Saturday, May 19, 2012
Another Batavia police officer suspension and a controversial St. Charles development gets approval from P&D committee.
The Batavia Police Department might want to consider requiring their officers to take a driver’s ed class, as a second officer is suspended for involvement in a car crash. And one Geneva mom gets national attention from MSNBC with her blog criticizing her daughter’s school for forcing her to expose her Facebook page. What follow is a lot of discussion on just how far school officials should go and are legally entitled to go in questioning kids and checking cell phones. More news from around the ‘burbs this week: Batavia —Second Batavia Police Officer Suspended for Separate Crash — An officer was suspended for two days following his collision with a police vehicle in April. Another officer received a suspension for an unrelated crash on…
Thursday, February 2, 2012
On this anniversary of the big blizzard of 2011, we're seeing warm weather and Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow. But Woodstock Willie, bless him, does not. So it's winter in Gobbler's Knob and party time in our neck of the woods.
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Thursday, February 2, 2012
This just in: Woodstock Willie rules! Yes, our Woodstock champion says we're done with winter, while the "famous" Punxsutawney Phil says it's six more weeks. I'm willing to say, as my daughter Tricia sometimes does, "We win." Yes, the next time you think about calling it "dense fog," try picking a kinder adjective, because that's what kept Willie from seeing his shadow this morning, Feb. 2, Groundhog Day, in beautiful downtown Woodstock. Phil, meanwhile, saw his shadow, read some bad poetry and proclaimed that the reports of winter's demise are greatly exaggerated. "Many shadows do I see, six more weeks of winter it must be," says the guy in that funny hat in the YouTube video attached here. And while PP says we'll see six more weeks, I'm …
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Does it make sense for the Bears nemesis to take over as quarterback this late in the season? Would it be a miracle, a sideshow or something in between?
ESPN Chicago says Brett Favre will listen if the Chicago Bears want to make him an offer to play quarterback for the balance of the season—and, who knows, beyond? As Adam Jun points out in his blog, there's been a lot of talk lately about the Bears seeking some veteran help, either in the form of Favre or Donovan McNabb, the Chicago native and former Pro Bowler. But it's the Favre connection that perhaps is most intriguing. How many times have we watched Bears-Packers games in the past when we thought, "Boy, if that guy was our quarterback, we'd be going to the Super Bowl." On the flip side is the Bears-Packers rivalry (Do we really want the legendary Packers QB doing the signal calling for Da Bears?) and the possible humiliation of a …
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Put Steve Jobs in the same category as Walt Disney. They were magic-makers of the first order.
When the world found out in February 1999 that Walter Payton needed a liver transplant, I was not particularly moved. It just didn’t pertain much to my life. Then, a few weeks later, film critic Gene Siskel died. “I am so very, very sad,” I told my husband when he delivered the news. “That’s the way other people feel about Walter Payton,” he said, mildly, but with import that has stuck all these years. That sadness I felt when Siskel died doesn’t BEGIN to cover how I felt when my middle daughter, the child who loves all things Apple, who convinced me that giving her dad an iPad for Christmas would be a fabulous, if extravagant gift, who couldn’t wait to order the MacBook she received for her high school graduation, called Wednesday …
Friday, November 25, 2011
Am I the only one with a keen perception of the obvious?
I’ve gotta stop reading that Chicago Tribune op-ed page because it’s making me crazy. There was a time when, of the five newspapers arriving daily on my driveway, the Trib would be the first freed from its overstretched plastic prison. Now the Sun-Times is No. 1. And here’s one of the reasons for that top-five shift. In a Nov. 18 editorial, the Tribune tackled the touchy topic of Internet sales tax by coming out in support of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin’s “Marketplace Fairness Act,” which mandates attaching sales tax to every Internet purchase. Considering individual states’ prior boondoggle-ish attempts to collect that tariff, the editorial did manage to get one thing right. Durbin’s streamlined bill is head and shoulders above anything …
Friday, October 14, 2011
A commuter tax? What will they think of next?
