Wrongful Convictions Seminar

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What is your interest in wrongful convictions? What should the imprisoned person receive as relief? Should he have to fight for it?

Right in McHenry County there are a handful. Two of the most well-known at those of Mario Casciaro and of Gary Gauger. What about those wrongful convictions that did not result in prison time? Let's say that a man gets charged with a felony while protecting his life from a vicious dog that was loose and came into the man's own yard and attacked.

While he never should have been charged in the first place, who would think that a jury would convict? But when the song-and-dance of the McHenry County State's Attorney's Office is a better jig than a worthless (but not free) defense, then you get convicted. I attended that trial, and I was appalled at the defense. It was like they went on the court expecting the game to be badminton, and I don't think they ever realized that the game was rugby.

I just received this announcement today. The event is this Friday, December 4. If you are interested, call and make your reservation.

The organization of the seminar is a little confusing (to me). It is presented by the Office of the Kane County Public Defender, but at the bottom there is a statement that the seminar is sponsored by what appear to be two law firms. I guess they are paying for the space rental, refreshments, advertising and crossing their fingers to drum up some new business.

Illegal Alien Numbers Rising

"Number of Migrants Illegally Crossing Rio Grande Rises Sharply" - So says a headline in yesterday's New York Times.

In just one except from the article:

"Last week, Border Patrol agents apprehended five Pakistanis and one Afghan, along with two smugglers, near Sonoita, Ariz. Background checks shows those men had no history of suspicious activity, border officials said."

Now, don't those words of "border officials" just give you a warm and fuzzy feeling? Going to feel safer tonight, when you go to bed?

Just what kind of "background ground" check is going to provide a clear history? Are you laughing as hard as I am now? Only it's not a laughing matter! What did Border Patrol officers do - ask their names? Check fingerprints? Yeah, sure... Or maybe they just asked them, "Hey, guys. Any suspicious stuff in your past?"

How do six people (Pakistanis and an Afghan) get to Sonotia, which is southeast of Tucson and 25 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border? How and when did they get to Mexico? Did they come through Central America?

The U.S. must stop the flood of illegal aliens! Period!

Imagine the uproar

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Can you imagine the uproar, if a similar sign showed up on the borders of McHenry County?

Sheriff Mike Jolley (how's that for a Christmas season name?) is standing by the sign in Harris County, Georgia, southwest of Atlanta.

As a six-term sheriff, I'd say he's doing a good job. If you think so, too, send him a message.

Gas Prices - Ill. vs. S.C.

I was feeling pretty smug this morning, when I filled up for $1.79/gal. in Columbia, S.C. Normally, gas prices here are about $0.30/gal. lower than in Woodstock.

Then I made the mistake of checking GasBuddy.com for Woodstock gas prices. Yikes! $1.68 in Woodstock on Lake Avenue!

Further checking revealed $1.49 in Aiken, S.C., but that's 65 miles away, in the direction of Atlanta. Maybe, if I'm going that way, anyway.

Do you use www.gasbuddy.com?

Cowards in Columbia, Missouri?

What in the world could be wrong with the people running the University of Missouri?

Has Melissa Click been fired yet? Arrested? Why not???

Read this article on the NationalReview.com  The author got it right on November 19th.

The longer the people at the top of the food chain malinger, the greater the chance that they won't do anything at all.

OK, so that's Missouri. What are you going to do when the students at MCC or ECC or the U of I at Chicago decide that they run things, not the people in charge? If there is a sit-in at MCC, the college president should ask students to leave. Ask one time. No arguments. No discussions. No bargaining. No mediation. Then call the police and have them arrested for trespassing. And prosecute them. No wimping out. No backing down.

Administrators should have three words, and only three words, for students: "Go to class."

When they've grown up, then they can make some noise. And they can pay the price for doing so recklessly and illegally.

Paris - coming to a city near you soon

I am appalled by the terrorist attacks in Paris. Six coordinated attacks. Many dead.

What will go a a long way to preventing this in Illinois and throughout the U.S.? Armed citizens who are ready to step in and do everything they can to neutralize the threat!

Join the NRA and the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) today. And don't just give them your money. Demand that they step up their efforts. The NRA and ISRA allowed the Illinois State legislature to pass a bad concealed carry law in 2013. High fees. Lots of restrictions on where you can carry. The Chicago Democrats refused to give up much and left Illinois residents, for the most part, defenseless.

