This Just In...

Happy New Year!

A beauthiful, healthy, bouncing "project" in 2008.

Lower taxes.

Shutting off the spending spigot.

Ditto for the brain drain.

A less Gestapo-like DNR.

A much improved business climate.

More jobs.

Less violent crime.

Rejection of government health care.

Goodbye to the "Frankenstein" veto.

Hello to photo ID.

A shorter winter.

An earlier spring.

A longer summer

A winter that actually begins in winter.

One of our youngest heroes of the year.

The respect and admiration from all Americans they truly deserve.

He packs a mean punch.

 Andre Rieu 

Potty-training

Another brave young boy...

A set of boxing gloves for each one of them.

Just keep punching and beating each other up.

We'll remember how phony and  foolish you look when you're all hugging each other at the Convention in August.

But not just any Miss Utah.

It's not even 10:00!!!

A wish that you do what you do best: produce greasy, fattening, quick food.

It is not your fault America is too fat.

It is the fault of fat people that they are fat.

Tess Corners firefighters have special bond.

More and more visitors, especially younger patrons.

Let's keep the spirit and the memories of the King alive.

Inspirational golfer

Another no-tax increase Milwaukee County budget proposal, and after April, a better batch of  County Supervisors to work with.

Brookfield grad found man being mauled by grizzly
By JODY L. MAYERS
Waukesha Freeman Staff

BROOKFIELD – Armed with a stuffed grizzly bear in one hand and a package of Teddy Grahams cookies in another, 19-year-old Amy Gray made her way to St. Johns’s Medical Center in Jackson, Wyo., Thursday to visit the man she helped save after he was mauled by a grizzly bear.

“He was really in good spirits and the happiest bear attack victim I’ve ever met,” Gray said during a telephone interview Thursday.

Gray, a 2006 Brookfield Central High School graduate, encountered a mother grizzly bear and three of her nearly adult young while driving a chuck wagon with a fellow coworker Wednesday morning at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

“I noticed the bears all standing on their hind legs so I slammed on my brakes which scared them away and I tried to grab my camera,” she said. “At first I thought I was lucky to see them so close until I saw a man running down a cliff.”

That man, who saw the victim being attacked, helped Gray and her co-worker get him into the truck and drive back for help.

“He was bleeding pretty bad and had chunks of flesh missing from his behind and thigh and his back was chewed up,” she said. “He is lucky to be alive. I was told one of the bites was an inch from puncturing his lungs but his injuries were all external.”

Steven Gray talked to his daughter after the attack Wednesday morning and was stunned by the event his daughter unfolded to him over the phone.

“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “I was scared for her, but at the same time happy about what she had the guts to do.”

Grand Teton National Park spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs said the victim of the bear attack, 54-year old Dennis Van-Denbos of Wyoming, was on his way back from a hike when he noticed an elk in distress.

“As he got closer he noticed the bear and her cubs feeding on the carcass,” she said. “That is when she responded in a defensive matter.”

Skaggs said elk are seen regularly throughout the park, especially this time of year when they birth their calves.

“The mother bear can become defensive if she feels threatened or is surprised,” she said. “We do know of this particular bear, and she has never caused problems in the past. (VanDenbos) just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

The area of the attack as well as the service trail will be closed until further notice, Skaggs said.

Amy Gray, who will be a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point studying to be a dietitian, said she will never forget what happened during her 2007 summer job.

“I was just running on adrenaline,” she said. “It was the scariest moment in my life.”
Steven Gray said his daughter demonstrates the type of qualities that would propel her in the direction of her most recent deed and said it is no surprise.

“For her senior trip while all her classmates decided to go to Florida, Amy asked my wife (Caron) and I if she could go to Tanzania to help orphans whose parents have died from AIDS,” he said. “That’s just the type of person she has always been.”

Caron Gray who said her daughter has a passion for the outdoors said she and her husband will think twice when they take a highly anticipated bear tour to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park to visit Amy in August.

“The funny thing is, she was nervous about bears before she took this job and I told her it was nothing to worry about,” she said. “Of course when she called to tell us what had happened I felt awful. I felt like I was setting her up to be bait. You never think something like this will happen. I’m so proud of her.”

Amy Gray said the memory alone is not enough for her.

“It’s my first summer away from home and this happened,” she said. “I think I’m going to get a grizzly bear tattoo to remember it by.”

Go out with a bang, "W!"

Make strong stands for  fighting terrorism, tax cuts, reduced spending, and clamping down on illegal immigration.

Pave the way for the GOP to keep control of the White House.

The alternative is much too scary.

She didn't carck under pressure.