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Racine Public Library executive director wins state poetry award
Ryan Patterson
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Nick Demske, left, and Dave Demske celebrate after Nick received an award at a Wisconsin Writers Awards event in May in Madison. |
RACINE — Nick Demske has always loved words.
In middle school, language provided an outlet for him.
That was when Demske began writing poetry to help deal with the mental health challenges he was facing, including anxiety and depression.
“I realized at some point, ‘Oh, when I do this, it really helps balance me out,” said Demske, who is executive director of the Racine Public Library. “Poetry has been a really important health and wellness tactic in my survival strategy in life.”
He continued writing poetry while studying English and creative writing at Carthage College.
After that, Demske received some notice for his work, publishing one full-length book of poems and a chapbook.
Demske put poetry on the backburner for several years as he became more involved in civic engagement, including being a Racine County Board supervisor from 2018-24.
In fall of 2024, he began writing poetry again.
That creative reignition was recently recognized when Demske won a state prize, the Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award.
He was one of eight honorees at a Wisconsin Writers Awards event in May in Madison.
Demske
SUBMITTEDHua Xi, the award judge who is also a poet, wrote that Demske’s poems are delightful, “full of witty observations and pure feeling.”
“These are risky and defiant poems, full of unexpected twists of language and imagery that produce a sharp and melancholy whimsy,” Xi wrote.
Demske was honored and surprised to win a poetry prize for the first time in many years.
“I was over the moon about it,” he said.
Niedecker was born in Wisconsin and lived for most of her life near Fort Atkinson, about 60 miles west of Racine.
Demske adores Niedecker’s work so was thrilled to win a prize named after her.
The award includes $500 and a five-day residency later this year at Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts in Mineral Point, Wisconsin.
Demske looks forward to having several days to write and “be in community with other writers and other creatives.”
Rita Mae Reese, from left, Nick Demske and Steven Espada Dawson at a Wisconsin Writers Awards event in May in Madison.
Dave DemskeThe relational aspect of poetry has become more important to Demske over the years.
Writing poems remains a cathartic outlet similar to when he was younger, but Demske also greatly enjoys the people he has met through poetry.
“It’s still a very important therapeutic tactic in my life,” Demske said. “The community became really important and central to me, differently than my creative work.”
After several years off, Demske, who recently finished a poetry manuscript and is working on a new collection, plans to keep writing.
He writes poetry for his own health, but Demske also hopes his words connect with people.
“This stuff actually has an impact if you do it correctly,” Demske said. “I want to heal myself and heal others.”
Clergy Gone Wild: Madison priest stripped of clerical role after child sex crime charges
David Clarey
A Madison Catholic priest was stripped of his clerical duties after allegations of child pornography surfaced against the man in 2025.
The June 24 stripping of Andrew J. Showers’ clerical duties comes after Waupaca County prosecutors charged the 38-year-old man with felonies after they say he he attempted to meet with a 14-year-old girl to have sex with her, but it was actually a police officer. Prosecutors also charged him with possession of child pornography earlier this year.
Showers was also the subject of two other misconduct allegations following his 2025 arrest, one for inappropriate questioning during confession and another allegation of groping a woman.
The Diocese of Madison announced Pope Leo XIV made the decision to remove Showers of his duties after Showers requested the removal himself, according to the Diocese’s June 25 letter. That church process, known as laicization, means he is known longer a member of the church’s clergy.
“I ask for your continued prayers for all those affected and commend everyone involved, including Andrew, to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus,” said Donald Hying, Bishop of Madison, in a letter to diocese members. “May we find comfort in the Lord’s unfailing love and mercy, remembering that He remains with us in every trial, suffering, and sorrow.”
The charges came after Clintonville Police Department officers arrested Showers on Aug. 24, 2025 after he attempted to meet with an officer posing as a 14-year-old girl for sex.
Then, in March, prosecutors charged Showers with two additional felonies for possession of child pornography. Authorities said they found two pornographic images of girls on a messaging app on Showers’ phone.
The Diocese of Madison had previously announced Showers’s first arrest Aug. 25, 2025, and restricted him from ministry during the investigation. In that announcement, it erroneously said the church had not received any prior allegations of misconduct conduct against Showers.
