Bob_Moore's Blog

My news story was about the Mecedes Benz SMART car that's coming to america.

My 6 pm live shot will include me driving it -- so be sure to check it out.

I also started a message board that I'd like you to check out if you have a SMART car or plan to purchase one.   Tori Schultz was featured in my story and has driven a SMART car for years and swears by it.

Here is the what the message board says -- go there and submit a post.

As always,

RAM

___________________________

Howdy this is Fox 6 reporter Bob Moore and I am starting this message board at the suggestion of Tori Schultz, the proud owner of a SMART car.

On Wednesday, May 16th I did a story about a SMART car dealership coming to Milwaukee in the spring of 2008. The Bergstrom Automotive Group expects to break ground by the end of May for the first SMART car dealership in Wisconsin. The location will be at Bergstrom's Metro Boulevard auto near Good Hope Road and 107th Street -- next to the Bergstrom Chevrolet and Hummer dealerships. The American version of the SMART car will retail between $15,000 for a basic model and around $23,000 for the high-end Passion model or convertible.

A big part of my news story included Tori Schultz -- who fell in love with the SMART car seven years ago while in Europe.

In 2004, Schultz's father spotted a 2002 European version of the SMART car sitting on a car lot in Wales. She told her father, you are confusing a Cooper Mini with the SMART car because the vehicles were not approved for import to the United States at that time. She double-checked and yeah, it was a SMART car. So Schultz immediately plunked down $25,000 and has been driving the head-turning car ever since.

A real estate professional -- Schultz drives 200 to 300 miles a day -- and the car is adorned with her contact information. With the SMART car boasting fuel economy of as much as 60 miles to the galloon of regular unleaded, it's the perfect car for Schultz.

By the way, SMART is an acronym for Swatch Mercedes ART car. In fact a SMART car is on permanent display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

THERE A FEW SMART CAR OWNERS OUT THERE -- AND PROBABLY LOADS OF PEOPLE WHO ARE CONSIDERING PURCHASING ONE WHEN THE AMERICANIZED VERSION COMES TO MILWAUKEE NEXT SPRING.

SO PLEASE USE THIS FORUM TO CHAT ABOUT AMONGS YOURSELVES -- TORI REALLY WANTS TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS AND IS TRYING TO START A WISCONSIN SMART CAR CLUB.

Fire away and have fun!

RAM

This is my tenth Mother's Day without my mother -- but it is not a sad day in the least. At 74-years-old my mom was a cancer survivor of many years -- but made a courageous decision to for forego additional painful treatments. It was an enormous honor to walk with Occie Belle Moore through the "valley and the shadow of death."

I shared the last three weeks of her life -- and experienced priceless moments of joy, frustration, sadness, learning and her final step of victory.

The great part of my job is nearly always get a chance to do a Mother's Day story on Mother's Day. Today I had the pleasure of sharing with 44-year-old Sharon Armstrong -- a mother of four, three grandchildren who nearly lost her family in 1998 due to an addiction to drugs.

Check out Sharon's story and share your thoughts. Thanks to Meta House, Inc. she gained sobriety, re-gained her family, became a machinist, started her own business -- and is now the moral compass for her entire family. Sharon's faith and life struggle is a great example of the adage, the battle is not ours, it's the Lord. My thanks to Sharon, Keyona, Robert, Byron and Zion for putting up with a chatty reporter and his photographer on their special day.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone -- no matter if your mother is alive to tell her or if you are buoyed like myself by priceless memories.

As always,

RAM

During my weathercast on Sunday morning Wakeup -- I reported more than 90 tornados Saturday ravaged the nation's midsection.  More than 90 tornodos.

At the editorial meeting, the obvious question -- in recent memory when was Wisconsin worst tornado.   Oakfield immediately grabbed the conference call -- and I was sent to the Fond du Lac County community to see what people remembered.   To get an idea from the Oakfield survivors, what hundreds of people are going through in Kansas and other tornado-hit communities.

One thing I discovered were raw emotions -- 11 years after the fact.  A mother breaking down in tears because she was at work when the twister hit and her husband and two kids at home.   Literally, for hours not knowing about their safety and the condition of their home.  It was destroyed.

