McHenry County Blog

You don’t have to look to closely at this phone booth at Conference Point’s main office building to see that there is not phone.

I guess the message is that phone booths are no longer necessary for summer campers or others visiting this United Methodist Church facility in Williams Bay.

Cell phones have won the communications fight.

And, since I have some extra space, here's a Wisconsin sunrise the Saturday before last.

When people go to Springfield and watch the legislature in action—at least the Illinois House of Representatives—almost all come away with one thought:

They don’t vote their own switches.

Isn't that why we send them to Springfield?

As those who watch C-Span know, U.S. representatives have a card they must use to cast votes. It’s a scandal if someone other than the congressman uses it.

In Springfield it is a regular occurrence.

One legislator from Rockford, Pat North, lost his re-election because the Rockford newspaper ran a picture of a staffer voting his switch one afternoon while he was out playing golf. It was on the front page.

There are many more legitimate reasons for letting someone else vote one's switch.

For example, I was assigned to be part of the mid-1990’s team, led by House Majority Leader State Rep. Bob Churchill, to read every line of the welfare reform bill.

Hard to do that on the House floor, so we did it in his office, right behind the House chambers. Close enough to come out if a roll call were verified.

(If a vote is close, the losing side may call for a "verification." Names of all the representatives on the winning side are called. The challenger tries to figure out which ones are missing. Then, he calls out the names of those he thinks are not around. Ones who do not show up on the House floor have their names stricked from the roll call. If enough are removed, the proposition falls.)

Usually the person voting a missing legislator's switch is his seatmate, although prior to the most recent "upgrade" of the voting system, it was possible to jam a paper clip into one's switch. Of course, that meant one way. The switch in the back row I am remembering had the "Yes" switch always on.)

My seatmate Tom Johnson certainly did know my voting predilections (with some exceptions, I found out, on local tax hiking bills). We were pretty close ideologically.

If one has bills in the Senate, the committee hearing times do not necessarily conform to times when the House is not in session.

I had a lot of them in the 1970’s and just couldn’t be two places at once.

Even if one is working the House floor for an upcoming vote—back when there was a real calendar and one actually had a clue when a bill might be called—one can’t always get back to one’s voting switch in time to vote.

Hence, the need for a seatmate’s help.

Some use staffers.

Since ordinary members only have a half a secretary, leaders are the pretty much the only ones who can take that route. The leaders are rarely on the House floor.

(Cary’s State Senator Jack Schaffer caught some heat when that happened, but he had probably given the staffer a list of how he wanted to vote on each bill.)

But, sometimes allowing seatmates to vote one’s switch can have unintended consequences.

In the 1970’s, when I could have been classified as a moderate and, I’m sure, some thought liberal Republican, my seat mate Susan Catania (one of the sponsors of ERA who qualified for the label "liberal" under anyone's definition) got me an Independent Voters of Illinois “Best Legislator” award that I surely would not have earned on my own.

Tomorrow, the infamous 1978 veto session 40% pay hike vote.

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The two photos of me are from the late 1970's.

The Chicago Sun-Times also asks legislative candidates to fill out a questionnaire each election. It’s usually more fun than the Chicago Tribune’s, especially in its biography. See especially questions 6 and 7.

Here are the Sun-Times questions. If you feel so inclined, share your answers in the comment section.

1. Longer-term, should Illinois change the taxation formula for funding schools? How?

2. Should the state provide more funding for the CTA, Meta, Pace and other public transit systems? Explain your answer.

3. What should be done to reduce the influence of politics in state hiring and contracts?

4. Should Illinois change its lobbyist disclosure laws? How?

5. Have you held elective or appointive political office or have you been employed by any branch of government?

6. Please list jobs or contracts you, members of your immediate family or business partners have had with government.

7. Name your biggest campaign contributors and the amount they contributed.

8. Which plan for fixing Illinois school funding do you prefer? Do you favor Gov. Blagojevich’s plan to sell or lease the Illinois Lottry or state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka’s proposal for a Chicago casino and more gambling slots at existing casinos? Explain your answer.

9. Should the state raise the minimum way as Gov. Blagojevich has suggested? Explain.

10. Should the state provide more funding for embryonic stem cell research? Explain.

11. South Dakota passed a law to make abortion illegal. Should Illinois do the same? Explain.

While the Chicago Tribune does not have a question on abortion, the Sun-Times writes about the South Dakota bill that is being tested in a referendum this year. Here is the goal of the bill’s sponsor, which Penny Pullen and I heard when we visited him for two hours earlier this month.

Here's where you can read my 2002 responses to the Sun-Times gubernatorial questionnaire.

I shall be attending a Walk to Emmaus at Resurrection Center between Crystal Lake and Woodstock this weekend.

This tee shirt logo was worn by one of my fellow team members last Saturday.

There will be posts for the next three days, which I hope you will find interesting, including the Sun-Times legislative questionnaire.

But don’t expect breaking news.

Just think about no clocks, no phones, no internet, no news (except maybe the front page outside the dining hall) until Sunday night.

You can be sure I shall be in deep withdrawal.

It reminds me of my going to Boy Scout camp in New York's Catskill Mountains in 1956, right after my family moved to Middletown, New York.

A news junkie since the Korean War, during which I watched the line move up and down the map each night on black and while television news, that last week week of June I missed the Polish uprising.

Pushing Township Road Tax Dollars Further

Take a look at this asphalt spreader that Greenwood Township has.

It’s homemade, so to speak.

It wasn’t purchased.

That is, Greenwood Township Road Commissioner Roger May’s men made it.

It’s not made out of metal.

It’s made out of wood.

Except for a height-adjusting device, which you can see in the third picture.

