WBA Award Winning Investigations

2016: Best Series or Documentary: First Place: Opiate Oppression

This three-part series airing in May 2016 was part of our year-long commitment to showing how the opiate crisis was impacting large segments of our viewing area. NewsChannel 7 Investigates exclusively obtained a Marathon County Health Department report showing even though most of the community now knows prescription drop boxes exist, they are still keeping old prescription drugs in their homes. We looked at the everyday story of Michael Dixon, whose opiate addiction began after having his wisdom teeth removed as a teen. This eventually led to his heroin addiction, which caused him to crash his car, killing him and leaving his young son with a lifelong traumatic brain injury. The series also focused on Wausau being named a top 25 city for prescription abuse, the lack of treatment options, how addiction changes brain chemistry, the scope of the problem for law enforcement and how hospital funding can sometimes depend on how addicts answer surveys.

2016 Best Series or Documentary: Second Place: Veterans Emergency Care

Since beginning this on-going series in 2016, it initially revealed how the Dept. of Veterans Affairs was denying nearly one out of every three veterans payment for their emergency medical billing claims.  Our continuing reporting has since showed how many veterans are not being refunded billions in improper billing, including more than 5,400 Wisconsin veterans' claims. And how a recent VA rule change still leaves a lingering loophole. That means many veterans are still liable to pay their own emergency bills, if they go to their closet ER during an emergency.  The stories have used Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain answers and provided lawmaker accountability checks. Because of our reporting, veterans recently filed a class action lawsuit.

2015: 1st Place: Best Hard News/Investigative: 911 DaneCom System Overhaul

For more than a year, Matthew Simon’s on-going News 3 reports into continuous first responder emergency radio failures has been part of the station’s "911 Dane Com system" series, awarded first place by the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association for best hard news/investigative report. More importantly, Simon’s reporting produced change. Causing Dane Co. to accept responsibility and work toward fixing a problem that put first responders lives in jeopardy.