Author: Serkadis

Need some play clothes for the kids or a side table for a spare room?

The new Goodwill store is now open in Champaign. And you’ll be pleasantly surprised with how different this store is from the old one.

First off, it’s much bigger. The new Goodwill is housed in the former Rhodes Furniture building at 912 W. Anthony Drive, west of North Prospect Avenue. The retail space, at about 14,000 square feet, is more than double the size of the old shop on North Prospect.

Second, because it’s much larger, the store now sells furniture, including donated furniture and new furniture, such as couches, tables and lamps.

Because the total space is about 29,000 square feet, the extra space is used as a regional warehouse for Goodwill.

The old store, at 1102 N. Prospect Ave., will remain open and is being billed as a “last-chance outlet.” Here you can buy items, such as a shopping cart full of denim, by the pound.

The store will be open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. The grand opening was Saturday.

Updates on area resale events

– Divine Consign. The women’s resale event, which held its first sale last fall at Stone Creek Golf Club in Urbana, is planning to hold a similar event next month. This time, however, it will be at the Holiday Inn, 1001 Killarney St., U.

The resale event features higher-end women’s clothing and accessories, including purses, shoes and jewelry. The organizers are accepting consignors.

Sellers earn 65 percent of the sales and up to 80 percent if they volunteer their time working at the event. Last fall, there were more than 200 consignors.

To be a consignor, visit http://www.divineconsignsale.com or call 414-213-6557.

At the event, organizers plan to hand out gift bags, which will include coupons to area businesses, such as salons and children’s boutiques, to the first 300 shoppers.

You’ll find clothing, including jackets, for all seasons, and a variety of sizes, from petite to plus and maternity.

The sale will be from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, March 12; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, March 13; and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, March 14. The half-off sale will be that Sunday.

– One Week Boutique. The semiannual children’s resale event this spring will be held in the former Best Buy building at 606 W. Anthony Drive, C (facing Interstate 74) from April 9 to 12.

Because the previous sale was held in a smaller building and at a later date last fall (it was in November in a former grocery store in Mahomet), organizer Donna Pepper said she anticipates this sale will have lots of big items such as ExerSaucers and cribs.

Also because of the larger space available at the coming spring sale, One Week Boutique will accept items for the Mom’s Outlet, a section that is for nonchild furniture such as kitchen tables and chairs and entertainment centers. The sale will not accept items such as antique furniture, sofas, dishes and figurines.

There will also be several tables at which local vendors will market themselves to area parents. Due to online bar coding and tagging, the wait time in checkout lines has been reduced, Pepper said.

“Our economy may be getting better, but people are still watching their money and looking for deals. Our sale benefited from that,” she said.

Consignors can earn 65 percent of their sales or up to 70 percent of their sales if they volunteer during the sale. You can sign up now to be a consignor.

More information is available at http://www.oneweekboutique.com.

Rug sale

The fair-trade boutique Ten Thousand Villages, 105 N. Walnut St., C, will host a fair-trade Oriental rug event from Wednesday, March 10, through Saturday, March 13.

The event will feature heirloom-quality, hand-knotted Oriental rugs made by Pakistani artisans. About 300 rugs, in a variety of designs and sizes, will be for sale. Sizes will range from 2 by 3 feet to 10 x 14 feet, and will also include runners.

An “Introduction to Oriental Rugs” seminar will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 11. Admission is free, but reservations are encouraged. Ten Thousand Villages can be reached at 352-8200.

The store buys rugs from Bunyaad, a fair-trade artisan group in Pakistan. The store has bought rugs from the group since 1984.

What’s a kumquat?

Area Schnucks supermarkets will host “Frieda’s Produce University” in their produce departments this coming Saturday. Produce folks will be on hand from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to offer free samples of winter citrus fruits, such as blood oranges, kumquats and pummelos, and answer any questions shoppers have.

Are you opening a new business or changing an existing one? Christine des Garennes can be reached by phone at 351-5388 or 800-252-3346; by e-mail at [email protected]; or by regular mail at The News-Gazette, c/o It’s Your Business column, P.O. Box 677, Champaign, IL 61824-0677.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

CHAMPAIGN – Tired of the beach routine? If you’re looking for new ways to spend spring break, how about learning to fight wildland fires?

The University of Illinois Fire Service Institute is offering such a course during spring break – March 22 to 26 – and it culminates in “a hands-on wildland firefighting exercise.”

The class is open to anyone 18 years old or older and in good physical condition. Fee for the five-day course is $600 and is limited to the first 24 enrollments.

“This is the first time we’re targeting UI and Parkland College students, delivering training like this in partnership with the Department of Natural Resources,” said Brian Brauer, the institute’s assistant director.

The training runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with lunch on your own.

“Half the course is sitting in a chair learning about material, and a chunk of it is getting familiar with the tools and equipment,” Brauer said. “Some people haven’t swung an ax before or used hand tools common to wildland fires.”

Students will learn how to control fires and how to put them out, he said.

“We try to mix it up so they’re not in their seats the whole time,” he added.

The actual burn site hasn’t been determined yet, Brauer said. In the past, the institute has worked with the Urbana Park District on burns and on university properties.

The course prepares students to meet National Wildfire Coordination Group requirements for qualification as a basic wildland firefighter and to earn a “red card” – needed for work in all federal and many state and private wildland fire organizations.

“Taking the class and getting the ‘red card’ opens up summer job opportunities for students to fight wildfires on Illinois and federal lands,” Brauer said.

Brauer said the institute often gets calls during the California fire season from people wanting to know how to get training for fighting wildfires.

Once people get this training, they’ll be eligible to be picked up as a seasonal employee of the Department of Natural Resources, with the possibility of being deployed to fight fires in Illinois and elsewhere, he added.

