The other day, in my role as an advocate for open government, I heard from a Wisconsin resident who has waited more than five months for records he requested from a local law enforcement agency. He has gently prodded the agency several times, asking, “How much more time is my request going to take?” More than three months have passed since these queries have yielded a response. Such long, frustrating wait times are not uncommon.

As many of us scroll through our favorite news app, we are greeted by reports of workplace violence, from verbal and physical confrontations to fatal shootings. What is often missing from the headlines are stories of the increasingly high frequency of workplace assaults suffered by health care professionals across the country. The data is alarming and demands greater public attention.

It seems like about every time I am out in the public, no matter what the occasion, once someone realizes I own the local paper they seem anxious to tell me something. And in more cases than not, it is how something someone has read impacts their lives. For example, the man who caught me in the local grocery store and proceeded to tell me he knows exactly when we deliver our paper there.

As a parent of two Wisconsin public school students, I pay close attention to how my kids are doing at school. We talk about how they are doing academically, as well as emotionally and socially.

On Tuesday, Sept. 17, the Sauk County Board voted to spend $40,500 to buy a sheriff’s department vehicle to replace one totaled in a July incident.

For more than 30 years, I worked among fellow journalists who were passionate watchdogs reporting on the actions of people in power as a way to hold them accountable. I’m proud to see that important work continue, from the reporting on local government budgets to investigations of corruption in the halls of Congress.