Yesterday, McHenry County Blog published the Lakewood Village Board’s discussion when the newly-purchase golf club came up way short on revenue to fulfill the requirements of the Alternative Revenue Bonds issued to buy it.
Jump ahead about twenty years and we find a proposal for “Construct Leaseback Transactions.”
Strangely, the proposal from
Draper and Kramer
Gateway Development Partners
BKV Group
Stern Brothers & Co., Investment Bankers
FCL Builders
does not say what project is being addressed.
I think it was a new clubhouse, but I am not certain.
Nevertheless, two pages are relevant to the new RedTail Golf Clubhouse discussions now in progress.
Here they are:
Note the bottom dot point, which points out the debt certificates would be repaid from Lakewood’s “annual operating budget.” Therefore, should RedTail revenues fall short, homeowners would have to pick up the slack through higher property taxes.Note that no referendum is required for the Lakewood Village Board to put the Village in debt.
Freedom Night 2022, sponsored by the One Nation Under God Foundation, was held on Wednesday evening, August 3rd, 2022, at The Abbey Resort in Lake Geneva.
Paul Caprio serves as Executive Director while Reverend Robert Vanden Bosch is Chairman.
Founded in 2002, the One Nation Under God Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt organization which promotes pastor and voter education and Christian voter registration and turnout.
“Since 2002, the One Nation Under God Foundation has printed and distributed 501 (c)(3) Christian voter guides at churches in Illinois, Arkansas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Ohio and has coordinated church registration efforts in 18 states.”
As Paul Caprio explained in his opening remarks, this was the third Freedom Night event held in Wisconsin.
For many years Freedom night was held in Chicago and featured a boat trip on the Chicago River, but Covid lock downs by Chicago’s mayor and governor necessitated a change in location.
A view from one of the boat cruises.
Mr. Caprio then went on to speak about the attack on freedom by the radical left, which Caprio described as America’s brand of Marxism.
Even so, Paul Caprio believes that some progress has been made in the last two years.
The majority of Americans love freedom.
We now have angry parent groups who are angry and who will play a role in taking back the culture from the grassroots up. Paul also expressed how churches and their pastors must become more active.
Introduction of 2022 Honoree, Dr. Carol Swain
Mr. Vince Kolber, Chairman/Principal/Founder of Residual Based Finance Corp., introduced Dr. Carol Swain.
“From high school dropout and teenage mother to highly accomplished university professor and public intellectual, Dr. Carol M. Swain is passionate about empowering others to confidently raise their voices in the public square.”
“Dr. Swain is an award winner who has authored or edited 8 books, been cited by the U.S Supreme Court, and received numerous accolades for her work.”
Notable is the book, Black Eye for America: How Critical Race Theory is Burning Down the House, by Carol M. Swain PhD and Christopher J. Schorr PhD, with foreward by Benjamin S. Carson.
In Black Eye for America, the authors expose the true nature of CRT and offer concrete solutions for taking back the country’s stolen institutions by:
Describing CRT in theory and practice, accounting for its origins and weaponization within American schools and workplaces
Explaining how this ideology threatens traditional American values and legal doctrines, including civil rights
Equipping everyday Americans with strategies to help them resist and defeat CRT’s pernicious influence.
Dr. Carol Swain’s electrifying speech
Carol Swain
Dr. Carol Swain could be described as one who restores hope to the American dream
Born on March 7, 1954, in Bedford, Virginia, Swain was one of twelve children.
Growing up in poverty, she lived in a shack without running water, sharing two beds with her eleven siblings.
Not having shoes, Swain missed school whenever it snowed and droped out of high school in the ninth grade.
A teen wife at 16 and a mother at 17, Swain had three children by the age of 20.
Although living better than other members of her family, Swain seemed doomed to failure.
Struggling with depression, hospitalization changed Swain’s life and how she saw herself.
A doctor told her that she was intelligent and could do much more with her life.
