Thompson Center sale – would “Big Jim” wind up losing his tribute bldg.?

I have mixed views over what ought to become of the building that already has had more than a third of a century of life – the James R. Thompson Center that is the physical Chicago home of Illinois state government.

A significant Chicago intersection for many layers of government

I know some officials think that the sale of the downtown Chicago real estate would produce revenue too essential to balancing out state government’s finances that would make it too irresponsible to even think of retaining the facility.

YET THE IDEA of now having to find office space for all the state agencies that are based here elsewhere in Chicago make me think it may be irresponsible to abandon their current home.

I know of the ideologues of downstate Illinois who take great offense that Springfield, the state capital, is considered less important for some state agencies than Chicago. But it seems like it could be reckless to sell off the state facility just to appease those ideologues who can’t accept that Springfield is essentially a city built on a 19^th Century scale (Abraham Lincoln would recognize much of it) even though the world has progressed far into the 21^st Century!

This debate is going to perk up in coming years, what with Gov. J.B. Pritzker signing the bill into law that creates a two-year process that would enable someone else to bid on, and buy, the square-block property at Clark and Randolph streets.

Old and new state buildings across the street

The prime real estate located right across the street from City Hall/County Building and also from the old State of Illinois Building (which long ago was converted into the Bilandic Building home of the Supreme Court of Illinois along with the appellate courts for the Chicago area).

AND ALSO KITTY-corner from the Daley Center building, which serves as the Cook County courthouse – at least for civil cases.

All of which makes Clark and Randolph an all-important intersection for the happenings of politics and government at the city, county and state levels.

What becomes of the Dubuffet? Photos by Gregory Tejeda

A presence that would be lessened quite a bit if officials were to decide to let something else become the purpose of the building north of Randolph and west of Clark streets.

As much as some people like to denigrate the building’s appearance and style, I have to admit to kind of getting a kick out of its appearance – even when one tries to ridicule its salmon and sea blue color scheme.

OR, AS I remember, once, someone tried to claim that the Jean Dubuffet sculpture “Monument with Standing Beast” was really nothing more than an AIDS virus trying to infest the body politic. Which probably says more about the mini-mind of the critic than it does anything about the structure itself.

It is interesting that this was an idea that both governors Rod Blagojevich and Bruce Rauner tried to push through the process – although it now has the potential to become a reality under Pritzker.

I just can’t get past the idea that state agencies still need a physical presence in Chicago – unless we’re trying to create the image that state government is completely irrelevant to the existence of the Second City.

A concept that would be totally insipid for anybody to try to spew – no matter how rural Illinois-oriented they are in their approach to life.

WOULD SELLING OFF the state government building in downtown Chicago wind up becoming an even more small-minded decision by our government officials than the move made more than a decade ago to sell off control of parking meters in the city.

The one that saw Chicago blow through the payoff they received, while ensuring that corporate interests will make money off the city for decades to come?

This is something people should think seriously about – particularly if provisions that the existing Chicago Transit Authority “el” and subway platforms at the building would have to be maintained regardless of what some future developer might want to build there.

Of course, I also have my own memory – that of the cinematic scenes from the film “Running Scared” that were shot there. How many of us would not want to see the spot where actor Billy Crystal’s “Chicago cop character” ruined Jimmy Smits’ “drug dealer character” by throwing his “stash” all over the Thompson Center floor?

  -30-

Happy holidaze! Now get your behind away from the Internet, have a real life!

We’re in a pretty intense holiday weekend; not only is it Christmas Eve and Day, it’s also the beginning of the Eight Days of Hanukkah and we’ll soon be in Kwanzaa.

Best wishes to you if you happened to have chance to pass this holiday decoration on your way out of town for the weekend. Photographs by Gregory Tejeda

A holiday for just about any faith or occasion one would want to celebrate. And boy, do we need it.

FOR WE WENT through a hellish campaign cycle that particularly dragged out the ugliest of tensions that separate us in our society. We definitely need something all around to alleviate such hostile feelings – particularly for those who saw the final election results come out this week and still can’t get over the fact that Hillary Clinton could clean Donald Trump’s clock by some 2.9 million votes.

And still lose!!!

So it is with even stronger-than-usual feelings that I say anybody actually reading this commentary on Saturday or Sunday needs to get a life. Log off the computer or whatever device you happen to be using to access the Internet and go do something in the real world. Celebrate. Be merry, jolly or downright joyful.

There is nothing that will be in the blogosphere during this holiday weekend of any great significance that you can’t wait until Monday to read all about it.

ALTHOUGH FOR THOSE of you who just need to see something visual before logging off for the day, I’m digging out a couple of audio/video links on off-beat Christmas-themed songs.

It's also the beginning of Hanukkah on Saturday. Or does mentioning that fact constitute "war" on X-mas (whose spelling that way is the truly offensive act).

