As the year winds down, we’re reflecting on the work we produced in 2025, including what we learned and who we met along the way — from ‘just plain old Larry’ Jones to Darnell Price.
In that spirit, we asked each of our reporters to pick their favorite story written by a colleague (Secret Santa style!). We’ve rounded up their picks below. While this isn’t a comprehensive summary of our work from an eventful year, it illustrates our broader effort to make Wisconsin’s communities stronger, more informed and connected through our journalism.
If you have a favorite Wisconsin Watch story, we’d love to hear it. Email me at jmalewitz@wisconsinwatch.org.
— Jim Malewitz
Older adults make up 1 in 5 suicides in Wisconsin. Here’s what can be done to fix that.
Suicide is a leading cause of death in the U.S., and experts agree that it can be prevented — in part, by talking about it. But when we talk about this public health crisis, how many of us think about people over age 65? This story by Wisconsin Watch intern Sreejita Patra, packed with statistics and human details, explains why we should. Sreejita talked to a variety of experts, including people who’ve attempted suicide themselves, to understand why older people are at higher risk and what efforts are underway to protect them.
— Natalie Yahr
Wisconsin pig farmer holds on at Wonderfarm as Washington breaks a promise
Amid the flurry of federal funding cuts this year, Bennet Goldstein invited readers to slow down for a few minutes to walk in the shoes of Jess D’Souza, a pig farmer in Dane County. D’Souza was on track to finally break a profit this year. Then the Trump administration slashed the program that boosted her pork sales.
Goldstein’s writing places you on the farm and inside D’Souza’s mind as she ruminates on what the decision means for her business — and her dreams. The package included a behind-the-scenes video, produced in collaboration with Joe Timmerman, with animal sounds to boot. I came away with something that the best kind of journalism gives: empathy for someone who lives a wildly different lifestyle than I, and a clear understanding of why the issue at hand matters to real people.
— Miranda Dunlap
How this rural Wisconsin community college raised grads’ wages — and saved its accreditation
I have loved seeing Wisconsin Watch’s new pathways to success reporters cover our webpage with solutions-focused stories this year. One of Natalie Yahr’s first stories about a local community college sticks out as one of my favorites. The underdog story highlights Southwest Wisconsin Technical College’s journey from nearly losing accreditation to winning an award known as the “Oscars of great community colleges.” It’s powerful to read about Wisconsinites finding solutions for their communities.
— Addie Costello
In Joe Timmerman’s story with Janelle Mella about Brown County volunteers counting the homeless in the middle of the night, the writing and photos showed me a place I didn’t know existed. The images and quotes from the volunteers and the people they counted put me on the scene. I appreciate Joe’s conscientiousness in approaching stories. He seems to keep the people he’s photographing or writing about foremost in his mind, and it shows in the work he produces.
— Tom Kertscher
Here’s why Wisconsin Republican lawmakers pass bills they know Gov. Tony Evers will veto
This story was a great example of a Wisconsin Watch forté: identifying a persistent, unanswered community question, then taking pains to locate a satisfactory explanation. Brittany Carloni interviewed reams of sources to help readers understand the seemingly intractable and futile operations of the Legislature: All too often, politicians spend their time pandering to their bases during an election year with symbolic bills rather than engaging in actual governance. We hear from experts rather than the usual talking heads and spokespeople. Brittany raises a broader question that synthesizes larger themes only revealed when the writer takes the long view, getting beyond the daily drip of news headlines.
— Bennet Goldstein
I work pretty regularly with Tom Kertscher and his reporting, especially on his fact briefs, so I might be a little biased. He’s a fact-checking powerhouse, and one of my favorite stories of his leans into those strengths. It focuses on Wisconsin’s permanently disabled workers who haven’t received a raise in worker’s compensation in nine years. I also had the privilege of creating a companion video for it, so it’s near and dear to me.
It’s an underreported issue affecting people who are often overlooked. Tom does a great job weaving together the voices at the heart of this story while explaining laws with very real consequences for them.
The story opens with a vignette of Jimmy Novy, who, at the time of the interview, had just $8 in his checking account to last him through the month. Novy was exposed to toxic levels of manganese while working at a battery factory in Wonewoc during the Vietnam War, leaving him with neurological issues that severely affect his ability to walk. While permanently disabled workers like Novy stretch every dollar, Wisconsin employers have been saving hundreds of millions of dollars each year in worker’s compensation insurance premiums.
This story lays out the facts clearly despite the issue being complicated. Tom explains the stagnation in worker’s compensation — why it’s happening and what might come next for the people living with its consequences.
— Trisha Young
Paul Kiefer joined the newsroom earlier this year at a time when immigration reporting felt about as important as ever. His dogged approach to find local, human-centered stories addressing the national topic of immigration hasn’t ceased to impress. In this story, Paul reported on sides of the H-2A work visa program, revealing the struggles that both workers and farmers face through it, that I had never considered before. Beyond Paul’s rich understanding of immigration processes, ability to unravel complex laws and personability that allows him to find strong sources, the enlightening data visualization and powerful photography he used to help tell the story were the cherries on top.
