Kathy Posner's Blog

2012-01-24T08:11:00.000-06:00

Robert Felton, a contributing reporter to the Austin Weekly news, gave me permission to reprint his story about Justice Joy Cunningham's race for the Illinois Supreme Court.

Joy Cunningham looks to become first black woman on Illinois Supreme Court

By ROBERT FELTON
Contributing Reporter

Joy Cunningham knows a little something about making history.

The North Sider did that 8 years ago, becoming the first black woman president of the Chicago Bar Association. Her sights are set on another first and even higher position - becoming the first black woman ever elected to Illinois' Supreme Court. Cunningham, who sits on the state's Appellate Court, is running in the March 20 primary for the vacant Cook County seat on the high court.

Along with possibly making history, she also wants to provide of voice and perspective on the court she says has been lacking recently.

"I think it's important that the Supreme Court of Illinois reflects the variety of experience of those it represents," Cunningham said. "There are 13 million people in Illinois, and they have diverse backgrounds. I believe I bring a new perspective to the court that would benefit Illinois as a whole."

Cunningham, who lives in the Andersonville neighborhood on the North Side, was inspired to run following the retirement of Justice Thomas Fitzgerald last year. The vacancy presented a rare opportunity for prospective candidates, given that justices are usually elected to 10-year terms and usually run unopposed. Normally, seats open up because of retirements, deaths or impeachment.

Cunningham has been endorsed by U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-7th) and Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White. She's running against four other challengers, including Mary Jane Theis, a sitting Supreme Court justice who was appointed to a two-tear term in 2010. Theis is considered the front-runner.

She has the backing of Fitzgerald, and since May 2011 has raised more than $830,000 for the primary, according to campaign finance records on file with the Illinois State Board of Elections. Since June 2011, Cunningham has raised $342,000, according to the state board. Cunningham nevertheless feels she is the best choice.

"This process has almost always been a fairly straightforward one, with the outgoing judge naming his successor, who is then appointed without a serious challenge," she said.

"But I feel that the people should decide...It should not be a group of political figures handpicking a candidate to represent the interest of the entire state."

Cunningham's 35-year career began in her hometown of New York City. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in nursing from the City University of New York, she moved to Chicago in the early 1980s and worked as a critical care nurse.

She later attended John Marshall Law School and served as Loyola University's chief counsel for health care, and later as general counsel and senior vice president of the Northwestern Memorial Health Care System. She was elected the Illinois Appellate Court in 2006.

In 2004, Cunningham became the first black woman elected president of the 22,000-member Chicago Bar Association, the largest municipal bar association in the United States. She also serves on the board of directors of the Chicago Legal Clinic, which that provides legal counseling services to disadvantaged and underserved Chicago residents.

Its co-founder, Ed Grossman, says Cunningham's experience in both the private and public sectors make her uniquely qualified for the Supreme Court.

"What separates her, I think, is the variety of experience she brings to the table," he said. "She's worked with businesses, she's worked in management, she's worked with average Americans and corporations. She is very well-rounded in her experience."

A married mother of one, Cunningham said one of the most difficult aspects of campaigning is the amount of time she spends away from home. Her husband, she says, is very understanding of her schedule. But win or lose, she's looking forward to spending more time with her family after the election.

"Campaigning is never easy, but I have a wonderful support system at home that has encouraged me every step of the way."

AN ALDERMAN, A CITY INSPECTOR AND A CONTRACTOR WALKED INTO A BAR.

2012-01-23T07:17:00.001-06:00

The title of this blog sounds like the start of a bad joke. So does Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s latest Ethics Reform Task Force and in both instances the punch lines are very funny.

Emanuel announced his Ethics Reform Task Force last week. “I created an Ethics Reform Task Force in order to recommend reforms to Chicago’s ethics ordinance and better serve taxpayers,” Emanuel said in a press release. The Task Force also has a web site where citizens can have a public dialogue about ethics reform. Or as the Mayor said, “This website will assist the … task force to assess the current ordinance, consider best practices across the nation and make recommendations to ensure appropriate oversight of government activity.”

So how is ethics reform a joke? Maybe because currently the City of Chicago seems to have more Inspectors General and Boards of Ethics than there are bus stops. And there are bus stops on every corner! And if it ain't working now, it is not going to start just because a new ethics reform group is created.

Chicago is also very fortunate to have the Better Government Association, an independent not-for profit organization where citizens can report government fraud and abuse and hold elected officials accountable.

At the end of this blog, I have created links to some of those investigative ethics groups which have been in existence for decades to make your reporting job easier. If people aren’t already whistle blowing, what makes Emanuel think they will start blowing now? He must be hoping for a happy ending that only comes following a visit to a massage parlor. Or is it all just a mirage?

SOME CHICAGO INVESTIGATIVE GROUPS:

The Chicago Board of Ethics

The Chicago Office of the Inspector General

The Chicago Police Board of Ethics

The Office of the Inspector General- Chicago Transit Authority

The City of Chicago Legislative Inspector General

Chicago Public Schools Inspector General

Chicago City Colleges Inspector General

TELLING THE TRUTH

2012-01-19T08:04:00.000-06:00

CBS News conducted a random telephone poll, the results were published in the February issue of Vanity Fair, of 951 adults nationwide and one of the questions was, “Would most people you know kill their favorite pet for $1 million? What about you? The results of the poll, above, prove my point that people lie when asked difficult questions in phone surveys when they are talking to a human being who might be judgmental. I guarantee you if people could answer that question anonymously, the poll results would be very different.

If I owned (owning is the operative word here because pets are considered personal property) a pet and got that offer, I know what I would do. Now that you are getting ready to write a comment of righteous indignation, let’s change the wording of the question a few times.

“Would you or most people you know kill their favorite pet for $1 million if the money were needed to buy a car that was essential for your job? You see where I am going here?

“Would you or most people you know kill their favorite pet for $1 million if the money were needed to pay for the college education of their children? Change your mind yet?

“Would you or most people you know kill their favorite pet for $1 million if the money were needed to pay for the medical care of a family member that would save the person’s life? Now will you answer “Yes?”

We all have a tipping point where we would kill our beloved pet. It is a horrible topic to think about, but respected CBS News posed the question, not me. Now you know why I am frustrated by polls and surveys. They never ask the reason why a person would answer a certain way. And under the correct condition 100 percent of us would kill our favorite pet. Unless it was Lassie!

TWO THNGS I DON’T UNDERSTAND

2012-01-18T07:55:00.000-06:00

I WOULD NOT WANT ME AS A VOLUNTEER

Last week, The Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council (MCHC), Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) publicized a new public service announcement to raise awareness about Illinois Helps, a statewide database that registers volunteers to respond to major disasters and public health emergencies in the state. Would you want me as one of the volunteers? I think not!

MCHC, IDPH and CDPH want both medical and non-medical volunteers to register with IllinoisHelps so they can call on people to respond to any number of emergency situations including blizzards, disease outbreaks like H1N1 and bio-terrorism attacks. The registration process also allows hospitals to verify the licenses and credentials of professional health care volunteers who come to their facilities to care for the influx of patients experienced during emergencies.

I can understand the importance of having such a data base so people do not “fake doctor,” but I don’t like the part about non-medical volunteers. What if people as pathetic as I am sign up as a volunteer? What is the vetting process?

I went to the site to register but because I would have had to enter my Social Security number to get through the steps, I chose to not continue. If anyone actually does register, please let me know the questions volunteers must answer. I’m worried that people like me might be accepted!

HOW TO USE TOOTHPASTE

I used to buy toothpaste that came in very nice stand up containers. This type was more expensive than the tube type, but I liked it better. In fact, I put this type of toothpaste on my birthday list! I had not shopped for toothpaste in a while because I had some in my closet inventory. But since I always need toothpaste, it would be a welcome present.

To my horror, I discovered that they are not producing toothpaste in the stand up containers anymore! My friend Karen Phelan, carefully researched this and even wrote to some of the toothpaste manufacturers, but it was to no avail. My favorite kind of container only has the bubble gum flavored paste for children. I hate it.

Karen bought me at least 15 different types of toothpaste as a present for me to try. I hate them all because I cannot figure out how to get the product from the tube neatly to my brush. I make a mess every morning all over the bathroom counter! I just don’t know how to use toothpaste. Maybe one of the Illinois Helps volunteers can come help me in my toothpaste emergency!

THE SNOW HAS FINALLY ARRIVED IN CHICAGO

2012-01-17T07:33:00.000-06:00

After an incredibly warm winter start in Chicago, we had our first snowfall. Snow-covered streets inevitably lead to people shoveling out a parking space, and staking claim to it for months on end. This is known locally as “dibs.”

Because I have many readers who don’t hail from the Windy City, I need to explain what the definition of "dibs" is. This is a Chicago tradition. People feel that if they clean the snow from a parking space on the street, they can “own” it, even after they pull their car out of the spot, by putting lawn chairs, boxes or other flotsam and jettison in its place.

Because I cannot parallel park, it personally does not matter to me if someone has reserved a snow-cleaned side-street parking place with some piece of old junk. I would not be parking in that spot in the summer and won’t be parking in it during the winter. But if I could parallel park, I think any legal spot should be available for my use. No lawn chairs, boxes or other flotsam and jettison should block neighborhood parking spaces just because someone feels they can claim the spot for the reason that they cleared it previously. No dibs, no more!

Chair Free Chicago is a group with a website that hopes "kindness triumphs over selfishness." The folks behind Chair Free Chicago believe that there are more people who are as frustrated by the concept of dibs as there are people who dig out parking spaces and claim them until the first thaw with a resin deck chair, cardboard box, old tires, or whatever detritus they can lay their hands on. To help further their movement, Chair Free Chicago sells fliers and signs online that can be taken as passive-aggressive in tone by the odd man who's this close to a coronary after shoveling out a parking spot. But they feel that they're being nice in reminding those who claim dibs on parking spaces that we're all suffering through a Chicago winter together.

You can order sturdy signs from their website to tie around trees or print your own flyers to let people know that the area is chair-free.

The site tells us, “When it comes to saving parking spots, we believe people who are frustrated by it outnumber people who appreciate it. Chair-Free Zone signs can help communicate that sentiment. Some people are born with an extra chromosome of entitlement, and probably won’t change. For others, it’ll have them thinking twice about calling dibs on a public space (and screwing their neighbors in the process). And really, isn’t it worth a try?”

Laz Parking is the only company that “owns” public parking spaces in Chicago, no citizen does—until City Council Votes differently.

TANNERS BURNING UP ABOUT TAX

2012-01-16T07:55:00.000-06:00

The Health Care Reform bill was passed more than a year ago, and while the constitutionality of it is being questioned, certain elements are already being implemented. One of those provisions is for a 10% tax on indoor tanning. Since the tax is expected to raise $2.7 billion during the next decade, I am all for it. Indoor tanning is a joke because it makes people look orange—a characteristic they don’t comprehend because their eyeballs are burned from the ultra-violet rays they subject themselves to.

The salon owners are upset with Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who was instrumental in the health reform bill as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. According to a Sun-Times story, “Baucus' staff issued a statement that says the tanning tax is warranted because of the health risks associated with indoor tanning. The International Agency for Research on Cancer found that the use of indoor tanning by those under age 35 can increase that person's risk of melanoma by up to 75 percent. Of the $1.8 billion spent on treating skin cancer each year, $300 million is spent on treating melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.” The statement continues with, "It is clear that tanning adds additional costs and health risks to our health care system and it is certainly appropriate for the industry to pay a part in addressing that burden."

The American Academy of Dermatology says there is a direct link between ultraviolet exposure and skin cancer and their web site explains the facts.

Risks of Indoor Tanning

• The United States Department of Health and Human Services and the International Agency of Research on Cancer panel has declared ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun and artificial sources, such as tanning beds and sun lamps, as a known carcinogens (cancer-causing substances).
• Indoor tanning equipment, which includes all artificial light sources, including beds, lamps, bulbs, booths, etc., emits UVA and UVB radiation. The amount of the radiation produced during indoor tanning is similar to the sun, and in some cases might be stronger.

• Studies have found a 75 percent increase in the risk of melanoma in those who have been exposed to UV radiation from indoor tanning.

• Evidence from several studies has shown that exposure to UV radiation from indoor tanning devices is associated with an increased risk of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer, such as squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma.

• Studies have demonstrated that exposure to UV radiation during indoor tanning damages the DNA in the skin cells. Excessive exposure to UV radiation during indoor tanning can lead to premature skin aging, immune suppression, and eye damage, including cataracts and ocular melanoma.

• Indoor tanning beds/lamps should be avoided and should not be used to obtain vitamin D because UV radiation from indoor tanning is a risk factor for skin cancer. Vitamin D can be obtained by a eating a healthy diet and by taking oral supplements.

• In a recent survey of adolescent tanning bed users, it was found that about 58 percent had burns due to frequent exposure to indoor tanning beds/lamps.

• The FDA estimates that there are about 3,000 hospital emergency room cases a year due to indoor tanning bed and lamp exposure.

Even with these scary health facts well-known, on an average day in the United States, more than 1 million people tan in tanning salons.

One on side there is The Indoor Tanning Association, an industry group for salon owners, which is touting the health benefits of tanning. They say the benefit is because human skin produces vitamin D when it's exposed to ultraviolet light and scientists say vitamin D helps strengthen bones and can help prevent other diseases such as diabetes and cancer.

The other side is the American Academy of Dermatologists which says "There is no scientifically validated, safe threshold level of UV exposure from the sun or indoor tanning devices that allows for maximum vitamin D synthesis without increasing cancer risk. Vitamin D deficiencies can be easily treated through diet and by taking vitamin supplements.”

So who do we believe? The fake bakers or the scientists? I go with the ones who have the college degrees.

BLOWING THE WHISTLE REALLY, REALLY LOUDLY!!

2012-01-12T07:55:00.000-06:00

On November 19, 2010, I wrote a blog “Blowing the Whistle A Little Louder,” about Illinois House Bill 6906 which was introduced by State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo). The purpose of the bill was to make it easier for citizens to report allegations of fraud in Illinois government by adding a simple amendment to the Illinois State Auditing Act with a new section. The synopsis of the bill was:

“Amends the Illinois State Auditing Act. Requires the Office of the Auditor General to operate a toll-free telephone hot line for the public to report allegations of fraud in the executive branch of State government. Authorizes the Office to conduct audits concerning alleged fraud and to refer allegations of fraud to the appropriate law enforcement authority or other governmental entity with jurisdiction over the alleged fraud.”

One of the main problems with whistle blowing is that even though wrong-doing is often reported, nothing is done. The purpose of Franks’ bill was to give authority for an audit to be conducted and the information turned over to law enforcement. Once so many agencies became involved in the process, a cover-up of allegations would be harder to pull off.

At the time, Franks said, “The culture of corruption in our state cannot continue. If we are going to change it, we must take the necessary steps to make information more available to citizens and provide citizens with the means to hold their government accountable. The government must be returned to the people and transparency is the first step toward that goal.”

It is now 14 months later, and the new Illinois government fraud reporting hotline became operational and accessible this week. The hotline and online form is operated by the Office of the Auditor General, who is charged with referring the allegations to the proper law enforcement agency or government entity. Previously, Illinois had no single hotline for citizens to report fraud, waste or mismanagement in state government.

“We have made progress in the battle to stiffen state ethics laws, but the pursuit to end business as usual lives on,” said Franks. “I believe strongly that the best way to end corruption and fraud is to shine a bright light on it.”

This hotline is the reporting vehicle for any allegation of misconduct, no matter what office of the Executive Branch of Illinois State government is involved. “Increasing transparency is the best way to hold our executive officers and their respective staff accountable,” concluded Franks.

