McHenry County Blog

McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren got a headline saying he was in favor of a concealed carry law in today’s Northwest Herald, as you can see below.

Headline: "Sheriff Nygren supports concealed carry law."

I’d try to find the NW Herald article that I believe quoted a Crystal Lake Police Chief Keith Nygren as being against concealed carry in the 1990’s, but, with the NW Herald charging for its archives, that’s expecting too much. (And I didn’t buy today’s paper. I’m a second hand user.)

Beyond what I remember as a flip-flop from when I was state representative, Woodstock Advocate writer and Green Party sheriff’s candidate against Nygren, Gus Philpott, wrote in a comment about Nygren’s speech to the McHenry County Concealed Carry Association that

“Nygren was at the meeting and presented the position of the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association, which is to support concealed carry; however, at no point did Nygren ever say that HE supports concealed carry.

“What’s your position, Keith?”

It appears that question has been answered in today’s NW Herald.

But, as they say, actions speak louder than words.

Democratic Party challenger Mike Mahon points out that Nygren will not let about 230 his own trained and certified employees carry their weapons when off duty.

You know how you hear about off-duty Chicago policemen interrupting crimes while on their own time. They have guns.

Back when I was state representative, I was told of an Illinois Department of Corrections Office who was shot after he got off work by a gang banger friend of one of the inmates at either Joliet or Stateville prisons.

Illinois stupidly does not allow correctional officers to take their weapons home to defend themselves with. They have to lock them up in the prison. They can’t even have their own guns in the prison parking lot.

The result was that one correctional officer died on his way home to his Chicago neighborhood.

I introduced a bill, got it out of committee and to the House floor to rectify that situation. No help from the Illinois State Rifle Association. The legislation would have allowed correctional officers, both state and county, plus retired law enforcement officers, to carry handguns while not on the job.

My logic was that there would be that many more good guys on the street should some gang banger or crook or just plain nutcase decides to do something in their presence.

The State Rifle Association sat on its hands as a drunken Peoria area Democratic state representative took aim after a well-lubricated dinner.

The ISRA didn’t want any bill passed unless everyone was included.

And my bill lost.

Now, Mahon is calling out Nygren about allowing his own jailers and other trained and certified employees to be armed while off duty.

“Let them carry weapons while off the job,” Mahon is, in effect, saying.

“The community will be safer and you won’t be subject to the charge of being a hypocrite.”

I repeat, those were not Mahon’s words. You can read his words in his press release below:

The following statement was released Tuesday by McHenry County Sheriff candidate Mike Mahon:

Mike Mahon

“I find it interesting that Sheriff (Keith) Nygren has appeared to have gotten religion recently with respect to ‘concealed carry,’ when in fact he has had the capability to reinforce crime fighting in McHenry County for over a decade and has refused to do so.“

I am speaking of the over 230 trained McHenry County correctional and court security officers and process servers whose ability to carry firearms outside of the scope of their official duties has been denied by the same Sheriff Nygren who now states, according to a Northwest Herald article published March 2, 2010, that ‘when something happens to you or your family…the likelihood that there will be a policeman standing next to you is probably not very great’ and therefore that ‘private citizens who have guns could prove especially helpful in circumstances in which police were not instantly at the scene of an incident.’

“Now that the issue of concealed carry in Illinois might be getting some traction, Sheriff Nygren seems to be signaling some lukewarm support.

“But for years and years he could have permitted his officers, who have all completed the State of Illinois Law Enforcement mandatory firearms training course, who work for his office and whom he could keep a close eye on, to carry firearms not only as they travel to and from work but also when off-duty and in the community.

“The list of mass killings like Columbine, Virginia Tech and, closer to home, Northern Illinois University, unfortunately continues to lengthen. An off-duty officer in Utah was instrumental in halting an incident there within the last several years.

“But in McHenry County the additional cavalry are unarmed.

“I, for one, will be far more ready to believe in Sheriff Nygren’s new-found conversion to concealed carry if he immediately lifts his own restriction on the sworn, trained, and certified officers under his command.

“I will also ensure the people of McHenry County that one of my first acts as Sheriff, after a thorough review of personnel records, will be to allow the sworn and trained officers of the Sheriff’s department to carry their firearms off duty.