— Joe Timmerman
Nuclear power could return to Kewaunee County. Some locals have reservations.
Miranda Dunlap is a gifted reporter who builds deep relationships with the people she interviews. When she investigates the possibility of reviving the shuttered Kewaunee Power Station, she doesn’t stop at the fences. Instead, she listens to residents of surrounding communities and amplifies their perspectives that might otherwise go unheard. Her journalism reflects the very spirit and mission of Wisconsin Watch.
— Hongyu Liu
Dammed if we don’t: Could mock beaver dams revive Wisconsin wetlands?
There’s a moment in this video produced by Trisha Young that nearly swerves into the genre of Fred Armisen and Bill Hader’s mockumentary called “Documentary Now.” Asked from a distance whether his family still lives in the area, Jim Hoffman responds by asking “beaver?” He might have misheard the question, or he might be asking for clarification. Did Bennet Goldstein, the question-asker, mean his beaver family or his human family?
I think our writing — and video editing, in this case — should have personality, even surrealism whenever possible. The world is surreal, and readers might appreciate a recognition of the topsy-turvy ways of the world from journalists who are supposed to document life accurately.
Trisha, possibly because she is exceedingly well-read and possibly because she is such a Wisconsinite, is unusually capable of incorporating personality into her work. This video embraces the seemingly absurd — portage routes for beavers — without an aggressive wink-wink-nudge-nudge. It’s a tour de force. Bravo, and merry Christmas.
— Paul Kiefer
As living costs soar, tax relief shrinks for low-income Wisconsin residents
As a policy and history nerd, I particularly enjoyed Hongyu Liu’s reporting on the withering impact of Wisconsin’s homestead property tax credit and how little it has changed over the years to help those who need it. I’ve become a big fan of how Hongyu uses data to visualize and break down challenging topics, which he does several times in this story including showing how the eligibility levels to receive homestead credits have largely remained stagnant while inflation has skyrocketed. Hongyu’s reporting also explains both the early and recent history of the homestead credit and features real people in Wisconsin who are impacted by receiving smaller dollar amounts at a time when individuals across the country are worried about affordability. It’s a smart story and the kind of work I like to bring up in conversations at the Capitol.
— Brittany Carloni
Margaret Shreiner is who I want to be when I grow up, and she’s only a grade my senior. After her brilliant story on Wisconsin’s public defender shortage was published in September — centering around Wisconsin mother Tracy Germait and her struggle to find legal representation for years after being charged on felony drug charges — a criminal justice attorney took on Germait’s case within days. Through months of thoughtful, diligent reporting, Maggie has effected real, tangible change for a Wisconsinite disadvantaged by the problems within our government. I couldn’t be more proud of her!
— Sreejita Patra
Forgotten homes: Promise and peril in manufactured housing
Addie Costello’s persistence as a reporter and compassion for others shine through in this Wisconsin manufactured housing series. Her ability to take a tip and turn it into a thorough investigation demonstrates her talent as a journalist. Addie dedicated so much time and effort into listening to sources, pulling state records and filling in gaps when telling this story, but her attention to detail makes the result appear seamless. Her reporting not only exposes the ongoing issue but provides solutions and resources to individuals impacted, again showing the care that she brings to her work and those who may be affected. The companion piece on Addie’s takeaways from this series highlights her devotion to the stories she pursues and illustrates the time she dedicates to listening to her sources. The entire manufactured housing series is a must read.
— Margaret Shreiner
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
‘Secret Santa’ picks: Our favorite stories of 2025 is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Tyler Stafslien is a fourth-generation farmer who’s worked his family’s land in central North Dakota for about 20 years. Roughly half of his 2,500 acres is typically dedicated to soybeans, a major crop in the state and in the Mississippi River Basin. But growing soybeans has become less profitable over the last decade as input costs rose and the Trump administration’s tariff negotiations in 2018 and 2025 destabilized trade and strained farmers’ incomes.
This year, wary of the precarious export market, Stafslien decreased his soybean acres by half.
“We’ve been experiencing in ag, the last couple of years, a downturn in commodity prices, a lot of that related to just a large supply across the globe of major commodities, but then you add this trade war on top of it, and it’s like the icing on the cake,” Stafslien said.
The administration this month announced a $12 billion fund for one-time payments to row crop farmers to offset a portion of their inflation- and trade-related losses in the 2025 crop year.
Farmers were asking for the federal relief funds and are happy the administration is finally answering, said Stafslien. But he’s still facing uncertainty. The administration has yet to announce how much money per acre eligible growers will be receiving, and the funds will not be distributed until February, further stressing farmers like him with large debt and growing interest.
“Payments announced this week must be followed by additional and expedient efforts to keep farmers on the land and to improve the farm safety net, leaving annual bailouts as cautionary historical context rather than ongoing policy,” David Howard, policy development director of the National Young Farmers Coalition, wrote in a statement earlier in December.
