southtownstar.suntimes.com

Kadner: ‘Rocky Law’ awaits Quinn’s signature

Wed, 22 May 2013 02:17:49 -0500

For the first time in Illinois history, schools would be required to make sure that student athletes are covered by catastrophic health insurance under a bill that passed the House on Tuesday. The measure, which would cover all high school athletes, previously passed the Senate and now goes to the governor for his signature. “You’re talking about the Rocky Law, and Gov. (Pat) Quinn will definitely sign it,” Brooke Anderson, the governor’s spokeswoman, said.“He attended Rocky Clark’s wake, has spoken to his mother and believes this law providing catastrophic insurance is needed to protect student athletes.” Inspired in large part …

Kadner: Chico pleads for more school funds

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:55:57 -0500

I laughed out loud when Gery Chico, chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education, told me he wants the Legislature to restore about $860 million cut from public school funding since 2009. Chico quickly responded to my outburst by explaining why he believes this is possible — despite the governor’s proposal to cut $310 million more from the state education budget this year. If a gambling expansion bill is passed, Chico wants the new revenue generated allocated to education. If teacher pension reform is approved, he wants some of the savings targeted for schools. And he wants new state …

Kadner: No chairs for chatty old veterans

Sun, 19 May 2013 02:18:05 -0500

As 79-year-old Gerald Lee slumped to the floor, he wondered why there were no chairs for patients at the registration desks in the Edward Hines Veterans Affairs clinic in Oak Lawn. “I was standing at the desk and had an episode in my leg, this sharp shooting pain, like a hot knife going into my calf,” recalled Lee, a U.S. Army veteran. “I was like ‘ow, ow, ow,’ and then I began to slump down and reached behind me for a chair arm to brace myself, only there was no chair there,” Lee said. “So I ended up on the …

Kadner: Longo fought for kids and taxpayers

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:47:45 -0500

South Cook County soon will lose one of its greatest advocates when Margaret Longo retires next month as a school superintendent. Longo, 58, successfully championed the abolition of the South Cook County regional school superintendent’s office after a series of stories about the superintendent’s corruption appeared in the SouthtownStar. And she spearheaded an effort in Springfield to abolish the obscure Bremen Township School Board after another series of newspaper stories about a board president who tried to award himself hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney fees. That effort was undermined by other Southland school districts that opted for appointing …

Kadner: Trying their best to impress, quickly

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:14:09 -0500

There was a time when an unemployed person would wear out shoe leather looking for a job. Today, the unemployed haunt the Internet, sending out resumes to people they likely never will see. “You feel sometimes like your resumes just go into an abyss,” said Cindy Paradise, of Homewood. “You long for an actual conversation with someone. A face-to-face meeting. It’s kind of defeating to be on the Internet because you don’t know if your resume is ever even being looked at.” Paradise, an unemployed marketing research project director, was among more than 150 people at a job fair Wednesday …

Kadner: Bury ready to begin her vision quest

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:26:50 -0500

“It’s a wonderful day, a wonderful opportunity. A wonderful city.” “I guess you can tell I’m walking on air,” said Sandra Bury, hours before her swearing-in ceremony as Oak Lawn’s new mayor Tuesday night. Bury defeated Mayor David Heilmann in the April 9 village election, promising a new era of teamwork and ethics reform. “Ethics reform will be my top priority,” Bury emphasized again. “We will try to pass an ordinance (Tuesday night) creating a committee that will study, among other things, limiting the amount of money that vendors can donate to elected officials in Oak Lawn. “I don’t think …

Kadner: Pull the trigger on gun law

Tue, 14 May 2013 02:09:17 -0500

Illinois still hasn’t passed a concealed-carry law despite a federal court order that it must do so by June 6. I am neither an opponent nor advocate of such a law. This is one of those issues where the arguments of both sides seem to have some merit, as well as some major weaknesses. But when Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart offered up his own version of a law allowing folks to legally carry guns on their person in Cook County, it made me chuckle. Dart wasn’t grandstanding, in my opinion. As a former state representative and a guy who …

Kadner: A travesty of a mockery of a sham

Sun, 12 May 2013 16:05:13 -0500

Mike Madigan really wants to raise suburban property tax bills. “This is going to happen,” the speaker of the Illinois House said last week, referring to the shift in funding pensions for suburban teachers from the state to local school districts. “There will be a new plan.” The Legislature has been busy crafting a pension reform plan in Springfield. While the Senate and House each passed their version of reform, neither included the dreaded shift in funding to suburban and downstate school districts. Legislators from those areas, beset by angry residents, had made it clear they would not go along …

Kadner: A factor in multiplying tax confusion

Fri, 10 May 2013 17:26:03 -0500

There may be someone who can explain how the property tax is calculated in Cook County, but chances are you wouldn’t want to talk to him. The property tax is probably the chief gripe of people who live and own businesses in the suburbs. Nobody understands how it’s calculated, and tax bills keep going up. In a news release this week, the Illinois Department of Revenue announced that it has determined that the 2012 final equalization factor for Cook County is 2.8056. The equalization factor also is known as the “multiplier,” but as Shakespeare once said, “An apparently random number …

