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Archive for the ‘OP/Ed’ Category

Editorial: ‘Toll free in ‘73’ was just another empty promise. Buckle up for a 45-cent toll hike, Illinois.

Posted in Aunt Blabby, Chicago Tribune, Clown Car, Cost of Living, Deception, Ethics, Illinois Tollway, Look For The Union Label, New Normal?, OP/Ed, Overhead, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Road construction, Springfield, Taxes, Traffic, Unions on June 19, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Engineer John Zimmerman, left, and Commissioner George DeMent, right, view an automatic coin collector at the toll gate of the Calumet Skyway on April 10, 1958, to be opened to traffic. | George Quinn/Chicago Tribune

By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune

Illinois tollways were meant to be freeways decades ago.

Gov. JB Pritzker promised to reform the Illinois Tollway before he was elected, the latest in a long line of governors, from Rod Blagojevich to Jim Thompson, who vowed reform.

Remember, the tollways aren’t even supposed to be tollways anymore. The tolls were meant to be temporary until the bonds issued to build the roads were paid off. Many of our readers may remember that old promise that by 1973, our dear tollways would become freeways.

“Toll free in ‘73,” it turns out, is just another empty promise long forgotten.

After decades — and billions of dollars — in paid tolls later, drivers are further away than ever from those cost-free roads.

Now, they’re staring down the prospect of another toll hike.

The Illinois Tollway board is in the process of implementing a 45-cent toll increase for I-Pass users, meaning a 70-cent toll today could become $1.15 in 2027.

And the toll hikes won’t stop there. Starting in 2029, the proposal to be considered by the Illinois Tollway board sets up CPI-indexed toll hikes every two years.

Editorial continues here.

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J.R. Davis: US Attorney Andrew Boutros and his office deserve recognition for their commitment to addressing crime

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Letters to the Editor, OP/Ed, Politics, Springfield on June 19, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Andrew Boutros, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, announces federal domestic terrorism charges on Nov. 19, 2025, against Lawrence Reed for allegedly setting a 26-year-old woman on fire on a CTA Blue Line train. | E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune

By J.R. Davis | Special to the Tribune

For more than a century, the Chicago Crime Commission has evaluated crime trends, monitored the criminal justice system and supported efforts that improve public safety throughout the Chicago region. Since our founding in 1919, we have remained independent, nonpartisan and committed to one guiding principle: Results matter.

That principle applies equally to law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, elected officials and civic organizations. The public deserves institutions that are effective, accountable and focused on protecting communities from serious crime.

Viewed through that lens, the first year of Andrew Boutros’ tenure as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois merits recognition.

The Northern District is one of the most important federal jurisdictions in the nation. Its prosecutors are responsible for addressing a wide range of threats, including violent crime, organized criminal enterprises, drug trafficking, public corruption, financial fraud and offenses that can have far-reaching consequences for public safety and public trust.

By most objective measures, the office has become significantly more active under Boutros’ leadership. Federal prosecutors have pursued a substantial number of cases involving some of the region’s most serious criminal conduct. Just as importantly, the office appears focused on restoring a culture of proactive enforcement and accountability.

That progress should not come as a surprise. Before entering private practice, Boutros spent years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District. He understands the office, its mission and the standards that historically earned it a reputation as one of the premier prosecutorial offices in the country.

Public service often requires sacrifice. It is worth noting that Boutros left a successful private-sector career to return to government service. Regardless of political affiliation or ideology, that decision reflects a commitment to public duty that deserves respect.

At the same time, no institution is immune to mistakes. Effective leadership is not measured by the absence of problems, but by how problems are addressed when they arise. When concerns emerged regarding grand jury practices in a recent case, the office moved to dismiss the affected indictments and implemented reforms designed to strengthen oversight and prevent similar issues in the future.

For organizations charged with protecting the public, transparency and corrective action are essential. Those steps should be viewed as evidence that accountability remains a priority.

