Wisconsin

Requiring Competitive Bids On Wisconsin School Construction Projects Is Long Overdue [WRN Voices]

Published

2 years ago

January 28, 2024

Requiring Competitive Bids On Wisconsin School Construction Projects Is Long Overdue [WRN Voices]

When was the last time the government did less of something?

We’re used to nothing but more—more inflation, more debt, and more spending, particularly under President Biden. From trillions of dollars spent during COVID to hundreds of billions for “Green New Deal” policies, to the “omnibus” bill giving a six percent spending hike across the board, Biden’s spending spree is going to be felt for generations.

Thankfully, some in Wisconsin are doing the opposite.

Sen. Duey Stroebel has a smart idea that’s working its way through the legislature as we speak. His bill, SB 688, would force local governments to actually spend less on one of their biggest ticket items: school construction.

Wisconsin is one of only three states that currently don’t require school boards to bid out school construction projects. The other 47 states have requirements for projects of different sizes (depending on the state) but one requirement is common—a public bidding process. Even Illinois—the land of corruption and backroom deals—has this law on the books, so surely we can as well.

This isn’t some small-potatoes change. According to Sen. Stroebel, in the past three elections, a total of 103 capital referenda were included on local ballots throughout the state. The vast majority (75) of them passed, costing taxpayers a combined $2.4 billion.

Compare that to the entire sum of Wisconsin’s capital budget and transportation borrowing, about $1.6 billion, and you can see the problem. Billions of dollars in taxpayer spending, and the largest single form of public construction in our state, has no requirement for competitive bidding.

These conditions have even created a cottage industry in Wisconsin of construction companies that don’t just do estimates or construction—they pitch projects to school districts, provide the estimate, run the referendum campaigns, and then get paid to deliver their own single-bid projects.

There are examples here, and here, and it quickly begins to look like single-source construction firms are leading the charge for large project referenda instead of parents, school boards, and administrators.

When you see the resulting property tax increases, you wonder if someone else could have done it for cheaper. But the truth is, it’s too late because nobody ever had to ask in the first place!

That’s been the problem with school construction for years now. There’s no real incentive to save money or watch out for the taxpayers. There’s always the ability to just run another referendum—particularly if they may not even be running it themselves!

Sen. Stroebel’s bill also sets a requirement to bid out the cost of purchasing supplies and equipment as well; Wisconsin is also one of only nine states that have no requirement to do so. Finally, the minimum standard for projects subject to this requirement is a reasonable $150,000. That would make Wisconsin still one of the 12 most lenient states for requiring competitive bids, and fourth most lenient for bidding for supplies and equipment.

Again, it shouldn’t be such a heavy lift to force the government to put the taxpayers where they belong—at the start of the conversation, rather than an afterthought. There will undoubtedly be critics who enjoy some personal incentive to defend the status quo, but education resources needlessly wasted are resources that can’t make it to teachers or classrooms.

Wisconsin should not be one of only three states with zero accountability to ensure these massive projects are done as affordably as possible. This bill is a smart move for taxpayers, school boards, and most importantly, students.

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Wisconsin

These are the Wisconsin-tied athletes heading to the 2026 Winter Olympics

Published

46 minutes ago

January 14, 2026

Press Room

These are the Wisconsin-tied athletes heading to the 2026 Winter Olympics

The 2026 Winter Olympics begin Feb. 6 (with some preliminary matches starting earlier), and Wisconsin will be well represented at the showcase in Milano/Cortina, Italy. That includes a powerhouse in speed skating, a 20-year-old luger from Brookfield and a laundry list of current and former Wisconsin Badgers in women’s hockey.

Here are the people to know:

BIATHLON

Deedra Irwin, 33, Pulaski

She started biathlon at age 25 after attending a camp and will now appear in her second Olympics after taking seventh in Beijing, the best finish for an American in an individual biathlon event. She attended Michigan Tech where she played three sports (cross-country skiing, cross country and track and field).

Paul Schommer, 33, Appleton

Also an Olympian in Beijing, the Kimberly High School alumnus Schommer took seventh in the 4x6k mixed relay. He attended The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota.