Do your part by contacting your own State Senator and State Representative on this issue. Tell them what you want them to do. Ask them what they will do. Then follow closely to see exactly what they do. Did you just get lip-service? Or did you get positive action?

The NRA lobbyist told 2013 IGOLD attendees in Springfield that "he" had to the votes to block a bad bill.  He didn't. Basically, he lied. Illinois was "under the gun" (no pun intended) by a Federal Court order to create a concealed carry law. Look at the result! No law would have been better than the law that was passed. "No law" would have meant open and concealed carry in Illinois.

How many people can afford to part with $600+ to arm themselves? $300-400 for a good firearm. $150 for the coffers of the State of Illinois. $55 for fingerprints. $100 for training. Add the cost of continuing training and ammunition.

Relentless pressure should be put on Illinois legislators to "persuade" them to lower the roadblocks that they created in front of law-abiding Illinois residents.

The NRA will continue to push for a national reciprocity law. Your driver's license is good in every state. Why shouldn't your concealed-carry license (or permit) be good in every state?

Illinois residents statewide must figure out how to "persuade" the Chicago bloc of Democrats to loosen their grip on concealed carry. It can be done on Election Day. But it won't be done by Chicago residents without outside help. Chicago State Representatives and State Senators should be identified (I refrain from using the word "target" here) and sorted into three tiers: 1. those friendly to concealed carry; 2. those whose minds and votes can be fairly easily influenced to switch; 3. those who steadfastly are against concealed carry.

Help voters in the districts of #2 and #3 to find qualified candidates and support those candidates. Dump Mike Madigan and his ilk. While they are at it, they should dump Rahm Emanuel and Toni Preckwinkle.

What if what happened in Paris yesterday had happened on the Magnificent Mile?

If you have your concealed-carry permit/license, carry every day. Carry everywhere you go. Get the right mindset. Know what you will do, if you find yourself in a shooting situation.

Fire Josh Earnest

From Breitbart.com - "White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest praised the group of protesters for rallying together and demanding change, pointing out that Obama’s first presidential campaign was embodied by the same spirit."

Is Breitbart like The Onion, or is it real?

Let's see what would happen if an unruly mob of thugs (white Patriots) surrounded the Black House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and yelled and screamed until Obama quit. It would never reach that point, because the Big O would unleash the massive firepower of the U.S. Government and all those hundreds of thousands of bullets it has purchased and put down the "peaceful" white folks outside the gates, who had gathered there under Constitutional authority.

Obama has done more than anyone in this country to wreck race relations in the U.S.A. With the stupid support he has given mobs, they now believe they own the palace.

The idiotic "Concerned Student 1950" apparently refuses to acknowledge that the University of Missouri is a State university on public property. It thinks it owns the property and that it can prevent a reporter from recording and reporting news. Where were the cops? Afraid to intervene and protect the reporter?

Mizzou Pres quits

I hadn't paid much attention to the uproar in Missouri until this past week-end.

After all, I had been embarrassed for the St. Louis area and the State over Ferguson. Then the football team at the University of Missouri decided to go on strike. And then the football coach's $4,000,000 salary made news.

I grew up in University City, six miles south of Ferguson. I haven't lived in St. Louis since 1961. I felt I had done a pretty good job of setting aside racial prejudices.

Until Obama.

And now the 8% at Mizzou who think they are so special that they can run the University.

The stupid Board of Curators (or Directors or Regents or whatever their group is called) made a huge, dumb decision to give in to the rabble. It makes me sick.

I've been very happy to say that I am from Illinois. But now I am shamed to say that I am from Missouri.

Is it too late to get a birth certificate changed? Maybe I can change my place of birth to Kenya.

Bull Valley draws good reader comment today

My article last month on the Bull Valley P.O. drew a good comment today that should not be missed. You can read it here. Thanks to "Captain Sam".

What organization was it that published the stats on Bull Valley PD's ranking state-wide on traffic citations? Better Government Association? It seems to be that BVPD was very high in the rankings; either No. 1 or in the top 97%. Does anyone remember?

Are they still writing tickets for 2MPH over the posted speed limit? Do they still have their kangaroo court (oh, wait, I mean Administrative Adjudication Court)? Is the legal work and court prosecution still handled by Zukowski, Rogers, Flood & McArdle, of Crystal Lake?