I remember when the Riley Township Road Commissioner bought a used factory made asphalt spreader. He used it to pave roads cheaper than it could be done by a contractor.

Now, it appears that the Greenwood Township folks have done him one better.

The crew has been patching HIghland Shores subdivision on the west side of Wonder Lake the last month or so.

They are not building new roads. It’s just long patches.

This past week Foreman Frank Nordmeyer and his crew were doing part of West Lake Shore Drive north of the beach.

Having traveled gravel township roads in various parts of Illinois, I know there is not enough road money to go around.

I wonder if more rural township road commissioners could follow the example set by Roger May and build their own asphalt spreaders. In the smaller townships, they might have to get together with their neighbors to pull it off, but ambitious road commissioners might be able to pull it off.

My in-laws have had problems of water flowing into their septic field when it rains really hard. It wasn’t that way originally. Then the road was lower than the driveway.

But as additional layers of asphalt were put down on the street, its level got higher.

This week the crew built a small lip or berm at the end of the road in an attempt to keep the water on the right-of-way.

This is an example of why road commissioners are generally the most popular township officials. There’s not a lot of service a public official can do that is more personal than fixing a person’s road.

Yesterday the Chicago Tribune ran as an editorial a mock “State of Cook County” speech.

Here’s its next-to-last paragraph:

We need to get politics out of what we do. Look at our three best-run operations--Brookfield Zoo, the Chicago Botanic Garden, the county golf courses. Those are the three places where the County Board least intrudes. When we don't play politics, things run better.

Maybe someone from the Tribune editorial board should talk to my veterinarian.

He used to work at Brookfield and he surely thinks patronage was alive and kicking when he left.

Labels: Brookfield Zoo, Veterinarian

We know why 8th congressional district Congresswoman Melissa Bean doesn’t want any more debates.

But she deserves more headlines and articles like this one from Waukegan's News-Sun:

Bean Ducks League Forum

I’d still like to see a good debate on abortion and immigration.

Below you will see the questions legislative candidates were asked to answer by the Chicago Tribune. Saturday, the Sun-Times’ questionnaire will be posted.

This was due September 15th and the Tribune is already running some articles based on its questionnaire.

Just like for the primary election, the Tribune cautions,

Please make this your own work. The newspaper will not endorse you if we find that you have drawn your responses from a master “answer” sheet provided to you by someone else.

Still, you can have some fun trying to figure out how you would answer this year’s Tribune questionnaire.

When I was filling them out, it usually took me a day to do so. I knew I wasn’t going to get the Tribune’s endorsement, but it was an enjoyable intellectual challenge.

Besides the usual biographical information, the Tribune asks 10 questions:

1. Two years ago, the state’s Educational Funding Advisory Board determined that the foundation level for an adequate public education should be $6,405 per pupil. The state currently provides $5,334. How should the state close the gap? Is more money the most effective way to improve student performance? What specific measures would you support to provide more money for schools? What education reforms should Illinois adopt? Please comment specifically on the elimination of tenure, on performance pay for teachers, on reducing class sizes and charter school expansion.

2. The General Assembly last year made changes in the state pension system to reduce its long-term obligations, but also deferred $2.3 billion in payments to the system. The five state pension plans face a combined unfounded liability of $38 billion. That figure will grow substantially in the coming years. What changes in contributions and benefits need to be made to the state’s pension system? Would you support a shift to a defined-contribution system?

3. How can Illinois address its longstanding culture of corruption? Does the state need new rules governing how candidates raise and spend money on campaigns? Does the state need new rules governing how elected officials conduct themselves in office?

4. Do you support the elimination of “member initiatives,” the funding of local projects at the request of legislators?

5. Should the Illinois Toll Highway Authority be sold or leased? If so, how should the proceeds be spent?

6. Should Illinois sell or lease the Lottery to raise revenue?

7. Please discuss the scope of legal gambling in the state. Should the state allow a casino in Chicago? Should it permit new forms of gambling? Should it award casino licenses based on competitive bids?

8. Should Illinois provide government funding for embryonic stem cell research? If so, under what guidelines?

9. Please tell us your top three priorities for the state.

10. Should foes gras be banned statewide?

I never saw a PETA question on a Tribune questionnaire before.

Come on, give at least one of these questions some thought and tell us what your answer would be. (Do them all, if you wish, but please answer one question in each comment.)

Just in case you are interested in ancient history, here’s how I answered the Tribune questionnaire when I ran for governor as a Libertarian in 2002. (You can find all of my 2002 newspaper questionnaire answers by clicking on my name on the upper right of this page and then clicking on the link to the Library of Congress archive of my Libertarian gubernatorial campaign’s web page.)

Tomorrow read the questions of the Sun-Times.

Here’s what was on the other side of the pick-up truck’s back window:

BEEF
IT'S WHAT'S FOR DINNER

This is the same truck I took the Tuesday before last's "Message of the Day" from.

There is a reflection of one of the building’s at Conference Point, perched high above Lake Geneva in Williams Bay.

The United Methodist Men were holding their annual Spiritual Congress there last weekend.

This press release was just received from 16th congressional district Congressman Don Manzullo:

[ROCKFORD] Congressman Don Manzullo (R-Egan) today announced the Fox River Grove Fire Protection District has received a $68,864 federal grant for fire operations and firefighter training.

The grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security helps local fire departments, rescue squads and ambulance services with the purchase of firefighting equipment, funds firefighter health and safety programs, enhances emergency medical services programs, and funds fire prevention and safety programs.

Fox River Grove fire officials plan to use the funds to purchase 36 sets of new firefighter turnout gear, which includes helmets, coats, pants, gloves, etc. The new turnout gear will replace the old firefighter gear, which doesn't meet current standards. The Fox River Grove Fire Protection District previously received an $82,000 grant several years ago to purchase a vehicle exhaust system and portable radios for the department.

