November 2023

Emergency open-heart surgery at age 47 forced photographer Cameron Gillie to make significant lifestyle changes. He started to combine exercise and photography, a practice that evolved into the biggest photographic project of his decades-long photography career: to hike and photograph the Ice Age Trail.

Gillie set out to tell the story of Wisconsin’s landscapes, communities, and people by backpacking the 1200-mile-long Ice Age National Scenic Trail. His recently published photography book “Around Wisco: Hiking the Ice Age Trail” chronicles his journey as he explored Wisconsin on foot.

The beautiful 264-page book is a mixture of photojournalism and nature photography. Cameron documents the scenic landscapes left behind from the last ice age. In addition, he photographed the small towns he passed through and the proud hard working people who call Wisconsin home.

GREEN BAY–Gordon Eugene Ellis, 75, of the Village of Howard, sadly passed away from a sudden brief illness on May 17, 2023 at Aurora BayCare Medical Center in Green Bay.

He was born on April 19, 1948 in Baraboo, Wisconsin, the second oldest of eight children of Riley J. and Alberta E. (Harms) Ellis, who later divorced on Aug. 30, 1977. 

In 1967, Gordon graduated from Marshall High School where he was on the school's football and track teams, high school chorus, served as a student council representative, was a member of the Marshall "M" letterman club and the All-School play, and he was elected as senior class president.

DANE COUNTY–Dane County Executive Joe Parisi announced his retirement last month and that his last day will be May 1, 2024, marking 13 years in the elected position.

Parisi said that he has accomplished the things he set out to do and feels comfortable in his decision to retire.

One of the areas in which Parisi feels the county has made progress is the environment.

Water cleanup has been a big part of environmental issues addressed by the county, including the Suck the Muck program that dredges phosphorus from streams entering the lakes and municipal runoff programs.

“The lake clean-up is something I feel really good about. The community wants and needs it,” he said.

Conservation of prairie and wetlands has been a priority and has included the county buying up large plots of land for park and conversation areas. One of those parcels is Acker Farm, located north of Pheasant Branch Conservancy.

MADISON — Mikey Fussell was all smiles last Saturday afternoon at Mansfield Stadium.

Fussell had just made eight saves to help the second-seeded Middleton Cardinals earn their first trip to the WIAA Division 1 state tournament since 2016 with a thrilling 2-1 overtime victory over top-seeded Hartland Arrowhead.

Fussell, Middleton’s senior goalkeeper, had waited a year to erase the frustration of coming up one match short of the boys state tournament.

“It’s been our goal since last year when we lost in the sectional finals to Verona,” Fussell said. “This year, we knew we were going to face strong competition again. It was just kind of a continuation from last year’s goal.”