From the top floor of the Alton Weekly Inquirer Action EyeWitness NewsCenter On Your Side--With More Local News!, in the true-blue state of Illinois....
Our Top Story Today--The Economic Slump Impacts Granite City Steel: The already hard-hit steel industries in this East Metro town, across the river from north St. Louis, recieved another blow when Amsted Steel Foundries announced layoffs of 350 workers by mid February. This is on top of the 1600 jobs already lost at U.S. Steel's Granite City plant:
"It has never gotten this bad, ever, in Granite City Steel's 130-year history," said Russ Saltsgaver, president of the United Steelworkers Local 1899.
Sorry to begin on a downer, but this is major news for our area. Let's go to press!
The......
The 2010 Republican Florida U.S. Senate candidate slate takes shape. Maybe: At the Republican Party of Florida meeting recently held in Orlando, at least four Republicans turned out to test the waters for a run, including two-time Senate race loser (and current Florida AG) Bill McCollum; former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio; and current Congresscritters Connie Mack IV and Vern Buchanan. Though McCollum is percieved to be the front runner, Rubio seems the most prepared to run the race. The two Congressmen seem to be just testing the waters at this point.
The first rule about Chuck E. Cheese: We don't talk about Chuck E. Cheese: While you might think the biggest danger from the popular chain of pizza restaurant cum kid's party centers might be bleeding eardrums from the noisy kids inside, it seems there is a new and more alarming trend at Chuck E. Cheese's, as reported by Pennlive.com. Police have been repeatedly called out to the Susquehanna Township location to break up fights, and have made arrests for everything from disorderly conduct to theft--the perps being the adults in most cases. A fine, fine example they are setting for our kids, they are.
Blago had but one friend in the Illinois House last week: The sole vote in the Illinois House against impeachment of Governor Rod Blagojevich was cast by Democrat Milton "Milt" Patterson (D-Chicago). He is (now was) an obscure backbencher who did not make news until his final vote in the House. As reported by Steve Rhodes of The Beachwood Reporter, Project Vote Smart stated that Patterson, "REPEATEDLY REFUSED TO PROVIDE ANY RESPONSES TO CITIZENS ON ISSUES THROUGH THE 2006
NATIONAL POLITICAL AWARENESS TEST." (their all-caps, not mine) And here I was, thinking he couldn't be one more pay-to-play Illinois hack politician. Or something.
Speaking of Blago and the Illinois Lege, one word--A W K W A R D:
For those who can't view the vid: it's Blago in his full glory, addressing the Senate after he swore in the body that will try him shortly. He was not greeted with applause.
Page Six!
We start with one of the stars of the Showtime series The L Word, which starts its final season this Sunday:
Jennifer Beals, born in 1963 in Chicago, first came to prominence in the 1983 film Flashdance. She then put her career on hold to graduate from Yale, where one of her classmates was David Duchovny, who suggested her for the Gillian role in The X Files (the role went to Gillian Anderson). She is a Chicago native, and the daughter of an African-American grocery store owner and an Irish elementary school teacher.
This week we also feature late night talk-show host Craig Ferguson. AEWNCOYS-WMLN entertainment reporter SnoKat has more:
Craig Ferguson got married to his art-dealer girlfriend over the holidays. It's number 3 for him. And I hear he lives next door to his ex wife so it's easier to share custody of their son. He also made a big (proud) deal about becoming a citizen of the USA and voting! Well, good on him. I adore Craig, but I can't stay up late enough to watch him. Thank goodness for YouTube! One of my favorites is Craig's announcement that he was not going to jump on the "trash Britney Spears" bandwagon back when she shaved her head and was really a mess. He made an amazing 12 minute monologue about his own alcoholism and the reality of being a celebrity. It's really amazing, funny, touching, poignant and not something you'd ever hear a late night TV host do. And I ADORE a Scottish accent.
Bowing out with grace and class--he's doing it right: Tony Dungy, coach of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts, retired from football last Tuesday. The coach, beloved and respected in both the Indianapolis and Tampa communities (he was head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccanneers before going to Indianapolis) will return to Tampa, and in his words,
"I think I've got a responsibility to be home a little bit more, be available to my family a little bit more and do some things to help make our country better. I don't know what that is right now, but we'll see."
The work may find him, actually. Sen. Evan Bayh has proposed that he work with the incoming President to promote responsible fatherhood, according to (cough) Fox News. Dungy admires Obama tremendously, and the feeling is apparently mutual. I'm sure we will be seeing the Coach again soon!
Speaking of Tony Dungy, Peter King (the sportswriter, not the icky Congresscritter) wrote:
If I were Barack Obama, I'd be on the phone with Dungy this morning, asking if there's some post Obama could create to get Dungy out front as an inspirational leader for the troubled, addicted or imprisoned people of our country. When I asked Dungy last summer if he'd like to appear in an Obama campaign event, he said he'd be thrilled and honored to do so.
Dungy never did make an appearance with Obama--but Obama won Indiana anyway. If Dungy had, it might have been a landslide! But yes, great minds (if you call Bayh's and King's minds great) think alike, it seems.
An alternate take on Dungy: Ta-Nehisi Coates has an alternate view on Tony Dungy. The discussion in the comments section is good, also. I'm torn, personally; for myself, I believe the good in Tony Dungy far outweighs the bad, but I also firmly believe in the right of same-sex couples to marry, and Dungy opposes it. Perhaps, in time, his position will evolve--he's far from being a brain-dead wingnut, after all.
A prelude to this week's Floyd R. Turbo Award: This was published in the Belleville News-Republican Democrat on January 14th:
For those who are asking where Barack Obama was in the Vietnam War, I would like to suggest since he is now only 47, and the Vietnam War ended in 1975, he was probably still in high school. At the end of the war (1975) he would have only been 14 years old.
Phyllis J. Biehl
Belleville
Which means, of course, that the BN-RD published a letter from someone otherwise too stupid to breathe. Needless to say, the chase was on to find the original letter. After a little more digging, I found the original source, albeit indirectly:
IN A LETTER published on Dec. 24, Vern Weiss references "dictator" Barack Obama and "all 58 states" in which he campaigned. He also calls Vice-president-elect Joe Biden a "vice dictator," one incapable of counting to four.
It's interesting that an individual, one whom takes fellow letter writer Patricia Owens to task for questioning the Vietnam era record of George Bush, wonders why nobody is concerned about Obama's whereabouts during said time. I am and, after doing the math, realized that during the official conflict years, 1969-72 (per historyplace.com), our future president would have been between the age of 8 and 14 and in grade or middle school, not working for a so-called Chicago "machine," as Weiss claims. Perhaps he should return to those grades and do a little math of his own.
Oh, and "a Kenyan goat milker turning America into a large Zimbabwe?" C'mon, Vern, don't sugar coat things. Tell us what you really think.
Tom Whittey
Belleville
Hey Vern! This Floyd R. Turbo Award is for you--assuming you have learned to breathe by now. Tom and Phyllis, great catches! Good to know we have smart people also in the AEWNYCOYS-WMLN area.
Your moment of Cairo:
He loves to get behind Nancy while she's reading in bed.
What's the News in your world this week?