Attorneys for families of residents say that facilities’ failure to report serious injuries or deaths related to abuse or neglect is not uncommon. Far more often, they say, the state health department only learns about a case of alleged neglect or abuse after a family member files a complaint. Advocates for health care providers stress that incidents of neglect and abuse are extremely rare, and can come to regulators’ attention in a variety of ways.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, the chief author of Wisconsin’s Open Records Law and a strong advocate of the Open Meetings Law, has been named the 2013 recipient of the Distinguished Wisconsin Watchdog Award.

Award-winning investigative journalist and University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate Lea Thompson will deliver the keynote address at the third annual Wisconsin Watchdog Awards on April 24.

State Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, incoming Majority Leader, has been suggesting that the Government Accountability Board should be governed by partisan appointees, rather than the six retired judges who now do the job. “I just don’t think they’re an independent voice at all,” the Republican from Juneau told the Associated Press.
If Republicans are united on that, [...]

Nominations are being sought for the Distinguished Wisconsin Watchdog Award, presented annually to recognize an individual’s extraordinary contributions to open government or investigative journalism in Wisconsin.

About this story
This story was produced with support from the State Integrity Investigation, a ranking of all 50 states’ corruption risk by the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International. The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism assessed Wisconsin for the project, which gave the state a C-, ranking 22nd among the states: [...]

More than one hundred people or groups paid fines for violating Wisconsin’s campaign finance and ethics laws in the past three years. The violator list reads like a Who’s Who of Wisconsin politicians, and includes some noteworthy outsiders as well.

The backdrop for many of Wisconsin’s current ethical controversies is an unprecedented flow of money into the state’s political machinery. With last year’s Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case, some loopholes in the state’s campaign finance laws have grown even wider.