Author: Serkadis

CARY, Ill. –- Police have arrested six Cary residents after a three-month undercover drug sting.

The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Division, Cary Police Department, and United States Marshals Fugitive Task Force took aim at drug sales in the village, said Sheriff’s Sgt. John Koziol.

Officers served six arrest warrants Friday and turned up $750 worth of drugs, including 30 hits of LSD, 45 grams of marijuana, one gram of morphine, and half a gram of heroin.

Officers from the Sheriff’s Office and Cary Police Department made undercover drug purchases as part of the investigation, Koziol said.

Koziol said the operation was small, but involved drugs that carry serious charges such as LSD. The hallucinogenic drug was more common in previous decades, but might be making a comeback, he said.

Steven J. Weiser, 43, 101 E. Sunset Drive, Apt. 1E6, was charged with two counts of delivery of a controlled substance, three counts of possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of hypodermic syringes.

Weiser is being held at McHenry County Jail on $50,000 bail.

Jason J. Church, 29, 339 Carl Sands Drive, was charged with delivery of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance. Church is being held on $40,000 bail.

Dylan J. Drewes, 18, 346 Park Ave., was charged with two counts of delivery of marijuana, three counts of possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Drewes was released from jail on $20,000 bail.

Patrick J. O’Donnell, 19, 643 Cary Woods Circle, was charged with the most serious crime, a class X felony for delivery of LSD, Koziol said.

He also was charged with delivery of a controlled substance, and two counts of possession of a controlled substance. O’Donnell remains in McHenry County Jail today with bond set at $115,000.

Christopher J. Church, 23, 339 Carl Sands Drive, was charged with obstructing justice and failure to appear in court on an unrelated battery charge. He is in jail with bond set at $6,000.

Debra A. Boudrie, 49, 101 E. Sunset Drive, Apt. 1E6, was charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of a hypodermic syringe, and failure to appear in court on two unrelated charges.

She is in jail today on $20,000 bail.

Koziol praised the cooperation between the Sheriff’s Office and the Cary Police Department that led to the arrests.

By BRETT ROWLAND

[email protected]

Read the original article from the Northwest Herald.

By now you’ve probably heard the catchy tagline for transit security “If you see something, say something.” This social marketing campaign engages users of the transit system to bolster security efforts, which might otherwise seem out of their hands, by appealing to people’s desire to help and ability to see. The desired action is quite simple: if you see a bag unattended, or anything else that looks unusual, ask the person nearest if the bag is theirs and/or report it to an official or worker at the station. Anyone can do it, and it makes common sense, but it requires us to approach a stranger unsolicited and speak to them.

This weekend, I saw people releasing bunches of helium balloons from the second story windows of a club, just after I had gotten off the Metro and heard “If you see something, say something.” So, without thinking, I ran over to the building and shouted to the people that they shouldn’t be littering and that whales were going to eat the balloons and die (see p. 21). It wasn’t my best developed message or delivery, and I am no whale expert! Overall, I doubt it did much to advance the environmental cause, because a shrill shout turns people off more than it educates, engages or convinces them.

So, I began to wonder if getting the delivery right was the only barrier to a successful “If you see something” campaign for an environmental issue, such as reducing littering or global warming pollution. Like national security, environmental issues often feel too large for people to have an impact. And, it’s pretty easy to spot people littering, and even identifying global warming pollution could be done even if it is a bit more difficult. That said, approaching a stranger who is littering might be different, because it is difficult to avoid explicitly or implicitly reprimanding them. Reducing global warming pollution to an even greater extent delves into peoples’ personal choices and lifestyle, and unlike littering, there are no laws against leaving all the lights, televisions, and other appliances on in your home or driving your large inefficient vehicle around the block twenty times looking for a parking space. (Although there are great voluntary programs run by EPA and Department of Energy to promote the alternative behaviors for which I have provided links.)

Perhaps our society’s experience with smoking can offer lessons on the topic. Over time, it has become more and more unacceptable to smoke in public places, and people feel more and more empowered to ask people not to smoke in their presence. Maybe creating excessive global warming pollution will rise to that level, but we’re a ways from there now.

Do you have ideas for environmental issues that might work with the “If you see something, say something” framework?

About the author: Matthew H. Davis, M.P.H., is a Health Scientist in EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection, working there on science and regulatory policy as a Presidential Management Fellow since October 2009. Previously, he worked in the environmental advocacy arena, founding a non-profit organization in Maine and overseeing the work of non-profits in four other states.

