WisPolitics.com: Wisconsin Waters

At 12:55 p.m., on Wednesday, April 24, 2002, at The Inn on the Park in Madison, the Rotary Club of Madison, known as "Downtown Rotary," will be addressed by Mr. John Nichols. The presentation will conclude by 1:30 p.m. Background information about Mr. Nichols from the latest "Rotary News" is included.

Members of the press are welcome to join the club for lunch, as a guest of the club, at a reserved place at the Media Table located in front of the podium. Suggested lunch arrival time for media is from 12 noon to 12:25 p.m. The club's general business meeting begins at 12:30 p.m. and, to avoid disruptions to the meeting, media are asked to set-up microphones or other equipment before that time.

Reporters who want to skip lunch but cover the speaker may sit at the Media Table or take any open chair in the room.

"Downtown Rotary" is made up of over 500 business and professional leaders and is one of the largest service clubs in the world. The club donates over $350,000 a year to scholarships for young people and to local community service organizations. The club is widely recognized for its outstanding program of weekly speakers who address a broad range of timely community issues.

JOHN NICHOLS @ ROTARY APRIL 24

Nichols to Discuss Wisconsin
Progressivism, Then and Today
"Nichols is a Quaker, although he does accept idol worship involving busts, photographs or other proven graven images of Robert M. LaFollette and William T. Evjue."
-- From personal data sheet submitted by John Nichols.

Last year editor Dave Zweifel wrote a column to explain that associate editor John Nichols was continuing his duties at the Madison newspaper while becoming Washington correspondent for Nation magazine, a national publication that helps carry the progressive torch nationally.
"He could work most anywhere in this profession, but he has chosen The Capital Times because he believes in Wisconsin's Progressive tradition and what William T. Evjue started here to keep that flame alive," Zweifel said about his protege.

Considered one of the nation's most knowledgeable and articulate speaker on the Progressive Movement is Madison newsman John Nichols who will speak Wednesday noon at the Madison Downtown Rotary club. The meeting is at the Inn on the Park.

Nichols, winner of many national journalism awards and honored four times by the Milwaukee Press Club as the best editorial writer in Wisconsin, grew up in rural Union Grove, just west of Racine, and was a frequent visitor to Madison where his grandparents lived. A 1981 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, he earned his master's degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1984.
Nichols said he "made the mistake of leaving his native state in search of higher education, a move which doomed (him) to a decade of labor in the journalistic salt mines of Miami, New York and Washington -- not to mention the more tolerable climes of Pittsburgh and Toledo."

Starting at the Toledo Blade in 1984 as a reporter covering economic development and neighborhoods, Nichols also worked as a copy editor, national editor and assistant managing editor for news and was promoted to associate editor and the newspaper's senior writer on national and international affairs. He coordinated the paper's coverage of the 1991 Persian Gulf War from Tel Aviv, Israel, and Amman, Jordan. He has done reporting from Mexico and speaks fluent Spanish. He also traveled to South Africa in 1994 to cover that nation's first all-race elections and interviewed Nelson Mandela, F. W. de Klerk and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

In addition to writing editorials and twice-weekly columns for The Capital Times, Nichols travels frequently as he writes about national politics for the Nation as a staff member. His articles have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, the New York Times, the Progressive magazine and other national publications. With Robert W. McChesney, Nichols is author of the book, "It's the Media, Stupid!" and a new book, "Jews for Buchanan: Did You Hear the One About the Theft of the American Presidency?"

Nichols is one of those rare journalists who is praised by his editor. Nichols "is a treasure not only for a newspaper our size, but for one of any size. He's enormously gifted, incredibly insightful, highly respected nationally -- and one of the most sincere and likable people you'll ever want to meet," Zweifel said.

The Program committee tries to respond to recommendations of club members and President Tom Popp suggested Nichols' presentation. Members are asked to report their plans for guests by contacting the club office by email (rotary @mailbag.com) or by telephone (255-9164) by Tuesday noon.
-- Submitted by Bill Robbins, Program chairman