The window is open, let the whistle blowing begin!

FRAUD HOT LINE INFORMATION

Persons wishing to submit allegations to the Auditor General’s Office may do so by:

Calling the Auditor General’s toll-free telephone hotline at (855) 217-1895 or (TTY) at (888) 261-2887;
Submitting the online form on the Auditor General’s website at www.auditor.illinois.gov; or
Mailing to Fraud Hotline, Auditor General’s Office, 740 E. Ash St., Springfield, IL 62703.

TWO SHORT STORIES ABOUT MONEY

2012-01-10T07:34:00.000-06:00

THE AMERICAN DREAM

Michael F. Ford, the founding director of the Xavier University’s Center for the Study of the American Dream, wrote an article published in the Washington Post about the Center’s second annual “State of the American Dream” survey. The study revealed five myths about the American dream. My favorite myth was the one about the importance of money. Ford wrote: “In a national survey of more than 1,300 adults we completed in March, only 6 percent of Americans ranked “wealth” as their first or second definition of the American dream. Forty-five percent named “a good life for my family,” while 34 percent put “financial security” — material comfort that is not necessarily synonymous with Bill Gates-like riches — on top.

While money may certainly be part of a good life, the American dream isn’t just about dollars and cents. Thirty-two percent of our respondents pointed to “freedom” as their dream; 29 percent to “opportunity”; and 21 percent to the “pursuit of happiness.” A fat bank account can be a means to these ends, but only a small minority believe that money is a worthy end in itself.” So, if only 6% of Americans think wealth is important, why are the “99%” complaining about rich people?

WATCH THE BOUNCING BALL

When Sharon Sharp was Director of the Illinois Lottery, she invited me to be ball number 11 at a promotional party for the lottery.  I had a lot of fun.  I don’t play the lottery; probably because there are no lottery outlets by my home.  But millions of people in Illinois play the lottery.  The state of Illinois must think that winning a lot of money is part of the American dream, because the state has a plethora of games with “dream” its name, and even promoted an ad campaign that touted, “Dream a Little Dream with Me.”

Recently, some winners of the Illinois lottery’s scratch off game got a shock when the checks from the state bounced!  The lottery wrote 311 checks and mailed them to winners, but 85 of them were returned, marked “insufficient funds”.  Lottery spokesman Mike Lang said a mistake happened when a computer file wasn’t sent to the lottery’s bank correctly. Lottery officials did not key in the required security verification for the checks.

The lottery has apologized to the affected people and will pay for any bank charges that occurred because of the rubber checks.  The losing winners will also receive some free scratch off cards as an apology.

Since only 6% of Americans care about wealth, I am sure it did not bother the lottery ticket holders at all when their winning checks bounced because they are likely a part of the 94% who do not see wealth as a major priority. They probably just played the game for the thrill of it.

THE FRENCH FRYING NEW CITIZENS

2012-01-09T07:28:00.000-06:00

Last week, tougher new immigration reform was instituted in France, making it more difficult for immigrants to become citizens. From now on, candidates for citizenship will not only be tested on French culture and history, but they will also have to demonstrate that they can speak the language as proficiently as an average French 15-year old. Claude Gueant, France's conservative interior minister, described the process as a "solemn occasion between the host nation and the applicant,” adding that “migrants had to integrate through language and an adherence to the principles, values and symbols of our democracy." Reading about France, I wondered what a person would have to do differently to become a French citizen, as opposed to becoming an American citizen.

The new French immigration law also requires potential citizens to swear allegiance to "French values.” According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services,”Deciding to become a U.S. citizen is one of the most important decisions in an individual’s life. If you decide to apply to become a U.S. citizen, you will be showing your commitment to the United States and your loyalty to its Constitution.“ Seems similar, so far.

While the U.S. does not require the same level of language proficiency that France does, there are three language components that the applicant for American citizenship must pass; reading, writing, and speaking. An applicant’s ability to speak English is determined by a USCIS Officer during the eligibility interview. For the reading portion, the applicant must read one out of three sentences correctly. For the writing test, he must write one out of three sentences correctly.

The United States also requires applicants to take a civics test, and sample questions are on the citizenship web site. The actual civics test the applicants take is NOT a multiple choice test, but an oral test. During the naturalization interview, an applicant is asked up to 10 questions from a list of 100 questions. Six out of 10 questions must be answered correctly in order to pass the civics portion of the naturalization test.

Do you think you could pass a U.S. Citizenship test? I have copied some sample questions at the end of this blog for readers to try.

Essentially, both countries want potential citizens to be loyal to the country that adopts them. I agree. While people can retain their original culture and heritage, if they choose to move to a new country, they should become a part of that country.

If you cannot swear allegiance to the flag, then don’t come!

SAMPLE CIVICS TEST QUESTIONS

When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?
December 7, 1787
July 4, 1789
July 4, 1776
March 4, 1789

What is one responsibility that is only for

United States

citizens?
obey the law
pay taxes
serve on a jury
be respectful of others

Who makes federal laws?
the Supreme Court
the President
Congress
the states

What does the Constitution do?
all of these answers
sets up the government
defines the government
protects basic rights of Americans

Who did the

United States

fight in World War II?
Austria-Hungary, Japan, and Germany
the Soviet Union, Germany, and Italy
Japan, Germany, and Italy
Japan, China, and

Vietnam

What are two rights in the Declaration of Independence?
liberty and justice
life and pursuit of happiness
life and right to own a home
life and death

What did Susan B. Anthony do?
fought for women's rights
founded the Red Cross
the first woman elected to the House of Representatives
made the first flag of the United States

There were 13 original states. Name three.
New York, Kentucky, and Georgia
Washington, Oregon, and California
Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina
Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida

What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for?
youngest member of the Constitutional Convention
third President of the United States
inventor of the airplane

U.S.

diplomat

3. We elect a U.S. Senator for how many years?
ten (10)
two (2)
four (4)
six (6)

What is one promise you make when you become a

United States

citizen?
never travel outside the United States
give up loyalty to other countries
disobey the laws of the United States
not defend the Constitution and laws of the United States

I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOUR SAGGING BREASTS!

2012-01-04T07:19:00.000-06:00

When Michelle Hickman chose to publicly nurse her child in a Target store in Texas, employees asked her to move to a fitting room. Since then, the group Breastfeeding Mothers in America has used the incident as a platform to complain about the “rights” of mothers to nurse wherever they please, regardless of the discomfort it causes to others exposed to the activity. Hickman was sitting on the floor near a display of jeans when a store employee offered to find her a dressing room so she could have privacy during the milking process. Instead of accepting the assistance, Hickman refused it and took offense. Since then, nursing mothers banded together to create a national “Nurse-In” demonstration, calling last week for mothers all around the country to bare their sagging breasts at Target stores in retaliation. Just because people have the legal right to engage in an activity doesn’t mean that they should do it.

According to the NationalConference of State Legislatures, forty-five states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands have laws that specifically allow women to breastfeed in any public or private location. Of the five states that don’t allow it, only West Virginia has nothing to say about public breastfeeding. Of the others, Idaho exempts breastfeeding mothers from jury duty, Virginia allows women to breastfeed on any land or property owned by the state, and Michigan and South Dakota exempt breast feeding mothers from public indecency or nudity laws.

Illinois has two statutes relating to the subject. Ill. Rev. Stat.ch 720 5/11-9 (1995) clarifies that breastfeeding of infants is not an act of public indecency. (SB 190)

ILL. Rev. Stat. ch.740 !37 (2004) created the Right to Breastfeed Act. I like the wording in section 10:

Sec. 10. "Breastfeeding Location. A mother may breastfeed her baby in any location, public or private, where the mother is otherwise authorized to be, irrespective of whether the nipple of the mother's breast is uncovered during or incidental to the breastfeeding; however, a mother considering whether to breastfeed her baby in a place of worship shall comport her behavior with the norms appropriate in that place of worship."

I don’t understand the place of worship exemption clause. Of all the places that one might seem to feel safe while nursing, a place of worship would seem natural! Whipping it out while standing in line at the grocery store would seem like a more sensible exception to me.

The nipple exposure is already covered in the exemption from public indecency, but I loved that the legislature threw that in the statute. Funny!

I don’t understand why a breastfeeding Mother would rather sit on the filthy floor of a store than retreat to a private dressing room. Hickman just wanted to create a national furor and hormone-raging postpartum Moms seem like an easy “Target” for such angry and pointless protests.

I have no more desire to see a baby sucking on a breast any more than I do feet without stockings and flabby bare arms on women more than the age of 30. Consider those who have to look at you before you decide how to comport yourself. Proper etiquette and good manners should be part of one’s decision making process. Remember- decency is all that is required to make sure one’s manners are properly attired.

A CURMUDGEON'S THOUGHTS

2012-01-03T07:41:00.002-06:00

“NO” TO “HAPPY NEW YEAR’S”

Just because one turns the calendar on a page, and the year date advances, does not make one bit of a difference in my life. There is no distinction for me between December 31st and January 1^st and I am sick of people saying, “Happy New Year” as if one day will vary from the next having anything to do with the date.

I turned off my cell phone on the evening of December 31^st so I would not be awakened by all the stupid, “Happy New Year’s” texts that started coming in right after midnight. When I looked at them the next morning, they were group texts, so they were meaningless and had nothing to do with me personally.

All day on the first, I was forced to respond to people chanting, “Happy New Year’s” until I wanted to start screaming! I was forced to respond with greetings in return rather than seem like Andy Rooney ranting at the end of a “Sixty Minutes” episode. Which, of course, will not happen again, since he died in 2011!

“NO” TO FACEBOOK AND TWITTER

Facebook and Twitter are wonderful ways of disseminating IMPORTANT information to groups of people at one time. Notice the caveat, “important,” because most of the postings have to do with such stupid inane items as visiting a friend's Aunt’s cat and drinking a beer at the Bulls game.

Why are people so egotistical to think that anyone cares about the mundane occurrences in their day to day lives? You got a red sweater for Christmas? Please! Don’t bore me! Win the Nobel Peace Prize, and I would be thrilled to learn the news.

“NO” TO GIFT CARDS

I think giving gift cards is the lazy man’s way to not being creative. Handing over a gift card as a gift shows that the giver does not care at all. It totally sends a message to the recipient that you did not care enough about them to discover what their interests are and what might be a pleasant surprise. A present should come in a beautiful box with wrapping and bows. It should not be in a flat envelope—unless it is a check for $1,000,000! If the person does not like the gift, they can always return it, but they knew that you took the trouble to spend time thinking about them.

I received $500 worth of Macy’s gift cards from a promotion I participated in. I did not want to keep them, because I knew I would lose them and forget about them, as I have with gift cards in the past. So I took them to Macy’s to pay my bill. Macy’s would not accept them. I argued in vain, that gift cards were the same as cash, but the manager would not budge. The store’s theory was that someone had given me the cards to BUY something and not to pay for something I had BOUGHT in the past. I asked, how did the manager know that? She had no response, except to tell me she would not accept the cards.

I wanted to tell her, “Happy New Year” with my finger extended, but I was too much a lady to do that. So, instead, I will ask Illinois State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo), who passed gift card usage legislation in Illinois to look into it. When I force Macy’s to accept gift cards as payment for my bill, I will Tweet it. Now that is important news!

Illinois' New Laws for 2012

2011-12-29T07:12:00.000-06:00

Ignorantia juris non excusat is the Latin phrase loosely translated as ignorance of the law is no excuse. It is a legal principle that just because someone is not aware of what the law is they cannot escape liability for violating said law merely because they were unaware of its content. Illinois has more than 200 new laws taking effect as of January 1^st, so by pleading, “Δεν ήξερα, ότι η ελληνική μου,” or “I did not know, it’s Greek to me,” will not save you from punishment.

State Senator Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) put out a 35 page press release listing all of the new laws. I picked out some of my favorites and have written comments about them.

Seat Belts (HB 219/PA 97-0016): Requires adult passengers in the back seat of a vehicle to wear a seat belt, and also requires those 18 and younger riding in a taxi cab for school-related purposes to wear a seat belt. Luckily I have a two-seater car and I always ride shot gun as passenger, so this law does not affect me while I am driving. While I do ride in the back seats of taxi cabs, taxis were exempted from the law of requiring the wearing of a seat belt in the back for adults! I do not understand the second part about those 18 and younger being required to wear a seat belt in a cab if they are involved in a school activity. Why should it matter what activity they are doing? If a seat belt is required, it should be required whatever one is doing. The reason that Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, who was a sponsor of the bill, gave for exempting cabs, “A lot of times in taxi cabs, the seat belts are not maintained properly and it's hard to find them. I know I have trouble myself digging down to try to find them sometimes." So shouldn’t the law require that cabs maintain the seat belts instead of excusing them for being sloppy?

Closed Meetings (HB 1277/PA 97-0318): Creates an exemption in the Open Meetings Act to allow public bodies to hold closed meetings with auditors or financial committees, if the meeting was called to discuss suspected or potential fraud, or internal control weaknesses. It seems to me that one of the important reasons for the Open Meetings Act was so that shenanigans could not occur behind closed doors. Fraud and internal control weaknesses are two issues that definitely should be public! I do not understand the reasoning for this law.

Disability Definition (HB 3010/PA 97-0410): Includes mental, psychological, or developmental disabilities, including autism spectrum disorder, in the portion of the Human Rights Act that prohibits discrimination in public accommodations." If I am a person who has a mental or psychological disorder that causes me to fear elevators and enclosed stairwells, does that mean that a high-rise building would have to install a 50 story escalator to accommodate me? I understand autism and developmental disabilities, but the mental part? I guess I am too crazy to understand it.

Hunting Fees for Terminally Ill Individuals (HB 2861/PA 97-0215): Waives hunting and fishing fees for terminally ill individuals and allows terminally ill youth to hunt outside of an established season if approved by the Director of Department of Natural Resources. If the state wants to do something nice for terminally ill Individuals why stop at free hunting and fishing licenses? Why not throw in free mass- transit also? I also don’t understand why someone who id terminally ill is necessarily too poor to pay for a license. Poverty and illness are not related issues.

Jury Duty (HB 1317/PA 97-0436): Exempts people who have a total and permanent disability from serving on jury duty. And Jury Selection (HB 2066/PA 97-0034): Includes claimants for unemployment insurance in the lists used to create jury selection pools. I don’t understand why if someone has a permanent disability they cannot sit on a jury? Why is someone who is wheelchair bound not mentally capable of serving? Unemployed people of course should have to serve jury duty; they have nothing else to do. I wonder why the list of claimants was exempted to start with?

Universal Fare Pass (HB 2874/PA 97-0271): Requires the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) to develop and make available to riders 65 and older a universal fare pass that can be used on all public transportation funded by the RTA. Why can’t people of any age buy a universal transit pass? I believe because I am less than 65 years of age I am being discriminated against. Where is the law to protect me? I guess I will have to wait until 2013 to try to get that one passed!

ECONOMIC JUSTICE COMES TO ILLINOIS PART 2

2011-12-28T08:09:00.000-06:00

During the past year I have written many times of my frustration about how Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has used various economic development programs to throw hundreds of millions of dollars at large corporations that threaten to move away. The amounts of money he was giving seemed to have no correlation with what the companies were promising to do in return. Because of this, the Governor is not going to like the new legislation proposed by State Rep. Jack Franks ( D-Marengo) calling for an oversight committee to give approval before Quinn can give away the money.