Filed under: Spy Photos, Crossover, Dodge

Imperfect though it may have been, we kinda miss the Dodge Magnum. Building a low-slung wagon and dropping a Hemi into it took a lot of guts on Chrysler‘s part. And while it may have been discontinued, it appears to be slated for an encore, albeit in name only.

As we reported a couple of weeks back, Chrysler is considering bringing the Magnum nameplate back for a new crossover to replace the Durango. New U.S. patent drawings have leaked onto the interwebs, giving us a good look at how the new Magnum will appear when it hits the road, anticipated sometime next year as a 2011 or 2012 model.

The new Magnum will definitely be taller than the old one, but considerably more car-like than the body-on-frame Durango it replaces. Underpinnings are expected to be borrowed from the highly anticipated new Jeep Grand Cherokee, with 280-horsepower 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 and 360-hp V8 5.7L V8 on offer.

[Source: Carscoop]

Patent drawings reveal Durango-replacing 2012 Dodge Magnum? originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google is a huge company that prides itself for being at the front of tech innovation. It has well over 20,000 employees and works on a myriad of new projects, many aimed at markets it doesn’t have a presence in or that don’t even exist yet. As such, you can imagine that the company has a lot of people in research and invests a significant amount of … (read more)

Last month we reported that one of Ford Motor Company’s service providers, SPX Corporation, was going to donate a Ford Mustang Challenge race car, autographed by multiple race drivers in order to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

SPX Corporation announced today that its charity effort raised $275,000 at the 39th Annual Barett-Jackson Collector Car Auction in Scottsdale, Arizona on Friday January 22 when the car was auctioned.

This was the highest auction bid for any c… (read more)

Today, David Rosenberg makes some rare, un-alloyed positive comments relating to yesterday’s big ISM number.

—-

ISM ROARS AND SOARS
ISM soared to 58.4 in January from 54.9 in December — the consensus was
looking for a dip to 54.5.  This is the strongest reading since August 2004 and is
distinctly late-cycle (normally the ISM is still struggling to get back to the 50 level
this close to the end of the recession).  It took two years to get to this level
following the 2001 recession; it took three years to get there after the 1990-91
recession; and it took a mere six months this time around.  

For the past three decades, an ISM of around 60 pretty well defined the cycle
peak for the industrial sector and here we are right near there and just two
quarters after the last negative GDP print.  But that is the strange thing about
post-bubble credit collapses — to expect the unexpected.  
72% of respondents posted “growth”, up from 11% a year ago.  

• The components were higher right across the board — including employment
index, at 53.3, up from 50.2 in December and the best tally since April 2006. 
Back in April 2006, payrolls rose 151k with manufacturing adding +7k jobs. 
Watch the consensus numbers for Friday’s nonfarm payrolls start to be taken
up by the Street (ADP private sector employment is out on Wednesday at 8:15). 
• Production soared in January, to 66.2 from 59.7 — highest since April 2004. 
And inventories improved to 46.5 from 43.0 … looks like we could get more
oomph in Q1 from inventory restocking.  In a separate item regarding
customer inventory levels, the share saying they are “too low” outnumbered
the share saying “too high” by a record 10 to 1 margin.  
• Orders also made a new high, at 65.9 from 64.8 — again, the best since April
2004.  Export orders jumped four points, to 58.5, which are the highest since
June 2008.   Backlogs improved from 50 to 56 — the highest since April 2006. 
Remember, the ISM, being a diffusion index and not much else, is useful but not
infallible.  Recall that it also took a nice jump in December, to 55.9 and that
translated into no growth in the manufacturing for the month, -27k on factory
payrolls, and only +0.3% in durable goods orders, which didn’t even totally
recoup the 0.4% drop the prior month.  

Of course, he has to make one exception to the all the good cheer

The ISM data took center stage yesterday and while clearly positive for the
industrials we also saw U.S. construction spending come out for December and it
was really weak — down 1.2% MoM (the consensus was at -0.5%) and we saw
down revisions too for the prior month (to -1.2% in November from -0.6% before). 
Even with the most pro-housing macro policies ever concocted, the real estate
industry remains in complete disarray fully three years after the initial detonation.  

Of course, for a counterpoint, see this from Goldman on why this is definitely no v-shaped recession >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Key Leading Indicator, The ISM Manufacturing Index, Blows Away Expectations As Employment Accelerates
• Australia Stuns The World By Announcing Un-Official End To The Rate-Hike Cycle
• Goldman: After Six Months, We Can Safely Say This Is No V-Shaped Recovery

Madonna and Baby Jesus have called it quits.

