A DAY IN THE LIFE (of Chicago): Should employer stand by worker?

I’m finding it encouraging that Millikin University, a Decatur-based institution of higher learning, is willing to stand by the employment of the head of its psychology department.

Because the very notion that the professor, James St. James, caused the death of his parents and sister nearly a half-century ago would scare many companies into thinking that they have to do whatever is necessary to break their ties.

IN THIS PARTICULAR case, St. James was born under the name James Wolcott. When he was 15 back in 1967, his parents and sister, Elizabeth, were found shot to death in their house in Texas.

James was put on trial for the slayings, but he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, he was ordered held in an institution – and six years later, he was he was released.

That means the criminal case was resolved. Wolcott (now St. James) did his time for this incident. It is resolved. It’s not like St. James is a long-hidden fugitive who has been on the lam.

So the people who are eager to have the professor’s head on a pike are being irrational. They’re letting their personal hang-ups overcome any sense of sense.

WHICH IS WHY I’m glad to learn that Millikin says they expect him to continue to teach there when classes resume come autumn.

I’m not that worked up over it, and I wonder about the Texas newspaper that stirred up this particular story (which is now being picked up by the Chicago “press”). It was meant to focus on the aftermath of the slayings of nearly an entire family. They searched for what became of the son, and found St. James under his new name living in Decatur.

Because we ought to consider that St. James is a case of someone who screwed up in life, yet managed to fix up his situation and get the higher education needed to help make a productive life out of his. Isn’t that what we want to happen more often?

Closer to Chicago, what else is pending in the minds of Second City residents?

GETTING AN EXTENSION?: Former Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., has 11 more days to go until he faces sentencing for his guilty plea on criminal charges related to his using campaign contribution money to buy all kinds of tacky memorabilia for his office.

For which he’s expected to make financial restitution. But a federal judge in the District of Columbia on Friday gave Jackson more time to come up with the cash – some $750,000.

The judge postponed until Oct. 25 a hearing that would allow the federal government to seize his homes in the South Shore neighborhood and in Washington, along with an individual retirement account. So he may manage to come up with some cash in order to keep a roof over his kids’ heads.

Although many of those items (including some that once belonged to people like Michael Jackson and Muhammad Ali) will be auctioned off at some point. Will they gain additional cachet from once having been in Jackson’s possession?

A SEE-THRU SIGN?: The squabble between the Chicago Cubs and the owners of those buildings across the street who make money by letting people on their roofs to see into Wrigley Field to catch a glimpse of ballgames is getting more twisted.

The owners reached a deal that still has a decade to go that allows them to sell their views of Cubs games – with the Cubs getting a share of the proceeds. Yet the Cubs’ desires to revamp Wrigley Field include erecting advertising signs that would block the views.

But the Chicago Sun-Times reported Friday about the see-through advertising signs the team is considering, if the owners don’t lighten up in their threats to sue the Cubs.

It makes me wonder who would want to advertise on a see-through billboard – Victoria’s Secret?!?

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Nothing’s certain when it comes to baseball and minor league prospects

2013 has been a crummy season for baseball fans in Chicago – the Cubs have been as bad as expected, and the White Sox have managed to be even worse.



Restoring the Sox to contender status?

Which is why the past week with its trade deadline has been anticipated – the idea that some established Major League ballplayers could be shipped off for several young prospects who will develop into talent.

TAKING THE REST of this season for a loss could pay off big! In theory.

My point being that minor league prospects are uncertain. There are so many factors that go into determining whether any success they had at lower levels of professional baseball will translate into success in the American or National leagues.

Replacing Ron Santo someday?

There’s no guarantee that Avisail Garcia (acquired from the Detroit Tigers as part of the deal that sent former Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy to the Boston Red Sox) will be a big hitter for the White Sox – even though he has had some success in the Tigers’ minor league system.

The same goes for Corey Black, whom the Cubs acquired from the New York Yankees’ system in exchange for Alfonso Soriano. Or the slew of ballplayers – Mike Olt, C.J. Edwards and Justin Grimm, along with one or two players to be named later – that the Cubs got from the Texas Rangers in exchange for pitcher Matt Garza.



