Loophole helps Illinois residents to get concealed-carry permits

Illinois residents can legally carry concealed weapons in Wisconsin by way of ... Utah.

Wisconsin honors concealed-carry permits from a number of states, including Utah.

Experts debate benefits of law

Do laws permitting citizens to carry concealed weapons reduce crime? Increase crime? Have no effect on crime? It depends on who you ask. Researchers are divided on the issue.

For example, in his book, “More Guns, Less Crime,” John Lott claims violent crime rates decrease when states pass concealed-carry legislation because criminals are hesitant to attack law-abiding citizens who might be armed.

Weapon class makes participants feel more comfortable with weapon, law

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Monica Anaya hasn’t decided if she will buy a handgun or other type of self-defense weapon such as a Taser.

And if she does, she’s not certain she will carry it.

Stop the scams: Senior citizens urged to beware of con artists

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A staged phone call from a “grandchild,” winning lottery tickets and purchasing reloadable prepaid cards are among the many scams targeting senior citizens.

Kenosha Police Department Crime Prevention Officers Jeff Wamboldt and Ron Francis said senior citizens are more likely viewed as “soft targets,” due to the amount of money they have, their memory and overall vulnerability, among other things.

Where do I go with my bright idea?

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If you want a primer on what not to do when pursuing a patent, drop by a meeting of the Inventors & Entrepreneurs Club of Kenosha and Racine.

“That’s the nice thing about the club. There’s a number of us who have gone down the wrong path, and we try to lend that expertise and steer them away from all the vultures out there who will take their money and end up nowhere,” said Bob Balow, one of the club’s founding members and inventor of “The Original Pasta Fork.”

Product uses previous inventions differently

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Sometimes, even if you re-invent the wheel — or, in Cara Rybarik’s case, the stick-on tattoo — you’re still eligible for a patent.

At least a utility patent, which protects ideas that improve on existing patents.

Patent process takes longer than anticipated

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Jim Ashmus played with his invention for years before he realized what he had — or that he could patent his idea for a conveyor belt escape ladder.

He came up with the concept while removing old conveyor belts, part of his business as owner of Midwest Equipment Sales in Paris, a company his father, Robert Ashmus, started in 1962.

Time, cost worth the reward

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It only took Thomas Tatman about 15 months to patent his idea for a better bassoon reed.

But it took nearly 20 years to get to the patent office.

How to get a patent

So, you’ve got a brilliant idea for an invention! Before you rush off to the patent office, here are a few things to keep in mind about the process.

Oh, and if you plan to apply for a patent without a lawyer (also known as “pro se,” or on your own), check out this video: www.uspto.gov/video/cbt/basicpatenttraining/index.htm

They’re big deal here: The people

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This week, the Kenosha News takes a look at the people, places and things Kenoshans can be proud of, what we’re known for and what attracts people to our great corner of Dairyland.

Kenosha has produced a cast of Hollywood celebrities, professional athletes and other famous people. From the tip of the Southport Lighthouse to the Country Thunder stage, the county is filled with popular venues and attractions. And we celebrate a rich history of innovation.

It’s a big deal here: Places, things and events

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This week, the Kenosha News takes a look at the people, places and things Kenoshans can be proud of, what we’re known for and what attracts people to our great corner of Dairyland.

Kenosha has produced a cast of Hollywood celebrities, professional athletes and other famous people. From the tip of the Southport Lighthouse to the Country Thunder stage, the county is filled with popular venues and attractions. And we celebrate a rich history of innovation.

Seeing green

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Dan Drier’s assignment was clear when he was hired in 2009 to manage the two Kenosha County-owned golf courses: Get the greens out of the red.

Drier, the county’s general manager of golf operations, hit that milestone recently, when unaudited totals showed Petrifying Springs Golf Course and Brighton Dale Links ended 2012 with a profit a hair shy of $80,000 — a seemingly monumental accomplishment for an operation that has routinely run deficits of $200,000 or more.

Hole numbers: A look at area links

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A look at Kenosha County’s golf course options:

— Big Oaks Golf Course: A 27-hole course at 6117 123rd Place in Pleasant Prairie. Opened in three phases beginning in 1987, the course charges greens fees ranging from $9 to walk nine holes in the winter to $38.50 for 18 holes with a cart in the summer.

Best hole? Hardest hole? Courses pose some real challenges

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Dan Drier has plenty to say about Brighton Dale Links and Petrifying Springs Golf Course.

Just don’t ask him to name his favorite hole — that’s akin to challenging him to specify his favorite child.

