Deja vu all over again: Illinois lawmakers order 7 to testify over Quinn's anti-violence program

Once more, an Illinois governor is near the center of a corruption investigation: 

Illinois legislators have voted to subpoena seven former state officials to answer questions about a troubled 2010 anti-violence program started by Gov. Pat Quinn.…

The individuals include Quinn's former chief of staff, Jack Lavin, and Barbara Shaw, former director of an agency that was responsible for the $55 million Neighborhood Recovery Initiative.

Ah, life in Illinois is always so predictable!

HT: Iowahawk –

ICYMI: Pat Quinn vying to become third straight IL governor in prison. 3-PEAT! 3-PEAT! 3-PEAT! http://t.co/eJkhdjL1D4
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 24, 2014

Not ready for harvest

As corny as Kansas, but in Illinois.
This photograph was from a batch of 3.25" x 3.25" negatives from "Henderson County, Ills.", developed in Galesburg, dated ca. 1910-1919.

Last spring, my parents drove upstate to the Chicago area to attend the funeral of my mother's half-brother. We don't really have much in the way of emotional (or other) ties to that branch of the family, as Mom was raised, not by her parents, but by her mother's sister's household... several aunts, an uncle and a cousin, that is. That is where the bond is strong -- with the family on the farm, and with the land itself.

Mom has many great, fond memories of the place where she was raised, on the outskirts of a little town not far from Joliet. I have equally fond memories of holidays spent at the same place, listening to the great rusty windmill creaking, groaning, and complaining with each breeze throughout the night. We both still see, in our mind's eyes, or smell with the shifting winds of time, the musty corn crib, the grassy hayloft, the bleached bungalow out back, Grandpa's (that would be my great-grand-uncle's) workshop with the forge, the cellar filled with foods put by... that way of life is still deeply embedded in our souls.

Every sunny morning, on the farm, came with rainbows. Every evening went the same way. When the house had been built, Grandpa made certain to install beveled, leaded glass panes in the large bay windows. Those built-in prisms scattered colors across walls, floor, and faces as the sun passed. To a child, this was magical. To an adult, this was simply joy -- a far greater magic.

The quickest glance in any direction out those precious windows, always, gave a view of the braided rug that was the tilled and planted earth, bordered by a line of tall grass and a gravel road. Beneath bare feet, that black ground was the essence of all things good.

As the seasons changed, colors outdoors changed, but the essential rhythm of the farm remained one of honest toil, worry punctuated with laughter and music. Evenings, holidays, Sundays after church and after dinner were spent around the piano, swapping songs and stories. Strangers and even old foes were welcome at the dining table, especially on the holidays. Crowds came and went, love always remained.

They put the interstate highway in while I was still in school. All I cared was that it took me to Grandma and Grandpa's farm that much faster. The folks, by that time, had retired from the fields to allow a neighbor to work the land, and they didn't mind, then, the ease of travel afforded by the four-lane thoroughfare. It got them to their desk jobs in Joliet that much faster and more easily.

When I was getting ready for college, the folks sold the farm to some people who said they wanted to turn the house into a Bed and Breakfast. No problem. The new owners tore down most of the farm structures, though. I wasn't sure why. I suppose there was some liability issue, or, maybe, since they weren't farming there, they decided they didn't need to maintain the old wooden crib, the battered barn, the forge. They also tore down the house, laid in new foundations on the old footprint, and replaced the wood structure with a brick block of a thing -- with no windows on the east or west sides, and plain glass on the southern exposure. They saw no rainbows.

Mom and I could adjust to those sorts of changes. New people want to make their own marks on the land, and so it is with houses. We thought they were fools for omitting daylight from their list of priorities, but it was their loss, after all.

Now, though, the farm and farmstead are long gone. Yes, the brick B-and-B is still there, but it's surrounded by a national retail distribution center's row-upon-row of warehouses and truck lots. The "back forty" acres are no longer braided rows of farmland, but containment ponds for sewage treatment for the ever-expanding (and, in faltering economy, likely soon-to-decay) suburban developments, both industrial and residential.

What was once rich land is now nothing but property. Neither my mother nor I will willingly go by that parcel of real estate again. Some changes are simply too painful to face again.

