s a lovefest in comparison to respondents’ view of the party of which Evers is a part.
A family’s huge bet on bettering the lives of thousands of Milwaukee children is moving a step closer to launch as St. Augustine Preparatory School starts taking names for its $104 million north campus in Glendale.
What’s happening in a south side neighborhood in Madison is the perfect illustration of why government should stay out of an intensely competitive business it knows nothing about.
Two-thirds of Americans under the age of 30 say they believe most people cannot be trusted, a dramatic generational shift, according to the results of a recent nationwide Marquette University Law School poll.
And building something bigger than a single-family house is going to get even more expensive as state bureaucrats impose a sweeping revision to the commercial building code.
Wisconsin teachers are more mobile than they used to be and some districts are less able to retain and possibly attract new teachers — leading to key questions about why some teachers desire some districts over others.
Beer production in a state that prides itself on its brewing heritage is down more than 15 percent in just the last four years, a victim of a confluence of local and national drinking trends.
The bright spot for alcohol enthusiasts is the rise of liquor production.
“I’ve gotten to know a lot of people running businesses in Door County who can’t keep employees because they don’t have a place to live,” says Connor Perry. “That is an ongoing challenge.”
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