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Veterans Day 2026 lands on Wednesday, November 11 — smack in the middle of a work week, which is exactly where it belongs for those of us who run Wisconsin businesses. It’s a day with a specific origin: the armistice that ended the fighting of World War I took effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918. Congress made it a federal holiday as Armistice Day, and in 1954 renamed it Veterans Day to honor everyone who has worn the uniform, in every era, living or gone. Memorial Day is for the fallen. Veterans Day is for the living. That distinction matters, because the people we’re honoring this week are our neighbors, our customers, our employees, and — in a lot of Wisconsin shops — the person running the second shift. Here’s what I’d suggest a Wisconsin business owner actually do about it. Three things: honor, hire, and buy local. Veterans Day 2026: First, a little perspective on Wisconsin veterans The U.S. Census Bureau counts...

Labor Day 2026 arrives on Monday, September 7, and it offers Wisconsin business owners something more valuable than a long weekend: a genuine opportunity to reflect on the people who make everything work.  From the shop floors of our manufacturers to the front desks of our professional service firms, from construction sites to clinics, Wisconsin runs on the skill and dedication of its workforce.  This Labor Day, let’s take a moment to consider what the holiday really means — and how your business can honor it in ways that matter. A Holiday Rooted in Respect for Work Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894, born of the American labor movement’s push to recognize workers’ contributions to the nation’s strength and prosperity. More than 130 years later, the spirit of the holiday remains the same: work matters, and the people who do it deserve recognition. That message resonates deeply in Wisconsin.  Ours is a state built on making things — paper, machinery, fo...

This Independence Day 2026 is unlike any the United States has marked in living memory. On July 4, 2026, our nation turns 250 — the Semiquincentennial — commemorating the day in 1776 when the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence ( archives.gov ). A quarter of a millennium is a long time to keep a promise. And an anniversary this big is a good excuse to ask a simple question: when we light the fireworks and fire up the grill, what exactly are we celebrating? The 1776 Declaration of Independence, reflecting what mattered most to the founders. What Mattered Most to the Founders It’s easy to let the parades, brats, and bottle rockets become the whole point. I love all of it — I’m a Wisconsin guy, after all. But the founders weren’t risking their necks for a long weekend. When they signed their names to the Declaration, they pledged “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor” to a single radical idea: that liberty is a natural rig...