The Material Girl’s barely legal beau, Jesus Luz, recently ended his relationship with Madonna, citing their age difference and busy schedules, according to The Chicago Sun-Times’ Bill Zwecker.

“It not only was totally amicable, but it was Luz who initiated the split. Apparently, the 23-year-old Brazilian realized their age difference (she’s 51) and overall lack of mutual interests nixed a long-term relationship,” The Times writes.

Madonna began dating the Brazilian-born model/DJ shortly after her divorce from British director Guy Ritchie, when the couple met on the set of December 2008 photoshoot for W Magazine.

The Chesapeake Bay Program is happy to announce the launch of BayBackpack.com, an online resource for teachers and environmental educators to engage students in hands-on learning about the Chesapeake Bay and its local waterways. Bay Backpack provides educators with the necessary resources to give their students a Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE), which are extensive projects that allow students to gain a deep understanding of environmental issues in the Chesapeake Bay and its local streams and rivers. To learn more about Bay Backpack, visit www.baybackpack.com . Interested educators can also follow Bay Backpack on Twitter @baybackpack to receive additional education-related news and resources.

There used to be a time when Forbes.com, in collaboration with ForbesAutos.com, used to come out with some interesting top ten lists. Well, ever since they shutdown ForbesAutos.com, Forbes auto industry related top ten lists just seem to be getting more boring.

Their latest list outlines the most dangerous vehicles of 2010. What was Forbes reason for putting together the list? The article starts off by saying how the government is cracking down on distracted (texting) driving. The only important piece of information Forbes really gives out here is that out of the “8,000 crashes that occur each day nationwide — 80 percent are caused by distracted driving, according to AAA.”

It then says that distracted driving isn’t the only thing we should be blaming for the severity of the occupants’ injuries and that some vehicles are just built poorly.

As Forbes puts it:

Tiny cars and low-level sedans are especially at risk, according to crash tests conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Bigger cars, because of their mass, generally fare better in tests — but may be more likely to roll.

This helps explain why the Chevrolet Aveo and Chrysler PT Cruiser, both inexpensive, smaller cars, have the worst crash-test ratings in their class — they each received “marginal” test-results for side- and rear-impacts. They join the Cadillac STS and Mercury Grand Marquis as some of the most dangerous vehicles of 2010.

Oh and Forbes, in the slideshow, that’s a picture of a Mitsubishi Galant Fortis in Japan (otherwise known to us as the Lancer), not a Mitsubishi Galant.

– By: Kap Shah

Source: MSNBC

Although nothing new transpired from Japanese carmaker Toyota’s HQ, it is obvious for all those in the industry that the huge problem now facing the biggest carmaker in the world will not be left without consequence for its managers. Facing a serious dent in its image, as well as some huge losses due to the recall and its related effects, the carmaker has already began seeking out those responsible and, timidly, pointing fingers.

According to Toyota executive Shinichi Sasaki, the man respons… (read more)

Despite the fact that the Irish car market suffered a huge drop in 2009, it seems that this year things might turn around, according to the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI). Official SIMI figures say there were 16,595 new cars registered in January 2010 in Ireland, 5.04% more than in January 2009.

Last year, Irish car sales plunged 62.1% to 57,460 units, compared with 2008. The all time high of 186,000 units was registered in 2007, while 2008 brought sales of 152,000 units.

&quot… (read more)

The first motorcycle manufacturer to lend a helping hand to Haitians in need is Harley-Davidson. The manufacturer announced it will donate 28 new Buell and Harley-Davidson motorcycles to assist with earthquake disaster relief and stabilization efforts, and will remain in Haiti as a permanent donation to the government.

"Our thoughts are with all of those affected by this devastating disaster in Haiti," said Rod Copes, Senior Vice President of International Sales, Marketing and Busi… (read more)

SHELBYVILLE — The Illinois Farm Bureau is cautioning farmers may not be able to get back on rural roads with an ATV until late this summer or fall.

Drafting errors in legislation prevents ATVs from even crossing county and township roads they’d been allowed on since 2007, said Kevin Rund, the Farm Bureau’s senior director of local government.

The new legislation had been aimed at allowing golf carts onto those roads in some circumstances, Rund said Monday during the Shelby County Ag Day.

Other legislation that was intended to go into effect would have allowed Gator type vehicles along with ATVs onto the rural roads.

The Farm Bureau is working with lawmakers to fix the errors and allow ATVs back onto the roads, where they’ve been banned since Jan. 1, Rund said.

“Hopefully, we get that all right,” Rund said. “There could be some strings attached.”

