PeoriaStory

The VP debate, live

PEORIA -- Will Gov. Sarah Palin make a fool of herself? Again?

Will Sen. Joe Biden seem mean or put his foot in his mouth? Again?

Will they both drop off their tickets after one last awful night?

The vice presidential debate at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 2 could be a defining moment in the campaign.

If both candidates cause a queasy feeling in your stomach or brain, you can watch while imbibing $2 beers at Leo & Steve's Chicago Tap and Andre's Restaurant, which is hosting its second debate watching party.

The bar and restaurant at 330 Liberty, Peoria, features free hors d’œuvres and wi-fi.

Remembering: lessons on life

PEORIA -- Here's a guest commentary by Ed Dentino, a good break from the crashing financial markets:

On Sports and Life by Ed Dentino

“It's not if you win. It's not even how you play. It's how you value yourself and what you learn when the game is over that really counts.”
-- Lou Tice, The Pacific Institute

Lots of adults and children engage in activities for reasons other than to climb a ladder or be the top dog.

We have become a culture of people over-hyping and over-paying sports players, racers, entertainment personalities, and even corporate heads based on a myth that their high achievement is so singular that the parts and participation of others is diminished.

We used to be a country that valued every effort and contribution to the well being of our nation. That reached a peak in World War II and continued momentum through the 1950s. The Vietnam era started the change that pulled the country away from that basic value.

There were and still are localized identities based on race, economic strata, religion, national origin. These are getting blurred as men and women of various groups achieve in sports, business and politics the status and power that was, prior 1950 largely the domain of the WASP – white anglosaxon protestant people.

My personal experience with sports does not include very much of the organized competitive sports. I was pretty athletic, played many sports as a kid growing up and later through life.

I played sandlot street baseball, football, basketball games and backyard badminton. At Roosevelt School, in my weight class, I was fairly fast running, tried basketball and football - did not have enough size or motivation. I remember bowling at the old Peoria Auto Parts bowling lanes for a couple of seasons. Used a pair of my Dad's old bowling shoes and got the lanes user balls to participate.

Dad and I went to Proctor Center almost every summer night and I played tether ball, which I excelled in. Two of the outstanding tether ball players I recall were Grant Morgan who I played a lot and learned from, and Gene Abraham, who only played a couple of times but was excellent- great speed and timing, the natural.

I began playing tennis at 13 at Proctor Center. Mr Dixon, a coach from Pekin instructed the first year, and Ross Canterbury, now a Peoria attorney instructed the second.

During my Manual High School years, I went to the YMCA three or four days and evenings a week. Was a Junior Leader in the gym, under Mike Chinakas. I remember Manual friend Stan Burke and Central High School friend Cliff Guenter were also Junior Leaders. Stan became a teacher, then later a teacher's union administrator. Did gym stuff, handball, and squash rackets, and table tennis at the YMCA. I recall table tennis player Adrian Hinton was especially helpful and coached me a bit.

Played intramural basketball at Manual High School. Our team did very well. I recall Mr. Aiello was the director/scorekeeper. Years later seeing Mr Aiello at a care home, I always asked: "Mr Aiello, we're have a basketball game - Can you keep score?" That always got a smile from him.

In my Manual sophomore year, I encouraged Principal Mr. Weldin to restart the tennis team. I played my junior and senior year. Mr. Tim Gorman coached the first year, then took on the golf coach job. Mr. Bob Funk coached the second year. We won zero tennis events with the other schools. But it was still a good experience and I recall a couple of the other school players that I liked: Roger Allen of Woodruff High School, later on the Peoria Park Board, Dick Rist, of Richwoods High School, Greg Fulford, Richwoods, Bo Bacheldor, also Richwoods.

In my senior year at Manual, I was a basketball team manager - got to carry towels and do scoring and shot charts on the bench with the team. Mr Wilkinson was the coach - later became Woodruff High School Principal.

Except for buying a tennis racket, paying YMCA membership dues, an allowance that got me bus fare to the Y, my parents saw very little of that activity. I was on my own.

Later sports activities including snow skiing (started in Berchesgarden Germany), water skiing, and racket ball with a Caterpillar group that played at what eventually became a Cat facility. Later, I began bowling with a Cat group and also a wheelchair group.

I have resumed playing table tennis, canoing, motorcycle and bicycle riding (very little).

