McHenry County Blog

First it was a Cary-Grove High School youth appointed to the Naval Academy.  Now, 16th District Congressman Don Manzullo announces an Algonquin teen is off to the Air Force Academy:

Algonquin Student Appointed
to U.S. Air Force Academy

[CRYSTAL LAKE] Congressman Don Manzullo (R-Egan) today announced that Rachel Doby of Algonquin, Illinois, has received an appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Rachel will graduate in June 2010 from Westminster Christian High School in Elgin. Rachel is a member of the National Honor Society as well as the Elgin Rotary Club Honor Roll and her school’s Student Athlete Honor Roll.

She is also an editor and writer on the school’s newspaper, coaches youth sports camps, is a member of the school’s spiritual leadership team, and is a member of the Harvest Bible Chapel’s Youth Gospel Choir.

Rachel is also captain of the Varsity Basketball and Varsity Soccer teams, and she also ran cross country at her school. She was named All-Conference in both soccer and basketball and was a sectional qualifier in Cross Country.

Rachel is the daughter of David and Kathleen Doby of Algonquin.

The McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office has issued the following statement regarding the Illinois Department of Human Resources recommendation that Lawrence Hucksteadt be released into society. You can tell that State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi does not approve of the state’s psychiatrists’ that Lawrence Hucksteadt “is not a danger to himself or others.”

Here’s the statement:

The Department of Human Services opined that Lawrence Hucksteadt was unfit to stand trial because he could not assist with his own defense.

One of the primary reasons for his unfitness, based upon the sworn testimony of the psychiatrists, was the Defendant’s deteriorating memory.

A criminal defendant must be able to remember the offense and the events that transpired during the investigation of the offense so that he can adequately assist his defense attorney at trial.

Based upon the opinions of the treating psychiatrists at the Department of Human Services, the judge ruled that Hucksteadt was unfit to stand trial.

The State, in response, requested that Hucksteadt be civilly committed so that he would remain in a secured setting.

To our surprise, the Department of Human Services, refused to civilly commit Hucksteadt.

The Department, in its written report, opined that Hucksteadt, at this time, “is not a danger to himself or others.”

It is further written that he intends to

• obtain a job,
• become involved in Alcoholics Anonymous, and
• that he would not attempt to obtain medical treatment at Centegra “for obvious reasons” and would instead seek medical treatment elsewhere if needed.

In our opinion, these two opinions were contradictory to one another.

The court denied our request to file a motion to reconsider its opinion holding Hucksteadt unfit.

We will now proceed to a discharge hearing.

Here is a related July 16th press release:

STATE’S ATTORNEY LOUIS BIANCHI OPTS TO PERMANENTLY SECURE HUCKSTEADT AT ELGIN MENTAL HEALTH FACILITY RATHER THAN RISK HIS RETURN TO SOCIETY

After hearing evidence presented at a fitness hearing, Judge Joseph Condon has found that Defendant Lawrence Hucksteadt is unfit to stand trial and is unlikely to be restored to fitness.

Based upon that ruling, the State’s Attorney’s Office has decided to request that the court remand the defendant to the custody of the Department of Human Services where he will be involuntarily committed in a secure inpatient setting.

Once the defendant is committed to the Department of Human Services, the court having jurisdiction over the criminal matter shall dismiss the charges against the defendant, with the leave to reinstate.

In such cases, the Department of Human Services shall notify the court, the State’s Attorney and the defense attorney upon the discharge of the defendant.

If the defendant is restored to fitness, the State’s Attorney’s Office will immediately reinstate the first degree murder charges and remand Lawrence Hucksteadt to McHenry County where he will stand trial on these charges.

The State’s Attorney’s Office believes that committing the defendant to a secure inpatient facility will protect the public from a potentially dangerous criminal accused of a brutal and heinous murder.

If the State’s Attorney’s Office proceeded to a discharge hearing and presented evidence of the crime to the court, there is a potential that the defendant would be found not guilty by reason of insanity.

If that occurred, the court would enter a judgment of acquittal and pursuant to Section 5-2-4 of the Unified Code of Corrections, the defendant could potentially be released from custody and set free at such time as the facility director determined that the defendant is no longer in need of mental health services on an inpatient basis or the defendant no longer requires placement in a secure setting.

