IMPACT REPORT
Wisconsin’s Republican-led Legislature approves $125 million PFAS fund following spotlight
MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel devoted extensive reporting to the emerging problem of PFAS contamination in drinking water, including a grant-aided investigation in which we tested the tap water (with the help of a certified private lab) from 40 homes across Wisconsin connected to municipal water utilities.
The testing found 30% of those had had at least one forever chemical compound at levels above federal recommendations, and since they were connected to a public drinking water supply — as opposed to a private supply — others in their communities likely also had contamination.
Republican lawmakers, who for years had stripped PFAS funds out of the Democratic governor’s budget, changed course with a vote to create a $125 million trust fund to clean up “forever chemical” contaminations across the state.
This also came after we reported on extreme contaminations happening in areas of the state represented by Republicans in the Legislature.
Gov. Tony Evers sought removal of anonymous objectors from conservation process
MILWAUKEE — The Journal Sentinel highlighted an arcane provision in Wisconsin legislative procedures that allows any member of the powerful Joint Committee on Finance to anonymously object to devoting state stewardship funds toward particular conservation projects — a power that effectively kills such projects.
In particular, the Journal Sentinel called attention to the provision as it related to a popular conservation project along the bluffs above Lake Michigan north of Milwaukee, and another project in the state’s Northwoods.
Gov. Tony Evers included a measure in his proposed state budget to eliminate the provision, but the Republican-led Legislature killed the measure before the budget was passed.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers visits locked-down state prisons, announces new policies after article
MILWAUKEE — In the wake of USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin reporting about dire conditions in some Wisconsin state prisons under months of lockdowns, we asked Gov. Tony Evers if he had personally visited any of the prisons to see the problems firsthand. Part of the context of the question was the criticism by Evers, as a candidate, of then-Gov. Scott Walker for not having visited a troubled Wisconsin juvenile detention facility.
Two weeks after our story was published, the governor said he had gone to the troubled prisons and announced a raft of policy actions to alleviate conditions there.
Lawmakers propose bill to allow elderly more time to transfer
GREEN BAY — The Green Bay Press-Gazette’s reporting on nursing home evictions caught the attention of a state senator and led to a bill that would help retirement community residents facing relocation.
In February, reporter Benita Mathew wrote about residents who received eviction notices from Emerald Bay Retirement Community and Memory Care in Hobart, a Green Bay suburb. Those who were asked to leave were using Family Care (Medicaid) funding. Emerald Bay’s owner reported that because of increased costs and wages, they would have to terminate contracts of those using Medicaid. Residents received a letter with a 30-day notice to move.
In the following months, the Press-Gazette reported on other evictions at retirement communities around Wisconsin, followed up on the former Emerald Bay residents still looking for new homes, and talked with a family whose mother died three weeks after being forced to move from Emerald Bay. They blamed her death on “transfer trauma.”
In October, state Sen. Rob Cowles, RGreen Bay, launched an effort to give residents on Medicaid more than 30 days to find a new living facility after they’ve been told they would have to transfer.
Appleton’s Sexual Assault Survivors Monument evolves from pencil sketch to healing place
APPLETON — The Appleton Post-Crescent’s reporting about a grassroots effort to create a sexual assault survivors’ monument in the city led companies, including Miron Construction and Hoffman Planning, Design & Construction, to donate or discount their services to bring the project to fruition.
“It is because of your first article that Miron called and offered their amazing support, and how so many in the community became involved,” said Chelsea Bongert, founder and president of the nonprofit Sexual Assault Survivors Monument Corp..
Volunteers respond to call for help researching segregation in Milwaukee County
MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee has long held a reputation as a segregated community. Segregation that was intentional.
Early efforts were made to create covenants that prohibited Blacks, Hispanics and other people of color from renting or purchasing property in certain areas within Milwaukee County. The aim was to keep some areas completely white and to banish people of color into more economically depressed sections of the county.
A team of researchers sent out a call in late 2022 for volunteers to help them comb through millions of pages of deeds and real estate documents to illustrate just how far these restrictive covenants reached, and how they helped shape the textures of those communities and neighborhoods today.
After a Journal Sentinel story about the project, hundreds of readers volunteered to help.
Reporting on early voting site potentially being in jeopardy
MILWAUKEE — The Journal Sentinel’s close attention to city budget discussions led to us breaking a story about the city’s most popular early voting site, Midtown Center, potentially being in jeopardy.
As a result, voting rights group Souls to the Polls launched a petition to keep the wellknown site in the same location. More than 500 people signed it, and the group delivered it to Mayor Cavalier Johnson.
The city’s election council announced soon after that while the site would move, it would be just across West Capitol Drive, to the site of a former bank. In December, the Milwaukee Common Council unanimously backed the new location.
County board member censured for transphobic comments, LGBTQ+ organization forms
APPLETON — Timothy Hermes, an Outagamie County Board member, faced public protests and was censured this summer after The Post-Crescent’s Sophia Voight reported on transphobic comments he made during an equity, diversity and inclusion discussion at a May board meeting.
