Floodplain forests play a pivotal role in the river ecosystem – creating wildlife habitat, improving water quality, storing carbon and slowing flooding. But they’re disappearing.
Tag: milwaukee journal sentinel
Posted inEnvironment
Heavy, wet snow brings spring flooding risk to northern Wisconsin and Minnesota
Flooding outlook along the upper Mississippi River is “much above normal,” National Weather Service says.
Posted inEnvironment
Road salts wash into Mississippi River, damaging ecosystems and pipes
Chloride levels are increasing at all Wisconsin monitoring sites and across the Upper Mississippi River basin.
Posted inGovernment
Wisconsin Sen. Johnson pushed tax cut amid family land deals
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin was pushing for a tax cut provision in 2017 that benefitted his former plastics company and many others as his family was acquiring properties around the country, a newspaper review of property records revealed.
Posted inFact briefs
Has Milwaukee’s homicide rate nearly doubled in the past two years?
Yes. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel homicide tracker, the number of Milwaukee homicides in 2019 was 111. In 2020, the number rose to 204. 2021 saw 212 homicides, marking a 91% increase in the rate of homicides over two years. As of Oct. 21, the FBI reports there were 184 homicides in 2022 in Milwaukee — 24 more than last year at this time.
Posted inNews about Wisconsin Watch
Raquel Rutledge, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, named 2018 Distinguished Wisconsin Watchdog
Raquel Rutledge, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, has been named the 2018 recipient of the Distinguished Wisconsin Watchdog Award.
Posted inGovernment
State agency lags on records compliance
To assess the DOA’s performance, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism analyzed the nearly 200 records requests the agency received in the first six months of 2012. The analysis found the DOA took an average of 24 days to provide records or denials.
Posted inOpen records, WisWatch Blog
Don’t hike cost of public records
A ruling last year by the Wisconsin Supreme Court involving the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel became the focus of attention Feb. 27, when a state Assembly committee held a public hearing on a bill, AB 26, that would drastically increase the cost of obtaining public records. The bill, if approved, would let custodians of public records charge a fee for redacting sensitive information.
Posted inNews about Wisconsin Watch
UW-Madison investigative reporting collaboration honored in APME award
The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have won a national award for their collaborative efforts to produce investigative reporting. The Associated Press Media Editors’ first Innovator of the Year for College Students award cites the Center and school, which since 2009 have collaborated in classrooms and through paid internships.
Posted inWisWatch Blog
Lawmakers on both ends of openness awards
The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council is bestowing its annual “Opee” Awards for openness in government. And Wisconsin state lawmakers have been tapped for both kinds of awards — good as well as bad.
Posted inWisWatch Blog
Let the sunshine in … please
It’s time once again for proponents of open government and the free flow of information to celebrate Sunshine Week. But this year, we’ll be doing it under a cloud.
Posted inGovernment
Newspaper: Doyle refuses questions on travel expenses
At a Milwaukee event, the governor declined to respond to our report showing deficiencies in his reporting of travel expenses.