"I want to congratulate the Fox River Grove Fire Protection District and Chief Kreher for putting together the proposal that won this extremely competitive grant," Manzullo said. "These funds will help the brave firefighters in Fox River Grove better protect the residents of the community."

This is the fire department that performed such yeoman work almost 11 years ago when the horrendous train-school bus accident occurred. It's station is located right next to the grade crossing.

= = = = =

Front row (left to right):
Laura Nick, Michael Abrams, Lt. Eldee Jackson, Capt. Angelo Martell, Chief Robert Kreher, Asst. Chief James Kreher, Capt. Don Kublank, Lt. Tom Anderson, Ed Zbacnik, Dan Hughes, Jim Kreherc

Back Row (left to right):
Tim Nickc, Kyle Dodgec, Shawn Quigel, David Wydra, Michael Kernal, Matthew Figas , Katrina Miller, Robert Tangen, Skip Etters, Michael Hagedorn, Dan Pagels, Byran Kunz, Rich Kreher, Matthew Vergin, Lenny Murray, Aaron Muhs, Dan Mates, Sean O'Donnell, Paul Tousey

Not Pictured:
Lt. Jason Kedrok, Chief Eng. Peter Mehlman, Doug Mattson, Dan Riggio, John Florine, James Klein, James Brenner, Chris Bremner, Nick Schaefer, James Crichett, Michael Martellc, Heather Schaeferc, Katie Andersonc

(Jim Kreher, Tim Nick, Kyle Dodge, Michael MartellHeather Schaefer and Katie Anderson are identified as “cadets.”)

Here is the part of the Club for Growth's press release about 8th congressional district Republican candidate David McSweeney:

WASHINGTON, DC - The political action arm of the influential and well-funded Club for Growth, with 9 wins and only 4 losses this election cycle, today endorsed four candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives: Rep. Steve Chabot (OH-01); Ralph Norman (SC-05); David McSweeney (IL-08); and Michelle Bachmann (MN-06).

"This week, the Democrats told us what they will do if they win the majority: pass big job-killing tax hikes. It was frightening but not surprising to hear Rep. Rangel say this, but it does underscore what is at stake. The House is up for grabs, and we need to make sure we're doing all we can to help elect men and women who want to cut taxes and grow the economy. These four candidates have superb records and will vote to keep our economy strong and job creation going," said Pat Toomey, President of the Club for Growth.

David McSweeney, IL-08:

"While Rep. Bean sometimes talks a good game on cutting waste in government, she voted against a budget this year which did just that. In contrast, David McSweeney knows that Washington spending doesn't help create jobs, it's the hard work and ingenuity of the American people that does," said Toomey.

The others endorsed are Rep. Steve Chabot (OH-01) Ralph Norman (SC-05)and Michelle Bachmann (MN-06).

You don’t have to go to Thailand to enjoy watching bunge jumping.

You can see similar action at Huntley School District 158, if you get its budget revisions.

Just ask any school board member.

You can even see some tonight at 6 if you just attend the board meeting.

I’ll let you judge which part of the bunge cycle will be on display.

It’s almost the last day for school districts in Illinois to pass their budgets for the fiscal year that started last July 1st and Huntley hasn’t been able to put one together yet.

Based on what happened in mid-June to the previous year’s budget—which was almost over—the School Board Majority Six (now Five) is willing to amend its financial plan any time it’s convenient.

I received this email today from an obviously irritated Larry Snow, one of the two school board members not in the “Majority Five” club.

"Is this how D158 residents want their School District managed?

"Plain and simple. The District 158 Board did not have a final budget document to review as it members went to bed on Wednesday night.

"Could a vote of 'Ridiculous' be appropriate tonight?"

Snow wonders,

"Shouldn’t we get at least 24 hours to look at a budget?"

This reminds me of budget vote days in the General Assembly.

Someone would say, ”The budget’s up,” meaning it had been downloaded to our computers.

I would start going through page-by-page looking for stupid stuff.

Sometimes I would not have had time to look every page of the budget, which meant, of course, I only scanned the line items, before the Speaker would call for a vote.

Following Springfield’s example is not exactly the height of governmental transparency.

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The bunge jumper is in Thailand. The photos were found on Plunkett-Guide.com.

The Chicago Tribune writes of the arrest of the Darien school district payroll supervisor's being indicted on charges of stealing more that $115,000.

So, what happened to the Algonquin and Huntley police investigations of the Huntley School District 158 payroll supervisor reported to have stolen $10-12,000?

Isn’t it past time for some legal action to have been taken besides her being fired?

It appears that the Northwest Herald has found the $18,000 500-person taxpayer-financed poll that McHenry County Blog ran last Friday.

Mention of it, but not the details, is contained in a column by Eric Olson yesterday.

Here’s the paragraph which shows where the columnist is coming from:

Conservation officials should devise a plan and put something on the ballot in one of those elections no one votes in (like the April 2007 consolidated election), when it would have a better chance of passing. It's worth it.

He goes on to lay out the campaign strategy (obvious from the survey’s questions) of the proponents:

…a referendum to allow the conservation district to buy more open space in McHenry County would be a step toward keeping taxes down, and controlling traffic jams.

Olson points to the loss of the Fox River Grove Picnic Grove to development, yet fails to point out what the McHenry County Conservation District did to save it.

Since his is a straightforward pitch for the MCCD’s quest for higher taxes, Olson, of course, does not mention that a great deal of the land purchased is unsuitable for development, so keeps neither taxes nor traffic down.

