David E. Umhoefer (born 1961) is a faculty member at Marquette University where he directs the O'Brien Fellowship for Public Service Journalism. [1] Prior, he was a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . He won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for a six-month investigation of Milwaukee County's pension system, citing "his stories on the skirting of tax laws to pad pensions of county employees, prompting change and possible prosecution of key figures." [2] [3] The investigation exposed a corrupt, illegal scheme in which more than 350 Milwaukee County employees had increased their pensions by a collective total of over $50 million. [4] For example, "One employee qualified for a 25% pension increase because she worked a half-day at a county park in 1978."
Umhoefer is from La Crosse, Wisconsin and he graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Journalism & Mass Communication in 1983. He previously contributed to PolitiFact, rating the accuracy of statements by candidates for public office, elected officials, and political parties. [5]
The Tampa Bay Times, previously named the St. Petersburg Times until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won thirteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single year for the first time in its history, one of which was for its PolitiFact project. It is published by the Times Publishing Company, which is owned by The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a nonprofit journalism school directly adjacent to the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper. It is also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely distributed. It is currently owned by the Gannett Company.
Scott Kevin Walker is an American politician who served as the 45th Governor of Wisconsin from 2011 to 2019. He is a member of the Republican Party.
The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors is the legislative branch of the government of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. Supervisors are elected to the board in nonpartisan elections. There are 18 supervisors. The county board has several committees and votes on issues involving the county, such as the budget.
Steven M. Biskupic is a former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin serving under Attorneys General John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales and Michael Mukasey. He was appointed by George W. Bush in May 2002. Prior to his appointment, Biskupic served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for 13 years, specializing in the prosecution of white-collar crime. Biskupic stepped down in 2008.
The Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting is awarded to an example of "local reporting that illuminates significant issues or concerns." This Pulitzer Prize was first awarded in 1948. Like most Pulitzers the winner receives a $15,000 award.
Stephen J. Berry is an American investigative journalist. In 1993, while working for The Orlando Sentinel, he and Jeff Brazil won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for a report exposing a sheriff department drug squad's unlawful seizure of millions of dollars from motorists, mostly minorities. He is now an associate professor at The University of Iowa's School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Berry is the author of a book about investigative journalism entitled Watchdog Journalism: The Art of Investigative Reporting.
PolitiFact.com is an American nonprofit project operated by the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, with offices there and in Washington, D.C. It began in 2007 as a project of the Tampa Bay Times, with reporters and editors from the newspaper and its affiliated news media partners reporting on the accuracy of statements made by elected officials, candidates, their staffs, lobbyists, interest groups and others involved in U.S. politics. Its journalists evaluate original statements and publish their findings on the PolitiFact.com website, where each statement receives a "Truth-O-Meter" rating. The ratings range from "True" for statements the journalists deem as accurate to "Pants on Fire" for claims the journalists deem as false or ludicrous.
Raquel Rutledge is an American newspaper reporter. In April 2010, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for a yearlong series for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that exposed widespread fraud in the "Wisconsin Shares" child-care system. The series also won the 2010 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. Her work also won the Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Reporting and 2009 George Polk Awards.
Richard Leinenkugel is an American politician and businessman in the State of Wisconsin. He was the Wisconsin Secretary of Commerce, and was vice president of sales and marketing for the Chippewa Falls Beer Company, which is a subsidiary of MillerCoors LLC. He was also group manager for specialty and craft brands of Miller Brewing Company. In 2010, he briefly ran for the United States Senate.
Susanne Rust is an American investigative journalist.
Meg Kissinger is an American investigative journalist and the James Madison Visiting Professor at Columbia University. While working at The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, she and Susanne Rust were finalists for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for their investigation of Bisphenol A. Kissinger has also written extensively about the failures of the mental health system.
John Theodore Chisholm is an American prosecutor and politician who has served as Milwaukee County District Attorney since 2007. A career prosecutor, Chisholm specialized in complex conspiracy prosecutions before his election as district attorney in 2006.
The 2011 Wisconsin protests were a series of demonstrations in the state of Wisconsin in the United States beginning in February involving as many as 100,000 protesters opposing the 2011 Wisconsin Act 10, also called the "Wisconsin Budget Repair bill." The protests centered on the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, with satellite protests also occurring at other municipalities throughout the state. Demonstrations took place at various college campuses, including the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. After the collective bargaining bill was upheld by the Wisconsin Supreme Court on June 14, the number of protesters declined to about 1,000 within a couple days.
The 2011 Wisconsin Act 10, also known as the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill, is legislation proposed by Republican Governor Scott Walker and passed by the Wisconsin Legislature to address a projected $3.6 billion budget deficit. The legislation primarily affects the following areas: collective bargaining, compensation, retirement, health insurance, and sick leave of public sector employees. In response, unions and other groups organized protests inside and around the state capitol. The bill was passed into law and became effective as of June 29, 2011. Public employees exempt from the changes to the collective bargaining law include firefighters and most law enforcement workers. The bill was ruled to be constitutional by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in July 2014, after three years of litigation.
Sam Roe is a journalist who was part of a team of reporters at the Chicago Tribune that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for an examination of hazardous toys and other children's products. He is currently an editor for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court election of 2011 took place on Tuesday, April 5, 2011. Unlike past elections for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the race between 12-year incumbent David Prosser, Jr. and challenger Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg gained significant nationwide publicity as it was widely seen as a referendum on Governor Scott Walker's proposed budget reforms in Wisconsin, and a part of the 2011 Wisconsin protests.
The 2012 Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election was a special election to elect the governor and lieutenant governor of Wisconsin. It resulted in voters re-electing incumbent Republican governor Scott Walker over the Democratic candidate Tom Barrett by a larger margin than he had in 2010, in which Walker had also faced Barrett. Recall organizers opposed Walker's agenda, particularly his limiting of collective bargaining rights for state employees and they collected over 900,000 signatures to initiate the recall election process. There was also a recall for Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch. She won her race, defeating Democrat Mahlon Mitchell, making her the first lieutenant governor to run in and survive a recall.
Kathleen Gallagher is a Wisconsin-based non-profit executive who was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. Gallagher wrote with Mark Johnson, a reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a book based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning series called "One in a Billion: The Story of Nic Volker and the Dawn of Genomic Medicine." The book was published by Simon and Schuster in 2016. Gallagher is now Executive Director of 5 Lakes Institute, a non-profit that promotes technology and innovation. She is also Executive in Residence for Investment Communications at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Gallagher was formerly a communications consultant at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and a writing instructor at the American Bankers Association.
Margo Huston is an American reporter. She won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting while working at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.