Ex-Captain Daniel Gruebele pleaded no contest to a disorderly conduct citation and resigned his position last month as the commander of the Wisconsin State Patrol’s Northeast Region in Fond du Lac.

By Annie Pulley, THE BADGER PROJECT

Former Captain Daniel Gruebele, who was investigated by the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office after his girlfriend called 911 on him last summer, is no longer the commander of the State Patrol’s Northeast Region in Fond du Lac, according to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. His last day with the State Patrol came three days after The Badger Project first reported the findings from the sheriff’s investigation.

Gruebele’s girlfriend called 911 on the night of June 13 after she said he poured a drink on her, threw the bottle at her and kicked her out of his house, according to the report from the sheriff’s office The Badger Project obtained in a records request.

The Badger Project published a story on Dec. 16 about the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office investigation into Gruebele. At the time the first story was published, the DOT confirmed Gruebele was on leave. The DOT has since confirmed Gruebele’s last day was Dec. 19.

“Mr. Gruebele is no longer employed with the department,” the DOT said in a brief statement emailed to The Badger Project Jan. 6.

The DOT said it could not comment further.

In the report, Gruebele’s girlfriend described him as an alcoholic and noted how the two had a sadomasochistic relationship. She told deputies she often performed sexual acts to keep Gruebele from becoming angry at her. Deputies reported that they felt Gruebele’s girlfriend didn’t share the whole story in order to protect his career.

“She said that Daniel would ask her to have sex a lot, and he would get mad if she said no, and they would argue. She said she often did what he wanted because it was easier,” the investigation reads. “She stated that Daniel is a nice guy when he’s sober but ‘evil’ when he drinks.”

The deputies eventually cited Gruebele for disorderly conduct. He pleaded no contest in August and paid a fine of $263.50, according to online court records. The citation is not a criminal offense.

Gruebele, 49, worked for the Wisconsin State Patrol from 1996 to December 2025. His position meant he oversaw the State Patrol’s operations in 11 counties, including Mantiowoc, Outagamie and Sheboygan.

He did not respond to a request for comment.

The Badger Project is a nonpartisan, citizen-supported journalism nonprofit in Wisconsin.

The post Wisconsin State Patrol commander cited for disorderly conduct resigns appeared first on The Badger Project.

Derrick Rotta resigned his police position in Menasha in 2024 while being investigated for an allegation that he was “the most racist person at the department.” The Neenah Police Department hired him last year.

By Annie Pulley, THE BADGER PROJECT

A Winnebago County officer resigned in 2024 when his home department investigated accusations from other employees alleging he made racist, sexist and homophobic comments during his time there. He now works at the Neenah Police Department five miles away.

Derrick Rotta submitted his resignation to the Menasha Police Department in October 2024 after five years there. Menasha’s internal investigation outlines policy violations ranging from disobedience to discrimination.

“Information was received about comments made by current employees that Officer Rotta is the most racist person at the police department,” according to a synopsis included in the Menasha Police Department’s investigation, which The Badger Project obtained in a records request.

Employees whose names were redacted recalled in the report that Rotta would talk about how using the N-word isn’t racist, that you can distinguish a Black person by how they walk, and that Adolf Hitler had been “demonized” and wasn’t a bad guy.

Neenah Police Chief Aaron Olson said his department conducted a thorough background investigation before hiring Rotta, including a polygraph test, a psychological evaluation and numerous interviews with co-workers and friends, “none of which indicated racist or negative behavior,” Olson wrote in an email to The Badger Project.

Olson went on, writing that Rotta’s comments amounted to “gallows humor” but that “Officer Rotta acknowledged the comments, has taken responsibility, and has demonstrated exemplary conduct while serving with our department.”

Olson told The Badger Project that Rotta did not want to comment for the story.

In a Neenah Police Department memo Olson sent to The Badger Project, Assistant Chief Jeff Bernice described Rotta taking accountability and clarifying that his comments were made to his friends, in a joking manner and away from the public.

The same memo explained how Rotta’s resignation agreement required the City of Menasha to discontinue its investigation without making a formal conclusion. The investigation still says the allegations against Rotta included corroborating statements from multiple officer interviews. The 64-page report released by the department redacts nearly every name while some pages are almost entirely blacked out.

The accusers’ names are redacted in the Menasha Police Department’s report, but the phrasing indicates at least some of the allegations originated from Rotta’s fellow officers. The complaints span years and one officer recounted having to tell Rotta at least 30 times to stop making inappropriate comments.

The Menasha Police Department flagged Rotta as a negative separation in a database with the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

Olson said the Neenah Police Department spoke to Rotta’s former coworkers, who were targeted by Rotta’s comments; he said they had nothing negative to share and spoke well of him.

“We have received consistently positive feedback from staff and the public regarding Officer Rotta,” Olson wrote to The Badger Project.

During one shift, Rotta reportedly said, “Well, of course, a woman can’t drive,” in response to a female officer who admitted she was having trouble parking, according to the Menasha investigation. At a meal later in the shift, Rotta is described saying, “Yep, typical woman doesn’t want help until she messes it up and then a man has to fix it” and “just wait until the election when one of your kind is elected.”

Dr. Valerie DeLain, the psychologist who evaluated Rotta as part of the Neenah Police Department’s background check, wrote, “Other than factors involved in his previous employment with regard to the internal investigation, no concerns are identified. The candidate has not identified any problems with bias or prejudice and has expressed ownership for his role in the incident. It is likely that he has learned from his mistakes in this regard.”

The psychologist, who provides public safety evaluations as a part of her regular services, also wrote that Rotta is enthusiastic about his policing career.

Rotta has been with the Neenah Police Department for about a year. Olson said Rotta has received numerous accolades, including from a woman who self-identified as a minority and praised Rotta’s professionalism, saying it changed her perception of the police.

Olson said his department employs 42 police officers and is fully staffed.

The Badger Project is a nonpartisan, citizen-supported journalism nonprofit in Wisconsin.

The post Neenah cop quit last policing job amid accusations of sexist and racist remarks appeared first on The Badger Project.