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Map shows the results of the 2001 conservation district referendum, which barely passed.

The fall equinox has occurred.

The days now start getting shorter and shorter until just before Christmas.

After helping my father-in-law button up his screen porch facing Wonder Lake, I drove to Sam’s Club where I noticed the leaves were yellow.

Who remembers his or her botany enough to be able to tell me what species of tree this is?

Come on.

I’ve even given you a close-up of the leaf.

In our family, this week means two months until Disney World, including Mickey’s Backyard Bar-B-Q on Thanksgiving.

And just three months to Christmas. (I bought a stocking stuffer today.)

Got to hand it to the Northwest Herald yesterday.

Its editorial cartoonist made me smile.

He drew a man in a bio-hazard suit spraying “Favors Be Gone” around a Cary School District 26 school.

A by-stander is asking,

WILL THAT
STUFF WORK
AROUND THE
GOVERNOR’S
MANSION?

Maybe it’s just me, but putting District 26 board member Chris Jenner’s anti-pay-to-play language on the front page of the NW Herald on Monday and, then, putting this cartoon on Tuesday is pretty extraordinary. (My story ran last Wednesday.)

But, a thought just seeped into my head.

There was a real corruption story in Saturday's paper, probably the least read paper of the week. (My story ran on Thursday.)

It was about the Chicago Crime Commission’s having delivered a 6-part report to the United States Attorney’s Office and the FBI.

It concerned divorce court in McHenry County, among other local governmental entities.

Instead of following up on that, the NW Herald is directing attention to the Cary Grade School District, which has no problem with corruption, as far as I know.

Also in the editorial cartoon’s spotlight are Governor Rod Blagojevich’s suspicious combinations of contributions and contracts.

So far missing from McHenry County’s newspaper of record is any follow-up on the large amount of work done by a private investigator and a retired FBI agent hired by the Chicago Crime Commission.

Am I too cynical to wonder why there has been no follow-up?

Could the coverage of the excellent Cary School Board action be a diversion?

I think I wrote the first article at the end of summer, 2003, pointing out how Governor Rod Blagojevich’s moves were setting the stage--programmatically and from a campaign fund raising viewpoint--for a run for the Presidency.

Well, we don’t have to worry about that anymore, do we?

Illinois Democrats who supported him in 2002 would pay their own way to campaign against him in Iowa and New Hampshire.

For fund raising, in 2003, I pointed to

· Movie folks;

· SBC, now AT&T (remember how he rolled over and signed—in less than a day--the bill found unconstitutional within, what, two months);

· Electric utilities (Blago appointed ICC commissioners who just allowed them huge rate increases);

· Archers Daniels Midland, which got hundreds of millions of dollars in state subsidies over a 10-year period;

· Service Employees International Union, the governor’s biggest contributor perhaps because, as a congressman, he voted against making the airport screeners (many SEIU members) federal employees.

And that was just what I saw through August, 2003.

(I did make one wrong prognostication. I thought the governor’s signing of a bill to end the privatization of the Anna Veterans Home would bring AFCSME into his corner. It obviously wasn't enough.)

Looking at the national constituency building moves, I saw

· Gun lovers (think World Shooting Complex) who live in rural Democratic counties that President George W. Bush carried. I pointed out that no gun legislation had made it to his desk at that point.

· Immigrants, especially, Latinos. In his first year, Blagojevich signed with great fanfare a bill to allow illegal immigrants to attend state universities at in-state tuition rates. He followed up with home loans to illegal aliens, plus health care for their kids under Kids Care.

· Advocates of the poor. Anybody but me remember his own “poverty programs” in Pembroke Township, where the Governor cancelled the building of a women’s prison, plus in Cairo, Savanna and Aurora? He also signed bills raising the minimum wage and increasing the income under which families could get the same health coverage as state employees to about $30,000—twice the poverty level.

· And, on abortion, Blagojevich staked out a radical position early.

· As he did on homosexual rights, signing one of the most radical laws anywhere.

· On women’s rights, he signed a state equal pay for equal work bill, one of the first in the nation. That is has done virtually nothing is irrelevant. Think of how it would fit into a presidential stump speech.

· “Taxpayers’ friend” was a label he was after, too. The governor repeatedly stated that he would not raise income or sales taxes. And, he hasn’t. He even vetoed two property tax cap “hole-pokers.” Both vetoes were overridden, of course, and he did nothing to stop that, but he sill has bragging rights.

· Good manager. Remember, this article was written at the end of August, 2003, not this year. 2003 was the year when California’s budget has experienced a “melt down,” Illinois legislators got out of session with what purports to be a balanced budget. Blagojevich even “lucked out” on the sale of almost $10 billion in pension bonds by being able to borrow the money for almost 1 percentage point less than he said he expected when the package was sold to the General Assembly. And, he did cut the payroll substantially.

· Corruption Fighter. This is bogus, of course, but, I pointed out that with the expected trials of prominent Republicans, Blagojevich would probably look honest in comparison. I said he wouldn't even have to claim honesty; he could just point to GOP corruption.

· Pioneer in Helping People Get Cheaper Drugs. Drug manufacturers have traditionally supported the Republican Party. During his campaign, Blagojevich adopted State Rep. Jack Franks' proposal to use the state’s bulk purchasing power to get lower prices. Now, it did not work out as he hoped, but he got all sorts of brownie points for initiating the idea (or at least stealing it from Franks). And, he took it one step further by taking on the Federal Drug Administration in his quest to import drugs from Canada’s government-controlled market.

· My 2003 conclusion was Blagojevich was promoting himself as “Not a Traditional Democrat.”

I concluded my article,

So, what image is Blagojevich preparing to be presented to a national audience?