First some background:

On May 9th I wrote a blog asking if any economists in Illinois knew how to do math because the financial incentives being awarded were outrageous. I wrote,“Sometimes I think I am the only person in the State of Illinois who knows how to add, subtract and divide. The accountants that work for The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) and the group that administers the new Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) tax credit program that the Governor signed into law recently must be using an abacus because they obviously have no clue. I must imagine that they think they are playing with Monopoly money and not the real money of the taxpayers in Illinois when it comes to the latest deal for Continental Tires the Americas (CTA).”

On June 14^th I wrote about the money being given to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and laid out their timeline of greed.

On June 24^th, I wrote about the deal that Motorola Mobility had gotten

and quoted Rep. Franks when he called the deal “outrageous” and said that all future economic and financial deals needed to be made public before they are signed off by the Governor. “If citizens knew that (Motorola Mobility) could fire 790 people and still get the tax credits, I don't think anyone would stand for that." he said at the time.

Current Plans:

State Rep. Jack Franks in Springfield

Franks doesn’t want the people of Illinois to have to accept the vast amounts of blackmail money the Governor has been paying out with little to no oversight, transparency or opportunity for public comment. His answer? Last week Franks filed legislation to create the Economic Incentive Committee within the Illinois Department of Revenue (DOR) to approve agreements entered into under the Economic Development for a Growing Economy Tax Credit (EDGE.)

“Creating and retaining jobs is vital to Illinois’ long-term economic success, but we must question whether offering selective tax breaks, business-by-business, are ultimately worthwhile investments for the taxpayers,” Franks said.

The five member committee will be charged with approving or denying an agreement within 60 days of it being submitted and will post the terms of each agreement online. The committee’s members must be business owners or have expertise in economic development. House Bill 3934 would give the committee final approval authority before EDGE incentives are committed.

“We have allowed a business tax scheme that is politically corrupting and a short-sighted economic development strategy,” continued Franks. “It is time to move these secretive negotiations from the Governor’s office into the open – for the benefit of taxpayers and the business community alike.”

EIC now can boss EDGE around, so finally the citizens of Illinois will get the edge in this bet.

EVERYBODY IS LAZY!! (But I don’t mean you!)

2011-12-27T08:06:00.000-06:00

Last week, under an agreement with labor unions, Volkswagen agreed to deactivate e-mails on German staff Blackberry devices during out of office hours. This decision will affect 1,154 workers at the company's six plants in Germany. The e-mail system will be disabled from half an hour before the start of work and half an hour after the end of work. I think if the employees are important enough to be issued company-owned Blackberrrys, they should be prepared to use them 24 hours a day.

John Tschohl author of “Achieving Excellence Through Customer Service,” summed it up perfectly when he said in response to the shut-down, “What they should do is announce to their customers: 'We only work business hours and after that we have no interest in communicating with you. If you have a problem, go to our competition.'"

Every story on this subject used the statistic that employee burn-out in Germany is blamed for almost 10 million sick days a year. That number sounds large until you compare that to the population of Germany which is almost 82 million. If only half of that population, 41 million, were employed (throw out babies, sick and elderly) that equals ONE QUARTER of a day per person for this supposed employee burn-out! What is the big deal about that? Employees probably LIE about taking a sick day at least twice a year—that would mean a loss of 82 million days due to lying. More productivity would come from having lie detector tests than shutting off e-mails.

Reuters reported that, “German IT body Bitkom published a study this year showing that 88 percent of German workers are reachable for clients, colleagues and bosses by e-mail or mobile phone outside of working hours, compared with only 73 percent two years ago.” So that is bad because why?

I have owned a cell phone since they were the size of huge briefcases and probably weighed twenty pounds to lug around. I have had an AOL e-mail address for twenty years. I want to be reachable and those who don’t are just plain lazy!

People should be happy they have a job instead of complaining about 24/7 accessibility. If one doesn’t want to be reached on vacations or weekends, take a job where the workload does not back up if you are not around. But if one has a position where one has to be available, stop complaining!

In 1999, DATELINE NBC profiled me as one of the hardest, fastest working people in the country. During the interview, reporter Rob Stafford asked me if I ever took vacations. I said, “No.” My theory was if one takes a vacation to do nothing then there would be nothing to do. What fun would that be?

By the way, with the exception of my sister and Michael Harkavy, the title of this blog does refer to you!

WHEN IS A SCHOOL NOT A SCHOOL?

2011-12-21T08:02:00.000-06:00

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word, “school” as a noun is defined as “an organization that provides instruction.” At dictionary.com, the word is defined as “an institution for educating children.” Likely, we all thought we knew what a school was, but a recent Illinois Supreme Court ruling has changed the definition of school as we know it.

Illinois statute720 ILCS 570/407(b)(2) has a section that makes Delivery of a Controlled Substance a Class 1 felony if it is committed within 1,000 feet of a school. So exactly what constitutes a “school” is very important for drug dealers to know.

The facts of the case I am writing about are not in dispute. On January 28, 2007, an undercover officer approached Anthony Young where he was standing on the sidewalk at 4958 West Augusta Boulevard in Chicago, and bought some heroin from him. The sale occurred within approximately 443 feet from the High Mountain Church and Preschool.

A jury found Young guilty of delivery of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school. An Illinois Appellate Court reduced the conviction to delivery of a controlled substance, finding that a preschool is not a “school” within the meaning of section 407(b)(2) of the Act. Did the Supreme Court agree?

According to a Supreme Court opinion last week, “Young was charged with one count of delivery of a controlled substance (720 ILCS 570/401(d) (West 2008)) and one count of delivery of a controlled substance within

1,000 feet of the real property comprising any school (720 ILCS 570/407(b)(2) (West 2008)). Prior to trial, in the circuit court of Cook County, defendant filed a motion in limine seeking to exclude evidence of the location of the preschool, arguing that a preschool is not a ‘school’ within the meaning of section 407(b)(2) of the Act.”

So is a preschool a school? Not in Illinois! The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed a 20-year old Appellate Court ruling (People v. Goldstein, 204 Ill. App.3de 1041 (1990)) that the definition of “school” is unclear in the law and that “school” meant "any public or private elementary or secondary school, community college, college or university." No mention of preschool!

The Illinois Supreme Court agreed with the Appellate Court and said that if the legislature had wanted preschool to be defined as a school, they would have expanded the definition.

Great loophole for Anthony Young -- but not for other, future offenders. I have spoken to State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo) about amending the law. He agrees that it needs to be fixed and will create a definition of “school” that is so tight it will include a group of fish.

Ecomomic Opportunity Lost

2011-12-20T07:32:00.000-06:00

An “economic opportunity lost” is when someone COULD have earned money from something, but circumstances or a faulty business decision caused him to lose the chance. There are currently two examples of this economic phenomenon happening now between Chicago Parking Meters LLC, the company that now controls the city’s parking meters, and the City of Chicago.

First Economic Opportunity Lost

In December 2008, the City of Chicago signed a lease with a fund, managed by Morgan Stanley, securing the right to operate the city’s 36,000 parking meters. The city received $1.6 billion as immediate payment and Parking Meters LLC held the rights to operate, maintain and retain all of the revenues derived from the city's parking meters until the year 2083.

Giving Chicago all that money would be a good thing, if the city had invested it, but all of it was spent within three years. To make taxpayers in Chicago cry even more, they learned the “true value” of the deal when data published by Bloomberg News on August 8, 2010 showed that “Morgan Stanley, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Allianz Capital Partners may earn a profit of $9.58 billion before interest, taxes and depreciation, according to documents for a $500 million private note sale by their Chicago Parking Meters LLC venture. That is equivalent to 80 cents per dollar of projected revenue.”

So the City of Chicago got $1.6 billion on a deal that will profit Morgan Stanley $9.58 billion. If it had not leased the meters, it would have profited billions of dollars. That is a major economic opportunity lost.

Second Economic Opportunity Lost

Illinois state law allows disabled people to park free all day in metered spots. That benefit dates back to when public transportation wasn’t handicapped-accessible, and meters had to be coin-fed. I could not find the actual law, but I know that is the history.

Even though the condition that created the law no longer exists, it has never been changed. Anyone with a disability placard or plate gets to park for free at any metered spot in Chicago.

The Sun-Times recently did an investigation into the misuse of handicap placards which I wrote about on November 22^nd.

The Sun-Times reported, “With the help of a retired Chicago Police Department lieutenant, the newspaper did regular spot checks in the South Loop and elsewhere in the city. In September and October, those checks found as many as 60 cars with handicap placards or handicap license plates were parking for free each day in the area bounded by Roosevelt Road and Van Buren Street, and Des Plaines Street and Canal Street.”

The parking meter lease allows Chicago Parking LLC to recover revenue lost by people parking for free. Chicago Parking LLC used a formula outlined in the deal (I read through the 521 pages and could not find the exact section that dealt with this) and calculated that there was $17.9 million worth of free disability parking in the last year. The formula for reimbursement includes that Chicago Parking LLC has to absorb part of the lost revenue, but Chicago owes $13.5 million of the total.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is disputing the bill, and the city has not paid anything yet. Mayoral spokeswoman Kathleen Strand said that the company’s audit “illustrates that the city has long been losing parking revenue as a result of disabled-parking cheating.”

Not only has Chicago lost billions of dollars in revenue by selling off the parking meters, the taxpayers are now being billed to pay for the free parking consumed by those with handicap placards, which is the second economic opportunity lost.

CONCLUSION

I really have nothing new to conclude. We all know the parking meter lease deal stinks and now we discover it stinks even more. Dead fish never start to smell better.

DECEMBER STORIES 2011

2011-12-19T07:43:00.000-06:00

DRIVING WHILE DISTRACTED

Of the reported crashes in 2010, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said 32% were in some way related to alcohol. The National Highway Safety Council put that number at 10,228 people who died in a vehicular accident because at least one of the parties behind the wheel felt that satisfying his urge for potent potables was more important than being alive. The Center for Disease Control puts the number of alcoholic liver deaths at 14,406 and the number of alcohol-induced deaths, excluding accidents and homicides, comes to 23,199. Those categories total 47,833 deaths in one year that were caused in some way by imbibing spirits. But is the National Transportation Safety Board recommending a return to prohibition? No. They are calling for a national ban on cell phone use while driving.

If the NTSB is calling for a cell phone ban, a person could assume that cell phone usage while driving produces more deaths than alcohol does. However, the NTSB puts that figure at approximately 3,000 deaths.

Ray LaHood, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, has made it clear that he hates distracted driving. I wonder why he doesn’t hate alcohol as much when vehicular deaths in that category are so much higher? Maybe he has nobody to call, but likes his wine. (I realize this is an unwarranted low-blow against Secretary LaHood, but it was a good line and I wanted to use it!)

REAL VS. FAKE

On November 7th, I wrote a blog

about how politicians in Cook County and Chicago want to lower the penalties for smoking marijuana. Some have even called for totally halting arrests for low level possession. These guys don’t think pot is any big deal.

Yet, these same politicians lauded that the sale of synthetic marijuana recently became illegal in Chicago. They were thrilled to announce that a State of Illinois law will make it a felony to sell or possess fake pot takes effect on January 1, 2012.

Understand what this means—a person commits a felony if they have fake marijuana on them, but won’t get arrested for the real stuff. I swear I am not making this up. Were the politicians high on something when they made these diametrically opposed decisions?

I AM AN ADDICT

Hi, my name is Kathy and I am a food-a-holic. I also am addicted to Diet Coke (I tried giving up Diet Coke when my friend John Rosales left the Coca Cola corporation, but I could not stop) and cigarettes. It is important for me to reveal this because if I ever get convicted of a federal crime, I can shave time off my sentence by entering a rehabilitation program. Since a person has to have a proven history of substance abuse within a year of her arrest, it was important for me to get this on the record, “just in case.”

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is playing the “addiction card” to get his 14 year prison sentence reduced, and amazingly, Judge James Zagel is buying what Blago is selling. The Judge is recommending a prison rehab program for the disgraced former governor, even though there has been no indication of abuse problems in the past.

Insiders claim that Blago now drinks himself to sleep. Well, who wouldn’t after such a conviction and sentence?

Still, the real question is … How will he get along without his cell phone in prison? We all know he liked to make a lot of phone calls. In fact, recordings of those calls are what did him in.

I HAVE TOLD YOU SO ONE MILLION TIMES!!

2011-12-15T07:48:00.000-06:00

I have written many, many times about how mathematically Groupon and other companies with the same type of deals cannot sustain the momentum. In fact, I would venture to guess I was the first person two years ago to point how this type of Ponzi pyramid scheme will eventually implode. People scoffed at me until the true financials were revealed for Groupon and it was shown how they are hundreds of millions of dollars in the red. Now finally a restaurant has admitted that they have closed their doors because of being inundated by these types of coupons.

In the past, I have shown mathematically how companies cannot possibly fiscally survive by offering these deals. Because these daily deals only give the company back 25 cents on the dollar, every person who redeems a coupon has to come back many times, paying full price, just for the company to hit the break even point.

I will explain one more time very simply how it works:

$10 deal is offered is for $5.00

Restaurant gets $2.50 of the purchase price and deal company gets $2.50.

(1) Coupon customer walks in and buys $10 worth of food.

Restaurant is negative $7.50

(2) Full paying customer walks in and buys $10 worth of food.

Typically a restaurant profits 10%, so it pockets $1 profit.

(3) Do you now see how the restaurant needs almost 8 full paying customers to make up for the loss on just one deal?

Drew Baker, owner of Drew’s Eatery, in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago, closed his restaurant last week saying his business was destroyed by daily deals like Groupon and Living Social.

A Sun-Times story,quoted Baker as saying, “The deals bring a lot of promise of bringing in new customers. It seems like it’s where marketing money should be spent.”

The story continued with,” The biggest hurdle to making money from the daily deals was persuading coupon customers to come back and spend full price,” said Baker. Proof that he never read my blog is his statement, “If I had figured out the math, I would never have signed the paperwork.”

Baker had already spent $40,000 of his own money on his vegan hot-dog eatery, and decided he couldn’t continue to go further into the hole.

I feel sorry for Drew’s Eatery and every other company that signs up for these deals. They are great for consumers yet impossible to fulfill successfully by the company. Just do the math.

I SWEAR I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!!

2011-12-13T07:11:00.000-06:00

When I first heard that the City of Chicago was awarded a grant by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to bring awareness to pedestrian safety education, I thought it was great because Chicago has the most ignorant pedestrians in the world! I have written a number of times how pedestrians pay no attention to the cross walk signs and how frustrating it is when vehicular traffic gets backed up because of this ineptitude. Then I heard how the money was being spent. And now feel Chicago not only has the stupidest pedestrians but the stupidest bureaucrats!

According to the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) :

“The Pedestrian Safety Campaign from the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) is installing crossing flags at 10 uncontrolled intersections near schools, senior centers and hospitals throughout the city. The temporary, inexpensive flags are designed to make pedestrians more visible to motorists and raise awareness of the safety needs of the most vulnerable users of the public way.”

The way the program works is that plastic cylinders, with red flags in them, are installed on sign posts on both sides of an intersection. Pedestrians are supposed to grab a flag, wave it in the air while they are crossing the street and then place the flag on the opposite side of the intersection for another pedestrian to use.

During the installation “ceremonies” of the cylinders, CDOT officials were on hand to teach pedestrians how to use the flags. That probably took hours to explain-- how to take a flag, cross the street and put the flag on the other side. Another example of tax payer money at hard work!

