Friday, July 25, 2014

Peoria's Growing Bands of Thugs

It seems pretty common to see in print that Peoria Police are spending more time, money and risk breaking up bands of thugs who disperse as soon as the policee with their sirens blaring approach the site of the mob fighting and vandalism. These bands of thugs remind me of the course of events at the last basketball game I refereed in 1958 or 9. Roy Romani, former coach, and I, also a former coach, where selected by LaSalle-Peru Junior College to referee the finals of a Regional Tournament. The finals were between the locals and an all black college out of Chicago. L-P won 71-70. As we hustled of the floor we were verbally assaulted and spit on by the busloads of blacks that accompanied to team to the finals. We leisurely took our showers and lingered in the locker room to allow the losing fans to disperse. To our shock when we emerged from the locker room to find all the Chicago fans lined up on both sides of the school exit corridor. They began verbally assaulting us, threatening physical violence, etc. I told Roy and Bill Booker, a friend of ours and a former football lineman at Western, to look at no one and head for the nearest exit. We made it and one of the "fans" followed us outside. We turned and started after him. He tried to get back into the gym but the door had no handle. We started chasing him and harassing him yet no one opened the door for him to get back inside. Bill fell and tore a hole in his pants and I ripped both handles off my gym bag. Finally someone opened the door and let him back inside. We were worn out and headed for the nearest watering hole. It took us 10 minutes to stop laughing before we could enjoy our drinks. The next day, I got a call from Dr. Mini, the President of the college, who profusely apologized that we had been left alone with the Chicago fans. I booked a full schedule of games for the next season including L-P College, Ottawa, Rock Falls, Bradley Freshman under Joe Stowell, Sr. and East Aurora plus two other Jr. Colleges. Unfortunately, I was promoted by my company to be District Manager of the Capital of Kansas, Topeka, where my lovely daughter Nancy Ann was born. My refereeing days were over. Thugs of all races are brave when they are in mobs. They are not so brave when alone, typical of the mobs forming in Peoria, forming because money for more security was spent on new amenities rather than on additional security in a more violent community, badly needing improved streets, sidewalks and curbs and more probation officers and zoning violation personnel. Peoria is the prime example of where the wealthy arrogant elites and wannabees, control the destination of the city. We've got the facilities but the residents are moving out where the schools and safety are better and they can come back and use the nice facilities Peorian's are paying and paying, for.

Bel-Wood Nursing Home Demise

According to one veteran Peoria County Board member, this OLD (50 years) former County nursing home is heading for the landfill. Too bad. This 330 bed nursing home could have been renovated, new roof, new plumbing, new electrical, room revisions, etc for around $13 million. This figure was the one quoted by a very reputable firm out of Springfield. But Patrick Urich and the Democrats on the County Board wanted a Taj Mahal for it's majority Medicaid clients. So they got a local constrution firm to estimate renovation, the same construction company that was the successful bidder on a new County nursing home later to be called Heddington Oaks, and they concluded the new nursing woud only cost about $7 million more than renovation. A group of County Board Democrats then went to Chicago with inflated renovation figures and the State of Illinois said "go ahead and build a new one". The new one cost anywhere from $47 million to $51 million depending on whose set of figures you use. Plus 30 years interest, of course. At last report, Peoria County taxpayers were funding Heddington Oak to the tune of $3,000,000.00 plus. They were also paying interest on the approximately millions borrowed to build Heddington Oaks. I've always thought it interesting when people tell me something cost x number of dollars to build but leave out the interest they will pay on the large loan they take out for up to 30 years to build the entity. The museum may have only cost $99 million but the sales tax of ONLY 1.4% over 30 years has now gotten our former County adminstrator worrried that these projected sales taxes are not going to be enough to pay the interest on the already "white elephant" destroying the the landscape on Peoria's most valuable piece of property estimated by a departed City Manager to be worth $19 million while our current Mayor estimated it to have been worth at least $11 million. The JS says the museum is better than "an empty hole in the ground" while they critize people like me for living in a "box". Now our box is looking like we would have been better off if Cat had filled the hole and the city landscaped the "hole" and made one of the most beautiful riverfront parks in Illinois. The taxpayers paid over 2/3 of the $99 million plus interest and the personal donors could have spread their 1/3 donation over the entire county to make Peoria City and County a nicer place to live. As usual, Nerds on Call and my new Lenovo laptop I bought from them have not figured out why I have no spell-check and why the paragraphs I have created in this blog; 7 of them, will disappear when I hit publish. Oh well.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Peoria Sales Tax Down - Mayor Pleads For Spenders to Spend in Peoria

