Row 1: DuPage County legislators, Reps. Ron Sandack, Sandy Pihos & Dennis Reboletti at bill signing for SB494, legislation improving efficencies of local government.  Rep. Mike Fortner with Dupage Sheriff Deputy following the Muon g-2 Super Magnet on its way to Fermilab.

Row 2: Rep. John Cabello toured UTC Aerospace Systems. Rep. Tom Morrison and Senator Matt Murphy hosted a joint teleconference with constituents on August 5th.

Row 3: Diabetes camp with Rep. Mike Tryon and participants at YMCA Camp Duncan in Ingleside. Boot camp hosted by Rep. Jeanne Ives.

In 2004 Illinoisans agreed and I made the list. I live in forests, pastures, orchards and prairies as well as parking lots and even housing developments as long as water is nearby.  I have a big cat name but a cat I am not.  Who am I?  

The Eastern Tiger Salamander 

 Illinois state amphibian: Eastern Tiger Salamander 

Then Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn and Rep. Bob Biggins (R-Elmhurst) teamed up in 2004 with Brookfield Zoo and the Chicago Herpatological Society to sponsor this first-ever virtual election for an official state symbol.  Six students from Jackson Middle School in Villa Park served as “campaign managers” for the amphibian and reptile candidates.

House Republican Leader Tom Cross

Over my lifetime I have had the opportunity to go to many events in our area and across the state.

There have been very few that have touched me quite like the naturalization ceremony in Aurora recently. If you haven’t had the opportunity to attend one — you should.

From the moment I walked into the auditorium at West Aurora High School on that hot summer day, you could feel the patriotism and excitement in the room.

The only decoration behind the stage was an enormous American flag, the size of one that you see at parades or sporting events that require dozens of people to hold because it is so large.

Hundreds of people filed into their seats waiting for the ceremony to begin. This is a ceremony that many of them have been waiting years and years to attend.

One of the most touching moments of the ceremony is when the Senior Immigration Services Officer did the “Roll Call of Nationalities.” According to officials there, approximately 350 were candidates for citizenship that day from 61 countries.  Read the rest of Tom Cross' guest commentary in the Beacon News.

Chicago
City of Chicago deficit will balloon to $1 billion without pension reform.  The Chicago Tribune reported this week that Mayor Rahm Emanuel will not raise sales or property taxes to close a $338.7 million budget deficit for next year. By 2015, the shortfall will balloon to $1 billion without pension reform.

In 2015, Chicago is required by state law to make a $600 million contribution to its police and fire pension funds that currently only have assets to cover just 30.5 and 25 percent of their liabilities. Chicago leaders have suggested that the Illinois General Assembly should relieve Chicago of the pension payment “ramp up” requirement and allow the City to extend payments over a longer period of time.

Chicago’s deficit will rise to $994.7 million in 2015 and $1.15 billion in 2016 without strong pension reforms and possibly new revenues.

U.S. Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen (R-Pekin)

When Illinois legislators passed a state budget with $2 billion of extra spending this spring, some Illinoisans might have remembered words popularly attributed to one of the great Illinois political leaders of the 20th century, U.S. Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen (R-Pekin), “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money!”

Everett Dirksen spent nearly 50 years in public service, starting in the Army during World War I, and finishing as Republican leader of the U.S. Senate. He worked as the general manager of a local dredging company after the war, was active in the American Legion, and served as a finance commissioner in Pekin before being elected to Congress in 1932.

In Congress, Dirksen supported some New Deal programs, including the National Labor Relations Act and the Agricultural Adjustment Act. Over time, however, he began to believe that the New Deal was not proving very effective, and he became concerned by the growing size of government and its insatiable appetite for spending. Dirksen wrote that, “the New Deal was long on reform, much longer on relief, yet very short on actual recovery and restoration of normal conditions."

Abraham Lincoln, whose Emancipation Proclamation freed more than four million slaves, was an effective politician, profound statesman, and a shrewd diplomat. He also had a keen sense of humor. His stories and anecdotes gave rise to his moniker as the "Great Story Telling President." For the next few weeks we will share some of those stories from the *Project Gutenberg's Lincoln's Yarns and Stories, by Alexander K. McClure. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Miss Todd (afterwards Mrs. Lincoln) had a keen sense of the ridiculous, and wrote several articles in the Springfield (Ill.) "Journal" reflecting severely upon General James Shields (who won fame in the Mexican and Civil Wars, and was United States Senator from three states), then Auditor of State.

Lincoln assumed the authorship, and was challenged by Shields to meet him on the "field of honor." Meanwhile Miss Todd increased Shields' ire by writing another letter to the paper, in which she said: "I hear the way of these fire-eaters is to give the challenged party the choice of weapons, which being the case, I'll tell you in confidence that I never fight with anything but broom-sticks, or hot water, or a shovelful of coals, the former of which, being somewhat like a shillalah, may not be objectionable to him."