It is certainly not one of a traditional “tax and spend” Democrat. While he retains the ability to make traditional appeals to traditional Democratic Party constituencies, Blagojevich is positioning himself to differentiate himself from other Democrats, not to mention tax-hiking Republicans.

That’s right.

Democrat Melissa Bean might lose to Republican David McSweeney because too many of her constituents are married.

Here’s what USA Today says today:

House districts held by Republicans are full of married people. Democratic districts are stacked with people who have never married. This "marriage gap" could play a role in the Nov. 7 congressional elections.

These are the comments on the 8th congressional district:

Of the five Republicans who have the lowest rates of married people in their districts, four are in tough battles with Democrats. On the other side, Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Ill., whose district has a high marriage rate, faces a strong GOP challenge.

This could just be another way to measure "family values."

Sunday I wrote of Democrat Margaret Mary Maule’s door-to-door political campaign.

Yesterday while driving from Crystal Lake to Wonder Lake and back I discovered that incumbent Republican County Board member Sandra Salgado’s campaign workers had posted signs on all the roads I took.

The big one is on Route 120 west of Wonder Lake Road.

The yard sign is at the intersection of Bull Valley Road and Ridge Road in Bull Valley.

That’s what Associated Press is reporting is the gist of an Illinois Supreme Court decision.

When the Illinois General Assembly split McHenry County off into a separate judicial court district and mandated districts for the election of judges, it accomplished more than the ruling Democrats desired.

House Speaker Mike Madigan’s vaunted technical folks blew it big time.

The originally approved legislation gave more judges to the Republican counties.

Realizing their mistake, the Democrats abolished the judgeships after folks had filed in the primary election for them. The prospective judges got a court decision allowing them to stay on the ballot and there they will apparently stay, even though the office they are running for “done be gone,” so to speak.

You can read the court decision here.

8th Congressional District Republican candidate David McSweeney would have had every right to go ballistic when he saw Democratic Party incumbent Melissa Bean's latest mailing.

It contains as blatant a lie as I have seen since 1992.

McSweeney sent out this press release about the absolute falsehood Bean mailed out to people about McSweeney’s favoring drilling for oil in Lake Michigan.

In it she quotes the Illinois Leader, the valuable conservative news source which publisher Dan Proft killed off. With its death went any way for the general public to discover if Melissa Bean was lying or not.

Fortunately, former Illinois Leader editor Fran Eaton, who now runs Illinois Review, to which I contribute, pulled up her 2005, very long article, and re-published it. Here is where you find the only part that touches on oil.

Here’s all I can find that touches on oil in what Eaton wrote:

I strongly support the President’s energy policy. The U.S. House of Representatives voted for an energy bill which Melissa Bean opposed, that bill would have allowed a safe development of natural gas resources in the U.S., safe development of nuclear power, and I’m strongly in favor of trying to increase our domestic capabilities on energy production.

There is absolutely nothing about drilling for in Lake Michigan!

If the lies are this blatant over a month before the election, what part of the Rahm Emanuel-driven Chicago politics will we see the week before the election?

No wonder Melissa Bean is refused all but one post-Labor Day debate, which took place the day after Labor Day.

She’d get torn to shreds.

I was pleased to see the Northwest Herald give such prominent play to Cary Grade School Board member Chris Jenner’s anti-pay-to-play initiative yesterday.

It was right on the top of the front page and covered all of the essential elements of the story.

The NW Herald even pointed out that

1) Carpentersville District 300 (and here and here and here and here and here and here and here) and

2)Woodstock 200 (and here and here) helped finance their tax hike committees with contributions from school vendors and potential school vendors.

The action is the first time I have seen any school district acknowledge that allowing its tax hike committees and school board members to accept contributions from vendors just might create a conflict of interest.

Is it any less unethical than when Democratic Party Governor Rod Blagojevich does it?

McHenry County Blog's article ran 5 days before.

Here's is yesterday's press release from 8th congressional Republican candidate David McSweeney:

McSweeney calls on Bean and Company to stop lying
Latest Bean mailing is outright lie

Barrington Township: David McSweeney, candidate for Congress in Illinois' 8th Congressional District, is calling on incumbent Melissa Bean to stop lying. The latest incident occurred when voters opened their mailboxes this weekend and found a Melissa Bean campaign mailing that claims that McSweeney wants to allow oil drilling in the Great Lakes. The Bean mailing also contains misrepresentations of McSweeney's positions on a variety of other important issues.

"Melissa Bean needs to get control of her campaign and tell her handlers to stop lying about my positions on the issues. The latest absurdity from her camp is that I would support drilling for oil in the Great Lakes. Never have I said that or suggested that. Nowhere is there any legislation that would even allow for that. Melissa Bean needs to come forward and accept responsibility for this ridiculous charge and she needs to retract it," said McSweeney.

"My wife and children, my mother, and my siblings and their families drink water that comes from the Great Lakes and to suggest that I would risk the water supply of my family and millions of others is just unconscionable. Because we usually hear from Bean spokesmen I want to believe that this one slipped past her. The fact is that the mailing bearing her name and the name of her campaign contains outright lies," said McSweeney.

"The Bean campaign has hit an all time low. I have endured her and the DCCC berating me as an 'extremist' and other name calling but this latest charge is so outlandish that it becomes the moral equivalent of Venezuela's Chavez calling President Bush the 'Devil'. Even Nancy Pelosi and other leaders in the Democrat Party came forward and condemned those remarks. It is time for Melissa Bean to apologize for this latest desperate act. It is an insult to the voters when politicians feel like their own re-election is more important than the truth," said McSweeney.

"If Melissa Bean wants to continue making wild accusations like this she ought to at least have the guts to do it in an open forum. The Bean camp agreed to only four debates or joint appearances with the last occurring September 5th, a full two months before the election," said McSweeney.