Farmers and farming associations are looking for longer-term solutions: to diversify trade partners and increase domestic uses for soybeans as export revenues become less certain. Some, like Stafslien, are shifting to other crops, like corn and wheat.
Soybeans are the largest agricultural export in the U.S. The legume covers more than 81 million acres — or 10% — of all U.S. farmland, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in September, and more than 40% of the nation’s soybeans are exported to other countries.
U.S. farmers received $24.5 billion from soybean exports in 2024, with Chinese purchases accounting for $12.6 billion – roughly twice the amount purchased by the next five largest export partners combined, according to USDA data.
But this year, China stopped purchasing U.S. soybeans during tariff negotiations with the Trump administration, instead falling back on its relationships with Brazil and other South American countries to meet its soybean needs. For U.S. soybean farmers, this growing season ends with low prices, unsold harvests, big financial losses and uncertainty going into the next season despite a tentative new deal with China.
“We learned firsthand that being heavily reliant on China for export sales is only good when things are good,” said Andrew Muhammad, University of Tennessee professor of agricultural and resource economics.
Soybeans brought by traders and missionaries from Asia first took root in North America in small quantities in the 1700s, but the USDA did not begin tracking soybeans as a crop until the early 1920s.
Around that time, the USDA, land grant university extension agents and farm groups started to promote the soybean to farmers as a soil-fertilizing crop that yielded high-protein meal for animal feed, oil and even meat replacements for human consumption. The Mississippi River Basin’s flat plains and intermittent rain proved to be ideal conditions for the crop.
Soybeans gained a foothold on U.S. farms in “fits and starts” over several decades, author Matthew Roth writes in his book, “Magic Bean: The Rise of Soy in America,” but really took off as a cash crop after World War I. Its success was later buoyed by the Agricultural Adjustment Act that allowed soy plantings while restricting other commodities as a way to stabilize crop prices during the Great Depression, policies limiting foreign oils, and the growing need for animal feed and oil during World War II, according to Roth.
The crop helped diversify farming in the South and Midwest. By the 1960s, Roth writes, “the soybean had insinuated itself thoroughly into the American diet,” but indirectly – as feed for the country’s livestock, oils for salads and derivatives in processed foods.
At the same time, soybeans proved to be a desirable product for international trade partners. In 1989, U.S. soybean exports totaled around $4 billion, about a fifth of which went to Japan. The Freedom to Farm Act in 1996 allowed farmers to plant single-crop fields, and with rising export demand from China starting in the early 1990s, many farmers chose to plant soybeans, Roth wrote.
In 2001, China joined the World Trade Organization and gained better access to globalized trade with the organization’s members, including the U.S., according to Muhammad and the Council on Foreign Relations. From there, growth in China’s tourism economy and middle class spurred increased demand for meat protein, Muhammad said, heightening the country’s need for animal feed in the form of U.S. soybeans.
By 2000, the crop was planted on more than 74 million U.S. acres, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.
“Over time, China has grown, and it seems to be the case that our total export sales have grown with our exports to China,” Muhammad explained. “They’ve sort of driven that rise over the last two decades.”
Brazil’s soybean industry has competed with American exports since the 1970s, but since 2017 has consistently exported more than the U.S.
When Trump first upped tariffs on Chinese goods in 2018, China retaliated, Muhammad said, and began investing more heavily in purchases and transportation infrastructure in Brazil. The turn toward Brazil as a primary provider during trade negotiations in 2025 “represents a return on that investment (for China),” he said.
Farmers in the U.S. are reckoning with the fallout.
Justin Sherlock farms 2,400 acres of corn and soybeans in eastern North Dakota. His dad started farming in the early 2000s and he took over the farm in 2012.
“The last, you know, 13 years that I’ve been going, the last decade, has been pretty tough to really try and get established,” he said.
For Sherlock, China coming to market very late in the 2025 harvest season was a blow to profits. Nearly one-quarter of the state’s agricultural exports hinge on soybeans, with China serving as the largest market for U.S. grain.
Sherlock was able to sell most of his soybean crop early to North Dakota soybean elevators — facilities that store the beans — which then found domestic processors in Nebraska and Kansas to sell to. But those domestic markets were also absorbing the supply that would typically be exported to China, so prices — around $8.65 per bushel — dropped significantly below Sherlock’s cost of production. He said he will lose “several hundred thousands of dollars” this year, on top of similar losses last year.
“We just have to find a way to hopefully make it to next year,” he said. “That’s the struggle right now for a lot of producers.”
Especially for young or beginning producers, said Sherlock, farmers will likely be having “tough financial discussions with their bankers and lenders.” Or, worst case scenario, these losses could mean losing their farms.
“You cannot have a successful agriculture industry in North Dakota without trade,” he said. “It’s so important that we fix these trade relationships and get back to doing business with other countries.”