CROSS COUNTRY SKIING

Kevin Bolger, 32, Minocqua

At the Beijing Olympics, he took ninth in the 4x10k relay and 17th in the men’s sprint freestyle. He most recently took seventh in a relay at the 2025 world championships.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Wisconsin is all over the women’s hockey scene, with a whopping five current players suiting up in the Olympics (four for team USA) and a total of 12 current or former players competing for either USA, Canada or Czechia. The U.S. will be a gold-medal favorite one Olympics cycle after taking second to Canada. The arch-rivalry has ample UW presence on both sides.

The head coach of the women’s team, John Wroblewski, is a native of Neenah. Current University of Wisconsin athletic trainer Stefanie Arndtand former UW director of operations/equipment manager Sis Paulsen are on the Team USA staff, as well.

Britta Curl-Salemme, 25, University of Wisconsin

She played for UW from 2018-24, and the North Dakota native now plays in the Professional Women’s Hockey League, where her Minnesota Frost team won the league title in 2025. She’s competed in four World Championships for Team USA.

Laila Edwards, 21, University of Wisconsin

The Ohio native has played on two World Championships teams and will become the first Black woman to play for the U.S. women’s Olympic team after she already became the first Black woman to play for the U.S. women’s senior national team. She’s one of four current Badgers on Team USA.

Caroline Harvey, 23, University of Wisconsin

The New Hamsphire native is perhaps the top player in the country, leading the nation in assists and sitting second in points. The defender could become the first overall pick in the upcoming Professional Women’s Hockey League draft. This already is on her second Olympics; she played on the 2022 team before she even began her UW playing career.

Hilary Knight, 36, University of Wisconsin

A legend in the sport, she’ll be competing in her fifth Olympics, the most of any women’s hockey player in U.S. history. She won two national titles at Wisconsin and remains the UW career scoring leader with 143 goals (second in points at 262). She’s been a Team USA captain since 2023.

Ava McNaughton, 21, University of Wisconsin

One of three goaltenders on Team USA, she’s the second-youngest player on the team. The Pennsylvania native ranks second in the NCAA with a 1.27 goals-against average.

Kirsten Simms, 21, University of Wisconsin

She’s playing in her first Olympics after two stints on the World Championship teams. She’s one of nine Badgers to clear 200 career points, including the game-tying and winning goals in the thrilling 2024 title-game win over Ohio State.

Emily Clark, 30, University of Wisconsin (playing for Canada)

Now a three-time Olympian with a gold and silver already to her name, Clark is back for one more round. She was part of the Badgers’ 2019 championship team.

Blayre Turnbull, 32, University of Wisconsin (playing for Canada)

She played for Wisconsin from 2011-15 and is bouncing back from a scary 2021 injury in which she broke her fibula celebrating the IIHF Women’s World Championship victory. She received her gold medal with a smile on her face, on a stretcher. She had a goal and two assists in the semifinal win of the 2022 Olympics, a 10-3 win over Switzerland.

Daryl Watts, 26, University of Wisconsin (playing for Canada)

The first-time Olympian transferred to Wisconsin in 2019 and set a program record for most assists in a season with 49, leading the NCAA with 74 points. She had the game-winning goal in overtime against Northeastern in the NCAA championship game in 2021.

Ann-Renee Desbiens, 31, University of Wisconsin (playing for Canada)

The goalie won the Patty Kazmaier Award in 2017 and led the Badgers to four Frozen Fours, breaking the NCAA record for shutouts along the way. She won a silver medal in 2018 and gold in 2022, when she made 38 saves in the final game against USA.

Sarah Nurse, 31, University of Wisconsin (playing for Canada)

She played with the Badgers from 2013-17. In 2018, she scored what turned out to be the winning goal for Canada in her team’s 2-1 win over the United States in pool play. Though the U.S. won that gold medal, she posted a tournament-leading 18 points at the 2022 Olympics as Canada defeated USA in the final, with Nurse notching a goal and assist.

Adéla Šapovalivov, 19, University of Wisconsin (playing for Czechia)

The current Badgers freshman forward (and fifth current UW player to play in the Olympics) is the first European player to play for UW and the first Badger to appear in the Olympics for a team other than USA or Canada. Her team will face Team USA on Feb. 5 in Milan. She was named Best Forward at the 2024 U18 Women’s World Championships.

LUGE

Marcus Mueller, 20, Brookfield

Mueller, a Brookfield Central alumnus, won the U23 world championship in men’s doubles with teammate Ansel Haugsjaa in 2025 and is a three-time junior World Cup gold medalist in men’s doubles, as well. The pair will team up in Cortina as well. As a 12-year-old, Mueller made a luge track in his basement.