Best minor league trade payoff ever?

PEAVY, SORIANO AND Garza are all expected to help their new ball clubs be contenders for a playoff spot in 2013. That much is certain.

What is uncertain is whether the newcomers will translate into anything for the Chicago ball clubs? They might, or they might not. We’re not going to know for several years whether these deals were worth doing, or not!

So those people (particularly Cubs fans) who are convinced that they have now restocked their organization to the point where they should be regarded as pennant contenders ought to take pause.

It would be nice if it works out that way. Although trades such as the one in 1977 when the White Sox sent shortstop Bucky Dent to the Yankees in exchange for outfielder Oscar Gamble (who had the best year of his career during his single season on the Sout' Side) and several minor league prospects (one of whom went on to become 1983 Cy Young Award winner LaMarr "Dewey" Hoyt) are so rare.

I REMEMBER THIS 36-year-old deal so much because its payoff was so unique.



No wonder the Cubs haven't won in decades

Some of the biggest-name minor leaguers never translate into Major League success.

I still recall Karl Pagel – a former Texas League and American Association MVP while playing with Chicago Cubs minor league affiliates. I recall how he was supposed to be a power hitter who would be able to take advantage of Wrigley Field’s configuration and become a dangerous major league hitter.

In parts of 5 seasons (48 games overall), he managed all of 1 home run – which he hit while playing for the Cleveland Indians in 1981 after the Cubs gave up on him.

WHICH IS ABOUT the same as the one-time White Sox shortstop Harry Chappas – who had a big year in 1978 playing for Appleton of the Midwest League. That translated into him getting a shot with the Sox – although the only thing that’s really memorable about him was his height.



Remembered solely for his height (or lack of)

Officially, he was 5-feet, 3-inches tall, although some suspect he was more like 5’-6” and might have been more of a gimmick by then-Sox owner Bill Veeck. He did equal Pagel, however, in terms of total home runs hit in the major leagues.

These two cases aren’t the least bit unique. I’m sure other fans could come up with countless more names of ballplayers – both younger and older – who never amounted to their hype.

So are Garcia and Olt future All-Stars at right field and third base respectively for the White Sox and Cubs? Or are they just a few more additions to the list of no-names that gets longer and longer with each passing baseball season?

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Governor makes up mind on medical marijuana – bad jokes bound to follow

I fear we’re going to have to dig up our old VHS copies of Cheech and Chong films – along with having to put up with the rants of the socially-conservative-minded ideologues who desperately want to believe that MARIJUANA!!! is some sort of liberal, hippie-freak drug that no sane person would ever want to touch.



QUINN: Digging up his bill-signing pens?

I write that because it seems that Gov. Pat Quinn is going to take action on Thursday that will make it possible for people to gain a prescription, of sorts, to use marijuana as part of their treatment for assorted medical conditions.

HIS PUBLIC SCHEDULE for the day indicates two events – the latter of which is an appearance at the University of Chicago Center for Care and Discovery, where he will appear with “veterans and people who are fighting chronic illnesses.”

These are the people who think that the marijuana high helps them to cope with the pain of their various medical conditions.

That is a concept that infuriates the ideologues because they want to believe that marijuana has no medical purpose whatsoever and is just the way certain people flaunt their disobedience to morals and all that is “good” about society.

Which is a bunch of bunk. Some people have watched “Reefer Madness” way too many times!

PERSONALLY, I EQUATE the concept that marijuana has no possible useful purpose with those same medical professionals of decades ago who argued that homosexuality was a mental illness – we know better now, and should quit listening to the quacks of the past whose theories have been disproved with more research.

Now before anyone goes any further, I don’t have any medical condition for which a marijuana prescription would be useful. I don’t anticipate taking advantage of the bill that was approved by the General Assembly this spring – which would allow people to purchase up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana.

Provided, of course, that they get a prescription from a medical physician and who suffer from some three-dozen specified medical conditions.