The Chicago Crime Commission’s responsibility is not to engage in political debates or weigh in on every controversy. Our focus is on whether public safety institutions are effectively carrying out their missions and whether they are making meaningful progress against the crimes that pose the greatest threat to our communities.

From that perspective, the broader picture is encouraging. The Northern District is actively pursuing significant criminal cases, addressing complex threats and demonstrating renewed energy in the enforcement of federal law.

The challenges facing the Chicago region remain substantial. Violent crime, organized criminal activity, public corruption and sophisticated fraud schemes continue to demand vigilance and resources. Success will require cooperation among federal, state and local agencies, along with sustained public confidence in the institutions responsible for enforcing the law.

The work is far from finished. But strong leadership, a commitment to accountability and a focus on results are important foundations for progress. Those are qualities that deserve recognition wherever they are found.

J.R. Davis is chairman of the Chicago Crime Commission, which represents the Chicago business community’s commitment to reducing crime and combating public corruption. It partners with law enforcement agencies to advance public safety.

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Americans Are Sick of Paying the Democrat DEI Blood Price

Posted in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), John Kass News, OP/Ed, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Public Safety on June 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »

By John Kass | John Kass News

Who brings a knife to a track meet, then stabs another athlete to death? Or who brings gasoline on public transit in Chicago, douses a young woman and burns her alive?

And who pays the blood price for this anti-white racism, most of it institutionalized by the left, and protected in Western Culture?

We do. The middle class. And we’re sick of it.

Nausea builds as we realize, finally, that the center does not hold and we’re about to be cast adrift into the left’s dystopian nightmare that they have planned for us for years. We refuse. Our anger builds and grows.

And as the culture descends into racial tribalism predictably promoted by so-called “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” programs baked into American politics and policy, our fingers defensively twitch for rocks, clubs, triggers to fend off the tribalism.  What does this signal? The end of civil society.

Somewhere, Marx and Lenin are laughing.

In his article in Spiked online, Brendan O’Neill addresses the recent atrocities in Ireland that reflect similar horrors here in America, where a man in Belfast was nearly beheaded by a Sudanese migrant who crept into the country with the aid of the left-wing government.

“People are sick of paying the blood price of bourgeois virtue. That is increasingly how it feels to working-class communities – that they are expected to absorb the risk of letting in tens of thousands of unvetted men, while their betters absorb the glow of righteousness that comes with crying ‘Refugees welcome’. The activist class in their leafy suburbs are shielded from the social consequences of their moral theatre. It is the lower orders who suffer the fallout. Working-class girls who suddenly have 800 men from f#### knows where in the hotel at the end of their road. “Women like Rhiannon Whyte, murdered by a Sudanese ‘asylum seeker’ from the very migrant hotel she worked in. This poor man in Belfast. It seems their suffering is a small price to pay for the moral gloating of our rulers.”

Americans are sick of it, too.

Article continues here.

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Editorial: Has Chicago learned nothing from Jussie Smollett and his fake hate crime?

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Ethics, OP/Ed, Politics, Snowflake Effect on June 17, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Jussie Smollett, the actor charged with lying to police about an alleged fabricated attack, is surrounded by media as he waits for a car at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago on March 26, 2019. | José M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune

By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune

We have some advice for Gov. JB Pritzker, Mayor Brandon Johnson, Cardinal Blase Cupich, Rev. Michael Pfleger and others who rushed out statements following images of a burning cross in Grant Park circulating online and, naturally, then being amplified by algorithms that feed like blood-thirsty vampires on controversy.

Take a breath and let the police investigate for a day or two before you trot out a statement destined to land in international media and feed someone’s need for publicity. Just tell reporters: We’re going to let the police ascertain the facts first.