A group of residents says city officials have ignored them in moving forward to build duplexes on a green space in town. Meanwhile, home prices in the little city have increased 76% since 2017.

By Annie Pulley, THE BADGER PROJECT

In the national war for affordable housing, a familiar battle is raging in Richland Center, a little city in the Driftless Area that’s surrounded by wilderness and farm fields.

A move to put duplexes on a six-acre village green has pitted some residents against their city government.

“It’s the soccer field, it’s the picnic field, it’s the place where everybody goes,” said Jeri Rust, who grew up in town and now splits time between Richland Center and Arizona.

But “the city needs housing, and we have before us a proposal that would be the envy of any other community,” Richland County Board Chair David Turk said at a September city council meeting. 

Since 2017, the average home price in Richland Center has increased from about $102,000 to $180,000, a 76% change, according to Zillow, the real estate marketplace. 

Stori Field is the “crown jewel” of the neighborhood, said Greg Dettmann, a resident who grew up in the city and lives across the street. 

The field is named for teacher and coach Dave Stori, who revived the high school’s track team in the 1940s. For decades, Stori Field hosted athletic practices and P.E. classes.

“I threw up more than once on that field,” Dettmann, 74, joked about his own time exercising on the field as a kid. “You can’t get green spaces back once they’re gone.”

But Richland Center has between three to six times more parkland than what the National Recreation and Park Association recommends for the city’s population, city attorney Michael Windle estimated. And there are other venues for recreation around the city, he said.

It’s a common fight across the country, as residents resist new housing to keep their neighborhoods from changing.

“When you say it’s easy to find places to build, no, it isn’t,” Mayor Todd Coppernoll said at a September city council meeting. “We don’t have adequate housing stock at any income level, in my opinion.” 

Richland Center, like many communities, is struggling to provide affordable housing, especially for seniors, as its population ages and the number of small home builders declines, according to a Richland County analysis.

The community’s median income is lagging behind its median home value, and “there is not enough affordable housing,” according to a Richland Center study from 2024. 

The city has struggled to find companies to build. When one developer, Enke Properties, zeroed in on Stori Field and agreed to cover the costs for major expenses like utilities, sidewalks and street lights, the city jumped at the offer. On top of the additional housing, the 16-unit development would also generate about $100,000 in annual tax revenue to be split between the city, county and school district, Richland Center city officials estimate. 

The city greenlit the sale of Stori Field on Oct. 7. In response, but before the transfer officially went through, residents submitted a petition with nearly 700 resident signatures asking the city to prohibit any sale without the voters’ consent. Richland Center has a population of about 5,000 people.

On Nov. 13, the same day the clerk certified most of the signatures, the city rejected the petition, saying it omitted necessary language. The city officially sold the land for $1 to the developer the same day. 

“PR-wise, I think they fell on their face,” Mary Collins, a resident of Richland Center and the chair of the Richland County Democratic Party, said of city officials.

But “from a legal perspective, I’m not sure that there’s anything stopping the city in this instance,” said Derek Clinger, a senior staff attorney for the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Residents submitted a second petition Nov. 21, which the city acknowledged but says conflicts with the Oct. 7 ordinance it passed authorizing the sale.

In Wisconsin, Clinger said, a direct legislation attempt, in this case the residents’ petition, can’t be used to pass a city ordinance that clearly conflicts with an existing city ordinance. But the city’s actions could certainly have political consequences in future local elections, he noted.

Shelly Dobbs, another leader in the push to protect Stori Field who has also taken the issue to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said her citizen group is considering legal action. 

But the city’s focus on Stori Field has angered some who feel there are opportunities for development elsewhere. The city says it is considering more options in addition to Stori Field.

Ellen Kellar Evans owns two rental properties near Stori Field with her husband and had been working to build 19 single-family homes in the city. She said Richland Center even offered them a $1.5 million federal grant for the project. But she said the city’s unrealistic deadlines and the ire she feels about the Stori Field project have changed things.

“We don’t think we can trust them anymore to make good decisions,” she said.

The city has since pulled the grant.

Residents have repeatedly pointed to the decommissioned University of Wisconsin campus owned by the county as an alternative to Stori Field. In response, the mayor asked Turk, the county board chair, to give an update on the campus at a special meeting Sept. 24.

“The campus is a big chunk of land,” Turk said. “Is it ready to be developed? No.”

But in his emails to The Badger Project, Windle referenced a Nov. 19 presentation the city gave at a county meeting about a proposed subdivision on the campus.

“We feel like we were fooled by thinking that couldn’t be available for years,” Kellar Evans said. “I’m very confused, myself, and I think everyone else is. We just don’t understand.” 

The campus project, Windle said, would be in addition to Stori Field. 

“At this time,” Windle said, “Stori Field is the sole and exclusive property of Enke Properties, LLC.”

The Badger Project is a nonpartisan, citizen-supported journalism nonprofit in Wisconsin.

The post Amid rising home prices, Richland Center residents decry building housing on park appeared first on The Badger Project.

Scott Schaut first quit a leadership position at the sheriff’s office after The Badger Project requested documents on his job performance. He resigned from the department entirely last week.

By Peter Cameron, THE BADGER PROJECT

A deputy known for making a large number of arrests, but who had a history of unreliability in his reports and court testimony, resigned from the Waushara County Sheriff’s Office last week.

Scott Schaut had worked for the sheriff’s office since 2018, and was making about $34 per hour, according to county administration.

After The Badger Project requested records of his disciplinary record in September, Scott Schaut resigned a few days later from his leadership position as the nightshift sergeant, dropping himself down to a patrol deputy. In November, The Badger Project published a story about Schaut’s work history, including a performance improvement plan he had been under, and at least two documented instances the officer’s changing testimony led to a dismissal of criminal charges.

“After careful consideration, I have decided that it is best for me to move on,” he wrote in his resignation letter, which The Badger Project obtained from the county via records request. “The current direction and internal environment of the department no longer align with what I believe is necessary for me to be successful in my role. For that reason, I feel it is in everyone’s best interest for me to step away at this time.”

