The Equestrian/Riding Club Commission will be meeting this evening at 6:30 PM. Topics on their agenda include:
A copy of the agenda and Zoom link can be found here.
Posted in Algonquin Rd, Animal Welfare, Aunt Blabby, Barrington Hills Polo Club, Bicyclists, Commercial Horse Boarding, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Don't Change Barrington Hills, Elections, Equestrian Commission, Ethics, Flock Cameras, Fox River Valley Hunt, FPDCC, FRVPC, Goat Rodeo, HARPS, Horizon Farm, Horse Boarding, IDOT, Land Use, LeCompte/Anderson Commercial Horse boarding amendment, Longmeadow Parkway, Mad Cows, Massbach Hounds, Overhead, Politics, Privacy, Property Taxes, Public Safety, Riding Club Commission, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Roads and Bridges, SOS Party, Taxes, The Other Half, TMI, Topics Of Interest, Traffic, Unions, Village Code, Village Director of Administration, Your Barrington Hills | Leave a Comment »
Kristen Fisher looks at her wedding ring from her late husband Bernard “Skip” Fisher while at the Levin and Perconti law office in Chicago, Aug. 31, 2026. Fisher alleges that her late husband was videotaped nude while in the care of Encore Memory Care in South Barrington. | Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune
By Robert McCoppin | Chicago Tribune
Bernard “Skip” Fisher II suffered from Parkinson’s disease, and couldn’t speak. He was completely dependent on care at Encore Memory Care in South Barrington. Five days before he passed away in July, his wife, Kristen Fisher, said she received an alarming phone call from the Encore executive director.
Fisher was told that her husband and other residents had been videotaped naked at the home, and the images were shared among a group of facility employees via Snapchat.
“I was completely shocked,” Fisher said. “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My husband was humiliated, he was degraded, and not able to defend himself. It immobilizes my every thought since then.”
Madison Russo, 25, of Bartlett, was charged with unauthorized videotaping and unauthorized dissemination of a person at their residence without their permission. Russo was scheduled to face arraignment on the charge Tuesday.
Officials from Encore did not return a phone call in a request for comment.
At least three other residents were also videotaped, a police report stated, one while naked in the shower, one on the toilet and another in her underpants in front of her wheelchair.
Report continues here.
Posted in Chicago Tribune, Crime, South Barrington | Leave a Comment »
Daily Herald Letter to the Editor
Illinois is home to more than 1.2 million small businesses. Small businesses create jobs, serve their communities, and drive economic growth across the state. To keep that momentum going, Illinois must foster a business and legal climate where a small business can continue to succeed.
Lawsuit abuse has become a major driver of the rising cost of doing business in Illinois. As owner of my new business, American General Storage and part of my family’s 60-year-old manufacturing company, Stanley Machining & Tool, I’ve seen firsthand the many obstacles that can jeopardize a company’s growth. Success becomes harder to sustain as lawmakers continue to add new costs and legal risks onto small business owners.
Last year, Gov. Pritzker signed Senate Bill 328 into law, which now opens Illinois courts to hear cases with out-of-state plaintiffs and defendants. From policies like this one that expose Illinois businesses to more lawsuits, to higher taxes and rising costs, small-business owners are being asked to absorb one added expense after another. Even worse, recent worker’s compensation legislation threatens to add yet another layer of litigation risk for employers. For small businesses, these costs add up very quickly.
Illinois lawmakers should give small businesses a fair chance to invest, grow, and support their communities. That starts with addressing lawsuit abuse, which is rising costs and making it harder to do business in Illinois.
Karen Trzaska, Barrington
Posted in Cost of Living, Daily Herald, Economy, Letters to the Editor, Overhead, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Resident Spotlights, Springfield, Taxes | 1 Comment »
The District 220 Board of Education meets tomorrow evening at 6:00 PM at the District Administration Center, 515 W. Main Street. Items on their agenda include:
A copy of the agenda can be viewed here. The meeting will be live streamed on the district YouTube channel.