I always get a kick out of hearing Chuck Berry’s take on “Merry Christmas, Baby.” I always find Celia Cruz’ Spanish-language version of “Jingle Bells” (“Soy Feliz en la Navidad,” when translated en Español) to be cheerful.

Then there’s always that old cartoon take of “Hardrock, Coco and Joe” that many of us Chicago natives remember seeing as kids while watching “Ray Rayner and Friends” on television just before the holidays.

I pick it because it was always a particular favorite of my brother Christopher, whose lack of presence in my life the past year continues to leave a sore spot for me emotionally.

  -30-

Resolving problems by creating even more; what's wrong w/ a snow day?

There are times when I think the technologically-advanced amongst our society ought to be told to “stifle” themselves, what with the way they think a computer device is the solution to everything they could possibly think of.

Is she really learning a thing?

Maybe it’s just the “Archie Bunker” within me, or the realization that the copy I generate now isn’t any more literate than the copy I produced three decades ago when I was banging it out on assorted varieties of battered typewriters

BUT SOMEHOW I am repulsed by the idea of a bill now pending before Gov. Bruce Rauner – one that purports to offer the “solution” to the problem of students missing so much school during the winter months due to inclement weather.

The dreaded snow days that cause school to be closed, and more days having to be tacked on to the end of the academic year at a time when the summer weather can make a hot-and-humid school building a very unpleasant place to have to be.

The bill in question calls for a pilot program to be operated in up to three school districts during the 2017-18 academic year in which teachers would provide class assignments via computer for those days in which the snow is so heavy or the temperatures so cold that kids can’t come to class.

In short, there won’t be any need for school to not be in session. Perhaps a “virtual” classroom is the wave of the future.

THE IDEA BEING that this pilot program would be a one-year experiment that could – if it works out – someday be expanded to the nearly 1,000 school districts located across Illinois.

Personally, I hate the idea, because it pushes us in the direction of thinking that kids are somehow better off parked in front of a computer screen in their own homes rather than having to get off their duffs and interact with real human beings.

Which as far as I’m concerned is the whole purpose of education – it’s not like much of the facts and figures we were taught remain all that relevant. So much of it is now obsolete.

RAUNER: Give that man a veto pen!!!

What we really learned was how to learn, and keep learning and updating our collection of information so that we can get through our lives.

THAT EVEN EXTENDS to the idea of use of computers within the modern-day classroom. We’re teaching kids about technology that won’t matter anymore by the time they’re adults. It’s not the computer they should be learning – it’s the things they do with a computer that matter.

I’m also realistic enough to know that trying to teach class by computer is not the least bit realistic – in part because there are parts of Illinois where Internet access is weak even if one has the money to spare.

In other situations, there are people for whom paying for a decent Internet connection at home means adding to the utility bills that already are too high. And I can already hear the conservative ideologue types complain about the idea of having to provide an Internet connection to those people who can’t afford it.

This is an idea concocted by someone who thinks it’s the computer itself that matters most in life. An idea I find absolutely abhorrent – even though I own a laptop computer and am fortunate enough to have an Internet connection at home and several other places nearby for those occasions when my own connection dies out due to technological glitches.

ALTHOUGH I’M SURE there are those who disagree. I have been in classrooms as a reporter-type person where I see too many kids think of their smart-boards (kind of like a chalk-board, only hooked up to the computer so the teacher can post things from the Internet on it) as being some sort of super-cool video game.

I doubt they learned a thing.  Somehow, I’m skeptical they would learn anything lasting on a cold-and-snowy day in January when they weren’t able to go to school. Somehow, I suspect the television set would get paid more attention than the laptop.

Maybe the solution is to bring back a 21^st Century take of Miss Frances, the 1950’s television host who gave us “Ding Ding School” – “the nursery school of the air.”

What would a 21st Century Miss Frances be like?

Then again, maybe that’s where this latest screwy idea came from. Let’s only hope that Rauner winds up showing some sense and vetoing this particular bill.

  -30-

Happy holidaze! Now log off and do something real to celebrate

This weblog has been in existence for just over seven years (Saturday was the anniversary date), and I’m going to use this post to deliver my usual holiday message – one I seriously believe.

If you’re actually reading this on Thursday, something is wrong. You need to log off your computer or smart phone or whatever device you’re using to access the Internet and find something in the real world to do.

THERE ARE TIMES I think our lives have become overtaken by these devices. There’s nothing you’d read on the Internet or on Facebook or Twitter on Christmas Day that couldn’t wait until Friday.

That is when serious commentary about the “great issues” of the day will return here. You all should find something joyous with which to occupy your time.

Even if Christmas is irrelevant to you. For those who finished celebrating Hanukkah two days ago, I hope you had a wonderful experience.