Under this scenario, the State’s Attorney’s Office loses jurisdiction over the defendant and runs the risk that he could one day be released back into society.

Committing the defendant to the department by way of civil proceedings ensures the safety of the community and allows the State’s Attorney’s Office the ability to reinstate criminal charges if the defendant is restored to fitness.

Yesterday, McHenry County Blog told of a possible demonstration against Elgin Kiwanis’ invitation of domestic terrorist Bill Ayers to speak at lunch.

Here is a report from the scene:

“There were around a dozen of us at the (Bill) Ayers event.

“Quite a few reporters came and asked questions and a couple of what looked like some ’students’ of Ayers were taking pictures.

“I guess they said it was justified for Ayers to be a cop killer because cops had killed some Black Panther in his bed….who expects liberals to make sense!

“Ayers arrived at the event very early, so we didn’t see him.

“Guess he didn’t have the guts to drive by us.

“Hopefully we made some people driving by more aware.”

The Daily Herald’s story is here.

He said he was “sorry.”

First time I’ve heard that.

Among the comments was:

“Note to Kiwanis: Order fewer peanuts this year.”

The photo is from a video found on Midwest Conservatives.

Some of the same people who participated in the TEA Parties may show up outside the Elgin Kiwanis Club meeting noon Tuesday at the Highlands Golf Course, described as “a Public Golf Course Supported by Elgin Taxpayers,” to peacefully protest the appearance of “Unrepentant Domestic Terrorist Bill Ayers.”

I wonder whether the program chairman is the same guy bold enough to invited me to speak to the club when I was running in 2002 for Illinois governor on the Libertarian Party ticket against Rod Blagojevich and Jim Ryan.

Top finance guys for both of those power party opponents are facing Federal felony time, you may remember.

In any event, just in case you might want to join in the demonstration, here’s the address, which is next to Elgin Community College:

I’d guess it is off Randall Road, just south of U.S. by-pass 20.

This graphic done by Steven Buyansky of The Elgin Courier-News is too good not to pass on.

It’s a sewer manhole cover that appeared on the front page of the new re-formated tabloid.

In a square part of the inner cover is the headline

Above and below are the candidates’ photos and last names.

Prigge, Scruggs, Nowak, Gilliam and Quezado

on the top and

on the bottom.

In years past there would have been a municipal primary election to pare the number down to twice the number of candidates running.

My guess is that the statewide incumbent lobby decided incumbents had a better chance to get re-elected if they could run against more challengers.

In a two-person race, for instance, an incumbent would not have to get 50%, plus 1, of the votes cast. With three running, one-third, plus 1, would do it.

With ten candidates, and three incumbents running for three seats, obviously less than one-third of the votes will win a seat.

The full names of the ten candidates follow:

• Richard Dunne,
• Juan Figueroa,
• Robert Gilliam,
• Brenda Harris Khan,
• Shane Nowak,
• John Prigge,
• Linda Quezada,
• Lenora Scruggs,
• Bruce Trego,
• John Walters

Gilliam, Figueroa and Walters are incumbents.

Please don’t make comments that are too snarky about the appropriateness of the illustration.

Sunday I read an ad in Elgin’s Courier News.

It was seeking clients for a medical office building across from the new Sherman Hospital on Randall Road.

Just south of the Tollway.

• Here’s the pitch being made:
• Convenient access to I-90 and Randall Road
• Across from the Sherman Replacement Hospital
• Less than three miles from Provena Saint Joseph Hospital
• No clinical use or procedure restrictions
• Custom designed individual suites
• Shared conference room

The doctor in the photo is saying
“Every good doctor wants to get closer to his patients.”

Excuse me if I’m wrong, but with Planned Parenthood having just opened an abortion clinic in Aurora, which is not really convenient to those in the upper Fox River Valley, would this be considered a good location for another abortion mill?

Sunday I read an ad in Elgin’s Courier News.

It was seeking clients for a medical office building across from the new Sherman Hospital on Randall Road.

Just south of the Tollway.

