Are we supposed to feel sorry for Randy Visor because he made a "bad decision?" Visor should feel lucky that he'll only have to spend about six more months in jail.
If you'll recall, Visor drove drunk in 1997 and killed four people in the process, including three Waubsonsie Valley High School students. He was released from prison in late 2002 after serving about a third of his 13-year prison sentence on reckless homicide charges.
UPDATE: 1:30 p.m. -- A jury has convicted Tenney on the murder charges. Let the appeals begin.
It's safe to say Ed Tenney is a bad man. Convicted on one murder, charged with a second, on trial for a third (for the second time) after years of delay.
To say this man has been a drain on the taxpayers is an understatement. And now jurors are debating his fate once again.
No, that's too strong. The jury isn't debating Tenney's fate. That's already been decided. He's going to spend the rest of his life in prison for a different murder. So why are we continuing the dance?
Attorney Vince Tessitore's contention that Planned Parenthood needs a special-use permit to open its Aurora clinic could prove to be a turning point in this convoluted case. If he's correct, Aurora will have a legal right to bring approval of the facility back before the City Council.
Planned Parenthood is arguing that the special-use permit and required public hearing wasn't necessary because the clinic was approved as a planned development district with underlying medical-use zoning, which is basically an amendment to the zoning map.
If Aurora decides a public hearing is necessary and enough neighboring residents object, the council would need a supermajority vote to grant the special-use permit. There might be enough aldermen who oppose the clinic to vote it down under those rules.
The city of Aurora's seemingly open wallet when it comes to the Sho-Deen site in southern downtown always has struck me as a bit frightening. After all, this site has a track record for failure.
Neither the City Council nor Mayor Tom Weisner has ever publicly set a ceiling for what the city is willing to spend (that would be your tax dollars) to ensure success on the moribund site along the Fox River. For a project with such a large public commitment, Aurorans should expect their leaders to draw a proverbial line in the sand and proclaim they will not cross it. But that hasn't happened.
Violent crime increased last year more than law enforcement experts anticipated, new data shows.
Overall, violent crime was up 1.9 percent last year.
The rising crime rates have been a concern for the Justice Department, which earlier this year blamed the increases on gangs, guns and youth violence. The Bush administration has pledged to spend $50 million this year to combat gangs and guns, and is pushing Congress for new laws to let the federal government better investigate and prosecute violent crime.
In Illinois, the new FBI data is broken down only for the biggest communities, including Aurora and Naperville. Go here for the full 2006 Crime in the United States report and here for the local data.
With a statewide smoking ban set to go into effect Jan. 1, Illinois' casinos are lobbying lawmakers for an exemption.
The casinos claim the ban will cost them $144 million a year, about 20 percent of their annual take. They each stand to lose more money than most bars and restaurants if the smoking ban drives away business, but is there really a good reason why smoking should still be allowed there? Does the fact that gambling goes on there subject casinos to lower standards?
Does Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns know that he's running for Congress? Of the United States of America? That is, the most powerful country in the world?
You wouldn't know it based on a statement the Republican candidate issued in response to state Sen. Chris Lauzen getting into the 14th Congressional District race. It seems more like Burns is gearing up for his first local School Board contest.
UPDATE (Sept. 20): A federal judge will allow the clinic to remain closed while the city completes its review.
It sounds like the start of a bad joke: How many lawyers does it take to find out if Planned Parenthood was deceptive or fraudulent during the city of Aurora approval process?
In the latest twist, Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti will review the reviews of two independent attorneys hired by the city who later turned out to have conflicts of interest. It has now been more than three weeks since the city announced its investigation.
All of this might be pointless, too, if a federal judge rules Thursday that the city cannot delay the clinic's opening.
So the very people hurt by Gov. Rod Blagojevich's budget cuts had their say Wednesday night in Aurora. I'm sure it was cathartic, but I doubt that it accomplished much.
If the goal was to sway public sentiment, these folks were preaching to the choir. If the goal was to shame the governor, I doubt it's going to work.
For the politicians involved, this game held at 19 locations throughout the state is an exercise in one-upsmanship. As I mentioned before on this blog, the governor's veto poses some very real problems locally. Unfortunately, these hearings, I fear, aren't going to generate the pressure the groups whose budgets have been slashed hope they will.
Why doesn't insurance pay? That's the first thing that came to mind when I read the coverage regarding East Aurora High School's damaged gym floor.
It could cost roughly $500,000 to replace the floor, which was damaged by rain water that seeped in sometime in June or July. The water damaged beyond repair more than three-quarters of the floor.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO Chicago-area traffic is among the worst in the nation,
a new study has found, costing motorists here more time and
money than in other areas of the country.
BY MIKE CETERA
Ever wonder how much time you waste sitting in traffic each year? The answer: About as much time as you spend working each week.
A new study explains in cold, hard numbers what anyone who commutes any distance to work already knows: It's taking longer and longer to get from here to there. Get the full report from the Texas Transportation Institute here.
Some telling numbers (data from 2005):
* Area drivers are stuck in traffic delays on average 46 hours over the course of a year.