And for those of you who want to literally be the personification of Ebenezer Scrooge, go “Bah, Humbug!” to yourself before trying to find some pleasure on this one holiday that ought to be an excuse to find relief from the problems and pressures of our lives!

  -30-

EDITOR’S NOTE: For those of us of a certain age, watching the Ray Rayner Show around Christmas time meant catching these old holiday videos of “Suzy Snowflake,” “Frosty the Snowman” and “Hardrock, Coco and Joe.” Although my holiday gift to you is “Merry Christmas, Baby” by Otis Redding. I’ll acknowledge Chuck Berry also did a nice take on this song. But if you’d rather hear Elvis or Christina Aguilera, all I have to say is you’re lacking in holiday taste.

No more anonymity? Count me in!

I write this commentary knowing full well that somebody out there, most likely someone who didn’t have a clue I existed previously, is going to become extremely infuriated.

SILVERSTEIN: A good idea, or just an attention-getter?

For all I know, I may make some permanent enemies.

BUT WHEN IT comes to a bill introduced in the Illinois General Assembly by state Sen. Ira Silverstein, D-Chicago, that would eliminate a person’s ability to post anonymous comments in response to Internet postings, count me in!

I would have no problem with a new law that would require anyone wishing to put their views on this weblog at the end of my daily efforts to have to identify themselves.

Not that I’m interested in publishing the IP and mailing addresses of any of my commenters. But I actually believe that people having to take credit for their thoughts is more likely to make them more responsible – and reduce the amount of borderline literate trash talk that pollutes the Internet and chips away at its credibility.

A similar effort was tried in the state Legislature in New York, but went nowhere. Personally, I suspect Silverstein’s effort will meet the same legislative fate.

OUR LEGISLATORS MAY well conclude that they have more important things to deal with than the nonsensical posts that all too often criticize everything in sight – and occasionally do so in such a crass and vulgar manner that I always wind up feeling more stupid for having wasted a few seconds reading them.

Anything that eliminates waste and stupidity is a good thing. So Silverstein gets my praise for his effort – even though I know he’s mostly trying to get himself some public attention without having to do any of the heavy lifting of actually getting a bill through the legislative process toward becoming a new law.

Now I know this is not a popular idea amongst those people who spend (in my opinion) way too much time posting comments on various Internet sites to the point that I wonder if they have any lives beyond (most likely) using their work computers to write their ramblings.

I’d think it a better use of their time if they went back to playing Solitaire on their computers!

THE RESPONSES (ALL anonymous) that I have read try to make this out to be some sort of censorship issue – one in which their Constitutional right to freedom of expression is being threatened.

All “red-blooded Americans” ought to be prepared to “defend to the death” (often attributed to Voltaire) their right to anonymously post a hateful rant that basically amounts to them telling the original writer to shut the hell up and NEVER disagree with their (often close-minded) thoughts in public again.

Yes, I find way too many anonymous posts to be about trying to stifle debate. They’re not about expressing one’s thoughts. Which makes the whole concept that this amounts to censorship to be a whole lot of nonsense!

Which is why I consider myself generous in that I permit just about all comments on this weblog – except for those people who persist in delving down into profanity to express themselves.

IF ANY OF these people were to want to create their own sites on the Internet and use them to express their thoughts on issues, I have no problem with that. If they want to engage in hateful rants, that’s their business.

I’m not going to bother spending time to read them. But they are free to express themselves in such a way if that’s the best they can do. Heck, I’ll even offer them technical advice or any other support in the creation of such Internet sites.

Just don’t think you have a right to come onto my weblogs (or anyone else’s sites) and impose yourself. Because if anyone is trying to engage in censorship, it is you – the anonymous one.

And perhaps the reason you’re so desperate for anonymity is that old Mark Twain saying; the one about opening your mouth and “removing all doubt” that you’re a fool.

  -30-

How reliant we are on computers

If you're one of those rare people who actually checks into this weblog on a regular basis, you will have noticed there was nothing fresh on Monday.

My days-old commentary about the coming of winter-like weather had to suffice for an extra day.

IT IS BECAUSE I experienced technical glitches so severe that I had to break down on Monday and spend some money in order to buy myself a new computer. My now-former laptop computer developed a glitch so severe that I could no longer rely upon it to write copy.

I could still scan the internet. But there were certain letters on my keyboard that no longer functioned properly.

Such as the letter "o," which everytime I hit that key would cause the keyboard to start spewing out an endless supply of o's that would have turned my thoughts into even more gibberish than they already were.

And yes, in this particular case, I know exactly what provoked my 3 1/2-year-old computer to crash. A few drops of Coca-Cola got spilled into the part of the keyboard where O, L and P congregate.

IT WAS ENOUGH to make my old device functionally useless and require me to buy my new HP-brand computer, which came already loaded with Windows 8 -- so I get an upgrade technologically for my moments of clumsiness last week.