Brauer said most fires east of the Continental Divide are grass fires, while most west of the divide involve trees and woods. Florida fires often involve marshes and swamplands.

“This class covers all types,” he said, even though the practical exercise is typical only of Midwestern fires.

But if someone takes the class, gets a red card and is deployed to a fire out West, that person will be teamed with a seasoned crew, he said.

Brauer said there’s risk anytime someone takes part in fire training, but he said the risk associated with the class is minimal because of “intense supervision and scrutiny.”

After completion of the class, a representative of the Department of Natural Resources will be on hand to administer a “pack test,” making sure students can take a 3-mile hike with a 45-pound pack in 45 minutes or less.

The class will be led by Rochelle firefighter Tom Richter, who has been teaching about wildland fires since 1990.

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ELGIN (STMW)  — A northwest suburban Elgin woman is charged with assaulting police after spitting at and biting officers.

Shanika Wright, 25, of the 1700 block of Mark Ave. in Elgin, was charged with four counts of felony aggravated battery to a peace officer after she assaulted Elgin police officials, a report said.

Wright is accused of spitting in a detective’s face, biting the detective in the pinky finger and palm, pulling a clump of hair out of the detective’s head and biting another police officer on the wrist, according to court documents.

Wright’s bail was set at $40,000 in bond court Friday. Her next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 26, in St. Charles.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

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CHICAGO (STMW)  — Multiple choice. Essays. Pop quizzes. Students at Marist High School may be subjected to yet another test next school year, but it’s one they can prepare for by doing nothing at all. Principal Larry Tucker insists a proposed new drug testing policy at the school isn’t geared toward punishing students at the coed Catholic school in Chicago’s Mount Greenwood community.

Instead, he said, drug testing would be an extension of the school’s “family” atmosphere.

“Part of our mission is to help kids continue to make good decisions,” he said. “It’s part of who we are.”

Tucker said he was impressed by the drug-free compliance rates at other schools in Marist’s East Suburban Catholic Conference, whose principals boast remarkable success rates.

Under the proposal, Marist’s entire student body would undergo a drug test at least once each school year – during the first semester – and possibly again during random tests in the second semester.

The tests, which cost about $45 per session, likely would be taken via hair follicle samples and administered by Psychemedics Corp., a Massachusetts-based company that specializes in narcotics testing in schools and private industry.

The tests would look for traces of marijuana, cocaine, PCP, Ecstasy, amphetamines and certain classes of prescription drugs, but not steroids.

Marist’s faculty would be exempt.

The idea of implementing the policy was kicked around during a sparsely attended special meeting this week, and its future now rests with a 20-some person school task force and could be cemented with a Marist school board vote.

Roberta Hynes is part of that team.

A parent of a 14-year-old Marist freshman, she’s backing the proposal 100 percent because “it’s such a great benefit for Marist, the community and children.

“It can give parents relief,” she said. ” ‘Oh, my God, my child is using,’ or ‘Oh, thank God they aren’t.’ “

But the idea of a schoolwide test has been met with opposition, including a small Facebook group.

As school let out on Friday, many groups of students said they opposed the testing – not because they take drugs but because the testing seems costly and unnecessary.

Some students said most of their peers don’t take hard drugs, if they take them at all. And what substances do get used, such as chewing tobacco and alcohol, probably wouldn’t show up on test results anyway, they said.

“Maybe they should just test suspected students,” 16-year-old sophomore Kevin Kelly said.

“It’s not worth it,” 15-year-old freshman Chris Jackson said. “My parents aren’t happy about it, either.”

But many parents in the Marist community are supporting the proposal.

Therese Gray, whose 18-year-old son will have graduated by the time the tests would start, said she backs the testing, despite any privacy issues.

“Drugs and alcohol are illegal, so is it invading my child’s’ privacy? When it comes to my child, it probably isn’t,” she said. “It means my child’s safe at school.”

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Congratulations to anti-Fed, libertarian Congressman Ron Paul, who just won the first “primary” of the 2012 election!

Well, technically it wasn’t a primary, it was a straw poll held at CPAC, the huge conservative convention that’s been going on the last few days.

In the straw poll, Paul easily whipped second-place finisher Mitt Romney — the former PE chief and liberal Massachusetts governor, who’s trying to ride Scott Brown’s coattails to a second chance at his party’s Presidential nomination.

Of course, this was a narrow field — only CPAC attendees were eligible for the vote (no Sarah Palin this year) — and only 25% of attendees voted. But still!

Meanwhile, the 2012 re-election is in full swing on the Democratic side. Already there’s chatter about someone from the left trying to primary Barack Obama, and on this morning’s Chris Matthews show, he even asked whether Obama is 100% running for re-election (frankly that seems to absurd to contemplate, though it makes for good TV).

Here we go.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Is The Federal Reserve Secretly Bailing Out Greece?
• This Week, Bernanke Will Remind Congress That He’s Not Independent, And Won’t Do Anything Do Jeopardize All Their Spending
• We’ve Just Gotten More Proof That Bernanke Has Been Replaced Already

Filed under: Etc., Videos, Specialty

We’re pretty sure this isn’t supposed to be funny but, you know, it’s pretty hilarious. Rapper T-Pain’s car collection defies description, and each time he adds to it, he manages to go where few, if any, have gone before. This 1991 Cadillac hearse was done up in Miami Dolphins colors as a Super Bowl treat, and it’s nothing short of amazing – in a “did he really do that?” sort of way. Follow the jump to see the vid and do T-Pain’s favorite thing: “hit that button, microwave oven.” Hat tip to RideWithWes

Continue reading VIDEO: T-Pain introduces his “Dolphin Killer” Hearse

VIDEO: T-Pain introduces his “Dolphin Killer” Hearse originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 21 Feb 2010 10:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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URBANA – If you’ve ever been overdrawn, or tried to stretch a paycheck over too many bills, consider adding a few zeroes to the equation.