Trade uncertainty was keenly felt by soybean farmers in several Mississippi River Basin states, many of which lead the nation in soybean production and exports.
Illinois accounts for 16% of the country’s total soybean exports, followed by Iowa with 13%, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. North Dakota comprises 5% of national exports.
Even in states that aren’t among the country’s top producers, soybeans can make up a significant portion of the state farm economy. Tennessee ranks 16th in the nation for soybean exports, for example, but soybeans were the highest-ranked agricultural commodity produced in the state in 2023, bringing in more than $990 million in cash receipts. In 2025, soybeans covered nearly 1.5 million acres of Tennessee farmland – the most of any crop in the state – according to the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture.
New crush facilities that separate the beans into oil and meal are under construction in North Dakota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas and Ohio — states that previously shipped soybeans to other countries to be processed.
The USDA’s Economic Research Service reported in July that more soybeans are being processed domestically. Most of the soybeans that stay in the U.S. are crushed into oil and meal, and a majority of that meal goes toward feeding livestock. The oil is used in biofuels, for industrial uses, and in food. New crush facilities that separate the beans into oil and meal are under construction in North Dakota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas and Ohio — states that previously shipped soybeans to other countries to be processed. Biofuel has increased domestic demand for soybeans — and crush facilities — since around 2010, providing an alternative for farmers facing lower demand from traditional export partners.
April Hemmes, a fourth-generation farmer in north-central Iowa, said in September that she is fortunate to have nearby options for her beans: There is an ethanol plant and a crush facility that makes soybean meal, biodiesel and food-grade oil, about 10 miles away from her farm. Farmers who don’t have those options will have a harder time adapting to changing export markets, she wrote in an email.
The lack of money in farmers’ pockets is trickling down to other sectors in farming communities, too, said John Bartman, a regenerative farmer working about 850 acres in northern Illinois. He pointed to farm equipment dealers and factories in Illinois and Iowa that are shuttering well-paying jobs because business has been so slow.
“So it’s more than just farmers who have been affected by this,” Bartman said.
In October, China and the U.S. hammered out a trade agreement. China agreed to purchase at least 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans by the end of the year, according to the White House, and will purchase at least 25 million metric tons each year through 2028. USDA export sales data from Oct. 2 through Dec. 8 shows China made soybean purchases from the U.S. totaling about 2.8 million metric tons.
For comparison, China purchased an annual average of 29 million metric tons of soybeans from the United States between 2020 and 2024, according to The Center for Strategic and International Studies, an international public policy think tank.
The deal “really isn’t much of a trade deal at all,” Bartman said.
“We’ve just gone through this tariff war, which we’re still going through right now, and what did we get out of it? China agreed to buy less soybeans than what we had last year, and we as farmers have suffered the collateral damage from this,” Bartman said.
With low trade prices and higher input costs, he warned, “we have not improved our economic situation for next year.”
Bartman is among farmers who are promoting investment in domestic uses for soybeans, including biofuels and plastics, though he acknowledges that a market the size of China’s will be “very difficult” to replace.
Muhammad said the turbulence in the soybean exports market shows that disruption of stable trade policy has consequences, which can hurt some sectors more than others.
The U.S. agriculture sector is often a political target in trade disputes, he said, because other countries understand the agricultural community’s significance in U.S. politics.
“It’s not a major export in the context of all exports, but it’s a politically viable community, and it carries a lot of heft in the context of trade agreements and trade policy because of the national security nature of food,” Muhammad said.
Farmers who are eligible for the Trump administration’s $12 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance program should expect the USDA to announce payment rates for crops the week of Dec. 22, according to the department. Payments are limited to up to $155,000 per person or legal entity.
The program appears similar to a $10 billion aid package offered to farmers impacted by trade retaliation in 2018. Those subsidies did not cover all of farmers’ losses.
For many farmers like Sherlock, these subsidies are a necessity for short-term survival. He said any farming subsidies he receives go straight to paying his bills and paying off loans.
“There will be a lot of producers, especially young, beginning producers, who won’t be able to make it and farm next year if we don’t do something to help them pay their bills from this year,” he said.
Even established producers are worried. Stafslien works land that’s been in his family since 1912, but the tough years are piling up.
“This is my future. This is my retirement. I don’t have a 401k plan. I have a farm,” said Stafslien, who lives on the farm with his wife, Shannon, and their two kids. “If I have to keep burning through this equity, that’s very, very scary for my future and my family’s future.”
This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation.
Wisconsin Watch is a member of the Ag & Water Desk network. Sign up for our newsletters to get our news straight to your inbox.
Soybeans have been a top US ag export for decades. What happens when the top buyer stops buying? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Every week in Forward, our Monday newsletter about the week ahead in Wisconsin government and politics, Brittany Carloni shares a short story from Wisconsin history.