David McSweeney resides in Barrington Township within the 8th Congressional District with his wife Margaret and their two daughters.

I know I already used this book cover on Thursday, but it's too good not to repeat, considering the Chicago Crime Commission's handing over its report on McHenry County to the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI.

My interview with Commission President Jim Wagner has been posted since Thursday afternoon.

I wonder how many calls have been made or emails sent since then and since the Northwest Heald published the same information on Saturday.

Do those who have been wronged in divorce court have time to read the Saturday paper?

Maybe if they don't have visitation and can still afford a subscription.

And, we don’t know what other local governments, if any, were mentioned in the report.

Will any of the three daily newpapers covering McHenry County try to find out to whom the two investigators--one a private eye and the other a retired FBI agent--have been listening to?

I can tell you it's people far and wide.

Not only are they talking to people who live here, but they are asking questions of people who have moved away.

A long time ago.

A number of people who have watched McHenry County grow like a week and were in a position to know some of what has happened are cooperating.

You would recognize some of their names, I’ll bet.

Since my May 4th article about the probe, I’ve been amazed about how the grapevine in McHenry County has more news about what the Crime Commission investigators have been up to than do the daily newspapers covering McHenry County events.

I bought the book whose title is the “Message of the Day” for its title:

Dirty
Little
Secrets

The subtitle is

The
Persistence
of Corruption
in American
Politics

It was written by Larry J. Sabato and Glenn R. Simpson...

in 1996.

McHenry County is not in the index...

of this edition.

= = = = =
Those who would like to contact the Crime Commission may do so by contacting the commission by calling 312-372-0101. There is also a way to communicate by email on the web site.

And here's a place where one can specificallyreport political corruption.

The “pox on both of your houses” candidate for Illinois governor got a huge boost Sunday where he needs it most—the Chicago metropolitan area.

This is the man whom the Chicago Tribune would not name when he got 1% on its first gubernatorial poll.

I guess I better name him—Randy Stufflebeam.

You remember, the guy who found me at the Gate 7 Beach part of my son’s 9th birthday party after taking part in McHenry’s Fiesta Days parade.

He’s running as a write-in candidate, so he has no chance to win.

(I figure you win maybe one write-in in ten. I’ve participated in two. We won the first one when Algonquin Township Assessor Forrest Hare got beat by a couple of votes—maybe—in a GOP township caucus and went on to win the subsequent write-in 2-1. We lost the second for city council when a Crystal Lake Jaycee named Vance Roberts decided to run against another Jaycee, incumbent councilman Chuck Scott, who was moving out of town, but didn’t drop off the ballot.)

But, with the headline of Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass’ Sunday piece being

Here’s candidate who has a lot on the beam,

a lot of people will be talking about him tomorrow and subsequent weeks.And, word of mouth is what gets write-in votes.

You have to love this paragraph taking off on the name of Stufflebeam’s party, the Constitution Party:

"Many Illinois politicians are allergic to the Constitution, particularly the 2nd Amendment, which in their minds applies only to their bodyguards, drivers and coat holders."

Here are some his positions that Kass cites:

"He’s opposed to tax increases, opposed to state subsidized home and college loans to illegal aliens (Rod), opposed to financing government by casino (Judy)."

“Little did I know that I’d become the last man standing for the conservatives,” Kass quotes Stufflebeam.

Kass stressed that he was not making an endorsement, but I think this article will probably lead to Stufflebeam’s getting a higher percentage of the votes cast for governor than I did in 2002, when I got a little more than 2% of the total.

“Sufflebeam isn’t Topinka or Blagojevich.

“And I’m starting to like the sound of it,” Kass concludes his column.

For more McHenry County Blog, click here.

The song

Where did all the flowers go?
Long time passing.

is running through my head as I ask the question:

How Powerful is the McHenry County Republican Party?

The $18,000 McHenry County Conservation District 500-person survey taken the third week of May by American Viewpoint paints a sad picture for the Republican Party in McHenry County.

There are now more people who identify themselves as Independents than Republicans!

30% say they are “Independents,” while only 28% say they are Republicans.

Republicans still outnumber Democrats by 8 percentage points:

28% - Republican
20% - Democrat

but that has to be small consolation to Republican leaders.

Besides the 48% who identify with the two power parties and the 30% who call themselves Independents, what happened to the other 22% of the citizenry?

13% replied, “Other.”

Does that mean Libertarian, Green or just a voter who didn’t want to tell a pollster?

7% refused to answer the question and 2% said they didn’t know.

So, what does “other” mean?

The better question, perhaps, is

Why is a local government is asking for party identification?

If memory serves me correctly, members of the MCCD Board cannot have a partisan affiliation.

I wonder how many thousand lives have been lost because the Centers for Disease Control has waited 18 years to follow the recommendations of President Ronald Reagan’s AIDS/HIV Commission.

That's almost two decades of lost opportunity to inform those with the disease of their HIV-infected and HIV-infectuous status!

Yesterday, the CDC, which I think could be more appropriately be called the Centers for the Spread of Disease, recommended routine testing for HIV for those from ages 13-64.

When Penny Pullen was negotiating the recommendations in the commission report from the public protection side of the issue, she got unanimous approval for routine testing. (I assisted her when she served on the commission.)

How shameful that the CDC delayed almost two decades to implement that sensible recommendation.

I see in the Friday page 3 Chicago Tribune article that Illinois folks who are not on the public protection side of this issue still don't get it:

"What they really want is not so much routine testing as what I call stealth testing," (Executive Director of the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago Ann) Fisher said.