* Drivers nationwide wasted 2.9 billion gallons of fuel while sitting in traffic. While that represents a tiny fraction of what Americans consume each year, the wasted fuel is enough to fill everybody's tank for about one week.
''Things are bad and they're getting worse,'' said Alan Pisarski, a transportation expert and the author of Commuting in America.
''We've used up the capacity that had been bequeathed to us by a previous generation, and we haven't replaced it,'' Pisarski said.
Back in June, this blog argued for a local law that mirrors an Illinois pay-to-play bill that would forbid businesses with large state contracts from making campaign contributions to officeholders awarding the contracts. Aurora Alderman Rick Lawrence this week started pushing for one.
Lawrence is responding to the hiring of attorney Phillip A. Luetkehans as the city's choice to review the Planned Parenthood clinic approval process because Luetkehans donated $250 to Alderman Richard Irvin's failed 2005 mayoral campaign, and Irvin played a key role in selecting Luetkehans. But such an ordinance would have far broader implications, particularly for Mayor Tom Weisner.
As outlined in the June post, Weisner has accepted thousands of dollars from businesses that eventually landed hefty city contracts.
The Sun-Times had piece over the weekend about high school -- and even middle school -- students ratcheting up the sexually suggestive moves during school-sponsored dances. The report calls the dance style juking.
Of course, this battle between school administrators and students has been fought before. Just last year, the Oswego School District banned "objectionable, sexual dancing."
East Aurora School Board member Russell Pietrowiak issued a scathing indictment of the district and its residents while resigning his position Monday night.
Pietrowiak said he is moving out of town because the community has not made its schools and children a priority. "My family and I have chosen to move out of this district because we do not feel that this community supports education anywhere near the manner that we feel it should," he said. "Also, I do not want to partake in the dismantling of the East Aurora School district," which he blamed mostly on East Aurora residents who have been apathetic.
State Sen. Chris Lauzen, R-Aurora, plans to officially launch his campaign for Congress this week with a three-day, 24-stop tour through the 14th District.
Lauzen, who is seeking to replace retiring Rep. Dennis Hastert, pretty much lays out his campaign strategy by calling his kickoff the "Faith, Family, and the Fruits of Freedom” Tour. The eight-term state senator said those are the pillars he has brought to the General Assembly and will bring to the halls of Congress.
With the Planned Parenthood clinic story getting bigger every day, Lauzen's timing couldn't be better to launch a platform built on those values.
UPDATE (Sept. 17): The clinic opening will be delayed until at least Thursday so both sides can make their arguments in court.
UPDATE: (Sept. 14): Planned Parenthood has sued the city of Aurora because city officials have indicated the clinic likely will not open on time because of the attorney review.
(Originally published Sept. 7)
For a couple weeks now, the Sept. 18 opening for the Planned Parenthood clinic in Aurora has seemed in doubt. The response from anti-abortion activists was so loud that the City Council and Mayor Tom Weisner couldn't ignore it. On top of that, the alleged deception on the part of Planned Parenthood gave the city a legitimate reason to pause and review its every move.
Weisner said Thursday that he won't push to have the independent attorney review complete by the Sept. 17 deadline, a day before the clinic is supposed to open. "My intent is to get the facts," he said, before the city issues a final occupancy permit.
Even if it turns out that Planned Parenthood met all the disclosure requirements and the women's health clinic ends up opening, it's important that city officials feel confident in their approval process. If Planned Parenthood has to wait to open its doors for a few days or even a few weeks, that's the price they pay for coming into Aurora in disguise.
UPDATE (SEPT. 14): The RTA has voted to accept the governor's front-funding offer, delaying planned Pace rate hikes and service cuts until at least November.
If you ride the bus to get to work, plan to spend more beginning next week. Gov. Rod Blagojevich's plan to stave off RTA's doomsday scenario, which has already been slammedrepeatedly, doesn't look like it will help Pace bus riders.
The suburban bus agency reiterated its plans to increase fares beginning this weekend:
Pace leaders say it’s something they’ve warned about for months, even years, but now the crisis becomes an everyday reality for riders, and the situation won’t be improving any time soon without additional funding from Springfield.
Two weeks ago, the anti-abortion activists packed the Aurora City Council meeting to protest the Planned Parenthood clinic. After six hours of testimony, the meeting ended at 1:30 a.m.
On Tuesday night, the abortion-rights supporters had their say. This time, the council limited the public-comment period to three hours. Three aldermen voted against the time limit.
The Beacon News praised the City Council two weeks ago for not cutting off debate and criticized the five aldermen who wanted the comments to end at 9 p.m. But at what point does the abortion controversy hijack the city's regular business? Should aldermen continue to hear the same arguments over and over again, even when they're not voting on anything related to the issue?
Wurfwhile blog reports that a former sacrificial lamb to Dennis Hastert is mulling another run at the 14th Congressional District seat.
Auroran Vern DelJonson provided me the best quote of my career. But his political resume is undistinguished.