NORDIC COMBINED

Ben Loomis, 27, Eau Claire

Loomis will head to the Olympics for a third time after competing in Pyeongchang in 2018 and Beijing in 2022. Last Olympics, he took sixth on the team large hill event, and he took 10th in that event four years earlier. The event features cross-country skiing and ski jumping. Loomis, who moved to Utah as a teenager but still learned ski jumping at Flying Eagles Ski Club in Eau Claire, was the USSA Nordic Combined Athlete of the Year in 2016 and joined the Army in 2019.

SPEED SKATING

Jordan Stolz, 21, Kewaskum

The young speed-skating phenom has a chance to become the face of the Olympics for the United States, in any sport. With his specialties in the 500 meters, 1,000 meters and 1,500 meters, he has a real chance to win three golds. He has 10 medals overall in world championships races, including seven gold and two silver.

Emery Lehman, 29, Marquette University

Heading to his third Olympics, the Illinois native already has a bronze medal to his name after winning it in Beijing in 2022 with the men’s team pursuit. He took gold in the same event in 2025 at the world championships. He played club hockey during his days at Marquette. In 2014, Lehman became the youngest male U.S. speed skater to make his Olympic debut, besting a record previously set by Wisconsin speed-skating legend Eric Heiden in 1976.

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Wisconsin

How John Blackwell’s game-winner happened, other takeaways from Wisconsin’s win

Published

13 hours ago

January 14, 2026

Press Room

How John Blackwell’s game-winner happened, other takeaways from Wisconsin’s win

Braeden Carrington’s hot shooting against former school helps Badgers fend off Minnesota

John Blackwell hit a game-winning three-pointer to give Wisconsin a 78-75 victory over Minnesota.
Guard Braeden Carrington scored a career-high 21 points against his former team.
The Badgers had to “keep fighting” after again falling into a double-digit deficit.

MINNEAPOLIS – John Blackwell imagined the moment for a long time, going back to his childhood in the Detroit suburbs.

“I always think about it,” said Blackwell, who grew up as a fan of Jordan Poole and Michigan. “I was doing the runaway. I’m running away from my teammates, trying to see if they can catch me.”

All he was missing was hitting the game-winner. Well, that was until Jan. 13 when his Wisconsin Badgers were tied with Minnesota with 4.6 seconds remaining. That’s when he pulled up for a deep hesitation 3-pointer and hit it to clinch a thrilling 78-75 victory over the Gophers – and celebrate like how Poole famously did eight years earlier.

BOX SCORE: Wisconsin 78, Minnesota 75

“Go get the ball, keep your head up and go get a shot up,” Blackwell said, looking back at a lesson he learned at an early age. “So that’s what I did. And then I just went to my go-to move, hesi-three. And honestly, it looked good when it came off the hands.”

The game-winning buzzer-beater – the first for Wisconsin since Bronson Koenig’s shot in the second round of the 2016 NCAA tournament – capped off a roller-coaster win that included plenty of ups and downs for the Badgers. Here are three takeaways from the win:

Why Wisconsin (wisely) did not use a timeout before John Blackwell’s game-winner

Wisconsin walked away from Williams Arena with a win while leaving two timeouts on the table. Greg Gard said he did not plan on using one on the last play “as long as we have enough time and it felt like we were in motion,” and obviously Blackwell proved that 4.6 seconds was enough time.

“Obviously we always talk about trying to advance it and shoot it with your momentum toward the rim. So as long as I felt he had some space – which he did, he had the defense in retreat, had them backpedaling – [we could] put the ball in your really good player’s hands and let them make a decision.”

The resulting shot attempt from that, Gard said, is “going to be as good as any shot you’re going to get.”

“If I take a timeout with four seconds, five seconds to go, they’re going to set their defense,” Gard said. “Each situation is different. You just read and kind of get a feel for what the floor looks like when the ball does go in. And if you can catch them on a scattered floor, that’s typically the best way to attack in those situations.”

Gard indicated he was planning to use a timeout after Nolan Winter’s pair of free throws with about 12 seconds remaining. But Winter missed both free throws, keeping UW’s lead at three and voiding any opportunity to call a timeout.

“I thought we played in retreat too much,” Gard said.

Then Minnesota’s Cade Tyson hit the game-tying 3-pointer that Blackwell memorably turned into a moot point seconds later.

