Judith Davidoff

4 weeks 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.

2 months ago | isthmus.com | Judith Davidoff

Americans, in general, don’t have a lot of trust in the media. Gallup has tracked the matter over the years, sticking with a question it first asked in 1972: “In general, how much trust and confidence do you have in the mass media — such as newspapers, TV and radio — when it comes to reporting the news fully, accurately and fairly?

2 months ago | isthmus.com | Judith Davidoff

Former UW-Madison assistant basketball coach Howard Moore survived a May 2019 car crash caused by an intoxicated driver as did his son, Jerrell, who was 12 at the time. His wife, Jennifer, and 9-year-old daughter, Jaidyn, died from their injuries along with Samantha Winchester, the drunk driver who was going the wrong way late on a highway outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Not long after leaving the hospital Moore suffered a debilitating heart attack. Less than a year later the world shut down.