The there's the remarkable story of the Oakfield United Methodist Church.  The tornado leveled the historic building -- replacement tab -- one million dollars.   The great part of this story is that work of the rare F-5 tornado become national news.   Winds in excess of 260 miles per hour caused 40 million dollars in damage -- with no deaths only 17 injuries.

Within weeks $900,000 in donations came from around the world to help the church rebuild.  The congregation took out a $100,000 loan for the balance to cover the remaining damage.   Just three weeks ago the small congregation burned the mortgage.

The message I took away from Oakfield Sunday is that life goes on no matter how devastating the initial blow from mother nature.  They even tell me the community is growing -- it seems other people have discovered the charm of the small village.

If you have stories about the July 18th, 1996 Oakfield tornado -- share them with our blog community.

As always, many thanks,

RAM

 

 

In the news business there are days as a reporter you have to pinch yourself.

Is the boss really going to pay me to spend time with a celebrity?   On Monday I did just that.   I spent an hour with Gretsky.  No, no, no -- not Wayne -- but an absolutely brilliant five year old Belgium Malinos.

Check out my story about the People and Paws Search and Rescue organization in Butler, Wisconsin.  In its seventh year they have become a premier location for training dogs to search for human survivors in hopelessly dangerous disaster scenes.

The all volunteer organization helps out police departments too by helping to locate missing people.  Just as people are cleaning up after the weekend tornados around the midwest, dogs like Gretsky are critical to sniff the rubble human life. 

THE COST IS FREE.  People and Paws Search and Rescue is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that depends on individual and corporate donations.  There's never a charge to the people or organizations People adn Paws help out.    The all volunteer organization is made up of cops, firefighters and a dental hygenist.  They are folks with extraordinary dogs who love helping out.

Well not everyone has a Gretsky at home -- but tell me about your extraordinary pet hero.  

I challenge you -- it will be hard for you guys to beat the 8 dogs who make up the canine rescue team at People and Paws Search and Rescue.

Thanks for finding me Gretsky (you will have to see my package to understand that comment).

As always folks -- mucho thanks,

RAM

 

On Monday Fox 6 photojournalism Jeremiah Junkers and I travel to Boscobel Prison on the other side of the state to go one-on-one with Adrial Capri White.

On November 13, 2006 a jury of 8 women and four men found the Racine father of four guilty of first degree intentional murder for killing Christopher "Eric" Carbajal and wounding Enrico Serra, Jr. White came upon the teens as they were attempting to steal a $3000 speaker from his girlfriends 1991 white Saturn.

Wisconsin law does not allow the use of deadly force to protect personal property. White says it was self-defense when the teens made too much noise and he went to investigate with a loaded handgun -- claiming he had no idea what awaited him outside his home.

The Racine County District Attorney Mike Nieskes stands by his decision to charge white with murder versus a lesser charge. He says White had options. He could have called 9-1-1 or confronted the teens without a weapon and yelling at them to leave.

This case has split the Racine community over what to do about the rising property crime rate in West Racine, a typically quiet residential part of the city.

What are your thoughts? The myfoxmilwaukee.com community is interested.

RAM

On the eve of the 5th year anniversary of Alexis Patterson's disappearance there are still many unanswered questions -- and my exclusive conversation with her mother Ayanna -- she hits that point home very clearly.

While police have processed thousands of leads -- she tells me most have been bogus.

Yet this mother continues to believe her daughter who is now 12 will one day come home.

What are your thoughts? You can link to my story here.

RAM

24 hours after the shootings at Virginia Tech -- I wake up with the enormous and sobering realization of "lost potential" -- the victims and the gunman

At that moment my job to do a follow in Friday's massive vacant warehouse fire seemed so totally unimportant. A story that consumed television news late Friday afternoon into the evening with movie-like aerials of the fire -- now in the aftermath of Virginia Tech seemed unimportant.

I did my Monday story -- realizing it would have a low priority on the news food chain. All the while my thoughts were not on the two 14-year-old boys who confessed to setting the Jefferson fire -- but the dozen of young people dead in Virginia. I checked with the news room at 1:15 p.m. to see if there was need to switch my story to some kind of local react to the Virginia Tech shootings -- but I was told to proceed with the fire follow. That's my job and I did as instructed.

