Last fall, the 41 candidates vying for 17 Wisconsin state Senate seats spent just over $4 million. That seemed like a lot of money at the time, but it’s already been surpassed in the much smaller number of state Senate recall elections now under way.

This western Wisconsin community is in the midst of a land rush — call it a sand rush — fueled by exploding nationwide demand for fine silica sand used in hydraulic fracturing of oil and natural gas. At least 16 frac sand mines and processing facilities are operating, and an additional 25 sites are proposed, in a diagonal swath stretching across 15 Wisconsin counties from Burnett to Columbia, the Center has found.

Gov. Scott Walker has agreed to pay a private law firm up to $500,000 for legal services regarding his controversial budget repair bill curbing public employees’ collective bargaining rights, a spokesman for the governor confirmed.

An opinion poll conducted by the nonprofit, nonpartisan group Justice at Stake found that Wisconsinites’ confidence in their Supreme Court has nose-dived to 33 percent, down from 52 percent just three years ago.

By Lauren Hasler
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
COLUMBUS — American Packaging Corp. in Columbus is supposed to be one of the safest places to work. In 2009, the company was recognized as a model of safety when it joined other Wisconsin workplaces, now totaling 49, in a voluntary compliance program run by the U.S. Occupational Safety [...]

Gov. Scott Walker signed the budget June 26, effectively ending the state’s 33-year-old system of providing public funding to candidates who agree to abide by overall spending limits.

The Wisconsin Judicial Commission and the Dane County’s Sheriff’s Office announced Monday that they are conducting separate ethical and criminal investigations into an alleged physical altercation between two Wisconsin Supreme Court justices.

For farmer Brian Wickert, the raw milk bill is about having the freedom to live without interference from the government. But for health officials in America’s Dairyland, it’s about potentially exposing unsuspecting citizens to disease-causing bacteria. At the crux of this debate is the age-old question: How much should government protect its citizens from possible hazards?