Professional ballet in Wisconsin is limited to Milwaukee and Madison. The Wisconsin Dance Theatre — and its first original production debuting later this month — are bringing the art form outside of these big cities.
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Peninsula Players is recognized as the oldest resident summer theater program in the country. This summer, the company continues a nearly century-old legacy of performing in Door County.
The post Wisconsin theater company celebrates 90 years on stage appeared first on WPR.
The Monroe Arts Center opened in 1974. Now it’s launching a new exhibit preserving its history through the arts.
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Janesville native Don Zolidis has written more than 150 plays for young people. He is known for leaning into complex issues like death and mental health because, as he says, children can tell when you’re being dishonest.
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Steven Espada Dawson, originally from Los Angeles, is Madison’s seventh poet laureate. He joined WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” to discuss his debut poetry collection, “Late to the Search Party.”
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The Smart brand is very different now from what it was just a few years ago. Its diminutive cars like the ForTwo and ForFour are no more, and instead, the brand is now only building electric SUVs in China. However, according to a new report, it may be preparing to revive one of its most cult models: the Roadster.
Read: The Smart Roadster Could Stage A Comeback After 20 Years
Smart’s UK boss, Jason Allbutt, was recently asked about the chances of a new Roadster making it into production, and he sounded pretty enthusiastic about the idea. “We used to have one of those in the family, and [it was] particularly good fun,” he told Autoexpress.
He even acknowledged the UK’s reputation for rain, pointing out that the country gets “more rain than probably any other European market,” but still suggested there might be a chance for the Roadster to make a comeback locally, saying there’s a “possibility” it could be sold in the UK.
Smart’s Next Moves
However, Allbutt stopped short of confirming if or when a new Roadster could hit the market. Smart is currently focused on volume models that it hopes can sell in large numbers. In addition to the three SUVs it currently has in its range, it is working on its first-ever electric sedan, known as the #6.
The Smart #6 will be positioned as the brand’s rival to the Tesla Model 3 and could share its underpinnings with the Zeekr 007 sedan, utilizing the latter’s PMA2+ platform. It should be offered in single and dual electric motor setups.
Before Smart can commit to a new Roadster, it also needs to ensure that there will be enough demand for it. Obviously, it would be all-electric like the brand’s other models, and to carry some of the same appeal of the original, it would need to be small and light. Alpine is working on a new electric sports car, while Porsche is also morphing the Boxster and Cayman into EVs. Smart could also look to MG for inspiration as its Cyberster has proven it’s possible to build a desirable electric roadster.
Still, not everyone is sold on the idea of an electric sports car. Speaking with Auto Express, Allbutt expressed some doubt about whether an electric Roadster could truly capture the spirit of the original. “I think a lot of people that drive these cars historically have been traditional car enthusiasts,” he said.
“Part of the joy of having the roof down, in case you have less hair to be ruffled nowadays, is also to hear the sound of the engine,” he added. “Maybe there’s a new audience that would be looking at [an electric roadster] in a different way. I’m not quite sure yet as to who the buyers of that car really are. It’s too early to tell right now, but we’ll see.”
It’s a fair point, though the market for electric roadsters is still largely uncharted.
Note: This article contains renderings from an independent study made by designers Geoffrey Decembry and Pierre Senelet and is not endorsed in any way by Smart.
WPR's "BETA" talked with Dan Nadel about cartoonist Robert Crumb and his controversial art.
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Many organizations, like the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, were notified of abrupt grant terminations in an email on May 2.
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“Wildflowers of Wisconsin” is a crocheted mural depicting native flora and pollinators that’s on display at McKee Farms Park in Fitchburg. The Madison Public Art Project, the group behind the artwork, hopes that it inspires people to take better care of the environment.
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Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (Screenshot from committee webcast)
WASHINGTON — U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before Congress on Tuesday that a major report due out later this week from his agency will not disparage farmers or a commonly used pesticide.
Kennedy, who has long been critical of certain aspects of modern agriculture and processed food, at a U.S. Senate hearing urged lawmakers to read the widely anticipated “Make America Healthy Again” report once it’s published Thursday, but didn’t go into details about any possible recommendations.