Square dancing, a recreation that takes a bit of coordination and athletic perception, became a very big activity for me in 1985. It connected me with a very wide cross section of people, from America and abroad, in Peoria, Chillicothe, Kewanee, Macomb, Taylorville, Saint Louis, Sheboygan, Wisc. Los Angeles --that was great for gaining appreciation of others sharing a heartfelt recreation.

All of this has been a series of experiences that produced no gold metals or a trophy case of shiny metal and marble. Just sweat, running after balls that had to be picked up and memories of people and places that I've experienced.

The experiences of those 50 years (I'm now 63) have been filled memories of people, places, and stories that would take a book to fill. The health I've enjoyed, the social and cultural contacts have been the benefit and blessing of my sports and recreation participation. This has given me a treasure in memories. -30-

Ed Dentino worked at Caterpillar, Inc., for 37 years as an engineering technician before he retired in 2000. He's a US Air Force veteran, and now pursues various interests from photography to motorcycles.

OSF controversies

PEORIA -- Dr. John Carroll, the Haitian Hearts founder and hospital gadfly has an interesting new post on his blog, Peoria's Medical Mafia. It's about the relationship between OSF St. Francis Medical Center and AMT, Advanced Medical Transport, the ambulance service controlled by Peoria's three hospitals.

Carroll has long maintained that hospital officials used their influence to keep the Peoria Fire Department from delivering top level emergency care, to protect the hospital's investment in AMT.

The situation threatened the lives of people having all types of serious medical problems. When the firefighters arrived first, the firefighters who were Paramedics were unable to offer advanced life support or transport these patients to local hospitals.

OSF officials controlled the rules of emergency care so that the firefighters could only offer Basic support and the patient had to wait for AMT to arrive at the scene to receive advanced life support.

That changed this summer, as some firefighters now are allowed to provide advanced care.

Carroll has fought for this change for years, and been attacked for his advocacy.

Check out his post.

-- Elaine Hopkins

GOP no shows, a national strategy?

PEORIA -- The Peoria ACLU-sponsored federal candidate forum on the Constitution and Civil Liberties on Sept. 25 took place as scheduled but 100 percent of the Republicans failed to show up.

Is this now a national strategy, what with Sen. John McCain suspending his campaign and making noises about ditching the Sept. 26 debate with Sen. Barack Obama?

Are Republican ideas so indefensible that they cannot be discussed or debated in a public forum?

State Rep. Aaron Schock never accepted the invitation to the ACLU forum, no surprise since he has not appeared at any candidate forum where questions can come from the public.

He's also blown off the Peoria Area World Affairs Council, the Campaign for Better Health Care and Eureka College, all sessions where the public could attend and ask questions. HIs two opponents appeared and discussed the issues.

Schock is scheduled for a television debate with his congressional opponents for the 18th Congressional District seat, on WEEK-TV at 7 p.m. on Oct. 6. But that will be a highly structured event without audience questions.

Oddly, Republican candidate for the US Senate Steve Sauerberg also did not appear at the ACLU forum, even though he had accepted the invitation and talked about how it conveniently fit his schedule. An aide called an hour before the forum and canceled, but gave no reason.

A third party Senate candidate, Chad Koppie of the Constitution Party also canceled after asking for an invitation.

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat seeking reelection, never agreed to appear since Congress is in session, but sent his regrets along with a letter expressing support for civil liberties.

That left the two remaining candidates for the 18th Congressional District seat, Democrat Colleen Callahan and Green Party candidate Sheldon Schafer. They both support civil liberties, and while they elaborated on their ideas -- in fact Schafer commented that this was the most interesting forum he has participated in -- there was little disagreement between then.

They both are against the excesses of the Patriot Act such as warrantless wiretapping, favor church-state separation and won't impose their moral code on others. Callahan is pro-choice. Schafer is pro-life but said he opposes any constitutional amendment, including one that would ban abortion, and he won't send doctors to jail for performing abortions.

One star of the evening was the historic GAR Hall where the event was held. It's been cleaned up. No longer a little down-at-heels, it was the perfect venue for the event, with its historic photos and stained glass windows.

Portraits of Washington and Lincoln on the elevated stage overlooked the proceedings. One wonders what these two presidents would have thought about a political process where some candidates are now afraid to face the public, but expect to be elected anyway.

-- Elaine Hopkins

Debate watching

PEORIA -- Here's a fun idea for watching the Sept. 26 presidential debate between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain:

Leo & Steve's Chicago Tap and Andre's Restaurant is hosting a debate-watching party, complete with wide-screen TV, free hors d'oeuvres and a free wi-fi connection.

