Editor's Note: This column ran in March 2011 and I thought I'd resurrect it because of the newest proposal by Walmart in Caledonia. I just returned from a visit to Ohio and I wanted to add that Buehler's, a local food market located close to the Walmart in Wooster, is still in business. I don’t claim to have all of the answers about Walmart’s project in Caledonia, but I can tell you about how Walmart impacted my hometown. About 20 years ago, Walmart planted its boxy-blue presence on Burbank Road in Wooster, Ohio near the Mystic Meadows horse farm. At the time, the people living in the county …

I was having one of those days us journalists often have: a day where I struggled with what story to write, how much time I'd love to spend on it and the unnerving reality of never having enough moments to tell it. And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that I don’t do anyone any good when I have those days so I turned to what helps ground me when there’s just too, too much happening in this noggin of mine and I get acupuncture from a dear friend of mine, Christie Kern. Christie and I always have wonderful discussions before and after my treatment and she has these wonderful ideas that …

When it comes down to it, behind just about every small business is an entrepreneur hoping to turn their passion into a paycheck. But, as many wise business advisers have noted: Hope is not a strategy. Business owners need support to turn dreams into reality. That's why Patch is pleased to announce a new partnership with SCORE, a nonprofit organization with 12,000 business experts nationwide who provide free mentoring to small business owners. The partnership makes sense because we believe that when local commerce grows, the whole community gets stronger. Patch already provides free listings …

While the Republicans and the Democrats scrap over student loan interest rates, the real problem is ignored. Who should pay? But full disclosure here: I’m paying on a student loan from grad school, my stepdaughter is in college and paying on a student loan, and my daughter will likely be taking on debt to pay for her education. So these student loan discussions hit home for us. Currently Stafford Loan students pay 3.4 percent, but the interest rate is set to increase to 6.8 percent in July. If the loan rate doubles this summer, it would cost 7.4 million Stafford loan recipients an average $1,…

I love my child. She works two jobs, gets good grades and knows her way around the bargain racks when it comes to shopping. Over the years she has come to expect financial limits from me, and she's not ashamed to 'shop vintage' at Goodwill or go without. She's also had a student checking account for well over a year, and she knows how to spend money wisely and knows the value of saving money. And while I've grown accustomed to paying cash for things, I've recently discovered that what she and I are spending for her to go to prom is in line with what others seem to be spending in the Midwest…

Have you ever heard something so moving that you kept remembering it days, weeks and months later? I felt moved when I heard Throw Yourself Like Seed, a poem written by Miguel De Unamuno. I don't know much about the poet, but I've been thinking about this poem off and on for about six months... well actually four words of the poem -- "turn to the work." Nancy Gibson, one of my kid's teachers at Case High School, read this poem to her Conflict Resolution Crew on a beautiful fall morning where I saw those rowdy teenagers lead their peers in team building exercises. This was their work and these…

Happy almost Leap Day, Caledonia! As many of you are aware, I'm in town all the time. But I'm here and there, and sometimes it's tough to find me. So I'll periodically be scheduling weekly office hours, in a place where you can easily find me. And I’ll tell you in advance where I’ll be. This week, I’ll be at Mocha Lisa, 2825 Four and Half Mile Road, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday. Stop by and say hello! Bring your story ideas, bring your complaints, bring your thoughts on Caledonia Patch, and anything else you'd like to talk about. I can show you how to make Patch work for you and I’ll have …

My significant other, whom I affectionately call "Mr. Denise," is a bit shy when it comes to me talking about him publicly. So we made a pact, and I seek his approval before such things happen. I respect his wishes, ask and usually get the OK. That's what you do when someone you love isn't quite as enthusiastic about being all "out there" in print as you are. Mr. Denise and I have been together long enough to have seen our children "graduate" from elementary school, junior high, and high school (almost for my kid). When we met, we were in the same place. We had both been married and divorced…

This is it, the final frontier of parenthood…letting my kid drive my car. OK… so she’s almost 18-years-old and she’s still pretty grumpy that I wouldn’t let her drive at the scary old age of 15 ½. But I had my reasons (and they were darn good ones) for not letting her drive. I knew one thing – that if I couldn’t see the maturity level brewing in her (like it is now), then I needed to keep those keys clenched in my hand until God himself made me let go of them. Having been the second shift cops reporter at the Kenosha News, I’ve been privy to one too many car crashes that ended rather poorly …

I’m concerned about how politicians talk about taxes—Republicans and Democrats alike. More specifically, I’m concerned with what they don’t say. Politicians tend to ignore the interdependent cash flow relationships between lower levels of government. And, you often don’t hear about their role in that decision, the tax shifting that continues to impact these budgets and overall increases in state spending. To underscore this point, officials with the Wisconsin Taxpayer Alliance (WISTax) reported last month that state spending increased in Wisconsin and exceeded national averages in both 2011 …