Suppose your bank balance, and your bills, reached into the hundreds of millions of dollars. And then a big chunk of your income evaporated.

The University of Illinois faces a cash-flow crisis that any homeowner – maybe a really rich homeowner – can identify with.

The state owes the UI about $475 million for services rendered over the past seven months.

About $743 million in general tax revenue was appropriated to the university last summer for the current school year. But with a $12 billion budget deficit looming, and tax receipts dropping, the state doesn’t have the money to pay the UI or other vendors.

As of Wednesday, the total backlog of unpaid bills stood at $3.8 billion, not counting the $2.25 billion in loans that have to be repaid by June, according to the comptroller’s office.

The UI has billed the state for $608.3 million and received $132.8 million of reimbursements, said Randy Kangas, UI associate vice president for planning and budgeting.

So how is the UI paying its bills? By using its own version of a rainy-day fund.

The university has an $800 million “operating pool” of cash that can be accessed quickly, within a week or less. It’s made up of tuition money, insurance reserves, private-gift balances and institutional funds – money set aside from grants and contracts for administrative overhead, known as “indirect cost recovery,” or ICR.

At the end of January the operating pool totaled about $800 million. About a third of that came from an influx of student tuition payments at the start of the second semester, said Doug Beckmann, senior associate vice president for business and finance.

For now, the UI has plenty of cash to keep paying its employees. But it’s going fast, Beckmann said.

“We’re flush with tuition dollars at the moment,” he said. “Payroll will eat into that in the next couple of months.”

Without additional state payments, come April or May the UI will have to dip into the other reserves, officials said.

“At any one time, we do have cash we can access. But many of those funds are obligated for other things,” Kangas said. Institutional funds, for example, go toward utilities, libraries and administrative costs.

“We don’t have any big pots of unrestricted funds just sitting around for a contingency like this,” he said. “We will be taking funds away from units. This is such a huge problem.”

The UI has a bit more financial flexibility than other state universities because it can borrow temporarily from private-gift funds and indirect cost recovery money, Beckmann said. “We can weather the storm. We’re not quite as dependent on the state.”

But it will need the state money at some point.

“We believe we can make it through the end of this fiscal year with a limited payment,” he said. “Ultimately, if we don’t get paid, it’s really going to be a problem.”

If the state were paying on its usual schedule – with a 30- to 60-day lag time for bills, rather than five months – the UI would have about $300 million more cash on hand, Beckmann said.

Usually, the UI spends its state tax money first, saving tuition income for the summer months. This year it’s the reverse – tuition dollars, and other reserves, are covering payroll and operating costs.

That, in turn, means the UI isn’t getting interest income on tuition money it would ordinarily put into short-term investments. This year’s budget anticipated about $5.5 million in interest income, and “we’ll be lucky to hit $3 million,” Beckmann said.

Another way the backlog costs the UI: It has to keep more of its short-term investment pool readily available, in case it’s needed for payroll. Money that would have been invested in one-year increments has been converted into money-market accounts earning dismal interest, he said.

Though $800 million may sound like a lot, Beckmann said the UI has “relatively limited reserves” in comparison to its budget. The state has audit rules against hoarding funds at the university level, with carry-forward limits even on institutional funds.

“As a public institution, we can’t carry forward any of our state dollars. It’s either spend them or lose them,” he said.

Most public universities across the country face similar limits, but “Illinois is at the tighter end,” he said. “It’s a good rule. The state doesn’t want to allocate more money than we need for our operations. It just doesn’t allow us to have a great balance sheet.”

Moody’s Investor Service noted as much in its most recent bond rating earlier this month, citing the UI’s “highly leveraged balance sheet” compared to peer institutions and its “razor-thin cushion of unrestricted financial resources for a university of this size and reputation.” Moody’s kept the UI’s longstanding Aa3 bond rating intact, but gave it a “negative outlook” because of the state’s funding crisis.

Critics of the university’s recently imposed unpaid furloughs note that the UI’s overall budget exceeds $4 billion, and state funding makes up only a small piece – about 18 percent. So why has the state backlog caused such a crisis?

Because much of the UI’s income is reserved for specific purposes – federal grants for research, state payments for employee health benefits, student fees that support the Assembly Hall and other auxiliary facilities, Medicaid funding for hospital patients in Chicago, private gifts donated to a specific building or scholarship, Kangas said. General-revenue funding from the state is used for the UI’s primary educational purposes: paying the faculty and staff who serve students.

In the big picture, the $17 million saved through the furlough program sounds like a drop in the bucket to some, but “you’ve got to start somewhere,” Kangas said. “We’re caught in a real bind.

“I understand, as one who took a pay reduction, this is real, and it impacts lives. But what happens if we don’t get our state funds until this time next year? Are we going to be criticized a year from now for not having acted more aggressively?”

Last year, the UI didn’t receive its final payment for fiscal 2009 until September – two months after the close of the fiscal year.

“At this stage the message from the governor’s office and others has been, ‘You’re going to get your appropriation,’” Beckmann said. “That begs the question, ‘OK, when?’ It’s kind of hard to believe the state, being this far behind, will get caught up by June 30. It just doesn’t seem credible.”

Carol Knowles, spokeswoman for Comptroller Dan Hynes, said the backlog of unpaid bills could reach $6 billion by the end of the fiscal year.

“If we had the money, we would pay the bills,” she said.

State sales tax receipts usually go up in the spring, but most of that money will go toward short-term loan repayments to ensure the state’s bond rating doesn’t fall any further, she said.

Plus, sales tax receipts have fallen below budget projections, and the state is continuing to spend more money than it’s taking in, she said.

“So we have a mounting problem,” Knowles said. “The situation is pretty dire at this point, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Illinois’ fiscal troubles prompted investment services to downgrade the state’s bond rating last year, ranking it second worst in the country after California.

