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The Hound should have placed this bet years ago --- closing in on two to be exact. Attorneys for Lake County Circuit Court Judge David Hall alleged in court the other day that Vernon Hills cops erased video of the judge's DUI arrest. On purpose.

What motive police would have to destroy evidence is beyond The Hound. But it seems to be a defense move to place the cops on trial, rather than a judge whose blood-alcohol content was .107, above the legal limit of .08. Wonder how other county police officers might feel if they were accused --- by a Lake County judge's paid messengers --- of breaking the law regarding an arrest. Might they have questions about future court appearances? It's not like Hall's attorneys are dancing around this.

Their motion contends the "Vernon Hills Police Department had the memory of the squad car computer hard drive erased" sometime after the judge's traffic arrest. Sounds like a conspiracy, what Holmes? Just bringing this allegation up casts a pall over the arrest. If they have proof, the judge's attorneys should take this information to the Attorney General's Office for further investigation and prosecution, unless they're throwing this contention out there and hoping it sticks to the legal wall. That's what well-paid defense lawyers do, after all. They work all the angles.

Regardless, the judge's attorneys are ready to argue their motion March 1, which is nearly two years from Hall's April 26, 2008 arrest on DUI and resisting charges. The attorneys also claim the blood sample taken from the Waukegan jurist at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville also might be tainted because it was not properly preserved. Wasn't a similar allegation part of O.J. Simpson's defense? If it worked for him, might work for a judge.

Vernon Hills police and the attorney general's prosecutor contend it was an honest mistake that the video doesn't exist of the judge's arrest. Who do you believe: Cops from the mean streets of Vernon Hills or a judge's attorneys?

Waukegan Mayor Robert Sabonjian has the pedal to the metal working on getting some sort of motorsports road race to his city next year or more likely in 2011. The Hound hears all those Waukeganites backing the mayor: "Go, speed racer, go!"

Sabonjian and city minions appear farther along the trail than most originally thought. They have a map of the 1.9-mile course which uses the Amstutz Expressway (or is that the Bobby Thompson Expressway which state Rep. Eddie Washington, D-Waukegan, unilaterally christened two years ago?) and downtown streets. Anybody check with the County of Lake, which has a pretty large presence in Waukegan's downtown for their input? They've also had preliminary talks with race organizers and they have a steering committee, Waukegan Grand Prix LLC.

What they don't have is money. Estimates run between $12 to $15 million for the initial rally; about a $9 million ante every year after. The bet is the seed money will generate millions more. Other cities have done it and been successful. It is within the realm of possibility for Waukegan.

So far, the city's populace has been eerily silent on the topic. Perhaps they're stunned or they haven't caught up to speed on what the impact could be on the city both in quality of life issues and financial gain or loss. Or they are a silent majority, riding in the back seat with the new mayor on this issue.

The Hound like's Sabonjian's attitude about landing any sort of road race: "We can be world class, but we have to do it right." So for right now, it's full speed ahead!

Like a Roman emperor, Waukegan Mayor Robert Sabonjian is offering the city's citizens bread and circuses to perhaps keep their minds busy with extracurricular activities. This at a time when the city's finances appear to be on shaky ground, to say the least. Not that a deficit budget and high-interest loans are any of his doing. He's cleaning up those messes.

Sabonjian suggested this week some sort of motorsports event --- a road race or circuit --- on city streets next year. Folks in his administration are meeting with folks who apparently can make this happen. Except for a few things, Mayor Bob has a sound plan.

Those few things happen to be what this economy has done to auto racing in the U.S., whether it be NASCAR, IndyCar or Grand Prix events. They're hurting, to say the least. Sponsor money has dried up, along with the evaporation of racing venues.

The Milwaukee Mile, aka the Rex Mays Classic, usually held at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds in West Allis the weekend after the Indy 500, has been off the map for several years. The Detroit Grand Prix is DOA. The Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet hosted a NASCAR event earlier this summer and will do an IndyCar event later this month. To fill the stands for this race, promoters made sure race fans bought a package ticket to go with the NASCAR race.