The Waushara County Sheriff’s Office has been under great scrutiny in recent months, as an investigation from The Badger Project found that Sheriff Wally Zuehlke had collected more than $20,000 in stipends for his K9 after quitting the law enforcement trainings with the dog. The county board voted to force Zuehkle to repay that sum plus interest.

Another investigation by The Badger Project found the sheriff’s office promoted a deputy who had been sending and requesting lude photos to and from officers in the department. That deputy resigned after The Badger Project requested his records.

And the sheriff’s office’s second-in-command, Chief Deputy Jim Lietz, resigned in October after pressure from citizen journalist Sam Wood, who makes online videos watched by thousands in the county and beyond, regarding his handling of the lude photos investigation and other accusations.

Schaut had previously been on a performance improvement plan with the department, during which he conducted what may have been an illegal search, documents from the plan note.

Wood had also been criticizing Schaut in his recent videos, derisively calling him “Schnauzer” due to his aggressive and frequent searches for drugs.

But documents show that, on at least a couple occasions, Schaut failed to follow department policy, and the law, when executing searches.

Before conducting a house check in the village of Coloma in April, Schaut and other deputies received verbal permission from a caller to ensure no person was in the home. But body camera video showed Schaut looking in boxes, the refrigerator and a washing machine, according to a sheriff’s office report, areas too small for a person to hide.

For breaking department policy, the top administration of the sheriff’s office decided Schaut would be penalized with two unpaid days off, Lietz wrote in the report.

Upon Schaut’s resignation from the sergeant’s position, Lt. Stacy Vaccaro ended the improvement plan.

“Overall, Sgt. Schaut’s performance has been mediocre without much change,” Vaccaro wrote in the final report. “After speaking with Schaut about concerns or issues, he would acknowledge his understanding, improve for a short period of time, and then regress back.”

Schaut, Vaccaro and Zuehlke did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Schaut had trouble with reliability in his police work in other documented instances also.

In a case from 2024, Schaut reported receiving consent to enter a man’s home, in which he found drug paraphernalia. However, when a judge asked Schaut to note on an audio recording where he had received that consent, the officer said he could not, according to the court transcript. That led to the judge dismissing the paraphernalia charge because Schaut had not obtained consent and had no warrant.

In another case involving underage drinking in 2023, Waushara County District Attorney Matthew Leusink and Assistant District Attorney Joshua Zamzow alerted the court that Schaut had misremembered facts during his testimony, leading to the dismissal of a citation.

The Badger Project is a nonpartisan, citizen-supported journalism nonprofit in Wisconsin.

The post Waushara County deputy quits sheriff’s office after The Badger Project’s reporting appeared first on The Badger Project.

by Paul Kiefer / Wisconsin Watch, Wisconsin Watch
December 8, 2025

Wisconsin refugee support organizations and food banks are preparing for the worst as regulators in other states implement new rules barring many refugees and people granted asylum from federal food assistance programs. 

But they haven’t yet seen the new restrictions take effect in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services, which administers FoodShare — the state’s name for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — has continued to provide benefits to immigrants rendered ineligible under the new federal restrictions, support groups say. The agency has not said how long it will continue to do so. 

Refugees, asylees and other immigrants who entered the country through humanitarian programs had long been eligible for SNAP before securing legal permanent residency. But President Donald Trump’s “big” bill-turned law, signed in July, rewrote SNAP eligibility rules to exclude such immigrants who have yet to obtain green cards.  

The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave states until Nov. 1 to comply. 

Refugee assistance groups and food banks across Wisconsin have sounded the alarm about the ban. Nearly 8,000 refugees and asylees have settled in the state over the past decade, federal data show, and resettlement organizations note many rely on FoodShare as they find their footing.

 “SNAP is a lifeline for refugees and asylees as they rebuild their lives in the United States after traumatic and often dangerous circumstances,” said Matt King, CEO of Milwaukee food bank Hunger Task Force. “Food support is one of the first stabilizing resources they receive as they navigate an unfamiliar country and begin the process of resettlement.” 

Hunger Task Force helped more than 1,600 refugees access food assistance in 2024 alone, he added.

Anticipating a benefits cutoff, Wisconsin aid groups have geared up for a surge in demand for services.

 “We’ve already been proactive,” said Donna Ambrose, executive director of The Neighbor’s Place, the largest food bank in Marathon County – a longtime hub for refugee resettlement. Her organization is extending its hours and offering an “evening market” on Thursday nights to accommodate rising needs. 

In the Fox Valley, the nonprofit Casa Hispana recently received an anonymous donation to support food and fuel assistance. It plans to hold a giveaway in the coming weeks. CEO Carlos Salazar expects part will go to asylees from Latin America who stand to lose FoodShare benefits.

COMSA, a resource center for immigrants and refugees in Green Bay, faces a more difficult position. While the nonprofit will continue its core programs – job application support and English language classes, for instance – the center lacks resources to begin providing food assistance, Executive Director Said Hassan said.

Officials with refugee resettlement groups say their clients who lack green cards are still receiving FoodShare — for now. They haven’t heard details about what’s next. 

“We’re supposed to find out any day” about benefits, said Sean Gilligan, the refugee services manager with Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Green Bay. 

Last-minute guidance from the federal Agriculture Department adds to the uncertainty. The agency on Oct. 31 directed states to permanently block all immigrants who entered the U.S. through humanitarian pathways – including refugees and asylees – from receiving SNAP, even after obtaining green cards.

Wisconsin Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul and 21 other state attorneys general challenged the directive in a late-November lawsuit, arguing that the department’s instructions conflict with provisions of Trump’s new law. The lawsuit asserts refugees and asylees with green cards remain eligible for SNAP aid.

The attorneys general also argue that federal rules allow a 120-day grace period to implement latest guidance, meaning states shouldn’t immediately be held to its provisions. The Trump administration claims that period ended Nov. 1.

“Wisconsin and other states have already begun implementing the statutory changes enacted earlier this year, but USDA’s guidance now forces them to overhaul eligibility systems without sufficient time,” Kaul’s office said in a press release.