The fallout affected state universities, with Moody’s Investment Service lowering its bond rating to A3 (upper-medium grade, low credit risk) for Eastern Illinois, Western Illinois, Southern Illinois and Illinois State universities and placing those schools on its “watch list” for further downgrades.

Moody’s this month confirmed the University of Illinois’ higher Aa3 rating (high quality and very low credit risk) and removed the school from its watch list, though it changed the UI’s outlook to “negative.”

The UI’s core rating covers hundreds of millions of dolllars in bonds issued to pay for upgrades to auxiliary facilities supported by student fees, such as the Assembly Hall, as well as “certificates of participation” used to finance other UI projects. It has been Aa3 for at least a decade.

Other specific UI bond issues carry slightly lower ratings: the UI Hospital system has an A2 rating, and the UI Chicago’s South Campus expansion is rated A1.

Standard and Poor’s has yet to update its ratings, but UI officials met with the company earlier this month.

“We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to maintain the current ratings,” said Doug Beckmann, senior associate vice president for business and finance.

The ratings determine how much it costs the UI to borrow money for a project. The higher the rating, the less interest it has to pay on the bonds.

It’s highly unusual for an entity with tax authority, like the state, to be rated less than Aa, Beckmann said. Illinois was downgraded from A1 to A2 in December.

The state’s budget crisis, which delayed $475 million in factor” in Moody’s evaluafactor” in Moody’s evaluation, Beckmann said. Offsetting the bad news somewhat is the university’s access to cash reserves, such as private gifts or overhead from research grants.

Also working in the UI’s favor: rising enrollment and tuition income.

Moody’s noted the UI has immediate access to about $400 million in money-market funds, plus other money that could be available in a week’s time. Still, it said those reserves could “drop to very low levels” if the state cannot provide more funding in fiscal 2010, as some fear.

Beckmann likened it to collateral for a home mortgage. A person with a generous income is a better credit risk – until he loses his job.

“Our strength is our income,” Beckmann said. “Our debt rating has been high because we have a large and diverse income stream. In this case, we’ve got one of our key creditors, the state of Illinois, not paying us. That really creates an income issue for us.”

The problem would be more serious if the UI decimated its long-term reserves, he said. The university has set aside $20 million in state funding, imposed mandatory unpaid furloughs and asked departments to reserve 6 percent of their budgets, all to gather enough cash to weather an $82 million state budget rescission, he said.

If the picture deteriorates further, it could affect the rating for the next round of UI borrowing: $47 million for the Ikenberry Commons student housing project this summer.

“That’s when we’ll know what the final outcome is in all of this,” Beckmann said.

JULIE WURTH

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In Springfield, there are no guarantees that by simply introducing a piece of legislation, it will become law. More often than not, it doesn’t.

But state representatives from East Central Illinois have introduced dozens of bills this spring that are intriguing, even provocative. They might not become law, but they’ll certainly prompt discussion.

State Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville, has resurrected his proposal to grant a riverboat casino license to his city.

“We unfortunately have the unemployment. We unfortunately need the jobs. We unfortunately need the tax revenue,” Black said. “Studies clearly show that Danville alone can’t support (a casino). But Indianapolis, Lafayette, Bloomington, Terre Haute, the studies we’ve seen show that they’ll come there.”

Black pushed for a Danville casino last year but fell short.

“All I’m trying to do is get in to see the Speaker (Michael Madigan) and say, ‘Look, I know I can’t pass a bill that says we’ll just have a riverboat in Danville.’ But there’s going to be a package sooner or later. Chicago didn’t get the Olympics. Mayor Daley is spending money he shouldn’t be spending from the sale of the parking meters.”

Some kind of riverboat expansion legislation will come up late in the spring session, Black predicted, and he wants a Danville casino to be considered.

“If you’re not willing to say, ‘I have a bill. I want to sit at the table,’ then you’re not going to get the call,” he said.

Black also has bills to allow school districts to operate four days a week, to prohibit the display of a portrait of a governor impeached and removed from office, to repeal the controversial General Assembly scholarships, to eliminate the requirement that primary election voters publicly declare a party preference, and to ban the use of any language or image on state-sponsored tourism highway signs that promotes an activity that is unlawful or would elicit strong public complaint.

Black also has a bill, in response to the 2006 shaken baby death of 2-year-old Reagan Williams of Tilton, that would require judges to impose an extended sentence when a defendant is convicted of first degree murder, second degree murder or involuntary manslaughter in which the death is caused by child abuse. In the Vermilion County case that created an outcry, Ryan Allhands of Danville was sentenced in December to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the shaking death of the child.

State Rep. Shane Cultra, R-Onarga, has a bill to restore corporal punishment in Illinois public schools, although he said he is amending the bill to restrict a school district’s liability in the event of a lawsuit by parents.

“I do a lot of legislation that doesn’t go anywhere and this is probably one of them,” Cultra said. “But I see a lot of problems in the schools. They just don’t have control in the classrooms. If you could just start it at the lower grades and the kids knew there was some kind of punishment involved, maybe a teacher could get control of the classroom and the kids could learn.”

The success of his corporal punishment bill, Cultra said, will depend on whether it is supported by teachers’ unions. “If they don’t like it, it won’t go anywhere,” he said.

State Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, D-Urbana, has a proposal to restrict the sale and use of lawn fertilizers containing phosphorous. As written, the bill would ban anyone from selling fertilizer with phosphorous unless the seller knew the product was being used at a golf course or for establishing grass using seed or sod or if it was being applied to an area deficient in phosphorus, as shown by a laboratory-performed soil test. The nutrient has been blamed for algae blooms in lakes and rivers.

But the legislation is still being fine-tuned, Jakobsson said last week.

“We’re still working on it. It’s not ready to go to committee yet,” she said.

State Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, has perhaps the biggest list of bills, covering everything from freeing school districts from spending money on programs required by the state but not funded, to returning to an elected University of Illinois board of trustees to requiring that people using a LINK card (for food assistance) be banned from using it to buy soft drinks and junk foods. He also wants to suspend, because of the state budget shortfall, monthly payments to Department of Corrections inmates.

“We can’t pay our teachers to teach but we’re paying prisoners $7 million a year?” he said. “The general point here is that there is so much waste and inefficiency out there. I’ve spent the better part of a year studying the budget. This is just the beginning.”

A package of Rose-sponsored bills addressing welfare reforms has been sent to the House Rules Committee, generally the burial ground for legislation. One bill would suspend the Illinois driver’s license and LINK card benefits for anyone with an arrest warrant. Another would require drug screening for anyone receiving public aid benefits.

“We’ve got to cut out the cheats, the people who are gaming the system, so we can get back to the basics of paying our bills and restoring some fiscal discipline in the state,” Rose said.

Meanwhile, most of Black’s other bills have gotten out of the Rules Committee and should be heard in the next few weeks.

His plan to end the General Assembly scholarships ought to have traction during these hard financial times. “If they don’t let that be voted on this year, then shame on them,” Black said of the legislative leaders. “It’s just $15 million of unreimbursed cost to the universities. If (University of Illinois President) Stan Ikenberry hasn’t convinced them what desperate shape they’re in, then this will never pass.”

Black also has a bill that would allow primary election voters to take both ballots into the voting booth but vote in only one party’s primary. “Nobody’s going to know what party you voted,” Black said. “Many states do this already.”

Another proposal would permit a four-day school week for districts struggling with late state transportation and other payments. Schools would still be required to offer a minimum of 880 student contact hours a year. “I have school superintendents telling me that they can’t continue to run buses five days a week as if they’re getting paid, and keep schools open 5 1/2 days a week,” he said.

Another measure would require that the brown tourist destination signs along interstate highways prohibit promotion of illegal or offensive activities. The issue came up, Black said, when he asked the Transportation Department to put up a sign for a winery in Vermilion County.

“IDOT said, ‘Geez, at that exit there’s a triple-X adult video store. If we give one for the winery, how do we say no to the adult video store?’

“I don’t want to get into a freedom of speech issue. But I think you can set reasonable guidelines as to what a tourism activity is.”

Finally, there’s Black’s bill to prohibit the display in the Capitol of a painting of an impeached and convicted governor.

“If you’re going to reform Illinois government you don’t put up a portrait of an impeached Illinois at a cost of $15,000 to $20,000 in taxpayer expense, plus the cost of hanging the thing. Plus a nice ceremony.”

Asked if the bill has any chance, he said, “Privately, I’ve got enough votes to pass this thing twice. Publicly, we’ll see.”

Tom Kacich is a News-Gazette editor and columnist. His column appears on Sundays and Wednesdays. He can be reached at 351-5221 or at [email protected].

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NAPERVILLE (STMW)  — Naperville police are being credited with helping their counterparts in downstate Madison County identify and arrest a man who allegedly tried to arrange a meeting with a young girl over the Internet while posing as a Roman Catholic priest.

Robert D. Shaw, 41, of Alton remained in custody Saturday in Madison County Jail in Edwardsville. He faces trial on three felony counts of indecent solicitation of a child and one of grooming, according to Sheriff Robert J. Hertz.

Shaw came under suspicion Dec. 15, after Madison County investigators received information from Naperville police, according to Capt. Brad Wells, the Madison County Sheriff’s Office’s chief of detectives. The information alleged Shaw “was having an online chat with an undercover (Naperville) officer,” Wells said in a written statement.

Rich Wistocki, a computer crimes unit investigator with the Naperville Police Department, confirmed Friday he first came into contact with the man who would ultimately be identified as Shaw in late November or early December in an Internet chat room. Wistocki was masquerading as a 13-year-old girl at the time.

“I got information (Shaw) was posing as a priest online and looking for young girls to take pictures of,” Wistocki said. “Lo and behold, he hooked onto me, saying he wanted me to take inappropriate pictures of myself and (meet) for a sexual encounter.”

Wistocki passed that information and potential evidence along to investigators in Madison County. Wells said Shaw, in the guise of a priest, “made at least three indecent solicitations for sexual acts and tried to arrange a meeting with the child …”

Sheriff’s investigators executed a search warrant Thursday morning at Shaw’s home, during which they seized a personal computer and took Shaw into custody for questioning, Wells said. His statement did not indicate what, if anything, detectives found on the computer.

Bond for Shaw was set at $60,000. His arraignment date is pending in Madison County Circuit Court.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

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CHICAGO HEIGHTS (STMW)  — A man was struck and killed as he stood outside a disabled car on a highway in the south suburbs early Sunday.

The accident happened about 2:40 a.m., on Illinois Route 394 and East Joe Orr Road in Chicago Heights early Sunday, according to an Illinois State Police District Chicago trooper.

Luis Valdivia-Segoviano, 39, of the 100 block of S. Halsted in Chicago Heights, was struck by an automobile on Illinois Route 394, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. No pronouncement time was immediately available.

The victim’s car which he was driving broke down, causing him to call a friend for help, according to Illinois State Police District Chicago Master Sgt. Joe Stangl. His friend arrived and both were standing outside of the disabled Pontiac when a sport-utility vehicle drove by and struck them, Stangl.

The victim died soon thereafter, according to an Illinois State Police District Chicago trooper.

The victim’s friend was taken in critical condition to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, Stangl said.

The driver of the SUV left the scene but later called 911 to report that they had been involved in a crash, Stangl said. The driver was in custody and police were conducting interviews with the driver.
No citations had been issued as of 6 a.m.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Memorial services were held Saturday for six of the seven victims of last weekend’s deadly Cicero fire. Family members attending the services say their loss is great, but their love and faith is greater, CBS 2’s Mai Martinez reports.