Ten intersections have received the flags:

71st and Spaulding, near Tarkington Elementary School;

Central and Walton, near Brunson Elementary School;

Belmont and Kilpatrick, near a senior housing building;

93rd and Oglesby, near Trinity Hospital;

l63rd and Talman, near a senior center;

50th and Cottage Grove, near Hales Franciscan High School;

Devon and Francisco, near the Croatian Cultural Center;

64th and Western, near Claremont Academy;

79th and Throop, near a senior housing building;

Elston, Grace and Bernard, near Murphy Elementary School.

I can hazard a guess that within 15 minutes of the red flags being put into the cylinders, students from the nearby schools will steal them. It will become a game based on who can collect the most flags. The city will keep replacing the flags and children will keep taking them.

The grant for this program from the NHTSA better be large enough to include money for the city to be replacing the flags every day as it becomes a cat and mouse game with them being stolen. I cannot think of a more stupid governmental plan; unless you count the urban streets that are being turned into bicycles lanes. Bikes and people don't belong on city streets, cars do.

REMINISCENT OF CHECKERS

2011-12-12T07:35:00.000-06:00

(FOX CHICAGO)

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s appearance last week, with his wife and children, at PAWS, an animal shelter in Chicago, immediately reminded me of a story about another politician and a dog.

On September 23, 1952, then Senator Richard Nixon, the Republican Vice Presidential nominee gave a speech on radio and television defending himself against allegations of improprieties relating to a fund established by his backers to reimburse him for his political expenses. During his speech, he did admit to receiving one gift after his election as Senator.

“A man down in Texas heard Pat on the radio mention the fact that our two youngsters would like to have a dog. And, believe it or not, the day before we left on this campaign trip we got a message from Union Station in Baltimore saying they had a package for us. We went down to get it. You know what it was.

It was a little cocker spaniel dog in a crate that he'd sent all the way from Texas. Black and white spotted. And our little girl-Tricia, the 6-year old-named it Checkers. And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we're gonna keep it. “

His speech was heard by an estimated 60 million Americans and the Republican national Committee (RNC) received millions of telegrams and phone calls in support of retaining Nixon’s position on the ticket with Republican Presidential nominee General Dwight D. Eisenhower. This put him on the road to his own election as president in 1968; a road that ended in disgrace with his resignation on August 9, 1974.

As anyone with any media savvy knows, animals and kids sell news. If the dogs are shelter animals and the children sympathetic because they are the progeny of a man going to prison, the cameras and reporters will fill the room. Blago is quite media savvy and he knew the story of taking his daughters to get a new puppy would engender warm feelings—at the expense of his young daughters.

Reporters have been staking out the Blagojevich home since his 14 year sentence was announced last week and Blago made sure the reporters knew where they were going when they left their home Friday evening. If the former governor wanted privacy and quiet time with his family he did not have to announce their plans. A decent man would not have posed for pictures holding the puppy or allowed his daughters to pose for pictures. A decent man would not have held a press conference with the whole family and their current dog saying, "We feel these are tough times for our family and this little puppy and Skittles over here are comforting. And they are just something that our little girls can love and cuddle and get comfortable with."

Anyone questioning whether this was an unfair ambush by the media can watch this footage from CBS Chicago and easily see how Blago welcomed the attention.

After choosing a Maltese-poodle mix, Rod, wife Patti and 15-year-old Amy and 8-year-old Annie all appeared before reporters and television cameras with their new puppy. If Rod really cared about helping his children get over “tough times,” why subject them to the glare of the cameras? While Patti told reporters that they wanted to “get the girls’ minds on something fun and positive,” I question her motives also because I see nothing positive about having the children face the media.

Blago is treating his children like pawns in a game of chess, a game a lot more complicated than checkers.

"I have nobody to blame but myself for my stupidity."

2011-12-08T06:51:00.000-06:00

By now, all those that care to know have learned that former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years for his conviction on 18 counts, including bribery and attempted extortion. At his sentencing hearing he said, "I have nobody to blame but myself for my stupidity.” While most people would think that his “stupidity” refers to his dastardly deeds, I view it completely differently. I think it should refer to his allowing a letter from his daughter begging for mercy to be read in court. I blame him for that.

Blago’s daughter, Amy, 15, was not in court when her letter was read, but she and her younger sister had been in court during the trials.

She wrote:

“For the past three years, my world has been spinning out of control. But what has made it [bearable] has been that my father is home almost all of the time. He’s been here to teach me life lessons.

“I will not be able to handle my father not being around. It’s too drastic a change. I need him here. I need him here for my high school graduation. I need him here if I do not get into college. I’ve wanted to go to Northwestern since I was in the 6th grade.

“I’ll need him when my heart gets broken. I’ll need him here for my dog Skittles. “I need my father in my life.”

Amy should not have been asking Judge Zagel for mercy, she should have been asking her Father why he risked their family life by committing those crimes. Blago would have put his family first---if they were that important to him. He was the person who took the right away from his children to have their father around, not Judge James Zagel who sentenced him. Or as Zagel said, he “allowed his family to accept a risk that he would be caught and punished.”

I was close to Amy’s age when my Father died suddenly of a heart attack while on a business trip. My Father did not attend my high school graduation; he did not see me get accepted into college and was not there to hold me when my heart was broken.

My Father did nothing wrong, yet my sister and I were sentenced to a lifetime without a Dad. Amy should feel lucky that her father is only gone for 14 years and at some point will actually come home.

SCROOGE

2011-12-06T07:13:00.001-06:00

I have a somewhat locally famous huge walk-in closet in my bedroom that is called, “The Present Closet.” It contains gifts running the gamut from a flat screen TV, espresso makers, a $300 bottle of champagne, jewelry and George Foreman grills to Jerry Springer t-shirts. So it will shock most people to learn that I hate giving presents during the holiday season.

As I mathematically proved in a recent blog, holiday shopping has virtually no impact on the nation’s economy and it just a sham to trick people into shopping. Other “holidays” are just as bad. Mother’s Day was basically invented by the greeting card industry to boost sales and I find it offensive that people think they have to have a reason to honor their Mother. The same thing stands for Sweetheart’s Day, Secretary’s Day and all of those other bogus kind of manufactured holidays.

I am not saying that Chanukah and Christmas are fake celebrations, but they have turned into money grubbing, present opening bonanzas for greedy people.

It is not because I am selfish that I don’t like giving presents during the holiday season, I just hate that people EXPECT presents and cash bonuses. I should be allowed to give a gift when I want to, not because it is a particular time of the year.

My theory for bestowing presents is that I want to give them when I WANT to, not because I HAVE to when the calendar page turns to December. Why do grown-up people think that just because it is the holiday season they are entitled to a gift? Children, I understand, but adults? Why?

So this is fair warning to everyone that they will not receive a holiday gift from me if they are more than 18 years old. But this caveat does not include my sister because with her, we are still just kids.

TAKING A GRILLING

2011-12-05T07:02:00.000-06:00

The City of Chicago is suing the Chicago Park District and the people who own the Park Grill in Millennium Park because the city feels the Park District had no right to enter into a lease with the restaurant in the first place and the lease, “does not meet commercially reasonable standards.” The case complaint, calling for declaratory relief and filed on December 1st, is 16 pages long with 159 pages of exhibits. The city’s Constitutional and Commercial Litigation Division of the Corporation Council signed the suit. The background details of how the lease came to be play out like the machinations of a soap opera. I replay the episodes below.

In late 2001, Matthew A. O'Malley and James Horan proposed Park Grill and Park Cafe to "provide both white-tablecloth meals and picnic-hamper fare for visitors in Millennium Park". O’Malley once worked for disgraced U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski and runs the Chicago Firehouse Restaurant where then Mayor Daley was a frequent diner. Horan is president of Blue Plate Catering, which runs a café at Gallery 37, an after-school art program created by Maggie Daley, the former Mayor’s late wife.

Many of the investors, who bought shares in the restaurant partnership for $200,000, have names that read like a Christmas card list of former Mayor Daley.

(1) Fred Barbara- nephew of the late Alderman Fred Roti who has ties to the Hired Truck Program scandal and the blue bag recycling controversy.

(2) Relatives of Daley’s former political advisor, Timothy Degnan.

(3) Two neighbors of Daley; Ray Chinn an O’Hare airport contractor and Rick Simon who runs a janitorial business with city ties and was former chairman of the Chicago Convention and Tourism Board.

(4) Former Congressman Morgan Murphy who had business dealings with convicted labor union official John Serpico.

Oh, by the way, the architectural metal company that did work on the structure of the restaurant was owned by the son of then Alderman Burton Natarus.

Three groups submitted proposals to the Park District to run the restaurant in September 2001. The Park Grill group's proposal was twice as long as the other two but promised the Park District the lowest revenues. But guess who proposal was accepted? O’Malley’s group won the rights to run the restaurant and souvenir and concession stands in Millennium Park.

After 18 months of negotiating, on February 11, 2003, a 20-year contract was signed that included the Park District paying for water, gas and garbage collection. The refuse pick up alone costs taxpayers about $245,000/annually.

With all of the previous information not being juicy enough, we now hear the soap opera’s ominous music playing. During the time of the negotiations between the Park District and O’Malley’s investor group, Laura Foxgrover, a Park District official gave birth to O’Malley’s child! It turns out she used to work for him as director of operations at his Chicago Firehouse Restaurant.

While she had written a letter in May 2002 recusing herself from the negotiations she never gave a reason and never told her superiors that her maternity leave was to give birth to O’Malley’s daughter born in September, 2002.

Even though Foxgrover recused herself from negotiations she testified before a Chicago City Council meeting in October 2003 in favor of the Park Grill getting a liquor license and on the same day testified for him to get a liquor license at his Clock Tower Café.

In July 2003, while she was acting director of park services, she sent an e-mail to O’Malley’s contractor which said she was the point person for the Park District if he had any questions. What happened to her recusing herself?

So one would think that an ethics investigation of Foxgrover would result in her losing her job? NO, this is Chicago. The ruling was that she did not violate the district’s ethics ordinance and could keep her $90,000/year job as the Park District’s director of development. She stayed a few years and then in 2008 left to work again for O’Malley’s restaurant management company.

Park Grill opened on November 24, 2003 and in its first year of operations only paid $162,656.72 in rent. The 2004/2005 Zagat Survey named the restaurant among the five "Top Newcomers" to Chicago. According to a Sun-Times story, The Park Grill began making money for its investors in its third year of operation, 2006, when investors split $527,250 in profits. According to stories in Restaurants and Institutions magazine, in 2008 the Park Grill was named one of the top 100 highest-grossing independent restaurants in the US, serving approximately 300,000 meals and grossing approximately $12,000,000 in sales, making it the seventh largest independent restaurant in terms of sales in Chicago in 2007.

Now that Mayor Richard Daley has retired, his clout-heavy friends have lost their ability to get away with insider deals. How sad for them but how lucky for the taxpayers of Chicago. Now Mayor Rahm Emanuel‘s law department is looking to invalidate the restaurant’s contract with the law suit filed last week.

According to the Chicago Tribune the city had to move quickly here because, “Corporation Counsel Steve Patton said in a statement that the city has been talking with the restaurant's owners about a settlement but felt it needed to act after recently receiving a letter saying the facility is being sold to a new owner, reportedly a company controlled by restaurateur Larry Levy.”

Just before the curtain drops on this latest episode of “Taking a Grilling,” it is important to know who the attorney for The Park Grill investor group is--none other than Michael Shakman! The same attorney who is best known for the federal court Shakman Decrees, which enjoined patronage hiring and firing of public employees in Chicago and Illinois.

So he was against patronage when it came to employment, but is now defending a company that got its deal though political clout! If you tried to sell this script as TV show, nobody would buy it because it is too unbelievable.

The only grilling that really took place here was the one suffered by the taxpayers of Chicago who were denied millions of dollars in revenues because of this sweetheart deal. They got no cake and did not get to eat it too.

Coming Clean "Cajun Style" Updated

2011-12-01T07:56:00.000-06:00

Herman Cain says he did not have an affair with that woman and it was exactly two years ago when golfer Tiger Woods got caught being a total sleazeball. It broke my Aunt Helaine’s heart because she loves Tiger. Cain she does not care about.

At that time, I decided to come clean about any transgressions in my past. I re-read the blog and there is nothing to add. I have been “clean” for the past two years. Below is the blog from December 2009 where I reveal all.

Kathy and Lawrence Welk in Palm Springs

One of my favorite episodes of the television show 30 Rock involved some incidents where political consultant James Carville kept mysteriously popping up out of nowhere, to advise people how to deal with their problems, “Cajun Style.” This method involved getting in “front of a story” and spinning it your own way.

I have not written about the Tiger Woods car accident except to post a comment on Shia Kapos blog in Crain’s in response to a story where sports agent Steve Zucker said Tiger should, “come forward, set the record straight about himself and not take questions.” I wrote, “Tiger Woods has no obligation to share his personal life with the world. I applaud him for being private. He owes no one an explanation [for] his actions except [to] his wife and family.”

As I write this, 9:27 a.m. (CST), a CNN breaking news alert just came in with a report, “Golfer Tiger Woods said today that he regrets ‘transgressions’ that ‘let his family down.’” I am mad about the CNN alert for two reasons. First, CNN should be breaking news of global importance and impact, not about a golfer cheating on his wife. Second, because Tiger should not have had to share that information with anyone except his family.

I am not a famous person, but one can never tell what might happen in the future. When E! Television broadcasts my “True Hollywood Story,” I want to be in front of the narrative, “Cajun Style.” If I air my own dirty laundry on my own terms, then I won’t have to see headlines in the National Enquirer or Star Magazines.

Let us start with when I was about 8 years old and I threw something at my sister at the bus stop and it cut her face. I don’t remember the details—the other students standing there that day 40 years ago might remember—but the incident was quite ugly and I regret it. I am apologetic for that occurrence. I swear that it will never happen again!

When I was 18 years old, I had the choice of staying at college and taking my midterm exams, or going to Palm Springs to play golf with Frank Sinatra and Lawrence Welk. As the picture on this posting shows, I went to the desert! I lied not only to my Mother about the trip, but to the nuns at Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart where I was a sophomore. I am repentant about my misbehavior. I swear that it will never happen again!

Through the years, I have had a number of affairs with married men. I cannot even remember their names because it was so long ago. But since they probably remember me (Wouldn’t YOU?), once I become famous, I’d better fess up to those indiscretions as well. I am remorseful about those episodes. I swear that it will never happen again!

Since I never cheated on a school exam (members of Mensa don’t have to do that), stole candy, shoplifted anything, misappropriated money or coveted my neighbor’s goods, I feel confident I have revealed here anything that might embarrass me in the future.

Unless you count the fact that I know where Jimmy Hoffa is buried.

Private Snow Plowing Revisited

2011-11-30T05:26:00.000-06:00

As we approach the first snowfall of the year, I was reminded of my favorite blog ever. It is also the favorite blog of devoted blog follower, Linda Shafran. It had to do with the hiring of snow plows to clean the side streets in Chicago. The original posting was on September 7, 2009.

Nothing is certain in Chicago but death, taxes and snow. Last year (2008) in a fit of budget pique, Mayor Daley announced the city was cutting back on the snow plowing of side streets. It was almost as if the ukase were pronounced as a punishment to Aldermen – those who would surely bear the brunt of their constituent’s complaints – while the Mayor’s guffaws could be heard chortling through City Hall.

The Daley administration has set forth a proposal to hire private companies to plow side streets this winter as a way to save money. Two options are being explored: one contract would pay a set monthly price for December through March and for half of November and April. The other option would have the city pay an hourly rate when services are necessary.

The Chicago Tribune reported that “several aldermen said they were caught off guard when Daley officials told them of the proposals last week, and they want to have more input into potential changes in such a key city duty.” Ald. Joe Moore (49th) said, "Nothing is more integral to city services than police and fire and city snow removal. I think we have to approach this with a degree of trepidation."

