Sure seems those Lake County Board members who voted to increase their pay --- in the midst of tough economic times -- are a bunch of greedy Guses. They're lucky the Illinois Senate killed a provision for recall. Could you imagine recalling 13 County Board members? Yowza!
So they dodged a bullet. Sure is convenient that all but one County Board member up for re-election and having opposition come Nov. 4 voted in favor of the 15.5 percent pay hikes which soon takes their pay for a part-time job to more than $40,000 a year. Sure is suspicious, like somebody figured out the math. The vote to hike their own salaries was 13-10.
That one County Board member seeking re-election and voting for the pay hike was Republican Larry Leafblad of Grayslake. He must feel pretty good about his opponent in November to vote himself a pay raise in the current economic times. Maybe his constituents will feel different about that.
As for the two retiring members, Republican Judy Martini of Antioch and Carol Spielman of Highland Park: They certainly showed their true colors voting with their fellow payrollers and against the taxpayers.
Ah, but perhaps voters will have longer memories when it comes to the four members who voted to boost their salaries and whose terms expire in 2010. That would be Steve Carlson of Gurnee, Susan Gravenhorst of Lake Bluff, Pam Newton of Vernon Hills and Michael Talbett of Lake Zurich. Did The Hound mention they are all Republicans? So much for conservative fiscal spending the GOP once was known for. No wonder Democrats are making increasing inroads into formerly Republican Lake County.
The Hound has one message for these greedy Guses: Get on the bus, Gus and make way for public servants who don't expect to get rich off the taxpayers.
As The Hound was standing in line at the Post Office for one-cent stamps to match up with the leftover 41-cent stamps which no longer are valid, steam was coming out of those big ears. It was just last year that the U.S. Postal Service raised stamp prices to 41 cents and now the cost of mailing a first-class letter is 42 cents.
Then, The Hound remembered that this is the same USPS whose employees rang up a $13,500 tab at a five-hour feast at a Ruth's Chris Steak House in Orlando, Fla. That's when the steam started pumping like an old Baltimore & Ohio coal train.
This postal order sort of made news last month after the Government Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, discovered the charges made to government credit cards. As far as The Hound is concerned, the national media dropped the ball on this story.
GAO investigators called the 2006 meal "abusive" in its extravagance, according to The Associated Press. That's too kind. How about piggish.
The order included more than $3,000 in drinks, including top-shelf beverages such as Courvoisier cognac, Belvedere vodka and Johnnie Walker Gold Label scotch. Then there was the $500 in shrimp cocktails and $900 in crab cakes --- that's a lot of appetizers. But then again, Ruth's Chris is no late-night diner. It's a classy joint.
According to the GAO breakdown, the diners also had 81 steakhouse salads at $588, and 130 jumbo scallops which totaled $422. Yum, jumbo scallops! Ninety-five people attended the feast and ordered 81 entrees, which the GAO figured averaged $160 per person. That's eating high off the hog!
The USPS defends the dinner, contending it was held to land corporate clients from privately run FedEx and UPS. Taxpayer money, they say, was not involved; the feast was funded by products and services of the USPS.
Uh, aren't stamps products? And they wonder why Americans go postal when the price of stamps rise.
The Hound's Gurnee correspondents are still tittering over the latest issue of "Keeping Posted", the village's newsletter. What has them guffawing is Mayor Kristina Kovarik's monthly message .
"The winter did expose some flaws in our ability to deal with heavy snowfalls," her honor notes with a straight pen. "I'm happy to report that Village staff has taken the initiative to conduct some intense planning sessions that will correct deficiencies in our snow removal operations."
What the mayor doesn't address is why the public works director resigned suddenly and that two long-time public works employees were disciplined. Did it have to do with the poor street-clearing performance during the winter of ought seven and eight? That would be the winter when the village ran out of salt --- not that Gurnee was the only governmental agency to be caught short of sodium chloride. Or is is calcium chloride they use on Midwest roads? Or is there something more to the issues with the three public works guys?
The copy of "Keeping Posted" The Hound saw has Mayor Kovarik concluding: "We listened to the feedback received and the message was loud and clear --- pristine roads and optimal driving conditions are of the utmost importance."
Nothing gets past some public officials, eh?
Despite bad snowplowing, Gurnee does have some of the best fireworks in the county on July 4 and during Gurnee Days. Maybe bread and circuses will get the chill off village residents.
