Marengo Gazette Blog

McHenry County IL Message Board

2009-04-14T07:51:00.001-05:00

Please feel free to visit the McHenry County Message Board. This message board is for people to talk freely about their community, concerns, and any other topics of interest. The forum is divided into various areas, according to the town that you live in McHenry County. There are also various other areas and topics, for everyone to post in.

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McHenry County IL Message Board

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Thomas Cynor for McHenry County State's Attorney 2008 - We need to rehab the McHenry county judicial system

2008-10-08T10:26:00.001-05:00

November 2008 should be a time for change. This year we should show our support and have faith in Thomas Cynor as the new McHenry County State's Attorney.

Lou Bianchi has destroyed our judicial system in McHenry County. He has corrupted our court judge's, falsified trial evidence and strong hold the community. Lou Bianchi continues to misuse taxpayer money.

Lou Bianchi had expense about $60,000 in reimbursements since he took office. This included many meals and travel.... eating and playing on our tax dollars just isn't right. Again, Lou Bianchi is mixing political campaigning with official business. Lou Bianchi's booth at the Crystal Lake Expo is another example. Lou Bianchi cannot mix official community outreach efforts and political campaigning. If he used taxpayer money and we all know that he did, it is a violation of the Illinois Election Interference Act.

Lou Bianchi taking thousands of dollars from various (bribes) county contractors and other special interests.

Source: Citizens for Cynor

Illinois State Board of Elections records reveal that Cynor’s opponent, Louis Bianchi (R-Crystal Lake, Illinois) however, has accepted thousands of dollars from various county contractors and other special interests. Those same records indicate that Bianchi even went as far as accepting thousands of dollars from the very same contractors who where awarded a multimillion dollar deal to remodel the government center and Bianchi’s own governmental office. Cynor stated, “When you take money from government contractors and then those same contractors get multimillion dollar county contracts, eyebrows raise. The State’s Attorney is the people’s lawyer, they should never have reason to question the loyalty of their own legal representation. If Bianchi were called upon to represent the county in a contract dispute against his major political contributors, whose interests would he be representing?”

We need strong independent leadership for McHenry County’s future!

It is time for a change!

This November...........

VOTE FOR THOMAS CYNOR

MCHENRY COUNTY STATE'S ATTORNEY 2008!

Proud supporter of Thomas Cynor

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LOU BIANCHI TAKES GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR CONTRIBUTIONS FOR RE-ELECTION: WE CALL IT BRIBES

2008-10-08T09:34:00.000-05:00

Elect Thomas Cynor for McHenry County State's Attorney 2008

Source Citizens for Cynor

WOODSTOCK IL. - The committee, Citizens for Cynor, announced a fundraising event today for McHenry County State’s Attorney Candidate, Thomas J. Cynor (D-Woodstock, Illinois). The event is scheduled for September 23, 2008 (7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.) at the Stage Left Café in downtown Woodstock. “The fund raising event is typical in most regards,” said campaign coordinator, Laura Asbury, “except for one very important detail. Mr. Cynor has pledged both privately and publically that he will not accept government contractor or vendor contributions – not now, not ever.”

Illinois State Board of Elections records reveal that Cynor’s opponent, Louis Bianchi (R-Crystal Lake, Illinois) however, has accepted thousands of dollars from various county contractors and other special interests. Those same records indicate that Bianchi even went as far as accepting thousands of dollars from the very same contractors who where awarded a multimillion dollar deal to remodel the government center and Bianchi’s own governmental office. Cynor stated, “When you take money from government contractors and then those same contractors get multimillion dollar county contracts, eyebrows raise. The State’s Attorney is the people’s lawyer, they should never have reason to question the loyalty of their own legal representation. If Bianchi were called upon to represent the county in a contract dispute against his major political contributors, whose interests would he be representing?”

Vote For Tom Cynor, McHenry County States' Attorney

2008-03-30T15:01:00.001-05:00

It is time to make a change in McHenry County,

It is time to get our judicial system back on track,

It is time to shift into high gear,

It is time to throw Lou Bianchi out on his rear!

Vote for Tom Cynor, our new McHenry County States' Attorney!

Now opened, The McHenry County Message Board serving all of McHenry County

2008-03-24T16:57:00.000-05:00

Please visit our new friends............

"We would like to welcome you to the McHenry County Message Board. This message board is for people to talk freely about their community, concerns, and any other topics of interest. The forum is divided into various areas, according to the town that you live in McHenry County. There are also various other areas and topics, for everyone to post in.

Please come by and check it out!"

McHenry County Message Boards

Crystal Lake Tax Hike Passes, Will The Raise Help The City Or Create More Empty Spaces?

2008-03-20T07:06:00.001-05:00

Link: McHenry County Message Board

Well, sorry to say all you CL resident’s out there, you will have to spend more of you hard earned dollars. The City of Crystal Lake is raising the sales tax to a whopping 7.75% as of July 1st! Why is the sales tax going up? The politicians’ pockets are empty! Seriously, here are some excuses:

The Vulcan Lakes Project (What happened to the money that was set aside for this project long ago?)

Senior Center

Resurfacing city streets (Are we talking actually resurfacing or more Mickey Mouse fills?)

Four new police officers and a community service officer (With or without mental problems?)

And a few others.

How about Crystal Lake’s current dilemma? I wonder how the stiff tax increase will help fill these voids? Take a look:

The old CL Walmart is supposed to house JCPenny. Just look at all these empty fronts. Downtown Crystal Lake is pretty bad. The Toy Connection is one of the latest shops to close. I know there are more empty spaces than this, it is all I had time to take pictures of.

I guess we will have to wait and see how the extra income will benefit the city. Will Vulcan Lakes ever be built? Will we all be driving on much smoother roads? Or, will we see CL officials spending taxpayer money on more lavish dinners, driving more expensive cars, and building room additions to their homes?

In the mean time, if you are not happy about the tax increase, you can this take this man’s advise: Mayor Aaron T. Shepley:

“People can shop at Super Walmart and Menard’s in Woodstock, if they want to.”

Right from the horse’s mouth. This goes to show how much he cares about the Crystal Lake residents.

Send inquires to the Complaint Department:

comments@crystallake.org

Add one of the following names in the subject line:

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Crystal Lake To Raise Sale Tax

2008-03-15T11:05:00.000-05:00

Link: McHenry County Message Board

Crystal Lake Tax Hike: The Vulcan Lakes Project Bad Idea, Conservation Area Instead

For over 7 years Crystal Lake's Vulcan Lake Project has gone nowhere. To help it along, the officials propose a sales tax increase to get the money needed to create this magnificent recreational area. Wasn't part of Vulcan's tax put aside to buy the land back? What happened to the money? Did Crystal Lake blow the money on something else? As far as I am concern, using the Vulcan Lakes Project as the city's escape goat to raise taxes is getting old. I say "Let go of the dream!"

The price of this project will probably hit near the 30 million dollar mark. That is 10 million more than originally estimated. Why waste that kind of money on a project that will be ruined by people anyway? Once you have the beach and the boats, the water will be polluted and the beach will not look any better than the one that is there now. In the end, Crystal Lake would take an area of beauty and turn it into a dump. I think Vulcan Lakes would serve the community better as a conservation area. "I Propose that McHenry County should buy the land." Not only that, there are enough empty stores in Crystal Lake as it is. There is also another factor: the economy. I am sure a place like this will cost the public something.... nothing is free.

Red = Hiking/Bike Path Blue = Boat Launch

I would very much like to see a large hiking path around Vulcan Lakes and a boat launch (no motors allowed). Sure, The Hollows does not allow boat motors (unless you are the Cary Fire District- those bozos sure messed up that lake with their drills!)

For 30 million dollars, Crystal Lake could put the money where it is really needed.
I know! How about here:

Crystal Lake Library

The library, for one, is too small. I have seen how many people visit the library on a daily basis, it is just not large enough. The librarians complain that there are too many inter-library loans. Well, the Crystal Lake Library does not have enough materials due to it's size and lack of funding. Even after the remodeling there is not that much of a difference.... maybe a little, but not a lot.

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McHenry County Message Board

2008-03-14T08:48:00.000-05:00

Link:

McHenry County Council of Governments, are they just wasting time and our tax money?

Just like Lou Bianchi, I feel our tax dollars continually are being missed used by the McHenry County Council of Governments. I am not claiming to be highly political suave, but I do not think we are getting any bang for our buck. Has anyone seen any good that has come out of this council? All I see are higher and higher taxes, higher utilities, very dumb ordnances and more police issues.

McHenry County Council of Governments

Mission Statement

The McHenry County Council of Governments is a cohesive network of governmental bodies who seek to foster cooperation between all levels of government. The purpose of the McHenry County Council of Governments is to uphold and advocate principles of effective local government, facilitate solutions to regional issues and otherwise lessen the burdens of government.

What? What? What does this mean?

McHenry County Council of Governments is made up of all the mayors and village presidents. Most of them have a hard time running their own town or village. Do you think it is wise to trust in them to "uphold and advocate principles of effective local government, facilitate solutions to regional issues and otherwise lessen the burdens of government"? How about applying your principles to the place you govern first? Let start off by cleaning up local law enforcement. When you have rogue cops, it should be your responsibility to make sure that they are let go and the appropriate action is taken against them. All I have seen for the last few years is they are forced to resign in good standing and with a good recommendation. Thus, moving on to another place causing the same problems, in turn going through the whole speigle again, resigning in good standing and with a good recommendation. Could any of the government bodies explain this? If it is because of the "cost" to train a new officer? I'd rather go with cost than some wacko with a gun. Anytime you transfer your bad apples to another village, town or whatever, you put citizens at risk.

Here is something else to work on: city or village employment and work ethics. What is with hiring family, friends of family, friends of friends, etc? Money is being wasted here as well. I am tired of seeing five people at a work site. One guy sits in the truck, one guy digs (or whatever he is doing) and three guys stand and watch. Another one that comes to mind is the Mickey mouse street patches. Route 31 up to about Bull Valley Road is a joke. The street is so lumpy that it's best off being shut down and fixed right before people start losing tires or other vehicle parts. I do not know how many times they had the five man crew filling holes. It doesn't last, why not just fix it right and stop wasting money and resources?

This is just the beginning of a very long list.

If these mayors or village presidents cannot take care of things individually, how effective can they be when they get together?

McHenry County Message Board

Judge Joseph Condon Knows Cops Were Wrongfully Accused, Bianchi And Owens Should Be Jailed Instead

2008-02-08T07:56:00.001-06:00

Corruption is undermining justice which is denying the basic human right to a fair trial of the innocent.

I would like to congratulate Volstad and Pilati for their victory against a corrupted judicial system.
It is nice to see that even Judge Joseph Condon could not ignore the fact that Louis Bianchi and Nichole Owens tampered with crucial evidence in the case. There is nothing more incriminating than having two audios of the call to 911 and having them being different. Let’s not forget that William Kroncke handed over the remix. Also, he was probably responsible for the missing video tape that was taken from a gas station across the way that might have captured the whole thing. What video tape!? You will have to ask Nichole Owens about this one.
The way I see it, 90 days in jail and 2 years probation is much better than 5 years in prison. There lies the victory. Who knows, they might only serve half of that.

The way I see it, 90 days in jail and 2 years probation is much better than 5 years in prison. There lies the victory. Who knows, they might only serve half of that.

Tags: Judge Joseph Condon, Louis Bianchi, Nichole Owens, William Kroncke, Volstad, Pilati, McHEnry County, Fox Lake, Fox Lake Bar, Justice, Judicial System, McHenry County Illinois, McHenry County States Attorney, States Attorney, Lou Bianchi

ANOTHER 4 MORE YEARS IN MCHENRY COUNTY JAIL UNDER LOUIS BIANCHI, OUR JUDICIAL SYSTEM LOSES FACE VALUE

2008-02-06T08:33:00.001-06:00

Again, we can look forward to another 4 years of Louis Bianchi’s corruption of the McHenry County Justice System. Face it people, he is nothing but lights, mirrors, and a whole bunch of smoke. His dishonesty is his character, lying, cheating, and stealing. He has damaged this county’s judicial system to such extent that there was only one other candidate who was willing to step up to the challenge to make the system righteous again.

It is sad that most people in McHenry County read and believe what the Northwest Herald prints. Unfortunately, it is the only local news source for our area. I do not know how long they have been established, but to me they do not seem to have any notion to what their purpose is. They never print the truth, they just bend until it sounds good. Just like Louise Bianchi, the NWH is nothing but lights, mirrors, and a whole bunch of smoke. The NWH definitely has no moral value at all, their article comments reflect that.
The NWH is unethical in their practices and fold under the pressure of McHenry County Government. Again, it was displayed be endorsing a candidate. The NWH fooled the people by endorsing Louis Bianchi as the best candidate for States Attorney and confusing voters. I hope another 4 years of Louis Bianchi was worth whatever promises he made or any donation he threw at you to endorse him.

As our county grows, I will praise the day when another media source comes to town.

Tags: McHenry County, NWH, Louis Bianchi, McHenry County States Attorney, Lou Bianchi, Justice System, McHenry County Il, McHenry Judge, Northwest Herald, Dan Regna

State's Attorney Louis Bianchi Defending Baby Killer Lyndsey Tucker, Cannot Decide How To Do His Job

2008-01-20T19:14:00.001-06:00

Vote for Dan Regna, McHenry County States Attorney

“Mr. Bianchi’s administration has been a failure. The state’s attorney’s office is in chaos, defeat and ruin.”

I cannot believe that Louis Bianchi has not filed any murder charges against Lyndsey Tucker for killing her baby. Is this the type of State's Attorney you want in McHenry County? This is what I am trying to tell all of you. He does not prosecute actual criminals!!! This goes to show that he is defending a baby killer. He is not competent enough to hold office. How can the Northwest Herald support such a person?

Source Chicago Tribune

Death of baby born to mom on home detention is ruled homicide

Home-detained mom birthed infant who suffocated

By Carolyn Starks | Tribune staff reporter

November 8, 2007

The death of a baby boy born to a woman who was under home detention on bank robbery charges was ruled a homicide by a McHenry County coroner's jury Wednesday.

The infant suffocated because a placental membrane covered his mouth and nose, which probably occurred during birth, according to testimony at a coroner's inquest.

Lyndsey Tucker, 25, apparently gave birth the morning of July 9, police said. Her baby was found in a bag in the bathroom of the apartment she shared with the baby's father just north of Harvard.

"Lyndsey admitted she had a baby but as far as what occurred in that bathroom ... she will not talk about it," said Detective William Umbenhower of the McHenry County sheriff's office.

The homicide ruling means the jury believed the death was caused by another person but does not indicate whether a crime was committed.

Tucker has not been charged in the death of her baby, but the case remains open, according to prosecutors.

The baby was born alive and had a great chance of surviving had the membrane been removed, said Deputy Coroner Paula Gallas.

"It's not very common in occurrence -- about 1 in 1,000 babies," Gallas said. "They are termed to be born with a veil."

Tucker is being held in the McHenry County Jail on federal charges in two February bank robberies in Lake in the Hills. After being notified of the baby's death, a judge revoked an order that allowed Tucker to be on home detention before her trial. Tucker had been on home detention since Feb. 16 at an apartment with her boyfriend, who was unaware that Tucker was pregnant, Gallas said. DNA tests concluded that he was the baby's father, authorities said.

The boyfriend called an ambulance July 9 after finding Tucker unconscious in the bathroom and bleeding. She was taken to Memorial Medical Center in Woodstock about 3:15 a.m., when doctors determined she had given birth.

"Where is it?" Umbenhower said the boyfriend asked the doctor.

The father returned to the apartment and found the baby in a brown plastic bag in a cabinet underneath the bathroom sink.

"He put it in a soft-sided cooler and took it to the hospital," Umbenhower testified.

In another case Wednesday, the county coroner's jury determined that a 7-year-old Crystal Lake girl was suffocated and that her mother then killed herself by standing in front of an approaching commuter train. Magdalene Kamysz, 28, died about 2 p.m. Aug. 28 after she was struck by a Crystal Lake-bound Metra train along the Union Pacific Northwest tracks in Cary, authorities said. Police believe she suffocated her child before she took her own life.

At 6 p.m. that day, McHenry County Deputy Coroner Robert Locke went to Kamysz's home in the 4500 block of Hanover Drive near Crystal Lake to notify family members about her death.

Locke found the body of Sydney Kamysz, 7, on a bed holding two stuffed animals.

"She had a comforter over her," Locke said Wednesday. "She was resting in a peaceful position."

The child had some bruising that suggested something was held over her with force, he said.

Kamysz was involved in legal proceedings filed by the girl's father, who was seeking visitation rights. The two were not married.

Tags: Louis Bianchi, Lyndsey Tucker, States Attorney, McHenry County Illinois, McHenry County States Attorney, Bianchi, Lou Bianchi, NWH, Northwest Herald Newspaper, Dan Regna

The Northwest Herald Is An Unethical Newpaper, Louis Bianchi Is No Good For McHenry County, Vote For Dan Regna

2008-01-20T10:08:00.001-06:00

Louis Bianchi is nothing but a snake. He has been a terrible State's Attorney. The Northwest Herald has portrays Louis Bianchi as some kind of "Hero" for convicting high profile cases. How many of those case had the evidence been tampered with? Hey Bianchi? Like the cops from the Fox Lake bar beating. It must of been nice to of had a tempered recording. The Northwest Herald never mentioned that. Why? How about illegal wire taps? Boy did Bianchi waste a good sum of our tax dollars on unnecessary and illegal wire taps.... and got nothing!
The list goes on and on. Bianchi will find some other way to buy his candy and eat on our tax dollars.
Lets not forget that he seems to hate Army Reservists. You have to admit, he treats his people very poorly.
Louis Bianchi is bad for McHenry County. He has to resort to law breaking measures in order to get his convictions. Truly innocent people in McHenry County will never get a fair trial while Bianchi is in office. If you look at his cases, more criminals go free while innocent people go to prison.
One thing about the Northwest Herald, they will never print the truth. The county government has this paper wrapped around their finger. I bet they were some how forced or bribed into endorsing Bianchi.... which is unethical for a printed newspaper to do.

Tags: Northwest Herald, McHenry County Illinois, News, Louis Bianchi, Bianchi, Dan Regna, Regna, McHenry County States Attorney, Newspaper, McHenry County

Vote for Dan Regna, McHenry County States Attorney, Over Throw The Tyrant Lou Bianchi!

2008-01-09T13:18:00.001-06:00

Vote for Dan Regna, McHenry County States Attorney

DAN REGNA

“Mr. Bianchi’s administration has been a failure. The state’s attorney’s office is in chaos, defeat and ruin.”

Lou Bianchi

* Anne Brophy: "She took a three-month humanitarian trip to Peru in 2006 as part of her military service. When she came back he punished her by demoting her to juvenile court attorney."
* Phil Reiman: "Did the same to him when he went I leave."
* Stole taxpayers money.
* He put more innocent people behind bars than actual criminals.
* Wasted taxpayers and the money of the innocent on cases that he knew that should have never gone to trial.
* $17,000 of this taxpayer money was used for personal meals, gift certificates, candy and snacks.
* Since taking office in 2004, Bianchi’s office has received expense reimbursements for more than $24,000 and used petty cash to pay for more than $32,000 in additional expenses. He is a crook.
* Bianchi and his team often violate the rule but Bianchi and defense attorneys have denied wrongdoing and described the complaints as examples of maneuvering.

Tags: Dan Regna, Louis Bianchi, McHenry County Illinois, McHenry County, McHenry County States Attorney, Lou, Bianchi, Regna

Our City Clerk, Theresa Hoschouer, Owner of the Marengo Convenience Mart

2007-12-30T21:04:00.001-06:00

Our City Clerk, Theresa Hoschouer, has broken the law and yet has continued to serve in office. She and her husband, Steven M. Hoschover run the Marengo Convenience Mart on Rt. 176. They have hired an employee, whom they had paid in cash and did not report on their federal and state taxes. They are obligated to report him to workers compensation insurance, yet they did not do so, cheating the insurance company as well. These are federal and state laws that they broke. Also, the employee, who is young and attends the Moody Bible Institute, by accident sold some beer to a woman who looked well into her late 20's. The reason he did not ask for her ID is that several people of Mexican descent were in the store and were acting in a threatening manner and he was scared of them, so he just wanted to get the woman out of the store. It turned out to be a sting operation and he was fined $500, which he paid, and the store owners(our City Clerk) was also fined $500. Now, the employee continued to be employed at the Convenience Mart until this Christmas, which is when the store owners fired him for refusing to work on Christmas day, which is ALSO against state law. Upon firing him, they also held back $500 that they said he owed them for their part of the fine that they had to pay months back. That is blatantly illegal.

State Statue 56 il adm code 300 730 300 820 states that unless an agreement is signed an employer cannot take out any fines, missing money from the register, or anything that was broken in the store out of wages of an employee. However, don't forget, our City Clerk and her husband paid the employee mentioned in cash, not in legal wages. They have broken many laws and I have to say that many, many politicians lost their right to hold office or were thrown out of elections based on far less, such as not withholding taxes for a nanny or a gardener.

Theresa Hoschover is an ELECTED official who is sworn to uphold the law, yet she obviously thinks little about the laws she breaks in this town.

How many other people have they employed illegally?

Our City Clerk, Theressa A. Hoschouer works for us, and is paid a salary from our TAXPAYER DOLLARS, but apparently doesn't believe in paying taxes herself. She and her husband, Steven M. Hoschouer own and operate the Marengo Convenient Mart on 176, next to Rosati's Pizza. It's name portrays it to be a Convenient Mart, but it is merely a liquor store masquerading as a knock off 7-11 or White Hen. I would certainly make a fair guess that 95% plus of it's gross income is derived from alcohol sales. But is the true nature of the business all that our elected official, City Clerk Theressa Hoschouer and her husband Steve are hiding? Not by a long shot. You know those pesky taxes they we are all required to pay? And if you are an employer, all those additional taxes you are required to pay to both the State of IL and to the Federal Government? Well, apparently, the Hoschouer clan doesn't think they need to follow those laws like the rest of us do. They chose to lie to their employees, cheat the government, take an unfair advantage against their competitors, and just pay employees cash. Not to mention insurance fraud for failing to properly cover their employees with the required workers compensation insurance. Many a political offical, even on a national level has seen their political careers stumble into the abyss due to not following these exact same laws.

But it is not just state and federal tax withholding laws that have been broken. Isn't our nation under scrutiny to properly screen employees, and make them present valid proof of identification before they can work? Not if you apply at the Marengo Convenient Mart. Just show up, get paid in cash, do whatever the owners demand and life is good. More violations of federal laws by our City Clerk and her husband. One would think that for all the Marengo police officers that spend countless hours a day there drinking coffee and socializing, the owners would be a bit more law abiding, but apparently not. No need to. Not when clout is on your side.

Recently, The IL State Police conducted an underage alcohol purchase sting at the Convenient Mart, and an employee inadvertently sold alcohol to a 20 year old woman. Why did he fail to check her I.D? Because the two State Police Officers, Hispanic Males in their mid 20s, were shouting and yelling at the employee to be allowed to use the restroom when the woman walked in and purchased her bottle of wine. This was after the two wandered around the store for 10 minutes, and did nothing but glare at the employee. The cashier was distracted and nervous, actions caused by the IL State Police, who laughed about their charade as they arrested the cashier. The employee, a student at the Moody Bible Institute, was fined $500.00. Not only was he fined, but the owners, our City Clerk and her husband were also fined $500.00. The employee paid his $500.00 fine. The store owners? They lied to and strung out the employee, not paying him his salary, always having some excuse as to why they couldn't pay him. On December 24th, they asked the employee to work the entire day on Christmas. He explained to them that he was going to be working and active at his church the entire day on Christmas, and could not work it. They told him to come into work several days later. When he arrived, he was handed a note, stating that he was fired for not working on Christmas, and he would not be receiving any of his back pay because he sold alcohol to a minor several months ago. Again, these are clear cut violations of both federal and state laws being done in Marengo, by our City Clerk.

This city has a history of standing behind elected officials who commit crimes. Will our City Clerk be right there with them? Or is it about time we demand that our elected officials follow the same laws that the rest of us have to follow? Who regulates liquor licenses in our city? Isn't it done through the city clerks office?

The State of IL and The Federal Government have been made aware of the alleged crimes committed by Theressa and Steven Hoschouer. After they investigate them and deem the allegations valid, will our mayor and alderman take action against our city clerk? I really doubt it. If you are a "friend" to those in city hall, you can do no wrong. It seems to be the Marengo way. Let's wait and see.

Tags: Marengo Il, City of Marengo, Marengo City Clerk, Village of Marengo, Theresa Hoschouer, Marengo Convenience Mart, Crooked Politics, Politics, McHenry County Il, McHenry County, Steve Hoschouer

McHenry Judge Condon Is Corrupted By Nichole Owens And Lou Bianchi, William Kroncke Had 911 Tape Was Altered

2007-11-05T08:39:00.001-06:00

Illinois State Police William Kroncke corrupted the trail will tampered 911 tape.

The two former officers who were acting in self-defense during the February 2005 altercation outside KC's Cabin are found guilty of all charges after saving the life of Jessica Thelen. Defense lawyers agreed that the former officers jumped Hallett, but only to save the life of a woman they say he had taken hostage at knifepoint.
Ryan Hallett told the jury that he went to the bar already intoxicated and with the intent to go to the bar and start trouble with one of these offiers becauce of a friend. Ryan Hallett got what he deserved after taking a woman hostage. He could of killed her.
Not only that, these men did not get a fair trail due to Judge J Condon. There was a 911 tape that William Kroncke from the Il State Police had an altered copy made which was given as evidence. Judge Condon knew, and did nothing. Judge Condon should be arrested along with with William Kroncke and Nicole Owens. These people have broken the law and should loose their jobs. Judge Condon has proven that no one in McHenry County can have a fair trail, especially under him. How many other innocent people in McHenry County were found guilty by Judge Condon in which he had knowledge of "tampered evidence" and did nothing?
The Attorney General needs to look into this corruption.

Tags: Louis Bianchi, Nichole Owens, McHenry Prosecutor, McHenry County State's Attorney, Judge Condon, Police, Bad Cops, Police Abuse, Injustice, State Police, Illinois State Police, Illinois Bad Cops, McHenry County Judges, William Kroncke, McHenry County Judge, Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, Illinois Attorney General, Illinois, Police Brutality, William Kroncke Il State Police, Nichole Owens, Nichole P Owens, McHenry County Nichole Owens, Joseph Condon, Ryan Hallett

Marengo Police Chief Les Kottke, Going Senile Or Just Plain Idiot? Allows Courtney Miller Back On The Job After A Drunk Driving Arrest

2007-06-07T08:33:00.001-05:00

Is Marengo Police Chief Les Kottke mind being clouded by old age? Marengo has one of the worst police departments in Northern Illinois. City Hall is no better. Marengo will sure be know as the breeding hole for bad cops and politicians.

Marengo cop back to work
By EMILY PREVITI

MARENGO -- Despite pending drunken driving charges, a police officer is back to work in Marengo, which some local police chiefs say they would not allow.
Courtney Miller appeared Tuesday in Winnebago County court on charges related to a February arrest in connection with driving under the influence of alcohol.
Miller, of Loves Park, was on paid leave from the Marengo Police Department after her arrest Feb. 6 in Rockford by Illinois State Police. She’s been back for a few weeks, Marengo Police Deputy Chief Joseph Hallman said.
Chief Les Kottke was unavailable for comment, and Carlos Arevalo, city attorney, declined to detail the decision to allow Miller to return.