Something’s in the air

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Watching her 11-year-old daughter struggle with asthma on days with poor air quality has not been easy for Tanya Obradovich.

“When the weatherman says there will be high ozone days, I know Sasha will have a more difficult time,” the Pleasant Prairie mother said, noting she herself has allergies. “It’s difficult to have a kid inside, not being able to ride her bike and do all the things she wants to do, or to see her still doing them and coming down with coughing fits.”

Facts about air pollution

The five major air pollutants are regulated by the federal Clean Air Act:

— ground-level ozone, caused by chemical reactions between nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds in sunlight.

Officials hope winds of change coming to county

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Officials are pushing to have a second air-quality monitor set up here with hopes of having more of Kenosha County designated as being in compliance with federal ozone standards.

The county now has one monitor, in Chiwaukee Prairie, Pleasant Prairie, near Lake Michigan and about one mile north of the state line with Illinois. The monitor has shown that, for the most part, Kenosha is not meeting those standards.

Northwoods League prepares to play ball

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As part-owner of Kenosha’s newest baseball team, Vern Stenman offered this bit of advice to the many local skeptics.

“Just give us a chance,” Stenman said.

Northwoods League prepares to play ball

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As part-owner of Kenosha’s newest baseball team, Vern Stenman offered this bit of advice to the many local skeptics.

“Just give us a chance,” Stenman said.

League: Midwest

Class: Professional

We the Peeple

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Is there anything Peeps CAN’T do?

We asked Kenosha News readers to get creative with the iconic pastel marshmallow candies.

Escaping abuse

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Margaret talks about her past with stoic dispassion.

At the age of 85, she shrugs her shoulders when asked to think about how she dealt with her struggles. That’s just the way it was, is her attitude. “I didn’t really think about it,” she said, sitting in her modest Kenosha living room, her walker waiting in front of her chair, a framed photograph of her and her husband over her shoulder.

Group gives abuse victims confidence

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Whenever Emma DeRosa gets homesick for her native New York, she pulls out a photograph she keeps in her wallet.

It is a photo of DeRosa, her face gaunt, her expression miserable. It was taken, she said, at the worst period of what had become a deeply unhappy relationship with a husband who was bullying, and looked to control her every move, down to counting the number of sheets of toilet paper or paper towels she used in a day.

KUSD’s diversity creates unique language atmosphere

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Hay Tharler and Hay Lermu Thee, two sisters who attend Stocker Elementary School, have few problems thinking in two cultures, speaking in two languages and going back and forth, when needed, almost seamlessly.

At home, they speak a language that looks like a woman’s name Karen (but pronounced KAH-RIN), with intonations that are melodic. At school and around town they speak English almost as though they’ve lived in Kenosha most of their lives.

Young students exposed to new languages

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At the elementary level rather than full-on foreign language classes, most students are exposed to them to become acclimated to the culture and “thinking” in a language, said Brian Bieri, language acquisition program teacher at Stocker Elementary School.

Stocker, as well as all elementaries in the district is using Rosetta Stone software to expose students to the same languages offered at the high school level. These are Spanish, French, German, Italian and Mandarin, as well as English.

Languages offered in KUSD are those most commonly used in global economy

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Michelle Ishmael was in the 10th grade when she started learning German and Spanish at Tremper High School.

Ishmael, now a Kenosha Unified teacher of German and who instructs the language at the district’s eSchool on Green Bay Road, said she tried keeping up both after she graduated high school to attend Carthage College. Eventually she decided that she should concentrate on one.

Adult students learn to conquer English one word at a time

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“Never make fun of someone who speaks broken English. It means they know another language.”

— H. Jackson Brown Jr., American author

Knowing language requires understanding consonants, vowels, culture

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When an English learner comes into the Kenosha Literacy Council, one of the first hurdles in pronunciation encountered comes with the piece of furniture where they will do much of their learning.

“It’s the plural of desk,” says KLC tutor Brian Burgess. “Some people are able to pronounce desk pretty easily, but it’s amazing how many people cannot say desks.”

A brief history lesson in English

According to the creators of the Oxford Dictionary, it seems quite probable that English has more words than most comparable world languages.

It comes down to history, explained Carthage College Modern Language professor Greg Baer.

Principal of language school differentiates between social, academic English

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Language learning is a two-way street in the Edward Bain School of Language and Art Dual Language Program, an elementary school in the Kenosha Unified School District.

That’s a distinction that separates it from the other programs like English as a Second Language.