In short, the spaced-out guy who gets pulled over by the police (causing the cop to catch a whiff of smoke) is still going to be in trouble with The Law. Although with more and more communities heading in the decriminalization direction, it seems that marijuana is headed the way of being treated like alcohol.

THE PEOPLE WHO take so much that it impairs their judgment can face legal problems – particularly if their impairment causes them to have an “accident” of some sort.

We’re not exactly at the forefront of this issue – Illinois will be the 20^th state to permit marijuana use under limited circumstances. I can’t help but wonder why it took the state so long to get around to this.

Although at least we’re not state number 48 or 49 to address this issue; that would be embarrassing!

Because while some people are determined to see some sort of cultural issue at stake, it really isn’t. Personally, I have known people of every political persuasion who want to get high – even including a few who like to believe they’re “strict law-and-order” types on everything else.

PERSONALLY, IT BOTHERS me (again!?!) to think that we have been denying some people medical relief from their pains – all because some people are desperate to cling to the image of aging hippies. Even though many of the biggest hippie-haters are probably toking up while also ranting.

So Quinn, barring any unforeseen change-of-heart, is likely to give his approval. And many of us will respond with the cheap druggie joke.

All I have to say is that if one does have to dig out a “Cheech and Chong” film to watch, go for “Up in Smoke.”

It’s not high art. But it’s about the only one of their films that has much of a story-line – while also giving us Cheech Marin’s take on his song “Mexican Americans.” It’s always worth a giggle.

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Will we be ‘begat’ a Daley & a Simon?

Bill Daley is getting off his electoral behind and kicking his gubernatorial aspirations into gear – he formally filed the paperwork on Tuesday that says he’s a gubernatorial candidate (and not just running an “exploratory” committee).

DALEY: Finally going for gov

As if Daley isn’t enough of a candidate with political family connections, we’ll also have Sheila Simon. Our lieutenant governor who doesn’t want that post anymore plans to rent an airplane and make appearances in Chicago, Springfield and Carbondale on Wednesday.

SHE WON’T SAY officially what she’s running for in next year’s election cycle; but we know her desires to run for state attorney general got dumped on when Lisa Madigan refused to try to move up the political ladder to governor, and she’s likely to run for Illinois comptroller.

A Daley and a Simon; it makes me wonder what the spirits of Richard J. and Paul are thinking as they look down upon us to see how we react to their offspring!

It also will give us a chance to see just how venerated the “Daley” and “Simon” names are these days, as voters in next year’s Democratic Party primary get their chance to determine if they want to continue the trend of political siblings.

For Daley (the son and brother of former Chicago mayors and the uncle to a Metropolitan Water Reclamation District commissioner), he has never held elective office – even though he has the titles of “Commerce secretary” and “White House chief of staff” on his resume.

HE HAS OFTEN hinted at wanting to run for Illinois governor, but has always managed to find reasons to back away from a campaign – until now.

 

DICK & PAUL ...

For Daley seems to be banking his chances on the concept that incumbent Pat Quinn is so weak and ineffectual in his political post that there’s no way anybody votes for him.

He expects that all of Chicago will want to have another “Daley” in office, and that the Chicago vote will dominate the Democratic primary turnout. Hence, he wins. Which is an overly simplistic strategy. Reality is rarely that straightforward.

Because while I’ll be the first to admit that nobody is going to get all excited about voting for Pat Quinn, I suspect that many people will be even more offended at the thought of voting for a Daley.

THEY MIGHT WIND up taking out grudges they held against Richard M. (but were too cowardly to do anything about while he was actually in office) on his brother.

... the 'proud' political papas

There also there will be the “good-government” types who will wind up seeing a vote for Quinn as voting against the whole concept of political families (which would have been Lisa Madigan’s biggest problem had she decided to go for governor).

Or maybe some will wind up backing the political siblings. Because it always amazes me how much many people whine and complain about the concept, but then wind up casting their ballots in support of it. I suspect the people who really have an aversion to voting for a "Daley" will wind up casting their ballots in the Republican primary.