It's a tough market out there for racing events and it also should be noted the schedules for race dates for major events certainly already have been set for 2010. Which Waukegan residents should be grateful.

Putting together a race which could draw thousands for a weekend, the logistics involved and closing city streets needs a bit more planning than a year, The Hound believes. This isn't Scoopin' Genesee, after all.

The Hound understands Mayor Bob's need for speed, but there's more important races to run at the present.

Add Florida to the growing list of states which think that cameras nailing red-light/yellow light runners can help bail them out of financial difficulty. Like several Lake County communities, Gator Nation says you can run red lights, but you can't hide.

If the Florida Legislature OKs a bill currently in the legislative hopper, red-light cameras will be installed at intersections all over the state. Kind of like Lake County, huh?

Unlike, say Waukegan, the fine in the Sunshine State will be $150, not the measly $100 Waukeganites and unsuspecting folks in North Chicago have to put up with. They must be really hard up for revenue in Florida. Guess those tourists covered with oil are staying home considering the recession and all.

And, like Illinois, Florida pols maintain these videocops aren't merely moneymakers. Said one Florida lawmaker: "This is not a tax. It's a fine for running red lights."

Right, and The Hound has some Florida swamp for sale. Any takers?

The Hound was looking to leave Lake County the other day for points south and determined with all the construction going on it's like a maze trying to move around here in one's vehicle.

Route 41, Grand Avenue and Washington Street are all ripped up in Gurnee; Green Bay Road work has begun in North Chicago; the Tri-State's still a construction zone. Route 45 work will start soon; O'Plaine Road has bridge work. Now comes word Interstate 94 in Wisconsin, from the Lake County line to Milwaukee will be under construction for the next seven years! Help!

Apparently, this I-94 work up north is a time to celebrate and roll out the barrels --- orange construction barrels. The seven-year, nearly $2 billion project will expand the gateway to vacationland to eight lanes and make other improvements. This rebuild will be the largest transportation project the state has ever undertaken. They must really want Flatlanders' tourism dollars.

This work doesn't appear to be a stimulus-driven project, although it is expected to create more than 2,300 jobs before it is scheduled to be done in 2016. It was about time the work got underway. That section of the interstate is about 50 years old and is the most widely used freeway in the state carrying 150,000 vehicles per. It will cost the state about $750 million on the project.

Since the Tri-State Tollway work in Lake County, I-94 in Wisconsin was looking a little shabby. But The Hound still needs help in getting the heck out of here. Any cut-through suggestions?

Geez, give them two inches or more of the white stuff and Lake County motorists seem to become wheel jockeys bent on proving they're the dumbest drivers in the world. Or at least the dumbest driving in snow.

Lighten up folks. Driving around the county the past few days during these serial snowstorms, The Hound noticed a number of vehicles in the ditches and witnessed one Cadillac go sliding into a snowbank. What's with you drivers? Whiteouts be damned! must be your rallying cry.

The Hound was passed several times by cars, not 4x4s mind you, which looked like they were going faster than a dry pavement speed limit. The Hound could tell that because they were fishtailing, slipping and sliding, with the pedal to the metal. Yikes!

These bumper-car drivers apparently have a death wish. Just don't take The Hound and other unsuspecting drivers with you. And merry Christmas, snow jockeys.

We've certainly become a group of nervous Nellies. From the warnings dished out from Wednesday to Thursday and today, you'd think the sky was falling rather than a winter snowstorm. The Hound was never mollycoddled which meant even during blizzards accompanied with what seemed to be mile-high snowdrifts, it meant loping nearly a mile to school, uphill both ways.

Schools across Lake County began canceling classes Thursday morning in preparation for a doomsday scenario snowfall. Lighten up, folks. Winter doesn't begin until Sunday. That in itself is something to worry about.

