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More than a decade ago, I covered the opening of a tuition-free charter school aimed at growing the Fox Cities’ advanced manufacturing workforce. 

Students are still enrolling at Appleton Technical Academy, getting hands-on experience, accessing paid apprenticeships and completing courses for college credit. 

So I wondered: How is the school really doing? Has it met the goals education and industry leaders set? 

I pitched the idea to reporter Miranda Dunlap, and she dug in. 

Her reporting shows mixed results, and it’s a strong example of the type of solutions journalism we prioritize at Wisconsin Watch. 

Solutions journalism is just what it sounds like: rigorous, evidence-based reporting on responses to problems. 

Every solutions journalism story reports on four elements: 

• The response to the problem.
• Evidence on how the response is (or isn’t) working.
• Insights.
• And limitations. 

ATECH was created to address a shortage of advanced manufacturing employees in the Fox Cities. 

The response from local industry and education leaders was to create a public charter school housed inside Appleton West that would not only introduce students to these careers, but also jump-start their journey to a certification or degree in the field. The story examines how the school got started, the application process and the four areas students can choose to study. 

Nuance comes in with the evidence. Data or anecdotes fit the bill. Miranda’s story includes comments from ATECH students about why they chose to enroll. Their thoughts illustrate the need for the school. 

However, the industry leader who helped found the school told Miranda ATECH didn’t become the employee pipeline he hoped. His business is no longer closely tied to the school. 

The limitations of ATECH vary. The cost to run the school is one challenge. It takes a lot of metal to teach students how to weld, for example. School leaders look for donations from businesses to help with supplies and equipment. 

They also mentioned a stigma that the broader public has against technical education. 

Insights tend to be the trickiest pillar. I try to answer this question when I look for insights: What nuggets of information would be important to know if I were trying to implement this response in my community? 

For ATECH it’s the need for industry mentors. The school needs those connections not only for students to meet professionals working in the field, but also to teach ATECH educators how to use the latest technology. 

Miranda also includes context about the push for more career and technical education training, as well as how these efforts are funded at the state and federal levels.  

I hope you read her story to get a full, unvarnished look at how ATECH is doing. 

And if reading this sparked an idea for a story, send it my way: jzvandenhouten@wisconsinwatch.org. 

ATECH story shows how we focus on solutions 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.

Reading Time: 8 minutes

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

Homelessness is increasing in Brown County. These volunteers traded a night’s sleep to document the challenge

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

As Wisconsin companies saved $1 billion in rate cuts, severely injured workers haven’t had a raise in 9 years

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

Farmers turn to flawed visa program in search for legal labor. Now the rules — and costs — are changing.

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

Three years and more than 10,000 lawyer calls after being charged, this Wisconsin mother still doesn’t have a defense attorney

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

‘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.

Reading Time: 5 minutes

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.

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Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit news organization that uses journalism to make communities strong, informed and connected, is seeking a Pathways to Success Reporter focused on southeast Wisconsin. This reporter will explore what’s needed for residents to build thriving careers in the future economy — and what’s standing in the way. That includes expanding coverage of postsecondary education and workforce training, focusing on how education and economic trends impact people’s lives. The role centers on solution-oriented journalism that serves the public, strengthens community life, and holds those in power accountable. 

This Milwaukee-based reporter will join a four-person pathways-focused team that includes an editor, Madison-based statewide reporter and northeast Wisconsin reporter in Green Bay. 

You can read our pathways coverage here, and read more about our approach to the beat here and here. 

About Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Founded in 2009, Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to producing nonpartisan journalism that makes the communities of Wisconsin strong, informed and connected. We believe that access to local representative news is critical to a healthy democracy and to finding solutions to the most pressing problems of everyday life. Under the Wisconsin Watch umbrella, we have three independent news divisions, a statewide investigative newsroom, a regional collaboration in Northeast Wisconsin called the NEW News Lab, and the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (NNS). All three divisions maintain their unique reporting areas and together are positioned to grow and serve our communities with greater efficiency and impact. 

About this position

The ideal candidate will have at least 2 years of experience researching, reporting, and writing original published new stories, bring a public service mindset and a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisan journalism ethics, including a commitment to abide by Wisconsin Watch’s ethics policies, and have experience working collaboratively to report stories that explore solutions to challenges residents face.

Click here for a full job description.

Location: The reporter will be based in Milwaukee. They will have space to work in the Milwaukee NNS newsroom (NNS is a division of Wisconsin Watch). 

Salary and benefits: The salary range is $45,500-$64,500. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, and higher compensation may be available for someone with advanced skills and/or experience. Wisconsin Watch offers competitive benefits, including generous vacation (five weeks), a retirement fund contribution, paid sick days, paid family and caregiver leave, subsidized medical and dental premiums, vision coverage, and more.

To apply: Please submit a PDF of your resume, work samples and answer some brief questions in this application form. If you’d like to chat about the job before applying, contact Northeast Wisconsin/Pathways Editor Jennifer Zettel-Vandenhouten at jzvandenhouten@wisconsinwatch.org. 

Deadline: Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Apply by Jan. 9, 2026 for best consideration.

Wisconsin Watch is dedicated to improving our newsroom by better reflecting the people we cover. We are committed to fostering an equitable workplace that reflects, understands, and listens to the people we serve. We are an equal-opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, or any other status protected under applicable law.

Wisconsin Watch seeks pathways to success reporter in southeast Wisconsin 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.

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It’s hard to believe how much Wisconsin Watch has evolved since I joined in 2019, initially as investigations editor. We had just seven full-time staff members and a cycle of fellows and interns who powered most of our journalism. Weeks and even months would pass between publication of our investigative and explanatory stories as we pursued our mission of increasing the quality and quantity of investigative reporting in Wisconsin.  