“There was an investigation, the union was involved, and that culminated in the arrangement,” Arevalo said.

Winnebago County Judge Richard Lucas ruled in April that the suspension of Miller’s driving license was unfounded.
Arevalo said that finding left city officials to believe that the case won’t merit a conviction.

“It will play itself, and the case is going to go away, as simple as that,” he said.

Miller, 32, has pleaded not guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol, driving under the influence of alcohol with blood-alcohol content of more than 0.08 percent, and speeding 15 mph to 20 mph faster than the posted limit.
Law enforcement driving under the influence of alcohol has been, in the recent past, an issue for agencies throughout the county.
In Marengo, Arevalo explained, the police department considers each discipline case individually.
Jim Pasco, director of the National Fraternal Order of Police, said the organization hadn’t issued recommendations specific to DUI arrests and deemed all discipline “negotiable.”
While other local departments agreed that cases vary, some, including the McHenry County sheriff’s department and those in Fox River Grove and Algonquin, said they would not put an officer on duty before the criminal case had concluded.

In Crystal Lake and West Dundee, disciplinary action would probably, but not always, be taken after a case’s conclusion.
Algonquin Police Chief Russell Laine said for officers whose Breathalyzer tests register above a certain level, the department would seek unpaid leave and dismissal.
Harvard Chief of Police Dan Kazy-Gary said in his department, a DUI charge wouldn’t always prompt paid leave until the conclusion of a court case.

What’s next
Miller is expected to appear again in court July 20, when her attorney plans to argue that her arrest lacked probable cause.
The maximum penalties for a DUI conviction include losing one’s driver’s license for at least a year and up to $2,500, as well as land her behind bars for up to a year.
Arevalo wouldn’t say whether that would change her job status in Marengo.
Some area departments adhere more rigidly than others to court verdicts in deciding whether to keep an officer on staff.

In Algonquin, a DUI conviction would lead to termination, but acquittals could, too, Laine said.
McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren said he adhered to a similar principle.

“Chances are, they’re going to lose their job, which I guess is more than the average citizen pays,” he said. “Maybe we’re held to a higher standard. If you don’t like that, then don’t get in the business.”

Pasco pointed out that standard also can be unfair.

“Too often, there’s a presumption that police officers check their civil rights at the station door, and that’s just not true,” Pasco said.

Troy Wise had been a McHenry County assistant state’s attorney for about six months when he was fired Feb. 15, a day after his car collided with a utility pole and he was charged with DUI.
And Donald Anderson was working as a sheriff’s deputy on probationary terms when he crashed a squad car into a tree in January. Crystal Lake police responded to the scene and delayed filing DUI charges against Anderson until several days afterward after the Northwest Herald had filed a Freedom of Information request for related reports.

Appeared Here

Tags: Courtney Miller, Louis Bianchi, Nichole Owens, McHenry Prosecutor, McHenry County State's Attorney, Judge Condon, Marengo IL, Marengo, City of Marengo, Marengo Police, Police, Bad Cops, Police Abuse, Injustice, State Police, Illinois State Police, Illinois Bad Cops, McHenry County Judges, William Kroncke, Scott Crawford, Kelly Given, Don Lockhart, Donald Lockhart, Mayor of Marengo, McHenry County Judge, Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, Illinois Attorney General, Illinois, Police Brutality

Bogus Disorderly Conduct Charges Dropped Against Teen Who Wrote Essay - Police Chief Ron Delelio And States' Attorney Louis Bianchi Are Both Morons

2007-05-24T14:33:00.001-05:00

(CBS) WOODSTOCK, Ill. The disorderly conduct case against a high school student who wrote a disturbing essay has been dismissed.

Prosecutors said they dropped the charges partly because the teacher at Cary-Grove High School in McHenry County didn't want the case to continue.

As CBS 2's North Suburban Bureau Chief Katie McCall reports, Cary-Grove senior Allen Lee will now be able enlist with the U.S. Marine Corps in 5 months.

Just a month ago, his dream of becoming a marine was nearly shattered when he was charged with disorderly conduct for alleged threats he made in a school essay.

On Wednesday, the McHenry County State's Attorney’s office dropped the charges.

The essay included discussions of mass murder and sex with the dead, and warned a teacher not to be surprised if she inspired the first shooting at the high school.

Lee's teacher, Nora Capron, was alarmed by Lee's essay and called her department chair, who then spoke with Cary-Grove Principal Susan Popp.

Popp called police and signed the disorderly conduct complaint shortly afterward, prosecutors said, and Lee was arrested on April 24. The arrest jeopardized the straight-A student's dream to join the Marines and forced him out of school for a period of time. He has been back at school since May 4.

On Wednesday, the McHenry County state's attorney's office dropped the charges, saying Lee did not pose a threat to himself or others. He may now pursue his planned career in the Marine Corps.

Lee's lawyers said all along it was the assignment and not the student's words that were to blame.

Attorney Dane Loizzo said, “A little bit more care should be placed in the types of assignments that we are giving these children.”

In the assignment, students were told not to censor themselves. Lee addressed his teacher in his essay, saying not to be surprised if she inspired a school shooting.

“It would seem to me that the teacher would then put in there do not write anything that refers to sex drugs alcohol or violence,” attorney Tom Loizzo said.

McHenry County State’s Attorney said he decided to drop the charges, but still believes the school did the right thing. “Freedom of speech is not absolute,” he said.

Bianchi said had they not brought charges and a tragedy took place at the school, this would have been a very different story.

“It was always about safety his safety the teacher's safety the school's safety,” Bianchi said. "The arrest and charges were clearly warranted by the Cary Police Department. … The police were obligated in the circumstances to do whatever legally possible they could to ensure the safety of Mr. Lee the students and the school."

Lee has been back here at Cary Grove since May 4th and will graduate this Saturday with his class.

Appeared Here

Allen Lee's Essay

Blood sex and Booze. Drugs Drugs Drugs are fun. Stab, Stab, Stab, S...t...a...b..., poke. “So I had this dream last night where I went into a building, pulled out two P90s and started shooting everyone..., then had sex with the dead bodies. Will, not really, but it would be funny if I did.” Umm, yeah, what to wright about...... I’m leaving to join the Marines and I really don’t give a F*** about my academics, so why does the only class that’s complete Bull S***, happen to be the only required class...enough said. The model citizen would stay around to vote in new board member to change the 4 years of English policy, but no one really stays around to vote for that kind of local crap, so whoever gets there name on the Ballet with a pretty face gets to do what the F*** ever they want with local ordinance. A person is smart, but people are dumb selfish animals. We can’t make rules for ourselves so we vote others to do it for us, but we can’t even do that right, I meen seriously, Bush for President? And our other option was John Kerry who claimed to partake in Vietnam Special Forces missions that haven’t been declassified....F***ing Bull S***. So Power Flower Super Mario. Pudge, hook, rot, dismember “Fresh Meat.” Most new/young teachers are laid back, and cooperative with students as feedback and input into the curriculum and atmosphere. My current English teacher is a control freak intent on setting a gap between herself and her students like a 63 year old white male fortune 500 company CEO, and a illegal immigrant. If CG was a private catholic school I could understand, but wtf is her problem. And baking brownies and rice crispies does not make up for it, way to try and justify yourself as a good teacher while underhandidly looking for complements on your cooking. No quarrel on you qualifications as a writer, but as a teacher, don’t be surprised on inspiring the first cg shooting.

Tags: Louise Bianchi, Allen Lee, Ron Delelio, Cary Il, Cary High School, McHenry County, McHenry County States Attorney, Cary Grove

Louis Bianchi Vindicates Marengo Police Department, Mayor Don Lockhart Should Be Satisfied

2007-04-25T09:02:00.001-05:00

“This plea is a vindication of the Illinois State Police and the Marengo Police Department,” Bianchi said. “Everything they did was appropriate and legal.”

Tags: Marengo Illinois, Marengo Il Police, City of Marengo, Louis Bianchi, Nichole Owens, McHnery County, McHenry County States Attorney, Marengo Gazette, Marengo Illinois Police, Scott Crawford, Kelly Given, Round Lake Hts, Round Lake, Round Lake Police, Round Lake Hts Police

State's Attorney Louis Bianchi Admit's Wrong By Offering Sweet Deal To Guaghan Brothers, Gaughan Brothers Record Will Be Expunged Of All Charges, Civil Lawsuit Against Marengo Illinois Will Be Likely

2007-04-23T18:52:00.001-05:00

After nearly three years McHenry County Prosecutors throw in the towel. Nichole Owens, the prosecutor who was going after the Gaughan brothers for aggravated battery of a police officer, criminal damage to government property, criminal trespass and filing a false police report, contacted the Gaughans' attorney last week and told them she did not wish to proceed with the case, and will drop all charges if the Gaughan brothers plead to a minor charge. The deal was if both brothers pleaded guilty to attempted disorderly conduct, which is a misdemeanor, that they fabricated the abuse allegations. Basically, there records will be expunged and the Gaughans were sentenced to one year of conditional discharge.

Of course Louis Bianchi said they had a very strong case. Louis Bianchi said. “It was so strong, it persuaded them to plead guilty.” It persuaded them to plead guilty? It must have been one of those moments. In a way that statements implies that the prosecutors are guilty of malicious prosecution. Think about it, this was a deal that no one would turn down. I did not see this one coming. I believe this was a way for the prosecutor to avoid being sued by the Gaughans, since they pled guilty. This also now makes the prosecutors look good in the media and for the up coming 2008 election for Louis Bianchi since the case was brought to a conclusion. I guess it was better to make the City of Marengo look bad then to look bad at election time.

This deal has paved the way for a strong civil lawsuit against the City of Marengo. Even though the brother plead guilty to this odd charge, it will make it hard for the City of Marengo to make their own defense since the brothers record will be wiped clean.

Congrats to the Gaughans’!!!

Tags: Marengo Illinois, Louis Bianchi, Nichole Owens, Marengo Police, City of Marengo, Police Abuse, State Police, McHenry County Illinois, McHenry County, McHnery County Prosecutor, States Attorney, McHenry County States Attorney, Scott Crawford, Kelly Given, Don Lockhart, Mayor Don Lockhart, Marengo Mayor

McHenry County Prosecutor Drops Charges Againt Shooter Jerry Sweat Of Marengo, Shooter Has Past Conviction Exposing His Sex Organs To 7 Year Old Girls At Glacial Park Conservation Area

2007-03-19T20:03:00.001-05:00

The information below came from public records.

A lot of people have said that Jerry Sweat is an upstanding citizen and he could do no wrong. So, I went to the court house and looked up Jerry Sweat. To my surprise what I found. In July 1997, Jerry Sweat plead guilty to possession and masturbating in front of a group of 7 year old children at Glacial Park Conservation Area. It is said that he recklessly exposed his sex organs in a lewd manner with the intent to arouse his sexual desires. I came across another one but I believed it was changed to Disorderly Conduct. It is said… recklessly exposed his sex organs in a lewd manner and acted in such manner as to alarm and disturb (Jane Doe) and breach the peace. Jerry was ordered to 30 hours of community service which he did not do. He had to pay an additional $300, $10 for each hour not served.
Jerry also filed two false lawsuits and had a few lawsuits filed against him all within the last few years or so.
So I wonder how plausible Jerry’s story really is. There is still more to Glacial Park incident. It will surface soon.
So the question still stands, why would the McHenry County State’s Attorney want to drop charges against a person who has a history of getting into trouble, with the records to prove it, who shot a teen!!! I would bet that if Patrick’s last name was anything else other than Gaughan, Jerry Sweat would have been swinging by a rope. Lou Bianchi, Nichole Owens and their crew have failed to perform their duty. They failed to match bullets from the rifle and they failed to do a proper investigation. But, when it came to a dog that was shot by a person, they took every step and spent taxpayers’ money to get a conviction. This goes to show how Lou Bianchi values a person’s life just because of their last name.

Tags: Jerry Sweat, Lou Bianchi, Nichole Owens, McHenry Prosecutor, McHenry County Stat's Attorney, Judge Condon, Sex Abuse, Jerry P Sweat, Glacial Park Conservation Area

Marengo Teen Will Not Have A Fair Trial, Shooter Jerry Sweat Has Charges Dropped, Nichole Owens Lou Bianchi Continue To Maliciously Prosecute Brothers, Judge Condon

2007-03-19T18:01:00.001-05:00

Marengo resident Jerry Sweat, the person who shot Marengo teenager Patrick Gaughan, has had the charges dropped against him. However, Jerry Sweat could still be charged at a later date which could be filed at a later date. Either way, Jerry is not in the clear. Dropping these charges is not a surprise. They would rather try to convict and jail a teen who has mistakenly tried to tee-pee a wrong residence then put a potential murderer behind bars. So let’s see…. 30 years in prison for Jerry Sweat or 3-5 years for Patrick Gaughan for potential breaking and entering and obstruction. Well, since it’s a Gaughan let’s screw him. The McHenry County State’s Attorneys Office has a vendetta with the Gaughan family since 2004 and it is no secret.

Here is something that is very interesting.

A Harvard man shot and killed his neighbor’s dog claiming self defense. The McHenry County State’s Attorney spent countless taxpayers’ money on forensic investigation. They studied the travel of the bullets, angles, distance, and etc. They convicted him with felony animal cruelty, which carried a potential maximum three-year prison sentence. He was ordered to two years of probation, pay a $2,000 fine and perform 50 hours of community service. Look at the extent the prosecutor went through to convict this person for shooting a dog. Why didn’t the prosecutor go though this much when it came to a person shooting another person? Why? The only thing that had been done was some questions asked by the Sheriffs Department when Patrick was lying in a hospital bed. They never even collected the bullets that came out of Patrick. WHAT!!! The McHenry County State’s Attorneys Office never bothered to contact the family. Again, why?

It’s because it is the Gaughans. The City of Marengo with their McHenry County connections have collaborated with each other and set out to tear this family apart over police abuse charges filed against Scott Crawford. I just cannot believe how people can be blinded by this corruption. Scott Crawford should have been fired and charges brought up against him. But thanks to the help of the McHenry County State’s Attorneys Office, found a way for him to still be a creditable witness against the Gaughans by resigning his position. I know that’s why Nichole and Lou were at the hearing. To make sure their witness was secured. The McHenry County State’s Attorneys probably did not figure that Kelly Given would do something so stupid. Kelly Given should have had charges brought up again her for stealing sealed juvenile records. But again, with the help from the prosecutors and the City of Marengo, no charges were filed. They had to secure that witness as well so she resigned. They knew that if anyone of them had charges against them they would not be a creditable witness. That is why they have temporally dropped the charges against Jerry Sweat.

You cannot imagine how much tax payer dollars went to maliciously prosecute this family. The Crawford issue will be going for a third year. I believe it all comes down to the prosecutor does not have squat against these boys. Their strategy is to financially destroy this family until they can claim victory.
This family will not EVER get a fair trial.

I cannot wait to see what the papers will print tomorrow.
Where is the Justice in this county?

Tags: Jerry Sweat, Nichole Owens, Lou Bianchi, McHenry County State's Attorney, Marengo Il, City of Marengo, Marengo Teen, Mchenry Prosecutor

Cops And DUI’s

2007-02-24T19:07:00.001-06:00

Cops And DUI’s:

Looks like the Marengo Police Department received some more bad publicity this week. Marengo Officer Courtney Miller was charged with a DUI, making her the third McHenry County law enforcement officer charged this month. She was driving in Rockford at 3am when stopped and apprehended. Marengo Chief, Les Kotke, of course, put her on PAID administrative leave instead of firing her. Of course, she was simply apprehended, not convicted yet. But it would be interesting to see what will happen if she is convicted. Will Marengo get rid of her?? Or will she be forced to resign and given a good reference like the other two Marengo cops, Crawford and Given?? Or will she simply take some sort of deal with the prosecutor and simply beat the DUI one way or another. In that case, we have a police officer who will now drive around while potentially being drunk on and off the job, have access to a gun on and off the job while being potentially drunk in the future. We have a real danger to society. The scary thing is it is happening again and again in McHenry County. Police officers and drinking just does not mix, on or off the job, because of their access to weapons. One also might wonder just what kinds of police officers are being hired in McHenry County. Those who are likely to drink?? Those who are unstable emotionally?? What kinds of incidents can this potentially lead to in the future?

Read the story: Another officer faces DUI

Hate In Our Community

2006-12-17T09:11:00.000-06:00

Hate In Our Community

Last week, two 18 year old high school students sneaked into a yard to tepee what they thought was a friend’s house at 3 in the morning. One of them was shot three times in the back by the owner of the house, Jerry Sweat, who then went back to bed without calling the police. The teen was badly injured. Two bullets hit him in the back, one in the hand. He will require multiple surgeries on his hand and has been home in bed ill and in pain. Jerry Sweat was arrested for the shooting.
What has been the response in our community to this incident?
Our county newspaper, the Northwest Herald, was quick to write an uninformed article about the incident, which had many glaring errors. One of these was that they were unable to get in touch with the family in question, which wasn’t true. They never tried. Another of those was that the two teens attempted to break into the car, also untrue. Neither the teens nor Sweat gave this information to the police originally, though Sweat might have tried to change his story later after he acquired a lawyer. The paper also stated that the Marengo Police might seek charges later against the two teens, but the incident occurred outside of Marengo and was handled by the Sheriff’s department. It was not in the Marengo Police jurisdiction. Based on this article, filled with glaring errors, the columnist Brian Sepulski wrote an essay further condemning the actions of these young men and glorifying what Jerry Sweat did.
Needless to say, this article was glaring and shocking to the family of the injured young man. It came at a bad time, when they already had a lot of stressful occurrences. Combined with the glaring lies in the article, it added to their pain and stress.
This was bad enough in itself. But it gets worse. The Northwest Herald has an online discussion area that is visited by the whole of McHenry County. The above article was put in this discussion area, and people from Marengo and beyond started posting their comments and opinions.
What was going on at this time? Well, the young man in question had one of several surgeries on his hand, to remove the bullet. He will require more surgery to fix torn nerves, broken bones, and muscles. Currently he is unable to move the fingers on the hand that the bullet went into. After the surgery he became very ill and this was reported by friends of the family on the Northwest Herald discussion board. Not to arouse sympathy, but so that the people who have been making commentary would know what is going on. The response has been truly amazing. Here are some of the hate filled comments from that site:

"barbara" wrote on December 16, 2006 9:54 AM:
"I would rather pay 30% of my childs medical bills than for his funeral……he was
wrong to frighten Mr. Sweat at 4 a.m. I hope he has learned his lesson, but I
doubt it. With all these adults condoning his behavior and painting him as a
blameless victim, they are basically socializing him to become a reckless and
irresponsible adult.”

"braveheart" wrote on December 16, 2006 8:59
AM: "You can paint Patrick as a poor, defenseless victim as much as
you'd like. While we all specualate as to whether or not he broke into Sweat's
car, or was merely up to mischief, there is one fact to this case that is
completely UNDENIABLE.Patrick Gaughan was shot by Jerry Sweat while in the
middle of committing a criminal act. Try to refute that. CGBear hit the nail on
the head. He had no business being in Sweat's yard at 4AM, whether breaking into
the car or simply vandalizing the property. Understand that Patrick's careless
behavior and lack of respect for the property and belongings of others are in
direct correlation with his now being seriously injured. Can you get that trough
YOUR thick head?"

"CGBear" wrote on December 15, 2006 8:21 PM:
"Why does everybody from Marengo make it about poor Patrick??! I don't care who
it is! If you are on my property at 4 am I will call the cops, I will let the
dog out to say hello, and I will come out and say hello."

I have not printed these comments in full, and there are many more. When some of Patrick’s friends from high school went on the discussion board and bravely stood up for his defense, not only were they accused of being ME, but here is what many people replied to them:

"braveheart" wrote on December 15, 2006 6:09
PM: "Leave her alone, Mom, you're confusing her by presenting actual
facts……. She' a clueless, semi-literate little snitch. I'm sure her parents are
very proud of her. Maybe her tune will change once charges are also filed
against Patrick........and they will be filed against him."

Needless to say, we have taken action against this. We have not only gone on the discussion board in question and attempted to respond, but have contacted the Northwest Herald. They have decided that their discussion board is much more important to them (for publicity purposes, I imagine), then the fact that the family in question has lies, slander, and hate directed against them. One of the people posting on that discussion board has in fact contacted us after signing up on our Marengo Message Board and being banned for slander (she accused me of being a pedophile because I wanted to help the Gaughan boys). Her name is Barbara Behnke, the Barbara who posted the comments above, and here is what she wrote to us:

“How on earth is stating my opinion slanderous? You have just reaffirmed my
opinion that this message board seems to be run by a bunch of lunatics. I hope
you all enroll in some classes at the local community college and educate
yourselves about what exactly slander is and also take a class in ethics.”
and
“Please do the world a favor and take some classes at the local
community college and educate yourself on what exactly slander is and what
ethical behavior is……..”

What I found fascinating is that other than the two brave kids from the high school, who have posted despite being ridiculed and demeaned, is that people have allowed their hate of the family in question to fill page after page of the discussion area. As you see, they have no sympathy, empathy, or caring in their hearts. Someone is sick this Christmas, a family’s peace of mind has been destroyed by a reckless gunman, but who do these people care about more? Why the gunman, of course. Poor Jerry Sweat! Someone was in his yard in the dark, he got frightened and had a frightening experience, he was “forced” to shoot someone because of his fright, now he has all these legal fees and, God forbid, might even wind up going to jail. There should not be any people out there who want to defend the boy who is now sick and in pain, they need to be put in their place because of their misplaced sympathy. Why, I have heard that there will even be a fundraiser in town to help pay Jerry Sweat’s legal fees! And this is a person who shoots a person, sees he hit them, doesn’t call the police or the ambulance, but goes right back to bed and falls asleep.
What else is really scary about the way the discussion in the NW Herald is being handled?
Well, I imagine that the newspaper can one day be held responsible for promoting the death of teenagers. Yes, the death of teenagers. There is post after post detailing that people should have the right to shoot anyone on their property and ask questions later. That teenagers who are out late at night deserve to get shot. That the teen in question is a “dog” and should be “shot like a dog”, which was thankfully removed from the site after several days. It is not only sickening, it’s scary. Here, people are advocating that homeowners shoot whoever is on their property in the middle of the night, for the whole county to read. One day a police officer, a mother whose car broke down at night, or a neighbor coming to a house for an emergency may well get shot. Many posts are also spreading hate of the family in question, which might lead to violence against them. No one at the Northwest Herald at this time took any responsibility for these issues or taken any actions to correct the misinformation in the original article.
As a last word, here is what a famous novelist, Peter Senese, thinks about this McHenry County matter. Here is an article from his personal website:

December 15th, 2006: "Friendship" One of my closest friends, Brian of the
Chicagoland area continues to deal with some of the strangest behavior by a
growing group of radical right-winged idiots. As I shared a few days ago,
Patrick Gaughan, Brian's son and my pal, was shot three times while walking on a
neighboring property of his friend he was intending to play a youthful trick on
(tee-peeing his house, something I did often enough in my youth). Patrick is a
teenage boy who possesses qualaties others should hope to obtain: he is
respectful, honest, considerate to others, and good natured. So less than two
weeks ago, Patrick gets shot by a rifle, has his body riddled with bullets, and
a group of idiots out of McHenry County, Illinois have stated on a handful of
websites that the shooter had the right to fire his rifle at anyone on his
property! Where in the world are we going as a society if this thinking
pervails! I mean, last night I was watching a group of Christmas Carollers
strolling a jazzy little neighborhood, and I said to myself, 'what if the home
owner doesn't want these festive singers on his property?' The use of firearms
in most any circumstance is simply wrong.

More can be found here:
The Official Site of Peter Senese - On My Mind

Jerry P Sweat, No Hero, Just Psycho

2006-12-09T10:57:00.000-06:00

Jerry P Sweat, No Hero, Just Psycho

Mr. Sweat from Marengo Illinois, I noticed, had been enjoying a lot of support. People think that it is all right for Mr. Sweat to shoot to kill two young men, both 18 years of age, who were passing through his property on the way to tepee a friend’s house. Mr. Sweat originally told the police who arrested him that the reason he shot one of the men was because he thought he was one of the people he had a dispute with, since he had many enemies.
So, what did he do? He emptied a whole clip of his .22, saw he hit “the enemy” in question, then he went back to bed without so much as calling the police. This is the story he gave the police when he was first arrested. Later on, he thought of a better story, and decided that the kids whom he shot were going to break into his unlocked car. However, nothing was stolen out of the car and the two kids dropped rolls of toilet paper on the way out of his yard while fleeing. So, it seems unlikely to me that someone would go drive to steal things from someone’s car while carrying rolls of toilet paper with them. Would be rather inconvenient, wouldn’t you think?
Mr. Sweat is a coward. He shot a person who was fleeing in the back. He is cold blooded. After he was done, he went right back to bed, not even caring for the welfare of the person he shot.
Now, what has happened afterward?
People have come out of the woodworks to make accusations of the victim. He was in the wrong place and the wrong time, so that is why he got shot. He deserved it. ALL of his family are evil, they don’t deserve people’s respect. I have noticed that people do not care about the damage they cause, spreading false information, making false assumptions, or just talking garbage. Why?
Because it is not them. By attacking someone else, someone whom they can hold as example, they then can then feel good about themselves. They can assure themselves that their own kids would never cross someone’s yard in the middle of the night, or argue with someone at the carnival, so it would never happen to them. It can’t. It only happens to the Gaughans. Therefore, it must be their fault.
To me, this kind of thinking is evil. It can cause immeasurable harm, and in fact is doing just that, to the Gaughan kids, to their family. Rather than making yourselves look good by accusing someone else, sometimes it might be better to mind your own business.

Café 20 Restaurant

2006-11-23T08:43:00.000-06:00

I know new restaurants sometimes have a hard time when they first open. It takes a while for the new owners to get things right. So, keeping this in mind, I will outline my own personal experience at Café 20.

Before going any further, I want to mention that the food itself at Café 20 was for the most part pretty good. I ordered a vegetable sandwich. It was served with a side of pesto on sourdough bread and was truly delicious. My partner had a hamburger, and his opinion of it was that it was as good as the ones in State Street Pub. The fries were waffle fries, which were crispy and also very good. With my vegetable sandwich, I had a side order of potato salad, which was one of the options. Well..that was so-so. I’ll give it some credit, it was homemade and used red skinned potatoes, but lacked any flavor whatsoever. I had to drown it with salt and pepper, and even then it wasn’t that enticing. However, giving credit where credit was due, the rest of the items that we ordered tasted good.

Now, the menu itself at Café 20 was pretty impressive. There was anything and everything that one could wish for on it. Meatloaf, and pesto pasta, pasta with peppers/sausages, and a variety of steaks, as well as a whole list of pizzas, salads, sandwiches, and soups. So, you might ask yourself, why did we manage such a measly set of selections from such an extensive menu? Well, its simple. Café 20 is very, unusually expensive. Oh, maybe it would be alright if it was located in downtown Palatine or Arlington Heights. Or if it was geared more toward the Doral Ridge crowd. But, plain and simple, for an ordinary Marengo resident it is very unreasonable. The items on the menu can be found in other area restaurants at much lesser prices. In fact, on the sandwich menu there were few sandwiches under $10. The sandwiches and other entrees did not include soup. In fact, after looking at the menu with some dismay, the only thing I could settle on was either a BLT for $7 or a Vegetable Sandwich for $7. Everything else was much more than I could afford to spend for lunch. This might make a difference or it might not, depending on how much one is willing to spend on lunch or dinner. But, I might add, that the hamburger my partner had was almost identical to the one in State Street Pub, and for much more money then he would have spent at the Pub. The vegetarian sandwich I had could be found for $4 or $5 or so at Flatlanders. The prices just don’t compare, especially as soup is not included with the meal.

