Phil Hands political cartoon archive

So far, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has focused on shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development and made sweeping (possibly illegal) layoffs of government employees. But these two areas are just a tiny fraction of government expenses.

“Selecting the single words is much, much harder than you might think.  “My goal is not for it to be a call to arms, like ‘Fight.’ And I don’t want it to be pedantic, like ‘Peace’ or ‘Love.’"

Once again, Gov. Tony Evers tried to legalize marijuana in his proposed state budget, and once again, Republicans stripped it out.

Artificial intelligence data centers are cropping up all over the country, including in Wisconsin.

The Luke Fickell era of Badgers football is turning into a disaster. Fickell was paid big bucks to put together a championship-winning team for the University of Wisconsin. Instead the football program is performing worse than in has since the Don Morton era in the late 1980s.

Late night talk show hosts were having a tough time. TV viewing habits have changed over the last decade, and fewer and fewer Americans are tuning in on a regular basis to watch the programs live. Some of their clips went viral on the internet, but that wasn’t enough to make up for the millions of Americans who no longer watch live broadcast TV in an age of streaming.

Republican candidate Bill Berrien has dropped out of the race to be the next governor of Wisconsin.

World-renowned conservationist Jane Goodall, who changed the way we humans understood our closest primate relatives, has passed away. She was 91.

The U.S. federal government has officially shut down after Democrats refused to vote to approve a Republican-authored spending bill. Both parties have blamed the other side, and President Donald Trump has taken to posting juvenile AI-generated videos of Democratic leadership. We are in strange and unprofessional times in the federal government.

After finishing the season with the best record in baseball (and franchise history), the Milwaukee Brewers take on the Chicago Cubs in the National League Divisional Series this week. This team has been fun to watch all year long, and let’s hope they can keep the magic going throughout October.

Attorney General Josh Kaul has announced that he will be running for re-election in 2026 and won’t join the race to replace Gov. Tony Evers.

The federal government has been shut down for a week, and there are no signs that it will end anytime soon. Most federal workers are furloughed and not being paid. Some essential workers are being forced to work without being paid. But the members of Congress, who have refused to compromise and work together to end this shutdown, are still getting a paycheck.

President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has gotten out of hand.

Some folks in Madison are scared by new development and rezoning in neighborhoods. Others freak out over the mayor’s new 20 mph speed limit on many of Madison’s vital roads. But everyone is absolutely terrified about road construction on John Nolen Drive that will last for a couple of years.

American soybean farmers, including those in Wisconsin, have been devastated by President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Soybeans are America’s largest agricultural export, with half of that usually going to China. But as a result of Trump’s trade war, China has virtually stopped buying American soybeans.

President Donald Trump has weathered too many political scandals to count, but the only one that won’t go away is his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

More than 270,000 people in Wisconsin will see their health insurance premiums skyrocket if Congress can’t agree to extend subsidies for Obamacare health care plans. Nationwide, up to 17 million Americans could see their premiums increase.

Most Americans have barely noticed that the federal government has been shut down for the last month. But that could all change very soon. If Democrats and Republicans can’t come to an agreement, millions of Americans may miss out on their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

The Green Bay Packers are playing the Carolina Panthers at noon on Sunday. They’ve had a pretty good season and have been mostly fun to watch this year.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a former schoolteacher, has finally signed a bipartisan bill banning cellphones from classrooms across Wisconsin.

After several successful concerts at Camp Randall last summer, it was announced last week that Australian rock band AC/DC would play at the University of Wisconsin’s football stadium this July.

President Donald Trump has pardoned a slew of characters associated with his scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election. In Wisconsin, 10 Republican officials signed official-looking documents saying Trump won the election in December of 2020, after it was clear that Joe Biden had received more votes in Wisconsin. Those fake electors, and officials involved in similar schemes in other states, are receiving pardons.

House Democrats have released emails from notorious sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein that mention President Donald Trump.

Energy bills are on the rise, and a major culprit is the new data centers being built across Wisconsin. These massive facilities store the data needed to power artificial intelligence algorithms.

Officers from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Border Patrol have been terrifying immigrant communities across the country with brutal and indiscriminate raids in an effort to deport thousands of immigrants. Many of those caught up in the raids have been in the country legally, and some have even been U.S. citizens.