“This will instantly put hundreds more trained and vetted public servants on the street during their off-duty hours which will therefore bring a higher level of public safety to all citizens of the county.”

For more information contact the Mike Mahon for Sheriff Campaign at 847.515.4772.

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I will again point out that there was a woman who had Armed Forces training who was sitting in the front of the NIU auditorium when the massacre occurred.   She could have taken out the little squirrel who did the shooting from the stage, but, instead, she got killed.

NIU is what my campaign manager for governor (when I ran in 2002) called “a protection free zone.”

One more thing.  In John Lott’s “More Guns, Less Crime,” he points out the harder laws make it for people to obtain their own personal protection in the form of a gun, the less likely it is for those people really in need of such protection will be able to qualify.

So, if you want to discriminate against inner city residents, make the hurdles high.

What NIU students see when they log onto the university web site. (Click to enlarge any image.)

Just a little over a year after the mass murdering of students in a lecture hall, students are awaking this morning for a yellow highlighted notice of a “campus alert.”

Campus Alert

5:03 a.m., 2/19/10

NIU Police are investigating a shooting that occurred on campus during the early morning hours on Friday, February 19.

The incident occurred near the Stevenson Residence Hall. An NIU student was injured in the shooting, and was transported to Kishwaukee Community Hospital for treatment.

The message that the alert points to.

NIU Public Safety officials are stating that the event appears to be an isolated incident between two individuals, and that the alleged assailant is in police custody.

NIU Public Safety officials are advising all students, and campus residents to take extra precaution on Friday morning, and to be alert for any unusual circumstances.  If students observe anything that appears to be out of the ordinary they are asked to call NIU Public Safety at 815-753-1212.

The NIU campus remains open, and all classes will be held as scheduled.

---

4:29 a.m., 2/19/10

There has been a shooting on campus. Campus has been locked down. The suspect has been apprehended and is in custody. More details to come.

Just reading what the students have on their computers would make me think this is an isolated event.

= = = = =

Just reading what the students have on their computers would make me think this is an isolated event.

Click to enlarge.

It was about 4 AM when I awoke and asked my wife,

“What’s that?”

Sleepily she said something like, “What do you mean?”

“It felt like the house jumped,” I replied and got up to see if it was a snowplow that had just passed by.

Lakewood’s main drag was quiet, but the driveway, lit by the chimney star that stays on until the snow disappears, was illuminated.

There was another bright light across the street from our tree house above the swimming pool.

All of a sudden it went out.

When my son awoke, he heard that we had had an earthquake.

I guess the light that went out must have been a motion sensitive spotlight.

Closer to the Pingree Grove epicenter, one family near the Huntley High School, about 14 miles from the epicenter of the 3.8 magnitude quake, said that his bed was vibrating across the floor.

Again, click to enlarge.

Another said,

“It was like thunder, but much more disturbing than thunder.”

You can find more information about the quake here in the DeKalb Register.

If you would like to give the US Geologic Service information about what you saw and felt, you can do so at this web page. There are over 14,000 responses so far.

One interesting tid-bit that the paper did not mention in the context I shall is that the earthquake was caused by global warming.

Paul Stoddard, an associate professor in department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences at Northern Illinois University, points out in the story that the quake was caused by

“glacial rebound.”

From Wikipedia page on "post-glacial rebound"

The thousand feet of ice is long gone, of course.

Global warming.

Not man made, of course.

10,000 years in the making.

Cassidy Tire had this sign up the week that Sgt. Jason McLeod was honored in Crystal Lake.

Donations to the widow and her children may still be made by calling Marie Davis at 815-477-5050.

The McHenry County College Student Peace Group, or course, had no way of knowing its timing would be bad.

They canceled NIU Professor Marc Falkoff’s talk about his book

“Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak”

Now its on for the Thursday after next Tuesday’s election.

The group’s press release follows:

MCC’S STUDENT PEACE GROUP RESCHEDULES EVENT FEATURING GITMO LAWYER ON FEB. 4th

[Jan. 26, 2010.Crystal Lake, IL] The McHenry County College Student Peace Action Network (SPAN) has rescheduled a controversial event focusing on a book of poetry by Guantanamo Bay detainees. for Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. in the college’s conference center.