Again, that’s not to knock it down. The food was good! If one is willing to pay the prices and is just interested in the food, then this would not be an issue.

Now, the last item that could use a bit of work is the service. We came to this restaurant with two kids, one of whom is very young and a bit wild. He needed a high chair to sit in, otherwise he would do weird tricks like get up on the table, yell in a loud voice, and hit the window with a tiny fist. We asked the waitress for a high chair, but were handed an ancient chair right out of the 1950’s, which not only was unsafe and would tip over, but which also did not fit my son. We pushed the chair aside and let him sit next to the window, where he proceeded to do all that was described above. The waitress neither offered an alternative, like a booster seat, nor asked why we pushed the high chair aside. One would think that in an age when people routinely take kids out to eat, especially in a homey looking place that identifies itself as a “café” and offers items such as meatloaf, that there would have been an actual, real high chair! Other than that, the service needs to have some quirks worked out. It took a very long time for the food to be served. The waitress had to wait on a roomful of people. There was only one waitress, so this was an impossible task to accomplish, made even more difficult because she sat at the bar looking bored and sipping a soda most of the time we were there. When drinks for the kids were ordered, she brought them a glass with a straw, same as for the adults. Again, consideration wasn’t given toward younger children, who might have a hard time sipping from an open glass without spilling and making a disaster. Again, it would have been a different, perhaps better, dining experience without the kids. But I must say that the place isn’t very child-friendly. I did notice the "Help Wanted" posted on the sign outside, but none the less, you cannot run a restaurant that had almost every table occupied during the lunch rush with only one server.

Other than that, I think Café 20 had good food and could make a go of it, if some of the above quirks are worked out. I know it is under new ownership, so I hope for the best!

JUDGE CONDON NEEDS MORE EDUCATION - WOODSTOCK ILLINOIS

2006-10-15T12:00:00.000-05:00

(click on the pic)

I’d like to ask you, Judge Condon, why you think Kroncke and Schroeder are good officers? Just because you and only you made the decision that we all knew you were going to make, to allow the coerced, fake confession as evidence? Of course, YOU are on the prosecution’s side, judge, you all know each other, go to the same parties, so it is not surprising that you would not want to ruin their case. Its political, that’s why. It would be bad politics to go against the prosecution.

Where is your sense of shame? Did you not see the whole tape? You did not see Kevin Gaughan jump back at one point or the way he was sitting, clearly frightened? You did not see Kroncke jump, run around the room, slam papers, point his finger, throw Kevin into a cell, punch a guy out? You saw Kroncke brush Kevin’s shoulder?? Please! Watch the tape again, judge. Or did you even bother to watch it, since you obviously decided to make this decision ahead of time?

Look at all the cases that you and Bianchi and Owens presided over that were turned over on appeal. Look at the shameful ways you behave, not caring about justice or right and wrong. You would put any person in jail, no matter if he’s innocent and guilty, just to win a case! You should all be disbarred. Don’t worry, by the time this is all over with, I am sure the FBI will get involved in your wrongdoings. This will not go on.

And shame on you reporters of the Northwest Herald. What a crappy article! Just the other day was an article and a website where one can view the tape for oneself. Are you saying you saw this tape and still believe the lies that Condon and Bianchi stated to you people? What is this? You don’t do any of your own investigating, but just print whatever the people you interview tell you, true or false? Just the day before there was an article where the events on the very same tape were discussed in a contradictory manner.

All lies. From the prosecutors to the judge to our community paper. You people have no shame!

WOODSTOCK ILLINOIS
OCTOBER 15, 2006

Illinois State Police William Kroncke’s Lies Exposed

2006-10-04T20:16:00.000-05:00

Illinois State Police William Kroncke’s Lies Exposed

William Kroncke, who is a Illinois State Police investigator, has been in the process of lying so often, that it is safe to say he must either be a habitual liar, or a ruthless individual concerned less with the law then with doing favors for friends and abusing various people.

Take a look at some of what William Kroncke has done:
- He was caught on tape punching a prisoner in handcuffs and slapping Kevin Gaughan, who came in to file a complaint.
- He has lied and covered up facts of an investigation he supposedly conducted into the shooting of a suspect by a Marengo police officer.
- He has lied on the stand constantly and repeatedly. Under oath.
- He has even stolen evidence that was supposed to be handed over to the defense in a case!

Considering all these facts, it shouldn’t surprise us that William Kroncke would lie about his military service record as well. Since getting transferred to Chicago, Kroncke has told people, including possible suspects, that he was an Army Ranger, who had fought in various wars and held many medals. However, Kroncke appears to be just like Jack Genot. When his military record is examined, it shows that Kroncke did not serve in the Army at all or been anywhere near a battlefield. Instead, he was a financial officer without any clearances in the National Guard! In other words, while Kroncke was able to commend respect from his superiors in the Chicago area because of his military and war service, the fact is that he never even served! I imagine that if his superiors, many of whom are themselves real military heroes and real Rangers, knew that Kroncke lied about being a Ranger and was just a piddly financial officer, a clerk, then he would get a lot less respect. Maybe they wouldn’t stand up to protect this liar and poor excuse of a human being when he habitually lies, hits people, and does wrong. Maybe they will look the other way when all these lies finally catch up with him. I would think at the very least, this must be very embarrassing for Kroncke himself, as there is no excuse for this kind of lie.
Jack Genot has made a public apology and a fellow alderman asked him in Council to resign. Though he did not do so. Maybe we should all demand that the Illinois State Police finally get rid of William Kroncke. It is not safe or wise to give a habitual liar and violent individual, who also covers up for his lies, a badge and especially, a gun. I would write the Illinois State Police Headquarters in Chicago and demand Kroncke’s resignation. We will all be safer in the future. Especially those of us in Marengo.

Illinois State Police
Woodstock Illinois
Marengo Illinois

October 4, 2006

Barbarians of the Justice System

2006-09-25T08:31:00.000-05:00

Nichole Owens, Lou Bianchi - McHenry County Illinois

We Americans believe that we have the most just system of law in the world. People are “assumed innocent” until proven guilty and have a right to a trial by a jury of their peers. Prosecutors are supposed to prosecute those against whom there is evidence and who they themselves believe to be guilty. This is the ideal upon what our justice system in this country is based. In fact, more than an ideal, we, the citizens of this country, believe that if we are falsely accused of a crime, then this will be caught and remedied. Supposedly, innocent people do not wind up in jail in the United States.
This has, unfortunately, not been the case in McHenry County. There’s justice for the rest of the country and there’s “McHenry County justice”. Meaning what?

- People are falsely arrested and then indicted by a grand jury because of false evidence given against them.
- The prosecutor, Nichole Owens, is ambitious and willing to see innocent people go to jail for crimes they did not commit in an effort to forward her own agenda.
- There are few judges and they make decisions that are pro- prosecution, and are later turned over by an appeals court.
- State investigators lie on the stand in order to protect themselves and their friends.
- People are beat up and arrested if they complain about the system.

Why is this happening? Because of two people who are here to put criminals behind bars and protect the rest of us in McHenry county are more concerned about getting ahead then about truth and justice. Nichole Owens has screwed up case after case in Boone County. The people who she prosecuted and who were found guilty, and the decisions made in her cases, were later overturned in Appellate court. She was booted out of there and is now in our McHenry County. She likewise has started prosecuting the innocent while those who belong in jail go free. In the Gaughan case, there was evidence from the beginning that Brian and Kevin Gaughan were not guilty of any of the charges brought against them by her office. It was and still is obvious to anyone looking at that case that Officer Crawford of Marengo beat up one of the Gaughans, who was injured. Crawford was the one against whom charges should have been brought against. Instead, Owens wants to prosecute people she knows are not guilty, as dropping the charges now would mean admitting some very obvious mistakes. There are 23 witnesses for the Gaughans and a videotape showing how Kevin Gaughan was hit and interrogated in order to get him to drop his complaint. The witnesses against the Gaughans? Crawford and Given, both forced to resign from Marengo PD. In fact, not only Crawford, but Given should have been prosecuted as well. She has stolen confidential information and given it to the NW Herald, yet has been allowed to get away with her crimes. Owens also insists on prosecuting the police officers involved in an altercation with Ron Hallet. The only reason charges are being brought up against these officers in the first place, was so State Investigator Kroncke could show that he wasn’t biased toward the police in the Gaughan case. So, four innocent people are prosecuted for crimes they did not commit, the videotapes which are essential, same as in the Gaughan case, have “mysteriously disappeared”. I am certain that if there are guilty charges in these cases, they, like the Boone County cases, will be overturned later by the Appellate Court.

The sad thing is that nothing is being done about Owens and Bianchi. They are allowed to go on their rampage, putting innocent people in jail and costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend themselves. State’s Attorney Lisa Madigan, nor anyone else, wants to get involved or cares about what is going on in this county. The only hope that I can see coming is to have people like you and me get together to try to fight some of the injustices. Because next time it might be you whose being falsely accused and tried. Next time you who read this might have a state officer like William Kroncke lie about you on the stand. Until people decide to take action, nothing will be accomplished. We are lucky that people like the Gaughans have decided to fight these injustices. In the end, I hope to see Owens and Bianchi make enough mistakes, so that they are forced to pay for their actions.

Wodstock Illinois Sept. 29, 2006

Who Should Really Be Put Behind Bars?

2006-08-27T14:00:00.000-05:00

The Northwest Herald printed that the arrest rate is up, but that crime is down. Hmmm… I wonder if this is because of all the people who have been falsely arrested and tried by the State’s Attorney’s Office.Supposedly, Marengo was one of the communities that has seen a decrease of crime since last year….

Marengo, huh? I wonder if this is because now that Crawford and his girlfriend Given were forced to resign, there are a lot less false arrests and fake crimes being committed. What about the murder of the 83 year old women? Was that solved? We’ll never find out, as the possible suspect was shot. Maybe the serious crimes, like drug dealing and murder did not go down, just that there were a lot less false arrests this year?

Lou Bianchi says that there is a lot of work to do and arrests to make. Why? I wonder..

The increase in workloads is because Nichole Owens is trying very hard to make a name for herself here in this county, and people are getting falsely arrested. The innocent are sent to prison, even if they are police officers, while bad police officers go unpunished and are able to get a job in other counties. True crime is being ignored..

I wonder how many of these arrests led to convictions and how many of the convictions are going to be overturned in the appeal process?

Bianchi also states that there will be a lot more work for the State’s attorney’s office.

I am sure there would be a lot less work without the false arrests. Look at Nichole Owens record in Boone county. People were falsely arrested and charged, and if convictions were obtained, they were overturned in appellate court. The same process is now occurring here in McHenry County. It is only a matter of time before Nichole Owens will find herself out of a job because of prosecutorial misconduct.

And what are supposedly our biggest problems in McHenry County? Sexual abuse and alcohol misuse!! What? Did I hear that right?

Is that what we need to worry about while there are meth use and other problems, with many people in the county living in poverty?

McHenry County judges have huge caseloads, according to Bianchi.

Maybe we need some new judges, as the ones who are handling the current cases seem to agree with the prosecutors, issue bad judgments, and then have those judgments turned over in an appeal.

What is the situation here in McHenry County?

Because of Nichole Owens, case after case is being prosecuted, whether the suspect is innocent or guilty. Owens doesn’t care about little things like innocence or guilt. She wants to make a name for herself. She will keep prosecuting people, engaging in misconduct, and sending innocent people to jail by using investigators who lie on the stand and other forms of ruthless actions, unless something is done.

Pedestrian Rally Against Trucks....What About Bad Cops?

2006-07-23T12:40:00.000-05:00

Concerned citizens and Marengo Pedestrians will be holding a Rally in the Downtown Business section of Marengo on Friday July 28 at 10 AM in support of pedestrian rights. There will be marches, speeches and refreshments.
This is the email I received earlier this week. Now, what seems to be wrong with a rally? Sounds like fun, right? Speeches, marches, even something to eat. A whole event. Sounds like something that the citizens of Marengo might want to attend and take part in.
Well, there's a problem.
What are rallies, demonstrations, speeches, and marches generally conducted for? Well, they are all a form of activism whose purpose is to bring about changes and to get the current government's attention that people are not pleased with what is going on. This certainly seems to be the intention of this demonstration. The downtown store owners want the situation of truck traffic on Rt.23 looked into, they want better pedestrian laws, and more signs. In return, the downtown owners will benefit by increased traffic and profits.
Does anyone except me see anything wrong with this picture?
Look at the traditional reasons rallies and demonstrations are usually held. Civil Rights Demonstrations, for instance. Compare Martin Luther King Jr's speech to a speech about….pedestrian rights!! Does this not demean the whole idea of protests and demonstrations? Here Martin Luther King Jr. risked his life and liberty to demonstrate and give speeches, as have those who participated with him. And then we have Marengo store owners risking nothing at all to have a demonstration in order to get more profits for themselves. And to also increase business on the day of the demonstration itself too, of course. There were other rallies throughout history, of course. Vietnam War protests, Iraq War protests, and Immigration Marches and rallies. Again, compare the seriousness of the issues involved to that of pedestrian rights. These people were out there protesting for a reason with great risk for themselves. They wanted to bring about important changes for themselves and others. Their acts were selfless, whereas the acts of these protestors in Marengo clearly are meant to benefit themselves. And will not piss anyone off too much, as I'm sure everyone in and outside town either agrees with them or is neutral.
Finally, my biggest issue with this rally is that some of the owners of these downtown businesses were asked to contribute money to help the Gaughans in their legal battle and to start a fundraiser. They have not agreed to it and were shocked at the audacity of the suggestion. They also are not willing to go out there and protest the Marengo Police falsely imprisoning and beating people in the police station. Clearly, that is not an important issue to them. But, when it comes to profits and something that will benefit them, they are out there ready to rally, march, and give speeches!
What would a speech about pedestrian rights be about anyway? Will it get people inspired? I doubt it. In fact, let's face it, Rt. 23 is a truck route. Some of the trucks and tractor trailers pay over $10,000 just to buy their plates for their trucks. Do they not have the right to use the route? What about their rights? The whole issue is ridiculous.

Gardening Corner

2006-07-23T12:34:00.000-05:00

How to build a water garden
By: Museumlover

While looking up information about building a truly easy water garden for your lawn or patio, I came across this article and decided
it was so well done and simple, that I would pass it on, instead of coming up with one of my own. Water is such a comforting outdoor feature. Make one of these and enjoy the ambience.

Making a Water Garden From the National Gardening Association Editors

Bring an exotic touch to your patio, deck, or yard by making a small water garden in a tub. Use a plastic or glazed ceramic container or a plastic-lined, wooden half-barrel as the container, and add aquatic and marsh plants, and perhaps goldfish, for color and drama.

Tools and Materials

* Plastic or ceramic container or wooden half-barrel
* Plastic liner, galvanized screws, and wood strips, if needed
* Water pump, nozzle, and electrical outlet, optional
* Water
* Plastic plant pots
* Soil mix for aquatic plants
* Aquatic plants
* Newspaper
* Gravel

Install the barrel liner. If you're using a wooden half- barrel, line it with a sheet of pond liner, available at garden centers. Adjust the liner by making several large folds in the material and draping it over the edge of the barrel. Fill the barrel half full with water to hold the liner in place while you trim and fasten the upper edge to the top of the barrel, just inside the rim. Sandwich the liner between the barrel and narrow wooden or galvanized metal strips. Fasten with galvanized screws.

Position the container. Empty the container, if necessary. Place it on a sturdy, level surface where it will receive at least 6 hours of sun per day. The tub will weigh about 10 pounds per gallon when filled. You can also partially bury the container in the ground. Try this method in hot climates where the summer sun can overheat small aboveground pools.

Fill with water. Add water until the container is about two- thirds full. Let the temperature stabilize and the chlorine from your municipal water supply dissipate for 24 hours before adding plants. (If adding fish, ask if your water company uses chloramine, a water supply disinfectant. If it does, be sure to use a water conditioner, such as Amquel, to neutralize the chemical before adding the fish.)

Install optional water pump. For the tranquil sound of moving water, add a small fountain attached to a recirculat- ing pump. Set the pump with attached pipe and nozzle in the bottom of the container. Always plug water pumps into an electrical outlet with a ground-fault circuit interrupter to avoid risk of electrocution. Adjust the water flow to the desired force. Keep in mind that floating plants, such as water lilies, do not like water splashing on their leaves. Add plants. Plant aquatic and marsh plants in plastic pots filled with special water-plant soil mix. Place newspaper over the drainage holes in the pots to prevent soil leakage. After planting, cover the surface of the soil with gravel. Set pots directly on the bottom of the tub or on bricks or inverted pots to raise plants to the desired level.

Add two bunches of submerged plants, one floating plant, and one or two marsh plants per square yard of water surface to keep algae in check. Plants should cover 60 to 70 percent of the surface.

Remove debris regularly, and replace water lost to evapora- tion, but don't change any water. Within a few weeks, the water should clear.

Leaving no stone unturned

2006-07-05T19:41:00.000-05:00

Marengo, IL.
Marengo Police

This week, both CBS and the Northwest Herald were given very interesting information. A tape of a State Police officer punching, yelling, slapping, and intimidating people in the Marengo Police Department was handed to them, as well as an interview with Brian Gaughan Sr., and Kevin Gaughan concerning the events on the tape. But because of threats of lawsuits from State Police lawyers, CBS producers decided to show a watered down version of what they originally planned. They neither mentioned the State Police officer’s name, William Kroncke, nor described in detail what happened on the tape that they ran. The Northwest Herald was even more cowardly, refusing to run an article already written and planned for Friday morning due to fears of lawsuits by the State Police and pressure by the State’s Attorney’s Office. The article that did come out on Saturday morning was not much more than a watered down version of the original. It even had a quote on top implying that the State Police did not believe the video was what it seemed.
Now, our Marengo Gazette is a small, online enterprise connected with our Marengo Message Board. We do not give in to pressure from town governments, State’s Attorney’s offices, or threats of lawsuits. Therefore, I will put parts of the tape online for all of you to look over and to see for yourselves what really happened.

Now, first of all, the two State Police officers on the tape are William Kroncke and Virgil Schroeder. From what I understand, Kroncke is a millionaire whose father-in-law has a lot of political clout. This is how he is able to commit crimes that you see on this tape and get away with it. I did not see Schroeder do anything particularly exciting on the tape other than to sit at his desk and stare off into space. However, he made no move to stop his partner or to prevent Kevin Gaughan from being mistreated for 5 and a half hour.

The tape contains footage which makes it pretty clear what has transpired during the 5 hour interrogation. You can watch parts of it and see for yourselves.
First of all, there is the scene where Kroncke slaps Kevin Gaughan. It is interesting to watch, as there is very little to excuse these actions. Kevin Gaughan was there to make a complaint of police brutality against Scott Crawford. He wasn’t there because he committing any sort of crime or did anything wrong. This is important to note, because the State Police asked him to come down to the Marengo Police Station in order so they could take the complaint and investigate Crawford, not to be interrogated. This is not what happened. William Kroncke attempted to force him to sign a false confession, claiming that Kevin committed the car burglaries in Doral Ridge. He was yelled at, harassed, and slapped in the face, told that his father would lose his job and would go to jail and that his whole family would suffer if he did not sign the document in front of him, dropping the complaint against Crawford. Needless to say, this was not an investigation of Crawford, this was an attempt to cover up his crimes. I need not say, I’m sure, that if the State Police really wanted to conduct an investigation into the complaint, they would have met with Kevin Gaughan in an independent setting and not in the Marengo Police Station, where the Officer in question still was employed. Obviously they were not interested in seriously investigating the incidents with Crawford in the first place, otherwise why meet there? It seems clear that the only reason Kroncke and Schroeder were brought in was because the Marengo Police Department wanted a way to cover up Crawford’s crimes. After all, Sgt. Joe Perez, who is head of the investigation, was a long time resident of Marengo and friends with those in the department, so it seems that this must not have been too hard to arrange.

(Click a video to play)

The scene where Kroncke hits Kevin is very hard to misconstrue. Watch it for yourselves. I believe Kroncke’s lawyer said that Kroncke was brushing the lint off of Kevin’s shoulder! Well, as you can see, he actually does hit him. And just in case there is any doubt about that, Kevin puts a hand to his face afterward. It is also interesting to watch what Kroncke’s partner Schroeder does: he gets up and walks nowhere, just making a complete circle. It’s obvious that he suddenly stood up like this because he simply could not believe what his partner just did. If you watch the clip as a whole several times, it will become very obvious what took place. Kroncke’s lawyer’s excuses sound just like what they are - excuses to cover up his crimes.
The most interesting part of the tape, of course, is the part where Kroncke punched out the prisoner that the Marengo Police brought in, Orest Hideo. What you can see is Hideo being brought out of the police car, into the police department, where he clearly starts saying something to Kevin before the Marengo Police put him against the wall. What he told Kevin was not to talk to the police without a lawyer. Kroncke then got off his chair and punched the handcuffed prisoner out. After Hideo is on the floor, Officer Mahlke kicks him into his cell. There is no mistaking this action either. You can see it yourselves right on the tape, regardless of what anyone might say. Just so all of you know, Officer Mahlke is also the Chief of Wonder Lake. I would think the citizens of Wonder Lake might be interested to know that their new Chief approves of prisoners in custody being punched, and that he kicks them when they’re down.

(Click a video to play)

Also, note the time on the bottom of the screen right after Orest Hideo is punched out. He is unconscious in his cell for 43 minutes. His hands are cuffed behind his back and no one calls for medical attention. Afterward, you can see the Marengo Police cleaning up his blood off the floor.

(Click a video to play)

Later on the tape, there is yet an another interesting occurrence. There is an awful lot of blood. At one point, one of the Marengo Police Officers comes back and notices that it had not all been cleaned up. Officer Mahlke gets more paper towels and cleans up the rest of it. In fact, he grabs a whole bunch of towels from a paper towel dispenser, wipes the blood off with his feet, and throws the bloodied towels in the garbage. There is no way that you can watch this and not see what has taken place. And it is just as obvious who punches the prisoner out – William Kroncke. He gets up off his chair, walks up to the Marengo police officers, who are holding Hideo against the wall, raises his arm, punches, and then Hideo falls to the floor and there is blood. I cannot see what else could have possibly happened on the tape. It seems very obvious and hard to misconstrue. Of course, the Marengo Police are just as responsible for not protecting the prisoner who is in their custody. From what Kevin Gaughan has described, they laughed about the whole incident among themselves. You can also see Officer Mahlke kicking the unconscious prisoner into a cell after he is knocked out. Apparently, this is something that must have gone on quite often at the Marengo Police Department and no one thought anything of it. Certainly, no one was angry at Kroncke for knocking the prisoner. No one thought to check on Hideo while he was in the cell, handcuffed and unconscious, or to provide him with medical attention.

What happens in some of the other scenes on the tape? Well, I watched the tape as a whole and unfortunately it is impossible to put it all online. However, I think watching the whole thing gives one a whole different perspective on what went on. Also on what kind of person William Kroncke is. For one, it becomes obvious how ridiculous the excuses the State Police lawyers make for Kroncke really are. It’s next to impossible to watch the whole tape and not see it as anything less than intimidation and further police brutality. William Kroncke is clearly a very scary and intimidating presence. But its even more than that – this is a person who seems almost as if he is insane and should not be given a gun and a badge! He should not be allowed to perform a job as an officer or an investigator after treating a witness who is supposed to have given him information about a police brutality incident in this way. Clearly, he isn’t investigating anyone, he’s breaking the law in order to help out the Marengo Police by forcing Kevin Gaughan to drop his complaint. For five and a half hour this person screams, makes gestures with his arms, threatens to do to Kevin what he has done to the prisoner in handcuffs, sticks Kevin into a jail cell, threatens Kevin’s family and friends. He picks up a chair that still has a coat on it, for goodness sakes, and swings it around over his head. What kind of normal person would do something like this? And he never lets up with the screaming, yelling, hand swinging, and holding out the paper for Kevin to sign for the whole 5 and a half hours. You can see Schroeder just sitting there staring off into space. He makes no gesture to stop the tirade, and is therefore also responsible for what happened. The most telling part was when Kevin asks to go the bathroom. You would think that after almost 5 hours Kroncke would rest and relax during this little break in order to get ready for more screaming and yelling? Nope. He goes up to the cell where Orest Hideo has now regained consciousness and starts harassing and baiting him until Hideo yells something back. Then Kroncke calls the Marengo police officers into the room, who threaten to pepper spray Hideo. It is apparent from Kroncke’s gestures that he tells them that Hideo had started yelling himself. However, when you watch the tape, you can see that Kroncke started baiting him first, when Hideo was just sitting quietly on the cot. But that’s even beside the point. Kroncke could not sit still for a few minutes while the person he was harassing for many hours went into the bathroom! What kind of person is this? Are we supposed to take this person’s word for what happened in any investigation at all, whether it’s the shooting conducted by a Marengo Police Officer or Crawford hurting people? He can’t even keep his temper after 5 hours of screaming! Needless to say, he also seems to have few morals, as he has no problem at all knocking out a prisoner completely unrelated to the case he was investigating just to intimidate Kevin Gaughan so that he would think something like this could happen to him. He has no trouble harassing the prisoner in question for no apparent reason whatsoever and then telling the police officers on duty that the prisoner was the one who caused the problem. Clearly, besides appearing to be mentally ill, William Kroncke lies and makes things up just to get his way in whatever matter is at hand. This much is obvious from his behavior on this tape.

(Click a video to play)

Kroncke isn’t the only person committing crimes in this video. At the very end, Officer Riley and County Officer Umbenhower sit down with Kevin Gaughan and try to get him to admit to them that he was the one who committed the burglaries in Doral Ridge. Of course, both of these Officers knew that this wasn’t true, as they already had a suspect in custody who really did commit the burglaries. He is in the upper quadrant of the film, sitting in a jail cell. So, there was no reason for them to harass Kevin and try to get him to admit to crimes he did not commit. It should also be noted that this incident took place after Kevin Gaughan had been interrogated for over five and a half hours. I don’t know if Officer Riley was hoping that Kevin by this time would be worn out by all the screaming and yelling and would therefore confess, or what they hoped would happen. But it is clearly wrong for a police officer to accuse someone of something that they did not do, when the Officers in question know for sure that this person did not do it.

(Click a video to play)

(Click a video to play)

One final interesting look at an another incident that transpired: While Kevin was locked up in the jail cell, Orest Hideo was taken out of his cell. Watch the cardboard that is put up to block Kevin’s view of what is about to take place. Why do you think they needed to do that? I can only imagine. But a Marengo Officer notices it and looks at it in great confusion, after which the cardboard is taken back down again. Apparently Kroncke and the others think better of it. Why is this of any significance? Well, in November of last year, Orest Hideo was arrested by the Marengo Police, brought to the police department, and then wound up in the hospital for days. I wonder if beatings are a regular occurrence in the Marengo Police Department? The cardboard seems to indicate so. This is something that one would expect to find in a third world country, not in the United States. We should all be ashamed and outraged that our police department lets these things go on and that the people in this town go and defend the police department regardless of these doings.

We Need Your Help!