Then, there’s Sheila Simon; who could wind up being the only person on the Democratic ballot for the 2014 general elections who isn’t from Chicago – she’s a Carbondale resident.

THE DAUGHTER OF former Sen. (and Congressman and lieutenant governor and state legislator) Paul Simon got herself into her current position because of the disgust felt by many toward nominee Scott Lee Cohen. This will be Sheila’s first attempt at running an actual campaign to get a nomination.

 

SIMON: Beating Judy in a jam session?

That has some wondering if she’s too inexperienced in the ways of politicking to be running a campaign for a statewide office.

She may well win the primary (I don’t see anybody getting excited over the prospects of Will County Auditor Duffy Blackburn, who wants the comptroller’s post as well).

But can she take on incumbent Illinois comptroller Judy Baar Topinka come the general election? It doesn’t help that the suburban Riverside resident is one of the few Republicans whom the Chicago-area Democrats are willing to accept.

SHE MIGHT BE the lone official who keeps the Democrats from running up a string of victories in 2014 that gives them complete domination of Illinois state government. Of course, we’ve seen how Dems are incapable of “playing nice” with each other, meaning that domination wouldn’t really mean much!

Although there could be a quirk that we’ve never quite had before – a musical campaign. Topinka is the “wacky aunt”-type with the accordion, while Simon plays banjo in a bluegrass band.

I wonder about the younger voters – particularly those 17-year-olds who will now be able to vote come the March primary. Will they think this is intriguing? Or will they view it similar to Simon’s own daughter, who (according to Chicago magazine) once referred to her mother as being in an “old lady band.”

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EXTRA: It’s now in the courts!

A Cook County judge is going to be asked to decide whether or not Gov. Pat Quinn overstepped his bounds when he decided to not pay legislators until they come up with a plan for revamping the way the state covers the cost of pension programs.

MADIGAN: Using his clout against Quinn

The lawsuit filed in our own circuit court system was filed by the legislative leaders (House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton) on Tuesday. They claim that the concept of “separation of powers” means that a governor doesn’t have the right to mess with the Legislature’s compensation.

AS THOUGH HIS authority merely extends to the state agencies. Or perhaps solely to the people who actually work on the governor’s staff.


CULLERTON: A legal sidekick

Which means this whole issue is going to become a legal battle over exactly who has to pay any attention to a governor. If it were up to the legislative leaders, that would be “zero.”

They’d want to have no one listening to him.

How else to interpret the line from the lawsuit that says, “If the governor’s line item veto is upheld, the independence of each member of the General Assembly will be forever compromised. Any governor will hold a trump card over a co-equal branch of government.”

IT IS INTERESTING that Madigan and Cullerton are the ones putting their names on this lawsuit. I guess it figures that enough people already despise the concept of Mike Madigan that his reputation can’t take a harder hit by being the “bad guy” who files a lawsuit to get paid without resolving the pension funding problem.

So to ensure that officials actually get paid (state Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka has said she’d cut the checks if a court told her to do so), this now becomes a legal issue. Even though I'm inclined to agree with Quinn when he says, "today's lawsuit ... is just plain wrong,"


QUINN: Another battle to undergo

Although I won’t be surprised if a local judge winds up ruling in Madigan’s favor. As an attorney, he has some serious clout in Chicago. The real trick will be to see how high up the legal ladder this case winds up going. Is the Illinois Supreme Court destined to have to take up this issue later this summer?

Then, there’s the real question; the one that will get lost in all the upcoming legal bickering that we’re going to hear – when will the pension funding problem be resolved? The two sides aren’t anywhere near close to doing that!

  -30-

We’re approaching lack of a payday

Thursday is the day the members of our General Assembly should be getting their pay for the month of August.

But on account of the fact that Gov. Pat Quinn used his amendatory veto powers to delete the money put aside in the budget to cover legislative salaries for the year, they’re not getting paid.

