Mike_Lowe's Blog

One of the benefits of working at Fox 6 is this: my desk is only a few feet away from local TV treasure Gus Gnorski. 

I profit from the proximity.  Friday was a prime example. 

Gus and I were discussing an idea for a news story, and somehow, the topic turned to cheese.

Conversations tend to do that here in Wisconsin. 

But this wasn't just any cheese.  Gus told me about the fried, squeaky variety: the cheese curd.   

Despite growing up less than two hours from Milwaukee, just across the Illinois state line, I had never tasted a cheese curd.  It's not part of the Prarie State pallete.

But, I learned, cheese curds are a staple of the Dairy State diet.  I'm told you can get them at fairs, local shops and some restaurants.  

Gus gave a good pitch.  He said they're delectible little morsels of fresh cheese, with a warm rubbery texture, usually covered in a crisp beer batter.

 "The good ones squeak when you bite them," he said.

So, my questions to the Milwaukee area blogosphere:

1) Where can you find the best cheese curds?

2) What goes good with a cheese curd?

Please share your suggestions with me and the rest of Fox 6's blog readers.

Anyone who watched Staurday Night Live in the late-1980s surely remembers Dana Carvey's send-up of President George H. W. Bush.  You can hear Carvey's caricature, "wouldn't be prudent at this juncture."

I've been thinking about  the first president Bush -- and his cautious, prudent style of leadership  -- after watching an interesting documentary about his life last night.  (The program was broadcast on another network.  The second part of it airs tonight.)

Perhaps the single most memorable moment where Bush' displayed presidential prudence was at the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Two of the most memorable moments in presidential rhetoric came at the Belin Wall.  President Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech and President Reagan's exhortation to the Soviet leader: "Mr. Gorbachev, trear down this wall."

So why, then, when the Berlin Wall fell in November of 1989, didn't the U.S. president go to Germany and make powerful speech?

President Bush decided that it was Germany's celebration, not America's.  He staued in the U.S. to avoid grandstanding. The documentary notes that his mother taught him not to brag or seek the spotlight. 

But Bush also knew that it would be difficult to negotiate with Mikhail Gorbachev if the United States were prerceived as "dancing on the wall."

Bush did not humiliate Gorbachev.  The documenatray argues that Bush's restraint  paved the way for personal diplomacy.

That helped bring about Soviet concessions on where a reunified Germany would fall in internatianal order.  Germany eventually joined NATO and became a staunch U.S. ally.  

When we think of politics today -- particularly in the context of this year's presidential campaign -- it's hard to imagine that kind of prudence. 

Candidates exploit every  possible event for maximum political gain. 

We seem to remeber our charismatic presidents (Kennedy, Reagan) more fondly than our prudent presidents.  Is prudence a good quality for a president?  

What kinds of qualities are you looking for the next president?

It's no secret that drinking in excess can cause people to do dumb things. We hear about the consequences almost every day from the serious (drunk driving) to the trivial (drunk dialing).

But today, we reported on a story that takes intoxicated behavior to a new depth.

Sheboygan police say a mother and her boyfriend were drinking all afternoon. After ten or 12 beers, the boyfriend proposed a $1 wager.

He bet that she wouldn't shoot her daughter with a BB gun.

She took the bet and fired a shot into her 8-year-old daughter's leg, according to police.

She won the dollar, but may also get a stay in prison. She's facing a felony child abuse charge and could spend three years behind bars.

It's important to note that she has not yet been convicted in a court of law, but this is one of those cases that -- if true -- makes you sit up and say, "wow, that was dumb."

Does anyone have any stories that can top this one for drunken stupidity?

What do you think should happen to the mother in this case?

We're working on a story about graffiti in West Allis for tonight's 10 p.m. broadcast.

The mayor of the city is getting ready to unveil a plan to target taggers. Meantime, business owners and residents are fed up with the image graffiti projects. 

Municipalities around the country are coming up with ways to deal with the problems.  One town in New Jersey plans to fine the victims of graffiti if the fail to remove it within a certain period of time.

Is graffiti a problem in your neighborhood?  What is the best way to stop it?  Who should hold responsibility for its removal?

We broadcast a story last night about Brittany Zimmermann, a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison student who was murdered on April 2 in her apartment.

The investigation has raised many questions, but we now have learned a startling new detail: before Zimmerman was killed, she called 911 from a cell phone. 

The emergency dispatcher apparently heard silence and hung up.  Then -- in contravention of policy -- failed to call back .  

The police were never sent to investigate.  Later that afternoon, Zimmermann was discovered dead in her apartment by her boyfriend.

The incident raises some painful questions: could a better response have saved Zimmermann's life?

But one thing stuck out: the cell phone call. 

Madison emergency officials said that police are sent to the locations of every 911 call placed from a land line.

Authorities we spoke with say it takes more time to track cell phone locations (although most newer cell phones are equipped with tracking technology as required by the FCC.)

So here are my questions for you:

Should police be sent to every 911 call?  What responsibility does a busy dispatcher have to follow up on a "hang up," "silence," or "abandoned" call?

It also seems more and more people have totally given up on land line phones and now only have cell phones?  If you fall into this category, does the Zimmermann story make you think twice?