• Here’s the pitch being made:
• Convenient access to I-90 and Randall Road
• Across from the Sherman Replacement Hospital
• Less than three miles from Provena Saint Joseph Hospital
• No clinical use or procedure restrictions
• Custom designed individual suites
• Shared conference room

The doctor in the photo is saying
“Every good doctor wants to get closer to his patients.”

Excuse me if I’m wrong, but with Planned Parenthood having just opened an abortion clinic in Aurora, which is not really convenient to those in the upper Fox River Valley, would this be considered a good location for another abortion mill?

Early on in the Protect Marriage Illinois advisory petition campaign the Illinois Republican Party was making supportive noises.

There was even a link on the main page of the state GOP web site.

But, as far as I know, no Republican organization helped gather signatures.

And the petition effort fell short.

Not a lot short, but not enough signatures were gathered where it was thought the petition could withstand a vigorous attack from well-financed organized homosexuals.

Now, it turns out that about the only bright spot on the conservative election horizon is the constitutional amendment banning of same sex marriage in California.

The ballot measure, labeled Proposition 8, is passing 52.3% to 47.7%. There’s over a half million vote spread.

Ironically, many of the same voters who pushed Barack Obama to victory voted to ban same sex marriage.

Exit polls taken of 1,200 voters in 50 Los Angeles precincts by the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University found that “50 percent of Latinos voted for Proposition 8 and 39 opposed it, while 47 percent of African-Americans voted for it and 40 percent against it,” according to the LA Times

So, here’s my question?

Had the state GOP gotten the Protect Marriage advisory referendum on the ballot in Illinois, might someone like Elgin’s State Rep. Ruth Munson have eeked out a victory, instead of losing by an unofficial 322 votes?

Understand that I don’t know how Munson stands on the issue and she would obviously have to been against gay marriage and her opponent Keith Farnham would have had to have been in favor of it for my suggested strategy to have had a chance of working.

However, if they had been on opposite sides of the issue, Elgin could have been ready-made to have replicated how California voters behaved.

In 2000, Elgin had 34% Latinos and almost 7% African Americans. These Elgin minorities are concentrated in Munson’s district. The district also dips into Carpentersville, which has 41% Hispanics, most of whom live on the East side in the Munson district.

“Blacks voted 70 percent in favor of Proposition 8, and slightly more than half the Hispanic voters backed the measure, according to exit polls released by the National Election Pool,” the Washington Times reported.

And, Andrew Pugno of ProtectMarriage.com said, “Inner-city black neighborhoods voted stronger for Prop. 8 than the Republican suburbs. An amazing analysis.”

According to Mark DiCamillo, director of The Field Poll in California,

“The Field Poll, completed one week before the election, had Catholics voting at about their registered voter population size (24% of the electorate) with voting preferences similar to those of the overall electorate, with 44% on the Yes side.

“However the network exit poll shows that they accounted for 30% of the CA electorate and had 64% of them voting Yes. Regular churchgoers showed a similar movement toward the Yes side. The pre-election Field Poll showed 72% of these voters voting Yes, while the exit poll showed that 84% of them voted Yes…

“My take is that polling on issues like same-sex marriage that have a direct bearing on religious doctrine can be affected in a big way in the final weekend by last minute appeals by the clergy and religious organizations.”

Whether Catholic Church priests and black ministers in Munson’s district would have done what their counterparts are said to have done in California is unknowable.

But, if they had, and if Munson had a campaign staff astute enough to capitalize on the issue, maybe she would have been re-elected.

Since neither the State GOP nor House Republicans nor Senate Republicans showed any inclination to help get the signatures to put the referendum on the ballot this year, I somehow doubt Munson would have been able to grab the opportunity.

If Tom Cross or Frank Watson’s successor or Andy McKenna figure out this could issue could help some legislators or even the GOP gubernatorial candidate in 2010, the time to be starting a petition campaign is now.

Early on in the Protect Marriage Illinois advisory petition campaign the Illinois Republican Party was making supportive noises.

There was even a link on the main page of the state GOP web site.

But, as far as I know, no Republican organization helped gather signatures.

And the petition effort fell short.

Not a lot short, but not enough signatures were gathered where it was thought the petition could withstand a vigorous attack from well-financed organized homosexuals.