Related: “CUSD 220 Tentative Fiscal 2026/27 Budget Public Hearing September 1st,” “District 220 board members violated campaign policies, investigation finds,” “Proposed Policy Change Would Strip Anonymous Formal Grievances in Barrington District 220,” “Reminder: CUSD 220 Board of Education meeting tonight,” “CUSD 220 Board delivers second (slappier) slap on the wrist to member Erin Chan Ding,” “CUSD 220 Board of Education public comments we applaud,” “Special District 220 Board of Education meeting Monday,” “Over $100,000 in Special Interest Funding gifted to 220 Board member’s campaign in failed bid for State Rep job,” “New Evidence of Chan Ding’s Policy Violations and Conflicts of Interest,” “The D220 Board of Ed gets another ‘F’ in accountability & transparency,” “The Real Issue in Barrington 220 Isn’t Parking or Levies — It’s Leadership Culture,” “BOARD OF ED VOTES, MEMBER CHAN DING MADE FLAGRANT POLICY VIOLATIONS – Part 2,” “BOARD OF ED VOTES, MEMBER CHAN DING MADE FLAGRANT POLICY VIOLATIONS,” “District 220’s Lack of Transparency (Updated),” “District 220’s Lack of Transparency” and “Change.org Petition: ‘For the Resignation of Erin Chan Ding ~ D220 Resources are Not for Political Campaigns’”
Posted in 220, Agendas, Barrington Education Association, Board of Education, Deception, District 220 referendum, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), E-bikes, Education, Elections, Ethics, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois State Board of Elections, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Look For The Union Label, Politics, Property Taxes, Public Hearing, Public Safety, Real Estate, School Districts, Snowflake Effect, South Barrington, Taxes, Topics Of Interest, Unions, Video Streaming, What the Ficke (Bradford)? | Leave a Comment »
By Steve Zalusky | Daily Herald
Barrington officials are celebrating the completion of phase one of the village’s downtown streetscape project, which they hope will boost the town center as a regional attraction.
The $1.5 million project included replacing deteriorating sidewalk pavers with new concrete and clay brick accents, and resurfacing and restriping aging streets.
New landscaping includes flower beds and planters bursting with color.
“From the beginning, our goal was to create a downtown that is more beautiful, accessible, welcoming and easier to maintain for years to come,” Village Manager Scott Anderson said.
Village President Mike Moran noted the work also creates expanded outdoor dining spaces (but not parking) for businesses such as Cook Street Coffee and Gigi Wine Bar and Bistro.
Article continues here.
Posted in Daily Herald, Entertainment, Fools and their money, Politics, Road construction, Taxes, Traffic, U.S. Route 14 Underpass | Leave a Comment »
By Mark Rivera and Barb Markoff, Christine Tressel and Tom Jones | ABC7
Amidst growing outcry and mounting privacy concerns over misuse of powerful police surveillance technology, the ABC7 I-Team found multiple Chicago-area law enforcement agencies are now investigating their own officers for unauthorized use of the location tracking software.
From tracking ex-romantic partners to searching a former employer, at least two agencies have now forwarded cases of their officers misusing Flock Safety license plate reading technology to county prosecutors for review of possible criminal charges.
The I-Team filed 130 public records requests with local law enforcement agencies across Illinois and Indiana for internal investigation reports into misuse of FLOCK automated license plate reading (ALPR) cameras and others that can track a person’s location in real time.
Responses are continuing to come in but have already revealed cases of misuse.
In Prairie Grove, Police Chief Michael Goins said he discovered one of his officers had conducted hundreds of Flock camera searches, but not for any official purpose.
Goins said Officer William Copp was searching “ex-spouses, ex-girlfriends, ex-boyfriends of current girlfriends, people that had some sort of domestic relationship with him… One individual was searched approximately 140 times.”
Goins said he acted quickly and Copp was arrested and charged in McHenry County with official misconduct.
Prairie Grove is not alone.
The I-Team found at least 10 examples of local area law enforcement agencies investigating their own officers for misusing Flock and other license plate reading technology.
Report continues here.
Related: Some recent Daily Herald reports-
Posted in ABC7 Chicago, Big Brother, Clown Car, Ethics, Flock Cameras, Police Reports, Privacy, Public Safety, Transparency | Leave a Comment »
The Daily | The New York Times
This summer, the Democratic Socialists of America have mounted their biggest and most successful attempt yet to redefine the Democratic Party. They have defeated its candidates in primary after primary from coast to coast.
As its electoral success grows, the organization is confronting big, unresolved questions about what it stands for and what level of compromise is required to become a lasting political force.
Charles Homans, who talked to more than 30 D.S.A. candidates, organizers, members and volunteers across the countries, discusses the rise and limitations of the D.S.A.
Guest: Charles Homans writes about national politics for The New York Times and The Times Magazine.
The link to the podcast can be found here.