This encouraged Dr. Swain to earn her GED and to have the confidence to take a job outside her home, where she worked worked as a cashier at McDonald’s, a door-to-door salesperson, and an assistant in a retirement facility.
But it was a Muslim orderly who set in motion Ms. Swain’s decision to try college.
Academic success followed and Swain went on to earn 5 degrees.
As to Swain’s academic career, she received tenure as an associate professor of politics and public policy at Princeton University (1990-1999). From 1999 to 2017, she taught political science and law at Vanderbilt University, retiring from her post at Vanderbilt in 2017.
Even though academic success came her way, Swain was not happy.
For she did not share the expectation of how a black person should think or act.
Her success also undermined the narrative of the left
A turning point occurred when Swain had a life changing experience, ending with a born again experience.
Nancy Thorner taking notes for this article.
At this time she was cured from her life long shyness.
It was then that she looked at the party platforms of the Democrat and Republican parties, at which time she left the Democrat Party to become an Independent (2000s-2009).
Later on upon visiting the party platforms once again, Swain found the Republican Party to be the closest to her beliefs.
She became a Republican in 2009 and remains to the present time.
Leaving academia after 28 years to step out on her own, Swain described today’s classroom as that of the world.
What motivates Swain is to see other people gain success.
Truth led Dr. Swain to freedom, and it is truth that will set you free.
The commission called for patriotic education and criticized liberals for “left-wing indoctrination in our schools.”
The report was condemned by historians who noted that there were no professional historians of the United States on the commission.
Thomas More Society founder Tom Brejcha.
Following Dr. Swain’s remarks, Paul Caprio presented Tom Brejcha, president, founder and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society, with the the One Nation Under God Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Music for the evening was provided by Christian vocalist, Ms. Lindsey, Graham, with lovely vocal renditions of God Bless America, God Bless the U.S.A. (Proud to be an American), and an armed forces medley.
Lindsey Graham is a full-time vocalist pursuing God’s call on her life in ministry through music. She is a graduate of Belmont University with a degree in Commercial Vocal Performance, has a Masters in Religion with an emphasis in Worship Studies, and a Doctor in Worship Studies from Liberty University. She enjoys incorporating the flute, penny whistle, and piano in a concert setting in addition to a vocal range of musical styles including Gospel, Classical and Musical Theater. Lindsey loves the Lord, loves His people, and thrives on singing for His glory!
Candidates who attended Freedom Night 2022
Introduction of GOP State Comptroller candidate Shannon Teresi, McHenry County Auditor.
Stephanie Trussell–candidate for Lt governor.
Al Salvi represented his wife (Kathy) who is running for the U.S. Senate.
Shannon Teresi–candidate for Illinois comptroller
Mark Curran–candidate Illinois Supreme Court (District 2) and his primary opponent, John Noverini who has endorsed Curran.
Regan Deering–candidate for Congress 13th (Congressional District).
Retiring State Representative Tom Morrison and State Representative Martin McLaughlin.
Candidates for State Representative–Jed Davis, Michelle Hunter, Jack Vrett
Benton Howser–candidate for Cook County Commissioner
“Voter turnout was low for the June primary election in Illinois.
“Just under 22% of registered voters cast a ballot in the June 28th election.
“State Board of Elections spokesperson Matt Dietrich says that’s the second lowest turnout for a primary in Illinois in the last 40 years.
“Dietrich says nearly 52% of those voting were democrats and 46% were republicans. Five Illinois counties offered libertarian ballots for certain offices.
“Dietrich says about 16% of voters opted for mail-in ballots.”
Here are turnout figures from 1976 through 1996:
McHenry County Voter Turnout from the 1970’s to the 1990’s.
In June, the turnout was only 19.6%.
McHenry County Voter Turnout at the June, 2022, Primary Election.