Sometimes the language just isn’t fair

Why is English so hard to learn?

Perhaps because we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway.

Comedian points out redundancies, evolving language

No one could point out the obvious flaws of the English language better than the late George Carlin.

The comedian, who wrote his own material, often took aim at his native language with sizzling accuracy.

Cafe a gathering of veterans and heroes past and present

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The American Heroes Cafe, located inside Spiegelhoff’s SuperValu, 3401 80th St., serves more than just a good cup of coffee. It also serves as a meeting place for heroes past and present.

Every Friday from 8 a.m. to noon, American Heroes Cafe, which opened in August, welcomes a standing room-only crowd of military veterans, active duty soldiers who are home on leave and civilians who want to say “thank you.”

Everyday heroes can come in all shapes, sizes ... and breeds

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Whether they are working with students, comforting a grieving child or offering companionship to someone in the final days of their life, therapy dogs play a special role in people’s lives and the community.

Take Marcus and Paxton, for example. These two pugs may look small, but they are making a big difference in Kenosha as part of the Reading Education Assistance Dogs program at Kenosha Public Library. The one-on-one program pairs certified therapy dogs with youth in grades K-5, who practice their reading skills by reading aloud to the dogs.

What defines a hero?

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Homer wrote about them in the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey.” Harrison Ford portrayed one in Indiana Jones. Bonnie Tyler sang about them in Footloose.

Heroes.

What defines a hero?

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Homer wrote about them in the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey.” Harrison Ford portrayed one in Indiana Jones. Bonnie Tyler sang about them in Footloose.

Heroes.

Hospice volunteers inspire, offer much-needed support

Our heroes inspire us when we are children and challenge us as adults. But it takes a special type of hero to help us endure life’s final chapter. And yet that is a role countless Hospice Alliance volunteers play in the lives of their patients and patients’ families.

For a Hospice patient, those heroic acts may involve having someone to talk with, write letters for them or simply hold their hand. For the patient’s family members, it may include having a Hospice volunteer look after their loved one while they run an errand or take a much needed break from their responsibilities.

Destruction of drinking

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When Scott Ries drank, he didn’t have a beer or two. He drank to get drunk. And he paid the price.

Ries has come a long way since his younger years, and he sees good in sharing his bad with the world.

Alternatives to drinking and driving are out there

Drunken driving impairs your judgment, so even though you may feel good enough to drive after drinking, you should avoid getting behind the wheel.

If you are going to drink, police recommend choosing one of these alternatives instead:

Where does the money go?

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A first operating while intoxicated offense is not a criminal offense in the state of Wisconsin. Instead, it is treated as a traffic violation, unless other circumstances apply, such as an injury or having a passenger 16 years old or younger in the vehicle at the time of the offense.

The money collected from the citation is broken down and dispersed throughout the county and state.

Drowning in drunken driving

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Kenosha Police Officer Pablo Torres will never forget the victim of the first fatal accident he responded to.

A drunken driver hit a tree and was killed on impact.

Officers witness sometimes fatal consequences of drunken driving

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Kenosha Police Officer Pablo Torres has dealt with a wide range of drunken drivers.

He has had people vomit in his squad car and lead him on high-speed chases just to avoid a drunken driving arrest.

Drunken driving numbers

In 2011, in Wisconsin...

— There were more than 35,000 convictions for drunken driving offenses.

Homicide watch

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For more than a decade, the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence has been releasing annual studies detailing the number of domestic violence-related deaths in the state.

From 2000 to 2010, the agency recorded 532 domestic violence-related deaths, including 10 in Kenosha County.

When violence hits home

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The country is in the midst of a debate about gun violence, and about the wisdom of ordinary citizens arming themselves against “bad guys” as a means of combating crime.

However, while our fears dwell on crime committed by strangers, statistics tell us the “bad guys” we face most often are those we know — often those we love.

Identifying those at risk

When working with domestic violence victims, a lethality risk assessment tool can help identify those most at risk.

The risk assessment uses a series of questions, each question given a point score of between zero and two depending on the answer. The higher the score, the higher the risk.

Network of help available

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In Kenosha County, there is a network of help available for domestic violence victims, along with a treatment program for batterers.

Women and Children’s Horizons has an emergency shelter for victims, a 24-hour crisis line, support groups, abuse prevention programs in schools, and legal advocacy including advocates working from the District Attorney’s office.

Experts, test help to raise concussion awareness

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mlarsen@kenoshanews.com

The fog around concussion awareness is beginning to lift.

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