Latest news with #AshleyLuthern
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
We are listening to our readers and our community; tell us what you think
Good things happen when you listen. To your gut, your heart, your parents and, especially, your community. In our newsroom, we talk often about two imperatives: Be connected and be essential. Listening is a key element of both. That's why we recently had a team at the first-ever Milwaukee Intertribal Circle Spring Powwow and you will find us at Milwaukee's Juneteenth Day celebration on June 19. If you spot us — just north of Burleigh Street, on the east side of Martin Luther King Drive — we hope you'll stop by for a chance to meet some of our journalists, share your thoughts on our coverage and even snap a selfie. There are many other ways to engage with us as well, as we work to create an ongoing conversation with our community. We offer regular chances to get your questions about the Packers, Bucks, Brewers, state politics and more answered through our regular 'mailbag' features. You can vote in our weekly polls for Athlete of the Week and Student of the Week, as well as polls we spin up around stories in the news, such as new rules on wake boats and whether the new drone show is the answer to Milwaukee's defunct July 3 fireworks show at the lakefront. Those polls are typically handled by our Ideas Lab team, which has dramatically increased the number of of opinion pieces and letters to the editor we are publishing, in print and online. You can fill out a form or send submissions to jsedit@ Sidenote: If you send me an email complaining you don't agree with the letters you see, my response will be to ask if you have submitted one yourself. Meanwhile, our investigative team has been holding training sessions on how to use open records laws, a tool that we use regularly but is available to all to get access to government information. (If you would like reporters to join your neighborhood meeting to talk public records, let us know – you can email Ashley Luthern, our deputy investigations editor, at And our Public Investigator team is busy chasing down your tips, from helping a kidney donor get paid leave from the U.S. Postal Service, to getting a dying man his disability benefits from Social Security to exploring why patrons of a Bay View restaurant kept getting parking tickets. Reach them at: watchdog@ or call 414-319-9061. You can also submit tips at On a recent day, we had a group from the Milwaukee High School of the Arts visit us to learn about journalism – one of many to visit us during the academic year. Meanwhile, we've worked with students from Elmbrook and Wauwatosa high schools through their LAUNCH program, which gives students real-world problems to solve. And you may see us out and about as volunteers, from sorting food at Feeding America to picking up trash at a park as part of the Milwaukee Riverkeeper cleanup. In short, we are listening consistently and listening relentlessly. I can assure you of this: We're also listening sincerely. In return, we only ask one thing of you – share your views in a thoughtful way. It is easy to blast off an email that says: 'You're biased' or 'You're racist' or 'Your website sucks.' It is far more helpful to provide specific examples of problematic headlines, or suggestions of topics to cover. LIkewise, don't just tell us you love us or that we're great – though we definitely like to hear it. Tell us why. What features do you enjoy? What journalists do you follow? What is a recent story that caught your attention? What did you like about it? What do you want to see more of? Or less of? So, with that in mind, we invite you to take a moment to fill out a short survey at Share a thought, ask a question. Let us know what you think. We'll read all the submisisons and respond to as many as we can as quickly as we can. With sincerity, and gratitude. Greg Borowski is executive editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. You can follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @GregJBorowski and reach him via Connect with the Journal Sentinel Subscribe and support independent journalism: Support our reporting on neighborhoods, the environment, education and other key issues: Send a news tip: Reach the newsroom: jsmetro@ or 414-224-2318 This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Journal Sentinel staff is listening. Tell us what you think, Milwaukee
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Yahoo
Get to know Ashley Luthern, investigative reporter and deputy editor for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Ashley Luthern is often one of the first people in the newsroom to get a call. It might be a tip about a nearby shooting, a source who wants to talk about a sensitive court case, or a whistleblower reporting a miscarriage of justice. Whenever news happens, people go to Luthern. The Ohio native has been covering criminal justice for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel since 2013, telling difficult and illuminating stories about gun violence, domestic violence, human trafficking and more. Most recently, in her ongoing investigative series 'Duty to Disclose,' Luthern is revealing gaps in the Milwaukee County District Attorney's system for tracking police with credibility concerns. Get to know more more about investigative reporter and deputy investigations editor Ashley Luthern: I've always wanted to be a journalist, which I trace to my love of reading, writing, learning and helping others. My first published piece was in 6th grade when I interviewed a student-teacher for my elementary school newsletter. I later worked at my high school newspaper and then my college paper, The Post, at Ohio University. After college, I worked at The Vindicator, my hometown newspaper in Youngstown, Ohio, where I covered local government, crime, business, schools and features. Then, I applied to be a public safety reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, got the job and have been here ever since. I started focusing on domestic violence for two reasons: It appeared to be driving a growing share of shootings and homicides in Milwaukee and it is one of the most preventable types of lethal violence. One of the most harmful tropes about domestic violence is the tendency to blame the victim and ask, why didn't she just leave? To someone outside the situation, leaving seems the safest option. For those in an abusive relationship, it often is not. In my reporting, I've tried to uplift the voices of survivors so readers can understand their perspectives and the choices they make to keep themselves, and often their children, safe. As far as covering criminal justice overall, I wish everyone could observe a sentencing hearing. It's the one time in the system when a victim, or their loved ones, can express their feelings about what happened, and it's often the first time when a defendant can share what led them to this point. Those hearings, while heavy, are full of humanity. People say surprising, revealing things. They express deep sorrow or anger. They ask for forgiveness. Sometimes they get it, sometimes they don't. It's easy as journalists to frame things as a binary: good and bad, black and white, right and wrong. Rarely are things that simple. Life is messy. People are complicated — and resilient. First, to anyone who has ever shared their time and story with me, thank you. Truly. I hesitate to name specific stories because so many stick with me, more than I can say here. The basketball coach who led his team of middle-school boys into a new season after the fatal shooting of a teammate. The funeral director who carefully tended to homicide victims and their families. The surgeon who can save a life but wants her patients not to be shot in the first place. The Milwaukee police detective whose sister