Tha almost 2.1 million- person San Bernardino County’s voters will be asked the following question this fall;
“Do the citizens of San Bernardino County want the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors to study all options to obtain its fair share of state and federal resources, up to and including secession?”
San Bernardino County.
Although much smaller, McHenry County is also a border county.
After my relatively minor knee operation that rendered me pretty much non-ambulatory in the middle of July, I have been sorting through stuff in what appears to be about two dozen boxes going back to the early 1990’s.
Now comes the FBI raiding Trump’s Florida home and office.
I see in The Spectator the following about the raid:
Donald Trump announced Monday night that the FBI had raided his home in Mar-a-Lago. One would assume the bar should be exceedingly high for the Department of Justice to execute a search warrant on a man who was previously the leader of the free world. That would not appear to be the case here. Nor, sadly, is it surprising, given the seemingly endless fishing expedition that Biden and the Democrats have subjected Trump to over the past year and a half.
According to a report from the New York Times, agents supposedly went into Trump’s home in Florida to check whether he had retained or hidden any classified documents from his time at the White House. Thus far, the only evidence provided for this is that he ‘delayed returning’ about 15 boxes of material to the National Archives (the boxes were returned in February). Trump claimed in a statement that he had been working with the government to return all of the required documents.
McHenry County commentator Bill Parrot observed:
fleeting images of body-armored & automatic-weaponized FBI agents encircling the private residence of a former U.S. President .. eerily reminiscent of banana republic tyranny of a bygone era
perhaps desperation born of abject fear captivating the illegitimate clowns in positions of authority dreading the inevitable tsunami of public outrage over excesses of power projection & arrogant incompetence .. crewing a pathetic ship of fools
in preparation for an unprecedented red tidal wave in coming months … we can all celebrate the ground breaking of Liz Cheney & Adam Kinzinger’s joint used car lot sales venture somewhere between Wyoming and Illinois with their mutually pitiful political careers culminating in an unattended farewell seance
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Much of any useful evidence I have is already in a landfill.
Two Defendants Convicted in Federal Investigation That Dismantled Mexico-to-Chicago Drug Pipeline
CHICAGO — A jury has convicted two suburban Chicago men on drug conspiracy charges as part of a federal investigation that disrupted a Mexico-to-Chicago drug pipeline.
SHELDON MORALES and EDUARDO SANTANA conspired with a supplier in Mexico and two inmates in a prison in Texas to traffic
methamphetamine,
fentanyl, and
cocaine
from Mexico to Evanston, Ill., and Morton Grove, Ill., in 2019.
The drugs were sent in packages from California and Arizona and later sold on the streets in the Chicago area.
Law enforcement uncovered the drug trafficking activities through the use of wiretapped cellular phones and extensive surveillance.
The case was part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces investigation.
OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles drug traffickers and other criminal offenders that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.
After a week-long trial in U.S. District Court in Chicago, the jury on Aug. 5, 2022, convicted Morales, 40, of Morton Grove, Ill., and Santana, 45, of Skokie, Ill., on a drug conspiracy charge.
Morales was also convicted of an individual drug charge related to his possession of methamphetamine and fentanyl.
Morales faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a maximum of life, while Santana faces a mandatory minimum of ten years and a maximum of life.
U.S. District Judge Mary M. Rowland has not yet scheduled sentencings.
The convictions were announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Robert J. Bell, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; and Justin Campbell, Special Agent-in-Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in Chicago. Substantial assistance was provided by the Evanston Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Charles W. Mulaney, Kirsten Moran, and Jeannice Appenteng represent the government.
If you look at the value of the total salary and benefits paid McHenry County Correctional Officers, you might want to encourage acquaintances to apply.
From the Sheriff’s Department comes this announcement:
Now Accepting Applications for Correctional Officers
August 8, 2022
The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office is currently accepting applications for the position of Correctional Officer.
