Tri-Cities soap box
A learning experience
Kevin Burns will keep his day job and his political job. And the Geneva mayor will still have plenty of time for his family. In the end, that should make his exit from the 14th District congressional race more palatable, as long as his campaign debts -- if there are any -- are low. He made a smart move to bow out once the endorsement from incumbent Rep. Dennis Hastert came down, since getting that honor was about the only way he could have overcome the money and connections that front-runners Jim Oberweis -- who received Hastert's nod -- and Chris Lauzen possess. Now it's back to running a city that had its strong reputation boosted again by a fawning spot on a national TV show this week. Not a bad gig to have.
A long road
Once an art teacher in his small Mexican village, Juan Hernandez immigrated to the U.S. 17 years ago. He took two jobs, yet always had a return to teaching in the back of his mind. Two years ago, he got a full-time janitorial job at Elgin Community College. This month, after six years of part-time school attendance, he will graduate from ECC. In fact, he'll be a commencement speaker. Giving a speech, no doubt, that explains no matter how long or arduous is the road, the persistent can walk it successfully. He hopes to take classes at Northern Illinois University toward a bachelor's degree and a future in elementary education.
Doubly helpful
Kudos to Elgin Community College for finding a way to make both teenagers and their parents happy. The school is offering a two-part class -- taught by an 18-year-old, no less -- that offers kids instruction on setting up or upgrading their MySpace pages from "basic to amazing." That's one for the kids. It also teaches the HTML coding that will help protect them from online creeps. That should make parents happy.
Cleaning it up
Living in unincorporated areas of Kane County no longer provides a license to neglect one's property. In response to complaints from more regulated municipal neighbors of such unsightly properties, particularly in the Aurora area, the county passed new regulations this week. It set a $500 fine for a variety of offenses, including excessive weeds, junk or trash on lawns, open burning of landscape waste and garbage, animal fighting and other nuisances, effective May 1. About time.
Weird elective experiences
If 14th District U.S. House voters don't think it's weird enough that they'll be voting twice for the same office on Feb. 5, once to choose a party nominee to fill Dennis Hastert's seat temporarily and once to fill it permanently, they'll no doubt find it even weirder to have an election on a Saturday. The governor picked March 8 for the special general election in which party nominees for temporary fill-in will face off. Because it's the only race on the ballot, the governor thought a rare Saturday vote might help turnout. We shall see.
Take it with a grain of road salt
The outlook is for greater than normal snowfall, so get ready. Or not. ABC 7 meteorologist Jerry Taft said to take those long-term forecasts with a grain of salt. Science isn't there to accurately predict beyond seven days. Now, there's a refreshingly honest forecast.
These toys are worth the money
Buying American-made toys is a trend for some this holiday season. But here's a way to get some really locally made ones -- go to the auction of toys made by St. Charles East High School students on Tuesday (viewing starts at 1:30 p.m.; auction at 2:30 p.m.). Proceeds go to kids at Mooseheart, so you'll make a lot of people happy with your bid.