It was not a time to mourn, for family and friends of Byron Reed. Instead, it was an opportunity to celebrate the life of the young father, his girlfriend, Sallie Gist, and their children: 3-year-old Rashon and 3-day-old Bryon.

The family died last Sunday when fire swept through the attic where they were sleeping. Also killed were Sallie’s brother and sister — 16-year-old twins Elicia and Elijah Gist — and family friend Tiera Davidson. Many of their family and friends attended an earlier memorial service for the Gist family.

“I would never imagine something as tragic like this would happen, but it was God’s will,” Allison Gist, the mother of Sallie, Elicia and Elijah, said.

Allison was so moved by the outpouring of support for her family, she wanted to offer that same support to Byron Reed’s family.

And even though it was hard for some to fight back tears, family members encouraged them to turn to their faith for the strength.

“Don’t be sad, because they’re in a better place,” Allison said. “No more crying. No more crime, no more sorrows, more worrying about things. God is up there taking care of them.”

That thought, and a loving embrace from a mother who shares her pain gave Shilla Newton, Byron Reed’s mother, great comfort.

“Of course my heart is heavy, I would be less than human if my heart was not heavy, but my faith in God is going to take me through it,” she said.

Newton says knowing her son is with the ones he loves gives her the greatest peace possible.

“If my son had survived and the children had not, I don’t know just how distraught he would be, because he loved his children,” she said.

It’s a comfort both mothers tried to share with everyone today.

Allison Gist says she truly believes everything will be all right, despite the fact that she and other members of her family who survived the fire are now homeless.

She says family and friends are helping them to get by, but they need a place to live.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Investigators have fielded dozens of leads, a Cicero village spokesman has said.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Article Tags: George Will

Science, many scientists say, has been restored to her rightful throne because progressives have regained power. Progressives, say progressives, emulate the cool detachment of scientific discourse. So hear the calm, collected voice of a scientist lavishly honored by progressives, Rajendra Pachauri.

He is chairman of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the 2007 version of the increasingly weird Nobel Peace Prize. Denouncing persons skeptical about the shrill certitudes of those who say global warming poses an imminent threat to the planet, he says:

“They are the same people who deny the link between smoking and cancer. They are people who say that asbestos is as good as talcum powder — and I hope they put it on their faces every day.”

Do not judge him as harshly as he speaks of others. Nothing prepared him for the unnerving horror of encountering disagreement. Global warming alarmists, long cosseted by echoing media, manifest an interesting incongruity — hysteria and name-calling accompanying serene assertions about the “settled science” of climate change. Were it settled, we would be spared the hyperbole that amounts to Ring Lardner’s “Shut up, he explained.”

Source: washingtonpost.com

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Article Tags: Lorrie Goldstein

Other than their grating self-righteousness, the most annoying thing about global warmists is their double standards.

Case in point. All over North America for the past few weeks, they’ve been screaming how dare the Republican right and Fox News in the U.S. suggest the recent wave of record snowfalls and cold temperatures south of the border are evidence man-made global warming is a hoax.

Indeed, warmist piling on has been almost as impressive as the snow drifts that recently paralyzed Washington, D.C.

Now, before the warmists have a stroke, let it be said they have a point.

Source: torontosun.com

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For years XDA has always been ready for all the new changes in the Windows Phones world, and this stands true with the new WP7S. XDA just recently created a new forum for the new platform, even though it has not been released just yet. The forum is already rolling with 3 pages of threads and some interesting topics. The most interesting topic I found were one that included an application that counts down to Mix 2010, and another that has a poll asking how you like the new OS. So if you have a moment to see what people are saying about our future OS, check out the new forum

MARJAH, Afghanistan — Marines and Afghan units converged Sunday on a dangerous western quarter of the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, with NATO forces facing “determined resistance” as their assault on the southern town entered its second week.

Fighter jets, drones and attack helicopters hovered overhead, as Marine and Afghan companies moved on a 2-square-mile (5.2-sq. kilometer) area of the town where more than 40 insurgents have apparently holed up.

“They are squeezed,” said Lt. Col. Brian Christmas, commander of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. “It looks like they want to stay and fight but they can always drop their weapons and slip away. That’s the nature of this war.”

Insurgents are putting up a “determined resistance” in various parts of Marjah, though the overall offensive is “on track,” NATO said Sunday, eight days after thousands of Afghan and international forces launched their largest joint operation since the Taliban regime’s ouster in 2001.

Late last week, Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, head of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, said he believed it would take at least 30 days to complete securing the Nad Ali district and Marjah in Helmand province, a hub for a lucrative opium trade that profits militants.

The Marjah operation is a major test of a new NATO strategy that stresses protecting civilians over routing insurgents as quickly as possible. It’s also the first major ground operation since President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 reinforcements to Afghanistan to curb the rise of the Taliban.

Once the town is secure, NATO plans to rush in a civilian Afghan administration, restore public services and pour in aid to try to win the loyalty of the population and prevent the Taliban from returning.

Twelve NATO troops and one Afghan soldier have died so far in the offensive. Senior Marine officers say intelligence reports suggest more than 120 insurgents have died.

NATO said one service member died Sunday in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan, and two died Saturday — one by rocket or mortar fire in eastern Afghanistan and another in a bombing in the south. None of the fatalities was related to the Marjah area fighting. Their nationalities were not given.

On Sunday, Marines used missiles to destroy a large, abandoned school compound that had been booby-trapped with explosives in Marjah. The school had been shut down two years earlier by the Taliban, residents told Marines.

“They said they would kill the father of any child that went to school,” said farmer Maman Jan, deploring that his six children were illiterate.

