Wisc. doctor to speak on autism

The Crystal Lake chapter of Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) will present Dr. Greg Brown of ARCH Medical Center in Franklin, Wisconsin, as the guest speaker at its September meeting.

Dr. Brown's topic is "Surviving Biomedical Therapies for Autism Spectrum Disorders Without Breaking the Bank"

Juggling diets, supplements, IV treatments, IVIG, educational therapies and the rest of life is taxing under the best of circumstances. Dr. Brown will provide tips and approaches for choosing which battles to fight and which to postpone; what therapies need to be addressed in which individuals and when to avoid the "cure of the week." Dr. Brown will also take a look at those biomedical interventions that can be started before you meet with a practitioner. He'll address how to initiate them safely and effectively and how to make the most of your therapy dollar. He will conclude his presentation with a review some of the newest treatments available. Please bring any and all questions you may have related to biomedical or dietary treatments for our Q&A afterwards.

Gregory L. Brown MD is a Board Certified Internist with 18 years experience in Emergency Medicine. He has received Practitioner and Advanced Practitioner training from "Defeat Autism Now" as well as ACAM instruction and certification in chelation therapy and certification in hyperbaric medicine from UHMS. He currently serves as Medical Director of the ARCH Medical Center in Franklin, Wisconsin, a practice dedicated to the medical treatment of individuals with autism spectrum disorders.

Saturday, Sept. 17, 2011
4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Home State Bank
611 S. Main Street, Community Meeting Room on basement level

Crystal Lake, IL 60014

Sorry, child care is not available.

Questions? Contact at linda.betzold@tacanow.org or 847-922-5392

Or visit http://www.tacanow.org/local-chapters/illinois/crystal-lake/

For more information on TACA or autism, visit www.tacanow.org

Check out new food coop

A new food coop is available to area residents. Today I learned of the SHARE Food Coop, which can be viewed at www.sharewi.org

The September ordering deadline is coming right up, so you might want to check it out fast. The deadline this month is Sunday, September 11. Orders placed by then can be picked up on Saturday morning, September 23, at the Evangelical Free Church of McHenry County, 2614 N. Ringwood Rd., McHenry, Ill.

This ought to be great for those who live in McHenry, Johnsburg, Ringwood, McCullom Lake and Wonder Lake areas. I suspect more local pick-up points will be established, as its reputation spreads.

Like more information? Call Jerry Macey at 815.690.2606

Think about this

The Federal government blows $90.00/day to house an immigration detainee in Hotel Nygren, up on N. Seminary Ave. in Woodstock at the government center. Some of the detainees are men or women who were convicted of crimes and were, upon completion of their sentences, taken into custody by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service. Others were picked up for ICE violations and

And then they were hauled out to McHenry County and became "guests" of our county sheriff. At $90.00 (or so) per day. Day after day; week after week; month after month.

What's that costing "us"? One week is $630. One month is $2,700. Three months? $8,100. Starting to add up, isn't it?

What if the Federal Government just said, "You're outa here" and bought the detainee a ticket to his home country? If that's what is going to happen after 3-6-12 months, why not do it sooner and save the $8,100 or $16,200 or $32,400?

How many billions does ICE spend in a year housing detainees?

About to sign a candidate's petition?

If (when!) you are asked to sign a candidate's petition for an upcoming election, it's probably a good idea to know the rules in Illinois. Understand that your signature is a valuable commodity. Use it wisely.

If you are asked (and do) to sign a candidate's petition, say a candidate who is running as a Republican, then you cannot sign a petition for a person who is running as a Democrat (or Green or any other party) for any other elected office. Although you don't register in Illinois as a member of one party or another, your right to sign a petition is restricted by Illinois election laws.

Got questions? Call the County Clerk's office. In McHenry County, that's 815.334.4242.

I recall a person who wanted to sign my petition as the Green Party candidate for Sheriff of McHenry County in the 2010 election, but someone had already "pressured" her to sign a Republican's petition. She could not sign my petition, even though it was for a different elected office.

Screwy? Well, remember; this is Illinois!

Illinois laws wouldn't have been a problem for my dad, had we lived on the east side of the Mississippi River (we lived in Missouri). He said he would always vote for the best man - as long as he was a Republican.

Comparing Lauren Spierer to Beth Bentley

On cnn.com today is a long article about the disappearance on June 3 of Lauren Spierer, 20, from Bloomington, Indiana.

The article refers to the Find Lauren blog, which can be viewed at www.findlauren.com

This sentence appears on the homepage of the Find Lauren website: "There is no reason to think the people Lauren was last with, wouldn’t do everything in their power to help us find her. But, alas, there is deafening silence."

