On Tuesday, March 14, 2017, Jefferson County had their monthly meeting. They discussed the appointment of a new judge, a resignation of Tim Smith and the strategic plan consultant. The main discussion for the meeting was the appointment of the new circuit court judge.

Robert F. Dehring Jr., currently the Waukesha County Court commissioner, will take the position of circuit court judge on April 1, 2017. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a bachelor’s degree and then Marquette University Law School in 2003. After that he became a lawyer in private practice.

“I came to Jefferson in 2009 to work in the office of corporation counsel. I was mainly a attorney prosecuting child support cases. In August of 2010, Judge Koschnick appointed me part-time commissioner in the county. I did work mainly handling pre-trial divorces and evictions and small claims in the county.”

Dehring Jr. has lived in Southeastern Wisconsin his entire life. He currently resides on the Jefferson County side of Oconomowoc with his wife, Traci, and their 10-month-old daughter.

“I’ve been recently appointed by Gov. Walker as the next Branch III judge to succeed Judge Wambach. What I’ve been doing is making my way to the meetings of the cities, towns and villages in Jefferson County to introduce myself and that’s why I come to the county board this evening, to let you know how excited I am to join you again here in the courts.”

Dehring will serve through April 2018, at which time an election for the seat will be held.

They moved on to other news, and mentioned that Timothy A. Smith, county board supervisor, District 29, has announced his resignation. He has stated in an email the reasons for his resignation was for personal and family business.

At the moment, District 29 has been remaining vacant.

In other business, the board also discussed:

• The board also heard a report on the selection of a strategic plan facilitator.
• Chamness Group of Brookfield was selected by the Administration and Rules Committee last month. The budget will be $15,000 to $20,000.
• They also proclaimed March as Professional Social Work Month
• They also proclaimed month April as Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Month.

The Jefferson county board meeting happens once a month and the next meeting is on April 18, 2017.

The Whitewater Common Council met this past Tuesday and discussed topics events coming up this coming spring. The main discussion for this meeting was the event of the annual Spring Splash in April.

Spring Splash is end of the year party for college students that is held with the city limits of Whitewater. It has been around since 2013 and has no major issues until this past April of 2016. That was the main cause of the discussion at this meeting about what was going to happen this year. Spring Splash is not run through the University, because it happens on private properties such as; bars, houses and apartments.

This year Wisconsin Red has pulled out of sponsoring this event because of how out of control it was last April. Also the event was sponsored on social media, so people from Madison came down and things got out of hand. When people found out Wisconsin Red pulled out of the event, most people thought the council told them to leave, and that the event was cancelled.

Council president, Patrick Singer said, “We didn’t tell Wisconsin Red to leave”.

City Manager Cameron Clapper stated than him and Police Chief Lisa Otterbacher and city attorney Wallace McDonell, attended a meeting with Wisconsin Red Steve Farina, who said “they wanted to leave because they didn’t want to be associated with what happened”.

Council member Stephanie Goettl said “If anyone thinks Spring Splash is cancelled, that is the funniest thing I ever heard. As soon as people heard on the rumor mill that Spring Splash was cancelled, they started planning other large scale parties. We have discussed this in the past, and Wisconsin Red’s party was not the problem; it was well-controlled, they cleaned-up when they were done. I was under the impression that the city was not going to talk Wisconsin Red out of having a party. I was under the impression that after last year, this year would have a better controlled event because we would be better prepared for it.”

The council members went back forth with each other about how “crazy” Spring Splash and how even if Wisconsin Red pulled out, it wasn’t going to cancel the event. City attorney, Wallace McDonell asked Wisconsin Red to consider pulling out because of how crazy he saw everything, and how he saw people of urinating in the grass.

Council member James Langnes III states, “I agree with what Stephanie said, the party will still happen. I think Wisconsin Red was our only control point in this ordeal. I know this is a bad equation, but, we all remember in the Iraq war, when we pulled out, a vacuum was created. That is what I am concerned about.”

The discussion with Spring Splash lasted for over an hour and did not really get anywhere because they all realized at the end that this event will happen with or without Wisconsin Red.

Another big issue that was mentioned, was the selling of Whitewater police dog, Boomer. His handler, Joseph Matteson worked with the Whitewater police force and decided to leave but wanted Boomer to come with him.  Boomer was a drug detection animal with the Whitewater police department.

Boomer, is property of the City of Whitewater and costs $3500 and has to be paid within five days of signing an agreement. The council discussed how Boomer, belonged to the city and was paid for by the city and should stay. The Police Chief, Lisa Otterbacher, said “It is hard for a dog to be trained to a different handler and sometimes it doesn’t work” She also mentioned that, “Boomer will be a family dog”.