“Everybody will see the report,” Kennedy said. “And there’s nobody that has a greater commitment to the American farmer than we do. The MAHA movement collapses if we can’t partner with the American farmer in producing a safe, robust and abundant food supply.”
His comments followed stern questioning from Mississippi Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who said she had read news reports from “reliable sources” that the MAHA Commission’s initial assessment “may unfairly target American agriculture, modern farming practices and the crop protection tools that roughly 2% of our population relies on to help feed the remaining 98%.”
“If Americans lose confidence in the safety and integrity of our food supply due to the unfounded claims that mislead consumers, public health will be at risk,” Hyde-Smith said. “I’ve said this before, and it’s worth saying again, countries have gone to war over many things — politics, religion, race, trade, natural resources, oil, pride, you name it — but threaten a nation’s food supply and allow people to go hungry. Let’s see what happens then.”
Hyde-Smith, who was her home state’s commissioner of agriculture and commerce from 2012 to 2018, probed Kennedy about his past work in environmental law and whether he might be inserting “confirmation bias” into the forthcoming report.
She asked Kennedy if he would try to change the current approval for glyphosate, a commonly used herbicide, that she referred to as “one of the most thoroughly studied products of its kind.”
“We’re talking about more than 1,500 studies and 50-plus years of review by the EPA and other leading global health authorities that have affirmed its safety when used as directed,” Hyde-Smith said. “Have you been able to review thousands of studies and decades of scientific review in a matter of months?”
Kennedy responded that her “information about the report is just simply wrong.”
“The drafts that I’ve seen, there is not a single word in them that should worry the American farmer,” Kennedy said.
Hyde-Smith continued her questioning and told Kennedy that it would be “a shame if the MAHA commission issues reports suggesting, without substantial facts and evidence, that our government got things terribly wrong when it reviewed a number of crop protection tools and deemed them to be safe.”
Several other Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee raised concerns during the two-hour hearing about how Kennedy has run HHS since they confirmed him in February.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins, chairwoman of the full Appropriations Committee, brought up the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which the Trump administration has called on Congress to eliminate.
“The LIHEAP program, which we’ve talked about, is absolutely vital for thousands of older Mainers and low-income families,” Collins said. “It helps them avoid the constant worry of having to choose between keeping warm, buying essential foods and medications and other basic necessities.”
Kennedy sought to distance himself from the president’s budget request, saying that he understands “the critical, historical importance of this program.”
“President (Donald) Trump’s rationale and (the Office of Management and Budget’s) rationale is that President Trump’s energy policies are going to lower the cost of energy … so that everybody will get lower cost heating oil,” Kennedy said.
Subcommittee Chairwoman Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., brought up several issues with Kennedy, including efforts to change how much the National Institutes of Health provides to medical schools and research universities for Facilities and Administrative fees, often called indirect costs.
NIH sought to set that amount at 15% across the board for any institution that receives a research grant from the agency, a significantly lower amount than many of the organizations had negotiated over the years, bringing about strong objections from institutions of higher education.
That NIH policy has not taken effect as several lawsuits work their way through the federal court system.
Kennedy indicated NIH has figured out a way to help medical schools and research universities pay for items like gloves, test tubes and mass spectrometers, particularly at state schools.
“In the public universities, we are very much aware that those universities are using the money well, that it is absolutely necessary for them. And we’re looking at a series of different ways that we can fund those costs through them,” Kennedy said. “But not through the independent, indirect cost structure, which loses all control, which deprives us of all control of how that money is spent.”
Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran, a Republican, brought up the measles outbreak and pressed Kennedy on whether HHS needed additional resources to help his home state and others get the virus under control.
Kennedy testified the “best way to prevent the spread of measles is through vaccination” and that HHS has been urging “people to get their MMR vaccines.”