Sales tax collections are down in the City of Peoria and Peoria County. Surely this is explainable as even I explained why this would happen in several blogs over the the past few years. Our former County Administrator, now City Manager, should also well know the reasons why. East Peoria is where the business expansion is taking place, not Peoria. When the ill-fated museum was being touted by the elite and the dreamers; two Bradley economic professors predicted that the the museum alone would bring in $16,000,000.00 in new business every year and with the money, more taxes. The "knowing" ones realized that predictions from those who live in "ivory towers" seldom come true. (one of my favorite comment writers, Don Axt, recently satirized the "movers and shakers" dreams about how Peoria would one day host the World Series of baseball)pointing out that the elite and other dreamers were so wrong on so many tax-payer funded expenditures such as on the Peoria Riverfront Museum (PRM), on the RiverPlex that recently had to extend thier original 10 year loan to 16 years., how the privately owned ballpark had to have a City loan of $1,600,000.00 forgiven because of lack of attendance, how the African exhibit would have a new entryway off Prospect as illustrated in a 9/23/06 JS article written by John O'Connell and one article appearing on 9/07/07, plus in promotional advertising, when indeed the entryway looks exactly the same old way it looked 25 years ago and while attendance is touted to be, the mostly freebie school visits included while most of these kids look at these trips as way to avoid real learning experience, etc. My parents took us kids to the zoo, never the taxpayers. The more tax dollars spent on non-tax collecting entities, the less sales tax collected despite Peoria having one on the highest sales taxes in the nation. Look at all the abandoned businesses that no longer collect taxes and abandoned houses in Peoria. Look at our population, down about 5000 from 2004 when all these expenditures were susposed to build our population in Peoria. I'm stopping here because my lousy computer or software is threatening to shut me down again like it did last night losing 1/1/2 hours of my labor. My spell-check doesn't work and I'm sick of all the coddling being given to those who could work but can't because of their lousy upbring, a wimpy bunch of compasionate leaders, weak, unpaid weak school boards, all in an All-American City, a distinction earned largely by submitting the best bragging. Not bragging about ugly buildings with low attendance, the ugliest being the new museum, a leader in STD's and rough and pot-holed streets, mass gang fighting among the unemployed blacks who can't work but can steal, vandalize and impregnate. Good luck, Patrick and Jim. I'm buying where I can save the most money providing the service is the same. I pay the City and County and #150 enough in fees and taxes already.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Private Vs. Public - Private Almost Always Does a BETTER Job

Forwarded to me by a friend. And almost all private entities PAY taxes, not collect. Walmart figures seem high but the examples are correct. Merle 1. Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart Every hour of every day. 2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute! 3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year. 4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target +Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined. 5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people, is the world's largest private employer, and most speak English. 6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the world. 7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger and Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only fifteen years. 8. During this same period, 31 big supermarket chains sought bankruptcy. 9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world. 10. Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are Super Centers; this is 1,000 more than it had five years ago. 11. This year 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at Wal-Mart stores. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 Billion.) 12. 90% of all Americans live within fifteen miles of a Wal-Mart. You may think that I am complaining, but I am really laying the ground work for suggesting that MAYBE we should hire the guys who run Wal-Mart to fix the economy. This should be read and understood by all Americans?? Democrats, Republicans, EVERYONE!! To President Obama and all 535 voting members of the Legislature It is now official that the majority of you are corrupt and ineffective: a.. The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775. You have had 237 years to get it right and it is broke. b.. Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 77 years to get it right and it is broke. c.. Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke. d.. War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 48 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor" and they only want more. e.. Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 47 years to get it right and they are broke. f.. Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 42 years to get it right and it is broke. g.. The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 35 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure. You have FAILED in every "government service" you have shoved down our throats while overspending our tax dollars. AND YOU WANT AMERICANS TO BELIEVE YOU CAN BE TRUSTED WITH A GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM?? Folks, keep this circulating. It is very well stated. Maybe it will end up in the e-mails of some of our "duly elected' (they never read anything) and their staff will clue them in on how Americans feel. AND We have lost our minds to "Political Correctness" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We're "broke" & can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless etc.,??????????? In the last months we have provided aid to Haiti , Chile , Japan and Turkey ..And Pakistan ........previous home of Bin Laden. Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!! Our retired seniors living on a 'fixed income' receive no extra aid nor do they get any special breaks--nadda beyond shopping discounts... Now, it is estimated that 90,000 illegal alien children under the age of 16 will be in our country by the end of the year. We will feed them, provide health and education and they will get everything a hard working American citizen gets - just for crossing the border illegally. Obama is proposing we give millions of dollars to El Salvador, Hondouras and Guatamala to "help" the children. Do you really think this money is going to get to the children that really need it? Meanwhile, Mexico is charging for allowing them to pass through Mexico to get to the US border, paid for by the drug cartels. They are keeping the Border Guards busy changing diapers while the drug lords funnel tons of drugs into the US to turn our children into zombies. In GITMO, the 147 Muslim terrorists have one doctor for every prisoner, a state-of-the art hospital system, are provided Korans and prayer rugs, food approved by the Koran, exercise and additional perks. Our Veterans die waiting to see a VA doctor while the directors get bonuses. AND Congress wants to freeze Social Security payments... You do know that Congress voted themselves a pay raise for 2013??? Google this--it's true!!! 99% of people won't forward this. I'm one of the 1% -- I Just Did This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Aaron Schock Presents Majority Republican and Independents Viewpoint on Obama's Lack of U.S. Best Interest Leadership

Peoria's Aaron Schock shines on CNN this morning. Schock appeared intelligent and persuasive in his approach to the questions of the CNN female interagator. An increasing number of liberal media commentators are starting to take a dim view of the leadership of our esteemed Emperor. Republicans like Illinois' Schock may help common sense Republicans to get elected to control both houses and start to lead this country out of the sickenng morrass Obama has led and continues to lead us into. Sorry, my spell-check is not working again.

Wednesday, July 02, 2014

IDOT - Two Letters Left Out

An additional I and and S in their appropriate spaces. Did anybody notice or care what an IDOT mower did to the grass between Rt. 74 and University on the South side? It will take years of taxpayer dollars to repair the damage done by mowing when the ground was saturated with water. Or, does anybody care that IDOT builds slopes too steep with seldom a terrace so that heavy rains wash gullies down the seeded or sodded right-of-ways? Then statewide, millions of dollars are spent in repair yearly. At least the head of IDOT resigned but I'm sure she will be replaced with another incompetent Democrat and strong union lover. The State of Illinois is sunk until it becomes a RTW state which will not happen in my lifetime. And, speaking of idiots, staunch coward Democrat Brian G., whoever you are, don't expect any of your stupidty to appear on my sites. Use Billy's site as he is evidently a friend of yours.