But what if those weather prognosticators are wrong? And so if they're right? It's snow, not nuclear fallout.

One forecast The Hound saw predicted up to 14 inches for Lake County. Sounds like a snownormous weekend of sledding.

Until then, drive slow, hope your local public works department hasn't run out of salt yet and break out the sleds, snowshoes or cross-country skiis. You can't stop it, so just let it snow and ponder the wonder of a white Christmas this holiday.
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For all the moaning about salt supplies and the cost of sodium chloride for county roads, The Hound saw several municipal crews spreading a lot of the dear commodity on barely snow-covered streets on Monday. If it's so expensive and you don't have much, why blow it it on a mini-event?

At the most, the county got a dusting of about an inch, The Hound figures. They have to bring out the big trucks and salt spreaders for that? Perhaps we are becoming too used to down to the pavement roads in winter.

Two inches wouldn't get that much salt if The Hound was in charge of snowplows and spreaders. This is, after all, powdery white gold. Or at least that's what we were all told by public works pros from Antioch to Waukegan and from Winthrop Harbor to Mundelein when bids were being let.

So what's the deal? Why not just use sand at this early stage and hold the salt in reserve for those eight-to-12-inch storms you know will hit us once Old Man winter really starts to dump on us? Can someone enlighten The Hound?

The Hound is all a twitter over Gov. Rod Blagojevich's plan for "green" lanes on the tollway. That usually means we tollway hikers will pay the green.

The Illilnois Toll Highway Authority on Thursday approved creating high occupancy vehicle lanes, aka carpool lanes at a cost of $400 million. Yikes, that is a lot of green!

The "green lane" concept will convert the left lanes of the tollway's most-congested areas into carpool lanes. Does that mean the Lake County portion of the Tri-State seeing that we're under construction siege? Probably not, knowing the tollway.

Here's the plan: If you're driving with at least one other passenger, you can use these lanes and pay the regular I-Pass rate. If you're driving by yourself, you'd have to pay a higher rate. Um, but how will you catch carpool cheats in these green "free-flow" lanes? Who knows?

The Hound has seen similar commuter lanes in other cities, such as Nashville, where cops have caught some motorists in the "diamond" lanes with those plastic blow-up dolls riding shotgun. What the drivers do with those dolls after they get to their destinations are anybody's guess.

The tollway wants to have 80 miles of these green lanes ready by 2010, which may or may not be the target date when the Tri-State construction ends in Lake County. Speaking of green, wouldn't kicking off the program on St. Patrick's Day 2010 be grand?

Note to the governator: There is no pot of gold at the end of the 2010 rainbow for you.

The Hound is in a quandary as winter approaches and the snow and ice begins to fly: How will we salt the kibble with all the warnings about salt shortages? What should The Hound put on the popcorn while watching Animal Planet? More pepper?

While The Hound worries about food seasonings, Lake County motorists should worry about the condition of their roads this winter as community upon community says they're paying more for salt and will have less to spare. Lindenhurst this week adopted a new policy to conserve salt, which the village bought for $138 a ton, compared to $40 a ton last year. Libertyville is the latest to issue a de-icing warning.

Essentially, Libertyville will probably be doing what other towns will do when the snow falls. Arterial, collector and business park roads will be fully salted during an initial callout, according to the village's public works department. Low-volume residential streets will be salted at curves, hills and intersections during initial callouts. After snow events have ended, most streets will be salted again to combat ice buildup.

If you live on a cul-de-sac in Libertyville, they won't be salted during the initial callout unless on a sharp curve or hill. And, the village says they may be forced to use a sand/salt mixture if snow events pile up. That mixture's a throwback to the days of yore! Might as well put chains on the snow tires.

The Hound suggests drivers just trade in their Camrys on four-by-fours or AWDs, especially since gasoline prices have dropped. Dealers are willing to trade and deal. What's that, there's an economic meltdown? Well, hope for a meltdown come snow season, because the salt shortage may not clear the roads, Bunky.