Rauner goes on statewide "thank you" tour

Governor-elect Bruce Rauner--I love the sound of that--his running mate, Evelyn Sanguinetti, went on statewide "thank you" tour of the Land of Lincoln. Well, almost statewide, as Cook County, the only county he lost, was left out. On the other hand Rauner, who lives in Cook, could answer that his trip began there.

Recent governors have largely ignored downstate Illinois, current jailbird Rod Blagojevich in particular--I expect Rauner to buck that trend.

Actress' husband sues Forest Preserve District after she is killed by fallen tree during storm

North Branch Trail

I don't want to come across as heartless, but while I feel sympathy for the husband of  the late Chicago Fire actress, Molly Glynn, his suing the Forest Preserve District of Cook County because a tree fell on her during a violent storm.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Joe Foust, the husband of Molly Glynn, filed the suit in Cook County Circuit Court on Thursday, alleging that the district was negligent in keeping "diseased, defective, weakened" trees, which "presented a risk of harm to persons using the bike path." The suit claims that the district had notice that the trees were weakened.

Glynn, 46, was bicycling with Foust, on Sept. 5 around 3 p.m. on the North Branch Trail, approaching Willow Road, when a storm blew in quickly, officials told the Tribune at the time. A wind gust uprooted a tree, which then fell and struck Glynn, Foust told the Tribune at the time.

Police for the Forest Preserve District responded to the call, and Glynn was taken to Evanston NorthShore Hospital, where she died about midday the next day.

The suit alleges that it was "a large section of a diseased, defective and weakened tree" that broke off and struck Glynn.

Easily the dumbest thing I've done in the last ten years was going out for a ten-mile run on that same trail during an even worse storm in 2011--one so strong that it knocked out power in over 800,000 Chicago area homes, including mine. It appeared to me that the trees were bending backwards that night. I knew the storm was coming, but I didn't figure in the velocity of it when I saw it on radar about ninety miles from Morton Grove.

Anyway, we are talking about a forest. There are trees in a forest. Lots of them. Everything dies, including trees, although that process has been hastened because of the emerald ash borer killing off ash trees.

I remember the day when Glynn was killed. There were dark storm clouds in advance of the high winds. She and her husband should have gotten off the path.

Does Faust and her lawyer expect the Forest Preserve District to mow down every tree on the land it owns?

He waited until after the midterms: Obama sending 1,500 more soldiers to Iraq

Nearly three years after President Obama removed our last troops from Iraq--opening the door from groups such as the Islamic State--he is sending more soldiers there.

As for the troops he yanked, it was something Obama bragged about during the 2012 presidential election.

This summer Obama redeployed some soldiers to Iraq--and 1,500 more are headed to the war-torn nation..

Of course Obama waited until after the midterms to for the latest move.

Frackinois: State approves oil fracking

Lincoln Heritage Trail,
Cairo, Illinois

For the second time this week the people of Illinois received some wonderful news. The first development was the election of Republican Bruce Rauner as governor--he vows to replace the anti-growth policies of the inept Pat Quinn.

And yesterday a state agency approved rules that will permit hydraulic fracking for oil in the Land of Lincoln. This is an especially fortunate occurrence for southern Illinois, which has been economically depressed for decades and it is there where most of the Prairie State fracking will take place.

The rules on Illinois fracking have not been released, but since a Huffington Post Green blogger is treating this news as if the apocalypse has arrived, look for jobs and prosperity to bless downstate.

The Great Midwest: All but two states will have Republican governors in 2015

Glenview, Illinois

America's Heartland is pumping healthy red blood. In January all but two Midwestern states will have Republican governors.

On Tuesday Illinois voters tossed out inept Chicago Democrat Pat Quinn.

As for the two holdouts--what is your problem, Minnesota and Missouri?

Global warming news: Polar vortex back this weekend

It's baaccck!

The polar vortex, which wreaked havoc for much of last year's winter.

From CBS News:

Prepare yourself for an invasion from the north. A blast of polar air is about to send temperatures plunging in the heart of America.

It's the return of the polar vortex that brought misery a year ago. A mass of whirling cold air will dip southward this weekend, sending the mercury plunging.

As the cold air moves south and east, it has the potential to affect as many as 243 million people with wind chills in the single digits in some places and snow.

The horror, the horror: Occupy Boise returns to state capitol

Idaho state line

Like a bad case of clap, Occupy Boise has returned to camp out on the grounds of Idaho's state capitol, it what they are calling "an indefinite vigil." They've been there since Monday.

Right now the leftists have five or six tent in front of the capitol building.

Some people need a hobby. These folks need a better hobby.

(Photo) Storm crowds over an Illinois farm

While on my Illinois & Michigan Canal trip, I captured this image--storm clouds over a farm on Route 178 in LaSalle County south of Starved Rock State Park.

What about the troops? Chicago Teachers Unions plans leftist rally on Veterans Day

Doughboy Monument, Morton Grove

Leave it to the liberals to ruin and politicize everything. The latest instance will happen on November 11--Veterans Day, when the radical Chicago Teachers Union will hold a rally touting various leftist causes such as a $15 minimum wage.

This will be a particularly auspicious Veterans Day, as this is the centennial year of the start of World War I. Veterans Day evolved from Armistice Day, which marked the end of the Great War.

In their information about the rally, the CTU makes no mention of members of our military--either past or present.

Have they no sense of honor?

AFP Illinois Video: Leaving the Land of Lincoln Tour - Featuring the Quinn Moving Company Van

Many patriots and freedom-loving groups aided in Bruce Rauner's defeat of failed Illinois governor Pat Quinn. One of them was Americas for Prosperity's Illinois Chapter. Among other things, AFP-IL commissioned a truck to drive the state--I saw it on River Road in Des Plaines last month--dubbed the Gov. Quinn Moving Company Van. Why? The Prairie State suffers from America's second-highest out-migratrion rate among the 50 states.

Watch as AFP Illinois' chairman, David From, along with some patriots, talk about the van and his group's message for the Land of Lincoln.

To learn more about Americans for Prosperity--Illinois, click here.