Presidential candidate John McCain and soon-to-be-also-ran Hillary Clinton have proposed suspending the federal gas tax --- 18.4 cents a gallon --- from Memorial Day to Labor Day as a way of bringing relief to Americans at a time when folks take to the highways for summer vacation or cruisin' dates at various county locales. Presidential hopeful Barack Obama dismisses this idea, calling it a "classic Washington gimmick." He's wrong.
So we won't get that much relief at the pump and we may diminish the highway road fund. Yet, it is something government can do for the little people among us. Dismissing the gas tax holiday and siding with those economists is making the Illinois senator sound even more elitist.
The latest poll on the topic, a Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey released this week, shows 46 percent of likely voters favor a federal gas tax holiday this summer. The survey found that 42 percent are opposed and 12 percent unsure.
According to Rasmussen Reports, most voters who earn more than $75,000 a year oppose the gas tax holiday. Most who make less than $60,000 a year favor that policy change. Those making less than $60,000 a year are the ones Obama has had a hard time connecting with in the Democratic primaries and are voters he needs for victory in November.
Clinton's idea to replace the highway transportation fund, which will probably be picked up by McCain once she decides to drop out of the presidential derby, is putting an excess-profits tax on Big Oil. It's not like they don't have some profits to spare.
Tax holidays are not new. Some states even have tax holidays for school supplies and for a few years, Florida had a tax holiday for supplies purchased to be used during hurricane season, June to November in the Sunshine State.
Perhaps it's not the monetary amount, but the fact that voters see government as doing something instead of always taking or doing nothing.
The Hound feels safer already since Gov. Rod "The Mod" Blagojevich has named an Illinois Seismic Safety Task Force. This from the guv who took nearly a year to iron out a mass transit package with state lawmakers.
Just goes to show, an Elvis fan will move it and shake it when the Prairie State rocks and rolls.
Since the April 18, 5.2 magnitude temblor in way downstate Wabash County, the Land of Lincoln has received 29 aftershocks measuring as high as a 4.6 magnitude. Yikes, that sounds like Cali tremors to The Hound.
While some of us were shaken from sleep at 4:37 a.m. April 18, if we were Californians, we would have slept through the quake, let alone it's aftermath. Fortunately, there isn't much in downstate Illinois besides coal mines, some cricket pumps, a few prisons and Shawnee National Forest.
Wake The Hound when there's a 5.2 quake in Lake County.
Anyway, His Hairness has directed state agencies to review and enhance the state's earthquake damage prevention strategies. It's not like state officials weren't aware of the potential for earthquakes downstate. Afterall, one of the most powerful quakes occurred downstate on the New Madrid fault back in the late 1700s. The quake was so powerful, it changed the course of the Mississippi River. Or so The Hound's relatives have said.
The governor certainly moved quickly on this earthquake panel. Perhaps that's his constituency in for his 2010 re-election bid. We can only hope.
The Hound used to think the Illinois Legislature was moronic. Now in first place in that dubious contest are Florida lawmakers. Legislators in the Sunshine State have approved a measure outlawing replicas of bull testicles on private vehicles in Florida.
The Hound's Daytona Beach correspondent is just giddy over this waste of taxpayer-paid time and money down South, especially when Florida is right about where Illinois is when it comes to funding public education, infrastructure and a huge deficit.
But that's how lawmakers spend their time, whether in the Prairie State or the Sunshine State. The proposal would ban the display of "reproductive glands" on vehicles. Truckers and bikers could face fines of $60 if they keep these replicas on their vehicles.
Let's not get into a debate over why someone would want to put such things on the back end of their Tahoe hybrid, but apparently they do. The Hound has seen such things, mainly on tricked-out Harleys.
Opponents argue that approving the measure would lead to cracking down on bumper stickers and those mud flaps on some trucks which feature the silver outlines of nekkid women. Here's something else to consider: Don't Florida state troopers have more than enough to do besides writing tickets for a vehicle transporting a fake bull's package? They do in Illinois.
One last thought: Aren't bull testicles considered a culinary treat in some parts of this great land? Seems like there's other things to attack than fake glands on one's vehicle. But then again, it is Florida.
Isn't it about time Waukegan 2nd Ward Ald. John Balen turn in his spurs and resign from the City Council? His latest antic about stopping people from discussing issues of the day at City Council sessions proves one thing: One doesn't get wiser with age.
