Dick Wheeler

The award is part of the second annual Wisconsin Watchdog Awards reception and dinner, presented jointly on Wednesday, April 25, by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and the Madison Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Gwyn Guenther, Wheeler’s daughter, will accept the award.

“Dick Wheeler devoted his life to covering the state Legislature, in particular, and was a passionate defender of the public’s right to know what their government was up to,” said Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council. “He was a tough but fair reporter, and he did more than anyone to shed light on the workings of Wisconsin government. The entire state owes him a debt of gratitude.”

“Dick was always willing to share with other journalists his extensive knowledge of Wisconsin politics and legislative procedure,” said Mark Pitsch, assistant city editor of the Wisconsin State Journal and president of the Madison Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. “Moreover, he earned respect from each side of the political aisle and across state agencies under several administrations.”

Wheeler, who died on Nov. 11 at age 67, launched the Wheeler Report in 1972, after having covered state legislatures in Ohio and Michigan. It began as a mimeographed write-up that was mailed to subscribers each day. Later it was sent out by fax, then email, which is how it is distributed today. The Wheeler Report also maintains a robust website, tracking state news.

Often, Wheeler was the first member of the public to receive important government documents such as audits, legislation and fiscal analyses, which he immediately posted to his website for others to see. The Wheeler Report remains one of the state’s most comprehensive sources of information about state government.

The Wisconsin Watchdog Awards, a celebration of investigative reporting and open government, will feature a keynote address by Walt Bogdanich, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate. Bogdanich is a New York Times investigations editor and former investigative producer for 60 Minutes and ABC News.

Walt Bogdanich

Also, winners of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council’s annual Opee Awards will be recognized for their work promoting open government

The event at the Madison Club, 5 E. Wilson St., is sponsored by the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, Wisconsin Broadcasters Association and the law firm McGillivray Westerberg and Bender. The evening will begin with a reception at 5 p.m., followed by dinner at 6. Tickets are available for $55.

Register online here. Attendance is limited to 120 and organizers expect all tickets will be sold.

Sponsors are being sought for the Wisconsin Watchdog Awards. Information is available here.

In addition to speaking at the Wisconsin Watchdog Awards, Bogdanich will appear on a panel as part of the 120th anniversary celebration of The Daily Cardinal, a UW-Madison campus newspaper. Three days of events, including an open house, drinks and dancing, are planned for April 26 through 28.

Walt Bogdanich

Three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate Walt Bogdanich will deliver the keynote address at the second annual Wisconsin Watchdog Awards on April 25.

Bogdanich is a New York Times investigations editor and former investigative producer for 60 Minutes and ABC News.

The Wisconsin Watchdog Awards reception and dinner is presented jointly by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and the Madison Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

“Walt Bogdanich is one of the world’s greatest investigative journalists, and his work has helped save lives and expose wrongdoing,” said Andy Hall, the Center’s executive director.

“We’re honored to have him back in Madison.”

The Wisconsin Watchdog Awards, a celebration of investigative reporting and open government, is open to the public, with proceeds supporting the nonprofit and nonpartisan Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

The event at the Madison Club, 5 E. Wilson St., is sponsored by the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, Wisconsin Broadcasters Association and McGillivray Westerberg & Bender.

The evening will begin with a reception at 5 p.m., followed by dinner at 6. Tickets are available for $55. Register online here. Attendance is limited to 120 and organizers expect all tickets will be sold.

The recipient of the 2012 Distinguished Wisconsin Watchdog Award will be announced soon. Subscribe to the Center’s email newsletter to be notified when the announcement has been made.

Also at the event, winners of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council’s annual Opee Awards will be recognized for their work promoting open government.

In addition to speaking at the Wisconsin Watchdog Awards, Bogdanich will appear on a panel as part of the 120th anniversary celebration of The Daily Cardinal. Three days of events, including an open house, drinks and dancing, are planned for April 26 through 28.

Bogdanich graduated from UW-Madison in 1975 with a degree in political science. He received a master’s in journalism from Ohio State University in 1976.

