It’s only money, so???

Sample ballot
Not the whole story here?

Oak Park’s elementary school district understates on the April 5 referendum ballot how much its passage would cost taxpayers, leaving out state equalizer info that ups the ante.

We didn’t have to put it in, say the district’s lawyers.

The law firm that helped draft District 97’s ballot question . . . said it followed state law that dictates how such ballot measures should be written. The law, the firm says, does not specify using the equalizer.

So referendum ballots throughout Illinois routinely do not tell voters the whole story?

Note: Campaign information has been accurate in this case; only the ballot is in question.

On the other hand, what the hell difference does it make?  How many people read the fine print on a referendum ballot anyway?  Tsk.

Thou shalt not in Illinois

"Indecency" Cartoon print showing a ...
Not covered by the statute

The NU after-class sex demo not outside the law? Commenter Erastus is not so sure.

He’s talking about this:

ILLINOIS (720 ILCS 5/11-9) Sec. 11-9. Public Indecency. (a) Any person of the age of 17 years and upwards who performs any of the following acts in a public place commits a public indecency: (1) An act of sexual penetration or sexual conduct as defined in Section 12-12 of this Code; or (2) A lewd exposure of the body done with intent to arouse or to satisfy the sexual desire of the person.Breast-feeding of infants is not an act of public indecency.(b) “Public place” for purposes of this Section means any place where the conduct may reasonably be expected to be viewed by others. (c) Sentence. Public indecency is a Class A misdemeanor. A person convicted of a third or subsequent violation for public indecency is guilty of a Class 4 felony. (Source: P.A. 91-115, eff. 1-1-00.

More honored in the breach, I suppose.

Wis. Dems have Dem Socialist leader

Dem Socialists exposed among Wisconsin senators who fled.

They are very vocal in Oak Park, where they tried for a “living wage” ordinance and failed.

It’s one of them I heard at a meeting of Oak Park lefties that in his speech the night before, Obama had given them “permission to hate insurance companies,” about which questioned, he specified “health insurance.” Gotta get those things straight.

Jesuit SNAP’d again — this time in Philadelphia

St Aloysius Gonzaga
St. Aloysius Gonzaga SJ, a Jesuit scholastic, patron saint of youth, noted for his purity

The long arm of The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) has reached cross country, from California in the 90s to Pennsylvania two days ago.  Rev. Thomas Gleeson SJ has been found (out) again:

Another accused priest works in Philadelphia Archdiocese

Jesuit was accused of sexually harassing a young seminarian

Despite a settlement in 2002 [sic], he’s chaplain at a Philly university

SNAP wants him removed and students and staff told of his past

“It’s not just kids,” [SNAP] says, “Clerics also assault vulnerable adults”

The seminarian was a scholastic, a Jesuit in training.  Gleeson was president of the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley.  The Jesuits contested the hearing of the case, calling on a clerical exemption from workplace harassment liability, but when that issue was decided against them in late 1999, they settled with the complainant.

Gleeson was transferred back to his home base (Maryland Province) and put in charge of a retreat center in Wernersville PA, serving also as a director and trustee of Wheeling (WV) Jesuit University, where with two other (Jesuit) trustees he effected the dismissal of the WJU president in 2009, after two years in office.

In the aftermath of the widely unpopular firing, Gleeson was revealed by SNAP as having been accused of harassment.  In a few months, he left the Wernersville post, remaining in his Wheeling Jesuit positions, SNAP’s protest notwithstanding.

Last October he assumed a chaplaincy at St. Joseph’s U., Philadelphia, where SNAP found him again and duly exposed and protested his California record, again calling on church authorities to depose him.

The Philadelphia Daily News ran a story:

[Former Jesuit scholastic] John Bollard alleged in the suit that Gleeson and two other priests harassed him for five years while he was a seminarian at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, where Gleeson was president.

The suit was settled in 2000 out of court, with the priests denying any wrongdoing.

Unwillingness to argue the case is typical.  Monetary settlement has been the norm in Catholic abuse cases, presumably according to legal and public-relations advice.  But Bollard told his side on “Sixty Minutes,” and the grim details, never contested in court, remained to shock many and besmirch reputations.

Bollard, who said he was 25 when the incidents started, alleged in the suit that Gleeson had asked him to masturbate with him.

The other Jesuit priests, Drew Sotelo and Anton Harris, were accused of sending suggestive pornographic pictures of naked men to Bollard and asking him to cruise gay bars.

Harris sent a card “depicting a fully aroused man,” with the note, “Thought this might inspire some theological thoughts.”

Indeed, Harris lost his Seattle U. vice president’s job in 2006 once the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published its story, in which a Seattle U. spokeswoman unfortunately brushed off the law suit story as “old news,” betraying remarkable disregard for public, especially Catholic, opinion and tradition.