Six years later, we’re a far different, much bigger organization. We have about 30 editorial and business staff across multiple newsrooms, and we’re responding to community needs in real time through a more frequent mix of stories. Although investigative journalism remains our strength, our broadened mission is to use journalism to make Wisconsin communities strong, informed and connected.

So it’s worth a reminder of all the places where you can find our free reporting every day:

• Our websites, where you can find reporting from our Madison-based statewide newsroom, our northeast Wisconsin bureau and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, alongside bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.  
• Our statewide newsletters on Monday (Forward), Wednesday (Wednesday Report) and Friday (Wisconsin Weekly) and NNS’ daily newsletter in Milwaukee.
• On social media, including YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Bluesky.
• On the air, whether it’s through our partnerships with WPR, Civic Media or other broadcasters. 
• In print! We still share our work for free with newspapers across the state and country. If you’re in Madison this month, check out the latest issue of Isthmus to see the first in our three-part series on how spending on Supreme Court elections shattered national records.

What’s your favorite way to interact with us? And where else would you like to see us? We’d love to hear from you as we consider where to grow next. You can reach me at jmalewitz@wisconsinwatch.org.

Here’s how to keep up with Wisconsin Watch 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.

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This week, we are reflecting on what we’re thankful for. One of the things we’re thankful for is you – our readers and supporters. Some of you have sent us tips, others have given us constructive feedback on our reporting, and many of you have helped us reach more people by sharing our reporting with your friends, family and neighbors. 

In the spirit of gratitude and giving, we want to share five stories that remind us of the power of community and how ordinary people can spark extraordinary impact. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we enjoyed reporting them. 

“When we show up, when we speak up, we can make a positive difference” 

Portage, Sauk, St. Croix and Lincoln counties – Public nursing homes tend to be better staffed, have higher quality of care and draw fewer complaints than facilities owned by for-profits and nonprofits. As counties across Wisconsin look to sell off their nursing homes, grassroots campaigns are working to keep the homes in public hands – and some of them appear to be succeeding. 

“It kind of feels like I’m more connected to the stories … instead of just being behind my phone” 

Brown, Oconto and Shawano counties – For more than eight decades, Pulaski High School’s student newspaper has been the community’s newspaper of record, as the only news outlet consistently covering the rural village. Along the way, the paper has secured a level of community buy-in that might feel foreign to some news organizations today, as trust in news declines. 

“I don’t know just exactly how to say this, but my perspective for people has changed” 

Milwaukee and Dane counties – When Larry Jones arrived at the Wisconsin State Capitol on March 12, he didn’t know what he was getting into — let alone that he would be a viral internet sensation the next day. The 85-year-old self-described conservative had been invited by his grandson to a public hearing on a Republican-authored bill that would ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth in the state. While he was there, he changed his mind. 

“We’re learning how to navigate conflict in community. We’re learning how to support people in distress” 

Brown and Outagamie counties – In downtown Appleton, a “community living room” aims to give northeast Wisconsinites ways to deeply connect with one another — and a free community space to do so — in hopes they can combat the social isolation many feel today. It also hosts “emotional CPR training” or ECPR to train professionals and community members in how to assist someone in crisis or emotional distress. 

“There are too many wrong doors in this system, and we want to be a right door” 

Dane County – Yahara House, part of the nonprofit Journey Mental Health Center, is a community mental health program focused on building relationships and job opportunities. It is one of just seven clubhouses in the state and just three with international accreditation. Experts and advocates say the clubhouse model reduces hospitalizations and boosts employment in adults with serious mental illnesses.

These 5 stories show people building connection, power and hope 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.

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Last winter, I got an intriguing story tip: Many Wisconsin manufactured home communities were operating with expired licenses. 

I didn’t initially know much about these communities, often called mobile home parks, where residents own their homes but rent the land they sit on. I quickly learned they provide a critical source of affordable housing in Wisconsin and beyond — the country’s largest portion of unsubsidized low-income housing. 

Housing experts and advocates told me private equity’s growing interest in the model threatens to change that. My reporting found that Wisconsin’s government is failing to enforce basic protections for owners. Still, some residents and groups see pathways for safe, affordable manufactured home ownership as a solution during an affordability crisis. 

That required talking to owners of manufactured homes across the state, starting with a February drive from Wisconsin Watch’s Madison newsroom to snowy La Crosse. There I met with a couple who moved into their manufactured home more than a decade ago. That meeting led to a months-long tour of similar communities. 

A Cumberland couple showed me their favorite part of their manufactured home, the fireplace. I passed out flyers in Richland Center and Spring Green, chatting with a surprising number of people who answered their doors.

As the weather warmed, I walked up to chatty neighbors sitting on porches in Wisconsin Dells. Menomonie residents stopped their yard work to talk. I left a set of Fond du Lac park interviews sunburned after standing on a porch for too long as residents lent me their time and perspectives. 

Not every homeowner’s experience made it into our “Forgotten homes” series, named after a lawmaker’s reference to the homes as “a forgotten segment of real estate.” But they often shared a lot of similarities. Here are some of my takeaways:

1. Park ownership is changing. While some residents said they know the person who owns their park, others were paying rent to out-of-state companies. Some mentioned concerns about what would happen to their homes once their local owner decides to sell. 

2. Residents don’t always know where to turn when conditions deteriorate. Wisconsin uses a patchwork of state and local agencies to monitor different aspects of manufactured home communities. That leaves residents unsure of where to complain about issues or unaware they have that option. 

3. People want to stay in their homes. Even as some residents face surging monthly payments, they struggle with the idea of giving up the space, independence and yards.

4. Owning a manufactured home outside of a park can be complicated. Wisconsin Habitat for Humanity affiliates are developing factory-built housing in residential neighborhoods. But local zoning can block certain homes from residential neighborhoods. And other park residents mentioned needing more money to purchase land themselves.