The restaurant/bar is located at 330 Liberty, lower level, in downtown Peoria.

The debate starts at 8 p.m., but the party begins when people arrive.

This place also has a lending library and bike rack, and coffee as well as beer. Cool!

If you want to rate the presidential debates for the media advocacy group Free Press, sign up here.

And -- don't forget the ACLU-sponsored forum/debate for federal candidates at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25 at the historic GAR Hall, 1416 Hamilton Blvd. The theme: the Constitution and Civil Liberties.

Candidates for the 18th District seat in Congress, Democrat Colleen Callahan and Green Sheldon Schafer, and US Senate candidate Republican Steve Sauerberg have accepted the invitation. Republican Aaron Schock for the 18th District and Democrat Dick Durbin for U.S. Senate were invited but unlikely to show up.

Schock, like Sarah Palin, apparently doesn't go where the public is invited and can ask questions. Durbin is busy in Congress, which is in session.

Nevertheless with subjects such as torture, separation of church and state, and other hot button issues, the event should be lively. Three local journalists will ask questions, and the audience will also ask questions. It's free and open to the public.

Candidate distinctions become clear

PEORIA -- There's nothing like a candidate forum/debate to clarify the distinctions between the candidates.

That's what occurred for Peoria County Board and Illinois House 92nd District candidates at the League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria's candidate forum on Sept. 20.

Five County Board candidates attended, all in contested races. Republican Brad Harding is challenging incumbent Democrat Eldon Polhemus in District 16; Republican Jeff Lickiss is challenging Democratic incumbent Allan Mayer in District 6, and Republican Lyn Smith is challenging Democratic incumbent Pat Hidden in District 18. Hidden was ill and did not attend.

In general, the Republican challengers follow their party's ideology of support for private business. They would consider turning the aging and obsolete Bel-Wood nursing home over to private operators, and they support expansion of the Peoria Disposal Co. hazardous waste landfill at Pottstown.

The Democrats opposed privatizing the facility, and said the county has the money to rebuild Bel-Wood, an estimated $35 million project. Mayer commented it "should be a new facility with green architecture. We should be able to afford it," based on a referendum passed a few years ago, he said.

(UPDATE: Lickiss later stated in an email: "I am against privatizing the nursing home and made that clear by stating “I have to disagree with my colleague, Brad” when I started my statement. Also I stated that the money was available from the referendum.")

Polhemus and Mayer oppose any landfill expansion. Mayer led the fight against it a few years ago.

In the 92nd District race for an open seat, Republican Joan Krupa and Democrat Jehan Gordon present a remarkable contrast.

The youthful Gordon in her 20s, stressed her energy and ability to work with everyone, especially the Democrats in the General Assembly. "We have to bring people together," she said.

She's a liberal Democrat with no hesitation in saying she is pro-choice and supports full civil rights for gays and lesbians.

Krupa, in her 60s and a liberal-leaning Republican, told of her long experience as a teacher, health care administrator and former County Board member. "I will use my experience to work in a bipartisan fashion for all citizens," she said.

Krupa voiced her opposition to gambling expansion. "It's a shell game," she said, adding "I will not take the no-tax increase pledge."

The two have clashed recently on Gordon's attendance record as a member of the Pleasant Hill School Board. She was appointed to the board last year.

Krupa checked her record and reported Gordon had a 40 percent absence rate from the meetings in 2007 through August. But that's dropped to about 27 percent since then, according to Gordon.

Gordon said she had to work late when she missed the meetings.

Gordon then asserted that Krupa had missed 25 percent of County Board meetings when she served on that board but offered no details. Krupa later said she planned to check the official records, as she didn't believe she had missed many meetings.

(UPDATE: The Journal Star has reported that Krupa had a 98 percent attendance record during her decade on the Peoria County Board.)

Krupa said she is pro-choice, but waffled a bit, saying abortion should be rare. She also waffled on civil rights for gays and lesbians. "I do not support civil unions at this point. I do believe everyone should have protection under the law," she said.

Gordon supports Sen. Barack Obama's health care plan offered in his presidential bid.

Krupa offered support for parts of Sen. John McCain's plan that would set up electronic medical records and insurance pools to reduce consumer costs.

Someone afterwards suggested the the contrast between the two candidates mirrors the differences between Obama and McCain. But that's not a valid comparison.

