In 2014, Jay McCloskey and his wife decided to move from their home in the Twin Cities to a farm in Crawford County where they could live and run the family insurance business.
People are also reading…
McCloskey
At a Wednesday listening session, small business owners from across the state told Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and the state’s economic development agency about the policy changes they believe will help businesses like theirs recover from the pandemic and thrive in the years ahead. High on the list: expanding access to broadband internet and BadgerCare.
Rossing
Tammy Harris packages pre-finished flooring at WD Flooring in Laona. Company president Peter Connor said lack of high-speed internet access has hindered the company's ability to grow.
Glazer
Josh Gher prepares to splice fiber optic cables in Spring Green. Last year the state awarded $24 million in grants for projects like this to bring high-speed internet to nearly 50,000 homes and businesses.
Beyer
The 127-year-old Reedsburg Utility Commission began providing fiber-optic internet access in 2003 and is expanding service to more than 600 homes and businesses with the help of $898,000 in state funding.
Fave 5: Reporter Chris Hubbuch's favorite stories of 2020
My favorite stories to write are those that require me to learn about something new and force me to see the world from a different perspective. There were many such stories to tell during this extraordinary year, though none of my top five were directly related to the pandemic.
I’d known Wisconsin was a big producer of mink pelts, but I didn’t know that most of the North American fur trade moved through a Stoughton business that traced its lineage back to the Hudson Bay Company. The folks at Saga Furs, who took over the operations of North American Fur Association, were kind enough to teach me about the business and let us photograph them.
After a 350-year-old Canadian fur trading company went bankrupt just as Wisconsin mink farmers were beginning their harvest, a Finnish competitor is breathing new life into the state’s oldest industry.
As the climate changes, species move to adapt. Preserving these unique areas can help them survive.
For an industry battered by unstable commodity prices, rising costs, market constraints and extreme weather, grassland farming represents a bright spot.
Madison has long enjoyed a reputation as a two-wheel haven. But opportunities for off-road adventures are limited, usually involving a trip to a neighboring community or beyond. A new plan seeks to change that.
“This was a lot more than Weinerville,” said one resident who hired an environmental law firm to report on potential contamination. “It’s a big evolution from a century ago when the Mayer brothers came up here from Chicago."