5. Manufactured homeowners often face stigma but are proud of their homes. Residents showed me carefully decorated lawns, peaceful walking routes through parks, kitchens with custom cabinets and the homes of their longtime neighbors and friends. 

Wisconsin’s forgotten homes: Takeaways from investigating manufactured housing 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.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Since our founding in 2009, Wisconsin Watch has offered our in-depth, informative reports to news outlets for free. Last year our work appeared in more than 900 partner publications, from the Monroe Times to the New York Times.

But the way the public consumes information is constantly evolving. Reading a 3,000-word investigation can be essential to understanding an issue, but people are busy. Short videos on social media and podcasts are increasingly vital ways to connect our communities with accurate information. And (at least until self-driving cars without AM stations get more popular) radio news remains an important touchstone of American life.

That’s why we’re excited to offer minute-long audio versions of our fact briefs to partner radio stations. Since 2022, we’ve worked with Gigafact to publish hundreds of 150-word fact briefs, which use evidence-based reporting to answer yes/no questions drawn from surprising or dubious claims circulating in the infosphere. More than 200 news outlets published those print fact briefs last year alone.

Now, starting in early October, Civic Media has been the first to air our audio clips, produced by Wisconsin Watch audio/video producer Trisha Young based on fact briefs mostly written by Tom Kertscher. A new clip each week has been running eight times a day across Civic’s 10 news/talk stations, from Amery to Milwaukee.

Here are a few recent examples:

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“One of our core values is to champion quality, fact-based journalism that advances the truth and earns the trust of our audience without manipulation or malicious reframing,” said Civic Media CEO Sage Weil. “We are thrilled to partner with Wisconsin Watch in piloting this innovative way to combat misinformation over the airwaves.”

If you’re a radio station producer or listener and want to hear our audio fact briefs on your favorite station, send me an email at mdefour@wisconsinwatch.org.

Wisconsin Watch makes audio fact briefs available to partner radio stations 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.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last week, my colleague Joe Timmerman and I published a story about a group of teenagers who run their rural village’s only local newspaper. For over 80 years, as other local news has dwindled, students at Pulaski High School have kept their community informed by publishing the weekly Pulaski News.

“You’ve seen other local papers close and their communities really don’t have anything,” said Bob Van Enkenvoort, the school district’s communications coordinator and the paper’s editor. “So the district sees this as a valuable community service.”

It’s the (unfortunately rare) kind of story that shines a light on people making a real difference in their community by connecting with their neighbors. And it began by listening to readers like you. 

Before I was hired last summer, our team conducted listening sessions, surveys and interviews with people across northeast Wisconsin to hear what kind of news they want as we prepare to tell more stories in the region. In one of those interviews, a director at the Pulaski Chamber of Commerce mentioned that Pulaski High School’s newspaper is the only source of consistent local news in the area. 

That fact came across my desk several months ago and piqued my interest. As a reporter tasked with writing about how Wisconsinites are preparing for the workforce, I really wanted to meet the students who are carrying out an important job typically left to experienced adults. 

Joe and I spent several months learning how Pulaski News has become a trusted fixture of the community and a workforce development tool, which included several visits to the classroom the paper runs out of and a trip to Pulaski’s local museum. 

We have reason to believe the final product resonated — as of Monday afternoon, people spent nearly 10,000 minutes with it, and over 80 accounts have shared the story on Instagram.

Listening to our readers in this way has helped me better understand the northeast region. As time goes on, you’ll continue to see more stories from this part of the state. So consider this an invitation to keep the ideas and feedback coming. What stories should be told? We’re listening. Email me at mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org, or fill out my form.

How reader ideas fuel Wisconsin Watch reporting 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.

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In the days following the release of my report focused on the shortage of public defenders in Wisconsin, Tracy Germait — the main subject of the story, who after three years and more than 10,000 calls still didn’t have a defense attorney — received a flood of messages. 

“I know they passed out the newsletter in the jails because I have a friend that’s in Redgranite (Correctional Institution), and he’s like, ‘I seen your article,’” Germait said. “Then somebody in Brown County (jail) messaged me too and said that. I was like, ‘Oh, wow.’”

On Sept. 8, Wisconsin Watch published the investigation. The next day Germait saw her story on the front page of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Hours later Germait received notice that a Milwaukee-based criminal defense attorney, Jane Christopherson, had taken on her drug cases from 2022 and 2023. 

Without an attorney earlier, Germait spent years in legal limbo despite her constitutional rights. Like many other Wisconsin residents caught up in the criminal justice system, she had to abide by bail conditions or face time in prison related to crimes she had not yet been tried for.

Now that Germait has an attorney, she will report to court on Oct. 22 for the preliminary hearing for her 2023 case. After that, she will report to court again in November for her 2022 case. 

Germait also recently passed her Wisconsin state exam to be a certified parent peer specialist for the next two years, supporting parents and families who are navigating similar situations.

Wisconsin’s court system is under intense stress, and yet when lawmakers had a chance to address those issues in the latest state budget, they increased funding for prosecutors to file more cases, rather than protecting more people’s right to a speedy trial. Our story points out the toll that legislative decisions can take on individuals when their Sixth Amendment right is neglected, exacerbating jail crowding, eroding evidence and witness testimony for cases, and decreasing the strength of cases due to overburdened public defenders.

At Wisconsin Watch, we’re thrilled to shed a light on stories like Germait’s and see individual problems get resolved. We remain hopeful that the bigger problems get solved, too.

Editor’s note: This story was updated to remove an incorrect description of Christopherson’s representation of Germait.

Wisconsin mother gets defense attorney after three years in legal limbo 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.

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Inside our newsroom, we often talk about filling information gaps — providing Wisconsinites with information they need but struggle to find elsewhere.