Gordon, a personable African American, is much younger and less experienced than Obama though she mirrors his positions on most of the issues, while Krupa with years of experience is much more liberal than McCain.

With six week to go before the Nov. 4 election, voters still have time to decide which woman can best represent this district.

-- Elaine Hopkins

Peoria taxpayers cost for Bush/Schock visit: now over $38,000.

UPDATE, Sept. 24, 2008: City officials now say the Bush visit cost Peoria taxpayers alone over $38,000. That's real money!

Peoria councilman Gary Sandberg made the city cough up the real tab, instead of the $13,195 that the city reported in its response to my Freedom of Information Act request, dated August 28, and responded to on Sept. 17. That information is totally bogus.

So much for the integrity of the FOIA.

But good for Sandberg, who forced the city to tell the truth! He got the big ticket items, use of city street vehicles, plus all kinds of overtime costs, adding up to $38,000.

Now there are loud calls for Schock to pay up.

I'm still waiting for the Illinois State police to respond.
-- Elaine Hopkins

PEORIA -- Taxpayers in Peoria County paid over $15,000 to protect President George W. Bush, when he came only to campaign for Congressional candidate Aaron Schock.

Bush's sole purpose for the visit was private, to campaign for Schock. He did not hold any local press conferences or meet with any constituents except those attending Schock's fund raiser. But taxpayers still footed the bills.

Schock's campaign has not been billed for the costs, city and county officials said.

The city and county were asked, under the Freedom of Information Act, to determine how much was spent to provide security for the Bush visit on July 25.

Interim city manager Henry Holling, in a Sept. 17 letter, responded that the city paid $13,195 for police overtime, premium pay and other costs.

City street department vehicles were used to block spectators from seeing Weaver Farms where Bush lunched with Schock supporters, but those costs were not included in Holling's response. Nor were expenses for vehicles or the cost of paying regularly scheduled workers who would otherwise be spending their time on city business.

County sheriff's captain Dave Briggs compiled the cost for providing deputies for the event. He concluded that the county spent about $1,700 in extra pay that day for personnel.

But not included in that cost were the expenses for those already scheduled to work who were also sent to protect Bush, when they otherwise would have spent their time on other police business, he said. That would be an additional $1,702.

Briggs said his officers were deployed at the request of the U.S. Secret Service, and Schock's campaign would not be billed for the expenses.

Briggs was not apologetic. "This is the president of the U.S. I think were can handle $1,700 in overtime," he said.

These costs did not include gasoline and other vehicle expenses, he said.

The Illinois State Police also have been asked to provide their costs for protecting Bush when he was campaigning for Schock, but have not yet responded.

Schock is the Republican candidate for the 18th District Congressional seat. His opponents are Democrat Colleen Callahan and Green Party candidate Sheldon Schafer.

-- Elaine Hopkins

Illinois AIG policy holders safe, state says

PEORIA -- Illinois residents who have insurance products with companies associated with AIG, American Insurance Group, are safe, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Insurance said on Thursday, Sept. 18.

The federal bailout of AIG contains a provision forbidding the company from borrowing from its subsidiaries, spokeswoman Susan Hofer said.

Asked whether Illinois will allow any borrowing, Hofer responded, "no."

Before the bailout, New York had given permission for AIG to borrow from subsidiaries in that state.

There are no federal regulations for insurance, only state regulations.

AIG owns VALIC, a Houston, Tex.- based insurance company and likely other companies doing business in Illinois.

AIG-connected insurance products include policies and annuities which many retirees, including former state employees, depend on.

Hofer said insurance companies in Illinois must maintain adequate reserves to serve their policyholders, and are not allowed to invest in risky securities. Instead they must invest in AAA-rated government backed bonds and the like, she said.

Still -- the quasi-government mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were rated AAA before they required a government bailout.

If a company in Illinois fails, Hofer said, "policy holders come first."

Hofer said her agency employees more than 200 people to oversee the insurance companies.

Do we believe what state officials say, in a state that wants to close its parks and historic sites while wasting money on other projects that could wait? Do we have a choice?

Author Steve Pizzo, who with others wrote "Inside Job," the definitive book on the greed and malfeasance that led to the savings and loan crisis or more than a decade ago, has offered the best explanation in plain language of the AIG crisis. He wrote:

"In case you don't know what AIG does that's so important it required Treasury to nationalize it, here's a hint. One of the biggest, and most lucrative, products of AIG is asset insurance which they sell to banks. Asset insurance works like this:

"Regulations require federally insured banks to maintain a baseline percentage of their assets as a cushion in case some of their loans go bad. Banks hate that, because they can get better returns loaning money than holding it.