They're reselling graves in Cook County, IL

Re: the press conference this afternoon regarding the Cook County cemetery at which 4 employees are accused of digging up graves, dumping the bodies, and reselling the plots to unsuspecting folks...

How do they know the employees had dug up & dumped the bodies? After all, they are in the Chicago area... the original occupants of those graves may very well have simply decided not to return to their resting places after having voted.

Bye bye Blago

It's unanimous. Rod Blagojevvich is out of a job and barred from ever again holding public office. I would cheer, but the man was a symptom, rather than the problem. Now, to clean up the rest of the state's politics.

It's about freaking time!

For the record, I know everybody and his brother will be posting on the topic of G-Rod, today.

I'm unoriginal.

So sue me.

Anyway.

I love my home state of Illinois, but for years I've been embarrassed and frustrated by its politics. We who live downstate have little or no power to counter the massive forces of corruption from Chicago.

That's why it's nice to hear that the feds have taken Blagojevich into custody. He's the most frustrating and embarrassing element of IL politics, currently -- frustrating because his actions are quite obviously corrupt, and embarrassing because they're so obviously corrupt. It's bad enough to have a crook in office, as long as, for the most part, he's done little real harm to the people (hearken back to the days of Da Mare, Richard J. Daley). But this guy and his cronies have been both criminal and harmful... and the Blowdried One has been stupid and clumsy, to boot.

Of course, I should be grateful that Blago is such an idiot. He has probably made it very easy to remove him from office, and possibly opened the door to a thorough house-cleaning. But we have to live with the aftermath. Part of the aftermath is that there is no Republican party to pick up the pieces. The last batch of candidates for gov. from the right side of the aisle were mostly a bunch of wooden lumps, none of whom seemed able to demonstrate a lick of leadership in simple times... so we're supposed to expect them to handle a mess like this? We haven't had a real leader in the Illinois Republican party since Big Jim Thompson left office. Edgar was okay, but he just held the office, no great shakes. And then, of course, there was Ryan. [cue theme from "Jaws"]

So, we'll just get more Dems. Same old same old. Except we'll be getting more of the less-experienced Dems, and it's likely that, in the long run, they'll grow up to be more like Blowdriedovich than like Big Jim.

But wouldn't it be nice to think we really were heading for a happy future?

Blago getting nervous?

He seems to be trying to shut down our state's societal defense system:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration wants to close the state prison in Pontiac, says Sen. Dan Rutherford, R-Chenoa.

Rutherford got the unexpected news today. He said a letter from the Department of Corrections, which runs Pontiac and other state correctional centers, says that the agency no longer plans to close part of the Stateville prison near Joliet. Instead, DOC now is looking at shuttering the Pontiac facility.

I'm not surprised. One of his first real acts as gov was to renege on his promise to open the one in Tomson, and after much fuss and ado, finally had to cave and open the new building just a couple of years ago -- nearly five years after the building was completed and ready to begin housing inmates. And it's still nowhere near capacity. So, his proposal to shut down the newer and somewhat-more-distant-from-Chicago facility is not at all a novel approach, here.

Maybe, though, with all the Rezko stuff, he's just looking out for his own future. After all, he seems to have a problem with being away from Chicago for any length of time. Joliet is at least an hour closer to the city than is Pontiac:


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Puff, puff, puff...

While I'm trying to catch my breath after walking a couple of dogs, I'm going to ask all my friends in Illinois to take advantage of this last day of good will between smokers and the rest of us... starting the day after tomorrow, the law says there is top be no smoking in public places or private businesses.

Quite frankly, while my wheezy, miserable lungs are happy about the result, the rest of me is less than impressed with the method. Well, that's not quite frank enough, but my mother occasionally reads my blog, and I'm not inclined to subject her to the sort of language struggling to trip past my guardian fingertips and onto the key pad.

I'll be glad when I can go to the local public house of a Thursday for Open Microphone night. Who knows? I may even participate, this year. I have a kazoo, and I know how to use it. I'm also told that my friend/sister (extended family gets complicated) Elke's bird, Pippin, likes my singing... That (and a whole lot of money when I win the lottery) ought to get me a recording contract.