We’ve filled a range of gaps, whether related to accessing FoodShare benefits, applying for college financial aid or preventing the spread of infectious diseases like measles. It’s all part of our effort to “complete rather than compete” with other sources of quality information. 

We’re also identifying gaps in our own work. That means asking whether everyone we aim to serve can access our reporting. 

For the past several weeks we’ve discussed how to improve the experience of one particular demographic of readers: those who are blind or visually impaired. 

In partnership with the nonprofit Hacks/Hackers, a convener of technologists and journalists to improve the information ecosystem, we’re experimenting ways to improve the audio descriptions of photos for those who use screen readers, known as alt text. That includes formalizing internal standards for higher-quality alt text and testing artificial intelligence tools — always checked by a human editor — to efficiently generate alt text that adheres to our new standards. 

The result, we hope, will be a better experience for visually impaired readers.

Our next step will be to explore offering more audio versions of our reporting. While we currently partner with WPR to produce audio versions of Addie Costello’s stories and have begun airing audio versions of fact briefs through Civic Media radio stations, much of our reporting still exists only as text. Expanding audio serves a variety of audiences, not just people with visual impairments. 

As we’re having these conversations, we want to hear from you. If you use a screen reader or have other accessibility needs, tell us how we’re doing and what we can improve. You can email me directly at jmalewitz@wisconsinwatch.org.   

How can we make news more accessible? We want to hear from you.  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.

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Recently we’ve seen Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota and a young Republican influencer targeted for assassination; troops corralling protesters on American streets; a U.S. senator handcuffed and hauled away from a public event; news outlets being threatened and sued; lies, propaganda and doctored videos raging across social networks. 

Across our state and nation, more and more of the information people receive is bitter and dividing. New technologies have changed how people shop, advertise and search for information. Mobile feeds are driven by algorithms that grab attention by fueling passions, especially anger and lust. These same changes have undermined the business model that long financed local news outlets — the sources that inform communities, connect neighbors and nurture civic life. 

This all contributes to the fracturing of our communities, to folks not getting the information they need to navigate everyday challenges and to declining trust that our democracy still works at finding solutions. 

You can see it in annual Gallup polls measuring trust in our institutions. Since the late 1970s, folks who say they trust the news media “a great deal” or “a fair amount” have dropped from 72% to 31%.  Likewise, trust in the medical system has plunged from 74% to 36%, in church and organized religion from 64% to 32%, in public schools from 53% to 29%, in banks from 60% to 27%, in Congress from 40% to 9%. 

More and more of us feel overwhelmed by dramatic headlines from social networks, text feeds, national outlets and national chains posing as local news channels. Yet we’re seeing less and less about what’s happening in our neighborhoods, cities and counties.

We’re seeing plenty about the worst things happening in the world at the moment. 

But in many local communities, we’re not seeing nearly enough fair, honest reporting about what’s happening where we live, where most of our tax dollars are spent and where decisions that shape our everyday lives are made: in school board meetings, in city halls, in statehouses, in gatherings of people of good will trying to make things better. 

At the core of all this lies a market disruption in a society that relies on the marketplace to fill its needs — until it can’t. The local commerce advertising model that long supported local news has been overturned.

And the consequences are alarming. When communities lose their local news, civic engagement drops, corruption goes unchecked, government waste increases, polarization deepens, people begin to lose faith in democracy and its institutions.

Our democratic republic, more than other forms of government, relies on trust and truth.

The founders of our republic overcame an entitled king and the world’s strongest military. They knew that tyrants grasp and retain power by controlling the stories told to the people they rule. They understood how critical a well-informed citizenry would be to the success of self-government. 

They gave us the First Amendment to the Constitution so that citizens without political power would be free to tell one another what was really going on. 

They worried, in those early years,  how people in small towns and rural areas — outside of Boston, Philadelphia and New York — would receive enough news and information to make sound decisions and keep control over their government. So the first Postal Act, signed into law by President George Washington, provided free delivery of newspapers — a government subsidy of local news as a public service. 

This helped sow the seeds of a local news industry that would expand to serve a growing population of people arriving from across the globe in search of liberty.  Local commerce did the rest — from people selling to their neighbors through classified ads, to retailers advertising their wares to everyone within driving distance of their stores. This business model supported news reporters who covered floods and fires, zoning and planning commissions, school boards, village councils, county boards, state agencies, elections and community events — from our smallest towns to our biggest cities — until the 21st century. 

The collapse of that business model happened so quickly that we haven’t had time to adjust or even to understand what it means.  

In 1999, I was managing editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel when its sales and profits hit heights they would never see again. Classified ads of neighbors selling to neighbors filled multiple print sections. The three largest retail advertisers were Boston Store, American TV and Circuit City.

Craigslist was a startup in the San Francisco Bay area offering free online ads for folks selling cars, boats, jobs and services. They supported their small staff with revenue from display advertising appearing next to the free classifieds.  

Amazon sold one product: printed books, with ink on paper. 

Over the next decade, Craigslist and imitators spread like windswept wildfires to every city and then town, sucking the classified ads out of every local newspaper in  America. 

On the retail side, Circuit City closed in the Great Recession. 

When American TV shut down a few years later, its family owner said their stores had “become showrooms for Amazon.” Folks would come in, see a product they liked, google their cellphones to find it on sale at a lower price elsewhere in the world, and order it right then and there to be delivered to their homes. 

Boston Store, a fixture in Milwaukee since the 1890s, strived to stay alive by buying other department store chains to find economies of scale but succumbed in 2018.  

By that time, the Journal Sentinel, which traced its roots to before Milwaukee was a city and before Wisconsin was a state, had been sold first to a national media chain based in Cincinnati, then spun off to a newspaper chain based in Washington, D.C., which itself was swallowed by a hedge-fund-controlled chain rising from the depths of bankruptcy.

