state bar of wisconsin, legal rights, legal advice

Criminal justice funding must be a top priority

The criminal justice system is at a breaking point. One of the root causes is a lack of adequate state funding to attract and retain lawyers to work in critical public safety positions, such as prosecutors and public defenders.

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Policy Forum identifies 5 keys to the next state budget

As state lawmakers begin deliberations on Gov. Tony Evers’ proposal for the 2023-25 state budget, a record projected surplus of $8.8 billion hands them an historic opportunity to make generational progress on some of the state’s most pressing policy challenges.

In a new state budget brief released by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the statewide policy research organization identifies five keys it expects will be critical to the state’s future fiscal outlook, its economy, and the quality of life of its citizens. 

John Foust, advertising, ad-libs

Ad-libs: The power of enthusiasm

There’s a story about a professor of literature at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. As he approached retirement, someone from the newspaper interviewed him.

Officially sick of winter

Being Wisconsin born and raised on a farm, I can honestly say that I’ve dealt with much of the worst that winter can offer. 

Wisconsin Watch’s Mario Koran named New York Times local investigations fellow 

The New York Times has named Mario Koran, an award-winning Wisconsin Watch investigative journalist, to its inaugural class of the Local Investigations Fellowship, a program that gives journalists the opportunity to produce signature investigative work focused on their state or region that will be published by The Times and made available for free for co-publication by local newsrooms. Koran’s project focuses on the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.

Interested applicants can apply to the Local Investigations Fellowship here.

Former national political reporter Ted Knap dies at 102

Longtime national political reporter Ted Knap died on Feb. 26. He was 102. During his career, he covered five presidents in Washington and Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

Knap graduated from Marquette University in 1940 with a degree in journalism. Following graduation he worked for the Waukesha Daily Freeman as a reporter and city editor for six years. In 1950, he joined the Indianapolis Times as a city desk reporter, later becoming assistant editor and, eventually, city editor of the newspaper. He became the Washington correspondent for the Times, as well as the Evansville (Ind.) Press, around 1963.

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