Posts Tagged ‘Caterpillar’
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
From Merle Widmer:
Oh, I forgot, building the museum is jobs but why haven’t they stated building? All those private donations sitting in banks drawing little interest while building costs are escalating. Remember, Mark Johnson, retired from Caterpillar, who our administrator wants to hire to help him with the museum takeover, said rising construction costs caused the $65 million museum to jump to $78 million last year. If that is true then $78 million should jump to $93 million by the time they get started next year. The only thing the museum (county) is going to start this year is the $9 million underground garage, all taxpayer funded, thanks to our elected officials, past and present.
Well, the museum project is going to create at least one job, I hear. A note in my inbox (I won’t say from WHO) says the Peoria County Board is going to hire recently retired Caterpillar executive Mark Johnson as the museum project manager for $25,000 a year.
This is the guy who went around telling everybody that the the museum — and the museum tax increase — would be good for the economy.
Well, if this rumor is true, it certainly will be good for HIS economy.
Tags: Caterpillar, Merle Widmer, museum tax
Posted in Overset | 14 Comments »
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
Caterpillar Inc. is fixing up its parking deck. Good for them. For them. It’s their deck, they are responsible for it. In a totally pure free-market, free-enterprise system they ought to be responsible for those costs. One of those costs, one assumes, would be to find a place for its workers to park.
 After all, there isn’t a mini-mall, mega-mall or a hot-dog stand that isn’t forced to comply with strict standard that state exactly how many parking spaces must be provided. The number of the spaces is set my ordinance. The number of handicapped spaces is set by ordinance. The width and length of the spaces are set by ordinance. The cannot just say that their customers and employees are going to park on the street. They have to either buy enough land to build their own lots, or make arrangements with nearby property owners who have a surplus.
But not if you are Caterpillar. For them, the free-market is a concept to be trotted out to argue that it should be able to do business anywhere, with anyone, without restriction from pesky rules and regulations.
But when it suits their interests, they are like pigs at the public trough.
So, Caterpillar simply went to the city of Peoria and announced they wanted to pave over the ground at the former Sears Block and have it’s minions park their cars there. Don’t worry, we’ll pay for the costs and cover the cost for providing security at the site. This would be roughly equal to the rental space the city otherwise would be able to get from the spaces.
Well, that was the theory when this was discussed during an executive session following the last council meeting.
Caterpillar didn’t need to pay rent, the thinking was, because it was “a wash.”
Council member Gary Sandberg now says that he was told that the process would take about five mnths. But the agreement presented to the council for approval Tuesday stated that it would take as long as 7 1/2 months, a 50-percent increase. In other words, the city was losing 50-percent more rent that the council had been led to believe.
Sandberg lectured the council:
“We are going to have to start treating our business assets with some business sense, like Caterpillar does,” he said.
“I guess I misunderstood the math” and “didn’t understand the length,” said City Attorney Randy Ray, adding that the “wash” was based on “rough math.”
“It’s not lost OR found money,” Ray said.
Mark Johnson of Caterpillar (I can’t find his title right at this moment; I’ll get it later) told the council that the company doesn’t know exactly how long the repairs will take. The deck, he said, is 45 years old.
“Instead of just patching it up, we want to do a major overhaul,” Johnson said. “I expect it (the length of the agreement) was extended so it could a a little cushion.”
Council member Barbara Van Auken, who earlier expressed doubts the longer length of the agreement made it a wash, said she trusted Johnson’s word and was among those who voted to approve the agreement.
But the biggest defense came from Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis.
“I have absolutely no problem with the agreement,” Ardis said, “considering all the good Caterpillar does for our community.
“I don’t think this is one we need to dig our heels in on, folks.”
The vote to approve was 9-1, with Councilman Eric Turner abstaining (he works at Caterpillar) and Councilman Pat Nichting, who was absent.
Sandberg told me after the meeting that the city essentially gave up about $100,000 in revenue by not renting Caterpillar the space. And then there is the revenue that the owners of privately-owned parking decks lost because Caterpillar didn’t have to rent spaces from them on the open market.
So the council not only screwed the taxpayers out of incoming revenue, they screwed some private businesses out of some cash as well. It’s sorta like if the city is standing outside of restaurants handing out free hot-dogs and soda.