However, two days later, the Diocese of Madison said Showers was the subject of a previous complaint in December 2021. The Journal Sentinel previously reported that complaint came from a parent who reported his son was asked about watching pornography and masturbating during confession at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Lodi, according to a police record.
The Lodi Police Department investigated the complaint and determined it was not criminal. The father also said he reported it to the church, who said Showers’ actions were within his role as a priest.
More allegations surfaced against Showers in Sept. 2025. A woman said she was groped by the man during a social event, where he introduced himself as a priest and gave her his business card.
Showers had been set to lead a small group trip to Rome and Siena at the time of the allegations, according to since-deleted social media posts.
Showers had the following assignments, according to the diocese:
- Director of diocesan office of worship, 2024 to present.
- Parochial vicar for a grouping known as Pastorate 22 or Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, which collectively includes two churches, St. Raphael and Good Shepherd, and one school, St. James, all in Madison, 2023 to present.
- Priest in residence at All Saints in Berlin and Our Lady of the Lake in Green Lake, 2022 to 2023.
- Provided Spanish Mass assistance at St. John the Baptist in Waunakee, 2022.
- Pastor of St. Stephen in Clinton, 2020 to 2022.
- Parochial vicar for St. Paul's Catholic Student Center, which serves UW-Madison students, 2018 to 2020.
- Parochial vicar of St. Cecilia in Wisconsin Dells, summer of 2017.
Monday, May 18, 2026
Gov. Tony Evers says Wisconsin is prepared for any FBI election probe
Molly Beck
MADISON - Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers says he has not been made aware of any "widespread" Federal Bureau of Investigation effort to probe the 2020 presidential election in this battleground state but has measures in place to respond if one materializes.
Evers made the comments days after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported FBI agents had questioned a top state election official and have sought interviews with people who helped administer Milwaukee's 2020 election.
It's so far unclear what the goals are of the questions.
A spokeswoman for the FBI has repeatedly declined to answer questions about the probe's scope and purpose. But sources told the Journal Sentinel the FBI's interview with Wisconsin Elections Commission deputy administrator Robert Kehoe focused on how elections work in Wisconsin and debunking conspiracy theories about the 2020 election in the state.
"No, I'm not," Evers told WISN 12 News political reporter Matt Smith when asked if Evers was aware of "widespread FBI activity here in the state."
"I haven't heard it, but we are adequately prepared and I won't tell you what pieces are in place but we're prepared to make sure that our elections happen safely," Evers said about November's elections.
"We have plans to, if they show up, we will be there to make sure that they are asking for what they have access to but also making sure that they're not doing what they shouldn't do," he said.
The Wisconsin probe comes after federal officials in January seized hundreds of boxes of ballots related to the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia, and after the FBI issued a grand jury subpoena in March for voting information in Maricopa County, Arizona.
Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin have all been central to Trump's false claims that he won the 2020 election. Trump has insisted, without evidence, that former President Joe Biden didn’t win in Wisconsin that year.
A recount in two Wisconsin counties that Trump's campaign paid for, court rulings, a state audit and a conservative review have confirmed that Trump lost. Biden defeated Trump in Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes.
Officials in Wisconsin – and especially Milwaukee – have been bracing for an investigation.
If federal officials advance an investigation of the 2020 election in Milwaukee, it's possible that poll books and nearly 180,000 absentee ballots with attached ID numbers could be turned over to investigators. Since state law requires absentee ballots counted at a central counting facility to include poll list numbers, the data could be matched with poll book information to identify voters.
Ballots from the 2020 election typically would have been destroyed by now. But Milwaukee's 2020 ballots still exist, partly because of a lawsuit filed against the city by a New London man who has sued state and local election officials over the 2020 election and related issues.
Sources told the Journal Sentinel earlier this month no ballots have been seized by the FBI.
Agents sought to question one of Milwaukee County's top election officials about the 2020 presidential election at her home last week. Evers said the agents' decision to visit her home was "bizarre."
Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.
