Welcome to Wisconsin Watch’s Year in Review series. In this series, we’re looking back on Wisconsin Watch’s reporting and impact in 2023.
Throughout the week, you’ll be hearing directly from reporters and editors and get exclusive behind-the-scenes looks at our biggest investigations of the year, along with some sneak peeks at what we have planned for next year.
Here are Wisconsin Watch’s top 10 stories of the year.
1. Republicans can’t simply remove a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice
After Janet Protasiewicz won the Wisconsin Supreme Court election in April, cementing a new liberal court majority, speculation of her possible impeachment was rampant.
To address impeachment speculations, statehouse bureau chief Matthew DeFour broke down why Wisconsin Republicans cannot simply remove a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice.
2. In rural Wisconsin, former employees lift curtain on troubled crypto mine
Investigative reporters Jacob Resneck and Zhen Wang interviewed two Chinese tech workers who were fired from a former paper mill in Park Falls, Wis., that is now being used to mine cryptocurrency.
Lured by a Chinese company that recently built a cryptocurrency mine inside a former 19th century paper mill, the two skilled workers had come to the U.S. on a temporary business visa believing they had a long-term future helping a global firm establish a bitcoin mining operation in North America.
What they found were what they described as unsafe working conditions and possible skirting of immigration and labor laws.
3. Whistleblower claims Milwaukee doctor performed unneeded surgeries
Dr. Scott A. Kamelle at Aurora St. Luke’s Hospital exposed patients to unauthorized and unapproved and biological material implanted in their bodies and performed unnecessary surgeries to boost his and the hospital’s bottom lines, according to a whistleblower who also participated in a federal lawsuit against Kamelle and the hospital.
Reporter Phoebe Petrovic spoke with the physician along with seven other doctors who requested anonymity fearing professional retribution for speaking out. Together, the seven physicians recounted personal observations of Kamelle’s alleged practices, corroborating key aspects of the whistleblower’s allegations.
4. Chinese prisoners: We were forced to make Milwaukee Tool gloves for cents each day
Zhen Wang’s investigation found evidence that prisoners in China’s central Hunan Province were forced to make Milwaukee Tool-branded work gloves for 90-plus hours a week, earning pennies each day. Milwaukee Tool’s supplier subcontracted work to the prison, two former prisoners said in separate interviews that Wang conducted in Mandarin. A self-identified salesperson of the supplier told Wang it manufactured the majority of Milwaukee Tool’s work gloves. And regulatory filings confirmed the company was contracted to manufacture gloves for a subsidiary of Milwaukee Tool’s parent company.
Milwaukee Tool representatives said the company has not found evidence of forced labor within its supply chain, but they did not answer specific questions from Wisconsin Watch. Wang has since reported that Walmart removed Milwaukee Tool work gloves from its third-party platform and blocked future sales due to the forced labor allegations. Meanwhile, the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China cited the Wisconsin Watch investigation in July while launching an investigation into Milwaukee Tool’s supply chain practices.
This investigation won top honors in the national 2023 Nonprofit News Awards, recognized in the Best Investigative Journalism category – Medium division.
5. Republican lawmakers reject proposal to help Wisconsin communities access federal grant programs
Many of Wisconsin’s local governments lack staff capacity to track, apply for and manage grants that could fund infrastructure like upgrading drinking water systems or purchasing electric buses.
Republican lawmakers rejected Gov. Tony Evers’ $960,000 proposal to address that issue, leaving it out of the two-year budget that Evers signed in July. Reporter Bennet Goldstein broke down how this affects small communities in Wisconsin.
6. Wisconsin towns brace for next fight on local control over large farms
After a developer began eyeing rural northwest Wisconsin for a large swine farm, five small towns enacted ordinances aimed at curbing environmental and health impacts.
Then, the state’s biggest business and agricultural interest groups fought back. They engaged disaffected residents. Some locals sued. Others ran for political office. New leaders in one Polk County town rescinded regulations on concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs.
Reporter Bennet Goldstein interviewed residents in northwest Wisconsin about the impact of these CAFOs and how they planned to fight back.
7. Second prisoner dies during Waupun Correctional Institution lockdown; restrictions linger at two additional prisons
Wisconsin Watch reporter and New York Times investigations fellow Mario Koran provided an update in October over ongoing prison restrictions in Wisconsin that he first reported about in August.
Stanley Correctional Institution — a medium-security prison in Chippewa County — has restricted prisoner movement for the past year. Department of Corrections officials previously said only Waupun and Green Bay correctional institutions were on “modified movement” for prisoners — restrictions many refer to as lockdowns.
Additionally, Wisconsin prison officials publicly acknowledged that severe staffing vacancies are hindering efforts to lift restrictions on prisoner movement. That’s after officials initially denied a link between vacancies and the restrictions.
8. False choice: Wisconsin taxpayers support schools that can discriminate
Wisconsin is considered the birthplace of the “school choice” movement. Today 32 schools — including at least one with an anti-LGBTQ+ stance — have their entire student bodies on publicly funded vouchers.
Reporter Phoebe Petrovic reviewed public materials for about one-third of the state’s voucher schools and found that nearly half had policies or statements that appeared to discriminate against students who are LGBTQ+ or have disabilities.
State law prohibits public schools from discriminating against students on the basis of sex, sexual orientation or disability, but it does not extend the same protections to private schools — even those receiving public funds.
9. Widespread sexual harassment draws discipline, resignations in Wisconsin police department
In a joint investigation with The Sheboygan Press, Phoebe Petrovic uncovered a long-secret series of internal probes at the Sheboygan Police Department that found a sprawling sexual harassment scandal involving 1 out of every 5 officers in the department. The reporting found female officers were treated more harshly than male colleagues participating in the same behavior and that the human resources director and the head of the city’s Police and Fire Commission were largely left in the dark about the allegations.
The stories prompted the resignation of the most egregious offending officer two days after the story broke, an anti-abuse group called for accountability, community members voiced their anger, and city officials vowed to better respond to and prevent such misconduct.
10. Wisconsin billionaires quietly bankroll effort to shrink state’s social safety net
Jacob Resneck investigated how a group funded by deep-pocketed GOP donors is pushing to make it harder to vote and to receive unemployment insurance and Medicaid.
The Florida-based Foundation for Government Accountability and its lobbying arm, the Opportunity Solutions Project, have courted Republican lawmakers across the country, including in Wisconsin, to enact more barriers to voting and accessing social programs.
Top donors to the organization include wealthy Wisconsin-based conservative groups such as the Bradley Foundation and Ed Uihlein Family Foundation.
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