And here’s my last comment/question about this whole mess: I assume these improvements to the Sears Block include paving it over and laying down some parking stripes. Exactly what good will these improvements be to the city once Cat’s own deck is completed? After all, aren’t they going to have to tear it our to build their museum and Caterpillar’s visitor center?
A wash? This thing sounds like a hosing from day one.
NOTE: Corrected to change weeks to months.
Tags: Caterpillar, parking, Peoria City Council, Sears Block
Posted in Local | 17 Comments »
Thursday, May 1st, 2008
I’m sitting here in the late evening without access to the data to look this up. But it sounds to me like Randy Oliver told the fine folks in Durham, N.C. that the City of Peoria owns (or could one day own) a bunch of Caterpillar stock. The post is from a Durham blogger who attended a forum for the three folks who are applying for city manager, including Randy Oliver, who held the job here in River City:
There were additional differences among the candidates in response to questions about sustainability, especially of our water supply (Mr. Oliver was very specific about tiered water rates, for example, while Mr. Kolb talked about the use of porous asphalt to build parking lots that didn’t increase runoff, and Mr. Salerno was more general about the “interdependence of the environment, the economy, and social justice.”) and about the use of economic incentives for attracting new business. Mr. Oliver talked about how Peoria got stock options from Caterpillar in exchange for policies easing the creation of the Caterpillar spinoff Firefly(i feel like i’m talking about little known science fiction TV shows here) which makes environmentally friendly(er) lead free batteries. I guess if the business is successful, the city cashes in its options and makes more money than it gave away in incentives, which is certainly innovative. I wonder if that’s legal in North Carolina.
There’s nothing in my posts about any stock options given to the city. I’ll have to make some phone calls, but perhaps also some readers might shed some light on this.
UPDATED: The answer is … no. I got this email from Randy Ray, which confirmed what my commenters said:
The Firefly arrangement was approved by Council on May 22, 2007. In exchange for pledging revenues to guarantee Firefly’s bank loan, the City received a warrant, valid through Sept. 7, 2017, to purchase up to 333,334 shares for 72 cents per share.
My thanks to Mr. Ray for the prompt reply.
Tags: Caterpillar, Firefly, Randy Oliver, stock options
Posted in Local | 2 Comments »
Friday, April 11th, 2008
From the Journal Star:
Against a backdrop of unrest in Tibet and protests accompanying the worldwide tour of the Beijing Olympic torch – two issues that have placed China in an unflattering global spotlight this week – the Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Zhou Wenzhong, is visiting Peoria Friday.
But unless you are an employee of Caterpillar Inc., a member of the Rotary Club of Peoria or an invited guest of a member, you might not notice.
[snip]
Unless you count his lunch speech to Rotarians at 11:45 a.m. at the Hotel Pere Marquette as a public appearance, there are no others planned. Club members will not be allowed to ask questions of the speaker as they commonly do at their weekly meetings.
The speech was arranged by a Rotarian who is also a Caterpillar executive, Roberts said. He was scheduled to speak as part of a cultural exchange with Caterpillar and is not expected to address – in any way – the Olympic torch, Tibet, or any other recent negative story that has appeared in the American press.
Actually, I don’t want to crash today’s Rotary Club meeting to ask Mr. Wenzhong to rationalize his nation’s brutal occupation of Tibet. As China’s mouthpiece here in the United States, I’m sure he has his spiel down pat. I have no interest in hearing it.
Instead, I would like to ask the Caterpillar executives who will be in attendance how it feels to enjoy the political, religious and economic freedoms that all Americans enjoy knowing that the size of your bonus depends on doing business with a political entity that is every bit as evil and murderous as the Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia.
I mean, do you guys have to drink a lot or take a lot of drugs to numb your brain enough so that you don’t dwell on the knowledge that your business partners force parents to abort their children in order to limit themselves to just one? Or, even worse, do you go through life perfectly happy to get your money by partnering with these people? When you go to church on Sunday, do you pray for forgiveness for putting money in the pockets of a government that kills Christians, Buddhists and members of other faiths?
Beijing Olympic
I know I wouldn’t be able to live with myself, but hey, that’s just me. So what the hell, enjoy your lunch.
Tags: Beijing, Caterpillar, China, Olympics, Tibet, Zhou Wenzhong
Posted in Local | 14 Comments »
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
For those who were wondering, I’ve moved this week’s PeoriaPunditRadio show to this Tuesday. The scheduled topic is the situation in Tibet, plus local news and information, plus two “Fibber McGee and Molly” episodes.