Following Voight’s reporting, dozens of trans-rights activists, religious leaders and LGBQT+ people protested for weeks, and even packed the board room and hallways during a later meeting, calling for a censure and saying Hermes’ anti-trans comments proliferate violence against transgender people and should be condemned by the board. The censure vote passed at a June meeting, 21-8.
In further response to this uproar, a new organization called “Hate Free Outagamie” formed to increase LGBTQ+ inclusivity in the county.
After reading a story on Clarke Street School losing a major donor, Leonardo DRS stepped in
MILWAUKEE — Master Lock employees regularly donated school supplies to Clarke Street School, located just a few blocks away in Milwaukee. When Master Lock’s parent company announced it was closing the facility, many wondered what was going to happen at the school.
After reading a story in the Journal Sentinel about how the students at Clarke Street School had become more vulnerable because of Master Lock closing, defense contractor Leonardo DRS decided to step in and fill the void.
“Every year we do a collection of school supplies for needy kids,” said Carol Knuth, senior administration coordinator for the field service group at Leonardo DRS. “This year because of the article we read in the Journal (Sentinel), we decided to focus on Clarke Street School.”
Leonardo employees delivered a school bus full of supplies to the children and vowed to continue working with school administrators.
Political group takes unusual step of pulling TV ads that feature rape victim’s case
MILWAUKEE — Journal Sentinel reporters reached out to the woman at the center of a rape case that was being used in political ads seeking to impugn the judicial record of a candidate for Supreme Court in Wisconsin.
The woman said she had refused to participate in the ads and found it re-traumatizing when the ads came out anyway. She also spoke to inaccuracies in the depiction of what happened to her and her views of how the judge handled the case.
After the story appeared, an attorney for the candidate’s campaign sent letters to Wisconsin’s television stations asking them to remove the ads, and the next day the lobbying group behind the advertisements pulled the ads.
Community gives outpouring of support to Sheboygan bookshop facing financial struggles
SHEBOYGAN — The Sheboygan Press learned from the owner of Sheboygan’s independent bookshop, WordHaven BookHouse, that she was facing financial struggles during her first year in business.
In an email to the Friends of WordHaven BookHouse, the owner asked her supporters for help. The Press followed up with her and wrote about the situation. She told us our coverage was critical to people responding and reaching out to her; some hadn’t even heard of the shop until we wrote about it.
Notably, supporters raised $8,000 in 44 minutes for a time-sensitive business loan the owner was applying for.
Story on Sentry Insurance’s contributions to Lahaina wildfires elicits thank-you from former Stevens Point woman living in Lahaina
STEVENS POINT — Although the communities are separated by more than 4,000 miles, there is a unique connection between Stevens Point and Maui, Hawaii. When a wildfire swept through Lahaina on the Hawaiian island Aug. 8, killing at least 114 people and causing between $4 billion and $6 billion in property damage, the central Wisconsin community stepped up to help.
After Stevens Point Journal reporter Caitlin Shuda wrote in late August about a connection between Sentry Insurance and Kapaula Resort in Maui, she received an email from a Stevens Point native who was living in Lahaina at the time of the wildfire.
“Thanks to the outpouring of support from the community, we have shelter, food and necessities,” wrote Molly (Moss) Lorenzo, who was born and raised in Stevens Point and graduated from Stevens Point Area Senior High and the University of WisconsinStevens Point.
Shuda was able to connect with Lorenzo for a follow-up story and learned that she and her husband lost their home and property. They escaped with just the clothes on their back and a few personal items.
Shuda reported again in late October that Sentry Insurance’s donation total to Maui had exceeded $1 million to benefit the Maui United Way, Maui Food Bank, the University of Hawaii-Maui and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Maui.
Tenants get 2-week reprieve from lease terminations
MILWAUKEE — The Journal Sentinel learned of an effort to get roughly 150 tenants of a troubled affordable-housing apartment building in Milwaukee to sign short-notice lease termination agreements to get them to vacate the premises.
These residents were subjected to an abrupt evacuation in late March and have been living in temporary quarters since, waiting for the building owners to remedy the existence of dangerous fumes in the building.
After our story appeared, the building owners gave residents additional time to make plans to relocate.
Manitowoc reporter helps reunite man with lifeguard who saved his life when he was 9
MANITOWOC — Half a century after a lifeguard saved him from drowning in the Manitowoc-Two Rivers YMCA pool, Scott Hansen shared a heartfelt “thank you” with the lifeguard after an article in the Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter helped the two reunite.
Joan (Bouril) Cloutier was 19 years old in February 1973 when she pulled a then-9year-old Scott out of the indoor pool and gave him the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation that saved his life. He wanted to tell her how grateful he and his wife, Sheryl, were and tell her about their four grown children and 11 grandchildren.
But after hitting a dead end with their online sleuthing, Sheryl reached out to the Herald Times Reporter.
A few days after a story about Scott’s search published, Cloutier reached out to the newspaper.