Now, it turns out that about the only bright spot on the conservative election horizon is the constitutional amendment banning of same sex marriage in California.

The ballot measure, labeled Proposition 8, is passing 52.3% to 47.7%. There’s over a half million vote spread.

Ironically, many of the same voters who pushed Barack Obama to victory voted to ban same sex marriage.

Exit polls taken of 1,200 voters in 50 Los Angeles precincts by the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University found that “50 percent of Latinos voted for Proposition 8 and 39 opposed it, while 47 percent of African-Americans voted for it and 40 percent against it,” according to the LA Times

So, here’s my question?

Had the state GOP gotten the Protect Marriage advisory referendum on the ballot in Illinois, might someone like Elgin’s State Rep. Ruth Munson have eeked out a victory, instead of losing by an unofficial 322 votes?

Understand that I don’t know how Munson stands on the issue and she would obviously have to been against gay marriage and her opponent Keith Farnham would have had to have been in favor of it for my suggested strategy to have had a chance of working.

However, if they had been on opposite sides of the issue, Elgin could have been ready-made to have replicated how California voters behaved.

In 2000, Elgin had 34% Latinos and almost 7% African Americans. These Elgin minorities are concentrated in Munson’s district. The district also dips into Carpentersville, which has 41% Hispanics, most of whom live on the East side in the Munson district.

“Blacks voted 70 percent in favor of Proposition 8, and slightly more than half the Hispanic voters backed the measure, according to exit polls released by the National Election Pool,” the Washington Times reported.

And, Andrew Pugno of ProtectMarriage.com said, “Inner-city black neighborhoods voted stronger for Prop. 8 than the Republican suburbs. An amazing analysis.”

According to Mark DiCamillo, director of The Field Poll in California,

“The Field Poll, completed one week before the election, had Catholics voting at about their registered voter population size (24% of the electorate) with voting preferences similar to those of the overall electorate, with 44% on the Yes side.

“However the network exit poll shows that they accounted for 30% of the CA electorate and had 64% of them voting Yes. Regular churchgoers showed a similar movement toward the Yes side. The pre-election Field Poll showed 72% of these voters voting Yes, while the exit poll showed that 84% of them voted Yes…

“My take is that polling on issues like same-sex marriage that have a direct bearing on religious doctrine can be affected in a big way in the final weekend by last minute appeals by the clergy and religious organizations.”

Whether Catholic Church priests and black ministers in Munson’s district would have done what their counterparts are said to have done in California is unknowable.

But, if they had, and if Munson had a campaign staff astute enough to capitalize on the issue, maybe she would have been re-elected.

Since neither the State GOP nor House Republicans nor Senate Republicans showed any inclination to help get the signatures to put the referendum on the ballot this year, I somehow doubt Munson would have been able to grab the opportunity.

If Tom Cross or Frank Watson’s successor or Andy McKenna figure out this could issue could help some legislators or even the GOP gubernatorial candidate in 2010, the time to be starting a petition campaign is now.

Last time it was the Mercy Health System’s attempt to obtain the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board’s approval.

Joseph Levine, Jim Ryan’s biggest fund raiser turned Rod Blagojevich buddy, fixed the favorable outcome after his contractor buddy Jacob Kiferbaum got the nod from Mercy to build the Crystal Lake hospital. Kiferbaum agreed to kick back to Levine and Tony Rezko.

To put it in the words of the U.S. Attorney’s press release on the Tony Rezko indictment:

“Rezko and Levine also were seeking to obtain a kickback of at least $1 million from contractor Jacob Kiferbaum, whose construction company was to build a new facility for Mercy Hospital in Crystal Lake, Illinois, if that facility received approval from the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, on which Levine sat.”

In any event, this time the controversy is down the Fox Valley in Elgin and concerns Provena St. Joe’s being granted permission to conduct open heart surgery after hiring John Wyma.

The gist of the Chicago Tribune story by Ray Long and Jeff Coen is that Provena hired Wyma. About a month after having gotten permission to expand its medical service, Provena’s for-profit arm made a $25,000 contribution to Governor Blagojevich’s campaign fund.

Just a coincidence, of course.