South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds called on Kennedy to continue fixing issues created earlier this year when HHS fired people working on mine safety issues at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
“My office has learned that staff at NIOSH’s Spokane mining research division have been laid off. This office focuses on the unique challenges of Western mining operations that are often more geologically complex and exposed to harsher conditions,” Rounds said. “This division provides critical technical support for institutions like the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, which recently received a $1.25 million grant to improve underground mining safety. However, the grant has now been canceled due to loss of oversight from the Spokane office.
“This is not just a missed opportunity, it undermines our ability to meet national security goals tied to mineral independence and supply chain resilience.”
Kennedy testified that he’s been able to bring back 238 workers at the agency and said he would work with Rounds to address ongoing issues.
Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, a Republican, asked Kennedy about news reports earlier this year that HHS would ask Congress to zero out funding for Head Start, one of numerous programs left out of the administration’s skinny budget request. Head Start provides early learning, health, family and development programs for free for children from low-income families.
Kennedy testified that eliminating Head Start would likely not be in the full budget request, which is set to be released later this year, though the White House budget office has not said when. He said it would ask Congress to fully fund the program, but didn’t share a dollar amount.
“There’s 800,000 of the poorest kids in this country who are served by this program. It not only teaches the kids preschool skills — reading, writing and arithmetic — before they get to prepare them for school. But it also teaches the parents and teaches them how to be good parents.”
Kennedy said there are challenges faced by the Head Start program that he hopes to change during the next four years, including the quality of the food.
“The food they’re serving at Head Start is terrible. You need to change that,” Kennedy said. “We’re poisoning the poorest kids from their youngest years, and we’re going to change that.”
Andy Kaufman came on the comedy scene in the mid-1970s and befuddled his audience from the beginning. Alex Braverman was intrigued by Kaufman's cagy artistry, so he created the documentary, "Thank You Very Much," as an homage to Kaufman's brilliant career.
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In addition to the state’s Clean Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP), California has also awarded school districts $500 million to purchase zero-emission school buses and chargers.
The Zero-Emissions School Bus and Infrastructure (ZESBI) project selected 133 educational agencies to receive 1,000 zero-emission school buses and related charging infrastructure to school districts and other local educational entities. Statewide grants are expected to be finalized by the end of the year.
ZESBI is a program in collaboration between the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the California Energy Commission (CEC), and is administered by CALSTART, a nonprofit clean transportation organization.
“Cleaning up the state’s school bus fleet is central to California’s efforts to provide clean transportation in priority communities that are disproportionately hurt by air pollution,” stated CARB Chair Liane Randolph. “The vast majority of these grants will go to local educational agencies that serve these communities.”
Related: Update: Quebec Government Passes on Saving Lion Electric, Companys End Imminent
Related: Infrastructure Investor I Squared to Acquire National Express School Bus Contractors
Related: First Student’s Kenning Discusses School Bus Electrification, Technology Innovation
Meanwhile, HVIP is surging with voucher redemptions skyrocking by 177 percent from 2023 to 2024, with early 2025 data showing continued momentum. A press release states that in February alone, more than 200 HVIP-funded, zero-emission trucks and buses were deployed with $31 million in incentives.
“Over 15 years, HVIP invested $754 million, helping 2,000 fleets deploy 10,000 clean trucks and buses,” the release states, adding that the vehicles have logged more than 340 million miles.
The sale of new zero-emission trucks, buses and vans doubled in 2023, over the previous year, “representing one out of every six new vehicles sold for services including last-mile delivery, freight transportation, and school buses,” the release adds.
Several funding categories within HVIP have reached capacity, though funding remains through the transit set-aside and Innovative Small e-Fleets (ISEF) project. HVIP is also administered by CALSTART on behalf of the California Air Resources Board.
The post Despite Federal Funding in Peril, California State Funding for EVs Continues appeared first on School Transportation News.
Stela Burdt, who has built an impressive career in regional theater and is currently appearing as the engineer Hertha Ayrton in "The Half-Life of Marie Curie" at the Commonweal Theatre in Lanesboro, Minnesota.
The post Wisconsin native builds successful career in regional theatre close to home appeared first on WPR.
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