But kazoo azide, just where do the jackasses in Springfield get off "protecting" me from second-hand smoke, when, as yet, they've not exhausted every other non-nanny-state option, first? Did they allow, say, insurance companies to actually jack up rates for smokers, for health, fire, and liability? Did they do the same for businesses which permit smoking on their premises? Did they, perhaps, introduce city/county/state fees for fire protection, community clinics, etc., in which businesses which do not allow smoking get a cut rate? Did they really try anything, honestly, at all, before they decided smokers are not human and, therefore, have no rights? Of course not.

So, all of my friends who smoke, puff like crazy throughout tomorrow, for on Tuesday we will fume without tobacco.

Monmouth's Living Windows draws good crowds

Thursday night we in Monmouth were hit with a couple of inches of snow

so conditions were pretty good by Friday evening, when Downtown Monmouth had its Living Windows Festival. I got a call from my friend, Janet, asking me if I'd like to join her in exploring events at the downtown extravaganza, so I agreed to meet her about an hour before things were to start.

I got there just a little early, so I took a few pictures of some of the bigger, better buildings in the downtown area, like the Court House

and the Colonial Bank, in full Christmas regalia

and a shot of the barber shop near the old theater.

My friend Marsha's store window was filled with fun -- Santa and his elf, Eric were getting wild and crazy

On the square, Ronald McDonald greeted cookie-buyers and cocoa-hunters

while, in the Christian book store, sweet songs wafted across the shelves, a cappella

and an electric piano accompanied three members of a barber-shop quartet (with surprisingly good results!), at the Wells Fargo bank.

But the big draw is always the Buchanan Center for the Arts/Warren County Library corner. Crowds outside were, sometimes, ten bodies thick, to see

the kids performing in the windows of the BCA.

From the inside, you could see how much magic was in the air

Ghosts of Degas

Past and present

Back out on the street again -- rides in horse-drawn carriages were available for a small fee.

Santa's helpers were following in Hermey's footsteps

To cap off our evening, Janet and I made our way to Turnbull Funeral Home, where, each year, the Monmouth College bagpipers have come to perform in the main parlor...

Following a rousing performance of Scotland the Brave, Janet and I went to the Maple City Baptist Church a block away, where members of the congregation were serving a hot supper -- coffee, cocoa, choice of chili or hot dog, and a variety of deserts. We ended our evening at the door, after having our fill. We said our farewells, I drove home and collapsed, falling almost instantly to sleep, with visions of sugarplums dancing in my head (or, maybe it was sugar-Clydesdales?).

This week is Illinois Arts Week

This is Illinois Arts Week. It started on Sunday, and ends this coming Saturday at whatever time we go to sleep.

I just learned of this, today, while reading about some of the goings-on in Galesburg. I realize that a large part of the reason Monmouth isn't in on this stuff hugely is because our arts community just suffered a sudden, shocking loss, but I can't help but wonder how I missed it.

I, who used to live by the paintbrush, did not know that there was a state-tax-dollars-supported week, and a Federally-promoted month of art. Further, I didn't have a clue that this had been going on in my home state since I was finishing high school!


I should be ashamed.

But I've marked it in my calendar for next year, and I'll be discussing with the new director of the Buchanan Center for the Arts, pursuing ambitions for next year's events. We can't let Galesburg get the upper hand in the arts, darn them! ;-)


And now, to atone for my sin, I include a fine example of Illinois art, from my postcard collection, including the description from its back:

"Big Daddy," the tallest totem pole east of the Rockies, stands on North Main Street in Abingdon, Ill. Designed and hand-carved by Steve Greenquist, it has a 17' wingspan on the upper wings. Its 10 carved figures reflect Abingdon's history.

Gratuitous Postcards: The proper way to spend a weekend

I don't fish. Not that I lack the desire to do so, but rather, I lack the gift for sitting still and waiting patiently for something to come to me.

But even the best fishermen, these days, don't use this particular turn of phrase to describe where they "ben fishin'". For most of us, today, the words "up the river" mean something more like this:

Some of my old friends from my dissipated youth might point out there is little difference between the state of those in the top card and those in the bottom card. Neither will enjoy the weekend as much as the fisherman will.


My idea of the perfect weekend is sitting back with a few good friends, enjoying some good music, a few good beers, and a lot of laughs. In fact, those are my plans for this evening... and into tomorrow, most likely (no auction! egad! whatever shall I do with that empty space near the front door to my house?).

Enjoy! Life is too short and too uncertain to accept anything less than full-tilt silliness.

