Stories you might have missed from around Wisconsin.
Oshkosh: Local newsroom wins six journalism awards.
Local journalism used to be the lifeblood of a community. In recent years, newspapers have closed, merged and cut local coverage. Some news organizations have survived and continue to serve and inform their communities. That’s the case with the Northwestern, Oshkosh’s daily newspaper. The Northwestern won six awards in the 2024 Better Newspaper Contest. Among the awards, Reporter Justin Marville earned first place in the General News Story category for his article about the Wisconsin Herd no longer wanting to work with Oshkosh Arena’s then-owners. Marville also took second place in the Sports Feature category for his article about Oshkosh native and NBA star Tyrese Haliburton’s visit to the city. Marville also won two third place awards for other stories. Photographer Gary C. Klein placed third in the General News Photo category for a photo from EAA AirVenture. The Northwestern competes in Division B, which includes newspapers with daily print circulation of 9,999 or less. The WNA Foundation is a not-for-profit created in 1980 that works to improve Wisconsin’s newspaper enterprises. Full Story
Lake Mills: Local woman wins gold at Special Olympics Winter Games in Italy.
The mission of Special Olympics is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. The athletes put in hundreds of hours of training to compete in their chosen events. All that worked has paid off for Annie Mulligan of Lake Mills. Mulligan won a gold medal March 14 in the 100-meter snowshoe competition at the 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Italy. Mulligan, 28, had a time of 26.41 and finished just ahead of Luxembourg’s Cathia Jacobs’ time of 26.56. Mulligan also won a silver medal in the 400-meter snowshoe relay with a combined time of 01:55.60. Her three teammates were Diane Cunningham from Oklahoma, Candi Blessing from Maryland, and Amy Wollmershauser from Oklahoma. China won gold in that race with a combined time of 01:54.47. The Leader Independent reported that Mulligan is the only representative from Wisconsin on this year’s Special Olympics USA team at the World Winter Games. Addie Teeters, vice president of marketing and communications for Special Olympics Wisconsin said, “The entire Special Olympics Wisconsin family is completely overjoyed that Annie has had such success. We are proud of her for attending the Games and then for her to achieve such success with her teammates is incredibly exciting!” Full Story