As it was, I filed the commentary about winter weather from a computer at a public library -- which isn't something I relish the thought of doing on a regular basis.

Besides, too much of my living as a freelance writer requires that I have a functioning keyboard to grind out copy -- along with a reliable way of transmitting it via e-mail.

Which is a condition I suspect most of us deal with in our lives these days. In fact, it amazed me just how cut off I felt from the rest of the world during this past weekend with an inability to just log on to my laptop computer and check things out.

ADMITTEDLY, I STILL had a functioning smart-phone (one of those Nokia Lumia devices) that allowed me to continue to check my e-mail (which I rely on for work-related messages) and to do limited checking of the Internet.

Although off those dinky little screens, it becomes a pain in the buttocks to try to read anything of any length on any particular website.

As it is, this is the first piece of copy I am writing on my new machine. I'm trying to get the feel of how it functions, and my ability to grind out copy is definitely slowed as I try to figure out how all of this works.

Because this particular laptop computer actually looks more like my smart-phone. It seems like it is designed for people who want to view their machines as something to play with -- rather than just a tool to do actual work with.

THEN AGAIN, I always suspected that I was different than many people (particularly the younger generation) in that I'm interested in the actual content I'm viewing on this machine -- rather than spending time on the machine itself.

If all of this reads like I'm some sort of aging malcontent who can't quite get with the program, perhaps you're right. Because a part of me wonders how much different the next laptop computer I purchase will be from this machine.

It definitely makes me reminisce fondly of the first laptop I ever purchased -- one that I managed to get seven years worth of use out of. That is a statistic that manages to amaze every technological geek I ever encounter.

They seem to be too used to the idea of replacing something every couple of years.

ALTHOUGH I DO have to admit to one bit of pleasure from my new purchase -- the price.

For someone who can be a cheap as I can be at times, I was amazed at how inexpensive these devices have become.

Particularly since that aforementioned first laptop cost just over $1,000, while the second one (the one that died last week due to Atlanta's finest soft drink) cost me just over $600.

This one was about $475 -- and that includes a couple of upgrades to add memory, along with all the taxes that assorted county, state and federal entities added to my purchase.

WILL THE DAY come when I can get one of these overelaborate typewriters (I am old enough to remember when professional copy was typed out on actual paper, then mailed to a publisher via the U.S. Postal Service) for a couple hundred bucks?

Perhaps. But I'm also wondering if the day is coming when the machines will be designed to take my oral dictation and convert it into printed words; including all the "uhs," "ums" and "you knows?"

Somehow, it doesn't sound like progress to me.

  -30-

What were they thinking?

In the world of covering ‘cops and robbers,’ it is all too easy to stumble across incidents where one’s initial reaction is something along the lines of “What was this fool thinking?”

The coach's wife

It even occurs on occasion that a story crops up that somehow manages to spill over into the world of sports – which somehow manages to attract attention on the grounds that something involving a ballplayer must be more important than something affecting a “real” person.

YET I COULDN’T help but chuckle at the pair of stories that cropped up Tuesday on the Chicago news scene – both of which have me thinking there’s a new couple that ought to be kept as far apart as possible to ensure they never spawn and create young’uns who would be a combination of themselves.

Of course, the woman in this pairing is already married – and her husband is the one who comes off looking somehow absurd because of her actions.

I’m referring, of course, to the spouse of the football coach at Antioch Community High School – who also happens to be a teacher (special ed) at that school. She now faces criminal charges (misdemeanor) related to computer hacking.

Not that hers is any kind of conventional case of someone who thinks they are entitled to break into someone’s computer system and tamper with materials.

FOR PROSECUTORS IN suburban Lake County say she got ahold of an administrative password and used it to start altering the grades of students. Some 64 young people in all. Coincidentally, many of them were members of the football team that her husband coached.

Although it seems that she is telling police he had no involvement in the matter, and prosecutors haven’t come up with any evidence indicating that he should also be facing criminal charges.

Not exactly KW 'clone'



Which is something that confuses me. It makes me suspect that there is some significant fact we do not yet know, and that when it does come out we’re going to wind up viewing this whole debacle in a completely different manner.

I also find it interesting to read the various statements that indicate the students’ actual grades have been restored, and that it wasn’t a matter of academically-ineligible students playing football, but one of trying to bolster students with mediocre grades into slightly higher ones.

AS THOUGH THERE really is no problem aside from one teacher-turned-alleged hacker – who now faces criminal charges, the likelihood of a fine and the near-certainty that she’s going to lose her own teaching position.

By comparison, the Kenny Williams burglary seems so logical and straightforward. For it seems that someone broke into the home of the Chicago White Sox general manager.

That person took a nap, heated up some pizza for himself, defrosted a lobster, and eventually left wearing one of Williams’ suits AND the big gaudy ring that the White Sox gave to everyone who was connected to their World Series champion ballclub from 2005.