Did we learn nothing as a city after the actor Jussie Smollett reported a fake hate crime that he had actually staged himself in downtown Chicago, embarrassing any number of knee-jerk politicians (few of whom later apologized), wasting police time and trashing the city’s reputation all at once? Did that not motivate our leaders to say to their eager spokespeople, “Hang on a minute and let’s find out exactly what happened here?”

Apparently not. In this case, Pritzker immediately opined that the incident “speaks to what happens when the seeds of racism and fascism grow unchecked in our country.”

Then on Monday, WMAQ-Ch. 5 interviewed a 21-year-old college student from Naperville who told the station that he had placed a MAGA hat on top of the burning cross and that he actually was protesting the policies of President Donald Trump and didn’t expect his actions to be viewed in the context in which they were reported. The police now also have a suspect in custody. In other words, the man who talked to NBC 5 said his motivation was the precise opposite of what the governor said this incident represented.

We’ve no idea if that motivation was an after-the-fact invention of the suspect, or his lawyer, or even with certainty that it was the same person (no charges had been filed at press time), but we also know that anytime you see the words “after the image circulated online” in a shocking news story — and there were many such stories about this incident in national and local media, replete with the recounting of historical American inhumanity to man — it is a cue to be suspicious that not everything is as it first might seem.

Also a cue: anything purportedly happening in Chicago involving nooses, burning crosses and the other hateful detritus of America’s shameful past, especially from the South.

Editorial continues here.

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Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 4)

Posted in Aunt Blabby, BACOG, Clown Car, Data Center, Deception, Ethics, Hoffman Estates, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Land Use, Lennie, One Barrington Hills, OP/Ed, Plan Commission, Plum Farm development, Politics, Property Taxes, Real Estate, Simple Minds, South Barrington, Topics Of Interest, Transparency, Village Board, Village Code, Village Director of Administration, Village Government, Village President on June 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »

A list of Barrington Hills trustees who currently follow The Barrington Hills Observer posts on Facebook.

On Saturday, May 23rd, around 7:30 AM, we posted, “(Plum Farms) NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING JUNE 3,” shortly after we received a copy of a notice sign posted on Old Sutton Road. That post was sent to all subscribers of this publication’s website and all those following our Facebook page, including those Trustees pictured above.

Subsequent to our posting of the Hoffman Estates Plum Farms notice, we followed up with subtle hints to our Board of Trustees (BOT) to take action, including:

Shortly after the Hoffman Estates Plum Farms meeting ended on June 3rd, CBS News reported, “Hoffman Estates Plan Commission rejects zoning change for new data center project.” The next day, the Daily Herald reported, “Hoffman Estates plan commission rejects rezoning request for possible data center,” and residents were quick to react to the news commenting:

  • “NOT A SINGLE MEMBER OF THE BARRINGTON HILLS BOARD OF TRUSTEES WAS THERE THAT I SAW. WOW!!!!!”
  • “Where was the leadership from Barrington Hills? No one from the Board was there. Paula (McCombie)and the numerous South Barrington Trustees were there and stayed for the entire meeting. Grateful for their support.”

We also posted, “South Barrington Mayor Paula McCombie shares an update on Hoffman Estates/Plum Farms Plan Commission meeting,” last Friday, June 5th, but outside of the hearing notice posted on the Village Facebook page, residents heard absolutely nothing from our elected trustees.

Then on Monday, June 8th, our Village posted, “UPDATE: HOFFMAN ESTATES PLUM FARMS REZONING REQUEST” on their Facebook page (See “Village Board once again tests our tolerance for fabrications (BS)”) that included a letter from Brian Cecola that was clearly backdated to June 2nd, since:

  • No one is copied on the letter. That is unheard of considering the number of interested parties in the matter.
  • No one read the letter aloud at the Hoffman Estates Plum Farms hearing.
  • The letter would have been “shouted out” via social media and a press release June 2nd given the embarrassing position Cecola put himself in when he fronted a, “110 Acre AI data center campus pitched to Village Board,” next to Pond Gate last December that he caught Hell for.