We like to select stories that tie into current events to illustrate how the past speaks to the present. Whether it’s Teddy Roosevelt, after being shot in Milwaukee, warning against factional fighting or the origins of multicultural centers on university campuses or the spirit of gift-giving tied to the first evergreen tree in the Capitol rotunda, the past teaches us a lot about the present.
Today we present the last 12 editions of Back Words. If you like local history tidbits, political analysis and a preview of upcoming state government happenings, make sure you’re subscribed to Forward.
On Oct. 6, 1917, just six months after the U.S. entered World War I, Wisconsin Sen. Robert La Follette Sr. spoke for three hours on the floor of the U.S. Senate about the importance of free speech during war time.
“Fighting Bob” earlier that year voted against Congress’ declaration of war with Germany and criticized war time initiatives from President Woodrow Wilson’s administration. His remarks followed news that a Senate committee received a resolution to expel him from the chamber.
“Our government, above all others, is founded on the right of the people freely to discuss all matters pertaining to their government, in war not less than in peace,” reads a copy of La Follette’s remarks published in the congressional record. “For in this government the people are the rulers in war no less than in peace.”
On Oct. 14, 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt was shot during a campaign stop in Milwaukee while he sought a third term for president as a member of the Progressive Party.
The shooting occurred as Roosevelt left the former Gilpatrick Hotel on his way to give remarks at the Milwaukee Auditorium. Despite his injuries, Roosevelt followed through with the speech.
“Every good citizen ought to do everything in his or her power to prevent the coming of the day when we shall see in this country two recognized creeds fighting one another, when we shall see the creed of the ‘Havenots’ arraigned against the creed of the ‘Haves,’” Roosevelt told the crowd, even as supporters implored him to seek medical attention. “When that day comes then such incidents as this to-night will be commonplace in our history. When you make poor men — when you permit the conditions to grow such that the poor man as such will be swayed by his sense of injury against the men who try to hold what they improperly have won, when that day comes, the most awful passions will be let loose and it will be an ill day for our country.”
The episode made headlines the next day. The front page of the Oct. 15 afternoon edition of the Green Bay Press Gazette read: “Crank Shoots Roosevelt at Milwaukee; Wound Not Dangerous.”
A Wisconsin Historical Society marker notes that on Oct. 20, 1856, abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave a speech in Beaver Dam about the “brutality and immorality” of slavery. Douglass was born into slavery but escaped and grew to become a renowned activist, writer and speaker.
Newspaper notices show Douglass spoke in several other Wisconsin cities during that period. A Kenosha newspaper at the time previewed his visit to the city, describing Douglass as “the eloquent champion of freedom.” Though there isn’t a record of his Beaver Dam speech, his July 5, 1852, speech in Rochester, New York, had a similar theme.
“The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretence, and your Christianity as a lie,” Douglass said. “It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a bye-word to a mocking earth. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers your Union.”
As election season ramped up in 1908, the “Red Special” train carrying Socialist Party presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs made stops in Wisconsin on Oct. 30 and 31 and Nov. 1 during his third campaign for the White House.
An Oct. 31, 1908, story in the Social-Democratic Herald quoted Debs at a stop in Beloit.
“The last panic, so-called, occurred under a Democratic administration in 1893. The Republicans were swift to exclaim, ‘Behold, the fruit of Democratic misrule!’” Debs said. “Up to this time the working class had not yet learned to any great extent to think or to act for themselves. They were still responsive to the plea of the capitalist demagogue. Hundreds of thousands of them swept from the Democratic Party into the Republican Party, and that party went into power upon that issue.”
Debs ran for president again four years later with a Wisconsin connection. In 1912, former Milwaukee Mayor Emil Seidel ran as the Socialist Party’s vice presidential candidate.
On Nov. 3, 1998, Wisconsin voters elected Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson to an unprecedented fourth term. He was first elected to the governor’s office in 1986.
Thompson won the 1998 election with 60% of the vote to Progressive labor attorney and Democrat Ed Garvey’s 39% of the vote. That same night, Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold won re-election against Republican Mark Neumann by only 2 points.
On election night, CNN senior political analyst William Schneider noted 58% of moderate voters picked Thompson, but only 41% voted for Neumann.
“This really epitomizes the two faces of the Republican Party,” Schneider said. “There’s going to be a split in the Republican Party coming between the governors’ wing, which is dominated by pragmatists and moderate Republicans who are inclusive in their appeal, and the congressional wing of the Republican Party which is dominated by conservative ideologues. Why are the two wings different? Well, clearly, governors represent a whole state, so they have to represent a more diverse constituency and they have to run a government and make things work, whereas members of Congress have much smaller constituencies in the House of Representatives and they can be more ideological and more partisan. I think we’re going to see this division getting bigger and bigger.”
Thompson resigned as governor in 2001 to serve as the secretary of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush.
On Nov. 12, 1836, Wisconsin’s first territorial Gov. Henry Dodge signed the first law approved by the territorial legislature, which set expectations for the conduct between citizens and elected officials.