That alone would have been a prize that would have caused the sports memorabilia market to go berserk. EXCEPT for the fact that the burglar managed to drop an identification bracelet in Williams’ residence. Police knew who they were looking for.

AND THEY MADE the arrest when the man actually returned to the Williams residence and gave police his real name when they caught him trying to peek into the windows.

It seems the man has a prior criminal record – a whole string of arrests for knuckleheaded moments. Although the idea that he returned to the scene of this particular moment makes this one stand out.

That’s not usually what someone does if their intent is to commit some sort of felony act or gain some goods that could be sold off for medium-sized bucks.

It actually makes me wonder if we’re going to find out someday that the man involved in this particular incident is not mentally stable enough to stand trial on the residential burglary charge he now faces. The fact that his identification bracelet was from a hospital may be some evidence in that direction.

ALL OF WHICH manages to make people like Antoin Rezko look like even more of an afterthought; even on a day when U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve blatantly rejected his request to be sentenced to time served.

Ten-and-a-half years in a federal correctional center. Even with his roughly four years of real time already served, that will involve another few years of being locked away. Yet so boring compared to the other two who came up Tuesday.

 -30-

Cursive archaic? Keyboarding overrated? Why should there have to be a choice?

I’m not about to claim that the ability to write in cursive is some sort of art form. Anybody who has ever read my own penmanship would know there is nothing artistic about it.

But there is something about the modern trend that says people no longer need to write by hand (and if they do, printing is good enough because they’re probably not scrawling out more than two or three words at a time) that I find to be appalling.

I THINK IT is pathetic that we have people who claim to be properly-educated young adults who can’t read documents written by hand in cursive.

But instead of trying to fix that problem, we try to claim that those people are fine – as is. By that logic, maybe we should resolve the problem of illiteracy by claiming that the written word in any form is archaic. Problem solved!

Not quite.

There have been many reports in recent years about how young people just aren’t picking up on the ability to write by hand. It is a skill that apparently just isn’t getting classroom time devoted to it.

LOCALLY, WE’RE GETTING attention paid to it because of Indiana Department of Education officials who are imposing new requirements for public education in that state (a part of which comprises the far southeastern portion of the Chicago metropolitan area) that say schools no longer have to teach cursive at all.

As for those of the rest of us who want to get all haughty, it seems that Illinois’ education requirements have NEVER included cursive handwriting.

So nit-picking over that point is a bit silly.

But it also strikes me that many millions of people in this state learned how to write in cursive without such a requirement. Personally, I recall printing being taught in the first grade, with cursive coming into play during the second grade.

IT WAS A skill required in order to do our classroom assignments in all the other subjects. It’s not merely a lot of loops and overly-elaborate curls that the semi-literate detractors of cursive would like to claim.

Now, it seems that many students never get around to learning it, with teachers claiming they just don’t have time to devote to teaching the ability to write.

Of course, the big point that the detractors of cursive handwriting harp on when they make their argument is that children will be taught at a younger age the skills involved with using a proper keyboard.

Children will be taught keyboarding, which sounds so much more elaborate than it really is. They’re going to be taught how to type.

THERE IS A trick to it, although once the basic skill and rhythmic patterns are learned, it can enable one to write rather quickly. Or a lot faster than the type of person who relies solely on the two “trigger” fingers to peck away at all the letters and symbols of the “qwerty” keyboard.

My point being that it is a parlor trick. It’s not the complex. The idea that it takes so much time to teach that other aspects must be downplayed is ridiculous.

Anybody who seriously argues that teaching typing (I refuse to think of it as “keyboarding”) must come at the expense of something else is being lazy. They’re just looking for an excuse to justify the fact that they never bothered to learn proper penmanship.

And by proper, I don’t necessarily mean “neat.” I merely mean readable.

NOW I HAVE read some reports that say students will start being taught how to type during elementary school.

That’s nice. Although personally, it was a skill that I acquired during one year of a high school class in typing, along with 30-plus years of actual experience of pecking away at various typewriters (electric and manual), word processors, computers and laptops.

The reality, however, is that the only thing that will be accomplished by having young kids peck away at computer keyboards is that they will learn that the computer “mouse” isn’t the only controlling device.

Which means they’re still likely to think of the computer as something they can use to play assorted games or watch the content of various discs – rather than as a device they would use to write with.

I HAVE HEARD it from my nephews and nieces, who have seen me using a computer to write copy – and tell me that I’m wasting computer time that could better be used to play a game or two. If anything, the ability to write by hand creates a certain appreciation for the words themselves. Teaching the ability to type can come later in life.

As far as Indiana is concerned, there is one aspect that bothers me more – the fact that the state says schools can decide for themselves if cursive is something they want to teach as a “local standard.”

Which makes me wonder if this talk of doing away with cursive is only going to broaden the gap that already exists, in which some children get better educations that others based on the “accident” of where they happened to grow up.