died from domestic violence. The woman who fought for justice after her sister was murdered by her abuser. Early in my time in Milwaukee, I covered the shooting deaths of three children: 10-year-old Sierra Guyton, 5-year-old Laylah Petersen, and 13-month-old Bill Thao. Each was killed by random gunfire in a place they were supposed to be safe. I will never forget their stories. I'm not sure if this is the weirdest thing, but it certainly was memorable. At The Vindicator, someone called the newsroom and claimed to have found a tooth in a pre-packaged hamburger bun from a regional bread company. The managing editor at the time told me to go check it out. So I did, and I went to this man's house and he showed me a molar that seemed way too large to have been found in a sandwich bun. I called the bread company and spoke to an owner who explained the breadmaking process and how it would be pretty much impossible for a molar that size to end up in a sandwich bun. (I did not write a story.) Ashley Luthern is an investigative reporter and deputy investigations editor at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She can be reached at This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Q&A: Get to know Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Ashley Luthern
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Borowski: We use and fight for open records. When we do, we're fighting for you as well
Years ago, I attended a conference on investigative reporting and a particular way of thinking about reporting stuck with me: Operate with the conviction that every piece of information you may need for a story is written down somewhere. And: You are entitled to it. Not just you, as a journalist, you as a citizen. Think about it. Every ticket written, every bill passed, every judgement filed, every contract signed, every bonus paid, every campaign contribution received, every dinner bought, every report filed – about inmates being punished, potholes being filled, travel being taken, taxes raised. That's nothing to be alarmed about. Quite the opposite: It's something to be celebrated. That's what news organizations do each year, as they mark Sunshine Week, which begins Sunday. The week recognizes a bedrock aspect of our Constitution, the First Amendment, and two things that give it real teeth – open meetings laws and open records laws (often given the shorthand of FOIA, for the federal Freedom of Information Act). Now, in practice, these laws carry some exceptions. We understand that. But the spirit is clear: Information about what government is doing should be available to the maximum extent possible, to be used by the people that government serves. That's all of us. At the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, we use these laws all the time in pursuit of stories that serve our readers and our communities. This ranges from exposing gaps in Milwaukee County's 'Brady List' of police officers found to be untruthful to gathering data from 72 Wisconsin counties to understand the real picture of gun deaths in the state. We've also used public records to expose problems at the Milwaukee Housing Authority, in state prisons, Milwaukee Public Schools, even how the chair of the Milwaukee County Board expensed roller blades and a MAC membership. Nowhere in those laws does it say this information is available to journalists. All of that same information is available to anyone. It's why you can search court cases online, and check campaign contributions and read the same information elected officials do before they vote on bills and measures. If you want to see what you're paying in property taxes, compared to your neighbor, you can. If you want to see how many times cars have been ticketed for speeding on your street, you can. That's why I'm especially proud of an initiative launched by our staff. To help bring more awareness to public records, Journal Sentinel staffers have been offering public records training sessions to resident-led groups across the city. For instance, on a recent Saturday, reporters Ashley Luthern and John Diedrich – members of our investigative team – joined a dozen residents at Amani United's regular meeting to talk about public records. In an interactive presentation, the two walked through what a public record is — and is not — and where residents can find data, information and other records. They gave practical examples: How to request a police report, where to look up property inspection records and how to find the latest on licensing of new businesses in the area. Our reporters will be back with Amani United next month for a second session to give hands-on help to residents who want to find specific pieces of information or file their own records requests. If you would like reporters to join your neighborhood meeting to talk public records, let us know – you can email Ashley, our deputy investigations editor, at That's one thing we can do. What can you do? First, you can support independent journalism. It can cost a lot of money to obtain records – from police body cam footage to databases to stacks of documents. Often, those holding the records will drive the costs as high as possible, causing some to abandon the effort. There are many ways through the Local Media Foundation, a nonprofit group, that you can make a difference for our newsroom – including a donation that will advance our work. Second, push back when a public official wants to give you less information, or create new barriers to getting information it should provide readily. We've seen that most recently at the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's office, which suddenly is refusing to provide basic information to the public in a timely manner on deaths it investigates: homicides, fatal crashes, drug overdoses, weather-related deaths. This includes such key information as when and where an incident occurred. Under the recently-retired Karen Domagalski, the office had set a gold-standard for openness. No longer. Combine the new hurdles with the Milwaukee Police Department's refusal in its news releases about incidents to even give the gender of a victim, and it means you know much less about the public safety picture in our community. Now, as a newsroom, we can push back – and we will. And we will keep seeking the same information from alternate sources, from family members and others, in order to cover such a vital topic with depth and context. We will not be deterred. But something important is lost when information becomes less available. And if it is harder for us to get it, that means it is harder for you as well. So, if you have a question someone is refusing to answer, or the answers you're getting don't make sense, tell us about it. You can leave us a news tip at or by emailing wisconsininvestigates@ or by calling 414-319-9061. Remember those two principles from the start of this piece? What you want to know is almost certainly written down somewhere. And: With few exceptions, you're entitled to see it. Here's a third: If someone says you can't, keep trying. Because chances are there is something to see. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Mary Spicuzza and Wisconsin public records legal expert Tom Kamenick will be answering questions about open records requests on Reddit at Monday at noon. Greg Borowski is executive editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. You can follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @GregJBorowski and reach him via Connect with the Journal Sentinel Support our reporting on the environment, underserved communities and other areas: Send a news tip: Reach the newsroom: jsmetro@ or 414-224-2318 Subscribe and support independent journalism: This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Borowski: We fight for open records. When we do, we're figting for you
