Soapbox: We need to listen
Here's a salute to the League of Women's Voters/Palatine Area for its Veterans Day luncheon last week in Schaumburg. It was there that the League honored women in the military. Speakers included a Streamwood woman who served in the Women's Army Corps in World War II, a Palatine nurse whose son is serving in Iraq and one of the Navy's first women assigned to a ship who now resides in Lake Bluff. It is important to hear their stories whenever and wherever possible.
Negotiators pass their finals
Congratulations to Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211's board, administration and teachers for reaching agreement in time to avert a planned teachers' strike. Whether circumstances ever should have gotten to the brink of a strike is, perhaps, another issue. But the bottom line -- that students were able to continue their classes sans disruption -- is what matters most.
Bronco magic
Each new high school sports season brings outstanding achievements by suburban teams, but state titles remain something truly special. Barrington's boys soccer team, coached by Scott Steib, last weekend brought home the school's first state title in that sport, capping off a remarkable season in which they lost only two games and gave up a miserly 16 goals in 27 games. That's about as dominant as it gets in any high school sport.
This important talk is cheap
Most suburban communities do a wonderful job of using municipal Web sites to communicate with residents. When time is of the essence, though, nothing beats a phone call. Inverness this week joined several other suburbs in joining the Connect-CTY service, which allows village officials to send voice messages to all households at once or to selected households. Inverness officials are right: At an annual cost to the village of only $2.50 per household for unlimited use, this is a public safety bargain.
Who loses here?
The Big Ten Network-vs.-Comcast television war is getting a lot of attention, but in this battle -- like most between two rich and powerful competing interests -- the public is losing. You could say the big cable company is squeezing everyone for more profits. But are the public universities planning to dump some of their profits back to the states -- and taxpayers -- who support them? Maybe the two parties could agree to air the games and taxpayers could get some relief in the form of a cut of the network's profits.
Still doesn't get it
Isn't it a sad thing that when an Illinois politician is sent off to serve his prison sentence, as former Gov. George Ryan was this week, there's a ready supply of ex-con politicians available to give him advice. "You can't change things now, so you get on with your life," said Ambrosio Medrano, a disgraced former Chicago alderman. "Corrupt politicians, corrupt police officers, corrupt attorneys are generally looked down upon" by prison administrators. "I assume that it's because we've so-called 'betrayed the public trust.'" There's nothing "so-called" about it. And it's clear Medrano still doesn't get it. May George Ryan be a quicker study.
Payback for corruption
Another corrupt Illinois politician goes to jail. Wouldn't it be great if the cost of each individual act of corruption could be calculated? Then, that amount would have to be refunded to taxpayers by the crooked politician as part of his or her sentence.