Apr 30
The Victor Wogen scandal is not going away.
Get your shirt here. (Hat tip to “John Q. DeKalb.”)
Sign the online petition calling for Mr. Wogen’s resignation here.
I’m making “WOGEN RESIGN” pins, which I hope will be seen every day, all over town. If you can help distribute them, e-mail me at yinn422@yahoo.com
Apr 29
If you have not checked out Dreamers’ Theater Group’s original children’s musical, “The Last Exhibit” at the Egyptian Theater, you have one last chance tonight at 7 p.m. Admission for adults is $10, for children under 12 it’s $5. It’s real family fare and kids love it, runs about 90 minutes so nobody misses their bedtimes. What’s more, several of the songs by Renaissance man Gavin Wilson are truly top tier.
Tell ‘em Franky’s mom sent ya.
Apr 27
Will the Illinois State Board of Elections investigate Victor Wogen’s political action group(s)? Hope so.
In one of the Chronicle articles, Wogen mentioned “Wogen for Third” as his group, while the ephemeral “Citizens for a Better 3rd Ward” ostensibly sent out a mailer independently of Wogen and his Maple Park consultant, Jon Zahm of Goliath Slayer Communications (motto: “Your one stop shop for winning election campaigns”).
One answer that should be teased out of this mess is, how come the two groups seem to be so interchangeable? “Citizens for 3rd” sends out a smear mailer, but Wogen himself pays up when it’s short postage–and brings in more bins of the stuff himself. “Citizens for 3rd” is an anonymous political support group, but uses opposition research obtained by Zahm’s wife (who submitted the request under a name that she doesn’t normally use).
One might suspect that there is in fact only one political action committee, but that two are claimed so that a) Wogen could be seen as above the fray; b) Wogen could spend more than $3000 in the campaign without filing with the Board of Elections; and c) Wogen could also, in bypassing the filing requirement, keep his campaign contributors secret. Read the rest of this entry
Apr 21
I’m an election judge and have been assigned to the NIU Recreation Center for the past two elections.
As a polling place the Rec Center serves four precincts in the 7th Ward, or about 2,000 students. Last fall about 150 ballots were cast. Last Tuesday we got 8. Turnout for the other student ward, the 1st, is comparable. People bemoan the low turnout in this week’s election of 23% of registered voters countywide but this number is skewed by the student participation rate that is a tiny fraction of 1%.
I figure it cost the county about $1500 to put on an election at the Rec Center last Tuesday. It would have cost more if we’d had the preferred number of judges but we worked a little short this time.
Don’t get me wrong. We greeted and guided and appreciated every one of those eight students as much as we would any voter in the county, and the sense of duty and respect for the process works exactly the same for 8 ballots as it does for 800. But I think we’ve got to ask what the obstacles are. Maybe we should start with the hassle of changing one’s registration every time one moves, which students do a lot. Maybe we should move the polling places back into the dorms, where turnout is a little better. Maybe we should look at the laws for candidates, figure out why so many races have candidates running unopposed, like the alderman in the 7th did this time.
Maybe we should eliminate the student wards and see if anyone notices or cares.
Apr 19
Victor Wogen beat Steve Kapitan for the 3rd Ward aldermanic seat by 14 votes. This was the day after a mysterious, anonymous mailer smearing Kapitan was delivered to all the households in the ward. Here is Mr. Wogen’s account yesterday:
Wogen denies any involvement with the production and distribution of the mailing, and said he did not know who sent it out. “There’s no animosity between Steve and myself,” he said. “I think he did a great job as alderman, but it was time for a change.”
Here’s Mr. Wogen today:
A day after saying he had nothing to do with a controversial campaign mailing delivered to 3rd Ward residents less than 24 hours before polls opened on Tuesday, the ward’s alderman-elect now admits he helped pay to have about 1,800 of them sent out – but claims he didn’t bother to read what was in them first.
Apr 18
An e-mail from a District 428 employee was forwarded to me today.
It is important for the residents of this community to know that the DeKalb School Board is quietly and discreetly trying to outsource their custodial, maintenance, and food service employees. These employees are your neighbors in the community, and they have had or continue to have their children come up through the DeKalb schools. Most importantly, they have attended to and worked tirelessly to ensure your children’s safety and well-being in the schools. Now the DeKalb School Board wants to replace them with outsiders—a company that has no ties to the community that will employ people that are not your neighbors and that have no roots in the community. Do you really want this to happen? Is this where you want your tax monies to go—to fund an outside company and the employees it will bring in instead of being loyal to the community and your neighbors who have worked for the District all these years? I hope not. Call or email a DeKalb School Board member immediately and tell them a resounding “NO” to outsourcing custodial, maintenance, and food services in the District.