When asked in 2000 why DelJonson, the Democratic nominee, was taking on then House Speaker Dennis Hastert and the national Republican Party, he said: "You take out the most secure seat, you're going to scare the crap out of
the rest of them. I'm trying to get the whores out of Congress."
It doesn't really need to be said, but Hastert walloped DelJonson by nearly 60,000 votes.
Defense attorneys aren't likely to garner any sympathy over cries that cops are reading their clients' mail. But Kathleen Colton's objection during the first cold-case murder trial about revelations the Kane County Jail has been opening mail for years raises some interesting questions.
Is it legal for jail guards to pilfer inmates' letters? Is there an expectation of privacy among inmates? Should law-abiding citizens care either way?
Here's what Colton had to say about her client, Jose Salinas: "I don't know how much more obvious this could be that this violates Mr. Salinas' rights. You don't give up your rights when you're incarcerated."
Here's what Kane County Sheriff's Office Lt. Pat Gengler said: "By virtue of being in custody they give up certain things. If they don't want to have their phone calls listened to, their mail opened, their visits monitored, they should make a different choice in life."
In a letter sent to Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area CEO Steve Trombley on Friday, an attorney for the Pro-Life Action League, Eric Scheidler and the Fox Valley Families Against Planned Parenthood demanded he retract statements he made about their "well-documented history of violence and criminal activity."
If Trombley fails to take back the statements he made in a letter to the Aurora City Council and mayor and in an ad that ran in The Beacon News, a lawsuit will be filed.
This just keeps getting uglier and uglier as the scheduled opening date of the Planned Parenthood clinic approaches.
STNG PHOTO Under a non-descript canopy, the Viking ship sits and waits
for funding to be restored at Good Templar Park in Geneva.
BY DAVE PARRO
American Express and the National Trust for Preservation announced an online voting competition Thursday called Partners in Preservation that will determine which of 25 historic sites in the Chicago area should get a share of $1 million in rehab funds. The local contenders: Aurora's GAR Hall and Geneva's Viking ship.
The credit-card company launched the five-year program last year, and the focus in 2007 is on Chicago and the collar counties. The two Kane County sites certainly could use the money; the city of Aurora has been trying to renovate the Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Hall for years, and the Viking ship was named this year to Landmarks Illinois' top 10 list of endangered historical features that face extinction.
Some of the competitors include the Chicago Cultural Center, Great Lakes Naval Station's Hostess House and the Jane Addams Homes' Animal Court Sculptures.
Two years ago, when Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner outlined the three major projects in his first budget, he included a citywide wireless network that would "close the digital divide" between residents who can already afford high-speed Internet access and those who can't. In May 2006, the City Council approved a contract with MetroFi for a free network that would include 600 to 900 wireless antennas.
So far, the California company has installed about 150 antennas. Weisner admitted for the first time last week that he is disappointed in MetroFi's pace. Company officials insist they're still working out an agreement with ComEd for the use of utility poles.
MetroFi's coverage map, however, shows what's really going on. The company wants to provide service only where it can make the most money; hence, the clusters in Aurora only cover downtown and the wealthier areas of town.
With the city of Aurora reviewing the approval process surrounding the controversial women's health clinic on the far East Side, Planned Parenthood officially responded to allegations of deceit Wednesday.
In a letter to aldermen and the mayor, Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area CEO Steve Trombley admitted the true nature of the clinic was not publicly volunteered, but he claims the organization followed the law. Essentially, he's saying Planned Parenthood walked a fine legal line.
Trombley says "we took appropriate precautions" to protect workers and future clients from potentially violent anti-abortion activists. But, he says, anyone who looked hard enough could have easily figured out that the medical facility being built was going to be a full-service Planned Parenthood clinic.
The driver in the Oswego crash initially told police she wasn't behind the wheel when her car crashed into a telephone pole, ultimately killing five teenage passengers. She later changed her story, claiming she let the teens use her car and took over because she didn't like the way one of the kids was driving.
There's still a lot here we don't know, but this adds a new twist to the events of that tragic night. Vasquez claims the teens approached her for a ride home after a party. She told police she let them use her car, despite not knowing any of them, but that "James" was originally driving and she was a passenger. James McGee, who died more than a week after the accident, was only 14 years old.
It's possible that McGee was driving because he was sober. We don't know his blood-alcohol level at the time of the accident because he died in Cook County, which doesn't do inquests. Vasquez said she "didn't want to drive" but switched with McGee because she "didn't like the way James was driving." Maybe it's because he didn't know how.
An analysis done by The Associated Press of Illinois' 2,400 bridges rated as "structurally deficient" by the federal government shows that 1,500 of them received lower ratings on a 100-point scale than the Minnesota crossing that collapsed last month, killing 13 people. That's a scary thought.
Nine of those bridges are located in this area. Fortunately, two of them have been rehabbed since the U.S. Department of Transportation collected the data, and one is closed. The other six are scheduled for reconstruction by 2010.
The worst of them is the state-owned Route 25 bridge over Waubansee Creek near Oswego. That bridge received a score of 2 out of 100, tied for second-worst in the state.
The ratings, however, are complicated and might not always directly reflect the dangers posed by these troubled bridges.