It seems some are still stuck in the age that considered AIDS/HIV a politically protected virus, rather than a disease that needs to be treated like any other.

Here's another article with background on how the future AIDS Czar for President Bill Clinton and Pullen reached agreement in 1988.

When it came time for Huntley School District 158 board member Larry Snow to present his audacious motion telling the school superintended to

require all administrators and supervisors in the District to carefully review their work before submitting it to the public or to the board for review,

I had managed to drive from the almost Richmond McHenry County Conservation District board meeting to the Red Barn Road offices of the school district.

Larry Snow talks faster than I can write, but he said that he thought it was not a good idea to allow

"management by good intentions or

"management by do-over."

He said, “Residents expect good management for the district. It’s just overdue. This isn’t self-correcting for whatever reason.”

Snow explained that passage of his motion would remove the stigma of “Mr. Burkey being the bad person.”

Board member Rosemary Herringer spoke next:

I would agree with you Larry.

Don’t fall off your chair.

She had another thought, but, again, I just can’t write as fast as these folks talk.

Maybe you can figure out Herringer’s suggestion from Snow’s response:

I would be satisfied if the author carefully reviewed (the work product).

Superintendent John Burkey admitted there was

no good excuse for you or the pubic to be getting information that is not as accurate as possible. (You need to know) there is not sloppiness here.

He noted,

"The amount of documents produced daily is incredible.

"We’re really going to have to have (more time)…to really turn around information."

He pointed out that email had made communication quicker but

"The downside is that you don’t have time to review it.

"A yes/no question is easy, but questions requiring more work would henceforth be supplied in weekly notes on Friday. I will in turn work with the cabinet...

"But stuff won’t come as quickly."

“I as a board member (resent) all the time that has to be spent (and, here, I think Herringer said something about asking questions to make sure that reports are correct). Things shouldn’t come to us (as badly prepared as they have been).

“I’m not expecting Mr. Burkey to personally review it,” Snow said.

Burkey interjected, “But it is my responsibility because I am the liaison between the administration and the board.

“All the cabinet members want to provide you with all the information you want."

Then, veteran board member Kim Skaja said,

The way the board gives direction to the superintendent is by board policy. I think that’s a good idea.

Snow replied, “We need a change in direction.”

“I complete agree,” Skaja said.

“Perhaps we can also put in there how much of his time we can expect. I don’t want him to be answering questions all day.”

Herringer, who sits to Skaja’s right, added, “But we as board members have to be respectful in the way we ask.

I missed too much of what Snow said, but Burkey’s comment was: “It will just not be expected to get an immediate answer,” referring to a longer time frame will result.

Herringer: “We (need to) ask in a respectful, courteous and (missed the third adjective) manner.”

Shawn Green, with Snow repeating the language, seconded the motion.

Green agreed with Skaja that he was “thinking of some sort of a formal adoption of a policy,” at which point newly-appointed board member Tony Quagliano said, “Take it to policy.”

So, two decisions seemed to be on the way to being made:

· Passage of a motion that could have just been blown off by the majority as an affront to members of the administration and

· Making it not just a motion, but putting something about adequate preparation and review of reports before release into more permanent policy.

Skaja pressed for something to be added concerning “ample time to be able to (comply with requests for information)” to which Brukey said, “I think it needs to be in there.”

“Don’t we expect good time management…,” Snow replied, pointing out, “Timeliness isn’t even in this motion.”

Burkey addressed the problem (not in these words) of having a job to do to run the school district while, at the same time, ultimately answering to board members who are asking questions.

“The problem is we work for you. If Loren (the Human Resources Director) gets an email saying, ‘I really need it by Thursday…' (she may have to drop something else to fulfill the request)."

Quagliano suggested a response to the inquiring board member of “No, in order to meet (the diligence standard), I will not be able to provide this information until such and such a time.

Herringer returned to some recent email exchange:

The type of emails that went back and forth this week were not courteous.

Green then said, “I think Larry’s motion stands by itself. All it’s saying is that when something is presented to the public that it needs to be accurate.”

“I think the request is completely reasonable,” Burkey said, “(but) current practice will make it difficult to turn around in (a reasonable time).”

Herringer said something negative about the requests being made that I didn’t catch before Snow asked,

How long should it be until we get a budget?

We would never get into this situation if stuff was done 3 months ago.

Herringer moved to amend the motion to “allow the administration a reasonable amount of time to disseminate the original information.”


Presiding officer Mike Skala waited a bit, then said, “We have no 2nd, so it fails. Roll call.”

All the board members voted for Snow’s motion.

Next, Skaja asked, “May I make a motion that the board would give ample and reasonable time to fulfill the requests?”

Then, realizing one does not need permission to make a motion, made one to that effect.

Snow replied, “Are we giving them an ample amount of time now?”

“No,” was Skaja’s answer.

“My objection last week was how (people?) were acting unprofessional,” Herringer added.

“If you think my requests have been unprofessional, now is the time to speak up,” Snow said.

Burkey interjected himself to calm the waters.

“I have no problems with the questions Mr. Snow has been asking.

“Questions will go to me or cabinet members. I’m going to ask them, but I don’t want them to fire back an email.

“I will disseminate it with the next Friday’s notes.”

When the vote was taken Coleman voted “No” first, followed by “No” votes from Snow and Quagliano.

Snow said, “I think it’s a little ambiguous,” while Quagliano said, “Change the motion to be ‘reasonable’ and you’re free.’”

After the meeting Herringer walked over to Snow's seat and continued her conversation about emails.

= = = = =
All photos, except those of Kim Skala and John Burkey come from the Sept. 21st meeting.