  -30-

How much access is too much access?

Actually, I have no problem believing it can happen.

The “it” in this case is police officers using their computers that give them access to reports of many criminal cases getting bored enough to look up the reports about a pending case involving a pair of patrol officers who allegedly had sex with an intoxicated woman while they were on duty.

IT SEEMS THAT the reports of that case have been accessed on internal computers by more than 1,000 officers – far more than are actually involved with the case in any way.

That is what has the Internal Affairs division of Chicago police trying to figure out every single person who used their computer to read the report – and why they felt compelled to do so.

They also want to know if any detailed information from those reports wound up getting disseminated to sources that the police would have preferred not to see such reports.

There’s no word at this point how many police could be disciplined, or what such discipline would be. In fact, the Fraternal Order of Police lodge that represents Chicago Police is defending the cops by saying there’s nothing wrong with using one’s work computer to look up work-related records.

WHAT I FIND “believable” about this incident is the idea of a bored police officer passing the time away by looking up stray information – just for mental kicks.

Just think of how many times you have sat in front of a computer screen and wasted away time looking up stray bits of information or trivia that you really didn’t need to know in order to get on with your life. For all I know, that is what you are doing right now while stumbling onto this weblog.

Maybe you typed in a search for “police” or “investigation.” Or maybe your mind delved into the gutter and you worked the word “sex” into your phrasing for a search engine.

If you did that, I would guess that you are very disappointed right now, because this particular commentary is not going to give you titillating details about anything.

THE PROBLEM IS that police officers using the department’s computers have access to more detailed information than we’re going to be able to get on our own personal computers. There’s always the risk of some crucial detail somehow getting out – even inadvertently.

FOP officials may think it wrong to restrict what one is able to access on a department computer. But perhaps we have bigger problems to consider.

This is a particular situation to consider when it comes to police because law enforcement is so much more computerized these days. Just about every squad car these days has a lap top computer installed with proper hookups so that officers can get tons of personal information that could be of use to them while also being able to take a lot of physical abuse (as I once heard a computer salesman tell a suburban police department, his system was designed to operate even while riding over railroad tracks and pothole-filled roads AND with multiple cups of coffee being spilled onto the keyboard).

In this case, it seems we have some bored police officers who wanted to know “the skinny” on the case that cropped up in the news about a month ago – where a 22-year-old woman says she was stopped by two Town Hall District (near Wrigley Field) officers riding around in a marked SUV (making it clear that it was a Chicago Police Department vehicle), was forced to play “strip” poker in her home, and also coerced into having sex with the police both in the vehicle and in her residence.

CRIMINAL CHARGES HAVE not been filed against the officers, but both have been suspended while that incident is being investigated.

Now, Internal Affairs has to do another investigation on top of that – one to determine if this is just a case of cops who wanted to read a titillating detail or two, perhaps about an officer they knew or maybe just because there was nothing else to do at that moment.

Or do we have a more serious abuse of authority here? Is the “misuse of department equipment” so bad that discipline is going to have to be handed down?

Not that such discipline is going to be that severe. News accounts of the Internal Affairs memo sent out last week to everybody in the police department indicates that officers could receive a written reprimand that would stay in their records for one year. After which, it would be removed and forgotten.

WHICH MEANS THAT police officers might well have to learn the lesson that many of us have learned the hard way about using computers – don’t go looking up anything that you wouldn’t want someone else to know you’re seeing.

Because, inevitably, they WILL find out. They always do.

  -30-

EXTRA: Draw your own political map! It won’t be more ridiculous than real thing

It is going to be interesting to see what comes out of the special rooms being set up both in Chicago and Springfield where people with an interest in political boundaries will get a chance to show the politicians how it should be done.

The Illinois House of Representatives has its redistricting committee working its way around Illinois (spending this week on the far South Side at the Chicago State University campus on Wednesday, the surrounding suburbs and in Will County) to get the input of people who think they know what the Legislature should do when putting together the legislative and Congressional boundaries for the next decade.

BUT THEY’RE ALSO going to have special rooms set up with computers and certain population data so people can literally try drawing their own boundaries – with those proposals then being included in the official record that legislators will consider when they approve a map FOR REAL some time in late May.

One such room will be at the Bilandic Building (formerly known as the State of Illinois Building and currently used as the Chicago office of the Illinois Supreme Court), while the other will be in Springfield at the Stratton Building (located next to the Statehouse proper and quite possibly the ugliest government building in existence).

Think of it as the political equivalent of a “do it yourself” ice cream sundae bar.

Only there’s no guarantee that anyone is going to take your proposal seriously, although state Rep. Karen Yarbrough, D-Maywood, says that all maps drawn up by individuals at those rooms will be put on the Legislature’s special redistricting website so that the public at-large can see their efforts.

