Judith Davidoff

1 week ago | isthmus.com | Esther Launstein |Judith Davidoff

Neighborhood House Community Center and The Alexander Company have parted ways on a project to redevelop the center into a multi-story, mixed-use building with a community center and apartment units, some earmarked as affordable units. In response to a query from Isthmus, Kendra Bishop, director of business development for The Alexander Company, confirmed in a statement, prepared in partnership with the center, that her firm would no longer be the developer on the project.

2 weeks ago | isthmus.com | Judith Davidoff

When Isthmus brings on new interns, I usually make it a practice to introduce them to the city’s online legislative information center. Legistar, as it’s commonly called, is truly the portal to city government. It hosts information on city committees, tracks legislation, and posts notices of upcoming meetings. The intern and I go through that week’s list of committee meetings to review the agenda items on each meeting notice.

1 month ago | isthmus.com | Judith Davidoff |Jason Joyce

Legendary Madison journalist Fred Milverstedt, who co-founded Isthmus in 1976 with Vince O’Hern, has died. Mike Baron, a comic book author and former Isthmus writer, reported the news Monday on his Substack. Milverstedt was a Madison native, graduating from West High School in 1960.

1 month ago | isthmus.com | Judith Davidoff

Linda Grenzer runs Loon Rescue out of Tomahawk, Wisconsin, with her husband, Kevin. Wednesday night Grenzer posted on Facebook an update to the two-day saga of a wounded loon spotted on Lake Monona. “A Madison Community Coming Together to Save a Loon in Distress,” she wrote. “Once rescued a disturbing find that X-rays revealed!” The group was alerted to the “hooked” loon Monday morning by Nate Stade and Andy Swartz, who saw it near Olbrich Park.

1 month ago | isthmus.com | Judith Davidoff

Last month I wrote about trust in the media. In a nutshell: Americans generally distrust national media, but generally trust local media. The more people are connected to their community, the more they are likely to engage with local news and trust local news. The reverse is also true. The more informed people are, the more connected and active people are in their communities. That puts a lot of pressure on us in the news-gathering business to keep people informed.