The law should be - if you kill someone while driving drunk you should spend as many years behind bars as the victim had left to live. examp - if you kill a 50 yr old and life expectancy is say 70 years, you should be behind bars for 20 years. If your victim was 10 you should be in prison for 60 years. Why should a murderer be out walking around free because they chose alcohol and a car as a murder weapon instead of a gun or knife.
You still have the right to drink yourself to death with posion, but if your posion hurts someone else you should be severely punished!!!

Comments about Kansas State University is enforcing new rules when it comes to underage drinking. The university says they will begin notifying parents when their students under the legal drinking age have multiple alcohol or other controlled substance abuse offenses taking place on campus.K-State is enforcing these stricter guidelines due to an increase in underage drinking on campus. The program initially applied to residence halls only, but is now being expanded to cover the whole campus.
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joycelorenza

DUI

We do have a drinking culture. I love football and drinking is part of that culture of tail gates and drinking is part of our every comfortable lifestyle existance as it is our vehicles we drive. We get in, we sit back, we motor around and we even forget we might be going 91 miles an hour because we are so relaxed; talking on the cell phone, sometimes texting, and in all our comfort and anything goes life style of kicking back we fail to see those in the morgue because we sold them too many shots in the bar and they staggered out and got on motor cycles but then, it had nothing to do with us, after all, they chose to drink right? I have witnessed and read about many motorcycle accidents as well as car accidents and there has been, this summer an almost heroic attitude toward those biting the dust on the highway on their hogs. Let's have a party, a parade, and on the way home from Hammy's funeral another one almost got killed because after all, we have to honor them by all getting drunk and meeting at the bars. I met my first designated driver a couple weeks ago. The women that were with her were so drunk and I asked the driver, won't they leave if you tell them, you are leaving? She said, they know I will just get up and leave them here. I drive them from Milwaukee to Janesville to go to the bars, and when I say its time to go, they either go or find some place to sleep, but I don't stay around if they don't leave when I say its time.
How about this idea, Once a week, some of you who kick back with your brew and joint, how about you volunteer to be a designated driver so we see less people die every year? We have brewrerys here, cheaper beer here, and more people get drunk under the age of 40 in this town then over the age of 50. its our life style, and my youngest has turned 21 this week, and can't wait to park his truck and go get plastered. What a excellent productive plan that is right??

It is sad that this country can send young men and women at age 18, who are legally adults, off to war to potentially die and yet this same country refuses to allow them to drink alcohol until age 21. Something doesn't seem right about that. The legal age of drinking and leaving the OWI laws up to the States' discretion are all serious things wrong with this country.

Frank, why not run an article on where our local state reps stand on drinking and driving? I checked various candidate websites and didn't find it an issue on them. What have the ones in office right now, who are running for re-election, done to increase penalties?

ihavealife maybe you need to move you live in the beer state what more do you want? sorry to hear about your brother but you or nobody will change wisconsin. if you think you will come on get real and your name fits you

Well look at it this way... A group goes to the bar, they all start drinkin, some faster than others... They all are too drunk to drive but are having tooo much fun and don't want the night to be over with... A friend says, "we can drink more over at my house, I got plenty to drink"... So if all of them are drunk, how are they gonna get there to keep having a good time??? What, you think the owner of the car says "nawwwww, I'm gonna just call a cab and hitch a ride home and get some rest..." yeah right, he says "well since everyone really wants to go and there will be more to drink and surely there will be some hotties there to meet I'm in, whoever's going jump in my car!!!" So yes that situation doesn't play out everytime, but I've sadly seen it done many times myself and even more sadly, acted that way myself when I was younger...

i don't think people drive drunk because they think it's cool. If they go out partying chances are the people they are with are partying. Who wants to be the designated driver?
No-I'm not saying it's right but that's how it is a lot of the time.
And you can shove the whole don't drink and drive thing down kids and young adults-or any adult for that matter-throats. You can 'educate' them all you want. It will help some but there will always be those out there who 'know better'. Or those who just don't care.

Germany should serve as a model nation when it comes to alcohol. A lot of the mystique and taboo of drinking is lost in Germany because their culture is so accustomed to it. It's not uncommon to see people over there having a drink for breakfast or to see 8 year old kids sharing a drink with their parents in a restaurant. Because of the social mores of drinking being lifted in Germany there are less people over there who don't know how to handle alcohol. Young people in Germany know how to handle alcohol before they are able to drive a car. The driving age over there is 18, but there is no limit on the drinking age. Ironically enough Germany has severe laws and penalties on drink driving, and because of this drunk driving is not a major issue in Germany. There simply is no tolerance for drunk driving in Germany. Often times people in the United States and Wisconsin are discovering alcohol for the first time in their late teens or early twenties and this is already after they have learned how to drive. They're trying to negotiate their alcohol tolerance with their driving at too late of an age. Learn how to handle alcohol before you learn how to drive.