Kadner: The congresswoman MADE N NY

Thu, 09 May 2013 22:35:37 -0500

When a new Illinois congresswoman drives a car with vanity license plates that read “MADE N NY,” it’s bound to attract attention. It becomes especially noteworthy when that congresswoman is Robin Kelly (D-2nd), who gained national renown due to the millions of dollars spent on her race by a SuperPAC operated by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “I believe you’re reading a little deeper meaning into the plates than is there,” replied Kelly’s spokeswoman, Kayce Ataiyero, when I suggested that the plates could provoke speculation as to their meaning. For example, Marcus Lewis, who ran against Kelly as an …

Kadner: Whistle-blower still helping Posen

Wed, 08 May 2013 20:38:22 -0500

It has been three years since T.J. “Terrence” Whitcomb, 20 years old at the time, uncovered the theft of nearly $300,000 from the tiny Posen Park District. The college student, a newly elected member of the park board, wondered why recreational programs available to him as a youth were no longer being offered. His questions were often evaded or the answers didn’t make sense. And while older, more experienced public officials often shrug their shoulders and turn their backs at such moments, Eagle Scout Whitcomb called the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. As a result, Donald Jacobs, 62, the longtime …

Kadner: LaGrange Road project finally begins

Tue, 07 May 2013 20:39:56 -0500

Motorists this week are seeing the first signs of the long-awaited, much-dreaded, LaGrange Road widening project through Orland Park. Originally scheduled to begin last year, the state launched preliminary work on Monday that will lead to the removal of existing medians from 131st to 159th streets. Once destroyed, the medians will be converted to temporary lanes to keep traffic flowing as the larger construction project gets under way, perhaps in August. Ultimately, the $100 million-plus project will create three lanes in each direction on LaGrange Road from 131st to 179th streets divided by a 27-foot-wide landscaped median that will severely …

Kadner: Presta has big plans for Crestwood

Sun, 05 May 2013 02:16:58 -0500

Despite what anyone may have heard or read in the newspapers, new Mayor Lou Presta wants people to know the future of Crestwood is bright. “We’re close to finalizing a deal with the MWRD (Metropolitan Water Reclamation District) for all the land along Route 83 (adjacent to the Calumet Sag Channel) from one end to the other, 40 acres on one side and about 18 acres on the other side, that will become fully developed,” Presta said. “That will generate a lot of sales tax revenue for the village.” He said a Culver’s Restaurant will soon be built on land …

Kadner: Two brave women await a gift of life

Fri, 03 May 2013 07:58:50 -0500

Two south suburban women from very different backgrounds are in desperate need of someone to save their lives. Friends are holding a fundraiser for 19-year-old Josie Nordman, of Homewood, on May 11. The spunky girl who ought to have a bright future needs a double lung transplant. Only a few miles away in Richton Park, Pamela Carpenter, 58, claims to be No. 1 on the lung transplant waiting list at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Their backgrounds are as different as the origins of their ailments. Josie has cystic fibrosis. Pamela has “what they call pulmonary fibrosis, although they …

Kadner: A mission to adopt children in need

Thu, 02 May 2013 10:49:22 -0500

Traci and Scott Heim are just your typical parents of 10 adopted children from three foreign countries. Sveta, from Russia, who is now 15, was the first in 1998. “We were living the American dream,” Traci recalled. “We had a big house in the Brookside Glen subdivision of Tinley Park, a Mercedes and we planned on having two kids. That was the plan.” The couple had difficulty conceiving, and Traci began thinking about adoption. “I wanted a family. Some people can’t deal with the idea of adoption and I get it,” she said. “But I realized family to me meant …

Kadner: Meeks explains calls on same-sex marriage

Sat, 04 May 2013 08:46:29 -0500

The Rev. James Meeks called my house to say “same-sex marriage should not be the law of the state of Illinois.” Actually, it was a robocall paid for by the African-American Clergy Coalition, with Meeks acting as the spokesman. The robocalls are targeting state House districts in the Southland, including those of state Reps. Robert Rita (D-Blue Island) and Will Davis (D-Hazel Crest). The tape-recorded message was rather tame, merely urging people to contact their lawmakers to tell them how they feel about the measure. I talked with Meeks by phone later Tuesday, and he stressed that he didn’t encourage …

Kadner: Jury says you can’t just follow orders

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 06:05:01 -0500

“I was just following orders.” Those are among the scariest words an ordinary person can hear from the mouth of a government employee. They mean something terrible has happened. That people have probably been harmed. And that public officials engaged in criminal conduct simply because someone higher up said it was OK. “I was just following orders.” That was the defense used by Theresa Neubauer, a former head of the water department in Crestwood, who on Monday was found guilty by a federal jury of falsifying documents that allowed tainted well water to flow into her community’s drinking supply. Her …

Kadner: Senate mandates insurance for athletes

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 07:13:43 -0500

A bill requiring catastrophic health insurance for student athletes passed the Illinois Senate on Wednesday. The measure, sponsored by state Sen. Napoleon Harris (D-Flossmoor), was inspired by the story of Rasul “Rocky” Clark, of Robbins, who became a quadriplegic after an injury suffered during an Eisenhower High School football game. Clark died in January 2012, having been confined to his bed for more than 11 years. His medical expenses exceeded $5 million. The bill sponsored by Harris, which must still be approved by the House, would require that school districts provide up to $3 million in catastrophic health insurance for …