It is well known that Mr. Cecola is not the sharpest tack in the box. However, he can be smart from time to time.  This is not one of those times and he has insulted the intelligence of residents and his peers.

As for not one member of our Board of Trustees attending the well-publicized Plum Farms hearing, shame on them. There is no excuse.

But to a person, BOT members will whine, “But the Director of Administration (Anna Paul) went to the meeting.” The problem is she is not an elected official of the Village of Barrington Hills. They need to be reminded she has no standing to act on behalf of the Village of Barrington Hills, nor does she present herself that way. The BOT, unfortunately, seems to conveniently forget this.

This Board must show up and speak their mind at the next Plum Farms meeting which may be July 6th. Not to do so would likely decimate any remaining credibility they may have among many residents.

Related: “Village Board once again tests our tolerance for fabrications (BS),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Follow-up),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 3),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 2),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 1),” “7 things to know about Illinois data centers,” “Data Center group concerned over pause,” “110 Acre AI data center campus pitched to Village Board”

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Editorial: What’s really at stake in the Pritzker-Johnson cold war

Posted in Chicago Tribune, ComEd Four, Commodius Maximus, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Dumb and Dumber, Entertainment, Ethics, OP/Ed, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Scott Stantis, Simple Minds, Springfield, Taxes on May 26, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Scott Stantis editorial cartoon for Sunday, May 24, 2026 on the fight between Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson over the Bears stadium. | Scott Stantis/For the Chicago Tribune

By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune

As we witness the current dysfunction between Chicago City Hall and Springfield, we easily forget that for most of the past 60 years Illinois governors were Republicans while Chicago mayors were Democrats.

There was some tension in those relationships. But for the most part those GOP governors and Chicago mayors cooperated effectively on matters of importance to Chicago. Chicago mayors — for the bulk of that time period, their last names were Daley — understood how to prioritize their requests to Springfield for assistance to ensure they could get to “yes.” And GOP governors — Jim Thompson in the 1980s, Jim Edgar for much of the ‘90s and then George Ryan in the early 2000s — understood that a growing and economically strong Chicago was a boon for the entire state.

During Illinois’ brutal budget wars of the 2010s, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel were frequently at odds on a host of issues. But everyone understood the real warring parties at the time were Rauner and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan. For all the verbal broadsides, no one ever believed Rauner and Emanuel, who were friends for years before that era, couldn’t communicate with each other reasonably even if striking deals was challenging.

Which bring us to right now.

What is there to say about the relationship between Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker, both Democrats?

What relationship? There doesn’t appear to be any.

The editorial continues here.

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Beware of the Historical Revisionists

Posted in Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), John Kass News, OP/Ed, Open Meetings Act, Politics on May 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »

“Ignorance and arrogance are a lethal combination. Nowhere do we see that more clearly among writers and performers who pontificate as historians when they know nothing about history.”

By James Banakis | John Kass News

I’ve always been a devotee of history. I think that’s because for me it’s always been someone telling a story. History as a study is at its best a TRUE story without an agenda. Those of us who study it understand that is because we accept the good and the bad of it as an examination of our very mortal ancestors navigating through the ages. Because we’re all human, we’re flawed. That’s what makes the stories so compelling.

History class for me was story hour, and I never missed class. Of them all, the best history professor I ever had was Dr. William Maehl. The great thespian held his audience in suspense, evoking laughter, tears, anxiety, and at times, spontaneous applause. He ended his lectures by giving his students a synopsis of how the subject of his discourse affected our lives and lessons we could take from it. He made us all feel that history was entrusted to those that chose to study it as a sacred text to be protected and passed on to our descendants. That’s why I detest historical revisionists. Those that pervert the past to promote their own agenda.

In the past 15 years we’ve seen those in the Marxist wing on the left want to tear down statues of historical figures who they chose to cancel. Every notable American honored with a statue erected over the past 250 years has been under attack for not being pure enough, woke enough.