The show can be heard here. Callers are welcome at (347) 326-9459.
As a matter of fact, it looks like I’ll be working Sunday nights from now on, so I’ll be needing to permanently reschedule. Tuesday is problematic because every other Tuesday is a city council meeting. The other day off is Friday now, which is a lousy time to try to get anyone to listen. And besides, I’d kinda like to have Fridays free, too.
Tags: Caterpillar, China, peoriapunditradio, radio, Tibet
Posted in Local | 1 Comment »
Friday, March 7th, 2008
From the Journal Star:
A plan to set aside $12 million in state funding for the proposed Peoria Riverfront Museum took another step forward Thursday, when the House of Representatives approved it.
The vote was 80-23.
Suddenly, that deliberately deceptive poll conducted by the county makes sense. You know the one that claimed a majority of respondents favored using tax money for the museum, despite the fact that telephone poll takers hung up on anyone who was opposed to the museum in general.
Were I someone who dabbled in conspiracy theories, I might suspect that this poll is more about creating the illusion of support so that the state legislature might be tricked into voting for this stupid, stupid misuse of scarce revenue. Perhaps State Rep. David Leitch used this discredited poll to convince his palls that Peorians actually supported more tax revenue being used for this glass elephant. If he did, it wouldn’t be the first time a state legislator from Peoria misrepresented the views of the folks back home.
It’s more likely, however, that the legislators knew damn well what a colossal waste of money this is, and that folks here in the River City would rather see this money go to something far more needed, like, perhaps, help paying for renovations to our combined waste-water/sewage overflow system (third item down) being mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Doesn’t removing feces from the Illinois River seem to be a better use of money by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources than building a museum of sanitized local history to accompany Caterpillar’s little vanity project?
But I doubt state legislators are more capable of saying “no” to the Great Yellow God than our local leaders have proven over the years.
Tags: Caterpillar, IDNR, illinois river, Museum, Pork, sewage
Posted in Local | 9 Comments »
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
C.J. Summers took a look at the figures, and it turns out that the pro-museum push poll conducted by the County of Peoria actually found that at no time, under no circumstance mentioned, do voters support any kind of tax increase to pay for the regional museum that Caterpillar and other movers and shakers want to build on the former Sears block:
Those who do not support a tax: 602 respondents (309 who answered “no†to question 1, plus 293 who answered “yes†to question 1 and “undecided or no tax†on question 2).
Those who support a tax: 398 respondents (those who answered “yes†to question 1 and chose a tax option in question 2).
For those of you who like percentages, that’s 60.2% against a tax increase, and only 39.8% for a tax increase. I frankly don’t see how the survey administrator could have come to any other conclusion. If they don’t consider “no†votes on question 1 as “no†votes against a tax, then in my opinion, they’ve invalidated the survey because they’ve screened people who, by the County’s own admission, would have most likely voted against a tax increase in question 2.
Can we now please, please, allow the idea of using additional tax money on this white elephant die the death it deserves. I know that most politicians in this town would rather gouge out their eyeball with a dull spoon than say “no” to Caterpillar, but at some point politicians have to learn to be afraid of voters as well as be fearful of Caterpillar’s wrath.
Oh, and I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for the county government to apologize to voters for this deliberate attempt to deceive taxpayers.
Tags: Caterpillar, Museum, peoria county
Posted in Local | 5 Comments »
Monday, February 11th, 2008
Apparently, we are supposed to read this article and come away with the conclusion that earmarks — which is the government and media’s new work for “pork barrel spending” — are good. Without earmarks, we might now have wonderful things that the uber-museum in downtown Peoria
The reality, however, is that anyone who’s been paying attention will read about the $1.4 million in earmarks that have been devoted to this boondoggle will come away convinced more than ever that earmarks must be curtailed and regulated.
This project exists — and continues to drain time and and resources from more worthwhile endeavors — because the movers and shakers are convinced there’s free federal money out there. But it’s not free money. There’s no such thing as free money from government because all of it, ALL OF IT, comes from the money hardworking people are forced to give the government. Every dime that does to earmark like this one is money that could be better used supporting the sort of things government has a traditional responsibility to provide, like roads, bridges, schools, police and fire protection and national defense. This earmark is nothing more than a back door form of corporate welfare.