Every year before Thanksgiving, the president of the United States offers a pardon to a lucky turkey. It’s a long-running tradition and, usually, kind of cute.

Republican lawmakers have once again proposed a sandhill crane hunting season in Wisconsin. They argue that the once-endangered birds have made a dramatic comeback in the state and have become a nuisance to farmers by devouring seeds in fields. Apparently, they are also delicious, with some hunting groups calling them the “ribeye of the Sky.”

Wisconsin is a quintessential purple swing state. About half of the population regularly votes for Republicans, and the other half are reliable Democratic voters. But you wouldn’t think that looking at the state’s congressional delegation.

Wisconsin Badgers football coach Luke Fickell had another rough season, finishing the year 4-8. Sure, the team won a few games, but it was still a disaster with losses to mediocre teams like Maryland and Minnesota, and back-to-back shutouts at home against Iowa and Ohio State.

For years, the Wisconsin State Journal would put wrapping paper in the newspaper as a gift to readers.

Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host tapped to lead Donald Trump’s Department of Defense, has been a controversial pick. Earlier in his tenure, he decided to change his title from Secretary of Defense to Secretary of War. But after deadly strikes on boats supposedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean, Hegseth might need to change his title again — to Secretary of War Crimes.

The race for governor heated up this week when former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes announced his candidacy. Barnes has the highest name recognition among the Democratic candidates, thanks in large part to his failed effort to unseat Sen. Ron Johnson in 2022. But it should still be an interesting primary full of engaging candidates, with a varying degree of political talent from across the State.

Madison’s Metro Transit system ended up with a nearly $5.75 million hole in its budget this year. It sounds like city staff forgot to account for the raises it promised bus drivers and didn’t anticipate increased costs to operate the new bus rapid transit system. It also appears that they overestimated what they would receive in fare box revenue.

The Green Bay Packers defeated the Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field on Sunday night in dramatic fashion, with a last-second interception sealing the deal. The Packers now own the best record in their division with only a few weeks left in the season and appear poised for a deep run into the playoffs.

Just like Ebenezer Scrooge ignored the plight of the poor in Charles Dickens’ classic story, “A Christmas Carol,” President Donald Trump ignored Americans who are concerned about affordability. He has even gone so far as to call affordability a “hoax.”

Many Madison homeowners were shocked by the massive property tax bills they received recently. The property taxes on the average Madison home valued at $481,300 are going up about $871 to $8,614. That’s about an 11% increase.

WisconsinEye, the service that streamed live sessions from the statehouse, has fallen on tough times. The organization, which functioned like a Wisconsin-specific version of C-SPAN, failed to raise enough donations to plug a hole in its budget and has gone dark.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Happy New Year, everyone. With President Donald Trump in office, 2025 was a wild year that tested the strength of our democratic institutions.

The United States launched a brazen pre-dawn attack on Venezuela on Jan. 3 and abducted its leader, Nicolás Maduro. American officials claim the assault was not a military adventure, but a law enforcement action with Maduro and his wife facing drug trafficking charges in the U.S. Maduro has been an awful president of the oil-rich nation, and nearly everyone agrees that he only remained in power due to stealing the most recent election. Hopefully, the people of Venezuela will be better off without him, but any transition will be exceedingly difficult.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis this week. The Trump administration claims that the agent acted in self-defense and that the woman weaponized her car in an act of domestic terrorism. Video of the incident appears to contradict that account.

Bob Weir, who at age 17 helped found the Grateful Dead, an iconic San Frasisco psychedelic rock band, passed away this weekend. He was 78.

President Donald Trump was elected on the promise that he would put “America First.” But instead of focusing on issues like affordability and inflation affecting everyday Americans, Trump seems obsessed with international interventions in places like Venezuela, Greenland and Iran.

Last week, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a 37-year-old mother of three in Minneapolis. Videos show the officer firing several shots into the SUV Renee Good was driving. Immediately after the shooting, Trump administration officials claimed that Good was a “domestic terrorist” who “weaponized” her vehicle to attack an ICE officer. Others claimed that Good was trying to get away and questioned whether the officer was struck by her vehicle.