These neighbors and others will speak at the next District 428 school board meeting held Thursday, April 19 at 7:00 p.m.–at Huntley Middle School at 7th and Taylor streets instead of the usual location. To e-mail the board your thoughts in the meantime, try board@dist428.org.
Apr 18
The ill-conceived Kishwaukee Valley Water Authority referendum was defeated by more than 80%, not just in DeKalb County but in Boone as well. Even in McHenry County, where the idea originated, the measure was rejected by more than two-thirds of the voters. The referendum to fund it was beaten by even higher percentages. Both had to pass in order to form KVWA. The Northwest Herald called its borders “bizarre.” Editorializing: yes. Exaggeration: no.
The one good thing to come out of this is that everybody now realizes there’s a hole in our long-term planning. How best to fill it will/should be an ongoing discussion.
Apr 12
Think that the Kishwaukee Valley Water Authority is our last best chance to protect our local water supply? Wrong-o. In July 2006, the Illinois General Assembly changed Public Act 094-1007. Here is a snippet of the Act, straight from the General Assembly website and including the changes that took effect in January:
Section 5. The Intergovernmental Cooperation Act is amended by changing Section 3.1 as follows:
(5 ILCS 220/3.1) (from Ch. 127, par. 743.1)
Sec. 3.1. Municipal Joint Action Water Agency.
(a) Any municipality or municipalities of this State, any county or counties of this State, any township in a county with a population under 700,000 of this State, any public water district or districts of this State, State university, or any combination thereof may, by intergovernmental agreement, establish a Municipal Joint Action Water Agency to provide adequate supplies of water on an economical and efficient basis for member municipalities, public water districts and other incorporated and unincorporated areas within such counties.For purposes of this Act, the water supply may only be derived from Lake Michigan, the Mississippi River, the Missouri River, or the Sangamon River Valley Alluvium.Any such Agency shall itself be a municipal corporation, public body politic and corporate. A Municipal Joint Action Water Agency so created shall not itself have taxing power except as hereinafter provided.
The language that limited application of the Act to users of Lake Michigan and certain rivers has been struck. Furthermore, an MJAWA obtains financing only through revenue bonds or notes unless voters pass a referendum to allow for the issuance of general obligation bonds.
Let’s see:
Apr 11
New York Times,“To the Barricades, Oldsters of the Republic:”
IT is a Friday afternoon in this college town on the prairie, and the demonstrators at First Street and Lincoln Highway are raising a political ruckus. Some hoist signs that declare, “Stop the War!” But across the street, people are waving signs with other messages — “Support the Troops” and “Danger: Traitors” — gibing at the antiwar contingent.
Whatever their politics, a big share of the demonstrators on both sides of the street have one thing in common: retirement. Although this is the home of Northern Illinois University, with an enrollment of nearly 25,000, it is the retirees, far more than the students, who are taking to the streets to chant slogans and sing political anthems.
“People in cars drive by and wave at us,” said Cele Meyer, 84, a retired social worker who opposes the war. “Sometimes they use two fingers. Sometimes just one.”
Apr 6
The stillness of tree lined Skunk Hollow Road in Jo Daviess County Illinois, twenty miles from the beautiful Palisades along the Mississippi River, will soon be shattered by gunfire. Not the gun fire of wild turkey hunters but the gunfire from a new training facility for the most powerful mercenary army in the world, Blackwater USA.
I had a view of Blackwater’s new Illinois facility that is usually reserved for the hawks circling overhead. I stood on-top their climbing/rappelling/shooting tower looking down at the bulldozers busy moving tons of earth to create more shooting ranges.
On eighty acres in this isolated corner of Illinois, one hundred miles from Chicago, Blackwater is creating another large training site. This site will eventually, according to Blackwater North’s vice deputy Eric Davis, compare to their headquarters in North Carolina. They have a full schedule of classes ready to roll beginning April 9th with a pistol shooting course that is already three over capacity. The first three weeks of courses are filled and the others are filling fast. Read the rest of this entry