September - Prevent Suicides

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Know the signs. YOU may be able to prevent a suicide and save a life. And, in saving that life, you will save many lives.

Hidden Wounds is a 501(c)(3) organization in Columbia, S.C. serving veterans with PTSD and TBI. An email from them today provided me with much information to help identify a person at risk for suicide. That information can be found on many websites. Find it.

Information about Hidden Wounds can be found here  One of the first things I found was an announcement of a concert for veterans in two weeks at Beaufort, S.C. Gary Sinise and his Lt. Dan Band will headline at a week-end sponsored by the Independence Fund. The Lowdown Lt. Dan Week-end, September 14-18, provides "... provides an opportunity for more than 100 severely wounded veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and their caregivers to bond in fellowship with wounded warriors, participate in athletic events, enjoy recreational activities in the Lowcountry and be entertained. Proceeds raised during the weekend will go to the Independence Fund and helping provide tools, therapy and help for veterans injured in the Global War on Terror." See information on www.ltdanweekend.com

Valuable information can also be found on the website of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention at this website.   Go now and review the signs and warnings. Know what to do when you see these signs. Don't play the "What if ..." game in your head.

Can you defend your dog?

It's too late for this advice, but Steve Schneider of McHenry needs to stop talking and line up a lawyer. Schneider was walking his border collie on Tuesday, when a neighbor's pit bull got out of the house and charged his dog. According to media reporting, Schneider stabbed the pit bull with his 3" knife to defend his own dog.

Will McHenry Police view a defensive move differently than the McHenry County Sheriff's Department did back in 2005? At that time a man who lived in rural Harvard shot and killed a neighbor's vicious guard dog when it charged him on his own property. He was convicted of aggravated cruelty of an animal by jury that was swayed by emotion of the prosecutors and put to sleep by the unemotional, rational, logical, boring defense. In my opinion, the jury disregarded the facts. The judge even admonished the prosecution about "humanizing" the dead dog, but they got away with it again during closing arguments. The defense never got into the game, and the defendant suffered for it.

If Schneider gets charged with felonious abuse to an animal, he'll wish he had kept his mouth shut. It is natural to defend your actions, but Illinois laws are garbage in this area.

An article in this morning's local paper says that the owners of the pit bull thought Schneider should have given them a chance to grab their dog. Well, they had a chance. All the way from their front door to the point where their dog got within stabbing range of Schneider's knife. Probably about three seconds.

Whether or not the pit bull just "wanted to play", the breed has a bad reputation. The owners of the pit bull, Steve and Traci Klein, knew that and had apparently attempted to calm neighbors' fears in the two months they had lived in the neighborhood.

Maybe now they'll keep the dog's collar for the invisible fence on 24/7. But what happens when the power goes out? Or the dog decides to charge through the electronic barrier?

Does (should?) executor have a lawyer?

When a person is an executor of an Estate, should he have a lawyer? What would the job of the lawyer be?

The lawyer would advise his client, the executor, on probate law. He would tell him what is required. He would tell an executor what he could do. More importantly, the lawyer ought to tell his client what he should not do and cannot do.

Actually, I suspect that a lawyer will not tell a client not to do something that would be a violation of the law. Perhaps his correct duty would be to inform the client what the legal consequences of a violation of a law (often called a "crime") would be.

In the case of the Estates of Jack and Audrey Feldkamp, an elderly couple in the Marengo area who died early in June of this year, the executor appointed under the Wills promptly filed the appropriate legal papers in Mrs. Feldkamp's estate and, later, filed similar papers in Mr. Feldkamp's estate.

The original lawyers, Schmitt & Filler of Marengo, bailed out on the case and filed Petitions to get paid the $8,700 they were already owed. On Tuesday, August 30, Judge Sullivan allowed them to withdraw. The reason given by the lawyers was "lack of communication and cooperation on the part of Scott A. Feldkamp." Scott Feldkamp, son of Jack and Audrey Feldkamp, is the Executor of both estates.

The Order by Judge Sullivan allowed Schmitt & Filler to withdraw was entered, and the name of that law firm has been removed from the online court record of the McHenry County Circuit Court.

But a strange condition now exists. There is no attorney-of-record in the Court records for either estate.

Mark Gummerson, a Woodstock attorney, was in court on Tuesday., and he was also standing before Judge Sullivan when the motion by Schmitt & Filler to withdraw was heard. Judge Sullivan looked through the court jacket and said he did not find an Appearance (by Gummerson) in the jacket. I understood Gummerson to say that he had filed it. Perhaps he meant that he had stopped at the clerk's court before the 9:00AM court time and had filed it that morning.

When the Appearance hadn't shown up in online court records on Wednesday, I contacted the Clerk. And now, as of today, as of this time (see time-stamp), there is no Appearance on record to indicate the attorney for the executor of these two estates.

Why is an attorney important? Often, an independent executor will not know exactly what to do. He might attempt to follow the maxim that "it's easier to get forgiveness than to get permission." If there are some errors made, the executor may find out that Judge Sullivan is not very forgiving.