The council talked and mentioned that this should have been mentioned earlier and that this should have been handled better. They want to make sure next time, if they have to sell a dog, the agreement is better and more in depth than it was this time. They know the community will be upset but next time they will be more prepared for the community.

Council member Langnes mentions that “The train is leaving the station”.

The council deliberated and came to agreement that Boomer could be sold to Joseph Matteson if he pays within the five day period.  The next Whitewater meeting will be February 21, 2017.

This semester is almost done and it is 7 days till Christmas. Can you guys believe it. This year and semester has had its ups and downs but I learned a lot. This class this semester was eye opening. I never knew how much work really goes on online to make journalism work, especially when making a website work and for having an audience.

This class taught me how to improve my blog for more people to read it. I did have this blog before my class and I never had anyone read it until this class. It taught me how to grab peoples attention and how to make the blog interesting for people to keep reading it. Before my blog was a boring brown color now it is a vibrant blue color and with really cool design through out. The class also taught me the importance of Journalism and that is not just about newspapers but that it is about everything around us.

This semester I meant some really cool people that I hope will be friends for life along with my other friend for life. Hope you all had a great semester and good luck on finals! Happy Holidays Everyone!

Hey peeps,

Pokemon Go debuted this summer and has taken the world by storm. It is a free-to-play, location-based augmented reality game developed by Niantic for iOS, Android, and Apple Watch devices.  Just recently Pokemon Go has expanded their PokeStops and Gyms to Starbucks. More than 7,800 Starbucks across the US will be added and when users visit Starbucks locations, they’ll now have the option to try a new Pokemon Go Frapauccino beverage. The drink will be a Vanilla Bean Frapauccino and blends in raspberry syrup with freeze-dried whole blackberries, topped with whipped cream.

This could get a lot of college kids to play this more. The company knows what they have to do to keep the app relevant. Keep playing. Happy Holidays

After listening to Scott Pelley I thought his speech was very compelling and well thought out. He had great reasons and examples on what he believed about journalism and the impacts it has on him and the country allowing the First Amendment to shine.

Pelley, spoke a little bit on the beginning of journalism and how it came to what we know today as journalism. Pelley explained his meaning to be that the media is criticized always and told how they should perform their jobs by people that are not even in the media. He described the importance of ethics and values in the media. He said that knowing ethics and values in journalism is more important than “fast journalism”. It is good to know what we are talking about in detail and not just reporting when you know nothing or not everything about what you are reporting. Like Pelley said “I was dead wrong.” He also mentioned that ” If you’re first, no one will remember. If you’re wrong, no one will ever forget.” Pelley has also mentioned that like never before had good and bad information been available to people. Journalism lately has gotten a lot of things wrong but it something to improve on.

It has been almost a month sine the presidential election and the repercussions are still happening. Just recently, Jill Stein-led move to recount voting results in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, Marc Elias, the general counsel for Clinton’s 2016 campaign, signaled on Sunday that he’ll support and participate in any actions taken. Trump has posted to Twiiter about how he feels about the recount. His tweets are a little hostile towards Clinton but whose tweets wouldnt be after your opponent conceded the election. I am just wanting all this to stop. Trump won and that is something we all have to live with. There is nothing we can do about it now. We just have to make the most of it and pray he will keep this country safe by doing the right thing and not be so hostile about it. Go WarHawks!!!

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=12hlzLCO4G3-U7gZL-_DERTX_yiU&ll=47.35716867145837%2C-109.67255052500002&z=5

Most of us have social media and most of us are used to seeing fake news but are you tired of always seeing it. An article on Buzz Machine talks about how we can find out the fake news and how to deal with it. Fake news is a big problem on social media because people are easily swindled into believing everything they see. I’ve known from personal experience, you have to go to secondary sources and if you see it on other credible news sites it is most likely true. If you dont find it anywhere else it is most likely fake and people are just trying to play you. That is the thing with online journalism and news stories, some people just make up stuff knowing they are behind a screen and nobody will know its them. These situations take away credibility from real journalists who put time and effort into their stories and some people just dont believe because they have been tricked before. Just be careful where you read your information because you could be the next person. Go Warhawks!

It has been a long and stressful week for America. As most of you know the Presidential Election ended on Tuesday night (Basically 2am in the morning). The outcome is not what everyone expected especially the people who run Facebook. A article from the New York Times talks about they think and how Facebook had its influence in the election. Facebook has been in the eye of a post-election storm for the last few days, embroiled in accusations that it helped spread misinformation and fake news stories that influenced how the Americans were voting.

I can see where people are coming from because I remember seeing on Facebook that Clinton had this in the bag but that wasn’t the case. For this election, the media has played a bigger deal then ever before. We have Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter and these social media sites can influence anyone’s decision. There is nothing we can do now. So, we need to unite as a country and hope for the best.