Bennet Goldstein reports on water and agriculture as Wisconsin Watch’s Report for America representative on the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk—a collaborative reporting network across the Basin. Before this, Goldstein was on the breaking news team at the Omaha World Herald in Nebraska. He has spent most of his career at daily papers in Iowa, including the Dubuque Telegraph Herald. Goldstein’s work has garnered awards, including the Associated Press Media Editors award for an explanatory feature about a police shooting in rural Wisconsin, and an Iowa Newspaper Association award for a series that detailed the impacts of the loss of social safety net programs on Dubuque’s Marshallese community. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Beat: Environmental, land use and agricultural issues in western Wisconsin (Mississippi River Basin Project)
The Mississippi River is a major resource for Wisconsin: a way to move goods, a habitat for animals and plants and a source of recreation. This reporter covers the river's environmental issues, including water quality and flooding, a growing concern as climate change increases the number and intensity of storms. The reporter works on the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk: this initiative of Report for America, in partnership with the Missouri School of Journalism and the Society of Environmental Journalists, offers a network of collaborative reporting covering water, agriculture and environmental issues across the Mississippi River Basin.