Author

Christina Lieffring

A photo shows the author seated at a table at a sidewalk cafe, facing the camera.

Christina Lieffring is Tone Madison’s Managing Editor, a free-wheelin’ freelancer, and lifelong Midwesterner.

Christina's Latest Articles

Distorted image of the stage display at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee for the first day with the theme "Make America Wealthy Once Again."
A wealthy party of impoverished ideas

The economic and substantive crater of the RNC.

T-shirts in multiple colors are shown against an orange background. The T-shirts are printed with an illustration that depicts a horse wearing a police hat and a necklace that reads “Mom,” all placed within a gilded frame with a dollar sign at the top. Images of roses and diamonds float outside the frame.
Get yourself a “horse cop mom” T-shirt to support Tone Madison

You can now wear Rachal Duggan's wonderful, absurd illustration for one of our strangest political stories.

A photo shows a fighter jet in mid-air, facing toward the camera, engaged in a vertical landing maneuver. Visible in the foreground is the roof of a large flat building and a siren speaker.
The free market will not solve Madison’s jets-vs.-housing problem

As centrists fall for the fantasy, who will end up living in the flight path?

A photo shows a wide view of a protest encampment on Library Mall. Several brightly colored tents are pitched in the center of a concrete plaza, while large groups of demonstrators stand along the edges of the plaza.
What we learned from UW-Madison’s pro-Palestine encampment

How this protest fits into recent history, what to carry moving forward, and what to leave behind.

A wide photo of an elementary school cafeteria. Adults fill most of the cafeteria benches with papers on the numbered tables.
East-siders brought a wealth of tough questions to Madison’s first “budget engagement” of the year

As the City of Madison faces a $27 million deficit for 2025, residents are digging into the details and hashing out priorities.

Illustration: Cube-like abstract shapes against an orange background. Illustration by Maggie Denman.
Tone Madison’s 2023 Annual Report

Breaking down the finances, challenges, and triumphs of our ninth full year in operation.

Photo of the author’s hand holding paper and hardback copies of "The Color of Law" and "Just Action" in front of a beige wall.
Richard Rothstein on our long history of housing segregation, and how communities can roll it back today

As Madison faces continuous housing crises, the author of "The Color Of Law" offers a wealth of context and strategy that could help Madison navigate its current housing crisis.

Graphic is an abstraction of ballot bubbles, dashes, and writing.
Zuckerbucks and clusterfucks

A very silly conspiracy theory and the selective memory that reinforces it.

A photo shows UW-Oshkosh’s mascot, Clash, sitting in a booth in a campus building, working on a laptop computer. Clash is a figure dressed in black with a gold cape, helmet, and cuffs, and a shirt that reads “UW-Oshkosh Titans.”
Witnessing the UW-System’s austerity from the inside

Ongoing cuts raise unanswered questions: who gets to access education? And to what end?

A multicolored map of newly drawn Wisconsin Assembly districts is shown over a blue background. The map is blurred and indistinct in parts, clearer in others, suggesting that some parts of the state are still coming into focus for the viewer.
Rural districts are fair again, but can Democrats win them over?

To take advantage of new maps, the party needs to reverse a long pattern of withdrawal and neglect.