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"If I am ever in that situation, I hope somebody helps me." Those were the words of Sergio Torres, a cook at Dover Inn, as he described his efforts to extinguish flames that had engulfed Barry Woodington, 28, of Racine, after a horrible collision between a semi-tractor trailer and a utility truck at highways 20 and 75 just after midnight Tuesday. Torres and an unidentified tavern customer went to the aid of Woodington, who was able to get out of the burning semi. Two lives were lost in the flaming crash: Rocky Bettazza, 32, of Sturtevant; and Michael Foss, 41, of Kenosha County. Our condolences go to their families and friends. We remain hopeful that Torres' efforts will be successful in saving Woodington. Amidst the sorrow over the loss of lives, we're thankful that there are those among us, like Torres, who step up in the face of personal danger and do what they can to help another.

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The FBI released crime statistics for Racine and Racine County for 2006 this week and it was a pretty sorry batch of numbers. Aggravated assaults led the assault, jumping 93 percent over the course of a year. The bulk of that increase came in city of Racine where assaults more than doubled from 102 to 207. In the rest of Racine County that number went from 22 to 32. Violent crime (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) was essentially flat in the county, while it went up 21 percent inside the city limits. About the only bright spots, if you can call them that, is that the number of rapes in the city and county combined was cut almost in half, dropping from 41 to 21 reports, and the number of murders, plummeted from 16 to 8.

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What could be cooler than an early fall weekend with sunny skies, pleasant temperatures, some good food and a lick of music or two. Maybe raising some needed funds for theater classes, concerts and musical education for children and a student performing company? Yes, that would do it and that's what will be going on in Racine Saturday night when 25 bands and other acts take the stage at eight live music venues in Jammin' for the Arts. The musical fundraiser will be accompanied by a like effort from 15 restaurants that will donate a portion of their Saturday night proceeds to the fundraiser. A $10 wristband gets you into all the music venues and the goal is to raise $10,000 for children's art programming for the Racine Art Museum, the Racine Symphony Orchestra, the Racine Theatre Guild and the Racine Arts Council. Good tunes, good times and a good cause.

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As much as we've been rooting for Milwaukee Brewers slugger Prince Fielder to bat balls out of Miller Park this year and cheered this week as he became the youngest player in major league history to hit 50 home runs in a season, we couldn't help but be saddened a bit by his motivation. Fielder told reporters he wanted to hit 52 homers to best the season mark of his father, former slugger Cecil Fielder from whom he is estranged, to shut him up. Here's hoping baseball marks fall and personal rifts heal.

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It sometimes seems like we can't open our mail or email without reading of one group or another that has a salute for SC Johnson's work environment and work practices. That happened twice this week when SCJ was named the best employer in America for employing workers over age 50 by the American Association of Retired Persons and also made the "100 Best Companies" list in a ranking by Working Mother's magazine. It must come from taking that "a family company" motto to heart when it comes to workplace flexibility, benefits, wellness programs and the like.