In 2008, Bogdanich won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for the series “A Toxic Pipeline,” which tracked how dangerous and poisonous pharmaceutical ingredients from China have flowed into the global market. Bogdanich also won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for National Reporting for his series “Death on the Tracks,” which examined the safety record of the U.S. railroad industry, and in 1988 for Specialized Reporting, for his articles in The Wall Street Journal on substandard medical laboratories. He has also won four George Polk Awards, an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, and an Overseas Press Club award.

Sponsors are being sought for the Wisconsin Watchdog Awards. Information is available here.

Eligibility is limited to undergraduate and graduate students who are enrolled, at the time of application, in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where the Center is based.

By reaching that level, the Center receives a matching grant from the Challenge Fund for Journalism – a consortium of the Ford, McCormick, and Ethics and Excellence in Journalism foundations.

The Center, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization, was among 13 nonprofit journalism organizations working in youth media, ethnic media, and investigative reporting to receive a total of $875,819 in challenge grants in early 2010.

Piloted in 2004, the grant program was introduced amid extraordinary and difficult changes in the news media profession.

Not only have journalism organizations seen a significant decline in financial support from corporate and philanthropic sources, but also a severe contraction in the industry as a whole. The program was intended to help organizations build their capacity, to expand and diversify their financial base of support.

Andy Hall, the Center’s executive director, thanked individual donors, foundations, the Center’s staff and board members, corporate donors and other nonprofit news organizations for helping the Center achieve its goal.

Perhaps the greatest value of the grant is that it encouraged the Center, with help from consultants at New York City-based TCC Group,  to change its business operations, Hall said. While increasing its technological capacity, the Center expanded its board of directors by two members to increase its money-raising clout. The Center also retained a fundraising consultant and is creating a new staff position — public engagement director — to raise the quality and profile of its journalism and enhance its ability to generate revenue.

Prior to receiving the grant, the Center had received five streams of revenue — foundations, individual contributors, board contributors, corporate funds and major donors. Now, the Center relies upon eight streams, having expanded the five existing forms while adding earned income (received in exchange for producing investigative reports), sponsorships and events.

Hall noted that earned income accounted for more than 60 percent of the funds raised to meet the goal — a sign of the value that others attach to the Center’s award-winning work. Providers of that income include the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity; nonprofit MapLight, which is a partner in the Center’s Money and Politics Project supported by the Open Society Institute; and WBEZ Public Media in Chicago.

As a matter of policy, the Center discloses all of its supporters to protect the integrity of its journalism.

Information on how to support the Center is available here.

Since its launch in 2009, the Center has produced more than 45 major reports and two dozen columns focusing upon government integrity, with a special emphasis upon the role of money in politics and policymaking, and quality of life issues including the environment, education and health. Its reports have been used by more than 150 news organizations worldwide and have reached an estimated audience of more than 18 million people.

The Center collaborates with Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where it is housed.

Ron Larson. Photo: Wisconsin State Journal/John Maniaci

Wisconsin InfoLink is an almanac of Wisconsin facts and resources compiled by Ron Larson. On the WisconsinWatch blog, Larson introduces us to some of these gems.

Public libraries offer a wealth of information in their physical book and reference collections. Besides the in-house resources, most public libraries in Wisconsin also offer a variety of online information through their respective web sites.

Many of the public library web sites include information that is restricted to patrons with library cards for that particular library. But the libraries also offer links to free information. Wisconsin InfoLink offers an easy and quick way to locate the various Wisconsin public library web sites by going to the Library heading and choosing the Wisconsin Public Libraries link.

You will find links to hundreds of Wisconsin public libraries worth exploring. For example, the Cedarburg Public Library has an extensive number of links, ranging from Architecture to Wisconsin Industries. To start your exploration, simply click on the “Helpful Links” button on the left side of the Cedarburg Public Library’s home page.

You’ll find other useful library web pages at the Hedburg Public Library in Janesville (click on “research tools” in the top menu), or the Oshkosh Public Library (click on “research center” on the menu on the left) or the Markesan Public Library (click on “research tools” in the top menu). Explore for yourself, you’ll be surprised at what the public libraries are offering.