"Enter AIG which sells banks insurance policies to replace a bank's regulatory capital with an insurance policy promising to produce that now missing capital in the event the banks borrowers default.

"The bottom-line, AIG's policies allow banks to maintain far less capital on hand than regulations require.

"You might have noticed there's a lot of defaulting going around right now... a lot more than AIG or their bank customers ever imagined, and a lot more defaulting and asset value write downs than AIG can possibly cover, because, you see, AIG doesn't have enough ready capital itself. (Remember this the next time McCain complains about "burdensome government regulations." You might want to ask him precisely which regulations he would eliminate as president.)

"So, if AIG failed, all those banks out there that replaced their regulatory capital with AIG IOUs would be in deep, deep, deep, deep, doo doo. If AIG failed the feds would be faced with the possibility -- growing daily into a probability -- of having to virtually nationalized a huge number of banks and S&Ls, replacing AIG's IOUs with USA IOUs. (Yugo Chavez and Fidel Castro would get a good laugh out of that.)"

A good explanation of what's really going on. Without that federal AIG bailout, banks would start to fall, like dominoes.

If you want a more complete but complicated explanation, see this New York Times story.

Meanwhile, here's a little free advice, probably worth what you pay for it: where you can do so without penalties, transfer or roll over cash brokerage accounts into bank CDs, guaranteed by the FDIC. Your broker should be able to do that for you quickly.

Stocks and mutual funds in your name should be safe, though they can crash and fall to be worth nothing. At least AIG or its bedfellows can't take that away by "borrowing."

As Sen. Obama has so famously said, "in an ownership society, you're on your own."

-- Elaine Hopkins

Candidate forums open to the public

UPDATE, 9/19/08: A candidate forum on health care for the three 18th District congressional candidates has been announced for 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 22 at the Peoria Public Library, Basement Auditorium, 107 N.E. Monroe St. Peoria.

PEORIA -- Two candidate forums that are free and open to the public, where the audience can ask questions, have been scheduled for the near future.

These forums are different from the many candidate events where the audience is limited to members of a group and their guests, or where questions are not taken from the audience. They offer an opportunity for anyone to attend and ask questions.

The first takes place at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 20 at the Radisson Hotel (formerly Jumers) 117 N. Western, Peoria. This forum, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria, is for state and local candidates. These include:

For the 92nd House of Representatives, Democrat Jehan Gordon and Republican Joan Krupa.

For Peoria County Coroner, Republican incumbent Johanna Ingersoll and Democratic challenger Steve Schmid.

For Peoria County Board:
District 6, Democratic incumbent Allan Mayer and Republican challenger and former board member Jeff Lickiss.
District 16, Democratic incumbent Eldon Polhemus and Republican challenger Brad Harding.
District 18, Democratic incumbent Pat Hidden and Republican challenger Lyn Smith.

All of those invited are expected to attend. An optional $10 breakfast begins at 8:30 a.m.

The second forum is for federal candidates, and sponsored by the Peoria American Civil Liberties Union.

It takes place at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 25 at the historic GAR Hall, 416 Hamilton Boulevard, Peoria.

Its theme is the Constitution and Civil Liberties.

Candidates will be asked to comment on issues including the growing power of the presidency, religious liberty, torture, warrantless wiretapping and the USA Patriot Act.

Candidates who accepted an invitation to participate include:

For the United States Senate: Republican Steve Sauerberg will attend. (Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat, was invited.)

For the United States House of Representatives from Illinois’ 18th District: Democratic candidate Colleen Callahan and Green Party candidate Sheldon Schafer will attend. (Republican Aaron Schock was invited.)

ACLU of Illinois communications and public policy director Edwin C. Yohnka will moderate the forum. The program will begin with questions from a panel of local journalists, including Pam Adams of the Peoria Journal Star, Tanya Koonce of WCBU-FM and Dwayne Bartels of the Peoria Times Observer. Written questions will be accepted from the audience.

Durbin has said he cannot attend because Congress is in session. Schock has so far declined to attend, but the organizers hope he will change his mind and discuss publicly these important issues.

States Attorney race turns political, unsatisfying

PEORIA -- Long time Peoria County States Attorney Kevin Lyons must be wondering what he has done, or not done, to be faced with a high profile challenger this late in his career.