Marines also found several abandoned Kalashnikov rifles along with ammunition hidden in homes. Sporadic volleys of insurgent machine-gun fire rang out through the day.

“They shoot from right here in front of a house, they don’t care that there are children around,” said Abdel Rahim, a Kuchi nomad.

On Sunday, Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said that they had been more prepared for large numbers of planted bombs than for the sniper shooting and sustained firefights that have characterized the last few days of the Marjah operation.

“We predicted it would take many days. But our prediction was that the insurgency would not resist that way,” he said. Azimi said progress through the contested areas is slow so that troops can clear bombs and take care to prevent civilian casualties.

He said the operation has always been planned to last a month and noted some aspects are ahead of schedule, including the deployment of Afghan police units to the town.

On Saturday, President Hamid Karzai urged NATO to do more to protect civilians during combat operations to secure Marjah, although he noted the military alliance had made progress in doing that — mainly by reducing airstrikes and adopting more restrictive combat rules.

NATO forces have repeatedly said they want to prevent civilian casualties, but acknowledged that it is not always possible. On Saturday, the alliance said its troops killed another civilian in the Marjah area, bringing the civilian death toll from the operation to at least 16.

Karzai also reached out to Taliban fighters, urging them to renounce al-Qaida and join with the government.

But the process of reconciliation and reintegration is likely to prove difficult.

On Sunday, Mohammad Jan Rasool Yar, spokesman for Zabul province, said authorities arrested 14 police in the Shar-e Safa district on Saturday who had defected to the Taliban’s side last week and were found on a bus heading to Pakistan.

NATO said that two insurgents, including a suspected Taliban commander, were captured Friday in northern Helmand province. The men are believed to be involved in manufacturing roadside bombs. They, along with three others earlier in the week, had been caught as part of an operation to break up the Taliban’s weapons supply line.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers this week will press the U.S. military’s top uniformed officers for the first time on whether they think repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” makes sense or would be too disruptive.

The testimony from each of the service chiefs on Capitol Hill will be crucial to the debate in Congress on whether to repeal the 17-year-old law, which bans gays from serving openly in the military.

President Barack Obama says the policy unfairly punishes patriots who want to serve their country. Defense Secretary Robert Gates agrees and has begun a yearlong study on how to mitigate the impact of lifting the ban.

Providing much-needed political cover is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, who has said he thinks the law unfairly forces gay troops to compromise their integrity by lying about who they are.

But lawmakers, who are divided on whether to end the ban, say they want to hear from the service chiefs. They are the ones who would be in charge of putting any changes in place and responding to any fallout.

“The armed forces have always placed military effectiveness above individual needs,” said Rep. Gene Taylor, a conservative Democrat from Mississippi who says he is unconvinced that the ban should be lifted.

“This is one of the core concepts that has made the U.S. military one of the most effective combat forces in history,” he said.

While Mullen says he believes the ban should be lifted, he has said he can’t speak for the service chiefs other than to say they support Gates’ yearlong assessment.

The service chiefs are scheduled to testify separately throughout the week, with the Army’s Gen. George Casey and the Air Force’s Gen. Norton Schwartz going first on Tuesday. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway, who is said to oppose changes to the policy, will testify Wednesday.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — The Obama administration has developed a five-year blueprint for rescuing the Great Lakes, a sprawling ecosystem plagued by toxic contamination, shrinking wildlife habitat and invasive species.

The plan envisions spending more than $2.2 billion for long-awaited repairs after a century of damage to the lakes, which hold 20 percent of the world’s fresh water. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the document, which Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, was releasing at a news conference Sunday in Washington.

“We’re committed to creating a new standard of care that will leave the Great Lakes better for the next generation,” Jackson said in a statement.

Among the goals is a “zero tolerance policy” toward future invasions by foreign species, including the Asian carp, a huge, ravenous fish that has overrun portions of the Mississippi River system and is threatening to enter Lake Michigan.

Others include cleanup of the region’s most heavily polluted sites, restoring wetlands and other crucial habitat, and improving water quality in shallow areas, where runoff from cities and farms has led to unsightly algae blooms and beach closings.

Also promised is a strategy for monitoring the ecosystem’s health and holding federal agencies accountable for carrying out the plan.

During his 2008 campaign, President Barack Obama pledged $5 billion over a decade toward fulfilling a Great Lakes cleanup wish list developed by a coalition of agencies, scientists and activists.

Congress last year approved his request for a first installment of $475 million. The newly released plan assumes yearly appropriations of the same amount through 2014, except for the $300 million Obama requested this month in his 2011 budget.

The 41-page plan sets out ecological targets and specific actions to be taken by 16 federal agencies working with state, local and tribal governments and private groups.

Among the goals it hopes to achieve by 2014: finishing work at five toxic hot spots that have languished on cleanup lists for two decades; a 40 percent reduction in the rate at which invasive species are discovered in the lakes; measurable decreases in phosphorus runoff; and protection of nearly 100,000 wetland acres.

It also will help save species such as the lake sturgeon, a prehistoric fish that can reach 8 feet long and 200 pounds but is endangered because of overharvesting and habitat degradation. The plan promises to provide 25,000 young sturgeon for stocking programs.

Officials said the plan — combined with enforcement of existing environmental rules and the creation of new ones where needed — would help make Great Lakes fish safe to eat, their waters suitable for drinking and swimming, and their native plants and animals thriving.

The lakes provide drinking water to more than 30 million people and are the backbone of a regional economy dependent on tourism, outdoor recreation, shipping and manufacturing.

“We now have a golden opportunity, even a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, to make huge progress,” Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, co-chairman of the Council of Great Lakes Governors, said in a telephone interview Saturday. “We’ve been talking about this for a long time. Now the federal government is putting some real resources behind it.”

Jeff Skelding, director of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, which represents environmental groups across the region, praised the plan’s commitment to long-range funding for the restoration but said Congress should boost Obama’s 2011 spending request to $475 million.