The state could face financial penalties if the Trump administration determines it is distributing aid to  immigrants who are ineligible for SNAP. A provision of Trump’s landmark law will strip some funding from states with high SNAP “error rates” – a measure of over- and under-payments to recipients – beginning in fiscal year 2028. Wisconsin is among few states with an error rate below the bar for penalties, but Kaul’s office said confusion over the new eligibility rules could push the state’s error rate over the penalty threshold. 

The new rules will “create widespread confusion for families, increase the risk of wrongful benefit terminations, erode public trust, and place states in an untenable situation where they must either violate federal law or accept severe financial liability,” Kaul’s office said in a press release.

The state health department declined to comment about its plans, and about what steps it has taken to implement the new eligibility requirements.

This article first appeared on Wisconsin Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Declining numbers of international students coming to study in the U.S. hurts local economies, according to new data released this week. 

International students’ economic contributions declined by $1.1 billion this fall, costing the U.S. nearly 23,000 jobs, NAFSA and JB International found. Those figures are based on a 17% decline in international student enrollment. 

Much of that decline was among graduate and non-degree students, according to the data. A slight increase in undergraduate enrollment this fall bolstered the overall numbers. There are still more than 1 million international students in the U.S.

It’s been a tense time for international students at colleges in the U.S. In the spring, President Donald Trump’s visa revocation and sudden reversal left many reeling, as our Jessica Priest reported in Texas. Trump has also limited visa interviews, told some universities to cap their international student enrollment, imposed travel restrictions on visitors from 19 countries, and made H1-B visas — which allow educated foreign citizens to work in “specialty occupations” — more expensive.

The U.S. must adopt policies to attract and retain international students and realize that job opportunities for them after graduation “are essential to our standing as the top destination for global talent,” said Fanta Aw, NAFSA executive director and CEO. 

“Otherwise, international students will increasingly choose to go elsewhere—to the detriment of our economy, excellence in research and innovation, and global competitiveness and engagement,” Aw said in a release earlier this week. 

Our reporters have been detailing the declines in international students on the campuses they cover — including DePaul University in Illinois and IU Indianapolis. 

[Read more: Case Western Reserve, University of Cincinnati downplay international college student data online] 

A separate report on international students released this week by the Institute of International Education found that their numbers were decreasing even before Trump took office: International student enrollment dropped by 7% in the 2024 school year, according to the report. 

These declines matter — not just for college’s bottom lines, but for the broader economy. International students contributed $42.9 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 355,000 jobs last year, according to NAFSA. 

The pre-Trump slump “suggests colleges face other headwinds, such as a slowing global economy, growing competition from nontraditional education hubs, and lingering unease because of the China Initiative,” in addition to current political turmoil, Karin Fischer, the Chronicle of Higher Education’s international education reporter, wrote in her newsletter this week.

India remains the country that sends the most students to the U.S. Marcello Fantoni, Kent State’s vice president of global education, travelled there last spring to talk with prospective students, our Amy Morona reported at Signal Ohio. He told them Kent State is still welcoming — one of the few things he can control amid the broader federal policy changes. 

Still, he said Trump’s actions influenced how the students he spoke with viewed America.

“There is damage done there, and it will take a long time to be fixed,” he told Amy. “A long time.”  

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Elsewhere on Open Campus

From Fort Worth: McKinnon Rice at our partner Fort Worth Report visited students who received paid, two-year auto technician internships through a partnership between Autobahn Fort Worth and Tarrant County College. 

It’s a growing field in the area and offers opportunities to make good money without much college: “A technician hired after an internship starts out earning $24 to $30 per hour, based on their performance, and the wage grows as skills do — highly skilled technicians can make as much as $250,000 to $300,000 per year,” McKinnon wrote.

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Despite his concerns, Gov. Tony Evers signed a bipartisan bill requiring public schools to limit the use of cell phones in classrooms.

By Gus Pirlot, THE BADGER PROJECT

Governor Tony Evers signed a bill late last month requiring public schools to ban cell phones in the classroom. Wisconsin is now the 36th state to restrict the use of electronic devices in some capacity in schools.

Starting in the 2026-2027 school year, at the latest, the law says school boards across the state must adopt a policy that prohibits students from using “wireless communication devices” during class time, other than those provided by the school.

School board policies may allow for the confiscation of a student’s device for the remainder of the school day, according to the law.

“I am deeply concerned about the impacts cell phone and social media use are having on our kids and their mental health, school outcomes, and how our kids engage and interact with each other and the world around us,” Governor Evers said in a statement. “We know that cellphones can be a major distraction from learning, a source of bullying, and a barrier to our kids’ important work of just being a kid.”

“While I wish the Legislature would have taken a different approach with this legislation, I will never stop fighting for Wisconsin’s kids and working to do what’s best for them, which is why I am signing this bill into law today,” he continued. 

Evers added that he typically supports decisions like this being made at the local level by school districts and school boards.

The bill, introduced by state Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara (R-Appleton) and state Rep. Joel Kitchens (R-Sturgeon Bay), passed the state Assembly in February, nearly along party lines, with state Rep. Rob Swearingen (R-Rhinelander) the only Republican to vote against. No Assembly Democrats voted in favor, but the bill passed the state Senate in October on a bipartisan vote. Most Senate Democrats voted in favor of the bill, though four cast votes against.

“This is an important bill that would reduce distractions in the classroom,” state Sen. Cabral-Guevara, a member of the Republican majority’s leadership in the state Senate, told The Badger Project in an email. “Wisconsin would join a number of states, including California and Florida, which otherwise do not agree on much, but see the value in banning these devices during instruction.”

According to Pew Research, 72% of high school teachers consider cell phones to be a major distraction, and 74% of US adults in general support banning them during class time. Teachers across the country have already taken the initiative on this, independent of legislative mandates. Long-term studies have found that while taking away students’ access to electronics may be disruptive in the short term, it leads to higher academic performance and higher rates of classroom attendance. 

Some opponents of phone bans in schools consider them to be government overreach. Some research has raised doubts about the effectiveness of phone bans on children’s mental well-being and focus. 

