columns

Dave Knoke gave the best acceptance speech I’ve heard at a Hudson Area Chamber of Commerce Awards Banquet. I hope the former UW-River Falls linebacker doesn’t mind when I say I wasn’t expecting it from him. He had a team-leading 119 tackles for the Falcons in 1986 and looks...

Get me the manager! -- Chuck Nowlen, reporter Yes, I still break patio bricks with my hands and feet. I still repeat an hour’s worth of my black belt test twice a week in the winter. I still go 10 rounds with a heavy bag too. When I can find a trained sparring partner,...

The NFL playoffs started last weekend, but for Packer fans the action starts this coming weekend when Green Bay hosts the Dallas Cowboys. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves -- on New Year’s Day the Wisconsin Badgers surprised me and pulled out a 34-31 overtime win over Auburn...

Hudson is a newspaper reporter’s dream. There’s always something happening -- and 2015 promises to be especially intriguing. Let’s start with the spring election. If everyone who has declared themselves a candidate completes the nomination process, there will be races...

If being thankful burned calories, I might give it more thought throughout the year. But as I seem to be getting a little grouchier with every new birthday, I amglad there is an official holiday to make me pause and reflect about just how lucky I have been. Things haven’t...

As I was covering the elections last Tuesday night, it became obvious early in the process that the referendum for a new Hudson High School was doomed. Before the night started, I had no idea which way it would go. There is no polling for this sort of thing. So what do we make...

By the time this appears in print, Hudson voters will have decided whether or not to build a new high school on the south side of the city. The acrimony, sadly, is likely to continue. I wish it wasn’t so. There was a time when I jumped into these debates with glee, but...

--Meg Heaton, Hudson Star Observer There always seems to be some drama when it comes to deciding things in Hudson. Maybe that’s OK if it gets people interested, but only if we don’t let it distract from the real issue at hand. When it comes to the referendum,...

I don’t know exactly how or when it happened, but somewhere along the line, the Avenue Bar in Madison became the watering hole of choice for an army of state politicians. I’d quaff a few soda pops with them every Friday afternoon with my Madison Magazine colleagues, former...

With the Twins and Brewers out of any postseason baseball, it’s hard to get overly excited about the playoffs, but it still has my interest because of one team -- the Kansas City Royals. I’m probably not alone in hoping they get to the World Series and -- against all odds -- win...

The news from the Federal Reserve that college loan debt has reached $1.2 trillion -- second only to home mortgages as a category of household debt -- prompted me to have a long-overdue conversation with my second-born. Over a burger and fries at the Oakwood Inn up north, my...

After being around for the construction of the Hudson Middle School, Hudson Prairie Elementary, River Crest, a major remodel at Willow River Elementary and additions at the middle school and Houlton and Rock, there is no perfect location, no perfect time and no perfect price when...