Myra_Sanchick's Blog

Today I'm going to Sheboygan to see if a judge will reconsider a decision he made last month.

44 year old Mitchell Pask was charged with felony child enticement. Pask allegedly approached a group of young girls playing in a park, offered them candy and tried to lure them to a park shelter for sex.

It took a jury  30 minutes to convict  Pask of felony child enticement. Pask's conviction was immediately overturned by Judge Timothy Van Akkeren, because criminal statute says "enticement" means someone is lured to a secluded place.

In this case, the park shelter was roofed, but open on the sides--apparently not considered "secluded".

The District Attorney is asking the judge to reconsider his decision. So we'll find out.

By the way, Mitchell Pask is a lifelong registrant on the Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry for first degree sexual assault of a 12 year old boy. That's a fact the jury wasn't even aware of when they convicted him.

What do you guys think?

It may seem a bit odd--but over the years --some people recognized that many of us at Fox6 don't have enough fun at work.

A lot of what we do, just isn't "fun". So once in awhile we make it a point to let loose and have some fun.

This month each department is decorating a pink flamingo.

The winning department gets free food--something near and dear to us all.

Any ideas?

My question today--and I'm really interested in knowing what you think--is:

Should highschool students have an "open" lunch, in which they can leave school grounds for a half hour or so.

At this point, I don't see a real good reason for it.  My kid's highschool might have an open campus for lunch next year.

I know that kids are supposed to be learning responsibility at that age. But I don't know if an open lunch is the way to go. Going somewhere to grab lunch, eating it, and driving or walking back within a half hour seems like administrators are asking for trouble.

But  maybe it works at some schools.....????

The other day I was covering the unfortunate car crash in Waukesha, in which four teens were injured.

The car they were riding in turned in front of a huge semi. The kids were on a half hour lunch break from Waukesha West. They were all 17 years old--scheduled to graduate in just days.

I started talking with people who were standing around. An ATT worker was one of them. I asked him if he saw what had happened--no camera--just asking.

He said, "no comment". This ISN"T news. I said a group of kids were in that car, I think that's important. He replied, "this should not be on the news".

I told him I guess our jobs and perspectives differed. He gave me very dirty looks and walked away.

I know people are disheartened by a lot of what they see on the news. I also know many people take their feelings out on the nearest person in a catastrophic situation.

But, Mr. telephone guy:  I don't tell you how to hook up phone wires. Please don't tell me what is news.

I will take it into consideration, however, that you looked all of 26 years old.

I often have to eat lunch in the car on the way back from a story. (I'm not driving, so don't yell at me)

Today I discovered that a Taco Bell seven layer crunchwrap wasn't the best choice.

ALL THE WAY DOWN THE FRONT OF MY DRESS. Napkins didn't help much. Thank goodness I had a jacket with me. I had to be on the Fox6 set twice after. I bet Ted wonders why he's craving guacamole.

It's Little League season and kids all over the area are having a lot of fun learning and playing.

Unfortunately, I've already seen a coach go crazy at a game. Ten year olds were playing. The losing team's coach not only yelled at his players, he swore, then threw a bat at them--twice. Finally the ump (who's a middle schooler) told him to stop before he killed someone. Fortunately the other team's coaches stepped in. The game ended in the fifth inning because the losingcoach wanted to forfeit.  All this while the kids were saying, "Let us play".

I have to say nearly every parent and coach is supportive of the kids--even when they strike out or have an error.

It just makes me wonder what it's like for his kid at home.

Well i had an interesting day--interviewing Michael McGee Sr. I hadn't seen him in awhile. I covered him when he was a Milwaukee Alderman. Those were the days when he actually forced a local sausage company to close because he said he might have put something in the sausage. He also said he'd burn tires on the freeway unless things changed in his community. I know many people find his current comments regarding the death of Charlie Sykes' mom offensive. They are. Extremely. What McGee is good at doing is focusing attention on issues, creating discussion--often dividing the community, unfortunately. It could be called negative attention. But, sometimes, in the world of poverty and racism it may be one of the quickest ways to get attention. ??