McHenry County Jail
The physical agility test (P.O.W.E.R. Test) and written exam will take place on Saturday, October 8, 2022 starting at 8:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
Applications and all required documents must be received by 4:00 p.m. on Monday, October 3, 2022. No P.O.W.E.R cards will be accepted.
Additional information can be found at https://www.mchenrysheriff.org/join-us/work-with- us/#corrections-officer. P.O.W.E.R.
Test standards can be found here: https://bit.ly/3Qe0UqF.
Qualifications to apply are as follows:
Age: Minimum 21 years of age. Applicants may test at 20 but must be 21 upon hiring. Education: High school diploma or GED. Citizenship: United States citizen. Experience: No prior experience is required. Job training provided upon hiring. Driver’s License: Applicant must possess a valid driver’s license. FOID Card: Applicant must possess or can obtain a Firearm Owners Identification Card (FOID) upon employment. Residency: Employees must live within McHenry County, any bordering Illinois counties, or Kenosha & Walworth counties in Wisconsin, within one year of hiring. Pay & Benefits: Starting rate is $56,966/annually. Employees also receive paid holidays, paid vacation, annual raises, and sick time after one-year probation. Medical, dental, and life insurance is offered by the County for the employee and dependents (co-pay). Benefits are subject to change, dependent upon the Union’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Applicants must submit their application and all required paperwork online at www.mchenrysheriff.org/join-us/employment-application by 4:00 p.m. on October 3, 2022.
Paper applications can be picked up and returned in-person or mailed to the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office Correctional Facility.
The public entrance to the Correctional Facility is located near the corner of N. Seminary Ave. (Route 47) and Ware Road in Woodstock.
McHenry County Sheriff’s Office – Correctional Division 2200 N. Seminary Avenue Woodstock, IL 60098 Phone: (815) 334-4933 | Fax: (815) 334-3031
Applications for lateral transfers are being accepted on a continual basis.
If you have questions after referring to our website, please contact correctionsemployeeeesting@mchenrycountyil.gov.
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I’ve been told that a number of women are or have recently retired.
First Kane County Board Democrats wanted to hold a referendum this fall asking voters to increase sales taxes by 5%.
Then, deciding probably they would stand a better chance at passage at the April school/municipal board elections because of lower turnout, they aimed for a spring referendum.
The Kane County Board just defeated placing the sales tax referendum on the ballot in both April and November.
First the Board voted 12-11 to move referendum back to November.
Then, the Board voted 13-9 against putting it on the ballot at all.
Appears as if some of the Democrats, who control the Board, feared of a November backlash.
The article I read in the McHenry County Blog, dated August 3, 2022, had me consider how I would reach out to you to share my thoughts on your comments. Along with asking specific questions about your comments against Senator Darren Bailey.
My first thought – why are you bringing something up from 5 years ago against the Republican party’s choice for governor? Would this have been the best time for you to bring this up? Why didn’t you bring it up five years ago?
My second thought – one that I wish all politicians would do is to check facts before making comments. I researched the statistics of both events. They are BOTH horrific, horrendous, and entirely WRONG. To murder even one is wrong. However, you brought up and are speaking against a statement from 5 years ago – let’s look at the FACTS. While it is virtually impossible to come up with an accurate number of deaths during the holocaust time and I would wager the deaths of abortion are as brutal to count. The numbers I found during the time of the holocaust are between 6 million and 11 million people who were murdered brutally. The numbers I have seen for abortion between 1973-2020 are 63.4 million or more. Regardless of the actual number for BOTH events in history, one thing is for sure: the extermination of life for both events resulted in the death of millions of innocent people, which is a shame for humanity.
My third and final thought is – I thought you were PRO-LIFE? The comment you made against Darren Bailey read as though you are not. You are running on the Republican platform, and one of the pillars of Republicans is and has been Pro-Life. I wonder if you talked to Darren Bailey privately and discussed this matter with him to understand his meaning. Or did you go to the press first?
