Soap box: Start thinking next tax cut bill now
Best-interest bi-partisans:
Congratulations to Illinois' senators and to the suburban delegation to Congress. Republicans and Democrats, lame ducks and returnees, all sided with common sense to support the tax-cut compromise. Now, let's not let the time drag on until the next deadline to debate who is rich, who should get tax cuts and who should get help.
Way off track:
The RTA's admission that thousands have been allowed on public transit by using free passes of deceased seniors gives new meaning to the term ghost rider. Surely there must be a way to stop this fraud and quickly.
Let's make this clear:
When the weather outside is frightful, we can always count on helpers often taken for granted. Here's a festive tip of the cap to the road crews everywhere who day or night and also on holidays help get us to where we are headed or back to where we need to be.
Wow! The bridge opens:
At long last, the Stearns Road Bridge was opened to the public Thursday. At the ceremonial opening Wednesday, former House Speaker Dennis Hastert said he began working on the project nearly 25 years ago. Can you imagine waiting so long? (Well, yes. Long-suffering commuters in the area can.)
Nice job with trails, too:
Kane County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay praised Stearns Road as well as the biking and walking paths along it. She's right. Before winter hit, one of our cycling editors biked the remade Illinois Prairie Path going through there, and came away impressed and excited.
Big waves:
A Libertyville business owner wants to install an 80-foot pole for a gigantic flag. Few would object to his patriotism, but his intent to restrict permissions only to an American flag raised free speech issues. Village trustees, rightly, asked lawyers for some retooling.
Potty talk:
We may not agree with using toilets as planters, but we'll defend to the death your right to have them. OK, maybe not to the death (sorry, Voltaire). Still, McHenry County Judge Michael Caldwell was right to let a Lakemoor woman keep her potty planter.
That not-so-little guy:
It was a sweet treat to see the Shedd Aquarium's youngest baby beluga hit the one-year milestone. Sweet because Daily Herald and ABC 7 viewers helped name Nunavik. Sweeter still because he survived a scary breech birth. At a healthy 460 pounds, the little melon head, of course, is among the cutest babies we've ever seen.
Scale it back:
Oakton Community College in Des Plaines has been careful with taxpayers' money. Trustees are right not to spend their entire $90 million fund balance on a $68.5 million renovation project. But shouldn't they apply more than just $20 million toward the project, to trim the hit on taxpayers to the bare minimum?
The best plan, really?
They're asking for volunteers to shovel out the stands. It's first-come, first-served on seats. The Bears are headed to the playoffs, but a key injury could doom them, while the Vikings have little for which to play. This was your best option, Commissioner Goodell? Sounds more like a meltdown in waiting.