We’ve also become aware of an interesting phenomenon propagated by their throngs of true believers, Gaslighting.

Gaslighting is a form of determined psychological maneuvering and emotional abuse where a person or group makes someone question their own memory, perception, or sanity. By denying facts or distorting reality, the manipulator gains power and control, leaving the victim confused and anxious.

The term was made popular in the 1944 film Gaslight, in which the protagonist is made to feel that she’s going insane. The term was often used by pundits during the Biden administration government officials for example, said our border was secure while millions of illegal aliens poured across unvetted. The other beauty was that Biden was running circles around his young staff at the White House, and that no one was able to keep up with his razor-sharp mind.

George Orwell perceptively said, “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”  The Neo Marxists understand this, and they constantly promote their agenda by corrupting our founding principles.

Read on here.

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Has Facebook begun the long slide toward ruin?

Posted in Chicago Sun*Times, OP/Ed on May 20, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Young people increasingly view Facebook as a folly of the old. I’m starting to agree with them. | AP Photo/Noah Berger, File

By Neil Steinberg | Chicago Sun*Times

So another grandchild, born this week — maybe to me, maybe to somebody else. Who can say? I really shouldn’t be more specific than that.

Certainly no word of the news, if there is any news, breathed on Facebook. I … or, um, another person very much like myself … would sooner sell a child to the circus than post its photos, or any identifying details, on any sort of social media. As for what the potential harm of that could be, beyond strong and immediate rebuke, I’m afraid to ask. Maybe X snatches their images and does unspeakable things with them.

As it is my … well, somebody’s … adult children view Facebook the way I, when young, would look at my grandfather’s dentures falling into the soup: as an embarrassing lapse of age. Worse. It’s like yanking the dentures out of your own mouth and flinging them into the soup, with pride. Not an accident, an intention.

Facebook is no longer hip, or the bomb, or dope, or fire, or whatever the current term for coolness might be. “Slow death” is the phrase encountered online. The young might have an account, allowing Facebook to pretend it’s reaching the sweet spot demographic. But the 20-somethings I know never use it and mock those who do. The cracks are starting to show. On May 20, Meta, the parent of Facebook, is laying off 8,000 workers — 10% of its workforce. Last week, The New York Times, in an opinion piece, declared Meta “at the start of a long, slow decline.”

The plan is that artificial intelligence will do the jobs of the freshly fired, even though AI is part of what’s wrecking Facebook, all those blocks of regurgitated history lite and random pop culture factoids. And that rash of ads. God forbid you buy shoes, as I have. Facebook will dangle the shoes you just bought under your nose for a month, hoping you’ll buy a second pair. And this is the super-intelligence that would rule us.

Opinion continues here.

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Noticed a surprise inside your property tax bill? – Part 2

Posted in 220, Barrington Education Association, Board of Education, BOHICA, Deception, District 220 referendum, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Elections, Illinois Federation of Teachers, OP/Ed, Overhead, Politics, Property Taxes, Real Estate, School Districts, Transparency, Unions, What the Ficke (Bradford)? on May 19, 2026| 1 Comment »

 

Following up on our recent post attaching the transcript from the November 18, 2025, Board of Education meeting discussing DSEB, we thought a recent Public Comment from the April 21, 2026, District 220 Board of Education Meeting was worth publishing:

Barry Altshuler (Interim Board President): And, we have one comment today, Angela Wilcox. Welcome. Come forward.

Public Speaker, Angela Wilcox: Hi Board. It’s so nice to sit on this side of the table.

Altshuler: We miss you.

Wilcox: It is so good to see all of you guys, you all look great. I miss seeing you. It’s very nostalgic coming up here. And, President Altshuler, thank you for allowing me to speak, I showed up a minute late. I didn’t realize the new policy as far as signing up before 3:00 or before 6:00, but it’s distracting me.