At top is Larry Snow. Next is Rosemary Herringer. Glen Stewart and Stan Hall share the next picture. Then comes Kim Skala, Shawn Green and Tony Quagliano, followed by Mike Skala. Supt. John Burkey is below, then, Frank Coleman and, finally, Herringer talking to Snow in the final photograph.

This cap was also found at the United Methodist Men’s Spiritual Congress in Lake Geneva last weekend.

It says,

I
Love
Jesus

Pretty straight forward message, it seems to me.

What a surprise.

In Sunday’s Chicago Sun-Times, there is a list of places where 2016 Olympic events could be held.

Guess what?

Crystal Lake is not one of them.

The Sun-Times says it will be “in a new basin just south of McCormick Place.”

...in other Olympic host cities, rowing is typically done at venues far from the main hub of activity.

It was obvious that the Gay Games regatta was not of Olympic quality.

Fun, if you like really slow events, but more resembling intramurals than anything else.

In a previous article, the Sun-Times placed the rowing event in the Saganashee Slough, west of Palos Hills.

So, the ridiculous suggestion that Crystal Lake be lengthened to accommodate the distance required by Olympic events can be entered in the local version of Ripley’s “Believe It or NOT.”

Most people can agree that it is better to teach poor people how to fish or to farm than to just give them food.

I’m not sure I have even gotten so up close and personal with someone whose mission in life is to do just that as I did Saturday. I was at United Methodist Men’s Spiritual Congress this past Saturday up on Lake Geneva’s Conference Point. Tshala Mwengo is an agricultural graduate of the Methodist-supported African University in Zimbabwe. He is teaching Lunda-Ndembu farmers how to produce more with oxen.

Because he was so impressed with this approach, Chief Kanyama donated 1,000 acres for the northwestern Zambian projects called Musokatanda and Mujila Falls.

That’s where Mwengo lives with his wife Bette and two-two year old child Lans. He manages the project.

Mwengo’s goal is to attack the root causes of poverty.

"The goals are families who can provide balanced nutrition for themselves and an income from small scale, family-based production in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo,"

says the handout I got.
Mwengo’s education parallels my father’s at the University of Maryland. He was an ag graduate and wanted to be (but never became) a county agent, but his first job was as a high school ag teacher. For those non-farm folk, a county agent in the 1930’s when Dad went to school was the source of advice for local farmers. I have previously published an artlcle with a picture him with a mule.

Sounds a lot like what Mwengo will be doing.

Oxen is the farming improvement of choice. With one a farmer can grow much more.

The land of the Mujila Falls project is 2,500 acres, both forested and developed fields. It is bounded on one side by a river and includes a 40-foot waterfall, which eventually will provide hydroelectric power to the site and surrounding villages.

This area of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north “has some of the highest infant mortality rates in this part of Africa,” the information sheet says.

Mwengo had a wonderfully pleasing description of oxen. I was taking pictures and didn’t write it down, but he pointed out that they do not depreciate, among other word plays on machinery.

He mentioned that chickens were being introduced and that, currently, eggs cost 30 cents apiece. Mujila Falls is now marketing milk and soon will be doing the same with eggs from an 800-hen layer facility.

The desire is to provide more protein for the families’ diets.

Mwengo has sixty days of orientation in New York before returning to Africa

He said that the project is 300 miles from the nearest city and that his biggest need is a 4X4. One can imagine that the roads would not be too good.

A May 8th email from Paul Webster, the Wisconsin missionary who helped Mwengo get his start says,

"Our Toyota Landcruiser has had several breakdowns in the past few months, but each time we have met the challenge…"

Writing about the crops, Webster said,

"Despite many trials and tribulations, we were able to plant…22 acres of corn using only oxen…Many of our workers abandoned us when the weeds got thick and the plowing got tough. Tshala and I often went out and plowed by ourselves and found ways to get the essential work done on time. In each instance, God gave us the strength to carry on…We had only one pair of oxen ready to work and they had been starved and were underweight Yet, through the strength of an ox we can report an abundant harvest."

They held a field day for local farmers (complete with PowerPoint!) and

"Even Chief Kanyama attended and later expressed his satisfaction with the event..

"Poor local farmers are have been bringing their oxen to the training center to be trained in pulling various implements…Now that they have seen our fields, they are convinced that oxen are most practical for their needs."

Webster concludes by writing,

"Running a 1000 hectare experimental farm and training center will require all the skills and skills that God has given both Tshala and me if we are to succeed…Please keep Tshala and me in your prayers. We have both had malaria and with the chicks and the rabbits, we seldom get a full night’s sleep."

Mwengo’s address is
Tshala Mwengo
United Methodist Church
P.O. Box 20219
Kitwe, Zambia

Contributions may be to the Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church. His missionary number is 15093Z. His email address is tmwengo@yahoo.com.
= = = = =

Pictures:

The tall man seen speaking is Methodist missionary Tshala Mwengo.

Mwengo is seen with his wife Bette.

Below is Northern Illinois Conference United Methodist Men Vice President Steven Nailor of Rockford introducing Mwengo.

The map is of Zambia and surrounding countries. The project Mwengo manages is in the upper lefthand portion of the country.

One UMM member points at the screen to the man sitting beside him.

Brad Meador and Carl Moon of the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake listen to soon-to-be commissioned Methodist missionary Tshala Mwengo at Lake Geneva’s Conference Point Spiritual Congress.

The bottom head shot is of Tshala Mwengo.

Labels: Chief Kanyama, Lake Geneva, Missionary, Mujila Falls, Spiritual Congress, Tshala Mwengo, United Methodist Men, Williams Bay, Zambia

Mary Margaret Maule, a Democrat running for county board in the McHenry-Johnsburg-Wonder Lake district would have been knocking on doors if it had been August.

But it’s September and peop