Local official passes away

WEDNESDAY, July 12, 2006, 4:02 p.m.By Darryl Enriquez
Waukesha County supervisor dies
Waukesha County Board Supervisor Andrew Kallin died early this morning following a battle with kidney cancer that was diagnosed several months ago.Kallin, 50, was elected to the County Board in 2004, and quickly earned a reputation as a hard working and compassionate politician. He ran unsuccessfully for Waukesha mayor this spring Kallin was a property manager and mortgage broker. He is survived by his wife, Denise, and three children.


I met Mr. Kallin on a number of occasions during both his run for County Board and his recent run for Mayor of Waukesha. He seemed to be a down to earth, honest man who truly wanted to serve in the public sector because he believed he could help make our area a better place to live and work.

We need more Andy Kallins running for office at all levels of government...

Different Take award

Check out this very thoughtful post on the current status of religion in the public arena. I may have to visit this site more often.

Congratulations to this week's "Different Take" award.

How times have changed...

This will not change how Halloween in Madison is celebrated.

Don't we have a fundamental right in our early twenties to drink too much, wander down State Street and do something stupid?

Seriously, with the problems surrounding the Halloween celebration seemingly always on the rise, something needs to be done. But this won't work...

Is it time to consider Ben Sheets a bust?

Ok, so maybe bust is a bit too strong. But in a State that either loves it's sports heroes to a fault (Favre, Allen and Sheets) or hates them from day one (Surhoff, Day and Buckley) one has to wonder how far the faithful will stand by Gentle Ben. Let's look at the numbers...

After being taken tenth in the 1999 draft, Sheets made quick work of the Olympic games and then the minor leagues. Without breaking a sweat, he arrived in Milwaukee early in 2001. Since then, however, things haven't went so well.

Big Ben has yet to win 13 games in a season. Yes, there was that hardluck year in 2004. A 2.70 ERA and still a losing season. But Sheets needs to stay healthy to win games and he's only logged 225 innings or more once in his career. Moreover, Ben has held opponents to a batting average of .260 or lower only twice in his big league career.

Compare those numbers to the player taken one pick before Sheets in 1999. Barry Zito has won 13 games four times and is five wins from doing it again this year. Six times he has held batters to .260 or below. Zito is 36 games above .500 in his career while Sheets is nine games under.

One can argue that much of the difference between Zito and Sheets has to do with playing on a winning team. Obviously, that helps. But the number of pitchers that have surpassed Sheets season win total of 12 is astounding. The Dodgers have four, with Sele, Tomko, Penny and Lowe all reaching the 13 win plateau. The Cardinals have five. The Reds, who rival the Brewers futility, have three as does the Cubs. In all, 39 of the 64 National Leaugue starting pitchers in late June had won at least 13 games sometime in their career. THAT'S 61 %!! Eleven more pitcher that meet the magic number of 13 were set to come off the DL sometime soon.

Is Ben Sheets a bust? No, not yet. But the time has come that we think of him in more realistic terms... a nice number two behind the real ace of the staff, Chris Capuano. Those of you my age remember a time when this area loved nothing more than ripping on BJ Surhoff. You could not go a week without hearing someone on the radio, at work or in the papers remind us that "we could have had Will Clark!" Yet Surhoff had a very nice career. Part of me thinks it would be poetic for someone to think back on that summer of 99 and proclaim... "We could have had Peavy or Crawford or Blalock or....


wait for it....




PUJOLS!!!

Post - July 4th comments

A couple of thoughts about our celebrations of the past few days...

• I like to get an idea of local political campaigns by their presence at obvious events (parades, fairs, pancake breakfasts etc.). It certainly isn't a complete picture but I do believe that when you begin to see one candidate clearly more visible it makes a difference. Many, including Wigderson, saw the writing on the wall in the mayors race for this exact reason. At the Waukesha parade I met Bill Kramer and saw volunteers from the Green campaign and the Dennis Krueger campaign. Curiously, I saw no candidates at the fireworks. I've signed a number of nomination papers at most of the fireworks shows I've attended in the past. Perhaps everyone has enough signatures.

• Mike from Spring City Chronicles touched on a great subject. Why can everyone fly a flag to show patriotism but simply cannot tolerate fireworks? I spoke to a police officer on the night of the 4th who told me the police had spent all day following up on dozens and dozens of calls on fireworks DURING THE DAY! I understand the frustration of bottle rockets at 2 am... but in the middle of the day on the holiday itself? My goodness. At night, a County Sheriff came by at the fireworks and politely told my daughter to put out her sparkler. Apparently, last year a bare-foot child stepped on a hot sparkler and burned his/her foot. Her parents promptly sued the County. Sheriffs, in turn, were told to crack down this year even though they said they felt like smucks doing it. I've got an idea... have your kid wear shoes when they are running around after dark.

• I was really disappointed to see the parade have to bring in a marching band from Whitnall High School when their are four great high school bands in Waukesha. North always seems to be at the parades... but were is South, West and CMH? If you want community support...