There seems to be two issues here that are mistakenly intermingled...drinking...and illegal behaviour as a result of drinking.
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Emotions result in bad laws...but interesting news stories.
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Reasoned thinking must seperate the two.
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Yes WI is a drinking state... And one hell of a drinking state at that... But hey, if thats the way we like to enjoy ourselves then so be it... But we need people to be way more responsible if they plan on drinking... Like what drinking can do to your body over time (I lost my father because of his heavy drinking), understanding that if you have more than a couple drinks, it's ok to ask for a ride home (even though young adults today are made to believe that driving drunk is the cool thing to do by watching others do it). But mainly it just comes down to responsibility... So how do you teach people to be more responsible??? Family, parents, teachers, maybe some type of classes??? Maybe thats what we need to do, educate people more about what could or can happen, and why being responsible makes it more enjoyable for EVERYONE!!! I dunno, there's my 2 cents... Now time for me to get back to work!!!

im not gonna get started on the hypocrisy. ill just restate what localboy says 'Whether we want to spend St. Patricks day drunk is our business, not the governments, or any other tee-totalling, do gooders. End of discussion' the same goes if i wanna smoke a joint.

Fear of jail, monetary fines, incarceration, loss of license is not a deterent to someone that abuses alcohol and gets behind the wheel and drives when intoxicated. PERIOD. You people that think stiffer fines, more jail time or longer loss of license is going to make a large impact have your heads in the sand. People that abuse alcohol and or drugs are not concerned one bit about the current "Laws" and penalties for breaking those laws.

Thank you, ihavealife. I lost an infant nephew to a drunk driver, and unless you live thru it, you will never know the never ending pain of something like that. It is not alright to "party till the cows come home", then drive home and kill an innocent person. WI needs to wake up and realize when we are seeing arrests of people with 5+ DWI's that there is a problem. Some people can handle going in and having a drink or two, but the majority of WI thinks you need to be totally drunk to think you've had a good time.

Nice parenting mentality. I guess if kids do not listen to their parents, then we should change the laws so they do listen. The government, schools, courts or any other government agency should never be put in a position to take over parenting of children.

In Nevada they gamble, Jamaica they smoke the Ganga, In Wisconsin we like to party on the weekends.. pick your poison or abstain but leave me alone... I've always told my kids it's alright to have a drink or two but it's not ok to get drunk..

Kids do always listen to their parents. I always did. I'm sure you did too.
Gimme a break

anusman1000 - Are you kidding me?? Here is your statement: "The only way to change things is for the courts and lawmakers to change the laws." Are you that blind to reality to sit back and wait for the couts and lawmakers to raise our children?? Your mind set is the exact reason this country has the problems they have. Blame the government!! Wake up!

A life without the booze: Its not really that hard,teach your kids to say "NO",but as adults you can't say the word! It is just like picking your nose,bad habits are hard to break. Even if you need the atmosfear,go,who cares,have fun without the liquid stupid,but talking to you all is like telling bush he's a --ck up!!

Well what else is there to do in Wisconsin? Especially in the winter. I am always bored to death when I come home for Christmas from lack of entertainment. All there is to do is liquid fun.

Interesting:

By The Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — In an Oct. 21 story about drunken driving laws, The Associated Press erroneously reported that a first offense in Wisconsin is a misdemeanor. It is a civil offense.

Amen Frank, but it's not just about the high school and college kids. The other person posting is correct that nothing will change until there are better laws and enforcement that is applied to all ages, 16 to 96. With the ultra-powerful tavern league lobby, it's hard to be hopeful that the tragedies we see every week will decline.

It is our right to drink as much as we want as we are adults and are allowed to make that decision. What we are not allowed to do, is drive intoxicated or put others at risk with our drinking. Whether we want to spend St. Patricks day drunk is our business, not the governments, or any other tee-totalling, do gooders. End of discussion.

I grew up in Janesville, I was the first child in our family so my parents used to take me to a bar just outside of town on Hwy 11. I was probably around 2 or 3. Although my dad drank heavily my mom didnot until they got home so she could put me in bed. I constantly remember going to the bars with my father after my parents split. We weren't in there till two in the morning or anything. Alot of times it was to go watch a football game or something.
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Now that I have a child, I can't imagine taking her into a bar. But yes I have. For a retirement party that was going on during the day. And where my dad now lives she has been to the "tiki" bar.
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I think the people in this state think its okay to do these things on a everyday/everyweekend occasion. I lived in Texas for a year or so and the town about the size of Stoughton only had two bars. One was downtown and the other was outside of town. People outside of this state don't find it necessary to go out EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND!!!!!!

Sure, the Sentinel gets all kinds of attention when it writes about our drinking culture, something most attentive people have known about for decades. Where's the outrage when I write about massive numbers of Janesville high school kids who get drunk regularly, drive drunk or ride with drunken drivers? I can't begin to count the times I and other reporters on our staff have written about these statistics and the way lives are harmed -- or ended -- because of drinking.