IL Constitutional Convention proposed

I heard it mentioned for the first time last night when I was drifting off to sleep watching the local news... for the life of me, I can't recall the context, other than that one prominent Democrats is in support of it (but for why I know not).

Naturally, hearing that one of this could occur in the near future, I decided to look it up. There isn't much info on it, right now. In fact, I could only find one site which had devoted any bandwidth to it at all, and the "con-con" is its raison d'etre, it seems.

All in all, though, seeing as how our levels of satisfaction with our state government have hit a low not seen in my lifetime (which puts it right about at the founding of the state, I think), I'm wondering if pressing for a change in the constitution might not be a bad thing. After all, according to this illinoisconcon site, one of the biggest changes would be an end to the frustrating jerrymandered arrangements which put our district squarely in the pocket of the RockIslandMolineMilan union pockets, and we end up having very little say.

Also proposed is a term limit amendment, and that suits me fine. It wouldn't be bad, though, to draft it so that, if (by some miracle) we got a representative we genuinely trusted and who did a world of good for Forgottonia, we could keep re-electing him by an overriding majority vote (say, a two-thirds-plus one vote -- or some such -- majority in the primaries).

It seems to me we changed our state Constitution when I was in grade school (was it 1970?). Do we really need to keep rewriting it every thirty-some years? Granted, the likelihood is, we won't change anything substantial... so the question arises: who will pay for the convention? Seems to me, it's a state taxpayer-funded event, and it didn't clear out corruption last time, so what makes them think that a state-funded event to clean the state will work in this new century... which leads me tho believe even the idea of a "con-con" results in it being a plain con (not scam. just negative. although...).

Still, the idea has appeal. D'you think we could use it to kick all the bums out?

Blago thinks arts & language are unimportant

I knew the man was a twit, but this just takes the cake. I just received an e-mail from our small-town art center's head of operations, letting us know that the blow-dried one is planning to cut 35% of an already tight arts program budget -- plus, Blago's of the opinion that we don't need to fund a grant for Arts and Foreign Language studies. The contents of the message are as follows:

Dear Friend in the Arts,

We must act now to send a powerful message to Governor Rod Blagojevich, Senate President Emil Jones, House Speaker Michael Madigan, and other state lawmakers that the arts are not pork!

The Governor’s FY08 spending plan calls for a dramatic 35% cut (over $7 million) to the Illinois Arts Council (IAC) budget. This decrease in funding will undoubtedly have a devastating impact to the arts statewide and significantly reduce the funds available for IAC grant programs. Furthermore, the Governor completely eliminated the Arts and Foreign Language grant program through the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE).

This dangerous decision will have very negative implications for all the people of Illinois. Support from the Illinois Arts Council is crucial to the success of artists, arts organizations, and entities providing arts programming throughout the state. Strategic investments made by the Illinois Arts Council to community theaters, dance studios, schools, local festivals, libraries, museums, and park districts enhance our overall quality of life and have a significant impact on the economic health and vitality of the state - creating jobs, boosting tourism, and revitalizing downtowns.

The budget approved by the legislature on August 10, 2007 would have increased the Illinois Arts Council's budget by $3.6 million from last year’s budget level and brought us very close to our goal: a budget of $24 million for the Illinois Arts Council, or $2 per person, per year in Illinois. The budget also would have increased the Arts and Foreign Language grant program at ISBE to over $6 million in FY08 to assist school districts in providing valuable arts and foreign language programming.

The Illinois Arts Alliance is moving forward with an aggressive campaign to restore full funding for the Illinois Arts Council and arts and foreign language education funding at the Illinois State Board of Education. We NEED your help now more than ever before!

