Archive for October, 2006

Wanted: Local Writers

Author: yinn

Oct 25

Our comments don’t show it, but we’re getting a few visitors every day who aren’t spamming. Also we’re only a month away from our first anniversary. In other words, it looks like we’re not going anywhere.

We have another blogger-in-training but would like to recruit a few more DeKalb County residents as contributors to reach a goal of two new articles per week. If you are up on the local scene, like to write and have a unique perspective on one or more of the topics we cover, please register. We welcome all viewpoints but do observe a couple of rules:

  • Clean language. We want to be a local resource that a person of any age can visit.
  • A strong point of view on any issue is welcome, but partisanship and other group prejudices are not. Support or criticize a candidate, position or governmental body, but never an entire political party or any other group affiliation.

    • That’s about it, I think. If not, we’ll no doubt find out.

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    Filed under: Site News

    South 4th Street as “Complete”

    Author: yinn

    Oct 22

    This fall my fourth-grader began riding his bike to school. He’s of an age where he sometimes still depends on what he calls the “luck factor” when crossing streets so I go along to prevent what I term the “splat factor.” One of our more hair-raising problems is crossing South 4th Street (Route 23). Five lanes with traffic traveling at 35 to 40 miles per hour can be tricky even for the grownup.

    Because S. 4th is so dangerous, my son actually is eligible to take the bus to school. After all, we taxpayers are footing the bill for at least two buses–at an estimated annual cost of $70,000*–that we wouldn’t need if not for the hazardous crossing designation. But the trip is less than a mile, and I want to teach him to depend more on pedal power, less on petrol power. We’ve felt resigned to living with S. 4th as it is–until now, when I discovered that we may not have to. Read the rest of this entry

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    Filed under: Energy & Environment, Plans & Surveys

    Mac’s Potawatomi Land Claim Series

    Author: yinn

    Oct 10

    It’s no longer a secret that the Prairie Band Potawatomi would like to build a bingo parlor on their “new” acreage in Shabbona. I want to help ensure that DeKalb County Online’s analyses of the Shabbona land claim and the Prairie Band’s Kansas gaming operation aren’t secrets to anyone, either. Publisher/Editor Mac McIntyre has done an outstanding job on this four-part series.

    Imagine the emotions that must have been in the mind of the old Indian chief, Shabbona, as he measured the statement of the settler living on his land.

    “This is not your land you big dumb Indian! Take your family and get out of here!” Read the rest of this entry

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    Filed under: Community Resources

    hastert Looks the Other Way Again

    Author: treesfieldssky

    Oct 9

    Hastert Looks Away For A Price

    Dennis Hastert was caught looking the other way recently with the Foley scandal. However looking the other way from those who are being abused for the sake of the abusers and their power is not uncommon for Mr. Hastert. This last episode is just a time when he was caught doing so, because he has often put protecting political power above his duty to protect children.

    Take for example the May 24, 1999 ABC News program 20/20 and a report by Brian Ross. His report was on human trafficking on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a U.S. territory and the protection of the abusers by the Republican Leadership in Congress. Brian Ross reported on the findings of a human rights activist group, Global Survival Network, from the American island of Saipan.

    Thousands of women from across Aisa were brought through an immigration loophole to American soil to supposedly work as waitresses in restaurants or nightclubs. “Once they got there, they were told they had to do more than that.” said Steve Galster, Executive Director of Global Survival Network. He went on to say, “We’re talking about forced prostitution.” Read the rest of this entry

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    Filed under: National Campaigns, National/International, Political Campaigns

    Attack of the Killer Dishwashers

    Author: yinn

    Oct 4

    Last weekend I trained as a water analyst for the Sierra Club’s Water Sentinels program. We tested two fresh samples of water from the Kishwaukee River, one upstream from DeKalb Sanitary District operations and one downstream. I was surprised by this in a couple of ways. I had expected we’d analyze water from a rural part of the county for farm chemical runoff, for one thing. And I did not expect that the Sanitary District would be putting anything bad in the river.

    And they’re not, sort of. The Sanitary District isn’t breaking any pollution laws or anything like that. It’s that our treated water is too nutritious. Seriously. Read the rest of this entry

    4 Comments
    Filed under: Energy & Environment