ILLINOIS COMPTROLLER JUDY Baar Topinka went so far last week as to make a formal statement saying she doesn’t have the authority to cut checks for the General Assembly’s 177 members – although she did strongly imply that she’d be more than willing to pay them if a court were to order her to do so.

It’s probably one of the rare occasions when a government officials WANTS to be sued – irregardless of how a lawsuit would wind up making just about everybody look foolish.

Of course, nobody has come up with a lawsuit against the state. Because it’s one of those things that would make somebody look incredibly stupid and selfish!

Quinn’s motivation for not paying the legislators (and himself, technically) is that the public officials don’t deserve compensation for as long as they fail to come up with a plan to reform the way in which the state pays the cost of the pension programs it oversees.

AS OF MONDAY, there still isn’t a plan for covering the pension costs. And no hints as to when a plan could be ready for legislative consideration.

Who wants to be the person who sues to get paid even though significant work has yet to be complete?

Although the Capitol Fax newsletter has indicated that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, has had his staff looking into ways that could force legislators to get paid even without a resolution to the pension funding problem.

Regardless, the action that usually would be taking place now to ensure that paychecks that won’t bounce come Thursday is NOT taking place. Legislators are not going to get their monthly compensation.

SOME OF THEM won’t be as impacted because they have other jobs or sources of income – particularly those who are attorneys and are going to have to rely upon their law firm legal fees to cover the cost of the groceries they consume and their mortgage payments for the upcoming month.

But there are those who actually live off the incomes. Some may have financial problems crop up – just like other people who run into unexpected conflicts.

So in that case, the next couple of weeks could turn out to be an educational experience for our legislators.

Not that they’re willing to say so themselves. I have contacted a few legislators in recent days, and NONE of them are willing to comment in any form.

“I’M NOT PUTTING myself in the middle of that,” state Rep. Thaddeus Jones, D-Calumet City, said. He was the most eloquent. The others I spoke to had less to say – as all are afraid of saying something that could offend the powers-that-be.

None of them want to be the target of political payback once this issue gets resolved, and the legislators wind up getting back pay to cover the cost of the money they are being denied this week.

That’s the flaw in the argument being made by some that Quinn acted in an unconstitutional manner by altering the salaries of the General Assembly. He really didn’t.

The salaries on the books for the individual legislators remain the same. They’ll get their money eventually – just like the state workers whose get gets delayed every time the Legislature and the governor get into a political spat and can’t put together a state budget by the July 1 beginning-of-the state fiscal year.

BESIDES, THERE ALSO have been several occasions where the General Assembly uses the backhanded maneuver of approving something, but then failing to provide funding for it – thereby ensuring it won’t happen.

In a sense, the governor has done the same to the legislators, who apparently can now turn to the Credit Union 1 in Rantoul (just north of Champaign) to get loans of up to half of their salaries to help them pay bills in coming weeks – similar to how they help state employees on strike.

So excuse me for not being too sympathetic to the legislators. Even though some are trying to make the argument that Quinn is behaving irresponsibly – creating a precedent for future governors to “strong-arm” the General Assembly to get them to do anything.

“No pay checks until you pass a measure restricting abortion so heavily that it becomes next-to-impossible to obtain!,” they argue we’re going to hear someday.

THAT MAY BE so. It is possible that some future political nit-wit would try something arrogant like that.

Although I’d argue that is the arrogance of the future public official, and not the questionability of the tactic itself.

I also have enough faith in the Illinois electorate to think that if a future governor tried something like that, the public would be so repulsed that the official would suffer severely.

Unlike Quinn in this instance, who seems to be gaining tidbits of support for his behavior in recent weeks!

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Will baseball Hall of Fame “disaster” take down Chicago-ties in 2014?

I’m sure you can find many pundits, baseball fans, and all-around cranks complaining these days because of the fact that the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday inducted a series of dead guys into their ranks.

It’s true. The sportswriters who cast the votes for ballplayers couldn’t agree on anyone this year – what with all the confusion of who was and who wasn’t using steroids to pump themselves (and their stats) up and what (if anything) should be done about it.

