Welcome to Wisconsin Watch’s Year in Review series. In this series, we’re looking back on Wisconsin Watch’s reporting and impact in 2023. Throughout the week, you’ll be hearing directly from reporters and editors and get exclusive behind-the-scenes looks at our biggest investigations of the year, along with some sneak peeks at what we have planned […]
Author Archives: Phoebe Petrovic / Wisconsin Watch
Phoebe Petrovic is an investigative reporter on a two-year fellowship with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network. She previously covered disinformation and democracy at Wisconsin Watch and was a 2022-2023 Law & Justice Journalism Project fellow. As a Report for America corps member from 2019 to 2022, Petrovic reported, produced and hosted “Open and Shut,” a podcast series co-published with Wisconsin Public Radio examining the power of prosecutors. Petrovic previously worked at WPR as a Lee Ester News Fellow, “Reveal” from the Center for Investigative Reporting as an editorial intern and NPR’s “Here & Now” as a temporary producer. Her work has aired nationally on all of NPR’s flagship news magazines. She holds a bachelor’s degree in American studies from Yale University.
Posted inGovernment
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoes trans youth care ban
Transgender youth will continue to have access to gender-affirming medical care, provided Gov. Tony Evers’ veto survives an override early next year.
Posted inBill Watch, Government
Latest Wisconsin GOP proposal giving access to experimental treatments excludes transgender care
One Republican bill in a “medical freedom” package seeks to ensure doctors can’t be punished for trying novel therapies, but it makes one notable exception that denies that freedom for all.
Posted inGovernment
PayPal shielded donors who gave to Wisconsin-based health misinformation outlet
The charitable arm of PayPal, one of the world’s largest digital payment companies, facilitated $141,194 in anonymous donations between 2019 and 2021 to groups trafficking in COVID-19 misinformation, anti-vaccine content and hate, tax records show.
Posted inGovernment, Health & Welfare
Wisconsin’s transgender bill hearings were full of misinformation. Here are the facts.
Republicans have proposed banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth and regulating transgender participation in high school and college sports.
Posted inHealth & Welfare
What gender-affirming care means to these Wisconsin families
As Republicans weigh limiting their options, three families share their experience receiving medical care for transgender children at three stages of development.
Posted inHealth & Welfare
Gender-affirming care: What it means in Wisconsin
Researchers have found benefits of providing transgender youth with supervised care that includes new pronouns, puberty blockers and, in rare cases, surgery.
Posted inGovernment, Health & Welfare
Wisconsin GOP lawmakers, biosafety advocates join forces on pathogen bill
Legislation banning a certain type of research on dangerous pathogens is bringing together an unlikely alliance of public health scientists, community activists and Republicans who spurned COVID-19 safety protocols.
Posted inGovernment, Health & Welfare
Wisconsin GOP bill seeks to ban pathogen research: What to know
Republicans have proposed banning a certain type of research on dangerous pathogens. Here’s what to know about the bill.
Posted inGovernment
Evidence lacking in GOP case against top Wisconsin election official Meagan Wolfe
Critics have railed against many Wisconsin Elections Commission decisions, but they were made by bipartisan commissioners, not the administrator.
Posted inGovernment
AI is starting to affect our elections. Wisconsin has yet to take action.
The state of Washington required political ads to disclose if they use artificial intelligence while others banned deepfake technology in the runup to an election.
Posted inJustice & Safety
Misinformation, Disinformation: A guide to sorting fiction from reality
Social media and deceptive actors are allowing falsehood to spread even faster than the truth, but there are ways to inoculate yourself from information disorder.