WNA Member Content | Wisconsin Newspaper Association

‘Opees’ honor and chastise

Mar. 8, 2023

For the 17th consecutive year, the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council has named its annual Openness in Government Awards, or Opees, in honor of national Sunshine Week, March 12-18. Five winners and one loser were selected from among an uncommonly large number of nominations.

Honorees include a group of residents concerned about the impact of a local park redevelopment, a school board member who blew the whistle on his colleagues for being too secretive, and a longtime city official who has made a habit of accessibility.

The road signs of spring

Mar. 6, 2023

The classic harbingers of spring are the return of the robins, the maple sap run or the first blooms to sprout from the thawing earth.

Evers’ building budget has a few twists

Mar. 1, 2023

After a gubernatorial election, the first job of the governor in the first year of the new term is unveiling the two-year state budget plan.

There’s something to be said for decency

Mar. 1, 2023

The 39th President of the United States was smiling on July 27, 1979.

Less than four months later – on Nov. 4, 1979 – the defining moment of Jimmy Carter’s presidency occurred, when Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans hostage.

Top Sheboygan officials lacked key details on police department sexual harassment probes

Feb. 28, 2023

Citizen oversight board was not involved in reviewing police investigation; mayor says he was unaware independent review ordered by city had been halted

A tale of ice

Feb. 27, 2023

While politicians and others way above my station and pay grade continue to debate, expound upon and expunge homosapien influence on the stratosphere, one thing I know for sure. The winter weather has changed and we’re seeing way more rain and ice.

Landlord discrimination and refusal to rent to a tenant

Feb. 27, 2023

It’s a common question from both landlords and tenants alike: Can a landlord refuse to rent to a tenant? The answer is simple, yet complex. Landlords

The uneven rise of remote work

Feb. 23, 2023

Three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, remote and hybrid work arrangements remain widespread in Wisconsin and nationally.

Recalling the family’s patriarch and storyteller

Feb. 22, 2023

Six strong young Barth men carried him to his grave. He rests beside my mother, who has been waiting eight years. They lie together on the wind-swept Illinois prairie, overlooking now barren fields that in a few weeks will bloom green with the crops that feed America and the world.

Evers addresses PFAS in budget plan

Feb. 21, 2023

Gov. Tony Evers’ biennial budget includes about $11 million more in newly announced proposals to address PFAS and other hazardous contaminants in the state, but it’s unclear whether the measures will garner enough support in the Republican-led Legislature.