Poplar Grove yay, county nay on new electric aggregation vote | Belvidere Daily Republican

Written by Bob Balgemann

Grove Village Attorney Roxanne Sosnowski has determined the village doesn’t have to wait. And so officials have agreed to send the appropriate ordinance to the county clerk’s office so the vote can be part of the Nov. 6 general election ballot.

But it’s the opinion of State’s Attorney Michelle Courier that the waiting period does apply to the county. That means county officials, who never formally took up the matter, will have to wait until 2014 if they ultimately decide they want to try it again.

Click on the following to read the entire story:  Poplar Grove yay, county nay on new electric aggregation vote | Belvidere Daily Republican

Cherry Valley solar farm project on hold indefinitely - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star

 

would-be developer of a proposed 180-acre solar farm on the eastern boarder of Cherry Valley has withdrawn his annexation and zoning petition that would make the project possible.

It’s unclear if the withdrawal means that project is finished for good or if the developer will reapply at a later date.

Click on the following for the complete story: Cherry Valley solar farm project on hold indefinitely - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star

Mitt Romney still profits from Bain Capital — at our expense | The Rock River Times

Mitt Romney still profits from Bain Capital — at our expense

Some have written and attempted to excuse Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital and other international corporations that pay little or no taxes, and when the bottom line looks better by shipping jobs overseas, they couldn’t care less about American jobs and lives.

I was at the public meeting in Freeport about Sensata (a division of Honeywell) shipping 170 Freeport jobs to China, last Sunday, and I didn’t hear anyone say, “It’s just the way we do business here in the U.S.” I heard many loyal long-time employees of Sensata — a division of Honeywell — vent their frustrations, anger and worries as to what the future holds for them. Some were in tears. Some had given their all for 30 years, only to be tossed in the trash bin when “offshoring” looked like it would bring a few more bucks to the bottom line.

Some, in their 50s or early 60s, are rightly concerned that no one will hire them unless it’s a low-paid, part-time job that no one can live on. Others are worried about losing health insurance, losing the ability to educate their kids, even facing the possibility of foreclosure on their houses. Retiring with any kind of security or livable income also looked remote.

Mitt Romney is just a symbol of what’s going on in this country, but he continues to profit handsomely from Bain Capital to the tune of more than $5 million just in 2011 in his financial disclosure. “Offshoring” (isn’t that a nice name for company greed?), if it continues, will impoverish this country. They are either ignorant or don’t care that people without jobs can’t buy new cars, electronics, tires or go to restaurants — all businesses that Freeport relies on. The more people that are “down-sized” (another convenient term), the more the U.S. becomes a Third World economy.

We don’t buy it if it doesn’t say “Made in the USA.”

We’ll vote for America first candidates this November.

The 1950s are looking better and better.

Peg and Ray Ruthenberg
Stockton, Ill.

From the Aug. 1-7, 2012, issue

See:  Mitt Romney still profits from Bain Capital — at our expense | The Rock River Times

Darts slow to take off - Automotive News explains why - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star

there are several reasons Dart sales are off to a sluggish start.

* Most of the first vehicles sent off to dealers were manual transmissions, which many dealers say prevent those who can't drive stick shifts from taking test drives.

* Cox confirmed Chrysler has delayed introducing the Dart's R/T version indefinitely. The Dart R/T was to be the first to have Chrysler's turbocharged 2.4-liter Tigershark engine. Cox said the delay will allow workers at the plant to launch the other Dart trim levels successfully.

* Chrysler started its Dart marketing campaign with a 90-second ad during the Major League All-Star Game on July 10. Since then, there has been almost no media push for the Dart. The Summer Olympics has been full of Ford, General Motors, Toyota ads, but nothing for the Dart.

Cox told automotive news that a big media push is planned for September when more Darts and more Dart versions are on dealer lots.

Click on the following to read all of the story:  Darts slow to take off - Automotive News explains why - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star

Most Belvidere Township officials plan to seek re-election | Belvidere Daily Republican

Written by Bob Balgemann

Incumbent Supervisor Pat Murphy and incumbent trustees Bill Robertson and Bob Turner said they are running again; incumbent Trustee Paul Zeien Jr. is not seeking re-election; and incumbent Trustee Debbie Carlson is undecided.

