There's plenty of room for Wisconsin officials to be more transparent in 2023, writes Christa Westerberg, attorney and vice president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council in its most recent "Your Right to Know" column.
In the column — available for republication, Westerberg gives three specific suggestions for improving government transparency.
Jim Fitzhenry, former Vice President of News for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, has been named editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Ideas Lab, the newspaper has announced. He'll also lead the organization's statewide editorial board and serve as the director of community engagement for the Journal Sentinel and the 10 other Gannett newspapers in Wisconsin.
Fitzhenry succeeds David Haynes, who retired on Dec. 15 after more than four decades in journalism.
One might be tempted to quip something like “Oh, how the mighty have fallen,” but trust me, I have never been on that pedestal.
Metro Milwaukee’s concentration of workers employed in STEM occupations is a competitive strength, but it lags peer metros on other metrics including productivity, household income, exports, and venture capital funding.
Hannah Alden, a Waukesha native who previously worked as a reporter and editor for the former Hometown News Group in the greater Madison area, has been named editor of The (Edgar) Record-Review, the newspaper announced on Dec. 14.
Alden earned her bachelor's degree in journalism from Columbia College Chicago in 2015 before joining the Lodi Enterprise and Poynette Press as a reporter the following year. She was later named managing editor of the DeForest Times-Tribune — a role she held for nearly two years before leaving to start a career in organic agriculture. Alden succeeds Peter Weinschenk, who retired as editor in October after more than 40 years with the newspaper.
After a journalism career spanning more than four decades — nearly a third of which was spent at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — David Haynes has retired, the longtime editor announced in a column published Dec. 15, his last day.
During his tenure, he has served as education editor, enterprise editor, business editor, opinion editor, founder and editor of Ideas Lab, and community engagement coordinator. In his farewell column, Haynes looked back on his career, reflected on the threats facing local journalism, encouraged readers to support newspapers and lauded his colleagues.
For decades, programs that offer public dollars to businesses as incentives to create jobs have played a prominent role in state and local economic development strategies.
The upcoming legislative session in Madison will feature changes on the committee front including new faces on the budget-making Joint Finance Committee, a revamped committee structure and new leaders for key audit and election panels.
I will fully admit that I am a procrastinator – if you ask me tomorrow. I agree with Mark Twain who said: “Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.”
Despite measures in the current state budget to lower property tax levies for K-12 schools, those levies are rising modestly yet again on December bills – clear evidence of the impact of school district referenda approved by voters.
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