The real impact of the story hit as I wrote the fire follow story with a television sitting beside me -- and realized the dead were young people who likely weeks ago were enjoying spring break. They were young people who might have included seniors about to graduate and start their adult lives on their own. Or maybe freshman excited about finishing their first year of college and pondering what the summer will hold. Perhaps graduate students dedicated to learning more about a specific subject area vis-a-vis their commitment to pursue a masters or Ph.D.

Lost potential. I felt the lost potential of nameless students I will never personally know -- or would identify once the media flash their pictures to the world.

I got my first image of one of the murdered as I sat waiting for my GEICO claims adjuster to checkout storm damage to my car. There was the first image I saw as I sat in the car dealership -- Ryan Clark. The image surprised me immediately -- because a new layer of reality hit me -- the shooting victims were of different genders, ages and, yeah, race.

The news report on television pointed out that Clark was a dormitory resident assistant, in the VT marching band and a strikingly handsome African-American male. What warmed my heart more were the three students who set aside the grief to talk about Clark -- stand in the gap for a young man who could no longer speak for himself.

My emotions welled as three white students spoke about an average yet standout human being. Not once having to resort to mentioning, "Oh yeah, Ryan Clark was African-American." To these three young adults they saw and got to know Clark beyond is dark skin but into his heart, mind and character. While the interview reflecting on Clark lasted only minutes, I realized these three people got it. They got to know another fellow classmate as a human being first and hit race did not seem to be a salient factor. What a relief. What a blessing. What an expression of hope for our society.

But as we learned Tuesday the identity of the shooting being an Asian male -- race in this part of the story will unfortunately become a big factor. How much so, only time will tell. Even for the shooter -- there is lost potential too.

I sit here in Milwaukee on an unexpected off day this overcast Tuesday, trying to think how I would begin reporting a local angle on the Asian shooter. A story that from my news roots needs to be told. A story told in our Wisconsin context where two high-profile murder cases involved Asian men. The Asian male who shoot deer hunters in far northwestern Wisconsin. And the more recent shooting death of an Asian man allegedly at the hands of a white man.

It's a story that will be done -- and that begs for the right perspective, objectivity and sensitive voice. Which ever of my news colleagues gets that story -- I am comforted in knowing I work with reporters who each has that right perspective, objectivity and sensitivity. As I am welled up with thoughts of lost potential -- it would have been cathartic for me to have drawn the news assignment Tuesday to put the race of the shooter into some kind of useful focus.

I am now at the car dealership where my fog light will be replaced from the car dealership where my GEICO adjuster issued the claim. Hours since I first saw the news report on one of the first shooting victims Ryan Clark -- I still feel the heavy emotion of lost potential -- not because Clark is African-American but because Clark was like all the shooting victims young people in the process of excelling.

My prayers are with the surviving friends and family members of each young person gunned down Monday. While I cannot even begin to offer an explanation, I can based on my faith offer that God's will is perfect. Stay strong, stay focused and do not let the oftentimes powerful poison of race confuse or cloud your future feelings. The VT tragedy is a shared tragedy -- and the lost potential is a shared loss.

This act is the face of a mad man and not an act of racial hatred. 

Consider the following.  Distinguished professor of english at Virginia Tech, the poet-activist and celebrated author, Nikki Giovonni,  told her university community -- "Nobody understands or deserves this tragedy ... we are Hokies, we will prevail, we will prevail, we will prevail, we are Virginia Tech."  Every American of compassion is too a Hokie.

RAM

I recently did a story about a 20-year-old man who got angry after hearing about the theft of his sister's $300.00 I-Pod while in high school -- a gift he had given her.  The man's anger and emotional stake in the incident hit a high note when his sister came home in tears over the missing I-Pod.

According to the police report another student says he witnessed a 17-year-old male take the I-Pod out of the girl's unattended purse during a midday class. He goes further and says the teen then sold the device.  This information started circulating around the school the day after the missing I-Pod. Word of a possible thief and the subsequent sale of the I-Pod got back to the man from another relative at the school.