SO KNOCK YOURSELF out if you want to give it a try. Officials ask that if you want to show up, call 217-558-3036 first to set up an appointment.

The results may wind up being absurd doodles compiled by people who have no clue how to fit their communities in with the rest of the state.

Then again, they certainly won’t be any more ridiculous than whatever boundaries get drawn up by Democratic Party leadership and approved by the General Assembly.

Ridiculous political boundaries that make little to no sense to their community’s character is about the only guarantee of the redistricting process.

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Is the real secret how little our legislators comprehend government finance?

When I learned (by reading the Chicago Tribune, I must admit) that the Illinois Senate convened at the Statehouse in Springpatch on Wednesday in a session closed to the public, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a similar moment that occurred just over a decade ago.

It was the late 1990s, and I was a Statehouse-based reporter-type person in those days. The “event” was that the Illinois Legislature was becoming technologically advanced. For the first time ever, laptop computers were installed on the desks of each and every legislator, along with all the connections necessary to operate such devices.

I KNOW SOME younger types are going to find it absurd that it ever was NOT like this, but the flow of paper for bills and other documents relevant to Illinois government was essential to keeping things running. This was the beginning of encouraging legislators to call up such information on their laptops, rather than have to have so much paper.

The “similar” moment I am referring to was the specific day when, with all the new equipment installed, it was thought necessary to sit all the legislators down in the chamber and give them a technical display of how everything worked. What was it that the public was truly kept in the dark about concerning the Illinois Senate?

For some legislators who were older or just not inclined to want to use computers at all moments of the day, it amounted to “Computer Science 101.” I remember that particular session was closed off to the public. I even recall the curtains that were put up over the windows up high from which people could look down upon the lawmakers at work.

I remember being told that the reason for the secrecy (I suppose state officials preferred the word “privacy”) was to make the less-computer literate legislators feel more comfortable about learning how to use the device. Some of them might have been embarrassed if their computer illiteracy had been so brutally unveiled.

YES, I COULD easily envision one of the television-types putting together a humorous story about a hometown legislator who keeps blipping crucial government information out of existence because he just can’t get the hang of that blasted laptop.

Now, we have the Illinois Senate behaving in a similar fashion. The Tribune went so far as to use the newspaper’s website to update the story by telling us how their reporter was physically barred from the Senate chamber when he tried to enter Wednesday morning.

The newspaper even included a diatribe from Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, who said the session legally could be closed to the public because no actual government business would take place. So long as that fact remains true (no votes on any bills), he probably is legally correct.

As Cullerton told the Tribune, “this is meant to be one where just the senators are there to get information, but where they can also feel they can ask questions and … have a free exchange of ideas without having to be worried about what the press might report.”

SO WHAT WAS the point of Wednesday?

The National Conference of State Legislatures, a Denver-based group of government geeks who take particular joy in following the political activity at the 50 state capitols, was to give a presentation about government finances – which anyone who is paying attention realizes are a complete mess in Illinois.

Defenders of the “closed” session contended that since they planned to have the conference’s people talk to reporters later in the day, the information presented ultimately will become public.

But it is a shame they had to take this route, because now the focus will become a question of why couldn’t everybody else find out this financial information at the same time as the 59 senators.

IN FACT, WHEN I re-read Cullerton’s comment, I can’t help but get the sense of déjà vu (not the Springfield-based strip club). Were legislative leaders afraid we’d see, once and for all, just how clueless individual senators were about the state’s financial situation? It could be.

Unless there has been a significant improvement in the education of government officials in the years since I left the Statehouse Scene, the reality is that most of the 177 members of the General Assembly are plugged into their home communities, and usually can discuss the specifics of what a budget offers for their local residents (ie, voters).

But few of those legislators have the time, energy or interest to try to see the big picture. For some of them, the little picture (“pork”) is all that matters. For others, they’re less capable than you or me of understanding that “big” financial picture.

Of course, it also is a consequence of the way in which so much of state Legislature activity is dominated by the four legislative leaders, with the regular legislators only being included at the exact moment when a vote by the whole General Assembly is required.

KEEP THEM IGNORANT long enough, and you create a situation where leadership (although admittedly, this seems to be a directive of the Democratic leaders, with Republicans saying they’re going along in hopes of encouraging “bipartisan” cooperation in the future) has to go to extremes to cover it up.

Which also means the next time you ponder to yourself just how those knuckleheads (or whatever choice phrase you choose to use to describe legislators) could have voted in such a stupid manner on a budget or any issue, keep this “ignorance” factor in mind.

He/she was probably just going with the flow, so to speak.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: I must credit the Chicago Tribune for doing the actual work of rooting out (http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2010/02/illinois-senate-meets-in-secret-today.html#more) this story.

We're back!

The technological glitches that managed to knock my laptop computer out of whack and make filing copy for the Chicago Argus and its sister weblog, The South Chicagoan, such a difficulty appear to have been resolved.

