Who he is
Before the Trempealeau Pioneer, William Horschak founded and was editor-in-chief of The Sports Jury, a sports opinion and analysis site with a roster of contributors writing on baseball, football, basketball, hockey and the college game. Its archive is kept at thesportsjudge.com.
The beat is narrower now and the map is smaller, but the work is the one he has always done: assign the story, edit it, and stand behind the byline. Where the Jury covered the leagues, the Pioneer covers the county board, the circuit court and the school district.
In the years between he built tools for requesting and organizing public records — the same discipline the Pioneer’s Watchdog desk files under Wisconsin’s open records law.
The paper is independently owned. It belongs to no chain, no fund and no party.
How the paper reports, and what it does when it gets something wrong, is written out on the About page.
What he covers
He writes about the circuit court and the clerk of court’s office, about the county board and the sheriff’s department, and about the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau school district. When a story crosses the county line he follows it there.
The Pioneer files its requests under Wisconsin’s public records law, Wis. Stat. §§ 19.31–19.39. What was asked for, who answered and what came back — including the denials — is logged in the open on the Watchdog desk.
How to reach him
News tips, corrections, letters and print subscriptions all reach the publisher’s desk at publisher@trempealeaupioneer.com — put what it’s about in the subject line. Corrections run plainly and in the same place the error appeared; the corrections policy is here, and the letters policy here.
Find him elsewhere: williamhorschak.com · thesportsjudge.com · LinkedIn · Substack.
Stories by William Horschak
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Courts
Thirty to 40 years: the Pioneer’s estimate of Todd Gieck’s sentence
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Regional News
A deleted post, two $1 million checks and the prosecutor reviewing whether to charge Elon Musk
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County Politics
State law says appoint an undersheriff. County code says the office was abolished. Two sheriffs, two answers.
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County Politics
The operative who crossed the river
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Courts
The judge rules. The clerk makes the ruling real.
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School Board
270 children, 140 seats: the G-E-T referendum reaches the Aug. 11 ballot
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Courts
One judge, 4,355 filings, and the heaviest caseload in Wisconsin
Stories bylined Pioneer Staff are the work of the paper as a whole.