Environmental and agricultural reporting
Hi, I'm John.
I'm a freelance journalist in Green Bay, Wisconsin who writes about environmental issues, business developments, local government, community issues, music, art, and politics.
I have reported on breaking labor news, the politics of a prominent Midwest gas station chain, the intimacy of food in the face of a global pandemic, and interviewed multiple New York Times Bestselling authors.
I enjoy finding odd facts, digging through public records, and gathering important details to provide a clear picture of a story.
In August 2021, I was selected as the Founding Editor of Green Bay City Pages, a print and digital newspaper covering arts and entertainment in the greater Green Bay area. In this role, I copyedited freelance and staff content on a daily basis, was responsible for approving layout and design for a weekly print product, managed a team of over 12 freelance writers and two staff writers, published daily content on WordPress website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and MailChimp, and fielded editorial pitches, inquires, letters and concerns from community members and writers.
As of February 2022, I have been freelance writing and working part-time as a reporter for The Denmark News in the rural village of Denmark, Wisconsin.
Since 2021, I have published a weekly Northeast Wisconsin art, culture, and politics newsletter called The NEWcomer on Substack, which can be found at the website link below.
My work has appeared in the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, Great Lakes Now - Detroit Public Television, UpNorthNews, Bandcamp Daily, Loudwire, In These Times, The Capital Times, The Press Times, Tone Madison, Belt Magazine, Milwaukee Record, Stained Pages News, and more.
Apart from my reporting experience, I have over four years of grant writing experience with successful grant applications totaling over $400,000 in received funding and with single sum awards of over $70,000. If you are interested in seeing examples of my grant writing or are curious about my rates, please email - [email protected]
Thanks for stopping by.
(he/him/his)
Environmental and agricultural reporting
In less than a decade, Joliet, Illinois, could run out of water. The city of 150,000 people, roughly 45 minutes southwest of Chicago, is facing a looming water crisis as the patchwork of underground wells and aquifers it currently uses for municipal water is drying up.
Craig Koller grew up splashing through backyard creeks and biking gravel trails, sometimes through the Johnson Controls International Fire Technology Center. Black smoke wafted overhead as it conducted controlled burns to test firefighting foam, producing a dangerous "forever chemical" known as PFAS.
María Hernández, a University of Chicago graduate student studying microbial ecology, was both nervous and eager to traverse a frozen Green Bay. Being sure to walk slowly and carefully, she assisted fellow researchers in extracting samples of ice-cold freshwater.
A Wisconsin State Park bordering the shoreline of Lake Michigan is teeming with dunes, preserved wetlands and protected plant species. It's a great view - making it an ideal neighbor for a new golf resort that one of the state's manufacturing giants has been fighting for years to build.
For decades, Green Bay Wisconsin National Guardsmen stored munitions and trained new recruits in a stucco-clad, Chicago Street building built in 1918. Now, the building is home to hundreds of fish babies. The Farmory, an urban farming nonprofit, is the only indoor fish hatchery in Wisconsin.
On first attempt to reach Michigan Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Research Biologist David Fielder, he wasn't monitoring fish populations or water quality. He was busy with a perch basket lunch.
Evonik Materials Corp. in Milton ranks second among the company's U.S. operations in terms of the cancer risks ProPublica found. The company's Goose Creek, South Carolina silica production facility, with a three times increased risk rate, comes in third. The Janesville facility is fourth. The Milton and Janesville plants have a long history.
Randy Styczynski inherited a few young calves from his grandparents when he was a junior at Green Bay Southwest High School in 1979. His grandparents sold off their milking herd and Styczysnki began to purchase more cattle. He took over operations and was milking a small head of eight dairy cows in the following spring. Come early 2021, Styczynski is retiring as the last operating dairy farm in the Village of Suamico.
Collaborative efforts across municipalities and citizen groups aim to share plans and solutions in the face of past and future East River flooding
Politics, business, community issues reporting
As Wisconsin's right-wing convenience store empire expands, what happens to contraception access?
From conception to estimated completion, the South Bridge Connector project in De Pere will take upwards of 64 years to finish, and at this point in time there are questions still to be answered.
When rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, military veterans, government officials, and law enforcement were among those seen on display in videos and photos circulating across social media. The insurrection called attention to the presence of right wing extremism in government.
With $2 million in ARPA funding allotted, the Green Bay police department eyes high-tech answers to public safety problems
Restaurants have been juggling how to respond to disturbances on top of the added stress of sanitization to slow the spread of COVID-19.