Thursday, April 16, 2026
Monday, March 23, 2026
Evers signs bill that shores up FoodShare while banning sugary food
Jessie Opoien
MADISON – Wisconsin will bar FoodShare recipients from using benefits to purchase candy and soft drinks under legislation signed Monday by Gov. Tony Evers.
The bill, which the Legislature sent to the governor with bipartisan support earlier this month, also provides funding and additional positions requested by Evers' administration to ensure the state is not penalized under new federal requirements implemented under President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" last year.
In a statement announcing he had signed the bill into law, Evers championed the approval of those resources for the state Department of Health Services but did not address the new restrictions on purchases for recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
"In spite of the chaos at the federal level and the continued attacks on our FoodShare program, I am proud of the work my administration has done over the past year to ensure our kids, families, veterans, and seniors across our state receive the resources they need to access basic food and groceries," Evers said in a statement. "As long as I am governor, I will continue to do everything in my power to protect Wisconsin families and taxpayers from the harmful decisions of the Trump Administration."
Evers' administration estimated last fall that Trump's sweeping tax and spending law would cost the state $284 million over the span of its enactment and in August requested nearly $70 million to cover the implementation of the new requirements for SNAP.
The federal program, administered at the state level and known as FoodShare in Wisconsin, provides low-income families with cash assistance to purchase certain foods at authorized retailers. It is subject to work requirements.
The federal law imposed new work requirements and shifted more of the administrative costs onto states. It also subjects states that make too many overpayment or underpayment errors to hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties.
The bill recently passed both chambers of the Legislature with bipartisan support, emerging from the Assembly with a 71-22 vote and the Senate with a 25-8 vote.
Under the bill, DHS must request a waiver from the federal government to enact the ban on sugary purchases. The federal government has approved similar waivers in nearly two dozen states, allowing them to implement these bans as two-year pilot programs.
Bill author Rep. Clint Moses, R-Menomonie, said the policy will redirect benefits toward healthy foods in an effort to improve health outcomes.
Under the bill, DHS will be required to contract with a nonprofit organization to develop a platform with a database of eligible products to be implemented by retailers. The bill requires nonprofit organizations to partner with a technology firm that is "experienced with this state's Medical Assistance enterprise data warehouse and data analytics reporting system" to administer the platform.
The database could include an optional public-facing inventory of eligible products under the law.
The DHS funds requested by the Evers administration were attached as an amendment to the bill as the Assembly neared the end of its work last month.
"I think people should have the ability to make those choices when they're getting their food, but at the end of the day (this funding) is the one that's really important," Evers told reporters March 18 in Milwaukee when asked about the funds being attached to the purchase restrictions. "So was happy to do that. It's one of those things that we call compromise in the Legislature and the governor's office, so this for sure takes precedent."
SNAP recipients living in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this month over similar purchase restriction policies implemented in their states.
In the lawsuit, plaintiffs argued they or their family members rely on the restricted foods to manage health conditions such as diabetes and allergies, or to obtain energy boosts needed in their daily lives.
The lawsuit said the federal government exceeded its legal authority by approving waivers without conducting "reasoned decision-making" and seeks to void the waivers.
Jessie Opoien can be reached at jessie.opoien@jrn.com.
Friday, March 20, 2026
Thursday, March 19, 2026
Data center legislation falters as Wisconsin public opinion shifts
Jessie Opoien
MADISON – Legislative efforts to regulate the boom of data centers in Wisconsin stalled in the state Senate, which failed to vote on any such bills before concluding its work for the year.
The Senate's inaction follows a dramatic tide shift in public opinion against these projects, with a Marquette University Law School poll last month showing 70% of Wisconsin voters believe the costs to the state outweigh the benefits.
Lawmakers in both parties have introduced bills aimed at legislating that balance, and the Assembly passed one such bill in January. While a Senate committee considered several of those proposals last month, none made it to the floor for a vote in the chamber's final scheduled votes for the year on March 17.
That could hurt Republicans on the ballot in November, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, warned at a WisPolitics Q&A event this week.
"I think it is absolutely sad the state Senate is not voting on data center regulation," Vos said. "That is a huge issue, probably bigger than most that I have seen in my 22 years."