The legislation authorized the “by fine and imprisonment” of members of the public who disrespect lawmakers or threaten those elected officials for anything they said or did while in session. Fines could not exceed $200, and a prison sentence could not extend beyond 48 hours for one incident. A $200 fine in 1836 would equal roughly $6,000 in today’s dollars.
The initial law also allowed each chamber of the territorial legislature to expel a member with a two-thirds majority. But it exempted lawmakers from arrest during a session “in all cases except treason, felony, and breach of the peace.”
On Nov. 21, 1968, 94 Black students participated in a mass demonstration in University President Roger Guiles’ office at what we know today as the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. The event later became known as “Black Thursday.”
The students sought a series of demands from the university, including providing courses on Black literature and history, hiring Black faculty and creating an African-American cultural center for Black students.
“We envision the center as a place where on a cold winter night any student, black or white, can come and in one minute throw off all the unpleasant association of the university proper and enter the center in a spiritual as well as an intellectual experience,” sophomore Sandra McCreary told the Oshkosh Northwestern in the days after.
Oshkosh police later that day arrested the students for unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct for occupying the president’s office and damaging materials from thrown typewriters to broken windows. In December, the Board of Regents chose to expel 90 of the students who participated in the demonstrations. But changes came in the months following Black Thursday, including a new intercultural center that opened in 1969.
On Nov. 24, 1959, Wisconsin leaders celebrated the opening of a 15-mile stretch of Interstate 90 between Beloit and Janesville. A program from the dedication ceremony described the project as “the largest single segment of four-lane highway to be completed at one time in the history of Rock County.”
Then-Gov. Gaylord Nelson said he hoped the project would reduce traffic accidents and hailed its completion as an example of how officials working together from multiple levels of government “can bring about civic progress.”
“As Governor of Wisconsin I am pleased to note that this cooperation, combined with the foresight and high standards of the citizens of this area, has resulted in providing Wisconsin motorists as well as visitors with the best transportation facility available,” Nelson wrote in a program message.
On. Dec. 2, 1954, the U.S. Senate voted 67-22 to censure Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the Republican senator from Wisconsin who was known for his anti-communism crusades and investigations in Congress. The charges were for the failure to cooperate with the Subcommittee on Privileges and Elections in 1952 and the “abuse” of the Select Committee to Study Censure in 1954.
McCarthy answered “present” on the vote while fellow Wisconsin Republican Sen. Alexander Wiley was absent from the chamber that day on official business, according to the congressional record.
The Senate’s vote came after McCarthy’s hearings in April that year on alleged security issues in the U.S. Army, which further damaged the Wisconsin senator’s reputation. The hearings included the infamous moment when army lawyer Joseph Welch, after McCarthy questioned the communist ties of one of Welch’s colleagues, asked: “Have you no sense of decency?”
In the weeks prior to the official censure vote, McCarthy appeared on the debut program of political show “Face the Nation” where he criticized Democrats and called the upcoming Senate proceedings a “lynch bee.”
“When they’re not basing their vote upon the counts set forth, when they base their vote upon political reasons,” McCarthy said on the program. “When they say ahead of time in effect regardless of what the evidence says, ‘This man has been fighting communism, he’s been shouting that for over 20 years the Democrat party has been infiltrated, therefore we’re going to get him,’ I think lynching bee is a good name for it.”
On Dec. 7, 1943, two years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the USS Wisconsin was christened by Wisconsin first lady Madge Goodland. Official construction on the battleship started in January 1941.
A story on the events in the Wisconsin State Journal said Goodland practiced breaking the ceremonial champagne bottle ahead of the christening by shattering bottles of sherry against the executive residence.
Then-Gov. Walter S. Goodland also attended the christening and called the USS Wisconsin celebration “thrilling and inspiring.”
“What more appropriate than to dedicate this immense fighting craft to the men and women engaged in the world war in which this ship will soon participate,” Goodland said in remarks that day. “And especially to the 250,000 gallant men and women who hail Wisconsin as their home.”
The ship was officially commissioned in April 1944.
On Dec. 14, 2020, the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a 4-3 ruling upheld former President Joe Biden’s election win in the state and rejected a lawsuit from President Donald Trump and his campaign that sought to overturn the election results.
Justice Brian Hagedorn, a conservative, joined liberal Justices Ann Walsh Bradley, Rebecca Dallet and Jill Karofsky in the majority while conservative Justices Patience Roggensack, Annette Ziegler and Rebecca Bradley dissented.
Hagedorn, who wrote the majority opinion, criticized the timing of the Trump campaign’s challenges to Wisconsin’s results, claims which “must be brought expeditiously.”
“Our laws allow the challenge flag to be thrown regarding various aspects of election administration,” Hagedorn wrote. “The challenges raised by the Campaign in this case, however, come long after the last play or even the last game.”
The first evergreen tree placed in the Capitol rotunda during the Christmas season was in December 1916 as the new building neared completion, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.