The keynote speaker, Marc Falkoff, a Northern Illinois University criminal law professor who represented 16 detainees, plans to speak about a book that he edited titled “Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak.”  The moderator will be Todd Culp, Ph.D., political science instructor at MCC.

Falkoff initially was scheduled to speak at the college in December, but the event was canceled because of security concerns. SPAN had planned the December speaking engagement well in advance, but publicity about the event stirred up controversy as it coincided with funeral visitation for Sgt. Jason A. McLeod, a 22-year-old from Crystal Lake who died in a mortar attack in Afghanistan.

Northern Illinois University criminal law Professor Marc Falkoff

He will discuss the torture the prisoners suffered, the false information elicited, the disarray of evidentiary files, and the telling resignations of  key military prosecutors.  According to Dr. Falkoff, a very real problem exists,

“politics rather than principle reigns at Guantánamo.  As concerned American citizens, we can learn what action we can take to demand accountability and redress of grievances.”

Following the program, he will be available to sign books.

The event is part of SPAN’s Current American Issues Information Seminar Series. SPAN is made up of students promoting peace nationally and locally through action and education. The event is co-sponsored by Pax Christi and the McHenry County Peace Coalition. The event is free and open to the public.

The college is located at 8900 U.S. Hwy. 14, Crystal Lake.  For more information, contact the MCC Student Activities Office at (815) 455-8772.

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Here’s background from NIU on the professor:

Background: Falkoff comes to NIU after three years as an attorney with Covington & Burling in New York. The firm, which is considered the top pro bono law firm in the nation, once named Falkoff the Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year during his time there. He earned his juris doctorate from Columbia and also holds a Ph.D. in literature from Brandeis. While this is his first full-time faculty appointment, he taught for several years as an adjunct member of the faculty at the Brooklyn Law School. He is currently working on behalf of 17 Yemeni men who are being held without charges by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay.

Why NIU? “NIU has a very high commitment to public interest law, and that is extremely important to me.”

Goals: “I want to give my students a solid grounding in legal theory, but also instill in them an appreciation for the amount of social good they can do in the world as a lawyer. Personally, I want to not only do excellent scholarly work, but also maintain my real-world focus. It is very important for me to do both, and that is actually something that is encouraged here.”

Maybe I should have entitled this “Another Entrepreneurial Employee” since I wrote a little while ago about Carpentersville District 300 energy czar David Ulm’s efforts to explore using windmills to offset electric costs.

After the District 300 legislative meeting during which pleas were made for the state funding for school construction which were assumed in the $185 million bond approved in 2006, newly elected State Rep. Keith Farnham (D-Elgin) was talking to Chief Technology Officer Eric Willard.

They discussed the possibility of commuter trains between Rockford, where Willard lives, and Elgin, among other things.

Impressed with what I heard about Willard’s plan for fiber optic linkage of the schools, I stuck around and got a fascinating presentation.

Willard has rented two dark fibers owned by the Illinois State Tollway Authority. This project was initiated in conjunction with NIU, that had similarly leased Tollway fiber down I-90, I-88 and is just about finished with linking the two systems to the third side of the triangle, I-39 (thanks to funds obtained from a federal grant).

The D300 fiber will connect from I-90 to NIU’s Hoffman Estates campus and then gain access to the Internet from them. This is how we’ll distribute the current risk from all schools in the district having their Internet access at DCHS.

At a current cost of about $88,000 a mile to bury new fiber to connect to the leased fiber, NIU has made quite an investment to connect their campuses in DeKalb, Rockford, Hoffman Estates and Naperville.

District 300 has rights to two strands beginning at the truck stop on I-90 at Route 20 and extending to Meacham Road.

My short course in fiber optic capacity taught me that eight colors will be transmitted over the fibers, allowing eight different connections each way.

If more capacity it needed, the electronics can be swapped out and up to 32 colors or message pathways can be used on the existing fiber, Willard said.

The new Hampshire High will be connected directly to the tollway cable and over-the-air connections will be made from there to the old high school, now a middle school and the grade school in town. Fiber already connects the new high school with Gary D. Wright Elementary School in Hampshire.