THE VETERANS COMMITTEE that gives older ballplayers a second chance, and also considers non-players who made a contribution to the grand game chose ballplayers, umpires and an owner from the first third of the 20^th Century.

Personally, I think it’s intriguing that one-time New York Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert (he owned the ball club back in the days of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig) is now in the Hall of Fame.

But too many people want to complain because Sunday’s ceremonies saw a series of distant relatives had to be called in to accept the honor on their behalf. It made for a dud of an induction ceremony – which means Cooperstown, N.Y., didn’t get the tourist swarm it usually gets every August.

For that, you need living ballplayers – along with the fans who saw them play who make the trip so they can reminisce about their younger days (when they were a few pounds lighter).

THE COMPLICATION IS the steroids issue. Because theoretically, this should have been the year that the Chicago Cubs’ very own Sammy Sosa, along with Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants and Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox/New York Yankees/Toronto Blue Jays/Houston Astros (I still remember his 2005 World Series appearance) should have been inducted.

Except that all three have aroused suspicions that they used assorted substances to bolster their strength and endurance beyond anything that is natural.

The other ballplayers up for grabs have so many detractors that no one could get the minimum 75 percent total of ballots cast to get into the Hall of Fame.

 

Is this going to happen again?

THIS BECOMES A Chicago issue because 2014 is the first year of Hall of Fame eligibility for players such as Chicago White Sox great Frank Thomas, along with Atlanta Braves pitcher Greg Maddux.

Remember him? He started, and finished his major league career with the Cubs, and he even managed to get his first Cy Young Award while pitching with a baby blue bear logo on his shoulder.

Although the Cubs, in their short-sightedness, let him get away to Atlanta – where he became the ace pitcher of a starting rotation some fans think is the best-ever. Another pitcher from that rotation, Tom Glavine, also will get his first shot at baseball immortality (which amounts to a bronze plaque hanging in a hall in Cooperstown).

Now I don’t have a ballot. And I also know the sportswriter-types who do have them are an unpredictable lot. Could it be that these three (whom I’d vote for if I had a ballot) will get lost in the same politicking as they desperately try to vote against people they don’t want?

OR WILL THERE be a need felt by people with a ballot to pick somebody (anybody) who is physically capable of showing up for his own induction ceremony?

We’ll have to wait a few months to see, although I think it would be bad if any of these deserving ballplayers get short-changed (although the Cubs-fan grousing we’re going to hear that Maddux ought to be considered a Cub more than a Brave will be annoying).

Although Thomas and Maddux likely will be the only Chicago-tied ballplayers we might hear from next year.

Because looking at the other local ballplayers who will come up for consideration the first time, I don’t see any athletes in need of immortalization. In fact, I’ll be amazed in any get even the 5 percent minimum standard to remain on the ballot for future years.

RAY DURHAM AND Keith Foulke may have been key parts of that division winning White Sox team of 2000, and Esteban Loaiza may be one of the few Mexican-American pitchers to win at least 20 games in a single season – but none of that strikes me as Cooperstown-worthy. Neither does anything about one-time Cub Jon Lieber.

And as for Moises Alou? Maybe his father or uncles (the famed Alou Brothers of the 1960s) ought to get some Hall of Fame consideration.

But the one-time Cubs outfielder got his moment of “glory” when we saw him whine back in 2003 when a Wrigley Field fan may have prevented him from catching a fly ball down the line – which would have averted the rally that ultimately caused the Cubs to (yet again) blow a chance at the World Series!

  -30-

EDITOR'S NOTE: Just think of what Sunday would have been like if people weren't so freaked out about steroid use, and it turned out to be the day that Sammy Sosa (along with Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds) had been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Would Sammy's command of the English language have suddenly improved to the point where he could give a comprehensible speech reminding us of how wonderful he thinks his presence was? Would he have given us that heart-tapping, kiss-blowing schtick that used to nauseate White Sox fans? And will there be some nitwit with a Hall of Fame ballot who will want to believe that since Sosa has to wait on Cooperstown immortalization, Frank Thomas should have to wait as well? We'll find out next year.