Many Wisconsin schools and districts already ban or restrict phones in class, but now all will have until July 1, 2026 to enact rules to prevent students from using electronic devices during instructional time.

The Badger Project is a nonpartisan, citizen-supported journalism nonprofit in Wisconsin.

The post Wisconsin joins 35 other states to ban phones in classrooms starting next year appeared first on The Badger Project.

Following The Badger Project’s reporting, the Richland Center Police Department and Richland County Sheriff’s Office have discontinued a minimum $25 fee for records, which experts said was illegal.

By Annie Pulley, THE BADGER PROJECT

Days after The Badger Project reported on what experts believe are “clearly illegal” fees for open records requests, the Richland Center Police Department removed a reference to its $25 minimum fee from its website, and Richland County said the sheriff’s office will stop charging the fee “effective immediately.”

Tricia Clements, the county administrator for Richland County, said the county board will work to formally change the sheriff’s policy and requesters will no longer be charged the $25 flat fee.

“We do appreciate it being brought to our attention,” Clements said. “This is something that we are and will be changing.”

When contacted by The Badger Project last week for the first story, Clements said the county would consult with its attorneys. On Oct. 28, she received a memo from attorney Michael Windle explaining the policy was “unlawful.”

“The sheriff’s policy is inconsistent with state statutes,” Windle wrote. “The fault is mine, and I both apologize for failing to address this sooner and thank the organizations that brought the matter to light.”

Wisconsin law says that fees imposed for records requests “may not exceed the actual, necessary and direct cost of reproduction and transcription of record, unless a fee is otherwise specifically established or authorized to be established by law.”

So charging a $25 minimum fee is “clearly a violation of the state’s open records law,” wrote Bill Leuders, the president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council.

Richland County imposed the $25 fee in November 2024. The sheriff’s office consulted with attorneys prior to implementing the policy, Windle’s memo suggests.

“I believe a miscommunication occurred,” Windle wrote to Clements.

Prior to The Badger Project’s reporting, a website for the Richland Center Police Department mirrored the sheriff’s policy. In the days after the initial story, the website’s reference to its $25 minimum fee was removed.

Billy Jones, Richland Center’s police chief, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Quoted in the first story, Jones said last week that he was unaware of state law requiring fees for records requests to be proportionate to the costs of producing the record. He said then that he thinks the time required to find and review the cases and body camera footage requested for redactions is more costly than the $25 fee, however.

“This may be something that needs to be revisited and removed or adjusted,” Jones said about his department’s policy last week. “The requests started to become more than we could handle in a timely manner. As for the state statute,” Jones continued, “I had no idea it existed.” 

A guide from the state Department of Justice says printing an electronic record should cost a fraction of a cent per page. The guide also recommends record keepers waive fees associated with copying digital records from one format to another for distribution.

“For some reason, law enforcement agencies tend to have a bad habit of adopting flat fees for record requests, but the law does not allow that,” wrote Tom Kamenick, an attorney and the founder of the Wisconsin Transparency Project, a law firm which practices open records law and often represents The Badger Project in lawsuits. “They have to calculate what their own ‘actual, necessary and direct’ costs are and they can charge no more than that.”

The Badger Project is a nonpartisan, citizen-supported journalism nonprofit in Wisconsin.

The post Richland Center PD, Richland Co Sheriff change records policy after our story appeared first on The Badger Project.

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• The average Wisconsin farmer is nearly 57 years old, and farmers are increasingly finding that their children don’t want to take over their operations. 

• Legislation introduced by Wisconsin lawmakers would create a state-run farmland link program to connect farmers who are interested in selling or renting out their land to beginning farmers. 

• Eight states, including Minnesota and Michigan, have land link programs run in whole or in part by government agencies. 

• While advocates say the need for this type of program is real, some feel the legislation needs to include funding to be successful.

Joy Kirkpatrick spends much of her time thinking about the future of Wisconsin’s farmland. 

As a farm succession outreach specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, she helps farmers figure out what to do with their farms when they’re ready to retire. 

A flood of farmers will soon face that question. The average Wisconsin farmer is nearly 57, and a growing share are 65 or older.  

For generations, the answer was simple: Hand off the land and operations to their kids. But farmers are increasingly finding their grown children have other plans. 

To fund their retirement, today’s farmers will often weigh whether to rent or sell their land to larger agricultural operations, real estate developers, energy companies or even private equity firms. 

Meanwhile, a new generation of aspiring farmers is struggling to get started. Many didn’t grow up on farms and don’t have the land they need. In surveys, beginning farmers nationwide say their biggest challenge is finding affordable farmland. 

Nationally, nearly 70% of all farmland is expected to change hands in the next 20 years, whether through inheritance or sale, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. What happens to that land will determine whether Wisconsin’s farmers can retire comfortably, and whether small farms have a place in the state’s future. 

“If we want land to be available to new or beginning farmers, figuring out ways that the land can be affordable for them and still provide the income that the owner generation needs is key,” Kirkpatrick said.

Experts say meeting those two goals will require a combination of strategies including tax incentives, conservation easements and loan assistance. But a group of Wisconsin lawmakers is looking to make a dent in the problem with a simple step: a website to connect those with farmland for sale or rent to those looking to start new farms.

A group of Republican lawmakers introduced Assembly Bill 411 and its Senate counterpart, SB 412, this summer. The legislation would direct the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection to create a “farmland link” program to assist farmers with transferring property. Central to that effort, the bill instructs DATCP to build and maintain a website where farm owners could post land for sale or rent, and beginning farmers could inquire about the opportunities they’re looking for, including the chance to be mentored by an experienced farmer before taking the reins.

The legislation’s lead author, Rep. Clint Moses, R-Menomonie, grew up on a dairy farm and now runs a roughly 50-head beef operation. He’s watched farmland prices rise, much like home prices. 

“It’s much, much more challenging than it was even five to 10 years ago,” Moses said. 

It’s not just a cost problem, Moses said. In the past, farmers looking to pass on their land would talk to their neighbors to see who was interested. Today, those communities are often less connected, so prospective farmers need other ways to find land, Moses said. That’s the purpose of a farmland link website.

