Nothing cuts through the cold dreariness of mid-February like a reminder to spread hope and kindness in the world. February 17 is Random Acts of Kindness Day – so take inspiration from this week’s stories and invest more in the humanity of others!

Downtown Delafield has a quintessential, cute small-town feel to it. Coffee shops, restaurants, craft shops, all not far from a picturesque lake. But if you were walking down the sidewalk, you’d have no idea that inside an unassuming office building is a sprawling warren of offices and conference rooms in which some cutting-edge work is being done.

The intersection of people, design and technology is a focus at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD). While the school has always had industrial and communication design majors, it now boasts an Innovation Center that works with emerging technologies such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

A report issued this week shows jobs in the solar industry in Wisconsin grew by 3 percent in 2018. But the state's largest electric utility, Milwaukee-based We Energies, also hopes more people will consider joining its company. 

The report by The Solar Foundation indicates the U.S. solar industry employed 242,000 people last year. That was down 3 percent nationally.

While Scott Walker was governor of Wisconsin for eight years, many people on both sides of the aisle believe his defining moment came in the earliest days of his tenure. That was the point at which a special legislative session resulted in the passage of Act 10, which greatly reduced the bargaining power of state employees.  

The Legislature went on to pass so-called Right to Work laws in 2015, which prohibit labor contracts requiring people to join a union if their job falls under certain categories.