But, I just wanted to say something tonight that is absolutely nothing that my former Board Members, Leah, Barry, Steve, heard me say before, which is to talk about DSEB borrowing. And, I know that I bored you guys to death with my discussions and we all voted together to not do DSEB borrowing for a couple of years that I was on the Board. And so just, you know, kind of speak to some people that haven’t heard me drone on about this before.

I just wanted to take a minute. There have been a couple of emails that came around today. I know that you guys aren’t voting on DSEB today and I, you know, sadly, and yet kind of happily, don’t really follow all of your Board meeting schedules anymore. So I didn’t know when you were voting, which is, which is on me.

But just as, you know, as a, as a community taxpayer and you know, someone whose kids attended 220, you know, it is, it’s, it’s something that I think is important because it’s, it’s an issue that a lot of constituents don’t really understand, like, what is DSEB borrowing?

And, I think that there’s a reason why, you know, if you Google this or put into, you know, ChatGPT, it’s called a backdoorreferendum. Basically a way to borrow money without having to go to the public and asking them for permission with a referendum to allow, you know, to borrow some money for capital projects.

And, I think that, unfortunately, and just, you know, the way that the optics are, when, you know this, when a DSEB borrowing comes out at the same time that constituents now are seeing the new, you know, the Referendum dollars coming out on our tax bills, it kind of hits a chord like, oh, wait a minute, what’s going on?

You know, there was, there was District resources spent for, you know, attorneys and for campaigns to make this Referendum go forward. It was successful and community members volunteering and then that happened. But then on top of it, then there’s a DSEB that’s put forward as well.

And, I know that there are always projects with as many buildings as we have and I know that we’ve always been short funded for summer projects. But, I just would encourage two things maybe going forward: One, if you can avoid DSEB borrowing in the future; I think that it was such a good practice that the Board really came together and united on as, you know, trying to have this as a goal, you know, for a few years. And, and then two, just to, you know, maybe explain to the public what this all includes so that there’s transparency and showing fiscal responsibility and just so that there isn’t the chatter because, you know…

Altshuler: Thank you.

Wilcox: … the optics are always important.

Altshuler: Thank you so much. Thank you.

To review the YouTube recording of these comment, click here.

Related: “Noticed a surprise inside your property tax bill?”

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Noticed a surprise inside your property tax bill?

Posted in 220, Barrington Education Association, Board of Education, BOHICA, Deception, District 220 referendum, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Elections, Illinois Federation of Teachers, OP/Ed, Politics, Property Taxes, Real Estate, School Districts, Taxes, Transparency, Unions, What the Ficke (Bradford)?, WTF on May 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »

In case you missed it and are curious about the increases in the D220 property taxes on your recent tax bills, the Board of Education discussion during the November 18, 2025, Board of Education Meeting provides some insight.

You may recall the 2024 $64 million referendum voted on by residents was widely publicized by District 220 in its “Transform 220” campaign. The District formed a community advisory committee and hosted public information forums to educate voters on what the $64 million bond would fund. They also promoted the initiative across their official website and social media channels, highlighting how the funds would be used.

In contrast, the expenditures quietly voted on by the Board at its December 2, 2025, to issue up to $5.4 million in Working Cash Fund bonds (DSEB), specifically for District capital projects, was barely mentioned prior to the Board’s vote and was done so without any buy in from the taxpayers.

Why weren’t these expenditures included in the November 2024 Referendum? We don’t know, especially since they were previously identified in the failed 2019 Referendum for $185 million in the Blueprint 220 Master Facility Plan.

While the District maintains that the overall 2024 referendum impact is consistent with their total budget projections, individual tax bills have spiked. The May 2026 property tax bills for Barrington CUSD 220 residents reflect the significant cumulative impact of both the $64 million referendum and the $5.4 million DSEB issuance approved by the Board in December 2025.

The full transcript of the November 18, 2025, discussion on DSEB is available here. We will follow up with some additional insight in future reports.

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