Ironically, Charlie Sykes was my first news director---very long ago he hired me at the now defunct "Northshore Herald". I covered the local school board. May his mother rest in peace.

I've got a story airing tonight on "designer dogs" . We used to call them mutts. Now people are spending big bucks for them. I own a mutt that I got at a shelter--but it is no designer dog. I know people who want low shed dogs due to allergies . Others want small dogs for apts. or condos.

I know we're only talking about dogs and not world peace--but some think people are foolish to spend so much on mongrels. Many who do--say they got the dog they want and they're happy. The owner of the largest hybrid kennel in the state--that some have called a puppy-mill--wants to show me around his place and answer tough questions about his business. Would you be interested in seeing that?

By now most of us have seen the video that Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui made and sent to NBC news.

What do you think of the fact that NBC aired parts of it. Of course other networks followed. I have to admit I was interested in seeing it. It was chilling to see the pictures of Seung-Hui pointing a gun at the camera and listening to his rants did validate the idea that he was crazy.

But did it also give him the final opportunity to say what he wanted on the networks? Will it give others the same idea? Not an easy answer. Not an easy dilemma for news managers to work out.

Did anyone see the front page of Sunday's Chicago Tribune?

Right on the front page--a premier newspaper distributed internationally--the headline:

"MILWAUKEE FIGHTS A WAVE OF VIOLENCE"

The article details our city's trouble with violent crime. Since 2004, the article says, aggravated assaults are up a whopping 86 percent.

It doesn't note that Chicago's murder rate is far above Milwaukee's, as I understand it.

I know we've got a serious problem here, but I grew up here and I'm pro-Milwaukee. This kind of headline sort of disturbs me-- in terms of public perception.

I was going to do a local report on it, but switched to focus on the Virginia Tech incident.

Sometimes when reporters go out on stories--the best stories can't be told for one reason or another.

Now with blogging I can tell a few others what most will never see.

The other day I did a report on a cop killer who shot a Milwaukee officer trying to stop a tavern robbery 33 years ago. That killer is now up for parole. Some of his family members joined Milwaukee Police union officials in a news conference, objecting to  the fact the killer could be set free.

The daughter of the slain officer was there, now an adult. She was very young at the time her father was killed. She did not want to be on tv. Neither did an older man who came to the news conference. He happened to be there when the officer was killed, sitting on the next barstool. The two met for the first time. They hugged. The officer's daughter wanted to hear about the night her father was killed. The man asked, "how much do you want to know?" She said,"everything". He proceeded to tell her step by step what happened, choking on his sobs as he got more and more into it. He told her how the officer was shot from a third suspect behind him, as he tried to stop two other robbers. The man told her how he and a few others grabbed bar rags to stop the bleeding.He told the officer's daughter that her father didn't suffer. He was unconcious.  I was next to the man as he told the story he held onto for the past 33 years. I hugged him too.

The story was an important one for the news. It went on the air with officials speaking, and another family member talking how important it is to keep the cop killer behind bars.

The story I'm telling our bloggers was not told that day. But it is one that really had an impact on me.

Hi. Just got back from ten days off.

Where did I go?

Absolutely nowhere. It was great. I actually got to rent a movie "Pursuit of Happiness". Got to say I was disappointed. It was a good story that just ended abruptly. Now I"m in pursuit of the 90 minutes I lost watching it. Oh well, I guess I have to read the book.

Hi--I just got back from reporting on the new teen policy at Mayfair Mall.

An adult 21 or older can bring four kids into the mall--no more.

I have four kids now, so I told the mall manager I won't have any more kids, so we can still all shop together.

Kinda kidding--but just thought it was interesting that some moms with five kids won't be able to take them all back to school shopping, or theoretically to a kids movie at the AMC.