A 40-foot tree for the rotunda arrived in Madison that year from northern Michigan, news reports show. It was lit on Dec. 23, 1916, during a two-day Christmas celebration organized by the local Rotary Club, which included donated gifts to “every child in the city” from the Capitol Mutual Club.
“Hundreds of children of all ages and sizes tried to stand still yesterday afternoon and listen to the strains of ‘Holy Night’ and other devotional strains interspersed with popular airs at the Rotary club celebration while their eyes were glued on the wonderful tree in the rotunda of the capitol, and the huge baskets of gifts furnished by the Capitol Mutual Club near it,” a Dec. 24, 1916, Wisconsin State Journal story wrote of the festivities. “The singing was very nice but judging from the howl that went up when Santa Claus began to distribute the gifts, the music was not the most interesting feature of the program.”
An evergreen tree is placed in the Capitol rotunda every year during the holiday season while political party leaders have disputed calling it a Christmas tree or a holiday tree. Gov. Tony Evers gave the 2025 balsam fir from Oconto County the theme “The Learning Tree.”
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Back Words: Read 12 stories from Wisconsin history is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Advocates want Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to use his power to reduce prison sentences before he leaves office at the start of 2027.
The post It’s been more than 2 decades since Wisconsin’s last commutation. Advocates want Evers to change that appeared first on WPR.
The Milwaukee Brewers will play the Atlanta Braves in the MLB Little League Classic in Pennsylvania on Aug. 23, 2026.
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Inflated ticket prices on predatory sites are hurting sales and causing frustration for venues around the state.
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Then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman announces charges against Jeffrey Epstein on July 8, 2019, in New York City. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors have sent a million more pages related to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to the Department of Justice, which plans to release them in the coming weeks, officials said Wednesday.
Justice Department staff wrote in a social media post the documents came from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and that FBI agents plan to review the information before release “in compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, existing statutes, and judicial orders.”
“We have lawyers working around the clock to review and make the legally required redactions to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible,” the social media post stated. “Due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks. The Department will continue to fully comply with federal law and President (Donald) Trump’s direction to release the files.”
A bipartisan group of U.S. House lawmakers used a discharge petition to force a floor vote in that chamber on legislation that required the Department of Justice to release all documents it had related to the Epstein investigation. The Senate approved the bill through the fast-track unanimous consent process.
Trump signed the legislation and has repeatedly sought to distance himself from Epstein.
The Justice Department released the first batch of documents Friday and released 30,000 more pages Tuesday.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a social media post shortly after the DOJ announcement that he was disappointed in the process.
“A Christmas Eve news dump of ‘a million more files’ only proves what we already know: Trump is engaged in a massive coverup,” Schumer wrote. “The question Americans deserve answered is simple: WHAT are they hiding—and WHY? Justice delayed is justice denied. Release the files. Follow the law.”
FBI Director Kash Patel, left, looks at photos of the two West Virginia National Guard soldiers shot in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 27, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Leyden/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The man accused of shooting two National Guard members near the White House last month, killing one, was charged in federal court Wednesday, moving the case out of the local court system.
United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro wrote in a statement the “transfer of this case from Superior Court to District Court ensures that we can undertake the serious, deliberate, and weighty analysis required to determine if the death penalty is appropriate here.”
West Virginia National Guard members Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe were shot while on patrol in Washington, D.C., the day before Thanksgiving.
“Sarah Beckstrom was just 20 years old when she was killed and her parents are now forced to endure the holiday season without their daughter,” Pirro added. “Andrew Wolfe, by the grace of God, survived but has a long road ahead in his recovery.”
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, was already charged with first-degree murder while armed, assault with intent to kill while armed and two counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.
The federal charges now also include transporting a firearm in interstate commerce with the intent to commit an offense punishable by imprisonment for more than one year and transporting a stolen firearm in interstate commerce.
A seven-page document submitted to the court details Lakanwal’s movements ahead of the shooting. But it doesn’t shed any light on his possible motives.
FBI special agent Ahmad Hassanpoor wrote the .357 Smith & Wesson revolver used in the shooting was legally purchased by another person in Bellevue, Washington, in February 2008. But after that person, identified by the initials J.D., died in February 2023, the weapon was stolen.
The affidavit alleges that Lakanwal obtained it from someone identified as W-1 after originally trying to purchase an AR-15, a compact AK-47-style stockless pistol and a pistol in October of this year.
Lakanwal told this person that he believed he needed a weapon since he was driving for the ride-sharing services Lyft and Uber, according to the affidavit. Hassanpoor, however, wrote that Lakanwal hadn’t driven for those services since May 25 and was unemployed when he sought the weapons.
The person identified as W-1 in the affidavit was able to secure the .357 Smith & Wesson revolver and gave it to Lakanwal on Nov. 14.