The field trip I went on Saturday with the JI Case High School Conflict Resolution Crew offered some insight into education and our social problems. About 20 kids, mine included, hopped on a bus and went to the Illinois Youth Center in Warrenville, Illinois to watch 20 girls perform a play. This wasn’t just any play; this performance was their collective experience as teenagers directed by Story Catchers Theatre and the focus was on what landed them in the detention facility. Their stories were compelling. Some of the girls had been incarcerated at the facility two, three, and four times – …

My daughter, Katie, and I went to college shopping two weeks ago and I found the experience exhilarating, terrifying and sad all at the same time. We got in the car early on a Friday morning and drove to Whitewater. After two hours of being on campus Katie turned to me and said, “Mom, I can’t see myself here. It’s too much in the middle of nowhere. I’ll get bored.” Her nowhere, quite frankly seemed like a serene place to me, but I wasn’t going to argue with her. This trip wasn’t about me. “Let’s go to Milwaukee then, I know they have an open house today too.” So back to the city we went. And …

My original headline for this commentary was “Stop Trying to Create Jobs And Focus On Creating Consumers,” but I decided against it. The reason, consumers are integral to the supply and demand paradigm, which is where we have decided to focus our resources. But our focus should be on creating healthier communities. Rising insurance costs are a dominant theme we hear about from federal, state, county and local governmental bodies.  But we don’t have an insurance cost problem. We have health problems, getting along with each other problems, and cost shifting problems. And we’re not really …

Twenty-five odd years ago I wrote for a farming newspaper in Ohio called the Firelands Farmer. My editor at the time had assigned a story about a dairy farmer who was frustrated with the price of milk. At the time, I lived in the largest dairy-producing county in the state and we were seeing neighbor after neighbor having to auction off their farm. And the farmer I was assigned to feature was focused on changing how milk was priced. He was tired of watching his community disintegrate before his very eyes and he thought his product had more value than what the government thought it was worth. …

All morning I've been hearing people say, "How 'bout that sports weekend?" And, even though I'm not a giant sports fan, I know what everyone is talking about with the Packers and the Brewers. Great stuff huh? But let's not forget about the Badgers too. Seems like everyone is in a great mood and it's good to see. For me though, all of these games present an embarrassing challenge. That photo to the right was my living room Sunday. What you can't see is Mr. Denise in the lounge chair with the computer to his left that offered up his place in Fantasy Football. He's not real keen on being named …

I noticed this story on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about health insurance premiums going up, but I was curious to find out your experience with health insurance. America's Health Insurance Plans issued a press release with the following talking points. Here are a few of the takeaways: Prices for medical services continue to rise  Recent data from the S&P Healthcare Economic Composite found that “healthcare costs covered by commercial insurance increased by 7.73% over the year ending July 2011.”  The annual Milliman Medical Index (MMI) found that “between 2010 and 2011, the MMI increased …

I had coffee with my friend Deb this morning at my house. And as we spoke, I realized she is in the precarious position of being underemployed and uncounted in those monthly unemployment numbers. The reason is that she’s not unemployed, but she is seeking a job and having a hard time finding one. She earned a bachelor’s degree in art in 2000 and got a teaching certificate three years ago. She’s also really close to getting her master’s degree in teaching art. So right now she’s a substitute teacher. And while she’s consistently getting some work through Racine Unified, she doesn’t get …

The strongest connection I had to what happened on Sept. 11, 2001 was what the three televisions in the newsroom I was working in told me. And when I remember that day, I'm surprised that I own so many emotions. I had been a journalist for nine months with CNI Newspapers and I was covering South Milwaukee. The idea of localizing a story as major as this was a daunting task. For the first few minutes after hearing about the first attack, we just stood there in shock. All of 100 of us – hands over our mouths, the same thoughts running through our heads, “Oh my God, please help those people,” I …

His name is Antwain and I believe his last name may be Williams (it's actually McIntosh). I never remember who he is until he reminds me and our conversations only last a few minutes. Prior to Antwain, the guy who regularly checked in on me, was Mark Leemkuil. And both of them work for the Department of Workforce Development Center as caseworkers. They are – in my mind – on the front line for those of us who had become job-seeking warriors. We are/were a motley bunch because in one day we became instantly transformed to the heartbroken, the devastated, the shocked beyond belief and the angry…

Last year, my daughter and I couldn’t have these conversations, but this year we can and I’m grateful that she is in a more mature place where we can do that. She starts off her senior year tomorrow at Case High School. And I realize we’re behind in this whole choosing a college and trying to decide the rest of her life thing that we’ve been talking about for months now. I’m wondering if she knows how important this year is to the rest of her life; if she’ll choose a college that will challenge her enough; if she’ll have the courage to work through problems; if she’ll use her stubbornness to …