Better yet, get a library card and expand the number and types of resources that are available to you at your public library through a click of the mouse.

Eligibility is limited to undergraduate and graduate students who are enrolled, at the time of application, in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where the Center is based.

Ron Larson. Photo: Wisconsin State Journal/John Maniaci

Wisconsin InfoLink is an almanac of Wisconsin facts and resources compiled by Ron Larson.

There are hundreds of municipalities in Wisconsin. Keeping track of the various ordinances for each county, city, village and town could be nightmarish.

Luckily, the Wisconsin State Law Library has a “>terrific site that provides links to many of them, from Adams County to the Town of Yorkville.

Featured: Wisconsin InfoLink: Legal and courts > Wisconsin Ordinances and Codes.

From animal control to firearms to waste disposal, the Wisconsin State Law Library’s link toWisconsin ordinances and codes can offer a quick solution to your research questions.

— Ron

Ron Larson, a blogger for WisconsinWatch.org and staffer at the Wisconsin Historical Society, spent most of his professional life organizing information and helping reporters find facts and data as the library director at the Wisconsin State Journal and The Capital Times.

Kate Golden, Center reporter and multimedia producer.

Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, is an insurance agent who sponsored an auto insurance bill in January, one of the first bills to pass the new Legislature. His opponents pegged him as the insurance industry’s best friend; Nygren said he was following the will of the people, many of whom had told him their auto insurance premiums were rising to unaffordable levels.

What exactly had they said?

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, while researching the issue, in May asked Nygren for all records of constituent contacts on the topic of auto insurance since 2009.

That was the year former Gov. Jim Doyle slipped auto insurance provisions into his budget to increase how much injured people could get in accident settlements. These changes were opposed by insurers and supported by trial lawyers, their opponents in court. Nygren had been trying to roll back those changes ever since.

Nygren, in response to the Center, released records of 42 emails and calls he had gotten on the issue over the past two and a half years. Some were form letters. Most cited concerns about rising insurance costs. Nearly all supported Nygren’s position.

On the face of it, the records affirmed Nygren’s claims. But all the names and addresses of all the citizens who contacted him were blacked out.

Elected officials often take pains to warn their constituents that their contacts are subject to Wisconsin’s Open Records Law. A footer on the email for Nygren’s aide does just that. And Gov. Scott Walker, who released thousands of constituent emails to media in a settlement earlier this year, warns citizens on his Web contact page that “our policy is generally to release communications” sent to him.

The Center asked Nygren to explain the redactions.

In three pages of legalese that cited constitutional provisions, statutes and the Assembly Policy Manual, Nygren argued that disclosing these names “would chill free speech and debate in the legislative process” and interfere with Nygren’s “constitutional rights and responsibilities” to take input from citizens.

“Citizens must have total freedom to contact me on issues of concern to them, without fear that their personal citizen information will be made public and that they will be put at risk of harassment, reprisal, identity theft, etc,” he wrote.

The Center’s attorney, Christa Westerberg, asked Nygren to reconsider, reminding him of the “presumption toward complete public access” in Wisconsin’s open records law. The statutes say that “only in an exceptional case may access be denied.”

“This,” she wrote, “is not an ‘exceptional case.’ ”

Westerberg added that Nygren’s own incomplete redaction suggested there was more to the story. Email footers left in some cases identified their senders as insurance company employees, who would have a vested interest in the auto insurance legislation.

Commendably, Nygren relented. In July he provided the records with names and addresses.

So just whose rights was Nygren protecting from potential harassment? At least two-thirds, it turned out, were insurance agents or industry employees.

The Open Records Law states that providing “the greatest possible information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those officers and employees who represent them” is “declared to be an essential function of a representative government.”

That means the public deserves to know who is whispering in state lawmakers’ ears.

Your Right to Know is a monthly column distributed by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, a nonprofit group dedicated to open government. Kate Golden is a reporter and multimedia producer at the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (www.WisconsinWatch.org). Her story on the insurance coverage changes can be found at wisconsinwatch.org/2011/08/14/auto-insurance-bill-was-clash-of-titans.