Now to the Bentley case... Beth seems to have been last with Jenn Wyatt, Ryan Ridge and Nathan Ridge. Jenn has said that she drove Beth to Centralia on Sunday, May 23, 2010, and dropped her off near the Amtrak station, although she has also said that Beth never intended to take a train. Jenn has said she doesn't know whom Beth might have been meeting, but Jenn told me that the plans were for them to meet back up near Woodstock, in order to return to Woodstock together on Monday, May 24, 2010, so that Beth could get home before Scott got home from work.

Where are the statements from Ryan Ridge and Nathan Ridge about what went on that week-end at the house being rehabbed in Mount Vernon, Illinois? Not a peep out of either one of them. And no one seems to be asking them about it.

Also, many of Beth's friends, shown in party pictures at Gus's Roadhouse (now Offsides), have closed down their Facebook pages, and some unknown person cleaned up Beth's Facebook page and removed all the pictures.

Lauren's family is trying desperately to find her. Go to the Find Lauren blog and then ask yourself, why hasn't anything like that sprung up about Beth?

Longer school days (daze?) coming soon?

See in the paper when Pres. (errr, Mayor) Rahm Emanuel is angling for longer school days in Chicago?

Remember the wise mother in Woodstock a few years ago, when Woodstock District 200 schools announced earlier starting times for the school day?

She wrote a Letter to the Editor of the Northwest Herald and stated her agreement with the fact that kids learned better, earlier in the day. She added, "But first they have to be awake."

What do you think? Longer days? More teaching? More learning? Visit your kid's school this month. How much teaching is going on now? How much learning?

Estate planning - who needs it?

This week's ad of Gitlin, Busche & Stetler in the Northwest Herald caught my attention, because it addressed estate planning. You might want to read and clip the advertisement, which is presented as a Q&A by Michael Stetler, one of the partners.

When I lived in Denver in the late 1970s, I was a Chartered Life Underwriter (C.L.U.) with Northwestern Mutual Life and served a year as president of the Rocky Mountain Estate Planning Council. The Council was a group of CLUs, CPAs, trust officers and attorneys who specialized in estate planning.

I recalled the definition of estate planning that was used by one of the popular attorneys there. He kept it simple: Estate planning is getting what you have to whom you wish to have it, at the time you want them to get it, and in the manner in which you want them to receive it; and then, if you can save some taxes, you do that, too.

The current $5,000,000 threshold for the Federal Estate Tax has, for many, eliminated planning for the purpose of saving estate taxes. But there are other good reasons to plan.

You can thank Gov. Quinn for reinstating the Illinois Estate Tax on January 13, 2011. But perhaps you do want to thank him, because there is a $2,000,000 exemption. (Source: McGuireWoods LLP) According to a different website, Illinois no longer has an inheritance tax.

Stetler offers some very good advice with "To make sure your wishes are carried out both with your respect to your property and your health care you should have an estate plan."

If you knew one of your children was a spendthrift ("someone who spends money prodigiously and who is extravagant and recklessly wasteful", per Wikipedia), would you want that child to be able to get his or her hands on a pile of money? Would you put that person in charge of clearing up your estate?

Look at it this way: would you put the fox in charge of the hen house?

It takes a strong attorney to make a firm recommendation to the client who is writing a simple will that leaves everything outright. Yet it's the client (the customer) who makes the final decision.

I saw, and I still see, far too many mistakes in estate planning, whether through the use of simple Wills, Wills and trusts, or drafted (but unsigned) wills. Take this one, for example. A Will created a testamentary trust with a bank trustee. Good planning, when there was a sizable estate; right? The problem was that the bank had closed its Trust Department 15 years before the person died! Why didn't the lawyer amend the will to provide a trustee that could serve (without court intervention and unnecessary legal expense)?

And then there was the case of the lawyer who prepared eight wills for his client, and the client refused to sign any of them. When the lawyer finally understood what the client wanted and re-drafted the will, and then mailed it to him, he didn't follow up promptly to answer questions and arrange for its signing. The client died three weeks later, when a tractor rolled over on him.

If you don't have a Will, call your lawyer right now. Tell him (or her) to get started on your will and get it done within one week. Need some help? Call me. 815.338.2666. I'll work with you (and your lawyer) to get it done. And, yes, you can pay me for my help.

I recall well a 30 year-old client who was dying of cancer. He struggled to stay alive long enough to finish law school. I even got him more life insurance during his final illness, thanks to the Option to Purchase Additional Insurance, which allowed him to buy $30,000 of new insurance without answering any health questions. I told him to pay premiums monthly!

When I asked him where his Will was, he said he didn't have one! I asked who he'd like to be his lawyer, called her on the phone from the hospital room, and she was there by 5:00PM with the Will. When he started to read it and nitpick, I told him to sign it first; then he could nitpick. He did.