Posted in 220, Barrington Area Library, Barrington Education Association, Board of Education, DARCHED, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Economy, Education, Elections, Ethics, Fools and their money, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Immigration, League of Women Voters, News Media, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Public Safety, School Districts, Taxes, The New Normal?, The New York Times, Unions, What the Ficke (Bradford)? | Leave a Comment »
By Mike Caplan | FOX 32
CHICAGO – There were exactly zero severe storms anywhere in our viewing area yesterday.
For the next several days it’s all about a pattern change toward warmer weather to close out the month.
Highs today with abundant sunshine will be right around normal — not far from 80°. Skies will be mainly sunny.
Lunar eclipse
Tonight looks ideal for a great view of the lunar eclipse. It’s not quite total but it should be enough to give the moon that reddish glow with peak eclipse arriving at 11:12 p.m.
What’s next
On Friday it will be a near carbon copy of today.
Saturday looks terrific when highs will be in the low to mid 80s under mostly sunny skies. The warmup begins in earnest on Sunday when highs soar into the upper 80s.
Monday, the last day of meteorological summer and August, looks downright hot with a high of 90°. Humidity levels will be up there too. The heat continues well into next week with the chance for occasional showers and storms.
Read on here.
Posted in Fox News, Topics Of Interest | Leave a Comment »
Spirit Airlines data has never been more valuable | Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune
By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune
If you recently left a job, it’s likely you lost access to your old inbox and the saved records of those tedious Zoom or Teams meetings. Leaving such digital detritus behind now is part of life. But we doubt you anticipated your employer being able to make money from what you had to say while gainfully employed.
Consider what just happened with the remains of what used to be Spirit Airlines, the bankrupt ultra-low-cost air carrier. Earlier this month, Google was the winner of a highly competitive auction not for the dead airline’s planes or equipment but for the corpse’s data trove. Reportedly, the treasure included 100 million emails and 500 million Teams messages, not to mention a ton of lines of code.
Why did Google blow $10 million on such seeming scrap? To train its artificial intelligence agents.
We’ll try not to get too in the weeds here, but in essence the Spirit purchase was like buying a massive business-school case study with bots as the intended students.
By seeing what humans did in actual life, the AI creepy-crawlies can learn about, well, what humans did in actual life. It doesn’t matter if they did what they did well (and, in the case of Spirit, it all failed in the end). It’s all about using this specific business as a way for AI to learn how an airline actually operates in real life or, yet more generally, how humans typically work together in organizations.
And you thought those AI agents were merely ingesting books and newspapers. Nope. They are looking at your old out-of-office replies and ill-considered rants on Teams.
Read on here.
Posted in AI, Chicago Tribune, Data Center, OP/Ed, Privacy | Leave a Comment »
By Ben Szalinski | Capitol News Illinois
New rules governing who can use electronic bikes and scooters, including where and how fast they go, will go into effect next year following Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature on Wednesday.
Pritzker signed Senate Bill 3484 which establishes regulations on “micromobility” transportation that include age requirements, speed limits and rules on where they can be operated. The bill takes effect Jan. 1.
“Technology is evolving, providing expanded mobility options for our neighbors through the rise in popularity of e-bikes and scooters,” bill sponsor Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago), said in a statement. “But without clear regulations for these devices, we are seeing increased injuries and accidents — jeopardizing community safety.”
The bill passed both chambers with bipartisan support on June 1 following several amendments throughout the spring session.
The new law was one of Secretary of State Alex “Ali G”i Giannoulias’ top priorities during the legislative session. The Chicago mayoral candidate said unregulated micromobility devices have become a problem in the city.
“As these high-powered devices become faster and more common on our streets and sidewalks, the stakes are simply too high to leave them unregulated and outpacing public safety,” Giannoulias said in a statement. “This law brings accountability and common-sense safety standards to our roads while helping prevent serious injuries and ensuring riders, parents and communities understand how to safely share the road.”
The state already has some regulations for low-speed electric bikes and scooters, but regulation often varies at the local level. The bill creates new statewide standards for high-speed electric bikes and scooters, electric motor bikes, and electric unicycles and skateboards.
“Municipal leaders have been responding in real time as new electric devices appear on local streets, sidewalks and bike paths,” Illinois Municipal League CEO Brad Cole said in a statement. “A statewide framework gives communities greater consistency while providing local officials and law enforcement with clearer guidance.”
Law enforcement groups were also in support of the bill.
Report continues here.
Posted in Aunt Blabby, Bicyclists, Capitol News Illinois, E-bikes, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Public Safety, School Districts, Springfield, Traffic | Leave a Comment »
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