The coalition also says too much restoration money is being diverted to fighting Asian carp, which could endanger the region’s $7 billion sport fishing industry by gobbling plankton and unraveling the food chain.

An “all-out effort” is needed to keep the carp out of the lakes, but funding should come from elsewhere in the federal budget, the coalition said.

Cameron Davis, EPA’s senior adviser on the Great Lakes, said about $58 million in restoration funds would go to the carp battle this year. But invasive species programs are getting less restoration money than other needs such as toxic cleanups and habitat improvements, he said.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Today’s music video is ‘Let It Be’ from The Beatles.

This video was posted to You Tube by josueharrison

Sometimes, a song that you have heard so often over the years has some history behind it. The same applied with The Beach Boys ‘Heroes And Villains‘ that I highlighted four weeks back, and the same applies with this wonderful song from The Beatles. What brought it to my mind again was that I heard the song the other day on one of the local radio stations, and after the song, the announcer mentioned that this version of the song was the quieter version released for radio stations that did not like the version with the ‘heavy’ guitar solo in the middle. I knew of the history, and my favourite was indeed that version with the ‘heavy’ guitar version in it, and that is the clip featured above.

Paul McCartney wrote the song in January of 1969, following a dream he had about his mother who passed away when he was 14. In the dream his mother, Mary, mentioned ‘It will be all right, just let it be’.

The song was released as a single, and then also on the album of the same name, ‘Let It Be’, and there’s some history about that album as well. It was the second last album that the Beatles worked on. The last album they worked on as a band was ‘Abbey Road’. However, mainly due to the four members levels of perfection, the ‘Let It Be’ album was still being worked on, as they each wanted each song to be just right. Because of that, ‘Abbey Road’ was actually released before ‘Let It Be’, giving the impression that these last two albums were the other way around when referred to as the last and second last albums.

The original was first performed in January of 1969, and was part of the film the band made, that film also called ‘Let It Be’. In this film version, that break between vocal sections features one guitar version from George Harrison, and the organ and electric piano is being played by the legendary Billy Preston.

That version was then mastered up for release as the single, and here is where George Martin added the strings and orchestral backing as well.  For this single release version, George Harrison then introduced a different version again of his guitar break in that space between Paul’s vocals. The single was finally released in March of 1970, and this following video is indeed that ‘Single’ version release, that most radio stations play, and somewhat erroneously call the quieter version. Showing some insight into Paul’s future intentions, Linda. Eastman adds backing vocals on this single release version, the only time she appears on a Beatles album. Paul later married Linda and they both went on to further huge success with their own band Wings.

This video was posted to You Tube by KnowGuitar

George, ever the perfectionist, was still not really happy with that guitar break, and, this time in concert with Phil Spector, added a somewhat more stinging version of a different guitar break again, and this is the version that finally made it onto the album ‘Let It Be’. Because most radio stations had the single release version on their playlists, that version got most radio airtime, and the album version, released well after the Single was not heard very often when played on radio.

For the movie itself, a different version again was included in the movie, this one closer to the original as Paul and the band first played it. This following video is that version from the movie, and was never released as part of any Beatles albums.

In this version you can plainly see Billy Preston in that central break, as well as Yoko Ono leaning over John’s shoulder.

This video was posted to You Tube by SiouxPower

Over the years, there have been many re releases of ‘The Best Of’ types of albums, and new CD compilations, and on most of these, the original version released as the Single is the version of this song used on them, so that version with the later and ‘heavier’ guitar is not easy to find when looking for it.

In 2003, a new version of some Beatles songs was released as a new album, titled ‘Naked’. ‘Let It Be’ was also included on this album, a different version again. This version stripped away some of the backing sounds introduced by George Martin and also Phil Spector, and also included the original drum section from Ringo, as he was never quite happy with the overdubbed extra drum pieces in either the single or the album versions of the song. On this version of the song, however, the Album guitar solo is used.

So, even though Today’s Sunday Music Post shows the same song three times, there is a real history behind the song, and those three versions are distinctly different one from the other. One of the big problems I had for today’s post was actually trying to find those three different versions, and as you can see from the top one, the album version, some footage from the film version was included as part of that video. Keep in mind, all this was long before Mike Nesmith’s ‘Rio’ introduced the start of specifically made music videos.

For those who do not necessarily wish to listen to each of the three songs, the relevant area is around the 1.48 mark on each of the clips, but it varies by a couple of seconds on all of them.

Filed under: Music, Video Tagged: Music, Music Video, The Beatles, Video

Filed under: Government/Legal, GM, Saab, Spyker, Russia

Vladimir Antonov will soon give up the position of chairman at Spyker because he stood between the Dutch company and its successful acquisition of Saab. Recent reports indicate that a Swedish government investigation tied Antonov and his family to the Russian mafia and money laundering. Those findings helped kill the initial deal between Spyker and General Motors and led to Antonov’s subsequent departure.

Antonov has a different take on the story. In a New York Times op-ed called “A Misplaced Fear of Russian Money,” he writes that the results of the Swedish investigation were “surreal allegations,” and that he’ll prove them untrue. He’s hired a firm of private investigators to clear his name, and he plans to give his report to all parties involved, including the press, to show that he’s just another businessman.

His goal is to get back in on the Spyker-Saab deal; apparently, Antonov sees enough potential there to go through these public motions. Although he’s no longer a shareholder, he does remain a lender to Spyker, having tendered the company $100 million to help it buy Saab. That makes it simpler for Antonov to return to the Spyker party, say, if Spyker converts debt to shares, but first he’ll have to get past the bouncers in Sweden and the U.S. government.

[Source: Auto News – sub req’d, Saabs United]

Report: Ousted Russian investor wants in on Spyker-Saab deal originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 21 Feb 2010 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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