2006-07-04T22:00:00.000-05:00

I would like all who read this gazette to please write to Lisa Madigan to look into the police situation in Marengo and at the way the Gaughan case is being handled. I think we've seen that the State's Attorney's Office and the State Police are all on one side and will not treat this situation fairly. We really need your help. I'd like everyone who reads this to please write to Lisa Madigan and ask for help with this situation and to at least look into it. You've seen the videotape? Is it right for the State Police, the State's Attorney, and Crawford/Given/Riley to get away with their actions and for the Gaughans to have false charges brought against them that they then have had to fight with much opposition for years?
Here is the address:

Lisa Madigan
IL Attorney Generals Office
100 W. Randolf St
Chicago, IL 60601
312-814-3000

Gardening Corner

2006-07-01T12:07:00.000-05:00

By: Museumlover

By now you are seeing the results of all of your hard work, growing herbs and flowers. Hopefully some veggies as well.

This is the time to take care of your blooming flowers so they will continue to give you pleasure. Deadheading (pinching or cutting off spent flower heads) will keep your plants blooming. This mostly applies to annuals. When the bloom is spent, remove the bloom at the next leaf joint. This will encourge the plant to produce more and new blooms.

Perennials are generally not deadheaded as they propogate from the seed found in the flower heads. This is particularly the case for purple cone flowers, daisies, and others with seeds in the center of the flower. Lillies, iris and other such plants propagate themselves from their roots. For maximum feeding of the plant, do not cut off the greenery until near the end of July. This feeds the roots of the plant. Many perennials are just beginning to bloom, especially flowers and plants that are indiginous prairie plants.

They will bloom quite a while and really look spectacular in a cutting bed, or just a bed to watch. You might find a few pests as well. I find that some of my plants have chews on the bottom from rabbits and chews on the top from deer! Oh the joy of living with wildlife!

If you put some humming bird feeders near some of your flowers, you should be well rewarded with these tiny, tiny birds at your feeder. No need to buy special nectar. Boil together 1 part sugar and 4 parts water to dissolve the sugar. Add a little red food coloring, if desired, and put in the feeder. Change often as the heat can cause a bacteria to form in the sugar water.

Some of you probably have impatiens growing in planters. They will begin to get leggy in July if not frequently pinched back. Pinching back at the leaf node will make them bushier and also encourage more blooms.

Some herbs are beginning to flower as well. Basil must have the beginning flower bud snipped off or it will stop growing. Pinching oregano and thyme will encourage bushiness. I also trim sage in a bush shape. Cilantro grows flowers which will eventually produce coriander seed, so to keep the cilantro growing for kitchen use, think salsa, the blooms need to be pinched off.

Vegetables also benefit from pinching off leggy shoots. Tomatoes will produce more and larger fruit if the leggy bits are pinched off, encouraging new bloom and a stronger stem.

You are probably already eating lettuce, radishes and green beans from your garden. And strawberries!. I don"t grow strawberries but I really like to buy them at farm stands and U-Pick farms. There is no comparison in flavor!

With all of the rain we have been having, be sure your plants are well-drained. Look around your area for any standing water or water sitting in pots and planters. These are mosquito havens! Empty containers of stagnant water. Moving water in fountains will not provide a breeding ground for the mosquitoes, but will give a nice source of water for the birds. They may drink the water or preen and bathe in the fountain.

Happy gardening. It is never too late in the year to plant. I have planted in August and September, but to enjoy more flowers, and quite often at the end of the season greenhouses are practically giving them away!

Crystal Lake Gala Fest

2006-06-30T11:54:00.000-05:00

Crystal Lake has one of the biggest festivals in McHenry County. In fact, this was the festival which was voted as the best in the County by the NW Herald. What does the Gala Fest consist of? The famous Taste of Crystal Lake. Not quite like the Taste of Chicago, but there are certainly a large variety of vendors present and lots of different foods to try, ranging from Chinese to European. There is a giant carnival set up in front of the Dole Mansion, which also features free tours that day. There is music every night. And, to round it off, there is the famous 4th of July parade. Quite a big event altogether.
So, what seems to be the problem?
Well, last year, the parade had a couple of floats that several people complained about. One was the Libertarian Party float, which questioned the Patriot Act and the liberties that citizens are starting to lose in our country. The other was the McHenry County Peace Group, which carried signs announcing how many people were killed in the Iraq War so far. Because of the several complaints, fair organizer Louise Steinbach decided to prevent these groups from expressing their views. Their freedom of speech has basically been stifled right on Independence Day. In fact, the whole parade is supposedly meant to celebrate our rights and what people in 1776 fought for! So, this year, the only thing political groups are allowed to do is to hold up signs naming their group. They may not have floats or pass out literature. Now, mind you, other groups may do these things. But only politically oriented organizations are stifled in this manner. So, if one is part of a church and believes in a certain religion, no matter how esoteric, one may go and build a float and pass literature pushing that religion down our throats. If one is part of the current political party that is in vogue, one may do the same. If one owns a business and wants to advertise their products, even if its an offensive business to the rest of us, one may likewise advertise their views. Only the groups that Luise Steinbach personally has a problem with are stifled in this manner. And this is again, a parade celebrating our independence.
What did we do about it? Earlier this year, we put together this website to protest the treatment of these two groups and the trampling of the freedom of speech involved. The website appears in search engines right below the festival website. Therefore, whenever one types in the words "Gala Festival" one gets our "I Hate Gala Site" :
http://www.geocities.com/rebel1776rebel/
Of course, at the time we were again threatened with lawsuits and arrest for putting together this website!

Suburban Malaise

2006-06-30T11:53:00.000-05:00

People move to a town like Marengo for a variety of reasons. Some want the feel of small town life and to get away from the big cities. Others want a safe place to raise their kids in. And then there's those who just like cheaper housing. But whatever the reason, it is interesting to examine what the differences between living in a small town and a suburban community might be.
The main problem facing suburban communities today seems to be a lack of connections. People live in houses that look the same, drive cars, rarely talk to their neighbors, and really have no connection with each other. Pick any large suburb and you realize that it consists mainly of middle class houses, restaurants, fast food stands, a library, and malls. Sure, there are community meetings in City Halls and events that attract people, but these are not places where those in a community gather in order to get together and vote on or celebrate events as a community. The town meetings consist only of people who are interested in politics, whereas in a small town like Marengo politics is everybody's business and many people of all backgrounds come to town meetings. The celebrations in suburban communities are not meant to bring people together, but to bring revenue for the suburb. Sure, people from the suburb might come and enjoy the event, but they rarely talk or see other people who they live with. They stay isolated, as before. In a small town, a celebration brings friends and neighbors together. No one is a stranger. The worst part of a suburban community, though, is the mall. People go to these ugly contraptions, all of which look the same and are of no interest architecturally, in order to shop and buy items, or simply to hang out when bored. In a small town, there is no mall. If people want to shop, they of course often leave town and shop in a suburb. But just as often they also shop at small stores, where they see people whom they live with, who are often familiar to them, talk and exchange gossip, and come back with a feeling of having accomplished something. For these reasons and these reasons alone, I would choose a small town over a large suburb or city any day.

Apocalypse!

2006-06-30T11:52:00.000-05:00

I, like many other people, have read the physicist Stephen Hawking's announcement that human beings must look for stars to settle on in order to survive the demise of the earth. He also mentioned that the earth might be wiped out by disaster in the next 20 to 40 years, though for the life of me I cannot see what would lead him to such a conclusion. Hawking also believes that space travel can be achieved in this time frame. Now, I hate to say it, but let's take a close look at our planet. For one, many countries are currently at war, including our own. There are just as many countries where people are starving to death and dying young. There are diseases, genocide, and intolerance. There are troubles abroad and troubles at home. Just look at some of our problems in Marengo, such as the police issues! How easy are those to solve? Now let us suppose that we put all our energy into exploring outer space, all our money into building rockets, space stations, deep space probes, as well as training people for these procedures, Where is all this money, time, and energy going to come from? Why, it's going to be at the expense of taking care of the problems here on earth, of course!! How can we hope for a future somewhere in the stars when we have not even begun to take care of the issues right here on our planet?
It is also interesting to not that Stephen Hawking believes all the mysteries of the universe have a solution. That one day we will know everything there is to know about our universe. To say that seems unlikely is stretching it. For one, have we even answered a basic question: where did all life come from? How about this one: Is there a God, how could a universe begin all on its own, why would it begin, are there other universes? The list goes on and on. Not only might it not be possible to answer some of these questions, I am not sure that I would like to know ALL the mysteries of the whole, entire universe. Would it not be better if there were some things which we could still hope to learn about, some things which we just don't know everything about? How interesting would life be if all the basic mysteries were solved?

Gardening Corner

2006-06-30T10:29:00.000-05:00

Pizza Garden

By: Museumlover

This is for the next gardening column because I have it ready and I never know for sure where I'll be or what I'll be doing! I'm leaving tuesday to go to St. Cloud MN for the Minnesota Quilt Show. I'm taking some lessons and really looking forward to is. So....here it is.
If you have kids in your family, they might really enjoy planting a pizza garden. This kind of garden is fun and useful. You will need to put your pizza garden in the sun.
The first step is to lay out a circle, of whatever diameter you can put in your space. It is pretty easy to mark off a circle by pegging down a string or rope in the center and marking off a circle.
The earth must be worked up with a tiller or some other implement, and peat moss, cow manure and topsoil mixed in with your soil will help grow healthy plants. You will want to then rake and level your soil and make sure it is ready for planting.
Next comes choosing what to put into the garden. Let's start with some tomatoes, and we will also need some basil, oregano, chives, thyme, and whatever herbs you might like on your pizza. You might also want to put in some little marigolds to look like cheese and to keep away the bugs and other critters.
Mark off your circle into "slices", marking the slices with stakes and string or small rocks. You will need as many slices as you have plants. You might even want two slices for the tomatoes. You can buy plants already started as it is too late to grow from seed.
Start by planting your tomato plants towards the back of your circle, where they won't shade your other plants from the sun. Plant them nice and deep so they will grow straight. You can even use tomoato cages, if you want to. Small plum or roma tomatoes are perfect for pizze. Plant your other herbs in the slices you have created. Plant your marigolds, if you want them, in amongst the other things. Afterwards, you can sprinkle a product called "Preen" around your plants and it will help prevent weeds.
If you want to get really into your pizza garden, place rocks around the perimeter to look like a crust. Place a few small terra cotta saucers upside down here and there to look like pepperoni.
I will admit that I have never grown one of these gardens, however I have seen them and they are pretty neat and great fun for kids. They also learn about preparing the soil, watering their plants, weeding and then harvesting and eating their crop. I have a friend who is a master gardener and she often does these little gardens for the neighbor kids.
When your tomatoes are ready, just pick everything you need for your pizza from your very own garden. Make a simple pizza crust, add the things you grew yourself, bake and eat. Guaranteed to be fun and taste wonderful. Fresh tomatoes and fresh herbs are so good! If you enjoyed that garden, the same plot can be used again next year. Oregano, chives, and thyme will come back, but you will have to replant the other ingredients. Enjoy.

Deplorable Conditions

2006-06-03T07:02:00.000-05:00

I have always been interested in the wasteful way our town is allowed to be run. The Aldermen and Mayors have so far proven that they are more than willing to waste taxpayers' money by not taking care of certain situations, unnecessary lawsuits against certain private citizens, the mismanagement of the budget, as well as all sorts of feasibility and gap studies that were done with little having been accomplished in the process.
Well, here is a situation that should be of interest to those of us who care how others in our community live. Certain people in our community own various apartment complexes and buildings. This gives them a certain responsibility to take care of these places and make sure that the people who live in them have safe and sanitary conditions. Unfortunately, I have explored one of these buildings thoroughly and what I discovered was very shocking. I have driven to Pheasant Roost Apartments on Route 20 and have found the conditions there to be deplorable. There are broken pieces of plaster and holes in the ceiling and walls. The carpets are so stained and threadbare that I didn't even want to step on them. They should have been replaced years ago. All the wood trim around the doors and windows was cracked, with peeling paint. There were cracks and splinters around the doorknobs. The smell was truly horrible and dirt was apparent everywhere I looked. One hallway even had garbage scattered all around the floor. It seemed obvious to me that the owner of the building does not hire a cleaning crew or if he does, they seldom visit the building. The laundry room was one of the worst I have seen in an apartment complex anywhere. Two of the doors to the washing machines stood open. I was unable to shut them, leading me to believe the latches were broken. It didn't look like anyone had changed or tested the fire extinguisher in ages, there was even dirt on the bottom. The expiration sticker was nowhere to be found. Graffiti was written all over the walls and door. I noticed that while the police are immediately called when a little crown is spotted on a wall outside the library, and the evidence is instantly washed away, no one has cleaned up any of the graffiti in this particular building. The apartments themselves are in such bad shape, many of them should not even be occupied. Toilets leak, roaches run rampant all over the floor, the carpeting is torn and stained, the walls are cracked, some bathrooms even have whole walls black with mold. I could go on and on with this list, but I think the pictures provide a better explanation and others who read this could do what I have done, walk or drive over to Pheasant Roost and take a look for themselves.Why is this allowed to go on? Why has no one called a building inspector on this owner and reported him? How can he get away with having people live in such deplorable conditions?Well, the answer seems to reside in who the person who owns this complex is. His name is William Orado and he is friends with Dorothy Otis, who owns similar apartments and complexes in the Marengo area. I am betting that having an alderman as a friend is very helpful and Mr.Orado need not put any money into the buildings he owns, as he is obviously able to get away without doing so.The final question I can see people asking after reading this is: why should we care? After all, some might say only Hispanic people live in these buildings and that they are not concerned for their well being. My answer to that is that first of all, I saw at least two white families. Second, we are all people and are all human. If we see other human beings left to live in such conditions, it is a concern for us all. There is a phrase "but for the will of God, there go I" and I think it is very accurate here. We are lucky not to be in a situation where we have nowhere to live and are forced to live in subsidized housing. Now, I have seen a lot of subsidized housing and I have yet to see any in such a shape as this. This building is not fit for human beings to live in and it is something we should all care about and work toward changing. I suggest one of the ways to do so is to ask Dorothy Otis in the next Council meeting why this is allowed to go on.

Change Your Mind Day

2006-06-03T07:01:00.000-05:00

Here is something that many people in our town might not be aware of. There is a Zen Community and a Buddhist temple in Woodstock. It is located in the Unitarian Church, on Dean St, next to Woodstock Square. Today, these organizations held an interesting event called "Change Your Mind Day" in the middle of the Square. Now, I have never attended an event like this before. The middle of the Square consisted of pillows surrounded by chairs placed on the ground. In front of them stood a large white statue of a Buddha. A man in robes sat in front of the statue, praying. Behind all this stood various tables with literature, a table with children's activities and coloring books, and a cardboard painting of an another Buddha. The price for the books was a small donation, whatever one wanted to give, which I found very different and interesting. There were also T-shirts and Buddha statues on sale($50 for the statues). The events of the morning consisted of a morning chant, followed by various talks and different types of yogas. What have I learned about these various organizations from attending this event?Well, zen doesn't seem to require that one be of a particular religion. It seems to be more of a practice rather than a religion. One can therefore be a Christian and still practice zen. Which makes me wonder why so many Christians seem to be against zen and consider it evil. Zen is supposed to teach you to clear your mind so that you can take appropriate actions and be fully involved in the moment. The name of the Zen Community is "Ten Directions" and it promises that it will try to help you "realize your true self" and "help all beings". In fact the front of the brochure for the group talks about it leading to "the clarification of the mind, so that we may live our lives for the benefit of all sentient beings". Now, who wouldn't want to do that?! The group meets on Sunday Evenings at 7 to 9 pm, at the Congregational Unitarian Church on 221 Dean St. in Woodstock. There is also an introductory class the first Sunday of each month at 7pm.Buddhism also proved to be an interesting concept. Basically, it tells us that "all life is sorrow" and that by following its precepts, you can make your sorrow come to an end. In other words, all us humans suffer and somehow following Buddhism can make things better. Yeah, I guess. I don't know about that. How does one do that? Well, here it gets more interesting. Buddhists follow an "Eightfold Path", which is supposed to help bring this sorrow and suffering to an end. Or at least bring it under control. I wondered how I myself could follow these precepts. Well, the first one is to have "the right understanding", in other words we must have "a really good understanding of Buddha's path. If we fail to have this understanding, we are like a man lost in the desert." This quote, by the way, is directly out of Buddhist Sunday School Lessons for Children. Now, again, I don't know. I don't see how understanding Buddha's path can help me out here. What Buddha did in his time and what I do today appear to be very different in nature. It gets more interesting, though. The second precept is having "the right aims". I like this particular quote the best "when we accept someone else's opinions we are going against Lord Buddha's advice to do our own thinking and have our own aims". I agree wholeheartedly. I certainly think even in Marengo we have accepted too many of the current opinions and mores and that many people have indeed stopped thinking for themselves. Doesn't seem like this precept will lead to less sorrow, though. Thinking for myself has led me to lose friends, respect, and make enemies and, if anything, has greatly added to, not subtracted, from my sorrow! Then there's "the right speech", speaking honestly and with compassion to people. Well, that certainly can't hurt, but again, honesty about our town and police situation has so far only increased my sorrow and the sorrow of others who were similarly honest. Meanwhile I don't see the liars and cheats experiencing a whole lot of sorrow. So, while it is a great precept and I try to follow it without ever having explored Buddhism before, I don't see how it can lead to anything but sorrow. Give life meaning? Sure, but not ease sorrow. At least not for the person speaking their mind and being honest. It gets even better. "The right actions", actions that will earn us respect from ourselves and from others. Again, I see the same problem when I look at our Marengo situation. I have great respect for myself and for others who have taken stands and tried to stand up for what is right, but it has certainly earned us little respect from anyone else. For anyone who reads the message board, we can clearly see the indignation mine and others' rightful actions have heaped upon their own heads. Again, I see little chance of following this precept leading to less sorrow. Then, to round out the precepts above, there's the "right livelihood" and the "right effort". Yeah, I guess having a job where you help people can lead to satisfaction and it pays to put in effort. I can see that. Have I followed both of these myself(without knowing, of course)? To a point. I guess I could use a refresher. The last precept is "right meditation" and here I'm lost. I don't have the time or the patience to meditate. I could not even summon a quarter of the concentration required for such a task. It seems beyond my wildest comprehension.What do I think altogether? Buddhism is a very interesting religion. It is very different from Christianity. There is no talk of an actual God or having to go to church or even sin. That is certainly tempting. But, on the other hand, I really can't get into concepts such as meditation, reincarnation, or karma. They seem too foreign to make a lot of sense to my Western mind. Altogether, though, I have to say one thing: even though I haven't changed my mind, I have learned a lot by going to this event and have done a lot of thinking as well. I also would be interested in going to further Buddhist and Zen type events and am looking forward to whatever else might be in store from the organizations I have discovered.Try this website if you wish to discover more: http://www.bluelotustemple.org

Our Best of McHenry County

2006-06-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

I have greatly enjoyed the section titled "Best of the Fox" in the Northwest Herald. We, of course, as our readers are well aware of, have our own "Best and Worst" section that comes out on New Years Eve. Its usually for Marengo only, though, and I thought it might be interesting to do our own take on what is the best in McHenry County.

Antique Stores: Now, I don't usually search for antiques. I got enough junk lying around my house, and it seems unwise to bring yet more ancient nick-nacks in. However, one place that I have seen lots of different antique stores, all of them very interesting, is Hebron. The whole downtown area is filled with antique stores that have many, many different items on display. It seems to me if one wants to hit a whole bunch of antique stores all at once, that this is a good place to go and much more scenic than an antique mall where one just walks in and everything is set up in boring little booths.

Chinese Restaurants: I would say Green Garden in Woodstock. I have been in both the Breakers and King Wok, which were the places chosen as the best by the NW Herald, and the food was pretty terrible. They are also more expensive and do not provide either soup or egg rolls with their meals, whereas Green Garden is reasonably priced with good food.

Bagel: Yeah, Bentley's Bagel and Brew in Lake in the Hills is pretty good. Right about that one. They also have excellent bagel breakfast sandwiches.

Bakery: Now, you wouldn't catch me dead going to Around the Clock Bakery again. Yes, this was one of the places chosen as the best. One time I ordered a lemon meringue pie. It came to the table as hard as leather. When I asked what happened, the waitress asked "Oh, you mean you'd like a fresh piece?" Well, yeah, that sure would be nice! The last time I was there I ordered a caramel apple pie. The caramel was so hard I had to scrape it off with a fork and knife. Never again. I think the best bakery I've ever been to is Flatlanders here in town.

Book Store: Borders seem like the best. I don't know about Between the Lynes in Woodstock. Yes, they are interesting, but the prices are high and there's not much of a selection.

Breakfast: None of the choices in the NW Herald appealed to me. I didn't like Richard Walker's Pancake House, the food was expensive, very limited, and none too fresh. I would say Café Olympic in downtown Crystal Lake has a homey atmosphere and good breakfast as well.

Brewery: I agree there! Governors Public House in Lake in the Hills has the best, if not the only. They have any kind of beer you've ever dreamed of: lemon flavored beer, vanilla beer, wheat brewed beer, oatmeal brewed beer. You can never get tired of the place.

Coffee: I would say Starbucks. Wins hands down each time.

Deli Sandwich: I again, disagree with the NW Herald choices. Subway is certainly nothing special and Jimmy John's is alright, but again, I would always choose Flatlanders for sandwiches. They truly have some of the best.

Donut: Country Donuts in Crystal Lake does have good donuts, no argument there.

Family Restaurants: There sure are many to choose from. I think the Huntley Café on Main Street is a cozy, quiet restaurant that has good food. I'd vote for it as the best.

Festival: Yeah, lots to choose from here too. There's the Gala in Crystal Lake, all the Woodstock Festivals, and our Settlers Days in Marengo. I think we should forget them all and choose the Gay Games. After all the commotion that they will cause, they're bound to be something none of us ever forgets!

Hot Dog Stands: I would say Mr. A's in Crystal Lake certainly has the best Chili Cheese Fries. They are excellent. Never mind the hot dogs, I'd go for these any old day.

Ice Cream: Kalidoscopes in Crystal Lake seems like the best place to me. No argument there.

Pizza: Papa Salernos in Lake in the Hills has alright pizza. But as far as pizza in McHenry County, I truly have not found any that even closely matches Chicago pizzas. There's just no comparison.

Place to take Kids: I would say, take them hiking. McHenry County Conservation District has a list of many different hiking destinations. There are some truly interesting places to go and best of all, its free.

Seafood: Port Edwards Restaurant is right on. Though be vary of the prices. A main course meal can run almost $36 for one person.

Shopping: It seems in McHenry County everyone seems to either head out of the county or into Crystal Lake. One of the two.

Town Square: Woodstock Square!! I think it's the ONLY town square too!

Toys: Yep, stick to Walmart. Otherwise you'll spend a fortune on something your child might play for a week or two.

Moon Garden

2006-06-03T06:59:00.000-05:00

By: Museumlover

Ever wish you could enjoy your beautiful garden and patio at night, by the light of the moon? You can if you plant a moon garden. There are a number of flowers which only bloom at night and there are also flowers that really "shine" in moonlight.

It can be so peaceful to sit outside on a nice evening. Why not enjoy the sweet smells and beauty of your garden after the sun sets? Some of plants are meant to attract the night pollinating moths and they open only at night and send out lovely fragences. The flowers that show the best in the moonlight are white or silvery.

These plants are also beautiful during the day hours. There is a plant called moon flower, Ipomoea alba, whose spiraled flower buds show during the day and start unfurling about dusk. These are large, 6 inch wide white flowers. They smell wonderful. A relative of the morning glory, t is a vigorous vine and kind of looks like plumped up morning glory. It does well in full sun to partial shade and is great for an arbor or large trellis. They can also be started from seed.

Angel's Trumpet, Datura spp, is a large, upward or outward facing, trumpet shaped flower. I've grown these many times and they are lovely, some are double flowered. They have prickly seed pods after blooming. They thrive in the heat. On a hot summer hight, their flowers are particularly fragrant.

Brugmansias have large trumpet flowers and a shrubby body. They can be shaped like small trees and are tropical in nature. They can be taken in and saved in the house in the winter. Other summer bloomers are the white bellflower, baby's breath, astilbe and falsespires. Bugbane, monkshood and boltonia (snowbank) will bloom from late summer to fall. Shasta daisy and chrysanthemum will bloom into frost.

Another with a sweet heavy scent is flowering tobacco (Nicotiana alata). Night blooming jasmine is another sweet smeller.

Use foliage that glows in the moonlight, too. Artemisia has silver gray leaves and look very pretty at night. I have learned the hard way the artemisia is invasive! Every year I have to pull some of it out so it doesn't take over, but it is pretty. The simple lambs ear is another that will look silvery under the moon. Some hostas, caladium and ornamental grasses can be very light, feathery and shiny in the moonlight.

To add more ambience to your moon garden, consider a fountain or some other water feature in your garden or patio. The soft tinkling of the water, sweet smell and lovely glow of the flowers in the moonlight can really soothe away the day's anxieties and tribulations. Fountains are very easy to build and there are plenty of books at the library about making things yourself for your garden.

Next time...for the younger members of the family....a pizza garden. Growing your own pizza is just great and so tasty!!!

Cookies

2006-06-03T06:48:00.000-05:00

By Museumlover

Some of you message board users probably really like to have milk and cookies while you are reading all of these intelligent posts and responding in kind. You don't have time to bake, though, so what do you do? Here are a couple of suggestions that are very tasy. Both cookies are no-bake. Just mix and eat!

Chow Mein Cookies. (I really love these!)

Melt two cups of butterscotch chips until creamy. (I use the microwave, doing it in 30 second increments)
Stir in 2 cups of chow mein noodles and 1 cup of nuts (any kind). Drop by teaspoonsful on waxed paper. When firm, enjoy.

Chocolate coconut drop cookies

Boil together for two minutes 3/4 cup butter, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup of cocoa, and 2 cups sugar. Remove from heat and stir in 3 cups old fashioned oats and 1/2 c shredded coconut. Mix together and drop by teaspoon on waxed paper. Be sure to use old fashioned oats. The Quick ones will cook! You can also add vanilla if desired.

Both of these are pretty tasty and super easy to make. I am also a huge fan of slow cookers and crockpots, along with one dish oven meals. While the Marengo Gazette probably isn't destined to have a cooking column, if anyone wants me to throw in the occasional recipe, tell management. I'm a writer and I like to write!!!

May 2006

2006-05-06T05:46:00.000-05:00

Officer Down, Officer Down………… I Mean Gone

This is yet another sad moment for the City of Marengo, another officer turning in their badge. First it was Scott Crawford, "There is three sides to every story", the four legged beast Quanto, and now Kelly Given who was Quanto's partner and Crawford's girlfriend.
In all honesty, based on the media coverage and statements made by the Chief of Police Les Kottke, all fingers point to Kelly Given. I believe that Given resigned due to the fact that she leaked confidential reports to Josh Stockinger who was employed with the NWHerald about one of the teens suing her. Just like Crawford, Given is trying some evasive maneuvers to escape persecution.
The City of Marengo has been crapping their pants since the allegations of police abuse have started. If there is "Three sides to every story", why are the two key players for the cities defense no longer employed? Where would the credibility be?

I will try to explain my "Three side to every story" Theory. The conclusion to this theory is based on all facts publicly known.

Jack's Theory:

Story 1: Marengo police officers are being accused of using excessive force, creatively making up false statements, and secretly releasing top secret documents.

Story 2: Crawford "I am innocent." "The truth will come out in the end."
Quanto "Ruff…..Ruff." The translation….."Welcome to Walmart."
Given said she had nothing to do with it.

