Today’s news: All sorts of ciminal behavior out there
News links via the Journal Star:
- Aaron Schock officially announced yesterday. As far as I know, he’s the only candidate to come out in favor of expanding the use of nuclear power, which is something I strongly support.
- Doug Finke says that Gov. Blagojevich wants to send the entire state a bill so Blago’s Chicago neighborhood can get some property tax relief.
- Freebies and fun for the kids at the Taft.
- In East Peoria, once they figure out a kid is a bad influence, they kick his sorry ass out. Everywhere else, they treat the poor darlings with kid gloves.
- I am shocked, absolutely shocked, that a hotel guest would try to rip someone off.
- Their former boss said ‘no pension for you.’ One of them checked, and yes, you do get a pension. No harm no foul, right? Apparently so. I wonder how many people are out there suffering because their boss made a ‘mistake.’ Funny how these mistakes keep benefiting bosses.
- Sigh. Woodruff High School just doesn’t have good luck during the playoffs.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Hmm, I am part of that minority of liberals that favors nuclear power. BUT, we must make a concerted effort to find a long term solution to the waste storage problem.
Also, (I am ducking my head here), this industry might be better with more government intervention. Nuclear works in France because they have distilled the permissible reactors to a few “off she shelf” plans where the details and the bugs have been worked out; nuclear plants are NOT like other plants.
Even if the kid is expelled, the district is required to provide him an education. (Both because children have a right to a free public education and because they’re required by law to be in school of some format until they’re 16.) If the alternative school or program for expelled students is full, the district still has to put expelled students somewhere, and that somewhere could be two counties over at taxpayer expense. Expulsion proceedings require due process, and in wealthy areas are basically a guarantee you’ll get sued. It’s frequently much, much easier to move students into an appropriate program without mucking with expulsion, since you’re going to have to put them in the program ANYWAY if you expel them.
Where I grew up schools hardly ever expelled anyone, even for breaking the “zero tolerance” rules that mandated expulsion. Generally they’d suspend for 10 days and then send them to the alternative program. I think if they expelled it was something like 30 days and then the alternative program, but usually the parents sued then. (Also, that’s 30 days a problem kid with no stay-at-home parent is then unsupervised, so it’s not a great solution from that standpoint either.)
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I’m not against nuclear power but I’m certainly against existing Illinois utilities running it. I grew up powered by Zion, run by ComEd, and ComEd is barely competent to tie its own shoelaces, let alone run a nuclear plant. They didn’t understand the concept of “get a night guard” after 9/11 when the feds ordered them to do so. (“But we’re not making power there anymore, what could terrorists possibly want with blowing up tons of still-radioactive spent nuclear fuel in the country’s third-largest metro area?”)
What is ciminal?