Please tell Governor Blagojevich, senate and house leadership, and your state lawmakers TODAY how essential the arts are to you and your community. We have made it extremely easy for you to effectively advocate for the arts. Here is what we are asking you to do:

1) Write two letters to lawmakers using the talking points provided in the links below
a. One requesting that funding for the Illinois Arts Council be restored to $23.2 million as proposed by the General Assembly on August 10, 2007
Click Here: http://capwiz.com/artsusa/il/issues/alert/?alertid=10235401&type=ML&show_alert=1
b. The other urging lawmakers to restore funding to the Arts and Foreign Language grant program through the Illinois State Board of Education. Click Here: http://capwiz.com/artsusa/il/issues/alert/?alertid=10235931&type=ML&show_alert=1

2) Make two phone calls to the numbers listed below expressing your concern with the proposed budget cuts to the arts and urging that funding be fully restored for the Illinois Arts Council and the Illinois State Board of Education’s Arts and Foreign Language grant program.
a) Ginger Ostro
Budget Director for Governors Office of Management and Budget
Ginger.ostro@illinois.gov
312-814-0023

b) Governor Rod Blagojevich
312-814-2121 (Chicago) OR 217-558-0880 (Springfield)

While the road ahead is rocky, together we can restore full funding for the arts in Illinois! Should you have any questions or concerns please contact me at 312-855-3105 ext 14 or email joy@artsalliance.org

Sincerely,
Ra Joy
Executive Director
Illinois Arts Alliance

To be honest, I can't read the original docs well enough to figure out whether the cut is to the proposed budget (to eliminate the increase, that is), or if the cut is to the old budget before the approved increase. Either way, Blago has his little pet projects which will get funded, but everything else in this state seems to be, in his opinion, flat-out waste to be eliminated.

Look, we've already seen the feds cut arts, leaving in the responsibility of state and local offices. The only way some of the smaller communities can even pretend to demonstrate an interest in something more than simple survival is if somebody gives us a hand-up. Small-town colleges have seen their budgets rearranged (often very stupidly, I'll grant) to the point where they can no longer support town/gown cooperation on anything, let alone arts. Without state funding, little towns like Monmouth, and even mid-sized ones like Galesburg, Kewanee, Pekin and such are likely to suffer, intellectually and artistically.

If Blago is going to cut funding for this, he'd damn well better cut funding for every other bit of cultural spending the state does. I don't want to hear that, this year, some community theatre in Chicago or Springfield gets a facelift at the taxpayers' expense, or that the State Fair Grounds got an extra coat of paint, or even that Rod's office was equipped with a new, more attractive and comfortable chair.

The arts are part of NCLB, Blowdriedevich, babe. Fund 'em or we all lose even more federal bucks. And you don't want to know what that will do to your political future. You're Rod, not God.

Governor declares storm-damaged counties disaster areas

Willya lookit that! Blagojevich has announced that some counties hit by storm Friday are official disaster areas, qualifying for state and federal funds to recover, because they are suffering:

Dozens of trees were damaged or destroyed and roads flooded after the torrential thunderstorms pounded the region. At least one person was killed in the storms, which caused flooding in scattered areas...

Funny thing is, this disaster area is -- wait for it -- Chicago area, and not those of us downstate who have already suffered economic devastation, and have also seen hundreds of trees damaged or destroyed, power out to many homes through Sunday, and at least one person dead.

Damme, it stinks living in Forgottonia, sometimes.


But then again, if we had the attention of those in Springfield, they'd probably just tax us higher, anyway.

It's a good thing we still have plenty of pioneer stock in us, or we'd have been sunk long ago by the Chicago Democrats, much less by a little rocky weather.

Let me offer a refresher course in some of the minor damage to be incurred in Warren County:

This used to be a tall-standing crop of corn.

This used to be the top of a 50-foot maple tree, a telephone pole, a series of power lines, a transformer, and a very nice Nissan pickup truck.

As you can see, the pole has been replaced, the lines are finally up and operating (as of 5 pm Sunday) and the truck ... well, the less said about it, the better.

And we were the lucky ones. Galesburg's hospital staffs were running themselves ragged treating injuries from flying broken glass, flying tree limbs, and other rapid airborne detritus all Friday afternoon & evening. And let us not even discuss the flattened Kirkwood!

Sheesh.

A few updates on the storm

Update on the update: I've added a couple of pics.

For those who watch the weather, last night and this morning, we were that funny little pinkish-white dot in the middle of all that green, yellow, red, purple, etc. over the Mississippi Valley. I don't know how much rain we got between 12:50 p.m. yesterday and so far today, because Pop's 7-inch rain gauge was topped out. Whatever it was, it was flash flood stuff.

I'm not building an ark, yet, though, even though I've gathered ma wee beasties over here at the folks' place. The city's drainage system, installed over the past decade or so, appears to have worked very well. The streets flooded temporarily, and there were the rare blocked drains, but overall, the only real damage to Monmouth was from the wind bringing down trees. And power lines... and poles.


