McHenry County Blog

A press release from Congressman Joe Walsh:

Senate Passes Rep. Walsh’s No-Hassle Flying Act

House expected to send measure to the President next week

WASHINGTON – Late last night, the Senate passed S. 3542, legislation based on the No-Hassle Flying Act that Rep. Joe Walsh (IL-08) introduced and the House passed in September.

The Senate-companion bill of the same name was introduced by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) and now heads to House of Representatives before it goes to the President.

“I am happy the Senate acted so quickly to pass this common-sense bill,” said Walsh.

“It’s proof once again that when Members put aside partisan differences, they can act swiftly to ease the lives of Americans in matters of national security.”

The No-Hassle Flying Act streamlines baggage security measures for international flights.

Because of an ambiguity in law, passengers originating from some overseas airports must have their baggage screened twice when returning home to the United States.

Members from the House of Representatives, Senate, and the Transportation Security Administration worked on compromise language that ensures passengers are no longer burdened by this double-security.

The collaborative legislation by Klobuchar, Blunt, and Walsh also received public support from industry groups Airlines 4 America, Airports Council International, American Association of Airport Executives, Global Business Travel Association, and the US Travel Association.

Recently, the Illinois Department of Public Health verified to McHenry County Blog that none of Planned Parenthood’s facilities are licensed by that agency.

A new Friend of McHenry County Blog who wishes to be identified as “McHenrymom210“ has become interested in the regulation of abortion clinics.

It is common knowledge since the Ragsdale abortion clinic case out of Rockford that abortion clinics have only minimal regulations to follow.

Indeed, what else could the result have been with all three parties to the suit being pro-abortion.

Dr. Richard Ragsdale’s position is self-evident since he brought the suit against state regulation in the first place. He was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Dr. Bernard Turnock, head of the Illinois Department of Public Health and an appointee of Jim Thompson, had no interest in offending the abortion industry. And neither did Democrat Attorney General Neal Hartigan.

So all three people at 1989 settlement conferences were on the same side of the abortion issue. “Pro-choice,” as they would put it.

It was pretty much like teacher-school board negotiations when the teachers’ union has put its people on the school board.

So, no surprise when meaningful inspections did not make the court order.

Having said that, there is some regulation of abortion clinics in Illinois.

They are called “Pregnancy Termination Specialty Centers” or PTSC’s for short. We’ll look at how the Illinois Department of Public Health has inspected them today.

These facilities don’t do abortions later than 18 weeks and have looser regulations.

How loose?

One indication might be the frequency of inspection by State Health Inspectors.

Here’s the record, as obtained through a Freedom of Information request:

• ACU Health Center in Hinsdale – Its last full nursing inspection was May 9, 1997. A complaint was filed and looked into on August 15, 2001, but no findings are in the documents provided.
• Anchor Health in Glen Ellyn – Inspected on March 6, 2002 for the initial survey (before patients are seen) and not inspected since.
• Access in Downers Grove – Inspected last October 1, 1998. There are some discrepancies in how many operating rooms they have in proportion to recovery chairs. McHenrymom210 believes the facility had some important medical violations.
• American Women’s in Des Plaines – Initially inspected on November 19, 2004. Facility was operating illegally without a license, stating that employees were told they could open on their old license. There has been no subsequent inspection.
• Forest View in Des Plaines – Inspected on February 8, 2005. This was their initial and only inspection.
• Michigan Ave Med Center in Chicago – Inspected on July 19, 2004. This was their initial and only inspection.
• National HCS of Peoria – Last inspected on August 14, 2002
• 

  McHenry County College is seen in the background of this Cemetery of the Innocents. Photo credit: Anne D'Amico.

  Northern IL Women’s Center in Rockford – Last nursing inspection on August 2, 1996, although they had an architectural inspection in November 5, 2010 and documents indicate costly upgrades are needed. Narrow doorways—needed if emergency medical personnel are called–were not noted in prior inspections. (McHenrymom210 notes such access was recently shown to be needed in Philadelphia’s Gosnell’s clinic and lack thereof caused considerable delay, as did stuff cluttering the halls and a locked door for which the key could not be found. Lack of ready access and egress may have been a critical factor in the death of a woman. The EMT’s were able to get the woman through its narrow doors, but they may have caused delay.)

• Women’s Aid Clinic in Lincolnwood – Last inspected on April 1, 1996.

There’s more to this story.

This may not be a shock to some readers, but it certainly was to me.

Planned Parenthood, a major abortion provider in Illinois, is not licensed by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Take a look the reply to my Freedom of Information request below:

No license, no inspections.

Does that strike anyone as strange?

Up 1,525%!

I was reading Capitol Fax Blog yesterday and found a reference to a Quad City Times editorial about the Pat Quinn administration having raised ski lift inspection fees from $60 to $950.

Democrats punching business in the gut again.

We visited Chestnut Mountain south of Galena this spring before all of the snow had melted on its slope.

You can guess that I took some photos.

We were at Eagle Ridge and had taken a side trip so my son and his friend could see the Mississippi River close up and personal.

We didn’t find a place where they could touch it until we found Chestnut Mountain.

The snow had not yet completely melted.

The magnolias were blooming at Eagle Ridge.

The kids had fun hacking on the sides of a crevasse of a cliff containing probably the oldest exposed rocks in Illinois. They weren’t scoured by the glacier or covered by glacial till.

One of the bigger attractions was the messiest. The boys found a wall of mud up the slope.

Naturally, they had to bring home samples.

One pancaked shaped, the other a ball.

There seemed to be two families at Chestnut Mountain.

I assume one was staying.

We were alone on the restaurant overlooking the sky hill and Mississippi River above which bald eagles were flying.

It cost me the price of soft drinks and red wine.

But, back to Illinois Democrats making it harder to make a profit at Chestnut Mountain.

Capitol Fax Blog linked to an editorial in the Quad City Times, a paper that circulates in Galena.

Here’s how it starts:

“If any place other than the state of Illinois attempted this, we’d call it a shakedown.“Instead, it’s called a regulatory fee, intended to offset the results of a zillion bad budgeting decisions that have nothing to do with regulation.

“Illinois’ new regulatory fees include an astounding 1,525 percent increase for state ski lift inspections. Last year, it was $60. This year, it will be $975.”

What does the state inspection consist of?

“They just started doing it about five years ago. Somebody would come from Springfield with a bucket load of stickers. They’d put a sticker in your window and take your money,” the Quad City Times quotes nearby Snowstar’s Ed Meyer.

“They’d basically look at you and say, ‘So, how does this thing work?’”

So, with six ski lifts, that’s an extra $5,430 in business expense for Chestnut Mountain.

In Wisconsin, the article says the state requires “third party, independent inspections.”

Presumably by someone who knows something about ski lifts.

Think Alpine Valley, where many McHenry County residents go to ski.

“Upon reflection, we find nothing to distinguish this fee gouging from a shakedown,”

the editorial concludes.

No word on what the state is going to charge to inspect the water slides used in the summer.

Who does the inspection?

The Labor Department’s Carnival and Amusement Ride Inspection Division.