“It kind of allows them to not have to go out and sift through all the other real estate listings,” Moses said. 

Eight other states, including neighboring Minnesota and Michigan, have land link programs run in whole or in part by state or local governments. In Wisconsin, where the previous state-run program shut down around a decade ago, only regional nonprofit organizations now offer the service.

While some Wisconsin farm advocates are optimistic the bill could chip away at a tough problem, others say it lacks the funding and specifics to make it work. 

Pair finds farm of their dreams

Les Macare and Els Dobrick of Racing Heart Farm in Colfax found their 36 acres in the Farmland Clearinghouse listings, published by the Minnesota-based nonprofit Land Stewardship Project. 

It was 2016, and the two lived in Minneapolis and rented farmland in Stillwater, where they grew vegetables for Minneapolis farmers markets and a CSA.

But they were getting tired of commuting 40 minutes every morning and evening. 

“We knew either we were going to start looking for land, or not farm,” Macare said.

From the listing, the former sheep and vegetable farm in Dunn County sounded like a dream. The owners, a pair of sisters and their young families, were looking to move somewhere less rural. When Macare and Dobrick visited, the rolling hills and rocky outcroppings reminded Macare of their home state of Connecticut. 

“We got back in the car and we looked at each other like, can we make this happen? Because it was absolutely the perfect thing for our farm business, and for us,” Macare said.

Getting financing took more than nine months, but the sellers waited. That, Macare said, is one benefit of this kind of listing service: The buyers and sellers know the farm business and its particular challenges.

Many landowners who advertise through the Clearinghouse are motivated by more than money, said Karen Stettler, who oversees the listings for the Land Stewardship Project. Many have cultivated their land organically for years and want to see their farms continue the same way.

“People have a lot of connection to land and to what they’re doing on farms and so are very good stewards and caretakers of their land, and they’re wanting to make sure that the next generation also has that same sort of value and vision around stewardship,” Stettler said.

Today, Macare is grateful for the opportunity to raise their vegetables and sheep on their own land. 

“The cost of land has just gotten really astronomical,” Macare said. “I feel so lucky that we bought when we did because I don’t know that 10 years later I would be able to even consider spending what I think the value of this land is now based on seeing prices around us change.”

How would the program work?

If the proposed legislation passes, Wisconsin will offer a similar service to the one Macare used, but the one-page bill offers little detail on how it would work. 

That might be a good thing, said Dan Bauer, program supervisor for the Wisconsin Farm Center at DATCP. His office would oversee the program if the Legislature passes the bill and it’s signed into law. 

The broad nature of the bill could allow his team to create what they think will be most effective, Bauer said. 

He first heard about the bill around the time it was introduced in August, when his department was asked to estimate its cost. They budgeted $66,800 in one-time costs for building the website and $100,300 a year for a full-time staff person to help design and promote it, as well as to provide “shoulder-to-shoulder, on-the-ground, wraparound farmland access services” to site users. They added another $5,000 for initial education, outreach and marketing efforts. 

For the plan to work, Bauer said, staff will need to reach out to farmers who are preparing to transition out of farming and encourage them to advertise their land. Farmers will also need expert help before, during and after any land transfer. 

“A website by itself is not going to deliver the desired outcomes as a stand-alone,” Bauer said. “To really design and launch a program that the state would be happy with, I think it has to be a combination of the website and then also that on-the-ground coaching and advising and mentorship.”

The bill doesn’t include any appropriations, so if it passes, Bauer said the department “would have to explore its options” to cover the $172,100 total. 

While Wisconsin’s two nonprofit-run farmland link programs primarily serve farmers who use organic or “sustainable” practices, the state-run program would serve all kinds of farms and farmers, Moses said. 

Bauer and an agency spokesperson said they knew the Farm Center previously administered a similar program, but they did not know how it worked, when it operated or why it closed. Ryan LeCloux, a Legislative Reference Bureau analyst, said the prior program began in 1993 as part of DATCP’s Farmers Assistance Program and existed until at least 2015, before it was removed from the agency’s website.

In any case, Bauer said, his team would likely create the new program from scratch. “Even if we had really good information on how the last program was operated, I’m not even sure how relevant it would be when you consider just how much technology has advanced in the last 10, 15, 20 years.” 

Need is real, advocates say

Before the bill was introduced, representatives of a handful of organizations that support farmers and aspiring farmers were already discussing such a possibility. A working group convened by the Farmland Access Hub began meeting last year after members identified the idea as a top priority.

“The big elephant in the room is that Wisconsin doesn’t have a (state-run) Farm Link program,” said Mia Ljung, a member of that working group and a community development educator for Outagamie and Winnebago counties through UW-Madison Extension. 

“Not to say that it’s going to be a quick fix, but if you don’t have a Farm Link program in your state, it’s going to be much harder to make those connections between current land holders, land owners and land seekers.”

The group has been studying how such programs work in other states. That research is especially important as legislators consider the bill, Ljung said, calling the proposed budget “very slim.” 

“If the initiative will be supported by enough infrastructure, funding and outreach, I am supportive because there’s a big need,” Ljung said.

The state’s biggest farm lobby has officially backed the bill. Jason Mugnaini, executive director of government relations at the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, said supporting Wisconsin’s current and future farmers will take a variety of strategies, from creating conservation easements to helping farm families get health insurance.

Creating a land link program would be a key step, Mugnaini said. “It’s a challenge for those young folks, so finding access to land is one of the easiest ways that they can start farming full time,” Mugnaini said.

Still, the proponents agree it will take much more to get land into the hands of a new generation of small farmers.

“It’s a good tool in the toolbox, but it’s just one part of a very difficult and challenging discussion that has to be had, not only just in Wisconsin, but throughout the United States: Who are the next generation of farmers going to be? Where are they going to find the ability to continue farming, and how are we going to continue to feed the United States of America?” Mugnaini said.

Among the other challenges to address are the reasons farmers may be reluctant to list their land. Many farmers invest nearly everything they have into their farms, and some haven’t paid enough in Social Security taxes to qualify for payments. That means they need their land to pay their bills after they retire, said Kirkpatrick, the farm succession planner.