Use of ATVs to check on crops and livestock is one of the changes for farmers to be aware of as the next growing season approaches with last year’s harvest a not-so-distant memory.

Some corn fields are still standing, especially to the north, said Jim Angel, Illinois Water Survey State Climatologist.

Farmers will be coming off of two unusually wet years as they head into 2010, Angel said. They had to contend with the coolest July on record and one of the wettest Octobers, among other weather-related issues in 2009, Angel said.

“We never could get the degree-days going once we got the crops planted, so we couldn’t get caught up,” Angel said.

“It just wouldn’t let up. It was a very unusual growing season.”

Long-term forecasts aren’t yet showing any major changes for this year in Illinois, although Angel said no forecasts at this time last year picked up that it was going to be a record wet year.

Angel is concerned wet conditions are going to continue at least into the early part of the spring when farmers want to start heading back into the fields.

“We’re looking at a lot of water throughout Illinois,” Angel said.

“The early risk is we’re going to start off in such wet conditions.”

Cooler summer temperatures usually follow a wet spring, Angel said. At this point, Angel is fairly certain farmers won’t be contending with dry conditions.

“I don’t think we’re going to have another record breaking wet year,” Angel said. “I would be really surprised if we got in trouble with a drought.”

[email protected]

Read the original article from Herald & Review.

Serbian team Stefan GP seems to have not given up hope in making the 2010 Formula One roster after all. After managing to close a deal with former F1 team Panasonic Toyota to receive technical supports for a potential 2010 operation, Stefan GP now packed their bags and shipped a 40 foot container of equipment to Bahrain.

As you all know, Bahrain will host this year’s season opener in Formula One, and the Serbian outfit plans to be there just in case. In case of what? Well, as recent reports h… (read more)

In December, it was reported that November ending home sales collapsed as the first-time homebuyer tax credit ended.

And now, according to the National Association of Realtors, the market is ‘stabilizing’, with the numbers jumping over 10% year over year. Sequentially, the overall index was up just 1% which seems to be what analysts were expecting.

Still, the homebuilders, meanwhile, are on fire, as DR horton, Beazer, and Hovnanian are all up over 5%.

See the full release here >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Case-Shiller: Still Disappointing For Housing Bulls, As 15 Of 20 Markets Fall Sequentially
• Remember, The Crappy Housing Starts Number Was Good News
• Why Pending Home Sales Are A Bigger Disaster Than You Realize

Chevrolet has just dropped its catchy tagline – “An American Revolution,” which it has been using since 2003.

The campaign had a grand launch on Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve program with a spot produced by Hollywood director Michael Bay featuring the song “Magic Carpet Ride” by Steppenwolf. It was as “all-American” as you could get.

What’s the reason for the drop? “There’s not really an all-new theme,” Chevy General Manager Jim Campbell told Automotive News. “It’s really communications focused at those target customers.” Meaning, instead, Chevrolet will just use the brand names as the tagline.

You can check out the great commercial that started it all after the jump. And if you’re a Michael Bay and Transformers fan – you’ll see a lot of “AutoBot” touches in the commercial.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required) (via AOL)
Images Source: oscar99ta’s Flickr

Waiting for Gran Turismo 5? Be prepared to wait some more. Following numerous delays and vague references to release targets that never materialized, SCEE has set a new release window for the heavily anticipated Polyphony Digital title.

The Maine Township High School District 207 school board unanimously approved $15 million in cuts Monday night, laying off 137 employees, including 75 teachers, by year’s end.

The board left the door open for another shot at negotiations with the Maine Teachers Association to save roughly 40 to 45 jobs.

The administration has offered to spend up to $2 million more out of the district’s reserves for two years, if the union matches that amount in salary concessions.

Union leaders will discuss the offer with their membership in coming weeks.

The offer wouldn’t spare the remaining noncertified employees and teachers who will surely lose their jobs at the end of the current school year. They are the silent majority who have been forgotten, said Linda Ryan, a librarian at Maine West High School.

The library department at all three district schools is being cut in half down from six librarians, she said.

“All of our support staff has also been cut,” Ryan said.

“We are down to one librarian for all of Maine West. (The board’s) decision right now for wanting the MTA to open up the contract to save 45 jobs … what happens to the other 92 people that they are not even talking about?”

Monday’s vote came amid calls from community members asking the school board to stay firm on cost reductions and not give in to the union’s demands to use reserves – expected to be $86 million at the end of this school year – to plug a projected $19 million deficit next year.

Teachers and students also pleaded one last time to save all teaching jobs.