A similar pattern is evident in Philadelphia.  A St. Joseph U. spokeswoman told the News they had known of “the allegations,” but that Gleeson had denied them and neither archdiocese nor Maryland Province had objected to his hiring as a chaplain.  The paper also reported that the St. Joseph community had not been informed of Gleeson’s past.

This changed with a memo to students and another to faculty, as recounted in The Hawk, the student newspaper.

Saint Joseph’s University President Timothy Lannon, S.J., sent separate emails to students and staff regarding Gleeson’s employment at the university and the allegations leveled against him late yesterday afternoon. Both emails indicated that the university was made aware of Gleeson’s past by a recent letter from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. [Italics added]

However, the president’s claiming he knew nothing of Gleeson’s history is in contradiction of what the spokeswoman had told the newspaper hours earlier, as The Hawk writer points out.

[I]n a Philadelphia Daily News article published this morning, Assistant Vice President for University Communications Harriet Goodheart stated that “we were aware of the allegations of 11 years ago, which he denied, and was cleared for assignment.”

The Hawk will be updating its story, the editor notes.  [Here’s the link: Goodheart explains.]

A tale of the city

Not quite Chappaquiddick, but it took Sun-Times’ asking for records on the case, which is seven years old.  Investigation closed, they hear.
 
Not enough, say two (black) alder-people.
 
Daley nephew six-three, 230 lbs., other guy five-five, 140.  Punched in heat of moment?  Unintended consequences?
Koschman<————–  Decased five-fiver
Friends of the deceased offer to be lie-detected, but not friends of the nephew, who won’t talk at all.  Another witness, one of two bystanders, has a nephew-friendly recollection, thinks he knows nephew from attending high school in Wilmette.  That is Loyola Academy, of course.  No Daley nephew is going to New Trier, which is Rahm E’s alma mater, by the way.
 
The nephew and one friend fled the scene, leaving two McCarthys behind. 
 
Did the little guy rush the nephew’s friend in the wake of bump followed by harsh words?  Or did he only stride toward him, saying something, maybe mouthing off?
 
Division & Dearborn, three in the morning.  Not quite Chappaquiddick, but a story apparently of political connection in Chicago, where winks and nods do very nicely, thank you.

Clash of the Chicago titans

Chicago alder-people are one happy family.  They vote for each other’s projects, feel a “commitment to each other.”  Thus the chairman of their black caucus.  Room for others in your fam, Alderman?

Along comes Rahm. “Rahm don’t want trouble,” says Ald. Walter Burnett.  He’s “smart enough” to know that.  “Playing . . . games and taking it on the chin.  It is what is what it is.”  Now and ever shall be.

Ald. Eddie Burke, however, has more money in the bank — $8 mill vs. Rahm’s $2 mill.  Battle brewing.

Dt.common.streams.StreamServer.cls<—————————— Burke

What, he worry?

Sex on campus, after class

What this country needs is more thoughtful discussion of controversial topics.  Take that sex demo at Northwestern U
“We had kind of a duty, I think, to educate these students in a functional and effective way. Psychology students… and my other reason for doing this– if these were going to be psychologists then they have a need to know about this esoteric knowledge that could help someone in the future,” said [Jim] Marcus [male member of the demo team].
John Michael Bailey, the professor in question, is for thoughtful discussion, as above.  He considers it “a cornerstone of learning.”
 
For one student:
“It reminded me of how comfortable you can be with your body because she [the female member] was unfazed,” said Sam Hazlett, Northwestern student.
At first NU, anonymously thru a spokesman, was not fazed either.  Then alums and others chimed in, and so did the president, finally:

On Thursday in a second statement, the university’s president said he was “disappointed” and “disturbed.”

“It represented extremely poor judgment on the part of our faculty member,” said President Morton Schapiro. “I simply do not believe this was appropriate, necessary or in keeping with Northwestern University’s academic mission.”

In addition [besides], outraged parents and alumni [had] been calling the school.

It’s the joy of sex, mechanically produced.  Who said anything about love?

Later: The prof apologized.

Teddy K’s idea of fun

Kennedy's official Senate portrait in the 1990s
That night in Chile!

In ’61, Ted Kennedy dropped in on Chile as part of his duties (?!) as Assistant District Attorney of Suffolk County and for relaxation became a whoremaster for a night:

While Kennedy was in Santiago he made arrangements to rent a brothel for an entire night. Kennedy allegedly invited one of the Embassy chauffeurs to participate in the night’s activities.

Everywhere he went, the angry young men (and women), leftists all, were his chief interest otherwise.  For political discussion.

Wow. Those guys were afflicted, I’d say. I mean the Kennedy brothers. The family tried to block this info but failed.