Story 3: Crawford, Quanto, and Given (in that order) no longer are in employed by the Marengo PD. Nor does Stockinger work for the NWHerald, coincidence?

Conclusion: Story 1 and Story 3 are very true. Story 2 is false. Therefore, if Story 3 is a true statement then Story 1 is telling the truth.

Whose in the Neighborhood?

We all live in Marengo thinking we are in a safe neighborhood. Yes, there have been problems with the police in the past. But most of us, I imagine, feel pretty safe. I know many people who let their kids out in the yard to play. Many more don't lock their doors when they are home during the day, or even at night. After all, Marengo is a small town, far removed from the big city. But how safe are we really?
Here is who lives in your neighborhood:
1. John Adamson: Lives on 408 Sunset. Convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a young victim from 13 to 16 years of age.
2. Kenneth Anthony: Lives on 622 Jackson. Is a sexual predator and convicted of child pornography.
3. James Kacena: Lives at 18704 Rt.176. Convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a young victim.
4. Gary Morrison. Location currently unknown. Convicted of aggravated criminal sexual assault and violated the sexual criminal registration act.
5. Daniel Rohe. Lives at 719 Beggs, apartment 4. Convicted of his SECOND act of criminal sexual assault of a young victim.
6. James Uden. Lives at 330 W. Railroad. Convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a young victim and is also considered a sexual predator.
So, our town is not as safe as we thought it might be. These people might not present a danger to anyone, or they might be very dangerous. From what I understand, in his whole lifetime a sexual offended is known to abuse an average of 70 victims. So, if any of you live near these offenders, it is best to exercise caution.
Of course, not all the sexual offenders are what they seem. The last on the list, James Uden, was 18 years old and caught having a sexual relationship with his 16 year old girlfriend. The police found out and Uden wound up serving time in prison. So, I guess, they might not all be as dangerous as they seem and looks can be decieving. However, it still does not hurt to use caution with our neighbors, even in Marengo.

McHenry County Justice

It has been on my mind on how our justice system here in McHenry County has unfairly imprisoned and charged people with crimes. I can't help but wonder if this is a case particular to McHenry County or if it happens everywhere. Unfortunately, I have found an example that we can refer to, and that is what happened in New Orleans. The way people accused of crimes in New Orleans have been treated is truly horrifying. An organization from New Orleans called Safe Streets, Strong Communities did a study on how many days people were kept in jail without trial.They found the average number was 385 days. One person had been locked up for 1,289 days. None of these people have been convicted of any crime. Many of these arrests were for simple misdemeanors. Now, I cannot help but wonder how this could have been allowed to take place. Can you imagine if you got arrested (falsely or not)for, let's say, disorderly conduct. Let's suppose you were arguing with your husband or wife and someone called the police. Do you think it is right for you to be locked up for the next year awaiting a trial? But, wait, you might say, what does this have to do with McHenry County? Well, look at the Gaughan case. The Gaughans were originally arrested over a year and a half ago. Almost two years. Yet the State's Attorney keeps issuing continuance after continuance in order to postpone the trial, which they know would then wind up costing the Gaughans yet more money. Luckily, they are not sitting in jail as this is taking place. But there is no excuse for the constant delays, and if a person does not have the money to pay bail, then they would have to wait all this time in jail for a trial on charges that are not serious enough to even warrant that much jail time. What makes this even worse is that the only two witnesses against the Gaughans are both former disgraced cops who resigned in lieu of being fired. Both committed crimes which neither was charged with because of the State's Attorney not wanting to bring charges against them. Instead they continued with the charges against the Gaughans. The firing of these two cops has cost Marengo tax payers over $100,000 so far. A few months ago the city administrator, Scott Hartman, said Marengo was in the red because they had spent over $100,000 involving a police lawsuit. Well, what the city spent that 100G on was the investigation, and the removal of Crawford and Given. None of that money was spent on the civil rights lawsuit. That is being paid entirely by the City's insurance company, which has not even started using that money for anything yet. On top of that, the $100,000 that the City spent does not even count the $30,000 that Crawford got to resign nor any of the money Given might have received.. So, we are all paying the price for the police department's and the State's Attorney's incompetence, not just those directly involved.
I think this is something that we should all think about, as it might be ourselves or our children who might one day be at the mercy of the justice system here in McHenry County, as well as the rest of us, who will surely be stuck footing the bill.

McHenry County Peace Group

Last year, I was very surprised to discover that we have a Peace Group in McHenry County. The McHenry County Peace Group is a collection of citizens from this county who try to right injustices by holding lectures and protesting. At the time I met with the Peace Group, they were protesting the war in Iraq by holding signs on Rt. 14 and Main St. in Crystal Lake every Thursday. They also had a Christmas Vigil, which I participated in. Members of the Peace Group would take turns holding signs on the said intersection from 4pm until 6am. All night there would be someone out there. It was truly a powerful experience to try to fight injustices in this way. It was a really cold night, under 10 degrees, and I stood out there for 40 full minutes in the cold. By the end of my time I couldn't feel my hands or feet and was shaking uncontrollably. Cars would pass by and, while some would wave and honk, most would shout insults or hold out a finger. If anyone is familiar with that intersection, you would know it is not exactly a safe place to be standing at night in the dark, with angry people passing by at 40 miles an hour. But I was proud to have taken a stand against the Iraq war and done my share by being out there with rest of the members. From that point on, I wanted to be more involved in our County's Peace Group.
Here, I run into a little problem. You see, the way I understand the concept of being involved and trying to fight injustices and the way they see it seems to be rather different. For me, fighting things that are wrong always starts in one's backyard. I noticed that our McHenry County Peace Group has a lot of members of all sorts of backgrounds. There are doctors, lawyers, and teachers. These people want to fight things that are wrong and make a difference. Yet, all the Peace Group's efforts are aimed at national issues and things overseas. It's necessary to worry about conditions in Argentina and Mexico, but not about lack of McHenry County's health care and domestic violence programs for women(other than Turning Point, which is notoriously ineffective in providing a safe place to stay in the county). All these people, the way I see it, can be put to good use helping us here, at home, in McHenry County. When I put this issue to the Peace Group, however, I have received no response.
My biggest issue in McHenry County, however, is their justice system. Many people in Marengo have been arrested and falsely charged, even imprisoned, for crimes they did not commit. What the State's Attorney is doing with the Gaughan case is truly horrible, and I have brought these issues up with the Peace Group. Their latest protest was this Monday, the day the immigrants walked out of their jobs and schools, and it supports the immigrants. Now, I can't help but think that in McHenry County there are far more pressing concerns right now. But, regardless, the way I looked at it, if the Peace Group was willing to do their own little Immigrant Protest in downtown Crystal Lake, why not do something local that has far greater meaning and a chance to try to right an injustice? I suggested that we do a protest in front of the McHenry County Courthouse against the State's Attorney. Again, I have not gotten even so much as an answer on this from the Peace Group.
I hate to say it. Even though I really like the Peace Group, am glad to have them in our county, and greatly respect what they do, I am beginning to lose some respect for them. It seems that they only handle national or international issues, because those issues are safe to handle. No one is going to mind if they stay out there on Rt.14 protesting President Bush. He doesn't live in this county. However, the State's Attorney is an another story. Its apparently not okay to protest things that might involve some risk on their part, that might make people angry and help bring about some actual change, along with possible personal consequences. I'd be willing to do it any day. Why aren't they?

Murder in a Small Town

This week, a terrible tragedy occurred. An eighty three year old woman was murdered in her home. The Marengo Police have released little information. For instance, not only do we not know who actually killed this woman, but what the motive might have been. Yes, her car and a few possessions were stolen, but why? Was any money gone? Who did this?
Now, I have to say. When I first heard of this tragedy, I was hoping that the Marengo Police would have a chance to redeem themselves and handle this situation in a competent manner. I even thought so after it was announced that they shot an unarmed man. Now, I disagree. It seems that they have completely botched this investigation and are currently in the process of covering that fact up.
What went wrong?
Well, for one, the person who they shot had no weapon on him. Is it right to shoot someone just because he flees the scene? I don't think so. You don't know why they are fleeing. In this case, the person was an illegal immigrant and might have had a good reason to be scared and run. He might have had no idea just why the police were chasing him. But to me, it was still understandable how this could happen. A young, inexperienced officer could easily panic and shoot. Police officers cannot just shoot at a limb or a foot, as this might injure bystanders. They need to shoot to kill. So, while certainly not morally right, I really doubt that in this case the officer in question had any time to consider morals. He was a young rookie, who was scared and so he discharged his weapon. Why the other officers at the scene did not prevent this from happening, is anybody's guess.
But, see, it gets worse.
The Marengo Police decided to cover this shooting up. The name of the officer has not been released and neither were any details of the crime. State Police were called in to investigate. Which State Police? Why, Kronke, Schroeder, and Perez! The same people who investigated the Gaughans and the three police officers from Richmond, and whose integrity has been called into question in both investigations. Besides that, Joe(not Jose) Perez has been a long time Marengo resident, good friends with the Marengo Police Department. These people are not going to be impartial in their investigation. They are clearly there to cover up for the shooting, the same as they did in the Gaughan case.
Then…
There is the case of the car. It seems obvious that the suspect who was shot was driving the stolen car with the 83 year old woman's things in it, therefore he must have stolen it and killed the woman. However, this person has stayed in the area, did not flee, and even drove right past the police the very day he was shot. Why would somebody DO that? Does this sound like the work of a person who just murdered somebody? Even a man on drugs would have better sense than that, I would think! And this man has no criminal history, and has not done anything remotely like this before. My guess? He never knew that it was either a stolen car, whom he had gotten from somebody else, and he also didn't know about the murder either. Therefore, the Marengo Police shot an innocent man.
This is a scary thought for me. I see not too many people share my view, though. But, personally, I think that we as a community should not allow this kind of thing to happen. We should not allow crimes that the police commit to be covered up without us knowing so much as the officer's name. We should not allow the City to hold back information which we are entitled to. We should not allow lies to be told to the media without standing up and saying something.

McHenry County College

The main college within McHenry County that I have always heard about is McHenry County College. It is an interesting institution, mainly because it is the one place people go to school to after high school in our county. If they go to school within the county, that is. Oh, there are other schools, but McHenry County College is certainly the one that just about everyone has heard about.
Well, for me personally, this was a first time experience at a community college, as before I have always attended large Universities. What I have to say, however, after taking three classes last semester in the Early Childhood Education field, is that I am rather disappointed with the whole ECE program. I am not sure whether or not this reflects on the other programs the college offers, as I had not taken any other classes there. But from what I saw in the classes I took, I found the program lacking in many important ways.
My biggest problem with the ECE program is that it prepared the people taking classes for jobs only in child care. There were teachers in various fields taking many of the classes as requirements, there were people studying to become teachers and getting ready to transfer to a 4 year college for a degree, yet all of my classes basically only focused on how to use the information that was being taught in a daycare setting and nothing else. In fact, in one of my classes, when the instructor presented a chapter on conducting parent teacher conferences, something that I was more than a little anxious to learn much more about, the subject that was used for an example was the issue of toilet training. Now, this is not a problem, except that, in my opinion, the ECE field is very diverse. Those who work in daycares form the very bottom on the career ladder, those are the jobs that pay barely above minimum wage. Shouldn't the school have been trying to prepare the students for entering the teaching profession or government programs that use early intervention educators, rather than giving them an education that would only be useful for being a babysitter?
The other issue I had with the classes is that they did not encourage critical thinking. The instructors gave us projects to do that encouraged us to research things in whatever publication we wanted to, not distinguishing serious, scholarly articles from articles in the NW Herald. Whatever each student found, even from the newspaper, was considered to be unvarnished truth, simply because someone other than the student wrote it. In one of my classes, we even watched a video about a guy who ate nothing but McDonalds for weeks at a time, and how this ruined his health in a space of less than a month. I'm not saying that a diet like that wouldn't do that, but the question of some of the accuracy of the video was never brought up, except by me. I was given the answer that "they made the video. I'm sure they checked all that out, or it wouldn't be out there." Students were not taught to critically consider the information that they were presented with or researched, which not only doesn't develop those skills, but leaves them unprepared to go on to a four year college or University, where one is required to think critically and come up with one's own ideas. Instead, spelling and punctuation was considered of far more importance then the content of the papers the students wrote.
Last, my main issue with the ECE classes was the way they were conducted. In each, except one of my classes, the instructors chose videos and speakers, presenting very little of their own information themselves. When they did lecture, they put up overheads and read off of them. I felt that they had very little useful knowledge to impart to the students, other than what was in the videos and on the overhead sheets. I must admit, that I myself learned absolutely nothing new that I did not know before. I cannot think of but a handful of things that would be useful to me in my career. Now, I cannot help but wonder how many people go to McHenry County College, in order to prepare themselves for a career, or to transfer to a 4 year school, only to be left ill prepared by this experience. I have heard many good things about the programs the college offers, especially their mechanics and fire science program, which is considered to be one of the best, so I only hope that what I have to say here only concerns the Early Childhood Education program and not the rest of the school.

Herbivore or Carnivore?

In our society, most people eat meat. This makes sense, as human beings are basically carnivors. However, here in the United States, we live in a strange place, where there are many people who decide to do all sorts of strange, unnatural things, such as get earrings in their stomachs, spend a dollar on a bottle of water that can be gotten from the sink for free, and sometimes even go to stores to buy children clothes that cost more than those for an adult. So, keeping this in mind, it is not strange at all that various people would forgo eating meat and call themselves "vegetarian". To me, of course, it seems rather unusual to forgo items that are obviously natural to eat and necessary for our nutrition. After all, can you imagine a Tyrannosaurus Rex forgoing tearing apart smaller dinosaurs in order to munch on grass instead?
I can't either. That is why I have decided to explore the subject of vegetarianism more. Is it really healthier than a meat diet, as people claim? Is it better for the environment? Is it more humane? To try to answer these questions, I have browsed through a Trader Joes today. Now, a Trader Joes carries a lot of items that are unusual and different. It also caters to vegetarian tastes, carrying such items as tofu, veggie meatballs, and even a tofu turkey for Thanksgiving. So, this seemed like a good place to see the variety of foods that are out there which vegetarians might purchase and eat. After thoroughly examining the various items on display, though, I became convinced one of the answers is decidedly a "no". A vegetarian diet is not any better for the environment. Why? Because it seems to involve foods that are not produced and grown locally in the United States, but are rather shipped in, such as unusual hummus's and tapenades, tofus, rolled grape leaves, and other foods of that nature. On most of the packages that I examined, the food was almost always imported rather than grown locally.
I also looked at the fat content of those foods. Surprisingly, except for tofu, it was actually pretty high. I also must add to this that I know of a person or two who eat only a vegetarian diet. The times I've been out with them, they seem to eat things that are far from healthy, such as grilled cheese sandwiches, pizzas, olives, and tortilla chips. Just because one has cut out meat, does not mean one's diet has gotten any healthier in the process.
Finally, the issue of humanitarian reasons comes up. I personally think that most mammals are designed to eat other animals. A fish will often have an even smaller fish in its belly. If it can eat the small fish, why can't we go ahead and it HIM? After all, he ate someone else! An eye for an eye, the way I see it. Also, one of the vegetarians whom I know has had giant ants in his house. He remedied the problem by setting huge traps and killing the ants! Yet he would not eat meat for humanitarian reasons. He feels disgust when he even looks at meat. Yet, he had no trouble killing the ants. I had brought up this inconsistency to him, and insisted that if he can kill an ant, he can surely eat a shrimp. Why not try it? I mean, a shrimp is a brainless little creature, less a living being than the ant, I would think. He replied that he did not eat the ants and that if the shrimps were crawling around his house, eating stuff, and breeding, he would set traps for them too! I don't know. To me, it seems the humanitarian argument for vegetarianism doesn't hold either. My guess is that we were born to eat meat, and that such aberrations in diet are a result of a culture that has gotten very comfortable. After all, if we lived in Pioneer times, and tried to be vegetarian, I would think we would all starve. People in those times were just glad when there was food on the table.

Gardening Corner
By: Museumlover

Some of you who read my gardening article were hopefully moved to want to buy plants and dig in the dirt. If you don't have a yard or space to plant, do not dispair. Container gardening is fast, easy, fun and colorful. If you have a balcony, a patio, even a rooftop, you can get on with growing.Any spot in the sun will work for a container garden. I have grown great tomatoes in a container. Using good potting soil, plant food and keeping plants watered will result in fine tomotoes! Right now I have basil in a clay pot and rosemary in another. I usually put basil, cilantro, oregano, thyme and tarragon all together in one huge plastic planter. The rosemary doesn't like to be as wet as the other herbs, so it goes all alone in its own well drained pot. It doesn't get watered as often. Mint, chives and most other herbs can also be grown in containers. Some will successfully winter over in the house, but I haven't had a lot of luck with that.Ok...you have found a space and you don't want to grow herbs and vegetables, you want flowers. Almost any container can be used for flowers. I once saw an old fireman's boot full of blooms. The key is to be sure that the pot has drain holes in the bottom or several inches of gravel so the dirt will stay in but the water will drain. Most containers will include three kinds of planting, a tall one, a mounding one to fill the middle and one that trails or bends down over the edges.I personally buy all of my plants in Marengo at Hubbs because they have wonderful stuff and really beautiful planters already done up. Just go to your favorite greenhouse, study the containers you like and then make your own. You will need to figure out what the weather will be like where you plan to put your containers If in the sun there are probably hundreds of plants from which to choose. Shade lovers require a little more looking. If you are real ambitious, you can go out and move your containers around, following the sun, but that is way too much work for me!Be adventuresome. Put purple heliotrope, red salvia and yellow gerber daisies together. I like to sort of overplant so the containers are really nice and full. Use you own likes and imagination to come up with plants and containers that please you. Just don't plant a sun lover in the shade because you will be disappointed with the results.There are many shade lovers that will look wonderful. For example, I have an arbor that is completely in the shade. This year I planted a tall feathery fern in the center of each pot and then put double tuberous begonias, bright red, around the fern. These planters are really beautiful and are in total shade. The begonias will bloom all summer, they cost about $3.29 each and the ferns I jerked out of another shady place I have.You can never go wrong with geranimums. They always look wonderful and will bloom all summer with little care. Just dead head and water....that's it. I really love hibiscus and have about ten of them. They are a little pricey, but they will overwinter find. I take them to the patio in June and bring them in just before the frost. Look around your house for unusually containers. I plant petunias in an old coal scuttle. A silver galvanized bucket from the dollar store, holes punched in the bottom, holds marigolds. Pansies and petunias look great in just about anything.Next time I'll tell you about moon gardens, if anyone is interested. Leave some feed back about the gardening and planting things that would interest you and I will try to help.

April 2006

2006-04-05T06:15:00.000-05:00

Connecting the Dots

Here is an interesting little side story to the police matters in Marengo. We have all, I am sure, read the stories of the Richmond and Spring Grove officers accused of beating up Ron Hallet. His picture was even on the front page of the Northwest Herald, garnering him huge amounts of sympathy. However, what I am about to claim is even more shocking.
I firmly believe that the reasons the Spring Grove officers were arrested and charged with the beating was because of Brian and Kevin Gaughan?s case. The investigator William Kronke wanted to show that he did not make mistakes in the Gaughan case and that he was not purposely taking sides with the police for personal interest, despite evidence, by going and arresting police officers whom he did not know.
It is interesting to note that the prosecutor, Nichole Owens, and the judge are exactly the same as in the Gaughan case. Also, the officers Quilici, Pilati, Volstad, and Thelan, had a share of troubles with their case, that shows how ruthless the state investigator, Kronke is. How far he is willing to go to bring charges against people, even bending the law to make this happen. And how the McHenry County judicial system works in his favor. We all read in the paper how he sat in on the grand jury for these officers, how he intimidated the grand jurors by rolling his eyes and making gestures. From what I understand, he talked to one of the witnesses who testified before this grand jury and threatened her on the stand, by sitting there and intimidating her. Nichole Owens, the prosecutor, also contacted a grand jury member beforehand, and should not have been allowed to prosecute the case, yet the judge let her. He also ruled that it was alright for Kronke to be there, despite that they couldn?t find the document saying that he had permission. Just as in the Gaughan case, certain cameras supposedly had blank tapes, so things could not be handed over. My guess? There was no such document, and the judge, investigator, and prosecutor got away with bending the law to suit their own reasoning.
What really happened?
Of course, all this leads to the question of what really happened with the three cops and Hallet? Apparently, Hallets injuries appear to be real, so he did get beaten up. But why? What occurred? I myself am not as familiar with this as with the Gaughan case. In the latter, I know for a fact that Kevin and Brian Gaughan are innocent of all charges. In the case, of the four cops, I am not quite as sure that all four of them are equally innocent. One of them appears to have a bad track record….
Brian Quilici has been arrested and almost fired for a DUI before, but all charges against him were dropped. He used his position as a police officer to interfere with his roommate?s personal relationships with a girlfriend. He had a complaint filed against him because he yelled at someone who discovered a motorcycle lying in a ditch. He was involved in domestic abuse with his girlfriend by throwing water in her face and pushing her against a wall. Worst of all, Quilici got into a fight in Porter?s Oyster Bar in Crystal Lake with an another man, whom he accused of dating his ex-girlfriend. If he got into one bar fight and seems like an interfering, violent person who doesn?t follow the law in all other respects, why wouldn?t he beat up a man outside yet an another bar?
Well, I think he would! I see no reason why this man wouldn?t pick a fight or make one that is in the making that much worse! I just don?t think the other police officers, including the female cops Thelan, would be involved in it as well.
From what I understand happened, it is mysterious to me why or how the original argument that took the cops into the parking lot with Hallet started in the first place. But there they were in the parking lot. Yes, I am fairly sure they were arguing. The female cop, Thelan, walked past Hallet and he grabbed her and put a knife to her throat, then started dragging her into his car. The other officers fought back to protect her and from there on, its anyone?s guess how he obtained his injuries. Innocent of all wrongdoing, he is not, though. Very unlike the Gaughan brothers, who did nothing wrong but say two words to Crawford, who then got the older of the two into handcuffs before proceeding to beat him up.
But, things do not end there. Like with the Gaughan brothers, the state investigator Kronke proceeded to interrogate them in much the same way. He threatened them, yelled at them, and called them names. He charged Volstad for impersonating a police officer simply because he told Kronke that he was on sick leave. Kronke used weird interrogation tactics by asking him if he was a police officer. Of course he is, right? Who wouldn?t say so?! There you go, now Kronke had an another charge against him - impersonating a police officer! Much the same way irrelevant charges were added on for the Gaughan brothers. He also, much as in the Gaughan interrogation, lied to the people he was interrogating. He insisted that he had a tape of he parking lot to the bar and knew what really happened. The officers insisted that if he really did indeed have the tape, then he would know what happened and that they were not at fault. Of course, Kronke had no such tape, since there was no video camera facing out to the parking lot!
With all this in mind, we must keep in mind how corrupt our McHenry County system of government is and how corrupt some, not all, but some, state police officers are. Kronke is definitely one of them. I would venture to same that so is Perez, who lives in Marengo, and was also one of the investigators who was interrogating the Spring Grove cops. He is very familiar with the Marengo Police department. I am sure that the reason for the arrest of these officers and the piling up of extra charges against them rests with how they treated the Gaughan brothers and how they have completely screwed that case up. I hope the truth will soon come out and Kronke and his buddies will pay a price.

The Truth is in the Middle

Has anyone in Marengo heard of Scott and Brenda Kniffen from Bakersfield, California? I think it is a very interesting case and worth hearing about. I have heard a lot of people say about the people who are bringing a lawsuit against the police in Marengo, that "the truth is somewhere in the middle". In other words, what happened is also somehow the fault of the kids who were falsely charged by the Marengo Police. If one is arrested for a crime, that means one is somehow at fault, even in some small way, right? Is THAT what "the truth is somewhere in the middle" means? See what you think of it after reading about this case….
Scott and Brenda Kniffen had two boys, ages 4 and 6. They also knew an another family in Bakersfield, who had little girls who came to play with them. The second family, though, was undergoing a custody battle where the grandmother was trying to take the little girls away from the parents for personal reasons. She somehow got the little girls to accuse their parents of sexually abusing them, torturing them by hanging them up in closets, etc. There was no physical or other evidence of the abuse, but sure enough, the little girl?s father was arrested. The little girl went on to say that her father was part of a satanic sex ring and named Scott and Brenda Kniffen, saying that they also abused her when she was over to play at their house with her parents, and that they abused their sons at the same time, all part of this satanic sex ring.
The prosecutor in this case acted promptly. Police broke into the Kniffen house and took the little boys away from Brenda and Scott. They searched the whole house, but , of course, found no evidence of the supposed satanic abuse. They then went and arrested Brenda and Scott, who were eventually charged with over 160 counts of abuse. The little boys just wanted to go home. They were only 4 and 6 years old. The prosecutor himself interrogated them. They were kept in separate rooms and interrogated for hours. All the interrogations were taped and available to the jury, by the way, but the defense attorney was unable to present them as evidence due to the judge. The defense attorney also could not present medical testimony as evidence, or other witnesses, such as the couple?s pediatrician and teachers, who knew the boys well. Again, the judge ruled it as irrelevant. What was on the tapes? Something that would make one?s hair stand up. The boys were interrogated for hours. They kept saying that they wanted to go home, but the prosecutor insisted that they needed to answer his questions the right way and agree with him that their parents abused them and torture them. They were told they could go home after drawing pictures of how their parents abused them. And every time they refused, they would be left alone in the room for hours. Finally, they started giving the prosecutor the answers he wanted, though in yes and no form, just to get out of there. Before they were forced to testify against their parents, they boys were interrogated again and again, to make sure they said the right things. They were also made to think that if they went on the stand and said those things, they would see their parents again. Which of course wasn?t true. Brenda and Scott Kniffen were sentenced to 200 years in prison. They served 14 of those years and the boys were in foster homes all that time. Once the boys were almost adults, they insisted that their parents did not abuse them and that they were forced to testify against them for the above reasons. The case was turned over on appeal and the family was reunited.
Now, I have to ask you: Is the truth here in the middle? Neither is it in the Gaughan case.

It Could Happen Here

Illinois has been having many problems in regards to school districts and education. All school districts in Illinois have lost a lot of funding this year. Many are struggling to survive. Marengo is not immune to these problems, so lets see what Harvard did. What do you think?
In order to save money because of lack of funding, Harvard school district decided to fire or not renew contracts for all their cafeteria workers, janitors, and custodians. The idea is to hire all new ones next year at a minimum wage. This was done very quietly, so people would not be aware that it is happening. The School Board did it with very little discussion or awareness. In fact, the meeting on April 17 with the school board where this issue is going to be made public and discussion about it will take place, was not announced too many places and even at this time, few people know about it.
What will the effect of this be in Harvard? Well, for one, all these people the next year will be strangers to the students. I need not elaborate on what that can lead to. Also, would there be enough funding to do background checks on all of them? Background checks on that many new workers are expensive. So are TB tests and medical exams. Or will this step be also quietly skipped over in the hope that no one notices? How well of a job will minimum wage workers do compared to people with years of experience? And what about the question of what is right? Is it right to get rid of people who have been at their job for years and years just in order to save money?