The same thing was happening to local advertisers and local newsrooms almost everywhere. Green Bay, for example, was home to Prange’s and Shopko. Gone.

Every major daily newspaper in Wisconsin is now owned by a distant cost-cutting chain, as are most commercial broadcast outlets and many community weeklies. 

We’ve lost more than six out of 10 journalists in Wisconsin and nationwide, but it’s worse than that. Because most of the journalists left are clustered in our biggest cities. There, many continue to do outstanding work despite shrinking budgets, often with the help of grants, fellowships and partnerships. But as parent corporations seek to maximize digital audiences and subscriptions, they devote a lion’s share of resources toward the same attention-grabbing national stories, highlighting the most tragic events and most polarizing political conflicts, while spewing nonstop coverage of celebrities, sports stars and social network gossip. 

An average of two local newspapers in America have been closing each week for the past 20 years. About half our nation’s counties have only one news outlet left, and hundreds have none. The smaller and less wealthy the community, the bigger the losses. 

“Ghost” newspapers are proliferating, featuring legacy mastheads with stories from elsewhere because no local journalists remain in town. 

At the same time, Wisconsin has become one of just seven swing election states that determine which party and their backers win control over branches of the federal government. As a result we attract huge volumes of attack ads and misleading propaganda from those seeking national power and influence. Political websites disguised as  nonpartisan news outlets have proliferated. Our state and local elections and public discussions increasingly reflect the bitter “us against them” dysfunction we see at the national level. 

Take, for example, the circus of a “nonpartisan” state Supreme Court race we witnessed this past spring. Misleading attack ads dominated TV and radio; campaign text alerts buzzed over our phones; faraway billionaires with personal agendas spent tens of millions to elect one judge in a place they might have flown over; the world’s richest man, born and raised in South Africa and now residing in Texas, donned a Cheesehead while passing out million-dollar checks to Wisconsin voters. 

As The Constitution was being ratified in 1787, Ben Franklin was asked: “What have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”

“A republic,” he famously responded. “IF you can keep it.”

To keep our republic, we must revive our local news ecosystem. 

Given the huge loss of reporters covering local government and community life, we need to begin by nurturing collaborative efforts, where newsrooms work together to tell the local and state stories that matter most. As a Wisconsin-based nonprofit with a mission of providing impactful reporting — and sharing it freely — Wisconsin Watch is the news outlet in the best position to support this revival across our state.  

We’ll need help from all who can provide it.

Here’s a quick sampling of what we hope to do with support from members, donors and everyone who cares about rejuvenating democracy and civic life in Wisconsin: 

• We’re investing in a statehouse bureau that is providing evidence-based reporting and fact-checking to more than 200 news outlets across the state. We’re not duplicating what others are doing but providing key accountability and campaign stories that otherwise wouldn’t be reported. 
  
  
• We’re building our in-depth investigative team to offer our services to all newsrooms in the state that no longer have the resources to dig deep. If a local news outlet or citizen suspects incompetence, wrongdoing, misspending of taxpayer dollars, abuse of power, bring it to Wisconsin Watch. In addition to shining a light on the problem, we are searching for examples of places doing a better job tackling similar challenges. 
  
  
• We’re serving accurate, fact-based state and local news to folks wherever they get their information. That includes sharing video summaries of key news stories on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. It includes video and audio fact checks shared freely with commercial and public radio stations reaching rural areas with low broadband usage.
  
  
• We’re adding local journalists to fill news deserts. In Milwaukee, we’ve merged with Neighborhood News Service. In northeast Wisconsin, we’re collaborating with commercial and nonprofit newsrooms and the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation. We’re listening to learn folks’ most pressing local news needs, then we’ll find ways to fill them — and get that information to the people who need it most, through the channels they’re using.
  
  
• We’re raising money to fill key reporting gaps. This will include training citizen observers to objectively take notes and ask questions at public meetings and hearings where there aren’t enough journalists to cover the ground. It will include reporting beats focused on public service — major challenges people are facing; solutions folks are bringing to the table; key issues such as the challenge of today’s housing market; affordable child and senior care; the skills and education needed for family-supporting jobs and how to get them. 
  
  
• We’re aspiring to replicate our regional news bureaus across the state as the impact of this work proves its value. 

Alexis de Tocqueville came to America from France 200 years ago to explain to his peers in Europe how this new experiment in democracy was working.  He saw firsthand how messy things can get — how hard it can be to build consensus with so many points of view and competing interests in play. 

So when a European gentleman asked him how America had become so enlightened, Tocqueville shook his head. He said: “The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”

How do we repair those faults? I’ve seen long-standing and seemingly insurmountable challenges overcome when three things are present: 

1. Enough people see and understand the problem to get the attention of responsible parties.
   
   
2. Enough people care about the problem to demand better.
   
   
3. People can see a road map to success — examples where folks  have tackled similar problems more effectively, with evidence to back it up. 

When these three things are present, political partisanship tends to dissipate and people of goodwill come together to build better ways. 

When all three elements are absent, the inertia of doing things the way they’ve always been done remains in charge. 

So no matter what problem you aim to address in our democracy, you’ll need honest reporters to inform the public, to show how the problem is affecting real people and to highlight better ways. Otherwise, you’re likely to grow frustrated you’ve spent so much time, money and energy while things never seem to get better. 

As Alberto Ibargüen, longtime head of the Knight Foundation, puts it: “Whatever your first priority, journalism needs to be your second” priority if you want to make a difference and make improvements in our democratic republic.

It’s time to support public service journalism in the same way we support our libraries, the arts and other civic treasures essential to quality of life. Let’s nurture community and ensure that government of the people, by the people, for the people does not perish from the earth. 