“W-1 explained that he gave the firearm to (Lakanwal) because he believed (Lakanwal) wanted it for personal protection while working as a rideshare driver. W-1 stated that W-1 was extremely nervous during the exchange and was visibly shaking,” Hassanpoor wrote.
“According to W-1, (Lakanwal) observed W-1’s nervousness and placed an arm around W-1 in an effort to calm him. W-1 stated that it is common knowledge among his peers that firearms acquired ‘on the streets’ are typically stolen firearms.”
The revolver was loaded with five bullets at the time. Lakanwal went to a Big 5 Sporting Goods store the next day to purchase a box of ammunition.
The same day, Nov. 15, Lakanwal searched Google Maps for “Washington, D.C.” and “The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500,” according to the affidavit.
Hassanpoor wrote that Lakanwal’s Toyota Prius was in Washington state on Nov. 16, based on “license plate reader data that is made available to law enforcement through Customs and Border Protection.”
The car was in Idaho on Nov. 19, Illinois on Nov. 21 and Washington, D.C., on Nov. 23.
A few days later, on Nov. 26, Beckstrom and Wolfe were on patrol about two blocks from the White House when shot.
Video footage from different locations near the shooting at 17th and I streets northwest showed Lakanwal “coming around the corner at the intersection with his hands raised in a firing stance.” He then “immediately began firing in the direction of Beckstrom and Wolfe, and they are both captured on video collapsing on the ground,” according to Hassanpoor’s affidavit.
Two majors in the National Guard, identified as NG M-1 and NG M-2 in the affidavit, were talking with Beckstrom and Wolfe when the shooting happened.
“NG M-1 reported that he heard gunshots; as he heard gunshots, he observed Beckstrom and Wolfe fall to the ground,” Hassanpoor wrote. “NG M-1 then observed (Lakanwal), who was dressed in a knee-length, dark-colored jacket and armed with a revolver, (fired) additional shots. NG M-1 pulled his issued service weapon and fired shots at (Lakanwal). (Lakanwal) fell to the ground where he was detained by NG M-2.”
Hassanpoor wrote that both “Beckstrom and Wolfe were unresponsive and suffering from gunshot wounds to the head.”
Beckstrom died as a result of her injuries at 5:58 p.m. the following day, Thanksgiving.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia charged Lakanwal with first-degree murder on Nov. 28, adding it to other criminal charges.
Lakanwal pleaded not guilty in DC Superior Court during an arraignment on Dec. 2 and was denied bond in the case.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey has requested Beckstrom and Wolfe both receive the Purple Heart.
Reflecting on 2025, it was a year of visual firsts in our newsroom. It was my first full year working as Wisconsin Watch’s staff photojournalist, a new position at Wisconsin Watch supported by Report for America. It was also the first full year Wisconsin Watch worked with Catchlight, a visual-first nonprofit that leverages the power of visual storytelling to inform, connect and transform communities. That partnership brought a familiar face back to the newsroom: Coburn Dukehart, Wisconsin Watch’s former associate director, who is now our contract photo editor through Catchlight Local.
This was also the year when Wisconsin Watch set out to publish a new story every day — a major shift for the 16-year-old newsroom that had previously focused on more time-intensive investigative stories. That change — and our growth as a newsroom — meant more reporters were filing photo requests each week. As a result, we published far more original photography compared to past years.
Our visuals transported readers to many places, from underneath the Capitol’s granite dome to inside the homes of residents across Wisconsin. They illustrated that our storytelling isn’t limited to words. Far from it.
Our photojournalism shows the mosaic of people and communities that make up our state and helps to convey their emotional reactions to the circumstances of their lives. That’s true whether it’s a sense of optimism while traveling on Amtrak; uncertainty while preparing to move out of a recovery home; joy while pursuing a new career; or togetherness and resolve in the face of federal budget cuts.
We approach each story with compassion and present stories with the hope that these images make our communities feel more connected. We’re going to keep at it in 2026. Until then, here are our favorite Wisconsin images from 2025.
A visual year in review: Our favorite Wisconsin images from 2025 is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
In “Song Sung Blue,” Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson play Lightning & Thunder, a legendary Neil Diamond tribute band from Milwaukee with a remarkable love story. Real-life Claire "Thunder" Sardina joined WPR’s "Wisconsin Today" to talk about what it’s like to see her story told on the big screen.
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The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources shares tips on how to make your holiday cleanup more eco-friendly.
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The ensemble will also perform its field show during a separate competition known as Bandfest at Pasadena City College’s stadium.
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Snowmy Kromer is a long-standing Minocqua tradition with his 4-foot-long pipe and size 96 Stormy Kromer hat.
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After losing its case in two federal courts, a northern Wisconsin town has agreed to use an electronic voting machine designed for people with disabilities.
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The federal government is suing one of the largest health systems in Wisconsin, claiming that it discriminated against an employee by denying a nurse's request for a religious exemption for receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.
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A Waukesha County judge has granted a petition to revoke Morgan Geyser's conditional release after the woman fled from a Madison group home last month.
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