What can you find in this week's Isthmus? Highlights from the latest issue follow:
- Isthmus photo contest winners bring the funny.
- Watchdog: Online comments on news stories, especially regarding crime and courts, challenge local media.
- Jack Craver takes an open-eyed (and eye-opening) look at the Republican agenda for Wisconsin.
- Linda Baldwin weighs in on what's right with the Overture Center.
- Jay Rath talks to outgoing Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton about her tireless advocacy of Wisconsin creativity.
- Rich Albertoni profiles Dear August, the local Americana group that is releasing a new album -- and, simultaneously, disbanding.
- Jessica Steinhoff checks in with Here Come the Mummies, the masked, Nashville-based group that performs a well-preserved brand of original funk.
- Dean Robbins says A&E's reality show Strange Days with Bob Saget casts the much-derided star in a bracing new light.
- Marc Savlov reports that James Franco turns in the performance of his career in 127 Hours, about a trapped outdoorsman, while Tangled uses Disney's reliable princess formula in telling the Rapunzel story.
- Linda Falkenstein says Bub's Burger Joint is a place to get, well, burgers.
- Terese Allen examines this year's cookbook crop from Wisconsin.
- Michana Buchman visits Slack's Jam, outside of Lodi.
- Tell All: An outraged mom denounces Sarah Palin's parenting.