Young Women in Dresses

This subject comes up time and again. What is proper dress for teenagers? Meaning, of course, teenage girls, as no one worries in our society about what the boys are wearing. On the one hand, I am tempted to say that by telling young women that their bodies need to be covered up sends them the message that there is something to be ashamed of. No one tells the men that. On the other hand, I think a lot of society is to blame.
What happens when one walks into a women?s clothing store? What do the jeans look like nowdays, for instance? They have low waists that show off half of a person?s butt! The tops are short and meant to show off a stomach. Shoes are equally strange. They have high bottoms or wide sides. They clearly would not work well for walking around in, but are purely ornamental. Then, look through a magazine that?s for teens or young women. Madmoiselle, Glamour, or Cosmopolitan come to mind. What is in them? Besides model after model that is unnaturally skinny, and in fact looks like she belongs in a refugee camp rather than on the cover of a magazine, there are articles about sex, makeup, hair, clothes, nails, beauty spas, clothing stores, love, and men. There is occasionally a sob story about a woman who got caught up in a prostitution ring or someone who is raped. Or even someone who ran out of money and her boyfriend dumped her. But the majority of articles have nonsense as their subject matter. There is nothing there for young women to think about, nothing for them to get angry about or take actions against. For the most part, the magazines send a message to women that the important things in life have to do with hair, beauty, your body, sex, and men. No wonder then, that many young women choose to dress in such a provocative manner! I, for one, would have no problem at all with it if it was a matter of taste, or freedom, or just a desire to keep cool in the summer. But it seems to me that modern culture still treats young women as objects to be used and useful for men in some way. And until there is a change in this or an understanding among young women that it is wrong and a desire to no longer follow it, true equality and freedom will be awfully hard to reach.

In Secrecy...... Again

As things have progressed in Marengo, I have found it really interesting the pattern that the town takes in getting rid of some of the bad officers. It appears that there will now be a hearing on May 9th on what to do with Officer Given. I can't help but wonder how much of this hearing will be public and how much will be discussed in closed session. Of course, I do admit, this is a personnel issue and some of it might not be appropriate for people to hear. That is the excuse that those in City government will use, however. I beg to differ. This Officer has done harm to a member of our community by stealing confidential information and handing it over to the papers. Not that the NW Herald had any real common sense when they published this information. It was obviously inappropriate for them to accept it and publish it, as they also did harm to the person whose police record it was and which should have been kept private. It seems that in some places not only do the police and town governments have better morals than in Marengo, but also the newspapers are more ethical and conscious of the harm that they might do when publishing certain information. However, in Marengo this does not seem to be the case and few people have any moral scruples. They are all out for themselves. It seems to me that the hearing concerns us all. This is something that an officer of the law, who is there to protect us, has done to actively hurt a member of our community. Shouldn't we insist that it be made public, so that we can decide what the officer in question has done wrong? I'm not even mentioning the fact that the MPD had to get rid of the police dog and how much taxpayer money was wasted in getting, training, and then disposing of the dog. The reasoning for that in itself should be something that people demand be made public. I'm just implying that we who live in this town should demand more accountability from those who run our town.

Beware Of School Fundraisers!

Each year, it comes home in a backpack. A fundraising form. Meaning that in order to raise funds for the school a student and his or her parents have to sell candy, cookies, or pizzas to relatives and strangers. Now, needless to say, we have all heard of kids who went to someone's house and got attacked by a dog or kidnapped and molested. So, that's not always the safest alternatives. This means that the parent can either stand outside a store while their child tries to sell the offending item or he can go door to door with them. I personally think that the whole idea of selling in order to gain funds for the school teaches our children the wrong skills.I have one of the fundraising forms with me today, and this is what they recommend that parents do:
- That they contact everyone they know - ffriends, relatives, etc. What does this mean? That the child will be contacting those that they know and instead of greeting and talking to them, will try to get something out of them - for them to buy the item on sale. It teaches the child that social relationships are there for them to use in some way. Yes, even if a parent is doing this, I imagine that the child could pick this up from them.
- To approach local businesses in their coommunity. In other words, children are supposed to go door to door and beg people for things like beggars, annoying busy people at their jobs in the process.
- Involving your church in this. Okay? Andd the church doesn't need any money? Again, children will be taught to use an organization that needs help from them for their own gain.
- Announce your fundraisers at your newspaaper or local radio station!! I hate to say it, but not only is this impossible for the said newspaper or radio station to do(why would they want to announce every kid selling candy?), but it's a total waste of a community resource.
- Finally, to create flyers and post them in cafeterias, libraries, and community boards. Needless to say, this just litters such advertising sources up. And will produce few results.

Mary Kay and the Statement About Our Society

A long time ago I met a new type of person. The reason I found her so interesting, is because never in my life have I met someone with such a strong purpose in life. This woman's whole reason for living was to sell Mary Kay products! No, no, I'm not just kidding or making this up. This was actually her purpose in life. She had at least $250 worth of cosmetics in her home at a time and constantly and consistently held make-over parties at other women's homes. The only reason she made friends or met people is for the sole purpose of selling them cosmetics. Should the person not be interested in being her customer, she no longer showed any interest in her. When she went on vacation with her husband, she brought her cosmetics with in order to try to sell to her in-laws and their friends. She advertised and sold cosmetics at work, where, again, she did not form relationships unless it was with a potential buyer. All in all she was a very friendly, cheerful, and happy young women. If you talked to her, the first thing she would be interested was in whether or not you had changed her mind or if perhaps you had some friends of yours who could be her potential customers.
Now, I am sure no one who reads this board has met anyone quite like this! It is certainly pretty unusual to see such a sense of purpose and commitment in a person! However, one has to think. ARE there others who think the same in many different ways? Those who are so obsessed about their jobs, or making money, that they have no time for friends or families? Those who judge friendships by how much they can get out of the relationships? Those who take, take, take from those who they are close to, but give very little in return? I think this is something worth thinking about. The reason this Mary Kay lady, who, by the way, is a completely real person who I have actually met, exists is because our society encourages this type of behavior and, in fact, even rewards it. One is supposed to purposely go after what they want, society in modern times centers on the individual not on relationships. I think it is likely that we'll see more and more of these kinds of people pop up. It's a scary thought.

Herbs In Marengo
By Museumlover

Spring has come to Marengo. Now that the snow has melted, our ugligness is showing. By that I mean the trash and plastic bags that are blowing around, stuck on bushes and laying in ditches. It would be very nice if everyone tried to beautify their own little part of the world.
If each of us picked up junk or trash along the edges of our property, no matter who threw it out or left it there, the community would look better. I'm thinking most of you on this list already do that, so, maybe flowers would be the answer.
Some early flowers that can be put out right now are pansies. They are so pretty and can take a lot of weather abuse without curling up and dying like their more delicate friends. Plant a pot of something and put it on display.
Today I started little seed pots of basil, lavender, tarragon and rosemary. It is the beginning of my herb garden. These little seeds will sprout in about ten days. After about three weeks, they will be ready to get transplanted to a pot outside or a small garden plot. Herbs are wonderful to use in cooking, or just to smell and see in the garden. Mine will join the sage, thyme and oregano that is already popping through outside.
I must have a gazillion chive plants growing wild. They are really invasive, but if you have some spots that could use color, dhives will work wonderfully. Eventually they will have a ball shaped lavender flower.
The chives I grow get mixed in with sour cream on baked potatoes, in salads, soups, and anything which needs a bit of green and a delicate "onion like" flavor.
The tarragon will be wonderful with vinegar for salads. Tarragon and rosemary are also excellent with chicken. Just lay the sprigs right on the meat before you bake or grill. Throw rosemary on the grilling coals for a wonderful scent. Basil goes with everything. Couldn't imagine making anything Italian without basil!!!
I would be happy to write a gardening column here in the Gazette on a more regular basis if anyone is interested. If you want more, please let Mirage or another administrator know.

March 2006

2006-03-12T06:23:00.000-06:00

Twice Told Tales

A few days ago Jose Galvez-Macias, 30 Marengo, and Gerardo Zarate-Leyva Rockford were arrested for selling more than 112 grams of cocaine to undercover agents over the course of several weeks. This is rather shocking and points to a problem that our town has with drugs. These problems are numerous and extensive. I am claiming that they have also been allowed to get out of hand.
Last week, on March second, the Marengo Middle School had a drug talk for anyone interested in the problem. Sadly, only 50 or so people showed up. The main part of the talk explained the various drugs that police believe to be around in the community, the most serious part of the problem being that of heroin use. During the course of last year, there were two deaths from drug overdoses in Marengo. It was also mentioned in the drug talk that there are currently no known meth labs in Marengo, though there were two found in Huntley and Crystal Lake.
Now, I think it is nice that the Marengo Police decided to address the subject of drugs in the community. It is also very nice that two drug dealers were arrested. But, has everything been done that could have been to deal with this problem.
Well, let's start with the drug talk. First of all, the turnout was very small. One of the parents there asked if teenagers and kids were invited to this drug talk, as it would be of relevance for them to hear this information about drugs and what they can do to people, as well as about the fact that two people actually died in their own town from using heroin. The officer in charge assured the parent that yes, teens were invited and encouraged to attend. However, there were none there. And when an another parent called the police department earlier in the week to ask if it would be wise to bring teenagers to the talk, she was told that, no, the talk was only for the adults. There was also no mention at all of teenagers in the flier. So, the population of people that the drug situation most effects were not even welcome or encouraged to attend, so they didn't. Someone else also asked when there would be an another talk, as the discussion and video were most helpful. Well, there was one a year ago, a police officer mentioned, but he was unsure if there would ever be an another such talk or when. It goes without saying, that for this approach to be effective, more involvement is necessary. If the Marengo police wanted to effectively deal with this situation and get the support from the community, which this token gesture seems to suggest, then they would attempt to hold a monthly talk and meeting to discuss drugs and offer updates to those concerned.
Now, after thinking about the recent arrests and drug talk, I decided to explore the subject further and do a little research on my own. I wanted to know how many arrests the Marengo police had made of other drug dealers in the last year. Other than the couple with a baby who sold drugs to undercover police officers, there were none. Really. Here is the list of people in Marengo arrested for drug related offenses. I have left the few marijuana possession arrests out and have listed only the ones involving more serious drugs. There are no drug dealers who were arrested at all on the list. All the arrests are for possession. That means, very simply, that people who have a problem with drug usage, are addicted, and need help are the ones being arrested. But that no one has found the drug dealers who are selling to them. I have to wonder why? I currently know people who have contacted the police over and over again and pointed out known drug dealers only to have the police do nothing. I also know that Officer DiGiovanni has repeatedly gone into a known drug dealers house, stayed there for a long while, and came back out. He has done this more than once. But as you see, there are no arrests. This person is not even so much as on the list. Again, the only answer that comes to mind is that there are payoffs for the police. They take a cut of what the drug dealers make in order to let them stay in business. It seems like the only explanation. Meanwhile, the problems with drugs, specifically heroin, just keep getting worse and worse.

Wendy J. Tyler, 45, 615 Constitution S.W., Poplar Grove, was charged Thursday, April 29, with unlawful acquisition of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of a prescription form, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, and theft.
Michael P. Barry, 21, 516 Sixth Ave., Marengo, was cited Monday, May 17, with allegedly having alcohol at Lippold Park without a permit, and was charged with possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Melanie S. Schroeder, 38, 709 N. State St., Marengo, was arrested Saturday, June 5, on a Chicago warrant for attempted possession of a controlled substance.
Paul R. Peterson, 33, 716 North Hale St., Marengo, was charged Monday, July 19, with obstructing justice, possession of drug paraphernalia and no lights on bicycle after dark. He was arrested on outstanding warrants for driving under the influence and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Thomas G. Tripp, 19, 621 James Court, Marengo, and Jason L. Krause, 19, 5916 Meyer Road, Marengo, were charged Monday, April 18, with possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia
Timothy M. Peters, of 23, 3605 Standish Road, Marengo, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, theft, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
David F. Macintyre, 43, 5320 Burma Road, Marengo, was charged Wednesday, Aug. 10, with domestic battery, obstructing a police officer, resisting a police officer, and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.
Shelley Muska, 42, 5808 Meyer Road, Marengo, was charged Wednesday, Aug. 31, with unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.
Donald Rexilius, 475 Park Drive, Apt. A, Marengo, was charged Tuesday, Oct. 11, with unlawful transportation of alcohol, possession of drug paraphernalia, and driving under the influence.

While looking through the arrest records of drug users I have come upon something even more interesting. I don't know if anyone remembers when, last year, I put together a list of nine or ten people arrested for charges of resisting police in various ways, and concluded that this lead me to believe that Marengo police were engaging in police misconduct. But, I couldn't help but notice that the numbers of suspicious types of arrests did not go down at all this year. In fact, in total, for over a year and a half of arrests, there were a total of TWENTY SEVEN very suspicious arrests, with maybe ten that I did not list which were for disorderly conduct and "eluding police". But the twenty seven arrests, many of them current, point to a very serious, ongoing problem in the Marengo police department. One that did not seem to have disappeared entirely with Crawford leaving the department. All these arrests are for resisting police officers in various ways. Arrests such as these indicate to any reputable police department that police officers are engaged in misconduct and may be throwing in those charges in order to cover up their own actions. I personally have heard of people getting beat up by police officers and seriously injured and these police reports seem to bear out that these things are still going on. One person on this list, William A. Charles, has claimed, to give an example of what I'm referring to, that Officer Riley and an another officer have seriously hurt him after he pushed his wife down the stairs in his home. There are others whom I cannot list due to confidentiality. But the list itself is intimidating, simply because of the TWENTY SEVEN arrests, the ones of the people who are part of the lawsuit and others I know personally are not included. So, the numbers are even higher than they seem just from looking at the list.
For those who doubt what I am saying, I want to add that I have carefully combed through both Huntley and Crystal Lake police reports and have found nowhere near the numbers of people resisting the police in those suburbs. It would be ridiculous to suggest that people in Marengo are routinely going around resisting police officers in one capacity or another, covering all age ranges, while they don't seem to do so in other suburbs.
I also find it interesting to look at some of the police reports which I did not list because they did not fit this topic. There are report after report of people fleeing from the police as well! I am not sure why this is so. Are people so afraid of being arrested in Marengo that they flee each time? Or is it that the Marengo Police perhaps falsely arrest people by saying that they were fleeing for them. Also, there are so many reports of disorderly conduct, that, again, I could not see gathering them all together. It seems unlikely that so many people in Marengo are acting in such a disorderly way that they require arrest. Maybe since the police in our department are not able to arrest drug dealers who are clearly causing a lot of harm and ruining the safety of our town, they charge people with anything they can think of! This might not be the case, but it is certainly a very suspicious list of police reports that points to officers in our department not being reviewed for the types of arrests they make in order to question them and find out why they are arresting so many people who are attacking them. Even people from other towns, once they get into Marengo, appear to become combative and resist arrest, assault officers, and act disorderly. Maybe its something in the water....but don't get me started on that subject!

Gerald Lee, 44, 312 E. Forest St., Marengo, was charged Thursday, Jan. 5, with domestic battery and interference with the reporting of domestic battery.
Karla San-Miguel, 27, 701 Lura Lane, Marengo, was charged Monday, Dec. 19, with retail theft under $150 and resisting a peace officer.
Raymond S. Liss, 30, 620 E. Grant Highway, Marengo, was charged Thursday, Sept. 1, with disorderly conduct and assault. Andrew O. Odegaard, 41, 1100 Briden Drive, Marengo, was charged Wednesday, Sept. 7, with disorderly conduct and unlawful use of a weapon.
David F. Macintyre, 43, 5320 Burma Road, Marengo, was charged Wednesday, Aug. 10, with domestic battery, obstructing a police officer, resisting a police officer, and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.
George Dion, 42 3O8 Tioga Trail, Marengo. was charged Friday, Aug. 12 with driving under the influence. Illegal transportation of alcohol, and disobeying an officer.
William A. Charles, 46, of 703 Ridge Drive, Marengo, was charged with aggravated domestic battery, aggravated battery, attempting to disarm a police officer, resisting a police officer, and unlawful use of a weapon.
Craig Pease, 26, 1100 Briden Drive, Apt. 7, Marengo, was charged Saturday, March 12, with driving under the influence, driving with a blood-alcohol content of more than 0.08 percent, resisting arrest, illegal transportation of alcohol, making an improper left turn, and driving without a front license plate.
Cory C. Reynolds, 18, of 9512 S. Route 23, Marengo, was charged with obstructing justice and obstructing a police officer.
Christopher R. Trent, 19, 620 E. Route 20, Apt. 6B, Marengo, was charged Wednesday, Oct. 27, with trespassing, criminal damage to property, and aggravated assault.
Jeremy S. Field, 25, 5151/2 Park Drive, Marengo, was charged Sunday, Oct. 31, with obstructing justice, driving with a suspended license, driving without insurance, and speeding.
Steven C. Lemans, 35, 6207 Route 23, Marengo, was charged Saturday, Sept. 4, with aggravated assault.
Louis Castillo, 19, 1022 North Ave., Belvidere, was charged Wednesday, Aug. 4, with resisting arrest and assault. Sunlee Castillo, 20, 1022 North Ave., Belvidere, was charged Wednesday, Aug. 4, with assault. Castillo also was arrested on a Boone County warrant for driving with a suspended license.
Louis Perez, 17, 122 E. Railroad St., Marengo, was charged Wednesday, Aug. 4, with assault.
Paul R. Peterson, 33, 716 North Hale St., Marengo, was charged Monday, July 19, with obstructing justice, possession of drug paraphernalia and no lights on bicycle after dark. He was arrested on outstanding warrants for driving under the influence and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Matthew J. Beaudoin, 18, 700 James Court, Marengo, was charged Sunday, July 4, with resisting a peace officer.
Jose Alfredo Herera-Soto, 29, 520 Eastwood Court, Woodstock, was charged Wednesday, June 30, with obstructing justice and driving without a valid license.
Alfonso Lopez, 18, 611 W. Grant Highway, Marengo, was charged Monday, May 31, with resisting a police officer. Lopez also was arrested on a McHenry County warrant for failure to appear in court.
Orest Gregory Hedio, 43, 403 Chappel St., Marengo, was charged Monday, May 24, with domestic battery and interfering with the reporting of domestic violence.
Luis Garcia, 29, 120 Mora St., Carpentersville, was charged Saturday, May 22, with driving under the influence, driving without a valid license, and resisting arrest.
Roque Jimenez, 21, 620 E. Grant Highway, Marengo, was charged Saturday, May 22, with obstructing a police officer and disorderly conduct.
Joshua D. Thomas, 17, 510 Sunset Drive, Marengo, was charged Wednesday, May 5, with operating an off-road motorcycle on the street and obstructing a police officer.
Brian K. Sargent, 34, 250 Telegraph St., Marengo, was charged Saturday, May 1, with driving under the influence, fleeing and eluding, resisting a police officer, driving with a revoked license, and permitting an unauthorized person to drive.
Jose Antonio Duran, 24, 611 E. Grant Highway, was charged Sunday, April 11, with possession of a fake ID, obstruction of a police officer, driving under the influence, driving without a valid license, and driving without insurance.
Adolfo Lorenzo, 18, 620 E. Grant Highway, Apt. 5C, Marengo, was charged Saturday, April 17, with driving under the influence, illegal transportation of alcohol, underage drinking, and obstructing a police officer.
Julio Cesar Guttierrez, 25, 2083 Stone Lake Road, Apt. 114, Woodstock, was charged Fri-day, April 2, with driving without a valid license, driving without insurance, driving a vehicle with a defective exhaust, and obstructing a police officer.

Perverted Justice

Here is an interesting website, run by people who don?t just talk about problems we share as a society, but actually try to solve them:
http://www.perverted-justice.com
The reason it is so interesting is because the people using this website and its forum try to catch pedophiles and child molesters. How? They sign on the forum, where the admins of the site then pick out a certain set of people who they think they want to help out in this project. The volunteers who were picked out then go on to chat rooms and sites for children and teenagers, and pretend to be an underage boy or girl. They do not contact anyone first, but wait for someone to solicit them. Often they get responses almost immediately, according to the introduction from the site admins. After they are contacted by a potential child molester, they chat with him and try to get him to solicit them, try to meet them, or anything else which can get the molester to commit himself to an illegal act with someone he thinks is 12 or 13 years old. After this, the people on this site follow up with phone calls and work closely with the police to apprehend the offenders. The offenders are then also listed on the site, which has hundreds of listings from across the country. There are also follow up actions that people can take by researching the offenders that are listed and contacting their family members, employers, and/or neighbors to let them know who they are dealing with and further insuring that the offender no longer goes on with his actions of soliciting minors online or elsewhere. In fact, this site is so big and popular, with literally hundreds of members, many who are on the forum all at once, that they are a deterrent for pedophiles using chat rooms to try to find young boys and girls. Those people just can never be sure who they are talking to!

Bad Decsions?

During the last year, I have watched the news and noticed that there was mine disaster after mine disaster. Most have involved some sort of explosion, where afterward people are trapped underneath in a mine without sufficient oxygen and with carbon monoxide rapidly building to dangerous levels while rescuers attempt to desperately conduct rescue efforts. The first such disaster ended well, with every miner getting out alive. The last couple were disastrous. Almost everyone died, and the person who did survive retained extensive brain damage. I am sure, everyone, like me, has wondered why this has been allowed to happen and what could have been done to prevent it.

Here is some interesting information on why mine disasters have become more common the last couple of years in the united states:

Bush had an interest in fostering a relationship with mining companies. Therefore he decreased fines for major violations. Of course. Companies are much more important that individual workers, their safety and their lives, their families.

The cases that involved safety violations were not handed over to the Treasury Department, so that they could be collected and evaluated, and this was allowed to happen without any fines or consequences.

A relationship was formed between the mining industry and the people who regulate it, also facilitated by the Bush administration. When the people who should be watching out for safety in the mining industry are working with the industry itself, it goes without saying that they will not be too careful in watching for errors that the mining industry makes and, again, will not correct those which have led to the latest disasters.

Gangs in Town?

Our town is a safe place. Or so it seems. Gangs, drugs, and murders are supposedly something that occurs in ghettos in a big city. However, a lot has changed and some of these problems have found their way home to Marengo.

Consider the problem of gangs. I have been asked the question over and over again: are there actual gangs in Marengo? I have always assumed there were not, as there are no drive- by shootings in Marengo or people in gang clothes hanging on street corners. However, recently, I have decided to reconsider the question. It has been reported to me that many of the kids in the high school and junior high dress in gang colors in order to try to impersonate a gang which is called the 13's. This is a very violent gang that is becoming better known. They use girls to recruit male members, who are then also expected to sleep with every member of the gang.

Now are the 13's, as people claim, really in our town? Or are kids trying to impersonate the 13's and pretend that they are part of a gang? I don't know for sure, but I think it is the latter. I have not heard of great violence in town, so I am assuming that kids think that they would like to be a member of this gang, and so dress and act accordingly.

Why is this a problem? Well, once kids start pretending that they are part of a gang and wanting to be in that particular gang several things might happen. One, they might start doing what their idols in the real gang are doing - mainly using drugs, advertising on walls by the use of graffiti, hurting others, having girls sleep with every member of the gang,etc. The other problem is that some members of the real 13's might come and recruit them. Or someone from a rival gang might hurt or kill someone from Marengo, because they are not aware that they are gang wannabee's, and instead mistake them for real 13's. Because of all these problems and issues, I think it is a very serious problem that our town and our school districts need to take more seriously.

What can parents do?

Well, first of all they can ask their children everyday:1. What happened today?2. Who were you with today?3. Whose house did you go to?4. If anyone got into a fight.5. Anything out of the ordinary happen?By communicating with a children everyday for 5 min a parent can see if they met new people and if those people that they met may be involved in a gang.

The other thing a parent can do is to go into their child's room in order to look for symbols or what the child is wearing, whether or not they are trying to wear the same color every day. Another indication is jewelry that is worn on the same side of the body every day or the way a hat is worn, forwards or backwards. Looking through their school books and notebooks for drawings and other type of graffiti drawings are other ways to see if your child is associated with a gang. Of course, my problem with this technique is that you are betraying the child's trust and right to privacy, and that it can only lead to problems later. So, I would not take actions such as looking through a child's personal effects unless it was absolutely necessary. I would also warn the child first that I was going to do this, and not do it secretly, as once that trust is broken, it would be very hard to get it back. The clothes that the 13 usually wear is pittsburg yellow and black. the number 13 or numbers that can be added together to make 13 like 58, 85, 31 for example are other indications, as well as symbols like the tear drop on the face or the three dots on one hand and one dot on another hand. Tattoos and the way children shake hands with others can also be an indication of gang affiliation, real or wannabe.
Police?

You all might be thinking, how do the police handle these gang issues? There are obviously drug problems in Marengo, but is there gang violence. Well, there are no murders, or it would be all over the papers. Gang killings in Chicago and the suburbs are generally not put in the papers to begin with, because it gives the murderers greater publicity and encourages yet more killings. However, we can safely assume that if someone was murdered in Marengo, it would be on the front page of the NW Herald. The Marengo Police would work hard to apprehend either the right or wrong suspect too, that I am also sure of. So, some of the more serious problems have not yet arrived in our town.

What did arrive is the graffiti. And here is what the police in town did to take care of this situation:

Last year, a crown along with some other graffiti was painted on the wall outside the Marengo Library. The library staff saw the graffiti when they got into work and immediately called the police. The police, including Sgt. Riley, did indeed show up. They took a report. As you all know, it was never discovered who did the graffiti, so the report must not have done a great deal of good. Then the library staff was told to immediately wash the graffiti off and to not talk to anyone about the incident or they would lose their jobs. This ensured that no one in town would be made aware of the graffiti or the gang problem and therefore get unduly alarmed by it.

So, this is how the Marengo police deal with the gang problem in general. They try to hide it instead of informing those in the community about its possible existence.

Ignorance is Bliss

Here is some more news from Fieldstone Place and the surrounding subdivisions. The County Board has passed the Henning Petition, which will involve the building of 210 new homes and will add over a hundred students to the Riley school district. They have passed this petition despite the Zoning Board of Appeals recommendations. They did not even so much as discuss the issue before voting on it and did not discuss at all the recommendations by the Zoning Board. To further explain, the Zoning Board of Appeals gives the County Board an insight into the impact a development would have. The County Board does not have to agree with the Zoning Board, but they should, however, rely heavily on the findings and recommendations of the Zoning Board. In this case they did not so much as even discuss it. Here were some of the findings:
The Zoning Board recommended that the Henning Petition be denied.
They sited that the area growing too fast would overwhelm residents.
There would be too many cars.
The schools could not take on that many more students.
There is not enough response from the fire district, which could also not take on all the new residences and if a house burns down because of that the Zoning Board could be sued.
The area is already overwhelmed.
The water system cannot handle new residents.
There is wetland on the site which is high quality.
There are already too many stresses on the electrical power in the area.
There are no studies on what effect this might have on other developments in the area.

What is interesting about this is that the County Board did not even discuss the issue or the recommendations. I can?t help but wonder if there might be some connection between those who sit on the Board and developers.

Censorship

This week an interesting event took place in the Huntley school district. The district decided to shut down the student newspaper, the Voice, because of an editorial that criticized board member Larry Snow. It goes without saying that this is a shocking act. It effects all of us. For one, what is going to happen now to other school and college newspapers in the Illinois area. They have Huntley as a precedent. If the Huntley school district can shut down their student newspaper, other schools and colleges can start doing so as well. Two, students will no longer be able to do any real reporting. They will not be able to learn to do what a real reporter does, which is to uncover wrongs and put them in writing so that everyone see just what is wrong. They will not be able to express their opinions on various matters, but will always worry about what to print for fear of losing their newspaper. This will lead to very low quality student newspapers which have articles that do not make others think, shock them, or test their perceptions of the world. Other students will then not care enough about the student paper to read it, as it would not have anything that is interesting and relevant to them. Last, what does the Huntley school district teach children in terms of values? Kids will go to government class and learn about our constitution and freedom of speech and the press. They will memorize it for a test. And then what happens? The school is teaching them that the constitution is fine in theory, but not in practice. It?s okay to learn about things like freedom of speech and freedom of religion and freedom of the press. But in reality people don?t value these ideals, since the school obviously has no consideration of this for their own students. It teaches the students that what is in the constitution is not important or practical and raises adults who will allow yet more of our freedoms to be taken away from us, since they are raised to obey authority and not think for themselves. What the Huntley school district started is pretty scary. Let us hope more people try to fight it.

