★ THEY WROTE ABOUT US ★
» "Neighborhood noisemaker"
TONE MADISON · Microtones, by Juan Carlos Garcia Martinez · Sep. 26, 2025
A piece about the Oak Street noise fight that wound up covering us too. Tone Madison called Woke on
Oak a "hilariously passive-aggressive website rebuttal." Guilty.
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Read it at ToneMadison.com
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» After the money questions, the super PAC quietly closes
CHANNEL 3000 / NEWS 8000 · June 30, 2026 (FEC termination filed June 18)
The super PAC behind half this page is done. Bangstad filed to terminate it on June 18, 2026, after
spending the last of its cash where it always went: Facebook and Google ads, and NCPS, the
consulting outfit whose address is a UPS Store mailbox. Closed weeks after the governor bid died.
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Read it at Channel3000.com
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FEC committee record
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» A run for governor, undone by a wrong date on the forms
WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO · Joe Schulz · June 2026
He ran for governor and didn't make the ballot. About 1,504 valid signatures against the 2,000
required. Roughly 40 pages got tossed because he wrote the primary date where the general election
date goes. He blamed the commission and the press. Still short.
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Read it at WPR.org
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WSAW coverage
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» The yearslong pattern behind a rare criminal defamation charge
WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO · Rob Mentzer · Feb. 20, 2025
The big one. WPR lays out the $750,000 defamation verdict against him (settled for $580,000, mostly
by his insurer), the Photoshopped image of the Lakeland Times publisher and editor behind the criminal
charge, and the false claim about Walker's brother's death that drew the biggest damages. Then it opens
the PAC's books: billboards under 4% of spending, a third on lawyers, and $333,890 to two websiteless
outfits at mailbox addresses. He ended the interview when the questions got there.
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Read it at WPR.org
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» Lawsuit alleges super PAC donations went to personal expenses
WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO · Rob Mentzer · Feb. 21, 2025
A lawsuit from the Lakeland Times' publisher and GM says he funneled about $460,000 in donor money
to himself through Effervescent Blue and NCPS, and put PAC funds toward personal legal and bankruptcy
bills. And despite the "5% of profits" pledge, FEC records show the brewery never actually paid
the PAC. Filed the same day zoning refused to reinstate his Minocqua permit.
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Read it at WPR.org
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» Former employees question the super PAC's use of donations
CHANNEL 3000 / WISC-TV NEWS 3 INVESTIGATES · Jason Cuevas · Sep. 8, 2025
Former taproom staff say they got paid from the super PAC, memo line "organizing," for
bar work, not PAC work. Bangstad doesn't deny it; he calls it a labor-cost strategy. A Brennan Center
expert has a name for PACs run this way: "scam PACs."
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Read it at Channel3000.com
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» Editorial: "There's no telling where the money went"
THE NORTHWOODS RIVER NEWS · Our View (editorial) · Sep. 26, 2025
The River News editorial board on the super PAC's money, headline and all: "there's no telling
where the money went." Opinion, not reporting. And paywalled, so the headline's all we've got.
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Read it at RiverNewsOnline.com
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» The "Ope" beer trademark fight with a fellow Wisconsin brewery
ONMILWAUKEE · Bobby Tanzilo · Sep. 11, 2024
MBC named a Tim Walz beer "Ope." Problem: a West Allis brewery already owned the trademark, got a
restraining order, and filed for contempt. MBC posted its version of events, then quietly renamed the
beer "Big Dad Energy."
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Read it at OnMilwaukee.com
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» State Supreme Court declines the super PAC's voucher lawsuit
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS · Dec. 13, 2023
The state Supreme Court declined to hear the PAC-funded lawsuit to end Wisconsin's voucher program,
sending it back to circuit court. One more PAC lawsuit that went nowhere. See the WokeOnOak's Lawsuit Fundraising Playbook for the play-by-play strategy.
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Read it at APNews.com
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» Man arrested over threats to newspaper publisher and judge
WISCONSIN NEWSMEDIA ASSOCIATION / LAKELAND TIMES · Dec. 2024
A Michigan man was arrested for emailing threats to the Lakeland Times publisher and an Oneida County
judge. A detective noted the same account also emailed Bangstad, urging him to sue, about
an hour after the threat went out. Charged with a felony and a misdemeanor. We link it and leave it there.
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Read the WNA writeup
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Read it at River News
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» Opinion: the left isn't immune from loud, obnoxious grifters
GRIST FROM THE MILLS · Opinion / Newsletter
A progressive writer's column using Bangstad as Exhibit A for the loud, self-promoting "liberal savior"
type. All show, in her telling. Opinion, from the left.
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Read it at Grist From The Mills
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» "Follow the money: Kirk Bangstad and the Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC"
THE WAUSONIAN · B.C. Kowalski · Oct. 8, 2021
The earliest of the money stories. In 2021, years before WPR or Channel 3000, Wisconsin
Republicans filed an FEC complaint against the super PAC, and The Wausonian went digging and found
what it called something "fishy." (Paid post; we've only got the dek.)
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Read it at TheWausonian.com
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