The downtown super-museum is a make work project. It’s supposed to bring in tourism dollars, but won’t. Its real purpose is to help Caterpillar build a visitor center, just like the one John Deer has. If Cat wants the former Sears Block, let them buy it outright and build it 100 percent on their own dime. The museum project should be scaled back to it’s original purpose: A museum of local history, with local historians in charge of what is and isn’t on display.
Tags: Caterpillar, earmarks, Museum, Sears Block
Posted in Overset | 1 Comment »
Friday, December 28th, 2007
Links via the Journal Star:
- Phil Luciano rightfully criticizes East Peoria Fire Chief Mike Vaughn for abdicating responsibility for keeping the public informed about the fire at Caterpillar’s KK building that send three people to the hospital. My two cents: It is absolutely untrue that the public officials have chips implanted in their brains that require them to do Cat’s bidding. This behavior is completely voluntary.
- This is a very sad story. Peoria Firefighters rescued this little baby, only for her to die later in the hospital. There are questions I’d like answered. The home was relatively new. Why did the home burn so quickly? What happened to the smoke alarms? Did they go off?
Tags: Caterpillar, East Peoria, fire, Mike Vaughn, Tanesha West
Posted in The Wire | 7 Comments »
Saturday, December 22nd, 2007
Yeah, those Caterpillar workers sure do have it made, don’t they?
My best wishes to the the injured, their family and their friends.
Tags: Caterpillar
Posted in Local | Comments Off
Friday, November 9th, 2007
The downtown museum backers asked the Peoria County Board to give them $24 million. That’s $24 million in taxpayer dollars. They can’t talk ordinary donors to cough it up voluntarily, so they want every single taxpayer in the county to pay up involuntarily. Seriously.
If the board says “no,” that might very well mean the end of the effort to turn a prime piece of downtown commercial real estate into a tourist attraction that probably won’t get many visitors, except for school buses full of kids from local schools.
The County Board will be a tough sell (why someone living in Elmwood or Princeville should have to pay one thin dime for this is beyond me) but not as tough a sale as asking the Peoria City Council would have been. The Gang of 11 is sick to death of this thing and resent being continually being asked to cough up more money for a project that started off as a simple history of Peoria Museum.
My two cents: Stop trying to get smart and just put the damn think up for sale. Downtown is supposed to be the city’s prime commercial location. Try putting residential development on it. The Heart of Peoria Plan is supposed to be all about mixing retail and commercial. Downtown sorely lacks residential. It lacks retail, too, as most of the buildings are office space. I’d rather see a strip mall there than nothing.
The site of the former Sears block could be occupied now — perhaps with s shopping mall — if the control freaks running this city would stop being control freaks and be open minded to whatever legitimate development comes down the pike, whether or not it ruins the precious view of the river or not.
And I am eagerly awaiting tomorrow’s Journal Star editorial demanding that the County Board give them anything they ask.
Tags: Caterpillar, Museum, Peoria County Board
Posted in Local | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
Here’s some post Blogger Bash news, via the Journal Star. The snarky commentary is my own:
- The council decided to NOT shoot its entire wad of available cash on the South Side and will instead look at the policies they use to determine who gets sidewalk funding. The gist of it, from what I gather from the article, is that some council members don’t think the “jaywalking problem” is caused by a lack of sidewalks. It’s caused by teens deliberately trying to provoke incidents. I think there’s also a question of fairness: Why pay 100 percent of sidewalk installations when residents of other parts of the city have to contribute something. It must have been a fun meeting. Glad I missed it. I can’t wait to read Pam Adams’ column tomorrow.
- The Journal Star breaks the news that the “controversial” conversion of the former Zeller Mental Health Center into Illinois Central College North is a smashing success, according to the exact same people who thought it was a swell idea five years ago. Funny, there’s not one comment from anyone about how this created havoc for families trying to cope with mental illness. The Peoria Times-Observer — back when I was working there — ran articles about how this left families with no place to take their mentally ill relatives, who sometimes were left wandering the streets. Sometimes, police were forced to transport these people in handcuffs from one end of the state to another trying to find a place where they could be treated. But what the hell. Peoria needs more fry cooks.
- Backers of a new $4 million swimming pool in Morton say they will be knocking on Caterpillar’s door in their quest for donations to help pay for the thing. Good luck with that.