Sarabeth Berman, head of the American Journalism Project, one of our supporters, puts it this way: 

“This is not the story of a dying industry. It is the story of a country choosing to rebuild its civic life — one newsroom, one community at a time.”

I love her emphasis on the key elements of choice and action, which many folks don’t think about until it’s pointed out in a powerful way.

We are a democracy. The government, at all levels, works for us when we do our part. We can act to change things. We don’t have to be resigned and accept the way things are as inevitable. We’re in charge — if we choose to be.

America struggled through similar challenges more than a century ago when the industrial revolution dramatically shifted massive wealth into the hands of a few. The two political parties, and the wealthy and powerful forces supporting them, fostered polarization, disinformation and benefited from “us against them” tactics. The highly partisan “yellow press” of the Gilded Age behaved much like the angry partisans in our feeds today. 

But then responsible grown-ups of goodwill took back control — one community, one state at a time. Along with Theodore Roosevelt at the national level, our state was a leader in this movement, with people like Fighting Bob La Follette, Charles Van Hise, Daniel Hoan and Charles McCarthy. The fruits of their efforts include The Wisconsin Idea and one of the nation’s first journalism schools in Madison — to teach and spread nonpartisan, fact-based, honest reporting that informs the good people of Wisconsin.

It is time for us all to do our part again. We welcome your contributions and support.

Rebuilding civic life requires truthful, independent journalism 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.

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This is Hongyu Liu, Wisconsin Watch’s new data investigative reporter. 

If you’ve ever been confused and even intimidated by statistics and other numbers, I feel you. 

I was in the same boat three years ago while interning at a newspaper in Quincy, Massachusetts. 

When gas prices soared, my colleagues and I made weekly calls to every gas station in town, asking for price updates. It was an effort to help readers who were not familiar with gas price apps to learn where to fill up their cars more affordably. But we were soon drowning in data. Each week, we posted a lengthy list of individual prices, which were already one day old when reaching the readers’ doorsteps. We didn’t quite know how to look at the numbers in a more thoughtful, useful way.

Had I the analysis skills I’ve since developed, I would have approached the assignment differently. I would have looked for trends that may have inspired stories about how the higher gas prices might tighten the budgets of residents. 

My eagerness for understanding the world of numbers prompted me to pursue a master’s degree in data journalism at Columbia University. There, I found my niche is where data analysis, web design and journalistic storytelling intersect. I went on to spend almost two years in Charleston, South Carolina, as a data reporting fellow at The Post and Courier, becoming the newsroom “data nerd.” I used data skills to sift through drug prescription records to find evidence of identity theft and understand how loosened regulations led to a surge in sea turtle deaths from dredging near ports.

Now I’m eager to do similar reporting for Wisconsin, using data to provide rich context to our journalism that aims to make communities strong, informed and connected. That includes finding investigative leads rooted in data and producing visualizations that explain the issues we cover, such as through our DataWatch series.

We live in a world with ever-increasing reams of raw data that, if understood and analyzed, can help us better understand our communities. I’m stepping in at Wisconsin Watch to take the lead on how we use data in our journalism — and to understand how actors across the state are representing or even misrepresenting data trends.

I want to hear from you. If you have ideas for data we should analyze and visualize, or if you have questions about data in a government report, email me at hliu@wisconsinwatch.org and share your thoughts.

Digging into data that explains Wisconsin 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.

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Sometimes life hits you with full-circle moments. For me, writing this is one of them. 

After eight years away from the Badger State, I returned home this month to start my role as the new state government and politics reporter at Wisconsin Watch. I will be following the major stories inside the Capitol and connecting with key players in and outside of the building to make sure Wisconsinites understand what is happening in their government and how it affects their lives. 

This work is important to me because Wisconsin is my home. I grew up in the Milwaukee area and graduated from Marquette University, where I earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism. Real-world reporting opportunities in college at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service launched my career and taught me the value of community journalism. (NNS is now part of Wisconsin Watch, another full-circle moment.) 

I spent my post-college years reporting on local government at the Naples Daily News in southwest Florida and most recently in Indiana at the Indianapolis Star. Over four-and-a-half years in Indianapolis, I covered local, state and federal politics in the Hoosier State, which included stories on Democratic infighting over reproductive care, the dilemma over how far Republicans should go on property tax reform and how the state’s child labor violations rose as lawmakers rolled back existing protections. 

One thing never changed during my time away: Wisconsin was always on my mind, and frequently in the national spotlight. (It hasn’t even been six months since the April Supreme Court race set another spending record.) I felt a pull to return home, and Wisconsin Watch gave me that rare opportunity. 

I’m thrilled to be back and to contribute to the important journalism my colleagues are doing every day across the state.

In the meantime, you can help me get going in this essential work. Email me at bcarloni@wisconsinwatch.org with your ideas on what to look into, questions about why our government works the way it does and suggestions for who I should meet. You can also subscribe to our weekly politics newsletter, Forward, to stay informed about what’s coming each week at the Capitol.

When it comes to covering state government and politics, there’s no place like Wisconsin 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.

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As of July, two dozen Ashland residents had cases pending in federal immigration court. Attending court dates in person would require at least a three-and-a-half-hour trek to Fort Snelling in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Two mosques in Barron owe their existence to a nearby Jennie-O turkey plant, which has employed Somali refugees on its processing line since the 1990s.

And for the first time in five decades, Milwaukee’s Oklahoma Avenue did not host a Mexican independence day parade this September. Instead, a smaller crowd marked the holiday on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Mitchell Park, and a small convoy of pickup trucks flying Mexican flags spent the weekend cruising Milwaukee’s South Side, eliciting friendly honks from supportive fellow drivers.  

Immigration is as front-of-mind in Wisconsin as it is across the country. If it’s at the front of your mind, Wisconsin Watch wants to hear from you.