The first view of anger was when I read the police report detailing how the man reacted to the stealing.  The man went to the high school he had graduated from two years earlier, tracked the suspected teen down in the cafeteria, repeatedly demanded "give me back the I-Pod or 300 bucks" and eventually he pulled out a 10-inch hammer and swung at the teen's head.  In a defensive move, the teen swerved out of the way yet the hammer struck him once in his forearm.  

The school reports the entire incident lasted 15 to 20 seconds and was broken up by school staff.  The man confesses to this account on tape to police.

Bottom line the first view of anger -- a maniac totally out of control?

The second view of anger is I speak to the man four-days after the event. It is clear to pick up a human element that the words in the police report do not begin to capture or convey, albeit those words are accurate. You pick up on what some might consider a second victim of the theft. Yeah the young girl who owned the I-Pod was a victim -- but also the brother who worked hard to give his sister an expensive gift.

 

A human explanation for the hammer – the man says it was protection while he attempted to right a wrong -- fearing as he says the suspected teen was a gang member and armed with  gun.

Two views of anger -- and in the end there’s still no I-Pod.  Check out my story in the news section of myfoxmilwaukee.com and share your thoughts. 

Have a great Tuesday and stay dry too.

RAM

The second view of anger -- a working technical college student who stewed for a week over the theft of an expensive device -- and deemed the incident as stealing from his family?Two views of anger -- both hard to reconcile or justify because both views are not good choices. The district attorney will review the case and the booking charges. Police believe their initial misdemeanor battery charge will stick versus the incident being kicked up to a felony aggravated battery charge. Likely the disorderly conduct charge will stick around too.

It is after 10 p.m. Sunday, April 1, 2007 -- and it just does not feel like an ordinary April Fool's Day!

My day started early and not one person today attempted an April Fool's trick, joke or wisecrack. I am not sure if that is a good or bad thing, but I feel like the one national shared holiday devoted to good-natured fun has gone by unnoticed.

Here is my take -- it is a Sunday -- a Palm Sunday too. Maybe the wise-cracking and joking side in each of us took a break in deference to it being Sunday – a widely regarded day of rest? In any case, remember April Fool's Day antics are no good on Monday, April 2nd.

Speaking of day of rest, I worked a half day on Sunday -- which for means I am able to leave after the Wakeup show and no reporting. When those rare opportunities come along, I am able to attend a Sunday morning worship service.

Ninety-nine percent of the time I attend New Testament Church of Milwaukee near 102nd Street and Bradley Road. The Palm Sunday message by Reverend Julius Malone was superb, timely and spoke dramatically to the significance of this Holy Week.  What a blessing and a treat -- Jennifer and choir simply rocked!

I would love to hear from you readers of this post your most memorable Easter tradition!  Mine includes attending Good Friday service -- followed by a meal and discussion with friends.  While it has been a while since I tried my hand at coloring eggs, I still have my year round love affair with fruit-flavored jelly beans (I will pass on the spice-flavored variety).  Stretch your memory caps and share your favorite Easter memories -- religious or just real fun times.

Have a great week -- and remember you missed your chance at spoofing someone -- there is no such thing as a belated April Fool's Day.

RAM

O.K. Microsoft's long-awaited move from Windows XP to Vista is now here!

Two weeks, I was looking for an excuse to buy a new laptop. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with my six year old HP laptop -- a machine I turn on and remain online hours every day.

I was concerned my Pentium 4, 2.4 with 1 gig of RAM might be too slow and old for Vista.

So I went to the Microsoft Vista Update Advisor page -- and found a downloadable program that will scan your oomputer and let you know if your current machine is fast enough and has enough memory.

I lucked out and just have enough RAM (i gig) and Pentium 4 to run the very basic version of Vista Home.

Bottom line -- I can hold off investing in a new laptop for the next several months. Maybe a Christmas 2007 gift to self -- laptop with 17" monitor, 200 gb hard drive, and 4 gig of RAM, beefed up graphics card, and of course, due core technology! I take any donations to help pay for my dream laptop.

Enjoy my related story on Vista and let me know your adventures as you navigate the Vista landscape out there.