Fearing a hefty capital gains tax bill, many farmers opt not to sell during their lifetimes. But the idea of renting to someone just getting started in a tough business may sound risky, and beginning farmers may not be able to pay as much as bigger players can.

“If the owner generation is dependent on the sale or some sort of income coming from farmland or other assets for their late years, they’re going to be making decisions that they perceive as less risky to them,” Kirkpatrick said, explaining that many will choose to rent to an established farm operation that’s looking to expand. 

Beginning farmers need affordable land, Kirkpatrick said, “and we also need to make sure that that owner generation is able to live and age gracefully.”

A land link program won’t change the economics of the market, but Kirkpatrick thinks such a website, combined with proactive succession planning, could help farmers achieve their own goals for their land.

“I think there are a lot of farm owners that would love to see their farm used in a similar way of, you know, raising a family on it … And to be honest, it would be great for rural communities to still have those farms,” Kirkpatrick said. “If this linking program helps them realize that that’s possible, that’s great.”

“I think that we need to really think about what that generation of owners need and how we can help them plan in a way that feels right for them, and also give opportunities to others,” Kirkpatrick said.

Critics call bill ‘incomplete’

Meanwhile, several other farm lobby groups in the state have taken a neutral stance on the bill. That includes state associations of producers of cattle, corn, pork and vegetables, as well as Wisconsin Farm Credit Services and the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, a nonprofit that researches and promotes sustainable farming practices. 

“This bill is incomplete as written and requires funding to be successful,” read the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute’s comments on the legislation. “However, we encourage the idea and want to explore this option further.”

Chuck Anderas, the institute’s policy director, said he’s worried that the bill doesn’t include any appropriations. 

“That doesn’t mean that there’s no plans ever to include funding for it, but it needs to be funded enough to be successful,” Anderas said. “Otherwise, it could just be like a website that doesn’t really get used all that much.” 

That could discourage farmers and land seekers who come to the site hoping for help, Anderas said.

“We’d rather see it not happen than happen in a way that sets it up to fail.”

Neither the Senate nor Assembly versions of the bill have any Democratic co-sponsors. Sen. Brad Pfaff, D-Onalaska, serves on the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Revenue, which is currently reviewing the bill. 

Pfaff said creating a farmland link program is “an excellent idea” but the bill is “incomplete.”

“Let’s hope that we can get some more meat on the bones here and be serious about the piece of legislation, and hopefully we can get it passed before the legislative session comes to an end.”

Natalie Yahr reports on pathways to success statewide for Wisconsin Watch, working in partnership with Open Campus. Email her at nyahr@wisconsinwatch.org.

Beginning farmers struggle to find land. Could a new website help? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• Pulaski High School students have kept their community informed through the Pulaski News for more than 80 years.

• As local news has dwindled nationwide, the Pulaski News has become a fixture in the community.

• The publication’s niche is positive news on community members, but some wish it included independent, critical coverage. One thing it’s missing is coverage of village board meetings, for example. 

• Educators say students learn soft skills, like how to communicate with others, through their work on the paper.

“The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn’t introduce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead.”

Three weeks into the school year at Pulaski High School, six teenagers sit around a cluster of desks, listening intently as journalism instructor Amy Tubbs taught them the mechanics of writing a news story. 

While Tubbs knows it might sound harsh, the task of hooking readers carries weight for the students. For more than eight decades, Pulaski High School’s student newspaper has been the community’s newspaper of record, as the only news outlet consistently covering the rural village. 

As local news has dwindled across the country, Pulaski News has become a fixture of the community, a tool to prepare students for the workforce and the last official source keeping residents informed about hyperlocal happenings. 

Through routine practice with writing, interviewing, photography and media literacy, the teenagers secure skills that prepare them for life after high school. Students say working for the paper helps them feel closer to their northeast Wisconsin community. 

“I joined last year because I really love writing, and I saw this as an opportunity to get to do that,” sophomore Dellah Hall said. “I’m now able to write not just for school and grades, but this is for the community.”

Along the way, the paper has secured a level of community buy-in that might feel foreign to some news organizations today, as trust in news declines. Students nurture this by regularly sharing feel-good stories.

For example, freshman Neville Nguyen is writing a profile on a well-known “legend of Pulaski”: an 84-year-old woman who runs the local McDonald’s drive-through every morning. Nguyen’s article is going to be published in the Pulaski News’ Thanksgiving edition, an annual feature that highlights someone who has something for which to be thankful. 

“Its own kind of niche … That’s not necessarily something that a bigger paper is going to pick up … There’s definitely very much a hometown kind of feel to it,” Tubbs said. 

‘Pulaski needs a newspaper’

Roughly 20 miles outside of Green Bay, the village of Pulaski sits amid an expanse of farmland. The modest 3,700-person town straddles Brown, Oconto and Shawano counties. 

The area has a turbulent history with local news. Residents saw a flurry of different papers stumbling to provide the headlines before Pulaski High School took the reins in the 1940s.

During the 1920s, residents relied on the Pulaski Herald. Archives of the Herald are sparse, but they show it ceased publication by the 1930s, when a resident launched the Pulaski Tri-Copa. In 1939, the Tri-Copa abruptly announced it would be rebranding, ambiguously citing “skirmishes” over the previous year.

“We don’t care to divulge what we have up our sleeve at this time,” the Tri-Copa’s farewell edition read. “It will be more pleasant to surprise you, but take our word for it, you are going to get more paper for your money.”

Two months later, the paper restarted as the Tri County News. It ran for three years before folding due to financial issues brought on by the Great Depression. 

Leaders at Pulaski High School saw an opportunity for their student newspaper, which was roughly four years old, to fill the gap left by the Tri County’s closure. Ahead of the 1942-43 school year, the paper debuted a new title: The Pulaski News. 

“Pulaski needs a newspaper,” the first edition read. “To fill that need; to provide a means of informing the parents and community on the progress of the school; to provide the community proper channels for information, news, and advertising; and give students experience in journalism the Pulaski Board of Education authorized the publishing of a newspaper.”