Sheryl and Scott made an excited phone call with Joan and her husband, Dan, on March 25. They talked for an hour-and-ahalf and are now getting to know each other via email exchanges.
Friends of Muskego Library raises $11,000 after story about garden walk
MILWAUKEE — The Friends of the Muskego Library sold 405 tickets for its annual garden walk, raising just shy of $11,000 that will go to the library. That’s compared to 280 tickets and $8,000 in 2022.
The head of the Friends group thanked the reporter for the story that highlighted a garden on the walk, writing, “I wanted to let you know what a significant impact your article in the Journal and your impact as a journalist had on our event. … We had people attend from Janesville. Madison, Northbrook IL etc.”
Woman finds roots after article shares her search
SHEBOYGAN — In October, Sheboygan native Gina Davidson returned to town to share her book, “Bessers & the Rolling Stone:
A Memoir.”
Davidson had been estranged from her father and didn’t know much about his life before he suddenly fell into a coma and died in 2003. Her memoir shared that story, and Sheboygan Press reporter Sam Bailey wrote about her upcoming speaking engagements and shared Davidson’s plea for anyone with information about her father to come forward.
Two people who knew her father reached out after reading the article. Davidson is now planning future, in-person connections.
Prisoner recommended for parole waited over 5 months get final approval
ONEIDA — Post-Crescent reporter Kelli Arseneau wrote about a prisoner at Sanger B. Powers Correctional Center who was recommended for parole in May. Days before he was going to be released, a prisoner social worker told him he’d have to wait longer.
Five months later, he was still incarcerated.
“If you’ve told me I’ve served sufficient enough time for punishment, then why am I still being punished?” the prisoner asked.
Arseneau’s reporting found a statewide backlog of 29 cases where prisoners were recommended for parole yet hadn’t received final approval from the Wisconsin Parole Commission chairman. Meanwhile, prisoners worry that a misstep on their part while still incarcerated will get their parole revoked.
Within a week of publication, the prisoner, Travis Coleman, was granted parole.
Story inspires local group to raise funds for childhood cancer research
MILWAUKEE — After reading a story in the Journal Sentinel about a family that started a childhood cancer foundation, a Lions Club board member invited the family to speak at one of their board meetings. This led the group to bring together 13 Lions Clubs in Southeastern Wisconsin for the Lions District Childhood Cancer Challenge, which raised $22,586 for the foundation between
July 2022 and February 2023.
The Brookfield family had started the Little Warrior Foundation to raise money for research into treatments and cures for childhood cancer, particularly Ewing sarcoma, after their 9-year-old daughter was diagnosed with the disease in September 2019.
In rare court order, Milwaukee landlord to pay $1.35 million for fatal fire at rental unit
MILWAUKEE — A Journal Sentinel investigation into dangerous electrical conditions facing renters in Milwaukee highlighted the preventable circumstances behind the death of Clarence Murrell Jr.
The article revealed how the fire that killed Murrell likely started in electrical wiring behind the walls of the apartment, and how the property had been subject to a series of electrical code violations over five years.
Following the publication of the story, a judge ordered the landlord of the apartment where Murrell was staying to pay $1.35 million, writing that the landlord had shown “reckless disregard” for laws meant to keep residents safe.
Housing attorneys both locally and nationally said an award of this size was rare and possibly precedent-setting.
Investigation leads to successful clemency petition
MILWAUKEE — A 2021 Journal Sentinel investigation examined the story of a man who was charged with first-degree murder after helping his friend break into a home in Chicago, where an off-duty police officer shot and killed his friend.
The man, Edgar Naranjo, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for essentially causing the death of his friend under the use of a charge called “felony murder.” Under felony murder laws, prosecutors can charge all participants in certain felonies with murder if any one of them causes someone’s death, even if the death is unexpected.
The investigation sparked a clemency petition in the case filed by Northwestern’s Center on Wrongful Convictions. The petition was granted in October 2023 by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Naranjo has since been released from prison.
Milwaukee police admit to ‘shortcomings’ in fatal domestic violence case
MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee’s police chief admitted to “shortcomings” in how the Milwaukee Police Department handled the case of a woman who repeatedly tried to get help with her abusive partner and was later killed by him.
He made those comments a week after The Journal Sentinel published an investigation into the death of Bobbie Lou Schoeffling that found police, probation agents and prosecutors all missed the scope of an escalating series of domestic violence allegations in the final 10 months of her life.
The case also drew outrage from Milwaukee’s mayor and the Common Council, which sent a letter to the police chief and the city’s Fire and Police Commission demanding answers.
The Milwaukee Police Department opened a review into all contacts Schoeffling had with the agency prior to her death. It is also is now considering broadening its internal definition of domestic violence and updating how it makes referrals to the county’s multidisciplinary domestic violence team.
Anti-abortion group blocked from offering medical education credits for lecture series featuring unproven ‘abortion pill reversal’ treatment
MILWAUKEE — Because of a
Journal