The crowd at Monday night’s meeting was considerably smaller than the couple of thousand people who attended a nearly five-hour public hearing last month, overwhelmingly opposing the proposed cuts.

The auditorium at Maine South High School, which has a capacity of 830 people, was only half full and only 10 people signed up to speak Monday.

In the district’s latest offer, the teachers union would have to agree to forego a 3.2 percent salary increase in the 2010-2011 academic year.

Most teachers would continue to receive step pay increases based on years of experience and a 3.5 percent wage increase for the 2011-2012 school year.

Dianne Yonkers of Park Ridge, whose children graduated from Maine South, said it’s time for the teachers union to negotiate in good faith.

“The board has made some very significant offers,” she said. “Plenty of unions have done this to save membership, so it’s not an unheard-of thing. I cannot figure out why they won’t do that.”

Maine Teachers Association President Emma Visee said since the offer was made Friday she has had heated exchanges with District 207 Superintendent Ken Wallace and other union members.

Visee said the union leadership and the entire membership will consider the administration’s latest offer, but she defended the union’s position on using reserves to bail the district out of the financial crisis.

Visee said the administration is wise to change its spending habits since it overspent and underbudgeted in the 2008-09 school year, having not accounted for $6.5 million in expenses until last July.

“MTA has never suggested the district deplete the fund balance,” Visee said. “That wouldn’t serve anyone well. We ask that they use the fund balance as it was intended, as a savings to get over those rough times, such as we currently face.

MTA has for years suggested the district spend those taxpayer monies. Unfortunately, they chose to do so to spend on large-ticket items during a major recession.”

Visee was talking about projects to replace windows and renovation at Maine East, installing artificial turf and lights at Maine South’s football stadium, and new scoreboards for all three high schools.

District 207’s financial troubles came to light at the end of the 2008-09 school year, when the district still had a cash balance of $100 million, roughly 90 percent of its annual operating budget of $112 million.

But an accounting error led to a larger-than-anticipated deficit that year – growing from $3.8 million to $10.3 million.

The deficit at the end of the current academic year is expected to be $11 million, and between $4 million and $9 million in 2010-2011 school year even with the cuts.

Resident Mark Barrett of Park Ridge said it’s time to stop the blame game.

“The board of education has the fiduciary responsibility to hold our reserve at a level to keep the district from running into insolvency,” Barrett said.

“What solutions has the union brought to the table except to totally use the reserve funds of the taxpayers?”

Union leaders say they have offered solutions to raise additional revenue and reduce more administrators to save teachers.

Should an agreement be reached between the MTA and district administration, the school board may meet ahead of the March 1 board meeting to rescind the layoffs authorized Monday.

Approved cuts

The Maine Township High School District 207 school board approved the administration’s recommended cuts Monday night.

Reductions from 2009-2010 full-time equivalent staffing:

• Certified teaching staff: 13% (75 jobs)
• Safety monitors: 31% (16.5 jobs)
• Secretary/clerical: 15% (13.5 jobs)
• Teaching assistants: 17% (11 jobs)
• Custodial/maintenance: 11% (11 jobs)
• Administrative: 11% (7 jobs)
• Technology/data processing: 10% (2 jobs)
• Security guards: 7% (1 job)

Cuts in dollars:

• $50,000 in legal fees
• $750,000 in extracurricular/stipends, substitutes and special programs
• $1 million in technology
• $1 million in capital outlay
• $1 million in out-of-district tuition costs
• $1.1 million in administrative cuts
• $2.5 million in noncertified staff including overtime
• $2.6 million in supplies/purchase services
• $5 million in certified staff

Cuts by teaching department in FTE staff:

• Applied arts & technology: 6
• Bilingual/ESL: 2.85
• Counselors: 3.50
• English: 14
• Fine arts: 4.20
• Foreign language: 4
• Library: 3
• Mathematics: 6
• Physical education: 6.80
• Science: 10.25
• Special education: 9.83
• Social science: 4.70

Classes/programs affected in 2010-2011 school year:

Mandarin Chinese at Maine East and Maine West will be eliminated for the 2010-11 school year due to low enrollments.

Students currently enrolled in Chinese can attend Maine South for this class. Classes will be scheduled during the day to allow for transportation between schools.

The budget for some athletic and extracurricular activities will be reduced, but the programs will not be eliminated entirely.

That includes money for the Maine East debate team for travel, supplies and competitions; reducing the number of speech coaches from three to two at each school; reducing the number of jazz band directors from two to one at each school and reducing the number of intramurals offered at each school.

For more information on the cost reductions, visit maine207.org.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.