February 2006

2006-02-14T06:46:00.000-06:00

Flatlanders

Out of all the places to eat in Marengo, this is by far my favorite. Not only because of the food, but for the cafe and coffee shop atmosphere. It's a great place to meet with someone, a good place to just sit and drink coffee and stare out the window. Altogether, a comforting place to be.
I am aware that Flatlanders opened sometime in 2004. At that time I was not too anxious to try it out, having been in other Marengo eateries and being busy with other matters on my agenda. However, last March, I needed a place to meet someone and was looking for a neutral type of cafe, one where I did not know anyone and no one knew me either. This place came to mind, as it was rather new and I was never in it before. Well, I didn't know it, but I was in for a real surprise. I picked a table and ordered a coffee, waiting patiently for the person I needed to meet to arrive. It is a very comfy place, the coffee is good, you can even choose a syrup to add into it. Or you can have a sandwich with homemade chips, something that even now I have strong craving for. Anyways, my surprise on that day was that it was NOT as nuetral as I had previously thought. As soon as the person I wanted to meet arrived, Mayor Hammortree took over the table at the front. It was right before elections and more officials soon poured in with scary regularity. In the end, the candidate for the next Mayor, Lockhart, was sitting practically at the table next to mine.
Well, this was indeed quite an experience and I obviously resolved never to go back there and to pick a different spot. However, something about the place always pulled me back in. The food was just too good. There were homemade pastries to enjoy with a fresh cup of coffee that I could always get a refill on. There were different syrups to try, the sandwiches were very good, especially the portobella mushroom one, and, usually, I greatly dislike vegetables. The best part about it, though, after that pre-election day, was the quiet. There are cooking magazines one could leaf through and watch people walk on the street. Usually, whoever was sitting there used hushed voices to talk. It is a very peaceful place to relax. I'd recommend it to whoever hasn't tried it to go early in the morning, when the cafe first opens. At lunch, it tends to get very busy.

MARENGO EXPO 2006

The Marengo Expo is usually a pretty interesting experience. There are new businesses no one has ever heard of to explore, the police dog for kids to question, cops to talk to, firefighters with all sorts of things to examine at their table, lots of coloring books to take home, and politicians whose manuels there are for everyone to read. Altogether, its usually a pretty adventurous event for those living 20 miles away from anything more exciting.
How was it this year?
Well, it was smaller. Not so many booths or politicians. Probably because the elections are not coming up. Not as many interesting freebies. Mostly just candy, coloring books for kids, and pens wrapped around cards. Though one vendor DID have interesting homemade horse treats that were apparently home made. And not as many interesting people either. Oh, there was the fire dept booth with its burned up object to ask questions about Marengo fire hats to take, and there was a Sheriffs department booth, and a Marengo Police Booth. But gone was the dog and handler. Of course. There were also an apparent absence of cops at the police booth. Instead it was manned by Mike Bighalke, who, from my understanding, had retired from doing volunteer work with the Marengo Police. I guess not enough so as not to man the booth. In any case, he was nowhere as interesting to talk to as a real Marengo cop would have been, since he clearly isn't one. The Veterans' booth, of course, did not have Jack Genot with his medals there this year. Also a loss, since he had regaled many a person in times of the past with his interesting, though false, stories.
What was left? Well...
Several boring businesses, such as real estate agencies, insurance agencies, and other such associations. They had cards, pens, and an ambitious sales person at their tables. Also, weird products to buy, such as phamplets on herbs and massages and such. The star attraction? Mayor Lockhart standing on the sidelines and conversing with people. Well, people he know, in any case.

THE NEW CRISES?

We have all heard that America uses too much oil. It's a sad fact of American life that we are absolutely dependent on gasoline. We drive large cars and SUVs and use more oil than any other country. We have also all heard that eventually this will cause some consequences for us. But many people refuse to believe it. Here are some statistics.
In the 1950's professor King Hubbert predicted that oil consumption would peak and then demand would outgrow supply. As we can see by the abundance of gas stations, as well as the vehicles we drive, he was not taken seriously. Professor Hubbard's predictions said that oil production would reach a peak in the 1970's and that world global oil production would peak around the year 2000. Then..something scary would happen. Demand for gasoline would outgrow the supply. There would not BE enough gasoline for people to buy. This is actually a lot scarier than meets the eye. Because oil, in other words petroleum, isn't only used for gasoline in cars, it is also a fertilizer for farms. Imagine what this could do to the price of food? Even to the availability of food?
If you don't believe it, and think this is some sort of scare tactic or fairy tale, take a look at these statistics:
http://www.geohive.com/charts/charts.php?xml=en_cons&xsl=en_cons
The US uses more oil than any other country. Not just a little more, but it greatly exceeds the use of other countries. No other country uses even half as much oil as the US.
Look at this website to see how much profit the oil companies pull off:
http://www.geohive.com/charts/charts.php?xml=ec_corp50p&xsl=ec2
It's pretty scary, isn't it? What is going to happen when the demand overcomes supply? To our economy? Our food supply? Our ability to get to work? According to these statistics, we are well on the way to this happening in the near future.

THE NEXT EPIDEMIC

I'm sure we have all heard on the news or read in the papers about the bird flu. A flu that is deadly is spread from infected poultry to their handlers, who then become very ill and die. It is a very scary disease that has now spread to Europe.
However, I believe most people do not take it as seriously as it should be taken. Sure, we read the articles and watch the news. Then we usually sigh and think "sure, one more disaster to worry about." and go on with our business. In other words, we lump it in our minds with just one more piece of disturbing news, but not something that has anything to do with us personally or that could potentially be something we would have to deal with in the near future.
Here are some scary truths that might change our minds: In 1918 the flu was deadly. It is not something many people think about now, but it is believed that in that one year the flu killed one out of seven to one out of four people, most of them children, teenagers, and young adults. Military bases had so many people sick and so many funerals, they did not know what to do with the bodies, schools were closed, people stayed off the streets for fear of getting the flu. Of course, to us the Flu of 1918 is just history. Something to forget. But it doesn't stop there. Frozen bodies dug up from Alaska of the flu of 1918 victims revealed, long before these bird flu epidemics even came about, more than 10 years before, that the flu of 1918 was caused by an Avian type of flu. In other words, bird flu that mutated to pass from person to person as easily as regular flu. The same bird flu that has spread to Europe and might, even this year or next year, cause the mutation of the virus that will cause an another flu of 1918.
This is more scary than meets the eye. Most people know nothing about 1918 or what the world went through. Most people simply go about their lives and don't care. That is until it hits THEM. Imagine, a widespread flu that kills people. In 1918 everyone knew someone who had died from the flu that year. It could be a child or a relative or a teacher or a neighbor. But almost every person knew someone who had died. That is how scary the bird flu could become.

DRUGS: "In Our Own Backyard"

There has been a lot of recent talk in our town about the drug situation. Just last year a couple and their baby were arrested in the parking lot of McDonald?s for selling drugs to an undercover cop. There has also been a lot of talk about the "drugs in town", and supposedly, this was what the police dog was acquired for in the first place, so that it could sniff for drugs. Of course, the dog was not very useful in this regard and is gone now, but that was the idea.
So, I have to ask, what are the police doing about the drug situation in our town? As badly as a lot of the officers have acted, I would have assumed at the very least they would be competent enough to deal with this situation. Now, I have found out that this is not the case at all. The police in our town have acted in a manner that can only lead us to conclude that they are either do not care about getting drugs off our street and putting the real criminals, not just innocent people, in jail, or they are getting kickbacks themselves from the drug dealers.
Certain persons, whose names I will not mention, have had experiences with drugs and drug dealers in our town. These persons have been aware of drug dealers in the Northside Tap selling drugs to various people, they have had drug dealers break into their house, break their windows and vandalize their property. They have been actually aware of drugs changing hands and have informed certain police officers of this. And each time they informed the police nothing was done. No one was arrested, the situation was ignored. The only thing the police did was take the complaint and leave. They had all the information at their disposal, even the names of the people involved in selling drugs and committing vandalism. Yet they did not arrest those people.
This leads us to ask several questions. For one, who were the officers involved in these incidents? The answer is rather surprising. Mostly Scott Crawford and Kelly Given. But also Officer Bass. I am not sure if the last one was actually involved in this as much as the former two, as these incidents were reported to them exclusively. This should lead us to a lot of thinking and wondering. Why? Well, we can?t assume anything, but somehow, we could think about what these officers were doing if they time and again did not report the incidents, did not go and arrest the drug dealers, did not deal with the vandalism. They may indeed have been very incompetent, but it is far more likely that they have been going around town and getting kickbacks from the drug dealers, making their own deals, maybe even using and selling the drugs themselves. Why else not report the drug dealers, not arrest them, but instead know that the situation is going on and yet do nothing? Of course, it can be argued that the first two officers are no longer working for the police department. But, think about the damage they have done during all the years that they let drugs be sold in our town and yet did nothing to deal with the situation other than the arrests made one time at the Northside Tap and a few other times in different town locations. How about all the drug dealers who are out there selling drugs to our children because these officers did not make the arrests they were supposed to make, going after innocent people instead? How about the people who were harassed by the drug dealers while this situation was allowed to go on?
And, I have to ask, last, about the Chief? Could he not see what was going on in his department? Why did he permit this situation to continue unabated and not do anything about the officers involved who were busy falsely arresting innocent people and letting those who they needed to go after get away with dealing drugs? As far as I see it, he is responsible for making the drug situation in our town worse by not disciplining and/or firing Crawford and Given while they were busy filing false reports and making deals with drug dealers in our town.

Trucks!

Now, I?ve heard truck horror stories again and again all the time that I?ve lived in Marengo. A long time back a ten year old boy was struck by a truck and severely brain damaged. Then a year or so ago, a woman opened her car door while parked on Rt.23 near the Marengo Café and had her door ripped off by a fast moving semi, which did not even so much as stop after the incident, but kept on going, apparently not having noticed or simply not caring. As for myself, there was many a times when I?ve tried to cross Rt.23 to get to the other side, only to be unable to do so due to the endless traffic. Also, the trucks driving past the street move at such a fast clip, they scare the bejesus out of anyone attempting to take a walk along main street.
Now, supposedly, there was Otis?s talk of a truck bypass before the elections. It was such a big deal that it even made it into the papers. There were supposed to be plans in the offing that Dorothy Otis was to try to put into effect that would involve the attainment of federal funds to build a truck bypass so that the semis and large trucks would no longer pass through Marengo. As far as I can see, none of this has been put into effect or even started. Of course, even I got to admit that it was an overly ambitious plan that would probably be very hard to put into reality. Also, Otis was not the one who was elected Mayor. But the situation is out of control, people say. Trucks are everywhere! They?re passing through the whole town!
This, of course, leads me to a question. So what? Is it really that big of a deal that Marengo is in the middle of truck traffic. Yeah, it is dangerous and a pain in the behind besides, to have all these big trucks passing nonstop. But, seriously, how many people have gotten injured or into accidents due to these trucks? Compared to the total number of people who are injured in other accidents around the Marengo area? My guess is, the numbers are just not that large. Its not that big of a deal. Yes, they are annoying. But look how many serious problems Marengo has? What?s truck traffic compared to that?

Corruption

There is something truly wrong with the judicial system in our county. I am sure all who read the Gazette also read the message board, so they can see some of the articles that are posted that indicate this. But it?s a lot more than that. It goes down to the very marrow of how the court system works in McHenry County. Here are some examples I personally know of, which illustrate some of it:

1. Someone, I?m not going to say who, drives five miles over the speed limit and gets a traffic ticket for doing so. A minor thing, but I guess they broke the law, so no complaint there. They go to court. What?s there? Why, tons and tons of people for traffic tickets. Most for really small, stupid offenses, like sitting too long at a traffic light or not making a left turn in the right place. Clearly, little towns here are looking to raise money.
Well, that?s still sort of alright. But then this person, who took a day off work to go to court, decides to plead not guilty. Well, you see, its not that easy. Your not supposed to do that. Because if you do, then they tell you that they?ll set up an another whole date for you to go to court, so then you?ll miss an another day of work. So, what do you see? Everyone, almost no exception, pleads guilty to their traffic ticket. Even those who don?t feel they did anything wrong.

2. Someone else has a teenager who was falsely accused of trespassing into someone?s yard. He decides to plead not guilty and, in fact, the owner of the yard drops all charges and will not go to court. So, he arrives in court with his parent. The prosecutor comes up to him and asks him how he?ll plead. Not guilty. Of course. The prosecutor then starts warning the young man that he?d better take a plea bargain and just get off with a small fine, otherwise if he is found guilty it will be much worse. The young man?s parent intervenes and says they will plead not guilty and explains that the owner didn?t even show up in court. The prosecutor practically insists the young man should still plead guilty. They plead not guilty, sure enough there?s no owner, and the charges are dropped. However, the parent stays a while to watch the system at work. Person after person goes up and pleads guilty after being told by the prosecutor that they HAVE TO do so or it will be much worse. Most of the other young people there do not have a parent with them and are not aware they even had a choice, which is what the parent finds out afterward after talking to a few of them. Many also had cases where they did nothing wrong, and no one showed up for the complaint, yet because the prosecutor insisted there would be dire consequences unless they plead guilty, they go and do so.

3. Finally, the police. There are many cases of police misconduct in McHenry County. Police falsely arrested and interrogated a teenage boy in Crystal Lake last year and forced a confession out of him for a crime he did not do. It didn?t get far from that point because as soon as the boy left the interrogation where he falsely confessed, he committed suicide. Later on the real culprit was found by the police. Then there?s police who stop people as a form of revenge in Marengo, and those related to them or visiting them. Which is clearly a form of police abuse. Add this in to the other factors, and they are a picture of corruption rivaled in few places

January 2006

2006-01-23T06:58:00.000-06:00

Well Situation:

Drinking water is something that many people take for granted. In most small and large towns in the US, people consider the water they drink safe. If it happens not to be safe, they assume that whoever is in charge will inform them so that they can then boil their water or obtain it from other sources. Can we trust those in office responsible for our health and safety to inform us of this in Marengo? Or will they simply sweep the problem under the rug, as they had with the police matters and other things that have come up over the years?
Recently the EPA tested 20 Marengo homes and has found that the lead in the water is 9 parts per billion higher than it is supposed to be. What does the City say about this little problem? Do those in charge of the situation warn people that this might be a problem? Do they even consider it to be a problem themselves? Nope. Apparently, they think that the problem is caused by lead in the pipes of the homes and that there's nothing to worry about for people. It's just lead pipes. Never mind that 20 homes have been tested by the EPA and, seeing that it was a random sample, they could not all possibly have old lead pipes. In fact, there are quite a few newly built houses in Marengo and many of the other ones, which are not new, were built after the 1940's, when lead was no longer used. So, it seems irresponsible for people who should be watching out for our welfare and taking care of this situation to simply dismiss the EPA's concern and not even explore the issue any further.
Why is this issue with the water of such concern?
This is one of the findings of the EPA concerning Marengo's water supply and well situation: "The system's source water is highly susceptible to Volatile Organic Chemical (VOC) and Synthetic Organic Chemical (SOC), based on the detection of VOCs in one of the wells and an inventory of existing land use within the well recharge area. VOCs and SOCs are byproducts of industrial processes and petroleum production. Possible sources include gas stations, urban storm water runoff, and septic systems."
The wells in Marengo, in other words, are located near industrial sources and factories, as anyone who has passed the well on Prospect Rd. can see. Because of this, chemicals tend to get into the drinking water in town. As you see, VOCs, Synthetic and Organic chemicals, have already been found before in the town's water supply. These are things like petroleum, lead, various bacteria like e-coli, etc. Now, the water has been tested yet again, and the EPA finds much higher levels of lead. So, I have to ask: what is being done about this? Why, we are told it is safe! Of course, why wouldn't it be?

Cupola House:

Now, the Cupola House is by far one of Marengo's more interesting landmarks. It has a fascinating history. Christopher Sponable was one of the first settlers of Marengo. He owned the land that the Cupola House was built on. Charles Hibbard bought the land from Sponable and built the house on it in 1846. He also owned the first hardware store in Marengo, the firm of Hibbard, Spenser, and Bartlett. Spenser, as you may recall, is Calvin Spenser, the founder of our town. So, its interesting to note that Charles Hibbard was a business partner of Calvin Spenser. Calvin Spenser himself has a lot of mystery and suspicion surrounding him, including what part he may have played in the early settlement of the town, the many people who died that first winter, and various fires that have ravaged the town during the first two years. As many of you may recall, the first school burned down, then the next school that was built, as well as other such occurrences, including the first college that was constructed and opened.
The ownership of the house, has, of course, changed over the years. During the Civil War, the Cupola House was used as a safe house for slaves escaping from the South. When the light in the top window was lit, it meant that it was safe to stop there (I suppose when the light was not lit, it meant that the earlier equivalent of Mayor Lockhart might catch whoever was housing slaves and get them in lots of trouble). There are also supposed to be underground passages running beneath the house, for slaves to escape through. This is very interesting, to see where those passages might go to, as in the 1970's, the basement of a house located 3 houses down was dug up and human bones were found. However, I must say that I never saw any passages at all that might lead from the basement of the house.
The most curious part of this is what became of this house. It's been standing empty since 1956, when Jane Stanford's niece, Mary Stanford Muzzy, inherited it. She has never lived in the house, but left it just the way it was and moved to California. Therefore, the house has since been standing empty and is in disrepair. It appears to be of no use to her, yet she does not sell it or donate it to the City. In return for various complaints about the house, its been painted an ugly white and the trees surrounding it have been chopped down. No one seems to understand why, other than that I have heard that it is some sort of revenge by the niece for something her aunt did.

Our Best and Worst for Marengo and surroundings 2005

Best Restaurant: The best restaurant that I've discovered this year in Marengo is the State Street Pub. I am sure everyone knows where it is, but for those who don't, its on State Street and has no sign, just a storefront with pool tables inside. There is also a restaurant section, which has the best Nachos I have ever found in any restaurant yet. They are loaded with cheese and gound beef, and are ten times more than a reasonable person can be expected to eat. They also have great sandwiches and patty melts and the prices are very reasonable.

Best Hotdogs: Hotdogs made at home and oven baked fries. Same as before. I have not found a hot dog stand where they are better than at home in Marengo. If you want to venure further, into Crystal Lake, though, you will find Mister A's on Rt.14, which has not so bad hot dogs and great chili fries.

Best Movie: Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

Best Movie Rental Place: Video Town. They are friendly and have many suggestions to offer you if you can't make up your mind which movie you would like to watch. And you can keep the movies for several days straight.

Best Fast Food: I don't know. I think I'll still say it's the McDonalds in town. I like their coffee and they have a toy with every kids meal. Fast food isn't tasty or healthy at any rate, no matter how much you can try to pretend otherwise. If you are going to eat it, a McDonalds probably beats most other places. At least you know what to expect.

Best Book: Barbara Ehrenreich's "Bait and Switch" and "Nickel and Dimed". This is a new author which I've discovered and who explores the injustices and moral problems in our culture. She explores by going undercover what it takes to make it in both low income jobs and middle class job searching. Very interesting reading.

Best Event: The Groundhog Day celebration in Woodstock. Each year on February 2nd the whole town celebrates the long forgotten movie with Bill Murray that was made there in 1984. You can gather around the square and watch the groundhog, whose name is Woodstock Willie, forecast the weather. Then you can take a free tour of all the houses and restaurants that were used in the movie or you can watch Groundhog Day for free at the theater. There's even an actor or two from the movie itself who walks around and greets people all day!

Best Magazine: I'd say this year, the best magazine I've found appears to be "Cooks", which shows you how to achieve perfection in various recipes in each issue.

Best World News Event: I haven't seen too many events to be that pleased about. There's still the war on Iraq, the President has been secretely spying on different organizations, many jobs are outsouced overseas, there was a hurricane that destroyed a city. The best news I can think of is that Camp Algonquin opened its doors to hurricane Katrina survivors and gave them a temporary home. Best Area Library: Rockford Library. They are extremely large, the staff is friendly, and there's an interesting used book store that faces the street. Also, bins are set up throughout the library where used books can be bought for a quarter each, even hardbacks. The only downside is that parking is only found across the street, which entails many street crossings and dodging of cars, as well as being out in the cold.

Best Entertainment: I guess it must be snowmobiling this year!

Best Grocery Store: The Super Walmart in Belvidere. They are large and inexpensive.

Best Hiking: I think it will always be The Ridge, since it is part of an actual forest.

Best Antiques: I don't go antiquing. But, from people who do, The Woodstock Antique Mall, hasa huge selection and some of the best prices.

Best Winery: Prairie State in Genoa. Try their Kishwaukee Special Edition. It's very good.

Best Whiskey: Knob Creek. It's authentic and very good.

Best Park: Emricson Park, in Woodstock. They have a pond, various playgrounds, a tobogganing hill and even an ice rink.

Best Deli: Even with Wayne's Market open, I still like the lunchmeat from Wisteds the best. They are fresh and inexpensive.

Best Church: I won't even go there. Whichever one I choose, someone in town will rip my head off.

Best Newspaper: The Rockford Star. That doesn't mean I don't like the Northwest Herald. I do. They have a good letters section, interesting editorials, and a fun entertainment page. But look at all the coupons and sale ads you get in the Star every Sunday! The Herald can't beat that.

Best Mall: Spring Hill. You can come there early in the morning, to walk around and get a fresh coffee, before the stores are all open and all the crowds arrive.

Best Neighborhood: Okay, we're talking Marengo here. I'd say West Washington and West Prairie streets. They have enormous, historical homes. Just walking through there is a trip back in time to the late 1880's and early 1900's.

Most Mysterious: The Cupola House. Didn't you see how they repainted it and boarded up all the windows just so they wouldn't have to sell it? Who has seen the inside of that place after 1939 anyway? What do they have to hide? Best Local Attraction: Downtown Rockford. It's a little, sort of like being downtown Chicago. Except its easy to get to and easy to park. But there's a combination of thrift stores, tall buildings, the river, and little interesting cafes and stores. Worth exploring.

Best Coffee: This year, its Flatlanders. Very good coffee, friendly people, peace and quiet to enjoy your coffee and read one of the free food magazines lying around, and even various syrups and coffee drinks to try.

Best Service: Flatlanders.

Most Scenic Drive: Kishwaukee Valley Road, from Deerpass Road.

I figured that if you are going to find out about the best things in our area, you might as well also know about the worst. I happen to like our area, so this list is quiet a bit smaller.

Worst Restaurant: The Sunset Café in Walworth Wisconsin. The food is terrible.

Worst Hotdogs: Camphouse Grill. The prices are high and the food is to greasy.

Worst Movie: Shark Boy and Lava Girl 3D. Nothing worse.

Worst Fast Food: How about Taco Bell. The food is greasy, spicy, fatty, you name it. There are no kids' toys with any meals. There are no decent desserts. On top of that, it always gives me a stomach ache the next day.

Worst World News Event: I don't even know where to start. President Bush taking actions to take away our freedoms, the war in Iraq still going on, Hurrican Katrina and our government's actions.

Worst Library: Yes, there is such a thing. Try the Harvard Library if you don't believe me.

Worst Entertainment: Cutting off a Grinch's head during the Christmas holidays.

Worst Park: The one in Union that's right between two busy roads. There's a tiny police station in the back of it on one side, houses across one of the streets, and absolutely no room for the kids to play.

Worst Deli: Woodman's, in Lake in the Hills. All the meats are pre-cut and put out into the open. The work are is filthy and the meats and cheeses are pre-sliced very thickly.

Worst Town Event: Why, its the doings of the MPD! Of course. Need I say more?

Worst Local Attraction: Dinorex. Anywhere you go, there's crowds of people waiting to run you down, the rides are boring and overpriced, the food terrible, and its not hardly worth it to play a video game for 50 to 75 cents a try, only for your child to win a prize hardly worth a quarter. I think a place like that shows kids that its more important to consume things and buy things rather than to think and enjoy life.

Worst Coffee: Try any IHOP. They serve it in a little pot on your table and it's never fresh or even warm. For second worst, try Bakers Square. Worst Scenic Drive: Bunker Hill Road. In the winter, it's salty, bumpy, and downright dangerous.

Gift House on Grant:

Here is an interesting store that opened recently on Rt.20, West of Rt.23. It's called Gifts on Grant. At first glance, it looks just like any other trinket and gift store, such as the one inside Brandts. You know the kind I mean. Little statues, frames with hearts, cards, jokes, things of that nature. But this store is actually very different. It has as much in common with your ordinary gift store as a cow does with a Chevy Suburban.
Inside this one is actual art that has been crafted locally. Some of the artists whose works are inside are Norwegian Rosemaling, Tim Linden's paintings of scenes that are found on the way from Marengo to Rockford, and Tim Piffner's pottery. All local. All original. There are also soups, soaps, various interesting items, such as chess sets and a huge oriental elephant, as well as candles and even rum flavored peanuts (I tasted a few, they were very good, you could really taste the liquor). Among these is the art that is for sale. It isn't the cheap, crafty type of work usually found at craft fairs and garage sales. These are works that are by real artists whose work can be found in various McHenry County art galleries. They are not cheap, but affordable, and well worth the price.
The most interesting part of this store, though, is the back room. The artist Tim Piffner will be teaching pottery classes there, once it is all set up. I think it is pretty fascinating that Marengo will have an actual local artist teach classes right here in town. Very unique and unusual. I don't think there's a store that's quite like this one in the whole town.

Here's something to think about this New Year's Day. It is a good example of how people in our country think. Viagra had a New Years campaign advertising their product. I guess people object to that. Why? Well, it encourages unprotected sex! Isn't that something? An advertisement for a product for older men to use is considered offensive, just in case some older man might see the ad and, unable to think for himself, go to his doctor in order to get Viagra, just so he can have unprotected sex on New Years' Eve. It sort of reminds me of an email I got from someone on the message board, complaining that we were promoting vandalism in town because we did not advise someone who had their holiday decorations slashed to go to the police. Our culture in this country seems to be heading toward much too overprotectiveness. It is almost as if we are admitting that people no longer think for themselves and that government therefore needs to think for us.