I don’t like either option. Option one is the monthly rate plan. How can the city decide in September how much snow is going to fall in the upcoming winter and, on top of that, be able to determine what the rate plan should be? Sure, the city could use past and future weather charts to try to determine an expectation of how much snow will fall, but a “guestimate” is not how the city should decide pricing on anything.

Option two is the hourly rate. Under the hourly rate, the snow plow driver would have no incentive to clear the street quickly. The longer it takes them to plow, the more money they will make. The hourly rate is just an invitation to plow slowly.

Not being just a naysayer, I have two options of my own to propose. One would be for the city to determine a flat rate per side-street. The snow plowing companies could bid on how many and which streets they want to plow. When snowfall reaches a certain level, the companies would send their trucks out.

My second idea, whimsical though it might be, would to equip the Laz parking meter enforcement aides with riding snow blowers. It is a work-force that currently exists, so costs would be at a minimum. The aides have to be on the streets checking if cars have valid parking receipts, so they are already out there. I researched online and the riding snow-blowers have a speed of 6-8 mph—about the velocity a person travels in a car in the city during inclement weather. Give the aides a few more bucks an hour and they could do the job.

So why hire trucks when just a blow job will do?

HOLIDAY SHOPPING DOES NOTHING FOR THE ECONOMY! Updated

2011-11-29T06:36:00.000-06:00

As the stories come out about how retails sales were during this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it reminded me of a blog I wrote 2 years ago, mathematically proving that holiday shopping has virtually no effect on the economy.

According to Marilyn Vos Savant’s column in Parade Magazine, total consumer spending accounts for about 70% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This spending includes housing, transportation, food clothing, etc. In 2008, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average household expenditure was approximately $50,486.

The National Retail Federation reports that consumers spent an average of $508 on holiday gifts last year. If we play with the numbers, that means that only .74% (¾ of one percent) of the economy is represented by holiday spending.

I am confused!

If holiday spending is such an infinitesimal part of the GDP, why does the media make such a big deal about Black Friday and holiday shopping expenditures? Why are every retailer’s cash register sales closely scrutinized, and online spending analyzed ad nauseum? The numbers prove that holiday spending has virtually no impact on our economy, yet the media wants us to believe otherwise. We are being “scared” into shopping, afraid if we don’t buy that extra teddy bear for little Jimmy’s stocking, the country’s economy will collapse.

We are bombarded with useless information. For example, a Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey reports that with less than two weeks to go before Christmas Day, 60% of Americans have at least started their holiday shopping. Also, thirty-eight percent (38%) of adults say they have not yet started shopping. Just one-out-of-five Americans (21%) have finished their holiday shopping, while 75% still have shopping to do.

Oh, no! Seventy-five percent of people still have not done their holiday shopping!? These people are smart. The closer to Christmas that people wait, the better the bargains become. The smartest shopper does his holiday buying on January 2^nd and saves the presents for the following Christmas.

The statistic that annoys me the most is the one that reports that, when they are out shopping, 72% of people prefer to see signs wishing them a “Merry Christmas” rather than ones that say "Happy Holidays." Why should it matter what a sign has printed on it? All that matters for this or for any season is that we are all healthy. Wealthy and wise wouldn’t hurt either!

Being a Regular Person Part 2

2011-11-28T07:45:00.001-06:00

Last week, I received a mailing saying I had to take my car in for an emission test. Doing that task reminded me what happened the last time I went for an emission test on the day after Thanksgiving. Read the story from November 27, 2009 below.

Being a Regular Person

I have often been accused of being an elitist snob. I think I have been burdened with an unfair characterization of my life and that depiction has come about because I do not take public transportation, wait in line, go food shopping, or get my own gas. The exclusion of those activities from my life should not make me a snob; but rather, it should describe someone who is discriminating in the use of her time.

I am uncomfortable being home when the housekeeper is there. It makes me feel lazy to watch someone perform menial tasks that I am physically capable of handling myself. I have the competence to clean my own residence; but certain duties like polishing the marble floors and cleaning the bathrooms are best left to a professional. When Souhey arrives, I always leave. (I am not even sure if Souhey is her name, but that is how I refer to her to myself. I never call her by name to her face.)

On Black Friday, when Souhey showed up, I had no business appointments to attend to, so I had scheduled doing some “regular people” tasks. My car needed gas and an emissions test, and I required a new glass shelf for one of my bathrooms. Now, these are all seemingly very easy assignments that anyone could accomplish. Raoul, my handyman, had offered to buy the shelf, but I said I would take care of it myself. How hard could it be to buy a glass shelf?

Being a geographically challenged person who can make no sense from even mapquest.com, I asked my doorman Ernie Banks how to get to Webster Avenue, where the Illinois Emissions Testing facility was located. Ernie’s first response was to laugh and offer to take my car to get it tested as he had done in the past. I assured him that while I was grateful for his offer, I wanted to do this on my own. Ernie easily explained how to get to 1850 W. Webster from my location on Michigan Avenue. Very simple, I thought.

On the way to the facility, I saw a gas station. Because I drive my car so infrequently I generally only need gas about once a month. I usually “trick” my imaginary big brother David into filling the tank for me, but since I thought David was out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, I was going to do it myself. I pulled into the gas station, turned the car off and then could not figure out how to open the gas tank. I called Jaguar service and they told me where the lever was. How simple! I swiped my credit card and the monitor popped up with the words, “Debit? Y/N?”. I kept pressing the NO button and nothing happened. I went into the station and paid the cashier directly. When I got back to my car, there was a “helpful,” but scary looking man standing next to the pump holding the nozzle who said he would fill my tank. I felt I had no choice but to let him to do the job and I tipped him $5.00. A snob would not have done that! A gold star for me!

I drove off and kept driving and driving and could not find Elston, the street that I was supposed to turn right on. I called Ernie Banks, the doorman, who reminded me that I was supposed to turn on Webster, not Elston, and that was why I was lost. I turned around, drove a while longer, and meandered through a lovely neighborhood with people walking dogs and I even passed Oz Park; a location that I had heard of and had never been to before. It was like an out of state adventure!

I finally located Webster, turned west, and arrived at the testing facility. The electronic sign in front indicated only a five minute wait. How wonderful! I pulled up to the closed garage doors and waited for one of them to open. Nothing was happening. I called the phone number on the test papers and got a recorded voice asking me which facility I was inquiring about. I said, “Webster.” The voice replied, “Napperville,” and proceeded to tell me that there was only a five minute wait at the Napperville facility. How lovely for people in Napperville. I called again, and said, “Webster,” the voice replied, “East St. Louis,” which also only had a five minute wait. Frustrated, I looked at the papers, hoping to find a different phone number to call and noticed that testing facilities were closed on state holidays. Who knew the Friday after Thanksgiving was a state holiday? Why didn’t the recording tell me that instead of “five minute wait?” (On Monday, I will call the Illinois EPA office to complain about the stupid recording! You can bet on that!)

I still needed to buy the glass shelf for the bathroom, so I called Ernie Banks once again and asked for directions to get to Home Depot. I had never been to a Home Depot, but I get their flyers all the time and they are supposed to sell everything a person needs for the home. It seemed like a logical place to go. Well, Home Depot does not sell glass shelves for bathrooms. By the size of the store, they sell everything else I might need for my home, but not glass shelves. Incredible!

I called my imaginary big brother David to complain that he was out of town and that I was forced to get gas and shop by myself and it turns out he had not gone out of town after all – so we are having dinner tonight. David directed me to an Ace Hardware store to locate a glass shelf. I doubt if it is necessary for me to tell you that they did not have the shelf. They suggested I go to Home Depot.

So I am now home two hours later and did not get the emissions test or buy a glass shelf. Ernie will take the car next week for me to get the test and I will order the shelf on the Internet. Okay, I admit it. I am an elitist snob. No more “simple” tasks for me. They are just too hard!

FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD!

2011-11-23T07:01:00.000-06:00

The holidays are a rough time of the year for people like me. I am a food-a-holic. Food addicts have to watch people consume vast quantities of vittles -- and act like it does not bother us.

I was overweight for much of my lifetime. My parents did everything they could to help me eat healthy, but I would “sneak” junk food all the time. I was on diet pills as a child, went to “fat camp” in the summer, belonged to a gym etc. My being fat was because I chose to put sweets and fried food in my mouth -- my parents were innocent!

I joined the bowling team in high school so I could be at the alley and eat fries and drink Coke. I attended football and basketball sporting events at school—not because I wanted to be a spectator—but just because they sold candy at the games.

Most of my life has been one of fat and not so fat—never really thin -- except in 1982 for about six months.

In 2007, my doctor told me that if I did not start losing weight, I would likely get diabetes. That piece of news really scared me straight. He told me that if I gave up one thing every day, I would lose 10 pounds in 4 months. He wanted to see me in four months and was going to weigh me. I hate the weigh in.

I left his office and decided to give up bread and cheese because I was emotionally and physically addicted to both of them. When I was at a restaurant, I would eat through two baskets of rolls slathered with cheese even before I ate my meal. Bread was also an excuse just to put half a jar of mayonnaise between two slices of any kind of bread.

By giving up bread and cheese, I lost 60 pounds that year and have kept most of it off almost five years later. I still have more weight that I want to lose, but I look okay from the outside. You would not want to see me naked, though!

Some people wrongly use food as a celebration ritual or a treat. “It is your birthday, have some cake.” “You did well on that report, have an extra dessert.” “It is Thanksgiving; stuff yourself until you want to vomit.”

Even when I ate anything and everything, I would never eat to the point of being over-satiated. I do not enjoy the feeling of an overloaded stomach. So whether fat, not so fat, or thin, I wish someone could explain to me what is fun about overeating at Thanksgiving? The only being stuffed at the table should be the turkey, not the guests! So be careful out there on Thursday! Use moderation, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose.

CUT OFF THEIR LEGS

2011-11-22T06:59:00.000-06:00

Chris Fusco and Art Golub at the Sun-Times wrote a wonderfully documented three- part series on people who abuse handicap parking placards. The placards, 9” X4” cards that hang one’s rear view mirror, are like gold because they permit people to park for free anywhere in the city where rates can reach $50/day. The placards also allow otherwise able-bodied people to park in handicap-only designated spots.

The story reported, “With the help of a retired Chicago Police Department lieutenant, the newspaper did regular spot checks in the South Loop and elsewhere in the city.

In September and October, those checks found as many as 60 cars with handicap placards or handicap license plates were parking for free each day in the area bounded by Roosevelt Road and Van Buren Street, and Desplaines Street and Canal Street.”

The newspaper documented their findings with a videographer and photographer “based on research by retired police Lt. Robert Angone, whose 19-year-old daughter lost her left leg to cancer when she was just 6 months old. In September and October, Angone observed 82 instances in which seemingly able-bodied people used handicap placards or handicap license plates to park throughout the South Loop, around the Cook County Criminal Courthouse at 26th and California and at other various spots.”

There are many people who obtain a handicap placard or plate because they drive a family member to the doctor or on errands. The placard can only be used when the designated recipient of the placard is with the driver. The Illinois Secretary of State web site clearly spells the rules out:

“Placards ARE NOT transferable. The authorized holder of disability

plates or a placard must be present and must enter or exit

the vehicle at the time the parking privileges are being used.

Violators face a $500 fine, driver’s license suspension and suspension/

revocation of the plates or placard. (625 ILCS 5/11-

1301.3 (a-1)).”

Handicap-parking complaints can be filed with the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office online at cyberdriveillinois.com. Click on “Parking Program for Persons with Disabilities Abuse Complaint Form.”

The penalties for misuse of placards or plates are severe, as they should be:

PENALTIES

--People caught using handicap placards or handicap license plates without the placard- or plate-holder present face a fine of at least $500 and a 30-day driver’s license suspension. The police also can confiscate illegally used placards.

--Doctors who make false statements to help someone obtain a handicap plate or placard face fines of up to $1,000.

--People caught altering placards; manufacturing fakes; using fake, lost or stolen placards; or selling real or fake placards could be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, which is punishable by jail time, fines of up to $2,500 and a one-year driver’s license suspension.

I have had many medical problems and there have been times when I could barely walk one block because of the pain I experience. People have asked me why I never gotten a handicap license or placard. I would not get one because I don’t have a permanent disability, and most of the time I am fine. I might medically be able to obtain a placard, but I wouldn’t do it because the handicap spaces are for people who require them all the time.

I wish we could add a penalty of cutting off the legs of anyone who illegally obtains a handicap placard or license because then they would really need it.

I CAN SPEND LIKE I AM ONE PERCENT !

2011-11-21T07:29:00.001-06:00

What is wrong with being part of the 1%? Name one person, besides the deceased Mother Theresa, who does not want to earn at least $343,927 a year? According to the IRS, about 1.4 million households reached that level in 2009, earning nearly 17% of the nation's income and paying roughly 37% of the country’s total income tax. I want one legitimate reason why someone would NOT want to earn that much money. Then, I will admit that I am wrong.

Don’t come back to me, whining that it is unfair that some people earn a lot more money than others. Life is not fair. Maybe those who earn more, work harder. Our democracy is based on capitalism, not a Karl Marx communist philosophy of from each according to his ability and to each according to his needs.

If you claim that you don’t need $343,927 to live on annually, then give it away voluntarily. You don’t have to spend the money on yourself. But our country’s economy allows us to earn as much as we work to achieve; and it does not have to be shared with those at a lower income. It is a person’s individual choice to be charitable or not.

I know that driving a 1987 Volkswagen Beetle will take me to the same place as a 2011 Bentley convertible, but it won’t give me the style or comfort I have earned or deserve. Why wouldn’t anyone desire a luxury car? I owned a Ferrari once, and I felt very cool driving it around. Great ego booster!

What is wrong with wanting a beautiful home, vacations, jewelry, fur coats, designer clothes, lobster every night and champagne, to toast that you actually woke up and are still alive? It is only “wrong” for those who have the absurd belief that those that have, owe those that have not.

I guarantee that not one single one of the Occupy Wall Street protesters would rip the ticket up if they discovered they won the lottery for $100 million dollars. Nor would they give the prize away.

Actually back in 2007 it took $424,000 to make the cut, but income levels have gone down and now it only takes $343,927. Life is rough for the one percenters, but it is still better than sleeping in a tent.

In Memory of Kevin Black

2011-11-18T07:40:00.000-06:00

Because Kevin was such a major part of my life and taught me much of what I know about technology, I wanted to memorialize him forever on my blog.

Good night, Sweet Prince.

Kevin Carl Black
July 27, 1962- November 3, 2011

STILL LEARNING MORE EVERY DAY

2011-11-17T07:15:00.001-06:00

Education should not stop when we leave institutions of learning. No matter what one’s age, there are fascinating things to be learned every day. I eve solve math puzzles at night before I go to sleep to exercise my brain. I love Kakuro—these are mathematical logic puzzles at a level of difficulty much harder than the Suduko grids one sees in the newspaper. So when a friend used the phrase, “fetch bill,” in reference to some upcoming legislation, I was fascinated and had to learn what it was.

The concept of a “fetch bill” is that politicians submit a bill that would have a negative financial impact on a certain group, like new taxation, with the knowledge that members of that particular group would start lobbying them (substitute the words “donate money to their campaign” for lobbying) to withdraw the potential legislation. “Fetch bill” is the phrase used in Illinois. In California it is called a “juice bill” and in other states “milker bills.” How naïve have I been never to have known this information? And how disgusting is it that politicians do this?