For example, when an estate has considerable debt, a judge will be very concerned that the creditors' rights are protected. Any cash assets of the Feldkamps now belong to the Estates. They do not belong to the heirs, of which there are two. The executor is a fiduciary. He cannot act in his own right or distribute any assets to an heir without court permission or until the estates are settled.

A lawyer who knows that his client is doing so might find that he's standing on a wobbly three-legged stool with a rope around his neck. A lawyer will absolutely protect his law license and his livelihood by instructing his client in the law.

Will a lawyer appear soon to protect the creditors of these two estates?

Save the date - Oct. 22 - Penguins

The 2011 "Don't Kick The Penguins" program of diversity awareness and bullying prevention is scheduled for Saturday October 22, at McHenry County College, starting at 8:30AM. Nine workshops will be offered for middle school students, with condensed versions for adults.

 

Your help is needed to -

   -distribute posters and flyers

   -help on the day of the event

   -donate gifts and items for middle school students as door prizes

   -make cash donations for overhead expenses

 

Please make tax-deductible checks payable to:Principled Minds and mail to 227 N. Throop Street, Woodstock, Illinois 60098. Principled Minds is a 501(c)(3), tax exempt, not-for profit corporation. It's Federal Tax ID Number is 20-5156417.

 

To offer help or in other ways, contact Harold Rail at hprail@yahoo.com or Mary Fox at foxpax@sbcglobal.net as soon as possible.

 

You are also invited to attend planning meetings every Thursday at 3PM at MCC.

D-300 mad at Sears

When I read in today's Northwest Herald again about the hand-out being awaited by District 300 when the Sears property in Hoffman Estates is to go onto the tax rolls, I just had to laugh. District Superintendent Michael Bregy is quoted as saying, "It is absolutely unacceptable that District 300 continues to be left out of these incredibly important conversations" at the state level. His nose is out of joint because Sears Chief Executive Office Louis D'Ambrosio and Illinois Senator John Cullerton got together for a pow-wow without him.

I was reminded of Mrs. Slocum in the old British comedy, Are You Being Served? She would say something like that, too. "It is absolutely unacceptable that District 300 continues to be left out, and I am unanimous in that!"

Does Supt. Bregy have any business experience besides running a school district? District 300 should have known for years that Sears would pull a stunt like it is. Legislators should have expected it, when they made the tax deal at the beginning of the "Economic Development Area" deal. Sears must certainly have had planners, who were thinking to end of the deal and how they were going to avoid go on the tax rolls.

The school district is dealing with cut-throat businessmen who represent stockholders who will demand the highest return on their investment in Sears (Kmart). For anyone to think that Sears Holding Corp. will "play nice" and just cough up $13,000,000/year without a fight is just plain naive.

Hoffman Estates doesn't want that building at 3333 Beverly Road empty. What community wants another white elephant standing in its territory? Take a ride by the former Motorola plant in Harvard, if you think that Sears isn't going to make a deal that it likes.

District 300 has done without the $13,000,000 for how many years?

Why should Sears care about 21,000 students spread out far away from its headquarters? Does District 300 think any of its students will become Sears customers, if Sears gives up without a fight? The article says, "Sears executives told us (Bregy and crew) a few months ago that they would keep our students in mind when contemplating their options."

Where do you see any commitment in that statement?

The school district seems to be out on the field for badminton. It had better wake up and realize the game is rugby!

Yellow ribbons on ISP squad cars

This morning's Northwest Herald carries an article about a decision at the Illinois State Police to direct troopers to fly orange ribbons from their patrol car antennas "to honor the memory" of the IDOT worker who died in a fatal accident recently in Woodstock.

Police have never released details about how the fatality occurred. Did the worker happen to carelessly or suddenly step into a lane of moving traffic? Did he step out from behind a stopped vehicle without looking?

Woodstock Police say it was not a work zone at that location on U.S. 14.
IDOT says it was a work zone fatality.

To be a work zone, there are to be signs, maybe barricades, maybe a flagger.

Tax-supported government vehicles (ISP squad cars) should not be used to recognize or honor any individual. It doesn't happen when a trooper dies in a shoot-out or high-speed chase.

This is a poor decision by the Illinois State Police. If you wish to express your opinion, call Director Hiram Grau at 217.782.7263

New sign for Woodstock?

I am generally not in favor of new signs on our roadways, but I like this one.

Suppose there would be much chance of seeing any of these around Woodstock or elsewhere in McHenry County?

Did you see the article this week about Crystal Lake Police speed limit enforcement in the work zone on Rakow Road? Drivers under 10-over got warnings; other speeders got tickets.

What are the police continuing to teach drivers about speed limits? That it's okay to speed! Whatever happened to "the speed limit is the Speed Limit"?

The last time I saw a "Zero Tolerance" sign under a speed limit sign was in Maryland in 2004.

People complain about speed limit enforcement in Bull Valley. Well, too bad. If you don't speed, you don't have a thing to worry about.

Well, actually, there are things to worry about, if you don't speed. You have to worry about the idiots who will tailgate you, flash their bright lights at you, pass you in no-passing zones, pass you when oncoming traffic is close, pass you on the right shoulder, pass you through intersections, run yellow and red lights around you.