Soapbox: Be smart, lock up
Be smart, lock up
Just because you live in a beautiful, well-kept neighborhood where your kids can play safely in the back yard doesn't mean you should leave your garage doors open at all hours or your SUV unlocked in your driveway. The arrest of five people --including four teenagers -- this week in connection with at least 11 burglaries and thefts in one Western suburb should remind all area residents to be more vigilant about preventing crimes of opportunity. This isn't Mayberry. Our police have enough to do; let's make their jobs easier by doing our part to prevent crime.
Good luck with that:
It's a worthwhile exercise if done in a way that fairly balances the interests of community aesthetics and private property rights. But no village that's ever adopted an RV parking-and-storage ordinance has done so without a fair amount of angst. Wauconda is beginning to see that as authorities and residents work their way through a set of rules, but the process should turn out OK if officials listen to everyone's concerns before finalizing the regulations.
Bad business
Shutting down a business and someone's livelihood? For municipal officials, that's a last resort if there ever was one. But if all the allegations are true, that may turn out to be the right move in Mundelein, where police say workers at a gas station inappropriately touched one woman customer and solicited sexual acts from four others. Authorities arrested police after three incidents, and village trustee Terri Voss aptly calls the complaints "disgusting."
Serenity now
Barrington's Citizens Park already is a winner at such an early age. Just four months after the grand opening of this suburban gem, following years of contention concerning the future of the former home of Jewel Tea Co., the park is piling up the honors. That's mostly thanks to this wonder: the relaxing therapy of sitting with the birds atop the trees in the Pepper Family Tree House. This alone is worth a visit, especially at this time of year.
Looking good?
Secretary of State Jesse White says newly designed driver's licenses -- with two photos, two locations for date of birth and high-tech graphics -- will be much harder to duplicate for would-be ID thieves and other assorted folks harboring ill intent. This is good news and an overdue development. Leaving only this question: Will license bureau personnel still shoot photos that drivers detest because they make them look as geeky as they looked in their eighth-grade yearbook?
Keep it safe for trick or treaters
Halloween is coming up Wednesday, which means that suburban drivers need to be extra careful and watch out for all the witches, superheroes, Jack Sparrows and Hannah Montanas going door to door and crossing streets in evening darkness.
Open bar? Maybe not:
In Hoffman Estates, a just-married bride hung her wedding dress up on a sprinkler head in her hotel room, activating the sprinkler and drenching two rooms and an elevator shaft. The hotel manager said the bride was inebriated enough that she earlier had needed help getting back to her room. In Rolling Meadows, police, responding to reports of a fight, arrested a groom at his reception after he punched a police officer and pushed his bride into a table as the law arrived. And, gee, here's a shock: Police say the groom and two others arrested were under the influence. Hmmm. Maybe it's better to spend a little more on the band and a little less on booze.