Willard wants to run a line up from the tollway to Dundee-Crown, where the the school district has its technology headquarters.

He is also talking to Kane County and McHenry County officials about the possibility of a joint project to run a fiber optic cable up Randall Road to serve the growing communications needs of the two counties and various cities and villages along the way.

His goal is for the cable to be laid when Randall Road is widened.

Willard has been approached by Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg for access to the cable strands that the Carpentersville School District is leasing.

Local law enforcement units are also showing interest in the opportunity.

I asked Willard if the District might bring in more money than it costs.

He grinned broadly and said he hadn’t mentioned that at this year’s presentation to legislators.

I wouldn’t lay odds that such an announcement might be made next year.

Finally, it occurs to me that if Crystal Lake gets its wish fulfillment of a new interceptor sewer, McHenry County College might want to pop for the cost of $88,000 to lay cable up Route 14.

Maybe I should have entitled this “Another Entrepreneurial Employee” since I wrote a little while ago about Carpentersville District 300 energy czar David Ulm’s efforts to explore using windmills to offset electric costs.

After the District 300 legislative meeting during which pleas were made for the state funding for school construction which were assumed in the $185 million bond approved in 2006, newly elected State Rep. Keith Farnham (D-Elgin) was talking to Chief Technology Officer Eric Willard.

They discussed the possibility of commuter trains between Rockford, where Willard lives, and Elgin, among other things.

Impressed with what I heard about Willard’s plan for fiber optic linkage of the schools, I stuck around and got a fascinating presentation.

Willard has rented two dark fibers owned by the Illinois State Tollway Authority. This project was initiated in conjunction with NIU, that had similarly leased Tollway fiber down I-90, I-88 and is just about finished with linking the two systems to the third side of the triangle, I-39 (thanks to funds obtained from a federal grant).

The D300 fiber will connect from I-90 to NIU’s Hoffman Estates campus and then gain access to the Internet from them. This is how we’ll distribute the current risk from all schools in the district having their Internet access at DCHS.

At a current cost of about $88,000 a mile to bury new fiber to connect to the leased fiber, NIU has made quite an investment to connect their campuses in DeKalb, Rockford, Hoffman Estates and Naperville.

District 300 has rights to two strands beginning at the truck stop on I-90 at Route 20 and extending to Meacham Road.

My short course in fiber optic capacity taught me that eight colors will be transmitted over the fibers, allowing eight different connections each way.

If more capacity it needed, the electronics can be swapped out and up to 32 colors or message pathways can be used on the existing fiber, Willard said.

The new Hampshire High will be connected directly to the tollway cable and over-the-air connections will be made from there to the old high school, now a middle school and the grade school in town. Fiber already connects the new high school with Gary D. Wright Elementary School in Hampshire.

Willard wants to run a line up from the tollway to Dundee-Crown, where the the school district has its technology headquarters.

He is also talking to Kane County and McHenry County officials about the possibility of a joint project to run a fiber optic cable up Randall Road to serve the growing communications needs of the two counties and various cities and villages along the way.

His goal is for the cable to be laid when Randall Road is widened.

Willard has been approached by Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg for access to the cable strands that the Carpentersville School District is leasing.

Local law enforcement units are also showing interest in the opportunity.

I asked Willard if the District might bring in more money than it costs.

He grinned broadly and said he hadn’t mentioned that at this year’s presentation to legislators.

I wouldn’t lay odds that such an announcement might be made next year.

Finally, it occurs to me that if Crystal Lake gets its wish fulfillment of a new interceptor sewer, McHenry County College might want to pop for the cost of $88,000 to lay cable up Route 14.

The following press release has been received from 16th congressional district United State Representative Don Manzullo. It says that McHenry County College will uses its $50,000 to purchase security cameras which will be located at campus entrances and parking lots. The images will be recorded.

There are no announced plans to place them outside of the MCC Board room.

Manzullo Secures $350,000 to Help Improve Security at MCC, NIU, Other Area Colleges

(CRYSTAL LAKE) – Congressman Don Manzullo (R-Egan) today announced he has secured $350,000 in federal funds to help McHenry County College, Northern Illinois University, and five other colleges in northern Illinois bolster security measures to improve safety for students on campus.

