April 8th -  Rotary Razzamatazz!!  will be held at the Birchwood Club beginning at 6 p.m.  Both dinner and raffle tickets are available now. This year there are Early Bird Specials. Dinner tickets $90 in honor of our 90th Birthday, NOW THROUGH MARCH 30th. Raffle Tickets are $100 each and when you buy two, you get a third FREE -NOW THROUGH March 30th. GET YOURS NOW by contacting Mike Babian at 847-863-6729.  With a comedy show by the Improv Playhouse and those amazing kids from last year, the HPHS DJ Club, we are sure to have a great night of laughter and dancing while raising money to help local students and charities.  It's a birthday party not to miss - so get your Gatsby on and join us!  Also see Mike for Event Sponsorship Opportunities.

See "This and That" for more...

Today's speaker Scott Drury, State Representative of the 58th District, started his third term in January and went down as the only Democrat to not vote for Michael Madigan for Speaker of the House.  As a result, he was thrown off the Criminal Judiciary Committee where he was Vice Chair and has lots of experience.  This was not a brave move, but one of principle.  If only 7 more had done the same, the State could have had another Speaker of the House. 

 

Scott's assessment is that there will be NO budget until 2018 when nearly every office is up for election; the entire House and 1/3 of the State Senate seats.  It seems to be easier to run against Rauner or Madigan than to fix the problems. The state needs NEW revenue, Pension Reforms and Tort Reforms.  It is easier to do nothing.  Governor Rauner had put one line item in the budget: called the Grand Bargain, a $4 Billion deal, but the Governor pulled all the Republicans off the vote when there was talk of compromise.

 

In his opinion, the only thing that will help at both the State and National level, and the #1 reform needed is FAIR ELECTION MAPS.  Only 25 people in the state run in competitive election districts which means the rest are not accountable to anyone.  

 

If we aren't all too depressed and decide to move out of state, let's help the third Independent Maps group that comes along to reform this.