Saturday Soapbox

Leadership in tough times:

Kudos to Des Plaines City Manager Jason Bajor, who announced last week he would not accept a pay raise, given the suburb's fiscal constraints and the sacrifices he has asked of the city staff.

One other name in Arlington Heights:

One name we should have mentioned in our endorsement editorial March 24 for the Arlington Heights village board is Michael Sidor. Though he wasn't one of our choices, he is a solid and thoughtful candidate, and we wish him well Tuesday.

Devastating toll hits home:

The heartache of a house fire hit home for firefighter John Schultz and his colleagues on the Downers Grove and Geneva fire departments last week. Geneva firefighters responding to a fire at Schultz's mother's Geneva home found her dead in her living room Monday after a passer-by alerted them of a fire at her home. For firefighters who lay their lives on the line with every call, the reality of the possible toll is never far. "You always feel compassion when you're at a fire scene but you never get the full grasp of the true nature of what happened. It's hard," Schultz said. Yes, it is. Our condolences.

The right kind of bars:

There's one sure way to stop a drunk from driving. McHenry County Judge Joseph Condon did just that last week when he ordered six-time DUI offender Michael Lentini of McHenry to spend the next three years in jail. Ordering the sentence to run consecutively with the four years from his fifth DUI conviction, that one in Lake County, means Lentini will be off the road for at least seven years. We wish it was longer.

A slippery slope at Stevenson

For years now, Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire has had an award-winning student newspaper advised by veteran teacher Barbara Thill. Now, after some controversial stories about teen sex and perhaps some other topics that perhaps didn't put the school in the best light, the paper is pre-read by administrators and Thill no longer will advise. What a shame for journalism that it has come to this.

We're all atwitter

Kudos to Sherman Hospital for figuring out one way to lure reporters into writing about its fancy new robotic surgery tool: Tweet about it. Yes, we newsies are all agog over social networking sites, so when the hospital decided to tell the world about a hysterectomy it was doing with their daVinci robot live, as it was happening, with words and videos and photos on Twitter, we all came running.

Thanks, Santa Claus

Maybe the third time's the charm for Bears quarterbacks with connections to the Hoosier state. Indiana-born Rex Grossman didn't work out as planned, while Purdue's Kyle Orton did a good job but couldn't get the Bears to the playoffs last season. Now Jay Cutler, a native of Santa Claus, Ind., brings his Pro Bowl passing arm to Chicago. For Bears fans, it was like celebrating Christmas in April. Let's home Cutler answers all of our wishes, too.

Have you done your homework?

Election Day is Tuesday. Are you ready to make your choices? There's still time to learn about your candidates for school board, municipalities, libraries, townships and more. Just go to dailyherald.com and click on the voters' guide. And don't forget to vote!