Assessor Diann Helnore, Road Commissioner Rich Lee and Clerk Judy Schabacker all said they planned to run again.

Qualifying petitions may be taken out starting Sept. 6 and they must be returned by Dec. 31. The primary election, if needed, is in February 2013; the general election is in April.

Read the entire article by clicking on the following:  Most Belvidere Township officials plan to seek re-election | Belvidere Daily Republican

The Terrible Economy and the Anti-Election of 2012

 

Sunday, July 29, 2012

The worst economy since the Great Depression and you might think at least one of the candidates would come up with a few big ideas for how to get us out of it.

But you’d be wrong. Neither candidate wants to take any chances by offering any large, serious proposals. Both are banking instead on negative campaigns that convince voters the other guy would be worse.

President Obama has apparently decided against advancing any bold ideas for what he’d do in the second term, even if he has a Congress that would cooperate with him.

He’s sticking to a worn script that says George W. Bush caused the lousy economy, congressional Republicans have opposed everything he’s wanted to do to boost it, it’s slowly on the mend anyway, the Bush tax cuts shouldn’t be extended for the rich, and we shouldn’t take a chance electing Romney.

Yet the public wants bigger ideas from the President, and wants to know what he’ll do in his second term to get us out of this mess. A New York Times-CBS News poll released last week showed that a majority of voters believe the president “can do a lot about” the economy. That’s a double-digit jump from the fall of 2011.

The President could propose a new WPA, modeled after the Depression-era jobs program that hired hundreds of thousands of jobless Americans to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, or a new Civilian Conservation Corps.

He could suggest permanently exempting the first $25,000 of income from payroll taxes, and making up the lost revenues by eliminating the ceiling on income subject to it. He could propose resurrecting the Glass-Steagall Act and breaking up the big banks, so Wall Street doesn’t cause another financial collapse.

But you won’t hear any of this, or anything else of this magnitude, because the White House doesn’t want to take any risks. Polls give Obama a slight edge in the critical eight or so battleground states, so, the thinking goes in the Obama camp, why say anything that might give Romney and the GOP a target?

Besides, polls also show Romney isn’t well-liked by the electorate.

So Obama has decided to campaign as the anti-Romney.

Mitt Romney is playing it even more cautiously. His economic plan is really a non-plan: more tax cuts for the rich, undefined spending cuts, and no details about how he’d bring down the budget deficit. No presidential candidate since Herbert Hoover in 1928 has been more vague about what he’d do on the critical issues facing the nation.

Romney’s advisors assume Obama can’t possibly be reelected with the economy this bad. Just 44 percent of registered voters in a Washington Post-ABC News poll earlier this month approve of the job the president is doing on the economy, while 54 percent disapprove. Even more encouraging for Romney is that 41 percent of those polled “strongly” disapproved of Obama’s economic performance, while just 21 percent “strongly” approved — an enthusiasm gap of major proportion.

So Romney’s advisors have concluded that all Romney has to do between now and Election Day is avoid a mistake that might give Obama and the Democrats something to shoot at.

Romney has decided to campaign as the anti-Obama.

The two anti-the-other-guy strategies fit with a ton of negative advertising that’s just begun but will reach mammoth proportions after Labor Day. Much of it will be financed by super-PACs and by political fronts already taking in hundreds of millions of dollars in secret donations. Romney’s camp hopes to out-negative Obama by almost two to one.

So whatever happens on Election Day, the next president will have to contend with two handicaps. The public won’t have endorsed any new ideas or bold plans, which means he won’t have a clear mandate to do anything on the economy.

The only thing the public will have decided is it fears and distrusts the other guy more. Which means the winner will also be burdened by almost half the electorate thinking he’s a scoundrel or worse.

The worst economy since the Great Depression, but we’re in an anti-election that will make it harder for the next occupant of the oval office to do a thing about it.

The above is taken from:  http://robertreich.org/post/28289563809

Emerald Ash Borer in Huntley

The article below is taken from:  http://www.firstelectricnewspaper.com/2012/08/huntley-marking-trees-for-eab-removal.html