Research on the term “fetch” lead me to discover a website of catch phraseshttp://www.doubletongued.org that is 1050 pages long. I became fascinated by scrolling through the pages and learning words and phrases that had been conceived for circumstances where no phrase had existed before. Two of the phrases are actually mine. See if you can guess which are “official” words and phrases and which are the ones I invented.

Probability entertainment- Spending your entertainment dollars at a casino instead of at the theater or a concert hoping for the probability of winning.

Seagen- A noun describing a vegan that eats seafood.

Broccoli journalism- Being forced to read stories by journalists that are supposed to be good for you.

Profestival- A combination of a protest and a festival. In Seattle they hold an annual Hempfest where people party while protesting the marijuana laws.

Momarazzi- At school events where all the Moms have their cell phones out and are taking pictures.

Sagantis of the ass- When the lower half of one’s body becomes almost “frozen” from sitting at their desk chair for hours and not moving.

Dittoism- Everyone thinking the same thought.

Do you know which ones are on the double-tongued site and which ones I invented? E-mail me your thoughts.

THE FAT SQUABS ARE EVERYWHERE!

2011-11-16T07:50:00.000-06:00

My mother loved me and my sister very deeply; but she was hardly fond of other people’s children. She referred to them as “fat squabs.” Because she has passed, I cannot ask her how she decided on that description, but it is one I also use when referring to children. I love visiting with the children of my friends, but I have to admit that I am happy when they go home. Strange children in public places are abhorrent to me. I don’t care about your children.

Unfortunately for me, we have become a “Mommy-Centric” nation, where it is permissible for mothers to bare their breasts in public and allow their children to suckle at the source. I understand that babies need to be fed, but do it in privacy; I sure don’t want to see it!

My feeling is if someone decides to have a child, she should be responsible for taking care of it and not expect “the village” to help. The latest trend in child care is for restaurants, stores, salons -- all places I frequent—to have child-friendly areas for mommies to be able to drop off the squabs while they go about their errands.

The Chicago Tribune recently published a story about this subject where they explained the need for “kid friendly” retail.

“Every errand becomes a logistical calculation for parents: Spend money on a sitter and watch the clock while you're out, or bring the children, hoping they won't draw too much attention.

But a number of stores, restaurants, even salons, are providing toys, books and other distractions, making it easier for parents to take along their tots. An upscale River North restaurant brings Disney-loaded portable DVD players to the table, while a women's clothing store in Lincoln Square has toys near the dressing room so moms can — imagine this — try on clothes uninterrupted.”

Why should I care if every errand becomes a logistical calculation for parents? They choose to be parents; they should have made plans on how to care for the squab before it was born.

Sara Youngblood-Ochoa, who writes the online newsletter Macaroni Kid Chicago Loop, said in the Tribune story that “businesses are finding new ways to welcome children.” She pointed out a car dealership with a playroom of toys and a television. "The purchasing of a car can be a tedious process," she said. "I thought, 'That is very smart.'" I agree that purchasing a car is a wearisome project, but it is unwise for a parent to take a child along for that ride.

Keep your children at home until they are old enough to conduct themselves properly in public. Don’t make the rest of us watch them having a tantrum. Not my problem!

If a parent decides to bring her children to a kid- friendly store, where there are strangers all around, anything can happen. Don’t be surprised if you hear a mommy cry out, “A dingo ate my baby!” when it disappears.

LOVING THE NEW CHICAGO FINES!

2011-11-15T07:38:00.000-06:00

When Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel sent out his 71 page transition plan last May, I mocked it in a two part series. I thought, and still think that there were many ideas I did not agree with, such as adding bicycle lanes, and making city employees go to health and wellness classes. But Rahm’s 2012 revenue ordinance, which raises a lot of fines, is simply fabulous!! Make the bad guys pay!

The Chicago Sun-Times provided a great list of the proposed higher fines and fees:

(1) If your car is impounded for carrying drugs, driving drunk, soliciting a prostitute or carrying a firearm registered to someone other than the driver, the penalty will double — to $2,000. But, if the violations occur within 500 feet of a park or school, the fine will triple — to $3,000.

(2) If your car is seized for drag racing on Chicago streets, there’s a new, $1,000 fine in addition to the towing and storage fee.

(3) For playing a radio too loud, the new fine will be anywhere from $500 to $750.

(4) If the vehicle is snatched for driving with a suspended or revoked license or displaying altered temporary registration permits, the fine would double — to $1,000.

(5) Vehicles towed after being used in an unlawful attempt to flee or elude police officers would also double — to $2,000.

(6) Tampering with parking meters or pay-and-display boxes — something motorists have done on occasion to vent their anger at the deal that privatized Chicago parking meters — would carry a fine ranging from $500 to $750.

Nuisance fines are going up also. They include:

(1)Allowing weeds to grow to a height that exceeds 10 inches — $600-to-$1,200-a-day, up from $500-to-$1,000.

(2)Illegal dumping or allowing trash to accumulate in a way that provides a food supply for rats — $300-to-$600, up from $250-to-$500.

(3)Accumulation of materials or junk on any open lot or other premises not placed on open racks “elevated not less than 18 inches above ground”: $300-to-$600, up from $250-to-$500.

(4) Failure to maintain vacant lots and keep them clear of debris: $300-to-$600.

(5) Neglecting to register or renew registration of a vacant building: $500.

Since I know I will never be drag racing with a prostitute in a school zone while drunk, carrying a firearm and attempting to elude the police while doing it after I had tampered with a meter box, I will never be subject to any of the higher fines. If the new fines mean lower property taxes, I hope a lot of horny men will drink to that!

NOVEMBER STORIES

2011-11-14T07:58:00.000-06:00

WHY I WRITE THE BLOG

I happened upon this quote, and I realized that it describes exactly why I write this blog. It is from Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, a writer during the French Renaissance in the 14^th Century. Five hundred years later, I feel the same way that he did. “I write to keep from going mad from the contradictions I find among mankind --and to work some of those contradictions out for myself.”

Funny, I have a jacket just like his in my closet.

RED LIGHT CAMERAS

I love red light cameras that catch people who go through a red light. I have written of my support many times. According to the Chicago Department of Transportation in 2010, the fines from people blowing through red lights produced $61 million in revenue for Chicago. Mayor Rahm Emanuel is currently lobbying for legislation in the Illinois General Assembly which would allow Chicago to utilize its red light cameras to also issue $100 speeding ticket to vehicle owners accused of exceeding the speed limit by more than 5 MPH in designated "safety zones" within an eighth of a mile of schools, parks and colleges.

A CDOT study predicts that the fines collected could reach more than $100 million a year but Mayor Emanuel says "I hope I get no revenue from this." CDOT chief Gabe Klein claims the goal is just to get drivers to slow down.

I don’t run red lights, so red light cameras won’t nail me. In fact, CDOT is so fair about sharing information on red light cameras that they list every one of them on their website at chicagotraffictracker.com. Just click on the red light cameras link and you get a map of Chicago with every red light camera listed.

So if you have a lead foot, just avoid those intersections!

MICHAEL MOORE NOT A REGULAR JOE

Michael Moore has made himself the unofficial spokesperson for Occupy Wall Street, yet he consistently denies that he is part of the 1% who earn more than $593,000/year that OWS is protesting against.

According to www.celebritynetworth.com he has a net worth of more than $50 million.

1) Moore’s biggest three movies have grossed over $300 million at the box office worldwide.
2) Fahrenheit 911 made $230 million in theaters and $3 million in DVD sales. After the theaters take their 50% cut, we’re left with $130 million. Take out another $50 million for marketing, production and distribution and Moore is left with $80 million.
3) Moore negotiated a deal with Miramax which guarantees him 27% of all of his film’s net revenues.
4) Moore was also given 50% of all profits from Sicko
5) Moore is a bestselling author who receives 7 figure advances.
6) Ironically, Moore’s film Sick was actually financed by none other than Goldman Sachs through a $500 million investment fund set up for Harvey and Bob Weinstein’s film company.

Michael Moore cannot pretend to be a regular Joe, Joe the Plumber or Joe Six Pack. He does not even look Joeish.

NOBODY KNOWS THIS GUY?

2011-11-11T07:39:00.000-06:00

On April 13, 2010, I wrote a blog, “As The Alderman Like It,” about the watered-down ordinance that would create the office of a City Council Inspector General with the power to investigate Aldermen and their employees.

The current Chicago Inspector General (IG) is banned by ordinance to investigate Aldermen, so a new office had to be created. Section 2-56-050 of the ordinance that established the office of the city’s Inspector General outlines the duties and jurisdiction of the IG as:

BROAD JURISDICTION:

Section 2-56-050 — Conduct of City officers, employees and other entities
Provides jurisdiction over all City officials, employees, those doing business with the city and those seeking city certification. Excludes the City Council and staff, and City Council Committees and staff

I wrote then, “To paraphrase the melancholy Jacques in his monologue (Act II, Scene VII) in William Shakespeare’s play, As You Like It, ‘All of Chicago is a stage, and all the men and women merely players….’ Chicago citizens are merely puppets with our strings being manipulated by the Aldermen who watch us wiggle while we bobble up and down at their beck and call.”

I also pointed out that this new IG, “would be appointed to a four-year term after a search panel chosen by the Rules Committee recommended candidates to the City Council. The new IG would have subpoena power. But, all investigative findings would have to be presented to the city's Board of Ethics, which has never taken action against aldermen.“

Alderman Joe Moore (D-49) did not like the new ordinance, because it contained language that there must be “signed and sworn complaints” for an investigation to proceed. “‘It’s as bad, if not worse than doing nothing,’ Moore said. ‘There is no investigative agency in the world that needs a sworn complaint. Not the U.S. attorney, not the state's attorney. Not the attorney general. Not the [city's] inspector general. It really prevents any serious investigations from taking place.’”

Then on August 13, 2010, I wrote, “All Of Chicago is a Stage” about how it was now months since the ordinance had been passed and Alderman Mell (D-33), Chairman of the City Council’s Rules Committee, had not appointed a search committee yet. Once that panel was in place, the job would have to be advertised, and applicants would have to apply, be interviewed, ratified, etc. No budget had even been discussed yet.

Last week, 18 months after the ordinance was passed, Faisal Khan, a York attorney was named to fill the job at a part-time salary of $60,000. He will have no staff.

Ald. Edward Burke (D-14), chairman of the Finance Committee said that Kahn’s job will be to “to respond to complaints, if there are any, of members of the body or staff of the City Council that might be accused of wrongdoing." (Highlighted section by me) Since 1972, when the city had no Inspector General investigating City Council, 29 current and former Chicago aldermen have been sentenced to jail. So I think it is a safe bet to say that there will be complaints!

Re the choice of Khan from all of the applicants, Alderman Mell said that Khan had no ties to Chicago and paraphrased the old political line about Chicago patronage by saying, "This is nobody nobody sent. This guy, nobody knows this guy."

Mell obviously did not do a simple Google search like I did.

I found a Faisal Khan, an assistant district attorney in Queens, who was married on November 4th in New York. His wedding was covered by the NewYork Times. In relating the courtship of Khan and his then girlfriend Sanam Hafeez, the story reported, “He proposed in February at dinner in the Signature Room, a restaurant atop the John Hancock Center in Chicago, where they had been visiting friends.” Can it be the same Khan who is up for the IG job that Alderman Mell says "nobody knows this guy?"

What friends was he visiting in Chicago if nobody here knows him?

Also, according to the Chicago Tribune, “Khan, who will turn 38 on Friday, went to law school in New York and was licensed as an attorney there in 2002, according to Illinois Registration and Disciplinary Commission records. He was licensed in Illinois in March, the records indicate.” So for no reason at all, a lawyer who supposedly does not know anyone in Chicago, gets licensed here? Makes no sense.

Maybe somebody did send him.

FAKE CITIZENS, ANCHOR BABIES

2011-11-10T07:13:00.000-06:00

The 14^th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was passed by the Reconstruction Congress after the Civil War and ratified in 1868 to protect native-born Black Americans whose rights were being denied as recently-freed slaves. Section One’s primary purpose was to guarantee the same inalienable rights to former slaves as to any other American citizen and to ensure that individual states could not deny citizenship to members of this group.

Section 1 of the 14^th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution reads:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

This amendment has being incorrectly interpreted to allow any baby born in the United States automatic citizenship, no matter what its heritage is. Birthright citizenship has created an industry in producing what is known as anchor babies.

According to the Double-Tongued Dictionary, edited by American lexicographer Grant Barrett, the term "anchor baby" means "a child born of an immigrant in the United States, said to be a device by which a family can find legal foothold in the US, since those children are automatically allowed to choose United States citizenship." There is a huge industry built around women coming to the U.S. just to give birth.

Congressman Steve King (R-IA), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration, said last year, “There are a several estimates as to the number of anchor babies born to illegal alien mothers in the U.S. each year. One estimate holds that the number is 750,000. That means two of twelve, or one out of six of all babies born in the U.S. are born to illegal alien mothers."

To counteract the “fake citizenship” problem, Congressman King introduced a bill at the beginning of the year, HR140, called the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011. Because Congress moves so slowly, who knows what year it will be when it is passed? A similar bill, S.723, was introduced in the U.S. Senate by Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana).

OfficialSummary HR 140

Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011 - Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to consider a person born in the United States "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States for citizenship at birth purposes if the person is born in the United States of parents, one of whom is:

(1) a U.S. citizen or national,
(2) a lawful permanent resident alien whose residence is in the United States, or
(3) an alien performing active service in the U.S. Armed Forces.

The Rasmussen Reports, an electronic media company founded specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion polling information, conducted a national poll to find out what Americans felt about the proposed bill. The poll found that 61% of likely voters believe that a child born in the U.S. to a woman who entered illegally should NOT automatically become a citizen. According to Rasmussen, this is the highest level of support seen thus far for changing the law.

So should babies who are born in America automatically become citizens? I watched the new magazine news show, Rock Center with Brian Williams, where correspondent Kate Snow did a report on the industry of “birth tourism.” The segment featured a home in California where Chinese women stay in order to give birth to their babies in America. One of the rooms was lined with cradles full of days-old babies who had automatically become U.S. citizens by virtue of the latitude and longitude of their first breath.

A person should be counted as a citizen of the country where his Mother is a citizen, not where her water breaks.

WHO ANSWERS TO WHOM?

2011-11-08T07:09:00.000-06:00

The City of Chicago’s Inspector General’s office (IGO) is very important because (no surprise here), the city is full of corrupt people! The latest report that Joseph Ferguson, the city’s Inspector General (IG), presented to City Council last week showed that.

In his statement to the City Council he pointed out:

“Over the past year, IGO audits and program reviews have identified more than $700,000 in lost or wasted City expenditures, operational inefficiencies that cost the City about $19 million a year, and identified more than $13.5 million inappropriate and out of protocol spending, including:

- $134,325 in lost merchandise (City Clerk Vehicle Sticker Audit, 2010 Q4)

- $13,678,786 in inappropriate expenditures (OEMC Audit, 2011 Q2)

- $19,001 in missing electronics (OEMC Audit)

- $481,641 in unnecessary spending due to failure to utilize contract guaranty (Tree Audit, 2011 Q2)

- $19 million in annual waste due to redundant staffing in the ranks of Motor Truck Drivers across numerous City Departments.

Besides identifying waste and fraud, the office is involved in criminalinvestigations. “On the investigations side, we have completed 241 separate cases to date in 2011, and have assisted Federal and State prosecutors in 31 ongoing or completed criminal prosecutions that stemmed from IGO investigations. This helps to ensure a strong disincentive for City employees and contractors who would engage in fraud and other unlawful conduct to profit from the City."