At a news conference at MCC this morning with MCC President Dr. Walt Packard, Manzullo announced he has earmarked $50,000 each for

• MCC,
• NIU,
• Kishwaukee College in Malta,
• Sauk Valley Community College in Dixon,
• Highland Community College in Freeport,
• Rock Valley College in Rockford, and
• Rockford College.

The funds were secured through the Fiscal Year 2008 appropriations process for public safety needs.

“As we continue to heal and remember the victims of the NIU tragedy, we must look ahead and implement measures to bolster safety on our college campuses to try to prevent it from happening again,” Manzullo said. “I secured these funds for MCC, NIU and the other institutions of higher learning in northern Illinois so they can purchase the equipment they need to better protect their students and teachers.”

Dr. Packard added, “Unfortunately, we live in an age when our world is not as secure as we would like it to be. It is now more important than ever for MCC to provide a secure educational environment for our students and staff. We truly appreciate the assistance being provided by Congressman Manzullo. This funding will provide a lasting contribution toward strengthening our security systems – and help improve our campus-wide safety efforts overall.”

The schools plan to use their allocations in the following ways:

· McHENRY COUNTY COLLEGE – will purchase video surveillance cameras to cover college entrances and parking lots. Images will be viewable in the Campus Safety and Security Office and footage will be digitally recorded. Cameras can be programmed to automatically focus on a particular area.
· NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY – will purchase heavy duty emergency medical kits that will be placed in all major buildings on campus as well as emergency response vehicles. The kits will contain dozens of items needed for faster trauma response.
· ROCK VALLEY COLLEGE (Rockford) – will purchase a second siren to the south side of its main campus, additional software to allow instant messaging to all campus computers, hardware and software to enhance National Weather System connectivity to display emergency notifications on closed circuit TVs, and other communications equipment to increase telephone support in new classrooms.
· ROCKFORD COLLEGE (Rockford) – will purchase an emergency notification system capable of sending emergency messages in various modes (voice messages to land lines and cell phones, text messages to cell phones, PDAs, and other text-based devices, written messages to email accounts, and messages to devices for the hearing impaired); expanded security for campus residence halls, including key card access; and enhanced connectivity between the college and Winnebago County 911 response.
· HIGHLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE (Freeport) – will use the funds to help purchase a campus-wide Public Address system to help meets its critical on-campus need. The system will allow emergency messages to be broadcast to all areas of the campus and will also allow emergency messages to be sent from any particular room to the entire campus.
· KISHWAUKEE COLLEGE (Malta) – will purchase six Blue Light emergency phones for the parking lots. These phones provide a direct link to the campus communications center. Students can simply pick up the handset or press the “call” button to report a crime, a fire, a medical emergency, or to request an escort.
· SAUK VALLEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE (Dixon) – will purchase extra security cameras throughout the campus, enhance its intercom system with new audio/visual capabilities, and purchase additional intercom units in classrooms, stairways and all the parking lots.

The following press release has been received from 16th congressional district United State Representative Don Manzullo. It says that McHenry County College will uses its $50,000 to purchase security cameras which will be located at campus entrances and parking lots. The images will be recorded.

There are no announced plans to place them outside of the MCC Board room.

Manzullo Secures $350,000 to Help Improve Security at MCC, NIU, Other Area Colleges

(CRYSTAL LAKE) – Congressman Don Manzullo (R-Egan) today announced he has secured $350,000 in federal funds to help McHenry County College, Northern Illinois University, and five other colleges in northern Illinois bolster security measures to improve safety for students on campus.

At a news conference at MCC this morning with MCC President Dr. Walt Packard, Manzullo announced he has earmarked $50,000 each for

• MCC,
• NIU,
• Kishwaukee College in Malta,
• Sauk Valley Community College in Dixon,
• Highland Community College in Freeport,
• Rock Valley College in Rockford, and
• Rockford College.

The funds were secured through the Fiscal Year 2008 appropriations process for public safety needs.

“As we continue to heal and remember the victims of the NIU tragedy, we must look ahead and implement measures to bolster safety on our college campuses to try to prevent it from happening again,” Manzullo said. “I secured these funds for MCC, NIU and the other institutions of higher learning in northern Illinois so they can purchase the equipment they need to better protect their students and teachers.”