Nearly half of the new electric buses used on Madison’s brand-new bus rapid transit system are down for maintenance. This has forced Metro Transit to reduce the frequency of bus service from every 15 minutes to every 30 minutes on some major routes. That defeats the purpose of having a high-capacity and high-frequency service, and it won’t encourage more commuters to give up their cars for a quick ride on the bus.

President Donald Trump is obsessed with controlling Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. He hasn’t ruled out a military invasion of the massive island with a tiny population.

Republican lawmakers in the Assembly and Senate are trying to get a constitutional amendment referendum on the ballot to rein in Gov. Tony Evers’ massive veto power.

Federal agents killed another person in Minneapolis on Saturday morning, while the city is still mourning the shooting death of Renee Good earlier this month.

After every horrific school shooting this nation suffers through (on a much too regular basis), Republican leaders and conservatives are quick to tell people not to blame the guns for the atrocities. They say they’ll support tougher security in schools and more funding for mental health — anything besides tougher gun laws that they claim would infringe on the rights of gun owners.

It looks like U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Minocqua, will be the Republican candidate for governor for this fall’s election. This week, he secured the endorsement of President Donald Trump, solidifying his support among GOP voters, and his main competition, Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann, dropped out of the race.

It looks like a proposed data center in DeForest won’t get built anytime soon. Residents of the village just north of Madison seemed particularly upset about the plan from QTS to build 16,000 acre facility in their rural community. Neighbors organized, groups protested and in the end, a majority of Village Board members signaled that they wouldn’t support the project.

On a recent podcast appearance, President Donald Trump argued that Republicans should “nationalize” and “take over” election administration throughout the country.

Wisconsin Supreme Court elections have become big-money affairs in recent years, with the last two elections being the most expensive in the history of judicial elections in the United States. During those campaigns, Democrats routinely bemoaned the evils of money in politics and how donors were corrupting the court.

Several athletes from Wisconsin are representing Team USA in this year’s Winter Olympic Games in Italy.

Try as he might, President Donald Trump can’t get the salacious story about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to go away.

State legislators have rushed through a bill that would give the University of Wisconsin athletic department nearly $15 million a year.

President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. As usual, it was a theatrical event heavy on the showmanship and light on the policy.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, who is not seeking a third term, has proposed a special session of the Legislature to once and for all end the shameful practice of partisan gerrymandering in our state. The biggest obstacle to this good government reform has been Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, but now that he has announced he is retiring from politics, he is also supportive of the governor’s special session.

Amtrak says it plans to bring passenger rail back to Madison by 2030, much sooner than previously expected, and before Madison will be able to build a new train station Downtown. This is welcome news for a city full of young and progressive people who are eager for connections with train service.

Americans aren't excited about the candidates for the 2024 election in the latest cartoon from Phil Hands. 

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has one of the most powerful veto pens in the country, and is being sued by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce for abusing that power.

Criminal charges were brought against the recently retired warden of the Waupun Correctional Institution, as well as eight other staffers. Four inmates have died in the prison in recent months under terrible circumstances. One had been dead in his cell for 12 hours and another died of dehydration after staff intermittently turned off the water in his cell.

"Oh my gosh, I’m so much more hopeful and enthusiastic," one 26-year-old voter said. "I feel like there’s hope, and the United States is going to progress even further now."

The presidential race is close and will likely be decided by a handful of swing states, including Wisconsin. The dairy state narrowly voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and narrowly picked Joe Biden in 2020. This year, the polling appears to be less close, and of all the swing states, Kamala Harris has the strongest lead in Wisconsin.

The scourge of school shootings has come to Madison, Wisconsin. A student at Abundant Life Christian School on Madison's East Side brought a gun to school Monday and, according to police, killed a teacher and another student. Police, who responded quickly to the incident, found the shooter dead at the school. Six other people were injured, including two with life threatening injuries.

The Green Bay Packers defeated the Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field on Sunday night in dramatic fashion, with a last-second interception sealing the deal. The Packers now own the best record in their division with only a few weeks left in the season and appear poised for a deep run into the playoffs.

A study paid for in part by local developers in Madison claims that UW-Madison doesn’t need to build any new dormitories and that there is plenty of housing near campus. That’s not what you hear from students who claim dorms are overcrowded and that housing near campus is increasingly unaffordable.