Current pending cases in federal court from IGO investigations include major multi-defendant M/WBE program fraud cases arising from matters in which the City was defrauded of millions of dollars. Trials, pleas and sentences in the still ongoing Operation Crooked Code initiative involving corruption in the Building Department has now reached 21 convicted individuals, 15 of whom were City employees. There will be additional trials in the coming months.

The history of the office goes back to 1956, but it really had no power until the 1980’s when “the ordinance creating the IGO provided for investigative powers previously denied to the City’s internal investigative agencies. The Inspector General has the power to issue subpoenas to compel the attendance of witnesses for purposes of examination, as well as the production of documents and other items for inspection and/or duplication.”

On the web site of the IG is the mission statement, “The mission of the City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (IGO) is to root out corruption, waste, and mismanagement, while promoting effectiveness and efficiency in City government. The IGO is a watchdog for the taxpayers of the City, and has jurisdiction to conduct investigations and audits into most aspects of City government.”

To make sure that someone is watching the watchdog, IGO undergoes a triennial quality assessment peer review and hired an outside audit firm to conduct a review of their investigative accounts going back five years.

So what is the problem? Maybe figuring out who reports to whom?

In a Tribune story,we learn that Corporation Counsel Stephen Patton, ( the city’s own chief attorney) says the inspector general ultimately reports to the mayor and cannot enforce subpoenas without Law Department approval. That does not allow the IG to “have full independence from the very administration he is supposed to investigate.”

Last week after a city council meeting Patton said, “He’s independent, but the IG is a part of city government and ultimately reports to the mayor as the chief executive — as the elected official.” The Tribune reported that “The administration’s position means the inspector general’s ability to get some documents it needs for investigations depends on a department that reports to the mayor.”

Back to the question. Who does the Office of the Inspector General report to? The ordinance creating the office gave it subpoena power, but if the mayor’s office needs to approve the subpoenas first, they could quash them.

The answer is simple.

The Inspector General should report to the citizens of Chicago and no one else.

SMOKE THIS! It might soon be almost legal in Chicago.

2011-11-07T07:27:00.000-06:00

For the most part, it is illegal to smoke or possess marijuana throughout the United States. Each state passes its own laws with varying degrees of fines if one is caught with weed. In Illinois, possession of marijuana is classified as a misdemeanor offense as long as the total weight is 30 grams or less. (30 grams is equal to about one ounce.) Now some Cook County Commissioners and Chicago Aldermen want to reduce the severity of a “pot bust” simply because the “war on drugs” has failed. If this happens, a cigarette smoker could be in more trouble for puffing than someone sucking on a blunt depending on the level of the fine.

Is nicotine really worse than narcotics? I don’t think so. Government would rather decriminalize the drug because they have been unsuccessful in suppressing it. How pathetic for elected officials to admit their failure in suppressing drug use instead of figuring out how to stop it!

I find it insane that elected officials are waving the white flag on drug use, yet tobacco users are treated like pariahs.

I was saddened a few months ago when Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said that she had spoken with Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy about halting arrests for low-level drug possession offenses. She said, “I suggested to him that although the law is pretty clear that such possession is a violation of the law, that since the judges routinely and almost universally dismiss such low-level drug charges, that the police might stop arresting people for this, since it clogs up our jail and these people … their cases will be dismissed out anyway.”

So the highest-elected official in Cook County, someone elected to enforce the law, has instructed a police superintendent to ignore the LAW because there are too many offenses to prosecute and it clogs up the legal system!

Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey (D-12th) joined Alderman Richard Mell (D-33rd), Alderman Walter Burnett (D-27th), Alderman Danny Solis (D-25) and Alderman. Ariel Reboyras (D-30th) in announcing that Solis will introduce a proposal at this week’s city council meeting to make possession of up to 10 grams a $200 ticket, with up to 10 hours of community service.

According to Fritchey, Chicago police make about 23,000 arrests each year for marijuana possession, which is currently a class b misdemeanor in the city punishable by up to 6 months in jail and a $1,500 fine. Fritchey says that police and court personnel get tied up dealing with those arrestees. But isn’t that why the court system exists? To process criminals? His justification for wanting the decriminalization? "It is not time to act tough on crime, it is (time) to be smart on crime.” That makes no sense! It is always the right time to be tough on crime!

If I wanted to be really nasty, I would research court records and see which of this selective group of elected officials have ever been arrested for drug use. I can just about guarantee a few of them probably have.

SPECIAL SHOULD MEAN SPECIAL

2011-11-03T07:10:00.000-05:00

My friends Cheryl and Derek recently entrusted me with money and gift cards to be used by me for any “special needs” at Doolittle School where I do volunteer work. I have set that money aside to buy “fixings” to go with turkeys that Scott Lee Cohen is donating to families at Doolittle who cannot afford a holiday meal. Cheryl and Derek gave me the money for a specific purpose, not for me to use to buy Diet Coke and Lean Cuisine for myself. Even if I were starving, I could not use that “special” money for myself because it is not mine. It would be stealing if I used the “special” money for any other purpose. The Supreme Court of Illinois disagrees with me, because they just ruled in favor of Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and the Legislature to allow them to “steal” money from hundreds of special state funds.

Two examples of special funds created by the legislature are:

“There is created in the State Treasury a special fund to be known as the Secretary of State Special License Plate Fund. Money deposited into the Fund shall, subject to appropriation, be used by the Office of the Secretary of State (i) to help defray plate manufacturing and plate processing costs for the issuance and, when applicable, renewal of any new or existing registration plates authorized under this Code and (ii) for grants made by the Secretary of State to benefit Illinois Veterans Home libraries.”

“The Illinois Fire Fighters' Memorial Fund is created as a special fund in the State Treasury. Moneys deposited into the Fund shall, subject to appropriation, be used by the Office of the State Fire Marshal for construction of the Illinois Fire Fighters' Memorial to be located at the State Capitol grounds in Springfield, Illinois. Upon the completion of the Memorial, moneys in the Fund shall be used in accordance with Section 3‑634.”

There are hundreds of funds like these in Illinois. The money collected, whether it is by people paying an extra fee to have a special license plate, or fines imposed upon convicted corporations that are designated for certain organization, is designated in the beginning for one purpose only. It should not matter if the state needs money for some other reason. It is simply not the state’s money to use. At least that is how I feel—but unfortunately, only one Illinois Supreme Court Justice agrees with me.

According to the Illinois StatehouseNews, “In a 6-to-1 decision Thursday{last week}, the high court upheld a 2006 Sangamon County Circuit Court ruling that backed the governor and Legislature’s ability to take money from hundreds of special state funds, a practice commonly referred to as sweeping.

Motorcycle riders sued former Gov. Rod Blagojevich after he ordered that $296,000 be taken from the Cycle Riders Safety Training Fund, or CRSTF. A portion of the fee for an Illinois motorcycle license went into the CRSTF, which the motorcycle education and advocacy group A Brotherhood Aimed Towards Education, or ABATE, argued, was only to be spent on motorcycle safety education. The governor that year used the $296,000 to pay general state bills.”

Justice Anne Burke wrote for the majority, “Clearly, the fee charged by the state for motorcycle registration and licensing is state revenue, and therefore the portion of this state revenue which the General Assembly has allocated to the CRSTF is also public money.” Statehouse news said that “Burke rejected the ABATE lawyers’ argument that the special fund was tantamount to a special trust fund.”

With the lone opposing vote, Chief Justice Tom Kilbride wrote in his dissenting opinion that he is “concerned, however, that the legislature may have swept private or federal funds. This court has an obligation to address the implications of sweeping private donations and federal grant moneys.”

ABATE lawyer Rod Taylor said, “The decision just strikes terror into the basic fabric of American life, the sanctity of contract.”

The Illinois lottery has been publicizing a new lottery where the proceeds will benefit various veteran organizations. I asked an elected official in Springfield if the money will really go to veterans or can it be swept. I was told that it could be swept, but they would not do that. Do you believe that? Hey, can I sell you a bridge in Brooklyn?

The fact that the Governor and Legislature can do whatever they want with money that had been originally designated for something else is morally wrong. Considering the last two Illinois Governors are convicted felons for taking money in bribes, why should we expect anything better from this state government? I guess the third time is not the charm.

TAKE THIS BIKERS!

2011-11-02T07:42:00.000-05:00

I have written many times of my hatred of the majority of bicyclists in the City of Chicago. Two wheeled riders do not belong in an urban environment. The most recent was on October 5^th, when I reminded people that there are rules of the road for bicyclists. The rules are meaningless because when bicyclists break them, nothing is ever done to apprehend the errant rider. One of the problems is that because there is no way to identify a particular bicyclist, they merrily roll away with no fear of retribution.

To remind people, the Chicago Department of Transportation lists the rules of the road for bicyclists on its website.

Section-52-010 Rights and duties -

(a) Every person riding a bicycle upon a roadway shall be granted all of the rights and shall be subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle by the laws of this state declaring rules of the road applicable to vehicles or by the traffic ordinances of this city applicable to the driver of a vehicle, except as to those provisions of laws and ordinances which by their nature can have no application.

(b) The regulations in the traffic code applicable to bicycles shall apply whenever a bicycle is operated upon any roadway or public sidewalk or upon any public path set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles, subject to those exceptions stated herein.

(c) Whenever authorized signs are erected indicating that no right or left turn or turn in the opposite direction is permitted, no person operating a bicycle shall disobey the direction of any such sign unless he dismounts from the bicycle to make the turn, in which event he shall then obey the regulations applicable to pedestrians.

It is very clear that bicycle riders have to obey the same LAWS that motor vehicle drivers do. Yet because they know that police have more important things to do than chase after a bicyclist making an illegal turn, their CONSCIENCE lets them ride as wildly as they want.

Now we pedestrians and car drivers might have an opportunity to be able to identify these crazy two-wheeled cyclists, because Chicago Alderman Richard Mell (33rd), chairman of the City Council’s Rules Committee, has called for licenses for bicyclists. At a city council hearing Mell said, “I wonder if it’s possible. I guess you can’t do it. But, have ’em licensed. Have a bike license. Put a little tag on it. Pay a couple bucks. But if not that, at least say, ‘Here’s what we’re doing for you. How ’bout doing something for us? How ’bout adhering to the traffic signs?’” Finally, an Alderman who is as frustrated as I am by the illegal lane-changing bicyclists!

A friend who lives in the West Loop where the City has constructed a dedicated bicycle lane on Kinzie Street told me that the traffic congestion is horrible. Besides the back-ups the cars endure she said, “It is dangerous crossing Kinzie as a pedestrian as you now need to watch for not only cars, but bicycles who are not stopping at stop signs where you think you are safe to cross.”

Chicago loves requiring licenses and registration for everything from dogs to businesses to even canopies outside of restaurants. Why would it be so hard to implement licenses for bicyclists so they could be identified as they fly through stop signs and red lights?

Alderman Mell also said, “Nothing aggravates people more than the guy who’s sitting there patiently [at a red light and watching a bike rider who] shoots across. Some of ’em put themselves in danger, too. As we flaunt the fact that we’re trying to make the city more hospitable to bike riders, they do owe a responsibility to pedestrians, who have to dodge away from them.”

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has said that he wants the city to install 100 miles of bike lanes and have 3,000 bicycles for rent at 300 stations by next summer. This is all part of his evil plot to make biking the new transit system in the city.

I have a crazy thought. How about fixing the existing transit systems before trying to start a new one?

PAYING THREE TIMES

2011-11-01T07:38:00.000-05:00

State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo) advanced a measure to limit the growth of property taxes through the House Revenue committee last week and expects a full House vote in the near future.

His proposed legislation, House Bill 3793, provides that if the value of the property for the current taxable year is less than the total value in the previous year, then property taxes cannot be increased. The legislation lowers the amount in which property taxes can grow from 5% to 0% unless an increase is specifically approved by the voters.

The Synopsis As Introduced:
“Amends the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law in the Property Tax Code. Provides that, if the total equalized assessed value of all taxable property in the taxing district for the current levy year (excluding new property, recovered tax increment value, and property that is annexed to or disconnected from the taxing district in the current levy year) is less than the total equalized assessed value of all taxable property in the taxing district for the previous levy year, then the extension limitation is (a) 0% or (b) the rate of increase approved by voters (instead of the lesser of 5% or the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index during the 12-month calendar year preceding the levy year or (b) the rate of increase approved by voters). Effective immediately.”

“As families tighten their belts to make ends meet, we must ensure that government does the same,” Franks said. “The goal must be to ensure property levies are fair and equitable – the current Property Tax Extension Limitation (PTELL) law is neither.”

In 1991, state legislators passed the PTELL or tax cap, to stop the rapid expansion of property taxes. Under current law, the ceiling of 5 percent or the rate of inflation on any increases went from protecting homeowners to harming them as real estate values have plummeted.

What Franks is proposing is great for homeowners. Because he is a state legislator, taxpayers provide the funding for his salary from taxes they pay. Money well spent, but that is PAYMENT NUMBER ONE.

Because property taxes have escalated, homeowners have had to come up with more cash to keep their homes. Money, not well spent, and that is PAYMENT NUMBER TWO.

Groups such as the Illinois Municipal League, the Illinois Association of School Boards, Metro Counties of Illinois and Township Officials of Illinois don’t like the bill. After all, it would reduce the amount of revenue those taxing bodies would receive. Therefore, local government lobbyists are fighting to kill the bill.

Who pays for these lobbyists? The groups’ lobbying efforts are funded through dues paid for by government – translate that into money coming from tax revenue. So taxpayer dollars are being used to fight a tax relief measure! That is PAYMENT NUMBER THREE.

As Franks said, “I don’t think that a taxpayer-funded lobbyist should be lobbying government for higher taxes. It’s appalling that they don’t see the conflict.”

Simply put, homeowners, who want lower property taxes, and support Franks’ bill, are funding the lobbyists who are fighting against the bill!

It is not only an appalling conflict; it should be against the law! Maybe Franks can propose another law, name it the Posner Bill. It would prevent taxpayer-funded lobbyists from lobbying against anything that is essentially good for the taxpayers who pay their salary. It would never pass because it makes good cents.

CHICAGO MAYOR IS CORRECT IN SLASHING HUMAN RELATIONS BUDGET

2011-10-31T07:54:00.000-05:00

When a person first heard stories about how Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was cutting the budget of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations (CCHR) and further, was eliminating seven of the commission’s advisory councils, it might cause that person to worry that the city was not committed to human rights. That is how the media portrayed the story, because they did not know the truth. Now you will hear the real story, firsthand, from a former member of the Advisory Council on Women of the Commission and former Acting Commissioner.

The CCHR is comprised of Commissioners and Advisory Councils. The Commissioners and members of the Advisory Council are appointed to terms by the Mayor and are there on an unpaid, voluntary basis. The paid staff consists of hearing officers, lawyers, bureaucrats and the Directors of each of the Advisory Councils. I was appointed to the Advisory Council on Women in 2002 by Mayor Richard M. Daley. I thought it was a great honor and I was very excited to participate. Then I started attending Advisory Council meetings, and soon realized that absolutely nothing was ever accomplished. I felt the Council was just a sham.

Besides the Women’s Council, there are Advisory Councils on African Affairs, Arab Affairs, Immigration and Refugee Affairs, Latino Affairs, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues and Veteran’s Affairs. Some of the other councils held forums and seminars, but really did nothing that has not already been done by the same exact type of groups at the county and state levels. The media seems to think that the Advisory Councils actually do something with hearing discrimination cases. None of the councils hear any cases. So eliminating the Advisory Council will effect absolutely nothing! Hearings are held by the Commissioners.

