southtownstar.suntimes.com

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:18:19 -0500

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Forum: More protection for nurses

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:18:27 -0500

Nurses are the backbone of our health care system, yet our legal system doesn’t protect them against violence as it does other professions. In 2004, 46 percent of assaults and violent acts against health care practitioners that involved days off work were committed against registered nurses, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Any battery against police officers, emergency medical technicians and school employees is a felony. Under current law, a battery against a nurse has a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $2,500 fine. For other public employees, the maximum is five years and a …

Clarke: Independent agency needed to oversee Illinois’ youth prisons

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:18:11 -0500

Too often, it takes a crisis, and victims, to bring about change. In 2004, when policymakers were discussing the need to separate Illinois’ juvenile prisons from the adult-oriented state corrections department, a proposal was made to create an independent statewide group to ensure the safety of children in the prisons. The proposal was left behind in the final compromise creating the state’s Department of Juvenile Justice, whose mission recognizes that youths are different than adults and that emphasizes education and rehabilitation. An independent oversight body might have prevented the incidents revealed in the recent U.S. Justice Department report, which documented …

Speak Out for June 19, 2013

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:23:39 -0500

We need to protect our elderly by making them aware of intruders. Many criminals say they are working on the house or fixing the cable and then they steal the elderly’s things.

Forum: Columnist took cheap shot

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:35:46 -0500

It is disappointing that you would run Gene Lyons’ column (“National Media Freak Out,” June 3) containing a calumny against Fox News reporter James Rosen. In the piece, Mr. Lyons cleverly infers that Mr. Rosen has a mistress. He writes that “his friends say Rosen is a wonderful family man. That’s a good thing because judging by his journalistic tradecraft, he’d be apt to copy his wife and her mother on an email to his mistress.” Mr. Lyons knows full well that his misleading ad hominem argument against Mr. Rosen will be misconstrued by some readers. Isn’t Mr. Lyons also …

Reeder: Lazy legislators can’t bother to vote themselves

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:12:35 -0500

For the life of me, I’ll never understand why Illinois lawmakers are too lazy to push their own voting buttons. After all, that’s what we pay them to do — vote on our behalf. In 1988, when I first covered the General Assembly, a lawmaker proudly pulled a seven-foot-long piece of No. 9 wire from under his desk and showed me that he could not only vote for himself but also use his wire stick to press the voting buttons on the empty desks around him — without even getting up from his chair. The practice of legislators having others …

Speak Out for June 18, 2013

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:13:24 -0500

Thank you to all the volunteers who work at and with animals shelters in the Southland. It’s because of you that so many animals find forever homes.

Miller: New poll shows Lisa Madigan’s support falling sharply

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:22:00 -0500

In a sign that some truly awful publicity for her father may be hurting her possible gubernatorial bid, Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s poll numbers have plunged in the past several months. And Bill Daley has considerably improved his standing since he announced his candidacy. In January, a We Ask America poll had Madigan leading Gov. Pat Quinn in a Democratic primary election by 25 points, 51 percent to 26 percent. A Public Policy Polling survey taken in November had Madigan stomping Quinn by a whopping 44 points, 64 to 20. But the newest Capitol Fax/We Ask America poll, taken June …

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:35:47 -0500

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Sun, 16 Jun 2013 16:48:00 -0500

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Forum: McCain a warmongerer

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:18:22 -0500

I have always admired U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as a legitimate war hero. But never as a senator. His unlikely love fest with former U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy regarding immigration that would have ended up being a total amnesty forever changed my opinion of McCain. He worries about every border worldwide while ignoring our border that he swore to protect. Why did McCain recently take a secret trip to Syria? Secretary of State John Kerry is very capable of performing the duties of his office. McCain wants to get our troops involved in another war that serves us no …

Speak Out for June 17, 2013

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:01:41 -0500

I couldn’t agree more with fashion designer Lauren Lein’s Daily Splash column. Shop “Made in Chicago” or “Made in America.” How about opening a store in the southwest suburbs?

Our View: Expanding on good law

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:40:34 -0500

Because Illinois has an embarrassing record of arresting and convicting people for crimes they did not commit, occasionally sending an innocent person to prison for decades, any new law that makes that less likely is welcome. So, the bill now before Gov. Pat Quinn that expands the types of violent crime in which police must videotape their interviews with suspects is a positive step, and Quinn should not hesitate to sign it into law. It protects those questioned from police abuse and police from being falsely accused of misconduct. Those who might see this law as an unnecessary burden and …

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 22:40:01 -0500

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Forum: Giving single dads a chance

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:40:27 -0500

There are roughly 24 million children in the United States (or 34 percent) who live apart from their biological father, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. I wonder what kind of profound emotional effect that has on these children being raised by single mothers. There are about 5.6 million men in prison throughout the U.S., 78 percent of whom grew up in fatherless households. That speaks volumes about the cycle of emotional distress that continually contributes to the psychological dysfunction of many troubled youths today. When a child is born to parents who are not married to each other, the …

McGrath: Small but crucial moments in a father’s journey

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:06:07 -0500

I never saw much advantage in being a father. My old man had to work every day, even in the summer. And he spent much of his measly two weeks’ vacation yelling at me and my five brothers to clean our rooms and stop teasing our two sisters. Granted, he was free to smoke Salems and drink as much Budweiser as he wanted. And driving his Pontiac was the coolest thing a kid could imagine. But he could have done all that without the eight kids, who seemed to cause him nothing but grief, fatigue and poverty. Becoming a father …