Vos said Assembly Republicans will be able to say they did what they could to regulate data centers, but Republican senators up for reelection "who don't have that vote, I think they’re going to regret it" in the fall.
Republicans currently have an 18-15 majority in the Senate and a 54-45 lead in the Assembly. This fall, Democrats would need to pick up two seats to take the majority in the Senate, and five to earn a majority in the Assembly.
In October 2025, 55% of Marquette poll respondents said the costs of large data centers are greater than their benefits. Over a period of four months, opposition was up to 70%.
"Data centers are a big issue for almost every part of Wisconsin. It’s not partisan. Republicans, Democrats, independents are concerned that we need to have some sort of reasonable regulation," Vos told reporters while the Senate met.
Under the bill passed by the Assembly earlier this year, the state Public Service Commission would be tasked with ensuring no other ratepayers would absorb the costs of the construction or extension of electric infrastructure that primarily serves a data center. Any renewable energy facility that primarily serves a data center would be required to be located on-site.
The PSC testified that while the agency supports efforts to shield ratepayers from costs raised by data centers, the language of the legislation "would be challenging to implement."
The bill would also require any water used by data centers for cooling purposes to be used in a closed-loop system, or any other system that uses an equal or lesser amount of water. Each year, the operator of a data center would be required to report its annual water usage to the state Department of Natural Resources.
The bill would enact requirements for land restoration at the discretion of local government officials, including requiring data center operators to file a bond in advance with the DNR large enough to cover those efforts.
Developers would be required "to the extent possible" to "encourage" the hiring of Wisconsin workers for construction.
The Assembly bill passed 53-44 largely on party lines, with Rep. Lindee Brill, R-Sheboygan Falls, joining Democrats in voting no and Reps. Steve Doyle, D-Onalaska, and Jodi Emerson, D-Eau Claire, joining Republicans in support.
Democrats were generally critical of the GOP bill. Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, argued at the time of the Assembly vote that it would not adequately hold corporations accountable and would defer to fossil fuels over renewable energy sources by limiting where such facilities could be located.
Last month, the Senate Committee on Utilities, Technology and Tourism held a public hearing on a slate of bills aimed at regulating data centers, including the Assembly bill, a competing Democratic proposal and a bill that would ban nondisclosure agreements for data center projects.
When asked in the Marquette poll to identify possible benefits of data centers, voters put creating new jobs for technical workers at the top of the list. Voters identified high water usage and strain on local water resources as the top cost.
Jessie Opoien can be reached at jessie.opoien@jrn.com.
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Saturday, February 28, 2026
Wisconsin election officials recommend charges in Vos recall effort
Molly Beck
MADISON - Wisconsin's top election officials are recommending criminal charges against more than a dozen people who helped carry out a failed recall campaign against Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.
The bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission on Feb. 27 notified 13 people that the six-member panel found probable cause they had violated election fraud laws while attempting to gather enough signatures to force a recall election against Vos.
Supporters of President Donald Trump sought to organize a recall election against Vos over the Assembly speaker's criticism of Trump and his unwillingness to break the law and undo the 2020 Wisconsin presidential election.
The commission said two recall volunteers likely violated state laws by listing false addresses on paperwork required to circulate petitions and 11 violated laws by submitting fraudulent signatures of voters in 2024.
The 13 people were notified Friday of the recommended charges that will be forwarded to the Racine County district attorney, according to the letter obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Most live out of state. Just one person has a Wisconsin address.
Wispolitics.com first reported on the letter.
Vos filed a complaint against the volunteers and recall campaign organizers, but the commission did not find sufficient evidence to show the recall leaders had violated state laws.
According to letter, Vos submitted "credible affidavits from several individuals who claim they did not sign the recall petition" but whose signature appeared on the petitions.
At the time, the recall committee blamed the forged signatures on "sabotage" and unidentified participants "recruiting individuals from outside Wisconsin."
The organizers ultimately were unsuccessful in triggering a recall election despite trying twice to do so.
Vos, 57, announced last week he would retire at the end of his current term representing Wisconsin's 63rd Assembly District.
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