It starts with you. Throughout the years, the Argus Leader’s watchdog team has taken tips and answered questions from readers that resulted in hard-hitting, transformative stories. In some cases, changes in state laws started with readers. We’ve held public officials accountable. We’ve tracked questionable government spending. We’ve tackled crises in mental health and treatment. We’ve explored the state’s failure to offer adequate education to deaf or hard of hearing children for decades. We uncovered how an elected state’s attorney had been absent from his job for days or even months at a time, which eventually led to his resignation. We’ve shined a light on the state’s unclear definition of “consent” when it comes to sexual assault. We wrote about an insurance company that preyed on the elderly, and we’ve exposed predatory hospital pricing, both of which led to changes in state laws.