This year, Wisconsin students will learn 2011 is the 100th anniversary of when Wisconsin became the first state to pass a law guaranteeing workers' compensation. They'll probably be taught that the state was a major fighter in the early 19th century for the radical idea of an eight-hour workday. It is the law, after all, in the land of cheese and Super Bowl champs, that school curriculums include Wisconsin's organized labor history.

There is no daily newspaper in the country that does not have a business page, or at least a stock market report. That’s important if you’re among the top 10% of the population, financially, who own about 90% of all stocks. Less so if you’re one of the 130 million Americans who work for a living, or the 12 million who’d like to work but can’t find a job. But can you think of a newspaper that has a reporter, let alone a page, dedicated to labor issues?

To many people who have been paying attention, "bloggers v. journalists" is almost the definition of a played-out theme. Aren’t we past all that by now? I know this is what some people will be thinking because I thought that way myself. Blogging is far more accepted today. Most journalists are bloggers themselves, so the distinction is getting weirder. Many newsrooms are trying to attract bloggers into local networks. Blogging itself has been overtaken by social media, some people think.