Are you an immigrant yourself? A business owner sponsoring an employee’s green card? A teacher meeting with parents from a half-dozen countries? A public official in a town like Barron? Does your farm rely on seasonal guest workers? Whoever you are, we want your help building a clearer picture of how immigration is reshaping Wisconsin – and how Wisconsin is shaping its immigrant communities.

Wisconsin Watch has covered immigration for more than a decade, but this year, we’re devoting new energy to the subject. That’s where I come in.

I’m Paul Kiefer, Wisconsin Watch’s first dedicated immigration reporter, albeit as a one-year Roy W. Howard fellow. I’m new to Wisconsin, but I’ve covered immigration before, most recently for the Washington Post on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, where a fast-growing Haitian community is reassessing its relationship with the region’s poultry industry.

Immigration is rarely a stand-alone subject, and we plan to explore the intersections with Wisconsin Watch’s other coverage areas. What role will immigrants play in the future of Wisconsin’s paper mills? What becomes of homes left empty when their residents are deported? What trade-offs are involved when a county jail dedicates cell space to hold ICE detainees?

Above all else, we want our immigration coverage to reach as broad a cross section of Wisconsin as possible. That means considering the input of Wisconsinites from every walk of life, always with our mission – to inform, to connect and to hold officials accountable – in mind.

If you have suggestions, tips or questions, please reach out to me at pkiefer@wisconsinwatch.org. I speak English and Spanish; if you speak another language, we can work out a way to communicate.

Help shape our immigration reporting 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.

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Thank you so much for being part of the Wisconsin Watch community and for using our mobile app! We launched it as a way to explore new ways of staying connected with readers. In a rapidly changing media landscape, experimentation is key to figuring out where to best invest our time and resources to reach new audiences. 

After careful review we’ve decided to discontinue the current version of the app on Sept. 25, 2025. We know that some people may feel disappointed by this decision because they love the convenience of a button on their home screen. 

In that case, we have good news for you. You can get a very similar experience by adding a bookmark for our mobile-friendly website to the home screen of your phone. Here’s how to do that: 

• Instructions to bookmark a mobile-friendly site for iPhone/iOS
• Instructions to bookmark a mobile-friendly site for Android

You will continue to see updates in the app through Sept. 25, 2025, and after that date it will no longer refresh with new stories. We are so grateful for your continued support and thank you for reading and for being part of our work!

If you have any questions or feedback, please get in touch with our director of audience, Cecilia Dobbs, at cdobbs@wisconsinwatch.org.

A note for our app users 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.

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If you avidly read Wisconsin Watch, you’ve learned plenty about prisons in Wisconsin. As our reporting has shown, they’re overcrowded, understaffed and particularly expensive to operate. In 2020, the state spent $220 per resident to lock up people — significantly higher than neighboring states. 

Wisconsin Watch has covered prison issues for more than a decade, but we’ve prioritized that coverage since reporter Mario Koran teamed up with The New York Times to expose a staffing crisis that resulted in extended lockdowns, substandard health care for prisoners and untenable working conditions for correctional officers. Our press corps colleagues joined us with months of sustained coverage, forcing lawmakers and the Department of Corrections to respond in some ways. 

We’re proud of that reporting. But as we continue exposing such problems, we’re doubling down on exploring solutions. For instance, Addie Costello and Joe Timmerman last month profiled Camp Reunite, a unique program that helps Wisconsin prisoners maintain relationships with their children — recognizing that family visits have been shown to reduce recidivism. 

But how might Wisconsin solve its biggest prison problems? We’re discussing that as a staff. The question is tricky because so many challenges outside of prison walls shape the problems within them, whether its barriers to housing, jobs or health care. That’s why we’re discussing coverage with beat reporters across the Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service newsrooms. 

In the coming months, expect more coverage that highlights more humane and cost-effective ways to protect public safety and rehabilitate people who do break the law. What can Wisconsin learn from other states that have reduced prison populations without jeopardizing safety? We’re asking. 

As with all of our stories, we’ll prioritize those with the potential for impact. Our journalism aims to help people navigate their lives, be seen and heard, hold power to account and come together in community and civic life.

Meantime, we want to hear from you. What topics or storylines do you hope to see us follow? What perspectives would you like to share? Feel free to email me at jmalewitz@wisconsinwatch.org.

How we’re reporting on Wisconsin prisons 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.

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In welcoming you behind the scenes of our reporting, we’ve shared plenty about how our newsroom operates — from how we’re covering Washington’s disruption to how your tips shape our coverage of everything from rural homelessness to the return of measles.

Today I want to discuss something more fundamental: Out of the infinite stories we could report at a given time, how do we decide which to pursue with our finite resources?

This requires us to evaluate whether a potential story would fit within our mission and deliver impact for residents. How we do that is something we’re constantly refining. 

Our mission is to make the communities of Wisconsin strong, informed and connected through our journalism. Our intended impact: that people use our reporting to navigate their lives, be seen and heard, hold power to account and come together in community and civic life.

Before green-lighting a story, we consider its potential impact. If we can’t identify any, it’s likely not worth pursuing — at least not yet. We ask where the idea originated (bonus points for ideas directly from the public) or whether other newsrooms have covered this topic. Recognizing that we want to fill gaps rather than re-report the news, we consider whether the story will add knowledge and understanding to previous reporting — and whether our story would elevate different perspectives. 

Another question: Why is it important to tell this story now, as opposed to other stories?

We’ve formalized this process, which begins with a pitch form that reporters fill out and discuss with their editor. The process has sparked productive conversations about how we can best serve the public. In some cases, we’ve decided an idea doesn’t fit. In other cases, the process has persuaded a skeptical editor that a story is worthwhile.

If you have questions about why we have — or have not — reported a particular story, feel free to reach out. I’m at jmalewitz@wisconsinwatch.org.