Braeden Carrington provided game-changing spark in homecoming

Wisconsin guard Braeden Carrington’s return to Williams Arena featured anything but a warm welcome.

The Minnesota fans in attendance at Williams Arena immediately booed the ex-Gopher guard when he first came off the bench at the 13:33 mark in the first half. The Minnesota crowd continued booing him throughout the game when he touched the ball.

“If you’re going to boo me, I got to talk back,” Carrington recalled telling friends who still are at Minnesota. “I can’t just let it happen.”

Carrington answered the Minnesota-cold reception with some hot shooting that led to a career-best performance and undoubtedly changed the dynamics of the game. His 21 points came on 7-of-12 3-point shooting, and he was only one 3-pointer short of tying the UW single-game record. He also had five rebounds.

Three of Carrington’s 3-pointers were part of a critical three-minute stretch that drastically changed the momentum of the game. Wisconsin went on a 14-0 run – with all 14 points coming from either Carrington or Blackwell – to turn a 57-52 deficit into a 66-57 lead.

“We shot some heat-check ones,” Blackwell said. “But I think when we get good looks like that, me and BC are confident shooters. … BC had it rolling. And it’s my job as the lead point guard out there when Nick [Boyd] was on the bench was to try to find him, and he stepped up and knocked the shots down.”

Wisconsin ‘had to keep fighting’ amid another double-digit deficit

Wisconsin’s win at Minnesota, Blackwell said, “never was going to be easy.”

“We just had to keep fighting,” Blackwell said.

That fight helped the Badgers come back to win after trailing double-digits for the second time in a four-day stretch. After overcoming a 14-point deficit against then-No. 1 Michigan on Jan. 10, UW found itself in an 11-point deficit early in the second half against Minnesota on Jan. 13.

The big deficit appeared to have a couple culprits. UW did not score at all in the last five minutes of the first half and had four turnovers in the last four minutes of the half.

Even more noticeably, Wisconsin’s defense was lacking as Minnesota capitalized on several easy looks from close range. The Gophers scored 22 of their 35 first-half points in the paint.

“We just took it on the chin and got better in the second half, and we shut off the things that they were getting so easy,” Blackwell said. “We stuck to the plan that coaches set for us and then trusted each other at the end.”

The Badgers’ second-half defense still was not perfect. In fact, Minnesota averaged more points per possession in the second half (1.290) than in the first (1.167) although more of those second-half points were either from the 3-point line or free-throw line.

“We haven’t been perfect by any stretch, but we have grown in our connectiveness and in our collective fight,” Gard said.

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Wisconsin

Badgers top transfer edge target is heading elsewhere

Published

1 day ago

January 13, 2026

Press Room

Badgers top transfer edge target is heading elsewhere

The Wisconsin Badgers transfer portal hopes suffered a blow late Monday night as Oklahoma State transfer Wendell Gregory committed to the Kansas State Wildcats.

Gregory, an All-Big 12 selection as a redshirt freshman in 2025, was one of the best edge rushers in the transfer portal and one of the best overall players available this offseason. He accumulated 32 pressures, four sacks, and 19 stops, while having a pass-rush win rate over 17 percent, a top mark in college football.

He had gotten significant interest in the transfer portal, including from Texas Tech, Texas, Missouri, Kansas State, and Wisconsin. The Badgers impressively got him on a visit to campus, but he ultimately visited Texas and Kansas State afterwards before committing to the Wildcats.

Gregory was the highest-rated edge transfer remaining in the portal, according to On3, and is heading to his third school in three years after transferring from South Carolina to Oklahoma State following his true freshman season.

With Gregory not heading to Madison, the Badgers are still in search of one more edge rusher that could help this team in 2026. Wisconsin did pick up a commitment from Arkansas edge Justus Boone, but he profiles more as a run-stopper on the inside at 6’5, 290 pounds, potentially filling the Darryl Peterson role.

They also got Tennessee freshman edge transfer Jayden Loftin, for whom the Badgers were a finalist in the Class of 2025, getting an official visit in his recruitment before he committed to the Volunteers. Loftin redshirted his freshman year, recovering from a torn ACL he sustained during his senior year of high school.

Those two additions join Sebastian Cheeks, Nicolas Clayton, Tyreese Fearbry, Micheal Garner, Jaylen Williams, Samuel Lateju, and Yahya Gaad as Wisconsin’s outside linebacker group in 2026 so far.

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