Dr. Packard added, “Unfortunately, we live in an age when our world is not as secure as we would like it to be. It is now more important than ever for MCC to provide a secure educational environment for our students and staff. We truly appreciate the assistance being provided by Congressman Manzullo. This funding will provide a lasting contribution toward strengthening our security systems – and help improve our campus-wide safety efforts overall.”

The schools plan to use their allocations in the following ways:

· McHENRY COUNTY COLLEGE – will purchase video surveillance cameras to cover college entrances and parking lots. Images will be viewable in the Campus Safety and Security Office and footage will be digitally recorded. Cameras can be programmed to automatically focus on a particular area.
· NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY – will purchase heavy duty emergency medical kits that will be placed in all major buildings on campus as well as emergency response vehicles. The kits will contain dozens of items needed for faster trauma response.
· ROCK VALLEY COLLEGE (Rockford) – will purchase a second siren to the south side of its main campus, additional software to allow instant messaging to all campus computers, hardware and software to enhance National Weather System connectivity to display emergency notifications on closed circuit TVs, and other communications equipment to increase telephone support in new classrooms.
· ROCKFORD COLLEGE (Rockford) – will purchase an emergency notification system capable of sending emergency messages in various modes (voice messages to land lines and cell phones, text messages to cell phones, PDAs, and other text-based devices, written messages to email accounts, and messages to devices for the hearing impaired); expanded security for campus residence halls, including key card access; and enhanced connectivity between the college and Winnebago County 911 response.
· HIGHLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE (Freeport) – will use the funds to help purchase a campus-wide Public Address system to help meets its critical on-campus need. The system will allow emergency messages to be broadcast to all areas of the campus and will also allow emergency messages to be sent from any particular room to the entire campus.
· KISHWAUKEE COLLEGE (Malta) – will purchase six Blue Light emergency phones for the parking lots. These phones provide a direct link to the campus communications center. Students can simply pick up the handset or press the “call” button to report a crime, a fire, a medical emergency, or to request an escort.
· SAUK VALLEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE (Dixon) – will purchase extra security cameras throughout the campus, enhance its intercom system with new audio/visual capabilities, and purchase additional intercom units in classrooms, stairways and all the parking lots.

McHenry County Blog has received a press conference announcement from 16th district United State Congressman Don Manzullo.

He will announce campus security grants on Monday morning at McHenry County College.

The release follows:

Manzullo to Announce Campus Security Funds
for MCC, NIU in Crystal Lake Monday

(CRYSTAL LAKE) Congressman Don Manzullo (R-IL) will host a news conference in Crystal Lake Monday morning to announce federal funding he has secured to bolster campus security at McHenry County College, Northern Illinois University and several other colleges in northern Illinois.

The news conference will begin at 11 a.m. Monday, April 14, in Room A240 Bersted Lecture Hall (this room is accessible by entering A Building and is just down the hall from the Human Resources Department on the 2nd floor) at McHenry County College, 8900 U.S. Hwy. 14, Crystal Lake.

Congressman Manzullo will be joined at the news conference by Dr. Walt Packard, President of MCC, who will discuss the college’s plans for the funding.

McHenry County Blog has received a press conference announcement from 16th district United State Congressman Don Manzullo.

He will announce campus security grants on Monday morning at McHenry County College.

The release follows:

Manzullo to Announce Campus Security Funds
for MCC, NIU in Crystal Lake Monday

(CRYSTAL LAKE) Congressman Don Manzullo (R-IL) will host a news conference in Crystal Lake Monday morning to announce federal funding he has secured to bolster campus security at McHenry County College, Northern Illinois University and several other colleges in northern Illinois.

The news conference will begin at 11 a.m. Monday, April 14, in Room A240 Bersted Lecture Hall (this room is accessible by entering A Building and is just down the hall from the Human Resources Department on the 2nd floor) at McHenry County College, 8900 U.S. Hwy. 14, Crystal Lake.

Congressman Manzullo will be joined at the news conference by Dr. Walt Packard, President of MCC, who will discuss the college’s plans for the funding.