What makes a Wisconsin Watch story? Mission and impact matter 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.

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Change is hard, and exciting. 

That’s what I tell myself as my family and I prepare to move across the state. 

We currently live in Superior, but we’ll soon lay roots in Door County, where I grew up. I’m a little over a week into my role as Wisconsin Watch’s regional editor for northeast Wisconsin. 

The journey so far

I grew up in Egg Harbor and graduated from Sevastopol High School before attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison. There, I earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and English. 

I’ve spent the majority of my career in Wisconsin: first as an education reporter in Watertown, then reporting and editing in the Fox Cities and Superior. 

My most recent role was managing editor for Project Optimist, a nonprofit news outlet that reports on greater Minnesota (everything outside of the Twin Cities metro area). 

When I saw Wisconsin Watch post this job, I knew I had to apply. Several friends and former colleagues worked as Wisconsin Watch interns. They spoke highly of their experiences, and they’re some of the most talented, hardworking journalists I know. 

Furthermore, I published Wisconsin Watch stories as an editor for the Superior Telegram. I know firsthand how vital the organization’s coverage is to news outlets throughout the state. 

What we’re up to

The NEW News Lab launched in 2022. Wisconsin Watch joined the collaboration along with five media organizations, Microsoft, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, the Greater Green Bay Area Community Foundation, and the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region. 

The effort puts in-depth local journalism front and center, and it gained traction. We’ve collaborated to explore solutions to a range of challenges that affect northeast Wisconsin families — from unaffordable housing and child care to dangerous conditions at nursing homes and the region’s labor crunch.  However, Wisconsin Watch hasn’t had staff in northeast Wisconsin until now. 

The northeast Wisconsin newsroom is our way of crystallizing our commitment to the region. We want to build on the partnerships forged through the NEW News Lab and strengthen them. I believe journalists serve communities best when we set competition aside and put readers first. 

Fellow Door County native Jessica Adams is our director of partnerships for the northeast region and has been helping us learn about what people want and need from local news. Over the past several months, she held listening sessions at public libraries and met with stakeholders. If you want to let Jessica know your thoughts, you can take her online survey here. 

Miranda Dunlap is our first reporter in Green Bay. She’s focused on pathways to success – a beat I’m thrilled to lead. Learn more about it from Miranda here. 

I’m excited to meet new faces, connect and see where Wisconsin Watch fits into the local media landscape.

Have a story idea? Email it to jzvandenhouten@wisconsinwatch.org.

Meet Jen Zettel-Vandenhouten, our new northeast Wisconsin regional editor 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.

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Back in February I shared our newsroom’s plan for covering President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. As noted then, whether you love or loathed the disruption in Washington, it promised to deeply affect our lives in Wisconsin. 

And it has.

Five months later, Washington’s whirlwind is still churning — whether it’s the dismantling of the Department of Education, canceled or frozen grants, tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the rich or newly enacted work requirements that are expected to kick people off of Medicaid.

Here is an update on how we’ve leaned into our strengths in keeping communities connected and informed during exhausting news cycles. We promised: 

Reporting that prioritizes your questions and tips

That includes Addie Costello’s tip-inspired feature about Madison’s Yahara House, which focuses on building relationships and job opportunities for adults with serious mental illness — a model shown to work. Costello explored how Wisconsin could expand support for such programs and how federal cuts to Medicaid could jeopardize access.

We’ve also focused on news you can use, such as this story from Devin Blake of Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, which explained people’s rights as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conduct sweeping arrests.

Prioritizing context over speed

When Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested in March for allegedly helping a man without legal status evade federal immigration authorities, we amplified daily updates from our trusted partners at the Associated Press while considering what our specific expertise could add to the conversation. The result: this context-rich story from Jack Kelly about how Dugan’s arrest echoed the arrest of a Massachusetts judge in 2019. 

This approach has shaped how we’ve covered tariffs, frozen funding and disrupted programs. We’ve examined local impacts to adult education students, AmeriCorps volunteers, local farmers, people who are homeless and a program that teaches about Milwaukee’s history — just to name a few.  

It has also informed our coverage of Trump’s self-described big bill-turned law, including what provisions mean for Medicaid recipients and people seeking workforce training. Our fact briefs in partnership with Gigafact have helped readers understand which claims about the bill were true. 

Collaboration

As always, we’ve continued to distribute our reporting for free, team up with other newsrooms on big stories and amplify the great work of our partners. 

In June, Wisconsin Watch’s Natalie Yahr collaborated with Erin McGroarty of the Cap Times to bring you the story of Miguel Jerez Robles, a McFarland man who was among the first people swept up in a wave of arrests inside immigration court buildings. The story illustrated the volatility and randomness of the country’s immigration processes — and the aggressiveness of Trump’s approach. We detailed Jerez’s detention and, shortly after publication, his surprise release.

We additionally republished a pair of stories from The 19th about Yessenia Ruano, a Milwaukee teacher’s aide and mother of twin U.S.-citizen daughters who hoped to avoid a forced return to El Salvador — 14 years after arriving in Wisconsin. The most recent story illustrated Ruano’s farewell to Milwaukee as she and her children left rather than risking detention.

Meanwhile, we’re still rounding up top headlines in our Wisconsin Weekly newsletter, the most recent of which included a WPR story about Trump’s proposal to ax the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, which investigated a 2018 refinery explosion in Superior that injured dozens of workers and forced residents to evacuate. 

We want our coverage to offer you actionable information — and help you digest the most important storylines without feeling overwhelmed.

Let us know how we’re doing. Please keep shaping our reporting by sending your tips, questions and feedback. If you don’t hear from us immediately, please do know that we read everything you send.

How Wisconsin Watch is covering disruption from Washington 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.