In short, I dug into my wallet and coughed up the cash for a new laptop (my first in over seven years).

SO NOW, I mourn the death of my Toshiba Satellite model 1405, which served its purpose well in terms of my being able to grind out readable copy for many different news outlets and publications. I'm still trying to adapt to my new machine (a Gateway).

But the bottom line is that I should now be able to resume my daily schedule of commentary and analysis of the events of the world, as perceived from the shores of Lake Michigan between Whiting, Ind., and Evanston, Ill.

Thank you for your patience in putting up with my erratic posting schedule of recent weeks, although as best I can tell the readership at this site was not significantly impacted. For that, I am grateful.

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Please be patient

My "technical" difficulties are not fully resolved. But I'm also not anxious to just leave this weblog (and its sister site) sitting unattended.

Hence, there will be periodic commentary, although not the daily routine you regular readers have come to expect. I hope to resume that daily schedule as soon as possible.

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It's not laziness, just technology

I am experiencing computer problems that prevented me from filing the standard commentary readers of this weblog would have expected for Friday. As of now, I have yet to resolve these problems, but hope to do so as soon as is possible.

So I plan to go back to filing commentary meant to make you think (and occasionally annoy you) in the very near future. Please come back.

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It feels great to be publishing again

There is bound to be somebody out there who will take offense and accuse me of exaggerating the significance of my predicament, but I can almost identify with the mood of those Chicagoans who were alive in the final days of October 1871.

It was earlier in that month that a fire allegedly started in a barn managed to grow out of control and devastate much of the city, and the people of Chicago in those days would have been justified had they just thrown in the towel and moved elsewhere, leaving the remains of a frontier town to become a ghost on the shores of Lake Michigan.

INSTEAD, THEY REBUILT. In the process, they created one of the great cities of the world. I’m not sure my attempts to rebuild the Chicago Argus (and its sister weblog, The South Chicagoan) will achieve the same level. But I feel the same spirit in wanting to resurrect the sites that were attempting to provide intelligent commentary and analysis of the happenings of Chicago (and of the world, as perceived from Chicago).

Insofar as what went wrong, I must admit it has taken me several days to figure out, and even now I only have a partial understanding of what caused the Chicago Argus and South Chicagoan to be shuttered for fivedays – it was only a few minutes ago that I regained control of the sites.

Basically, I wrote a commentary late Wednesday about Starbucks’ franchises in the Chicago area. Then, I went to bed.

When I woke up Thursday, I discovered that the passwords that allow me access to the editorial content were no longer working (which is why I did not provide an update indicating that the number of Starbucks’ stores in the Chicago area being closed was significantly increased in the hours after I published my say on the matter). It also is why I did not trash Gov. Rod Blagojevich for making a mockery of law enforcement problems with his ridiculous talk of National Guard tactics being used in Chicago.

THE EXPLANATION I received eventually was that Google shut down my account when it detected someone trying to use the e-mail account connected to the sites to send out the enemy of every Internet user – spam.

Because of Google security measures, I was unable to resurrect my ability to access either weblog.

Now as best as I can tell, none of the commentaries published during the past seven months have been tampered with. The archives of both sites appear to be un-compromised.

Of course, I have not re-read every single word I have written at these two sites, so there’s always the possibility that some clown decided to try to rewrite me, for kicks or to satisfy some sort of ideologically-inspired grudge.

THAT’S WHAT GETS me about this whole affair. I’m not sure what to think of the motivations of the people who started a chain reaction that resulted in the sites sitting idle for a few days.

Is this the equivalent of some computer geek who thinks he’s showing off his technological skills by messing with someone else’s site (like the time the New York Times had their website tampered with and turned into a promotion for soft-core pornography), or is this someone who disagrees with me (I know they exist, they are good at sending me excessively lengthy e-mails telling me I am full of caca for what I write).

Am I really dealing with the equivalent of white supremacist groups who like to print up their fliers, insert them into copies of a newspaper that have not yet been sold, then have the gall to complain their views are being censored because they can’t force their view on someone else.

All I can say is that I have started again, and I intend to resume the previous publishing schedule. It feels good to know that commentaries and news analysis will resume early tomorrow, and will continue to be published daily through Friday, with a feature-y piece for the weekend.

I LIKELY WILL never know the exact motivations of the people who caused the site to die for a few days. If it is merely a computer geek, then this is just sad. If it is somebody’s idea of a political statement, then it is pathetic.

Regardless, I have never been the type of person who lets sad or pathetic individuals get the best of my work. I only hope whoever did this doesn’t have delusions of having a Hollywood film made about their activities.

Even though the City Council later absolved her of any responsibility, Mrs. O’Leary and her cow wound up being the focus of that fictionalized version of the Great Chicago Fire from 1937 known as “In Old Chicago.”

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