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Together, we did it!

Generous donors from across the nation helped the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism successfully attain a $50,000 matching grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation in Oklahoma. In fact, we exceeded the goal by $14,000, giving our $600,000 budget a strong start in 2016.

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M.P. King / Wisconsin State Journal
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Abigail Becker / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
Top to bottom: The Center will continue investigating solitary confinement, gun violence, achievement gaps and government secrecy in 2016.

As WCIJ begins its eighth year, we remain committed to increasing the quality and quantity of investigative reporting in Wisconsin while training current and future generations of investigative journalists. We often work in collaboration with Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television and other news organizations nationwide to produce award-winning reports. Last year, more than 200 news organizations picked up our stories, as our 30 investigations reached an estimated audience of more than 17 million people in 29 states. Our guiding values: Protect the vulnerable. Expose wrongdoing. Seek solutions.

Watch for our coverage of critical Wisconsin issues, such as: Solitary confinement and treatment of inmates. The impact of gun violence, in Milwaukee and statewide, in our continuing role in the Precious Lives project. Achievement gaps that leave children of color, and children from impoverished families, behind. Threats to Wisconsin’s water, one of our most precious resources, that include contamination of drinking water with lead, arsenic, nitrate, bacteria, pesticides and other toxins. Government leaders’ increasing obsession with secrecy, to conceal their actions from the public. Upcoming: Climate change coverage — policies, impacts and solutions — that places the Midwest into national and global contexts. And more, including issues related to the 2016 elections.

Together, we can sustain investigative reporting in Wisconsin for years to come!

The nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television, other news media and the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

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Andy Hall, a co-founder of Wisconsin Watch and a former Investigative Reporters and Editors board member, won dozens of awards for his reporting in 26 years at the Wisconsin State Journal and The Arizona Republic. Since the Wisconsin Watch's launch in 2009, he has been responsible for the journalistic and financial operations.

Hall began his career in 1982 as a copyboy at The New York Times. At The Republic, Hall helped break the “Keating Five” scandal involving Sen. John McCain. At the State Journal, Hall’s stories held government and the powerful accountable and protected the vulnerable through coverage that addressed the racial achievement gap in public schools and helped spark the creation of the nationally noted Schools of Hope volunteer tutoring program, revealed NCAA violations by University of Wisconsin athletes, and exposed appalling conditions in neglected neighborhoods such as Allied Drive and Worthington Park. Hall won a first-place award in 2008 for beat reporting from the Education Writers Association. He also has received National Headliner, Gerald Loeb, James K. Batten and Inland Press Association awards for investigative, financial, deadline and civic journalism coverage. Hall has served as a mentor to the staff of La Comunidad, a Spanish-language newspaper in Madison, and has taught numerous courses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism & Mass Communication. He serves on the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council Board of Directors, Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism Board of Directors, and Indiana University Media School’s Journalism Alumni Board, of which he is president. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University and, in 2016, received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU Media School. He also serves as a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News membership task force to create and uphold high industry standards.