A bad precedent here
Arguing that creating a new town is a lot of work seems a bit bizarre when the person making the argument is Patsy Smith, the woman who led incorporation efforts and then volunteered to be the temporary first president. She called it "worse than a full-time job." Well, what exactly did she expect -- that creating something out of nothing would be easy? And it sure didn't take long for Campton Hills officials to learn the apparent first rule of public service these days -- take care of public servants first. Just months after pay scales for officials were set, the total was raised by 17 percent. Most of the appointees are volunteering and aren't taking any money, but it's still a poor precedent to establish.
… but a wise decision there
On the other hand, Campton Hills officials didn't cling to their very bad idea to take over the Wasco Sanitary District by packing the referendum ballot if necessary. The sanitary district filed suit, claiming the new village couldn't take over its operations because the district wasn't wholly in the village. Seeing the legal writing on the wall, Campton Hills has backed away, though it's never been clear why they thought sanitary district management was a good idea in the first place.
Money everywhere, little else
This week contained a litany of reports about money raised or held by political candidates for their campaigns. Hillary Clinton raised $28 million in the third quarter, while Barack Obama raised about $20 million in the same period. U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean has nearly a million to toss about and U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk has a million and a half. Three candidates in the race to replace U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert have raised nearly a half-million each. Too bad none of the positions they seek is "fundraiser." Even more too bad is that such big bucks applied to various problems instead of TV ads might be a whole lot more constructive use of them.
Honors all in the family
Elgin Academy announced last week that its new media, science and arts center would be called the Harold D. Rider Family Media, Science and Fine Arts Center. Probably didn't hurt that Ryder, a Barrington Hills real estate developer, led fundraising efforts for the environmentally sensitive, $9.5 million building on the Elgin campus. Probably didn't hurt that his wife, Susan, and their four sons are all Elgin Academy grads, either. After all, James J. Liautaud, the founder/CEO of the Jimmy John's sandwich chain and a graduate of the school, was a million-dollar donor. But that earned him only a mention in the naming story.
Differing economic tales
Anybody else see the irony in the fact that the University of Chicago keeps churning out Nobel prize winners in economics even while the state slides deeper and deeper into economic disaster? This week, professor Roger B. Myerson became the 24th person with ties to the school to win the coveted economics prize since it began being awarded in 1969. That's almost a third of Nobel economics winners with University of Chicago connections. Any chance he or another one of them could take a sabbatical, run for governor and straighten out this mess?
Sputtering sports
When the Sears Centre arena first opened if Hoffman Estates, it started with a few small teams and dreams of more sports franchises to come. Today, the Chicago Hounds hockey team is gone, and the Chicago Shamrox's National Lacrosse League season has been canceled thanks to a labor contract dispute.