I refuse to set foot in the city of Chicago. Even if it means having to endure a decade long yearning to gaze upon that Wrigley Field ivy, I won’t do it. That’s how serious I am. I may miss the Lyric and long to see Mr. Muti and his crew, but they, the Planetarium and the Field Museum will just have to get along without me. My aversion to the “City that Works” started with the installation of 200 red-light camera intersections, most of which have seen their yellow light times reduced to the legal three-second minimum—or less! It continued with privatized street parking rates that make the most hardened loan shark blush, and it ended with a 10.25 percent sales tax, the highest in the nation. The only force on the planet that can make me …
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Speaking at Tuesday's legislative breakfast, U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk offers short-term action to turn the economy around.
Before a crowd of hundreds of local business leaders on Tuesday morning, U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk offered his ideas to turn the economy around. The Illinois Republican was the guest of a dozen chambers of commerce, who organized Tuesday’s legislative breakfast at Pipers Banquets in Aurora. And though Kirk led off with some dire words about our current economic situation, he did come to the table with several ideas. Kirk has already introduced one of them, the Lincoln Legacy Infrastructure Development Act, in Congress. Co-authored with Republican Rep. Randy Hultgren, from Illinois’ 14th District, the bill removes roadblocks to public/private partnerships in the rail, highway and aviation industries. The idea, he said, is to get those projects …
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Friday, September 23, 2011
It's time to put an end to Internet anonymity.
Internet anonymity needs to go, and it needs to go now! Last week, I called Samantha Liss to determine the content of a reader response she’d removed from my column. Comments that don’t make the cut are typically the wackiest ones, and I was hoping to have a good laugh with our esteemed Glen Ellyn Patch editor. Samantha echoed the lament of so many Patch editors who aren’t sure exactly when to pull that delete trigger. Get too crazy and you kill the conversation. But a too laissez-faire approach can lead to a few nameless loudmouths dominating the debate, which can cause a mass exodus of readers. Why is it that it’s the silliest of subjects that tend to set people off the most? I’m afraid to even say the phrase “fire pits!” In Glen Ellyn, …
Friday, September 2, 2011
George Orwell was right!
All that whooping and hollering you just heard was me! I couldn’t help but get a little excited over Houston, TX, removing every last one of its 70 red-light cameras. Despite a despicable legal attack and being outspent 10-to-1, a citizen’s group started by two brothers got the removal measure on the ballot and then prevailed. Not one to admit defeat, the camera company tried a last-ditch legal end run and, when the city council wouldn’t buckle, sued Houston for $25 million. It’s all about safety, isn’t it! That second round of loud applause you heard was also me. After calling every single West Suburban Patch police department, I was astonished to find that only four cities—Geneva, St. Charles, Lisle and Western Springs—employ the heinous…
Friday, August 12, 2011
A memorial service was held to remember the Hinsdale Central alum who died while trying to save a boy from drowning at the Geneva dam.
Randy Suchy died a hero, drowning near the Geneva dam Aug. 5 while trying to save a 12-year-old boy. Local publications provided insight and shared memories of the Hinsdale Central alum friends and family referred to as an "angel." Marie Wilson of the Daily Herald wrote two beautiful pieces about him. The first, headlined "Naperville man ‘didn't hesitate' to save Bolingbrook boy on Fox River" says Suchy actually saved the 12-year-old by pushing him away from the dam and out of the undertow, according to Suchy's brother, Bill. The second story, headlined "Naperville rescuer remembers as friend, 'Angel,' " provides coverage of the Thursday memorial service in Willowbrook. The Naperville Sun also report provides insights into Suchy's life in…
ken loebel
8:01 am on Thursday, December 8, 2011
As a Packer fan, I like the backup that the Bears have now - he's doing just fine - keep him in. more ›