The plan for a new distribution center imperils the future of Milwaukee Street, just as the retail giant's labor practices reach new lows.
BROWN COUNTY - In November, Pieter deHart and his family moved a couple of miles south from New Franken to a home on Bellevue's far-east side. The only thing they didn't bring with them was high-speed broadband.
UW-Madison students in search of affordable housing have occupied the stout Zoe Bayliss Cooperative building at the corner of West Johson and North Park Streets since 1955. As the 2021-22 school year nears its end, next year's occupants could be the co-op's last.
Anti-carceral activists turn their attention to the state's long-running "Prison Industries" program.
BROWN COUNTY - In the past, district maps described as a “squid with lots of tentacles” would be easily identifiable as gerrymandered. “It used to be ‘I know gerrymandering when I see it,’” said Jonathon Dunbar, an associate professor of mathematics at St. Norbert College. Given the complexity of map drawing, Dunbar said shape is not always a good indicator for malfeasance. “There may be a very good reason why a district is drawn to have these tentacles,” he said.
Music, art, culture reporting
It's a noun, a verb, an exclamation, and a hot bowl of everything but the kitchen sink. Booyah, a regional soup, holds a firm grip over the people of Green Bay and northeast Wisconsin at large.
Every Tuesday, a storied group of Denmark area residents gathers together at the Denmark Community Activity Center to shuffle 32 cards, score some tricks and take each other’s money, one nickel at a time.
There are various versions of the story. Some people say it happened during a 4th of July parade so the police would be preoccupied. Some people say it was done after a few too many beers. Others say it happened because the men behind it needed some quick cash.
Cooking in prison as an incarcerated individual is not easy. Depending on the institution, ingredients are limited to whatever the cafeteria is serving and what is available for purchase (at a steep cost) in the prison’s canteen. Some Wisconsin institutions limit incarcerated individuals' access to heat sources down to just hot water, no microwave or hotplate to be found. Canteen Cuisine was created in 2019 by Wisconsin Books to Prisoners, a volunteer-run community group that connects...
Zombie shark, bubblegum octopus, data pagan—the names of cybergrind artists could easily be characters from a now-defunct Konami or Square Enix franchise. Cybergrind, a wild mix of squealing digital production paired with guttural vocals from fleshy humans, is just as rooted in the work of ‘90s electro-grinders like Agoraphobic Nosebleed, The Berzerker, Catasexual Urge Motivation, and The Locust, as it is the colorful world of old-school video games.
The Madison band talks with us about "Imposter Syndrome," released on June 4.
Stalwart Wisconsin DIY musician Amos Pitsch (best known for his work in Tenement and Dusk and more recently his solo records) finds that the personal remnants of used media allow him to peer deep into former owners’ psyches.
An end to the pandemic is within sight, but in the meantime, cold weather, isolation, and already-strained public health infrastructure will converge in the state this winter.
The love language of food perseveres in a crisis.
Green Bay record collector snags Halloween ephemera, one oddity at a time
Podcast interviews
The author joins us to discuss and read from her debut novel, "Mostly Dead Things."
The fiction writer and current UW-Madison fellow discusses her work and reads from a new short story.
The Madison-based writer joins us to discuss her new book, "The Immortalists."
The poet discusses his work in an interview co-produced with The Adroit Journal.
The Madison-based author discusses her multi-faceted writing life and reads from her novel "Bread And Butter."
The Madison-based poet discusses and reads from his debut collection, "Trouble The Water."
Fundraising and audience engagement
For Microtones, a newsletter-first story column, I fielded pitches, edited stories, and built the newsletter to reach audiences with exclusive stories weekly.
Is it ok if I call you that? To Tone Madison, you are so much more. You're an inquisitor, listener, audience member, mourning show-goer, art-lover, public-commenter, thought-provoker, brick-thrower, gut-buster, retweeter, whistleblower, cheerleader, and that's not even the half of it. To us, you are a lifeline. You are a source of love and sustainability.
Just for Tone Madison Sustainers, here's a look behind the scenes with the authors. These were gathered together to showcase the variety of perspectives involved in Tone Madison and the care that we take when reporting on the Madison community.
Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, all gifts in support of FAM received by September 1 will be matched up to $25,000! Would you consider making your second gift today?
The landscape of local music and events has changed. Tone Madison hasn't skipped a beat.
Email marketing piece sent to promote an annual fundraising and music event for an independent, local news outlet in Madison, WI.