Lyons, a Democrat, has not had a credible opponent in years. Now he is locked in a hot race against Republican Darin LaHood, son of retiring 18th District Congressman Ray LaHood, R-Peoria, and the elder LaHood's political machine.

Huge, expensive LaHood signs are everywhere. All the police departments have endorsed LaHood. Even Patti Polk, formerly vice president of the Peoria County Democratic Women and the wife of the 18th District Democratic committeeman James Polk, has publicly endorsed LaHood and held a fund-raiser for him.

Darin LaHood reportedly wanted to run for his father's Congressional seat but was aced out early by the aggressive state Rep. Aaron Schock, who represents the 92nd District in the Illinois House. Schock acquired early endorsements from Republican officials in his race for the Congressional seat.

So LaHood took a lesson from Schock, who politicized the formerly non-political Peoria District 150 School Board to prepare for his first statehouse run in 2004. The ploy worked for Schock. Will it work for LaHood?

At a debate between Lyons and LaHood on Thursday, Sept. 11, LaHood used the language of politics to promote his candidacy. The States Attorney should be a leader in fighting crime, he said, and "proactive" in setting up programs such as assigning prosecutors to work in high crime areas.

"If you're happy with the status quo, I'm not your candidate," LaHood told the audience of primarily staff members from Peoria's child welfare agencies.

In a less political presentation, Lyons told the audience that the States Attorney has two roles, to manage the office of 60 workers, half lawyers, and be an excellent trial lawyer who wins cases and sets an example for his staff.

As for juvenile cases, Lyons said, "it's a very complicated matter." He told of sentencing a man to a 15-year prison term who has three unborn children on the way with different pregnant women. Those will be fatherless children, he said.

LaHood said Peorians are so afraid of crime that they're moving out of the city. He contended "better communication" between those involved in juvenile and child welfare cases would move the cases more quickly through the legal system. "Let's make the States Attorney accessible and bring those entities together," he said.

Lyons responded "what he just told you is wrong." The States Attorney attends the local Juvenile Justice Council, he said. "We work to keep juveniles out of prison "

The incarceration rate for juveniles has dropped to 52 last year from 70 something previously, thanks to a state funded program, he said.

Lyons said he has learned from long experience, "just saying it doesn't make it true."

LaHood said prosecution should be driven by "the safety in the community," and should work to deter  crime and "send a message." Is he implying prosecution without adequate evidence, just to intimidate some people? And what would that cost? No one asked.

Lyons said "we prosecute when evidence is credible."

LaHood would like to "look at the plea agreement system," and cited crime statistics showing Peoria has the highest crime rate per capita in Illinois.

Lyons disputed that, but LaHood said the police are "sick of plea agreements" and have endorsed him.

Lyons responded that he does not accept endorsements from "police labor unions" in the county. "I have prosecuted 23 police officers. You've got to do what you've got to do. It's the right thing to do," he said.

LaHood responded, "for the first time in 20 years he's not seeking endorsements."

Of Lyons's 94 percent conviction rate, "a lot of that is plea bargaining," LaHood said. "We have a crime problem. We can do things differently."

Lyons said the jail was built to hold 415 inmates, but there are "520 today" and often 600 there. Illinois has 43,000 people in its prisons. "Are the prisons not full enough?" he asked. "It's about judges and about balance."

The debate format involved written questions that had been furnished to the candidates previously. They each spoke for three minutes, and could comment on each other's remarks. But there were no questions allowed from the audience, and no follow up questions from the moderator.

This format ignored real issues with the juvenile court and child welfare system that each candidate should answer before the election, including why most children caught up in the system are black and what can be done about that.

Another issue is whether juvenile courts should be closed to the public, including bloggers, which the States Attorney's office does not consider real journalists.

The juvenile courts are open by Illinois law to journalists, but in a case last year, the States Attorney's office opposed allowing a blogger to cover a juvenile case, even though the defendant OKed it. With one party opposed, the judge would not allow it.

This raised but did not resolve the issues of who is a journalist and whether the government should decide who is a journalist.

Relatives such as grandparents are also kept out of these courts, though juvenile cases have been opened to all in other states, including Missouri, to allow more public scrutiny of the system.  Would one of these candidates champion this issue with the General Assembly?

There will be other debates between these two candidates where these issues can be explored.

 

-- Elaine Hopkins