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Kraig Kalka and Ken Brown, neighborhood officers in the central police district, rolled slowly down State Street on Wednesday looking for anyone who might be homeless. But State Street, normally bustling with students and pedestrians on a Wednesday afternoon, was a ghost town of mostly shuttered restaurants and stores. On a normal winter day, Kalka and Brown see about a dozen homeless individuals. On Wednesday, as temperatures plunged below 20 degrees with wind chills in the negative 40s, they saw none. “The collaboration that has happened in the last couple of years between the city, all entities: The Beacon, First…

The bottom line is there’s a tremendous gap between how many international students there are and how many international students we are reaching. Most of them are not being reached. One out of 300 people living in the United States is an international student. People living in college towns like Madison, Wisconsin, have a great opportunity to make an international impact for the Gospel.

The audience gathered in the Capitol rotunda Monday for Wisconsin’s annual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fell silent as Bernice Parks accepted the annual MLK Heritage Award on behalf of her daughter. Sandra Parks was killed this March at the age of 13 by a stray bullet fired into her home in Milwaukee. She had previously won an MLK essay contest, which she used to write about gun violence. “Please, please, I’m begging you, don’t forget my baby,” Bernice Parks said through tears. “I still look at her picture and say, how could this have happened? I still…

If Daniel Weiss has learned anything about the small towns of east-central Wisconsin, it’s that folks in the region he calls home care about what they eat. Say buzzwords like “organic,” “natural” and “superfoods” and — snap — people will organize fairs, farmers markets, farm-to-table workshops and debates about whether local free-range chickens have healthy social lives. “You can talk about fresh veggies and how important food issues are for their families,” said Weiss, leader of the Brushfires Foundation, a sexual-integrity ministry based in Omro, Wisconsin. “People in a secular society will bond together to talk about food and good…

The Madison Diocese is considering an investigation to learn how many substantiated sexual abuse allegations there have been against priests and other clergy members after the Green Bay Diocese announced Thursday that more than 40 priests there had abused minors. Meanwhile, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul may also be considering an investigation involving sexual abuse by clergy.

For the last three decades, the Rev. Bryan Sirchio has operated a freelance itinerant musical ministry. But recently the 60-year-old felt it was time be less “itinerant and more grounded in a local community.” Sirchio decided to ground himself at the McFarland United Church of Christ.

When members of United Methodist Church of Whitefish Bay toured a local school in Ghana, they were shocked to see that the school’s library did not have any books. The empty room was furnished with nothing but a couple desks, some chairs and several piles of pamphlets.

CAMERON, Wis. (WEAU) — For the past couple of months the community of Barron and beyond has been praying for a safe return of 13-year-old Jayme Closs. But after being reunited with her family last week, members of the church in Cameron where she grew up are saying a much different prayer on Sunday, one of thanks. It was a full house at St. Peter Catholic Church in Cameron as members were celebrating Jayme’s safe return. Our prayers have been answered and God is good,” said church member, JoAnn Trowbridge.

Turning a casual conversation toward religious beliefs can often result in long thoughtful silences, maybe a deep sigh and quite possibly the end of the friendly conversation. “Churchy,” a new play with a formula of two parts comedy and one part bluegrass music, is obviously aiming for a much different response to the subject when it premieres Jan. 6 at the Overture Center‘s Playhouse.

Turning a casual conversation toward religious beliefs can often result in long thoughtful silences, maybe a deep sigh and quite possibly the end of the friendly conversation. “Churchy,” a new play with a formula of two parts comedy and one part bluegrass music, is obviously aiming for a much different response to the subject when it premieres Jan. 6 at the Overture Center‘s Playhouse.