At one time, The Hound has been told, Balen was a rebel rouser. Whether on the shop floor at the old U.S. Steel wire mill or the Lake County Board, of which he was a chairman, he was for freedom of speech. Matter of fact, Balen, a World War II veteran fought for freedom speech in this country.
In the past week, though, he decided that audience time at City Council sessions have become a "soapbox for activists." Seconding his motion to seek input from his constituents was another geezer alderman, Larry Ten Pas of the 6th Ward. Wonder what his one-time fellow union brothers and sisters (Ten Pas was a teacher, Waukeganites should remember) think about that.
The Hound hears Balen was, in fact, an activist when he was a member of the United Steelworkers of America, at one time one of the strongest labor organizations in this nation. Perhaps when one drives a Mercedes-Benz, which the last time The Hound checked, wasn't made by union workers in America, one forgets one's roots in the American labor movement.
The Hound began this with calling for Balen to move on to retirement. Perhaps Ten Pas should follow suit. Waukeganites should expect more from two aldermen who fought for the right to veer from the path of the maddening crowd.
Somewhere, Joe Hill is turning over in his grave --- once again.
The Hound was having his usual Leinie's Honey Weiss (with lemon) on draw at a local watering hole on Monday. Lost in the golden taste and admiring the deep-grained mahogany bar --- which certainly could tell a tale or twelve --- when a grizzled senior citizen said: "Seventy-five years ago you would be drinking your first legal beer in 13 years."
Excuse The Hound, but paying attention to 75-year anniversaries isn't yet on my MySpace account. But the senior was right.
On April 7, 1933, the taps were reopened after our great social experiment (or failure depending if you were a wet or a dry) and beer flowed for everyone when Prohibition ended. For some in Lake County, such as the good citizens of Zion, which went wet just a few years ago, there were some holdouts to returning to selling booze. Beer was legalized first; then distilled spirits and wine a year later.
It was a dismal period, if watching "The Untouchables" on "ME TV" is any indication.
"And," the senior noted, "you can thank a Democrat for that. Now buy me a beer."
The Hound has a couple nephews who will be graduating from Lake County high schools this spring.
One will graduate May 25 from Warren Township High School. Graduation will be held on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston
Another will graduate June 5 from Libertyville High School. Graduation will be held -- you guessed it -- on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston.
What's wrong with this picture? It's a civic shame that Lake County does not have a facility to house special events such as these. Between concerts, conventions and graduations, a 10,000-seat arena would be in constant use.
We should push hard and do whatever it takes to get an arena in Lake County. There's no excuse for a county of 725,000 people to be without one.
The federal government is helping to bail out one of the nation's financial rocks, Bear Stearns; the State of Illinois is thisclose to junk bond status. But we're getting free money from the feds and, if you're a senior, free rides from Illinois. Is this a great country, or what?
The Hound household received their "important message from the IRS on the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008" in the mail over the weekend with the warning: "Do not throw away!" In Illinois, when the feds tell you not to throw anything away, that could mean your indictment is days away from being filed.
In any case, the mailing from the Department of Treasury informed The Hound will be getting some money, as will 130 million American households, starting in May. It's a one-time payment. Darn, The Hound thought Uncle Sugar just has an unlimited suppy of money. Well, when it comes to Iraq, that appears to be true.
Regardless, The Hound gets some money to goose the economy. Plus, the family figures, with all the Hounders and Houndettes running under foot, there is some money coming back on the income tax refund. These dogs will be rolling in dough come May. Sounds like a road trip to a nearby casino to double our money!
In the meantime, Gov. Rod "Hot Rod" Blagojevich has given all you senior citizens free rides on mass transit. That began on Monday, if you have registered. It makes Illinois the only state in the nation to give seniors free mass transit rides. There are former Soviet states who don't give their seniors free mass transit rides. They don't even get that in Cuba. Hmmm, Blagojevich. Has sort of a subversive name, eh?
But The Hound digresses, as usual. Free rides aren't only guaranteed in the six-county Chicago area. If you live in Bloomington, Normal, Champaign, Urbana, Danville, Decatur, Rock Island County, St. Clair County, Madison County, Peoria, Pekin, Rockford and Springfield, you get gratis bus rides, as long as you are 65 and older.
Between George Bush and his head-in-the-sand Hooverville advisers and Rod Blagojevich's Supreme Soviet advisers, the middle class is being squeezed like sand in the hour glass. What a country.