When Pulaski News began publishing, it was tabloid-sized. A team of students handled the enterprise’s business aspects, including selling ads across the community. 

Today, 83 years’ worth of newspapers — including those early editions — live on a classroom shelf in dozens of hardcover books. In its current iteration, the paper is lengthier and printed in color, but the model remains largely the same.

Although Pulaski’s students fit within a nationwide demographic that consumes much of their news online, the writers still find appeal in the print product’s legacy. Senior Madelyn Rybak said that while she reads the majority of her news online on her phone, writing for Pulaski News makes her want to consume more print stories. Her parents subscribe to the Green Bay Press-Gazette’s print edition, which she reads.

“I like the feeling of holding the newspaper,” Rybak said. “It kind of feels like I’m more connected to the stories… instead of just being behind my phone.” 

A ‘valuable service’

At the front of the Pulaski News’ classroom, a calendar governing the paper is posted on the whiteboard: Students turn in stories one week before the paper is sent to press every other Tuesday. It’s printed on Wednesdays and delivered on Thursdays. The school mails roughly 1,000 copies to subscribers, who pay $30 or $35 annually. Eight local businesses sell another 100 copies for $1 each.

Each semester, roughly a dozen students work on the paper for class credit. Course enrollment is fueled largely by word-of-mouth between friends or parents encouraging their teenagers to follow in their footsteps. In the summer, students vie for five part-time positions that pay $11 per hour. 

The operation has felt increasingly crucial as Pulaski feels the national trend of thinning local news coverage. 

Nearby papers once covered Pulaski more closely than they do today. Now, regional news outlets sometimes drop in for flashier stories, such as crime issues, but there’s no source of consistent information about local events beyond what the students publish.  

“You’ve seen other local papers close and their communities really don’t have anything,” said Bob Van Enkenvoort, the school district’s communications coordinator and the paper’s editor. “So the district sees this as a valuable community service.” 

Though the students fill a hyperlocal information gap, relying on a school-sponsored paper means the town still lacks independent, critical coverage — like an increasing number of places across the U.S. 

“It doesn’t really have a good feel for political issues in town, so the community is not all that well served, as far as coverage of local village issues like the village board meetings or growth in the village, so that’s sort of a negative,” said Steve Peplinski, a local resident creating a digital archive of Pulaski’s newspapers for the village’s museum. Peplinski wrote for Pulaski News himself when he was in high school. 

While the school district’s administration doesn’t decide what Pulaski News covers — “I’ve never really had anyone say ‘you can’t do this’ or ‘you can do this.’ That’s my decision,” Van Enkenvoort said — the staff generally doesn’t wade into hard news. 

Outside of the routine sports, local events and school news, the staff has carved out a niche creating more “positive stories”: They profile interesting community members and spotlight Pulaski alumni doing good deeds. 

While some might have trepidation when it comes to speaking with journalists, that “hometown” feel of the paper has resulted in a deep trust among local residents. 

“It’s well known in the community,” Van Enkenvoort said. “People understand what the mission is, so I think they are willing to work with the students.”

Though Pulaski News is district-funded, the paper isn’t immune to the turbulence plaguing journalism today. The subscriber base skews older, and every obituary that publishes is a possible patron, Van Enkenvoort said. 

Securing soft skills

The first time Morgan Stewart, a 15-year-old sophomore, picked up the phone to call a subject for her story, she was so terrified that she shook. But over time, those nerves dissipated, and she’s found herself growing into more of a “people person.”

“I think I want to pursue doing journalism,” Stewart said. “I didn’t have much of a plan coming into high school, but after doing this … (Van Enkenvoort) has helped me a lot to find what I love most about Pulaski News, and it’s opened my eyes a lot to the future and what it holds for me.”

There’s always a learning curve at the start of a semester. Students are typically scared to make cold calls. They sometimes try to text community members, only to realize they’re messaging a landline. For their first class assignment, students write profiles about one another to practice asking good questions. 

With a few notable exceptions, many students who participate in the Pulaski News aren’t planning to go into the journalism field. But through the routine — and sometimes uncomfortable — work, they learn many “soft skills,” or traits that allow them to communicate and work well with others, Tubbs and Van Enkenvoort said. 

“We tend to try to get them away from their phones and talk to people face-to-face, so they get used to talking to adults and having to think on their feet and have conversations, which will help them when they’re interviewing for colleges or interviewing for jobs,” Van Enkenvoort said. “A lot of them are just not that comfortable with it at the start, but they get better and they feel more comfortable once they do.”

On paper, the experience allows Pulaski students to complete a class that the state considers “post-secondary preparation,” or training for life after high school. In the 2023-24 school year, 39% of Pulaski High School students participated in a “work-based learning program” like Pulaski News, far above the state average of 9%.

Connecting students to community

While stories on sports games and district updates are commonplace in Pulaski News,  students also devise the creative stories that fill the paper. In the process, many become more closely engrained in their community. 

Rybak is from Hobart, a roughly 20-minute drive from Pulaski, so she isn’t as familiar with the area as some of her classmates. Working for the paper has helped change that. When there’s pressure to come up with a story pitch, she finds herself scouring the internet and local organizations’ websites for events.

“We encourage the students to try to come up with story ideas for two reasons,” Van Enkenvoort said. “We need everybody’s eyes and ears out in the community. But also, if they come up with a story and they’re excited about it, they typically do a really good job on it.”

At the end of the year, Tubbs asks students to share their favorite stories. Without fail, it’s always the ones centering community members. 

That’s true for Rybak, whose standout story last year was a front-page feature on Pulaski’s summer school program. She interviewed four teachers, the program director and students who attended classes. 

“Our summer school doesn’t really get recognition, even though there’s a lot that goes into it,” Rybak said. “I kind of liked the feeling that I was shining a light on the people who do a lot of work in our community.”

“(The paper) makes me more aware of what’s going on in the community,” she said. “Through interviewing people who I would literally never talk to otherwise, it just helps me get to know the people there that I wouldn’t have known.”

Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus.

Meet the teens keeping this northeast Wisconsin village from becoming a news desert is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.