So, Representative Reicke, here are my questions for you:
Did you go to Senator Bailey first to ask him directly?
Do you feel your comments against our Republican choice for governor hurt Bailey or Helped Pritzker?
Have you considered speaking to Senator Bailey and offering an apology now that you have facts and numbers?
Again, I state BOTH atrocities are horrendous and wrong. However, standing on our Pro-Life Pillar within our party is also very important. How can you NOT say that 63.4 million lives were not as important as the ones in Europe?ONE LIFE MATTERS!!!
As the McHenry County Government ramps up its budget process, it is worth reflecting on the savings the State’s Attorney’s Office has intentionally pursued over the last six years by having cut its budget by more than 12%.
Saved approximately $2,465,000 in payroll funds by minimizing SAO staff over the past 6 years
Saved approximately $1,500,000 by transition of all labor related law matters in-house instead of paying private attorney’s charging hourly fees
Awarded $787,000 in grant funds toward the SAO Payroll
Saved over $90,000 by bringing a grand jury court reporter in-house
Saved over $75,000 by utilizing the SAO Asset Forfeiture Funds for criminal prosecutions and equipment expenses
Saved over $8,000 by conducting in-house CLEs
The entire budget for the State’s Attorney’s Office in 2022 was approximately $3.1 million.
Cleaning out some boxes of past legislative stuff, I found this 1995 letter from State Senator Walter Dudycz asking for support for his bill that would equalize the training for part-time with that of full-time police officers.
I do not know if it passed, although I imagine it did.
Top of the front page of today’s Chicago Tribune is an article concerning State Senator Elgie Sims’ involvement with an Arizona company that sees body cameras.
Sims was the main sponsor of the so-called “Criminal Reform Bill” passed just before 5 AM right at the end of the outgoing sesssion in 2021.
The article points to other Democratice Party legislators who have run afoul of Federal law, but does not mention they are Democrats:
We already know that a previous Lakewood Village Board made a bsd judgment in issuing Alternative Revenue Bonds to finance the purchase of a golf course now called “RedTail.”
A Northwest Herald article from February 16, 1993, adds some details.
At the time, there was only $100,000 in the golf club’s coffers.
“We might have to look at selling that course,” said Trustee Harold McKenney.
The article concluded with “Trustees hope to attrack more players next session vy tripling the size of their clubhouse trailer.
“They won’t agree to build a permanent clubhouse until the course is solvent or enough park impact fees are collected from developers.”
There ere 18,000 rounds in the first season of play, about which Trustee Jack Frothingham said, “That’s a lot of round for new course.”
(The Center Square) – Data from a moving website shows the outmigration from Illinois has continued this year.
This moving van headed west from Crystal Lake.
According to the moving website moveBuddha, data for state-to-state moves shows that for every 42 moves into Illinois there are 100 moving out, the third highest outbound interest in the country this year, behind New York and California.
The website gathers data of not only where people are moving, but the reasons behind the move.
“It looks like the property taxes are a huge factor for people wanting to move, because Illinois has the second highest property taxes behind New Jersey,” said marketing specialist Mercedes Martinez.
Illinois also has the 10th largest tax burden nationally, with the combined impact of personal income tax, property, sales and business taxes comparatively high.
The report notes that when Illinoisans leave the state, they take high incomes with them. The IRS estimates more than $16 million in tax dollars left Illinois from 2019 to 2020 as residents moved away.
The top states where Illinoisans have been moving to include Florida, Texas and California. The top three cities for those exiting the state in 2022 are Ocala, Florida; Seattle, Washington; and Austin, Texas.
The biggest losing large city is Rockford which has lost over 5% of its population, while the small community of Nevada, Illinois has lost an incredible 84% of its residents.
According to moveBuddha, the top most internet searched route this year has been Downers Grove to Ocala, Florida.
“Population decreasing has been going on for a couple years now, and it’s not getting any better unfortunately for Illinois,” said Martinez.
