Franklin Today

Quick update on Saber semifinal game

The WIAA State Baseball Tournament Semifinals were postponed until Friday, according to FranklinNOW.com. The Franklin Sabers will be facing the Marquette Hilltoppers in the match-up. The time slated for game start between the two teams tomorrow is 11am. FranklinNOW.com says that they will be live-blogging the game on the site.

Goodbye and farewell to Sendik's Fine Foods

Earlier this month when it was announced that Sendik's Fine Foods at the Shoppes at Wyndham Village was closing, the reported last day was slated to be August 1st - less than two days from now. The news of its closure was a long time in waiting for me, who had mentioned the struggles of the store back in January.

Now with the store shutting down and being prepared to turn into a Pick n Save before the Christmas season, it's fortunate that Franklin residents and taxpayers won't be looking at a 62,000 sq ft vacant box. However, it's disappointing to see that so many in Franklin who had sugarplums and chocolate candy inserted in their minds on Halloween night 2006 see their dreams ultimately fade into darkness.

Sabers move forward in WIAA State baseball torunament

Congrats to the Saber baseball team! We moved past Homestead with a 2-1 victory in the State Quarterfinals. Now tomorrow morning at 10am we'll be facing either Milwaukee Marquette or West Salem in the Semifinals.

Go for the gold!

More coverage via the Journal Sentinel

Brett Favre will remain retired - Minneapolis Star Tribune

A columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting that Brett Favre will remain retired instead of becoming a Minnesota Viking. The writer is citing a source who spoke to Minnesota Vikings Head Coach Brad Childress in his report. If this is confirmed, the Green Bay Packers won’t have to worry about facing Favre twice this coming NFL season. It also signifies that perhaps Favre has had enough of coming in-and-out of retirement, and his stint with the New York Jets was it.

Those in Packer Nation are probably feeling a little bittersweet about the whole deal, however. Considering that if the one-year stint with the Jets was going to be it, many probably will still be upset that Packers GM Ted Thompson and Head Coach Mike McCarthy just didn’t let Favre retire once-and-for-all as a Green Bay Packer. Now the organization is left with that little stain on its jersey, so-to-speak, while fans still are dealing with QB Aaron Rodgers.

So is this an end to all the controversy and discussion surrounding Brett Favre and his future? One can only hope so.

Judge places a ban on casinos in Lewandowski case

It's been mere rumor that the case of Rosann Lewandowski's thievery was related to perhaps a gambling problem. While there are no facts or other evidence linking a gambling addiction to Lewandowski, a Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge imposed a ban on casinos to Ms. Lewandowski while she awaits a deferred prosecution agreement.

While Lewandowski pleaded not guilty in the courts, her criminal complaint does note that she admitted to several thefts, including $880 from the Franklin Little League. Of course, Franklin Today will uphold "innocent until proven guilty", however seeing that the DA's office is already working on deferred prosecution and her admission on the complaint really makes it difficult to do.

Addressing a $1.8 million deficit in the City of Franklin budget

A hot topic among several bloggers and one alderman in particular has been the issue that the City of Franklin has currently running up a $1.8 million budget deficit. In light of this, those bloggers have been "encouraging" others to keep track of the situation, and one even suggested that bloggers like myself pretty much cease and desist on every other discussion in the city until answers are given for this matter.

Well, to say the least I'm not at all pleased to hear our city running such a significant deficit amount. It doesn't serve those members of the council who voted in favor of the 2009 budget last year very well, either. Upon thinking a little bit into the matter as a whole, however, it should be noted that even if the $200,000 was saved in the budget approval process last year, which Aldermen Olson and Sohns pushed so heavily but ultimately failed on getting approved, our budget numbers currently would still be a hefty $1.6 million in the hole.

I guess one could say I "joined" the "battle"

Earlier today fellow Franklin blogger Fred Keller wrote a piece on State Senator Mary Lazich's aide, Kevin Fischer, continuing to mock and degrade newly elected School Board member Janet Evans on his FranklinNOW.com blog. In a comment posted 4 days ago on Fischer's blog post referring to the "screwing" of Franklin taxpayers who have children attending several private schools, he took more pot-shots not on the entire School Board, but rather just Ms. Evans! His comment referred to Evans' revised FranklinNOW.com blog, which discusses Franklin Public School District matters and topics of interest, as the "Barney of the Blogs" and referred to Ms. Evans as "Suzy Cream Cheese."

This comes only a week or so after Fischer was harshly criticized by bloggers (every word has a separate link) when he referred to liberals as "matzo-skinned" lefties. For those of the Jewish faith, that was considered a significant insult. It was picked up on several metropolitan area blogs, and all demanded some kind-of answer from Mr. Fischer. Unfortunately, all they got from Fischer was a comment that basically stated that his term of "matzo" only referred to its term being "thin", hence he was attempting to say that liberals were "thin-skinned". Well, to be honest, I think "thin-skinned" sounds 100x better than tossing out words like "matzo", especially when it has significant meaning with a particular religion.

The waters are a little murky between development and politics

As I wrote several days ago regarding the proposed priest retirement/senior complex for the Scared Heart Monastery,

"Oh, and as a final note I found it rather intriguing that State Senator Mary Lazich wrote a letter of support for Carstensen's project already. This was noted in Alderwoman Kristen Wilhelm's comments at last night's council meeting when the project was discussed. Keep in mind that all of us, aka Lazich's constituents, weren't even able to submit any favorable or unfavorable remarks to her office prior to this recommendation."

I furthermore criticized our state senator for her overly-done focus on only issues in her hometown of New Berlin, rather than on other/similar matters happening within other communities she represents. Well, it looks like either Senator Lazich or someone on her staff reads Franklin Today, since her blog now carries the letter that Alderwoman Wilhelm referred to at last week's Common Council meeting.

Congrats to the Saber baseball team!

Yesterday the Franklin Sabers baseball team defeated its longtime rival, the Oak Creek Knights, to earn a trip to State. It was a close win - only 5-4. The Sabers will now face Homestead in the WIAA State Quarterfinals in Stevens Point this Wednesday @ 10am.

Good luck and GO SABERS!

Nope. No bias over there!

I have to admit that I did laugh a little when I went to the Franklin NOW website. There it was, in their "Community Watch" column: "Despite parents' pleas, board won't change stance on busing". For a second there, I almost thought the community bloggers were bumped up and integrated into the Community Watch column! For a newspaper, one that should follow the guidelines of being unbiased when reporting stories, right off the bat this particular piece oozes of sympathy towards parents who send their children to private schools in Franklin.