There is noone else like her in politics today.  Sarah Palin, in a move indicative of her crazy political career, has announced she is stepping down as Governor of Alaska. Just as she entered the polictial scene, her exit is just as surprising.  There was no media leak ahead of time, no talk leading up to it, and most suspiciously, it was done on a Friday late afternoon just before a 3 day weekend, a move meant to bury the lead. Palin claims her resignation is because she doesn’t want to be a lame-duck Governor.  She sighted family support and her lack of enthusiasm for ‘politics as usual’ as reasons for her stepping down.  I don’t buy it. She is a heavy weight in the Republican party.  One of the favorites entering 2012.  If she stepped down for the reasons she listed she would have done it with huge fanfare.  It would have [...]

Well before he wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Thomas Jefferson conducted detailed observations about his home state of Virginia. Published in 1785, Notes on the State of Virginia established Jefferson’s international reputation as a skilled observer of the natural world. Jefferson’s many journals and log books are filled with weather observations, and he conducted these observations for more than a half-century at his home in Monticello and during his travels. His earliest surviving meteorological journal dates from 1776. While Jefferson didn’t have modern weather instruments (an accurate anemometer to measure wind speed wasn’t invented until 1850), he certainly had access to good thermometers and barometers, which he installed at Monticello. When he lived in Paris, he even had a hygrometer to measure relative humidity, although this instrument wasn’t perfected until after his death. The basic observations Jefferson recorded in his journals were temperature (taken at least twice a day), prevailing wind, precipitation [...]

Last week in The Spotlight we featured Jean Donohoe, a Wisconsin Regional  Art Program State Award winning artist. In this week’s Spotlight meet Kevin Kohlman, another W.R.A.P. State Award Winner.  Kevin is a wildlife artist working with acrylic paint.  He says he enjoys painting with acrylics because of their fast drying time which allows him to develop layers of texture and details relatively quickly.  “It is this attention to detail–whether it’s the reflection of the sky in the eyes of a red-tailed hawk or the texture and colors in the fur of a wolf–that is a distinctive feature of my work,” says Kevin. While he is largely self-taught, he has taken advantage of opportunities to study with several exceptional wildlife artists including Daniel Smith and Terry Isaac.  He says he has also “benefited greatly from advice and encouragement of Federal and State Duck Stamp winner Art Anderson.” Kevin’s work has been recognized [...]

Finley recently turned 5 months old, and yep, she’s still a butterball.  Jen and I love her rolls though, you just want to eat them up.  Finley is also one of the happiest babies.  She’s smiliing nearly all the time and responds to our smiles with an even bigger grin.  It’s priceless.  We recently went to 3 Brewer/White Sox games at Miller Park in Milwaukee with Finley.  Jen still doesn’t feel comfortable leaving her for an extended period of time so we took her to the games.  She actually did really well at the first two, the third game was a bit more of a challenge. Now that she’s starting to grow into herself, we’ve been getting all sorts of opinions on who she looks like.  Some say, “oh, she’s the spitting image of Jen” or “she looks exactly like Katelin.”  Some even say she looks like me! (not what Jen wants to [...]

As most of you have already heard, Michael Jackson passed away today at the age of 50.  I heard tonight, as I watched various stations talk about the news, that Michael’s passing is around the same age and legend status as the first King, Elvis.  Hearing that this icon had passed away really did not seem to click, even hours after hearing the news.  But instead of telling you what you already know, I’ll tell you what I’ll remember. I remember sitting in front of my TV in 1991, at age 6, with a video tape in hand, watching Michael Jackson videos.  For an entire hour that night, the station was playing Michael Jackson videos, leading up to the premier of his brand new video “Black or White.”  Holding a blank VHS in hand, I was ready to record the world premier of his new video.  At age 6, I was [...]

I’ll be honest, I think last night was the first time I was interested enough in a talk show that I followed it live via a blog.  That’s what happens I guess when Brett Favre breaks his off-season silence by going on HBO, a channel that I along with many other of you don’t get on our cable system (by the way, what a score for the writers/producers of “Joe Buck Live” to have that press go along with the show’s debut). I was able to watch and listen to the entire interview afterwards and the one conclusion I came to is that I will be a whole lot more surprised if Favre did NOT play for the Vikings this season versus staying retired.  He used the word “we” in describing the situation Minnesota is in for the upcoming year.  When asked what’s stopping him from playing for the Vikings, he said the main worry is [...]

It’s estimated that between 2 and 3 million people will be in D.C. for the inauguration tomorrow, and every single one of them that has been interviewed on TV say, “I want to witness history.” Tomorrow is a big day for our nation.  It wasn’t that long ago that segregation was a way of life in our country, and now an African American is about to be sworn in as President.  The significance of this moment can’t be overstated. CBS News Anchor Bob Schiefer reminded viewers that he went to a segregated school when he was a child, and now in his lifetime he is covering the inauguration of and African American. It’s a good time to work in a newsroom right now.  As we kick around ideas about how to adequately cover this moment, the historic context and significance become more apparent.  We get a unique perspective daily, as we listen to [...]