(The police officer who sent in the report on the tree in front of my house said they were answering a lot of calls about "smelling gas", and a number of meters had been detached from pipes by falling tree limbs, but otherwise, there had, by 3:00 yesterday, still been no reports in town of serious injury or massive flooding).

Meanwhile, Kirkwood, just a few miles to the west of us, is closed to all but the lawful residents. 20 homes were completely destroyed, over 200 homes were damaged, and they'll be digging out for a very long while. I'm thinking my friend Anna and her husband are going to be very glad they sold their Kirkwood house and moved south two weeks ago....

It's still chaos out here -- In Monmouth, most of the houses and businesses have electricity again, but they're sawing away branches, trees, and other scrap. A couple of lighter buildings and garages have gone belly-up, and folks are still a little nervous.

In Galesburg, things are a little worse than in Monmouth. There's been one storm-caused death confirmed already, and a number of injuries reported at the hospitals. A lot of property is damaged, power is still out for multiple pockets of houses, and it will be a while before the streets are cleared there.

We all had been hit hard economically a couple of years ago when the bulk of Galesburg's major industries left town (following the Maytag cut-and-run), but it looks as though we'll be able to pull through. Kirkwood is a tight-knit community, with lots of relatives in the region, so we're all pulling together to the best of our abilities.



Meanwhile, my neighbor whose truck was crunched is filing a claim against my homeowner's insurance company... We have one angry mother and a couple of stunned men...

And it's raining again (just a sprinkle!).



This corn field doesn't look so bad, if you don't know what you're looking at -- but from another angle, farther up the road...



For further information, see Monmouth's Daily Review Atlas, the Galesburg Register-Mail, and the Burlington Hawk Eye.

Come for the annual felling of the tree!

Last year, when the large tree limb fell on my house, I begged the tree removal expert to remove that tree. He argued that it still had several good years left in it, and he hated to bring down a perfectly good tree before its time -- especially as we are the "Maple City" and the tree in question was a century-old sugar maple.

Well, my fears were more founded than his, I'm thinking.

Our neighborhood had some pretty rough weather yesterday. Just up the road, in Kirkwood, IL, some accounts clock the straight-line winds at anything from 95 to 128 miles per hour (or, if you work metric, it comes to roughly 153 to 206 kph). It came with about 1.4 inches of rain in the first half-hour of the storm. Just up here in Monmouth, we got slightly less severe winds, but still an inch of rain in about 25 minutes, and it came down horizontally.

I was over here at Mom & Pop's place, working on this here computer thingy. In the middle of the storm, the power went out. Call me paranoid, but the first thing I did when the conditions allowed was to get into my car and get over to my own house.
This was visible from my car, directly in front of the folks' place.

But below was what waited for me at home.


The pick-up truck belongs to the son of the neighbors directly across the street from me. He had just received the call to come to work, right before the storm hit. He's lucky -- we're lucky -- he was running a little late.


The irony here is, he had parked his truck in what is normally my space -- so I can have easy access to my own sidewalk, and not have to walk on uneven ground. I'm usually up and gone by noon, so if he'd parked in his normal space, ten feet forward, his truck would have been fine.



My house will be without power for a few days, they guess. I'm one of only a few thousand whose lines went down in the storm.

I may bring TiGrr and Peanut over to the folks' place a week ahead of schedule.

It's a poor craftsman who blames his tools

Didn't I just finish a rant about proper use of the tools of language? And here I have clear evidence that not everybody who would make a living with these tools knows a henway from a hammerdoo.*

My local paper† is notorious, in its long history, for bad reporting, bad writing, and bad graphics. Sad to say, it has not much improved since I was a child. Our new editor seems to have acquired his degree in English/journalism from the proverbial box of "candy-coated popcorn, peanuts and a prize." Else, why would he report a simple bit of news, regarding the implementation of the law to reduce speed around stopped emergency vehicles, so?:

Police will enforce Scott's Law
By Stacey Creasy
Published: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 12:49 PM CDT

MONMOUTH - Scott's Law is just that, a law on the books that carries some serious punishment if you are caught violating the statute.