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Here is something yet more interesting......... We think we live in a nation where people believe in freedom. Yet, when people in our country see or hear of something controversial, they want to put an end to it and stomp those freedoms into the ground. Look at the all the laws we have enacted that curtail our freedom to live life as we see fit. We have seat belt laws forcing us to wear seat belts, even though if we don't, it won't hurt anyone other than oursleves. We have laws preventing gay couples from marrying, even though that's none of our business. We got laws preventing sales and distribution of pornography, drugs, etc. Supposedly the laws are enacted to protect us. But who do they really protect, since both pornography and drugs are still out there? They just infringe on our rights to use those items at our discretion. After all, we are all born with a brain in our head. Surely, we should have a right to decide if things that aren't good for us, yet do no one else any harm, are something we should partake of!
What is interesting about this is that people in our country think that we have the most freedom and he least restrictive laws and ways of thinking. How true is this? Consider Sweden, for instance. Young people in their country have developed a new trend. Wearing openly anti-Christian jeans. What would the pastors, ministers and right wing Republicans say in our country, if this were to happen here? I imagine they would not only condemn the trend, but attempt to enact laws that would prevent either manufacturing of such jeans or the selling of them in stores. Sure, it would seem like no one's rights are infirnged on, since it wouldn't be illegal to buy them. But if such laws are enacted, they would just no longer be available. Even if no laws are enacted, the political "incorrectness" of such jeans and the outrage by the church leaders and the Right, would be sure to effect the maufacture and sales of such jeans. But, the results would be the same. They would no longer be available to consumers and a little of our freedom would then be lost.
What was the response to this in Sweden? The Director of the largest church in Sweden, the Lutheran Church, was qouted saying this: "It is abundantly clear that this designer wants to create public opinion against the Christian faith,...but I believe that the way to deal with this is to start a discussion about what religion means." Now, I ask, isn't this kind of attitude something that religious leaders and others in this country have a lot to learn from?

COMMUNITY OF HATE

Like the rest of you, I have read and seen the photos of the desecration of the statues of the Fraternite of Notre Dame monastery. I also wonder whether it was a teenager or an adult who did such a terrible deed. It seems that the racial slurs written and the way the face of the statue was ruined indicated a silly prank. On the other hand, the monastery has encountered quite a bit of resistence from the nearby community of Fieldstone. Could it have been an adult who did this? No one, including the police, seems to have a clue. However, I personally consider that the monastery is right. This act is a direct result of the resistance the monastery has encountered from the people in their community. Filedstone is a subdivision outside of Marengo. It is fairly isolated and contains large, expensive houses, most in the $300,000 range. It is a pricey, exclusive community, at least compared to how most other people live in Marengo. The houses are larger, with more land, than even those that are located in Doral Ridge. The Fraternite of Notre Dame monastery wanted to buy the property on Harmony Hills Rd. and Church road in order to build a convent, a church, a retreat house, a bakery, a print shop, and a cemetary. In and of itself, this was an excellent location for a monastery. It is private, isolated, and out in the country next to other farms. The nuns who would live in this place would not have been a threat to anybody. In fact, having them there would add a lot culturally to the community. How many people know of an actual monastery that they could visit? It would make good sense that they would be welcomed with interest and excitement. After all, it would provide a chance to see something that is rarely seen in the modern world, that has mostly disappeared. A chance to learn about an another religion, or even the same religion for those who are Catholic. A chance to teach children who might live in the subdivision of Fieldstone something of history and culture.
Is this how the people of Fieldstone viewed this monastery? Did they make them feel welcome? Not at all. Bob Wojcik, who lives in the nearby subdivision of Raven Hills, and Rob and Laurie Cisneros, decided to put together a petition to have the monastery banned from buying the land. They apparently cared little about the cultural or educational values the monastery might represent. His main worry was money. See, the monastery would be taking land away from something like a shopping mall or yet more cookie cutter expensive houses. THOSE would pay taxes. The monastery would not. In their petition he mentions how many houses the monastery wants to put up, how much traffic this will cause, that they won't be paying any taxes, and that they are are some sort of cult or sect, and not a real religion at all! Now, to say that these claims are ridiculous and just meant to rile people up for this selfish and inconsiderate cause, shouldn't even be worth saying. How big is a few houses, a cemetary, and a bakery? Would they really get into anyone's way. I remember it being mentioned that trucks would come in and out of the monastery, causing great traffic increases. Trucks!? For a small bakery and a print shop run by a few nuns? What would be in the trucks, boxes of flour and yeast? Its a ridiculous notion to even suggest that. Unless they meant that the trucks would be bringing dirt or caskets into the cemetary? Or paper for the print shop?
Is the monastery a sect? Of course not! They may not have full Vatican approval and be seperate, but that is the case for most Catholic monasteries. They are as Catholic as many people living in Marengo. They do God's work. Here is their website: . Take a look. The main monastery in Chicago has been extremely active in helping various people, has helped in Hurricane Katrina with aid and people being sent down there, and is an accepted Catholic organization. The church in the monastery is a CATHOLIC church. Do Bob Worcik and the Cisneros consider themselves Christian? Do they go to church on Sunday but yet on other days try to pass petitions to prevent a Christian church and organization from building in their neighborhood? How can they look themselves in the mirror?
It gets worse. Rob and Laurie Cisneros wrote letters to various members of the community, asking them to write to others, go door to door in order to gather support against this monastery. No one thought how hurtful their actions are, what cultural opportunities the monastery represents, even if it does not make any money for the community, or how this might effect the adults and teenagers in this community, how children and teens would hear this monastery discussed in a derogatory manner in their homes and that this might later translate into some sort of action. Why, what these people have done represent a strong political action. Something I myself have tried and failed in my attempts to gather support for the Gaughans. No one wants to correct things that are wrong in this community. But they will take active stands and get off their behinds to take actions against a peaceful monastery for the sake of money and taxes. This is a shame to our community as a whole.
Just to end this, here are some of the names of those actively involved in trying to keep the monastery from building. They are therefore at least partly morally responsible for both the desecration and for these nuns feeling safer in a ghetto in Chicago (Central Ave.) then in a rural community of Marengo:
Bob Hill ; Bob Burckle ; Bob Wojcik ; Dan Hammortree ; David Plencner ; Dian Cenar ; Donna/Dennis Bell ; Fred Becker ; George Kostels ; George Mazurek ; Irv/Marianne Schirmer ; Jack Cusimalo ; Joe Miceli ; John/Judy Link ; Joyce Kawa ; Judean Becker ; Kelly Haeflinger ; Lea Damisch ; Malaker, Don (IL14) ; Mary Hanner ; Noreen Shambo ; Peggy Dyar ; Ray Barajas ; Ray McMullen ; Richard Bell ; Robert Musial ; Robert Witt ; Scott/Malisa Vanderwest ; Valerie Vandell

A Personal Agenda

I am continually surprised at the way many people think. Here are some interesting attitudes that I have noticed aimed at a variety of town issues: "Every issue has both sides to it. The truth is always in the middle. Both sides cannot both be right or both wrong" - This seems to be a thought process that serves people well when looking at subjects such as history, sociology, philosophy, and other such disciplines. When you think deeply about those subjects and consider many points of view, then the truth indeed comes out to be somewhere in the middle and no one seems wrong or right. There's a real problem with that, though. Such thinking is great when one is in college, but not so great when it comes to issues of right and wrong. When somebody is treated unfairly, the truth is not 'somewhere in the middle'. Think of Nazi Germany. This is like saying neither the Jews nor the Germans were right. It was wrong of the Germans to exterminate the Jews, but it was also wrong of the Jews to annoy the Germans and cause them to do it. A person who thinks that way only thinks intellectually. They are not willing to take a stand and show enough courage to fight what is wrong in our town and beyond.
"Everyone thinks the same way I think. Therefore I am right." - I've noticed this attitude in some of the replies I have recieved concerning the monastery article. "Most people in Marengo" are against the monastery, therefore whoever it is thinks their attitude toward the monastery is right since other people share it. In other words, if everyone says that something is right, then it is! There's no reason to think for yourself, we only need to look at what others around us think in order to judge what is right and wrong. If everyone thinks something is so, why then it must be that way!
"Something is true because its always been this way." Well, I guess so. There's always been the sky, and the town and the trees. So, its true that they do exist. And...there's always been poverty, and crime, and unfairness. There's always been things going on that are truly wrong. It's always been this way. Does that mean we have to accept them and not do anything to work to change them?
"Those in authority are almost always right because they are the ones in authority, and if they got this way somehow then they must automatically know what the right thing to do is. Therefore we must trust them." This is great when those in authority truly know what they are doing and look out for our welfare and well being. It is okay when they sort of know what they are doing and, while not caring for our well being, at least follow the law. But what about times when those in authority blatantly break the law. Does that mean they are still right, just because of whatever jobs they have or office they hold?
"I vote Republican (or Democrat) because I agree with this or that in their point of view. Therefore I will support my party of choice no matter what actions they choose to undertake." Many people do not think past what political party they support. If those Republicans are against abortion and you are against abortion, then its also alright whatever war they support, what they do with jobs overseas, and whatever a Republican President does. After all, he says he stands for the family, so whatever else is done by him or his party is something that we must agree with too. Just because one thing is true about something, whether its a political party or anything else, it doesn't mean that everything else you assume about that is true as well.
"God will take care of the evil in the world. Therefore we need not worry." -Of course, God is capable of taking care of all people and situations. However, I myself have noticed that HE doesn't always choose to do so. So, we cannot assume that just because something is wrong or unfair, that we don't have to worry about it, since God will make everything right and punish the offenders in some other lifetime. We need to have the courage to take actions to right these types of situations ourselves.
"We must watch out for our own family. Anything that doesn't have to do with ourselves or our own families has nothing to do with us and is not of our concern." Yes, we must indeed watch out for ourselves and our own family. But if we ignore others who might need our help or support, we are being very selfish. Yes, your family is important, but Marengo is made up of many, many people who ignore the situations of others and refuse to even so much as sympathize or offer any help, simply because it has nothing to do with themselves and their own. We no longer watch out for anyone other than ourselves. And think of the message that this passes on to your own children. They see their parents being concerned only with their own immediate family, therefore they learn to be selfish themselves.
"The town of Marengo is friendly. It's the people who live there who make it unfriendly." - I'm not even going to comment on this one!

Cupola House Revisited
By Museumlover

It was interesting to read about the Cupola House in the last issue. I wanted to correct some things and add more detail to the story. One important item is that the house has not been vacant since 1956, but since 1980. The house was built By Charles Hibbard, mentioned. He married Jane Marie Osborne and they had six children, all born during the Civil War. Mr. Hibbard moved into the house in 1847. The house is an exact replica of Hibbard's childhood home, with 14 rooms, built at a cost of about $16,000. The upstairs has six bedrooms, a long hall, back staircase and a bath. The first floor has two back bedrooms, believed to have been used for servant's quarters. Hibbard was an abolitionist and the Hibbard house was long been called a stop on the Underground Railway. The house was actually built with an underground room located in the yard with a secret entrance near the front porch. Charles Hibbard died in Lawson, MO, in 1872.
The next owner was Joseph Dietz. He and his wife owned the home from 1874 until 1896. Dietz came to Marengo from New York and married Caroline Sponable, the first white child to be born in Seneca Township, and the daughter of William Sponsable. Joseph ran a machine shop in Marengo.
Following that a family named Hale owned the house from 1896 until 1950. Miss Jane Stanford purchased the house in 1950 and owned it until 1955. She was the daughter of George and Sara Stanford. Jane taught in the Marengo schools for ten years and 12 in the Woodstock area. She became well known as an educator, and was a charter member of the Marengo Women's Club in 1895.
Miss Stanford's niece, Mary Stanford Muzzy and her husband Francis owned the home from 1956 until 1980. Mary was the daughter of Charles Stanford, Jane's brother, and they purchased the house from her aunt's estate. Francis Muzzy was also an educator. Francis and Mary Muzzy ran a "rooming" house for a number of years. Many teachers boarded there when first coming to Marengo. The name, Cupola House, was painted on the front steps. One of the teachers who roomed there was Miss Betty Maitland, a now deceased former Marengo High School teacher. I spoke with Betty many times about the house and what it looked like when she roomed there.
In 1968 Francis muzzy was mowing and working in the front lawn. The ground cased in beneath him, opening up into a sandstone tunnel leading away from his house. According to Gloria Urch, a lecturer at the University of Chicago, and author of "Contributors to the Case," an underground railroad guide, the house was part of the fabled Underground Railroad. Urch said the Cupola House was part of a section that ran from Elgin through McHenry County and into Wisconsin.
After Mr. Muzzy died, Mrs. Muzzy lived on in the house, leaving it to her Granddaughter who lived in California. The granddaughter's name escapes me, but her mother is Mary S. Muzzy Neal. An auto killed the granddaughter and her mother, as next of kin, got her estate. Mrs. Neal had some sort of an estrangement with her parents and according to some reports, vowed to let the house fall down as revenge on her parents who loved the house so much. Interestingly enough, there is another Muzzy daughter living in Woodstock who is absolutely unable to do anything as the house had fallen into her sister's hands.
True to her word, she did let it go ruin. Over the years the house has been broken into, vandalized and otherwise become an eyesore. Many groups and individuals tried to purchase the house over the years. Mrs. Neal either refused or totally ignored all offers. At one time the Marengo Park District attempted to buy the house to turn it into a community center.
It wasn't until the city considered condemning the house that any response came from the California Neals. Another daughter, Mary Neal Swift of Palmdale, CA, said she would like to someday retire to the house and operate a bed and breakfast.
Some token repairs were made to the house on the exterior columns in 2003 and 2004 and the property was eventually painted.

NOTE: The information in this story came from a variety of sources including local interviews, The Kane County Chronicle, Northshore Magazine, "Contributors to the Cause," and the city or Marengo history. Also interesting to note that so many people involved with the Cupola House were prominent enough to have their names on Marengo streets.
Thank you for your great contribution
Marengo Gazette

Flesh Eating Bacteria

Here is something scary for all of us to think about. A person wakes up in the morning with an angry red rash across his chest. It's red and painful to the touch. He goes to see his doctor, who then gives him antibiotics. They don't help. The rash spreads across his shoulder. He also has a high fever and chills now. He goes back to the doctor, who sends him to the hospital now. At the hospital, they decide to do a biopsy of the effected area. It comes back as necrotizing fasciitis.
What IS that? A bacteria normally found in the atmosphere, strappochocus. But in recent years it has mutated and now does some very scary things. Take a look at what would normally happen to the guy described above. His doctors put him under and wheel him into surgery. When they open him up they find most of his muscle underneath the skin completely dead, literally eaten away by the bacteria. The doctors remove most of his muscles from his chest, shoulder, as well as amputate his arm. None of the tissues in these is any longer alive. After they are done, the man goes into shock and dies. The chances of dying from necrotizing fasciitis is 70%, even with all the heroic measures performed. Pretty scary? It gets worse. Most people who get this infection pick it up from small, unknown sources. A blister, a small cut chopping vegetables, chaffed skin, a shaving cut. It can be around anywhere and everywhere. In many cases, the people with the disease do not even know WHERE they got it from and there's no point of entry.

Middle Class Job Hunt

Most people go to college and work on a degree in order to get a good job. They don't want to be stuck working in factories, retail stores, and fast food stands. So, it goes to reason that if one attends college and then has years of job experience in their field, if they are laid off or the company downsizes, they will still be able to get a well paying job. This was indeed the case before. It is no longer true. Most jobs out there for professionals in the white collar, business field are no longer there. It seems that they are, but with many companies who have downsized or outsourced, it is just no longer the case. People who used to make over $50,000 a year a stuck taking jobs in Home Depot or Best Buy. The unemployment rates in this country do not reflect this change simply because these people are still employed. Just not in the fields that they were before! What happens if a white collar professional loses their job? Well, the first thing they are told is that they "need to network". They are told to send out resumes everywhere in their field, maybe hire a professional to do their resume for them, and go to "networking events." The problem with this is it simply doesn't work. People send out resumes, attend all the events they can find, hire people to re-do their resume, and months later, all their savings gone, find that they still do not have jobs. They then take a menial job in retail or some other such field. It is unlikely that at this point they will be able to ever re-aquire a well paying, white collar job ever again. Why is this so? There's a pervasive view in our current culture that if a person lost their job it is their own fault. It's not the economy's fault, the company's fault, or the government's fault. It is THEIR fault. And that if they want to obtain a job, its fully up to them and no one else. This is what is presented to people a networking events and through various books and job trainers. In fact, very little networking takes place in those events, the majority of time being taken up with these types of presentations. While on the surface this seems inspiring to think this way, it works against the job seekers. Simply because its NOT all their fault and a lot of times there is nothing they can do at all to get an another job because they are simply not available. The longer one is out of a job the bigger the gap in one's resume. In present times employers do not hire those with a gap in their resume. If you did not spend every day of your life making money for someone else, you no longer count in our economy. So, what happens is that at this point the only way to right the situation is through changing the way the economy is or passing some new laws. To think the problem lies with in yourself only instead of outside oneself will not bring about change or help people get jobs within their field.

Jack's Legacy

Lately, I get a lot of interesting emails. One of the ones I recieved last week wanted to know if Jack Genot was the Jack who ran the Marengo Message Board. The answer is no, he does not. That is an indisputable fact. However, this got me thinking about Jack Genot in general. What is his legacy to those of us in Marengo and beyond?
1. Veterans can now have people look at them with suspicion and wonder if their own, real war records and memories are just make believe. There's not a person in Marengo who is a real veteran and fought in a real war who will be able to go to a bar and boast about his accomplishments and important events in his life without people wondering if he's full of hot air.
2. Purple Heart License plates. How meaningful are they if anyone can lie, forge paperwork, and obtain them? Because of our own Jack Genot, this law will change. Since we now see we cannot trust people not to lie about their war records.
3. School children who heard Genot speak. They now know not to trust decorated members of their own community. They know that adults and people in authority will go and lie to them in order to make themselves seem important.
4. City Council. People will not take a City Council seriously if it consists of liers and those who forge government documents. Do you want these people making important town decisions, if one of them would lie at a drop of a hat in order to make himself seem important? They apparently refuse to make any sort of decision to even so much as sign a Resolution that Genot be dismissed.
5. Newspapers and online Gazettes. They are always on a lookout for a good story and a few years back, the story of a local war hero sure sounded exciting. To both the NW Herald and the Gazette. Unfortunately, neither checked out this fake war hero's story thoroughly because he was such a pillar of the community. A lesson for all reporters and editors, big and small.
6. History Books. How many of the heros of our history are really heros? How many of their accomplishments are make belief? Seeing what Genot did makes one wonder...
7. Redemption. Many people have come home from failed careers, thrown out of the army, dismissed from college, and whatever else. How many of them made up false stores to cover their failures? No. Many, many people like Genot face up to what they did that was wrong and eventually pick themselves up on their feet. Genot did not do that. Seeing what he did can serve as an example to countless young people who failed but want to make their lives better. Instead, they can just lie about it and make something up!
8. Thoughts. Let's face it. We can all be completely disgusted by what Genot has done. But it is hard not to feel bad for a man who, in order to hide his abysmal war record, has decided to make up a fake one. We can be completely disgusted with the man, but we can also pity him as well. After all, he is old, sick, and has been in and out of the hospital. Something, some sort of shame for the real person he is, compelled him to alter his war record 33 years ago. We might not understand him, but a person who has a need to do this, deserves our pity.

Truth Comes Out

Several weeks ago, we wrote an article entitled "The Community of Hate", which discussed how the nearby communities of Fieldstone and other subdivisions attempted to keep the Fraternite of Notre Dame monastery from building and made them feel unwelcome. At the end of the article a list of names was listed of those who signed a petition that was meant to keep the monastery out. It goes without saying that a petition like that would only encourage hate against the monastery.
But it didn't stop there. After our article was published, we got quite a few emails from the people who signed a petition. Some were interesting and polite. Others were truly outrageous. All told us that we had no right to post people's name up simply because they signed a petition. Apparently, it did not occur to them that the petition was a public document, and that signing it means that you took a political action. Which those who write newspapers have every right to discuss. I am rather amazed that those who signed the document thought it was something private and nobody's business but their own. In other words, they can keep people out of their neighborhood, and take action against them building, but do not want this known or discussed.
Those who wrote to us also tried to convince us that they were right in signing the petition and keeping an "industrial complex" (a church and a bakery) from going up and ruining their neighborhood. That they needed the tax money that this building was supposedly taking away from them (of course, the other churches in the neighborhood that were built apparently don't count toward lost tax revenue). A thought went through my head, though. If these people truly believed that what they did was right, then why not stand up for their beliefs? Why mind that your name is listed in an article telling everyone in town just what you did? It seems to me that those who emailed us were ashamed of themselves, otherwise they would not be so adament that we remove their names from the internet. I don't think they would want their friends and neighbors to read the Marengo Gazette and see just what they have done.
Finally, we have exchanged many emails with the Beckers. This was a truly interesting experience. We were threatened by them with a lawsuit, told that they felt sorry for us because WE are the ones full of hate, accused of stealing emails and documents, and insisted that we give up our identities to them, since apparently we know theirs. Judean Becker, in particular, was interesting to talk to, as she used foul language, making these emails impossible to re-print in the Gazette. She also brought up an interesting point. She insisted that tax money was needed for the Riley school district, and that this was why she was against the monastery building. The teachers at Riley made too much money, she insisted, and the school must fire all the elderly teachers in order to hire new ones at a lower pay! Now, I am always interested in reading other people's opinions, whether I agree with them or not. But I could not help but note that it just might be this anger at the school district that has brought about such hate against the monastery! In any event, my attempt to elicit further information about the school district in order to maybe explore the issue further and come up with an interesting article in the future, was met with further threats, foul language, and demands to devulge my identity.
Now, I ask, what does this say about these people? For one, they are willing to fight. That can be good. But they don't fight the right things. Instead of trying to make a better community by fighting for better schools, more funding from the government, and a different way for schools to obtain funding, they take it out on a group of nuns who want to move into their community. For another, they obviously think little of what kind of effect their actions might have on others. Also, on the consequences of those actions - like this article. Last, they seem to have lost basic human consideration and respect, resorting to foul language, demands, and threats. If this is how they treat their fellow human beings, it tells me a lot about who they really are.

The Police Situation

An interesting event occurred this week. Officer Kelly Given of our wonderful Marengo Police Department was found to have been suspended. Why? She was believed to have illegally obtained police reports. Of course, we all know what police reports are referred to here. Remember that article in the NW Herald, where Nichole Surber's story supposedly did not coincide with that of the arresting officer? Of course, the arresting officer might not have HIS story coincide with that of Nichole Surber, but no one seems to look at it from that perspective. But, anyways, where did that information come from? From...a...police report that was supposed to have been kept confidential because Nichole Surber was a minor at the time and those are supposed to stay sealed. It seems obvious now that the reason Given was suspended was because she was more than likely the one who gave the report to Josh Stotinger to write about.
Now, this brings to mind the whole issue with the Marengo Police Department. Here, you have Crawford resign with severance pay so he would keep quiet about the goings on within the department, as well as his actions, which make the department and those who run the town look pretty bad. Now, we got the town supposedly getting rid of the police dog and, more recently, suspending Given.
What I see from all this is that it is not the kids who were arrested whose honesty we should be questioning, but those who run the police department and the town. Why have they hired and permitted these two officers and others like them to be hired in the first place? Remember, Crawford had a past lawsuit against him for excessive force in Waukegan. And, after they hired them, and there were false police reports written, arrests that were made using excessive force, as well as people seriously injured, why have they done nothing to take care of the situation? Now, instead of being open about this, what do they do? They quietly, without anyone knowing about it, suspend an officer, have an another resign with severance pay. They don't want to admit that something is really wrong, that those who run the police department are at fault, that something must be done about this and to do the right thing and come out in the open with it.

Mef's
By: Museumlover

A couple of years ago Marengoans were eagerly awaiting the opening of Mef?s restaurant on Highway 20 West of town. Located in the building which was a long time Chinese restaurant, Mef?s offered a new place to have dinner and a drink in a pleasant atmosphere. Mef has remodeled and now there is a place to have dinner, a drink, play pool, and get into the spirit of fun with karaoke. Great food is still the mainstay of Mef?s.After spending over $500,000.00 in interior and exterior remodeling, the restaurant opened with great success. The inside was one large area with snoking and non-smoking seating, a full service bar and a great menu. The crowds flocked in to enjoy the steaks, chicken, sandwiches, side dishes and desserts. The menu was varied and the food and service was great.Mef said to me at that time that he was more interested in having a great restaurant instead of a bar. The bar business was to provide those who wanted drinks with dinner, an opportunity to have beer, alchohol and wine. The restaurant went along well and the communities of Belvidere and Marengo supported Mef?s. At one time Mef had operated the popular Steamplant restaurant in Belvidere.But, eventually, business slowed down and Mef decided to change some things, so the restaurant was closed for nearly three weeks, reopening this month with a new look and amenities. The entire bar area is now enclosed, separated completely from the dining area. A pool table and juke box have been added. Karaoke takes place on Saturday nights.The food is still great and so is the service, but the menu could use a definite update. I have been going to Mef?s since the day he opened, and the menu has not changed except for evening specials. Mef and his family is from Albania and maybe some ethnic dishes could be added. I really like fried chicken, but can?t get it at Mef?s. The baked sweet potatoes are very good, although big enough to feed a family. The real hit for me is the oatmeal walnut pie. The pies are made locally by a wonderful baker. All of the pies are very good, fresh and served in generous cuts.The specialty sandwich wraps are very tasty, as are the special "meal" salads. The smoked prime rib I had last week was very flavorful and the cut was huge. Mef has soupls each day that are made on the premise. Once I casually mentioned that the onion chunks in the French onion soup were too big. The next time I had the soup, the onion was more finely chopped. The whole catfish at the Friday fish fry is a big favorite with me as well.Mef?s s essentially a family business. His wife Fay often helps out and his daughters, son and son-in-law are often working in the restaurant. Mef always comes out to the dining room to talk to his customers, making everyone feel welcome.The restaurant has discontinued, for the time being, the Sunday brunch. Instead the restaurant opens at 7 am for breakfast on Saturday and Sunday. Other days the restaurant is open for lunch and dinner with the bar open the same hours.I hearily recommend Mef?s for lunch, dinner or a great week end breakfast. The breakfast menu has everything! The waffles and Swedish pancakes are fantastic. Check out Mef?s for a change of pace. I hope the community supports Mef?s as it has been a nice additional to the other restaurants in the Marengo area.

Wind Farm Scam

Here's an interesting story. Wind farming. Anyone ever heard of it? A person contacted me this week with a desire that we look into wind farming. This person bought stock in a company called US Wind Farming. He purchased 500,000 shares at 2 cents a share. Sounds like a good deal? It could be. The problem was that the person running the company and talking to the press about his company, which of course then wrote articles about it, was a liar. He had previously pleaded guilty to several counts of securities fraud and had to pay the public 6 million dollars in restitution. By the time the person writing to me found out about it, though, it was too late. He had already lost the money he had put in.

On further examining the documents this person sent me, I found out that what US Wind Farming was doing was called a "hype and dump scheme". The person who ran the company, William L. Telander, from April 2004 through March 2005, issued tens of millions of unregistered shares to people he got to act for him as investors. These fake investors then started selling wind farming shares to the public, without registering them first. They would then keep part of the proceeds to themselves and a huge portion would go to Telander.

Besides this being a very scary way for a person to lose money he or she planned to invest, a question comes to mind on what this Wind Farming corporation really is. What are they? A new form of energy? A way to save the environment?

Wind Farming, the corporation, formed by merging with a company called Applied Research Corporation, also owned by Teleander. It supposedly earns money by selling energy to utility companies. Teleander minimized the amount of shares of the company available to the public by selling them off to financial institutions run by him and those who were in the scheme with him. Then unregistered shares were made available to the public. After this was done, Teleander issued a press release stating that his wind farm company expected to generate over $800,000 in net revenue. However, in looking this over, the company could not possibly make this much money in a year, because it was not selling enough energy to anyone at all that would result in this money being brought it. In other words? It was a fake company. It did not sell its energy, it simply did not exist. It was there for the sole purpose to make money for the investors. The way Teleander and his cronies fooled the public with press releases, getting people interested in wind farming as an alternative form of energy when in reality they were not even doing hardly an business in selling a safe form of energy at all, is truly shameful.