New Kid's View
Family lured Jerrianne and her husband to South Milwaukee in 2002 from Southern California where she worked as, first, a journalist, then, as a court information officer. She now stays busy with media-relations consulting, playing with her three grandchildren (part of the lure), writing, discovering her new environs, and hoping her garden will produce before the first fall frost.
July 8 SM School Board meeting
The following is posted at the request of E.W. Luther Elementary School parent Linda Bellis:
Hello Luther Families,
July 4th Kudos to Those Who Care
Kiddie bike and costume parades, wheelbarrow and shoe scramble races, ice cream and Cracker Jacks, bouncy games, brats and beer, and live music.
The annual South Milwaukee Fourth of July fun at Grant Park went off as successfully usual, thanks to the South Milwaukee Parks & Rec Department, Fire and Police departments, volunteers with numerous organizations, including Friends of Grant Park, Friends of Mill Pond, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. But no thanks to the County of Milwaukee. Yet another victim of County budget cuts.
A Bridge Too Far-Fetched
I didn’t know Milwaukee had so much money! So much, in fact, it’s like those mega-rich folks who do or buy things without ever looking at the price tag.
That’s what seems to be going on with the resurrected idea to remove/replace the Daniel Hoan Memorial Bridge with a neo-drawbridge.
E.W. Luther to be Principaled or Not -- Meeting Tonight
An Event in Cudahy
Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes of a high-profile trial? Do you know how that affects you?
I'll be talking about that and how the news media shape people's opinions and affect access to the courts on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Cudahy Family Library. My comments will be based on my recently published book Anatomy of a Trial, which is based on myths and distortions of the 1995 Simpson trial that became cemented as fact in the American psyche, and the fallout that continues to this day.
Iran then and now
Rotarians of Mitchell Field will be hearing about upheaval in Iran in 1979 and now at their weekly meeting on Wednesday. This is an unannounced program for the club, which meets at noon each Wednesday at the Mitchell International Airport's Milwaukee Room. The reason it's unannounced is because the program scheduled for that day bowed out, leaving the club scrambling. Given my family's history -- living in Iran in 1978 and early '79 on the threshhold of the Islamic Revolution -- and the recent Iranian election protests -- I agreed to be the program fill-in and talk about the political history of modern Iran and how that has been playing out over the past three decades.
Rotary is a great public service organization, which supports local and international causes, including scholarships for high school students in the six communities it serves and polio eradication.
Bridge from Flow to Clog
Company's gone, presentations done. So I'm catching up on the news when two recent Journal Sentinel articles get my eye.
One is a column on the July 10 Perspectives page that takes a poke at Milwaukee County Supervisor Pat Jursik who is a public transporation advocate and proponent of extending I-794 from its current southern terminus at Pennsylvania Avenue south of Layton six miles further on south to Ryan Road. She also opposes replacing the 125-foot high Daniel Hoan Memorial Bridge with either surface street- or 40-foot high "lift" bridge access from the south into downtown Milwaukee. (Lift bridge being the same, so far as motorists are concerned who currently use the Hoan, as a draw bridge. Meaning that when a vessel that's too tall to clear a 40-foot-high bridge needs to get from Lake Michigan into the Port of Milwaukee or back out, traffic on the bridge has to stop and wait for the lift section of the lift bridge to be raised, the ship to pass beneath and the bridge section to be lowered .)
Out of the Past
First it was Iran and last month's disputed election. Protests erupted on same streets as 30+ years ago when I lived there in the prelude and outbreak of the Islamic Revolution.
Then Michael Jackson's death. Images came back of media melee at Santa Monica courthouse hearing in 1993 that led to $20 million settlement in child molestation lawsuit when I worked as media liaison for the L.A. courts, and at Santa Maria court complex during preliminary hearing and 2005 child molestation trial where I assisted as a consultant.
And why don't we eat cake, too!
The email below landed in my inbox today. After getting sender South Milwaukeean Bobbie Groth's permission to post it on this blog, all I can say is, "Well said, Bobbie!"
I've heard park critics before -- people who's idea of enjoying the outdoors is probably to span the space between their house and car or car and office or who think tax dollars can be better spent on county cars for officials than parks for their constituients -- and I can only assume they've never taken advantage of the Milwaukee area's wonderful park system, something my entire family uses and that I proudly show off to all of my out-of-town guests.