Scott's Law is named after a Chicago firefighter who was killed by a drunk driver while he was at the scene of a crash in 2001. A year later the law was passed.

Huh? "Scott's law is just that"? Just what? Just Scott's? And, who is this "Scott," anyway? Is it a Fighting Scot transplanted in Chicago, or is it a man's name -- and, if so, is it a first or last name? How about a little clarity, Stacy?

Let me offer my own version of the opener, in bite-sized, chewable, non-choking-hazard, clear English chunks:

Local and state enforcement personnel believe too few people are observing a particular traffic regulation, and they're preparing to crack down on scofflaws.

"Scott's Law" requires that, when a motorist approaches a construction zone or an emergency vehicle (police car, ambulance, fire engine, etc.) stopped alongside the road, the motorist should reduce speed to 45 miles per hour, and, if possible, change lanes to provide greater safety for those vehicles and their operators. It requires the same considerate action toward oncoming emergency vehicles.

In 2001, a driver failed to observe this basic courtesy, and struck and killed Chicago Fire Lieutenant Scott Gillen as Gillen was responding to a traffic accident.

Since then, efforts had been made in the Illinois legislature to prevent any other responders from suffering the same fate. It was nick-named "Scott's Law" to honor Gillen, and to effectively personalize the issue.

The law went into effect nearly three years ago.

Warren County Sheriff Martin Edwards says too many people in our area are not obeying this law. He intends to have his department crack down on those who disobey it. [Some quoting of the sheriff may follow, here.]

Illinois State Trooper says pretty much the same thing. [Offer more quotes, from the trooper, here.]

Now, go in for the kill: What will happen if you get caught breaking this law? The DRA didn't do so badly, there:

A citation can costs a driver anywhere from $100 to $10,000. If you accidentally hit an [sic] someone such as a police officer or construction worker, you could be sentenced up to 14 years in prison.

Even though the law states 45 mph, if you make every effort to slow down, that will probably save you from being pulled over.

Local and state law enforcement officers believe more education and awareness is [sic] needed regarding Scott's Law.

"We aren't doing this to be mean. This is a safety issue," Edwards stated. "We want emergency personnel and these construction workers to be safe, and be able to go home to their families at night."

A number of states, including Indiana and Missouri, also have a similar law requiring motorists to move over and slow down.

So, you ended an article relatively cogently (extraneous articles and subject-verb agreement issues notwithstanding, and, allowing that not all articles, these days, must offer wrap-up grafs for clear conclusion). Why so awful a start? An attempt at bold originality can't be a reason -- this is a newspaper. We want the news, not statements. We want substance, not style. (Well, to be honest, I'd like a little style, but not at the cost of real content.) And I want that substance right up front, where I can decide early on whether or not this will apply to me.

Whatever happened to clear, concise English and the five W's? And who am I, this ramblin' rose, to be ranting about a lack of concise work?

Ah, well. It is, after all, Monmouth's Daily Review Atlas. I shouldn't expect anything close to perfection, should I?

*Old Vaudeville joke, for those of you who really couldn't get there on your own -- the "straight man" asks, "What's a henway?" and is told, "About six pounds." Or, he asks, "What's a hammerdoo?" and the response is, predictably... well, you figure it out.

†The Daily Review Atlas, whose editors very kindly print my column each week, at no cost to me.

"Wyatt Earp house" for sale in Monmouth

(Gratuitous postcard included)

My former sixth-grade teacher and spouse are looking to sell a house here in town they claim was the birthplace of U.S. Marshall Wyatt Earp.

If you've ever wanted to own a part of western folklore, here's your chance. The Wyatt Earp birthplace is for sale. One of Monmouth's most famous sons spent his early childhood there. And now the home's longtime owners are retiring to Arizona.

Located at 406 South 3rd Street in Monmouth, retired teachers Bob and Melba Matson plan to sell it on Ebay with a $20,000 opening bid.

It's a real humdinger, even if they can't prove this is the actual site of Earp's birth -- our local college history prof has done considerable digging, and states that the famed lawman was probably not born there, because (a) tax records say a house that size wasn't actually standing on the lot in the year Earp was born, and (b) the Mother Earp was, in later missives, reported to have been living about a mile and a half away from there, at the time... in a house which no longer exists. She'd have had a jolly miserable walk or ride -- in labor, in a winter storm -- to deliver little Wyatt over close to the railroad tracks (it's only a few blocks from where I live, and just a block or so from the railroad tracks -- closer to them than Alice's Restaurant was).