- The Journal Star apparently wants people to get their houses egged on Halloween night. Mini carrots? Yeah. Right.
- If you are going to stomp all over the hood and roof of a police car and slug the cop who gets out and confront you, try to not drop your cell phone. Or at least warn your mom in advance so she won’t tell the police who you are when they call her from your phone.
- Pleasant Valley Middle School must be an absolute paradise of calm and tranquility. Certainly they must have solved all other discipline problems, because they have time and energy to keeping a 12-year-old-girl out of school because they don’t like the color of her hair extensions. Sweet babbling Jesus, I will never be ceased to be amazed at how much school administrators enjoy their little power trips. And yes, she’s an honor roll student. And yes, her mom is getting a lawyer. I agree with Phil on this one. This isn’t about a kid breaking the rules. The rules only prohibit disruptive behavior. This isn’t disruptive. This is just a bunch of adults who enjoy pushing a kid around. NOTE: No, this is NOT the school district on which Jehan Gordon serves on the school board. That’s Pleasant Hill.
- Judge Brian Nemenoff is calling it quits.
- Yesterday, the Journal Star ran a wire story about how 10 percent of Illinois Schools are “dropout factories” where less than 60 percent of new freshmen make it to their senior year. Today, the Journal Star finally got around to reporting that Manual High School’s rate is 83 percent, the lowest in District 150, but still big improvement over the previous year. Not quite a “dropout factory.”
- There’s another Mom upset at how Peoria Police handled the investigation in a juvenile sexual assault case. I share her concern that the incident wasn’t released to the media right away. But I would advice parents in this situation to not confuse a dispassionate approach to an investigation with a lack of concern.
- Not fond of pork, also known as “earmarks” or “member initiatives?” Well, the $200,000 that State Sen. Dave Koehler says he’s going to try to get for Peoria might come from “member initiative money.” It’s only pork when it goes somewhere else, right? I’d be interested in hearing what these four state legislators told the Peoria City Council about the possibility of narrowing Washington Street.
Tags: Caterpillar, donations, hair extensions, jaywalking, Journal Star, Pleasant Valley
Posted in The Wire | Comments Off
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
At the request of intrepid newsie/journalism teacher Jonathan Ahl, I pretended to hold a press conference for his weekly news writing class. Some thoughts and comments for the students:
 I enjoyed my brief visit. The format didn’t allow for much discussion before or after, but I enjoyed the class nevertheless. It took me back to the days when I thought I knew everything. Of course, now I REALLY DO know everything. Just read my blog.- I cannot believe more of you do not write for the Bradley Scout. What’s up with that? Even if you aren’t going to do journalism as a career, any sort of career in marketing or public relations benefits from having a working idea of how a newsroom operates and, more importantly, how editors and reporters think.
- Normally, bloggers and/or citizen journalists don’t hold press conferences. You realize that, right? Good.
- Your questions indicate that quite a few of you are quite capable of thinking like journalists. You picked apart my little presentation and got right to the issues I wanted to gloss over.
- Mr. Ahl knows a bit or two about this racket, so listen to what he has to say.
- Usually, when I do this sort of thing, there’s an honorarium involved. Or at least a official “Caterpillar Global Communications Center coffee mug.” Ahem.
- Seriously, get blogs. Good writers get that way by writing for an audience, and since so many of you aren’t doing that (apparently), I suggest you start a blog today. There are many, many other reasons for doing it as well. I recommend wordpress.com, which produces blogs that are much prettier and easier to use than than the stuff Blogger generates, but are just as free.
- All of you are invited to Blogger Bash. For details, see the previous post. If you go, Mr. Ahl ought to cough up some extra credit for the field research into the culture of citizen journalism.
Tags: Blogger Bash, blogs, BU, Caterpillar, Citizen Journalism, jonathan ahl, journalism
Posted in Citizen Journalism, Local | 5 Comments »
Thursday, June 28th, 2007
Today’s Peoria Journal Star article on the death of efforts to attach a hotel to the Peoria Civic Center saved the best, most telling paragraph for last.
Civic Center Authority Chairwoman Rebekah Bourland was discussing the lack of support for a proposed Hilton Garden Inn at Monroe Avenue and Kumpf Boulevard, the latest scheme in a list of schemes that the authority thinks is needed to lure business to the civic center.