When I was appointed to the Women’s Advisory Council, the Chairman of the Commission was Clarence Woods, who also held a full-time job as the head of Hull House. I always wondered how he was able to have two full-time paid jobs -- but the amount of time city employees actually spent at work was not always carefully scrutinized under the Daley administration.

Sitting on the Advisory Council on Women was a huge frustration to me. I hate having a title and doing nothing. In 2006, the Chairman of the Women’s Council quit. I decided that I wanted to become Chairman, because then maybe I could get the Council to actually accomplish something.

I met with Chairman Wood and pitched my case for the appointment. He agreed to recommend me to Mayor Daley. The letter is the picture on this blog. I became acting Chairman of the Women’s Council, and that position also included becoming an Acting Commissioner. The Commissioners were supposed to meet monthly and vote on the discrimination suits that people had filed with the Commission for adjudication. These cases dealt mostly with sexual harassment, housing and racial discrimination.

At my first monthly Commissioners’ meeting, I was astounded to discover that the small number of cases we looked at were years and years old. We only looked at a few during each one hour meeting so the backlog would never be erased. Most of the meeting was actually spent eating lunch. Each of the commissioners discussed what city contracts they could share with each other’s companies while they leisurely ate those lunches, and I was appalled.

I then discovered that at many of the monthly meetings we could not even make any decisions because there weren’t enough present for a quorum. Further, there were no monthly meetings during the summer, nor in the month of December. I was astounded and started to complain.

As expected, my “Acting Commissioner” title was yanked and the Mayor’s office decided “not to move my appointment along.” I was vocally exposing that the Commission was useless and existed only so the City of Chicago could look good by having a Human Rights Commission “on paper.” The city could not risk having me around. If I could not be a Commissioner or Chairman of the Women’s Council, then there was no reason to be just a member of the Women’s Council, so I resigned. I let the system beat me.

Emanuel’s proposed 2012 budget cuts the spending of the Commission by $619,322 or 19.5%t and will eliminate seven of the Commission’s advisory councils. Soon to disappear are the Advisory Councils on Women; African Affairs; Arab affairs; Asian affairs; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues; Latino Affairs and Immigration and Refugee Affairs. Instead, there will be two new umbrella advisory councils — one on gender and sexuality, the other on equity. The Advisory Council on Veterans Affairs would remain intact. An Office of New Americans also would be created in the Mayor’s office.

Members of the advisory councils held a press conference last week, and according to the Sun-Times, the reason was “…to complain that the consolidation would leave surviving advisory councils with a workload so ‘overwhelming’ that it would render them ‘ineffective.’”

What a joke! The councils don’t do anything now, so how can there be an overwhelming workload for the remaining two umbrella groups if the advisory councils are eliminated?

You might say that the $619,000 the city will cut from the 2012 budget to eliminate the councils is a minuscule percentage of the overall spending by Chicago, so why is Emanuel creating a furor? Obviously his office discovered the Councils do nothing!

Kathleen Strand, a spokesperson for the city’s Office of Budget and Management said, “Upon extensive review of the city’s advisory councils, it became clear that their missions share a great deal of objectives and values.” Yeah -- a shared objective to do nothing. Money well saved.

CHICAGO STORIES OCTOBER

2011-10-28T07:57:00.001-05:00

TRUE COLORS

The protestors at Occupy Chicago divided themselves into three color-coded groups. Those who did not want to be arrested wore red. Undecided members donned yellow, and green for those who were willing to remain behind and go to jail. My friend Lisa said she had some suburban friends who went. They designated themselves as pinks—hang out for a few hours and then have lunch with Daddy in the Walnut Room at Macy’s.

WHO ARE YOU?

I read a story on the blog of The National Law Journal about a lawsuit filed by Thomas M. Cooley Law School against an anonymous student blogger, Rockstar05, (who has since transferred) who wrote bad things about the school.

"The blogger's statements damage our reputation because today's law school applicant looks online for information about the law schools he or she may attend," said Cooley Associate Dean for Legal Affairs and General Counsel James Thelen. "As a law school that emphasizes professionalism and ethics, we are particularly harmed by false statements that are dishonest."

The blogger is now in a court battle with his former law school, who wants to publicly reveal who he is and sue him for defamation.

What’s the worst that could happen to him? Maybe the same sentence that Trevor Blackaan, a former legislative assistant for then-Senator Kit Bond of Missouri recently received from U.S. District Court Judge Richard Roberts. Blackaan had taken thousands of dollars in illegal gifts from lobbyists. Naturally, he did not declare the money on his income tax returns, so he pled guilty to filing a false return. After he got caught back in 2008, he helped prosecutors nail others.

His sentence? FIVE HOURS in a cell block!

I think I could do that amount of time.

SOME FRIENDS

This picture is amazing. When you go to the actual picture, you can put your cursor on any individual picture and click for their bio. You have to look closely to find me.

GOING TO MECCA

The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday ruled that it had settled a religious discrimination lawsuit against the Berkeley School District, in Chicago’s west suburbs. The district has to pay $75,000 in lost back pay, compensatory damages and attorneys’ fees to Safoorah Khan, a teacher at MacArthur Middle School who had been denied an unpaid leave of absence when she wanted to leave school for three weeks to perform hajj. Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca required once in a Moslem’s lifetime. The settlement also requires the district to provide mandatory training on religious accommodations to all board of education members and school supervisors.

I am thoroughly confused about this. If Khan wanted to go to Mecca, why couldn’t she go during the school’s summer vacation? She would have two months off then. Why go during the regular school year? It seems like she was almost looking for trouble by demanding the time off during the regular. Maybe she was in the green color coded group. (Green because those were the ones looking for trouble…)

HOLDING IT IN

2011-10-26T07:59:00.000-05:00

(Local children sell lemonade to help cool down those hot summer days)

The Village of Evergreen Park is a southwestern suburb of Chicago. The village describes itself on its website as the “small town” connected to the “big city.” In a line that sounds like it came from a brochure still floating around from the 1950’s, the village web site also says, “Neighbors are always there for each other, merchants know the names of their customers and our children feel safe at play.” What a bucolic place to live! One can almost hear the birds chirping in delight as they fly through the village surrounded by evergreen trees for them to nest in.

Evergreen Park is a small village. As of the last census, there were 25,044 people, 8,010 households, and 8,059 families residing in the village. This village seems like a friendly, caring place to reside.

Unless of course, you happen to be a high school student who happens to require use of the “facilities” throughout the school day.

The first “bathroom rule” at Evergreen Park Community High School states, “Students are not allowed to leave the cafeteria during lunch. Students wishing to use the bathroom facilities during the lunch periods must present their ID card to the lunchroom supervisor to gain permission to use the facilities.” Wouldn’t you assume that lunchtime would be the appropriate time to visit the loo? That way, students don’t miss any classroom instruction. How embarrassing that a teenager has to ask permission to relieve themselves! Then again, what would the high school experience be like for teenagers without constant reminders that they are still children with no control over their lives (or their bladders, for that matter)?

If that rule were not bad enough, the school has now instituted a very strict bathroom policy for during school hours. According to the SouthTown/Star newspaper “Students are now limited to three washroom visits during class per semester without penalty. After that limit, they have to stay after school and make up any class time missed when answering the call of nature. Principal Bill Sanderson said the policy ensures that students won’t miss valuable class time and also prevents some from using a washroom visit as an excuse to skip class for a bit.”

Evergreen Park High is on a block schedule, which means that students attend four classes a day, each of which lasts eighty-three minutes. The students have five minutes between classes but during the day, the only washrooms that are open are near the main office on the first floor. Principal Sanderson claims this is a necessary security measure for the safety of students, faculty, and staff.

Embarrassingly, I have the bladder the size of a cherry pit. I don’t attend movies or plays because I have to get up at least twice and by the time I get back there have been so many plot changes, I don’t know what is happening. I always explain to flight attendants not to panic when they see me constantly going to the washroom—I am not plotting an attack, I just have to pee!

High school students have enough anxiety about standardized tests, homework, grades and whether or not they look cute in that navy sweater – Must they worry about when (or if!) they will obtain permission to perform a necessary bodily function?

Evergreen High School has one famous graduate—unibomber Ted Kaczynski. One of the lines from his manifesto is, ”Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy.” Perhaps as he wrote that line, he was reminiscing about his alma mater.

THE CHILDREN WIN!!

2011-10-25T07:35:00.000-05:00

For the past four years, there have been continuous community meetings in Chicago on whether the plans for the new Robert H. Lurie’s Children’s Hospital could include a helipad and the safety issues involved with having helicopters flying over Lake Michigan. As I wrote on March 9^th of this year, the evil Michigan Avenue residents (with the exception of me) believed they owned the sky and did not want the heliport. I know the real reason was that the snobby condo owners were concerned about the noise of helicopters flying by their high rise windows. I am happy to report that last week, the children won, and the wealthy condo owners lost when the Illinois Department of Transportation approved the heliport.

What I have found ludicrous about the fight is that it’s even possible that residents would think that a heliport would be approved if major safety studies had not been done. Children's Memorial Hospital, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the City of Chicago and a slew of aviation experts did extensive studies on the safety of the heliport. They all concluded that the hospital’s heliport plans EXCEED any safety requirement for the operation of a heliport. This video clearly explains how all safety issues had been resolved, but the wicked residents persisted in their battle.

If safety were an issue for the helicopter flights, why did the city allow helicopters to swoop up and down Michigan Avenue during the shooting of the Transformers movie? That certainly had to have been a lot more dangerous than helicopters coming in from the direction of Lake Michigan and landing on the hospital roof.

The importance of the helipad was clearly explained by hospital:

(1)  The heliport will be used to receive critically ill and injured children who cannot be transported by ground transportation without threat to the life or condition, and for time-critical organ transplantation.

(2)  Heliport transports to the future rooftop heliport will be used for pediatric treatment of Children’s Memorial patients only.

(3)  Annually, an average of 73 seriously ill or injured children and five organs for life-saving transplantation are transported by helicopter to our Lincoln Park location.

(4) Children are only brought from other hospitals – never from the scene of accidents.

(5) Doctors have concluded that using an off-site heliport could result in serious harm to the child being transported because of the additional time and physical movement of the medically fragile child.

The statement giving the thumbs up for the helipad issued by Dr. Susan Shea, IDOT Director of Aviation said, “After a comprehensive review, I am confident that the application submitted by Ann & Robert H. Lurie’s Children’s Hospital meets or exceeds all legal and safety requirements needed for a certificate of approval from the State of Illinois.” Since most government officials like to pussyfoot around to cover their ass later on, Shea’s statement of “confidence” is refreshing.

The approval for the heliport was opposed by the Streeterville Organization of Active Residents (SOAR), the non-profit community group with vocal hatred of the heliport. The group has said they planned to appeal the approval.

I said in one of the community hearings about the helipad, “Once the heliport is built, if I hear the noise of a helicopter, it means the life of a child is being saved.” Nothing else really matters.

WHAT DISTRACTS YOU?

2011-10-24T06:09:00.000-05:00

While I have not been officially diagnosed with Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (also referred to as Adult ADHD), I do get distracted very easily. I took an ADHD quiz on PsychCentral.com while doing research for this posting and I scored 93. The report said, “It is highly likely that you are presently suffering from adult attention deficit disorder.” But then I got distracted by all the other psychological tests and quizzes on the site and did not care anymore about the ADHD quiz.

It actually took me three days to write this blog because “other stuff” kept coming up. A British actress played me in this reenactment of how my days seem to flow. Take a break and watch it.

Distracted driving became a big problem when cell phone use in cars became as common as listening to the radio. Last November I wrote about how “United States Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is on a rampage to ban all cell phone use while driving. If that is not enough, he even wants passengers to be prevented from making a call. He is lobbying for devices to be installed in cars that will disable cell phone usage. LaHood has called distracted driving an “epidemic” and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that about 5,000 people a year die as a result of it.”

A recent Chicago Tribune article pointed out that, “Research suggests that distracted drivers are involved in 80 percent of collisions or near-crashes, and governments big and small increasingly are addressing the concern by restricting cell phone use and other negligent conduct behind the wheel.”

Oak Park, IL is looking to take the ban on talking and texting while driving to another level, as they discuss a potential village ordinance to ban eating while driving.

The Tribune story quoted Oak Park village trustee Colette Lueck, who wants to ban drinking, eating or applying makeup while operating a motor vehicle. "To me, this is an issue of public safety," she said. "This isn't government overreach; this is the government protecting people. Distracted driving puts everyone on the road in danger."

Trustee Ray Johnson supports a texting ban, but he is worried about issuing tickets for other types of distractions. "If you take it to the extreme, you could say having kids in the car is a distraction," he said. "But what are you going to do? Some people have to have kids in the car."

Years ago, car cell phones used to be mounted on the dashboard of one’s car. I had two phones in my car because I did a lot of driving and needed to both make and receive calls. One day, Thom Karmik, then-producer for news anchor Walter Jacobson, came with me on a visit to Hollywood Casino in Aurora, IL, a 45 mile drive from downtown Chicago. I had both phones going, I was smoking, drinking a Diet Coke and the car was a stick shift model. Thom still tells the story 15 years later. It was one of the most terrifying rides in his life.

Now that is distracted driving!

Kathy Posner's Blog

AN ALDERMAN, A CITY INSPECTOR AND A CONTRACTOR WALKED INTO A BAR.

TELLING THE TRUTH

TWO THNGS I DON’T UNDERSTAND

THE SNOW HAS FINALLY ARRIVED IN CHICAGO

TANNERS BURNING UP ABOUT TAX

BLOWING THE WHISTLE REALLY, REALLY LOUDLY!!

TWO SHORT STORIES ABOUT MONEY

THE FRENCH FRYING NEW CITIZENS

I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOUR SAGGING BREASTS!

A CURMUDGEON'S THOUGHTS

Illinois' New Laws for 2012

ECONOMIC JUSTICE COMES TO ILLINOIS PART 2

On June 14th I wrote about the money being given to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and laid out their timeline of greed.

EVERYBODY IS LAZY!! (But I don’t mean you!)

WHEN IS A SCHOOL NOT A SCHOOL?

Ecomomic Opportunity Lost

DECEMBER STORIES 2011

I HAVE TOLD YOU SO ONE MILLION TIMES!!

I SWEAR I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!!

REMINISCENT OF CHECKERS

"I have nobody to blame but myself for my stupidity."

SCROOGE

TAKING A GRILLING

Coming Clean "Cajun Style" Updated

Private Snow Plowing Revisited

HOLIDAY SHOPPING DOES NOTHING FOR THE ECONOMY! Updated

Being a Regular Person Part 2

FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD!

CUT OFF THEIR LEGS

I CAN SPEND LIKE I AM ONE PERCENT !

In Memory of Kevin Black

STILL LEARNING MORE EVERY DAY

THE FAT SQUABS ARE EVERYWHERE!

LOVING THE NEW CHICAGO FINES!

NOVEMBER STORIES

NOBODY KNOWS THIS GUY?

FAKE CITIZENS, ANCHOR BABIES

WHO ANSWERS TO WHOM?

SMOKE THIS! It might soon be almost legal in Chicago.

SPECIAL SHOULD MEAN SPECIAL

TAKE THIS BIKERS!

PAYING THREE TIMES

CHICAGO MAYOR IS CORRECT IN SLASHING HUMAN RELATIONS BUDGET

CHICAGO STORIES OCTOBER

HOLDING IT IN

THE CHILDREN WIN!!

WHAT DISTRACTS YOU?

On June 14^th I wrote about the money being given to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and laid out their timeline of greed.