Nevertheless, it's a rather nice house, and, by all accounts, they've done a pretty good job of bringing back the feel of mid-1800s western Illinois -- no central heat, no indoor plumbing in the "museum" portion of the building, and some fairly accurate decorative stylings.*

After restoring the nineteenth century home back in 1986, they've hosted more than 10,000 visitors from all over the world. All of them are fascinated with the legendary lawman.

"They feel that Wyatt Earp is here," said Melba Matson. "They really enjoy it and like to look at everything we have."

There will be a sentimental journey on August 4th. That's when the Matsons will host a final recreation of the shootout at the O.K. Corral. From 1-4 p.m., writers, historians, tourists and fans will enjoy the action and share the memories.

So, if you're in the neighborhood for the gunfight, and you just can't seem to get the old house out of your mind, just remember -- that moderately-well-restored Wyatt elephant is for sale.


*By no means am I trying to discourage anybody from buying the property. It really is a nice place. I simply believe that the buyer should be aware that there is still debate as to the historical merits of this site as anything other than an homage museum.



Update: the aforementioned professor of history has, for some time, made his research available online here. I especially recommend reviewing this link, which is near the top of his page.

It's easy to believe in one or the other. I'm an avowed agnostic, leaning toward skepticism.

And I repeat my little footnote: The buyer should be aware that there is still a debate as to the historical merits of the site.

Waukegan city officials decide to enforce laws

I was beginning to abandon all hope that Illinois could come up with rational responses to the problem of illegal immigration and further crimes committed by illegal aliens. But one Chicago suburb is reviving my faith in sensible local governments.

The city has decided it's okay to hand over illegal alien criminals, to the Feds, for deportation. They're not going to become a criminal sanctuary city. I wish I'd lived in Waukegan, back in the day. They seem nicely non-leftwitty.

Of course, somebody's going to tell me that Waukegan is nothing but imperialists and fascists who came here illegally long ago, and now they want to stop anybody else from having the same privileges ... o'course, they're ignoring the part where the deportation is for those convicted of crimes other than border crossing without papers.... like, y'know, rape, murder, robbery, and all that kinda stuff that, apparently, the opponents of this measure would have us believe every illegal has committed, or they wouldn't be getting deported, now, would they?

Feh. A government group did something right, this week. I'm going to take that as a good sign.

37 dogs siezed in raid on dogfighting operation

The Sun-Times reports that a home in South Holland, IL, was raided, and at least 37 pitted dogs have been retrieved from the site. Quite a few were badly injured, and virtually all will have to be destroyed, since they have been trained to attack other dogs, and will not make safe pets.

What the hell kind of sick, lowlife scum needs to watch animals tear each other apart? I'm not just talking about the anal orifice who ran the "business" -- I want to know what's the damage that prompts people to want to watch it?

It's bad enough watching professional prizefighting, knowing that the athletes are willing participants who, by and large, know what they're getting into, and, indeed, have some choice in the matter. It's quite another thing to take an animal -- any animal -- and force it into a battle, or to support such a sick behavior.

Life is nasty enough on its own. Nobody needs to make it worse for anybody else, especially those who can't speak for themselves.

I hope they throw the book at the scumbag who ran this operation, and I hope the book is heavy and has teeth.

In for some nice weather

Storm's a-brewin'


I don't know why it is that this chafes me so, but every time the meteorologist comes on the television screen and says something about a "really nice day tomorrow," I want to scream, "Nice for whom?"

Mom tells me I was born in the midst of a heat wave long years ago, and, quite frankly, I've resented warm sunny weather ever since.

For starters, I like storms. If I had a good, solid shelter, I'd probably even admit I like tornadoes. I like the way the wind shifts and the temperature drops and the sky changes from cerulean to varied shades of gray -- everything from slate to pale ash, with bursts of crisp white.

But more, I like to breathe. Warm sunny days make pollen. Warm sunny days kick up dust. Warm sunny days stir those dried mold spores and bring them hither. Warm sunny days are cruel.

So I now sit here, listening to the rumbles of approaching thunder, and the smile rises from deep within me. It's going to be a really nice day, today.