“In the meantime, the Embassy Suites opens in the first week of November and anyone sleeping there won’t be paying (Peoria’s) hotel tax. I think the window is closing on an opportunity. I could be wrong. I hope I’m wrong.”
And that’s it in a nutshell. Peoria doesn’t need another hotel. If it did, the free market would provide for one. What this is about is that the PCC is addicted to the city’s Hotel, Restaurant and Amusement Tax, which was created more than 20 years ago to pay off the bonds needed to build the civic center. It was supposed to be temporary, and the PCC was supposed to be self-sufficient.
Instead, the PCC can’t bring in the revenue its cheerleaders/backers promised and the revenue its generating in additional sales taxes isn’t exactly lowering the burden for the taxpayers who actually live in Peoria. And the HRA still exists because the people who run the PCC keep coming up with new renovations they insist is needed to bring in conventions and events. And why is that? Because the damn thing is too small. It can’t bring in the really big concerts and really big conventions. Everyone knew that when it was being planned, but the cheerleaders and civic boosters managed to shout down the naysayers.
What happened in East Peoria is something anyone with even a basic knowledge of human nature could have predicted. People started looking for way to avoid the HRA tax. So some smart people build an Embassy Suites in East Peoria. The obvious solution is to eliminate or lower the HRA, but that’s too simple and elegant a solution for the deep economic thinkers in Peoria. The HRA tax MUST be preserved by using part of it to built a swanky hotel attached to the Peoria Civic Center.
Two things happened to stop it: Holiday Inn City Centre announced major renovations and Caterpillar Inc. (which has a stake in thePere Marquette Hotel) let it be known it doesn’t think a new hotel is needed.
Bourland’s statement that the Holiday Inn project wasn’t a factor is complete B.S., of course. The city’s own consultant said the either the renovations or a new hotel were needed to prop up the civic center. I’m guessing the “pretty serious discussions” planned by Mayor Ardis just might instead suggest city support for Pere Marquette renovations, which is a less obnoxious use of city funds than building a brand new hotel, but not not by much.
When the city build the PCC, it stuck its toes into what should have been left to private enterprise. Now the city finds itself being told that it has to compete against the tax-paying private businesses the PCC was supposed to support through increases room rentals. That’s the inevitable and very predictible result when government starts trying to pick and choose the winners.
Peoria Civic Center,Holiday Inn,Caterpillar
Tags: Caterpillar, holiday inn, Peoria Civic Center
Posted in Local | 1 Comment »
Friday, June 15th, 2007
The Peoria County Board voted yesterday to secure half of the $6 million loan Firefly Energy (co-owned by Caterpillar) needs to expand. The City of Peoria secured the other half (and since the city comprised half the county population) city residents are essentially funding three quarters of the project). The bank giving them the loan little risk at all is National City Bank, whose vice president is State Rep. David Leitch who claims he was shocked to discover his bank was involved while he worked behind the scenes to secure cash.
What’s the city and county going to get in return? Virtually nothing. Well, the city and county can buy stock at a set price when Firefly goes public. If it ever goes go public. And it might be a good deal, if the company doesn’t do what most start-ups do , which is fail. This would leave taxpayers owning worthless stock and a $6 million debt that’s going to have to be paid off with tax money that would otherwise go to fixing roads and paying police officers to patrol them.
Of course, there’s a chance that the company might not fail — unlike all the other companies that claim to be working on ways to power cars on electricity. And then the company might make these batteries here in central Illinois. Might. The brilliant negotiators at the city or count level were able to get Firefly to agree to that.
And we can assume that the politicians who agreed to this know less about what constitutes a good investment than the venture capitalists, who aren’t exactly clamoring to climb about the Firefly Energy wagon.
I hope Firefly is really able to produce these wonderful batteries and takes over the car battery market, and the world’s highways are filled with electric cars using batteries made right here in River City. Odds are, that isn’t going to happen. Odds were going to get stuck paying off this loan while Firefly executives have golden parachuted their way to safety. And the odds are than ten years from now, our streets and sidewalks will be unrepaired, crime will be worse because we won’t have enough police officers and these politicians who made this agreement will have moved onto the next boondoggle that puts money into the pockets of their friends.
Feh.
firefly energy,caterpillar
Tags: Caterpillar, firefly energy
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | 11 Comments »
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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