How does one law firm get such a lock on municipal business from so many jurisdictions in McHenry County? No doubt that some specialization entitles them to careful consideration, but ...

I recall looking into the impound law in Woodstock and wondering why the "fine print" revealed that the only way you could get out of an impound ticket was to be found Not Guilty in a McHenry County Court legal action. Well, the only way to be found Not Guilty is to have a trial, either bench or jury. How long does that take and how much does it cost? And too many already know the futility of a jury trial in McHenry County.

If a judge decided that your ticket was worthless and threw it out, that wasn't good enough. That's not a "Not Guilty". You had to have had a trial!

Who wrote the law for Woodstock? Bingo! And why were the members of the City Council such suckers to fall for that advice from their legal counsel?

Is it the same way in Bull Valley? Bets, anyone?

Now you could boycott all the businesses in Bull Valley. You know, make your point. The only problem is there aren't any businesses in Bull Valley, except for the Bull Valley Country Club.

The other choice? Don't drive on Bull Valley roads. Go around. If everybody did that for three months and revenue plunged to Zero, they'd have to get rid of all the BVPD cops and the chief.

Gun-free zones. Signs work ...

... don't they?

Earlier today I read about the murder-suicide in a hospital in Mesa, Arizona. A mother apparently killed her 5-year-old son and then shot and killed herself.

Now read what David Lozano, the spokesperson for the hospital, said.

According to CNN.com, "It's not clear how the child's mother got a gun into the hospital. Banner Health has a policy -- which is posted at entrances -- against carrying firearms and weapons into its facilities, Lozano said."

Now, of course, the article only says he said it. It's not quoting what he said. CNN.com says he said it. Did he?

Either way, the answer is, "Duhhhh, she carried in the gun."

People may learn whether the mother was distraught over her son's health condition and whether she had ever made any comments that could explain her actions. These are what hospitals and other institutions should be paying attention to.

Was the mother crazy? Some will simplify it by saying, "She had to be crazy to do that." Did her family or her doctor(s) have any reason to suspect such an extreme act?

Should NWH allow "any" free reading?

Ever try to read an article on the Northwest Herald website (www.nwherald.com), if you aren't a paying subscriber?

Try it.

Pretty frustrating; right?

Now, the NWH is a business, and it can certainly charge for its product. But it fails to understand or appreciate how its policy infuriates potential subscribers. When an occasional reader hits that site and immediately is confronted with a pay-or-else screen, all it really does is drive that reader further away from any consideration of subscribing.

Aside from the fact that, now, almost every newspaper in the country demands that you pay to read, no consideration is given to occasional readers. I am certainly not going to pay $9.95/month to read ten newspapers in a month!

Could the Northwest Herald charge a daily fee? Could it give an occasional reader 10 clicks free in a month without killing its bottom line?

All it is doing is driving another nail in its coffin. If, instead, it provided quality news, written to attract and retain readers, and if it offered a more reasonable monthly fee of, say, $3.95, would readership - and income - quickly increase?

Its current policy irritates readers - not a good thing for a business...

S.C. gets it right - bashes auto "closing" costs

The South Carolina Supreme Court struck down an auto dealership's "closing costs". And why not?
Source: http://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article42950274.html


Why isn't similar action happening in every state? The "closing costs" are part of a dealership's operating expenses. Why should they be passed on separately?

The only reason they are is because people are too stupid, dumb, reluctant to TELL a dealership that they are not paying that mark-up. It's just extra profit for the dealership.

Next time you go to a dealership, get all done with the deal. Drive them down to the bottom line. And then tell them to knock off their closing costs. Be ready to stand up and walk out.

Keep in mind that the car salesmen are not your friends. They are going to worm every dollar out of you that they can.

Increase your control over the next car purchase you plan by carefully reading the hints on www.cars.com and on www.edmunds.com

Never - n-e-v-e-r - go to a dealership alone. Make your mind up before you go whether you are "just looking". And then do not change your mind. No matter what. Decide in advance how long you will be at a dealership. Set the alarm on your phone. Then leave!

Whatever dreamboat you see, it will be there the next day. Or the dealership can trade for it from another dealership. Or you can get on the phone yourself and shop all the dealers within 500 miles. Give them the specs for the car you want. Tell them to email their best offer by a certain time on a definite day.

You are just buying a hunk of metal on some rubber tires. Don't get "sold".